Alien Warrior's Baby (Scifi Alien Romance) (Zoran Warriors Book 2) (2 page)

He leads us to the docking area where a dozen warriors, each as big as he is, are busy unloading crates marked with Zoran symbols. He turns to me, his smoldering eyes staring into mine.

“And you’re saying no one’s investigating the missing shipments?”

For a moment I lose myself in his ember eyes, and he touches my shoulder to catch my attention. The touch sends a jolt through my body.
Is it me or did it get hot in here?

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Not as far as I know.”

His brow furrows, his big hand still resting on my shoulders.

“This worries me,” he says softly. “I thought humans needed this cure?”

“We do,” I say. “But the news is only covering Jillian Archer and General Vinz’s union.”

For the first time, General Tyr smirks, the corners of his mouth curling upward into a wide smile.

“Ah, so that’s made the news here as well, huh?”

“Yes,” I answer, suddenly remembering my boss’s demands for a juicy story on Jillian. I might as well ask him. “What is your take on it?”

General Tyr raises one of his eyebrows at me. “It’s… an interesting choice,” he says, choosing his words carefully. “Unconventional. Unexpected.”

The general is standing very close to me now, his muscled chest nearly touching me, and my body surges with heat. I can feel my cheeks burning, and I curse myself internally. No man has ever gotten me flustered before, but then again, no human compares to General Tyr.

“Unwanted?”

“Not at all,” the general answers with a low growl.

For a moment, from the way he looks at me with such intensity, I think he’s about to kiss me. But just as heat rises to fill my cheeks, Tyr leans back, and I wonder if the moment was all in my head. He turns his head towards his men who are almost done unloading the crates.

“Got any more questions, Miss Hunt?” he asks.

“Yes actually, I wanted to ask you about this Senator runaway you are chasin—”

I don’t get to finish my sentence.

There’s a quick, violent flash of light, and then a thundering roar that knocks me off my feet.

The general tackles me, pinning me against the wall, his body shielding me from the blast.

The sensation of his impossibly strong frame pressed against mine is the last thing I remember before everything goes black.

T
he explosion comes
out of nowhere.

One moment I’m distracted by the reporter’s almond-shaped eyes, and the next, I’m shielding her body from the immense blast. Pieces of shrapnel fly all around us, pelting my back, but I do not waver.

I turn and see devastation all around me. Flames envelop the cargo bay, and none of my men are left standing. The walls, the only thing separating us from the cold, unforgiving nothingness of space, are dangerously cracked. Any moment now they could cave in and suck us into darkness.

All the doors leading into the cargo bay shut instantly, locking us in, and I know I need to act fast if I want to come out of this alive. I grab the unconscious reporter by her waist and hoist her over my shoulder. Several paces later I’m inside my freighter, having made my way through the fire. The ship itself is damaged beyond repair, but I hope the escape shuttle survived the blast unscathed.

I gently lay Kaitlyn down on the floor of the shuttle, pausing a second to take her pulse. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding when I feel she’s still alive. A blaring alarm rouses me from my thoughts, confirming my worst fear.

Those damn humans are opening the cargo bay doors, to extinguish the fire that threatens to destroy the entire station. I don’t have time to go back for any of my men – I barely close the hatch in time before the entire freighter is sucked out into space.

In a frenzy, I manage to detach the escape shuttle from the ship, and moments later, we’re aimlessly drifting towards Earth. Everything is eerily quiet as we float through space, the human planet’s gravitational pull slowly getting a hold on us.

I sit down and rest my head in my hands.

Damn it
.

I should have trusted my gut. I knew something was wrong. I failed as a general.

After scanning deep space for months, we finally picked up a trace of Senator Gorgi – and it came from the human sector, no less. Once I came here, the shapely female tells me that the cure that General Vinz has generously provided them has gone missing, and no one seems to care.

It all doesn’t add up. I should have been on my guard.

Instead, I let the human’s alluring smile distract me. Her scent proved surprisingly captivating, and I could tell from her dilated pupils she felt the same way. Her straightforward and direct style of communication appeals to me. The memory of how she put that human commander, Tobias, in his place might make me grin – if I hadn’t just lost my damn crew to a cowardly, despicable attack.

