Deceit: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 1) (4 page)

BOOK: Deceit: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 1)
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“Why did you enter the lottery?”

“You’ve already asked me that,” she said, not as susceptible to the drugs as he had hoped.

“I didn’t believe your answer,” he said, sensing again that she was deceiving him. “So why don’t you just tell me, get it off your mind.”

“It’s not on my mind,” she said, trying to maintain his gaze, and yet he could see by the flicker there, that it was hard for her to lie straight to his face. He should have interrogated her further on that point, but her eyes did something to him, stirred up feelings inside him he had never experienced.

She was awakening him, in ways the Hierarchy had not warned him about. But then maybe they had no idea. The last generation were long gone and the only directions they had in dealing with females were their writings, and the long-forgotten advice handed down so many years ago. And the simulations, but they held no emotions; they were only useful for physical practice.

“So you are looking forward to travelling to my planet, despite your fear of flying and distrust of my species?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you lie?”

“I’m not. I can’t wait to travel to this fabled planet of yours and see if what they say about it is true.”

“You think we are making it up, despite the food and supplies we have gifted your world?”

She frowned slightly, fighting the drugs. “People like me never get to see these great gifts. I expect the Presidency feasted well for a month off your food. In this world it’s called a bribe.”

He was taken by surprise by her words. “The food was to be given to the needy.”

She laughed, well, giggled, a side effect of the drugs kicking in. “You are very naïve. I thought you were hundreds of years old, but you see mankind through the eyes of children. We are corrupt.”

“You believe all of mankind is corrupt?”

“Most of it. It is hard to be anything else when your world is no longer able to support you.”

“So why fight to save them? Why defend these people from the threat you think we are.”

“Because at least we are honest about how terrible we are. You, on the other hand, are deceivers. You say you want to help, but my guess is you will take what you can get and then destroy us.”

She knew, he saw it in her eyes; he had confirmed her thoughts. This woman knew that the lottery had been rigged, and maybe she had given away the reason she entered the lottery. They had taken a gamble that his people would chose her because she was so valuable to them. The Karalians had perhaps played into her hands. She would find a way to put an end to them from the inside.

“We do not need to destroy you. At best, humankind has another century of resources, and then the planet will be so barren that everyone will starve or die of disease. All we have to do is sit back and wait.”
Or take what we want now.

“But you don’t have the luxury of time, do you?”

How did she know their secret? How did she know that the biological clock of the Karal was ticking away, the minutes passing by so quickly that they only had maybe twenty years and then their prime would be past and they would begin to age, fertility would drop, and then they would die. Another extinct species of the universe.

“So why did you enter?” He leaned forward, hoping to threaten her. But from behind, a hand grabbed him back and pulled him away. Turning, ready to fight, confused at how he had missed another human coming into the room, he lifted his fist, only to see the sister, the woman called Tikki standing there.

“It wasn’t Elissa who entered. It was me. So leave her alone.”

“Tikki, no.”

“I can’t let you take the blame.”

“He wasn’t blaming me. He was just checking that I knew what I was getting myself into.” Elissa sounded so weary, and his skin picked up a new emotion, she was protecting her sister.

“You entered the lottery,” he asked, turning the full force of himself onto Tikki. He saw her diminish; he saw how easy it would be to extract whatever he wanted from Tikki. She was not as strong as Elissa.

“Yes, but I’m not old enough,” Tikki admitted.

“Tikki, no. Don’t say anything else.” Her voice concerned, protective.

“I have to,” Tikki insisted.

“Please. Leave her alone.” Elissa struggled to sit, to defend her sister.

“You entered Elissa’s name. As your own.” He bore down on Tikki with his emotions, seeing her quake beneath him.

Tikki could not tear her eyes away from his, and answered truthfully. “Yes. I took her ID and entered. But I didn’t know they would use DNA.” The woman began to cry now, tears of guilt.

“So Elissa didn’t want to enter herself?”

“No. She doesn’t like you. She doesn’t trust you.”

