Desolation (Earth Evolution Series Book 1)

by K. D. Jones

  ***

  Liam stood next to Maggie’s father, speaking with the Tribe members. Jerry the tribe leader had called everyone together. Liam was offering more than just treatment, he was offering to take people to the Eclipse and eventually relocate them to a planet that was hospitable to humans. The Lt. Colonel also offered people space in the domes. But many people still seemed to have doubts about their motives. The discussion wasn’t really going as they had planned.

  “Give them time to get used to you. Once you’ve visited a few times and have shown them that you’re genuine, I am sure some will want to take what you are offering,” Jerry told them.

  “We’ll be bringing supplies on a regular basis,” David said.

  “And we will be providing the treatments. We have a team of medikos that have volunteered to come down and stay two weeks at a time so that no one will miss a treatment,” Liam told them.

  Jared came over and greeted them. “I think we are done with the treatments for today. I have to get back and debrief my mediko team so that they will know what to expect. Will there be living quarters for them to stay in?”

  “I don’t have any available sub cars right now,” Jerry frowned.

  “What about Maggie’s sub car? She won’t be needing it,” Liam offered.

  Jerry shook his head. “Lily and Thomas live there as well.”

  “Perhaps they can return to the Eclipse with us. I know Maggie would want them there with her,” Jared offered.

  “We’ll ask Lily,” Liam said. “Speaking of … I need to hunt down my asawani.”

  “No need, Melissa came by a few minutes ago and said that Maggie was going to her sub car to rest,” David said.

  “Is she alright?” Liam started walking toward the subway car. The others followed him.

  “Melissa said she was just tired. She was going to check on Maggie after she helped the other Tribe members put away the supplies.”

  As they approached the subway car, Liam suddenly got the feeling that something was terribly wrong. He broke into a run. He couldn’t hear any sounds from inside.

  He entered the car and saw Lily on the floor. She was just starting to move and groan in pain. “Maggie!” He pushed the curtain back that separated her sleeping space. She wasn’t there. He went back to kneel next to Lily.

  “Thomas? Maggie?” Lily groaned, holding her aching head.

  “Easy. Can you tell me what happened?” Liam knelt beside the injured woman. She didn’t seem to hear him, her eyes searching for her son. She calmed a little seeing him still sleeping.

  “What happened to Maggie?” Liam demanded.

  “Ben, he came in and caught me off guard, hit me. I don’t remember anything else.”

  “Move, Liam, let me help her.” Jared spoke from behind him. Liam turned her over to his brother and shoved his way out of the car.

  “What’s happened?” David asked.

  “Ben took Maggie.” He felt like someone hit him in the gut. He had to find her.

  ***

  Maggie was tired. Ben was pushing and shoving her to keep her moving. He wouldn’t let her rest and when she had asked to stop for just a moment, he slapped her. She didn’t ask him again after that. But now she was breathing hard and her legs felt shaky. He pushed her again, but this time she ended up falling to her knees.

  “Get up, bitch.”

  “I can’t! My legs won’t hold me anymore. I’m exhausted. Just give me a few minutes.”

  “Fine, you have five minutes.” Ben walked around the area. “They should be here.”

  A voice called out from the darkness. “Are you missing us?”

  Ben snorted and two figures moved toward them. “Taylor, Scott. Where are the others?”

  “They went to scout ahead. They’ll be back in a little bit. Did you see Lily?”

  “She was there, taking care of the brat. I had to knock her out to keep her from revealing my presence.”

  “What? Did you hurt her bad? Why didn’t’ you bring her?” Taylor seemed concerned.

  “I told you I wasn’t going there to get your girlfriend. She was still breathing when we left.”

  Taylor and Scott walked around Maggie as she sat on the ground. “Is that really Maggie?” Taylor asked.

  “Yeah, they fattened her up some, I guess.” Ben didn’t take his eyes off of her.

  “She looks damn good.” Scott rubbed his crotch. “Think I can take a test drive?”

  “We don’t have time. Maybe later. Right now we need to get as far from the aliens as possible,” Ben told him.

  “Did you hear that?” Taylor took out his gun and pointed it in the direction that they had come from.

  “I don’t hear …”

  Maggie heard it that time. It sounded like feet, running. Lots of feet. She tried to hide her smile. Liam was coming for her.

  “Get up, Maggie, right now.” Ben reached down with one hand while holding his gun in his other hand.

  “I don’t think so.” Maggie used his distraction and leaped up, hitting him under the chin and knocking him backwards. She reached for the hand holding the gun and kicked as hard as she could, making the weapon launch out of his hand and across the floor. She stood facing a surprised and furious man. The man who had been in her nightmares for years.

  “You’re finally going to pay for what you did to me,” she told him. She circled him and squared her shoulders, preparing to fight him hand to hand.

  “It’s you that’s going to pay.” Then he launched himself at her.

