“For real. If I hadn’t known it was you, I would have thought you were a Vakarran,” Danika said with obvious admiration.
I smiled at Kaela. She was a worthy mate for the four of us. Her sudden increase in strength would be no match for all four of us but would certainly make subduing her more of a challenge. I met Tavik’s eyes and grinned. Even without saying so, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
Chapter Thirteen
Kaela
I hadn’t really tried to, but I’d won the competition. I’d fought hard, using every ounce of strength I had at my disposal. With my heightened senses, I was able to predict where the module figures were going to be and how they were going to strike. I could hear their movements and had reacted accordingly. They hadn’t landed a single blow on my body. Even when my sisters entered the ring with me, our combat had been different than what I remembered. Growing up, all four of us trained together, along with a number of members from our band of hidden humans back in the caves.
I’d been strong, but amongst the four of us, I had always considered myself the weakest. I was the youngest. Now, after I had battled both Danika and Alaina, it was clear something had changed in me. I was stronger, faster, and more graceful in my fighting capability. My memory flashed back to the battle in the woods, remembering how my four men had fought against their attackers. It was then that I realized that I had fought just like them here in the training ring. I had fought just like a Vakarran.
I turned my head and saw my four men walking up to the ring. I stepped down and approached them, watching the surprise and adoration on their faces.
With a smile, Tavik took my hand and pulled me into his arms.
“Come on, my little warrior. I think it’s time to get to bed,” he said, and I nodded. My men looked at me, their pride apparent in their eyes and I blushed. I said my goodbyes to the others and we went off into a private room that had been prepared for us.
My men demanded my attentions and I did little to deny them. I spread my legs and took each one of them, one after the other until they were spent, and I was happily filled with their cum. We needed our strength, but most of all, we needed each other.
I knew war was coming soon and in their desperate clutches, I could feel that they were thinking it too. Warm and satisfied, we laid together and I reflected on my feelings for them.
After everything we’d gone through together, they’d shattered my opinions on the Vakarran species. They’d told me the truth at every turn and protected me with their lives. I’d grown to trust them and now, I realized that I’d grown to love them. I couldn’t imagine a life without them and I didn’t want to.
Eventually I began to grow tired and closed my eyes.
I considered myself truly happy for the first time in a very long time. It didn’t take me very long to fall asleep after that.
* * *
Briiiiingggg. Briiiiingggg. Briiiiingggg.
What the fuck? Was this a dream? Whatever that was, it was so damn loud, and I wanted it to stop so I could keep sleeping. I reached to cuddle into my men’s warmth, but then I realized that they were no longer there. Suddenly, someone started to shake me.
I opened my lids and saw Caleb’s nervous face staring down at mine. His brow was furrowed with anxiety and I began to grow worried myself.
Had the time come for battle already?
It wasn’t a dream, but a terribly loud, repeating alarm, complete with flashing bright red lights. I pressed my hands to my ears and shook my head, forcing my fear far away. Tavik, Valdus, Zane, and Caleb were pulling on their clothes. I scampered to the edge of the bed and put on my own. In no time at all, I was prepared to leave with them and we hurried out of the bedroom.
The five of us rushed down several flights of stairs to the command room, where Alaina, Danika, and their men were already waiting. My eyes scanned around, studying the place.
There was a large piece of what looked like tempered glass at the front of the room. On it was a projected screen, showcasing a camera-like visual of the city, as well as a rotating scanner that indicated the surrounding airspace.
“What’s going on?” I asked over the constant drone of the alarm, although it was a bit quieter in the command room. I noticed that there was a single large silver blip on the scanner and as I moved closer, I read the label carefully. It was the Vakarran command ship, the ISS Starrider. I couldn’t see it in the imagery of the city skyline quite yet, but from its onward approach, I knew it was coming and that its arrival was imminent. I swallowed nervously. The time for war had finally come.
“Nix has begun the final approach. The ISS Starrider is less than an hour away from the center of the city. We must remain especially wary, although I highly doubt that they know our exact position,” Roan began.
“The shield has been mobilized and the entire bunker is under its protection. We’ve started mobilizing the cavalry as well,” Ryder answered. I noticed many
of the men were silent, and that Davon was typing away on a glass keyboard. His earpiece had extended over his eyes in a holographic screen. I turned my head back to the central city view, seeing that the sun was just rising. Had I not had a such an anxious feeling fluttering in my stomach, I would have stood and watched its beauty in the early morning sky.
Over the next sixty minutes, the room was a flurry of activity, with the men using headpieces to relay orders to the soldiers in both bunkers. It didn’t take very long for the Starrider to come into full view. It was so large that it blocked out the light from the sun, casting the city of Atlanta into shadow.
Not long after that, the first bomb fell. Even with all our protection, the ground rumbled dangerously above us. Dust fell from the ceiling and I was suddenly reminded of how far beneath the ground we were. Another fell, and then another and I closed my eyes, fearful of being buried alive under so many feet of dirt and rock. Every blast made my heart thump and the hair on the back of my neck rise in fear.
Sitting next to my men, I stayed out of the way, but all of them occasionally squeezed my shoulder or my thighs in support. Slowly, I calmed, and I began to trust in the work of our team. We were going to make it out of here alive. I was sure of it.
An hour passed and then two and the city scanner clearly indicated that the Starrider was focusing on no particular area, but the entire city as a whole. Roan had been right. Nix didn’t know where we were.