Alien General's Bride: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (18 page)

Sell the fated bond. Sell our uncontrollable lust and – well – love for each other. Keep Diego’s image. Keep ourselves alive.

Isolde nodded, steeling herself and taking his arm. It felt strong and sure under her grip, firm as he led her through the door.
It feels so good. It feels like this is how it’s supposed to be. Only it can never be.

Then she put on her best smile and became the blushing alien bride.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY

Isolde

The smile froze on Isolde’s lips when they made it through the corridors and arrived in a more traditional council room – at least for her – and the doors slid shut behind them. A semi-circle of low couches surrounded a central, sunken platform. It was like walking into a small empty pool.

Diego squeezed her hand reassuringly, but Isolde took it as a sign to pay attention and look happy. Easier said than done. The walk from her room had been painful. It would have been fine if she’d truly loved him and he her. Wonderful, even. It would even have been fine if she’d hated him and he her. Isolde could have put on a brave face then and focused solely on her survival with no conflicting emotions.

Instead, it had been like walking in a dream from which you didn’t want to but had to wake up. Diego’s arm around her had felt amazing, his body strong and comforting against hers, making her feel safe and cared for in a way she couldn’t entirely explain. The other Brions had been hiding their smiles when they walked past, so Isolde guessed they were selling it, after all.

When she dared sneak a glance at him, she found the general looking at her, barely noticing his adoring warriors, the now-agonizing smirk on his lips. Him showing that kind of affection in public was a sure sign of a man who had just found his one true mate. Her heart had pounded as his smirk forced a coy smile to her own lips, unbidden but all the more real.

Like a curtain falling, when they’d passed through an empty corridor, all the warmth had left Diego, his supportive hold of her suddenly stiff and forced. Isolde’d shivered in his arms. The look he’d given her had been disapproving.

“You do not have to worry,” he’d said. “I swore not to hurt you.”

I know. But you do.

For the sake of all their allies, the people who were supposed to side with them, she made herself smile. It was so tempting to give in to the feelings she truly
did
have, the cursed desire coursing through her veins and making her seek any contact with Diego, however small. Only the looks he gave her when they were alone had proved too painful to bear for her to give in to that. Before, Diego Grothan’s endearments had been reserved for her and her alone; now, it was the reverse.

Her general held out his hand to help her down the steps, an aid she didn’t need, but the show had to go on, and she couldn’t stop herself from taking that smallest of touches if nothing else. Diego’s hand lingered, holding on to hers for a second more than was absolutely necessary. She didn’t have to fake her shiver at that. No doubt all the Brions in the room with their sharpened senses noticed.

Sell it.

Isolde let her fingers brush against the back of his hand, seeing Deliya fight down a pleased grin out of the corner of her eye and bringing a smile to the lips of a Brion woman sitting on one of the couches. She could feel the shiver run through the general, and it tore her heart apart to see him give her another smirk. Then he put his general face back on.

“May I introduce you to my
gesha
, Isolde,” he said, turning to the others.

In Brionese, her name sounded like his. Deliya had explained to her it didn’t mean he owned her –
gerions
were in no way the more important parts of the bind – but simply that they were one. Isolde hoped to the gods she didn’t give anything away with her fake smile.

“Isolde,” the general said then, and his voice was unmistakably filled with love. Isolde’s eyes went wide. Her name sounded like a song on his lips, a prayer, a hymn. She smiled.

I can do that. I’m not a Brion general, smiling is okay for me.

“These are our allies,” Diego said. Isolde bowed her head as she’d been instructed. “You know my brother general Faren already, and this is Atren, the new general and commander of the
Fearless
.”

The Brion warlords wore the same armor as Diego, only the golden etching twisted and turned in different patterns, surely telling the story of some victory of theirs. Both stood with their arms crossed, refusing to sit as was the Brion custom.

When Faren met her eyes just briefly, his cold gaze seemed to strip her naked to her soul in an instant. His head inclined just slightly, then he turned back to Diego.

He knows. How does he always know?

Atren acknowledged her with a clear nod. From what Deliya had told her, Atren was the “follower general”. Elected to his position by his warriors, he displayed the battle prowess befitting a Brion general, but lacked Gawen’s unpredictable temper. Considering the fact Gawen had been an extraordinary fighter, Atren must never have dreamed of actually being a general himself, despite being Gawen’s second-in-command for a long time. Diego had removed the obstacle for him.

“He is young,” Deliya had told her, when Isolde asked for her impression of the new commander. “He’s tried to become like Diego and Faren his whole life. He will tumble over his own feet trying to prove himself to them.”

On Terra, Atren would have been a huge guy and handsome enough to make Isolde drool, but among the Brions, he was shorter than both the other generals and didn’t catch her eye for a moment when matched against Diego.

Her general didn’t bother introducing her to Deliya and Narath, still her guards, standing away from her at that moment to show they stood equal. Deliya still kept close to Isolde, but Narath stood by the couch of the only person sitting down, the only non-warrior in the room besides Isolde.

“This is Urenya,” Diego said simply.

Deliya had prepared Isolde for her as well. The general’s lifelong friend, the one who knew him better than anyone. A mere healer, no one questioned her presence. She was Narath’s
gesha
. She looked up at the huge warrior standing beside her – her petite build made even smaller by the fact she was sitting down, she must have looked like a doll in his hands in Isolde’s opinion. The look she gave her
gerion
was so gentle it wiped the smile off Isolde’s lips for a long moment before she remembered herself.

