by Celia Kyle
Okay, that was pretty cool.
The building rose out of the ground like some gargantuan creature on all fours, beckoning them to come inside and witness a world often unseen.
Her eyes were wide as her attention flicked from side to side, drinking in the fantastical surroundings that fell around them in bright, gleaming tones of gold and bronze, shimmering floors, and walls of heavy marble cut cleanly from stone. Art—both terrestrial and alien—adorned the walls, lending a scholarly, historical weight to the location.
Everywhere Jenna looked, she saw something else intriguing to rest her gaze upon. A statue hewn of some mineral she didn’t recognize. A massive mural painted to glow and shimmer, playing optical illusions on the eyes as it was passed. Textiles hanging on the walls and spaced throughout the glossy floors all made of exquisite, intricate designs by hand or machine. She wasn’t sure which. Everything looked to be of the absolute highest quality.
But what stunned her the most was the presence of both humans and Drokten, collected together in the same space and interacting as though it was perfectly normal. Despite everything she had ever heard about the alien race—and their stoic, aloof behaviors when compared to the talkative social style of most humans—it looked as if the Drokten had no qualms about connecting with humans.
Clusters of humans and Drokten chatted together, discussing business like it was all second nature. She’d always assumed there was a stronger vein of segregation underlying the relationship between the aliens and humans, but she found little of that in front of her. Much smaller humans in business suits or casual designer clothing spoke in low, conspiratorial tones with the massive, shirtless, unearthly Drokten everywhere she looked.
Some of the Drokten they passed were highly intimidating—their many battle scars crisscrossed over their chests. A shiver ran down her spine as she dared to make eye contact once or twice.
Sevith held one of her hands as they walked, and Hiren held the other. She supposed this was her coming out as their future mate. Everyone had to know what that meant. She knew what that meant too.
And yet she continued on, announcing to the world that these two males were the ones she wanted.
Wow. Guess she was making that final decision, after all.
Just thirty minutes ago she’d told them both this was moving too quickly, and she needed to slow down. But she supposed she meant she wasn’t ready to get naked and have sex with them yet. It didn’t mean she wasn’t ready to commit. They’d already shown her how much they cared and what she meant to them during their mind meld in the kitchen. They’d shown their willingness to accommodate her siblings. Bea and Noah both wanted to move to the Avash.
And in fact, seeing them show her off like this to everyone they knew, and in fact to the world… her heart was bursting with pride.
The moment the two of them boldly reached for her hands, an imaginary door cracked open in her inner recesses, letting these two inside.
Conversations ceased as they passed and people as well as Drokten both fixed their gaze on Sevith and Hiren, and her. Tablets were lifted, recording her walk across the entry hall. Thank god she’d taken a moment to dress a little nicer and put some makeup on before she’d left the apartment! This was certainly going to be all over the news and social media in seconds. Everyone would be interested to hear that the commander of the Drokten fleet and Earth’s Drokten ambassador had taken a human female as their “girlfriend.”
Her life was never going to be the same. It looked like she was certainly giving up that job at the restaurant.
Hiren squeezed her hand. “Are you okay with this?” he asked. “Are you comfortable with this examination by your species?”
“Are you?” she shot back. “All of your men, everyone on your planet and in the fleet—they’ll all know soon enough that you’ve taken a human female on as your mate.”
“I want them all to see our gorgeous Oso,” Sevith answered. “And to know they must keep their claws off of you.”
“She’s ours,” Hiren softly growled.
Warmth spread across her chest. “And I want everyone to see the two males I’ve chosen,” she answered truthfully.
Sevith stopped in his tracks and stared down at her. “This is how you truly feel?”
“Yes,” she grinned.
Both males exchanged a loaded glance over her head, and then they continued on with their very public stroll.
She knew on some basic level that she was perfectly safe and secure between Sevith and Hiren, but… she couldn’t help her body’s reactions to memories of the last time she was here. She was grateful for how both of her warriors made her feel special and protected. The last time she’d come to Drokten Main, she’d ended up shoved into a makeshift holding cell.
“The last time I was here I was held by two guards and shoved into a cell,” she reminded them.
“Which you somehow managed to escape,” Sevith remarked. “And then we spent a harrowing night, and half the next day looking everywhere for you.”
Oops. Her lips twitched. It was kinda funny when he put it like that. These two big, important aliens searching for Jenna Perry was so very improbable, she couldn’t help but crack up.
“It isn’t funny,” he rumbled. “You are important to us.”
“Not funny,” she agreed, trying not to smile.
Hiren squeezed her hand again. “Don’t worry. No one is putting our Oso in a cell ever again.”
She smiled up at him. “Okay.”
It was true. These were totally different circumstances. This time she was an honored guest of not only two Drokten males, but quite possibly the two most highly regarded Drokten warriors.
Hiren and Sevith steered her through the crowd as they made their way across the space. Jenna grew confident enough to straighten her back and hold her head high. She could sense their protective impulses crackle in their every soft touch. They appeared placid on the outside, but inside, they were filled with frenetic, pent-up energy and it would not take much to set them off.
