Page 14 of Chased By the Alien Mercenary
“Wait, you’re Solear’s twin?” My eyes went from the comm—of which I couldn’t see the screen—to my companion’s face. He looked resigned, which was a fairly novel expression on his normally intense face. He had been keeping the small screen, and its camera, angled away from me, and suddenly I knew hehadn’t growled for the reasons I thought he had. This wasn’t about suspicion, about trust, this was about possessiveness. Pure, male territorial behavior. Of course it was.
Rolling my eyes, I ignored Solear’s warning growl and took the comm from his hand. He held on for only a moment before relinquishing it to me, and then I could finally look at the tiny image of his twin brother on the display. Twins. I shouldn’t have been surprised to stare into an identical face, but I was anyway. I didn’t think anyone could look so ghoulish and so handsome at the same time, but now I was looking at Solear’s doppelgänger. Not just twins—identical twins. No wonder they were close—or at least, I assumed they were. It felt that way.
“Yup, that’s me,” the doppelganger said on the screen, and then he smiled, wide, with his mouth open. I was startled to discover that his teeth were much straighter and blunter, much more like mine. Though he had a pair of impressive fangs on either side of his mouth, his teeth were not the razor-sharp rows I’d gotten used to in my feral companion. I looked over my shoulder at him, but Solear was keeping his mouth grimly shut, as if he knew exactly what I’d seen, what I was wondering about.
“I’m Aramon, and honestly, I’m impressed you managed to get his name out of him. He really doesn’t speak much,” the ghoulish face abruptly enlarged into a holographic projection above the comm device, thanks to Solear reaching around me to tap the screen. Now I could see that this Aramon was practically leaning into the camera, peering eagerly at me—possibly wondering who the hell had dared to befriend his twin without him: his non-talkative twin. I was still getting used to the idea that maybe Solear’s species didn’t talk in any way but telepathically, butAramon’s exuberant speech made it clear I was wrong about that. This was something specific to my feral, lonely guy.
“Aramon,” a female voice said with a hint of censure. “You’re not helping. Give me that.” The image swayed and danced, matching the increasing force of the wind that blew through our hiding place behind the rocks. I shivered, and Solear immediately responded, his body shifting closer, pressing against my back. Somehow, while talking on this comm device, we’d already drifted closer, and now I was practically in his lap when a beautiful red-headed human appeared in the holographic projection. A human, an honest-to-God human.
“I’m Evie,” she said with a warm and confident smile. “Aramon’s mate. And you must be Lyra. I’m so glad you and Solear found each other. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened to either of you if you hadn’t.” She had an accent I couldn’t place, but she spoke English clearly and precisely. Her tone was warm but calm, whereas Aramon, before, had been excited and, frankly, a lot. There was something in his eyes and the way he had stared so intensely at me, bouncing through the image like he was unable to sit still.
“Oh,” I heard myself say. “Yes. I’m glad too. Nice to meet you, Evie.” Then I didn’t know what to say. Here was my chance to ask questions, and I faltered. The truth was, while I often did write articles to go with my pictures, just as often the pictures were all my editor needed. First and foremost, I was a photographer, not a journalist. Funny how I abruptly realized I wasn’t much of a talker either, much preferring to hide behind my camera.
Luckily, this Evie seemed to know how to do all the talking and which answers I needed. In a diplomatic fashion, she briefly outlined the mercenary outfit her mate and my guy were part of, and how they’d come down to the planet to retrieve information from a Crimelord named Jalima—a really bad guy, she said several times, as if to make sure I understood that these guys didn’t go around murdering and robbing random rich guys in their summer homes.
I hadn’t been thinking that before, but I sure as hell was now. I glanced suspiciously at Solear’s chin just over my left shoulder. Damn it, why was that strong line so attractive? And why was there a slight tilt to his mouth, as if he werejuston the verge of grinning? I liked that, I liked that a lot. He looked as if he knew exactly what I’d been thinking, and he was amused. Did he want me to think he was a marauder, a pirate? I had already been calling him a feral beast in my head.
