Alien Conquest: (The Warrior's Prize) An Alien SciFi Romance (28 page)

“Excuse me?”

“You cannot lay claim to someone’s life and order them to love you.” He looked into her eyes again, brazen. “You cannot
force
someone to fuck you and expect them to love you. You cannot buy and trade in lives and expect anyone to love you. If love is what you want, domina, then you will never, ever have it. Because love is a gift. It must be given, and it must be given freely. And until you understand that, you stupid, selfish girl, no one will ever love you.”

Lennai glared at him, her eyes blazing with fury.

But she said nothing in reply, and soon enough the guards were pulling back the phaeton’s curtains. Lennai stepped out and snapped her fingers for Vega to follow. He did so, rebellion a flame in his heart now, and went with her to the Chara terrace. He was not surprised to find that a gate had been constructed across its edge, barring the possibility of getting to the sands.

Lennai walked over to one of the sofas. “You can stand in attendance,” she said curtly to Vega, waving him towards the back of the terrace.

Vega went, and stood, hands clasped behind his back, and watched as the Ankaa of House Hetchsaakt arrived and took their seats on sofas across from Lennai. And then Atticon walked in, and the dominus paused in front of Vega, looking him over.

“The fallen champion,” Atticon sneered, smirking. “Still. Someone will pay a pretty penny to debase you further, I wager.”

“We’ll see if anyone takes that wager, dominus,” Vega muttered.

Atticon laughed. “And on the day of his destruction, he finally finds a pair of balls.” The dominus touched Vega’s face, but Vega refused to meet his eyes. “It should be a lovely day of games, indeed.”

Atticon finally moved off to join his sister. Vega closed his eyes, exhaling, and did his best to calm the fury and revulsion in his heart. He had to be strong, for Alaina. He had to believe in her, in their future, in the future they must build for their child. A free future.

When Dyhar told her that Vega would be watching from the terrace, Alaina almost burst into tears. She managed to stave them off, but it was a near thing, and she could tell from Dyhar’s expression that he understood the agony in her heart. If she fell, Vega would see every second of it. And he would be as helpless as she.

When the games began, Alaina was afraid she’d go mad with waiting. So instead, she rolled up the sleeves of her armor and went to the gate, waiting as each of the battles were fought and cursii returned to the pit with wounds. She patched them up, sewed them up, set their bones and did what she could until her hands were filthy and her armor splattered with blood. She thought of nothing but saving the cursii, nothing but the work she could do and not the fight to come. It bolstered her. Reminded her of who she was and what she was capable of, how strong she could be, which she desperately needed in those hours preceding the final game.

When Dyhar arrived and pulled her away from an Errai cursu with a spear through his shoulder, she started to tell him let her work, but then she realized. It was time. So she nodded, and when he offered her a rag to clean herself up with, she waved it away.

“This is who I am,” she said. “Let them see it.”

Dyhar nodded and went with her to the gate. Her heart started to beat like a jackhammer as the gate lifted.

She looked at Dyhar and the Master of Cursii looked back at her, and smiled. “Show them the strength of the human race.”

Alaina laughed because it was absurd, not because it was funny. And she didn’t say anything back to him, because there was nothing left to say. She set her hands on the knives on her belt and walked beneath the gate, out onto the sands. The crowd was deafening thunder all around her as soon as they saw her.

Her opponent, the Ankaa Khamun, came toward her from the opposite side of the arena. Like all the Ankaa Alaina had seen on the station, he was huge and muscular, skin slick and gray like a shark’s. His face was hidden by the helmet housing the liquid from his home planet he needed to breathe. Dyhar had said to break the helmet. But Khamun was so huge Alaina wasn’t sure she could even reach that high with one of her knives.

They stood across from each other and Alaina found it maddening that she couldn’t see his face. Did he feel anything? She was feeling too many things.

She heard the Master of Games explain what they were fighting for, but she didn’t care. It didn’t matter. They were fighting for her freedom, for Vega’s freedom, for any future she might have.

She drew two of the knives from her belt, and the crowd shrieked all around them. Khamun pulled a long curson blade, like the ones Vega fought with, from a sheathe on his back. Alaina had no idea how she was supposed to get under that blade, to get to him with her small ones, but Dyhar had told her again and again to be fast. And that Khamun would be slow. Adrenaline flushed her veins and she felt herself lit up with terror —fight or flight response ringing through her— and then the bell to start the game rang on the air.

