Captured by the Alien Warrior

by Hope Hart

  He gives her a faint smile. “You are welcome if you change your mind.” He glances at me. “You both are.”

  I nod, and we turn to leave, obviously dismissed. Nice of him to extend the offer to me, if only to attempt to entice Vivian to come to him for safety.

  The Braxian warriors are silent as we walk back to the boat.

  I lean close to Vivian. “What was that all about with you and Arix?”

  She wrinkles her pert nose. “I have no idea. Let’s hope he helps though. If those aliens are really coming back…”

  “Yeah.”

  We’ll need all the help we can get.

  Charlie

  Vivian and I are both exhausted when we finally get back to camp. She goes straight to her kradi, and I head back to Rakiz and Nevada’s tashiv, finding them eating dinner.

  “Hey, girl,” Nevada says. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  Nevada turns to a woman who is currently carrying in a platter of meat. “Arana, would you mind bringing an extra plate for Charlie?”

  The Braxian woman smiles at me. “Of course.”

  I take a seat and attempt to ignore the intimate smile Nevada gives Rakiz as he strokes a hand down her hair. Why is it that it’s so much harder to see happy couples when you’re dealing with your own heartbreak?

  “So how did it go?” Nevada asks.

  I fill them in on what Arix said, and Nevada gets up to pace. Her shirt moves up, and I burst out laughing.

  She turns to me. “What?”

  I point, and she stares down with a rueful grin. Her leather pants, usually tied tight, are currently barely staying put. The strings that hold them around her waist are obviously straining with the effort, and they look close to snapping as she moves.

  She grins. “Yeah, I’ve officially popped. I’m going to need some new pants.” She glances at Rakiz, and the joy in his eyes is so fierce that I look away, giving them their moment.

  Nevada turns back to me. “So he was interested in Vivian, huh?”

  I smile at the reminder. “Enough that he offered her safety if she stayed with him.”

  “Wow.”

  I can see the wheels turning in Nevada’s head as she glances back at Rakiz, and he stretches out his legs, raising one eyebrow.

  “There’s got to be some way we can use this,” Nevada murmurs, and we all look up at a knock on the door.

  One of the guards leans in, speaking directly to Rakiz. “Visitors. They insist you will want to speak to them.”

  Rakiz gets to his feet. “Show them in.”

  My mouth drops open as Khax strolls in. He glances around the tashiv, his expression impressed, and nods at Rakiz before giving me a smile. It transforms his face, making him suddenly handsome, and I blink at him.

  “You’re going to help us?” I blurt out, and he nods again, turning his attention to Rakiz.

  “After such pretty words from your alien females, and such an impressive gift, we decided to help. A threat to your females is a threat to all our females if these invaders are truly as dishonorable as you say.”

  I nod. “They are. If they conquer Agron, they could take as many women as they like.”

  Khax angles his head at that, and Rakiz steps forward.

  “We have much to discuss.”

  Khax flashes his teeth. “I almost forgot. Since you brought a gift for my tribe, I brought one for yours.” He turns to one of his warriors, who is standing guard by the door. He nods at him, and the warrior turns, returning moments later.

  Rakiz growls, thrusting Nevada behind him as Khax’s warrior drags one of the purple aliens forward.

  I’m instantly shaking, barely tamping down the urge to bolt. One glance at Nevada’s face tells me she’s feeling the same way. But Khax’s warrior has a steady grip on the alien, and he’s unarmed.

  “Their people are called the Dokhalls,” Khax says. “We have not yet asked him for more information. We thought you would like to be present for that pleasure.”

  Rakiz nods, his eyes hard. Then he turns to Nevada.

  “You don’t need to be here for this,” he murmurs.

  She’s pale, but her chin sticks out slightly as she glowers at the Dokhall. “I’ll stay.”

  Rakiz glances at me, and I shake my head. “I’m peacing out.” I turn to Khax. “Thank you for coming.”

