The Alien Commander's Baby: Sci-fi Alien Romance (Men of Omaron) Page 3

  “The kainaan process is when you extract energy source from a Dava male and insert it into a female which makes her pregnant, right?” Karen spoke aloud. She didn’t know much about it, except what she’d learned from Megan and Jillian. It’s how her nephew, Kelan, and niece, Tamiah had come into existence.

  “Correct.”

  “And this will save him?”

  “Perhaps. Although energy source extraction is a taxing process on the body. Death is possible even in healthy participants.”

  “But he might live if we try…” Karen said softly.

  “Karen,” Suri spoke up for the first time, startling Karen. She’d completely forgotten Suri was in the room too. She faced the princess. There was a knowing look in Suri’s pretty violet eyes. “I don’t think this is a decision you should make without thought. He might not want this.” She placed a hand on Karen’s shoulder. “You should speak with your kin first.”

  “I haven’t made any decisions yet,” Karen said, her tone defensive. But she knew it was a lie. Her mind was already made up. This man had saved her life tonight. She had to repay him. She couldn’t just stand back and watch his life disappear knowing she could have done something to keep him alive.

  Sure, the consequence was huge. Life-changing. She’d be having a baby. A baby for an alien man she knew nothing about. It’s true, he might not want this. As a matter of fact, there was a ninety-nine percent possibility of him waking up and hating her for taking away his choice. What if he’d never wanted children? And even if he did want kids, he’d definitely want a say in who the mother should be.

  But as important as these things were to consider, she didn’t want to dwell on the ramifications of her actions. Later, when everything was settled and she had time to think things through. This might be a terrible decision, but it was for a great cause. The end justified the means. This was a life. And if she had to bring forth one to save another, so be it.

  “I’ll do it,” Karen said. “Tell me what I have to do, Zezvar.”

  Zezvar eyes widened in surprise. “Yena Karen, I have not fully researched this treatment method. It might be best if we considered it a bit longer—”

  Her features tightened in determination. “We don’t have time to consider it. You said he wouldn’t last through the night, so it’s now or never.” She held onto the alien doctor’s shoulder. “Please, Zezvar. Let’s do what we can to save him.”

  Zezvar regarded her for a moment until he finally said, “As you wish, my Yena.”

  “Karen, this is not wise,” Suri began and when Karen opened her mouth to speak, Suri held up a hand to halt her. “However, I will help. Only the Elders can invoke a kainaan. I will bring those who are willing to participate here.”

  “Thanks, Suri,” Karen said, biting her lip. She followed Suri to the door. “And please don’t tell my sisters anything. Not yet. Not until… after.”

  With a nod, Suri left.

  While Suri was gone, Zezvar prepped Karen by having her change into a loose gown. He instructed her to lie in one of the glass pods so he could ascertain her health.

  “Optimal conditions for implantation,” he announced cheerily when he finished.

  “That’s good,” Karen said, awarding him a weak smile.

  He held up a slim, cylindrical device for her to see. Similar to the one her kidnapper had used to numb her.

  “I will use this to extract the blood once the implantation process is complete. It is not painful like your barbaric needles on Earth. However, the implantation of the essence is uncomfortable. Would you like to be asleep during the process?”

  “No,” Karen said, digging deep for a brave voice. “I’ll stay awake.”

  He nodded and puttered away to continue his preparations. She stared up at the ceiling of the room as doubts began to claw at her. So she turned her gaze to the unconscious man lying in the pod beside hers.

  His eyes were closed, his features eerily still. The only sign of life was the readings on the panel of his pod. She couldn’t read the text, so she looked at his handsome face and reminded herself of when he was awake and active. The way he’d stirred her attraction with just his captivating presence. She remembered that bleak moment tonight when all hope she’d ever see her family again had been completely lost. Then the extraordinary moment he’d rushed in to save her.

  He might have been unfriendly to her in the past, but he’d more than made up for it. And she would repay him in kind. A life for a life. Except, nobody was dying today. She would make sure of that.

