Alpha's Enslaved Bride

by Lisa Lace

  He smiled at me. "Good to see you here, Quinn."

  "I couldn't turn down your offer," I said truthfully. I hoped the others wouldn't be annoyed by a green cadet and off-worlder coming along on such an important mission. I looked around. There were five people on the team: me, a male named Bral, a woman named Deerva, another woman that I didn't know, and Rob.

  "The plan is simple, team," he said, leaning over and putting his palms down on the table. "We hike to the cabin before the child gets too sick. We give her an injection that will kill the virus, and we make sure she doesn't die. No problem."

  We all chuckled. It sounded easy when he put it that way.

  "We will have no communications on the mountain. It seems that the woman had a one-time use emergency communications unit she used to inform us about her problem. You've all seen the vision or read the report. She lives in a simple log cabin without electricity or water. She may come from Dantin or another no-tech planet to be content with her lifestyle."

  We all smiled again. You would have to be from a planet like that to live without any technology. Yikes.

  "We'll meet in twenty minutes to get outfitted for the hike. There's a blizzard coming in, people. Hopefully, we can make it up the mountain before the storm hits."

  We glanced at each other. His dream seemed unlikely. I might not have been on Koccoran long, but I knew the chances of beating a blizzard were slim to none.

  "Say your goodbyes. I'll see you in building A2 in twenty minutes," he said, wrapping up the meeting.

  I went to find Airik. He was in his office, and I knocked on the door. His Recorder smiled at me on her way out.

  "I'm heading out. I have to be ready to go soon," I said.

  Airik walked over to me. "Good luck, Quinn. I'm sure you won't need it."

  I felt my nerves overcoming me, and I looked up at him. I was worried. "There's a blizzard coming in, Airik. I might need more luck than you think."

  "This is your second winter on Koccoran. You're not that fragile flower who wilted when the wind hit her face for the first time." He touched my cheek, and I closed my eyes.

  "I guess not," I said. "I want to say goodbye, okay, Airik? I don't want to draw this out."

  I reached my hand up around his neck and pulled him down to me. Then I kissed him, feeling all the love in my heart until we were both panting as we pulled away.

  He looked at me as if he didn't understand something, but I had no time to decipher his facial expressions.

  "Good..."

  "Don't say good-bye," he said, putting his finger to my lips.

  "Long life," I said and turned to leave.

  "Quinn," he called after me as I went out the door.

  "Yeah?" I said. I didn't look back.

  "For what it's worth, I'm sorry I can't feel the way you want me to feel."

  "I'm sorry too," I said.

  I squared my shoulders. I would forget about Airik and how he didn't love me, and focus on this mission. It was important that I get it right. The entire planet was depending on us, and my life was going to be all about my career.

  My other option, the love of my life, didn't love me at all.

  AIRIK

  I watched Quinn walk down the hall and had a strange feeling this would be the last time I saw her. Everything was going to be fine. She was going to be all right.

  Then a full-on vision hit me so hard I couldn't speak to activate my computer. I was in the woods watching a tree fall on Quinn and me. The vision flashed to a casket with Quinn in it. She looked even whiter than when she was alive. She was dead.

  My heart nearly stopped as I watched the brief vision flash through my mind. I couldn't lose her. It would be bad enough if she left me. I would be able to see her occasionally. But death? I could not imagine losing her to death.

  "I don't love her," I said out loud. My voice lacked conviction.

  I could be wrong about this Precog. I had to trust that the team would take care of her. I paced back and forth in my office, not understanding why I was anxious.

  We were alone in my vision. Somehow we would get separated from the team. They wouldn't be able to protect her anymore. What if I was the only one who had this vision? What if I was the only one who could prevent her death?

  If I were there when she died, surely I could prevent it.

  Immediately the thought came to stop the team from leaving and tell them what I had seen. I walked as fast as I could to A2, one of the buildings set up for preparing field operations. It had every piece of equipment you might need and all the gear to carry it. I didn't think they could have left already.

  When I arrived, there was no snowcopter, but I could see marks left in the snow left. A man was hanging around, closing things down.

  "Did Operation Mountain Top leave yet?" I asked.

  "That's classified, buddy."

  I stepped closer so he could see who I was.

  "Sorry, sir. They left about four minutes ago. They have good weather for flying, considering that there's a blizzard coming. They're going to drop them as far up the mountain as they can go in the storm. They'll have to make the rest of the trek on foot."

  "Thanks." He nodded, going back to his work.

  I felt my worry and desperation growing by the minute. Why hadn't I run all the way here? Why hadn't I insisted that I go instead of Quinn?

  A plan crystallized in my mind. I would go after them. I would find her and save her. I would do an intervention by myself. The higher-ups frowned upon solitary engagements, but I didn't care. If I saved her, it would appease my conscience. When I told myself I was doing this was because it was the right thing to do, I could almost believe it.

  When I was alone, I started outfitting myself for the hike. There was special clothing to wear if we expected prolonged exposure to the elements - a parka, thicker snow pants than the usual ones, a wool hat, and mitts. Quickly, I grabbed some other survival gear, and I was ready to go. I left a message for my superior for tomorrow's delivery. I grabbed snowshoes in my size and pulled on my backpack, doing up the buckles across my chest and hips.

