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> Discuss the excerpt with other fans It wasn’t every day you managed to lose your king while on a security mission to an alien planet. In fact, it took a spectacularly large amount of bad luck, but Councilor Aldorsk couldn’t say he was surprised. Not after the recent series of impetuous royal decisions, all of which had seemingly led to this moment. Every Refarian gathered on the ship’s deck was concerned for the king’s welfare, voicing fears they all harbored—but rarely vocalized. What if he dies? What if he’s captured? What if he never makes it back? These were the same fears that plagued the king’s leadership back home on a daily basis, only now those concerns were magnified a hundred-fold because he’d taken off without so much as a security escort. Yes, Aldorsk was anxious, but being the eldest advisor on the royal council he simply worked to stay calmer than the others.
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Before them all—and in the midst of an argument of colossal proportions—the king had shapeshifted into a ball of glowing energy in order to slip through the floor and to the exterior of the ship without being apprehended. By now the young leader had certainly arrived on Earth, and had returned to his physical form. He might even be hiking into the nearby mountains never to return. It required an extraordinary amount of calm not to worry for the young man’s welfare, but Councilor Aldorsk determined to put forth a brave, composed face for the Refarians knotted around the glowing center of the transport.
The young monarch’s energy had left a vibrant trailing pattern on the grooved floor, finally vanishing in the exact spot where the king had last stood. The transport’s captain stared at the floor along with him. “I don’t think there’s any structural damage,” the man assessed, but from his expression, he looked dubious about the situation in general.
Standing beside Aldorsk was his fellow councilor, Elder Graeon. “I don’t think this is”—Graeon hesitated, squatting down to inspect potential damage to the craft—“such a very good idea, allowing him to venture to the planet’s surface alone.”
“He will be fine,” Aldorsk insisted.
It was the ship’s captain who spoke next. “If you don’t mind my saying so, the king seems quite agitated lately. His frequent outbursts, the shapeshifting without restraint, and now this.” He pointed down at the floor, still glowing with their monarch’s energy shadow. “Are you certain he’s ready for this mission? He does not seem at all himself.”
“He’s on Earth now, Captain,” Aldorsk explained with a burst of impatience. “Therefore the mission is already engaged.”
“He’s unsteady,” Graeon answered in a quiet voice, rising to his feet again. “I am concerned.” His long black hair was tied neatly at his back, but several light strands of silver betrayed his impending maturity. All Refarian males turned silver-headed once their fertile years had ended. “He seems to grow more impulsive with every passing day.”
“You know the reason for that,” Aldorsk reminded him seriously. “You can hardly fault him for that which he does not understand in himself.”
“We must be very protective at this time of his awakening.”
Aldorsk grew thoughtful. “True, the changes in his young body are very complex, all the more because of his dual nature. Of course he’s agitated. He hardly understands his transformation—much less that it’s natural for his kind.”
Graeon worked an eyebrow. “Perhaps he should consult you, Councilor. You guided his father through his own first season.”
Aldorsk smiled. “I think you know our king well enough to realize no questions will be forthcoming on this matter.”
The other elder persisted: “His first mating cycle is imminent, surely--”
Aldorsk lifted a hand. “He must find the way on his own.”
“At fifteen, he’s already fertile.”
“Almost sixteen,” Aldorsk corrected. “What do you propose? That I urge him to take a mate so soon? He must be given time, even in the midst of war.”
“It is a danger to wait,” Graeon argued. “Without any clear successor, the line remains in jeopardy.”
Aldorsk sighed. “It was dangerous to make this journey at all. At what point must we advise the king to remain at the palace? Hidden?”
“As you will recall, coming here was not my choice,” Graeon reminded his council leader.
“No, it was our lord’s.”
“Perhaps he should not be allowed to make every decision until the succession is secured.”
“Elder Graeon!” Aldorsk cried. “You must silence yourself. Our king is our commander.”
Graeon’s dark face flushed, his mouth tightening. “I love our king, as you well know, both as friend and as leader. But I worry much about his future.”
