Alien Mate (14 page)

“But,” said the flustered, veiled attendant, “you do not have an appointment. One cannot just show up and expect admittance. It’s simply not done.”

“I don’t care. I need to talk to her. She’s the reason I’m on this goddamn planet and more miserable than I’ve ever been in my life. She owes it to me to at least speak to me.”

“Go home, and we will relay your request. If the Oracle chooses—”

A voice interrupted the infuriatingly calm acolyte. “She does choose,” said the heavily veiled figure that appeared from seemingly nowhere.

The acolyte gasped and dropped to the floor, head bowed.

“You can take me to see her?” asked Diana.

“I am her, child. Come and walk with me. Let us speak of what disturbs you so.”

The Oracle, a slight figure gowned head to toe in layers of veils, turned and walked to the bronze doors, which opened before her as if by some unseen signal. Diana scurried after her, surprised, in fact, that the Oracle had agreed to see her.

Catching up to the quick-walking Oracle, Diana held her tongue, unsure now that she’d found her what to say.

They met no one as they passed through the various ornate rooms until finally, through some glass-paned doors, they exited the palace into a splendid garden. Life and color abounded in the form of foliage, blooms, and the buzz of insects. The sounds were so mystifyingly similar to Earth that, for a moment, Diana’s eyes flooded with tears as she remembered home.

Then she remembered she’d never see her home again because of this person, this so-called Oracle.

“Why?”

“Why what, my child?” asked the Oracle, her face serene as she sat on a cleverly carved bench that blended into the scenery.

“Why choose me? Why show me love only to take it away?”

“I didn’t take your mate away, and I did not choose you either. The spirits did that.”

“So whose fault is this?” exclaimed Diana. “I didn’t ask to be kidnapped and fall in love with an alien. And now he’s gone, and his brother, that sick thing, says by law he can claim me for my own protection. It’s not fair. I don’t want this anymore. I want to go home. I want to forget.”

“You are right. It isn’t fair, but let me ask you first. Is Kor truly gone?”

“What do you mean?” asked Diana, her voice almost a whisper as a flicker of hope ignited. “Is he alive?” Diana, over the last few days, had found her own certainty wavering.

“Look at your wrist, child.”

Diana looked at her wrist, the smoky band around it a constant reminder of Kor.

“The mating band is still there, is it not?”

Diana, about to say yes, stopped as understanding washed through her. “The band would have disappeared if he died. He’s not dead,” she almost shouted.

“No, but the danger from Kil’iander is still quite real.”

“I’ll just tell him Kor is alive. He’ll have to leave me alone.”

“Will he?” said the Oracle questioningly. “Or will that knowledge merely make Kil’iander more rash?”

61

“I don’t know. Surely he wouldn’t . . .”
Oh, but he would. I’ve seen the way he looks at me. And
the way he talked about Kor’s accident, what if it wasn’t an accident?
What if Kil had something to do with
it? I can’t let him know. I’ve got to hold him off ’til Kor gets back and can deal with him. Kor’s alive. Oh,
thank God.

The Oracle spoke softly. “I see understanding. Just be patient, my child, and all will turn out well.”

“For me this time, but what about the others?”

“The others?”

Diana forged ahead. “I understand your people need us to help continue your race. It’s a necessity, but the way we are treated, it has to change.”

“Change how?”

“Well, for one thing, you can’t just abduct women and expect them all to be hunky-dory about it. Secrecy is one thing, but forcing a woman, that’s wrong. There must be a way that we can give them a choice without revealing your secrets.”

“I see.”

“And if a woman’s unhappy with her mate, she needs to be given help. Not impregnated like the only thing important is her ability to reproduce.” Diana mentioned Claire’s story to the Oracle. Maybe if someone had stepped in to help her, the tragedy could have been averted.

“Anything else?”

“Yes, this stupid law of widows being the property of the brother or next male heir, it’s got to stop. You don’t want single women running around, fine, but you can’t just let them be taken against their will.”

“I agree.”

Diana, about to argue, heard the words and felt her face slacken in surprise. “You agree?”

