Her Mate's Secret Baby:Interstellar Brides, Book 9(27)

I leaned back and tried to look at the controls I'd seen the doctor  using earlier. They looked all right, but I had no idea what any of it  meant. It wasn't like on Earth, with a heartbeat monitor and a blood  pressure reading up in one corner, beeping to indicate some change. This  was so far past advanced, I was lost. Their symbols were strange and I  didn't understand any of it. And, I realized, I had no idea about Trion  physiology anyway. What was normal for a human might not be normal for  them.

Fortunately, Noah was a healthy baby, no reasons to visit a doctor other  than a simple well check. No one had questioned the possibility of him  being half Trion. Of course, he had been the only half-alien baby on  Earth. It wasn't like the doctors asked, and I never volunteered the  information.

With nothing better to do, I shifted and leaned back, bracing my bent  elbow on the arm of the chair. I settled my chin in my hand and took a  deep breath. I wondered if Noah was all right, if he was awake and  cranky. Hungry.

A heavy stillness seemed to have settled in the air and I recognized the  quiet. Many times I'd been up in the middle of the night, when the rest  of the world slept, to care for my son. There was a certain peaceful  solitude that almost soaked the very air with quiet attention. Seton  told me we were in a city, but I felt like a solitary figure alone in  the night.         

     



 

Soft snoring came from my left and I turned to find Seton lying on the  floor not far from me, asleep. He'd rolled out a basic blanket of some  sort, and now slept. I turned to the closed door, a sliver of dread  making its way down my back like a drop of icy water sliding over my  skin. No one else was in the room. No doctors, no technicians. The door  was closed, but no guards stood at attention.

Where were the guards?

I uncurled from the chair, placing my feet on the floor just as the door  slid open on silent hinges. I recognized Commander Loris from earlier  and I sighed in relief.

"Commander. Thank you. I was worried when I didn't see the guards," I murmured, trying to keep my voice low.

He closed the door quietly behind him and turned to study Seton's  sleeping form. "My lady, I'm sorry if I startled you. It appears Seton  is a victim of the long day."

"Yes." I smiled. "He's very loyal to Roark."

He nodded. "Yes, he is." Taking a step forward, he approached the healing pod. "How is the councilor doing in there?"

I turned away from him with a shrug. "I have no idea. I don't know how to read the control panel and the doctor isn't here."

The commander tucked his arms behind his back and strolled around to the  edge of the room, leaning to the side to look behind a partition where  the doctor and other medical staff had frequently disappeared and  reappeared earlier. "Ah, yes. Doctor Brax. He is there, on his cot,  sound asleep as well."

"Well, it is the middle of the night." It did seem odd though. Even on  Earth, there was at least one nurse awake, even in the middle of the  night.

"Yes." He walked back toward me. "And why are you awake, my lady? Did you not eat the stew?"

"Yes, I had two bowls-" My voice trailed off as his words sank in. Why  would it matter whether or not I ate the stew? How did he even know I  had stew?

"Ah, strange Earth physiology. Hadn't counted on that." The commander  walked to the control panel of Roark's pod and started pushing buttons.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing for you to worry about."

I didn't believe him and unease prickled my skin. "Stop it."

He ignored me and the pod powered down, the lights faded, the low  humming ceased. I expected the top to slide open, but nothing happened.  It was like the pod was dead, as if he'd pulled the plug. "What are you  doing?"

Commander Loris pulled a gun of some kind from his pocket and pointed it at me. "Give me the medallion."

I felt my eyes widen and I took an instinctive step back. "I don't know what you're talking about. Turn the pod back on."

He rushed me, pulling my shirt free of my jeans, his grubby hand  reaching up beneath my shirt to look for the chain that would have been  dangling low over my stomach had I not tucked the gold links up into my  bra.

His look was wild and angry when he didn't find it. "Where is it?"

I shrank back, his stubby fingers repulsive against my skin. I was  thankful for his lack of knowledge about Earth underwear. Clearly, he'd  never encountered a woman in a bra before. "Get your hands off me."

