Irresistible: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 9)

by Lisa Lace

  As I flew towards the desert where my family home was located, I noticed something strange.

  The sky was empty.

  The silence in the clouds as dawn broke was further evidence the Surtu had taken control of the planet, defeating humanity into submission. The desert was secluded enough that there was a chance my family had avoided capture, but I wondered if there were differences between reality and my vision.

  I frequently checked the monitors to make sure I wasn’t being followed. There was a price on my head, but I doubted Captain Fore had any clue where I was. The world was a big place. The Surtu military may have taken the capitals, but it would be a long time before they turned over every rock.

  Granted, had Captain Fore done his research and learned about me, I was probably making it easy for him to capture me by going to my home. It was a risk I had to take. I hoped he didn’t have time to look into my background, and that he was too busy with the war to make me a priority.

  The communicator on the glider crackled. “Code R. We are calling in a Code R. All vessels in the area respond. We’re at Mammoth Ridge. We are going down.”

  Mammoth Ridge was a desert canyon carved out by a torrential river. The Surtu were closer to my home than I wanted them to be, but not so close that I considered retreating. I continued to fly, setting a new course around the canyon.

  Have fun drowning, I thought. Saves me killing you later.

  “Code R. Calling a Code R. All vessels respond. We’re going down. We have women on board.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. That changed everything.

  “Mammoth Ridge,” I called to the monitors. “Give me a hundred mile radius.”

  Live satellite images appeared. A glider similar to my own floated at an odd angle on the broad river. It looked like it had skimmed the side of the ridge and crashed down. A ship approached from the east, but it wouldn’t make it there in time. If I didn’t provide assistance, they would drown.

  I didn’t care about the soldiers, but I did care about the women.

  “Looks like I’m going to Mammoth Ridge,” I muttered, and I redirected my course once more.

  I flew close to the ground when I reached the ridge and scanned the scene below. Only the top of the glider was visible; the rest of it was underwater. The passengers stood on top of the craft. There were only two soldiers guarding a group of twenty women. They held their blasters high.

  If I was going to save the women, I had to rescue the guards as well. Only men served in the Surtu military. A woman flying a glider was a dead giveaway that I was part of the resistance. I could rescue them and get thrown back into captivity, or I could fly away.

  They spotted me flying overhead. The women began waving their arms frantically. For all they knew, I could be Surtu military, yet they were happy to see me. I guess I would be too if I were slowly sinking into a giant river with a deadly current.

  They didn’t have much time left, but I had already decided what I was going to do long ago. I opened the loading door and set my glider to autopilot before I went to the back and grabbed a rope.

  Next to the rope was something unexpected: a cache of weapons. I hadn’t thought to check the gliders when we’d left the refuge for Earth. Our landing on Earth would have been more secure if we were armed. We had blasters, but didn’t know it.

  I grabbed a blaster and went to the loading door. Before the guards had time to realize I was not one of them, I shot them each in the head. The women screamed as the guards fell lifelessly into the water.

  The rope was unnecessary. My glider hovered inches from the sinking vessel, close enough for the women to jump onto my ship. “Hurry up! Get on!” I shouted.

  They hesitated and stared at me with mistrust in their eyes.

  “I won’t hurt you,” I told them. “Don’t be fools or you’ll drown. Get on.”

  One by one, they started boarding. I held my hand out for each, steadying her as she jumped on. When everyone was onboard, I called to the autopilot, “Resume course!”

  I turned to make sure the women were okay, but before I had a chance to see anything, a beautiful brunette struck me across the face.

  “What have you done?” she shouted, with tears in her eyes. “You killed them.”

  I held a hand to my cheek. It stung, but my confusion outweighed my outrage. “What do you mean? I saved you.”

  “You saved us from the river, but not from the soldiers. We wanted to be with them.”

  I was horrified. “They were part of the network? Why did they ask for help on the main frequency?”

  I thought I already knew the answer. They had no other choice. If they didn’t request assistance, they all would drown.

  I was wrong.

  “What network?” she asked, her doe eyes wild with rage. “There’s no network. We surrendered ourselves to them.”

  I was confused again. “You surrendered?”

  “We want to be wives of Surtu men. They worship women. We’re sacred to them.”

  I didn’t understand. “But they’re cruel.”

  “Not all of them. They told us that if we surrendered, we would have our choice of alien men.”

  “I doubt that would have happened. Surtu men like to claim women.”

  “Only because they have to. Their survival depends on it. We feel for them. We want to help.”

  Although I had no right to my feelings, I was disgusted. An observer might think my choice wasn’t much different than theirs. “You’re putting yourself in danger, and you’re assisting the Surtu invasion.”

  She was unapologetic. “The Surtu have already invaded. We’re only making a choice for our best interests.”

  “It’s the wrong choice,” I argued, but I gave up, knowing I was the villain in their eyes. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Besides bring back the dead?” she snapped. “Set us down.”

  I thought quickly. There was a ship on its way to help them. They wouldn’t be stranded, but I had vowed to protect my fellow people, not hand them over to become willing slaves. Sometimes protecting people meant saving them from themselves.

  Jidden and Lucina came to my guilty mind.

