by Lisa Lace
"That's not true. Many would have run away. This is my way of saying thank you. You never had the chance to have an official wedding."
With shaking fingers holding on to the bouquet, I stepped out of the dome.
"Oh my God."
I stood on a white silk carpet rolled out over the lush grass. The carpet was sprinkled with flower petals, leading to a gorgeous floral arch at the end of the path. A lump started forming in my throat when I saw who was underneath the arch.
Laz stood waiting for me, wearing his finest set of Maztek army fatigues. Stylists had trimmed and carefully groomed his hair. His beard had been snipped and carefully groomed. I loved seen a clean alien in a uniform.
There were many people around us making noise, but I scanned them looking for one in particular. I found her in an instant. Cheyenne was sitting in the front row, and her cheers were the loudest of all. She sat next to Dallas and their arms were intertwined. She dropped his arm to wave at me enthusiastically.
I never thought I would have so many people cheering at my wedding.
As I started down the carpet, the orchestra next to the arch began to play a familiar melody. To my surprise, it wasn't the traditional wedding tune. A tear fell out of the corner of my eye, tainting the powdered blush on my cheeks.
The music I heard was Dad's lullaby.
It felt like my feet were floating down the aisle as I made my way toward Laz. Princess Ayala appeared behind the arch holding a rod of blessing. I couldn't stop smiling, and neither could Laz. He reached into his chest pocket, pulling out a gold band between his fingers. Precious Maztek stones adorned the circle of gold, and the diamond from my missing earring featured prominently in the center.
Laz slid the ring over my finger, leaning over to whisper something into my ear. "You look beautiful, naima."
I reached up and put both hands on his chin, pulling him in for a long, deep kiss.
"I'm forever yours, naima."
As I pulled away from Laz, Princess Ayala stepped between us.
"Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here today to celebrate the love and beauty of these two souls, and join them together for eternity."
Irresistible
A TerraMates Novel
Chapter One
EMMY
“If you don’t let me take your place on the flight, those men are going to kill me.” I dropped my voice until it was barely above a whisper and focused on her light blue eyes. “Please.”
My fear was a living thing, trembling through my bones and filling every space inside of me. I pressed my hands against my legs to keep them from shaking. If the stranger wouldn’t cooperate, I was dead.
Everything Morley and I had worked for, and everything he had died for would go with me. One of the most precious cultural artifacts in the galaxy would go into the private collection of a selfish, self-centered, rich bastard who didn’t give a shit that other people could also benefit from it.
I wouldn’t let it happen. It was too important, and would help many people. I had to survive and find it. The woman in front of me looked conflicted.
“I don’t even know who you are,” she began.
“Look at this.” I activated the computer on my forearm and tapped the communications unit until it displayed my bank account. I grabbed her arm. She frowned as I swiped her ID number. I created a pending transaction and pointed at my computer’s display.
“500,000 credits, in your name. I’ll transfer them now. It’s a lot more than the cost of this spaceflight.”
The woman gasped as she stared at the number.
“I’m in trouble. Please, do a girl a favor.” I knew I was begging at this point, but they were coming this way, and it wouldn’t be long before they spotted me.
I needed to get on the flight.
“Okay,” she said, surprising me. “But you need to know something first.”
I wasn’t listening, though. I shook my head and had her speak her name into my computer, then I transferred the money into her account. I didn’t think twice about it. Morley gave me the money for research.
I couldn’t do any research if I were dead.
When it transferred, she allowed me to change the name on her ticket. “But listen,” she said, more agitated than before. “You should know something first.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time. Thank you.” I started moving away. She would never know the depths of my gratitude. I glanced back at Abel’s henchmen, who miraculously still hadn’t spotted me, and thanked my lucky stars again.
When I reached the desk, there wasn’t even a line. They were announcing final boarding for spaceflight 46789 to planet Stalwart in Sector 91. I had no idea where Sector 91 was. I had never been good at Interplanetary Geography in school, and now I wished I had been a better student.
Did it matter? Right now, all I cared about was getting far away from Earth.
The woman behind the desk verified the ticket. I ducked into the walkway leading to the spacecraft, knowing I wouldn’t feel safe until we took off.
An hour later, the shuttle was still on the ground, and I was wondering if my luck had finally run out. The captain had announced a flight delay just before our scheduled departure time. My heart started to beat fast. Why was taking so long? Was there a problem with the shuttle? I couldn’t afford to have a delay, especially if it meant I would have to transfer to another ship.
Two men entered the spacecraft, and I ducked down into my seat. It was the men Abel sent after me.
Shit.
I didn’t think. I unbuckled, got out of my seat, and headed toward the bathrooms as they began searching the front of the shuttle. My breathing was erratic, but I tried not to look unusual, keeping my face as neutral as possible.
