Page 23

Zoriss

I wake to an empty bed. After a night cuddling next to the furnace of my warm-blooded female, I feel a new kind of chill—empty.

She’s pacing. Even during our worst moments in the cave, she never paced.

“What’s wrong, sweet?”

Her glance is worried, her eyes too large in her face. I roll out of bed and hug her from behind, resting my chin on the top of her head.

“We’re a team. Tell me.”

She shakes her head, wiggling me as she does.

“I’ve thought all night and can’t think of a way out of this predicament.

I’ve crawled all over the Internet on the pad I brought from home.

There are no exceptions. There are laws that address black market males.

They’re to be welcomed to a Newcomer facility and given the choice of being vetted, then they’re to find a mate through the proper channels, or be given an all-expense-paid trip home.

“That’s it. The women who explained those rules to you weren’t lying. I would need to have already registered with an agency. It’s too late for them to even consider letting me be your mate.”

“There must be something in there about extenuating circumstances.”

She shakes her head. “I couldn’t find anything.”

“We can run, right? Find a place to hide. If not the River of No Return, maybe somewhere else.”

“It’s a one-world government. Everyone on the planet has to abide by the same rules.”

“Then we go with my idea. Zorn is close. We’ll find him, then travel back to Draal. I’ll take care of you there.”

She looks sad, her eyes downcast, avoiding mine. I understand. I’m asking her to leave everything she knows, all the people she holds dear. I’ve already resigned myself to her refusal to accompany me to Draal when she says, “Okay. Let’s go.”

“That would make me the happiest male in the galaxy, Lumina, but I won’t hold it against you if you change your mind. It would be a big step.”

“We’ve found each other, Zoriss. I’m not letting you go, no matter the cost.”

We pack and leave the hotel, then follow the link I feel with my brother. He’s happy, so our channel feels wide open.

We drive for hours, but I keep getting my signals wrong. We travel northwest and just when I think we’re close, I feel him to the southeast. We’ve corrected our course three times, but it always turns out wrong.

He’s putting off a strong signal that seems to get more powerful with every mile we travel.

Lumina’s driving. “You’re sure this is right?” she asks as she hovers toward a motel that looks similar to the one we stayed in last night.

“I’m pretty certain.”

“We’re back in what used to be called Idaho. The one-world government changed the name years ago to New Lillianna, but Idahoans are a stubborn lot and we all still refer to it by its old name. The dingy motel never changed its signage. It’s proudly named East-West Idaho,” she explains.

We hover to a stop and rather than further inspect the ramshackle one-story hotel, my eyes are drawn to a van with a picture of a naked man emblazoned on the side. One leg is cocked, the knee pointing skyward so his thigh covers his cocks, but he’s naked all the same.

“The No Shame Sex Toys van looks conspicuously out of place, don’t you think?” she asks, slightly shocked. “I’ll be willing to bet my meager life savings they’re not from around here.”

Her tone is light and joking, but I’m not paying close attention. Zorn is here! I have no doubt.

“I don’t know your customs. How can I find Zorn without getting us in trouble?”

“I think all we’ll need to do is ask, Captain.”

We exit the hover and she grabs my hand and pulls me toward the office. I don’t know why she’s expecting anyone to help us. My only frame of reference is the mean female who called me a wog last night.

“What’s a wog?” I ask right before she opens the door.

“A derogatory term for you.”

Why did I bother asking? It was obvious.

She drags me into the small office and asks, “Seen any other Draalians around lately? We were supposed to meet friends here.”

“Friends? They could be brothers.”

Emotion slams into me so hard I can’t swallow. I’ve never been separated from my clutchmate this long.

“Which room?”

“Shameless,” the brown-haired female replies, “I mean No Shame. Room seventeen.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey! Want a room?” she calls after us before we’re out the door.

“We’ll be back,” Lumina tells her. “I’ll wait in my hover if you want,” she offers as I practically run toward room seventeen.

“Why?”

“Privacy? Do you want to be alone with your brother for a moment?”

It crosses my mind that Zorn could be in trouble, perhaps I need a weapon. But I don’t feel anything but happiness from him. And . . . arousal?

“We’d better knock,” I caution.

Zorn knows it’s me. I’m assaulted by his joy and connection. The door flings open before I can rap on the door.

There he is. My brother. Naked. As I visually inspect him, making sure he’s unharmed, it’s hard to miss the fact that he’s erect and there’s a naked female in here with him.

