Alien General's Fated: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (20 page)

"Thank you," he murmured, letting himself be pulled to his feet. "Thank you for your mercy."

Mercy
, Ryden thought.

"This is not mercy," he said, turning away. "This is justice."

 

***

 

After they had taken the traitor away, Ryden felt a peculiar calm. A part of him ached for the kill, longing for true confrontation. He chose to cool that fury, knowing the time to face the enemy was near. At least now, finally, he was beginning to see the whole picture. Things that had not made sense to him before all started to come together.

And they put Aria right in the middle of it all. He had to wonder if it was a coincidence, either by the will of the fates or by the hive mind, for him to feel such a longing for a woman who the hive mind had chosen to aid it. The Clayors had used Sota to scout for them and they'd found Aria. All that time, they'd been building up to using her like they used the other Terran. Making her work bad jobs, giving her no credit, slowly turning her against the Union. That had been the plan, at least. He smiled, thinking that the hive mind had made a bad judgment call there. Aria had fought the Clayors tooth and nail all the way, even if she was no match for any of the enemies physically.

Everything was falling into place. Now all he had to do was keep Aria safe and let her bring Ilotra's defenses online. He would fight off this attack and maybe, if he was blessed, the fates would show him what it was all about in the end.

Above his head, the skies went bright as the day. One of the huge Fremma warships burst to a thousand pieces, raining metal and crew down on the moon. Through the wreckage, Ryden saw the first Clayor warships appear, long and spiky and clunky.

They may have been crude, but judging by the disaster around them, everything worked. Then those weapons took aim at the moon. The war had reached Ilotra.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Aria

 

Aria watched Ryden fighting through the Clayor troops on the monitors, on his way to her.

The sight took her breath away. Awe, dread, admiration, and horror were all mixed into one as she watched the general in his element. The great Brion battle spear flashed in his hands, bringing death to their enemies. Aria felt no sympathy for them, but the efficiency with which Ryden ended lives
did
instill a sense of caution in her. After all that had happened, she couldn't bring herself to fully trust that the general would be able to stop if need called for it. She chose to believe him instead.

And while her fear was undeniable, so was her being drawn to him. All the stories she'd heard, all the times Aria had seen the general right, they were incomparable to seeing him slip the leash off his self-control, even if for a moment.

With no one to protect and slow him down
, she thought.

The Clayors were bombarding Ilotra with everything they had, but the moon wasn't built to break at any barrage delivered to it. The outer walls were several feet wide of practically unbreachable steel. The explosion that had blown a hole in the generator's hangar had been a specially crafted concoction, capable of doing the task.

Aria felt proud, despite herself, as if she had built the fortress. Ilotra was holding its own against the enemy and so were its protectors.

The ships weren't the only threat. Scores upon scores of Clayors had descended along with the bombs and were now roaming across the moon. Most of them were easy meat to the might of the Brions, but there were thousands of them and that counted for something.

Ryden was always where the fighting was the thickest, taking down champions and unit leaders. He was cutting through them as if they weren't even there.

For Aria, seeing him in battle was a strange mix of fear and certainty. She
knew
the general was better than all of the enemies combined, but that didn't rule out a stray blow or a sneak attack. Not even the best fighter in the galaxy—and Ryden would have been a contender—could ever boast being invulnerable.

All of the Brion generals bore battle scars to show they were forever testing their limits, pushing forward even in the face of danger. That was how they led their warriors. That was why Aria was left watching, nearly jumping out of her skin, at how Ryden dodged between the hordes of enemies. The Clayor knives were long and sharp and there seemed to be a wall of them around the general.

She kept waiting to see his blood spilled, but other than a few minor cuts he was unharmed.

Aria was observing his progress so single-mindedly that she actually missed the moment the general slipped from the monitors into the control center.

She only realized he was there when she was turned around by a pair of strong hands. Her breath caught when she found herself in his arms, the general's gaze burning with the fire of battle. The crystals implanted into his neck were pulsing wildly, sending out light and sound, but... before they'd blinked red and the noise around Ryden had been similar to growling. It had annoyed the Clayors, but Aria couldn't say why. Perhaps it was a frequency that hurt their ears. It was entirely possible.

Now, standing before her, Ryden's valor squares didn't transmit that irritating sound, nor were they red. They
beamed
bright, pure white light that should have hurt her eyes, but instead it soothed them. The valor squares were no longer screeching weird noises. Rather, the sound they made was a calming, soft humming.

The general's powerful body was heaving against her. All she felt was the cold, unyielding armor against her chest. All Aria
wanted
to feel was his warm, flawless tanned skin against her very naked body. She remembered it vividly and that made the longing only that much worse.

She shouldn't have done that, Aria was sure. No matter what became of them—and judging by his words, it would be nothing more than a fling—he shouldn't have given in to him. It hurt so much more to know what she was missing.

And she wasn't pulling away. Seconds ticked by and Ryden seemed as reluctant to let go of her as she was to slip free from his embrace. The crew and the warriors around them were suddenly very busy looking at everywhere but at them.

A blast right on top of them finally ripped Aria from her daze.

She could hear the roof shake, but it didn't give in. Ilotra wasn't as easy to break as the Clayors would have liked.

That reminded Aria.

"Sota..." she said and the general released her, a hint of regret in his eyes. "Is he dead?"

"No," Ryden said to her surprise. "I found that he was manipulated by the hive mind. He bears no blame, but a man like that isn't fit to sit in the council."

Aria was staring now, her mouth hanging open in mute shock. For Ryden to change his mind about killing someone—that was unheard of.

"I... why?" she asked. "
How
?"

"To get to you," the general said.

All right. The world is officially going crazy around me.

