Beyond Reach: SciFi Romance

by Jessica E. Subject

  ***

  Mekai stared at the leaders in front of him, two men and one woman he never expected to be found on the same planet, let alone all three within feet of each other. Gripping Nixie’s hand, he willed the sight to be a dream. No, it was the beginning of his worst nightmare. Because sworn enemies never smiled in the presence of one another.

  Laravette, the leader of Ubetron stepped forward, holding out her hand. “Welcome home, Mekai.”

  Home? Although he’d once lived on the planet, he didn’t remember anything—except for the visions of Nixie—before Carbae. He ignored the leader’s gesture and glanced at his father. “Wanna tell me what’s going on here?”

  Nixie squeezed closer to him, seeming as anxious to be there as he was. “Don’t trust them.”

  He wouldn’t, especially her father. How could his own dad stand beside the man without wanting to seek revenge. Though Mekai refused to let anyone near his fiancé.

  “Mekai....” His father removed his crown and tossed it away, a sure sign the situation wasn’t real. “There’s no need to be afraid. No one is going to hurt you anymore.”

  He wished he could believe the man. “Why are you here? What’s going on?”

  Laravette’s smile faded, as if ready to reveal the nightmare they had entered. “A treaty has been signed between all of our worlds.”

  A treaty. And he was part of it if she was welcoming him home. Tenebrae, if only he and Nixie had had the chance to escape. “And?”

  “Carbae is now a territory of Ubetron,” the former king said. “The people are free to travel and move between as they wish. Those leaving Carbae will receive assistance in finding employment and living accommodations here. It’s a process that will take time, but it will benefit all involved.” His father stared down, suddenly interested in his shuffling feet. “As part of the treaty, you will live here, too.”

  “No.” None of them could make decisions for him. Their parents had been the cause of this mess in the first place.

  Nicolas, the last to advance toward them, placed a hand on his daughter’s arm. “You will live here, too, Nadia, as an act of good faith. A large house had already been secured for you both. But first—”

  “Wait.” Nixie glanced around. “Where’s Alexander? What did you do to him?”

  “I’m right here.” A man not much older than Mekai strolled forward with the same raven-colored hair and upturned nose as his fiancé. He was hand-in-hand with a woman about the same age he recognized from Carbae. “The treaty is a good thing if you’ll just listen without interrupting them. It’s what should have happened before Luca took you. Only dad has some extra debts he had to pay.”

  Nicolas nodded, holding his hands behind his back. “I can’t say enough how truly sorry I am for what happened to you.”

  Mekai glanced from one person to the next—including Thornton who stood in the crowd—waiting for one of them to break his bubble of hope. Did he and Nixie actually have a chance at a life together without running from their families?

  “You will be married tomorrow,” Laravette announced. “And during the broadcast of your union, the treaty will also be announced.”

  Nixie squeezed his hand, and when he looked upon her, she nodded, smiling for the first time since they’d left Schedar. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Okay then.” All his objections scattered. If his fiancé agreed, he would, too. “Let’s get ready for this wedding.”

  ***

  Nixie stared in the mirror, taking in the white satin and lace dress she’d been married in. So plain compared to the extravagant outfits worn by the crowd at her wedding. Yet, they had all told her how beautiful she looked, and shared their excitement about the new treaty.

  Her father refused to tell her what extra obligations the treaty meant for him, but she couldn’t dwell on something he’d agreed to.

  Slipping off the dress and her undergarments, she wore nothing but the gold band Mekai had placed on her finger, a symbol not only of his love and commitment, but the uniting of their people after so many years of angst. And all it took was one chance meeting.

  She opened the door and found her new husband lying naked on their bed. As if truly seeing Mekai for the first time, she shuffled to the bed, her cheeks blazing hot. Even with all the muscles proving his strength, she knew the sweet man that lay underneath. She couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

  Getting up from the bed, he stood in front of her. He tucked her hair behind her ears then pulled her hips until she was pressed tight against him. So close, she barely remembered to breathe, her head spinning. Yet, she never wanted to be anywhere else.

  “Hello, my wife.” He kissed her with gentle passion as he spun her around. When the back of her knees hit the bed, he laid her on the sheets. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

  “Yes, we haven’t made love since on Schedar.” Her body didn’t forget his touch, his gentle strokes making her thrust into the air, craving his sweet invasion.

  “No, that’s not what I mean.” He slid his fingers between her legs, into her already evident arousal. She couldn’t help herself with his touch.

  “Then what do you mean?” She slid up the bed and spread out for him, too impatient for his foreplay.

  “My dreams.” He lay over her, and lined the head of his cock to her entrance. “I’ve dreamed about you for as long as I can remember, about being with you, loving you.” He touched his lips to hers, drawing her into his kiss. But when she grabbed his ass to push him into her, he pulled away. “And now we’re finally together. For good. My dreams have come true.”

  He slid into her, filling her body, mind, and soul. Their union was sanctified. And no one could ever separate them again.

  Thank you!