“Oh, I think we all know that. After all she was resp…”

“Please!” Elissa said, struggling to reach him, and then flopping back down exhausted. He looked at her, seeing her defences down. She allowed him to read her emotions, allowed him to see the sorrow and shame. “Please, no more questions. Tikki knows nothing. She made a mistake.”

He saw her fear. Were there repercussions for the lie? Of course, there must be, and in that moment, he knew he had power over Elissa. Power he would willing to use to bend her to his will. Because in this exchange he had learned much about her, and much about himself. All he wanted to do was get her back to his planet. And begin the next phase of their relationship.

The feelings she had awoken flowed through his body; he could barely contain his neutral colour. He knew that he needed to get her out of his system. And the only way that would happen was if he got her into his bed.

 

Chapter Seven – Elissa

“Thank you for your help, both of you,” Elissa said, turning to Tikki and Reja and hugging them. “I don’t think there is any way I could have managed to collect my things.” Her hands were bandaged, making it hard to use them for anything.

“It’s the least I could do,” said Tikki, not her usual happy self by any means. The full impact of what she had done had sunk in. And although nothing further had been said, Elissa had the feeling Tikki knew now that there was more to the lottery than she had thought. Elissa hoped she never found out the real reason she had been picked.

Her mistake had happened when she lived in another part of the country: the rally, the bomb, everything. A different lifetime. Afterwards, when Elissa had run home, she had never had the guts to tell her sister. Tikki would look at her differently and try to find a way to make it right. A way for Elissa to forgive herself, but Elissa didn’t want forgiveness; she didn’t deserve it.

“I hope they’ll let you Stream us. They must have the technology.” Reja had Elissa’s suitcase in her hand, another pack slung over her shoulder. She deposited them down on the floor. “Will someone come and collect these?”

“Yes. They have to go through a security scanner. So leave them there, thanks Reja.”

“So, where is that man of yours?” Reja asked, looking around. “I was hoping for a goodbye kiss from him.”

“Are you trying to make me jealous?” Elissa joked. And it was a joke, he had barely spoken to her since that night, and she had realised this morning that she was about to embark on the rest of her life with someone who had not even told her his name.

“Sorry. Oh, right, never thought of it that way. Oh my goodness, tonight you might be in his bed. I mean, did they explain how you are supposed to fit together.” Reja pulled a face at the thought. “What if you don’t fit? How do they know what women are like? You know,
down there
.”

“I have no idea, but I’m sure they have all the details. They wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble for us to be incompatible.”

“I wish one of those guards on your door would show me how compatible we might be,” Reja said. “I asked them their names. Drak is the one on the right, not too friendly. But Okil, the other one, his smile gives me goose bumps. He likes me, I can tell.”

Tikki remained silent, and Elissa began to worry about her sister as Reja headed out to gaze at the two handsome guards who were posted at her door. She still wasn’t sure if they were there to protect her, or to make sure she didn’t try to run. Today, as they left, was the photo op they should have already taken part in. But it had been delayed while Elissa’s hands had been treated.

“I had better put these on,” Elissa said, trying to pull on the special gloves she had been given to hide her wounds. She only hoped they wouldn’t rub the skin and make her hands any worse.

“Here, let me help,” Tikki said.

“Thanks.” She winced as her sister eased one over her sore hands; the gloves fit snugly over the bandages. “You will be OK, won’t you?” she asked Tikki.

“Of course. I survived when you went to work away. Remember?” Tikki answered.

“Yes,” Elissa answered quietly.

“You never spoke much about it.” Tikki was pushing for more information, but Elissa couldn’t give it to her, not now when there was no time to explain it in full.

“It was just a job, and I didn’t like it or the city I was based in.”

“I’m glad you came home, Elissa. And I am sorry you are going. I’m sorry for everything.”

“Tikki, please don’t be sad. Maybe this is how things were meant to be. I am uniquely qualified to help the Karalians in their work to rejuvenate the Earth.”

“Is that why they chose you?”

“What do you mean? It was random. The lottery, it was totally random.”

“Some say it’s not.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve dissected your life since the lottery. There are rumours that you were chosen.”

“What did they say about me?” Elissa had an awful feeling that her secret was out in the open already.

