It was morning the following day before I joined my family and friends at the breakfast table.  My mother was in her glory as she bustled around the kitchen making bacon, eggs, and blueberry pancakes for the hungry hoard.  The one thing that I adored about my friends was the fact that they hadn’t a shy bone in their body.  The world was their oyster and they enjoyed every delicious morsel of it.  Although always polite, they were outgoing and extremely comfortable with who they were.  Of my little group, I was the introvert.“Where did everyone sleep?” I asked. “It didn’t dawn on me to make sure you were all taken care of before I went to bed.  I’m sorry.”“You needed the rest,” Chris said.“Besides, we were in good hands,” Roger said as he smiled warmly at my mother, who returned it with equal warmth.  “Mama bear is quite the caretaker.”&ldqu

I started keeping record of the number of times I was fed breakfast.  This gave me a better idea of how long I was in that room.  Joshua may have been hiding something, but he clearly had medical training.  He cared for me with such competence that I know I healed faster and better than I would have in a normal hospital environment.  I’d had two weeks’ worth of breakfasts when he carefully removed my bandage and handed me a mirror.   Although it still looked angry, I was amazed at how clean and slender the scar was.“I wish it wasn’t there,” I said with a sigh, “but I expected this long-jagged thing.  It felt like that dog ripped the meat from my throat.  This is just a thin, small scar.  It’s amazing.”“It could have been worse if you hadn’t been such a good patient,” he said as he stroked the hair on my head.’“Will I be able to leave soon

Dr. Sally Mokena arrived at the lodge shortly after the noon hour.  She was accompanied by a man who she introduced as Dr. Michael Murry.  She whispered that he was of the alien lineage and was the physician that they all sought care from.  I assured her that she could speak freely in front of Roger and Pete, since we’d discussed the situation freely and had all agreed to be open minded and not ignorant about the possibility of aliens living amongst us.  I admitted that I was still on the fence of resistance, but that I was leaning toward believing what they said about me was true.She requested that I allow Dr. Murry the opportunity to examine me to make sure that I was fine.  I agreed, but only if Marc was allowed to stay in the room.  Although she looked surprised, my therapist readily agreed.The room stayed relatively quiet as Dr. Murry performed a thorough examination on me, right down to an internal.  He looked up at me w

With the funeral behind us and my friends gone, the lodge felt solemn and empty.  Marc did his best to keep me entertained, but he had businesses to run and kingly responsibilities to tend to, so I was left to my own devices much of the time.Luis developed a good sense of the best ways to get me to eat nutritiously while making it appear to be the unhealthy mess that I tended to gravitate to.  I was wise to his tricks, but said nothing.  I knew that it was in the best interest for both me and my baby to eat healthy, plus I didn’t want to spoil the pleasure I knew Luis felt by thinking he’d outsmarted me. More help arrived as they prepared for the quarterly meeting of the east coast division task force.  I kept myself busy helping to ready the cabins.  It was inside one of them where Dr. Mokena found me.“Hello Dr. Mokena,” I said with breathless delight.  It felt really good to be busy doing something

Sally’s suggestion that I look at the dark beasts more like evil humans in dog costumes than like dogs or wolves couldn’t have been more accurate.  I’d been warned about their intelligence, what I wasn’t warned about was their ability to shape shift.The wild dog look, although their favorite, was only one of several identities that they took on while above ground.  Had I not known better, I would have thought that I’d, somehow, traveled onto the movie set shooting an episode of “Planet of the Apes” when my bedroom door burst open and several large apes bounded in.  One of them lifted me into its arms while the other rummaged the desk until it came across papers.  Surprisingly, amidst all of that madness, I was able to wonder if those papers were what Joshua focused on the day that I’d seduced him.“Put her down, you, son-of-a-bitch,” Joshua roared as he rushed into the room with lightning