Chapter One

Slade walked into the room, and his heart broke. Brie was lying on the bed, her once young body had aged beyond recognition, but he knew who she was. He walked over to the bed they shared and blinked fast at the unfamiliar sensation in the back of his eyes. He would have someone look at him later.

She opened her eyes to look up at the male she spent her life loving. “Didn’t I tell you to leave?”

He gave her that sexy smile the one that made her heart flip. She smiled back, but the look of grief and pain on his face was more than she could take. He reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his rock-hard body. She was sure he would have left her centuries ago, but he was still here. He dropped his pants and strode closer to the bed that they shared. He slid in bringing his warmth and comfort to her. She closed her eyes enjoying her male one last time.

His throat worked as she moved her frail body to nestle against him. Brie was a female Scientist who wasn’t his mate, but he loved her. He had been so sure that when he bit her, their lives would synch when it didn’t his world shattered. Not his Brie though she was a rock who told him to go find his mate. Silly female, he was never leaving her side unless he had no other choice.

He brought his hand up to stroke her face. Sometimes love was a choice, and he made it when it came to her. They fled from her planet when it looked like the authorities would jail him for daring to love her. She gave up everything, her life, home, and her prestige to be with him.

There were times he still wondered if she regretted making that decision. Her hand patted his chest, and he smiled. She always loved his chest, loved that he was so much bigger than her. She was tiny compared to him.

“Slade.” Her voice was weak, but he could still her.

“Love.”

“We had a good time, didn’t we?”

“The best time.”

“I still remember when we ran away together. My family said I would come home crying, but I never did. I wish I could have given you children.”

“I never needed children all I needed was you.” That was the curse of his kind, The Created. They could only have children with their mates. If they never found that elusive female, then they never had a child.

He could feel the side of her mouth tilt up in a smile.

“My time is short now.”

“Don’t say that.”

“My Warrior, I need you to know I enjoyed every moment of our life together. You have both honored me and loved me. When I’m gone, I want you to find her. The one you were always meant to be with.”

“There is no one besides you Brie.” His voice sounded hoarse as he tried to keep himself under control. He knew this day would come when her body didn’t align with his.

“Warrior tell me about that day.”

He smiled, she always saw him as a warrior even when the males of her planet saw him as nothing except an object to be used. He met her eyes the yellow reminding him of the most precious jewels.

“The fighting was over, and The Created now had a chance at a real life. We could have females and children, there was a great cheer that went up. I remember it circled the planet.”

The Scientists and the rest of the population heard their celebrations no matter where they were. That was when they realized just how many Created occupied the planet.

“I knew that you and I would be able to get a bigger domicile and live our lives together. Remember I came to you that night in your domicile so happy that our time had finally come. That was the night you finally set your fears aside and allowed me to love you. I’ll never forget the sight of you, how beautiful you looked taking me inside of your body for the first time.”

“I couldn’t lose you. I knew what was expected of me, I understood that Yaksim expected us to be together and in a different lifetime we would have been, but I couldn’t give you up. You had my heart, and all I wanted was one more day with you. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you. That love grew, but I didn’t know, didn’t understand until you were grown and more than able to meet me word for word that you owned my heart.”

He leaned over to press a gentle kiss against her lips.

“Never forget I loved you too.”

“That night he came into your domicile without asking permission and caught us as I was holding you tight.”

“You made such sweet love to me that night and every night after.”

“He was furious and threatened to kill me. You were his, and I understood because I felt the same way. He came at me, but I held back because I knew you cared for him at one time in your life. I never wanted you to have the memory of me killing him.”

He breathed as her hand rubbed up against his chest. They had centuries together that were now coming to an end. She wouldn’t make it through the night. She warned him, but still, he wanted to deny it.

“He left, but we both knew it wasn’t over. Physically he couldn’t beat me, but he was devious and intelligent. He started a small campaign to revoke the rights of The Created to live. He wanted us decommissioned.” His voice was sour when the words came out. Yaksim wanted them dead, not just him, but all of them.

“I never thought he would go that far.” Her lashes lowered covering her eyes to conceal the guilt she felt. Yaksim wanted to kill a group of beings because she broke her promise to him. After years of thinking about it, she still didn’t know where the two of them went wrong.

