Viper (Second Wave Book 1) (15 page)

“How do you know what information I
have?” Lara demanded, she already guessed but needed to hear it.

“Viper wanted to make sure your
pack stayed with you, in case it was something you needed with you…” Drago
began before Lara cut him off.

“That’s a damn lie, and you know
it! Your freaking nose is twitching, and you know damn well you’re lying when
that happens!” Lara was taken aback by what she had just said and held her
breath waiting to see if Drago would confirm or deny that she was right.

“Look…” Drago didn’t get far before
Lara held up her hand to him to be quiet, and he sighed. Following a lie with
another lie obviously wasn’t going to make her happy. He couldn’t blame her.

Making up his mind, Drago held his
hands out in front of him before looking her right in the eyes. “I have no excuse
for why he did it other than he was being his normal over bearing self in
trying to fix everything for you.” Drago ignored Viper’s raging in his mind and
continued.

“The only thing he’s ever wanted
was to protect you, and he feels like he failed you in the past and wanted to
make sure he didn’t lose you again. I’m not sure he could survive your loss
again. What he did was wrong, even if he did it for the right reasons.”

“I’m not asking you to forgive him
for it; I'm asking you to let the people who have been fighting these animals
for hundreds of years, to help you. Grai and the Valendrans have people all
over the world. I’ll go back down with you and show you around their setup.
You’ll be impressed; I promise.” Drago ignored the screaming of both his brothers
and Ratoka now.

Apparently, they didn’t think he
should have told her so much, but they weren’t with her right now, and they had
no idea how close they were to losing her. Drago didn’t feel like he had a
choice but to tell her the truth or lose her to the betrayal she felt at Viper
stealing her pack and going through it.

Lara’s mind whirled with so many
thoughts and feelings that she wasn’t sure what to concentrate on. So she
focused on John and her promise to him. This… strangeness, that she felt around
these brothers, around the handsome but lying Viper, didn’t matter.

She had kept her promise to Viper,
now she would keep her promise to John. That was real for her. So was the fact
that she was up in space right now, and she would feel a whole lot better if
she were back on good old planet Earth, she thought.

“I want to go back to Earth now.
Please.” Lara said flatly, hoping there would be no argument, and that they
weren’t planning on keeping her out here. She felt incredibly stupid for even
trusting Viper enough to go through that damn mirror now.

Drago knew they had lost her.
Ignoring his brothers who were raging at him, he went behind their back and
contacted Grai. They were going to kick his ass, but it would be worth it; he thought
looking at the now frightened Lara. She had done an admirable job of trying to
hide it, but he could still feel it.

When he got his response from Grai,
he turned to Lara. “How about we do that and lose those guys for a little
while?” He offered, motioning outside where his brother's ship was.

Lara looked at him curiously. So
far, he was the only one who had been honest with her and other than getting to
know her again he didn’t seem to want anything from her. She nodded her head
slowly. A little peace and quiet would be really nice right now.

Drago grinned and held out his hand
to her, praying she would trust him enough to take it. His heart leapt when she
did. He pulled her gently to her feet and led her back to her seat in the
cockpit area.

While he sat in his own seat, Lara
tightened her straps and prepared for the huge jolt that she had felt the last
time. Lara looked over at him while he pressed buttons and swiped the screen in
front of him.

“Be prepared, we’re going back the
direct route this time, from here to the office in Dillon, Texas. Is that all
right?” Drago asked, waiting for her answer.

Lara was confused. “How does that
get rid of them and how will you avoid the government air defenses?” Lara could
almost envision the fighter jets surrounding them and shuddered.

“This ship is the only one cleared
to land there. They will have to land back on the Adaria and use the portal to
get back.” Drago said turning to her with a huge smile that made Lara smile
with him.

Lara liked the way the man was
thinking. She remembered how long it took just to get to Drago’s ship from the
portal on the Adaria and relished Viper walking it alone this time. Drago still
didn’t answer all of her questions though.

“What about our air defenses and
satellites?” Lara asked suspiciously, thinking he must not have answered that
one for a bad reason.

“Oh! Damn, I’m sorry. We have
cloaking built into the ship. It was one of the first modifications I made to
her when we got her on the Adaria. We can see each other on our view screens,
but we can prevent anyone else from seeing us.”

