Alien General's Beloved: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (15 page)

Lana looked so peaceful in her sleep.

Corden had heard about the way Brion men abandoned everything to keep their
geshas
safe and finally he understood. He was prepared to do anything to keep Lana looking that way, as if nothing could ever hurt her.

He swore that nothing ever would.

Before, killing Worgen had been simply his latest task, but now it was personal. His
gesha
would never abandon the fleet and he'd never let anything happen to her. That meant he had to save them all.

***

After an hour, Lana's dreams became restless. She tossed and turned on the sheets, her face twisting in grimaces as she tried to escape whatever haunted her nightmares.

Corden watched with all the curiosity of a pondering mind. Brions didn't get nightmares. For them, sleeping was only about rest. If they dreamed at all, which they rarely did, the dreams were more like memories. But Terrans had dreams of a different kind, ones capable of scaring them to the core.

The general frowned. He wanted to protect Lana from all harm, including the ones in her dreams, even if they posed no real danger to her. He got up slowly, approaching the bed with caution. If Lana woke and saw him there, she'd never trust him again.

But keeping away proved more testing than he might have imagined. Lana had been struggling so hard she'd thrown the blanket on the floor and now lay with the tunic she'd been wearing pushed up. Corden refused to touch her, despite his fingers aching for contact with her soft skin, but he couldn't stop watching.

The delicious curve of her ass was enough to make his mouth water when he imagined what it would be like to push into her, to feel her tightness close in on his cock. No woman had ever turned him on like that, robbing him of common sense, of self-restraint. His very soul burned with the need to have her, to make her belong to him in earnest.

Not just her body, although he'd never wanted anyone as badly as he longed for Lana. Corden wanted her to himself, entirely. He'd have to trust fate to bring them together in the end. After all, no good things came without a fight.

He picked the blanket up from the floor and gently laid it back on top of her, taking one last look at her long uncovered legs before doing so.

As soon as the silk touched Lana's skin, she woke with a scream. The general caught her in his arms as she shot up from the bed, right into his embrace. She threw her hands around him, murmuring words he couldn't understand. All he knew was that she was clinging to him for dear life, holding onto him like a lifeline. Carefully, he pulled her closer to his body, hating the armor that didn't let him feel her heat against his. Lana winced at first, but let him as shivers ran through her.

"It was the
Flora
," Lana whispered breathlessly against his neck.

To listen to her was music to his ears, her sweet breath caressing his skin. Corden never wanted it to end, but the despair in her voice was not a price he was willing to pay for being able to be close to her.

"It was burning," she went on. "There were people, dead, everywhere... And I heard laughing somewhere. I think it was Worgen. I think he did it. He killed everyone. And you were dead too—"

She stopped, as if the thought of his death finally brought her back to reality. Lana seemed to realize where she was and what she was doing. The captain pulled back, but not out of his embrace, her fingers aimlessly stroking the ornamented edges of his armor.

"I promise you," Corden said, "none of that will happen. I will not permit it to."

Lana's eyes were doubtful at first, but hope won over.

"It looked so real, almost like a prophecy," she whispered then, her voice shaking a bit.

"There is no such thing," Corden said, with the tone he used to address his warriors. "We are not puppets in the hands of the gods, even Brions know that. We make our own fates."

A sad smile broke on Lana's face.

"You believe in the bindings," she said, but it wasn't an accusation.

"That's different," Corden said. "The bonds are signs, pulling us toward the person we'd otherwise spend our whole lives searching for. Fighting to stay alive and not allow monsters like Worgen to win, that's the destiny
we
make."

Lana nodded, her blue eyes wide, holding his gaze. She was slowly edging closer, still half-asleep, barely aware of what she was doing. It was instinct that drove her to him, Corden knew that. Her hand slid up the surface of his armor, all the way up to his neck. The general was mesmerized by her, the slightest movement seeming like it was a spell she was putting on him. He couldn't have looked away from her if he tried.

Lana took the braid he still had between her fingers.

"You cut off the other," she said, her beautiful voice dreamy, as though she was still sleeping.

"I did," Corden said, allowing himself to take her hand.

Lana's eyes snapped from the braid back to him. The light blues were threatening to drown Corden in their depths, but he kept talking.

"It was a long time ago," he said. "I started counting the days from two defeats. One I told you about, the one I lost now. But the other... do you know what
grothan
means?"

Lana nodded.

"Undefeated," she said. "One of your generals still carries that title."

"Yes," Corden allowed with a grin. "Diego is the reason I have this other braid. I lost my title to him in a spar a long time ago."

"They count?" Lana asked. "I thought only big battles and duels mattered."

"Everything counts," the general said. "But after I lost, I didn't become less of a man like the title suggests. How could that be? I dueled with one of the greatest fighters in the history of our people and I happened to lose. I assure you, I didn't make it easy for him. But I was no longer a
grothan
."

"So," he went on, caressing Lana's hand in his gently, enjoying the way she didn't wince at his touch anymore. "I took on a new mark of glory, one I bestowed upon myself. And I haven't had reason to cut it since."

"What does it mean, then?" Lana asked.

"It means that being
grothan
says a lot," Corden replied with a grin, "but not everything."

He leaned forward, catching Lana's sweet lips in a soft kiss, but didn't push further. When he pulled back, her eyes were still closed.

"It means I have no intention of letting Worgen win," he growled, speaking with a fervor he'd rarely felt before. "You, the fleet, Briolina, I will take everything from him and break him before I grant him the mercy of death."

Lana looked wide awake now, still not pulling away from his arms. The drowsy sleepiness that had been there before in her eyes was replaced with a reassured determination.

"Will you help me protect the
Flora
?" she asked.

