Belong

by C. R. Jane

  Thane smiled. “Kitten, I’ve got just the weapon for you. Fits in your hand, but will blast someone’s face off.”

  “Now you’re talking.” After everything we’d been through, I was ready to eradicate the Council and help Veon rebuild itself into a strong world where people didn’t live in fear. I was tired of being scared and I wanted a bright future for Rory.

  “First, we need to drop off our angel at our parents,” I added. “Then I’m ready to kick ass.”

  “That’s my girl.” Derrial stretched out his arm toward me, and I accepted his hand. He drew me closer and my husbands all closed in around me. We huddled closer, and I bathed in their warmth and love. Their presence alone encouraged me to stand tall and not back down. We were in this together, and it reminded me why I fought so hard to survive. When I left Earth, I thought I lost everything, but I’d been wrong. That was the moment that I finally started to find myself.

  “Today is going to go down in history,” Corran said. “It has to be the start of a new beginning. Otherwise, we all need to move to a planet as far away as possible because after today, if the Council survives, they will hunt us down across the universe.”

  “Do you think anyone will come?” I asked Thane who stood next me in Farilion Park. These were the coordinates they blasted over the airwaves for a final stand off between the Vepar and the Council, to finally put an end to their tyranny.

  “I pray to the universe they do,” Thane responded. “ I sent out requests to all our allies and friends. They should also join our forces.”

  Except, right now the forces were four of us and an empty field. Had the broadcast worked? I couldn’t stop shaking from the trepidation. What if the people didn’t believe us despite the evidence Derrial showed them? What if they prefered better the devil they knew, than actually stand up and fight back?

  The longer we waited, the more the trepidation dug its claws into my chest. I felt vulnerable standing at one end of the field. Our ship was shielded in the trees not far in case things went to hell and we needed a fast escape. But I hoped it didn’t come to that.

  The laser gun at my side felt heavy on my belt. The wind blew past, rustling the brightly colored leaves of the nearby trees.

  We waited.

  The place remained empty of allies.

  Empty of our supporters.

  Empty of the enemy.

  I turned to Derrial when movement across the field caught our attention. I jerked around, my heart in my throat, my fingers grazing the hilt of my gun on my belt.

  A river of soldiers suddenly poured out from behind the trees, streaming across the field in front of us. All I saw were their black uniforms, the once brightly colored greens and purples swallowed by darkness.

  Any hope I’d held onto now dissolved around my feet. My three Vepar closed in to my sides, weapons raised, except we were out-matched. I knew that. They had to know that.

  Fear gripped my chest and squeezed the life out of me.

  Breaths caught in my lungs, and a scream rose through me. The Council had arrived with the full power of their army against just us four. There was no sign of the Council members, but they were near, hiding like gutless rats on their ships.

  There were dozens of soldiers...hundreds. More coming out from the treelines ahead of us.

  I gripped my gun, and my muscles tensed.

  We made a mistake… a terrible mistake. My arms trembled as terror flashed over my thoughts. We had to turn and run.

  And all I could think about was never seeing my little angel ever again.

  15

  I embraced every sliver of emotion I felt - all the fear and rage - taking it into me as I readied for the unknown.

  The four of us faced a monstrous Council army. There was no way we could win, no matter how many weapons we had. Not alone. Our gathering in this park was meant to be more about power play, to show the Council the people of Veon had had enough, all under the watchful eye of the media, but not even they turned up. This was an event for everyone to finally see the Council’s devious actions.

  Except no one had come but the enemy. How can no one else have come? Did no one care about their futures, about their leaders’ deceitfulness?

  “We need to get out of here.” My words trembled as my feet slid backward. I gripped Derrial’s arm. “Please, this is suicide.”

  “Derrial,” a deep male voice called out over the field, seeming to come from the sky itself, almost god-like. Except it belonged to one of the councilmen I disliked the most. His voice was deep and nasally.

