Stolen By the Alien by Ashlyn Hawkes

19

Hannah

“Let’s not worry about the maestro,” I say. “Returning to Earth isn’t an option. I can’t live there, not with Omur, and we’re mated.”

Mated. It means so much to me to be both Omur’s mate and his wife. When I touch him, I feel so very close to him, and I hold his hand now.

“You don’t want to hide me away in your house?” he asks with a grin.

“I don’t even have a house right now, and…” I grimace. “We can’t really forget about the maestro. If Rumus doesn’t return with me, there will be consequences.”

“Not if we remove him from power,” Rumus protests.

I shake my head. “I don’t want to have to worry that you will be punished or that anything would be taking out on your mate. That’s not fair to you two.”

“We can live a life on the run,” Omur says with a grin. “Hop from planet to planet. Always one step ahead.”

I make a face. “That is not the way to raise a family!”

Rumus chuckles. “She has a point.”

“And maybe everything really does happen for a reason,” I say slowly. “Maybe it’s a good thing that the maestro thinks you’re dead, Omur.”

“Why do you say that?” Omur asks. “It won’t take him long to realize that’s not the case.”

“If he thinks you’re dead, and if he thinks I’m dead…” I grin.

Omur drops his jaw. “You’re a genius.”

I giggle. “Yes, but we still have to figure out where to live. Is there a planet you liked during your travels?”

“I like this planet,” he says, kissing my cheek, my throat, down even lower. I let out a moan.

Rumus clears his throat. “You two do have an audience.”

“You can watch,” Omur growls as he yanks me even closer to him. Our hearts beat frantically, but I put my hands on his chest.

“Down, boy,” I murmur.

His cock swells against his pants, and I can’t help but rub against him. I’m torturing us both.

I draw away, but he comes close again, having his cock vibrate through his clothes against my clit. My jaw drops, and it takes everything in me to not take him right here and now.

“You like this planet, huh?” I ask, trying to get my breathing under control. “I like it here too. I really do.”

“Why?” he asks, his eyes glittering.

“I think you know why,” I say.

“Maybe I do, but I might want to hear it.”

“Because here is where I fell in love with you. Here is where we mated and melded. Here is where I feel safe. I like the Rockians. They aren’t all that different from Earthlings, and I could see myself being very happy here.”

He snorts. “As if you couldn’t be happy on another planet.”

“I could very well be, you know, so long as I have you.”

“Very well could be.” He rolls his eyes. “You know you can’t live without me.”

“I think it’s you who can’t live without me. I mean, you stole me away from my home!”

“I’ll provide you another one. A better one.”

“I like the sound of that.” I kiss him with lots of tongue, lots of feeling, and lots of love.

Rumus clears his throat again. “I don’t mean to interrupt you two, but, ah, if you wish to live here forever, you might want to talk to the Rockians.”

“You can go ahead and leave,” Omur informs his brother.

Rumus shakes his head. “Not until I know for certain this is where you’re going to live. If they decline and you have to go elsewhere, I want to know. I plan on visiting you, brother, and I’m going to want to meet my nieces and nephews. You think my family will be larger than yours?”

“Without a doubt.”

I chuckle nervously. “Um… you guys are huge. Seriously huge. Any chance that Garrux babies are small? Very small? Please say yes.” I actually squeeze my legs.

The brothers look at each other and laugh, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

But I do appreciate Rumus looking out for his brother. “Thank you for all that you’re willing to do for your brother.”

“Not just for Omur. For you. You’re family,” he says simply, and my heart swells.

I hold up a finger. “I’m going to talk to Rosina. I’ll be back.”

“Rosina?” I overhear Rumus asks Omur.

“Her Rockian friend.”

“You two are in like flint, aren’t you?”

“She has a magnetic personality. People just flock to her. I don’t understand how the Earthlings could have missed out on what a gem she is.”

“That’s lucky for you, isn’t it? If she had been married—”

I don’t hear the rest. Rosina’s up ahead, fluttering about, guiding bugs to flowers, pruning some, reminding me of a dryad.

“Rosina, I have a question for you,” I say.

“Yes.” She doesn’t turn around, continuing her nature work.

“Who, ah, who is the leader of the Rockians?”

“We do not have a leader.”

“No ruler?” I gape at her backside and walk around to see her face. She’s deadly serious. “How do you settle disagreements?”

“We try to be as civil and fair as we can be. Not all humanoids need to be told what to do.”

“But, ah…”

“What is it?”

“First, my mind is boggled that you can know peace like this, but even more than that, I’m wondering if you could tell me… Um… I guess I need the Rockians all gathered together so I can ask you all if it is all right if we stay on and live here.”

“You and Omur?”

