7. Chapter 7
Cooper had always known it was risky to steal the device. He’d known he could make it work with his phone, but he didn’t know who controlled the other end. There was always a chance they would use it to track him down and get to him before his people got there.
If it had been his device that was stolen, his people who were being used, he wouldn’t have hesitated to track them down and retrieve it. Any message he’d sent would have been used to strike terror in their hearts and encourage them to make stupid decisions.
It wouldn’t have been a series of cat pictures. The kitten with the crazy hair and his front paws together with the word “awiens” caught him by surprise. As did the one with an older blonde human and the words “Can we talk?” on it.
“What did they say?” Marissa asked.
“I think they want to negotiate,” he said. “But I’m not actually sure.”
He turned his screen so she could see the pictures, and she clapped a hand over her mouth just before she giggled.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s my people who sent that. I didn’t think the Orvax were aware of that meme, either, but they’ve surprised me a few times so what do I know.”
“More than I do,” Cooper muttered. He typed in his reply and sent it. Every time he used the device, it gave them the chance to get closer to his location, but he needed to know what was going on.
Who is this?
Your worst nightmare. A bored teenager with an internet connection.
What?
Kidding! I’m not bored, but I do know who you are, what you’re doing, and what kind of missiles they’re going to shoot at you in the next couple hours. Wanna hear about it?
Why are they shooting missiles at me? I haven’t done anything.
Dude, you snuck onto a top secret base and kidnapped a Marine. If you kicked their dog they’d be less pissed.
Cooper closed the messages and turned off his phone. The last thing he wanted to do was reveal where his ship was. They needed to run, but he wasn’t sure where they could go. There were caves close by they could get to on foot and it wouldn’t take long to steal another vehicle.
He grabbed a bag and started filling it with water and rations for the next couple days. There was already a first aid kit in the bottom and he figured they could manage a change of clothes at the same stop they picked up the vehicle.
“What are you doing?” Marissa asked.
“We’re going to take a little hike through the mountains,” he told her. “Don’t you think that will be fun? It’ll be a team building experience, a bonding exercise.”
“Dang, I didn’t think they’d find you that quickly,” she said, and sat back in her chair.
“I don’t think they have yet but I’m not going to give them the chance to get close to the ship,” he said. “So we need to get moving.”
“You need to get moving,” she said. “I need to go stand outside and wait for them to get here.”
Cooper could feel the mess of emotions rushing through her and they weren”t helping his own. She still sounded confident, though, and he knew she didn”t really understand what the consequences were likely to be if her people simply marched in and took her back.
Frustration boiled through him and he stalked over to her. “And what do you think happens if they find this ship?”
“I think they hand it over to the friendly aliens who are doing their best to convince the world that they really do come in peace and they take it apart and figure out how all your technology works.”
“And when that doesn’t work?”
“If you’re still in custody, they try and get the information out of you. If not, they let the human scientists loose. We probably won’t be able to figure any of it out either but I promise they’ll break it in fun and interesting ways.”
“And when my people show up to find me gone and my ship torn to pieces after I sent a call for help? The Orvax may have come in peace, but my people won’t. Especially if it looks like I’ve been attacked while I was here.”
The smirk fell off her face and he could feel the panic starting in her mind.
“There’s no need for that,” she said.
“And there’s no need to lead them straight to my ship,” he said. “So, on your feet, and we’re going to run for it. If we need to contact them to make a deal, we will, but I’m not about to let anybody into my ship without a damn good reason.”
She took the bag he thrust at her and added the last few items he thought it might need while he filled another one.
He pushed the button to open the blast shields and trusted her to follow him. If she were another Chelion, he would have done his best to broadcast his thoughts and directions. Some of the humans he’d encountered had responded well enough to mental commands. Marissa’s mind would let him caress her, would let him feel things, but anything he did to try and push at her slid right off.
Every failed attempt to force her to follow him, to give her directions without talking to her, just increased his conviction that she was his mate. Everything he knew about an organic pair bond scared him to the bottom of his soul. He was leery about the ones that had a facilitator. Any couple that decided they were compatible enough to only mate with each other and live together outside of the clutching grounds were suspicious.
