The Alien Who Fell to Earth

A Nocturne Falls Universe Story

Fiona Roarke

Dear Reader,

Nocturne Falls has become a magical place for so many people, myself included. Over and over I’ve heard from you that it’s a town you’d love to visit and even live in! I can tell you that writing the books is just as much fun for me.

With your enthusiasm for the series in mind—and your many requests for more books—the Nocturne Falls Universe was born. It’s a project near and dear to my heart, and one I am very excited about.

I hope these new, guest-authored books will entertain and delight you. And best of all, I hope they allow you to discover some great new authors! (And if you like this book, be sure to check out the rest of the Nocturne Falls Universe offerings.)

For more information about the Nocturne Falls Universe, visit http://kristenpainter.com/sugar-skull-books/

In the meantime, happy reading!

Kristen Painter

The Alien Who Fell to Earth

A Nocturne Falls Universe Story

Copyright © 2017 by Fiona Roarke

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction and was made possible by a special agreement with Sugar Skull Books, but hasn’t been reviewed or edited by Kristen Painter. All characters, events, scenes, plots and associated elements appearing in the original Nocturne Falls series remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Kristen Painter, Sugar Skull Books and their affiliates or licensors.

Any similarity to real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author or Sugar Skull Books.

Published in the United States of America.

Table of Contents

THE ALIEN WHO FELL TO EARTH

Welcome from Kristen Painter

Copyright

About the Book

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

About Fiona Roarke

More by Fiona Roarke

The Alien Who Fell to Earth

Pilot. Guard. Prisoner. … Stowaway.

Crashed in the Georgia woods, all are lost on a world where aliens are the stuff of science fiction. But what if the locals are far from human themselves, with secrets of their own?

Holden Grigori is lost on an alien world, and his memories are just as lost. All he knows is a beautiful woman says she’s his wife, she loves him and he’d do anything for her.

Security specialist Victoria Greene’s mission is to find the heroic pilot of a downed spaceship and keep him safe while he recovers in a human hospital in the Halloween-themed town of Nocturne Falls, Georgia. Part of her ongoing mission is, as always, to keep the humans from realizing that aliens walk among them, hiding in plain sight.

Pretending to be Holden’s wife is far from a hardship. Falling in love with him is even easier. But what will happen when he gets his memories back and realizes that to him she is…no one.

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Dedication and Acknowledgments

To Kristen for letting me crash a UFO in her awesome paranormal world because it was just so much fun. To Keri Knutson at Alchemy Book Covers and Design, thank you so much for the awesome covers. I love them all so much. To my amazing editor Raina Toomey, what would I do without you? To Marlene Engel at Precision Revision and proofreader extraordinaire, thanks so much. To Amy Atwell and the crew at Author EMS for taking care of all the nitty gritty final details, a thousand times thank you! To all my friends and family for your unwavering support especially when I go off to play in my newly created alien world with…well, aliens. You all have my undying gratitude.

Prologue

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Alienn, Arkansas – Mission briefing room in the basement facility of the Big Bang Truck Stop

Victoria Greene marched out of the mission briefing room, Fearless Leader Diesel Grey’s parting words ringing in her ears: “Keep on truckin’.” Her brisk pace matched the urgency with which she and her two teammates were being dispatched.

All missions were important. This one, however, was elevated, partly due to it being an out-of-state operation, but mostly because the spacecraft that crashed in a Georgia forest several hours away was from their home planet, Alpha-Prime.

They were being sent to Nocturne Falls, Georgia—a Halloween-themed town, of all things—to ensure no earthlings discovered the truth about aliens roaming around on Earth.

Stella Grey, Diesel’s cousin, was heading up the mission. It would be the first time the newest member of their team was in charge of such an important endeavor. But according to the rotation, it was Stella’s turn regardless of the level of the mission’s significance.

The truth was, each mission they took part in was vital for their continued effort to keep folks from learning that aliens hid in plain sight all over the place in Alienn, Arkansas. Next time it would be Victoria’s turn in the rotation. After that, the responsibility would fall to the last member of their regular trio, Elise Midori, a redheaded warrior who was not one to be trifled with.

As the newest member of the Grey family stationed on Earth, Stella wanted to prove herself worthy with a mission success. She hadn’t said that out loud, but Victoria and Elise knew it was on their friend’s mind and they certainly understood and supported her.

The three women headed toward the tactical room. Cam Grey, the Big Bang Truck Stop’s security officer and Diesel’s brother, would meet them there to hand out their Defender weapons and the rest of their gear needed for this mission.

Victoria’s mind traveled back to her parents’ home, where she’d been trapped in a conversation destined to follow a predictable path. When she got the call about the mission, she was supremely grateful for the intrusion that allowed her to escape.

Victoria had barely put both feet inside the entryway of her parents’ home when her mom asked the familiar question.

“Are you seeing anyone?” The older woman’s obviously forced indifference didn’t fool Victoria about the answer she wanted to hear. Specifically, that Victoria was in a torrid relationship about to become a lifelong marital romance.

“No. Not lately.”

Her mom’s face shifted quickly from hopeful to disappointed, exactly how Victoria hated to start every visit here. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to find the perfect person and settle down to give her mother more grandchildren than the two she already had, courtesy of Victoria’s older brother, Drew, the golden boy. She simply hadn’t found anyone who made her heart speed up or heat rush to her cheeks or feel any sort of attraction whatsoever. Still, it wasn’t like she was an old maid without prospects. Was it?

Compounding the problem was the fact that last week her youngest brother Alex, announced an engagement to his longtime girlfriend, giving him golden child status and instantly making Victoria the only sibling in her immediate family without any type of a special someone in her life.

She didn’t even have the tale of a recent date or brief romance to appease her mother. And likely why the conversation had started there upon her arrival at her parents’ house.

After Victoria’s disappointing answer, her mother didn’t even bother with “hello” or “how are you.” Instead, she leaned closer and said, “Well, guess what? The other day I was talking to my good friend Mrs. Ashworth. You know, her nephew Jessup is still available—”

Victoria put her hand up. “Stop right there, Mom. I’m not going out with Jessup Ashworth ever again.”

“But maybe he’s changed—”

“He hasn’t. Trust me.” Jessup Ashworth was the most notorious lothario in the greater township of Alienn, Arkansas, and perhaps even the entire Natural State. He’d managed to keep a shockingly low profile for quite a while regarding his typical Casanova antics. More recently, the nickname “Jessy Rubbernecker” had become a standard whispered warning among all the single ladies she knew.

No matter who he sat with, friend, family, foe or random female, whenever a pretty girl—or attractive woman of any age—walked by, he turned exaggeratedly to watch her, sometimes calling out to ask for a date, even if he was already on a date.

Victoria had learned that unfortunate detail the hard way. The initial rumor of how slimy he acted on dates had been so outlandish she hadn’t believed it, willing to give Jessup the benefit of the doubt. After their well-meaning parents set up a movie date between Victoria and Jessup, she heard even more rumors, but they were so bizarre she hadn’t believed they could be true.

Jessup had been very cordial when he picked her up at her parents’ house. He’d amiably put up with her mother wanting to take pictures of them together, as if the occasion of Victoria being on a date was the event of the century. Maybe it was.

He’d been a perfect gentleman through the first part of the date at the Black Hole Movie Theater, and the loud action thriller he’d chosen, buying her popcorn and a soda with an affable attitude. She’d waited for him to change before her very eyes. He hadn’t. He’d also been decently animated and talkative later as they walked to the Cosmos Café to get a bite to eat. He exuberantly listed his favorite parts of the movie, then asked for her opinion and actually listened to what she had to say.

Victoria had almost dismissed all the foolish rumors she’d heard about him, wondering who could be so awful as to say these unkind and untrue things about the man. She considered rather steadfastly in the moment that perhaps he’d been framed by some horrible mean girl.

But the truth of his nickname and his exact character flaws became all too clear when they got to the Cosmos Café for dinner. They hadn’t been seated for a whole minute when he started flirting shamelessly with their waitress, Kristine, a new girl recently hired at the café.

Kristine glanced at Victoria a few times during the initial exchange, as if puzzled by the playful way Jessup acted with her, but ultimately didn’t dissuade him. She giggled and flirted back, Victoria guessed to earn a better tip or because she also had a mother who wanted her married and generating grandchildren sooner rather than later.

Whatever the reason, Victoria had a free tip for the new waitress: Don’t date this loser. Jessup acted like Victoria was suddenly invisible, or blind to what he was unashamedly doing right in front of her. Or perhaps he didn’t care about her thoughts. Maybe he was always on the lookout for someone better than the one he was with. Maybe he could only act interested for short periods of time, like the length of an action movie.

Jessup opened his roll of silverware, set it aside and flattened out the paper napkin band to write his phone number down. He folded it up into a square and made a great show of tucking it into the pocket of Kristine’s apron when she brought their water. That was worse.

Victoria lifted one foot up beneath the table, wanting to kick him in the kneecap to get him to pay attention and stop being such a jerk, but was afraid she’d miss and slam her foot into the booth pedestal.

There was no need to break her big toe over such a loser jerk.

When Kristine got around to asking for their order, Jessup told her he wanted her wrapped up to go, then laughed like it was the greatest joke ever told. Only he wasn’t kidding.

“Seriously, when do you get off of work, honey? Maybe I can pick you up later. I should be free in an hour or so.” He even waggled his eyebrows like a lecherous old man on the prowl.

Victoria felt an odd smile shape her mouth as she considered he might be joking. Maybe? Please be a joke. Kristine glanced at Victoria, a question in her eyes, then finally pointed a thumb and asked, “Is this your sister or cousin or something?”

Jessup rolled his eyes. “No. I don’t have any sisters or girl cousins, silly.” But he didn’t respond with any information about Victoria or explain they were on a date.

“I’m his date,” Victoria said loud and clear, standing up as heat filled her cheeks, completely mortified. “And if you are foolish or desperate enough to go out with him, this is the way you can expect to be treated, too.”

Jessup looked at her with a frown. “That’s kind of mean, isn’t it? I just took you to a movie and I also paid for the both of us and bought you popcorn and a drink to boot. It seems to me like you should be more grateful. Also seems like you would have been more appreciative by now, too. You haven’t even kissed me yet.”

Victoria blinked, unable to speak for several seconds as a black cloud of fury gathered within. “More appreciative? I didn’t realize your definition of gratitude meant I was supposed to slobber and crawl all over you during our movie date because you fed me a snack.”

Kicked back in the booth seat, Jessup’s eyes narrowed, but he soon responded with half a shrug as if that would have been the perfect way to treat him at the theater. What a vile, slimy little crust-fish you are. Victoria repeated the insult out loud.

A crust-fish was the worst thing she could think to call him, as it was the meanest, most disagreeable, irate, spiny sea creature ever encountered in any of the limited water sources back on Alpha-Prime.

Jessup frowned. “Obviously gratitude isn’t in your vocabulary.” He looked affronted, like he was the injured party, which infuriated Victoria even more.

Before she could kick Jessup in the shin or slap the smirk off his face, an older waitress tripped over nothing and “accidentally” dumped an entire pitcher of ice water in Jessup’s lap. He stood up straight like he’d been struck by a well-placed lightning bolt, banging his knees underneath the tabletop on his way and snapping it from its moorings. The tabletop clattered to the floor with their freshly delivered drinks also crashing into the mess.

Splashes of icy cold water sprayed her shoes, ankles and calves. She’d had to step out of the way when the tabletop came loose, but it was worth it to see her date scramble away from the wrecked booth as he howled in shock at being thoroughly and icily drenched from shoulders to knees.

The waitress, Dixie, said, “So sorry,” a couple of times, but the older woman was laughing so hard she could barely get the two-word apology out through her very obvious glee. Likely no one in the entire café believed she hadn’t done it on purpose.

With a smiling nod to Dixie, Victoria stomped out of the place and walked home alone, damp ankles and all, vowing never to be so desperate for a date ever again.

Staring at her mother as she recalled the horrid ordeal only galvanized her attitude. Victoria would never go out with Jessy Rubbernecker again.

“He might have changed,” her mom insisted, as they still stood in the foyer of her childhood home. “Both Mrs. Ashworth and his mother assure me that he’s a completely different young man from the last unfortunate time you two went out and—”

“Oh, he is not. He’s the exact same person. I know for a fact he’s just moved his act on the road, going out of town to get dates because every girl in Alienn knows how he operates.”

“Now Victoria, don’t—”

“Don’t what, Mom? We both know that his mother—and his aunt, come to think of it—are desperate for him to get married so they’ll have a chance at grandchildren. He’s the only shot they both have at a next generation in their family. It’s not a secret.”

Victoria’s mom opened her mouth for another round of convincing, but Victoria’s communication device buzzed clear and loud, thankfully, taking her away from the pressure any future romantic dates with Jessy Rubbernecker Ashworth could produce.

She was grateful to leave Alienn on an important mission. It would keep her mind off the lack of prospects she faced with regard to romance and any further insistence by her mother that the last guy she’d been out with had changed one iota. Maybe she needed to take a lesson out of Jessy’s playbook and search for romance out of town.

When she returned from the mission, she should consider looking around for a boyfriend in Skeeter Bite, Arkansas, or better yet, Old Coot, Arkansas. Perhaps there were a few young coots she could date. Any age of coot would be better than Jessy Rubbernecker.

Victoria had lots of very good guy friends in Alienn, none of whom could be categorized as any type of romantic possibility. There was not a single man in Alienn she considered boyfriend material, including every one of the Grey boys, who in one way or another ran the upstairs and downstairs at the Big Bang Truck Stop. They were all as much like brothers to her as the two she shared blood with.

Maybe someday she’d find her Prince Charming, but so far, no such luck. Living all by herself for the rest of her natural life was not the future she dreamed of.

Perhaps she was meant to be alone, but she hoped not.

Alone really sucked.

<^> <^> <^>

Alone.

Astrid Harper was utterly alone. She scrambled out of the body-hugging suspended sleep chamber into the oddly tilted room with the half-crumpled walls in what looked like a spaceship’s hold.

“Hello,” she called out. Her voice echoed in the dark. She heard a strange animal howling in the distance through the partly open hatch door. Several more animals responded, howling answers she didn’t understand. What sort of animal made that kind of noise? She didn’t know. She didn’t want to find out. She saw a portable safety light at the opposite end of the hold, mounted on the bulkhead next to the half-open hatch.

Inching her way toward the half-crushed exit with careful steps, unsure she was alone in this wreck, was a little bit scary. Afraid to discover someone alive…or wounded…or dead. Please let me be all alone here.

Through the hatch, she could see another dim light source outside the ship illuminating a grassy surface below. She grabbed the portable light. It would come in handy.

Looking out of the wreckage of the spacecraft, heart pounding hard, Astrid carefully searched the soft, dewy, grassy ground below the half-open hatch. She didn’t recognize her surroundings. Where was she? Should she stay here or go find help?

This unfamiliar place was dark and lushly fragrant, but alien. She didn’t recognize the scents or the sounds or even the humid air around her. It was like breathing in a mist of water with every inhale. How extraordinary and definitely not anywhere on Alpha-Prime’s dry desert-like surface.

Casting her mind back for a frame of reference as to where she was and how she had come to be here didn’t offer any relief. Her last memory was, in a word, troubled.

Astrid had been on her home planet, Alpha-Prime, and on her way to make a report to the authorities. She remembered being forthright in her manner when she’d arranged to speak to a lawman, wanting to set something right that was, to her way of thinking, horribly wrong, even as guilt filled her entire being regarding what she was about to do.

She had been marching along the street near her home. Thinking about what she’d say in her official complaint helped assuage her guilt over her actions. She wanted to ensure complete understanding, and made a mental list of her points one by one as she walked.

Astrid looked up too late. She’d missed her turn and ended up in some remote place she didn’t recognize. A ripple of fear washed down her spine, but she forced panic down. She turned to retrace her steps and find the correct way. Not paying attention to her surroundings as she marched along completely oblivious had been foolish.

She ducked into a narrow alley between two tall buildings, thinking it might be a shortcut to get back on track. She wished she had paid attention instead of daydreaming as she walked.

It wasn’t the first time she’d gotten lost, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Her sense of direction left much to be desired. Unfortunately, the “shortcut” wasn’t one, and served only to make her more lost. She stopped dead in her tracks to reassess what to do and that’s when she heard footsteps nearby slow and stop.

She didn’t look behind her, fearful of what she’d see, and started moving forward. After several minutes, it was clear Astrid was being followed. She tried to hurry, walking faster and faster. Whoever was following her stayed in step. She tried to outrun the footsteps as she searched in every direction for help. She passed no one. In fact, she couldn’t see anyone nearby who could possibly help.

She tried to hide, hunkering down behind some dilapidated boxes near an equally run-down building. She held her breath. She closed her eyes. She waited for what seemed like forever. Until they found her. Until they grabbed her. Until they hustled her out of her poor hiding place, and…and then nothing. She didn’t see who grabbed her, just the vision of a large, meaty hand with an ink-marked mercenary symbol on his wrist, clamping down on her forearm, dragging her out as she screamed. Mercenary meant bad news in any and all regard.

Astrid didn’t remember what happened next. Just a great big nothingness until she woke up in this strange and alien place.

Had her family been involved? That would make sense.

She heard the haunting howls again and shivered. She didn’t have time to figure out what had brought her here or who had betrayed her. She needed to focus on survival. Maybe this strange alien world would offer salvation, where her home planet seemed never to measure up to her hopes, her dreams and any expectation of a normal life.

She dropped from the wrecked ship, landing on the balls of her feet, and froze, listening for anyone or anything nearby about to pounce on her. Nothing. Even the strange animal howling had stopped. Astrid surveyed the area within the meager radius of light from the ship. She turned the portable light on, pointed it outward and scanned the immediate area, seeing only more impressive foliage.

The trees in this odd place were amazing. She had never seen trees so tall, or so many of them. It was a veritable forest.

Astrid circled the spacecraft once carefully. The crushed cockpit looked like no one inside could have survived the crash. There also seemed to be no one around.

She saw a glow in the distance and headed that way, keeping the portable light on to make her way through the forest, and hoped she’d be able to find someone, anyone, to help her.

Astrid was used to being alone. She’d spent quite a bit of time alone, estranged from her family and on the outside of a lifestyle she didn’t care to join. Perhaps it would be better if they thought she was dead. Perhaps she’d take advantage of this situation and start over without anyone knowing who she was or what family she’d grown up in.

Alone was better than going back to the life she’d had.

Astrid marched forward, peaceful thoughts growing as she cast off her past like an old coat that no longer fit.

Anything this place had to offer had to be better than where she’d been.

Chapter One

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The night of the crash

Whereabouts unknown

Waking after what felt like a deep and very troubled sleep, the man unbuckled himself from his molded chair, stumbled from the twisted wreckage and fell to his knees on the verdant ground. He picked up a handful of leaves and grass, the cool damp mass appealing as he squeezed it lightly in his fist and took a sniff. It smelled fresh and clean. Interesting. Unexpected.

Where am I? He looked up at the height of the trees, surprised by the view. For some reason, he expected to see a more desert-like panorama, but here he was in a lush, green forest with the tallest of trees. Had he ever seen trees this tall before? The ache in his head kept him from thinking too hard about that question. Once he stood up, he stretched. Though he noted aches and pains all over his body, nothing seemed broken or too seriously hurting except for the pounding in his head.

What had happened?

Before he could figure that out, a small woodland creature scampered up the tree he stood nearest to, distracting him. He walked toward the trunk of the particularly tall specimen and stroked the base, feeling the bite of the bark abrading his palm. His presence sent the small furry brown animal further upward. Fascinating.

He walked to another tree, a different variety, and stroked a much smoother surface, equally delighted by the discovery. He wandered along a semi-marked trail, touching tree after tree, amazed and delighted by each new sensation. Before long, he came to a big, black road with yellow lines painted down the center, but no traffic of any kind.

He waited for several minutes, but not a single vehicle came by. He looked up into the starry night and wished he wasn’t so tired. It was all he could do to keep his eyelids open. Stumbling more than a few times, he made it to a road sign that announced a welcome to Nocturne Falls, Georgia, and some more words he didn’t bother to read.

The name did not sound familiar. He wasn’t certain where he was, but his head throbbed like an orchestra of loud musical instruments had taken up residence in his head and wouldn’t stop the racket. He decided to just keep moving forward until he found someone to aid him with this barbaric headache.

Sensing he needed to find help sooner rather than later, he trudged along the open road toward town. Putting one foot in front of the other took supreme effort and not much else was taking up space in his mind anyway.

He saw streetlights and then what he guessed were dwellings, but all the lights were off inside of building after building, house after house. It was as if the world had been put to bed for the night.

He realized he didn’t even know what time it was. Likely middle of the night, given the lack of traffic. But if a vehicle did happen by before he got to town, he planned to stick one thumb out to lure it into colleting him for a ride the rest of the way. He frowned. He wasn’t sure how he knew that gesture would work, but his flagging energy was mostly used up, so he couldn’t spare it much thought.

No vehicle appeared to help, whether he had his thumb at the ready or not. So he kept moving along the quiet streets. As soon as he found any other person, he’d ask for help in ending the dreadful pain in his head.

At long last, he saw a building with lights on. Once he got closer, he heard music coming from inside. Wonderful. He was saved.

Stumbling with fatigue and mind-numbing pain, he moved through the parking lot to the rear door and opened it. The noise almost made him change his mind about entering. He put a palm over one ear and staggered inside. So this was where the musical instruments were.

“Hey, buddy. Looks like you’ve already been partying pretty hard tonight. Maybe you should head on home,” said a very tall young man with lots of bushy brown hair on his head, on his face and beneath the open V of his shirt. Mr. Hairy was right beside the door he’d just entered. Was he the doorman? Could he help?

Pointing at his hairline, he added, “You have a little bit of blood on your forehead.”

He wiped his head with the sleeve of his dark jacket, but there wasn’t much there.

The young man nodded. “You got it. There isn’t any more.”

“Headache,” he managed to utter, though it cost him dearly.

“I’ll bet you have one whopper of a head splitter, all right,” Mr. Young and Hairy answered.

He nodded once, agreeing that his head felt like it was about to split open.

He glanced around for the source of the loud music, but only saw a few patrons here and there drinking, and no clue as to where the obnoxious sound emanated from. A girl with long flaxen braids down her back fixed an unwavering gaze on him as her friend with short dark hair nudged her. Miss Flaxen Braids didn’t stop staring, but his head hurt too much to worry about either of them.

Mr. Young and Hairy put both large hands on his shoulders to guide him across the room, steering him to a small alcove and into a room through a partly open door. Inside was a small space with harsh acrid odors floating in the air and shelves on either side of the entry, holding what looked like cleaning supplies.

Ah, the smell is now explained.

Wait. Did this large hairy boy expect him to clean something? Not going to happen.

“Listen,” the young man said. “I’ll probably catch hell for this, but why don’t you rest up on the cot over there until you feel better?”

He looked up into the man’s friendly eyes and heard a voice in his head. Mr. Young and Hairy’s mouth wasn’t moving, but distinct words came anyway. Shockingly, it was like the man in front of him put words into his head…silently.

Dude, you look so bad right now. I don’t think you can make it very far. I’ve been where you are and I know how you feel. Bridget might kill me, but I’m going to let you sleep it off in here on the cot until you feel better. I won’t even call the sheriff, either.

He squinted, half in puzzlement and half in pain, and asked, “Who is Bridget? And why would you call the sheriff? I didn’t do anything wrong. I just have a headache.”

The large hairy man’s brown eyes widened in shock and he whispered, “Dude, how did you know what I was just thinking? Are you a psychic or something?”

Psychic? Didn’t that mean mind-reader? Could he read minds?

He didn’t answer because he noticed the low-slung bed next to the shelf with all the cleaning supplies. His legs wobbled in anticipation of not walking any longer. He needed to get off his feet right now or he’d drop to the ground in a heap.

Taking two very precarious steps forward, he fell onto his side on the soft surface of the little padded bed, his mind shutting down almost the moment he was no longer vertical.

One last crucial and very troubling thought slipped inside right before the welcoming oblivion of sleep encircled him.

Wait a minute…Who am I?

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The day after the UFO crash

Nocturne Falls – approximately a mile out of town

Victoria Greene hiked along the side of the road toward Nocturne Falls, keeping a sharp eye out for any clues that the pilot, the guard or the prisoner had traveled along this same path. Nothing stuck out so far.

Two sets of space boot prints led this way from the crash site, but it was unclear if the two space travelers had been together. At one point, the prints split around a large tree on the barely-there trail before she reached the road. Since neither the pilot nor the guard would have let the prisoner roam free out of his shackles, to her trained eye, the prints had been made at different times. So she surmised it was the pilot or the guard following the escaped prisoner.

She came to the road and the prints disappeared onto the asphalt surface. Spuds. She’d changed the Alpha curse word “space potatoes” into her own personal expletive, liking the single-syllable curse much better. It was faster and more streamlined and not technically a swear word. However, the first time her mother heard her say it, she gave Victoria one of those special disapproving expressions mothers across the galaxies have perfected to keep their children in line without uttering a single word.

Victoria continued along the paved road until she got into the town. At first look, it was a very interesting place. At second look, it was like a box of Halloween decorations and costumes had exploded into the center of town and the residents decided to just leave it all there and go about their business with the new theme.

For the first hour or so, she wandered through the town, listening in on conversations here and there—both verbal and nonverbal—seeking any information about a recent stranger. A glance around made her consider a new tack, since everyone in town looked a bit strange. Perhaps she was going about this the wrong way.

Victoria retraced her steps a bit and then systematically walked down all the main thoroughfares, listening for any hints or clues specifically related to space travelers or space costumes, but heard nothing.

She could read most human thoughts to a degree and when she made the effort to listen in on the thoughts of the earthlings around her, she picked up their opinions about how fun this town was, and the names of several restaurants and places of interest that were must-sees in Nocturne Falls. She tucked the names away and hoped to get a chance to visit them herself before heading back to Alienn. For now, she needed to find the pilot, guard and prisoner who’d crashed here.

Victoria made her way back to where she’d started her strategic search, the park fountain with the cool gargoyle statues as guards. Seating herself on the edge of the fountain, she pretended to watch the main road through town as she listened to a couple of girls chatting with the animatronic gargoyle. She heard what they said, and more importantly what they didn’t say.

The gargoyle asked if they were having a good time in Nocturne Falls.

“This town is great,” said the young woman with two thick blonde braids down her back. Then her thoughts filled with something much more interesting.

I wonder if that dude in the torn-up flight suit made it to the hospital okay.

Victoria perked up. She straightened her posture as if that would help increase her mind-reading capabilities. What dude in the torn-up flight suit? Was it one of the three she searched for? She turned toward the girls, trying to be as nonchalant as possible, all the while sending a hard mental push in their direction.

“It sure is,” her friend added, tucking a strand of short dark hair behind one ear, “I love this town. You never know what costume you’ll see here.” She stared at the gargoyle and then at her friend, smiling, but she was busy thinking, I can’t believe Jenny stared at the guy in the spacesuit so long. He was cute. But the torn-up space uniform was over the top and so was the blood on his head. Ew. I hate blood. Howlers has the strangest crowd.

Blood? On his head? Howlers? Was that the name? Uncertain, Victoria wished she had the power to make them explain further. If she could just get a true location she’d go look for herself. She didn’t remember seeing a place called Howlers, but perhaps she’d missed it while listening in on conversations along the way.

The gargoyle asked where they were headed to next. The girls said they were going to get a bite to eat at one of the themed places.

The gargoyle said, “Well, don’t forget, the food at Mummy’s Diner is to die for.” And then he laughed in a deep, rumbly tone.

