Captured by the Alien King: The Complete Series: A BBW SciFi Alien Serial Romance

by Lisa Lace

  As soon as I thought of family, I realized something changed.

  A fog rose up from the desert floor. Uh oh. I could barely see the light from the oasis. I walked towards it.

  Then I froze as a couple appeared before me. I stared at them. I knew them only from pictures.

  My parents.

  A little girl toddled up to them. She was smiling and so happy. The man picked her up and the mother put her arms around both of them. Love surrounded the little girl. I felt my eyes fill with tears.

  The little girl was me. I had seen the pictures of the three of us before they had died. Gran had one on the mantle in the house where I had grown up.

  Tears poured down my cheeks. I began to walk towards them. I needed to be a part of that family. I needed someone to love me unconditionally again. As I grew nearer, they began to fade.

  "No," I cried out. My heart broke, and it felt like I was losing them all over again.

  "No!" I screamed again. They disappeared altogether. My hands curled into fists as I sank to the sand. I felt broken. I was a little girl who had just lost her whole world. I cried and cried. My grief would never end.

  I looked up when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

  "Gran," I said, amazed to see her again. "Gran, I missed you so much."

  "I know, sweet bug," she said. "You miss them too, right?"

  "Mom and Dad?" I said, feeling the gaping hole in my heart.

  She nodded.

  "Yes. They were just here, Gran. And now they're gone again," I felt my voice break. "And I don't know how I can live without them, Granny. I don't think I can."

  Gran pulled me into her arms and held me. Her scent comforted me, and I was finally able to stop crying.

  "Why are you here, darling?" she said when I calmed down. "You haven't died, have you, sweet bug? You're too young. I didn't expect to see you for a long time yet."

  "No, Gran. I'm not dead...it's a little complicated."

  Gran looked at me expectantly.

  "It's a Susohnnan ritual," I said, biting my lip, not sure how she would react. I didn't know what her opinion of the Susohnnan was.

  "Oh, I've heard of that. The one where they get the scar?"

  "Yes, how did you know?"

  "I wasn't always just a backwoods old lady with a garden, Kenna."

  "I never said you were," I protested.

  She smiled at me.

  "Why are you doing their ritual?" she said, getting to the heart of the matter.

  I licked my dry lips.

  "To save someone."

  "To save someone." she repeated. "Is it a special someone?"

  "His name is Dar."

  Her eyebrows nearly touched her hairline.

  "What do you have to do?" she said.

  "I have to get across this little patch of desert. But it's like the Twilight Zone here, which is how I can talk to you, I guess."

  "Doesn't sound like much of a ritual," Gran said.

  "Well, he said that I would have to face what I'm most afraid of, give up what I most want to keep, and let go of everything I think I know about myself."

  "Oh," Gran said, and she seemed to shimmer.

  "What, Gran?"

  "Well, the first one's easy."

  "What? What is it that I'm most afraid of, Gran?"

  "Losing him, the way you lost us. You're scared that if you love him, he'll die too."

  "No. That's not why..."

  "Have you told him how you feel?"

  "No, but that's not the reason."

  "Are you sure?"

  I gazed into Gran's eyes, and I saw nothing but love. It was the same expression that I had seen on Dar's face. Was I afraid of losing him? Is that why I didn't want to let myself love him?

  I stared down at the sand.

  "It almost killed me to lose you, Gran. I do care about him. And I couldn't go through that again."

  "You're going to give up all the joy that loving him could bring you to protect yourself from something that might never happen?" she said, looking more transparent every moment.

  "Gran, don't leave me."

  "I will never leave you, sweet bug. I am always with you. Make your decisions based on love and not fear."

  "Gran," I said. "Please don't go."

  "I'm not gone."

  "Don't leave me alone again, Granny. Please," I was crying again. I couldn't help it. I was supposed to be strong, but I was reliving the worst things that had ever happened to me.

  "Kenna, love. You aren't alone anymore."

  She smiled at me and then disappeared. I felt the grief of losing her again, and it was suffocating. I don't know how long I sat there in the sand with my hands over my face, sobbing.

  I forced myself to get up and keep walking. The fog was thick and it was dark. I couldn't see the light from the oasis anymore, but I hoped I was going in the right direction.

  Suddenly I was in my kitchen in my old apartment on Earth, wearing my favorite sweats and a tank top. I looked around me. The date on the calendar was one day before this all started. Tomorrow I would see the show on the news that had explained about the project that would bring me to Dobu, where I had met Dar.

  I wandered around my apartment picking things up, then putting them down. I knew what was happening. I was been given a chance to go back.

  I could just stay here and not have to go through all the hardships and troubles I endured since I left this place. I had a feeling that if I went to bed and woke up tomorrow, I wouldn't remember anything.

  I would never have to escape from a building that was being bombed. I would never have to run away from a wildfire. I would never have my life threatened. I would never be made to feel like the dirt on a Susohnnan queen's boot.

  I could just stay here and avoid it all. I would be safe here. I sat down on the couch and pulled my favorite blanket around me. I could be comfortable here. I snuggled into the corner where I always liked to sit. This life could be enough.

