Chapter 14

14

“ H ow did they find you?” Jenny asked, staring out her patio doors into the courtyard of the apartment complex. “And how in the hell are they landing in the middle of the courtyard?”

She said that as she watched, basically nothing, blow snow and debris up and around, but nothing was there. It was the craziest thing she’d ever seen. If she didn’t know better, she’d think it was some kind of gustnado or something equally crazy weather-related.

“Carefully, I would imagine,” Karuk said. The lights were visible, and the snow flew around like some kind of crazy rave, but then the lights stopped. Everything settled down, and it got quiet.

Too quiet.

Not even the nighttime noise could be heard.

Phil got up and started coming over to the window. “What is it?”

A singular square light appeared.

Out came four beings.

All of them built like Karuk, wearing armor and carrying weapons.

“Aliens! It’s aliens,” Phil cried out.

Karuk turned his head. Phil took a step backward. Still, he didn’t get far before Karuk punched him again in the face, this time sending him to the ground, unconscious.

“Nice,” Jenny muttered. She turned back to the window. “Now, what do we do about that?”

His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head. “Nothing. Not anymore.”

She put her hand on his arm. “Uh, no. That’s not an option. What do we do, Karuk? What can they do to you? For real?”

“Kill me.”

“No!” she cried out and started pushing him toward where, she wasn’t sure. The bathroom maybe? Someplace where he’d be out of sight. Where they wouldn’t be able to find him.

“Jenny, there’s nothing we can do. I told you. They would find me.”

“They weren’t supposed to find you the day after we become a couple! It was supposed to be years, maybe even decades later. I will not let you go without a fight. You’re mine!”

“I have been on borrowed time since before I came to the station,” he said. He put his hand on her cheek and leaned down.

The kiss was bittersweet.

Or it would have been, if Phil hadn’t taken that moment to cry out and swing her bat at Karuk.

This time, though, when Karuk caught it, he jerked it out of Phil’s hand.

“Can’t you just stay down, you worm,” Jenny said, glaring at him.

Karuk spun the bat in his hand and was about to hit him with it when the other Dalgurians came in.

“Freeze, Karuk.”

He held the bat in his hand up and turned. “Falkin.”

Falkin shook his head. “Don’t kill the Earthling. We don’t have time to deal with that.” He, like the others, had the gold flecking in the skin, though varying skin tones, but they all looked scary.

Maybe it was the armor.

Or the glowing swords they all carried that vibrated like an unstable lightsaber.

“How did you find me here?”

Falkin raised his eyebrow. “You shouldn’t get listed in galactic databases when you’re trying to hide.”

Karuk sighed and glanced at Jenny. “Tell Re-lee she needs to be more careful with her databases.”

“Oh, she and I will have words. Lots of them,” Jenny said. Because what the hell? Re-lee lied about the database? That’s just dumb. A dumb thing to lie about, and now Karuk is going to die.

Great.

Just perfect.

“It is time for you to go home.”

“No.” Karuk said.

“You don’t have a choice,” Falkin said. “The king is demanding your return to Vorjan House.”

“I would rather you just kill me here.”

“If that is his choice,” another one of the Dalgurians said, and moved forward.

“No,” Jenny said, stepping in front of him. “You can’t have him. Karuk is mine! I’m his mate, and you can’t take him from me.”

Falkin raised an eyebrow. “Is this true?”

“It is,” Karuk said. “We have recently been mated.”

“Did you say the promise?”

“We did,” Jenny answered. She did not know what that promise was, but as far as they were concerned, they said it. If it kept him here, she would say whatever it took. They weren’t taking Karuk from her, or killing him, if she could help it.

The other Dalgurians looked at Falkin.

“You need to return. The king wishes to speak to you.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You have no choice. The king made an order.”

“I’ve already been known for not following them. I don’t have to follow this one now,” Karuk said.

Falkin stepped closer to him. “That is what you don’t understand. Those orders, the ones you didn’t follow? They were not from the king. They were from an imposter. Your rebellion was enough to reveal that there was a deeper issue in our house, and now that the situation has been dealt with, it is time to return you to your post.”

Jenny gasped. “So, it wasn’t true, he wasn’t supposed to assassinate the heir?” It was a mistake? He would not die?

She wanted to scream and dance and jump up and down.

“Good god, who is this alien you are mixed up with,” Phil asked, rising off the floor again. “Jenny, you need to come with me, you’re obviously being manipulated by these aliens.”

“Do not call us alien,” one of the Dalgurians said.

“Why not, that’s what you are. Alien,” Phil said.

The Dalgurian stabbed Phil with his weapon and he crumpled to the ground, clutching his stomach.

“Oh my god, did you kill him?” Jenny gasped. She stared. “Wait. There’s no blood.”

