Aran: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (14 page)

“What happened to him?”

“From what we have figured out, it was an ambush. His cover was blown.”

“So whoever is after me is also after him? Do you think they are after all of you?”

“It’s possible. No way to know for sure.” Sergey spoke. He had walked in the room as she was taking Aran’s other boot off.

She struggled with his shirt until she finally managed to get it off. One look was enough to make her gasp. He had a hole in his chest. The edges of it were rugged, whatever had hit him was designed for maximum damage. She turned her head and covered her mouth willing her stomach not to revolt. Her throat worked as the bile tried to rise. One deep shallow breath at a time, she tried to gain control. She wouldn’t embarrass him by losing her last meal. Slowly she raised her head still a little shaky but determined to go on.

“He’s been shot. Why didn’t you take him to a hospital?”

“Because a hospital would only see an alien and call for back up.”

“He’s hurt. He needs help. We have to get him to a doctor.”

“Or have a doctor come to him.” Nicolas walked into the room.

She had not seen much of him, but she remembered him. His navy blue eyes and blue black hair were unforgettable.

“You’re a doctor?” He nodded as he went to the bathroom and washed his hands.

“He’s the best. He’s also the only one we have so we are fortunate to have the best.” Sergey informed her, as he cleared the bedside of brothers.

“We will wait in the sitting room while you treat him, Nicolas.”

Rena moved back and stood guard between the two rooms, watching Nicolas work.

“Good news. He was only shot three times.” He threw her a quick smile over his shoulder.

“If that’s the good news I can only imagine the bad news.”

“Bad news. He was shot with a weapon from our home planet.”

“Where is your home planet?”

“In a galaxy you have yet to name.”

“You don’t seem to be upset that he was shot by something other than a human gun.”

“The wounds are deadlier, but easier to treat. It is not an unknown.”

She nodded her head. That made sense in some weird alien way. “Don’t you need to put him out? Give him anesthesia to make him unconscious?”

“No. His animal would fight if I tried to knock him out. It would help if you could go to the other side and hold his hand.”

“Don’t you need a sterile field?”

He looked around the bedroom and smiled at her. “This will be fine.”

She walked around, making sure to stay out of Nicolas’s way.

“Does his animal scare you?” He asked.

“No.”

She crawled onto the bed and took the hand that inched out to her.

“I don’t know what Nicolas is going to do, but he will make you all better. Then we will kick alien ass together.”

She heard the soft chuckles from the other room. “Won’t his animal fight you when you try to cut into him?”

“No, his animal will keep him still. Right now it is pushing the metallic substance closer to the surface so I will not have far to go when I pull it out.”

“Is it something like our bullets?”

“No. He was hit with a weapon designed along the lines of your lasers. It is highly advanced and leaves little particles that come together in the body and destroy it from the inside out. It was designed to be the ultimate punisher.”

“The scientists on your world designed this?”

“Never think they are all innocence and light.”

“How can he expel them?”

“The particles will link.”

Aran gave a loud cry as his body twisted.

“Hold his hand tight. The link has happened. Talk to him. Let him know you are here”

“Baby.” She tasted the word on her lips and liked it. “Baby, hang in there. Your body is expelling the particles that wanted to kill you. You will live. Did you hear me? You will live!”

Her hands trembled as she touched him. Those tears that had gathered in her eyes that she had refused to let lose earlier began to roll down her face. Aran, her alien, and the male she had become attached to. She trembled as she drew closer to him. She hated seeing her proud male brought low. Her heart broke and she bit back a sob, he was going to be alright he had to be.

She leaned over and spoke directly into his ear as Nicolas made the first cut. She told him about seeing him for the first time, how handsome and mysterious he had been.

She could feel the bones being squeezed in her hand and wondered if it would be broke before Nicolas was done. The first ball came out. It looked more like a ball of light than particles of death.

He quickly captured it in a container, doing the same with the second and third as they came out.

“Sergey, will you dispose of these properly?”

Sergey took the container and left the room.

“What now?”

“Now we clean him up. Place bindings over his wounds and let his body do the rest of the healing.”

“Don’t you need to close the wounds?”

“No, they will close on their own. Our bodies were designed not to need a lot of resources that we may not have access to in the field.”

“Those guys. They saw you as expendable, didn’t they?”

Nicolas grimaced. “They could always grow more of us.”

Rena closed her eyes and nodded. Funny how people treated those they put no value on.

“Life, no matter whose life is important.”

“Is it any wonder you have become our sister?”

He cleaned Aran up, leaving a patch over his shoulder and abdomen. He assured Rena he would heal. He just needed rest. He helped her take off Aran’s pants and get him under the covers.

They all left, promising to be near. She knew one would stay in the house. When the door finally closed, she took off her clothes. Forget modesty. She climbed in the bed next to him and didn’t argue when he pulled her close.

She heard his voice saying he needed to hold her and vowed to be there for him whenever he needed her.

“Doll, you’re here.”

“I am, but you should be asleep. Nicolas said you needed sleep to heal.”

“Nicolas worries too much.”

“I worry more.” She laid her head against the shoulder that was unharmed and carefully stroked his side.

“What happened? How did you get hurt?”

He was so silent that she wondered if he had gone to sleep.

“It should have been a routine mission. One of your general’s had discovered that a war criminal had decided to vacation in France. He wanted him, dead or alive.”

“Why didn’t he send someone from the military to collect him?”

“His hands were tied in what he called red tape. By the time he got through it, the criminal would be gone again.”

“So you went, because you do security jobs for the military, jobs that are dangerous and under cover.”

“Yes, but he knew I was coming. Laughed because he thought I was clever passing myself off as a human. His source had informed him that I wasn’t human and had given him a weapon to take me out with.”

