Chapter Eight

 

 

“Tell me.” She was in the kitchen helping him put up food. There were a thousand and one places she could be. Leaving the state, crossing the border or looking for an apartment on the outskirts of town to name a few.

Instead, she was putting up food on the lower shelves while Declyn took the higher ones. When you were seven foot, it was a given. The higher shelves belonged to you.

“Tell you what?”

“Don’t do that. Don’t treat me like I can’t see your differences just because I haven’t called you out on them.”

She was playing house when she knew there was someone out there probably Ron that wanted her dead. She deserved an answer. If he couldn’t give her one, then she would leave. Right now, she was breaking her life down into easy to do things because it was all she was capable of dealing with.

Her hope or was it a fantasy, the thought that although it was only a day she felt the spark of something between them.

“I don’t want to scare you.”

“I left scared in the parking lot. I’m terrified.” She wasn’t lying, the more she thought about what happened and then her talk with Detective Baker, the more she realized someone really had tried to kill her.

That shouldn’t have happened to her. There was no reason for violence to touch her life and she couldn’t even blame it on Declyn. All of this was building before he became part of the story, but she had a feeling one look at him turned up the timetable.

“Let’s take a seat in the living room.”

Should she feel bad because she didn’t like his living room? It was a couch and a chair, and they didn’t even match.

“I know it’s not great. I always said I was going to go back make it look better, but I never had a reason. So, I left it alone.”

Declyn was a male who could touch her heart if she wasn’t careful. He said things that were raw and true no sugar coating them. Even though she didn’t know everything about him, she knew he was honest with her. Sometimes she just didn’t understand his honesty.

“I am an alien, or better yet maybe I am a refugee to Earth.”

She got up, found her purse and her drawings and headed towards the door. Her hand gripped the handle but didn’t turn. The slight warmth of the material tickled her palm as his words played in her head. There was Deja’s insistence that Enzo and Ven were males. There was the fact that everyone here except Ven had green eyes. Something she noticed but hadn’t commented on.

Then there was his skin that was gray in color. Sure, maybe he lacked vitamins, but he was getting enough sun from what she could see. To her skin color was the hardest thing to quantify, she wouldn’t even think about it except they all had the same skin color.

He was an alien? It did make sense in a weird way. His eyes glowed but not always, as if he could control them. His teeth were sharp when she met him, but now they are normal or what she considered normal.

Why aren’t we running?

He’s an alien.

We could expose him on one of those late-night shows.

Really? All of her mental eyes turned to look at the voice they called greedy.

We could sit down and listen.

What was life coming to when the alien in your head was the voice of reason?

We kissed him, where’s the soap.

She had to laugh at that. As long as what he said made sense she was going to kiss him again.

Could he take our temperature with his—.

Quiet. No more talking. She sat in the armchair because she was afraid her body which was a traitor might try to kiss him without knowing all the facts.

“I’m listening.”

“My people and I are called Kur’iks. We’re enzymatically designed warriors that fight the war our people no longer wish to fight.”

“You’re a test tube baby?”

“No, we’re designed from an enzymatic material that has been manipulated.”

“That’s why you don’t have a mother?”

“Yes.”

“Your eyes?”

He pushed back his hair to show here two small round circles he touched one, and his eyes glowed, and when he touched the other, it stopped.

“Why?”

“This way we don’t need extra gear to help us see in the dark.”

“That’s rather ingenious.”

“The Kur’iks are intelligent.”

“So, you look like them?”

“Most of our differences are internal. You couldn’t look at us and automatically say that’s an alien.”

“How did you get here?”

“The Kur’iks were fighting a war with another planet in our solar system, the Thalians, our battalions managed to get caught in a rift in space that took us out of our system. I don’t know how we ended up here, but our ships were caught in the orbit around the Earth, and we crashed landed.”

“How long?”

“Four hundred years.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I’m an alien.”

“Oh right, everything is possible.”

“What now?”

“Deja has asked us over for dinner. I couldn’t hold her off any longer.”

“Can I take a shower?”

He stood and waited for her to get up before he led her to the master bedroom. She noticed that his house was stark even the hallway felt bare to her. When he opened the door, she almost expected to be impressed, but the room was also bare. He had a bed with no headboard and a dresser.

“Why is your house so bare?”

“I spend a lot of time taking care of the others.”

She stared at his eyes looking for a spark that she would be able to connect with.

“Is being on the Earth a good thing or a bad thing for your people?”

“It’s a good thing. Why did you call them my people?”

