Warriors Of Cadir (A Sci Fi Alien Romance Collection)

by Maia Starr

  “Hazel… H’sk! You’re not funny!” the woman swore, clearly overwhelmed by the sight of her friend. “Are you hurt?”

  “I-I’m fine,” Hazel said. She started crying then: solemn, stoic tears as she and her friend exchanged a look that filled me with unease. She glanced over at me with some unknown calculation, and my heart began to race.

  Was I supposed to act like the cruel captor? Was I allowed to call out for her to stop? Should I fight Nariva?

  I had no idea. Her eyes told me nothing, and so I just watched.

  Nariva cocked her weapon at me: an oozing warm glow radiating from the barrel, ready to burn me alive. “Come here,” she instructed, and Hazel stalled.

  “I’m okay,” Hazel repeated firmly.

  “Good,” Nariva said and gestured once more for Hazel to come to her side. “Come on; it’s over now. Let’s go. And you,” she hissed at me. “You made a mistake not taking that deal. One you will pay for with your life.”

  Silence filled the air then, and I refused to speak to the woman. There was an awkward, unspoken standoff between the three of us until Hazel said, “I’m sorry.” Whether it was to Nariva or to me, I wasn’t sure, but I could see her breath coming through in plumes through the cold, rainy air.

  Nariva raised a slow brow, incensed as she looked between us. She lowered her gun to her side as the truth dawned on her. Her immensely large blue eyes glanced between mine and Hazel’s hands and studied our body language.

  The white shifter pressed her eyes shut in utter annoyance, and then she lowered her voice and instructed, “Hazel, get over here right now.”

  “I can’t,” she said with a nervous swallow.

  I walked up beside her then and grabbed her hand, pulling her back toward me.

  “Hazel,” Nariva said carefully, like an instructor. Her emotions were clearly scrawled across her face: fury, but protection. “There is an army above me searching the mainlands for you right as we speak. If you don’t come with me immediately, they will come down here, and they will kill him.”

  Her words were sharp, quick, and concise as they spilled out of her mouth.

  My eyes flicked up to the top of the precipice, and just as she said, I could see the glow torches of the Gild warriors marching through the forests.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered to Hazel, squeezing her hand. We would get through this. We would fight.

  “They are looking for the Atherien,” Nariva said, looking at me now.

  “That’s no bother to me,” I said tersely.

  She shook her head. “They know you took her. They’ll kill you all.”

  “We’ve been ready for this war,” I snapped and held Hazel’s hand even tighter.

  “They will find the Atherien, and they will slaughter them all,” she instructed.

  “We’ll fight them,” I said easily.

  “No,” Nariva said, turning her head slightly. Her tone was all business as she explained, “They aren’t going in with soldiers. They are attacking the blacklands and sending the siccus crawling toward your camp.”

  My heart sank.

  Fuck.

  “You’re lying,” I said, and she shook her head.

  “But,” she said easily, her gaze shifting back to Hazel’s, “if you come back with me and make things right with Theren, I will let him go,” she said, pointing at me.

  I could see the look of distress washing over Hazel’s usually graceful features: a wrinkle in her forehead and stiff lips. She was thinking. I could feel the tension between her and the guard, and suddenly, I knew she would let go of me.

  “Come with me, now,” she said with more desperation this time, her eyes flicking up toward the warriors above who were slowly finding their way to the cliff’s edge. They would find us soon. “Then Theren will call off the attack. Spin whatever story you like to him—you came to the mainlands and hurt yourself. You were kidnapped and got away. Whatever you want to say.”

  Hazel looked up at me, resigned, and I shook my head.

  “She’s lying to you,” I said, but Hazel let go of my hand. “Hazel!” I hissed and ran to grab her hand, but she pulled away. She turned toward me and widened her eyes as she snapped, “Don’t.”

  …Was this an act? Something put on for Nariva’s benefit, or was she relieved to have this over with?

  She ran toward Nariva and fell into her arms like a child to a mother.

