Dane: A Scifi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 3

by Ashley L. Hunt

  When she’d had her fill of the aspex, she turned back to me. “Now what? Do we have to wait for someone to come and get us?”

  I chuckled. “No. This is the Elder palace. This is my home.”

  “You live in a mountain?”

  “I do now,” I said. “This will be my first time entering the palace as a resident rather than a visitor. It belonged to my brother when I left Albaterra. If you remember, I was only a warrior then.”

  “So, you also have a house somewhere?” she asked.

  “I do not know,” I replied honestly. She lifted a brow, silently requesting more detail, and I obliged. “The home I lived in as a warrior was my father’s home after he retired from Elderhood. I imagine, now that he is no longer Elder, Duke has taken residence of that house, but I am not certain.”

  She glanced back at the door. “Can we just go in?”

  “You cannot. I must admit you.” In demonstration, I pressed my hand flat against a compressed circle of aspex. The mineral there had grown dull and smooth from years of entering A’li-uud, and my hand fit in the space perfectly. After a moment, I heard a low click, and the door opened a crack. I stepped back and reached over her, pushing on the door to swing it open entirely. “After you.”

  Roxanne stepped in dubiously, hesitance evident on her features. The foyer was unlit and very dark with not even a fire in the stone hearth that marked the center of the room, but the purple geodes scattered along on the walls seemed to glow mildly anyway. When I closed the door behind us, we were cast into blindness with only hints of glitter visible. I felt Roxanne’s hand slide into mine, still clammy with nerves.

  “This is a large palace,” I said to her through the blackness. In the cavernous room, my voice carried to the ceiling and echoed back at us. “Stay close, and do not let go, or you may find yourself lost.”

  Her fingers tightened around mine, and I reveled in the sensation. Just as I took my first step, however, I heard something that made my hair raise on the back of my neck. Footsteps. Then, without warning, a voice boomed in my ear.

  “I have been expecting you.”

  18

  Roxanne

  I screamed.

  The voice had risen from nowhere, and, in a room that sounded too open to even be called a room, it felt like it surrounded me. My shriek of startled terror cut through it like a knife through butter until the only thing that could be heard was my high-pitched cry reverberating in layers from wall to wall, and my ears actually ached with the intensity of the sound.

  A hand clamped over my mouth, and I was instantly struck with panic that rendered me dumb. It took a moment for all of the sounds in the room to die and, when silence had fallen on my sore ears, I gathered my senses enough to realize Dane’s hand was still held tightly in mine and I could smell him so strongly that it was as if I was bathing in him. I realized he was the one with the hand over my mouth, and I felt his lips brush against the upper curve of my ear.

  “Relax,” he said soothingly. “It is only my brother.”

  I heard a sharp snap, followed by a hiss, and then light flooded into the space around me to reveal a foyer so tall and vast it took my breath away. Dane was curled around me with his chest pressing into my back, and his chin hooked over my shoulder, and in front of us stood an A’li-uud who could have passed for Dane’s identical twin, though he had a slightly more aged look about him. His long, colorless hair glinted in the flickering flames, dancing atop the torch he held aloft, and his white eyes seemed ghostly in the fire’s shadows. The glow gave his skin—and Dane’s—an unnatural orangey hue, but it was still obvious to me that he was actually as pale as cream. And, just like Dane, he was shirtless and so well-muscled that he could have put any male calendar model to shame.

  “I apologize,” Dane’s doppelganger said. His voice was low, and his words clipped, just like Dane’s, but he had a gravelly tone beneath that contrasted with Dane’s smooth, silken timbre. “I did not intend to frighten you.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t sneak up on people in the dark, then,” I grumbled breathlessly, clapping my palm flat against my chest and feeling my heart throb violently.

  The A’li-uud, who I assumed was Duke as he was the only brother Dane had ever spoken about, narrowed his eyes slightly at me, but I could feel the corners of Dane’s mouth turning up against my temple. “You will have to excuse Roxanne, brother,” Dane said. “She has had an interesting couple of weeks.”

