Her Alien Rebel by Presley Hall
Ren
In the morning,everyone in the large clearing gathers their packs and the few camp supplies and readies themselves to head to the spot where I left the ship some distance away. I needed rest, but none of us want to leave the vessel unattended for too long and risk it being stolen or stripped for parts by other marauding prisoners. So we set out at first light, prepared to try to cover the distance as quickly as we can.
There are any number of things I should be thinking of other than the light-haired girl I encountered in the forest yesterday, and yet… my mind returns to her over and over again. I heard one of the other Terran women call her Felicity, and knowing her name has only served to make her stick in my head even more.
It’s a beautiful name, for a beautiful woman.
Every time I try to shake her from my thoughts, to focus back on my reason for being here, she manages to drift back in after a little while. And now that we’re all headed out on the trek toward my ship, I keep catching small glimpses of her that make it impossible to ignore her entirely.
It makes me worry for my fellow Voxerans too. As we make our way through the trees, I glance over at them, especially the ones who are walking with their mates, and I wonder what this mate bond means for them—for us as a fighting whole.
I want them to remain dedicated warriors, devoted to our prince and our cause. That was what I expected to find here: a group of men waiting anxiously for the day they could return to pick up where they left off on Vox, focused on nothing but re-igniting the rebellion and reclaiming the throne. Instead, I found a handful of them mated to strange women, and more of those women milling around, enticing the unmated warriors, no doubt making them wonder if the bond will choose someone for them sooner rather than later.
I can’t fault them for desiring it. Five years without the touch of a woman is a long time. I know that well enough. But the Terran women are a distraction, strangers with no ties to Vox or the cause we serve.
What if they don’t want their men fighting in a rebellion that might lead to another banishment or execution if we fail again? What if we fail because the warriors’ loyalties are torn between their mates and their prince? What if we fail simply because their minds are elsewhere?
Of course, I’ve shared none of this with Droth, especially since he’s mated to one of them. Droth clearly still believes in his men, and I serve my prince fiercely and without question—I always have. I believe in him as a leader, and if he doesn’t see harm in allowing these Terrans to live among us and mate with our warriors, then I know it’s not my place to speak my fears out loud.
But the fate of our people rests on bringing Drokar and Kardax down, and I hope with everything in me that the others haven’t forgotten that.
They need to remain vigilant. Focused.
Just as I have been all these years.
When we reach the ship, I hear a chorus of soft, awed exclamations from the Terran women as they catch sight of it, which only serves to irritate me further.
Of all the species that could have landed here and formed bonds with the Voxerans, it had to be women from Terra. A backward planet in education, space travel, and technology, where the people are kept in the dark about the realities of the universe. Apparently, their leaders prefer to make back-room deals with the lives of their women, handing them off in exchange for advanced technology and promises of safety, rather than telling the Terrans the truth—that they’re not alone in the universe.
What arrogance,I think grimly as we board the ship. To think that there’s nothing else in the vastness of space but yourselves.
It doesn’t endear me to them, that’s for certain.
Droth’s plan involves me flying the ship to another part of Nuthora, one that’s a decent distance from where I landed. There’s a mountain there with a surveillance tower at the top, and we’ll need to send men to scale the peak to reach the tower once the ship has landed. I keep the ship low, just over the treetops, to avoid detection by the radar, just as I did when I first flew down. It requires some careful piloting, and as I bank around an exceptionally tall tree, I hear a soft gasp.
I glance backward to see Felicity watching. The moment she catches me looking at her, her face smooths over, and I can tell that she’s doing her best to look stoic and bored. But she can’t hide her emotions entirely—the adrenaline rush still shows in her eyes, fear and excitement mingling together in her deep brown eyes.
The flight is exciting, more so than anything I’ve gotten to do in a while, requiring more skill and precision than usual. I can’t help but show off a little, although I’d never admit that’s what I’m doing. It feels good to be so in control of something again, to do something that I know I’m good at, after so many years spent feeling adrift as I watched the flame of rebellion die on Vox. And at the same time, as I dip and weave between the trees, treating it more like an obstacle course than a flyover, I know I’m enjoying the thought of scaring Felicity a little, getting under her skin. Every quick indrawn breath and nervous gasp feels like I’m undoing her, pushing her buttons, and I enjoy it more than I should.
It’s unlike me. I’ve never been someone to prick and tease at others, to try to provoke a reaction just because I can, and I push the urge away as quickly as it came. I level the ship out above the trees again, carefully maintaining an even speed until we reach the base of the mountain that’s our destination. The sun is beginning to set, and I find a landing spot that’s as even as possible, setting the ship down in a clearing of trees that should help shelter it at least somewhat from anyone who might see it in passing.
We disembark to make camp, and Droth calls a meeting to determine who will be going up the mountain.
The mission won’t be without danger. The mountain itself will be difficult to scale, with snow near the top and plenty of wild animals and lethal plants sure to be found along the way, and once the tower is reached, the surveillance systems will have to be disabled somehow. Droth asks for volunteers, scanning the gathered crowd with his hands clasped behind his back.
“I’ll go,” I say quickly, straightening my spine and lifting my chin.
Droth nods, accepting my offer. I’m sure he expected it, in truth. I’ve always been one of the first to volunteer for dangerous missions, and that hasn’t changed. If anything, I’m more determined than ever to lead the charge when it’s most risky, to make up for the fact that for the last five years, I haven’t been here. I was back on Vox, while my fellow warriors suffered on Nuthora.
I wasn’t there when they were captured. But I’m here now. And I’m determined to fight by their side every step of the way.
“Who else will volunteer?” Droth asks, looking over the assembled group.
And then, to my shock, I hear a voice that I never expected to speak up.
Felicity pushes her way to the front, glancing at me defiantly before looking at Droth.
“I’ll go too.”
