Alien Tryst

Cynthia
Sax

While investigating some mysterious disappearances, Kane uncovers
two secrets that change his world. He’s not entirely human. He’s also dangerously
close to death. His alien grandfather has broken a sacred rule, putting his
entire bloodline, including Kane, at risk of termination.

Eshe, a sexy blonde scientist with lush lips and a hot body,
is Kane’s only hope to save his family. He’ll do anything to keep her safe,
including fighting alien warriors, crossing vast galaxies and giving his woman
the pleasure she craves again and again, using every inch of his fit physique.

In this world, passion is power and love is necessary for
survival.

A Romantica®
futuristic erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

“Look at that magnificent being.” Raff circled the
artificial replication of his Earth form. Both males had blond hair, chiseled
chins, perfect tans, their faces and bodies identical.

That was where their similarities ended.

Eshe’s brother merely looked human, as his two souls were
Orogone
.
Their species had arrived on Earth many generations ago, charged by the council
with the task of monitoring off-worlder activity on the small blue-and-white
planet. Gifted assimilators, they’d kept their presence and activities secret
from most of the human population, working only with the humans’ primitive
military personnel.

Simulator Raff, in contrast, resembled a human to his core,
having a single manufactured soul and that species’ unique transferring
challenges, challenges Eshe was determined to overcome. Once she solved that
biological mystery she’d prove her worth as an
Orogone
, earning her
place in their world. She’d continue to be viewed as different, that wouldn’t
ever change, but her abnormal behavior would be embraced, not ridiculed.

“I’m a handsome son of a bitch, aren’t I?” Raff strutted
around her laboratory, displaying no concerns about his self-worth. He was one
of
Orogone
’
s
top warriors, spending his days transferring
law-breaking off-worlders back to their respective home planets.

“I’ve seen handsomer human males,” Eshe replied, her voice
lilting with humor. Their repartee had been honed over Earth centuries of
companionship, her over-protective brother following her from assignment to
assignment.

“Liar.” Raff’s laughter filled the small space.

Eshe didn’t say anything as she
had
lied. She’d been
locked in the underground bunker since her arrival on the planet, her exposure
to human males limited.

She preferred being isolated from the natives. It allowed
her to focus on her tasks undisturbed by the species’ fickle mating habits.
Human males joined with any available females, while
Orogones
were
monogamous, joining only with their Ones, living their lengthy lifespans as
mated pairs.

Eshe touched the mark on her chest. Her two souls were
serene, her skin cool. If her destined mate were near, her souls would fight to
escape their physical bonds, heating her body.

But she hadn’t yet met her One, if he even existed. Science
was her sole passion. Science didn’t judge her and science didn’t care that she
didn’t think or act like a true
Orogone
.

Eshe loaded a tube of formula Earth 54X2 into the injector,
preparing the sample of blue-and-red essence.
This will work.
Her lips
flattened.

Raff continued to prowl around the laboratory, fiddling with
precious specimen containers and irreplaceable equipment. Her fashion-conscious
brother wore a black leather sports coat over a red shirt. Driving gloves
covered his hands, and his military-style boots were silent on the gray metal
floor. “How many times have you killed me off?” he asked.

“You don’t want to know.” She’d failed thousands of times
before achieving success and the results of those failures had been grisly, the
manufactured beings arriving mangled, their body parts incorrectly arranged.
She’d crafted Simulator Raff as a visual reminder that the next human being
Eshe transferred might be someone’s brother, son or father.

Her heart pounded as she pumped the dosage into the
simulator male.
Please let the results of the last trial not be a fluke.

Simulator Raff showed no signs of reacting to the injection,
standing motionless on the pod, his face blank of all expression.

“I could accept you experimenting upon simulator me, Sis.”
Raff gazed at his artificially created twin. “But giving him that hair?” The
warrior ran his fingers through spiked tuffs a shade blonder than hers, his
hair an amusing vanity of his. “That hurts.”

“If I recall correctly, and how could I ever forget,” Eshe
teased, “you wore that exact hairstyle three decades ago when you followed me
to Earth.”

“That was the style,” Raff muttered.

“You told me your hairstyle looked bangin’.” Eshe set down
the injector and picked up a gun, the lights in the underground bunker
reflecting off its barrel. “And then you mocked me for not knowing that Earth
word.” She handed the gun to her brother.

