Alien Savior: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (14 page)

Despite the fact that he hadn’t wanted to give them the year Danielle suggested – that they were a race he did not know, and who had resented his decree since they’d arrived on Garinia, now they depended on he and his people for help.

Kael called in more guards and medical staff, directing them to the people that needed the most attention. Within the hour, they had begun to empty the amphitheater of those who hadn’t already fled when the explosion had occurred. Roughly two hundred humans had been injured, five of them killed. The discovery made the prince bristle, anger simmering a slow burn in his gut.

The chaos lasted the entire day, and with it came scientists and analysts vowing to discover exactly who it was who had perpetrated the crime. However, as the hours passed – as more fragments of the explosives were found and no answers unearthed, the prince grew more and more irate. He kept remembering his wife’s beaming face, seeing her brief look of surprise at the moment of the incident, and then the sickness that had welled in his gut when he realized he couldn’t find her in the dust.

He would find who had done this. Find them, and make them pay.

However, when the first sun began to sink below the horizon, they were no closer to finding the criminals who had attempted to kill the princess – who
had
killed five of Garinia’s newest human citizens; and Kael’s ire rested on the edge of a knife. When a scientist voiced to him an asinine question – one he didn’t know the answer to – the man found himself the sudden victim of the prince’s wrath.

He went flying through the air to land several meters away in a battered heap. Kael immediately regretted his actions, forcing himself to swallow the helplessness that threatened to envelop him. He had allowed this to happen. It was he who had advocated Danielle’s speaking to the humans in such a place – he who had wanted Kaia to be there if she needed her. He had placed his family in danger – and he had failed the humans, who were already dissatisfied with him.

When the guards attending him looked from the dazed scientist to their prince, however, there was no judgement in their gaze. They, too, were soldiers – charged with keeping the people of the Garinian Empire safe. They, too, felt guilt at allowing this incident to occur; they were that caliber of men and women; if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the militia.

Quickly, the prince apologized for his behavior. Even as the scientist was being helped to his feet – apologizing profusely – Kael turned on his heel to stride from the stadium. A profusion of guards followed him, flanking him on every side as he made his way through the city streets to the medical facility to which he’d sent his wife and sister.

There had already been a public order to close the streets. Every citizen had been cleared from public areas in order to keep the population safe for the time being; so they met very little resistance as they made their way across the capital. They reached the medical center within a half hour, breezing toward the soldiers he’d posted at the front entrance.

The place was pandemonium. In addition to housing two members of the royal family, there had been a number of injured sent there, and so the doctors were swamped with a never ending array of duties. However, when their prince arrived, the bowing and scraping began the moment he walked through the door - and only paused while he talked to the additional guard stationed outside Danielle’s private room.

It took little for him to be admitted within, to where no less than three doctors were monitoring his wife on a bevy of machines. She was conscious, sitting up on an examination table with Kaia seated by her side, stroking her hand gently. When he entered, both women immediately looked up, Kaia rising to her feet immediately. When Danielle made to follow suit, Kael swept into the room with a frown. “Sit.”

Kaia sank back into her chair, helping Danielle back into her position on the examination pad. Without any pretense, the Prince made his way over to his wife to take her face gently between his hands, turning it this way and that to search for any further injuries. The cut on her forehead had already been tended to, covered with a minute bandage, and the bump at the back of her head had disappeared. She winced slightly as he tilted her head ever so slightly and he muttered a low apology. The young woman’s skin was pale, her eyes large and apprehensive as he checked her over.

“She is alright?” The prince directed the question to no doctor in particular, even though he already knew the answer to the question. He had informed the medical facility to tell him of anything that might threaten her life the moment they encountered it.

“Perfectly fine, my prince.” A female doctor with forest green locks and large purple eyes bowed deeply. “She has incurred a slight concussion that we’re already correcting. She should be fully recovered by the dawn of the new day.” The woman hesitated slightly before clearing her throat. “There is, however…one other matter…”

Kael stared at her, waiting for her to continue. The doctor seemed hesitant to speak, raising his ire – and he was on the cusp of ordering her to speak when Danielle interjected.

“I’m pregnant, Kael.”

The Prince froze, words fleeing him entirely. It took a long moment for the information to sink in.

Pregnant. Danielle was carrying his heir.

He had no idea why it had come as such a surprise. As much as he liked to indulge in his wife’s form, the prospect of a child had been an inevitability. Even so, a few mere moons ago, the prince hadn’t been able to fathom the idea of marrying at his age. He’d thought that marriage would come to him when he was older, and then, it would be an arrangement of convenience. He would have an heir and a family as was expected of him, and he would know his duty to the continuation of his family line had been fulfilled.

But this…this was different. While his marriage to Danielle had been an arranged one, he had been so wrapped up in the notion of his inevitable duty that he had not paused to consider the child itself.

His own flesh and blood.

Kael had promised himself that he would not let the idea of a family soften him. From his own family, he was the only soldier. The only one able to make the life and death decisions required to keep the empire from falling apart. Giving his wife and child undue affection…letting them control his heart…the notion promised to steel away his cold clear-headedness.

But even now, when he considered that he could have lost not only his new bride, but the unborn child inside her, rage filled him. As angry as he thought he had been, the emotion increased threefold.

He would find who had done this, and they would pay with their lives.

“The child…” He swallowed thickly, “The child is safe?”

“Your son is fine, Kael.” Kaia interjected softly, a small smile rising to her lips as she shared a proud glance with Danielle. “It will be a boy. A prince.”

Even as his own pride rose in his chest at the discovery, he could not indulge it. This news couldn’t have come at a more tumultuous time. They were set to launch their raid on the Remans in a few scant weeks, the humans had just been convinced to concede peacefully to the terms of the repopulation, and now the explosion.

