Warrior Invasion: A Science Fiction Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 10) (13 page)

T
roxeo stood
in front of the house, watching and hoping he was wrong about Arkhan. There was no evidence he had come here other than the scorch marks in the clearing. For all Troxeo knew, Arkan had created a clever diversion to get his pursuers lost in the woods while he whisked Katie off to a different place.

He frowned. The beast Troxeo encountered in the woods had taken its toll on him. The gash the creature tore into Troxeo’s leg had also managed to nick a blood vessel. He thought he would live, but there was darkness on the edge of his vision. He fought through the pain, determined that nothing would stop him from finding Katie.

The forest seemed to speak to him as he watched the building. Birds sang in the canopy, playing chipper tunes that didn’t match his mood. Insects buzzed around him, curious about the newcomer.

The natural sounds would have been interesting if he was on a vacation, but what Troxeo was truly listening for was a sound that would tell him where Arkhan and Katie were. It might be a rustling in the brush or a scream. Anything might indicate he was on the right track. The front door of the house stood ajar, its dark rectangle silently mocking him.

Troxeo double-checked his blaster to make sure he had fully charged it and the safety was disengaged. If Arkhan were really in the house, any situation where he needed to draw his weapon would probably be too close to use it safely. Still, he wanted to be prepared for any situation. With a sigh, Troxeo headed toward the house. He would never know for sure until he went inside.

He slipped through the brush as quietly as possible, stepping down on his toes first and avoiding any fallen branches that might snap underneath him. He kept behind the trees in case Arkhan was watching through one of the many windows. Despite Troxeo’s precautions, he knew Arkhan was a trained soldier too. Avoiding detection would be difficult.

As he approached, there was no indication that anyone inside had spotted him. Arkhan didn’t come charging out the door or start shooting from an upper window. Was Arkhan hiding in the forest behind him? The idea didn’t seem bold enough.

Sometimes Troxeo was disgusted they were from the same family, and yet that was the one thing that had helped him in his search for Katie. Nobody else would have known about this old family home or guess Arkhan fled here.

Troxeo’s heart pounded in his chest when he noticed the leaves on the path leading up to the house had been disturbed. He wasn’t an expert on the wilderness, but he knew enough to tell the difference between leaves that had been walked on and those that had been blown about by the wind.

His stomach twisted at the thought of seeing Katie again. He had to fight down his rage at knowing that Arkhan kidnaped her. There was no telling what Arkhan was about to do to Katie or had done already. In Troxeo’s mind, she looked soft and vulnerable.

Would Arkhan have already had his way with her on the hopper, or would he have waited until he arrived at the house? Would Katie ever be able to accept Troxeo after what Arkhan had done to her? Was the human capable of distinguishing the two men?

Killing Arkhan wasn’t out of the question if his cousin had ruined Katie for Troxeo.

Scenarios flashed through his mind, a nightmare developing faster than he could control it. He imagined walking into the house and finding his cousin on top of the human, pumping away at her while she smiled up at him blissfully. She would look at Troxeo, point her finger at him, and tell him to get out. Arkhan would have already convinced Katie that he was the one she wanted, in the charming way he always seemed to have with women. Katie would be Arkhan’s forever, and there wouldn’t be anything Troxeo could do.

He wondered if the situation was that bad. He tried to swallow the idea, but his mind wouldn’t stop working. This time, he saw himself finding Katie held captive but alive. Troxeo would dispose of his cousin with no regrets. The human would be grateful, pressing her curvy body against his as she turned up her velvety lips for a kiss. She would let him or even ask him to take her away from here.

Troxeo crept up the porch stairs, avoiding holes that were big enough to swallow one of his boots easily. The boards creaked as he walked on them. He hoped the breeze was enough to cover the sound. Troxeo felt his blood thrumming in his veins as he approached the front door, prepared for an attack at any moment.

Stepping inside, Troxeo quickly pressed himself against a wall. His heart beat so loudly that it thundered in his ears and seemed as though it would echo through the house. At first, he heard nothing but the rustle of dry leaves as they blew across the porch behind him. The house both sounded and looked empty. He couldn’t explain why but he thought someone was there.

