He stumbled backwards in shock, staring at Dahlia as she floated into the room with unnatural grace, the petals of her skirt hiding the hovering platform she was riding, her army of wives behind her. She'd thrown the saber with deadly accuracy, and Lily shuddered as Turlabon deflated further, releasing a terrible stench as he collapsed in on himself.
"I appreciate your attempt at mercy," Princess Dahlia said, floating closer to them, "But some people just do not deserve it."
"I knew I'd see you again," Lily said, "But this is sooner than expected."
Dahlia laughed.
"I knew Turlabon was a coward, but I thought he'd be too vain to run from his own wives," Dahlia said, looking at the remains of Turlabon with disgust, "Regardless, it's over now. Sahria is safe, and can at last begin to heal."
Lily sighed with relief and felt Amranth relax against her.
"I would like you both to be a part of that healing," Dahlia continued, "I was trained to lead after my father, but that training is a hundred years rusted, and I don't want to make the same mistakes Turlabon did. Amranth, be my commander. Not my sword or my assassin, but my advisor and leader of my armies."
"I would be honored," Amranth said, his voice weak, "But, I don't think I'll be able... to..."
Lily cried out in surprise as he collapsed, falling against her as the pain of his injuries overwhelmed him and his consciousness fled.
"Amranth!" Lily tried to hold him up, praying for him to open his eyes again. She could feel her connection to him growing rapidly more distant and the sensation terrified, "Amranth, please!"
"He's dying." Dahlia said, pulling him towards her, to lay on her hovering platform. She ran her hands over his injuries in horror.
"Please, save him," Lily sobbed, "I can't lose him after all of this. Please!"
"I'll try," Dahlia said, "I've never pushed my powers that far before. But I'll try. Hold on Amranth. Hold on for all of us."
Dahlia touched her forehead to his and the air stirred around them, the wind rising sharply until Lily and the other wives struggled to stand, battered by the tremendous gale. Lily squeezed Amranth's hand and willed all the power she had that he would live. That they would have a chance to live together as they'd wanted to.
She wanted to learn more about him, good things and bad. To laugh with him, to build with him, even to be annoyed or angry with him. Occasional disagreements were part of life together and she wanted a life with him, and all that included.
Please, she thought, Please don't let it end like this.
Slowly, the wind died, and Dahlia removed her hands from Amranth, who lay still and unmoving.
"I've done all I can," Dahlia said, her expression shattered.
A wail of grief built in Lily's chest but when she opened her mouth no sound came out. She was beyond words or sounds. Tears poured from her like a fountain and she laid herself across his chest, shaking with harrowing sorrow.
Dahlia turned away, giving Lily her space to grieve, her own agony visible. The other wives bowed their head in respect and regret. Slowly, they began to sing, wordless and aching with sorrow.
A song of mourning for Lily's loss. For all their loss. Their voices rose to fill the solarium, shaking the glass of the ceiling with their pain. Lily was certain even the voiceless flowers in the Garden would sing if they heard it.
She laid her head on his chest, feeling grief slowly numbing her to everything but the emptiness in her heart. They had been so close to happiness...
And then, so soft that for a moment she almost thought she'd imagined it, she felt a heartbeat under her cheek. The place in her heart where she could feel him ached in response, and grew brighter. She sat up, eyes widening with awe, and saw him stir, opening his eyes.
"He's alive!" she shouted, interrupting the singing, "He's alive!"
She showered his face in kisses as he slowly came around, putting an arm around her weakly.
"Careful," Dahlia said, "He's still injured. We should get him to a healer."
But Lily could only cling to him and laugh through her tears, seeing a beautiful future unfolding in front of her.
Chapter Fourteen
A year later, things on Sahria were looking much better. Queen Dahlia, with Commander Amranth's help, had made great strides in eliminating poverty and restoring equality.
Turlabon's widows had all been released. Those with no place to go stayed in the palace, helping and supporting Dahlia. The others went out into the world to pursue whatever lives had been denied them all these years. Even Rose, once certain the threat of Turlabon had departed, was grateful.
Lily stood on Earth, and dug her toes into real terran soil for the very first time. It was the very first spring since the ice age had descended. It would be a cold and brief one, but it was progress, a sign of the future they were making together.
Ancient trees, black and bare, which Lily had always assumed dead, were budding for the first time in generations. Not dead after all, only dormant and waiting for the day the spring returned. The dormant women in the garden had been woken. Though weakened by their long sleep, they returned to their lives with joy and defiance. Turlabon had never beaten them.
Lily inhaled deeply and smelled the green scent of things growing. With Dahlia and Amranth's help, Lily had more than just restored the Svalbard seed bank.
With Sahrian money and technology, they'd made huge advances previously thought impossible. The Earth was, at last, beginning to come back. Lily's generation really would be the first to see earth flowers again. And they wouldn't be the last. She ran her hand over her swollen stomach with a smile.
"You shouldn't stay out here too long."