“I saw how they responded to you in the bar. You’re in charge, but the kicker was how Deja called this morning looking for you.”

“They would look for anyone missing.”

“Granted. Would they have noticed immediately if anyone else was missing?”

She had him there. They checked on each other, but the only others whose disappearance would be as noticeable as his was the females, Enzo’s, Ven’s and Coles.

“You don’t have to say it I know I’m right.”

“I’m the Alpha. My disappearance would be noticed immediately.”

“Why do you call yourself Alpha?”

“I was hoping to ease you into this. Jessie, you haven’t met her yet, but she’s Cole’s mate as well as our waitress, had a hard time when Cole told her.”

“I can’t promise not to have a hard time, but it will be better if you're honest with me.”

“Most of the galaxy but not all are shapeshifters.”

“As in they turn into monsters?”

“Depends on how you define monsters. Some are so cute you just want to hug them, but that’s what makes them deadly.

“What makes you deadly?”

“You don’t like taking it slow and easy.”

“Not really, life is too short to pretend you don’t want the answers or to join in on the action.”

“Sometimes it better to take your time. I turn into a creature out of your horror stories.”

She raised a brow placing a hand on her hip.

He dropped his shoulders, his mates was as tenacious as he was and there wouldn’t be any moving until he told her what she wanted to know.

“I turn into what you call a werewolf, I stand around twelve feet, and I walk on two legs.”

Her mind conjured up grisly pictures of an animal coming for her in the middle of the night.

I told you we should run.

You never pay attention to us.

Let’s talk about the way you put us to sleep, and we’re just waking up.

Good thing we woke up in time to save your life.

Are you really listening to them?

No.

She might have listened or ran for her wellbeing if she hadn’t spent the night with him. But when you’ve spent hours in a male’s arms only to be treated like a goddess it gave you cautious hope. True it was only one night, but it was enough to make her want to explore other nights.

“Do you need me to change?”

“No, I choose to believe you.”

“What if I’m too horrible to be around?”

“Are you still you?”

He nodded giving her a look that said he didn’t understand.”

“On the second day of my period is when I really start to feel the cramps. Then I want to kick the whole world in the balls and make them feel my pain. Some would say I was a monster others would say something worse. The thing is I’m still me. I like what I know about you. So, no I don’t need you to change right now because I know I’ll see your other form.” She pulled him down and placed a kiss on his jaw.

“I don’t like your unfinished house though, you need furniture, and I need clothes. We should go back to my place and pack a suitcase or two until I figure out what to do with all of my things.”

He was slacked jaw looking at her.

“I surprised you?” he nodded.

“One,” she lifted a finger. “Deja is my sister even if not related by blood. She loves Enzo and Ven no matter what they are. There is no fear in her. Two, I can feel you in my soul. Three,” Another finger came up to join the other two. “You spent the night holding me in your arms. I was safe and warm. Four, when we jumped today you weren’t thinking of yourself, you were thinking of me. You positioned your body to keep me safe every second, and yeah, I noticed. Five, you’ve been here four hundred years keeping to yourself. I don’t think you’ve finally decided on world domination or to enslave the females of Earth.”

She gave him a wicked grin as she headed to the front door. “You coming Alpha?”

Hell yeah, he was coming. His mate was smart as well as sexy. She thought things through it was good to have an Alpha mate that could think on her feet, literally.

“This might not be the best thing to do.” He held the door open for her as they went outside. Her car was parked in front of his house.

“Would you mind if we took my car instead?”

“And leave my baby sitting here? Do you know how fast she is?”

“Fast?” She sighed that wasn’t the answer she was expecting from a male.

“Okay, let’s take yours.” Her stomach dropped to her knees. She wasn’t a snob or bougie or even an elitist. The fact was that she had seen his house and couldn’t imagine how his car would look. What if they needed speed?

He walked to the attached garage and hit a small button opening it.

Her hand went to her throat before it went to her mouth covering her surprise. Declyn’s car was a red charger with black accents. It was in prime condition and shined as it sat in the garage.

This is what she expected from him. His house was just a place to stay. There was no one there but him, she could appreciate that. This car, on the other hand, had to represent freedom to him. The ability to go where ever he wanted when he wanted. That’s what her car represented, and she took care of it like he took care of his.

She looked at him and realized they were on the same page. She was like him. A small smile tilted her lips. He didn’t understand what home meant yet, but he would soon.

“Let’s take your car, but next time I want to drive.” His smile made her heart race.