“That you were chosen for your education, because you were working in a similar field the Karalians are researching for regeneration. That the rest of us skims never stood a chance.”

“Is that what you’re upset about?”

“Not upset. Just disappointed. It would mean that even when I am old enough, they will never pick me.”

“Tikki, I don’t think I was chosen for my education. I believe that they really are just looking for women to breed with. Females are nothing to them. I doubt whether I will ever get near one of their labs. I don’t think they are big on sharing their technology.”

She brightened at that. “So we might meet again. I might get chosen?”

“Yes, you might.” Although, as she hugged Tikki, Elissa was sure that she herself would not be alive to see that day. They might breed from her as a propaganda move, but she wouldn’t be surprised if, not long after the birth, no one on Earth ever heard of Elissa again.

“Oh, there’s a nurse coming. Listen, we were told to say our goodbyes now and then go out to watch the launch,” said Tikki, looking brighter again. They hugged briefly and then she added. “We are standing on a special family and friend’s platform. We will be on the MainStream tonight.”

“Come on, Tikki, we do need to go,” said Reja, coming back to hug Elissa. “If you can invite friends for a sleepover, you know where to find us. I would like to meet up with Okil on his home planet.”

The three of them hugged tightly, Elissa fighting her tears. It was only in this moment that the whole thing became real. In a few minutes, she would leave the hospital where she had been cocooned since the lottery. Leave everything and everyone behind for a life of isolation. Her only company would be male Karalians. A species that didn’t even like her, and who, at best, just wanted to use her womb for their own needs.

As she watched Tikki and Reja leave, holding hands and giggling, the nurse hovered in her peripheral vision. Her attention slowly switched to him, there was something familiar about him, and then she knew. Taking a step backwards, her thighs hit the bed and she sat down involuntarily. Her past, the past she had tried so hard to forget, had just walked into the room.

“Morning, Elissa. I’ve come to take the last readings from your life machine before you are discharged.” He looked at her and winked.

“What do you want?” she asked quietly.

“To make sure you are OK, Elissa, and to remind you of your fellow men.”

“I don’t need reminding.”

“We weren’t sure. So it was decided that I should come and give you a little nudge.”

“Nudge?”

“Yes. We all know why they chose you. There is a good chance they will try to extract information. If that happens, we thought we should give you something to help.” He handed her a stim’. Stimulants came in all sorts of colours, usually small and in tablet form, making them easy to conceal. Some were good for you. Others were most definitely not. If the resistance were offering her a stim’ it was most likely of the latter kind.

She didn’t take it. Didn’t want anything from him, or anyone else in the resistance. Harri, the man she had been so in love with and the man, who had convinced her to use her contacts to arrange the protest rally, was the man she partly blamed for the bomb that went off. He was the man she had been in love with, the man who had betrayed her.

“What is it?”

“Death by stim’.” Harri took hold of her hand and placed the stim’ in her palm.

“I don’t want it.”

“You might,” he hissed, looking up to see if the guards were watching. “You have no idea what they are going to do to you. What the hell did you enter the damn lottery for? Some kind of penance?”

“None of your business. Now get out, I can’t be near you.”

“Why? Because I remind you of the best thing that ever happened to you. Maybe you’ll be able to think of me while that freakish alien is rutting with you.”

“Get out.”

“Listen. I came here to warn you. We had information, after you ran off with your tail between your legs,” he sneered, as if she was the biggest coward of all time. “That bomb didn’t just kill our people. It killed two of theirs.”

“No. No, it couldn’t have. They would have said.”

“They kept it quiet. For their own sick reasons, I suppose, or maybe because life means nothing to them. One of them dies, so what? They are unfeeling freaks. Never forget that.”

“You are wrong!” She thought of the Karalian who had watched over her, of the way he had questioned her; she had felt something in him, and before, in the ship, she had seen the colours across his skin. They did feel, they did have emotions, she knew they did. Or was it a hope? Deep down did she hope that her Karalian partner would fall in love with her and make everything alright?

BOOK: Deceit: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 1)
2.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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