3. Alex

CHAPTER 3

Alex

" I 'm telling you that I'm ready and willing to go on this trip. I want to do this more than anything in the world. I'm fully-healed up and I think we should leave as soon as possible."

The council president smiles at me. "You are full of fire, Alex. I hope that nothing ever douses that flame."

I snort. "Meh. I'm not going to be pushed down or out. This is important. If there are other human females out there, they need our help."

She smiles at me and then turns to Varnak. "I know that you've asked to go along as well."

"I'm going to lead this trip," he growls under his breath.

Zuvia nods at Varnak. "Right. That is what I meant. But even if you do, you need Alex with you."

"I do not."

"You do. You are not going to be able to communicate with this female if she is there. She does not have our speech on her translator. The Carvallians do not want anything to do with the Arkadian War Fleet so there's no way that they've put it on their devices."

"I'm sure. However I'm also sure that I can manage until I get back to the base. Even if I have to set up a line between us and the base when we find her so that she can talk to one of the females here to calm her."

"That all sounds good. But it has nothing to do with taking care of this female and I'm not willing to let her be traumatized in any way. I assume that she already has been, if not physically then emotionally."

Zuvia sighs, "As council president, I believe that it would be best for all if Alex goes with you. She will be the most help to you. One of the other males really wouldn't make much of a difference." She sits straighter and nods her head. "Yes. This makes the most sense." She turns towards me and sighs, "Are you sure that you are still alright with this, Alex?"

For just a minute, my heart races out of control. I'm about to be stuck on a smaller ship for an extended period of time with Varnak and he still makes me quiver in places I'd rather not think about even as he blackballs me from getting the practice that I so desperately need and makes me so angry that I could spit.

What the hell am I going to do about that?

I nod my head and grunt. "Yes. I'm good with it." Like a magnet, my eyes slew sideways and I see Varnak's blue-green gaze narrow, his brows almost touching as he furrows his forehead.

She nods her head and then turns to Varnak. "You will both leave in two sleeps." Her eyes turn to steel as Varnak opens his mouth. "I will not change my mind." Then she stands and studies the two of us, her mouth lifting slightly. "I will hope that you two manage to do your jobs on this mission and that you both return in one piece. Good luck."

She stalks out of the room and her acolytes follow along behind her.

I turn when Varnak growls and stalks out after her. Lacey grins at me. "I hope you know what you're doing. He's pretty pissed."

I grunt at her and stand up, stalking after him. "So am I. He's being entirely unreasonable."

I follow him, shoving my stick-straight black hair behind my ear as I trail along behind him. I can see his big, tall frame ahead of me.

"Hey, asshole!" He doesn't even flinch. Just keeps moving and ignores me completely. Just like he's been doing since we got here. Since they found us on that damn ship.

I jog to catch up with him as he reaches the gym. I've come in here once or twice to try and get a fight, a workout. Every damn male here has turned me down even though a few of them looked like they were thinking about it.

I grab his arm and he hisses, glaring down at my fingers wrapped around his arm. I yank my fingers away and stare down at them as they burn like fire. My skin tingles where I touched him. His blue skin is vivid today. Some days he's a muted navy but today his skin is bright sapphire and glows with some inner light.

But those aquamarine eyes are hard and closed off. "What?"

I glare at him and move closer, ignoring the way my skin fires up. My whole body clenches and begs me to move closer to him. I ignore the feeling and focus on his annoying face.

I stick a finger in his face. "I don't know why you can't be civil with me but I've had it, asshole. We're doing this together and there's not one damn thing you can do about it."

"You could say you will not do it. Zuvia will not press you to."

I snort. "I'm not doing that. I'm going. Get used to it. You've blocked me at every damn turn and I'm sick of it. I know what my mission is right now and that's to make sure that any human female who is in this ridiculous situation gets to live the miserable existence that we can even if we can't go home."

"You do not like it here?" His eyes are searching and I can't escape from the light in them.

"I don't dislike it but it wasn't my choice and if there's one thing that I don't like it's people making decisions for me."

"Especially males," he smirks.

"Yeah." I shove a finger into his rock-hard chest, watching the muscles of his chest shift and flex and feeling it under my fingers. I suck in a breath, shocked at the raw hunger that blazes to life inside me. "I hate that. You've been pushing my buttons from the very beginning. I don't like it."

His eyes narrow and shift. "What if I gave you what you want? Would you give in and refuse to take this trip with me?"

I back away and cross my arms over my chest. His eyes follow the movement and there's something dark hidden in his eyes. Something that makes my body heat up to volcanic levels.

"What do you think I want, Varnak?" My hands run down to my hips and those sea-blue eyes follow them like they're magnetized.