  I tilted my head upward to look at him, but he kept his gaze squarely on his kin, though the upturned corners of his mouth twitched. I knew he was thinking about his drafting me into the journey to Albaterra, my punching General Morgan in the cafeteria, and the squirming mess he’d turned me into on my cot. Somehow, his teasing arrogance lit a fire in my groin that was ten times hotter than the torch Duke held.

  “I see,” Duke replied stiffly. “I plan to better acquaint myself with you, Roxanne, but I am afraid I must steal the attention of my brother for a short time. We need to catch up on some important things. I am sure you understand.”

  “Oh,” I faltered. “Of course.”

  Dane grew tense against me, and he lifted his chin from my shoulder to straighten up without releasing my hand. “I do not wish to leave Roxanne unattended.”

  “She will not be unattended,” Duke combatted. “I will send Emily to sit with her until our conversation is over.”

  I could feel Dane’s hesitation in the hard way he wrapped himself around me, but I brushed my fingers over his arm and twisted my neck to look up at him. “It’s fine,” I murmured. “He should know what’s happening, and you should know what’s happened here since you’ve left. Besides, I said I wanted to meet the women here, right?”

  His eyes dropped to me, but I could still see reservation on his handsome, chiseled features. Finally, he nodded reluctantly and released my hand. I turned back to Duke.

  “Where do you want me to go?” I asked.

  He inclined his head toward a massive staircase to my left. It was very narrow and made of odd, unfamiliar wood that ordinarily would have looked rickety, but it was extraordinarily tall. Because the light from the torch only extended so far outward, I was unable to see the stairs at the top, but I began climbing anyway. My vision descended into blackness again the further up I went, and, when Duke led Dane from the entrance room, I was completely unable to see. I reached to the right and pressed my hand against a cool, rocky wall I was certain it was actually the inside of the mountain, and I tried to guide myself without tripping.

  There was a shuffling nearby, though several feet above me, and a dim glow appeared. Illuminated within the spherical light, there was a young human woman with large eyes and a slim face. She was looking at me in surprise.

  “I heard my name,” she announced bluntly without preamble.

  I froze, looking up at her. I wasn’t sure if she could see me or not because she was holding a slender candle with a small flame, but I smiled uncertainly in case she could.

  “Hi,” I said awkwardly. “I’m Roxanne. I’m supposed to stay with you for a little bit until Dane is done talking to Duke, I think. You’re Emily, right?”

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “Be careful on the last step. It’s tilted.”

  I trudged up the remaining steps, careful to mind my balance on the last, and felt a mild sense of relief as I reached the landing. Emily motioned for me to follow her. I trailed her down a long hallway just as narrow as the staircase and just as dark as the foyer until she stopped without warning in front of a door on the right. A split second later, thick golden rays poured into the corridor, searing my eyes and warming my face.

  “Come on in,” she invited, walking through the now-open door and holding it open for me.

  I entered the room, barely noticing as she closed the door again behind me. It was as large as a ballroom and irregularly shaped, but it felt cozy and comforting. The ceiling, clearly made of mountainous rock, sloped downward at a steep incline from one wa
ll to the other, and the highest point had natural clusters of the same purple aspex I’d seen on the front door. The walls were also made of the organic stone of the mountain, carved out to the room’s blueprint, and were marbled with hues of chestnut, iron, and rich mahogany. A floor of vibrant earth-toned tiles lay beneath my feet and spread throughout the space so seamlessly that they seemed as natural as the walls. The eastern side of the room boasted a wide-mouthed fireplace, in which spat and crackled a roaring fire, and the western side featured a canopied bed and matching bedroom furniture. Looking around, I was reminded of an expensive lodge getaway in the Alps.

  “Sit down wherever you want,” Emily said, blowing out the candle and placing it on the mantle. “If you’re cold, I can bring a chair over in front of the fire.”

