Sekkol: (Scifi Alien Romance) (Galaxy Alien Warriors Book 2)

by Lara LaRue

  “It is such a weird-looking thing. Bring it inside,” he told the men and then walked off.

  I was led behind him, and I instantly thought of how unfortunate it would be for me to be the commander’s sex slave. If Sekkol had repulsed me when we first did the act, it would be almost suicidal to do the same with the commander. There was nothing appealing about his shell of an exterior or his cold mannerism.

  The aliens led me to a building that was made of glass and shaped like a diamond. The steps leading up to it were made of steel, and it was hard not to notice how resounding my steps were, how they echoed with each one I took, like they were signaling my impending doom. When we got to the top, the door opened, much like they had at Sekkol’s house, when the automated system recognized the owner. And then my heart started fluttering as the realization hit me that he had brought me home. I was to be the evil commander’s slave.

  “Let go of me!” I started shouting this time, adamant that I would not be put through the same fate twice.

  “The thing has quite a mouth on it,” the commander said and turned to me as the door closed. Then he took the same cylindrical device I had seen Sekkol with before and brought it to my face. “If you don’t keep quiet, I will personally drive this through you.”

  “Do it,” I cried as I lunged at him. I could feel the rage swelling within me, and I no longer cared about the consequences of my words. I’d had enough, and I was ready to die. “Just fucking do it!” I screamed at him.

  “What is going on out…? Oh…” A woman’s voice came from behind him, before she materialized into view. He looked around and then turned to face the woman. “What is that?” she asked and placed her hands on her hips.

  She was of the same race as he was, with the stony face and wispy hair. But she was slightly more attractive than he was, perhaps because of her feminine appearance. Her face was flat and not as dented as his, and her hair was pulled back at her nape. Her skin was white, not the beautiful bluish color as Sekkol’s skin, but more like ash.

  “I thought you said you would never bring an earthling here,” she said to him.

  “No worries, sister,” he said and turned to me. “It is not mine.”

  “Then why did you bring it here? I will not have our home contaminated with filthy earthlings. Such ugly creatures if you ask me,” she huffed and turned her round nose up at me, showing her pointed chin.

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked. “I’m the ugly one?”

  “Oh,” she replied in surprise. “It dares speak to me?”

  “Look, I don’t know who you are or why I’m here, but since I’m not wanted, how about sending me back to Earth? Then everyone would be happy. How about that?”

  “If it were up to me, you would have never come here, but the others wanted it, and Lord Magnus didn’t have what it took to deny them.” She was wearing a dress, the first I had seen since I arrived, and it swished and wrapped around her ankles as she came toward me. “There is something queer about this one,” she said as she got closer, and her eyes narrowed as she inspected me. “Where did you get it?”

  “From Sekkol,” the commander replied as his eyes grew icier.

  She looked over at him, an odd expression on her face as they shared a surprised glance. Then she turned back to me, and this time, instead of just looking, she circled me, too.

  “What’s going on? Why can’t I just go back to Sekkol? Who are you people?” I wanted to know as I turned about to keep tabs on her. I couldn’t even believe the words that were coming out of my mouth concerning Sekkol, but I could see he was my only ally.

  “Sekkol? You belonged to Sekkol?” she asked.

  I may not have had many boyfriends in the past, but the sound of jealousy was uncanny in her voice. “What’s it to you?” I asked.

  “Please, leave us,” the commander told his men, who had been forgotten during the banter, and they nodded and went back outside.

  I rubbed my arms where they had held me and looked back at the woman.

  “Did he…? Is she…? Was… did he consort with her?” she finally managed to ask her brother. She had started asking me but then diverted to him, apparently after she decided the question would serve him better.

  “I found her in the streets with Brom, one of his Enforcers. She mentioned she was Brom’s companion, but there was something wrong about it, so I watched them. When they left the streets, they went to Sekkol’s house. I can only assume he is her actual companion and that Brom was covering for him.”

  “But isn’t that treason?” she asked as her eyes widened.

  “Once Lord Magnus hears about this, things won’t look so good for Jupiter’s heir,” the commander sneered.

  “Maybe Lord Magnus doesn’t have to know,” the woman answered as a devious look crept into her face. She lifted her hand and touched my hair. I pulled back and slapped her hand away.

  “Don’t touch me,” I told her.

  “Feisty, too,” she replied and laughed. Her voice screeched and reverberated in the room, and she gripped my neck in her long and cold fingers. I jumped when she did as my heart sped up and my breathing got short. “You, my dear, will bring me that which I have desired the most.” I could smell her breath, ripe and tangy, causing me to grow nauseous as she held me there. I lifted my right hand to press her back, but the commander was right there to catch it and bring it to my side forcefully.

  “What do you speak of, Nala?” he asked as he tried to keep my hands in place. “How can she help?”

  “Sekkol refused me before, but if he agrees to marry me, then no one need know of his treason,” she said and grinned. “He will have to do what I want or suffer the wrath of the Tribunal. Either way, I win,” she declared and let my face go with such force I felt a sharp pain in my neck.

