The Alien's Revenge: A SciFi Alien Warrior Romance (Drixonian Warriors Book 4)

by Ella Maven

  “The three of you can stay here and eat or whatever. I want to work on my plants and clean up a little bit.”

  “I’ll help clean,” Naomi brightened. She loved having a job.

  “Fine, get the broom and let’s sweep,” I said. “Drak has no concept of kicking dirt off his boots before he comes inside.”

  With a knowing smile, Naomi reached for the broom in the corner of my room while Frankie and Tab continued to munch on berries. Their laughter and voices kept me company as I prepared my room for Drak’s return. And I didn’t admit it, but their presence soothed me and made the time pass a whole lot quicker.

  With Naomi’s help, I rearranged some of my plants. I liked a variety of color and found that I missed the bright purple flowers which had grown all around our hut. It was a deep violet, so like Drak’s eyes when they simmered with lust for me. I’d seen a few of them outside the walls sparkling in the moonlight that night we’d been led home, Drak in chains.

  He always loved when I decorated the hut with the purple flower. The bloom was full, like a peony, but heartier. It even survived the sudden and strong rainstorms common on this planet.

  Maybe that would help Drak be a little more comfortable. If I could retrieve some of the purple flowers and place them in our room, it would remind him of when we met. Our hut. Laying out on his roof under the stars.

  Except to get that flower, I’d have to go outside the walls. I glanced over at my friends. It was mid-afternoon, and Frankie could barely keep her eyes open. Tab seemed fidgety, because being in one place too long was difficult for her. Even Naomi was lagging as she wiped down the handle to my door, her movements sluggish. Then her stomach growled, and she blushed when she caught me looking at her.

  If I told them I planned to leave the walls, even for just a moment, they would either demand to come with me, or tie me to a chair to keep me from going. I had to ditch them, sneak outside to pick a few blooms, and return. I would take me an hour. Tops. They wouldn’t even know I was gone.

  “So, I think I’m going to take a nap,” I announced.

  “Cool,” Frankie said, smacking her lips and settling in. “I’ll get some shut eye right here.”

  “I’m going to take a nap,” I repeated. “Alone.”

  Frankie stuck her lower lip out. “I can’t stay?”

  “Come on, Frank,” I helped her to her feet. “I love you and I appreciate you girls for keeping me company, but I’d like some alone time.”

  Frankie sighed. “All right. I guess so. I do kind of miss my own bed. Smells like Daz.”

  “Okay, weirdo,” I said. “Go sniff your furs and miss your man who will be back soon.”

  Tab hopped to her feet. “I’m going to grab some food. Want to come Naomi?”

  “Sure,” Naomi answered. “Want us to grab you something, Miranda?”

  “I’m good. I got some snacks here. I’m not really hungry.”

  Naomi frowned, but didn’t push. Frankie waddled her way out first, followed by Tabitha. Naomi stopped at the door and looked at me over her shoulder. Her intelligent brown eyes assessed me, and I held her gaze as if I wasn’t planning to sneak out like a teenager. She smiled at me. “Have a good nap,” she said. “Love you.”

  Her soft declaration of affection socked me in the heart. I swallowed. “Love you, too.”

  She turned and shut the door behind her.

  I waited until I was sure that the girls were gone, and then sprang into action. I exchanged my shorts for pants and my sandals for boots. I tied my braids back at the nape of my neck and peeked outside my front door.

  Mid-afternoon, when the sun was highest in the sky and the hottest part of the day, was when the clavas grew quiet. Most of the warriors were eating or resting after their morning training session. Later, they’d assemble for their second workout of the day. This was their free time, and they often spent it in the dining hall playing games of chance or working on their bikes.

  I climbed out the window at the back of my hut, dropping to the ground with as little noise as possible. The gates would be tricky. Warriors manned them at all times in rotating shifts, but the goal of the guards were to keep anyone from coming in, not to keep anyone from leaving.

  I hid near the gates and took advantage of a shift change. Two warriors walked outside to greet the guards they were relieving. The gates stayed open, and that was when I slipped outside, hiding in a nearby bush. Thanks to Drak, I knew how to walk with stealth, and cheered silently when the old guards returned inside. Of course, when I came back, I was going to have to be let in. I’d deal with the consequences then. At least I’d have my flowers.

