Claimed by an Alien Warrior

by Tiffany Roberts

  “It’s horrible, isn’t it?” she asked, turning her face away.

  “I see you.” He cupped her cheek and guided her face back to his. “I will always see you, kun’ia. And you are beautiful.”

  Zoey’s smile began as a sparkle in her eyes an instant before it slowly spread across her lips. She settled her palms on his shoulders, and Rendash lowered himself just enough to wrap his arms around her, lift her off the floor, and draw her against him.

  Their mouths met in a sealing kiss, tender and raw all at once, filled with unspoken words. Her fingers delved into his crest, and she slipped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bed. Once there, he laid her upon it and drew back. The towel fell to the sides, revealing her bountiful curves. She lay before him, a vision of all that was beautiful, of all he desired, and everything else faded from his awareness.

  He worshipped her body from her toes to the top of her head, trailing his lips and fingertips over her soft, sensitive skin, lingering in every spot that elicited reactions from her. She accepted his attention without shame, without self-consciousness, and caressed his body with equal reverence. When he slid into her heat, she welcomed him.

  As their pleasure built, he saw the entire universe reflected in her eyes — all the joy, all the potential, all that was good and hopeful and kind. He saw Zoey. His Zoey. His kun’ia.

  When they climaxed together, it was the merging of two souls, of two beings who belonged to one another, who’d found each other despite the impossible distances between the stars and galaxies that had separated them.

  They lay together afterward, with Zoey atop Ren, bodies still connected. He knew in that moment without any doubt that the place didn’t matter. So long as he had her, he would be happy.

  Zoey rested her head upon his shoulder as she idly traced his chest scales and scars with her fingertips. Her fingers slowed, and she flattened her palm over his heart.

  “I didn’t think it was possible in such a short time,” she said softly, “but I love you. I wanted to tell you, wanted you to know, just in case…” She rubbed her cheek against him. “I wanted you to know before you left.”

  “I’ve heard you say love before. What does it mean?” he asked. She’d called sex lovemaking, and he’d not entirely understood it, then.

  “Come on, Ren. You know what it means.”

  “I want to know what it means to you, kun’ia.”

  “It means…everything.” Zoey raised her head and met his gaze. “It means I would go anywhere with you, do anything for you, make any sacrifice necessary to protect you because you mean everything to me.”

  He stared into her eyes and saw her words reflected, magnified, in their gray-blue depths. “I love you, also.”

  “You don’t have to say it because I did. I’m not… I wouldn’t hold it against you. I know you care about me, but—”

  “I love you, Zoey.” He combed his fingertips through her short hair; though it was different, it was still hers, still beautiful. “I claimed you as my own long ago. Kun’ia means my mate.”

  Her eyes widened. “That first time we…?”

  “Yes. As you slept afterward, I decided that I would take you with me when I left, if you wanted to come. But the more time we spent together, the more determined I became to take you regardless. I vowed to protect you, and this planet ceased to be safe for you when I entered your vehicle that first night.”

  He cupped her cheek with his palm and smiled at her, brushing the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone to wipe away a freshly-spilled tear. “Did you really think I would abandon you after all this, little human?”

  Her lower lip trembled, and she threw her arms around him, shoulders shaking with her sobs.

  “I did,” she mumbled against him. “I never thought…”

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, smoothing her hair with one hand. “I should have told you, Zoey. I didn’t want to burden you with the choice, when we had so much farther to go.”

  She raised her head and smiled, bringing her lips to his. He tasted the salt of her tears, the sweetness of her skin, everything that was Zoey.

  “You’re really going to bring me with you?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he promised, and then hesitated. “As long as the ship actually works.”

  “We’ll find a way, Ren. That’s what we’ve been doing all along. One problem at a time, one day at a time.”

  He kissed her again. “Yes, my mate. We will find a way. One day at a time.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Charles Stantz stood with his hands flat on the desk, leaning forward. The command trailer was quiet but for the hum of computer fans and the soft crackle of voices over the headset draped around his neck. He’d stopped paying attention to the comms more than an hour ago — not long after he’d sent everyone, Fairborough included, outside. They were only getting in his way. Fairborough’s team could find the pieces, but they were no help in putting those pieces together to solve the puzzle.

  Without taking his eyes off the monitors, he reached up, loosened his tie further, and plucked the cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. He flicked the ashes from its tip onto the floor and tucked the filter between his lips for another long drag. His lungs burned. A looming cough tickled his throat.

  He hadn’t smoked in ten years.

  Blowing out a lungful of stinking smoke, he shifted his eyes between the screens. The nicotine dulled the edge on his nerves.

  It had become increasingly troubling that Stantz’s imminent success — the recapture of the Fox and the subsequent reverse engineering of its alien technology — would be credited to the director’s leadership of the Organization.

  Stantz left the cigarette to dangle between his lips and returned his hand to the desk.

  The pieces: one escaped EBE — extraterrestrial biological entity — one twenty-seven-year-old Caucasian woman, five dead bodies, an injured police officer, and a growing trail of sightings. There was evidence in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, and rumors from at least six other states.

