Page 2 of 80% Beef 20% Cake (Alien Fated Mates #2)

2

B arely awake, I braced myself and pressed the blurred register button on my wristport. My family doctor had ‘highly recommended’ using this tracking app a month ago when he’d first diagnosed me on Earth, but I’d put it off, feeling more alive than ever since arriving on Tern. “Idiopathic blood degeneration” flashed on the screen. My tongue suctioned to the roof of my mouth as I swiped away a stray tear. The news still hit like a sucker punch, as shitty today as when I’d first heard it.

Stupid body. How dare it stop absorbing calcium and folic acid.

My hand hovered over my face as I stared at the screen, wishing the helpful tips would disappear. Today, my symptoms were back. My limbs dragged as if they were buried under a load of wet cement, and I lowered my wobbly arm to the bed before my wristport smashed me in the face.

As the morning wore on, Geo’s dogs’ barking broke me from my trance. I’d been lying in the guest bed, a carved-out hollow in the ground, staring at the dust motes. They floated in the light flooding through the bubble-shaped windows lining the ceiling.

“’Kay, guys. I’m coming already.” I lifted my sluggish elbows over the bedside.

No wonder I had trouble telling my best friend I was sick when it had taken me a month to download a silly app. When I opened the front door, a blast of cold air hit me, and I huddled into myself as the dogs darted to and fro in the front yard. As they frolicked and I shivered, my mind drifted.

Six weeks ago, after one too many days when getting out of bed proved impossible, I’d turned down my lead costume designer contract renewal. The film company wanted me back after I’d won awards for the costumes I’d created, especially the armor. They’d been a massive hit and it had hurt my heart to have to tell them no. The memory of the smooth texture of the gauntlets lingered under my palms even as I watched Pika and Charz rolling in the snow.

The truth was, saying goodbye had been like losing a part of my identity. I sucked in a thready breath.

The wristport Geo had loaned me pinged.

TeyTey: I’m free in two suns. Does that work for you? Don’t forget a helmet ??

When the notification closed, my screen saver photo popped up. In it, my best friend leaned into Makir, his new alien boyfriend, with a huge grin plastered on his face. I couldn’t wait for Geo to get back.

The translator behind my ear, combined with the wristport text conversion, made communication a breeze. Well, except when it came to JayJay. I frowned. All the technological advances in the universe couldn’t bridge the communication gap I had with that guy.

While I went to hurry the dogs inside, a new lightness filled my steps. No way would I let a stinking blood disorder stand in my way. I could push through the numbness and tingling. Shit, I better get my ass in motion.

“Charz, Pika.” I whistled. “Let’s go.” I had a lot to do in two hours, or ‘suns’ as they liked to say here.

Ginger: Woo hoo! I’m so freaking excited to see what it feels like to fly on my own.

Fake it till you make it had served me well in life.

Bright overhead light filled the bathroom, where I rifled through bottles and tubes, all the way to the lint-covered zipper at the bottom of my cosmetic bag. I opened the second compartment, closed my eyes and snuck a tiny tab under my tongue, hiding it as if ashamed. Then, I slid the zipper shut, concealing my medicine deep inside, and finished getting ready.

Why did I hate relying on medicine so much? I shook off my ridiculous behavior as I slipped my legs into my warmest tights and added a thick pair of pants overtop. Today would be a good day. Today, I’d learn to fly a hoverbike.

Geo’s heated floors helped ease the ache in my legs as his high-tech blender whirred in front of me. The time for taking charge was now. I ticked off leafy green vegetables and supplements from the drop-down menu on my new monitoring app.

A second notification pinged, and I glanced at my wrist.

TeyTey: I’ll take that as a yes. See you in two suns.

