Nate's Fated Mate(41)

Maybe those lying to him included his mother, but how did her omissions change the job he'd signed on to do? The airship had to fly and the aliens had to be constrained to it.

How would this program even work if the aliens were kept somewhere like the castle? His mind just couldn't wrap itself around the logistics.

His mother was right. The aliens wouldn't be safe walking around free on New Earth soil.





Chapter Twelve





That evening after dinner, Sheena fetched a small round ball from the satchel in her room and set it on the table where their drinks rested. Angus and Erin leaned forward to study it.

When Bri reached out to pick it up, Sheena smacked her hand. "It's activated and will shut down if anyone picks it up but me. For you, it's nothing more than a decorative ball."

"I can't believe you became a geneticist when you can do stuff like this," Bri said. She looked at Erin and Angus. "This device creates static noise so our conversation will be kept completely private, even from the sharp-eared aliens outside the door. If any recording is going on without our permission, all it will pick up is what this device creates." 

Erin stared at the ball on the table. "Ya know, no matter what I think I've learned, new things in this place always manage to surprise me. My mind can't take anything more in. I think it's full."

Angus leaned back on the sofa. "Okay, lass. What do ya want to talk about that ya don't want anyone to hear?"

Sheena sat in the chair across the table from Bri, and leaned close to Angus and Erin so she could talk low. "I found out you were abducted from another universe. I told Bri, so we both know the truth now."

Angus leaned forward too. "That's nothing but a relief to me and Erin. Neither of us liked keeping the truth from ya. We just didn't know what would happen to the two of ya if we confessed."

Sheena nodded. "The rest of the world thinks you're sophisticated clones that the aliens helped us make. It's in our best interests, and yours, to let them think that, at least for now. Most of the people on our planet aren't ready to handle time travel or universe hopping. They're still mentally dealing with the aliens."

Erin nodded back. "I can certainly see that being the truth. I see the aliens every day and still don't believe what we're doing. Angus has adjusted to them much better than I have."

Angus patted her knee. "I see the aliens as men like myself. Ya always see the good in their souls. That's no small thing to see the best in all creatures. The aliens adore ya for it, Erin."

Erin gripped the hand on her leg and squeezed. "Yer words are a balm to me, Angus."

"Now that's real romance and love. I want what they have," Bri interjected, grinning at Sheena as she pointed to Angus and Erin.

Sheena grinned back. "I wish it was in my power to give it to you, Bri."

"Tell me something, Sheena. Is Nate friend or foe to us?" Angus asked.

"Excellent question," Sheena replied, looking away for a moment. When her gaze returned to Angus, she smiled. "Nate's family is our real problem. He's just …  a tool."

"Beg pardon? Nate's a tool?" Erin repeated, covering her giggle with a hand.

"Not that kind of tool, luv. Sheena was being literal," Angus said, chuckling at Erin's amusement.

"I meant, Nate's family is using him, and lying to him. He lies to us because …  well, I don't know why other than he has no real sense of family. But I think he's mostly good inside-deep, deep inside-but the goodness is there. It comes out at times despite his strange dedication to this big hunk of metal."

"Are ya still in love with him, lass?" Angus asked bluntly. "Because it sounds like ya are."

Sheena looked at her sister, and then at her ancestors from another version of her world. Outside her parents, these people offered her the only real sense of acceptance of herself that she'd ever known. If she couldn't tell them the truth, who could she ever confess it to?

"Unfortunately, I think I am still in love with him. Those feelings have no positive place to go, but that's how it is between us."

"What about the handsome man who came to visit ya last evening? The one Bri told us about?" Erin asked.

Sheena glared at her sister. "Bri talks too much." She looked back at Erin. "I was Scott's assignment. He came to check on me to see what I was doing on the AAS airship. I didn't know that about our relationship until yesterday."

"Are ya grieving his loss then?" Erin asked. "Seems like the good-looking ones always linger too long in yer heart and mind." Erin gave Angus a pointed look and he laughed.