Captivated: Return to Earth by Ashlynn Monroe

Chapter 1
     
    Cameras flashed and reporters screamed as Francesca Dehart
pushed her way through the crowd at the Virgin Galactic Interplanetary
terminal. The three men she’d rescued from Utopia flanked her. Fear for her men
made every muscle in her body tense. Cade, Nebraska, and Dawson wore strained
looks and they were even paler than usual.
    She and her lovers were the last to disembark from the
spacecraft that had just landed in Chicago after collecting them and the other
surviving miners from the defunct mining colony. The survivors were third-generation
colonists from an Earth-like planet called Utopia. She’d dreamed of this
reunion for months, but the media wanted to capture every breath of clean Earth
air her men took. Her vocal cries for their rescue had made them celebrities.
    There were more journalist here than there had been people
on Utopia. Her captors turned lovers had fought for survival on an abandoned
mining colony in a world with much harsher winters than Earth. Living there had
made crowds unnerving for her, so she couldn’t imagine what it was like for the
men. She’d brought them to her world to save them, but doubt stole her joy.
This was too much, too fast.
    The men looked up at the very high, tinted glass and steel
ceiling. Another shuttle came in for a landing, and the roar outside and shadow
of the great ship’s belly flying overhead was awe inspiring even for someone
who’d seen it before. The dignity in the way her men marveled made her proud.
She would have acted like a total freak, but they took in the new sights and
still remained wild-west tough as hell.
    “Did everyone who lives in your town come here to shout at
us?” Nebraska asked as he hurried along next to her. He was a big guy, but kept
looking nervously from side to side as the crowd of news-hungry reporters
pushed in toward them.
    “These are just some reporters. It’ll be okay,” she assured
the stressed man. Telling their story to bring public attention to the miner’s
plight had made her three men quasi-celebrities. Franny noticed more than just
local, or even national media. International broadcasting had sent people here
for this unprecedented landing. These men were the first alien-world born
humans on Earth.
    “What’s it like being home? Is it true America enslaved the
miners for over a generation?” Hearing the female correspondent’s question made
her flinch, because it was a reminder of what she’d been worried about.
    “We ain’t got a home, lady,” Cade replied.
    His response squeezed her heart in a vise. Home. This was
her home, but would the men feel comfortable here in Chicago—or Earth for that
matter?
    “What will you do now? Do you know where you’ll be staying?”
asked the same reporter.
    Franny thought she recognized the woman from a popular
morning TV show, so she opened her mouth to answer, but before she could
respond a male reporter grabbed her sleeve. He yanked Franny—hard. She almost
lost her balance. In panic she lashed out to slap at his hand. He didn’t let go
right away. Then Cade was beside her. His scowl made his displeasure crystal
clear.
    “Let her go!” Cade shouted. He stood toe-to-toe with the WGN
anchor.
    “Come on, it’s okay,” Franny said, trying to de-escalate her
very territorial male.
    Franny felt a hand on her shoulder and she gasped, turning.
Dawson pulled her away from the wall of newshounds and put his arms around her.
An image of what she had to look like next to him flittered across her mind as
the cameras angled toward them. She was wearing a low-cut, shimmering, sleeveless
blouse. The neckline was a thick collar of knit material. Her tight leggings
snapped onto her chunky heel shoes, and her bright auburn hair was twisted in a
very stylish, messy bun. She had dark, thick eyeshadow and bright red lips. Her
face makeup was pale except for the rouged cheeks. Her look couldn’t have been
more 2090’s Chicago hip.
    Flashes made it hard to see. The