  It was Chloped. He’d been the one who ordered blood tests on me when I first arrived on Veon and stared at me like I was a science experiment. Just thinking of him had my skin crawling. I loathed him then and I detested him even more now.

  “You started a war today,” Chloped growled, his voice screaming over the open field as if the place was hooked up with speakers.

  “A war you will regret,” another council member added, while another two voices in the background mumbled something.

  Derrial stood tall, his chin high, never showing fear. And I admired him so much at that moment. The odds were against us, but he didn’t panic or lose his head.

  There were four councilmen ruling over Veon. I pictured all four of the weasels hiding in their ship nearby, watching us, too scared to show their faces.

  My blood boiled.

  Derrial lifted the comm on his wrist to his mouth, and snarled, “You killed so many innocents.” His voice roared as though he spoke through a microphone. “You unleashed the virus killing our people and now you hide from the mess you’ve made.” Derrial turned his attention to the army a good fifty feet away, yelling, “How can you support a Council who is killing your families? Who is destroying our planet?”

  The river of soldiers never moved or responded. They were trained to be nothing more than fighting machines.

  I swallowed hard, and sweat dripped down my spine. They were too far away for me to see the reactions on their faces or if they even cared. Were they so far gone that they did as they were told not even concerned with the repercussions/

  “Enough! Do not spread such lies.” Chloped hollered. “You have once last chance, Derrial, Corran, and Thane. Admit to being instrumental to the spread of the infection on Veon and I will let your human survive. It’s too late for you three.”

  “No,” I gasped. “He’ll kill me and our...” I couldn’t bring myself to even say her name in case anyone heard us. I didn’t want anyone to know we had a baby girl… me, a human birthing a Vepar baby. My baby girl and I would be hunted for eternity. I wanted to help the Vepar be able to bear children again, but not at the expense of my own life and future. Which was why councilmen like Chloped could never be left in charge.

  Thane’s arms wrapped around me, standing behind me and holding me against his chest in a protective manner.

  “You have no other choice,” Chloped reprimanded. “Do the right thing for once.”

  I seethed at his arrogance. Thane breathed heavily behind me, Corran’s face twisted into pure fury, while Derrial held himself composed. But I knew him well enough to know he was a bomb on the inside ready to go off.

  An icy wind shrieked past.

  Derrial glanced over his shoulder at me, the blood drained from his face. He’d run out of options. With no backup, our hope disintegrated. No one else would know the truth of what really happened, what the council covered, and we… we’d be a distant memory. My three husbands would be murdered. I’d be chained in a laboratory and tested on… and what about Rory? How long before they found out about her? What would they do with the first half-human, half-Vepar child?

  I couldn’t think about that because already my chest splintered at the thought.

  Stepping out of Thane’s arms and closer to Derrial, I took his hand in mine and held his gaze. “We have to run for our lives. We need something to distract them to give us a chance to escape.”

  The sorrow on his fac
e speared in my heart. “Listen sweetie,” I said. “I don’t think we got let down by everyone, but the Council did something to stop everyone from coming to find us. That’s the only explanation we have. So we need to escape and find another way to let the world know. Otherwise, the Council wins here today and they’ll lie through their teeth. We’ll be blamed for everything.”

  “I know,” he muttered, his gaze lowered for a moment before turning to Thane. “Do you still have that trial drone you were testing for weapon use?”

  “Yeah, but it’s back at home. I’ll activate it now to come here for the perfect distraction. But we need close to ten minutes before it arrives.”

  Corran stepped forward. “Let me try.” With the com to his mouth, he lifted his chin and addressed the Council, wherever they were hiding.

  “Councilman, Chloped,” he began. “We all came into this with one mission. To help Vepar females fall pregnant again. What if I said I found the solution that could help millions of Vepars? Release the rest of them and you can take me. I’ll give you everything you need and so much more.”

  My heart dropped through me. I reached out to grab him. “No, you can’t do--”

  Derrial snatched my arm and drew me back against him, his hand over mine. “Shhh. He knows what he’s doing. We need the time.”

