ROMANCE: BAD BOY ROMANCE: M.V.B. - Most Valuable Baby (Sports Secret Baby Romance) (Contemporary Interracial Pregnancy Romance)

by Lexi Ward

  Right there, in that moment, she realized it. It wasn’t just the feeling of being around him that she would miss. It was him—everything about him. She leaned her head back against the stone wall and sighed. “I love him,” she said to herself, tears streaming down her face.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Despite the overwhelming feeling of heartache that it gave her, Nicole still found herself sneaking back to the Gen-Lab facilities later that night. She had to help Amias, no matter what her feelings. This wasn’t just about her and him, this was about his people and hers—it was about trying to prevent the inevitable. What he had said was true. Even if his people didn’t want to fight, they may be forced to, to save him. And if it did come down to that, no matter how many Earthlings tried to stop them, they were still bigger, stronger, and more powerful. The results would be bad for both sides, but she feared they would be worse for hers.

  Driving out to the off-site high-security holding area where Amias was being kept, she had to fight to resist the urge to let her emotions overtake her. She set her jaw tight and took a deep breath before exiting her car.

  The entire place had the feeling of being abandoned, but still, something in the air felt off to Nicole. She hurried her step, wanting to get inside the building as quickly as possible. She had to jiggle her purse around before finding her key, scolding herself the entire time for not pulling them out before she got out of the car.

  With a sigh of relief, she finally found them. But just as she was lifting it to slide it into the lock, something reached out from behind her and pulled her back. “Where is he?” a gruff voice demanded.

  She turned around slowly to see a dozen men standing in a semi-circle all around her. How hadn’t she heard them approach? They were all large—very large. Their bodies were pure muscle, and their arms and legs were massively huge. “I…” she started nervously. “He’s in there,” she said motioning over her shoulder towards the building.

  The man who had grabbed her turned to look back at the others. “I don’t trust her,” one of them said stepping forward.

  “Me neither,” another added.

  “I’m telling the truth!” she exclaimed. “Look,” she said turning around and trying to unlock the door again. “I’ll show you. I’ll take you to him!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” the man said pulling her back again. “We know he is in there. That’s not what we were referring to.”

  “Then what?” she asked, looking up at the man, feeling dwarfed by his immense size.

  “We don’t trust you in general,” he explained. He took hold of her shoulder and shoved her onto the ground in the middle of the group. “You and your kind. They’re the ones who put him in there in the first place! How do we know that once we step in that building, you won’t try to do the same to us?”

  She looked up at them, scanning their faces. They all peered down at her menacingly. Their expressions filled with rage and fear. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” she tried to defend herself. “How could I possibly…?”

  “I say it’s a trap,” one man said. “They knew we were coming, so they sent this one out to lure us in!”

  “Yeah!” a few others exclaimed.

  “They got Amias! How do we know they won’t do the same to us!” he continued.

  “No!” Nicole yelled out, trying to find any way to convince them they were wrong. “You don’t understand! I was going to help him! I was going to release him so he could go to you!”

  “Likely story,” the first man—the biggest and strongest of them all—said taking a quick step towards her.

  “Please!” she begged as he lifted his hand and reached for his weapon strapped across his back. It wasn’t like any gun she had seen before. It was smaller and thinner. But she had a feeling that its size was misleading. The man didn’t turn the barrel to face her, but instead, let the butt of the gun land a blow across her face.

  On impact, she recoiled back, dragging herself across the hard concrete ground, trying to avoid the second blow, which was quickly coming her way. One of the other men caught her by the arms and lifted her to her feet, holding her in place. The man with the gun took a quick step in her direction, ready to strike again.

  Just then, the doors to the Gen-Lab building flew open. Out rushed a large, scale-covered beast in a cloud of smoke and flame. The man holding her let her fall to the ground, and the one about to hit her turned around quickly.

  She collapsed in a heap and covered her face. The sight of Amias in his dragon form still filled her with a sense of fear. It wasn’t because she was afraid of him, though, simply because he was massively large and extremely powerful.

  “Amias!” the largest man yelled out to him

  With a flash of light and heat, Amias changed back to his human form. “Gerrit,” he said once the smoke had cleared. “What’s going on here?” He looked down at Nicole and then back up at the man who had been attacking her.

  “We came to get you,” Gerrit replied. “She got in our way.”

  Amias looked back to Nicole. He took a few steps in her direction, but Gerrit stepped in front of him, preventing him from getting too close. “What did you do to her?” Amias asked him aggressively.

  “She would have taken us captive like they did with you.”

  Amias pushed him back forcefully and rushed over to where Nicole was huddled on the ground. He knelt down next to her and wrapped his strong arms around her. “Do you really think she could have done anything to hurt you?” he yelled up at the man. “What chance would she stand against all of you?”