Giving up his mate was impossible. He’d figure out how to make it work but the war raging between his instincts and his training threatened to tear him apart. He realized it had crept into his voice when he turned to ask her a question and snapped at her for not following his directions instead.
“What directions, asshole?” Marissa demanded. “You told me to follow you and keep up. I am right behind you. What else do you freaking want?”
“I want this planet to make sense,” he shouted. “I want to have some sign, some indication that I’m not jumping blindly into my destruction. I want that fucking buzzing to stop!”
“What buzzing?”
“You can’t hear it? It sounds like a swarm of angry bees and it’s getting so loud it’s giving me a headache.”
“Angry bees? Where is it coming from?”
He waved vaguely in the direction they’d come from to get to his ship. “Over there. We need to get out of here.”
“Yeah, we’re out of time,” she told him. “That’s not a sound we’re really going to be able to outrun. I can’t hear it yet but if you can, we need to take cover.”
Everything he’d learned about the military on the base he’d snuck on to ran through his head and he cursed. “Back on the ship,” he said.
When he grabbed her arm to help her move faster, he stumbled as all of her thoughts, emotions and panic slammed into him. The cacophony of sound was overwhelming and he wanted to let go but couldn’t.
Her steps faltered a moment later and they barely managed the few steps up the ramp into the ship before the blast shields closed. Once they were inside, he forced himself to let go of her.
“What the hell was that?” she demanded.
“That was the fucking pair bond,” he said. “It’s not supposed to work that fast. I mean, we haven’t even done anything but spend time together and I’m shielded. You shouldn’t be able to affect me like that.”
“You’re shielded, great. You don’t want to pair bond, also great. So, how do we stop it?”
Cooper shook his head. “We don’t.”
“Not a great answer,” she said. “There’s got to be a way to undo this. The Orvax said all their mates have a choice. It’s the whole point of that stupid tour thing they were doing, to show a human and an Orvax choosing to come together and all that bullshit.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the Chelion are not Orvax. We do things a little differently. And, fuck, for all I know you do have a choice but I don’t. Whatever happens now, I’m fucked.”
The reality of his situation hit home and Cooper sat down. Now that he’d said it out loud, he knew it was the truth. Whatever happened from this point on, he was fucked. If he stayed on Earth, he was fucked. If he went home, it was probably going to be worse.
And he’d already called for a ride to come get him.
“What happens if I walk away?” Marissa asked quietly. She was leaning against the divider between the control room and his kitchenette with her arms crossed.
He looked up at her and felt a flare of despair. She was his prisoner, he should have her locked up somewhere, locked away from everything she could use to hurt him. Unfortunately, the thing she was most likely to do that would hurt would be to walk away.
“Nothing much, really,” he said and watched her shoulders relax. “For you, at least. I would likely lose control of my disguise, go slowly insane and end myself in a murderous rampage. If we time it right, I can at least aim the rampage in the correct direction.”
The list of people and places he’d like to destroy in the frenzied rage that would overtake him was growing while he sat there, but the top was whoever had put up the trap that had landed him on this planet.
“That doesn’t really seem like the best option,” she said slowly. “I don’t know about you but I try to avoid murderous rampages when possible.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Everything about this situation pissed him off except her.
“Not my first choice of past time but everybody needs a hobby, I suppose,” he said. “Can I ask a favor before you decide to walk out and wave at the drone that’s looking for you?”
“Maybe,” she said and tilted her head. “Depends on what the favor is.”
“I would very much like to touch your skin. It looks so soft and I just want to see what it feels like.”
She stilled. Humans couldn’t manage the absolute stillness a Chelion scout was trained for but Marissa got close. He knew he was asking a lot and she had every reason to deny him. But he couldn’t help but hope to actually run his finger down her soft, pink cheek before she left.
“On one condition,” she finally answered.
“Name it.”
“I want to see what you really look like.”
Cooper blew out a breath. It wasn’t the worst thing she could ask for but he hadn’t expected it. Humans like looking at humans and he knew he’d done a good job on this disguise. It would be hard to build the skin color to the right shade of beige again but he didn’t hesitate.
“Agreed.”