Nova: A Scifi Alien Romance (Rebel Lords) (2 page)

M
y men
and I stealthily stalked through the jungle, anger and hatred heavy in our hearts. Since none of the other clans seem to be willing to make a strike on the humans, we were taking it into our own hands. When our scouts overheard some soldiers talking about a woman coming to approve a massive mining project, I knew that it would be the best way to make some headway in the war. It would make a statement and put their mining on hold. She would make a valuable bargaining chip.

It just completely sickened me how some tribes were just surrendering to the humans or even trying to make peace with them. Like that bastard Dracon, he was the worst of them all. Before the humans’ arrival, my tribe had so much respect and held such a strong bond with his clan—hell, even during the first several years of war we had been their closest ally. But he was a traitor, and was downright disgusting and vile for
mating
with a human. Their marriage had caused an uproar within the Navani community, and I was no exception. I had contemplated raiding their village when I heard about it and taking her captive myself and making an example of her and Dracon; to show the others that compassion for the humans would not be tolerated, not while I was in power of my clan. But, then word came she was pregnant with his child. And while I was completely repulsed and sickened at the thought of a hybrid breed arising, I couldn’t bring myself to kill her if she was a mother. I wasn’t completely heartless. Still, I wanted her and the child far away from Shaviro.

The thought of the entire situation just made my stomach churn. Humans were destroying our planet and slaughtering our people by the dozens, there was no reason at all to try and get along with those monsters. They were puny, they just had a slight upper-hand because of their weapons and their numbers. But even with less than half their army, I knew I could win in the end. Humans were senseless, destructive, bloodthirsty animals and they would have to be stopped. Already they had destroyed an estimated fifteen percent of the planet, which was hefty considering about a fourth of the planet was ice and snow and therefore wasn’t inhabitable. I was going to take back Shaviro from the humans, or die trying.

The sound of their hovering vehicles grew louder as we neared them. Hiding between the trees and in the bushes, my men waited to strike. The convoy came into sight, four large hovercrafts heading back towards their town. The sheer number of men there just to protect this woman was almost remarkable, there had to be at least twenty men there. I only had twelve warriors with me, but I knew we could take them if we were smart about it.

When the convoy finally drew close, I glanced next to me and nodded to Judd, a tank of a man. He stood from his hiding spot and ran out of the trees and towards the most heavily guarded hovercraft. Judd had drawn his weapon as he ran, a staff with blue lasers suspending two metal plates to make a powerful war-hammer. As he swung it down onto the front of the craft, I and the other men charged out after him. I pulled the driver from his seat by the neck and slung him to the ground. Drawing my traditional claymore sword, I plunged it down into his chest cavity before removing it. Turning sharply, I caught another guard as he lunged at me. With an elegant swing of the blade, his neck was sliced open and blood gushed out of him as he fell to the ground. One after another, I took on the humans with my men. They fell one after the other. I had selected the biggest and strongest warriors to accompany me on the mission, and they were not disappointing at all. While Judd heard some of his men cry out as they were shot, it seemed all of them were holding their own.

I searched for the woman as I took on one human after the other, wanting to make sure she wasn’t killed in the heat of the moment. Hurt would be fine, I just needed her breathing. She was useless to me dead. I hopped into the large hovercraft, drawing back my weapon as a soldier bravely charged at me. But as he grew close to me, I plunged forward with my sword and the blade cut clean through his stomach. Withdrawing my sword from his flesh, I kicked him to the side and walked towards the back of the hovercraft. There was no one in there. Where could she be? I hopped out and rounded to the back. Two Navani men were beating up two humans that were lying on the ground. They both began to draw their weapons as the humans seemed to stop moving, beaten to a pulp. But as I grew closer, I saw the faces of the humans and immediately grabbed one of the men shoulders, “Stop it! What are you doing?! Can’t you tell it’s the woman!” I barked at them in Navanian. She was a woman and not in any tactical gear at all. It had to be the woman.

The two men backed away from the humans and I lifted the unconscious female into my arms. My eyes widened a bit at the sight of her. Her maroon hair was cropped short on her head, one side longer than the other and coming down to her chin. Small freckles were scattered across the bridge of her nose and just below her cheeks; her frame was curvy and fit. She was…
attractive
, even with the horrible bruising and injuries covering her white skin. Revolted by my own thoughts, I shook them away. Holding her bridal style, I looked down to the other human, “Do with him what you will,” I told them. As I turned to scout out how the others were doing, I heard the satisfying
shing
noise as a blade was driven into the flesh of the scrawny human.