If anyone were to look at her wrong, they would jump to her defense. Full stop.
Knowing this boosted her confidence and gave a spring to her step as she grew more comfortable with her setting and this particular pair of escorts. They’d grown much closer today, especially after that embrace in the kitchen…and those kisses.
Those hot, hot kisses. Which made her wonder even more what it would be like to have them both in bed with her naked at same time.
A growl rumbled in Sevith’s throat. He looked down at her with heat in his eyes.
Jeez, how did he always know when she was thinking about sex?
She glanced away. No. No. No.
Now wasn’t the time for this. They were taking her to their quarters to show her around. There was a lot going on. They’d see the ship and where they lived and… She bit her lip. Or, wait, were they simply going to show her around? Was “showing you our quarters” code for “sex”?
She had no idea, and strangely she wasn’t as nervous about it as she had before.
As they moved deeper into the massive complex, they were distracted by a flurry of activity near one of the high-tech elevators down the great hall. Officials wore perfectly tailored suits and no-nonsense scowls as they crowded around one man who was the nucleus of the group. Jenna instantly sensed Sevith and Hiren bristle, and it didn’t take long for her to discover what unsettled them. Her heart sank as she squinted through the crowd to see the familiar, unpleasant face of Secretary Wells.
The very last person Jenna had any intention of running into again. Ever.
Dammit.
Yet there he was striding down the hall toward them, surrounded by an entourage of serious-looking men, even more than she’d seen him with in the past. Jenna vaguely wondered if anything new had happened that would make the man feel unsafe. What could threaten such a powerful man like the secretary that he would increase his guard detail? Maybe it had something to do with the plans s
he’d overheard him forming at the catered event?
Sevith and Hiren gave her a subtle squeeze, as though silently commiserating and confirming that they, too, were unenthusiastic about dealing with Secretary Wells. Jenna felt unsafe. She’d outed the secretary and then run away from him. This wasn’t going to go well.
Wells sported a disingenuous smile that didn’t reach his cold eyes. Her heart pounded and she experienced a sudden, powerful lurch in her stomach as her fight-or-flight reaction kicked in. She felt the urge to yank herself free of the Drokten’s grasp and barrel down the hallway in the opposite direction.
Sevith and Hiren seemed to sense her discomfort. Hiren put out a wave of calmness that washed over Jenna like a warm, fragrant breeze. The tension in her shoulders released a little and she inhaled deeply.
Secretary Wells stepped close, looking full to bursting with words. “Ah, Commander Sevith and Ambassador Hiren! We meet again. How fortunate,” he declared loudly, his fake enthusiasm echoing off the marble walls.
“Hello, Secretary Wells,” Hiren replied smoothly.
Sevith merely grunted in response.
“Sorry to impose upon you right now, but I do have some very important security information I must discuss with you two at length.” He glanced over at Jenna. “In private. Without the girl.”
“Secretary Wells,” Hiren began patiently. “After what happened last time, surely you can understand why we are hesitant to humor your policy in that regard.”
“She goes where we go,” Sevith replied flatly.
“Yes,” Hiren agreed. “Jenna Perry is our charge, but even more, she is our Oso. She belongs to us. Therefore, she will not be separated from us.”
A surge of indignation consumed Jenna and she wanted to insist that she did not belong to anyone except herself, but she bit her lip, not wanting to join the fray just yet. So far, the secretary seemed unconcerned with the fact that she’d disappeared from his holding cell and she didn’t want to remind him and awaken his ire.
“Well, now, I have studied the psychology and etiquette of your kind in great detail,” the secretary wheedled. “As far as I know, the mating bond is not instantaneous.”
“What are you attempting to imply?” Hiren ordered. “Speak plainly.”
Secretary Wells glanced at Jenna with a flash of pure, venomous distaste before straightening his false smile and explaining, “You three are not yet fully mated. Correct?”
“The claiming has not been completed. No,” Sevith reluctantly confirmed, his tone wary.
“Well, then, she is not yet yours and is not yet privy to such confidential information between factions,” the secretary explained. “She has not yet achieved the highest level of clearance.”
Jenna sensed both Drokten bristle at the secretary’s words, their need to defend her almost overwhelming. But she silently willed them to stay calm and not cause too much trouble on her behalf. To her surprise, she actually sensed their anger and aggression easing. Huh.
“How long will this take?” Hiren questioned.
Secretary Wells, realizing he’d won the battle if not the war, brightened. “Oh, I imagine it will only take a few moments. Not long, at all, really. I won’t keep you for an extended period,” he insisted. “In fact, we can go into that conference room over there and the girl can wait in the adjoining room. You will be able to keep an eye on her through the window. No tricks. No trouble.”
Funny. Jenna got the sense that something was afoot and the secretary could cause plenty of trouble.
Sevith narrowed his eyes. “Will she be guarded?”
“Yes, of course. I will assign one of my very own aides to stay at her side,” the secretary assured them. “Come now. We have much to discuss and very little time.”
