Stolen By the Alien by Ashlyn Hawkes
14
Omur
Some of the Rockians return to the command module. They stand around and talk to me instead of helping, but that’s fine by me. I know how to fix the mechanine. It just takes me a bit of time.
A few hours later, the module is wholly operational again. I grin at the Rockians. “Time for us to get a move on.”
“A move on?” the one named Briar asks. He runs a hand over his bald head.
“You and your mate should stay and eat with us,” Jade says. He’s rather no-nonsense, that one.
“Very well. I imagine Hannah will like that.”
Jade tilts his head to the side, clearly confused. “Why don’t you know that for certain?” he asks.
I blink a few times. Would I know things like that automatically if Hannah and I were to become mated fully and truly? I assume she would like to eat with the Rockians. She left and never returned, but I have no reason at all to think that she would not like to be with them.
The Rockians and I leave the module behind, walking down the ramp. A cluster of other Rockians is waiting for us, including Hannah. She's wearing some flowers in her hair, the flowers every bit as colorful as the hair of the Rockian females—blues, purples, reds, yellows, oranges, teals, whites, and silvers.
She's laughing at something one of the Rockians say to her, and I just stare at her, star-struck.
The Rockians nudge each other, laughing at me, but I don’t care. They have mates, too, so why they seem to be thinking that this is a laughing matter frustrates me. Maybe they can sense that we haven’t fully mated yet.
Hannah beams at me when she sees me, and I make a beeline for her. Immediately, she takes my hand and starts to talk about her day.
“Did you know the Rockians lived on Earth eons ago?” she asks in a rush. “And they can fly! And when Rosina clapped, she dried my clothes instantly. It was as if a gust of wind blew over me, but it didn’t disturb my hair at all, just my clothes! They don’t call it magic, but, Omur, it’s like magic.” Her eyes are shining brightly.
“I take it you had fun then.”
“I did! And the sip? Er, module. How is it? It’ll take days to be fixed, right? A week? Longer? That’s all right, isn’t it?”
“You want to stay longer?” I ask, chuckling.
“Well, I just…” She shrugs, smiling sheepishly. “I like it here.”
“I’m glad you do. How about we eat with them?”
Her smile falls. “You fixed it that swiftly?”
“Yes,” I admit. “It wasn’t something I could fix while we were flying.”
“What happened?”
“It was because of hovering above Earth for so long,” he says. “Our ships aren’t made for that, and it caused the coolinator to become too hot. I had to—”
“I do not mean to interrupt,” a Rockian says, brushing her long hair back, “but the meal is ready for you.”
“You didn’t have to go to any trouble for us,” Hannah protests. “We would have been fine with krill.”
“You’re already learning their words?” I ask. “I’m impressed.”
“Why shouldn’t I learn from them?” she asks with a twinkle in her eyes. “Besides.” She giggles. “It’s better than swiping a curse word from the…”
“Novans,” I supply. “I suppose, but ovian, you make me happy.”
“Me? Make you happy? What did I do?”
“You’re being you,” I say simply.
“But I’m not doing anything special,” she protests.
“I love seeing you so happy,” I say.
"Don't you worry," she says. "I derive plenty of happiness from you, and not just from when we…" She gives me a pointed look and then wiggles her hips, drawing a laugh from me. “I enjoy our conversations too, and there are so many more things I want to learn from you. I want to know everything about you.”
“Do you?” I grin. “What do you want to know about first?”
“What are your hopes and dreams?”
I hesitate. My hopes and dreams all center on her, but I’m not entirely certain that’s what she’ll want to hear.
The Rockian clears her throat and coughs into her fist. “If you’ll follow me…”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Rosina,” Hannah says. She squeezes my hand and guides me to walk after the Rockian. “Rosina is the one who gave me some krill to eat, and the water! Have you had the water here? It’s delicious. Are we going to eat more krill?”
“We have prepared a buffion for us to enjoy.”
I gape at the Rockian’s backside. “A buffion? I thought you only ate meat every other month. Are we just lucky or…”
"You are not that lucky," she says over her shoulder. "We thought that you might enjoy it, given how much meat your kind enjoys."
“There are some Earthlings who are vegetarians,” Hannah protests.
“Are you one of them?”
“Well, no…”
“There you go.”
The Rockian is trailing behind the cluster of Rockians, and we all troop through a forest and reach a wide clearing. A table is there, a split log with small split logs forming long benches for us to sit on. We find seats. Behind us is a roaring firepit, the buffion spinning over it. The scent makes my mouth water.
Right when Hannah leans over and says, “I’m so glad we’re here,” I sense a call coming from the maestro. I ignore it.
“I’m glad we’re here too,” I inform her. “The universe works in mysterious ways sometimes.”
“We have a similar expression like that on Earth,” she says, “but we say that of God.”
“Do you believe in God?”