I carried the woman around the convoy, watching as three humans ran into the tree line in the distance. A few moved to go after them, but I bellowed out, “Let them go. They’ll be able to tell their leaders what happened here.” That would be a way to get the plan on a roll. The humans would come here to search the wreckage and find this important woman missing. Then the bargaining could begin to take place. Looking about the scenery, bodies covered the ground. There were no more humans left to fight. And from the looks of it, only a couple of my men were injured severely and one dead. Considering the numbers they had on us, even though the loss of a warrior was always painful, it could have been a lot worse. “Let’s head back!” I called to them.

As they collected themselves and helped the injured, I began back to the village. As I walked in the trees, I felt my eyes become drawn to her face again. Her face was sultry and alluring. What was going on with me? Humans were vile and disgusting—even the ones easy on the eyes should make me want to projectile vomit. Yet I caught myself taking in the details of her face, my gaze even gazing down to her sizable bust. Luckily, I approached the village and I could push the thoughts away as my people cheered my return. I gave a slight smirk, glad to have their support. At least they weren’t weak like our neighboring tribes.

I carried her limp body through the village until I reached my hut. Moving inside, I shut the door. Once inside, I walked her through to my living area and placed her down on a cot. With a sigh, I pulled a small snake lock from my pocket. Grabbing both of her hands, I placed it around her wrists and set it in place. With those injuries she had, it wasn’t like she would be able to move very much. Even if she managed to, the moment she stepped outside she would be slaughtered.

C
onsciousness wasn’t welcomed
. Before my eyes could even attempt to open, the overwhelming pain covering my body came crashing down on me. It felt like I had been run over by a tank. I was in agony, and my entire being was completely exhausted from whatever events had taken place. I groaned from the pain as I began to finally open my eyes. For a moment, I felt dazed. Was I dreaming? Or had someone spiked my drink and I was hallucinating? I had genuinely no idea where I was for my first minute or so of consciousness. The room was made of a rich chocolate brown wood with accents of wood that looked golden. Paintings of strange symbols and letters hung on the walls. My eyes scanned around slowly, confusion and a migraine setting in. But then, I saw him.

My eyes grew wide as I looked at him, blips of memories coming back. I couldn’t remember exactly what happened, but I remembered seeing men that resembled him. The man had deep crimson skin with navy blue tribal tattoos covering his entire torso as well as his left arm, his right arm bare. He had intense citrine eyes and pitch black hair, one side of his head completely shaved and the hair he had was short and slicked back. The being was completely ripped, being shirtless showing off his deeply defined muscles—he resembled a humanoid tank with how large his muscles were and how tall he was. He had strong bone structure with a sharp jaw line and high cheekbones; his nose was defined as well, but was slightly bent at the bridge from being broken in the past. Something was strangely handsome about him… I couldn’t place what it was that I found so appealing about him, but it was there. I must have really hurt my head to find a being like him attractive; he wasn’t even human, how could he be handsome?

“Don’t move around too much, you’ll hurt yourself worse,” he spoke to me, his voice deep with a slight, strange accent. Wait, he knew English?

I had never been one to listen very well unless it was an employer, so I rolled onto my side but let out another groan. I didn’t know what my side looked like, but it couldn’t be good. It felt like it had been sliced open and then stomped on. “What happened…?” I grumbled, not really to him, but just saying my thoughts aloud.

“My men and I attacked your convoy. You’re a very valuable asset when it comes to gaining power within the war with the humans,” he spoke to her. “All but three guards were slaughtered. You weren’t meant to be targeted, but had been by accident in the heat of the moment. You’re beaten up pretty badly.” The man then stood and walked out of my sight for a second before returning. He kneeled next to the bed with a small jar and a spoon. Pouring some of the liquid into the spoon, he sat the jar down and put his hand under my head and began to lift it. “This is medicine. I assure you it is safe. I have no plans on poisoning or killing you.” Of course my first reaction was to deny it and not believe it wasn’t going to poison me, but I quickly weighed my options. If he wanted to kill me, he would—and it wouldn’t have to be poison. So while I had no reason to trust this creature, I didn’t have many options, and with how much pain I was in I couldn’t resist a pain reliever. I opened my mouth and allowed him to pour the medicine into my mouth.