  “Zezvar, what’s his name?” she asked. She bit her lips together, feeling self-conscious beneath the alien doctor’s curious gaze.

  “Yen Kess Reihan.”

  Yen? Wasn’t that a designation for someone with royal ties? The more she learned about this man, the more she didn’t know.

  Suri returned along with two women and one man. The trio wore beige tunics and purple sashes hung over their shoulders.

  They must be the Elders.

  They pressed their hands to their chest and bowed respectfully. Standing straight, they pinned Karen with serious gazes.

  “Shall we begin?” one Elder asked.

  At Zezvar’s nod, they moved to Kess’ pod. The gravity of the situation was reinforced when the top of the pod slid open and they surrounded it, hands hovering just over Kess’ midsection. They chanted. Slow whispers at first until their voices strengthened and their words came quicker. Even though Kess remained unconscious, he tossed his head, trembling and squirming, his features twisted in pain.

  Karen held her breath, aghast. Years ago, Megan had found a Ouija board in their parent’s attic. Megan suggested they conduct a seance to contact Nana Francesca, and Jillian had agreed to take part. At twelve years old, Karen had wanted to seem grown up like her teenage sisters, even if the thought of speaking to dead Nana Frankie had scared her shitless.

  And so the seance began and nothing interesting happened at first. Then all of a sudden, Megan trembled, thrashing her head, her arms flailing about as she shouted unintelligible words like if a demon possessed her. Karen remembered screaming her head off and scrambling out of the attic so fast, she’d tripped on the stairs. The last thing she heard as she catapulted into her bedroom closet to hide was Megan and Jillian laughing.

  In retrospect, it was a funny prank. But there was nothing funny about this present moment.

  Her stomach churned with guilt at Kess’ visible pain. She wanted to tell the Elders to stop, to end this, that she had made a mistake. But it was too late. A bright luminescent ball rose out of Kess, guided by the Elders’ hands. Transfixed, Karen stared at the ball in a mixture of wonder and fear.

  One Elder cupped the glowing ball in her hands and came forward. Karen froze, her fingers digging deep into the material of the gown she wore. In that moment, she regretted not having Megan or Jillian there with her for comfort.

  But Suri was at her side, holding her hand. Another Elder came, lifting her gown to reveal her bare stomach. Karen had no chance to feel self-conscious about her underwear being revealed. Her heart pounded so loudly in her head, she barely heard the low hum of Suri’s voice reassuring her.

  “Are you ready, my Yena?” asked the Elder gently. Maybe she saw the terror etched on her face. Karen nodded, her voice a silent prisoner in her throat.

  The Elder’s hand descended with the luminescent ball. Karen let out a gasp of surprise from the mild warmth as the ball fused with her body. The warmth grew stronger, burning her up from the inside out. Oh god, she was on fire! Her heart galloped, her lungs screamed for oxygen. Suri continued to comfort her but she couldn't decipher the words.

  Her vision blurred, dimmed, and a tiny whimper escaped her before darkness finally claimed her for its own.

  4

  Kess

  —

  Death itself was not the thing that people feared.

  It was the lack of knowledge of what happened after. What they feared was their existence
being wiped clean. That there was no life after death.

  Kess never believed in an afterlife. He figured that if one came from the darkness as a babe, in death, one returned to that darkness and lack of existence. He supposed that was why he excelled during his years at the academy and then in his police work. He’d accepted the inevitable that he’d come into existence to play his part. Then he would leave when the gods decided he’d done enough. Thus, he’d play his part exceptionally so that when he no longer existed in corporeal form, he’d at least exist in the memory of others.

  His brother, Riva, believed in an afterlife. Whereas Kess considered himself the realist, his brother had a fondness for daydreams. Riva's imagination was limitless. He believed that the afterlife was a beautiful, mystical land where one would bask in the presence of the gods, acquire their vast knowledge of the universe, and become a god as well.

  So when Kess blinked open his eyes and saw the drab white ceiling above him, he wondered if both he and Riva had been wrong all this time. Perhaps the afterlife wasn’t absolute darkness or a fantastical land. Perhaps it was far worse: a dull place where one was trapped for eternity.

