Alien Sentinel’s Mate by Mina Carter

15

Gracie shivered as she hurried nearer to the firepit to tuck Tarveth into a large blanket Pentar held out to her with concern on his lined face. She made sure the little boy was wrapped up and placed to get the warmth from the fire before looking around.

The large room was filled with soaked, shivering people in various states of shock. Some were injured, some were helping the injured, and others… she winced as one guy stood up, shaking his head as his comrade on the floor stared up at the wooden rafters of the hall with unseeing eyes.

“What in the ever-loving fuck was that?” Gracie hissed in demand as Seren strode across the wooden floor of the long hall toward her. His handsome face was drawn in lines of worry as he shook his head.

“I have no idea,” he said as he took a seat on the end of the bench near the fire. She perched next to him as others filled the benches nearby. Cade, Iaanto… others whose names escaped her right at the moment. Like her and Seren, they were all soaked to the skin but their expressions were hard and determined. In that moment, she saw the strength and discipline that marked the Lathar as a species.

“Okay, what the draanth is going on?” he asked, looking around the small group.

Cade pulled out a small tablet computer, one of the few signs of advanced tech she’d seen here. His swift efficient movements as he scrolled down the screen betrayed his ease with it.

“Weather arrays reported normal levels in pressure and precipitation over the last twelve hours,” he reported, the joking manner of youth stripped away to reveal a focused and professional young man. “Nothing here would trip an alarm.”

She looked at Seren. “You have early warning weather systems?”

He nodded, deep lines bracketing his mouth. “Yeah. We’re not into storm season yet, though. This is… wrong. Not like a normal storm.”

“No shit…” she breathed. “I’ve never seen lightning like that. It almost looked alive.”

“Cade?” Seren asked, sliding an arm around her as she shivered violently. They all needed dry clothing and to get warm, but they needed information more.

All eyes turned to the young Vorr, his lips pursed as he studied his screen. “Nothing up to thirty minutes ago. Then everything went off the charts. It didn’t build up or anything. It was like the storm just exploded out of nowhere. Almost like—” he cut himself off and shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. Ignore me.”

“No.” Seren shifted forward slightly on the bench. “What were you going to say?”

“Well, look here…” Cade scooted forward, showing them all the screen. “Look at the energy buildup here and here.”

She frowned as Seren answered. “That looks like an energy weapon discharge.”

“Some kind of planetary defense?” she asked. “But why would it target the surface?”

“That’s the million-scrip question. Isn’t it?” Seren’s expression tightened with anger and he shot a sharp look at Cade. “Any contact off world?”

“Nothing. It’s like the storm is blocking all communications,” the younger Vorr said, his expression as tight as Seren’s. “But that’s not what worries me.”

Silence filled the hall. She looked around. All the Vorr wore the same expression. Resigned. Tense. Angry. Something else was going on here. Something she wasn’t privy to…

“Go on,” Seren said, his deep, gruff voice the only sound in the silent hall as the wind howled outside as if furious it was denied entry.

Cade leaned forward, holding out a hand as big as a shovel flat so the tablet sat on it. The screen showed the weather systems in the planet’s atmosphere. She was no weather expert but she easily picked out the benign clouds and what looked like a rainstorm over the lower continent. But then the swirls of white got darker and quicker until the screen became a roiling mass of black and red.

“This is how quickly the first storm kicked up,” Cade said, switching the view on the screen to run the time clip again. This time green lines followed the weather patterns until they started to change and then flicked to red, the screen popping warnings up all over the place.

“This is what’s happening now…” He swept his hand over the screen. Gracie sucked a breath in. The storm front moving in was a hundred times bigger than the storm currently outside.

“Planet killer,” Seren murmured. “They’ve finally grown some balls and are trying to wipe us out.”

“Who?”she demanded, a hand on his arm. “And why?”

He didn’t answer her, looking at the small group around them. “Will the Skev fit us all?”

“It should, yes. We’ll have to cram everyone in, but we should make orbit if we can find a gap in the storm. It looks like this one will only just start dying down before the big one hits,” Cade said grimly, his eyes flashing in the semi darkness as the lights overhead flickered and went out.

She caught her breath, looking up. They must be energy rather than the torches she’d assumed, which meant this whole place was a lot more technological than it appeared. Was everyone here lying?

“Okay. We need to pack up whatever we can, whatever we can get to and be ready to move when we have a window. Once we break orbit, we’ll make for…” he paused for a half-second as though he’d just remembered she was there. “We’ll decide on our off-world destination when we get up there.”

Her lips compressed as anger washed over her skin in hot and cold waves. So that’s how it was going to be. Was it? She folded her arms.

She and her “mate” were about to have words. And he wasn’t going to like them.

