by Tana Stone
“Inferno Force?” Zayn asked, recognizing the name instantly and the notorious fleet he commanded. A flick of his eyes to the insignia on the Drexian’s uniform confirmed it.
Dorn frowned. “Not at the moment. I came to the Boat to take a bride and have yet to return to battle.”
Zayn felt a kinship with the warrior that went beyond shared Drexian blood. From the restless look in his eyes, he knew this man understood what it felt like to be kept from what he did best.
Zayn looked out the wide wall of windows into space and saw nothing but stars. “When the station shook, I thought the enemy had brought the battle to us.”
The captain gave a single shake of his head as the dim lights flickered on the bridge. “We’re experiencing some odd malfunctions.”
Zayn allowed himself to take a normal breath. “So it’s not the Kronock?”
Dorn rocked back on his heels. “We pushed them back to the outskirts of the galaxy, but the station still hasn’t fully recovered from their initial attack.”
Zayn felt his impatience rise. “They’ll return.”
“And we’ll keep repelling them. Like we have for years,” Dorn said, then tilted his head at him. “Shouldn’t you be with your mate?”
“She’s out doing wedding tasks,” Zayn said, feeling embarrassed that he didn’t know exactly where she was. “I believe the Gatazoid took her someplace safe.”
Dorn clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You know, I was in the same position you’re in just a few weeks ago. I understand what you’re going through.”
Zayn doubted the confident warrior understood what it was like to come back after living in a cell and being tortured daily.
“The last thing I wanted was to be paired off with some human female,” Dorn continued. “I wanted to get back to my ship and battle my enemy. I fought the match as hard as I could.”
“Really?” Maybe he did understand.
“Until I realized resisting was pointless. Accepting a human match was part of my duty as a Drexian, and it’s part of yours, too.” Dorn nudged him. “The human females have many attributes you may not be aware of yet, and they’re not as fragile as they look.”
Zayn felt blood rush to his face as he recalled the look on Katie’s face when he’d pinned her down. Maybe not, but he knew from experience how easily he could overpower her.
“I’d be of better use to the Empire if I could be reassigned to a fighting unit,” he said. “The medical team gave me a clean bill of health. I’m ready to go back and fight.”
Dorn grinned. “I’m with you, brother, but the place we need to defend most is here. The Kronock would love to get their hands on this station.”
“Then let me help defend it,” Zayn argued. “I’m a good pilot and a better fighter.”
The controls flickered on the consoles and Zayn put a hand to his head, wincing from the jolt of pain.
Dorn studied him. “You sure you’re okay?”
“It’s nothing,” he said, but he knew from the look on the other warrior’s face that he’d blown it.
“Listen.” Dorn took him by the elbow and steered him toward the door. “These are just glitches in the power systems. I promise if we get another visit by the Kronock, I’ll draft you back into service. I can tell you one thing, however. As a commander, I’d rather have a fully rested and recovered warrior, than one who returned to action too soon.”
Zayn cast a wistful look around the sparse, metal interior of the bridge, envious of the Drexians manning their stations. His fingers twitched at his side, itching to move across a console again and hold a weapon
“Now what you should really be concerned about is what that crazy little wedding planner is up to. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up standing in something called a ‘butterfly garden’ trying to locate your testicles.” Dorn rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Trust me on this one.”
Zayn managed to smile as he left the bridge and made his way back through the space station. Maybe Dorn was right and he should focus on getting fully recuperated. If High Command knew he was still having pain, not to mention night terrors, they would never give him another assignment again. Luckily, only Katie knew how bad his dreams were, and somehow he trusted her not to say anything.
He scolded himself for thinking of her again. Why was it so hard to push a single human female from his thoughts?
Chapter Fourteen
“This is an emergency bunker?” Katie asked, taking in the elaborately decorated room Reina had whisked her to underneath the bridal salon.
“More like our man cave,” Monti said with a swish of his wrist as Randi nodded.
Katie had seen man caves before, masculine basements with black-leather furniture and massive flat screens. This long narrow room looked more like a nightclub. Low, white poufs dotted the room with equally low and round tables. A curved, white-leather bar sat at the far end, surrounded by metallic stools that appeared to be hovering in mid-air, and pale-blue light glowed from behind the milky-white walls.
“Who wants a drink while we wait for the ‘all clear?’” Randi swept behind the bar and began to place tall glass cylinders in front of him.
The walls changed from blue to pink as Katie hopped on one of the stools and spun around on the floating seat. “I could go for a drink. You don’t happen to have snacks down here, do you?”
Monti bustled behind the bar, disappearing from view. His shiny, silver hair reappeared followed by the rest of him, and he held out a clear tray with what looked like a row of cookies.
Katie’s stomach growled. She’d had a few bites of the Drexian version of a doughnut before she’d gotten in the shower, and she’d finished the protein-packed coffee, but she was still hungry. “Are those chocolate chip?”
Monti pushed the tray toward her, nodding. “They’re something-chip.”
Katie picked up a cookie and eyed it with suspicion. “Something-chip” wasn’t reassuring. She took a tiny bite from the edge. It tasted like chocolate chip, with only a hint of smoky flavor when she swallowed. It was better than nothing, she reasoned, as she took a bigger bite.
