CHAPTER ELEVEN
HEATHER MAVEN
I was worried. I felt betrayed. Commander Zoq Kane turned out to be an alien dragon shifter with many secrets. He had kept a lot of information from me. Though I understood why, it felt absolutely terrible. I felt very betrayed by all of it. There was no way of explaining to him how hurt I felt by the things he had told me. It was because I had my own secret. I was carrying his offspring. This made everything so much worse for me. Now, I was not just betrayed by my lover, but by the father of my child. It took on a completely different meaning.
But in light of his confession that he actually was not with the opposition, I did feel somewhat relieved knowing that he was actually part of the Draqua sect that encouraged mating with human females. This meant that me being pregnant was not going against his beliefs. In fact, it was exactly what he wanted to happen. But because of his many secrets, I now had a distrust of him. How could I know when he was actually telling the truth now? He had been so good at lying for weeks. Not only did he pull off lying to me, but to Captain Blace, and was so successful at it that he joined the captain's mission. He was a spy. A spy was a notoriously manipulative and intelligent mind, no matter what race it came from alien or human. , I felt very confused. I felt like a mess. After he told me everything, I could not speak to him. I could not look at him. My emotions were extremely out of whack, and I'm sure that my hormones and the pregnancy had a lot to do with it. I had cried myself to sleep. I was completely exhausted after the extreme ordeals that I had been through. First, I had to deal with having a secret lover, an alien lover. Then I had to deal with being caught and not knowing whether the commander was alive or dead. I had to deal with hiding it at work, in front of the captain. Then, of course, the big bombshell: I had to find out if I was pregnant. Then when I did, I had to deal with it alone. Then, I had him show up at my door asking me to leave my home planet forever with only seconds to think about it. after all of that, I had another circumstance to deal with, and that was that the alien dragon shifter that I was in love with was a big fat liar. It took a big toll on me, all of it. Now I had extreme exhaustion. I needed to sleep. I did not know exactly how long I slept, but it felt like at least 10 hours or more. Even though I was traveling through space, I felt extremely safe with Zoq so close. Even though I did not trust him after everything, I knew that he was a solid warrior that would protect me from anything. Because of this, I had a very deep and restful sleep. It was so restful that when I finally woke up, my eyes focused on the white ceiling. For half a second I thought I was back inside my apartment in the city. But then there was a slight jolt of movement. It was then that I remember that I was in an alien spaceship, hurtling through space to an unknown planet. I took a very deep breath. It was a lot to process when first waking up. I sat up in rubbed my eyes. I looked around inside the quiet ship. I ran my fingers through my long hair, trying to tame it. I pinched my cheeks trying to wake myself up and get a little color in them. Even though my body was rested, my mind was still exhausted. Waking up and going through everything that had happened once again in a review mode was making me tired. I pushed it all the side. There was no point in dwelling on it now. I stood up and almost fell back to the bench as I felt very dizzy. I guessed I wasn't as acclimated to space travel as I thought I would be. But it was my first time in space, so what could I expect? I pressed my hands against the wall to help me stand up, then I instinctively put my hand on my belly. I was pregnant. I had only known for a short while, and this was my first time waking up knowing that I had a child in my belly. A slight smile came across my face. Maybe everything would be okay after all, simply because knowing that I would have a child in my life soon made everything seem so much more joyful. I looked around the transport and could see that Zoq was in the front of the ship. I pulled my hand away from my belly because I did not want him to see me, not yet. I slowly moved over to a counter and drank some water. I was very thirsty. Then I walked to the front of the ship and found him sitting in the pilot chair very engaged in his work. I wanted to put my arms around him, but I remembered that I was still angry at him. He did not deserve a hug after what he had told me, but even still after sleeping on it, I knew that I wasn't as angry as I was before. I am sure that being so tired had a lot to do with my reaction. But I still did not know if I could ever fully trust him.
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked him.
“A few hours here and there. I have to sleep lightly in order to stay alert and listen for any warning sounds from the ship.”
“I see,” I said as I sat next to him.
I looked out the windshield into space. I gasped. I was looking at a very beautiful view. It was almost like massive purple and pink clouds in long columns.
