Chapter Two

“I wonder why we do this to ourselves.” Lazzar looked over the crowd of people that were supposedly having a good time.

“Now’s not the time to ask questions like that. We have three rotations, and we’re loaded with pense. We can stay anywhere do anything.”

“We can stay anywhere that will take created Kur’iks. We can…”

“No, stop, we can have this talk on the ship when we only have two hours to sleep before our alpha demands we fight again, but we will not have it here.”

Lazzar sighed, Arkel was correct. There was no use spending the only free time they had talking about the truth of their situation.

“You’re right we found a nice room, now all we need is a beautiful infertile. One for each of us and life will be good.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Today we’re born Kur’iks just stay away from those scanners.” His eyes followed the born on the floor dancing. “Have you ever seen anyone that looks as good as her?”

They were in a large Zen Enviro where the infertile came to celebrate life. Some of them were dancing while other were singing or doing acts to gain attention. They were the artists, poets, and creatives. It was the job of the born to bring beauty to the world while others like them fought or tended the crops and any other physical labor that needed to be done.

He turned his head to stare at the female Arkel pointed out. She was beautiful, her gray skin was a darker color it must be a genetic anomaly, but it was appealing. She highlighted it with silver and red glitter that sparkled in the red overhead light. Her curves had curves. No wonder his friend was licking his lips watching her as she danced alone enticing the single males. A beauty like her should never be alone.

“Go talk to her.”

His green eyes lit up before they dulled. “She’s a goddess why would she talk to me?”

“Your goddess is dancing alone, go talk to her.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

He unfolded his seven-foot frame from the chair and squared his shoulders. He might get shot down, but he needed to say hi to this female.

Lazzar watched as he approached and spoke to her. There was a small back and forth before Arkel began to smile. Soon he was dancing with his goddess, and Lazzar knew he wouldn’t see him again that night.

“Is this chair spoken for?”

The soft caress of that voice against his ears made his body tighten. Was it really her? The female he spent too many hours thinking about when his mind should have been on decimating the enemy? Arkel said she was his lucky charm because his kill rate had skyrocketed since he first caught sight of her. Every Thalian he killed was one less that could harm her. He turned to look at her hoping it wasn’t just his imagination.

“Hi.” She was more beautiful than he remembered. He liked the way her light gray skin was shining, and her green eyes were bright with mischief. Her curves were enough to make any male want to worship her, and his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth preventing him from saying anything intelligent or noteworthy.

“Can I sit here?” He nodded while working on saying something that would capture her imagination. “I saw your friend go off with an infertile.”

“Arkel, he has had very few leaves in his life. I think he deserves to meet someone and enjoy himself.”

“What about you?”

How was he supposed to tell her that he was too busy thinking about her to give an infertile the time of day?

He shrugged, his massive shoulders catching her attention with that simple movement.

“I haven’t given it much thought. Before you came over, I was concentrating on my drink.”

“The drinks are better on the ship. I wonder who they make these weak one’s for.”

His lips lifted in a smile. She was right the drinks on the ship were better and stronger, but he never expected a female to say those words.

“I like your smile.”

His shaft stirred with those simple words. Encounters among Kur’iks in the same battalion were discouraged, but it was not punishable by death, yet. No one paid attention to a temporary hook up.

“Thank you. Would you like to dance?”

Her head turned as she searched a sea of bodies. He followed her eyes until they landed on a younger Kur’ik female who was dancing between two infertile male’s.

“That’s Kelsaire, I need to keep an eye on her.”

“The best way to do that is to dance with me.”

She took a deep breath trying to keep her heart under control, she didn’t want him to see what his simple words were doing to her. When she saw his friend stand and approach the infertile she knew she should leave him alone, but once his friend started dancing her feet developed a mind of their own, and before she knew it she was standing beside him. Her body tensed as she waited for the sound of his deep voice. He hadn’t disappointed her touching all the intimate area’s that hadn’t been stroked in forever.

Finding an infertile, those males and females that had been rendered useless to procreate in the first few months of their lives would be the safest thing to do. Obviously, she liked playing with fire that’s why she took his hand even as shivers of pleasure coursed through her.

Their bodies twisted and gyrated on the floor making her laugh and smile. He was a good dancer, his gracefulness put the born to shame.

“You never told me your name.”

“It’s Amira. What’s yours?”

“Lazzar.”

Lazzar, his name was as commanding as he was. His skin was a medium gray the kind that would blend well when they were fighting giving him another advantage. His shoulders were massive, she had dreamed of tracing from one shoulder to the other as he lay naked in front of her. He was tall, but all their males stood around seven feet it was written into their enzymes. His green eyes flashed with passion. How would they look when he lowered his head to kiss her?

He was a beautiful male. She knew others in her barracks would argue that all the created were beautiful males. That was why she didn’t feel the need to separate their heads from their bodies.

The music slowed down, he reached for her and drew her into his arms. Her eyes closed as her head found his shoulder. She should back up or make her body stiff but this was leave and what happened on leave stayed on leave.