Khamun lunged at her straight-out.

She dove to the side, rolling across the sand. She scrambled back to her feet as he came at her with that long blade, slashing. All she could do was hop back and back to avoid it. Dyhar was right. Khamun was slower. Slower than Alaina. Slower than Dyhar himself. As she jumped and ducked to avoid his blade, she started to see openings. If she could just get in close enough, his armor didn’t cover his arms. A blow from her blade would sink the poison into his veins and slow him down even more.

But he was strong as hell. His blade carved divots in the sand every time it landed, deep enough that Alaina could see the metal floor hidden underneath all those grains. One blow and she’d be dead, and she knew it.

The crowd was going mad, screaming and hollering and cheering. Alaina could hear them chanting
Cha-ra Cha-ra Cha-ra
because they didn’t know her name to chant it. She remembered what Nyssa had said, that the crowd was on her side. That she could use it.

She let Khamun back her towards the arena wall, where the lowest of the stands were only twenty feet above her head. As she ducked another slash of his sword, scrambling away, she shouted up at the stands. “Throw anything you’ve got!”

One of the spectators heard her, and he fumbled a mug of ale up from between his feet and hurled it at Khamun. It hit the cursu right in the helmet, bouncing off the back of his head. Khamun startled in surprise, turning towards the stands. More of the spectators caught on, and suddenly there was a hail of mugs and plates and fruit hurtling at Khamun.

He backed up from the wall, out of reach, and it gave Alaina a moment to catch her breath. Then she rushed him, grabbing one of the fallen mugs as she went, and threw it at his helmet. It hit him dead in the face. The helmet cracked. Khamun recovered quickly, bringing his long blade down right toward Alaina’s head.

She lifted her knife, knowing that it was no use, knowing this was it and she hadn’t been fast enough. She’d pushed herself to her limits. Khamun was too strong.

She lifted her knife and knew it was her end. Alaina tried to make peace with it, but there was no peace in her heart at all.

Her knife met Khamun’s blade. Instead of feeling the weight of his blade slicing right through her, it stopped. Her elbow locked. She dropped her second knife and grasped her own wrist to hold it. The Ankaa’s blade stopped, held in check just inches above her head. By Alaina’s own strength.

She felt her muscles start to shake, to burn with the effort of it. She should not have been strong enough to hold his blade at bay, yet she was doing it. She didn’t have time to wonder. With a furious cry, she twisted her body and turned her knife as Dyhar had taught her, at once forcing Khamun’s blade away and exposing his forearm. She drew another knife from her belt and slashed into his arm. Khamun shrieked in pain and backed away, his blade dragging in his sand as he clutched his arm.

Now it was just a matter of time, Alaina knew.

Now she just had to keep him moving until the poison worked.

He charged her again, lifting his blade above his head. She turned and ran. No shame about it at all. She took him close to the arena wall again, and the crowd pelted him with more fruit and whatever else they could get their hands on.

He plowed through it all, after her. She dodged and tore across the sands again, determined only to keep a few feet ahead of him. Just out of reach of his blade.

And eventually, finally, he started to slow. Until there was so much distance between them, she didn’t have to run anymore. He came at her in small bursts of energy, and she easily darted out of his way as he flagged. Again and again, he regained power only to lose it, and Alaina stayed out of his reach.

Until he hit his knees on the sands.

And he wavered for a moment before falling onto his face, sprawled on the ground, done.

The crowd roared, the sound a wave crashing over Alaina. It was so loud she couldn’t hear anything else, until she looked over at Khamun and saw the crack in his helmet start to expand. A few drops of liquid hit the sand. Alaina rushed over, dropping to her knees beside him, and pulled bandage tape from her armor that she’d been using to treat the cursii in the pit. She quickly spread the tape over the crack in Khamun’s helmet, and the bubbles that had begun to fly through the liquid as it escaped the crack ceased, secured. When she looked up, they were surrounded by guards, and the crowd had gone quiet.

The Master of Games walked onto the sands, his microphone walking stick in one hand. He came to a stop, staring bemusedly down at her.

“You killed him only to save him?” he asked.