  The snowshoes looked like big tennis rackets, and I soon had them strapped to my feet. They would allow me to move much more quickly over snow without sinking in. I took off in a wide-legged run, moving as fast as I dared in the dusk and falling snow. The visibility was terrible, and I couldn't move quickly. A fallen tree could appear at any time. I had to remain alert.

  I intended to take a short cut. I would head cross-country to a point farther up the mountain from the snowcopter landing zone. I hoped I would be able to catch them.

  QUINN

  The snowcopter had dropped us off as high up the mountain as it could safely fly, but it wasn't far enough. There was still a long, cold walk ahead of us if we wanted to reach the cabin. I wished Airik was with us. I hadn't been away from him for more than a day since our marriage.

  It's not like we were joined at the hip or anything, but he was always around at home or work. Maybe I had gotten used to him. I grimly realized that I needed to get unused to him quickly. Soon we would be getting divorced, and I wouldn't see him again.

  The thought was troubling but necessary. I couldn't live this half-life anymore. It was painful. Airik didn't love me, and he never would. That was my reality.

  There was shouting up ahead. In front of me, people were crowded around one of the women from the team. I hadn't caught her name yet.

  "What's wrong?" Rob said.

  "It's a sprained ankle, I think. There was a fallen log under the snow, and I didn't see it. I twisted it when I fell."

  "Can you still walk?" he said.

  "Sorry, Rob. No way."

  "No problem," he said. He motioned towards two men. "Make a travois and put her on it. You'll have to pull her back down the mountain, Bral."

  "I can do that, sir," he said.

  "Good. Deerva, rejoin us when they leave."

  The other woman nodded and went to cut branches.

&
nbsp; The rest of us continued up the mountain, feeling a little more nervous. Our party was already two people fewer, and we had barely started the journey. I wondered who would be next.

  Chapter 15

  AIRIK

  I had misjudged my timing, but soon I could see the team ahead of me up the mountain. They were only about an hour ahead of me, and I had a visual on them. I was sure I could catch them.

  The woman and her daughter couldn't possibly live past the tree line, so we were near the cabin. I needed to reach Quinn before she entered the forest.

  I alternated between jogging and walking until I finally caught up with them. I got some strange looks as I raced past the bulk of the party. I was on my way to the front of the pack, where Rob and Quinn hiked side by side. It hurt to see them close together. Quinn appeared animated, and Rob listened to her as they walked. They looked the way I wanted Quinn and me to appear. They could be friends. Or perhaps more than friends.

  When I reached them, I said, "Hi guys."

  They gave me the same looks of surprise and consternation. I smiled at Quinn and kissed her on the cheek.

  "What are you doing here?" Rob said, frowning. "You're supposed to be holding down the fort back at Headquarters."

  "Can I talk to you alone for a minute, Rob?" I said.

  "Sure. Do you mind, Quinn?"

  She said, "No problem!" but she looked angry. There was no way around it. I wasn't going to tell her the real reason I was here. When a person knows something terrible will happen to them, their knowledge makes it harder to protect them. The first rule of intervention was to prevent the target from knowing about their death.

  Once Quinn had dropped back far enough to be out of earshot, I told him. "I couldn't stay at Headquarters. I had a Precog."

  "A Precog about what?"

  "About Quinn, Rob. I saw her death. I think you have your hands full. I should worry about intervening on my own because you are busy saving the planet."

  "No way, Airik. I won't condone it. We don't have many rules aside from 'make sure the target doesn't know about their imminent death', but 'never do an intervention by yourself' is up there. Too many things could go wrong."

  "How about this," I said. "What if I take her back home? That way a tree can't fall on her. Easy, right?"

  "You can't do that. What if I need a reading on the situation? She can call a vision like nobody's business." He paused. "She's even better than you."

  "I know, Rob, but..."

  "No buts, Airik. We're on my mission, and I say she stays. The intervention has to happen as we proceed. It's significant and the team needs her."

  "Is the mission more important than Quinn's life?"

  "We're talking about saving the lives of millions, Airik. Of course it's more important than one life."

  I stared at him. As people who could stop death, we often got into philosophical debates about the job. But somehow the one-life-lost-is-worth-it-if-more-lives-are-saved argument wasn't working for me today.

  Not if the life was Quinn's.

  I glanced down and saw her smiling. She was talking to another team member. Proceeding with the mission would make it harder to prevent her death, but not impossible. I would not allow her life to be snuffed out.

  "Fine. But I stay with her the whole time. And you must let me have the final word concerning the intervention."

  "Whatever you want," Rob said. He was irritated as I was. "You're pretty concerned about this girl for a guy who doesn't love her."

  "She's my wife. I have to take care of her. Saving her life is part of my job."

  "You bastard. She needs more than someone to take care of her. You don't even know what you have, do you? What a waste."

  "What's a waste?" I said, pulling his shoulder to make him look at me.

  "The fact that she loves you. She wastes her feelings on you." He shook his head bitterly and kept walking.

  "What would you know about it?" I said, jogging to catch up with him.

