by Rebecca Pond
Not only had Lars escaped the ship, he had also held captive the commander’s mate, Avery, who Lars had attacked in her quarters along with the Zane’s mate, Gracie. Gracie had been found unconscious in the commander’s quarters, but she was able to tell them who had taken Avery. This led to a dramatic rescue by Zeb and Kurtz, who was the commander of the Pernmock’s, and had come to the aid of the Theron’s at just the right moment. It had taken them hours to track down and rescue Avery, and in the end she had been found, but she was wounded severely.
When Zeb and Kurtz left to find Avery, Brylon had stayed behind on the mother ship to analyze the damage. For the moment, the ship was stranded, but it was not alone because the Pernmocks had agreed to shadow them and protect the disabled Theron ship until repairs could be made to get the ship operational again. Kurtz had brought over several members of his crew before he left, to help with the injured and with the repairs. Brylon knew the ship inside and out, and knew that it would take a lot of manual labor to get the ship ready to travel through wormholes again. He was thankful for the additional help from Kurtz’s crew, because this was something that Brylon couldn’t do alone.
As soon as the last of the Drylon crafts left the battle, Bryon had taken off in the direction of his quarters. He had to see Emma and make sure that she was alright. She was alone in their quarters during the battle and would have no idea of what had happened when the ship was quaking with each pulsar blast. She was probably scared shitless with the streaks of light hitting the ship and with the small explosions that periodically were heard as the pulsars hit their targets. The entire ship had trembled and groaned with each hit that it took, even with the shields up at full capacity. Gradually, with the frequency of the hits on the shields, they started to fail which would have sealed their fate altogether. However, that was when the Pernmocks made their most welcomed appearance.
In record time he got to his quarters and went into the darkened room and called out, “Emma, Emma where are you?” He rushed through the quarters searching, eventually finding her on the floor next to the bed. Her rewa was sitting next to her making a crying noise, holding on to one of her fingers.
“Emma!” He knelt down next to her and pulled her black hair away face. She wasn’t bleeding, but her eyes were closed and there was a large lump on her forehead that was turning black and blue. He caressed the side of her face and scooped her up in his arms, cradling her like one would a small child.
“Emma, honey, wake up. Please wake up and look at me.” He patted her face and then let his hand move down to explore the rest of her body as he was checking for any other obvious injuries.
Emma moaned as she started to come to. Her eyelids fluttered a couple of time before she finally open them. She brought her hand to her head and felt around for the source of her pain, “My head hurts.”
Brylon sat her up in his lap and brushed her hand away from the growing lump, “Don’t touch your head, baby. You have a nasty bump up there. I am going to take you to the infirmary and have you checked out.” He got to his feet then scooped her up into his arms again as if she weighed nothing.
“I’m ok Brylon. You can put me down,” she mumbled.
Marching out of the bedroom and out of their quarters, he said in a stern yet gentle voice, “I will not put you down, Emma. You are going to be checked out by Zane to make sure you do not have any kind of internal injuries.”
“It’s just my head for crying out loud. I hit it when I tried to get up out of the bed. An explosion or something knocked me off balance and I hit my head on the night stand. Come on, please put me down Brylon.” She wiggled her legs in his arms as if she were giving him a clue that she wanted down.
“No Emma.” He reached his hand around her back to where she could see it, “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“That’s easy, two.” She smiled.
“You are definitely going to see Zane now.” He shook his head and smiled down at her.
“Why?”
He looked down at her with a serious face, “Because I was only holding up one finger.”
“Oh wow!” She seemed to have given in as he felt her lay her head against his chest and giggle then moan. “Damn that hurts!” She held the side of her head in one hand.
They didn’t say anything else to each other for the rest of the walk to the infirmary. The corridors were crowded with warriors and crew members who were either injured or helping to repair the ship to get things back in order. Once inside the infirmary Brylon sat Emma on the first available bed. Zane must have seen them enter the clinic because as soon as Emma was on the bed, Zane was standing right next to him.
“Hey Doc, can you look at Emma’s head? She hit it pretty hard on the night stand and is seeing double,” Brylon spit out quickly before Emma could say add word.
“I told him I was okay,” Emma said as she sat on the bed with hers arms folded, staring at Brylon, “I have a mild headache that’s all.”
“Umm…Let’s not forget that you told me you saw two fingers when I was only holding up one,” Brylon smiled over to Zane.
“Okay, enough you two. Let me have a look at your head.” He watched as Zane leaned against the table in front of Emma and began to examine the lump on her head. He pressed lightly around the outer edges and stopped when he heard his patient hiss in response to his touch, “I see that hurts?”
From between clenched teeth she said, “Yessss.”
Next he took out some kind of pen light and shined it into her eyes. “Look into my light and follow it with your eyes,” Zane started with the light directly in front of her eyes, and then he made a cross from side to side and up and down then turned the light off, putting it back into his lab coat pocket.
