Warriors Of Cadir (A Sci Fi Alien Romance Collection)

by Maia Starr

  “Shh! Guys!” Z’echs said quickly and drew a finger into the air, signaling the rest of us to stay quiet. A distant grunting could be heard, and I began to feel rumbling against the ground. There was a herd nearby.

  Z’echs looked over at me, his face turning to worry as we looked out into the deep brush of the forest.

  “They’re trampling the trees,” he rushed through his words. “It’s the kenthian,” he added and we all listening to the deep cracks of falling trees in the distance.

  They were getting closer.

  “A herd,” I spat out, but the kenthian beasts swarmed the valley so suddenly I almost didn't have time to think. One struck off from its group and charged our little group. I watched Xereris take to the sky and Z'echs went out of my sightline. I grabbed Ivy's arm and pulled her forward, rushing deeper into the forest toward the glowing caves.

  The smooth, burnt-orange creatures bucked nearer to Ivy, and I could feel the ground vibrating beneath me. Ivy strained to keep up with my pace. The creature bent back its head: pale yellow eyes looking at us like we were its next meal.

  “Hurry!” I yelled gruffly and pulled Ivy forward, rushing my wings as much as the crowded woods would allow.

  We ran toward the forest caves: a deep rocky entrance with a glowing inner belly. I could feel the beasts thrashing up behind us and felt a sense of panic.

  I could shift into my dragon form and take Ivy skyward, but I worried that it would take too much time. On instinct, I pushed Ivy into the cave and let out an intense breath of fire behind us, knocking the loose rocks at the entrance of the cave and burying us within the rocky crevice.

  “What was that?” Ivy shouted, pushing away from me and sinking deeper into the cave.

  I turned to grab her, but she slipped away from me. I craned my neck and looked at the spacious cave I had buried us inside of: rocky walls of boulders stuck together. On the far side of the cave was a small pond that sunk deep into the ground: the aqua water shimmering and crawling up onto the rocky ground in small waves.

  “I was trying to save us,” I argued, crossing my arms to the girl.

  “Yeah, well, now we’re trapped!” she shrieked, briefly looking behind us at the water before turning back toward the rocky collapse and screaming for help.

  “Do you want to give the Kenthian more reason to come after us?” I shouted. “Better to let them think we’re dead in here!”

  Ivy ignored me and banged against the rock walls so savagely that I wondered how she hadn’t broken her wrists for the effort.

  “Stop that,” I snapped, and she turned around to face me, hands on her hips.

  “Can’t you do something?” she yelled: a deep frown forming in her brows.

  “Like what?” I laughed, leaning up against the wall, musing at her adorable panic. “Drill a hole?”

  “Um, there’s only one of us who has claws here, and it’s you so… yeah, sorry. I assumed you might think of a somewhat productive way to get us out of here. Silly me!” she ranted, spinning a complete circle as she went on.

  “We’re not like the Gilds,” I began, but she cut me off.

  “Oh, my, gosh! If I have to hear about the stupid Gilds one more time, I’m going to scream!”

  “Relax,” I said firmly.

  “I’m claustrophobic,” she said, pressing a hand against her chest. I watched as her small breasts heaved out panicked breaths and her eyes went wide as she looked at me. “Have I ever told you that?”

  “Twice,” I said evenly.

  “Hm…” she smirked, breathing to herself. “I guess I really do rant when I’m nervous.”

  I blinked and tilted my head to the side. “And why were you nervous around me?” I asked, but she stayed silent, which only made me smile. “Why would you be nervous around me?”

  “You really are an idiot,” she breathed: a bashful smile coming over her features as she shook her head.

  I snorted, “Thanks.”

  “I… I don’t know!” she blurted out, throwing her hands into the air. “I wanted you to like me.”

  I looked her over: beautiful curly blond hair cascading down her small breasts. I wanted so badly to touch her, kiss her, and make her mine again.

  Her lips were blue from the cold water that infested the cave: the shimmering liquid filling the cave with a deep aqua hue and making our surroundings seem that much cooler.

