Craving: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 8) (36 page)

"You've changed," Jidden remarked, joining me from the tunnel that led to the docking bay. "You're more you."

He presented the key I had left him. It was Gallia's key. I hope she understood my decision, wherever she was.

I didn't take the key back. Instead, I crouched low and swept my leg out, trying to force him down by attacking his knees. My dress caught on my foot, and I slipped.

"You can't wear that tomorrow," he said, holding a hand out to help me up.

"It shouldn't matter," I declared, taking his hand and pulling him to the ground. He stumbled, but he did not fall. He was too tall and strong, much larger than an average human man. "My ability to fight shouldn't depend on what clothes I wear."

He held his hand out again, and this time I let him help me up. "Let me show you how to strike a Surtu soldier."

I could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke. Jidden was taking a difficult path. He would not betray me, but he had betrayed his people. His betrayal may be justified, but it ate at him like an infection.

He lifted the top of his uniform, revealing his hard abs beneath. "We are flesh, like you. Remember that. You won't be able to knock us down, so you'll have to strike while we stand. Aim here, between the ribs." He pointed to where his muscles covered his rib cage. "If you hit here, you'll knock the air out of us. That's how you can hinder us."

I attempted to punch him in the gut where he pointed, but his reflexes were fast. He grabbed my fist, stopping me. "Nice try."

I smiled. "If I had you on the ground, you wouldn't be complaining about what I'd be doing to you."

Immediately, he dropped my fist. "Be my guest."

I was all talk, but he wasn't. Before I could step away, he grabbed me and held me close. "Hello, my light bonded," he said before kissing me, harder than he ever had before. His lips left bruises on my own. I liked it.

A reckless urge ripped through me. The light between us had brought peace, but it wasn't dormant. It was wild and overpowering. Jidden felt it too.

Roughly, he spun me around and bent me over. There was no time to remove our clothes. Our desire for each other was too strong. He flipped my black dress up and grabbed the ends of my now auburn hair, forcing my head back as he unzipped his uniform and drove his cock straight into me.

It hurt, but I liked that as well. I opened my legs wider and arched my back, allowing him to penetrate deeper inside. My body shook as he pounded me, his love excruciating. I rocked with him, breathing hard as the pain turned to pleasure. I soaked his cock with my wetness as I began to climax. He grabbed my hips and drove into me harder, unrelenting, until we came together, our puddles of love blending into a hot, sticky mess.

As we came, he pulled my head back further, and then he turned me back around and kissed me, breaking my soul completely.

"I love you," I told him. "I always will."

"I love you too," he proclaimed, his inner depth finally winning over his flawed ego.

I was full of bliss, but there was a weight to our confessions. With our escape only hours away, it felt as if we were saying goodbye.

* * *

"
W
hat about Lucina
?" Bellona asked me as we covered Gallia's body in the temple with a white lace cloth. "She's not fit to fight."

"I gave her some tea," I revealed. "She'll continue to sleep. Jidden will take her to the ship as soon as the soldiers are in the dining hall."

"Why him?" she snapped.

"Because when the fight begins, he is the only one who can carry her past the soldiers without her being harmed."

Bellona couldn't argue with my logic, so she said nothing.

"Trust me, Jidden won't betray us."

"He won't reveal YOU," she said. "We are another story."

"I thought you were going to trust my decision."

She sighed, wrapping the final corner of lace around Gallia. "I do trust you. That doesn't mean I like it."

It was morning on the Fortuna. It was hard to tell with the stars still shining through the entrance of the temple. In the starlight, we lifted Gallia off the altar. With a quick look behind us to make sure no guards were checking in, we pushed the stone slab of the altar back, revealing a flat wooden doorway beneath – the entrance to the tunnels. One of three, including the docking bay and the bread oven in the kitchen. I used my key to open the door.

"I'll leave her next to where the tunnel exists at the docking bay," Bellona recited, going over our plan. "That way, when we come through, we can bring her with us."

I nodded, our plan finalized. "This is it."

"This is it," she confirmed.

"I'll see you on the other side, sister."

Leaving her, I made my final round through the Fortuna. It had been my home for the last few years. Lucina and I had been so excited after we were given our assignment here. We expected long days chatting, being closer to the stars than we had ever been before. We expected to train hard and to become warriors. We expected to leave happy knowing that we had served our people well, making our mothers proud. The Fortuna was our legacy.

We had never expected to be the ones fighting the impending war with the Surtu. We had never expected to die. Perhaps others had. Gallia, possibly. Maybe even Bellona. But not Lucina and I.

We hadn't viewed the Fortuna as our coffin. We barely even thought of it as a battle station. We thought it was another home for us.

We were wrong.

Leaving was bittersweet. The happy memories we had of our lives onboard were marked by the hardships of the last...what was it...a week? I couldn't tell anymore. It felt a lot longer.

