by Mikayla Lane
The words had barely left his mouth when Lara was shot back into her seat as if she’d been fired from a cannon. Her stomach didn’t even have time to drop before she felt the ship settle into a comfortable speed.
The zipping lights that had been flying by had now slowed, and she watched as Drago expertly maneuvered the craft in between all the junk they had left in space surrounding the planet.
In no time, they were taking a steep dive towards the planet, and Lara watched in awe as the distant lights began to get closer until she could make out a town in what looked like mountains that had been dropped in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” Drago asked, even though he could feel her admiration. When she nodded her head, he continued.
“Grai T’Alq built this place and many other safe places just like it. He’s the owner of Freedom Enterprises.” Drago said, hoping the information would make her feel a little more comfortable about the fact that he was having Grai meet them when they landed.
Lara was suitably impressed. Freedom Enterprises was one of the largest companies on the planet. They had some of the best and most cutting-edge technology. Damn! She thought; that was why she recognized the armor on the Viper and the other guys who had shown up at her cabin.
“What’s a guy like that doing it for?” Lara couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.
One thing she knew for sure, no one ever did anything anymore just because it was the right thing to do. Every once in a while, someone would do an extraordinary act for another human being, but it was so rare as to be almost non-existent these days.
“It’s his story to tell, not mine. But, what I can tell you is that the guy is all stone on the outside, inside; he's like a fluffy cloud. Don’t ever tell him I told you that.” Drago quickly added, causing Lara to laugh.
“I won’t; I promise. So he’s just doing it out of the kindness of his heart huh… wait! Didn’t I shoot his brother?” Lara asked sitting bolt upright in her seat and turning wide eyes to Drago, who was chuckling.
“Yeah, you did. He’s ok though. Trust me, Grai does not hold that against you. We are all quite stunned it hasn’t happened more often. As you’ve seen, Traze kind of acts… very stupidly sometimes… without having any thought involved in his actions.”
“He’s a great kid and he means well, but he really has to grow on you. We’re here. Now don’t get pissed or freaked out, but I had Grai meet us. He’s kind of the leader here, and I think you will be really surprised at how he can help you.” Drago said his words in a rush, hoping to keep her occupied and avoid her blowing up at him.
Drago stood and quickly undid her straps and pulled her to her feet. He had both of them out of the door and into the large hangar beneath the runway outside of the office building on the mountain before she had a chance to utter a word. He breathed a sigh of relief when Grai walked up to them.
“Sgt. Blain, I am Grai T’Alq and this amazing little boy is my son, Tristan.” Lara watched, slightly bemused, by the huge man who was cuddling and cradling a small child like he was the most precious thing in the world.
When Lara continued to just stare at him, Grai continued. “If you’ll follow me, I'll be happy to show you the progress we’ve made on those vids and recordings you made.”
Grai didn’t wait to see if she’d follow and headed towards a door on the other side of the room. Without even thinking about it, Lara followed the big guy. Not because of what he said, but because, for some reason, she couldn’t resist the adorable dark-haired child peering over his father’s shoulder at her, curling his pointer finger at her to follow.
She grinned stupidly at the adorable boy as she walked through several doors and hallways until they finally ended up in a large room that looked more like a state-of-the-art boardroom.
Lara was startled when the young boy she’d shot, Traze, came up to her with a huge smile of his face.
“Hey forest ninja! I’m glad you’re doing ok now. Hey, no hard feelings on the whole ‘shoot the shape shifting, INNOCENT…” Traze said, before David smacked him in the back of the head.
For some reason, Lara figured the kid had been through enough with her shooting him and tried to save him from the next head smack by rushing up to him and taking his hand in her own.
“I am truly sorry for hurting you. I was just scared. I hope you can forgive me.” Lara really did feel bad about hurting him, but she had no idea Traze could tell that by her emotions, so she was surprised when he sighed and gently shook her hand.
“Man, what is it about human women and those sad, pretty eyes? Fine… I forgive you. But, only if you teach me some of those cool ass forest ninja skills! Those traps were dope girl!!” Traze said with childlike excitement.
Yeah, Lara thought to herself; she could see how the young boy, and his mercurial personality could grow on you. He had his charm. In an annoying kind of way.
“Of course, you never know when a good trap can come in handy.” Lara said with a small smile before allowing Grai and Drago to lead her to a long conference table.
Once she was seated, Drago took the chair beside her while Grai introduced everyone else in the room.
“Traze and Risk have been going through the information in your pack.” Grai said gesturing to the computer station to the left of the door.
“This is Reven Debreskii, he’s head of the Valendran personnel on the planet. Next is Jaxson Adronatof, she’s part of the planet forces and team leader. Niklosi Jevasari is a Valendran team leader, and Decano is part of my personal force and a team leader as well. Ivint Torenson is the leader of the Valendran forces and former High Councilor of their planet.” Grai introduced everyone before taking a seat and settling Tristan on his lap.
