“We are happy to have you as our daughter’s mating partner,” Adhara’s mother said with a small smile. “We shall be glad to perform your joining ceremony, too.”
“My what?” I asked. “Oh, like a wedding? You want me to marry Adhara?”
“Will this be a problem?” The male alien looked over his shoulder with a scowl. “You wish to mate with her, and we are glad to have Earth’s leader in our family. A joining ceremony will be done. Solidify the joining of our races.”
“Well… yeah,” I said with a grin. “I would love to marry Adhara, but I just don’t know if she wants that? We’ve been kind of busy lately, there hasn’t been a ton of time for that kind of talk, and--”
“We shall ask her,” Adhara’s mother decided as she rose from her seat, and I stood up with her.
“Before that, I need you to know,” I said hurriedly. “We have a kind of unusual setup. I’m actually already married to Becka and Hae-won, and then there’s Kat who--”
“This is fine,” Adhara’s father said with a wave of his hand. “You wish to join with our daughter? If you care for her along with the other females, and give them nice sperm to make offspring, then you are a worthy partner. So long as you provide her with equal amount sperm so she make many offspring.”
It was a hell of a lot to take in at once. My entire body still felt like it was electric after we had stopped the fleet, and then I was about to have a new wife along with integrating aliens and humans on the same planet.
Plus, more babies.
Cute, lilac-colored ones with generational memory.
I rifled my hair in bewilderment, but my mind couldn’t even keep up anymore. All I wanted was to be with my girls. We suddenly didn’t have a ticking countdown hanging over our heads, and I just wanted to hold them close. I wanted to fall into bed with every damn one of them and enjoy a night with no pressure or responsibilities, and then I wanted to keep doing that for the rest of our lives.
“You wish to return to the others?” Adhara’s mother guessed, and I nodded as I sent her a smirk.
“That’d be nice,” I half-chuckled. “It’s been a long few weeks.”
“You agree to our terms?” the male alien asked. “We share resources of your planet in exchange for our technology and help with ommati? Your males make offspring with our females?”
“I think that’s the best option for humanity to continue,” I admitted. “We’ll need to work out how to go about announcing the news to everyone on Earth, and how to rebuild the damage all the dinosaurs did.”
“This will be simple.” Adhara’s mother nodded. “Now, you must tell our daughter of the ceremony.”
I glanced out at the incredible blanket of stars outside the windows once more before I headed back to the bridge. As I stepped through the door, the girls continued to shriek and jump with excitement.
“There’s the leader of Earth!” Becka shouted like a total fan-girl. “The most important man in the universe!”
“But what did they say?” Hae-won pressed. “Are they going to get rid of all the dinos?”
“All the scarily-smart ones,” I clarified as the gorgeous Korean hugged my waist.
“But not all of them?” Becka frowned.
“They say the others won’t be a problem,” I replied. “Also, we’re going to have some new neighbors.”
“Huh?” Kat narrowed her eyes as Adhara’s parents came back into the bridge.
They headed over to the younger aliens at the front and began quickly talking in their native tongue.
“Yeah, so… aliens are coming to Earth,” I told my girls, and it didn’t even sound real in my mouth.
“Seriously?” Becka gawked. “They want to come and live on the same planet as us?”
“I expected this.” Adhara shrugged. “Like I told you before, our planet is running low on resources.”
“What else did you guys talk about?” Kat asked. “Since you now make all of Earth’s choices?”
“Well, we talked about a few logistical things, but…” I glanced at Adhara to gauge her reaction. “They actually wanted me to step up my commitment a little, and I’m happy to do it.”
The gorgeous alien raised an eyebrow, and Becka gasped.
“Oh, my god,” the blonde Brit squealed. “Does that mean what I think it does?”
I couldn’t stop grinning as I got down on one knee, and I took Adhara’s lilac hand as I looked up at her emerald eyes.
“Adhara,” I said, and Kat clamped a hand over her mouth. “I know this probably isn’t a tradition for your people, but I want you to know how much I love you. I followed you into space, and I would do it again to protect you.”
“Oh.” Adhara blinked several times, and she gripped my hand tightly. “You are doing the marriage asking? Like Becka and Hae-won had?”
She looked adorable as her face lit up, and her lilac cheeks flushed.
“Yes, I am doing the marriage asking,” I laughed. “Adhara, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” the alien sang. “I will also be in the marrying! I am wife now, too!”
I leapt up and pulled Adhara into my arms for a kiss, and she planted her full lips onto mine while the other girls cheered around us. My arms locked around the alien’s slim waist, and her sweet tongue tangled with mine as she let out the cutest humming sound I’d ever heard.
“I am so happy!” the alien gasped when I finally released her. “There will be three of us as wives!”
I smirked as my girls squealed in excitement, but then I noticed Kat’s expression, and my heart dropped as I saw her eyes flicker to the ground. Her smile fell a bit, and she shuffled on her feet and pulled at the fabric on her pants.
Adhara followed my gaze and knitted her eyebrows as she looked at the pretty soldier.
“Can we talk for moment about ceremony?” Adhara asked, and she grabbed me by the arm and practically hauled me into a corner of the bridge before I could answer.