Yes, they all worried about the future of the Refarian ruler, who at the moment was the very last in line after more than a thousand years of unbroken succession. But perhaps, at least just for now, they should be more worried that the king had arrived on an alien planet under the early influence of his first mating season.
***
The guy on the path ahead had to be up to no good, no doubt about it. He had a sample bag in one hand, and some sort of utensil in the other, and that spelled one thing for sure—illegal researcher.
“Are you taking soil samples?” Kelsey called out, though she was still a good twenty feet away from the man. She might only be fourteen (well, almost), but she felt pretty fierce and protective when it came to Yellowstone. Too many people came to the park each summer and abused the place, so her mother had taught her to be friendly-but-tough when you found someone doing something stupid or potentially dangerous.
Not that she hadn’t just spent the entire morning hiking around Mirror Lake collecting her own rock and soil samples, but at least she knew how to be responsible about it. The tall, dark-haired guy on the path ahead of her, on the other hand, looked like—no, had to be—the sort who would cart truckloads of illegal samples out of the park. When she got five feet away from him, she called out again: “You’re not allowed to take samples out of here without permission.”
He leapt to his feet and spun to face her, but he said nothing. Except when his mysterious, wide-set eyes met hers, she realized he couldn’t be that much older than she was.
She lifted her chin and continued, ignoring the way the guy’s dark-eyed gaze affected her. “You’ve gotta have a permit,” she explained, drawing in a breath. “Can’t take anything out of here without one.”
The boy worked his jaw for a moment, seemingly searching for words, and finally dropped his hands to his side, the apparent samples falling to the ground. “Just… studying,” he answered awkwardly, the words accented. Was he Russian? He almost sounded like it. Just shtudeeing.
“Where are you from?” she asked, stepping closer to him. She had a small backpack thrust over one shoulder, with loads of her own rock and soil samples neatly labeled inside. Only she would never dream of removing anything from the park without express permission, which she’d only obtained once before—for last year’s science fair.
When he didn’t reply, she eyed him warily. “You’re not one of those prodigies from The Thorpe School are you?” Thorpe always beat her own high school at the fair, year after year. It would be totally like them to import some Soviet genius to their team just to dominate yet again.
“No.”
“You Soviet or something?”
“Just”—he smiled, making her stomach flip-flop with butterflies—“stranger.”
“Do you speak in full sentences?” she asked with a playful toss of her curly hair. Guys liked her long dark auburn hair, that’s what she’d always heard.
He folded his arms over his chest, looking very much like a guy who was used to getting his way. “Sometimes.”
“But not now?”
“Not now.” The big smile he gave her made the flip-floppy thing in her stomach go even wilder. And the butterflies, well, they made her feel bold. It was weird, but true. Yeah, he had a seriously amazing smile all right, with perfect white teeth that stood out against his dark skin, and she definitely loved the dark skin part. He didn’t look Russian, more like someone from Iran or Israel or Greece. Italy. Actually, come to think of it, he didn’t look like any exact nationality she could pinpoint. Plus, the outfit was just a little bit funky—he had on knee-high boots of dark brown leather, and over that he wore a sort of tunic thing, down to his knees, made of a simple linen material, with a long sleeved shirt underneath.
“Where are you from? Really?” she asked, dropping her pack to the ground. “You sound Russian.”
He gave her a guarded look. “Very far from here.” Vairry fahr fvrom heare.
“But where?”
“It is not important.”
“Maybe it’s important to me,” she said with a laugh, but he gave her a look of confusion.
“Okay, forget that. I’m Kelsey Wells,” she said, sticking her hand out. He took it, his own hand closing around hers with warm confidence—and yet he released it a fraction too quickly, as if unaccustomed to shaking hands.
He said nothing else, so finally she prompted him: “What’s your name?”
“Some call me Jareshk.”
“So, Jareshk, you’re like eastern European, is that it?” He only gave her a blank look in return, and after tossing out a few other possibilities, she finally said, “Okay, I give up. But only for a little while.”