“Absolutely. In the beginning of the rebuilding, these laws were needed to avoid chaos and violence, but many moons have passed, as have those restrictions. It is time to give the women of this planet back some of the freedoms they enjoyed before the tragedy. And I think you should be one of the women who helps us reform the laws.”

“Me? But I’m not even a Xamian.”

“All the more reason. Earthling females amount to the largest percentage of our new female population. Who better to help lead the charge to change? Think about it. You will not do it alone. I and others will stand to help you.”

Diana closed her mouth thoughtfully. What if she could help? Make a difference? It was certainly something to ponder once Kor was safe at home.
Please let him come back to me.

* * * *

Diana watched the newscast and cried. They’d found him. Kor was alive! He looked battered and worse for wear, but he lived, and that was all that mattered. Diana smirked as she imagined Kil’s reaction to the news of Kor’s resurrection.

Diana answered the vid com and saw a jubilant Ele’Anor.

“He’s alive,” she squealed, and Diana, too overcome, just nodded, her own eyes wet.

“Do you want me to pick you up on the way to the hospital?”

“Yes, please.”

Diana switched off the screen and, smiling, dressed in her best karimi. She paced, waiting for Ele’Anor, elation bubbling through her. When she heard the knock, she flew to the door 62

and opened it, expecting to see her mother-in-law, but Kil hulked menacingly on her step instead.

Diana’s smile faltered for a moment before she injected steel into her voice and spine.

“You need to leave. Kor is back.”

“His return changes nothing. You will be mine.”

Diana felt a flutter of fear at his snarled words. But even Kil wasn’t stupid enough to try something here and now. Although perhaps a reminder would be a good idea. “Ele’Anor is on her way to pick me up. You’ve lost. Now please leave.”

“No.” With brutish hands he grabbed her and dragged her to his waiting vehicle. Diana struggled and screamed once before one meaty hand slapped over her mouth, choking the sound off.

This can’t be happening. Someone will see what he’s doing and stop him. Someone help—

Another cuff on the side of the head and Diana slumped unconscious.

63

Kor suffered the attentions of the healer, barely. He felt a desperate urge to see Diana.

His mother came in a rush of veils, her face a mask of panic. “Kor!”

“I’m fine, Mother. Now calm down. Where’s Diana?” he said, peering around her robust form, looking for his mate.

“I can see you’re fine. It’s Diana who’s not. He’s taken her, Kor.”

“What? Who’s taken her?” Fear and anger gripped his heart in equal measures.

“Kil. Lisa, your neighbor, saw him.”

“Where did they go?” asked Kor, ripping the tubes from his arms that were rehydrating him.

“I don’t know. Kil has somehow slipped the video relays.”

“I need some clothes,” said Kor, realizing his state of undress when he pulled back the covers.

His mother, ever one step ahead, opened her bag and dumped out pants and a shirt.

“I don’t have boots,” she said, shrugging apologetically.

Kor quickly dressed and cursed the fact he didn’t have an earpiece so he could contact Alphie. His mother, though, had her vid comm, and Kor quickly got in touch with him.

Racing out of the hospital, heading to the spaceport, Kor only hoped he’d arrive in time.

* * * *

Diana anxiously paced the confines of the room Kil had locked her in. She seemed to be aboard an older style spacecraft, one with a door that shut manually and locked from the outside.

Diana cursed and railed and kicked at the walls and door to no avail. The only person aboard was Kil the psycho.

Diana sank to the floor and drew up her knees to lean her head on. Closing her eyes, she felt the tears leaking from the corners as she thought of Kor, who waited for her in the hospital. A wait that would never end.
Not to mention a child he will never know
, she thought, hugging her hardened tummy.

“Psst,” came a whisper.

Diana brought her head up off her knees. “Who’s there?” she whispered back, a tiny thread of hope in the sound.

“It’s Alphie. Lucky for you I’ve been keeping an eye on Kil here, and I made sure to hop on this ship before he shut down communications.”

“Can you stop the ship from taking off?” she asked hopefully. Alphie could control all the electronics on a ship. He could save her.

“I wish,” said the disgruntled machine. “He deliberately chose an older manual model.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means, while the ship has a basic computer system and whatnot, all ship procedures are done by hand, from navigating, to doors, to everything.”