"Give me the medallion." He was the one that wanted it? He was the one  that sent the encrypted message to Earth? He was the one that had tried  to have me killed? Have Noah and Roark killed, too?

"Turn the pod back on!" I shouted. Could Roark die inside? Was he trapped? Was he going to suffocate in there?

Commander Loris lifted his hand to my hair and yanked my head back with  cruel fingers. Tears welled up in my eyes at the sharp pain and he  shoved the weapon right up under my chin. Hard. It didn't look like an  Earth gun, but a gun was a gun when it was pressed against your head.  "You can give it to me, or I can kill you and take it off your corpse."

"You're insane. You can't use it anyway."

"Oh, I know. But you solved that problem for me." His hot breath fanned my face and I cringed.

"What?"

"Your son, Natalie. At this very moment, my friends are making sure we  have him." He lowered his head until his lips hovered over mine in a  revolting corruption of a kiss. "Don't worry. I'll be a good daddy. He  won't even remember you."

What? Him touch Noah? Never. It was one thing to try to kill me, but no  one messed with a mother. Fuck him. I'd gotten the family I'd always  wanted. A mate who found me light years across the universe. A son made  from our love. Even in-laws who were loving and kind. This asshole  wanted to ruin all that? Not a chance in hell.         

     



 

I lifted my leg and reached into my sock, grabbing the small dagger with  my right hand. I came up swinging, aiming for his throat.

I managed to cut under his chin, to slice his jaw to the bone as blood  poured down his neck. I'd hurt him, but it wasn't a killing blow.

With a shout, he shoved me forward, over the pod, his hand still in my  hair. He slammed the hand holding the knife into the side of the pod  over and over until I couldn't maintain my grip. I screamed at the pain,  the ruthlessness of his actions. My wrist was broken, and several bones  in my hand. I felt-and heard-them snap like twigs and the gold dagger  clattered to the floor by my foot.

"Let her go, Loris. It's over." I froze. Roark's voice? What? The  commander was holding me against the pod. Roark was still trapped  inside. Then how?

"Roark." Commander Loris pressed the end of his gun to my temple and  pulled me up off the pod until my back was to his chest, a hostage. The  blood seeped down his neck and into his shirt. I could feel it hot and  sticky on my shirt from when he'd loomed over me and it dripped.

"Put down your weapon, Councilor, or your mate is dead."

In my periphery, I saw Roark. He was holding a gun similar to the  commander's. Every line in Roark's body was tense. Rigid. He lowered the  weapon to the floor and stood, his hands in the air. "Let her go."

"Give me the medallion and I'll let her live."

"Let her go, Loris. You can't win. The moment I give you the medallion,  the vault codes will be updated. We'd deactivate the current codes  before you could use them."

The commander laughed in my ear, the spittle from his mouth landing on  the side of my cheek in a sick wet dollop that almost made me gag. "Not  if you're all dead. All but the baby."

I watched the horror of Loris's statement spread across Roark's face,  sink into his mind. All of his family, murdered tonight, except his son.  My son. The boy kept alive so this insane freak could use his DNA as  the medallion's key. And for what? What purpose was all this hatred, all  this evil?

I had no idea, but I no longer wanted the damn thing dangling between my  breasts. It was more trouble than it was worth. If it was going to  represent cruelty and ruthlessness, I didn't want it mixed so intimately  with the bond Roark and I shared.

Commander Loris kept one hand to my temple. The other, he plunged down  the collar of my shirt, looking for the chain. I twisted in his grip,  the touch of his hands repulsive. "No!"

"Let her go," Roark repeated. "Take me."

Loris groped me and laughed when Roark's eyes darkened with fury. "I  don't want you. If I were going to keep one of you alive, it'd be her.  Breasts like these, with the key to the planet between them?" He grinned  viciously.

Asshole.

I lowered my head and bit his wrist like a wild animal, trying not to  gag at the flavor of his skin, the dark metallic taste of his blood as  it filled my mouth.

With a screech, he yelled and pulled his hand back.