“All of the ships are cloaked to
make sure we’re not seen from the space station, Mars rover, satellites, deep-space
probes… you guys send a lot of crap up here.” Drago said shaking his head in
wonder. The humans just didn’t make sense to him.  

It was why he had been content to
stay on the ship and make an endless amount of repairs to it, and anything else
needing repair on the Adaria. Or one of Koda’s ships, he was Grai’s brother and
leader of the fleet of ships they had backing up the Adaria and other Valendran
and Tezarian vessels in the area. For Lara and his asshole brother Viper, he
would stay on the stupid planet until this was resolved. Because right now he
seemed to be the only one, she was trusting even a little bit.  

He turned to Lara when she
responded. “We can get through all that right?” Lara turned quizzical, narrowed
eyes on him.

She was still a brave little thing;
Drago thought, feeling her nervousness and curiosity. “We will get through it
like it isn’t even there. Hold on!”

The words had barely left his mouth
when Lara was shot back into her seat as if she’d been fired from a cannon. Her
stomach didn’t even have time to drop before she felt the ship settle into a
comfortable speed.

The zipping lights that had been
flying by had now slowed, and she watched as Drago expertly maneuvered the
craft in between all the junk they had left in space surrounding the planet.

In no time, they were taking a
steep dive towards the planet, and Lara watched in awe as the distant lights
began to get closer until she could make out a town in what looked like
mountains that had been dropped in the middle of nowhere.

“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” Drago
asked, even though he could feel her admiration. When she nodded her head, he
continued.

“Grai T’Alq built this place and
many other safe places just like it. He’s the owner of Freedom Enterprises.”
Drago said, hoping the information would make her feel a little more
comfortable about the fact that he was having Grai meet them when they landed.

Lara was suitably impressed.
Freedom Enterprises was one of the largest companies on the planet. They had
some of the best and most cutting-edge technology. Damn! She thought; that was
why she recognized the armor on the Viper and the other guys who had shown up
at her cabin.

“What’s a guy like that doing it
for?” Lara couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.  

One thing she knew for sure, no one
ever did anything anymore just because it was the right thing to do. Every once
in a while, someone would do an extraordinary act for another human being, but
it was so rare as to be almost non-existent these days.

“It’s his story to tell, not mine.
But, what I can tell you is that the guy is all stone on the outside, inside;
he's like a fluffy cloud. Don’t ever tell him I told you that.” Drago quickly
added, causing Lara to laugh.

“I won’t; I promise. So he’s just
doing it out of the kindness of his heart huh… wait! Didn’t I shoot his
brother?” Lara asked sitting bolt upright in her seat and turning wide eyes to Drago,
who was chuckling.

“Yeah, you did. He’s ok though.
Trust me, Grai does not hold that against you. We are all quite stunned it
hasn’t happened more often. As you’ve seen, Traze kind of acts… very stupidly
sometimes… without having any thought involved in his actions.”

“He’s a great kid and he means
well, but he really has to grow on you. We’re here. Now don’t get pissed or
freaked out, but I had Grai meet us. He’s kind of the leader here, and I think
you will be really surprised at how he can help you.” Drago said his words in a
rush, hoping to keep her occupied and avoid her blowing up at him.

Drago stood and quickly undid her
straps and pulled her to her feet. He had both of them out of the door and into
the large hangar beneath the runway outside of the office building on the
mountain before she had a chance to utter a word. He breathed a sigh of relief
when Grai walked up to them.

“Sgt. Blain, I am Grai T’Alq and
this amazing little boy is my son, Tristan.” Lara watched, slightly bemused, by
the huge man who was cuddling and cradling a small child like he was the most
precious thing in the world.

When Lara continued to just stare
at him, Grai continued. “If you’ll follow me, I'll be happy to show you the
progress we’ve made on those vids and recordings you made.”

Grai didn’t wait to see if she’d
follow and headed towards a door on the other side of the room. Without even
thinking about it, Lara followed the big guy. Not because of what he said, but because,
for some reason, she couldn’t resist the adorable dark-haired child peering
over his father’s shoulder at her, curling his pointer finger at her to follow.

She grinned stupidly at the
adorable boy as she walked through several doors and hallways until they finally
ended up in a large room that looked more like a state-of-the-art boardroom.  

Lara was startled when the young
boy she’d shot, Traze, came up to her with a huge smile of his face.  