When I finally reached the bathrooms, I realized they would check those too, and I would be trapped. Was there a place they wouldn't check? Yes. The carry-on storage. Every passenger on an interplanetary flight was allowed a single piece of luggage for the multi-day trip between worlds and they were all stored in compartments during take-off.
I shuffled farther back, moving to the location of the baggage compartments. The flight staff were at the front of the ship for the launch. No one was around.
I opened one of the large doors and crept inside. I moved the luggage one piece at a time, carefully replacing it behind me until I had made my way down to the back. There was a suitcase-sized hole for me, and I slid into it. My knees pressed against my chest. I pulled a smaller suitcase on top of me, trying not to hyperventilate in the small space.
As a final precaution, I swiped on my computer and activated a program to hide my body signature. I didn’t know if they were using scanners, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.
Then it was time to wait.
It seemed like I was trapped in that tiny, dark compartment forever, afraid to move and as still as a statue. But finally the door was wrenched open, and I heard men speaking as they peered in the cargo hold. They weren’t speaking Standard, which was the language of the galaxy.
Years ago, most planets had adopted Standard as the primary language of trade and business. If the men weren’t speaking Standard, it meant they didn’t want anyone understanding what they were saying.
Fortunately, I knew the language they were speaking. It was English.
Despite the widespread use of Standard, a few of the old languages survived in pockets on every planet. Earth was no different. Many of its poorest and most technologically backward areas still spoke English. It was surely the spoken language in whatever district bred Abel.
Morley had been a stickler for being able to understand things for ourselves. He said that if we needed someone else to translate old documents and the writing on artifacts, we would never know if they were accurate. And what if we found a secret, and didn’t want anyone else to know about what we had found?
He had made me learn English for our studies on Earth. He had learned the language twe
nty-five years earlier himself when he had been a graduate student in archeology, and I had still been in kindergarten. I had complained about the irregular tenses and ridiculous spellings. Standard had none of that. If there was a letter, it sounded like what it looked like, and nothing else. It was almost impossible to spell anything incorrectly because Standard was a created language.
Morley didn’t care about my complaints. He had made me keep on with my lessons until I was fluent. I didn’t speak it often, but I learned languages with ease, and people had mistaken me for a native speaker before.
As if learning English wasn't hard enough, later on, he also made me learn Karfalun. It was the ancient language of Heralla, a place where someone hid the Silver Mestolo of Zelia. And if I had thought English was difficult, I should have saved my breath to complain about the new language.
“She couldn’t have gotten on this spaceship,” one man said in English. “Our scanners would have found her. There’s nothing but inanimate luggage in here. We should go back and do a thorough sweep of the spaceport.”
“The boss will kill us if we let her get away. She’s got the key to the latest old piece of junk he has his heart set on.”
“Look, the compartment is full. She can’t be in here. Let’s go. The boss’s pockets are deep, but they’re not that deep. If the spaceport officials look closely at our papers, we’ll be in trouble. It’s time get out of here.”
“Let’s try one more time. You check this compartment, and I’ll check the other one. Then we’ll go.”
I held my breath, but the man assigned to search my area didn’t seem to be doing anything. I heard him shuffling things around at the front of the compartment at first, but then he started tapping on his computer as he waited for his partner.
“Did you find anything?”
“Nothing. She’s not in here. Let’s get off the shuttle before we get arrested for forging papers and delaying the flight.”
There was no response, but soon the door closed, and I was in darkness again. I waited as long as I dared before trying to get out. I couldn’t be in the luggage compartment when the shuttle took off, or I would have escaped one death only to find another.
I climbed back over the luggage to the door and peeked out. There didn't appear to be anyone around. I quickly emerged and shut the door, being as quiet as I could. I walked on soft feet to the bathroom, using it before returning to my seat. When I sat down, I heard an announcement to strap in for take-off.
I used two crisscrossing belts to secure myself. As soon as the sound of the shuttle taking off filled the spaceship, I knew I was leaving Earth, where I had grown up.
I let out a deep sigh. I was safe from Abel, for now.
Four days later, I stared at the viewscreen as the turquoise planet increased in size. Something had been on my mind now that my life wasn’t in immediate danger.
What had that woman wanted to tell me? She seemed anxious and hadn’t liked it when I brushed her off.
Now I felt like I should have listened to her. My gut told me that I had escaped one sticky situation and dove straight into another one. I just didn’t know anything about the new problem.
Once we landed, I let everyone exit in front of me, stalling before I left the shuttle. I wasn’t sure what was making me uneasy, but I had learned to trust my intuition. And my intuition was saying that there was nothing but trouble for me when I stepped off the spaceship.
I was slowly packing up my bags and starting to maneuver up the aisle when a man entered the spacecraft.
“There it is, sir,” one of the attendants said, pointing at me. “Seat 257. Is this the person you’re looking for?”
I lifted my eyes and saw a handsome alien man. His eyes were the deepest black. I felt that I might fall into them and never emerge if I wasn’t careful. His hair was black as well. He had a light purple stripe that ran diagonally across one eye, ending at his nose. The net effect was to give him a rakish look as if he had a permanent black eye.