  I could feel myself softening to her so quickly drew back. “And now you’re with Xereris,” I said tensely. “So, it all worked out, didn’t it?”

  She laughed. “Jealous?”

  “No.”

  “Sounds like you are,” she teased, leaning against the back wall with one foot pressed against the rock.

  “I’m not. Just… surprised, that’s all.” I paused, and she said nothing. Her silence only irritated me more. Of course, I was jealous! I had spent every night I’d sent her away regretting my decision. “Just thought you’d choose someone with a little more substance.”

  Ivy brought her hands up against her cheek as if she was going to sleep on them and teased, “You know, Xereris only has nice things to say about you!”

  “Stop,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “What’s wrong with Xereris?” she laughed.

  “Me Xereris!” I said, screwing up my face and robotically punching the cave wall, mocking the shifter. “Me hunt!”

  Ivy laughed, her pale face going red as she watched me. “Seriously?”

  “I thought you wanted someone more intelligent than that,” I scoffed. “My mistake.”

  “Hey, he talks to me more than you ever did,” she snapped.

  I breathed and watched her walk across the shimmering rocks that were splayed out above the water. She used them like a bridge, careful not to fall into the deep liquid below.

  She moved like a mysterious creature that I hadn’t been able to conquer yet. I didn’t want to like her, to be attracted to her… but I couldn’t help it.

  “I guess I should say thank you,” she said lazily as she hopped from a far rock all the way back to land.

  I laughed, and she looked over at me in surprise.

  “And yet I’m still waiting,” I said.

  “Not sure you’ve earned it yet,” she said, crossing her arms.

  I scoffed, “I saved you.”

  “Yeah, and you also pushed me away.”

  “But you’re the one who chose to come here,” I nettled. “With Xereris, I might add.”

  “Exactly!” Ivy added with a spiteful laugh, walking up to me. “And if you had bothered to bond with me I would have come here with you.”

  “No,” I corrected, drawing out my vowel. “Because I would never bring you here.”

  “But if you did,” she began, but I interrupted her.

  “—I wouldn’t,” I said. “It’s dangerous.”

  “But if you did!” she laughed hard, waving me off. “Then I would have been protected. Xereris left me to die,” she continued, bringing the back of her hand to her forehead in an overly dramatic fashion.

  “And yet you’ll go home with him?” I said.

  “That depends,” she dared, raising an eyebrow. “Still casting me off?”

  “Yep,” I smirked.

  “Then yep. And you can’t say a thing about it.”

  “Hey, as long as you’re happy,” I scoffed.

  “I was happy,” she said, and I could feel a tug in the pit of my stomach.

  A long silence hung between us and I looked up at her curiously. “I wasn’t happy,” I said.

  “Xereris says you’re never happy.”

  “So, you’ve been asking about me?” I asked as I sat down, pressing my back up against the cold stone walls and patting the ground next to me, inviting her to sit with me.

  “No,” she said indignantly and then flashed me a flirtatious smile.

  “Sit,” I said, and she hopped over and sat down beside me.

  “Fine,” she said, crossing her arms in a huff. “
I ask about you. Happy?”

  I bit my lip. “Why?”

  Ivy stared down at her hands which were now folded gently in her lap. She was surprisingly quiet, considering the chatterbox I had grown accustomed to over the few weeks we’d spent together.

  “I…” she sighed. “I liked you. I just wanted to know more about you.”

  A sinking feeling lilted in my stomach, and I pulled her small hand into mine.

  “I didn’t know that,” I said slowly. I looked over at her and knew at that moment, I was going to kiss her.

  “Well,” she shrugged half-heartedly. “It’s over now.”

  I squeezed her hand and was taken by her way and her beautiful, oval face. Just as my lips were about to graze hers, the rocks before us began to crumble down.

  I half expected the kenthian to appear before us, sure that they had rammed the rocks with their curled horns. But it was Z’echs and Xereris, pulling the rocks away in their dragon form.

