Alien Warlords' Heir: SciFi Menage Surprise Baby Romance (Warlords of Octava Book 2)

by Vi Voxley

  Havoc didn't say anything. He stopped, looking at the broken pieces of his armor. A single thought crossed his mind - that he was thankful they'd arrived home in ceremonial gear rather than their actual battle armors. He and Chase had agreed they were too battered from the war and they didn't want to show Dana the true scars of battles.

  The ceremonial armor, luckily, meant nothing to him. He could make a new one whenever he wished and Havoc had never been fond of making a spectacle out of war anyway.

  "Is it?" Chase repeated.

  "What do you think?" Havoc hissed at him. "What could possibly help at this moment? It's over, Chase. We lost her. She's gone. And we went through all of it for nothing."

  "That's a lie and you know it," Chase said, unfazed, sitting on the low bench he usually sat on when he was visiting.

  The sight was so familiar it bothered Havoc. It reminded him vividly of the day when Chase came to convince him to take part in the festivities. He wanted to hate that moment of weakness, even if he couldn't. As much heartbreak as it had brought, the image before his eyes was of Dana, shining in the glow of the lights of Taria.

  It was a memory that was carved so deeply into his heart there was no power alive that could have removed that. As for himself, Havoc couldn't wish that memory gone even if it had healed the tear in his heart.

  "We couldn't have let her go and that's it," Chase went on, leaning back. "You know that's true. I never realized how strong the bonds were until now. You're right, it's over. Only tell me if you think there could be a way to pick up the pieces?"

  "No," Havoc said at once.

  He moved away from the broken armor and sat opposite of Chase, looking at the other warlord. They were both weary from the long months of war and now there they were, forced to be together since no one else shared the experience.

  "How did you get over Hannah?" Chase asked.

  Havoc laughed, his deep voice cracking as he did. Chase was looking at him, wide-eyed, with a furious frown on his face.

  "I didn't," Havoc said when he was finally able to speak again. "You said it yourself, don't you remember? There was nothing in my life but memories of her until Dana arrived. That's the truth. If you're asking what was the only thing different then, why I kept my sanity?

  “It was because she was gone and not even I could fight death for her, although I would have. This time it's worse. Dana is out there, she's still alone and she's still carrying our baby."

  Chase had nothing to say about that truth. They sat in silence.

  They hadn't said another word to each other when Captain Berollen crashed into the room early the next morning, out of breath and looking like the sky had fallen.

  Havoc raised his gaze to the warrior with a deep sense of dread. Berollen wasn't the type of man to easily lose his nerve. There had to be something fundamentally wrong with the world.

  The broken armor was still on the table before him. Chase was standing at the other side of the workbench, shirtless like him in the heat of the forge. After hours of trying to focus their minds on something, anything, they had finally made some progress with the armor. Not that the task itself would have been hard – it was finding the point in doing anything.

  It seemed the Gargon spirit wasn't dead in them yet. The world was no longer calling to them as it used to, yet neither one of them was going to bury themselves like Havoc had before. There was no future in that, he'd learned it the hard way.

  "What is it?" Havoc demanded.

  "Commander," Berollen said, immediately standing on guard. "It's the League."

  Havoc and Chase looked at each other, the single gaze enough to say everything that hadn't passed between them in the long hours of silence. As they were returning home, victorious in the decisive battle, there had been one thing bothering them both. The reason why they were so out of it, possibly why they were so careless with Dana.

  The twins had never showed. The leaders of the League, men who would never have stood down a challenge, simply weren't there. Havoc had ordered a sweep of all the conquered and destroyed ships, only to find that the truth was undeniable. Uttom and Crann had eluded them and it hadn't made an ounce of sense. Why gather such a fleet and waste it?

  Havoc knew what Berollen was going to say before the words left the man's lips.

  "They're here," he said urgently. "I don't know how, sir, but they are closing in on Octava as we speak with half the strength the Iron League had before. This is an ambush."

