by Maia Starr
Chapter 11
KELLY PERKINS
“Well, where have you looked? Tell me? I will go look myself!” I shouted at the guard who gave me no useful information. I was so annoyed at him as I paced back and forth in the cabin.
“Ms. Perkins, we can’t have you walking out there in the woods. It is not safe for you. In truth, I’m not sure that it is safe for you here with the commander gone. Things have become very tense. I advise that you get back into that car outside and go to New York and wait there. I will be in touch when we hear of any news.”
“I already sent him away. The driver, I already sent him away. I’m not going anywhere. Now I demand to speak to someone that was there that day. This is ridiculous. Kasian is a skilled warrior and would not have just disappeared. There’s something going on here. What if he is laying in a ravine unable to fly? You should be flying high and searching!” I shouted at him.
He rolled his eyes at me and said, “We have done that for many weeks now. If you will excuse me, I am going to call another car for you to take you back to the city. You cannot stay here!”
As he walked out of the room, I felt a rumbling of the ground. At first I thought that it was just me. But then a loud noise, like thunder, roared over the house. “What the hell is going on?” I said as I stood up from my chair.
Crash! Suddenly the glass windows shattered as an Earth SWAT team broke into the house. There was a lot of chaos and shouting and I was completely freaked out and frightened. Before I could move, there were two men in black pointing guns at me.
“Put your hands up, now!” they shouted.
I put my hands up in the air and said, “What is going on here? I only just arrived. I’ve been here for thirty minutes. I am looking for Commander Kasian Jade!” I shouted as I began to cry.
“We will ask the questions! Now keep your hands in the air,” the swat member shouted at me. Then the other grabbed my hands and put them behind my back, ready to cuff me. He was being very rough with me and I had no choice but to say, “I am pregnant! Please be careful! I am with child!” I shouted.
“What? What did you say?” I heard a very familiar voice say. My heart exploded as I saw him walking toward me.
“Kasian! You’re alive! They told me you were dead!” I shouted as I broke into uncontrollable tears.
He ran to me and put his arms around me as he said, “She’s all right. Do not touch her,” to the team. They let me go and moved on to other business. I collapsed into Kasian’s arms.
“Come with me,” he whispered into my ear. Then he pulled me into a downstairs bathroom.
“Kelly, what the hell are you doing here? Do you know how this looks right now? Do you know what is going on?” he asked.
I gasped for air and through my crying fit said, “No. What the hell is going on? I just got here. I had to come tell you. The registration office tried to get in touch with you, but they couldn’t. Then I got here and they told me that you were dead. Oh, Kasian, I am so glad that you are alive.”
“Is it true? What you said out there. Is it true or were you just saying that to get out of trouble? Please tell me you are not part of this?”
“Part of what? Kasian, tell me what is going on here?”
“Is it true? Are you with child?” he asked again.
“Yes, it is true. I have been known since I returned to Los Angeles,” I said.
He smiled a big smile. He was happy. I longed to see that happy grin on his face for so long. I smiled a weak smile in response. Then his smile faded as he grabbed my arm and said, “Is it mine? Or is it my brother’s?” he asked.
I stopped smiling. I had to tell him the truth. I could not hurt him with a lie; I never wanted to hurt him again. “I don’t know, Kasian. I wish I could tell you, but I honestly don’t know. I won’t know until after the birth,” I said.
He ran his fingers through his long hair. I knew that move; he was angry. “What are you doing here? Do you know what’s going on here? Please tell me you are not part of this?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I only just arrived. Check my flight information. Check the boat I took here, and the driver. I was barely here when the SWAT team burst in.”
He sighed and said, “The SWAT team is worth the Earth Council. We discovered that some of my team is working with my brother. They are traitors. We had no way of knowing who, so the king ordered this raid. Then to find you here among them at this time.”
I gasped. This was not good. He had already thought I was working for his brother before and now for me to show up at this time. I felt sick to my stomach. I kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Oh, Kasian, you must believe me. I had no idea. I only came here to find you. I had to tell you about the baby. I didn’t know what else to do. You must believe me, please,” I begged.
“Commander, your brother has been captured!” a voice yelled through the door with a loud knock.
No, I thought. I was just in the process of reuniting with Kasian and now they were going to take him away. Kasian opened the door and said, “Where?”
“On the river! On a river barge heading toward the city.”
Kasian grabbed my arm and led me outside the cabin. “This is Kelly Perkins. Take her with you to the Earth Council for safety. She is with child. She is not part of this raid; she is my special guest, is that understood?”
“Yes, Commander,” the swat team man said.