It tasted like cinnamon, pepper, and spearmint at the same time, making my face screw up from the taste. But within just a few short minutes, I actually felt it begin to work. I could still feel the pain, but as the medicine worked through my system, the pain died down to an achy pain rather than overwhelming. Once the pain was cleared up a bit, I felt like I could think a little better. My eyes followed him around the room as he moved to put the medicine away. “Who are you?” I asked, unsure as to why this particular alien wanted me captive.

He paused before answering, almost like he didn’t want to tell me; but he eventually spoke, “Nova. I’m the prince of this tribe, and general over the warriors.” There was a pause before he looked to me, “And who exactly are you? Why are you so important for their mining?”

I couldn’t help but glare at him, “You kidnapped me and you don’t even know who I am?”

“I saved your life,” he fired back, “My men were ready to kill you but I stopped them.”

“Yeah, to use me in some sort of gambling war tactic.”

“
Enough
,” Nova snapped. “Just tell me why you’re important to the mining. Now.”

Well, wasn’t he a demanding man? I gave a huff as I sat in silence for a moment as I debated whether or not to tell him. Really, I didn’t see how him knowing my job title would help him at all, and not telling him would only piss him off and get me closer to death. “I’m Julia, an administrator for Intergalactic Mining Corporation. Without my say so, they can’t drill anymore at the site they are working on.” Nova was silent, the man looking deep in thought as he processed what she had said. “You seriously kidnapped me over mining?” I asked, annoyed at the very idea.

“I did what I needed to do. Mining is killing our planet, and I do not intend on sitting idly by as it happens.”

“Killing the planet? They are just digging up rocks in the wasteland between the jungle and the icy mountains,” I defended. Really, what were they hurting by digging into the ground and removing some valuable rocks?

“You are naïve if you do not think that mining kills the environment. They are robbing us of our resources and damaging the planet in a way that can never be reversed. Our people take only what we need from the planet, and reserve the rest for the sake of nature and our future generations,” Nova spoke in a condescending tone. He moved back to me with a small sack in hand. “Roll onto your other side.”

I stayed where I was, looking up at him with a glare in my eyes, “It’s not the humans’ fault that you guys didn’t take advantage of the resources you had.”

Fire was in his eyes then, a new hatred for me kindling just before my very eyes. “Just because we are not a monetary people does not mean we do not use Shaviro to its full potential. Humans are destroying any future potential the planet has. What will they do when they mine away the entire planet, leaving Shaviro in ruins? Pack up and move on, leaving our people to go extinct. Roll over, unless you want an infection on that wound.”

Hesitantly, I rolled over to the other side and stayed completely silent. He had trapped me in a conversational corner. It was true, if they ran out of resources to frack, cultivate, or mine, the humans would leave with no concern for the native people. But, I supposed that wouldn’t matter since the native inhabitants were slaughtering humans left and right—I had witnessed it with my own eyes. The Navani had attacked the convoy, the humans hadn’t attacked them. I could feel him lifting my shirt up to just under my chest. My eyes glanced over as I watched him clean the wound. Nova poured a liquid over the long gash that went from my lower ribs down to my hip. A pained breath escaped me as whatever he poured onto it burned. He then used a brush to rub an ointment over it, which was cold and soothing; it took away all of the sting from the liquid. With the painkiller coursing through my system and my body being physically worn out from the beating I had received, I felt like I could pass out at any moment.

“I want you to give me the details of all of the upcoming mining sites,” Nova told her firmly as he packed away the supplies.

“What makes you think I want to help a race of aliens which are slaughtering my own kind?” I remarked as my eyelids began to droop.

“You know, if they weren’t attacking us or killing as well, it wouldn’t be considered a war—it would be genocide. But our numbers are depleting while the human colony is growing at an impossible rate,” he pointed out. “Fine, if you do not wish to help me, then that is alright. I have more plans for you, Julia.”

I was only half listening though, my body unable to fight sleep any longer. I did hear that he had more plans for me though, what the hell did that mean? I couldn’t fight sleep any longer, unable to give any sort of comeback. My body gave in to sleep and I passed out within moments.