  I felt a tortured sob spin up my throat like a ball of energy: like fire that needed to come out. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than Nariva’s warriors to come at me. To tear them apart piece by piece.

  Hazel wouldn’t look at me anymore, now safely embedded in Nariva’s grasp like a daughter to a mother. She nestled into Nariva’s embrace, and I set my jaw, watching them numbly.

  It was just seconds after that Nariva shifter and went skyward: a beautiful white dragon with rare feathers making its way toward the top of the mainland outskirts—Hazel holding onto her with familiarity.

  She was gone.

  In thinking she was protecting me, Hazel had taken away everything worth protecting.

  My whole body went heavy, like dead weight. I was frozen in place, unsure whether I should go after her or return to my people and warn them of the danger facing us.

  I waited, watching the army above to see if Nariva would stay true to her word and call her soldiers off. I watched them descend from the cliff above and down toward me; I knew we’d been lied to.

  Chapter Twelve

  Hazel

  Aside from asking me again if I was alright or if I'd been hurt, Nariva didn't speak to me the whole way back to Renden. We stood outside the massive, glass council building and I knew she was taking me back to Theren's apartment.

  Back home.

  I couldn’t look at Orylis when I left: couldn’t see his face tortured and betrayed by me. I meant it when I said I would leave with him, but not like that…

  Coming back to Renden reminded me of the old saying: 'You can't go home again.' Everything was familiar, from the cut stone paths to the scent of the unique Cadir trees and gardens. But I was different now.

  Nariva stopped briefly to inform a soldier that I'd been found and to send word to the warriors on the mainland. To Theren. Apparently, he had been with the warriors in the outskirts: just above where Orylis and I had made love just moments before being found.

  I wondered why Nariva didn’t bring me up to him then but assumed she probably wanted to get me away from Orylis as fast as possible.

  Just minutes after she told him, the alarms had sounded throughout the plenks. Great horns that echoed far off into the distance.

  It wouldn't be long now before I was being questioned—until I saw Theren.

  The thought of it made me sick.

  I wanted to complain: to tell Nariva that she didn't give me long enough to concoct a story, but she was hardly focused on having a conversation with me.

  Nariva was my friend, but she wasn't about to turn her back on Theren or the Dendren for me. She looked at me coldly as we whipped into Theren's home, the familiar scent of him was everywhere. I thumbed across his shelves and looked at the collection of my things sprawled across the table. I imagined Theren there going through them, willing me to be found.

  “What is that you're wearing?” Nariva hissed as I sat on the couch.

  Before I could answer, she had already disappeared into Theren's bedroom to fetch me some of my own clothes.

  “My clothes got ruined,” I said, listening to her fumbling around in my drawers. I didn't want to tell her they were Orylis' mothers.

  She whipped back into the room and handed me some black leggings and a plain gray sweater.

  “Get rid of it,” she said. “He won't like seeing you in them. It looks too familiar.”

  Her words were like venom.

  I began peeling off the leathery armor and one by one replaced it with my own clothes. It felt good to feel my own fabrics clinging to my body, but melancholy. I ha
d grown used to being the little solider in the Atherien camp. I held the chest piece in my hand, thumbing across the fastened straps absent-mindedly and getting lost in the fabric.

  I sat on the dark couch. If it were before, I would have curled up into the immense stuffing and made the corner of the sofa my personal cave, but now... I just sat straight up with my feet on the ground, staring down at the armor in my lap.

  Nariva paced the room, looking even more nervous than I felt.

  “Did you plan this?” she asked suddenly, catching my eyes and holding her gaze there. “Or did he take you against your will?”

  “He took me,” I said evenly.

  “Mm-hm,” she said agreeably, nodding her head. “Okay. And did you tell them anything about the plenks?”

  “Of course not,” I lied.

  “Good,” she swallowed. “And they didn't hurt you?”

  I shook my head. “No, they...” I snapped my mouth shut, unsure what to say to her. Nariva had been nothing but loyal to me, so it felt strange not knowing how to talk openly like we once did. She gave me a hurt look, the second I'd seen from someone I loved today. “They were more interested in using me for a trade. They wanted more females in exchange for me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Typical.”

