Alien Sentinel’s Mate by Mina Carter

16

He was… the most irritating man in existence.

And he was onto her.

Gracie didn’t know which was worse as she slammed around in their quarters at the back of the long hall, stripping quickly to haul on clean, dry clothing before she froze to death. The clothes she’d arrived in had disappeared, but the ones Seren had given her—Vorr standard—were just as good, if not better. She was infinitely more comfortable in what amounted to a hoodie and a pair of fatigue cargo pants than she was in the leather combats of the Lathar.

What did he know? How did he know it?

The questions whirled about in her head as she stuffed a change of clothes into the bag. After a moment’s pause, she threw in a change for Seren as well. With looking after everyone else, she was sure he wouldn’t have time to do it himself.

Bloody man needed looking after, she grumbled to herself, shoving the dress Seren had given her into the pack. It served no purpose if they were in a survival situation, but she couldn’t bear to leave it behind. It was the first thing he’d given her, and she was keeping it. She could use it as a blanket or something if she needed to, so it could be considered practical if she squinted just right and looked at it sideways.

A cold chill washed over her, a breeze sneaking under the thick top to whisper along her chilled skin beneath. She paused mid-movement, looking around.

The room was less a room and more a large space split up with room dividers, but she couldn’t see where the draft was coming from. The heavy shutters were all locked down tightly against the storm. Now that they were, she could see the mechanism that lowered them. Again, they were back to the puzzle that the Vorr wanted to appear far less technologically capable than they actually were.

But the draft wasn’t coming from them. She doubted even something as small as a damn virus could get through them. They were sealed up that tightly. Frowning, she left the bag where it was on the bed and followed the draft. The storm was still howling with fury outside, so they weren’t going to be leaving in the next five minutes. She had time to find where that damn draft was coming from and plug it. Stop the wind and rain getting in here and causing any more damage.

She skirted past the “room” where Vaix was, the big form motionless on the bed. Despite what she currently thought of Seren, her heart went out to the big Vorr. Seeing someone you loved killed like that, right in front of you was rough. She’d seen soldiers crumble when their colleagues and team mates died, but to have it happen to your loved ones… that was so much worse.

Planet killer. Seren’s words played over and over in her mind. They’ve finally grown some balls and are trying to wipe us out.

Oh shit. It was bad enough to lose someone to a storm or an accident, but if this was deliberate? If this was a weapon that had been turned on the Vorr…

She had reached a small corridor at the back of the screened-off areas. The draft was gone, which confused her until she spotted the rain on the floor. There was no skylight or window, and as far as she knew, no one else was back here.

Which meant there had to be a door.

Hands flat against the wall, she searched for it and found a flat panel, a square depression a millimeter or so different to the rest of the wall. With how dark it was back here, it would be easy to miss if you didn’t know it was there.

Instinct made her press it, even though she had no desire to head out into the storm. The door slid open onto a small veranda, the roof of the hall extending into an overhang. The instant the door cracked open, the icy fingers of the storm reached inside, whipping up the edges of her clothing.

“Holy shit,” she hissed, shivering.

She was about to slap the panel to shut it again when she spotted movement in the field at the back of the long hall. Her blood ran cold as she recognized the tiny figure battling against the elements.

Tarveth.

The door slid shut behind her as she launched herself out into the storm after him. She knew she should tell someone what she was doing but there was no time. The storm had turned lethal in a heartbeat and visibility was already terrible. The only reason she’d even seen the little boy was because she’d caught the movement of his jacket being whipped about by the wind.

“Tarveth!” she bellowed, her voice stolen by the howling of the storm as she ran. The wind attacked her from all angles, the rain driving like needles into every inch of exposed skin. She gritted her teeth and pushed forward, trying to keep low to the ground. It was harder to knock her over that way. At least, that was the theory…

In practice, the driving wind and rain kept knocking her down like a set of skittles, her feet slipping and sliding on mud as slick as an ice rink.

“Tarveth!” she bellowed as loudly as she could, hoping beyond hope that the youngster could hear her. What the hell was he doing out here on his own? Her hair whipped over her face, half of it ending up in her mouth as she shouted again. She shoved it out of the way, ducking as a flying bush, ripped out at the roots, almost took her head off.