“I think you have a mild concussion Emma. This happens whenever you hit your head this hard. Do you feel as if you need to vomit?” He stepped back from the bed.
“No, just got the headache.” Emma was blinking her eyes hard to try and rid them of the aggravating black blur she saw each time she blinked.
“She should be alright Brylon. I would just advise you to watch her for the next few hours and keep her awake. If the headache doesn’t subside by then, bring her back. I am going to give you an injection that will help with the headache, Emma,” he turned to call for someone, “Laura, would you please bring me that tray on the counter next to you.”
Emma sat up straight and scanned the room when she heard her friend’s name, “Laura? Laura’s in here?” She craned her neck in order to see around the huge doctor blocking her view.
Laura walked the tray over to Zane but didn’t pay attention to who was sitting on the examination bed until she heard the female voice.
“Laura!” Emma shouted loud enough for the entire room to glance her way.
Laura stopped dead in her tracks, “Emma!” She handed the tray over to Zane and then grabbed Emma in a sisterly hug, “I have been wondering what happened to you. I have been so worried and Ceran wouldn’t tell me anything! Are you doing okay? Who is your mate?”
“I hit my head during that big explosion, and Brylon brought me here to be checked out.”
Laura pulled back some from Emma and looked at her head, “Ouch, that’s got to hurt,” She turned her head to look at Brylon, a warrior she hadn’t met yet, “Is he your mate?”
“I guess if you want to say that. He bought me at the auction. What are you doing here in the infirmary?”
“My mate, Ceran, worked this out. When I was on Earth, I was six months into my medical residency. Dr. Zane is allowing me to continue my residency with him. At the moment, I have been helping out with all the injuries from the battle. I couldn’t sit around doing nothing, when I knew others had to have been hurt. After that surprise attack, I am surprised that there weren’t any major injuries. We were all really lucky,” Laura chatted on not noticing Emma’s confusion.
“Wait a minute, what battle? Was Earth attacked?” Emma’s eyes moved to each of three figures standing
near her.
Zane looked at Brylon and shook his head before he spoke, “You didn’t inform your mate that we were leaving?”
Brylon looked like he was feeling really uncomfortable now, “No.”
Zane leaned back and looked at the ceiling as he rolled his teal eyes, “Oh Brylon, you are in deep shit now!”
“Would someone please explain to me what’s going on,” Emma was growing frustrated at being left out in the cold, “Laura?”
“Earth wasn’t attacked, Emma. We are far, far away from Earth now.” Laura looked nervously at her friend.
Emma was frozen as she stared at Laura, “What are you talking about?”
Brylon started to speak as he looked pleadingly into her eyes, “The ship is on its return journey home and when we came out of a worm hole, we were attacked by our enemy, the Drylons.”
“Why didn’t you tell me we were leaving earth? Didn’t you think I’d want to know? Maybe, you thought that it’s easier to continue to ignore me and keep me in the dark about something that is important as this?” Emma was really becoming pissed off. How could he not tell her they were traveling to back to his planet? It really didn’t matter that they were leaving. She knew this day would come all too soon. What bothered her was that he didn’t have the courage to tell her when they were going? Zane chose at that moment to stick her with the needle he had promised she was getting, but it didn’t register.
“How could you do that to me, Brylon?”
Zane and Laura clearly looked uncomfortable with the tension that was building before them in the room, so Zane took it upon himself to excuse the both of them, “We will leave you two alone.” Neither Brylon nor Emma acknowledged Zane’s comment.
“I am sorry, little one. I thought it would be better for you not to tell you that the ship was leaving your world. I didn’t want to upset you any further than you already were. You had already been through so much and I didn’t want to add to it.” He started to reach for her hand which she snatched away from him, as if she had been bitten by a snake.
“I think I am mature enough to handle the news that we were going to leave. Did it really matter that much anyway? You had already taken me from my home and I knew that I wasn’t going back so what difference did keeping this from me make?” She turned her legs over the side of the bed and slid off so that she stood face to face with him, even though the top of her head only came to the middle of his chest. “You should have cared enough to tell me the truth and not try to keep it from me like you would a little child.” She pushed him out of her way and tried to walk away from him when a wave of dizziness swept over her.
“Emma!” She could feel his hands on her shoulders as he reached to steady her.
“I’m okay. Let me go. I want to go lie down for a while.” She rubbed her head then her eyes before she tried to walk again, but the wave of dizziness started to overtake her.
“Let me carry you back to our quarters, little one.” Without even waiting for her answer him, he picked her up and walked out the infirmary’s door before she could even protest.
“You know, I think that’s a good idea.” She put her head against his chest just like she had when he brought her to the infirmary, but this time she closed her eyes and listened to the beating of his heart. It was steady and strong as it thumped against her ear.
Back in their quarters, Brylon laid Emma in their bed, “You need to stay awake for a little bit. Zane said that you are not to sleep for a couple of hours. The bump on your head was much more serious than you let on.” Down by his feet, she could hear her little rewa jumping up and making noises to get Brylon’s attention, “Come on little girl, get on up here.” He reached down to retrieve the rewa and looked at Emma as he sat next to her on the bed. “What did you decide to name her?”