The girls thanked him, but in both of their heads she heard reference to a different place. Ah-ha. The eating place they were headed to was called Howlers, a local dive bar.

Victoria saw what looked like a dive bar during her first walk through Nocturne Falls, but she hadn’t noticed the name. She trailed the girls headed in that direction, hoping to pick up more information about the space dude bleeding from his head.

Had the man in question been taken to a hospital? If this spaceman’s injuries were extensive, she’d have to hope she could get him away from the human hospital without having to disable too many folks with her Defender.

Then again, in this wacky town where many people seemed to be in costume, maybe the dude wasn’t even the person she was looking for. She kept the two girls in sight as she followed them to Howlers. If she could time it right, perhaps she’d ask to share a quiet back table with them so she wouldn’t have to eat alone.

If she sat with them, Victoria could likely get the two young women to either verbally or non-verbally reveal what they knew about the spaceman with the bleeding head. Where had he gone? Had someone taken him out of the dive bar? If so, who was it?

Once she knew what the girls knew, she’d ensure no one was looking and use her regulation Defender to keep them quiet. They wouldn’t remember her asking them anything in particular about a spaceman, and she could set the memory wipe for a mere minute so they wouldn’t even remember sleeping.

Victoria might even be the first one back to the rendezvous with one of the downed spacecraft’s missing occupants. Then again, this was all useless conjecture if it turned out the spaceman in question wasn’t one of the three she was looking for, rather just another costumed visitor to Nocturne Falls.

She entered the bar a few steps behind the two girls and had opened her mouth to ask if she could sit with them when a glance into the room made her lips slam shut.

Victoria brushed past the two women.

Stella and a large Alpha-like man wearing a manacle—the prisoner, obviously—walked toward the back of the bar.

Time to catch up with her team leader and give her a progress report.

Chapter Two

<^> <^> <^>

The man woke up sometime later, momentarily unsure of where he was when his eyes opened. The door was closed and the small space wasn’t very bright, but a single dim lightbulb swung gently from a cord directly above. He lifted his head, hoping he felt better after his rest, but no such luck. The pain started pounding a steady beat inside his skull the moment he moved. Worse, he still didn’t know who he was.

He sat up on the low bed, planted his feet on the ground and tried to keep from falling to the floor from a seated position.

He heard muffled voices speaking outside the supply room. A woman and the hairy guy were having a terse conversation.

“…a thousand things to do this morning…don’t have time…please go.”

“…hurt dude…last night…forgot about…he’s in the…room…”

“What!”

He startled in pain at the sound of the strident yell from somewhere beyond the door.

“You did what?” the female voice shouted again.

Suddenly, there were new sentences in his head, like when the big hairy guy from last night seemed to put words in his mind.

You don’t work here, Kevin. You are not a rear-door bouncer. There is no such thing as a rear-door bouncer. Why are you such a pain in the butt all of the time?

“He was bleeding and hurt, Bridget, and all hunched over and squinty eyed. It was more than just drunkenness, and besides, I think he’s a psychic. My werewolf senses were on high alert last night.”

“What!” Bridget’s voice went an octave higher with that single word. “Psychic!” Another octave upward.

“I’m telling you, he read my mind. He knew exactly what I was thinking.”

“There are no such things as psychics, Kevin. And you are not a werewolf with any senses on any kind of alert, no matter how much you want to act the part. You are human. Get used to it.”

Werewolf? Odd place, this Nocturne Falls.

The door to the cleaning room popped open. The brightness blinded him. He put a hand up to block it from his eyes even as a bolt of pain lit up inside his head.

“Who are you?” A woman he assumed to be Bridget marched the three short steps to where he sat on the edge of the low padded bed and crossed her arms angrily over her midriff. He didn’t think he could stand without passing out again, so he remained where he was.

“Who are you?” she asked again, sounding very exasperated.

He tried to look up at her face, but settled for the center of her folded arms. “I don’t actually know who I am.”

Likely story. I’m calling my brother. The sheriff will get a name out of you pronto even if he has to growl it out of you.

“Why does everyone want to call the sheriff? I have a headache, not a weapon. Your brother won’t be able to get—or growl—a name out of me, sheriff or not, because I can’t remember a single thing. Not my name, not where I’m from, not anything.”

“Wha…” She didn’t finish whatever she’d been about to ask. “How did…” She failed to finish her second question.

Kevin, meanwhile, exuberantly danced on the balls of his feet. “Did he just read your mind? See? What did I tell you? I told you he could read minds. He read my mind, too. How do you think he does that? Read minds, I mean. How?”

“Kevin, go call for an ambulance. This man is obviously hurt.”

“But did he read your mind? He did, didn’t he? What did he read? I mean, what did he hear?”

“Kevin. Go. Now.”

Kevin’s shoulders slumped like a scolded ten-year-old sent to the schoolroom punishment corner and left the supply closet.

Bridget squatted down and leaned closer. Arms still crossed, her brown-eyed gaze drilled into his eyes.

“What’s the first thing you remember?” she asked quietly.

“Walking into town and seeing the lights of this place.” He didn’t know why he didn’t tell her the truth. The fact he’d woken up in the woods, unbuckled himself from the twisted metal of the oddly familiar craft he’d been in, seemed somehow unbelievable. He sensed it would be a good idea not to divulge that information. Besides, perhaps he’d only dreamed that.

His head hurt so much he couldn’t be sure what the truth was and what it wasn’t. It was better to say as little as possible until he remembered what was going on.

“How did you read my mind?”

He paused, looking into her eyes as he answered, “I don’t know.”

She said a rather coarse swearword silently, but he heard it and cracked a smile.

An appropriate phrase entered his mind from the fog of his memories and he said, “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Nothing came out of my mouth.”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to repeat what I heard.”

“I’d say that’s very wise.”

He shrugged. “Why does Kevin think he’s a werewolf?”

Bridget rolled her eyes. “He’s just goofy and young, but essentially harmless.” Her eyes suddenly narrowed as if thinking about werewolves brought on a different line of questioning. A sudden rush of words echoed in his mind.

Let’s do a test of the emergency Bridget broadcasting service.

“A test?” he asked, “What kind of test? And what in the world is an emergency Bridget broadcast service?”

Wow. What kind of Supe are you?

“Supe? What’s a Supe?”

Her eyes narrowed again but this time in frustration. The next silent words puzzled him. She sent lots of words his way. Unfortunately, trying to hear what she was thinking took some extra effort on his part.

The words didn’t make much sense either, and he was weakening from the exertion to see inside her head and listen to her thoughts. More words came inside. He felt woozy, and black spots crowded the edge of his vision. He snapped his eyes shut, but swayed a bit to one side, trying to stay conscious as Bridget filled his mind with all of her broadcast thoughts.

Supe means supernatural being. For example, I’m a wolf shifter. If you are a wolf shifter, how do you not remember? Plus, the only reason I can think of that you’d be inside my head is if we are somehow wolf shifter mates. But that can’t be, can it?

There was a blessed pause in the stream of words blasting inside his head after her mental question. She looked him over from head to boots and back again, seemingly finding him completely unacceptable as a possible mate.

I don’t understand how you are in my head. We aren’t even in wolf form.

“Wolf shifter? Wolf form?” he managed, but it took a lot out of him. He was fading.

And another thing, you’d better not be my wolf shifter mate. I’m dating Sam. I really like Sam.

She stared deeply into his eyes with a vibrant intensity as if willing him to dare comment on what she was thinking. His eyes opened to see hers filled with expectation. They stared at one another for a few seconds. The woozy sensation came back and he knew he was fading.

“You’re a wolf shifter and you think I’m your mate?” he asked. And promptly blacked out.

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria exited Howlers after the conversation with Stella and headed to the town’s hospital to discover if what she’d learned was in truth the lead she’d just told her team leader she had.

She walked along the main thoroughfare, people-watching as she went, trying to remember the best way back to the hospital she’d seen during her initial canvas of the town.

Stella’s revelation about the Defender possibly not working on some of the people here in town was bothersome, but maybe that was a good thing. Victoria didn’t wish to deploy it and have it fail when she needed it.

She’d have to work the old-fashioned way and hide any hint of her alien origin as well as the crash victim who’d been taken to the hospital. Since Stella had the prisoner, the injured man at the local human hospital was either the guard, Riker Phoenix, or the pilot. She knew what Riker looked like. He was The Calderian, head of Alpha-Prime’s Royal Magistrate Guard. Probably everyone from Alienn knew what he looked like.

Stella had the prisoner, Draeken Phoenix, in hand and shackled, which was the most important part of this mission, in Victoria’s opinion. However, if the pilot was the one who’d been sent to the hospital, she didn’t know his name or anything about him besides his chosen profession.

After retracing some steps, Victoria finally came to Nocturne Falls General Hospital. Straightening her clothes, she conjured a quick story about how she’d become separated from her cousin. That he left early from their rental cabin to pick up some food and hadn’t come back. She also thought to throw in that they’d planned to go to a local famous waterfall for a picnic so as to sound more authentic, like they were out-of-town tourists and not aliens from another planet hiding in plain sight on Earth.

She would use all the acting skills she possessed to explain she’d fallen asleep, and that was why it had taken her so long to realize her cousin hadn’t come back. Practicing the few lines in her head, she would need to give her “cousin” a name. She’d read the minds of several people in the bar on her way to talk to Stella and picked up one thought in particular from a bartender behind the counter.

The woman had been thinking about the man in the torn-up spacesuit, like she was going over the story in her head to tell someone. Her brother, maybe, or the sheriff. Whatever.

Anyway, Bridget the Bartender believed the man who’d had a bad headache didn’t remember his name. If this was either the pilot or the guard, Victoria was certain he would pretend to have no memories as a ruse to keep anyone from learning about aliens on Earth.

Victoria also caught Bridget’s memory of the man in the spacesuit passing out cold right before the ambulance came for him. Another great ruse, since people couldn’t ask any probing questions about your planet of origin if they thought you were unconscious and unable to communicate.

That was rule number one for those living on Earth—conceal their existence at all costs. No one could find out about Alpha-Prime. No one. And absolutely no one could find out that aliens lived in plain sight in Alienn, Arkansas, either.

Victoria waited rather impatiently in line for her chance to speak to the nurse behind the counter about a missing injured man. According to Bridget the Bartender’s thoughts, the man had been bleeding from the head when the ambulance came for him.

Whoever this Alpha was, he was certainly clever with the amnesia ruse and faking unconsciousness. It might be The Calderian. Riker Phoenix was very smart and suffering from memory loss was the perfect disguise and one he’d surely use as a cover.

The young couple ahead of her in line tried to get in to see their uncle, but the reception desk nurse turned them away. “Sorry,” she said, pointing to a sign. “Visiting hours aren’t for another ninety minutes, and only immediate family is allowed at this time.”

What? Only certain people were allowed in to visit patients? Spuds.

Not only will I have to be a close relative, I’ll have to be an immediate family member. Being his cousin likely won’t get me inside.

Victoria turned and left the lobby to get some time to rethink her plan. If they let her in during visiting hours, she’d tell them she was his sister. Was that a close enough relationship? If it wasn’t, she couldn’t very well say, “Well, then, how about if I’m his wife? Now can I get in?” That would likely get her hauled in as a troubled soul. Maybe she should just start with being his wife instead of his sister.

If memory served, Riker Phoenix—who was a very attractive man—was engaged to some debutant on Alpha-Prime, but not married quite yet. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like Victoria got to marry him just because she fibbed and said she was his wife in a human hospital on planet Earth.

This particular fib—okay, it was a big, fat lie—was simply to break him out of the hospital before anyone discovered his true nationality, which was Alpha alien from another planet.

She strolled around the block slowly a few times to pass the ninety-minute wait until visiting hours began. She also thought about the story she’d spin regarding why she hadn’t come looking for him last night, along with a storyline to fit her being his immediate family and wife, of course, and how she was so worried about him.

Victoria looked up in time to see a whole family of cowboys—and cowgirls—cross the street headed toward Nocturne Falls’s main thoroughfare. The littlest family member, a small boy about the age of five, marched along, a serious expression on his face. He wore a Stetson hat that was almost as wide-brimmed as he was tall, but he was so cute, and so serious. The sight brought a quick smile to her lips. And a small respite from her worries over the acting she was about to do in order to free the wounded Alpha.

For all the strange Halloween antics this town had to offer, the hospital was the first place she felt out of her element. She’d never been a fan of hospitals from a very young age and earthling hospitals especially. They had a particular smell, staying well inside her memories, even all these years later.

She’d been to a human hospital once before. As a child, her older brother had pushed her off the diving board at a community pool during a summer outing. They’d been fighting about who got to go first when he shoved her shoulder. Victoria had fought to keep her balance, but ended up cracking her head on the edge of the diving board on her way down right to the pool’s surface, falling unconscious as she dropped into the water.

Victoria had woken up in the earthling hospital with all its odd smells and been instantly afraid. Seeing her parents stressed and worried hadn’t helped.

Some well-meaning earthling had called an ambulance before her mom and dad could stop it. Her mom and dad hovered over her like the very definition of helicopter parents, snatching her away from the human caregivers to return to Alienn, Arkansas, for treatment from one of their Alpha doctors as soon as they were able to go.

It was the last time her brother had roughhoused with her. She suspected her father had put the fear of damnation into him during the trip from the community pool to the hospital, following the ambulance all the way to the grand town of Skeeter Bite.

After that, Victoria had avoided human hospitals, but now she’d have to get over her old fears to rescue her fellow Alpha and keep their alien secret.

She went over in her head what they might ask of her. His name? She’d make one up. What does he look like? I have no earthly idea. She’d have to get access to Alpha-Prime files and information. She started to send a message, but then her communicator signaled a waiting message. Elise had found the guard, who had been carried into the forest by unknown persons. They would be on their way to the rendezvous point as soon as they left a thank-you note.

That meant the pilot was in the hospital. It would be better if she knew what he looked like. She couldn’t very well go in urgently looking for the love of her life and not be able to describe him. To free him, she needed to know more beyond, “He’s big—because he’s an Alpha alien.”

With Stella currently managing the prisoner and Elise bringing the guard in, she decided to call Cam and ask for information on the pilot.

She sent the alien version of a text on her communicator, briefly explaining the situation and that she needed the pilot’s name and physical description to convince the staff at the human hospital to release him into her care.

A couple of minutes later, Cam sent a complete profile and several additional warnings to ensure any blood samples the hospital may have taken for analysis were retrieved. That might be a tall order, but she messaged back assurances she’d do her best to strip the pilot’s entire visit from the records.

The file Cam sent contained the pilot’s name. Holden Grigori. Nice name.

Victoria opened the electronic dossier on her communication device and sucked in a breath of surprise when she saw Holden’s photo. It was his official Royal Magistrate Guard graduation picture, dated five years ago. She didn’t know what she expected, but was pleasantly shocked nonetheless. Dark hair, blazing sky-blue eyes and the kind of fit muscular body every earthling she knew strived for but most every Alpha had naturally.

In the photo, he was dressed in his RMG uniform, body tilted in such a way that one shoulder was further away from the camera than the other. His face was turned to one side, looking into the lens with a killer smile that could make angels weep. Whew, doggies. He was gorgeous. She closed her eyes and opened them again to see if she felt the same way.

Yep. Still a hottie. The second thing she checked was marital status, hoping there wasn’t a Mrs. Hottie waiting for his return to Alpha-Prime.

A breath of relief came out when she read he was indeed single and her heartbeat sped up for some unfathomable reason. She should calm down. This wasn’t a date. He probably had a whole hoard of women chasing him down. If she lived on Alpha-Prime, she might join in the hunt. But she didn’t. Victoria was an Earther and she liked living here on the Earth colony.

Besides, she was here to rescue him, ensure any information about his Alpha status hadn’t been discovered and escort him to the rendezvous for transport to Alienn and then back to Alpha-Prime.

Victoria was a professional. She was on a mission. She cleared her throat, breathed in and out slowly to tame her heart to beat at a normal speed and tried to take a more analytical approach.

Yes. She had to pretend to be his wife. She decided they’d been married for three years and were as desperately in love with each other as if they were newlyweds.

She found the name of the first place he’d been posted after RMG graduation—Greater Basin City on Alpha-Prime—and made that the name of their fake hometown on Earth, way out west instead of in Arkansas.

No need to let anyone know where they were really headed after leaving Nocturne Falls.

She scrolled through the entire file, committing some dates and information to memory, scripting a story around what she learned and adding herself in as his wife so she could visit him. Knowing some things about him would help assure him she was there as an Alienn, Arkansas mission retrieval specialist to help him get out of the hospital and back to where he was supposed to be as soon as possible.

Victoria spent the final thirty minutes of the countdown to visiting hours mentally rehearsing the concocted story. There were a few highlights from his past before he knew her, their cute meet story in the mythical town of Greater Basin City, and she finished it out with a couple of fun tales about their amazing, wonderful life together out west.

She walked up to the entrance and peeked through the glass doors before entering to see if the same person was at the counter checking people in. Victoria hoped no one would remember she’d been in line earlier. It would definitely look suspicious. As a precaution, she took her black uniform jacket off and tucked it inside her backpack, leaving her in a red sleeveless shirt tucked into black pants. She planned to appear urgent, desperate. She planned to jog from the parking lot to the desk and pretend she was frantic to find her missing husband.

She was about to break into a jog—speech all ready to recite to the hospital staff—urgently seeking her handsome, make-believe husband. But before she took her first step, a sheriff’s vehicle pulled up and parked near the door she was about to enter.

Victoria held back and hoped this wasn’t the same sheriff who’d tangled with Stella, although there wouldn’t be more than one sheriff in a town. Would there?

Each of the two neighboring towns closest to Alienn, Arkansas only had one sheriff. Wyatt Campbell was the earthling sheriff in Skeeter Bite and Hunter Valero, also an earthling, was the sheriff in Old Coot. They had a few deputies, but they were the singular law at the top of the food chain in their respective towns. Alienn had a Fearless Leader and Cam was their primary security man, but neither were a sheriff. Was that important? No.

Victoria watched as Nocturne Falls’s sheriff headed inside the hospital. Should she go on in and put on her performance of worried, desperate housewife seeking a missing husband or wait until the sheriff left? Should I stay or should I go?

A terrible thought occurred to her.

What if the sheriff was in there looking into the injured man without a memory? What if he was here to make an official report?

Victoria paused, silently dancing back and forth on the balls of her feet, weighing how well her performance would have to be in order to convince the sheriff. Would he ask questions she couldn’t answer? Would he be more attuned to their kind because of what had happened with Stella earlier?

Spuds.

Chapter Three

<^> <^> <^>

The man woke up, sniffed the air and smelled antiseptic. Was he still in that supply closet in the bar? He cracked his eyes open and saw he was in a proper bed, not on the thin mattress of the small bed that seemingly sported spikes that poked him while he slept. He opened his eyes all the way and searched the room. A nightstand, a sturdy metal chair in the corner, but the space was surrounded by a curtain. The room looked clean, orderly, but not familiar at all.

To his right beyond the curtain, someone coughed and cleared their throat. Low whispering ensued. Who else was here? Why was someone else in his room? Was this a hospital? He tried to remember how he got here. The bartender named Bridget and the rear-door not-a-werewolf bouncer Kevin came immediately to mind along with Bridget’s being a wolf shifter disclosure along with you better not be my mate because I really like Sam thoughts.

He didn’t know much, but was fairly certain he didn’t know how to change into a wolf.

Moving on from his lack of canine shifting abilities, he assessed his injuries and decided he felt much improved. The headache, while there, was not as dire. He could think better. He could flex all his muscles and he did so beneath the single white sheet.

The edge of the curtain was pulled back with a single short yank, garnering his attention. A woman dressed all in white approached the bed. She was a big woman, tall and stout with short red hair and a no-nonsense look in her eyes and demeanor. She looked up from the flat electronic device she held in one hand.

“You’re awake,” she said, sounding surprised.

“Yes. I just woke up. Maybe you can tell me where I am.”

“Nocturne Falls General Hospital.”

“Are you my doctor?”

“No. I’m your nurse. My name is Hilda.”

“Hello, Hilda. I wish I could tell you my name, but I don’t seem to remember it.”

She smiled, nodded once and consulted her digital device, but didn’t say anything else.

“What’s my diagnosis?” he asked after several silent moments.

“You’ll live,” she said in a flash. He liked Hilda.

“Excellent.” He pushed the sheet to his waist, planning to get up and leave.

“Wait.” She moved faster than he would have expected to pull the sheet up to his chest. “You can’t go. You have a head injury.”

“But I’ll live,” he said, repeating what she’d said, and pushed the sheet to his waist.

“You have a concussion. You must stay here a while longer.” The sheet went back up.

“I feel like I need to get going for some reason.” That was the truth. He had a nameless, urgent feeling growing inside. He couldn’t remember his name or where he came from or his occupation or anything about himself.

But the feeling growing stronger with each moment that passed gnawed at him with an urgency to…leave. He needed to go…somewhere. He needed to do…something, and it was important, this unknown, vital something.

“Where? Where are you going to go when you barely even know where you are?” Nurse Hilda pulled the sheet up and tucked it under his sides at chest level.

He gave up the battle of the lowered sheet for now. “Not sure. I just have this pressing feeling like I’ve forgotten something very important and it’s eating at me.”

“Like your name.”

He ducked his head. “For starters, yes.”

“And where you’re from.”

“Also on the list of forgotten things.”

“Do you remember what happened to you? Were you hit by a car, or involved in an accident?”

“No idea at all.” He shrugged. The memory of unbuckling himself from a seat shot into his mind. Had he been in a vehicle? Unlikely. He’d fallen to the ground, landing on soft grass and wet leaves. A forest? How did he get a vehicle into the forest? Had his vehicle been hanging upside down in a tree? Really unlikely.

The more he tried to remember, the more his head throbbed, unwilling to give him the answers he sought. However, the antsy, aggravating urgency continued. His right foot started tapping the air beneath the sheet to expend the extra energy building in his limbs.

She looked at her digital device. “When you got here, you were pretty banged up, but I see you’re healing up nicely.”

“Good. I’m sure I’ll be fine in no time.”

“Yes. I’m sure you will. But a concussion is nothing to take lightly.”

“But I feel so much better than before.” He wanted to leave. The moment she was gone he’d be out of this bed and on his way.

“I’m so glad to hear it. However, the doctor will be here shortly to discuss your overall condition.”

He eyed the window as a possible means of escape.

Hilda huffed when she saw him. “Are you going to be a difficult patient?”

He turned away from the window. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s in my nature to be difficult.” He grinned at her.

Hilda cracked another small smile and turned to leave. She stopped, turned back and added, “Please, at least stay until the doctor gets here to talk to you. Okay?”

He rolled his eyes like it was an affront to his nature, but finally nodded. “Fine, Nurse Hilda. I’ll wait to talk to the doctor before I make my great escape.”

“Thank you, JD.”

“Who’s JD?”

“That’s what we’ve all been calling you, since we don’t have your name.”

“Why JD? Does it mean something, like jelly donut? Because that sounds really good right now.”

Hilda laughed, sounding genuinely amused. “No. Not jelly donut. JD in this case stands for John Doe, the standard name given to men who can’t remember their name.”

“John Doe? JD? Hmm. Interesting.” He pondered that for a moment. It didn’t feel like his name or even close to his name, but he had to be called something. “I guess it’s better than, Hey-You-Over-There.”

“Yes. And in my opinion it’s also better than juvenile delinquent, which might also apply.” She eyed the window and gave him another rather stern look.

He shook his head in defeat. She smiled once more, snapping the curtain shut on her way out.

He planned to wait for a bit, but if the doctor didn’t show up soon, the urgency was going to win and he’d be out of here, pronto.

The curtain opened again, quietly, rather than with a snap. Instead of Hilda, a beautiful woman wearing a red sleeveless shirt and black pants darted into his room. Silently, she closed the curtain as she stepped through. Awesome. Okay, now her he’d stay here for.

Her he’d definitely want to be wolf-mated to for a lifetime.

She turned, saw him staring at her and grinned like they shared a secret. He would share absolutely anything with her.

“Who are you?” he asked, returning her grin. He couldn’t help it. His nervous foot even stopped tapping the air beneath his sheet.

“I’m Victoria. I’m your wife.” And then she winked.

His wife? He had a wife? This gorgeous woman, Victoria, was his wife? Her height being average was the only ordinary thing about her. She had sultry gray eyes, a pale complexion and rosy lips he couldn’t wait to kiss. Her long dark hair was very straight and parted down the middle, hanging well past her shoulders. Excellent. He may not know his name, but he did know that he loved his wife’s dark locks. He wanted to touch and stroke her shiny tresses to see if they were as soft and silky as they looked.

He had so many questions for…his wife. That word tasted odd on his tongue, even more so than mate, but she was so gorgeous he didn’t care. Having a wife hadn’t even occurred to him. Did they have children? Were they happy? Of course they were. He wouldn’t let Mrs. JD be unhappy.

There was a commotion beyond the curtain and Victoria moved quickly to the far side of his bed between him and the window he’d thought about escaping through.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but I need to speak to this man immediately,” a gruff, angry voice said.

Victoria leaned closer, gifting him with a rush of her scent right into his face. She smelled delicious.

“Sheriff, I can’t let you question this patient yet. He’s got a concussion. I haven’t even spoken to him.” The curtain ripped open and two men stepped into his small orderly room at the same time.

He didn’t look in their direction or at their faces for more than an instant, because the second they entered, Victoria lowered her mouth and kissed him like a wife who dearly missed her husband would kiss a man. It was a sultry, soft, I-was-worried-about-you kind of kiss.

Mrs. JD was awesome.

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria pressed her lips to the pilot’s mouth, putting her hand up to his face to stroke his whisker-rough cheek. She lost herself for a moment when he responded in kind. The kiss was breathtaking and for a few seconds she forgot everything else, pretending that Holden was her man. The doctor and sheriff were getting an eyeful, but that only added to the sincerity of this moment.

This amazing kiss was exactly how she wanted to greet her husband every single day, which they would do every morning before even getting out of bed. They would also always kiss goodbye whenever they parted for the day. And they would always kiss good night before going to sleep. Always.

Yes. Sure. It was cliché. Whatever. Victoria wanted that sappy, romantic type of life anyway.

“Sorry to intrude,” a bland male voice said. Victoria assumed it was the doctor. She’d heard the sheriff’s deep gruff voice down at the hospital’s registration desk, asking for the man who didn’t have his memories.

She stopped kissing Holden and backed up a bit, staring deeply into his eyes. The stunning light-blue color mesmerized her for a few seconds.

“Are you the guy without his memories?” the sheriff asked.

Holden turned away from their intense gaze.

“That’s me. I’m called John Doe now, according to my nurse.”

Victoria straightened. “He’s not John Doe. He’s my husband.”

“Your husband?” The sheriff sent his harsh gaze her way. He eyed her briefly, but then put his focus back on Holden.

“Do you remember her?” he asked.

Holden looked at her lovingly, took her hand in his and said, “I wish I did. But I still don’t remember anything.”

“How do you know she’s really your wife then?”

Victoria said, “Because I am his wife. We love each other and he kissed me just like he always does.”

The sheriff didn’t seem convinced.

Spuds. This had to work.

Victoria’s initial plan had been to rush inside and straight up to the registration desk. She planned to be emotional, weepy, searching for her missing husband and wanting help. She expected the lady at the front desk to be sympathetic and go the extra mile for a distraught loved one.

She had a whole scenario pictured where she’d be taken immediately to Holden’s room and she’d playact, tell her stories and ask to be left alone with him. They then could slip out together and make their way to the rendezvous point. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

But no, that perfectly rehearsed scenario went out the window when the sheriff showed up. She had to change her plans and fast.

