Kanda's Alien: A Scifi Romance (Dagrinian Love 2) (15 page)

All of the blokes on this
craft have important jobs. These two may have the information I
need. I look from one to the other. “How is Niya doing? Can I see
her?”

A smirk quickly crosses
the captain’s face. “Nice try, little human. Rylem’s human is fine
and you can see her when Rylem decides to give her more
freedom.”

Anger and frustration
start brewing in my belly. This is not right. “I want to see her
now.”

Megan sucks in a breath
and the captain’s eyes narrow. “You don’t get to make demands.” He
gestures around the long corridor. “You are no longer on Earth,
little human. Get used to it or pay the price.”

I don’t like his tone at
all. As Megan grabs my arm I recognize that the captain is right. I
need to get used to my new life. But today I’m having trouble being
told my place.

Megan starts pulling me
along the corridor. “She understands. I need to show her some
things.”

The blokes don’t stop us
but I can feel their gazes boring into my back.

The second we enter the
laundry room, I ask, “What price will I pay if I can’t follow their
rules?” There is a damn good chance I’m not going to be able to.
Not all the time anyway.

“
I don’t know.” Megan
nibbles on her fingernail for a second and then says, “I don’t
think they would do anything bad to us. They seem to love females.
Maybe they would just make us stay in our quarters for a few days.
That would be bad for me. Since Hilam is a scientist, I’d be bored
to death.”

My stomach drops and then
leaps up into my chest. “He’s a scientist? Like the kind the probe
people?” I look her over and don’t see any holes in her
skin.

Laughter pours from her.
She holds her side with one hand and motions for me to wait with
the other. For a moment I fear that Hilam is a mad-scientist and
that he’s done something terrible to Megan’s brain.

This is unacceptable. As
much as I like Klimen, I like my brain more. I’m nobody’s project.
“I think we need to get off this craft as soon as possible. Do you
think we can find a good hiding spot?”

Megan shakes her head and
releases a last giggle. “Oh boy, the look on your face when you
heard that Hilam is a scientist was one of pure horror. I kind of
feel sorry for him because anybody could get the wrong idea about
him. I did the same thing when I got here. You can stop trying to
get us to safety. Hilam’s specialty is electronic and many other
gadgets that have power sources beyond my comprehension. Have no
fear. Hilam is a great guy.”

My stomach slides back
into place and my shoulders relax until another thought comes to
me. “Does this craft house any human probing scientists?” My heart
beats a little faster. The next words out of her mouth determine my
future.

“
No, you are completely
safe aboard this craft. I wouldn’t trust any of their passengers
but the guys are more than willing to protect us from them if
necessary.”

The surety of her tone
makes me wonder if something happened to her. When she turns and
points at a large shimming midnight device I let the matter drop.
Megan is obviously healthy and well cared for.

Megan shows me how to run
the sonic cleaning device. I love the way it washes and dries the
clothes. This place has many perks that’s for sure. After our
clothes have begun cleaning Megan leads me back into the kitchen
and starts pulling ingredients out.

As she shows me how to
make a casserole we talk about how bad Earth is getting. Looks like
the United States truly is in just as bad a state as Australia. We
are lucky not to be there anymore. I just wish Rogan could be here
with me.

With the casserole in the
otho cooker, Megan starts pulling out different ingredients. A wide
smile comes over her face.

“
Let’s try to make some
cookies. I believe that these ingredients will create something
similar to sugar cookies. Hilam and the guys should love
them.”

As we mix and roll the
dough up, I say, “You seem to have a handle on this machine and
these ingredients. What do you do all day?” I’m afraid she is going
to say
slave in the kitchen
and that’s not something I want to do every day
forever.

“
I cook and take care of
Hilam. He gets absorbed in work and forgets to eat and sleep and
other things.” She wiggles her brows. “I love taking care of him.
Something about him draws me in like no other. I never want to be
parted from him. I love him.”

Klimen has the same effect
on me. My thoughts are corralled before they can get too far into
Klimen by an excited Megan.

“
Let’s put these on the
top rack. This is hopefully the right measure of ingredients. If
not we can always try again.” A look of confidence crosses Megan’s
face as she flips her hand. “If it turns into a beast, I know how
to kill it.”

“
What? This shit comes to
life! Is the replicator food safer?” Cooking is not sounding like a
good thing to be doing. I shiver at the thought of creating a nasty
creature.

“
Yes, the replicator is
safe, but so is the otho.” She laughs and nudges me with her elbow.
“You have such an expressive face.” Megan motions around the
kitchen. “It’s not really that bad. My second try at using the otho
created something that seemed to be breathing. Zefrom came in and
showed me this gel that neutralizes overly creative
cooking.”

What the fuck! “I may have
to stick with the replicator when you aren’t around. I like
learning some basics but I don’t see myself even trying to come up
with recipes. I think I’m safer plotting missions or following them
through on the practice unit.” My heart races at the thought of
that device.

The tinkling of her
laugher warms my heart. It feels good to be around a friendly
female. Megan flips her hand in the air. “Don’t worry. I’ll work it
out and then give you the recipes you and Klimen like the best.”
She takes a deep breath and looks around at the devices. “This is
my domain. I’d share but it looks like I won’t need to.”

“
Nope you won’t,” I
wholeheartedly agree.

She tilts her head and
frowns. “What is a practice…”

A shrill sound cuts
through the room. We both jump at the noise. It is scary and
slightly victorious sounding. “What the hell is that?”

