Page 3 of Royal Alien Mate

Esmay couldn’t help but stare at the huge male Martian guards who stood along the walls. She sat inside the twenty-four-hour Martian Affairs building, waiting for a clerk to call her name. Her hands trembled in her lap. She hadn’t been so close to one of the Martians in a few years.

The guards were about seven feet tall, exceedingly muscular, and they had brightly colored skin. Most were green, but several were orange, purple, and red. They had fierce looking horns that curved back over their heads too.

Everything about them was frightening and intimidating.

She had seen videos of the Martians fighting like barbarians during the war, charging their opponents and headbutting them to death. Apparently, their skin was naturally armored and they were impervious to most weaponry. Though they were an advanced species, capable of interstellar travel and of terraforming entire planets, for some reason they preferred ground combat. From what she’d witnessed in the videos, it seemed they enjoyed fighting by hand, relished slaughtering the human soldiers who were trying to defend their planet.

Technically, the aliens weren’t from Mars, though their species name started with an M and was so long Esmay and most other people could never remember it, so humans generally referred to the invaders as Martians. They had made Mars their new home planet, after all, changing the gravity to match that of Earth’s and causing green landscapes to flourish upon the once red, barren planet. But they also had several settlements on Earth.

Alien savages. That was what her grandparents had always called them. Before the war against the Martians, Earth had been in contact with several other alien races, but all those who’d come before had been mostly peaceful. None had ever attacked Earth.

I’m going to become a savage Martian’s mate.

Her stomach flipped at the thought. She glanced around the room and noticed all the other women who were waiting their turn looked nervous and pale. None of them spoke to one another. She felt as if she were part of a vigil of sorts, observing a long moment of silence with all the other prospective human brides before they met their collective doom.

Were all these women as desperate as Esmay?

Judging by the tattered clothing most wore, she supposed they were facing similar circumstances. She caught the eye of a petite brunette sitting nearby and gave the young woman a sympathetic smile. The woman tried to smile back, but tears blurred in her eyes and her lips quivered, so she looked away from Esmay and stared at the floor while hugging herself.

“Esmay Cantrell!” a human female sitting behind a desk called out as her gaze swept around the room.

On weak legs, Esmay stood up and moved to sit across from the clerk, her heart pounding rapidly in her chest. She set her backpack down beside her and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. The middle-aged human woman wore a name tag that saidVivianand her hair was swept into an elaborate updo. Her clothing appeared strange, the material of her flowing blue dress shimmering with her every movement, and Esmay wondered if it was the Martian style. She’d never seen a female Martian though, since their numbers were so few.

“Good morning, Ms. Cantrell,” Vivian said.

“Good morning,” Esmay replied, forcing a smile.

The clerk passed her a tablet that displayed a questionnaire. “Please enter your citizenship number here,” she said, pointing to a line at the top of the screen, “and while I conduct a background check you can fill the rest of this application out.”

Esmay entered the number and continued filling out the application. It contained basic questions, asking her name, the names of her parents and siblings, education and work history, health status, sexual history, and so on. She answered the questions honestly, though her hands shook harder when she selected theI’m a virginbox on the sexual history portion of the application.

If her application was accepted, she wouldn’t remain a virgin for much longer. She would be given as a bride to one of the Martians. From what she’d heard about their race, they were trying to procreate as quickly as possible. That meant she would be having lots of sex with her new mate, didn’t it? At least until she got pregnant, that was.

It was crazy to think humans and Martians were sexually compatible, but she’d seen photos of the offspring produced from the unions. Scientists claimed the two races held a common ancestor, despite how different the Martians looked in appearance to humans, an ancestor who must have existed over two hundred thousand years ago.

Once she finished answering all the questions on her application, she pushed the tablet toward the clerk. Vivian pricked Esmay’s finger for a blood test and then smiled broadly. “Thank you, my dear. Now, if you’ll just go have a seat, I’ll call you back up in about an hour and let you know if your application has been accepted.”

Esmay drew in a deep breath. “Do-do you think I have a good chance?”

Vivian cast a glance at the nearest guards and then leaned closer. “Your application looks fine to me. As long as your blood test shows you’re relatively healthy, you should be good.”

“If I’m accepted, I’ll be leaving Earth right away, is that correct?” Esmay had heard spaceships regularly departed Earth for Mars, most of them containing mail order brides to be delivered to their new mates, though some were simply supply ships. Many of the factories on Earth specifically manufactured goods intended for Mars.

“Yes, the next ship is scheduled to depart in a few hours. Don’t worry, your application and blood test will be processed before then, I assure you.”

“Thank you.” Esmay watched as Vivian handed the tablet, as well as her blood sample, to a passing assistant who immediately walked through an automatic door situated behind the rows of desks. Before the door closed, Esmay caught sight of more Martian guards standing along the walls of a long hallway lined with doors.

She returned to her seat with her backpack, her heart in her throat. She felt perfectly healthy and prayed everything with her blood test came back okay. If her plan failed, then her father would end up in jail, or, possibly both her parents, if a judge didn’t accept her father’s declaration that the debt solely belonged to him.

She glanced at a nearby guard and felt a stab of hatred. If it weren’t for the Martians’ absolute rule over Earth, her parents probably wouldn’t be in such dire financial straits. The former United States had been divided into twenty-four zones, and each was ruled by a Martian governor appointed by the King of Mars. Other countries had been divided into zones as well, and the Martians ruled the entirety of Earth with an iron fist, squashing any hint of rebellion with deadly force.

If the newest governor hadn’t raised taxes, her parents wouldn’t be so behind in both taxes and rent. The guard she was staring at turned his head to meet her eyes and she immediately glanced away. A shiver ran through her. His eyes had been black and cold. Would her future mate have the same dark, frightening gaze?

She clasped her hands tightly in her lap to keep them from shaking so hard.Please let my future mate be kind. She swallowed hard and tried to remain calm as she awaited the results of her application and blood test. Over an hour passed and her impatience kept growing, alongside her nervousness.

She couldn’t believe it had come to this. She couldn’t believe she was actually offering herself to the Martians. From the corner of her eye, she kept peeking at Vivian, but the woman was continuously busy with other prospective brides.

But finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes of waiting, the clerk called Esmay’s name.

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