Teacher For An Alien Doctor (Intergalactic Exchange Program #3) - Roxie Ray Page 0,3

over for the day. We could have gone on home, but I wanted to stop in to see Lareis and let her know I’d returned her pod as well as update her on Dylan. She was my co-teacher, my friend, and as Dylan’s teacher too, she would want to make sure he was okay.

“I’m so glad he’s all right,” she whispered, keeping her voice low so the class couldn’t hear her as they packed up their belongings for the day.

Dylan was across the room talking with a friend, a human-Raider hybrid who had come to the planet with his father on an extended work contract after his mother had returned to Earth when he was a baby. There were quite a few of the hybrid children on Hollander, and it never ceased to amaze me that there were so many women who joined the IEP on breeding contracts.

“I know. That was really scary. Fortunately, the doctor was amazing with Dylan.” Amazing in general…

Gah. No. Not amazing. He’s an alien, Maya.

I felt a rush of guilt at the thought, though. Lareis was an alien too, a native Hollander. It would be unfair to lump all aliens together just because of the experience my sister had. Still, I had to keep my head on straight when it came to my own love life.

“You’re the one who’s amazing, Maya,” Lareis said, crossing her arms over her ample curves and shaking her head. Her pastel pink waves bounced as she did so—it was the latest in her ever-changing rainbow of hair colors. “Seriously, girl. We’re all lucky to have you. You’re an amazing teacher, an incredible aunt. It’s not just anyone who would take in a child like you did.”

My cheeks warmed at the compliment. But of course I took him in. When my sister died, I was the only family he had left. We were all each other had left, and I loved him dearly, even though I had spent the first seven years of his life on Earth while he was on Tracorox with June.

“You would do the same, and you know it,” I told her with a smile.

“True,” she said, giving me a cheeky grin. “But I’m not just anyone.”

I laughed at that. “Without a doubt. But you know how amazing Dylan is. He makes it easy. And I love him so much.” I glanced over at him again, smiling fondly. He really was my world now. And the reason that I was working so hard to get the contract I’d really wanted when this one came up in a couple months.

Lareis smiled. “That’s more than evident. I understand. Consider yourself lucky that you’ve been given this opportunity to have him in your life.”

“I do.”

Lareis had always wanted children of her own, but it hadn’t been in the cards for her. She loved kids, which was why she not only was a teacher, but she also fostered children who didn’t have homes and families of their own. She truly was a remarkable woman.

“Look, girl. Go home. Get some rest—both of you. I’ve got this.”

“Thank you so much.” I really was exhausted after the craziness of the afternoon. “I owe you one.”

“Not at all.”

I gathered my things and Dylan, and we made our way outside and began the short walk home. I reflected once more on the day, and how grateful I was to have Lareis in my life. She was the one and only alien that I fully trusted, and that was only because she was a woman and had fostered at least a hundred kids over the past thirty years. It took a saint to do that, and Lareis was one of kind.

That was something I needed to keep reminding myself of, especially if I came in contact with that doctor at any point in the future. Aliens simply could not be trusted. I knew that better than anyone after learning what happened to my sister when she fell for an alien.

Yeah, it didn’t matter how cute Dr. Soren happened to be. Or the fact that I’d felt things I’d never felt before when I was around him today. He simply couldn’t be trusted—and that was that.

1

Soren

“This isn’t working.”

I paced the length of the lab, hands folded behind my back, and tried to keep that woman out of my head. It was impossible. I didn’t even know her name, but she had burrowed herself underneath my thoughts, much like a tree whose roots spread out under the soil, digging their