The way things stood, his son would be born into an environment more threatening than welcoming. Turning from the two women, Kael took a deep breath to center himself. There was much to be done. He would have to ensure that the councilors and their families remained safe, and post a guard on members of his own family. Hadric would not be able to roam the palace halls with only his nurse for company any longer. The city would have to be prepared for anything that might happen while they poured their resources into finding the criminals. In that singular moment, he felt the weight of his crown dragging him downward powerfully, and cursed the decisions he must make.

And then, all at once, he felt the warmth of two slender arms slipping about his waist. He stiffened for a moment before Danielle’s soft, fragrant scent enveloped him. “Kael.” When she spoke, her voice was soothing, though he sensed she was just as afraid as he. “It will be OK. Everything will be alright.”

The Prince looked up to see that the doctors had gone. The only occupants of the room were he, his wife, and his sister. Before Danielle had come to this planet – even a few short weeks ago, just after they were wed, Kaia would have cautioned her against such public displays of affection. But now, he couldn’t bring himself to pull from her arms. His own parents had never shown him or his siblings much overt affection. They had understood their station, and the behavior it required.

As he’d grown older, however, Kaia had to embrace him more. With her, unlike with his brothers, he had felt freer to divulge his fears and apprehensions. Behind closed doors, she was the only one he’d ever allowed to comfort him.

Turning in his wife’s arms, Kael allowed himself one small, brief moment of weakness, against all he had sworn. He met Danielle’s clear, bright blue eyes, inhaled the sweet scent of her hair and brushed his lips over her forehead, before placing a hand over her flat belly.

“Our child will be safe, Danielle. I swear to you.”

With that, he forced himself to step away from her, turning from both women present to leave the room, his mind awhirl. He would speak with every scientist, analyst and bomb maker in the city if he had to, but by the morning, he would know who had perpetrated this vile attack.

And he would see them dead.

That night, Kael slept with Danielle firmly encircled in his arms. His thoughts were too tumultuous to have her physically, but he indulged in the warmth of her skin against his own, allowing it to galvanize his need to catch those who had threatened her life.

Three whole days passed before anyone brought forth any information on the bombing, and by that time, Kael’s nerves were dancing upon a razor’s edge. He snapped at any one who spoke to him and the councilors were afraid to call him into a meeting, knowing how his temper could be when he was stretched so thinly.

On the morning of the fifth day of the week, he was eating breakfast with Kaia and Danielle when a group of at least ten soldiers marched into the solar, holding between them a struggling man dressed in rags. Kaia made a sound of alarm, shielding her son as the guards forced the man to his knees before the prince, their expressions grave. Yasin stepped forward, his golden eyes glowing with a mixture of anger and triumph.

“My Prince.” He bowed low in fealty. “We have found the man that placed the bomb in the amphitheater. We believe he might be working in concert with others who sneaked into the city on trade ships.” He reached down to tangle long fingers in the man’s hair, yanking his face upward so that Kael could get a good look at his enemy.

The man’s aquamarine, slanted eyes, vivid violet hair and breathing slits in place of a proper nose immediately pronounced him a Reman. Kael rose from his chair, his eyes narrowing as the realization hit him with the impact of a physical blow.

A Reman.

They had taken their fight from the outer boundaries of the empire and brought it to the capital. It was not enough that they had killed thousands of Garinians in battle, and hundreds more in their rebellion. No…they had come here, to the heart of the city, and tried to kill their princess.

The Reman’s eyes blazed pure fire as they gazed up into his. Not once did they waver or defer. Kael had to swallow the urge to pummel the man into the ground – to beat him until his senses fled and he begged for mercy.

But he could not inflict such brutality before the eyes of his sister, wife, and nephew. He would have to contain his anger until an opportune time. For now, he could merely make sure his enemy understood that there would be no mercy. Kael’s voice was cold when he spoke. “Put him in razor restraints, in the darkest cell of confinement, and tell the council to convene.”

The traitor spat a stream of curses in his own language as he was dragged away, and Yasin bowed deeply before seeing him off. Almost immediately, Kael stood from the table, his appetite gone. Kaia met his gaze, reading the fury there, and said absolutely nothing, merely cradling her son to her.

“That was him, wasn’t it?” The prince turned to face his wife, who was staring in the direction in which the guards had dragged the Reman prisoner. Her face was pale, blue eyes wide in her slim face. Of course, she hadn’t literally understood the exchange between he and Yasin, but she didn’t have to. “The man behind the bombing.”

“You needn’t worry.” He replied brusquely. “He will be prosecuted to the full extent of our laws…and then…I will deal with him personally.”

“Kael…I want to speak with him.”

For a moment, he believed he hadn’t heard her correctly. She wanted to
speak
with the man who had tried to kill her and her unborn child? Was she absolutely mad? The prince took a moment to reign in his temper before replying firmly.

“Absolutely not.” Before she could argue with him, he continued. “I refuse to put your safety in jeopardy again, Danielle. This man would kill you without a second thought. You are not to go anywhere near him, do you understand me?”

“He’s a Reman, isn’t he?” Her inquiry was low, almost desperate. “I know he is. Please, Kael, let me speak to him. I know you think the raid is the only way, but if you’ve never attempted negotiation...if we could show that we’d be willing to hear what he has to say-“

Had she not heard a single word he’d just said? He wasn’t letting her anywhere near the holding cells, let alone the murderous man who’d tried to take her life. “
No
, Danielle. That is my last word on the subject. I know how to deal with these rebels, and it is my duty to keep you and everyone in this empire safe from harm. There will be no negotiations, and no conversation.”