“Hey forest ninja! I’m glad you’re
doing ok now. Hey, no hard feelings on the whole ‘shoot the shape shifting,
INNOCENT…” Traze said, before David smacked him in the back of the head.

For some reason, Lara figured the
kid had been through enough with her shooting him and tried to save him from
the next head smack by rushing up to him and taking his hand in her own.

“I am truly sorry for hurting you.
I was just scared. I hope you can forgive me.” Lara really did feel bad about
hurting him, but she had no idea Traze could tell that by her emotions, so she
was surprised when he sighed and gently shook her hand.

“Man, what is it about human women
and those sad, pretty eyes? Fine… I forgive you. But, only if you teach me some
of those cool ass forest ninja skills! Those traps were dope girl!!” Traze said
with childlike excitement.

Yeah, Lara thought to herself; she could
see how the young boy, and his mercurial personality could grow on you. He had
his charm. In an annoying kind of way.

“Of course, you never know when a
good trap can come in handy.” Lara said with a small smile before allowing Grai
and Drago to lead her to a long conference table.

Once she was seated, Drago took the
chair beside her while Grai introduced everyone else in the room.

“Traze and Risk have been going
through the information in your pack.” Grai said gesturing to the computer
station to the left of the door.

“This is Reven Debreskii, he’s head
of the Valendran personnel on the planet. Next is Jaxson Adronatof, she’s part
of the planet forces and team leader. Niklosi Jevasari is a Valendran team leader,
and Decano is part of my personal force and a team leader as well. Ivint
Torenson is the leader of the Valendran forces and former High Councilor of
their planet.” Grai introduced everyone before taking a seat and settling
Tristan on his lap.

He had hated bringing the boy here,
but he’d had no choice with Tricia busy at the moment and Drago’s desperate
need to keep the girl from running away. He’d get to the bottom of what was
really going on later, but right now he could feel Lara’s fear and hesitation
and didn’t want her to feel that way if he could help it. A little trust could
go a long way; he thought.

“Let’s get to it. We have a lot to
go over, and we need to make plans.” Grai said, looking around the room at the
expectant faces and Lara’s curious but wary one.

Chapter
Fourteen

When Grai had everyone’s attention,
he started at the beginning. “We went through every piece of evidence that you
had and were able to come up with the names of the men involved with the
threats made against the officers. Including the ones that were responsible for
the death of your friend John.” Grai ignored Lara’s sharp intake of breath when
she saw their faces come onto the screen.

Lara listened intently as Grai
rattled off their rank and names. She would never forget them, and now she
could hunt them; she thought. Until Grai dashed those hopes.

“Out of the four responsible for
your friend’s death, two were already killed by our people on a mission in
Africa not long ago.” Lara was surprised to see the photos of their clearly
dead bodies come on the screen briefly.

“One is still over in Afghanistan,
that we are tracking.” Grai said, moving to the side as Risk brought up a
satellite image on the screen behind him where the pictures had been.

Lara watched as someone zoomed in
on the bright blip on the screen until one of the men came into clear view on
the screen. Even if Lara hadn’t seen them zoom in on the country she would have
known where he was, the bastard was in the same damn place where she and John
had made the recordings to begin with.

“The other one is here in the states,
and we have a few people on him a little more closely.” Grai said with a smile
as the screen changed to show the man eating at what looked like a pretty
expensive restaurant.

Lara was amazed at the clarity of
the picture and wondered just how close of a surveillance they had on the guy.
Her question was answered before she could ask it.

“One of our people was already
embedded in an office down the hall from his at their headquarters building.
It’s been ridiculously easy to track him.” Grai told her with a grin.

He wanted to move on quickly before
Lara had a chance to obsess about only those two men. He wanted her to see the
bigger picture first.

“Now, because of our surveillance
of those two and the two that are dead, we found dozens more of them.” Grai
explained, pausing while Risk and Traze put the pictures of more men behind him
on the screen. He wasn’t surprised when Lara’s jaw dropped. He had to admit he
was pretty impressed with what she’d been able to uncover as well.

“Of course, you know how this
works, so by digging into them; we found more… and more… until right now we’re
sitting at hundreds of them that are embedded in every branch of service of
every country in the world. Unfortunately, Traze and Risk also found
connections with the state and local police in one area as well, and we’re
looking to see how wide spread that may be.” Grai said with a frown.   

