Stolen By An Alien Read online

  Beth’s guy nodded and headed towards the couple.

  A big, really, really fuzzy tabby cat orange alien stepped forward. “We have some for women also.”

  I nodded. “Let’s make that happen.”

  “My female is hurt.”

  I looked around until I spotted the speaker. “Not good! Bring her here and… any doctors here? Nurses? Raise hands. A Veterinarian? Hey! Where’s that girl with the dog? I hope they’re okay. Gynecologists? Oooh, an Obstetrician would be particularly handy-“

  “I’m a dentist.”

  “Fabulous! Close enough. Right this way, please.” She rolled her eyes at me and I shrugged. “Got any better ideas?”

  “Yeah, do any of these guys have a little more specialty in their med training, more than filling cavities?”

  The hobs, of course, wanted to assist in any way they absolutely, positively could and it turned out they could patch through with a lot since we were surface comparable to Gryfala.

  Mostly.

  Beth and baby were a HUGE hit and instantly became the star attraction; seeing an infant was fascinating to all the aliens but especially the hobs and Rakhii. Beth (and Beth’s men) weren’t letting anyone touch though - in fact, they forbade it citing fear of inhospitable antibodies - but they fielded questions like mad crazy.

  Troubling though was the topic of consent. And by that, I mean we didn’t have any say on how a Gryfala was treated by her alien keeper(s). Apparently, to even assemble this summit, the guys had to extend a temporary safe zone where females could not be taken by force from her owner. Now, if some of the loners hanging around wanted to steal a girl? They could always tag and follow the ship off surface and hunt them down, try their luck. But that was their deal and way above my pay grade.

  Thankfully, everyone that showed up was (technically) kind to their woman - even if their behavior was alarming by human standards. More than once I heard, “She stays with me,” growled out over a woman’s protesting – and nobody could say otherwise. Women were the property of aliens here, and completely belonged to them. It was a hard thing to accept.

  But the fact that males chose to show up when very clearly they believed there was risk of having their girl stolen by others? They took that risk so that they could better understand their female.

  It could be worse.

  It made for a lot of posturing and growling though, and I had to wonder how the loners even got invites, yikes. They stared at us women like we were dishes at a buffet table.

  It kept everybody a little on edge.

  Like really.

  Fights broke out.

  But they never lasted long - because nobody could afford to leave their girl vulnerable - because another alien was right there to try to swoop her up.

  I observed a lot. Learned that with aliens you had to expect the unexpected. Case in point: two aliens were standing near each other. They didn’t even try to hide the way they were checking out the other alien’s woman. Some mutual understanding must have passed because they swapped girls - just like that! Beth and I freaked, but they weren’t breaking the rules. No humans were harmed; there was nothing to be done and it wasn’t our call.

  Lots of things weren’t our call, even though on many matters we were deferred to like we were royalty. Royalty with our own sexy secret service. “What’s up with them?” I whispered as I jerked my head in the direction of the hovering hobs.

  “Gryfalas cannot be kept together peacefully.” Dohrein said this like, ‘You females. Cute but crazy.’

  I rolled my eyes and Beth laughed. “Guys! Humans have socializing skills down pat. You can back off a little.”

  Dohrein did not look convinced. In fact, he just gave us a grim smile.

  I looked to Arokh for backup, but he was eyeing the other women with distrust, and that was when I noticed that he’d been guiding me gently this way and that to avoid me getting bumped by them.

  “Arokh, it’s okay, really!”

  But it was clear we’d just have to prove it.

  We milled. Chatted. Women introduced themselves and their men. We called for an orderly breakdown of topics – hit big questions first, and then we’d discuss problems, share knowledge - therapy could wait for later.

  It wasn’t long before my stomach started to growl. Arokh tensed beside me.

  “That was just my stomach,” I made sure to clarify. “I’m not about to attack anyone,” I joked.

  “I know this.” He replied. He looked around for Dohrein, probably to ‘secure sustenance’. That poor dude. He was our bitch.

