Leaving Triad (14 page)

Emily stroked his back comforting him. “Go
on.” This was the most Zor had ever really talked about
himself.

“One day she had to make a stop by the
healers because she thought she might be pregnant again. When she
finally got home, my father was in a jealous rage. He demanded to
know where she had been, but he never heard her responses because
he continued to yell about her cheating on him. He gripped her by
the arms and shook her screaming at the top of his lungs. Then he
threw her across the room. Her head hit the wall and snapped. She
fell to the floor dead.”

“Where were you?” Emily asked with tears
streaming down her cheeks.

“I was hiding under the table during all the
yelling. When my father was shaking my mother, I had grabbed onto
his legs pleading for him to let her go. He kicked me off him at
the same time he threw my mother across the room. My father tried
to revive my mother but it was too late. He collapsed into a crying
heap. I crawled to the computer phone and sent for help.”

“Oh, honey, I am so sorry.”

“I don’t ever want to be like him, like my
father. Thoughts of him raging went through my mind whenever I got
jealous of anyone touching you. It scares me how possessive I am
over you.”

She stroked his cheek. “You aren’t your
father. You would never hurt me.”

He leaned down and kissed her with such
gentleness, a few more tears escaped. “I love you, my Emily.”

“I love you, Zor, but I am really hungry. Can
we go get something to eat?” Emily rubbed her growling stomach
causing Zor to laugh.

“Okay. It’s time to feed my woman. But first,
we need to get you some more clothes.”

*****

Two nights later, Zor paced up and down the
inside of the empty bar. He was nervous as hell.
What if this
didn’t go right?
He wasn’t sure he could take rejection at this
point.

“Calm down, you look like a caged animal,”
Henry told him.

“Thanks for letting me do this here.”

“No problem. Have to say it’s the first time
this has happened.”

Zor wiped the sweat from his forehead. “It
might be the last.”

Henry chuckled at Zor’s discomfort. “Here,
Captain, the beer’s on the house.”

Zor grabbed the offered beer like a lifeline
and took a deep swig. “Damn, this is nerve wracking.”

“Well, your nerves are about to be relieved.
Your woman has arrived.”

Zor thrust his beer bottle back into Henry’s
hands and pushed the other man toward the back of the bar. “Get the
lights!”

Emily walked beside Sarn to the bar. It was
strange because Henry had called and asked if she could work one
more shift. Sarn had come by and brought a new ‘uniform’ for her to
wear. It was a beautiful, blue, one-shoulder dress that flowed down
to her ankles. Sarn also brought a pair of blue heels that matched
perfectly. She said it was for a special event. She had never
dressed in anything so nice before. She wished Zor didn’t have to
work so he could have seen her. She wanted to look pretty for him
at least once.

“Are you sure I should wear my hair down? It
might get in the way of me serving drinks.”

Sarn smiled at her. “You won’t have to worry
about that.” She opened the doors to the bar.

Emily stood just inside the darkened bar.
What was going on? Slowly, candles lit up all around the bar,
giving the place a golden glow. In the center of the glowing room
stood Zor. He wore a dark shirt and pants and had his hair combed
back. The look on his face as he looked at her was one of awe,
lust, and love.

“What’s going on here?” she asked as she made
her way toward him. Soft romantic music began to play in the
background. She glanced around the bar but did not see anyone.

“Zor?”

He waited until she was a couple feet from
him. He then bent down to one knee. He lifted his hand up to her
with it clamped closed. “Emily, you have swept into my life and
turned it inside out. You made me see that something was missing,
that missing something is you. You are my heart, Emily, and I love
you. Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Emily watched with watery eyes as Zor slowly
opened his fisted hand and revealed a delicate, blue diamond
ring.

“Oh, Zor, yes. Yes!” She threw her arms
around his neck and let the tears fall freely. They were tears of
joy.

Zor stood taking her into his arms and kissed
her. “I love you so much. I promise you won’t be sorry.”

