Brida Pact

Leora Gonzales

Poppy is bored
to tears with her dead-end job and dull life, so when a species of alien
warlords arrives on Earth, seeking women to help repopulate their race, why
wouldn’t she sign up? She doesn’t care who she’s matched with—until she meets
him. Sexy, long-haired and leather-pants-wearing Wheaton.

Diplomat
Wheaton expected a cultured Earthling to help in his mission, not some
crazy-haired woman named after a flower and whose speech baffles his
translator.
Pardon my French? Knock it off?
But Wheaton is soon smitten
and eager to turn Poppy’s good-morning kisses into an all-day affair.
Doing
the nasty? Bring it on!

But Poppy must
do battle with the slimy councilor Demascus,
and
an extremist group
opposed to the Pact. And that’s before a glitch in the Bridal Pact program
makes all existing matches invalid, and glossy Hannah, the perfect
politician’s
wife, arrives on board. Her match:
Wheaton.

Reader Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and
scenes—no closed bedroom doors (or other rooms) here!

An
adult science fiction romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Dedication

I would like to give thanks to my family and friends who
have been supportive while I stumbled through writing my first book.

Special thanks to my friend Andrea. A bumper sticker brought
us together but wonder twin powers keep us going strong.

Tina, you have become a close friend and I will never get
bored talking to you. Your talent, life experience and generous heart make you
an amazing woman. Plus, you get bonus points for putting up with Richard…that’s
kind of a big deal.

Most importantly, I want to dedicate this to my husband. I
was lucky enough to find a man who is super smart, loving, hilarious and also
diabolical. When I said that I wanted to write but had no computer, I had no
idea he was going to surprise me with a new laptop. There went my list of
excuses. Touché, Richard. Touché.

Poppy Williams jerked awake at the sound of police sirens.
Sitting up in bed as if she’d been electrocuted, she looked around for a
minute. What the hell was going on? Confused from sleep, Poppy blinked a few
times to focus her eyes. The amount of sun streaming through the window could
only mean one thing.

“Holy fucking shit!”

Not only had her alarm not gone off but she’d apparently
overslept by more than an hour. Scrambling from under her comforter, Poppy
stumbled and ending up face-planting on the floor by her bed, landing in a pile
of shoes.

“Motherfucker!” Now she was not only going to be late for
work, she’d have a shoe imprint on her forehead.

Snatching her phone from the nightstand, she hit the icon to
call work. When all she got was a busy signal, she tossed it onto the bed and
ran to her closet to find some clean clothes. After getting dressed with a
speed she thought would impress the Flash, she moved to the bathroom to clean
up her face.

The only way to tame her curls would be to start over with a
shower and since that wasn’t an option she pulled her hair back and piled it
into a bun on top of her head. As she brushed her teeth, she tried to smooth
down some of the curls around her face.

“Stupid hair,” Poppy muttered. She actually loved her long
curls but only when she had enough time to tame them. Glancing into the mirror
one last time, she took in her image. Standing at five foot three, she had some
serious curves. Poppy normally weighed herself every morning out of habit and
knew the one hundred and eighty pounds that showed on the scale would make most
women cringe. She however had decided long ago to accept what seemed to be her
“normal”. No, she took that back. She not only accepted herself, she liked
herself.

Leaning forward to make sure she didn’t have toothpaste on
the side of her mouth, Poppy took a second to clear the sleep from the corners
of her brown eyes. Another good thing was that she appeared closer to
twenty-three than the twenty-seven years she was pushing.

She’d wasted enough time in the bathroom and raced to the
door where her other shoes were. Slipping them on as she walked caused Poppy to
almost fall for the second time this morning. As she redialed the office, she
noticed the time at the top of the screen.
Well shit. Why weren’t they
answering?

In her hurry to get out the door, she barely missed slamming
into the man blocking her path to the stairs. She brushed by him at the last
minute, narrowly avoiding knocking both of them over. She stopped dead. Something
wasn’t right.

Work forgotten, she saw almost all her neighbors were
standing on the open-air staircase. That was when she remembered what had
originally woken her up.

