by Maia Starr
“I know just the place,” I said to her.
Twenty minutes later, we were walking into the bustling tavern. I showed my claim on Miranda by holding her hand, making sure that everyone saw. By now everyone knew who she was anyway because of what happened with the humans. They knew she belonged to me.
We sat down at a long table with Tormunt. “Evlon! And his human! Welcome; join me,” Tormunt said.
“Tormunt! Good to see you.” I said.
“Inta for my friends!” he shouted to a female Zenkian bar wench. She nodded.
“What is Inta?” Miranda asked.
“A strong drink,” I said.
“Oh, yes. Perfect. I will have two,” she said.
Tormunt laughed a hearty laugh. “I like this one. She is just like you,” he said.
“She might be better than me,” I told him.
The drinks were placed in front of us, and we picked them up and clashed are cups together in cheers. Then we drank. She wrinkled her nose. We laughed at her. Then a Zenkian female sat on Tormunt’s lap, taking his attention off of us.
“What do you think? Is this what you had in mind?” I asked Miranda.
“Yes, it is perfect. I just want to get drunk and not think about anything,” she took another swig.
“Before you get drunk, I want to tell you something and I want you to remember it.”
“I am listening,” she said.
“I am completely in love with you, Miranda. You are mine; you are my slave. But in reality, I am your slave. I will do anything for you. I want you to know this. It is you and I together in this; I belong to you,” I declared.
“You love me?” she asked surprised.
“Yes, I love you.”
“Even though I do not carry our child anymore?” she asked with her eyes watering.
“Yes, of course. I loved you before I found out you were with child. And do not worry about that. In time, we can have children. For now, it is just us, and I could not be happier that you are with me,” I said.
She threw her arms around me. “I was worried you hated me for losing our child.”
“I was worried you hated me for not protecting you. I failed you,” I said.
“No. I was there. I remember. There was no way you could have prevented what happened.”
“I love you,” I said.
“And I love you, Evlon,” she said. Then she kissed me.
“Shall we drink to it?” I said.
“Absolutely,” she said. “Do I have your permission to get drunk now, master?”
“Yes, you do,” I laughed.
We drank to our love. Then we stayed in the tavern for hours, and it was just the distraction that she needed. We had a great time together, and she was charming and funny when she was drunk.
I had to carry her over my shoulder when we returned home. She slept for the first time since the rebel attack. The next day I put in the request for her meeting with Leader Rangellis. I did not know what she was up to.
Chapter 18
Miranda
I knew what I had to do. Evlon probably wasn't going to like it. But I didn't care. I wanted my revenge. I wanted it so badly that I could taste it. The rebel scum had taken my child from me. I wanted to take everything from them because of it. I did not know how I could do that. I was a fragile human on an alien planet with absolutely no power. I sat in bed for a week mourning the death of my unborn child and the loss of my team. But then it hit me; I had a plan. I knew that I had to at least try. So, I asked Evlon to request a meeting with Leader Rangellis. A few days later, it was granted. Now I stood in front of him in his chambers.
“We were all sorry to hear of your loss. The rebel attack was a terrible one. We all suffered from it,” Leader Rangellis said.
“Thank you, Leader Rangellis,” I said. “Evlon and I will be getting pregnant again as soon as I am able,” I immediately said in case he was thinking about taking me away from Evlon now that I was not pregnant with his child.
“That is good news. What did you want to speak with me about? I hope you are not going to persuade me to try to speak of peace again. We have put that behind us, haven't we?” He looked at me with anger on his face.
“I have not come to speak about humans at all. Yes, I have put that behind me. I have come to offer my assistance to you and to the government.”
He looked at me confused. “I don't understand your meaning, Miranda.”
“You know that I held a prominent position on Earth. You know that requires some form of intelligence. You were able to trick me. You captured me and my team. I bow to your intelligence. You are clearly a worthy leader,” I said stroking his ego before my request. He smiled in response.
“Go on,” he said.
“I want to use my intelligence against the rebels. I want to join the fight. I want to be active. Clearly, I do not hold a candle to your soldiers. I am not a battlefield fighter, but I am a fighter of intelligence. I want to help. I want to take down the rebel scum that took my child from me. Use my intelligence, Leader Rangellis. I promise to do all that I can to defeat the rebels. I want to help you bring them to their knees. I do not know of what assistance I can be yet, but once I know how the Waysaw handles the rebels, I can offer my expertise. I know I can help if you will just give me a chance.”
“You want to help us bring down the rebels?” he arched a brow at me.
“Yes, exactly. How many human intelligence officers do you have working with your government?”
