Alien Invasion: A Warrior Prince Romance (The Tourin Legacy - Part 1) (4 page)

Opening my eyes, it takes me a minute to
remember where I am. What I’ve done. Sitting up, I draw my knees to
my chest. The man I’d slept with is nowhere to be found.
No
,
I correct myself, not a man.
An alien. Whom I’ve slept
with
.

And what had he called me? His mate? Is that
the alien equivalent of a girlfriend? Does he honestly think one
sexual encounter makes me his? That’s not how it works on my
planet, big guy.

Good grief. Now that my mind is back, I
realize I don’t even know who this man is. What he does. Or do
aliens even
do
anything other than fly around and kidnap
women?

But the worst part of all is that I can
already feel myself burning for him again.

I rise from the bed, searching for the
various pieces of my armor that have been scattered across the
floor. The undershirt and corset are missing, and my face flames
when I realize they are still in the other room.

If it had been up to you, you would have
done it on the floor in there.
At least one of us kept our
sanity. The thought brings a wave of embarrassment with it.
He
had more sense than I did.

I dress as much as I can, then leave his
quarters to cross the hall into the other room. I find my clothing
and don it without delay.

Now, to find that alien.
I walk down
the hall to the end, and the doors open automatically. I see him
sitting at some type of wall filled with clear glass and black
squares. Lights blink and flash on the squares, but as I step
forward, it’s what lies above them that makes my knees feel
weak.

We really are in space.

Enormous, swirling clouds of colored dust
and light fill the view out the windows before me. There must be
hundreds, no, thousands of stars. The vastness is beyond my
imagination. I suddenly realize how small my planet is.

And it’s the only thing I’ve ever known.

As he turns to me, I realize how ignorant I
must seem to him.

“I knew it wouldn’t be long before you
joined me.” His eyes meet mine and the weakness in my knees
intensifies. I put my hand against the wall to steady myself. I’m
not used to physical desire, not like this. I don’t know how I’m
supposed to keep my mind on the task at hand.

He gestures out the viewscreen. “There’s the
wormhole.”

My eyes follow his gesture and I peer out
the viewscreen. Not too far away is an enormous, swirling blackness
that seems to suck the light from the universe inside.

For some reason, I have the feeling that if
I go in there, I’ll never be back. I hurry across the room and put
my hand on his shoulder. “Please.” I don’t even care if I’m
begging. “Please let me go back and help my people. It’s my duty to
care for them.”

“Why would it possibly be your
responsibility to help a whole planet of people?” he asks harshly,
his eyes searching mine. “I know you must have some friends and
family, but that isn’t enough to risk your life uselessly. You
can’t save them.”

I don’t know if admitting this is a good
idea, but that wormhole is getting closer every second. “Because
I’m the princess of Leitar. It isn’t the whole planet, but it’s the
largest kingdom. And I love it with all my heart. My people depend
on me.”

He stares for a moment. “You can’t be
serious.”

I hold his gaze. “I am.”

He looks away and mutters under his breath.
“Of course you are. The irony of it isn’t lost on me.”

I don’t understand him, but I don’t care. I
need to get back home. “Please,” I beg him again. “You were on my
planet for cargo. Our kingdom is the richest on Lla’ei. We can pay
you in gold. Silver. Jewels.”

His face darkens for a moment. “You really
think that’s what I want?”

I shrug. “It might not be all you want, but
it’s probably all we have to offer.”

“So…” He leans back in his chair. “Your plan
is to go back there, get exposed to the toxin yourself, and be
there to hold your people’s hands while they die. Is that it?”

“If that’s all I can do, then yes. But
regardless, it should be my choice. Not yours.”

He’s quiet for long seconds. I don’t
interrupt him because I can tell he’s really thinking about it.

He rubs his forehead with his hand. “If
there is one thing I understand, it’s duty. Even if there is no
logic to it. Even if I don’t want this for you. So be it.”

To my relief, he starts pressing buttons on
the console that slows the ship and turns us around.

“How long will it take to get back?”

“As long as it took us to get here. About
thirty-six Lla’eian hours.”

“We’ve been gone that long?” It’s hard for
me to believe.
Will there be anything left?

He nods slowly. “But if I’m going to take
you back, you have to know what you’re going to find. I’ll tell you
what I know on the way.”

It’s the hardest decision of my life to turn
the
Helios
around and not enter the wormhole. Leaving the
chance to see my people again, leaving my chance to charge the
healing bunk.

But she’s right, I can’t make this decision
for her. She will hate me for it.
And you made the same decision
as she did, not so long ago.

I take one last look at the wormhole.
Honestly, it might be for the best. When the Ardaks invaded, my
rage at our helplessness had been…extreme. I watched the first wave
of victims die, mostly the elderly and children, while our doctors
worked tirelessly, trying to find a cure. I led our warriors in
battle, holding off the Ardaks and rescuing as many as we could. We
brought them to the space station before we realized the Ardaks had
sent only a small invasion party to distribute the toxin. They were
just going to wait until we died out on our own before coming to
cleanse and inhabit the planet. But I enjoyed killing every last
one of them.

The moment the fight was over and our fates
were clear, my father came to me in my chambers on the station,
taking a seat on the bunk beside me.

“
Juordin, I have a job for you.”

I looked over at him. “More killing? Please
tell me you’ve found a way to exterminate those damn cats as
they’ve exterminated us.”

He examined his hands sadly. “No, son. And I
think you’ve had enough of killing.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he silenced
me with a glance.

“
I have a different job for you. One
where you can do good rather than sit around here with the rest of
us.” Waiting to die. He didn’t say it, but I finished the sentence
bitterly for him in my mind.

