MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance)

by Claire Branson

  He would have to get rid of her.

  He could hear the muffled sound of her shoes as she stomped towards the door.

  This was it. No more hesitation.

  So, he stepped out and made eye contact with her just as the weak, swinging door shut behind her.

  “Uh,” the word barely slipped out of her mouth, but he could hear it loud and clear.

  He took quick, deliberate step towards her, all the while loading his gun with the sedative. By the time he was within ten feet of her, he pointed it at her.

  “What the hell…” she said.

  Darys hesitated for a short moment, his eyes locking with hers. But as soon as that moment ended, he shot at her. By the time the serum hit and she started to fall, he raced across the street, catching her before she could hit the ground.

  Darys glanced around, one quick once over to see if any damage control was necessary, but alas, this part of Venice was not popular to non-natives and no Southern Californian in their right mind would frequent this area this late at night.

  He hoisted her over his shoulder, swiping up her keys from where they had fallen on the ground and made his way to her car. Once there, he put her in the passenger seat, taking generous whiffs of her coconut body lotion as he buckled her in and positioned her to where it looked as if she had simply fallen asleep.

  He started her engine and gingerly backed out of the driveway, putting more attention than necessary into driving, so as to catch any nervous activity before it could come back to bite him. By the time he got back to the small bungalow he had rented from an unsuspecting old man, the moon had risen high in the sky and he had to struggle to keep her under cover.

  He carried her out of the car and hurried through the thick brush of trees behind the bungalow until he got to the small landing craft that served as his “ship away from Ship” while he was stationed there.

  Once inside, he laid her on a make-shift bed of wool and feathers and went to work. He double-checked the lock on his craft before grabbing a large needle and vile from a cabinet just off of the small control room. DNA sequencing and blood testing kits were common in Daed. Anyone who had even remote knowledge of science carried one of those around. He unpacked the kit next to her unconscious body, picked a vein on her arm and jabbed the needle into her perfect skin.

  The longer he spent staring at her, the more certain he was that she was an adequate match. How could she not be? Her tanned skin practically sparkled in the harsh lighting.

  He watched her blood splatter into the vile, quickly and sporadically at first, then slow and controlled. With that accomplished, he stuck her blood in the small cooler next to his cabinet and leaned over her so that he could collect her DNA. His fingers trembled the closer that he got to her lips, his stomach rolling with butterflies.

  There was something about this woman, an intangible quality that rendered her absolutely irresistible. He could feel her pulling him in… even as an unconscious, common, part-human woman. Darys cleared his throat and peeled her lips apart. The soft skin made him wild with desire, but he ignored it long enough to take a swab of the inside of her mouth.

  After an hour of work isolating her DNA, replicating it and sequencing it, he was able to match it to his own. A pure human would have had a 67% match…. This female matched Darys to 99% conservation. After he tested her blood, it told the same story. Her plasma cells held the same plasma markers that any occupant of Xerxes would have had. They were ubiquitous among his race… but complete absent in humans.

  Darys took in a deep breath to steady his excitement. It was a small step… but a necessary one.

  Chapter Four

  Jenna’s eyes flickered open. She had only time enough to blink twice before the rush of a feeling a little like being hung over and a lot like being high engulfed her. She tilted her head from left to right, trying to make sense of her surroundings. Everything looked metallic, like she was in the middle of a five star kitchen. But it was too small to be a five star kitchen. In fact, as she stared at the curved walls, as she extended her legs only to hit a hard wall, she realized it was too small to be a building of any kind.

  She tried to sit up, wincing at the way her head spun. As she lifted her arm to wipe her eyes, she noticed a bandage in the crease on the inside of her of her elbow. Her heart skipped a beat. Someone had drawn her blood. She rushed to her feet just as the sound of footsteps could be heard from around the small wall to her right.

