Survival, a YA Paranormal Romance (The Guardians of Vesturon Series, Book #1)

by A.M. Hargrove

  I woke with the sun the next morning, its amber rays bringing a picture of Maddie’s eyes to mind. I couldn’t remember returning home after my communing with the Deity. I couldn’t even recall climbing between the sheets and falling asleep. My mind, now solely focused on Maddie, didn’t allow any other thoughts to invade its depths.

  I began to visit her nightly. Initially, I thought I would just enter her dreams to ensure she was happy. What I discovered shocked me to the core. Her dreams were mirror images of mine. I saw through her mind, what I had seen in my own. Surely this had to mean something. Why else would our dreams be aligned? I had heard of this before, but only with bonded mates whose souls had merged. Maybe this was supposed to happen as part of our destiny.

  I came to the conclusion that I would need to air my dilemma with one of my brothers. My decision was made with Maddie. I would give her the choice of going to Vesturon or staying here. But first, I needed to inform Therron and explain my decision to him. I knew he would be hurt and upset with me, but as this was my destiny, I had no choice.

  Chapter 6

  “What is it, Rayn?” Therron inquired.

  “I need to make you aware of something. I tell you of this for two reasons: one, because I respect you as my brother, and two, because you would stand in my place if something happens to me. Make no mistake Therron, I do not seek your approval for this.”

  I explained my predicament and how I desired to take Maddie as my mate.

  Before I could say another word, Therron shrieked back, “What? What are you saying Rayn? You cannot be thinking of this! For the love of the Deity, she is human!”

  I quickly shot back, holding up my hand, “Therron, as I have already said, I am not asking for your approval or for your permission. There is so much more to this.”

  I raked my hand through my hair, which was my telltale sign of frustration. Then, I began my usual pacing. I knew in moments, Therron would be matching me, step for step. We always seemed to be in sync.

  “When we first saw Madeline, I felt an unbelievable magnetism, a force, drawing me to her. I tried by best to shake it, to deny it, to walk away and forget about it. But every day it kept growing stronger. Surely, you have noticed how strange I’ve been acting lately. Did you stop to think why I’ve spent so much time on patrol? Why I’ve been away so much?”

  Therron just stared back at me with a look of shock upon his usually calm face. His jaws were clenched, and I could see the little muscles on either side of his cheeks twitching.

  I was impossibly calm as I spoke. “I tried everything in my power to forsake this, but it was not to be.”

  I looked up to the heavens as I continued, “Do you remember that time when we were youngsters back on Vesturon and you just had to have that speedster—the fastest one made—but Father forbade it? You kept hounding him repeatedly, and he wouldn’t relent. So you took it upon yourself to find one and steal it. Do you remember?”

  “Remember? How could I forget that? I was punished for years, it seemed. I was banned from everything. Father was always so strict, and he was not pleased I had actually stolen the blasted thing. But what does this have to do with you?”

  “Think back Therron. Do you remember how you felt when you just had to have it?”

  Therron nodded. I could tell his thoughts went back, and he was remembering that day. “I did not think I could live without it,” he admitted.

  “Therron, what I am feeling now for Maddie is a billion times stronger than that. My protective instincts are in high gear where she is concerned. It is something I have never before experienced. I can feel her anguish and pain, like she is a part of me. It is not going away. Therron, I can feel her soul coiled around mind. I have even discussed this with the Divine Being.”

  “You did what? You called on our Deity? And received an answer? Are you insane?”

  We were now both walking in circles, our actions mirroring each other’s.

  I stopped and turned to face him. “I did. Maddie is my fate, my future. I had to call upon the Divine Being because I want to take her to Vesturon so that Julian can treat her spinal injury.”

  Therron abruptly dropped to the ground and placed his head into his hands.

  “Dear heavens above, what are you saying? If you do this Rayn, you will be imprisoned. Father will bring his wrath down upon you. You will be stripped of your rank and disinherited. You will become a criminal, and, worse, you will be treated as one. Do you understand what I am saying to you?”

