Page 104 of Roping Her Alien Ranchers

My aliens.

My Alphas.

Who were leaving me.

I wouldn’t cry again. No red nose. No trembling lip. No mascara tracks. Just me, Tammy Tucker, saying goodbye to the three beings who had crash-landed into my life and changed everything.

They stood near their ship inside the supply barn. Kalith had modified the original door so it could open wide enough for the ship to exit. They were in their human forms, though each had subtle tells that might give them away to a discerning eye. Too-perfect posture. Fingers shimmering every now and then, giving a flash of textured tentacle. This world wasn’t meant for them, and I knew that. Eventually, someone would stumble upon their secret and bad things might happen to them. Still… selfishly… I wanted them to stay.

The ship hummed softly, almost musically.

“Your ship looks good as new,” I said, breaking the silence that stretched between us. My voice sounded steadier than I felt, and I was grateful for small mercies.

“Kalith’s repairs have exceeded original specifications,” Vantor replied, his tone formal despite the emotion I could see flashing beneath his metallic eyes. “The defense systems are operating at full efficiency.”

He would care about that, more than anything else. It almost made me smile.

“I improved the safety protocol too, just in case—” Kalith stopped talking abruptly.

I smiled. “Just in case you crash-land in another desperate cowgirl’s yard?”

He gave a sheepish grin, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. When he pulled it away, it had split at the wrist into tentacle tips.

We were talking about the ship because we couldn’t bear to talk about what really mattered. I took a deep breath, drawing courage from the Kansas air that had sustained generations of my family before me.

“I never understood soulmates before,” I said, finally giving voice to the thoughts that had circled in my mind all evening. “I never understood what it would feel like to scent match with an Alpha. I guess I didn’t know what it was, because my soulmates weren’t on this planet.” I met each of their gazes in turn, refusing to look away even as my heart cracked open in my chest. “You three taught me how it feels. I can’t imagine not being with you.”

The air shifted between us with a collective intake of breath and ripples of emotion too powerful to suppress. Cyro’s neck flushed with undulating patterns of pastel light, breaking through his human disguise like dawn through storm clouds. Kalith’s smaller tentacle emerged from his sleeve, reaching toward me before he could stop it. Even Vantor’s carefully maintained control slipped, a flash of deep burgundy sweeping across his forearms as his fingers curled into fists at his sides.

“The biochemical bond we’ve formed is… unfathomable. I could never have predicted it despite a lifetime of research,” Cyro said, his voice carrying that liquid echo quality that emerged when their emotions ran high.

“It’s not just biochemical,” I insisted, taking a step closer to them. “It’s more than that. I know it is. But even if that was all this was—” I gestured between me and them— “how amazing is that? A human Omega somehow connecting like this with aliens.” I smiled. “Alien Alphas,” I corrected, because that’s what they were.

The three aliens exchanged meaningful glances, a silent communication passing between them that needed no words. When they looked back at me, every detail had shifted in their expressions. A decision made, a truth acknowledged. The words were waiting to be spoken.

“Before Earth,” Kalith began, his voice soft but clear in the night air, “before you, we knew only empty physical pleasures. We had not found mates with which to create family units.”

“Our species does not conceptualize emotional attachment in the way humans do,” Cyro continued, a tentacle emerging fully from his collar now, its tip glowing with bioluminescent patterns that pulsed in rhythm with his words. “We form bonds based on compatibility, on shared purpose, on mutual benefit.”

“What you have taught us,” Vantor said, his deep voice unusually gentle, “is love.”

I felt tears welling in my eyes despite my determination to stay composed. One escaped, tracking down my cheek like a falling star, and before I could wipe it away, a tentacle—Cyro’s, its surface cool and silky—reached out to brush it gently from my skin.

“In the deepest trenches of our home world,” Cyro said, his tentacle lingering against my face, “there are creatures that produce light so brilliantly beautiful that it can be seen even from the surface. For many planetary cycles, I studied those bioluminescent wonders.” His silvery eyes, no longer even attempting to look human, fixed on mine with startling intensity. “None of them can compare to the light I’ve seen in you, Tammy Tucker.”

I reached up, pressing my palm against his tentacle, memorizing the feel of it one last time. “You guys really know how to leave a girl heartbroken.”

Kalith moved closer. “On our world, when we part ways, we say, ‘until our currents cross again.’”

“Until our currents cross again,” I repeated, the alien phrase feeling strange yet somehow right on my tongue. “I like that better than goodbye.”

Twenty-four powerful tentacles, each rippling with emotion and color shifting, wrapped around me.

For a long moment, we stood there in the Kansas night. I tried to memorize every sensation: the slight suction of Cyro’s tentacle against my cheek, the gentle pressure of Kalith’s appendage around my waist, the protective embrace of Vantor’s larger tentacles across my shoulders. The mingled scents of ocean depths, forest floors, sweet marshes, and my own human, Omega perfume. How long would the smell of them last upon my body? Should I never shower again?

After what felt like both an eternity and mere seconds, they withdrew, each touch lingering until the last possible moment before breaking contact.

They moved as one toward their ship, their human disguises dissolving with each step until three magnificent cephalopod-like beings stood silhouetted against the ambient light of their UFO. Their tentacles flowed with hypnotic grace, their skin alive with rich, vibrant, living colors. When they all turned to look at me once more, their metallic eyes glowed.