Matched: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Romance (Garrison Earth Book 2)

by V. K. Ludwig

  “I figured as much,” Kael mumbled. “The moment they announced your capture, I got my personal stargazer ready. Fusion panels are hot, and I’ll jump four times if I have to get them out.”

  “And then what?”

  Eden and Kael exchanged the kind of glance that had my stomach turn upside down.

  “Do you remember what you said to me that day?” Eden asked.

  “That you have a dire case of stubbornness and self-entitlement?”

  Her chuckle made a tear run over her cheek. “Yeah, you were right about that one. But that’s not what I meant.” She leaned closer until her stomach wouldn’t let her, whispering, “I would die for my mate.”

  “Yeah, I said that. More than once.”

  I stared at the table and nodded, counting the many times I’d used those precise words without grasping their true meaning. Sure, we Vetusians blurted that kind of shit all the time. We’d love our mates. Protect them. Care for them. Die for them. But what if fate pushed us to a point where words turned to verity? Where assurances demanded actions?

  Kael scratched his nail over the white surface of the table. “Commander Torin sent a bunch of undercover CAT officers into the docks. They looked for the Jal’zar. For the hacker. For any lead, no matter how small. It all came to nothing.”

  “So, you’re basically telling me there’s nothing that can be done for me. At least not without dragging Katie into it.”

  He smacked his lips. “It would be bad enough if the public finds out that there’s a crime ring selling Gaia links. But it would be a complete disaster if it comes out, and we have nothing on it. No proof. No leads. Nothing.”

  “What about other couples?”

  “It’s a delicate subject, Melek. Healers are now ordered to screen matched females for any signs indicating illegal involvement.” He leaned back and pushed both hands through his hair, holding it at the top of his head. “We’re walking a fine line here. If you thought phase one was messed up, let me tell you phase two is taking it to a whole new level. The entire Gaia Split Case is threatening to overwhelm us. Can you imagine what would happen on Earth if we told Vetusians, that female you’ve waited for all your life got hitched to another male who had the credits to pay for it?”

  “But this can’t keep going like that.”

  “Of course not,” Kael snarled. “We will get to the bottom of this eventually, it’s just…”

  “Eventually will be too late for us,” I said with a clarity in my voice that sunk me into the chair.

  “If Kael gets them, then you won’t have anybody at your trial to speak in defense of your character. Torin and I will do everything we can to delay your trial,” Eden said. “If that is what you want. But —”

  “But Katie and Grace are alone on Odheim, with three bounty hunter crews on their way to get them,” I said. “If Kael returns them to Earth, Katie will be tried right alongside me.” I took a deep breath. “Unless I confess.”

  Unless I die for my mate.

  It all made sense now.

  Fate wasn’t a guarantee for happiness, but a promise that I would get to play my part once the time came. By the look on their faces, my time had run its course. For once, I was glad the hacker had deleted all surveillance; otherwise, I wouldn’t even have the chance to take the blame. To be a real hero, if only once.

  I reached my shaky hand across the table. “Do it. Take my confession.”

  Eden’s head sunk and mumbles pushed through from between sobs. “You know I’ll take care of them, right? Make sure they’ve got everything they need?”

  I stared at Eden, the female who still held the record of attempted escapes across planet Earth. She carried the crest of the house L’nghal now, representing Vetusians and humans alike. Never in a million suns would I have expected to see her weep for me.

  “Congratulations on your wedding,” I said with a smile.

  She looked up at that, her lips twitching upward. “They called it the event of the century. It seems we started a trend because a lot of interspecies couples are getting married now.”

  Kael smacked my hand away. “When it comes to those wanted by the Empire, only a warden has the authority to take your DNA-coded confession.”

  Eden’s chair screeched as she got up. “I’ll get him.”

  She walked over and placed her hand onto my shoulder, saying, “You were right about everything,” before she left the room.

  The moment she closed the door behind her, I shook my head. “She sure came around.”