  There was no adventure here; that was true. But I didn't need it. There were no new things to see and do here, but I didn't need new things now. I needed things that made me feel safe. Things that didn't challenge me. I needed situations that would never demand anything of me.

  And there was no love here, but I didn't need love.

  At that thought, I shook my head, looking around at my apartment.

  No. That wasn't true anymore. I did need love. I needed Dar.

  His voice came back to me.

  "You must give up what you most want to keep."

  Is this what I most wanted to keep? The safety and comfort of my isolation? Is that what I wanted?

  And when I thought that, I suddenly knew that I didn't want that anymore. There might have been a time when this life had been enough, but I was past that now.

  "I don't want this," I said.

  Nothing happened.

  I raised my voice. "I don't want this."

  The room started to fade.

  "I don't want this!" I yelled, and my voice echoed through the apartment, right before the illusion shattered into a thousand pieces.

  And I was back on the sand.

  I could see the light of the oasis faintly again.

  I stood there, staring at that pale pinpoint of light. I was breathing heavily, and I swallowed. That had been close. That had been way too close.

  The thought that I might have stayed there and gone to sleep and woken up back in my old life, never having known Dar, made me sick to my stomach.

  No matter what happened, I never wanted to forget him. Even if we separated from each other. Even if we never ended up together.

  I would never want to forget him. Ever.

  Suddenly I longed for him, and I called out his name across the sands.

  "Dar!"

  And just like that, reality shifted.

  * * *

  "Kenna?"

  It was Dar.

  I was in his room. His appearance was different. His hair col
or was fading, and he looked a little thicker around the middle.

  I smiled and went to him.

  He didn't open his arms to me as I had expected.

  I stopped, not understanding.

  "Kenna? Is that you?"

  "Of course it's me. What do you mean?"

  "It's been so long."

  "So long? You just dropped me off on the desert. Remember?"

  He blinked, a shocked look on his face. Then his features contorted with such grief that my heart nearly stopped.

  "Why do you look like that?"

  "I haven't seen you in ten years, Kenna."

  "What?" I stared at him.

  "Do you remember that some people never come back from the ritual?"

  "Yeah."

  "You never came back."

  "But I did. I didn't stay in my old apartment. I didn't. It all shattered. I want to be here. With you."

  "The Three save me..." he muttered. He was interrupted by a little girl about seven years old running into the room. She grabbed him around the legs, looking at me shyly.

  "Who's that?" I said, trying to understand what was happening.

  He leaned down and picked her up. She tucked her head into his shoulder.

  "This is my daughter. Her name is Kenna." His voice cracked, and I could see that he was close to breaking down.

  "When you didn't come back, it nearly destroyed me. The only person who stood by me was Salya. She got me through it, Kenna. I would have died without her. She's a good woman. She's still jealous, but she has a good heart. She's not the queen that you would have made. She does her best."

  "No," I said, shaking my head. "No. I did it. I passed the test. This shouldn't be happening."

  I couldn't figure it out. Where had I gone wrong?

  Dar shook his head, looking at me sadly.

  "If you're here, Kenna. Then you didn't pass. Remember what I told you?"

  "Yes, yes. I faced what I was most afraid of — letting myself love you and then losing you. I gave up what I most wanted to keep. That was my safe, comfortable life back home. My isolation. The life that was keeping me secure but was also keeping me from my highest potential. I see that now. I see all of it. I did it, Dar. I swear."

  "But the last one, Kenna."

  "The last one..." I stared at the girl with my name, trying to remember. What had the last one been?

  "The last trial is that you must release everything you think you know about yourself," he said, gently.

  "What does that mean? How do I do that?"

  "I don't know, but if you're here..."

  "Then this must have something to do with it. Right. Will you help me, Dar? Maybe it's not too late. Maybe I can still get back to you. I can change this."

  Dar shook his head, not meeting my eyes.

  "I'm afraid not, Kenna. I can't help you. The ritual is something that you must walk alone."

  Just then a woman came through the door. She was tall, with long legs. Her beautiful face registered surprise at seeing me there and then shock.

  "Is that Kenna?" she said, staring at me.

  "Yes. She failed the ritual. It caught her," Dar said. "You mustn't be jealous, love. That's all in the past."

  Salya looked at him in fury.

  "In the past? In the past? When every time I call my daughter's name I am reminded of another woman?"

  "Perhaps that wasn't the best idea." Dar looked pained.

  "Leave us in peace!" she said to me. "You stole him from me before. But he's mine now. You will never have him. Never. And you will never be queen. I rule over Susohn. A human slut could never do what I have done. You are a tramp and a home-wrecker. I will not have you here. Get out!" she shrieked and ran at me.

  I didn't try to run away, but I held up my hands to protect myself from her blows. She got a good punch in and knocked me to the floor. I place a hand over my eye. God, that ached. But my heart ached more, knowing that I would have made him a good wife. Our life wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have been honest.

  I would have made a good queen, no matter where I was born. I knew that now.

  I would have loved him.

