Hex's Desire (Chaetdorian Mates Book 3) (2 page)

Chapter 3

It had taken almost every second of his time, allowing him no sleep at all, but the changes to deck seven were finally complete. And just in time too, as the humans had arrived and were now housed in their own specially altered deck. But still Hex wasn't able to get some well-needed sleep.

Things wouldn’t have been too bad if it was just the fifteen humans that were originally meant to be on board, but it seemed that Torq had taken it upon himself to bring another five... without permission to boot. Which meant Teks was not happy.

“I am glad that Corr has found his mate, but what Torq did is not acceptable,” Teks stormed. He had been going on about this for over an earth hour and there seemed to be no end to his rant.

Didn’t his brother realise that he was dead on his feet? That he needed to get some zzz's in order to survive? Okay, so Hex may have a little more energy than some, only need an hour or twos kip a night to function, but he hadn’t even been getting that lately.

“I still can’t believe he did this. Torq! Out of all the males to do something stupid like this, I never would have suspected him.”

“Neither would I.”

Torq was the Slayer Chaer, the leader of his tribe and a born and raised killer. It was his job to disperse of any that could harm their kind. A human who witnessed their true Chaetdorian form was seen as their biggest threat. So why hadn’t he done his job?

Not that Hex wasn’t glad that he hadn’t. Corr finding his mate among the small group of humans was beyond a miracle. Centuries on Earth and no male had done so before.

“And now I have a bunch of human females on board and no idea what to do with them. I think Corr’s mate would be upset if we dealt with her friends.”

“From what I know about females, I would say more than upset.” Livid. Devastated. Horrified. They were more the words he would use to describe her reaction. “But I thought they would be staying on deck seven with the others.” So far the females had been stashed away in the holding bay where Torq had first hidden them.

“Yes, if they stay. I’m still uncertain if that is something I want to happen. All the human volunteers were carefully vetted, prepared. They all know that they will never return to Earth, will never see their families and friends again. These new females do not understand that. And we can’t just allow them to leave here with the knowledge of our existence. The human race might not be up to intergalactic space travel yet, but they will be one day, and soon, if given the right incentive.”

“So we take them with us. Simple.” He could think of no problem with having more females on board, only the benefits.

“And have a bunch of unwilling humans in our mists. No doubt causing no end of problems. No, thank you. We already have enough trouble as it is with Mandy going missing.”

Yes, Hex had heard about that. Mandy was one of the human volunteers and should have come on board with the others but had failed to do so. She had been at the pickup location but vanished before transfer. The building and surrounding area had been searched a number of times, but there was no sight of her.

“Well how about we give them a choice. Stay with us and join their friend on our journey – I doubt Corr’s will allow his mate to stay behind. Or go home, with consequences.”

“What consequences?”

After thinking about it for a moment, Hex came up with the perfect idea. “All their medical files will be altered. If they choose not to go with us, I’ll hack into all their medical files and make it look like they all have a history of mental health problems. If they breathe one word of us, the doctors will have them locked up in the crazy house like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Problem is that will take time, depending how many wish to go. It will put our departure back a bit.”

“No way. We are delayed enough as it is,” Teks sighed, some of his anger finally leaving him. Maybe now he would leave and allow Hex to get some rest.

“Then give them an ultimatum,” he said, leaning back in his chair, propping his feet up and closing his eyes. Hopefully, his brother would take the hint. “Tell them that if they all choose to leave, they can leave. But it any of them wish to stay – excluding Corr’s mate, of course – then they all stay.”

“That’s not a bad idea, brother. Let’s just hope that one of them wants to stay.”

"Where are we?"

"What do they want from us?"

"Where have you been?"

These were the questions that flew like rapid fire the moment Nora appeared in the magically appearing doorway and was dragged into the room.

Where the Hell had she been? Katie and the others had been worried out of their minds for days with no hint as to the fate or whereabouts their friend – at least she guessed it was days, it was hard to tell. Now here she was looking perfectly normal and unharmed.

Actually, there was something different about her, though, Katie couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

"I'm fine guys, really. How much do you guys remember?"

"Eric going psycho and that big tattooed hunk killing the fucker." Basically, everything now that the drugs had worn off and were completely out of their systems.

"Well,” Nora said sheepishly, “we all kind of got abducted."

"What?"

OK, so maybe they kind of knew that already, but still, hearing it from the one member of their little group that held more information at the moment than the rest of them just brought that fact home.

