Love: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 2) (7 page)

“Let me help you do this. One last time.” And she couldn’t say no.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said, fighting to control the tears that were trying to escape. She knew she had to hold herself together; if one of them started crying, they would all end up a blubbering mess.

But just as they were about to go up the ramp, Torac called, “Only Celia on the cruiser.”

“I’ll take it, Dad,” she said, casting a glance back at Torac. What was his problem, and why did he blow so hot and cold? One minute he was inviting her parents over to say goodbye, the next shouting at them not to go on the ship!

Sighing with exasperation, she took herself into the belly of the small craft and removed her pretty dress.

Torac stood looking at her family, feeling very nervous. He had no idea what they thought of him, and if he let his defences down, his body would be flooded with such a range of emotions he would look like a double rainbow. These people loved Celia so much, yet they were pleased to see her go, whilst still dreading the gap she would leave in their lives.

“I will look after her.” He repeated the words he had used earlier.

“I hope so,” her father said, then added, “I would say, if you don’t, I’ll hunt you down and make you pay, but once you take her up in that spaceship of yours I don’t think I’ll be able to find you. So I am taking your word on it.”

“My word?” he asked, confused.

“Yes, you know, when you give your word you will do something. It’s like you promise … on your honour. And you, Torac, look like a man of honour.”

He thought about her father’s words, and let the other man’s emotions in for a brief moment. He had never experienced such hope, such a need for something that wasn’t material in one of these humans. “You have my word.”

“Thank you,” the father said, reaching out to shake his hand once more. Torac couldn’t deny him, and the feelings and sensations nearly made him weep. As quick as he could he pulled his hand back and instead offered them a wallet. “Here.”

“What is this?”

“Coin.”

“No,” Celia’s father said, pushing Torac’s hand away. “She isn’t for sale, you can’t buy her.”

“She is already mine. I won her in the lottery.” His words stung the father. He could feel it. “I’m sorry.” Torac had never imagined he would be apologising to a human. Ever. “I will try to explain. This is not a payment for your daughter. It is for you, because I understand how much she cares about you and worries about you. I can feel her sadness.”

“We can’t take it, Torac.” Celia’s father spoke, but he could feel the mother had a different opinion.

“She would be happy to know you were cared for. This is hard for her. We all know that. So why not accept the coin and make her happy?”

“Jihhn, please,” the mother said. “Think what we could do with it.”

“She wanted Jat to go to university,” Torac interjected.

“That is expensive, more than we could ever afford,” the mother agreed.

He offered the wallet to the mother this time, turning his attention on her, and then he allowed himself to influence her. He didn’t have to push her too far; she was already there, knowing that this was a chance for their family to escape being skims.

“Jihhn, if he knows about medical school, Celia must have spoken to him. Please.”

“She told me of your plans, or hopes. She wants you to be happy. As she will happy on Karal.”

At that moment, Celia came out of the cruiser. She carried the dress in her arms and he could feel her approach, feel her sadness at the knowledge that this was really the last time she would see them.

“OK, this is for you, Mich. I wish I had more to give you, but I didn’t get to do the interview like I hoped. Maybe you could all get on the Stream. You know, the family of the second lottery winner, their view.”

“Your dad would hate that,” the mother said, looking at her husband. He looked away, still unhappy. Sighing, she added, “We’ll manage. We always do.”

Torac dropped his hand to his side so that Celia didn’t see the wallet. He didn’t want her to know, unless they were going to accept the money. The last thing he needed was for them to argue over it here in front of her. She could push them to accept it, he was sure, but the father seemed resolute.

“I wish I had more to give you. I love you all so much.” She hugged her mom, and Torac could feel how hard she was trying to shut her feelings off and not cry. He had to admire her strength; her emotions were so strong, they were trying to overwhelm her and yet she controlled them.

“Bye, love.”

“Bye, Mom.”

“Right, Mich, now you have two pretty dresses. I’m sure mom will be able to alter it for you.”