Aria would have been certain Ryden was joking with her if she didn't firmly believe that the Brions had their sense of humor surgically removed before joining the military ranks. Those guys didn't find anything funny and they weren't known for dry jests like that.

"Me," she repeated.

"Yes," the general said. "Sota has been under the control of the Host for a while now. I don't know for how long. I don't know if there are others. It doesn't really matter at this point. Once I kill the Host, they're all free from the influence it has over them."

"But why him?" Aria pressed, not understanding.

Ryden hesitated, confusing her even more.

"All I know for sure is that the hive mind doesn't do anything like that at random," he offered at last. "Sota was a convenient accomplice. He had access and power, but a weak constitution that couldn't resist the hive mind. He has been working to bring down Ilotra for a while now. Holding you back from the council and pressing you about information on the generator were all parts of it."

"There had to be other reasons too. I'm not the most qualified person on Ilotra to help it," Aria protested.

"Perhaps," Ryden allowed. "But as I said,
convenient
. Others get transferred, replaced. But not an ambassador. You both were firmly in place and that suited the hive mind nicely. It plays the long game. It always has."

"I just can't believe it chose us. It thought I would help it," Aria said.

The general was looking at her oddly as another blast rippled through the control center. Soon, Aria knew, she'd be evacuated away from the top levels. Away from Ryden.

"You didn't," the general said seriously. "You fought it. Sota was used, but it wasn't able to do the same to you."

"How do you know that?"

"If it was possible, it would have done it."

Well, if Ryden wasn't lying, that was certainly something. Aria shuddered, thinking of the hive mind controlling her. To be used like that, like Sota was... whatever she'd done without knowing it to avoid that fate, she was glad for it.

The look in Ryden's eyes was still odd.

"The actions of the hive mind make sense," he said. "Sota was a suitable victim and you have proven yourself as useful to me as it wanted you to be to the enemy. What I can't be sure of is whether it suspected that—"

The general trailed off. Another blast nearby sent the room around them rocking. Distantly, Aria noticed the crew starting to move out, to leave for lower levels and secondary centers. The Brions needed people to man the defense arrays and guns, but they also needed them to be alive. So deeper down into the moon they went. Aria was to follow them too.

"You can't be sure of what, General?" she asked, surprised to hear her voice shake a bit.

They were standing very close again now that they were no longer at the center of attention. Ryden's green eyes were deep and passionate, holding her gaze.

"There is much we don't know about the hive mind," the general said, his hands coming to rest on Aria's hips, pulling her gently but surely against him. "I can't know if it chose you because it already guessed how important you would become to me."

Aria felt like air was knocked out of her. The rational part of her wanted to struggle and get away, but from somewhere deep inside her, a stronger call came. A call to never leave the general's side.

It was too much. Denying him was hurting her more than it was worth, when every inch of Aria wanted to be near him, as near as it was possible to be. So fate wasn't on their side? That was fine. It seemed like they were lacking allies everywhere.

When Ryden leaned forward to capture her lips, Aria gave in.

So did the ceiling, when a missile struck home right on top of the command center.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ryden

 

Aria was shaking with fury beside him, looking at the destroyed control center with sorrow and horror.

It was quite a miracle they were still alive. The outer wall far above their heads had held, but the ceiling of the control center
itself
had been weakened by the bombardment. A huge plate had been dislodged and crashed down upon the room.

There were hands protruding from under the wreckage. Ryden saw Aria's eyes fixed upon them and gently turned her away.

He'd managed to save them, but only barely. At the last possible second, he'd heard the ceiling shift. There had been no thinking, no contemplation. The shield on his wrist wouldn't have held against such an impact, not this time. At best it would have broken his arm, at worst it wouldn't have been able to cover them both. So he did the only thing he could. He'd lifted Aria into his arms and thrown them both out of harm's way.

Yes, it had been a miracle, but that was not what was bothering him.

"That wasn't a Clayor bomb," he growled angrily.

Aria stared at him, a puzzled look on her face, but Ryden was already opening his com link.

"Why are the Koliar shooting at
Ilotra
?" he demanded so sharply Aria winced.

"We don't know, General," the bridge replied, the confusion plain in the officer's voice. "Commander Stavor won't answer any of our messages. The last communication from him said that he was coming down to Ilotra. The flagship is taking aim again, sir
.
"

Ryden cursed in Brionese. He knew Stavor, or at least he knew of men like him. They weren't traitors, but they were simple, and simple men were easy prey for the hive mind. If his suspicions were true, the worst had happened. At least the Koliar ships didn't have weapons as great as the
Conqueror
did.

He considered letting his own flagship deal with Stavor, but decided against it. The
Conqueror
was busy shooting down every Clayor ship that stood in its way. Ilotra would just have to take the Koliar ship's rage until he could find Stavor and put an end to it.

"Locate Stavor," he ordered.

So the hive mind had taken another victim. That was troubling. Ryden had expected better from Stavor, but it showed the Host's desperation. News was pouring in from all over the galaxy. Slowly but surely the Union with the Brions on the front line were putting an end to the Clayors' attack.

It wasn't exactly good news. The hive mind knew it only had one chance to win and no more. To make it realize it was ultimately futile was only to make it reckless. That meant people would die and Ilotra would pay the price for the hive mind's failure. Ryden swore he wouldn't let it happen. Ilotra would suffer no more under the hands of the Clayors.

The bridge reported back with Stavor's location. Ryden confirmed it and closed the link. He would go and deal with the Koliar warlord, but before that he had to make sure Aria was safe.

"It is time," he said with a tinge of regret.

The emotion seemed reflected in Aria's eyes. Ryden cursed all the Clayors for ruining the moment he'd had with the beautiful Terran. He'd felt like she was finally giving him what he'd wanted from the moment he'd laid eyes on her, but war didn't offer many opportunities to be comfortably alone with Aria.