Unchained: The Discordant Earth Series Book Two

by Melony Paradise

  A low growl fell from Sebastian’s lips and his eyelids dropped as his breath stuttered and his hard flesh pressed against her inner thigh. Alyssa opened up to him, falling back against the pillow, arching her back and spilling a long, low moan.

  Sebastian slowly entered her, filling her more than ever before, his gaze piercing her. She felt completely open, vulnerable, in a way she’d never felt. As their bodies came together, their minds expanded and their thoughts merged as if their eyes saw each other, whether opened or closed.

  They shared this moment in every way. They were free, wild, formless, floating in a vast cloud of euphoria, touching each other with their souls, every inch of their bodies connecting physically and spiritually. They were they, one mind, one soul.

  Moving as one, flesh melded with flesh, their surroundings gradually morphed into a scene, unrecognizable at first. As the space around them solidified, their bodies did too, still moving together, riding the razor’s edge, stuck in near-orgasm that was part pain, part ecstasy.

  A bed formed beneath them, soft sheets cooling burning skin. A fire crackled just out of sight. Shadows danced on wooden beams. Locked in an erotic dance, they shared glimpses of what they saw around them, when it was possible to focus on anything other than each other. Looking away took a strength neither of them had or cared to have.

  Nothing mattered but their love, their happiness, their pleasure. Their chests swelled with roiling emotions. Their bodies burned for each other, flesh heating flesh, building a wave from deep within that threatened to overtake them, drown them.

  A pressure began to build from inside as the wave grew, getting ever closer. A misty haze formed, fading out their surroundings, the sheet falling away from beneath them. They filled each other, loved each other, breathed each other. They existed for each other.

  And with a sudden flash, the pressure burst, flowing through them like the ocean beating against the surface of their flesh from the inside. Wave after wave of pure, blissful, intoxicating, euphoric ecstasy flooded their very essence, blinding them, deafening them, killing them slowly.

  Their souls became mist, flowing in, out, and around each other, brushing against each other like down feathers. They wove their forms together, moving as one again. Tendrils of gravity pulled at them, weighing them down as its grasping hold enclosed them. They descended as one, their misty forms slowly coming together, separating into bodies, individuals.

  Too soon, their awareness cleared, the room around them filling their peripheral vision. Their eyes still locked on each other, gazing in wonder. Their chests pressed against the other in panting breaths.

  Slow smiles formed on their faces and they laughed, feeling themselves once again become Alyssa and Sebastian.

  “Holy fuck, Sebastian!” she whispered, her vocal cords still not fully functional.

  “That was as holy as I’ve ever experienced, darlin’.” His voice was raspy and deeper than she’d ever heard. He grinned down at her, eyes glittering with amusement.

  “Oh, God, don’t talk yet. That voice could send me spinning right back into… whatever that was.” She smiled up at him, dizzy from the experience and thankful they were still in the bed where she couldn’t fall.

  Sebastian’s arm began to quake with the effort of holding himself up above Alyssa. She weakly pressed against his chest until he rolled to the side, their bodies separating, leaving her feeling bereft, as if a part of her just broke away.

  Needing to feel his closeness again, she curled up at his side, resting her head on his chest. He must have felt the same, pulling her tight against him, wrapping an arm around her. Spent beyond imagination, they fell asleep like that, not moving an inch until they woke the next morning.

  Chapter 20

  The excitement of the large crowd was palpable. The night before, Ian, with Sebastian beside him, announced to the party that the Karans would be arriving this morning. Apparently word had spread.

  A parking lot had been cleared to allow space for the shuttle to land. Ian kept a moderately sized militia, mostly older soldiers from the war or men and women trained by those soldiers. They kept watch on the settlement and patrolled the city, watching out the best they could for the humans who didn’t live inside the fenced settlement.

  The inner neighborhoods surrounding the central command building were reserved for coalition members, but not all wanted to live so close. Some preferred to live with family farther away or outside the fence. The outer neighborhoods held mostly civilians who didn’t feel safe outside of coalition protection. Everyone inside the fence knew that, civilian or not, if an attack occurred within the settlement, they were required to step up and fight. Outside the fence, the coalition did their best, but those people were pretty much on their own.

