Alien General's Fated: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (7 page)

Figures. They've been here too long. They've forgotten what it means to be a Brion.

"Yes," another ambassador said. "Because you killed the envoys, General. Now we really have no chance of negotiating a peaceful end to this conflict. This is another example of Brion—"

"
Silence
," Ryden bellowed, letting the easy authority slip into his voice.

His voice carried to every corner of the Galaya Hall. Even guards who were supposed to have stopped him from entering held themselves straighter, standing at attention. Standing beside him, Aria flinched.

"I will hear no more of this," he said. "I will only say this
once
. The Galactic Union called the Brions, because we were needed. That was the right thing to do. The Clayors are on the offensive for an unknown reason. We are the only ones with the might to stand up to them.

"I'm fully aware that not all of you approve of our methods, but that is not my problem. We fight wars. That is why I'm here and I will do my duty no matter what you have to say about it. I'm standing here as proof that your own security is clearly not up to the task. If you want to live, stay out of my way."

He paused to emphasize the last part of his short speech.

"And finally, in case some of you weren't aware of this, I want to clear up the confusion. The Clayors are a hive mind. There was never any chance to negotiate. It was trick and you fell for it."

"That is a myth, General," a voice dared to interrupt him.

"Thank you for voicing the opinion of the ignorant," Ryden said. "There is an unpleasant truth to all this. The nature of the Clayors isn't widely known, but it
is
known. The Brion ambassadors at least would know. Which leads me to assume that someone here kept a part of the council in the dark on purpose to let the Clayors in.

"I ask now, did you all know they were here? Before you gathered here for this meeting? Ilotra is vast; it wouldn't have been difficult to hide their presence from those who'd have known. I certainly didn't see the Brions there in the atrium. Nor the Palians."

A grim silence was his only answer. The Brion ambassadors gave him solemn nods.

"That means one thing above all else," Ryden growled. "The Clayors have
allies
on Ilotra. That is how far you've let things get out of hand. While my fellow generals work to destroy the Clayor armies, I will do my duty here, as I was asked. That means that from this moment, this fortress is under my command. And I swear I will find the traitors and deal them the same fate I brought to the Clayors. Is that understood?"

The council was silent. Aria was looking at him, a small smile perched on her lips for some reason.

Finally an ambassador dared to speak up. He was a Palian, a species renowned for their wisdom. His unblinking eyes didn't move from Ryden.

"I understand your concern, General," he said slowly. "What concerns
me
is whether you will cede control of Ilotra back to us when this threat is eliminated?"

Ryden bared his teeth in a vicious smile.

"I assure you, Ambassador," he said. "If Brions wanted to take Ilotra, we would have already. I presumed you knew this. You keep saying we can't play nice, but this
is
nice. Me telling you instead of taking control without as much as a word is as nice as we get."

He had nothing else to say to them, so he turned and left the Galaya Hall, stunned silence reigning in his wake.

It wouldn't end well, he knew that. If he had more time, Ryden would have dealt with the situation differently, but the messages his fellow generals were sending him were concerning. The Clayors were coming and they were coming fast. There was no mistaking their direction.

Ilotra was defenseless, not because it lacked the weapons to hold back a full-on attack, but because it severely misjudged the danger.

He knew the Elders had decreed that they should mend their relations with the Union, as well as he was aware of how badly his actions depended on that. But there was no time to coddle Ilotra, nor to teach it to fend for itself. It would die in flames long before that. No, Ryden was left with only one choice. He'd have to act out the image the galaxy had of them anyway. He didn't have time to negotiate with the council, only to intimidate them.

He'd save their lives, but Ryden was under no illusions. There was no gratitude coming.

Not that it mattered. He was Brion. Doing what was right and winning the war before him were rewards of their own.

The general had passed through several halls already when Aria caught up with him. He stopped when he honestly wouldn't have stopped for anyone else on the entire moon.