The woman at the registration desk turned away just as some guy exited a stairwell a few yards from the desk. So Victoria decided not to sign in. She’d go in and act like she’d already done the whole weepy, “Where is my beloved husband,” spiel and move on to phase two of her loosely formed plan. Get her fake husband alone, assess his injuries and, if he was conscious, spirit him out of this hospital as fast as possible.

Victoria listened as the woman at reception told the sheriff Holden’s room number then moved quickly to the door with the pictogram of a staircase and opened it. She raced up four flights as fast as she could to ensure she got to Holden’s room before the sheriff, hoping he’d be waiting a while for the elevator to come to the ground floor.

Stella told her the Defender hadn’t worked on the sheriff, so there was no point in having it at the ready. As she hurriedly climbed the stairs, Victoria plucked her Defender off her belt and shoved it in her backpack, trying not to slow down. She had to make it up there before the sheriff or this right-off-the-top-of-her-head plan wouldn’t work as well.

She saw the sheriff exit the elevator as she shot into Holden’s semi-private room.

An older man was asleep in the first bed, so she moved to the next bed, pulling the curtain open gently, grateful to have found him. She knew her time was very limited. She couldn’t get him out before the sheriff found them. And they didn’t have a chance to chat about alien matters. So she’d just have to make the best of a troubling situation. Holden knew the rules, obviously. He’d chosen the perfect scenario of losing his memories and then spending his time unconscious.

Now that they were here together, Victoria would be making up her story as she went along, but at least she and Holden would have the same story. The plans she’d made and the stories she’d concocted and practiced for the past ninety minutes might work in part, but it was likely easier to fool anyone other than a sheriff. He was already suspicious of Stella and their Defender technology. Victoria was glad Stella had been able to convey that information when they’d met or she’d have been caught before she’d even started Holden’s escape.

Victoria wondered for a minute why the Defender hadn’t worked on the sheriff. He was a tall, well-muscled man. Was he part Alpha? No. Couldn’t be. No other aliens were allowed on Earth and Alphas were all supposed to reside in Alienn, Arkansas, if they remained on Earth.

Holden coughed a couple of times, cleared his throat and settled back against the pillow looking suddenly exhausted. His color went a bit pale and his eyes closed.

Oh, no. Was he in trouble? Or was he faking fatigue so he didn’t have to talk to the sheriff? So clever, this guy, but Victoria had to school her features to concern and not giddy delight over a fellow Alpha doing basically what he was supposed to do, but doing it very well.

She put her hand on his shoulder. “Honey? What’s wrong?” She expected him to mumble something about being tired and wanting to sleep.

Instead, the monitor attached to his arm started beeping stridently.

The doctor bounded to his side, pressed a button to signal for more help, and dropped the bed down flat. A nurse arrived, pushing past the sheriff and moving next to the doctor.

Together they worked on waking Holden up for the next few minutes, talking in shorthand medical speak. They did various tests, listened to his heart and checked his pulse. If the dour look on the doctor’s face was any indication, it didn’t seem like Holden had passed any of the tests.

Was he truly hurt? Oh, no. How could she get him out of here and back to the rendezvous in time, let alone all the way back to Alienn, Arkansas?

“Holden.” Victoria pushed on his shoulder again. “Wake up. Please. You’re scaring me.”

The doctor adjusted several dials on the medical equipment and the beeping finally stopped, but Holden didn’t wake up. The nurse gave her a puzzled look as if wondering where she’d come from.

“Are you an immediate family member?”

The doctor said, “That’s his wife.”

“His wife? I don’t have any record saying he has a wife.”

The sheriff, who’d remained quiet at the end of the bed, suddenly looked alert.

Victoria, thinking on her feet, said quickly, “Well, you don’t have record of his name either, do you?”

The nurse shrugged. “True. I just didn’t know about you. I’m sorry.”

Victoria didn’t want to make an enemy. “I’m so sorry to have snapped at you,” she said sincerely. “I’m just so worried about him.”

The nurse relaxed. “It’s understandable. Did you just call him Holden?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve been calling him John Doe, JD for short. But he looks like a Holden.”

“What’s his last name?” the sheriff asked.

“Gri—” Spuds. Don’t use his real name! She pretended to have something suddenly caught in her throat and then quickly said, “Gregg. Holden Gregg.”

“Holden Gregg?”

“Yes.”

“And so you’re Mrs. Gregg, is that right?”

“That’s right. Victoria Gregg. G-R-E-G-G,” she spelled out. “Gregg with two Gs at the end.” Lie. Lie. Lie. Wish. Wish. Wish.

“How long have the two of you been together, Mrs. Gregg with two Gs at the end?” The sheriff looked down at his notebook with a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. Was he making fun of her?

Victoria tilted her head, ready to be sassy. “Married or otherwise?”

The sheriff smiled, this time with his whole mouth. He also relaxed like she wasn’t suspect anymore. Good. “Let’s start with married.”

Victoria figured even with this new understanding, he would still commit her answers to memory so he could later grill Holden. But if her “husband” continued to “forget” who he was, the sheriff wouldn’t have any reason to suspect them of anything at all.

“Together five years or so, married for almost three.”

“Any kids?”

Victoria’s cheeks heated in an instant at the notion of where babies came from, and a flash fantasy of being with Holden in that way. Whew, doggies. She forcefully calmed herself. “No. Not yet.”

“When was the last time you saw your husband, Holden?”

Victoria cleared her throat and spun her tale. “Last night. He went out to get a few last-minute supplies for the picnic we planned today. I tried to stay up until he got back, but I fell asleep about five minutes after he left. I didn’t wake up until late this morning and he still was gone. It was clear he’d never come back. Our vehicle was gone.”

“Where are you staying?”

“Right here until he wakes up.” Victoria knew what he meant, but didn’t have the best answer for his real question.

“I meant, where did you stay last night?”

“Oh. A friend of Holden’s has a cabin nearby. I can’t remember his name. Anyway, he offered to let us stay there for the weekend.”

The sheriff nodded. “How did you get into town?”

“I walked. It took a long time.”

“I’ll bet.” The sheriff’s brows furrowed. “You don’t have a cell phone?”

Victoria pushed a long sigh out—thinking quickly—“It was in our car still attached to the charger. Did you find our car?”

The sheriff didn’t miss a beat. “What kind of car do you have?”

“It’s an SUV. It’s silver.” Victoria recited the make, model and plate number of the vehicle she, Stella and Elisa had brought from Arkansas to locate the three UFO crash victims. But she changed the state to Florida to slow the sheriff down a bit in identifying the vehicle.

The registration would eventually trace back to the Big Bang Truck Stop and the fact that she worked there as a specialist. A specialist for what was non-specific for anyone out of Alienn, Arkansas, asking, but she was a security specialist to anyone at home.

The sheriff stepped away to presumably call in her vehicle information. The doctor and nurse hovered over Holden’s bed with frowns. Holden looked peaceful, but he was not awake. He’d need to be not only conscious, but mobile for the two of them to make their great escape.

Another doctor showed up and basically did all the same things the first doctor had done, and then a third after that.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked when the third doctor shook his head and actually shrugged.

“Your husband seems to be in a coma.”

“What? But he was just talking a minute ago.” Victoria couldn’t help it. She took Holden’s hand and squeezed it.

“His head injury may be worse and the concussion more extensive than we initially thought.”

“What does that mean?”

The sheriff came back in time to hear the doctor respond, “We’ll just have to keep him comfortable until he wakes up. We believe that his body simply needs time to heal itself.”

“How long will he be in the coma?”

“No way to know.” The expression on her face must have been incredibly forlorn.

The doctor patted her shoulder, trying to be positive. “Now, don’t worry until you have to, Mrs. Gregg.”

“Call me Victoria,” she said, still staring at Holden’s beautiful, peaceful face.

“Okay, Victoria. Sometimes the human body just needs quiet time to heal.” What if his body is Alpha and not human? Does the same advice apply?

“He should be fine as long as the coma doesn’t last longer than a few days, a week at the most. Have patience.” Patience? For a whole week?

Yes. She’d wait even if it took a month. Please not a month.

Victoria would have to find a place to stay. The lies she’d already told would have to be remembered from now on. And any amount of time stuck in this peculiar Halloween town waiting for her fake husband to come out of his coma so she could sneak him out of this medical facility and head to Alienn was going to be a challenge. She pushed out a long sigh at the daunting task ahead.

Super spuds.

Chapter Four

<^> <^> <^>

Alienn, Arkansas – almost a month after the crash

Bartholomew Angus Thorne—Bubba Thorne, to anyone who didn’t want a hard, quick punch to the face—exited the spacecraft that had just landed on Earth. Returning from XkR-9, the worst gulag in the galaxy—or maybe in all galaxies ever discovered—was certainly a relief. Ten days there was long enough to ensure he never wanted to go back, even as a guard.

The place was vile.

However, he was grateful to have been in a position to help his best friend Riker and Riker’s brother, Draeken, out of a difficult spot. Before he made it too far, another friend from Alpha-Prime—currently stationed on this colony planet—stopped him for a moment, welcoming him to Earth.

He only took a few steps when he saw Riker and Elise approaching.

Bubba shot a thumb over his shoulder and said, “It’ll be a minute or two. Your brother and Stella are currently latched together in a public display of affection, talking about a yellow ribbon around a tree or some such nonsense.” He rolled his eyes as though love, and any public display of it, was foolish. But that wasn’t exactly how he felt.

Riker reached out and shook hands with him. In a low, not entirely unemotional voice, he said, “Thanks, Bubba. I owe you one.”

Strolling toward the Big Bang Truck Stop basement facility once more, he was stopped yet again. This third time by Cam and Diesel Grey, two of the brothers in a family of seven who ran not only the truck stop in Alienn, but also the extensive alien basement facility.

“Got a minute, Thorne?” Cam asked.

“For you, I’ve got five. Also, call me, Bubba. What’s up?”

Diesel and Cam exchanged worried looks. Oh no. This wasn’t going to be good news.

“We recovered the remains of the wrecked spacecraft from Nocturne Falls, Georgia, and brought it to Alienn so the investigators could piece it together and find out the cause of the crash. Recently, and by that I mean an hour ago, the reconstruction and investigation team finished the assessment of what they believe brought it down.”

“Okay. That’s good, I guess. What does it have to do with me?”

“The RAI team’s initial finding has discovered an irregularity.”

“Irregularity? Like what?”

Cam lowered his tone. “Turns out there was a stowaway aboard the spaceship and that has been the determination of why it crashed in Georgia.”

“Wow. That’s incredible. Wait a minute. How do they know about the stowaway?”

“The weight differential was a factor in skewing the craft’s exit from the express wormhole,” Cam said. “The team found one of the suspended sleep chambers in the lower hold had been used. The pod was empty, but the computer information said the occupant left the chamber alive. We also have a match to a missing person back on Alpha-Prime.”

“That’s interesting and everything, but again, what’s it got to do with me?”

“We’d like you to go to Nocturne Falls and locate this Alpha for us,” Diesel said.

“Very funny,” he said, hoping they were kidding. “I just stepped off a surprise roundtrip to a gulag. Don’t you have trained folks here to do this sort of thing?”

Diesel and Cam exchanged looks again. “Sorry, we’re not joking. The thing is, we’re stretched a bit thin around here. One of our security team members is still in Nocturne Falls with the pilot. He’s in a coma and she won’t desert him,” Diesel said. “Another one is marrying The Calderian and leaving Earth for Alpha-Prime permanently in a few days.”

“Riker is getting married?”

Diesel nodded.

Cam asked, “So can you help us out short-term on this project? We’ve heard it on good authority that you excel at tracking.”

Bubba rolled his shoulders. Riker had referred to him as the best tracker in three galaxies. He didn’t know if it was true, but he did seem to have a knack for finding people. Plus, he had hoped to explore Earth a bit before returning to his home planet. Maybe he could sightsee in this Nocturne Falls place and pick up the trail of the stowaway.

“I’ve been known to hunt down a criminal or two when others have failed.”

“And that’s why we’d like you on this. Plus, Riker said we’d be stupid to trust anyone else.”

Bubba laughed. Riker was always the first to sing his praises when it came to any kind of fieldwork tracking someone down. “Okay. I’ll go to this Nocturne Falls and search the area. Should I take a Defender?” He’d already used the shackle sticker Cam had invented. It was remarkable. It would change Alpha-Prime’s system of apprehensions dramatically.

Cam shook his head. “The thing is, we have an understanding with the leadership there.”

“The leadership of Nocturne Falls?”

“Yep. They have a similar situation to the one we have here.”

Bubba squinted, not sure he understood. “They’re aliens, too?”

“Not exactly,” Diesel said under his breath.

“Then what exactly?”

The brothers traded another look. “They are supernaturals,” Diesel said.

Bubba blinked in surprise. “What, like spirits, ghosts and ghouls?”

“No. Like vampires, witches and werewolves.”

Bubba only blinked, unsure he’d heard the Fearless Leader correctly.

Diesel leaned closer, adding, “And gargoyles and shifters and dragons.”

Oh my.

“There are more, but I can’t name them all. Anyway, we promised the leadership in Nocturne Falls we wouldn’t use the big D there. It attracts too much negative attention. And it doesn’t work on most of the supernatural folks anyway,” Cam said. Bubba had heard the Defender’s inventor was rather insistent on its use in all alien-related reveals. If he was saying not to use his most important invention for an out-of-town retrieval, then it must be important.

“I see. What else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want me to track down this stowaway and call back with the location? Or track down, apprehend, subdue and haul the stowaway back in to Alienn like a prisoner?”

“Choice two.”

“That’ll take longer.”

“However long it takes. We’ll double the standard contract rate for a job of this nature and add on a daily expense account.”

Bubba shrugged. “Okay. I’ll need a shackle sticker or two, probably.”

“I’ll ensure you have a standard shackle pack,” Cam assured him. “Plus, I have a prototype device that I think you’ll find handy for this particular job. I’ll let you be the first to use it.”

“Well, that does sound interesting.” Bubba wasn’t exactly looking for work, nor did he need the credits, but double the pay for what he considered an easy job and the bonus of seeing another part of this interesting planet was appealing.

A rush of wind came up and the tall trees lining the edge of the landing area right outside the door to the way station’s basement entrance all swayed as if waving at the sky.

He looked over his shoulder at brothers Draeken and Riker. They stood near the ship he and Draeken had exited, each with their new love interests, and felt a small pang. Not of jealousy, but certainly a wish for the same thing. Someday he’d find someone to settle down with and have the family life he’d always wanted, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

“When do you need me to leave?” Bubba expected them to say yesterday.

“As soon as possible. Best-case scenario, the Alpha is hiding out either in Nocturne Falls or nearby in the forest, hoping we don’t know about them.”

“What’s the worst case?”

“The stowaway is out in the open, already far away from Nocturne Falls and Alienn, telling any earthling who will listen about being an Alpha from another planet and wanting to go back there.”

Bubba shrugged. “This planet doesn’t believe in extraterrestrials as a rule. They’ll think the person is a kook, and possibly lock them away, won’t they?”

“Unless the Alpha has a better-than-average ability to read minds.”

“Wouldn’t you have heard about that by now?”

Cam and Diesel gave each other that look again.

“What?”

“The sheriff called me a couple of weeks ago to report a vagrant who supposedly could read minds, panhandling in the area for money. Sort of their version of the guy on the busiest street corner holding a cardboard sign and telling anyone who’ll listen a hard-luck story pretending to look for work.”

“A psychic panhandler. That’s a new one.” Bubba put his hands on his hips. “Did they bring this person in?”

“No. The person ran off without being caught. No one has reported further beggars with mind-reading abilities. It was reported shortly after the crash, and at the time we thought it might have been one of the other three occupants. Now we think it may have been the stowaway.”

“Anything else I should know?”

“That’s the only clue we have as to location,” Diesel said. “But we don’t even know if it’s valid or connected to our Alpha stowaway. We know it’s not much to go on, but if you could check this out for us, we’d be grateful.”

“I’ve located targets with less. At least I have a town to start in. I’ll leave right away.” He looked over his shoulder again. “Or as soon as The Calderian gets married. I’d hate to miss that.”

“Great. No problem.”

Bubba started toward the foursome, but then remembered something and turned back. “Did you say you have the identity of the Alpha already? If you have background information on him it’ll make it easier.”

Cam and Diesel looked at each other again.

“Now what?”

“It’s not a him, it’s a her.”

“A woman criminal from Alpha-Prime?”

Bubba almost told them no deal. He’d tangled with a few felonious female Alphas in his time. They were meaner than a poot-snake in a sticker bush. Smaller than male Alphas? Yes. Lighter? Yes. Softer? Not even remotely.

Alpha women criminals took poor attitude to a whole new level and then turned it around and used it as a weapon. He’d be smart to put on special protection to cover his family jewels, if he ever hoped to sire children. And he did. Did they manufacture a life-sized shackle sticker? If so, he wanted one. Maybe he could rig a system to shoot the shackle sticker at her to bring her down without having to get within arm’s distance.

Diesel and Cam didn’t answer.

“So you’re telling me that a hostile Alpha female criminal menace is possibly out and about loose on this planet? No wonder you doubled the standard fee and added expenses.”

The Grey brothers hemmed and hawed for a moment before producing a small digital info pad. “All the information we could find is on here.”

Bubba glanced through the file quickly to get the highlights. “She’s from a family of jewel thieves on one side and pickpockets on the other? That’s frightening.” Double-trouble.

“While she obviously has ties to some rather unsavory people,” Cam said, “she has also never been arrested or charged with anything until very recently, and even the defense barrister said she was innocent of the charge in that case.”

“Or more likely, she’s really good and just never got caught before. Maybe she can flutter her eyelashes with the best of them to sway her barrister and soften his attitude,” Bubba said under his breath.

“Or maybe she was framed,” Diesel said. “You have to look on the bright side, Bubba.”

“Do I?” Bubba didn’t find anything at all on the bright side until he saw her picture. Whoa. Green eyes. Honey-gold hair. Button nose. A smile that could light up a galaxy. He was left slack-jawed and surprised by her mere image. To say she was merely beautiful seemed like an insult. She was absolutely stunning. And yet likely a criminal. Such a spectacular pity.

Cam said, “If anyone could flutter her eyelashes and be convincing, it would be her. She’s certainly not hard to look at.”

Bubba shot him a disparaging look. Am I jealous? “Hardly a recommendation,” he said, to cover his shock at finding her so utterly, deliciously attractive.

Diesel clapped him on the shoulder. “I have every faith that if anyone can find her, it will be you.”

“Thanks.”

“But maybe double your Alpha protective gear, just in case.” He grinned and clapped him on the back once more.

Bubba glanced at his prey’s picture. She was beautiful and no doubt trouble in more ways than one. He would have to be strong in order to resist her charms.

If anyone could tempt him to the dark side, this woman could.

Chapter Five

<^> <^> <^>

Nocturne Falls General Hospital – almost a month after the crash

Victoria strolled inside as if on automatic pilot, turned to the left and headed toward the elevators as she’d done every single day for almost a month. She sniffed the center of the fragrant bunch of flowers she carried into the hospital, loving the scent of the small red and white carnations. Marigold always had such lovely flower arrangements at Enchanted Garden.

If Holden didn’t wake up soon, she was going to need help from Alienn to get him out of here. They’d have to do an emergency medical transfer or something. The only reason they hadn’t was because the doctor in Alienn feared a move might be bad for his health while he was in the coma.

The authorities in Alienn decided to keep her by his side in Nocturne Falls until Holden recovered and woke up. Mostly because she told them she would not abandon him. The doctor in Alienn said a month or more to recuperate wasn’t uncommon for a seriously injured Alpha.

The phrase a month or more had been daunting, but Victoria couldn’t just leave him. What if he woke up sooner? What if the hospital tried to take a sample of his blood again?

The emergency room had done an initial blood panel and CT scan when he arrived.

She’d had to invent a very specific spiritual belief that disallowed some basic modern medical practices in order to keep his medical team in Nocturne Falls from taking any more blood samples. They were allowed to put IVs into him, but no medical professionals were allowed to extract anything from him or take any CT scans or X-rays of his internal organs.

His primary doctor had wanted to take another picture of his head to see if the concussion was worse, but Victoria wouldn’t allow it. It had taken her almost two weeks to locate and destroy the one CT image they had of his injury that had been taken upon his arrival in the emergency room.

To ensure they didn’t accidentally take his blood, she spent the bulk of her time by his bedside. She wanted to be close by when he finally healed up and opened his eyes.

Victoria kept up the pretense of being his dutiful wife, visiting his room each and every day, all day, to talk to him, remind him of their life together and pretend they were madly in love.

While Victoria enjoyed her time in this unusual place, as each day went by, she missed her home in Alienn more. She missed her friends. She missed her family. She even missed her mother asking if she was dating anyone.

Wouldn’t her mother be shocked to discover she was fake married to the most gorgeous and wonderful man she’d ever known? Victoria knew he was wonderful because she’d made up several stories about their life together in order to make Dr. Duncan and Nurse Hilda believe they were a couple, numbering each one so as to keep track.

Victoria took another deep sniff of the flowers she carried.

“Hey! You have to sign in,” called a strident voice from the registration area. Victoria spun around to glare at the new person behind the desk. She didn’t recognize the girl.

Victoria waved at her. “I have permission to come and go as I please.” She started to move away again, but the very bombastic tone of the girl’s next question stopped her.

“Who do you think you are, the Queen of England? Come back here!”

“I beg your pardon?” Victoria, had in fact been named after a former Queen of England, but she also didn’t share that tidbit in this instance. She also didn’t want to sign in each and every time she came and went.

The girl pointed to the sign-in sheet, tapping her forefinger on the flat surface attached to the clipboard with a cap-less pen taped to a string hanging off one side. “You have to sign in. Everyone has to sign in.”

Victoria remained where she was. “What if I don’t want to?” It was a petulant remark, she knew it, but couldn’t seem to help it.

“Then I’ll have to call security.” The girl reached for the phone.

“Fine. I’ll sign in.” She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly to cool her annoyance, walked over to the desk and signed her name. She didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. She had simply gotten used to the regular registration person and this was obviously a new one.

“Where is Ruth?”

The very young freckle-faced newbie whose nametag read, “Heather,” didn’t respond at first. Studying Victoria’s purposefully sloppy and unreadable signature, squinting and frowning, she answered, “I’m not at liberty to discuss other employees.” She straightened, but didn’t lose her frown, giving Victoria a hard look. “Also, I need to see an ID card.”

Not bothering to hide the rolling of her eyes as she pulled her ID out of her bag, Victoria decided her own bossy, superior attitude wasn’t working. She should try a different tack, doing her best to humble herself.

“Victoria Gregg,” Heather read out loud. She studied the fake ID and then looked into Victoria’s face as if to assure herself she indeed was the owner.

Victoria’s fake ID had been sent post-haste from Alienn weeks ago to back up the lies she’d told and facilitate her continued stay as Holden Gregg’s dutiful and faithful wife. It also came with a private insurance card to cover Holden’s care.

Sheriff Merrow had been very helpful in paving the way for her, keeping questions and difficulties to a minimum, but he couldn’t walk around with her every day to keep her out of trouble. However, this was the perfect example of a situation where Sheriff Merrow’s presence would come in handy.

A new receptionist meant new rules Victoria couldn’t get around. She inhaled deeply and exhaled deeply, going through her standard calming routine. She was a professional. She would adapt and overcome.

“May I go now?” Victoria asked, as sweetly as she could manage, discarding her initial tart attitude.

“Technically, visiting hours don’t start for another half hour.” Heather crossed her arms as if bracing for a battle.

Victoria pushed out a sigh. “Would you mind looking up my name to see if there is a special note attached to the chart? My husband is in a coma on the fourth floor and has been for almost a month. Usually I’m allowed to check on him whenever I can get here.”

“Heather!” the sharp voice of someone Victoria recognized made her turn. She was grateful to see Nurse Hilda march up to the reception desk. “What are you doing?”

Heather pointed to Victoria and said, “She’s trying to get in, but visiting hours don’t—”

“She’s special. Get a good look at her face, Heather, and memorize it so you don’t hold her up again.”

“I… I…but…” the girl stammered.

“It’s fine, Hilda,” Victoria said magnanimously. “I’m sure that Heather was just doing her job.”

The desk clerk sent Victoria a grateful smile. “I’m sorry for the trouble. I won’t hold you up again. And also, I’m sorry your husband is in a coma.”

“Thank you.” Victoria turned to Hilda, looking for any sign in her face of a change in Holden’s condition, but not expecting one since it had been three and a half weeks. She was wrong.

“I’ve been waiting for you to get here. Holden is awake,” Hilda said with a grin and a wink as they walked to the elevators together.

Victoria sucked in a sharp breath. “Really? When?” Finally.

“About half an hour ago. Let’s get you up there to see him.”

Together they rode up to the fourth floor and hurried to Holden’s room. He had the room to himself, as no other patient had been assigned to the other bed after his former roommate was discharged.

Victoria came around the curtain separating the two beds on a mission to be convincing about being Holden’s wife. Hopefully, he remembered their ruse after his long sleep.

He wasn’t sitting up, but his eyes were open. Those beautiful light-blue eyes focused on her the moment she entered. A smile shaped his mouth. A very good sign.

She quickly walked to his bedside, leaned down and kissed his cheek. The sandpapery feel of his unshaven face abraded her mouth in a good way. Shaving him was one task she performed on her daily visits. He smelled delicious.

Victoria placed her forehead against his and whispered endearments to him because she well knew the nurse was watching. “I’m so glad you are awake, my darling. Please remember me. Please be okay.” She put a kiss on his forehead, backed up to look down into his beautiful eyes and reached for his hand.

Now that Holden was awake, she’d have to notify the Alpha doctor on standby in Alienn, waiting for her daily report on his condition. This time she’d have something different to say than, “He still has brain waves and he’s still in a coma. What do I do?”

She also wouldn’t have to hear the daily response, “Wait until he wakes up.”

Victoria hadn’t wanted to ask how long an Alpha could be comatose before a new theory on his condition arose.

She studied Holden, only glancing at the nurse, as if there were no more important thing to do than hover by his side until he recognized her and perpetuated the lies she’d been telling for almost a month. Once she got him alone, she’d fill him in on all the stories about their fake life that he’d have to memorize and recite. She had numbered them for that purpose.

Seating herself on the edge of his bed, facing away from the door and the nurse, Victoria grasped his hand, held it between her palms, and stroked his calloused fingers as if she planned to stay in that position until he called her by name.

Had he even been conscious when she revealed her name before he slipped into the coma? It had been so long ago, she wasn’t certain.

“It’s me, Victoria,” she said. It would be better if Hilda was gone before they started chatting about her fake wife status, because if he didn’t remember her or his memory had faded, he truly didn’t know Victoria from a hole in the ground. She’d hate to be kicked out of this place for lying about their invented marriage at this late stage of the game.

“Hello, beautiful wife of mine,” Holden said.

“You remembered this time.” Victoria winked at him as relief poured through her. “I’m so relieved.”

Hilda said, “I’ll leave you two alone and go see if the doctor’s available.”

Holden turned toward her and his blindingly beautiful eyes fixed on her face. Victoria was unable to do anything but stare. He blinked once.

“Hello, my darling,” she said in as reassuring a tone as possible, waiting to hear the room door shut and wondering how soon she could get him back to Alienn.

Once the door was shut, she relaxed. In a more normal tone, she asked, “How do you feel?”

“Like someone beat me up and left me for dead.”

“Do you remember what happened to you? The accident?”

His eyes narrowed and his gaze slid away from hers. “I remember unbuckling myself and falling to a grassy surface.”

Victoria looked over her shoulder before whispering, “They all think you were in a hit-and-run car accident.”

“Hit and run? Car accident?” The words sounded like it was the first time he’d ever uttered them. Likely it was. Hit-and-run car accident was more of an Earther phrase.