  “Is Valel here?” Jess asked. “I didn’t see him at the party.”

  Alyssa shrugged, wringing her hands, worried and excited all at once. “Me either, but I wasn’t exactly looking for him.”

  “You and Bas looked pretty happy last night. You two talk about what happened?”

  “What happened?” Kora pushed her way between them. Lyssa reached for Jess, giving her no choice but to catch the flopping child. With a goofy smile, Jess chattered at Lyssa in that baby voice everyone gets when faced with a little angel, while juggling her into a position that avoided skin contact.

  “Uh, I’ll tell you later. The shuttle’s almost here.” Alyssa pointed at the craft approaching the settlement, happy for the distraction.

  Like a long, wide bus, the shuttle zipped through the air with hardly a sound. Its rounded nose angled down a bit and two stubby wings stuck out of each side, starting immediately behind the cockpit, and ending at the rear of the vessel. The black gunmetal panels reminded Alyssa of the Kara, and all the other Szu’Kara ships the aliens had strategically placed around the world.

  A sliver of ice zipped down Alyssa’s spine, and she hoped to never again set foot in Kayn’s command ship. The only ship besides a shuttle she planned to enter was the Nursery, and only because she couldn’t stand the thought of women and children being abused or used as lab rats.

  The shuttle’s wings began to retract as it hovered a hundred feet in the air. The pilot lowered the ship into the cordoned off area, militia guards pushing back the curious onlookers. Alyssa spotted Valel across the landing space, watching her as always. A couple people next to him glanced at him nervously, only just realizing he wasn’t a Zook or human.

  A loud hissing drew Alyssa’s attention back to the landing craft, stabilizing feet emerging from the base. The wingtips disappeared behind closing panels as the shuttle settled smoothly on the concrete ground. A low whining, barely heard above the murmurs of the crowd, cut off and a whoosh of air expelled from the vessel as door panels slid away.

  Two human men with rifles stepped down out of the shuttle, scanning the waiting crowd. They nodded to each other, then one of them waved their hand in a circle, ushering the other passengers out of the waiting vessel.

  Eight Karans marched out onto the faded parking lot, filing into a tight cluster. None of them had hair, although their bodies ranged from mostly human to alien in appearance. From a distance, Alyssa thought they all had eyes like Lyssa’s and Valel’s with varied colors inside an iris, not filling the entire orb.

  Alyssa saw faded red, lavender, teal, dark orange, gray, dark blue, chocolate brown, and off-white skin colors. The Karans looked around at the crowd, scowling and rigid. They held their hands out a little past their thighs, palms facing their audience, slowly turning in circles.

  Each one seemed to pause briefly when they turned in Valel’s direction. One by one, they each faced Alyssa, their eyes locking on her. She glanced over at Kora and found Lyssa staring back at the Karans, fixated.

  Alyssa opened her mind just a tad, like a peephole in a door, hoping to feel Lyssa and get a glimpse of the baby’s emotions. Before she could blink, a flood of Ru’Sae burst through the tiny hole in her consciousness, forci
ng it open until she had no barrier to protect her mind.

  With a yelp, Alyssa stumbled back a step, running into Jordan, who she hadn’t noticed behind her. She grasped her head. The throbbing of so many presences drowned out the voices around her, pressing against her temples and the backs of her eyes. The pressure made her groan, nearly knocking her down.

  Hands caught her arms, holding her up. The voices of her concerned friends sounded as if she were underwater, distant and garbled. The Karans seemed to fill every nook and cranny, searching and curious, unaware of how awful they felt inside her head.

  Like an ocean wave, Lyssa’s Ru’Sae encircled the other presences, dampening their volume, and pulling them back like receding waters. With the pressure abating, Alyssa pulled down the wall in her mind, but it resisted like a stuck garage door. She yanked and pushed until finally the Karans retreated. Only a soft cooing remained a moment before precious silence filled the space between her own thoughts.

  “Aly, are you okay?” Jess blinked, her face only inches from Alyssa’s.