While I chugged my chalky green smoothie, I ran my hand over the soft linobee mittens stacked on one side of the long table. Linobee reminded me of beaver hide, only white. My finger trailed over a copper swirl, tracking the liquid that eddied beneath the table’s concrete surface as if alive. I scrolled through my mental agenda as I swallowed another mouthful of fortifying sludge. Make three pairs of linobee mittens, feed the chickens for the enforcers, walk the dogs…

How had I accumulated so much responsibility in such a short time? After all, I was just visiting. But just like on Earth, show an ounce of competence and you get a ton of work.

The last month had been crazy. Who would have guessed I’d have so much in common with Geo’s new Lornian boyfriend? I now shared a stall with Makir at the weekend market. Despite giving none of the rush of adjusting costumes at the last minute while filming, it satisfied what mattered—my need to sew and create. Though my mind thrived on a busy schedule, my body and under-eye concealer supply struggled to keep up.

“I’ll tell Geo I’m sick the moment they get back from welcoming Makir’s new niece or nephew on Lorne,” I told Geo’s Jack Russell terriers. The dogs ignored me. Charz scratched at the sliding door to the solarium, and Pika nosed a fur blanket.

Excited about my hoverbike lesson, I danced in front of the sink, thankful my medicine had kicked in. The bright bathroom light underlined the shadows beneath my eyes. They’d returned, but I excelled at pushing through discomfort.

Though skipping the third glass of wine at TeyTey’s last night might have been the wiser decision.

After tapping a little foundation from my dwindling supply onto my fingertips, I dabbed the colored cream under my eyes. “Fresh as a daisy.” I air-kissed the image of my concealed self, then bundled myself up in a linobee fur-lined hat and mittens. After leashing the dogs, I ventured into the blue snow.

Two hours later, with only a few minutes to spare before TeyTey’s arrival, I swallowed a yawn. The dogs had been walked, and I’d laughed over how the chickens had trailed me around the greenhouse while I watered.

My legs were like bricks from walking through the deep snow, and I plopped onto the fur-covered cushion topping the entryway bench. My head rolled back against the warm pink earthen wall of the entryway. I’ll just rest my eyes for a moment.

I jolted awake at TeyTey’s voice. “Ginger? Ginger…what in the universe is going on here? Are you all right?”

The back of my head stung from where I’d knocked it into the wall, and I rubbed a still-mittened hand over it.

TeyTey leaned her face so close to mine that if her eyes hadn’t been narrowed in concern, she could’ve been mistaken for a lover about to place a kiss on my lips. “You know what Geo would say if he found you asleep with the door unlocked?”

She wasn’t wrong. Ever since Makir had come into Geo’s life, he’d gone a hundred percent alpha, and his protective instincts were in overdrive. Which might have been part of the reason I’d yet to tell him of my sickness. The shuttle to Earth would leave in six weeks. I had a hard time believing half of my vacation had already passed, but I had to tell him before then.

“TeyTey. Good to see you. The silly dogs wore me out, and I may have had a little too much hiscus wine at dinner last night.” I laughed, brushing off her worries. “I’m good to go. Promise.” I’d mastered my bullshit ‘I’m-fine’ smile last year.

A bright orange swath of fabric was wrapped around her head, highlighting the flecks of amber in her concerned eyes. The same material wound up her legs and extended past her knees like tall, loose boots hidden under a many-layered tunic. A dusting of glitter highlighted her forehead ridge—furrowed in concern at the moment. She had the same Rock Dweller gray skin as the men but stood just over a foot taller than me.

“Well, if you’re sure…” She hesitated. “Those dogs are a lot of work.”

My gut said she’d cancel at any minute, and I would lose this opportunity. Who knew if I’d ever leave Earth again? So, I blurted out the first distracting question that came to mind. “Why’s the snow blue here, anyway?”

TeyTey petted Charz’s head where he nudged her leg. “It’s normal on Yagras. What color is it on Earth?”

“White. Let me stick these guys in the backyard and grab one of Makir’s spare helmets.” I opened the sliding doors, and Charz and Pika bolted out.

TeyTey followed me into Makir’s adjoining hovery, where he repaired hoverbikes. She launched into an explanation, her shimmery forehead ridge animated. “I can’t remember the name, but the color comes from a nano-sized insect. Their blood is blue and has anti-freeze in it that allows them to thrive in low temperatures.”