His lips quirk into a sly smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "I actually know this, vistu."

My head comes up to glare at him. "What the hell is a vistu?"

He grins fully now. "It's a small animal from our planet that bites and hisses all the time. Very bad-tempered."

Grunting, I glare at him again. "Very amusing, Varnak. But you still haven't told me what you think I want."

"I think you want me to look at you as something but a female. I think you want someone to agree to fight you."

My heart skips a beat and my eyes widen. "You would let someone fight me?"

His smirk widens until it's practically taking over his face. "I would fight you myself, vistu."

The thought of him touching me in any way makes me feel sick to my stomach and my vision blurs at the edges.

There is no way I want that man to touch me. I feel out of control every time he's anywhere near me. I am not sure I'm willing to risk that even if it would give me the training that I crave desperately.

I start to open my mouth to tell him no when he smirks again and crosses his arms over his chest, his biceps bulging and his chest muscles shifting. "Are you afraid to fight me, vistu?"

Oh, hell no, he didn't. I know he didn't try and say that I am afraid. Of him!

Gimme a break! I'm not afraid of any male. Especially not this one.

"I'm not afraid of any male," I scoff.

"Then prove it," he growls.

I laugh. "Are you that eager to get your hands on me, Varnak? I never would have guessed."

"I would rather not. But I will for this. I will win."

I snort. "We'll see. What do I get if I win?"

He throws his head back and laughs. "I do not believe we need to worry about that."

"The hell we don't. I'm gonna kick your big, blue ass, Varnak! And I better get something for it."

"Fine. If you manage to beat me, by some crazy act of the gods, then I will withdraw my objection to you going."

I smile happily. "Then get ready to travel with me because that's what's coming. I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Be ready in fifteen parsecs, vistu." He turns around and stalks off and I glare at his gorgeously muscular backside. Dammit, why does he look just as good leaving as he does stalking towards me!

But I don't have time to dwell on that. I've got a male to fight and prove that I'm just as worthy of going with him as any other warrior on this base.

I face him across the mat and glare at him as most of the damn men on this fucking base holler and whistle like fucking idiots.

"Why are all these guys here, Varnak?"

He grins. "Worried that I'll beat you with an audience."

I huff angrily. "You're not going to beat me. But I didn't intend on being the main attraction tonight.

"So tell them all to leave."

"As if they would." I roll my eyes. "Okay. Let's get this over with. I still need to pack."

It's his turn to roll his eyes. "You don't need to pack because you won't be going."

I pat his cheek…hard. "It's cute that you think that."

Koehn strides in and walks to the center of the gym. "Okay. We basically have no rules except no low blows and raising your arm means that you've conceded. At that point, I will declare the other one the winner."

"Terrific. Let's do this," I say and bounce on my feet lightly. I've got the energy and drive to do this. I know I do. I just need a little bit of luck."

Koehn smirks at both of us. "Are you both ready?"

I squat and eye him critically, my hands set in a ready position, waiting until the moment we clash.

He grins. "Let's do this."

Koehn grunts. I guess that means set in Koehn speak because Varnak also squats.

I breathe in deeply, pushing away all the thoughts and feelings of the day and the way everyone is staring at us.

None of that stuff matters.

One more deep breath and the world tightens to just the two of us and then Koehn hollers and I charge forward until I kick sharply at Varnak's knee. He grunts and goes down for one second. Then he races forward and slams into me, grunting as we collide.

I groan and then slip to the ground but before he can say one word I'm on my feet and I slap away the hand he's holding out to me. I bounce again on my feet, feeling light and airy. My fists come out and one of them connects with the well-muscled torso of him and I fight to keep from wincing at the pain in my fist.

He grunts but barely moves. I chase him across the gym and then I grasp his long hair and whip him around until he roars with anger. Then he drops to his knees and bounces almost immediately to his feet.

He circles me and snarls, his fangs exposed, glistening white in the dim gym. "Come on, vistu. Is that all you've got? Surely you can do more damage than that."

I grin cheekily. "I absolutely can." My leg comes out and I grunt as my foot comes into contact with the hard bone of his shin. But it's worth it because he drops to one knee and my fist connects with his side.

"Vreck!"

The crowd around us quiets and he glares at them. "I will not let you best me, vistu. No matter what you do, I will win. You might as well give up now."

I snort happily and shuffle around him easily. "Dude. I have no intention of giving up."

"I should hope not. I don't want to win because you let me. I don't need that."

As he's saying that, I dart behind him and clamber up on his back, startling the hell out of both of us. I can feel him still and the quick intake of breath in front of me.

Before he can do much more than that, I grasp at his neck and throw all of my weight behind me, dropping him to the floor again.

He growls and then all hell breaks loose everywhere around us.