Jenna was uneasy with this plan, but she figured that if Sevith and Hiren could see her, she could keep an eye on them too. And this time she wasn’t being “arrested” by two guards and put in a cell. She was just going to hang out in the next room while they talked business. Maybe there would even be coffee?
So, she reluctantly waved goodbye to her sexy new Drokten boyfriends and walked away with one of the secretary’s uptight aides into a tiny room. She could still sense Sevith and Hiren mentally and emotionally reaching for her as they separated into their own spaces, which soothed her somewhat until they were fully gone, and she lost the feel of their minds. And then she was alone without their presence.
And she didn’t like it.
As soon as the door was shut, the once-quiet aide whirled on her with rage in his eyes. What the hell? Jenna backed away and took a seat at a small corner table in the room. The aide slammed his fist down on the hard surface, making her jump and yelp with fear.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
She glanced around and realized they’d planned this out very carefully. She was seated in a corner of the room, behind a cabinet, which meant she was out of sight from the two-way window. Hiren and Sevith couldn’t see her or feel her. And since she was with an aide of such a high-ranking human and in the very next room for only a few minutes, she was certain her men thought she was fine.
Which meant she was totally on her own.
“Listen up, you low-class bitch,” the heavy-set man snarled. “You have been given a golden opportunity here to serve your people. Your country. Your own kind.”
“Did you just call me a bitch?” Jenna clenched her jaw and scowled up at him, her fear receding and replaced with anger. She leaned back and crossed her arms. “Who the hell are you?”
He slammed his fist down again, though this time Jenna barely flinched. Fucker. He was not going to scare her. She knew he couldn’t actually physically hurt her. If he did, Sevith and Hiren would kill him, and he knew that.
“Those two Drokten you’re fucking represent a massive threat to the safety and continuation of our species,” he sneered. “They are a pockmark, a scourge on our precious planet. They have a wealth of information the state could use against the Drokten occupation. You know why you’ve been brought here unless you’re a complete imbecile.”
“I literally have no idea.”
“You’re going to get us the information we need to rid us of the Drokten.”
Holy crap. This was the craziest plan she’d ever heard. “You want me to spy on them?” Spy on the two males who wanted to marry her, the males she cared so much for. Spy on the heroes who’d saved their world?
“Precisely,” the aide snapped. “We want you to give us any intel you can on how to take them down.”
“And I would do this… why?” Jenna scoffed and shook her head. Because never, in a million years would she…
Then the man whipped a photograph out of his pocket and slapped it onto the table.
Jenna choked.
Tears immediately burned the back of her throat. Bea and Noah. The photo was taken without their noticing, probably from a relative distance. However, there were no blue Drokten guards in the frame, revealing that there were plenty of opportunities for her innocent siblings to fall into the wrong hands.
She glared at the asshole in the room. “You’re blackmailing me?”
“I’m threatening you.”
“Leave my brother and sister out of this. It has nothing to do with them,” she warned.
“On the contrary, it has everything to do with them because it has to do with you and your bizarre, unholy bond with those two Drokten leaders. You’re in a prime position to get the kind of information we need to topple their oppression over our people,” the aide ranted.
“Oppression?” Jenna repeated incredulously, scoffing for good measure. “What are you talking about? The Drokten saved us from the Zignills invasion. We should be thankful.”
The man groaned in frustration. “We’ve traded one alien occupation for another. Either way, we are captives on our own planet and that is unacceptable. The human race is the singular species in the cosmos. We are meant to rule. Our planet was crafted solely for the
use of human beings. And you will be the one to give us the information we need to rid ourselves of these disgusting aliens.”
“But I—I don’t want to hurt them, and I don’t want anyone else to be hurt.”
“That’s too bad. You must make a decision. The Drokten bastards, or your own family. Take your pick, girl. But if you make the wrong decision, we will declare you an unfit guardian and you’ll never see your brother and sister again. We’re ready to take them from school right this moment and into foster care.”
Jenna’s heart raced as she tried to make sense of the whole thing. How could this have happened? All she wanted was to build a better life for her broken family and now she faced the very real, very believable threat of having Noah and Beatrice taken from her. She had already lost her parents. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing her siblings, too. Even if it meant treachery, betrayal, danger… They were hers to guard and defend, no matter the cost.
“We could never live in harmony with these Drokten,” the aide continued. “They will always seek to destroy and overtake us, through claiming our women, expanding their population, seizing land and properties for their own use… by any means necessary. And you, worthless girl, can do something monumental to alter the course of history forever. All you have to do is listen and learn, and whatever you discover, you pass on to us. That is your mission, should you choose to take it. And I highly suggest you accept. If you betray us, your siblings will be at risk. We’ll know if you try and betray us, and we’ll take those kids immediately.”
Jenna’ s eyes stung with tears, her emotions going haywire as she listened to the aide speak. She had already bonded with Sevith and Hiren. Her body, her soul, her everything longed for them. And yet… when she thought of losing Bea and Noah forever…
Jenna’s stomach soured into a dark pit of distress. There seemed to be no way out. And she made a decision based not in love, but in fear. It was the only option.