  “We have to be cautious,” the man said calmly.”

  “By attacking an innocent, unarmed civilian?” Amias shot back at him.

  “How were we supposed to know she wasn’t leading us into a trap?”

  “She wasn’t!” Amias looked down at her apologetically, reaching up to brush a chunk of loose hair from her eyes. “She was coming to help me.” The men around them shifted their weight nervously, not sure what to make of the tender interaction between Amias and one of their enemies. Amias pushed himself up, leaving her sitting on the ground and turned to address them. “I know you all still doubt. You don’t believe me and you don’t trust her. But that’s not the issue right now,” he said firmly.

  Gerrit walked over and placed a firm hand on Amias’ shoulder. The two of them stood almost equal in height, Gerrit only a few inches taller, but both had equally large, strong frames and muscular bodies. “We have to leave, Amias,” he said in a hushed but serious tone. “Now.”

  Nicole sat, watching them. She was amazed that the confrontation had ended so quickly. One moment she was genuinely afraid for her life—the next she was once again filled with the sadness and heartache the impending separation from Amias brought her. Her thoughts were distracted, momentarily, when she saw the security camera hanging over the door turn to face where they were standing. “Amias,” she said quietly. He didn’t hear her. “Amias!” she yelled at the same time a loud siren rent the air.

  The men around her turned about frantically, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Amias returned quickly to her side. “Now my people are coming,” she said to him, panic and fear heavy on her voice. “You have to run! You have to get out of here!” she tried to yell over the loud wailing screams of the alarm.

  It was too late, though. Within a matter of seconds, a caravan of tanks and armored vehicles were visible in the distance. They were moving towards them quickly. “What do we do?” Amias asked, looking up at the men around him.

  “We fight,” Gerrit answered bluntly.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Get back,” Amias ordered her, looking down at her with a sense of urgency in his eyes.

  “What?” she asked, confused, scared, and incapable of moving.

  All around them the men were changing, filling the air with smoke and heat. She didn’t turn to look at them, hovering above them in their dragon forms. She kept her eyes locked on Ami
as’. “You have to get back,” he said to her again, pulling her to her feet and nudging her towards the building.

  “I’m scared,” she whispered to him.

  “I know,” he said as he guided her to the covered entrance of the Gen-Lab off-site facility. “Me too,” he confessed. Once he was sure that she was tucked safely away he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before turning to run back to fight alongside his people.

  Nicole watched as a cloud of smoke consumed him. The air filled with a pulsing heat, and in a flash, he changed to his dragon form. By the time he joined his fellow kind the opposing forces were already upon them. Compared to the dragon shifters’ massive size and tough armored bodies, the humans appeared small, weak, and fleshy, even wrapped in their protective gear and heavy uniforms.

  Amias and his group took flight, filling the air and darting around with swift, quick movements. The ability with which they were able to move so agilely, despite their size and weight impressed Nicole but filled her with concern for her people at the same time.

  She watched as one released a column of fire, knocking three men back at one time. Of the three, only one pushed himself back to his feet and scurried to take cover behind one of the tanks. Another dragon dove out of the air, grabbing onto two men at once and throwing them back, releasing a ball of fire that quickly consumed them.

  One of the tanks came to life, spinning its large gun around and setting one of the dragons in its sights. With a loud bang, a metal projectile came flying out, hitting its target and sending him plummeting to the ground, landing with a loud thud that shook the ground.

  The battle continued for what felt like hours, although it couldn’t have really been more than twenty minutes. The dragons dove down; releasing their flames, then once again darted up into the air, moving just out of the line of fire the guns and tanks were shooting at them.

  When she saw one tank turn its gun in Amias’ direction, Nicole wanted to scream out. She wanted to warn him. He was distracted, trying to fight off a line of men with guns and riot shields who were also setting their sights on him. She pushed herself up just as the blast rang out. It was the only sound she heard before the loud crash that accompanied his fall.

  When he hit the ground, his body shook. The impact must have startled him because he transformed quickly back into his human form. She watched as he tried to push himself up to his feet, but fell back to the ground. He stumbled backward, trying to distance himself from the fight.

  She couldn’t remain still any longer. Against her better judgment, she rushed out onto the battlefield and fell to his side. “You have to get back!” he ordered her, his voice weak and laced with pain.

  She ignored him, though. Wrapping her arms around him, she helped him to his feet, and they began to make their way back to where she was taking cover before. His weight leaning on her almost caused her to fall forward twice, but she forced herself to remain upright and continue placing one foot in front of the other. When they reached the entrance to the building, she let him slump to the ground while she reached for her keys, which were still in the lock.

