Page 10 of Across the Stars (Cosmic Threads of Fate #1)
CHAPTER TEN
MAE
Mae woke to a sharp throb in her forehead, the ache pulsing hot and angry around her eyes. Her body felt wrecked, as if she’d been struck by an asteroid. She must have blacked out from the pain.
The last thing she remembered was walking across the pale coral-colored sand that shimmered like crushed pearl beneath the alien sun.
Her brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She wasn’t sprawled on desert stone. She was wrapped in fur, cocooned in warmth, with a chorus of birdsong and animal cries she’d never heard before surrounding her.
She inhaled slowly. The air was thick, humid, and startlingly fresh—not the recycled, metallic taste of the Atlantis , not the scrubbed sterility of human colonies. It reminded her of Gaia before the colonists had scarred it.
She braced herself. She was no longer in the desert.
From the heat, the weight of moisture, the faint scents of loam and flowers, she could guess she was in one of the moon’s jungle biomes.
Which one, she had no idea. The unfamiliarity pressed down on her.
She should have studied the landmasses on the map more carefully while she had the chance.
Her reliance on technology, combined with the fact that things had not gone according to plan, had proven to be her undoing.
Cautiously, Mae opened her eyes. She wasn’t blinded by overhead lights. No sterile lab, no test table waiting for her. She carefully blinked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, so she could see better.
And froze.
A massive alien man lay curled beside her.
His skin was tattooed in blue swirls, his horns arced back from his head, and long fuchsia hair tumbled around his shoulders.
His tail, tipped with glowing tassels, draped across her legs atop a heavy black-and-emerald marbled fur blanket that had been wrapped around her.
Dread slammed through her chest. She’d gone from testing the environment in the middle of a sandy desert to lying naked in a bed beside a horned, blue-skinned alien she’d never seen before.
Her pulse hammered as she lifted the blanket. Soft fur brushed against her bare skin—her clothes were gone. She was naked. And he… he wore little more than a leather loincloth.
A voice rumbled low, soothing, as if to calm a skittish animal: “Nyi xymu. Uwa’xolu ziskaw ayn. Muwauk.”
Mae gasped and lurched upright. The hammock beneath her shifted and swayed—not a bed at all but a web of vines suspended from the rafters.
Each movement made it dip and flex like kinetic sand, swallowing her balance as she fumbled for stability.
Nearly five years in space had trained her body to crave solid ground; anything unstable beneath her feet felt wrong, and this shifting cradle of vines only magnified the disorientation.
The alien chuckled—a deep, throaty sound—and caught her before she toppled. In one fluid motion, he guided her to the edge of the hammock, then vaulted to the floor and turned, hand extended, smiling as if they shared some private joke.
Mae stared at him, bewildered. Why was he smiling at her like they knew each other? She had never seen anyone like him.
She’d only ever met three species of sentient aliens before. He clearly didn’t belong to any of them.
Three species she’d met before flickered through her mind.
The Vresqoxk were an arachnid-like alien species with a shady history of using alien hosts as bearers for their eggs.
For some reason, Earth’s leaders had formed an alliance with them.
She was adamant that she would never trust them, and had made it a point to avoid taking on any assignments that required her to communicate with a Vresqoxk.
Something about the alliance had always left her feeling unsettled, and that feeling had never subsided.
She thought of the T’sisk as cat people; they were feline humanoids who lived in prides and were led by matriarchs. They’d used only primitive technology before humans had found their planet. Since then, they had advanced technologically, but at the expense of their citizens.
Even though the Daextru and the alien in front of her shared some characteristics, they were fundamentally different.
Both had long hair, scales, and horns, but the Daextru did not have intricate tattoo-like patterns all over their bodies.
Additionally, the Daextru’s tails were thicker and did not have the strange shimmery hair-like tassel that was found at the end of this alien’s tail.
As she stared at the alien in front of her, she noticed differences in the body structure, too. The Daextru were stockier and exuded more strength as a whole, but the blue alien who extended his hand to her had the build of an endurance athlete—tall and lean but with a lot of strength.
