Meridian Warriors: Xander and Des (8 page)

“They have to be lying—this is part of the
brainwashing. My father is the pillar of the community. How could
he be an alien, wouldn’t he like turn green, or have larger eyes
than normal, maybe an antenna sticking out of his head. How do you
hide that kind of shit,” Alex said and wailed.

“Okay, let’s think of this logically,” Gabby
said and rolled her eyes when the men all nodded their heads in
agreement. “Okay, let’s be logical alone.”

Gabby and the women looked pointedly at the
men and they began to shuffle their feet back and forth. “Men,
let’s leave. We will all come back later,” Xander said and waited.
As the last man left the room, he turned and said to the women. “I
know this is hard to hear, but we are telling the truth. Now that
you have encountered your mates, you will begin to feel the mating
pull. I am sorry for that. We would never force you, but you need
to know what to expect. If you have questions, please just ask
Sage.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Alex
whispered when they all left. Her eyes were red from crying, but
she had calmed down. “I need to call my dad.”

Gabby put her arm around her shoulder, “By
now, you saw the boat, Coast Guard would have called them. They are
probably sending out a search party. I think maybe we should wait
and see what happens. I don’t know why, but I think they are
telling the truth. Look, some of this shit you can’t fake. I mean
we need to ask more questions, but seriously think reasonably.”

Alex looked at the sisters who seemed in
agreement. “How can I do that? I mean either he is keeping a huge
secret from all of us or he is not. Don’t you want answers? He knew
your parents, so basically he has been lying to all of us.”

“I agree, and if my parents were still alive,
we would probably feel the same way. However, you know we have come
to terms with being orphaned and on our own. However, if we are
right, and he has been lying, what would he have to gain, that is
the real question, no matter how much I love you, I will not lie to
you. Your father is self-centered and looks out for number one. We
have always felt like that. I admit we have talked about it and
never really trusted him, but he was your dad,” Sam said slowly and
looked at Gabby for support.

Alex felt tears gathering in her eyes as she
thought about the last few years. Her father had become distant and
almost intolerable about her finding someone to marry. When James
came into the picture, her father had been ecstatic and Alex felt
like she had finally done something right.
How wrong she had
been
.

Now looking back—it could be that she was
just seeing the real man after all these years. Alex was
frustrated, how could she explain to them that until she heard his
voice and spoke to him, she would never know.

“Okay, I get it. I felt it, too, especially
over the last incident. I explained to you what happened, but I
never told you what my father said. When I went to him to explain
what I saw with James, I overheard him talking. He was ready to put
James in the CEO position when we were engaged. Said that when I
was pregnant, I could stay at home and watch the children—it would
keep me occupied and happy,” Alex said slowly and Gabby opened her
mouth to say something, but she saw the look in Alex’s eyes, and
knew she was not done.

“After I realized he never intended to put me
in the CEO position, I was pissed, and angry. I wanted to show him
what his little ‘yes boy’ had done, so I stormed into the room and
told him James had been sleeping with the maid. His response was,
‘I must have been doing something wrong if I couldn’t keep him
happy in the bedroom.’ I was shocked and hurt, we argued, I said
some really ugly things. However, the weird part was, I mean when I
look back on it now, he wasn’t pissed off about James at all. He
was more worried about who I was going to find to replace him, and
how I needed to either see a sex counselor to learn how to do it
and get over my issues, or to suck it up and fake it.”

Sam swore and threw a tablet of paper that
was on the small desk next to them. Gabby looked at her and said,
“I don’t even know what to say about that—other than the man is a
prick.”

“Don’t you get it though? I need to know, I
need to know if he loves me for me or for what I can give him. The
only way I can do that, is to call and tell him I am alive and see
what his response is,” Alex insisted. “What if they are right? Then
I have to tell you my father is in this neck deep, and he is not
working for the good side. He would work for whoever would benefit
him the most.”