“I recognize the look on your face,” Evie said with a grin that was more than just polite warmth. “That’s just how Harper looks when she thinks she’s found a story. I bet the two of you will get along like a house on fire.” The old-timey idiom made me laugh, and now I wanted to know who this Harper was. Evie was a sharp one; she’d figured out my look in a heartbeat and, again, tried to tell me that I was in good hands. At least that part I fully believed, I knew Solear would never hurt me. Not intentionally, at least.
“Solear says you can trust him,” Aramon suddenly interjected, and, leaning from around his human mate, he stuck his face back in front of the camera and winked. “He says he’s gonna keep you safe, no matter what. So that’s sorted.” He waggled his brow playfully, making the ridges above his eyes dance and hisred, glowing eyes seem brighter. He was a weirdo and noisy, the polar opposite of his non-talkative twin. When I glanced over my shoulder at Solear again, he’d hunched even more closely against my back; his heat surrounded me. All I could see was the sharp line of his jaw, the edge where white and dark red met.
Solear was quiet, but the way he pressed against me—surrounded me—it spoke volumes. Protect me. Keep me safe. Yeah, he said all those things without words. I already knew that. So it was no lie at all when I said, “I do trust him,” to Aramon and Evie. “I know he’ll keep me safe. He’s done so from the start.” Even if I hadn’t recognized his feral behavior for what it was, I was certain now that he’d tried to rescue me the moment he’d come into that tunnel and seen me. It had looked terrifying, to see him fight through those Krektar guards, but he’d never once turned any of that violence on me. He never would.
“Okay,” Aramon said. “Good, that’s really good.” He was nudged aside by Evie then, her face filling the holographic image, red hair elegantly draped about her shoulders. There was something very royal about her bearing—maybe the tilt of her chin—but she smiled kindly, so it wasn’t off-putting. Aramon was muttering behind her, even jostling her in the image, but she calmly ignored all that, keeping herself front and center in the frame.
“Listen, Lyra. Aramon says Solear still plans to retrieve the navigational data they came down to the planet to steal. He seems to think it’s his only chance to get revenge for his father’s death at the hands of Jalima. It’s a fool’s errand to infiltrate that place alone right now. They might have already destroyed the data. Just hunker down, or get to the Aderian city, where we can safely retrieve you.” Solear growled as Evie spoke those last words, his hand shooting over my shoulder to snatch the commdevice from my grasp. The sound of Aramon sternly warning his twin to stay safe was the last I heard before the connection broke.
I spun immediately, facing my growly companion and lunging for his hand so I could get the device back. “Stop it! Solear, give that back! Damn it!” I could demand all I wanted, but hanging from his arm wasn’t solving a thing. The man was too tall and too strong for me to manhandle into submission, and he’d decided I wasn’t getting that comm back. We tumbled together behind the rocks, him on his back, me on top of him. He stretched out, holding one arm high above his head, dragging me up with the motion until suddenly my chest was right in his face. We both froze then.
I started laughing, a soft, half-amused, half-angry kind of sound deep in the back of my throat. Then he growled, and the noise vibrated against my boobs, just as he pressed his face up and buried his nose between them. Hot air blew through the open collar of my too-large coat, through the shirt, and the thin nightgown beneath. Instantly, my nipples grew hard as diamonds, the peaks rising against the fabric. “Ah, shit…” I muttered, all laughter gone.
Solear rolled us with a quick, agile move, and the whole world spun around me. I landed on my back in the grass, damp coldness cooling my spine, and pure male heat scorching my front. The contrast was even more of a turn-on when he claimed my mouth with a feral growl that was all claim, all possession. I loved every moment of it. I didn’t care about the cold or a wet coat, didn’t care about anything but the way his tongue tangled with mine, his teeth a sharp thrill of danger.
Comm? Completely forgotten. The dangerous mission—nearly doomed to fail—was shoved to the back of my mind. It was just him and me. When he pulled my coat apart and boldly cupped one of my breasts, I arched beneath him, moaning without shame. My legs splayed wide for him, one knee bending so my heel dug into his thigh, urging him closer.
