Her alien mate the mova.., p.1
Her Alien Mate (The Mova Alien Project Book 2), page 1
HER ALIEN MATE
TARA PAGE
CONTENTS
1. Serenity
Norq
2. Serenity
Norq
3. Serenity
Norq
4. Serenity
Norq
5. Serenity
Norq
6. Serenity
Norq
7. Serenity
Norq
8. Serenity
Norq
9. Serenity
Norq
10. Serenity
Norq
11. Serenity
Norq
12. Serenity
Norq
13. Serenity
Norq
14. Serenity
Norq
15. Serenity
Norq
16. Serenity
Norq
17. Serenity
Norq
18. Serenity
Norq
19. 19. Serenity
Norq
20. Serenity
Norq
21. Serenity
Norq
22. Serenity
Norq
23. Serenity
Norq
24. Serenity
Norq
25. Serenity
Norq
Epilogue
Chapter One
SERENITY
I gazed up at the rust colored sky. Twin suns perched beside each other, glowing down on the Movan planet, casting its rays across my cheeks and shoulders, warming them. As if to offer up a generous welcome. I could only pray that the rest of my visit here would go as seamlessly and smoothly as it had gone so far, but I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that.
If only I could quell some of the nervous rustling in my brain, taper some of the intensity of the restlessness churning in my stomach.
It had been a long journey from Earth to Mova. Our unit of two dozen humans traveled through a wormhole to reach this Movan planet centered in a galaxy roughly seventy-seven light years from earth.
I was exhausted and hungry, but excited for the challenges ahead, ready to leave my mark on a new planet. Honored to be a part of something bigger than myself. I’d been hand selected by the intergalactic space travel organization, snagging a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on Mova and try to help the population there affected by a problematic sickness spreading through its lands.
The line for the shuttle moved forward and I shuffled along with it, trying to vaporize my doubts and worries for what came next. I’d come a long way, and not just spanning the light years and the galaxies, either.
Growing up, I’d had it rough. My father ran a backhoe service for a living. He wasn’t happy, and wanted everybody to know it, and be miserable just like he was.
When I was little, often times, he wouldn’t come home until well after the street lamps had switched on, painting their oily yellow stain across the sidewalks and the angles of the rooftops of our lower-middle class neighborhood.
Once night fell, my older sisters and I would come bursting through the front door with scrapped knees, dirt under our fingernails, our mother complaining at our heels to wash up for dinner and to be quick about it.
My sisters and I had learned from an early age that when my father came home in one of his grumpy moods, it was better if we just stayed out of his way.
I’d earned a full-ride scholarship to Augusta University and got the hell out of there, leaving everything behind to achieve my medical degree. I’d worked my ass off to get to where I was standing, among the most unique scholars and scientists that the earth had to offer. With rocks and sand and dirt under our boots now, with ocean waves crashing and swelling behind us.
Memories rushed through my mind like water barreling through a dam. I shook my head to keep those memories from clogging up my brain and glanced down at the assignment notes on my tablet.
An epidemic was spreading across the Base City region of the continent of Thorzo Rex. This shuttle was going to take our group of physicians, me included, to a country there called Belakrika.
The Prime Minister of this country, a Movan named Unchu, had handed down a set of specific, detailed instructions to our group on where we’d be living, what we’d be doing upon arrival, and the rules and regulations that the city had in place, and that we were expected to implicitly follow.
We were there as doctors first, and second, liaisons for the Movan Alien Project, sent on behalf of Earth, to determine if the specific region of Thorzo Rex would be deemed a safe place for humans to colonize after resources and lands on Earth continued to dissipate and die. We’d have to figure out what was causing the epidemic, learn how to stop it from spreading, and take it from there.
I was so engrossed by the information on my tablet, that I didn’t notice until the side of my face smacked into the hard chest of someone standing in front of me.
I lifted my eyes, prepared to apologize for bumping into them. I grew up in a home where I had to walk on eggshells and tiptoe around a father with an explosive temper. As an adult, I avoided confrontation at all costs.
When I lifted my head, the words of apology dissolved and drained down the back of my throat. Standing before me, well, more like looming, was a Movan. He looked like a soldier. Built like a sculpture of pure, solid muscle, he was the most beautiful alien creature I’d ever seen in my life. I’d seen pictures of the males roaming Mova, sure, but standing there—in the flesh—those pictures didn’t do the real thing justice.
His chest muscles flexed under a tight black uniform shirt. His white hair was pulled back into a warrior knot. A jagged scar on the left side of his face was raised and prominent, as if to proudly declare its owner was a fighter.
