Alien Warrior's Wife: Sci-fi Alien Military Romance (Brion Brides Book 2)

by Vi Voxley

  ALIEN WARRIOR’S WIFE

  BRION BRIDES

  BOOK 2

  BY

  VI VOXLEY

  A LITTLE TASTE...

  “Where are we going?” she asked, dizzy in her happiness.

  “To my room,” Narath growled, then stopped dead in his tracks so suddenly he nearly dropped her. “Unless you’re still fighting.”

  Urenya couldn’t bring herself to let go of him to slap him for that, so she bit him playfully on the ear.

  “I hope you’re joking,” she said. “Take me.”

  It could have been interpreted as Narath taking her to his room, but luckily her gerion didn’t need what she truly meant explained to him. With a grunt that made her shiver, he quickened his pace, and Urenya didn’t take her lips from his until the door to his room had shut behind them.

  Only then did she let go long enough for Narath to put her down. For a long second, she stood before him, staring up into his eyes, her head spinning from the realization fate had decided she could be happy after all. There he was – her big, strong giant. With those miraculously thick arms and the way his growling sent every nerve in her body shivering. She simply sighed, shaking from head to toe before him. Seeing that, Narath grinned and growled very, very much on purpose.

  She possibly shouldn’t have told him that it drove her insane. He would have figured it out at some point himself, for sure, but she’d given him such a weapon. One she definitely didn’t mind being used on her.

  Copyright © 2015 Vi Voxley

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Alien Warrior’s Wife

  Brion Brides

  Book 2

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Vi Voxley. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

  Cover © Jack of Covers

  You can find all of my books here:

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ALIEN GENERAL’S BRIDE EXCERPT

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  It was a bright and sunny day when they came to tell her.

  Urenya always thought later it was incredibly inappropriate. The sky should have been dark and angry, there should have been a hailstorm or something at least. However, it was a perfectly natural, normal day for everyone but her.

  For her, a mere girl at the time, the world was coming off its hinges. Piece by piece, word by word from the mouths of people she found herself hard-pressed to name afterward, she fell apart.

  Everyone was really sympathetic and understanding, of course. They were Brions, and while it was true they weren’t known in the galaxy as the most caring and nurturing species, some exceptions still existed, the most definite of these when someone lost their fated at a very young age. No life experience, no thick skin to make it easier. Just searing, mind-numbing pain to live with. Her parents were concerned. They thought it would wound her too deeply, make her incomplete somehow and unfit for life.

  Urenya found absolutely no comfort in that. All the people coming by to tell her something terrible had happened, but somehow it would still all be okay – it drove her nuts. First of all, of course it would be okay. She wasn’t the type to give up. Yes, it hurt like nothing else, but… Secondly, she didn’t feel what they all assumed she must be feeling.

  Eventually, she ran away. Not for real, but long enough to get some rest from the well-wishers with pity in their eyes who all thought they knew how she should be feeling. Urenya thanked the gods that day for friends who knew what she needed.

  “It’s an insult,” were the first words out of Diego’s mouth after Urenya showed up at his door and explained what had happened. “You barely knew him.”

  Her heart leapt. Finally, at last someone who understood. She smiled for the first time in weeks, and seeing that, Diego invited her to stay with him and his friends for a while.

  Only there, safe in the comfort of people who told her the truth, could Urenya finally give the whole matter any consideration.

  “So what happened?” Diego asked.

  He was one of her oldest friends, they’d known each other since such a young age they barely remembered. The Brions had their fates settled for them in many ways since showing the first signs of what they were to be. Their future careers were obvious to everyone when they were still children, and their fated, the ones meant for them for all their lives – that was determined too. The thought sent a cold shiver down Urenya’s spine.

  Saying that Diego was to be a warrior was the understatement of the ages. He’d been a bright, strong boy when Urenya had seen him last, but in the way boys suddenly jumped in growth he’d turned into a young man so formidable she was sure Diego was going to be nothing short of a Brion general. From the look on his face, he knew it too. She was glad for him, even in her mourning.

  “He died,” was all she said.

  Diego nodded. That was what Urenya so liked about him. Diego never, ever took pity from anyone. He understood her in that – she didn’t need sympathy. She’d find a way to deal with all of it on her own, and then she’d move on.

  When she’d been much younger, Urenya had considered the possibility Diego was her fated. In many ways, they matched. But as they grew older, she started to dread it instead of desiring it. There was no denying Diego was as gorgeous a man as any she’d ever seen. All her friends wanted him, some with a passion bordering on obsessive. For her, Diego had become too much like an older brother. Having him be her fated all of a sudden felt wrong. She hoped she’d be spared of that pain at least, and she was. Although Urenya had never imagined in what way.

