Alien Capture (Latrothain Warrior Series Book 1)

by Christy,Dena

“What are you doing,” Synn asked in a fierce whisper.

  “We need to get him out of that room, so Ryce can rescue Collette. What better way to get his attention and getting him to come to us than by calling his name.”

  Miranda thought she heard the creak of the door opening, but couldn’t be sure since Synn blocked her view. The sharp zing of a laser pistol cut through the air, and the beam hit the wall to their left and bounced upwards. Synn reacted in seconds, pulling Miranda to him as he ducked for cover.

  “I told you to come alone,” Dr. Avery shouted.

  They said nothing as they made their way around the perimeter of the room, using the boxes to block Dr. Avery’s view of them. Miranda’s heart pounded, and she swallowed hard.

  This was it. Dr. Avery had taken complete leave of his senses, and he was no longer the harmless middle aged man she’d once thought him to be. He was going to kill both her and Synn if they weren’t careful. Synn squeezed her arm to get her attention.

  “Stay here,” he said, his voice so low that she could barely hear him. “I’m going to disarm him.”

  “No,” she said, but he wouldn’t listen to her.

  He crouched down and went back the way they’d come. Miranda bit her lip as he disappeared around the corner. She couldn't let him risk his life, and she looked around for a weapon.

  An abandoned piece of metal pipe lay between two boxes, and she crawled over to retrieve it. The room was silent, and when she reached between the boxes to get the pipe, the loud zing of the laser pistol rang out. She jumped and held still.

  “It’s all your fault,” Dr. Avery shouted. He must have seen Synn. Miranda reached through the gap between the crates again and grasped the pipe. She couldn’t see with the boxes blocking her view, and she prayed that he was still alive, that Dr. Avery hadn’t shot him. “She belongs to me.”

  “She belongs to herself.” Synn’s strong deep voice rand out in the stillness of the building. Miranda sagged back on her heels. He was still alive.

  She came out of her crouch and stooped a little so her head could not be seen over the top of the boxes. She moved forward as quietly as she could, hoping Synn would provide enough of a distraction for her to get behind Dr. Avery.

  “I would have given her everything. What could you have given her?” Dr. Avery shouted.

  “You could not have given her everything, since you would not have given her a choice but to be with you. I’ve seen the ugliness that’s in your mind, I know what you think about when you lay in your bed in the dark as you fondle yourself.”

  “Shut your mouth!” Another pistol shot rang out. She needed to move quickly. Dr. Avery was unravelling at a fast rate the more Synn talked to him. “Why don’t you face me you coward.”

  “The only coward here is you,” Synn said. “Did you honestly think that you could kidnap her friend, and Miranda would come running into your arms. Did you think she would choose you after all that you’ve done?”

  “Shut up,” Dr. Avery screamed, his voice echoing in the cavernous room.

  Miranda came around to the break in the boxes that formed a natural aisle, and she peaked around the corner. Dr. Avery faced away from her. To her horror she could see Synn stepping out of the shadows to confront Dr. Avery. His eyes cut over to her for a moment. He must have expected that she wouldn’t stay where she was supposed to. He was keeping Dr. Avery’s attention on him so she could do what she needed to do.

  Dr. Avery raised his pistol as Miranda crept up behind him, drawing back the pipe in her right hand.

  “I’ll make sure you aren’t alive for her to choose you,” Dr. Avery said as he took aim at Synn.

  Miranda swung the pipe as hard as she could. She struck the back of Dr. Avery’s head, and it made a sickening thunk as it slammed into the back of his skull. He didn’t make a sound as his body crumpled to the ground.

  She could see blood in his hair, and the pipe fell from her numb fingers and clanked down onto the floor. Had she killed him? Nausea churned in her stomach at the thought. If he was dead, she didn’t want to know.