“But, Kasian, wait…” I said. But it was no use. He only looked at me as he moved away and shifted. Then he followed a group of Drackon toward the river. I sighed. But I was glad that he was alive. He was still out of reach, but he was alive and that was all that I could really ask for today. There was hope.
I waited at the Earth Council for two days, growing more and more anxious. The mission was top secret and was not able to get any information out of anyone. I was given a comfortable room in the living quarters of the council with an amazing city view. Each day I looked over the courtyard wondering if I could see Kasian walk in, but I never did.
Being pregnant made me increasingly sleepy and it was during one of the many naps that I had grown used to that I had a wonderful dream about Kasian. It was back in the days before his brother made himself known to us. I was in his garden, picking vegetables for breakfast. I was going to make veggie omelets.
“Does this make you happy?” Kasian asked as I pulled potatoes from the ground.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“This type of life. Does it make you happy? Picking your own foods to cook, and living out in the wilderness? You know, my home on Mooreah is a lot like this. It is outside of the city, in the wilderness. You would like it there.”
“Mooreah. I never thought about going to Mooreah; in fact, that is why I picked you, because you were on Earth. But yes, this does make me happy. This simple life, and perhaps a few babies too.”
He laughed and kissed my lips. His kiss was so real in the dream. I thought that I could feel his lips on mine. They grazed softly over mine back and forth. I could smell his delicious, manly scent and I let out a soft moan in my sleep.
“I’ve missed that sound,” he said. But his voice was very loud and clear. I opened my eyes and couldn’t tell if I was still dreaming. Kasian was lingering above me. His hand moved my hair off my forehead.
“Kasian?”
“Yes, I’m here. I’ve returned.”
I sat up in bed and looked around. It wasn’t a dream. I threw my arms around him. “I was so worried I was never going to see you again.”
“No need to worry. I am a very strong warrior.”
“I am so happy that you are here. I know that you can never forgive me, but please do not shut me out, not now,” I said to him.
“I have come to terms with what happened. Time has helped to heal that rage. My brother admitted to me that he went after you on purpose. He held a grudge against me for stealing a female Drackon he loved when we were fifte
en.”
“He did?” I said, wide eyed and filled with relief.
“Yes, he did, and he has been captured. He is on his way to a prison on Sala. He can never bother us again.”
I sighed and threw my arms around him. He rubbed my back up and down and said, “I’m so sorry for everything I put you through. It was wrong of me.”
“No, I apologize for being so reckless while I was here in the city before meeting you. I really thought I was just having my own, private bachelorette party and now I ruined everything.”
“No, you did not. We have this child,” he said putting his hand on my belly.
“But Kasian, I do not know,” I said feeling sad.
“I know, but it does not matter. I will raise it as my own. My brother is not a good Drackon warrior; he could never be a good father. If this offspring is his, we will still raise it together as a family.”
“A family? You mean…”
“Yes, if you will have me. I still want you to be my wife,” he said seriously.
“Yes! Yes, Kasian, I want you. I will be your wife,” I said.
“Good, get dressed. We will go now. There is a councilmember that can marry us today. He is waiting on the fifth floor for us,” he said smiling.
“What? Now? Are you joking or are you being serious?” I asked.
“Oh, I am not joking. I will not be letting anything get in the way of our marriage ever again, and the sooner we do it, the sooner we will be married before you clumsily fall into some trouble,” he said playfully.
“Kasian!” I said. Then I kissed him hard and fast. Before I knew it, we were ravaging each other. So much longing and desire had been held back for so long. I pulled away from him and said, “Do you think that the councilmember can wait another hour or two?” I said breathlessly.
“He is going to have to,” he said as he kissed me and pushed me back on the bed. Then he made love to me. This time, with all the animosity between us gone. It was beautiful and sensual as he took his time savoring every inch of me, and took my time enjoying his every touch. Tears rolled down my face as I had finally had what I wanted since I first saw his photo: his love.
After two hours of making love, we forced ourselves out of bed, but only for an hour. We went down to the fifth floor and were quickly married in a brief and simple ceremony. It was perfect. Then it was only an elevator ride back to the room, which we would make our honeymoon suite for a week. We never left the bed.
When the time came, our hybrid Drackonian son was born. He was perfect and the Drackon test proved that he was Kasian’s child. His blond locks and blue eyes left no doubt in my mind anyway. We named him Kild. It was a mixture of the wild from the forest that we loved, and the initial of our names: Kasian and Kelly. And although we started our family on Earth, we eventually moved to Kasian’s home on Mooreah. If I had known that Mooreah was something out of a medieval fairy tale, I would have wanted to move there sooner. It was stunning, and it was perfect for our perfect family.
