Chapter 3
Balarr guided his cruiser toward the coordinates provided to him by the Vaxxlian Alien Mail Order Brides program. After traveling to Earth alongside Warrin and Lorrd, each piloting their own ship, they’d recently parted ways so they could retrieve their assigned human females.
As he flew through the thick smog above the state known as Colorado, he kept one eye on the radar screen. There were multiple areas of combat nearby—though thankfully, none were close enough to pose an immediate threat to Luna’s pickup location.
He'd sent a drone ahead to scout the area in question, and to his surprise, he’d found the place was a medical research facility called Zalora Biotech. Did she really live in the facility? If so, why? Perhaps she worked there, he reasoned, and something had happened to her real home.
As he traveled beyond a small city, the smog began to clear, and the huge building he was looking for finally came into sight against the backdrop of rocky snowcapped mountains. The building was located on a large, fenced-in property, and there appeared to be a guarded entrance for hover cars.
But he wasn’t driving a hover car, and his mate was likely expecting him, so he piloted his ship past the guarded entrance and over the fence.
Balarr’s pulse quickened. His assigned mate was inside that building. Luna. The female he’d never intended to apply for, yet he’d come to Earth to claim her anyway.
He thought of how he’d heard her name on the breeze in the forest outside Starrzia just yesterday, and to his surprise, his anticipation grew.
Though he hadn’t signed up for the VAMOB program, Balarr still found himself looking forward to meeting Luna. A human female. He could scarcely believe it—he was about to meet the human female who would belong to him until the end of his days.
He narrowed his gaze at the large white building.
Zalora Biotech. He conducted a quick search of Earth’s databases, but he was unable to find a list of employees to see if Luna was among them.
Well, if this was the pickup location she gave the VAMOB program, he assumed she worked here. Perhaps she was a scientist.
He landed his Vaxxlian cruiser, the Cormma, on a flat expanse of land that rested next to a parking lot that contained dozens of hover cars.
He drew in a deep breath and rose to his feet.
Just as he approached the vessel’s exit, a strange feeling came over him—the same ominous coldness he used to experience during the war just before the Irrcons attacked.
With a growl, he glanced out the main viewport toward the building, but he didn’t glimpse anything amiss.
Of course, there wasn’t much to see. Just a parking lot filled with hover cars and the large white building.
No one was outside, and from his current vantage point, he couldn’t see inside any of the windows.
But as his gaze traveled upward, he noticed something odd. The windows on the top floor of the building were barred. The ominous feeling increased, and he reached for a blaster and a stunner, securing both weapons to his waistband.
He headed for the ship’s exit and issued a verbal command for the boarding ramp to open. He strode down the ramp, then called out an order for the ramp to close. As it folded back into the ship, two human males dressed in black rushed out of the building and headed in his direction.
One of them shouted something into a handheld comm device. A moment later, both human males drew their weapons on him.
An amused Balarr paused near his ship and took in the scene.
Did they really think they could hurt him with those rudimentary blasters?
He recognized the weapon design as something often sold at interstellar outposts—a cheap rip-off of Vaxxlian technology.
He also knew from experience that such weapons, even on their highest setting, would barely cause him to flinch.
“Freeze! Hands up!” the tallest male shouted in Galactic Common.
Balarr laughed as the security guards came to a halt in front of him.
He didn’t put his hands up, but he didn’t reach for the blaster or stunner on his hip yet either.
Perhaps these two males could be reasoned with.
Perhaps if he explained his purpose for visiting Zalora Biotech, they would put their weapons away and take him to Luna.
“My name is Balarr,” he said in a calm voice, also speaking in Galactic Common.
“I am a Vaxxlian warrior from Planet New Vaxx, and I am here to retrieve a human female.” He nodded toward the building.
“The VAMOB program has assigned a female named Luna to me, and she listed this facility as her address.”
The males paled and exchanged a quick, worried look. Neither lowered their imitation blasters. They shared a few whispered words in English that Balarr didn’t quite catch. The only words he made out were “supervisor” and “fuck.” Not very helpful.
The shorter guard cleared his throat and aimed his weapon directly at Balarr’s face. “Get back on your ship and leave immediately. This is a restricted area. If you don’t leave, we’ll have no choice but to call the US military.”
Balarr couldn’t restrain another laugh. “The nearest US military bases are currently under siege by American rebels.” He’d intercepted American communications and also verified the fighting on his ship’s extended radar.
“I doubt anyone will come to your aid,” he continued.
“But even if they did, the weaponry on my Vaxxlian cruiser is sophisticated enough to decimate whatever forces your government tries to send after me.”
A red blast suddenly struck Balarr in the chest, the impact causing him to take one step back. The tallest guard had fired his weapon.
So much for diplomacy.
Balarr reached for his stunner, and within moments, both human males lay unmoving on the ground.
He stepped around them, confident that they didn’t pose a threat. They wouldn’t regain the ability to move or speak until sometime tomorrow.