“Right, there is only fifty of the Meridian
and if they are telling the truth, there are a lot of the Hoppy
whosiwhat’s,” Gabby said waving her hand around.

“The son of a bitch is going to disappoint
you again. I love you, but seriously, you are setting yourself up.
We need to look at this like an outsider. First, we have our
parents’ death. Gabby and I have looked into the accident, and the
State Patrolman who investigated it, said that it didn’t make sense
that they were ran off the road. Of course, his report was buried
and we had to dig for it, but we found it. Then we have your mother
dying during childbirth. In addition, surprisingly when we were
looking and snooping into our parents’ death, your father came
forward and suddenly ‘found’ us. I have to tell you, over the last
few years, every time we see him or talk to him, he somehow asks
about our little investigation. It was weird, but now it could make
sense,” Sam said.

“Are you so ready to believe there are aliens
in the universe, as opposed to this is one fucked up dream?” Alex
yelled. She was frustrated and angry, in her heart she knew she was
right, there was something weird going on, and until they answered
some basic questions, they would never figure this out.

***

“What the hell is going on? How could they
have the DNA from the Meridian? And what is the other marker in the
DNA?” Xander demanded as they walked back into the office.

Sage had come with them to talk to them and
explain, “I just got the results right when you walked in.”

“Well, you damn well should have pulled us
out and told us. I mean what the hell?” Des snarled at his
friend.

Sage frowned and looked at his leader, “I am
sorry, sir. However, they were their test results. I made an oath
when I graduated from med school. My patients are my
responsibility.”

Xander sighed and ran his hands over his
head. “Whatever, done and over with. Now, you need to explain
this.”

“Okay, from what I can figure out is, there
must have either been another ship that survived and made it to
Earth, or the Hopis captured some of the women and brought them
here. That is the only explanation I can come up with on how
Meridian blood ended up in the women. It is not pure; it is diluted
by several generations from what I can tell. It would make sense
though, I just don’t know what the other blood is, could be Hopis,
could be something else,” Sage said.

“Who the fuck else could it be? That day we
SAW
the ships blow up. There was no mistaking that. However,
if they had captured some people before they were able to get on
the ship it would explain everything. There was a lot of confusion,
and panic. We looked after the explosion, there was no one left.
Before, it was too crazy, and everyone was trying to escape, a few
women or men disappearing would have gone unnoticed,” Cash said
from the corner.

Casius spoke from the corner where he was
leaning against the wall, “How would we find out?”

“We would need to test Alex’s father. Sam and
Gabby’s parents are dead, according to the files. But I am curious
about that though, and I am also curious about there being two
different women with Meridian blood. It would take me a while to do
a thorough DNA analysis, I mean I know the facts, but I can give
you more detail in a few more days,” Sage said.

“Getting the father is out of the question,
we need to play it close to the chest for now. If there are more
Meridians out there, we could have more mates. They cannot know we
are on to the whole thing. I think meeting Alex and her friends was
a fluke, but they can’t know we have found them. I think it would
put everyone’s life in danger who is still on the surface,” Xander
said.

“How can they be our mates and not shift?”
Rosul asked.

“I don’t know, maybe Sage will be able to
answer that question when the tests are done, for now, we need to
get as much information as we can on the girls, their families, and
their ancestors. We will track this down,” Des said and looked at
Casius.

“On it, let me get a few more of the men, and
we will help Rosul weed through the reports,” Casius said and
nodded to the men and the three left. Sage was left with them and
he smiled and looked down.

“Listen, I am not one to speak out of turn,
but you are going to have to do some research on your own. I mean,
you need to learn how to deal with a woman,” Sage said smugly.
Xander and Des looked at each other and shook their head.
They
could handle it
, they thought. “Just saying,” the doctor said
and walked out of the room whistling.

“What do you think?” Des said.

“She was meant for us, she will be our mate,”
Xander said firmly and looked at the wall.

