by Lucy Kelly
Trying to put a little bit of normal into her life, Marla filled Rusty’s water and food bowls. After that, she turned on the coffee maker. Going through her assortment of K-cups, she opted for some hot apple cider. She had some banana bread in the freezer. As usual, when she was nervous or upset, she headed for food. It had been a stressful year; her extra weight and curvy frame were a direct result.
She removed the loaf from the microwave and sliced it up. She put two slices on a small plate and reached for her mug when the two men came back in. Karlo was carrying Rusty in his arms. Putting down the plate and mug, she rushed over as Karlo put him down in his dog bed.
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, rubbing a hand over Rusty’s head.
“He’ll be fine. His breathing is steady and his color is good,” he showed her, lifting the dog’s jowls to show Marla his gums. “He’ll have a good night’s sleep and be fine in the morning,” he said.
Seeing he was right, Marla stood after giving Rusty one last pat. Picking up her plate and mug, she left the kitchen.
“Help yourselves to some banana bread. Then get ready to talk,” she said over her shoulder.
“Good. She can’t be very mad if she’s willing to give us banana bread,” said Karlo, grabbing a plate and half of the remaining loaf. Charl quickly followed his brother’s lead then the two of them returned to the living room. She was sitting in the chair by the fire as if it were a throne. They quickly sat back down on the couch.
Waving a slice of banana bread in the air, she told them to start their story.
Her dominance brought their arousals roaring back. Suddenly, getting their explanations over with quickly seemed like a really good idea. Karlo started off with the story of Tamiel and the betrayal of Queen Ishnam. Charl added in some information as well. In between, they all snacked until everything was gone. The two of them glossed over the nearly two hundred years they’d spent traveling to Earth, hoping to put off a discussion of their ages.
Finally, they got to the part where Councilman Hend shot Karlo, leaving him for dead, while he made his escape. Marla could hear the emotion in both of their voices as they each told the story from their own point of view. This was the first time since being reunited that the brothers were able to speak about it together. Marla was suddenly really happy to have the pad and pen. She didn’t want to stop their flow, especially now. But she had a ton of questions!
She also didn’t understand why she had become so accepting of what they were telling her. Aliens on Earth, a space station at the edge of their solar system, and the biggest shocker—people who were actually part alien walking around on this planet!
Wait a minute, was she an alien? Definitely write that question down at the top of her list.
Marla had stopped paying attention to the guys when she started wondering whether she was an alien. Her attention snapped back quickly when they mentioned the Joining flight.
“So in our culture…um…we’re Joined…um married,” Karlo stuttered out at Marla’s look. “All three of us,” he added at Charl’s nudge.
“What? You mean that was real too?” she asked, her voice going high and squeaky.
Her dream came back to her in Technicolor clarity. She was remembering other parts of her dream. She no longer knew what was real and what was not. Karlo was about to speak, when Marla held out a hand, palm forward, to stop him. Standing up, she began to pace back and forth in front of the fire. Enough was enough.
“You know, I’m really fed up with all of this. First, my grandfather writes this impossible will,” she says, throwing a hand out pointing a finger and turning to pace back the other way. “Then I think everything is going to be fine with Jake, only to discover he’s a lying cheating snake. I dump his ass and a couple of months later, things start to go wrong on the ranch.
“Then,” she says, turning to glare at Karlo, “you crash your spaceship into my barn and my life takes a sharp right from semi-normal to sci-fi, men-in-black weird all at once. Your memory is gone, my matchmaker hasn’t called in months, and I’m about to lose my ranch. After that we had the fire, the coyote attack, and next when we go to get married, I find out Jake the snake already married me in secret,” she said, flinging out her hands and stomping one foot on the floor.
She went back to pacing back and forth in front of them. “We get back home, your brother shows up. You get your memory back, pass out. I get drugged and wake up married to not one—oh, no, that would be too normal for you guys—I wake up married to two aliens from another planet. Not even two men from Earth—two aliens. Have I got that straight? Did I miss any important parts?” she ranted at them.
Finally stopping, she faced them again and put her hands back down on her hips and started tapping one slippered foot.
“Yes, you missed a very important part,” said Karlo.
“What did I leave out?” she asked belligerently.
“You missed the part where we tell you how much we love you. The part where we promise to be loyal and faithful to you for our entire lives,” said Karlo.
“You mean everything to us,” added Charl.
Both men wanted to stand up and take her into their arms. They were only waiting for a sign from Marla.
“Charl, you haven’t even known me a day! I can’t believe I actually had sex with two men. Oh, my God, I am such a slut!” she muttered under her breath.
She didn’t believe a word they said. Karlo had already let it slip about coming here to get women. Well, they weren’t taking her anywhere. Thank God the spaceship was broken.
Karlo considered her silence as a sign. “The only time I can be angry with you is when you disparage yourself, Marla. In our eyes, you are perfect. You’re not a slut; you just have two men devoted to giving you pleasure,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
“That’s another thing. I was asleep for most of it. So I’m getting the label and I barely even remember the deed,” she grumbled into Karlo’s chest. Why am I getting myself bothered about that? There are many more serious issues here. She could feel Charl coming up behind her; the two men surrounded her with their heat and strength.