  When the new guards were occupied for a minute exchanging pleasantries, I stole farther away from the gates. It felt good to be in the forest again, the dewy leaves brushing my skin and the air ruffling the fine hairs on my arms. I smiled to myself as I spotted the first purple flowers only about a half mile from the gates.

  I went to work plucking as many as I could, bundling the stems with a piece of vine. Drak would love these, and I smiled to myself as I imagined his aura glowing a delighted heat as he caught sight of them near our bed.

  The girls could yell at me when I returned. I turned to make my way back and spotted a familiar shape to the right in the distance. The color resembled a Drixonian—the varying hues of blue were too blurry to make out though. Was someone there? Injured? I’d have to go slightly off path to investigate, so I dropped a few petals from one of the purple flowers to signal the way back.

  As I walked closer to the shape, my heart sped up. Black liquid stained the dirt, and the shape moved just a low moan filled the air. I darted forward, a shout on the tip of my tongue just as the blue body rose and stepped closer to me. My mouth fell open as I took a step back. A face came into focus, and it was then I realized I had stumbled upon Crius. A bruised and bloody Crius, who now shot me a resigned sneer. “Took one of you long enough to leave those walls,” he snarled.

  Flee! My mind screamed at me, but it was too late. He lunged for me, and I fought, kicked, and hit, but Crius, even injured, was too strong for me. I fought anyway I could as he shoved a gag in my mouth and tied it at the back of my head. I screamed; the sound infuriatingly muffled by the fabric.

  He knocked my carefully picked bouquet out of my hands and lashed my wrists together with a rope. He held the other end and yanked.

  I stumbled forward onto my knees. Tears streaked down my face. Drak. What would happen to Drak when he found out I was taken? I tried to reach him with my aura, but surely he’d feel my panic, my terror. Oh God, what had I done? All for a few pretty flowers?

  “Get up,” he hissed at me.

  I shook my head and flipped him the bird, a gesture we’d taught the Drixonian, so I knew he understood the meaning when his eyes narrowed dangerously. I didn’t give a fuck. Did he think I was going to make this easy on him? Hell no.

  Crius wiped the blood from his face. “If I have to carry you all the way to Alazar, I will. They did this to my face for failing once already.”

  Panic seized my limbs and I went still. No, he couldn’t take me to Alazar. Once I was inside the Uldani’s fortified city, I was as good as dead. Or knocked up.

  When I refused to get up, Crius growled and tossed me over his shoulder. When I kicked, he tied those two with a piece of vine. Trussed up like a turkey, I couldn’t do much. But one thing Crius missed was that when I’d fallen, I’d picked up a handful of my purple flowers.

  So, I did the only thing I could think to do. Steadily, as we marched to my fate, I dropped violet petals, like a trail of breadcrumbs. I could only hope Drak would find me. I could only hope I hadn’t ruined both of our lives.

  Fifteen

  Drak

  I didn’t even remember the journey back to the clavas. My head burned with Merr-anda’s panicked aura. All I could do was hold onto the fact she was alive. If she was scared, that meant she was breathing.

  Daz and Sax said their females’ auras
were calm, so we were confident the clavas wasn’t under attack. But that was barely a blip in my mind. All I was focused on was Merr-anda’s bloom as it shook and shivered with a dull gray color.

  I raced to the gates to find the two guards standing in position. Their eyes widened in alarm as I barked a throat-searing, “Open!”

  Daz was on my heels, pounding the Earth. “Open the gates. All warriors on duty. Search teams. Find Drak’s mate. Now!”

  The gates flew up, and Daz’s well-organized clavas flew into action. Shouts arose from various points in the clavas as the teams assembled, each with their own region of the compound to cover. I headed directly to our room at a dead sprint, Ward at my side. I burst through the door, and it splintered beneath my fist.

  I would have given anything to hear Merr-anda’s angry shout as she reprimanded me for breaking the door, but the room was empty. All that remained was her plants, which seemed dulled and lifeless in her absence.

  Her aura continued to shake, and pain streaked through me as a petal from her golden bloom fell to the ground. “No,” I cried, clutching my head.

