Chapter Seven
Lindsey
God, I was an emotional mess.
It had taken thirty frustrating minutes, but I’d figured out how to adjust the window tinting in Kiel’s quarters. I was now able to look out upon the rocky terrain, see the rugged beauty of the planet. While the room was temperature controlled, I shivered and I rubbed my arms.
I’d gone into this little adventure into outer space with only one thing on my mind. Wyatt. While I didn’t think any less often of him, I’d been surprised—no, stunned—by what I’d come to learn. The Colony wasn’t some prison. It wasn’t some outer space outpost of heathens. These were warriors who’d fought for the Coalition, been brave and courageous, even when captured by the Hive. Tortured. Altered. Forever changed.
Yet when it was time to go home, back to the families and people they’d fought so hard to protect, they weren’t welcome. Rejected by their own people as being dangerous and damaged. Broken.
Despite it all, they were on the Colony building new lives, a new world. They could have been lawless, like a weird Mad Max movie, but they were honorable warriors, not just from Earth, but from all the Coalition worlds. I’d met Rezzer the Atlan and he’d transformed into his beast for me, on camera, and under complete control. The memory sent a shiver of adrenaline through my body. The sharp-featured warriors with the golden, brown and copper coloring were from the main planet, the people in charge of the whole Fleet, the Prillons from Prillon Prime. They were huge, but had been nothing but courteous to me. The two Prillon that were friends with Kiel, Captain Marz and Lieutenant Vance, fought in the war for fourteen years.
That was more than half my life.
They gave me access to video records of Hive battles and I saw what those things were. And here, on the Colony, I was surrounded by what they did. Hurt people. Torture their captives. Change their bodies into something no longer human, or Prillon, or Atlan, no longer safe.
Contaminated. That was the word I heard over and over from the human men I interviewed. They looked frightening, something straight out of sci-fi movie with silver skin and circuitry built into their flesh. One of them had two completely silver eyes. He was dark skinned, from Atlanta and his mother had named him Denzel after her favorite actor. Now his close cut, curly black hair and dark skin surrounded eyes that looked like liquid mercury.
Seeing him cry had almost broken me in half. He had two sisters and a mother who’d raised all three of them on her own. She’d screamed and cried when he’d called her on the video screen to tell her why he could never come home again.
A very religious woman, she’d taken one look at his eyes, called him a demon and told him to kill himself.
And that wasn’t even the worst I’d heard. Seemed it didn’t matter what planet these guys were from, no one wanted them back. Everyone was afraid. Their people were afraid of them. Their governments were afraid of them. According to Kiel, that fear was not without merit.
One bad frequency generator could reactivate all of their Hive technology. The implants were literally dormant, waiting to be turned back on. And some of the men had the Hive implants in their brains. Their spines. According to Rezzer, the Prillon named Tyran, one of Kristin’s mates, had so much Hive technology in his muscles that he was actually stronger than the Atlan in full beast mode.
Scary was an understatement.
But they’d all been kind to me. In fact, the two people on this planet with the worst attitudes were the two human women, Rachel and Kristin. They both looked at me like I was torturing their favorite pet. They were so protective, so determined to save these guys, to give them some kind of happiness. Hope. Their mates had been tortured and broken, and now the women were determined to save them. To see other brides come to The Colony.
Senator Brooks had been wrong. Very wrong. Why shouldn’t he have been? No one knew the whole truth. I did. But I was here on the planet. I was supposed to be an observer. A hidden observer.
Yeah, that had lasted all of five minutes just as Rachel had said. I was a horrible investigator. But I’d gotten involved with these people. Learned the real stories. The truth. That’s what they wanted back on Earth. Well, that’s what they claimed to want, but I couldn’t guarantee these guys that their stories wouldn’t be spun into lies. I hadn’t cared when I was on the transport shuttle. I hadn’t cared about anything but making Wyatt better. Safe.
But now I cared about more than just my son. I cared about the warriors here. I cared about Kiel. He’d refused to be interviewed, but I didn’t need to put him in front of a camera and pester him with questions to know he was a good man. I felt it when our minds touched in the dreams. I felt it when he touched me.
Kiel.
He’d been unexpected. Yeah, I’d longed for someone to be mine. I longed for a man who was trustworthy, protective, honorable and brave. Caring and thoughtful. Even a little wicked and a whole lot dirty. But I never would have found him on Earth. No, he’d been waiting for me here. And he wanted me. Said I was destined to be his. Me!
The mark on my palm was now quiet. It didn’t hurt any longer, but my heart ached now, that pain exponentially worse. I’d spent one night with my marked mate—God, I couldn’t even wrap my head around that truth—and I wanted more. I wanted a lifetime. I didn’t have to know him for months to know that he was the one for me. The. One.
I’d go back to Earth and search the entire planet and I would never find a man more perfect for me than Kiel.
He was mine. My complete match.
It wasn’t kismet or serendipity. No, we’d been marked. Matched by fate, or God, or some unknown and unseen force that had somehow marked my palm and his—even though we were born clear across the universe from one another.
Kiel, the Hunter from Everis, was mine.
But I was leaving. Going back to Earth and choosing Wyatt over him. I would choose Wyatt over everything. While Kiel was my marked mate, Wyatt was my son. I could never walk away from him, never abandon him.
Nothing would keep me from him, not even true love with an unexpected and wonderful alien warrior, or ten light years of cold, black, empty space.
Rachel was helping me transport home. She’d shared her truth, ensured I knew it and would take it with me in the hopes that if women on Earth heard what she had to say, more brides would come to the Colony. She only wanted these warriors happy. While not everyone wanted a mate, most probably did. A family, children. Love.
Rachel, as it turned out, was pretty amazing. She knew my truth, knew the reason I would leave Kiel behind. I couldn’t tell him. No. He wouldn’t let me go. According to Rachel, he literally would not be able to allow me to leave. His need was beyond human, an instinct in the core of his being that would never allow him to leave me, no matter the circumstances.