Adaptation Read online

  "I told you not to look, damn it!"

  "You really think that's them?"

  "Did you see anybody else built like that?"

  "Are they still headed this way?"

  "I'm not going to look! They'll take it as encouragement!" Sissy flicked a quick look out of the corner of her eye. "Shit! They are! Let's duck into the lady's room!"

  Kate jolted out of her seat and looked around a little wildly. "Where is it?"

  Sissy grabbed her arm and started hauling her through the throng in the other direction. "I don't know. We'll find it."

  "Actually, the one in front was kind of good looking."

  "They're transvestites!"

  "So? They're straight, you know. Why would they approach us if they weren't?"

  "I don't care if they are. I can't get 'in' to men that like to dress like women."

  Kate considered it. "Good point. It's a damned shame that that one is way better looking than anything else I've seen tonight."

  "I wouldn't call him handsome. His face is too angular."

  "Well, I would!"

  "Attractive, not handsome."

  Kate decided it wasn't worth arguing about. They finally spotted the lady's room and darted toward it. Obviously, the trio was a lot more determined than they'd considered, though. The men managed to intercept them before they could take cover.

  Since she didn't want to make it really obvious that she was fleeing, Kate smiled up at the men, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu sweep over her as she looked at them. "Excuse us. We were headed to the lady's room."

  They frowned, all three of them, and she could see that they were struggling to digest what she'd said. Either they were really drunk-and they didn't seem to be-or they hadn't heard her clearly enough to understand.

  The one in the forefront seemed to discard the effort. "You fuck me, yes?"

  Kate felt her jaw slide to half mast even though she was certain she'd heard him wrong, and it wasn't just the thick, almost incomprehensible accent that convinced her of it. She cut a look at Sissy to see if she'd completely misunderstood what the man had just asked her.

  "We fuck you, no!" Sissy snapped.

  The man glared at her. "No ast you! Ast Kat!"

  Maybe she was drunker than she'd realized? "Uh … you don't speak English very well, do you?"

  Uneasiness flickered in his eyes. "No say right?"

  Kate bit her lip, struggling with amusement she knew she shouldn't be feeling. It occurred to her, though, that as blunt as the question was, she had to give him points for honesty. Actually, she supposed he just wasn't familiar enough with the language to do anything except go straight to the point.

  "You're supposed to at least pretend you have some interest in something besides fucking!" Sissy said indignantly.

  He looked confused and glanced at the other two men as if seeking help. Kate took pity on him-because he really was cute! And built beautifully if the material stretched over his massive frame was any indication! "Actually, I don't mind."

  She glanced at Sissy and shrugged. "You know they couldn't get in without a psyche eval and disease clearance. I'm sure it'll be alright and that was all I was looking for, after all."

  Sissy looked unconvinced, but she finally shrugged. Leaning down, she spoke next to Kate's ear. "Just don't forget to reset your alarm system when you get to your place. The guy's a monster-no way you could fend him off if you changed your mind-and people can fake those psyche evaluations, you know."

  "I won't. See you later, ok?"

  Sissy looked unhappy, but she merely nodded. Shaking her head, she moved past the men and headed into the lady's room.

  Kate smiled up at her hunk. So he was 'in' to dressing in women's clothing! It wasn't as if she was looking for any kind of commitment! She just wanted to get laid and he was the best looking man she'd seen all night-including the dancers! "Come on, cutie! Let's go to my place and fool around."

  "Dis mean fuck?"

  Kate snickered. "We'll get to that."

  He still seemed a little confused, but the moment she tugged at his arm and started toward the exit, he seemed to grasp the situation. In the blink of an eye he went from passive to aggressive, leading the way. It wasn't until they stopped on the curb outside to wait for a shuttle that Kate realized his two friends had followed him. Uneasiness slithered through her, but she dismissed it. They probably just figured there was no point in hanging around when Sissy had been so nasty to them. They probably couldn't speak English as well as the guy she'd picked.

  "What's your name? I'm Kate." She frowned as soon as she'd said it, recalling abruptly that he seemed to know her name already. She couldn't remember that Sissy had called her by name when they'd been standing by their table, but she finally decided she must have and he'd overheard.

  "Noo."

  Kate frowned. "You knew already?"

  He looked confused. "Name Noo."

  Kate blinked at him, as confused as he seemed to be. "I'm lost."

  He stared at her for a moment and looked around. "Are here."

  Kate compressed her lips in an effort to crush the urge to chuckle. "Let's try that again, shall we? My name is Kate. What is your name?" she asked slowly, enunciating each word carefully.

  He looked like he would say something, but then he paused and seemed to think it over. "Ronan."

  A jolt went through Kate. How freaky was it that his name was the same as the one she'd chosen for the alpha Sirian? She met his gaze and felt another wave of uneasiness when she saw that he was studying her intently ... almost as if he expected a reaction. That same odd sense of déjà vu traveled through her again, but she dismissed it. It had to be the alcohol. She didn't feel drunk enough to be hallucinating, but obviously her judgment was way off and her imagination working on overtime. "Man! I am so drunk!"

  "What dis drunk?"

  Kate shook her head, diverted by the arrival of the shuttle.