Sirens.

Walking back a step to the man she assumed was her loud
next-door neighbor, she asked, “Is one of the buildings on fire?”

When he didn’t answer her but instead simply stared across
the parking lot, Poppy turned around to see what had everyone in a trance.

“What the fuck?!”

Not believing her eyes, she blinked a couple times and then
pinched her arm for good measure.

There, hovering in the sky, was a strange plane. Studying it
closely, she realized, no, that wasn’t a plane. It was some sort of ship. A
bright, shiny silver ship like something straight out of the movies. Just
floating in the air as if it were guarding something, it cast a shadow over a
few of the buildings it hovered above.

Poppy jumped when a hand clasped her shoulder hard from
behind.

“Didn’t you see the news?” Her neighbor was still staring at
the ship with a panicked expression on his face.

“What? What news?” Shaking her head to clear it, she blinked
a few more times and whispered, “What the fuck is going on?”

“It’s aliens. There are aliens…aliens…”

As his voice trailed off in disbelief, Poppy looked
frantically around, trying to figure out what was happening.

Every single neighbor on her floor was out on the stairs
watching the strange ship hanging in midair over the buildings in front of her.
Some people were whispering, quite a few were crying, but most of them were
just staring in shock at the ship.

Poppy tried frantically to unlock her phone with fingers
that were now slippery with sweat. Finally getting to the screen she needed,
she punched the icon with her sister’s picture on it.

“Pixie. Answer the phone, Pixie.” Poppy heard the voicemail
pick up and immediately hit End to dial again. How dare Pixie not answer the
phone when there were aliens?
Aliens!

“Poppy!” Her sister’s voice had Poppy breathing a sigh of
relief.

“Pixie! Are you seeing this?” Poppy peered over the rail on
the stairs to see a police car circling on the street beneath her third-story
apartment. She covered her free ear to drown out the siren that was
continuously wailing. Poppy strained to hear what was being said.

“Stay indoors. Do not panic. Stay indoors.” The words were
being repeated from the emergency vehicle in between the siren blaring.

Poppy walked back toward her apartment door even as the rest
of her neighbors stayed where they were.

“Pixie? I can barely hear you. What did you say?” Poppy
struggled with the door to her apartment with one hand, holding the phone with
the other.

“Poppy, the ships…they’re everywhere…it’s all over the
news.”

In between crackles she could hear sirens on Pixie’s end of
the line as well.

“Hang on.” Finally getting the stupid door open, Poppy ran
to her TV to turn it on.

When the screen flickered, it was all Poppy could do to keep
breathing. The live shot from the news crew showed not just a single ship but
dozens of them. Simply hovering over the city.

As the news alert showed different cities reporting the same
phenomenon, Poppy felt her stomach sink.

“Poppy? Are you still there?” Pixie’s voice wobbled over the
phone.

“Yeah, Pix, I’m here. Are you at home?” Poppy had the
undeniable urge to get to her last remaining family member and make sure she
was safe. From her window she could see the police cars still making their
rounds on the busy street. From what she could make out, traffic was blocked up
and down the road. Fuck. There went that idea.

“Yeah, I was watching the news before I went in to work. I
tried calling your office but I couldn’t get through.”

“Well, at least you had the news to prepare you. I missed my
alarm and almost mowed a guy down on the stairs. I didn’t know what was
happening until I saw that thing in the sky.” Poppy took turns peeking out her
window at the commotion below and walking back to the TV.

“What the fuck are they?”

Pixie started talking again but Poppy shushed her.

“Shhhh, Pix, they’re having a press conference.”

Turning up her TV to drown out some of the outside noise,
Poppy sank down onto her living room floor. The local news switched over to a
national broadcast. She held her breath as she stared at the screen, watching
the president take his place behind a podium. He managed to appear calm and
collected despite the panic and confusion out on the street. Holding up his
hands to quiet down the reporters shouting questions from all directions, he
focused directly on the camera.