***
If Kelsey Wells was any indication, humans were a highly persistent and curious people, prone to leading with questions and seeking the truth. So far this reconnaissance had led Jareshk to one conclusion: he liked her species very much. Her clear, truthful eyes made him want to admit everything about his mission here on her planet. An unwise choice, perhaps, but with her relentless questions he had no doubt he would soon reveal his identity—or be forced to leave. And he definitely did not wish to leave Kelsey Wells, not quite yet. She brought out strange feelings inside of him—pleasurable, electric feelings.
“Want to see the samples I found?” she asked him, her eyes alight with sudden excitement. She climbed atop a large boulder beside where they stood on the wooded path, and began to spread them out. “Here,” she encouraged him, “come on and I’ll show you.”
He did as she invited, settling opposite her so that they sat nearly knee-to-knee atop the boulder. He wished he weren’t wearing the tall boots and his Shashar robe; if he were dressed like she was, he’d be feeling her warm skin against his. As if reading his mind, she reached a tentative hand and touched his right boot. “You must be really hot in that outfit.”
“It suits me,” he lied, feeling the mid-day sun beat down on him. The ship had been much cooler than her planet’s surface.
“Yeah, I guess. If you’re a Ren Faire escapee.” She waved at his long robe and tunic. “Couldn’t you take… well, the top part off? It’d be less hot.”
She had no idea how her innocent suggestion caused his blood to boil. He’d turned fifteen ten months ago; he’d heard the elders whispering, talking about his D’Aravnian blood, his line’s propensity for early-age mating cycles. Blushing, he stared down into his lap. There was something wrong with him, plain and simple. Mating cycles were for animals, not kings.
But it wasn’t the mating urges that were making him feel things for Kelsey. It was very odd indeed, but he ached to please her. “All right,” he said, jumping to his feet, and pulling the robe over his head. When he was done, he stood before her wearing only his shirt and a pair of drakaer pants—like her shorts, but worn beneath the over-tunic.
She studied him thoughtfully. “You know, that still just looks hot to me.” He swore he detected a mischievous gleam in her blue eyes.
He sighed and shrugged out of the shirt altogether, then looked to see if she was satisfied.
She stared up at him, and her clear eyes grew wide at the sight of his bare chest. “Oh good grief!” she gasped.
What had he done? In a panic, he folded both arms over his chest protectively. “What is it? Something… wrong?” He hadn’t even considered the possibility that his body might appear quite different than that of a human male.
“Nothing,” she practically squeaked, her face flushing visibly as she made a big show of laying out her rocks for him to see—and of avoiding eye contact with him.
In that moment, he understood. It wasn’t that his body appeared alarmingly alien at all. No, she found him attractive! He began to laugh and felt his own body flush in deep pleasure. Releasing an unsteady breath, he sat down opposite her again, keenly aware not only of his own bare chest, but also of her bare leg touching his.
“You have many rocks,” he said, reaching a self-conscious hand to cover his right nipple. He felt naked, exposed—hungry for her, too, and the rushing confluence of all those feelings inside, well they left him feeling shy and embarrassed. “I-I do not know… way to describe their… beauty.” And he didn’t just mean the rocks, either; he longed for a way to express how beautiful he found her, as well.
“It’s okay, Jareshk,” she answered with a genuine smile of empathy. It was as if she knew exactly what he was feeling. “Let’s just talk a while.”
And so they did, for hours and hours it turned out, and every time she smiled at him, well his heart fluttered like a bird’s wing inside his chest. As a king, he’d encountered myriad situations, but never anything like this overwhelming and instant attraction he felt toward Kelsey.
So, for lack of a better strategy, he returned every smile she offered him, and hoped it disguised the unsettled trembling he felt inside.
***
By late afternoon Kelsey wondered if she would ever look at life the same again. Jareshk had already begun to seem less like a friend and more like a boyfriend, and although it felt sort of sudden—it also kind of made sense. Her best friend Allison Matthews had met a guy at the mall a month ago, and he’d asked her to go with him that same afternoon, so this thing with Jareshk wasn’t really all that strange.