“None, for obvious reasons. We cannot have information leaking back to the humans on Earth,” he said.
“I understand that. All of my work can be monitored if you wish. I have no interest in Earth anymore. Anvin is my home. I belong here. I am owned by the Zenkian soldier Evlon. I want to be part of the fight. I want to help defend my new home. I want to defeat the enemy that took my child from me. I will not stop until they are all eliminated.
He smiled. He seemed pleased with my request. Then he said, “It looks like I did a very efficient job in converting you into one of us. I will consider this if you will consider my proposal,” he said.
“What is that?”
“I will allow you to be in the government structure system and help us to defeat the rebels in exchange for your information of all things humans. And by that, I mean everything you know of the military defenses against us and of your own department. Real information that we can use,” he said.
I was quiet. He was asking a lot of me. He was asking me to betray my own race and planet. But in everyone’s eyes, I had already betrayed the humans. I thought about my unborn child and how it was taken from me. A fire lit inside of me.
“Deal,” I said. “When do I start?”
He smiled and clasped his hands together. Clearly, he was very impressed with his work in converting me. I didn’t consider myself converted. I considered myself a woman scorned and I was going to do whatever it took to bring down the rebels. I would even betray my own race for it. I considered it a successful meeting.
A year later, I stood on the sidelines of the war game complex. This was the real deal. This was not a practice. This was the war games we had been waiting for. Evlon was on the field ready to fight against another Zenkian soldier. They were the only two left after the mass battles, and now they would fight for the ultimate victory title.
I stood there feeling very nervous as the two soldiers faced each other warming up and getting ready for the game to begin.
The crowd was going crazy.
“Don't worry, Miranda. Evlon is going to win. He is in great shape and the best soldier in Waysaw” Tormunt said to me.
“You are right. He is going to win. No one can beat him. Not even you, Tormunt,” I said to him. He groaned in response to my adequate call on his skills.
“Yeah, well anxiety is not good for a pregnant human like you. You humans are so fragile. So do not be anxious for your Zenkian soldier. This fun, remember?” he said looking at my bel
ly.
I took a deep breath and smiled. Tormunt was right. I needed to calm myself down and not get overworked. I was not going to lose this child this time. It took a lot for Evlon and I to get back to a place where we could welcome another child. Now it had happened, and I was being extra cautious. I laughed just to make myself not be so nervous.
I watched as Evlon lined up against the other soldier. The crowd suddenly calmed down and grew silent. Everyone was aware that it was about to begin. I took another deep breath and bit my lower lip. This is just for fun; this is just for fun, I repeated in my head.
The whistle blew. Evlon screamed and charged at the other soldier. Boom! A blow with his shield. Clang! His sword swooped through the air, hitting the soldier’s shield. The two went at it, jabbing and slicing at each other, but they were both very skilled. I felt like Evlon was holding back. I think he was doing it on purpose and I smiled to think that he was so skilled that he was holding back simply to give the crowd something to watch. The fight went on for almost fifteen minutes. It was a good show, and the crowd was loving it. Then I could tell that Evlon had enough. He did a quick maneuver and used his shield to knock the soldier off his feet then he aimed his sword at the soldier and plunged it through him. I gasped. I had never seen a real war game. The Zenkians fought to the death. I thought it was a waste of a good soldier, but they thought otherwise. The crowd cheered. I had to look away from the dead soldier. I looked at Evlon. He threw his arms up in victory. The crowd went wild for him.
Leader Rangellis got up on the platform at the end of the field and shouted into the microphone. “Evlon has won the war games for the sixth time in a row! He has broken the previous record held by a warrior that had five wins in a row! This is what a Zenkian Waysaw can do! We are invincible!” he shouted.
The crowd went wild again, and Evlon was hoisted on the shoulders of soldiers as they paraded him around. I was so very proud of him, and glad that he was not dead.
The soldiers set Evlon down on his feet. He ran directly over to me.
“You did it! I am so happy for you! You did it!” I shouted.
He kissed me. Everyone cheered.
We had done it. Evlon and I got through the most trying time in both of our lives as I had to endure the brutal end to my Earth peace mission and the loss of my team and child. He had to endure falling in love with a human and breaking a record. Now we were starting a life together.
“Congratulations, Evlon!” Leader Rangellis said patting him on the back.
“Thank you, Leader Rangellis!” Evlon said.
“You have made the Waysaw Renkians and your government very proud to have you as a soldier here and our second in command. You have made me proud,” he said.
The leader’s words made me proud. Yes, he was a snake, but he had been a very intelligent snake that had even got the better of me. There was something to admire about that. This was a moment of happiness for both Evlon and me.
