Page 5 of Alien Daddies
Then she jumped.
Her stomach nosedived with her, but she stopped four feet above the ground, still standing straight on the hovercraft. Despite her queasiness and her breathlessness, she giggled as she slipped off the board to the ground beside the alien rosebushes. She took a few deep breaths and grabbed the hoverboard, turning it off so no one would hear the faint humming sound it produced before she stashed it behind the bushes.
A gust of wind hit her, making her ponytail flail in the humid night air. The salty tang of the sea breeze tasted like liberty, and she ran off under the cover of darkness, determined to make it across the island before anyone noticed her missing.
Come this time tomorrow, she would be a stowaway on an interstellar vessel headed for Phennulos.
Chapter Three
Torin
The alpha male of hiszoshinfrowned as his youngest brothers—triplets Nagen, Vilad, and Zane—ambled up the ramp of their warship, theRithona, stinking of cheap Earth wine and perfume.
“You’re late,” Torin said, turning to enter his code on the control panel to close the ramp. With a faint vibration, the ramp folded shut, transforming into a sleek gray wall behind his brothers.
“We aren’t late,” Vilad said. “The portal doesn’t close for five more Earth hours. We have plenty of time.”
Twins Kameel and Aras rose from their seats at the helm of the bridge. Aras looked the most annoyed, his thick lips curling in a sneer as he stared down Nagen, Vilad, and Zane. “The authorities have been asking us to move off the runway for several hours. All our other ships have departed for the portal back to Khanndora, in case you hadn’t noticed. This runway is now being used for the vessels traveling to Phennulos tomorrow morning.”
Zane shrugged, not appearing the least bit guilty. The scent of a lone human female wafted toward Torin, and he realized his youngest brothers must have found a willing partner to share for the evening. He pushed aside his envy. Between meetings with New American military officials and overseeing the joint training exercises between human soldiers and Khanndoran warriors, Torin hadn’t had the opportunity to enjoy his time on Earth as his younger brothers all had. Even yesterday, he had detected the scent of a human female on Kameel and Aras, the twins obviously finding the time to seek out womanly companionship.
Torin reminded himself that soon the six of them would have a mate to share. A female to call their own. Once they returned home, they would begin the process of selecting a life mate.
Though the trip to Earth had been necessary, Torin longed to return to the mountains of Ohma, the large continent on their home planet where they had been born and raised. Which made him cast another fierce glare at Nagen, Vilad, and Zane, the three of whom had taken their seats on the bridge. Though Kameel and Aras were skilled pilots and they weren’t expecting any troubles, the six of them always remained on the bridge until they reached the artificial wormhole that would carry them back to their home planet.
Torin sank down in the captain’s chair. “Leave the runway as soon as we have clearance.”
“Just a moment,” Aras said, staring at his control screen. “The hatch to the cargo hold is still open. Did we take on more supplies today?”
“Yes,” Kameel answered. “Gifts from Admiral Hawthorne and Secretary Baits. I believe the admiral sent several cases of wine from his family’s vineyard, and the secretary sent a cache of inferior human weapons, as tokens of their appreciation for our time spent on Earth training with the New American soldiers. Apologies, I must have forgotten to close the hatch.”
“Close the hatch and request clearance to take off at once,” Torin said firmly. “If we miss the portal window to Khanndora, we will be stuck on Earth for six more months.” Though theRithonawas fast and they would likely make it to the Interstellar Portal Array, which was located between Mars and Jupiter, with plenty of time to spare, he wouldn’t risk having to spend another day on this strange planet, let alone six whole months.
It was time to go home.
Kameel and Aras secured clearance for takeoff, and they were soon zooming upward through the layers of Earth’s atmosphere until they emerged in open space. Torin gazed at the radiance of the Interstellar Portal Array, a huge line of multicolored lights growing closer with each moment. Stars sparkled in the vast blackness of space around the massive structure, and the red glow of Mars and the white shine of Jupiter increased as they approached their destination. Torin’szoshinwas silent, and a glance around the bridge showed they were staring at the gateway to home, all of them wearing similar contemplative expressions.
