With the bus only a quarter of the way full, I find that I’m the only one to exit at my stop. By the time I get off and make it a couple blocks towards my apartment building, I realize just how exhausting this week has been. An entirely new team, a wild situation, and a handsome alien that thinks I’m his hormonal soul mate. I sigh, knowing there’s no easy way to explain this one to the girls over drinks tomorrow. I am so deep in my thoughts that when a dark figure emerges from the bushes, I don’t even think to grab my pepper spray— I just freeze and scream.

One large gray hand claps over my mouth, and suddenly Kila’s warmth is pressed against me. “Calm yourself, Ella. It is Kila.”

I punch his arm without hesitation, but find it’s like punching a brick wall. I cringe. “Jesus Christ! Kila, you scared the fucking shit out of me.”

He laughs, actually laughs, at me. I’m so dumbfounded by the sight of his amused face that I lose all sense of the anger I felt a second ago.

“Scared shit out of you? What an absurd phrase,” he comments.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I hiss, looking around me as though the research facility guards will descend from the trees and tackle him. “How did you get out of there? This is stalking, you know. Your friends think you’ve gone crazy and now I’m wondering if they were right.”

“I had to see you, Ella. Will you give me the chance to speak with you?”

“Answer my questions,” I say.

He waves his hand dismissively. “That building is like a child’s first play-fort. I simply exited through the window, crawled the roof to the opposite end where they did not expect me to emerge, and then scaled the wall. They are not staffed to pen a warrior. From there it was made easy by the vehicles in the lot, which provide cover. I waited beneath one such vehicle, and watched you get on the bus. Before it departed, I was able to slide underneath and ride on the undercarriage.”

“Okay, Mission: Impossible,” I mutter, picturing him belly-crawling through the parking lot.

He lets out another laugh. Have I ever seen him smile before this moment? God, it’s sexy when he does. The happy crinkling of his eyes transforms his face. “Impossible mission? No, no, this was likely the easiest mission I have encountered. If only Azza bases were so poorly manned.”

“What exactly are you trying to accomplish?” I ask. “How long do you think you are going to be out here on the run? Because Pakka knows you’re coming to find me.”

“Pakka will be afraid to send any of the Kar’Kali out into the human world now that he knows our chips are compromised. You see, I have clarity now. Clarity that I did not have when I last spoke with you. I want to win your attentions, Ella. Grant me your time and I will do whatever it takes to convince you to be mine. They do not have your personal address, and the facility is closing. Once they close the comm line with Kar’Kal, they will be forced to wait until Monday to take action.”

Here he goes again with the seductive romance talk. His fellow Kar’Kali were very serious about how dangerous this new Kila would be, but I was not expecting him to be so damn persuasive. Well, or I’m just easy. Yeah, that’s probably it.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” I sigh.

“Yes,” he says with relish. “Strategy has always been a strong skill of mine. When we arrived I thought the idea of a two-day Week’s End without work would be torturous, and now I am thankful this tradition is in place. Otherwise, I am sure they would take me from you within the hour.”

I have not seen him so animated until now, and I can’t help but smile. I’m supposed to respect the ways of these other alien species, but this so-called disaster of a tech malfunction has Kila looking so happy, so flushed with joy—

“Wait, lemme look at you.” I grab his forearms and haul him out of the shaded area. “You’re… you’re red-blooded aren’t you! It’s true, what they said?”

He grins, running his hands up my arms and bending over me, daring me to look even closer. His black eyes sparkle as they roam my face. “And what did they say, Ella?”

“That you think I’m your mate.” I tremble under his gaze, which seems to pierce right through me. He’s entirely changed— stone come to life right before my eyes.

His fingers brush up along my neck and then to my cheek.

“Think it? I know it. I am yours if you will only let me be. Then I will make you mine, and claim you like my body demands.”

His words fluster, arouse, and frighten me all at one. My chest feels like it’s filling with liquid warmth from the way he stares in my eyes when he speaks. I might be making an incredibly stupid decision, but I can’t bring myself to turn him away.

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Chapter 10

Kila

Ella has allowed me into her living quarters, under the condition that I will contact Pakka and let him know that I am safe here with her. It will only cause him further panic, but there is no real harm when he is stuck at the complex.

Yesterday, I felt just as much fear and frustration as he does now, but that is all behind me. In Ella’s presence, I feel things that I never have before. Only good and wonderful things.

She seems nervous as we step through her door, requesting that I do not “judge” her, but I am not sure what she means. The scent of her is thick here, a pleasant combination of freshly washed fabric and distinctly feminine musk. Her space is not well-organized at all, but I do not mind it. Various articles of clothing are draped over the couch, which she rushes to remove while I look around. Pictures hang on the wall of indistinguishable blobs of color (“Abstract art,” she says), and the couch that dominates the sitting area is an elegant shade of mauve.

“Are you hungry?” she asks once I am done gawking at her belongings and asking her questions about their purposes. It amuses me that many of them do not have a purpose at all, such as the tiny bronze table by the doorway that simply collects piles of paper.

“Yes,” I admit.

“I can cook us something,” she offers. “Any preferences?”

“I would not know,” I say. “I have enjoyed most things we have eaten so far here. They are packed with much more flavor than the typical rations at home.”

“Rations? Even on the home planet?” she says. She begins pulling ingredients from cabinets and the cold storage box. I sit at her bar so that I can watch her as she prepares to cook.

“Always rations,” I say. “Feeding the soldiers can make things difficult and strain the resources. The Alliance supplements us with their own rations sourced from distant systems.”

“And you have always been a soldier?”

I nod. She lays out a wooden board and pulls out a massive knife. “If you had that when I took you by surprise, surely I would be dead,” I muse.

She grins wickedly, brandishing the sharp silver blade. The way her face lights up causes my chest to tighten. “Ah, but I use my cutting powers for good,” she says and applies her blade speedily to a white bulb vegetable.

“I know we do not know much of one another, but I have learned quickly that you are only good,” I tell her. She becomes shy again, like she did when we were close together in the hallway. She averts her eyes and hides her smile, chopping away on her board.

“Will you tell me about your life?” I ask her since she has quieted down.

“There isn’t much to tell,” she says, turning away to arrange pots on her cook top. “Before the Occupation, all I did was work. I only went to college for a year because my mother was sick and we had bills to pay. I was working as a waitress and all of a sudden this alien invasion goes down. But to me, it was a godsend. My mother got treatment, and I found this job at the facility. This is my hometown here. I didn’t even have to move away from my family.”