War For Earth: An Alien War Romance (Galactic Order Book 3)

by Erin Raegan

  “Come, we must speak.” He nodded back to the door, and Nathan rushed out, the little eavesdropper.

  Olynth marched down the hall. We followed. It didn’t matter if we ran. We were on a spaceship, for cripe’s sake. He’d find us.

  But I was pissed the whole way.

  Olynth turned into a room much larger than the tiny bedroom. It had five tables with benches and long counters on either side of the room with strange machines. Tohn was sitting at the closest table with plates and plates of food in front of him, Albun, Vylbor, and Wyvr. Olynth stopped beside an open bench beside them and directed us to sit. Nate and I sat together, and Olynth sat across from us beside Tohn and Wyvr. Tohn nudged two plates our way and sat back, watching guardedly.

  “Where’re Linda, Nick, and Star?” I asked.

  Nathan was looking around for them as well.

  “They refuse to leave their quarters. Sustenance has been brought to them,” Wyvr muttered in a low voice. He was thin compared to the other Dahk, and slightly taller than Tohn but not as tall as Olynth. His eyes were silver like the others but had a strange blue tint to them. “Eat.” He nodded at the plates.

  Nathan picked up a pink mushy thing and made a face. I looked at the plate and didn’t recognize a thing on it. My stomach growled and rolled at the same time. I pushed the plate away.

  “Where is he?” I asked, staring at them equally.

  They looked at each other a moment, ignoring Olynth’s low growl before Tohn took a breath. “He is chained in a cell on the ship.”

  My eyes shot to Olynth’s without meaning to. Hadn’t Fihk been talking about a cell and Olynth when we met them? Something, the beginnings of a realization, was building in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. Olynth stared back intensely. I looked away.

  “Why?” Nathan asked for me. His voice shook with fear. Fihk had really messed with him. He had really been starting to like these guys, and they may have broken his heart when Fihk flipped. It pissed me off even more.

  Tohn sighed and looked at Olynth. The big guy ignored him and continued his intense scrutiny of me, his arms crossed and his legs braced wide open.

  Tohn cleared his throat. “As I told you, you are Fihk’s Pythe.”

  “What―” I started to ask, but Tohn cut me off.

  “His mate.” He let that sink in for a minute.

  I gaped at him, as did my brother.

  “No, I’m not,” I told them the truth.

  “You are. He was made aware the moment he came into contact with you,” Wyvr said gravely.

  “He’s known all this time?” I gasped. What the hell?

  Olynth stiffened.

  “No, physical contact. Hide, er, skin to skin,” Tohn added. “That was after the Vitat attack on you.”

  I thought back and realized Fihk hadn’t touched me before the porch. How could he, with the big guy blocking everyone from me? In fact, the second he touched my chin and lip was when he flipped out. “Okaaay, so he touched me and what? Bam, I’m his mate? You guys have some touch-sense thing or pheromones that chooses a mate or something?”

  “Similar but no.” Vylbor smiled. “It is believed the ancestors, not heredities, choose a Pythe for a Pythen. You were chosen for Fihk and”—Vylbor stumbled and looked at Olynth— “and he you.”

  Nathan scowled at him. “But she’s not a Dahk.”

  “Interspecies mating was once fairly common,” Wyvr said and bit into a nasty-looking brown thing.

  “When you say mate…?” I asked hesitantly.

  “You are his, and he is yours.” Tohn’s eyes shot to Olynth when he snarled again. “You are bonded. It cannot be undone.” He seemed to direct the last of it to Olynth in warning.

  “I don’t want to be his mate.” I chuckled a little hysterically. What the hellcats was this? In our world, a woman chooses. Women’s rights had come damn far. I’d thought the Dahk were advanced.

  “It is not a choice either of you can make. It is done.” Wyvr scowled at me.

  “Well, screw that. I’m human, not Dahk. You can’t make me―” I shuddered. They couldn’t, could they?

  Tohn sighed. “No, Bahyly, we will not make you, but you must know, Fihk suffers if you deny him.”

  “Suffers?” Nathan asked anxiously. Not for Fihk, but for me. His hand was clamped down tightly on my knee.

