by Fiona Roarke
Pandora spoke up. “Jayne and I saw them there earlier. She had a lovely dress on and he was gobbling down the treats my mom puts out in the waiting room.”
The sheriff looked like he was ready to move on and stop giving them the third degree.
“How’d he get hurt?”
Elise spoke quickly. “He fell out of a tree.”
Riker and Hank both burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
Hank looked at Riker. “Is that the story you’ll be going with?”
Riker squeezed Elise’s arm. “I don’t dare argue with my future wife. Would you?”
“No, I would not. You’re a smart man—clumsy, if you’re falling out of trees—but smart.”
“So we’re free to go?”
Hank nodded. “Sure. Need anything?”
“No. We’ll be fine.”
The sheriff walked away, leaving them in front of a semi-smudged pink chalk line and a gargoyle who winked at them from across the sidewalk.
“Now what?” Elise asked.
“I say we use the injury kit on your lower back—which is still bleeding, by the way—we go back for the dress you picked out and then we head for the woods and the retrieval team for a ride back to Alienn. What do you say?”
“Perfect.”
Elise spied her backpack shoved under the bench and retrieved it. She pulled out a tester kit first and got a sample of the dust Anya used to subdue Riker during the battle. “Might come in handy if we can identify this stuff, since it can freeze Alphas unless they have their true love close by. You just got lucky.”
“You’re right, I did. Good idea.”
She also got a sample of the pink chalk line that had served as the battle ring. Riker gave her a questioning look. “Like I mentioned before, as soon as I stepped into the ring and planted both feet, I was as wobbly as a newborn colt. This stuff might also be something that impacts Alphas.”
“What’s a colt?”
“Baby horse. Cowboys ride horses out on the range.”
A look of understanding surfaced on his beautiful face.
“When we get back to Alienn, how much time will I have before we leave for Alpha-Prime?”
He shrugged. “I’m technically not scheduled to go back for the length of a return run to gulag XkR-9 with way station stops on Earth. I’d sort of like to spend a bit of time in Alienn until the expedited ship returns to Earth after delivering my brother. I’ll want to talk to the guard they assigned to take him there.”
“Good. You can stay with me.”
“Are you certain you’re willing to leave Alienn?”
“I am, but I want to come back and visit every so often.”
“No problem.”
“There is a certain satisfaction in returning to Alpha-Prime to marry The Calderian, especially where my family is concerned.”
“Won’t they be surprised?”
Elise laughed. “Shocked without the capacity to speak is what I’m hoping for.”
“I love you, Elise.”
“I love you, Riker.”
They embraced and just before he kissed her, Riker whispered, “Do you think Corette will have more of those diamond-shaped cakes when we go to pick up your secret wedding dress?”
Elise laughed and kissed him until he forgot all about white chocolate lemon coconut treats.
Epilogue
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“Likely this is a foolish question, but are you excited to see your brother?” Elise asked as they walked from her duplex through downtown Alienn to the underground bunker at the Big Bang Truck Stop.
“I’m excited to grab him and punch him one in the arm for not telling me about his secret mission.” She knew he was still trying to digest the message he’d received as to his brother’s status and the fact he’d be returning soon to the way station in Alienn.
“Brothers are certainly more physical than sisters.” Elise said that under her breath, realizing she wasn’t innocent with regard to wounds inflicted on siblings.
“Maybe, but we also don’t hold a grudge for a lifetime. One punch and it’s done.”
Elise crossed her arms and huffed. “Are you saying my grudge isn’t justified?”
“No, of course not. I’m always on your side. However—”
She rolled her eyes in mock dislike. “Oh, now comes the judgy justification for why I shouldn’t hold a grudge against my sister and parents.”
“Judgy isn’t a word.”
“Sure it is. I just used it in a sentence. Here’s another. My awesome fiancé is about to use any number of judgy justifications to explain why I shouldn’t harbor a grudge against my family for treating me like crap before I left Alpha-Prime.”
Riker laughed. “Another observation I’d like to note for the record: You certainly do love to swear Earther-style now. I haven’t heard space potatoes come out of your mouth in quite a long while.”
She shrugged. “Crap is a better word. I like it, a lot. It has seemingly endless iterations. Like crappity-crap and others.”
“Don’t I know it. My favorite is crappity-do-dah because it sounds like we are about to celebrate something, even if it is…well, crap.”
Elise returned his grin. They had been inseparable since coming back from Nocturne Falls with the spacecraft retrieval team. He’d moved into her modest abode in Alienn, a two-bedroom, bath-and-a-half duplex just north of downtown Alienn.
Riker had been a very good study of all things Earther and especially Arkansas during his time here. He wanted to see everything. He wanted to learn all he could about Alienn and the truck stop above the alien way station in the basement.