The more time they spent together, too, the more his grasp of English seemed—almost spookily—to improve. They hiked and talked; sometimes they found a spot along the lake where they simply sat and watched the play of the water’s surface. “Water at my home is not so clear as this. Not usually,” he told her.
“What do you mean?”
His face grew darker, sad. “It is polluted by… war. Our enemies.”
“What war are you talking about? You should tell me where you’re from, it’s only fair.” She couldn’t help feeling angry that he wouldn’t reveal more about himself.
“I don’t wish to burden you with heavy things,” he said, forcing his mouth into a smile, only this time it didn’t reach his eyes.
Her anger melted away. “I want to know,” she encouraged.
“Thank you, Kelsey,” he said softly, and reached for her hand. Slowly, very gently, he threaded his fingers together with hers, and every part of her came more alive somehow.
They sat like that for a long time, with Kelsey’s body trembling, and Jareshk holding her hand, until the day began to grow much cooler, and the sun tracked low on the other side of the mountains.
But Jareshk never said another word about his country or where he came from.
****
On their last night together, Kelsey snuck out of her parents’ tent, and met him by the water. It was late, nearing midnight, before she appeared there beneath the moonlight. He’d been growing restless, frightened that he wouldn’t see her again before he had to return to the transport. Kelsey Wells did powerful, awakening things to him, things he’d never once experienced in his almost sixteen years. It was as if every time he so much as glanced at her, his cells burned brighter, or his powerful energy blazed stronger. Two days they’d spent together, but it might as well have been a year. He felt, on a very elemental level, as if he had known her for his whole life. But this feeling of a connection between the two of them transcended even that.
He had to return to the transport tonight; he knew it, but just hadn’t come to terms with letting Kelsey go yet. Her family would leave tomorrow anyway, and while so far he’d avoided her questions about where he lived, or when they might see one another in the future, he knew he had much to tell her yet.
But for now, there were other, more immediate concerns, and they mostly revolved around a kiss. Both days he’d spent with her he’d longed to touch her. To feel her skin against his, to know what her hair would be like beneath his fingertips, but only now under cover of darkness did he finally feel free to make his move. “I wish to touch you. To kiss you,” he amended, blushing furiously for some reason. He thrust his chest out. “I wish to kiss you, Kelsey Wells.”
A playful gleam appeared in her blue eyes. “Not until you tell me where you’re from.”
He took another step closer, feeling his heart thunder beneath his ribs. “I think it is imperative that we kiss.”
“Where are you from, Jareshk?” she asked. “Really? Cause you don’t talk like the guys in Jackson, and I can’t kiss you if I don’t know. You keep not answering, and--”
He lifted his fingertips to her lips, brushing them lightly across her mouth. “I’m a visitor, like you.”
“Only, I’m visiting from like an hour away.”
He glanced up at the dark night sky. “It’s a bit farther to my home, yes.”
“My money’s still on the Soviet Union.”
He studied her for a considering moment, assessing his options and strategy. If he told her the truth, it was unlikely he would get this kiss. But if he didn’t, it seemed equally unlikely. Besides, he wanted her to know the truth.
He circled her, studying, calculating. The khaki-colored shorts she wore seemed no bigger than his little finger. Her legs, on the other hand, seemed to go halfway to forever, all curves and shape, and just glancing at them made his pulse skitter. His whole body tightened, and he wondered if it was the result of these “cycles” he’d heard whispered about. Did he only ache for Kelsey because of something strange in his blood? Maybe humans didn’t think this way at all. He felt inexplicably embarrassed, even as he felt powerfully aroused. Too aroused, he thought, with even more embarrassment.
She gave a nervous laugh. “You’re looking at me funny.”
“You are a child,” he said, trying to argue with himself. He shouldn’t kiss her; she was too young, too human, yet he’d thought of little else for the past two days with her.
“Are you kidding? I’ll be fourteen in another few weeks,” she snapped, folding both arms across her chest, which only further emphasized her shapely—very un-childlike—breasts. She was a woman. Maybe not completely, not any more than he was a man, but she was becoming one, and every cell within his Refarian body screamed that he should kiss her.
