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!)
Aloitus: Aliens Of Jenalk
(A Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Romance)
By Maia Starr
Chapter 1
Melinda Jefferson (Daughter of the Prime Minister)
“A recent string of disappearances leaves police investigators looking to the sky. Chemical trails found leaving Earth’s atmosphere—”
I clicked the television set off with a sigh. My father had done a lot of stupid things in his time, but buddying up with the Vellreq when they came to our planet was the worst of them.
“My lady, you’ve been summoned.”
I cringed at the grating sound of the voice of the Vellreq servant that King Korta had assigned me.
“All right,” I sighed, standing and following her to Korta’s quarters.
“Your father hasn’t gotten back to me yet,” Korta said darkly, without greeting me.
“About what?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter. I want you to get in touch with him.”
“If you can’t get in touch, what makes you think that I can?” I asked, glowering.
My father had always treated his political career as the most important thing in either of our lives, and now that he had forced me into marrying the King of the Vellreq to gain his favor, it felt like my life was a constant tug of war between the two of them.
Korta turned his black eyes to me, and I shivered as a cold chill went down my spine.
“Just get him in here, or you will regret it.”
I bowed rigidly at him, forcing myself to bite back my angered words. They would get me nowhere. I had crossed Korta once before, and it hadn’t ended in my favor. There was not a good enough reason to willingly cross the King of the Vellreq.
I left Korta’s quarters, my heart hammering angrily in my chest as I grabbed my jacket from the hooks. It was a Vellreq design; one I frankly found hideously ugly. But Korta had insisted I stay up to date on all of the latest fashion trends for Vellreq nobility, and I was forced to do everything wearing uncomfortable clothes that always felt a little bit too starchy.
“Where to, my lady?”
I rolled my eyes. “I told you not to call me that, Kirk. The Vellreq aren’t in the car. It’s not like they can hear you.”
“Still,” Kirk said nervously, rolling our windows up and putting the car in drive. “I don’t want them to overhear and think that I’m disrespecting their new queen.”
“I’m not the queen yet,” I said. And thank the stars for small miracles. “The ceremony won’t take place until Korta and my father finally agree on the terms.”
Kirk sighed, driving me to the end of the long, winding property where we had to await permission at the gate. “They’re back to treating women like cattle huh?”
“Are you surprised? The Vellreq look like something that walked straight out of the dark ages. I’d be more surprised if they actually respected me.”
Kirk shrugged mildly and asked, again, “So, where to?”
“Korta wants me to talk to my father. Again. He’s hemming and hawing about the latest change to the contract. Before Korta announces me queen, they have to agree on all terms and my father is making it very difficult.”
“With all due respect,” Kirk said, “your father has always struck me as a little bit hungry for power. I know you shouldn’t say that about your own Prime Minister, but…”
“It’s all right, Kirk. I could never be offended by you.”
Kirk and I had grown up together on the estate before the Vellreq had come to Earth and claimed it for their own. They had somehow concluded that my father was the most powerful man on the planet, probably due to the immense media coverage he received worldwide (and not for being a generous, caring leader either, mind you). In fact, they were so convinced of his superior status that I was immediately listed as a marriage prospect, offering much in the way of glittering goods to my father, who wanted to be seen as being responsible for heralding in a new age of evolution for humanity and our technology.
The only small catch was that his daughter was to be put in the hands of the ugliest, most cold-hearted man in all the galaxy; at least he was as far as I was concerned. King Korta Kl’ortus.
Kirk grinned, and I warmed at the familiar sight. He had always been one of my closest friends. I couldn’t imagine life without him.
“How does your father like the island, anyway?” he asked, changing the subject. Kirk had always been sensitive to my opinion and didn’t tread very long in controversial opinions near me. It was somewhat maddening at times, but I understood his desire to look good in front of me. I had long suspected him of a crush, but I hoped that wasn’t the case. It would be far too strange to date him. He was more like a friend and a brother than a boyfriend.
“He loves it. Apparently it’s like his own private getaway,” I said, glowering out the window.
“I thought he might enjoy it,” Kirk chuckled. “The Vellreq have him living i
n one of their ships. I don’t think he realizes he’s under constant surveillance in there.”
“Oh, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He’s in love with the technology. He thinks being diplomatic with them is going to put him in the history books. As if it’s his skill and knowledge that put him in this position and not blind luck.”
Kirk grinned again, and we turned down the road leading to the docks where we would take a ship together to the island where my father was being held. In my mind, he was more like a prisoner to the Vellreq than an indispensable tool in the creation of a great new world. If he crossed the line, all they had to do was get rid of him. Nobody would be any the wiser.
Except for Kirk and me. But nobody would listen to us anyway. The Vellreq had the ball in their court, and they had been playing the game much, much longer than we had. It would take nothing to conquer a race of willfully ignorant people, and it would just put me in danger to try to say anything about it.