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

by Ruth Anne Scott

  Pyra stepped off of the platform and stalked out of the room. Lynx recognized the intensity in his stride and the broadness of his shoulders. He was feeling angry and likely longing for Eden. As much as Lynx was sure that their leader wanted to continue on with the mission that they had originally set out for themselves and bring back as much information about the planet as possible, he knew that Pyra was also eager to get home to Eden before their baby was born. Now that Pyra had seen some of the brutality and coldness that had existed on the planet in years that were far too recent for his comfort, he would want to be near his mate and their vulnerable newborn in order to protect them from a world in which he thought he was the fiercest of warriors, but was beginning to question that truth.

  Slowly the group dissipated around them. Rain curled into Lynx's chest and he held her against him as the crowd gradually filtered out of the room and out into the settlement to discuss and decide their fate. He didn't know what would be the right decision. He knew that he needed to be with Rain, that no matter what decision was made, he wouldn't leave his mate's side. For the rest of them, though, the decision didn't seem as clear.

  "Rain?"

  Rain eased off Lynx's chest but he kept his hands on her as she turned to Ciyrs's voice.

  "I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through," the healer said in the calm, soothing voice that he always used when talking to someone who was suffering and who he was trying to help. "I wouldn't know what decision to make either. While you are making it, though, you deserve to know as much as you can."

  Ciyrs reached into the bag at his hip and withdrew the book that Elianna had given to him before the men left the compound. He held it out to Rain.

  "My mate wrote this. She is from Earth and she came here to learn about the Denynso. The beginning of her time in the compound was very difficult, but she has overcome it and integrated into our kind. This book is about her and what she went through herself, as well as what the other human women went through when they came to live on the compound. There is some information in there about Earth now. It might help you."

  Rain took the book and gave Ciyrs a slightly teary smile.

  "Thank you."

  Chapter Eight

  Ivy felt the first rays of sunlight touch her eyes and she stretched, reaching beside her to touch Maxim. Her hand fell to the sheet and she opened her eyes sharply, finding the bed beside her empty and cold. Outside of the window she could hear the street coming alive with people preparing to leave the settlement. They group had come to a largely split decision over what to do now that the Covra were gone. Many of the humans from the settlement wanted to join the Denynso on their continued quest around Uoria, eager to explore more of the planet that they themselves had hardly ventured into, while others, particularly the families of the children born to the settlement after the crash, decided that they had established their lives on Uoria and wanted to focus on rebuilding the settlement and continuing life there.

  Rey had assigned several of the men to stay behind in the settlement to help the humans find their footing again and to work on reconnecting the two species so that they could hopefully reform the relationship that had once existed between. Those who had families back in the kingdom would return there, while Rey and the others would journey with the Denynso at least as far as the other side of Uoria. Though none had mentioned taking Pyra up on his offer of traveling to Earth, Ivy felt like some of them, even some of those who had chosen to stay behind in the settlement, still harbored the desire, or at least the curiosity, to go.

  At that moment, Ivy was thinking of Maxim, worried that he had changed his mind about returning to the compound and then to Earth with her. Even though Maxim had mentioned that she could stay behind and live in the kingdom with him and the rest of his kind, there was never a question that she would be returning to Earth just as she had planned. He had agreed to go with her without hesitation, but now that she had woken up to him being missing from the bed they had shared for the last few nights she was concerned that he had changed his mind and was at that moment preparing to join the ranks returning to the kingdom.

  Dressing as quickly as she could, Ivy ran out of the house and onto the street. Her eyes scanned the faces around her until finally they settled on Maxim's. Her heart pounded harder in her chest as she saw him hand the man beside her a bag. As if he could feel her staring at him, Maxim's eyes lifted and met hers. He smiled and started toward her, opening his arms as he crossed the street. Ivy felt the fear in her body ease away as she stepped into his arms and let him gather her against his chest.

  "I was afraid you were leaving," she whispered into his shoulder.