She was panting from rushing after him. Somehow, it made her even sexier to the general, watching as her chest rose and fell, and the way her pink lips were parted. He couldn't stop imagining his cock between those pretty lips, those blue eyes staring up at him as she sucked him. Ryden knew he wouldn't leave Ilotra without tasting her.

"I'm sorry, General," she said. "That was pretty amazing."

He wasn't sure what she was talking about. Noticing that, Aria elaborated.

"The way you spoke to the council. I liked it. If everyone who has a seat there spoke like that, we would get
so much more done
."

A smirk tugged at his lips. He liked her spirit as much as he was attracted to her body, which was saying a lot for a man like him. The urge, the temptation to take her back to her rooms was great, but a Brion warrior always finished his battles first. He had to make sure the fortress was ready before he could allow himself to take a well-deserved and appetizing break.

"I have urgent duties to attend to," he said simply.

Her face dropped like she'd been slapped. He wondered what he'd said to cause her pretty face to twitch like that, but just in case she didn't understand his meaning, he added:

"Will you accompany me to the command center? I need someone with knowledge of the fortress and its defenses, and I prefer your company to those lying bastards."

And like that, her face was lit up by a true, sincere smile, fixing whatever he'd broken before. She nodded.

"Very well. But we're not all that bad you know, General."

Ryden gave her a look.

"You might not be, but this is a war. You will do as I say or we could all die," he said, his words dull as if he were reciting something so painfully obvious that it shouldn't even be uttered.

When Aria's eyes went wide again and the smile fell from her lips, he wondered if losing her smile was the price he had to pay for saving Ilotra.

CHAPTER NINE

Aria

 

The general's presence was exhilarating. Aria found herself taken by his rough charm, even if she still thought he was kind of a prick and a large part of her was expending effort on trying to keep her head clear. Everything he was terrified her, but there was something about the simple way of his being. For better or worse, he was the most honest man she'd ever met. She had to believe he was the right man for Ilotra.

Aria accompanied him to the command center as he'd asked, still holding Sota's words in her mind. Although so far she'd failed in her duties
spectacularly
. She'd let him kill the Clayors, get arrested by Ilotra's security, and finally—perhaps most importantly—she'd stood by wordlessly as he took over the whole fortress.

Pretty much the whole package. Yet she couldn't fight the nagging feeling that the general was right. Aria hadn't spent that long on Ilotra and she was already tired of all the scheming taking place behind the scenes. Ryden was a breath of fresh air on the moon. She welcomed it. The trouble was, she
knew
the danger such freedom posed. It was the exact reason she mistrusted the Brions, because when you were that powerful, you truly answered to no one. The Palians had been right. Ryden took the fortress and Aria didn't doubt he'd protect it too, but what then? They were relying on his good will to carry on from there.

Yet that was the hand they were dealt.

Aria was willing to admit she hadn't wanted the general on Ilotra, but now that he was there, she wanted to help him. Protecting Ilotra was her first priority, as it seemed to be his. Their methods merely needed... some compromises. In vain, she tried to remember what the word was in Brionese. In the meantime, her distraction was worrying her a bit. It was safe to say she had trouble focusing on what she had to do and what she wanted to do.

To make things worse, her body had a very compelling argument about it being perfectly easy to keep an eye on the general in her bed. Two eyes, very much on him. And even a Brion general couldn't cause too much trouble in a bedroom, could he? At least not trouble that started wars.

Jokingly, Aria considered the method of distraction and then firmly set it down as fantasy material for later. She had a job to do first.

The crew manning Ilotra's command center was possibly even less thrilled about Ryden than she was, though. When Ryden and Aria entered, it was obvious that the crew had been informed of their upcoming visit.

A man in a GU's captain uniform came to greet Ryden, an unmistakable look of dread on his face. Aria wanted to assure him that Ryden was only dangerous to their enemies, but she wasn't entirely sure. Maybe it was just her that he seemed to want to keep alive. For what purpose, she wondered.

