Alien in the Family

home world and here on Earth?”
    Alexander’s eyes went wide. “I . . . don’t know what you mean.”
    “Open the door!” Chuckie and Martini shouted in unison. There was a lot of that going on. Too many alpha males in one small space.
    Security flung it open, and the Poofs pretty much flew into the room, turning bigger as they did so. One tackled Uma before she was able to get Alexander with the knife she was holding, another knocked Gregory aside, and the others surrounded Alexander, with much growling and the showing of sharp teeth.
    “Good Poofies. Anyone else want to try to kill someone? No? Smartest move I’ve seen you people do yet. Poofies? Bring Alexander out, please. Oh, and take that nasty weapon away from the mean lady.” The Poof on top of Uma growled in her face. She dropped the knife; the Poof picked it up in its jaws and trotted out of the room behind the rest of them, looking very pleased with itself.
    I gave lots of Poof lovies, then turned to Alexander. “Sucks to be you, dude, but you could have given us the heads-up a lot sooner, you know.”
    He shook his head. “He’s my brother. He wanted the kingship so much . . . I didn’t realize he was out of control until it was too late. I did what I could.” He looked at Martini. “I’m sorry. For all of it.”
    “So, who can we trust besides you?”
    Alexander shrugged. “I’m not even sure you can trust me. So much has gone wrong . . . but Queen Renata is trying to fix things.”
    “So are we,” one of the Major Doggies said. “I am Willem. We have the support of our leader.”
    “Support to try to kill the Alpha Four royal family?” Chuckie asked pleasantly.
    “No,” Willem said. “Support to fix the damage we have caused.”
    One of the Cat People spoke up. “I am Felicia. We as well are along to help.”
    I looked at the Giant Lizards. “You speaking up there, Iguanodon?”
    “My name is Neeraj. This is Jareen. We do not appreciate your way of speaking to us, human.”
    “We don’t appreciate Giant Lizards coming by trying to screw our world over. So we’re even.” I thought about it. “How do they spell their names?”
    Alexander sighed. “Yes, each name is the other name spelled backward. It’s a mating thing on their world.”
    “So, they’re married? Which one’s the girl?”
    “Jareen is my female,” Neeraj said, clearly pissed off. “She is the most beautiful Reptilian on our world.”
    “Yeah, well, Jeff thinks I’m hot, too, but he didn’t rename me Ffej.”
    Martini laughed. “Oh, but it’s so cute, so you.”
    “We are not amused,” Neeraj said.
    “We don’t care,” Martini said pleasantly. “We don’t like you.”
    “You know, they’re all going to say they’re here to help.” Chuckie looked back at Alexander. “Who, besides Queen Renata, do you recommend we trust?”
    Alexander sighed. “They all need to help you, because they can’t go home unless this situation resolves in a positive way.”
    “Interstellar war bad for the image?”
    “Yes. But, I wouldn’t let anyone but Renata out of the room right now, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “Alexander, how can you do this to us?” Uma shouted.
    He closed his eyes, but didn’t turn around. “I still have a shred of honor left, and I want to hold onto it.”
    “You are not my brother any longer,” Gregory said. He sounded hurt and furious.
    “I know.” Alexander looked like he was trying not to break down.
    “Jeff, what do you think?”
    Martini sighed. “Let Renata out. Alexander’s telling the truth, and she’s not our enemy. Leave the rest of them in there.” He pulled me back, out of the clutch of people, bent down and whispered in my ear. “I can’t tell on the lizards, dogs, or cats. I need to be around them more to see if I’m filtering their emotions correctly. There’s more going on than Gregory’s told Alexander; I can feel him hiding something. Lenore is basically clueless, and Uma’s a raving bitch, but you already knew that.”
    “Umm hmmm.” Him nuzzling my ear was really turning me on, scary interstellar plots or no.
    He laughed softly. “I love how, no matter what, you can always focus on the priorities.”
    “I want to go to Vegas.” And spend time in the huge suite. Spend time making like bunnies in every portion of the huge suite. It felt like ages since Martini had made me scream and beg for more.
    He kissed my ear. “Put on that outfit and tell me that.”
    I turned around.