  "Didn't I tell you that I was coming with you?" he asked.

  "Well, yes," she said, "but…"

  "But nothing," Maxim said, taking her by the shoulders and carefully pushing her back so that he could look into her eyes. "I have not questioned my decision for even a second. I love you and I want to be with you, whether that is here in the settlement, back in the kingdom, on the Denynso compound, or on your planet. I just came out here to say goodbye to my brother."

  Maxim stroked her cheek with his thumb and Ivy smiled.

  "I love you, too."

  Out of the corner of her eye Ivy saw Loralia standing several feet away, her eyes locked on Maxim. Ivy turned her face to look at her and saw an expression of distrust furrowing Loralia's brow. She had released her flowing hair from the tight knot she had taken to wearing and strands of silver now trailed in the slight breeze around her, furthering the ephemeral quality of the gorgeous, if strange, woman.

  "Loralia?" Ivy said, "Are you alright?"

  Loralia's face relaxed and she looked to Ivy as if the question had startled her out of some kind of deep concentration. She took a step closer, but Ivy noticed that she hadn't taken her eyes off of Maxim. She wasn't gazing at him as though admiring him, but staring at him with a look almost as though she were looking past his face into what was inside him.

  "This is Maxim," Ivy introduced, reaching to take Maxim's hand. "Maxim, this is Loralia, Bannack's mate."

  "Hello," Maxim said, extending his hand.

  "What are you hiding from her?" Loralia demanded before he could even get the full word out.

  Maxim stepped back slightly as if stunned and Ivy shot a glare at Loralia.

  "Loralia!"

  "He's hiding something from you," Loralia insisted. "I can feel him worrying. He doesn't want to tell you."

  "Loralia, stop…"

  "No," Maxim said, cutting her off and holding a hand in between the two women. "She's right."

  "What?"

  Ivy felt her heart sink as Maxim's hand slid out of hers and he took a step back from her side. He extended his arm and began to roll the sleeve up from his wrist. As it got closer to his elbow Ivy saw a thick white bandage wrapped around his forearm. Panic rose in her and she reached for his arm.

  "What happened?" she asked.

  Maxim pulled his arm away from her, pushing the sleeve back down to cover the bandage.

  "I don't know."

  "Let me see it."

  "What's going on?"

  Pyra stepped up beside Ivy and looked between her and Maxim. His face was stern and cold, the look of a warrior preparing to lead his men forward.

  "Maxim is hurt," she told him.

  "I'm not hurt," Maxim said with a tone in his voice that sounded like he was trying to hush her.

  "Then why is your arm bandaged? And why were you trying to hide it from me?"

  "I'm not hurt," Maxim said again, calmer this time, "There's something wrong with my arm. It's having a reaction to something."

  "Show it to me," Ivy insisted again.

  Maxim looked between Ivy and Pyra, and his shoulders dropped. Ivy could feel her body shaking with worry as she watched Maxim roll his sleeve up again to reveal the bandage on his arm. He grasped at the end of the bandage with his fingers, freeing it
so that he could begin to uncoil the layers. Finally the bandage fell away and Ivy stepped back, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.

  Chapter Nine

  "When did this start happening?" Pyra asked.

  He was looking down at the man's arm and could feel the tendrils of panic beginning to coil their way up from his belly into his throat. Maxim looked into his eyes.

  "I first noticed it yesterday. It was just a small spot, but then by this morning it was like this."

  "Come with me," Pyra demanded and then glanced over his shoulder to where the other Denynso were gathering their supplies and preparing for the journey ahead. "Ciyrs!"

  The healer looked up from his bag and Pyra gestured at him to follow. Just as he always did, Cirys draped his bag across his chest before following. Pyra felt a sense of relief at the gesture. They may be in serious need of his healing abilities very soon.