  Ward’s hands braced me, keeping me on my feet, as feet trampled the ground in the desperate search for her. I shoved Ward away and stumbled outside, unsure what to do or where to go. Daz appeared amid the dust kicked up by dozens of boots. His mate jogged at his side, her face red, her hand splayed over her swollen belly.

  “She told us she was going to take a nap,” Frankie cried. “I don’t understand where she could be.”

  “Drexel!” shouted a voice from the front of the gates. I ran blindly toward the voice, Daz overtaking me as we reached a warrior who stood over a print in the moist dirt outside the gates, hidden in the shadow of the wall.

  “That’s not from one of us,” he said. “Too small.”

  He was right. It was Merr-anda’s boot print. I knew because I’d seen those prints every day mixed with mine in the wet bank of our spring.

  She wouldn’t have left on purpose, but I tracked the boot prints as they continued in her gait away from the walls. I followed them, ignoring the breathing of Daz behind me as he followed. I didn’t need him here. All I needed was to follow these tracks to my mate. Maybe she was attacked by a welf, or a pivar pack. The Rizars wouldn’t travel this far…

  Suddenly her boots came to a stop. I frowned and looked up. All around me were patches of purple blooms—her favorite one that she picked every day around our hut.

  Boot prints mingled with each other, showing she walked around this clearing, and when I ran my hand over the blooms, I could tell some had been picked.

  She’d left the gates for blooms. Blooms that I’d loved the most, and she’d known, because she’d noticed my reaction. I fell to my knees. What had happened? Where had she gone?

  “Drak,” Daz said.

  I glanced up to see him pointing to a large petal left on the ground. The tear was clean, as if made by a human hand… “She left this,” he said, brow furrowed as he studied the ground. Suddenly he jerked forward. “Here, more boot prints. She walked this way.”

  I took off after him as we followed her prints until we came upon the scene of a struggle. A pool of black blood lay nearby amid some trampled underbrush. Large boot prints mixed with hers, and dread sank down into my feet just as Daz hissed, “Crius.”

  Daz jerked his comm from his pants pocket and began to speak into it, but I wasn’t paying attention to him. A spot of purple caught my eye, and I took a step to find it was another torn petal. Frowning, I picked it up, running my fingers over the bruised petal. I glanced up to see another petal further away, amid even more large boot prints. I no longer saw Merr-anda’s. But the petals… They were a sign.

  She’d left me a trail. My smart, beautiful mate. She knew I’d come for her. And I would. Nothing would keep me away. I started out at a dead run following the purple petal path.

  Daz shouted my name, but I kept going. I didn’t need his help. All I needed to do was focus on the petals. I’d find her, and I’d bring her back. I’d brought her here to keep her safe, and she still wasn’t. When I got her back, I’d lock her away until she couldn’t—

  A steady vibration shook the air around me, and my steps faltered. What was that sound? The buzz grew louder until I could barely hear myself think. I whirled around, machets out, ready to face the attacker when a formation of bikes roared out of the trees, Daz at the help and a dozen warriors fanned out behind him. Tethered to the back of his bike was another bike. Mine. I lowered my machets, because even I remembered raising them to my drexel meant a challenge.

  He dropped his bike to rest on the ground, and the warriors behind him followed his example. He eyed me over his handlebars. “Drak.”

  “You delay me,” I said over the rumble of the machines. “She left a path. I follow…on foot.”

  Daz was silent for moment before he swung a leg over his bike and dismounted. He strode toward me, his gaze taking me in. “And what do you plan to do once you find her?”

  “I will kill Crius and rescue her—”

  “Crius is working with the Uldani. He might be taking her to Alazar on his own, but what if he’s not? What if he is traveling with a squad of Kulks? Do you have any idea how many you’ll have to fight on your own? If you die, what’ll happen to her then, huh, Drak?”

  I gritted my teeth. I didn’t have time for this, I had to keep going—

  Daz gestured behind him. “Drixonians are faster on our bikes and stronger together. We can take on five times as many Kulks. More than you alone, Drak.”

  “No one … will fight harder for her … than me,” I said through clenched teeth.