“Seriously? I’ve been walking over mounds of blue bugs?” I picked up Makir’s smallest helmet, my I-got-away-with-it smile pointed at the floor as TeyTey laughed. A cold gust burst through the bay door, and I rubbed my jacket-clad arms against the chill.

The helmet clamps turned to puzzles under my swelling fingertips. The stretchy loop seemed to have shrunk, and the frozen copper knob had grown three sizes too big. Should I take more medicine? I brushed away the thought. The doctor had prescribed one pill daily, so I’d stick to that.

Makir’s smallest helmet shifted loosely around my ears, but I had no concerns, too eager to fly on my own. I linked elbows with TeyTey before walking to her hoverbike. I scooted on behind her, and when we lifted into the air, I ducked my face around her orange-swathed head so I didn’t miss a thing. We flew through Yurstille’s village center, past the yeasty scented air of D’ovey’s bakery, and landed in an open field to practice.

I stood beside TeyTey amid the piles of spare parts Makir had salvaged in the wastelands. His hovery couldn’t hold them all. TeyTey wrapped a thick wind catcher around my waist that would soften my landings if I fell and pointed to the grips at the end of the curved handle on her right.

“After pressing the ignition, you’ll place your hands here and twist forward to go.” With one leg swung over the saddle, she motioned, pressing down with her foot. “Step down with your toe to move through the gears and push up to drop back down.” She hopped back off. “For now, don’t go past second.”

She tugged once more at the knot on the wind catcher and checked the clamps on my helmet. “Ready?” she asked. Then she leaned in and hugged me. “I’ve never really had female friends before. There’s not many options on Yagras, and this is fun. I know you can do this.”

Her hug filled me with confidence. The threat of falling wouldn’t deter me, but my disease might. I massaged my useless hands to stimulate the blood flow. Seated, I ran through the instructions in my head once more. Push the ignition switch. Slowly rotate the grip. Shift up with my toe. And commit.

The engine hummed.

Yes!

Lifted.

Double yes!

Sputtered, then died.

Shit.

TeyTey’s voice guided me through a speaker in my helmet linked to her wristport. “Give it more fuel.”

I sucked in a breath. Round two. My legs vibrated as the hoverbike rose, and I leaned forward to get a better hold of the handlebars, giving them a tentative twist. I jerked forward, gripping the seat with my knees to stay on, but remained in the air. Oh my freaking God! I was flying, and so was my heart.

“Hell, yah!” I yelled into the snowy tundra.

For the tenth time, I jerked and glided over what amounted to a football field covered in blue snow, dotted with rebar poles. My cheeks weren’t sore from the cold wind biting them, but from the riotous laughter making my ribs ache.

Every time I took this corner, I fell. Not far, just a meter or so. And once more, I found myself in a heap of fluffy blue snow. So I got back up, deflated the wind catcher, dusted off my ass and tried again and again.

“You’re getting it, Ginger.” TeyTey’s excitement came through in my helmet’s speaker from where she stood in the center of the thrown-together track. “I’ll give you a passing grade,” she teased, “and make you dinner if you can make it through the entire circuit forward and in reverse without falling.”

Outside for hours now, I was as much in my element on the back of a hoverbike as behind a sewing machine. So what if my thighs screamed, and the telltale tingle of overdoing it strained the muscles in my neck? Flying, or I guess hovering, sparked a light deep inside of me. A thousand times better than driving a car or riding a bike. My teeth were so cold they knocked together, but I couldn’t get the ridiculous smile off my face. I tapped my helmet for luck. “You’re on.”

A shadow passed behind TeyTey where she waved her arms, sharing more tips, before I took off for a final lap.

JayJay’s deep lawnmower voice boomed even inside my helmet. “What are you doing out here?” He wound through the course and bent over the rebar tops, capping them with some soft frisbee-looking thing he must have dug up from one of Makir’s heaps of crap. “This isn’t safe.”