  “Welcome back to the living.”

  Shielding his eyes from the abrupt brightness, Kess turned his head in the direction of the soft voice. He found the human female seated in a chair. Dropping his hand to his side, he shifted his gaze away from her. He took in his surroundings and recognized it immediately since he’d spent several days here before.

  He was lying in a bed in the palace hospital.

  He was alive.

  He struggled to sit up. The human stood and attempted to help him, but shrunk away when he glared at her. There was a dull ache in his shoulder and in the stab wounds he’d received from the Muridian attack. Quite unlike these past several months where the sharp pains of the stab wounds made him swallow more than the normal amount of tabs.

  More so, he felt stronger somehow. Almost close to how he used to be before the attack on Pheor. But how could that be when just before he fell unconscious, he was certain he was on the cusp of death?

  He pinned the human in his sights, taking in her beautiful face. The stark light in the room caught in her golden hair and made her blue-grey eyes luminous.

  “Why am I here?” His voice came out gravelly and harsher than he’d intended. His hair hung free from its usual tie, the ends grazing his shoulders. He pushed wayward strands back from his face.

  “Because I brought you,” she said. “Well, Suri did. After you passed out, she showed up and—”

  “Why am I alive?” he cut in.

  “Because Zezvar isn’t just a medic. He’s a magician too.”

  She smiled, the action a little too tight at the corners of her lips. She took a step back toward the chair and shifted her gaze away from his. Modern technology had provided accurate methods to tell if an individual was lying. However, as an erstwhile Union Police officer, Kess had honed his perceptiveness over the years.

  Her distancing body language spoke volumes.

  He scowled. “What are you hiding?”

  He swung his legs off the side of the bed. Even standing, she was such a petite creature in comparison to him. He stood, clinging to the edge of the bed when his legs temporarily refused to cooperate. He realized, belatedly, he was naked when the sheet slid from his body to hang off the bed. He thought about covering himself, but decided it would work in his favour to rattle her. Get the truth out of her. After all, he’d heard about humans and their strange, prudish ways. They favoured viewing violence and gore over seeing something as natural as bared flesh.

  Her gaze dropped below his navel before she raised her eyes to his once more. Red suffused her creamy skin, but she didn’t retreat from him like he’d anticipated.

  “I’m not hiding anything,” she said. There was a slight waver in her voice, but a determined look in her eyes. “It’s just hard for me to tell you what happened, and the procrastinator in me is saying I should delay it for as long as I can.”

  Despite himself, the corners of his mouth twitched in mild amusement.

  “Why?”

  She rubbed her lips together. “Because of how you’re going to react.”

  He frowned. “Human, I have no patience for guessing games. Tell me—”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  His eyebrows knit together in confusion. “How is this relevant?”

  “Because the baby is yours, Kess.”

  Stunned, Kess stared at her as if she’d grown an extra head or if she’d suddenly began shouting at the top of her lungs in some gibberish language he’d never known existed. His brain didn’t have room to question how she knew his name. Instead, it struggled to pick from the multitude of questions that had cropped up due to her unbelievable claim.

  “Zezvar said you were dying but that…” Her voice faltered yet she carried on. “He said there was a cure. A way to save you. Blood from a Dava baby formed through kainaan once the essence was implanted into the mother.” She licked her lower lip, her gaze unblinking. “You risked your life to save mine, and a mere thank you could never have been enough to repay you. So I… I… decided to return the favour.”

  Thick, heavy silence settled between them. After Riva, all he’d sought, all he’d lived for was revenge. Of course, he’d shared his bed with women when the moment arose, but he'd pushed all thoughts of love and building a family to the back of his mind. He didn’t have the time or the capacity to be someone’s mate or someone’s father. The thought used to leave him discontent with his life, but with time, he’d come to accept that this was the way it should be.

  Being alone was for the best.

  And now this human female had come trampling into his life. Her admission like a bludgeon destroying that wall of cold acceptance within which he’d fortified himself.

