by Mary Auclair
Silence fell between them. Kamal knew what his friend meant, knew why Marmack pushed the way he did.
He still doesn’t get it.
Kamal closed his eyes against the memories that flooded through him.
He was in charge of the final assault on the Cattelan stronghold of Vallerys, responsible for finishing the Cattelans’ aggressive colonization of the peaceful Arganian planet. The coalition of Relany and Eok forces had fought for months on the planet, and this decisive victory could seal the entire war. It would also seal his future, and put his name first in line for succeeding his uncle Argen as Commander in Chief of the Eok armies. That was his ultimate goal, his entire life had been spent in preparation for that moment.
The door slid up behind him, and heavy footsteps announced the arrival of Marmack, his second-in-command.
“We have the authorization to fire,” Kamal told him. “All hands are accounted for. Ionic proton bombs are set to detonate in ten minutes.”
As silence answered him, Kamal turned to stare at the Relany officer who had earned his trust over the last three years.
Marmack stood in the middle of the room, a small, limp form in his arms, wrapped in the dirtiest blanket he’d ever seen.
“Cancel the bombing,” Marmack spoke, not looking at him. “Cancel it now.”
Kamal stared blankly as Marmack laid the body on the long bench at the back of the room. As Marmack delicately pulled the folds of the rag away, the emaciated face of a Cattelan female was uncovered. The mottled green skin of the female was marred with dirt and bruises, and as Marmack pushed the material away completely, a long gash on her arm was revealed.
“What is the meaning of this?” Kamal approached, his eyes glued to the unconscious female’s face.
“We were lied to.” Marmack turned his face to Kamal, rage twisting his features. “The Cattelan forces already left the stronghold. There are no more soldiers in there, only females and younglings. Two hundred and twenty of them.”
“This information was not relayed to me.” Kamal turned away as Marmack began inspecting the female’s bruised body.
“She told me before she lost consciousness. The Cattelans held them there, using the females and younglings as slaves, then left them locked up in the lower levels when they heard of the bombing.”
“How did this one escape?” Kamal walked to the control panel, quickly sending signals to the Eok command center. “This could be a trick.”
“I almost lost my life coming to you.”
A female voice, broken and small, but with an underlying strength so powerful it forced his attention, made Kamal turn to the Cattelan female. She was still lying down but her clear golden eyes were set on him with intensity. An acute intelligence shone in those irises, as well as a pain too great to be ignored. He immediately knew her to be speaking the truth, and the terrible weight of the decision settled on his shoulders.
“If you don’t cancel those bombs, you’ll have two hundred and twenty-two female and younglings’ deaths on your conscience.”
The words hung in the air between the three of them. Kamal knew the consequences of disobeying his orders. Slowly, he shifted his gaze to his second-in-command. A single look into Marmack’s eyes was all it took for Kamal to seal both their fates.
Kamal opened his eyes to meet Marmack’s careful gaze. The memories lingered in the back of his mind, an aftertaste of his life’s defining moment. His fall from grace as the son of the Erynian chief and the next in line for the position of Commander in Chief of the Eok armies had been a crushing blow.
He would do it all over again.
“Aliena is not going to be the mate of an outlaw.” Kamal shook his head. “She has a future on Earth with her people. What future does she have with me?”
“What future do you have without her?”
The question shook him, and Kamal looked away from Marmack to stare at the empty screen, its white and black surface shimmering nonsensically.
“You know it’s only going to get worse. You won’t be able to ignore the call. If you try to leave, it’ll make you mad.”
Marmack got the truth of it. Ignoring the Mating Venom was impossible, or at least it was unheard of. Already, Aliena was a constant presence in the back of his mind, one that was going to grow into an obsession, then turn into a dangerous compulsion, a compulsion to seek her out and make her his at all costs.
There would be no choice left for her at that point.
“Aliena won’t mate with a pirate. You saw the way she looked at me. I won’t take her against her will.”
“Aliena is an intelligent female.” Marmack spoke evenly, and Kamal’s mind rebelled against the quiet reason behind the male’s words. “She would not judge you so if only she knew the truth.”
“What would it change?” Kamal scoffed, suddenly angry at Marmack. “You think I should beg for forgiveness? Crawl on my knees in front of her in the hope that she’ll take pity on me and accept me?”
Marmack stared, surprised, as Kamal got to his feet and turned away from him.
“In two hours, we’ll raid this Breeding Facility, rescue whoever is left inside, then leave.”
Kamal walked to the door, leaving Marmack behind.
“What do you think is going to happen when you come back and she’s married someone else?”
The words made Kamal turn around, his talons extended from his fingers, violence radiating from every inch of his limbs. Marmack’s eyes went wide but his friend stood his ground.
“See what I mean?” Marmack shook his head. “You need to come clean to her, or things will take a dangerous turn, sooner or later.”
Kamal glared at his friend, aware of the misplaced aggression that made him want to challenge the other male. Finally, he opened his hands, stretching his fingers, forcing the deadly talons back in their sheaths.
Marmack was right, on every point except one.
Aliena would never accept him. All she saw in him was an outlaw, a male without honor.
