The two males bowed their heads, and between them, Jayce trembled. Her uncertainty flowed over the new mating bond, and Macar-Na brushed his lips to her ear. “Are you all right, beautiful one?”
“I...” Her gaze pinged between the two of them, and under the white tunic, her nipples pebbled. Her arousal perfumed the air, and she nodded. “Y-yes. I just...Earth...”
He did not know what to do to reassure her. They would not leave Earth. Not unless they were forced to or if the Exogens won the war.
The leader of the Council, a male named Tavor-Da, stepped forward and rested a hand on each of the males’ shoulders. “We, the Council, bless this union of our king, our Trident General, and the human, Jay-aayce.”
Macar-Na and Torin-Ka let out matching sighs of relief and tightened their arms around their mate. “Report,” Torin-Ka ordered with a pointed stare at Jasiv-Ma.
“Bikam-Za has brokered a deal with one of the leaders of the Earthen people. The Kivari will be allowed to settle somewhere called ‘the United States’ if we can defeat the Exogens and return peace to the Earthen lands.”
At his side, his mate blew out a shaky breath and peered up at him. “We can…stay?”
“Yes, mate. But your lands are under attack. We cannot let the Exogens find a stronger hold than they already have.” Macar-Na leaned down to kiss Jayce gently, and on her other side, Torin-Ka did the same.
Jasiv-Ma cleared his throat. “Sire, we sent the four regiments you ordered, and they defeated many of the second wave of Exogens in the battlefield that is…Ohio?” The general looked uncertain of the word, and Macar-Na moved to the wall screen and brought up a map of the land mass called the United States.
“Here, sire,” Jasiv-Ma said, stalking over and pointing at a large, mostly flat area on their satellite scans. Zooming in, he shook his head. “Most of the structures in this region have been destroyed. But there are several manufacturing facilities here.” Indicating a square of the map with a handful of tall structures and few trees, Jasiv-Ma turned to his king. “The Exogens have taken a group of humans hostage and are using them as shields. The leader has offered to surrender if we promise them safe passage out of Earth’s atmosphere—but he will only speak to the leader of the Kivari people. You, sire.” Bowing his head, the general took a step back into the crowd.
Hostages. “Are the humans injured?” Macar-Na asked as he met Torin-Ka’s gaze. They had found their mate only two clicks from where Exogens were now. Some of those taken could be known to her.
“Uncertain,” the general replied.
“Torin-Ka?” Macar-Na rejoined his mates. “We must consider the possibility that this is a trap.”
“I am certain it is.” Torin-Ka’s focus shifted to Jayce. “They wish to end me, in the hopes it will make us all easier to kill.”
“No,” Jayce whispered. “Don’t—“ Pure terror churned in her eyes, and Macar-Na started to hum under his breath. The sounds calmed her, and she melted against his side. He shifted her between him and Torin-Ka, and they both wrapped an arm around her waist.
A series of beeps sounded, and a message scrolled across the display screen.
One Earth hour, or we will slaughter the humans.
The map of Ohio dissolved, revealing what looked to be a live image of a group of perhaps fifty to sixty humans, all huddled together. Jayce cried out and tore away from them, stumbling forward until she could touch the image of one particular female. “Laura…”
“Who is…Laura?” Torin-Ka asked as he rushed to her side.
“My best friend. She’s…like my sister.” Tears streamed down Jayce’s cheeks, and she looked up at the two males with fire in her eyes. “She’ll die.”
Macar-Na met Torin-Ka’s pained gaze. The king turned his back on the rest of the room and pulled Jayce and Macar-Na closer as he bowed his head. “She will not, my mate. Not if I can help it. I know this is a trap, but it is one I enter into willingly, if it saves those you love.”
“But what about…you?” Jayce said. “What if I also…l-love…?”
Torin-Ka stopped her with a kiss. “Do not say the words now, my beautiful one. They cannot be taken back. I will do my best to return to you.” He reached out and cupped Macar-Na’s cheek. “To both of you.”
