by Jana Leigh
***
“Fuck,” Alex yelled when Gabby got near her. “Sam is hurt, I am hurt, we are going to have a big frickin’ issue if this storm gets worse.”
“We need to get you inside and talk,” Gabby yelled which made Alex tense. Her friend wasn’t telling something her.
“My right arm is out, dislocated,” Alex grimaced and then grabbed Sam with her left hand and tried to stand. The slippery deck cause her to hit the edge of the railing again and she grimaced. Gabby stood using her two hands to pull her sister across the slick deck.
Damn this sucked, Alex thought, as she looked around, they had barely left on their journey, and they were going to have to go back. She thought about dealing with her father and she wanted to scream in frustration—it totally sucked.
None of the girls saw the wave behind them that was headed straight for them. The wall was about fifteen feet high. When Alex looked over her shoulder and saw it, she screamed for Sam and Gabby to grab something to hold onto.
***
“Fuck, look at that!” Des said as Xander looked and saw the wave. He closed his eyes and called for his men to come right away. As the leader, he was the only one that had the power to talk to everyone. Mates could talk to each other only after they formed their tri-mate bond.
Xander heard the men in his head responding, he only hoped it would not be too late. “Which way?”
“This side!” Des said.
They swam as fast as they could to reach the side of the boat. The wave hit and both men saw the three women flying through the air on the crest of the wave—it had knocked them off the deck.
“Shit,” Xander yelled and dove underwater watching for where they would land as he saw the first splash.
When the woman hit the water a vibration stuck him right in the chest, what the hell? he thought—it was just like when he and Des discovered they were mates. Could it be? No, impossible, he thought, and swam toward the women. All three of them landed in a circle, still holding hands.
“Xan, did you feel that?” Des said curiously. Xander looked at his friend and nodded before grabbing ahold of the closest woman. She was gorgeous with flowing blonde hair, underwater she looked like a mermaid.
Right when his hand connected with her, Xander saw the flash. Holy shit, mate! Was the only thing he thought, as Des tried to grasp the other two women. Suddenly their men surrounded them and two of the women were shuffled around. Xander and Des touched the woman and their tails glowed, all of them pushed to the surface so the women could breath.
Wow, Xander thought, and then looked over as the boat the women were on, overturned and broke apart.
“We need to get them back to the city,” Xander said and all of the men turned to him. “I know, just do it.”
Rosul moved forward and said, “I can put a shield around them to make it down. It will be close, we have to hurry.”
“Are you sure?” Xander said quietly and then looked at Des. “She is our mate.”
A murmur ran through the men, and they looked stunned floating in the rain. They began shuffling toward the other two women.
“Wait, we need to get down,” Xander said and all of the men nodded.
Rosul held up his arm and pointed a small device to the women. They felt the ripple of the protective shell surround the women.
“Let’s get moving,” Xander said. Des nodded.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ Xander thought to his mate.
‘I don’t know, but I hope we are right,’ Des said.
“What about the doorway,” Xander called out to Rosul. No one other than the Meridians had even been through there.
“If she is with you, it will be fine, just make sure that you keep contact with her at all times,” Rosul said, the men nodded, and dove under.
Chapter Five
Alex opened her eyes and then shut them right away because of the brightness. Shit, where the fuck was she? Alex moved her shoulders to get a feel of what she was laying on—a bed, a very fluffy comfortable one at that.
She tried again to open her eyes and her eyes focused on the ceiling. It was white, which ruled out her still being on the boat. A memory flashed and Alex gasped—her, the boat, Gabby and Sam. She groaned when she tried to sit up, her arm was in a sling, and there was a large bandage on her shoulder and around her waist. Shit, she totally screwed up her arm.
Looking around the room, she saw her best friends both lying on beds, also. They were both still unconscious. Another ship must have found them; they were in some kind of hospital room. Thank goodness, Alex shook her head and then thought about the dream she had before waking up. She was underwater, being pulled downward by men, aw fuck, she thought, men with tails. She was hallucinating. There was no other explanation.
Alex did not like the feeling of being out of control. In addition to that, she had no idea where the hell she was, even what was wrong with her friends.
“Hey, where is the damn call button?” Alex murmured and then shrieked when a man answered her.
“You are safe, there is no call button. If you need one of us, all you have to do is call out.”
A huge man who could not possibly be a nurse was the one who spoke. Okay, well maybe she would allow him to give her a sponge bath because damn he was hot. Wait, what the hell was she thinking?
“Who are you? Where am I? How are my friends?” Alex fired the questions to the sexy man.
