Alien Savior: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (5 page)

“Don’t.” She whispered softly, barely audible. A pair of large, frightened brown eyes jerked to her and Danielle shook her head incrementally. “Don’t do it.”

The aliens drew ever closer to their positions in line. Soon, they would be upon them. The hand with the metal implement in it began to shake, and Danielle’s eyes widened. Whether through some language barrier, or sheer force of fury, the girl wasn’t going to listen to her. Her gaze was locked on the approaching trio – and there was murder in her eyes.

The foreign leader paused for a moment to take in a trembling red-head who looked like she was on the verge of a scream – and the girl beside Danielle leapt into action.

With a wild cry, she lunged for him – but Danielle was right behind her. Who knew what these people would do to the younger woman for attempting to hurt them? Who knew what the
human
government would do to her? She’d obviously lost all rational thought in an attempt to destroy something she feared.

Danielle’s hand closed over hers as she struck at the alien ruler, and she immediately winced as its sharp tip punctured her palm. Luckily, she had close to a good fifty pounds on the girl, who couldn’t have been a day over twenty one. When she threw that weight into her lunge, it knocked the younger woman off balance. She stumbled, and Danielle swung her around so that the both of them were flung into a heap on the hard stone floor.

Every person in the room was watching them in shock as Danielle struggled to subdue the girl beneath her. She was all arms and legs, screaming curses in language she couldn’t even begin to understand as she brandished her makeshift weapon. Blood dripped down Danielle’s forearm as she caught the girl’s hands in both of hers, trying to calm her.

“Let it go! Calm down, please! It’s not worth it!”

The little thing head-butted her – brought her cranium up against Danielle’s with a solid crack that sent her reeling. Disoriented, Danielle fell to the side, shaking her head to try and clear it. Before her gaze, she watched the girl rise to her feet to lunge at the foreigners once more. Their leader caught her effortlessly by both of her wrists, squeezing until she dropped her weapon to the floor with a metallic
clink
.

For a moment, he merely stared down into her eyes, completely oblivious to her struggling. Then, in a smooth motion, he twisted the wrist that had held the killing implement until it snapped and the girl screamed. Immediately, the room was thrust into pandemonium. Every woman present rushed for the door, their terrified yells echoing about the room. Danielle, however, remained on the floor, still slightly dazed, droplets of her blood falling onto the concrete floor.

As her vision slid slowly back into focus, she realized that she was staring at a pair of gold armored feet. Her eyes wide, she looked up, craning her neck until her gaze finally locked with that of the alien prince. He was staring down at her with an unreadable expression. For a moment, she feared she would be the next to face his wrath; that was, until he uttered a single word.

“You.”

His eyes flashed from red, to gold, to an eerie, icy blue. “You are mine.”

Chapter Three: Engagement

Kael oversaw the loading of the humans into the massive ship that they had brought with them from Garinia. He had never relished the idea of returning home with it empty, but now, he needn’t be concerned any longer. The humans had agreed – what choice had they? And now, it was time to get their protesting numbers into the cold sleep chambers for the long trip back to their sector. They had provided the human leaders with all they needed to maintain communications, but for the rest of the human population to remain in the dark.

Informing them of their impending demise would do nothing but create mass panic. It was cold, Kael knew, but he’d made many such decisions in his forty seven moons, and he would continue to make decisions concerning the greater good for as long as he was in power. He had already informed his sister, who was ruling in his absence, that they were preparing to return. He could sense her relief. As she was now mother to an infant, she would want nothing more than to spend time with her child – his nephew and heir to the throne until he produced children of his own.

The thought was…somewhat unsettling.

As Kael watched his fellow Garinians herd thousands of humans up the ramps, his mind turned to the one waiting for him in his quarters. He hadn’t even noticed her at first. Of all the women in the room, she had not done anything in particular to catch his attention – no screaming, fainting or hysterics – at least not until the girl next to her had attempted to harm her. That one had spirit, he was willing to admit. If she didn’t clearly despise him, he might have chosen her. She was comely enough. Instead, he’d had to punish her – as he would anyone so bold.

And it was his rescuer that he was to wed.

She was a slender, unassuming thing, with a delicate beauty that could very easily be overlooked if one didn’t examine her closely. Large, cornflower blue eyes with long lashes, honey colored skin and tousled blonde waves that were unkempt and short, framing her angular, narrow face. She was clad in regulation hospital wear and she needed to be fattened up a bit, but there was nothing particularly wrong with her.

Her form was pleasing enough to the eye, and more than that, for some reason, she had placed herself between him and danger. An unnecessary gesture, to be sure, but intriguing, none the less. He should be interested to see what sort of person she was.

After all, one day, she would be Queen of Garinia- no small title. All of this, he would have to explain to her. It wasn’t a task he relished, and more than anything, he simply wanted to slip into his cold sleep without facing the female he knew awaited him.

As a prince, however, he couldn’t afford such luxuries. Just as he would now have to contend with the fact that, were he to die in combat, he would now leave behind a wife, and soon, perhaps a child. He, however, would not let such things soften him. He was, after all, a prince and the foremost Garinian warrior. To die in battle would be an honor for him – as long as he left an heir behind.

A single moon ago, he wouldn’t have been able to contemplate starting a family before his sixtieth moon. But now, he had to serve as an example – though part of him believed the sacrifice was hardly needed. Already, some of his soldiers were eying the human females with more than a passing interest. If they wanted to take the women as brides, however, they would have to woo them – and they knew woefully little about how human men courted human women.