  “I’m fine,” I responded gratefully. I sidled to the nearest chair, a plain slat-backed piece, and sat. Emily took a comfortable chaise.

  “I didn’t know you were coming,” she commented. In the better lighting, I could see she had blonde hair cut like a pixie and eyes that hinted of mystique. She curled her legs up beneath her body, rested her elbow on the chaise’s arm, and leaned her chin on her hand. “I mean, I knew Dane would be coming eventually, but we didn’t know when. And I definitely wasn’t expecting him to bring a human back with him.”

  “Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting to come here either,” I admitted.

  Emily didn’t seem surprised by the confession, but a strange look covered her face anyway. She cocked her head, squinted her eyes, and stared at me as though she was trying to figure something out. “Oh my God!” she cried suddenly. “You’re the Ambassador!”

  Apparently, my reputation preceded me. I nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Roxanne Rigby, right? I’ve seen you on TV!” she gushed, her entire face lighting up and putting the glow of the flames to shame. “Well, I mean, I used to see you on TV, before I came to Albaterra.”

  “How long have you been here?” I asked.

  She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes upward as she thought. “Four months, I think?” she mused. She dropped her gaze back to me. “Yeah, four months. Something like that.”

  It was difficult to imagine being anywhere but Earth for four months, but, from the little I’d seen thus far, Albaterra would be my destination of choice. “You must love it,” I said dreamily.

  Emily leaned forward until her torso cast a shadow over the tiled floor and looked at me intently. “If I’m being totally honest,” she intoned, her voice low and secretive, “I wish I’d never come.”

  19

  Dane

  The palace was exactly as I remembered it, though significantly darker. I noticed, as Duke and I meandered through the various rooms, that not a single fire had been lit and all of the lamps on the wall were doused in nothing but shadow. Only Duke’s torch and a lifetime of memories guided us from room to room until we were in the small dining alcove behind the kitchen, which was normally used as eating quarters for palace staff.

  As we took opposite chairs across the table, I clasped my hands together and studied my brother through the dim flames. “You have become averse to proper vision, have you?” I asked, only half-joking.

  Duke lifted the torch and tossed it into the sooty hearth nearest us. Sparks billowed into the air, and the gentle blaze began to spread to the stack of fresh wood beneath. Within moments, the air was beginning to warm and the walls around me were becoming visible. I watched the scorching curls lick one another, and then looked back across the table.

  “You greeted us in English,” I reflected idly.

  “I have grown accustomed to speaking English,” Duke replied. “For Emily’s sake.”

  I started to tell him I understood and perhaps jibe him with a tease or two, but, before I could get another word out, he leaned across the table and stared at me intently.

  “What do you think you are doing, De’inde?” he asked sharply. I reared back, startled to hear him using my formal name and even more startled by his aggressive tone. He didn’t retreat. “You have brought a human back with you.”

  “Several, actually,” I corrected. I purposefully kept my tone light, airy, and unconcerned because I knew it would irritate him. “I think the count was somewhere around twelve. Thirteen, if you count Roxanne.”

  His eyes darkened, and his mouth turned down into a severe frown. “The entire war began because humans were here. Now you have brought some back? The Council will have your head!”

  “I had no choice. Quite a bit has happened in your absence.” I injected extra weight into my words to impress upon him the responsibility he had in the current state of things.

  There was a second in which I was certain he was going to start yelling at me, and I felt my inner-warrior rear up. Then, however, he leaned back in his chair and rested his joined hands on the tabletop.

  “Explain,” he said.

  I launched into my life over the past few months. I told him about conquering town after town, rescuing captured A’li-uud and avoiding capture ourselves. He listened carefully without interruption. When I reached the news of Ki’lok, his face crumpled with sorrow and rage, but he restrained himself from speaking. I relived my days in the prison, alone in the dank room with nothing but my sword as my companion, and recounted the meeting with Roxanne that had led to this point. I left out the more intimate details that occurred on the journey back home, of course.

