Deceit: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 1) by Harmony Raines Page A

last year on Earth.”
    “I’m glad you approve. I thought I would have to import some of those powdered meals you all eat.”
    “Necessity, Marin. Not choice.” Elissa licked the last crumbs off her fingers, and then added. “The very reason you brought me here.”
    He smiled. “I find you a lot more enjoyable than those powdered meals.”
    “Flattering, I guess.” But the look he gave her made her skin flush red and the butterflies in her stomach twirl out of control. Before she dragged him back to the bedroom, she said, “Shall we go?”
    “Of course.”
    They travelled in the same cruiser they had arrived in. Elissa thought it worked like a solar-powered hovercraft, no wheels and no gas. But it was fast and coped with every terrain they covered.
    “It runs on the sun, the solaris. You call it solar power. We discovered it on a planet some centuries ago and brought the technology here.”
    “Is that what you do? Gather technology?” She couldn’t believe how quiet the vehicle was, and no smelly fumes.
    “Yes, and plants. We sometimes bring new species here, but they are always introduced carefully so that the indigenous fauna is never damaged.”
    “So women aren’t the only thing you collect.”
    “No. But they are the most necessary, as you say.”
    “Why are there no females among your people?”
    “It is the way we evolved.” He was silent for a moment, and she knew he was pondering whether to share some facet of their culture. Because there must surely have been females once, or else how did they procreate before space travel? She looked out of the window at the mountains rising impossibly high into the cloudbanks and allowed him time to think.
    “Oh, look.” She pointed at a large, lumbering animal, a cross between an elephant and a giraffe. Creatures long extinct, but still her favourites from old picture books. It had the skin and trunk of an elephant, but its neck was long.
    “Arunda. They usually travel in herds. We’ll move on and then stop to watch.”
    Marin stopped the vehicle and then got out, helping her to climb onto its roof to get a better view. When he said herd , she had not expected the spectacle unfolding before her. The herd consisted of ten arunda fanning out in front, scouts, she guessed. Behind then flowed up to a hundred more, she guessed females and their young. They moved together. Almost as a flock of birds, calmly and methodically.
    “Where are they going?”
    “The seasons are in flux. They will travel a hundred miles to their pastures, where it is what you call summer.”
    “So they are migrating?”
    “Yes, more will come in the next few days.”
    “We used to have lots of animals on Earth. I have only seen pictures.”
    “There is so much more to see.” He jumped down, and she had to admire his athleticism.
    “I just realised how sweet the air is. This is what it must be like to live in the pents.”
    “Pents?” He held up his arms and she jumped down into them, loving the way he caught her in his strong arms.
    “Rich humans who live in big domes filled with pure air.”
    “Ah, here there is no pollution, so no need for domes.”
    They travelled on, the terrain changing, and they began to move into the foothills of the mountains. As they climbed, she turned in her seat to look back behind them. The vista was colourful, with large forests in the distance; the greens of the leaves interspersed with vibrant pinks, which she only assumed were blossoms.
    “Where are we going?” she asked, as the slopes became steeper.
    “To where my ancestors once lived.” He turned and headed along a ridge, the drop below them making Elissa feel queasy. “This is not like your cars. If there is no ground beneath it, we will fly instead.”
    “Handy,” she answered, still not convinced.
    “Here, you will see it soon.” He pointed in front of them and to the left, she looked, to see a network of caves, then as they got closer, in front of the caves a town, well,