“You deserved to be mocked.” Raff automatically covered the
trigger with his thumb, his familiarity with the weapon reflecting centuries of
combat duty. “You’re the only
Orogone
I know who has trouble with
assimilating.”

Eshe jutted her jaw. She knew she wasn’t a normal
Orogone
,
a species known for assuming the physical forms, the mannerisms, the languages
of any other being. She didn’t need her brother to tell her that. “When I
concentrate on a problem, I forget where I am.”

“During our previous placement, you shifted into the body of
our host species’ sworn enemy.” Raff shook his head. “If I hadn’t been there to
remind you where we were you would have caused an intergalactic incident.”

“I would have remembered.” Her cheeks heated. “Eventually.”
Eshe checked the readings on the monitoring machines lining the silver metallic
wall of her small laboratory. All of the simulator’s specs fell within human
ranges, the trace levels of
Orogone
essence undetectable.

This has to work.
She clutched her hands together,
her skin cool to the touch. “Why don’t you make yourself useful, Raff, and
transfer him?”

“Transfer me, you mean. You’re asking me to shoot myself.”
Raff cocked his head, examining his clone. “You’re a sick female, Essie.” She
winced, hating that awful nickname, and her brother grinned. “A human female
would never—”

“I’m not human and neither are you.” She glanced toward the
closed doors, conscious that they could be interrupted at any time. She needed
the results duplicated and verified before anyone discovered what she’d done.
“Please just do it.”

“Can you instruct Simulator Raff to run?” The blue-and-red
flames in Raff’s black eyes flickered. “I like it when they run.”

“Raff.”

“Okay, okay.” Raff aimed the gun and Eshe held her breath.
Let
this work.

“Transfer well, you handsome beast of a male you.” He tapped
the trigger and a thick blue current coursed from the muzzle. The energy
wrapped around the manufactured male, shaking him. Simulator Raff faded from
view and Eshe exhaled, relieved.

“Transfer successful,” the monitoring machine chirped,
relaying the information from the
Orogone
-based system.

I have another success.
Excitement zinged through
Eshe, the natural intellectual high derived from performing groundbreaking
research lightening her two souls.

“Fuck me.” Raff stared at the space where his simulator twin
had stood. “You did it. You actually did it.”

“Yep.” She read the statistics, ensuring there were no
deviations. The relayed image was perfect, Simulator Raff’s eyes and hands and
feet being where they should be, his body whole. Unlike Major MacLean’s
results. Eshe shivered, remembering the brave human soldier her predecessor had
partially transferred half of a century ago. The video footage from that
mistake haunted her dreams and drove her long hours at the laboratory.

“Mom and Dad will be so proud,” Raff joked, her brother
rarely serious. “This might even make up for the lack of grandkids.”

“Ha.” Eshe ignored that jibe and palmed an extractor, eager
to start the second stage of the trials. “Open your shirt.”

Raff unbuttoned, revealing the mark all
Orogones
sported, the blue waves radiating from the red sun positioned over his heart.
“Should I ask why you need me naked?”

“I need you shirtless, not naked, and you don’t want to ask
why.” She pressed the extractor to the center of his natural tattoo and slid a
lever. Raff, that big baby, grimaced as the needle pierced his skin. “I have to
try this with a sample from someone else. That’ll ensure my essence isn’t an
exception.”

“Your essence?” Raff’s gaze met hers. “What the fuck are you
doing, Essie? If the council finds out you plan to inject
Orogone
essence into humans—”

“I’m using trace amounts and they should burn off during
transfer.” Eshe waved her hand, dismissing his concerns. Raff was a tight-ass
about protocol, and her experiments definitely didn’t adhere to any
Orogone
rule. “No one needs to know. I—”

The doors slid open and Hewitt, one of the military humans
responsible for guarding the compound, entered, a large gun in his hands and a
scowl on his scarred face. “I’m looking for Doctor Eshe,” he barked. As he was
human, his memory was wiped clean of her presence after every encounter. This
precaution kept their presence on Earth a secret.

“I’m Doctor Eshe.” She tapped the identification card
clipped to her white lab coat, a garment the humans expected her to wear.

Hewitt reached out.