“That is beautiful,” I whispered.
“Yes, it is.”
“What is it?”
“It is gases from a nearby nebula. This is a halfway marker for us Draqua. It is halfway between Earth and Kelon.”
“I cannot believe how beautiful it is. It is magical,” I said, looking at it. It was the most wondrous thing I had ever seen.
“Neither can I. I have seen it several times, and I never get tired of it,” he said quietly.
I looked at him. He was very focused on his work and flying the ship. He was still the most attractive creature I had ever seen. His long black hair was disheveled. His muscular arms were tents as they worked the ship’s console. I wanted to be angry with him and to hate him. But I ached to touch him. I wanted to sit on his lap and have him wrap his strong arms around me and tell me that everything would be fine.
“What is going to happen? What will happen when we get to Kelon?” I asked.
He looked at me, finally taking his eyes off the windshield. He then pressed a couple of buttons and then pushed the chair back. He turned toward me.
“I guess now is a good time to speak of it as any other. I was going to tell you this when we grew closer, but it is better for you to know now,” he said.
“What? What is it Zoq? I don't think I can handle any more surprises in my condition. You're starting to worry me,” I said to him. I did not want to hear anything else of setting. I had already heard too much. His eyebrow arched at me.
“In what condition?” he asked.
“What?” I said, surprised as I realize that I had let too much out of my mouth. Crap.
“You said that you can't handle any more surprises in your condition. What condition is that?”
“I just mean that I'm very tired. I just mean that it has been one thing after another with you. First, you take me from my planet with only minutes to think about making that decision. Then you tell me that you are not with the opposition. Then you tell me that hundreds of human females have been taken from Earth. I just mean that I am in a state of shock; that is the condition. Shock and exhaustion,” I said, trying to cover up my blunder. He seemed to buy it.
“I see.”
“Good,” I said. “So what is it?”
“The King sent me on the mission with the opposition with one purpose, to report back to him what was happening. But he did not give me permission to take a human female and bring her back with me,” he said.
“I see. This is a problem, isn’t it?” I asked.
“It could be. I want to prepare you for it possibly being a problem. I know that I have sprung a lot of surprises on you, and I am trying to stop that course,” he said.
“I appreciate that. I am scared of this new world. You’re an alien! You’re alien to me. Your world is alien,” I said.
“So are you. You are an alien to me. Though I know more about your world and humans than you do about the Draqua and our planet, you are still a mystery to me,” he grinned.
“I suppose you are right,” I said understanding where he was coming from.
“The King is a good king. He is honest and honorable, but he does have a temper and likes things to go a certain way. Bringing you with me will be something that he does not like. He might be angry about this, especially because of your position and everything that was going on. You are not a random human female; you were right in the middle of everything. Your disappearance is going to be noticed among your people,” he said.
I gasped as I realized just how weird it was going to be when the space agency found that I was missing. They would find all of the pregnancy tests strewn around my bathroom. I wonder if they would have it tested and find that the results were not a human pregnancy? I really did leave a mess behind. But did it really matter? I was never going back. But I would go down at the space agency as a traitor. The thought made me feel sick to my stomach.
“What will he do? Your king? Will you be punished? Will I be punished?” I asked him, calmly trying to distract myself from the space agency and Earth.
“I do not know what he will do. I do know that he will not be happy. I do know that if he finds that you are not happy with me, he will grant you a chance to find another, another Draqua, if you wish,” he said sadly. I looked at him with surprise.
“Do you mean that you do not own me?” I asked.
“No , I do not. I can only lay claim to you after the King has granted it. He will make sure that it is what you want as well; it is the way of things.”
I was quiet as I thought this over. If I were not pregnant, then I would possibly think about this. He had lied to me, and those lies still hurt. I didn't know how long it would take to get over it. If I weren't carrying his offspring, I would greatly take it into consideration. But that was not my current situation. I did love him. I knew that much. I had left my entire planet just to be with him. I wanted him to be the father of our offspring. Besides, I did not know the rules that this king had between in finding out that a human carried the offspring of the Draqua, then it might be required that I be matched with that Draqua forever, which made sense. But I could not tell Zoq that now. I wasn't ready.
