by Luna Hunter
I take a deep breath and flip a switch in my mind.
Get it together, missy.
You’re having a kid.
Prepare yourself.
Just because your life is falling apart doesn’t mean that this kid will have to deal with that. He didn’t ask to be born.
Or she.
But all Elban are male, right?
Having a surprise baby wasn’t enough, but it’s got to be alien too, huh?
You still go this. Alien baby or not.
Just push all of that sadness away and deal with in due time. In, say, eighteen years or so.
What’s that saying again?
Don’t do the deed if you don’t want the seed?
Hm.
I don’t think that’s right.
“Alexa, where do you think you’re going?” my supervisor asks.
I now notice I’m walking in a daze, my hand wrapped around the door handle. “To order a crib, of course. I have a lot of shopping to do.”
I try to open the door.
It’s locked.
Dr. Bellamy shakes his head, chuckling to himself.
“You poor girl. How did you ever get a PhD position in the first place? Did you really think the military would let you keep that child? That I would let you keep that child? A human-alien offspring, first of its kind?”
My blood runs cold. “What… what are you talking about?”
“Why, the scientific breakthrough of the century, of course,” Dr. Bellamy answers. “Of the millennium! Of all human history!”
No. No no no.
My supervisor stalks towards me, a menacing grin plastered on his face. I try to scream, to bang the door down with my fists, but only manage to utter a soft whimper, my strength slipping away, my thoughts slow and drowsy…
What…
My eyes land on the empty glass.
The water.
“Ah, yes, I gave you a little sedative,” the doctor says. “I figured the shock might be too great for you otherwise. Don’t worry, you’re in my capable hands…”
No.
Before I can scream, everything turns dark.
Romulus
Earth’s surface rises up to greet me. I’m strapped into a small drop pod, the one usually used for a planetary invasion. For the people on the surface I’m a fiery streak, a comet on a collision course.
I tracked Alexa down to the campus of the University of Florida. I hit the ground with a heavy thud, the pod splitting the cement in two. The doors open with a hiss, a crowd surrounding me. As I storm out I’m greeted with bewildered stares and a few screams.
I don’t have the time to explain myself. I need Alexa, as soon as possibly. I rush into the building, where I find a middle-aged woman sitting behind a desk.
“S-sir,” she stammers. “Can I help you?”
“Alexa Oakley,” I growl. “Now.”
Her hands tremble as she looks for Alexa on her computer, while she sneaks glances at me multiple times a second. I’m wearing my fire-red armor, which the humans seem to find intriguing.
“Alexa is in Room 322, third floor,” she says.
I nod and storm off, pushing my way through the crowd. When I find the right room I enter so quickly the door flies off its hinges. A blonde woman looks up in surprise from behind her desk.
“No way,” she says. “No way!”
“Where is Alexa?!” I growl.
“You’re Romulus, aren’t you? You’re even bigger than she described!”
I head over towards the blonde and glower down at her. Most humans quake at the sight of me, but this one seems to find me nothing but amusing.
“Alexa!” I say. “Don’t make me ask again.”
“She left with Dr. Bellamy a moment ago, she wasn’t feeling to well, I believe.”
“Where to?!”
The blonde shrugs. “I don’t know. Perhaps they left a note in his office or something? I’m not his secretary, you know. You figure it out.”
I enter the office, and the foul scent of sedatives hits me instantly. My hand moves to the hilt of my sword in a reflex.
Something foul is afoot.
I do my best to focus on Alexa’s scent, but it’s difficult — there are countless scents here on this campus, all mixing, making her trail extremely hard to follow.
“What’s this?” a man in a ill-fitted suit says when he passes by me in the hall. “Aren’t you a little late for Halloween, buddy?”
I grab him by the scruff of his neck and lift him right off his feet.
“Y-you can’t do this!” he stammers. “I’m the d-d-dean!”
With my other hand I punch straight through a window, and hold the quivering man close to the edge.
“I can do whatever I want,” I growl. “Where is Bellamy? Where can he have gone?!”
“What? H-how the f-fuck do I know?”
Just as I’m about to dangle him out the window, the man screams. “The basement! H-he has a lab in the b-b-basement!”
I toss the man into a corner and sprint down the stairs, taking four, five steps at once. Several men in blue informs try to stop me, but I break through as if they weren’t even there.
My heart is racing, unease filling me to the core.
I hope I’m not too late.
Alexa
I wake up to the sound of Bellamy flicking his fingers against a needle. Instantly my heart-rate is jacked up, and I try to stand up — only to realize I’m bound to the table.
Bright lights are shining down on me, making it hard to see. I squint and try to make out where I am, but I have no idea.
“What are you doing?!”
“What does it look like?” Bellamy chuckles. “Do you think I’d let the scientific breakthrough of the century live in your womb? Please.”
“What?!” I stammer. “I-I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t.”
My captor reaches over and, to my horror, starts unbuttoning my jeans. I try to squirm, to resist, but my hands and feet are bound too tight.
“Stop it! What the fuck?!” I yell.