  He led them toward Rain's house. They were still using her living room as their main meeting space rather than the meeting hall when it was just the Denynso, and the smaller space felt more comforting than the large empty well would have. As soon as they were all in the living room and the door to the house was closed behind them, Pyra gestured to Maxim.

  "Show Ciyrs your arm."

  Maxim extended his arm and Pyra's eyes fell again on the area of skin that he had covered with the bandage. The patch was slightly depressed as though some of his flesh had dissolved away, revealing only slimy white skin.

  "Is this the only place on your body that this is happening?" Ciyrs asked, dropping his bag to his feet and stepping forward to look more closely at Maxim's arm.

  "There is a small place on my back and one on my leg."

  "And it started yesterday?"

  "Yes. It wasn't this bad until this morning, though. When I woke up to help my brother get ready to go back to the kingdom I noticed that it had gotten much worse overnight."

  "What did you do over the last few days?" Ciyrs asked. "Did you come into contact with anything strange? Any animals or plants? Did you eat anything that you haven't before?"

  "I've stayed in the settlement for the most part."

  "The most part?"

  Realization seemed to dawn on Maxim and he glanced at Ivy before looking back at the Denynso healer who had crouched down and was pulling items out of his bag.

  "Ivy and I went for a walk outside of the settlement walls the day before yesterday."

  "While everyone else was in the meeting hall?" Pyra asked.

  "Yes. We didn't realize that there was going to be a meeting. We were taking a walk and when we got to the fence at the back of the settlement we decided to go out and explore a little."

  "Did you touch anything strange?"

  "The only thing that I didn't recognize was the flowers."

  "What flowers?"

  "There were purple flowers. We sat down in them."

  Pyra saw Ivy glance away and noticed a blaze of color stretch across her cheeks. From her response and the fact that the reaction of his skin had spread onto his back and leg told Pyra that they had done more in those flowers than just sit, but these were not his warriors. He would have to remain discreet.

  "What do you think Ciyrs?" Pyra asked.

  His voice had the slightest hint of a tremble in it, not as though he might cry, but like he was trying to hold in a flood of emotion that he didn't know how to properly express.

  "It doesn't make sense to me, Pyra."

  "But you see what I am seeing."

  "Of course, I do. But how? How is that even possible? Rey said himself that his kind originated here, that they have always been here and that even though they had the technology to travel to other planets, they didn't. It just doesn't square up."

  "But what about what Leia told us about how she came to Uoria? They talked about how they were beautiful once, but that had all been destroyed because of a toxin that interacted with their skin."

  "That doesn't explain the origin, Pyra. They're from Ynn, a completely different planet."

  Their voices grew faster with each exchange and Pyra could see out of the corner of his eye that Ivy was shaking, her face strained with fear as she tried to listen to what the two Denynso men were saying and glean any type of meaning from it, though Pyra knew that she wouldn't be able to. She hadn't been in the compound long enough. She could never understand.

  "How long ago did they get to Uoria?" Pyra asked. "When did Creia say that they got here?"

  Ciyrs seemed to stop and think for a minute.

  "I don't know."

  "Exactly. His conflict with them wasn’t very long ago, but he never told us when they actually came here from Ynn."

  "I don't understand."

  "Rey said that their group split after the war with the Covra and that the part that left completely disappeared. They never heard from them again."

  "Right."

  "So what if they didn't just disappear onto Uoria? What if they used their knowledge of technology to create a ship that would bring them to another planet, only to destroy that planet and have to return here."

  "She said they were beautiful once," Ciyrs repeated, his eyes scanning Maxim's face. "So what if they didn't come here from Ynn, but came back?"

  "And began to change so rapidly that they were unrecognizable."

  Ciyrs tucked everything he had taken out of his bag back into it and stood. He rubbed his hands together as he continued to stare at the strange patch of slimy white skin on Maxim's arm.

  "I'm sorry," he said, glancing up at Maxim's eyes before grasping onto his wrist and pressing the pads of two fingers directly onto the skin.

