Page 16 of Alien Wants A Wife

“Ow!” Pain radiates up my leg, but it feeds rather than diminishes my determination. “You cannot deny that the only reason you do not already have a house full of younglings is that there are no Females on our planet.”

Killan grips the back of my chair. “You go too far—” he begins, his voice dangerously low, but Briar interrupts—either unaware of his anger or unfazed by it.

“No Females?” she asks, her voice pitching high in a question. “What do you mean there are no Females here?”

Killan snaps his mouth shut. Sorin shuffles from foot to foot.

I frown, again confused by their apparent lack of knowledge.

“We three are the entire population of this planet,” I answer, wishing I could rewind the clock and begin this whole day over again. “You were not told this when you applied to LOVE GALAXY?”

Chapter Six

The camera zooms in on Commentator Chloe. Behind her, in the background, are the six contestants, crowded around the kitchen table. Commentator Chloe raises a microphone to her mouth, addressing the audience.

COMMENTATOR CHLOE:

Get ready to be blown away by this brand-new season of LOVE GALAXY. We’ve met the girls. We’ve met the boys. Who do we think they will choose?

Harlee

The tension in the room explodes.

I blink, realizing how lost in my own panic I’d become. I must’ve accidentally stopped listening to the conversation, and now everyone’s staring at Sorin, and Sorin himself is staring straight into the lens of the closet camera—exactly what we’ve been told not to do.

“I choose Briar,” he announces, as if he’s the contestant of a reality game show, not a dating show, and has been asked bythe host which of the two suitcases he’ll open for the chance of winning a million bucks.

And maybe he was asked. Maybe that’s the part of the conversation I missed hearing.

Judging by everyone’s expression, though… I’m guessing Sorin has gone off script.

“Cut!” Mr. Smith digs his chin into the hard rolls of skin surrounding his neck, reminding me of an ostrich trying to bury its head in the sand. There’s saliva gathering in the corners of his mouth and a mad glint in his eye, kind of how you’d imagine Frankenstein might have looked when he was creating his monster. “You can’t make demands like that,” he tells Sorin. “That isn’t how LOVE GALAXY works.”

“Are there rules?” Briar asks, extremely skeptically. She doesn’t seem to care that half the people in the room are aliens or that she’s pissing off the already-cranky director. It’s like she doesn’t care if she gets the villain edit—or no edit at all.

“Yes!” Mr. Smith’s tail flicks. “You must get to know all the Females before picking your Mate on the last day of filming,” he says, speaking to Sorin.

Sorin doesn’t say anything. He simply stares at Mr. Smith, clearly imagining shoving Mr. Smith’s head through the closest wall. I can’t blame him. I think maybe I’d enjoy shoving Mr. Smith’s head through a wall.

Because surely it’s all Mr. Smith’s fault that we’re here,on an alien planet!He was the one who pretended to be a lawyer. He was the one who lured us into his office with the promises of fame and fortune.

Oh, and love, of course.

Pain stings my index finger, and I clench my hands into fists. I hadn’t realized I’d been picking at my cuticles until one had bled. It’s a nervous habit of a lifetime.

Briar rolls her eyes, clearly without the time or energy to deal with Mr. Smith’s tantrum. “Was kidnapping three innocent women and hauling them to a new planet against their wills part of your so-called rules?” she demands, not pulling her verbal punches.

“What?” Killan stands so swiftly his chair falls over. It hits the flagstone floor with a bang that has me flinching. “What have you done?”

Across the table, Roan’s mouth drops open.

I study him closely, the alien I’m supposed to date.

From the answers he’d given to our earlier questions, I’d suspected he didn’t know about our abduction. His reaction is all the remaining proof I need.

Nobody is that good of an actor.

Nobody on reality TV, that is.

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