Rax

by Maia Starr

  I turned away from him and scanned the forest floor. I looked at the ground at the fallen soldiers and warriors. I looked at the fighting and could not find Jedrian.

  "He is not out there. I told you this. He is boarding a pod. If you want to see him, if you want to tell him goodbye, then come with me. I will show you,” Cultan said.

  "Okay. Show me,” I said as I followed him. I followed him through the maze of tall pine trees dodging the battle. There was so much chaos. I saw human females running through the forest here in there. I could not believe my eyes. This was unlike anything I was ever expecting to see, and yet the scientist in me was trying to soak it all in. I wanted to remember all of this.

  "Here! Here it is!” Cultan said as he pulled a large tree limb off of a small spaceship.

  "Where is Jedrian?!” I shouted.

  "I thought he was here. I guess he has abandoned the plan to escape in this one. Perhaps he is getting in another one. Come with me I will get you out of here,” he said, putting his hand out to me.

  I stood there wide-eyed with fright on my face. I did not want to go with Cultan. I wanted to see Jedrian. I turned away from him ready to run. I felt a heavy hand on my arm that yanked me backward.

  "You are coming with me!" Cultan shouted as he pulled me toward the ship. I kicked and screamed as loud as I could.

  "Let go of her!”

  I looked up to see Jedrian running toward us. Cultan moved quicker, trying to yank me into the ship. I grabbed everything that I could, trying to stop him. Before I knew it, Jedrian had caught up to us. He grabbed Cultan by the shoulders and threw him to the ground.

  "Jedrian! I have looked for you everywhere!”

  "Get in the ship!” Jedrian said.

  I looked at him as he stood over Cultan. I knew they were going to fight. But even though I was looking for Jedrian, I had not made a decision to leave Earth. I loved him. I wanted to be with him, and after what I did to my father, I could not stay here. But making a rash decision to leave Earth was a lot harder than I thought it could ever be.

  Bam! Cultan punched Jedrian in the stomach. Jedrian doubled over.

  "Jedrian!” I shouted.

  "Dammit, Trish, get in the ship!” he shouted as he rushed Cultan and jumped on top of him. They rolled across the forest floor. I started to yank off the branches from the ship as I watched them fight. Then I saw Jedrian grab a large rock in his hand and hit Cultan in the face. Blood poured out of his head as he fell to the ground. My mouth was wide open as I watched. He did not get back up.

  "Let's go!” he shouted as he ran over to the ship and pushed on a panel that opened the door. He climbed in. I could see that he was pressing switches and pushing buttons on the inside. I just stood by the door paralyzed. Could I do this? I loved him. But could I leave Earth?

  "What are you waiting for? We have to get out of here, and we have to go now. They will capture us,” Jedrian said as he came to the door.

  "I… I… I don't know if I can leave Earth,” I said to him honestly.

  He became quiet. He was silent for a moment.

  "I understand, Trish. It is too much to ask of you to leave your home. If you do not want to go, then I will stay here as well,” he said to me.

  "No, you cannot. They will torture you. My father said he is going to kill you. If you stay here, you will die!” I shouted at him.

  "If I leave, I will die anyway; I cannot be without you,” he said to me as he stepped out of the ship.

  Shit. He was serious. He was going to stay if I did not go with him. They would kill him. It would be my fault. I could not live with myself knowing that.

  "No, you must leave,” I said to him trying to push him back inside.

  "No, I will not leave without you. But think about it, Trish; picture yourself here on Earth, and we are not together. How does that feel? Is that what you want?" he asked me.

  I grew silent. I thought about it. I pictured myself at Harvard. I was sitting in a lab working, and I was miserable. Jedrian would be dead; I would never see him again. I imagined what that would feel like and I suddenly felt my stomach turn. I felt very sick and began to shake all over. It was then that I knew that I could not live without him. It was the same feeling I got when I saw him fight the bear. When I thought he was going to die, I thought that I would die. Now I was faced with the same feeling, and I had to be honest about it. I had to be honest with myself.

  "I do not want to live without you, Jedrian,” I said as I threw my arms around him.

  "I do not want to live without you either. But if we stay here on Earth, then we cannot be together. They will kill me, as you said. We will not be together unless we leave this planet. It is the only way,” he said hugging me back and squeezing me tightly.

  "Then let us get out of here. Go now,” I said as I pulled away from him and jumped into the ship.

  He followed me and closed the door behind us. I had never been in a spaceship before, and the battle outside was getting louder, and I knew that it was possible we would be shot out of the sky anyway.

  "Strap in! This is going to be a very chaotic takeoff. You have to trust me!” he shouted as he buckled into the pilot seat. I buckled in as well. The engine roared to life, and the ship took off. We were flying low between the trees, dodging blaster guns, and then he flew straight up into the air. It was a very extreme vertical angle, and the ship was going straight into the sky. I held on tightly, and then suddenly the bright blue sky gave way to dark black.

