Craving: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 8)

by Lisa Lace

  It was hard to associate their physical appearance with the idea of the Depraved in my mind. This was the alien race who planned to destroy Earth?

  "Are you the Commander of this space station?" one of the Surtu asked, stepping forward from the troop. He sounded like the same man who had spoken earlier, only now there was nothing musical in his tone. It was completely rigid and formal.

  Game time.

  "I am," I said, letting go of Gallia's arm as I straightened myself, the shock wearing off. "And who are you?" I asked, meeting him straight on.

  Now face to face, I was taken aback by how attractive he was. His hair was so black, it was almost blue, matching perfectly with his eyes, a shade before midnight with flecks of white light around the pupil.

  So. Aliens are hot.

  Who cares, I thought, forcing myself to focus on my mission. It doesn't change anything.

  "I am Jidden, the Lead Officer of this ship, under the command of my Fleet Captain," he answered.

  "And I am Terra Lynch. The women here are under my care, along with our Head Priestess," I said, indicating Bellona behind me.

  Jidden barely acknowledged her. "But you are the one in charge?" he confirmed.

  "Yes," I said.

  "Then I have no time for anyone else. She is not important to me."

  Behind me, I heard Lucina snort. Bellona liked to live in the shadows, but she didn't tolerate disrespect. Everyone on the Fortuna knew it. Bellona maintained a diplomatic posture, but I could feel her seething.

  Someone just made it to the top of her hit list.

  "You have come here to negotiate our surrender," I stated, trying to sound like an authority figure. "We have many terms to discuss, but you will not be met with resistance while you're here. We wish for nothing but peace and open our doors to you freely."

  "Do you?" Jidden asked, raising a dark eyebrow in suspicion. "Because I have a hard time believing that."

  And then, to my horror, he ordered his troop of men to surround us.

  When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Earth's past. What was the world like through the eyes of a girl my age? I read plenty of novels from eras long ago, and I was dismayed by how many predicted a dystopian future. Did people have so little faith in humanity back then?

  The Earth was not a wasteland. As a child, I ran freely around the warm desert sands of a southern climate, usually carrying with me a long fighting stick so I could practice my combat skills against the Depraved, just like my mother had taught me.

  Back then, in my childhood imagination, the Depraved were giant monsters, but I still kicked their ass.

  Then, one day, I tripped over a stone while running. Though I fell in some sand, I still hurt my arm.

  "Don't cry, my little Terra," my mother cooed, carrying me in her arms. "This is just a test to prove how strong you are."

  "A test?" I asked in my innocence, momentarily ignoring the pain. "Who's testing me?"

  "The Earth," she replied. "That's why it caused you to fall. It wants to know if you're strong enough to protect it."

  "But my arm hurts,” I whimpered.

  "Of course it does," my mother acknowledged lovingly, and she squeezed me tight. "And I'll take you home so we can mend it. But the test isn't whether you are in pain. It's whether you'll get back up and fight."

  At the time, I just thought my mom was being weird... and a little mean. But after coming to the Fortuna, I realized she had been preparing me for whatever my destiny held.

  And as it turned out, she was right.

  It's a test, I thought as Jidden and his troops surrounded us. If he really doubted our motives, if he knew we were warriors, the fleet would have fired on us. They wouldn't have sent an envoy at all.

  Trusting my instincts, I raised my hands in surrender. "We cannot fight back," I claimed. "It goes against our moral code. We are peaceful women. Even if we wanted to, there are no weapons on board this ship to fight with."

  Unless you counted the stashes of daggers, spears, fighting sticks, and whatever else each woman had hidden away.

  "Yes," Jidden said, eyeing me carefully. "Our scanners showed only trivial weaponry. Nothing sophisticated. But why? Even a sisterhood is entitled to protection."

