Alcandian Soul Read online

  Alcandar.

  It was a huge idea, and she paced some more as she tried to digest all the information pouring out of the memory. Alcandar was another planet with humanoid lifeforms, and that race had been in direct contact with Earth. Huge men who claimed their gene splicing had resulted in a primarily male race. They had built a wormhole, and offered Earth their knowledge in exchange for female mates.

  Until something went wrong. The unit dealing with the Alcandians had destroyed the wormhole in some quest to maintain human dignity. Zeva had been stranded on Earth.

  Cassandra cussed low and deep as she recalled the days spent working with the alien woman. Maybe she really was tainted by treason because Cassandra couldn’t see why the two races couldn’t coexist. Wasn’t America supposed to be the melting pot?

  She froze as she stared at the telephone sitting on her kitchen counter. Since there was so little in the apartment, the phone stood out, as did the business cards sitting next to it.

  Newly promoted Colonel Rinehart had interrogated her endlessly. The man’s face twisted with rage when she passed his lie detector tests, denying any knowledge of “anything recent”. Her frustration boiled hot enough to send steam out of her ears as she recalled the man demanding her to tell him things she had honestly been unaware of.

  Cassandra remembered why too.

  Dyne.

  A huge Alcandian warrior who had clasped her head between his oversized hands just before his mind entered hers. There had been a burning flare of pain before her memory ended, just turned off like the entire abduction had never happened.

  Until tonight.

  Cassandra moved towards the phone and fingered Rinehart’s card. Oh yes, she remembered every last detail now. But her temper flared up as she looked around the stark quarters. She was being treated like a traitor when her own superiors knew what had happened to her.

  Cassandra cussed and didn’t much care what her mother would think. She was so pissed off she felt like screaming with her rage. An entire lifetime of dedication and service to the Army and they treated her like a traitor when their program went sour.

  And then there was Cole Somerton. Her anger deepened into something thick that seeped into her heart. He’d left her to deal with it. Condemned to this isolation hell.

  She should call Rinehart. Negotiate a return to her life in exchange for the memory flowing through her brain. Cassandra indulged the fantasy for a long moment before she turned and stomped back into her living room. Who could she trust? Rinehart might just decide she knew more than she was telling him and hook her back up to his lie detectors. After passing his tests before, the man would never release her, even if she gave him her current information, because he’d be waiting for her to uncover more hidden memories.

  A little shiver moved over her arms and she rubbed the skin as despair took the place of her temper. She was so helpless against it all. There wasn’t much she feared, but the thought of being stuck in her current limbo for the rest of her life terrified her. Was every goal she had just going to be vaporized? She was twenty-six years old. There were so many things to do and no way for her to get her life back on course.

  Her head throbbed as she tried to untangle the mess. What she needed was someone to trust, but at the moment there wasn’t a single name on that list.

  Self-pity wasn’t something she usually wallowed in, but tonight it felt like she was being swamped by a wave of it.

  * * * * *

  Alcandar

  “We have a common mission.”

  Cole Somerton turned to stare at Dyne. The Alcandian warrior was often silent. He dedicated his life to service among the law-keeping warriors called Judgment Officials. Along with the maroon coat he wore with its black edging came a no-joking attitude towards words like “mission”.

  The warrior was dead serious and Cole felt himself leaping towards the chance to prove himself. His own “uniform” calf-length coat was a lighter shade of maroon, denoting his training status among the Judgment Officials. They were the law-keeping body that maintained order on a planet full of warriors.

  “It would be an honor to serve with you.” Dyne nodded approval of the polite response. Cole watched his eyes move over him in a light inspection before Dyne handed over an inter-dimensional beacon.

  “It seems that many humans truly are emerging past their current levels of perception.” Dyne watched Cole attach the beacon above his communication wristband. The two devices worked together when using the newly created wormhole to reach Earth. Alcandar had no intentions of being denied access to Earth. They had rebuilt after the first wormhole was destroyed. The Alcandians held the advantage of technology. They might have invaded Earth but they chose a slow, undetected form of infiltration. Warriors who were willing to risk being caught on Earth could apply for travel privilege in order to search for a mate. The rules were strict concerning removal of any human but the list of waiting warriors was long. Harsh penalties for misconduct didn’t stop Alcandian warriors from braving anything in order to connect with a female their minds could brush.

  Dyne’s voice grew somber.

  “Cassandra has broken through the block I placed in her memory. We must detain her. You have been charged with the duty. I will observe and stand as your partner during the mission.”

  A chill went down Cole’s spine but it shot back up his body in a rush of heat. He frowned as her face flashed immediately into his mind. Kidnapping her again wasn’t something he wanted. In fact it made him angry that anyone was thinking about it, much less ordering it done. Dyne stiffened as he caught the anger through their mind link.

  Among Alcandians, privacy was a bit of an outdated idea. Honor and honesty went hand in hand here. That meant your fellow Judgment Official often just scanned your thoughts while you stood talking. Once he joined the ranks completely, he would have to link with a partner. It was the tightest bond, something that would allow them to be an even more effective team. It would take him through life, even into any union he might share with a female.