  I would have preferred the kenthian. At least then I could have killed them and stayed with Ivy: had her company for just a few minutes more before she was pulled in to Xereris’ arms again.

  From that moment on, I vowed, I would do anything to get her back.

  Chapter Five

  Ivy

  “What do you mean you’re with someone else?”

  To say that Pash was infuriated by my relocation would be an understatement.

  Her look of astonishment and rage sent a sick pang through my center as I watched her fume on the other end of the video communication. I held the transmission device in my hand as I crouched in the corner of a wooden treehouse.

  I ventured deep into the badlands whenever I had to report back to the Gilds about the Atherien. It was private here, especially if I climbed up into the intricate span of treetop houses that were connected together by rope bridges.

  My main point of contact with the Gilds was, unfortunately, Pash.

  This wasn’t unfortunate because I believed her to be bad at her job or difficult to understand, but because she terrified me. She was so… stern.

  “I guess I wasn’t as charming as I suspected,” I winced.

  “I could have told you that,” she sighed, shaking her head.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence: super appreciated!” I cheered, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “Who are you with, then?” she asked impatiently.

  I fixed my back up against the soft wooden walls of the intricately built home and stretched the comms device as far away from my face as possible.

  “Someone called Xereris,” I explained sheepishly.

  “He’s a nobody,” she griped and waved me off. “What did you find out?”

  “Um, basically, nothing?”

  Pash pressed her expressive eyes shut and thinned her lips.

  “Nothing?” she repeated.

  I looked at the regal woman on the other end of the screen. She wore a long shimmering dress that looked like something belonging to royalty. As far as I knew, Pash and Fenris didn’t even get along, so how she came to be in a position of power was beyond me.

  “What did we even get you for?” Pash snipped at me. “What are you to us? Really, I’d like to know.”

  “I’m fun to talk to?” I grinned.

  Pash was not amused. “Try again,” she said.

  “Hey, Xereris is pretty smitten, if I do say so myself,” I argued. “I mean, he’ll tell me things if I ask. You just haven’t really given me any specifics to ask about. I mean, he told me about the different regions in the mainlands and has been treating me reall—”

  “—Did you sleep with him?” Pash interrupted.

  “Not yet,” I swallowed. “Should I?”

  Pash raised her brows indignantly, and I still wasn’t sure what her answer was.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” I said. “But he is sweet and seems fully supportive of the allianc—”

  The council member interrupted me again as she snapped, “—You think that’s what we’re really after?”

  “Well,” I shrugged, confused. “Fenris said…”

  “What that boy says and what he means are two different things, Ivy. What he wants is for you to get information about their warrior class. How many of them are truly left? Do they still have females? What are their true plans regarding the alliance? We want to know every weakness they have and who they are allied with out in the wilds. And if you can’t do that, then…”

  “What?” I scoffed. “I’m fired?”

  “You will wish,” Pash threatened.

  Her statement was enough to give me goosebumps, especially because I believed she had no qualms about getting rid of me.

  “Okay...” I said.

  I was beginning to grow sick of hearing about the alliance. I didn't understand why everyone was so hung up on it. Was it real? Wasn't it real? Did the Gilds really want to help the Atherien or did they just want to wrap up their war as quickly as possible in order to regain a truce with Earth?

  “And we want you back in Kaayde's partnership,” she said quickly, and I could tell she was trying to wrap the conversation up. “He is next in line to the throne, you know.”

  I didn’t know that.

  “I-I can't promise that?” I tried to say before she ended the transmission, throwing my hand urgently into the air.

  With a sigh, she looked back at the camera and touted, “Why not?”

  “He doesn't like me,” I said awkwardly, not wanting to tell her he was suspicious of me.

  “Imagine that,” she mocked. “Figure it out, Ivy. He may be an Atherien, but he's still a man. They're not that hard to manipulate.”

  I must have made a disgusted face because Pash quickly rolled her eyes and clipped the transmission shut.

  I knew I could probably use Xereris' feelings for me to my advantage. It made me feel rotten doing it, but until I could find a way back into Kaayde's good graces, this was my only option.