  “The mating rage will grow and drive him so deep from his mind, the male will not be recognizable,” Tohn said sadly.

  “He will be beast, lost in his mind in never-ending rage,” Wyvr growled.

  Tohn and the others looked at Olynth again.

  The big guy bared his teeth at them. “Control can be taught, but he is too far gone.”

  “We do not know that,” Wyvr said angrily.

  “We do,” Olynth growled. “If he had been aware and prepared, he may have been able to gain control, but he let it take him.”

  “He did not. There is no way to know how it will affect each Dahk. It is different for every male.” Wyvr’s eyes flared with annoyance.

  “Even so, it is now done. Fihk will be lost to us if you deny him, until his mind takes him completely and he moves on from this life,” Albun added softly and not unkindly.

  “I don’t owe him anything,” I said just as softly. I ignored the stab of pain in my chest. I may not know Fihk well, but he was kind before he touched me. He’d seemed genuinely distressed when it started. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but I also wasn’t going to mate with the guy.

  I knew what that meant, and it was not happening.

  “Maybe not, but Fihk is an honorable male, and he did not choose you either,” Wyvr gritted through his teeth. “Is it fair he loses his life because you deny this gift?”

  Gift. That was what Fihk had been arguing with Olynth about before the Vitat took me. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “Gift? He―he tried to―” Nathan’s whole body shook against my side.

  I wrapped my arm around his shoulder.

  “A true Pythen mating is rare and yes, a gift,” Tohn said gently. “Our commander and Pehytohn were the first to enter into one in nearly a millennia.”

  I looked down at the table in shock. A thousand years? Did that make Fihk and me the second?

  “Why now, with humans?” Nathan asked.

  “We do not know, and truthfully did not think it so strange until now,” Albun said thoughtfully. “One, a miracle. Two? Strange and worth investigating. Perhaps humans are more compatible with the Dahk then we could have foreseen.”

  “Eat,” Olynth rumbled.

  I jumped and looked up. He was studying me with his normal glower. I looked down at the plate. “Is it safe?”

  Tohn nodded quickly. “Pehytohn and her companions found many of our foods enjoyable.”

  That was all the encouragement Nate needed. He bit into the food and groaned, grinning. “Iths ghood.”

  I sighed and picked up a round, pale-peach-colored food and hesitantly took a bite. It tasted a little like a carrot but more bitter. It wasn’t terrible. We munched in silence for a while, digesting our thoughts.

  After swallowing a mouthful of tangy water, I looked at Tohn. “If I mated him”—ugh, that sounded weird— “is it like a one-and-done…?”

  Tohn winced. “No, you are his Pythe for all time. It would be very difficult to be separated. The rage could overcome him at any moment. It is why Tahk could not part with Pehytohn and took her with him.”

  “So I’m stuck with him forever?” I gasped. This was so much worse than I could have ever imagined.

  “You are not stuck, Bahyly,” Tohn said sadly. “Fihk is a good and honorable male. He is the second in command to our commander. There is no warrior with better cunning, no warrior more loyal. His skills with a blade are only matched by Olynth and the commander himself. He is focused in combat like no other. He is a strong and worthy mate.” He patted my hand. “He will treasure you and protect you, and your brother.” He looked at Nathan pointed
ly.

  “Don’t listen to them, Bails. They’re trying to manipulate you,” Nathan spat hotly.

  I grinned at him. Tohn was laying it on a little thick, but he said it all with so much conviction, I believed that he believed those things about Fihk. But as Olynth had said, words meant nothing to me.

  I shook my head, desperate for a subject change. We had been in that bedroom for a while, so I highly doubted we were still hovering in the same place. “Where are we?”

  Tohn blinked but rolled with it. “We are in orbit around your planet.”

  Nathan gasped, and his eyes shot wide open. “Really?”

  Tohn nodded. “Fihk is our acting commander, but we cannot take him to Dahk One until the matter is settled.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  Tohn exchanged another guarded look with the others. “When our commander mated with Pehytohn, it was not received well. Without Fihk able to intervene on your behalf, we do not think it wise to draw the council’s attention.”

