Alien General's Fated: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (39 page)

It took me a long time to see the bind, but when I did, the world made sense. It's the real thing, the Brion bindings. They don't go away. They don't fade. It only gets better."

Aria thought for a second.

"Did Ryden bring me here for you to tell me this?" she asked.

Isolde laughed.

"No," she said. "I only wish someone would have assured me when I first met Diego. I would have stopped fighting long before I did."

Isolde's honesty moved her. Aria stayed in that odd little room for a while, in a piece of Terra far, far away from home. Without saying it out loud, Isolde was showing her the ways she could keep who she was and still live on a Brion warship.

"He'll do whatever he can to make you happy," Isolde told her. "Leiya's
gerion,
General Faren, gave her a garden."

"Faren as in the
Monster of Briolina
?" Aria asked, frowning.

Isolde nearly choked on her drink. "Yeah," she said. "The very same. Please don't call him that to his face, though. And don't scream when you meet him. You'll want to, God how you'll want to. And you must resist the idea that he can read minds. I asked Diego. He can't."

With every word that Isolde said, Aria felt more at home. In her room, but more so in her world. She'd always thought that the moon far below them was her home, but it was strange to her now. It wasn't the damage done to Ilotra that lost Aria, it was the council that she wanted to put far behind her. Maybe Briolina could be her home.

Or maybe not. There was another place.

When Ryden sent for her, Aria went with a much lighter heart than she'd arrived with. Isolde made her promise that they'd see each other again soon, and it was a date she was happy to make.

Walking back to the shuttle while asking about the bandages around Ryden's hands, Aria couldn't help but feel that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

"Can we go home now?" she asked.

There was a moment of confusion in Ryden's eyes before she specified, "To the
Conqueror
."

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Ryden

 

Watching Aria go with Isolde, Ryden felt like he'd done the right thing by coming to the
Triumphant
first. No matter what Diego's
gesha
would tell Aria, it would be good for her to talk to someone who had been in her situation before. The repairs on the
Conqueror
were underway and Ryden wanted to leave Ilotra and her system behind, make it back to Briolina, and to do so with his fated by his side.

"It will do her good," Diego said, observing him. "Both of them, in fact. Isolde is so happy about her being Terran. A friend is the one thing I can't give her."

Ryden hoped the same. To leave Aria behind would break his heart, but he couldn't make her miserable. Ever since the binding, the smallest hint of her sadness tore at his heart.

"There's another reason I came here," he said.

Diego snorted. "You mean it wasn't to thank me for saving you?"

"I may have already had a duel today, but don't think your title intimidates me," Ryden growled.

Diego gave him a long hard look before matching the grin on his face.

"They fell for that barbaric act again," he said. "Will they ever learn? Come this way, we'll see if Urenya has time for you."

Ryden fell into step beside the other general.

"Of course they did," he said in response to Diego's question. "Until you roam around the galaxy, growling at people. Until they keep spreading rumors about Faren. We have our reputation."

Diego nodded. "You'd think it wasn't one of stupidity."

"I don't think anyone in the council knows what that really means," Ryden guessed. "Except the Palians. They are smug bastards, but they do the right thing."

"Them again," Diego said. "But I agree. If we have to deal with anyone there, I'd prefer it to be them. I suspect they're the only ones who really know."

Ryden figured the same. The Palians were the only species in the galaxy with the perceptive powers to see behind the Brions' savage image. Even the hive mind had ultimately failed, but perhaps it wasn't fair to blame it. Some Brions believed their own lie. General Faren's own brother had named his ship
Fearless
, telling them all he'd lost all the teachings the Elders gave them.

The truth was, there wasn't such a thing as a Brion warrior, at least not the way the galaxy saw them. Even Diego Grothan, the man who was undefeated as his title said, wouldn't die for his pride. The growling, snarling vision of them was all true, Ryden knew that. No one would call the Brions a gentle species.