“So what can you do?”

“I managed to send out a message just before he closed down the comm units. Actually, by the sounds of it, smashed them. I’ve activated a low-level beacon that I hope he won’t notice that should help Kor to track him.”

Diana found herself torn. On the one hand, she wanted to be saved by Kor and reunited with him. But on the other, a confrontation between the brothers could mean Kor’s death.

64

One thing she knew for sure, if and when Kor saved her, she wouldn’t deny her feelings for him anymore. She’d tell him she loved him, even knowing he could never feel the same way. She would love enough for the both of them.

* * * *

Kor felt his comm unit buzzing on his hip and ignored it. He had more important things to attend to. But what if it was news of Diana?

Not breaking his stride, he flipped the unit open and found a message from Alphie, of all people—er, machines.

Kil has Diana on board craft S0014533. Charted course the third moon. Will attempt a low-level
radiation beacon.

Kor boarded the spacecraft that he and Diana had arrived on. That voyage still seemed so clear and yet so far away now. Programming in
the coordinates, he prepared to follow his brother.

Kor knew the smart thing would be to wait for his father to arrive with some of the clan warriors, but his brother had Diana.
My mate.
Kor just imagined how terrified she had to be.

She could even be injured.
For that he dies.

65

The craft landed with a thud that reverberated throughout the vessel. Diana looked frantically around for something to defend herself with, but the stripped room she’d frantically searched earlier still contained a whole lot of nothing.

Determined to at least try, though, she stood to the side of the door and waited, her palms slick with sweat. When Kil opened the door, Diana swung her clubbed hands at his head. To her surprise, he staggered, and she darted out the door. She took two steps before the steel vise closed around her arms and ribs, lifting her off the floor. Diana wanted to scream in frustration, and she did when Kil chuckled maliciously in her ear.

“There’s nowhere to run, little Diana.”

He threw her hard over his shoulder, digging it painfully into her stomach. Diana cried, her silent tears running down her face even as she pounded uselessly at his back. She heard the cranking of metal followed by a hissing sound as a seal was broken. Cool, musty air wafted into the ship. The dusty dead breeze tickled her nose and made her sneeze. Kil’s heavy tread clomped down the metal ramp from the ship’s doorway onto a gray, pebbled surface.

He righted her and dropped her to the ground in a heap, and she scrambled back from him, eyes darting around, ’til in shock she stopped moving. Kil had dragged her onto a nightmare landscape. Judging by what she could see, he’d brought them to one of the gray moons she’d learned about, littered with tombs and mausoleums.

Diana felt a crazy urge to giggle.
Lucky me, I cross an entire galaxy only to get killed in an alien
graveyard, and other than the location, it looks like something you’d find back home.
Who’d have thought
tombstones, flowers, and stone vaults would be a custom that spanned the galaxy?

“Why did you bring me here?” she asked, eyes darting around anxiously, hoping to see Kor while praying he stayed away.

“I think it only fitting that Kor die surrounded by the same spirits that denied me. Let them see what their choice has wrought.”

“You’re insane. You mean you’re letting a bunch of dead people make you do this.”

“No, I’m doing this because I want to. The location is just for fun.”

“So why the accident?” she asked, stalling for time. “Why not just kill him?”

“I thought about it. But then it occurred to me. Why not take everything he has?

Wouldn’t that just drive his spirit mad? Killing him meant I’d have to leave or be killed myself. After all, his stupid spirit would have tattled to the Oracle. But if I arranged an accident, one that couldn’t be traced back to me, well then, his spirit would have no proof, and I’d win. I’d truly hoped the pirates would be less inept.”

Diana gasped. “You told them where we were?”

“Of course. Figures they’d get distracted by a female instead of doing the job I paid them to do.”

“You’re sick.”

Kil smiled at her, his sickly eyes alight with maliciousness. “Yes, I am. Sick and tired of seeing that whelp get what should have been mine. No more. Now he dies. And then, while his helpless spirit watches, I am going to take you on the ground beside his body. I’ll show all the spirits what I think of their choice.”