Page 1 of Alien's Luck
PROLOGUE
CARLA
Carla’s feet swung off the back of the car’s trunk. The night was cold, the sky was clear, the stars were out, and the ice cream sandwich was calling her name.
Too bad about everything else.
Rent was going up next month, and the landlord wanted a ridiculous amount for a one-bedroom apartment built in the sixties and renovated exactly never. The blue toilet in the bathroom had to be original. Good luck finding anyone gullible enough to pay.
The rent didn’t matter because Carla was likely out of a job. For the last week, upper management had hush-hush meetings that left everyone grim. The supply closet was bare because the money people were playing games paying vendors, and, more relevant to her interests, the coffee station hadn’t been restocked in months. The company wasn’t doing well, and layoffs were coming.
Carla didn’t kid herself that she’d survive a round of layoffs. Her supervisor didn’t like her. He was probably frothing at the mouth to share the news.
She spent the afternoon scrolling through apartment listings, her stomach sinking further and further. It’d be smart to get a new place lined up while she still had a paycheck, but she failed to find a single affordable apartment in her current neighborhood. Not that it was such a great place, but it was familiar.
Anyway, she had a lot of big feelings and needed to shove ice cream in her face about it. Then her car battery decided to die on the coldest night of the year so far, and that was why she sat in her car, wrapped in her grandmother’s battered old quilt, and ate an ice cream sandwich while she waited for roadside assistance.
The stars moved. Carla nearly dropped her ice cream sandwich.
One star in particular grew larger, coming closer until it was apparent it wasn’t a star at all.
Carla raised her arm to shield her eyes from the bright light.
Then darkness.
CHAPTER 1
ARI
“How difficult is it to find one specific human female?”
Distance distorted the voice over the comm, but Ari’s wings bristled at the tone. The Nakkoni did not state his location, and Ari did not ask. Reazus Prime had its social conventions, much like any other place.
“Very, in my experience,” Ari replied dryly. “Was there a particular reason for your call, or was general harassment your motivation?”
A mountain of priceless treasure was great in theory. The trouble was turning the priceless treasure into something more practical.
Spendable would be ideal, but at this point, Ari would be willing to settle for disposable.
The human female Miriam tricked him. When it came time for the crew to divvy up the spoils, she sold him a pretty story about being a hero and convinced him to accept her portion of Mer’len’s legendary, priceless collection in exchange for a promise to find a friend and free her. While he liked the idea of shaping himself into a hero, he had not been naive when it came to the difficulties in finding one human female. Humans werea valuable commodity, and people noticed. He’d put out feelers and gathered the necessary information. Simple.
Except he underestimated the burden of having a ship filled with treasure. Filled. Not a few pieces tastefully decorating the place, or even a prized collection on display, but every surface held an artifact of cultural significance or made from precious material. Crates were stacked floor to ceiling in the cargo hold, making it impossible to actually use the hold for those pesky materials required to prevent starvation or death by suffocation.
Terribly inconsiderate, all things considered.
Frankly, the amount of wealth Ari found himself holding was rude.
And he couldn’t spend one single credit.
Static buzzed over the comm channel again. “I do not like your tone, Khargal,” Perrigaul said.
“If you want an apology, you’ll have to come here and get it for yourself.”
Ari knew Perrigaul would not. While the two had a working relationship, it could not in any way be considered cordial. Perrigaul would tear the wings from Ari’s back as quickly as Ari would shove the red lizard off a cliff. Plus, Perrigaul would desire to keep Ari as far away from his mate as possible. With good reason: Ari was better-looking and far more pleasant company. The Nakkoni was rough around the edges, lacked any sort of civility, and communicated through grunts.
Too bad Ari genuinely liked the male’s mate, Miriam. Of course, he had to question his judgment as Miriam was the one who tricked him into this situation.
The trouble with having an obscenely large fortune was that as the numbers grew larger, they became theoretical. Impractical to hold and impossible to turn into anything useful.