"It's OK, though. It's a good thing."

Panicking, her voice going up an octave, Jessie screamed, "How could this be a good thing? They're going to probe us and experiment on us and god knows what else."

At Jessie’s words, Nora’s face flushed, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

"Maybe it's a good thing," Alice mumbled, instantly drawing Katie’s attention.

What did she say?

"You can't be serious?" Hannah gasped.

"What do any of us really have to keep us here? Nothing that's what. Each of us have lost our families, our loved ones. All we have is each other.  None of us are actually doing anything with our lives that we want to. Dead end jobs and abusive, useless men, that's what we have here. Maybe going with these..." She looked to Nora in question.

"Chaetdorians.”

"Right. Maybe by going with them we'll find our place in the universe. Maybe even meet someone... nice."

OK, she had changed her opinion on the food they had been given. It was definitely drugged, because the last person she had ever expected to be OK with any of this and speak about meeting someone nice, would be Alice. Her friend had been seriously hurt by men in the past, her last boyfriend especially.

"So where have you been?" she asked Nora with a smirk, drawing the attention away from Alice. She could tell that the woman was uncomfortable having all eyes on her.

And besides, Katie had a feeling that Nora had yet to tell them everything. When she had spoken the alien races name, she had done so passionately. Her cheeks had also burned brightly when Jessie had spoken of probing. Had Nora already undergone a little personal probing with one of the drool-inducing hunks? It seemed likely that while they had all been cooped up in this room, Nora had been getting her freak on.

"Well..." Nora began before a loud bang cut her off.

Jumping to her feet, Jessie asked, "What was that?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Hannah stated, moving towards the panel next to the door.

That hadn’t been there before.

Turning to Nora, Hannah asked, "How do I open this?"

"I don't know. Corr just seems to tap some kind of short code and he's through."

“Corr?” So that was the name of Nora’s alien lover.

“Later.”

"Well, I guess I'll just have to wing it," Hannah stated as she began tapping away at the panel.

The loud noises continued to come from behind the door, growing louder and more aggressive every minute.

It was taking too long. Nothing Hannah did had any impact on the section of the wall where the door had appeared to admit Nora.

"Try this," Jessie said stepping up beside Hannah and beginning to type in her own patterns.

"I don't think that's such a great idea," Alice cried out when the loudest bang yet came from just the other side of the door.

OK, whatever it was, it was definitely getting closer.

A roar of anger and rage filled the air, then silence. For a moment, Katie thought that it was all over, that the danger – whatever it was – was passed. Then suddenly Alice rushed past her, grabbing Jessie and Hannah by the arms and dragging them back just as the doorway appeared again, revealing one majorly pissed off alien.

Entering the room, his freaky eyes locked on the nearest person to him. Alice.

"So fresh," he whispered as he reached out for her, sharp fangs protruding from his mouth. “Just perfect for me.”

Was Nora sure that these guys were aliens and not vampires? The pale flesh and fangs sure pointed to the latter.

Alice was frozen still, just stood there as the male moved towards her. Her eyes were glazed, locked on a moment of her terrifying past and not the present danger. What were they going to do? They couldn't allow him to take their friend.

Before any of them could do anything, Nora dived forwards, hitting the male square in the chest and pushing him back a step from Alice so she could push her out of the way. A second later the large alien grabbed a hold of Nora and dragged her back and out of the room. Nora may have been able to save Alice, but she had just taken the woman’s place.

As if Katie was going to allow that to happen to her, or any of the women for that matter. Too many of the male sex thought that they could take advantage of Nora. Hell, of all her friends if she was honest. None of them had a fantastic record when it came to choosing the men in their lives.

"Hey!"

"Let her the fuck go!" Katie shrieked as she grabbed her bag from the floor and raced out of the door with the others. As one they gave chase, handbags in hand, but Katie got there first.

The loud crack of the bastards head hitting the floor a few moments later was most satisfying to her ears.

Chapter 4

The call for assistance was what woke him, after only an hour of sleep. Instantly on alert, Hex booted his console up. “What happened?”

“Dekon. Madness,” came the reply over his com-link.

He needed no more words to understand. Dekon’s brother, Sekon, had passed over into madness just the other day, having Dekon remove Corr’s mate from the holding bay and then attacking her. He had been placed in isolation to await questioning, but with everything that had been going on with Mandy’s disappearance, that had been put on the backburner. Obviously he had suffered the same fate as his brother.

