Page 16 of Lorrd: Intergalactic Dating Agency (Vaxxlian Alien Mail Order Brides Book 8)

Lorrd watched as Wren said farewell to Emmy and Myles one last time, then he stepped forward and politely shook their hands.

A glance out the window revealed the sun was just starting to set, and he was anxious to finally depart Earth with his new mate.

He’d just finished expelling the virus from his ship and repairing all the ship’s systems. By this time tomorrow, they would already be on New Vaxx.

He couldn’t wait to show Wren around Starzzia and help her feel at home. Given what he knew of her past, he suspected she desired a place to belong.

“You have my video comm number,” he said, directing a smile at the kind elderly couple who’d helped his mate. “If things get bad on Earth, or for whatever reason you change your mind and decide you’d like to come live on New Vaxx, all you have to do is call. I will come for you immediately.”

Wren placed a hand on his arm and looked at him with tears gleaming in her pretty dark eyes. “Thank you, Lorrd. That is very kind.”

“Yes, thank you, Lorrd,” Myles said. “We appreciate it.”

“We also appreciate all the upgrades you made to our security system,” Emmy said. “I daresay this place is now impenetrable and perhaps even safer than my brother-in-law’s bunker.”

“I’m pleased that I could help.” He wrapped an arm around Wren and started guiding her toward the back door of the house.

Wren grinned and waved goodbye to the elderly couple one last time, then he escorted her out into the cool night air. He swept her up in his arms, issued a verbal command for the Kerrla’s boarding ramp to descend, and carried her onto his ship.

“I am eager to take you home, little star.” He kissed her forehead. “Finally.”

“Me too. I can’t wait to see New Vaxx. This all still feels a bit like a dream, you know?

I mean, I never imagined I would mate with a handsome alien one day and then make my home on another planet entirely.

I honestly never thought I would have the opportunity to leave Earth.

” She sighed with contentment and leaned her head against his chest. “But this feels so right. I am glad to have met you, Lorrd. I am grateful that the VAMOB program matched me with you.”

Her words touched his heart, and he lifted her higher just long enough to place another kiss on her forehead.

After issuing a command to close the boarding ramp, he carried her onto the bridge and deposited her in the co-pilot’s seat.

Leaning down, he carefully fastened the safety harness around her.

Then he sat at the main navigation console, fastened his own safety harness, and powered up his ship.

The constant scans that ran in the background, searching for any remnants of the virus, showed no evidence of infection, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Computer, initiate launch sequence,” he said in English, a language he’d recently programed his ship to understand for Wren’s sake.

Normally, he issued commands on the Kerrla in Vaxxlian, but he was suddenly conscious of Wren’s worries about having difficulty communicating with others on New Vaxx, and he didn’t want to do anything to cause those worries to reignite.

He intended to help her learn the universal language.

The Vaxxlian tongue, too, if she so desired.

To Lorrd’s continued relief, the launch sequence initiated seamlessly, and the Kerrla ascended into the early evening skies above Hillsboro. He hovered the ship briefly over the town, allowing Wren a look at the landscape, while deliberately facing away from Harmony.

“Goodbye, Earth,” she whispered, though she didn’t look or sound sad in the slightest. Instead, she sounded hopeful, and her eyes glimmered with excitement.

He set a course to surge beyond the human planet’s atmosphere, then leaned back in his seat, content to allow the autopilot function to take over.

He reminded himself that not only was his ship fully operational, but the Kerrla’s signature remained masked, and he’d erected an invisibility shield around the vessel too.

But if all else failed, his weapons system was online and powered to function at optimal levels.

Just as he reached for Wren’s hand, a shudder affected the Kerrla . Before he could determine the cause of the unusual phenomenon, to his absolute horror, his little mate’s form started to fade before his eyes.

She gasped and reached for him as her form faded further.

His heart slammed against his chest as she disappeared before his eyes.

Beaming technology.

Fluxx .

Panic surged through him. He spun to face the main console and worked to track Wren’s location.

Though he hadn’t admitted it to her—yet—he’d altered the nanobots he’d given her with a unique marker that would allow him to track her location.

He resolved that he would confess what he’d done after he rescued her.

He would rescue her.

He would kill whoever had dared to take her.

Brutally.

Whoever had used beaming technology to steal her away must have an advanced vessel nearby. Most beaming tech only worked in short distances. He thought of the beaming tech he’d installed on his ship recently. It hadn’t been tested. Not properly. He hadn’t anticipated having to use it on Earth.

As he continued trying to track Wren, he ordered the computer to analyze the Kerrla’s beaming tech and run several practice simulations. The last thing he wanted to do was cause his sweet mate any harm as he tried to rescue her.

There . His radar screen had finally picked up a cloaked ship in the vicinity. A short while later, he verified that Wren was in the cargo hold of the ship—there was no mistaking the unique marker in the nanobots. It was her. His sweet mate. A captive on a strange ship.

But it didn’t take him long to uncover the cloaked ship’s true signature, even though it was well-masked. It was a ship belonging to Poseidon. A quick scan showed it carried three human males in addition to Wren.

The scans also revealed that its weapons were inferior to the Kerrla’s .

But he couldn’t fire on the Poseidon ship. Not when his mate was in the cargo hold. The only relief he felt as he tracked the individuals on the cloaked ship came from knowing the males were all on the bridge. Thus far, none of them had gone to the cargo hold to bother Wren.

A series of dirty transmissions hit the Kerrla , momentarily paralyzing his systems. But he was quick to deflect the attempts to infect his ship with another virus, and he flew closer to the fleeing Poseidon ship.

He couldn’t see the enemy ship in the main viewport, but thanks to the enhancements he’d made to his radar screen, he knew it was there. He set the Kerrla to auto-pilot mode again, directing it to remain within beaming distance of Poseidon’s ship.

He rose to his feet, affixed an extra blaster to his waistband with two stunners, and lastly placed several knives in the outer straps of his boots.

A quick glance at the nearest screen showed one of the human males on the Poseidon ship was on the move. Fluxx . It appeared he was on his way to greet Wren. But Lorrd intended to get there first.

“Computer, beam me directly to the cargo bay of the nearest cloaked vessel.”

Nothing happened.

A curse tore from his mouth.

An error flashed across the nearest display—a temporary disruption in the beaming tech’s power matrix. A fluxxing glitch.

He rushed back to the main console, determined to fix the error and rescue his mate.

He would not fail her.