  “She’s still stubborn,” Kael said. “Sometimes, I believe it’s what makes her so excellent at navigating all those political intrigues alongside the commander. If this female would have been any easier, chances are we would have failed during phase one.”

  “Garrison Earth,” I said on an exhale, folding my hands behind my head.

  “Garrison Earth,” Kael repeated. “A mission threatening to fail on the daily, wrecking Vetusian hearts all over again.”

  “How’s your match?”

  He shrank into his chair. “Fine, I guess. Playing with toys and… whatever Earth children do. I’ll leave for Dunatal in a few suns.”

  “So, you won’t be around for my execution?”

  “Are you kidding? I’ve got tickets for the first row.” He offered me a pained stare, then shook his head. “Shit, Melek. I wish I could do something. You,” — his finger tapped the air — “You, my friend, have an incredible talent for getting yourself in trouble. What am I going to do with all my credits now, if I no longer have to bail you out of temporary confinement?”

  My laugh quickly turned brittle. “Can you do me a favor? I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to Katie. As a matter of fact, I was pretty tense all day. Would you tell her that I love her? Tell her that she helped a Vetusian find his faith in destiny again? I need her to know that this was my decision.”

  “Will do.”

  We both straightened the moment Commander Torin stepped into the room. With a stick up his ass as always, he regarded me with little more than a grunt. He leaned with his hands at the edge of the table, a heavy sigh blowing from his nostrils.

  “He found her,” Kael explained. “She said she wouldn’t give the hacker away since protecting him meant keeping Zavis imprisoned.”

  Commander Torin stared at me from narrowed eyes. “What is the meaning of this?”

  I cleared my throat and pushed myself a bit higher in my chair. “Commander, sir, I can’t explain it myself.”

  His gaze wandered to Kael. “Do you believe this might be the pleasure worker who vanished after the death of the healer?”

  “Might be. The investigation never figured out her identity. Once healer Melek here gives his confession, I’ll be on my way to retrieve the two human females. I could bring the Jal’zar with me.”

  Commander Torin straightened and paced the room, hands clasped behind his back. “We neither have any grounds to arrest her, nor the authority to bring her to Earth. Whatever happens on Odheim is one thing but bringing her here will make the intercosmic community question our action. It is an amnesty planet after all.”

  “Are you sure you tried everything?” Kael asked.

  I gave a heavy nod. “All sorts of torture approved by the Empire.”

  “Not everything then,” Commander Torin mumbled.

  He stared at the blank wall for an overlong moment. Then he walked back toward the table, sat down across from me, and reached his hand out.

  “Healer Melek, I, Warden Torin da taigh L’naghal, Commander of the First Brigade, accuse you of the murder of warrior Kidan, in the name of the Vetusian Empire and the species it represents. Do you wish to confess?”

  With a trembling palm, I handed myself over to fate, and for once, I did it gladly. “I, healer Melek, crop number eleven, rank three First Brigade, admit to the murder of warrior Kidan, a crime I alone have committed.”

  He held my hand as firmly as he held my gaze, even after the DNA-coded
statement made its way into the Imperial databank. Then he shook it, saying, “I can respect a male who dies to protect the female he loves. It is a brave thing to do and proof of your adequacy.”

  Now I’d heard it all.

  I was a dead hero.

  Twenty-Six

  Katie

  * * *

  The bowl of bullhabou stew sat warm in my palm, my focus lost to the strange vegetables floating atop. They swirled each time I dunk the spoon into it, my shaky hand spilling half on the way to K’nema’s mouth.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, wiping the greasy droplets from her emaciated body with the sleeve of my shirt.

  She barely curled her lips back, sucking the content from the spoon through gritted teeth. Vegetables and meat caught there, some of it dropping onto her pillow I had returned, some actually making it into her mouth.

  Dry, all tears depleted, my eyes itched at each blink. Whenever I closed them, I saw Melek staring back at me with that boyish grin of his, sending a stabbing pain into my heart.