  "She told me everything," he said. I glared at him, and he shrugged. "I guess Quinn needed a friend. She was emotional."

  "She told you she loves me? She said those words?" I heard her say it in English last night, but I couldn't believe she would have told Rob something personal about herself.

  "Yes," he muttered. His eyes looked resentful when he glanced at me. "She said you don't love her, and she knows it. She thinks she can't avoid it because people don't have control over who they love."

  I didn't say anything.

  "You're a fool, Airik."

  "A fool?" I repeated. His words stung. People had called me a lot of things in my life, but I had never been called a fool.

  "Yes, a fool. You just won't admit it until you lose her."

  "Admit what, Rob? What do you mean?"

  "How you feel about her. I've known you a long time, Airik."

  I nodded. We had been friends since we were toddlers.

  "And I have never seen you this worked up, confused, and desperate to save a target. You're a mess. You have been since the day you were married. Doesn't that tell you anything?"

  "What are you getting at, Rob?"

  "Do you even remember the feeling of loving a woman? Because if you don't remember, how do you know if you love Quinn?"

  The thought was new to me. Did I remember what it felt like to love someone? I had not let myself love someone romantically for years. His question bounced around in my head and tormented me.

  "Think about it," he said, a sour look on his face. "It will only take Quinn ten minutes to do a memory pull."

  "What are you suggesting I do, Rob? Tell me straight."

  "Get her to pull your memory of Gina. Remember? The girl who nearly made you killed yourself?"

  I frowned. I hadn't remembered I had been suicidal over her for a long time.

  "Once you remember what it feels like to love someone, then you can decide if you love Quinn or not. And whether the divorce is a good idea. You can decide if you want to win her back."

  I had to change the subject. "You have feelings for her, don't you?"

  "I do, Airik. So what? She's a beautiful person. But you're my best friend. She works for me. That's enough. I would never go there with her, Airik. You must know that."

  I trusted Rob as much as my family. "I know."

  "You should know this too. If you get divorced because you're stupid enough to let her go, then all bets are off."

  I stared at him, mouth open, remembering the Precog Quinn had mentioned to me earlier. The one where she had seen her future self making love to Rob.

  "Think about it, Airik."

  I watched his back as he walked away from me. Quinn was putting a strain on our friendship. I wondered if the damage would be irreparable or if he and I would be able to get past her.

  As I hiked, I tried to stop thinking about the questions he raised, but they kept coming back to my mind like wasps in summer.

  The weather, at least, wasn't too bad for the first hour. It was snowing, but the wind was mild. The mood was peaceful and almost quiet.

  When evening approached, Rob called a halt. We needed to make camp for the night. It was too dark to proceed. Hopefully, we would go the rest of the way tomorrow.

  We quickly pitched our tents, made fires, and cooked dinner together. Afterward, we all helped clean up and sat around a fire drinking and trading intervention stories. Quinn avoided me and wouldn't meet my eye. She didn't refuse to share a tent with me. I had to take what I could get.

  Later that night, I lay beside Quinn in our tent. We had zipped our bags together so that we had a double sleeping bag.

  "I'm only using you for your body heat," Quinn said as she snuggled up to me. "Don't even think about getting lucky tonight, Airik."

  "I wouldn't dream of it," I said. "I had another idea."

  I could hear curiosity in her voice when she spoke.

  "What is it?"

  "I was wondering if you would do a memory pull on me." Wh
en she didn't answer, I wondered if she was passively refusing me.

  "Which memory?" she said cautiously.

  "When Gina broke my heart, I was suicidal afterwards. Can you blame me for wanting to bury it as deep as I could in my subconscious? I never want to feel that way again?"

  "I don't blame you, Airik. But you know how a memory pull works, don't you? You'll have to experience the whole thing over again."

  "I know." My stomach felt queasy at the thought, but Rob was correct. It was time for me to rediscover my heart and stop protecting myself. The barriers I had erected inside myself to keep out bad things were also keeping out good things.

  I knew that, but the thought of what the memory pull would do to me made me want to vomit.

  "Reliving the memory will be how you release it. If you accept it fully and experience it, then let it go, you will be free of the trauma forever."

  "I understand, Quinn. I've been doing this a lot longer than you." The comment sounded snarky even to my ears. She made a frustrated sound. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

  "Shut up, Airik," she said, her voice harder than I had ever heard it before. "If you want to do this, I'm in charge. You do as I say."

  I felt resistance rising inside me. I didn't want her to be in charge. I was always the one in control. Maybe I shouldn't do this if it meant I would have to relinquish power.

  "If you can't give me the control in this situation, Airik, how are you going to relax enough for me to pull a memory?" It was like she had read my mind. "It won't work." She sounded disappointed.

  I took a deep breath. "You're in charge, Quinn. Just tell me what to do." There was a wrenching inside me when I said the words, but afterwards came a sudden feeling of relief. I relaxed as she took my hand.

  "Once I've identified the memory, I'll give you a preview. Please confirm that it's the correct memory. After I have your confirmation, I will pull it. My actions will cause your memory to replay in vivid detail in your mind as if you were there again."