Page 23 of Alien Knight Teddy Bear Troubles

And she was his. She’d sealed her fate when she’d wrapped her legs around his hips and whispered his name, when she’d tugged his hair and arched her body against him. When she’d cried silent tears and allowed him to offer comfort.

She was his. He was keeping her. Damn the consequences. Fuck the Vilitos and the Dark Ones and the king of Caldor if he didn’t approve. Taeger had kept his people alive for nearly two thousand years. He’d protected the royal bloodline of the Fourth House of Lumeria and kept Ion alive. He didn’t ask permission. Not from kings or other Knights. Falden Corshival was an elder, like Taeger, but he was of no concern other than the royals he had protected.

Two royal families lived. More Knights were in hiding than Taeger had imagined possible. Falden had put out the call and they were coming to Earth, gathering in one place for the first time since their home planet of Lumeria had been destroyed.

It was dangerous. And exciting. And made Taeger’s heart hurt with hope.

The same way Cassie did. She made him ache andwant.He did notwant, he served. He protected. He did his duty and protected those around him. He did not need anything for himself, not for centuries.

Until her.

Fuck. He was in trouble and there was no going back.

“Taeger?” Cassie was staring at him and he had no idea how long he’d been watching her, admiring her, thinking about burying his cock in her soft body and making her shudder and gasp and cling to him like her life depended on taking his hard length deeper.

Blinking to clear his head, he shifted his cock in his pants and turned to Marcano and Ion. “We will take BooBoo Bear with us.” Taeger walked to Cassie, took the bear from her and gently turned her around so he could secure the bear to the pack on her back. “Ion insists, my Lady.”

“Okay.” Their eyes met and they shared a smile that spoke of intimacy and understanding and secrets shared. She was falling in love with the boy, just as he and his Knights had when they woke him from cryo sleep the previous year. He hoped she was also falling in love with him.

Marcano took the boy and disappeared inside the network of caves they had turned into a home base for the Lumerian Knights decades ago when they’d first arrived. Now, they would abandon it and answer Falden’s call, go to Earth and join what remained of their people.

He hoped there were thousands. And he hadn’t hoped for anything in so long he’d nearly forgotten how.

A team of Knights streamed out of the cave wearing full Lumerian armor flickering in and out of sight before disappearing completely, invisible to anyone not wearing the same. Their black tactical slings were heavily loaded with tools and weapons they’d collected over the centuries. Knives, daggers, and laser pistols strapped to their arms and legs for easy access. Zyphrion blasters that could rip through anything, including their ancient armor. Explosives. Black wire rope which could be used to cut through steel like butter or scale the steepest walls.

Each item was genetically coded to work only for its owner and many were disguised as small geometric objects no larger than a human thumb, the metamaterials instantly transforming into the proper shape and size if pulled from the sling. Black on black, they blended perfectly into the straps over their chests, and to the untrained eye could easily be mistaken, and therefore overlooked as decorative nonsense should they be captured.

Each Knight, like Taeger, had a single, small vial of maju water tucked away in case of serious injury, and an ancient, rune covered sword strapped to his back. Each sword was unique in color, the blades semi-liquid and swirling like smoke around ancient engravings, runes predating even the Lumerians. They were truly ancient weapons. Legend even to the Lumerians, their true origin unknown. Embedded in each sword was a Lumerian crystal. Once powerful beyond imagining, the energy within the crystals had long since faded away, sparking only occasionally, their full potential lost. Now they were used only for the sharpness of their blades.

However, according to the Lumerians he’d recently discovered on Earth, those days were over. A human woman transformed by maju paste could restore power to Lumerian crystals. Taeger had met her only briefly on his last visit to Earth. She had activated Falden’s sword Furon, or Storm Caller. Furon was famous, even among Lumerians, as the oldest of swords. Falden had confirmed the return of Storm Caller’s full power, and confirmed that King Dagan’s new human mate, Queen Sasha, was the cause.

So he planned to take his Knights to Earth and present them to the new queen of Caldor, the human woman now bound to King Dagan. That plan had been interrupted, first by Ion’s capture, and now by another human woman. Cassie.

Taeger turned to Cassie as his Knights lined up ready to go. “Lead the way.”

With a nod and a look of determination he knew all too well, she turned away from him, checked the map comm on her wrist--a gift he’d given her before they landed--and took off for an area full of rocks, ravines and places perfect for an ambush.

He was placing his life in her hands. And not just his own, but the lives of the Knights with him.

He hoped with every cell in his body he wasn’t making a terrible mistake.

* * *

The sky was dark.The village she’d been visiting when she’d stumbled across Marcano and Ion still burned, dark spirals of smoke rising on the horizon where she knew the village to be. The air smelled of smoke and blood and death.

Well, smoke at least. Her imagination was adding the blood and death with a glee that had her hands shaking as she shoved the branch of an alien tree out of her way.

What was she doing?

She was leading a full contingent of Caldorians--the lying, scheming aliens who were doing a shit job of protecting Earth--straight to her ship, to Charlie, assuming he had survived, and Smith, who would die before he allowed any of these alien warriors to take their cargo.

As she would.

If Taeger or any of his men decided to cause trouble, she was as good as dead. And she knew it. She would fight to the death to complete her mission. That was her oath. That was her duty. Her responsibility to the people of Earth. She would not fail.

She hoped it wouldn’t come to that because if she had to stare down Taeger over the business end of a rifle, she wasn’t sure she could pull the trigger.

Screw that. She knew she wouldn’t be able to kill him. The Knights behind him? The nameless faces she’d just met? Yeah. She could do her duty and take them out. They weren’t hers.

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