Page 35 of Loved By the Alien King
Nera. What was wrong with my Nera?
As I neared Smitha and the tent, it vaguely registered that more feet pounded after me. Big and small. The Killian and Bling.
And Pete, rounding in from the right, his face stricken. “What happened?” he asked Smitha breathlessly.
Instead of waiting for the answer, I barged into the tent to find Nera sprawled out on the floor. Alive and flushed and a blanket covering the lap of her very short dress for modesty’s sake.
She reached her hand up toward me.
A surge of relief collapsed my knees, and I went down next to my beautiful fallen star.
“What is it? What happened? Are you all right?” I asked, my voice gravelly as I took her hand.
“I’m fine,” she assured me. “I think I just stood up too fast.”
But she didn’t look fine. She looked shaken and sweaty, and her glittery dark eyes were full of doubt.
The Killian, Bling, Pete, Smitha, Oreo, and even Umo swept in behind me and descended on Nera with frantic energy and buzzing questions.
“Give her some space,” I demanded. “Let her breathe.”
Everyone did except Bling, who knelt on Nera’s other side and waved a few makeup brushes to stir the air around Nera’s flushed face into a cooling breeze.
Oreo gasped in dismay, but Smitha clenched her arm and shook her head.
“Be nice,” she mouthed. “It’s Nera.”
“Better?” Bling asked expectantly, waving the brushes harder at Nera’s face.
“Um…” Nera gazed at all of us in turn. “This is really awkward. I’m fine. Really.”
“Do you want me to send for the doc?” Umo asked around puffs of cigar smoke.
“No,” Nera answered a little too quickly. “No doctors.”
I gazed down at her sharply. “Are you sure?”
She squeezed my hand and gave me a wobbly little smile. “Uh-huh.”
“I’ll send for some food and water, then. Someone!” Umo barked on his way out of the tent. “Food. Water.Right now!”
“Nera, please,” I said, trying to hear myself speak over the roaring of my hearts. “Tell me what happened.”
“I already did. I told you I just got up too fast.” She leveled Pete with an accusatory glare. “AfterI saw you climb through the air vents of Earth Space Fleet’s bunker. Mind telling me what you were doing there, Pete?”
Fuxx. I should’ve never let him film anything during my rescue. I should’ve known Nera would see it and immediately place where he’d been.
I looked to him, warning him not to say a single word while my lungs locked up tight.
“Me?” He popped his mouth open in shock and touched his hand to his chest innocently. “I was just filming a funny little scene for the show, is all.”
“Right, and you just happened to find yourself in Space Fleet’s bunker?” Nera shook her head. “A bunker that only has one entrance and exit and is hidden underneath the sand in a secret location? Really, Pete?”
“Wait a minute, can we back up?” A wrinkle formed between Bling’s brows as she switched her waving makeup brushes to the other hand. “What’s Space Fleet doing here? Are they part of the show?”
“Nera, you should rest,” I told her, squeezing her hand. “Don’t worry about Pete.”
He heaved a nervous chuckle as he backed toward the tent’s exit. “Yeah, don’t worry about me.”