Torin smiled to himself. They argued sometimes and they certainly had their differences, but all of them loved their home planet and had been anxious to return. He also suspected they were thinking about what would happen once they returned to Ohma. He doubted they would wait even one day before they began scouring the continent for their life mate. His blood heated at the prospect ofhuntingfor a female.
He wondered though, how he would know a certain female was meant for him and his brothers. It was saidXosohonax, the Great Spirit of Khanndora, would sometimes visit azoshinin their dreams, with visions of the female meant for them. Torin had recently started having such dreams, but they were so vague he wouldn’t know the female on sight. In his dreams, he saw her flowing dark hair, blowing in the wind and obscuring her face, and though her figure was curvy and womanly, she was much smaller than the average Khanndoran female. He hadn’t yet asked his brothers if they were having the same visions, as naught could be done about it while they remained on Earth.
It wasn’t long before they reached the array. The only portal window open and swirling at this time was the wormhole that led straight to their home planet, its familiar purple and blue ring of light glowing brighter than the rest of the portals and beckoning their entry.
Out the view screen, on the far right of the array, dozens of vessels were docked, waiting for their respective portal to open in a few hours. The portal to Phennulos, Torin realized, having memorized the order of the portals, all one hundred and twelve of them. The vessels waiting on the runway of Rissa Island’s Interstellar Port would no doubt be joining these ships in a few hours. TheRithonapassed the empty dock in front of the portal to Khanndora—all the other warriors’ vessels had already departed and entered the artificial wormhole—and Kameel and Aras navigated their ship straight forward into the swirling array of blue and purple.
Home. They were finally going home.
Torin released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and set about conducting another test of the ship’s systems. Since Khanndora was hundreds of thousands of lightyears from Earth, the portal between the worlds not only opened infrequently, only every six months by Earth’s measurements of time, but the trip through the wormhole took seven days. Though he longed to be home, he would enjoy the journey through the portal, as he often felt a strange but welcome sense of peace wash over him at random times while in the wormhole. But though he admired the view, he wasn’t one to sit idle, and Torin rose to his feet.
“I’m going to inspect the weaponry from Secretary Baits,” he said, sweeping his gaze across the bridge. Nagen moved to the captain’s chair, taking up Torin’s vacated seat. Though Kameel and Aras were older, Nagen had excellent leadership skills, particularly under pressure, and aboard theRithonahe was considered second in command.
Torin exited the bridge and took the tube down to the cargo hold. The chilled air hit him when he stepped off the tube, but it wasn’t quite freezing down here. Since many of the items in the hold were perishable, the chilled temperature was necessary. Though the main purpose of their trip to Earth was for the warriors to conduct joint training exercises with their human allies, each warship was also stockpiled with goods from Earth. Likewise, when the warships had arrived, they had brought many goods from their planet for the humans as well. Since the portal between their worlds only opened once every six months, storage space was not wasted on any ship that journeyed between the planets, even if the ship contained skilled warriors.
Most warriors from Torin’s home planet had traveled to Earth on larger warships that were owned by their government, vessels that transported over a hundred warriors at a time. However, wealthy families usually commissioned smaller and sleeker ships for their warrior sons, ships that were faster in battle than their larger counterparts. Torin’s fathers had commissioned the construction of theRithonashortly before their deaths.
He walked down the rows of traded goods and gifts from the New Americans until he came to the cache of weapons. He reached for one of the large crates, intent on opening it, but soon paused and cocked his head. His senses on high alert, he listened to the faint hum of the airflow through the ship and the slight vibration of the hull as they traveled through the wormhole. But every few seconds, he heard another noise. A noise he shouldn’t be hearing in the cargo hold. He wasn’t alone down here.
Then he smelled her. It was definitely a female. A human one, too. He inhaled a slow, deep breath, just to confirm. Yes, he caught scent of her again, and now he heard her breathing faster, as if she was growing nervous.
