Alien Warrior’s Promise by Sue Mercury
Chapter 6
Dakk pressed a lingeringkiss to Macy’s forehead, then drew her in for a hug, enveloping her in his arms. Star God, how right it felt to hold her. To his relief, she didn’t resist the comfort he was offering, and he tightened the embrace.
She nestled deeper into his arms, leaning her cheek against his chest with a contented sigh. After a few moments, she slowly circled her arms around his waist and hugged him back. His heart lurched and he couldn’t resist kissing her again, this time pressing a kiss atop her head. He stroked her back and her hair, keeping his caresses gentle.
It pained him to know someone on Earth had hurt her, and he was glad she’d managed to flee her home planet. His people treasured their females. What had happened to her on Earth would’ve never happened among the Vaxxlians. Females were precious and meant to be protected, never harmed.
How brave she was to visit Vaxxlian Matchmakers, even though she probably didn’t feel ready to take a mate. Yet she’d done so anyway, just for the sake of her sister. He admired her sacrifice, even though it meant she didn’t truly wish to be here with him.
He would change her mind. He would do everything in his power to help her feel at home with him, to help her feel safe, as well as cherished.
“We don’t have to mate today,” he said, even though everything inside him burned to claim her. “We can wait until you feel ready, yummiska.”
She withdrew slightly from his arms and peered up at him, her gaze brimming with surprise. “But we need to mate. Today.”
“I promise no one will take you away from me, if that is what you are worried about, even if we haven’t officially mated yet. You can stay here in my home—our home—during the days while I’m at warrior training and working in my shop. I have a high-tech security system that will protect you in my absence.” He stroked her hair with slow motions, hoping to calm her worries.
“But—”
Shouts sounded outside and the doorbell rang, the melodious tune reverberating through the house. Someone started banging on the door and the shouts grew louder.
“Wait here, please,” Dakk said, concern and annoyance filling him. Had Myadd arrived with Skylar? If so, such behavior would be considered incredibly rude among his kind.
When he flung the front door open with a growl, he was surprised to find one of his neighbors, a male named Corvva, panting heavily and looking panicked. The scent of smoke reached Dakk in the next moment, burning the back of his throat. He tensed, his warrior instincts warning him of danger.
“Your store!” Corvva shouted. “It’s on fire!”
Shock gripped Dakk, followed by immediate worry for the young male in his employ. “Vallis, my assistant. Do you know if he’s okay?”
“I saw him being pulled from the building. He was still breathing.”
Fluxx. Dakk felt pulled in two directions. He hated to leave Macy right now, but he didn’t really have a choice. He needed to make sure Vallis was truly unharmed, as well as find out what had happened. The buildings in Starzzia were made of stone and weren’t supposed to burn. A dark suspicion entered his mind.
“Thank you for telling me,” Dakk said with a glance over his shoulder. “I’ll be right there.” Macy stood behind him, watching and listening, though he doubted she could understand the Vaxxlian tongue. Most humans couldn’t, and Vaxxlians and humans usually communicated in Galactic Common.
He retreated into his house and shut the door, unable to shake the suspicions racing through his head. He guided Macy back to the living room, trying to maintain a semblance of calm. “Everything is fine, but I must leave you for a while and check on something in my shop.”
“Everything’s not fine,” she said, her eyes gleaming with suspicion. “There’s some sort of emergency happening. I’ll admit I couldn’t understand a word of what that man said, but he looked and sounded as though he were delivering urgent news. Please be honest with me. Tell me what’s going on.”
“My shop is on fire.”
“Oh my God. That’s terrible.” She backed away from him and gestured at the door. “Go! I understand, and I’ll be fine here.”
“I hate leaving you, yummiksa, but I must. I’m going to put the house into lockdown when I leave.” He started backing away, though all his instincts screamed for him to stay and watch over her, or even to take her with him. But he didn’t wish to take her out in public until he’d claimed her. It wouldn’t be completely safe until he’d marked her with his scent. “I will return soon, I promise.”
He spun around and headed for the door but paused when a thought struck him—he hadn’t given Macy her dose of healing nanobots yet. Every warrior was given a dose for their future mates. If he was going to leave Macy alone for the first time, he wanted to ensure she’d received her dose of nanobots first, which would protect her from all but the gravest of injuries. While he doubted anything bad would happen to her during his absence, particularly if the house was in lockdown, when it came to her safety he would always err on the side of caution.
He raced into the library and approached the safe where he’d been storing the dose of nanobots that had been given to him several moon cycles ago. He’d stashed the dose in a safe place, even though he’d doubted he would ever need it. After entering the code on the safe, he withdrew the syringe and returned to Macy.
To his relief, she didn’t appear alarmed when he held up the object in his hand. Having lived on New Vaxx for two moon cycles, she must have learned about the practice of warriors injecting their new mates with nanobots. He wished he had more time, however, and didn’t have to rush.
“Before I leave, I want to administer your dose of healing nanobots.” He strode to her side and lifted the syringe to her arm. “It won’t hurt, I promise.”
She turned to the side, offering him better access to her arm. “I’d almost forgotten about the nanobots, but thank you. Go ahead. I’m ready.”
He administered the injection and set the emptied syringe aside. Macy didn’t tense or show any sign of pain, for which he was grateful. Despite being in a rush, he had tried to be as gentle as possible.
“Are you all right?” he asked, wanting to be absolutely certain. He’d heard of some human females who became lightheaded or passed out entirely when they received their shot of the nanobots.
She glanced at the door and nodded. “I’m okay, Dakk. I appreciate you giving me the shot before you leave, but you really should go now. Please. I imagine you’re feeling a bit torn, but I assure you that I’ll be fine here. Go.”
