Page 28 of Chased by the Alien Mercenary (Monster Mercenary Mates #6)

“Well done, bro,” Aramon whispered at the back of my head.

“Now ease up on the throttle and give left a little more,” he instructed.

It was proof that he’d been watching all along but had known not to interfere until the critical moment had passed.

Not alone, I reminded myself. I had family now.

I had my twin, as always, and Lyra right beside me to protect.

Worries about flying smoothed away, and full of determination, I pointed us toward the correct mountain range.

In short order, we were out of range, but I double-checked twice to make sure we weren’t followed and that everything was in working order.

Lyra was silent, but her mind was racing, fear replaced by elation over our successful escape.

“You have a navigational implant,” she said.

“How had I not noticed that?” She sounded surprised and I wanted to defend myself, but I didn’t need to, not with her.

She smiled, “but that sure came in handy now. You’re such a mystery…

” That she said as if it was a compliment, and I wanted to believe that it was.

I also wanted to turn to her and pull her into my lap, to assure myself again that she was in one piece.

That had been too close, and it was all my fault.

Instead, I listened quietly to Aramon’s instructions as I locked our course into the computer and turned the slicer to autopilot.

I sensed that my twin wanted to linger and ask questions, tease, perhaps, that he had been right.

Rarely had I been the one to shove him out of my mind, but this time I did.

Lyra and I had so much to share, now that she could hear my thoughts.

First, I was going to find a first aid kit and take care of the cuts on her legs; however, the scent of her blood was driving me crazy.

***

Lyra

We’d made it. For the first time since I’d woken up on this planet, I truly believed that I’d get out of this.

Life as I knew it might be over, there was no way I could ever go back to the Alpha Quadrant, but it felt like good things could be waiting for me.

Like Solear. I looked away from the small window to the male sitting beside me, his entire body tense as he worked the controls of the vessel.

There was a furrow on his pale brow, his eyes intense as they glowed with laser focus at something in the distance, something I couldn’t see.

The cable he’d used to hook up to the computer shimmered with light, a tendril that seemed to hold a thousand stars.

It was so thin and flexible that it seemed as if I could wipe my hand through it and break it, like cobwebs.

A nav port, I still marveled at the revelation.

That little string had taken Solear’s mind somewhere I could not go, yet things teased at the edges of my mind anyway: shapes of mountains, a massive ocean, and the warmth of brotherly love, of all things. Everything was different now.

When Solear’s eyes turned to me, the intense focus he often pursued me with was back.

Often, that had been accompanied by heat along my skull, but this time I sensed his feelings—his half-formed thoughts.

That telepathic connection had fully formed.

Medkit. The thought came at me just as Solear leaned forward and clawed open the small compartments below the controls of the ship.

It tumbled out, and then he was all over me, still feral, rough, unpolished.

I couldn’t help but laugh as he began pulling my pants down so he could get at the cuts that dotted them.

That was familiar ground, and I knew his intentions were good. He was caring for me, as always.

I winced when he freed my legs and pulled them into his lap.

He growled. It looked pretty bad, dozens upon dozens of nicks and cuts from the plant’s sharp thorns and fangs.

They stung, too, but at least they’d stopped bleeding, and I didn’t appear to have any reaction to them.

Hopefully, that meant they weren’t venomous or something.

Solear was very gentle as he began dabbing some kind of ointment on them, followed by a pass with a handheld device emitting a soft blue light—a dermal regenerator of some kind, though I hadn’t seen one that looked quite like this before.

Whatever it did, it worked wonders, soothing the sting and closing the cuts until only little pink blemishes remained.

“Thank you,” I said to him, a little uncertain when he kept one warm hand folded around my ankles, pinning them in place.

He was done, wasn’t he? I wriggled my toes, but that just made him growl and hold on a little tighter.

One thumb feathered over the arch of my foot, tickling me, and I tried to muffle the sound.

He knew anyway, he was in my head now. We needed to talk boundaries about that, but.

.. first, we just needed to talk. Period.

“Talk,” Solear echoed in my head, and then he closed both his hands around my ankles and, with a pull, had me in his lap completely.

His armor was sleek but firm beneath my bare thighs, and I felt the prod of the steering yoke against my spine.

With his arms around me, tucking me against his chest, I felt safe, though, and something eased inside me.

It had been such a close call, and I really didn’t like how helpless I had been.

