MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) (78 page)

Chapter Six

Jenna was strapped into the small control of that same pod. In the hour after their meal, Darys had gone through great pains to make sure everything was tied down before he took off. In the beginning, it wasn’t very much different than being in a plane, but as soon as her ears began to pop and Darys drove his joystick up to an even higher incline, Jenna couldn’t stop herself from clutching onto the sides of her seat for dear life.

They were racing through the sky. Then it seemed as if the sky were below them. Not like when you get on an airplane and the pilot cruises over the cloud cover. No. As Jenna looked out of the front window, she failed to find anything blue or white around her. Below her, she could see the earth’s atmosphere.

Darys pursed his lips as he held on to three different controls. Catching the hint, Jenna followed suit, clutching on to the handles on either side of her seat. The entire craft jumped, dipping as if it had finally freed itself from a string.

Jenna’s jaw dropped as a surprised yelp leapt from between her lips.

“Jenna.” Darys clasped his hand in hers, chancing on quick glance over at her.

Jenna allowed herself to be calmed by him.

“Everything is okay. Xei’s do this all the time.”

It wasn’t want Darys said. It was the way he said it, as if he meant to assert: “Don’t worry. This is a part of your culture. One day, you won’t be afraid.”

As he said this, Jenna caught sight of something right behind her. It was a space ship that spanned her entire range of vision. Lights from the windows dotted its dark mass as its sharp compartments jutted out into the space around it. Her heart swelled in her chest at the sight of it. “This is beautiful,” She whispered.

Darys nodded. “It is.” With that, he took his hand off of hers and directed his space craft towards the larger ship. The mass grew as they approached it until it seemed to engulf everything around them. Once he reached what looked like an industrial garage door, he stopped it, hovering right in front of it as it slowly opened. There were three Xeis with space suits on waiting for him as he entered.

As Darys cut the engine on the craft, Jenna noticed an oxygen gauge on the side of the wall and watched as it slowly rose to viable levels. Darys nodded, pressing a button on the side of his door.

Jenna’s eyes went wide. Suddenly, she realized that she was about to enter a space craft in the middle of space with no other human on it. But then she remembered she had more in common with them than otherwise. Even though she had no idea what to expect, she wouldn’t let herself cower from this.

So, she followed Darys out of the control room, down the short hall inside of his craft and out into the garage. The Xeis were only just taking their helmets off by the time Darys reached them.

They all nodded to him. “My lord.”

“My lord.”

“My lord.”

Jenna gulped. Something about his power just made him that much more attractive.

“Pilot,” Darys said, nodding towards one of the Xeis. He was a little shorter than Darys, but shared his same severe stare.

“I see you have already succeeded.” Pilot looked past him, his eyes settling on Jenna.

He scanned her with the kind of scrutiny she hadn’t experienced since her first day of grade school. He then stepped aside to let the both of them through. Once they were inside of the ship, Jenna found herself overloaded with things to look at.

Pilot first led them through a long, wide hallway, which bled into what looked like a gymnasium. Xei men were scattered all around it, slamming their fists into punching bags, shooting what looked like high tech arrows into targets. It all struck Jenna as unnecessarily militarized.

The men all stopped to look at her as they passed through. Darys, seemed to sense her discomfort, for he reached for her hand as he continued to talk with Pilot.

“I need to call a meeting, but first I would like to get Jenna settled in my chambers.”

Pilot raised an eyebrow at him. “How long are you planning to hold her?”

Jenna winced.

“I am not holding her. I only planned to keep her there until I had finished meeting with you.”

Pilot nodded, but his confused look did not go away.

Darys stopped walking, turning the full force of his glare on him. “It is not for you to question my actions,” He snapped.

Jenna didn’t move, except to take a breath.

Pilot nodded and they kept walking.

Soon enough, they had reached a barrier marked with an intricate-looking seal. The double doors had been bolted shut. One of the other Xeis that had been walking with them stepped forward with a set of keys. He unlocked the bolts, then moved away.

Pilot took it upon himself to open the door, then moved to the side to let them in. Jenna was affixed with the sudden change in atmosphere. Warm lighting bathed the short hallway that ended in what looked like a door made of black wood.

Darys stepped in front of her, pulling the door open to reveal a spacious bedroom. His bed towered at least four feet off of the ground, a black, ornate step stool perched right beside it. Beyond that, there was a wooden desk, covered in papers and diagrams, an armoire, a dresser, and an archway into what looked like some kind of washroom.

But as soon as the door shut behind Jenna, there was a question she had to get off of her chest. “What’s going on?” She asked. “It looks like you guys are preparing for some kind of… invasion.”

His blank stare confirmed her worst fears.

“Are you?”

Of course he was. He was a War Lord from a different planet with clearly superior technology and a thirst for survival.

“You are in no place to judge my decision.”

Jenna’s eyes stung as a lump began to form itself in her throat. She suddenly detested herself for having step foot onto his ship, for having sex with a creature that had a mind to destroy her home. “How could you?”

“I have a duty to protect Xei.”

Jenna clenched her jaw. For everything she had in common with him, for the connection she knew she shared with him, she suddenly found herself at odds with him. “I can’t condone this.”