  Jordan peered at her from behind Jess’ shoulder, and Kora stared with frightened eyes, holding a now jabbering Lyssa. The child appeared to be telling everyone what happened even though no one understood baby language.

  “Ugh, yeah, but I feel a raging migraine coming.” Alyssa patted Jordan’s hand to let him know she could stand on her own. He nodded but stayed close.

  “What did they do to you?” Kora asked, looking at Alyssa then Lyssa and back.

  Alyssa glanced at the Karans. They still watched her, but Valel stood with them, speaking to them. Sebastian and Ian walked up and engaged in the Karans’ conversation.

  “They got in my head, like the test we did, but I don’t think they knew how deep they could go. It felt like they were just curious, checking me out, you know? Thankfully, Lyssa saved the day.” Alyssa rubbed her temples.

  “Lyssa saved you?” Kora stared at her child with her mouth open in wonder.

  Jordan stepped around to stand behind Kora, still holding Alyssa’s elbow gently. “What did she do?”

  “She forced them out, like she forced Valel out of my head at the test.”

  “You didn’t tell us she did that.” Kora ran a loving hand over Lyssa’s scalp, smiling at her.

  “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t think about it. We were dealing with so much. Lyssa seems to be stronger than all of them combined, although I don’t know if they were trying to invade my mind. They might’ve let her push them out. We really need to do some private testing, just me and Lyssa. If that’s all right with you two, we could do it at your house, away from the Karans and the doctors.”

  Jordan and Kora glanced at each other, then nodded. “Sure, yeah, girly.” Jordan nodded slowly. “Whenever you want.”

  “Jess, Kora, would you mind walking back home with me? I need to get something for this headache, and some distance from our new arrivals.”

  “Sure, Aly. Lorn’s helping with the Karans, so we’ll have the house to ourselves. We can grab some toys for the princess here to keep her busy.”

  Jordan ducked under the rope that created the barricade. He walked backward with his goofy grin. “You girls have fun. I’ll be with the boys and our new friends.”

  “Will you tell Sebastian what happened, please? Maybe he can set some boundaries for the Karans regarding invading my head.”

  “You got it, girly.” He winked, then blew a kiss to Kora and Lyssa before spinning around and jogging over to Sebastian.

  A dull, painful throbbing steadily grew in Alyssa’s temples. The daylight began to amplify, hurting her eyes. “Time to go, girls. Another second longer and I may not make it home.”

  Jess threaded an arm through Alyssa’s, pulling her out of the crowd with Kora and Lyssa following close behind.

  ***

  “How’re you doing, Aly?” Jess plopped down on the springy sofa, nearly spilling her drink in the bounce.

  “I’m good.” Alyssa stared out of the picture window at the dusky, quiet street. A half-moon shined through the scattered, fluffy clouds. “It’s so peaceful here, and open. So much nicer than being closed in like we were at headquarters. Even Lyssa seems to be happier, and that baby already smiled a lot.”

  “It is nice to feel like we’re safe. I really would like to call this place home, at least for a while.” Jess pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs, and her hands around her steaming mug.

  “We lived on the compound almost all of our lives, Jess. This is so different. I wish my parents were here with us. Dad used to talk about moving into town someday and living like it was the old days.”

  “Yeah, he would’ve loved a place like this.”

  A candle flickered on a small table in the corner. The house had electricity, but Ian had stressed using it sparingly. The settlement got its power from hydroelectricity, solar, and wind, with generators for backup, although fuel was still hard to come by and needed for the coalition vehicles.

  The front door opened, and they looked over the back of the sofa to see Lorn coming in. He stopped behind Jess, bending down to kiss the top of her head.

  “You look tired, baby.” Jess slid up onto her knees to hug his waist, looking up into his face.

  “It has been a very long day, my love.”

  “Are you hungry? I can make you some dinner.”

  Lorn shook his head. “No, thank you. I believe I will retire for the night.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Jess glanced at Alyssa. “Unless you need me, Aly.”

  “No, no. Please, take him to bed. I think I’ll go for a walk. I want to enjoy the freedom of being out in the open without worrying if Kayn or Ras will get me. It feels like forever since I’ve been able to safely go outside alone.” Alyssa turned to Lorn. “How long before Sebastian comes home?” That feels so good to say. Home.

