by Maia Starr
Epilogue
Regan Lawrence
I was much more pregnant by the time we had wandered far enough through the protected forests that we saw a sign of life. At first, Zaine had been cautious, forbidding me from following my nose to the smell of the campfire. He left me behind, promising to return with the news, whether good or bad.
Of course, I refused to just take him at his word and followed stealthily behind. If this was our chance to find a new settlement, I wasn’t going to miss it.
“Yula!” Zaine shouted happily. I still couldn’t see what he was looking at, and he was both surprised and also obviously not surprised when I popped out from hiding to join him just seconds after he called.
“Look!” he said, pointing to a clearing that opened out in front of us.
I gasped, dropping my hand to my swollen stomach. This was it. It had to be.
A Verian woman was walking toward us, her eyes narrow as she attempted to figure out whether we were friend or foe. Her child, an obvious hybrid, followed along after her, as a human man held its hand lovingly.
“Be careful, honey,” he said to her, squinting into the brush. Nobody could see us yet, but they had heard Zaine’s exclamation.
“Peace to you,” I said suddenly, pushing in front of Zaine and holding my hands up in the air. “We’ve come seeking shelter…a place to raise our child.”
The Verian woman looked at me at first in surprise, and then in genuine glee.
“Have you?” she asked, a wide smile creasing her face. She stepped forward and embraced me suddenly, an act that left me dumbfounded. The Verians were very much not huggers. This was certainly a blending of culture.
“Zaine, come,” I said shakily, taking a look at our surroundings. There were several huts in the clearing, some of them styled in the Verian architecture, others in a more obviously human way. But they were arranged in a circle, and in between was a large fire pit where humans and Verians of all ages were sitting together, staring at us curiously.
Zaine made his way to me, his face clearly telling me it was not okay to rush into danger that way, but when the human man came out to shake his hand, he smiled broadly, and all traces of his agitation melted away.
“Welcome to you!” the human man said.
“Come,” the Verian woman said, leading us to the fire. “We were just sitting down for a meal. You must be starved.”
In truth, Zaine had done a great job of providing us with food along the way, but I was starving for something: the company of other humans.
We followed the couple to the fire and sat down hand in hand, both of us feeling happier than we ever had before.
“Here you are,” the Verian woman said, handing us each a plate of food.
“Welcome to you!” the group chorused.
“Thank you!”
I grinned at Zaine, and he held me close, his eyes full of love. We were home.
The End
Verian Mates(Complete BOX SET(1-4)
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Kecha-Raither Warriors
(Raither Warriors)
By Stella Sky
Chapter 1
Dr. Alice Tanner
“Oh my god, Alice, you always do this!”
I cringed at the sound of Lauren’s voice behind me and turned around.
“I thought I did it right this time,” I sighed.
“You know, for a scientist, you’re just too bad at numbers. You know we have to have everything absolutely perfect! We won’t get paid for our research if it turns out we’re messing it up!”
“It’s not even just about payment,” Mary reminded Lauren. “If we get the facts wrong, it could impact everybody negatively if the Committee takes us at our word and publishes the findings. Who knows how much harm misinformation could cause in the long run?”
I could feel a lump forming in my throat. Ever since I had joined the Elite Research Team that had been hand-chosen by the President of the United States and his team for homeland security, I had felt completely out of place. Sure, I had always been the top of my class and excelled at every single project I had undertaken in the scientific realm, but the fact was that, under pressure, I had a tendency to shut down. I had never handled certain types of pressure well; specifically, social pressures. I was great with facts and numbers…not so great with emotions and feelings and friends. And for some reason, I had really hoped that the other women in my group would like me.
“I’m sorry, you guys. I don’t know what happened. I must have had my mind somewhere else…”
The truth was that I knew exactly what had been on my mind. The day before, I had been working with Jaya, who was probably single-handedly the smartest human being on Earth. I knew I was intelligent, but she was on a completely different level: one that was nearly clairvoyant. It was eerie how quickly her mind worked at times—as if it weren’t even of her own accord or will. She just knew things.
I had been intimidated, of course, as it was easy to intimidate me around other human beings, specifically the ones I was hoping to make friends with. who wouldn’t want to be friends with the smartest human on the planet, right? Well…that may have been a little bit easier if I hadn’t stood up and accidentally knocked over the beaker she had been glued to for the past six hours. It crashed to the floor, and she had given me the harshest look I had ever been on the receiving end of.
I hadn’t been able to focus on anything after that, and the calculations I had done throughout the rest of the day had apparently suffered. Tremendously. Just as they always did when I was feeling stressed out.
“Maybe you just shouldn’t be doing mathematical calculations,” Mary said diplomatically, pushing the glasses on top of her head and revealing her gentle brown eyes. “I wouldn’t mind doing the work.”
“I can do math just fine,” I sighed. “But when I’m stressed out I do better out in the field. I need to work with my hands.”