Emily tried to deepen the kiss until she was
interrupted when a throat cleared behind her. She broke the kiss
and turned her head to see Henry and her friends standing
there.

“I take it she said yes,” he said with a
smile. He had a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. Henry only
broke out the wine for really special occasions.

Zor reluctantly lowered her to the ground.
“She did.” He lifted her hand and slid the beautiful unique ring
onto her finger. He then kissed it.

Emily stared at the huge rock on her finger.
My gosh! It must have cost a fortune
. It was a big, blue,
round cut diamond with tiny little white diamonds circling around
it like stars. It was one of the most beautiful rings she had ever
seen. She glanced up at Zor and noticed he looked a little worried.
She gave him a big wide smile. “I love it, Zor.”

“Let her go so we can see the ring,” Talia
ordered.

The girls pulled Emily to the side to look
over her ring. They all giggled and gave her hugs. She glowed with
happiness. She watched as Henry patted Zor on the back. He smiled
with such a carefree look on his face. One she had never seen
before. He looked just as happy as she did.

She couldn’t imagine her life without Zor in
it. He had become her everything. Her reason for living. She wanted
nothing more than to live the rest of her life with him. She didn’t
care whether it was on board the ship or on a new planet. As long
as she had him, she would be fine.

*****

Captain Lee watched his console screen as the
alien ship left the orbit around the last outpost. He waited with
patience while the ship had stopped to make repairs. It was all he
could do to not open fire on the vulnerable crew. He didn’t really
care about giving the scum a fighting chance, but he had to make
sure he followed the idiotic alien/human laws of engagement. It was
a nuisance to have to follow.

It also didn’t help to have the constant
nagging by the useless man named Jeremy that he had rescued from
slavery. Many times over the last week he wanted to turn around and
take the man back to the slave master he took him from. He badgered
Captain Lee until he had to forbid the man from coming to the
command deck.

Jeremy wasn't only an annoyance, but a
terrible drunk who was gambling money he didn't actually have. The
captain was entertaining thoughts of putting the man in the brig
until the encounter with the alien captain was over. Maybe he would
do that afterward. The girl could be used to clean and work off the
useless Jeremy’s debts.

From what the pitiful excuse for a man had
told him, the girl was quite attractive, which is why he said the
alien captain wanted her.

Captain Lee wasn’t interested in the girl for
himself. He wouldn’t touch her after she allowed such vermin to
defile her, but his men were looking for a good time and they would
not be as picky. He gave an evil smile at his reflection. Yes, he
would bide his time until he could kill the alien whoremonger and
take the girl for his crew’s use. Jeremy would find his days were
numbered after that. He laughed then imagining the begging that
Jeremy would do.

“Captain Lee, should we hail the ship now?”
one of his crewman asked.

“Yes, get that alien on direct
communications.”

“Yes, sir.”

*****

Henry had put on some slow erotic music and
turned the lights down. Emily was in Zor’s arms and they swayed
back and forth to the music. This was the first time they had
danced. Emily loved it. She loved being held by him. Loved how
protective he was. She just loved him. It had been the best day of
her life.

“Are you happy?” Zor asked, leaning down to
whisper in her ear.

“Yes. Are you?”

“More than I deserve.” He nibbled her
earlobe, causing her to giggle.

“Stop that, we are in public,” Emily laughed
pulling her earlobe from his mouth.

Zor glanced around and saw that it was still
just Henry, Talia, and Sarn. “What public?”

“I can’t believe Henry closed down the bar
the whole night just to celebrate our engagement.”

“He’s a good friend. Besides, I spend most of
my money here and I am one of the VIPs.”

“You’re the only VIP,” she laughed.

“True. If you want, we could head back to our
room and continue this celebration in private?”

Emily pulled back and gave him the sexiest
look he had ever seen. He was fully aroused and needed to get
inside her immediately. She nodded her head.

“Thanks for everything. We’ll see you
tomorrow.” Zor lifted her up into his arms and carried her out of
the bar.

“Zor!”