He was pretty pissed that they had
progressed enough to reach a local level. He had a feeling it was a pilot
program of his brother Dagog’s. One he was going to crush soon; he thought.

Lara was stunned and speechless.
She couldn’t believe how far they had gotten with the little bit of information
that she, and John had gotten. There was no doubt in her mind, they had the
right men either. Lara would have recognized those bastards anywhere.

“What do you plan on doing with the
information?” Lara asked, curious if they planned on burying it or doing
something about it.    

Grai looked at the woman for a
moment before telling her the absolute truth. “I had planned on deferring to
your wishes on the two that wronged you and your friend. I think you’ve earned
the right. The aliens we plan on hunting and killing. The humans we will destroy
in a way to ensure they end up locked up. If there is a chance, they can still
do harm behind bars, then they will die too.”

“The aliens you faced have no
conscience, no soul and cannot be saved. The only way to eliminate their threat
is for them to die. The humans are given a little more leeway and only rendered
useless.” Grai explained, noticing that though she was shocked, Lara approved
of his response.

Lara was stunned, but impressed.
Very impressed. If this place and these people were for real she wanted to sign
up right now. Sadly, she wasn’t that trusting though.

“What’s the catch?” She asked,
causing a few to snicker.

“We need to wait until we’ve been
able to track this as far up as we can. You’re a smart woman, you know what’s
been going on in your military has to be ordered, from a lot higher up the food
chain than these assholes. We need to find out how far up it goes.”

“It does us no good to cut off the
tail if the head can still kill you. It doesn’t mean we can’t start making a
lot of these low-level guys have some bad accidents or become casualties of
war.” Grai told her, waiting for her to erupt in anger.

Grai was surprised when she didn’t.
He had a feeling it had something to do with Dread, Viper and Ratoka entering
the room and sitting down at the table, although Lara barely acknowledged their
arrival.  

Lara was too busy considering what
Grai had told her to care too much that Viper, and his entourage had shown up.
She was glad to see that Dog’ee had come with them though. She had felt terrible
when she realized that the adorable cat had been left on the Adaria with Viper.

Lara reached down and pet the soft
fur of the cat as he rubbed against her legs. She would have let it sit on her
lap if it wasn’t a good fifty pounds and would probably crush her legs.

“I can understand that we need to
see how high this goes before some of these can be taken out. I want to be a
part of it. But, I want to know what stake you all have in this first. Don’t
lie to me and tell me some fanciful bullshit about being all benevolent, that
crap doesn’t jive with me.” Lara said bluntly, surprising everyone but Grai,
who smiled.  

“The Valendrans, who are half my
people, have a population problem. Mostly that they have few surviving females
in their population that can give birth to female offspring. We have discovered
that a few certain gifted women on the planet are not only compatible with
them, but some are hybrids of them, like I and my brothers are.”

“Their goal is to save as many of
their own people as they can. Those accidentally left here a thousand years
ago, and the offspring whom they have produced since their reappearance to this
planet. Since my father was the leader of the Relian Empire and set up all this
shit, as you call it, on your planet, it is my responsibility to fix as much of
what he has done as I can.”

“It is through these efforts that
we’ve decided to assist the humans in getting rid of the traitorous bastards
among your kind that are working with the Relian’s to destroy them. We have
varied interests on this planet. None of which includes its destruction or the
enslavement of its people.” Grai told her honestly. He had no desire to lie to
the woman.  

“So this is like some bad movie
plot where Mars needs women? Seriously? You can’t be serious. You did all of
this…” Lara said, moving her hands to encompass the whole building. “Just for
some women?” Lara was incredulous that this kind of effort had been made solely
to play intergalactic matchmaker. It just didn’t seem right.

Grai laughed heartily, the way Lara
had said it somehow tickled him. “It’s a little more complicated than that. But
yes, that’s about it. There is the added benefit that some of our mates are
human, like my own. And her happiness depends on keeping her planet intact. So
there are other incentives for us to assist the humans.”

Lara noticed how smoothly the man
skated around the issue of her helping them and made sure to bring it up next.
“I’m not really interested in helping with your matchmaking, what I am
interested in, is destroying all of those bastards. So when can we start and
how will you be including me in your plans to destroy them?”

Lara knew that they were doing that
beast talk crap again when the entire room grew silent, and everyone began
staring at each other as if having a private discussion. She’d had enough. Of
all of it.