Amranth wrapped his arms around her from behind and shivered.
"It's too cold to be safe," he said, twining his fingers with hers over her stomach.
"I'm fine," she promised him, "Besides, I want to soak this in before we have to go back to Sahria. It might be over before we return."
"It'll only be a short trip," Amranth reminded her, "You wouldn't want to miss Queen Dahlia's official coronation now that the last of Turlabon's supporters have been dealt with."
"It might be a very short spring," Lily replied, "And it's the very first. I want to enjoy it."
He shook his head, kissed her cheek, and stood with her as she stared out at the greenery that was spreading down from the home they had built here together.
It was the first above ground home built on Earth in living memory, made in the hopes that many would follow it. And from its front steps green grass was rolling, still patched with white snow in many places, but green, and starred with flowers.
Children of Lily's village were playing outside for the first time in their lives, laughing and shouting and rolling in the grass. Above it all, a glorious aurora was rippling, an incredible ribbon of color winding above them, blessing this first spring of a planet too long gripped by winter.
Earth was leaving its dormancy, and Lily felt like she had at last come up from underground and begun to live as well. She and Amranth were still figuring out life together, but Lily was content to go one figuring him out for the rest of her life if he let her.
Life was returning, and Lily had never been so happy to be a part of it.
***
THE ALIEN’S PREGNANT MATE
CELESTIAL MATES BOOK 2
MARLA THERRON
Copyright 2017 by Marla Therron
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any way whatsoever, without written permission
from the author, except in case of brief
quotations embodied in critical reviews
and articles.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any
character, person, living or dead, events, place or
organizations is purely coincidental. The author does not
have any control over and does not assume any responsibility
> for third party websites or their content.
First edition, 2017
Description:
Bright and earnest Erena has trained all her life for this. One of only five people chosen to leave Earth behind and embark on the first ever manned mission beyond Earth’s solar system, she’s the best humanity has to offer.
But after only a few months out, Erena’s ship is attacked by beings whose purpose she can only guess. She and the other female crew member are dragged away, while the male crewmen are killed before her eyes.
Confused and afraid, Erena finds herself being sold in an alien black market as a rare novelty. Sold to a strange but captivatingly handsome alien named Shang, Erena struggles to defend herself, find her crew, and get home.
But soon, she finds she must also resist the attraction she feels to her new owner.
Though she tells herself it’s only sexual, with every day they get closer and Erena’s determination to get home begins to waver, especially once she discovers cross species impregnation may not be as impossible as she thought…
Chapter One
The lights of the stage were blinding, dazzling Erena's already hazy eyes. Whatever drug her captors had forced on her had left her so helpless she could barely move, her skin burning, her body aching, her vision blurry.
Every sensation was overwhelming, from the clink of the silver chains around her wrists, to the grain of the cage floor beneath her bare skin, to the murmur of voices as creatures too strange to be real moved past her prison, only pausing briefly to stare at her before moving on.
She tried to hide her nakedness; ashamed of what she had come to, but moving was a desperate struggle against the drug, which made her limbs so heavy. And anyway, nothing mattered anymore. Her entire team was dead except for Alice, and Erena had no way of knowing where the other woman had been taken.
She could be in one of these cages too, or a thousand lightyears away. And as for Erena herself, she didn't know what was going to happen to her, but she couldn't imagine it was going to be anything pleasant.
She was naked and drugged and surrounded on all sides by strange, totally alien beings. Some of them looked almost human, but many of them were so far from humanoid she could barely comprehend them.
And the way they stared at her, openly hungry, eyeing her body like meat in a butcher's shop… Maybe that's what this was, she thought with trembling, hopeless fear. Or some kind of zoo. Whatever it was, she was certain it was the last place she would see. This was the end of her.
Just as she was giving up totally, the cage opened and something reached in, clipping a leash to the collar around her throat and dragging her out onto the stage.
"Our next item for bid," the thing holding her leash was shouting as it pulled her on her knees to the front of the stage, "A true rarity! A female from a totally undiscovered species, stolen from the furthest depths of uncharted space! Even if you aren't seduced by her alien beauty, she'd certainly be a fascinating research subject! She's already been outfitted with a full set of vaccinations and a language chip for your convenience! So who wants to start the bidding at ten million?"
The auctioneer rattled on, praising Erena's attributes as she sat on her knees, naked and trembling and confused. She could barely see the audience past the stage lights, but she could hear them crying out bids.
Fear bloomed in her despite the numbing effects of the drug. She was being sold, like an object. This wasn't right! She searched the crowd as tears stung her eyes, looking for someone, anyone, who would point out how wrong this was and save her.
Her eyes locked with a man across the room. At least, she thought it was a man, through the blinding stage lights everything looked strange. But she saw his eyes, piercing even from this far away. They locked with hers, clear even through the haze of the drug, and she trembled at the sharpness of that gaze.
Help me, she thought, wishing she had the strength to form the words, Please, save me!