Her understanding touched him, and he took one last moment to draw her close and press a kiss to her forehead before spinning around and racing to the door. Fortunately, the shop was located only four blocks away and he was a fast runner.
He ran outside and shut the door behind him, then used his wrist comm to lock his house down, securing every window and door, as well as erecting a force field around the perimeter. Would being locked in help Macy feel safe? Or would it make her feel like a prisoner?
With a growl of frustration, he bolted in the direction of his shop. Smoke thickened in the air and his gut twisted at the sight of flames pouring out the windows. After settling on New Vaxx, he’d built the furniture shop by hand, stone by stone, a painstaking process, but he’d wanted to do it himself and fashion the store after the one his father had had on Vaxxlia.
But now it was burning.
Or at least the inside of it was.
The wooden furniture. Upon closer inspection, he realized the white-stone structure itself wasn’t burning—but everything inside was ablaze.
Shouts rang out and he noticed a crowd gathering to watch the flames. Just as he wondered how he would put the fire out, dozens of warriors materialized around the building and aimed water cannons into the windows. He recognized Rellac and other warriors from his unit holding the cannons, and gratitude welled within him.
Vallis. Where was the young male?
Dakk scanned the street and called his assistant’s name. At least Vallis had recently received an injection of healing nanobots. This knowledge brought Dakk some comfort. The nanobots would help heal Vallis rapidly.
Finally, he caught sight of his assistant leaning against a building on the other side of the street. Several warriors were speaking with him, and one handed him a canister of water. Dakk rushed to Vallis’ side and grasped him by the shoulder, peering at him with concern.
“Vallis? Are you well?”
“Yes, Warrior Dakk, I am fine,” the young male replied with a scratchy voice. He coughed and proceeded to take a long drink from the canister. “I was closing up the shop when someone attacked me from behind. I didn’t see their face—they hit me so hard I lost consciousness for a while. When I awoke, nearly every piece of furniture in the shop was ablaze. Rellac pulled me to safety.”
“There’s an odd, metallic scent to the smoke,” said the warrior standing closest to Vallis, a male Dakk recognized from training but whose name he didn’t know. The male inhaled deeply and growled, anger flaring in his green gaze. “It smells like an accelerant to me.”
Disbelief and fury rose within Dakk. He could detect the metallic scent too, and even so, someone had attacked Vallis and left him in a burning building.
This fire was no accident.
But Starzzia was a peaceful settlement. Nothing like this had ever happened here before. It seemed improbable that another Vaxxlian could attack a young male like Vallis and start a fire, yet that was what had occurred.
While there were a few human males living in Starzzia—all older relatives of human females who’d relocated here—no human would have the strength to knock a Vaxxlian unconscious.
That meant it had to be a Vaxxlian, a fellow warrior.
A sense of betrayal panged in Dakk’s chest and his fury mounted.
“Who would do this?” Vallis asked, mirroring Dakk’s thoughts.
“I do not know, but I intend to find out.”
Dakk spent the remainder of the day sifting through the mess inside his store with Rellac and the rest of their warrior unit, looking for any clues that might lead to the arsonist. Vallis joined their efforts as well, insisting that he felt completely recovered thanks to the healing nanobots in his system. Several elected leaders stopped by to ask questions and an official investigation was opened.
“Do you have any enemies?”
Dakk was asked this question repeatedly, but he couldn’t think of any individual in the settlement who might wish him harm. Though someone had attacked Vallis before setting the fire, it seemed unlikely that Vallis was the main target, that someone actually wanted him dead. Who would wish to harm a male so young he hadn’t even begun warrior training yet?
Every last piece of furniture in the shop was destroyed, burned to ashes, and traces of a rare accelerant were found throughout the building. At least the stones hadn’t caught fire. A building inspector arrived and deemed the structure to be sound.
“I am sorry for this,” Rellac said as he helped Dakk sift through the charred remains of the furniture—many moon cycles’ worth of hard work gone. It would take half a year or more for Dakk to replace all the items that had been destroyed, and that didn’t include all the custom orders that were still waiting to be made.
“Thank you, old friend,” Dakk replied. “I appreciate all you’ve done, particularly pulling Vallis from the burning building.” He paused and surveyed the remainder of the mess, then set his shovel against the wall.
“I’m glad I was passing by at the right time,” Rellac said. “Helen needed a few things from the market, and I must’ve walked by just after the arsonist fled. The flames were still spreading across the showroom as I entered the building and found Vallis injured.”
“It’s getting late,” Dakk said with a glance out the nearest window. “Thank you again for all your help, but I can finish cleaning out the building tomorrow.” Rays of orange and pink bathed the horizon. Darkness would fall soon, and he was eager to return home to Macy. He hated that he’d had to leave her alone and hoped she wasn’t frightened by his lengthy absence.
“Are you certain?” Rellac asked as he paused shoveling debris to wipe perspiration from his brow.
“Yes. I should’ve returned home by now.” Dakk cleared his throat and looked from side to side, making sure no one was close enough to overhear him. “I received a call from Vaxxlian Matchmakers today. I already collected my mate and brought her home. We didn’t have much time together before the fire broke out and I had to rush here, but I am most anxious to return to her.”
A broad smile took over Rellac’s face. “I knew it,” he said, setting his shovel against the wall. “Didn’t I say you’d receive a call from Vaxxlian Matchmakers soon? I had a good feeling about it when we spoke earlier in the day, though you should have said something sooner. Congratulations, my friend.” He clapped Dakk on the back, then pointed at the door. “Go. Now. Return home to your new mate. I will take care of dismissing everyone and securing the building for the night.”
Rellac didn’t have to tell Dakk twice. The desire to return to Macy consumed him. Had his long absence caused her to worry? Thoughts of the golden-haired beauty carried him outside into the cool evening air. Then he took off at a run.