  Her jaw dropped when the man from the café stepped around the wall. He had stripped himself of his long coat and shirt and wore nothing but black dress pants. Jenna scanned his ripped body from head to toe, drinking in the smooth skin that covered his rolling muscles before the panic set in. She glanced around her, her own reflection bouncing off all of the stainless steel surfaces. Directly in front of her, she could see a vile of blood and a bunch of strange, scientific-looking gadgets on a counter.

  The wound on her arm started to itch out of nervousness. She gulped, trying to swallow the lump in her throat as she faced the man in front of her. He had kidnapped her.

  She tilted her head from right to left. There was an ache in her throat. Upon examination with her right hand, she could feel the pull of a bandage. It was where he had shot her. Just as she touched this place, she remembered that last image of his shadow in the darkness.

  One quick assessment.

  Jenna knew she couldn’t stay. She twisted her body around, her hands wrapped around the handle of the door. Of course it was locked. The heavy door protested against her grip, clicking with her pulls. Jenna slammed her hand against the door, but there was no visible lock.

  Before she could even ponder an alternative, Darys wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked her away from the door.

  She let out a screech, but his hand pressed fast against her lips. Goosebumps rose on her skin, but she ignored them and delivered a back-handed slap to his face. He loosened his grip enough for her to slip out of it.

  “What the fuck is going on!” She yelled. Her voice bounced off the walls of the small cabin, the acoustics amplifying the sound.

  “Shhh!” Darys hissed as he launched himself at her. He grabbed her face in both of his hands.

  Jenna’s eyes went wide. She was panting as she failed at avoiding his gaze. She could feel the body heat radiating from his skin as he showered her with his breath.

  “Calm yourself.”

  Jenna tried to fight against him again, but this time, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted him to let go of her. “You kidnapped me.”

  “You would have come willingly if I had had time to explain.” He said, not bothering to move his face away from hers.

  Against all forms of reason and decision making, Jenna could not deny the attraction she felt to him. She could not deny the way that her tall body seemed exactly complementary to his, or the way that her heart fluttered for him more than it ever had for anyone she had ever been with.

  I want to kiss you.

  The desire was real. Those five words were the only thing on her mind.

  In that moment, there was nothing she wanted more than for his lips to find hers.

  “I don’t care what your excuse is…” but her voice trailed off as he leaned into her.

  His stare had turned smoky. His grip had loosened: less restrictive and more… romantic.

  “You can’t just—” she tried again, but he brushed his lips against hers. A spasm rushed through her entire body. Her womanhood practically jumped at the sensation. “… Take me like this…”

  She was panting, her chest rising and falling at the same rate as his. There was no one around except the two of them and she was impossibly attracted to him and she was running out of reasons to resist.

  His hands trailed down to her hips and sat there.

  “Take me.” she whispered.

  It was all she had to say. He kissed her with full force; his hands clutched her hips. They trailed down to her butt, gripping her fle
sh. She fell back on to the wall behind her, her right leg hiking up to his hip. His hand pressed under the cloth of her romper as she slipped the straps off of her shoulder. He slammed himself against her, over and over again until she could feel her wetness seeping through her panties.

  He turned her around and ripped the one-piece right off of her, peeling her panties off as the romper pooled around her feet. She pressed her palms against the cool metal as he unbuckled his pants, then wrapped his arms around her. She reached behind her, unlatching her bra in a quick second before he pulled it out from in front of her.

  His hands found her nipples easily, his fingers flicking them as she bit her lip, searching for his penis.

  There it was, rock hard and pressing against her back. She twisted her arm back, wrapping her fingers around the pulsating rod of flesh and jerking him off. He grunted, practically throwing her up against the wall. As Jenna pressed her cheek and her breast onto the cool metal, he entered her.

  She moaned in ecstasy as he fucked her. His lower torso hitting her ass over and over again. Jenna’s moans grew louder and louder as she slammed her hand against the wall. Her spasms extended down through her thighs, her toes curling under her. Her ejaculate spurted out of her, dripping down her legs as he continued.