Well, I’m not certain she’s naked. By the way she’s clutching the bedspread around her, her bare shoulders peeking out above it, I would wager a bet she is.

“You met a female!” we both say at the same time. He looks Lumina up and down.

“Zorn, this is my . . .” I pause for a moment, not knowing what her signifier should be. We’ve never discussed it. I don’t want to overstep my bounds. “Lumina. She’s agreed to return to Draal with me.”

Polite greetings are exchanged and my brother motions for his female to join us in our cluster at the door. “This is my love, Annora.”

“So nice to meet you. I’ll be out in a minute.” She grabs clothes from where they look like they’ve been hurriedly thrown on the floor and scurries into the bathroom.

Lumina

“Sit,” Zorn motions to the rickety table in the corner.

It has two chairs. I slide into one as the two brothers hug each other.

You’d think reptilians would be voted the least likely race to display public affection, but they aren’t embarrassed to embrace each other.

It is so loving, so heartfelt, it brings tears to my eyes.

“You had me worried,” Zorn tells him.

“Until yesterday I’d assumed you were safely on Draal,” Zoriss says.

Annora slips out of the bathroom, now fully dressed. She lingers a few feet away from the action, appearing to take in the reunion with as much joy as me.

Her gaze catches mine and she says, “He was worried sick about your male.”

She acknowledged that he’s my male! I like her already.

“And Zoriss couldn’t wait to find your male.”

I run to the hover to get what’s left of the junk food I bought before I started my road trip. We sit around the table, both of us women on our guys’ laps. While we eat chocolate and relieve our stress, we catch up.

I can’t help but notice that Zorn’s gaze is glued to Annora’s hands as she brings the chocolate confections from the table to her mouth.

If I didn’t know better, by the look on his face, I’d think he had a boner.

Well, a couple of them. There’s something about her eating that seems like a private joke between them. A very sexy private joke.

“Give us an update about your time on Earth,” Zoriss says as he looks from Annora to Zorn and back again.

“Well,” Annora starts off, “I think it would be fair to say we got off to a rocky start.”

Zoriss and I exchange furtive glances, then I minutely inspect the chipped table under my fingers. I doubt their rocky start could be any rockier than ours.

“My mom bought Zorn on the black market.” She has the decency to look embarrassed as she shrugs. I don’t worry too much because it’s obvious they resolved whatever happened at the beginning of their relationship.

“She locked him in a cage in our guest house, then locked me in the house with him.”

“Rocky.” Zorn nods as if his one-word answer explains everything.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I found Draalians unattractive,” Annora says as she wipes a non-existent smudge of food from Zorn’s mouth with her thumb, then gives him a magma-hot look that promises ‘later’.

“Repulsive,” Zorn corrects without rancor.

“No offense, Zoriss.” She glances his way for a moment, then adds, “Draals? Totally repulsive.” She stops her narrative and kisses Zorn soundly on the lips.

The look in her eyes is so soft and loving it makes me wonder what happened to change her repulsion into love because that’s certainly her emotion now.

“We decided to make the best of it and agreed he wouldn’t kill me and I wouldn’t force him to eat any family pets. ”

Seriously?

“That didn’t last long until, you know, torpor.”

Zoriss shoots his brother a concerned look.

“I’m fine,” Zorn reassures him.

“Then we escaped together in the No Shame van with a bunch of malfunctioning sexbots in the back,” Zorn adds as he puts his arm around Annora and tucks her even closer to him.

“No shit?” I ask. Malfunctioning sexbots? Sounds like it might have provided some comic relief.

“We were on a cross-country race to find you, Zoriss. I even had to pretend I was one of the bots in the back of the van to get through a check stop,” Zorn smirks. “I got your signal a few times, but it wasn’t strong.”

“I was at the bottom of a deep crevasse,” Zoriss tells him. “And close to torpor myself.”

“When we lost your signal completely, we wound up at Yellowstone Park, saw Old Faithful, got accosted by a lunatic fringe bunch of anti-aliens, and Zorn got abducted,” Annora explains.

“Yeah,” he says wryly. “What are the odds of being abducted twice?”

“How I tracked him down and saved him is a story for another day,” Annora says with a satisfied smile. “Although it involved getting shot.” She points to her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“So, in other words, everything went smoothly. And during all that boring downtime you guys . . .?” I point back and forth between them. “Fell in love?”

“Annora is my life,” Zorn says without hesitation or prompting, then shoots her a panty-melting look of affection.