Macar-Na felt her panic. As much as he wished he could soothe her, he could not. The male he had fallen in love with many moons ago was going to sacrifice himself to save their mate’s people. Torin-Ka was highly intelligent, a warrior with unmatched battle skills, and now, with the mating energy flowing through him, had every reason to fight—and win. But they had bonded. If he died, Macar-Na and Jayce would never be complete.
“Why is this happening?” Jayce asked as she buried her face against Torin-Ka’s chest. “Any of it. All of it.”
“Your people are defenseless, my mate,” Torin-Ka said softly. “Your planet...now that it has been discovered by others in the galaxy...it will be a target. We must put a stop to this now if your people are ever to be safe again.”
She tipped her head back, tears staining her cheeks. “And you can do that? Stop them?”
“I do not know. The Exogens have been our enemies for thousands of moon cycles. We have tried to defeat them so many times, and we have never succeeded. But never have we had such a reason to fight before.”
“What reason?”
“You. Our queen. And a chance at a new life, here on your planet. We will do whatever we can. Fight harder than we have ever fought before.”
Macar-Na clasped Torin-Ka’s arm and squeezed. “You must go. But you will not go alone.” He turned to the rest of the assembled generals and straightened his shoulders. “Your Queen’s planet is in danger. Who here will fight to save it?”
As one, all of the assembled stomped their feet and uttered the Kivari battle cry, “For Kivari! For Freedom. For Life!”
Torin-Ka
With a final check of his weapons, he turned back to his mates. Macar-Na had armed himself as well, and would wait in the shuttle craft for Torin-Ka, but they had both forbidden Jayce from going with them. When his gaze landed on her, though, he saw she’d removed the royal blue robe and white tunic and had pulled on one of his shirts and a pair of Macar-Na’s pants, and secured the clothing with a torn strip from her tunic.
“I need shoes,” she said, glaring at the two males. “Where are the ones I was wearing when you brought me here.”
“You are not going,” Torin-Ka said as he nodded to his second in command and headed for the door.
“I am. The two of you are risking your lives for my people, and you don’t know anything about Earth, do you?” Arching a brow, she side-stepped him and put herself between him and the door. “It’s Christmas Eve. Everyone’s scared—and not just of the Exogens. They’re scared of the Kivari too. If I go with you, maybe it’ll help them trust you, and they can help you fight.”
“She has a point,” Macar-Na said.
He did not want to risk her life—or Macar-Na’s. But his mates were correct. Jayce’s presence would help the humans, and it would delay the moment he’d have to leave her—possibly forever.
Striding over to one of his storage pods, he tapped the access panel, waited for the door to slide open, and removed her shoes. They were odd. Thick, cushioned soles with writing he could not read inside. CROCS.
“Very well. But you will stay with Macar-Na and obey our orders at all times. Do you understand?” He held out the shoes and fixed Jayce with a hard stare.
“Sure.” The glint in her eyes confused him. Their mate had a strong, independent spirit to her, and he feared she was planning on joining the fight.
As she reached for her shoes, Torin-Ka took her hand, pulled it towards him, and snapped a tracking bracelet around her wrist.
“What the hell?” Jayce sputtered. The bracelet beeped, and a subtle glow illuminated her skin. “What did you just put on me?”
“A tracker. I will not risk losing you.” Tapping his communications dev
ice, he waited for one of his generals to answer.
“Yes, sire?”
“I have given the Queen a tracking bracelet. The code is 82390. If you lose contact with me at any time during this operation, you will use it to retrieve her and ensure her safety. Confirm.”
“Confirmed, sire.”
“Retrieve me?” Jayce shoved at Torin-Ka’s chest and he stumbled back in shock. “I’m not your property, you big, green, tree stalk. I don’t need retrieval. And if anything happens to the two of you, like hell am I going to come back here. I’m going to kill the pieces of shit who hurt you. And my people. Now take this off of me.”
“No,” the two males replied in unison.
She pulled at the glowing metal with an aggravated groan. “Take. It. Off.”
