Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

  “We should be, but just in case.”

  “Oh is that the only reason, so that we won’t be discovered?” She questioned. He could hear the hurt in her voice.

  Cassius pulled her up to him and thrust into her. “No it’s not my love. I want to be with you too.” He admitted. “I love you.”

  Chapter 8

  “You do?” Melody questioned.

  “Well yeah, I mean when we are together it’s like a volcano igniting and exploding. This has to be more than just sex.” He explained.

  “Yes, I thought the same thing too.” She admitted.

  “So what do you say?” He asked.

  “Oh yes, I’ll marry you, and I love you too Cassius. I feel safe around you, like no one could ever harm me.” Melody scraped her nails on his back and he thrust into her again.

  She was lost in thought as he brought her body to another climax.

  Once they were done it was time to clean though. They both began to fix the place up. It was possible that they could be stuck here the rest of their lives, or at least for a few years.

  Along the trip Cassius had explained to Melody more in depth about how their justice system worked. It had made her shiver with fear to think of how many innocent people they may have killed in the past.

  Soon enough the house was coming together.

  “Overall it’s in rather good shape.” Cassius announced after he came in from inspecting the outside of the house closer.

  “Well that’s good.” Melody smiled at him. “Were you kidding when you asked me to marry you earlier?” She asked.

  “Of course not, why would I do that.” He answered.

  “I don’t know. Well on Earth men talk and say things they don’t mean. You know they promise women things so they get sex.” She explained.

  “Wow, your species seems a bit dishonest. Is that what your ex-boyfriend did to you? Didn’t you tell me his name was Jay? Another thing are you dishonest?” He asked, his face showing some worry.

  “No I’m what you would call one of the good ones. I’m so honest sometimes people take me as being rude. Yes Jay did the whole dishonest thing to me. But I would rather not talk about him anymore.” She laughed.

  “I’d rather have you honest.” He admitted.

  There was a knock on the door, they looked at each other. No one knew they were here, except for the guy who drove them here. However, why would he be back out here?

  Cassius approached a window slowly and looked out front. He turned towards her, “I don’t know who it is. He doesn’t have a uniform on though.”

  She shook her head, ready to help defend him if it came to it. “Be ready to run if I tell you.” Cassius told her.

  “No way, I’m standing by you.” She stated.

  He smiled at her. “Alright, but I really don’t know if this is bad news, or nothing big.”

  “Go ahead.” She stood by his side and he answered the door.

  “Yes can I help you?” Cassius asked the blue man standing at the door.

  “Wow, Brakley wasn’t lying; there are really new people on the planet!” The man smiled and pushed his hand towards Cassius. “I’m Jureal; I’ve lived on Zeron for around ten years now. You are the first new people I’ve seen come here. I was just wondering if you needed anything.”

  “Oh it’s nice to meet you Jureal. I’m Cassius and this is Melody.”

  Jureal looked from one to the other. “Hmm, interspecies couple are you? Interesting, I would never have imagined that on Zeron!” He laughed.

  “Yeah we wanted to be away from the bustle of it all. You know live a very quiet life.” Cassius said.

  “Oh you’ll have that here on Zeron. Overall, there may be around 100 of us here. All of us are spread out quite a bit. So you should be able to enjoy your peace and quiet here. Perhaps I’ll contact the others and we can have a little party to greet you one day.” Jureal said.

  “Sure that sounds nice. But can you give us a bit to fix up the place, and we can have it here?” Melody said, shaking Jureal’s hand.

  “That’s not a problem. Most people who live on Zeron don’t like to travel much anyway.” He laughed heartily.

  Cassius and Melody looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

  “Well I just wanted to stop by and welcome you to the planet. When you get the phone installed here’s my number. Just let me know if you need anything. I’m one of your closest neighbors.” Jureal explained.

  “Oh how far away are you?” Melody asked.

  “About four hours or so, with the speed travel options. But if you want to go the slower way it would take me a few days. So not very close at all! I just happened to be in the area to visit the shop.” Jureal explained.

  “Well thanks for stopping by. We’ll let you know when we get our phone in and are ready for a party!” Cassius said.

  “Yeah it’s always nice to see someone new comer to Zeron. Hey did anyone ever tell you, you look like that gladiator dude a bit. Well you’re not near as big as he looks on the channel though.” Jureal laughed as he left.

  Melody looked at Cassius, “Do you think he knows?” Her nerves felt frayed at the thought of Jureal knowing Cassius real identity.

  “I don’t know. We’ll be careful and watch to see if we get a lot of visitors or not. I’ll set up an alarm system outside. That way if they do come for us we can hopefully get out quickly.” Cassius said.

  Epilogue

  Melody looked over at Cassius; they had been on Zevon for six months now. She had grown to love Zevon quite a lot.

  They had a party about a month ago and met several of the other people who lived on this lonely planet. Jureal had turned out to be not only a real friend, but also a good source of information.

  It had been just two weeks ago when Jureal had come to visit them again.