  Alcandian bonding unions were not monogamous. With so many males, it only made sense that at least two warriors shared a female. But even that still left many warriors braving death on an alien planet in order to find a mate.

  “It must be done.” Dyne expected a fight from him and Cole halfway wanted to give in to the urge to let his right fist speak for him. But his faith in Alcandian honor held his hand. Alcandian warriors treated females with the greatest respect. A mate was claimed from another world only when a mind bridge had been discovered. Warriors had to wait until they faced a female they could link with telepathically before they had the right to bring her back to Alcandar.

  “She knows the location of the wormhole. Moving it requires too many resources and that cannot be done quickly. We would risk discovery or stranding the warriors who are currently hunting on Earth. The council has decided to remove the female before your former superiors discover her newly remembered information.” Dyne offered him a sympathetic look. “It is expected that you should have this duty since you have already touched her.”

  And that was a high compliment from the Alcandian Council. They were publicly acknowledging his position as a warrior among them. Honor was sacred to them. When a male touched a female, no other warrior interfered unless the warrior was unable to touch her mind. He was grateful for the respect, but Cassandra was going to spit in his eye.

  “I could not touch her mind.”

  “That is not a factor in this mission. She could lead your Earth forces directly to the new portal. We have over a thousand warriors on Earth. The female will have to be removed. She is only one.” Dyne’s face hinted at his own dislike of the assignment but he tightened his emotions and accepted the logic of the decision. “It is possible you may still link now that she has grown beyond her own mental borders. Her mind might have been too immature for you when you last saw her. It is also possible she will link with another warrior. We will strive to make her stay
as pleasant as possible.”

  Dyne turned and began walking towards the gate. Cole kept pace with his partner as he tightened his control for the task ahead of him. Distaste filled his mouth but he moved forward because if anyone was going to smash into Cassandra’s life again, it was going to be him. His memory of the sergeant said she was going to consider her relocation to Alcandar as anything but pleasant. However, there was a tiny part of him that was looking forward to locking horns with her feisty determination once again.

  “Your human judgment force has not been kind to her since her association with you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dyne lifted an eyebrow as he shot Cole a sideways look. “She has been held under deep suspicion since you returned her. I find the mission acceptable due to their treatment of her. A female should not be treated so harshly.”

  His fellow humans had offended Dyne. The emotion drifted into his head from the other warrior as they crossed a courtyard and entered the portal gate building.

  Electric blue light bathed them as they moved forward, and the warriors posted offered them nods of approval. The hairs on his neck stood up as static electricity bathed him. The gate popped and hissed as it surged to life. The open end flickered with different colors of blue and white as the controller set the coordinates with a critical eye. He motioned them forward and the gate pulled them in as they stepped into the flickering light.

  For a moment time froze. The electric current surged through his nervous system, triggering sensation in every nerve ending. Cole tightened his control and held his arms against his chest to keep them from twitching. His lungs were suspended mid-breath as even his heart paused.

  The gate dumped them on the dirt floor of a cave deep in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Cole controlled his landing, widening his stance to keep his balance as his ears tried to confuse him by twitching with the residue of wormhole travel. The vertigo dissipated and he straightened up. They moved forward and stopped when they reached sunlight. A small station had been built over the opening of the cave. A hologram projection covered the opening in the granite rock, making it an effective duck blind from the hikers who sometimes made it into the remote area.

  Cole began to unhook his Alcandian coat as he and Dyne prepared for their journey into the human world. Hiking clothing was handed to them by the warriors who staffed the station. Everything Alcandian was taken from them except their wristbands. Judgment Officials never took them off. Even in death. Cole looked at the crimson band with its controls. The thing was even able to test his blood to ensure it was on his wrist and not anyone else’s. As far as IDs went, it was foolproof.

  But here on Earth it posed a possibly deadly problem. Earth had strung Alcandar along for years, assuring them that they were content with the bargain. That meant Rinehart had a lot of intel on just what Alcandians and their technologies looked like. Keeping his wrist covered was key to his success. Cole shrugged into a long-sleeved hiking shirt. He buttoned the cuff as Dyne watched him for the proper procedure needed to dress in the unfamiliar Earth garments.

  The shirt felt odd on his back. Cole let that fact soak into his brain. Earth wasn’t home for him any longer. The final embrace of that idea really didn’t shake him. His sister was bound to a pair of Alcandians, and his parents had passed away. Serving as a Special Operations Ranger for the military had only landed him on the wrong side of an officer’s word.

  That made building a life on Alcandar much simpler thing to accept. But nothing was perfect. Picking up a backpack, he stepped through the hologram and onto a hiking trail. He shouldered the pack and snapped the hip belt into place. He loved the outdoors, but today his lips were tightened into a hard line as he began a mission against his own race.