His eyes, as green as a meadow in a spring valley, were darker in contrast to the green of his skin. Those piercing eyes flashed, and a sliver of amusement crinkled in the corners. His bottom lip curled upward as if he was trying to smile but fell short of accomplishing it. Despite my best efforts, my breath hitched, and I stared at the rapturing beauty of him.
I stumbled backward a step, watching his eyes widen from alarmed to guarded, which set me on edge.
“Sor—sorry,” I said. “I was just reading through the instructions for the flight, and I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.”
His skittish eyes roamed over me, more out of curiosity than annoyance, tapering some of my own irritation.
A knot formed in my stomach, but it wasn’t one of angst. It was something of…desire? I slammed that door shut in my mind before it had a chance to spread. I licked my lips and tried to move past him, but he flinched, moving his torso ever so slightly to the right to keep me from squeezing through the line to the deck of the shuttle.
“What’s your name?” His voice was a low rumble coming from somewhere deep in his throat.
I tilted my head, giving him a quizzical glance. A muscle in his lip twitched. His white brow quirked. If he was sizing me up, I was going to match it. His stare made my heart pound, but I wasn’t about to let it show.
“You tell me yours first.”
Humor lit up in his eyes and some of the tension eased in my shoulders. “Norq Areans of Thorzo.”
“Wow. That’s quite a mouthful to say.”
His quirked eyebrow wrinkled; his pasture-colored eyes narrowed.
“Sorry. I just mean—never mind. I sighed and reached out a hand, the one not holding the tablet, to shake with him. As soon as our hands touched, and his fingers slid around mine, the callouses of his thumb grazed the inside of my palm. My breath froze in my lungs. It took me a moment to find my voice.
“I’m Serenity Rivera. From Earth.”
A twitching muscle feathered in his jaw, along with a fleeting glimmer of recognition that confused me.
“I gathered as much,” he said.
“Are you on this shuttle to Thorzo Rex?”
“I am. It’s where I’m from, originally. His eyes flitted to the ground. “Not that I’m excited for the mission.”
“You’re not?”
A storm cloud darkened in his eyes, and my spine locked. A moment later, like a flash in the pan, that green pasture returned in those piercing eyes, leaving me confused, and intrigued.
“Are you excited?” He asked.
I pretended not to notice how he bounced the attention back to me.
I took a deep breath and tapped the tablet against my palm. “Well, I’m excited to get started on the aid efforts.”
“Ah, so you don’t know what you’re getting into.”
A jolt went through my heart. “Is there something I should be worried about?”
“Shouldn’t anyone be concerned about heading to a disease ridden country?”
I studied him for a moment, scanning the grooves of his face, the contours of his cheekbones, the sharp angle of his jawline. He was more than a little handsome.
However, he was flustering me, and my defenses went to the frontline, ready to make their first strike. “I’m highly qualified and trained for such circumstances, thank you very much. I plan to focus, keep my head down, and stay out of drama. I’m here to do a job, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Norq’s shrug was casual and indifferent. His eyes skimmed over me again, and a trace of assertiveness, of smugness, fanned over his face.
“You sound like you know what you want.”
I paused, debating whether he was baiting me, trying to get a rise out of me. I watched his eyes simmer. “It’s not about what I want. It’s about doing what needs to be done. It’s about saving lives.”
NORQ
The human was gorgeous. I’d give her that. Tight, dark curls framed her face. Hazel eyes cut through me like a sharp blade through hard steel. Her bronze skin was smooth and unblemished.
She held her own, but I saw the way she wanted to shrink back as if she were afraid that I might hit her for bumping into me.
It took all my restraint not to let my eyes wander where they wanted to go, traveling over the two perfect mounds centered on her chest, the curves, and dips of her hips. There was a sparkle in her eyes that made me catch myself.
She almost made the fact that I had to go on this mission worth the inevitable suffering I was sure to experience.
A coyness threaded through the caramel of her eyes. “After you.” I gestured for her to enter the cabin of the shuttle.
I ignored the gnarling grievances plowing through my mind about how I did not want to go to those fields in Base City, where a crippling epidemic of disease and sickness and rot had debilitated thousands of its occupying residents.
A pulsing migraine had already needled its way inside my head, unrelenting. However, when I looked deep into Serenity’s eyes, those eyes the color of sand at dusk, a tree trunk in the forest, some of the throbbing between my temples faded.
After helping her register as a team physician member on the flight deck, we got settled in our seats. She slipped into a window seat, gazing out.
“Epidemic aside, you’ll like Belakrika.”
“Oh?” Her shoulder swiveled; her head tilting toward me.
“There are beautiful lands there.”
“I can’t wait to see it and get started.”
“What is your job while here?”
Her lips puckered, her mouth trying to form a smile in spite of her shyness. She gazed at her hands folded primly in her lap. “I’m a doctor.”
