by Fiona Roarke
“I want you.” He expected her to balk, to push away and turn from him. He expected her to hem and haw about how they should wait longer for any intimate contact, until he was fully recovered.
“I want you, too,” she whispered. Her soft, sleepy smile drove him over the edge of reason. He kissed her again, deeply, passionately, slowly. She kissed him softly, keenly, leisurely. They had plenty of time. They had the rest of their lives, starting with this moment.
Holden was about to make up for all the lost time they’d been apart and make a bunch of new memories he could recall without having his head explode with pain.
He would treasure this first-time memory until the day he died.
<^> <^> <^>
Bubba got up early. He showered, dressed and studied Astrid’s file until the sun rose higher in the sky, signaling mid-morning.
Using an informational tablet Cam gave him with his supplies, Bubba accessed a historical database with video files and news clips from Alpha-Prime. The database hadn’t been updated for a year, but at this point any information was more than he had.
He found a detailed summary a news station he’d never heard of had done on Astrid Harper several years ago, marveling how the child of criminals was able to stay on the straight and narrow, along with two short video files of his current prey.
She wasn’t married as of a year ago. Good. She had never been arrested, although that had changed in a year’s time, he knew. He agreed with Cam’s assessment in her updated files. She had been coerced and should have been released as her barrister suggested for the singular arrest.
He watched the first video file, which showed her graduation from a higher learning center specializing in accounts and finances. A very interesting choice, given her childhood—unless her family had sent her to learn a better way to cheat.
The video showed her third in a queue waiting to be called to collect her plaque marking the completion of her studies. Someone with the formal name of Fairmont was called up from the line. A small section of the audience roared his name and clapped wildly for the skinny kid on the stage. He grinned, shook hands with the administrator handing out the plaques and exited the stage. The exact same thing happened when the formal name Griffin was called. A girl with wavy, long dark hair gracefully waltzed across the stage to accept her plaque.
Bubba focused, listening for Harper to be called and a roar of applause to erupt. But that didn’t happen. Her name was called and no roar of family approval came. At all.
He watched a young Astrid slowly cross the stage to a smattering of pity applause. No one from her family had come to cheer her on for a job well done in her education. He could see one arm at her side. Expecting to see her hand clenched in an angry fist, he was surprised to see she was rubbing her thumb across the very tips of her fingers. Back and forth. Back and forth. She kept it up until she reached for and was handed her plaque.
A few more folks clapped as she exited the stage, but she only gave the administrator the barest of smiles while accepting her hard-earned honor. The stoic expression returned the moment she turned away to leave. And as she left, she never once looked out into the crowd to search for anyone rooting for her. Plaque in one hand, thumb brushing back and forth across the fingertips of the other as if to find calm.
No one could watch that video and not empathize, and Bubba was not immune.
The second video had been shot a few years later at a technology center deep in the heart of one of Alpha-Prime’s largest cities. She’d apparently gotten a job along with a throng of other new employment recruits.
The video was very short. The feed panned across the group as each new employee said his or her name and the department where they were about to begin work. She was the second to last to speak. “Astrid Harper, financial technician,” she said with a smile plastered in place. But Bubba saw her hand at her side when the film panned to the final speaker.
The nervous thumb rubbing the tips of her fingers was again displayed. The gesture was endearing. For the first time in a long time, Bubba didn’t look forward to capturing a target.
That didn’t change the fact he had a job to do. He had been enlisted to capture, shackle and convey her as fast as possible to Alienn, Arkansas. He wasn’t certain what would happen to her after that. She hadn’t been judged or sentenced to spend time in a gulag.
If the ship hadn’t crashed in Georgia, Bubba wondered if her final destination was supposed to be Earth or gulag XkR-9. Although why would she want to go to a gulag? Family reunion? No. Something about this wasn’t clear and he vowed to discover the reason before he handed her over to any authority in Alienn.
Bubba gathered what he’d need for the day while searching for Astrid. She wasn’t the frightening female felon he had expected. If he found her, he might give her a chance to tell him her story. It wasn’t protocol, but something about Astrid made him reconsider his initial assessment. He exited his motel room, noticing Victoria’s SUV parked in front of her door.
With a silent salute to the room five doors down from his, Bubba headed toward the center of town. In the pocket of his jacket was a brand-new toy the clever Cam Grey had sent with him to aid in his quest.
He pulled the small flat prototype out and turned it on. As the blue screen lit up, so did two red dots, registering within fifty yards of his current location. Excellent. The red dots indicated the two other Alphas in range of the device, Victoria and Holden. Bubba told Cam he’d try the prototype out on this trip and let him know if the device should be added to the regular gear sent out with security people.
If Astrid Harper was anywhere in this town, he would find her today.
Not a single doubt in his mind.
Chapter Ten
<^> <^> <^>
Astrid followed Holli into the back service entrance of the Enchanted Garden. Each carried a full basket to show Marigold all the herbs, roots and flowers they’d collected and carefully stored all week. This was the third time they’d come into Nocturne Falls to transact some business with Holli’s cousin.
