Alien Mischief Read online

  If Hulk the Ugly couldn’t do it, Malloy damn sure couldn’t.

  I folded my arms and tried not to grin because the icy wind would freeze my lips to my teeth.

  Malloy stiffened. “I’ll be filing a report, and Earth authorities will be notified about this entire incident.” He pivoted awkwardly in the snow and strode back to the ship. As soon as he boarded, the hatch closed.

  “You’re still here!” I threw my arms around Enoki and kissed him.

  “You came back!” He hugged me so tight I thought my ribs would crack.

  “I never left—but it’s a long story.” I grabbed at my hood as the wind tore it from my head, allowing snow to slide down my neck.

  Enoki pulled up my hood and dusted off the skimmer seat. “Get on. We’ll need to seek shelter in an emergency hut.”

  “Our little honeymoon cottage.” I jumped on the skimmer.

  “What’s a honeymoon?” he asked.

  “I’ll demonstrate when we get inside the hut.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Enoki

  Madison was here! She hadn’t left! As soon as we entered the emergency hut, I fired up the illuvian heater, and then I pulled her into my arms, holding her tighter than tight. I shuddered at how close I’d come to losing her. What if I’d ignored the whispers and hadn’t returned? I almost had. Through driven snow, I’d ridden all the way to the Meeting Place, to the landing field, cursing my foolishness, knowing nothing would be waiting for me. But the voice, the whispers, had urged me faster, faster.

  And there in the landing field sat the ship. I couldn’t believe it. And then I spotted Madison, screaming my name, running toward me.

  We meshed mouths in a searing kiss of relief and reunion. The kiss hurt my lip, which wasn’t healed after the muta, but soothed the last remnants of emotional turmoil. Pain reassured me this was real. Madison’s pert nose felt cold against my cheek, but her lips were warm and grew warmer as we kissed. Her scent and taste filled my senses. My mate was here. Just like the Fates had whispered.

  “I saw the ship take off.” I breathed against her neck. “I thought you had left.”

  “I was afraid you’d think that.” She thumped my chest with her fist. “I didn’t abandon you. I got on the ship—to get my stuff—and then it launched! Malloy—the first officer, the one who spoke to you—refused to let me talk to the captain.” She winced. “So I set off the emergency alarms to force the ship to land. If you hadn’t come when you did, Malloy would have put me on the ship and taken me to Earth.”

  “I wouldn’t have let them take you,” I said.

  “I knew you could whip Malloy’s ass. He didn’t have a chance. I almost wish you had thumped him.”

  Fortunately for our treaty, the man had retreated. It would have damaged interplanetary relations if I’d assaulted him and thrown him into his spacecraft. I hadn’t been behaving like Enoki, Head of the Council of Dakon. I’d acted like a man protecting his female.

  I tugged at her kel. “Take this off.”

  She slung her bag onto the table and then shrugged out of the fur. I eyed the bag. Considering how insistent she’d been on retrieving her things, I’d expected more. “That’s all you have?” Dakonians didn’t own many possessions, but Earth people—or at least the females—did. They arrived with enormous trunks filled with inappropriate clothing and other items of no practical value.

  Madison shrugged. “I didn’t bring much with me on the ship—but then I don’t need much. I wanted photos and vids of my family and friends, and a necklace my fiancé gave me.” She touched my chest. “Matt is in my past, but I loved him, and I wanted something to remember him by—”

  “I understand.”

  “You should never doubt my feelings. You’re my mate. I love you.”

  Her presence told me all I needed to know, but her words were pleasing. “I love you, too.” That she reciprocated my feelings filled me with the lightness of joy and a renewed intense desire. My loins and horns quivered.

  “If I had had any idea what would happen, I would have left the stuff. My past almost cost me a future.” She twisted her mouth. “After a while, I won’t be able to view my photos and vids anyway. The player is battery-operated, and once the cell runs down…”

  I threw back my shoulders. “I’ll get you the batteries you need. Anything you desire, I’ll get for you.” It was my honor and pleasure to care for her. Anything within my power to give her, she would have.