  “Ummhmm.” I said as I wandered over to a woman named Ella. She was a nice girl, I liked her. “Hey,” I greeted.

  “I’m hungry,” she complained.

  Beth was there too and smiled wearily as she reluctantly handed off her baby bundle to one of the guys. They each wanted turns rocking her.

  “Hey, Hungry,” Beth said. “I’m Tired.”

  “Great,” a girl named Gracie muttered. “This is like the fucked up cast of dwarves. ‘Meet Bitchy,” she used her thumb to tap her chest, “and Bossy,” she indicated me with a head jerk - as if I’d been bossy? I was organizing! “-and Hungry, and Weepy,” Then she motioned to Beth as she continued, “and over there’s Trampy-“

  Beth gasped, and right before she lunged she gave a feral sounding snarl, “You’re dead!”

  But she never connected. Arms carefully came around her, and Dohrein pulled Bitchy out of the crosshairs. Arokh had me in his arms and backed out from the ruckus just in case a stray hairband snapped our way or something.

  I caught the males’ significant looks over their heads. Despite protests to the contrary they’d expected this. Because as far as they knew females could not make nice.

  “’We’re better’ we said. ‘We can get along’ we said. Boy we proved them wrong in…” I checked my space watch, the one Dohrein procured for me that Arokh glared at him for but would never begrudge me. It had entertained me all day. “In bursts, and some sort of rat thing, whatever measure of time that is. Nice job, ladies.”

  “Fuck you,” Gracie muttered.

  You know what? From here on out, she was 'Bitchy' to my mind. And hey - she’d called it herself.

  Arokh went stiff and I heard his tail snap. I turned in his arm so that I could grab a horn. “It’s okay babe. She’s just being testy, not literally sexual.”

  “Testy?” He didn’t take his narrowed eyes off of her.

  “We can’t all be happily in love with an alien.” Her tone was acid. “Especially when some of these guys have gills and suckers they want to keep touching you with all night long,” she groused.

  It was then that I saw a vibrant alien not far behind her, who ducked his head, bright yellow suffusing his throat. Right over gill slits.

  Oh.

  He turned away, but couldn’t seem to make himself step far from her.

  “Poor guy,” I whispered.

  “Aneark. An amphibious species that also prizes females. They are gentle to them,” Arokh provided. “She has shamed him.” And he sounded sad too.

  A different alien stepped forward, this one with skin like a hard shiny shell. He bent and whispered something to Bitchy who screeched, “Fuck no! Get away from me!”

  The Aneark whirled and reached towards him – and electric orange bolts jolted from his palms.

  “Gentle?!” I screech-whispered to Arokh as the hard shelled guy dropped to the ground, flopping uncontrollably.

  Arokh sighed, his breath ruffling the hair behind my ear. “To them, I said.”

  My attention was immediately diverted however by the sound of wailing coming from the other direction.

  “This isn’t earth! I told you, I need to go home, I need to get home, you don’t understand! My ba-“

  “Could you tone it down?” Bitchy grumbled.

  Beth made a noise that caused her guys to go on alert. Even I didn’t know a human could growl like that. “Would you shut up?”

>   The newcomer alien was cradling the incredibly distraught woman, and he looked a little bit harassed. He was tall, though not as massive as a Rakhii. But then again, who was?

  I brushed my hand along Arokh’s forearm, as much to comfort myself as it was to comfort him. He didn’t like seeing a woman in distress. Gosh, he was great.

  He linked our fingers, and I opened my mouth, but the new alien beat me to speaking.

  “My mate cries. I must find out what is causing her to hurt. Can you help me?”

  Beth’s entrepreneurial… quint? What did one call a group of five studs? A stable? Heh. I snickered, and the new alien looked at me sharply, his face darkening even more.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that even Arokh was looking at me like I had grown another arm. “No, I’m sorry – not you, I swear, I was just… bad timing. Forget me over here, please.”