  He arose and came to me and grabbed my shoulders. “Please, Rayn, for the love of everything, you must rethink this. I beg you. Please, do not do this.” His beautiful eyes were pleading with me.

  With more peace and serenity I had felt in days, I placed my hands on his shoulders and calmly replied, “I absolutely understand…everything. Therron, what I am saying to you is that I am willing to take that chance or risk anything for that matter. I cannot live with myself knowing she is out there, and there is something I can do for her. I struggled with this before we even returned her to the hospital. I knew if we did that, and cleansed her memories, she could go on with her life, without any interruptions from me.”

  I dropped my arms from him and resumed my pacing. “Her mind is strong, however, and every night, she dreams of me. Therron, we have dream walked together. I can no longer stay away from her, and I will be with her, if she will have me. I am afraid we are deeply connected, Therron.”

  “Is she aware of all of this? Wait, what are you saying? You have dream walked with her? That is impossible.” Therron just shook his head, as if he were trying to allow himself to understand all of this. “She is human; she does not have that capability.”

  “I do not know. I have heard of it in bonded mates, but never with a human. Therron, there exists something between us that I cannot explain.”

  “Does the human know any of this?” he asked, while we still walked in circles.

  “Not yet. I am planning on letting her choose what she wants. If she chooses to go to Vesturon for the cure, I will take her. If she refuses me, I will leave her be. I’m telling you this because if she chooses the latter, I can no longer stay here. I will request to return to Vesturon. That is why I needed to discuss this with you. Either way, you are going to be required to fulfill my role. If I take Maddie, I will most likely be rank stripped which leaves you as second in command here, to step in as Leader of the Guardians.”

  Therron stood up and came to me. I tapped into his thoughts and felt his torment.

  “My brother, I know this is difficult, but I beg of you to at least try to understand my position here. I know you understand me better than anyone, to the point of knowing me better than myself at times, so please find it in your heart to know that I do not choose this without great thought and trepidation. But also know that I would do anything for her.”

  He bowed before me, placed his hand over his heart, and spoke to me in the ancient language, “Brother of mine, I will stand at your back and protect you always. If this female is worthy of your love and honor, she too will have my protection.”

  I briefly laughed and said, “Therron, I am not sure if I am worthy of her. I am unsure if she will trust me enough to go with me. After all, we have wiped out her memory, and when I return it to her, she will know I abandoned her in the caves. I do not know if she will even want me.”

  “Rayn, one thing I do know about you is that when you set your mind to something, you will not stop until you achieve your goals. If your goal is to be with this female, then so you shall be. When do you go to her?”

  “Tonight. If she chooses me, I will bring her to our home after we return to Earth. Please say nothing of this to the others. I do not want them to have anything to hide from Father and his wrath. I would not be surprised if he were waiting for me upon my return.”

  Chapter 7

  I stood in the darkened corner and watched her sleep, as I had done countless times before. Her luxurious waves
of burnished copper fanned out across her pillow, beckoning to me. I drew in a ragged breath, apprehension sinking its cruel claws into me over what I had come to do. She must have heard me for she turned her head in my direction, her amber eyes attempting to pierce the darkness.

  “Who’s there?” she wanted to know.

  I felt her fear as it pierced my heart.

  “It is someone who cares deeply for you. I am here to take you away, if you choose this journey,” I replied as I stepped away from the corner and out of the shadows.

  I explained my presence as I approached her, in careful detail, to ensure she had a complete understanding of what I was offering her. And then she did the unthinkable; she refused me!

  My grief was so penetrating that I could barely speak. I picked up her hand, kissed it, and teleported out of there. I had to get away from her before I broke into a million pieces.

  I went straight to the mountaintop, and when I took form, a cry of anguish tore from my lips. I had been dealt the worst kind of blow imaginable. I never expected her to refuse me and hadn’t realized how much pain it would cause. It was merciless. I dropped to my knees and screamed. I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, and I instinctively knew it was Therron. I didn’t have to tell him a thing; he knew by my misery.