“You okay?” I asked, and the beautiful alien nodded.
“Kat seems sad,” she whispered. “I think she also wants to be wife. We can have her in ceremony, too. You mate so well with her already. She has much of your seed in her womb. Probably make you offspring soon. She should be wife with me.”
“You sure?” I asked. “I would love to marry her, too, but we can have a separate ceremony if you want to.”
“No,” Adhara said firmly. “She is family. And Hae-won and Becka had the fun together. Kat and I will be in ceremony together. Now you must do the asking to her, too. Before she never smiles again.”
Her desperation for Kat to be happy made me feel all gooey and loved up, and I couldn’t help chuckling as I kissed Adhara’s forehead.
Then I slowly walked toward Kat, and the soldier had a forced, soldier’s expression on her face while she pretended to study the layout of the bridge.
“Hey,” I said as I stopped beside her. “I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah?” Kat asked, but when she turned around to face me, I was already on one knee. “Holy… shit.”
“I cannot handle this!” Becka cried. “Oh, my god!”
“Shhhhhh!” Hae-won scolded, but she grinned from ear to ear.
“Kat Grant,” I began as the Corporal turned pink. “You are one badass, stubborn, gorgeous soldier. I never stop having fun when I’m with you, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have you with me. I know you aren’t into sappy romance, so I’ll make this quick. Will you make me the happiest guy in space and be my wife?”
The soldier put her hands over her mouth, and her hazel eyes sparkled with tears.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Jason, a million fucking times yes.”
“She said yes!” Hae-won cheered. “They both said yes!”
“Of course, they did,” Becka snickered. “He’s the leader of Earth.”
I chuckled as I got to my feet and pulled Kat close, and the soldier buried her face against my chest as she silently cried. I stroked her c
urly head while I tried to process how fucking cute she was when she was this overwhelmed, and when she spoke, Kat’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“I wasn’t sure you wanted to marry me,” the soldier said.
“Are you kidding?” I laughed and kissed her hair. “A hot, strong, cool as hell girl with those eyes and a love for guns? Kat, I’ve wanted to ask for ages, I just needed to be sure it was what you wanted.”
Kat sniffed and laughed as well, and when she looked up at me, I immediately devoured her lips. My girls whooped and cheered as I kissed the Corporal until she was bright red, and her lopsided grin spread wide.
“Alien wedding!” Becka said as she clapped. “I cannot wait to see what goes down at one of those. Do you think it’ll be like the Buddhist one? Do we get new outfits?”
Adhara was about to answer when her parents strode over, and her father placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Have you agreed to the ceremony?” he asked.
“I did.” Adhara smiled. “I am so happy to be joining Jason. Also, Kat will be in joining ceremony, too. She is also becoming a wife.”
“Very well.” The male alien shrugged. “If this is your wish. We will have ceremony soon. Are there humans you wish to have here, Jason?”
“Like guests?” I asked. “We can bring people here?”
“Of course,” Adhara’s father said in a monotone. “Adhara will show you how to travel. We must speak to our crew now, they have many questions for us. It is nice to join with your race. This will be good.”
The older aliens headed out of the sliding doors without another word, and they hurried down the steps into the noisy room below.
“Are they okay with me being in the wedding?” Kat asked. “They didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it.”
“That is just their way,” Adhara said. “They are happy for you to be there also. They do not have human values about these things.”
“So, we can really invite people?” I asked, and the gorgeous alien nodded.
There were so many people I hadn’t spoken to in months, but at that moment, I could only think about my parents. I had forced myself not to think too much about them during our journey, because I didn’t want to picture what might have happened to them. My mom and dad were tough enough for middle-aged people, but they didn’t exactly have the skills needed to fight through a dinosaur apocalypse.
What if they weren’t around anymore? What if I had saved the world but wasn’t in time to save them?
My stomach dropped all at once, and I found myself staring at the floor in a numb state.
“Are you thinking about your folks?” Kat asked gently.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “I don’t even know if they’ll be there. What if…”
I trailed off, and Kat laced her fingers into mine.
“I don’t know if mine are around, either,” she said softly. “Why don’t we let Adhara show us how to travel?”
I nodded, and Kat reached up to place a kiss on my cheek.
“I’m so fucking glad I’m marrying you.” I smiled. “Both of you.”
“Let us go,” Adhara said. “I will show you the room for travel. Much less complicated than how we got here.”
She led us out of the bridge and down into the sea of aliens, and every single lilac face stared at us as soon as we stepped onto the staircase. Adhara’s parents stood at the front of the group, and they glanced our way before they continued to speak to the crowd.
I noticed the alien who had shot at me as we walked by, and she scowled intensely while Adhara led us to the next bronze staircase. Then we hurried down to the level below, and Adhara brought us over to the doors on the right side of the room.
The beautiful alien waved a hand, and one of the entrances slid open so she could lead us into a small space with silver walls and something that looked like a phone booth. It had black sides, and it almost seemed like it was glowing around the edges.
“What is that?” Hae-won asked as the doors slid shut behind us.
“It is to travel,” Adhara replied. “You put in coordinates, and it will take you. Easy.”