  Beth’s entrepreneurial stable perked up at this alien’s obvious desperation, as they whipped out a space-credit-reader and positively robbed this nice, concerned male in exchange for pressing their wicked looking translator applicator gun to the woman’s ear, making her whimper.

  Then scream.

  You know, that was probably the worst part of the day. After hearing just the first few of those get injected, my nerves were shot. It was like rabbits under the tattoo gun. I did feel a little better about my reaction though.

  But hearing his girl scream? That was apparently a great big no-go (and he wasn’t the only one to react badly to his woman’s pain) But this male howled and turned… dangerously spotted.

  I mean, I could only assume it was dangerous, because Arokh dragged me back like the man was emitting poisonous gas.

  I burrowed half into Arokh’s side – fuck knew this thing could be emitting poisonous gas. I covered my nose and mouth with my hand. Just in case.

  I felt stupid and almost dropped my hand - until Arokh pressed his over mine. Oh shit…

  But Beth’s guys were pros, and had been soothing ruffled feathers since the first translator-injection of the day. “Speak female. Tell your mate that you are fine now.”

  Her voice came out a little hysterical. “My what?”

  Her male took a deep breath, and his spots were fading right before our eyes as he focused on the bundle in his arms. “Are you alright, my mate?”

  “I’m-I’m-you-my-“

  The male’s head whipped towards Beth’s men. “The translator appears to be faulty and you caused my mate pain administering it. I am displeased.”

  Spots coming back…

  Beth stepped forward and snapped her fingers at the woman. “Hon, tell him you’re fine.”

  The woman blinked back more tears and said, “I’m fine.”

  Beth looked at the alien now. “The translators work.” She gestured to the gathering of women. “Many happy customers.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Bitchy said, rubbing behind her ear.

  Beth ignored her, turning back to the woman. “Now. You okay?”

  The woman nodded shakily. Beth gave a small, almost imperceptible, sigh of relief. "Wonderful. Take a deep breath and tell your man what’s freaking you out.”

  At that moment, a baby’s cry rang out, and the Stable passed the unhappy little girl to her Mom.

  And the new woman looked gutted.

  “I have to get home - my babies need me!”

  Everyone. Froze.

  And she burst into tears.

  31

  ANGIE

  “Fledglings? Alone!”

  “-Kittens, all by themselves-“

  “If we gather a search party-“

  The conversations were flowing fast around us in all sorts of languages after the new woman, Tara, told her story.

  It was like aiming a flamethrower at a propane tank. Big, fucking ka-boom.

  The males couldn’t stomach leaving kids orphaned on an “alien” planet – but the males with claimed females were afraid their women would want to go back home to stay there now that a ship might be traversing galaxies to reach the mystery blue planet we all hailed from.

  It was causing a bit of a hullabaloo.

  And the aliens that didn’t have a woman of their own? They were lining up for the mission, as helpful as you please. I had a feeling the return ship would be full of captive stowaways if these guys got their chance.

  I was standing off to the side. Still trying to process the implications.

  A ship going to earth. An opportunity to go home.

  The feelings churning inside me were not difficult to parse out. Did I want to live like an alien for the rest of my life? No! It was scary and I missed home - and this was all so insane and if I went back, I could do my best to pretend this had all been a really, really bad dream.

  But…

  There was an arm at my waist, and the warmth of a strong, muscled body against my back. Holding me. Shielding me. Devoted to me.

  I’d gotten addicted to this affection, the adoration, the protectiveness, the amazingness that was my alien.

  ...And he was mine.

  There was no question: it would hurt like a mother to walk away from him.

  And it felt disloyal to even think it, but… Would I ever find anything comparable back home?

  I hadn’t.

  I’d never had anything even remotely close to the incredibleness that was Arokh (as a male, not an alien - totes obvs) back home.