CHAPTER

15

~ Kanda ~

♥

“
I don’t know. I’ve never
heard that sound before. Let’s go see.” Megan moves toward the door
and I follow.

The sharp rhythmic sound
comes again. It makes the hairs on my arms stand up. I wish I had a
unit to give me information on the situation.

Just as we reach the door
Trilom looms in the doorway.

“
What was the sound?”
Megan asks as she tries to look around the large bloke.

He reaches out and blocks
our exit. “Nothing for you two to worry about. Go back to what you
were doing,” he orders.

“
You need to move out of
the way then because we were checking on that sound,” I tell his
gruff ass.

The glower in his gaze
tells me he’s not to be intimidated or disobeyed. He looks into the
kitchen and smirks as he looks back at us. “Go back into the
kitchen and finish what you were really doing,” he commands. The
look in his electric blue eyes says he means business.

I don’t like it but I
decide to bide my time. “Alright. No worries, mate.” I pull Megan
back toward the kitchen and then whisper into her ear. “We can find
out what happened later. As soon as he’s gone, you
know?”

Her eyes widen showing all
of the blue flecks in her brown eyes. “Good thinking.” Her gaze
darts to Trilom who is getting some food from the replicator on the
other side of the counter.

When he’s settled at a
table and eating very slowly, the bastard, I lean in and whisper.
“Damn, I don’t think he’s going anywhere anytime soon.”

Humph. “I agree. We might
as well finish what we were doing since this guard dog is not going
to let us check out that soulful noise.”

Megan adds one more cookie
to the extra-large pan and then puts it into the otho. Once the
door is closed, she turns to me and tilts her head. “What is a
practice unit?”

I can’t help myself. I
bounce in place. “Oh-ho-ho. It is a thing of beauty. It trains you
to survive on other planets as well as fulfill missions on
them.”

Her cute face scrunches
up. “That sounds a little scary to me.”

“
It is, but it’s also fun
and you get to see some beautiful as well as spooky things.” I go
into to great detail and watch as Megan’s face changes from wonder
to fear to excitement over and over again.

I stop talking as Megan
opens the door and pulls out the golden cookies. They smell divine.
As soon as possible we break a cookie and sample it. I smile and
give her two thumbs up.

I glance over at Trilom.
The warrior is scanning something on his forearm unit. Even from
here it is obvious that he is deep in thought. I’ve noticed this
more than once about him. I wonder what goes through his
mind.

I take another bite of
cookie as I swing my gaze back to Megan. These are really good. I’m
lucky that she’s here and loves to cook.

“
Now if we could find
chocolate on a planet we’d be set,” Megan says as she wipes crumbs
from her fingertips.

As Megan removes the
casserole from the otho, Klimen and Hilam stroll in and look the
cookies over. When they turn to Trilom and go over to him my heart
races. We didn’t do anything wrong. Especially with Mr. Electric
Blue Eyes watching over us. He can’t tell them anything.

When Trilom leaves and
then Klimen and Hilam come over I decide to go straight to the
heart of the matter. “What was that noise?”

A strange gleam lights
Klimen’s eyes. “Nothing for you two to worry about. The situation
is under control.” His gaze travels over the cookies.

Damn, I know I’m not going
to get anything more out of my tight lipped alien.

Drandok and Zefrom enter
and walk right over to us. They eagerly scan the
cookies.

“
What do we have here,
sweet one?” Hilam asks Megan.

“
Cookies. They are a sweet
snack. Try them out,” Megan replies with a proud grin.

She has every right to be
proud. The brightness in her eyes shows how much she loves cooking
for the blokes. I’ll admit it is nice but not something I long to
do all day every day.

Appreciative groans fill
the air. Blokes all over are basically the same. Feed them and they
are happy.

The word happy gets me to
thinking. “Is Niya okay? That noise must have scared her.” I’d
really like to see her. These blokes are generally good but their
controlling side is not always appreciated by me and probably never
will be.

A chuckle comes from
Drandok. “She’s fine. As soon as Rylem has her fully bonded you’ll
start seeing her.”

“
Well I hope it happens
soon,” Megan says. When Hilam gets another cookie she beams. “If we
had some chocolate I could make some chocolate chunk cookies.” She
looks expectantly at the blokes.

“
We’ll look into it,”
Zefrom says as he snags another cookie.

I look up at Klimen. “If
you tell me where we are going next I could search for the
chocolate on the unit and make a mission plan.”

“
Yeah, we could help you
guys. We know what chocolate looks and smells like,” Megan chimes
in.

All four of the males’
faces turn hard.

“
Absolutely not,” Klimen
states sharply.

My hackles go up. “Why
not? Both of us have lived in the bush. We can handle ourselves.
Plus, we know what we are looking for. It will be faster if we go.
Obviously you blokes can come along.” Do they think I’m cutting
them out of the mission?

Four handsome blokes are
glowering down at us. I’m not liking my height disadvantage right
now.

“
Missions are not for
little humans that don’t even have claws,” Klimen says through his
clenched jaw. He extends a claw and growls warningly.

That just pisses me off. I
growl back. When he blinks in surprise, I let him have it. “Just
because you are taller than me doesn’t make you better in the bush
than me. I’ve been exploring for most of my life. I should be
allowed to go.” There. He should understand my value and strength
now. The bush is a rough place.