  Sometimes protecting people meant honoring their right to choose for themselves.

  “This is something you all want?” I asked, looking for further confirmation. “Because once I set you down, I have to leave. A ship is on the way. You may be willing to surrender yourself, but I’m not.”

  I looked around to make sure they were all in agreement. They held their heads held high with confidence and determination.

  “Set us down,” the brunette demanded.

  “I will,” I said, “but remember, this is your choice. This isn’t everyone’s choice. Don’t assist the Surtu in pushing your choice on others.”

  The brunette finally relaxed. “You misunderstand us. We make this decision so other women won’t be forced to. If some of us are willing to bear the children of Surtu men, we hope others will escape.”

  My childhood home was a small, humble structure in the middle of the desert. What it lacked in size, it made up for in personality. My parents were not minimalists. They adored color. They covered the cracks in the wall with my father’s vibrant paintings. The curtains were lemon-colored, matching a lemon tree my youngest brother, Daniel, had somehow succeeded in growing, despite the desert heat. Our house had a life.

  Now it was abandoned, and it illustrated my worst fears. The war had caught up with my family. I still didn’t know where they were, but it was not here. Their fate was unknown.

  Weary from my travels, I climbed the short steps up the porch and entered my house. It was intact and everything was in its place, but it was an empty shell. Every one of my footsteps that echoed down the hall was another crack in my heart, reminding me of everything I had lost because of the Surtu invasion.

  I went to my room and sat on my bed, which creaked beneath my weight. It remained my room while I resided on the Fortuna. My
parents kept all of our rooms in the same condition as when we were children, even those of my older brothers who had long ago left to earn their way in the world. It was my parents’ way of ensuring we always had a family to come back to, and a place to call our own.

  Burying my head in the green leaves of my white comforter, I began to cry. As Commander of the Fortuna, I had to be strong. As Nightshade, I had to be ruthless. But back in my home, I was just Terra again. I cried, for everyone and everything I had known. I continued to cry until I fell asleep, and even then tears continued to fall.

  A noise startled me. I woke up and didn’t remember where I was; I immediately shifted to alert mode. A new sun rose low in the sky, casting shadows across my room. All the shadows were still except for one that crossed my door. I was not alone in the house anymore.

  I grabbed a fighting stick I played with as a child, and I waited breathlessly behind my bedroom door until the intruder moved back up the hall. Using the skills of an assassin taught to me by Bellona, I silently opened the door and followed the shadow’s path, which led out onto the porch. I did not go outside. Instead, I peeked through the cracks of the front door.

  It was a man, and he was Surtu. His tall stature and elfin eyes told me as much. Dark gold streaks reflected in the sunlight off his hair, which matched the golden brown of his eyes. He was handsome, in an unassuming sort of way. His looks weren’t intimidating like Jidden, but he was still hot.

  Too bad I have to kill you, I thought.

  Without a blaster, my only weapons were my fighting stick and the element of surprise. I braced myself, then charged out of the house at him, holding my rod high. He was fast. He rolled off the porch onto the ground, evading my blow. I tried again, jumping high and positioning myself midair to bash him. I thought I had him until he met me as I landed with his arm out. He grabbed my stick from me and used it to pin me to the ground.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he rumbled.

  “Too bad, because I’m going to hurt you,” I bit back, even though I was defenseless beneath his weight.

  “Who are you?” he demanded. “What are you doing here?”

  “That’s for me to ask. This is my home.”

  As soon as I said it, I wished I could take it back. Terra, you idiot, I scolded myself. Inadvertently, I had revealed my identity to the intruder.

  “You’re Terra Lynch?” he asked, stunned.

  I felt his hold on the stick slacken. It was my opportunity. Acting quickly, I rolled out from under him. He still had my weapon, but at least I was free to escape. I began to run.

  “Wait!” he called. “I know your brother, Daniel. We’ve been fighting as part of the resistance together.”

  I stopped. His revelation was like hitting a brick wall. I knew he could be lying, but even if it was a lie, I had to know the truth. “You know Daniel?” I asked.

  “Yes. Very well. My name is Kylu.”

  “Why are you here, but my brother isn’t?”

  “Your brother…” he began to explain, but a glider suddenly passed over us. “Damn!” he shouted. “Come here, quick.”

  Listening to the orders of a stranger went against my instincts, but I obliged, giving Kylu my trust in exchange for more information. “We can hide in the house,” I suggested when I was next to him.

  “There’s no use. They would have already seen your glider parked out here. They’ll turn around and land.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  “We wait until they come. Then we’ll act.”

  As Kylu predicted, the glider circled back and landed. Two soldiers marched out, their blasters drawn as they scanned the area. Soon they would see us standing on the porch.

  When the moment came, Kylu took me in his arms and kissed me. I didn’t resist, realizing at once it was part of a ruse to convince the soldiers we were lovers in hiding and not part of the resistance.

  “Hands up,” a soldier shouted.

  Smiling, Kylu broke our kiss and raised his hands. I followed his lead. “Hey, gentlemen.” He greeted them casually like they were friends. “My little kitten and I were just looking for some alone time, if you know what I mean.”

