Five years ago
Bianca's sweet sixteenth birthday should have been celebrated with a new car in the driveway with a pretty bow on it, not with an imminent alien invasion. Instead of Bianca rushing out the door, shiny new keys in hand, two Secret Service agents rushed into her bedroom and hustled her into the hallway toward her father's room.
"We have secured Hummingbird. Repeat, we have secured Hummingbird," one agent said into his ear mic. The two armed men trapped her near the back wall of her father's bedroom, shielding her with their bodies.
"Bianca?" Her father rushed over to her, his own security detail flanking him. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine…" Her voice shook as she looked around the room. "What's going on?"
"A ship has appeared in orbit, just outside our atmosphere."
"A ship? What do you mean, a ship?" Bianca stared at her father's ashen face. There was really only one possible answer, but she had to hear it for herself.
"A spaceship."
Bianca would have laughed if it wasn't for the looks on the faces of the men around her. No one was joking.
"You mean…like aliens?" Her heart raced so violently in her chest that it hurt. She struggled to process what was happening.
"Yes, we—" Her father's words were cut off as a man materialized in front of them in the center of the room with a flash of light. The man—or alien, presumably—looked straight at her father.
The Secret Service agents drew their guns on the sudden intruder. Bianca just stared at the man—who looked human, yet was somehow too perfect to be human—as he spoke to her father. This was no thin green specter with oval—shaped black eyes who'd dropped to Earth in a beam of light from a flying saucer. This…creature looked more like he'd stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine. It didn't make sense. Why would aliens look so human?
His speech was slow and measured, with a hint of an accent she'd never heard before. Her stomach knotted, and her body flushed with a rush of heat as she stared, bewitched, at the beautiful man before her. She was only sixteen, but her hormones were already raging. She knew a sexy man when she saw one, and this one was beyond sexy.
"President Wells, I know you spoke to Arus, one of my kind, a few minutes ago, and he made it clear that we, the Krinar people, are no threat to you." The man was tall, too tall, with russet hair and brown eyes that seemed to flash a tawny gold every few seconds. There was something terrifying and fascinating about him that made it impossible to look away.
"I did speak with Arus. Who are you?" her father asked.
"My name is Soren. Arus has assigned me the role of…" Soren paused, his lips twitching in a near smile as he seemed to search for the right word. "Ambassador."
Bianca strained to see over the shoulders of her Secret Service detail. They wedged her between their two large bodies and the wall, smothering her with fear and panic as wild thoughts of a hundred alien invasion movies swarmed in her head. There was a soft rumble to the man's deep voice that seemed to put her at ease as her instincts screamed that nothing was calming about facing off with an alien.
In fact, she knew without a doubt that something was terribly wrong, because she should have been screaming and trying to escape…yet her voice wouldn't work. She was rooted to the spot in horror and fascination.
"I am to represent the needs of the Krinar people on Earth. Any issues that arise will be dealt with by me." The man crossed the room and seated himself in an armchair, the one her father liked to sit in at night and smoke a cigar when he had the chance.
"You have been poor custodians of such a precious planet. You have ruined it. We are here to fix what we can, and you will be thankful for the intervention."
This man…alien…who called himself Soren, simply leaned back, hands on the armrests in a picture of complete ease, watching them without fear. His casual, carefree attitude warned Bianca that whoever these Krinar were, they weren't afraid of humans at all. That meant they had power, and lots of it.
Soren cleared his throat politely and continued. "I assume you don't mind if I procure a residence close to yours. It will give me time to acclimate. I have not set foot on your world in more than five thousand years." Soren chuckled. "Much has changed."
Her father seemed to recover himself. "Five thousand years?"
"Yes. I was checking in on your progress. Egypt was the center of advanced technology. They were quite gifted."
"Our progress?" Bianca spoke up, only to have one of her agents mutter a curse and try to remove her from the room. But she dug in her heels.
"Stop. Leave her be." Soren's commanding voice stilled the agent gripping her, and his hold loosened. "Who is this?" Soren seemed to notice her for the first time. Her father stepped between her and the Krinar man.
"My daughter, Bianca. She normally wouldn't be in here, but your little magic act has my security team noticeably concerned, and they thought it best to bring her to my room." Her father waved at the agents hovering near him and Bianca.
Soren raised a dark brow, studying Bianca. There was a knowing look in his gaze, as though he could read every thought she'd ever had. There would be no keeping secrets from him. A sudden shiver rippled down her spine at the thought of feeling so powerless against a man like him.
"Today is your birthday?" he asked as he looked down at his palm. Had he written notes on it, like she did when she was worried she'd forget something? The idea of a powerful alien needing to scribble down notes on his hand struck her as both funny and bizarre.
"Y–yes," she replied. He then moved a few steps closer, and she saw that his palm was empty of notes. What had he been looking at? And how had he known about her birthday?
"Happy birthday, then. Sixteen is an important year in a human's life, I'm told." Soren smiled and turned his focus back to her father, having lost all interest in her.
"Now, Mr. President, it's time we talked peace terms in order to prevent millions of innocent deaths." He rose with confidence and preternatural grace from the armchair and came face—to—face with her father. "Here's how Earth is going to surrender to Krinar control." Bianca felt like she'd swallowed her tongue whole as she stared at the gorgeous, scary—as—hell man who had just announced that his people were not only invading, but had already won. All she could think was that he reminded her of a leopard she'd once seen in a zoo. So close against the glass, golden eyes hungry with dark intent…
A predator.
Bianca opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.