Alien General's Fated: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (6 page)

"There," she pointed at the generator, panting. "It's fine. Thank God."

She had barely finished saying that when Ryden saw the Clayors come out of hiding. He charged at once, the warriors following him. The enemies hissed, breaking into groups. One headed to the generator while most of them tried to bar his way.

Aria was running past him, straight at the other Clayors. Ryden nearly dropped his guard before he cut through the enemy attacking him with a long, curved knife. The Clayor fell, his body cleaved in two, but others took his place without hesitation. He roared orders to protect Aria, switching to the battle tongue, hoping the hive mind wouldn't understand. Keeping her behind him was a risk since he couldn't take his eyes off the fight, but without protection she would have died in an instant.

They crowded him. Clearly Aria's assistant had been wrong. There were a lot of Clayors there, all of them throwing themselves at him and his warriors to buy their companions time. Out of the corner of his eye, Ryden saw Aria frantically typing something into a console on the wall. She seemed unharmed, because so far she didn't pose a threat. That was until the hive mind realized she'd been shutting the cover that separated the generator from the hangar.

It rose up from the floor, throwing the Clayors off their feet while Aria gave a victorious cry. Ryden saw the enemies turn at once, seeing the prize disappearing from their sights. Some of them tried to reach Aria while others leaped at the cover.

"Don't let them near it!" Ryden commanded. The cover kept rising and his warriors knocked off everyone who tried to get to it. Aria was running back toward him, her face pale, but she'd done it. She had managed to protect the generator.

In the next second, the explosion knocked them all off their feet.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Aria

 

Aria flew through the air, the terrible noise of the explosion ringing in her ears. She had always thought that her life would flash before her eyes when she died, but it didn't happen. All she saw were pieces of debris and metal falling all around her, and she caught glimpses of people trying to crawl away.

Maybe life didn't flash before her eyes because she wasn't dying. In fact, as much as she could gather, she wasn't even hurt.

Instead, she was in Ryden's arms, safe and sound hidden under his massive frame. She realized he was shielding her with his own body, protecting her from the debris still falling from the ceiling. There was a bright shield above them too, appearing from the device on the general's wrist. It had caught the brunt of the explosion, probably the only reason they were alive.

Through a headache, Aria thought how incredible the general's reflexes had been. All around them, bodies littered the ground, mostly those of the Clayors. Even a few Brions, elite warriors of the galaxy, lay dead on the cracked floor. Most of the live ones were covered by the same shields, but Aria saw them bleeding, hinting they weren't as fast as their commander.

The fact that
she
was alive was nothing short of a miracle.

"Are you hurt?" the general asked, his voice sounding distorted to Aria's ringing ears.

"No, no," she coughed as well as she could. "You saved my life..."

The general barely acknowledged that. All he said was:

"We are far from safe. I know how Clayors operate. We need to get away from the hangar right now."

Around them, the world was breaking to pieces. Aria had no idea why there was such a hurry, but the hangar didn't look stable to her either. With the cover up, the generator seemed luckily unharmed, but with the hangar around it unstable, it posed a tremendous problem. She fully agreed that the farther they were from it, the better. Rationally she knew the ones responsible for the explosion had to be close, but with Ryden... she irrationally felt safe.

Or possibly not so irrationally.

When he determined there were no more huge chunks of the ceiling threatening to fall down upon them, he let the shield detract and rose from the wreckage like a warrior god. Aria could only stare, her lips slightly parted in awe as he simply shook himself clean of the debris like a beast rising from the snow. Then he looked down at her and there was a glimpse of concern in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly Aria thought she could have imagined it.

Ryden gave her a hand to help her stand up, but his mind was clearly on the attack. He was already giving new orders to his men. Some of them ran off in different directions. Most gathered around him, looking as ready and serious as he did.

"Move out," the general ordered. "Keep an eye out for those treacherous fucks. Kill on sight."

Yes, he was very dreamy, being all hot and menacing like that, and—
what
?

"Wait," she said, hurrying along with him, barely keeping up with his purposeful strides. "The council already distrusts you because you killed the Clayors. Can't you take them alive? We should—"

 

 

The second explosion ripped through the hangar walls, blowing a hole where the doors had been. For a moment, the noise was even worse than the first explosion, but then Aria no longer heard anything. All she was aware of was a crushing, colossal pressure threatening to pull her apart.

Everything was flying past her, drawn out of the hangar by a terrible force. Farther on, Ilotra's safety doors were sealing the hangar off from the rest of the fortress, but it wasn't fast enough for everyone. Aria saw people sucked out of the corridors straight into the cold, merciless emptiness of space. Along with all of the oxygen.

She was saved by Ryden, again. Still.

The general and his warriors were once again proving that they were not killed so easily. The long, impossibly strong Brion battle spears were planted into the floor, providing them with something to hold onto. They stood, defiant, against the raging mess around them, some magnetic force in their boots locking them to the ground.

All of that went through Aria's head in a matter of seconds. Then the pressure got to be too much. She couldn't hold her breath any longer, couldn't...

I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.

 

Through searing light and tears in her eyes, Aria felt the general turning her in his arms to face him. She thought the man was going to kiss her, but instead he blew on her lips. Aria couldn't feel it, of course, but some animal instinct in her understood, remembered her studies. She opened her mouth and breathed out. Ryden immediately covered her mouth with his hand. The searing burning sensation eased up, but not entirely. The pain was getting worse by the second.

The lack of oxygen would kill her soon, she knew. No human could survive in space for more than half a minute, and then only if they were really lucky.

In her last seconds, Aria was left looking at Ryden still holding onto her as though he might save her. She was mesmerized by his eyes, deep and dark green, shining with the will to survive.

