Page 1 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

Chapter 1

Cooper had a problem. If he thought about it, he had several, but the one that plagued him the most was glaring at him from the passenger seat of the stolen truck he was driving. She was so beautiful, even if she was an alien, and he couldn't wait to get to know her better. Once he convinced her not to kill him.

His list of priorities had expanded at an alarming rate when he met Major Marissa Ozark.

When he’d landed on the planet a few months earlier, he’d had one mission; Get Home. Unfortunately, he was out in the ass end of beyond and had to rely on the locals for help. Since the planet was officially uncharted and presumed to be uninhabited, that was going to be tricky.

The dominant life form on the planet resembled none of the other alien species he'd trained for or encountered, except little traits that would pop up in places he'd never expected. They hada wider range and variety among a single species than he'd ever seen on a planet with only one species capable of speech.

It had taken some time to get the color of his skin right for infiltration and there were enough minute variations between humans that he was always on the edge of getting the shade wrong. And there were times when his stress levels were high and his original coloring started to show.

Their brains were easier to get into than the last species he’d encountered, so learning the language had taken almost no time at all. Until he’d had to learn a second language. Then a third. And a fourth. He was up to a dozen languages learned and having trouble keeping some of them straight. A good torpor would help him organize the information better, but he didn’t dare rest like that. Not yet.

The problem glaring at him from the passenger seat had introduced another wrinkle to his mission. His people were the scouts and spies for their planet. Millennia of warfare and intrigue had bred them to be perfect for infiltration, espionage, and survival. It had also made their ability to breed highly selective. Most of his people required medical intervention when they were ready to produce children.

What happened when he met Major Ozark was supposed to be impossible.

By design, if the rumors were true, and certainly by tradition.

Chelions bred with Chelions. Every now and then he’d hear about a Chelion who had been selected to service the Dragor or sentenced to torture by the Ranel but they couldn’t produce offspring. Their genetics were just too far apart to be viable. This had proven true with every other alien race he’d encountered.

When Major Ozark had triggered his secondary maturation, he didn’t think about any of the consequences, he’d simply grabbed her to take her with him. Now, he was rethinking his choices. All of them. Every single one he’d made since he’dcrawled from his egg and blinked his eyes at the world around him.

“I am really sorry,” he told her again.

“You will be,” she promised.

“I don’t know what came over me,” he lied. He knew. He was surprised that it had happened, shocked that it was possible, but he knew exactly what it was. Unfortunately, that meant that he knew what had to happen next if he was going to survive.

“I’m guessing the Good Idea Fairy,” she huffed. “Or perhaps Emperor Mong has decided to take his tribute from you.”

Cooper laughed. He couldn’t help it. She was mad at him, probably wanted to kill him, and she was still very funny. He was going to have so much fun getting to know his mate. If he survived.

“What am I wrapped in, anyway?” she asked.

“A stabilizing blanket,” he said. “It’s actually meant to keep someone still and functioning in the event of a traumatic injury to increase their odds of making it to medical help.”

“Well, that’s actually pretty clever. How long is it supposed to work for before I start losing circulation to my limbs?”

“Are you hurt?” he asked. “Has anything become numb?”

He tried to sift through her brain waves for signs of distress but she was frustratingly hard to read. Some of that, he knew, was because of his second maturation. The changes she’d triggered in his body had already begun messing with his mind and he really needed to get back to his ship before the bigger ones started.

At least, he hoped one of the changes was a bigger one. Or, rather, big enough to please his mate. How embarrassing if it stayed the same size now that it had activated.

“Nothing hurts,” she told him. “But I can’t move anything but my lips. That generally leads to issues in hands and feet.”

“Ah,” he said with a nod. “The blanket should actually help improve your circulation, but I understand that it’s frustrating to be unable to move anything else. I’ll be able to fix that soon, I think.”

“You could fix it now,” she told him. “Just take the blanket off.”

“Not while I’m driving,” he said.

“Then pull over and take it off.”

“You’ll run away.”

“Damn straight, I will. I’ll just be less likely to kill you while I do it if you let me out when I’m close enough to a base to walk back.”

---