  ***

  Liam could hear them talking but couldn’t make out the words. He knew Maggie’s tone. She sounded furious. Please don’t do anything stupid, Maggie.

  “Are they close?” David asked.

  “Yes. I can hear some of what they are saying. Shit!” Liam pushed himself to run faster when he heard Maggie attacking Ben.

  He burst into the area and just managed to duck a punch directed at his head. He threw the smaller man down and looked for Maggie. She was circling around Ben in a Drastan fighting stance. Where had she learned that?

  “Watch out, Liam!” Kyle yelled from behind him.

  Liam turned but was too late to block the kick from the other human. He went down to one knee, winded.

  “Liam!” Maggie cried out. She must have seen Liam go down. He had to get to her. Ignoring the man trying to kick him, Liam launched himself towards Maggie.

  ***

  Maggie took a punch to her face. She had been distracted when she saw Liam get tackled by Scott. She wasn’t sure where Taylor had gone, but she heard shots from the dark recesses that were probably from the rest of Ben’s tribe. Maggie dodged another punch sent her way. She had to concentrate on what she was doing.

  “It makes you feel like a big man to hit a woman, doesn’t it, Ben?” she taunted him. One of the things Kyle taught her was to distract her opponent with his own anger, forcing him to become careless.

  “Shut up, you alien-loving bitch! How could you sleep with him? You should have been mine years ago. You were too young to understand what I was trying to do for you.”

  “I understood that you raped me. I won’t ever forget that. I also won’t forget that there were repercussions from that night long after you left.”

  “Yeah … the brat.” At Maggie’s shocked expression, he chuckled. “Did you think I didn’t know about the baby? I was making arrangements to grab you but by the time I got a line on a place, I found out you lost the kid. I was so angry. I knew that you had done it on purpose. Didn’t you?”

  She felt like she had been punched in the stomach. “Of course not! I loved my baby and would have cared for her despite the evil, sick bastard whose sperm helped create her.” Shit, he was distracting her instead of the other way around.

  “You think you’re so much better than everyone else. You come traipsing down here with stories about your father who’s supposed to be some fancy general or something”

  “Lt. colonel, actually,” she
corrected as she hit him in the ribs. He managed to back away, but he was clutching his side.

  “Whatever. Then you flaunt that alien scum that you’re fucking. You are such a slut!”

  Maggie laughed at him. “That alien scum is ten times the man you’ll ever be. He knows how to treat a woman.”

  “I hate you!” He lunged for her, but a blur came between them just as she was yanked out of the way. She found herself wrapped in Liam’s arms.

  “I’ve got you, amahala,” Liam said in a deep rumble.

  She felt immediate relief and turned her head to see what was happening with Ben. She was shocked to see her father had been the blur that had come between them. He had taken the knife in the side that Ben had for her. Oh God, he could have killed her baby. Only now her father was bleeding badly.

  “Help my dad,” she pleaded with Liam.

  “He’s got this. He’s your father. He needs to do this.”

  “But he’s hurt!”

  She watched as her father kicked out and caught Ben in the midsection. When Ben bent over, her father sent a vicious uppercut into Ben’s chin. Maggie swore she heard something crack. Ben went down and didn’t get back up. He was still breathing, though. What a shame.

  Maggie tapped on Liam’s arm to get him to release her. She rushed to her father, unintentionally knocking him down. He seemed to just collapse. “Daddy!”

  “Maggie, let me check your injuries.” Jared said, appearing next to her and trying to gently pull her away.

  “I’m fine.”

  “But you’re covered in blood.”

  “It’s not mine. It’s my dad’s. Dad, are you okay?” She moved back and her hand hovered over his stab wound. He seemed to have passed out.

  “Let me get to him,” Jared said.

  Liam gently pulled her away. “Let Jared take care of him.”

  Maggie felt tears trailing down her face. “I just got him back. Please don’t let him die.”

  Jared used his communicator to order assistance. He turned to give Maggie a reassuring smile. “I have him stable and sedated. He’ll be fine. A gurney is being brought so I can take him to the Eclipse for a twenty-four-hour observation. Now let me take a look at you.”

  Epilogue

  It had been two months since her dad had been stabbed. He was now fully recovered, thanks to Jared and his team of medikos. Her mother and sister came on board the Eclipse and stayed while her father was recuperating. She had spent a lot of time with them and felt closer than ever, though her sister still acted strange around her for some reason. She had sworn to Maggie that she was no longer upset over Liam, but there was clearly something that was bothering her sister.

  Her mother and sister helped her with planning the asawani ceremony. Maggie decided to not have a traditional one because she wanted to mix in some Earth traditions. Liam was okay with that.