Torin-Ka wrapped his arms around her stiff form. “Mate, please,” he said with as much humbleness as he could force into his tone. Humans were difficult, stubborn, and proud creatures. So very unlike a Kivari female. He had always assumed he would one day mate, but never imagined it would be like this. Feel like this. Hurt like this. “I need to know you are safe. Otherwise, I will be distracted during whatever battle is coming.”
She softened, relaxing against him with a sigh. “Fine. But at least give me a weapon.”
“That, I can do.”
8
Jayce
The shuttle was spacious with only three passengers. The rest of the Kivari warriors had taken larger shuttles down to the industrial area of Akron, Ohio, and were currently waiting for their king to arrive and lead them.
Nerves fluttered in Jayce’s stomach. She could run. She’d have to figure out some way to get the damn tracking bracelet off, but if she could make it to her apartment, she had tools that might do the job.
But the connection she felt with these two aliens was unlike anything she’d ever experienced on Earth. Dating had always felt...wrong, and she wondered...was that because she was meant to be with Torin-Ka and Macar-Na? Or because she was simply meant to be alone?
Behind her, Torin-Ka nuzzled her neck, pressing a kiss to the sensitive spot behind her right ear. “Remember your promise, mate. You will stay with Macar-Na at all times.”
A shiver ran down her spine, one of pure need and desire, and the loose pants she’d stolen from Macar-Na were suddenly damp. Apparently, the Kivari didn’t bother with underwear.
“And you?” Jayce said as she turned in his arms. “You’ll promise to be careful? To come back to us?” She could feel Macar-Na’s worry from the pilot’s chair at the front of the craft. She didn’t know how she could sense his emotions, but she definitely could. Torin-Ka kept his thoughts walled off, except for brief moments like now, when she felt his resolve and his pain.
“I will.” The deep bass of his voice rumbled in his chest, and she wound her arms around him and inhaled deeply. He smelled so good. So strong and pure and...hers.
“We are approaching the landing zone,” Macar-Na said. “Strap in.”
They did, and Jayce watched with pride as Macar-Na set the craft down so gently, she barely felt the jolt.
The world they stepped out into looked nothing like the Akron she’d known. The trees were mostly burnt down to their stumps, sidewalks cracked and broken, and the stench...the stench was everywhere. Jayce gagged and turned to Torin-Ka, trying to take in as much of his scent as she could.
The three, along with a contingent of Kivari soldiers, headed for the hospital—her hospital—where the human leaders were apparently holed up. The Exogens had agreed to honor the hospital as a sacred place until the deadline they’d given.
“Jayce?” Her boss, Beckett, raced over to her. “We thought...the pub was destroyed.” He grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace, and her two mates both growled. They each took one of Beckett’s arms and shoved him up against the wall where they held him two feet off the ground.
“Stop! Both of you! He didn’t mean anything by it!” Jayce jumped and tried to pull her mates off of her boss, but neither of them budged. “Let. Him. Go.”
Torin-Ka glowered at her. “He touched what is ours.”
“He’s my friend.” Jayce ducked under their arms and came between the two Kivari males and Beckett. “This is how friends act on Earth. We hug. Sometimes shake hands. He’s married with two kids. Mated. Do you understand?”
Macar-Na looked over at the king, then down at Jayce. “We cannot change our natural instincts, sweet one. Kivari are...possessive.”
“No shit.” She rested her fingers on both males’ arms and softened her tone. “I’m here. With both of you. But if we’re going to get through this, you need to trust me.”
They released her boss and stepped back, but only a few inches. Jayce huffed. It was the best she could do. “Beckett, is everyone here okay?”
The man’s eyes darkened, and he rubbed his arms where her mates had held him. “Who the hell are these guys, Jayce?”
Her cheeks flushed red. “Um, I sort of...married them. Both of them. They’re Kivari, and they’re here to help fight those disgusting bugs.”
Beckett didn’t look like he wanted to trust her any more than he wanted to trust Macar-Na and Torin-Ka, but after a moment, he nodded. Jayce’s eyes watered as he wearily recited nine names—all men and women she’d known from the hospital—he knew had died, and another six missing. “My wife...I don’t know where she is. Or the kids.” Tears welled in his eyes, and he swiped them away.
