Bad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 1)

by Donna McDonald

  “You did. They know she’s here with you,” the guy pointed out.

  Axel laughed. “Of course she’s here with me. I’m sleeping with her.”

  “Sleeping with… that? Who the hell are you?” the guy asked shakily.

  “The proper question is what the hell am I, and I think you know damn well I’m a feline shifter. You systematically breached the security around my land and took down my electronic fence plus the two backup measures I’d put in place. I’m guessing those snake creatures were made by someone you work with… or by you. And see, now I’m even more pissed with thinking about you all trespassing on my property. I ought to rip your head off and add you to the pile of bodies to be burned.”

  “Burning unsanitary. Dematerialization recommended.”

  Axel grinned at the voice by his shoulder. He hadn’t even heard her get so close. Under the influence of her blade, Sugar could get around even his panther hearing.

  Of course, the bat-men had as well, but that was his fault for being slow to regain his senses after sex. It was a little-known weakness that he wasn’t going to be able to indulge any longer.

  He’d naively thought they were both safe on his land.

  Axel growled low before answering. “Recommendation accepted. Make it so. Turn those dead bastards into dust.”

  He watched Sugar start to walk away then stop. She turned back to look at him and lifted one eyebrow.

  “Make it so. Captain Picard quote. Star Trek Next Generation.”

  “Not on purpose,” Axel said as he chuckled at the flatly offered reference.

  Maybe he’d buy a big screen TV so they could watch her favorite shows together. He needed to be well-versed in Sugar-isms if the sentient blade was going to use them while in fight mode.

  “Symbiosis is moving right along, I see,” Axel told her with a grin.

  Sugar dropped her gaze momentarily before lifting it again. “Fifty-eight point seven percent complete. Acceleration request acknowledged. Acceptance increases success probability.”

  “What amazes me most is that I actually understand all that. It’s crazy how great sex can sync you with another person so well,” Axel said, his gaze moving back to the guy.

  Sugar turned and continued her trek toward the dead bodies. The first one she turned into a pile of dust sent the guy in his grip trembling uncontrollably.

  Pretending not to be equally fearful of that particular trick, Axel stared at the guy while beside them Max growled low and fierce.

  Axel’s satisfied smile was as feral as Max’s. “Things getting any clearer to you? Or do you need her to turn a treasured appendage into dust to be convinced that we will not tolerate being attacked by anyone?”

  It didn’t take long for the guy to spill everything. From the startled look on Sugar’s face, wherever her real conscience was residing in her body, she was in as much shock as he was about who’d sent the creatures they’d just killed.

  15

  He’d given their hostage a knock-out drug that would also make the guy forget them and most of what he saw, including Sugar and the artifact dematerializing the dead hybrids.

  While messing with the guy’s mind had been entertaining, the action made it necessary for them to pin a note to the guy with a warning for others not to try attacking again.

  Max tagged along as Axel carried the now unconscious guy to the helicopter that the government-sanctioned retrieval crew had arrived in.

  While Axel spent time happily destroying the helicopter’s GPS system and all records of his location in it, Max dragged the other two dead guys over and dropped them by the landing gear.

  It wasn’t long before Axel’s other help showed up. The sleek flying craft lowered itself smoothly onto the flat rock face he’d designed for that purpose. The landing pad was just outside the security fence.

  Axel changed to his panther form and dragged the helicopter forward to where the large airship and its pilot waited.

  Lifting an eyebrow at the writing on the side of the flying metal bird, the Lyran pilot touched a remote and a hatch opened in the back of her craft. She pulled an elevating wand from under her arm and proceeded to use it to move the helicopter and its human cargo inside her cargo hold.

  “Greetings, sister. How fairs Gina of Rodu?”

  “I fare well, brother. How fairs Axel of Rodu?”

  Axel shrugged. “I fair as well as any male whose defenses have been breached.”

  “Yes,” Gina said agreeably. “I heard you were holding a new female captive here. I kept telling our queen that it was only a matter of time until her beloved son found a human he cared enough about to keep.”

  He glared at his younger sibling. “I was speaking of my land, Gina. Attackers broke through my security.”

  Gina was not a feline shifter and did not look Lyran, but she possessed an intelligence greater than any Lyran he knew had reached. Her technology skills were vast and no one flew a craft as well as she did.

  His sister was their queen mother’s right hand but his mother had not revealed the sentient blade or its host. He could tell by her comments that Gina had no idea what Sugar actually was.

  Given Gina’s curious nature, if she’d known about the sentient blade, the need to confirm the blade’s existence would have been the first question out of her mouth. His sister took the security of their people very seriously.

  “I am not the only member of our family with technology skills. Fixing your defense system and improving it will merely give you a hobby for a short time, brother. Tell me about the new female. Is she someone you’re protecting for that agency you pretend to work for? Your stories of that work always entertain me.”

  Axel started to deny Sugar’s importance to him, but really what was the use? He’d already decided to keep her for a while. In fact, he couldn’t even imagine letting her go now, especially given her talents in bed.

