Alien General's Bride: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (23 page)

“As a senator, he cannot. But general to general, he can.”

Isolde’s eyes searched Diego’s. “But you’d win, right?”

No one answered. Finally, Eleya sighed. “Diego might. Faren, if Crane does not take him on first. That is the problem. All the others we named – they would fall to him, leaving us without their support. Who knows who their heirs would be loyal to?”

“Only one way, then,” Diego said. Isolde’s beautiful green eyes went wide with understanding, and fear. “I challenge him first.”

He turned to Eleya. “Have it made known. Pass my challenge to him. This actually works out in our favor. We had been planning to make Isolde the cause of my return, but it will be obvious Eren and I are at odds and the public will wonder why. This way, we can play it off as my protest for a sixteenth general and our people will remain as oblivious to the Rhea question as they have been so far. Eren actually gave us an excuse to muster in force and to have the Elders called out of their meditation.”

Faren nodded. It was always good for him to nod, Diego had found. Yes. This was how they’d do it.

He disbanded the meeting and ordered Narath and Deliya to escort Isolde back to his quarters, ignoring the look of worry on her beautiful face. That would also work out, though it physically pained him to see her distressed. Crane was a formidable fighter, his
gesha
’s concern would not be frowned upon. Then he turned to the other worried face, pale with terror. This one knew better
how
good Crane was.

“Aneya,” he said.

The holoimage tried to put on a brave face, but wasn’t successful. At least she knew better than to plead with him not to fight, knew better than to insult him.

“You must finally accept this,” Diego said. “You are not my fated mate. I am bringing Isolde to a strange and faraway planet. You will not make things worse by treating her with contempt.”

Urenya dared to speak her mind to him because she was a friend and her wisdom was always appreciated. Aneya feared him, but in times, spite got the better of her. Diego tolerated it for the sake of their friendship. She hadn’t always been like that. Only since it’d become obvious they would never be one. Before, she’d been kind and smart. Lately, she was merely a shadow of that memory, but Diego would deal with that once the much more pressing issues were handled.

“She is not a Brion,” the woman protested. “She does not belong with you.”

“She is my
gesha
,” Diego said, blood rushing in his ears. “That is exactly where she belongs.”

“You deserve better!” Aneya snapped. “A proud, strong Brion woman who would make a true
gesha
for the mightiest general. Not some human.”

Diego should have been furious, but a part of him understood. He was trying to rationalize something with Isolde that she could just not accept.

“We are not meant to be,” he said calmly. “Never were.”

Aneya pouted, somehow beautiful even in frustration. Diego didn’t know whether to congratulate her future mate for her beauty and temper, or offer his condolences for the latter.

“It is not fair,” she finally said.

No. It really is not.

“It is not for us to decide,” he replied. “Will this be a problem, Aneya?”

“Of course not,” she shot back, venom tripping from her words. “I would never cause you harm, never put you in danger. Never hurt you.”

“I believe you,” Diego said, and he did. “I meant if this will be a problem with Isolde?”

Aneya looked furious enough to explode, but shook her head.

“Good,” Diego said. “Do not disappoint me.”

The holoimage sent him the same look that greeted him in the mirror every day – a mix of love, fury and frustration – and flickered out of life.

Finally alone, Diego could at last let his mind go to Crane. He’d expected a trick from Eren, hadn’t even ruled out the sixteenth general option, but to have it yield
him –
that was something. They were not exactly of age as were he and Faren. Out of the depths of memory, childhood lessons returned. His father had wanted him to learn from the best fighters and took him to watch and train with them.

Watching Crane hadn’t been Diego’s first meeting with death, but it had been the first time he’d seen somebody so thoroughly enjoy seeing someone die. Crane had been a monster then, and he’d only gotten worse as years went by. Once thought to be a great general in making, he’d been removed from the armies when they joined the GU.

It was said Crane no longer interacted with the world. That he was truly, utterly mad with everything washed away but his need to kill. To fight him, Diego had to be of similarly single purpose.

Didn’t they say you were never supposed to stoop to someone’s level, because then they’d beat you with experience?

Diego Grothan smiled. There was a fight to come, a true fight. One he believed he
could
win, but for the first time in ages didn’t
know
he would win. His blood roared in hunger at the prospect.

He felt like himself again.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Isolde

Isolde barely registered her last days on the
Triumphant
. She felt alone and abandoned, despite everyone on the ship theoretically on her side and most of them under orders to protect her with their lives.

At nights, she lay sleepless in Diego’s huge bed, gripping the sheets in exasperation, forever hesitating between going to him and staying put. It was just all wrong. The joke was she
wanted
to want him. The comfort of him, the excitement, the desire… she’d tasted heaven and was no longer sure she could do without.

In fact she knew quite well she was not ready to give it up. Yet she still could not forgive him, could not trust him. And above all, Isolde wanted to love, not to be drawn together by some mystical thread of fate.

The problem was she could no longer differentiate.
Did
she love him? Or was she simply attached to him?

Her days were filled with worry. She had cornered Deliya immediately after the meeting and pressed for any detail of the new general. From what the Brion warrior had said, Crane was as vicious as they got, a born fighter, a natural on par with Diego and Faren, who were rarities themselves.

He had the strength to match his dark heart and no moral fiber to stay his hand. Diego was supposed to fight that monster. Isolde feared for him so badly she had barely slept even at times when her desire would have allowed it.