“Okay, I will take those one at a time, my name is Sage, I am the Medical Warrior, and you are currently in the medical wing in Meridian City. Your friends have both suffered various injuries; I am not sure which is which, although I am sure, you will be able to. The sister on the left…”
“Sam,” Alex said absently, trying to think where the hell Meridian City was.
“Okay, Sam has a concussion and numerous lacerations. She also has a broken femur and will be in a cast for about six weeks. Her sister has a broken ankle and a nasty gash across one cheek, it required a bit of stitch work, although Casius didn’t seem to care. And your name is?” Sage said and laughed while Alex continued to look confused about what was being said. “The King will be here shortly.”
“King? Are you serious? My name is Alex Collins” Alex snorted and then pulled the sheet up a little more. She was only wearing a hospital gown, and it was chilly.
Sage stepped back, laughed, and then shook his head. “It is very nice to meet you, Alex. This ought to be entertaining.”
Sam and Gabby were moving and the nurse, or whatever he was, walked to them. Alex leaned forward to see if her friends were okay. She felt too bruised and sore to actually stand and walk to them, so instead she called out.
“Sam, Gab, you guys okay?” Alex asked anxiously.
Sam groaned and pushed the man's hands away and looked around. Gabby pushed herself up and looked down at her leg, and then felt her face where a large bandage was covering half of her cheek.
“Feels like I got hit by a fucking train, but other than that just fine. Where the hell are we?” Gabby moaned.
“Your guess is as good as mine. According to the hunk, we are somewhere called Meridian City, and the King is coming in to see us soon.” Alex laughed again.
“Huh, I have never heard of it,” Sam said and looked around the room. “At least they have a good hospital.”
The equipment was state of the art, and everything was sparkly clean. Alex was impressed with the amount of care all of them had received.
Five large men suddenly pushed into the room. Alex pulled her blankets up higher as she looked at all of them. Hell, they grew them large around here, she thought as she looked at the men. They were huge, just like Sage, two of them stood out to her. She was sure she must have taken a harder hit on the head than what she realized. Shit, her blood practically sang for them to come closer, she could feel her reaction to them.
Alex felt her nipples tighten and perk up and she felt the moisture pool between her legs. Damn, she hadn’t felt like this, w
ell, like ever for a man or men, whatever.
One of them stepped forward, stared her directly in the eyes, and asked, “Sage, how are our guests?”
“Sir, they are doing much better as you can see. We finally know their names. Alex, may I introduce you to King Xander Molière, and his Second and mate, Des. Sire, this is Alex Collins and her friends Sam and Gabby,” Sage said and leaned against the wall looking amused.
Des walked forward with a grin, took her hand into his, leaned forward, and kissed it before looking her in the eyes and saying, “At your service.”
“Oh, shit,” Alex said and had to keep herself from swooning, she felt a zing of electricity shoot through her hand. They were tall, built, and handsome, plus chivalrous. Damn, if they had a great personality, she was fucked.
“Indeed,” Des said amused as he stood. Xander was right behind him, took her hand also, and did the same thing. More electricity, figures, she dumped one man because he was an asshole, and had sworn off men, then suddenly here are two drop dead gorgeous men making her wet. Damn fate, she needed to get the hell out of here, before she made a fool of herself.
“Sorry, so nice to meet you. I am curious where we are, we have never heard of Meridian City. We kinda need to get back to the boat and see what repairs need to be made,” Alex said calmly as she watched the two men towering over her.
Her friend, who was apparently feeling the same way about the two men who were being introduced to her, piped up and said the same thing, “Yea, fellas, it is nice to meet you. Cash and Rosul, was it? But we really need to call someone for some help,” Sam said.
Gabby was just sitting there, staring at the man before her who was frowning and making a growling noise at the mention of them leaving. Sage introduced him as Casius, but he had not said a word to her, only stared.
***
Xander and Des stepped back and looked at the men who were in the room. The air was thick with passion, the men had found their mates and something was going to have to give or they would have a problem. Centuries living without finding their mate had been so difficult. None of them thought they would find them here on Earth.
Sage stepped forward and held out a piece of paper to Xander, it was the blood tests the Warrior had run to figure out how this was possible. Meridian males could not mate with normal human women—they had already proved that.
Xander frowned as he read what seemed to be impossible on the paper his Medical Warrior had given him. What the hell was going on? It said Alex and the other two women had Meridian blood, not full, but a slight trace of the alien DNA. How was this possible, all of their women had been destroyed?
“Who are you?” Xander demanded, as he looked at the women lying on the beds, all of them looked surprised when he all but bit their heads off with his bark. The rest of the men took the paper and studied what he had just seen.
Alex frowned at him and then leaned forward. “ALEX COLLINS,” she said slowly as if he was not mentally capable of understanding her.
Sage laughed and put his hand over his mouth, which got him a glare from their leader.
