Changed: Mated to the Alien Alpha (The Omega Colony, #1)

by Robin Moray

I get to actually use those xenolinguistics skills I worked so hard for, but even if it’s just classifying and naming bugs it’s pretty cool. I mean, you get to name bugs. You get to argue about whether or not they actually qualify as bugs, and then you get to name them things like Erikisa Dumbassus, and then send pics of them to your stupid ex. I mean, you could. If you wanted to.

“Cameron,” I say, touching my chest with both hands. Then I gesture up to him. It doesn’t always work. On Yuanfang III it nearly got someone eaten, because it looked too close to the ritual sign for ‘I offer myself up graciously for consumption’. I’m betting that’s not going to happen again.

“You are beautiful to me, and I want nothing more than to mate with you, and keep you always safe and happy and well. I will watch over you, until your time comes and you are Changed. And then, if you will allow it, I will watch over you until we are made smoke, and join the ancestors in the sky.”

“If you get yourself pregnant to an alien I’m going to make you carry that baby to term. For science. And for pissing me off. Okay? Good talk.”

“Do you require manual stimulation?” Do I…oh God. “I can take care of that myself, thanks,” I hiss at him through my teeth. Tal’jen frowns so I pat him. But then Tal’jen lays the huge warmth of his palm over my crotch, and the zing of contact has me arching up into his touch, already hard and gasping. Hie eyes narrow, and I know what’s coming. I mean, it’s probably me.

“How brave of you, to insult a man who cannot understand you. How clever of you, to criticize him on your first impression before you know his true strengths and weaknesses. How kind of you, to do so to my face, before so many. You are truly a great man. It is a pity that you will never be First among us. What wonders you would have achieved, had you led us with all your courage, and cleverness, and kindness.”

“Okay. So they think you’re ‘fertile’ and Leo’s ‘virile’. What the hell does that make me?” “Pre-pubescent,” I tell him, and the look on his face is too hilarious for words.

“He’s growing a womb.” I hesitate. “We don’t know that.” “I’m pretty sure we do.” Mike wrinkles his nose. “I don’t want to grow a womb, Cam.” “You’re not going to grow a womb,” I tell him, but he gives me a stubborn look. “You don’t know that! I always catch whatever’s going around, I’m very susceptible to things. So if ‘wombs’ are going around I’m probably going to catch one!”