  She wanted to put this all behind her. Her body trembled as she looked down at him. She’d never intentionally hurt someone in her life, but she knew that she’d had no choice but to do what she’d done. Dr. Avery would never have stopped hunting them, and she’d hit him to keep her and Synn safe from him.

  She heard the rush of footsteps and looked up to see Synn running toward her. His arms came around her and held her to him.

  “I’m sorry you had to do that,” he said as he buried his face in her hair and she pressed herself closer to him. “I would have done anything to spare you.”

  “I needed to save you,” she said quietly as she reached up to caress his cheek. There was so much she wanted and needed to say to him, but now was not the time. “Let’s get out of here. The others are waiting for us.”

  “What about him?” Synn asked as he looked down at Dr. Avery’s prone body.

  “He can’t hurt us anymore,” she said. “Please let’s just get out of here.”

  Synn tucked her against his side, and they walked away from Dr. Avery. Even if he was still alive, he would realize that he’d lost. He would never find her and Synn again.

  Miranda put him from her mind. He was part of her past, and she was now prepared to face her future, one she hoped included Synn.

  * * *

  Synn walked with Miranda around the building, and he was reluctant to let her go, but knew she needed to assure herself that her friend Collette was unharmed. He walked over to Ryce.

  “Is it done?” Ryce asked, and Synn nodded.

  Even if Dr. Avery survived the blow to the head Miranda had delivered, Synn intended to make sure that he never troubled Miranda again. He would keep her safe, and Dr. Avery would only be a bad memory. It would mean keeping Miranda by his side, now and into the future. A feeling of peace settled over him. Embracing her as his true mate was what he wanted and needed.

  Synn glanced up as Evie approached them. Miranda was quietly talking to Collette by the van, and he looked questioning at Evie when she stopped in front of them.

  “Miranda told me a little about how you came to be on this planet and why you are here. It is my understanding that you need to find your commander, and I’m willing to offer you shelter and any resources I have to help you do that.”

  Synn looked at her in surprise. She’d been adamant before that men were not allowed on her premises.

  “Why the change of heart?” He was willing do whatever she wanted in exchange for her help as long as it didn’t involve letting Miranda go.

  “I know that your planet needs women. Are females treated well there?”

  “Yes,” Synn said. “Females enjoy more freedoms on our planet then they appear to enjoy here.”

  “And are they forced into unions against their will?”

  “No,” Ryce said. “It doesn’t work that way. In order for our species to mate and produce offspring, the female needs to be our true mate. To become joined, there is a ritual that needs to take place and it can only work if the female is a willing and a wholehearted participant. If she is coerced in any way, the ritual won’t take and there will be no offspring resulting from any subsequent matings. So it’s in our best interests to treat females well.”

  Evie slowly nodded her head.

  “Why are you asking these questions? Is there something you want to propose?” Synn asked.

  “My job is to save the women who come to me in desperation and help them achieve a new life. All I can do for them is give them a new identity and find them somewhere new to live. I can’t truly help them, since they are still stuck on this planet with all the barriers and limitations placed on them. I will help you find your friend, under the understanding that your people will help my organization get those women who need an escape the hell off this planet.”

  Synn considered what she was proposing. He and Ryce needed more resources than they had to find Cynric. An
d he couldn’t deny that his planet needed females, and if they could get themselves home, then they could arrange with his government to spend the resources to get the women who wanted off this planet away from here.

  “I can’t speak on behalf of our government, but I don’t think they would have a problem sheltering women who needed someplace to go to escape this planet. Once we get back home, the proposition can be put forward. I can’t make any promises to you, other than that I’ll try.”

  “I’m willing to offer help, even if all I have is hope that I can find someplace for the women who come to me to go. Let’s go back to my bunker and figure out a way to find your friend.” Evie turned and went back to where the other women gathered. Synn and Ryce followed. “Collette, do you want to come with us?”

  A pale looking Collette stood wrapped in a blanket, and she shook her head. Her voice came out in a whisper. “I want to go home.”