  He grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her head back as he wrapped his free arm around her waist, and rammed himself even harder into her.

  She came three times in a row as he did this, sweat sprouting from her pores and dripping down her neck and back. His grunts grew louder and his pace, more frantic, until finally, he withdrew from her, his shallow breath shooting through the dense air as he coaxed his seed out of his body.

  Jenna bit her lip, moaning at the sensation of the warm liquid spraying onto her lower back.

  Chapter Five

  Jenna was lying face down in that strange pod. A billion thoughts raced through her mind but none were as strong as the one that wondered what the hell had just happened. The situation she was presented with when she woke up was confusing enough in and of itself—she had been kidnapped. Now, not only had she been kidnapped, but she had had sex with her kidnapper.

  As she listened to this man making odd sounds in the other room, her eyes drifted to the only door in sight. She wondered if she would have long enough to work the lock if she started right at that moment. She started to get up, but then hesitated. Thirty minutes ago, escaping would have been considered normal, expected behavior. But now, this man wasn’t just her captor. She had impulsively entered into a sexual relationship with him and so now escaping was nothing short of rude.

  She turned her gaze in the direction of the noise as she allowed herself to relax a little, her back pressing against the wall. A smile played on her lips. The first time she had laid eyes on that man, this would have been considered beyond her wildest fantasies. But it had actually happened. She had actually had sex with him.

  A small voice in the back of her head wondered if this was safe. It questioned if she could trust him not to take advantage of her again and again, until she was no longer making choices for herself.

  An even bigger voice wondered what he could have possibly wanted with her blood.

  Before she had time to ponder anything more, he emerged with a tray in his hand dotted with food. “I assumed you would want nutrients.”

  Jenna grimaced. His word choice always caught her off guard. When he set the tray down, she went first for the glass of water, chugging it down.

  The next thing she noticed was the heap of kale and the slab of what looked like salted beef next to it. She ripped a piece off of it, but couldn’t resist the urge to smell it, in search any immediately detectable poison, then put it in her mouth.

  He winced at this.

  She raised an eyebrow. “You can’t do that. I don’t even know your name.”

  He swiped his own piece of kale from the plate and jabbed it into his mouth, chewing it like it was the best thing he had ever eaten. “Lord Darys.” He said.

  Jenna raised an eyebrow. It was a strange name and an even stranger title. “Are you European?” she asked as she tried a piece of the meat.

  Darys cocked his head to the side. “Do I look European?”

  Jenna froze. There was something confrontational in his question, like he already knew what was deep inside of her head and needed only to extract it. “I don’t know,” She said.

  He chuckled, the alluring, dark sound filling the cabin. “Yes you do.”

  Jenna shook her head. The explanation was so far out there, she felt foolish for even thinking it.

  He placed a hand on hers, drawing her attention back to him. “You know what I am. You’ve felt it your entire life.”

  Jenna’s heart pounded in her ears. A nervous sweat coated her palms. She bit her lip as she gazed at him, her strong, concentrated stare trained right on his eyes. He wasn’t wrong. “Tell me what you are.”

  A knowing smile stretched across his face. “Now, you are asking the right questions.”

  Jenna stuffed another piece of meat into her mouth. The stuff was starting to grow on her. “So answer then.”

  Darys folded his hands in front of him. “I am extra-terrestrial. I come from a planet called Xerxes in a different galaxy… and someone very close to you in family did too.”

  Jenna lowered her gaze. “Mother.” It was easy to see that he was right. It was easy to flock to the explanation that wrote her off as different, deviant, because she had felt it her whole life.

  Darys shrugged. “I cannot speak to that effect. But after testing you blood and your DNA, it is obvious that you are more Xei than you are human.”

  Jenna’s eyes flashed wide. “How did you run a DNA test that fast?”

  “Superior technology.”