  A picture of Weston and Specimen Ten outside a Kansas rest stop. A stolen car with Colorado plates, reported missing in Vail on the day of the infamous video, found on a Kansas City backstreet. A small string of electronic terminals hacked from Colorado Springs to Indianapolis — four gas pumps and an ATM, the latter of which was in Kansas City, not far from the stolen car.

  He slid a mouse and keyboard closer and pinpointed the events and sightings on the map, from the Mojave to the Midwest. The Fox had slunk eastward since escaping. The trail seemed too perfect now, too obvious, for Stantz not to have guessed sooner. He’d have to commend the tech who’d discovered the small chain of hacked electronics, when this was all done.

  Stantz’s gaze flowed across the map. Ohio, next. They’d be in Ohio, and then…

  The cigarette fell from his mouth as he grinned. He didn’t notice the ash burning his hand. His phone rang, and he ignored it.

  Within five minutes, Stantz got Fairborough and all the techs back into the trailer and at their posts. He looked them over; they were a disheveled bunch, wearing their exhaustion openly, but they’d done decent work.

  They listened as he gave them their orders, and they dutifully set to their tasks. Only Fairborough hesitated, wearing that damnably judgmental look.

  “What about the woman?” Fairborough asked.

  “The woman doesn’t matter, beyond holding some kind of significance for my specimen,” Stantz replied. “Her presence will slow him down, but we can’t take special precautions for her sake, especially after she’s betrayed her country and her species. If she dies, at least her life will have contributed to the realization of something meaningful. If she lives, that’ll be one more subject to study.”

  “Sir, that’s…”

  “Necessary. A few deaths are meaningless compared to what we stand to gain from this.” Stantz placed a hand on Fairborough’s shoulder and squeezed. “
Now do your job and round up those helicopters.”

  Fairborough’s throat bobbed nervously, but he nodded and walked to his station.

  The Fox was priority one, and Stantz knew where he was heading now. They’d get the specimen, shut the director up, and push forward on their research with renewed energy and inspiration.

  Stantz glanced at Fairborough.

  And then a few assets that were incapable of comprehending the grand vision could be retired.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Zoey woke with an excited flutter in her chest, a surprising but welcome change from the anxiety that had pervaded her since leaving the cabin. There was plenty of uncertainty ahead — they were going to leave Earth! She didn’t know what awaited her in space, didn’t know what awaited on his planet, didn’t know if his people would accept her.

  But she knew without a doubt that she could face anything with Rendash at her side.

  They left before the sun had fully risen. The day was overcast and dreary, and the wet roads meant she had to use the windshield washer fluid constantly to wipe away the dirty mist kicked up by other cars. Zoey refused to let the weather bring her down.

  Ren guided her northeast, following the inner sense that linked him to his ship; he thought they were close enough to arrive before nightfall, if they were lucky.

  She enjoyed the conversation and the scenery. The country seemed increasingly forested the farther east they traveled, and it was unlike anywhere else she’d been. She’d spent most of her childhood in Midwestern farmland, where everything was green, brown, and gold, carefully ordered and cultivated. So much of this area seemed so wild, so primal.

  Their route took them through northern Ohio, across the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, and finally into New York. It was nothing like she’d imagined — any mention of New York usually conjured images of a city that made Los Angeles look tame in comparison, with towering concrete on all sides, millions of taxis, and people who’d sooner trample you than give you the time of day. She knew at heart those images were myths, at least to some degree, but it was so ingrained into American culture that it was hard to shake.

  This part of New York state was dense forestland that appeared unbroken for huge expanses. She wondered what it looked like when everything was green and alive, bathed in the sunlight, or when the autumn chill turned the leaves orange, red, and yellow.

  The drive was strangely relaxing, even if she kept checking the mirrors and oncoming traffic for signs of government agents in pursuit.

  I-90 took them along Lake Erie — which, to her disappointment, she didn’t get many good looks at along the way. They stopped for food somewhere south of Buffalo, and, despite the danger, she considered following the signs to Niagara Falls. It was an opportunity she’d never get again.

  Instead, she picked up a New York State highway map and spread it across the middle of the dashboard so she and Ren could look it over together.

  They used the SUV’s onboard compass to determine what direction they were facing, guessed at their current location, and tried to piece together some sort of plan.

  “It is somewhere around here,” Ren said, tapping his finger over a large, forested area on the map near the Adirondack Mountains.

  “That’s a pretty big search area. How do you know for sure it’s there?”

  He lifted another hand and waved to the northeast. “Because it is that way.” Then he moved his finger to Buffalo and slid it northeast, ending up in roughly the same place he’d originally indicated. “As we get closer, I am better able to pinpoint its location.”

  “I believe you. It’s just that, at least on this map, it doesn’t look like there’s much in the way of roads over there. Even if we get close to your ship, we may have to travel part of the way on foot, and that’s going to slow us down.”

  “I will carry you if it comes to that.” He smiled at her. “We are close, kun’ia. This long journey is nearly at its end.”