“That’s what the doctors think.”

His gaze shifted from her eyes down her body and back to her eyes again. He smiled and cleared his throat as if he were about to speak, staring at her like she was a complete stranger. Which she was.

Victoria opened her mouth to give him the lowdown on all she’d mentioned over the past month, but the hospital door suddenly swung open again with a whoosh. Spuds.

“Mrs. Gregg,” an unfamiliar voice called out. It was a different nurse, not Hilda. Victoria didn’t want to talk to anyone until she and Holden had a chance to converse privately and get their stories straight.

What to do?

The only thing she could think of was bold and very daring. She also had wanted to do it since the moment she stepped into this room. In fact, she’d done this each and every time she entered his room to find him all alone.

Victoria leaned forward and kissed him with the intent of getting the new nurse to leave them alone as soon as possible. Maybe she’d see them smooching, leave and come back later.

The moment their lips connected, a rush of what felt like electric current passed between them. Just like the first time she’d kissed him almost a month ago.

Wow. Looks like the spark is still there in our imaginary marriage.

<^> <^> <^>

The woods outside Nocturne Falls – almost a month after the crash

Astrid Harper was beginning to believe she was safe. Each and every day she thanked her lucky stars she’d found a good place to live and work after extricating herself from the wreckage of the spacecraft. The last memory was of being yanked out of her hiding place by an Alpha mercenary. A spray had been misted over her face, keeping her from identifying her captor, also knocking her out. After a long dream-filled sleep she woke up on Earth.

The memories she did have of Alpha-Prime—prior to her ill-fated journey to meet a member of the Royal Magistrate Guard—faded day by day as she made her new home here on planet Earth. She didn’t miss her former home like she thought she might.

The recall she focused on currently was the auspicious day she arrived in the woods. After walking away from the wrecked spaceship, Astrid’s short trek into the forest had led her through the amazing tall trees, each more wonderful than the last. Even in the dark with only her portable light to guide her, she stopped and put a hand on several tree trunks to marvel at the variety and height.

The glow she followed led her to a small stone house in the center of a clearing. On one side was what looked like strange alien plants growing in straight, carefully tended rows and on the other side was a small barn-like structure, doors open and a voice calling from within, “Is anyone out there?” In a lower voice, the woman said, “Please, someone be out there.” The unseen stranger’s voice elevated again, louder. “If someone is out there, could you come in here and help me, please?”

Astrid had approached the voice in the barn with care, portable light held tightly to use as a weapon if it was a trick or a trap. But it wasn’t either of those things.

Inside the two-story structure was a curious sight. A young woman with oddly green-streaked dark hair was caught in what looked like a person-sized net wrapped all around her, hanging from the center of the ceiling by a single rope. One arm dangled out of the net, the other was tucked along her side within the cocoon.

“How did you get way up in there?” Astrid asked, genuinely perplexed.

“It’s a long story. Would you mind cutting me down?”

“How?”

“Just cut the rope.”

Astrid had to walk behind the woman to see the rope from the ceiling was actually threaded through a loop and attached to a sturdy post at shoulder height with a firm knot. She grabbed a well-worn knife of dubious sharpness off a low table. “If I cut it, you’ll fall.”

“That’s okay. I’m so numb everywhere from being up here so long I likely won’t feel a thing. Besides, I’m only a few feet off the ground. Please go ahead. Cut me down. Let me fall.”

Astrid grabbed hold of the rope, with the idea she could help soften the girl’s fall by holding it once the rope was cut. The knife turned out to be sharper than it looked, slicing through the taut cord easily. The rope slipped out of her hand like a shot and the green-haired girl plummeted six feet to the ground. She grunted as she hit the ground, but it was a relieved-sounding grunt. Astrid pulled the net from her limbs and helped her stand up.

“Thank you so much.” The young woman shook one hand as if to wake it up and offered it to Astrid. “Hi. I’m Holli Williams. Pleased to meet you.”

Shaking her limp fingers, Astrid said, “I’m Astrid Harper. Nice to meet you.”

“I owe you a big favor for this.”

“That’s okay. I was happy to help. I hope you didn’t get hurt falling down.”

“Oh, no. I’m fine and very grateful to you. Come on in. The least I can do is offer you something to drink or eat.”

Astrid followed the young woman into her little stone house and accepted a drink of delightfully flavored tea, followed by small sweet cookies.

“Are you from Nocturne Falls?” Holli asked.

“No. What’s that?” Astrid tried to read her mind, but couldn’t get a single thought. Was she an Alpha? Were they near an Alpha colony? Astrid didn’t exactly know where she was and didn’t want to ask or sound crazy.

“Oh, Nocturne Falls is the nearest town around here. My aunt and cousins live there.”

“You don’t live with your family?”

“No. I like living in the woods, closer to nature. I stay out of trouble better that way.”

“Trouble?”

Holli slumped in her seat. “You know, like getting caught in a trap of your own making and being unable to free yourself for hours.” She gestured to the barn and shook her head. “Unfortunately, I excel at problems just like that. And I’m truly lucky you came along when you did.”

Astrid smiled, but didn’t say anything. She tried to peek into Holli’s mind again and got nothing. Perhaps she was an Alpha living alone out here.

Holli straightened in her chair. “In fact, since I owe you one, is there anything that I can do to return the favor?”

“Not unless you can change me into someone else.” Astrid knew the authorities from either this planet or Alpha-Prime would be sent for her eventually. They didn’t like Alphas straying on planets that were protected from knowledge of aliens in the universe.

“Why do you want to be someone else?” Holli asked.

Astrid didn’t want to say too much. The rules on Alpha colony planets were very strict if the planet’s natives didn’t know about aliens. “Let’s just say that I escaped a difficult situation and don’t want to be found by anyone on the lookout for me.”

“You didn’t commit a crime, did you?”

“No. Not at all. I was about to report one, but I think the criminal I was about to tattle on found out what I was up to and sent someone to silence me.”

“That’s horrible.”

Astrid shrugged. That was her life. Filled with problems she never created, but was unable to resolve without calling down a whole space potato farm of trouble on her head for trying to do what was right. “I can’t seem to ever do the right thing without getting into trouble. Maybe we have more in common than you think.”

Holli smiled and then looked like she was thinking through the problem for a few minutes. “Well, I promise that I won’t tell anyone about you.”

“Thanks. That will help quite a lot.”

She perked up. “I know. We’ll do a magic makeover on you so no one will ever find you, okay?”

“A magic makeover? What’s that?” Astrid was intrigued. If there was a way, magic or not, to change her appearance drastically enough that any lawman after her wouldn’t find her, she’d be eternally grateful.

Holli stared at her for a long time. “Let’s just say that I can do wonders to make you look different than you do now.”

“That would be amazing.”

“Do you have a job?”

Astrid shook her head. She needed employment, especially if she was going to stay on this strange new world. “No. Do you have any ideas about that? I’d love to find a job.” She looked around Holli’s little cabin. “I think you have the perfect place. I’m not a fan of being around lots of people. A little place in the woods away from folks who don’t understand me sounds perfect.”

Holli stood up. “I’ll tell you what. I will change your appearance and then I’ll train you to find herbs, rare flowers and other needed plants from the forest. We’ll take them to my cousin in town to sell.”

“Your cousin?”

“Yes. Her name is Marigold. She has a florist shop in Nocturne Falls called Enchanted Garden. I bring her stuff a couple times a week to help make ends meet. Know what I mean?”

Astrid didn’t understand at all what making ends meet meant, but she smiled and nodded. “I’d be grateful to help you out. Maybe I can help you make ends meet somehow.”

Holli beamed. “That would be great. You know what?” She looked at a small staircase leading to an upper level. “You could move into my upstairs guest loft—I’ll move all my wreath-making stuff out of there, of course—and then we can share expenses. What do you think?”

Holli was offering her a place to live, a new friendship, help with a magical makeover and employment that included training? How could she turn her down?

“I’d love to. Thank you very much for helping me.”

“No. Thank you for helping me. I think this will be the start of a great partnership.”

Had Astrid finally found a safe place to reside in the galaxy? She hoped so, even as doubt crept inside. The magic makeover better turn her into an entirely different person, because if a Royal Magistrate Guard or, worse, an Alpha mercenary sought her out, she’d be languishing in a disgusting gulag before she could say the words space potatoes.

Chapter Six

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria didn’t sense any resistance from Holden during the passionate kiss she delivered. She put her mouth on his like they’d done it a thousand times before, just like any other couple married for almost three years. Her fake husband fully participated in the robust kiss now consuming her heart and soul. What a rush.

Her lips soon slanted across his for a deeper connection and he obliged, moaning a bit as if he certainly enjoyed kissing a complete stranger. His hands moved to either side of her rib cage, tickling her as his fingers dug lightly into her sides. If he kept it up, she’d be forced to break the kiss and giggle like a loon. Maybe she’d add that to their completely happy fake life together. Maybe she’d tell the nurses Holden always tickled her when they kissed.

“Mrs. Gregg,” the unfamiliar nurse said in an elevated voice, likely to get them to stop slobbering on each other. Victoria waited a few seconds before she finally ended the kiss, hating to stop, hoping Holden wouldn’t out her for being his impostor wife.

She turned toward the voice, her lips feeling moist and swollen from the kiss she’d just participated in. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize anyone had come in.”

The nurse smiled as if she thought true love was playing a part in the kiss.

“Hilda sent me. She wanted to let you know that the doctor is tied up with an emergency right now, but he’ll come in just as soon as he can.”

“Thank you,” Victoria said, smiling with sincere relief.

“Did he wake up?” Great, another question she didn’t want to answer.

Victoria held the smile in place and turned back to Holden only to see his eyes closed as if they’d never been open.

“He opened his eyes for a minute, but I’m afraid I’ve kissed him back to sleep.”

The nurse said, “I’m sure now that you’re here, he’ll try harder to stay awake next time.”

“I hope so.” No, I don’t. Not until we get our stories straight.

“I’ll let you know as soon as the doctor is available, but it probably won’t be for a while yet.”

“Thank you.”

The nurse nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her.

“Holden,” she said, squeezing his shoulder gently. His eyes remained shut.

“She’s gone. Wake up.” He was asleep again. She considered sending a message to Alienn, to let them know he’d woken, but decided to wait until he stayed awake longer than two minutes before making her report.

Victoria tried to rouse Holden for almost half an hour with no luck. Of course, the moment the doctor showed up with another unfamiliar nurse, Holden opened his eyes and spoke. Unfortunately, this was not the doctor who had diagnosed him. Dr. Duncan was at some medical convention, and had temporarily handed Holden’s case to his replacement.

Why is everyone at the hospital new today?

“Where am I?” Holden asked. His delicious voice rendered Victoria nearly stupid for several seconds. He sounded like a radio announcer. His voice was deep, hypnotic and sexy in the extreme. She tried not to drool.

The new doctor said, “It appears that you were in an accident. You’re in the hospital. How are you feeling?”

Holden’s attention was on the doctor, not her. She kept hold of his hand, unable to let go without everyone in the room noticing, including Holden.

“I’m still a little groggy. What happened? I’m afraid that I don’t remember anything.” He trailed off and didn’t say any more. Good answer.

Victoria had to force herself not to giggle yet again at the perfect and brilliant idea of him pretending not to know who he was. It was so clever of him to remember that strategy. Although, given what she’d read about him in his official file, it shouldn’t be a shock. That he’d recalled it after almost a whole month in a coma was amazing. Luckily, he’d understood the ruse about her being his wife. If they could just get a few undisturbed minutes alone, she could brief him on the loose plan she’d come up with to get him out of here.

Both the new doctor and new nurse looked in her direction, as if she’d be the one to supply the information. She swallowed hard and sent her gaze downward as if the truth were too difficult to discuss right now and shook her head. Holden squeezed her hand, likely to spur her to speak.

Hilda entered the room carrying an electronic tablet, but paused to let Victoria repeat her tale of woe for this new audience.

“Well, we were staying alone at a friend’s place in the woods on a much-needed vacation.” She turned to Holden and a sensuous smile shaped his lips. Relieved that he apparently approved of her story, she continued, “You left to go pick up some food for us, but then never returned. Unfortunately, I fell asleep waiting for you and the next morning when I woke up, you hadn’t come back. I was so worried. It turned out my cell phone was still in the car on the charger. So I had to walk to town to search for you and found you here in the hospital.”

Victoria squeezed his fingers gently and stared deeply into Holden’s eyes. “You really don’t remember anything about what happened to you, honey?”

His hypnotic gaze drilled in all the way to her soul. “I don’t. I just remember you. I think it’s a good thing.”

She squeezed his hand again. He lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of her fingers. Her heart sped up like a schoolgirl with a crush on the most popular boy. She did have a crush on this man. Everything she’d learned about him in the past few weeks said he was perfect in every way. A good person. A good friend. An all-around good Alpha. He was also apparently very good at his job as an interstellar pilot.

Victoria had read the report from Alienn about the crash. In it, both Riker and Draeken Phoenix, the other two on the ill-fated flight, said Holden had saved them all from a fiery crash when their spaceship went out of control as it came out of the express wormhole near Earth’s outer atmosphere.

The powers in authority back in Alienn and on Alpha-Prime were anxious for him to come back and give a statement as to how he kept them all alive. She hoped he could remember. The true takeaway, though: Holden was a hero. There was no doubt in her mind about that.

Holden shook his head and repeated, “No. I don’t remember anything else, but I remember you,” he said to Victoria. “I remember you’re my wife from the last time I woke up here.”

The new doctor—what was his name?—frowned. “And you don’t know what happened to cause his injuries?” he asked Victoria.

“I don’t,” she lied. The truth—“Well, he’s an alien who fell to Earth after crash-landing a spaceship bound for a horrible gulag in another galaxy”—was completely out of the question, even in this special town where the supernatural leaders had come to an arrangement with the Grey family in Alienn. Her instructions remained the same. Get the pilot back to Alienn as soon as she was able, with the least amount of contact, explanation or information distribution.

Hilda smiled at Victoria and Holden and handed the doctor the electronic tablet. “Dr. Duncan diagnosed him when he first arrived,” Hilda said. The new doctor studied it for a few moments.

“I’m sorry for forgetting. What was your name again, Doctor?” Victoria asked.

“My name is Dr. Painter.” He was young. He was blond. He looked like he had the world by the tail. She liked Dr. Painter, but he was new. She didn’t want to have to fool yet another medical professional.

Victoria chanced a glance in Holden’s direction, figuring he was looking at the doctor, waiting for the man’s assessment. He wasn’t. Holden stared directly at her. His intensity distracted her in the moment. Her brain went numb.

The corner of his luscious mouth lifted in a heart-stopping half-smile as she watched him, further disarming her emotions and the professional attitude she was trying to adopt. The laser-focused sky-blue gaze was difficult to ignore, but she managed to break the spell when the doctor started talking.

“Based on the notes from Dr. Duncan, I suspect you may have been hit by a car, given your injuries and the general state of your clothing.”

Holden shrugged. “I don’t remember anything before stumbling into a bar called Howlers, talking briefly to someone named Kevin and someone else named Bridget.” He paused, frowned, shook his head and looked up again. “The next thing I remember was waking up here in the hospital later that day.” He smiled at Victoria. “And by then my beautiful wife was at my side.”

“And then you fell into a coma for nearly a month,” Dr. Painter said.

Holden frowned. “Wait. What? I was out for a whole month?”

Hilda said, “And your wife has been here every single day.”

Victoria slapped a shy smile on her face. “What else could I do? He’s my whole world.”

“When can I leave?” Holden asked as he eyed Victoria up and down. “I’d like to get back to my regular life as soon as possible.”

“You can’t leave yet,” Dr. Painter said in a tone that brooked no refusal.

“Why not? I’m awake. I feel great.” Holden lifted from his reclining position to a seated one, stretched his arms into the air and tilted his head from one side to another. “See? I feel good. I feel very healthy.”

He flung the top sheet off and stepped out of bed right next to Victoria. When he turned, she noted the back of his hospital gown was undone and gaping open, showcasing the entire length of his beautiful, muscularly sculpted, naked body. Her fake husband had the best bare butt she’d ever seen. As her attention remained on his derrière, Victoria remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. Memorizing her fake husband’s incredible nude body was not exactly in her standard operating procedures for this mission. Her whole face went hot. She grabbed the sides of his open gown and snapped them closed before he could get too far. “You need clothing first, my darling.”

Holden reached around, brushing his fingers across her hands, lifted his hospital gown and discovered what she’d just seen with her own eyes. “Oh. Guess I can’t go running around the place buck naked, now can I?”

Dr. Painter’s expression was panicked. “No. You can’t go anywhere. You need to get back in bed.”

“I disagree. I can leave if I want to. Right, honey?” He glanced down at her with a wicked grin.

Victoria swallowed hard and nodded. “That’s right, baby. Our doctor at home is anxiously waiting to see you the moment we arrive back in town.”

“Excellent.”

“But you had a head injury, a concussion. You were in a coma for almost a month. You can’t leave until we ensure you’re healed,” Dr. Painter said. His panic registered loud and clear.

“Sorry, Doctor. I appreciate your thoughts on this matter, but I’ve been here long enough. It’s time to get back to my regular life.”

Victoria hesitated for only a second. His regular life didn’t include her. She wasn’t really his wife. She didn’t get to keep him once they got back to Alienn.

“Mrs. Gregg, please reconsider.” Dr. Painter’s pleading tone snapped her from her disheartening reverie.

“I’d like to run further tests on the patient,” the doctor said. He turned to Hilda. “This file doesn’t even have an initial blood test or CT scan information.”

Victoria piped up, “That’s because our beliefs don’t allow for blood to be drawn or CT scans and the like to be taken by anyone except for our doctors back home. Dr. Duncan was apprised early on. He understood and honored our wishes.”

The doctor’s brows went to his hairline. “I see. Well, I didn’t realize that when I ordered a basic panel and the CT scan earlier today when your husband woke up.”

Hilda looked stricken. “But there’s a note in their file,” she said at the same time Victoria said, “What?”

Victoria felt the blood drain out of her face. She cleared her throat. “What’s a basic panel?”

“Oh, it’s just a simple blood test and screening. I had blood drawn for a routine test to check for any infections. Also a portable CT machine was brought in for a quick picture of his head to ensure his concussion has been resolved.”

Hilda was swiping and pushing buttons on the tablet Dr. Painter held. “There is the note about no blood tests or X-rays and that includes CT scans, too. I know because I put it into his file myself.” She tapped the screen, looking sideways at Victoria with apology written all over her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know about your beliefs when I ordered the tests.” Dr. Painter went back to studying the tablet as if he hadn’t just upended Victoria’s world. “We’ll have the blood tests and resulting reports destroyed obviously.” He didn’t look happy to be thwarted from making a further diagnosis.

“Thank you.” Victoria knew they’d do what they said even if only to avoid a possible lawsuit. But Cam would never allow her to simply trust this human hospital. She’d have to break in tonight when it was quiet and ensure everything was destroyed. Tests. Reports. Scans. All information.

Holden watched her closely with a vaguely puzzled expression. Perhaps he didn’t understand that Earth hospitals would discover subtle differences in any blood tests, CT images or X-rays, and show not only his remarkable Alpha healing abilities, but also subtle differences in his bone structure. Super spuds!

Dr. Painter added, “Even without the results from both tests, which would be helpful, I should still have you return first thing tomorrow morning just to be safe. I had set aside an appointment for mid-morning for the test results anyway. Instead I can do a cursory final checkup. Will you at least consider it?”

“Sure,” Holden answered. “We’ll come back in the morning before we head back home, okay, honey?”

“Sure, fine,” Victoria said, but she didn’t mean it. “Tomorrow morning.”

“Ten o’clock,” Dr. Painter said.

“Ten o’clock,” Victoria repeated, only slightly disturbed she was telling yet another big fat lie. She turned away to hide the heat in her cheeks, a telltale sign of her fib.

Victoria was already planning a late-night mission to retrieve the renegade blood sample they’d taken along with the outlawed CT image, in case it hadn’t been destroyed. This time maybe she’d bring along her Defender, just in case anyone caught her doing it. It didn’t work on the supernatural folks, but this was an earthling hospital.

The Defender had been made for earthlings and this was the perfect kind of mission to use it. Plus, Cam would likely insist.

<^> <^> <^>

Holden followed his gorgeous wife out of the hospital and to a large black vehicle he didn’t recognize, but wanted to learn how to operate the moment he saw it. Victoria moved to the side where the operational controls were and opened the door.

Reluctantly, he opened the opposite front door and seated himself, watching closely for when she started this vehicle so he could learn to do it, too.

“Put your seat belt on,” she said. “It’s required here.”

“Seat belt?” he said stupidly.

“Seat belt.” She grabbed at something hanging over her shoulder, crossed a flat gray piece of fabric over her body and snapped a small built-in silver square into a waiting receptacle at her hip. He mimicked her with the device over his shoulder, wondering why everything seemed so, well…alien.

“We’ll have to stay one more night here, of course,” she said, pushing a button on the console before her, and engaging a motor of some sort. She grabbed a lever between them, bringing it straight down and suddenly launching them forward. He so wanted a chance to operate this vehicle.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing, but next time I want to drive this.”

“Not a chance,” she said with a grin.

“Why not?”

“Lots of reasons, but mostly because you don’t have a license.”

Holden crossed his arms and remained silent for the duration of their journey. At first it looked like she was leaving town, but Victoria pulled into a lot and parked next to a dubious-looking building with a sign that read, Pinehurst Inn.

“You’re staying here?” he asked, unable to keep the shock out of his tone.

“Just temporarily,” she said, shutting off the engine of the large black vehicle he planned to find a way to operate one way or another. “I stayed with the sheriff for a few weeks in a place called Wolf Creek, but they just had a new baby and I felt out of place, so I moved here several days ago to give them space.”

Holden remembered Bridget mentioning that her brother was the sheriff and then the other words she’d thought. I’m a wolf shifter. You’d better not be my mate. I really like Sam. Luckily, Holden really liked Victoria, his wife. If Bridget was a wolf shifter then her brother was probably also one and they lived in Wolf Creek? That was kind of funny. Perhaps he’d misunderstood her thoughts and shifter wasn’t what she’d said. Maybe shifter meant something else, like dweller. No. Why would she want to hide where she lived? But being able to shift into a wolf was definitely an interesting secret. Either way, Bridget didn’t have to worry. Of course he’d also never share her secrets.

“Let’s go,” Victoria said, interrupting his unreliable memories.

“Okay.”

The clothes Victoria had brought for him to wear out of the hospital were also very odd. The fabrics, while comfortable, did not seem familiar at all. The blue fabric of his pants, she’d called them “jeans,” was soft, comfortable and seemed very durable. The black T-shirt with the Howlers logo was also made from a strange material, but at last he recognized the place. And he’d even been there. Now he had a souvenir to take home. He just wished he remembered where his home was and the gorgeous spouse who went with it.

He followed his beautiful wife to a nearby door with a lopsided number seven at eye level. She unlocked the door and led him inside to another unfamiliar space. There was one large bed against the wall and a desk with a single chair opposite the bed.

Holden looked at Victoria’s lovely backside and then at the bed. He had a sudden and ferocious vision of rolling around the soft-looking surface kissing, hugging and loving her until they were both satisfied.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“Yes.” For food and for you.

“Let me make a quick phone call and then I’ll run out and get us some food—” He didn’t let her finish. He turned her around, took her in his arms and kissed her the way he’d been wanting to since they left the hospital.

She melted into his embrace, fully participated in the passionate kiss for about five seconds.

Then Victoria startled in his arms. “Wait. Stop.” Her voice wavered like she didn’t want to stop.

“Why? I’ve missed you.” He’d dreamed about her while he’d been in the coma. She was the first memory he had when he woke up. Holden gently put his mouth on hers again. She didn’t resist. She kissed him back, but then her hands came up to his shoulders, pushing him away.

“What are we doing?” she asked. Her tone was husky and seductive, thoroughly intoxicating.

“We are getting reacquainted. I have missed you, Victoria.” He kissed her again, just on the corner of her beautiful mouth. Saying her name didn’t seem familiar, but perhaps he had a pet name for her. Honey? Sweetheart? Sizzle Britches? Okay, maybe not that one.

This time, she didn’t kiss back. But she didn’t correct him, either. “What are you talking about?”

Before he could respond, a buzzing sound at her waist took her focus away from him.

She unclipped a small device from her waist and lifted it to her mouth. “Hello,” she said and exited the room into a small bathroom, closing the door behind her, leaving him alone to wonder why she pulled away from his overture.

Did they not have an amazing marriage? Were they not completely in love with each other? He didn’t remember her at all, but he didn’t remember anything. Or perhaps they’d had an argument before he left?

Had he left her in anger because they were having a fight? No. That didn’t seem right. He had been buckled into a craft of some sort before falling to the grassy ground. Had she been with him and left to go find help and he was gone when she returned? Could she be angry about that? Didn’t she understand about his memory being faulty? What else could it be?

He wished he could remember anything else from before that single image in the spacecraft.

A twinge of pain flared acutely at his hairline near his temple. He threaded his hand into his hair and felt a raised, tender knot. The throbbing ache only came when he tried to remember anything about his past. Curious. He rubbed the sensitive spot again, wishing he could do something to aid his memories in coming back.

Holden moved closer to the door Victoria had disappeared through. If he put his ear flat against it, he could hear most of her side of the conversation fairly well through the door as if it had no barrier properties whatsoever. The thrill spike at the idea of getting caught eavesdropping on his wife certainly didn’t stop him from doing it.

He heard, “—didn’t see any tests in his chart from when he was admitted and ordered some.” She stopped talking for a moment as if to listen. He could even hear the low, agitated male voice at the other end of the line, just not what he was saying.

Who had called her? Why was she talking to another man? Am I jealous? Maybe. He pulled away from the door for a moment when he didn’t hear anything, but that didn’t last long.

Ear to the door, the rest of the conversation sounded like she was answering questions Holden couldn’t hear. She said, “Yes, unfortunately. No, not yet. I don’t know. Of course. Okay, what? I understand. Right. I don’t think so. Okay. I won’t. I will. Bye.”

Holden backed away from the door right before it opened. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t trust her. Then again, he didn’t have a basis for that either way. Could he trust his wife, the woman he didn’t truly remember? That was up for debate, given that she’d just been conferring with another man in private.

“Who was on the phone?” he asked, unable to stop himself. He watched her answer, looking for any deception. Would I be able to determine that? A twinge in his head came with the effort.

“Oh,” she shrugged. “That was just Cam, my boss. He wanted an update on when we were returning.”

Holden nodded. If that was a lie, she was very good at it. How do I know that?

“Okay,” she said, passing by him and the foot of the bed, heading for the outer door. “I’ll go pick up some food for us.”

“Great. Why don’t I go with you?” He tried to remember any other instance in his past where he and Victoria had gone out together for something to eat.

He grabbed the side of his head with his palm. Suddenly it hurt, a lot, enough to bring tears to his eyes. He wiped them away, but not before she saw him do it.

“No. You need to rest. I shouldn’t have taken you out of the hospital so fast, but it couldn’t be helped.”

“I’ll be okay,” he said, sounding even to himself like he was about to go right back into a coma. “You don’t need to wait on me like I’m homebound. I can help out.” He was useless.

“No, no. You stay here and sleep. I can see you have a headache from here. It won’t take me long to get us a bite to eat.”

The pain finally answered for him. “Okay. Fine.” He didn’t want her to leave. He wanted to talk about her call, her boss, and their life together. The amazing one that she’d talked about at the hospital. Not the secretive one where she ducked into the bathroom to have a conversation with another man, even if it was her boss.

“We’ll eat when I return, and then I have a quick errand to run.”