  I did love him.

  I knew that now, too, now that it was ten years too late.

  Dar pulled her off of me and dragged her from the room. He was back in a moment.

  "Kenna? Are you all right?"

  He took my hand to help me to my feet, but it passed right through mine.

  "What?" he said, confused.

  A wind began to blow.

  "I love you, Dar. I know that now. And I will make a good queen. I know that, too. I'm not just some lowly human without worth. I am a powerful woman. And I know what I want. And what I need."

  He stared at me, eyes wide.

  "And what's that?"

  "You."

  "Me?"

  "I have to go."

  The wind in the room was whipping my hair around my face so that I could hardly see.

  "Kenna, wait."

  "No, Dar. I can't wait any longer. I need to get back to you. I need to tell you. Before this comes to pass."

  "But it has already come to pass, Kenna. It's too late."

  He tried to take my hand again, and he passed through me.

  The wind was spinning, and then the room was spinning. Dar looked around him, in confusion.

  "No, it's not too late. You're the one who doesn't exist anymore, Dar, because I'm making a different choice."

  "Kenna," he said, desperately. "Don't leave me again. I can't stand it."

  "I'm not leaving you. I'm going to find you. We are going to have those ten years together. Have faith."

  The room spun out of existence, and I was back on the desert. A sandstorm was forming, but somehow the light of the oasis was much closer than before. I felt like I was almost there.

  I had faced my greatest fear. I had given up that which I most wanted to keep. And I had let go of everything I thought I knew about myself. What more could there be to do? I had done everything he had said.

  The wind blew harder and whipped my braid around my head, lashing me. The sand began to sting as it hit my exposed hips and arms.

  Within seconds, the pain from the sandstorm became intense. I couldn't see anything. I had my eyes shut tight so as not to get sand in them. I kept my mouth closed too, to prevent dust from entering. I held my hand over my nose, allowing just enough space to breathe.

  After going through all that, I was going to die in a fucking sandstorm. I felt emotionally numb. I couldn't take any more. And the physical pain was so excruciating that I honestly thought I was going to die.

  When I felt a sudden burst of pain from my left hip, I keeled over. It was too much.

  I fell on the ground and let death take me. I had nothing left.

  Everything went black.

  DAR

  Where was Kenna? It had been a whole day, and she hadn't shown up anywhere. I could look over the desert to her drop-off spot, but there was no sign of her.

  Sometimes the people going through the ritual never came back. I stared out across the sand, feeling as desolate as the lonely winds that blew across these dunes.

  Kenna would come back.

  Of course she would.

  She had to.

  It would kill me if she didn't.

  I spun around to go back to the oasis, where Mana and Jared and I were waiting for her, and almost ran straight into Salya.

  "Dar," she said in a sultry voice. "It's good to see you."

  "Don't expect me to be joyful to see you, Salya. I know it was you who turned us in."

  I went to go around her but she blocked me and fell into step beside me.

  "I did it for your sake, Dar. You deserve better than some..." I turned towards her and the look in my eye must have worried her a bit because she stopped speaking.

  I kept walking back towards the oasis, eager to get away from her.

  "I can be a good wife, Dar. I would make you happy. I w
ould make a good queen. We could have seven babies together."

  "No we couldn't."

  She stopped walking, while I continued on.

  "What if she never returns?" she called out to my back.

  I froze. Then I walked quickly back to her until we were face to face.

  "Kenna will come back. Get out of here. I can't stand to look at you."

  She didn't follow me as I made it to the trees and was swallowed up by the foliage. But I heard her voice drifting after me.

  "You will when she doesn't come back. Someday you will look at me again. And you will see your future."

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

  No. She was wrong. Kenna would come back. She would have completed the ritual.

  She would still be sane.

  * * *

  Two days later, I began to lose hope. I tried not to show it to Mana and Jared, but they talked with each other.

  "Mana, why is it taking so long? Does it usually take this long?" I heard Jared's voice coming through the vegetation. I had climbed a tree to watch for her. It was more comfortable than standing on the hot sands. When I twisted around, I could see them sitting on a bench in the center of the oasis.

  "I told you, Jay."

  Jay? She was calling him Jay?

  "Usually they're back the same day. Being gone so long is unheard of."

  "Except," he said, leaning back and putting his arm along the back of the bench. She sat forward so that he wasn't touching her.

  "What do you mean?" she said.

  "I hear something at the end of that sentence. Something you're not saying, Mana. Being gone so long is unheard of, except..."

  She huffed out her breath, and I grinned at the look on her face. I was surprised he could read her so well already. I wasn't the only one with a flicker of hope.

  "It's unheard of except for royalty. Dar took five days. His mother and father were each three."

  "But Kenna's not royalty."

  "Exactly. That's why she's probably not coming back." Mana glanced at him and then away. "Some of them don't come back, Jared. It's just how the ritual works. Some people refuse — and we exile them. Some people go insane. Some people die. And some just don't come back at all."

  "So, why did you let her do it if you knew she might not come back?" Jared got up and started to pace.

  "She had to, Jay."