She barely registered the lights of the fighter craft when it opened its doors above them. Another pull wrecked her body, but this time Ryden and his warriors dislodged their spears and boots and the whole group of them were sucked into the fighter. The doors closed with agonizing slowness for someone deprived of oxygen, and then Aria was lying on the floor, heaving in air with desperate, painful gasps.

Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and she was shaking from head to toe. Around her, the warriors were holding it together better, but she saw they weren't unaffected either. Ryden was standing above her with obvious worry in his eyes this time, as unflappable as the tide, seemingly completely at ease with almost meeting his match in the cold vacuum of space.

His voice was rough when he said:

"Slowly. You're safe now."

Aria wanted to say a few words about apparent safety, but all she could think of was:

"You... you s-saved my life again."

"I'm a Brion," the general said, with a smirk on his lips despite almost dying. "It is my duty."

Aww, that's kinda sweet. Maybe they're not so bad.

"To protect those who are weaker."

"Hey," Aria protested, before the soreness of her tongue stopped her for a moment. "That was a nice moment there we were having. Don't ruin it."

She knew she was being way too flippant with the general, but after two instances of him saving her life in the span of five minutes, Aria felt like they were on familiar terms.

He seemed to think so too, because instead of chastising her, the general merely smirked again, before he turned serious.

"Take us down," he ordered the pilot. "As close to the central hub as possible."

The fighter moved sharply to adjust course, sending Aria sliding across the floor to knock herself against the wall.

Graceful as always
, she thought.

"Where are we going?" she asked, wondering if her voice would ever be the same again.

It felt like she'd aged years in the last half an hour. She'd have to see a doctor soon to make sure she had no permanent damage from the experience. Now that she had a moment to think about things, Aria stupidly realized how she had nearly killed herself. Holding your breath in space was an instinct, after all, even if it was fatal. The vacuum would have killed her in only a few more moments.

"We are going to the council," said the general. "And then we will hunt the Clayors down. We are going to make the ones responsible for what has happened pay for it."

"You don't know—" she tried once more when the fighter docked in another hangar and the doors slid open to let them out in a safe part of Ilotra.

"I do. It was the Clayors," Ryden said, marching on. "And I'll make them regret the day they ever brought my wrath upon them. Only cowards fight their wars without seeing their enemy eye to eye. I'll teach them a lesson in seeing death coming."

She didn't doubt him, not one bit. That was the problem. She couldn't allow him to roam around the fortress, killing whoever he thought deserved to die. Men like that never knew where to stop.

"General," she tried, "this is not how it's done."

"It is for the Brions," was his curt reply.

Aria felt the attraction she still undeniably felt drain away at the reappearance of his pompous superiority. The man was a very capable warrior, clearly, but that didn't mean he could walk into Ilotra and act like his word was law. The law was the law!

"Hey," she tried again, taking ahold of his arm.

That turned out to be a mistake. She thought she heard shocked murmurs from the other Brions when the general turned so fast Aria gasped in surprise. All at once, she found herself pressed against the wall with a
very
hot and
very
mad Brion general closer to her than any man had been in a while.

She wanted to be mad herself, Aria really did. It felt like the most rational reaction. She tried to force fury to the forefront, but instead a soft moan escaped her lips. Never too religious, Aria found herself praying that Ryden hadn't heard that. Seeing the look on his face, she doubted she was that lucky.

Tough luck for me. Of course he has that sharp warrior hearing on top of everything else
.

"That was very foolish," the general said, but his voice was surprisingly soft.

If Aria had trusted her hearing after the explosion had nearly destroyed her eardrums, she would have thought that Ryden sounded husky.

"Never try to stop me from fighting a righteous battle. That hasn't ended well for anyone."

Aria didn't trust her voice to answer, so she merely nodded.

"I will not allow those bastards to blow up Ilotra, because you people think they need to confess first," he said then.

There was no mistaking that it was an order. Aria wasn't strictly speaking under his command, but once again she thought of how futile it was to argue with a Brion.

"Very well," she said, feeling defeated. "Don't expect the council to love you for it."

The general gave her a weird look.

"
Love
," he said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I don't fight my wars to be loved. I fight battles that are just and I win. It does not matter to me what others think. Especially those who do not see what needs to be done."

With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Aria to follow in painful silence, wondering if that comment was directed at her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ryden

 

The council was in session, as he'd predicted. No doubt they were trying to find out who was to blame for the explosions, or what kind of punishment to instill upon him for escaping. He couldn't imagine how they presumed to do either.

The sessions of the full council, composed of all the ambassadors of the Galactic Union, took place in a grand hall called the Galaya Hall. Ryden figured it was better if he let himself in. The guards at the door took one look at him before thinking better of trying to block his path. Ryden frowned. A Brion warrior would never have done that, even if facing a far superior opponent.

It was painfully, obviously clear that Ilotra wasn't prepared for an attack of any kind.

As he entered, Ryden noticed that he seemed to bring mute, grudging silence everywhere he went.

Finally, the same man who had spoken to him before in the atrium opened his mouth again.

"You—" was the only word he got to say, before Ryden interrupted.

"Spare me," he growled, coming closer. "I will not listen to your baseless accusations. We are in the middle of a war. The time for negotiations is over."

"We could have avoided that war," another council member protested.

"No," Ryden stated.

It grated on his nerves to say that, to repeat himself. That had been what he'd anticipated when he went to the Brion senators. On Briolina, no one would have questioned his word. They knew he wouldn't speak without being sure and would trust him to be right. This council was different. It was in their nature to suspect lies and foul play, when no Brion ever lied. Except maybe their own ambassadors. Ryden could make them out in the midst of the council members. They remained silent.