I wanted to refuse. Wanted to crawl beneath
the bunk and howl until my last moment approached. Or go out and
kill more cats. But I looked into my father’s eyes, and knew I
couldn’t. I saw his fear. Not fear of death, or fear for his
people. Fear for me. His only son.

I couldn’t let him down.

I stood and rolled my shoulders back, and he
stood with me.

Man-to-man.

Father to son.

King to prince.

“
How can I be of service, Father?” I
would do my duty till the end. I would make him proud.

I remember the hint of moisture in his eyes.
There was so much we didn’t say that day. But we didn’t have to say
it. And he’d been right. Gathering supplies for our survivors had
given me purpose, allowed me to be of some small service to my
people in the time I have left.

“Thank you,” my mate says, bringing me back
to the present.

The princess comes and sits in the seat
beside me.

“What’s your name?” she asks.

I almost laugh. We’ve been through an Ardak
invasion, just had the best sex I’ve ever experienced, and we don’t
know each other’s names. “Juordin.”

“Juordin,” she repeats.

Her accent is funny, but I like it.

“I’m Ande’ie. But you can call me Ande.” She
observes the bridge. “This…space…ship is huge for one person.” She
tests the word.

I nod. “It was built for four. But there
just aren’t that many of my people left.”

“The Ardaks?”

I swallow my rage. She has to know what
we’re going back to. “The Ardaks are insidious. Horrifying. It
would be better if they wanted slaves. Or women. Or children.
Anything except an empty planet.” I look into her eyes and I see
unshed tears. They won’t remain that way for long. “My planet
wasn’t given an opportunity to fight back. They released the toxin,
and a year from now, all ten billion of us will be gone. Although
the weakest—elderly, children, and those who have less stamina—have
already died from the initial infection, and many of the others in
the battles that followed.”

She gasped when I said the number, and now
her hands cover her mouth, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“Your people don’t have space flight yet,
princess. My people have spaceships, and healing bunks. We’ve cured
cancer, aging, and almost all other diseases. We tried everything.
Please believe me when I say there’s no way you can conquer this
toxin.”

She raises her chin. “Then I will go back
and take this toxin with them.”

I evade her gaze. “Unfortunately, that
opportunity has passed. You’ve been gone long enough that the toxin
will be inert. So you will live while the rest perish.”

She screams then. It’s loud, and shrill, and
heartbreaking.

I wasn’t expecting it, but I should have
been.

Her hands claw at her hair in grief.

It takes all of my strength not to reach for
her. Not to try to cuddle her as if she’s a child.

The Ardaks aren’t going to go away.

She’s a warrior. A princess.

As I am a prince.

It is for us to bear these things, to stand
upright when the rest of the world would bend.

I reach for her hand, and she takes it,
gripping it tightly.

We sit there in silence, holding hands and
staring out the viewscreen. It will be a long thirty-six hours
until we get back to Lla’ei.

I hardly believe what Juordin has told me.
Everyone on my planet is going to die.

I can see his grief, and his anger.

But though he might believe I’m simply going
back to comfort them while they die, in my heart, I know there is
more I can do.

I’m going to help my people. And then we’re
going to help his people.

And I have only thirty-six hours to come up
with a plan.

To be continued…

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reader site or blog you frequent. A preview of Part 2,
Alien
Intercourse
follows the About the Author page, along with a
preview of
To Touch A Warrior
.

Immortal
Angel has lived a hundred lifetimes all in one. She's a mother, a
sister, a daughter, a wife, and a best friend. She's traveled the
real world, enjoying what our three-dimensional reality has to
offer. She's hiked the stairs inside the Eiffel Tower. She's
watched a Shakespearean play in a grassy clearing outside of
Cambridge, and she's ridden a ferry to Ireland. In Australia, she
cuddled koalas, in China, she cuddled pandas, and in the Middle
East, she cuddled camels. And every time she opened a book, she
entered a world beyond this one, one where the only limits are the
imagination.

So many lifetimes of adventures have
inspired her to reach beyond this planet to the stars above and to
worlds rooted in fantasy. Her romances in space are meant to take
her readers on their own adventures, imagining new and exciting
place. With hot men. And maybe a few sexy aliens too.

You can follow Immortal Angel on Facebook,
Twitter @ImmortalAngel22, and her blog
here
.

1

I stare out the viewscreen at the endless
sea of stars. The console is dark since the ship is on autopilot,
and the night is as black as the hair of the warrior princess
sleeping next to me. The tattoo on my shoulder, which warns me of
my toxin levels, pokes at me.

I try not to think of the fact that we’re
traveling away from a charge for my healing bunk rather than toward
it. Or that the warrior princess next to me could help me better
than even the healing bunk could.

Just wake her with a kiss…

I push the thought away with a sigh. She’s
sleeping from pure exhaustion.

Not too much later, a motion out of the
corner of my eye tells me Ande’ie has awakened. To my surprise, I
realize how much I’ve missed her company since she’s been asleep.
The ship was originally built for four, so two couples could easily
enjoy interstellar travel. And although I’ve gotten used to flying
it alone, it’s felt lonely and empty in a way it never has before.
I find myself actually wanting to use the refreshment room, or the
gaming area, rather than sitting on the bridge, thinking about how
much I hate the Ardaks.

She is your mate. These feelings are
natural.

I turn to watch her as her green eyes slowly
open, fascinated by her every move. This woman. This beautiful
creature. She is my everything.

She stretches, brushing her waist-length
midnight hair back over her shoulders, her green gaze alighting on
me. “How long was I asleep?”

I glance down at the console. “About five
Lla’eian hours.”

Her eyes widen. “Five
hours
? When
were you going to wake me?”

I wasn’t. I see those dark circles under
your eyes, fierce little princess. That isn’t nearly enough sleep
for how tired you are.
“You need to be rested for what you’ll
encounter when we reach your planet.”