  “Maybe an illuvian vid reader?”

  “I don’t know what that is, but it’s yours. I’ll have Andrea get you one.”

  She cocked her head and peered at me from under her lashes. The heat in her eyes caused my loins to throb. “Did you get a chance to record our mating in the book of records?”

  “I did.” My horns twitched.

  “Then it’s official. We’re like married. So this is our honeymoon.” She gripped my tunic in her hands.

  “I’m not familiar with this word, honeymoon.”

  “It’s an old Earth custom in which newly married couples celebrate their bonding by getting physical.” She pulled off her tunic, revealing the enticement of her bare breasts.

  Earth had some strange customs, but this honeymoon concept sounded like a great idea. I tossed my tunic on the floor. We removed the rest of our clothing with haste and then embraced skin to skin, for a slow kiss before crawling into the kels.

  Arms and legs entwined.

  “I’m so happy.” She kissed my neck and chest.

  I ran my palms over her body, finding and caressing her soft, female form. “I’m happy, too.” I kneaded her breasts before skimming a hand down her abdomen to slip between her legs. “Very happy.”

  Her giggle turned to a moan as I focused my attention on her pleasure. My life would be devoted to satisfying my female in every way. I couldn’t change our weather or provide her with technology that didn’t come from her own planet, but her needs and desires would always take priority over my own.

  “Let me…” Madison reached for my erection, but I eluded her grasp, gently nudging her hands aside.

  “No, let me,” I said.

  “Okay, but the next turn is mine.” Her eyes closed, and her head fell back in surrender. I kissed and stroked her until her moans filled the hut and her face suffused with ecstasy.

  My body grew taut with need, her rapturous gasps causing my own need to flare. When she convulsed in completion, I shuddered with satisfaction at her pleasure.

  Then her hands and mouth were on me, setting every nerve ablaze. Every tormenting pull on my manhood sent a rush of hot desire coursing through me. I gripped the kel in my fists and fought for control.

  Madison climbed on top of me then. Our bodies merged, sending my mind and emotions spinning. Unchained satisfaction. This was the honeymoon of two Fated mates. Together we were joined, and together we would always be.

  I thrust my hips to meet her movements. We clasped hands, linking our fingers. Our lips fused, ecstasy turning our kisses to moans as we found the ultimate rapture together.

  Afterward, she continued to lie atop me as I caressed the soft, smooth skin of her back and buttocks. “I like honeymooning,” I said.

  Madison giggled. “It’s not over yet.”

  “There’s more?” My horns twitched.

  “Oh, lots more.” She laughed. “This is the beginning.”

  “It is our beginning.”

  “Any guesses how long the blizzard will last?” she asked.

  “From the scent of it, several days.”

  “Will there be any kind of calm in the middle of it? Like, on Earth, we get hurricanes, strong winds that sweep in from the ocean onto land. But the center of the storm—the eye—is calm.”

  “That can happen, why? Are you eager to return to our hut?”

  She rubbed her foot on my skin. “Not, necessarily. I’ve grown fond of our little honeymoon emergency cabin. Wherever
you are is home to me. Malloy hoped the ship could blast off, and frankly, they can’t leave soon enough to suit me. Adios, baby!”

  “There could be a moment of calm. Unusual, but it happens,” I said. Malloy had attempted to keep my mate from me. I wanted him gone, too.

  Kits are coming… Kits are coming…

  I jerked and widened my eyes. Kit?

  Kitsss…the Fates whispered.

  Madison lifted her head and sought my gaze. “What is it?”

  “Do you want kits, Madison?” I asked.

  “Children? Yeah.”

  “Good, because we I think we just created two of them,” I said, though I could scarcely believe it myself. One baby was a treasure. Two babies at once? It almost never happened.

  “Two?” She laughed and settled on my chest. “You are an overachiever. Since I wasn’t intending to date, I’m not on any birth control, so it’s possible, but we’ve only had sex a few times.” She lifted her head and waggled her eyebrows. “We’ll have to practice a little more.” She settled back down. “Twins are possible, though. I think I told you my mother was a fraternal twin, and so was my maternal grandmother, so twins kind of run in the family. But it’s waaaay too soon to tell.”