  For instance, the Drastans didn’t have the father of the bride walk her down the aisle and give her away, but Maggie insisted that her father and mother to walk her down. They also didn’t have exchange of rings, but after her mother explained the ritual, Liam insisted that she wear a symbol showing everyone that she belonged to him. Her mother gave her the wedding bands that had belonged to her grandparents. Liam was having them fitted to the right size. It had all come together so fast.

  Today was the day of the ceremony. Maggie couldn’t wait and neither could Liam. One tradition Liam hadn’t liked was that Maggie had stayed with her family the night before the ceremony instead of with him. She suspected that he camped out by her family’s suite to be close to her.

  “Are you nervous?” Rachel asked her, helping Maggie put her hair up on top of her head.

  “No, I’m marrying the man of my dreams and I have my family here with me. I’m overjoyed.”

  This was the first time that she had been alone with her sister. Her mother had gone to get something special for her to borrow that she could do the Earth tradition of “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.” She had the old with the wedding bands, the new with the dress, and something blue with the hair bow that Rachel was using to hold her hair. She just needed to borrow something.

  Rachel went to the bed and opened her purse. She pulled something out and walked over to hand it to her. “I had found this when Thomas showed me your sub car. I took it out of spite. But now I want to give it back to you.”

  Maggie took her old diary from her. “I was wondering what had happened to it.”

  “After I read it, I felt horrible for having taken it to begin with. I am so sorry, Maggie. I have been a stubborn, spoiled brat, haven’t I?” Rachel teared up.

  Maggie stood and took her sister in her arms. “I love you, Rach. I can understand why you would be upset with me. You became the center of our parents’ world. You met an attractive man and wanted to date him. Then I dropped back into your life and disrupted everything, taking our parents’ attention away from you, and the sexy alien, too. I have no hard feelings.”

  “I don’t deserve you but I am grateful to have you back in my life, Maggie.” They were still hugging when their mother came back in.

  “Oh, now this is a sight for sore eyes.” She came over to take them both in her arms. “My girls.”

  Her father stepped through the doorway. “Are we going to get this show on the road? It’s five past seventeen hundred.”

  The three women laughed at this display of his usual prompt attitude. “We’re coming. Nothing is going to stop me today.” Maggie wiped her tears and headed out of the room with her family.

  Her father and mother walked with her down an impromptu aisle, lined with flowers and candles. At the end, waiting for her was Liam, with his father and two brothers. Her eyes locked on his and everything became a blur after that. Her sole focus was on Liam. When he smiled down at her with love in his eyes, she felt more alive than she had ever felt before.

  ***

  The ceremony was televised to all the Earth domes. It was intended to showcase how two different species could coexist and thrive. At least, that was what the commentator was saying.

  “She married a damn alien,” said a tall man standing with a group off to the side.

  “The Lt. Colonel allowed that to happen. He stood right there, high and mighty, giving his daughter away. Is he going to hand his other daughter over to an alien, too?”

  “Probably trading our women for weapons and supplies,” another man commented.

  “Someone needs to show these dome leaders that they can’t sell us out to aliens. These aliens need to be taught a lesson about taking what doesn’t belong to them.”

  “Damn straight.”

  Other Books By KD Jones

  Katieran Prime Series

  Katieran Prime

  Prime Commander

  Prime Medic

  Kiljorn Prime

  Prime Deliverance

  Prime Salvation

  Colonial Prime

  Kiljorn Commander

  Galactic Cage Fighter Series

  Rage

  Talon

  Taurus

  Zara

  Hammer

  Zen

  Torch

  Inter-Galactic Bounty Hunters Series

  Inter-Galactic Bounty Hunter

  Excerpt for Resistance

  (Warning for mature readers only)

  Rachel couldn’t breathe. The weight of the unconscious body lying on top of hers was pressing her hard into ground. She tried to shove it off, but there was no budging the man. “Lt. Estro? Lt.? Kyle!”

  The body shifted and her lungs were able to fill with oxygen again. The new problem developing was that Kyle’s lower half was now wedged even deeper between her thighs. His mind might not be fully awake yet, but his body was completely aware. She could feel his aroused cock pressing close against her covered mound.

  Tingles raced through her body and she shivered with a new awareness. His breath fanned against her neck moments befo
re she felt his lips. She couldn’t stop moaning and arching to get closer to him.

  “Rachel?” his drowsy voice asked.

  “Yes,” she responded with barely a whisper. She felt his hand reach up between their bodies and squeeze her breast.

  “I’m about to fuck you.” He nibbled her skin

  “I know.” She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the sensation.

  “Is that a yes?” His hands found skin.

  “What?” She couldn’t think straight.

  He leaned up over her and gave her a very intent look. “Say no now if you don’t want this. Because I plan to fuck you until the sun rises.”

  Her breath caught and she couldn’t think of anything to say except, “Yes.”

  About the author:

  She is a single working mom following her dreams of becoming a writer. As an avid reader, she writes what inspires her.

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