Alien General's Bride: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (12 page)

Isolde had to face the fact that the general was hers. As he’d promised, as it was customary for Brions. The magnitude of it took her breath away.

Noticing her falling silent, Diego stopped and replaced his frantic touches with a much gentler kiss. Isolde clung to him, uncertain if it was to keep him close or to get the last kiss before telling him all of this was not for her.

He stood and watched her sit up while she was searching for the words she should have said a long while ago.

“Humans are an irrational species,” the general said without any judgement or anger.

Yes
, Isolde thought.
I’m afraid so. We don’t think of the survival of the species as the objective of relationships. We love.

“I know you feel it,” he went on, making Isolde’s head snap up in surprise. He looked completely calm and certain in his right as he had from the beginning. “
Geshas
do not have the recognition, but I can see you feel the bind. Yet you choose to fight it because you think it is not proper in your culture. I can understand that. I will wait. But I do not know why you would lie to yourself.”

Then he left, leaving Isolde alone to cope with his words and the truth in them.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Isolde

Isolde had never felt so adrift.

When she was younger, everyone else seemed to have a goal in mind or an object of interest they wanted to pursue. Isolde, in contrast, had been gifted at several things, yet lacked real passion for any of them. In the end, she went with what was popular in those days – alien culture research. The skies were opening up to Terra, and the fields dedicated to knowing their great galactic home better were doing amazingly.

It was a sure bet – grants and scholarships and a position on the staff of any even slightly space-related organization were pretty much assured, there were endless fields to major in, because it was impossible to grasp even a small part of the galactic whole. Isolde did well and there was even talk of her getting a job at the GU as a part of the human representatives. Yay for her.

Not once had there been a spark for it in her. Others dreamily gazed at space, or lost themselves in the miraculous and borderline unbelievable variety of other cultures the human race had encountered. The Brions, for example, were of great interest to them because they were humanoid like the Palians, the first allies of humans. Bigger, stronger, more developed – but close enough to feel a sort of kinship, if it weren’t for the quick and saddening discovery of the Brions’ nature.

normous research involving the scientists of all three species went into trying to find a single ancestor – the similarities were great enough to rule out any random coincidence. No wonder Isolde wasn’t very religious, the big churches had taken a heavy hit, though they still remained influential and now preached that God had simply created the other races as well.

In the end, nothing on Terra interested Isolde very much. She had long expressed her desire to go somewhere else, but the farthest she had dared to imagine was
Luna Secunda
. There, she had thought, it would be something new every day.

When the offer came to go to Rhea, Isolde had been very conflicted. A part of her rejoiced at the prospect of something new not only for her, but the whole galaxy, and another part of her wondered if she shouldn’t start with smaller steps – perhaps a position at the orbital station,
then
missions to other planets. Curiosity had won out.

Now Isolde sat on her bed and realistically entertained the notion that she was meant to take the mission to Rhea, meant to miss her transport, and therefore meant to meet her
gerion
. It was so unsettling she could hardly consider the implications.

She felt
something
, that was for sure, but so far it looked like desire to her. If the general was one to listen to reason – which he was not, preferring, like all Brion generals, to mainly listen to himself – Isolde would have explained to him that no woman could be expected to be cold to those otherworldly eyes of his. And the body, oh yes, that body, and the way his voice played chords in Isolde’s mind she didn’t know could be strung, and the way he could silence a room with his mere presence. All in all, she could hardly be blamed for how she felt.

To assume it was something more, though… That was different.

Isolde desperately longed for a companion to talk to. Any human would do, they would at least understand where she was coming from. The Brions hardly sufficed, and Isolde was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable with how much information there apparently was about humans, ready to be accessed at any point. She didn’t exactly fancy getting served English breakfast for the morning, accompanied with “I have read humans eat that thing after they wake up”, although it would have been amusing.

Speaking of being adrift, where was she, anyway? All right, she was on the
Triumphant
, but where was the ship? Were they on their way to Rhea, or had Diego changed their direction? Had they even been going to Rhea? The only thing Isolde knew was that they were not in the Solar System any more. The rest of space looked like a bunch of stars to her, surprise-surprise.

She needed some answers. She hadn’t completely rid herself of the animosity the Brion woman had in no way deserved, but Deliya could at least give her some of the information she desperately wanted.

Like whether they fucked
, her subconscious provided cheerfully.
Like where the heck we are
, Isolde shot back at herself.

Deliya joined her in her room, looking as alert as any of the times Isolde had seen her.

“Do you even sleep?” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

“I did, while you were still sleeping,” Deliya said, seemingly amused by her question. “Narath and his men guarded you then. The Commander ordered that while you are awake, I should be on guard.”

“Why?”

“He does not think it is appropriate for another man to be in the room with his
gesha
, should you require something.”

Oh, so he thinks
that
is inappropriate, but suggesting I bind myself for life to a guy I met yesterday is fine. He’s a true prince, isn’t he?

“Can I ask you where we are?” she said out loud instead. “I mean… Where are we going?”

“We are going to Briolina.”

Yup. Great. So my knight in shining armor has kidnapped me and is taking me back to his lair. Can’t say this isn’t a custom unknown to Terrans, but I’m not the damsel in distress type. I would get so bored locked up in a tower like a princess. And who would save me from there if it’s my prince that locked me up in the first place?