  "They distracted us," Chase said, gritting his teeth. "They came through the asteroid belt, the rotten bastards. That's why they never showed. All that time, we were chasing shadows. How long before they're here, captain?"

  "Hours," the warrior replied, looking pale. "Maybe less. Sirs, I can't find Miss Dana anywhere. She and the boy and her friend are all gone."

  The sudden sharp tinge of pain that shot through Havoc had definitely nothing to do with the fact that the war they should have been celebrating wasn't as over as they'd thought.

  "Ready the fleet," Chase ordered when he couldn't muster the words. "I want the whole planet ready. Every broadcasting system needs to announce this until we can see the ships in the sky. Protocol Rabor is in action. Go."

  To the surprise of them both, Captain Berollen didn't leave.

  "Yes," he finally drawled. "I will do as you say. I just need to ask. Do you know where Miss Dana is?"

  Havoc glared. As the commander, he had never known Berollen to show that kind of disobedience before. It was the main reason he'd trusted Dana's protection to him, leaving his fated in his care.

  "Probably back on the Sanguine," Chase said, his voice distant and not a little hurt. "She chose to return there for now."

  "With all due respect, sirs, how could you let her go?"

  They didn't reply. A part of a warrior's duties was not to ask stupid questions and right now, Berollen wasn't doing a very good job. To his credit, he stood his ground like a true warrior.

  "She left, didn't she?" he asked.

  "That is none of your business," Havoc finally snarled. "Leave. Do as you were commanded. I am seriously considering relieving you of your position in my service."

  Berollen looked like he'd been struck. Then his eyes narrowed and he spoke in a clear, loud voice.

  "I knew she would. While you were away, I watched her fade a little bit more every day. The one thing I didn't expect was that you would let her go. Especially at a time like this."

  The sound of sliding metal was the only noise in the room as the two warlords approached in perfect unity, their weapons drawn, coming closer without their footsteps being heard. They were apex predators. And they weren't to be talked to like they were petty children.

  "She is just afraid," Captain Berollen said and it made them stop.

  The warrior took a deep breath and went on.

  "She is afraid. The pregnancy didn't go as smoothly as she wished, but even that didn't really matter. I know, since she told me. All she wanted was to make a home here and to know she was safe, her and the boy both. She needed to know there was a place for them. I predicted her fear would drive her to this, but I couldn't stop her myself.

  “Sirs...I believe she didn't want to go, you just made her believe she had a right to be afraid of the future."

  "Leave," Havoc said.

  "Sir..."

  "Leave right now."

  The tone of his voice finally did the trick. The captain saluted them both, leaving Chase and Havoc alone with their doubts. The weapons were sheathed as they turned to the other, looking concerned for the first time that day. All the anger, the disappointment was washing away.

  Havoc's mind was storming with realizations. Had they really done that? He thought back to every moment they'd spent with Dana and there the truth lay.

  She hadn't left at once. Throughout all her worries and fears and finding out about Hannah, she'd stayed, waiting for it to get better. And they had pushed and pushed her out of fear that she would be Ha
nnah, end up like her, that something would happen to her and the baby she carried.

  It was unbelievable. Simply stunning how afraid they'd been.

  Havoc knew why, of course. The bloody image of Hannah appeared before his eyes once again, only to disappear then, a ghost banished.

  That will not happen to Dana. I will not let her share Hannah's fate.

  "He's right," Chase said, his voice so full of emotion it caught Havoc off guard. "We did this. We pushed her away."

  Alarms started ringing in the villa as Captain Berollen had clearly sent out the message about the approaching League fleet. Havoc and Chase exchanged looks, only this time they were purposeful instead of hopeless.

  "She can't be alone," Chase said decisively. "No matter what, she needs to get back here and be safe. If we have to fight the entire League for that to happen."

  Havoc nodded. The sword in his hand felt like a real weapon again, a tool to make his will happen and right now, he knew that he and Chase were on the same page.

