Alien Romance Box Set: Uoria Mates II Complete Series (Books 1 - 10): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance

by Ruth Anne Scott

  "We have never known anything about any other species living on Uoria. That's why we've come from the compound to explore the land outside of the walls. But our quest has been delayed."

  "What has happened?"

  Pyra looked into Rey's eyes and felt something twinge inside him. There was something oddly familiar about this man, but he couldn't quite place it. It was as though a part of him buried deep inside himself recognized him, though he was positive he had never encountered this man or any of the others in the kingdom before. He shook his head to get the thoughts away so he could focus on the conversation with Rey.

  "We recently ended a conflict that we have maintained with a species called the Klimnu for quite some time. During one battle with them, we burned down a prison where they had been torturing two women. Before we left the compound, we went back to that prison and found information that led us to a settlement two days' travel from here." Pyra paused, feeling like he was teetering on a strange moment. Until he spoke he could still maintain all of the hope that he had about the other settlement. Once the words came out, however, it would be as though he had fallen through a window, unable to repair whatever damage may occur. "What do you know of the Light Ones?"

  Chapter Five

  Zsilvia stayed at the back of the group, walking several paces behind the other women, George, and Ivy, partly so that she could remain physically distanced from them and partly so that she could watch them. As painful as it was to see them walking along together so closely, their heads bowed toward one another as they talked, she felt like she couldn't pull her attention away from them. Loralia's words continued to prick at the back of her mind. She had said that George was feeling the same way that she was, that she should listen to him. It was obvious that Loralia was special and could understand things about people that others couldn't, but what did she know about her or what she was going through with George?

  As if he could hear her thoughts coming toward him, George suddenly glanced back over his shoulder at Zsilvia. She felt her desire for him surge inside her and looked away, concentrating on the ground beneath her feet rather than his sculpted body and sultry face. Finally the burn of his gaze on her faded and she looked up to see that he had turned back to the path in front of him. Ivy was continuing to talk to him, but he seemed to be ignoring her now. Zsilvia tried to ignore the feeling of satisfaction that came from seeing the delicate blond vying for his attention as he continued forward, but it gave her a sense of validation that he at least didn't want her to watch their interactions.

  They had been walking for what felt like several hours and Zsilvia started feeling more nervous with every step. Like the other Denynso women, she had never been this far from the main center of the compound. They lived their lives close to their homes and rarely ventured further than they could venture in less than an hour. The further they walked, the more disconnected she felt from everything she knew and that made her feel comfortable. She felt out of control and didn't know what to expect with her next step. The trees grew denser around them and the ground became soft with moss and fallen leaves beneath her feet.

  Suddenly the hint of ash and acrid air touched her nose. She shuddered at the smell and started scouring the ground in front of her for the source of the unpleasant odor. Several yards ahead she could see the charred, hunkering remains of a massive building spread across the ground like the decimated corpse of some massive creature sacrificed where it had fallen. She was horrified by the sight, immediately knowing that she was looking at the destroyed remnants of the prison that the warriors had set ablaze to frighten and punish the Klimnu after their capture of Elianna.

  "I didn't expect for it to still have this smell."

  Zsilvia heard Elianna's voice from the front of the rest of the group and felt her heart sink slightly at the sadness in the words. They had all been so concerned about Leia's reaction to going back to the prison where she had spent nearly two months in unspeakable torture, but no one had even considered for a moment that Elianna might have reservations about going back there. She had been kidnapped by the Klimnu after one of them had used their mystifying ability to appear as someone else to trick her into thinking that he was Pyra and then held at the prison where she fought for her own life, and then for Leia's when she discovered her broken, battered body lying in the middle of the hallway, pleading for her to help. The warriors along with her mate, Ciyrs, had come to rescue her and it was during that battle that she had discovered that Ciyrs had transferred some of his ability to destroy the Klimnu simply through his touch. Together they had reduced many of the creatures to ash at their feet. Though she had been under the control of the Klimnu for only a short time and had participated in the battle with enthusiasm, the experience had scarred her and now the difficulty was showing through.

  Leia stepped up beside her and took her hand tightly in a show of solidarity and strength for their shared experience. Though the others were there to support and encourage them, only the two of them could understand what they were feeling and they needed to be there for each other to guide them through the challenge that they now faced.

  "Are you ready?" Eden asked.

  Despite the lingering concerns about her health and the baby, Eden had insisted she was going along with the others. Claiming she felt well again and pointing out that staying active was good for both of them, Eden had followed right along with them when they started walking toward the prison. Everyone had kept careful eye on her as they traveled, but other than her slightly slower walk, she had shown no indication of further problems. Now she was standing beside the two nervous-looking women offering the strength of her presence and encouraging them forward. The rest of the group stepped up so that they stood in a single file line staring at the remnants of the prison ahead of them, each lost in their own thoughts.

