“Jesus,” Asa said.
A new voice shouted in the corridor. “Stop right there!”
Joely took cover in the cell while Asa, Elina and Nima opened fire. Bullets responded, ripping into the wall over their heads. Sera covered Theyn with her body, and Beno covered them both. The baby kicked like her life depended on it and sent waves of distress through Sera.
In the darkness, two points of blazing blue lit up the room. Theyn had opened his eyes, and they were burning like never before.
Sera, he said. Beno.
We’re here, she answered. You’re going to be okay. We’ll get you out of here.
Another bullet smashed into the concrete wall, sending dust and fragments raining down on them. Theyn gently pushed the two of them back.
In the Ylian tongue, he said firmly, “Let me handle this.”
“Theyn – “ his companion began to protest.
“That was not a request.”
They moved back and gave him room. Theyn rose from the cot like an angry god, his eyes shining halogen-bright. He was trembling, and his scales were beginning to glow, too, wreathed in golden energy that hummed like electricity. He walked toward the door, and one of the soldiers fired at him. The bullet struck him in the chest but bounced harmlessly away.
“Enough,” he snarled. Sera had never heard so harsh a sound in his normally-gentle voice. He extended his good hand, and the gun of the soldier who had shot him flew into his grip. He crumpled it and threw it aside.
“Holy shit!” the soldier cried. Theyn gestured in the air, and the man flew down the hallway, slamming into the door and breaking it from its hinges. The door hit the floor with such force that it shattered, and the soldier lay silent and still.
Theyn walked farther into the hallway, and Asa fell back to give him room. Nima and Elina continued to fire, but when they saw him, they gaped in shock and stood aside, staring.
Theyn held out his hand again as the energy around his scales turned into white-hot tongues of flame. He was unaffected by the fire, but the heat drove the humans back. Their bullets would not penetrate his skin, and he was not slowing.
Again, he said, “Enough!”
He pushed both hands out in front of him, and twin columns of fire shot out of his palms, intertwining and merging into one. The control room exploded in a shower of sparks, and the monitors and all of the computers died a miserable, melting death. The flame extended, burning a hole through the wall, and through the wall behind that one. None of the human guards remained standing.
Theyn dropped his hands, and the fire that laced his skin receded into a faint glow. He turned to face them, and his face was terrible in its ferocious beauty.
Beno pressed his fist to his heart. Beside him, Elina and Nima echoed the gesture.
Theyn spoke, and his voice was deeper and more resonant than before. “My people suffer and I will not tolerate more of this.”
Sera moved forward, passing the stunned reverence of her Ylian companions and the confusion of her human friends. She looked into his eyes as she approached, and he looked back, stoic.
“Do you know me, Theyn?” she asked. “Do you recognize me?”
He faltered for a moment, and the glowing in his eyes subsided. The light around his scales disappeared, and the moment passed, leaving Theyn standing in amazement. “Sera?” His voice was quiet again, and when he looked down at her abdomen, tears sprang to his eyes. “The baby is so big! Has it been that long?”
She embraced him, and then Beno was there, too, holding them both in his powerful arms. Asa put his arm around Joely, who leaned into him in relief.
Elina gave them a moment, then went to power up the shuttle. She beckoned their human friends to follow her, and they did. After a moment more, Nima interrupted the mates’ embrace.
“There are more soldiers coming, and this is not a safe place to linger, Your Highness,” she told Theyn. “Please… let us take you out of here.”
He nodded. “Yes. Let’s go somewhere safe.”
She nodded, and they boarded the shuttle for the getaway.
The shuttle took them to another green meadow, this one in the valley between two peaks in the Ural mountain range. The pastoral beauty was only slightly marred by the towering structure of a camouflage unit that rose hundreds of feet into the air. Dozens of workers scaled its sides, adjusting the thousands of crystals that made up the glittering sides of the planet’s next line of defense.
There was a landing strip with four other shuttles, and full-blooded Ylians came and went, their scales and eyes shining in the sun. The air smelled pure and clean, and the very ground felt sacred.
Theyn had been quiet since their departure, and Beno slept for the majority of the flight. Sera sat between them, comforting them and being comforted by close contact with the men she loved. The baby had settled down into a sleepy contentment, and now that they had landed, she was quiet.
A blue-eyed hybrid woman met them when the shuttle’s hatch opened, leading a team of other hybrids, most of them with golden eyes. They helped Theyn and Beno onto hovering stretchers and bore them into a glass-sided building near the airstrip.
Nima walked with Sera as they followed the medical team. “They will take good care of them, I promise you.”
“They had better.”