There had been nothing I could do against those Krektar and their boss—nothing at all—and that was rather humbling for an independent girl like me.

“Will you tell me about the boy beneath the rubble? Is that you?” I asked, settling my ear against the steady heartbeat in his chest. It was the piece of him I was certain he shared with no one, but I’d been privy to it since the day we met.

Dragged into his nightmares with him through this connection we shared.

Mates, I reminded myself. That’s what we were, and I still needed to get used to that concept, but it was already growing on me.

Solear’s response to that question was, at first, just the low rattle of a growl, not quite angry, mostly just discontent he could not hide.

That was a sore spot, and I thought he’d shut me out then, but he didn’t.

“That is a memory. I am sorry.” Sorry? What was he sorry for?

Subjecting me to the nightmares that plagued him?

I’d been awake—or at the very least in control—each time.

I felt like I’d been able to help him by dragging him from that tomb to the surface each time it happened.

“That is me. Back on one of the many Asrai colonies scattered throughout the quadrant.” Images accompanied those words—stars and planets, glowing points across a vast map.

Perhaps those were the many colonies he’d mentioned.

Then, though he’d never been eloquent before, his story unfurled for me.

It wasn’t so much told as shown, and with it came the feelings—heart-wrenching and terrible as they were—that he’d felt at each of those moments.

The poverty of their colony, the struggle to survive day to day.

Out of school for work more often than in school, if their father struggled to put bread on the table.

The laughter the three of them—the twins and their father—shared despite the hardships.

Then the arrival of a ship and a wealthy master, the changes in their town.

Solear then had not known what was happening, but the Solear now knew that a crimelord had staked his claim on their slice of the galaxy.

Jalima. And he’d set out to destroy everything the twins had ever known.

Their father had left home. Solear had skipped school to follow him, intensely curious about the secret, clandestine meetings he was having.

But his twin had gone to school. They had been split apart, alone.

Then the bombs had rained down, and Solear had gotten trapped.

Barely twelve, and stuck beneath piles of stone, unable to move, hearing only the sounds of the dying and the raging fires above him.

Then the silence… endless silence, as he called until his voice was hoarse, but no one heard him.

That loneliness had sunk so deep into him that it had never left.

“How long?” I asked, and discovered that tears were streaming down my face.

I wiped at them roughly and tried again, voice hoarse, to make my question clear.

“How long were you trapped underneath that rubble?” I knew exactly what that had done to him; I’d seen it in his dreams, felt it in every rumble and growl.

My poor alien had been so badly hurt by that experience, and I wanted to soothe that wound. Let him know that he wasn’t alone now.

His hand curled against my throat, his thumb brushing my chin, and then he pressed our foreheads together.

“I know,” he shared with me, and I felt those words settle over me, sink into my bones.

He did not feel alone now. “It was three weeks before Aramon managed to find me and dig me out.” Those words came with memories: drinking rainwater that had pooled beneath his head, enduring awful hunger until the hunger went away, Aramon’s distress when he found his brother—then suddenly, the image of a daunting male covered in black scales and the sense of protection.

“The captain,” Solear explained. “He came with his mercenaries. Too late to aid our father in his rebellion, but in time to save us.”

That was his story, and now I tried to rhyme the image of that terrifying male with the voice warmly welcoming me aboard his ship.

That was the same captain? I could not imagine that such a terrifying male could be a good, soft place to land for two traumatized twelve-year-old kids.

The loyalty my Solear felt for this male was undeniable, however, so I’d reserve judgment.

“Three weeks must have felt like forever. I’m glad you made it out. And I’m glad you found me.”

Looking back at my own life, I’d had plenty of adventure, but none of the warm memories or the bonds that Solear had with his people: his father, his twin, and his captain.

It was a little barren in comparison, actually, as if I’d always been moving too much to really care about anything at all.

But Solear didn’t let me run—and if I did run, he’d just chase me down.

He’d come after me no matter what. Once, that kind of commitment would have frightened me, but I was coming around to the idea.

One small, lonely boy who’d turned into this big, caring, somewhat feral alien had done that.

He did not respond to what I said, but one arm remained tightly around me, the other on the yoke of the small vessel as he flew us.

I let the thoughts churn in my mind as I processed what had happened, and exhaustion from it all caught up to me then.

I fell asleep as stars flew by above my head and mountains made way for the endless mirror of the vast ocean’s surface.

Sheltered and safe in the arms of my alien.