by Cara Wylde
“Make it brief,” said Kit.
Avery nodded, then began her story. The brothers knew it, but she had to tell Sharon every detail. It was silly, but she kind of wished she could grab the woman’s shoulders, look her in the eyes, and send her all the information telepathically. Unfortunately, that was not possible, so it took her an hour to explain everything to the best of her ability, then another half an hour to answer her questions. By the end, however, Sharon was completely relieved and relaxed. For some reason Avery couldn’t understand, she seemed immediately willing to trust the two Kralian captains. Then, Avery remembered Sharon hadn’t seen them in all their alien, purple-skinned glory yet, so that might have been it.
She left out most of what she had found out while locked up in the brig with the other two slave girls, as well as her own conclusions. There was no point in confusing Sharon more than necessary, but she also didn’t want to let Kryan and Aedar know just how much she had doubted them before they had rescued her. She wondered whether she could clear her mind well enough, so they wouldn’t see it the next time they’d end up more intimate than common sense allowed.
“How did you find us?” Sharon asked.
Avery smiled. Last night, she couldn’t have said she had particularly liked her new set colleague, but now she was slowly growing fond of her. She wasn’t a silly bimbo, like most Hollywood actresses, and she understood new things quickly and easily.
“It’s complicated,” Kit said. He was looking in the distance, at a bird that was flying close to the surface of the pool. “We… felt Avery’s distress.”
“You felt?” Avery was beyond dumbfounded. “I thought that happened only when we… ahem… touch.”
Alex shrugged and poured himself more coffee. “Since we’ve met you, we’re learning new things every day. Not only about humans, but also about our own race. Apparently, our connection is now strong enough that we can feel what you feel when you’re miles away.”
“But it’s not a constant thing,” Kit intervened. “We don’t have access to your thoughts and emotions twenty-four seven. I think it happened this time because your emotions were erratic. All over the place. You were scared.”
“Panicked.”
“And you wanted us to be there.”
Avery looked down at her own cup of coffee. She had said she didn’t need more of the delicious, soothing liquid that day, but she had been wrong. It helped calm her nerves.
“It’s true. I wanted you to be there. Before you barged in, I wanted to tell him that I… well…” She rolled her eyes. “That I belong to you. But then, he pulled out that weird-looking gun, and I froze. All I could think of was that he was going to kill Sharon, and it probably wasn’t going to be pretty. That silver thing didn’t look like it worked with bullets.”
“Ray gun. Actually, it’s a neat one. Doesn’t leave anything behind. You don’t have to worry about a body, nor its ashes.”
Sharon whimpered.
“Thank you for that.”
Her trembling hand reached out for the bottle of whiskey. When she wanted to drink straight from it, Alex stopped her, took the bottle, and poured her a glass. He was even kind enough to add three ice cubes.
“Maybe we should talk about guns later,” Avery suggested. “An inventory wouldn’t hurt my team.”
“Did you talk to them?” asked Kit.
Avery sighed. “Err… no. To my defense, this morning I wasn’t sure I could really trust you.”
Alex’s expression changed, and he looked like her words had hurt him just a tiny bit.
Kit, however, kept his composure. “You don’t feel the connection…”
“I… I do. But, look, that doesn’t mean the logical part of my brain just shuts down because there seems to be something between us. I’m still an agent. When you two are not…” she used her hands to draw an invisible circle around her, “… in my personal space, I can think pretty clearly. And, I’m sorry, but I didn’t tell my SPG team anything. Not yet. I wanted to wait and make sure you weren’t pushing me to put you in contact with them because you had some… I don’t know… secret alien agenda.”
There. It was out. In fact, it was better that she had told them with her own words. Words hurt less than thoughts and emotions.
“Fair enough,” said Kit. He even went as far as to nod in approval. “You’re a good agent, Avery Tonkin. We won’t hold that against you.”
She smiled. “Aww… thank you.” She hadn’t received such a sincere, straightforward compliment in a while.
“It was still foolish of you to go to Adrian’s house alone,” Alex scolded her. “Just so we’re clear.”