  “Hey, Cassius and Melody how are you both doing?” Jureal asked him as he came into their home.

  “Hey Jureal, we’re good. How are you doing?” Cassius had asked.

  “Not bad. I heard some interesting information from the Goma the other day.” Jureal had said.

  “Oh what is that?” Cassius had asked quietly.

  Melody had felt the nerves begin to throb in her body. On more than one occasion Jureal had hinted about how much Cassius looked like a great warrior he had once seen at the Goma.

  “Well it seems that Demetri, he was the guy who sold the tickets and promoted the fights. He was killed, there was a lot of talk about how the warrior, Cassius, funny he has the same name as you. But the warrior had supposedly killed him. However, you know that never made much sense to me. Why would a guy who had just won his freedom do something like that? Surely, it would be someone else.” Jureal had paused.

  “Right it wouldn’t make sense that a guy who was finally free would kill the man who basically gave him that freedom.” Melody had said.

  Cassius had cut her off with a look though.

  “Yeah I agree.” Jureal had said. “So anyway, I thought perhaps it was a relative of the Lars fellow. Do you know anything about the Goma?” He had stopped and asked them both.

  “No, besides the legend talk I’ve heard from some people in the past.” Cassius had stated cautiously.

  “I have no idea, I’m from Earth.” Melody had looked at him and played dumb.

  “Okay, we’ll you have heard of gladiators before right Melody.” Jureal had looked at her.

  “Yes, the Romans on Earth used to have fights to the death.” Melody had shook her head.

  “Well the Goma is the same thing, but in our Galaxy. The men who battle are often slaves, they’ve either been sold as slaves, or their families were slaves. The deal is that if any warrior can win 200 fights they will be set free. It isn’t a task that is easy to do. There have only been two in all of the history of the Goma. Mazart back around 100 years ago was the first fighter to complete all the fights. Recently, Cassius completed this same number of fights. This is where it gets interesting
though. The night of the fights someone killed Demetri, and the signs all pointed to Cassius. I on the other hand had other theories about the guilty party. I thought that it would either be one of Lars’s relatives, he’s the man that Cassius obliterated in about 10 minutes time. Or perhaps an angry fan who felt they were cheated on a bet. I just happen to have the right connections and let it be known of my theories. It seems that the authorities hadn’t looked at the cameras in the building yet. When they pulled up the footage from that night, you know who could be seen clearly walking out of the building?” Jureal had stopped and studied them both closely.

  Melody squirmed under his study, but sat tight lipped. Cassius had not said a word either.

  “Well it was Cassius and his prize for the fight. About two minutes after walking into Demetri’s office was a hooded man. The kicker was when they pulled the office film though. The man who had come in was Lars’s younger brother, Marteen. Clearly on the film you can see Marteen as he slayed Demetri.”

  “Oh really, that’s great news!” Melody had said.

  Cassius had looked at Jureal, “So how long have you known I was the warrior?”

  Jureal had laughed, “Since the first time I met you son. But I’m telling you I have a sense about anyone I meet. I can tell if they are a good person or a bad one. You my friend are indeed a good man. That was why I pulled my strings and made sure that the truth was discovered. You my man are truly a free man. If you want you can go back home.”

  Cassius and Melody had been stunned further to find out that Jureal had once been an inspector for the authorities. If he had thought Cassius was really guilty, he would have called them in the day he first met them. But he had gone with his gut instinct and now Cassius could do anything he wanted.

  They had decided they loved Zevon and would stay there most of the year. But had planned to visit his home planet once the baby was born, he wanted his parents to meet their new grandchild.

  “What are you thinking about Melody?” Cassius interrupted her thoughts.

  “Oh just thinking about how scared I was when I was first kidnapped. I never imagined that I would find love out in space.” She answered as she rubbed her belly.

  “You know I was so upset when I first found out you were the prize. Boy was I a stupid man at that point.” Cassius laughed.

  “But you’re not anymore!”

  He grabbed her and kissed her deeply, “No my love I’m not, and I have the most amazing wife a man could ever ask for. I love you Melody.”

  “I love you too Cassius.”

  THE END

  TWIN ALIEN

  Chapter 1

  “I can’t believe that I’m left holding the bag and my sister has decided to wash her hands of the entire ordeal. Louise can be a bit of a handful, but at least I always knew that she had my back. I guess I didn’t know much about her relationship with our father. They apparently never saw eye to eye on anything, especially her mixed marriage with Thomas.” This was not the highlight of Vanessa’s week and their father had not been in the grave more than two months. She knew that this would be something that she would have to contend with eventually, but she really did think that her sister Louise would be standing right by her side.

  “I’m sorry, Vanessa, but this is something that you’re going to have to deal with on your own and I just can’t stand being in that house any longer than necessary. I think it’s a good idea that we get rid of it, as soon as possible. You can even have the profits from it. I want nothing to do with it and having him out of my life has given me a sense of freedom that I’ve never had before.” Vanessa could hear the relief in her sister’s voice and she had a momentary attack of the conscience. If their relationship was that bad, then she had no choice, but to allow her sister to walk away cleanly.