He eyed the front entrance of the building. Several more guards rushed outside, and he felled them just as quickly as the first two. A hover truck zoomed toward him from around the side of the building—probably the guards who’d been stationed at the property’s main entrance.
Balarr sighed and waited for the vehicle to come to a stop.
When it did, four armed human males jumped out and started firing various weapons at him—imitation blasters as well as regular human guns.
He ducked to avoid the bullets—those would actually hurt, though they wouldn’t kill him—but didn’t bother trying to avoid the blaster fire.
He eventually took cover behind a pillar at the front of the building, then peeked out just long enough to strike each of the guards with his stunner.
He waited a moment to see if anyone else would approach him, but nothing happened. When he attempted to enter the building, however, he encountered resistance. The door wouldn’t budge, and a steel barrier suddenly rose from the floor to cover the entire glass door.
Fluxx. Balarr was starting to become impatient to find Luna. Clearly, she hadn’t informed these guards that he would be coming for her.
But then he thought of the strange, barred windows on the top floor of the building, and a low growl escaped his throat.
Was his mate being held against her will?
He used his wrist comm to analyze the technology controlling the metal barricade.
Ah. It would be easy enough to circumvent.
He typed in a crash code that usually worked to bypass most human technology, and he watched with satisfaction as the metal barricade lowered and an abrupt clicking noise sounded near the entrance.
He stepped forward, pushed the door open, and strode into the medical research facility.
A middle-aged woman standing behind a counter stared at him with wide eyes, her mouth agape.
He strode up to her, striving to keep his expression neutral so he wouldn’t scare her.
He’d been told many times that his facial expressions—even when he was perfectly calm or even mildly happy—tended to be severe.
One of his fellow warrior’s human mates had once joked that he had something humans called “Resting Bitch Face.”
He reached the counter and tried his best to smile, but for whatever reason, this caused the woman to break down in tears.
Though she wasn’t his mate and he didn’t know her, he still didn’t like seeing a female cry, so he held his hands out in a show of peace while trying his hardest to appear non-threatening.
“Please do not fear me,” he said in a gentle tone. “I will not hurt you.”
“What do you want?” she asked in a shaky voice in between sobs.
“I am looking for a human female named Luna. The Vaxxlian Alien Mail Order Brides program matched us, and I’ve come to Earth to claim her as my mate. On the acceptance letter I received from VAMOB, this building was listed as her pickup location.”
The woman swallowed hard, then cast a quick glance around the reception area, as though expecting someone to come forward and help her. But there was no one else here. Balarr had stunned over a dozen guards, and if any more dared to approach him, he would take them down as well.
He'd come to Earth to claim his mate—Luna—and that was exactly what he intended to do. He would not leave this place without her.
“Well?” Balarr said in a coaxing voice. “Do you know where my mate is? Her full name is Luna Mackenzie.”
“I’ll lose my job if I tell you,” she said with a worried glance at a nearby security camera.
Balarr withdrew his blaster and fired it at the camera she’d just looked at, then he spun in a slow circle, taking out other cameras he saw mounted on the walls and the ceiling.
Once he was satisfied that there would be no video evidence to condemn the woman, he faced her as he returned the blaster to his hip.
“Will you help me now?” he asked.
“Yes, just please don’t tell anyone.” She drew in a long breath and wiped at the tears coating her face. “I believe Luna Mackenzie is on the tenth floor. Room 28B.”
“Thank you.” Balarr gave her a quick nod and headed for the stairs. While the elevators might be quicker, he didn’t want to risk becoming trapped, so he opted for the stairs.
He took the steps four at a time as he climbed, and he soon burst onto the tenth floor with a fierce growl. He couldn’t help but make the noise. Fighting the guards had roused his violent side—the brutal side of him that had helped him vanquish thousands of Irrcons during the war.
He scanned the corridor, realizing it looked like a hospital. Several people dressed in plain, loose blue ensembles, as well as others wearing oversized white coats, peered in his direction. They all looked surprised to see him.
One of the women wearing a white coat slammed her hand on a large red button on the wall, and a moment later, the corridor flashed red and a continuous alarm blared.
Balarr growled again, and he immediately used his wrist comm to analyze the human technology and then turn the alarm off. He found the alarm annoying, and he didn’t want Luna to become frightened.
The nurses and doctors—yes, he was certain that this was some type of medical facility—all scattered, disappearing into various rooms and some even ran down the corridor.
Two burly human males wearing white clothes emerged from one of the rooms and started walking toward him. He bared his teeth and emitted a thunderous growl. Then he aimed a stunner at them. The males both paled, then turned and hurried down the corridor.
He paused and listened to the sudden silence. Except, it wasn’t quite silent. There were continuous beeps, distant sobbing, and pained moans coming from the rooms that lined the corridor.
That ominous feeling from earlier deepened.
Luna. He had to find her.