“Okay, this should be everyone,” Serge said, as he navigated the spiral stairs in his platform shoes with a group of people behind him.
Katie recognized Bridget, Mandy, and Trista.
“Are you getting sick of us yet?” Mandy asked, laughing as the three women joined Katie at the bar. She motioned to the blonde. “I don’t think we introduced you properly before. This is Trista. She was one of the original three who were on ‘The Dating Game’ when we got here.”
Katie swallowed and brushed crumbs off her lips. “The Dating Game?”
“It’s a long story,” Trista said.
Bridget dropped her voice. “And one that includes Mandy demanding a mate with a huge—”
Mandy swatted at her as her cheeks flooded with color. “I was provoked!”
Trista and Bridget both shook their heads and laughed.
“Fine,” Mandy said, finally laughing as well. “I was freaked out and wanted to shock everyone. That was before I knew they were aliens and we were on a space station.”
“I’m still not clear why there was a dating game involved,” Katie said.
“It was how they used to match up Drexians and humans,” Trista said. “I’m pretty sure our game was the last time they did that, though.”
Bridget nodded. “They finally realized how outdated it was.”
Katie remembered Mandy saying something about all of this when they’d first met, but since she’d also revealed that they were on a space station behind Saturn, the dating game part of the story hadn’t stuck out. “So you three were the contestants?”
Bridget grinned. “But Mandy sweet-talked them into picking her.”
Mandy put both hands on her hips. “Ha-ha.” She spotted the tray of cookies Monti had placed on the top of the bar. “Are those chocolate chip?”
“Kind of,” Katie said. She took another nibble, he
rself. “So I never asked. How did we all get up here? Transporter beams?”
“The Drexians can fly at light speed, so the journey from Earth to here doesn’t take long.” Mandy looked to Reina for confirmation. “About an hour and a half on one of the transport ships, right?”
Reina nodded. “You would have been out during that time.”
“And no satellites from Earth pick up on a ship shooting off the surface at light speed?” Katie asked.
“They have pretty cool cloaking technology,” Bridget said. “All their ships have these sweet black hulls which are actually made of high-tech stealth panels.”
Katie swung her feet from the barstool. “I’m kind of sorry I slept through the trip.”
“You weren’t sleeping,” Reina said. “An onboard medical team would have checked you over, given you the necessary inoculations for life in space and among other species, and implanted an auditory universal translator so you can understand the rest of us, as well as a tracker.”
“A what?” Katie asked, noticing Serge giving the Vexling a sharp elbow to the leg.
“It’s standard,” Serge said. “We all have them for security purposes.”
“You GPSed us?” Mandy asked, her mouth agape.
Serge smoothed his wide lapels. “Like I said, it’s standard.”
Even if it was standard, Katie could tell the other women had no idea about it. She guessed it wasn’t something the Drexians announced. Clearly, even aliens who abducted their brides knew implanting trackers in them was creepy. It would, however, make a great part of her story.
Monti clapped his hands to get their attention. “We designed this bunker in case we ever needed to survive here, so we’ve got all the essentials.”
“Cocktails, anyone?” Randi motioned to the now-filled glasses and lifted one himself, the peach-hued contents sloshing over the rim.
Serge gave both designers a severe look. “Cocktails are not survival essentials.”
“Maybe not to you,” Monti mumbled from behind the rim of his glass.
Katie eyed the drinks. “I feel like it’s early to be drinking. Isn’t it still morning?”
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Randi pushed a glass toward her and winked, his gold eyeliner glinting at her. “These are mild. No Palaxian Pleasure Tonic, I promise.”
Katie wished she could be taking notes. Was she going to remember all this? She repeated the items in her mind: Palaxian Pleasure Tonic, a fake game show to match Drexians with brides, floating barstools. These were the details that would make her story authentic.
“Too bad,” Mandy said. “You haven’t lived until you’ve tried Palaxian Pleasure Tonic.”
“I don’t know about that,” Trista said. “I haven’t tried it.”
“That’s because your mate hasn’t arrived yet,” Mandy told her, then turned to Katie. “Her Drexian is involved in a battle far away from here, so she hasn’t even met him yet.”
“It’s okay,” Trista said. “I’m not in any rush.”
Katie noticed her quivering voice. Terrified, was probably more like it. “So you’re just hanging out until he gets here?”
Trista nodded. “At first, I didn’t want to leave my room. This whole thing was so overwhelming. I’d never even left Iowa before coming here.”
Katie knew she couldn’t use real names in her story, but Trista would make a great opening for her exposé. The girl from Iowa who’d never left her home state before being abducted by aliens? That was pure gold.
“What made you come around?” Katie asked.
“Well, I really didn’t want to go back to Iowa.” Her face darkened. “I know it isn’t an option anyway, but a big part of me is glad to be out of there. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to get out on my own.”
Katie watched the woman’s expression change as she seemed to give herself a mental shake. “So you’re happy here?”
Trista glanced at the other women, who were chatting with Randi and Monti. “Happier. Bridget and Mandy have been great about getting me out of my shell.” She rolled her eyes. “They drag me everywhere.”