She shied away from that thought because it was too depressing and snuggled a little more into his strong arms as he swayed back and forth with her.

It was the rudeness of a finger poking her shoulder that broke the spell he was creating around her. She looked over her shoulder to see an infertile standing there. A brow raised as she looked at her.

“I want that male.”

Her eyes narrowed and sparked. Was this female and she used the word lightly trying to stake a claim on her male? He’s not your male the voices that worked hard to keep her sane were saying, but they were failing.

“He’s dancing with me. When we are done if he is interested, I’m sure he will track you through the Zen Enviro.”

The look on her face would have been comical if Amira wasn’t already calculating how much pressure it would take to decapitate her. They may use the females to infiltrate and retrieve secrets, but they could fight as well as the males.

“I want to dance with him right now.”

“I want to decapitate you, but it seems neither of us will be getting our wants met tonight.”

The females hand went to her throat her eyes tried to spark in anger as she called for a patrol. He took her hand dragging her through the crowded bodies until she was standing by Kels side.

“You have two minutes.”

She nodded and whispered frantically in her ear before Lazzar took her hand again and began dragging her out. When they were outside the patrol spotted them calling out for them to stop. He took her down a tight alley before pointing up to a roof top. She nodded and followed him when he jumped to safety.

They lay flat on the roof as the patrol on the ground shone lights looking for a shadow of a movement. They lay there long after they left knowing they would double back. The came back three times before they finally called the hunt off. They didn’t know what they looked like so they would be relatively safe.

They crept to the other side of the roof and jumped. Their first stop was to find an all-night fashion outlet to purchase new clothes before they destroyed the ones they were wearing. They picked up food and took it back to the room that he and Arkel rented for their stay on the planet.

He turned on the silencer after he secured the door behind them. No one would be able to monitor anything that went on in their room verbally or physically.

“Female were you trying to get us killed?” The words came out in a rush as if they had been held back to long.

“Did you see her! The nerve of that female thinking that because she was infertile, she could have any male she wanted. As if I were going to give her my male!”

The both fell silent. They weren’t allowed to claim a male or a female if the other person was created like they were, born to die in a meaningless war.

She slumped backward into a cushion. Was her life over this fast? Her mind swirled looking for anything she could say that would make it better, but there wasn’t anything. When had she claimed him as her own and how could she claim him when this was their first face to face meeting?

“It’ll be hard to keep it away from Declyn and Enzo. I swear they see everything.”

What? Why wasn’t he turning her in, racing for the door? An occasional meet up to scratch an itch was overlooked but not a claiming it was forbidden.

“I…”

“You didn’t mean it?”

“No, yes! I mean I meant it I just don’t understand why you aren’t running away. This is punishable by death. You don’t have to claim me back, in fact, you shouldn’t die with me.”

“You made a huge assumption there.”

“What assumption?” She was tripping over her words, but under the circumstances, she could be forgiven. As far as she knew this had never happened to anyone on a battalion, not that they would be talking about it if it had happened.

“You assumed that I want to live if you’re not in this world.”

Her heart was pounding like crazy she could see the outline of it as it hit her chest. He had to see it, to be aware of what he was doing to her. He didn’t want to live if she wasn’t here? How could that be, they weren’t formed that way. The very enzymes that helped to construct their beings made it impossible for them to pair up. This was a joke, except she already felt that way about him. Every day they fought her mind wandered to him hoping that once again he would walk away from the confrontation unscarred.

“We’re broken.”

“Maybe but who will turn us in? Tristan?”

Tristan was their healer he hated the controllers, maybe more than any of them did. “No, Tristan would never turn us in.”

“Alpha.” His name came out of her lips more as a breath than a word. She loved her alpha they all did, but he was by the book. He would have no choice but to turn them in.

“Then we won’t go back, we’ll run away together.”

That was impossible, and he knew it. The whole system was rigged to look for the created life signs. They would kill them when they realized they were rogue.

“You know what we should do?”

She shook her head because at this point her life was dwindling down to a death sentence with a male she couldn’t seem to walk away from.

“We should eat this food before it gets cold and you should sit close to me since we don’t know how much time we have together.”

A soft and sultry laugh came from her that she couldn’t control. He was a mess, and already she liked it. No one ever said outrageous things to her beside her kid sister. She kicked off her shoes and slipped to the floor before she crawled over to where he was sitting. He spread the food out and soon they were eating.

“Do you ever dream of doing things like this?”

“You mean running from the patrol, hiding on the roof and then eating with a totally gorgeous male on the floor? Nah, I do this every time I go on leave.” She gave him a grin and stole a Roma leaf off his plate.

“Hey, that’s mine.” He pursued the leaf until she ate it. He looked down at his plate his lips in a frown.

“I’m going to miss that Roma leaf.”

“Then come get it.”

“I think I will.” His deep voice invaded her body while he pulled her close placing his lips on hers. The kiss was gentle, tentative. The both knew going down this path was a one-way trip. His tongue invaded her mouth, and she stopped thinking. She had never been kissed like this before. His natural flavor exploded inside of her taking over her senses making her beg for more. She wanted him to touch her.