Darys raised an eyebrow at her, but instead of actually indulging her, he turned to leave.

She raced towards him, grabbing his arm. “You can’t just come to earth and assume control of everything!” A kind of desperation had seeped into her veins.

“I don’t have much of a choice.”

“You could hide,” she said.

Darys glared at her, the force of his stare freezing her where she stood. “My people do not deserve hiding and persecution after all that they have been through. Humans will not accept us given the choice. They are creatures driven by fear of the unknown and a compulsion to keep things as they are.”

Jenna could not deny the truth in his words. But still, she had to try, “But if you would just—”

“Jenna!”

She clamped her jaw shut.

“I do not have time to argue with you about things that are over your head.”

He made her feel like a child… like someone…
something
less than him.

Then he left.

Chapter Seven

Jenna was racing through the space craft. “Darys!” she screeched. She raced through the halls. Xerxes natives wandered around her, their harsh stares questioning her. Yet they all gave her a wide berth as if, on some strange level, they were frightened by her.

It was odd how the creatures she had just learned that she belonged to strayed away from her, as if she was somehow damaged.

“Darys!” she yelled. She knew she was acting crazy but she didn’t know where to look for him and her time was numbered. Every minute that went by was another minute of the planning that would solidify the invasion of her home.

“Darys!”

Someone pulled an alarm button. Red light spilled into the hall. Xeis all cleared away, the sound of the siren bouncing off the walls. But Jenna kept running.

“Jenna!”

She skidded to a stop at the sound of Darys’s voice. She turned to find the War Lord standing in the center of the corridor, a scowl on his face. “I can’t let you do this!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t understand why you are so concerned. You are one of us.” He said as he approached her.

Jenna stepped away from him. “I’m not one of you. I don’t just take things because I can. And I don’t kidnap people.” Jenna stood her ground. She felt a need to overcompensate for how much she had conceded in such a short time.

“You cannot reduce my decisions to brutish actions. I am acting for the good of those who trust me with their lives.”

Jenna saw it then. She saw everything that had made her feel so at odds for her entire life. Sure she was different, an anomaly. But that “mistake” in her DNA, that hue of her eyes, had put her on this ship and right then it was easy to figure out who and what she was. “Well so am I. I’m not saying I don’t care what happens to you. I obviously like you and I know this is who I am. But I will not stand by and let you just take what has been ours for thousands of years.”

“I see no other option!” Darys seemed to be trying to convince himself more than her.

Jenna closed the distance between the two of them. She saw a Xei at a crossroads. She watched him linger on the cusp of total destruction and assured survival and something else—something harder but far superior. “So keep looking.”

He set his jaw somehow determined to be right.

“I know it’s not easy. I know who we are. Trust me. But you can help us. There’s a handful of you compared to millions of us…”

“Us?” Darys sneered.

Jenna gulped, grabbing his hand. “Us. Believe it or not, I’m human too. And if you were to mate with me or with anyone else remotely like me, or if anyone were to mate with anyone, you cannot deny that your children would be human to some degree. We are all human. Human is your future. You need us to survive. So you have to help us if you expect this to work.”

Darys softened. “You are not in the position to make any promises for them.”

Jenna scoffed, glancing around her. “But I’m the only one here.” She sighed. “You don’t know a thing about us. About what we’re capable of, and yet you were prepared to launch an attack. Do you have any idea what kind of backlash you would face? Or did you just assume that because you found us before we could find you, that you’re superior?”

Darys’s eyes seemed lost to Jenna as he gazed into the distance, seeming to be pondering what she was saying.

“My Lord!”

They both turned to find pilot staring at them. “The launch codes.”

Jenna’s heart stopped. She reached for Darys, holding his face in both of her hands. “Don’t fucking do it.”

Darys pried his face out of her grip.

Jenna stepped back, feeling completely defeated.

“Disarm the codes.”

Pilot’s eyes went wide. “But—”

“Disarm them!” Darys yelled.

Pilot turned and sauntered off.

Jenna could cry from relief. “Oh Darys.” She wrapped her arms around him, but he didn’t hug her back.

“This took me seven earth-months to plan. I have nothing to offer the Xei.”

Jenna was softened by the glaze over his eyes. “You can offer them a future devoid of war and sacrifice.”

***

Darys stared back at the human-Xei hybrid he had plucked from earth by chance. Somehow, she had managed to help him find strength in an intuition he had always had.

THE END

Kahara Lords

Book 2

(Can be read as a standalone book)

By: Lindsay Blanc

Wanted by the Alien Lord

Chapter One

Javen slammed the door shut and bolted it. The sound rang through the walls, but was swallowed up by the spacious panic room his government favors had landed him. He pressed his palm against the cool metal, resting his forehead in the space between his hands. Once the ringing disappeared, an eerie silence descended on the room. All that could be heard was the sound of his own breathing bouncing off the metal… and that of his wife’s whimpering.

“Tyri.” He turned away from the wall.

She had folded her lanky body, sitting with her legs crossed and her hands resting on her thighs. Fat tears plopped onto the skin exposed by her short skirt.

