Chapter 4-2
1929 Words
I watched as a guard ran back into the room, handed the small mobile transport device to his commanding officer.
No! That small dot would take me from Gabriela. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t resist.
Fuck!
The beacon was slapped to my chest and it beeped, signaling a countdown. Clearly, the center commander didn’t want to be transported with me. She and the others stepped back, and I felt the sizzle of transport.
No. No!
I blinked, then again. I was standing on a transport pad on one of the battleships. I knew not which one. I didn’t care. I wasn’t on Earth.
Literally, in the blink of an eye, Gabriela was light years away.
I wasn’t stunned anymore, but there was nowhere to go. No way to get back to Earth.
“Warlord Jorik.”
I turned and saw a giant of an Atlan. I knew who I faced, even before he told me his name. And I knew where I was.
“Welcome to Battleship Karter, Jorik. I am Commander Wulf.”
I circled the transport pad, as if there were some way I could find to return. “I need to go back. My mate is on Earth.”
The giant warrior frowned and checked a data pad on his forearm. I was normal sized, for an Atlan. But Wulf? He made me feel small. No wonder he was feared in nearly every sector of space and infamous on the home planet. If he ever retired, he’d go home a god.
“She’s my mate, Wulf.” I pleaded with this Atlan male to understand, to help me. “I have to get back to her. I need her.”
Wulf looked from the data to me. “Nothing here about a mate.”
I felt the beast move through me, my bones crack, my face grow once again. The growl that came from my throat was more howl than words. “She’s mine.”
Unfazed, the commander stared at me, assessing. I should have been surprised when he showed no fear in reaction to my beast, but I had heard enough about Wulf to suspect he could put me down, even without using his beast. The bastard was f*****g big enough.
My beast grew frantic at his lack of response. Someone was going to listen to me and send me back, if I had to tear this ship into a thousand pieces with my bare hands.
“I. Must. Go. Back.”
Wulf couldn’t miss my mood, my desperation. “All right. Calm down.” That fast my beast settled.
“Mine. Gabriela. Mine.”
Wulf nodded. “Fine. I’ll take it up with Commander Karter when we return from our mission. He can contact Warden Egara on Earth. If your female agrees, he’ll figure something out.”
I could speak again. I could think again. Finally, someone was listening to me. And I had no doubt that Gabriela would agree to come to me. I’d left her sated and well taken care of. Protected. She’d screamed my name, come on my c**k. She was mine. “She is mine,” I said aloud so Wulf knew.
“Enough. Come on. You need to gear up. We’re hitting Latiri 4 in two hours, and clearly, you need to work off some aggression.”
Killing Hive for a few hours did sound appealing. Perhaps, next time I spoke to the commander on Earth, I wouldn’t lose my temper. And I could think of nothing better than ripping my way through a few dozen Hive Soldiers, coming back tired and having Gabriela transport here so I could sink into the soft, hot welcome of her, my chosen female. “Let’s go.”
Gabriela, Four Weeks Later
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t allow you to enter the premises.” The stern guard stood blocking the entrance to the Processing Center. He wasn’t nearly as big as Jorik, and definitely human, but he was still intense.
I walked by every day I went to work… twice, and I’d never stopped before. I’d never needed to. But I was getting desperate.
It had been four weeks and three days since Jorik and I were together in my apartment. Four weeks and three days since he received his summons back to the center and then disappeared. I’d walked by the next day hoping to see him, talk to him, make plans to be together again, but he wasn’t on duty. I walked by the day after that and he still wasn’t on duty. I hadn’t seen him since.
I had to wonder if I’d been a quick tumble, a human conquest tale for an alien to share with his buddies. But Jorik wasn’t like that. He’d come into the store often, and I knew it wasn’t for the ice cream. He’d been there for me. And then he’d saved me from that robber. I shivered, even now, at the thought of what could have happened.
“I need to speak to someone who works here,” I told him.
“You want to volunteer as a bride?” he asked, looking me over.
The sun was hot today and sweat made my Sweet Treats T-shirt cling to my back. My hair was damp at my temples and I felt queasy. I needed to get out of the heat, but I had to find out about Jorik first.
Fortunately, after the robbery, I hadn’t been fired. The incident had been on the news, but the alien head ripping had been the main theme. I’d tried to avoid it, but the internet was a cruel place, and my own curiosity crueler. The new stations had blurred the gory bits, but the true footage leaked. I saw it. Hell, by now I figured everyone on the planet had seen the terrifying look on Jorik’s face when he’d killed the robber.
But I knew the truth. He’d done it for me. To protect me.