“Her name in Nana, and she is very sweet.”
He lifted Nana up to eye level so that he could speak to her, “Well, hello there Nana. How are you little rewa? Have you been a good girl for Emma?”
Emma watched as Brylon and Nana played with each other on the bed. She was amazed at how quickly Nana could accept people, making them instantly fall in love with her. She was so cute with her short furry hair that was pink and stuck out in all directions. Her three lavender colored eyes were wide and curious, and she stood only about six inches tall from head to toe.
“How big does a rewa normally get?” Emma asked as she tried to suppress a yawn.
He placed Nana in her lap, “Most of them don’t get any bigger then eighteen inches, though I have seen a few that have grown a bit bigger than that. On my planet, just about everyone has one or two of these furry creatures. They really are wonderful pets because they are so gentle. Come to think of it, I have never heard a reported case of a rewa attacking.” He chuckled as he looked her over. “Why don’t you lay back and relax?” He looked like he was going to leave the room.
Emma reached out for his hand, “Please don’t leave yet,” she pleaded, “Tell me about your home. I would like to know where I will be living.”
He looked surprised by her request, “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, I do want to know.”
“Well, my world was amazing. The Theron race was a thriving civilization and had many cities. Theron is about the size of your planet Jupiter and we have two moons that light the sky at night. Did I ever tell you that the color of your hair reminds me of the night sky on my planet? Anyway, our planet was attacked by the Drylon race about ten years ago with the intention of exterminating us from our galaxy of X-tran and stripping our planet of its natural resources. They almost succeeded in destroying us altogether and leveled most of the cities. We were not expecting it when they had launched a surprise attack that ended up breaking a peace treaty that had been in place for hundreds of years. We fought back hard, but at a heavy cost. We lost many of our people including most of our females. Gatton’s strategy was to eliminate the females on the planet, this way there could be no new babies born and thus, the race would die out. This was the reason that we had to come in search of compatible females, our race is dying and we desperately need mates so that our race can survive,” he took a deep breath to continue, but Emma cut him off.
“I know why you came here. What I want to know is what does your world look like? Is it green and blue like Earth? Or is dark and gloomy?”
He smiled, “Where we live now is beautiful. We decided to rebuild our city in the heart of a massive forest where even our homes are built into the trees. It was partly my idea. You see, the forest is full of energy that we believe is provided by the gods and goddess and we think that they led us there in order to give us a second chance at civilization. We worked day and night until we found a way to co-exist with the forest, to not just take from it, but also to give back to it. My house is built inside a tree about as big around as our quarters here on the ship, but it has several levels. The tree I’ve made my home in stretches about two hundred feet into the sky and has a canopy that is just about as wide as the height of the tree.”
Emma was painting a picture in her head from Brylon’s description. She tried to picture herself standing inside a tree house of that size, a living breathing tree house. She had her life back on Earth, but now she was given a chance to have a life she never would have dreamed of in a thousand years. She could have all of this. It could all be hers, if she accepted to live her life with Brylon.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course you can. I will answer any questions that you may have, honestly this time,” he replied.
She was a bit nervous to ask the question that had been gnawing at her for days now but decided to ask it anyway, “Why did you choose me?”
“I wanted you from the first moment that I saw you in that little eating establishment you were working in. You are the most beautiful female creature I have ever seen, so I had to have you. I’m willing to admit, that the way we went about obtaining mates was not a good choice, but I kno
w that you were made for me. The first time I touched you I felt it. It was a feeling that I had never experienced before, even with females of my own race. You were meant for me, and I intend to make you happy. You may not believe what I’m saying right now, but I have had that intention for us from the very beginning.” He wasn’t sure what else to say to her.
They sat on the bed not moving, not touching, and not speaking for a while. He wanted to move in closer and take her face in his hands and kiss her, but he wasn’t sure how she would react to it after his recent revelation. Maybe, he should take the chance anyway and hope for the best. Maybe, now wasn’t the time to consider making a move on her. It was like he had a little devil on one shoulder telling him to make a move and on the other shoulder, the angel was pleading with him to take it slow and let her make the first move.
The debating in his head stopped, when without warning Emma shifted her body until she was up on her knees looking into his eyes. She had pulled in her bottom lip between her teeth and was chewing on it as if she were trying to keep a secret. She inched closer until her knee was touching his muscular thigh while her hand rested on his forearm as she gave it a bit of a squeeze.
Brylon turned his body so that he was facing her. The tension in the air was growing as each of them was waiting for the other to make the next move. He wanted her so badly, wanted to feel her naked body pressed up against his. He wanted to explore every inch of her. Suddenly he felt the impulse to reach out and grab the sides of her face and pull her lips towards him. A second later he crushed her lips with his in a fierce kiss that set his body on fire. This fire was starting to consume him. He had to have her now.
