Alien Warrior's Secret Baby

Chapter 1

Zorak

     A million koltecs might sound great to some mercenaries, but it’s less than I hoped for. Then again, raiding a warehouse stashed with black-market items could give me a bit more than that if I can kill the target quickly and easily.

     I wasn’t thrilled when the Kaleidian thug who hired me said I would be leading a team. Actually, I was slightly offended that they thought I needed the help. One target and his security squad would have been a regular Tuesday for me, but they insisted I have backup. 

So, here I am. Leading a team of incompetent lunkheads into this broken-down warehouse on Glimner. It’s hard to believe they’re originally from the Planet Kalei, same as me. I thought Kaleidians were supposed to be smart. Tactical. I like to think I am, anyway.

     I couldn’t care less about the mission. Extra koltecs would be nice, but really, I’m here for the rush of it. I barely even listened to the job or payment before agreeing.

It’s been ten years since my first kill, and honestly, even the first one didn’t faze me. Not even the sounds of them choking out got to me. Maybe it’s a lack of empathy; maybe it’s because I don’t care much for connections with other beings, even fellow Kaleidians. Either way, being deemed ‘soulless’ by many who’ve hired me makes me a shit ton of koltecs.

Hard to feel too bad about that, isn’t it?

     Rounding the corner of the safe house, I motion for the team behind me to stop. Using my mirror, I look around the wall and count thirteen guards in total, each armed with a high-power plasma rifle. Not the best weapons, which is surprising for a group hiding inside this place. I thought their gear would be more notable than three-year-old rifles.

         I roll my eyes and close the mirror, looking back at the five other Kaleidians with me. The being who hired me said he wanted this done cleanly, but where's the fun in that? I’m not really here for the objective, anyway. I want to see what this place has to offer in terms of valuables.

     While I ‘work’ for others, I never pledge allegiance to anyone. I work for myself. After all, trust is only something I can feel toward myself. No other being has been worthy of it, not even for a million koltecs.

     I motion for the team to go ahead of me and to start shooting the guards. They all look at each other skeptically. I’m sure they were told about clean killing, too. Sighing, I walk around the corner and stand up, showing myself above the boxes stacked near the door.

     “Hey, assholes!” I scream into the warehouse before ducking behind the boxes.

     The guns go off, and my ‘team’ storms in with their guns. Smiling, I dust my hands around the back of the warehouse. Another corner rounded, and I come face-to-face with a guard with his rifle at my head.

     I duck and knock his legs out from under him. Once he hits the ground with a thud, I smack him across the face with my tail and slice his neck open. Once he’s no longer breathing, I go through his pockets.

     A few coins, some wrappers of food, and a wallet aren’t exactly what I’m looking for. Opening the wallet, I toss out a photo of the owner’s kids and his mate, I presume. I couldn’t care less – I’m searching for currency cards. There’s only one, but it’ll do for about a day until someone realizes it’s in the wrong hands. Then I can just junk it.

     I take his rifle and keep walking until I near another door. Poking my head in, I can see all around the warehouse. My team isn’t bad, considering I thought they were half-witted. They’re actually killing the guards off quicker than I thought. Good for me. It gives me more time to locate the target. I’m hoping he’ll have some more expensive jewels or currency cards I can snag.

     I crouch and walk behind the rows of boxes until I see a ladder at the end of a hallway. There’s a scream from the center of the warehouse. It sounds like one of my team.

     “Should have fought harder,” I whisper before climbing the ladder to the top. Once I reach it, I see two guards shooting over the balcony. Not my problem if I can avoid them.

     I walk around a nearby hallway and see an armored door at the end of it. Perfect. I’ve always wondered why big black-market leaders make their hideouts so obvious. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, though.

     I bang on the door and lower my voice to disguise it. “Sir! We need you! Our men are down! There’s too many of them!”

I press myself against the wall and stand still while he peers through the door. He opens it, and I slam it on his face. Walking in, I shut it behind me and shoot him in the head. One shot. That’s what a million koltecs gets him. For two million, maybe he would have been worth some taunting or manipulation before killing.