  Silence followed, while Thane frantically tapped the comm on his watch, calling his drone. In truth, I was worried it wouldn’t get here in time.

  “I don’t negotiate with thugs, you should know this, Corran,” the councilman’s voice boomed.

  “After how much the Vepars of Veon have gone through, I would have thought someone like yourself would embrace such a discovery.”

  No response for a long while, and my body trembled. “What if they just shot at us?” My muscles tensed as I stiffened. Derrial held me close to him, an arm around my waist.

  “Chloped needs you alive, and he’ll never accept Corran’s offer. He’ll take you both, but he won’t openly shoot us in case you get injured.”

  That small bit of information made me stand up strong in front of my men as their shield.

  “I want the human! The rest can die!” Chloped growled.

  The soldiers lunged toward us, and just as Derrial said, they didn’t shoot when I stayed near my men.

  My blood ran cold, and a strangled cry escaped past my lips.

  And just like that, my world fell into absolute chaos. This was what everything had come down to.

  Death.

  Derrial’s hand locked with mine tightly. The four of us violently snapped around and ran toward our hidden ship to our right to the side of the cluster of trees. Time felt like it stood still as terror squeezed my heart.

  Adrenaline punched my gut, driving me faster. I no longer felt my limbs or any pain. Just the pure need to escape. My brain felt numb. All I could think about was my angel and never seeing her again. Having her grow up without her mom.

  A blur of shadows slid out from the woodland ahead of us. A heartbeat later, and more soldiers emerged, coming right for us. Blocking our path.

  We halted, and I frantically scanned for another escape. My heart thumped so hard, my knees were so weak from the terror gripping me.

  Fear twisted my gut. I cried out with pure shock, with the dread of what was coming for us. I couldn’t let them take my men from me. I couldn’t. Tears drenched my cheeks as I shoved forward and in front of my husbands so they couldn’t dare try to take a shot at them.

  Derrial grabbed my wrist and we were running, away from both swarms of soldiers. I looked over to Corran, this eyes darkening and bathing with fear. Thane was the same...we all were because it was clear we were trapped. How far could we really get?

  I couldn’t stop crying as I pictured losing everything. I finally found my own family, gained what I thought I lost, and now… now these monsters were going to rip it away from me.

  Thundering footfalls pounded behind us, closing in fast.

  We ran but we weren’t fast enough. When my heel caught on a rock, slipped out of Derrial’s grasp and fell to my knees.

  Panic wrapped me in her arms. I lashed to my feet quickly as the army closed in.

  I screamed out of pure terror. Everything was too late. We lost… we fucking lost and I wanted to just cry as my insides shredded to nothing.

  Thane had his arms on my waist, dragging me backward, and I spun and ran with them.

  My body wracked with sorrow, and desperation clung to my ribs.

  A sudden explosion of voices came from behind us, booming like a thunderous storm.

  I twisted my head back. The skies behind us were dotted with cruisers, dozens and dozens of them all descending onto the field.

  My heart beat too fast, my brain too terrified to make sense of what was going on.

  An explosion of Vepar appeared from all around us… rushing toward us with weapons raised. But the closer I looked, the more I realized these weren’t soldiers. But civilians, rushing toward the army, not us. They shouted and roared with fury as they turned vicious on the soldiers.

  Those chasing us forgot us and soon turned to those attacking them.

  We stopped and I gasped for air as I stared out at the sheer mass of Vepar coming to our rescue. They were easily ten Vepar to every soldier.

  “They’ve come!” Thane cheered. “Everyone has arrived.”

  I hiccuped a cry because somehow the universe brought in the cavalry, saving us by the skin of our teeth.

  In front of us, the once calm field was now a war zone. The Vepar were angry, and I didn’t blame them. They’d been lied to, cheated, mistreated and infected. And now they fought, finally able to express their rage with understanding what really happened.