“Who could have done that?”

“I plan to find out. He fired the weapon with a grin on his face. He was so sure I would die. The look on his face when I was still standing was of sheer terror. He couldn’t move as I came towards him knocking the weapon out of his hands.”

“Did you kill him?”

“He raped women for sport. He confessed, telling me he would give me whatever I wanted. He tortured children. He liked to hear them scream. He destroyed families for fun. He assured me that anything I wanted to try would be mine, if I only let him live.”

She felt the tears slide down her cheeks and hit his shoulder. He never answered her question. She hoped he killed him.

Chapter Twenty-three

Rena woke up feeling safe and secure because Aran was holding her.

“You’re up.”

“I am.” She yawned and opened her eyes. “So are you. How do you feel?”

“Better.” His hands slid down her side caressing her.

“There will be none of that.” His eyes widened and she laughed. “Not until you have been declared well enough.”

“I declare myself well enough.”

“Unless you can channel Nicolas and get approval, it’s not happening.’

“Channel?”

“It means to… never mind. Not even sure why I made that joke.”

“We could call him.” He leaned over and kissed her. His lips pressing hard against hers.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed into his mouth. She needed this. She needed to know he was alive and well and still with her.

Pushing back the fear that had almost overwhelmed her yesterday, she rubbed her body against his, getting lost in the feel of him.

“I can smell your need for me.”

“Not exactly setting the mood here. I think I need a shower.” She laughed, pulling back some.

“You smell good. I want to eat you.”

“I am not on the menu for this morning. You were dying last night and as much as I want to feel you sink deep inside of me, I have to know you’re alright first.”

“I could always just pleasure you. Make you scream.” His hand went to her breast where he began to massage it, making the nipple pucker.

“Aran, please. For me.”

Her voice had taken on a softly pleading tone. He nodded his head.

“Go take your shower. I will call Nicolas and find out when he can come over.”

His phone rang as he reached for it. “Aran.”

“We got trouble. One of our sites was compromised by an agent, maybe terrorist. We have sick employees, as well as others who are in the building. I am not sure if it was meant for us, but with everything else that has happened.” Sergey said.

“The probability is high.”

“Yeah.”

“I can be there soon.”

“No, Nicolas says to stay as far away as possible. You still need time to recuperate. He says for you to take it easy today and he will swing past tonight. I will handle this. We will all be past tonight. I am calling Dante now and asking him to bring the usual when he comes.”

“Alright, keep me informed.” He knew Sergey would do what was needed.

“Hey, what did Nicolas say?”

“He said he would be by tonight and that I should rest until then, recuperate.”

“I have a great idea for what we can do while you are resting.”

“I have an idea too.” His eyes flicked to her taking in the towel she had wrapped around her body then flicked to the bed.

“I was thinking we could have a picnic. I can put some things in a basket. We can lay out and talk.”

“Sounds perfect. We can go out back to my gazebo. It’s nice and private there.”

“Or we can go to the point, where it is nice and public. We can watch the fountain and walk the rivers and see where the two meet to become a third. I like the point.”

She stopped to think before asking the next question. “Do you think it is safe?”

“No, but it is in a public space. So far the things that have happened have been isolated to you or me. Even when your apartment burned the building was empty. I don’t think the perpetrator wants to hurt others.”

“Is that a yes?”

He nodded his head.

She squealed like a kid, grabbing clothes and dressing quickly. She ran over to him and gave him a swift kiss before disappearing out the door.

She went to the kitchen to make the basket while he got ready. She felt almost giddy. It was like a date. Although she was sure that the time for dating was gone. She knew it was silly, but she always thought when she met Mr. Right they would go on a date to the point.

She was humming when he came in.

“Ready?” His voice startled her.

“Yep. Everything is in there.” She pointed to the picnic basket.

He picked up the basket and then took her hand as they walked out. She settled against the seat as he headed off of his property.

“Tell me some more about your world. Something nice.”

“My birth world has two moons. The smaller comes up first. It is also the darker of the two. Within an hour the second moon comes up. It gives off more light than your moon.”

“When I was small I would look at them and wonder if others like me lived on them. I would think that maybe that was where my parents lived. I knew better of course. The scientists told us as soon as we were able to understand that no one would carry children like us. We had no parents, but I would pretend anyway.”

“Do you want children? Can you have them?”

“Yes, under the right circumstances I can father a child. I want to have children one day.”

“What are the right circumstances?”

It’s not like she didn’t know they had been having unprotected sex. It just didn’t matter at the time. She never thought she could get pregnant. If she were brutally honest, she hadn’t been appalled at the thought of having his child.

“We were created in a way that we would have to mate in order to have a child.”

“We, humans, have to mate to have children also.”

He shook his head at what she just said. “No, when I speak of mating I do not mean a physical interaction. It is not sexual in nature. Not at first.”

“You are losing me.”

“To mate is to be mated.”

“Like getting married?”

“Yes, but so much more.”

“When we take a mate, it is forever, that’s the person we will always be with.”

“What if you no longer love that person?”

“It is not an option for us.”

“Everyone has the right to change their mind. Maybe that person hurt you or cheated on you.”

“Then we would work it out.”

“What?”

“Once we take a mate, we do what is needed to always keep them safe, to never hurt then. We understand that everything will not be easy, but we never walk away. That woman is the one for us.”

“I don’t understand. How does slipping a ring on someone’s finger suddenly make you want to be faithful forever, no matter what?”

They had parked in a lot close to the point and were now blending in with all the others heading in that direction.

“It’s not a ring. It’s a bite.”

He discreetly opened his mouth and fangs appeared growing longer.

“What happens with those?”

They spread out the blanket and laid close in order to keep talking.