by Maia Starr
Her blue eyes grew wide. Her mouth fell open. “So you are with those that have been stealing human females from Earth for decades?”
“Yes, I am. I always have been. I do not oppose it. I did not lie about what I told you previously, that I am sick of the war between the Draqua, but I am not opposition. But I will do whatever it takes to stop this war. So that is why I joined Captain Blace on the mission. I was gathering information for my King.”
She was quiet for a long time. I could tell that she was thinking over what I had told her. I did not want her to be angry with me, but I understood why she would be. She was against my race taking humans from Earth, and I had just told her that I was part of the group that was for it.
“So I have spent time with you and the captain making friends with the opposition. I have spent time making sure that the Earth was on friendly terms with the opposition also that we could fight against the real Draqua that would take human females. Now you are telling me that you are the enemy of the opposition. You are the enemy that we have been working so hard to fight against in the future,” she said in disbelief.
“Yes, it is true. I hope you can forgive me. But as you see I could not tell you what I was up to. If the Captain had not caught us together, I would still be undercover. But after he found us, he took me and put me in a prison cell. He was going to try me as a traitor upon returning to the opposition base. I could not let that happen. But if he had not caught us together, I would still be working to gather information for my King. But I have gathered enough,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, you have. You have gathered a lot of data, including that of the Earth space agency that will be fighting against you. The very leaders that will be trying to stop you from taking human females. Is that why you seduced me? I was part of it, wasn't I? I was part of you getting an inside look into the space agency and those that you would have to get around the next time the Draqua wanted to take human females.”
“The next time won’t be for a long time now. Not after this last trip that the Draqua made. I have been told that as many as one hundred females were taken,” I said.
“What! When? When was this?” she said in anger.
I was quiet. I knew she was going to be very angry.
“Zoq! Answer me!” she shouted.
“It was during the first day that we landed. The first day that our ship came into your city. There were several Draqua ships working around several areas of the Earth. Each ship took 10 to 20 human females,” I said.
“What? I cannot believe it. You used the opposition entering the Earth and making contact with us as a diversion. How could you?”
“It wasn't my plan. It was the plan of the King. But I was key in making sure that it pulled off successfully. I was in constant contact with the leader of that project to make sure that all eyes were on Captain Blace and I. With everyone paying attention to us, no one was paying attention to the invisible ships in the desolate areas of your planet, taking human females. It was the perfect cover up.”
“But it is wrong! Those women have families! They must be brought back. Where are they now?” She yelled at me.
“They are on Kelon already. The mission was very swift. It was in and out of Earth in 24 hours. They are long gone. Perhaps they are already matched to a dragon shifter. There is nothing that can be done. It is what we have to do, Heather. Our race will die without the humans,” I said as I put her hands in mine. She jerked her hands away from me.
“Don't touch me! You lied to me! You were such a cool liar. Don't you have any remorse?” she said.
“You lied too! You lied to your employers. You kept a secret from them, the secret about us being together. You did so out of necessity. I lied to you out of necessity. I never meant for you to get mixed up in all of this.”
“Yes, you did! I was part of your plan all along. You singled me out and seduced me in order to distract me. You seduced me in order to get as much information as you could. You are the enemy! You work for the enemy!” she cried.
“No, it is not like that. I promise, you were not part of any plan. I did not use you!” I said.
“Why should I believe you now? You lied to me before. How can I possibly tell when you are not lying now? You could be lying about all of it. I can never believe you,” she said as she moved away from me to the back of the ship.
“Those poor women,” she whispered. “They were taken, and it is my fault. I am a communications specialist. If I had not been so distracted, perhaps I would have picked up on some sort of signal all the ships were creating all over the Earth. I would have studied it harder.”
“No, do not blame yourself. There was nothing that you could do. The Draqua technology is far more advanced than what you have on Earth. We would have gone undetected as we have been all these years,” I said to her, stepping toward her. She looked so sad and fragile. I wanted to pull her into my arms and console her. But I was the cause of her pain, and it bothered me beyond belief.
“But you have gone undetected because we were not aware that you existed. Perhaps now with the knowledge that we know you exist, there might be something that would tell us when you arrive. I could have found that if I was working. But I turned my back on my work because I was distracted by your seduction,” she said in anger.
“I was not distracting you on purpose. I was simply following what I felt. I was very attracted to you; I still am. I acted on my instincts. I hope that one day you will believe me. That you will believe that all of this is the truth, the final truth.”
She said nothing. She stared out the small window in the back of the transport. She wiped a few tears off of her cheek. I knew that she needed time. I was going to give her as much time and space as I could.