  Opening the door, she once again took hold of him and led him inside. They didn’t stop moving back until they turned a corner and took refuge in the long hallway, which led deeper into the high-security facility.

  Collapsing onto the ground together, she wrapped her arms around him. He rested his head in her lap and let out a few deep, shaky breaths. She could see that he was losing blood, quickly, and knew that she needed to do something.

  “I have to go back out there,” he said weakly.

  “No,” she replied firmly. “You have to stay here. You’re hurt!”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he coughed. “I have to help my people.”

  “You can’t help them in this condition,” she countered, running her hands through his hair trying to ease his pain in any way possible.

  He didn’t interject. He just looked up at her with his deep green eyes. As she sat there, stroking his hair, the sounds of the battle going on not far away, he let his eyes close slowly.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Once Amias had drifted off to sleep, Nicole slipped away, searching the rooms around them for some sort of medical kit. When she found what she was looking for, she hurried back to him. He was still lying on the ground, breathing heavily, the large gash in his side still producing unsettling amounts of blood.

  When she poured an excessive amount of disinfectant liquid on his wound, his eyes shot open and he let out a gasp of pain. “Shh,” she said to him, reaching out and placing her hand on his face. “I’m sorry, but I need to sew this up.”

  He laid his head back down on the ground and stared up at the ceiling above them. The sounds of the fight continued to echo through the building, causing her hands to shake with worry.

  As she worked, they remained silent. It took some time, but with enough pressure and a number of stitches she was able to close up the wound and stop the bleeding. When she let out a shaky sigh of relief and leaned back against the cold concrete wall, Amias turned to face her. “It’s bad, Nicole,” he said to her quietly.

  “Your wound?” she asked.

  “No,” he replied firmly. “The fight. A lot of people are hurt, some dying—on both sides.”

  “I should have listened to you sooner,” she choked, tears beginning to burn her eyes. “I should have listened to you when you first told me. I should have let you go then.”

  “Don’t,” he said pushing himself up, gritting his teeth when the bolt of pain from his side ran through him. “Don’t blame yourself for this.”

  “But I could have prevented it!” she exclaimed, no longer able to hold back the tears.

  “I don’t blame you for anything,” he said reaching out and taking her hands in his.

  “You tried to warm me…”

  “And if you had listened to me, that first day I spoke to you about this, I wouldn’t have had the chance to spend all this time with you.”

  She felt a flutter of emotion run through her. The way he looked at her—the way he spoke to her—it was real. It only served to momentarily quell her own anger with herself. “But at what cost?” she said remorsefully, once again letting the sounds of the battle raging on around them fill her senses. “All those lives. I could have stopped this.”

  “Nicole,” he said scooting himself closer to her. “If I had wanted to escape, I could have. I did! Twice!” he added with a weak smile. He was right. He was able to break out of his holding cells on two separate occasions, both times to come to her rescue. “I asked you to help me because I trusted you. Not because I needed you to help me.” He released her hands and lifted his to her face, wiping away her tears. “If anyone is to blame for all of this, it’s me.” He sighed. “But there’s no point dwelling on that now.”

  “You’re right,” she said nodding her head decisively. “We need to figure out what to do next.”

  “There are more of my people,” he replied. “I can sense them. They’re not too far away. I have to go to them.”

  She nodded her head, biting her bottom lip to try to keep from letting her hurt show. She knew it was inevitable. She knew he was going to have to leave her, but still, every time the realization washed over her, it left her feeling more and more empty and helpless.

  “I don’t want to leave you, either,” he said to her softly, leaning in and kissing her. “But I don’t have another choice. There is no future for me or my people here on Earth.”

  “I know,” she said pulling away from him and wiping her cheeks to dry them. “I just don’t know what I’ll do when you’re gone. You’ve changed my life—you’ve changed me. I don’t want to go back to who I was without you.”

  “Maybe we don’t have to be separated,” he replied.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My people, they’re not like yours, Nicole. They’re accepting.”

  She looked at him with a hint of disbelief. “I’ve already met
your people,” she pointed out. “And they didn’t seem too accepting to me.”

  “They were scared,” he pointed out. “I told you before when it comes to the well-being of one of our own we tend to be a little more defensive.” He once again took her hands in his and pulled her close to him. “But you can come with us, Nicole. They will accept you, warmly. They will welcome you and treat you as one of our own.”

  She wanted to; more than anything in the world she wanted to go with him. But she still felt apprehensive. “I can’t,” she said finally. “I want to, Amias. I really do. But I don’t think I can. I’m not brave enough—I’m not strong enough to leave my home, my planet! My father, he would…”

  “You would be far away from him. He couldn’t control you anymore.”