  “What you say is true. I’ve found a human I wish to keep. You were incorrect about her being my captive. The female is here of her own free will. I have done nothing to constrain her.”

  “Her own free will? That would be surprising for the notorious Prince of the Lyran Earth Guardians who bows to no female but his queen. You normally kick every female out of your life as fast as you can.”

  “This time is different.”

  Gina smiled. “Really? So where is this precious human? I want to meet the female who has captured your interest so thoroughly.”

  “She is sleeping off the stress of today,” Axel said flatly. He didn’t add that Sugar sleeping for sentient blade recovery purposes might last for three full days… and that he’d be alone watching over her again.

  “Most females—human or Lyran—would be traumatized after an attack of this magnitude. I will not hold her weakness against her.”

  “No—it’s not a mental weakness,” Axel said, automatically defending Sugar. “She fights well but pays a big price for doing so. Her body exhausts itself easily.”

  “You think she pays a price to be a warrior? Fascinating. Now I’m even more interested in meeting her, but I guess that will have to happen some other day. Where should I drop off your package?”

  “The place they call Area 51 should do it.”

  Gina looked at him. “Are you sure? You know what they do there. That’s like handing them another big clue.”

  “Don’t drop it in the middle of their compound,” Axel said. “Put the helicopter outside their security fence, but on the border they guard so fiercely. Try not to delay. Two of the three humans in the craft are dead and the live one is heavily drugged.”

  “I suppose the two are dead by your hand?”

  Axel grunted and pointed at Max. “No. The wolf killed the two dead ones. I drugged the third male instead of killing him outright. I wanted him to return alive and worry those that sent him. That’s much more effective at stopping them from returning.”

  Gina nodded before turning to smile at the wolf. “I hear respect for you
in his voice now. Congratulations, Maxwell.”

  Max yipped and went over to lean against her leg. He wolf-groaned in pleasure as Gina ran long fingers over his head and back.

  “The wolf wasn’t protecting me with his killing,” Axel stated, grinning when Max’s head drooped. “He was protecting Sugar.”

  “He was protecting your condiments?”

  “No. Sugar is the name of the female.”

  “You’re attracted to a woman named for a condiment?”

  Axel felt his eyes wanting to cross. Any one of his siblings could do that to him. “No, Gina. Sugar was named for a private joke between her two parents.”

  “About a condiment?”

  Axel sighed. Gina was literal. Conversation with her always broke down. “Sugar is not a condiment. Her naming process is a humorous story but would take too long to explain.”

  Gina chuckled. “If you say so.”

  “Thank you for your help,” Axel said. “Will you tell our parents hello for me?”

  “Tell them yourself. They’re at your house.”

  “They’re here? Both of them?” Axel exclaimed, his gaze going to the woods shielding him from seeing his house.

  Max rubbed once more against Gina’s leg and then took off like a shot through the trees.

  “Why is Maxwell so excited?” Gina asked.

  Axel shrugged. “I think he’s worried about Sugar meeting my parents.”

  “Aren’t you?” Gina asked.

  “No. I want them to meet her,” Axel said.

  Gina laughed. “Alone? Without you intervening? Poor human woman. Now that I find funny.”

  “What does the humorless queen’s right-hand find amusing in my statement?”

  Gina shrugged and smiled. “Nothing particular. I like the idea that your human side has surfaced enough to fall in love. You have chosen to live among them after all. It’s only logical to try to adapt to their ways. Look how Father is with Mother.”

  Love? Axel snorted and shook his head. Love was not what he was feeling. Proprietary ownership of a female he hadn’t yet tired of maybe.

  The best thing he’d ever done was take on the task of protecting Sugar. He hadn’t been bored a moment since she’d come into his life.

  Gina’s next chuckle snapped him out of his thoughts.

  “I’ll come to visit again soon. I must meet the person who puts that faraway look in your eyes.”

  Axel nodded absently as Gina lifted a hand in farewell. He watched until her airship lifted into the air before heading back.

  Axel saw his parents standing outside his house. They were talking intimately. Rather than shifting to his panther form to eavesdrop, he walked more quickly until he was there in front of them.

  “Greetings, my Queen. Greetings, Father.” He bowed his head respectfully to each. “Gina has taken off with the last of the attackers. I hope the message I’m sending back is clear.”

  “Your message will be clear, but they’ll be returning to attack again, Axel,” Rodu told his son.

  Axel’s jaw tightened at his father’s words. “Or perhaps they will not.”

  “My statement was not a criticism of your protective actions,” Rodu said. He punched his son’s shoulder and pushed him backward. “How many years are you going to wear your arrogance like armor? I know what will happen from experience not because I doubt your worth as a guardian. Outside of your mother, there is no one else I would trust more with the new Protector’s life.”

  “With all due respect, who made you overseer of the ancient artifact inside Dr. Jennings?”

  Rodu glared at his royal mate who chose to openly laugh at her son’s direct challenge to his father.

  Nyomi waved her fingers. “Show your son and trust him, Rodu. There is no other way. I’ve been telling you that for hundreds of years.”

  Rodu nodded tightly before glaring intensely at his princely first-born as he stalked away.

