Alien Mine (The Pruxnae: Earthside #1)

Chapter Sixteen

Juan hit Dyuvad full on, shoving them both into the door in a flurry of grunts and grappling. Rachel tried to clap a hand over her mouth, and instead hit herself with the phone still clutched in her hand. Pain shot through her lips, startling her out of the awful shock of being shot at, finding Georgette dead, and having a convicted felon turn up in her living room when he was supposed to be locked up, snug as a bug in a rug.

Her life had turned upside down during the past few weeks.

Outside, tires scratched against gravel. Engines shut down and car doors slammed while Rachel stood poised between the eerily quiet fight taking place between her ex-husband and her lover, and the threat posed by the people in her driveway.

Kelly burst into the room, her dark eyes round, her chest heaving under quick gasps. “Mama! What’s Daddy doing here?”

The desperate fear underscoring Kelly’s words shook Rachel into action in a way nothing else could. She jabbed a finger at the front door. “Lock that up tight, then go get Tiny and hide.”

Kelly nodded and sprang toward the door, her hands raised toward the lock. She clicked it into place a mere second before the knob twisted. Something heavy hit the door, rattling it in the frame, and she backed slowly away, her skin too pale under her summer tan.

“Go on now,” Rachel said, her voice firm, and nearly sagged under the weight of relief when Kelly swiveled on a bare foot and raced toward Tiny’s bedroom.

Rachel did her own racing then, to the open windows where hands were pulling at the screens. Couldn’t get them all closed in time, but she could by golly slow those folks down.

Behind her, a body thudded into a wall. The back door slammed shut, and Rachel whirled, her fingers still fumbling with one window’s lock. Dyuvad had Juan pinned to the wall beside the door with one forearm against Juan’s throat. With his other hand, he twisted the back door’s lock in place.

Juan’s palms slid across the chest plate of Dyuvad’s armor. “Let go,” he rasped out.

Dyuvad leaned into Juan and spat out a sharp phrase in a foreign language.

Rachel didn’t need two guesses to understand a man cursing another, alien tongue or not. She opened her mouth, fully intending to ask him not to kill Juan, and never got the first word out. The front door crashed open, spilling men into her living room, Miguel Ramirez in the lead. He grinned and raised his hand, aimed the gun he was holding at Dyuvad, and fired.

The bullet snapped into Dyuvad’s armored back. He sucked in a breath and reeled away from Juan, his face suddenly ashen, and Rachel’s heart twisted into a breathless knot.

“Dyuvad!” she screamed, and for just a moment, time slowed to a crawl, freezing the tableau in front of her. Dyuvad staggering backward. Juan sucking in air. Miguel grinning triumphantly, like a cat with some hapless canary safe in its gullet.

And superimposed over that, Dyuvad lying on her fence, his skin gleaming under the thin moonlight. Dyuvad rounding up the goats, his bare muscles flexing. Dyuvad sitting on the porch next to the girls, reading a book with them, or painting the house with Fate or…

A hundred images flooded into her mind, one after the other, rushing to be remembered, but the one she hung onto, the one that stopped her cold, was Dyuvad braced above her as he slid into her, slowly making love to her while she fell inexorably in love with him .

Dyuvad .

She clutched her fists over her heart, willing it to beat against the shock ricocheting through her. She was in love with Dyuvad, a man who’d been born on another planet and come here on a mission to protect Tiny from the very circumstance they found themselves in.

Her vision dimmed under the realizations pounding into her. Reflexively, she inhaled, breaking the time hold, and reality crashed down around her in full motion.

Juan sagged against the wall, one hand held to his bruised throat, and whispered, “Good riddance.”

Rachel shot a glare at him as she hurried toward Dyuvad. “What in tarnation were you thinking, Juan?”

Two of Ramirez’ men jogged across the living room and snagged her arms before she could reach Dyuvad, then dragged her away from him. She yanked her arms, trying to dislodge the iron grips each had on her, and screamed when they held tight.

Dyuvad dropped to a knee and slapped one hand against the floor. From her angle, she had a clear view of his armor and the bullet denting it into his broad, strong back. Dented, but not broken. She went limp, nearly taking down the two men holding her. He was ok. The bullet hadn’t pierced his armor. Thank God for small miracles.

Across the room, Juan pushed himself away from the wall and stared down at Dyuvad, one hand around his injured throat. When he spoke, his voice grated barely above a whisper. “Is that good enough?”

Miguel grunted. “Close enough. We’ll take it from here.”

Rachel glanced between the two, confused by the short exchange. “What are you talking about?”

Juan lifted his head, staring her straight in the eyes. “I told you I’d do what I had to.”

She shook her head. Yes, he had, but what did that have to do with anything?

“You and him,” Juan continued. “That was the price for my girls’ safety. ”

Horror replaced the confusion. “You sold me out.”

Miguel grunted. “He bargained for you, too. Thought the man there would be enough.”

