Page 12 of Alien Wants A Wife

“Did you know about us?” Lydia suddenly asks, as if this is the one question she always wanted the answer to but has only just gained the courage to ask. “Did you pick us out of a lineup or… what? How did Harlee, Briar and I get chosen?”

“Why— What?” Roan looks to Killan, clearly more confused than ever.

“We did not pick you,” Killan says, speaking for the first time in a long time, his voice so low it practically rumbles up his chest. “As you have taken a chance, we took a chance. If you dislike what you see”—impossibly, his voice drops another octave as he grows angrier—“you do not have to choose us, if we are so far from the Mates you imagined.”

Right… So the brothers know nothing about Humans or Earth. They don’t even seem to know that we’ve been abducted.

They, on the other hand, aren’t acting like prisoners. And Roan had said this is Killan’s house. So does that mean the brothers signed up to LOVE GALAXY without knowing that the women they’d be partnered with would be us? It certainly seems that way.

Okay. I take another deep, shuddering breath.Do I feel threatened?

I peek at the brothers.

Killan is pissed. But he hasn’t done anything to harm us. If I had to bet money, I’d guess he’d rather storm out of the room than keep up his side of this conversation.

Sorin is hovering at the far edge of the table, acting as if he’s too nervous to sit down and remain still.

Roan apparently doesn’t know what a smile is, because he’s stretching open his mouth to show us all his pointed teeth, and it’s creepy. His smile is analogous to the smile of a killer clown.Only, Roan has more teeth than any Human clown—rows and rows of teeth, more shark than Human.

It would hurt if he took a bite out of you.

Except… Despite the smile, he isn’t giving off killer clown energy.

Quite the opposite. He seems sweet. Friendly. Eager to please.

To guess, I’d say he’s the youngest brother.

Cautiously, I glance toward our newest arrival. Sorin. His scales are still more blue than Roan or Killan. He’s tall. Although probably not as tall as Killan. And he’s broad shouldered. A little bigger than Roan, perhaps.

Abruptly, he squeezes around to the back of the table, bumping into Roan and Killan’s chairs as he goes, until he’s facing the stairs. It’s like he’s waiting for someone. Briar, maybe?

“Cut!” Mr. Smith screams. “What are you doing?”

I jump, gasping. Lydia, too. Although it’s not us two that Mr. Smith is yelling at. He’s still out of sight, somewhere near the top of the stairs, if the echo is anything to judge by.

The mere thought of Mr. Smith gives me the sweats.

Then comes a new Human voice, someone who isn’t Chloe: “I’m trying to walk down these stairs without being insulted.” She’s almost yelling as loudly as Mr. Smith.

I want to run up to her, waving my brochure.Stop yelling. Don’t make him angry. He’s an alien. They’re all aliens!But I’m not positive my legs would hold my weight, and fear keeps me seated.

Selfishly, I recognize that if Mr. Smith is yelling at Briar then Mr. Smith isn’t yelling at me and Lydia. And he sounds pissed. Really pissed.

He wouldn’t kill us, would he? He needs us for his show. We’re the contestants. Without us, he’d have no story.

LOVE GALAXY: the intergalactic dating show where Human women are abducted from Earth to couple up with aliens.

I sneak another peek at those aliens, avoiding eye contact.

Sorin’s shifting from foot to foot, full of nervous energy. Killan’s got his upper arms crossed over his chest and is sitting low in his chair, clearly sulking. And then there’s Roan, whose mouth is moving without any sound coming out.

For a second I think something’s gone wrong with the translator-thingy he mentioned earlier, but then I realize he’s speaking silently on purpose, practicing saying my name.

He looks up, and I glance away but not fast enough. For a second, our eyes met. My stomach does this strange flip-flop thing. My muscles tense. I don’t feel threatened. At least not by him.

Instead, maybe it’s Roan who should feel threatened by me. Because I’ve just remembered what I promised Chloe earlier this morning.

I’m to make Roan fall in love with me.

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