This would be interesting, to say the least. And as soon as the repopulation commenced, there would be the next campaign to begin planning. According to Kaia, there had already been some skirmishes concerning their new Reman colony – tussles that suggested that a firmer hand might be needed.

He would deal with those matters when he returned. For now, he needed to have a long talk with his bride to be. He checked with Yasin, his second in command, to ensure that they were having no unmanageable problems in getting the humans into cold sleep, before he slipped into the ship.

The long, white corridors were his brother’s handiwork – Jalil was one of the empire’s leading engineers and had created their current generation starcraft with fairly little effort on his part. Garinian scientists called him a genius, but Kael was used to his antics. He’d always excelled in all his studies – which was why he’d rather remain at home in a laboratory than to see what lie beyond his home planet. Marc, in similar fashion, preferred his work in the citadel’s libraries to anything that would take him far from home. At seventy moons, he was the eldest in their family, and should have been king when their father died, rest his soul.

But Marc did not have the disposition to be king. His heart was kind, he didn’t understand that, sometimes, there was a necessity for war. The repercussions of the decisions he might have made haunted him even before he took the throne, and so, he had passed power to Kael.

He would never pretend that it was easy – and he had not even yet been crowned. At the very least, he had Kaia at his side to advise him, she tempered him when he most needed it. He only wished he had her guidance now, to help him deal with the woman with whom he was supposed to share his body and his bed.

He made his way into the bowels of the ship, past the numerous rooms in which technicians and soldiers were helping humans prepare for cold sleep. In his own quarters, now, there would be a medical officer helping the golden haired woman ready herself to sleep two of her own years away –a concept that would seem as foreign to her as the idea of interstellar flight. Sure enough, when he entered his private quarters, two medical officers had cornered the young woman in a corner of the room, where she was eyeing them both as if frightened that they meant to disembowel her where she stood.

“
Stop
.” He barked the command in their tongue. “
You’re frightening her. If she panics, she will never allow the cold sleep procedure.
” Immediately, both of the medics bowed, scurrying from the room rather than risk his continuing wrath – leaving him alone with her.

At birth, every Garinian was implanted with a translation chip which could lend understanding to a language and provide complete mastery of it after only registering a few key words. It was this that had allowed him to learn the most common human tongue – something they called English. He used it to speak to her now. “What is your name?”

For a moment, the woman simply stared at him, her blue eyes wide, lips slightly parted in surprise. When he arched a dark brow, however, she quickly found the power of speech. “I’m – I’m Danielle. Danielle Bowery.” She swallowed visibly, pressing herself against the opposite wall as he advanced on her. “Who…who are you?”

The corner of his mouth kicked up in amused smirk at her statement. Her impudence would only be allowed because she had questions that needed answering. Usually, the punishment for such a brash question would be quite dire. “I am Kael Al’Hazzar, Crown Prince of Garinia, and your future husband.”

Danielle gaped at him for a moment. He took the opportunity to look her over. She was still wearing her plain medical shift, which covered her to mid-thigh, exposing legs that were long and shapely – without a single scar. He felt himself stir in response to her slightly open mouth and flushed face.

At least there would be no difficulties copulating with her. “My…my what?” She finally managed.

“Your husband.” He replied seamlessly, reaching for the fastenings on his armor to release the torso covering before tossing it onto the sleeping bed that floated in mid-air next to them. The plates on his thighs, shins, and buttocks followed, leaving him clad in only his gleaming black under armor. “I’m sure you have questions, and I will answer a few of them now. Most will have to wait until our return to Garinia.” He eyed her carefully, observing that she still seemed ready to climb the wall at any moment. “Do you understand?”

Slowly, she shook her head. “No.” The word escaped her on a breath. “I don’t understand. Why us? Why are you taking us from Earth and leaving everyone else? What do you want from us? And why am
I
going to be your wife? I’m absolutely no one! Do I get any say in this?”

Well, she certainly got straight to the point.

Undoing the fastenings on the front of his suit, he proceeded to answer her questions in order. “You happen to be a race that is genetically compatible with my own, with a few generic alterations, of course. You are being taken from the Earth because you are immune to the disease that currently ravages your race. The others are being left because there is nothing we can do to save them, save provide immune children that will forge a future for humanity. As for why you are going to be my wife? You have genetic attributes that will provide me with a strong heir…and interest me for reasons I cannot fully comprehend. You may say anything you wish, though you might like to keep in mind that you are bound for my home world, the entirety of which adheres to my laws. If I want you, there is no corner of the universe to which you could run to escape me.” He shed the upper half of his suit in a smooth movement, taking in the human woman’s sharp inhalation.

He was aware of the fact that he was not unpleasing to the eye of most women, but this entire process would be eased if she was attracted to him.

There was now no question of that.

“W-what are you doing?” She inquired as he began to slip from the rest of his suit. Kael gave a long-suffering sigh.

“I am preparing for cold sleep, as you should as well. The two medical officers were trying to help you. Shall I call them back?”

By now, he was completely naked before her, and her eyes were wider than they’d ever been before. She took him in from head to foot, and he could fairly hear her heart pounding against her ribs. When he took a step forward, she attempted to retreat further into her corner, only to be greeted by the solid wall behind her.

Reaching forward, Kael took her chin in his hand, gazing into her uncertain eyes. “I’m going to call the medical officers, and you will prepare for cold sleep. Is that understood?” When she failed to respond, her gaze fixed on his, he jerked her forward, to shock her from her reverie. The slide of her smaller form against his was surprisingly alluring, and when the whim came to him, he reached for the hem of her gown.