The first time, Holli had introduced Astrid as an old friend from a place with a mouthful of a name called Massachusetts. Marigold had been very nice, accepting Astrid without any concern. It was a refreshing change from the life Astrid had led on Alpha-Prime of never fitting in, always being thought of as “other” because she didn’t want to participate in the family pickpocket business.
Exchanging pleasantries with the introduction, Marigold looked over the plants, weighed various things and gave them Earth money in return. She’d also given Holli a list of particular things she needed in the coming weeks for Holli and Astrid to be on the lookout for.
Astrid then got a further education in how Earth money worked, what they could buy versus what they could make themselves back at Holli’s cabin and barn out in the woods.
After spending the whole of her life on Alpha-Prime never feeling like she belonged—not even in the family she’d been born into—living with Holli had been the exact opposite experience.
Holli showed her the best herbs, roots and flowers to retrieve in order to make the most Earth money. The forest plants with the highest value were usually in very difficult to reach locations. Astrid was not fearful of heights in the least, but Holli was nervous if she got more than a couple of feet in the air—which added to her discomfort when Astrid found her dangling from a rope in her barn.
Astrid loved roaming the forest and was a very quick study, according to Holli. She learned to identify various medicinal plants and the best way to collect them for transport and sale. They worked well as a team and they spent a considerable amount of time together.
Astrid adored her new life on Earth.
Another thing she learned after her first foray into town was that while she couldn’t read Holli’s thoughts or Marigold’s, the same was not true of everyone.
The second time they’d been in to sell what they’d collected, Marigold’s sister, Pandora, had stopped i
n with a blue-haired girl named Jayne. Astrid had heard Jayne’s thoughts clearly. She had been thinking about her cat, Spider, and the plants he would have been attacking if he’d been there. More interestingly, she had also thought about a fireman—the odd words “summer elf” registered, whatever that was—along with a vampire with equal affection. Astrid was shocked. Jayne had two boyfriends? Wow.
Astrid didn’t even have one special guy in her life. Certainly not back on Alpha-Prime. Everyone had her pegged the moment she stepped into any new situation. Someone would recognize her as the child of infamous petty criminals and dismiss her accordingly.
Astrid almost got caught staring at Jayne, but was able to avert her gaze in time. A few other patrons came into the Enchanted Garden and she caught a few more stray thoughts, making her reassess her assumption that Holli and her family were Alphas.
Astrid hadn’t mentioned a whisper of where she was from—another planet far, far away. And Holli, sweet as she was, never asked anything about her past, not what Astrid was afraid of or how poorly she’d been treated or anything, for which she was grateful. She didn’t want to lie to her only friend on Earth.
She placed her basket of goodies down on a work table in the back room. Holli motioned for her to follow her friend into the Enchanted Garden’s main showroom to let Marigold know they were there. She passed a refrigerated cabinet with glass doors on the front, and startled as she typically did at seeing her altered reflection.
Astrid appreciated the initial offer of the magic makeover, but hadn’t wanted to end up looking like a witchy old hag for the rest of her life on this new awesome planet. She’d had nothing to worry about on that score.
Thanks to Holli’s magic fairy tale spell, Astrid looked like a completely different person. Her sandy blonde hair, button nose and green eyes were gone. Now she was a brunette with six extra inches of hair, a longer more slender nose and blue eyes. Even her voice changed to a deeper, huskier tone like all the popular girls back in higher learning school.
Marigold turned when they entered the main showroom. “I’ll be right with you, ladies,” she said from behind the counter as she rung up sales for a few walk-in customers.
“Take your time,” Holli said.
They strolled around Marigold’s shop looking at her latest floral creations. The front of the store was a wall of windows, with a large display window facing the street to tempt passersby to see what was available.
Holli let out a low whistle and tipped her chin at a cute guy seated at a café table across the street. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Astrid thought he was kind of skinny and ordinary, but everyone had different tastes. She nodded at her friend’s assessment and searched around to find someone she thought was attractive.
Astrid found him during her second sweep of the streets outside the Enchanted Garden. The man approached the store at a steady clip. He was big and tall and rigid and his expression was a little fierce, to be honest. If she’d been on Alpha-Prime she would have pegged him as law enforcement. He wasn’t wearing a uniform. But he was also very attractive, to her way of thinking.
Mr. Tall and Delicious held an electronic tablet in one hand and stared at the screen intently as he walked toward the Enchanted Garden.
“I like him,” Astrid told Holli, pointing as he moved closer.
Holli gave her a dubious look. “Him?”
Astrid nodded. “Definitely.”
“To each his own,” Holli said, adding, “Marigold is sort of busy.” There was still a three-deep line of customers and someone new had just entered the store. “I’m going to pop across the street and accidentally bump into that guy over at the café. Maybe I can start a conversation.”
Astrid grinned. “Have fun.”
Holli smiled. “Looks like Mr. Dark and Serious will be bumping into you in no time.”
Astrid watched her friend cross the street and stumble into the guy she thought was cute. Knowing Holli the way she did, she probably didn’t have to pretend anything. She likely tripped and fell at his feet for real.