“Are we going to keep the doctor’s appointment in the morning?”

A grin surfaced on her face. “I don’t expect to, but we’ll head back tomorrow morning, okay?” She pointed to the large bed. “Please. Take a nap. I’ll be back before you know it. Any food requests?” He tried to come up with a single food he liked and failed.

Holden shook his head. The pain increased to a level he wasn’t certain he could bear. “Whatever you bring, I’ll eat.”

“Okay.” She eyed a backpack, resting on the desk, but didn’t take it with her. “I’ll be right back.”

He smiled, managing not to move his head. The moment the door closed he sat on the edge of the bed until the pain faded to a manageable level.

Holden looked at the door, then walked over and opened up her backpack. The first thing he saw nestled in with her other things was the Defender. That strange word just dropped into the forefront of his mind. Like seeing the vehicle they drove here in, he had a sudden urge to take this device apart and see how it worked. Curious. Why would he want to do that? He cast his memory back to discover if he was an inventor or something.

The agony of trying to remember exactly what a Defender was, and what it did or really any old memory brought Holden to his knees. His consciousness wavered like heat waves rolling across a mid-day desert.

Space potatoes.

Don’t fall into a coma.

Chapter Seven

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria got some food to go from Mummy’s Diner. It wasn’t time for breakfast, but she wanted one more meal of blueberry pancakes before leaving Nocturne Falls. In the past weeks, she’d tried several of the other restaurants in town, but her two favorites were Mummy’s and Howlers. She also ordered a triple side of chewy, thick bacon. She could eat one order all by herself; based on the size of her “husband,” she ordered him two. If Holden didn’t want his, she’d help him finish. If wasting bacon was not a crime, it should be.

She entered the motel room to find him sitting on the foot of the bed with his head in his hands.

“Headache still?”

“Yep.” But the moment she opened the bag he sniffed and sighed. “Smells great. Food might cure me.” He got up and helped her put the white to-go boxes on the room’s small round table. There was only one chair, so they pulled the table to the corner of the bed, where he sat back down.

If Holden cared about eating blueberry pancakes for an afternoon meal, he didn’t say anything. He wolfed down his food, including the two sides of bacon, and didn’t once complain, but Victoria could tell his head was hurting.

Dr. Painter had given him a few pain pills when he was released, but they were to be taken only once he’d eaten.

“Hilda said you regaled her and the rest of the nurses with romantic stories about us.” He licked syrup off his bottom lip.

“Did she? Well, I felt like I had to tell them something to fill in the silence, since you didn’t talk much.”

“Tell me what you told them.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “What if I run into someone at the hospital tomorrow and they ask me a question?”

“We probably won’t even go.”

“But if we do, just in case…” He smiled and her tummy plummeted to her knees. “Seems like I should know what stories you’ve been telling about me while I was sleeping.”

“Okay, fine.” She told him the general history of their life together that she’d stuck to faithfully for almost a month. Then Victoria called up the top three fabricated stories she’d repeated to the nursing staff at Nocturne Falls General Hospital to add some authentic-sounding details.

“I told them the very cute story about how we met.” She related the spur of the moment tale about meeting him in a parking lot in the rain and how gallant he’d been to try to shield her from the downpour only to have his umbrella flip inside-out in the wind, drenching them both.

“Then I told them about running away to get married because we just couldn’t wait for a big production of a wedding, even though my mother has never truly forgiven us and talks regularly about an elaborate renewal-of-our-vows ceremony.” She certainly didn’t want to call up—or invent on the fly—the fine details of wedding party names, dress colors, cake flavors or honeymoon destinations.

He laughed, but Victoria could see the pain shadowing the amusement in his eyes.

“What else?” he asked.

“I told them how our first apartment was so small we could barely both be in the same room at the same time. And about the orphaned gray and white fluffy cat that came with the place. We called him Fluffy, until a new family next door officially adopted him, renamed him Bob, and then he never called, he never wrote…”

Holden laughed again at her foolish conjured stories, but then stopped and put a hand up to his head. A few minutes later, he yawned. She convinced him to rest, and in minutes he was asleep, but not before she’d shared a few more stories about their fake life together. They always held hands when they went anywhere, whether on vacation or to the grocery store. He liked to go places and do things on the weekend when she wanted to curl up, stay in and be cozy, so they split the difference and one day they went out and the other they stayed in.

She really needed to stop it. Just because she thought it would be a good life didn’t mean it was going to happen. He lived on another planet, for heaven’s sake. Rolling her eyes at herself, Victoria made a mental plan for what she’d do at the hospital tonight.

She watched Holden sleep peacefully and waited for the sun to go down. At dusk, she got ready to leave for the hospital and carry out her special mission to ensure the forbidden blood test and CT image had indeed been destroyed.

She didn’t want to leave without telling him, so she kissed his forehead. His eyes opened, although he didn’t seem very aware.

“I’ve got to run an important errand at the hospital,” she whispered.

“What? Why?” he asked, but obviously wasn’t completely awake. The pain pills must have made him super sleepy.

“You know why. No evidence of aliens can be found here on Earth.”

He blinked very exaggeratedly, but his eyes were closed when he said, “What? I’m an alien? How did I not know that?”

“You’re very funny.”

Without missing a beat, his eyes popped open and he said, “Well, you’re very beautiful, wife of mine.” His eyes closed halfway. He was very sensuous, very sexy.

I wish you really were mine.

“Kiss me,” he whispered. Victoria lowered her mouth to his for a quick kiss that turned very passionate for a few moments. But then his medicine must have kicked in again, because he slowly withdrew and relaxed back against his pillow.

Victoria inhaled deeply and exhaled, trying to get her heart to slow down. Whew, boy. Kisses like that didn’t help with dispelling her “I want a life with this man” fiction. She didn’t get to keep him. She knew that. She silently exited the motel room, closing the door behind her.

As she did every time she left her motel room, Victoria searched around for the rumored giant cockroach that supposedly lived here. Luckily, she hadn’t seen it and didn’t again tonight. She didn’t want it to jump out at her, especially not on her last night here.

Victoria traveled on foot to the hospital, not wanting anyone to see her big black SUV near the scene of the crime she was about to commit. The new vehicle brought to her all the way from Alienn at the same time her fake IDs had been sent. Sheriff Merrow probably would have helped her, but she didn’t ask for the same reason she’d moved out of his home. He and Ivy had a new baby and he should spend time with his sweet little family.

Breaking and entering into the hospital was an unplanned yet very necessary task. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t done it before. But the last time, Sheriff Merrow had helped her. He’d even brought along a vampire friend to drink the evidence. The vampire—she hadn’t caught his name and didn’t dare ask—said alien blood was very tasty and had exaggeratedly stared at her neck as he commented she had lovely veins.

With a brand new baby in his household, Sheriff Merrow had enough on his plate. Victoria didn’t want to disturb him to ask about the vampire’s availability tonight. Plus, she didn’t really want a vampire staring at her veins without a chaperone. It was perhaps foolish, but blood-sucking bothered her more than she was willing to admit. Much like the rumored giant cockroach.

Five minutes of drive time translated to fifteen minutes of walk time, but it was fully dark by the time she arrived at the hospital. She crossed the street to get near the loading dock of the hospital and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a small black cat approaching.

Relax. It’s a kitten not a giant cockroach.

Victoria took a few deep breaths and calmed down, calling out, “Hello, little black cat.”

“Hello, big human,” said a tiny little voice from the direction of the feline.

Did that cat just speak? No. I am hearing things.

But Victoria could have sworn the little beastie started chanting as he trotted past. She heard very clearly, “Feed the cat. Feed the cat. Feed the cat.” Strange. But Nocturne Falls was an odd place. Even so, she liked it here. And the place was supernatural. Why not a talking cat? Maybe all the animals talked and she just hadn’t noticed.

She settled into her hiding place, glancing at her watch. From previous reconnaissance late at night, she knew the back dock would be unlocked for the next half hour. There was a supply truck being unloaded, but the workers were about finished.

As she waited for a clear path inside, her recent conversation with Cam filtered into her brain.

“How is the pilot doing?” Cam asked first thing.

“He has severe pain in his head.”

“Still?”

“Yes. I’m not sure why.”

“I figured after the long coma he’d be back to normal.”

“Me, too, but I can see it in his eyes. He suffers.”

“Well, bring him right back here pronto and the doctors in Alienn will fix him up good as new.”

“I want to, but there is another problem,” she said, hating to bring it up, knowing she had to.

“I know I may regret asking this, but what problem?” Cam’s voice was tense.

“When Holden woke up from the coma, his regular doctor was out of town, so a new doctor was assigned to cover his case.”

“So?”

“So this new doctor didn’t see any tests in his chart from when he was admitted and ordered some.”

“Space potatoes!” Cam said and then added a few more very creative swear words in the background before coming back on the line.

Victoria started talking before Cam finished his creative tirade. “They said they were sorry and assured me the tests would be destroyed.”

“Of course they did, but we need to be certain.”

“I know. Perhaps Sheriff Merrow could get in and check to ensure the blood samples and CT images are truly gone.”

Cam shot that down quickly. She knew he would, but didn’t want to drag Holden along with her or make him suffer with the pain in his head, so she asked the question, and got the expected answer.

“No. You need to take care of this, Victoria. I appreciate that the Nocturne Falls sheriff has been cooperative these past few weeks, but that hard evidence needs to be under our control pronto, not hopefully taken care of eventually.”

“Okay, I’ll take care of it tonight.”

“They really tested his blood and did another CT scan of his head again?” Cam repeated the information as if he wished he could snap his fingers and make it go away. She did, too.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“And you haven’t already destroyed the new tests along with the results?” He was kidding. Sort of.

“No, not yet.”

“Where are the supposedly destroyed tests and the leftover blood vials right now?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you’re going to make a plan and get back there as soon as possible to ensure that truth or retrieve them, right?”

“Of course.”

Cam pushed out a long breath as if centering himself. “There is something else you need to know.”

“Okay. What?”

“We’ve sent someone to Nocturne Falls on a separate assignment. He’ll be there soon, if he’s not in town already. He’s been tasked with recovering a stowaway on board.” Stowaway? Wow! “Bubba Thorne’s a Royal Magistrate Guard. We gave him your contact information. He may or may not get in touch with you.”

“I understand.”

Cam rattled off the details for Bubba’s communication device. “Check with him before you leave town so he knows you’re gone and unavailable for any backup.”

“Right.”

“Or do you need him for backup in order to make sure the blood samples and CT scans from the human hospital are disposed of?”

“I don’t think so.” Victoria hated to leave Holden alone in the motel, but she was responsible for ensuring the renegade tests were truly gone. Even so, she wasn’t going to call a prestigious RMG guy to come and babysit while she went and retrieved something that should never have been taken in the first place.

“I’ll leave this task in your capable hands, then. Don’t leave any trace.”

“I won’t.”

“And keep on truckin’, Victoria.”

“I will. Bye.”

The delivery truck she’d been watching pulled away from the back dock, stopping her rapt reverie. She stood from her crouched position and moved toward the now-empty back entrance.

Victoria slipped inside without anyone seeing her. Although a hospital never really slept, there were definitely times when the halls were relatively empty. She avoided the few staff members she came across on her way to the laboratory where they’d retrieved the first test samples and results.

She looked through the day’s blood samples stored in a refrigerated cabinet, and found not one, but two vials of Holden’s blood. To their credit, the two vials were in the tray marked for disposal. But she had only expected one vial not two. Spuds. Looking over her shoulder to ensure she was still alone, Victoria saw no one.

She promptly searched all of the samples in the refrigerator to ensure there weren’t any more secret vials of his alien blood tucked away in the cabinet. After a very thorough search, she didn’t find more than the two. Good. She tucked the vials into her pants pocket and headed down to the second floor and the radiology department. Once inside the front office area, Victoria bent over the computer, logged in and accessed the digital file using the user name and password Sheriff Merrow had procured the last time.

It worked perfectly.

Victoria was able to access the five CT images in the panel they’d taken from different angles of his head. Sure, they were thorough, but they weren’t supposed to be taking any at all, let alone five. Good thing she looked for more than just one.

The sound of an automatic door whooshing open nearby halted her completely. She stood frozen, waiting to be discovered. Nothing. She waited another minute or two and listened for anyone or anything moving closer to her. She heard nothing and went back to work.

Stealth work always made her hear things that weren’t really there.

She brought up the private e-mail of the doctor in Alienn and forwarded a copy of the most recent CT scans along with a copy of the test report they’d done on his blood, which pointed out some irregularities.

Victoria pulled out the special flash drive Cam had included in their standard tactical gear. Since nothing was every truly deleted in any computer system these days, the flash drive contained a targeted Alpha virus that would censor out any alien details from Holden’s hospital records, just like she’d done the last time.

She checked her watch. The doctor in Alienn probably wouldn’t see the e-mail she’d sent until tomorrow, but at least he’d be prepared when she finally got Holden back to Arkansas and into his care.

Victoria carefully deleted the sent e-mail from the system, using another special virus to ensure no one knew she’d been the one sending e-mails. While she was connected, she brought Holden’s hospital admittance file up onto the screen and censored that as well. Holden was simply a regular guy with normal test results. All his bloodwork was changed, his files were altered, his admittance form a work of fictional art. The CT scans and all of the notes the nurses had recorded regarding his vital statistics and general health—before, during and after the coma—now reflected only human attributes. Awesome.

The hospital staff would remember Holden Gregg, but wouldn’t have any documentation to support that he was anything other than some human tourist. Whew. She mentally patted herself on the back for a job well done and a huge invisible weight lifted off her shoulders.

“Hey! Step away from the computer terminal. What do you think you’re doing there?” asked a stern voice behind her. Victoria glanced over her shoulder and saw a security guard she hadn’t expected or even heard until he was standing in the room with her.

Super spuds!

<^> <^> <^>

Bubba arrived in the delightful town of Nocturne Falls late in the afternoon. He found a room at a place called the Pinehurst Inn. Luckily, he wouldn’t need to stay too long. It was a rather plain place, the complete opposite of the town. He strolled through Nocturne Falls using his mind-reading abilities to listen in on various conversations, able to hear both humans and the folks who were called supernatural.

His first stop was a candy store called Delaney’s Delactables. The scent alone drove him inside. He’d had chocolate in Alienn, but this place was fancy. Draeken Phoenix mentioned it on the trip back to Earth from gulag XkR-9, the worst prison planet in three galaxies. Draeken warned him not to divulge the fact the proprietress was a vampire out loud, as that had gotten him in a lot of trouble during his own visit after the crash.

Bubba wanted the opposite of trouble.

He looked around the chocolate store with relish, eager to try everything. He’d have to budget, though. He only had enough Earth cash for two weeks. Even at double the rate and daily expenses, Bubba was fairly certain an allowance for chocolate treats hadn’t been included. Even so, having chocolate in place of one meal each and every day probably wouldn’t kill him.

Diesel and Cam Grey had given him the contact information for Victoria Greene, the security specialist waiting for the pilot to recover.

He’d certainly done that duty before, sitting idly by while compatriots healed from battle wounds in the luckily few warfare incidents Alpha-Prime had endured. Not an easy assignment for anyone, but especially not for soldiers and guards who were used to more action.

Bubba would check in with her later, after he ate his fill of chocolate treats. He wandered around the store, listening to various patrons’ thoughts, pretending—if only to himself—that he was working to find clues as he greedily filled his shopping basket with treats for the coming week.

He caught a surprising thought from the woman behind the display case where all the fancy, by the pound candy resided, and it made him stop and stare at her longer than he should have.

Draeken had warned him, but he didn’t believe it until he heard it in his own mind. Vampire. She was a vampire. How extraordinary. The folklore must be wrong. He understood vampires couldn’t come out in the daylight. Or perhaps she was a very powerful vampire and the regular rules didn’t apply to her.

“May I help you?” she asked, polite enough not to call him on his rude stare.

“Oh. Yes.” He looked away from her face to search the display case, vowing to buy extra treats—such a sacrifice—to make up for his behavior. “What are these?” He pointed to the first thing he saw.

“The strawberry cream bonbons?” she asked, referring to the row of perfect treats and right next to a little sign that said, “Strawberry Cream Bonbon.”

“Are they good?” he asked, like an idiot.

“Want to try one?”

“Sure.” She picked up some little tongs, grabbed a treat, stuck it in a little round of paper and handed it to him.

He popped it into his mouth. The rush of flavor made his eyes want to roll back in his head with delight. “Very good,” he said after several seconds of joy.

“I’m so glad. How many would you like?”

“Lots.”

She laughed. “A pound?”

“How many is that?”

“Ten to twelve pieces.”

“Oh, I need more than that.”

“Two pounds?”

“Three,” he said with authority. “And I can always come back if I run out.”

“Yes, indeed.” She glanced down into the case. “If I don’t have quite that many of the strawberry, would you like to try some different flavors?”

Bubba hunched down and noticed several flavors he wanted to try. “That’s a good idea.” He was about to get a pound of each, but decided that would be way too much. “Mix up the flavors for the three pounds. I trust you, but heavy on the strawberry, okay?”

“Got it.” She got a large box and started filling it up. Bubba looked around and noticed several more folks had come in. He read their minds, too. The earthlings’ minds were the easiest. The supernatural folk, as Cam had termed them, were a bit more difficult, but not strenuous.

A young redheaded woman came into the shop, a ding-a-ling sound from the bell above the door announcing her entry.

Delaney looked up as the newcomer approached. “Hi, Pandora. I have your mother’s special order all ready. Let me finish up here and I’ll get it for you.”

“Thanks, Delany. No rush. I’ll raid your samples for now.” Pandora got a tiny wooden spike out of a dish, lifted the glass dome perched over small pieces of chocolate displayed beneath and stabbed one, popping it into her mouth. “So good,” she exclaimed with her eyes shut momentarily. She lifted the glass lid a second time, going back for more. He watched the apparent ritual with amusement. Lift. Stab. Eat. Lift. Stab. Eat.

Bubba tried to get inside her mind as she nibbled chocolate samples, but couldn’t seem to get through. He mind-nudged her, trying harder to gain entrance to her thoughts, but she didn’t change expression or anything. It was like he wasn’t even making an effort. And he was. She just kept eating samples as if he wasn’t about to break out in a sweat with the useless effort. He cleared his throat and gave up trying. Extraordinary.

What manner of supernatural creature was she that he couldn’t read her mind? She couldn’t be part Alpha, could she? He opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. He couldn’t ask. Her possible alien status or supernatural abilities were off-limits as far as day-to-day conversation went. He knew that.

He’d have to note this oddity in his general report once he found the stowaway and returned to Alienn. The supernaturals were impervious to the Defender, he’d been told. And now some apparently had minds that were impossible to read. Interesting.

Delaney rang up his order, which turned out to be less Earth cash than he’d expected given the huge amount of treats he’d bought.

With his large box of chocolates tucked under one arm, Bubba wandered through town, taking the long way back to his motel room, not actually anxious to get there. He listened to the minds of those on the streets as he meandered, searching for clues as to where his little alien stowaway might be hiding out here on Earth. Was she still in the area? He hoped so.

Bubba had the coordinates of where the gulag-bound ship had crashed, although the wreckage had long since been removed. He’d start there and see where it led him. Tomorrow.

It was some time later when the communication device Cam had given him vibrated on the nightstand next to his bed. He was about to nod off, possibly thanks to a belly full of delicious chocolate, when the sound jolted him to alertness.

Picking the device up, he read the screen.

Need help at NF human hospital. ASAP

Bubba figured NF meant Nocturne Falls and already understood the earthling ASAP term, but where was the human hospital? He hadn’t come across it between the chocolate store and the cheap motel. He might have to ask for directions.

He got up, and messaged back, “On my way,” as he closed the door to his room.

Unfortunately, Victoria Greene was on her own until he could figure out where she was.

Chapter Eight

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria was caught fair and square. She’d sent a distress signal to Bubba Thorne, hoping he was somewhere close. She wasn’t even sure he was in town yet, but he was her best—actually, only—option right now.

The distress signal had a range of ten miles. It worked perfectly in Alienn, but the signal wouldn’t get all the way from Georgia to Arkansas. Only Bubba was near enough to respond.

Not that it would likely make a difference. If he wasn’t already somewhere in the building or, better yet, on this floor about to intervene in the next ten seconds or so, she was in trouble all by her lonesome.

If hospital security sent her to a local jail cell for the night, she wouldn’t be locked up for long. But then Sheriff Merrow would know she went off on her own to ensure the blood tests and CT images were taken care of without his knowledge or approval.

She didn’t want to invite his disappointment or disapproval. Would he understand she just hadn’t wanted to bother him and disrupt his new family dynamic? Would her incarceration harm the recently established negotiation between their two unusual towns?

“Are you going to answer me?” the security guy asked.

“Do I have to?” She didn’t look at his face, but smiled to convey she wasn’t a threat. Well, not a big one anyway.

Her answer didn’t seem to make him any happier. “Put your hands in the air,” he said in an overloud voice—like the louder he said it, the faster she’d comply. Nope. Not happening.

Victoria finished typing the last little bit to shore up Holden’s complete hospital file. A box came up on the screen asking her was she sure she wanted to save the changes to this file. Oh, yes. I’m sure.

Instead of putting her hands in the air, she reached for her Defender, hoping to point it in his direction and pull the trigger before he realized what had happened and then forgot all about her little visit tonight.

But after a thorough search using both hands, she found nothing attached to her waist. Victoria had raced out of the motel room without retrieving her Defender.

Spuds.

She’d gotten so used to leaving it behind day to day that she forgot to bring it when she needed it most.

Super spuds.

“I said, put your hands in the air.” The guy put a hand on the top of the holster attached to his waist. He’d brought his weapon.

Victoria wasn’t very good at reading minds, which was just as well in her life back in Alienn, and thank heavens Alphas couldn’t read each other’s minds.

“Okay. Don’t get your panties in a wad.” Victoria pulled out her flash drive and slid it into her pocket, hearing it clack against the vials of Holden’s blood. Please don’t break. She lifted her hands away from the keyboard, but hit the enter key to permanently save Holden’s changed file before doing so. Success—with the files. But failure—at not getting caught.

She straightened up, thinking furiously about what she should do.

“Back away from the computer.”

Victoria took one step backward. If she weren’t distracted by the coming space potato storm of being caught, she would have done a final thorough search to ensure all Holden’s files had been altered on the entire system.

“Come closer,” he said, motioning her with one hand.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m going to put you in the holding cell we have downstairs, call the police, and tell them I found you fooling around with the computers in an area restricted to hospital employees.”

“That’s not going to work for me, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t much care what works for you. Come on over here.”

Victoria shook her head. She was stalling, and wishing for a miracle. Maybe Bubba would come through for her in her moment of supreme need any second now.

Would he have been issued a Defender? Maybe not. The leaders of Nocturne Falls and Alienn reached an understanding while she waited for Holden to wake up. Defenders were not supposed to come back into Nocturne Falls. But it wasn’t like Victoria could mail hers back to Arkansas.

She usually hid it in her backpack, which was in the motel room with a sleeping Holden.

Victoria felt her communicator buzz in her pocket. Was that Bubba? Was he close by, ready to save her? Please be close by ready to save me.

“Come over here or else,” the guard said.

“Or else what?” Victoria didn’t believe in idle threats. “Or else” had never worked on her.

“Or else I’ll make you come with me.”

“Well, that’s what it’s going to take,” she said with attitude in her tone. “You’re going to have to make me.” Victoria looked at his slight build and figured she might be able to disarm him if she made the effort. Of course, she didn’t want to get shot.

He took a step toward her, but paused. His eyes closed. What was he doing? He went limp, his arms fell to his sides and he collapsed to the ground.

Victoria looked around, wondering what had happened.

“Hey. Are you awake?” She approached the guard gingerly, hands still raised, looking all around for a reason as to why he had fainted.

“Hello?” she called out the open door. “Bubba? Is that you?” Victoria put her hands down, crept past the fallen security guard and approached the entry.

An ashen-faced Holden staggered into the entry, one hand holding onto the doorframe, the other holding her Defender. “Who is Bubba? Is that who you’re meeting here in secret?”

Victoria raced to him, arm going around his waist. He looked like he was about to fall down. “Holden? What are you doing here?”

His electric gaze fixed on her. He wasn’t frowning, exactly, but he wasn’t happy. “I’m trying to keep my wife out of jail.”

“How did you get my Defender to work for you? It’s keyed to only me.”

Holden gave her a superior look. “I know things.” Like how to re-wire their alien technology?

“No doubt.” She took it from him, noted scratch marks on the bottom where the power supply was housed. Did the Defender reset if you jiggled the battery wires? Unclear.

“Who is Bubba?” he asked again, sounding like a jealous husband. If only.

Victoria looked over her shoulder to ensure the guard was still out cold before she answered, “He’s the Royal Magistrate Guard that was sent here to find a stowaway.”

“What stowaway?”

“The one they believe caused the spaceship to crash.”

“Spaceship?” he asked, like he didn’t know.

“Very funny. Yes, Mr. Forgetful Pilot, the spaceship. You know. The one you flew here from Alpha-Prime and crashed into the Georgia forest.”

Holden’s expression flattened. His eyes closed and he slid out of her hold and down the doorframe until he was on his knees.

“Don’t faint on me.”

“Really trying not to.”

Victoria strapped her Defender to her waist, threw an arm around Holden’s middle and helped him stand back up. She heard the security guard cough. Time to go. Now!

They made their way to the staircase. Victoria eyed the elevator as they slowly moved past the corridor housing the conveyance, but it was too risky. There was no way to know if anyone waited to get them whenever the doors opened on the next floor it stopped at. She didn’t want to have to zap her way through the hospital. No doubt Sheriff Merrow would find out about that and be very unhappy with her.

Luckily they only had to go down one flight of stairs to get to the ground floor. Holden was moving pretty well with her help. She didn’t know how in the world he’d made it all the way to her without collapsing.

“How did you find me?”

“I got lucky. I remembered that you said you wanted to get my CT scans and my blood samples. There was a handy directory posted on a wall next to the stairwell. Radiology is on the second floor and was the first place I looked for you. The lab is two more flights up.”

“That is lucky. And I’m very grateful.”

“Anything for you, my lovely wife. Even if you are committing criminal acts.”

“Very funny.”

He gave her a curious look, but then focused his attention on putting one foot in front of the other. She didn’t know how they were ever going to get all the way back to the Pinehurst Inn. She might have to hide him somewhere and fetch the vehicle.

They made it as far as the small park with the decorative fountain across the street from the hospital. He lowered to sit on the fountain’s edge and she joined him, hoping he would recover his strength soon. They were a couple of streets from downtown Nocturne Falls and the main thoroughfare with all the cool shops and restaurants. In many ways, Nocturne Falls reminded her of home. Her home in Alienn, though, definitely not Alpha-Prime.

From their perch on the edge of the fountain, Victoria saw a similar scene to what she would have seen in downtown Alienn, Arkansas. Despite the hour, several townsfolk were out for a walk. A few had dogs on leashes. A few rode bicycles. One guy power-walked as sweat poured off of him, like he’d just run for miles. A couple strolled hand in hand away from them, likely headed to Main Street.

The lamplight around them was surprisingly bright, perhaps because the designers wanted to showcase the fountain. It was very pretty.

Holden scooped up a handful of water, letting it run through his fingers. Then he did it five more times, like he couldn’t believe his eyes. “I’ve never seen so much water that wasn’t reserved for drinking or growing food.”

“Lots of water here on Earth,” she said absently, thinking of a lake back home near Alienn. You could rent a paddleboat and pedal it like a bicycle all over the surface. Maybe in their fake life she and Holden could do that one weekend day every month or so.

“Sure looks like it, and so different from home.”