  The war was still going and not just one. The League was the enemy, naturally, but it wasn't really the fight that mattered. The battle for Dana's heart hadn't ended yet. It wasn't in Gargon nature to admit defeat like that, even if they'd been knocked down.

  Looking at Chase getting ready, Havoc knew they were thinking the same thing. She wasn't lost to them until everything was lost and they'd never let such a fate come to pass.

  25

  Dana

  Her room was cold. It had never been cold before.

  Dana suspected that it had something to do with the fact that her heart felt like it had been frozen over.

  She heaved herself up to the bed, thinking that the single comfort she had in the whole situation was that she didn't have to move much anymore. Now the healers could take over and after she'd given birth, maybe she could stop waddling around like a bloated marshmallow.

  Rebecca had come with her, respectfully not saying anything. It was a nice contrast to Sean who hadn't stopped asking questions ever since he saw the Sanguine.

  "Are we going to stay here now, Mom?" he asked as Rebecca was helping tuck Dana in. "Aren't we going to go back home?"

  That hurt. That hurt so much even Rebecca stopped in her tracks and sent a pitying look in her direction.

  Dana tried to put on a brave smile. For the thousandth time, she tried to figure out if she was doing the right thing. Sean had clearly taken a liking to her fateds. He’d been so excited to hear they were coming back. Her son had made the villa his home much more quickly than Dana had, even if she also felt like the Sanguine lacked the homey warmth it had always had for her.

  There was nothing to say, really.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "We're not going to go back. As soon as the Sanguine is cleared for take-off, we're going to leave. We'll find a new home, alright? A nice one, just for us three. You, me and the baby."

  "Why can't Havoc and Chase come?"

  Because I'm too broken to go through this again. Better to suffer through the quick pain than the long, drawn-out agony of waiting for everything to go to hell.

  "Go ahead and play in your room," Rebecca cut in, gently nudging Sean away. "Your Mommy needs to rest a little now. The baby is coming very soon and she needs to keep her strength."

  Sean was already almost out of the door when he turned back and looked at Dana with a gaze that didn't fit a seven-year-old child, not one bit. There was a deep, undeniable sadness in her son's presence as the single emotion Dana could read from his eyes was disappointment.

  "I liked them," Sean said simply.

  His voice didn't sound like him either. There was no childish plea or a whine. It was simply a statement and of all the pains Dana had suffered through that day, it cut the deepest.

  "I would have stayed there. I was happy. Why do we need to leave again?"

  Again. Gods, I'm dragging my child around the galaxy because I can't settle down. And now I'm about to do the same to my baby.

  "I want to go back to Havoc and Chase. I thought we were home."

  So did I.

  "Things didn't work out, my love," Dana said softly. "That's just how it happens sometimes."

  "I don't understand," Sean said, resisting Rebecca's gentle tugs to take him away. "You love them and they love you. What's wrong?"

  Good question. If only I had an answer to that. If only I could see the world through a child's eyes where everything is so simple.

  In the end, she didn't say anything, resolving to pick up the conversation when she had an answer for him that didn’t sound like a cop-out. Rebecca guided Sean out of the door and took a seat next to her

  "Am I making a huge mistake?" Dana asked, falling back on the sheets of her bed. "Tell me. Am I giving up too easily on this? Sean is right, you know. I didn't even give them a chance. All those things, maybe I just wanted to see the dark side of things because I was so afraid that everything was going to go wrong anyway. And I left so quickly their ships hadn't even cooled down yet."

  Isabel chose that moment to come in, looking like she'd been waiting behind the door for an opportunity to slip in. The girl's dark eyes shining like little stars.

  "You did the right thing," she said with relish. "Trust me. They weren't right for you. If you have to fight this hard, cut your way through so many obstacles, it's really not worth it."

  Dana glared at her, shaking her head quietly when Rebecca got up furiously to throw Isabel out again.

  "I always thought it was important to protect myself. I agree with you on that," Dana said coolly. "I just keep thinking that there are compromises too, ways to fight for your love and not throw it away at the first sign of trouble."