  “How can you open up to his kind, human?” K’nema asked. “How many of your kin did they kill when they arrived?”

  “My mother was already dead during phase one. And that kin of mine never wanted anything to do with either one of us, so I care little about what happened to them.” I fed her another spoon, watching rivulets of broth run down the corner of her mouth where it soaked brown into the pillow. “The Vetusian who bought my link? He tried to rape me, so he could get me away from my true mate. I killed him.”

  “Yes, the healer told me,” she said with a hoarse chuckle. “A dead Vetusian is a blessing.”

  I ignored that anger flaring at the pit of my stomach. Wouldn’t let it clog my throat. I had to be stronger than this urge to throw myself onto the ground and weep. Melek had tried to get her to talk and failed. Now it was my turn.

  “He’s a good male,” I said. “He saved me. Made all the bad memories go away.”

  “Your bad memories account for nothing compared to the suffering of my people. He might have been young and innocent when they came and ripped us from our planet, but we all carry the shame of our ancestors in our soul.”

  I swallowed hard, knowing full well what she’d said was right, and yet I tried to reason with her. “Your kind tried to invade my planet to gain resources.”

  Her breastbone jerked underneath something barely worth calling a laugh. “That’s what they keep telling everyone, isn’t it? We came to trade technology in exchange for a resource. So we could keep them from taking our planet like they’d done with all others.”

  “She’s lying,” Takel’s voice came from behind me.

  “What do you know, youngling?” K’nema snarled. “Barely out of that soulless sack of his when the Empire burnt our villages, destroyed our shrines, and took our daughters to warm their beds.”

  I gestured him to drop the subject. “Grace?”

  He jutted over his shoulder. “She finally fell to sleep on the couch. K’terra is guarding the yard in the back, and Adora locked up the other doors.”

  Disheartened, I placed the bowl on the nightstand. “Are you cold?”

  “No, human.”

  I got up and left the room.

  Takel closed and locked the door behind us, his puffy eyes immediately falling back to Grace. “I’m not a warrior nor a combat healer, but I will protect her with my life if that is what it takes.”

  His words stung deep down in a place where reality waited for an opening to jump at me. Twist my head and make me look at the facts. Melek was gone; each second K’nema refused to help chipping away on the life of the male I loved. Now that the bounty hunters got him, it didn’t take a hard guess of what would happen next.

  “Get your stuff.” An unfamiliar voice pushed into the room, the deep and husky qualities making my heart punch all surrounding organs.

  The Vetusian warrior, his black uniform decorated, dipped his head. “I’m officer Kael. I assume Melek mentioned me once or twice?”

  I wanted to back up. Put me into the corner, because two walls offered more protection than none. But I ignored my initial panic and forced my legs into motion. One step. Two steps. This Vetusian was a friend of Melek, and I wouldn’t let my fear keep me from finding a trace of hope to hold on to.

  “Where’s Melek?”

  “In confinement on Earth,” he said. “He’s physically unharmed, and he asked me to bring you and your daughter home.”

  Home.

  A word that should have me excited now put a roil into my stomach. “And then what?”

  He sucked in his upper lip for a moment before he sunk his head. “He confessed to the murder of warrior Kidan and took sole responsibility. There will be a hearing, likely followed by his public execution.”

  One horrified heartbeat slammed against my sternum, hammering whatever hope I’d expected into pulp. Why did he give up so easily? We had time. We had K’nema.

  “A group of bounty hunters is on their way to Odheim,” Kael said as if he’d read the disbelief from my face. “They will tear this place up until they find you, Katie. Until they find Grace. Then they will sell the both of you on the slave market.”

  Takel flung his hand onto his forehead and hurried over to Grace, hovering over her as if he expected someone to kick the door down at any second. And perhaps I should have expected it as well.

  “Melek wants you safe,” Kael said. “That’s what any male wants for his female, and he is willing to sacrifice his life for it. Don’t make him give it for nothing, because he’s certain it’s his fate. His confession allows you and your daughter to go back to Earth. No arrest. No prosecution. Eden da taigh L’naghal organized you a habitat on the outskirts of sector three, away from the media.”