What had he done now?

Quickly bringing up the camera feed to the holding bay, guessing that the new females would be at the centre of all this, Hex found chaos. Injured males were being patched up. A few bodies were laid out, covered over to hide their lifeless eyes.

But what of the women? Had Dekon succeeded in harming any of them?

Hex hoped not.

Changing to the feed inside the holding bay, he hoped to find the answer to that question, but the human females were sat huddled together directly below the camera, meaning that he couldn’t get a clear view of them.

“Status report,” he demanded. He needed to know if they were alright.

“Four males injured. Two dead.”

“What of the females?”

A burst of laughter came over the speaker, shocking him. Now was not the time to laugh and joke around. A male attacking a female was nothing to laugh about.

“They’re fine. I don’t think we need to worry about them.”

Curious as to what exactly he meant by that, Hex got to work looking for the camera feed from the attack.

It was gone. There was nothing at all. No recordings from the holding bay or the surrounding area at all. What the hell? Stuff like that didn’t just disappear... unless it had been moved.

And if it had, Hex knew exactly where to find it.

Fingers flying across the keys, his eyes glued to the screen before him, it took only a few seconds to hack into his brother’s private files. They were meant to only be accessible from the command bay and by voice recognition, but Hex had found his own way into them many moons ago.

“Gotcha,” he cheered, pulling up the feed. What he saw next had him laughing right out of his seat.

“Yes,” Alice whispered, condemning them all.

“You have to be fucking kidding me!” Jessie raged, her voice only being heard as she was louder than the others.

Corr - Nora’s whatever - had come to offer them the choice to either stay or go home. Yes, they would have their medical records changed if they left so that if they ever spoke of aliens they would be seen as insane, but still, they would be able to go home. They just needed the decision to be unanimous... Which apparently it was not.

What the hell was Alice thinking? How could she do this to them? Was it because of that guy, that alien that had brought them here? He had just appeared in the doorway only moments before Alice had voiced her decision, then vanished as the shouts rang out.

When the yelling continued, Alice was quickly rushed away to God knows where by Corr, leaving the irate women alone once again.

“What do we do now?” Katie asked, looking at her equally shocked friends.

“I have no fucking clue,” Hannah sighed.

How long they stood there in silence in that room she had no idea, but they all snapped out of it pretty quickly when the doorway appeared again.

Were they about to be attacked, again? Nora had been attacked twice now since their abduction, though, they had only recently learnt about the first occurrence that happened shortly after she had been removed from the room while they had all still been passed out on the floor.

Huddling together, bags once again at the ready, they waited. At first, no one appeared, the doorway remaining empty, then two identical figures emerged.

“Oh my,” Hannah whispered besides her, taking in the giant hunks before them.

What was it with these aliens being ridiculously hot? And the tatts? In Katie’s opinion, they made them even hotter. She had always had a thing for guys with tattoos. Though the stark red patterns covering the arms of these two seemed more like a warning of how lethal they were.

“What do you want?” Jessie demanded, pulling her back to the problem at hand. They were being held captive; there was no other way to describe it.

“We are to escort you to deck seven,” the one on the left stated. She was going to refer to him as Hunk A. “Come.”

“Like hell,” Jessie snapped, causing him to glare in her direction. Hunk B, on the other hand, seemed to only have eyes for Hannah.

Oh no. Jessie had a bit of temper and she could tell that her friend was close to losing her rag. Jessie didn’t like to be told what to do. Then again, neither did she.

Stepping forwards, Katie hoped to stop her friend before things went too far. But, before she had a chance to intercept the disaster she could sense approaching, Hunk A and B made their move.

Entering the room together, they grabbed a hold of her friend and quickly pressed something against her neck. When Jessie’s body slumped towards the floor, Hunk B scooped her up and lifted her onto his shoulder in a fireman’s lift.

“What the hell did you do to her?” she demanded, stepping in front of him expecting an answer. But he said nothing, just continued to look over her shoulder at Hannah. Was the guy a mute or something?

In the end, it was Hunk A that answered her question. “We gave her a sleeping aid. She will awaken within an earth hour. Now, follow me,” he ordered as they both turned and exited the room.

Well, there was no way she was going to allow them to cart her friend off to God knows where without her. “Come on,” she said, grabbing Hannah by the arm and dragging her along behind them. It was time to get some answers.