  “I’ll take her,” Ryce said, and Synn looked at him. He had a funny look on his face when he looked at Collette, and Synn wondered what had happened between them when his friend had rescued her. “I’ll take her in the car.”

  “You’ll need me to unlock it if it’s Dr. Avery’s,” Synn said, and he looked at his hand, and willed it to replicate the hand of Dr. Avery. He walked over to the car and put his thumb against the sensor pad, and the door unlocked. Evie came over and handed him a small black box the size of a postage stamp. He looked at her, a question clear on his face.

  “One of Rebecca’s better inventions, it will scramble the car’s programming. Ryce will be able to operate it using a scan of his thumb, and he can bring it back to the compound after he’s dropped off Collette,” she said as she opened the car door and stuck the little box beside the fingerprint scanner on the right side of the steering console. She walked back over to where Collette was standing and said something to her. Collette looked over at Ryce and nodded her head.

  Ryce cautiously approached her and he walked with her to the passenger side of the car. He opened the door for her and helped her get in.

  Synn’s eyes narrowed, Ryce was acting with a lot more care than usual. He hoped his friend wasn't laying the tracks to get something from Collette when they got to her apartment. The young woman had been through enough without Ryce pressuring her. Ryce would never hurt her, but he was a dog where women were concerned, and Synn didn’t want him to upset Miranda’s friend.

  He came around to the driver’s side of the vehicle, and Synn reached out to put his hand on his arm. Ryce looked up at him.

  “What’s going on?” Synn asked. “It’s nice that you want to help, but if you’re being solicitous because you think that you’ll get her on her back, think again. She’s been through enough.”

  “I swear that if we weren’t standing here in front of a bunch of women who’ve been exposed to more than enough violence, I’d knock your teeth in,” Ryce said between clenched teeth.

  Synn let his hand drop. Whatever was going on with his friend, he didn’t have any designs on Collette’s person.

  “I’m sorry if I got the wrong impression,” Synn said and a sheepish look crossed Ryce’s face.

  “I’m as surprised as you are. I don’t even know her but I want to…no I need to protect her,” Ryce said as he glanced at where Collette sat in the car.

  Synn said nothing, since he figured Ryce would know soon enough what was going on. His friend got in the car, and the car drove away. Synn turned back to the two women waiting for him.

  “Let’s get out of here and make plans,” he said as he drew Miranda to his side. Part of his plans would include her, and as soon as they were alone he’d tell her how he felt and ask her to become his mate.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A giant blossom of pain bloomed and took root at the back of John’s head, and he struggled to open his eyes. The dirty concrete floor was gritty beneath him, and he rolled over and painfully came up to his knees. He reached up to touch the back of his head, and his hair felt crusty with dried blood. The last thing he remembered was confronting the alien and being about to shoot him, then nothing. A shadow passed over him and he struggled to lift his head to see who it was.

  “You threw yourself knee deep into the shit this time, John,” Commander Clancy said as he stood over him.

  “How did you find me?” His voice came out in a rusty croak. His head dropped forward, it hurt too much to hold it up.

  “You’re not the only one who can plant a tracker,” Commander Clancy said, and he pulled a box over to sit down on it.

  The sound of it scraping across the floor sent shards of pain shooting through the back of John’s head. He wondered for a moment if he was dying and he supposed in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter.

  “I had hoped I wouldn’t need to use it, that you would take your firing as a wake up call telling you that this obsession of yours would take you nowhere good. Imagine my surprise to learn that was not the case.”

  “I don’t know what your talking about.” He stared at the floor and wondered why he bothered lying. Habit he supposed.

  “Don’t insult my intelligence or your own John. I received a phone call from Reginald Carstairs, irate that someone by the name of Dr. Avery, using your military ID had taken his chippy into custody. How could you be so stupid John? Did you think that you could take the property of someone like Reginald Carstairs and no one would notice?”

