“Okay.”
“I have chosen her, too.”
“It is not okay,” Serac said, both to her and his zyln. He forced himself to focus on the parcel, and not the impossible idea that his zyln wanted him to bond with this Earthling. “Payback was recently removed from his companion. I was to present him to his new master so they could imprint.”
“Master?” she said. She lifted Payback closer to her face and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I don’t like the sound of that. Friend sounds much better to me.”
Words stuck in Serac’s throat. Bravery, beauty, and kindness… His zyln paced within him. He had to stifle a growl that rose up in his chest—resist the urge to reach for her and draw her into his lap.
“She is ours,” his zyln thought.
“She can’t be.”
Serac pushed the thought away. “Whatever you wish to call him, he has imprinted with you.”
“What?” Distress flashed across her features. “But… I don’t want you to get in trouble. I’m sorry, I—”
“Never apologize for showing something kindness,” Serac said. “But parcels are incredibly loyal and protective of the sentients they imprint with. You’re stuck with this one for the foreseeable future.”
“How am I going to explain what he is? I mean, I’m not even sure what he is.” She lifted the parcel to her cheek and snuggled against him, then kissed his head as he let out a contented coo.
Serac couldn’t believe how well she was adapting to this circumstance. Most sentients would be terrified of everything they’d just seen—even if they were aware of the existence of other interstellar life forms.
Earthlings were not supposed to know about them.
“I’ll make sure my captain understands,” he said.
“Captain…”
Her brow furrowed again. She looked down at Payback and ran a fingertip over his antennae. The parcel twitched in his sleep, yawned, and rolled over, draping three of his limbs over her arm.
The Earthling let out a gentle snort, nodding as if she was coming to some sort of internal understanding—one that she didn’t like. Her gaze was low and guarded. He wished to see her eyes, to try to read what she was feeling.
How could it matter to him so much already?
Her shoulders slumped. “You’re aliens.”
Didn’t she already know that? Why him being an alien should disappoint her was yet another mystery. The more time he spent in this Earthling’s presence, the more questions he had.
And the more he longed for answers.
Payback rolled over again. She looked down at the parcel lying in her lap and started wiggling her fingertips through the fur on his belly.
“Who’s so cute, though?” she said, her voice more subdued.
Payback half-woke, chittering happily. He grabbed her finger with most of his limbs and started doing the same movement against her skin. She giggled, her smile returning.
“You like tickles?” she asked. “You’re so good at it. But I’m a master, too.” Then she kept repeating, “tickles,” while wriggling her fingers against him.
“Parcels are adept at locating nerve clusters in life forms,” Serac said, uncertain why he was sharing the information with her.
“Are you?” she asked the parcel.
His hackles rose. How could he be jealous of a parcel?
“Are you good at tickles?” she repeated.
The parcel made a chittering sound that melded with her own laughter.
Prickles of warmth rose from the base of Serac’s spine, spreading out across his back in a wave that caused his hairs to stand on end. The sensation was…pleasant.
“What’s your name?” He had to be certain she was Dean’s target, though seeing how she had won over Payback, Serac didn’t doubt that this was the animal trainer Dean sought.
“I suppose it’s okay to tell you since you’re not a fairy,” she murmured. “My name is Kimmy. What’s yours?”
“Serac.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
He wondered what she would have considered a wrong answer. “What’s a fairy?”
She focused intently on the parcel, delaying for so long he wasn’t sure she would answer him. “Fairies are magical beings that exist in the stories we tell here. On Earth.”
“But you think they’re real.”
“Not really.”
“Then why did you think we were fairies?”
“Hello. Shapeshifting hottie with a glowing pink parcel.” Her cheeks reddened. “That didn’t sound right. Anyway, werewolves are a kind of Fae being. It was kind of hard to explain to myself what I was seeing otherwise. Until, you know. Aliens.”
“But you knew about aliens before our arrival,” he said.
He knew that some humans had been brought in to their “Department of Homeworld Security,” but it seemed unlikely that his first encounter with an Earthling would be with a member. Then again, perhaps that was part of why she’d been Dean’s target.
“My best friend’s grandpa has been trading with a pair of Lyrians for decades,” Kimmy said.
Serac was stunned. Was she talking about Hank’s parents, Craig and Barbara? And, if so, did that mean she was connected with one of their sources?
This could be an even better opportunity than he’d thought.
His zyln rumbled within him, sending waves of disapproval through Serac.
“We have a mission.”
A surge of protectiveness displaced all other emotions. Apparently, his zyln had a mission of its own—one that centered around this human.
Kimmy started speaking again, drawing all of his attention.
“Harbor—that’s the name of the town you’re in, in case you didn’t know,” she said. “Anyway, Harbor is under consideration by the Department of Homeworld Security—because apparently we have one of those now—for becoming the first place on Earth where aliens can come and visit us. It’s a really big deal, but it’s all very secret and not many people in the town know yet. We’re supposed to have some vote about it when they’re ready to approach everyone.”
How could she say so much with so few pauses? Serac had never met such a talkative sentient. And yet, he found himself intently focused on every word.
“Plus, there was this whole thing with a Scorpiian,” she said. “Not the bug, but the shapeshifting…”
Her eyebrows lifted again and her eyes widened as she stared at him.
“I’m not a Scorpiian,” he rushed to reassure her. Though, with all she knew, if she found out what Serac really was, perhaps she’d wish he was a Scorpiian.
“The creature you attacked earlier is a Scorpiian,” he said. “He had assumed the form of a quryl.”
A clever move, since the quryl was indigenous to Centaurus-10. If Serac hadn’t been hoping that Dean would give up and run off to regroup, Serac still could have probably frozen Dean in place. But while in that form, Dean was semi-immune to the cold himself.
“Wait a minute,” Kimmy said. “Was that the same guy who was after the cats we were boarding for Mrs. Simpkins at the pet parlor?”
“He is on Earth looking to obtain cats.” Serac thought it best not to go too deeply into the details. “I don’t know which ones specifically.”