  “A peace treaty,” Duke murmured when I’d finished speaking. He’d adopted a faraway expression, his eyes looking right through me. “They cannot expect us to believe they have peaceful intentions.”

  I knitted my brows together. “Perhaps too much time has passed since our last conversation, brother, but I think I recall you adamantly insisting I gather the warriors scattered around Earth and return them to Albaterra. Has your attitude changed so drastically since then?”

  “My attitude is no different,” he retorted. “My interest has been and always will be the preservation of A’li-uud life. Our numbers on Earth were mere shadows of the humans’. It was suicide, a poorly-research plan that could have meant the demise of our best.”

  “So, you believe in the war, then.” It was not a question, and I didn’t wait for a response to continue. “You believe we need to eliminate humans.”

  “I believe the Council made a hasty and bloodthirsty decision based on a very real threat to our existence,” he said coarsely.

  I groaned scornfully and sat back, kicking my feet up onto the table and propping my hands behind my head. It had always been humorous to me to test my brother’s militant discipline and stern attitude, no matter how old we became or how much authority the other had. “A politician’s response,” I chided.

  Duke slammed his fist down on the tabletop without warning. His regal face was marred with temper, and he’d become straight-backed like he did when going into battle. “You are a child!” he spat, his eyes burning holes into mine. “You are naïve and arrogant, and you do not understand the weight you bear! This is no laughing matter, De’inde. You may have compromised the future of our entire race!”

  I flew from my chair, standing and bending over the table. My chest was heaving, my breaths coming in shallow beats, and my hand went impulsively to my hip where the hilt of my sword rested comfortably. “You made me Elder, Duke, which makes me your superior. I suggest you keep that in the forefront of your mind when you speak to me.”

  “You are not my Elder,” he shot back, also getting to his feet. “I turned over the powers of Elderhood to you as my blood brother, but the Council recognizes you only as Elder designate. Until you perform the ceremony amongst the Council, I am still your Elder.”

  “A powerless one,” I snorted.

  “The authority is intact,” he hissed, “and you will do well to keep that in the forefront of your mind when you speak to me.”

  “So, this is how we reunite, brother?” I asked angrily, holding my arms out on either side in a wide gestu
re. “With conflict and posturing? For all you knew, I could have been dead in the Earthen dirt with humans dancing on my bones. This is how you wish to spend my homecoming?”

  Duke remained steadfast, unwavering in his tangible ire. “There are more important things at hand than your homecoming now that I see you have brought humans with you,” he declared. “One human, in particular.”

  “Roxanne?” I was so stunned by his specifically mentioning her that some of my anger actually evaporated to give way to dumbfounded surprise. For him to have a problem with Roxanne was incomprehensible to me after he’d forfeited his Elderhood for the sake of a human, even bringing her back to Albaterra with him. “How can you have any disagreement with Roxanne when you did what you did because of Emily?”

  “What I did was firstly for my people!” Duke barked. “Do not imply anything different!”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, and my voice went icy as I said, “What I did was for my people, too. If I did not agree to the Board’s terms of allowing the humans to accompany me, I would have been thrown back in the prison cell. What good would I have been to my people then? How would I have been able to return them to Albaterra as you requested before you left with your human?”

  Duke swelled, his chest puffing and his shoulders widening. In contrast, his eyes flattened into slits, and he stared at me as though I were a stranger to him. “You think I am so stupid I do not know my own brother?” he asked, speaking slowly and emphasizing each syllable almost like they were individual words. “I saw the way you looked at her. I am no fool. Perhaps you can trick yourself into believing she is just a mere human to you, but you cannot trick me.”

  “You are determined I should fail as Elder,” I growled. “You are afraid I will be greater, more powerful, and more beloved than you ever were, and you are determined to find any fault with me you can. You know nothing of me, and even less of Roxanne. While I was acting as Elder and warrior on the mission ordered by the Council, you were playing house with your girlfriend, and now you feel inferior. As you should.”