Javen sat down across from her, mirroring her position. He could feel her emotions seeping into his mind. The despair made his eyes tingle with tears. He set his jaw and held them back, a small part of him resenting her for not even attempting to control herself. It took a moment or two, but Javen regain his own composure, stretching his mind to block out the sound of her sobs and the sensation of the warm water flowing out of her eyes.

If she was afraid, he wasn’t allowed to be.

He took her face in both of his hands, his fingers intertwined in her thick, black hair and his eyes trained on her hazel ones. “Remember the wheat fields.”

She didn’t respond at first, only averting her gaze.

He knew that she didn’t want to be reminded of her younger self. She wanted to stay inside of that pain. She wanted to feel her fear in peace.

Javen lifted her chin up and tried again. “They glistened like gold in the setting sun.”

“You ran towards me.” She almost hiccupped the words out of her mouth, each sound catching as if it had snagged onto something.

Javen smiled. Her energy was calming, becoming far more bearable. “You forgot your smock.”

“I wanted to forget it.”

It was perfect: the little poem they had composed together.

“Your mother never liked me,” Javen said, a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

Tyri smiled, her plump, pink lips revealing a set of pearl white teeth. A puff of pleasure colored Javen’s mind. Clear evidence that she was feeling better. “She never needed to,” She said, placing her hand on Javen’s cheek.

Javen wrapped his arms around her, loving how this big magnificent character could make herself so small for him. He kissed her, their trembling lips touching. They stayed like this while the impact hit.

Their luxury condo on the 56
th
floor of a building in the heart of Leeda wavered from side to side. The panic room contained nothing but sealed cabinets they were only to open when the hunger struck. It became more and more difficult to remain affixed to each other but Javen managed it. He clutched her tighter and tighter. She was no longer the thing making him fearful. She was his rock.

The shaking slowly eased to a stop. Everything was calm. Even the air seemed to have settled.

Tyri dared say it first. “Was that it?”

Javen’s heart turned over in his chest. Could it have been? He stood up and approached the door, not sure if he wanted to open it or not. The panic room seemed like a good idea when it was being built, but now he resented it. He could hear no activity from the outside world.

The door opened with a whine. He peeked out into the short hallway of their condo. He could see that their living room looked as if it had been completely ransacked. Outside of their large window, he could see a cloud-like mixture of mist. The smog completely covered his view. It cast the entire condo in dark light.

“Javen, my love?”

Javen could sense his wife standing up. He reached for her hand and led her out into the hallway.

She was not so relieved to see the state of the place. A tiny sob leapt out of her mouth. She ripped her hand out of his, clutching her head. Javen reached out to touch her when the ground shook beneath his feet. The floor shifted up and to the right, throwing them both into the wall.

Tyri yelped, the stomach-turning crack of her shoulder punctuating the rumble.

“Tyri!” Javen yanked her away from the wall and dragged her out into the main room. They stumbled over their feet, struggling to overcome the violent shaking. Their glass dove slipped off of a shelf up high. He pushed himself in front of Tyri, shoving her out of the way. Their wedding present came crashing down onto the marble floor.

Javen’s gaze shot up at the high ceiling. He winced at the rubble raining down on him. It was only a matter of time before it collapsed. “We have to get to the roof!” he yelled.

Tyri gave a frantic nod and took off for their front door. She was a star runner, had participated in all the Olympiads as a child. Javen followed her, silently thanking the gods for the fact that she did not protest him. She stumbled over the threshold, but Javen snaked his strong arm around her torso before she could go crashing down onto the ground.

She picked at his hands. “Come on!”

Just like that, she was in the lead. She opened the door to the service staircase and started hopping up them, two at a time. Javen, who was far less lithe than his wife, travelled much slower, calling to her to slow down. But she wouldn’t. She was driven by hysterical fear and determined to get to the top of the building. Javen could feel it.

But he could also feel the steps giving to his weight. They had been weakened by this aftershock of the earth quake. The structure was far from sound.

“Tyri!” he roared.

She glanced over her shoulder, one whole flight ahead. “Javen?” But her voice was lost in the whine of a chunk of ceiling dislodging directly above her.

Javen yelled as he stomped up the stairs but the ceiling was already falling.

Soon enough, Tyri followed his eyes, looking up. She had time only to gasp before a mix of stucco, marble and stone crushed her….

Javen’s eyes flashed open. He lifted his arm to swipe the sweat off of his forehead. There he was again, dreaming about his past. He internally kicked himself as he climbed out of bed and made his way through his small bed-space to the kitchen beyond. He turned on the camera sitting next to his seat and began to record as he fixed himself a sandwich.

“Day 24 on Earth. I have yet to find any possible matches. So far, I have scoured the southern-most coast of a province by the name of the United States.” He slabbed some butter on two pieces of bread and shoved them into his mouth. Through his chewing, he continued with, “Although, there is a woman getting a lot of attention on human media. She bears a striking resemblance to—”

He stopped himself short. The bread lodged itself in his throat. He coughed it up, spitting it in the sink. He glanced around himself at the suffocating air and the stale lighting. He couldn’t bear to spend one more second in that research sub-vehicle. He had to get to the surface. He needed fresh air.