“Yes, sir. Clear.” She chuckled.
Sharon looked at the three of them as if she’d just woken up and realized she was trapped in a bad movie. She still couldn’t quite grasp the fact that Hollywood producer Kit Walsh and bestselling romance writer Alex Walsh were aliens. Not of the same race as Adrian Reeve, but aliens nonetheless. However, if an FBI agent trusted them, she guessed she could trust them, too. After all, it wasn’t like she had any other option. She was alive, and she was safe. She had enough to be grateful for today.
“So, what now?” she asked.
Sharon’s voice broke the spell that had fallen over Kit, Avery, and Alex for a moment. Kit stood up and started pacing the terrace, and Alex checked his phone. Avery sighed, then straightened her back.
“Now, we stop the Norgavians,” she said. “And the rest of the bad guys, but first the Norgavians. I’ll make sure what Adrian Reeve did to you will never happen to another woman.”
“Don’t make such grand promises,” Alex whispered. “We’re only three against many. The kidnappings won’t stop.”
“I don’t care.” She stood up, determined. “We’ll make them stop. And we’re not just three. I’m calling the SPG now. We’re telling them everything. The three of us.”
Alex smiled, and Kit nodded.
Avery walked over to Sharon and hugged her from behind.
“And you… you’re going into protective custody. If you still want to work on ‘Star-Crossed’ with me, I’d be honored to be your set colleague. But don’t feel pressured. If you need some time off, that’s great, too. We understand.”
“I… I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”
Avery took out her phone and speed-dialed Captain Shaw.
“We’re doing this. Now.”
END OF BOOK TWO
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER ONE
Avery hadn’t felt like a schoolgirl since… well, school. She didn’t feel like a 27-year-old accomplished adult, nor like a kickass FBI agent. She didn’t feel like a hot and talented Hollywood star who’d just scored two sexy, rich brothers at once, either. Right now, as she was following the conversation between her alien lovers and her Special Provision for Gaia team, Avery felt like she was trapped in the body of a teenager who’d just been caught playing with the wrong boys and hoping her parents wouldn’t figure out they’d done more than trying to outsmart each other at Monopoly.
Captain Ben Shaw had his eyes trained on Kryan and Aedar, but her colleagues did throw her some suspicious glances from time to time. Avery had a feeling that at least Lisa, the IT girl, knew there was something between her and the Kralian ship captains. Lisa’s IT mate, Carter Bloom, had given her an all-knowing smirk when she’d walked in with the two aliens in tow three hours before. Avery didn’t care about him, though. Bloomy was a frustrated jerk who thought he knew everything just because he could hack into everyone’s accounts. This time, she knew he was far from the truth. He just liked to act like he was interesting and important when, in fact, most of the people in the room preferred to ignore him. The only reason why Avery believed Lisa might have guessed her little secret was because the brown-haired geek was a young woman who seemed very much in touch with her feminine intuition. Also, she liked Avery, and Avery liked her. They weren’t exactly friends
, but they could communicate at a more deeper level than the verbal one.
The Dreamland people, Chris Miller and Zadie Childs, were completely entranced by the Kralians. They had studied aliens and alien technology for years, yet this was the first time they were actually meeting and talking to someone from a different planet. The moment Kryan and Aedar had taken off their bracelets and allowed their skin to return to its original, purple color, both Chris and Zadie had tuned out the rest of the world. When Shaw had asked the aliens to shift back to their human forms, Zadie had protested quite loudly, and Chris had grumbled under his breath. The Captain had made it clear that the purple skin and overall alien appearance were too distracting. He couldn’t possibly have a normal, sensible conversation with two people who looked like cartoon characters. Aedar had laughed at his comment, but Kryan had almost left the room in a fit of anger. Avery had wanted to run out of the room, too, and go hide under a rock.
The only one who seemed calm and unfazed was Simon Chen, the SPG accountant. He had offered to make coffee for everyone, and now he was sitting aside, enjoying his, and following the discussion without intervening. Avery liked Simon just as much as she liked Lisa. There was no drama with him.