  Kits are coming…

  I grinned. She would see. I’d doubted the Fates before, but no longer. We were going to have two kits! However, practice sounded like a good idea. I rolled Madison over and kissed her. Obah!

  Epilogue

  Madison

  A year and a half later

  Women from the SS Tropical squeezed into the lodge, so many of them, I couldn’t see the ones in the rear. The room buzzed with excitement as the men of Dakon waited impatiently for Enoki to call the numbers.

  I jiggled the twins, one in a kel sling on my right side, one on the left, and kissed their fuzzy, downy heads, hoping they wouldn’t fuss. They’d begun horning, and their little heads were sore. Born without horns, Dakonians sprouted them when they were several months old. Ardu had given me a salve to apply to their scalps to ease the soreness. It seemed to be working because both were quiet.

  Darlu, my baby girl, stared at the people, while Orvan, her brother, happily gummed a lock of my shoulder-length hair.

  Their father stepped up to the dais.

  “I’m Enoki,” he introduced himself. “On behalf of the people of Dakon, I welcome you!”

  “Obah! Obah!” the men shouted.

  There’d been two shipments of women since I’d become Enoki’s mate almost a year and half ago, but I’d missed both ceremonies. The first due to morning sickness, and the next because the twins had just been born.

  “Everyone is eager to begin the selection. I apologize for the cramped space, but we only received enough housing panels to complete huts for all of you. We gave priority to providing you with a warm place to live over a new reception center.”

  The women laughed nervously. Dakon’s weather was brutal, and I’d never forgotten the shock of dashing from the landing field to the lodge in inadequate Terran clothing.

  “I promise future mate selections will occur in a more spacious lodge. Now, is everyone ready?”

  “Obah!” the men shouted again. What they meant was “get on with it.”

  After the usual explanation of how the men drew chits enabling them to pick a female, the selection began. Males and females paired up then left to begin new lives.

  Ah, alien love.

  Five hours and two diaper changes later, the last of the three hundred couples rushed out before the expected blizzard rolled in. Such was the luck of the Fates that a blizzard always hit on mate-selection day.

  I’d always wondered why Terra didn’t schedule the arrivals during a Thaw, until I experienced my first season. A ship could land and launch in a little snow. It couldn’t escape a quicksand pit of sucking mud. A ship could disappear, be swallowed whole. About the time everything dried out and hardened, winter rolled in again.

  As the lodge emptied of the final pairs, a beaming Enoki bounded over and kissed me and Orvan, and took Darlu. “That’s the biggest group yet!” he said.

  Already I could see the difference two previous shipments had made around our camp. Although still predominantly male, the tribe was beginning to look more gender mixed. Twenty more women had joined us previously, and we’d added another twenty this time. Babies were being born left and right. Wails of infants were an ever-present sound in camp.

  “There will be five hundred in the next shipment,” said Andrea, slipping off her kel to reveal a brightly colored tunic. She’d been experimenting with dyes, and her buckskins had been decorated with an African design. Her beaded hair was hidden under a colorful headwrap.

  She’d assisted the couples in claiming the women’s luggage. Every square inch of the lodge had been needed for people, so a quick prefab had been snapped together outside for the trunks.

  “At the start of the Thaw, before everything turns to mud, we’ll clear the snow and construct the new reception center.” Enoki bounced Darlu. She giggled. Orvan reached for him, and Enoki took him, too. I’d never seen a more doting daddy.

  “Then we can use the lodge as a school,” he added.

  “That’s a good idea,” I said. The children born to the first group of women were kindergarten-aged now, and when all the new babies got older…Dakon would need a school.

  Andrea’s eyes lit up. “Did you see what arrived?” She pointed to a container the size of an antique Terran refrigerator at the rear of the lodge. I’d noticed when the robos had brought it in, but I’d been focused on the mate selection, so I hadn’t really paid attention.