“Stunned,” Karuk said. “He’ll wake up hurting, but he will eventually be fine.”

Jenny shook her head. “Part of me should be mad, but I’m really not.”

“It is barely what he deserves,” Karuk said.

Jenny didn’t disagree. “He deserves some bad karma for what he did to me.”

“What did he do to you?” Falkin asked.

“He tried to ruin my life here,” Jenny said. “Harass me. Threaten me. Make me feel crazy and paranoid.”

“I will kill him, for dishonoring you so,” Falkin said.

“Wait, full stop,” Jenny said. “We’re not killing anyone. While I appreciate the offer, I think he just needs to go to jail.”

“This is your world, pick the judgment for his behavior,” he replied. “Karuk, do you approve of this?”

Karuk nodded. “Let the locals take care of this one.”

Jenny stopped and listened. She could hear sirens in the distance. “Uh, guys? I think I hear our local law enforcement. They’re probably coming right now, honestly. So what now?”

Karuk looked at Falkin, then back at Jenny. “I should go home to my king and learn my fate.”

“That better include me,” Jenny said. Because he wasn’t just leaving her here on her own. Especially not with all of this crap with Phil. She wasn’t about to stay here alone.

No way.

Karuk put his arm around her. “You are my mate.”

“As his mate, you are now part of Vorjan House, and under our protection.”

“Is that a good thing?” Jenny asked, looking at Karuk.

He nodded. “It is.” He pulled her close and gave her a hug. “Do you want to go to space? Like really go to space?”

She grinned. “You bet I do.”

“Good. Because that’s our next stop.”

“Sir, we need to get out of here. There’s a crowd appearing.”

Falkin nodded. “Come on you two. We need to get off this planet. The locals are getting curious. We have broken a few treaties being here.”

“One thing,” Karuk said. “Can you reach their data web on the planet?”

“Sure,” Falkin said.

“Good, we need to erase some data.”

“Well, I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” Jenny said to Brooklyn on the space station. “We’re going back to Karuk’s world. He’s got some issues at home he’s gotta take care of.”

Brooklyn shook her head. “I can’t believe it.”

“What?” Jenny asked.

“You, off to a whole other planet in a whole other system in a whole other part of the galaxy. That’s like the most amazing thing. I kind of want to sneak off with you.”

“I don’t know what the rules are about that, but it would be fine with me to bring you along.”

Brooklyn waved her hand. “I probably should stay. At least for now. Then I can make you feel awful for not coming back to Earth every once in a while to say hey.”

She grinned and leaned over, hugging her friend.

“Now, I gotta ask. Are you sure you’re ready for this? Like really, sure?” Brooklyn asked.

“I appreciate you. But I am good. I promise.”

“What about your ex and his shenanigans?”

“Oh, that. He’s in jail right now, with a lot of video and text message proof of his stalking and harassment.”

“Oh, another man who got karma’d for his bullshit? Wow, that’s so hard to believe.”

They both laughed.

“Oh and there’s this part too. It seems that all the doxxing that my ex did to me just magically disappeared from the internet. It was a Christmas miracle,” Jenny said with a laugh.

“Just disappeared?”

“Like with the flip of a few switches.”

“A Christmas miracle indeed.”

“Well, you need to take your Christmas miracle and get going,” Brooklyn said. “I see your man back there, with Mr. F. They’re waiting for you.”

Jenny turned.

Sure enough, there was Karuk, holding Mr. F in his carrier.

They were talking about something.

From the way Mr. F was howling, probably about how much her pet hates being in his carrier.

Jenny waved her hand. “He’ll be okay.”

She hugged Brooklyn, and they finished their goodbyes, before she went back over to Karuk.

“Are you ready to go?”

Jenny nodded.

As they walked toward the airlock, Re-lee and Polly showed up.

“I’m so happy to see you two happy,” Re-lee said.

Jenny held up her hand. “You are so lucky that this is all working out.”

Re-lee stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“You need to be careful with those databases, ma’am. Uploading all of the scans here, that were all local, to the master mainframes? It could have gotten him killed!” Jenny snapped at her. “We’re lucky that his people didn’t actually want to kill him when they found him!”

“I didn’t upload anything. Those files remained local,” Re-lee said. “That’s all they were used for was testing here.”

“Well, someone did,” Jenny replied. “So you’d better look into that, and make sure no one else has any issues here. You may not get so lucky that no one died.”

Re-lee stared, her gaze darting to Karuk and then back. “I am sorry. I’m glad it’s worked out, but I am sorry for the mistake. I take responsibility for it. And I will understand how those files were uploaded publicly. You have my word.”

“Good,” Jenny said. “And thank you.”

“For?” Re-lee asked.

“For him. He’s my Christmas savior, I think.”

Polly grinned. “Merry Christmas, Jenny.”

“Merry Christmas.”