Yet most of their enemies—and allies—failed to understand that war was what they truly did best. All of it, including calling for aid when outmatched. There was no honor in being blown to pieces.

Diego would mock him for it, but Ryden knew he'd have done the same in his place. It meant little compared to the glory that would await him for killing the hive mind.

Speaking of which, the other general turned to regard him.

"You slayed the Host," Diego said.

His voice made it a statement and a question. Ryden nodded.

"I did," he confirmed it. "Twice, I believe."

Of anyone, Diego Grothan could appreciate that joke. He glared at Ryden, but he could see the appreciation in the other's eyes.

"You're going to start pointing that out a lot, aren't you?" he asked, amused. "Imagine that, killing the Clayor hive mind. Twice."

"Wouldn't you?" Ryden shot back.

"Of course," said Diego Grothan, seriously this time. "This is a monumental victory for us. And you killed the Koliar too."

"I wish I didn't have to," Ryden pointed out. "He was a tough enemy. He's been dead for hours, yet he keeps fighting."

Diego's gaze dropped to Ryden's hands.

"Urenya will fix that," he said. "She'll consider it a challenge."

They found the little healer in her med bay, messing around with vials and potions. Ryden couldn't even begin to guess what they were. She took one look at his hands, then sniffed and frowned.

"Koliars," she said.

Ryden nodded, confirming her diagnosis. "Do you know what it is?"

The healer sighed. "If only it were one thing. At first glance, I smell a couple of things for sure. I'll start with those, and you pray that the poison isn't designed to react to antidotes. That should be fun."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Ryden asked, grinning.

"Your hands will fall off," Urenya said, answering his smile.

She got to work while Ryden exchanged a look with Diego, who was standing a short distance away

"Is she joking?" he asked.

"I don't think she is," Diego allowed.

That was fair, Ryden thought. Fighting Koliars always brought that risk. The only comfort he had was that he wasn't dead yet. If the poison was something that could have had the power to kill him, the general suspected Urenya would have detected it.

Urenya applied some kind of a salve to his hands. It hurt at first, and then it passed on to torturous pain that nearly made him scream. The poison itself hadn't hurt nearly as much as its removal, but Ryden didn't it put it past Stavor to have known that too. He sat and took it like a warrior, never voicing the blinding, searing torture that was going through his hands, but the others could probably read everything from his valor squares anyway.

And Diego Grothan of all people understood that great warriors weren't immune to pain, but merely in control of it.

"How did the rounding up go?" Ryden asked to take his mind off his hands.

"Quickly," Diego said. "I met the
Enor
on its way back to the hive world. Met with the Palian escort fleet too. It was good you got them out of the system so fast. I heard the Galactic Union wanted to execute the creatures. They have no honor."

Ryden agreed.

"Any major deaths I should know about?" he asked, a usual question with Brion warriors who led dangerous lives on ships filled with killers.

Diego huffed. "Everyone lives," he said. "General Corden achieved major victories in the Eastern Quadrant. Pushed too fast and too far, but broke through the Clayor ranks alone. He's young and rash. That's his problem. Reminds me of someone."

It was a sign, in a way, Ryden figured. The Brion generals had a peculiar chain of command between themselves in the sense that no one was in charge of anyone. They all obeyed the Elders , but other than that, carved their own way. But like with any group, there were leaders, even if they weren't official.

Ryden was a young general, while Diego Grothan had led his army and the
Triumphant
for long years now. And the title he carried,
Grothan
, signaled that he'd never lost in his life. Most of the warriors had to give up that call sign while they were still in the academy, but Diego had managed to hold on to it. So for him to joke with Ryden meant that he was accepted, and respected enough.

His approval wasn't something Ryden actively sought, but it wasn't nothing either. While Urenya was busy either healing or torturing him, Ryden thought of how different a man he was now from the hothead that verbally attacked Eleya on Briolina. Even then, the High Senator had seen through him, knowing he was the man for the job. She'd been right, luckily for all of them.

"Try to move your hand," Urenya said, cutting into his pondering.