Where was he? She stumbled forward, trying to see through the rain, but she could barely see her hand in front of her face. Something caught at her ankles and slammed into her knees, a cry of pain torn from her lips as she pitched forward into the mud.

“Gracie! Gracie!”

The small, panicked voice reached her ears and she lifted her head, squinting as the rain tried to blind her. Tarveth huddled under a rock not far away, his arms wrapped about his little goat.

Fuck, he’d come out to save Talli. Of all the damn fool things to do.

Tarveth waved his arm, signaling frantically for her to join him under cover. She hauled herself up, trying to ignore the cold and wet attempting to steal all her strength. She’d barely gotten to her knees when a bolt of scarlet slammed into the ground next to her.

She’d never moved as fast in all her life. Not even when she and Cam had almost been caught liberating some vodka from the officers’ mess during training. She all but flew across the expanse of mud between her and Tarveth, cramming her larger body into the small space with the boy and his goat.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her teeth chattering so hard she was surprised they didn’t break off.

He nodded, but his response was cut off as three more bolts of lightning hit mere feet from them. So close that she felt the heat against her back as she curled up to protect the boy.

She clenched her jaw, looking out. Three scorched and charred mud circles overlapped each other. Her heart pounded. That was close. Too close. It was almost like the lightning knew where they were. The only reason they weren’t dead was because of the rock outcrop. She’d fallen over some of the smaller rocks, which was the only reason she’d found Tarveth. If she’d been even a foot or two the other way, she’d have walked right on past him and right into the deadly net of the red lightning. She shook her head, wiping rain from her eyes as she analyzed their situation.

And they were fucked.

The storm raged around them, so thick that even without the lightning trying to kill them they’d be in trouble. She’d gotten turned around when she’d fallen so she had no idea which way the long hall was.

Her breathing caught. No one knew they were out here. No one knew where to look for them. If they managed to get a gap in the storm, they were leaving for a ship. A ship whose location she didn’t know. Her jaw tightened and she leaned out to scan the sky above.

She only just managed to duck back into shelter before a streak of red took her head off. Shitshitshit. They couldn’t move. They just had to hope someone noticed they were missing, that Seren would realize she wasn’t there and come to find her. Find his mate.

His mate who had lied to him about everything. Even her own name. Although, she reasoned, she was Gracie Shardlow now. Her training had broken her down, and when given the opportunity, she’d become someone new. Someone she liked.

Her breath caught on a sob as she pulled Tarveth closer. The little boy was shivering badly, Talli’s warm, furry weight between them keeping them both from freezing to death.

Please, Seren, she whispered silently. Please…

She wanted him back, here with her, holding her close as he kissed the breath from her and pinning her down as he took her hard and fast, then slowly and gently.

She loved him. Loved everything about him, especially now he’d shed his disguise and was the proud and ruthless Vorr rather than the toe-the-line Latharian warrior. Here he was a prince… pride filled her. Her husband was descended from emperors.

She’d never thought she’d ever fall in love. Especially not with such a ruthless and dominant man. And she craved that… heat flaring across her cheeks. It drew a deep sense of unidentified shame deep within as instinct and need fought with her training. She shouldn’t need a man. Not that way. Not in any way. It flew in the face of all her previously held convictions about being independent and not needing a man.

But… she blinked, looking out into the storm and not seeing it. There was a difference between not needing a man and wanting a man. Wanting him.

And she wanted Seren. Wanted him with every cell in her body, every ounce of her being. She bit back a bitter laugh as a tear tracked down her cheek. She’d fallen in love, but it looked like she’d never get to tell him that.

Really sucked to be her.

* * *

“What doyou mean you can’t find Tarveth?”

Seren froze at the look on Pentar’s face, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew the boy had made it in from the storm. Gracie had been carrying him and he’d shoved both of them through the doors ahead of him before Tecc had…

“I dunno.” Pentar shrugged. “I was getting a pack together and then realized he was gone. I thought he were with that lady o’ yours ’cause he likes her, but he ain’t in your rooms either.”

“Trall.” Seren pushed a hand through his hair to shove it back off his face and kept his expression as neutral as he could.