  He nods, and I head for the door. From the fear on the Dokhall’s pale-purple face, he knows exactly what’s about to happen to him.

  Torture.

  The most savage part of me is glad. That Charlie wants to sit and watch as the Dokhall screams.

  But I have enough nightmares without adding to them. I’ve done my part for today.

  Instead, I wander through the camp until I find Alexis.

  “Those new arrivals are getting straight to work,” she says as soon as she sees me. “Want to come see?”

  I’m more than a little curious, and I nod, trailing after her as she leaves the camp. Three of Dexar’s guards are following us, but Alexis doesn’t appear to notice as we walk through the grassy meadow until we reach the edge of the forest.

  “Where are we?”

  Alexis points straight ahead. “If we traveled for a few hours, we’d be in the Seinex Forest. This is a much smaller forest in comparison, but according to our scouts, those purple aliens have made themselves at home in the Seinex.”

  I nod. “They’re called Dokhalls, by the way. Rakiz is currently torturing one of them for information.”

  Alexis nods. “Awesome.”

  I stare at her, and she rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on, Charlie. They bought us like we were pigs in a market. Look what they did to Zoey! I’m not going to feel bad about making them pay for that.”

  “I get it,” I say. “It’s just…torture freaks me out. We’re meant to be better than them.”

  “I know. But think about what they’d do to us. If they find out what the Dokhalls are planning, it could save lives. Our lives.”

  “Yeah. I just wish we didn’t have to do it, you know. I wish they would just fuck off.”

  “On that we can agree,” Alexis says. We turn a corner, and I gape at the ten or fifteen shirtless Braxian warriors currently working together to dig a huge hole. A hole so long and wide that I can’t quite understand what it could be for.

  Ivy and Vrex are watching the Braxians, both of them looking pleased.

  “Yum,” Alexis murmurs, her eyes on the warriors. I give her a look. “What? I’m mated, not dead.”

  I grin, and we stroll up to the warriors. One of them glances at us, and I raise my eyebrow.

  “What’s that going to be?”

  “Trap.”

  I eye the Braxian who seems to be the leader of this little gang, and he flashes his white teeth at me as he grins.

  He explains how the trap will work, and I study the surrounding area, impressed.

  “But how will you get them here?”

  “Bait.”

  “And one of us will need to play bait.”

  He nods, and the warrior next to him laughs. “Fast bait. Real fast.”

  I think about the other women. Most of them have mates, and from what I’ve seen so far, they’re likely to forbid them from this kind of thing. Zoey still gets winded if she walks too fast, so she’s out. Vivian…I misjudged Vivian when I first got here, but I can’t imagine her hauling ass through the forest with a bunch of aliens on her heels.

  “I’ll do it.”

  Ivy steps up behind us, examining the trap. “It’s going to be dangerous as hell,” she says. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m fast and sneaky. I’m our best shot. But I’m going to have to practice.”

  She shivers beside me, and Alexis moves closer, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

  “I wish none of us had to do any of this stuff,” she murmurs. “I wish they’d just leave us alone.”

  I sigh. “Me too.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dragi
x

  I fly over the Seinex Forest, looking for the purple invaders. Each time I find one, I swoop down, killing it with flame. However, after several days of this, they have gotten wiser to the threat I present. Now they have hidden themselves, likely in a cave or underground.

  I have not been able to locate their ship.

  I turn and fly toward my mountain. I am…lost without my little two-leg. Is this to be my life? Long days of boredom, of fighting not to go to Charlie, of wondering if she is safe?

  Is this what eternity feels like?

  Charlie will die. Her life span is the blink of an eye compared to mine. And I will go on, and on, and on without her.

  The thought makes me roar, and the animals below me scatter.

  All I can see is Charlie’s beautiful smile. Her curly hair, smooth pale skin, and blue eyes. All I can hear is her laugh. The sexy gasp she would make when I entered her.

