Alien General's Beloved: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (26 page)

Lana had let the ship's computer randomly draw the names of the women who received the order to attend. She couldn't have picked out the victims herself even if she had the time.

Worgen arrived in a good mood, which was a horrible sign in her opinion. Lana greeted him and was immediately buried under inquiries about the Torons.

"I understand that they've been attacking the patrols," she said as though it were nothing.

The general had regarded her with those pitch-black eyes of his, seemingly without emotion, though plenty usually boiled behind those dark pits.

"Is that so? I have been told they're completely out of control."

"That's not true. Torons are very peaceful creatures. Something must have upset them."

"Put an end to it," he said.

Lana had made the one mistake then, trying to be clever with a tyrant.

"I didn't know that Brions needed protection, General," she said, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth.

Worgen had turned to her, his thin lips curled into a cruel smile.

"We do not," he snarled, making Lana back away from him despite willing herself to stay still. "I was going to say
for your own good
."

Things had gone further downhill from there. Worgen had asked a few questions about his army, but since Lana insisted she didn't know the specifics, he dropped that topic easily enough. It was the only good thing that happened so far during his visit, in her opinion, because the rest of it had simply been a nightmare.

Worgen entered the atrium and walked around, witnessing the gathered women himself. There was something fundamentally wrong about the way he did it, but Lana honestly didn't know where to even
begin
with describing it.

The huge open space was well lighted, beautifully decorated like a ballroom on Terra, covered in light marble. Everywhere Lana looked, she saw statues and flowers. It was a room that should have been filled by joy, but the mood reminded her more of a morgue.

He'd slid his hand around her shoulders after his first round, another man's touch making Lana twitch in disgust, but she didn't dare to shrug off his embrace. Instead, she waited, holding her breath. When Worgen announced that they needed danger, Lana's heart had nearly stopped. She looked around, desperately wishing that Corden was there.

The atrium was a closed-up death trap. And when the Torons finally appeared, she'd screamed along with everyone else. The softhearted species Lana was quite fond of had been turned into bloodthirsty predators. She called for everyone to get out of their way, but it was hard to tell if they even listened to her.

There was nowhere to go, after all.

***

The noise was deafening. Out of the corner of her eye, Lana saw three of the huge beasts suddenly take off and rush out of the atrium, but that still left one Toron. The beast had now switched from breaking furniture to breaking people.

She was still with Worgen, horror gripping her heart when she saw the monster looking at the disaster around him with the curiosity of a bemused psychopath.

He thinks this is interesting. It is a gamble for him and he wants to see if he won, only the things he plays with are alive. So far.

The man had also saved her life quite a few times in as many minutes. Before the other three broke down the door for some reason Lana couldn't explain, Worgen had been keeping the Torons away from her. The spear was still in his hands, leisurely held now that the last beast was far from them.

"Nothing," Worgen was saying. "Perhaps this is not enough."

He means to come up with something even worse.

"No," Lana said, "this is not the way. You can't force the bond to happen like this. How can you not know that?"

It wasn't probably the best way to talk to him, but she couldn't help it. His utter lack of respect for life was pushing her buttons hard. Everything Lana wanted was for Worgen to see himself as others saw him. She wondered if seeing his true self would have shocked or pleased the mad general.

Then he began to drag her closer to the Toron. Lana struggled against his grip, but it made as much difference as if she was blowing against the wind. Worgen was taking her along where he was going and that was it. She screamed when he unceremoniously shoved her, leaving her alone in front of the Toron.

The giant creature turned, its eyes bloodshot and empty of all reason. Back where it was safe, Lana had felt sorry for them, knowing it wasn't their own choice. Now all she felt was a burning desire for a weapon, any weapon really, to defend herself with. It would have done little good to her, but it would have been better than curling up and making an easier bite out of herself for the deranged beast.

"Nothing," Worgen said behind her, his voice dull, as if he was surprised.

When she turned, the general was gone and her world narrowed down to the pair of fangs coming her way.

Lana barely understood what happened in the next few moments. One second she was standing there, locked in a staring competition with death, and in the next, she was gone too. Sliding on the floor, in fact, caught in the embrace of the strongest pair of arms she’d ever known. Lana had no idea if Corden had aimed them like that, but their speed carried them right behind a pillar, hiding them both from Worgen's sight for a second.

He was panting heavily, but the smile on his face was genuine joy. Lana laughed out of sheer relief to still be drawing breath. But the Toron was coming closer, furious at losing its prey. Corden was eying it seriously with a frown. Lana peeked around the pillar. If Worgen saw him, if he caught even a glimpse... but he had come for her anyway. Her heart thudded in her chest, both from escaping death so narrowly and for the danger Corden put himself in.

"I have to take this thing down," Corden said. "Stay here, hidden..."

In the next second, a girl screamed somewhere. Lana saw a young blonde stuck under a table with the insane Toron towering over her. The beast had clearly smelled the blood of her wounded leg and was about to tear her into little pieces. Lana felt Corden start to stand when something completely impossible happened.

As the girl screamed so loudly her voice broke, Worgen came out of nowhere. The mad general faced off against the monster, the long spear easily held in one outstretched arm. His black eyes were alight with a raging inferno, his armor glowing like a star. And he was standing right between the girl and the monster that threatened her.

It was instantly clear to Lana that it wasn't the Toron that posed the biggest threat to the girl. She shot Corden a look and saw that her
gerion
was deadly serious. They both watched, wordlessly, as the huge spear started dancing in Worgen's hands, picking up speed. The Toron tried to keep his eyes on it, mesmerized, growling. He was trying to get to his prey, to bypass the general, but Worgen didn't take one step back.

"So this is what it feels like," he said, the words cutting through the air like knives. "The moment. It is even greater than I imagined!"