Juan’s expression clouded. “I’m sorry, Rach. I tried.”

“You—” She swallowed down the bile clogging her throat and nearly spit it at him. “You sorry son of a biscuit eater. Wait ‘til your mama finds out about this.”

Juan’s cheeks flushed red. He glanced away and shuffled back a step. “I did what I had to,” he repeated, but it was a poor explanation and Rachel suspected he knew it.

An odd squawking sound came from the front yard. “You’re surrounded,” an amplified voice said. “Put down your firearms and come out slowly with your hands up.”

Miguel cursed low and long under his breath. Dyuvad spun around, pivoting on one knee, and tossed a small, black disk at the other man. It hit him in the chest, clinging to his shirt. Miguel glanced up, and Dyuvad grinned.

“Want to take your chances with me or them?” he asked. “Or maybe you’d like another demonstration like the day Fate and I came to visit?”

Miguel glared, but he slowly lowered his firearm and yelled, “Don’t shoot! We’re coming out.”

After that, things got kinda fuzzy. Rachel distinctly remembered witnessing Ramirez’ men dropping their guns onto her floor and filing out in a much more orderly fashion than they’d entered. The Sheriff came in, hitching up his pants as he walked, and explained how they’d worked with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to catch Miguel in a criminal act, any criminal act. Juan had apparently given them the perfect opening when he’d approached one of the deputies and asked him to repay a favor by bringing Juan here.

Everything else was a bit murky. Checking on the girls and finding them safely hidden in Tiny’s closet. Fate bursting through the door, muttering something about hearing what happened on the scanner, and why hadn’t she called him? Dyuvad gathering her close and murmuring to her as he held her snug against the surprisingly flexible armor covering him from neck to floor.

“I love you,” she whispered into his chest.

His arms tightened around her and his face brushed the top of her head. “Really?”

“Yeah, but I think I’m gonna pass out now.”

And she did.

Dyuvad tucked Rachel into her bed under a threadbare sheet and smoothed wisps of hair away from her face. She loved him. Had she really said that? Had she meant it?

He frowned and backed away from the bed, crossed his arms over his chest, and studied her still form. In all the night’s confusion, had she even known what she was saying?

Her chest rose and fell against her t-shirt, pressing her breasts into the thin, worn fabric. Outside, crickets and frogs chirped madly, seemingly oblivious to the frantic scenes that had played out on Rachel’s property earlier that evening.

The law enforcement officers were leaving and taking what Fate called the riffraff away with them. Ramirez was no longer a threat. Juan would be returned to prison. All was well in Rachel’s world. Safe, secure. Dyuvad no longer had a reason to linger on Earth.

Except for the love he felt for this woman and her family. Did she truly love him in return?

A soft knock interrupted his musings. He twisted halfway around and attempted a smile for Fate. “She’s still sleeping.”

Fate grunted as he leaned a thin shoulder against the doorframe. “Probably tuckered out.”

Dyuvad hummed agreement under his breath, and couldn’t quite stop himself from turning back around and watching her sleep.

“So, ah.” Fate cleared his throat, coughed, then let out a wheezing chuckle. “I reckon you’ll be hightailing it out of here soon.”

He really should, shouldn’t he? One corner of Dyuvad’s mouth turned down. “I’m no longer needed.”

“I wouldn’t say that, ol’ son.”

Dyuvad’s arms dropped to his sides and he inhaled slowly. “My job is finished. I’ve done what I was supposed to do.”

“Is ‘at so?”

“There’s no reason to stay.” Was there? “Rachel will want her life to be normal again.”

Fate let out a short bark of laughter. “I reckon Rachel is gonna want a say in that.”

Dyuvad glanced over his shoulder and arched an eyebrow. “What if I don’t want to give her a say? What if I want to take her and the girls home with me? What if I want to take them where no one will ever threaten them again?”

A range of expressions flashed across Fate’s face, and finally morphed into a flat stare. “Whatever you gotta do, Dyuvad.”

“You want me to take them off Earth?”

Fate shrugged. “She’s been through enough, shouldered too many hard times all on her own. It’s past time she had somebody looking out for her.”

Dyuvad narrowed his eyes on Rachel’s brother. Was the other man pulling Dyuvad’s leg or was he serious? “She’ll want to take the goats.”

A cheery grin tugged at the hard line of Fate’s mouth. “Son, ain’t no way she’ll leave ‘em behind. I’ll get the feed. You get Kelly started packing, then we’ll round them goats up and herd ‘em onto your ship.”

Certainty fell over Dyuvad as easily as love had. He’d thought long and hard about claiming Rachel in the way of the Pruxn? and presenting her at the Choosing, of becoming Kelly and Tiny’s father and rearing them as his own, of never, ever letting any of them go again.

And now, nothing was stopping him from doing so.