I run my hand across Kaitlyn’s face, brushing a strand of hair away. She’s running a fever; the shock of the blast overwhelmed her. In a few hours she’ll be back on her feet. I hope. I’m about to crash land on an alien planet, and she’s the closest thing to an ally that I’ve got.

Kaitlyn
.

I say her name to myself softly. It has a pleasing melody to it.

Absentmindedly I pick out shards of metal from my obsidian armor. It absorbed most of the blast, and left me unharmed. Slowly but surely, the escape pod starts picking up speed as we’re pulled into Earth’s atmosphere.

I strap Kaitlyn into her seat and make sure she’s secured tightly. This could be a rough landing.

* * *

“
W
ake up
.”

I gently shake her shoulders, my thumb brushing her cheek. I’m relieved when she opens her eyes.

“Wh-where am I?”

I glance around for any familiar landmarks, but this land is strange to me. We crash-landed in the middle of a deserted wasteland, with nothing but sand and stone as far as the eyes can see. A mountain looms in the distance. We should head there for shelter.

“I have no idea,” I admit. All the equipment in the shuttle has been smashed by our crash landing.

I help her sit upright and hand her a bit of water. She swallows it slowly, a few drops spilling down her chin.

“Careful, this is all we got. The shuttle had very few supplies.”

“What happened?” she asks, looking up at me. Despite the heat she shivers, and I wrap a blanket around her shoulders.

“There was an attack on the
Vonnegut
,” I say, my lips pulled into a thin line. “A bomb, most likely. I barely managed to escape with you. We crashed on Earth somewhere.”

“You saved me?” she asks.

I nod, avoiding her eyes. “I couldn’t save the rest.”

She reaches out for me, her hand brushing my cheek. Her touch is soft and comforting. Still, I grab her wrist and push it away.

“You need to rest,” I grumble. “I’ll survey our surroundings, try to gather some intel.”

I stride away before she has a chance to react. She makes me feel vulnerable, and that is not something I’m accustomed to. I’m a Zoran General – I’m always in command.
Always
.

The loss of my team weighs heavily on my mind as I wander the scorching hot wasteland. I check for animal prints or vegetation, but I don’t find signs of any. This is a desert, where no life can sustain itself.

If we don’t find help soon, we could very well starve.

I haven’t had the heart to tell Kaitlyn my wrist-com was damaged in the blast, leaving me with no way to communicate with my war-vessel,
Ravenous
, that’s orbiting Earth high above. The shuttle’s com-panel is smashed, and I don’t believe the distress call is emitting properly.

I have no doubt my crew is on high alert, and they’re scouring the planet for me, but we’re just one tiny shuttle among countless bits of debris that exploded from the space station.

And even
if
they locate us, I have to assume the humans will let them land. The attack could have very well been an orchestrated by the human Federation itself. Perhaps the
Ravenous
was attacked as well. That would have been foolish, but right now, I know nothing.

That’s too many variables to account for.

I have to prepare for the worst.

By my estimations the mountains are a day’s walk away. We should take shelter in a cave, and hopefully find some water and flora or fauna inside we could survive on. I follow my own tracks back to the crashed pod, and for a moment I let my mind wander.

This reminds me of my training, back when I first joined the Zoran military. While on transport from Exon Prime to Minkel V, where our training was set to begin, our transport seemingly malfunctioned, and our squadron crashed in the jungle on an unknown planet. Most of the men sat around and waited for rescue, believing help to be on the way. Meanwhile I set up a perimeter, scouted out the location, dug a well and set traps to capture the wildlife.

Help did arrive after seven days, and the military brass revealed that the whole thing was a set-up from the get-go. There was no malfunction. This was a scheme to test our mettle. They wanted to see how self-reliant we were, and how we’d act under duress.

I passed with flying colors and immediately received my first promotion – the first of many.

I have fond memories of that time. I made some lifelong friends during training, like Vinz and Drax, who are both generals now, like me.