  What good is eternity if I spend it alone? If Charlie lives without me?

  I have been wrong.

  My family wouldn’t want me to spend my life alone, a shadow of myself. In my mind, I can see my mother, dancing around our lair with my father. Flying over our territory with him, their wings almost touching. Gazing indulgently at my sister and me as we raced through our home.

  I land in the small clearing where my family is buried. I shift, falling to my knees as I stare at their graves.

  I thought my people would want me to survive above anything else. But Maez’s words ring true.

  “You got to live. It’s up to you what you do with that precious gift, but from the stories I’ve heard about your mother, she wouldn’t want you to waste it. She’d want you to make the most of the years you have.”

  I have been so focused on my rage, so determined to stay alive, that I forgot what life is meant to be about.

  Eternity spent flying over these lands, always alone, never seeing my little two-leg again?

  I would rather have a short life span with Charlie than centuries more of loneliness.

  I would rather have one day with her than a hundred years knowing that she has gone to the great beyond without me.

  Why did it take me so long to truly understand?

  As if the realization was all I needed, I can suddenly feel Charlie. I gasp, understanding.

  Mated. My mate is alone and in danger. I did this.

  Her terror makes my hands shake, and I shift back instantly, propelling myself into the sky with a roar.

  How could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so…arrogant?

  I can hear the sounds of war long before I get close to the Braxian camp. I fly low, scouting the forest, and then curse as a bright light flashes, shooting past my wing.

  I dodge, glancing down as the purple two-legs fire at me from their ship.

  I wouldn’t have noticed the ship if they had not fired. They’ve managed to camouflage it, layering branches and leaves on top of it until it’s almost impossible to spot from above.

  I roar, and the purple invaders scatter. Some of them must be on the ship as it fires at me, but I’m too fast, evading them with a simple maneuver that allows me to get close enough to spit fire at them.

  They die, screaming, and I growl in satisfaction. I set the surrounding forest on fire and land behind the ship. No bright lights are firing from the back of the ship, and I let out a pleased rumble as purple two-legs pour from the ship, long sticks in their hands. They attempt to surround me, but unlike their ship, their weapons don’t fire the same bright, burning light.

  But I am too fast for them. One by one, they attempt to dart forward and touch me with their sticks. And one by one, they die.

  I take a deep breath, ready to burn the ship until it is nothing but molten metal. If there are still purple two-legs inside, they are quiet, likely hiding.

  “Dragix?”

  I spin and find the flame-haired female staring at me. Ivy, I remember. Charlie likes her. Charlie likes all the human females. Her Braxian mate is next to her, and I ignore him, once again readying myself to destroy the ship and prevent the purple two-legs from taking the human females off this planet.

  That’s when I hear it.

  I angle my head, and Ivy stares at me.

  Her eyes narrow at whatever she sees. “What is it?”

  “I hear females. Screaming.”

  “Holy shit,” she says. “You can talk in my head?”

  Her warrior steps closer and wraps an arm around her waist, obviously displeased at whatever intimacy he thinks this provides.

  “There may still be purple two-legs inside.”

  She relays this information to the Braxian.

  He draws his sword. “I will go first.”

  She frowns at this but doesn’t argue. She’s holding her own sword, but obviously she knows better than to think a male on this planet would allow a female to walk into danger ahead of him.

  I take a deep breath, putting out the flames surrounding us. Then I shift forms, and Ivy takes a step back.

  “Hoo boy,” she murmurs. “I forgot you could do that.”

  “Where is Charlie?”

  She gives me a look. “Why do you care? You abandoned her, remember?”

  I snarl, and the Braxian warrior narrows his eyes at us.

  “Perhaps we could discuss this later,” he growls.

  I growl at him but stalk past him, moving up the cool metal ramp that leads into the ship. A purple two-leg immediately lunges at me, and I bat his stick aside, hitting him in the face. He crumbles, falling to the ground.