  “I am sorry, Rayn. If there is anything I could do, you know I would. Did she say why?” he asked.

  “I made the mistake of telling her the truth about the consequences of taking her to Vesturon. She said she would never allow anyone to take a risk like that on her behalf. I should have lied to her Therron. What am I to do?”

  “Huh. The Rayn I know wouldn’t give up so easily.”

  “Elaborate.”

  “For my entire life I have never seen you take ‘no’ for an answer!”

  He was right. I guess I had been overwhelmed by her rejection, as it was the one of the few times in my life I had ever been denied anything of importance. I could feel my eyes begin to blaze with fierce determination. I knew what I needed to do, and I would stop at nothing to gain it.

  “I can almost see the wheels in your mind spinning, Rayn,” Therron said with a smile. “That’s more like the brother I know.”

  BOOK THREE:

  MADDIE AND RAYN

  TOGETHER

  Chapter 1

  Maddie couldn’t suppress her thrill of seeing him again. He appeared before her, as he had several weeks ago, looking as magnificent as ever. He was definitely real and not imagined. As she was thinking this, she saw the corners of his mouth lift up in slight smile. She knew he could feel her thoughts.

  He again offered her the opportunity to join with him. “Maddie, you are always in my thoughts, a part of my heart and soul, my amashan. I want to take you to a place where the impossible is possible, to make all of this go away.”

  The choices presented to Maddie were extreme. Either give up her life as it was previously or give up her ability to walk again and live forever bound to a chair. She thought about Cat, January and school. She thought about her home.

  “I have a question for you. If I choose to go with you, where will I live?” she questioned Rayn.

  “I will work something out, but I promise you will be well cared for.”

  “Rayn, you know my life story. I remember telling it to you in the caves. I’m a survivor, and I’ll go on no matter what. But, I would be giving up a chance to live again, if I don’t go with you. When I refused to go with you the last time, I felt like a part of me was missing after you left. There is something between us that defies logic, that I don’t have an explanation for.”

  He’d raised his brows as she said that.

  “If I stay here, I stay alone and without you, and I don’t want to do that. So, my answer is yes; I’ll go with you; not because I’ll be able to walk again, that’ll just be the icing on the cake, but because with you, I have nothing to lose but everything to gain. I need to warn you, though. It seems I bring bad luck to those I care for. I would hate myself if anything bad happened to you. I know I’m rambling, but I have a tendency to do that when I’m nervous,” she said with a shaky laugh.

  “Maddie, I don’t believe in bad luck. Bad things just happen sometimes that we have no control over.”

  “What if we are not meant to be together? What then?”

  “Well, we will never know unless we give it a go, will we?”

  “So, when do we leave?”

  “Now. Right this minute. And we must not delay. I am taking you to a place that you don’t know exists. It is another world, Maddie. My world is much more advanced than Earth, which is how we can complete your healing. I am taking you to a Healer on my home planet. But do not think about all of this right now. When we return, I will answer any questions you may have. I want you to trust in me.”

  “Whoa! What do you mean ‘home planet?’ Are you an alien or something?”

  “Yes, something like that.”

  “What do you mean ‘something like that?’ Either you are or you aren’t,” she added.

  “Well, then, yes. I am an alien from another planet,” Rayn said.

  “Shut up!”

  “Why do you question me if you want me to shut up?” he wondered aloud.

  “No, it’s just slang. I don’t really want you to shut up. Are you serious? You are truly from another planet?” Maddie started to look around her room, her eyes darting everywhere.

  “Yes, seriously. What are you looking for?”

  “The cameras. Look, I know I can be gullible sometimes, but I am not dumb. I’m looking for the hidden cameras. Did Cat put you up to this?” Maddie wanted to know.

