Alien General's Bride: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (25 page)

Of course they had allies on Briolina. Diego also knew for a fact Eren wouldn’t be stupid enough to simply kill Isolde without reason. He would have to fight hard not to give that reason to the scheming senator. No, Eren would simply hold on to Isolde until the Elders emerged, otherwise there’d be no place for him left in the galaxy for killing an innocent guest to their planet.

Playing it safe. So Diego had to play it risky. He gritted his teeth.

He turned to Eleya, groaning in frustration. “Protect her,” he ordered. The former general nodded, eyes alight. This one wanted a fight to happen, but Diego hoped the only fight would be his.

As they made their way to the shuttle waiting for Eleya, Diego couldn’t help but feel that Isolde was being ripped out of his grasp. It was true, after all. He could not protect her from a distance, but until he could deal with Eren, they needed the senator to keep the secret.

Deliya and Narath would be there too, but they were still so few. A thought crossed Diego’s mind as Isolde’s hand never left his while they walked. Eren hadn’t caught on to their lie. Eren, with all his nigh-psychic skills, hadn’t caught on. Diego had expected the senator to taunt him with that, but he hadn’t said a word.

Isolde’s hand shook in his, her eyes never leaving him, holding on to him as if she could somehow draw in his presence to take with her to Briolina.

The fight was getting near, he had to prepare. He had to find someone to keep an eye on Isolde as well. Someone he trusted, like Faren or Atren. While he fought Crane, Isolde was as good as helpless. He had expected to let go of Isolde when they came to Rhea, but here it was, his hand was forced. Keep her close now and risk everything she was taking such pains to fight for – not to mention he was fighting too, for all Brions – or risk letting her go now and still having a chance they’d both come through it all alive, and without Isolde hating him.

They stopped before the doors of the shuttle. Neither of them seemed to find the words to say. They rose to Diego’s lips, but somehow none seemed enough, or appropriate, none to encompass all he was truly feeling. Isolde stayed speechless as well, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes as she kissed him desperately one more time before stepping away. Diego only thought of one thing – had Eren not caught on because it was no longer a lie?

“Do not die,” he said at last, his voice hoarse. “You are,”
– Everything –
“my
gesha
, no matter what comes. Even if we are never one, I am always yours. Yours alone.”

Isolde’s hand slipped from his grip. The shuttle doors slid shut.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Isolde

Had Isolde Fenner been presented with a space travel brochure before taking off to the stars, she imagined it would have described Rhea as one of those secluded, untouched by civilization beach paradises. If gods or fate or whatever had taken her for its amusement ever let her
reach
her original travel destination, she might even see if all of it was true.

She was thinking umbrellas in a cocktail glass, wild alien nature around her, a glimmering blue sea, mineral-rich mountains ready to help the galaxy behind her. She was also thinking of Diego wearing practically nothing, but that was a whole other thing altogether.

If Isolde Fenner had been presented with a space travel brochure for Briolina… She imagined it would have used very pretty words like “developing society”, “unique and rich culture”, “don’t walk alone after dark” and so on. All the things people working in travel used so as not to exactly
say
they wouldn’t touch the place themselves if someone paid them, but still make it sound exciting so the tourists would jump on the opportunity of something new and fun.

The shuttle sped through the atmosphere, taking Isolde to her first alien planet. Not the one she was supposed to be on, the one she had bargained for – no umbrellas for her – instead of her team, surrounded by enemies and on her way to more.

It would have been unjust to say she felt panicked, but as the Brion home world grew larger on the screens mounted on the shuttle walls, Isolde felt a trepidation she hadn’t felt since she’d seen her transport ship leave without her.

Unwilling to give in to despair, she focused on the positive. There wasn’t much of it, so it was easy. Narath and Deliya had been permitted to come with her, standing protectively at guard, giving her at least some comfort. The only other person in the room Isolde was less certain about.

Senator Eleya stood proudly by one of the screens, hands crossed behind her back, reminding Isolde of Diego. The thought of her general was almost impossible to bear. Isolde longed to be back in his arms, take back everything stupid she had ever said and simply give him all he wanted. What was death compared to dying inside? She might as well be on her way to be murdered in her sleep and she never, ever got to know what it would have felt like to have Diego truly, utterly to herself. Oh, but at least she could be
proud
she never gave in, right? That would be such a comfort…

Her misery must have been palpable, because the senator turned to her.

“You must be terrified,” she said.

I applaud your pep talk skills.

She nodded, unwilling to let her shaking voice give Eleya any satisfaction. The senator motioned for her to sit and when in leisure, barely looked evil any more. Isolde had to give serious consideration to the idea she might not be a traitor.

“I promised Diego I would keep you safe,” she said, stating it as a fact. “I understand you are scared, but do not consider yourself dead already.”

“A bit hard,” Isolde said, “with a whole planet out to get me.”

Eleya laughed, catching her off guard.

“Do not be ridiculous,” she said, making Isolde frown. “Briolina itself is no threat to you.”

“I thought you… didn’t like outsiders. And the whole Rhea thing. And… I thought you wanted me dead.”

Eleya shot her a look of pure womanly amusement. “Your
gerion
naturally thinks you are the center of the world, but that is hardly so. Briolina is not… well, we are not great at making friends, as the GU situation shows. We are
hilier
– Deliya, you speak her language better?”

The warrior woman thought for a moment and offered, “Hotheaded?”

Despite everything – being in the midst of an intergalactic dispute, having survived a murder attempt, and being away from Diego, which hurt most of all – that made Isolde snort.

“Yes, you are,” she confirmed. She thought better of adding the word hardly did them justice.