In the mill pantry, I found Juventas. She was brawny, with short brown hair and tattooed muscles that gave her away as the street fighter she was. But she loved to bake. It was a passion of hers. And we loved her for it, often stopping to inhale the scent of her sweet bread, waiting for the dinner hour to arrive.

There would be nothing sweet about the bread she baked tonight or the soup we'd be serving with them.

"Commander," she said, greeting me. "Is it time?"

I placed my key on the counter in front of her. "It's time."

* * *

"
W
hy are
we all dining together?" a soldier protested nearby. "I know I stink. I don't want to sit next to a bunch of others who do as well."

I went to fill his bowl of soup. "Your Lead Officer said we have a blackout scheduled for tonight. You either eat now, or you starve until tomorrow."

The soldier wasn't impressed. "We have kitchens on our ships. And why are you serving us? Aren't you that Commander bitch? The one that got Kalij sent off to the Captain?"

"Nah," another soldier said, looking up from the bread he was chewing. "The Commander is meek. This girl has some gall. You claimed yet, sweetheart?" he asked, grinning hungrily.

I shoved bread at him. "Fortunately, yes," I said truthfully. "Now shut your ugly trap and swallow. We don't want the food to go to waste."

The soldiers were eating. That was good, but it wasn't good enough. They should have been drowning in their soup by now. I hurried to the kitchen. "Are you adding enough pest control?" I asked the girl at the stove.

"We've used all that we have," she said. "The longer it cooks, the more the sedative must wear off."

"Then we'll have to serve it faster," I called to the girls maneuvering in and out of the kitchen. "Get them to eat as quickly as possible. We want them all down at once. Brace yourselves. As soon as the first man falls, the others will be alert."

I worried about my warrior sisters around me, but I shouldn't. None of us was weak. We were all well trained. This was the real fight we had prepared for, though if we managed to escape, it wouldn't be our last battle.

"Funny that a root from Earth is going to be their demise," the girl at the stove said whimsically, humming as she stirred. There was no fear in her at all.

I sighed, recalling what Jidden had told me of the Surtu's strategy. "Sadly, it won't be the demise of all of them. The ships that have landed on the Fortuna are a drop in the bucket compared to the fleets that have arrived."

The girl pointed the spoon at the soldiers already asleep in the corner of the kitchen, where they patrolled. We had fed them first, as much as they could eat. "But there's still something satisfying about seeing the big bad Depraved snoring like teddy bears, completely at our mercy."

I couldn't argue with that. There certainly was.

Juventas pulled another tray of bread out of the bread oven – one of two. The other oven, the important oven, was cold as ice. "More pest control, at your service," she sang.

Whatever the original name of the root was, it was lost forever to the women of the Fortuna, exchanged for one much more appropriate.

A commotion in the dining hall sounded like an alarm throughout the ship. All of our waiting, all of our fears and our hopes, had led to this moment. I nodded to the girl at the stove. Immediately, she abandoned her spoon in the soup and helped to lead the women towards Juventas, who escorted them into the tunnels.

I returned to the dining hall. To my relief, most of the men were dropping. The few that remained standing were dazed, swaying around as they reached for their blasters. Some waved their hands, causing forks to fly off the tables. They were dangerous, but they were soon taken care of by my sisters, some of whom fought while the others ran to the kitchen, wave by wave. Fight, then leave.

Out in the gardens, Bellona was leading a battle of her own. The women fought the guards on patrol and then escaped into the tunnel through the temple. They were heading towards the docking bay where Jidden waited, having sent the soldiers in their ships away.

If all had gone to plan, he was on his ship with Lucina and the divide between the space station and the docking bay was already up, keeping the Surtu men out.

"Why do we have to go through the tunnels?" a woman complained as she passed by me. "Can't we just go straight to the docking bay?"

"We don't know how long the soldiers will be out. And there are still many left to fight. We were able to convince a majority to come to the dining hall, but we knew we would not convince them all. There are more Surtu than women. As long as those of us still fighting can keep the soldiers away from the kitchen and temple, the tunnels are our best hope."

"My sword is my best hope," she grumbled. "They're lucky they managed to take it off me during the siege."

I felt underneath my dress for my mini-crossbow. It was still there, strapped to my leg, as well as a dagger. I took the knife out and handed it to her. "It's no sword, but it'll have to do."

She was delighted. Instead of heading towards the tunnels, she returned to the dining hall to fight.

Knowing the battle around the kitchen was won, I headed towards the gardens to help Bellona, stopping by my quarters first to make sure Lucina was gone.

No one bothered me. My sisters were doing well. With great contentment, I realized no one would have to stay behind. As long as everyone went to the tunnels, we would all make it out.

My quarters were empty. That was good. Jidden had done his part. Saying my goodbyes, I looked around at the home that was once mine – the Persian-inspired pillows on my bed, the warm plum-colored wallpaper, and the plush carpet. Here, I had been Terra Lynch, a pacifist trained as a warrior. Once I left the station, I would be known as something else completely. I would be Nightshade, a deadly poison.