  “She was the key to bringing Miranda here.” John slowly lifted his head to look at Commander Clancy. There was a look of disgust on the other man’s face. What a hypocrite. As if he hadn’t murdered someone over a woman who didn’t want to be with him. John tried to stir the energy to call him on it, but there was nothing left inside him. “She belongs with me.”

  “Your ambition is your undoing, John. You’ve never been satisfied with your place in this life, and while it pushed you to rise to the top of your field, it was never enough was it? It wouldn’t matter if you had her since it would never be enough. It would never change that your were born a mutt, and will always be a mutt.”

  John flinched when Commander Clancy stood and shoved the box back into its original spot. The Commander stood and came around behind him. The barrel of a pistol came to rest on the back of his head, and a feeling of peace settled over John. It would be over soon.

  “I only wanted to fulfill my potential,” he said as he waited to fall into death’s embrace.

  “I know, but you should have been content with what you had,” Commander Clancy said and the barrel pressed hard into his skull, and a searing fire shot through John’s brain.

  * * *

  Miranda looked up at Synn as they walked into the bedroom she’d been assigned in Evie’s bunker. She shut the door behind her and swallowed down the nerves dancing in her stomach. Now was her chance to tell him what was in her head and in her heart.

  “There is something I want to say to you.” She walked toward him. She looked up at him, and he sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew he did it so she wouldn’t have to strain her neck, and it was typical of him to think of her that way. He reached for her hands and held them as he looked at her with his navy blue eyes.

  “There is something I want to tell you too.” He took her hands and placed a kiss on each one. It was an encouraging sign, and it settled the nerves in her stomach.

  “Once we find your friend, I want to go back to your planet with you,” she said, her words coming out a little faster than she intended and perhaps her nerves hadn’t gone completely.

  “Are you sure?”

  It wasn’t what she expected him to say, but then he didn’t always do what she expected. He wanted to make sure this was what she wanted, and she couldn’t fault him for that.

  “My entire life I’ve had every choice that matters taken from me, and I don’t want to do that now, not with something as important as you and me. My decision to free you was the best one I’ve made in my entire life. Evie offered me the choice to st
art over with a new life and identity or to stay with her and help other women. I chose neither since I wanted a third option. I want to be with you because I love you. I was going to come to you and tell you when Collette was kidnapped.”

  He stood up and pulled his shirt off. She looked at him, startled. She thought he’d give his own confession of love to her before he wanted to get down to the nitty gritty, but maybe not. She took in the sight of his beautifully naked chest and noticed there was something different about it.

  A hand shaped mark was on the skin over his heart, and she reached up to fit her hand on it. It was the exact shape and size as her hand, and she looked up at him curiously.

  “Your rescuing me was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Not only did you save my life, it gave me a chance to meet you, to spend time with you. We’ve shared our bodies with each other, and now I want us to share our lives. There is a reason that your hand fits the mark on my chest. When my kind falls in love, a mark appears in the exact shape and size of the person we’re in love with. That person is called our true mate. This mark upon my skin means that I love you too, Miranda. It means that, if you are willing, we can bind ourselves together for the rest of our lives.”

  “What do you mean, bind ourselves together? Is it like a marriage ceremony?”

  “It is more private than a marriage ceremony, and more binding, at least for me. What it means is that, if you go through the ritual with me, I’m bound to you for the rest of my life. We will have a connection with each other that no one and nothing will be able to break. It means that we can have a son together if that’s what you want.”

  “So we would be together for the rest of our lives?” Miranda asked, and she liked the idea. She already knew that she loved him and wanted to make a life with him.

  “Yes, so you must be sure that this is what you want. Once we are bonded, only death can break that connection.”

  “And the bonding ceremony, what does that involve?”

  He stepped closer to her, and she could feel the heat of his skin, and his unique scent in her nostrils. His nearness aroused her, and she was getting an idea of what the ceremony involved.