As Evlon moved away from me, getting more congratulations and being passed around like a trophy, I looked around the war game complex and had an idea.
“Leader Rangellis, I do wonder…”
“Yes, Miranda?” he asked.
“Why the blue rebels of Grantsion are not invited to the war games? It would make more sense to fight against them instead of one of our own. That poor soldier out there could have lost his life in battle and been a great asset to us instead of losing in this game,” I said.
“The rebels would never come here. They would think we were tricking them,” he said.
“And we would be. We would lure them here under the false pretense of a temporary truce in order for us to have real war games against the regions of Anvin. We would play it out to the very end; then we would kill them all,” I said, looking at him with complete seriousness.
He looked at me surprised. “That is a devious plan of trickery,” he said.
“I learned from the best. You practiced on me and my team. This would be the same, only much larger. I believe you could pull it off and of course, I would help, and my master, Evlon.”
“I like the way you think. It is something to be considered. I will bring it up to the rest of the government in consideration for next year’s war games,” he smiled. “I think you have completed your full conversion into a ruthless Waysaw Zenkian,” he said.
“Yes, I have a Waysaw inside of me,” I said putting my hands on my belly. “I must think of his safety. The rebels are a threat to him,” I said.
“What is my slave saying that you are smiling so?” Evlon said, coming over to us.
“She has the cleverest plan to defeat the rebels. Indeed, one so clever I have never even thought of it myself. And it just might work,” Leader Rangellis said.
“Yes, she is a clever slave,” Evlon looked at me seductively.
“And you are a great soldier. You are the victor of the war games,” I said.
“Then let us celebrate,” Evlon said.
“Yes, let the celebrations begin!” Leader Rangellis put his hands in the air and then drums began to beat wildly. I was surprised by it. The entire crowd came onto the field. Rangellis wandered off into the crowd.
Evlon looked at me. “I think you might be in danger of taking over this entire planet one day.”
“No, you are second in command. You will be first in command one day. I will see to it,” I whispered to him.
He moaned in my ear. “You don’t plan; you plot,” he said.
“Yes, and I and our child will be at your side, Leader Evlon,” I whispered.
He moaned. He was ready. “I like where your mind goes.”
“Yes, together we will conquer,” I said. He kissed me hard and fast. I wanted control of all of this and Evlon was going to get me there.
I kissed him back and put my arms around him. For now, we would celebrate this war game victory, but there would be many more to come for us.
The End
Zenkian Warriors (Complete Box Set)
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Zaine-Verian Mates
(Verian Mates)
By Stella Sky
Chapter 1
Regan Lawrence
“Next! Regan Lawrence.”
I cringed at the sound of my name being called and walked up to the desk.
“Regan Lawrence? Female. Age 26. Location: Zone Seven.”
I listened as my statistics were cited at me and nodded, pushing the auburn hair away from my face. It was hot today.
The frowning attendant handed me my basket of rations and I smiled mechanically as I took it. I had learned as a child not to try to interact with the attendants. Ever since the war between the Verians and Earth had started, when I was just three, you were expected to take what you needed and nothing more, then return home.
“Harbord Griswald. Female. Age 24. Location: Zone Three.”
The voice of the attendant grew distant as I walked the path to the shuttle, where everybody from Zone Seven was being ushered. I took my seat, the same as always, and waited for the driver to bring the last few people onto the bus.
Finally, my seat mate and the other six people who had still been in line returned, and the engine turned. We jerked forward and I kept my eyes peeled to the window. The shuttle had a tendency to give me motion sickness. The jerkiness of the sudden stopping and starting as we attempted to navigate the debris-filled terrain between zones always made me mildly nauseated at best, and borderline sick at worst.
“When do you think the war will be over?” my seat mate, a young man named Trevor, asked out loud.
It was the question on everybody’s minds, but nobody asked it except the very young. I glanced at Trevor and back at the window before answering him.
“It will be over when one side wins.”
Trevor’s restless fidgeting stilled and I heard the soft escape of breath
from his lips. I knew how he felt. We all felt it. But we would just have to go on living the way we were living until it was over.
***
It was a relief when we finally rounded the smooth curve that indicated we were near Zone Seven again. I was anxious to get off the bumbling, rumbling bus and back into my house, where nothing was bound to nauseate me except maybe the smell of my neighbor’s failed attempts at cooking.
The shuttle dropped us off at the entrance and we walked inside, each of us heading to our own homes. Some of us had bikes parked by the fence, while others chose to walk. I was one of the latter.