Lion Man's Captive, Kaitlyn O'Connor [top fiction books of all time .txt] 📗

in the cards. Aidan’s peoplehad saddled him with the task of making peace and convincing thegovernments of Earth to negotiate a treaty with the Grinderiangovernment and Aidan seemed convinced that she was completelyagreeable to being dragged through the arduous process withhim.

They made the news!

Surprise, surprise!

Anya actually appreciated the coverage.She hated it, but it at least gave her a chance to tell her side ofthe story—why was she with Aidan and did she really believe theymeant no harm when they’d destroyed fully half of Earth’scivilization in less than a day?

It was actually more like threequarters—minimum—but who was counting?

She pointed out that that made hercase. If they were capable of that and had not only stopped theirmachines, they’d offered to repair the damage—and in fact hadalready dropped construction bots to do just that—wasn’t that allthe proof anybody needed to convince them that the Grinderianswanted to be friends not enemies?

It should have been enough to convinceeverybody, but Anya wasn’t really surprised that itdidn’t.

Everything that was destroyed wasreplaced with new—NEW—and some of the buildings that had beendestroyed looked as if they should have been demolished anyway.Ditto the cars that were replaced with new, etc., etc. And to topall of that off, the technology was better than what anybody onEarth had had before. And top that off with the terra-formedplanets humans got as part of the bargain, because the Grinderianshad terra-formed both Mars and Venus and although neither werecomplete, they were going to be open to colonization within adecade or so. All the Grinderians were asking for was a piece ofthe action and peace. They wanted to put a colony on Earth and moreon Mars and Venus once they were habitable.

Nothing, of course, could replace thepeople lost in the initial disastrous mix-up, but as valuable aseach of those individuals were to those who loved them, there wereactually very few casualties.

By the time Aidan deposited her on herdoorstep, Anya was totally exhausted and thoroughly disgusted withthe entire mess. There was not going to be an easy truce betweenthem. This was something, she was sure, that was destined to be along, drawn out process. Maybe, in time, humans would begin toactually make friends with their new neighbors, but trust was goingto take time to earn.

Despite her weariness and her gladnessto be home, though, Anya discovered she wasn’t happy at all to seeAidan go. They’d spent weeks together, surviving, and thencampaigning for peace between his people and hers. She’d justgotten used to being around him, she told herself.

And he still had much to do before hewas officially off the hook for ignoring his people’s laws andheading to Earth to prove his theory that there were otherintelligent species ‘out there’.

It was an awkward goodbye. They’d beenmonitored since the night they’d spent together in intimacy. Anyacomforted herself with the thought that that was why there hadn’tbeen further intimacy—the complete lack of privacy on top of thefrenzied work necessary to avert further disaster. If the situationhad been different ….

Well, they wouldn’t have gottentogether at all.

She liked to think it had been morethan just animal need that had thrown them together, more than theneed for comfort and release from tension.

She might be lying toherself.

She was absolutely miserable, though,when he left.

Chapter Eight

There was no picking up her old life,Anya discovered. Nobody knew she’d been intimate with an alien, butthey didn’t have to know. Pictures of the two of them together hadbeen plastered all over every form of media known to man. The newspeople arrived on her doorstep as soon as they discovered Aidan hadreturned her to her home and they camped there, showing no signs ofgrowing tired of hassling her every time she stuck her nose out thedoor for any reason.

She had a sneaking feeling the onlyreason she still had her job was because her boss was afraid thealiens might retaliate if she was fired.

Her boss still sent her home on leavesince it was impossible for anyone to get any work done with newspeople swarming the office.

Her sister arrived for a visit in themiddle of the media siege.

“Wow! You’re famous!” Myrasaid with a chuckle when Anya opened the door and yanked herinside.

Anya was so glad to see her sister shedidn’t do anything but hug her for many moments. She’d heard hersister was ok, but she hadn’t gotten to see her sister for herself.She struggled with the urge to burst into tears for a few momentsand finally conquered the impulse. Drawing away, she grinned at hersister a little sourly. “Yeah! Wow! Come on and have a seat in theliving room so we can catch up. You hungry? Thirsty?”

“I’ll take anything coldand wet that you’ve got,” Myra instantly responded, looking theapartment over as if she’d never seen it before and then heading tothe couch. “The little bastards didn’t get this far?”

Anya shrugged as she returned andhanded her sister a glass of ice tea. “Yes and no. They got thisfar but not much damage. I’m almost sorry. I could’ve used some newfurniture.”

Myra made a non-committal sound. “Soooo… tell me about this yummy alien you’ve taken up with. I’ve beendying to know …?”

Anya instantly had to fight anotherround with the urge to feel sorry for herself and weep. Her noseand eyes stung. She sniffed. “He scared the hell out of me. I’msure it doesn’t surprise you to hear that, but I’m not sure Iwould’ve made it without him.” She shuddered. “Actually, I’m prettysure I would’ve been one of the casualties—I was caught out in theopen, on the road, alone, when the terra-former landed. And incompletely unfamiliar territory. I had no idea where to find wateror food and no weapon—plus, like everybody else here, I didn’t havea clue of what to expect.”

Myra sobered. “It was pretty rough—oneverybody. The refugee camp was … indescribably miserable.Everybody was fighting over the food and water.” She shook herhead. “But, no sense in dwelling on the negative. I was so relievedwhen I heard you were ok—and mom and dad. The nanites didn’tactually get to their farm. Of course, refugees