Page 36 of My Monster, My Choice

By the time we cut across the field, there’s a small gathering of people to see Elex off. I clutch his hand, then loosen my grip when I realize I should be blasé. I shouldn’t have such tight features like I want to cry.

Like this is the end.

As much as I want him to find a nice girl to mate with and move on to having dozens of babies, I absolutely hate it too.

“Elex,” Mikhails says. “Ready to leave? It’s L’inel coming through on your echo-trace portal, though it’ll take a few.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Not to worry. We’ll take care of them,” Jaire says, his eyes dropping to me and Kenny.

“I know you will, brother.”

Relion hugs Elex. “You got this. Work hard and time will fly by.”

Tera gives him a hug, her arms coming around his middle and I almost scoff at remembering how I first thought he was interested in my daughter. How far we’ve come since then.

“When you come back, it’ll seem like you never left,” she says.

Kenny is sniffling as he’s squeezing Elex and everyone’s wiping their eyes. God, I should have done this sooner. I shouldn’t have let Kenny grow so attached.

I shouldn’t have fallen in love.

Something Elex whispers to my son has Kenny drying his eyes and nodding, a happier expression on his face like he was just given hope.

Elex turns to me. He sweeps me into his arms and his forehead comes down to mine.

“I will always be here, Christina. Say the word and I will be at your beck and call. Until then, my love…”

His mouth comes down on mine and I give up fighting my feelings. Our tongues meet and we’re giving each other lazy, languid strokes, feeding each other the love that we feel. Each person wanting the other to have it all.

I think I hear some sighs from the others who watch.

Elex finally pulls away and says, “I love you. I will always love you.”

Part of me wrestles with knowing it’s for the show. Part of me tamps down the instant glee that makes my belly swoon.

Part of me doesn’t want to lie.

So I bring my hand up to his face and whisper, “I love you too.”

His hand covers mine and I feel Kenny step up, inserting his smaller hand into my other. Then Elex takes a step backward, and the wind and lights from all the different realities in the portal carry him away, leaving my hand outstretched in the air.

My last image was of his face locked with mine.

When the portal dies down again, before the next wave of the echo return fires up, Kenny squeezes himself against me.

“He be backka soon, mum.”

ChapterThirteen

CHRISTINA

Six months later…

“Momma! Tella me the story.”

I know which one my son wants to hear. “Once upon a time, our planet nearly destroyed itself with the third world war. We lost three fourths of our people all at once and yet the danger wasn’t over. We’d poisoned our land, our air, our water. The remaining people would starve if we couldn’t grow food and drink fresh water. So, everyone who was left combined into one government to make better decisions, but it was hard. So hard. Decades later, we still struggled, with many failed projects behind us. But one thing that changed for the better? We no longer fought each other for looking different because over the years, our skin color merged. Our features combined. We were one race, not several. The human race. Man still struggled to find something to hate, those less fortunate, those who want change. In the meantime, the Britonians had left their planet with a dying sun. They reached an agreement with Earth to clean our water first, in exchange for a place to live. They parked their giant ships right there, hidden in the bottom of the ocean—”

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