Page 19 of An Alien for the Future

Her eyes widen immediately. “Across the road? In that pasture? That’s…that’s miles of open field!”

“Yes. I…left it there before our encounter.” I’m full of shame. So much so, I’m unable to meet her gaze now. I can feel her staring at me for a long moment. Then, to my surprise, she lets out a soft laugh.

“You know what? I don’t even want to know,” she says, shaking her head. “But you can’t trek across that field in your condition. And I don’t have the resources to escort you there and back. Not with that storm coming in.”

Storm?

I lift my head then, gaze flicking to the sky above. She’s right. Those clouds have finally converged. Heavy and threatening,they’re quickly blocking the star’s light as they swell with warning for a torrent that will soon come. Frakk. If I’d been paying better attention, I would have noticed that fact.

Only, it wouldn’t have forced me to leave any sooner.

“Right, the storm.”

She sighs, running a claw across her head, and her tight coils spring back into place, dark spirals that seem to defy gravity. “Look, I’ve got a barn. It’s not much, but it’s dry and warm. You can stay there till the storm passes, rest that leg properly. Then in the morning, if you’re still set on crossing that field, well…I won’t stop you.”

Words fail me. “I…I couldn’t impose…”

Gods, please let her make me impose.

“It’s not an imposition,” she says, voice still firm.

Gratitude, god of the moon. I will worship you harder from now on.

I don’t understand this female at all. But I desperately want to. She locked herself away and I believed her to be done with my presence. But here she is offering me more assistance.

“It’s common sense,” the female continues, frowning up at the darkening sky. “Now come on, let’s get you settled before the rain starts.”

She turns, clearly expecting me to follow. And despite logic telling me I shouldn’t, I find myself hobbling back towards her homestead.

This is…a strange turn of events. This human female, barely half my size, taking charge, offering shelter to a Kari warrior she barely knows. It’s unexpected, unprecedented, and yet…completely and utterly what I want.

I really am shameless. I don’t even have the shame to care.

I glance at her profile, bathed in the dying light, and something stirs within me. Something I thought long dead. Need, perhaps.

Or perhaps something even more dangerous.

Hope.

6

DONNA

Please, Lord. Don’t let this be a mistake. I don’t want Catherine calling only to find my farm ransacked and my body lying underneath the hay. I’ve binged on enough CSI to know I might die because of a heart that’s too big.

Being kind doesn’t always make you friends. Sometimes, it just makes you a target.

As I steal glances at the large alien hobbling beside me, I want to believe this isn’t a mistake. At least, I hope it isn’t.

“Watch yourself,” I warn as we reach the barn doors and I open one side. The other side is stuck and I haven’t had a clue how to fix it myself. He doesn’t seem to mind. Hobbles in sideways, although his massive frame barely squeezes through the entrance. Inside, his scent displaces the musty air filled with traces of hay and old wood.

“As I said, it’s not much.” I’m suddenly self-conscious of the humble space as I look around it. I got the Raki workers to fix the roof and some parts of the wall, but it’s a mess in here. Hay scattered everywhere and stalls that I’ve promised Gertrude I’ll muck out this week. “A bit cramped, I suppose. But it’ll keep you dry.”

I look up to find the alien’s gaze sweeping the barn, taking in every detail. “It’s more than sufficient. Thank you, lira’an.”

His voice. It resonates in this enclosed space, sending tingles across my skin. “Leera an?”

My question makes him pause. Visibly so. And I swear his scales darken.

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