  "There's nothing we need protection from," I answered, praying the other girls didn't make a move. "We're alone on this station. When we need supplies from Earth, we fly down on cargo ships and collect the supplies ourselves. Regardless, our sisterhood is universally recognized. We don't need protection from anyone because we are protected by everyone. Unless, of course, you mean to hurt us."

  "No," Jidden said, and his men stood down. "Our Fleet Captain will not allow it."

  I dropped my arms, but I did not fully relax. Jidden's words sounded compassionate, but they were spoken with great indifference. Clearly, his concern was the orders of his Fleet Captain, not the welfare of the women who called the Fortuna home.

  What a jerk.

  A stupid, gorgeous jerk.

  On Earth, they must have been scrambling around trying to process the information they were receiving. Now they knew what type of guns the Surtu carried, their hierarchy of command, and that they were modest, dressed in uniforms of black and dark purple – the colors of a panther.

  Again, it was all so humanoid. The line between our two species was very thinly drawn.

  Acting submissive seemed to work, so I continued the charade, hoping to earn his trust. "How do we proceed from here?" I asked, dropping all sense of authority from my demeanor.

  "The remainder of my men will disembark from the ship and take control of the station," Jidden told, clearly more at ease now that I had given him command. "As long as there is no trouble, the women of this station will be allowed to continue on with their normal routine."

  "Will other ships be landing?" I asked, and then I quickly added, "Because we have plenty of room on the Fortuna if you wish to accommodate yourself. You will find our marble halls to be quite–"

  "No," he said, cutting me off. "All men who visit the Fortuna will remain housed within their own ship. We will be patrolling the station, but that is all."

  He didn't directly answer my question, but his response was revealing. It sounded like other ships planned to dock. That was good news for me. It meant the signal to attack would be prolonged even further.

  "And what of our negotiations?" I asked. "I have requests regarding our surrender."

  It was clear by his expression that Jidden felt no obligation to hear out any requests. To him, the surrender had already taken place. And in many ways, it had, but he complied. "Fine," he said through gritted teeth. "I will hear you, in private. Name a place."

  In private? Alone? I had not expected that. My heart began to flutter, both in fear and for other reasons I refused to admit to myself. "The gardens," I said, slightly off key. "Near the willows."

  "I will meet you there in... what is it you humans use... an hour," he said. "Now leave us. I need to speak with my men."

  "I don't like this," Bellona declared, struggling not to walk ahead of me as we made our way towards the Grand Hall. "We have given them too much."

  "For now," Gallia said, using her soothing voice to help calm Bellona.

  "It could be worse," I said.

  "How could it be worse!" Bellona cried. "They have total control over the Fortuna."

  "They think they have total control," Gallia corrected. "Terra is right. It could be much worse. You know the stories of the colony that was attacked. What they did to the women...My biggest fear going into today was that we were going to have to abort our mission in order to protect our integrity. At least, for now, that's something we don't have to worry about."

  That's why I respected Gallia, despite the fact that she had never warmed to me. She had her flaws, but she would never expect us to give up our bodies freely, not even for the sake of intelligence.

  "It's a shame they are so damn hot," Lucina chirped beside me. "When the time comes, it'll
make slitting their throats a lot more depressing than if they had fangs or slobbered everywhere. Did you see the way their eyes sparked?"

  "I don't mind a little fang," Gallia divulged. "There's no pleasure without danger."

  For the life of me, I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

  "We shouldn't be having this discussion in the open," I suggested, afraid the Surtu were somehow following our conversation.

  The women around me went silent in agreement, until Lucina said, "You did good, Commander, dealing with their Lead Officer." She smiled as she called me Commander. It was awkward, even for me. "But you don't have to meet him alone in the gardens. We'll come with you."

  "I think he'll talk more freely if she's alone," Gallia objected, whispering.

  "I'll be okay," I assured Lucina. "Thanks, anyway."

  The truth was, I didn't know what to expect. The only thing I could gauge from my conversation with Jidden was that he couldn't care less what happened to anybody on board the Fortuna. I saw nothing but disdain in his eyes.