When did he get here?

TeyTey placed a reassuring hand on JayJay’s arm. His forehead ridge immediately flattened. “We’re being careful,” she said.

When he turned to face me, his forehead ridge bunched into a furrow once more. “You should be riding double in case something goes wrong.”

The smile slipped from my face. What was with this guy?

“I can sit behind you and instruct you.”

Seriously?! He was not riding behind me. I might have allowed another Rock Dweller—Sully, Tino, or Sannit—they had been nothing but kind when I’d stayed in the sono with them. A bunch of overly loud jokesters, constantly pranking each other like siblings. I could’ve been right back in my costume design studio on set, relaxed and at home, with any of them but bossy JayJay. No way.

“I’ve been at this for hours. TeyTey’s a great instructor.” My hands were starting to cramp, and I knew I didn’t have much time left before they seized as I rubbed them on my thighs.

TeyTey’s head ping-ponged back and forth, riveted by the exchange.

JayJay narrowed his eyes at me as if searching for something hidden. “Show me what you’ve got then. I’ll judge whether your instruction has been adequate.”

TeyTey harrumphed beside him. “You do realize I have a perfect driving record?” Then she lifted her chin toward me. “Yes, why don’t you show him what you’ve got, Ginger.”

JayJay was gigantic, and though he stood below me, his eight feet of huge still loomed. Gray-skinned and entirely hairless—as far as my imagination roamed, anyway—his three blocky fingers tapped impatiently against his thumb. With his hatless bald head shining in the weak afternoon sun, I guessed he was impervious to the cold. All of that I could handle, but his stern-faced, wide-stanced, loud-mouthed overprotectiveness I could not.

A rush of anger washed through me, and the desire to prove myself pulsed to my fingertips. He had no authority over who could and couldn’t drive a hoverbike. His permission meant nothing to me. “How’s your driving record, JayJay?”

He shuffled his feet until the tops of his boots met the snow. “I’m an expert in evasive maneuvers.”

Yeah, expert in evading the topic. “Sounds like TeyTey might be better qualified.” As I adjusted the loose helmet, I couldn’t stop my smirk.

I’d show him how independent women from Earth could be. I clenched my mittened hands over the handlebars and twisted hard, my cramped hands protesting. Throttle engaged, I surged forward. My hair whipped against my helmet, and the downdraft shot a burst of icy shards into the air, biting into my cheeks and washing JayJay and TeyTey in a powder of blue sparks.

I attacked the course. The twisted metal poles flashed in front of me one after another, like I was a downhill skier on a slalom course. Swish, swish, swish . My body slammed from side to side as I threw my weight into each curve. I jerked to the right then rocketed to the left, preventing the bike from fishtailing. Numb fingers cranked the throttle to maximum. Powering through the course, every muscle thrummed with energy.

My mind narrowed to a focus so tight that my physical body operated as if it were its own separate entity. My chest heaved and my heart boomeranged around the obstacles in sync with my bike. Guided by some unknown instinct, I skidded through the air sideways and switched directions. The poles blurred as the cold and speed stung my eyes, and I cranked my neck to tackle the course in reverse.

The last pole appeared quicker than ever before. I slammed the brakes so hard I spun 180 degrees, before lowering the bike to the ground and coming to a face-to-face stop with the open jaws of my audience.

I dismounted, my knees wobbling, loose like Jell-O, but I didn’t show it. Could my hands form fists? Nope, but I wouldn’t let on that that was a problem either.

“Bless the goddess Sola.” TeyTey jumped up and down. “I believe you are a…what do you say on Earth? Natural?” She walked easily through the thick snow and wrapped her warm body around mine in a fantastic hug. “Absolutely unbelievable.” She shook her gray head. “But as I’m not a Rock Dweller racing team member, and nor do I want to be, I’ll do the honors of driving us back to Makir and Geo’s.” Still grinning, she finally acknowledged the towering giant looming beside us. “Even you must count that as a pass?”

