Alien Tango

male line.”
    “Yes, but it’s different for you because of your mother. And, I know you’ve not declared for anyone yet, but when you do . . . ” White’s voice trailed off and he looked at me. “Oh, dear.”
    “This just went to DEFCON Worse, didn’t it?”
    “Oh, hell.” Reader had his head in his hands. It was catching.
    “What? James, what?”
    He looked around. “Oh, well. Not like it’s a secret to anyone in this room.” He sighed. “Kitty, Jeff wasn’t the only one who, ah . . . .” His voice trailed off and he shot an uncomfortable look toward Christopher.
    Who went pale. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding! We’re past that!” He shot a look at Martini. “Really, we’re past that.” What we were past was the fact Christopher had also wanted me when we’d first met, and we’d had a brief, wild moment in an elevator. Martini had had a hard enough time letting the incident go, but Christopher and I had been very careful since then and hadn’t done anything remotely romantic, and in fact, acted like opposing magnets when something potentially romantic loomed.
    “Yeah, yeah, doesn’t matter,” Martini shot back. “Reynolds is going to be a bigger problem.”
    “Me? Why?” Chuckie sounded confused for the first time.
    Martini spun around. “Because you still want to marry her if you can. It’s complex, and it’s not pretty, and I need to get the rest of the details.” He looked at Gower. “We need everyone on high alert. Everyone’s going to have to be briefed, in shifts, key personnel first. But down to the youngest child who’s of age to know why we’re all really here. Oh, and all of my family, and I do mean all, down to the youngest kids who can communicate verbally or mentally.” He went back to his corner.
    We all looked at each other. “Richard, you mind telling us what’s going on? I mean, it’s that, or we all just go running off screaming into the streets.”
    White took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alfred and my late wife were cousins, not as close as Christopher and Jeffrey are, about as close as Jeffrey and Paul, and Michael, are.”
    Interesting, hadn’t known that. “Okay . . . so, cousins married a brother and sister. Not totally unusual.”
    “No, not at all, on either one of our worlds.” White didn’t want to go on, it was obvious.
    Michael, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet this entire time, spoke up. “You want me to explain it?” He was a smaller version of his older brother—big, black, bald, and gorgeous. He was also a major womanizer, but I doubted that had relevance here.
    “How do you know?” White sounded shocked. Gower looked as shocked as White sounded.
    Michael shrugged. “My mother told me about it. She was . . . concerned I would use our Unity Necklace . . . inappropriately.” Oh, wow, so him being a womanizer was relevant. Double interesting.
    “What did she tell you?” White sounded guarded.
    “That we were close enough from a blood standpoint that it could affect us.”
    “What could affect you?” I figured the rest of us were getting as impatient as I was.
    Michael gave me a wry smile. “Jeff and Christopher are part of the Alpha Centaurion Royal Family.”

Gini Koch lives in the American Southwest, works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She lives with her husband and daughter, three dogs (aka The Canine Death Squad), and two cats (aka The Killer Kitties). When she’s not writing, Gini spends her time going to rock concerts with her daughter, teaching her pets to “bring it,” and driving her husband insane asking, “Have I told you about this story idea yet?”
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