Page 6

“Nonsense, Nadzia, you were hurt,” he insisted, cradling her against him.

If he was a better male, he would’ve respected that she was attempting to assert some control over a chaotic situation. But he just couldn’t resist holding her again.

“Oh, do whatever, if I get to talk to Pro,” she huffed.

“Whatever?” His brow rose.

“You know what I meant,” she admonished, jabbing one delicate finger in his face.

That’s the spirit, beautiful. It’s going to be so much fun having her around.

One

Through the Rift

A Week Later

The other side of the wormhole.

Nadzia

“This is a new look for you. You’re a two-ply bonehead now,” she joked about the extra layer of bony armor Aculus wore as he ran through the clandestine government prison.

It was either joke or burst into a heap of tears. She never asked to be involved in any of this. She hadn’t asked to meet aliens. Who wanted to have their world turned upside down? But worse than that was the betrayal. Her own people blamed them, locking her, Abby and their father in this nightmare underground facility, forcing the aliens to come to their rescue.

She wanted to scream but held it in. The gunfire all around was deafening and there were so many soldiers lying on the ground as they fought their way to the exit. Her government did this. They killed their own soldiers. The aliens, the supposed bad guys, were using stun guns.

Dear God!

The five silver spaceships were just outside. They were so close. Aculus held her safe in his strong arms, while Ashtoret held Abby, shielding them as they ran toward the cruiser in the middle. Their father and the other Osivoire followed a few paces behind. They were barely inside when the terrible blast rocked the ship.

Dad! Terror overwhelmed her. Her life collapsed in that one horrific explosion.

How could Aculus’ people fix this? She stared at her father, still as death, in the glass pod. His leg was missing, half his body charred from the missile. The military her father dedicated his life to fired on them. Nothing would ever be the same again.

“No!” Nadzia bolted upright in bed.

She sighed as she looked around her quarters on the spaceship.

It was a nightmare.

But it wasn’t just a nightmare. All of it and more had happened to her and her family.

“Oh,” she groaned as she got out of bed, realizing her sister’s departure was undoubtedly why she’d had the depressing flashback. Abby was leaving to go to an alien planet with her new husband, while Nadzia and their mom went to the bony warrior’s home with their dad.

After throwing on some clothes she left her quarters. Slowly she trudged down the corridor of the massive ship, dreading saying goodbye to Abby, even though it was only for a short time. It reminded her that soon she’d have to say goodbye to her sisters for good.

Don’t be so glass half empty,she admonished herself.You get to see Pro soon.She’d talked to Pro herself and still it was hard to believe her sister was alive after going missing a year ago.Both your sisters are alive, happy and in love—with aliens that look like demons, but let’s not split hairs.Although Bethany and April, her older sisters, were still back on Earth and the feds were probably interrogating them.No, no, no. Have positive thoughts. Dad’s going to be better than new soon, injuries fixed that would have killed him back home.

Nadzia nodded emphatically, approving of the affirmations that had kept her going these last few days. Her life hadn’t been a roller coaster, it’d been the whole damn carnival, freakshow and all.

Ugh, she silently groaned.I’ve even started calling myself Nadzia.

She’d gone by Hope ever since she was little, when the Irish half of her family latched onto the English instead of Polish version of her name. She didn’t hate her given name, but it did irk her that everyone was calling her that now just because bonehead insisted on using it.

Speak of the man-sized hard-on.

She attempted to slink past Aculus’ door without being noticed.