  “Please say something,” she said, visibly worried. As she should be.

  “How could you have done this?” The words came out harsh, reflecting his climbing outrage. Anger strengthened him, gave him mobility. He released his grip on the bed’s edge and advanced on her.

  “You would have died,” she said, her tone defensive. “I couldn’t let that happen. Not after what you did for me.”

  “That was not your choice to make,” he spat. “Whether I lived or died should not have been your concern. What you did was not only foolish but incredibly selfish.”

  “Selfish?” she glared up at him. “What I did affects me too. I did it to save your life, but my life has been changed forever.”

  “And yet, you made this decision of your own free will.” His voice came out low and deadly. He grabbed hold of her upper arms, looming over her. The anger in her eyes transformed into fear and she tried to squirm free from his grasp.

  “Let me go.”

  “You took something from me.” His grip tightened on her upper arms as he dragged her closer. “You took away my choice, my essence, and my independence. And I’m going to make sure you repay me for each one of them.”

  He pulled her right up against him and brought his head down to claim her mouth in a rough, punishing kiss. She froze for a brief moment before she fought him, pushing her hands against his chest and twisting her face away from the kiss. He released her arm and fisted strands of her long hair, holding her head in place as he kissed her again. He forced his tongue into her mouth and the instant it touched hers, all the fight in her died away. A soft whimper escaped her and the sound sent an arrow of lust that was hotter than his fury straight to his groin.

  He released her abruptly and she staggered away from him. Her features mimicked the confusion roiling within him. A myriad of emotions battled for supremacy. Shame for how he’d treated her, anger for what she’d done, and the intense desire he felt for her despite it all.

  “Leave,” he commanded.

  She spun, running out of the room and away from him.

  5

  Karen

  —

  In the history
of bad decisions, Karen was certain ‘getting knocked up for an alien man who hated her guts’ had to be near the top of the list.

  Kess had said what she did was foolish. Her sisters agreed. After she’d woken up from the implantation procedure, her sisters had only focused on comforting her. They’d insisted she postpone her return trip to Earth and had encouraged her to rest. And now she knew why. So she could regain enough energy to handle their scolding.

  “Karen, what the hell were you thinking?” asked Megan with exasperation and disbelief. At least it was better than what Jillian offered: crossed arms, pursed lips, and a bone-chilling silence that made Karen’s shoulders hunch together in dread. Her visit with Kess earlier today had been bad enough, but this was worse.

  They were all seated at the small table in her room. Jillian’s daughter, Tamiah, slept in a hovering bassinet. Megan’s son, Kelan, occupied himself on the floor with multicoloured building blocks. Occasionally, Kelan flexed or fisted his pudgy little fingers and a block shivered and rolled around like an invisible hand moved it.

  “I was thinking that I didn’t want someone who’d stuck their neck out for me to die,” said Karen, struggling not to sound petulant. She might be the baby of the Landay sisters, and Megan and Jillian often treated her as such, but that didn’t mean she had to sound like one.

  “But you did what you were supposed to,” said Megan. “You carried him to Zezvar for help. You could have left him in Zezvar’s capable hands.”

  “That’s what I would have done if Zezvar hadn’t said he was going to die that night.” Karen ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. “Obviously I didn’t want this, but I did what felt right at the time. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be sitting here getting the, ‘You fucked up again, Karen’ speech from the both of you.”

  God, this was just like the time when she’d told them about her engagement to her ex, Trevor. Granted, their vocal objections to the engagement had merit in the end. She was halfway into her first year of med school when she met Trevor. The laid-back, fun-loving tattooist with a bad boy streak had seemed like the reprieve she needed from a hectic, demanding workload. Sure he liked to gamble, but who on Earth didn’t have a bad habit of some sort, she’d reasoned. Three months into their relationship, he’d proposed and she’d agreed like a ninny because the love they shared was unbelievable. Unshakable! Well, turned out it wasn’t that unshakable after all. Not when she came home to find a loan shark’s goons lay-waiting her in her apartment, demanding she notify Trevor he repay the fifty grand he owed or else.