Meridian Warriors: Xander and Des (3 page)

She went to college to learn the family
business. Collins Shipping dealt with foreign trade, they were the
best in the business. Her father’s business savvy was passed on to
her. She excelled in what she did. Alex was the Vice President of
acquisitions. She finalized deals with some of the biggest high
rollers in the world without a flinch of an eye. Her father was
proud of her, or so she thought. She had moved their company
forward, but apparently, that was not good enough for him. He was
not grooming her for the CEO position,
no
, he intended to
marry her off and give it to her husband.

He was set to retire in two years. At that
time, she would take his place as the CEO of Collins Shipping.
Everything had been in place, her job, her life, and then she met
James Thorne III. She thought she had found her soul mate, a man
who understood her drive and her passion, but it had all been a
sham. The slimy bastard was trying to weasel his way into the
business—and her bed. All in an attempt to convince her to marry
him, so he could take the place as CEO. That had been evident when
she walked into her bedroom after a long day and found him in her
bed with the maid.

Alex had thrown them both out when the maid
suddenly told her that James and her had been having sex for months
and she was pregnant with his child. James denied it and tried to
talk to her. It was like a fucking soap opera right before her
eyes.

To make matters worse, last night she heard
her father agree that maybe James would be better in the position
of CEO, because when Alexandra became pregnant she could remain at
home then. Alex really thought she had convinced her father she was
more than capable to take over. When she told her father the ass
was cheating on her, he actually said it was her job to make him
happy, and obviously, she was doing something wrong if he went
somewhere else.
Asshole.

Seeing her boat gave her a thrill, next to
sealing a business deal, sailing was her passion. She loved the
water. When she was young, swimming was her sport, then she
discovered sailing and it became her real passion. She loved the
sea air, the sound of the waves crashing on the boat—it made her
feel alive.

There she was her baby,
The Shooting
Star
, her boat was designed by ‘
Sparkman &
Stephens’
for world cruising. She has traveled the world
extensively: the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, South America, the
Pacific, and even the Arctic. After a meticulous refit during the
last few years, she was now ready for another voyage.

Alex had a crew of two who traveled with her
everywhere she went. Her father made sure they were trustworthy and
knowledgeable, and most of all female. Samantha and Gabriel Somme
were her best friends. They had been through a lot together and
over the last few years, they had grown closer because her father
had become more distant—it was frustrating.

Alex lost her mother when she was born, and
she did everything she could to make her father love her. She
thought by becoming a businesswoman like him, he would be happy,
but his criticism and habit of belittling everything she did was
becoming more and more intolerable as the years went on. She was
thirty years old, and he still treated her like a five year old.
Practically telling her what time she had to be to her own home.
However, last night’s blow up was the last straw.

Alex called the girls and told them they were
leaving. She called her secretary and said she could be reached via
computer for the next few weeks and the rest of them could go screw
themselves. She didn’t tell her father where she was going and she
shut off her phone.
Assholes could go straight to hell.

“Hey, did you get all of the supplies?” Sam
called to her from the deck.

The Shooting Star
had three cabins
with a large master suite forward, and two guest cabins aft, all
with their own private head and shower. The galley was fully
equipped with a four-burner range oven and microwave, plus freezer
and refrigerator. Two air conditioning/heat pumps handle the
cabin’s temperatures and the 5K generator let the girls live in
comfort while sailing or at dock. Topside held a large spacious
eight-person cockpit with twin wheels, covered by a sunbrella
bimini and dodger that covered part of the deck when needed. The
headsail was roller furled with powered winches for the sheets.
Therefore, it would only take two people to run her if needed. It
was a beautiful boat, completely decked out.

Sometimes the girls were working on other
boats, but this time when Alex called and explained what happened,
both of them decided to come with her. They could tell that she
needed support. Sam and Gabby were twin sisters who had lost their
parents, never getting to know either one of them. Their mom died
giving birth to them and their father died shortly after in a car
accident. Her father knew them, although Alex had never met the
girls until five years ago when they came to her father to ask
questions about their parents.

They discovered how much they had in common
and her father instantly hired them as crew for her boat, Alex had
not minded that one decision he had made without her approval. One
thing Alex loved about her friends was they would never allow her
father to control them. From the very start, Sam and Gabby put
their foot down when her father tried to get information from
them.

“The guys are loading them on a cart. Should
be here soon,” Alex said, climbed up the ladder, and hugged her
friend. “Where is Gab?”

“Finalizing the course you wanted in the
cabin. She is checking the weather, there could be a squall or two
out there we have to avoid,” Sam said.

“Really? Should we delay our departure?” Alex
asked and began to walk to the cabin.

“No,” Gabby called and Alex grinned.

“Good, I didn’t want to throw a fit in the
galley right off, I was saving that for a day or two out,” Alex
said and plopped down into the chair across from her friend.

She looked at her friends; they were
identical and beautiful. Raven black hair braided down their backs,
and they were tall like her. They laughed when they met because it
was one of the few times they’d met a woman who could look them in
the eye without the help of high heels. It was unusual, they
figured, and it solidified their friendship. They were all strong,
with muscles from working on the boats, which is where the likeness
ended.

Alex was the leader of their little group,
and the most dramatic. Gabby was the quiet one, and her sister was
the protector. Each of them played a role in their group, it was
why they were such good friends—neither overstepped their
bounds.

“Looks like there is a storm here and here,”
Gabby said pointing at the map she had on the computer. “If we take
this route though we can skirt both of them. We may have rain and
such, but I think we can handle it.”