“I think a repeat performance can be arranged,” said Karlo with a smile.
“This time we’ll stay inside,” Charl said, eyeing the rug in front of the fire. He didn’t know if they’d make it up the stairs to the bedroom before they took her.
Marla looked up at Karlo, shocked and surprised she’d said those last sentences out loud. “Yeah, right after I’ve had my head examined. Just because I had a dream doesn’t mean I’m ready for the reality,” she said, then looked over her shoulder to the man behind her.
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Charl, and why I feel so worried about hurting you both instead of my own situation is another thing I need to think about. I had a sexy fantasy about the UPS man once, and I don’t want to marry him either. We won’t even go into my Tony Shalhoub-Monk obsession. I’m a little sore and a lot tired. I want to go to sleep in my own bed…alone. It’s going to be daybreak in a few short hours. The animals will still need to be tended. And honestly, I need time to get my head around this whole thing,” she finished, trying to push herself away from them, when all her body wanted was to feel them around her again. Well, she was in charge, not her body and it would just have to wait for her brain to catch up.
“Take all the time you need. We will wait. We have found the one thing to make our lives perfect. We’re not going anywhere,” Charl said.
He squeezed her hips and then stepped back. He was reminded that he needed to call Markus. He wanted the medical to come and examine Marla, to make sure her heart wasn’t damaged. It hurt she was pushing him away and he knew he had to let her. The decision to bring him into her life had to be hers alone.
Chapter Twelve
After Marla went upstairs, Karlo waved Charl into the kitchen.
“We have not been taking good care of Marla as we should have.”
“I agree. While she
is asleep, we should do something for her,” said Charl.
“It’s nearly morning and she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep. Markus has said she may have a damaged heart. I think the most important thing we can do for her now is to make sure she has enough rest. Once she’s asleep, we need to move her alarm clock and block her windows so the sunlight won’t get in. We let her sleep for as long as she needs. I’ve been here long enough to know how to care for the animals in the morning.”
“We should also wash all the linens and everything else in that room too. If we can, I think we should put our wings in the shuttle. Marla mentioned a barn?” asked Charl.
“Yes. Why don’t we do that now? With everything else that’s been happening, I haven’t looked at the shuttle since the crash. I don’t remember very much of that night, only that Hend had overridden the navigation computer,” said Karlo.
Karlo went upstairs to make sure Marla had everything she needed. Finding her asleep in the tub, he called Charl upstairs so the two of them could dry her off and put her to bed. They were both secretly happy when she woke up during the drying off. They worried about her falling asleep and not waking up again. Instead, she blushed all over and gave them each a sleepy kiss goodnight as they tucked her into bed. As soon as her head touched the pillow, she was sleeping soundly. When she also kissed Charl, they had hope for the future.
Charl drew the curtains and Karlo swiped the alarm clock before they both ducked out of the room. They went downstairs and stripped the bed for the first wash load. While the washing machine did its thing, they got some sponges and a pail of soapy water and went to work on the walls. They decided cleaning up the room and thus insuring Marla’s health was more important than taking the wings to the shuttle right at that moment.
By the time the room was clean and everything was washed, it was dawn. After a quick breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee, the two men went outside and Karlo gave Charl a lesson on how to care for alpacas.
The chores done, they started back to the house. They both wanted to check on Marla. If she were waking up, they’d offer her some breakfast in bed. Both men were determined to have her rest as much as possible until they knew if she had damaged her heart.
Karlo asked Charl if he would go and check on Marla. He wanted them to spend some time alone. Charl was fully aware of what Karlo was doing, and he was thankful for the opportunity. He wanted Marla to want him and care for him as much as she cared for Karlo. Besides, this way, Karlo had to cook the food.
He walked slowly up the stairs in case Marla was still sleeping. He didn’t want to wake her up. When he reached the top of the stairs he heard water running. Opening the door to her room, he saw the bed was empty. The water probably meant Marla was in the shower. Charl went over to the bathroom door and knocked.
“Marla, are you okay?” he asked.
Marla was taking a shower. She had her head under the water, rinsing out her hair, when there was a knock at the door. She couldn’t hear what they were saying because her ears were filled with water. “Out in a minute,” she called.
“I was just checking up. We’ll have some food ready in about fifteen minutes,” he said before reluctantly leaving.
A part of him was urging him to step into the bathroom and speak to her in person. It had been very dark the night before, too dark to appreciate the sight of her passion during their joining.
Earlier in the bedroom, worry over her condition prevented him from truly enjoying her in all her naked glory. He wanted to touch her soft skin and breathe in her feminine scent again and again.
Now she had pulled away from them both. It was understandable—learning your lover was from a different planet was a lot to take in. He hoped they could win her back. Since she had driven those other two men away without revealing their identities last night, he had some hope.
Standing outside her bedroom door, he heard the water shut off and jolted from his reverie, left to go downstairs. He wanted to tell Karlo their Lady, or Beleti, was up and would be ready to eat in a few minutes.
