Page 95 of Kissed By the Alien
“Arrest him!” she shouts at the guard behind me. “He has my daughter’s necklace! He kidnapped her!”
The cold tip of a gun settles at the base of my neck...
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN
LUTAN
“You have Alex’s necklace!” The ambassador’s wife accuses, pulling the half-heart out from beneath my shirt.
“This is mine, given to me by my sholani.”
Her eyes widen as they find mine. “Oh my god… You’re the one. You’re the young man from Earth, the one our daughter’s desperate to get back to. You’re the reason she ran off.”
“Daughter? You said you are looking for a youngling named Alex. That is a male’s name on your world, is it not?”
“Oh, my! I’ve made a mess of this! Alex is short for Alexandra, the female version of Alexander, my husband’s name.”
“My sholani’s name is Lexi.”
“Lexi is a nickname she uses with her friends. She asked me to call her Alex when I married her father, when she was twelve. Zander!” she calls out. “I need you down here. Now!”
“I’m coming, Melissa. I was in the shower,” a familiar voice replies. The door opens wider and I see him. Lexi’s father.
“You,” he says, as if it’s an accusation. “I thought you were on Earth.”
My anger threatens to boil over as I realize he’s been hiding here on my planet while I was searching Earth.
And the youngling I was called to track, is not a male child but a grown woman. My sholani!
“Tell your guard to lower his weapon before I kill him,” I say with barely contained anger.
“Dismissed, corporal. I’ll be fine with the warrior.”
The soldier salutes and leaves.
“You took my sholani from me and hid her on Zyan. An interesting tactic, but if you thought I would give up looking for her, Barrington, you are a fool.”
Lexi’s father runs his hand through his hair, no longer the confident, fearless male I knew on Earth. “There’s a lot you don’t know, Warrior. A lot I couldn’t tell you. Or Lexi. I planned to let her contact you in time. When it was safe.”
I slam Barrington against the wall of his home, pinning him with my forearm. “If she’s hurt, I will?—”
“She’s fine. At least she was when she slipped her detail last night. The ZDC told me they’d send a tracker. I had no idea it would be you.”
“I’m their best tracker.”
“Then use your skills and find my daughter before the cendagi do.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
LUTAN
Cendagi. My stomach turns and I nearly vomit when I hear they may be hunting Lexi. They are the most sadistic of predators, more dangerous than the Coalition in many ways. Cendagi have no ethical or moral boundaries when it comes to their experiments.
“Why Lexi?” I demand. “Explain why the Cendagi would hunt her?”
“What is he talking about, Zander?”
“Go inside, Melissa. I’ll explain later, after I give the warrior the information he needs to find Lexi.”