  Thank you very much for reading Beyond Reach! If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads and/or wherever you purchase your eBooks. Also, please consider subscribing to my newsletter to stay up-to-date with all of my new releases and sales. Become a VIP by joining my Reader Group on Facebook. There you’ll get first glimpses of cover art, sneak peeks at stories before they release, the chance to get Advanced Review Copies, exclusive excerpts, and more!

  If you enjoyed this story, check out the first chapter of MADE FOR HER

  Blurb: After terrorists murder the love of her life, Colonel Mikayla Jones trains squadron after squadron of the clones he brought to life, to take to the skies. When she discovers a young clone of her husband in her newest class, her world spins out of control. How can she command the look-a-like when she can’t help but yearn for him to fill an ache in her heart?

  Dare was created to be the best. As the first Daniel clone to leave Onatria labs, he needs to prove he is more than just a DNA copy. To do that, he must rely on the wife of the man who donated his genes. But when she refuses to train him, Dare faces discharge and returning to the labs. Can he convince Colonel Jones to finish his training and find a way into her bed? Or will long kept secrets unhinge the entire clone project?

  Chapter One

  Captain Mikayla Jones opened the door and gazed up at the Skymaster II rocketing another group of pilots toward SFTC, the Space Flight Training Center. She’d been the instructor of most of the men and women on that flight and would come face to face with a new class on Monday morning. But she hadn’t rushed to the door to bid the squad farewell. No, instead she stared at the four men in uniform standing before her. She recognized three of them from the base, knew they hadn’t come with good news—they would never have arrived at her door together other than to inform her of a tragedy—but it was the fourth man dressed in black, his hands drumming a beat on his utility belt, who worried her the most. He wasn’t military.

  “May we come in?”

  Lieutenant Colonel Madison’s question yanked her back from her thoughts. “What is it? Tell me what happened.”

  The chaplain from the base stepped forward with a heavy nod. “Captain, it’s best if we go in and
sit down. Detective Krug of the Northwest Police Department has something to tell you.”

  She braced her hands on the door frame, afraid if she let them in, their bad news would be true.

  “C’mon, Mikayla.” Lieutenant Colonel Madison draped an arm across her shoulder and guided her into her home. He would be the only one to call her by her given name here, the only one who knew her well enough. “You need to sit down. It’s about Daniel.”

  She stopped in her tracks, dread pooling in her stomach, but the chaplain, the detective, and his military police escort continued into her living room.

  “This isn’t funny. It’s our anniversary. We’re supposed to go out for dinner. He promised he’d be home. Whatever this surprise is that you’re all involved in, I’m not impressed.” Her voice hitched. “Go over to the lab and tell Daniel to come home.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Detective Krug said.

  Her knees threatened to give out. “Why? He works just over there.” She pointed in the direction of the military labs where her husband conducted experiments for the government, ones so top secret, Daniel couldn’t even mention them in her presence.

  “No, Mikayla,” the colonel said. “He was contracted out to Onatria Labs.”

  She gasped. Her chest tightened. Had she misheard him? “The lab rumored to be involved in cloning? But that lab was blown up this morning.”

  She waited for one of them to tell her that her assumptions were wrong, that Daniel was okay, but they all stared at her, their eyes solemn. No, it can’t be true.

  “The Natural Lifes have already claimed responsibility for the bombing,” Detective Krug said.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she willed her body to stop shaking. Captain Jones could not break down, not when cadets depended on her every day to train them for flight. “Where is my husband? Which hospital is he at?” She couldn’t stand still. She had to get to Daniel, to take care of him. Their anniversary dinner no longer mattered, but she had to be with her husband.

  “Mikayla, I’m so sorry.” The colonel rested a hand on her shoulder. “But Daniel didn’t survive.”

  She stepped back, grasping for something to hang on to. A tear slid down her cheek, but she wiped it away. Her husband had to come home. Yet, her heart had already broken, processed the news before her mind. Grasping the back of a chair, she turned to the detective. “You have to be wrong. He can’t be dead. He can’t. It’s our anniversary. How do you know it was him, huh?”

  “We read his military ID chip. I’m sorry, but there’s no mistaking his identity.”

  “No!” She was no longer Captain Jones. She melted back to Mikayla, wife to Daniel Jones. And she let go, falling to the floor. Terrorists had stolen her husband from her. She was alone. Forever. All of their hopes and dreams, gone. Her chance at having a family, no more. She had nothing to live for.

  Madison knelt beside her and rubbed her back. “I’m very sorry.”

  But she turned away from him. “Leave me, please.” She wrapped her arms around her knees and wept for her husband.

  ***

  Ten years later

  Colonel Jones grabbed the remote before focusing on the three-dimensional holographic picture beside her. Another presentation for the general public, but she doubted it would work to recruit anyone. The audience was always more curious than willing to enlist.

  “In 2084, as you know, Earth made first contact with the Rafkels, a peaceful species living on the planet Raf, located twenty light-years from Earth.” She pressed the button to show her spectators an image of the still-foreign planet. “While meeting this species remains years away, their message warned us of other intelligent life forms in our own galaxy.”

