“I just had a thought. According to Dante I get the first kill of the war. In fact my kill starts the war. This could all be avoided. All you need to do it turn around and go home.”
Jayquer lunged for him gripping him in the arms.
Alexei just stood there with a sad look in his eyes. “I never wanted to start a war.”
“You didn’t start this war. It started long before you were born. Now defend yourself.” Amber’s voice cut through his thoughts.
Alexei raised his arms pulling them free of Jayquer’s hold. He had puncture marks from where Jayquers claw sank deep into his flesh. Jayquer threw a punch hitting Alexei in the stomach. Alexei countered back by throwing a jab hitting him in the jaw. They traded hits shaking the other up but never hitting hard enough to kill.
Jayquer turned and swam towards Amber. Alexei followed catching him by the foot. He pulled him down keeping him from Amber. Jayguer flipped and headed back towards Alexei.
“I will kill her first then you”
Alexei’s form changed. His deadly claws came out, he caught Jayquer in his arm making him howl in pain as he moved backwards putting space between them.
Alexei’s eyes changed as he went for Jayquer now chasing him through the water. There was a huge boulder in the middle of the lake. Jayquer swam behind it before climbing it.
When Alexei drew near he dived down from the top of it hurtling him to the bottom of the river. Jayquer sank his claws into Alexei’s back causing him to roar in pain.
Alexei flipped his body backing up into the boulder crushing Jayquer against it. He lost his hold on Alexei from the force of hitting the boulder. Alexei turned and used his claws to gut him.
The water around him became red before it quickly flowed away with the current.
Amber swam over to him putting her hands around him.
“You didn’t start a war.”
“I know you’re right, Wild cat. Still I would have given a lot to not have to kill him. I would have found a way until he swam towards you. I’m not willing to sacrifice you to test a theory.”
She touched his back and winced.
“I’ll be ok I can feel the Ne’anth in me using the power of the water to heal.”
She nodded. “We have to get out of this water I don’t want to press our luck.”
They swan to the top to find out they were at the tip of the point. They were in the Ohio River. Amber pulled Alexei over to land before she pulled herself upwards.
Sanqee stood waiting for her to get out the river. “I hoped you drowned.”
“No such luck I’m still alive.”
“Where is Jayquer?” She looked around waiting for his head to pop up.
“He drowned, no wait I killed him,” Alexei said, his voice still sounding sad.
“Go home, Sanqee, don’t fight. Give yourself a shot at a real life.”
“Jayquer was my shot at a real life. A life that I would be proud to live that didn’t include scrounging around looking for food and your mate killed him.”
Sanqee ran at Amber. Amber pulled her knife out, it was still attached to her leg. She flipped it end over end never touching it. The knife embedded in Sanqee’s heart.
Alexei walked over and pulled it out taking it to the fountain to wash the blood off of it.
“Wouldn’t have mattered what you said, she was unwilling to live without Jayquer. She never thought she would win she simply wanted oblivion.”
Amber nodded her head and took her knife back when he held it out to her. “There’s no glory in war.”
“Only dead bodies, Wild cat.”
“What do we do now?”
“We wait, Dad says he’s dealing with the last of Yaksim’s clones.”
“Clones?” Amber turned to look at him.
“I have no idea. All I know is he was busy with clones. You know what I could use?”
“Dry clothes.”
“That’s it. Why don’t we start walking?”
Amber placed her hand in Alexei’s as they walked away from the point. Downtown was empty. There were several clothing stores but vandalism felt wrong even though her clothes were beginning to freeze on her body with the cold temperatures. Not feeling the cold in the water didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling the cold now.
“Need a ride?”
Two hover cars lowered in front of them. One had Mick in it and the other had Rena.
“I thought you might be wet and wanting a dry comfortable place to change clothes,” Rena continued talking.
“Mom, you amaze me.”
“Alexei, I frown on you fighting in the water in the middle of winter. I’m sure your father will back me up on this.”
Alexei’s laughter rumbled out. “I’m sure he will agree with you, Mom.”
They climbed into the hover car with Rena, pulling off wet clothes. The minute she closed the roof and turned the heater on full blast, she handed over towels as well as large comfortable blankets.
“Good thing downtown is deserted. I’m sure I would get a ticket for the amount of exposed skin that is being shown.”
They dried off and put on dry clothes before wrapping themselves in the blankets.
Amber knew Alexei didn’t really need his but he did need a cloak to hide his thoughts behind.
“Where are we going, Mom?”
“Mick is going to catch your father and Dante when they fall. We’re coming over here behind the blast zone to watch the fireworks.”
The ship exploded. Small bombs looked like they were going off inside until it became a huge firebomb headed for the Earth. It crash landed taking out the point. They could see hints of huge fires all over Pittsburgh.
“Now were going home.”
Rena turned the car around and made for safety.
Amber moved closer to Alexei until she could rest her head on his chest. “We did it”
“We survived, Wildcat. Nothings over yet, but we can handle whatever comes our way together.”
“I love you.”
Alexei leaned over and kissed her. Together they would conquer all the odds.
Epilogue
“Is it over?” Amber asked as she walked into the house.
Aran and Dante were there as well as the rest of the family sitting in the game room.
“No,” Dante replied, “but now we have a chance at winning.”
“What happened? We saw the ships go up.”
“I blew up about fifty percent of the invaders. I was able to compromise them by going through Yaksim’s flagship,” Hale spoke up.
“That still leaves a large number of ships, but the others aren’t as fortified. I will start looking for a way onto their ships tomorrow. Even if we eradicate all the ships there are forces on the ground that infiltrated with normal human life that will fight. I am hoping that some of them will like the life they have here so much that they will fight on our side.” Hale looked at Aran turning the floor back over to him.
Aran turned on the screen allowing them to see the news. Fights were breaking out all over the world. Soldiers were fighting creatures right out of nightmares. Others were fighting creatures out of their dreams.
“You gave the world a fighting chance.” Sergey looked at them all.
Back Matter
I hope you enjoyed reading about Alexei and Amber as much as I enjoyed writing about them. You can visit this world again in any of the other Love Me Harder books as well as the upcoming book Ash.
Insider peak.
There was nothing Ash loved more than seeing Amber mated and brought into his family.
There was nothing Ash hated more than losing the one person who made his hold on sanity a reality.
There was nothing but the sadness of being alone that consumed him as he watched his Baby girl grow up.
How to find me
You can find me at my website
I’m also on twitter at @serena789books
My author central page
My face book page
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Serena Simpson, Alexei: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance
Alexei: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance Page 19