“I know your name,” Xander said impatiently.
“When someone asked who you are, it usually means their name. Now, back to the matter at hand, we need to leave. How do we check out of your lovely hospital?” Alex said sweetly and smiled at the large man. She was not sure what was going on, but the undercurrents in the room made her think she needed to get her and her friends out of there now.
“What my overbearing, dramatic mate is saying is there are some things we need to talk about. Like where you are, for one,” Des said smoothly, sat down on the side of her bed, took her hand in his again, and grinned.
“Where we are, you said we are in Meridian City.” Alex looked at Sage with an accusatory glare.
The nurse held his hands up and laughed, “You are. You just never asked exactly where it is.”
Alex blew out a frustrated breath and looked at her friends who seemed to have the same problem as she was, avoiding contact with these men, who were making her lose her mind. “Okay, where the fuck are we?”
“Glad you asked,” Des said with an amused look on his face. “I believe the old saying is, ‘Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore’ would really apply here.”
“Not an answer,” Alex snapped, pulled her hand away, and then winced, still sore, she thought, and looked at Sage.
“Do you need some pain medication?” the large nurse asked her and then must have decided that visiting hours were over. “Gentlemen, I am going to have to ask all of you to leave for a little while. I think our patients are needing some care.”
Xander frowned, looked down at Alex, and then nodded his head. “Sage, when you are done come to my office.”
“Of course,” Sage said and bowed his head and watched as one by one the men reluctantly filed out of the room. When they were all gone, all three of the women let loose a breath they were not aware they were holding.
Chapter Six
“Sir, we have waited for so long,” Cash said with frustration when they entered into his office.
Xander did keep an office in the main building, just like the rest of the men. In one way or another, they all worked together to make this whole city run smoothly.
“”I know, I feel the same way. We need to talk though. Did you see the test results? They are all part Meridian. We need to figure out how the hell that is even possible,” Des said and ran a hand over his head.
“We have their names, so we will run a search and see what we can come up with,” Xander said and pointed to Cash and Rosul. “Do you have your computer?”
Rosul rolled his eyes and said, “Really?”
Des laughed when the men both pulled out the small handheld computers they developed. Cash wanted to try to sneak the technology to the humans but as of yet, they had held back. Even five miles below the surface they were still able to pick up Wi-Fi.
Cash made a noise as he clicked and clicked on his computer. “Alexandra Marie Collins was born to, Charles Rodger Collins IV, thirty years ago. Shit, he is rich, as in mega rich, owns his own shipping line. Mother, Catherine Marie Collins, died in childbirth. Let’s see what else we can find.”
Xander paced back and forth with the piece of paper in his hands. He was confused, if there was even a slight chance that some of the females from their home world made it out, where were they, and how the hell had they come to Earth?
“Samantha Riley Brenton and twin sister, Gabriel Belle Brenton, were born thirty years ago to, Frances Nila Brenton who died in childbirth. She was listed as unmarried; however, she was in a domestic relationship with Cameron Trent Brenton who died in a car accident shortly after their birth. The girls were cared for by Helen Burb, but money was given to the girls monthly, it came from Collins Shipping,” Rosul said quietly.
On and on they continued dissecting the women’s lives to find a connection. There was nothing, it didn’t make any sense, but they had the proof right in front of them. Des kept in contact with Sage, the women were napping after they had given him a lot of shit. He almost felt sorry for him, almost.
For an hour, they dug into the women’s past and nothing stood out. It was frustrating. Xander knew there was some sort of explanation for all of this, although they would not be getting it from the women, they had no clue who or what the hell they are.
“So are we gonna tell them?” Des asked.
“Like we have a choice, man, we are like underwater in a bubble, I think they are gonna notice when the sun never rises, and the sky has large whales and sharks wandering around in it. Hell, how do we even tell them this?” Cash asked.
“I say we tell them the truth, and then let the chips fall where they may. It is not as if we have a choice,” Xander prompted.
“Who is gonna be the one to deliver the news?” Rosul asked.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Des said hopefully.
All of the guys laughed and finally Casius spoke up. They h
ad all been surprised when the quiet, hard man told them that Gabby was his mate. They were still going to be looking for their third, which meant either he was a human, or for some reason another of the Warriors was his mate, and they had never connected, which was hard to believe. Therefore, it had to be a human,
“Sir,” Casius said formally. It was like that with him, even after so many years the man still preferred to be formal with Xander.
Des and Xander had often wondered about Casius, he was strong and dedicated, but the man never seemed to have any fun. When most of them took days off to swim, or go to the surface, Casius rarely did. He seemed to be content working and making sure all of the men were trained and ready in case they needed to defend themselves.