She nods slowly. “I do.”
“Your God, what does he do?”
“He created everything,” she says. “The planets, the people, the animals…”
“All of the planets?”
"Yes, all of the planets, including this one and Garrus."
“You’re certain of this?”
“If He could create the Milky Way and Earth and our moon and the stars, why couldn’t He create other planets too? And if He could create Earthlings, why not Rockians and Garrux too?”
“But you had no idea about us,” I argue.
“Just because my mind is small, and I cannot see the scope of God’s powers doesn’t mean He couldn’t have done far more than I ever dreamed of,” she says simply. “You do not believe in God?”
“What exactly do you mean by God?”
“He is the Creator. He made and loves all things, all people, and it is all good.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Brea and Luca aren’t all good.”
“We should not judge,” she chides gently.
I furrow my brow and shake my head. “Do you mean to say that you’ve forgiven them?”
She ponders this a long moment before nodding. “Yes, yes, I believe I have. I don’t need them in my life anymore.”
I nod and accept a clay plate that has a huge sliver of buffion meat on it, using it as a distraction and an excuse not to answer.
But I can’t stop my thoughts and worrying that one day, she’ll decide she doesn’t need me in her life anymore.
Once we’ve eaten a few bites of the juiciest meat I’ve ever tasted, I remark, “I believe in the universe. I don’t know if I believe in a god.”
“To you, the universe is your god.”
“And you are fine with my beliefs being different from your own?” I ask cautiously.
“We have different backgrounds. I would have been astonished if we have the same beliefs.”
“I suppose that is true, but, ah…”
“What is it?”
I just shake my head.
“I would like for my children to believe in God,” she whispers. “If God grants me the role of mother, that is.”
“Do you want children?”
“I do, but I want them with the right man.” She licks her lips. It’s an innocent gesture, and I instruct my hormones not to react to it. “I think that’s some of the reason why I never got on the pill. If I had, then Luca would’ve wanted to have sex without a condom, and I used his excuse of wanting to wait until marriage to be a crutch because I didn’t want it either.”
“This pill…”
“It regulates a woman’s cycle and prevents her from becoming pregnant.”
“So you could have all the sex you want without a chance of being with child?”
She nods.
“That’s…”
“Not all women want to become pregnant, and some are on the pill because of health reasons. Don’t judge.”
“I’m not judging,” I protest. “I’m trying to understand. You Earthlings are a rather strange lot. You prevent unwanted pregnancies… You even have unwanted pregnancies… That’s… I cannot bring myself to say that is a luxury, but that is not something the Garrux can afford.”
“I know and understand that,” she says softly, “but you said something about eight children, didn’t you? That’s… mind-boggling to me.”
“You wouldn’t want that many.”
“I want as many as God wants me to have.”
“And if that’s ten?”
She giggles. “You’re absurd.”
“Absurdly good-looking?” I joke.
“You do have self-confidence in spades,” she agrees.
“I hope my children will be good-looking and self-confident and amazing, just like whoever their mother will be,” I say.
She glares at me, but it's a good-natured kind of glare.
As innocent as can be, I resume eating.
“Do you think I could learn how to fly?” she asks after a moment.
“The Rockians glide,” I say.
“You know about their abilities?”
“I do.”
“They amaze me.”
I grunt.
She bursts out laughing. “You aren’t jealous of them, are you?”
“Should I be?”
“I like hair,” she murmurs, reaching up to brush mine back.
It’s the first time in hours that we’ve touched—outside of holding hands—and the spark that flickers between us heads straight to my heart.
“You didn’t answer me,” she murmurs, cupping my cheek. “What are your hopes and dreams?”
“Are you sure I didn’t answer?” I counter.
She blinks, and then her eyes widen as she realizes the talk about children was her answer.
“What are your hopes and dreams?” I ask.
Hannah breathes out deeply. “I think my hopes and dreams are starting to change.”
“You want to fly.”
“I want so much more than that.”
I smirk. “I bet you do.”
"Oh, stop." She knocks her shoulder into me. "We should probably stop ignoring our hosts."
“If that is what you want. I will say this. I hope we can go for a walk after dinner.”
“Just you and me?”
I nod.
“To an isolated spot so we can…” She wiggles her eyebrows.
I snort and roll my eyes playfully. “Why would you think that? Maybe I just want the chance to talk to you and tell you all about myself.”
“Uh huh. Right.” She eyes me skeptically.
I just continue to smile at her.
“You really mean that?”
“Do I love your body? Yes. You know I do, but I want to prove to you that I love you, and for you to believe that, I need to know you more, don’t I?”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“That’s what I want. That’s my hope and dream—for you to believe I love you.”
“Not even for me to be your mate?”
“I hope for that, but first things first, I want to love you and for you to believe that I do.”
She’s silent, but the look in her eyes, the glow, says so very much.