The towering Aurelian is calm as he stands beside me, and then Hadone jumps through the portal behind us, followed closely by Darok. The Aurelians take in huge breath of the sticky, humid air and smile like twins.
But there’s no Diana. The rippling portal looks hazy from this side, with only muddled shapes visible through it.
For a moment, I feel a surge of shameful hope that the gorgeous noblewoman won’t step through – but then I watch her graceful foot step into my world, and as she takes her first step she stumbles.
Hadone catches Diana effortlessly in his huge, muscled arms. Another pang of jealousy hits me as she looks up at him with a grateful smile. I’d imagined her doing a faceplant into the soft dirt and part of me still wishes she had.
Stop it, Tammy! It’s not Diana’s fault she grew up rich, while you grew up poor.
I think the thought, but I know that’s not what’s bothering me. As Hadone sets Diana on her feet, I feel a tinge of worry. If the Aurelians find out that the portal that opened to my planet was a simple fluke – and not the fated will of their Orb-God – then I’ll stand to lose every quality that made me special to them.
Once I lose that, surely there’s no way I can compete with Diana.
But I push those thoughts out of my mind, and for the first time in what feels like my entire life, I take a second to relax.
And, oh my Gods – these guys are hot!
In the brilliance of the alien sun, I can see every detail of the huge alien warriors even more clearly.
In our dark fumbling in the lean-to, I didn’t fully appreciate their beauty. It feels weird to think of men as beautiful, but I don’t know how else to describe these towering warrior-gods.
The three Aurelians seem chiseled out of marble. Their pure white skin is flawless, making their hard, muscled bodies somehow as smooth as the skin of a baby. Yet they’re not pure white, like the Aurelians I’ve read about on Independence. These three are adorned with those intricate, bright green tattoos that do not mar the lines of their exquisite bodies, but instead somehow enhance them.
Yet perhaps even sexier than their physical appearance is the presence of these three alien warriors. They’re so brutal and in control; confident and poised like predators.
In the jungle world we’re now on, I can clearly see that they stand like the apex predators.
I know how violent these men can be – and yet, with me, they held back and demonstrated incredible tenderness.
Just one of these huge aliens could pin me to the ground and take me hard. Three of them together could do anything they wanted to me, and I’d have no choice but to take it. I wouldn’t even be able to move without their approval.
Yet, thinking of being with them that way – of all three of them taking me at the same time – is as intoxicating as a stiff drink. I know I’d melt in their hands, under their three tongues, and that their three bodies would make me feel so small and vulnerable; yet so protected all at the same time…
I blush, the heat in my cheeks mimicking the sudden heat between my legs. It’s so hard to push thoughts of these three warriors out of my fevered mind when they’re all standing so close – towering like Greek Gods in all their glory.
“Well, which way?” Diana asks primly.
I shrug. “I don’t even know which galaxy we’re in.”
I shake my head slowly and swallow, thinking of the orphans I’d left behind. I know it was the best choice for them – but the selfish part of my brain still wishes that I could have brought them with me.
Then, as if denying my wish with certainty, the shimmering portal finally winks out of existence. I watch the empty space where it once shimmered and rippled, like a tear in space and time itself, and a sudden pang of loss grips my heart.
My past is gone, blinked out of existence.
I’m now on a dangerous, new world with four others who might as well be strangers. I knew how to make a living in the cold underworld of Barl. I survived on the cold streets of the periphery city, and took care of the four orphans who relied on me. Here? Here I have no idea how to make ends meet. I have no idea how to stay alive. I hate that I’ll have to rely on these three huge, alien warriors from now on – instead of my own guts and brains.
The tendril of worry grows inside me.
What if they abandon me when they learn that portal opened by accident, and didn’t guide them to their so-called ‘fated mate’?
What if Forn, Hadone and Darok only protected me from the Scorp warriors because they thought that I was their destined woman? Will they abandon me to the creatures of this dangerous paradise as soon as they discover the truth?
Forn looks at me and says something in his language. It makes me so frustrated that I can’t speak back to him in a way he’ll understand.
At least this way I can’t tell him I’m not the girl he’s looking for. I won’t have to face the choice of explaining that their Orb-God didn’t send them to me.
Forn knows I don’t understand, so he points in the distance. A mountain looms above. Birds flutter from a thicket of tropical trees. It’s all so alien compared to the urban dystopia of Barl. It looks like paradise on the surface, but I know there are dangers my instincts haven’t prepared me for lurking all around.
We trudge forward. My shoes are worn at the bottom, and are past their prime by a year, but I’m doing better than
