Hitched to the Alien General

by Mina Carter

  “Of course, my dear. You get some rest.” Dex reached out and captured her hand before she could move away, bringing it to his lips to kiss the back of her knuckles. It was all she could do not to yank it from his grasp and land a solid right hook in his jaw. “Sleep well.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured, pulling her hand back. “You too.”

  Walking away quickly across the catwalk to the nearest down ladder, she quickly readjusted her plans. There was no sense in trying to get over the wall tonight, not after the conversation with Dex. She doubted he’d come up there just to chat her up. No, he’d been checking she wasn’t doing exactly what she was about to and make a break for it.

  Plan b, she decided, climbing down the ladder with practiced ease. It wasn’t something that would give her away. As a trader, she’d have been up and down ladders into and out of cargo holds all the time.

  Her booted feet hit the ground and she walked off toward the building her room was in, rubbing at the back of her neck tiredly. But as soon as she reached the first set of shadows, she slid to the right and circled back around the main building instead. Keeping hidden, she moved fast, heading toward the workshops Xaan was being held in. She needed to let him know what she’d learned… that these assholes weren’t innocent colonists but career murderers.

  Her breathing rasped in her ears as she kept to the shadows and started to work her way across the compound. Halfway around, she paused suddenly, a sound in the shadows behind her making her freeze. Going down on one knee, she listened, trying to catch every little bit of sound. It had sounded like someone creeping up behind her.

  Shit. Her heart sped up a little. She couldn’t afford to get caught out here, not this late. While Dex was still chatting her up as a potential bedmate, she had a little wriggle room with certain things, but this… he’d know instantly that Suzie Renner wasn’t on the level and she’d end up in the cell next to Xaan’s. Or in a chiller cabinet as a grisly warning to the next people to fall prey to the distress call con.

  She stayed still so long she started to chill, a shiver running down her spine. The heat of the day had long disappeared and the temperature had dropped sharply. She wouldn’t want to spend long out in the open. That was for sure. There were no other sounds behind her. No shouts of alarm and clattering of feet. The spotlights mounted on the compound wall didn’t turn and stab through the darkness to pick her out.

  Okay… she was just hearing things then. Good. That was better than the alternative.

  Shaking herself, she moved again, slower this time. She’d only made it half the rest of the distance to the prison when the sound of an altercation nearby caught her attention. There was a muffled, feminine squeak, and the sound of cloth being ripped… the meaty sound of a hand hitting flesh.

  “Get yourself in there and shut the fuck up, you stupid little bitch,” a man hissed, his voice low and full of threat. “You don’t want to be useless. Do you? You know what happens to useless people around here… Remember your parents, don’tcha? Wanna end up like that?”

  Kenna flattened herself to the wall and crept toward the corner, nearer the voice. She peeked around to see the teenager she’d tried to talk to in the restroom being dragged by one of Dex’s men toward a small building set apart from the main group.

  The girl looked terrified, her face pale in the darkness as the man shoved her through the door. It took everything Kenna had to stay concealed in the shadows, fury raging through every cell in her body. The guy’s words confirmed what she already knew. These assholes were scavengers who had killed most of the original colonists. Obviously the girl, who looked to be in her late teens, had caught the eye of one of them and she’d been spared.

  Mulling that over, Kenna turned and melted into the shadows again. It tore at her to leave the girl in that asshole’s clutches, but she couldn’t do anything to help anyone if she was in a cell alongside Xaan. She needed to get them free first, and then by all that was holy, she would come back for the girl.

  Less than a minute later, though, she ran into trouble. The settlement was laid out haphazardly, with no rhyme or reason she could see. So there were gaps between buildings and the shadows she was using to conceal herself. Gaps that were brightly lit by the moons overhead. She glared up at the sky. And the bastards were plural, so when one went behind a cloud the others were shining merrily, leaving her no window of opportunity.