I look around the room with my rifle on my shoulder. There’s some new technology and some artwork on the walls I could take. But do I really want to carry it? Not particularly.

My eyes flicker to a safe in the far corner of the room. I walk over to it with a whistle while I pull out my lockpick. With a few guesses and listening to the inner workings of it, I’m in.

Important documents, trade ledgers, and jewels. The jewels aren’t bad, but what I’m really looking for is in the back. Gold, and lots of it. I nod my head.

“Not bad, not bad.” I put it in my pockets and turn to his body on the floor and smirk. “You’re more packed than I thought, poor bastard.”

A loud explosion distracts me. I know damn well the Kaleidians with me don’t have weapons like that, but I didn’t see any of the guards holding launchers either. This is not what I wanted to deal with today.

I walk outside to the balcony. The two guards who were shooting at me are dead on the floor, and a large team of black-market assholes enter the warehouse. I want to scream at my team and ask who the fuck alerted them to our break-in? One of the idiots must have missed an alarm.

I aim at the one with the launcher and shoot him in the forehead, then do the same to the two beside him. Looking to my right, I notice the door is wide open, and no one’s there – not my team and not the enemy.

I jump off the balcony, landing hard with the gold stashed in my pockets. It hurts my ankles, but what matters more is I’m out of this chaos. The ‘team’ can handle themselves, I’m sure.

While the sounds of bullets fade into the distance, my stomach growls. The sun is setting, and I haven’t eaten since midday. Before I go anywhere, though, I should take the valuables and lock them up. Then, I can treat myself with the card I swiped.

The back alleyways in Glimner City all look the same – dirty and packed with all manner of beings. Some beg for food and some give awkward smiles, but the worst are the ones who want to have a conversation. I’ve debated killing beings before just for asking my name.

Once I’m at the dingy hotel where I keep an apartment, I open the doors leading to the basement. I tap on the pipes, celebrating another job well done, regardless of who made it out alive. I push aside the fake wall I put in and close it behind me, then flip on the lights to my home. Well, a safe house for when I take on missions on the western side of the city.

Seven hundred thousand koltecs a month. Not bad for having this setup when I need it, especially for essentially an underground lair where no one can find me. Keeping myself hidden was the landlord’s only condition, so he could avoid trouble that I could easily bring otherwise. That, and I had to kill his ex-wife, but she was easy.

I message the being who hired me that the job is done and let him know to confirm on the hacked warehouse cameras. It’s a tragedy we lost so many of the team, I say, then set down my comm.

I stash the gold in my safe before I hear a knock on the upstairs wall. I turn around and notice my shoulder is killing me.

“Oh, shit.” I chuckle, running my finger over it. “When did I get shot?”

I walk to the bathroom and grab some bandages, then I listen for a moment before hearing Malock’s voice on the other side of the wall. 

“Zorak, open up!”

“What’s the password?” I ask with a grin.

He sighs. “Koltec King.”

I laugh and slide open the wall, holding my arms out to the sides. “My friend! What brings you all the way out here?”

I don’t like company, but Malock’s jobs have given me quite a bit of earnings over the years. While I don’t trust him fully, I let him into my home, which is trust enough.

“I have something for you.”

“How much?”

“How much what?” he asks, leaning against the doorway.

“How much cash?”

“Three million koltecs.”

“Alright, count me in.”

“What?” he scoffs. “Don’t you want to know more about the mission?”

“I know all I need to. How much I’m getting paid.”

“Okay,” he sighs. “The target is…”

I hold up a hand. “After dinner.”

“What?”

“I’m going to dinner,” I reply and walk away. “Come tomorrow!”

Back alleyways cover me in darkness while I walk to the diner on the edge of town. I try to go to the same places sparingly to avoid being known. This is only my second time here in about two years.

I walk in, thinking about what I can do with three million koltecs. My comm-pad buzzes, and I see I’ve been paid. Normally, I’d use this for the meal, but why bother when a dead guy’s been kind enough to treat me tonight?

“Hello,” a voice chirps at me.