“And this is Aneya,” the general’s voice dragged her away from the jealousy she didn’t want to admit, much less feel. She wasn’t the type to hate seeing happy couples when she was miserable.

The Brions were great at one-upping, it seemed to Isolde. She’d thought Deliya was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen, but even she paled next to the beauty appearing in one of the two holographic images. “Like his sister,” her guard had said and then shut up, hesitating before venturing on, “She will hate you. Hates you already. On Briolina, everyone thought she was going to be Diego’s
gesha
, but it didn’t happen.

“She adores him, but hates every other woman he’s even slightly close to – except Urenya, because she has her mate. Her family is powerful, half of them are on good terms with the senators or keep that office themselves. She’ll help.” Looking at the beauty, Isolde knew Deliya to be right – any Brion woman would have been glad for Diego, but
this
woman felt denied.

“Last but not least, this is our ally on the inside,” Diego said. Another Brion woman looked at Isolde, this one a warrior, clear from her valor squares, only in a senator’s robes.

Eleya. If Deliya is to be trusted, you will shoot us to pieces the minute we enter Briolina’s orbit.

A smile curled on the senator’s lips.

Oh shit. Not her too.

But it was obvious she wasn’t fooling this one either. When Diego motioned for Isolde to sit, she was thankful for the support it offered. Had she just given their lie away to a very potential enemy?

“Now, this is how we’ll win,” said Diego, and Isolde tried to focus her mind on her very first Brion war council.

When he was done, all eyes were on her.

They’re serious. They’re really serious. Only one woman can save them all – and that’s me.

Alright, Isolde thought, maybe she was being a bit over-dramatic, but not by a lot.

Long story short, they wanted her to save them. Nobody was volunteering to phrase it like that, but the message was pretty clear. They wanted her to save the people who had killed her research team and would have killed her as well, if not for some mitigating circumstances.

Ok, that wasn’t entirely fair.

They were not asking her to look the killers in the eye and forgive them. Instead, they were asking her to do the job she had been tasked with, and to somehow intertwine that with lying to the whole galaxy and save the Brions’ collective asses from rightful justice. Save the galaxy from civil war. It was already unavoidable that the Brions would have a civil war themselves, but Isolde suddenly found herself in a unique position to keep the bloodshed contained to
just one species
.

She had to go to Rhea and do what the Elders had – hopefully – intended. Share the rich planet with the rest of the galaxy, but hide the fact they’d used it for a while. As a researcher, she could make sure that the research team wouldn’t dig too deep, and that little, no, huge fucking lie never came out. Their report was all the majority of the galaxy were ever going to see or hear of Rhea, after all.

It made her dizzy. She hid not answering at once behind a look of fear, which wasn’t exactly a lie. Wherever she looked, the future held just bad and worse.

What wasn’t fair was that Diego had certainly known what they’d ask of her and had not warned her beforehand. Now she couldn’t say no.

He seems not to like that word from my mouth
, she thought bitterly.

Not that she would. Isolde prided herself on few things, her professional skills being one of them and not wanting to be responsible for a war was another. She wasn’t the if-I-go-down-I’ll-take-you-all-with-me type.

“Will you do it?” Urenya asked when she’d been silent for too long.

Go to Rhea. Do her job. Cover up the great Brion lie.
Or try, at least
. All of that on top of the other lie.

She didn’t want to, by gods how she didn’t want to. The alternative, however, was to refuse. That would not only get her killed in all likelihood, as only being Diego’s
gesha
had
kept her safe so far, it would get a lot of innocent people killed as well. Everything Diego was saying, in a slow and careful way as to make sure she understood it all, was correct. The Galactic Union would go to war for Rhea.

The peace they’d held since before Isolde was born would be history. Old feuds would awaken, the GU’s policy of peace would take a heavy hit, and whoever won in the end wouldn’t be a winner at all, because everyone would come off worse than they began.

There was no refusing. Not because she was afraid for her life or because they were pretty much threatening her, but Isolde Fenner wasn’t going to bring a galaxy to war if she could help it.

“Yes,” she said, standing. Avoiding Diego, who they assumed would know her mind anyway, she spoke mainly to Faren and Eleya. “I will do what you ask. I will try my best. But someone killed my research team. Someone is responsible for that. I want to see them punished for it.” She searched for words that would make sense to them. “I cannot forgive that crime.”

Faren, as much as she could read his expressions, seemed amused but said nothing. Eleya was smiling, for some reason reminding her of a viper ready to strike.

“We all knew, human,” she said languidly. “I did not personally give the kill order, but I approved it. In fact, I even told Diego to kill
you
. I am still not entirely convinced we should trust you. If it were the will of the Elders, none of us would be here objecting. Neither Faren, Atren or your
gerion
pulled the trigger, but they would have had they been ordered to do so. Would you punish us all?”

Isolde hesitated. She knew she was being provoked. The senator had a point, which was the problem. They all
knew
she had to hate them for what they were a part of.

She realized why Diego hadn’t warned her – this was not a meeting, this was a test. For her. If she could sell it to them, if she could convince these eight people that she was on their side, all of it might still work out.

Better the devil you know
.

“You’re not actively trying to bring the galaxy to war. You’re trying to amend the damage that was done. You’re willing to share Rhea. Maybe you’re not fighting for the same reasons I am, but we have the same enemies. We can all keep our own motives.”
And please let it all be true
.