  The soldier wasn’t impressed. “It’s against the law to mate outside a light bond.”

  “We haven’t mated. Not yet. But there are other things a Surtu man can do to drive a human woman wild.” Kylu dropped his arms, but the soldier fired a warning shot at his feet.

  “Don’t move. We know who you are. Captain Fore is looking for you.”

  Part 3: Lust

  TERRA

  We had our hands pointed straight up in the air. Two Surtu soldiers had their blasters pointed at us, ready to shoot if we did anything suspicious. Kylu grinned broadly. Did he find being in danger amusing? It made me want to take one of the blasters from the soldiers and blow his little smile away. There was nothing funny about our situation.

  Why did I leave my blaster in the glider, I thought, irritated with myself. I was more than irritated. I wouldn’t let the soldiers see it, but I was scared.

  Not long ago, I had been a slave to Captain Fore and forced to serve him. He would beat me regularly, or have one of his men do it. He lashed out his frustrations on me.

  I had helped the women of the Fortuna escape him. It meant three hundred fewer reluctant brides for the Surtu men to use for bearing children. It had also been a personal humiliation for the Fleet Captain, chipping away at his prestige.

  He couldn’t kill me. The law of his people forbade it. He had sentenced me with what he considered an equal humiliation – enslavement.

  But I had gotten away, hiding in a cargo box bound for Earth. Since since then, he had put a price on my head. He was too busy with the war to hunt me himself, so he had the entire Surtu military doing his dirty work for him, like dogs digging for a bone.

  And now I was caught. My only ally was a smiling buffoon. It did not matter that Kylu was a handsome buffoon, the golden streaks in his brown hair reflecting brightly against the harsh desert sun. His good looks would not save me from a future of enslavement, nor would it save him from the death he deserved for betraying his people.

  I did not know Kylu well. He was Surtu, but he claimed to know my brother Daniel. I had given him my trust temporarily in exchange for information. I didn’t regret yet - finding Daniel was important to me. I would probably have second thoughts as soon as the soldiers handed me back to Captain Fore.

  “You know what happens next,” one of the soldiers said. His black uniform was a contrast against the desert landscape. “You’re coming with us.”

  I would rather die, I seethed inwardly. I opened my mouth to say it, but Kylu cut me off.

  “Finders keepers,” he said. He seemed almost cheerful, and he held his arms out, offering himself to the soldiers. “I won’t argue against a free lift.”

  “Kylu, stop messing around,” I hissed.

  His nonchalance made me uneasy. Only fools persuaded the devil to dance, and I was no fool. I hadn’t given up hope of escape. I parked my glider around the back of the house. If I could get us there before being shot, I might be able to pilot us away. There would be a chase afterwards; the soldiers had a glider themselves. Being pursued was preferable to surrender.

  Taking Kylu up on his offer, the pair of soldiers stepped forward. One continued to point his blaster at us as the other snapped a set of Surtu handcuffs around Kylu’s wrists. They looked like a weightless prism. It might have been a trick of the light, but I was sure it had twice the strength of any Earthly metal.

  I was tempted to run while they were distracted with Kylu. My need to learn more about Daniel and the fate of the rest of my family outweighed my desire to escape.

  If Kylu was being taken prisoner, so was I.

  “Great job,” I chastened, my arms still high in the air. “I never should have let you kiss me.”

  The grin didn’t leave his face. “It was worth it.”

  The soldier closest to me turned my
way. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, full of concern.

  I was bewildered. It was against Surtu law to kill a woman. They needed us for the survival of their race. There was no rule about how a soldier could treat a woman.

  Surtu soldiers weren’t exactly known for their courtesy.

  “What does it matter to you?”

  He trained his blaster back on Kylu. “I want to know if this scum needs a beating when we take him back to headquarters.”

  Headquarters. As far as I knew, the headquarters of the Surtu military was the Fortuna. After our escape, they made it their command center. During the war, it made strategic sense because the Fortuna was the space station furthest from Earth.

  Now that the Surtu had captured a significant amount of territory on Earth, I wasn’t sure where their headquarters was located. I prayed it was on the ground. If I was going somewhere on foot, I had a better chance of escaping Captain Fore a second time.

  “He didn’t touch me. And neither will you.”

  The soldier looked disgusted. “Of course I won’t.” Seeing my confusion, he explained further. “We work for the network. We’re Surtu soldiers who are helping humans avoid capture as the resistance continues to fight. We’re the good guys.”

  “I know what the network is,” I said coldly.

  “Then why do you look like you’re going to murder me?”

  I lifted my head towards Kylu. “Because he claims to be part of the network too.”

  “Actually, I said I was fighting as part of the resistance,” Kylu corrected.

  The soldier laughed. “Whatever he says, it’s better not to trust him.”

  I tried to make sense of what was happening. The actions of the soldiers spoke volumes. They made no attempt to restrain me like Kylu, but I wanted to believe Kylu. He had information that could lead me to my brother, and he wasn’t the one holding the blaster.

  I knew from past experience that the Surtu were not above playing mind games. I just didn’t know whose mind game this was.

  I dropped my hands, my guard up, giving no indication of believing any of them. “And why should I trust you?”