  “That’s your plan?” I asked, already fearing if he agreed to marry her, my demise would be certain. “And what if he doesn’t? I can see why he never married you before,” I jeered and then coughed; my neck had not yet recovered from her hold on me.

  She made two steps and slapped me hard in the face. “Mind your tongue, earthling,” she spat.

  My neck twisted when her hand came down on my face, and without thinking, I grabbed her throat and started squeezing. The next thing I felt was a sharp pain across my back as I was hit from behind. Before I could collect myself, I felt another blow that sent me sprawling on the floor. I turned my head to the side and saw the commander standing over me with the same cylindrical device he had reached for earlier.

  The woman came over and kicked me in the side, and the pain shot through me as I curled into the fetal position to ward off any further assault.

  “You won’t be so lucky the next time, earthling,” she sneered. “Now remove it, Jared, before I do it myself,” she threatened and then stormed off.

  “It won’t work,” I pressed, even as the commander dragged me from the ground. “He will never marry you.”

  As if I knew. But I wanted them to believe that desperately and find no further use for me. Yet I didn’t have a say in the matter, and before I could utter another word, I felt his hand come down on my neck, and I grew dizzy as the floor rose to meet me.

  Chapter 13 / Sekkol

  The last time I went to the Great Pike, it was by invitation to have breakfast with my father, Lord Magnus, Supreme Ruler of Jupiter. This time, I was summoned. The building was just a few structures over and situated too closely to my own home, yet the walk there felt like an arduous one. I sighed then as I recalled the way Keira had been plucked from my grasp, in as much the same manner as she had fallen into it. She was mine, whether I wanted to admit it or not, and even worse, whether it was even allowed. I wished it wasn’t; otherwise, I would not be on this journey now to whatever demise my father had planned for me, for all of Jupiter knew that to lie with a human was completely forbidden. It was even worse for me, being of royal lineage.

  He was required to follow the very laws he and our family had instituted,
even if it meant he had to create another heir after I was gone. A thousand images flashed before my eyes as I trudged the walkway and climbed the steps to meet him. But his face did not reflect what I thought it would. What greeted me instead was a huge smile and a pat on the shoulder.

  “Why did you not bring her to me sooner?” he asked as he led me into the great hall.

  “What?” I asked, truly confused about what he was speaking about.

  “I knew you had imprinted on someone. I, for one, thought it would have been a woman from Anon, but we all know we can’t choose who we imprint on. So a woman from Bulova is fairly acceptable.”

  “A what?” I asked again, this time his meaning truly lost on me.

  “Don’t be so shy, Sekkol. I know you had meant to keep her secret from me, but—”

  “Oh my, Sekkol.” Nala interrupted as she swished into the hall, her hands outstretched as she flew into my arms. I stood there with my hands still at my sides and completely taken aback by what was happening.

  “I will leave you two alone,” Lord Magnus said and backed away. “You can join me in the banquet chamber when you are through.” He beamed and then disappeared through the same doors Nala had just come through.

  As soon as he was gone, I threw her from me. “What is the meaning of this?” I thundered.

  “Now, now, Sekkol, is that any way to treat your future queen?” she asked as she batted her lashes at me. She repulsed me, and my stomach turned just by being that close to her.

  “I don’t know what you have concocted in that deceitful mind of yours, but you need to stay away from me.” I grabbed her wrist as she was holding it up to touch me and then tossed her hand back to her side. “I don’t know why you told my father such a lie, but I will correct all of this misunderstanding now.” I started walking away when I heard her footsteps, slow and deliberate behind me.

  “You will do no such thing,” she said.

  It was not customary for her to be speaking to me like this, and I was not in the frame of mind to tolerate it. “What did you say?” I turned and asked her.

  “You won’t want to tell your father about this wedding not happening, not if you don’t want him to find out about your human.” She was playing coyly with her fingers, as if what she had just said was not enough to warrant disintegration.

  “What have you done with her?” I asked as I took two steps back to her.

  “Nothing… yet,” she teased. “And I won’t do anything to her as long as you do as I ask. I will be your queen, or she dies. And maybe you, too.”

  “Nala, I swear if any harm comes to her, no one will be able to know the difference between your body and the sands of the desert,” I gritted out through my teeth. “Where is she?”

  “She is safe,” she replied as she continued playing games with me she could not win. Though, in my current predicament, victory was not in view.

  I reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, sinking my fingers so deep into her collar she buckled under the pressure. “I am not going to marry you. I will never marry you. Not even if my father agrees again.” I pierced her eyes with my own until hers grew glossy before I released the pressure on her. Then I let her go and walked off, heading to the steps instead of the banquet chamber.

  It had not been the first time Nala Styx had tried to ensnare me. Years ago, and before I had the sense to know better, I had been in her company when a group of mutual friends had decided to sneak into the desert for an unapproved party. I had been overly imbibed, and Nala had taken advantage of it. The next thing I knew, I was being told by her brother, though he wasn’t the commander at the time, that I had lain with her and she was bearing my child. A wedding was arranged, even though I had not imprinted on her, but as was our custom, it was the right thing to do. But that was until I found out there was no such child. I chased her away then, and her brother had tried to counsel my father against my actions. Now she was here, thirty years later, rehashing the same plot. I would not be so deceived again.