Finally, up the stairs and off to his left, Troxeo thought he heard something. It wasn’t a sound he could ultimately define or describe. It was more of a muffled ripple of noise that indicated life. It could have been an animal that climbed through a hole in the wall, or a piece of flimsy furniture which fell over in the breeze from a broken window. A fire in his heart told him neither one of the possible explanations was the right one. His eleste was up there waiting for him.

He looked with disgust at the long staircase separating him from the second floor of the house. Troxeo couldn’t remember the last time he had to use such an archaic invention. His freshly stitched calf would have preferred using an elevation pod.

Troxeo hoisted himself onto the first step, wincing when a stab of pain ripped through his leg. Gritting his teeth, Troxeo continued, pushing through the pain and letting it fuel his rage. The thing he wanted more than anything was close but beyond his grasp. He was willing to do much more for Katie than climb stairs on a wounded leg.

He dared not lean on the banister for support; several of the balusters were missing or broken. It wouldn’t help either of them if he tumbled back down to the ground floor, injuring himself further and calling attention to his presence. Instead, he carefully inched forward as quickly as he dared, shifting his weight off his wounded leg when possible.

When he reached the top, he took a moment to breathe. He braved looked down at his pants leg. A dark stain marred the drab material. He would need a coagulant eventually. Proper treatment would have to wait until he returned to his ship with Katie in his arms.

Troxeo looked down both sides of the long hallway. When he was a child and his grandparents hosted large dinner parties, his parents had told him there were enough bedrooms to house everyone in the family. He had never quite grasped the purpose of a dinner party, but as he looked he realized there were too many rooms to count.

More rooms were around the corner where the hallway turned off to another wing of the house. It would be risky to start methodically barging through each door. If Arkhan were hiding somewhere, he might hear Troxeo and relocate Katie to a new location. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

Many of the doors had been left open, but a few stood closed. The noise Troxeo heard while down in the entryway had been so muffled that he assumed Katie and Arkhan must be behind one of the closed doors. But which one? There were three on the right and two on the left. He closed his eyes and tried to remember how the house had looked when he was here twenty years ago as a child.

He and Arkhan had scampered through the house, and they were no doubt the ones who had opened some of the doors here and left them that way. He remembered a nursery with tiny furniture and pale colors. He had ventured into a library full of books, printed on wood pulp before electronic storage existed. He remembered a large room with a bed that took up most of the floor and once-grand furniture. The master suite.

There was no equivalent of a master suite in modern Oretoz living. Soldiers bunked at the Fortress or its surrounding buildings, each of them lodged in a private room equal in size to everyone else’s. Those who lived with their families further out into the cities reserved modest quarters for themselves with small rooms and simple furniture.

Nothing was as grand and romantic as a master suite, which made it the perfect setting for Arkhan’s plans. His cousin hadn’t told him of his intentions, but Troxeo knew what he would do. Arkhan would twist Katie’s mind until she believed she was in love with him, and she was his eleste.

With complete confidence, Troxeo strode down the hallway toward the closed door at the end. Moving was much easier on a flat surface than it had been going up the stairs, and the pain in his leg subsided enough for him to ignore it. He stepped carefully, watching for weak spots in the floorboards and taking pains to keep his footsteps quiet.

When Troxeo was in front of the door, and his hand rested on the cold metal knob, he stopped. He pressed his ear against the dense wood, desperate to know if Katie was in pleasure or pain. The muffled sounds that he could make out in the hall told him nothing. Blaster at the ready, he turned the knob and shoved the door open.

A
s Arkhan ripped
the remains of Katie’s clothes from her body, she was overwhelmed with the feeling that they weren’t alone. It was an odd sensation, one that she would have dismissed any other day as mere paranoia. But this was different somehow.

Katie knew that there was no one near them except for the dead squatter, and yet her body was convinced otherwise. It was nothing more than a minute tingling sensation buried deep inside her. She would be lucky if someone else were here. Maybe they would help her get out instead of waiting for sloppy seconds. Instead of talking about her suspicions, she bit her lip instead, which seemed to please Arkhan.