“I know that you are angry with me. I did not lie to you. I just did not reveal the truth. There is a difference. I hope that one day you will understand. But I do not want to be separated. Don't you see how much I care for you, Heather? I think it is obvious,” he said as he looked at me.
His words were caring and infiltrated my heart. It was obvious that he was sincere. What he said got my attention, that there was a difference between outright lying and just not revealing the truth. In fact, I was doing the same exact thing. I wasn't lying about being pregnant because he had not asked me. But I was concealing it. I was not revealing the truth. It made me feel guilty as well. How could I be angry at him for concealing his secrets, when I was doing the exact same thing? In fact, my secret was possibly bigger than his because it involved our child. What if he never forgave me for not telling him? At that moment, I decided it was time. I had to tell him. I had to tell him that I knew that I was pregnant. I only hoped that he would be accepting the knowledge.
“I have to tell you something, Zoq. I don't know how to tell you this. I am not even sure 100% if it is accurate. But I can no longer keep it inside,” I said to him.
He turned toward me, giving me his complete attention. I opened my mouth to tell him that I was pregnant with his offspring. But as I did so, we were interrupted. A loud siren began to ring throughout the entire ship.
“What is that?!” I shouted.
“It is the radar. It is letting me know that we are about to enter the space around Tiok,” he said.
“Tiok? That is where the opposition is based? Right?” I asked, feeling tense. Zoq was tense as he pushed buttons and worked on the console.
“Yes, it is and now a dangerous place for me. Captain Teqqin Blace would have reported what I have done to the base by now. They will know that I am on the way back to Kelon. In the captain’s anger about how I pulled one over on him, I am sure that he has an all out hunt for me waiting for me. So I set the radar to alert me when we were close. I need to keep an eye out now,” he said.
“We are in danger,” I said.
“Yes, we are. We will continue this talk when we have cleared the airspace around Tiok. But for now, I need to focus. This is life or death,” he said.
I understood and strapped myself into the seat. I was nervous. I did not know what the opposition was capable of, but after seeing the fierce anger of Captain Blace when he caught us, I understood that the Draqua were not to be messed with.
I kept quiet as he focused. I was getting very nervous. I realized just how serious this was. But I was also upset that I was on the verge of telling him that I was pregnant. But we were interrupted, and I did not get a chance. I could not blurt it out now. I did not want to distract him. I knew that he needed his focus in order to get us out or keep us out of danger. I took a deep breath.
“Everything is going to be fine, Heather; you will see, we will be on my planet in no time and safe,” he said.
Just as he said that, another siren that sounded different than the first went off. I panicked. “What is it?” I asked.
“This is not good. It is another radar siren. But I did not set this one to alert us. It is picking up something,” he said as he quickly pulled up the radar and it was projected in front of him like a hologram. I could see 3 small dots following the dot that represented our ship.
“What is that? What are those things? Are they asteroids?” I asked, hoping that is answer would be yes.
“No, they are not. They are ships, and they are coming in fast,” he said.
“Is it the opposition?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said bluntly. “Hold on,” he said as he pressed buttons. “I am taking her out of autopilot. I got to fly us out of their vision field and out of their radar range.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Just stay calm,” he said. Then the ship jolted forward and then sideways. He was all over the place, going sideways and rolling.
“What is that?” I asked as I saw that he was flying towards something in the distance.
“It is an asteroid field. It is the only way we can lose them,” he said.
“What? But what if we hit one of them?” I asked.
“We won’t. It is our only chance. We have to,” he said. Just then, a blast of light flew past us.
“They are firing! Hold on!”
“Oh my god,” I said quietly. I could not die in space. I had so much to tell Zoq. I had to tell him that I was pregnant with his child. I had to tell him that I was happy that I came with him. I had to tell him that I loved him. Now there might not be any time left for us. The shots pushing past us were getting denser. The asteroid field was so close, but I did not know if we would make it. I looked at the radar projection, and the ships were getting closer and closer. I looked at Zoq. His arms were tense, making his muscles contract. He was focused and zoned in on his flying maneuvers. It was beautiful to watch. I would rather look at him and have that be the last thing I saw if we died, instead of the space in front of us.