There was somuch to do and not enough time to do it. Seren frowned as he looked around the bustling activity in the hall.

It was the only structure in the village that was rated for storms above level seven, so most of them kept at least an emergency pack in here. Nothing more than some food rations and spare clothing, all stored under the seats of the benches built in along the walls.

He wasn’t worried about his people getting things together and ready to move out. Because of the frequent storms that battled the settlement during the latter part of the year, they were used to operating as a team under pressure.

This, though… this was different. He’d known since he was a child that the Lathar didn’t like him or his clan. They all knew. The Vorr were a reminder of the Lathar’s violent past, and what the empire had done to become the empire. What his ancestor Kayan Vorr had been prepared to do to forge them into one people and save them from a threat that would have wiped them out.

What had he gotten for his troubles? Kayan’s name was little more than a footnote in the archives and his reign as the first emperor had been all but wiped from their history. The only thing that remained, the only clue to his contribution to the empire was the fact that even to this day, the imperial family was marked with the K’ designation. K’Daar, K’Saan… before them had been K’Vorr. Now they were just Vorr. Or worse… Vorrtan. A threat to be wiped out, lest they became a threat to the empire itself.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Gracie stormed up to him, planting herself in front of him with a mutinous glare on her face. “What aren’t you telling me?”

His temper was frayed, his control on a knife’s edge. He’d watched a good male die today, one who had given him his first s’tovik as a child and had trained him to track when he was a youngling. And he’d died in pain, murdered because of secrets.

Like the ones she was keeping.

“I don’t know, sweetheart.” He growled, deliberately dropping into Terran as he loomed over her. “I mean… I could ask the same of you. Couldn’t I?”

She didn’t move. Her pissed off glare didn’t waver a fraction as she frowned. But he knew her, so he felt the change, the subtle shift in the air around her. She was going to lie to him. And she was going to do it so subtly and well that if he wasn’t aware and looking for it, he would believe any trallshit she saw fit to feed him.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” she snapped, shaking her head.

A low snarl escaped his clenched teeth. He was facing a planet-killer weapon designed to wipe out everyone on the planet and a short window to get everyone to the drop ship hidden in the nearby forest. He didn’t want to think about after that, when it was entirely possible the rest of the empire could be out to kill them.

The last thing he needed was a faithless mate who lied to him. As his human friend Jay was so fond of saying, he was so done with this shit.

“Who are you?” he demanded bluntly, his metal hand snapping out to grip her lower jaw.

She didn’t fight his hold, maintaining his gaze with a hard one as he tilted her head up. She was so tiny and delicate he could snap her neck with a flick of his wrist. The thought of hurting her made him feel sick, that nausea joining the tightness in his gut that she was lying to him.

“Seren, you know who I am.” Her voice was low and calming. “My name is Gracie Shardlow, your mate.” She frowned in concern. “Did something hit you on the head when we were out there?”

One side of his lip curled back from his teeth. He knew what she was doing with the low and calming voice and the soft pats of her hands on his arms.

She was trying to connect with him, “humanize” herself to the possible threat. He’d gone through the Terran literature in the imperial database, reading through everything he could get his hands on that had been pulled from the various human ships and installations the empire had encountered.

“Try again, sweetheart.” He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Up to ten years ago, Gracie Shardlow didn’t exist. So… I’ll ask again. Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?”

She tore herself away.

“What the fuck, Seren?” she hissed in outrage. “Don’t dick about. I’m Gracie. You know I am. You lot contacted the Colony Commission when you picked us up from that planet. They confirmed who I was!”

“Oh, I’m sure they did. I’m just not sure you told them the truth. You’ve been with them for seven years. They only checked back three. Before that, you didn’t exist.”

He didn’t move as he watched her. She was a good female. He knew she was. Only a good female would protect a child the way she had, a Vorr child most would walk away from and watch die.

Her expression twisted. “What the fuck? You’ve been double checking my records? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Anger surged and the growl exploded from him as he grabbed her around the back of the neck. “I’m your mate, little female, and don’t you forget it.”

“Back off, asshole!” she hissed, shoving at his chest hard enough to break his hold, and stumbled back. Her chest heaved, tears bright in her eyes. “And if you don’t believe I’m who I say I am, we’re fucking done. Divorced or whatever the fuck you aliens do. Can’t get married with a false name. Now can we?”

His body tensed as white-hot fury rolled through him. She didn’t want to be mated to him anymore? No. Everything within him rejected the idea.

“No can do, sweetheart,” he drawled, nodding toward her neck. “Once my mark is on your skin, that’s it. You’re mine. For life. Now, go and get your things together. As soon as the winds drop, we’re moving out.”