  “What’s that?” Enoki asked.

  “The Klimatron 3000,” she replied.

  “The weather machine arrived? Already?”

  “I thought we were going to wait until Dakon had all the women it needed,” I said. Enoki had filled me in on the long-range goals.

  “An opportunity arose that was too good to pass up. I found out Earth had developed several weather machine prototypes. This model had been stolen by a rogue country that should never, ever be allowed to have control over the weather. I hacked into the transport manifest and diverted it just in time for it to be loaded on to the SS Tropical…” She grinned.

  “You stole it from them?” I said in awe. She really was a Robin Hood.

  “Stole, diverted. Potato, potahto.”

  It was beginning to feel like Christmas.

  Andrea said, “We need to proceed with caution. Take baby steps. The weather machine is still experimental. If we change too much too fast, we could cause massive Dakonian warming, which could be more disastrous than an ice age. Once we seed the atmosphere, we can’t undo it if we’ve gone too far.”

  “Of course,” Enoki said. “We will test it first, and the council will devise a strategy and a plan. Lengthening the thaw by a bit, or preventing some blizzards during the winter will help tremendously. We’ve spent centuries in an ice age. We couldn’t expect—nor would it be prudent—to reverse it all at once.”

  Dakon needed to move forward to be able to flourish, but I hoped it wouldn’t change too much. I’d gotten accustomed to snow. Snuggling with Enoki and our babies in our cozy hut while a kel roast sizzled in the flash cooker made life pretty darn close to perfect.

  With Andrea’s ’net assistance, I’d been able to speak to my parents and brother. It couldn’t compare to seeing them in person, and I hoped someday they’d be able to visit. I didn’t dare leave. Andrea assured me she’d erased the criminal charges against me, but I couldn’t count on getting a flight. Leisure travel still hadn’t come to Dakon because of the terrible weather, but if the Klimatron could shorten winter a tad…

  It would be nice if all the women could see their families again. Then more women would come to meet Dakonians, and Dakon would thrive even more.

  Better weather would mean greater opportunity for Dakon.

  “Well, I’
d better go relieve Groman. He has our daughter D’Shondra, and he’s inventorying the supplies at the apothecary. He probably needs a hand.”

  “Thank you again—for everything,” Enoki said.

  Andrea hugged us, kissed my twins, and left.

  “Are you ready to head for camp?” Enoki asked me. “Or would you prefer to stay in the Meeting Place at our honeymoon suite?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  I sidled up to him and kissed him over Orvan’s head. “We do have a standing reservation,” I said. “But, if we went to camp, we could get Aunt Garnet to kitsit for a night.” I flashed a suggestive smile.

  He grinned. “I like the way you think. Let’s go home.”

  * * * *

  Thank you for reading Alien Mischief (Alien Mate 4), I hope you enjoyed this romance of a Dakonian set on his home planet. In my Alien Mate spinoff series, Dakonian Alien Mail Order Brides, the aliens come to Earth through the Intergalactic Dating Agency to find mates. Read on for a sneak peek excerpt from the first book, Darak…

  Darak: Dakonian Alien Mail Order Brides

  Chapter One

  Lexi

  The hand-addressed, gold-embossed, perfumed envelope I’d brought in with the junk mail sat on my kitchen counter and tugged at my attention, despite my best efforts to ignore it. Anything that fancy and expensive couldn’t be good news. I sighed, licked black-cherry frosting off my fingers, and tore open the envelope.

  Dr. Blake and Mrs. Caroline Gates Sutterman request the honor of your presence at the marriage ceremony of Miss Antoinette Leigh Gates Sutterman to Phillip Edward Markham IV…

  Told ya. Bad news. My baby sister was getting married. It wasn’t enough she’d fast-tracked her way to partner of her law firm at the young age of twenty-five, she was sealing the deal by marrying the firm’s founding member, Phillip Edward Markham IV. The possibility she might have slept her way to the top didn’t detract from her accomplishment. In our family, how you achieved success didn’t matter, as long as you did.