Arrival

ADIRA

As I break the kiss and open my eyes, there’s a fire in Fer’ro’s gaze that I’ve never seen before.

It feels like it is engulfing me but the flames do not burn.

Instead, they surround me with warmth and protection.

But I’ve done it again.

Something sexual when I have no idea what is happening between us.

The way this alien affects me…

Does he know I’m burning for him?

That between my thighs is hot and soaking wet just at the feel of his tongue in my mouth…just at remembering what happened between us in his quarters…

My cheeks grow warm and I pull my gaze away from the fire.

“They are waiting for us,” he says.

At the same time, the ba’clan slowly return to our skin and the sky reappears above us.

We are surrounded.

Several Vullan have formed a circle around us and I scramble to rise, my cheeks burning even hotter.

Fuck.

Had they been there all along?

Could they see what we just did?

Their eyes are on me, as usual, and as we stand, they do the most curious thing.

Each and every one of them kneels at our feet, their foreheads on the ground.

My eyes dart around.

Off in the corner of my gaze, huddled together, are the three women I’d seen within the Scrit’s belly, and very near to us lays the huge machine itself.

But I do not understand why the Vullan are kneeling.

It is the first time I have seen them so submissive.

We have won. Is that why?

“Why are they kneeling?” I whisper to Fer’ro. “Are they showing their respect to you?”

“No.” He turns to look at me and his gaze blazes through me so much that I hold my breath. “They are showing respect to you.”

My eyes bug out then and I grip my chest with one hand. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You have gained their respect. It is an honor to be under your command.”

I have to blink several times because this just went from zero to one hundred.

“My what?”

“You made a decision while in that Scrit. One that put you in danger. You went ahead with a plan even though it could have cost you your life. You faced the Gryken head on. You put your life on the line for all of us.”

And then Fer’ro does something that makes my heart lurch.

I watch, spellbound, as he falls to his knees before me too, his forehead touching the earth at my feet.

“For the Vullan,” he says, “you have made the ultimate sacrifice. We are forever indebted to you.”

I stare at them.

I really don’t know what to say.

I don’t deserve this—any of this—for doing something stupid.

Yes, it might have worked, but I’m no hero.

I open my mouth to say this when I pause.

My ba’clan pulse against me and I remember what I was thinking just moments before while cocooned with Fer’ro.

This is no longer just my fight. It’s no longer Earth’s fight.

It’s their fight too.

They’re not only thanking me for what I did, they’re thanking me for trusting them.

I swallow my pride, my preconceived notions, my doubt…

These big aliens need to know that they are accepted here.

“It is an honor to be seen in such a light by such brave warriors. I couldn’t have done anything without your help.” My gaze moves over each and every one of them. “Thank you.”

I don’t know if what I said is enough.

It certainly doesn’t encompass the weight of the feelings in my chest.

But as the Vullan rise, I do not feel so on edge by their stares anymore.

They see me as one of them.

And as I look from them to myself, to the ba’clan coating me…I realize that, maybe, I’ve become more like them than I first realized.

Maybe, I’m not entirely human anymore.