Ryden gave a few testing swings. The valor squares on his neck pulsed all the emotions he'd rather have died than voiced out loud. Instead of roaring in pain, he glared at Urenya, a smirk on his lips.

"You did that on purpose," he said.

"Naturally," the healer said. "Now show me where it hurts and where it hurts so badly you think it's going to burst into flames."

Ryden pointed.

"Price of victory," Diego said, coming closer. "I do not envy you. Then again, I wouldn't have jumped right onto a Koliar blade either. Did they teach you nothing in the academy? We let all sorts into the armies these days."

It took almost an hour for Urenya to finish, but when she had, his hands were as good as new. Ryden drew the spear to test it out and found the easy rhythm at once, not hindered in any way by the injury as he'd expected.

"It's true what they say," he said, nodding his thanks to Urenya. "You're the best at what you do."

After a short pause, he added, "Of course you have to be, to fix him up all the time."

He left the
Triumphant
soon after with Aria in his arms where she belonged. And when his
gesha
called his ship
home
, Ryden finally knew he'd won.

CHAPTER FIFTY

Aria

 

It was as if the ship had heard her.

Going back to the
Conqueror
after talking to Isolde felt entirely different. After Aria had made up her mind about staying with Ryden, even his ship seemed to welcome her. And it wasn't merely the fact that like Diego Grothan, Ryden had also ordered the hallways to be more lighted so that she wouldn't have to stumble around.

Funny how little things like that make all the difference.

And Aria didn't even bother to hide her joy over the fact that the healer had managed to save his hands from the poison. At first, the sight of his hands wrapped in the bandages scared her, and made Aria think that something had gone terribly wrong. But Ryden had explained that it was only a precaution, meant to protect her until he could shower and wash the last trace of the poison from his body.

Aria found that to be acceptable, although with one condition: after Ryden had made sure that there was no poison on his body anymore, she could join him in the shower. The general's eyes lit up at her suggestion, now that they were finally free to enjoy their new bond.

As soon as they stepped out of the fighter, officers approached to ask about matters concerning the repairs and offering reports. Seeing the look on Ryden's face, they all backed away. Aria assumed they knew what a man wanted when he'd only just found his fated. She for sure did. The fire that burned behind Ryden's raging, stormy eyes was hers now and hers alone.

Although the healer had assured Ryden that nothing remained on his body, taking it as a personal insult that he'd have to ask, the general took no chances with her. That was one cautionary measure that Aria was willing to allow, even if her body hungered for her
gerion
in a way that bordered on desperation.

It was the relief and the final sense of victory that did her in. As Ryden led her into his—their—bedroom, Aria walked over to the screen and looked at the world she was about to leave behind. She hadn't realized how badly fear had her in its grips.

Fearing for her life and Ilotra, that Ryden would die, and that she wouldn't be able to go with him. All of it had fallen away. Even the fear that she might get everyone aboard the
Conqueror
killed was gone now with the
Triumphant
's comforting shadow beside them.

Far below her, Ilotra turned slowly. If Aria was being completely honest, that was the only thing she was going to miss. The moon-fortress itself, with its twists and turns and the little spaces only a few people knew about. It
had
been a home for a while, but nothing like what she felt now.

That was definitely not how Aria imagined that she'd use her talents, but if there was anyone who would appreciate her designs, it was the Brions. She had not seen the future coming, but Aria was intent to make the best of what the fate was giving her.

Didn't the Brions guard the Union's harvest worlds as well as being the guardians of its borders? She could help with that. Aria wasn't sure that after seeing true war on Ilotra she'd have an appetite for more weapons, but she could come up with more solutions for the protection of the worlds the galaxy desperately needed.

How had Isolde described it?
Sense
. The world started to make sense to Aria, her purpose in place as well as her heart.

She yelped when strong arms closed around her. Damn Brions and their sneaking skills, even if Aria couldn't raise a single word of protest when the general lifted her into his arms and walked with her to the shower.