“My fellow Americans, do not be alarmed. Many of you have been
watching the news reports this morning regarding first contact that has been
made with an alien species. The truth is that we are no longer alone. In fact,
we have never been alone. This race of beings has also made us aware that they
are not the only ones in the unknown depths of space. The safety of all
Americans is our number-one concern. After our initial contact, we have started
negotiations with their leaders.

“While we speak with them, we ask that citizens stay calm.
There is no need for panic. We have ascertained that they are here on a
peaceful mission and the ships that many of you have seen are there for
observation purposes. During this time we ask that nonessential businesses stay
closed today and we recommend that citizens stay inside until the streets have
cleared. For your safety and others, please only call emergency services if
they are truly needed. The State Department also asks that concerned citizens
do not try to disturb the ships, which are protected by force fields. Air
travel has been suspended except for military flights, and there will be a
press release announcing when commercial or private planes will restart.”

Poppy took in a huge gulp of air when he stopped speaking.
Her mind was whirling, trying to absorb her new reality. Aliens. Motherfucking
aliens.

The screech in Poppy’s ear was loud and obnoxious but
managed to knock her out of the funk she’d fallen into, hanging on the
president’s every word. Still holding the phone to her ear with her sister on
the line, Poppy tried to swallow to clear her throat.

“Did you see that?” Pixie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit,” Pixie breathed out.

“No joke. So…wait…you can’t come over. I’m here alone,
Pixie, and this is freaking me out.” For some reason, Poppy felt on the verge
of tears. Overwhelmed, she blinked a couple of times to clear her eyes.

Pixie was the only family Poppy had left. After a car
accident had claimed the lives of their parents five years ago, the sisters had
been closer than ever before. Poppy had begun to rely on her older sister more
the past couple of years. It was hard not to. Pixie seemed to have her shit
together. While Poppy worked at the front desk in a medical office, Pixie held
a managerial position at a successful restaurant. She had to admit, she was
slightly jealous that Pixie had a chance to use her college degree and make
decent money doing it. Whoever thought to major in history was an idiot, and
that pool of idiots happened to include Poppy herself.

“Poppy, I can’t. There are actually barricades blocking my
street.”

Poppy could hear Pixie fiddling with the loud blinds in her
living room. “I know, Pix. I’m sorry… I’m just having trouble taking this all
in.” She dropped down onto her loveseat and kicked off her shoes to think for a
second.

“Is Brian home or had he already left for work when all this
shit happened?”

Brian was Pixie’s live-in boyfriend of two years. Her sister
seemed to be on the verge of becoming Brian’s fiancée at any time, if the
rumors were true. All their mutual friends hinted Brian seemed to be acting a
little sneaky and might have spent some time at a jewelry store recently. Poppy
was happy for her sister’s success, both in work and relationships. Although
she’d prefer not to have to confess to it, she did sometimes feel a little
envious.

“He’d left but only made it down a couple blocks before
there was a wreck. By the time he turned around, he noticed people were
stopping their cars in the street to get out and look at the ships that’d
become visible.”

“Become visible?”

“Yeah, Brian said he was driving down the road and then a
ship just appeared in front of him in the sky. He said it didn’t fly down, just
popped up out of nowhere.”

Poppy leaned her head back and tried to calm her nerves.

“Well, Pix, at least you have Brian there.” Glancing wryly
at her front door, she added, “I may have to keep company with my loud and
obnoxious neighbors. I spoke to them for the first time in two years.”

“Once they reopen the streets, you can come here and stay
with us,” Pixie offered in her “big sister” voice.

“Yeah, I may have to do that. This whole thing is so
unbelievable.” Poppy was now talking more to herself than to Pixie.

“Hey, Pops, Brian just came in. He’s been standing in the
front yard watching everything. We’re going to keep watching the news today. Call
me in a little bit to check in, okay?” Pixie waited for her sister to agree
before saying goodbye.

Without the phone to cling to now, Poppy glanced around the
apartment, listening for noises from outside. Nothing but sirens wailing with
the continued, “Stay indoors. Do not panic.”

“Well shit.”