  I wanted to ask Bellona what I should say to him regarding the negotiations. She would give me wise counsel. When I turned towards her, she was gone, having disappeared into the shadows.

  JIDDEN

  "Did you see the little blonde?" Kalij asked from his seat on an ammo box while he polished his blaster. "I bet I could please her in a way no human man could."

  I immediately went over to him and yanked the blaster from his hands before shoving him in the gut with it. "You know the Fleet Captain's orders. The women are to be left alone."

  "The women are why we're here," Kalij sputtered between breaths as he held his stomach.

  If I had it my way, the men could do what they wanted to the women. It made no difference to me, but I wasn't going to let the redheaded bastard steal my shot at a promotion.

  "You touch her, you die," I warned. "The lives of these women are worth more than your own. Our planet has plenty of soldiers. Don't make the mistake of assuming you are irreplaceable."

  "What about the light bond?" Kalij asked, recovering.

  I wanted to smack his ruby head, but the other men around us laughed, humiliating him for me.

  "You'd never light bond," one of the soldiers alleged, chuckling. "One woman for the rest of your life? You'd rather have ten ugly ones than be stuck with that blonde the rest of your life."

  Kalij merely grunted.

  Unable to tolerate any more of the heathens, I went to my quarters. I looked forward to the day I was promoted and no longer had to play big brother to a bunch of thugs.

  Being Lead Officer of a ship was impressive, but there were other, more profitable titles to be had – titles where respect wasn't earned, it was mandated. Securing the Fortuna nearly guaranteed me a promotion if everything went according to plan.

  My one doubt about the plan was the Commander of the station, Terra.

  Thinking of her made me ache like a man, but I pushed it aside. She was superb and she worried me. There was an intelligence within her, so strong it was mesmerizing. I could see it in her doe-brown eyes – a soul that was much older than the twenty-odd years she appeared to be.

  Women like that – they didn't run off to join a sisterhood. I could believe that she was in charge of the Fortuna, but I knew there was much more to her than some spiritual nutcase.

  And that made her a threat.

  Too bad beauty is so dangerous…

  I shook my head, hoping the physical action would take the thought in my mind away. Claiming a woman was not in my plans. I wanted a promotion. I wanted power. That was what mattered.

  So why couldn't I get Terra out of my mind?

  TERRA

  Around me, the soft branches of the willow trees touched to the ground, sweeping lightly against the creek that ran through the gardens. On a normal evening, the gardens were my favorite spot on the station.

  This was no normal evening. Normal no longer existed, thanks to the Surtu, not since their first attack on the colony.

  Earth had only a few colonies that inhabited foreign planets. They were not favored. The expeditions to the colonies cost a great deal of money, and a large percentage of the 'explorers' died on the journey or the new planet, usually due to some technical glitch like a busted air mask.

  Florentine was different. It was the one colony everyone on Earth was excited about. The atmosphere on Florentine was comparable to Earth's. No air masks were required, no heavy space suits. It was a second home, and it was a backup plan for our species.

  Should anything happen to Earth, humanity would not perish. We would live on.

  Then the Surtu attacked. Until the attack on Florentine, alien races were still a myth. Scientists hypothesized that they could exist, somewhere out there, but no contact had ever been made.

  If only that were still true. Then all the women and children on Florentine wouldn't have been taken as slaves. And the men wouldn't have been slaughtered.

  And the Fortuna wouldn't have need to exist.

  I looked up at the stars through the transparent roof, made of the same unbreakable material as the divide in the docking bay. Among the stars was Florentine, now isolated. I wondered if any of the people taken were still alive. If they lived, where were they?

  I didn't know how the handful of survivors escaped the attack on Florentine but thank God they did. Otherwise, they never would have been able to warn Earth about the Surtu. We wouldn't have been prepared.

  The problem was I didn't FEEL prepared. I'd been thrown into the role of Commander the way a baby bird is tossed out of its nest into the air and expected to fly.

