Page 28 of Ravenous Alien Mate

“I heard she came from a shipment of mail order brides from Earth. She was supposed to smuggle in a mini-blaster, mate with one of you, and try to get close to the king.”

“A blaster shot won’t do much harm to a Marttiaxoxalian,” Jav said. “Our skin is impervious to your inferior human weaponry. A mini-blaster would not even stun the king for a moment.”

“This one’s been modified with Xieandan technology,” Steven said, a triumphant gleam in his eye. “Apparently it was smuggled in from sector 4384. It was fixed with a cloaking device so it wouldn’t be detected by the Martian guards aboard the spaceship that brought the mail order bride to your planet.”

Fluxx.

“Do you know anything else about this female?” Jav demanded, a chill descending upon him. He suddenly had a very bad feeling. Something awful was about to happen, though he could not specify what it was.

“I heard she was from the same zone as me. Zone 12.”

Chapter 23

Jav watched as Orrsa, a member of his Vash’arr unit, displayed an image of each human female who’d recently arrived from Zone 12 on a set of screens. Jav, along with Orrsa, Rem, and the king, had gathered in a situation room near the dungeons while the other members of the Vash’arr finished interrogating the six human prisoners.

His blood ran cold when he spotted Leah among the females on the screens. He’d known he would see her. She’d been born and raised in Zone 12. The back of his neck prickled, but he cleared his throat and forced himself to focus on the task before him.

“Highlight any females who have criminal records of any kind,” he said.

Disbelief spread through him when Leah’s picture remained on the screens. Fluxx. Was it true? What crimes had she committed? He fought back a growl at the sudden silence that filled the room. The others had noticed Leah’s image on the screens, but they were too polite to mention it.

Perhaps she’d only been arrested for stealing to survive. He thought about her story of the way the women had treated her aboard the spaceship that brought her to Mars. She’d said the other women had likely thought her a pickpocket from the streets. But if this was the case, why hadn’t she told him about her past?

The sharp pang of betrayal echoed in his bones. How could she keep such a secret from him? He had asked her numerous questions about her time on Earth and until now, he’d believed her to be truthful.

“Highlight any females with any known ties to suspected members of the resistance.”

Again, Leah’s picture remained on the screens. In fact, only five females remained. He recognized one of them as Miranda, the human woman Leah had spilled water on in the banquet hall.

Dark suspicions gripped him, and he once more had to force himself to focus. He had a duty to perform, and while the queen was currently safe and under guard in her quarters, and the king was well-protected at the moment as well, it was still vital that they discover the identity of the human female agent who meant to harm King Vaath.

The information system Orrsa had pulled up included all known intelligence on Earth citizens collected by Marttiaxoxalian enforcers since Earth’s surrender. Records from all zones were included.

Jav recalled the excuse Martian Affairs had given him when he’d requested a copy of Leah’s mail order bride application, wondering what he might’ve found had the application been readily available. Had the clerk truly been having technical difficulties, or was something much more sinister going on?

“Let’s examine their individual records, one by one,” Jav said, and to his relief, Orrsa didn’t start with Leah’s records. He wanted to believe she had nothing to do with the current threat against the Marttiaxoxalian Empire, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d been keeping secrets from him. How serious were the crimes she’d committed? Had she spent time in prison?

Just as they began looking at Miranda’s records, Rem’s wrist comm beeped. He looked down at it and growled. “It’s a message from Pettak. He says his mate just confessed to him that she knows of a threat against King Vaath. She has named a human female she claims is an agent sent to assassinate both the king and the queen.” Rem looked at Jav and hesitated, his eyes brimming with apology.

“Say it,” Jav growled. “Tell us the name of the agent.”

“Leah Hartman.”

Chapter 24

Leah looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at the sound of approaching footsteps. Though the hour was late, Jav was home earlier than she’d expected, as he’d recently departed Mars for a mission with the Vash’arr that would take him to Earth. She hadn’t expected him home for another day or two and hoped his early return meant the mission had gone well. Warmth spread through her at the prospect of spending the remainder of the night in his company. She set the book aside, rose to her feet, and faced the entryway.

A gasp left her when Jav appeared, his face like a thundercloud. Her stomach flipped and she took a few steps back. “Jav? What’s wrong?”

Seconds later, four uniformed palace guards appeared behind him. She spotted Rem among them and gazed at him in confusion before returning her eyes to Jav. What was happening? None of these males appeared happy. All of them were staring at her as if she’d just committed a terrible crime.

Oh God. Oh God, no.Heknows.

He’d learned of her past crimes on Earth. He’d learned about her incarceration and he knew about her lies. She was certain of it. She could think of no other reasonable explanation for the sudden appearance of her furious looking mate and a small unit of palace guards.

Were they here to take her away? Here to drag her onto a spaceship and send her back to Earth? Send her away from Jav? Her heart broke, knowing she had misled him, knowing she had lied to his face. Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked rapidly, trying desperately to keep her wits about her.

Jav called out an order in his native tongue, speaking to the guards who’d accompanied him. Rem answered him, sounding tense and angry, and Jav spun around and bellowed another order and gestured toward the door. Rem spoke quietly to the other guards, nodded at Jav, and then the four guards departed. Leah had a feeling they were probably waiting outside in the corridor. Apparently Jav wished to speak with her alone before he sent her away.

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