  "We made it. We are in space,” I said.

  "Yes, but we are still in Earth space. Hold on while I jump into hyperdrive,” he said to me.

  My eyes grew wide. Hyperdrive. I knew what that meant. I watched as Jedrian pressed various buttons.

  "Where are we going?” I asked.

  "Home,” he said as the ship shot forward. Then it was a blur of light out the windshield. Jedrian sat back and looked relieved.

  "Did it work? Did we do it?” I asked him.

  He turned to me and smiled. He unbuckled his belt and walked over to me and knelt down beside me. “We've done it. We're safe now.”

  I let out a breath of air. I was so relieved.

  "I could not stand the thought of losing you. I could not stand the thought of not being with you,” I said to him.

  "I feel the same way, Trish. I know we have not been together long, but I knew from the moment I saw you that I could not be without you. I love you deeply. I am bonded to you. I will die for you,” he said to me.

  "Yes, I guess you have proven that twice already,” I said to him.

  "I only want you. I know that Cultan told you about my arrangement with him. But that was before I ever met you. That was when I was trying to do my duty as a Corillion for my warriors at home. After I met you and we bonded, I knew that you were the only one. I was not going to take another wife or abandon you. I want you to know that I know it as the truth. Cultan was trying to poison you against me because he wanted you for himself. He wanted to make you his second wife,” he said to me.

  "I know that now. I am sorry for believing him. But the thought of you with another human female filled me with jealousy,” I said to him.

  "Well, then you are in luck because where we are going, you are the only human female. There will be no one for you to be jealous of,” he said to me.

  My eyes opened wide. Was he being serious?

  "What do you mean? I am the only human female on your planet?” I asked.

  "Yes, for now. Once I have made you my wife officially then other warriors in my tribe can claim human females as wives. Then there will be more females, and you will not be alone,” he said.

  "That is good. I will need some human female companions after a while.” Then my thoughts turn to my roommate, Amy. I realize that I would never see her again. I realized that I had left everything that I had worked so hard for behind. I grew quiet and sad.

  But when we arrived on the planet of valentine, that all changed. I had no reaso
n to be sad at all because I realized that I had not left my life behind. I had everything with me: Jedrian, and the child growing inside of me.

  As soon as the two-week journey across the galaxy to the Corillion galaxy was over, Jedrian insisted that a medic look at me. It was then that we discovered that I was with offspring. Jedrian was glowing with pride. I was happier than I thought I could ever possibly be. It made me feel complete. It made me feel like I had everything. I had the love of my life, and I was going to have an alien hybrid baby, something I thought would never ever happened to me. I was filled with happiness and joy.

  "I am not happy that I crashed my ship, but I am happy that I met you. Even if it took three months of torture as a prisoner of your father in order to meet you," he said to me as we sat looking out of our vast bedroom window over his home planet. I was very surprised by the beauty of his home. I was expecting a barren planet in the middle of the Corillion galaxy. But that was not what I was looking at.

  Instead, I was looking at what I could only describe as a rocky desert on Earth. Not a barren desert like the Sahara; it was more like the beautiful rock formations of Utah. There were many ravines full of water and flowering desert-like cactus and plants. There was a lot of wildlife, and it was absolutely beautiful.

  "I am happy that I went to the research facility. None of this would've happened had I never made that trip,” I said kissing him on the cheek.

  "Then it is fate,” he said as he kissed me back. “And your new home? Does it please you?” he asked me.

  "It is absolutely beautiful. It is like living in a castle,” I said as I looked around the vast room. I was very impressed with the building engineering of the Corillion race. The home that Jedrian occupied was a large fortress built into the mountainside, into the rock. It was very beautiful and used the natural surroundings as the walls. It was fitting to the environment that we had lived in in the woods together. The fortress was vast, and as I spent more time there, I realized just how much of a leader he was.

  I sat next to him daily on what I could only describe as a throne on the stage where warriors came to see him and speak of plans. It was amazing, and I had never felt more like a queen. I had not been expecting all of this extravagance of a Corillion race that was known as brutal. But I was wrong; I was very wrong. I had every luxury and resource that I could desire.

  Jedrian even gave me a large wing of the fortress that I could do anything I wanted with. I told him there was only one thing I wanted to do: to set up a lab to study the plant life on his planet. I wasn't going to give up my work simply because I was now the wife of a Corillion and soon to be a mother. No, in fact, I had only advanced my career as a scientist further than anyone on Earth could ever hope for.

  Jedrian was very excited to help me set this up. He wanted to see that scientists of Earth could do good and not the evil that he had been shown as a lab experiment. It was very fulfilling to me to do the research.