JayJay’s slab-like shoulders rolled, and one of his three fingers fiddled with the frayed hole in the knee of his pants. “That was reckless.”

My inner seamstress bit back an offer to fix his pants for him. I had to admit his presence might have made me up my game and throw safety by the wayside.

The cold seeping under the helmet sent a chill through my body. “And evasive maneuvers aren’t?”

His eyes, like a forest at midnight, held mine. “It’ll do,” he begrudgingly agreed.

TeyTey snorted, but much to my surprise, JayJay’s dismissive response didn’t bother me. Cold rolled through me in waves. The tip of my nose no longer had any feeling when I wiped it with the back of my mitten. Major adrenaline crash.

JayJay stomped toward me, flattening the snow around him, and then, as if forced, he stopped and spun back toward TeyTey. “Get her back to Makir and Geo’s before she freezes to death.”

Hmm… I guess he’s more observant than I give him credit for. Either that or I was more obvious than I wanted. Before I could stop her, TeyTey bundled me up and helped me onto the hoverbike, slipping in front of me in a flurry of fussing. Although much smaller than the eight-foot-tall Rock Dweller men, TeyTey still loomed—a force to be reckoned with.

JayJay marched through the field, following us, and bellowed another imperious demand, “I’m still accompanying you to the rocky outcrop. Your sense of self-preservation is skewed. Com me before you leave.”

Damn, that man was loud. His comment rattled through my brain, joining my chattering teeth. Why do I always overdo it?

“Honestly. What has gotten into that Rock Dweller?” TeyTey twisted so her words weren’t carried away by the wind. “Normally, he’s as calm as the spirit master guides in the Black Rocks of Nara.” Her eyes sparkled. “But around you, something special always happens.”

I had to agree. JayJay was a special case. I nodded, though she couldn’t see me, and as we flew, my mind drifted. Half popsicle, I questioned my stupid decisions. Why, while I was ill, had I thought it would be a good idea to travel off-planet for the first time? I shook that self-doubt away. I’d learned to trust my intuition over the years, and it screamed: visit Geo and bring him his dogs. Though something small niggled at me through my frozen core. Maybe there was more to life than a career. Something even better than learning to ride a hoverbike.

When TeyTey pulled through Makir’s hovery bay doors, my frozen shoulders finally dislodged from around my ears. Numb to the core, I sat in the kitchen as Charz and Pika pinged off my calves, the weight of their tiny paws unnoticed.

“Here you are, Ginger.” TeyTey placed Tern’s version of hot chocolate, black and tangy, into my swollen hands. A notification came through on her wristport, and she dipped her head to read it. “Sorry, I really must go. YimYim cut his toe in the lazy river, and Sully’s not good with blood.”

Thank goodness she had to go. My ability to hold a conversation had vanished the instant I set foot in the warm house. I was reduced to nothing more than a hot-chocolate-sipping blob at the moment. The sugar didn’t even begin to temper my current battle with exhaustion.

TeyTey’s eyes flashed with concern. “You’re sure you’ll be okay?”

Though I was pretty confident I’d pulled a muscle in my back one of the times I toppled from my hoverbike, and my inner thighs were likely bruised, I nodded, then dug deep into my reserves. “I’ve never been better. Did you see JayJay’s face when I rocked the shit out of that course?” Always a pleaser, I couldn’t stop the words that burst from my mouth. “In fact, I’ll be linobee hunting tomorrow. I hear YimYim needs some mittens.” I went to wave goodbye, but my arm floundered, and I passed it off as a thumbs-up.

TeyTey frowned, and her forehead ridge furrowed, the glitter adorning it long blown away. Her com pinged again, and as if by instinct, she turned in the direction of her house. “No rush. YimYim will be fine. I’ll see you soon, then?” She waved as she exited through the solarium behind the house. “Don’t forget to com JayJay if you go.”

My eyelids grew heavy as I sat at the table.