  I closed my comms device and headed back out into the wild. I stood on the wooden balcony of the treetop village and took one last look at the strange badlands, or darklands as some Atherien called them.

  The badlands were endless flat land that cascaded on for miles. The ground of the badlands looked like molten, crusted rock that had blackened and hardened to the surface of the planet. But the closer you looked, the better you could see the blackness crawling and creeping along Earth like a swamp. Whatever the blackness was, I decided, it was alive.

  I made my way back to Titan with some difficulty, having to shoot down two birds that were about twice my size with one of the most powerful laser rifles Earth had sent us to Cadir with.

  They weren't kidding when they said the mainlands were dangerous.

  Xereris wasn't hard to find, and I made sure to cuddle up to him right in front of Kaayde. Since they were both warriors, finding them in the same place was never hard to do.

  “Just the man I was looking to see,” I said flirtatiously as I saddled up to Xereris.

  The bar was lit up with a blueish purple light: this rare stone that made up the buildings in Titan was what gave it the nickname “The Blue City.”

  There were dozens of Atherien at the bar, all drinking their strange, fruity liquor. I put up two fingers and the barkeep, a creature that was clearly not a Parduss, though I couldn’t identify his species to save my life; he quickly tossed me a stone glass of the booze.

  I hoisted myself onto the smooth bar top next to Xereris and took a hard drink. I had hoped that my displays of affection toward Xereris would make Kaayde jealous, but it was to no avail.

  There was seemingly nothing I could do to rattle him.

  “I'm honored,” Xereris said smiling up at me. “And how can I help you?”

  Before I had the chance to answer, Kaayde spun in his high-back stool and snapped, “You're in the way.”

  “Why, I never!” I said in my best southern accent. “You really know how to flatter a girl.”


  “People rest their drinks on there,” he said tersely, meeting my gaze.

  I felt a flutter in my stomach as our eyes locked and I teased, “Yeah? Well, now my butt rests here.”

  “Nice,” Kaayde said dismissively, taking a sip of his drink and staring forward toward the barkeep.

  “If anybody minds, I'll be glad to leave,” I said.

  Xereris looked between the two of us with confusion and insisted, “Don't leave.”

  “She wouldn't leave even if you begged her to,” Kaayde laughed, taking another sip.

  “I wouldn't beg her to,” Xereris said with a dismissive scoff.

  “Funny,” I grabbed Kaayde's drink from him and chugged back the burning liquid before slamming it on the countertop next to my thigh. “I left you.”

  “Then I'm the lucky one,” Kaayde said, flicking his eyes up toward mine in the most enticing, hurtful, sexy way I had ever thought possible. “You owe me a drink.”

  I raised a playful brow and grabbed my own drink, pretending I was going to give it to him before sipping back the hot liquid and setting the glass against the counter with an audible CLUNK.

  “Be careful with this one,” Kaayde said to Xereris, but he was still looking at me. “She'll be the death of you.”

  I couldn't tell if I was reading too much into his deep stare, but I swore I could see lust hidden just under his annoyance with me.

  “Funny, coming from you,” Xereris snapped, taking a drink from his glass.

  He had Kaayde's attention now.

  “What's that?” Kaayde said, standing from his stool.

  Xereris didn't look at him, but the aggression from Kaayde was enough to make me shift away from them on the countertop.

  Kaayde whipped the chair that would have been mine across the bar and immediately the Parduss that flooded the strange watering hole became riled up and agitated: a dragon's bellow screeching from the back of the building.

  Xereris flew up from his seat and flared his wings back, baring his fangs at Kaayde and raising a fist.

  “I don't fear you, Kaayde,” Xereris hissed, fist perched and ready to release at any sudden movement.

  “You should.” The amethyst and aqua Kaayde lurched forward, launching himself into Xereris and knocking him against the bar. What followed was a barrage of fists punching, tail swiping, and deep, guttural cries as the two Parduss shifters beat into one another.