He stared down at Katie’s naked body, pleasure evident in his dilated pupils and tight throat. “This is going to be even better than I imagined.” He grabbed his shirt with both hands and pulled it over his head.

The door nearly fell off its hinges as it slammed open. Katie screamed, her voice unnaturally loud in the empty house. Arkhan leaped away from the bed to face the door, spreading his feet wide and preparing to do battle.

Troxeo stood in the doorway. Anger and pain pulsed through his features, distorting him into a creature of rage. His blaster was out and at his hip, ready to fire. He looked from Arkhan to Katie and back again, assessing the situation.

H
e came to save me
, she thought. Katie took advantage of Arkhan’s distraction and pulled the ragged sheets over her body.

“You’ve taken my human,” Troxeo said to Arkhan, authority in his voice. “You had no right.”

Arkhan immediately relaxed when he realized Troxeo had burst in alone and without backup. His cousin didn’t make him feel threatened. He now stood with his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face. “I suppose it would have been all right for you to let her rot in prison? At least I’m going to be getting some use out of her now.”

Troxeo’s fist seemed to come flying across the room. Katie heard the crunch as it smashed into Arkhan’s jaw. The dark-haired alien staggered back a step, but he recovered quickly, rubbing the side of his face and resuming his fighting stance.

“If you want to fight, you will lose. You aren’t taking the Earthling. Snatch another one.” Arkhan barreled toward the doorway, crashing into Troxeo. The two men became a blur of fists.

Katie saw the conflict as an opportunity to escape, but the men were blocking her path to the exit. Although they were distracted with each other, she was sure one of them would grab her as soon as she tried to make a getaway. Considering the way they were fighting, Katie wouldn’t have been surprised if they accidentally ripped her in half while trying to decide who deserved to keep the prize.

Scooting up to a sitting position on the old bed, Katie peered out the window behind her. It was a steep drop to the forest floor two stories below. If she went that way, she would injure or kill herself. It was an option, but right now she preferred to be an alive prisoner rather than a free corpse. Frantically, she looked around the room for another way out, but nothing presented itself. She was stuck.

Meanwhile, the two Oretoz had yet to settle their disagreement. Katie thought they were using their mouths too much.

“How are the things I’ve done any different than what you’ve done to her?” Arkhan couldn’t stop talking as they pounded on each other. “You took her as a prisoner to advance your needs and earn a promotion. I was smarter than you and I took her for myself.”

Troxeo landed a solid blow to his cousin’s stomach before replying. “I was following orders. I didn’t have a choice.”

“I doubt the human sees it that way. In her eyes, you aren’t any better than I am.” Arkhan dodged the next punch.

“How do you know that? I doubt you took the time to talk to her about anything other than how wonderful you are.” Troxeo shoved the other man into the doorway. “You probably don’t even know her name.”

“Do you think you would be doing anything different if you were in my position? I see how you look at her.” Arkhan’s fist landed on Troxeo’s shoulder as he spoke. “You want her as badly as I do, but you’re not man enough to take her.”

“Take her?” Troxeo’s fist pounded into the other man’s nose like a juggernaut, and a crimson river of blood immediately flowed from it. “I’m too much of a man to take her against her will.”

Katie looked at Troxeo in confusion. Was there a side to Troxeo she hadn’t seen before?

T
roxeo took
in the scene in the bedroom, at first unable to contemplate what he saw in front of him. Katie had screamed, but that wasn’t necessarily because she was frightened of him. She didn’t bolt out of the bed and run into his arms, but she wasn’t calling Arkhan to defend her, either.

After only a fraction of a second, it no longer mattered to him. In his gut, he could feel what Katie needed, and he knew what he was required to do right now was save her from a monster.

He tossed his blaster behind him. It was no use in confined quarters. A single discharge would be enough to kill all three of them. Troxeo chose another weapon instead, focusing every ounce of his fury as he launched his body at Arkhan. All of his confusion over taking Katie captive and delivering her to the Fortress had been waiting to erupt. Every bit of frustration he felt over trying to find Katie fueled his rage. The edges of his vision were streaked with red as he focused on the fight. His leg burned where the beast had gored him, and he felt a cold trickle of blood as it seeped from the wound. The pain only drove him harder, encouraging Troxeo to push his punches further into his cousin’s flesh.