  She stopped at the edge of one set of shadows, looking across at the building opposite. There was no other way around—not without going all the way around the compound—and the longer she was out here, the greater the chance she'd be caught. But that was a at least twenty feet without any kind of cover. Which meant if she stepped out of the shadows and someone walked around the corner, they’d spot her like a rabbit in the headlights.

  “Do you think she’ll do it?” A deep voice warned her a second before Dex and another man walked around the corner.

  Kenna froze in place, measuring her breathing. She was still half concealed behind a wall but she daren’t move back into the shadows. Humans weren’t nocturnal, their eyes not adapted for night vision like some of the Lathar, but even like this, human eyes were drawn to movement.

  Even the slightest movement deep in the shadows could trigger the hindbrain and the survival instincts. It was a reflex she’d learned to trust as a marine. Depending on the situation, she’d either sweep the shadows with a torch or put a few bullets into them.

  But neither Dex nor his companion looked her way.

  Dex nodded. “Yeah, she will. I’ve got that one on the hook for sure. She’ll do exactly as she’s told. Especially when she’s in my bed.”

  Asshole. She managed to bite back her growl, controlling her breathing. Walk on by. You’ll get yours. I promise.

  As they turned to go down one of the side alleys, she eased back into the shadows. The edge of her boot caught against a stone, crunching under her weight. It was the tiniest noise, but it sounded like a gunshot in the quiet of the alleyway. She froze in the middle of the movement.

  “What was that?” Dex snarled, hand out to stop the other guy. “There’s someone else here.”

  Shitshitshit, they were onto her. Instantly, Kenna’s mind flashed through all the possible avenues of escape. But there were none that got her out of here unseen. Her hands clenched. The only way out was to kill them both. But they were armed and she wasn’t. She also didn’t have the element of surprise.

  Fuck. She was screwed.

  “Who’s there? Come out now!” Dex ordered, fumbling at his belt for a torch. Before he could get it out, though, there was a sound from the shadows on the opposite wall. To Kenna’s surprise, a couple emerged from them, looking all rumbled with their clothes in disarray. She blinked, recognizing them from the polyamorous group with one wife she’d seen before.

  “Niall? Claire? What the fuck are you doing out here?” The tension eased from Dex’s shoulders, and he slid his torch back away.

  “Sorry, boss,” the guy said, pulling the woman in against his side protectively. “Just wanted a bit of alone time.”

  Dex shook his head, chuckling. “Well, I’d tell you to go get a room, but I guess yours can be pretty crowded. Just keep it down out here, okay?”

  “Got it, boss,” Niall said, the couple turning to walk away. As they did so, Claire looked directly at Kenna in the shadows and winked.

  Kenna was so stunned, she stayed stock still as the alley cleared. Niall and Claire went one way with Dex and his companion going the other. They’d known Kenna was there and hadn’t said a word. More than that, they’d covered for her. Why?

  The mysteries about the colony sure were stacking up and getting more complex. But once she was alone, she put them in the back of her mind and continued. She made it the rest of the way to the prison block without incident, sliding around the back and pulling up a barrel so she could boost herself up and peer through the high, barred window.

  “Pssst,” she hissed, making out
three figures—two men and the weird bot thing—slumped in the cells. “Pssst… wake up.”

  11

  The sound of movement outside brought Xaan out of his light doze instantly. Stephens had fallen asleep a few hours ago, their small conversation seeming to have exhausted the Terran soldier. Probably due to his injuries. Human bodies obviously required rest to aid in the healing process, much like Latharian ones. It was yet another indicator of how similar Kenna’s species were to his own. Were his own in fact.

  He hadn’t really believed it when Lord Healer Laarn had claimed humanity were from a lost Latharian colony expedition. He’d assumed that was just a ruse to get everyone, even the purists, on side to protect humanity from invasion by the worst elements of their society. A new species was fair game. A colony of Lathar? Not so much. Especially not one under the emperor’s protection.