He met up with Karlo in the kitchen. “Beleti Marla is out of the shower. She should be down soon. We need to inspect the shuttle. Once we have a list of the necessary repairs, we can call Markus back. I would like him to come as soon as possible to examine our Lady. Until then, she must not exert herself, just in case.”
“I agree,” Karlo said as he mixed the eggs.
The bacon was already done, as were the hash browns, and the oranges were squeezed for juice. He waited until he heard the door open upstairs before pouring the eggs into the pan. As he scrambled them up, Charl finished setting the table. When Marla made it into the kitchen, Karlo was bringing the eggs to the table.
“Good morning, Marla. Did you get enough sleep?” Karlo asked.
“Marla, how much do you remember about last night?” Charl asked her.
She waved her fork in the air. “You mean about you being from HeVan and the queen crashing here on Earth and all of that? Or about the part where the three of us are married or mated or something—you used a different word.
“Joined. We call it joining because we join our bodies, our hearts and our souls,” said Charl.
“Yes, that’s right. I also remember something else, though the memory is a lot fuzzier. Did the three of us actually have sex while flying through the sky?” she asked in a somewhat surprised voice.
“We did. For a long time, many thousands of years ago, the female would lie on the ground and watch her Ankida fly for her. The sex would come after,” he added with a wink. “You were overdosed on joining pheromones. Your body was burning up with need, and we didn’t want to leave you alone while we flew. Since you’re so tiny, we knew we could easily support your weight, so we carried you. It wasn’t until after we were in the air and started the Joining flight that we realized you were meant to be there. Why our people no longer include the female, I don’t know. That’s for the scholars to figure out. I’m just happy we got a chance to experience it ourselves. I’m only sorry you were not fully aware the entire time. Are you angry about us going through with the Joining?” Charl asked.
“Not really. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a little freaked about the whole alien thing. I guess it’s that, except for the wings, you look just like humans. If you were creepy alien insect creatures or had three eyes, something like that, I wouldn’t be nearly as accepting as I have been. Just so you know though, I don’t consider us married,” she added, making little quotes with her fingers around the word married.
“Why not?” asked Karlo from where he sat at her feet.
“Duh, no ring…no promises.” She waved her hands in the air to emphasize her point. “Getting married means you’ve sworn—in front of witnesses—to be faithful through thick and thin, et cetera. When we went to Boulder, we were going to use the standard wedding vows. Some couples write their own. Basically, it’s the making of promises you intend to keep for your entire life with that other person—or persons,” she added, nodding to Charl.
“Why does there need to be witnesses? Do promises made to each other have more meaning only because someone else hears them?” asked Charl.
Marla could tell Charl was asking his question seriously. She picked up a grape and popped it in her mouth while she thought of her answer. “I think when weddings started out, the promises weren’t made to the person you were marrying. They were being made to her family, or more specifically, the bride’s father. Women were considered owned by their fathers. So he was transferring ownership to her future husband. The husband had to promise to take care of the gift he was receiving from the father. After a time, that changed to be the bride and groom making promises to each other. The family and friends act as witnesses and also to celebrate the “joining” of the two people becoming one unit. Don’t you have parties to celebrate on your planet?”
“After the Joining, which is private, there is often a feast to welcome the new Ankida into their new House. Their Beleti, or
Lady Wife, hangs their wings on the wall. Since the males give up their House upon Joining, the wings represent their history. The colors in the wings denote their ancestry,” Charl explained.
“We’ve gotten a little off topic,” said Karlo.
“Oh? Was there supposed to be an official agenda for this meal?” Marla asked.
She looked at her plate and was amazed she had been able to eat nearly all the mound of food Karlo had piled on it. Wiping her mouth with the napkin, she then put it down and pushed the plate away. Charl took it and started eating what was left over. Karlo reached over for a piece of bacon. Both men had finished all the food on their own plates already.
“You know, if you’re both going to keep eating like this, we’re going to need to make another trip to the grocery store,” Marla said.
“Getting us back to the main topic…” said Karlo and Marla raised her eyebrows. She moved her wrist to wave her hand in a go-ahead gesture.
“When we checked with the medical, he was concerned the overdose of pheromones might have damaged your heart. Until we get a chance to have it checked out, we both want you to rest and not do anything strenuous,” Karlo said.
“Am I going to die?” she asked, suddenly worried.
“No! Don’t even think such a thing,” said Karlo. “We just don’t want to take any chances. Markus, a healer with our people, is coming with his family to visit. He’ll examine you and I’m sure everything will be fine. This is just a precaution, okay? At the same time, a few other warriors are going to come. We need to assess the damage to the shuttle before it can be removed. We don’t want it to crash again.”
“No, you might land in a barn belonging to someone who’s not as nice as me next time,” she said.
“Please, Marla, will you do as we ask and rest?” Charl asked.
After thinking about it for a minute, she agreed. “I’m not going to stay in bed though. I’ll put on my sick clothes and hang out in the living room. I’ll read the books on my Kindle and catch up on my Netflix. The two of you can do all the work and pamper me. Do we have a deal?” she asked.