Arkhan’s words lit a fire in Troxeo’s heart. How dare he try to act as though he was right and everyone else could go to hell? There was no way to justify Arkhan’s actions, no matter what he said. It was typical of his cousin to try and talk his way into or out of anything. Troxeo was sick of it. He felt the bones in Arkhan’s nose shatter against his knuckles as he plowed his fist into Arkhan’s face, giving a satisfying crunch. The other man sagged against the wall behind him and slowly slumped to the floor, finally yielding.

Troxeo turned to look at Katie. She sat on the bed, the scraps of remaining sheets barely covering her nude form. He could tell by her eyes that she was terrified. He came around the edge of the bed until he was at her side, slowly moving so he wouldn’t frighten her more. She huddled into herself. Katie’s legs were drawn up, and her arms crossed over her chest. Her lower lip quivered as she watched him approach.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he whispered. He reached out a tentative hand and touched her arm.

The second his skin made contact with hers, he knew the truth about their connection. A burst of energy pulsed through his body. He could feel it in his core, and the source was inside the human’s body. She was his eleste. They were meant to be together. Now he had to help clear up any misconceptions.

Katie noticed the current of electricity between them as well, jumping as he touched her arm. It wasn’t possible for her blue eyes to get any wider, but they softened as she thought about Troxeo’s touch and what it might mean.

Arkhan groaned from his position on the floor. His eyes were beginning to blacken, and blood coated his chest and stomach. He tentatively put his hands on his face. He didn’t look like he would be getting up soon.

Troxeo turned to Katie and held out his hand. “Let’s get you out of here.”

She eyed him warily and refused to take it. “Where are you taking me?” Her words bit into the stuffy air of the room. “The last time I went off blindly with someone, it didn’t turn out so well. I don’t want to go back to the Fortress.”

He shook his head. Of course she thought he was going to take her back to prison. That was where he had put her in the first place, wasn’t it? He had referred to her as his prisoner again just a moment ago. Troxeo felt like an idiot. “We’re going to my ship, and we’ll go far away from here. I don’t know where yet.”

She looked from his outstretched hand to his face and back again. “Are you sure you aren’t going to turn me in?”

“I won’t.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Katie looked up at him through her voluminous lashes, studying his face carefully. She looked beautiful, and he hoped he would be able to continue to bask in her beauty forever.

Troxeo furrowed his brow in concentration. He had done nothing other than defeat Arkhan to earn her trust at this point. “You don’t know with your mind,” he replied. “But look in your heart.”

His simple words seemed to be enough for her. She put her tiny hand into his, allowing him to pull her up off the bed. She lost her balance as her feet hit the wooden floor, and he caught her in his arms. As she looked up at him, the horror and embarrassment in her face quickly mutated into something else.

“Oh,” Katie said, as though she had come to a sudden realization. Their touch felt electric.

Troxeo felt it, too, but he knew they had to get going. He couldn’t risk Arkhan regaining consciousness or letting the wound on his leg go untreated for much longer. There was also a possibility that someone had followed him from the Fortress.

Looking down at the torn vestiges of her bodysuit, which lay scattered on the floor and over the bed, he pulled off the cleanest sheet he could find. With a flick to shake off the dust, Troxeo wrapped it around Katie’s body and scooped her up into his arms. She flung her hands around his neck, and he could have sworn she was leaning into his chest. He carried her down the stairs and outside. Her skin felt warm and soft against his body.

“I’m strong enough to walk,” she insisted as they headed into the woods. Troxeo’s only response was to hold her more tightly.

When they reached his ship, he took her to his cabin. It was the largest room and had more luxurious accommodations than the room in which he had initially put her. “I’m going to get the engines going,” he explained, watching her carefully for any signs that she was ready to run. “You can get cleaned up and come to the bridge when you’re ready.”

Carrying her on the way to the ship hadn’t been enough for him. He needed to touch her again and feel the smoothness of her skin under his rough hands. But it wasn’t the time, and he knew it. Instead, he turned on his heel and headed for the captain’s chair. He would get them off the ground and out of the atmosphere, and figure things out from there.