Erena had dreamed of this moment all her life. She'd always longed to be a scientist. She'd grown up completely fascinated by all of it. Chemistry, biology, physics, nothing was beyond her. It felt like magic to her, learning all the building blocks of the universe, the secret undercurrents and reactions that caused every single thing on earth.
Eventually, she took a specialty in astro physics. Not because it was her favorite or because she wanted to stop studying everything else. She went on studying all the other subjects in her free time. But astro physics was what would allow her to go into space, and in this day and age all the most exciting discoveries were happening in space.
It had been many years since mankind had moved beyond earth and begun colonizing other planets in their star system. Only now were manned missions moving beyond the Sol system and out into deep space in search of new fantastic discoveries. Erena, thanks to her tireless hard work, was going to be part of the first manned exploratory mission into deep space.
She'd never been so proud. She was already going to be in the history books just for going, but Erena's excitement was entirely in thinking about the incredible things she would discover out there.
She was the ship's chief science officer. The captain was a tiny, red headed woman named Alice Harper, calm and clear headed with natural leadership instincts and a talent for getting along with anyone.
There was also Sergei, a swarthy Russian man and the security officer, and Paolo, the handsome bronze skinned Brazilian chief engineer, and Fin, a chipper and yet surprisingly serious dark haired French man, in Medical.
They were a small team, meant to work closely together, with everyone helping out with everything, deferring to each other's expertise in case of decisions.
Erena had been training with the four of them for years preparing for this and they knew each other better than anyone. Erena practically considered them her siblings. She'd even dated Paolo for a while, though it hadn't worked out and they'd broken it off amicably.
The day of departure, they waved to the cheering crowds seeing them off. Erena leaned over the high platform that connected to the side of the ship, smiling with delight. The sun caught her golden hair, pulled back in a business like pony tail, and highlighted her curves, held in by the skin tight silver flight suit she was wearing.
The team had been carefully chosen and groomed to be as attractive as they were qualified, as this mission was as much about inspiring people as it was about progress. But Erena, with her long, thick blond hair and her bright amber eyes, was a media favorite.
She and the team posed for a few photos, then strapped into their sleek space craft, the Spirit of Exploration. Erena had run through the simulated take off so many times it almost seemed unreal to be finally doing it, feeling the ship shake and roar as the powerful rockets below it fired, shooting it up into the atmosphere on a cloud of fire.
The rockets detached and the boosters kicked in, pushing them out of the atmosphere entirely and into orbit around Earth. From here there was a brief wait as they drifted, waiting for the ship's orientation to line up perfectly with their destination.
Then Captain Harper fired the ship’s impulse thrusters, pushing them off out of orbit, heading towards the edge of the solar system. The hard part was done. Fin cheered first, always loud and excitable, and Erena soon joined him, climbing out of her harness and going to hug her team mates. They celebrated their success, breaking out a bottle of champagne and staring out the windows at the earth as it dwindled.
"Alright everyone!" Captain Harper said eventually, "That's enough fun. It's time to settle in for the long haul. Let's get you kids to bed!"
Though Paolo grumbled and they tried to argue for a few more minutes of enjoyment, they had a schedule to keep. Alice programmed the auto pilot as the rest of the crew settled into their stasis pods. They would remain in semi-cryogenic stasis for several years as the ship traveled out of the solar system at near light speeds.
It was unhealthy for the human body to be awake and active duri
ng near light speed travel, so until they reached their first destination they would be remaining unconscious, their bodily functions slowed to a near death like state, not even ageing.
It was the scariest part of the mission in Erena's opinion. This trip would take them nearly a decade, and due to relative time, far more time would pass on earth.
They'd had to leave their families and friends behind, knowing they would never see them again. Leaving her parents had been painful, but Erena had been preparing for this all her life. It also frightened her, thinking about how many advances and changes might happen before she returned.
The place she returned to would almost certainly be nothing like the place she left behind. But it was all worth it for the incredible things they would learn. Erena felt no regret, only eager optimism for the amazing future ahead of her. She sank into cryo sleep with a smile on her face, dreaming of the whole new worlds that would await her when she woke up.
She felt as though she'd barely closed her eyes before she was waking again, blinking frost from her lashes as she sat up. The rest of her team was shifting around her, stretching and groaning as they climbed out of their pods, ice clinging to the tight curves of their suits.
"Good morning," she said with a yawn.
Paolo, looking deliciously sleep mussed, his dark hair tousled and his eyes half lidded, draped himself across the end of her pod.
"Good morning bella," he crooned, gazing at her affectionately, "I dreamed of you the whole way here, and now I wake to see you looking more beautiful than ever."
Erena laughed, dismissing his compliments. Paolo talked to everyone like that. Besides, the blue white led lighting of the ship washed everything into a kind of pale morning haze, shining on the sleek gray panels and consoles of the ship's stylish interior.
The Warrior's Proposal (Celestial Mates Book 7) Page 28