Page 34 of Fated to the Alien Hero

On our way out, we pass the Bohnari who first greeted us. His gaze follows us as we exit down the the ramp, leaving the ship behind.

“Do you mind if I ask how you got out here?” Astrid asks Johnna once we have reached the ground. “Were you originally from the human colony?”

Vornak’s mate chuckles. “I was a crew member of the terraforming spacecraft, Helios 3. We were on our way to another planet when our ship was attacked by space pirates. Eloise, me, and a couple other crew members ran to the escape pods. We’d just been jettisoned out when the ship exploded and sent us careening in different directions.”

“That’s awful.”

“Yeah, it was scary as hell.” Johnna nods. “I crashed on Bohna and nearly died. Vornak saved my life.”

“It was both the best and worst day of my life,” he says and takes her hand in his. “I worried I would lose you just as I found you.”

“Wow. You got lucky,” Astrid says.

“You have no idea.”

“So if you were on Bohna, and Eloise is here, does that mean she crashed on Tavikh?”

“Yep. I had no idea though until the last time we visited,” Johnna replies. “Zara had a broken arm Vornak fixed and she recognized my name from stories Eloise had shared. I’d never been sorelieved to find her after months of believing she might have died in the explosion. She’s my best friend.”

“I’m glad you found her then.”

“Me, too.”

We reach the entrance of the village where we say our farewells and separate so Johnna and Vornak can visit Eloise and Zedam. I turn to Astrid.

“Would you like to walk to the river with me?”

“Sure.”

I take her hand and love how she immediately laces her fingers with mine. Before mykeeshla, I would not have understood how lovely it is to do something as simple as hold hands with a mate. Of course, there is mating and I anxiously await the time when Astrid and I lay in my—our—furs and I explore her body. But the closeness that comes with feeling her five, tiny human fingers clasped together with my four is far more satisfying that I could have imagined.

Thankfully there is still enough heat of the day despite the first moon having already crossed the horizon that I do not need to go get the luani fur from our hunt for my mate. Unless she indicates being cold and then I will provide her with whatever warmth I can.

We arrive at the riverbank and settle onto a bench with our legs touching. To my delight, Astrid leans into me and places her head on my arm.

“It feels so weird to not have these little aches and pains everywhere,” she says after a moment. “I’ve had them for solong I no longer paid any attention. But now that they’re actually gone, I realize how much I was always hurting before.”

“Then I am glad for the Bohnari and their technology.”

Astrid lifts her head and studies me. Perhaps she sensed my unease. “You don’t like tech, I take it?”

“I do not believe it is so much that I do not like it, but more that I do not understand it so I am wary of it.”

“That makes sense.” She rests back against me. “We had all sorts of technology in our house back on Earth, including something called a food replicator. All I had to do was push a few buttons and the machine would spit out a perfect replica of anything I could ever want to eat. It was either piping hot or ice cold depending on what I chose.”

A machine that creates food is beyond anything I can picture in my head. It is no wonder the humans are terrible hunters, although several of them are improving quite a bit. But if all they ever had to do before was wait for a machine to give them food, then it is no wonder they lack the necessary skills.

“It amazes me how different your planet is from ours. It also makes me wonder why some of your people would give all that up to come to Tavikh. It is clear they came unprepared.” I have questioned some of the other warriors and none of them had an answer either.

“Some of us didn’t have a choice,” Astrid says quietly. “But I also know the things our government tells us is never the whole truth. We are shown only how great something is, even if that greatness is entirely manufactured. But when you’re continuously fed lies and led to believe those lies are truth, it’s often hard to spot the real truth when it’s being told. Especially ifsomeone else is doing the telling. People have been brainwashed to think they’re leaving Earth for some far off, magical place that gives them everything they already have and more.”

Her words bring me pause. “You did not choose to come to Tavikh?”

Astrid snorts. “It was decided for me by Grady. He made a lot of mistakes back on Earth, most of which I came to find out, after it was too late, were illegal. When my dad uncovered the crimes…Grady ran and forced me to run with him. He’d made me so reliant on him that I didn’t have any other choice. Although I don’t understand why he didn’t leave me behind when I’ve clearly been useless to him. I mean, he did try to murder me after all.”

I can tell she is trying to make light of what happened to her, but behind the soft laugh there is pain. My tail twines around her.

“Although the path to get here was difficult, and I am sorry you had to travel it in such a painful way, I truly feel as though Deeka led the way, because you were meant to be on Tavikh. I was meant to find you out in that forest and bring you back to the village to heal not only your body, but your heart. You were meant to touch me and trigger both my mating marks and my soul light.”

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