The End(flip next page for me bonus books!)
LAIKE: Aliens Of Jenalk
(A Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Romance)
By Maia Starr
Chapter 1
Emily Hart (Director of Engineering)
I turned off the television set, agitated by the voices of the Vellreq. These monsters had invaded the Earth about three years ago, right when the automotive industry had reached an environmental crisis. The Vellreq had offered solutions, but I was an engineer; I knew that most of what they were proposing were half-baked ideas at best.
But real solutions weren’t what our governments was after. I had been working in my field for long enough to know that much. In fact, real solutions seemed to be a real turn off. What the government seemed to want these days were ideas that would leave humanity stalled and line their pockets. And there was no shortage of such ideas from the Vellreq.
Suddenly the apartment door slammed open and shut, and the rustle of bags filled the room.
“Em! Wanna hear a joke?”
“Not really,” I said, grinning despite myself.
My roommate, Therese, was always trying to make me laugh, but all of her jokes were about electrical engineering. We had met at a seminar, and she had found it all but impossible to believe that I had mastered three fields of engineering, none of them being electrical.
“Tough,” she said. “This is a good one! Three guys in Vegas get locked up in jail. The first one—”
“Therese…”
“Fine, fine,” she said, a goofy grin lighting her face. “But I swear, this is one you’d get.”
“Are you hungry?” I asked, changing the subject. I was a practical type of person, and to be honest, jokes seemed like a waste of my time. I was always trying to solve one problem or another, and jokes, not to mention other people in general, usually posed an unwelcome distraction.
“Starved,” Therese replied. “I’m going to put these groceries away.”
“All right,” I said. “I made spaghetti.”
“Yesss!”
Therese’s voice echoed excitedly from the kitchen, and again, I couldn’t help but grin. She was one of a kind.
When she returned from the kitchen, she had a plate heaped full of spaghetti and plopped down on the couch behind me.
“You know, there was a woman today working on Project Orion—you know I’ve been following them since the Vellreq arrived—and she saw a ship leave a planet they thought was mostly dormant. Weird, huh?”
I cringed. “Is it anything to be worried about?”
“No, it’s mostly just scientific curiosity at this point. But she got an award and stuff for it.”
“Cool,” I murmured. It was always nice to hear about other scientifically inclined women succeeding. “Speaking of scientific curiosity, how was work?”
Therese exhaled and threw her head back dramatically. Her red curls bounced off her shoulders, and she frowned at me. “Hard. I thought it would be cool that we’d have a new project to work on, but the designs aren’t…Earth designs. If you know what I mean. I’m worried they have me working on the next A bomb or something.”
This news chilled me, and confirmed my already rampant mistrust of the beings visiting our world. “You can refuse any project that makes you uncomfortable, you know.”
Therese sucked her breath in and looked down at the floor. “Not if I signed a contract…”
“Therese!”
“I thought it was union work! I’m basically stuck working for this shady company until this project is done! And then, if I blab to anybody about it, the government will be knocking on our door to cart me away.”
“But you just told me,” I reminded her.
“Shit,” Therese said. Thankfully she laughed. “I was just being dramatic about the bomb stuff. But I just don’t know what I’m doing, and it’s making me nervous. I don’t want my powers to be used for evil!”
I couldn’t blame her there. I had declined several promising job prospects because I didn’t trust where they had come from. I was highly coveted in my field, but the job opportunities were limited to those with a lot of power and resources. And unfortunately, all too often that power had come as a result of shady dealings. You could never be too careful. I guess Therese had been blinded by her unfailing optimism.
“Well anyway, the benefits are top notch,” she said, as if trying to remember why she was working there in the first place. “I can afford all the junk food I want!”
I grinned and shook my head. “Glad to see you have your priorities straight.”
We spent the rest of the evening watching cheesy movies that both of us were surprised by my willingness to watch. Sometimes the world just seemed too bleak, and it was nice to get my mind off of it once in a while. Not everybody could be eternally optimistic like Therese.
Doom and gloom, now there was something I was good at. If only there was a man out there who wasn’t put off by my unfailing pessimism. It did no good to lie
to yourself about the state of things. If you avoided the truth about the world, how would it ever get better?
“Very impressive, Ms. Hart.”
I couldn’t help but beam with pride. I had been working for a long time on my latest invention: an unlimited energy machine that I hoped might rival the gadgets created by the greatest minds of our time, but most people implied that it was a waste of time. My mentor and ally, however, understood my drive and invention’s uses immediately. As he turned the small machine over in his hands, his handsome face lit up with a smile. Too bad he was gay.