“I'm going to check on the flight path. I'm going to make sure that we are still on course,” I said as I walked back to the front of the ship. I felt heavy with guilt, even though I did not do any of the things that she was accusing me of. But it did feel wrong that I had kept the information from her. But I had no other choice. The mission to use Captain Blace’s arrival on Earth as a distraction while we took human females in great numbers was how the King was dealing with the fact that the opposition was letting Earth know about us. It was a good plan. It was one that would buy us some time. With this group of human females, we could continue to procreate. It would give us many years before we had to return to Earth for more human females. But I understood why Heather was angry about it. She had every right to be. I understood why she thought I was using her. There was a lot of deception going on between the opposition, Earth, and the Draqua. It made sense that she did not trust me after all the deception.
I gave her space to think. But as she sat on one of these sleeping benches, I could hear her soft sobbing. It hurt me to hear her. I was this great skilled Draqua dragon shifter. I was a warrior that was willing to put it all on the line and go undercover with the opposition. Yet, one human female’s sobbing brought me to my knees.
A few minutes later, the sobbing stopped. I looked behind me to see that she had fallen asleep. It was good. I had taken her in the middle of the night. She had been through a lot in the last 48 hours. First, she had been caught by the captain with me, and did not know what would happen to her because of it. Then I came to her and made her make a quick decision to leave her planet. Then I told her the truth about everything; it was a lot to take in. It would make anyone exhausted. I[SBM42] stood up from the pilot seat and moved to the back. She was soft and delicate as she slept. I pushed her long hair away from her face. I grabbed a long cloth from a compartment next to the bench and covered her with it. It was a slim muslin fabric from Kelon, but it kept heat in. I watched her for a few minutes. I was very glad that she had come with me, but I was upset that she was angry with me. I hoped that she would eventually forgive me, especially after we arrived on my planet. Bringing[SBM43] a human female with me was not part of the plan, especially one that was so involved in the mission
with Captain Blace. The King would probably be very angry that I had done this. If she did not forgive me and wanted nothing to do with me, then she would be able to choose another lover, a Draqua lover, in time. I could not stand the idea of her being with another. But all of this was a possibility, and I had to prepare myself for it. I would have to prepare her for what was to be expected when she landed on Kelon with me. She would not be pleased to hear that the King could possibly punish me for taking her. It would not make sense to her since I had just told her that we had taken hundreds of human females. It would make sense that the King would be happy that I had a mate. But he would not be happy that I had taken a human female that was so involved in everything that had happened. Her disappearance would be noted by her employers, and it would create a bigger problem.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HEATHER MAVEN
I was worried. I felt betrayed. Commander Zoq Kane turned out to be an alien dragon shifter with many secrets. He had kept a lot of information from me. Though I understood why, it felt absolutely terrible. I felt very betrayed by all of it. There was no way of explaining to him how hurt I felt by the things he had told me. It was because I had my own secret. I was carrying his offspring. This made everything so much worse for me. Now, I was not just betrayed by my lover, but by the father of my child. It took on a completely different meaning.
But in light of his confession that he actually was not with the opposition, I did feel somewhat relieved knowing that he was actually part of the Draqua sect that encouraged mating with human females. This meant that me being pregnant was not going against his beliefs. In fact, it was exactly what he wanted to happen. But because of his many secrets, I now had a distrust of him. How could I know when he was actually telling the truth now? He had been so good at lying for weeks. Not only did he pull off lying to me, but to Captain Blace, and was so successful at it that he joined the captain's mission. He was a spy. A spy was a notoriously manipulative and intelligent mind, no matter what race it came from alien or human. Now[SBM44], I felt very confused. I felt like a mess. After he told me everything, I could not speak to him. I could not look at him. My emotions were extremely out of whack, and I'm sure that my hormones and the pregnancy had a lot to do with it. I had cried myself to sleep. I was completely exhausted after the extreme ordeals that I had been through. First, I had to deal with having a secret lover, an alien lover. Then I had to deal with being caught and not knowing whether the commander was alive or dead. I had to deal with hiding it at work, in front of the captain. Then, of course, the big bombshell: I had to find out if I was pregnant. Then when I did, I had to deal with it alone. Then, I had him show up at my door asking me to leave my home planet forever with only seconds to think about it. Now[SBM45] after all of that, I had another circumstance to deal with, and that was that the alien dragon shifter that I was in love with was a big fat liar. It took a big toll on me, all of it. Now I had extreme exhaustion. I needed to sleep. I did not know exactly how long I slept, but it felt like at least 10 hours or more. Even though I was traveling through space, I felt extremely safe with Zoq so close. Even though I did not trust him after everything, I knew that he was a solid warrior that would protect me from anything. Because of this, I had a very deep and restful sleep. It was so restful that when I finally woke up, my eyes focused on the white ceiling. For half a second I thought I was back inside my apartment in the city. But then there was a slight jolt of movement. It was then that I remember that I was in an alien spaceship, hurtling through space to an unknown planet. I took a very deep breath. It was a lot to process when first waking up. I sat up in rubbed my eyes. I looked around inside the quiet ship. I ran my fingers through my long hair, trying to tame it. I pinched my cheeks trying to wake myself up and get a little color in them. Even though my body was rested, my mind was still exhausted. Waking up and going through everything that had happened once again in a review mode was making me tired. I pushed it all the side. There was no point in dwelling on it now. I stood up and almost fell back to the bench as I felt very dizzy. I guessed I wasn't as acclimated to space travel as I thought I would be. But it was my first time in space, so what could I expect? I pressed my hands against the wall to help me stand up, then I instinctively put my hand on my belly. I was pregnant. I had only known for a short while, and this was my first time waking up knowing that I had a child in my belly. A slight smile came across my face. Maybe everything would be okay after all, simply because knowing that I would have a child in my life soon made everything seem so much more joyful. I looked around the transport and could see that Zoq was in the front of the ship. I pulled my hand away from my belly because I did not want him to see me, not yet. I slowly moved over to a counter and drank some water. I was very thirsty. Then I walked to the front of the ship and found him sitting in the pilot chair very engaged in his work. I wanted to put my arms around him, but I remembered that I was still angry at him. He did not deserve a hug after what he had told me, but even still after sleeping on it, I knew that I wasn't as angry as I was before. I am sure that being so tired had a lot to do with my reaction. But I still did not know if I could ever fully trust him.