And she was right to think so.
Aliena
She stood in front of him in his private quarters of the Mellark, fury coursing through her veins like a brushfire, annihilating her rational mind with every push of blood from her fast beating heart.
She glared at him, at his closed-off face with eyes that gleamed with an anger that matched her own. Every inch of his perfect, hard sculpted features was set in stone, like some long-forgotten idol.
I’ll show you. I don’t need to be seven feet tall and full of scars to be strong.
Kamal was denying her the very thing that made her who she was, what she was. He made her into a victim.
“You’re not hearing me,” Aliena said the words through clenched teeth. “I’m coming with you for the raid, and there’s nothing more to say.”
“A human female does not belong in a raid. You will wait here for the results. This is not open for discussion.”
Unable to control her temper, she scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, feeling herself lose more ground to anger with every word out of his perfect, despicable mouth.
“Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you need me there.”
“So you can do what? Argue them to death?” Kamal grunted, his patience wearing thin. “You plan on arming yourself with a spear? Throwing rocks at them? These are Ilarian guards, not bears. They’ll have ionic guns, ionic blades. They’re not playing around.” He made a small gesture with his hand, like a cutting motion. No, not a cutting motion. A dismissal. “You’ll just be an obvious target.”
She wasn’t sure if it was the gesture or the last sentence, but her fury reached a high peak. Her hands twitched at her sides and her jaw clenched so tight it hurt. She could have slapped that handsome, devastatingly confident face.
“And how do you plan to stop me from coming?”
“I can shackle you to that bed, for starters.” Kamal’s eyes shot to the large bed in one corner of the spotless room. His e
yes grew darker, more dangerous, as if he could picture her, lying defenseless in his bed, shackled to the posts.
Aliena felt her skin prickle with outrage and her eyes reduced to slits. At the same time, somewhere low in her belly, something stirred to life, a stubborn arousal, whispering wicked, forbidden things in her ears. Wicked, forbidden things he could do to her—and that she would not be able to resist.
Kamal watched her like the predator he was, his mouth a cruel beacon to which her eyes trailed even as she willed them not to look.
Finally, Aliena shook herself, like a dog coming out of water, refusing to submit to the obvious demands of her body.
“We don’t have time for this.” She folded her arms across her chest, hoping to stop her impulse to reach out, to feel whether his chest was as hot as she thought it would be.
“I can just order you to stand by.” Kamal’s brows rose as he realized she had shaken the fascination away.
“The last man who tried to order me around still has trouble walking.”
Kamal shot her a startled, confused look, then shook his head, dismissing her words as the empty threat of one hardly capable of standing up to him.
“You are no warrior.” His eyes trailed back to the door, his intent to leave her behind as clear as the expression on his face. “All your presence will achieve is endangering my crew as we attack.”
“I know I’m not a fighter,” Aliena cut aside, moving to block his view of the door. “I’ll stay behind, do whatever you say. But I need to be there once the facility is taken, be it only as a translator.”
Kamal frowned, his expression one of careful neutrality as he assessed her last statement.
“We will not need a translator.” He shook his head. “You can talk to your people once we bring them back to your village. It’s not worth the risk of having you on site.”
“Are you serious? What if they mistake you for enemies, other aliens just there to take them away? They’ll fight back.”
“Not much they can do against us.”
Dismissal, again. She was beginning to be fed up with this.
“You’re underestimating us. We escaped the Breeding Facility once. My uncle did it, killing ten Ilarian guards and freeing almost fifty people. We weren’t as independent then, not nearly as used to fighting for our survival. We’ve learned since.” She took a step closer, lifting her chin in defiance. “You didn’t want me in the caves, but if I hadn’t been there, things would have taken a turn for the worse. There would have been a bloodbath. This time will be no different. If my uncle is there with his men, I can guarantee you he will take advantage of any opportunity to escape. He’ll see every one of you as an enemy and shoot to kill, ask questions later.”
“He’s not going to win.” Kamal studied her, his face as unreadable as stone. It was clear he’d never considered the humans to pose a threat before, and was assessing the veracity of her information. “He’ll be outnumbered and outgunned, with females and younglings to defend.”
“It’s not going to matter. Death would be better to most of us than life as a pirate’s prize. He’s going to fight with everything he’s got.”
Kamal’s eyes turned fiery and his mouth slimmed to a thin, hard line. He wasn’t liking anything she had to say, but at least he wasn’t dismissing it. His hand went to his head, rubbing absently across the landscape of marks as he made his decision.
“You stay with Tailan in the back.” He peered down at her with intensity. “You obey my orders, and you ask no questions.”
“No questions, in the back. Got it.”
Aliena tried her best to suppress the smile that stretched her lips but she failed. Kamal’s mouth twisted some more and his eyes flashed, but he shook his head, then moved past her, mumbling something about females and the merits of celibacy.
She followed, her head held high and her smile still plastered on her face.
Chapter 8
Anticipation ran through her body in tiny waves of electric ripples across her skin. Aliena crouched under the cover of the sapling beside Tailan, watching the slow advance of Kamal’s troops in the snow toward the tall gray building.