  As soon as Ciyrs's fingers touched his arm Maxim's back arched and he screamed. Smoke rose from his arm and a sickening hiss filled the air.

  "Maxim!" Ivy screamed. "Stop!"

  After a few seconds, Ciyrs took his hand away from Maxim's arm. Pyra watched the younger man collapse into Ivy's arms, clutching at the place on his arm that was still smoking. Ivy lowered to the floor, taking Maxim with her so that she held him in her lap.

  "How could you do that?" she screamed up at Ciyrs, tears streaming down her face as she held Maxim.

  Pyra ignored her and took a step closer to Ciyrs.

  "Find Rey and tell him to gather every single one of his men and bring them to the meeting hall, then find Gyyx, Ero, Ty, Bannack, and Lynx and bring them to me. Tell them that the Klimnu have returned."

  (To be continued in Part X…)

  Book 10

  Chapter One

  The Klimnu. Ivy shuddered at the sound of the word. She had heard it before during her short time on the compound though she hadn't ever gotten the full story about them. She only knew that it was these creatures who the Denynso had fought against in their biggest and most intense war, the creatures who they had been fighting against when they climbed beneath the ground for the first time and discovered the mirrored realm that was home to Loralia and who were the cause of the death of Jem, one of their most treasured warriors. The rest of the details about them were shaky at best, but from the fire in Pyra's eyes and the growl in his voice, she knew that these were not creatures that should be taken lightly.

  She looked down at Maxim who she still cradled in her arms, his head rested back on her shoulder as he gripped the arm that Ciyrs had just so brutally injured. The respect that she had initially held for Ciyrs had faded as soon as she watched his hand touch Maxim's arm and his scream of agony filled the air around them. Elianna had spoken of her mate as such a great and powerful healer, compassionate and nurturing in a way that was truly astonishing. He was the man who all of the warriors depended on to help them when they were injured or ill, the reason Elianna herself as well as Eden and Leia were still alive. Without him they would have succumbed to the injuries inflicted by the vicious Klimnu, and the men would have torn each other apart after being poisoned by the Covra and forced to fight against each other. He had see
med to be such an incredible person, yet now she had seen him coldly and without cause inflict horrific pain on the man who she loved.

  "What is wrong with you?" she asked through gritted teeth, the tears still pouring down her cheeks as she looked up at Ciyrs.

  He stared down at her, his orange eyes chilling in their lack of emotion. He didn't have the aggressive, searing anger in them that Pyra had in his own round, almost neon eyes. The color in them was unique to the Denynso, something that she had learned soon after her arrival among them. Not all of them had the rich orange color, a shade that was reminiscent of the last light of the sunset at night or the first rays of the sunrise in the morning. That glow was reserved only for the Denynso who had found their lifelong mates and completed their bond with them. It was an important distinction that showed that these men and women were set apart from the others and given the tremendous responsibility that came along with the bond.

  When Ivy had first learned the significance of the orange colorations she thought that it was endearing, a sweet testament to the union of the two mates, but now that she was seeing it through the veil of cold emptiness in Ciyrs' expression, the color was a frightening, chilling reminder that the Denynso were not human, and were not like her. They were creatures that the humans were just beginning to really understand even after decades of contact. The thought hadn't mattered to her when she first began to plan for her visit to Uoria, or when she arrived and met the king and queen. Even though they had not been welcoming when she first encountered them, she knew that it was her fault. She hadn't followed the proper protocol in giving them notice about her arrival, and that is something that had been clearly and explicitly explained to her before she ever made arrangements to be a part of the exchange program. The Denynso were an extraordinarily regimented and structured society that lived their entire lives by the sense of responsibility and duty that was born into them. Their fate would be decided for them at birth and it was that role that they would spend their entire lives working to fulfill. By not telling them that she was coming she was putting this order and control at risk, something that could have resulted in her immediate expulsion from the planet. They only allowed her to stay because George had stood up for her and she agreed to their stringent regulations.