  The room went silent then, and she finally seemed to get her bearings. She blew a labored breath out her lips and fixed a frazzled braid behind her ear. Sitting beside me, she set her hand on mine and seemed suddenly calm.

  “What were you doing below the plenks?” she asked, then clarified, “When I found you? You brought him to your tent?”

  I felt a spike of sickness burn down my chest and into my stomach as her words came out. I didn't know Nariva knew about my camp.

  Clearing my throat, I said, “We were touring the mainlands.”

  She squeezed my hand, irritated, but remaining sweet as she asked, “Even though he kidnapped you?”

  “It wasn't like that,” I defended lightly. “It wasn't hostile or cruel. It was just, business.”

  “Just business?” she repeated, unbelieving.

  I shrugged. “I figured... if I was stuck there, I might as well use it to my advantage: get the lay of the mainlands in case any of the information would be useful to the Dendren.”

  “That's good,” she snapped, knowing I was lying. “Say that to Theren when he gets back. It reflects well on you.”

  I set my jaw, embarrassed.

  “And this...”

  I licked my lips uncomfortably and filled in, “Orylis.”

  “Orylis,” she said. “You slept with him?” A slow breath escaped my lips, and my eyes darted up toward her with somehow both guilt and annoyance. She showed no signs of judgment: just nodded. “How many times?”

  “Once,” I lied.

  “Hm. I assume this was not by force?” she said, and I shook my head. “Then... let's not mention it to Theren.”

  A shiver crawled up my back, and it occurred to me suddenly that I would be seeing Theren any minute now. What was I supposed to say to him?

  “I love him, Nariva,” I said, and she looked at me with a blank stare: blinking over and over with nothing behind her eyes. “Orylis,” I confirmed.

  She pressed her eyes shut and pat my hand with hers. “Why?”

  “He... makes me laugh,” I said. “We have fun together.”

  I tried to explain myself: the pull I felt toward him. The longer I sat with her, the more came tumbling out. Our experiences together, my pushing for an alliance, the way he made me feel. It was only now that I realized I hadn't been able to talk about Orylis to anyone.

  Nariva bit her lip: those wide canine teeth peeking out at me. “You understand that is entirely juvenile?” she snapped, letting go of my hand. “Do you want someone who will love you and protect you loyally or someone who skips through a few puddles with you?”

  “Why do they have to be different?” I said sharply.

  She stood and walked to the far side of the room, setting a hand on her forehead. She had a strange look of determination cast over her features and then looked at me seriously. “Because you're with Theren,” she said.

  And that was all she needed to say.

  She was right. I had been promised to him: happy with him until I met Orylis.

  Was I crazy to want to be with the rebel? I felt sick.

  Before we had the chance to discuss anything further, we both looked toward the door: loud footsteps could be heard pounding down the hallway. It was Theren.

  “You were taken by Orylis. He wanted to use you for a trade but did not hurt you; do you understand?” she spoke clear and concise in a hushed whisper. “You managed to get away but were living in the wilds, too afraid of the beasts out there to travel any further toward land. Got it?”

  “I don't want to bring Orylis into it,” I pleaded. “He's not a villain.”

  “He is to Theren,” she spat.

  “I don't want to br—” I began, but she cut me off.

  “No, that's the story. Nothing more, nothing less,” she snapped, and my ear twitched as I heard the front door slide open. “Got it?”

  I swallowed: nodded. “Yes.”

  I turned my head and felt as though the time around me moved at a crawl as I watched Theren step into the room. He turned slowly to look at me: strong and stoic. And then, in an action I’d never seen before, his eyes brimmed with tears and his lips curved up into an unbelieving, relieved smile.

  “Oh, d's'kar,” he exhaled: speaking of a higher power.

  My eyes met his, but I didn’t cry. Overcome by the conflict in my heart and the overwhelming guilt I felt, I stood up ran to him, nearly throwing myself into his arms.