  And then she was distracted when Ronan's companions climbed into the shuttle with them.

  Trying to convince herself that they hadn't, somehow, gotten the idea that they were all invited to her place, she gave the computer directions to her cabin and settled back a little uneasily. She was so preoccupied with her own tension and the thoughts darting through her mind that they'd been traveling a while before she emerged sufficiently to see that the men were also tense.

  This was a lot more awkward than she'd expected!

  Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea after all? Bolstered by the drinks she'd had, surrounded by so many other people in the club with pretty much the same goal in mind, it had seemed perfectly reasonable to pursue her interest in appeasing her sexual needs. It had seemed completely safe, given the precautions they took in clubs these days to insure the health and safety of their patrons, despite Sissy's warnings.

  The small home she thought of as her little cabin in the hills, though, was fairly isolated. Unlike the city where everyone was practically stacked on top of everyone else, or even the immediate surroundings where homes still stood shoulder to shoulder, close enough if you tossed anything out the window it was liable to land in the neighbor's living room, her place was yards from the nearest neighbors. Surrounded by jungle-like plant growth, it didn't just give her the illusion of being miles from anyone else, the thickly planted yard that surrounded the little house prevented her from seeing or hearing her neighbors and vice versa.

  Beyond that, most of her close neighbors were fellow scientists working on the colony project, just as she had been, except unlike her they were still on the space station.

  She'd even left Sissy back at the club-which meant the only neighbor she knew for a fact had returned to Earth was beyond range for any sort of distress call.

  She didn't think those thoughts would've made her quite as uneasy if she hadn't noticed that the men were nervous and begun to wonder why they were.

  * * * *

  You should not have used the name that Kate gave you, Dae said irritably. She is suspicious now.

  Noo had been thinking pretty much the same thing and it still annoyed him to have Dae point it out. My name was too unfamiliar to her. Many on the space station shared the same names. There is no reason to suppose she will guess who we are only because I used a human name that happens to be the same as the one she chose for me.

  She looked startled when you verbalized it, Rak said. What do you suppose this thing is? And where do you think it is taking us? I have to say I do not particularly like being closed inside such a small space or traveling at this speed. I feel like it will slam into one of the other things any time and shatter.

  Do not look and it will not bother you, Dae advised him. Clearly the humans consider it safe or they would not pile into them and ignore the way that it darts at such crazed speeds and narrowly misses the others.

  Rak glared at him. I do not see that it will help not to look when I already know what this thing is doing. In any case, each time it suddenly stops and takes another direction, my belly knots and I feel the sudden change even if I do not watch it! My dick crawled into my belly the last near miss and I am doubtful I will be able to coax the damned thing out to breed even if we find a place for it.

  I will have no trouble and I am alpha so that is not of any great importance, Noo said coolly.

  It is of importance to me, gods damn it, Rak snapped!

  You will have plenty of time to coax it out, Dae said. Noo is first and I am second.

  Rak sent him an indignant glare. This darting and twisting and suddenly stopping does not bother either of you?

  No, Noo and Dae replied almost at the same instant.

  Rak did not believe that it did not, but he had already volunteered the fact that it did bother him and there was no retracting that now. It pissed him off, especially when he did not believe for a moment that it did not bother them at all. Maybe it did not unnerve them as much as it did him, but this was not the same as traveling in the humans' spacecraft! They could not feel the speed until the Earth mother had embraced them and even then there were no obstacles that the craft had to avoid! It had made him feel sick the way that thing had dropped toward the ground, but this was much worse! Even though it was not moving nearly as fast, the sudden shifts in speed and direction were far more disorienting and far more unnerving!

  He transferred his attention to Kate after a few moments and saw that she was looking a little sick herself. "Wha dis ting?"

  She flicked a startled look in his direction and stared at him blankly for a long moment. "You mean the taxi?"

  Rak frowned, but he knew she had not used that word before. "Sut-tal."

  She blinked at him, still looking blank. "They don't have shuttles where you're from?"

  Dae slammed his elbow into his side, knocking the breath from him before he could attempt an answer.

  "Hab tings like dis," Noo said tightly, sending Rak a warning look.

  Kate glanced from one man to the next and returned her attention to Ronan. "The accent confuses me. Where did you say you were from?"

  The urge to choke the life out of Rak swept through Noo. He struggled for a moment to come up with an answer that would not make her more suspicious and decided that claiming any of the place names he recalled probably was not a good idea. He formed his lips into a smile. "No say."

  Kate smiled back at him. "So … where are you from?"

  Noo felt his smile stiffen. There seemed no hope for it. "Ra."

  Her expression went blank. She frowned. "I'm not familiar with that. That's a town?"

  She seemed more confused than disbelieving, which was some relief, but Noo could see that he needed to distract her. The trouble was, he could not think of any way to distract her. Ruefully, it occurred to him, belatedly, that his lack of facility with their method of communications was liable to create problems he had not anticipated. In the memory, none of the fathers had ever encountered such a problem so there was nothing there to aid him now. There was no comfort in the realization that the problem had not arisen because their clan rarely came upon a species that appealed to them that had intelligence to equal or surpass their own. He had to deal with the problem. "No say N'glish very goot."