  Mikayla rolled her eyes. The actual message had not been a warning, rather a fact, but the government insisted on changing the wording to garner more recruits and support for cloning. “Since then, world governments have combined efforts to develop a spacecraft that will take us faster and farther into space.

  “If you join the military today, you will learn how to fly these vessels and train the clones for future wars. Science fiction has now become our reality.” Yeah, like that would work to recruit people. Who wrote the speech, anyway? Very few, if any, would ever make it to the SFTC, Space Flight Training Center. “It will never be your life on the line, but that of men and women created only for that purpose. Serving your country is no longer about sacrifice, but about honor.”

  She cringed at the bullshit words. People still died all the time. Terrorists, like the ones who’d killed Daniel, still objected to cloning, causing destruction and death. Just last month, a popular off-base nightclub, known to be a military hang-out, had been turned to rubble in a matter of seconds after a suicide bomber with known allegiance to the Al-Tidoa group blew himself up inside the building. Many, both clone and human-born, had died.

  When Mikayla switched the display to the live feed from Onatria’s main lab in Geneva, she sighed at the collective gasp. Robotic arms transferred material between Petri dishes at various stations while other, more complex equipment dissected strands of DNA. Human-born and clones alike wore white lab coats and watched new life grow under their microscopes. And in a glass-walled clean room, casket-like clear chambers held young clones attached to a multitude of tubes. Except for the military and Onatria staff, this was the first time anyone had seen the labs. The government had grown desperate for people to enlist.

  Clones, fully incubated at one year, resembled a teenaged human-born and lived better than most of the people there to watch the presentation. That was, until the clones left the labs four years later. Then they became nothing more than a possession of the military, a weapon trained for combat. And none, as of yet, had developed long enough to resemble an officer her age. They were killed in battle or by terror attacks before they had the chance to live a long life.

  At the end of her presentation, she slipped out of the hall, unwilling to answer questions from the audience. The junior officers could handle them. She refused to listen to the public refer to the clones as slugs. Daniel had died bringing them to life and she couldn’t have his work, his creations, insulted in front of her. Sure, they weren’t born the same way as her, but they were still people, and she had a new squadron of clones waiting for her on the tarmac.

  They wouldn’t fly today. Instead, they’d head to the classroom for theory. With their basic training already completed, they were sent to her to become pilots. But her job involved more than training. She had to weed out the clone cadets who were better suited to a civilian position, and keep those who took their assignment seriously.

  As she approached them, they stood at attention and saluted her, but all wore the same cocky smile. She gave them her infamous glare to wipe away their grins, even though she knew every one of them deserved to be arrogant. They were, after all, created and genetically modified to be the best.

  Colonel Jones eyed each one of her new cadets, examining the neatness of their uniforms, while inspecting for signs of stress or over-anxiousness. She’d never seen the telltale muscle twitches or sweats in any previous clones, only in human-borns, but she had to look for them anyway.

  The first generation of clones didn’t live long enough to become cadets. Their hearts had given out within a year after incubation. But the scientists at Onatria had plowed on, utilizing more of Daniel’s research, speeding up the aging process with hormones to create the perfect generation she saw before her.

  She’d had female clones in previous squadrons, but the government filled the one in front of her with testosterone-driven masculinity. If she’d been younger, she’d have a hard time concentrating. But her days of crushes and fantasies were long over. She was devoted to serving her country and planet, and nothing else.

  That didn’t stop her from going out on the town for a stress-relieving fuck from time to time. But these young men in front of her appeared so virile, sure to last longer than any of her previous sexual partners.
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  No. As junior officers, and more importantly, as clones, they were off limits.

  Inspecting them gave her the opportunity to check out more than their fatigues and tics, but if they knew her thoughts, they’d walk all over her. She’d be done.

  They were of varying nationalities, builds, and heights, all fit to serve the planet. None of the cadets revealed any indication he would put the lives of others in jeopardy. It would be an easy squadron, every one of them ready to fly in a matter of weeks.

  She reached the last cadet and froze. Her stomach clenched. No, they couldn’t have!

  She pivoted on her heel and rushed off the tarmac, leaving the squad without an instructor.

  ***

  “How dare you!” She shouldn’t have barged into General Madison’s office, but Mikayla didn’t care. The military had crossed a very personal line. One she could never forgive.

  Her commanding officer rose from his desk, his hands raised in the air. “I beg your pardon, Colonel. Remember who you are speaking to.”

  She slammed the door. “I can’t believe you let them clone Daniel and then send him to me to train. I had no problem training them when I didn’t know who they were made from, but this is just…wrong. Daniel never gave permission.”

  He stepped out from behind his desk, lowering his arms. “I can see how intimate this situation is to you.”

  She glared at him. “Oh, really?” The only way to get more personal was if they’d created a clone of herself, and she would never allow that.

  “Sit down. You need to be quiet and listen, or I will have you escorted out of my office.”

  Mikayla plopped into one of the leather chairs in front of the general’s desk. She gripped the arms, holding in her anger, though she still had so much of her mind to tell him.