  “How?” Diego simply asked.

  No “if you don’t want to talk about that, that’s okay” or anything condescending like that. It was better she get it all out.

  “I’m not even entirely sure,” Urenya said, sitting with him at the ringside of Diego’s private arena.

  Further away, Diego’s friends were battling the AIs – huge, mechanized monstrosities resembling the known enemies of the Brions who were programmed to attack the fighter. There they trained, all of them. The time to depart for the military academy wasn’t far off, and they wanted to go prepared. Blood flowed, for the mechs didn’t show any mercy unless programmed.

  When she’d been much, much younger and visited Diego’s family with her parents, she’d asked why they shut off the safety measures. Diego’s father had laughed then, a huge, towering man, and said that a Brion warrior could never train knowing their opponent would stop and hesitate. The mercy function was for children so young they didn’t have the conception of self-preservation yet. Diego had shut it off at five.

  She wouldn’t see him again for long years, but that was simply the way it was. Her own training would begin at the same time, so she would be busy too.

  Urenya sighed, observ
ing the fighters out of the corner of her eye. Back at home, her parents had forbidden all fighting so as not to upset her. That had been the last drop.

  “That’s the thing, Diego,” she went on. “They’re not telling me. I suppose it wasn’t pretty. Some territorial dispute with the Fredgen.”

  Diego made a face. Not a pitying tut-tut one but of understanding.

  “Them,” he simply said. “Not pretty is well put. Would you like to see him? I can arrange that. Eleya’s sister was just made senator, I can ask.”

  Urenya smiled despite herself. Diego was doing everything right without knowing he was.

  They were Brion. In the galaxy, there was barely a match for them, as much as they were told at least. Their ships hadn’t traveled the stars for all too long, but they’d discovered a while ago they weren’t alone. The Galactic Union, joining all known and civilized species of the galaxy, was taking an interest in them. They were wary, because while the Brions were intelligent and capable, they were also very dangerous. The Union didn’t know if it could tame them. A fire burned in every Brion’s heart, a love of fighting they misinterpreted as a desire for fighting.

  That wasn’t necessarily true. The Brions simply believed that everything worth having was supposed to be hard-won. All their lives, they fought for their place, for their opinions, everything. It was the Brion way.

  Their Elders, the leaders of all Brions, thought they could benefit from the Union. Maybe they would join it soon. Both of Diego’s parents were Elders now too, spending the rest of their lives in the sleep-stasis, meditating on the ways of the galaxy. Sometimes they emerged, and one such time was approaching, signaling the start of the learning period for both of them.

  All in all, the Brions were strong in body and in spirit. It irked Urenya to no end that unlike Diego, her parents had advised her not to see her fated. Diego just asked what she wanted.

  “Do you think I should?” she asked.

  “Honestly?” Diego said. “No. He’s gone, and seeing what the Fredgen do to bodies is not an image you want to end up with. But if you decide to anyway, I’ll make it happen.”

  “I’m going to be a healer,” Urenya said. “They’ll show us images of Fredgen victims in the first week.”

  Diego nodded again.

  “Of course. But seeing some other body and seeing your gerion are two completely different things.”

  “My gerion,” Urenya repeated, falling silent. “I had a gerion.”

  Diego said nothing, didn’t interrupt her. The Brions weren’t usually very sensitive about feelings, but fated couples were different. Despite being mad, Urenya understood why her parents tried to shield her. She just thought they’d chosen the wrong tactic. While they did everything in their power to remind her of what had happened, Urenya thought she needed to forget and put it behind her.

  Maybe she didn’t fully comprehend. A gesha and a gerion were two parts of a whole, but she’d never truly felt it. There hadn’t been time.

  She had only seen him once, after all.

  He was called Patren and was honestly everything Urenya had ever dreamed her fated would be. Everything went right, as by tradition.

  The Brions were considered a peculiar species by the Union in regards to how they found their partners. The men experienced the recognition, as it was known. A moment of absolute clarity when they were given the knowledge of who their gesha was to be. No one knew why it was only men, but none of them were in possession of means to change that, so they let it be. It was as unexplainable as the whole binding itself.

  So it was up to the man, the gerion, to find her. Women spent most of their youth waiting. In truth, men were bound to that same expectation, but for some reason women felt themselves the more passive part of the arrangement. Maybe it was because while the men were given the moment, described as never being so sure of anything else in their lives, women… doubted.

  Not doubted for certain, of course. The binding was so sacred to the Brions that it was unthinkable a man would lie to his gesha, pretend, or cheat her in any way. In their whole history, there was a single case where a man had tried to do that – convince a woman she was meant for him when it wasn’t true. It was a fairytale.