Des was silent for a moment and then his
communicator vibrated in his pocket. Frowning, he lifted it and saw
it was Sage, “You just left.”

“Alex wants to speak with you,” Sage
said.

“On our way,” Des said and turned to Xander
who grabbed his hand and moved toward the door. “I guess you
heard?”

***

“Are you out of your mind?” Xander
bellowed.

Alex looked at him with a stubborn face and
said, “Um no, and you don’t know me, so you need to wait while I
explain,” she said and then paused while Xander and Des sat
down.

When they arrived to the room, the other two
women were gone; Alex said Sage took them for testing so they could
talk. Then she laid out what she wanted to do. Xander exploded at
the thought of his mate putting herself in danger but as a
bargaining tool, Alex learned, ask for the moon and get the
stars.

“Listen, I get that you don’t really know
much about women and stuff, but let me clue you in a little,” Alex
said softly and then looked up with fire in her eyes. “DO NOT TELL
ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO!”

“Uh, we weren’t really telling you that you
couldn’t do something, I think Xander was pointing out that you
were thinking irrationally,” Des said diplomatically.

“No, I said and meant, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR
FUCKING MIND?” Xander yelled louder.

“NO, I AM NOT THANK YOU. I DON’T THINK YOU
KNOW ME WELL ENOUGH TO ASK THAT!” Alex said, yelling right back at
him. Des leaned back and shook his head at the two of them, they
were hardheaded and stubborn,
and this ought to be fun
.

“I know you want to do something dangerous.
Going to the surface and meeting your father again is not an
option. You could be killed, kidnapped, or worse,” Xander said
pacing. He played right into her hands and Des knew it. He watched
the woman who was to be their mate, and saw the look on her face.
She planned this. She looked too smug to not have. He was going to
have to watch her.

“Fine, be a bully, but you have to allow me
to contact him—it is the only way I will know. I can’t move on
until I know the truth,” Alex said and sniffed.

Xander swore and looked as if he was going to
back down, so Des stepped up, crossed his arms over his chest, and
looked at their mate. “Well played, Alex, but I see right through
this.”

“What are you talking about? I am trying to
talk to you,” Alex said and sniffed again.

Des chuckled, Xander stepped closer to him,
and looked at him questioningly. “What are you talking about?”

“Our little mate, she is playing us,” Des
said with an amused look on his face.

Alex threw up her hands in frustration and
looked at Des.
Damn it all to hell
, she thought she had done
it. “Whatever.”

“Now, why don’t you tell me what you want and
we can go from there,” Xander said.

“I want to call my father,” Alex said.

Xander and Des paused and then frowned. She
laughed at the look on their face. They were so similar she didn’t
even think they knew it.

“Why?” Xander said and waited.

Des knew they would let her call her father,
there was no way he could track her down here, and Rosul was a
master of the communication network—he could make it look like she
was anywhere. But Des thought Xander was playing a game now, too;
who could play it better was what mattered.

“I have to hear his voice, just to see if we
are right,” Alex said, this time her voice held a bit of a tremor
that could not have been faked. Both men reached out instinctively
to comfort their mate, and Alex let them.

Soon she was sandwiched between the two men
and she had no idea how she got there. However, she did not pull
back from their comfort. Instead, she soaked it in.
Damn they
felt good, and right.
She had not felt like this with any of
the men she had ever been with, James had left her lukewarm. She
could feel what true desire felt like—her blood was boiling for
them.

They both ran their hands up and down her
arms, trying to make her stop shaking when all they did was make
her shake more. Their touch was enough to drive her crazy. She
looked up at Xander with confusion and he smiled down at her.

“Do you feel it?” he whispered.

“You were made for us,” Des said into her ear
and she leaned back a little.

“I feel something,” Alex said breathlessly.
“How are you guys doing this?”

“It is the mating pull. Your body knows whom
it will belong to. Your mind may take longer, but your body doesn’t
lie,” Xander said.