Bridget looped an arm around Trista’s waist. “Since my husband is also away on a mission, I have someone to commiserate with.”
Mandy winked at Katie. “The difference is Bridget knows what she’s missing with Kax gone. Trista has no idea what she’s in for.”
If that was meant to comfort the Midwestern woman, the startled look on Trista’s face told Katie it hadn’t worked. For a moment, Katie wondered what would happen to everyone on the station if she exposed their secrets. Would they have to shut down? She liked Reina and Serge, and hated the idea of putting them out of a job. Then again, a story of this magnitude couldn’t be kept from people. It was her duty to let Earth know what was going on, wasn’t it?
“So what about your guy, Katie?” Bridget asked, sweeping her black hair back away from her face.
“Zayn?” Katie’s heart rate increased just thinking of him. “He’s fine.”
“He sure is,” Monti said, leaning over the bar.
“When did you see him?” Katie asked.
“We get photos of the brides and their Drexian warriors before every appointment,” Randi said. “Helps us get an idea of what would look good.”
“So?” Mandy prodded. “Tell us about him. He’s Drexian, so we know he’s big and built. What else?”
Katie’s pulse quickened as she shifted on the levitating stool. “I really just met him.” No way was she going to tell anyone what had happened between them, or that he had nightmares about his last battle. Even mentioning his headaches seemed disloyal, although she wasn’t sure why she felt loyalty to him when she’d rarely been loyal to anyone her entire life. There was something about him she felt like she needed to protect. It was not a sensation she enjoyed.
“That’s not the way it looked from your goodbye kiss this morning,” Reina said.
Mandy’s eyebrows popped up. “That’s a good sign.”
Katie reminded herself that she was supposed to be convincing everyone that she was all-in on the tribute bride thing. She gave what she hoped was a provocative smile. “Like you said, he is hot.”
Suddenly, the lights in the walls went dark, and the floating bar stool fell almost to the floor, before stopping and hovering an inch or two above. The women screamed as glasses went flying along with peach liquid. Mandy fell off her stool, and Katie caught herself with her free hand before rolling onto the shiny, white floor.
“Is it just me, or are those getting worse?” Bridget asked, as she helped Mandy up.
Reina clutched her throat. “You don’t think it’s another attack, do you?” She turned to Serge. “Should we get the brides to an escape pod?”
“This is probably just more issues from the last attack,” Serge said as he held onto the bar for support. “We stay down here until we get orders to evacuate.”
Katie couldn’t help thinking about Zayn and the pains he got that seemed to be triggered by the power fluctuations. This couldn’t be helping. Her mind went to the big warrior and the feel of his arms wrapped around her. She hoped he was okay.
As she thought more about him, she knew that he was the Drexian she should be questioning. He’d survived being taken prisoner by aliens, and knew what the species hoping to invade Earth was really like. If her story was going to be more than a profile of fancy space station, the hot alien in her room was the source she needed. She just hoped she wasn’t getting in too deep with him already.
“Um, Katie?” Trista nudged her in the side. “I think you have a visitor.”
Katie followed the woman’s gaze to the spiral stairs and the Drexian warrior coming down it wearing nothing but drawstring pants and a T-shirt that showed every rock-hard curve of his muscles. “Zayn?”
Chapter Fifteen
Zayn scanned the group of women and aliens sitting on hovering barstools and drinking colorful cocktails. He’d scoured the promenade until one of the waite
rs at the bakery had told him about the bunker beneath the bridal salon, but this chic space was not what he’d expected.
“Are you okay?” he asked as Katie hurried over to him.
The other women—he recognized one as the tribute bride who’d greeted Katie in their suite and assumed the rest were tributes, as well—smiled and gave each other knowing looks. An alien with silver hair raised a cocktail and an eyebrow in salute.
“I’m fine.” She reached out and touched his hand. “Are you?”
He tentatively brushed a curl off her forehead. “Just worried about you.”
She blushed as everyone in the room sighed or made noises of approval. “Is everything back to normal up top?”
He took her hand in his. “I’m here to escort you, in case there are more power fluctuations.”
“Escort her where?” Serge piped up. “We still have an appointment to select music.”
Zayn saw the Vexling named Reina elbow Serge in the ribs, then whisper something he couldn’t quite make out.
“You’re right, Reina,” he said, then raised his voice so it carried across the room. “We can always reschedule if you two have better things to do.”
Zayn looked down and noticed that Katie’s cheeks were a patchwork of pink. He got the feeling she disliked being the center of attention, especially if the attention speculated on their mating. He rubbed one thumb across the back of her hand. “We don’t have to go back to our suite. There are other things on the station to see.”
She grinned up at him, the pink of her cheeks fading. “Let’s go.”
The other tributes waved and called out farewells, as he led her up the stairs and through the bridal shop. He ducked to avoid hitting his head on the glittering chandelier as they exited onto the promenade.
“So, what should we see?” Katie asked once they were standing across from the burbling fountain.
He shifted from one foot to the other, still holding her by the hand. “To be honest, I don’t know much about this station. I only said that so you’d come with me.”