Some of it must have reflected on her face, because Deliya hastened to add, “The Commander has a plan, do not worry. He will let no one hurt you.”

“I’m not afraid that he’ll hurt me,” Isolde said. “I was afraid he was going to take me so far away from home and
where I was supposed to go that I can’t even comprehend the distance. You just confirmed that.”

The look on Deliya’s face nearly made Isolde take her words back, but it was true, after all.

“He wants to protect you,” Deliya attempted to explain. “You would not be safe on Rhea, not while…”

“I believe you,” Isolde said seriously. “He does what’s right for him. It just doesn’t work out all that well for me, does it?”

“The Commander is a great man,” the Brion woman argued, “any woman would be glad to be his
gesha
.”

A woman like you?
Jealousy and frustration rose to surface in Isolde, having found an easier target than the general, who somehow made her forget these arguments when she wanted to throw them in
his
face.

“I am not a Brion,” she snapped. “I don’t want to be his.”

Despite all evidence to the contrary.

“I didn’t ask to be dropped into this mess, or to be someone’s fated!” her voice rose. “I just wanted to go to Rhea and do my work. Now I’m on a way to your home,
your
home, because he thinks it’s his right to take me anywhere he goes! And you wonder why the GU is constantly on your case, when you just ignore what anyone else thinks and do what you want!”

It felt good to get it all out, but halfway through the tirade she felt it was not directed at the right person. Deliya hadn’t said a word, but the kind smile she had greeted Isolde with was gone. Isolde gritted her teeth and shut up.

For a while, they were both silent.

Then, Isolde said, “I’m sorry,” just as Deliya said, “I understand why you are upset.”

Isolde sighed and took a deep breath. With all the irony in the universe, this was actually one of the situations she was trained for. After all, she was a cultural researcher and an ethnographer. Of all the people,
she
was supposed to understand that different species sometimes saw the world in opposing ways and that everyone was ultimately the victim of their upbringing.

On Rhea, it would have been her job to settle arguments like this, but somehow it felt so much harder when it concerned her and the simple problem that she was not, in fact, on Rhea or on her way there. For a moment, she wondered how long it would take for the Palians – or the human ambassadors – to start asking questions about her in the GU.

“I just want to go where I was supposed to,” she said.

She might have imagined it, but Deliya looked sympathetic when she nodded. “If it makes you feel better, the Commander did not think it would play out like this. You are in the middle of a bigger conflict,”
– Finally, someone understands, at least a little –
“and will hopefully understand soon.”

Isolde didn’t see point in further arguing, so she thanked the warrior and sent her away. When alone, she went through the things she’d taken with her from Terra. Mentioning the Palians had triggered something in her mind. Agent Perkins had been very distressed about her mission, and even the Brions acknowledged that it had been important. It didn’t excuse the general in any way, but perhaps he wasn’t keeping her from Rhea simply for his own selfish need.

There was definitely something going on with that planet. Her understanding of it as simply a newly discovered world had been blown on
Luna Secunda
, but with each passing hour it seemed to be a bigger deal.

She had been sent files and materials about Rhea, but with her abrupt leave-taking, she hadn’t had time to finish them all. The general outline, yes, but she’d focused more on her team and getting to know them – the image of a ship blown to pieces came again, making her stop for a moment and gather herself – and so she had left the detailed materials for in transit reading.

Isolde didn’t understand. Rhea was rumored to be a paradise world, as much as the Brions presently guarding it had implied. Rich with minerals and metals, it was presumably even a possible harvest world for the nearby systems.  But was that enough to cause such trouble? It seemed unlikely.

She wished she had taken the time to read sooner, but oh well. She had all the time in the world now.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Diego

Despite their very individualistic character and knowledge of self-worth, the Brions were fiercely protective of their species, first and foremost. That was inherent to them all. They did, however, sometimes disagree on what that entailed.

The will of all Brions was traditionally dictated by the Elders, but they didn’t speak to their people often. Every once in a while, they gave new directions to the senators and left them to govern in their absence, emerging when they were needed.

Technically, disobeying a senator was disobeying the Elders, which was a serious crime. Diego didn’t feel like a traitor, nor did he think for a moment that he had somehow defied the Elders. He just needed proof that he hadn’t, or every Brion ship would target him – or what was left of him after the twin generals were done.

The hologram flickered before him again, bearing the image of another senator, this one on Briolina. She was an old acquaintance of his, though this wasn’t a happy reunion.

“Senator Eleya,” Diego said, saluting. It never hurt to be respectful, particularly to people as of yet unclear on the whole ally/enemy scale.

“Grothan,” she said tersely. Her long hair did not entirely cover the blinking lights on her long, lean neck. Eleya was a rarity of sorts, a warrior become senator. The generals loved her unanimously, since her election had been a not very veiled threat to the senators not to try asserting some sort of control over the Elders.

The generals rarely stayed on Briolina longer than absolutely necessary, spending most of their lives in duty on the move. Eleya hated all of them, because her appointment had been a punishment on their part, making her play guardian to a bunch of politicians. Diego wasn’t entirely sure what she had done to deserve that.