  Someone had once asked the Elders, the carriers of their tradition and history, whether they thought there was some actual basis for that story. The Elders had thought over the question long and hard in their meditative sleep where they became a single, connected mind. The resounding answer was no. It was a fable, an overdone and fictionally not even that competent story that was packed to the brink with all things that could possibly have gone wrong. It was a warning, nothing more.

  Still, women had their doubts and uncertainties. Just as it was rooted somewhere deep in their being the sacred bond was unquestionable, there lay the fighting part. The gesha was expected to resist at first, fight her mate. It was believed to be proof that once the fighting was done the couple was stronger together for having fought each other. They resolved all their initial concerns in the fight and from there on out, they were united against all that life brought.

  Urenya’s first reaction was surprise, bordering on shock. The bindings usually took place when a person had gathered some life experience, their personalities were more developed, and they knew what to expect from the binding’s physical part. She was barely of age.

  But Patren was as good as she could have hoped for. He came to her, smiling, big and strong and full of life. A warrior, slightly older than she was, with a couple of years of fighting already under his belt. Someone experienced and certain. Valor squares, the marks of rank and victories among the Brions, were bright on his neck. Implanted in the flesh as signs of a warrior’s worth, they said enough about his character without needing any words if you knew how to read them. Urenya had been glad. He was what she had secretly hoped for – someone to make her feel safe and cared for. He fit the part to the bone.

  After he’d told her they were meant to be together until darkness took one of them, Urenya had of course initially said no. The fighting was traditional, after all. It would have been an insult to just accept him, although in her mind she was quite happy.

  That was what bothered her, mostly. She had been quite happy.

  After spending a day together, getting to know each other on the most basic level, she’d been, at best, fond of him. Of course, she felt the tingling sensation of desire and the unmistakable pull of the thread that bound them, but there was no time to actually get to like him. The day was over, and he went off to the battle ship where he was stationed, and Urenya never saw him again.

  The darkness had come quickly for them.

  Diego’s insistent silence drew her out of her musings. She looked up to see her friend observing her with quiet sorrow. Urenya didn’t mind it from him. He felt bad that she felt bad, but he didn’t treat her as though she might suddenly break.

  “I didn’t even know him,” she said simply.

  “I did,” Diego said. “Do you want me to tell you of him?”

  Urenya’s answer was cut short by a scream from the arena. They both looked to see a young man stumbling away from a mech. At least she assumed he was young, because he was taller and broader than half the grown men she’d seen. He got his footing again, raised the Brion battle spear – their ultimate signature weapon – over his head with both hands and with no finesse simply brought it down on the attacking creature splitting in two.

  Diego laughed under his breath.

  “Nice, Narath,” he called. “That will get you many points with the Elders. Who taught you to use a spear, a butcher?”

  “I don’t have your speed,” his friend boomed in response.

  His voice was so deep Urenya strained to make out the individual words.

  The young man limped to them, his face showing no sign of the pain he must have been feeling. Urenya got up without anyone having to ask her and set to stopping the bleeding. A healer didn’t wait to be asked. The Brions rarely asked
for help, so healers often found themselves in the position of having to sedate someone to patch them up.

  Narath merely let her, standing peacefully still while she worked, not making even the slightest of sounds even when she jammed a needle into his thigh to inject a serum that made blood clot faster. She knew it hurt, a body didn’t like to be told what to do. He just looked at her with his calm, kind green eyes. How was someone like that destined to be a warrior? She saw absolutely none of the bloodlust she’d sometimes seen in Diego’s eyes in a duel, or even more – in the eyes of the twins Diego trained with. Those two were generals in the making too, no doubt about that. Urenya felt slightly worried about the Brions if those three ever got in charge.

  The idea brought a smile to her face. There might come a day when they would be the leaders of the Brion people. They had all the makings of it, Diego at least.

  She didn’t realize she was still being watched when Diego repeated himself.

  “Do you want me to tell you about him?” he asked.

  Urenya thought of the smiling man who’d come to see her, bright and joyful. Then she thought of the images they were trying to protect her from. She wasn’t sure she wanted to mix up those two.

  “No,” she said. “He’s dead.”

  Diego said nothing then. It took Urenya years to understand he’d already known at that moment. How easy it was to confuse strength with stubbornness, mourning with denial. He’d said nothing, because it was she who had to realize that.

  It had been a bright and sunny day when her heart froze.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Urenya

  The fateful day wasn’t that long ago when she began her training as a healer and was told pretty much everything she’d ever known was more or less a lie.