Starfighter Boxed Set

Chapter 2

2

Alexius of Velerion, Jamie Miller’s personal quarters, Earth

I’d been following Jamie Miller’s progress for weeks. Months. Ever since I received word from training academy officials that I’d been chosen by an Earth recruit in the new Elite Starfighter otherworlds virtual battle program. Then I became obsessed with her because, while she’d been across the galaxy, every day we were paired, the more she became mine.

Based on her stunned expression, I was not the only one suffering the shock of being chosen, of realizing our bonding was finally real. Standing before her was much more intense than interacting with her in the training program. She had been nothing but a possibility, a digital fantasy. Now I could see her, feel her. Touch her.

My first glimpse… she was everything I’d imagined. And even more perfect.

“Excuse me? I’m what?” She lifted her hand and rubbed both of her eyes. Blinked. Looked at me again. “You’re still here. Why are you still here?”

“I am not leaving. I must speak with you, Jamie.”

She stared, her gaze disoriented and confused. I fought back a smile. She was more beautiful in person. Her voice wrapped around my c**k that much tighter. She looked… flummoxed. The feeling was mutual.

The new training simulations had been distributed to Earth and multiple other worlds months ago, with no results. Until now. The few surviving Starfighters on Velerion had been fighting and struggling to defend my home world. And they were faltering. Dying. Being picked off one by one as exhaustion or the relentless attacks of Queen Raya’s Scythe fighters wore them down. The truth was, we were losing the war. Queen Raya’s surprise attack on the Elite Starfighter moon base had wiped out eighty-five percent of our forces. Time and merciless small skirmishes had nearly decimated the few we had left.

Velerion was in trouble. We needed new Elite Starfighters. Without them, our entire civilization, our planet would fall to the evil queen’s invaders and her Dark Fleet allies.

If we lost this war, we’d be rounded up, slaughtered, or enslaved. Our planet would be gutted for resources. Our children taken. Our history and culture would vanish from existence after eons of peaceful prosperity. But the Dark Fleet would not stop at Velerion. There were other worlds ripe for the taking. Many with far fewer defenses. Including Earth.

Every planet chosen for the Elite Starfighter Training Program was in danger, even if they didn’t know it. We needed help now, but the training would benefit every single one of the chosen planets later.

If Velerion fell. I was determined not to allow that to happen.

“This can’t be real.” Reaching up with both hands, she brushed the hair out of her face and tucked the long strands back behind her ears. After all the time I’d watched her in the simulations, I was finally seeing the real female. She looked sleep rumpled and sexy. I wanted to bend down, grab her, and haul her to me, crush her mouth with my lips. Make her body mine. But I dared not. I was on very treacherous ground. The law was clear. Even though she’d completed the training, she had to come with me of her own free will. I was not without honor. No matter how badly my people needed her help, I would not force her to return with me to Velerion to save the planet.

“I am real.” She was an Elite Starfighter now. She would choose to help. We needed Jamie Miller. We needed a thousand more just like her. Male. Female. Androgynous. Human. Centaurian. Andromedan. I didn’t give a f**k where they came from as long as they had the skills to protect Velerion.

The fact that Jamie had chosen me in the program was a gift. I’d gotten hard the first time I’d received word of our match, when I’d seen her avatar appear on my data screen. Her curves. Her dark hair. Seeing her stand before me now was a shock to my system. I’d heard her voice in the training simulations. Seen her smile. Heard her sass. Ached to touch her. In fact, I had thought of her, been consumed with my need for her from the first moment the training simulation had connected us. I had to hope she felt the same in return, but the way she was acting, I couldn’t be sure.

The reality of her was a shock to my system, lust and physical need both urges I was not prepared to feel pulsing through every cell as she stood before me. So close I could smell her soft skin, see the sleek shine of her hair. My fingers twitched at my sides as I fought to remain calm. She was mine now. She’d finished training and taken her vow to be mine. She had accepted me. We were a bonded pair. My body belonged to her as hers belonged to me.

Yet she stared at me as if I was a stranger. As if we had not spent hundreds of hours together in training simulators. True, we’d been on different worlds, but I knew her voice. Knew the way she moved. Knew her.

Surely she was familiar with me as well? “Are you going to invite me in?”

“No. Not that it matters since you’re already inside my head.” She reached up to touch my cheek but stopped before making contact. I nearly groaned in disappointment. “s**t, you look so real.”

I grabbed her hand and pressed her palm to my cheek. “That’s because I am real, Jamie. I have come a very long way. I need to speak with you.”

My growing obsession hadn’t boded well for my mission the last few weeks. It was pretty f*****g hard to be undercover—behind enemy lines—as a smuggler on Queen Raya’s Syrax asteroid base when all I wanted to do was watch Jamie’s training sessions. During the day, I lived and worked among the Dark Fleet. Eating with them, doing business, and staying alive within the black heart of the Dark Fleet’s strongest fighter base.

At night, in my quarters, I’d watch the replays of my missions with Jamie. Distraction led to mistakes and mistakes cost lives—mine and those of Nave and Trax, my fellow Velerions who were undercover with me.