  The Council was right, he needed to do it. He’d taken Cassandra with Zeva to the new wormhole. It had been his call that sentenced Cassandra to the fate of knowing too much.

  So it was going to be his hand that pulled her into a wormhole—and escape. Right and wrong really didn’t matter when you had to place the safety of others before your own feelings.

  Shit.

  Chapter Two

  Cassandra glared at Rinehart’s card the next morning as she waited for her coffeemaker to brew up some quick salvation. She’d kicked around the bed more than slept, and her head was aching with what promised to be a splitting migraine in a few hours. Despite her brain wrestling with her options for most of the night, she was no closer to figuring out what to do. All of her options looked bad. For once she was looking forward to a boring day of warehouse work among men who wouldn’t talk to her.

  A vicious smile parted her lips. She’d be more than happy to tell anyone who tried to dress her down today just where to shove his cock. Self-righteous bastards! She’d followed Rinehart’s orders to the letter and this was the reward. She glanced around the stark, cell-like apartment. She hadn’t even been allowed to order a kitchen rug from a catalog. It stunk that she’d been reduced to asking to place that order in the first place. They were even whitewashing her personality, just like they did to new recruits reporting for boot camp. You were stripped of everything in order to teach you the value of the team you were going to become a part of. You wore the clothes they gave you, slept when they told you, and every single personal item was shipped back to your next of kin until you proved yourself by graduating.

  Well, screw them all. She wasn’t picking up the phone to lick his boots. So what if she remembered being abducted? There wasn’t a whole lot anyone could do with old information like that. It wasn’t like she was on speaking terms with Cole Somerton. The man was long gone and he hadn’t left her his card.

  Too bad.

  Her eyes rounded with anger as she slammed her coffee mug down onto the tile countertop. She needed to kick that little voice in the ass before she went down any road that included even being polite to Cole Somerton. Her nipples tingled and she looked down at her breasts like they belonged to someone else. Lusty dreams were one thing but she was wide awake. She rubbed her palms over her chest and shivered as sensation shot down her spine.

  Oh Jesus! She needed a vibrator. Maybe she should ask Rinehart if she could order one!

  But she looked again at the front of her shirt, at her raised nipples, and frowned. The really scary thing was the way she could feel each nipple, and exactly how uncomfortable the fabric of her bra felt against the puckered tips. It should be impossible to be that aroused just by thinking about Cole Somerton. The man had never even kissed her. Yet her body was reacting to him.

  Cassandra shook her head and picked up her coffee. She wasn’t thinking clearly. Having just remembered her abduction, she was still in shock. That at least made sense, even if it ticked her off once more. She had never gone through the steps of healing needed after an abduction, so she was still emotionally drawn to her kidnapper. Maybe she hated that, but it was logical.

  She turned and moved towards the front door. At least she could spend the day introducing her mind to the fact that Cole Somerton was a bastard who had tied her up and stuffed her in a trunk. He’d also messed with her mind and was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a major asshole.

  Hey, it was a good place to start and she was already in a lousy mood.

  * * * * *

  He really had been on Alcandar too long. Cole felt a self-satisfied grin curve his lips as he surveyed the traffic at the main entrance onto the base he used to call home.

  He could feel Cassandra, like she was a favorite scent his nose was identifying because he enjoyed it so much. The awareness of that fact twisted through his brain as he moved past the gate, his brain working the problem of just how to enter the restricted area. Instead of becoming frustrated, his instincts rose to the challenge of outwitting the security he’d once helped to design. Defeat wasn’t even considered as his eyes closed and his mind filled with the feeling of being close to Cassandra once again. A soft growl shook his chest as his eyes opened and the instinct to hunt took
control. Cole let it carry him away from any further consideration of right and wrong. What mattered was the hunt…

  And the prize.

  * * * * *

  Cassandra burned her hand while cooking. She yelped as she jumped away from her two-burner range top. She’d only tied her cooking apron around her waist, and the top portion of it hooked the pot as she moved, slinging her dinner onto the kitchen floor. The dark red spaghetti sauce was a stark contrast to the dull white of the floor, making the mess look humongous.

  Well, that placed the cherry on top of her day.

  She chucked her apron aside before turning to grab a dishrag and begin cleaning up the mess. She indulged her temper as she worked. But it left her emotionally spent by the time she filled a bowl with cold cereal. Anger only lasted so long, and despair was often right on its heels. There was only a single chair in her living room, so she took her cold meal into the bedroom and curled up against the headboard. A small television sat on top of her dresser, which was the only other thing in the room.

  She left the room silent as she ate. Fending off depression took up most of her attention, and she sat the bowl aside before emptying it. Something had to give. All she needed to do was wrap her fingers around the right crowbar to pry open the box she was in.

  Maybe Rinehart.

  The problem was she didn’t trust the man. Getting up, she paced around the room. What she needed was someone on her side. She wanted to call her dad, but her brain rejected that idea. He’d worked hard all his life, and this mess could drag him in as fast as it had her.