I wasn’t afraid of what he’d done. I still wasn’t afraid when I’d seen it replayed in that video. It made me feel… safe. Which was weird and made me miss Jorik. Without him, I felt so alone. Between that and the heat, my nausea rose, and I couldn’t stop the waterworks. “Please, you have to let me in.”
I had to see Jorik. I had to know what had happened to him. And even if he didn’t want me anymore—the thought made me sob harder—he deserved the truth. He had said mine over and over again when we’d been together. He was very possessive. Ridiculously protective. He’d taken a man’s head off with the same hands that had caressed my breasts, that had brought me to climax more than once.
He was ruthless, but also gentle. And he was mine.
God, I wanted him. Missed him. And now, after what I’d discovered a few weeks ago, I needed him.
It couldn’t just be a quick f**k for me, for in our passion-hazed minds, we hadn’t used protection—not that there were any condoms on Earth that would have fit Jorik’s huge c**k. The deed was done. I was pregnant. Four tests had proven it.
“Brides have to be registered on the opposite side of the building, miss. You’ll need to go to the main entrance. This entrance is for staff only.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not volunteering,” I told the man who was patiently waiting for my answer. I didn’t need to become a bride. I had the alien I wanted. Or, I wanted the alien I had.
“Then, ma’am, like I said, you can’t enter.” He held up his hand as if I were going to run past him.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath.
“I’m… friends with Warlord Jorik,” I said, trying a different strategy. “He was a guard here, like you.”
The man relaxed his bearing, the corner of his mouth turning up into the semblance of a smile. “I’m new here, only two weeks. I don’t know any Warlord Jorik.”
“He’s Atlan, at least seven feet tall.” I raised my hand up in the air as if to show his height, which only made me look like I was measuring a giraffe. “Dark hair, dark complexion.”
He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“Can you ask someone then? I don’t have to come in. I just need some questions answered.”
A woman walked up, ready for work, held out her badge for the guard to inspect. She had dark hair pulled back in a sleek bun at the nape of her neck. Her Interstellar Brides uniform, a skirt, white blouse and jacket, were crisp and unwilted in the South Florida humidity.
“Perhaps I can help,” she said, turning to me with a smile. “I’m Warden Egara.”
I smiled back, wrung my hands. “Gabriela Silva.”
“You have questions about being a bride?” she asked, a dark brow arching.
I shook my head. “No, about an Atlan who works here.”
She looked me over in an efficient manner. “Why don’t you come in with me where it’s cool. I’ll see if I can help.” She flicked a glance at the guard, who nodded.
We entered the cool building and she led me into a small office. “Have a seat.”
The air conditioning felt good, and I was glad to sit down. Pregnancy was weird. All my life I’d been used to the wet blanket of humidity that settled over Florida, but now, I could barely tolerate it. If it weren’t for the tests I’d taken, I’d wonder if I were going through menopause with the hot flashes. The sweating. The lightheadedness.
She sat across from me at her desk. There were no papers upon it, only a tablet, nothing out of place. The room was sparse, the walls white. The only adornment was a huge IBP logo on the wall behind her. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked.
I nodded, no intention of telling her about the baby. If she knew, would they try to take the baby? Force me to undergo some weird alien testing? Without Jorik, I didn’t want to take the chance that something would go wrong. I was still sweating and my skin was probably changing from flushed to green and back again as I went from overheated to nauseated and back again. “Yes, I should have worn a skirt today instead of jeans.”
A thin excuse, but she bought it.
“So, how can I help?” she asked. “You have questions about an Atlan?”
God, was she really going to help me? “Yes, I’ve been trying to track down Warlord Jorik. He is a guard here.”
“The guards are not mine. They serve under the CFPC Commander, the Coalition Fleet side.” She lifted her hand. “This wing is reserved for the Brides Program.”
“Oh,” I murmured, looking down at my lap. Another dead end.
“But I can look into this for you.”
My head whipped up to look her in the eye. “Thank you. I’ve been trying to find out about him for a month now. He and I have become… friends and he was called back here to the center after he saved my life. I never saw him again. I’ve come by the gate on my way to work, but the guards don’t share information.”
She gave a slight nod. “They aren’t supposed to.”
“Yes, I’ve learned that. I’ve also called several times. Been transferred, but no one is giving me any information.”
She frowned. “Why do you want to know about him?”
“I…” I wasn’t going to tell her we had s*x, that we had a connection, a thing. I didn’t think she’d understand. She was human, but still. I probably wasn’t the first love-struck woman to stalk an alien. “I was the woman from the ice cream store. He was there and saved me from the robber.”
She glanced at my T-shirt and got the confirmation she needed. “Ah, yes. I heard about that. I’m glad you’re all right.”
I pasted on a smile. “Yes, well, it’s all because of Jorik and… and I wanted to thank him.”
- Writer