In the end, one morning she found the screen in Diego’s resting room displaying Briolina’s dark yellow globe. They had arrived.

At least Briolina wasn’t their first immediate stop, similarly to
Luna Secunda
and Terra, an intergalactic orbital station rested at high anchor above the Brion home planet. Much more elegantly titled
Sphere
, it welcomed Isolde with pretty much everything she’d expected. The moment she stepped off the shuttle, people surrounded her from all sides.

If it’d been the ancient times, cameras would have flashed, but in space, she could register their presence only by seeing lenses and complicated machinery instead of faces. She hated it. On her arm, Diego took notice. One glare from him sent nearly all of them running for their lives, leaving only those with actual purpose with them.

Eleya was the first, welcoming them properly. Isolde found herself absurdly afraid of her for some reason. Perhaps it was the trust Diego showed her, making them easy targets. Yet her handshake was firm and her eyes determined instead of vicious. Isolde relaxed a fraction, only to be kidnapped from Diego’s arms by a… human. A human! A live human!

Not for long, though. She was reminded of the old saying “if looks could kill” as Diego’s hand went to his spear before Eleya interfered.

“General Grothan, you might remember Angus, the Terran ambassador. Do not murder him for wanting a word with our sensation.”

Diego relaxed, signaling for Isolde’s guards to follow her. And so Isolde got to speak English again – with a live human! She found she’d said that out loud when the ambassador started laughing, steering her away from the Brions, her guards following at a respectful distance. She looked over her shoulder to see Diego speaking to Eleya and some other Brion, another general by the looks of his armor. She felt abandoned again, like Diego’s presence made her feel… complete and whole.

Finally, she had another human to talk to and she didn’t know where to begin.

Angus was a middle-aged man judging by his looks, with just a bit of grey behind his ears. Isolde had never met him, but she knew he’d been the Terran ambassador all his life and looked as he did only thanks to heavy rejuvenating technology.

“Could you give us a moment?” he turned to her guards.

They hesitated.

“I wonder what you think I might do to her,” he said seriously. “This is a Brion station. I merely want a private word. You can observe from a distance.”

It took a moment for Isolde to realize he spoke perfect Brionese. Not only Brionese, but the real version. Her guards nodded reluctantly, staying behind as they walked on into one of the vestibules lining the grand hall.

When they were as much alone as they could be, the ambassador turned to her. Isolde didn’t know if the whole thing with Brion politicians had put her off the occupation altogether, but she found herself a bit wary around him.

The man smiled. “Welcome, Isolde Fenner, to Briolina,” he said.

“Ambassador,” Isolde said carefully.

“First of all,” he went on, “it’s Angus. Secondly, we only have so much time before they’ll snatch you away again and honestly I can’t blame them. You have quite a few enemies here. First things first. Are you really Diego’s
gesha
?”

“Yes,” Isolde nodded.

“Good,” the ambassador said, unfazed by the enormity of the implications. “That is good at least. If that was a lie, my life would have been much more complicated. Now to the other problem, the
much
more pressing one. Will you reveal Rhea’s secret to the galaxy?”

Isolde’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t do that, child,” Angus said. Isolde was about to argue she wasn’t that much younger than him, but she was, wasn’t she? “I’ve been the ambassador on this planet for a long time, placating manipulative politicians and temperamental warlords. Do me a favor and don’t think I’m an idiot. I would be dead ten times over if I was.”

Despite herself, Isolde found herself warming up to him. If simply for the fact he didn’t seem to be doing nothing as Terran politicians usually did. The need to spill all her secrets was so great for a moment she truly considered it, but Angus shook his head.

“No, child,” he warned. “These are the Brions. Say nothing I don’t directly ask. I don’t need to know and you shouldn’t tell. Say only that – will you give them away?”

Isolde wondered what the correct answer was, but given that she’d been asked not to take Angus for an idiot, she looked him straight in the eye and said, “No.”

The Terran ambassador relaxed visibly. “Good. Then I think we can work with this. You and I, we must help keep the galactic peace now.”

“What should I do?” Isolde asked, suddenly terrified of the prospect of really setting her foot on an alien planet very soon.

Angus smiled. “You just hold on. On Briolina, there is little someone without martial might can do, although we’re not powerless. Be yourself, don’t upset anyone, and let your prince charming do what he does best.”

Isolde couldn’t hold back a smile at that description. Then she remembered. “But Crane… that new general?”

“Oh, they told you, did they?” Angus asked. “He’s a beast, I won’t lie. Don’t worry your head with him. I’ve seen your
gerion
fight better, stronger men and keep his title. You know what
grothan
means, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“Mark my words, he will remain
grothan
when the fight is done.”

Other ambassadors approached. Isolde recognized the Palians and other important species in the GU. They all wanted a moment with her, to ensure someone wasn’t playing a great joke on them, and some surely looking for reasons to report lies to their council members. Isolde put on her blushing bride smile. Angus stayed by her side, giving her comfort, but her heart longed for Diego’s solid, firm presence at her side.

The thought of Crane didn’t leave her mind, however much she tried. In a way, it helped her sell the binding. The Palian ambassador, for example, was a kind woman who soothed her, saying they’d all seen Diego fight honor duels and that he was bound to win against a mindless brute like Crane.

Isolde didn’t find it very comforting, but it played well with the image of a
gesha
going mad with fear for her mate.