  But… the more time he spent around humans, the more he realized that Laarn was right. Humanity were Lathar. They were so similar in some respects they had to be. There was no other explanation for it.

  He sat looking into the darkness for a few moments as he isolated where the noises were coming from. They were very faint. Whoever was there was trying very hard to be quiet. Standing, he moved closer to the sole window, high up on the wall of his cell and barred like the front. He cocked his head to the side, listening. Yes, the noises were out there.

  “Pssst,” a familiar voice hissed as a face appeared in the window. “Pssst… wake up.”

  Pleasure burst through him at the sight of the human female—his human female—in the shadows behind the bars. He could see easily in the darkness but she couldn’t, even though he stood right below her. Even with his superior height, he couldn’t reach her, but he drank in the sight of her, searching for any sign of distress or injury.

  Relief hit him when he found none. He’d been worried that Dex would see through their ruse and hurt her.

  “Hey,” he murmured, moving closer. The movement drew her attention and she managed to focus on him, a smile spreading across her lovely face like the sun breaking across the morning sky. “You okay? You’re not hurt?”

  She shook her head quickly. “Marine, remember? Tough as nails.”

  Her reply was swift, but he saw the pleasure in her expression at his concern. She might be more than capable of looking after herself, but he knew she liked his protectiveness. He… may have overheard that in a private conversation between her and her friend once when she wasn’t aware of his presence. Not his fault. They shouldn’t have been discussing private things in a public corridor when anyone could overhear them, now should they?

  But even so, no matter how he’d come by the knowledge, he wasn’t noble enough not to use it. All was equal in courting and combat. Wasn’t that a human saying? Something like that anyway.

  “Yeah. I remember,” he murmured, moving closer and reaching up. He still couldn’t quite touch her but she reached a hand through the bars to help him and their fingertips brushed.

  “How are you? Are you hurt?” Her voice echoed her concern for him, creating a warm and fuzzy feeling in the center of his chest.

  “I’m good. I might not be a marine, but I’m plenty tough enough,” he offered her a small smile, noting the way her gaze flicked over toward Stephens. Then he realized she’d kept their conversation light, not revealing anything that might hint to his non-human origins.

  “He knows,” Xaan said simply. “He’s with us.”

  She nodded, just once, in reply. Message received and understood. Another thing he liked about her, she was blunt and to the point, rarely wasting time. “Okay, sitrep then. This bunch of assholes aren’t colonists. They’re scavengers.”

  One eyebrow winged up. “Scavengers?” He’d never heard the term applied to a group of humans before.

  “Yeah. They prey on outer colonies, kidnap and kill the original settlers and take whatever’s useful. I’ve never seen them actually settle a planet in place of the original group before but I think that’s what they’ve done. There’s an older, ruined compound a short way away.” She paused and looked at him directly. “Mass graves too. Not just of the colonists I don’t think. They have ships here. Looks like they’re breaking them down for parts…”

  He rumbled in the back of his throat, arms folded over his chest as he rubbed at his jaw. Stubble prickled his fingers. “That makes sense. The radio and beacons are all fully operational. So that means they are transmitting that message on purpose.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. To draw the unwary in. I’ve been pretending to break the encryption on your ship lock all day.”

  He chuckled. All she had to do was walk up to the ship and it would recognize her. They both knew it. “Have you now, little one?”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I made pretty lights move on a screen. It was fun. Like playing old holo-games. There’s something else. On my way here, I almost got caught—”

  Fear ran through him and he straightened up instantly, but her raised hand stopped him. “No. I’m fine. But I think there’s another group here that’s not with Dex and his lot. Remember that poly group? The one with one female and more men?”

  He nodded, remembering them sitting on their own in the main hall. “Yeah. What about them?”

  “Well, two of them were out here when Dex almost caught me. They covered for me and I swear the woman winked at me.” Kenna nibbled at her lower lip. “I don’t know who they are but instinct tells me they’re not with the scavengers.”