At first I’d been skeptical of the Velerion Delegation’s plan to bring the Elite Starfigher squadrons to full staff. But the more I’d watched Jamie in the sims, the more I’d rooted for her. Anticipated her completion every tortuous day working on Syrax.

Now I was light-years away from the Vega System to retrieve her. To take her to planet Velerion and her rightful place in the Elite Starfighter program.

“Please, Jamie, may I come inside and speak with you?”

“So polite. Sure, dream man. Come on in.”

“Thank you.” My understanding of her native language was nowhere near fluent. Yet I had to convince her to agree to come with me before I could give her the cipher injection. Even then, it would take the nanoparticles several hours to establish the proper connections with her brain, optical and auditory neurons so that she could understand all languages.

The way she was looking at me, I feared she may refuse to accept anything I said.

Impossible missions seemed to be my only missions since the war had begun.

I ground my teeth together in continued frustration that somewhere on Velerion a traitor, a high-ranking Velerion who had betrayed our people, still wandered free. Continued to feed information to Queen Raya and her troops on Asteroid Syrax. I was not comfortable with divided loyalties. My oath to find and destroy the traitor now warred with my need for my pair bond. Just over a year ago, some fucker had given Queen Raya the information she needed to launch a surprise attack on our highly secret and hidden Elite Starfighter base. To cripple Velerion defenses.

Their mission had unfortunately been successful. My brother had died that day. Many friends, too. I’d made a promise to myself to bring justice to the person responsible. After months pretending to be part of the Dark Fleet, embedding ourselves so thoroughly, Nave, Trax, and I were within a few days of discovering the identity of the Velerion traitor.

I’d been ready to kill, to have my vengeance, but Jamie Miller had completed her training and accepted my pair bond. Velerion still needed me, just in a new way. I’d returned to Velerion and then come here, to Earth, for her.

Jamie stepped back and held out her arm in invitation for me to enter, yet my feet remained glued to the floor.

Jamie gently pulled her hand back to her side and looked at me. I was expecting shouting, talking, questions. Instead she inspected me from head to toe and burst into laughter.

“Do I amuse you?”

“Yes. I have one kick-ass imagination.”

“I see.” I never, ever imagined she would not believe the truth. Worse, that she’d laugh at me. I frowned because that was what she was doing now. I’d told her the hard facts, the absolute truth, and she laughed. Didn’t she know how serious this was? How important she was?

When she’d first opened the door, her eyes had widened with recognition. She knew me. She took in my face, my uniform and full armor. Her mouth had opened in blatant surprise. Even though we’d never met, I was no stranger. I’d sat beside her in all her training missions, fighting the Dark Fleet together. Winning. Losing. Learning.

We were a fighting team. A unit. One.

I rolled back my shoulders, widened my stance. “I am Alexius of Velerion, your bondmate. You have completed the Elite Starfighter training program. Jamie Miller, you must come with me. Velerion needs your help to defend my people from Queen Raya and the Dark Fleet.” There. I’d said it all again. Slowly.

She wiped her eyes and looked me over again. “Um… what?” she repeated.

“I am Alexius of Velerion—” I began to repeat myself, but she cut me off with a swipe of her hand.

“Yeah, sure. Did Mia or Lily put you up to this to celebrate my victory? I mean, wow, they went all out. Your costume is just like the game. And man, you look identical to my playing partner.” She leaned her head from side to side, inspecting my face from multiple angles. I shifted to hide my body’s reaction as her inspection drifted lower and took in every single part of me, slowly this time. “God, where did they find you? You’re perfect.” She waved her hand in my face as if I were in on the joke. “I mean, literally, perfect. You look exactly like him.” Her gaze grew squinty, and she looked up at me. “Did you model for the game? You know, do that green-screen thing where they attach all those wires to you?”

“I am not a model. Mia and Lily, your fighting partners, do not know I am here. They have not yet completed their training programs. I have traveled a very long way to meet you and escort you home. I look exactly like the male from your training simulations because I am Alexius.” My voice was surprisingly even considering the fact that my bonded mate thought I was a… joke?

Her smile slipped then and she blinked. Good, she was starting to realize this was real.

“You can’t be… It’s not… It’s just a game,” she whispered.

“Hey! Quiet down out there. People like to sleep!” A deep, rough voice shouted from somewhere in this multi-unit residential building.

“Sorry, Mr. Sanchez!” She yelled before grabbing the sleeve of my uniform. She pulled me into her quarters, shutting the door behind her as she mumbled, “Yeah, shouting to quiet down makes a lot of sense. This is crazy.”

She spun on her heel to face me but went over to the wall and flipped a small switch. A lamp turned on, and the soft glow of the light outlined her perfectly.

She was lovely. She was short, lush with curves that couldn’t be hidden beneath loose pants and a pale blue short-sleeved shirt. Tousled hair.

She ran her hand over her face. “Is this weird? It’s weird for me. Is it weird for you? I mean, it’s like I know you, but I don’t.”

Her words fell from her lips in a quick tumble.

“I have fought with you through every mission of the Starfighter Training Academy. We know each other quite well.” I remained just a few feet within her quarters. She was uncomfortable. I hoped she was feeling confusion and surprise more than fear.