She had to return to the Atlantis before the next pilot awoke, to ensure they didn’t pick up where she had left off and make a note of this discovery—her discovery.
“Where am I?” she asked, clutching the blanket tighter to her chest as she reached for his hand. Her gaze locked on his bright teal eyes. “How did I get here?”
His brow furrowed. He wrapped his hand around hers, engulfing it completely, tilting his head like he was trying to decipher her words.
“ Xa’me? ” His voice was soft, almost hopeful.
“Zaaa…may?” Mae tried, fumbling through the syllables. She thanked her aunt silently for all those years of babysitting cousins, learning to piece together toddler babble.
The alien’s smile faltered. He nodded anyway, accepting her mangled attempt.
Mae winced inwardly. She was no linguist, especially not one with a specialty in extraterrestrial languages. She was a spacecraft pilot. He’d have to endure whatever mess of sounds she produced until they found a way to understand each other.
“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered under her breath. “Woke up in his bed. He probably thinks I’m his.”
A thunderous beat of wings outside cut her thoughts short. The roof shook with bugling cries and heavy landings.
Mae gasped, trying to yank free of his grip, but he held fast, unyielding.
Two more tall aliens entered. Their faces softened into smiles when they looked at her, movements graceful as dancers.
Mae’s eyes went back and forth between the three blue aliens. Her panic stuttered, replaced by cautious awe.
She could see right away that they were related, which made her both happy and nervous. She had never met a family of aliens on her missions between all the human settlements, only single clients.
She hoped she was correct in assuming the alien holding her hand was a male, because he had more muscular pectorals than the other two, and now that she saw all three aliens, he was clearly more masculine than the other two.
His features were harder than either of the others’, but they exuded some sort of power that she was unable to put her finger on. As if they were hiding some threat that they would reveal if they were provoked.
They were all about the same height, but the older female in the middle was slightly shorter than the younger two, making Mae suspect she had met a mother and her two children.
The tattoos that covered their bodies. They were unique to each individual. A variety of colors, shapes, and patterns that covered their scaled skin from their necks to their tails and all the way down to their feet.
While the male alien she’d woken up with was only wearing what appeared to be a kilt-like skirt made of animal leather and vine cording, the other two also wore what appeared to be a top constructed from two triangular pieces of the same material.
Both of the women wore an abundance of beaded necklaces around their necks, each of which was unique in terms of its hue, size, and length.
Their collection was not only beautiful but also very impressive.
Mae would never be able to wear the like.
She always managed to get her clothes and jewelry caught on the strangest nooks and crannies of the furniture and machinery as she walked by.
The elder woman stepped forward, her eyes pale and white-shot, flecked with gold. Mae’s attention caught at once—this presence was commanding, impossible to ignore.
The woman touched her forehead, then pressed her hand to the center of her chest, her voice gentle yet resonant as she spoke.
“ Vin’me nyi’yvi. ” Her voice reminded Mae of her elderly neighbor, welcoming and full of wisdom beyond her years.
“ Ny’zyn Z’Aymo. Uwa’xolu. Nyi’ytan ziskaw ayn. Ayn’xen. Qe’asu nyi’ytan. ”
The male holding Mae’s hand hissed sharply, tail whipping around her waist, pulling her behind him. “Xa’noke! Tska sohask nyi xymu.”
Mae slapped a hand over her mouth as she gaped at the male who was holding her other hand. She had no idea what he’d said, only that he was angry—and that both women were fighting smiles.
Mae could only assume that his reaction was either embarrassing or particularly revealing. Whatever had passed between them, she had triggered something. Both of her children’s cheeks had darkened. She wondered what it was that had just transpired between them.
Bugles sounded again outside, followed by the thunder of heavy wingbeats. Before she could ask, the male swept her into his arms. Mae yelped, clutching the blanket tighter as he carried her through the doorway and into blinding light.
Her breath caught. They were perched high in the crown of a colossal tree, the jungle sprawling in every direction—endless green and violet beneath an alien sky.