I nod. "We can't go to Earth, and Garrus isn't an option. The maestro there hates humans because he thought his mate was one, but she cheated on him, and he thinks Omur is dead, so he sent Rumus, Omur's brother, here to bring me back to him—the maestro, that is—and he wants to use me as a sex toy, so, yeah, Garrus is out. I feel terrible because, yes, I have to be uprooted from my planet and leave behind my friends, but ideally, Omur wouldn't have had to… Rumus is talking about wanting to overthrow the maestro, but I don't know if that will happen. If it does, I suppose we could maybe go to Garrus in the future, but so long as Shule—the maestro—is alive, I don't know how comfortable I would feel there, and I'm rambling. I'm sorry. I'll shut up now."

Rosina touches my elbows. “You can stay.”

“You can give me permission like that?”

"Rockians have evolved. We are very much in tune with nature. As such, we can talk to each other in the whisper of the wind. The others all heard you, and they agree with me. You can stay and have your babies here."

“And our babies can stay here?” I ask eagerly.

“Yes. We coexisted with the Earthlings for a time, but we evolved too quickly.”

“I don’t know how quickly we’ll evolve,” I admit.

“We haven’t changed much at all in the past thousand years or so, so I think you’ll be just fine.” She embraces me. “And who knows? Maybe you are right. Maybe you have a bit of Rockian blood in you. Maybe not, but it can’t hurt any for you to try to whisper on the wind.”

“How do you do that?”

"Open your mind. Think about the words you wish to spread. Pick a recipient, and let the words flow from your mind onto the wind and direct the message on the wind to that person."

I close my mind. It’s not all that hard to figure out who I wish to talk to nor the words I wish to send.

I love you, Omur.

I wait a moment. Another. Another.

I love you too, Hannah. I always will.

My eyes fly open. “I did it!”

She smirks. “With Omur?”

“Yes!”

“That’s cheating.”

I scowl. “Can all mates do that?”

Rosina nods.

You’re so mean. I try to send the words to her.

She doesn’t react at all.

“You didn’t hear me?” I ask.

“No, but could you walk the day you came out of the womb?”

“No.”

“It might be easier to send a mental image instead of words,” she suggests.

So I try to impress on her an image of her falling down, but that fails too.

She bursts out laughing. “Your face is so very red!”

“You’re so not funny!”

Rosina giggles.

I swat her away, which only makes her laugh that much harder, and I hurry over to Omur.

“We can stay,” he says as I leap into his arms.

I pout. “Who told you?”

“Your face. Your happiness. Your smile.” He twirls me around. “You’re so damn sexy when you get your way, you know that?”

“Am I? Sexy enough for you?”

“Oh, yes.”

Rumus throws up his hands. “Seriously?”

“As if you weren’t like this when you first mated Karlii!” Omur protests.

“I was never this bad!”

“As I recall, she rode you in front of our parents.”

“Did she really?” I gape at Rumus.

“We were mostly dressed,” he says, clearly embarrassed.

“Wow. A few hugs and kisses are nothing then,” I declare.

“That so? Because that tent my brother is sporting suggests that boinking is going to commence soon.”

I can't help looking. Oh, man, is he right. Omur is packing. That cannot be comfortable at all.

I definitely want to help with that, but…

“You won’t leave yet, right?” I ask Rumus.

“Why?”

“I’m sure you want to return to Garrus and your wife, but I would like to talk with you a bit more before you go,” I say.

He smirks and crosses his arms. “We can talk now.”

“Oh, yes, but, ah… in a few minutes.”

“A few minutes?” His smirk grows. “Are you that fast, brother?”

“Ovian bastard,” Omur teases. “I can go for hours, but we’ll try to cut it short for you.”

“I appreciate it, brother,” Rumus says dryly. “Or you could just wait and be mature and not leave me hanging. I do have to get going.”

Omur takes my hand, but I don’t move my feet.

“We shouldn’t be selfish.”

“Loving you isn’t selfish.”

“No?” I pat his face and turn to Rumus. “Any other stories about your brother? Something I can bring up when I might not be the happiest with him?”

Rumus blinks a few times. “You still don’t understand what it means to be mated, do you?”

“All couples have ups and downs and fights and arguments from time to time,” I say. “It’s expected.”

“It’s unnecessary when you’re mates,” Rumus claims. “You wish for what is best for your mate.”

“So he’ll change all of the diapers if I ask?” I ask dryly.

“Yes, he will.”

“And he’ll never give me a reason to nag him?”

“No.”

“Hmm.” I stroke my chin. “That’s good to know, but I still want to know the dirt.”

“Hey!” Omur protests.

“I do like her,” Rumus says with a grin. “My new sister.”

I beam, feeling happier than ever before.