“Touch my sister and you’ll die, human,” Raff warned, a
cheerful smile on his handsome face. “Peace agreement be damned.”

Hewitt dropped both his hand and his gaze. “There’s an
unauthorized civilian at the street entrance.” He spoke to Eshe’s breasts, an
uncomfortable experience she’d learned to endure. Human males appeared
fascinated by that part of her anatomy. “He’s asking about
Orogone
. He
wishes to volunteer for the experiments.”

“Not again.” Eshe glanced at her brother. He was the reason
for their last unauthorized visitor. He’d allowed an
Orogone
’
s
One to breach the compound.

“Don’t look at me.” Raff raised his palms. “I have no
retrievals outstanding.” Eshe narrowed her eyes, not at all fooled by her
brother’s innocent expression, and his smile widened. “That I’m aware of.”

“This isn’t funny, Raff.” Eshe shook her head, having no
time for his jokes. If the council found out what she was doing, they’d shut
down her experiments and terminate her dreams of finally proving her worth.
“You know I have work to do.”

She shifted her gaze to Hewitt, disgruntled with him also.
“And you should know we’re no longer accepting volunteers, Sergeant.” She
tugged her lab coat closed, trying to conceal her breasts from the leering
human’s view. “I put that information in your file months ago.”

Hewitt’s gaze slid upward. “I don’t report to you, Doctor.”
He shifted his big gun from his right hand to his left. “Until I receive
official word, I follow protocol.”

“At least, someone here follows protocol,” Raff murmured,
tapping an injector tube filled with her essence. Blue and red streams of
energy moved within the container.

“All great scientific discoveries break the established
rules.” Eshe set down the extractor, annoyed that her great scientific
discovery would be delayed because Hewitt’s superior hadn’t bothered to get off
his lazy ass and approve a change in his file.

“However, those scientists likely didn’t have to take
precious minutes out of their endless days and answer the door.” She put her
sunglasses on, concealing her distinctive
Orogone
eyes. “It’s not as if
I’m trying to change both of our worlds or anything.”

“I’m coming with you.” Raff rested his hand on his gun. “I
have lots of time to spare,” he teased.

“Don’t you dare move from this laboratory. I need you to
guard these.” She indicated her precious injector tubes. “If anything happens
to them I’ll have to take more samples.”

Her brother grimaced, rubbing his chest. “You shouldn’t have
taken these samples, Essie. Protocol—”

“Forget about protocol,” she retorted, her temper frayed
from worry and exhaustion. “When I’m successful, the council won’t care which
rules I’ve broken.”

Raff opened his mouth.

“I don’t have time to argue about this. Stay here.” Eshe
stomped along the corridor, leaving Hewitt and her brother in her laboratory.
Her ugly black boots rang on the metal floor tiles as she passed military
commanders, human and
Orogone
, sitting undisturbed in their comfy
offices, offices they didn’t have to sleep in because they were so damn busy
finding a way to transport humans to
Orogone
without scrambling their
fragile unchangeable bodies.

The human waiting at the compound’s entrance didn’t know
what he was volunteering for. Eshe drew her gun and swung the heavy metal door
open. A jolt of awareness surged through her, and the mark on her chest pulsed
to life, her two souls pressing against her skin.

Not a human.
She groaned, instantly recognizing the
life-changing signs, an awakening of her body that could only be brought about
by her destined mate.
I can’t have a fickle human for my One.
The timing
bit the big one, as Raff would say. Eshe was close to solving the transference
problem, and joining with her One would result in an immediate transfer home.
She’d return to a planet where she didn’t belong, where she had no perceivable
worth, mated to a male she couldn’t trust.

Perhaps he’s not an average human male.
A muscular
torso clad in a black t-shirt blocked her view.
Perhaps he’s loyal,
trustworthy, faithful.
Eshe tilted her head back and her mouth dropped
open. Her human male had a square, determined chin, skin tanned from time spent
outdoors, hair darker than the vast expanses of space, and fierce brown eyes.
The burning over her right breast spread south, lighting fires in a body she’d
previously thought a temporary shell.

“Yes? You wanted something?” she demanded, her desire
tempered with dismay. The mystery male was too handsome, too appealing, too
normal. He’d have his choice of available human females, have no reason to bond
permanently with one being, an alien who didn’t even fit into her own culture.