Epilogue
They never told her what the human scientists had done to them, but it took over two weeks for them to heal from their ordeal, even with advanced Ylian medicines sent from Bruthes. The three of them were given a beautiful apartment overlooking a clear alpine lake, where the water sparkled in the light of the sun like a field of strewn diamonds. They had a kitchen, a comfortable sitting room, a deep and luxurious bath tub, and a nursery prepared for the baby’s imminent arrival. Their own room was graced with a huge bed, bigger than any king-sized mattress that Sera had ever seen, and the place was all light and air and welcome.
Asa and Joely were given the option of separate apartments of their own, but citing concerns for conservation of resources, they chose to room together. Sera wasn’t fooled for one minute.
The scaly patches on her hands continued to grow, until they extended up her arms and over her shoulders, chest and back. They were golden and iridescent, and she felt like she was wearing some kind of organic jewelry when they twinkled in the light. She wondered if this was just part of being pregnant with an Ylian child, or if she had somehow been permanently changed.
On the day the camouflage unit was completed and the Earth was finally hidden from Taluan eyes, when the sun was warm and the breeze light, Sera went into labor. The medical team came to her, and in accordance with Ylian norms, she was put into the deep tub with her mates at her side.
The water seemed to help her pain and eased the contractions. Theyn and Beno did everything they could to soothe and support her, from rubbing her back to mopping her sweaty brow with cool cloths. Joely sat on the edge of the tub and tried to function as her Lamaze coach, but she did it poorly, so eventually she just opted for giving moral support.
It was in the early hours before dawn when their daughter was born. She had Beno’s chocolate skin, Sera’s blonde curls, and despite the fact that she should have been a hybrid, she had Theyn’s completely blue, shining eyes. She was born without crying, and when they brought her up out of the water, she clung to Sera’s chest and snuggled peacefully. Both of her fathers stroked her long golden hair, and she gripped their fingers, responding to both to of their voices when they spoke to her.
They named her Kira. As Sera held her newborn daughter, safe in the arms of the men she adored, she wept with the joy and beauty of it all.
She kissed Kira’s forehead and whispered in her softest voice.
“Welcome home.”
About The Author
Amelia Wilson has dedicated her life to writing. She is a firm believer in the power of love to conquer all, and her works reflect this belief. Her paranormal romances are known for their love stories, act
ion and suspense. She creates immersive worlds that are rich in detail and full of emotion.
Amelia can be contacted at her Facebook page or through her newsletter.
http://www.ameliawilsonauthor.com/
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Preview: The Adna Planet Series Book 1
Baston
The Adna Planet Series Book 1
By:
Amelia Wilson
Chapter One – The Taken
Baston put his clothes in his locker and straightened his uniform. He hoped the night would go by quickly and that he would be able to get home in time for a nap. He was going to have the day off, and all he could think about was sleeping. He’d worked for ten straight nights, and the last few had been busier than usual. He walked outside and into the transport center. When the ships came in, he opened a door for them to load up on the dock. He always wondered what would happen if the door that kept the pressure maintained broke and he was sucked out into space. He didn’t want to be drawn out into space, but for some reason, he always thought about these things.
The cover on the transport hangar was glass, so it allowed him to look up and see the stars while he worked. It was one of the only perks of the job. They certainly didn’t provide that many benefits, and the commute alone took much time out of his day.
The sound of moon crickets was the only noise out in the middle of the night. Those who were lucky enough to work at that ungodly time were the only ones who got the pleasure of hearing them. Baston stood outside on the loading dock and looked up at the stars. One day, he hoped to find a job where all he would do was fly through the sky. As a youth, he’d enjoyed taking the controls of his dad’s ship when his mother wasn’t watching them closely, and imagining he was a great space captain. His father had always encouraged his dreams. His mother had always worried.
The two moons of Sarta were almost in line with one another. It made the one in front look three-dimensional. The small loading dock only gave him enough room to stand next to the ships when they came in. Only one man could fit for the initial unloading. Then, once the pods were dragged onto the main loading area, the rest could help. The unloading process of the cargo was often unpredictable, so it was procedure to have lots of men ready.
“Incoming, Baston.” His best friend and co-worker, Sca, ran up to him, pointing at the ship. Sca was the ladies’ man between the two of them. He had a large scar on his cheek from a bar fight, that women fell in love with. He was also half Lingonian, and his race had a reputation for knowing how to handle a woman’s pleasure. Any time they went somewhere, he accidently-on-purpose let his heritage slip. It was a convenient habit and had the women eating out of his hands.
