Page 13 of Stone Cold Alien

“I had little else to do.”

That explained why his speech sounded slightly awkward, but not how calmly he was accepting any of this. Then again, he’d had several lifetimes to consider what he would say if someone finally spoke to him.

I looked at Pam. “You knew all of this?”

“Not at first. Cairn explained it after Georgie woke him.”

“And who is Cairn?”

I really wanted to add a “the fuck” in there, but years of working in A&E had taught me to keep a cool head and not to swear.

“My friend. My brother. My leader,” Sten said solemnly. There was a lot of emotion in his voice, but not all positive. That could be unpacked another day. And not by me. By some alien therapist who knew all there was to know about gharrgoils.

Everything Pam had told me at the inn rearranged itself in my head. The unusual situation. The man who couldn’t always talk. The friend who had been separated from him for a very long time.

She hadn’t technically lied. She had simply missed out the spaceship, alien and living-statue parts.

“And your genetic test says Sten is my match?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Cairn was petrified too. Georgie’s touch woke him, just as yours woke Sten. We believe they can only be awakened by their mate.”

I looked at the alien I had travelled into the Highlands to date. He was still mostly naked, covered in mud and glaring at everyone. The latter was probably due to the pain he had to be in. If only I knew how to fix his wing.

Sten’s tail moved across the grass. “I did not agree to be her match.”

“Neither did I,” I said.

“You agreed to a date,” Pam pointed out.

“With a man. In a hotel or restaurant. You promised a luxury experience. I did not agree to drive to a castle in the middle of nowhere, climb a ladder and wake an alien who didn’t know I was coming.”

Sten’s attention snapped to me. “You did not know?”

“No. Pam told me I had to touch a gargoyle before meeting my date. I thought it was some kind of strange challenge. Or a prank. I most certainly didn’t expect the gargoyle to wake up.”

His gaze moved to her. “You deceived her.”

Pam sighed. “I couldn’t tell her the truth.”

“You could have told me,” I said. “You chose not to.”

“I was trying to help Sten.”

“By letting strangers touch him while he couldn’t stop them?”

Pam’s face changed. “He told you about the other women?”

“No. But you just did.” I turned back to Sten. “I wouldn’t have touched you if I’d known you were alive. I thought you were a statue. That doesn’t make it better, but I am sorry. I’m a nurse. I look after people in vulnerable situations all day long. I know being unable to control what happens to you is a horrible feeling.”

“You stopped when I told you to.”

It wasn’t forgiveness, but it was something.

“What happened with the other women?” I asked Pam.