Alex nodded and they were lost in
conversation about their route while Sam had the men load and stock
the ship. They were leaving the port as soon as they were stocked.
Alex did not want to take the chance her father would find her and
make her stay.

She had a feeling she was going to have to
stand up to him once again to make him understand she would not
marry a man who cheated on her, no matter his pedigree—nor his
social standing. She would not be forced into a business marriage.
She would marry for love, and that was the only reason.

Sam poked her head down into the cabin and
laughed. “Done, come on, let’s move.”

The women laughed and jumped up, they were
off, ready to get away from everything and everyone, unless they
chose to make contact. Her boat had a state of the art
communication system, standard radio, Wi-Fi, and even a satellite
radio. If she wanted to talk to someone—she could; however, if she
didn’t want to talk to someone—she didn’t have to. And right now,
she didn’t want to talk to anyone. Therefore, the phones were
turned off, and the only one that any of them would talk to was the
Coast Guard, if needed, or the weather stations.

The three of them worked in tandem to get the
boat out of port and into the high seas, as the saying went. Since
she lived in Florida, in Key West, it didn’t take too long to
actually get out of the shipping lane and into the ocean. Alex
lifted her head and let the wind flow over her. It was a great
feeling to get away. Far away from her worries and far away from
the men who were causing them.

Xander sat in his chair and stared at the
Warriors who sat on the Council. Fifty Warriors had escaped the
planet’s extinction, and five of them sat on the Council. Xander
was the King and therefore, he sat as the Head of the Council, Des
was his Consort and therefore, his Second in Command. The other
three Warriors were, Cash, their Financial Head, his mate, Rosul,
the Head of Technology, and the last was their Leader of Security,
Casius, who had not found either of his mates. He was a strong man,
one Xander respected, and knew went to the surface to search for
companionship.

“The Hopis have been scanning the water
surface again. We are still able to keep them from pinging us;
however, this time I detected the scan from a ship. They have sent
either more scouts out, or they have finally decided this is where
we are. Either way, we are going to have to deal with it,” Rosul
said and then Casius picked up where he left off.

“There are five men on the surface who need
to either be allowed to come back, or will have to go into hiding.
They have enough money to last for quite a while, but I don’t feel
comfortable leaving them out there without support. We are going to
have to shut down communications, the Hopis can detect it,” Casius
said and Xander nodded.

Xander knew their men would be fine with
money, they had amassed a great deal of it over the years, and when
they were on the surface, the men all had their own bankcards and
accounts. The only problem with that was they could be traced.

“What else?” the leader asked and looked
around the table.

“The weather, we have been tracking two
storms which could cause a problem with the men returning. A
decision needs to be made in the next few hours. I think the air is
unstable enough to make the storms unpredictable. They may swing
together and cause a hurricane. We are watching them closely,”
Rosul said and looked at Des.

Des sighed and put his hand over his face.
“Where is the ship now—the one scanning for us?”

“A hundred miles to the north. We could have
the men here before they come by for another pass. It may be best
for our people to shift and swim quickly also, because it may be a
long time before we are able to. We have supplies, of course,
allowing us to remain in the city for years,” Casius said.

“We need to call the men back quickly, we can
all swim for an hour, and then the city will be locked down. Des,
please put out the announcement to the people, and let’s get a move
on. I don’t want anyone out there longer than necessary with the
way the Hopis seem to be so determined to get to us. We are going
to have to spend time engineering a plan, one that will cloak us
even if we are on the surface. Until now we have not needed it, but
we are going to have to be more careful until we can get help,”
Xander said and stood. “Any questions? We will meet back here
tomorrow for our next meeting, be ready with ideas to throw
around.”

***

Xander sighed when the men all left the
meeting room. Des sent out the message and then turned to his mate.
“We need to do the same—if we are stuck in the city for a while,
our shifter side will become restless, even if Rosul could work his
magic and make us a larger lake eventually, one that did not attach
to the ocean.”

“You are right, let’s see where the men are
coming from and meet them as they come in, I want to make sure
everyone arrives safely,” Xander said and they walked together to
the communication center. The building was three levels and held
all of the technology they developed and brought with them.

Screens from their original ship were in the
entryway, used to track the locations of all of their men. They
paused and looked briefly at the location of their men. They were
all on the Florida coast, which was lucky for them since they were
close.

“We need everyone to gather at the entrance,
I want to make sure we have weapons when we go out. Plus,
wristbands for everyone leaving,” Xander said and they walked to
the main room where Rosul was already gathering up the boxes that
stored the bracelets.

“Already on it, sir, we have bracelets for
everyone,” Rosul said and then they began to walk together, each of
them gathering boxes to hand out. They had small transport vehicles
in the city because of the ground being sand and not firm, more
like souped up golf carts.

Des jumped into the driver’s seat and waited
for the others to get in. He saw a lot of the men already traveling
to the lake where they could exit to the ocean. By the time they
arrived, all of the men who were not on the surface were there and
waiting patiently.

“Warriors!” called Xander, and the men turned
and bowed.

Xander hated that, he hated them thinking he
was better than they were. He wasn’t, he wanted to be known as a
fair ruler. Their species had an elongated life span; it was not
unheard of for one of them to live a thousand years.

Des stood next to him and looked at their
men. “We are calling for a lockdown in the next few hours, so we
are giving you all a chance to shift and swim. The Hopis are
scanning for us; they are now on the ocean top. Meaning we are
going to have to play it safe for a while.”

There was a mumble of aggression, the Hopis
were after all Warriors, and they hated the Hopis. They only hoped
that soon they would find a way to defeat the Hopis and possibly
breed with humans.