He had hated bringing the boy here, but he’d had no choice with Tricia busy at the moment and Drago’s desperate need to keep the girl from running away. He’d get to the bottom of what was really going on later, but right now he could feel Lara’s fear and hesitation and didn’t want her to feel that way if he could help it. A little trust could go a long way; he thought.
“Let’s get to it. We have a lot to go over, and we need to make plans.” Grai said, looking around the room at the expectant faces and Lara’s curious but wary one.
Chapter Fourteen
When Grai had everyone’s attention, he started at the beginning. “We went through every piece of evidence that you had and were able to come up with the names of the men involved with the threats made against the officers. Including the ones that were responsible for the death of your friend John.” Grai ignored Lara’s sharp intake of breath when she saw their faces come onto the screen.
Lara listened intently as Grai rattled off their rank and names. She would never forget them, and now she could hunt them; she thought. Until Grai dashed those hopes.
“Out of the four responsible for your friend’s death, two were already killed by our people on a mission in Africa not long ago.” Lara was surprised to see the photos of their clearly dead bodies come on the screen briefly.
“One is still over in Afghanistan, that we are tracking.” Grai said, moving to the side as Risk brought up a satellite image on the screen behind him where the pictures had been.
Lara watched as someone zoomed in on the bright blip on the screen until one of the men came into clear view on the screen. Even if Lara hadn’t seen them zoom in on the country she would have known where he was, the bastard was in the same damn place where she and John had made the recordings to begin with.
“The other one is here in the states, and we have a few people on him a little more closely.” Grai said with a smile as the screen changed to show the man eating at what looked like a pretty expensive restaurant.
Lara was amazed at the clarity of the picture and wondered just how close of a surveillance they had on the guy. Her question was answered before she could ask it.
“One of our people was already embedded in an office down the hall from his at
their headquarters building. It’s been ridiculously easy to track him.” Grai told her with a grin.
He wanted to move on quickly before Lara had a chance to obsess about only those two men. He wanted her to see the bigger picture first.
“Now, because of our surveillance of those two and the two that are dead, we found dozens more of them.” Grai explained, pausing while Risk and Traze put the pictures of more men behind him on the screen. He wasn’t surprised when Lara’s jaw dropped. He had to admit he was pretty impressed with what she’d been able to uncover as well.
“Of course, you know how this works, so by digging into them; we found more… and more… until right now we’re sitting at hundreds of them that are embedded in every branch of service of every country in the world. Unfortunately, Traze and Risk also found connections with the state and local police in one area as well, and we’re looking to see how wide spread that may be.” Grai said with a frown.
He was pretty pissed that they had progressed enough to reach a local level. He had a feeling it was a pilot program of his brother Dagog’s. One he was going to crush soon; he thought.
Lara was stunned and speechless. She couldn’t believe how far they had gotten with the little bit of information that she, and John had gotten. There was no doubt in her mind, they had the right men either. Lara would have recognized those bastards anywhere.
“What do you plan on doing with the information?” Lara asked, curious if they planned on burying it or doing something about it.
Grai looked at the woman for a moment before telling her the absolute truth. “I had planned on deferring to your wishes on the two that wronged you and your friend. I think you’ve earned the right. The aliens we plan on hunting and killing. The humans we will destroy in a way to ensure they end up locked up. If there is a chance, they can still do harm behind bars, then they will die too.”
“The aliens you faced have no conscience, no soul and cannot be saved. The only way to eliminate their threat is for them to die. The humans are given a little more leeway and only rendered useless.” Grai explained, noticing that though she was shocked, Lara approved of his response.
Lara was stunned, but impressed. Very impressed. If this place and these people were for real she wanted to sign up right now. Sadly, she wasn’t that trusting though.
“What’s the catch?” She asked, causing a few to snicker.
“We need to wait until we’ve been able to track this as far up as we can. You’re a smart woman, you know what’s been going on in your military has to be ordered, from a lot higher up the food chain than these assholes. We need to find out how far up it goes.”
“It does us no good to cut off the tail if the head can still kill you. It doesn’t mean we can’t start making a lot of these low-level guys have some bad accidents or become casualties of war.” Grai told her, waiting for her to erupt in anger.
Grai was surprised when she didn’t. He had a feeling it had something to do with Dread, Viper and Ratoka entering the room and sitting down at the table, although Lara barely acknowledged their arrival.
Lara was too busy considering what Grai had told her to care too much that Viper, and his entourage had shown up. She was glad to see that Dog’ee had come with them though. She had felt terrible when she realized that the adorable cat had been left on the Adaria with Viper.
Lara reached down and pet the soft fur of the cat as he rubbed against her legs. She would have let it sit on her lap if it wasn’t a good fifty pounds and would probably crush her legs.
“I can understand that we need to see how high this goes before some of these can be taken out. I want to be a part of it. But, I want to know what stake you all have in this first. Don’t lie to me and tell me some fanciful bullshit about being all benevolent, that crap doesn’t jive with me.” Lara said bluntly, surprising everyone but Grai, who smiled.
“The Valendrans, who are half my people, have a population problem. Mostly that they have few surviving females in their population that can give birth to female offspring. We have discovered that a few certain gifted women on the planet are not only compatible with them, but some are hybrids of them, like I and my brothers are.”