“Look, I don’t give a damn what
your issues are, you can either include me in this, or I’ll walk and do it on
my own. If it interferes in your plans, then too damn bad. Either way, this fight
is mine, and I will fight it with or without you. Understood?” Lara said with
determination as she stared pointedly at Viper.

If there was anyone here that would
try to prevent her from helping in this mission, it would be him. Not only did
Lara think he didn’t have the right to interfere in her life; she didn’t think
he should have a say in it either. Not on this. This was her fight, her
promise.

Lara almost felt bad when Viper,
looking defeated, sighed and nodded his head before speaking. “I agree that you
have more than earned the right to fight this battle. The only reason we have
the information we got is because of you and John. You are also a very talented
fighter and would only be an asset to any team willing to take you.” Viper
almost choked getting that out and hoped that no one would take her on their
team, knowing she was mated to him. Those hopes were shattered by Jax.

“I’ll take you on my team. I saw
what you did out there and what you did for Viper. You’re quick thinking and
good at what you do. We could use you if you’re willing.” Jax said to Lara,
thinking that she could definitely use the woman’s unique skills.

The fact that the beast bonded men,
with the exception of Grai, seemed to be furious by her offer only made her
more hopeful that Lara would agree.

“I would be delighted to be
included on your team. Thank you.” Lara said, hoping that Jax would realize
just how grateful she was for her offer.

“We will be delighted to have you.”
Jax said with a sly smile and wink at Lara. 

“Outstanding! We can get started
immediately. Jax, please get Lara set up with a schedule to train with your
team and show her the ropes around town so mistakes aren’t made around the
human population.”

“We will meet back here in a day or
two to go over our first round of plans. We should be able to have enough intel
by then to start. Agreed?” When everyone but Jax and Lara muttered an
affirmative response, Grai broke up the meeting.

Lara cleared her throat before
anyone could leave, drawing their attention back to her. Trying to hide her
nervousness, Lara looked directly at Grai.

“Is there a place close by that I
can rent or a motel or something?”

The room became deathly quiet.
Until Traze opened his mouth. “Dude!!! Your own mate cock-blocked you!” His
following roaring laughter was quickly silenced by the slap to the back of his head
from David and the scathing glare of his brother Grai.

“Oh come on! I can’t be the only
one who thinks that’s funny damn it!” Traze said ducking David’s raised hand
and making a dive for the door.

“Again… I apologize for any
offense… oh fuck it.” David said with a sigh before heading out the door to
find Traze.

Lara straightened her shoulders and
looked at Grai. “Look, I understand you do things differently here. But, you
have to understand where I come from this isn’t how it’s done. I don’t know
these men, and I’m not comfortable staying with them, unless I do.”

“If there’s nowhere to rent here,
then I’ll grab a place close by or go back to my cabin, but I’m not staying
alone with them.” Lara almost felt bad when Viper visibly flinched at her
words.

She had no intention of hurting
him, but she needed to think. Clearly. To do that she needed to be away from
him and his brothers. And that damn Ratoka.

Lara was surprised when Reven
spoke. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to interfere in matters
pertaining to a mated pair. If they aren’t together, then how are they supposed
to bond?” The glare that he gave Jax when he said that spoke volumes to
everyone about where his words and frustration were coming from.  

Jax proved Lara’s suspicions when
she turned on Reven, her eyes spitting fire at him. “How about he realize that
she’s human, and Lara’s right. We don’t do it like that here on Earth and maybe
sometimes a girl wants a little more effort than some caveman shit, ‘oooh oooh
you’re my mate let’s live together and breed baby’!” The way Jax mimicked the
last made Lara wonder if that’s what Reven had said to her.

Reven stood angrily and leaned down
to Jax, in the chair next to him. “Maybe if she wasn’t so damn stubborn and
would stop fighting her feelings for him, they could meet somewhere in the damn
middle!”

Jax stood and was so much shorter
than Reven that it didn’t make a difference in the way he towered over her.
Lara was impressed by the way the woman stood her ground though.

“Maybe if he would bother to make
the smallest of efforts like asking for a damn date instead of demanding to be
seen, she could actually learn to like the bastard!”

“You know what, chew on this asshole,
before you guys came along; women like me, and Lara have fought like a man to
protect each other and the innocent most of our lives. All without your help.
We’ve been beaten, shot and gone through the same loss of friends, family and team
members. We bear the same scars, no matter the depth.”