  That felt good. There was something oddly satisfying about the thud of my fist against an enemy. Perhaps this wingless form is not as useless as I had imagined it to be.

  There are two more two-legs hiding in the front of the ship. The Braxian stalks past me and ends them, and then we turn toward the screams.

  “Help! Please, someone help us!”

  Ivy rushes forward, but the Braxian grabs her arm, thrusting her behind him. He sends her a warning look, and she rolls her eyes but allows it. The sight of her eye roll reminds me so much of Charlie that my whole body aches for her.

  The Braxian stalks forward, and my eyes water at the stench.

  “Oh my God,” Ivy says.

  Human females. At least thirty of them, all in a cage. Many of them are crying, while others are screaming. One of them stares at me, her gaze drops below my waist, and she begins softly sobbing.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” Ivy says.

  “Then get us out of here,” one of the females snaps.

  I examine the cage, ignoring the screams of the females as I approach. The cage has some kind of mechanism, and I survey the latch.

  Ivy steps forward. “How did they get it open?”

  “That panel right there,” one of the females says, wiping tears off her cheeks. “I think they used their palm prints.”

  The Braxian stalks away before returning with a purple hand, blood dripping from the wrist.

  Several of the females gag, but most of them cheer as he holds the hand to the square panel and the cage door slowly opens.

  Ivy turns to me. “We need to make sure that everyone is off this ship before we destroy it.”

  The female who ordered us to open the cage steps forward, pushing tangled white-blonde hair away from her face.

  “Are you kidding?” she snaps. “This is our ride out of here.”

  Ivy stares at her. “There are hundreds of these purple bastards currently marching on one of our camps. If that camp falls, all of us could end up back on this ship and taken God knows where.”

  Another female steps forward, wrapping her arms around herself as if she’s cold.

  “There’re not hundreds of them,” she says. “They must have close to a thousand. They knew they were coming here to fight.”

  Ivy curses, and the white-blonde female sighs.

  “Can’t we wait? If you have people willing to fight, can’t they come guard this ship
? If it looks like they’re going to be killed, we can always destroy it then.”

  Ivy looks unhappy at this, and the first female narrows her eyes at her.

  “We’re not staying on this planet,” she announces. “We’re using this ship to get out of here.”

  Enough of this. I turn to Ivy. “Where is Charlie?”

  She bites her lip, and something like dread sinks to the bottom of my stomach.

  “She volunteered,” she says softly, and I stare at her.

  “Where is my mate?”

  “The Dokhalls are attacking. We were sent to scout for their ship. Charlie…Charlie is playing bait. She’s leading them toward a trap so we can attempt to cull their numbers.”

  Horror slams into me. “Bait?”

  The other females are murmuring amongst themselves, some of them pushing past us to leave the ship in search of fresh air.

  “You left her,” Ivy snaps. “She’s doing what she felt was right.”

  I don’t stay to hear more. I stalk out of the ship and shift into my winged form, ignoring the females’ gasps.

  Then I take to the air and begin the search for my mate.

  Charlie

  The tribe kings have been planning for this battle for days.

  At least that’s what I tell myself as I watch the Dokhalls march on us.

  I asked Nevada why they bothered. Why they would work so hard and risk so many lives for a few human women.

  She just snorted, her face pale as we stood on a hill near the small forest close to Rakiz’s camp. “They’re not the decision makers. Someone sitting in a cushy office on their home planet will have given the order. These guys? These guys are just meat.”

  Now we’re all silent as one of the Dokhalls leaves the front lines, moving toward us. He gets close enough that I can see every feature of his pale-purple face. Every horn curving up from his head.

  “Last chance,” he calls. “Give us the females and we will leave.”

  Dexar simply stares at him. Then he raises his arm and slashes it down.

  The air becomes full of arrows along with the tresla pods that work almost like bombs. The Dokhalls didn’t see them coming, likely assuming that the Braxians were only armed with swords.