The two of them worked for a loading company that dealt mostly with human cargo. Titon Universal brought girls in by the shiploads to work for them. Sometimes they came willingly, sometimes they were sold by their families. The willing ones were mostly gold diggers hoping to strike it rich by seducing their masters. From what he’d seen walking around downtown Menopoly, the town he lived in on Sarta, it worked for them more often than not.
All of the girls came from Earth because they had a trade embargo with Sarta. It was one of five. Earth had trade deals with their planet because their own had become overpopulated. In order to preserve their planet, they’d struck a deal. Sarta was rumored throughout the galaxy to be the planet you wanted to work for if you had to go into servitude, because they treated the servants the best. Other planets didn’t have these kind of trade deals. You wouldn’t catch a Lingonian woman, for example, working for anyone but herself.
“I see them,” Baston replied, tearing his eyes away from the moon to look at the small cargo ship pulling a very large transport pod. There would be about twenty women inside with whatever they were allowed to bring. He braided his long hair away from his face. In some cases, the women in transport fought during offloading. When they did, they weren’t above pulling hair. It hurt like hell and he wasn’t about to give them the upper hand. He tugged at it to make sure it was secure.
Baston directed the ship in as it backed the cargo pod up onto the loading dock. He went around to the driver to give him a ticket for the transport.
“Got a couple feisty ones in this load,” the driver said with a large grin. He was missing one of his front teeth, which made him look a bit silly.
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Baston replied with a curt nod.
The way the system worked, they inspected the cargo and the companies were paid later when they sent in their tickets. Occasionally, he had to argue with someone new to it all, but most of the time, the transporters were understanding. Baston tore off the ticket and took some information from the driver.
Once he was done, he unhitched the pod and let the driver take off before moving it. Titon Universal owned the pods the transporters used. It made it easy for the transporters to get a new pod from one of their locations to bring the next round of cargo. Pulling the pod back slowly on the conveyor belt meant to help him, he turned it around so the men could unload.
He heard Sca opening the heavy metal door of the pod to look inside. He saw another ship approaching in the distance and made a mental note to check the log once this one was complete. They shouldn’t have another cargo ship in for at least a few more hours. He wondered if they were early.
“Where are all the men?” Baston asked, looking for the rest of the workers.
“Lunch break?” Sca said.
“It’s 1 AM, Sca,” Baston answered.
“Dinner break, then. I’ll grab, you scan,” Sca said with an eyebrow wiggle. He was always willing to do the dirty work, meaning grab up the women so they could be checked in.
Baston nodded and the two headed into the pod. Thin metal walls separated the women. Sca walked into the first little room and pulled the woman from the ground. She was a small thing with blonde hair woven into braids. She shrieked and cowered away. She looked like a terrified puppy as he walked up to her and directed her face toward his.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He grabbed her arm and took the scanner from his back pocket scanning her bracelet. She refused to meet his gaze, her body still trembling like a leaf.
Sca sat the girl back down and they moved on to the next one. Most of the women from Earth feared him because of his glowing skin. He glowed like a firefly at all times. It was because he was part Lingonian, his mother being from Lingo and years of interspecies breeding between the aliens from Lingo and people from Earth. Women from Earth had only seen people from their own planet, and they most certainly did not glow.
Sca reached for another woman. This one had short brunette hair and a small muscular build.
“I can get myself up just f
ine, thank you,” she snapped as she walked forward and held out her wrist. She lifted her chin defiantly as she watched, waiting—almost impatiently—for them to do their job.
Baston took notice, this little girl had spunk. Scanning her bracelet, he watched as she scowled and marched back over to her seat. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and pulled her lips into a thin line. For a moment he watched her, noting that she had a nice body with curves despite her small stature. She was rounded out where it counted, and he inwardly admired her features.
They moved down the line, scanning bracelets. An alarm sounded that alerted them another ship was approaching. It wasn’t possible that another cargo ship had arrived, because the ship they’d seen was still quite a distance away. The only ships that could move that fast were combatant ships. They both put their hands on their guns, but it was too late.
The aliens that entered were a purplish color, like green grapes that had gone bad. They had bulbous heads with large red eyes. Baston thought he recognized them as Stillions, but he had only seen their species on the holopads and not up close. He watched a ton of documentaries and nature shows when he wasn’t working. He had always taken comfort in his belief that if he ever ran into something scary, he’d be able to deal with it.
The Stillions went through the bag on his back and took his knife and some nails he’d had from a previous project. One of the alien’s long talons ripped through the side pocket, rendering it useless. They let him keep the satchel on his side. They searched Sca as well, emptying his pockets, but they didn’t take anything except a pen he had had.
Awakening Page 23