  “Its okay, Louise and I’ll do what I can to make this easy on you. I’m sorry that I didn’t know about the rift between you and father. I guess I had blinders on this entire time.” Vanessa was twirling her hair around on her finger and now she was biting into the strands. It was a nervous habit that she picked up from her mother. Her dark hair was the perfect contrast to her sisters blond locks. You wouldn’t even know that they were sisters, except for the slight resemblance in their faces. They had their own attitude, their own way of thinking about things and the only thing they really did have in common was a stubborn streak.

  This was something that they inherited from their father, a scientist that was discredited by the community for his belief that aliens were among them. He had several pieces of documented proof, but each time that he tried to claim something in the scientific community, they would find a way to make it look like he was out of his mind. Vanessa believed in her heart that her father was grasping at straws and there were times that they had knockdown drag out fights about where his career was going.

  “I know that this is not what you want to hear, Vanessa, but this is the way that it has to be. You don’t know the hell I went through caring for him, when you were off with your own life.”

  Vanessa really didn’t think that she had a life and there were moments that she thought that she was just going through the motions. Her job was not something that she wanted to do for the rest of her life and her true passion was in taking photos. Unfortunately, photographers was one of those professions that were a dime a dozen.

  “If only she knew that my life has not been the rosy picture that she has made it out to be. Ever since father’s death, I’ve been struggling to find my own way in the world. I want to tell my bosses that I’ve decided to move on, but without anything permanent, I feel like I’m stunted and not able to move forward.” She felt bad for trying to put her sister into a position that would find her uncomfortable. This whole thing with their father was something that came out of left field. They didn’t even know that he was sick and to find him face down in his oatmeal was a bit shocking to say the least.

  “Louise, I believe that a lot of his stuff will be put out into the trash or sent to goodwill. You know his god awful suits and each time he wore one, he was proud to be one of the only ones that stood out from the rest of the crowd. I think that was one of the main problems. They just didn’t know how to take him seriously in a lime green suit.” Vanessa had never been much of the caregiver and growing up, her main problem was trying to emulate some of her heroes. Andy Warhol and Annie Liebowitz were her main inspirations to try to find that perfect picture that would make everybody stand up.

  She had her cell phone in your hand, as she smoothed down her blue leather skirt and then looked at her reflection in the door of her dearly departed father’s house. The wood was chipping and if she was so inclined, she could call some handyman and do some necessary renovations to get a better price on the market.

  “I’m sorry, but I really do have to go, Vanessa. Let me know how you make out.” Vanessa knew in the back of her mind that her sister really didn’t care one way or the other. It was a little disconcerting to see that their relationship had turned to only seeing each other on holidays and special occasions. Without mother and father to referee, them being in the same room could only lend to backbiting and harsh words.

  “I hope she knows what she’s asking me to do. I’ve been very emotional ever since my father died. I can’t go more than a day without seeing something that reminds me of him. Now that I was back in the family homestead, I could see all of these memories flooding back. To me, he was my hero and even though he was ridiculed for his beliefs, he still managed to eke out a living doing lectures around the globe.”

  She was about to say something, but Louise hung up and left her standing there with only the dial tone. Vanessa placed the key into the lock and listened to the telltale click of the mechanism falling into place. She opened the door and was immediately accosted with the smell of cigars. There were no windows open and she quite hastily went around to air out the place. This was the first time that she had the courage to walk into the place. Just being there at the doo
rway was enough to bring back a vivid image of him standing in the kitchen when she was three years old burning dinner. They had to order takeout and mother wasn’t very happy about finding old pizza boxes when she came back from work.

  “This is not going to be easy, but I only have a couple of days off. I’m just going to have to dive in head first. I think the best way to do that is to tackle downstairs in his office.” Vanessa walked downstairs hearing the creaking of the house and looking at the various awards that he had gotten early on in his career. “I’ll always remember you as a friend and somebody that I could rely on to take into my confidence. You often just sat there and listened, never judged and that was worth more to me than you could ever know.”

  Vanessa had on her customary brown leather coat with the leather belt tied at the waist. It was vintage and she found that bringing the old back in style was something that she got from her father.

  It was a little chilly on this October morning and there was the first frost of the season on the ground. She could actually see a semblance of her breath in the air.

  She took a deep breath and opened up the door to his office. At first, she didn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Her father was mostly anal about everything, but his office looked like a cyclone went through it. There was no denying that somebody was interested or at least looking for something that her father had. There was no way that her father would keep things in such disarray.

  “Father, I know that this wasn’t your doing, which leads me to believe that somebody has been here without my permission. I did not see any signs of a break in upstairs. There were no windows broken and the door lock didn’t look like it had been played with. That only tells me that either the person knew you quite well, or somebody with a unique skill set was sent in here to retrieve something.”

  It was still pretty early in the morning and even when she arrived, there was nobody up at this time. There were no joggers or those that were out walking their dog. It was her wish that nobody was going to interfere in the business at hand.