When Astrid looked away from the café, she saw the gorgeous tall guy who had caught her eye was gone. She moved closer to the main window, but couldn’t see him. How odd. Where had he gone?
She stepped through the front door of the flower shop, looking right as she launched into a powerwalk toward the left. The moment she whipped her head around to see where she was going, it was too late.
Astrid smacked hard into the man with the tablet. She knocked him down to the sidewalk, tripped over her feet and fell directly on top of him—which was not a hardship. However, she then watched helplessly as the tablet Mr. Gorgeous had been studying intently flew out of his hand, sailing in a perfect arc to land in the middle of the street.
The screen was still lit up. She could see a blue digital background with a red dot in the center—until the tire of a passing car rolled over it with a crunch. By the time the car was gone, the screen had gone black.
“Space potatoes!” the man said under his breath. Astrid stiffened. That’s an Alpha swear word. Something she hadn’t heard in almost a month.
“You’re an Alpha?” Astrid asked in surprise, and without thinking.
She was in shock, plastered to this perfect man, slowly realizing that not only was he perfect, he was from her home planet.
They probably had a lot in common. Then reality set in. Oh no. He’s trouble.
“What did you say?” he asked in the most perfectly delicious and deep voice she’d ever heard. Every muscle in his body tensed as if ready to fight. Before she could get away, he clamped his hands on her arms, eyes searching her face, her hair and her eyes with an expression of genuine puzzlement. Obviously he didn’t see what he expected to.
Astrid was supremely grateful for Holli’s magic makeover, because she suddenly knew this gorgeous man had been sent to find her. He was either a Royal Magistrate Guard or, worse, an Alpha mercenary. Either way, Holli had saved her.
“I didn’t say anything,” Astrid lied right to his face. “Let go of me.”
Holli ran over from the other side of the street. “What happened?” she said, interrupting the inflammatory conversation. “Are you okay?”
Holli offered her friend a hand up. Astrid took it, peeling away from the perfect man who was likely there to capture her, shackle her and send her to the nearest gulag. He reluctantly released her arms, but stared at her as he stood.
“Who are you?” Holli asked the big gorgeous man.
“I’m looking for someone.” His gaze came back to Astrid. She liked that he looked at her, but not that he was probably looking for her.
He got to his feet. Close up and standing, he was even taller than she’d thought. Nerves flailed in every part of her body.
Mr. Alpha Big Trouble looked out into the street at his ruined device, a stern expression replacing his curious one.
Holli pressed, “I meant, what is your name?”
“I know what you meant.” His cellular phone started buzzing on his belt. He absently pulled it off and glanced at the small screen.
“My name is Thorne. And as I said, I’m looking for someone.” He turned his attention back to the small screen and frowned.
While she watched him, unerringly Astrid’s thumb found and rubbed each fingertip one after the other as she desperately tried to calm down so she could see what he’d do next.
He looked up to stare at her, opened his mouth as if to speak, but then paused. His eyes went to her fingers, still moving, still trying to calm her.
His eyes widened and a critical stare shot up to meet hers. “You’re Astrid Harper,” he said in accusation.
Even as she shook her head to deny it and her nervous tic sped up—thumb racing across the tips of her fingers at lightning speed—as she tried to convince him she wasn’t exactly who he accused her of being, Astrid felt the magic of Holli’s makeover fall away.
Her eyes burned and her nose ached for a moment, probably as it sna
pped back to its original shape. Her neck tingled as her hair shortened by six inches and she could almost feel the color changing from brunette to honey-gold. Her throat tickled and she knew if she could speak a word, it would not sound sexy-husky like all the popular girls back at higher learning school.
He’d said the magic words Holli had warned would break the spell—her real name. Astrid was right back to being her original self. The gorgeous Mr. Thorne stared at her as if shocked to see Holli’s magic had changed her so dramatically. Now he had her.
Space potatoes, indeed!
<^> <^> <^>
Victoria had no right to feel as satisfied as she did. She also had no right to allow or gleefully claim marital privileges from a man she was only pretending to be married to until he could remember who he was.
She teared up, knowing he’d hate her the moment he remembered.
“Don’t cry,” Holden said, staring at her like he wanted to love her forever.
She sniffed her foolish tears away. “That was so amazing.”
“I agree. It was extraordinary.” He turned to her. “Was it better than before?”
“Better than before what?”
“Before I lost my memory.”
Spuds. The lies are really stacking up. Victoria smiled, ready to tell him some clichéd lie, but he spoke first. “Because the truth is, I don’t really remember doing this with you before today.”
The dawning realization that Bubba had been right and Holden didn’t remember anything was a harsh reminder of what she was supposed to be doing.
Sleeping with her pretend-husband had surely not been on the list of approved activities for helping him get his memory back. She was supposed to be telling him things about his life to help him remember the time before the crash. The time he’d lived before—well—her.
“The truth is, each time with you feels like our first time.” Victoria closed her eyes, trying to pretend she didn’t sound like a huge dumb cliché. What a stupid thing to say.
“Better than with others?”