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Place: Entering Earth’s atmosphere

Zorn

“Wake up, assholes.”

What? As I swim up from deep sleep, my thoughts are cloudy and my head is screaming in pain.

“Wake the fuck up. You’ve slept long enough!”

When my eyes open with effort I realize I’m in a stasis pod. Looking through the clear cover, it’s obvious from the filthy ceiling and close proximity of the pod next to me that I’m not on a Draalian military transport. By the length of my fingernails I realize I’ve been in here for months.

Although my body’s stiff and I’m still groggy, the first emotion to come hurtling at me is fear. I shouldn’t be here! Although I have no idea where here is.

After allowing myself a moment of panicked confusion, I slow my thoughts and move into fact-finding mode.

Have I been in a battle I don’t remember?

Was I captured and transported with my military cohort?

Last I recall, my brother and I had just returned to our home planet of Draal for a long-awaited furlough.

“You’ve been brought to a planet called Earth courtesy of our little pirate operation.

” The voice is piped into my stasis pod.

“Earth can’t produce males anymore and the women there are desperate for your cocks and your sperm.

We brought you here on a little off-the-books expedition.

We get paid. You get mates. They call it pussy.

You get all the pussy you want.” He laughs crudely.

His harsh, grating voice was speaking Draalian.

The muscles in my face harden as I realize one of my own species abducted me and brought me here against my will. They were brash enough to do it to a captain in the planetary army!

“While in stasis we updated your translator chips and downloaded lessons in their customs into your cerebral cortex. We’ve already held auctions. You’re all bought and paid for.”

Unkempt and disorganized armed males bristle through the cabin.

From what I see through the clear dome of my pod, it’s obvious these males hold no regard for common decency, much less cleanliness and order.

They’re not even carrying their weapons properly.

I wonder how I might escape. There are at least ten of them, and who knows how many of us lie captive in pods.

My hand-to-hand skills are good, but I’m no match for ten armed males.

One male slams his fist on top of a pod to my left.

“Fucker! One slipped out.”

The pirates mobilize, running toward my left. Laser weapons can’t be discharged in a space vessel. One errant blast would pierce the hull and kill all on board. They have to reach the escapee on foot to get close enough to use their stunners.

I watch every step of the drama as the male who woke me shouts and blusters, his microphone still live from his contemptuous welcome speech. Pressing against the top of my pod, it’s obvious mine hasn’t unlatched yet. The pods must be opening in sequence so we all don’t get out at the same moment.

“Fuck! The asshole ejected in an escape pod!”

I can’t help but mentally cheer the fellow who was lucky enough to bolt.

“Which stasis pod was he in? Let me check the manifest. Zoriss Krine, a captain in the Draalian planetary army. I wonder where the fuck he thinks he’s going.

We cannibalized the nav system on our last trip to Earth—that capsule can’t be piloted.

Wherever he lands—if he survives the landing—he’ll still be stranded on this shithole planet. ”

Zoriss! My clutchmate. My brother. My heart pounds in fear. He escaped in a capsule he can’t fly!

One Day Later

Annora

“Mom, I can’t remember the last time you were this excited about anything.”

“This has consumed me lately. I’ve had workers renovating the guest house for months and it’s finally ready for the big unveiling. I want you to move back here, honey. It’s lovely, and as I age it will be nice to have you so close.”

“Age my ass, Mom. You’re only about to turn sixty. Admit it, you want me close so you can micromanage me.”

“You wound me, Annora. I’m the furthest thing from a meddlesome mother. Here we are. Go in first. I want you to see it in all its glory.”

“I liked it the way it was, old-fashioned and cozy, but let’s see—”

I’m barely over the threshold when the door slams behind me with Mom on the outside and me inside.

“I love you, honey,” she says over my wrist-comm.

“What the fuck?” I try to open the front door and can’t even turn the doorknob.

“You’ll thank me for this later.” She’s too chickenshit to even have her vid-comm on. I can’t see her, only hear her.

“For what?”

I turn from the metal door to inspect the cottage.

“Holy shit, Mom. What have you done?”my voice is low and full of dread. This looks like the beginning of a tragedy of epic proportions.

There’s an alien male in the main room. Well, he’s not exactly in the main room, he’s in a cage in the main room.