  Zsilvia stood beside Loralia, separated from the group by a few steps. She could see Loralia sliding her gaze toward her every few seconds and resisted letting her emotions course through her so that the other woman couldn't sense them. She had felt exposed enough during their earlier conversation and was not ready for Loralia to delve any further into what she was going through.

  The group walked forward, stepping gingerly among the scorched pieces of the prison until they found what looked like a trap door in the stone foundation.

  "This must be how the men got into the prison," Zuri said, indicating the door.

  George crouched at the edge of the door and ran his fingers along the edge. Zsilvia watched as his fingers found the lip of the door and the muscles through his shoulders and back tensed seductively beneath the fabric of his shirt while he lifted the door away with a deep grunt. Zuri and Samira helped to pull the door the rest of the way out of place and they entered the dark, cavernous bowels of the former prison.

  The only light in the space beneath the ground was the pearlescent glow coming off of Loralia's skin. She stepped to the front of the group and looked at each of them.

  "Did anyone bring a light stick?"

  George and Zuri reached into their bags and pulled out the small metal tools. The smile on his face said that he had been waiting since his arrival to use a piece of Denynso technology and was excited that the time had finally come. Eden tucked a hand into the small bag at her hip and withdrew a narrow torch and a flint.

  "Pyra taught me to never go anywhere unprepared," she said, leaning over to strike the flint across the stone wall of the prison dungeon.

  Eden used the spark from the flint to light her torch, throwing orange glow around the hallway and adding to the pools of light from the others who had brought along their tools.

  "We'll have to split up into groups. Those with lights take someone without a light with you," Zuri said, looking at each of them as if mentally pairing them off in the way that she thought that they should be though she wasn't giving voice to her opinions. "Ivy will have to come with me. Creia has entrusted her to me so she's my responsibility. The
rest of you, group up and we'll start exploring."

  "I guess that means that you have to take me with you."

  Zsilvia heard George's voice close beside her and her belly trembled. She turned to his smile and instinctively reached for the bag that she always wore at her hip like any Denynso would so that she could show him that she had her own light, but realized that she didn't have the bag with her. Her mind had been so distracted recently that it seemed she couldn't even think straight enough to do the things that she had done every day since she was old enough to leave home without her parents.

  "You don’t seem to have a light," George continued, "and as far as I know you are still my guard and protector."

  "I suppose you're right," Zsilvia said, still refusing to make eye contact with him, "Where do you think that we should go first?"

  George gestured down the hall and she followed along beside him, paying attention as she went to where the other groups were headed so that she could stay close enough to them that their presence would distract her from the fact that she was alone in the dark with him.

  "Oh, George!" Zsilvia heard Ivy's voice from behind them and felt her teeth grind against each other, "We'll come along with you."

  Zsilvia stepped back to let Zuri and Ivy come closer and continued to sink back as they walked down the hallway until she could barely see them ahead of her and could only decipher their position in the narrow, serpentine hallway by the glow of the light sticks that George and Zuri held.

  Chapter Six

  "There was a war," Rey said, settling into place at a long table and gesturing for Pyra and the other men to take the seats on either side of him, "Before the battles broke out, our kingdoms were in close cooperation. We had maintained good relations since their arrival and were building our relationship and had even begun to talk about joining our communities. When the war started, all communication ended. We tried to reach out to them, but the men we sent out to them never returned."

  Pyra hesitated, trying to form the right words.

  "Were any of those that were alive then alive now?" he asked carefully.

  It sounded like a bizarre question even as it came through his own lips, but he was quickly learning that when he thought he knew something, he was likely wrong about it. They had only been away from the compound for a short time and yet he felt like he had broadened his concepts of the world around him more in those few days than he had in his entire life. The Covra had wandered the planet for well more than a century and were still living as they awaited the birth of the new generation. Now he was facing another new species and Pyra had no idea how long they may live and if any of them had been around to witness the time of the war.

  "No. The last of those who were alive then died many years ago."

  "What happened to your kind after you lost touch with the Light Ones?"

  "After the war there was tremendous turmoil among our kind. Discord caused the kingdom to divide. One group split off and left while the rest stayed here."

  "What happened to the other group?" Pyra asked.

  Rey shook his head, the expression on his face a difficult blend of sadness and bewilderment.

  "No one knows," he said softly, "After they left, there was very little contact with the rest of the group. Eventually the ones who were alive at the time started to die off and the amount of contact diminished even further until all ties were completely broken. It has been decades since there was any communication between the two groups."

  "Are they still living?"

  Rey shrugged and shook his head again.

  "We don’t even know that. No one knows where they ended up and many of the children now barely even know that that group ever existed. It is fading from our history," his voice dropped even further, "and that is just fine with most of us."