  "Yes," Isabel agreed sarcastically, a slight hint of annoyance in her voice. "Only there wasn't a single sign of trouble, was there?"

  "Well, yes, but they all stemmed from my fear–"

  "Stop, Dana," Isabel cut in sharply, her face contorted as flashes of anger played in her eyes. "You are afraid, we know that. Everyone knows that. You had two choices, either to power through it or give in to the fear. And you chose the latter.

  “That tells me that the bond was never going to work. Stop this now. You finally made a decision, don't start wallowing in this like you do with your ex, with Sean's father. Just let them go."

  Dana didn't know what to say. Again. It was starting to become a theme of the day and she didn’t appreciate it.

  Is that really how they see me? That I'm some whiny, desperate, terrified woman. That’s not me. I only tried to do what's best for me and Sean.

  "That's not true," she said then, her voice getting stronger as she spoke. "I wasn't broken from the start. Not everything is as simple as you'd like it to be."

  This time, the shot of pain made her cry out. Isabel didn't even wince, looking at her with a clear look of disdain.

  "Everyone is tired of taking care of you, Dana, when you really don't appreciate what you've been given. Others would have given their lives to be where you are and you keep whining–"

  "Stop that!"

  Rebecca finally stepped up to Isabel. Her eyes were glaring daggers at the other woman. After the first confrontation between them, months and months ago in the villa, she and Isabel had never found their friendship again.

  "Will you stop guilt-tripping her?" Rebecca demanded furiously. "Leave her alone, will you? You lost, fucking deal with it. I lost too, you know. There are a thousand women here who didn't find their fated. That's the deal, that's what we choose when we come aboard. It's not Dana's fault she landed two and it's not her fault either that she's afraid. Anyone would be in her shoes."

  Isabel took a step forward, looking ready to slap Rebecca. Her beautiful voice was reduced to a hiss as she snapped back at her.

  "She doesn't deserve this. She's nothing but a little child who cries when things don't go her way. I don't know if they will make good fathers. Boo-fucking-hoo. Where have we heard that one before? She has some sort of undiagnosed pe
rsonality disorder that makes her sabotage every relationship she's in and everyone thinks it's so damn cute."

  "Leave," Dana said.

  When Isabel didn't move a muscle, still staring at Rebecca angrily, Rebecca practically roared:

  "GET OUT!"

  Isabel went, still seething in her rage. Rebecca was left behind, breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling as tears beaded in the corners of her eyes.

  Dana cried out again, her hands covering her belly as the pain got even worse.

  Rebecca was there in an instant, all tiredness gone from her face as she held Dana's hand.

  "Are you alright?"

  Fuck no. What the hell have I been doing with my life?

  "I'm fine, I'm fine," Dana panted as thoughts rushed through her head with such speed they threatened to make her dizzy.

  She couldn't remember being that mad. Isabel's words had struck a chord with her and for once, it didn't make her sink deeper into misery. It made the fire that was almost dead roar to life again.

  "She's a bitch, you know," Rebecca said, a grin on her face.

  "I noticed, yeah," Dana said, breathing heavily as the pain didn't give out the way it had before.

  "She's unbearable. I'm sorry, I should have done this a long while ago. I didn't want to tell you this, you had enough on your plate already. Have you ever been to Isabel's room here?"

  "No," Dana wheezed. "Why?"

  "Then you haven't seen the posters," Rebecca said bitterly. "Gods, you can't look anywhere without seeing Chase's face."

  "Wait, what?"

  Dana couldn't believe her ears. Even the pain lost meaning for a moment as she stared at Rebecca, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking like she had just seen something incredibly disgusting.

  "You heard me," she said. "She's definitely one of them. The girls who come here searching for a certain someone. In her case, it's Chase. I think they even met and it didn't happen as you know, of course. I kept waiting for that stupid crush of hers to pass.

  “Now I think Isabel has a few of those disorders she wishes you had. Like a maniacally clingy outlook on Chase. I think she imagines that if you're out of the picture, he'll run right to her."