Page 12 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas

Away in a sleep pod,

Barely room for your head,

Best stick close to me,

Or you might end up dead.

From ”Away in a Sleep Pod”

A Christmas Carol for Non-Earthlings by Sadie Malone

Xane didn’t fit in the Lythions’ minuscule bunks.

He’d had to gather up two of their sleeping mats and arrange them side-by-side, morosely noting that it would still be too small.

He wasn’t certain that Sadie would sleep on the floor with him, so he’d left one of the small mattresses in place for her.

To his surprise, she didn’t use it. Instead, she settled down on Xane’s makeshift bed. She’d clearly taken his claim that they should sleep beside each other to heart. Xane certainly wasn’t going to talk her out of that foolhardy idea. Instead, he added the third mattress to the row.

Sadie seemed content, nestling into her pillow.

Xane leaned against the wall, too aroused to risk lying beside her, yet. He wanted to do nothing that might scare her away. This morning, he’d been in chains. Tonight, any male in the universe would gladly trade places with him. All because of the tiny being curled up on his bed.

Sadie was a Weakness. There was simply no denying it. But she was his Weakness.

Triumph filled him. Since his enslavement, Xane had had very few moments where he’d felt triumphant.

He’d forgotten how the sensation heated the blood.

For the moment, he possessed something beyond price.

Something he’d never thought to have. Something men fought and prayed and bled and begged for.

A mate.

Yes, Sadie was a lunatic. And helpless. And she refused to have sex with him. And she would leave, as soon as she had a better offer. But, for now, he was the most fortunate man on the planet. Literally. If there were a vote, he’d be the unanimous winner.

“Xane?”

“Yes?”

“How did you become a slave?”

He reached over to adjust the light-control panel, darkening the chamber, so she could rest. His Rtaharion eyes could still see her clearly, even in the dim light. “I hired on as a mercenary for someone else’s war. The opposite side won.”

She made a face when he didn’t go on. “You’re a very succinct storyteller. Anyone ever tell you that?”

He instinctively reached up to touch the 1 Medallion which had once never left is neck.

It was now gone, of course. He’d removed it after his last argument with his brother, wanting nothing more to do with his overbearing family.

It had been a mistake. He’d been young and foolish, just like Hathgarr claimed. It had cost Xane two years of his life.

“You do not want to hear all the details of my captivity. They are… unpleasant.” Sadie’s naivety might confound him at times, but he also had no desire to sully it.

She was uniquely clean, in a world full of sadness and horror.

“I was with bad people, who did bad things. I fought them. Mostly I lost, but I created enough problems that I ended up here.” He waved a disgusted hand to encompass all of Corono.

“Drugged and sold to the blue salt mines.”

“Drugged and sold to me .” Sadie retorted lightly, as if she wanted to make him feel better.

Xane grunted. “For too many credits and at too much risk. You make bad decisions.”

“Sometimes. …But not this time.”

He frowned at her casual surety. “Why did you bid on me? The truth. Did you believe a Rtaharion would help protect you?”

That wasn’t a bad strategy, actually. As a small being, she’d sought out a larger one to act as a guardian against her enemies. Then, she’d chosen him as a mate, doubly sealing him to her. It was clever.

“I’ve never even heard of a Wrath-air-ree-on before.” She scoffed. “I told you; I just liked your eyes.”

He rolled the eyes in question. “You’re pronouncing it wrong.” He muttered, because she was pronouncing it wrong.

Sadie didn’t seem to mind the correction or his obvious doubt. “I take it you think everybody should know about the Ra-thair-eee-ins.”

She was still pronouncing it wrong. “Rtaharion.” He corrected tiredly.

“That’s what I said!”

“No, you didn’t. And yes , I believe that all worlds have heard of the Rtaharions. We’ve warred with most of them.”

“You guys are intergalactic badasses, huh? I totally see that.” She didn’t sound worried about it, though.

“But Earthlings just war with ourselves, on our own little planet. A few of us have been to our moon, but that’s about it.

I had no idea aliens existed until last month.

And you’re the first one I ever really talked to. ”

Xane’s eyes widened. “You…” He struggled to comprehend what she was saying. “Your people do not travel the universe? At all?”

“Nope.”

He tried to wrap his brain around that. “So, you truly have no idea who the Rtaharions are?”

“Nope. All of this alien stuff is new to me.”