Human men began dying off ninety years ago and there isn’t a man under that age on the planet.

Five years ago, human women began an active campaign to repopulate with alien species.

Three of which have been approved and are now moving here to mate with a select few women.

This male is from Draal. If I can read his snakelike features correctly, he doesn’t look any happier about this than I am.

There’s a muscle leaping on his scale-covered jaw. Eww.

“Mom,” I say into my wrist-comm, using my serious-as-a-heart-attack voice, “slavery is illegal. These guys come of their own free will. Why is he in a cage?”

“Your application was going so slowly. I just wanted to hurry things along. I used my contacts to buy him on the black market,” she says in the singsong voice she uses when she’s anxious.

I try the front door again, then skirt the cage to jiggle the handle of the French doors that open onto the back gardens, then I pound on the door in the kitchen that exits to the side yard.

All locked from the outside. My heart is thumping hard against the wall of my chest, my palms are sweating, and my mind is racing as I search for a way out of this fiasco.

“I hear you rattling the knobs. Go ahead, get it out of your system. You’ll notice I not only updated the cottage, I installed every conceivable mechanism to keep you inside until you and your Draal decide to mate.”

I scrub my face with my hand, then start opening kitchen drawers. No knives, although I don’t know what I’d do with one other than hurt my mom if I could get my hands on her.

“Is this about your desire for grandkids, mom? Because as I recall they’re not even sure his species is compatible with ours.”

“No dear. I watched my parents have a loving relationship my entire childhood. When I was of childbearing age there was no way to have children except through artificial insemination. That’s how I got you.

And we had a good life. It’s just that I want you to have what my parents had, and what I desperately desired my entire life. I want you to have a loving mate.”

“This is insane! I’d already applied with Heavenly Mates. I—”

“Why don’t you get to know Zorn? The testing says you’re 98% compatible.”

“Mom, have you lost your mind? You think buying him on the black market and caging him will result in a loving relationship? Plus, I didn’t want a reptile!

I didn’t apply for one.” I whisper, “They’re so repulsive!

” Then recall I read somewhere their hearing is amazing.

Crap. His blue eyes are staring lasers through me with eat-shit-and-die looks.

I wish I hadn’t said that. I imagine this isn’t his best day, either.

“Maybe I was a little impulsive, but he’s here now. Give him time. If you don’t like him, I was given a thirty-day money-back guarantee.”

Did she really say that? Like he’s a new piece of exercise equipment? I’ve never seen this side of my mother. Connections with the black market? What has she gotten herself into?

When I lift my wrist to continue my discussion with my mom, I see she’s turned off her receiver. Shit.

When it comes to business, my mom is a titan of industry. She’s thorough and honest and doesn’t back down. And she’s scrupulous about rules. Why . . . Then it hits me. She’s been crying lately and watching one old romance movie after another.

Damn her. She’s so fucking misguided, but she did this for me.

Every time we talk lately, she tells me how much she wants me to find love.

But does she really expect me to find love with this disgusting blue reptile?

And did she think this sentient being was going to forget he’s been jailed in our guest house living room?

During our whole shouting match, I’ve looked around for avenues of escape, searched for implements of destruction, and studiously avoided looking at the male in the cage. Now I inspect him.

He’s wearing a thick velvet-like crimson uniform with gold piping. It looks military. I’m carefully avoiding his eyes, though, afraid to see the blazing anger in his glare.

Finally lifting my gaze from his clothes to his face, I’m struck by how extremely alien he is. I put in my application for both of the other two available species and was prepared to wait years for one to become available. I couldn’t imagine myself with a Draal—they give me the skeeves.

His skin is reptilian, his patterning an interesting variegation of sky blue and royal blue. His lips are thin, his nose is flatter than a human’s, and I don’t see any ears at all. They must be internal.

The only thing vaguely human about his face are his piercing blue eyes. They seem to have humanity. I decide to focus on them, but can’t sustain it for more than a second. Assuming Draals have the same body language as humans, if looks could kill I’d be dead.

He’s standing in a military ‘at ease’ pose, his arms crossed behind his back, his legs wide. I think he’s been standing like that a while.

“Um, hi?” I say. This is awkward.