I caught my breath at the alien look of the male in front of me. I knew in my mind that we were all descended from the Great Race, but there were small differences between people of different planets. He also wore some of the most expensive clothes I had ever seen. The tight shirt showed off his well-defined chest, abs, and biceps. He was wearing pants that looked as though they had been tailor-made for him — and maybe they had been.
I noticed his lips were strong-looking but thin. He had an air of authority, though it didn’t go with his fancy clothes. And I spotted a chain around his neck.
All of these thoughts passed through my mind in a few seconds as I stared into the stranger’s eyes. He blinked, surprised when he saw my face. I froze. I wasn’t certain what was going on but he knew I wasn’t the woman who was supposed to be on this spaceflight. I held my breath, waiting to see if he would say anything.
“Sir?” she asked again. “Is it her?”
He only hesitated a moment. “Yes, she’s the one.”
What did he mean?
He didn’t say anything else. I smiled at the attendant and began walking up the aisle. As the man turned, I followed him off the shuttle, wondering what I had gotten myself into this time.
Chapter Two
VEN
Pandenn was late again.
He was always late. He had been late when we were in basic training together, and he had been late when we served in the same unit. He was even late for his first son’s birth. People joked that when the grim reaper came, he would be late for that appointment too.
It didn’t matter. I had nothing but time to kill. He could be five, ten, or twenty-six minutes late, and it wouldn't matter to me. I had nothing better to do. I had retired from the military and was independently wealthy. There was nowhere I needed to be.
My uncle had left me an enormous fortune that paid for my lifestyle. The amount of money I had was, frankly, ridiculous.
On some planets, I wouldn’t be old enough to retire yet, but in the Stalwart military, you’re free to go after you turn twenty-five years old. It's even easier if you have a lot of medals, like me.
I had needed to retire. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had risked my life time and time again to accomplish the mission and save people. It had been worth it at the time, and I might do it all over again if I had to, just to make sure my friends came back alive.
But I was sick of never knowing whether I would see the next morning. I was sick of active combat. I was sick of taking over weaker planets. I was sick of it all. Somehow I had lost my passion for fighting.
There was a time when I had believed fully in what I was doing. We brought a better government and a better life to the planets with whom we ‘entered into economic partnerships’. That’s what our government called it.
From another point of view, we entered planets covertly, seized the centers of power and threatened to annihilate them if they didn’t do everything we ordered. The further up the ranks I got, the more clearly I saw what we were doing.
I hated it.
So I left. I retired two years ago and I had never missed the service. I didn’t need to work, and I had a beautiful house. Servants took care of everything. I had the nicest clothes and ate at the best restaurants. I worked out, read extensively, and continued training in various martial arts to keep my reflexes sharp.
I had everything, but I was bored.
The first year was excellent. I had been tired and burned out. I took a year to relax and lie on the beach. I rested and enjoyed the good life.
But by the beginning of the second year, everything was starting to wear thin. Things were too perfect. The people who worked for me never said anything I disliked. My friends never had time to do anything because they were still working and had real lives.
Now I was at the start of my third year of retirement. I was sure I was going to lose my mind. I needed something to do, but I didn’t know what. All my ideas seemed stupid. I was at my wits’ end. It almost made me wan
t to go back to the military.
Almost. But not quite.
“Hey, Ven.” Pandenn sat down like nothing was the matter. He was a half hour later than our scheduled time. I looked up at him, shaking my head. The light purple stripes spread in a random fashion across the skin of anyone from Stalwart were dark on his face. He must have been running to get here. The rest of his face was red from exertion.
“How are Jalla and the kids?”
“Awesome. How are you?”
He held out his fist, and we bumped the sides of our hands together to greet each other. He dressed like a hobo, as usual — ripped pants and a dirty looking shirt that had seen better days. I was sure that when we went out for lunch together, people thought I had picked up a beggar off the streets and was being kind enough to buy him lunch.
I always bought. Pandenn had more than enough money to pay, but he was too cheap. I always offered to pay. What else did I have to do with all my money?
“Do you want the polite answer?” I leaned back. “Or the truthful one?”
“Truthful, always. It’s usually more interesting than the other option.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Did that chick you were dating agree to take it in the ass?”
“No.” I shook my head, then amended my statement. “Well, yes, she did, but we’re not together anymore.”
His jaw dropped. “She did?”
“Yes, but we’re talking about me right now, not her.”
“Was it good?”
“Mind-blowing. Will you listen to me?”
“How long did she last? Two weeks?” His eyes stared up and to the right, trying to remember.
“Eleven days.”
“She was hot,” he said, still off in his own world. “That must have been some incredible sex.”
“Will you listen, for fuck’s sake, Pan?”
He looked startled when I swore and focused on my face. “What?”