“Sounds like you’re getting your memory back,” Victoria said, only slightly sarcastically.

“Am I?” He managed to seem surprised.

“Well, you remembered that Alpha-Prime is a desert planet without much water and I, of course, assumed you recalled your life there. Not to mention you were able to disassemble the Defender and get it to work for you. That certainly came in handy today.

“I read somewhere in your dossier that you’re very good at taking things apart and putting them back together again.”

He shrugged. “I guess. Wait. You have a dossier on me?”

“You are very amusing.”

“Am I?” He sounded a little surprised. He was probably the type of guy who never wanted to boast about his strengths or accomplishments.

Victoria appreciated his efforts to keep up the pretense they’d been forced to use in the hospital in front of the earthlings. But he could relax a bit when it was just the two of them.

She turned to tell him that, but he didn’t look so good. Holden had lowered his gaze as if struggling to remember the differences between Earth and Alpha-Prime or perhaps his ability to assemble and disassemble things.

He didn’t snap his head back up all of a sudden or say, “A-ha! I do remember everything.” Instead, he grabbed one side of his head like someone had just popped him one on the skull and groaned in pain. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped over. Oh no! He tipped to one side, almost falling into the fountain.

Victoria grabbed Holden, using both arms wrapped around his shoulders to keep him from dropping sideways into the shallow pool.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several teenagers dressed in Halloween costumes approaching them.

“Hey! Totally cool megaphone!” said an exuberant voice. Spuds, now what?

Victoria wrestled a barely conscious Holden up from falling headfirst into the fountain.

“Can I borrow it? Your megaphone, I mean. We’re headed to a costume contest downtown. It would take my fireman’s costume to a whole new level.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m very attached to my megaphone. I can’t loan it out.”

His brows scrunched as he looked her over head to toe and back up again. The other seven members of his pack of friends remained silent. “What are you dressed as?”

“A human with a totally cool megaphone,” she retorted. Couldn’t they see she was dealing with a sick man?

As if he heard her thoughts, the teenaged firefighter looked at Holden with a measure of contempt. “Is your friend drunk or high or something?” he asked, crossing his arms as if he were about to lecture her on the kind of friend she associated with and his weakened condition.

Victoria almost lost her battle to keep Holden out of the fountain. “My friend is very sick. Could you possibly help me out here?”

“Maybe we could trade. I’ll help you if you loan me your megaphone.”

Why should she give up her Defender for his use—a complete stranger—in a costume contest? It was absurd.

“No. Sorry. Not going to happen.” Victoria put her knee on the edge of the fountain, leveraged Holden in the right direction, barely, and reached for her Defender.

The young man in the firefighter suit took a step forward as she aimed it at him and pulled the trigger. She expected him and his friends to all drop into oblivion courtesy of Alpha alien technology.

She was disappointed.

It didn’t work. Were they supernatural teenagers? That would be just her luck.

She pulled the trigger again, then suddenly remembered Holden had tampered with it so he could use it on the hospital security guard. He must have reset it to his unique handprint.

Victoria guessed it was way too much to ask that they both could use her Defender now instead of one at a time. And something she planned to complain about at the next lessons-learned meeting in Alienn. Spuds.

“What are you doing?” the young man asked when it became clear she hadn’t been about to give the “megaphone” over to him. Holden remained seated on the edge of the fountain, but bent over, chest resting on his knees. If she moved or let go, he’d slide easily into the water.

She tried to put the Defender into his hand, but his fingers were all wet, making it nearly impossible to get it into his palm, let alone a finger on the trigger to shoot at the crowd of hooligans. If they were even susceptible to the power of the Defender.

Try as she might, Victoria couldn’t hold on to Holden and also help him shoot the Defender. It was increasingly frustrating.

Without warning, the fake fireman grabbed her Defender away from them both, holding it up in the air like he slayed a dragon in order to win the megaphone prize.

“Give that back, right now,” Victoria said.

“Make me,” he said, dancing back a few steps further out of her reach. “I need it.”

“It’s mine. You’re stealing it.”

“No. I’m only borrowing it.” He laughed and all his friends laughed with him. “Come on, let’s go,” he said to his gang, putting his mouth on the narrow end of the “megaphone” to command them. It didn’t make his voice louder, but he didn’t seem to care. She couldn’t let him leave with her Defender.

Victoria had two choices: keep Holden from sliding head first into the fountain or let him go and race forward to grab her Defender.

“Super spuds!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in utter frustration. The gang of costumed teenagers turned back at her outburst, but only laughed harder.

Teenaged troublemakers.

<^> <^> <^>

Holden was barely conscious as Victoria tried to fend off the attack of the costumed teenagers. He was so weak with pain that he felt about as useful as a cargo shipment of sand released in the middle of a desert. But when she yelled her curse to the skies above he tried to make more of an effort to at least remain conscious.

The tender spot near his temple throbbed, sending heated electric bolts of agony into his brain with each beat of his heart. It was as if someone repeatedly struck him right on that little bumpy wound, although nothing was touching that part of his head. The idea of even a finger coming into contact with his tender head would likely knock him out completely.

Holden used every bit of his waning strength to throw himself away from the luxurious fountain of water and onto the grass at its base. It reminded him of falling out of the spacecraft and onto the verdant forest floor.

Recalling his first memory in this strange new world didn’t make his temple hurt as much as trying to remember his life before it, but he still felt a tingle of pain. He focused on the feel of the cool grass beneath him. He opened his eyes and stared at an impossibly tall tree, with leaves that fluttered just a bit in the breeze. Mostly he did his best to think calm thoughts and not attempt to remember anything.

Victoria shouted again. “Bring that megaphone back!”

Holden lifted his head off of the grassy ground to see the group of costumed teenagers sauntering away. They hadn’t gotten far. He dearly wished he could run and chase them for her, but as he attempted to gather the strength to stand up and look menacing, something very odd happened.

The entire group of young Defender megaphone thieves collapsed on the sidewalk. Eight human heaps littered the ground a few yards away. Had the Defender gone off? Had they managed to shoot themselves?

“What just happened?” Holden asked, finally able to sit up and climb to his feet with Victoria’s help, although he felt as weak as a newly hatched desert puffin.

“I do not know.”

A whistling sound came from across the park area. They turned to see a very large, stern-looking man jogging toward them. He carried a Defender in one hand. Holden guessed he’d been concealed in the trees.

“Victoria?”

“Yes.”

“Bubba Thorne. I got your distress call. I shot them with my Defender from behind the trees, but I wasn’t certain of the range.”

Victoria made a noise of relief, let go of Holden’s arm and went to collect her Defender from the downed teenagers. To the newcomer, she said, “Thank you so much for showing up, Bubba. I wasn’t even sure you were in town yet, let alone with a Defender. I heard they weren’t issuing them for travel to Nocturne Falls anymore.”

“I talked Cam into it and promised only to use it in emergencies,” Bubba said.

Victoria grinned. Holden frowned. “Well, for future reference, the Defender works within fifty feet, so you had about ten more to spare.”

“Good to know.” The fierce-looking man suddenly cracked a smile. “Thanks for the information.”

“Who are you again?” Holden asked, crossing his arms and trying to look tough even though he felt frailer than ever.

“I’m the Royal Magistrate Guard the leaders from Alienn sent to find the stowaway.”

Holden nodded—the word stowaway was familiar—but then frowned as he wondered if this was the man Victoria had been talking to on her communicator in a hushed voice in the bathroom. He didn’t think so. He mulled over the significance of the word stowaway until his head started aching again. Anytime he tried to remember something specific, his head pounded. So annoying. Apparently his mind only allowed him to focus on the present and never the past without pain.

Victoria glanced down at the fallen young humans and said, “Let’s get out of here before they wake up. Where are you staying, Bubba?”

He grimaced. “At a place called the Pinehurst Inn. Not fancy, but the price was right. I’m not certain how long I’ll be here yet.”

“I understand. I’ve got a room there, too,” Victoria said.

“We share it,” Holden added. “The two of us together.” He pointed at Victoria and then at himself. He wanted this Bubba person to understand Victoria was off-limits.

Bubba didn’t seem to care about limits.

“Good for you.” He pointed to the trees he’d just emerged from and said, “My vehicle is parked on the next block just past that small stand of trees.”

“Excellent.” Victoria grabbed Holden’s arm and the three of them headed away from the fountain and the earthlings decorating the sidewalk.

Victoria made Holden lie down in the back seat while she and Bubba rode up front. He didn’t like it one bit, but the moment he was sideways on the seat he fell asleep, waking when they parked.

They helped him into Victoria’s room. Holden gratefully dropped to the surface of the bed, but remained in a sitting position. Once he flattened out, he’d be asleep again, and he didn’t want to leave Victoria alone with Bubba.

“How do you plan to find the stowaway?” Victoria asked.

“I have a file on her, so I know what she looks like. I also have a prototype device Cam invented to possibly help me. I’ll discover if it works tomorrow. Basically, my plan is to simply ask around town and pretend that I’m a—” He snapped his fingers as if trying to remember something. Holden watched, wondering if the other man would brace for the pain of any attempted recall, but he didn’t. Bubba was apparently perfect. Very annoying.

“What’s it called here? It means a secret sleuth?”

“Private investigator?” Victoria guessed.

Bubba smiled. “Yes. That’s it. I’m to tell the earthlings that I’m a private investigator sent by her family to find out what happened to her.”

“Do you have her picture with you? I can take a look. If I’ve seen her, I’d love to point you in the right direction.”

Bubba reached into the pocket on one shoulder of his tactical jacket and retrieved a small square. “This is Astrid Harper.”

Victoria studied the photo for several seconds. “Sorry. I haven’t seen her. I wish I could help you search for her, but I need to get Holden back to Alienn and the healers there.”

“Understandable.” Bubba glanced at Holden, lifting one side of his mouth in a half smile as if he had private knowledge of something.

Holden was barely holding on to consciousness. The skirmish at the fountain and his rescue of Victoria in the hospital had drained him of every single bit of energy and strength. He didn’t even understand how he was still awake.

Jealousy was a powerful motivator. Holden couldn’t believe it. He was actually jealous of a guy named Bubba.

It was ridiculous. Neither of them had done anything for him to be jealous of, but if nothing else, he was jealous that Bubba had all his big, tall, manly strength and energy, while Holden could barely stay conscious. It wasn’t fair.

“I’ll leave the two of you,” Bubba said.

Holden perked up. That was the first good news he’d heard all night.

“I’ll walk you out,” Victoria said. “I have some supplies you might make use of while you’re here tucked into the storage area of my SUV.”

Bubba looked at Holden. “Are you going to be okay in here if we step out?”

Holden stared at them, wanting to go along with them, wanting to make sure Bubba knew Victoria was his love. His rescuer. His beautiful wife. His.

“As long as my lovely wife hurries back to tuck me in.” And Holden’s grasp of consciousness ended abruptly.

Chapter Nine

<^> <^> <^>

“You two are married?” Bubba asked Victoria in a shocked tone. She didn’t answer, instead racing to Holden’s side to keep him from slumping from the bed to the floor.

“No. We’re not really married.” Victoria kept him from launching onto the cheap carpet, but only barely until Bubba strode over and helped her. They got Holden flat on the bed in a more comfortable position. Bubba even helped strip him to his boxers and put him under the sheets.

“Why did he call you his wife?”

Victoria moved away and gestured for Bubba to join her in the corner farthest from the bed. She lowered her voice and explained in a near whisper, “I had to tell the human hospital staff that we were married in order to gain regular access to his hospital room. He’s just been joking about it since he woke up. That’s all.” And the kisses have been awesome. And I wish I was truly married to Holden because I’ve totally fallen in love with him. Stop it.

“Are you sure he doesn’t truly think you’re married? Because he’s obviously very jealous of me.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose. “What? No. He’s not jealous of you.”

Bubba laughed. “Oh, yes, he is.”

“Why would he be?”

He shrugged. “Not sure, but trust me. I know what a jealous Alpha man looks and acts like.”

Victoria stared down at a finally peaceful Holden. “No,” she said. “That can’t be true.” But he kisses you like you are, doesn’t he? “Can it?” she asked more to herself than Bubba.

“Maybe he thinks you are really married,” Bubba said. “You told him you were when he woke up. If he doesn’t have his memories, he could think you’re his wife because that’s what he’s been led to believe.”

Victoria shook her head. “No. He’s just clever. He remembered our ruse from before he fell into the coma. He can’t think we are really married.”

“Maybe. But him being clever and also having no memory are not mutually exclusive, you know. He did have a head injury, didn’t he?”

“Yes. He did.” Doubt crept into her mind. He still had horrible pain. “Actually, I’m worried that he keeps passing out. And for some strange reason it seems to give him a bad headache when he tries to remember anything from Alpha-Prime. That’s odd, isn’t it?”

Bubba moved back to Holden’s bedside and looked him over, doing a few basic medical checks that likely all RM Guards could perform. He especially studied his head and scalp as if looking for the wound.

“What do you think might be wrong?”

“Keep in mind that I’m not a doctor, but there is a knot on his temple right near his hairline.”

“So.”

“So that’s where Alphas’ long-term memory center is and if he had a bad enough concussion that he was in a coma for weeks, it’s possible he truly doesn’t remember.”

“Permanently?”

“Still not a doctor,” Bubba said.

Victoria pushed out a long, loud sigh. “What else do you know?”

“The thing you said about his head hurting when he tries to remember his past made me think of something. I have a friend who had a very similar injury. He had that same problem. He couldn’t remember his past and it gave him a headache when he tried.”

“Did he recover?”

“Yes. It took some time.”

“Time? To do what?”

“All of his friends and family told him stuff about his life. But they told him stories like it was new information so he didn’t have to try to recall his past.”

“Did he have extreme pain when he tried to remember? Did it make him pass out or lose consciousness?”

“I don’t think it was that extreme. He didn’t faint that I know of, but he did have bad headaches.”

“What happened? How did he get better?”

“His friends kept telling him stories and the doctors saw improvement and eventually after several months he remembered without pain. The wound on his head healed up. It took longer than an injury anywhere else. Alphas heal fast, but something about the memory center takes longer, for some reason.”

“Well, I sent his CT scans to Alienn before wiping them from the hospital’s system. Maybe they will see something that can help.”

“In the meantime, you might want to start telling him stories if you know anything about his life.” Victoria didn’t want to admit she’d compiled quite a file on Holden over the past month and knew from memory most of the details of his public life.

“I know a few things. I can start telling him all about his life and who he is.”

“Good. The only other thing I remember was that my friend wasn’t allowed to move for quite a long time.”

“What do you mean?”

“He wasn’t able to be transported for a month or so. Something about his equilibrium, I can’t really remember. Just that he was in the same bed for a couple months.”

If Holden couldn’t be moved, the trip back to Alienn might have to be postponed for a couple of days until he felt better. She’d hate to take him on a journey several hours away when he was barely conscious most of the time, especially if it would be bad for his permanent memories.

“I’ll call Alienn in the morning and see what the doctor recommends.”

“Good idea,” Bubba said. “One other thing—I don’t think you should tell him you aren’t married.”

“Why not? I hate to keep lying to him about it.”

“It might make things worse. My friend remembered a treasured pet canine from his childhood. They told him his pet had died and the shock was profound. He slept for a week after hearing about it. Just let him remember you’re not married all on his own. It’s not going to hurt anything, is it?”

Just my personal hopes and dreams. “I guess not. So no big shocks?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Common sense, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“Okay, then. My work here is done. I’ll stay out of your love life if you’ll stay out of my stowaway hunt.”

“Deal. But I owe you one for taking out the hooligans who stole my Defender earlier.”

Bubba nodded. “You’re welcome. Text if you need me, but I hope you don’t. Holden wants you all to himself and he might try to hurt me if I intrude again. He doesn’t need the stress.”

Victoria smiled and left the room with him. She grabbed a bag out of the SUV and handed it to Bubba. “A few supplies and some tools that might come in handy.”

“Thanks.” Bubba lifted his hand for one last high-five and moved toward his room.

Victoria went back inside her lucky number seven room, locked the door for the night and got ready for bed. She stripped down, donned her pajamas and climbed into bed next to Holden.

If we were truly married, I’d kiss him good night and tell him I loved him.

Victoria carefully turned, lifted up, leaned over Holden and pressed her lips to his. He didn’t reciprocate, but he also didn’t wipe his mouth and spit either. He remained asleep and at least he looked serene.

“I love you, Holden,” she whispered, her heart speeding to double time as she said the words that, while true, she shouldn’t repeat when he was awake. Just sleeping in this bed alongside him pretending to be his wife was a thrill. And if he heard her heartfelt admission, he ignored her.

Sleep was a long time coming. Deep down she secretly relished the idea of having to pretend to be Holden’s wife for a little while longer. It wasn’t exactly a chore. She loved him. She’d read about him and spent time with him and everything she’d learned made her even more certain he was the only man for her.

Having him believe they were already married and kissing her to distraction every chance he got also didn’t dissuade her. It only made her more certain about the possibility of a future with him as her real husband. But even if he eventually felt the same about her—and that was a big if—would he want to live on Alpha-Prime? Would he ever consider living on the Earth colony?

Victoria had been born on Earth. Her family lived and worked in Alienn. Her preference was to stay, but not if the love of her life wanted to move to another galaxy. She would fly away from everything she knew in a heartbeat if it meant spending the rest of her life with Holden.

She pushed out a sigh and thought about spending the next few days with Holden in this cheap motel room, telling him all the stories she knew about his life. She looked forward to it. Maybe she wasn’t ready to go back to Alienn. Maybe she wasn’t ready to make the most important decision of her life, if that choice was even offered. The thought of Holden’s justifiable anger when he found out they weren’t really married sobered her. She already owed him a huge apology for the lies to date. A glance at his handsome face calmed her. She rolled to face away.

Just as she was about to doze off, Holden shifted. She came wide awake. He cleared his throat, turned to his side and spooned up behind her. His arm moved, draping over her middle and hugged her body closer. She didn’t breathe.

“Love you, too,” he whispered on a sigh.

<^> <^> <^>

Holden woke up resting on his back with Victoria snuggled up against him in bed. For the first time in what seemed like a long while, his head didn’t hurt. Amazed and grateful, he took a deep breath, getting a whiff of Victoria’s soft perfume.

He’d been dreaming and remembering his recent dream didn’t hurt, so he pondered it for a minute. He and Victoria had been smiling at each other. She told him she loved him and kissed his lips. Holden hugged her tight and told her he loved her, too.

And he did love her. She was his wife. It was perfectly natural to love her. And yet, something nagged at him. Something didn’t seem quite right, but the moment he tried to recall his past before the accident or waking in the hospital, the pounding in his head started up, so he stopped and changed the course of his thoughts. Thinking about anything since waking from the coma didn’t seem to be a problem.

Holden took in his immediate surroundings, locking in the simple details of the motel room as he noted them. It was still dark outside, but that didn’t tell him what time it was. He could have slept for an hour or a day.

Victoria was on her side, facing away from him, but the entire length of her warm, soft body was pressed against him. In his opinion, she was the perfect size. Her breathing sounded rhythmic, so she was likely sound asleep. He slowly turned and spooned up behind her. He kissed her shoulder. He kissed her hair. He kissed the soft space beneath her ear. She sighed in her sleep, so he did it a second time. She startled and cleared her throat.

Holden froze in place, not wanting her to wake just yet. She settled down again. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was that other man being in the room. What kind of a name was Bubba anyway?

While Bubba didn’t overtly look at Victoria, or act like he wanted her attention, Holden didn’t want anyone else to come between them. It was an unreasonable fear, and an even more irrational jealousy, but he felt it. He’d yet to identify the male voice on the other end of the phone, or even get the nerve to ask Victoria about it again. She said it was her boss, Cam. He didn’t want to come across as a possessive brute. He wasn’t one, was he? Pain spiked hard inside his skull. Stupid head injury.

He calmed his thoughts and shifted mental gears to another subject. Their future together. That was an okay topic. Victoria wanted to go back to a place called Alienn. The name seemed familiar. A small ache revived in his head, so he closed his eyes and focused on listening to Victoria breathe.

She moved in her sleep, pressing her hips backward into his and making his thoughts go in a completely different direction. He tried to calm down. Then again, they were married. They loved each other, didn’t they? In his recent dreams they certainly did. Their kisses lit his world on fire each time their lips came into contact.

Was it foolish to long for intimacy with his wife?

Their love life hadn’t even been hinted at with the exception of the few phenomenal kisses they’d shared. Did they enjoy a passionate romantic love life? He hoped so.

The nagging something-isn’t-right feeling slipped inside his mind to remind him he should take any intimacy between them very slowly. So he changed his thoughts to Alienn, wondering what sort of place it was. Did it have big trees? Fountains of precious water sprinkled about?

Victoria pressed her body backward into his again, her butt pushing against him hard, leaving no space. Just the depth of her thin pajamas fabric and his shorts smashed together.

He inhaled deeply and inched away from her slowly and returned to his back.

Victoria promptly rolled to her side in his direction. One of her arms flopped over his chest and one of her knees bent, her leg coming over the top of his. Bare skin to bare skin contact was awesome. Holden settled against the sheets and catalogued all the places their skin touched, starting with her face buried into his neck. So good.

Her arm was draped across his bare chest. Her knee was on his thigh, her calf pressed to his leg. She smelled great. She felt great. He slipped an arm behind her back to hug her body tighter and she snuggled closer. Holden wanted this moment to last forever. He was uncertain of what to do next. He knew what he desired, but this was their first intimate time together that he could remember.

He didn’t want to rush it. He didn’t want her to be asleep. He didn’t want her to wake up and say that because he’d been ill it wasn’t a good idea. So he stayed frozen in place, weighing his options. Should he wake her and suggest something very intimate? Or not. He wanted to. But maybe he shouldn’t. He didn’t want to get turned down. Maybe he should just go back to sleep.

Victoria sighed. The air from her lips tickled the hair on his chest, sending a wicked rush of pleasure spiraling down his spine.

That’s it.

Holden turned to his side to face Victoria. She blinked a couple of times.

“My lovely wife, Victoria.” Her eyes opened, glanced quickly down to gauge their close proximity. Her gaze shot to his eyes and he could see hunger in her expression.

“I love you,” he said. “You are the best wife.”

She blinked again, her eyes not opening fully the second time. Was she asleep, being shy or maybe sultry? He voted for sultry.

“I love you, too, Holden,” she whispered, as clear as if high noon had come already and they’d been awake for hours.

Holden kissed her hard on the lips. She kissed him back like it was her new job and she wanted to make a favorable impression. A job she’d clearly missed while he was sleeping in the hospital.

“I want you.” He expected her to balk, to push away and turn from him. He expected her to hem and haw about how they should wait longer for any intimate contact, until he was fully recovered.

“I want you, too,” she whispered. Her soft, sleepy smile drove him over the edge of reason. He kissed her again, deeply, passionately, slowly. She kissed him softly, keenly, leisurely. They had plenty of time. They had the rest of their lives, starting with this moment.

Holden was about to make up for all the lost time they’d been apart and make a bunch of new memories he could recall without having his head explode with pain.

He would treasure this first-time memory until the day he died.

<^> <^> <^>

Bubba got up early. He showered, dressed and studied Astrid’s file until the sun rose higher in the sky, signaling mid-morning.

Using an informational tablet Cam gave him with his supplies, Bubba accessed a historical database with video files and news clips from Alpha-Prime. The database hadn’t been updated for a year, but at this point any information was more than he had.

He found a detailed summary a news station he’d never heard of had done on Astrid Harper several years ago, marveling how the child of criminals was able to stay on the straight and narrow, along with two short video files of his current prey.

She wasn’t married as of a year ago. Good. She had never been arrested, although that had changed in a year’s time, he knew. He agreed with Cam’s assessment in her updated files. She had been coerced and should have been released as her barrister suggested for the singular arrest.

He watched the first video file, which showed her graduation from a higher learning center specializing in accounts and finances. A very interesting choice, given her childhood—unless her family had sent her to learn a better way to cheat.

The video showed her third in a queue waiting to be called to collect her plaque marking the completion of her studies. Someone with the formal name of Fairmont was called up from the line. A small section of the audience roared his name and clapped wildly for the skinny kid on the stage. He grinned, shook hands with the administrator handing out the plaques and exited the stage. The exact same thing happened when the formal name Griffin was called. A girl with wavy, long dark hair gracefully waltzed across the stage to accept her plaque.

Bubba focused, listening for Harper to be called and a roar of applause to erupt. But that didn’t happen. Her name was called and no roar of family approval came. At all.

He watched a young Astrid slowly cross the stage to a smattering of pity applause. No one from her family had come to cheer her on for a job well done in her education. He could see one arm at her side. Expecting to see her hand clenched in an angry fist, he was surprised to see she was rubbing her thumb across the very tips of her fingers. Back and forth. Back and forth. She kept it up until she reached for and was handed her plaque.

A few more folks clapped as she exited the stage, but she only gave the administrator the barest of smiles while accepting her hard-earned honor. The stoic expression returned the moment she turned away to leave. And as she left, she never once looked out into the crowd to search for anyone rooting for her. Plaque in one hand, thumb brushing back and forth across the fingertips of the other as if to find calm.

No one could watch that video and not empathize, and Bubba was not immune.

The second video had been shot a few years later at a technology center deep in the heart of one of Alpha-Prime’s largest cities. She’d apparently gotten a job along with a throng of other new employment recruits.

The video was very short. The feed panned across the group as each new employee said his or her name and the department where they were about to begin work. She was the second to last to speak. “Astrid Harper, financial technician,” she said with a smile plastered in place. But Bubba saw her hand at her side when the film panned to the final speaker.

The nervous thumb rubbing the tips of her fingers was again displayed. The gesture was endearing. For the first time in a long time, Bubba didn’t look forward to capturing a target.

That didn’t change the fact he had a job to do. He had been enlisted to capture, shackle and convey her as fast as possible to Alienn, Arkansas. He wasn’t certain what would happen to her after that. She hadn’t been judged or sentenced to spend time in a gulag.

If the ship hadn’t crashed in Georgia, Bubba wondered if her final destination was supposed to be Earth or gulag XkR-9. Although why would she want to go to a gulag? Family reunion? No. Something about this wasn’t clear and he vowed to discover the reason before he handed her over to any authority in Alienn.

Bubba gathered what he’d need for the day while searching for Astrid. She wasn’t the frightening female felon he had expected. If he found her, he might give her a chance to tell him her story. It wasn’t protocol, but something about Astrid made him reconsider his initial assessment. He exited his motel room, noticing Victoria’s SUV parked in front of her door.

With a silent salute to the room five doors down from his, Bubba headed toward the center of town. In the pocket of his jacket was a brand-new toy the clever Cam Grey had sent with him to aid in his quest.

He pulled the small flat prototype out and turned it on. As the blue screen lit up, so did two red dots, registering within fifty yards of his current location. Excellent. The red dots indicated the two other Alphas in range of the device, Victoria and Holden. Bubba told Cam he’d try the prototype out on this trip and let him know if the device should be added to the regular gear sent out with security people.

If Astrid Harper was anywhere in this town, he would find her today.

Not a single doubt in his mind.

Chapter Ten

<^> <^> <^>

Astrid followed Holli into the back service entrance of the Enchanted Garden. Each carried a full basket to show Marigold all the herbs, roots and flowers they’d collected and carefully stored all week. This was the third time they’d come into Nocturne Falls to transact some business with Holli’s cousin.

The first time, Holli had introduced Astrid as an old friend from a place with a mouthful of a name called Massachusetts. Marigold had been very nice, accepting Astrid without any concern. It was a refreshing change from the life Astrid had led on Alpha-Prime of never fitting in, always being thought of as “other” because she didn’t want to participate in the family pickpocket business.