“What? I thought you were ready to
leave.”

She laid her head on his shoulder. “I
am.”

They had just reached the floor where Zor’s
room was located when the overhead went off.

“Captain Zor, you are needed on the command
deck.”

Zor sighed as he lowered Emily to the floor.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He kissed her quickly and walked
away.

Emily hoped it wouldn’t take long. She wanted
to make love with Zor for the first time as a newly engaged couple.
She smiled thinking of what a bright future they would have.
Maybe…maybe even children.

Zor was eager to get back to his soon to be
wife, just as eager as his body was. He longed to take her in every
part of his room, making her scream his name over and over. It was
out of the question now as an enemy ship was approaching fast. Just
his luck that it had to be now. He wondered why someone would
attack his ship, considering they had not done much pirating since
they picked up the humans. He had no enemies, no people that would
pursue him.

“What the hell do these guys want?!” Zor
yelled, furious that he had been forced away from his special night
he had planned for him and Emily.

Curly’s voice rang out over the intercom.
“All hands in the control room ready to fight.” He turned to Zor.
“No clue, Cap, but we will be ready for a fight.”

“Put the defense shields up, Curly, we can’t
take too much damage,” Zor stated, irritated by the timing of it
and that it was even happening.

Curly punched in the code, and scanned his
thumb. A simple beep sounded letting them know the defense shields
were up and working properly. Just then five people came into the
room, two Aquadratic males, two quadrupeds, and one squid. They
took the last five seats in the control room and each punched in
the same code Curly did and scanned their thumb, except the squid
scanned his tentacle.

“Waiting on your orders, Captain.” one of the
quadrupeds said, his voice rang with the seriousness of the
possible attack.

“Hold your fire, standby until we are sure
there is a threat,” Zor returned, his voice rang with determination
and anger as he punched in his code and scanned his thumb.

Just then a face came over the screen. It was
an older human male, bald with a gray beard. He looked to be about
sixty years or more. “I’m Captain Lee. Return the female hostage to
me now,” he said in a coarse, demanding voice.

“We have plenty of females on board but none
are hostages,” Zor returned, confused.

“The human female, Emily,” the man
answered.

“Emily is here by her own free will. I can
assure you that,” Zor returned, wondering what the male wanted with
her, but he wasn’t about to give her up for any reason.

“We have been told by a human male that she
was taken hostage, his name is Jeremy. You sold him into slavery,”
the older man told him, in an unforgiving and not understanding
tone of voice.

“The human male you speak of lost the woman
in a bet, quite a grand gamble it was, the female belongs to Zor
now. He was sold into slavery because he attacked her and owed an
outstanding debt. He was a nuisance to all the people aboard this
ship,” Curly stated, seeing the rage flowing through Zor
already.

“You lying alien scumbag!” Jeremy yelled as
he came into view of the monitor. “You cheated during that
game.”

“I am not letting you take Emily so you can
hurt her more you piece of shit!” Zor screamed as he stood from his
chair.

“You have an hour to give us an answer. Think
long and hard about it, alien, because after that we will open
fire,” the Captain said and then the screen went blank.

“Goddammit, I am not giving up Emily!” Zor
yelled as he slammed his fists down on the control panel.

*****

Emily heard all the commotion and knew Zor
wasn’t coming back anytime soon, she took off her dress and changed
into some regular spandex shorts and a tank top. She heard some
yelling going on in the command room, so she went to see what was
going on. She heard Jeremy’s lies then another man’s voice that she
had never heard before, then just as the doors slid open for her,
she heard Zor yell.

She looked at him shocked and confused. “You
would put everyone else at risk on this ship over me?” she
questioned rubbing her stomach. It felt like it was turning in so
many ways she didn’t know if she was going to be sick or if she was
happy over it.

“How much did you hear?” Zor asked,
swallowing a lump that formed in his throat, knowing she wouldn’t
let him go into a battle over her.

“More than enough, Zor, just hand me over,”
she stated regrettably.