  “So you're hiding him.” They were going to keep me and the whole mating thing a secret.

  Wyvr looked offended, but I hadn’t meant it maliciously. I would hide him too if I were them. It probably wouldn’t go down well if their army lost two leaders in a matter of weeks. Who would take over for Fihk?

  “I want to see him.” I stood abruptly.

  Olynth jumped up and growled in warning. I ignored him. He had been annoyingly silent the entire conversation.

  “I do not think it wise,” Tohn said, ignoring Wyvr’s scathing glance.

  The skinny one wanted me to see Fihk. I had a feeling he would toss me in the cell with him if he got the chance.

  “I need to see him, talk to him, even if he can’t answer,” I told him.

  Tohn looked at the doorway, his eyes drifting off in contemplation. “I do not know if your presence will do more harm than good, but he is out of control. Gunnor has not left his cell for fear he will escape.”

  “Perhaps she will calm him?” Wyvr suggested slyly.

  Albun snorted. “It will not. She will incite him, but he is in pain so far from her.”

  “You may go.” Tohn shot a dirty look to Olynth as he cursed and snarled. “But not alone.”

  “I go with her,” Olynth spat.

  Tohn shook his head. “No, you are too volatile. We cannot keep you both contained. Fihk is difficult enough.”

  Olynth slammed his palms on the table, shoving his face into Tohn’s. “Fihk is no longer in command. With both Tahk and Yilt gone, I assume control.”

  Vylbor sucked in a breath.

  “The council―” Wyvr said.

  “Is not here,” Olynth hissed. “They cannot know Fihk is unable to perform his duties.”

  “He is right.” Tohn held a hand out to Wyvr when he sputtered. “But we cannot count on your ability to lead. Tahk would not have approved.”

  “It is done. I will take her.” Olynth prowled around the table. “Comm Dahk One on Fihk’s behalf and inquire about their lack of communication. Their silence is unacceptable.”

  “Albun will see it done.” Tohn nodded wearily at Albun then jumped up to follow us out the door as Olynth dragged me along.

  His grip was harsh, not painful, but his strides were so long and fast, I was practically tripping after him.

  “A moment, no more,” Olynth rumbled at me over his shoulder.

  I was surprised I was getting a moment at all. In fact, I must not have really expected them to let me anywhere near Fihk because now I was having some serious regrets. Nathan was following me, silent and shaking.

  Olynth stopped outside a large metal door and looked back at me.

  “You stay here, kid,” I told Nate.

  He looked at Olynth for a moment then nodded hesitantly.

  Then the door was open and Olynth was pulling me through. When it slid closed on an anxious Nate and Tohn, I looked around. The room was tiny, nothing inside but another metal door across from us. A roar echoed from the other side. Olynth stepped up to it and looked at his boots.

  “You have two spins,” he snarled to his feet.

  I took a wild guess and figured he meant minutes. “Fine.”

  I didn’t know what the frig I had been thinking to suggest this. It was so stupid. But I needed to see Fihk one last time. Especially if my choice to mate with him or not was going to pretty much decide his fate. Make or break him.

  Olynth slammed his fist against the panel by the door, and it slid open with a hiss.

  I took a deep breath and followed him in.

  Chapter 11

  Bailey

  Olynth only let me take a few steps in before he wrapped his hand around my arm and held me still. I barely felt him. My attention was solely on the alien chained down in front of me. Fihk was out of his mind with rage. If he hadn’t been chained, I wasn’t sure Olynth could have taken him down again.

  Fihk’s eyes were squinted and burning on me. His arms were cuffed above his head, and a long chain clipped them tightly to the table. Another two cuffs were around his feet, chaining them to rings in the floor underneath the table. A cuff wrapped around his neck on the table and several wide bands of leather-ish material kept him practically immobile from chest to thighs. His chest bowed up slightly from how his wings were folded and wrapped in leather underneath him. He was trapped, completely restrained, and he was not happy about it.

  I couldn’t hear anything over his animal roars and shouts of fury.

  I wanted to run right back out the door.