  “This is important, Axel. Watch your father,” Nyomi ordered, twirling her finger until her stubborn child turned to do as she asked.

  16

  Axel saw his father stop in the middle of the yard and look back at them. Then his father put a hand to his chest and was soon covered with a shiny black suit of energy armor.

  His father spoke words in a language Axel had never heard before and moved his hands in a circle until he’d created a giant ball of energy in each palm.

  He pushed out one with a hand. The ball of energy hit a massive tree that immediately dissolved into a pile of brown dust. Rodu shook his head and let the other ball of energy be absorbed back into his hand.

  Axel instantly got it. No further explanation was needed. He’d seen Sugar become the Protector often enough to recognize what he’d just witnessed.

  He turned and addressed the most obvious question to his mother. “Father is host to a sentient blade as well?”

  Nyomi bowed her head slightly. “Yes.”

  “Sugar said there were four. Which sentient blade does he host?” Axel asked.

  “The one calling itself the Destroyer.” Nyomi stepped closer to put a hand on her son’s shoulder. “Your father had been alive for a hundred and forty human years when I came across him. The sentient blade found him when he was twenty Earth years in age.”

  “So Father was fully merged with his blade when you came into Father’s life?”

  Nyomi nodded. “In those early years when it first came to my attention that your father had bonded with a powerful ancient artifact, I feared approaching him directly so I had him watched. Our people rescued your father at least fifty times from situations like you experienced today before I convinced him to come stay with me permanently. I gave him a sanctuary at the palace that he’s never been able to find anywhere else. The palace doesn’t show up on anyone’s radar—not even those the Earth considers otherworldly.”

  Axel drew in a deep breath and firmed his jaw. “And safety is why Father stayed with you?”

  Queen Nyomi snorted. “I hope that wasn’t the only reason because I worked hard to keep him with me in every way I could. It took a hundred years for him to fall enough in love with me to stay merely because he wanted to stay, and hundreds more to convince him to give me you. The more he learned about the sentient blade he carried—the more he pushed me away from him. Hosting a blade is a heavy burden for a human. They can do nearly unbelievable things but I think their minds have trouble accepting it. I’ve seen your father literally move a mountain yet afterward he couldn’t remember how he managed to do it. The blade’s talents are a mystery, even to their hosts.”

  “I don’t understand why you came to me for help then. Why didn’t the two of you just go get her? You knew all along what Sugar found, didn’t you?”

  Nyomi smiled as she shook her head. “No, we actually didn’t at first. I only suspected it was another sentient blade when I asked you to intervene. It was Rodu’s own blade that finally confirmed hers just a short week ago. Her symbiosis process must have passed the point of developing the ability to communicate with the other blades.”

  Her hand slipped off her son’s shoulder. “And in truth, it was actually Rodu’s idea to send you to watch over Dr. Jennings. He felt that it would prepare you to hear his truth. Neither of us saw you getting so attached to her. You don’t do that with women.”

  Axel huffed. “I have learned a lot from knowing that particular female. I was planning to keep her for a while, but I can’t keep her safe enough here, can I? That was Father was eluding to, right?”

  “You could take a few more precautions, but you will never be able to stop them from trying to break through your defenses now that they know of Dr Jennings’ connection to you,” Nyomi said, crossing her arms. “Does the host of the Protector blade want to remain with you, Axel? Have you asked her?”

  “No. I haven’t asked yet. We barely know each other despite our relationship,” Axel amended, as he watched his father’s luminous black suit get sucked back into his chest.
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  One of the sentient blades was part of the man who brought him to life. Axel almost couldn’t take it in that he was connected now to two beings merged with sentient blades.

  He pointed at the man who sired him. “Is this why I…”

  “Have such an infinity for technology? I’ve often wondered that myself,” Nyomi said when her son drifted off in his speech. Her shrug was uncaring of the reason. “Both of your sisters are equally advanced in their fields. I trust your brother’s talents will make themselves known in time. All my children are brilliant in their own way and that is not just a mother’s love speaking. Through mating Rodu, I have truly done my duty to our people and to Earth.”

  Axel snorted. “You love us all? I always thought you favored me the most among your offspring.”

  “A mother’s love is not a contest, Axel. None of your siblings can turn into giant panthers and yet you don’t see them complaining about their genetics. They’re also not the next in line to lead our people in guarding Earth—nor do they want to. Genetics are wonderfully unpredictable. It is why our people outlawed anything but minor DNA fixes to banish disease. It is why we only allow the regeneration of existing cells. Diversity of a species is a key component of its survival.”

  “Everything you’re saying just makes me feel less special.”

  Nyomi chuckled. “Though good for your character development, that was not my intent.”

  Axel shrugged. “Perhaps I’m feeling that selfishness you’re always pointing out I have. I want to believe I’m powerful enough to take care of her.”

  Queen Nyomi straightened at the true caring she heard in her son’s voice. “Yes, I believe you do. However, I have let you believe in your own invincibility for as long as I could. Your extraordinary gifts have manifested well, but our people knew the moment you were born that you would be the one to take my place if anything should happen to me.”