Exchanging pleasantries with the introduction, Marigold looked over the plants, weighed various things and gave them Earth money in return. She’d also given Holli a list of particular things she needed in the coming weeks for Holli and Astrid to be on the lookout for.

Astrid then got a further education in how Earth money worked, what they could buy versus what they could make themselves back at Holli’s cabin and barn out in the woods.

After spending the whole of her life on Alpha-Prime never feeling like she belonged—not even in the family she’d been born into—living with Holli had been the exact opposite experience.

Holli showed her the best herbs, roots and flowers to retrieve in order to make the most Earth money. The forest plants with the highest value were usually in very difficult to reach locations. Astrid was not fearful of heights in the least, but Holli was nervous if she got more than a couple of feet in the air—which added to her discomfort when Astrid found her dangling from a rope in her barn.

Astrid loved roaming the forest and was a very quick study, according to Holli. She learned to identify various medicinal plants and the best way to collect them for transport and sale. They worked well as a team and they spent a considerable amount of time together.

Astrid adored her new life on Earth.

Another thing she learned after her first foray into town was that while she couldn’t read Holli’s thoughts or Marigold’s, the same was not true of everyone.

The second time they’d been in to sell what they’d collected, Marigold’s sister, Pandora, had stopped in with a blue-haired girl named Jayne. Astrid had heard Jayne’s thoughts clearly. She had been thinking about her cat, Spider, and the plants he would have been attacking if he’d been there. More interestingly, she had also thought about a fireman—the odd words “summer elf” registered, whatever that was—along with a vampire with equal affection. Astrid was shocked. Jayne had two boyfriends? Wow.

Astrid didn’t even have one special guy in her life. Certainly not back on Alpha-Prime. Everyone had her pegged the moment she stepped into any new situation. Someone would recognize her as the child of infamous petty criminals and dismiss her accordingly.

Astrid almost got caught staring at Jayne, but was able to avert her gaze in time. A few other patrons came into the Enchanted Garden and she caught a few more stray thoughts, making her reassess her assumption that Holli and her family were Alphas.

Astrid hadn’t mentioned a whisper of where she was from—another planet far, far away. And Holli, sweet as she was, never asked anything about her past, not what Astrid was afraid of or how poorly she’d been treated or anything, for which she was grateful. She didn’t want to lie to her only friend on Earth.

She placed her basket of goodies down on a work table in the back room. Holli motioned for her to follow her friend into the Enchanted Garden’s main showroom to let Marigold know they were there. She passed a refrigerated cabinet with glass doors on the front, and startled as she typically did at seeing her altered reflection.

Astrid appreciated the initial offer of the magic makeover, but hadn’t wanted to end up looking like a witchy old hag for the rest of her life on this new awesome planet. She’d had nothing to worry about on that score.

Thanks to Holli’s magic fairy tale spell, Astrid looked like a completely different person. Her sandy blonde hair, button nose and green eyes were gone. Now she was a brunette with six extra inches of hair, a longer more slender nose and blue eyes. Even her voice changed to a deeper, huskier tone like all the popular girls back in higher learning school.

Marigold turned when they entered the main showroom. “I’ll be right with you, ladies,” she said from behind the counter as she rung up sales for a few walk-in customers.

“Take your time,” Holli said.

They strolled around Marigold’s shop looking at her latest floral creations. The front of the store was a wall of windows, with a large display window facing the street to tempt passersby to see what was available.

Holli let out a low whistle and tipped her chin at a cute guy seated at a café table across the street. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Astrid thought he was kind of skinny and ordinary, but everyone had different tastes. She nodded at her friend’s assessment and searched around to find someone she thought was attractive.

Astrid found him during her second sweep of the streets outside the Enchanted Garden. The man approached the store at a steady clip. He was big and tall and rigid and his expression was a little fierce, to be honest. If she’d been on Alpha-Prime she would have pegged him as law enforcement. He wasn’t wearing a uniform. But he was also very attractive, to her way of thinking.

Mr. Tall and Delicious held an electronic tablet in one hand and stared at the screen intently as he walked toward the Enchanted Garden.

“I like him,” Astrid told Holli, pointing as he moved closer.

Holli gave her a dubious look. “Him?”

Astrid nodded. “Definitely.”

“To each his own,” Holli said, adding, “Marigold is sort of busy.” There was still a three-deep line of customers and someone new had just entered the store. “I’m going to pop across the street and accidentally bump into that guy over at the café. Maybe I can start a conversation.”

Astrid grinned. “Have fun.”

Holli smiled. “Looks like Mr. Dark and Serious will be bumping into you in no time.”

Astrid watched her friend cross the street and stumble into the guy she thought was cute. Knowing Holli the way she did, she probably didn’t have to pretend anything. She likely tripped and fell at his feet for real.

When Astrid looked away from the café, she saw the gorgeous tall guy who had caught her eye was gone. She moved closer to the main window, but couldn’t see him. How odd. Where had he gone?

She stepped through the front door of the flower shop, looking right as she launched into a powerwalk toward the left. The moment she whipped her head around to see where she was going, it was too late.

Astrid smacked hard into the man with the tablet. She knocked him down to the sidewalk, tripped over her feet and fell directly on top of him—which was not a hardship. However, she then watched helplessly as the tablet Mr. Gorgeous had been studying intently flew out of his hand, sailing in a perfect arc to land in the middle of the street.

The screen was still lit up. She could see a blue digital background with a red dot in the center—until the tire of a passing car rolled over it with a crunch. By the time the car was gone, the screen had gone black.

“Space potatoes!” the man said under his breath. Astrid stiffened. That’s an Alpha swear word. Something she hadn’t heard in almost a month.

“You’re an Alpha?” Astrid asked in surprise, and without thinking.

She was in shock, plastered to this perfect man, slowly realizing that not only was he perfect, he was from her home planet.

They probably had a lot in common. Then reality set in. Oh no. He’s trouble.

“What did you say?” he asked in the most perfectly delicious and deep voice she’d ever heard. Every muscle in his body tensed as if ready to fight. Before she could get away, he clamped his hands on her arms, eyes searching her face, her hair and her eyes with an expression of genuine puzzlement. Obviously he didn’t see what he expected to.

Astrid was supremely grateful for Holli’s magic makeover, because she suddenly knew this gorgeous man had been sent to find her. He was either a Royal Magistrate Guard or, worse, an Alpha mercenary. Either way, Holli had saved her.

“I didn’t say anything,” Astrid lied right to his face. “Let go of me.”

Holli ran over from the other side of the street. “What happened?” she said, interrupting the inflammatory conversation. “Are you okay?”

Holli offered her friend a hand up. Astrid took it, peeling away from the perfect man who was likely there to capture her, shackle her and send her to the nearest gulag. He reluctantly released her arms, but stared at her as he stood.

“Who are you?” Holli asked the big gorgeous man.

“I’m looking for someone.” His gaze came back to Astrid. She liked that he looked at her, but not that he was probably looking for her.

He got to his feet. Close up and standing, he was even taller than she’d thought. Nerves flailed in every part of her body.

Mr. Alpha Big Trouble looked out into the street at his ruined device, a stern expression replacing his curious one.

Holli pressed, “I meant, what is your name?”

“I know what you meant.” His cellular phone started buzzing on his belt. He absently pulled it off and glanced at the small screen.

“My name is Thorne. And as I said, I’m looking for someone.” He turned his attention back to the small screen and frowned.

While she watched him, unerringly Astrid’s thumb found and rubbed each fingertip one after the other as she desperately tried to calm down so she could see what he’d do next.

He looked up to stare at her, opened his mouth as if to speak, but then paused. His eyes went to her fingers, still moving, still trying to calm her.

His eyes widened and a critical stare shot up to meet hers. “You’re Astrid Harper,” he said in accusation.

Even as she shook her head to deny it and her nervous tic sped up—thumb racing across the tips of her fingers at lightning speed—as she tried to convince him she wasn’t exactly who he accused her of being, Astrid felt the magic of Holli’s makeover fall away.

Her eyes burned and her nose ached for a moment, probably as it snapped back to its original shape. Her neck tingled as her hair shortened by six inches and she could almost feel the color changing from brunette to honey-gold. Her throat tickled and she knew if she could speak a word, it would not sound sexy-husky like all the popular girls back at higher learning school.

He’d said the magic words Holli had warned would break the spell—her real name. Astrid was right back to being her original self. The gorgeous Mr. Thorne stared at her as if shocked to see Holli’s magic had changed her so dramatically. Now he had her.

Space potatoes, indeed!

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria had no right to feel as satisfied as she did. She also had no right to allow or gleefully claim marital privileges from a man she was only pretending to be married to until he could remember who he was.

She teared up, knowing he’d hate her the moment he remembered.

“Don’t cry,” Holden said, staring at her like he wanted to love her forever.

She sniffed her foolish tears away. “That was so amazing.”

“I agree. It was extraordinary.” He turned to her. “Was it better than before?”

“Better than before what?”

“Before I lost my memory.”

Spuds. The lies are really stacking up. Victoria smiled, ready to tell him some clichéd lie, but he spoke first. “Because the truth is, I don’t really remember doing this with you before today.”

The dawning realization that Bubba had been right and Holden didn’t remember anything was a harsh reminder of what she was supposed to be doing.

Sleeping with her pretend-husband had surely not been on the list of approved activities for helping him get his memory back. She was supposed to be telling him things about his life to help him remember the time before the crash. The time he’d lived before—well—her.

“The truth is, each time with you feels like our first time.” Victoria closed her eyes, trying to pretend she didn’t sound like a huge dumb cliché. What a stupid thing to say.

“Better than with others?”

“Others? Are you accusing me of being unfaithful?” Talk about irony and clichés—her pretend-husband worrying about other men when the reality of the total lack of romance or dates in her life was laughable.

“No. I just can’t remember anything before coming to this town. To be honest, you look at me oddly sometimes and I wondered if we’d had a fight or a disagreement before the accident.”

I didn’t even know you.

“But whenever I do try to remember anything, the pain takes my breath away.”

She turned toward him. “What? Oh no. I’m so sorry. Do you need anything? A pain pill?”

He propped his head on one palm. Pure satisfaction filled his grin. “No. I already got what I needed to take care of any lingering pain, thanks to you. I feel great.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

Holden reached for her hand, kissing the back of her fingers. “So did we?”

“Did we what?”

“Have a fight or anything before this accident.”

“No. I promise you, Holden. We never had a fight before.” Finally some truth, even though the reason they hadn’t fought was because they’d never met.

She’d take it. She needed it.

“You’re good for me. I’m so glad you’re in my life.” She slapped a smile in place, but it cost her. They might not be together much longer.

Victoria stared at Holden, wanting to tell him the truth. The words were on the tip of her tongue, ready to spill the beans and let the chips fall where they may. Every foolish cliché she could think of came running from the hills, and into her mind, waiting to be uttered.

If she told him they weren’t married, what would he do? What would he say? Would he be angry she’d tricked him? Relieved he didn’t have to spend the rest of his life with her? Either reaction was heartbreaking from her point of view.

“I’m anxious to get back to our regular lives,” he said. The sweet smile on his face was the last straw. She couldn’t lie to him any longer.

“Listen, Holden. I need to tell you something.”

Before she could frame the words to confess, a familiar noise from across the room stopped her. Her communicator made a beep. And then another. She rose from bed, dragging the top sheet with her, grabbed her device and hid in the bathroom like the coward she was, having not revealed the truth. “Hello,” she said. Her tone sounded as miserable as her guilt.

“Victoria, this is Dr. Moss from Alienn.”

She perked up. She had expected it to be Cam wanting a detailed report of how she’d kept the truth about aliens from being discovered by the Nocturne Falls General Hospital human employees. “Yes. Dr. Moss. Did you get my e-mail last night?”

“I did. That’s why I’m calling. Is the patient still at the hospital?”

“No. I had to get him out of there before they tried to take any more blood samples, CT scans or X-rays. Why?”

There was a long sigh at the other end of the line.

“What’s wrong? I’d planned to leave today and bring him to you for treatment.”

“No! No, don’t do that!” he practically screamed.

Spuds! What is his deal? “Why?”

“Has the patient experienced pain when he tries to access certain memories?”

“How did you know?”

“Oh, dear. I’m afraid there is a dangerous problem at hand.”

Victoria sat down on the closed toilet seat to prepare herself for more bad news, wondering at her capacity for more difficulties.

“Okay. Tell me. What’s the problem?”

“From the CT scans you sent, it looks as though there is a very slender piece of shrapnel lodged in the bone near the long-term memory center near Holden’s left temple. He should not move. Not at all. Not even a little. He should keep his head perfectly still at all times until that foreign object can be removed.” Victoria closed her eyes as she thought about what they’d just been doing with regard to movement. It was a wonder he wasn’t dead from all the moving they’d just done.

“Should I take him back to the human hospital?”

“No. I’m afraid you shouldn’t take him anywhere at all until that shrapnel is removed.”

“What’s at stake? Will he die if he moves?”

“No, not death, but maybe worse than death. Depending on your point of view, I guess.”

Great, a philosophical doctor. “What do you mean, Dr. Moss?”

“I mean that his memories are at stake. My understanding from your previous reports—and the human hospital records I read—is that Holden has no memory before the accident. If he moves and the foreign object exerts more pressure on his memory center the damage to his long term recollections might be destroyed permanently.”

“What should I do?”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to talk you through the removal of this foreign object. It needs to be done as soon as possible. Immediately, really.”

“You want me to do surgery on him? In a motel room?!” She laughed out loud. “I’m a security specialist, not a med tech. I can’t do surgery on him.” I love him. What if I hurt him?

“Yes, you can and you will, but you’ll need help. I understand there is a Royal Magistrate Guard in town with you. Is that right?”

“Sort of. He’s off hunting down a stowaway. I didn’t actually expect to see him again.”

“Call him back. He’ll have to help you. One of you will have to hold the patient down while the other removes this sliver in his head. Unfortunately, it may be quite painful depending on exactly where the splinter is, but if he’s already experiencing headaches, I’d expect the removal will also hurt. The good news is that once the foreign object is removed, his Alpha healing abilities should kick in and he should be ready to travel in a day.”

“If I can get it out.”

“Yes. But I have every faith in you. I know you’ll do your best.” Victoria was less convinced of her skills, medically speaking, but she would do everything in her power to help Holden heal.

Dr. Moss proceeded to rattle off a list of several items she’d need to acquire before performing what amounted to home surgery on the man she was desperately in love with. Bubba would have to pick them up on his way back to the seedy motel they were about to make into a temporary surgical center.

Victoria wrote the list down on a tissue with a stubby pencil she found in a drawer beneath the sink, but then something occurred to her.

“Once the sliver is removed, will he remember everything from before and after the crash?” Or will he forget everything about me and all that we’ve done together?

“I’m not certain. The danger is more for his older memories, before the coma ensued. His body was trying to heal, but the splinter is very small and narrow. It’s barely visible even on a CT image and his Alpha healing ability couldn’t fix this. Call the RMG Alpha for help. Tell him it’s an emergency. The longer you wait, the more danger the patient remains in with regard to his life before the crash.”

Super spuds! “Okay. I’ll call him to come back. Stand by. I’ll contact you when we’re ready to begin the procedure.”

Victoria hung up and went out to tell Holden the bad news. When she stood next to the bed, she saw he’d already fallen back to sleep. He looked peaceful. He looked perfect. She wanted him to be healed, but she didn’t want to be responsible for making him lose any of his older memories, or especially his new ones with her.

She silently dressed and slipped outside so as not to disturb Holden, messaging Bubba’s communicator with the universal Alpha code that was the same thing as using 911 to call for help.

Bubba didn’t message back as quickly as she thought he should, so she sent two more messages in rapid succession to ensure he understood the urgency. She was about to connect to the other device to use the voice application when he finally messaged back.

A little busy currently. What’s the problem?

Victoria messaged about the surgery and that she needed him to hold the patient down. She also sent the list of things for him to pick up at the store on the way back. Another interminable length of time went by before he messaged back.

On my way. Will stop for supplies.

Bubba was a man of few words, but he’d certainly helped her during this unusual mission. She was going to owe him big for helping with Holden before finishing his assigned task here. She vowed to save Holden no matter what she had to do, even if saving him meant he’d learn the awful truth about all her lies.

Or worse, fail to remember anything after the crash. Including her.

Chapter Eleven

<^> <^> <^>

Holden woke after a very satisfying nap where he’d been dreaming of all the wonderful moments he’d shared with Victoria. Even though most of them had been in a hospital and in a less than optimal motel room, he enjoyed every second he’d spent with her. He took a deep breath, ready to yawn and stretch, but realized he was unable to move. It felt like he was tied to the bed, but he couldn’t even turn his head. What the…?

“Hey!” he called in a panicked tone. “Hey. I can’t move.”

Victoria was in his view in seconds. “Shh. Don’t move, Holden. Please don’t move.”

“What is going on?”

“Okay. This is going to be strange and maybe difficult to understand at first, but please listen to me before you say or do anything or try to move. It’s especially important you don’t move.”

Holden took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay. Explain.”

“The wound on your head, the one that has been causing you pain when you try to remember things, is because there is a tiny splinter lodged there from the accident. And we have to take it out as soon as possible so it won’t hurt you any longer.”

“A splinter.”

“That’s right.”

“In my head.”

“That is correct. And if you move it could do more damage.”

“What kind of damage?”

“Damage to your memories. And it could be permanent. I don’t want that.”

“Oh.” He was quiet for a moment. He looked back at Victoria and tears filled her eyes.

“Okay. Don’t cry, love. I’ll behave,” he said. “I won’t move. I don’t want to risk losing a single memory of our life together before this accident.” Victoria cried even harder, sobbing out loud before shaking her head and trying to look strong. He loved her so much.

“Are you okay, Victoria?” Bubba’s voice sounded like it came from across the room, out of Holden’s immediate view.

“What’s he doing here?” Holden asked, trying not to sound sullen about the other man in Victoria’s life.

“Bubba came back to help. I can’t fix you all on my own. If I could, trust me, I would.” More tears streamed down her face. “But I can’t. So please don’t be upset or jealous. There is no reason for it, I promise you.” Another heart-wrenching sob. Another quick recovery, another forceful shake of her head. She swiped her eyes with the back of one hand.

“Please believe me when I tell you that I love you. I don’t love anyone else. Just you, okay?”

Holden smiled. “Okay. I believe you and I love you, too. Don’t worry, everything will be fine. You’ll take this little splinter out and all will be right with the world.”

“I hope you still feel that way after I do what amounts to home surgery on you in a low-rent motel.”

“Surgery?”

“Minor surgery,” Bubba said. He moved to where Holden could see him. “Basically we have to take a splinter out of your head, but there will be a doctor on the other end of the communicator line talking us through it.”

“What are you going to do?” Holden hoped he wasn’t going to owe Bubba his life or anything. What if he and Victoria had to name their first child after him? Bubba Gregg? No. he wasn’t naming any of their children Bubba.

Bubba lifted one corner of his mouth. “My job is to hold you down and keep you from moving, because apparently it’s going to hurt—a lot.”

“I see.” There were worse things. “Well, I want to be able to remember my past, so go for it.”

Victoria pushed some buttons on her communicator device. “I’m putting it on speaker,” she said.

A man’s voice came through. “Holden, this is Dr. Moss.” The doctor then proceeded to explain what they were about to do to him.

“Do you understand?” the tinny sound of the doctor’s voice asked.

“Yes,” Holden said. “I just want to remember my life before without all the pain, especially my wife.”

“You’re married?” Dr. Moss asked.

“Yes. Victoria is my wife,” he said. He couldn’t move and he couldn’t see her from his current vantage point, but the sharp intake of her breath was troubling, to say the least.

Dr. Moss sounded shocked when he said, “The security specialist sent from Alienn is your wife? I wasn’t told that. Perhaps Bubba should do the surgery.”

“I’m doing the surgery,” Victoria said.

“On your husband?” Dr. Moss said, obviously stricken. “That’s highly irregular. Spouses should not operate on each other.”

“We aren’t married, Doctor.”

“We aren’t married?” Holden was now the one stricken.

Victoria said, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell it to everyone later. Just talk me through this before I lose my nerve.”

“Wait. I want to see you, Victoria.”

She leaned into his view. Her face looked like how he felt.

“What do you mean we aren’t married?” he asked. His head was beginning to pound like tiny soldiers were inside jamming ceremonial swords into his brain.

“Please just let me get through this and then I’ll tell you everything, I promise.” The tears in her eyes were real. She swiped the back of her hand across them once more.

“Fine.” Holden closed his eyes. He didn’t know what hurt worse, the pounding in his head or the shattering of his heart into a thousand tiny pieces.

Victoria wasn’t his wife. For some unfathomable reason she’d lied, repeatedly. His thoughts zoomed back to the night before. Maybe they weren’t officially married, but they loved each other, didn’t they?

He didn’t have time to answer that question, even in his head. Bubba moved into place and held him down firmly. Victoria did everything the doctor told her. She had to make a small incision. That hurt. Holden didn’t make a noise.

Victoria then had to employ a magnet to determine if the splinter was metal and if it was she was supposed to use tweezers to extract the splinter.

The splinter was metal. However, the pull of the magnet moved the object in his head. It hurt so much, Holden grunted and passed out cold from all the pain. In his head. In his heart. In his soul. All of those spaces were filled with one level of pain or another.

When Holden woke, he had no idea how long he’d been out. The first thing he noticed was the pain and how, miraculously, it was mostly gone.

The agony in his head he would have described as excruciating had subsided to merely a very manageable dull ache, like he’d worked too hard doing seemingly endless paperwork. The RMG pilot core loved paperwork.

Wait. He remembered. He was a pilot for the Royal Magistrate Guard on Alpha-Prime. He was Holden Grigori. He remembered. He remembered everything.

Streams of facts, memories and the faces of people he knew from before crash-landing on Earth surged through his mind, but it didn’t hurt. He was cured. What a relief to have saved his past. The next thought in his mind was the ill-fated flight to gulag XkR-9 with a stop on the Earth colony in Alienn, Arkansas.

The crash. He remembered. All of it. Everything.

He and Riker Phoenix were escorting Riker’s brother, Draeken, to the worst gulag in three galaxies, XkR-9. The powers in charge of this mission had wanted Draeken there so fast they had authorized a very expensive, very fuel-rich mission to use the express wormhole near Earth. It cut a week off the trip from Alpha-Prime to Earth, but also used one thousand times the bauxite fuel. Most times no one wanted to spend so much.

Holden remembered the crash. He remembered Riker asking if it was sabotage as they spiraled toward the planet’s surface. He’d answered no. He told Riker it was something else. What was it? He searched his memory and it came to him, pain free. The moment they exited the wormhole, Holden saw the ship’s weight differential number on his console. It was off. He had a good head for numbers and the number was wrong.

The moment the spacecraft spun out when they hit Earth’s atmosphere at the wrong angle, he knew why. They were heavy by more than a hundred pounds. He was able to employ a dangerous reverse thruster move to keep from smashing the ship into the ground at top speed.

Someone had put something on board, not expecting they were going to use the express wormhole tunnel. Who would do that?

Riker had been a last-minute replacement. As The Calderian, he wielded some say in who transported prisoners across the galaxies.

In fact, Riker exerted all of the say in every aspect of the RMG. He would never have put extra weight on the ship, endangering not only himself, but his brother.

Guardsman Jason Pepperdine was scheduled to make the flight before Riker bumped him. If he had added something to the cargo hold, he should have been forthcoming about it. But Holden had spoken to him right before Riker had boarded. Pepperdine had said nothing about extra weight or putting anything aboard. Pepperdine said they were prepped and ready for transport. No additional information had been given.

That meant Pepperdine had some explaining to do. He might have caused the crash by failing to report whatever illegal plunder he’d loaded onto the flight.

Holden opened his eyes. A startled female voice said, “He’s awake. Holden? How do you feel?”

Victoria.

He remembered her, too.

He recalled absolutely everything, both before and after crash-landing on Earth.

Victoria was the woman who was not his wife.

<^> <^> <^>

Astrid ran. She extricated herself from the situation with the Royal Magistrate Guard as quickly as possible when her disguise basically melted away and ran.

She ran as fast and as far as she could. At first she headed toward the little stone house she’d called home for the last month, but veered from that path to keep her pursuer from finding her new home. She hid in the woods for quite a while, circling back every so often to see if he’d followed her.

So far, he hadn’t. But she knew he wouldn’t stop. He’d keep coming until he had her. After several hours, she was tired and hungry and thirsty and ready to let the big gorgeous Thorne take her back to face whatever fate had in store.

Astrid stayed hidden in the woods, but moved closer to the clearing and Holli’s house. She would always remember this interlude as the best life she’d ever had, even as short a duration as it was.

“Astrid,” she heard Holli call out. Was it a trick? Was Thorne hiding somewhere close by?

As if reading her mind, Holli said, “Don’t worry. I’m all alone, Astrid. Come on out.”

Astrid moved stealthily toward Holli’s voice. Through the trees, she could see that her friend was indeed all alone, standing at the edge of the clearing. She walked slowly toward her. “What happened after I ran away?”

“Nothing.”

“Why didn’t he come after me?”

“He got a message or something on his cell phone or whatever that device was. He told me he’d be back later and left.”

“What am I going to do, Holli?” Run away? Where?

“That all depends. What kind of trouble are you in?”

Astrid thought about what to say. It would sound so outlandish that Holli would probably throw her out anyway. “I don’t think I can explain.”

“I’m your friend. You can tell me anything.”

Astrid pushed out a deep sigh. Holli led her inside the cabin. As Holli made tea, Astrid decided she needed to tell her friend the truth. She’d been holding it inside for so long she was about to burst.

Holli took a sip of tea and smiled. “Who is that man, Thorne, and why is he after you?”

“I’m not completely sure, but I suspect he’s a Royal Magistrate Guard.”

“Sounds like an impressive title. What does that mean? Is he Royal like from Europe? Is that where you’re from, too?”

Astrid shook her head. “Where I’m from he’s in law enforcement, much like your Sheriff Merrow.”

“He certainly is big and tall.”

“Yes, he is, even where we’re from.” Regardless of his purpose, Astrid thought he was the most attractive man she’d ever seen. Even if he was here to basically ruin the perfect life she’d made for herself at long last.

Thorne had looked at her with complete curiosity until he said her name and she morphed back into her old self. Then his expression had shifted. Not to one of anger or contempt, which she expected. No, he looked at her with interest. Like a man looking at a woman he liked and cared about.

But that was foolish. Thorne didn’t like her. He didn’t care about her. He wanted to capture her, shackle her and take her back to Alpha-Prime to face false charges. Or maybe he had been instructed to take her straight to a gulag. How unfair it was to taste a life she’d only dreamed of only to have it taken away by the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

“And where are you from, Astrid?” Holli asked.

“A place called Alpha-Prime.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s another planet.”

“What?”

“You said I could tell you anything. Well, I’m an alien from another planet.”

Holli’s mouth dropped open. After a moment, she closed it and looked thoughtful. “Surprising. I’ll have to admit that I didn’t see that coming. But then again, I’m a witch with somewhat limited ability, so I really shouldn’t be surprised by anything.”

Astrid nodded. “I figured that out when you changed my appearance so drastically after chanting a few words out of a dusty old book.”

Her friend sighed. “Sorry I didn’t use a powerful enough spell. I never said I was a very good witch. I believe we established that early on when you cut me out of my own trap.”

“Best day of my life,” Astrid said. “What do you mean about the spell not being powerful enough? I mean, it worked pretty well for quite a while.”

“Marigold said that’s why witches don’t use the fairy tale spell except for training purposes. It’s very easy to create, but also the easiest to break. I mean, say a person’s name and—poof!—the spell is gone. It was a total beginner move.”