“Well our work can’t be dependent upon how you feel, Alice,” Lauren scoffed. “What we do here is far more important than that. Feelings are biological. It’s all in your brain, not in your heart. Either get it together, or I’m going to tell the group leader to send a letter to the president asking him to reconsider your position here.”
Hot tears began to spring into my eyes, but I turned away before anybody could see them. I took a deep, wavering breath and then turned back to face Lauren, determined not to show anybody how I truly felt.
“I understand. I will do better from now on. I’ll just work in the field and let Mary do the calculations.”
“That suits me,” Mary said, walking over to the table where I was working and glancing down at my notes. “You can fill me in on what you’re working on. I was outside studying plant samples. Perhaps we can trade tasks for now. Once you are feeling better, you can try calculations again.”
It was the closest thing to compassion that any of the others had shown me since I arrived. The truth was that all of us were the types of people who were more comfortable in our own skin and in an isolated room full of books. We were the loners of the world, and although we could socialize just fine, we felt more fulfilled pursuing our intellectual interests.
“Thanks, Mary,” I said, sighing inwardly. “It would be nice to get outside for a while.”
Mary nodded at me. “Sometimes plants understand us better.”
I gave her a small half-smile, confused and touched by the small act of kindness, and then headed outside, feeling better for the first time since the beaker incident.
***
“You guys, come here! This is insane!” I shouted, getting up from where I had been perched in the dirt and scrambling inside the lab. “There’s a plant outside that I can’t identify! It looks like it may be extraterrestrial in origin!”
Everybody’s eyes widened, and the group of women drew a collective breath. This was
exactly what the Committee had been waiting for. We had been looking for alien life on Earth for decades now, rarely finding any, but coveting the life we did find. Our job was to uncover the source of these plants and their impact on native Earth life. Rather than considering the plants that were alien in origin as an invasive species, for the most part, the Committee observed that alien plant life actually contributed to Earth’s ecosystem and provided much-needed nutrients to the soil that made it easier for plant life to thrive.
It was a discovery that was still very much new, and the research on it was limited. That was why the team had been chosen. There were roughly 30 women on the Elite Research Team, and each of us had an incredible aptitude for science and mathematics. We had nicknamed ourselves the Golds, after the Fibonacci sequence. The Golden Ratio was something we all found mesmerizing and beautiful, no matter what our chosen field happened to be, and were curious what that ratio might be like in other worlds.
Unfortunately, despite being brilliant scientists, we were still women, and because of difficulties in the women were refused a chance to go on missions in space to explore alien planets. Far too many incidents had happened before we had fully understood the high demand for females throughout the galaxies, and many women had been abducted and sold for their ability to reproduce. Since then, the government had officially banned women traveling into space. It posed too much risk both to the human women themselves and to national security. Women who were captured and tortured were more likely to give away secrets about humanity that could prove ultimately fatal should it come down to confrontation.
Soon, all the women in the lab that day were following me outside. I held up my hand, so they would know to stop before they trampled the poor little flower bud, and then cautiously stepped forward.
“It’s here,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “And you can tell by the strength of the stem that it’s probably been here for a really long time. The soil here is rich, and it’s probably kept most of these plants alive even when the area is covered in snow.”
Slowly, an unofficial line formed and, one by one, each woman came forward to study the tiny plant. It didn’t look very out of the ordinary to the naked eye. It was easy to overlook; it was small and petite. The petals were white and perfect teardrop shapes, and the leaves were wild and scraggly as if it had been left there by some fateful wind current and allowed to grow and thrive, simply by chance.
But the Committee had different theories about these little plants. Some believed that yes, they had come on the backs of asteroids that broke through the Earth’s atmosphere and found the habitat hospitable. Others, however, were not so convinced that it was nothing but a pleasant coincidence.
A different group out of the Committee actually believed that the presence of these alien on Earth was rather malicious. Their theory was that the little plants had been deliberately placed upon Earth to make the environment more suitable to be inhabited by an invasive alien species. Those in this school of thought believed that these little flowers were slowly changing the atmosphere and the biological makeup of the planet to better suit the needs of whatever alien race had sent them. The race was unknown, as it was just a theory, but those who believed this were very outspoken and voracious about making sure there were procedures being implemented that would prevent the usurpation of our planet.
One other theory that was lesser known, but one I particularly enjoyed, was that the little flowers were, in fact, their own species, and they hoped to come to Earth in order to enjoy the warm sunshine and the abundant minerals. These plants were thought to be sentient and intelligent, but nonverbal, and did their best to give back to the Earth tenfold what they took to sustain themselves.
Though the little flowers were often different in aesthetic appearance, their overall makeup appeared the same, and they were relatively difficult to kill, even when they had been uprooted for days at a time. My personal hope was that this third theory was the one that had the most truth to it because the thought of coexisting with such a sweet, peaceful species seemed rather comforting in a way. They gave our planet something extraordinary in return for their residence here.