Emotions boiled inside her chest, bubbling under her skin, growing to uncontrollable strength. This was where her mother had died during the escape her uncle Markus led. This was where countless humans—men, women and children—had been kept against their will, to live horrific, claustrophobic lives. Most were sold like livestock after their fertile years were spent, or some even as young women, to fabulously rich buyers as exotic pets to showcase their power and status.
Anger coiled in her veins at the thought of all the suffering that took place within those pale, harmless looking walls. It brewed within her blood, this white-hot anger… anger and something else. Something darker, more dangerous. A desire for revenge, for justice for all those who suffered at the hands of the powerful few who controlled the fate of what was left of humanity.
No. Not a desire. A hunger.
Aliena was hungry for vengeance. It grew inside her like a worm, burrowing, consuming her insides until she could barely stand still.
She wanted to hurt them, see the fear in their eyes as life bled out of them.
“What are you doing?” Tailan grabbed her arm. “Kamal told us to stay behind.”
“I’m not going to sit here and wait.” Aliena locked eyes with the other female’s soft yellow gaze. “My uncle is in here, my friends. I’m not about to let a bunch of hotheaded males shoot around.”
“He’s going to be so mad at you.” Tailan’s lips quirked up in a half smirk.
Aliena held Tailan’s gaze for a few more seconds. The other female—the only one in Kamal’s crew—was a complete mystery. She was incredibly efficient, the best navigational officer anyone could ever wish for—if she listened to Marmack’s boasting—cold and accurate, focused on her task when she needed to be. On the other hand, she had a sharp sense of humor and was as fierce as any of the other outlaws.
When Tailan let go of her arm, Aliena didn’t hesitate.
She walked fast, heading for the group of attackers who were now nearing the doors to the facility, half crouched in the deep snow, her body-hugging insulating clothes shielding her from the biting cold. Although she made good ground, it was clear she wasn’t fast enough. She wouldn’t reach them before the attack began.
The controlled ionic blast blew the door out, obliterating the ten-inch thick heavy metallic alloy that was supposed to withstand anything. Anything but highly controlled ionic blasts.
The strength of the explosion propelled Aliena to the ground, snow blowing around her like a cloud as she lay in the cold. Her ears rang with a high-pitched whine as the pure expanse of the cloudless sky filled her vision. Confusion filled her mind as she reached up, wiping snow out of her face. She struggled to her knees, blinking, trying to clear her head of the confusion.
Then she saw movement, shapes sliding inside the gray building, moving with fast, accurate purpose. The tall shape of Kamal, bent forward, focused and deadly, caught her eye. He was the ultimate warrior, so much in his element, it was like watching a shark glide through the water at sundown. A long shiver traveled up her spine and the fog deserted Aliena’s mind.
She got to her feet, and ran.
There wasn’t enough time.
Soon, the sound of ionic guns being unloaded reached her ears, and her legs pumped even faster in the snow.
No! They’re going to kill them. They’ll kill them all.
The facility, with its looming, tall shape was soon before her.
Finally, Aliena stood alone where the heavy metal doors had just been, the pungent, iodine smell of the detonation making her eyes water. Inside was the dark, unknown place where human nightmares took root. Her breathing was fast and erratic, her breath condensing in front of her eyes in tiny puffs of panic.
She’d spent her entire life hiding from those who would lock her inside those very walls.
She
couldn’t move. Couldn’t go in. It was as if her feet were clad in stone and her heart threatened to burst out of its prison of bones.
Then a screech, high-pitched and full of fear, traveled along the long stone hallways. A child’s scream.
Aliena’s legs moved before her brain registered what she was doing. She ran again, through the cold and dim hallways lit by a continuous line of purple light, taking wild turn after turn, despite her entire body revolting against the idea of penetrating those walls.
She followed the increasing volume of human screams as tears ran down her cheeks.
After what seemed like an hour, the sound of familiar voices began to emerge above the screaming, and she knew she was close.
“STOP!” Aliena yelled, rushing around the corner. “Nobody shoots!”
She came to a halt, out of breath, and stared.
Whatever she had been prepared to see, it wasn’t this.
Kamal and his men stood, their weapons drawn but pointing at the ground. Their hardened faces were slack and void as they stared at the scraggly group of humans huddled in the back of the large room.
“Stop!” Aliena yelled for the second time as she halted in the middle of the room, between Kamal’s crew and the humans.
Marmack was staring, his face a mask of pure shock, his mouth clenched so hard his lips were all but absent. Then her eyes trailed to Kamal. His pale blue eyes gleamed in the dim light, and they met hers, she saw something in them. Some old, unhealed wound that was so raw it yanked at her insides and made her heart lurch for him.
But then the whine of a small child made her turn around.
Whatever warmth had been left in her body deserted her.
A group of about thirty people sat on the cold stone floor, huddled at the back of a spacious, bare room. Immediately, Aliena noticed the large number of children in the group. Male children, all of them. Male children and old people were all that remained.
An old woman, at least seventy years of age, met her eyes. She was holding a small child to her chest, a boy so thin, his limbs looked like twigs.