  Theren’s body felt the same as it always had. Warm and welcoming. He exhaled a relieved breath that echoed in my mind. His breaths were so distinct: heavy, with just a hint of his voice sounding through. His respite was palpable: like I'd come back from the dead.

  “She’s home,” Nariva said through a small cry, and Theren nodded against my head as he held me.

  It was only then I realized how hard this must have been for Nariva. I was her charge. Who knows what her punishment would have been if I hadn’t been found.

  “You’re shaking,” I said, looking up at him with a small smile.

  He squeezed me and laughed before taking my waist and holding me out, inspecting me. He blinked off his emotions and set a warm hand on my cheek.

  “You’re alright?” he asked, his voice low and masculine.

  I brushed a hand along my forehead and nodded. “I’m well,” I said,

  “Who took you, Hazel?” he asked anxiously. “Was it Orylis?”

  I could feel Nariva’s eyes on me, burning the lies forth from my mouth. She wanted to make sure I stuck to the story. I wasn’t planning on it, but she quickly filled in the blanks.

  “Yes,” she confirmed with a regal nod. She explained that I was taken from the gardens and how Orylis and the Atherien intended on ransoming me for a better deal.

  Theren bit his tongue, wrestling with this new knowledge and simply said, “Is that so?”

  “I got away,” I said, expecting him to question me further on it, but instead he looked down at me and brushed a thumb across my cheek. “I was hiding in the wilds.”

  “Brave girl,” Theren whispered.

  I looked across his once stern face that seemed to warm and inviting now and wished he had looked at me like this back when I still wanted to love him.

  The silver flecks that gathered around his eyes: that unique shape that I had adored so much still made him look handsome. I fixed a lock of his hair behind his ear and cupped his cheek in my hand.

  He leaned down and kissed me, and I felt my stomach go sick. I wanted to pull away but thought better of it. “Welcome home,” he smiled as our lips parted and continued, “I want to hear everything.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Hazel

  Pregnant.

  I glanced dow
n at the pen-like device I had just removed from my arm and glared at the large blue smile that stared back up at me. Just two dots and a half circle.

  Mocking me.

  I fanned my hands back and forth, breathing quietly as I hid the test in the garbage and tossed a pile of rags on top of it.

  My hand grazed my belly: still flat but bursting with pregnancy butterflies—the first signs of life.

  My first reaction was excitement. I knew it was Orylis’ child, considering Theren and I hadn’t had sex in over two months. In fact, I knew I was pregnant the moment it happened, but I’d been hoping I was wrong.

  One missed period and one test later, I was right.

  I was never right about anything, I scolded myself, why did it have to be this?

  All I ever wanted was to be a mother… and the thought of raising a child with Orylis made me want to cry. It would be perfect. We’d raise our baby, and it would have my sense of humor and its father's sense of adventure, and look like him, too.

  And then it hit me.

  The baby would look like Orylis.

  Fins. Atherien. Aquatic. Tails that didn’t shift away.

  My whole body began to shake. If I was still here, still with Theren, there was no way I would be able to pass it off as his child.

  The first night I was back, Theren and I had spent nearly the whole night talking. He held me close and pressed into me until I could feel him getting hard against my warm body, but he didn’t make a move.

  We laid like that all night, his stomach pressed against my back: arms wrapped around me. It used to be that I would find a moment like that with Theren to be comforting. It would have been my favorite moment in the day.

  Now it did nothing but inflame the guilt I already felt.

  I’d been home for two weeks already, and I was antsy and moody: nervous as ever.

  Theren was being sweet and kind to me: he stayed home every day when he was supposed to be out doing missions and overseeing the human’s research projects. It was a kind gesture meant to comfort me, or him, I wasn’t sure.

  But I felt smothered.

  My heart was aching. I felt horrible for what I’d done to him. I wanted to settle back into life here in Renden. I wanted things to be the way they used to be when I was excited to see him, but I couldn’t get my heart to cooperate.