Bellamy pauses and sighs. “How am I going to remove your womb with your pants on, Alexa? Explain that to me, please.”
My heart skips a beat.
R-remove my… womb?
“Y-you need me. You can’t grow a baby in a test tube,” I say, trying to bargain with this madman.
“Watch me,” Dr. Bellamy snickers. “The university has been funding a little side-project of mine that is about to pay off bigly.”
“You can’t do this,” I say, trying to appeal to his moral compass. “You’ll kill me.”
“A sacrifice I’m willing to make,” he says coldly. “I can do whatever I want, Alexa. You must have figured that out by now. I’m Dr. Bellamy. You’re nobody. Your sacrifice will not be in vain, though. Now, stop struggling.”
He grabs a needle and my blood runs cold.
Romulus, where are you?
Romulus
A scream in the distance.
I’d recognize that sound anywhere.
Alexa
I run down the stairs, taking two, three steps at a time, and kick a door down. What I see makes my blood run cold.
My mate is tied down on an operating table, and a human male is leaning over her, a needle in his hand.
“Drop that,” I growl menacingly as I pull my sword from its sheath on my back.
The man looks up and squints at me. “Wow,” he says. “I take it you’re the father. Remarkable. Your physique, it’s… grotesque.”
He shakes his head.
“I gave you plenty of opportunity, Alexa, yet you ignore me and go for this mountain of muscle? Pfft. Women.”
“Get away from her,” I say. “I won’t ask again.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, alien. I won’t let you interrupt me now.”
He looks up, wiggling the needle in his hand.
“Of course, I could dissect you instead… or jus
t do both hm…”
I ready my sword, and he chortles.
“A sword? Really? How archaic. I thought you Elbans were advanced aliens, but I see you’re just a swashbuckling brute. Pathetic.”
I see his fingers twitch, ready to sink the needle into my mate, and I react. In one quick motion I pull a dagger from my belt and throw it at him, slicing his fingers right off.
“M-my hand,” he stammers, stumbling backwards, blood gushing out of the stumps where his fingers used to be. “Y-you brute!”
“I warned you.”
I rush to Alexa’s side and break her chains with a single tug.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I help her to her feet, my hands resting on her arm. Touching her again, after all this time, feels so good, so right. I’m not letting her go, not again.
“I’m f-fine,” she says.
Our eyes meet, and for a second she’s the center of my universe. After all this time, all the hurt, all the pain, the worry, the fear — and we’re reunited.
“Die scum!”
I swivel around, but my moment of distraction proves fatal. The human male is pointing a gun straight at me.
“No!” Alexa cries.
It hall happens at once.
The man pulls the trigger.
The gunshot echoes off the walls.
Alexa flings her body against mine.
The bullet misses me — and pierces my mate’s side.
“Alexa!” I scream, a primal sound rising from the very depth of my being. The mad scientist points the gun at me, ready to fire again, but this time he’s too slow. Before he can pull the trigger I raise my sword and swing, throwing all of my power and anger into that swing.
His decapitated head drops on the floor with a dump thud, and his crumpling body follows a moment later.
I rush to my mate’s side. Her shirt is stained dark red, and she’s gasping for air. Fear grips my heart so tightly it becomes hard to breathe.
I can’t lose her. Not now, not ever.
“Are you okay?” I ask as apply pressure to stop the bleeding. “Hold your hands like this.”
She smiles thinly. “I am now.”
“I’ll get you out of here.”
I cradle her body in my arms and rush outside and up the stairs. I’m stopped at the entrance of the campus by a group of blue, uniformed men, all pointing their guns straight at me.
“Freeze!”
I push off, throwing myself through a window, shielding Alexa’s body with my own, impacting all of the blow. I’m back up on my feet in a second, rushing across the campus, covered in glass, cuts and blood. I run into a residential area, cutting through gardens, hopping across fences, taking one turn after another, all to shake our pursuers. I don’t stop running until the only thing I hear are my own footsteps.
When I’m sure we’re safe I keel down against a wall and lower my mate to the ground. To my horror she’s looking pale, her eyes half-open.
“Stay with me, baby,” I say. “We need to go somewhere safe, but if I call down a shuttle here, it’ll lead them right to us. Where can we go?”
“Mary’s,” she whispers. “Her house is close by. I’ll guide you.”
I follow her instructions, and knock on her friend’s door so hard I nearly break the damn thing in half.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” a voice calls out.
The door swivels open, and Mary’s eyes grow wide when she sees the state we’re in. I recognize her from the campus — she was the one who wasn’t intimidated by me.
Well, she certainly is intimidated now.
“What the hell happened to you two?! Oh my god, the shooting at campus, why they sent us home — that was you?!”
“It was that man,” I say as I brush past Mary and place Alexa down on her couch. “He shot her.”
“Bellamy? Bellamy shot Alexa? What the fuck?”
Mary grabs a phone and I smack it from her hand. It shatters to bits against the wall.
“No authorities,” I say sternly. “We can’t trust them.”
“What? She needs a doctor!”
