V’aalara is everything that Narul isn’t. From…

27

Naomi

V’aalara is everything that Narul isn’t. From the moment we land, my mouth is gaping open as I stare at our new planet.

And seriously, I get to live on another planet. If I wasn’t so sad about leaving Earth behind, I’d probably be overjoyed with my excitement about being here.

Marv introduces me to his friend, Goran. Apparently, they worked on the space station together. Goran’s mate, Cam, is golden and grinning. She immediately shows me her flower mark.

“I’m so nervous,” she confides in me as we walk together through a large garden. The garden is filled with pink flowers.

“I’m sure you’ll be an excellent mama,” I tell her. I don’t know if I’m ready, so every day that I don’t see a flower, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Cam pauses and looks at me. She has a tiny baby bump over her super slender waist. “How are you doing?” she asks me. “And I’m not asking for a simple, ‘I’m fine.’”

“Oh,” I say softly. How did she know? Can she read minds?

“Naomi, I know it’s hard. I didn’t like that I was summoned up to that space station, either.”

I glance at her. “You were at the space station?”

“Yeah. We arrived on the same night, only I tried to escape and ended up having to kill a Foog.”

“Whoa.”

She chuckles. “Tell me about it. They had captured four females and turned them green before they tricked me into boarding their ship. I hadn’t accepted my mate yet.”

“I’ve accepted mine,” I say defiantly.

“Hon, I know. You’re purple.”

I bend down to smell a flower. Its scent reminds me of honeysuckle on a fresh spring morning.

“I’m not sure about this whole ‘forever’ thing though. I was drunk when I used the App. I’m not exactly girlfriend material.”

“Why not?”

I shrug, then start walking at a snail’s pace. Cam didn’t react to my words, just kept walking beside me, matching my pace.

This was what I’d wanted, right? A girl to talk to. Marv had found it for me, and I was still too scared to speak up.

“I have never been in a decent relationship. Boys cheat on me. I’m not good enough.”

“You’re plenty good enough,” Cam says.

I keep walking.

“Naomi,” she says, causing me to pause. She walks right up to me and places a hand on my cheek. “Look at me.”

I do.

“You’re beautiful. You’re worthy. You deserve to be treated right.”

I want to agree, but…

“Does Marv treat you well? He looks at you like you’re his Queen. Is that how he treats you?”

I nod.

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know. I want to go home.”

Cam sighs. “But if you know in your heart of hearts that you can’t go back, can he be enough for you?”

I shrug. “I don’t know.”

“Think about it, okay? Please?”

I nod. We keep walking, and she steers away from hard topics. She points out their fruit-bearing trees, some p’aca that look like sheep but taste okay, and a long winding road to the mountains.

“You should talk to him,” she tells me finally, as we part.

“Thanks,” I tell her, and I mean it.

.

OceanofPDF.com

28

Marv

“This is our new place,” I say, showing Naomi around our designated quarters. They’ve given us a small condo near the Unsettled Camp. Apparently, they’ve rapidly built a housing unit just for single females, and guards protect it from intruders.

They don’t want me to stay there because it might be weird for the females. But they are grateful that Naomi has agreed to work for the cooperative of females.

“I like it,” Naomi says softly, standing by the window.

When we were back on Narul, I didn’t have windows. My last above-ground home there had windows, but we’d been under attack so much from the Foog and the Ta’al that it became impossible to protect ourselves.

I walk over to her and stand beside her. “It’s a nice view, isn’t it?”

She leans back, encouraging me to wrap an arm around her. So, I do. She relaxes beside me.

“I wonder what it would have been like to meet you in a normal way. To go out on a date and decide that we should be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Hmm,” I murmur, nuzzling my lips into her hair and kissing her. “I would’ve fallen head over heels in love with you.”

“Why me? How did you choose me?”

I shift my arms so that I’m wrapped around her waist. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight before I laid eyes on you. Your smile was so…. real.”

“But I was drunk,” she whispers.

“I have the photo.”

“You do?” she asks incredulously. I release her from my embrace and hurry away, then return with my tablet. I retrieve the saved file and show it to her.

It’s her, but back in human form. Before she was changed. Her eyes are bright, and her lips are full. Her hair is messy, and she doesn’t seem to care. She’s holding that bottle of what I’ve learned is “forgetting juice.” And she’s smiling, even though there are tears in her eyes.

“This was my photo?”

“Yes.”

“And you chose me from this? I look awful.”

“You look perfect.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”

I lean forward and wait for her to touch me. There’s a memory I want to share with her.

OceanofPDF.com