“Holy fuck,” Kat blurted out. “So, it’s teleportation?”
“It is travel,” Adhara repeated with a furrowed brow. “I do not know this word you like to use.”
“This is so Doctor Who,” the soldier said as she did a little bounce.
Then the beautiful alien grabbed the handle of the black door and pulled it open to reveal a tiny dark room with a screen built into the back wall.
“You know coordinates?” Adhara asked.
“I actually do,” I laughed. “I loved maps and exploring as a kid, so I’ve had our house memorized for years.”
“You sexy dork,” Becka giggled.
“I love you,” Kat said with the straightest face.
“I love you, too,” I chuckled.
“Go inside,” the alien said with a reassuring smile. “Press numbers into the screen, but let me change to Alakerenician language first.”
The alien spoke a command in her humming growl, and the screen suddenly flashed with numbers and the alphabet in small boxes.
“Then what happens?” I asked.
“Then you will be there,” Adhara replied simply. “We will step in behind, and it will use the same coordinates. Then we can do the same for the others’ parents.”
“Have your weapon ready,” Kat warned. “I know you saved the world, but dinos are still there for now.”
“I guess I’ll see you on the other side,” I said as I stepped into the booth.
“American road trip!” Becka sang. “See you there, you sexy leader of the world.”
The door closed behind me, and I stood staring at the large screen in front of me with sweaty palms.
Part of me didn’t want to go and find out what had happened to my parents. If I didn’t go to the house, then I wouldn’t have to see if it had been destroyed, and I wouldn’t have to see blood smeared all over the walls, the driveway, any of it.
My stomach clenched again, but I shook my head, and I knew I had to do this. If I could save the world, I could do this.
The screen beeped softly as I typed in the coordinates for my parents’ house, and I felt like I was eleven again all of a sudden. I’d probably dreamed of doing crazy shit like this a thousand times as a kid, but now, I held my breath as I entered the final digit, and I tried not to think a single thought.
Then I closed my eyes.
There was a soft whirring sound, and suddenly, I wasn’t in the booth anymore. I opened my eyes to find myself standing on the porch of my childhood home, and I spun around to see the black booth was right behind me.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
I looked back at the house, and it seemed exactly the same as I remembered it. There were no bloodstains or broken windows anywhere, and it was as if it had been frozen in time, and we weren’t in a world full of bloodthirsty dinosaurs.
My legs were too numb to move, but finally, I took a single step toward the door.
There was a gentle creak, and a shadowy figure appeared through the gap of the opening.
“Jason?”
Chapter 16
I was frozen to the wooden planks beneath me as the door opened wider, and my mom stepped out onto the porch.
“Jason!” she screamed and flung her arms around me.
I tried to reply, but a choking noise was all I could manage as I held on to my mother tightly. We stood on the little wooden porch in a bone-crushing hug as she began to cry, and she rocked me back and forth like a little kid, but I honestly didn’t give a shit.
She smelled like the floral perfume she always wore, and she was still just ridiculously short compared to me, and I let her cry and hug me as long as she wanted to before I finally stepped back to look at her.
I was blown away by how healthy my mother was.
I had expected her to be bone-thin from weeks of scrounging for food, but she was the healthy
size she had always been with well-earned muscles. Her brown hair was tied up into a neat bun like she’d been doing some house cleaning, and she had paint-stained overalls on with her favorite pink slippers.
“Mom,” I managed to say eventually as I clutched her hands. “You’re alive.”
“How did you get here?” she whispered as she looked me up and down. “You look so strong, are you still growing? Are you hurt at all?”
“No, I’m fine.” I smiled, and I wiped a tear from my cheek with my sleeve. “Is Dad here?”
“Of course, he is, but…” My mom leaned a bit to look around me. “Jason, what is that thing behind you?”
I was about to reply when the door of the black booth opened, and Becka stepped out.
“Wh-What?” my mom gasped, and I squeezed her hand as she gaped at the gorgeous blonde who was now bounding over to us.
“Oh, my god!” Becka squealed. “Hiiii! You must be Jason’s mum, I’m Becka. This house is so cute, I love the little porch. Super American.”
“Mom, this is my wife, Becka.” I grinned, and my mom gasped once more.
“You… you got married?” she asked. “Oh, honey, you’re so beautiful, but where the hell did you come from?”
“Oh, I’m from England,” Becka clarified. “You know, the one--”
“Hey!” Kat called as she came out of the black booth, and my mom’s eyes were as wide as saucers now.
“H-Hello,” my mom replied in a flustered tone. “Can someone please explain what’s going on?”
Hae-won and Adhara piled out of the booth together before I could answer, and I hurriedly helped my mom over to the bench swing on the porch. She looked pale, and her eyes were fixed on Adhara, and Becka started frantically fanning my mother with both her hands.
Then I heard a familiar voice.
“Jason? What in the…”
I looked over at the doorway and saw my father standing there. He looked great, with his beard neatly trimmed and his usual Blackhawks hat on, but he wore a pair of new, round glasses I hadn’t seen before. He was standing tall like always with a clearly confused scowl on his face, but I rushed over to him and grabbed him into a hug before he could say anything else.
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