  Instead, I forced myself to take him in. Peyton had mated one of these guys? When he looked like this?

  I needed to meet this girl. She must have balls of steel.

  It made me feel a little like a hunk of crap. If I walked away from him, never acknowledging this Pythen mating mess, he would stay like this. Maybe worse than this. I didn’t owe him anything—at least the part of me that raised myself, that fought for every little scrap thrown my way, thought so. But that wasn’t completely true.

  They may have made us go find Linda, but they had saved us in the alley. Then again from those bastards. Then again in the woods. Fihk had busted a water bottle in his frantic movements to help me with the burn of the bear spray.

  So yeah, I didn’t owe him anything, but I sort of did. But mate him? I didn’t owe him that. I was a human woman, and we were fricking awesome. We chose who to be with. Who touched us.

  My body was my own.

  I took a hesitant step closer to him, ignoring the pissed-off alien strangling my wrist. “Fihk?”

  His snarls went up in volume. He was thrashing so hard the chains were clanging, and the leather was showing creases of wear.

  I took another step forward, and Olynth growled and tugged me back. I bounced against his side and glared at him. “Can he get out of those?”

  Olynth glowered at me. “I will kill him if he does.”

  “Then let me go.” I snatched my wrist away.

  I walked on lead feet to Fihk’s side, feeling Olynth at my back the whole way. I was panting by the time I stepped up to the table. My hand lifted with a mind of its own and rested lightly on Fihk’s bare, fevered chest. He bowed back and roared. I jumped. Olynth’s hands curled tightly around my hips. I winced when he put pressure on the wound there.

  “What’s going to happen to him?” I asked no one in particular. Could I really leave him this way?

  Olynth’s breath tickled my neck as he bent over me to whisper, “He will grow more unstable and eventually perish.”

  I choked. “How long does he have?”

  “Without consulting our elders, I am unsure, but I do know it was part of the ceremony for a male to be restrained long enough to wear his anger down until it became safer for the female to mount him.”

  Mount? While chained down? Jeez, that was so—barbaric.

  I felt really bad for Fihk. How horrible must this be for him? Find a mate you didn’t even expect only to lose yourself to a m
adness that took all control. To be so consumed by it you couldn’t even speak.

  Olynth’s hands tightened. “You owe him nothing.”

  I looked over my shoulder at him. Our noses almost touched. “I would have thought you would want me to fix him.”

  He looked the opposite of wanting me to do it. He looked as though he hated the very idea of it. “I do not,” he snarled low. “Fihk is a friend, my comrade. But you do not belong to him.”

  “He’s suffering.” I scrunched my brows. Why I was trying to talk Olynth into something I didn’t even want to do, I had no clue.

  “It pains me to see it.” He sighed. “But the danger is too great for you.” He stood and stepped back from me. “Enough. Come.”

  I looked back at Fihk. He was completely unrecognizable. Not a speck of what made him who he was remained. It physically hurt to leave him in that room. To leave him like that. But my feet carried me out anyway.

  We joined Tohn and Nathan in the hallway and walked to the “command deck” silently. Nathan’s hand was sweaty in mine. But it was comforting, so I held it tight.

  It wasn’t until we walked in that room that I was able to mentally leave Fihk.

  We were in space all right. Looking out the large windows in front of the control panels was… eye-opening.

  Nate immediately brightened.

  “Olynth,” Albun called from the corner of the room, by a large screen.

  Olynth stiffened and looked at me but spun and marched away. I watched distractedly as they whispered heatedly. Nathan was shouting in amazement at the window as he looked at our home from outer space. It was beautiful, but it freaked me out, so I refrained from staring too long. Eventually, Olynth and Albun drew the others into their argument. It was impossible not to eavesdrop.

  “What do we do?” Albun asked anxiously.

  “You know,” Wyvr spat and looked at me.

  I gave up and marched over to them. “What?”

  Tohn sighed and scrubbed his head. “Fihk received a message from the commander a sunring ago, but it was not given to him.”

  “So?” I looked between them in confusion. A missed call made them look this upset? “Can’t you just”—I waved at the screen— “call him back?”