Vox: Warlord Brides (Warriors of Sangrin Book 4) Read online

  Vox stepped forward. “Widows are sent home to their families.”

  “Yes! I mean, I’m not excited about that but someone is trying to make me a widow. Someone wants me back on Earth.”

  “Why?” Paax cocked his head to one side, waiting for an answer.

  Carrie held up her empty hands. “I have no idea. I have stock in the company but I do absolutely nothing with it. I let my father control it.” She left Earth on bad terms with her mother, her father and her ex-fiancé but she couldn’t see any of them resorting to murder. Over hurt feelings?

  “There is one,” Vox said. “A former mate.”

  “He wasn’t my mate,” Carrie said quickly.

  “An intended mate, then. Who would have gained significant control of her family company if they were married.”

  “Tucker wouldn’t do this.” Would he? He always liked the idea of her more than the actual her. She was merely a trophy to lord over the investors and board members. How far would he go to secure a trophy?

  “Someone did this,” Seeran said. “We must confront this Tucker and get his confession.”

  “He’s never going to just confess,” Carrie said. An attempted murderer wouldn’t just spill the beans on their nefarious plot if you asked politely. She gave Seeran a side glance as the male pounded a fist into the flat of his palm. Okay, so Seeran wasn’t going to ask nicely but still, the point remained.

  “I will make the traitor confess,” Seeran said.

  “This male fights without honor,” Paax said. “Show him the same regard he gave our brother.”

  “Wait! Don’t kill him,” Carrie said. “I mean, I know this is serious but you can’t just murder someone.”

  “That is Mahdfel justice,” Paax said, voice firm. His mind was already decided. He would dispatch his warriors and straight up slaughter Tucker. She had no love lost for her ex fiancé but she didn’t want him dead.

  “But he’s not a Mahdfel,” Carrie pleaded, certain her words fell on deaf ears. “He’s Terran. We have laws on Earth. Procedures for attempted murder. Report him to the authorities. You can’t just show up and murder people.”

  “I would challenge him to battle, as honor demands,” Vox said.

  “How is that different from straight up murder?” Tucker stood no chance against the alien warrior. None. It would be a slaughter and Vox knew it. “There’s no honor in challenging someone who can’t defend themselves.”

  “I’d give him his choice of weapon,” Vox said, as if that evened the odds.

  Carrie turned to each male in the room, beseeching them for a shred of compassion. “It might not have been attempted murder. Maybe he just wanted my project to fail.” No response. Then, “Please don’t kill him. I don’t think I could live with the guilt.”

  Mylomon finally spoke, his voice low and rumbling. “Vox’s female is correct. We cannot engage this traitor in an honorable manner.”

  “I suppose you want to sulk in the shadows,” Seeran said with a sneer.

  “No,” he responded sharply. “I propose we use our intellect and devise a trap to lure out the traitor.”

  Paax leaned forward, intrigued. “Explain.”

  “We feign the pilot’s demise and send his new widow back to Earth. The traitor will reveal himself.”

  “Alone!” Vox stepped toward the larger male, chest out and fury in his normally amiable eyes. Mylomon was a head taller and twice as bulky but Vox’s ropey build was coiled tightly, ready to deliver a flurry of furious blows.

  “Yes,” Mylomon said. “Seeran will accompany her via shuttle to the Terran moon.” Pregnancy limited Carrie to slow space travel. Teleportation and pregnancy did not mix.

  “Unacceptable! Sir, I will not allow this… this…”

  “This what?” Mylomon ground out. “Abomination? Freak?”

  “I tolerate you because you are Daisy’s mate and nothing more,” Vox said.

  “And I do not end you because it would make my mate upset.”

  Both male’s faces were a mask of fierce domination. Neither one would back down. Neither blinked. Whatever it was between them, it went a lot further than this situation. Carrie grew nervous. This would not end well...

  Vox finally cracked a smile and slapped Mylomon on the shoulder. “Truly, Daisy would be upset?”

  “For a day or two,” Mylomon said. His voice remained grumbling and low but the tension left the room.

  “I do not like your plan,” Vox said.

  “I would not send your mate unprotected. You would arrive days before her and await her on the planet’s surface.”

  “I would stay with Vox’s mate,” Seeran said.

  Mylomon shook his head. “No. To draw the traitor out, we must make them believe Vox’s mate is alone and unguarded.”

  Carrie mulled over the plan. Widowed and pregnant, her parents would want her to return home. “I’ll do it but only if we turn the person over to the authorities.”

  Mylomon snorted, demonstrating his opinion of Terran authorities.

  “Agreed. Surrender the traitor to the Terran authorities,” Paax said.

  “And if he fights?” Vox asked.

  “Follow your instincts.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Carrie

  Today was the day they murdered her baby.

  After consulting with Rohn, the two engineers agreed to the method of murder: a cascade of failures starting with the fuel pump, followed by the fire suppression system failing to deploy and ending with an inferno that consumed the fuel cells, causing an explosion. All this needed to happen with Sly Fox off the Judgment, otherwise there was no believable way for the fire suppression not to work. Out, alone in space, another failure with no crew to respond… It was more than believable. It was inevitable.

  Rohn rigged a remote access to pilot the ship. The autopilot might broadcast back to Earth, tipping their hand.

  Carrie rested one hand against Sly Fox’s hull.

  “Saying goodbye?” Vox asked.

  “It’s for the best. This project was nothing but a headache from beginning to end. Now I can start fresh.” Didn’t make it easier, though. How many hours did she spend on the initial design? And how many hours correcting and repairing? She could have designed a half dozen other ships with the amount of time she spent on her baby.

  She snorted. Now she sounded like her father.