“I’m fine,” Alexa whispers.
Mary drops down to her knees and grabs her friend’s hand. “What was that, babe?”
Alexa lifts her shirt. “The bullet grazed me. It looks more serious than it is, because of all the blood. I just need some bandages.”
Mary looks up at me.
“Don’t just stand there, get the first aid kid!”
I run towards the kitchen and turn Mary’s kitchen upside down, opening every cabinet and emptying the contents on the floors.
“On the left! The left! Bottom left!” she screams from the other room.
I return a moment later with the first-aid kit, and bandage her wound.
“I just hope the baby is okay,” she whispers, smiling at me. “You came to save me.”
Baby?
She must be lucid.
“I’ll always come to save you,” I say, kissing her forehead. “Rest.”
I cover her with a blanket, and she closes her eyes.
I don’t let go of her hand. I watch her rising chest like a hawk. I’m never letting her out of my sight again.
Chapter Sixteen
Alexa
When I wake up, it takes me a few seconds to take in my surroundings. For a split-second I’m afraid I’m in that torture basement again, but then the world comes into view, and I recognize Mary’s apartment.
Romulus is sitting next to me, asleep, his hand holding mine.
Thank god.
It’s over. My hero arrived just in time…
I squeeze his hand, and his eyes open instantly.
“Are you okay?!” he asks.
“I’m fine!” I say. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you jump.”
I try to sit upright, but a sharp pain in my side makes short work of that. I wince, and this urges Romulus into action right away. He changes my bandages, being as gentle as as he can be.
I’m so lucky to have him. I try to remember all what happened, but it’s been a bit of a blur.
“What happened to Bellamy?” I ask. “I barely remember what happened after he pulled the trigger.”
“Don’t worry,” Romulus says. “He’s not a danger to you anymore.”
“What do you mean? What did you do?”
“The same I’ll do to anyone who threatens to harm you.”
He looks more determined than ever, his brow furrowed, and I know he’s being serious. He’s my protector. My celestial guardian.
“You came for me,” I say. “You saved me.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner,” Romulus says. “I’m sorry for… so many things. I’m sorry for being stubborn. I’m sorry for lying to you. I’m sorry for letting you go. It’ll never happen again. That’s a promise.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and warmth spreads to every fiber of my being. I try to sit up, but Romulus holds me back. He leans in and kisses me gently.
I turn, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him deeply, pouring all of my emotions into that kiss. The pain fades for a moment, as I feel nothing but pure, unadulterated joy.
“What you heard — I didn’t mean it. I want you to know that,” Romulus says.
“I know, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. Let me finish, please.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“I called Nero, to ask him for help, because the feelings that I have are so strong I didn’t know how to deal with them. And when I denied my feelings, I was just… being stubborn.”
“You were being you,” I chuckle.
“I guess. I just didn’t want Nero to brag about how he had been right all this time.”
“You’re a proud warrior,” I say. “It’s who you are. You don’t need to apologize for that. I should have been more understanding. It was wrong of me to expect you to change for me on the drop of a hat. We’re different people.”
“Not that different,” Romulus says
. “You are just as stubborn as I am.”
A smile forms on my lips. “Perhaps you’re right. If only I hadn’t been so stubborn, all of these could have been prevented. I wouldn’t have been shot. We wouldn’t be on the run.”
“What done is done,” he says. “What matters is what we do going forward.”
“You’re right. What are we going to do?”
Romulus swallows the lump in his throat. The cocksure warrior is suddenly vulnerable. “I asked you to be my mate before, Alexa, and I meant it then, and I still mean it now. If you’re not ready for that, I understand… but regardless, I’m not leaving you out of my sight. For your own safety.”
I hold his hand, my thumb rubbing the back of his palm.
“Our lives are connected anyway,” I say. “Because I’m pregnant with your baby.”
His breath falters for a moment.
“A… baby?”
I nod. “Yes.”
The alien warrior can barely contain his excitement. He throws his arms around me, squeezing me so hard it hurts.
“Careful!”
“Sorry,” he laughs. “I’m—a baby—wow!”
“It’s fine,” I say, kissing his neck.
“I love you, Alexa,” he says. “With all my heart. I will protect our family forever. You have my word.”
“I love you, too, Romulus.”
“Do you forgive me?”
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to forgive. We were both foolish.”
He kisses me, and I close my eyes, surrounding myself to the endorphins firing madly inside of me. I want to feel him inside of me again, but I’m a bit too worse for wear for that. Instead, he lays next to me on the couch and I fold my body into his, my chest resting on his head, his soothing heart beat lulling me into the best sleep of my life.
Romulus
I wake up the next morning feeling better than I ever have. Outside birds flutter, and a single ray of sunlight illuminates Mary’s apartment, landing straight on my mate’s tummy.
I place my hand on it. Soon, it’ll swell with our child.
I can’t wait.
“Good morning,” Mary says as she walks into the room in her pajamas. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” Alexa yawns.
I bury my head in my mate’s hair, keeping my eyes closed a few moments longer, enjoying this for as long as I can.