“Their goal is to save as many of their own people as they can. Those accidentally left here a thousand years ago, and the offspring whom they have produced since their reappearance to this planet. Since my father was the leader of the Relian Empire and set up all this shit, as you call it, on your planet, it is my responsibility to fix as much of what he has done as I can.”
“It is through these efforts that we’ve decided to assist the humans in getting rid of the traitorous bastards among your kind that are working with the Relian’s to destroy them. We have varied interests on this planet. None of which includes its destruction or the enslavement of its people.” Grai told her honestly. He had no desire to lie to the woman.
“So this is like some bad movie plot where Mars needs women? Seriously? You can’t be serious. You did all of this…” Lara said, moving her hands to encompass the whole building. “Just for some women?” Lara was incredulous that this kind of effort had been made solely to play intergalactic matchmaker. It just didn’t seem right.
Grai laughed heartily, the way Lara had said it somehow tickled him. “It’s a little more complicated than that. But yes, that’s about it. There is the added benefit that some of our mates are human, like my own. And her happiness depends on keeping her planet intact. So there are other incentives for us to assist the humans.”
Lara noticed how smoothly the man skated around the issue of her helping them and made sure to bring it up next. “I’m not really interested in helping with your matchmaking, what I am interested in, is destroying all of those bastards. So when can we start and how will you be including me in your plans to destroy them?”
Lara knew that they were doing that beast talk crap again when the entire room grew silent, and everyone began staring at each other as if having a private discussion. She’d had enough. Of all of it.
“Look, I don’t give a damn what your issues are, you can either include me in this, or I’ll walk and do it on my own. If it interferes in your plans, then too damn bad. Either way, this fight is mine, and I will fight it with or without you. Understood?” Lara said with determination as she stared pointedly at Viper.
If there was anyone here that would try to prevent her from helping in this mission, it would be him. Not only did Lara think he didn’t have the right to interfere in her life; she didn’t think he should have a say in it either. Not on this. This was her fight, her promise.
Lara almost felt bad when Viper, looking defeated, sighed and nodded his head before speaking. “I agree that you have more than earned the right to fight this battle. The only reason we have the information we got is because of you and John. You are also a very talented fighter and would only be an asset to any team willing to take you.” Viper almost choked getting that out and hoped that no one would take her on their team, knowing she was mated to him. Those hopes were shattered by Jax.
“I’ll take you on my team. I saw what you did out there and what you did for Viper. You’re quick thinking and good at what you do. We could use you if you’re willing.” Jax said to Lara, thinking that she could definitely use the woman’s unique skills.
The fact that the beast bonded men, with the exception of Grai, seemed to be furious by her offer only made her more hopeful that Lara would agree.
“I would be delighted to be included on your team. Thank you.” Lara said, hoping that Jax would realize just how grateful she was for her offer.
“We will be delighted to have you.” Jax said with a sly smile and wink at Lara.
“Outstanding! We can get started immediately. Jax, please get Lara set up with a schedule to train with your team and show her the ropes around town so mistakes aren’t made around the human population.”
“We will meet back here in a day or two to go over our first round of plans. We should be
able to have enough intel by then to start. Agreed?” When everyone but Jax and Lara muttered an affirmative response, Grai broke up the meeting.
Lara cleared her throat before anyone could leave, drawing their attention back to her. Trying to hide her nervousness, Lara looked directly at Grai.
“Is there a place close by that I can rent or a motel or something?”
The room became deathly quiet. Until Traze opened his mouth. “Dude!!! Your own mate cock-blocked you!” His following roaring laughter was quickly silenced by the slap to the back of his head from David and the scathing glare of his brother Grai.
“Oh come on! I can’t be the only one who thinks that’s funny damn it!” Traze said ducking David’s raised hand and making a dive for the door.
“Again… I apologize for any offense… oh fuck it.” David said with a sigh before heading out the door to find Traze.
Lara straightened her shoulders and looked at Grai. “Look, I understand you do things differently here. But, you have to understand where I come from this isn’t how it’s done. I don’t know these men, and I’m not comfortable staying with them, unless I do.”
“If there’s nowhere to rent here, then I’ll grab a place close by or go back to my cabin, but I’m not staying alone with them.” Lara almost felt bad when Viper visibly flinched at her words.
She had no intention of hurting him, but she needed to think. Clearly. To do that she needed to be away from him and his brothers. And that damn Ratoka.
Lara was surprised when Reven spoke. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to interfere in matters pertaining to a mated pair. If they aren’t together, then how are they supposed to bond?” The glare that he gave Jax when he said that spoke volumes to everyone about where his words and frustration were coming from.
Jax proved Lara’s suspicions when she turned on Reven, her eyes spitting fire at him. “How about he realize that she’s human, and Lara’s right. We don’t do it like that here on Earth and maybe sometimes a girl wants a little more effort than some caveman shit, ‘oooh oooh you’re my mate let’s live together and breed baby’!” The way Jax mimicked the last made Lara wonder if that’s what Reven had said to her.