“Thank you, Celia. You’re the best. I’m going to miss you.”

“At least you will have the bedroom to yourself,” Celia said, trying to smile.

“I liked us sharing.”

“Well, anything you want, out of the stuff I left, is yours.”

“OK,” Micha said and then went to hug their mom, quietly sobbing as she clung to her.

“Dad,” she said quietly.

“Celia. Thank you for trying to make things better for us.”

“I wish I had,” she said, placing her head on his chest. “I only entered because I thought it would be a way to help you. I never meant to make things harder.”

“You haven’t. I know you’ll be happy.” He pulled back, and then caught his wife’s eye. “Celia, Torac has offered us coin.”

“He has?” she looked at Torac, trying to read him, but his emotional shields were in place.

“I wanted you to be happy when you left.” Torac’s words surprised her.

“I don’t want you to think we are selling you.” Her dad fought his emotions again, keeping the pain from his voice.

“Dad, I would never think that. Please take it. I know you’re proud, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for people like us.” She looked at Torac and he saw the gratitude on her face. “How much, Torac?”

“I have no idea. I asked Okil how much coin he had, this is it.” He passed the wallet to her. She opened it and took a good look, counting it roughly.

“That is a lot of coin.”

“It is nothing. Next time we come down, Okil will bring things to sell. We live in plenty on Karal.”

She held her hand out to her father. “Take it, Dad. Take it and leave that job of yours. There’s enough here for you to build a better life. Find a piece of land, buy some chickens, and grow vegetables.”

Her father took the wallet, not able to lift his eyes to Celia’s. “Thank you.”

This was their time to go. If they stayed there would be tears. He had had enough of human emotions; now he wanted the peace of the cruiser. He wanted to shut them all out.

“Come,” he said. Celia followed him up the ramp into the ship, their last goodbyes still ringing in her ears as it closed behind them.

“Thank you,” she said again, looking happier now her family were secure financially. He knew it was a large amount of money, he would have to explain it to the Hierarchy, but he didn’t regret his decision. However, she didn’t need to know the true reason. So when she asked him why, he simply said, “Because I couldn’t bear to listen to you cry all the way to Karal.”

All she did was smile at his blunt attitude. Maybe she was beginning to read him better, or maybe he was struggling to keep his defences intact when she was around.

Leaving her family quickly became the least of her worries. Torac told her where to sit and helped her do up the straps to keep her in her seat. In all the times she had watched astronauts blast off into space, she had never once thought she would like to go too. In fact, she had always thought that her feet should remain on terra firma. But now, well, she had little choice.

Torac went to the control deck, and she thought he was going to leave her alone while he sat with Okil. She couldn’t blame him; surely he would rather be with his fellow Karalian than sitting in the back with her. Especially when her hands started trembling and she knew she would probably scream, in an ear-piercing pitch, when they finally launched.

When the engines started up, she knew she was right. She would be seated here alone while they made the journey to the planet Karal. Celia only hoped it would be a quick journey. She didn’t know how long she could hold it together. The thought of them leaving the atmosphere, an atmosphere capable of burning them up, played on her mind. Over and over she pictured the space cruiser stalling and then going into a dive, which resulted in them exploding. Her parents would watch images of the ship disintegrating into a million pieces and dropping to Earth. She would be dead, but they would have no body to bury. There would be nothing left of her. Only memories.

“Celia?” Torac said, coming back to her. “Are you OK? You need to relax. Nothing bad is going to happen. We have made this journey countless times. It will be fine. Once we leave the Earth’s atmosphere, we will travel to just beyond your moon, and then we will enter the wormhole. On the other side of the wormhole we will dock at our space station.”

“What happens then?” She wondered if they would put her in quarantine for six months before she was allowed to visit the planet. Just in case she carried some kind of disease.

“We go through decontamination, and then we go on to Karal.”