Three hours into this awkward meeting, and all they’d managed to do was share information. Apparently, there was still a long way to go until anyone could come up with solutions. When Avery had called her boss the day before, Shaw had been reluctant to meet with the Kralians. After all, Kryan and Aedar belonged to one of the five alien races who’d been trying to infiltrate and take over Earth in the past ten years. He’d said he needed some time to talk to the rest of the team and prepare, so they’d scheduled the meeting for the next day. Today. Once at the SPG HQ, the Kralian captains had had to prove their identity and share their story first. Only then did Ben Shaw decide they were trustworthy enough to share his own information with them. Granted his information was, for the most part, completely erroneous… Avery hadn’t talked much herself. She’d let Kryan and Aedar do their thing, and the aliens had been surprisingly sincere. With the exception of their heated affair with Avery, they had told Shaw and the team the truth.
“I know it’s not easy for you to believe us, but we want to help,” Aedar said when Captain Shaw had gone silent for more than five minutes. “We have to. At this point, we’re sure that helping you might be the only way to help ourselves.”
The Captain sighed. “Because you can’t take human slaves. If you could, we wouldn’t be here, would we? We wouldn’t be having this conversation, and you wouldn’t be interested in saving Earth.”
Kryan furrowed his brows but did his best to stay calm. He didn’t like Shaw’s implied accusations.
“But we didn’t take any human slaves, we are here, and we are helping you. Just admit that you can’t do this without us. My brother and I know you’re in way over your head. Do you know how? Because we, the Kralians, are in way over our head. There’s no stopping the Alliance now. We need to work together.”
Shaw cleared his throat, stood up, and walked to the window. He peeked out through the curtains. The street was silent, as usual. After all, they had chosen this neighborhood because nothing ever happened here.
“Surely, you must understand,” he said carefully, “even after all you’ve told us… we can’t simply trust you one hundred percent. Just a few hours ago, you were the enemy.”
“And you were our enemy,” Kryan said.
Shaw smiled bitterly. “You’re wrong. We were never your enemy. We’re here, on our own planet, minding our own business. We didn’t invade you. You invaded us. You found Earth and decided you had a right to it. And, please, don’t start again with your sad story about the plague that wiped out your home planet. Of course, I’m sorry for what happened to you and the other four races, but it’s still not a good enough reason to wage war against a peaceful species. A species that is, clearly, weaker and more innocent than you. I’m not ashamed to admit it. Most humans would probably be, but I’m not like most humans. No one in this room is.”
He looked at Avery for a second, and she suddenly straightened her back as if to prove him right.
“If you’re not like most humans,” reasoned Aedar, “then you will not refuse our help out of pride.”
Ben Shaw turned to him, his dark eyes studying him intently, then moving to his brother. It was then that Avery knew her boss could sense how different the two Kralians were. While Aedar was calm and calculated, Kryan was more impatient and quick to judge. The Captain knew, and he would talk to each of them accordingly, while still holding his ground.
“If I were to refuse you, it wouldn’t be out of pride. It would be out of trust. But I’m not going to. Yes, you’re right. We humans can’t defend our planet without help from the outside, from a more advanced species. But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop being vigilant around the Kralians. You said you haven’t informed the rest of your people about your change of plans.”
Aedar nodded. “Only Medo knows. Meadow Summer is her human identity. She’s very close to us, and she agrees this is the only way.”
“And the others? For this to work, all the Kralians have to be on our side.”
“They are. They will be.” Kryan stood up and started pacing the floor. There wasn’t much space in the living room, so he eventually had to give up and lean against the edge of a desk. “They will follow their Captains’ orders. Even though they’ve yet to find out what’s really happening, they’ve already noticed the Alliance is not working out for them. Some are working for Kralia Studios, but most are trapped on the Hordaa with nothing to do. While the Norgavians, the Valgans, the Cattalians, and the Minarians are taking pleasure slaves and starting to re-build their society and their hope for the future, the Kralians are doomed to see the pain of their barren women while they can’t even touch human females, let alone mate with them. There is not a single child on the Hordaa, and that is devastating to the morale of our people.”