  Wooziness overcame me, and I stumbled forward and sideways all at once, only to catch myself on the back of the couch. If Melek thought it was his fate to give his life for mine, what was my fate? Accept it and keep living another thirty-three years without someone by my side? How could I give him up after everything we went through? Everything we’d become?

  “And what does a female want for her male?” I asked.

  Kael cocked his head, his brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”

  The words pushed from my mouth, leaving me feeling brave and foolish alike. “I’m not coming. I’ll stay here until I get her to confess.”

  “This is no time to be stubborn, female. If you think your life’s at stake here, then let me tell you it’s far worse than that. They will come. They will take you. And you will spend the rest of your life having Vetusians sweat all over you while they mate you in any way they wish.” He pointed at Grace, her eyelids twitching. “Is that what you want for her?”

  “I love him.”

  “And he loves you,” Kael said. “He wanted me to tell you. And it is because he loves you that you have to come with me now. Melek is my friend. I can’t let him down by not bringing you to safety.”

  “Take her.” I hurried over to Grace and flung myself onto the couch, almost violently shoving her from her sleep. “Wake up! Grace! You have to go.”

  “This is insane.”

  She startled awake, immediately jumping up from the couch. “What happened?”

  “Put your shoes on. Grab your cape. You’re going back to Earth.”

  “But…” Her eyes immediately fell to Takel. “Why? How? I’m not going without him.”

  “That’s just fantastic,” Kael hissed into his palm. “I rushed my ass over here, and now nobody wants to leave.”

  If I had learned anything in those few years as the mother to a teenage daughter, it was that arguing would get us nowhere. I searched for Takel’s eyes and immediately found them, letting silence do the talking between us.

  He nodded and reached for Grace’s hands. “You’re not safe here, Grace, and I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  “Bounty hunters are on their way here to get us,” I said. “Officer Kael her
e will bring you to Earth.”

  She stared up at Takel, the same pain written over her face that I felt engraved to my heart. “But I don’t want to leave you.”

  “I’ll come to Earth,” he said softly and stroked over her hair. “I already applied for Garrison Earth. I’m almost mature, and they need counselors down there. Can you wait for me?”

  Kael swung his hands up. “This is my ship. My mission. I’ll take both of you with me even if that means I’ll have to tie you to the fusion panels.”

  I ignored his threat and fumbled underneath the couch in search of Grace’s shoes. Once I found them, I tossed them in front of her, a plea on my face, not even she could deny.

  “Take her,” I said, staring straight at Kael. “Take her to Earth.”

  “And what about you?”

  “I swear I’m so close to getting her to talk,” I said, my heart heavy because I knew it was a lie. She wasn’t close. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing here, and yet I had to try.

  “I have enough experience with Jal’zar, and I can assure you she won’t talk.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unless…”

  Something struck my spine. “Unless what?”

  He hit his thumb against his chin, letting skin rub over dark bristle. “There’s something called holographic memory channeling.”

  “It’s illegal,” Takel blurted. “That form of torture has been outlawed for decades.”

  “Nothing on Odheim is illegal,” Kael barked, his jaw clenched. Then he pointed at Takel. “You! Take the girl downstairs. I have ten of my best men positioned at the rear entrance. Tell them my orders are to bring her to my stargazer. She’ll be safe there.”

  “But what about my mom?”

  “Oh, sweetie.” I wrapped her in my arms and took in that scent I could have sworn was baby puree and milk. “Just one more try. I’ll join you on his stargazer, but I can’t leave just yet. Not until it’s really too late. Take her!”

  Takel immediately wrapped one arm around her middle and grabbed her hand with the other. Then he guided her out of our apartment, while Grace glanced back at me over her shoulder. She disappeared behind the door soon after, leaving me behind with nothing but hopes threatening to shatter, and dreams beginning to break.