“What are you...they doing here?”
“The Exogens—the bugs—they said they’d release the hostages they’re holding in the old steel plant if Torin-Ka came to negotiate with them.” Jayce linked her fingers with her mates and pulled Torin-Ka’s hand to her heart. “Do you know where the highest government official is? The mayor? The governor? I don’t know—“
“The President is here,” Beckett said quietly. “In the north wing, surrounded by Secret Service. And a couple of them.” He nodded towards her mates.
“Then that is where we must go,” Torin-Ka said. “Jayce, you must show us the way.”
Jayce kept her hands clasped tightly with her mates as she leaned closer to Beckett. “Don’t lose hope yet. Mary and the kids could still be alive. We’re going to stop those bugs and get our planet back.”
As the three of them headed for the north wing, Jayce thought she heard Beckett reply, “I hope so.”
Twenty minutes later, Torin-Ka wrapped her and Macar-Na in a desperate embrace. “You are both mine, and I am yours. My soul is complete, and if I meet my end today, I will do so with pride, because my death will be for the two of you.”
“Don’t go,” Jayce whispered. “Please.”
“I must.” He kissed her then, so thoroughly, she felt it down to her toes, then shifted his attention to Macar-Na. The two males faced off, both stiff, their faces unreadable, until Macar-Na stepped forward and traced a finger over Torin-Ka’s jaw.
“My king. My lover. My mate,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “Use our bond to strengthen you, and come back to us.” Macar-Na rose to his full height and sunk his hand into Torin-Ka’s long hair, pulling him down so their lips touched. The contact let loose a storm of emotion that knocked Jayce back two steps, and she watched in wonder, need pulsing through her stronger than she’d ever felt before, as the two males she’d mated with took the kiss deeper, into almost a frenzied war of tongues and teeth.
When they separated, both were hard, and Torin-Ka closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and apparently willed his cock to return to a more normal size.
“You will be able to communicate with me,” he said to both of them. “Unless they jam the signal, you will always hear me. And I will always hear you.” His touch lingered on both of their ears for a moment, and Jayce realized the translation devices that allowed them to understand one another were also like two-way radios.
“Don’t make me listen to them kill you,” she said, her voice raspy. “If you do, I’m going to come down there
and kick their asses. And yours.”
Torin-Ka nodded and backed away. “I will do my best.”
And then, he slipped out the door, and into the night.
Torin-Ka
Marching across the destroyed landscape, his boots crunching in the ice layer covering the ground, Torin-Ka gripped his weapon in one hand, and kept the other loose at his side. Here and there, remains of buildings smoldered, some with bright decorations in red and green. The trek felt like an eternity, and used almost every Earth minute of the time he had left before the Exogen’s deadline.
He had two daggers strapped to his thighs, several extra charging cartridges for the blaster, and a piece of his mate’s nearly destroyed human clothing tucked into his pocket. He’d told no one about that little bauble—some round hard piece that seemed to serve as a fastener. But he wanted a piece of her with him at all times.
Every step away from his mates tore at his heart, and he could sense their wariness and fear even as he strode away from them.
Stopping a hundred paces from the large building where the Exogens were hiding, he aimed a blast at the very corner of the roof. “Show yourselves and surrender. I am here as you requested, and my patience grows thin.”
Behind him, a hundred Kivari stood in formation. He was not alone. They would defend him to the death. But it would not come to that. He would die long before his warriors. It was the honorable sacrifice.
A hissing sound from the building started to build, and a large door opened a fraction. “We will surrender to you, Torin-Ka, leader of the Kivari race. Come.”
“No. You will come to me.” He’d suspected they’d pull a trick like this, and he was prepared to go. But only if he had to.
“That was not our agreement,” came the hissing reply. “Come now. Or all you hold dear will be destroyed.”
One of the Exogen scum scurried out the door, and what it had clutched in its bony, black legs made Torin-Ka’s heart stop. Jayce. Bloodied. Beaten. She whimpered and forced her eyes open as the Exogen shook her.
Stars, Snow and Mistletoe: A Holiday Naughty List Collection Page 25