  Jenna frowned. She couldn’t deny that. “Why are you here?”

  “My planet… your planet is in peril. A meteor hit it almost seven earth years ago. It rendered it completely lifeless.”

  Jenna shook her head. This was all too crazy for her to wrap her head around. “What do you mean? Are you going to colonize us?” she couldn’t believe she had just had sex with a power-hungry over lord.

  Darys held up his hand in a defensive gesture. “It isn’t just about the resources or power. My race has been reduced to the male soldiers who happened to have been protected in military barracks when Impact hit.”

  “There are no women?”

  Darys’s lips folded into a crooked smile. “You are the first female Xei I have seen in almost seven years.”

  “So how are you…?”

  “Going to survive?”

  Jenna nodded. One moment, she was making cappuccinos and the next she was being informed that an alien race, her alien race, had nearly been wiped out and was coming to Earth for refuge.

  “That’s why this isn’t just a takeover mission. We are here to propagate our race, to survive.”

  Jenna glowered at him. “So what are you gonna do? Just pluck our lavender eyes out one by one?”

  Darys shook his head. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I do not intend to force anyone to mate.”

  “But you intend to force us to let you in…”

  Darys set his jaw, his hand clutching into a fist as he exclaimed, “I am protecting my kind!” His lips clamped shut as he immediately turned away, as if surprised by his own words.

  Jenna jumped, but recovered from this quickly. “So you are the leader?” she was afraid to argue with him. She had not forgotten that she was in a sealed pod and had no idea how to get out of.

  He nodded. “It is my responsibility to see to it that they survive.”

  Jenna sighed. “Whoa.”

  He looked at her again. “I have chosen you as the beacon of hope for my nation. You are an extraordinary being. You are proof that there is a future for us. Nothing else mattered.”

  Jenna could not deny that any of the words he spoke were real. He had lathered her whole confusing existence with pu
rpose and the intoxicating satisfaction she felt as a result of that was almost impossible to deny.

  He stood up. “I must take you to my space ship and show you to the others. It is only fair that you acquaint yourself with who you truly are.”

  Chapter Six

  Jenna was strapped into the small control of that same pod. In the hour after their meal, Darys had gone through great pains to make sure everything was tied down before he took off. In the beginning, it wasn’t very much different than being in a plane, but as soon as her ears began to pop and Darys drove his joystick up to an even higher incline, Jenna couldn’t stop herself from clutching onto the sides of her seat for dear life.

  They were racing through the sky. Then it seemed as if the sky were below them. Not like when you get on an airplane and the pilot cruises over the cloud cover. No. As Jenna looked out of the front window, she failed to find anything blue or white around her. Below her, she could see the earth’s atmosphere.

  Darys pursed his lips as he held on to three different controls. Catching the hint, Jenna followed suit, clutching on to the handles on either side of her seat. The entire craft jumped, dipping as if it had finally freed itself from a string.

  Jenna’s jaw dropped as a surprised yelp leapt from between her lips.

  “Jenna.” Darys clasped his hand in hers, chancing on quick glance over at her.

  Jenna allowed herself to be calmed by him.

  “Everything is okay. Xei’s do this all the time.”

  It wasn’t want Darys said. It was the way he said it, as if he meant to assert: “Don’t worry. This is a part of your culture. One day, you won’t be afraid.”

  As he said this, Jenna caught sight of something right behind her. It was a space ship that spanned her entire range of vision. Lights from the windows dotted its dark mass as its sharp compartments jutted out into the space around it. Her heart swelled in her chest at the sight of it. “This is beautiful,” She whispered.

  Darys nodded. “It is.” With that, he took his hand off of hers and directed his space craft towards the larger ship. The mass grew as they approached it until it seemed to engulf everything around them. Once he reached what looked like an industrial garage door, he stopped it, hovering right in front of it as it slowly opened. There were three Xeis with space suits on waiting for him as he entered.