  He tore his hands through his hair, agitation shimmering in his eyes.

  “You brought her to us because you admitted you couldn’t keep her safe with the Kulks after her. So now we’re here, standing with you. Fighting with you.”

  When I didn’t respond, he dropped his head to stare at his feet before meeting my gaze with eyes burning a bright violet. “I’m sorry, Drak. We are all sorry. But you are no longer alone. I know you don’t feel like we can help you, but we can. We are here, right now, fighting for you and your mate. That is what Drixonians do. You are one of us. You always were.”

  The words were simple, and since losing my voice I hadn’t placed much value on words. Until now. They weren’t just words—they were feelings with meanings and a promise. I’d spent so much time fighting on my own that I felt comfortable still fighting. Still battling. Still carrying that resentment deep in the pit of my stomach.

  But I took a moment to clear my head, to really think about this. Daz had a point. If Crius had a squad of Kulks as backup, I’d be out of luck on my own. The last time I’d try to fight Crius and Kulks, I’d ended up beaten. Fleck my feelings. Fleck my pride. I needed Merr-anda back. Daz and the Night Kings would help me do that.

  I nodded, and Daz’s shoulders sagged. He let out a long breath and retreated to his bike. He untethered mine and gestured to it. “It’s all yours.”

  The bike sat between Ward and Gar. They watched me as I walked toward it and ran a hand over the body. The newly polished antella leather of the seat shown. I threw a leg over it, and with an exhale, sank down into it. Memories flashed. Riding with Ward. Laughing at Sax and Xavy as they raced. Rubbing oil into the leather to keep it supple.

  The smell of the fuel surrounded me as I turned on the bike. The rumble underneath me felt like coming home, a steady purr vibrating through my body, infusing my blood with adrenaline and the need to fight. To draw the blood of those who dared to hurt my mate.

  I revved the engine and nodded at Daz. A smile tipped his lips before he turned around. We rose into the air as one fighting force, and following the trail of purple petals, we raced to battle for my mate.

  Miranda

  I was fucking over this. The rope around my wrists hurt like hell and I had run out of flower petals about a mile ago. Crius hadn’t noticed I’d plucked every single inch
of the bloom until I began to shred the stems too. Now my hands were empty, but I hadn’t stopped squirming or trying to yell around the gag he’d placed in my mouth. If he wanted to trade me to the Uldani shitheads so they could make me a breeder, I was going to make his life hell.

  He hadn’t hurt me, but I didn’t trust him to follow the She is All creed. I couldn’t understand why he was injured though. Had he run into a pivar back? I didn’t really care, but it was a clue that remained unsolved, which sat like a splinter under my skin.

  My strength began to flag. My stomach and hips were sore as hell where they kept bumping against Crius’s hard shoulder as he ran. My head swam from hanging upside down for hours on end. If he didn’t let me down soon, I was either going to throw up or pass out. Maybe both.

  I tried to remain optimistic. The light of Drak’s aura was angry, flames bursting forth from the orange ball. He knew something was wrong, but did he have any idea where I was? Like an idiot, I hadn’t told anyone where I went. I’d tried to be as stealthy as possible. Where was he looking now? Dread churned in my stomach.

  As the sun set on the horizon, we slowed to a walk, then a stop. Crius tossed me on the ground like I was a sack of potatoes before whistling sharply. I tried to gather my legs under me, but my limbs weren’t working right, and the restraints made standing nearly impossible. I had just risen to my knees when the trees in front of me rustled. The pit of dread in my stomach widened to a gaping black hole when at least two dozen Kulks emerged.

  “No,” I moaned through my gag.

  Crius gestured to me. “She’s here. Now where’s my flecking information?”

  “Orders were you are to travel with us to make the delivery,” a large Kulk said. “You’ll get your reward then.”

  Crius’s nostrils flared. “I was told all I had to do was bring her to the check point.”

  The Kulk shrugged, unbothered. “Those were my orders.”

  “Flecking worthless.” Crius muttered under his breath. He sliced the vine at my ankles and hauled me to my feet. I rose on unsteady legs. “You’re walking this time, or I’ll have one of them carry you. Trust me, he’ll knock you out first.”