It wasn’t Pentar’s fault. The old-timer was usually the one to look after Tarveth because the boy’s father had died six months after his birth, but it wasn’t through any real feeling or desire to. He was just the only one of them too old to work or train, so he was around to keep an eye on the youngster.

“Seren,” Cade butted in, the tablet still in his hand. “Looks like we might get a gap in the storm in about twenty minutes. It’s small but if we run, we should just be able to make it to the Skev.”

Seren frowned as he looked at the information on the screen Cade was showing him. The two weather fronts circled like sukazin about to do battle but he could see the clear patch Cade had spotted. It would still be dangerous, and they were cutting it close, but the younger Vorr was right. They should just make it.

“Okay, good. Let everyone know.” He turned to Pentar. “Gracie might know where Tarveth is. Ask her to make sure he stays with her.”

The old-timer shook his head. “Can’t find the lady either.”

The pit dropped out of Seren’s stomach and he turned back to Pentar from where he’d been about to walk away with Cade. “What did you say?”

Pentar folded his arms over his chest. “The female is gone too. Ain’t no one in your quarters. Not that I can see.”

He turned and ran.

“Gracie!” Seren shouted, already halfway across the hall to the khaaitan’s quarters. His heart pounded in his ears, his blood like ice in his veins. Pentar was mistaken. She had to be there. There was nowhere else for her to be.

“Gracie! Where are you, kelarris?” he called out, striding into his rooms.

The still, empty air, devoid of life, made his heart stall. He stood in the middle of the room, his gaze wild as he scanned the room.

She wouldn’t have gone out into the storm. She was too sensible for that… surely? His throat tightened. They’d argued. He’d told her she was his, that there was no escape from him. He still didn’t understand humans, but he knew one thing… they didn’t like having their choices taken away from them.

He closed his eyes and swallowed. Hard. What if he’d upset her so much that she’d rather leave and face the lethal storm than stay with him?

“She’s not been gone long,” Cade said behind him, his voice a deep rumble. A deep intake of breath told Seren his brother was scenting, the more sensitive nose of the Vorrtan able to pick up trace scents far more easily than he could.

“This way.”

He followed Cade out of the room and into the small passageway at the back. It had originally been used by servants who tended the khaaitan and his family and had never been changed even though it had been many years since any servants were here.

He knew where Cade was headed before he started to slow. A single door was back here, one he thought had been deactivated long ago. If she’d gone out into the storm…

He slapped his hand on the plate, causing the door to slide aside. The barrage of wind made them stumble back, and they protected their faces as it tore at their hair and clothes.

“Trall, she can’t have gone out in that!” Cade shouted over the storm.

Seren narrowed his eyes. She had gone out there. He had no idea how he knew that, but he knew. But she was an intelligent female, and she wouldn’t have gone out there without a very good reason.

If she’d seen Tarveth in trouble… No matter who she was, and how much she’d lied to him, he knew one thing for certain. She would not allow a child to come to harm, not when she could save them.

He grabbed at Cade’s wrist so he could see the weather sensor array data. Shit. That window would be here in minutes. Trall. There wasn’t enough time to search for her and get the rest of the clan to the ship.

He moved before he was conscious of making a decision, clapping his hand on Cade’s shoulder.

“Get the rest to the ship,” he shouted over the storm. “I’ll catch up.”

Cade’s sharp look clearly said he doubted both Seren’s choices and his sanity right now, but no Vorr would question the khaaitan… make that ex-khaaitan since he’d just handed over that responsibility to Cade. But even that made sense. If he wanted Gracie, his mate, then he couldn’t be Vorr.

The humans had only ever seen Lathar. She thought he was Lathar, just a different version. She had no clue what the Vorr really were. But if he was no longer khaaitan, it was no longer an issue. He would live his life out as Lathar and be happy, as long as he had her at his side.

Before he could step out of the door, Cade grabbed his wrist. For the first time Seren realized his brother was as tall as him, responsibility etching lines at the corners of his mouth.

“Make sure you reach us in time,” he ordered, his voice only just audible over the storm. “If you die, I’ll find a healer and bring you back, just so I can kill you myself. Okay?”

Seren chuckled and nodded. “Your word is my command.” He winked and then stepped out into the storm.