  And what would I do when I had to go back to lukewarm indifference in a relationship? Mediocre sex? I shook my head. That was too kind. The terrible sex. The bad sex. And the cheating bastard boyfriends. The emotionally absent boyfriends. The unaffectionate boyfriends. I gritted my teeth. Ugh, those guys. Then there was the guy that I was pretty sure was stealing from me. Weird things and I swear, money. I could never prove it, and when I got smart about watching him, he decided ‘us’ was too much work.

  I was unsatisfied in the partner department long before I was abducted and went to the Alien side. But now? It would be intolerable to go with anything… not… Arokh.

  And could I go back to work, deal with the insanity of customers demanding their vegetable peeler arrive the very next day or else they wanted a refund of the product and a credit for their inconvenience over their ordeal?

  Ordeal. Ordeal. They had no idea what an ordeal was. No idea.

  I would go insane. I would want to shake people. Or do worse. And I might become the crazy lady who wore slippers and floral printed muumuus and pointed at strange shapes in the sky declaring that more aliens were coming for her – and I would really always wonder.

  Assimilation back into society. Pretending to be normal. I could already feel my brain screaming.

  If earth became aware of alien life, then I’d be thrust into the spotlight – if the government didn’t grab me and test on me for the rest of my natural life like all the creepy tv show/book scenarios. I actually imagined that might happen. Hard to blame them. This was huge. But needles, psychoanalysts, doctors. I couldn’t even fool myself: I was fucked no matter what went down once I got home. There was no “back to normal” for me.

  Not ever again.

  Or I could… I could stay.

  When my hands clenched on the arm under my breasts, a hand threaded through my fingers. Easy, just like that. Like it was nothing.

  But it might be everything.

  I could stay with him and have this.

  Become an outlaw along with my alien and have no idea what our future would even look like.

  But I’d be loved. Cherished - in absolutely every sense of that word. He’d die to keep me safe. Love me forever.

  I glanced up at Arokh, trying to gauge his mood. He’d been very tense, and smoke had curled from his nostrils with every exhale after Tara had shared her really big deal.

  “Hey,” I tugged at one of his wrist spikes. They were flexing in and out. Not a good sign.

  He looked down at me, and smoke suddenly filled my vision. I batted it away the s
ame moment he did, and our hands hitting each other caused him to curse. “Please, forgive me my Angie!”

  I blinked. “It’s fine…”

  He grasped both my hands, forcing me to face him fully and his eyes were intense. I found out why as he burst out, “You cannot leave me!”

  Ugh, my chest ached at the agony written all over him.

  His jaw went hard, and his chin lifted, even more smoke trailing before he said low, and vehemently, “I will not let you go.”

  “A-”

  “I will never let you go.”

  “Arokh-“

  He closed his eyes, and he made an anguished thrum deep in his chest. “If you must return to your Earth, I will remain at your side.”

  “You can’t-!”

  “No!” Arokh shook my hands a little – gently. Urgently. “I will. I must. Angie, I cannot be apart from you. I don't want to be apart from you.”

  And he looked deep into my eyes, his expression pleading. “It would destroy me.”

  I twisted so that my fingers caught his big ones, and I squeezed until some of the wildness ebbed from his face. “You know what, big guy? I’m pretty much all-in, head-over-heels, crazy-in-love with you.”

  A rattling noise from him now, with a drumming undertone. He had told me the other day that it was “purring”, and he was so proud to be able to “comfort me with it” that I hadn’t had the heart to tell him that it was scarier than any purring that I’d ever heard before. And at the moment, I guessed that he was trying to comfort himself as much as he was me.

  "This is a strange declaration," he observed. Then, as if he required further confirmation, he carefully continued. "Does this-"

  “Arokh. Don’t be an idiot. I don’t want to leave you either." I brought his hand up and kissed it. "And I’m not going to.”

  I was nearly hugged to death by an alien.

  32

  ANGIE

  Another ship touched down. It was Arokh’s brothers, finally making it to the gathering and it reminded me of human family get togethers where everyone wants out of the car, and while all the occupants are thrilled to have arrived - everyone’s already snarly from such a long drive so you have to give them their space before they’re ready to mingle.