  I was willing, but I wasn't ready.

  That didn't matter now. Jidden was here, in the gardens. Lucina led him to where I waited, and then she left, leaving us alone.

  He had changed into a navy blue uniform that highlighted his dark features. The uniform was sharp and sophisticated, matching Jidden well. I wanted to hate him and his uniform, and everything they represented, but I couldn't, not until I heard what the Surtu needed.

  As children, we may have whispered over campfires about the Depraved – monsters that roamed space – but my heart told me the Surtu were not barbarians. If their plan was to simply annihilate Earth, they would have already done so.

  They needed something from us. I was sure of it.

  "Don't look at me like that," Jidden said, forgoing any formal greeting. "I'm not a specimen to be studied."

  "Then tell me why you're here," I prompted, hoping he would reveal information Earth was looking for. We may look alone, but there were ears listening in.

  "You'll know, in time," he said. "You may be the Commander of this space station, and I may be the Lead Officer of my ship, but there are people above both of us who will decide when that conversation takes place."

  So he had a reverence for hierarchies. It might work to my advantage. "As a Commander, I pull rank over you, so I'd appreciate it if you weren't so evasive."

  Oops. Bad mistake. He was indignant, to say the least.

  "And as a Surtu, I pull rank over you," he snapped.

  "That remains to be seen. You haven't conquered Earth yet."

  "But I have taken over this station."

  "We surrendered."

  "Because you had no choice."

  Terra, stop it! I scolded myself. I didn't know why I was arguing with him. The plan was not to anger the sexy alien. I had to earn his trust and get him to talk.

  But something about his gorgeous body and mythological eyes...

  I took a deep breath. "Yes," I said, smoothing the edges of my pale blue dress. Unlike Jidden, I had not changed clothes. "We had no choice. We are a peaceful sisterhood. We do not want war. No one profits from war, no matter who wins. Everyone suffers."

  "Finally, I hear something legitimate from you," Jidden said. "That's probably the first authentic thing you've said to me since I arrived."

  He was right. My thoughts on war were my own, but it alarm
ed me that he could read me so well. If he had suspicions that I was not being truthful, I had to squash them.

  Everything depended on it.

  So be truthful, I told myself. It's the only way you'll earn his trust.

  "I'd like to show you something," I said, and I waved my hand to the side. "Hologram," I instructed. "Earth."

  "What are you–" Jidden began to ask, but he stopped when a magnificent blue marble appeared above us – a perfect replica of Earth.

  With a further wave of my hand, I spun it around. "I know you can see Earth from your ships. By now, you've probably mapped it out in fine detail."

  He didn't deny it.

  I continued. "But I want to show you a special part of Earth."

  With several swipes, the hologram zoomed onto a small house in the middle of the desert. It was a humble structure, but it was warm and welcoming. For a moment, I forgot I was on the Fortuna. I was a child again, running around with my brothers while our parents chased us beneath the blazing sun.

  "This is where I grew up," I told Jidden. "This is my home. The image was taken last year when our satellites were last updated."

  For once, Jidden's indifference disappeared. He seemed genuinely interested. "Where is everyone?" he asked, studying the image.

  I had asked the same thing when I first saw the hologram. But I soon learned the answer. "Inside drinking lemonade," I said. "That summer was particularly hot. My youngest brother – he still lives at home – planted a lemon tree the year before. No one believed it would actually grow in the desert, but somehow my brother managed it. My family spend the entire summer indoors drinking his miracle lemons."

  A thought occurred to me, and I spoke without thinking. "Do you honor family where you come from?"

  "My planet is Surt. That is why we are the Surtu. And yes, we honor our family. We are very similar, humans and the Surtu. It is because of these similarities that we are here."

  Oh yeah. The war. I'd almost forgotten.

  Jidden had just exposed something significant. I wanted to ask more, but I didn't, afraid of breaking the momentum. He seemed to speak more freely when it was of his own accord.