  “An hour. Maybe more. The Karans are skittish after the way the humans reacted when they arrived. Ian wants to present them at a ceremony tomorrow, but I don’t think they are happy with the spotlight.”

  “They’ve been hidden away for so long,” Jess said. “Can you blame them?”

  “I think I might skip the show. I’d rather not have a repeat of… whatever that was they did to me. My head still aches.”

  “Some fresh air will help with that.” Jess crawled over the back of the sofa with Lorn’s help. She gave Alyssa a little wave and disappeared down the hall with Lorn. The sink turned on briefly, and the sound of Jess’ mug clunking in the basin echoed through the quiet house. A moment later, their bedroom door opened and closed.

  Jess and Lorn’s room was off the kitchen, while Sebastian and Alyssa got the bedroom at the front of the house. A coat closet and small bathroom separated the living room from the kitchen. Kora and Jordan’s house had a bit more space with a third bedroom for Lyssa and a laundry room.

  Alyssa slipped on her boots and quietly made her way outside. The cement walkway looked almost like a cobblestone path with grass growing in the large cracks. Whatever this suburb was before the war, it seems to be in good condition. I wonder if this was one of Kayn’s rehabs before the coalition took over.

  A candle fluttered in the living room window of Kora’s house. Alyssa paused on the sidewalk to peer inside. Edward and Maira sat cuddled on their sofa. The murmur of an old song flowed out of the open front door. A wistful smile played on Alyssa’s lips as she recalled how excited Edward had been to find a battery-operated tape player and a box of cassette tapes with faded labels.

  Filling her lungs with cool, brisk air, Alyssa resumed her stroll. Most of the houses she passed were dark, but some were lit with people reading or putting together puzzles. She savored the sense of normalcy derived from walking along the sidewalk and knowing she would end her meandering by entering a house she shared with her closest friends and the man she loved.

  A scuffing sound stopped Alyssa in her tracks. Her heart skipped a beat, and a sliver of fear shot through her as she had a mo
ment of panic. Thoughts of Szu’Kara guards swooping in to grab her flashed through her mind.

  Across the street, Valel stepped out of the shadows, and Alyssa slumped with relief. She stood there with her head down, catching her breath, trying to recover from the sudden crippling anxiety. There’s no reason to be so scared. You’re safe here, even with Valel stalking you. She glanced up to find the Karan approaching. Shit. Not now.

  Alyssa gritted her teeth and straightened, putting on a polite smile. “Hello, Valel.”

  “Greetings, Alyssa.” He stopped at the curb and stared. His stony face and stiff posture gave no indication of his mood. Alyssa mentally readied herself for a polite retreat.

  “I thought you would be helping our new arrivals settle in.” She clasped her hands behind her back, feeling awkward and nervous. The wall in her mind held steady, but so far, Valel hadn’t tried anything.

  “Ian and Sebastian have things well in hand.” He looked up at the night sky, his face relaxing and his eyelids drooping slightly. “When I was young, living at the Nursery, they only allowed us outside at night. I enjoyed walking under the stars. It was the only time I felt unchained from my captivity. I desired that feeling tonight. I apologize if I startled you.” He bowed his head, but returned to staring. His gaze intensified, and a small seeking tendril prodded the barrier in her head.

  “Please, don’t do that.” Alyssa closed her eyes, pushing away emotions that confused her. She hugged herself as a chill brought goosebumps to her skin. Yes, it’s just a chill. Nothing more. I am not attracted to him.

  “Why do you keep me out?” He blinked, genuinely confused.

  “Why do you want in my head? It’s so invasive.” She clenched her teeth and dug her nails into her arms.

  “Invasive?” Valel cocked his head and frowned. “Karans are open to each other. We are linked, but we don’t hear thoughts. With you and the child, I have heard thoughts. Fleeting, but heard. I don’t understand why you and the child are resistant. This is something that should be explored. I have not encountered any Karans with such strong Ru’Sae as you and Lyssa.”