“You mean the video game, Starfighter Training Academy.”

She used the same words I did but she envisioned the complex recruitment tool to be a mere game. Something for amusement. It seemed I had to disavow her of this.

“The training simulation is challenging and nearly impossible to complete. I assure you, it is not a game. You completed your missions. You earned the rank of Elite Starfighter. General Aryk welcomed you to Velerion. As your bonded mate it is my duty and honor to escort you back to my home planet where you will take command of your ship.”

She set her hands on her ample hips. “Are you serious?”

“‘Do you accept my crest as a sign of our permanent bond? Will you stay with me, Starfighter? Will you remain at my side and fight with me to the end of our days?’ Do these words sound familiar to you?” I prompted, repeating the formal bonding questions I’d asked of her in the program.

Color leached from her face, her eyes slowly widening in what I hoped was dawning realization. “You’re serious.”

I nodded once. “I am. Our bond was certified in the Hall of Records.” I reached up, took the crest from my uniform, and held it out to her. “I gave you this before, but I give it to you now in person.”

She stared at my offering as if it were poisonous, even tucked her hands behind her back.

Those dark eyes flicked between the crest and my face several times.

“I… I… what? Take the Starfighter crest and then I go with you to Velerion to fight Queen Raya and the Dark Fleet?”

Ah, she was understanding now. I exhaled and even allowed a smile to turn up the corner of my mouth. “That is correct.”

“Because I accepted the offer to be your bonded mate.”

“Yes.”

“Because the Starfighter Training Academy isn’t just a video game but a recruitment tool to find people from all over the universe to fight Queen Raya?”

“Yes.”

“Why me? I’m a nobody, Alex. Seriously.”

Alex? My gaze dropped to her lips, and I wanted to kiss her. Now. “You, Jamie Miller, are an Elite Starfighter and my bondmate.”

“Okay, let’s say I believe you. Why build that game? Don’t you have pilots on Velerion?”

“We did. The skills required of an Elite Starfighter are far less common than you believe.” The surprise attack was still an open wound on my heart, and all of Velerion. “Just over one year ago Queen Raya destroyed a secret moon base where the bulk of the Elite Starfighters were stationed. The moon itself is nothing but a long asteroid belt now. Rock and debris from the explosion spreads across two grids in orbit around my planet. Only a small core of Elite Starfighters were off base at the time and survived the attack. Many of my friends were killed that day, including my only brother and his bondmate.”

Her shoulders slumped, and she raised her fingers to her lips. “God, that’s… I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t sure if she believed me, that what I stated had truly happened, or if she’d been so entrenched in her game that she had become empathetic to what she believed were the program’s imaginary beings.

I cleared my throat. “The training program was created to discover the most skilled fighters from Earth. What you refer to as a game is a battle simulator used to train our pilots. You are the first from Earth to complete the training.”

She set her hand on her chest. “Me? The first?”

Nodding, I took a step toward her. “You are the first to complete the pilot training program. You are the first Elite Starfighter from Earth.”

She looked an equal mix of pleased and wary. “Then you’re an Elite Starfighter too, because we did it together.”

I nodded. “Once you completed your training, I became one with you. I was reassigned.” I didn’t want to elaborate on what I my job was on Syrax. I had strict orders to keep what we’d been doing for the past year a complete secret. “I was notified of our original match many months ago, on the Earth date of June thirteen.”

Her eyes widened. “The day I made you in the game?”

I did smile then. It was amusing to hear her perspective of the training program. “You didn’t make me. You selected physical and cognitive options that, when combined together, matched mine.”

She frowned. “You mean if I had chosen different components, I’d have been matched to someone else? A real someone?”

“Yes.” I looked down at myself, ran a hand over my chest. Her gaze followed the motion. “I am pleased that you find my components appealing.” It was my turn to look her over, appreciating every inch. “I find your components appealing as well.”

Her cheeks flushed pink, and she glanced away. I sensed interest and pleasure, although she did not embrace either. I would win her over, I was sure of it.

She stomped over to a high-backed chair, dropped into it. The space was small, a living area with comfortable seating facing a large, flat screen. She reached over and grabbed a black object from the low table in front of her.

“This is how I played. A gaming controller.” She lifted her chin to the screen on the wall. “My TV.”

So this was where she trained. I’d tried to imagine this setting, but now I was here. She might not be the only one to struggle with the belief that this was truly happening. It wasn’t every day a Starfighter met his bonded mate… from another planet. Seeing her small body in the place where she had battled beside me, where we spoke to each other, fought together… f**k. I wanted to kneel down in front of that chair and touch her. Everywhere.

Time for a distraction.

“You told me to shut up on our last mission,” I said, smiling as I remembered her sass.

Her head whipped up to mine, and she stared at me, almost afraid.

“How do you—”

“Because it’s real. I’m real. The enemy you fought is real. While the missions were simulated, the battles are based on past challenges faced by our Elite Starfighters. The training scenarios are identical to real events our people fought in the past. You were trained. You excelled. It is time to fulfill your destiny and fight at my side.”