“Decontamination. What is that?” She hated the thought of having to sit in a pressurised container of some kind. She often got claustrophobic in small spaces. In fact, she was starting to feel it now. Any minute, she would have an intense need to leave this ship. Maybe that was how she would get out of this whole thing.

Then a loud rumble told her the engines were starting up. Torac sat down, not rushing to strap himself in, as the engines grew louder. There was a downward pull, which scared her, and then they launched up into the air. Just as panic covered her, a wave of calm took its place. Torac was sending all his calming emotions her way. His hand reached out and touched hers, making the sensations magnified. She tried to let them envelop her, slowly she found her breathing returning to normal, and even when the temperature in the cruiser grew hotter and the turbulence made the ship shudder, she remained calm. Her scream stayed inside her head, rather than filling the small ship.

Then they cleared the Earth, and things became calmer, quieter, as the ship ceased to strain against the Earth’s gravity. The moon loomed before them, and then they were past that and heading towards some kind of beacons. She watched as the cruiser turned, banked a little, and then straightened up before heading for the flashing lights of the beacons. Torac squeezed her hand once more, and she became almost euphoric from his touch as they entered what must be the wormhole and were catapulted across the universe.

Colours crowded her mind, vivid, bright flashes of sunlight, then dark, absolute, and complete, before more colours. Stars passed in a blur, then became crystal clear, before becoming pinpoints of light in the distance as they shifted through space and time. The ship juddered and she thought they would be pulled apart, yet he didn’t let her feel fear. With his help, it seemed to her that everything happened around her, as if she was an observer. Not a part of it.

And then it ended. As suddenly as it began, they were heading towards a small bright object, hanging in space, a shiny, silver construction, not natural in any way. The space station. Her journey was over, for now; they had arrived at their temporary destination.

Slowing, until it appeared they were not moving at all, they came in to dock. A small bump as they touched the station, and then a bang on the roof of their cruiser, which made her heart leap into her mouth. “Is that normal?” she had to ask Torac, but he was calmly undoing his seatbelt and getting to his feet.

“Perfectly,” he said. “Let’s go. Quicker we are in decon, the quicker we can make the last stage of our journey.”

“I’m nervous about this decon,” she admitted, as she got up and nearly sat back down again. “The gravity is weird.”

He put his hand under her arm and hoisted her back up. “You’ll get used to it, and we are not here long. The gravity on Karal is a little more than Earth, but hardly noticeable.”

With that, he herded her out of the space cruiser and along a corridor, which led into the station. It struck her that the space station was nothing more than a transitioning point, like a bigger version of their space cruiser. Several doors came off the corridor; they looked as though other cruisers could dock at them, if needed. They walked past these and into another corridor; here there were clear doors, behind which were small rooms. Each room contained a control panel and a chair.

“Decon,” he said, pressing a button, which made the door slide open. “In you go.”

She went in, turning to face him and asking, “I just sit in the chair?”

“Kind of,” he said.

“Kind of?” She knew she wasn’t going to like what he said next; his mood had lifted, she could sense it, and something else. Excitement. Sexual excitement. And when she cast her gaze down to his pants, she saw that he had become hard. At least that part of his anatomy seemed to work just fine, and he desired her, despite their differences. And despite them not really knowing each other.

“You need to strip. Place your clothes on the table there. I’ll set the programme.”

“Strip!” There was no way she was going to take her clothes off here, not when the door was see-through.

“Yes.” He calmly walked over to the controls and turned a dial and then pressed a button. Lights flashed as the console came to life, but Celia stood with her arms wrapped around her body protectively until he turned and assessed her nerves. “The station is almost empty, no one will see you, and Okil is already in one of the other chambers.”

“But you’re here,” she said, feeling tears prick her eyes. Damn, she was behaving like a child. She knew he thought so too, because his next words summed up their situation completely.

“Celia. You entered the lottery to become my mate. We are going to land on Karal in less than an hour. If you complete the decon now. Once we are on my planet, you know what’s going to happen.”