  “I do not know Cat, and no one has put me up to anything,” he responded indignantly. “I am taking a huge risk here by telling you these things, and now, you think it is a prank? I can assure you, Maddie, this is no joke or prank. I am one hundred percent serious here. I am truly from another planet, which is why I could not tell you anything while you were in the caves. Our medical advances will allow your injury to your spine to be repaired, and it will be as if this injury never occurred. You must trust me on this, and when we get back, I will explain everything in great detail to you.”

  “Okay. And we are getting there, how?” she inquired, her words dripping with skepticism. “Wait, don’t tell me. Your supersonic spaceship is parked outside the window waiting for us to jump aboard!”

  “No, we will not be using a Star Transporter today. Instead, we will be using a teleporting device. I must prepare you,” he replied so matter-of-factly.

  He held out his hand, and a holographic image of Maddie was projected from his shadar—the metallic shield that covered his hand. He waved it back and forth over her body.

  Maddie looked up to the ceiling and said, “Dear Lord, I have finally accepted that this man is not a figment of my imagination and that he is actually real. Now, I find out he is an alien from outer space. Are you kidding me?”

  Rayn was configuring his device and gave Maddie a puzzled look. “Can you not accept this, Maddie?”

  “I’m not sure what I can or cannot accept anymore. Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

  “I can assure you this is no joke,” Rayn answered with frustration.

  “What are you doing with that…that thing?” she asked curiously.

  Rayn replied, “This is a shadar. I am configuring your body mass for conversion to energy. It is required for teleporting. I want to warn you though; when your body returns to mass from energy, you will feel odd, maybe some dizziness, some nausea. Sometimes it can make you feel like you are suffering from motion sickness. I want you to be aware of this possibility so that you won’t be frightened.”

  “Yeah, right. So you’re telling me this is going to send me to another planet? Like, are you going to ‘Beam me up, Scotty?’” she asked sarcastically.

  “I do not know who Scotty is, but in a word, yes. This device will, in a sense, beam you over to my home planet.”

  “Okay,
the joke’s over. You can stop play-acting, Rayn, if that’s even your name. I’m done. The joke is on me, and you can have the last laugh. But I don’t think this was a very nice thing to do to me.”

  “Maddie, this is no joke, and I am not play-acting. I honestly am from Vesturon and this device, my shadar, has the capability to send us both there. We keep our existence a secret for obvious reasons and some not so obvious.”

  Rayn took Maddie’s hands in his and looked her in the eye and stated, “I am a Guardian, Maddie. It is against everything I have been taught, everything I know, to be dishonest. I would never joke about anything such as this. And as a Guardian, you have my most sacred word on this.”

  “But, how do you expect me to believe all of this?”

  “Because, as I just told you, it goes against my very being to lie and to be dishonest. I can sense your unease and skepticism, Maddie. Trust me for a little longer, and you will see for yourself.”

  Maddie nodded and said, “This is really freaking me out, but what do I have to lose, right?”

  “You only have things to gain, as you will soon see. As soon as I adjust the devices, we will be on our way.”

  He then moved his fingers over his shadar and asked, “Are you ready?”

  “Wait! I can’t go wearing my pajamas. Can you help me change?”

  She changed into her favorite pair of comfy shorts and a t-shirt.

  “Wait! Is this going to hurt or anything?” Maddie asked, still not convinced he wasn’t pulling her leg.

  “Not a bit. Except for maybe the motion sickness, you will have no effects at all.”

  “I’m not going to turn into a weird scaly animal or anything by accident, will I?”

  Rayn just shook his head at her, rolled his eyes, and gave her an impossible look.

  “Well, you never know. Of all the things I thought you might be, an alien wasn’t one of them. I mean I must have lost my mind. I barely know you other than your name is Rayn, and I have agreed to fly through the universe as an energy beam to go to a different planet to have my spinal cord repaired. Oh. My. God! I really have lost my mind. What am I saying? I think I’m having a panic attack. Please God, tell me I have not gone insane!”