He loved Maxwell the Martian, and had already purchased—at a special discount—a case of the stuffed toy version of the Big Bang Truck Stop mascot to take back to Alpha-Prime as gifts for friends.
Riker also spent quite a bit of time with Diesel, Cam, Axel and their other brothers learning about being what he referred to as an Arkansas boy, whatever that meant.
Elise suspected it mostly had to do with drinking beer and riding around on four-wheelers in the woods in wild abandon more than anything else, but that was fine. Riker was happy. He was relaxed. He was enjoying his limited time here. He was mostly excited about seeing his own brother, who would have a great story to tell about how he managed to get out of a very long sentence at the worst gulag in three galaxies.
They were meeting up with Stella and Draeken. Elise’s teammate was waiting for Draeken to disembark from the express ship that had not only taken him to the gulag for an extensive stay, but brought him back after a secret deal had been struck and fulfilled.
“I’m certainly glad I set up a backup plan.”
“What’s your friend’s name again? The guy you used in your backup plan?”
Riker smiled again. “Bubba Thorne.”
“That’s not his real name, is it? He sounds like he belongs in Arkansas. There are lots of Bubbas in Arkansas, you know.”
“No. His real name is Bartholomew Angus Thorne, which he hates with a deep, abiding passion, so don’t ever call him that.”
“I won’t. I’m glad you had someone to send in your place to the gulag.”
“Me, too.”
“All we need to do is get Bubba a date and the six of us can go out on the town tonight.”
“Bubba can get his own date. Besides, he’s already bowed out of this family reunion. He said he had something he wanted to do.”
“Okay. What do you think it is?”
“Drink beer and ride four-wheelers in the woods maybe.”
“You’ve gotten really good at that.”
“I know. I’m a natural.”
At the truck stop, they made their way to the secret entrance leading to the facility below. Once inside, they walked to the receiving area where those disembarking from hidden spacecrafts met friends and family.
The first person they saw was Bubba. He waved and approached.
Rik
er looked behind him, obviously expecting to see Draeken.
“It’ll be a minute or two. Your brother and Stella are currently latched together in a public display of affection, talking about a yellow ribbon around a tree or some such nonsense.” He rolled his eyes as though love, and any display of it, was foolish.
Riker shook his hand. “Thanks, Bubba. I owe you one.”
Bubba left and they were kept waiting a few more minutes for Draeken and Stella to join them. The brothers did that half hug, half pound each other on the back maneuver as their display of affection, but Riker was visibly relieved to see Draeken in the flesh.
Elise and her teammate did a high-five as they watched the brothers. “So what are we doing tonight?” Stella asked.
“We were thinking about eloping Earther style.”
Stella’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s awesome. Are you two staying here? I thought you were headed back to Alpha-Prime.”
“We are. But since you and Draeken are staying here, Riker wanted to have a ceremony in his presence. Who knows how long it will take to get everyone involved out of their arranged marriages back on our planet?” They rolled their eyes.
“So does Riker know about the Earther-style elopement or is this going to be an unexpected surprise?” Stella looked like she hoped it was a bombshell.
“It was Riker’s idea. Even if it isn’t necessarily a legal marriage union on Alpha-Prime, no one’s ever tested it before. Maybe we’ll be a ground-breaking force for love and the alternate choice of marrying someone you love instead of parental arranged marriages.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one,” Stella said.
“I know. I won’t.”
Riker and Draeken had finished pounding each other on the back and hurling insults at one another for the time being, so the four of them had a nice dinner at the Cosmos Café. And then Riker married Elise. She wore the lovely dress she’d selected in Nocturne Falls and Draeken and Stella stood up with them during the ceremony.
The preacher said, “You may now kiss your bride.”
Elise turned to Riker. He lifted her veil. She looked deeply into his beautiful eyes and said, “I love you, Riker. Whether here on Earth or on Alpha-Prime, even if we have to wait a year to get married back there. I’ll always remember this as our ‘real’ wedding.”
“I love you, Elise. I agree, this is our wedding day. And now we can live happily ever after,” Riker said and kissed his new bride.
The End
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Next up, look for NFU #3
The Alien Who Fell to Earth
(The Pilot) in September 2017
About Fiona Roarke
Fiona Roarke is a multi-published author who lives a quiet life with the exception of the characters and stories roaming around in her head. She writes about sexy alpha heroes, using them to launch her first series, Bad Boys in Big Trouble. Next up, a new sci-fi contemporary romance series. When she’s not curled on the sofa reading a great book or at the movie theater watching the latest action film, Fiona spends her time writing about the next bad boy (or bad boy alien) who needs his story told.
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