Alaina shook her head. “I didn’t kill him.” She was out of breath, still buzzing with adrenaline, but quickly crashing. “I only defeated him.”

The Master of Games looked up at the Chara terrace. Alaina’s heart constricted when she saw the gate, and saw Vega just behind it, gripping its bars, looking down at her.

“Does this satisfy House Chara and House Hetchsaakt?” the Master of Games asked.

Alaina saw Lennai arrive at the gate alongside Vega. She nodded. “We are satisfied. The human has brought glory to our house and spared a gifted warrior of our enemy’s house.”

The crowd cheered, the Master of Games smiled, and Alaina —on her knees— finally burst into tears. But they were tears of joy, and freedom, and relief.

Vega was afraid Lennai and Atticon would go back on their word, but the crowd and the Master of Games saw to it that they couldn’t. Not without enraging the entire populace of the station, and shaming their house. Alaina had made them look merciful and clever, and to go back on their promises now would put a target on their backs. They’d lose all credibility with the other houses on the station, and likely with the other Errai houses in the Cepheus system.

So once the crowd had quieted and the cursii had been removed from the sands, Lennai ordered Alaina brought up from the pit.

It took some time, and Vega knew that Dyhar would be with her, but he also knew they would be stopped again and again in the hallways by the spectators who wanted to shake her hand, or touch her arm, or just look into her face. She’d put on quite a show. The arena and its audience would not soon forget her. It was hard-won fame and Vega knew what it was like. Still, he felt immeasurable relief when he watched her and Dyhar walk onto the terrace.Lennai and Atticon rose to their feet. So did their Ankaa guests, who bowed to Alaina in gratitude for sparing their champion’s life. Alaina bowed back, but then she and Vega were looking at each other and Vega found he couldn’t look away. He wanted to go to her. He wanted nothing but to go to her.

Lennai clapped her hands. “Well. Good show, human,” she said, at last. “As promised, you have earned your freedom.” She pulled a heavy purse from a compartment in one of the side tables and dropped it at Alaina’s feet. “There is your prize. I will not be sad to see the back of you.”

“Nor I,” Atticon snickered meaningfully.

“Actually,” Alaina said, chin lifting proudly. She pointed at Vega. “That is my prize as well.”

Lennai frowned. “Excuse me?”

Alaina lifted her wrist and tugged up the bloody sleeve of her armor, revealing the leather cord tied there. “He’s my husband. So we’ll be leaving together.”

Vega watched all the color drain from Lennai’s face, and she turned to glare at him. “You
married
her?”

Vega nodded. “I love her.” And he bent down and scooped up the bag of money, walking to Alaina’s side. He curled an arm around her, smiling. “I love her, and I am very proud of her, and amazed by her.”

“This wasn’t part of our arrangement!” Lennai cried.

“No,” Alaina said simply, looking at her. “It’s not. It’s our life. And you no longer have any control over it.” She leaned toward Lennai. “Or would you like me to tell the Master of Games that you’re going back on your word?”

Lennai hissed between her teeth. “Get out of my sight. Go! Go! You wretched bitch!”

Alaina just smiled and took Vega’s hand. His eyes lingered on Lennai a moment, then he turned and went with his wife. His heart was calm and at peace. At last.

In the arena corridor he came up short as the human Rua approached them. Rua grinned and looked at Alaina. “I got your message.”

Alaina gave him a wide smile. “You’ll take us?”

Rua nodded. “Free of charge, just this once.”

Vega frowned, looking down at Alaina. “Where are we going?”

But Alaina’s smile only grew. “Home.”

Captain Rua delivered Vega and Alaina to Sundara, Vega’s home planet. There, Alaina was welcomed onto Vega’s family farm by his sister and her husband, by his nieces and nephews, and it was there he told her why she had been strong enough to defeat Khamun. She collapsed into his arms in shock and happiness, and many months later they welcomed their son into the world. He had misty gray eyes like his mother, and shining black scales like his father. And he was perfect.

With Vega back to work the land and Alaina to help, the farm thrived. In a few short years, Alaina and Vega were able to return to the Arena Station and purchase not only Bathari and Yfia’s freedom, but also Nyssa’s. Bathari and Yfia returned to their home planet, where they held a boisterous wedding despite having already been married, and quickly started popping out little antlered children.