Page 35 of Chosen By the Alien King
“I’ll give you five million credits,” June said with all the confidence in the galaxy.
Mike nodded slowly.“No strings?No digital trail?”
June’s voice dropped to a low, dangerous whisper.“Does this look like amateur hour to you?”
Mike grinned.“No, it does not.”
June turned away from him and gave him a dismissive wave as she started down the porch steps.“You have my email.Send me your bank info, and you’ll have your credits within two hours.”
“I have your word?”he called after her.
“You have my email.In my world, that’s better than my word,” she said without looking back.
That was probably one of the most badass encounters I’d ever witnessed.
“I want to be June when I grow up,” I whispered.
“That’s what I was going to say,” Darc agreed.
“And we got it all on film,” Mosely said with a broad grin, folding his holographic computer into his pocket.
Maxx pressed a kiss to my temple and sighed his relief.
“We’ll wait for him to send that email,” I said.
“And I’ll forward everything once again to the news stations and the universal police,” Mosely added.“And yes, Maxx, in Comic Sans.It’ll work.Trust me.”
I wound myself into Maxx’s arms.While we waited for justice, we had a reality show to lose and then an entire future to look forward to.
I could hardly wait.
Chapter seventeen
Maxx
Eleven Months Later
Ourshuttle’sengineswhirredslowly, their gentle drone mixing with the lapping waves and the rustle of wind through the jungle outside.
Klio-3 had dramatically changed since we’d last been here.Now, it was a sight to behold—lush and vibrant, with jungles sprawling for miles in every direction.Vines twisted up both vacant, neglected beach houses, and giant ferns dotted the much smaller beaches and swayed gently in the ocean breeze.
We had no reason to be here other than a quick stop on our way to Earth to visit Nera’s parents and introduce them to their newborn grandchild.But we wanted to come back to where our love story really began with sand and sunsets, danger and deceit, passion and tenderness.
The platform where we’d filmed had been reclaimed by nature.Weeds grew through cracks in the floorboards, and bioluminescent mushrooms and moss covered much of the handrails.
I took it all in from the shuttle’s viewscreen, reliving memories from when we were on the show.
The last I’d heard, Pete had made it to Universal Hollywood and was filming an action movie that was supposedly already creating a lot of buzz.More than anything, I hoped he was happy doing what he enjoyed and licking cameras everywhere.
Nera had hired Oreo and Smitha to be her own personal style team, to which they’d immediately agreed.Now, though, they were off honeymooning, the two of them as happily married as Nera and me.
Miekil had headed back to his home planet, and after some sweet-talking from Nera “to encourage our bromance,” he’d agreed to come visit and meet our baby in a few months.It would be great to see him again.
The rest of the cast and crew had all but vanished the day Nera and I got voted off the show.
“My god, look at how much it’s changed,” Nera murmured, not wanting to wake our baby in her arms.
Her name was Nyxx, and she was the most perfect little girl who’d ever been born, other than Roxxanne and Lucy, of course.Her tiny fists were clenched tightly in sleep, her features mirroring both of her adoring parents.Nera’s bottomless brown eyes shot through with jagged purple lightning bolts.A mix of silvery skin and scales.And a head full of wild dark hair that refused to be tamed.Even at six months old, she was a stubborn fighter.