“Indeed,” Eleya said. “We are Brions. We keep what is ours. I wanted to keep Rhea too, but I see why we cannot and why we should not. Not at that price, at least. Our most important concern is our people and their survival. If the choice is between Rhea and all Brions, it is no choice at all. We are fierce, human, but we are not vicious. Killers, not murderers. Most of us, that is.”

Isolde considered it for a moment. “You’re a great demagogue, you know that?” she said, smiling, indicating it was a joke.

Eleya allowed it with a sweep of her hand. “I am trying to console you, yes. But it is true, Briolina is beautiful and deadly, but we do not kill everyone we see. You are Diego’s
gesha
. That is how most of Briolina will see you and welcome you. They do not know about Rhea, never have – not even the Elders could keep a whole planet silent. They think Diego comes home to show off his fated to the Elders and to make a show for you by challenging Crane.

“He underestimates his popularity, human. You will be the
gesha
of a famous general on Briolina, come to protect a tradition we hold very dear. Who do you think would try to hurt you?”

Isolde honestly hadn’t thought about that. One answer still remained.

“Eren,” she said. “The other senators. What about them?”

“
Them
,” Eleya said with contempt. “Leave them to me. A bunch of cowardly snakes, afraid to accept true responsibility for their choices… Do not worry. Every day Eren keeps hiding from our generals, he hurts himself. Brions do not look kindly upon weakness and on hiding behind stronger men to fight your fights for you. He is not as popular as he thinks.”

“Are you?” Isolde asked. “You think his position isn’t as strong as he perceives it. Is yours?”

Eleya’s smile was almost dreamy as she replied. “Nothing is ever certain. That is the Brion way. If someone challenges me, then that is how it will be.”

The valor squares going up her slim neck pulsing bright beams of light when she was upset made it difficult to forget that she had been a general – and she did have a temper – but that was one of the moments it was very obvious to Isolde that she was, after all, so very different from the other senators. She hoped Eleya was right.

“Why do you hate Senator Eren so much?” she asked instead.

The dreamy smile was gone in an instant. Isolde thought she might lash out, but the fury wasn’t directed at her.

“You put it well in our meeting: we all keep our reasons.”

When it was clear she wasn’t about to say anything further, Isolde’s wandering mind almost instantly returned to Diego, who seemed to be the beginning and the end to everything these days, the welcome distraction gone. Every free moment she had set her heart thudding faster at the memory of him, turning into a dull constant pain.

The senator, however, kept watching her and finally seemed to come to some conclusion.

“Could you leave us for a moment?” Eleya asked her guards. When they were gone and Isolde was alone with the woman she was still unsure was going to be a great help or stab her in the back, the senator leaned back in her seat and asked bluntly, “Diego would never answer me this, nor forgive me asking in the first place, but you are a human. So tell me, why do you refuse him?”

Isolde glared. The world was going mad, it seemed. Everyone was fighting battles that weren’t theirs. Eleya fought for Rhea, thinking it would be better left to the Brions. Diego fought the Brions, his own people – even if not all of them. Faren had watched his brother die. And now Isolde found herself having to fight the same battle she’d been fighting from the moment this whole
gesha
thing had come to light.

The one she desperately wanted to lose. The thought of Diego’s hand in hers, his parting words still warming and scarring her heart at the same time, hurt too much even as a private matter. How should she explain this to Eleya, when all she wanted was to be on the
Triumphant
, screaming her voice hoarse in Diego’s bed while the rest of the galaxy dealt with its own problems for a while.

“If he would not answer, why should I?” she said coldly. “I keep my own reasons.”

Eleya chuckled. “If you must. I suppose that is fair. I am just… interested. Any Brion woman would be glad for him.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Isolde burst out. “Really. Explain to me. Why would I simply accept a man I met not even two weeks ago? Yes, sure, he’s hot and strong and all that, I
get
that I should cream myself at the thought of him –”

You shouldn’t take the moral high ground on that example
, her mind provided helpfully.

“– but I was not brought up this way. Humans want to know the people they bind themselves to for the rest of their lives! I get that this is your way, I really do, that is my bloody
job
, to understand this, but that does not mean I have to go along with whatever it is you believe. You obey fate, that is fine. Humans like choices. We’re very fond of them.”

A human might have been upset at being yelled at like that, but Eleya didn’t blink an eye. It made sense, Isolde thought, that the Brions were very oddly relaxed about confrontation. It was their way to fight everything, including other people’s opinions… She shut up.

It wouldn’t have done any good to keep screaming, because she might have gotten to the point of not knowing any more why she kept saying no, if it was so clear she could no longer bear to without him, not even for a stupid shuttle ride to Briolina. Already, her hands ached for his skin, her lips for his, her… well, her body had been aching to claim his cock for a while, that was nothing new.

“I understand,” Eleya said, when it was obvious Isolde wasn’t about to continue.

“
How
? How could you possibly understand? Have you been practically kidnapped from your culture and forced to uphold the ways of another? How do you know what I feel? Are you bound?”

Just as Eleya slowly shook her head, looking her straight in the eye, Isolde finally put the clues together. The hate she’d displayed hadn’t seemed rational to her, but it wasn’t rational, was it?

“I am not, that is correct,” Eleya said. “But I can imagine what you feel.”

Isolde sat, stunned. Eleya sat opposite of her and they both looked at each other, similar in so many ways, trying to bridge the gap that separated their views of the world. Many times, Isolde had tried to imagine what trying to communicate and meet aliens halfway would look like, but she’d always pictured Rhea. This… was different.