"Yes. This is not the Brion way. We don't make enemies of people who have done nothing wrong."

"You are a general. That means your own flagship has to be somewhere nearby."

"The
Claw
is close, yes," Corden allowed.

"Call it here," Lana said at once. "You can actually battle him. Alone, we're sitting targets."

Corden hesitated.

"That's true," he said. "But there is something wrong. Worgen doesn't worry about the
Abysmal
. He acts like nothing can touch him."

"And?"

"That's completely possible."

Lana frowned, making Corden grin, loving her temper.

"I know your ships are built to endure a lot, but they're not indestructible," she said.

"Mine isn't," Corden nodded. "I am not sure about the
Abysmal
. The technology of the older ships is lost to my species. We don't
know
what it can do. Until we do, I'm not bringing the
Claw
here."

Lana pushed him away firmly. Corden allowed it to happen and watched her stand, starting to dress again.

"You've barely slept," he said, amused.

"No time," Lana said, trying to stay out of his sight, avoiding looking at him too. "I need to try out something."

"What exactly do you propose?" Corden asked.

"We find out what the
Abysmal
is capable of," Lana said, pulling her coat on. "You said people can move between ships if they're smart about it."

"That was luck," Corden said. "Don't push it."

Lana smiled, the first true expression of amusement Corden had seen in a while.

"We just need a smart ship," she said. "And I know which one that is."

"One ship has no chance against the
Abysmal,
" Corden said, a hint of warning in his voice. "The guns are no match to a Brion warship."

But his
gesha
was beaming, alive with a new purpose to drive her onward.

"No," she admitted. "But a ship carrying three nuclear reaction cores makes one hell of a bullet."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lana

It was all coming together.

Lana waited for Corden's reaction. Her feelings toward him were all over the place, which was to be expected. The man seemed to bring trouble everywhere he went, but a part of her really liked that. At the moment, the captain was desperately trying to drown out her annoyance with herself by focusing on her new plan.

Great going,
her mind pitched in.
You close your eyes for a moment and when you wake up, it's straight into the arms of the guy who tried to force himself on you.

Lana wished there was a way she could glare at herself, because that was definitely not something she needed to think about right now.

The nightmare had been so vivid. She'd fallen asleep, thinking of everything that was at stake, at the mercy of a man who didn't know the true meaning of the word. The
Raptor
hadn't been helpless, exactly, but it was gone. The
Flora
was basically a huge, floating target. If Worgen decided to open fire, he didn't even really need to aim. It was impossible to miss the carrier.

And she was now the captain of that ship. The fact that she, too, was aimed at was a distant concern compared to the thousands of innocent people who didn't have a straight line to Worgen. Not that Lana did. She was still waiting on the general to tell her his commands. So far he seemed to enjoy keeping everyone in the dark.

To see the
Flora
burn in her dreams had been too much. Despite calling it a prophecy in the sleepy moments after waking up, Lana didn't really believe it was. First of all, the carrier had looked like a pyre, which was all sorts of impossible in fucking
space
. But that didn't make the image any less terrifying. She'd heard tortured screams, seen people torn apart and slaughtered. No wonder, really, that she went for the first solid, firm thing that was close enough to grab.

The fact that it was a really, really hot man was a secondary concern.

So much for keeping him away, though.

The general was considering her proposal.

"Nuclear cores," he repeated. "You mean to fly a ship into the
Abysmal
."

"Yes," Lana said. "Think about it. If it works, we've dealt a blow to the enemy. If it doesn't—"

"We'll know how much damage the flagship can take. I understand," Corden said, frowning. "I don't dispute the plan. I like it. It's bold. You have more in common with Brions than you think."

Lana felt a pleased smile tug at her lips.

"Then what's wrong?"

"This is too easily traced back to you."

Well, that was both true and troubling. Lana felt her enthusiasm take a hit, but she shook it off.

"Everything we do, every way I choose to fight, of course there's a chance it comes back to bite me," she said. "He can't blame
everything
on me."

"He can," Corden said, taking a step closer, vividly reminding Lana how amazing it had felt to be in his arms. "You're the only one in the fleet with a spine."

Suddenly he's a smooth-talker
, the captain thought.
Don't fall for him now. Bad timing, the worst.

"I have to try," she said, hoping that it was enough.

It was.

"I didn't say you shouldn't," Corden said, grinning.

***

She no longer felt entirely safe in his presence, but Lana trusted him to succeed like she didn't trust anyone else. It was partly because of the things she'd seen him do, but also because he was a real Brion. Despite seeing him at his weakest moment, Lana saw real regret in him. Real desire to make it all up to her. And who better to help her than a general she'd seen take on Worgen and give him an actual fight? Win, even.

It was harder to coordinate the plan while one of them couldn't be seen, so Lana and Corden set everything down right there in her new quarters. After that, both of them just had to believe that the other pulled off their end.

The target was a ship called
Levi
. It was a part of the fleet, in many ways similar to the
Flora
, the most notable one being that it was also without weapons. When Lana said that in her opinion no ship could have afforded to be defenseless in a galaxy like that, Corden laughed. She suppressed her own smile in a hurry, but the captain couldn't deny something in her responded to him.

She blamed it all on the obvious attraction, because that was an easy target. Brion men were, after all, officially forbidden to set foot on Terra. The widely known joke said that the reason wasn't the bloody image they carried, but the fact that the warriors were too hot for Terran women to handle.

Stealing glances at Corden, Lana was willing to admit there was more than a share of truth to that. She'd called up the images of the fleet on the captain's holoprojector. Every time Corden leaned forward on the table to take a good look at the formation, Lana's eyes traveled shamelessly over his perfect form.