  “Yeah, it is,” she said, returning the smile.

  They continued their drive under a bleak gray sky, and Ren seemed to grow increasingly impatient as the miles passed. They saw another small convoy of black SUVs before they moved off the four-lane interstate, and not long after spied helicopters in the distance, neither of which eased their nerves. At various points on the two-lane highways, they were caught behind vehicles driving well under the speed limit, which almost pushed Rendash to fury.

  “I can get out and push them faster than they are driving!” he growled.

  “Control,” Zoey whispered to him, unable to keep from smirking.

  He snapped his head aside to look at her with low brows, but his expression crumbled after he opened his mouth and seemed to be unable to find any words. He shook his head and chuckled.

  His frustration was compounded again when it seemed that none of the roads led the right way.

  “We’re so close!” He thumped his fist on the dashboard. “This road is going to take us too far in the wrong direction.”

  Zoey reached across the space separating them, caught his chin, and turned his face toward her. “We’ll make it. Ren. Patience. You’ve been around humans too long.” Despite her best efforts to hold it back, her smirk had returned.

  “You’re the only human who’s influenced these changes in me, kun’ia,” he replied. He smiled, but the expression was strained.

  It was dark by the time they neared the small town of Lowville.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stop for the night?” Zoey asked as she held the button to spray the windshield for the thousandth time. The wet roads were likely to freeze over as the temperature continued to drop. “We could wait until it’s light out to search for the ship.”

  And I could have one more night with you before we leave for the unknown.

  “We have to keep going,” he said, turning his gleaming gaze toward her. “We’re close, but so are they. Any delay gives them that much more time to find us.”

  “Okay…but we do need to stop for some gas. We’re almost running on empty.”

  The tightness in his expression gave her the impression, for a moment, that he was going to refuse. Instead, his features softened. “Do you feel well enough to continue, Zoey? If you are tired, or need rest, we can stop for a while.” He settled a hand on her thigh and squeezed gently.

  Zoey placed her hand on top his. “I’m fine. I’ll just grab some coffee while we fill up.”

  A few minutes later — and with Ren cloaked — they pulled into a gas station on the western edge of town, lured by the out-of-place lights at the end of a dark residential street.

  Zoey opened her door and hesitated as she climbed out, frowning to herself. “Do you think they can track it when you hack the gas pumps?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “They may be able to detect some anomaly in the computers.”

  Biting her lip, Zoey nodded. “I’m just going to prepay with cash this time. Just in case. We have the money, and it’s not worth the risk after how far we’ve come. Do you need to get out to use the restroom or anything?”

  “No. I’ll be fine, Zoey.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right back.” She closed the door and crossed the parking lot toward the convenience store.

  A bell over the door jingled as she entered the store. Music played overhead — Christmas music; how had she forgotten that was right around the corner? — but it was otherwise quiet inside. Zoey returned the cashier’s friendly smile before walking to the coffee machines in the back of the store. She selected the largest available cup and filled it with the best-sounding flavor, closing her eyes for a moment to enjoy the rich aroma. The smell of brewing coffee behind the counter at Bud’s Diner remained a pleasant memory, despite everything.

  The bell jingled again, but she paid it no mind. Once her cup was three-fourths full, she added enough creamer and sugar that the mix couldn’t legally be called coffee anymore, plucked a lid out of the dispenser, and pressed it on.
/>   Did they have anything like coffee on Ren’s planet?

  She still couldn’t believe this was happening. They would be leaving Earth. That was a slightly more significant move than Des Moines to California and back again.

  Zoey turned, and her smile faded when she noticed a man standing nearby. Her coffee nearly slipped from her fingers. Not just a man, but a police officer, dressed in a heavy coat, staring at her through his sunglasses.

  Who the hell wore sunglasses at night apart from fugitives?

  Recognition hit her; she knew his face. Officer Asswipe. His uniform was different, but it was the same cop she’d spoken to the night she left Santa Barbara, the cop at the roadblock on the California-Nevada border. Why was he here?

  He’s not really a cop. He’s one of them.

  Ice filled Zoey’s veins, but she somehow plastered a smile back on her face. “Evening, officer.”

  He nodded slightly. “Ma’am. Cold night tonight. Where are you headed?”

  “Just visiting some family.” She stepped past him and placed her coffee on the counter in front of the cashier. “Twenty on pump two, please.”

  She fished the money out of her coat pocket as the cashier rang it up. “Keep the change,” she said. “Merry Christmas.”

  The cashier smiled widely. “Thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too.”

  Zoey grabbed her coffee and walked toward the door, fighting the instinct to run. No way he’d recognized her, right? There’d been hundreds of people going through the checkpoint that night. She’d been just one of many faces.

  “Ma’am,” Officer Asswipe called as her fingers touched the door handle. She froze, heart leaping into her throat, and turned to face him as his boots thumped over the tile floor.

  “Yes, officer?” She stared up at his sunglasses and swore she saw a tiny flash of light behind them, gone as quickly as it had come.