A Time for Change (19 page)

They lived in a huge force field built around the ships their ancestors arrived to the planet in. It was amazing.
They built homes, buildings, and businesses as they moved out of their ships. They grew food, learned to live underwater, and flourished in the new environment.

The Meridians were an intelligent species, and their technology was advanced. They found in their travels that many of the other species were eager to buy and learn what the Meridians were more than happy to teach and sell.

According to the scripts, they evolved over time to adapt to their surroundings. The Meridians were known for their shifting ability. When in the water their legs changed into one long tail with scales that allowed them to swim and hunt underwater.

The Hopis were people from another planet only two light years from them, they were vermin. While traveling the universe, they found their planet, Meridian. Meridian was a small planet whose surface was entirely covered in water. At first, the Hopis didn’t bother the planet because it didn’t seem inhabited. The Hopis planet was inhibited and they thought they could just use the water resources for their own, coming back every few years and filling their tanks with water.

When they discovered by accident through their defense field that there were inhabitants on the planet—the attacks began. They wanted the water for their own, along with the Meridian’s technology.

For thirty years, Xander led the Warriors in protecting their home planet. However, the Hopis would not give up. Through many prisoner interrogations, they learned the Hopis home planet had dried up a century ago, sending its inhabitants into space to find water for their people. They thought they hit the payload with Meridian—only to find out that Xander and his people were there.

They wanted the water, but when they found some of the technology the Meridian had, they wanted that too. The Hopis were brutal in their attack, Xander grimaced a little as he thought about the torture many of his men succumbed to. “Sir, what can we do?”
Xander asked.

Rolf, the Leader, and large Warrior himself, said, “We must gather the ships. One of our men discovered a planet in the early stages of development, if we land in their waters, we could stay hidden for many years.
It is our only hope.”

Xander led the evacuation, they tried to keep it a secret from the Hopis but of course, they found out. The day they all left their home planet, Xander thought they’d planned the escape to perfection. The only thing their leader didn’t consider was the Hopis in their greed to obtain everything—destroyed the planet while they were still too close. Xander and his men’s ship was the only one to escape the blast. The ship held fifty-two men, no women, and no
children—they were stagnant. Left to survive on a strange planet without the benefit of companionship.

They plotted the course for Earth and landed in the body of water, which is now called the Pacific Ocean. The planet was in its early stages of growth, so the men stayed underwater all the time in its early years. They discovered they were still able to shift into their Meridian form when they entered the water. Their legs disappeared and a long, large tail fin
appeared with brilliant colors, showing their ranking in the Meridian City.

Slowly over time, they discovered that most of the men were mates, and were just missing their female. Xander always figured it had to have been the rest of the race being destroyed that triggered their mating instincts with the only survivors. Xander and Des had been friends since childhood, and they never felt the pull until one day
while they were swimming in the ocean.

It was amazing to have a large area to swim in, their planet was much smaller than Earth, they could have swam their entire planet in two days, but Earth, hell
it took more than a week, and that was if they
swam steady the whole time.

The group of men knew their limitations; they needed materials from the surface to help them live.

They lived in the ship they escaped on for a long time. It took their brilliant Warrior technology man to slowly create a shield that expanded and formed into a large bubble-like barrier between them and the surrounding water. It was similar to their own planet; however,
Earth’s water had a different compound—salt. Meridian had not had salt in their water, so it took a while for Cash’s mate, Rosul, to create a new barrier bubble. Now they had approximately a five-mile city built to accommodate them.

Over the years they went to the surface and discovered they could shift above the water and search for materials. When finished, they could reenter the water and shift for the return to their underwater city. They also discovered the Warriors could only stay above on the land for about seven rises of the sun
before they began to get sick. They needed to be in the water to survive now.

A surprise source of help came when the men rose from the ocean one night only to find a ship of Pirates waiting for them. The battle lasted only briefly as the Warriors
overcame the men from the ship. Then a bargain was struck, and had been in place ever since.

The humans developed and evolved, although the Meridian had not wanted to interfere, they did feel that since they had come to Earth to survive, they owed the humans something. Xander and the others began letting some of the technology surface with them. A few well-placed ideas—in the right minds—had allowed the humans to develop as well.

Xander also felt the need to protect the humans. They did not want what happened to their home planet to happen to Earth as well. They sent out a tracking beacon, and they could tell when another race moved too close. Some of them were harmless, although some were not. Therefore, they did what they had to do in order to protect the humans.

Around a hundred years ago, the Hopis discovered Earth, and although they could not completely protect the humans from them, they did help deter them. The Warriors set out to kill any of the Hopis that came to Earth to scout; however, it wasn’t until fifty years ago they found out, through interrogation, the leader of the Hopis searched for them. For some reason the man had vowed to find and destroy the last of the Meridian, the Meridian Council all assumed it was because the Hopis didn’t want it to get out to some of the other species what they had done.

So far, they had been lucky, they avoided their detection every time, although Xander knew that someday they would not be so lucky, there were too many of them and the Hopis were sending more scouts. They had probably figured out the Warriors were here since many of their scouts never returned.

Rosul made only one entrance to the city, and only a Meridian would be able to enter. Rosul embedded the entrance doorway to recognize their blood markers. Anything else trying to pass through the doorway would be trapped and if not allowed in,
thrown back out into the ocean
after a certain amount of time. Fish and other creatures sometimes wandered into their passageway, which saved them from going out to find food.