“I don’t blame you, Holli. Not at all. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me. You’ve been a true friend. The first one I’ve ever had. And it’s been wonderful living here on Earth, but I know it’s over. Thorne will return. If he doesn’t find me here, he’ll hunt me down eventually. I don’t want to spend any more time on the run, looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to pounce.”

“Well, if you have to be pounced on by someone, I suspect he’s the one you’d choose.”

Astrid smiled. “That’s certainly true.”

“I turned around after tripping over the guy I wanted to meet and there you were, flattened on top of him.” Holli laughed. “It looked like you had pushed him to the ground to have your way with him.”

“I wish. No. I wasn’t looking where I was going and knocked him to the ground without even trying. At least he’ll be easy to look at on the journey back home or wherever he’s taking me.”

“Surely your family misses you? They’ll be glad when return, right?”

“No. I think they are the reason I’m here.”

“What? Why?”

“I thought of something a couple of weeks ago. Something I shoved to the back of my mind, hoping I’d never have to worry about it.”

“What is it?”

“Back home, before this crash to Earth happened, I was on my way to meet a lawman to tell him about something illegal that I’d seen my father’s business partner do. But on the way to that meeting someone chased me down and knocked me out. I assume after that, someone stuffed me into the cargo hold of an Earth-bound spaceship.”

“Was it Thorne, the guard who’s here now that you were supposed to meet?”

“No. It was someone different. His name was Pepperdine. I had a picture of him, so I could recognize him for the meeting, but it was gone when I woke up here. Whoever stuffed me into the cargo hold must have taken it.”

“Maybe Thorne would listen to what you have to say.”

Astrid shrugged. “Maybe. But I shouldn’t count on it.”

“Why don’t we go talk to Sheriff Merrow? He might be able to help.”

“I’d be in more trouble if anyone finds out I told you about aliens hiding out on Earth. That’s a big no-no.”

“The thing is, Nocturne Falls and the powers in charge have some secrets they keep from humans as well. You might be surprised.”

Astrid didn’t think she’d be surprised, but then again, lots of things about Earth surprised her. The biggest surprise so far was that she couldn’t get Thorne out of her mind. The mere memory of being plastered on top of his muscular, perfect body made her pulse race and wicked thoughts speed through her head. He’d grabbed hold of her arms and her belly had fluttered in joy. He said her name and the split second before her disguise was revealed, she had very much loved hearing him say it.

Was she really ready to turn herself in to the Royal Magistrate Guard chasing her because she thought he was attractive?

Chapter Twelve

<^> <^> <^>

Victoria watched Holden carefully as he woke up. The moment his gaze found her eyes, she knew he was different. He remembered his former life. And that life did not include her. Never had and, based on his grim expression, she suspected it never would.

What she didn’t know was if he’d remember what happened at Nocturne Falls General Hospital and, more specifically, with her in bed. Maybe he wouldn’t remember anything that happened after the crash. Maybe he didn’t even know her right now. Maybe she’d have a second chance to make him fall in love with her again.

“Victoria,” Holden said. He sat up and stared a hole into her. Spuds. He probably remembers everything.

“How do you feel?” Bubba asked.

Holden looked at the big Alpha and smiled. “Thankfully, I’m mostly pain free.”

He stood up from the bed in only his shorts, stretched and nodded. “Yep. Almost back to normal.”

“Good. Now go put some clothes on.”

“Bite me.”

“And your true personality comes back. Awesome.” Bubba grinned and gave Victoria a thumbs-up. Victoria wasn’t as excited about Holden’s change in personality. She liked who he’d been. Plus, he was undoubtedly going to be cross with her for all those lies she’d told. And last night. Would he be angry about that?

Holden looked around and spotted the shirt and jeans she’d folded and placed on the dresser. He grabbed them and got dressed.

Before another word was spoken, someone pounded on the motel door. It rattled in the frame. A voice from right outside the flimsy entrance growled, “This is Sheriff Merrow. Open this door or I’ll break it down.”

Victoria leapt up and grabbed the door handle, yanking it open before it was knocked down. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, hi, Victoria,” the sheriff said. “I wasn’t sure you were here.”

Sheriff Merrow stepped into the room, filling it with his over-tall frame. Now there were two Alphas and a big wolf shifter taking up space in here.

The Pinehurst Inn’s front desk clerk followed the sheriff in. He went straight to the bed Holden had just emerged from, threw his hand in the air and asked, “What have you all been doing in here? Butchering animals or something?”

“I beg your pardon?” Victoria said. She looked at the bed and saw one nickel-sized spot of blood on a tissue resting on the pillow.

“No. We were performing brain surgery on an alien from another planet,” Bubba said with a straight face. “That’s okay, right?”

“Very funny,” the clerk said. “Just know that you may not be getting your deposit back.”

“Why not?” Victoria said. “This room is in better shape than when I rented it even with the blood-spattered tissue.”

“Bah!” the clerk yelled and headed for the exit. “Don’t forget that check-out is promptly at ten in the morning!” Boom, he slammed the door.

“What a disagreeable little crust-fish,” Holden said.

“Crust-fish?” the sheriff asked. He narrowed his gaze and shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“What are you doing here, Hank?” Victoria asked. He’d told her long ago she could use his first name, but sometimes she forgot.

“Well, one, to check on you. Two, to see if there was a guy named Thorne here.” He nodded once at Bubba. “That’s you, right?”

“Yep.”

“And you were sent to Nocturne Falls by one or more of the Grey brothers from Alienn, Arkansas?”

“Right again.”

“Were you sent to apprehend Astrid Harper?”

Bubba cocked his head to one side. “How did you know that?”

“She’s at the sheriff’s station.”

“Is she the stowaway?” Holden asked. “From the—” He stopped talking abruptly.

“Crashed spaceship in the woods a month ago?” Hank finished his sentence.

“He knows,” Victoria offered.

Holden didn’t say anything to her. He didn’t look at her. He looked at Bubba and said, “It’s possible the stowaway was not put on the ship willingly.”

“What makes you say that?” Bubba asked.

“The original guard assigned to take Draeken Phoenix to the gulag did the final flight inspection, including a check of the hold. He said we were prepped and ready to fly. But then The Calderian boarded the ship at the last moment, taking the guard’s place. We left immediately with new orders to use the express wormhole to Earth. Riker didn’t put anything on board. I suspect the original guard did.”

“What was the guard’s name?” Hank asked.

“Pepperdine,” Holden said. “Why?”

“Miss Harper mentioned a person named Jason Pepperdine in her statement. She said she was on her way to a meeting with him when she was chased and knocked out. She woke up on a crashed spacecraft in the woods. Or do you prefer the term UFO?”

“I like UFO, myself.” Bubba moved toward the door. “Let me get my things out of my room and I’ll accompany you to talk to Miss Harper. Perhaps I won’t have to capture, shackle and haul her back like I’d planned.” As he left, he called out to Holden, “Glad we didn’t kill you during the home surgery.”

Holden nodded at him once, cracking only half a smile. But he still didn’t look at Victoria. It was becoming awkward. Once the sheriff left, it would just be the two of them. She was worried. Would he ever talk to her again? Would he ever look at her?

“Are you mad?” Victoria asked Holden.

His head snapped up. “No. I’m furious.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You should be.” Holden moved toward her slowly. “I know what you did.” Now he was certainly staring at her. In fact, his intense gaze fairly drilled a hole through her body.

“What are you going to do?” Why would you ask that? You don’t want to know.

He stalked closer. Victoria backed into the wall next to the crappy television set.

Hank put a hand on his gun. “I won’t let you harm her. I don’t care what she did to you.”

“Sheriff, this is not your business, but do please answer one thing.”

Stalk. Stalk. Stalk. They were nearly nose to nose.

“What do you want to know?” Hank asked, taking a step closer, hand still resting on his weapon.

“I need to know if there is a chapel in this odd little town of yours.”

“A chapel?”

“You know, like a chapel where folks go to join together in matrimony?”

“Uh…” Hank seemed confused. He wasn’t the only one.

“Why?” she whispered.

“We have to get married, that’s why.”

“We do?”

Holden lifted one arm and pointed at the bed. “Do you remember what happened last night? What we did?”

“Listen,” Hank said, dropping his hand from his gun holster. “I should probably go.” He didn’t leave, though. Instead, he looked up at the corner of the room like he was inspecting for cobwebs.

Victoria felt her face go hot with the help of several very amazing memories from the night before. “I do.”

“Keep those words close. You’ll need them.”

“Why?” she asked again, not daring to hope this was about to be good news.

“I love you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“I know about the life you made up for us when you were pretending to be my wife. And I know I want to live it.” His body pushed into hers. He towered over her. He looked like he wanted to kiss her.

“But what if you change your mind when your memories come back…”

“I won’t change my mind about you, ever. Also, my memories returned when you pulled the shrapnel out of my head.”

“You remember everything?”

“Oh, yes. I remember absolutely everything, especially every kiss, every sigh…every moan.”

“And I’m leaving now,” Hank said, opening the door and closing it briskly behind him.

Holden pressed his lips to hers, barely making contact before pulling away.

“Will you marry me, Victoria?”

“You don’t even know my last name.”

“Oh, yes, I do.”

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

“It’s Greene. Your name is Victoria Greene.”

She was shocked. “How do you know my name? We don’t know each other. We’ve never met before this mission to Nocturne Falls. And you spent most of it in a coma.”

He grinned. “There was a small plate on the underside of your Defender. It said, V. Greene. I saw it when I reconfigured it so I could use it. At the time, I thought it was your maiden name.”

“Well, it’s about to become my maiden name, because I will marry you.” Victoria kissed him hard on the mouth and he responded.

“Excellent. I want to get married before we leave this town.”

Victoria pulled away. “Oh. I don’t know. My mother has wanted me to have a big wedding since the day I was born.”

“Too bad. I love you. I don’t want to spend another moment where you aren’t my wife, let alone all the time that would take. We need to get married now.”

“We still need a witness.” Victoria tilted her head to one side. “Maybe Bubba could stand up with us.”

“Fine by me.”

“Wait. You aren’t jealous of him anymore.”

“Nope. I believe he’s got a thing for Miss Astrid Harper.”

She nodded. “His voice softens when he says her name, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does. He’s totally infatuated.” He smiled. “Also, he looks at you like a colleague, and not at all romantically.”

“Okay, we’ll get married here before we go. But we will have to let my mother plan the biggest wedding reception Alienn, Arkansas, has ever seen.”

“Deal.”

“I love you, Holden.”

“And I love you, my beautiful wife-to-be.”

<^> <^> <^>

Bubba was about to stick his head in and say good-bye to Holden and Victoria, but Sheriff Merrow warned him off. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why? Are they fighting?”

“Nope. He just popped the question. They’re getting married before they leave town and it’s entirely possible they just started the honeymoon early.”

“Thanks, Sheriff. Good call.”

“Here’s the report Miss Harper gave. You can read it on the way.”

“Thanks.” They climbed into the sheriff’s vehicle and Merrow drove them to the station where Astrid and another woman waited in the outer office. The women stood up when the two men stepped inside.

Merrow introduced the woman behind the reception desk as his aunt Birdie.

“Ooh, he’s a tall one,” she said, putting her nail file down on the desk and giving Bubba an approving once-over. “They sure do grow aliens big wherever he comes from.”

“You aren’t supposed to know about that,” the sheriff said.

She shrugged. “Don’t be silly, Hank. I know lots of things I’m not supposed to know. The town’s grapevine would wither and shrivel down to nothing without good information to share that no one is supposed to know.”

“Still. This is different.”

“Pshaw. Different, shmifferent. Wolves. Aliens. We’re all pretty much the same.” She looked at Bubba. “Can you do any tricks?”

“Tricks?” Bubba asked.

“He’s not a circus performer, Aunt Birdie.”

“I’m not talking to you, Hank.”

Bubba smiled at her, stared deeply into her eyes for a moment, and said, “How about this? You want me to shoot a death ray out of my eyes and destroy something in a flaming pyre, but the only trick I know is mind reading.”

She sucked in a breath. “Ooh. Psychic aliens. That’s so great. Okay, Mr. Alien Psychic. This is a test. Can you read my mind now?” Her eyes squinted like she was thinking hard.

Bubba cleared his throat. “Sorry. I’m not taking my clothes off.”

Hank’s eyes went wide. “Aunt Birdie!” He looked at Bubba with the uncomfortable expression of a man not typically embarrassed.

“Oh, relax. It’s for science,” Aunt Birdie said. “I just want to see if he looks like a human.”

“No. You want good gossip for your grapevine. The answer is no.” Hank motioned Bubba and the two younger women to enter his office.

Bubba paused by Birdie’s desk. “I hate to disappoint you, but I also don’t have any antenna anywhere on my person.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Don’t encourage her.”

Bubba went into Hank’s office. There were three chairs in front of his desk.

Before they sat, the sheriff introduced Astrid’s friend, Holli Williams. She made a point of taking the chair between Bubba and Astrid, making him like her already. He was glad Astrid had a friend willing to stick up for her. She deserved it.

“How did you find me?” Astrid asked.

“One of the Earthers invented a device that can track Alphas.”

“That might come in handy here, too,” Sheriff Merrow said.

Knowing Cam the way he did, Bubba suspected that request would be met with open hostility. “Probably for Alpha use only, but I’ll check on that for you.”

Astrid bit her lip. “What happens now?”

“I was supposed to track down, apprehend, subdue and haul you back to Alienn the moment I found you.”

“That’s awfully harsh.” Holli crossed her arms and moved an inch closer to Astrid.

“Well, I’d only planned to capture, shackle and transport.”

“Shackle?” Holli asked. “That sounds barbaric.”

“It’s just a small sticker placed on the inside wrist to help subdue Alphas.”

“Still,” Holli said and moved nearer to Astrid.

“I read the report you gave Sheriff Merrow. I do not think you are dangerous. I would like to transport you back to Alienn, Arkansas; however, I will not shackle you or in any way imprison you.”

“Why?”

“I believe your story.”

“Just like that.”

“There was a corroborating story from the pilot. There was a last-minute change to the flight manifest. The Calderian wanted to accompany the prisoner and one Jason Pepperdine was left behind. I understand you were about to meet him before you were abducted.”

“That’s right.”

Bubba stared at her beautiful golden hair and button nose, happy to see the real her and not the odd magical disguise she’d had on.

“Also, I read your personal and public profile from Alpha-Prime. Seemed to me that someone who spent so much time and energy trying to live the kind of isolated life you did despite your unusual upbringing wouldn’t toss it all away for nothing.”

“No, I wouldn’t. Thank you.”

The communicator on his belt buzzed and he checked the screen.

“Would you be willing to accompany me to a wedding tomorrow, Astrid?”

“It’s not your wedding, is it?” She looked miserable for a moment.

“No. The pilot from the crash and the security specialist sent after him are eloping before they leave tomorrow.”

“What about an arranged marriage? Are you in one of those?” she asked, leaning past her friend to see his face.

“Nope. What about you? Any arranged marriage in your future?”

She scoffed. “No one in my family trusted me not to turn any prospective husband in to the authorities. I was never set up to be married.”

“Good.”

“What?”

“What I meant to say was, that’s good for me.” He stared at her and a sweet blush came up in her cheeks.

“Holli,” Sheriff Merrow said. “Let me give you a tour of the sheriff’s office.”

“We’ll be right out there,” Astrid’s friend said to Bubba in a warning tone.

Once they were alone, Astrid asked, “I need to know something before we go to the elopement.”

“What’s that?”

“Your first name. Or should I just call you Thorne?”

He smiled. “Call me Bubba.”

“Bubba? Really? That’s your name.”

“It’s what I answer to.”

“Will you ever tell me your real first name?”

“Possibly.” He couldn’t take his gaze from her face.

“What if we trade?” She moved closer, sliding into Holli’s abandoned chair.

“Trade?” Bubba could barely focus. Her leg touched his and he almost forgot what they were talking about. “What should we trade?”

“You tell me your real name and I’ll give you a kiss.”

Bubba never told people his real name, but he wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to take his next breath. “Deal.”

Her arms slid round his neck, she lifted to her knees in the seat beside him and pressed her perfect luscious lips to his in what had to be the most amazingly sensuous kiss he’d ever experienced.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Bubba.”

She laughed. It was a delightful sound. “That’s not your real name.”

“No. But I’ll need more than a kiss to reveal it.”

“You made a deal.”

Bubba pushed out a long sigh. “Bartholomew Angus Thorne.”

“Bubba it is,” she said and kissed him once more.

Epilogue

<^> <^> <^>

Alpha-Prime – Sandspur Basin, three months later

The town was small and out-of-the-way enough to boast just one fueling center, one household supply depot, a tiny medical center operated by a droid med tech and a single multi-passenger transport stop, yet managed to draw enough clientele from the surrounding area to pay the overhead and then some for three taverns. Sand slithered down the largely deserted main street in streamers kicked up by the wind as dusk fell. The air would cool a few thankful degrees once the sun set, but that would only draw out the insects, both of the pest variety and the criminal. Sandspur Basin was also out-of-the-way enough to make some fugitives think they were off the grid and out of reach.

They were wrong.

Bubba watched with amusement as Holden brushed a bit of sand off of his face. It was a futile effort, but an old habit when visiting places so far away from civilization and the protected spheres in the cities. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be here very long. He’d rather be spending his time with Astrid, but this mission was important, too.

Riker, Draeken and Holden all walked alongside him for their shared task today. They all agreed that he could lead as he was the one who’d found their prey.

Even so, they all had equal justice to deliver.

Bubba walked confidently to the main entrance of the seediest of the three taverns. Harsh music and even harsher laughter seeped through the faulty force field seal intended to keep the sand out and the noise in. As the rest of the town went to sleep, the night was just getting started for the boringly but aptly named, Sandspur Tavern’s patrons.

“You’re sure he’s here?”

Bubba looked over his shoulder at his three companions, and quirked a brow at The Calderian, who’d asked the question. Riker Phoenix snorted a laugh. “Right. Look who I’m asking. Forget I said anything.”

“How many times have you said he’s the best?” his brother, Draeken, asked.

Riker punched his brother in the shoulder hard enough to make the younger man wince and rub it while the fourth member of their party rolled his eyes.

“Gentlemen, please,” Holden Grigori said. “We’re here to take care of some business. A little decorum, please?”

When all three looked at him, he grinned. “Didn’t think I knew the word ‘decorum,’ did you?”

Bubba shook his head and stepped through the entryway into the tavern, the three other men on his heels. It was amusing the way silence fell over the room almost instantly. The recorded music continued to play discordantly through hidden speakers. He eyed the filthy state of the long bar, and the dirty glasses accumulated on tables and thought how offended the owner of Howlers back in Nocturne Falls would be to see it. Howlers was a very fun place, for sure, but Bridget made certain it was also immaculate.

Draeken was the only one of them who wasn’t a Royal Magistrate Guard, but it didn’t make much difference when they were all wearing civilian clothes anyway. The patrons didn’t need to be told trouble had just walked in.

Bubba slowly scanned the room until his eyes landed on a table with five men. Only one stiffened in recognition as he stared at the newcomers. Bubba smiled and raised his voice to the room. “Now would be a good time to call it a night, if you want to leave without any injuries. Otherwise, you can take your chances when the mayhem starts.” In fact, he hoped for a quiet take down. There would maybe be a chase, but not if he got his way.

The other patrons took the broad hint. Bubba ignored the hurried exodus out the front entrance and stalked toward their quarry. At first, it seemed his quarry’s tablemates would hold their ground. A narrow-eyed stare took care of that, and they deserted the table and the tavern as fast as their legs would carry them. That just left one man.

He sprang up, but Holden was fast. He shoved the man down so hard, the chair rocked under him.

Riker stepped forward. “Where do you think you’re going, Jason Pepperdine?”

“S-sir,” he stuttered.

“Oh now you call me sir? You didn’t respect me enough to keep from jeopardizing my brother’s life when you were assigned to guard him en route to gulag XkR-9. Why start now? We can dispense with the ‘sir.’ Guardsman Phoenix will do.”

Seeing Pepperdine in person made Bubba, for the first time in his career, wish he was the kind of guardsman who didn’t mind a little face stomping. Pepperdine looked soft around the edges, but big and beefy compared to Astrid. Bubba could barely stand the thought of the disgraced guardsman putting hands on Astrid, terrifying her and putting her life in danger by hiring an Alpha mercenary to round her up for him.

“Sir, please. You’ve got to listen to me. I didn’t have a choice—”

“There’s always a choice, Pepperdine. Always. And you made yours when you kidnapped an innocent woman, drugged her and hid her on a ship bound for a gulag. If Holden Grigori wasn’t a top-flight pilot, your choice would have killed two guardsmen, my brother and a woman who has more respect for the law than you ever will.”

Holden, who’d won the toss, said, “Jason Pepperdine, you’re under arrest for discreditable conduct, smuggling, collusion with criminal elements, intimidation, sabotage of an RMG ship, attempted murder times four—”

Without warning, Pepperdine shoved Holden away from him, upended the table in front of Bubba, Riker and Draeken, and sprinted for the back of the tavern, and presumably the exit in the kitchen. Bubba growled and tossed the table away like it weighed nothing. He started after Pepperdine, but Draeken’s laugh gave him pause.

Bubba stared at his friend’s brother. Draeken had always had a bizarre sense of humor, but laughing now seemed entirely inappropriate as far as Bubba was concerned. Pepperdine was getting away.

“Oh, let him go,” Draeken said. “It’s obviously time for Plan B.”

Bubba was glad to see Riker and Holden were no more amused than he was. “Plan B?” Bubba asked, watching his quarry escape. He had the same feeling in the pit of his stomach as when he’d had to tell Cam Grey that his awesome Alpha tracking prototype device had worked amazingly well. Until it had accidentally flown from his hands and the car tire ran over it. He was grateful Cam had understood without any violence.

Holden glared and said, “Are you kidding me? The last thing we need is for that vile little crust-fish to find another bolt hole. I refuse to go back and tell Victoria we let him get away.”

“Come on,” Draeken said with a smirk. “You don’t really think the women are waiting for us back in the city, do you? That’s why I approved Plan B.”

“Explain, Plan B, Draeken,” Bubba said.

“I knew Stella wouldn’t just sit back meekly waiting for the big strong males to take care of things.”

Riker looked briefly pole-axed before a slow smile spread across his lips. “Little brother, you do have a good point. Elise would never sit back. I was surprised when she didn’t pull her weapon and just join us. I guess she preferred your Plan B, too.”

“So I told them where we were going. They probably beat us here.”

Bubba rolled his shoulders and calmed his raging anger. Draeken had a point. The women were just as involved. He should have invited them along, but he’d been so anxious to get his hands on Pepperdine. To make him pay for what he’d done.

Holden nodded. “Victoria did have a satisfied gleam in her eye when we left. And not for the usual reason.” He smiled, and added, “I’m not going to lie. I was shocked that she didn’t want to join us. I guess she also preferred Plan B.”

Draeken shrugged. “And yes, I know he’s nasty and as vicious as a poot-snake in a sticker forest and he definitely deserves some justice, but the truth is if it wasn’t for him, I likely wouldn’t have Stella.” He pointed at his brother, Holden and Bubba in turn. “And you most certainly wouldn’t have Elise, you wouldn’t have Victoria and you wouldn’t be married blissfully to Astrid. Besides, it’s not like he’s going to get away.”

Bubba grunted. “Well, when you put it that way…”

<^> <^> <^>

Jason Pepperdine burst through the back entrance like all the demons in the universe were after him. He gaped at Astrid, who smiled and threw some kind of powdery substance in his face.

He sneezed violently, once, before Stella whipped her telescoping staff to full extension, jammed it between his ankles and pulled them from under him with a seemingly negligent flip.

He hit the cracked ground hard enough to send up a plume of dust and sneezed again, which was an interesting feat, considering Victoria heard the air explosively leave his lungs. Whatever air remained inside him was taken care of when she and Elise pinned him with their knees. Victoria caught the thumb of his left hand and twisted it up and back until his arm was immobilized in the air behind him, while Elise did the same to his right.

Stella crouched down and looked at his reddened face. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

Pepperdine gasped and wheezed.

“What did you throw in his face?” Elise asked Astrid.

“Oh, it’s something my friend Holli gave me before we left Nocturne Falls. She said it worked like pepper spray, whatever that is. She assured me it was strong enough to stop a bear.” She tilted her head and looked at their prisoner. “You know, I think he kind of looks like a bear. I saw some pictures.”

“I can see the bear resemblance,” Stella said, nodding.

“We should see if your friend would be willing to share her formula with Cam Grey,” Elise said. “I bet he would think something like that was very interesting. He could probably turn it into a device strong enough to stop a whole herd of bears.”

Stella stood and minimized her telescoping staff until it was baton sized and hooked easily to the utility belt slung low on her hips. Then she took something from a compartment on the belt, reached over and slapped a shackle on Pepperdine’s wrist.

Victoria felt him go limp under her. At Stella’s nod, she and Elise released him. His arms stayed extended.

“Put your arms down and get to your feet,” Stella said briskly.

Pepperdine, eyes streaming and unable to hold back the occasional sneeze, obeyed like an automaton.

“Now march yourself back into that tavern.”

The women followed Pepperdine inside as he performed the kind of march Victoria thought would have been perfectly respectable on any Royal Magistrate Guard parade ground.

They went through the kitchen and into the main tavern, to see Holden, Bubba, Riker and Draeken seated at a table. As soon as they spotted Pepperdine and the women, they raised glasses of brew in the air in salute and cheered.

“What’d I tell you?” she heard Draeken say smugly. “Plan B is always the best one.”

“Stop, and await further instructions,” Stella told Pepperdine. He froze.

Victoria felt the glow of love as she looked at Holden. She thought the small scar on his temple gave him a rakish look. “Comfortable?” she asked.

“Almost.” He gave her a sly smile and patted one thigh in invitation. “Why don’t you come over here and see?”

She didn’t hesitate to sit on his knee. Looping her arms around his neck, she tenderly kissed his temple, then his lips.

Draeken and Stella kissed once and then started slow dancing to the music playing as if they were already alone. Astrid and Bubba kissed and simply stared at each other like all newlyweds do. Riker and Elise kissed once, sat down at the table and then kissed again and continued kissing as if they, too were the only ones here.

“I thought you were going to wait back at our room,” Holden said in a soft voice as the other couples went through their own greetings and kisses.

“As if,” she said.

He chuckled. “As if. I love you, Victoria, lovely wife of mine.”

“I love you too, Holden. Now, how about we go back to our room together?”

“Together sounds awesome.”

She kissed him again, with more heat. “It does, doesn’t it?”

The End

<^> <^> <^>

About Fiona Roarke

Fiona Roarke is a multi-published author who lives a quiet life with the exception of the characters and stories roaming around in her head. She writes about sexy alpha heroes, using them to launch her first series, Bad Boys in Big Trouble. Next up, a new sci-fi contemporary romance series. When she’s not curled on the sofa reading a great book or at the movie theater watching the latest action film, Fiona spends her time writing about the next bad boy (or bad boy alien) who needs his story told.

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More by Fiona Roarke

Close Encounters of the Alien Kind

Nocturne Falls Universe 1

Invasion of the Alien Snatchers

Nocturne Falls Universe 2

You’ve Got Aliens

Alienn, Arkansas 1

Bad Boys in Big Trouble

six book series, including

Biker

Bouncer

Bodyguard

Bomb Tech

Bounty Hunter

Bandit

Coming soon

How to Lose an Alien in 10 Days

Alienn, Arkansas 2

Coming soon in print:

Aliens Actually:

A Nocturne Falls Universe Collection

includes:

Close Encounters of the Alien Kind

Invasion of the Alien Snatchers

The Alien Who Fell to Earth