"General," the man said. "I'm Captain Algos, I run... I am usually the one running security on Ilotra."

Aria saw the general measure Algos from head to toe and saw the disgusted grin on his face.

That man is great at making new friends
, she thought.

"Are you?" Ryden asked.

The captain looked puzzled by his question.

"Yes, General," he said, uncertain. "Yes, I am the highest-ranking security officer on Ilotra."

"No," Ryden said, clearly relishing the situation. "I mean, are you calling what you're doing here security?"

Aria had to give Captain Algos credit. He frowned and stared at the general, even if he had to look up to do that.

"Yes," he said coldly. "This might not be up to your standards, General, but this isn't a Brion warship, it doesn't need—"

"Watch it," Ryden cut him off, giving the captain a hard look. "I know Ilotra isn't, strictly speaking, a military structure. But that being the reason this place isn't run like one is absurd. Ilotra isn't a warship, true. It's merely the central point of the entire Galactic Union, gathering all the political and economic elite together here, on this little moon. On Briolina, I've visited camps meant for children that I would have had a harder time conquering."

Captain Algos chose wounded pride over wisdom, Aria noticed, when he crossed his hands across his chest furiously.

"I will not be yelled at before my men," he snarled. "You may have the council's approval to run Ilotra under this threat, but I take pride in my service and I will not let anyone come here and criticize what my fortress looks like in a
low-level threat mode
."

Aria expected to see his head rolling on the floor, but instead, she found the general grinning. It seemed Captain Algos was as surprised as everyone else in central control, considering they'd all backed away halfway into his first sentence.

"
Better
," Ryden said, smirking, "now you're beginning to sound like a man. I must warn you against speaking to me like that again though, if you do not want your head to be mounted on my trophy wall."

The captain glared, but eventually seemed to accept that it was the best he was going to get.

"I will man the important parts of this fortress's defense with my own warriors," Ryden said, walking around, motioning for Algos to continue. "The
Conqueror
will provide support from orbit. It's also ready to deploy hundreds of trained warriors on the surface where and when they are needed. What we need to fear the most is a stealth attack, as was made obvious from today.
Now
."

The general turned back to Captain Algos so suddenly the man almost jumped, but he regained his composure at the last moment.

"You said something about low-level threat mode being in action. The time to raise the level was when you first learned of the Clayor, but we have to make do with raising it right now. Tell me what you have."

Captain Algos went on to explain what they had, with Aria providing additional details she thought the general should know. She turned out to be quite useful, as it was. Captain Algos was very surprised by her knowledge, which only made Aria want to yell at him, because she'd been trying to talk to him for months.

Since it wasn't the time to bring up personal grudges, she let it go. They mostly discussed repair works on the shield generator and other defensive measures that could be done in preparation for the actual fight.

 

***

 

She aided the general as best she could, but eventually he had to deal with matters that didn't concern her, so she showed herself out. The tinge of disappointment was eased by the parting look Ryden gave her, telling her she wasn't alone in regretting having to part.

The joy she felt at that was short-lived however, because her feelings were nothing compared to her continued concerns. The attraction she felt was at once annoying and so obvious she barely even took it into consideration.

So far, the general hadn't been that bad. But a part of her couldn't let go of the vision she'd had of him beforehand.

When you hadn't seen him yet
, her mind pointed out.

Aria prided herself on making rational decisions, but Ryden had her doubting her convictions. Everything he did seemed to be good—like making preparations for the possible attack—but all of it was still carried out with threats. And whenever he lost his temper and showed his warrior side, he looked like the monster she feared he was. Aria wondered if a monster was what they needed.

 

She walked back to her quarters deep in thought. Sota was probably waiting for her report, but Aria didn't feel like meeting the leader of the Terran ambassadors right about then. All she wanted was a hot bath to relax in after the stress of the day and a chance to wrap her brain around everything that had happened. And then a very cold one to take away the absurd yearning she felt every time her eyes fell upon the general.