The entrance was remarkably well hidden, as was their city. Over time, with the development of the planet, rock formations shifted and Cash used them to incorporate the city. On the far side
of the city was a lake, Meridian made of course, but they kept it well stocked with fish now. However, to leave the city, they had to dive into the lake and pass through a rock tunnel. Their doorway worked both ways, except anything entering had to be accompanied by a Meridian. If not, it or they were killed.

They developed
a Meridian Council just as they had on their home planet. Xander was the leader, but the Council was also in charge. They made the laws of their underwater land and everyone obeyed them.

Chapter One

Xander stood on the balcony and felt his male mate enter the room behind him. He smiled and waited. Des was late; he was probably training the rest of the Warriors with the new toys that Cash developed. They would do well when they had to go to the surface and blend in.

“Xan?” Des yelled as he walked back into their home. The home was traditionally decorated in their home planet’s décor. When they barely escaped the planet’s destruction with the ship, they at least planned ahead of time and put their personal belonging aboard since they knew they would no longer be able to return home.

The bold colors of red and blue adorned the furniture along with the huge pillows on the floor, while the wall held pictures of their lost planet, and the families they would never forget. It was hard, even after all this time, to know they had lost so much all because the Hopis wanted to have what they had.

“Des, here,” Xander said and looked at his mate closely. The training had been rough; his mate had marks on his shoulders and arms where the new weapon had been used on him. Xander hoped the other new toys were useful.

Des smiled at him arrogantly and bowed his head. Even though Des was his mate, he insisted on the formal greeting, after that though, Des walked to him and kissed him passionately. Xander pulled his mate’s long, thick, black hair that was tied behind his back with a traditional wrap from their planet, angling his head so he would be able to get the most out of his mate’s kiss.

They were large, tall men, both leaders, and both dominant. Sometimes both of them wondered how they were ever paired together. The Gods truly had a sense of humor. Xander was the leader of the city they lived in, Des was his Second, and they were a force to be reckoned with when challenged.

Standing well over six foot, Des had black hair and Xander had white. They were opposites in looks and demeanor. Xander was Alpha all the way. He dominated every room he was in, where Des was a bit lighter and had a lot more humor according to him. Xander would shake his head and laugh every time his mate made the statement.

Xander had been the leader of the Warriors when they left their planet. However, when all the other ships were destroyed in the blast from the planet blowing up, he became their overall leader. Unfortunately, the ship they were on was only filled with male Warriors. None of their women had survived. They knew they were supposed to have a second mate, it was the way of their planet, but since the females were all dead, they were forced to accept and be happy with only one mate.

Xander never complained, he loved Des like a mate, like a man, and like a friend. There was no one he would rather be with—in time of trouble or happiness—than Des, though both of them felt the emptiness of their missing mate.

The leader pushed his tongue past his mate’s mouth and demanded a response. Des did not let him down, and they explored each other’s mouth as if it was the first time they’d kissed. Thankfully, Xander had just gotten out of the shower, and hadn’t bothered to dress so the cloth around his waist was quickly dispatched. Des only had on sparse clothes from his workout, which were quickly removed while they continued to kiss each other.

Des ran his hands over Xander’s shoulders and chest. Their muscles were sculpted showing how they kept in shape in case they needed to defend themselves. Xander’s face was angular, and what some may not consider handsome, until they looked into his eyes. They were the most amazing color. Some would say they were purple,
but whatever
, Des loved looking into them. While Des was boyishly handsome, no matter their three hundred human year age, he had a perfect nose, cheekbones, and mouth. His face would be one many of the human women swooned over when they surfaced.

Xander ran his hands down his mate’s back and grabbed his ass. It was tight and firm and he loved to pull his mate close and rub their cocks together while they petted and kissed each other.

When Des finally pulled back, he looked at Xander and smiled, “Well, welcome home to me.”

“Yeah, well we need to talk, but I have something that needs taken care of first,” Xander said and looked down at his engorged erection.

“Really, well we can’t have a leader unsatisfied, can we,” Des drawled with his sexy deep voice. Xander laughed and pulled him into another deep kiss.

Xander thought back to that fateful day when the leader of their planet came to him and told him what was happening. It had been on his mind all day long for some reason—like he could feel some kind of change coming their way. The thoughts he had made him very unsettled. Xander hated that feeling and so he did what was natural to him in this situation, he fought for something to control.

“To the bedroom,” Xander growled and pushed his mate in front of him. He shook off his thoughts and followed his mate.

Des laughed and turned, “Wait, before we get all involved there are things we have to discuss.”

Xander frowned and nodded, turned off his thoughts as he looked at Des with expectation, then led the way into the living room where he sprawled out on the comfortable couch. He mused at the way his people had developed after they had landed on this planet.

The expansion of their underwater world had been slow, but once their techs figured it out, they moved quickly. The bottom of the ocean was not smooth, and they had to clear little by little so the bubble would be sealed. They used the ship as a place to live until they were able to get materials to build their own homes. It had taken a long time.

“So what do we have to talk about?” Xander asked when Des sat down across from him and sprawled in a similar manner.

“Rosul developed a better security monitoring. There is a storm coming in, it looks like it will be strong. We have several men above water, and we are calling them back, but we are not sure if they will be able to make it back in time. In addition, a ship was using their radar, scanning the bottom of the ocean floor. The technology too advanced for humans,” Des said somberly and watched as Xander’s face hardened and his lips thinned.