Avery gulped. “Wait. Are you saying…” She ran a hand through her long, blonde hair. “Are you saying that the others already have children from their pleasure slaves?”
Kryan cocked an eyebrow. Avery’s distress confused him.
“Yes. I thought that would be obvious. The oldest child is on the Verto. He’ll be 10 in two months. The Valgans on the Swetho have already began talking about a form of education, but the Alliance can’t decide whether the hybrid kids should attend a single school that teaches all the five cultures, or whether each race should be in charge of their own education system. Since we have no hybrid offspring, we don’t have much say in the matter.”
Kryan’s words suddenly changed the entire atmosphere in the room. Avery seemed to be in shock and unable to move in her chair. Chris Miller swore under his breath, and Lisa let out a small moan, as if someone or something had just hurt her deeply. Simon Chen sighed and went into the kitchen.
“I… I never…” Avery tried, but the words died on her lips. She thought of Kaylee and Grace. As if it weren’t enough that they were slaves and forced to please their masters against their will, they were also expected to give them heirs. “I mean… It makes sense. It’s awful, but it makes sense. I see it now. Oh God…” She covered her face with her hands. “How could I be so stupid? So blind… Of course… of course they would have their slaves pour baby after baby. That’s the whole point of this!”
“The survival of four species that are extinct,” said Aedar gently. “I’m sorry. I guess Kryan and I… We’re just realizing now that their blessing is your nightmare.”
Avery sniffed loudly, then turned to him. Her blue eyes held a combination of anger and hurt.
“Our nightmare?! It’s those poor women’s nightmare! You know what? I am glad the Kralians can’t touch our women. I am glad you have this… this allergy to us. If your blessing is our nightmare, then it seems fair that at least one of you heartless bastards would have it the other way around!”
&nb
sp; “Avery…”
She stood up, feeling like fire was running through her veins. She liked Kryan and Aedar, yes, but her loyalty lay with her own species.
“Don’t give me the poor us story. Just don’t.”
She took a step toward them. Aedar was still sitting in his armchair, his shoulders now tense. Kryan had crossed his arms over his bulky chest, making the white, crisp shirt he was wearing strain against the unwelcome tension.
“Have you ever wondered… What if the reason you can’t get close to us is because you were never supposed to survive the plague? What if the real reason you can’t take human women and mate with them is because you’re not supposed to re-build what you’ve lost, but, instead, accept your destiny? This could be the way of the universe, couldn’t it? The way of pure, normal evolution. On Earth, we always talk about how one day our planet will tire of us and kick our asses into non-existence so it can repair itself. What if Kralia and all the other planets have done exactly that?”
“Avery…”
“Aedar, let her.” Kryan fixed her with his cold, silver gaze. “You might be right.”
She huffed. “Yeah. I think I am.”
“Or… you might be wrong.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Why don’t you enlighten me, Kryan? So far, I’m the only one in this room who’s come up with a theory that actually makes sense.”
Kryan didn’t say anything. For a few seconds, they simply looked into each other’s eyes like they were engaged in a childish staring contest. Ben Shaw felt it was time to intervene before the discussion got completely derailed.
“Stop. The both of you. Or, the three of you. We’re way past theories about why this happened. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re here now, and we have to deal with it the best we can. An unknown virus wiped out all life on five planets. It doesn’t matter why it happened, it just happened. Some of the people living there survived. Now, they’re here, and they’re a danger to us. I, for one, don’t care about their reasons. I’m not here to pity them, nor to hate them. I’m here to find solutions.” He looked around the room, which had gone silent and attentive. “We are here to find solutions. Now, Kryan and Aedar are saying they want to help us. Although I will never, ever trust them completely, there are two things that I am forced to take into consideration: one, they’ve given us valuable intel that we haven’t been able to get on our own even after years of dozens of teams working on this case, and two, Agent Tonkin trusts they are telling the truth.”