His mouth went dry. Blood rushed in his ears. “I just want to be kissed, Jareshk. You’re leaving and I’m leaving, and I’ve never been kissed before”—she took another step closer—“and, well, I want you to be my first kiss, but it’s pretty simple. I want to know who you really are.”
“You do know me.”
“I mean know who you really, truly are. I don’t know that.”
“Oh, Kelsey,” he sighed, for in that moment, he knew he no longer had a choice.
“Oh, Jareshk,” she teased him, stepping even closer. Her wonderful smile spread across her face, and by All’s name, he had to kiss that mouth. He’d never been kissed either, but he wouldn’t tell her that.
“I-I do wish to kiss you.”
She gave a slight, encouraging bob of her head, the cascade of tight auburn curls bouncing as she did so. “Yeah, I definitely want to kiss you too.”
Few touched him, few approached him—and certainly no one ever kissed the king. A droplet of rain fell on his cheek, but he ignored it, making his bold move. He’d led troops into battle already, he could handle this. The beating of his heart was worse than the night the Antousian brigade forces had cornered him in Trajsek.
Another few raindrops plopped against his face, but he brushed them away with the back of his hand. Now was the time. He bent low, seeking out her lips with his own mouth. Just a brush, a light feathering of touch. So warm, so soft, as they met his. He lifted his hands, and gently tipped her face upward. He kept his eyes open, because he wanted to see her expression; she had her own closed, giving herself up to him with perfect trust. On his planet, nobody trusted a near-stranger anymore. Only that was the confusing part: they weren’t strangers.
Closing his eyes, he grew more intent, searching out her mouth with his tongue. He felt her hands reach upward, around his neck, her fingers running through his hair. Touching him! Caressing him! Oh, gods, he felt alive!
The kiss deepened, became hotter and faster, and he closed his hand around her back, pulling her flush against him. Everything seemed to be swirling in around them; his power began to escalate, right in the core of his belly, and he shuddered, afraid of revealing himself. But he couldn’t break the kiss; he wouldn’t, but she did, pulling apart from him.
“Wh-what is that?” she asked, lifting her clear blue eyes to meet his. He shook his head, feeling fuzzy and swimmy, and so aroused all at once.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
She pointed upward, and as he followed with his eyes, more raindrops pelted him in the face. The transport had descended, was hovering directly overhead, silent, powerful. Purposed. He cursed in Refarian, then gazed back at her. “It’s my transport. The elders have come to take me from here.”
She began to shake in his arms, but clung to him. “Elders?” her voice came out a squeak. “Oh God,” she said, backing away from him. “You’re definitely a visitor, all right.” Her voice shook, her hands shook, her eyes ringed with panic.
“I didn’t want to frighten you,” he said softly. “Never. I wished to keep you safe.”
“Oh my God! Oh my God, oh God,” she babbled frantically, staring up at the transport carrier hovering directly over their heads. “I can’t believe this. I just kissed you, and you’re an alien. Oh, God, oh God.”
Her hand flew to her mouth, and she shoved him farther away. “You’re going to go and never come back.” He saw tears glint in her eyes.
He refused to let her push him out. “I will come back. I promise,” he insisted. “I’ll come for you.” Then, the ship descended much closer in the blink of an eye, hovering just above them.
Her gaze traveled upward, and her shaking intensified. “Y-you should have told me,” she whispered, pointing upward. “Who are they?”
“My people. They only want me,” he assured her. “They’re not here to hurt you. You know there’s no reason to be afraid of me, don’t you, Kelsey?”
“You would never hurt me,” she cried, and then, with a pained sound she flung herself into his arms.
He paused long enough to bend down and kiss her full on the mouth again, this time bolder and deeper. With the elders bearing down on them, he knew what was coming: separation. And he knew what they both wanted—more of one another. He sensed the transport move even lower still, and as he pulled apart to stare into her eyes one last time, he made a decision.
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