A waitress is standing in front of me, flipping her chestnut hair over her shoulder and staring at me with wide brown eyes. My heart sinks, and my core begins to vibrate. I almost choke, finding it suddenly hard to breathe at the sight of her. She lifts her eyebrows and stares at me suspiciously.

“Are you alright?”

I scoff and roll my eyes, trying to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest. “I’m fine. Where should I sit?”

She rolls her eyes at me and grabs a menu before walking away. “Come on.”

Something about her sarcastic tone makes me grin. While following her, my eyes scan over her curvy body. I haven’t seen a figure like this in ages. She’s human, something I would never typically take a second look at. This one, though, catches my eye.

She motions for me to sit and throws a menu on the table before beginning to walk away. I catch her by the wrist and look up at her, mesmerized.

“What’s your name?” I ask, cocking my head.

“Gemma,” she replies, pulling her arm out from my grasp and crossing her arms. “Why?”

I shrug. “Just need to know what name to call when I want my coffee refilled.”

“Well, thankfully, I’m not your waitress. Jamie is, so that’s the name to call.” She leans down and gets close to my face with a grin. “Just make sure you tip her well.”

My eyes follow her down the walkway of the diner as she walks away. Whatever the fuck that interaction was, it has me racing. Both my heart and mind are all over the place. I can barely even look at the menu from my shaking hands.

I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here now.

I bolt out of the diner and into one of the alleyways, hunching over while catching my breath. What the fuck was that? I’ve never felt anything like that for another being.

The Jalshagar. I shake my head at the thought before looking at the ground and regaining my breath. The Jalshagar. The intrinsic connection with a fated mate. 

It’s something I’ve heard about since I was a kid. I never really believed it actually happened though. It’s a legend, a myth. A lie you tell small children to make the universe seem a little softer and forgiving. 

Or maybe not.

“No,” I whisper. I see Gemma walking around through the large diner windows, leading another guest to their table with a laugh. There’s a pull in my core, just like the stories said there would be.

I have to get away from here. There’s no way this is happening. This can’t happen. Not to me.

Racing down the alleys of the city, I make my way to the ship. I’ll have Malock bring me the gold in the safe tomorrow when talks to me about the next mission. I have to get as far away from these feelings as possible. I swore off emotions and personal entanglements years ago, when I was just a teenager, and it’s only gotten more pronounced since then. 

For the first time in my life, I’m struck with a vision of a life spent together with someone else. What’s most terrifying about it isn’t the feeling of losing my freedom or being saddled with another person, but the overwhelming feeling of blissful calm the fantasy brings.

I input my passcode to open the ship before slamming the door behind me and sinking to the floor. I close my eyes and try to calm my breathing, thinking about the three million koltecs for the next job. What could I do with three million? Come on, Zorak, think.

Buy the diner, make her my employee, enjoy her whenever I want.

My fist hits the side of my ship, and my breathing quickens. I saw her for less than five minutes. She doesn’t even know my name. I barely spoke to her. This can’t be anything other than the Jalshagar.

I remember all I’ve heard about the Jalshagar. That it’s inescapable. It screams at a Kaleidian until they pay attention to it, and they ignore it at their peril. I can’t be tempted. I have work I need to attend to.

But damn, the way she looked at me. The way she walked, leaned over to whisper, and even spoke her name captivated me. The feeling of her skin beneath my hands made my core pulsate like nothing I remember feeling. I imagined taking her right there under the table.

Some cruel higher power has decided to show me a fated mate, something I thought would never happen. Something I hoped would never happen.

Fear and terror shoot through me, along with rage at feeling something at all again. I know the legends of the Jalshagar. It will overtake a Kaleidian until they’re formally mated, or it will turn them into a husk if they refuse it.

Even entertaining the idea of such a connection could ruin me, but as the night progresses, I can’t think about anything else but her, and I only spoke to her for five minutes.

Five minutes with a woman named Gemma. That’s all it took for my life to turn on its head. It could ruin my life if I let it, but I doubt I’ll be able to ignore it. And even if it did, it might ruin my life even worse.