Unfortunately there will be no military camaraderie this time. No lush jungle to survive on. No roasting meat around a fire while us rookie soldiers swap tall tales.

This is a wasteland.

The alluring smell of roasted pork reaches my nostrils long before I reach the crashed shuttle, and it makes my stomach grumble. I find Kaitlyn crouched around a small fire. She smiles up at me as she prods the fire.

“Hey,” she greets me. “If it isn’t my hero and savior.”

“What are you doing?!” I roar as I stare at the copious amounts of meat she’s cooking.

“Making dinner, what does it look like?” she says. “I had a few food packets in my bag.”

“We have to ration those,” I say. “We’re stranded here! No food, no water.”

To my dismay, Kaitlyn just shrugs her shoulders. “They’ll come.”

“How do you know that for sure? You don’t have any com device, mine is busted, the shuttle might have failed. We have to prepare!”

Kaitlyn nonchalantly taps the CN-badge on her chest. “This little baby is always emitting a signal. The station knows right where we are, and they’ll come for us in no time. Meanwhile, we might as well eat. Here,” she says as she hands me a plate of tender meat.

Grumbling, I sit down beside her, in the shadow cast by the shuttle. I thought her badge was just an ID. I had no idea it doubled as an emitter. In my ignorance I thought her helpless, but as I eat the wonderful meal she prepared, I have to admit she’s more resourceful than I credited her for.

The meat is delicious, and for a moment I relax my tense shoulders.

“How is it?” Kaitlyn asks.

“Fantastic,” I answer. “You’re a great cook.”

“I do my best,” she says with a shy smile. She plays with her hair, wrapping her finger around a strand. “I’m glad you like it. I have no idea what Zorans eat.”

“Nothing as good as this,” I answer, and she laughs.

We exchange some pleasant banter, and for a short while our situation doesn’t feel so dire. However, I know it won’t last. Any second now the humans will show up, and we’ll get to the bottom of this. I stare off into the distant horizon, my hand resting on the palm of my blade.

“What’s wrong?” Kaitlyn asks.

“Nothing,” I say. “I’m just prepared.”

“For what?”

“For another attack.”

“Who would attack us?”

“You tell me,” I say, my eyes locking with Kaitlyn’s. “You’re the earthling. Why would anyone want the shipment halted? Who would gain from that? Furthermore, can we trust Central News, or the Federation for that matter?”

Kaitlyn runs a hand through her hair, and her cheeks bulge as she blows out a big gulp of air.

“Honestly, I have no idea who did it,” she says. “Sorry. While I admit CN or the Federation doesn’t have
everyone’s
best interest in mind, I don’t think they’re behind any of this. This is just plain
evil
.”

I don’t want to confront Kaitlyn with the very real possibility that her own government is corrupt. Having just gone through that exact upheaval, personally starting the Zoran rebellion by running my own sword through Emperor Qleiord, I know how hard it can be to realize that the people you fought for were in fact your worst enemies. If the Federation is truly to blame, she’ll have to make peace with it on her own terms.

“Do you think this has anything to do with your runaway Senator?”

“Seems like it,” I answer. “It’s all a bit too convenient to be pure chance.”

I run my fingers along the sharp edge of my broadsword, Suncleaver. The blade is inscribed with various runes and symbols, depicting my clan’s history.

“I’ll find whoever did this and bring them to justice,” I say. “You can count on that.”

The night’s sky grows dark as the sun sets, and the temperature drops rapidly. I command Kaitlyn to sleep inside the shuttle while I stand guard. She objects, but I insist. Despite the day’s events she falls asleep quickly, and her rhythmic breathing calms my nerves.

My eyes scour the dark horizon, but I see no sign of movement. The night is quiet and still.

I find myself watching Kaitlyn sleep from time to time. Her lips curl upward at the corners as she’s lost in her dreams, and the innocent sight reminds me that there’s still good in this world.

Once again, Kaitlyn’s beauty mesmerizes me, and I don’t realize danger is upon us until we’re surrounded.