“Do you regret leaving him?”

“Never. I was meant to be with you in this life.”

“The next life…?”

“I can’t wait for you in the next life. We both know you may never come to the next life, but if you do, there will be someone there for you, and it can’t be me.”

He closed his eyes as the stake of her words found its mark. She was right, the Scientists believed that in the afterlife you meet up with your soulmate even if you missed them in your first life. She would meet Yaksim, and he would be alone. He wouldn’t even put up a fight because she was right there was no guarantee he would end up in the afterlife, and he had derailed her life long enough. Was love enough to change the course of a female’s life? He didn’t know, he just knew his heart craved her.

He allowed himself to go back to the planet of his birth. The lavender sky held him in its grip as he looked upward. How many times had he put his life on the line working with males that weren’t his brothers to protect the planet? No, he worked to protect Brie.

“The Created started meeting in secret at different locations to plan our escape.” There were so many of them that it looked like it would be impossible to pull them together. They all got the messages except for two groups of Created. The originals were never heard from and considered dead along with the seconds.

“You helped us my brave female. You found out information and got it to me so I could spread it around.”

“The fight was brutal.”

It had been brutal. He held her close and drew her into his memories one last time. The Created had moved away from the populated areas and were preparing to leave when the Scientists came with weapons they used on the aliens attacking their world. They now planned to use them on The Created. They set up a barrier around the transfer station they needed to get to the ships they commandeered and fixed over the years they protected their world.

The first burst made the lavender sky red and killed the families of The Created that were escaping.

“Retreat!” He called out making sure Brie was in his arms as he ran.

“What are we going to do?”

“Fight it’s what we were created to do.”

He tucked her into a bunker knowing that the Scientists would gain pleasure by making her a casualty of war. There was one central station that was controlling the weapons they were firing. The Scientists designed the weapons, but The Created upgraded them. Now they had no knowledge of how to fire them and needed their central computer do it for them.

It needed to be knocked out before they killed the people who protected their planet and won them their freedom. The building that housed the computer was so close to him that he could see it in the distance.

There was no way they would expect him to be so close but with Brie’s clearances they were taking a different path to the ships.

He looked back at her hiding place and then started to run. Once again for Brie, I will fight the enemy. Slipping into the compound wasn’t hard because they had minimal security.

He stayed close to the ground making sure that no one was watching him from the trees or the hills. The sound of breathing stopped him cold as he approached the door.

“I should have known you would hear me.” Yaksim stepped out of the deep shadows that surrounded the doorway. “I knew you would come here. It was the safest path for you to bring Brie. My Brie, did you really think I would let you steal her away from me?”

“She doesn’t want you.” The yard was deserted, there was only the two of them, but Yaksim had the upper hand with the weapon he was carrying.

“I won’t let you have her I’ll kill you first. So cocky, you look just like him. I should have killed you the moment you were born.”

Slade smiled at him while he was judging his chances of surviving the blast. Yaksim raised his weapon firing. Slade dropped, the weapon caught him on the side of his arm while his body was already rolling taking his opponent down.

They fought over the weapon. Slade ripped it out of his hands and placed it against his skull.

“What are you going to do when she finds out you killed me? Me, her rightful mate.”

He raised his fist and hit him several times as Yaksim laughed.

“It will kill her when she finds out I’m dead and you did the killing.”

“Then it’s a good thing that he won’t be killing you.”

Both heads turned to see a male standing by their side. He hadn’t been there a minute ago.

“Who are you?”

“Someone you’ll meet again, but right now you have to shut down the controls, so your brethren don’t die.”

“I have no brethren.”

“Tell me that the next time we meet. Go.”

He slowly moved not wanting to leave Yaksim alive. He would come after Brie.

“He will have an altogether different prey than Brie. I have plans for Yaksim.”

Slade moved. The power emanating from the male labeled him as Created and more. He might even be one of the first.

He shifted his attention back to turning the grid off that the Scientists were using to control the weapons. The door was open he went in to find the grid lit up. There were several unarmed Scientists around it. He knocked them out and destroyed the panel. They would never use those weapons again.

When he came back outside no one was there. He went to get Brie, and they made their way to the ship that would give them their freedom.