  Soldiers ran in every direction, knowing when they’d been outnumbered. Others fought but were quickly taken down by so many Vepar males mostly, fighting ferociously. Punching and ripping apart any soldier who fought back.

  Thane held me tight, Corran and Derrial on either side of me. I suspected they would have loved to join the battle, but they also didn’t want to leave my side. And I didn’t want them to leave either.

  “We need to track down the council,” Derrial finally said.

  Without a word, we all darted past the chaos, the yelling men, the pleading soldiers on their knees.

  But we ran through the mass fight, following Derrial as if he sensed exactly where the Councilmen hid.

  I didn’t hesitate or question him. Or any of my men. They were spectacular, intelligent, and I trusted their instincts.

  Just as we burst out of the battle, a silver oval shaped cruiser ascended out of the pocket of trees up ahead.

  “Fuck!” Derrial raised his laser and shot, but they were too high up now. He growled. “Sonofabitch! No fucking way are those councilmen surviving.”

  A small beep sounded on Thane’s comm. He looked down at it and smirked. A few taps and he lifted his gaze.

  “They aren’t going anywhere,” Thane happily explained. “Now, watch for fireworks.”

  We all looked up as a black drone appeared, a fraction of the ship’s size. That little thing zipped across the sky and rushed up right for the silver cruiser.

  The drone slammed into the ship, exploding on impact. And in that thread of a heartbeat, the whole cruiser burst into flames, blasting apart in the sky.

  Boom! The sound deafened me at first. The flames blotting out the sun, smoke and dust rising from the broken bits of ship that remained dropping out of the sky.

  I couldn’t help but cheer. I never thought I’d ever celebrate the death of someone… but these four nasty pieces of work didn’t deserve life after all the ones they stole.

  While the world would soon find out what happened here today, I couldn’t believe how close we came to losing everything. How lucky the planet now was to be rid of four monsters who led the Veon to ruins.

  Derrial turned to me and lifted me into his arms, then kissed me. He smiled brightly. Corran and Thane stood
closer, holding onto me. Around us the battle ended. Soldiers fell to their knees, accepting defeat. There was so much to fix and get right.

  But those things could wait a little longer. I met my husbands’ gazes as a silent heartfelt moment passed between us. A reminder of the lifelong commitment we made to each other on our marriage day that we’d be together for life.

  “I love you Derrial. I love you Corran. I love you Thane. I have no idea how we got so lucky and survived today. But let’s make a promise to never try to save the world again?”

  Thane burst out laughing first, followed by the others. I couldn’t help it and joined in as their smiles and cheers were contagious.

  I was ready for a new start in our lives together. A new beginning on Veon.

  16

  Three Months Later...

  The aftermath of war was never the happily ever after that people thought it would be. It was wishful thinking to believe that everything could instantly go back to normal. Despite the serum and the fact that the Council was gone, the Council's actions had left a dark mark on the Vepar people that would take a very long time to disappear. Many of the infected had died in the initial months before we'd discovered the cure, and all those that we had saved carried memories that would never go away. I had hoped that they wouldn't be able to remember their actions after the serum was administered. But of course, that would be too easy. Counseling centers had been built all over the world to help out the previously infected to come to terms that the raging monsters they'd become weren't really them.

  Veon as a whole needed to be almost completely rebuilt.

  There was no government in place, but as my husbands were the de facto leaders of the rebellion, most of the responsibility fell on their shoulders to help try and put it back together. They left first thing in the morning and came home late at night exhausted and overwhelmed. I tried to help where I could, but I still had a newborn to take care of so I could only go with them for a few hours each day when their parents would watch Rory. I spent most of my time trying to help the women who were still being retrieved from the secret camps that the Council had set up to perform experiments and the Khonsu camps where women were also imprisoned. There was not a moment of the day that I wasn't tired but after a lifetime of not really knowing what my purpose was in life, it felt like maybe I'd finally figured it out.