  Just then a woman approached the table carrying a large tray of food followed by another carrying one that held a pitcher and stacks of plates and cups. Rey distributed the dishes and began to serve the meal that the women had brought. Though Pyra was ravenous and he knew the others had to be as well considering they had left behind much of their food for the others in the settlement, he knew he needed to stay focused and keep Rey talking.

  "After the war ended, why did no one ever go looking for the Light Ones, or at least for the people that you sent and who never returned?"

  "The stories of our elders say that some did go looking, hoping to either find our lost ones and free them, or at least bring their bodies home for proper burial. They roamed the badlands between the two kingdoms for days, following the paths that were once clear and well-laid by those who traveled back and forth often. No matter where they looked, however, they couldn't find the settlement. It was as if it had simply disappeared."

  "They went to the place where the settlement was and it wasn’t there?" Pyra asked, confused by the statement.

  "That's the story that the elders told. Of course, we don't know if it is entirely true. All we know is that there has never again been communication with the Light Ones and no one has ever seen those scouts again. You haven't told me why you are so interested in them and the relationship that they had with our kind."

  The statement wasn't accusatory and Pyra finally felt himself starting to feel at ease with Rey and the other beautiful creatures. Though there was still something about them that struck him as odd and as though he should know more about them, he was starting to feel more comfortable with them and more convinced that they would do what they could to help their cause.

  "The information that we found in the prison indicated that the Light Ones were engaged in battle with the Covra. Have you heard of them?"

  Rey nodded.

  "I have heard the name. Before communication with them stopped near the beginning of the war, they sent word that creatures called the Covra were the ones who had attacked them and were trying to overtake them. We have never encountered such a species, though, and didn't learn anything about them before the communication ended."

  Pyra fought to hold in the disappointment that came from that statement. Though Rey had confirmed that his kind knew nothing of the threat of the Covra, that didn't necessarily mean that they would be completely unable to help them unlock the Light Ones. He had said that the two kingdoms had been very friendly. It was still possible that enough information survived that they might still find something that could be helpful to them in their quest to unlock the people and restore the kingdom.

  "When the Covra become too weakened and know that they are not going to be able to defeat the enemy that they have chosen, they lock them."

  "Lock?" Rey asked.

  "Yes. They possess a toxin that allows them to stop the victim in the exact moment when they were injected. It doesn't kill them, only freezes them in place so that they continue to exist. That's what happened to the Light Ones. That's why your kind was never able to restore communication after the beginning of the war. It is not because they didn't want to communicate with you. It is because the Covra isolated them and then locked them so that they were unable to reach out to you."

  "Could that also be what happened to the scouts that were sent to check on them?"

  "It's possible," Pyra confirmed. "They may have shown up in the settlement on the day that the Covra attacked and be frozen there with the others."

  "But then why were none of the people who went after them later able to find the settlement?"

  "I can't answer that. I don't know what affect the locking has on others. What I do know is that there are more of the creatures coming. My warriors were able to defeat as many as would come into the settlement toward us, but we know that there are more on their way, and we worry that when they do come, the Light Ones won't survive. The mate of one of my men is there and if we don't find a way to save them soon, he will have to watch her die and then live the rest of his life without her. We need your help."

  "What could we do?" Rey asked, "I told you that we
know nothing about the Covra."

  "You might not know about them, but somewhere in your history, in your archives, you know about the Light Ones. Of everyone on this planet, you have the best chances of knowing something about them that could change everything. You might be able to help us find a way to release them from their binds, which would mean giving hundreds of people back their lives and giving Lynx his mate. Once they wake up, you may also be able to restore the relationship between the two kingdoms and work again toward what those who came before you wanted for all of you."

  "Tell me what you need us to do."

  Pyra smiled, feeling truly hopeful for the first time since setting off, and touched the pendant around his neck. He could feel Eden and her presence gave him the strength to continue.

  "Bring us to whatever information you may have about the Light Ones and the war so that we can learn what we can and then go back to the settlement to tell the others."

  "I will do better than that," Rey said, standing from his seat, "We'll go back with you."

  Chapter Seven

  Samira leaned over the papers spread across the counter. They had gathered all of the documents that they could find that referenced the Light Ones and brought them back to Ciyrs' shop so that they would be more comfortable examining them there than they would have in the cold and dark prison.

  "Am I reading this correctly?" Samira asked.

  Loralia leaned over the paper from the other side and even though the words were upside down she knew that she was reading the same thing that Samira was. Incredibly brilliant despite her young age, Samira was an expert in biology, but it didn't take her exceptional intelligence and vast scientific knowledge to decipher what they had found in a worn journal tucked in the back of a cabinet. It was written out very clearly in every grisly detail.