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked him.
“A few hours here and there. I have to sleep lightly in order to stay alert and listen for any warning sounds from the ship.”
“I see,” I said as I sat next to him.
I looked out the windshield into space. I gasped. I was looking at a very beautiful view. It was almost like massive purple and pink clouds in long columns.
“That is beautiful,” I whispered.
“Yes, it is.”
“What is it?”
“It is gases from a nearby nebula. This is a halfway marker for us Draqua. It is halfway between Earth and Kelon.”
“I cannot believe how beautiful it is. It is magical,” I said, looking at it. It was the most wondrous thing I had ever seen.
“Neither can I. I have seen it several times, and I never get tired of it,” he said quietly.
I looked at him. He was very focused on his work and flying the ship. He was still the most attractive creature I had ever seen. His long black hair was disheveled. His muscular arms were tents as they worked the ship’s console. I wanted to be angry with him and to hate him. But I ached to touch him. I wanted to sit on his lap and have him wrap his strong arms around me and tell me that everything would be fine.
“What is going to happen? What will happen when we get to Kelon?” I asked.
He looked at me, finally taking his eyes off the windshield. He then pressed a couple of buttons and then pushed the chair back. He turned toward me.
“I guess now is a good time to speak of it as any other. I was going to tell you this when we grew closer, but it is better for you to know now,” he said.
“What? What is it Zoq? I don't think I can handle any more surprises in my condition. You're starting to worry me,” I said to him. I did not want to hear anything else of setting. I had already heard too much. His eyebrow arched at me.
“In what condition?” he asked.
“What?” I said, surprised as I realize that I had let too much out of my mouth. Crap.
“You said that you can't handle any more surprises in your condition. What condition is that?”
“I just mean that I'm very tired. I just mean that it has been one thing after another with you. First, you take me from my planet with only minutes to think about making that decision. Then you tell me that you are not with the opposition. Then you tell me that hundreds of human females have been taken from Earth. I just mean that I am in a state of shock; that is the condition. Shock and exhaustion,” I said, trying to cover up my blunder. He seemed to buy it.
“I see.”
“Good,” I said. “So what is it?”
“The King sent me on the mission with the opposition with one purpose, to report back to him what was happening. But he did not give me permission to take a human female and bring her back with
me,” he said.
“I see. This is a problem, isn’t it?” I asked.
“It could be. I want to prepare you for it possibly being a problem. I know that I have sprung a lot of surprises on you, and I am trying to stop that course,” he said.
“I appreciate that. I am scared of this new world. You’re an alien! You’re alien to me. Your world is alien,” I said.
“So are you. You are an alien to me. Though I know more about your world and humans than you do about the Draqua and our planet, you are still a mystery to me,” he grinned.
“I suppose you are right,” I said understanding where he was coming from.
“The King is a good king. He is honest and honorable, but he does have a temper and likes things to go a certain way. Bringing you with me will be something that he does not like. He might be angry about this, especially because of your position and everything that was going on. You are not a random human female; you were right in the middle of everything. Your disappearance is going to be noticed among your people,” he said.
I gasped as I realized just how weird it was going to be when the space agency found that I was missing. They would find all of the pregnancy tests strewn around my bathroom. I wonder if they would have it tested and find that the results were not a human pregnancy? I really did leave a mess behind. But did it really matter? I was never going back. But I would go down at the space agency as a traitor. The thought made me feel sick to my stomach.