  “Another group?” That humans would prey on each other in such a way sickened him, but it was their reality so he had to deal with it. At least for now.

  She pressed her lips together, thinking. “Not sure. I’ll keep watch. I’m going to keep trying to reach the ship, or at the least get a message out on the main radio.”

  Snaking a hand through the bars again, she brushed her fingers against his. “You just hang tight. We’ll get through this. Bye.”

  * * *

  When Xaan turned around from the window, he realized someone had been watching his conversation with Kenna. Stephens was awake, his expression thoughtful as he sat up.

  “You two seem mighty familiar,” he commented, unable to conceal his interest. For a moment anger and jealousy flared in the center of Xaan’s chest. Kenna was his. His. No male, human or otherwise, would take her from him. “I didn’t think you Lathar had any females of your own. That’s why you’re taking ours.”

  “She’s not Lathar.” Xaan shook his head, stalking the length and breadth of the cell. Unlike Stephens, he wasn’t injured, so the enforced idleness made him antsy. “She’s as human as you are.”

  “Really?” Stephens leaned back against the wall, cradling one arm against his side. Xaan couldn’t work out if the arm or his ribs were injured. By the state of his clothing, it could be either. Or both. “And she’s working with you?”

  Xaan gave a small nod. “She came to the planet with me. We were investigating strange readings in this sector that shouldn’t have been here.”

  He was starting to formulate a theory on that, but it would have to wait until they’d gotten themselves out of their current sticky situation. One problem at a time, he told himself. It was the key to survival in situations like this.

  “Just work mates then?” Stephens’ voice was light, but there was a note in it that made Xaan whirl around and pin the human with a hard gaze. He was getting used to their language. Work mates and mates were different things. The first meant just those a person worked with, had formed friendships with maybe… nothing to do with the Lathar use of the word as a soul and life partner.

  “No. Not just work mates,” he said, his voice harsh to disabuse the human of any ideas he might have that Kenna was available. He lifted his wrist to show off the blue ribbons, now faded and worn, tied there. “I wear her favors. She wi… is my mate.”

  Stephens eyes widened. “You guys are married? Hey! Congratulations!”

  Xaan was about to arg
ue that Kenna was not male, or a guy, in any sense of the word when he realized it was another oddity of the human language. They tended to group people together under weird terms, whatever their gender or defining characteristics.

  “Thank you,” he inclined his head. “Our bonding is very new.” Like he hadn’t claimed her yet, but he sure as draanth was going to. And soon. He’d already wasted too much time.

  “So, you guys and humans can…” Stephens trailed off, watching Xaan with interest.

  “We have compatible genitals, yes.” Xaan’s voice was gruff as he answered the obvious question. “Humans and Lathar are genetically related.”

  Surprise flared over the human male’s face for a moment. Then he nodded. “That would make a lot of sense. You’re very similar to us, at least… you are. Are you typical for a Lathar?”

  Xaan chuckled. He was the emperor’s champion. He was so far from typical it was unreal.

  “Physically. Yes. I’m fairly typical for my species. My coloring is a little unusual,” he admitted, running a hand through his short, pale hair. Blond, Kenna had called it. There wasn’t an equivalent word in the Latharian language for it. Dirty yellow maybe? As far as he knew, only he and Rynn, his son, had hair that color. “Height I’m around average. Muscle mass, a little above.”

  He kept things factual, limited only to what Stephens could see. He didn’t need to know where Xaan sat in the Latharian hierarchy. At the moment that would not help their situation any.

  “Well, the ladies do love a ripped guy.” Stephens managed a chuckle as he moved. The ribs were damaged, Xaan realized, not the male’s arm. He was just using that to support himself as he shifted position, easing into a new, more comfortable one with a sigh of relief.

  “They seek out a male in his prime for protection and for good genetics to sire their young?” He found himself asking, seeking an insight into human females from a different perspective.