  “Your father is expecting you for lunch,” she shouted after me.

  “Tell him I lost my appetite,” I shouted back and bounded down the stairs. I got to the hovercraft in my parking bay much faster than it had taken me to get to the Great Pike.

  My father lived there, with the members of the Tribunal, and he desperately wanted an heir to take his place, an heir who came with a wife. Any wife.

  I was just mounting the hovercraft when I saw Brom and Gideon approaching. Brom gave me a curious stare, and I knew he was wondering about my meeting with my father.

  “Sekkol, Commander Styx—” Gideon started saying.

  “I will hear nothing of Styx at the moment,” I interjected. “Brom, he has the human girl, and I need to get her back. Come.”

  “What human girl? What are you talking about?” Gideon asked.

  Only Brom had been privy to my actions, but right now, the Enforcers needed to be kept up to speed; I would need all the help I could get rescuing Keira from Styx. And I had no doubts she was holed up in his dungeon beneath his diamond home.

  “There is a human girl that belongs to me. She was taken by Styx, and now we need to get her back before my father gains knowledge of her,” I told the men.

  This time, they both looked at me in horror. “But… sir, Sekkol, we can’t just go to Commander Styx’s home and retrieve her,” Brom stuttered.

  “What will your father say when he finds out you have a human?” Gideon asked.

  “Which is why we need to get her out right away,” I told them.

  “And then what?” Gideon pressed. “What will you do with her if you can’t take her home?”

  I paused then, the answer not yet known to me. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But she can’t remain there with me.”

  Maybe there was something in my voice when I spoke, but after I did, Gideon, who had already imprinted on a woman from Anon, saw the same in me. “You imprinted on her,” his voice drawled.

  I sighed and then turned my back to them. “I do not understand why, nor did I know that was even possible, but yes, I imprinted on her. I can feel her fear; I can imagine the fright in her eyes, and I can see her cowering under him as he strikes her down. She cannot remain there.”

  “But, Sekkol, won’t the guards come for you if you go for her?” Brom asked.

  “They might,” I replied. I could feel the weight of Jupiter resting on my shoulders, but nothing else was clearer to me at that moment than the need to free her. “It is a chance I will have to take.”

  “Sekkol, I completely understand what it means to imprint on someone, and I will help you in any way I can,” Gideon added. “Maybe she would be safe if you get her to the desert of Epoch. I have family there who would help hide her until you decide what to do.”

  I stood there with my back turned still, looking at my home. If I took her, I might not see it for a long time. And there was no guarantee I would be with her.

  I heaved an exasperated sigh and then turned to the men. “Let’s do it,” I told them and hopped onto my hovercraft.

  Chapter 14 / Keira

  I didn’t realize how easy it was to sweat inside a diamond; it was ironic to me, given its cool appearance. I was being held in a room downstairs, a padded room that reminded me of mental health hospitals. I was sitting on the ground with my back against the wall and wiping the sweat beads off as they popped up on my face. I had just begun fanning my face with my hands when the door opened and Nala stormed in.

  “Get up, Earth woman,” she commanded, though she did not wait for me to do so. She came over, grabbed me by the hair, and tugged me off my ass.

  I grabbed her hand and squeezed into it, forcing her to release me. Her eyes were enflamed, and she flung daggers at me, twisting her body as she prepared to slap me.

  Not this time. I held up my other hand and blocked her blow and then shoved her backward. She stumbled, and by the time she regained her balance, I was on top of her. But she was stron
ger than I had anticipated; she pressed into my shoulder, and I fell onto my ass. Then I felt her hand cover my face as her bony fingers searched for my eyes. She was filled with fury and rage, and she snarled, like she had cornered her prey.

  “Get off me,” I cried and twisted my body.

  Her hands still gripped my face, and I clawed at her until I was able to pry her hands away. I felt the fear creeping inside me that I could die right there, and Sekkol’s image flashed before my eyes. I panicked even more when I acknowledged, in my moment of near death, it was the face of the alien cop that appeared to me.

  She stopped then, backed off, and stood, panting and heaving as she wiped the telltale signs of her rage from her lips. “He would have you and not me?” she asked in wonderment.

  “What’s the big deal?” I asked as I got to my feet. “Get someone else. I’ve seen plenty other aliens around.” I was bent over, my hands resting on my knees, breathing hard like I had just crossed the finish line after running a marathon.

  “You don’t get it, Earth woman. Sekkol is heir to Lord Magnus, ruler of Jupiter. If he takes me for his wife, then I…”

  “Will be queen,” I said for her. And it was then I understood.

  “Yes,” she replied. “I would be queen.”

  “But doesn’t Sekkol work for your… the commander?” I asked. There were still a few things that had not come together just yet.

  “Sekkol works for no one but himself,” she spat and wiped her mouth again. “Jared is the commander, but only because Sekkol didn’t want the office.”

  I started laughing when I saw the full picture, despite the burning sensation on my face where she had scratched me. The commander disliked Sekkol simply because he was not his better, and he was clearly refusing his sister as his wife. And had chosen a human instead.