  To his surprise, relief, and delight, Kate chuckled.

  He was a little miffed, as well. Even to his own ears, he was well aware that he had not successfully verbalized the sounds they made, but he had been convinced he could manage closely enough to pass for one of them.

  "I think it's cute."

  Discomfort wafted through Noo and heat traveled with it. The desire, he had no problem with. He had coveted Kate on many levels from the first and begun to want her on a sexual level even before his body had matured to a degree to allow him to breed.

  The heat he felt in his face and ears was not a by-product of desire, however. It was directly connected to his discomfort and the dismaying certainty that he was not passing as human well at all.

  Thankfully, before he could think of anything else to try to verbalize to distract her, they arrived at their destination. His interest was fairly caught when he turned to study the view beyond the bubble pod they had traveled in and saw a thick, luscious growth of plant-life. Pleasure wafted through him-not just to see something so reminiscent of the clan memory bestowed upon him of his home world, Ra-for even though he had never actually seen his home world with his own eyes, the clan memory was passed to each new generation as a matter of course-but because Kate had chosen such a familiar place to breed with them.

  She would make a perfect queen for their brood!

  As appealing as he had found her in so many ways, some of the differences between his clan and hers made him uneasy. He wanted, desperately, to bring the strengths of her clan into his own. He had not been greatly disturbed about the weaknesses he had also detected because he had believed-still believed-that the strengths of his clan would overcome. He had worried that Kate, herself, might have difficulty growing accustomed to their ways, though, and she would have to since humans, he had learned, gestated their young within their bodies-which meant that the only way they would be able to guard their 'nestlings' would be to guard Kate as the nest.

  And they could not properly do that without taking her back to Ra.

  That was a problem for another time, however. The craft that had brought them to Kate's world had taken humans back to his home world, he knew-which made it all the more imperative to his view to adapt traits of the human clan. They would have to find another to take them home, but breeding her was more vital at the moment.

  He was ready for that-more than ready-eager! Impatient from the many months of waiting for an opportunity and more so because he had sensed Kate was ready and eager, as well.

  He discovered when they emerged from the traveling pod she called a shuttle, though, that Kate was now wavering between the eagerness he had sensed in her before and the uneasiness he had also sensed-except that the uneasiness seemed to have become dominant.

  "Uh … I don't want to sound mean … but I really only expected to have sex with you."

  Noo was not unfamiliar with the word sex. The problem was that he had never entirely grasped the precise meaning of it. At times when he had scanned it in their minds, it had seemed to refer only to whether or not a particular entity was male or female. At times it appeared to be a reference to breeding and still other times it seemed some sort of recreation. He interpreted her current meaning fairly quickly to pertain to the breeding he had on his mind and although he was pleased that she had confirmed that she meant to breed with him, he was not particularly happy that she also seemed to be refusing to breed with the others.

  Naturally enough, being the alpha, he considered his own seed far more important. He was more likely to breed an alpha being one himself than they were, but he had also begun to realize that three hybrids would be better for the clan than one. He glanced at Dae and Rak speculatively, but he did not see giving up the opportunity to secure the future of his clan only because she had become uncertain, now, that this was something she wanted. "Dese …." He hesitated, trying to summon a word she would grasp. "Broders. Goot … uh … sexers."

  Kate blinked at him and then abruptly struggled with a mixture of amusement, interest, and dismay when his meaning finally sank in. "Are they?" she managed to ask.

  He nodded-they nodded vigorously-convinced that they could be regardless of a lack of actual experience.

  "Yes, well …. Oh! What the hell! This should be interesting at the very least!" Kate said, abruptly capitulating and turning to lead the way inside. "Just so we're working on the same page-this isn't just for your entertainment! I expect plenty of foreplay."

  She was nervous. Her buzz from the alcohol she'd consumed seemed to have completely worn off-a fact not supported by her decisions so far! Still, it was more because of her nervousness than eagerness that she went straight to her room as soon as she was inside without pausing to play good hostess and offer her guests-the invited and uninvited-any sort of refreshments.

  A jolt went through her that was an interesting mixture of pleased surprise and dismay when she turned around and discovered that all three men were already naked and, from the looks of things, ready!

  My god they were beautifully built, though! The exotic dancers didn't have a thing on these guys!

  And hung like young stallions! There was definitely a strong familial resemblance on that part of their anatomy even though she'd felt somewhat doubtful about Ronan's claim that these were his brothers.

  "Wha dis foreplay mean?"

  The question brought Kate's focus from the magical horns to the 'trumpeteer' that had asked her about the taxi. She'd been too focused on Ronan to notice much about the two men with him-maybe a little too high, too-and it had been too dark inside the shuttle to tell much about any of them beyond the fact that they were all built like bouncers and at least appeared to be very muscular beneath their clothes.

  His features weren't as harsh and angular as Ronan's. In point of fact, they leaned close to 'pretty boy'. She struggled with the cliché that leapt to mind-pretty equaled dumb as dirt! But it was hard to set that aside considering the questions he'd asked even though she told herself that Ronan had already proven his grasp of English wasn't all that good.

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