He glanced back at Rachel, sleeping soundly in the darkened room under a white cotton sheet, one hand thrown above her head, the other resting motionless on her stomach. Here was the woman he’d been searching for all his life, brought to him by a Net ‘path with a nose for trouble. She was his for the taking now, and take her he would. And if she objected?

He grinned, then bent and pressed a gentle kiss to her sleep softened mouth. If she objected, he would ease her worries the way Pruxn? men had been coaxing their brides for centuries, with a firm hand, a tender heart, and enough patience to fill every void in the galaxy.

And if that didn’t do it, he’d just have to tie her to his bed and make love to her until she forgot all the reasons why she shouldn’t be exactly where he wanted her to be, by his side, forever.

Dyuvad crept out of the bedroom, leaving Rachel to her slumber, and began making the preparations needed to carry his family halfway across the galaxy to their new home.

Rachel’s eyes fluttered open. A large gray surface gradually came into focus in front of her. She sniffed, blinked, and tried again, but the world remained flat and gray.

A hand stroked from her hip to her stomach and burrowed under her t-shirt. “Myengen dun arig, beauty.”

She half-rolled toward Dyuvad, and finally figured out exactly where she was. “What am I doing on your spaceship?”

He nuzzled the side of her neck and mumbled, “Loving me.”

“Funny. Seriously, Dyuvad. What are—” She tried to lower her hand, glanced up, and realized her hands were chained at the wrists to the wall above her. A funny flip tickled her stomach under Dyuvad’s caressing fingers. “What’s going on here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m a Pruxn? in search of a candidate for the Choosing.” He shifted above her as he eased her onto her back, and braced himself there, half of his much larger body pinning her to the bed. Shadows hid his midnight eyes from her, but not the serious expression he wore. “The job I came to Earth for is over. It was time for me to leave.”

“So you, what? Kidnapped me?”

“It’s a fine and honorable way to woo a bride.” He lowered his head and buried his face in her throat. “I couldn’t leave without you.”

She softened under him, as charmed by his confession as she was pleased. “You could’ve stayed on Earth with me.”

“And risked someone else coming after you and the girls?”

He had a point, she’d give him that, but still. Her life was on Earth. Wasn’t it?

Tiny, bare feet slapped against the floor outside, and two girlish voices sounded off from the doorway in an overlapping chorus of Mama! and Lookit! and What is Dyuvad doing on top of you?

Kelly finally won out with a breathless, “Mama, you have got to see the stars from here, you just gotta .”

Dyuvad eased away from her and sat up on the side of the bed. “Soon, sweet. First, I have to talk your mama into staying, remember?”

Rachel huffed out a laugh, and gave herself over to the inevitable. She had everything she needed in this room, the precious lives she’d birthed, the man she’d come to love. They could sort out the rest later, once she convinced Dyuvad that she was there willingly and didn’t have to be chained to his bed in order for him to have her heart. It was his for the taking, and had been for a while.

If she’d known that sooner, maybe they could’ve left Earth before all the trouble started and thereby avoided all of Miguel Ramirez’ harassment, and betrayal at the hands of a man she’d once loved.

“I’ll be there soon,” Rachel assured the girls and listened to them scamper away. When their footsteps were no longer audible, she nudged Dyuvad’s side with one knee. “You can unchain me now. I’m not gonna run.”

A slow smile spread across his handsome face. “You can’t run. There’s nowhere for you to go, unless you can knock me out and take over the ship.”

Now why would she want to do that when she’d finally figured out this was where she belonged? Still, it never did to let a man know he’d won a woman’s heart completely. She narrowed her eyes in mock fierceness and said, “Maybe I will.”

“No, beauty,” he said, his rumbling voice gentle. “You’re mine now. I’ll never let you go again.”

Her heart melted under the determination filling his words. “I do love you, Dyuvad.”

He stood slowly, took a half step across the room, and flicked a finger across a panel. The room’s door slid closed, sealing them inside. “I know.”

“But I can’t just leave Earth this way. There are the goats—”

“Already in the hold.” He stared down at her, his expression closed as he unbuttoned his shorts and slid them off, leaving himself gloriously nude under the room’s filtered lighting. “Fate stocked enough feed for the voyage to Abyw.”

“Um.” Her heart stuck in her throat and heat coiled between her thighs, and her thoughts scattered to the four corners like they always did when Dyuvad had loving on his mind. “I have to be there for Miguel’s trial.”

He crawled onto the bed and straddled her thighs, his expression unchanged. “I rigged a communication system between my ship’s AI and Fate’s computer. He’ll let us know when we have to come back. Anything else?”

“Clothes and school and…”

He slid his hands under her shirt and cupped her bare breasts, and her throat went dry. They could sort all that out, she reminded herself. Later, after the man who’d stolen her heart made love to her.

“Dyuvad?” she said.

“Yes, beauty?”

“I’m gonna love you forever.”

He grinned and leaned forward, spreading desire wherever he touched. “And I, you.”

And those were the last words they spoke for a very long time to come.