  Then, several months later, it happened. I gave birth to our son, Mayzin. He was a beautiful alien-human hybrid that filled me with joy. One day he would be the leader of this planet, but for now, he was part of our little family. The family that we had fought so hard for in such a short amount of time.

  It was unlike anything that I had ever expected when I set out on the train from Harvard to Virginia to visit my father. I just thought I was going to gather information to work on my thesis; instead I was given a completely different life. I was given a life that had more adventure and joy than I could have ever possibly have received on Earth. I was fulfilled as a scientist studying alien plant life on an alien planet. I was with the love of my life. I was with a Corillion warrior that had risked his life for me over and over again without a second thought. There was no love stronger than this. And of course, I was extremely happy as a mother; everything that I could ever hope for but that I didn't know that I wanted until I had it, and could not imagine life without

  THE END (Flip the next page to read Book #5 “Viqer-Corillion Mates!)

  BOOK 5: Viqer-Corillion Mates

  (Corillion Mates)

  By Maia Starr

  Chapter 1

  SARAMINA JEDSIN

  My girlfriends, Mary, Stephanie, and Gloria, had all convinced me to go camping in upstate New York. It wasn’t exactly my idea of the perfect weekend, but it had its appeal. I liked the idea of getting out of the city and breathing fresh air for once.

  Our little getaway started off well; we setup camp, gossiped, and drank to our hearts’ content. It wasn’t until long after the sun went down that we finally crawled into our tents and called it a night.

  I was nearly asleep in my sleeping bag next to Stephanie. I nudged her arm and said, “Stephanie, I have to pee really badly.”

  "I told you not to drink all that champagne before bed,” she groaned to me.

  "Come with me; I am scared,” I whispered to her.

  "No, you are just drunk and being paranoid. Don't go all the way to the facilities; just go outside the tent, but not too close,” she said sleepily.

  I knew then that I was on my own. I quietly crawled out of the tent and moved away from the two tents that we occupied. But as I looked around, I could see that the other campsites were too close, and a few other people were still sitting around campfires.

  I couldn't see the restroom facilities all the way across the campground. The trees were closer to us, so I moved into the tree line. I moved farther and farther in until I found a suitable spot, and then I relieved myself. Afterward, I felt so much better and more confident about being in the dark forest. But as I stood up and buttoned my jeans, I realized that I had become turned around. I could see small fires burning in each direction; which way was the way back to our camping spot?

  "Crap, Saramina, you really should have not had so much champagne. I guess I will try this way,” I said as I picked a direction and started to walk toward it. Then I heard a loud swish and air hit my face as though a helicopter was flying right above me. I couldn't see anything as I looked up, but I knew that something was there. “What the hell?”

  "You are a human female?” I heard a very deep voice whisper to me.

  "What? Who's there?” I turned around frantically in a circle until my flashlight landed on something that I could not believe was in front of me. It was a very tall figure, almost eight-feet tall. I knew right away that he was not human. It was not wearing a shirt and there were blue scales down the right side of his body. I could barely see his blond hair, hanging long down to his shoulders.

  "You… You…” was all that I could say in my frightened state.

  "I am Corillion,” he said with a grin.

  "What are you doing here? Why are you standing near me?” I asked.

  "I think you know the answer to that, human female,” he said as he took a step toward me.

  I screamed at the top of my lungs, turned, and ran. I knew that he meant to take me. That is what they did. That was why Earth was at war with them over the last few years. I ran as fast as I could screaming, but I didn't get very far. Before I knew it, there were strong arms around my waist.

  "Let me go! Let me go!” I shouted.

  But it was no use. There was another rush of air and I felt like I was weightless, almost like I was flying.

  That is the last thing I remember. When I woke up, I was in a guarded underground room made of rock. I woke up trying to figure out what was going on.

  "Where am I?” I whispered to myself. I was surprised when I heard a female voice answer.

  "You are in a secret base. You have been taken by the Corillion; we all have,” she said.

  I slowly got to my feet and looked around. There were about 40 other females around my age ranging from early-twenties to mid-thirties sitting around a very large cavernous room with a lot of furniture, including single beds, a few couches, plush floor mattresses in vibrant colors, and a couple of tables and chairs complete with food and water. It looked like a harem.

 
; "What do you mean taken?” I asked the woman with red hair.

  "My name is Jennifer. I have been here for two weeks. We were all abducted, some of us in groups and some of us alone, and brought here. This is as much as we know. The Corillion warriors brought us here in order to take us back to the Corillion galaxy where we will be married to a Corillion leader. Some of us have already left. That is all we know,” Jennifer said.

  "You have to be kidding me,” I said, walking around seeing that the only opening had bars on it with two Corillion warriors guarding it.

  "No, I am sorry, we are not kidding. This is your new reality,” Jennifer said.

  "This is bullshit! We have to get out of here! All of us! We have our own lives! This is wrong,” I said, moving toward the bars and banging on them. “Let me out of here!"