I think I would have let him fuck me right then and there, that’s how fiercely he stirred the passion between us. But a fat splotch of rain struck my forehead. I blinked, confused, until another hit my face, this time right in the eye. I yelped in surprise, and that made my wordless partner jerk his head up and conduct a frantic search of my body, as if he thought I’d been harmed.
“The rain,” I said, my voice bedroom-husky. I coughed and tried again. “It was just the rain that surprised me. We need to find shelter. It’s so cold up here, I’d freeze if I get soaked. Sorry.” His red eyes swirled at me inside the darkness of his eye sockets, and I couldn’t decipher that long, appraising look. Was he annoyed about my apparent frailty, upset to be stopped from what he was after, tired of distractions?
He scratched the edge of his square chin with one black claw, then abruptly rose to his feet above me. I gasped at the sight of how tall he was, one foot on either side of my hip. Long, black-clad legs led up to muscular thighs, narrow hips, and a tapered waist, before his chest widened like a swimmer’s—all bulging pecs and ridged abs. He was a work of art, the finest specimen of man I’d ever laid eyes on, and even the ghoulish, Day of the Dead markings on his face just made him seem hot now.
Then the rain began pouring down in earnest. One moment, the skies had seemed bright—azure blue—but now, dark clouds ofblack and gray came rolling in. It fell from the sky in great sheets of water, soaking my clothes, my hair, my skin. It sluiced off Solear’s body in rivers and rivulets that followed the sleek lines of his armor-clad form.
Baring his teeth at me, he snarled, then bent down to pick me up like I weighed absolutely nothing. Flinging me into his arms and heedless of hiding or cover from the mansion, he began carrying me into the mountains. Honestly, with the way the rain was pouring down, I doubted anyone could see us. He was making a very admirable attempt at sheltering me from the worst of it with his wide shoulders, but even so, I was already soaked through and through. There had better be another cave like the one we’d abandoned higher up the mountain, or once again I’d face serious hypothermia exposure. Damn it, I really was the silly, frail damsel. I wasn’t used to that.
Chapter 13
Solear
I had forgotten what Llykhe could be like, with its cool mountain climate and unpredictable rains. This torrential downpour caught me by surprise, but worse, it had caught us in an exposed, vulnerable position. Now my mate was wet and cold, and in danger of getting sick. Aramon had warned me that humans had delicate bodies and weak immune systems. Evie had already been sick twice since they’d mated, something he called the flu. I did not want Lyra to get sick.
Carrying her quickly back uphill to a rock outcropping I’d spotted before the rain, I knew nobody could see us through the downpour—unless they were using heat sensors, but that tended not to be worth the expense for most security systems. I hadn’t seen any on this property, and I’d already broken into the outbuildings several times. The cave I’d spotted before the rain began wasn’t far, but it was hard to see now that the rain obscured so much. Just a dark hole beneath the bigger boulders, it would be a tight squeeze, nothing like the comfy little den from last night. Still, it was better than nothing.
I located it by smell rather than sight, the damp coolness of something underground leading the way, even with water soaking the grass and sloshing around my boots with every step. This much water coming down so fast meant there was danger of a rockslide, the ground coming unmoored from the weight of water. We needed to get to shelter or risk getting swept away.
The fit was tighter than I expected, much tighter. I couldn’t carry Lyra and squeeze through the hole with her. She had to crawl through herself, and I didn’t like letting her go first. I liked it even less to leave her exposed on the mountainside, in the rain, alone. She did not complain, but perhaps she couldn’t, with her teeth clacking together in an odd manner. I had not seen any of the humans aboard theVarakartoomdo that before, but perhaps they did so when wet?
I watched her wriggle her butt as she crawled through the hole, heat scorching my cheeks—heat that had nothing to do with the exertion from the muddy climb uphill. Ducking in after her as soon as she slipped through, I nearly got stuck at one shoulder, but it wasn’t anything a bit of brute force couldn’t fix. There was no way I’d let Lyra out of my sight, especially not while she was potentially at risk of falling ill and alone in a dark, unknown cave. I followed her so fast that my armor scraped and scratched against the rock, and then I was practically on top of her as the opening abruptly widened. She’d paused, blind in the dark—her human eyes not adapting to the low light the way mine did.