“What a coincidence. Me too.”
Her head snapped up. “You are?”
My knee bumped against hers in the small space. “I am.”
I was also a recovering addict. I swallowed down a knot in my throat. It had been a long and treacherous journey to sobriety. Freeing myself from the shackles of addiction was an everyday struggle, a battle I faced every day when I woke up, and every minute in between.
“I’m immune to the disease,” I said.
“I’ve heard it doesn’t affect humans.”
“That’s what I’ve been told as well, but we will still be taking the proper precautions, and wearing the proper gear just in case.”
“That’s smart.”
“Of course. They weren’t going to send us here unprepared.” Half-moon lines pinched around her mouth as she tried to keep a smile from forming.
“Just wait to say you’re prepared until you see what you’re going to face.”
Her throat bobbed at the warning. “How long have you been a doctor?”
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, aware of her eyes scanning over me as if I was a difficult math problem she was trying to solve.
I’d just met this woman, not yet ready to give her my life story. I was more comfortable with giving slices of my background instead. However, I found myself easing into the conversation, more comfortable around her than some Movan’s I knew.
“I think the question is, when was I not a doctor? It feels like forever.”
Her eyes brightened. “Yeah. I get that.”
“At least the process of becoming a doctor seemed to last forever.”
A spark went through the caramel in her eyes. “Well, if it was easy, everyone would do it.”
“That’s true. I should remind myself of that more often.”
“I’ve got all kinds of words of wisdom.” She tapped a finger against her temple.
“Lucky for me, I’ll get to see that wisdom for myself.”
She cut me a quizzical frown. “Sorry?”
I turned to face her and savored the words I’d been waiting to say to her ever since those dark eyes landed on me, ever since she’d confirmed her name. “I’ve been assigned to be your guide during your stay here on Mova.”
Chapter Two
SERENITY
My first views of Base City were aerial. Our transport shuttle came in for landing at an airbase where other shuttles were coming and going, and fleets of aircraft soared above. Some were taking off, some, like us, landing. Rovers and other vehicles on land whirling past on huge tires or robotic, electric tracks from the streets below.
Clusters of tall buildings stretched to the sky. As we exited the shuttle and stepped out onto the tarmac, each Movan guide escorted their specific team members to the proper terminals.
I absorbed the sounds and the smells of the city. The humidity clung to me like a cloak, weighing my hair down. I pulled it back into a non-nonsense ponytail, aware of Norq’s pasture-green eyes scaling me as my shirt lifted, exposing my midriff.
Heat traveled across my cheeks, and I looked away before he noticed me blushing. The bustling streets were cluttered with food and trade vendors. The sounds of horns blaring and engines humming, along with diluted traffic noise filled the air.
Steam billowed from food carts. The scraping sounds of tongs and spatulas grated across griddles. A mixture of savory, sweet, sauces, salts and garbage flooded my nostrils and confused my stomach.
Norq’s broad hand went to my back, his thick, green fingers dared to splay as he attempted to guide me along through the crowd. There was barely an inch of free space on the sidewalks, trudging through a swarm of Base City residents.
“There is more to this country than just the epicenter of the sweltering city.” Norq’s breath tickled at the dip in my shoulder as he leaned in to explain to me what the next steps would be.
From the airport, which was located in the busiest area of Base City, we would travel to their equivalent of the Center for Disease Control on Earth. It was an area on the outskirts of the city, where we would be set up in primitive tents outside of it to conduct our work and efforts to aid in the quashing of the epidemic.
“You will still have access to the best testing and state of the art technology,” Norq explained once we were in the rover.
I nodded, staring out the window, watching this new world blur by. Once we were on the wide-open spaces of the more rural roads, the closed-space rover went monumentally faster than any of the luxury cars on Earth could ever hope to perform. There was no competition. Even though it was somewhat exhilarating, I still gripped the side handle of my door for good measure.
“Don’t worry.” Norq’s green eyes bore into mine. “We’ll be there soon.”
I took a deep breath and steadied myself. I was born for adventure like this.
I tried not to bristle when I saw Norq approaching my field tent. I was in the process of putting a dose of medication into a syringe and I didn’t want to mess up the quantity. The dosage system was different than it was on Earth, and the math was complicated. I had to concentrate and focus. I couldn’t afford any distractions. The Movan who would be lucky enough to receive this dose depended on it, counted on the measurements being correct.
“How are things going over here?” He stopped beside me, glancing down at the bottles in front of me.
“Getting into a rhythm,” I said, not looking up, but Norq seemed agitated. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot, trying to busy his hands, patting them against the white warrior knot of hair atop his head. He paced a bit beside me.