The Toron was too out of his mind to understand what was going on. Worgen took a step closer, grinning, and the beast attacked. Lana wouldn't have believed it was possible, but her eyes couldn't have come up with such a ridiculous lie. The mad general jumped into the air, far higher than it should have been possible to move with armor like that.

He turned in air, building momentum, slamming the blade of his spear right into the Toron's thick neck in the next moment. They came down together, but Worgen ended up standing on top of his trophy, his blade still jutting into its flesh. With a victorious grin that predicted only death, he pulled the spear free.

Lana didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, she was infinitely grateful that his desires toward her were over at last. On the other, what did it mean for her, for the
Flora
? Would Worgen appoint them a new captain?

Unable to take her eyes away from the unfolding scene in front of her, Lana watched as the dark general approached the table the girl was still crouching under, refusing to come out. Now that the Toron was dead, Lana could get a good look at the new Terran
gesha
. She was young, but not exactly a girl as she'd thought. Lana thought she was only a bit younger than her.

The new
gesha
was a sweet little blonde, with long hair covering her face. When she pushed it aside to see if the Toron was gone, Lana saw her eyes, big and wide. It wasn't exactly how she'd imagined Worgen's fated.

"Come out," the general said, extending his hand to the girl. "Nothing can hurt you anymore."

His voice carried the triumph of finding his fated. Lana had no idea if it would actually make the general more powerful or not.

All she knew was that it would make him whole, like all Brion bonds.

That was a scary thought. And that crying blonde there was supposed to be his other half, the one to complement him? Lana didn't understand. Maybe the fates had made a mistake...

"
Come out
," Worgen repeated with more than a hint of annoyance in his voice. "I want to see my
gesha
properly."

Oh shit
, Lana thought when the girl reacted to that by curling up even more.

It was very obvious what her opinion of the match was. Lana felt like she had to do something.

She dashed from cover before Corden could stop her, leaving the general behind. Looking back, she saw him slip away, knowing he would be keeping an eye on her.

"Hey," Lana said, coming closer. "Miss? You can come out now."

She hoped to God the girl came to her senses and didn't provoke the guy who had just set wild beasts on a helpless crowd to find her. Not that Lana didn't understand. In her stead, she wouldn't have relished the prospect of coming out from under the table either.

Table's good
, she thought.
When you stay under there, you don't have to be the
gesha
of the greatest monster alive. On the other hand, if you stay there, we might all die today.

Who knew how many Torons Worgen had locked away, ready to be used as his tools for destruction and fear? There were certainly plenty of them aboard the
Flora
, Lana knew.

The girl had heard her voice and was staring at her, shaking her blonde head furiously. And Worgen had seen her too, the bloody spear still in his hand.

Lana had never heard of a
gerion
killing his
gesha
, but judging by the murderous look on Worgen's face, she just might get to be the first. The general's triumph had immediately turned into ash.

"Just come out," Lana called, trying to sound comforting but failing. "We can talk about this."

"There is nothing to talk about," Worgen said.

He reached the blade of his spear under the table, nearly cutting the girl. Both she and Lana cried out, but Worgen wasn't out to break her, merely threaten some more. He kept the blade perfectly still while the girl climbed out from under the table, supporting herself with shaky hands against the edge of it.

Worgen looked her over from head to toe. Lana watched him instead. The girl—the young woman, rather—was pretty enough, but her entire being screamed
I don't want to be here.
Lana couldn't honestly blame her, but she needed her to keep it together, at least for a few more days.

"This can't be right," Worgen said.

Oh fuck.

"
You
are my fated?" the general went on. "No spirit, no temper. No fire. You are nothing."

Clearly he talks to a lot of women. The man is charming as fuck.

Those were the mad thoughts that flew through Lana's head as she contemplated Worgen blowing up the
Flora
as a punishment.

"I will not accept this!" the general bellowed then, startling them all.

The girl screamed again when the spear came whizzing through the air, aiming for her pale, slender neck. Lana cried out too.

"No!" she yelled.

She wasn't sure if either one of them had stopped Worgen, but the blade was hovering above the girl's shoulder, inches from her skin. The look on the general's face was indescribable. There was fury, but Lana saw confusion for the first time in those dark pits. The hand holding the spear was shaking, although Lana was completely sure it had never done that before.

So it hadn't been them. It was Worgen. The man who had emerged from the nightmares of the entire galaxy was incapable of hurting his
gesha
. For some reason that was the most unbelievable part of the whole thing for Lana. All three of them seemed surprised, in fact, until Worgen laughed.

His laughter carried over the entire atrium, now almost empty but for the dead.

"You are not what I expected," he growled to the girl, lowering the spear. "But you seem to do the trick. I feel the bond... I can almost taste it. The power flowing through my veins, it's real. Yes, you are mine."

The spear slid back into the sheath on the general's back. He took the girl under his arm like he'd done to Lana before, only now seeming to notice her standing there.

"
Captain
," he drawled. "Make sure your ship is ready to jump. And keep me updated on the progress of my army. I will come to inspect them soon."

"I will have to ask the scient—"

"You will do as I say," Worgen said. "And so will they."

Lana said nothing more, unwilling to make the situation even worse than it already was.

"Where are we going, General?" she asked absently, her mind spinning with all the ways the day went from heaven to hell as she watched the poor girl shake with fear.

Worgen smiled, not an ounce of warmth in it.

"Set course for Briolina," he said. "I am going home."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Corden

The world was sharp like a knife.

Corden listened to Worgen's ominous order, feeling the sort of righteous rage he'd rarely experienced in his life. The new course he commanded changed everything. The mad general would approach Briolina over his dead body, which Corden knew might very well be the price.