“Look at those adorable little petals,” Mary said when it was her turn to view the flower. “I really hope that these guys come in peace.”
She caught my eye, and we smiled at each other: the first time any of the other girls had smiled at me past the initial greeting stage. I was beginning to really like Mary; she seemed to have my back that day, and it was something I had really been in need of.
“They are beautiful, aren’t they?”
Just as I was about to tell her that the little plant might be able to understand us, the sky grew suddenly dark. I frowned, and Mary and I both looked up at the same time. What we saw made my blood curdle in fear. Directly above us was a sleek, silver ship: one unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. We had been educated for many years on the different types of alien life in the universe and how to identify them, but all knowledge seemed to go out the window as the fear began to lock up my brain.
The women around me all began to shriek in fear as the ground began to quake and the air suddenly grew heavy. We were all forced to the ground in one crushing wave of gravity, and I strained my neck to try to look up at the sky and see what in the hell was going on.
All that filled my eyes at that moment was a foggy purple light, and soon the world seemed to be filled with its haze. I tried to cry out, but it felt as if my windpipes were being crushed, and the only noise I could make was a pathetic groan. The ray that was on us hurt tremendously. Then, almost as suddenly as the weight had been placed on us, it was lifted, and the air became filled with weightless human bodies floating effortlessly into the sky.
We were all too scared to make a sound, even if we could, and instead stared at each other with wide eyes as our bodies were lifted from the ground and up, up, up, until we were floating in what seemed like an impossibly tall room. Once all of us were gathered inside, the beam suddenly released its grip on us, and we all came crashing down to the floor. It caused a huge commotion, and several of the women cried out in pain and surprise as we landed.
I stayed silent, however, terrified of what might be lurking in the darkness of the room. It was impossible to see until a dim light began to flicker on above our heads and we head a terrifying, grating voice bark out, echoing off the walls of the chamber and causing the metal beneath our bodies to vibrate with the force of it.
“Human females. You have been abducted by the Petchuvian race for purposes of breeding. This will be your cell for the duration of our flight. There is a relief chamber in the back, which you are all to share. If you do not comply, you will be killed immediately. That is all.”
I peered through the crowd of bodies, trying to see the alien that was speaking. But before I had the chance, he had disappeared. I was relieved in a way, knowing that whoever could speak with such a fearsome voice was surely going to look just as awful as the way he spoke.
The lights went out, and we were suddenly crushed once again by the gravity beam. The engine beneath us began to rumble, and I felt a hopeless surge of fear paralyze me as I realized that I was never going to see the planet Earth again.
“I had a bad feeling about going out today,” one woman somewhere whispered. “If I had known we were fated for abduction, I would have stayed inside.”
I frowned. I was a firm believer in the fact that we all made our own way in life. Fate had little to do with it. Sure, there were variables along the way, but when it came to our lives, we had a lot more agency than most people were willing to admit. I had never been a particularly superstitious person though, so I kept my mouth shut.
The last thing we needed was a philosophical debate roaring amongst a group of women who had been imprisoned on the cold floor of an alien spaceship. I sighed, trying to make myself as comfortable as I possibly could, though the effort seemed futile. It was going to be a long enough night as it was.
***
“Treachery! Human scum! Away with them! Kill them all!”
We all froze in place, terrified by the sight of the Petchuvian man who was stomping down the corridor of the ship and toward our cell. We had been flying for three days now, according to the calendar on my watch, and since then had been allowed a small stream of light to keep us complacent.
The Petchuvians were even more gruesome looking than I had first imagined. They were covered in thick, spider-like hair, and their arms were lanky. They had no hair to speak of, but bulbous, oval-shaped heads with deep-set maroon-colored eyes. The way they looked at us was chilling: as if we were just a new form of livestock to be exploited.
They had been bustling about, speaking in a language that made my skin crawl. It was like a lot of hissing and whispers, but with a malicious intent. When they finally chose to speak in English so that we could understand what it was they were so excited about, we were informed that the breeding room was finally prepared, and the first session was about to commence.
From there, they had grabbed the closest available human, a woman whose name I didn’t remember. She worked in a different area of the lab than I did, and, just as the rest of us tended to, kept to herself.
Still, it was heart-wrenching to see her pulled away like that, two of the terrifying aliens holding her still so that she couldn’t escape. Now, she was thrust back into the cell with us, looking terrified and disheveled. A couple of women ran to her aid, pulling her away from the aliens and into the faux safety of our group.
“Kill them all!” the man who shoved her inside demanded again.
The commotion had attracted the attention of the main alien in charge: one who was much larger and scarier than the others. All of them made me sick to my stomach, and I longed more every day for a chance to return home. If one of these terrifying creatures touched me, I would feel scarred by it forever.