Sadie had been telling him similar nonsense all day, but he hadn’t really processed the ramifications until now.

Her planet was apparently isolated and small.

Of course it was! The Milky Way was a backwater in the middle of nowhere.

That explained why she was so confused by normal things.

Why she didn’t understand the mating rules, or the dangers of buying a Rtaharion at auction, or how to keep a low profile in a tavern…

His thoughts skidded to a stop, backtracking.

Wait.

She didn’t understand the mating rituals.

Terrible, unfair ideas flooded through his mind in a rush. “Explain how marriages work on your planet.” He instructed warily, wondering how lucky this day was about to get for him.

“Well, different places on Earth have different customs. In Ohio, a couple usually says vows to protect and care for each other, forsaking all others. It’s very simple.”

“Not simple, at all, as ‘care’ is not a word that Rtaharions use.” But his possessive nature liked the “forsaking others” part. A lot.

“We have a special ceremony for the happy couple. A wedding is an important thing.” She stifled a yawn. “It’s a terrible idea to make a lifelong commitment to another person with one random word in a bar. You guys have not thought that out enough.”

“Spouses don’t part until death? ” He translated in astonishment. Did the women murder the men, once they were through with them?

“I mean, they could get a divorce. That’s a legal process to break up a marriage. But the ideal is to stay together forever.”

“Forever?” His mind raced, realizing her conception of what was happening gave him an advantage.

Sadie blinked drowsily. “Is that not how marriage works on Rath-er-in?”

He didn’t want to lie, but he wasn’t about to tell the truth, either. Also, she was still pronouncing it wrong. “There are few women on R tahar ion.”

“Is that why you left?”

“No, I had an argument with my brother. It happens often.” Their bickering seemed stupid now.

He would give all four of his arms to see Hathgarr again.

For so long, he’d thought he’d die with the last words they’d spoken being shouts of anger.

Now, because of Sadie, he had a chance to fix that.

“Hathgarr is very arrogant. I am the same, I suppose. But he is older, and this gives him a certainty that he is always right. He can be…”

“Bossy?” She suggested when he trailed off.

The word made him smile a bit. Xane was fairly sure no one had ever called Hathgarr the Ravaging Death King ‘bossy’ before.

“Bossy.” He agreed. “I wished for land of my own, to be free of his bossiness. So, I bought a ranch. It was expensive.”

“You have a ranch?” Her voice grew enthusiastic. “My grandfather had a farm. I grew up there.”

“Your grandsire owned land?” His eyebrows compressed. “Was he royalty?”

“He raised turkeys in Indiana. I wanted to keep the farm, after he died, but I was young and the damn bank…” She stopped and shook her head. “Well, it was a long time ago.”

“What are turkeys?” Xane asked, not liking to see her sad.

“Birds you can eat.”

Xane debated asking what “birds” were, but decided against it. He didn’t want Sadie to think he was ignorant.

“Turkeys are especially popular during the holidays, which is, I guess, why Christmas always meant so much to me. I felt like Grandpa helped make it magical for everyone else’s families, even though ours was small.

” She gave a wistful sigh. “My grandparents met at a 4-H fair, when they were teenagers. My grandfather was showing a sheep he’d raised, and my grandmother was watching from the crowd. ”

The word “sheep” translated to a creature close to a gratmyrr . “Your grandmatron chose her husband based on his livestock?” He nodded in approval. That decision made sense. “I raise gratmyrr on my ranch. They are valuable creatures.”

“Grandma liked sheep, but that’s not what attracted her to Grandpa. The sheep knocked him down and he ended up losing the blue ribbon. But, instead of getting upset, he laughed it off and took a little bow to the crowd. She knew right then he was the man she’d spend the rest of her life with.”

The idea of a woman choosing a man forever was so far out of Xane’s experience that he couldn’t even conceive of it. Especially one who lost a contest to a gratmyrr .

Sadie dwelled on her memories. “She and my parents died in a fire, when I was eleven, so then it was just Grandpa and me. But he loved to tell that story. It was kinda the same for my mom. She saw my dad walking into a pizza place, and she blocked his car in the parking lot, so he couldn’t leave until he talked to her.

She knew he was the one, from across the strip mall.

Grandpa said that’s pretty normal for the women in our family. ”

Xane very much doubted any women in the Malone line were “normal.”