  “What’s funny?”

  “Nothing. Everything. My father tried to starve the project of resources but that only made me work on it harder.”

  Vox’s gaze drifted from her to the empty cockpit. “We have some time before launch. Wanna sit in the hot seat?”

  “Could I?” She’d never been in her own ship, not even during production.

  “Why not. Just don’t go pressing buttons.”

  Vox slid open the cockpit shield with a touch. The dark, glass-material slide back. The Sly Fox was slim and built for one pilot. There wasn’t much to the ship beyond the cockpit.

  He lifted her up and she pulled herself in.

  She settled into the wide leather seat. Designed for the dimensions of a typical Mahdfel, the cockpit was spacious by human standards.

  The console lit up when it sensed an occupant. Readout displays projected onto the black screen above the console. She wanted to run her hand across the console but resisted. The ship was so temperamental, there was no telling what might happen if she hit the wrong toggle.

  “It really was a beautiful ship,” Vox said, leaning over the side of the cockpit.

  “What did you like best?”

  “The head room.” He gave a toss of his head, dark horns raking through the air.

  “It is rather roomy in here.” She stretched up her arms to demonstrate, finger tips brushing against the roof.

  “Room enough for two? There’s something I’ve always wanted to try—” Vox leaned in, lips brushing against hers.

  “Will you two knock it off!” Rohn shouted. “This is a place of work, not a b
ordello.”

  Vox pulled away, a grin on his lips. “Next time.”

  “And get your skinny butt out of there, female. It’s time.”

  “Don’t talk about my female’s butt. Don’t look at her butt, either! I’ll beat you into the ground, mechanic.”

  “I’d like to see you try, fly boy. You think you got fancy moves but I got a wrench.”

  Carrie clambered out. No one had ever called her butt skinny. Or threatened to pound another male for looking at it.

  “Ready?” Vox asked, leading her behind a protective wall.

  “Do it before I change my mind,” she said.

  Lights flashed and a warning sounded that a craft was about to depart. The crew cleared the deck.

  The Sly Fox lit up. The engines fired and the clamps disengaged. The ship rolled forward. Soon it passed through the two force field barriers and was out of sight.

  Rohn turned to a screen. A remote drone feed him images of the ship as he piloted it away from the Judgment.

  “How long before—”

  Carrie never got to finish her question. A light flashed, warning that the Sly Fox was experiencing a cascade of failures. The fire suppression system could not contain the blaze. Just as planned, the ship exploded.

  She should have felt something. Heard something. But there was nothing to mark the passing of her baby from the universe.

  Vox rested a land on her shoulder. “Are you well?”

  “Yeah. I know it’s silly to be upset about losing an object. It was just a ship. A thing. It’s not important.”

  “It was important to you.”

  A smile tugged at her lips. “Thank you for understanding. How long do we wait before sending me to Earth?

  ***

  Two days.

  The warlord waited two days before sending the newly “widowed” Carrie West Karey back to Earth.

  Carrie didn’t see the point in packing a bag but Seeran argued that she needed to pack enough to appear as if she intended to return to Earth permanently.

  “But I didn’t pack before I came here,” she said.

  “That is true,” Vox added. “I had to outfit her with everything. Every. Thing.”

  “You didn’t complain too loudly that first night when I had to wear your shirt.”

  Seeran paled. “I do not need to hear such details.”

  Carrie shrugged. “Vox will just beat you up if he thinks you’re getting ideas.”

  Vox nodded enthusiastically.

  “What you have packed is sufficient,” Seeran said.

  “Are you sure? The shuttle will take how many days to get to the moon base? Three? Four? What if I need to wear your shirt?”

  “You will not!” Seeran and Vox said at the same time.

  As it happened, the journey took four days. Seeran kept his distance and Carrie had plenty of time to catch up on her reading.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Vox

  Time move slower the further away he traveled from his mate. She was still mid-journey to Earth’s moon while he waited on the planet’s surface and time crawled.

  He occupied his thoughts with finding the traitor. He could not rest until he eliminated the threat and only then could he return home with his mate.

  He began with researching her family. This activity was most like scouting and he fell into it easily. Josiah and Eleanor West were prominent figures in the community. Fortunately, their company was near a military base and no one gave a Mahdfel a second glance.

  He discovered nothing suspicious about her family, other than her brother, Justin, drank to excess. Vox understood logically that Terrans imbibed alcoholic beverages to achieve an altered state of intoxication. He did not understand the appeal. Of course, he tried Terran alcohol but it had little effect against the speed of his metabolism. Sangrin wine could produce a light headed, buzzing feeling but he still did not understand the appeal. A warrior was patient. A warrior was also alert and not drunk.

  Not like Justin West.

  After the second night of watching the Terran try to destroy his liver, Vox moved on to the more promising target.

  Tucker Hunt.

  Vox was predisposed to dislike the male. As the intended mate of his female, they were natural rivals. He might challenge Vox to win back Carrie.

  Vox promised his mate that he would not harm the traitor. However, if Tucker challenged him, he would not back down. And he would not pull his punches. If the male was foolish enough to challenge him, he would die.

  After observing the male for a day, Vox’s opinion of the male as a threat diminished. He had taken a new mate, a blonde female who was so thin and lacking in generous curves that she could have been a child. The foolish male had had a perfect female and he let her go.

  Vox worked his way through Carrie’s short list of suspects. Satisfied none of them were the traitor, he turned to the employees of West and Hunt.

  Carrie

  Fresh off the shuttle, Carrie was hustled onto a commuter shuttle to the Earth’s surface. Silently, she and Seeran sat side by side during the descent.

  “Admit it, you’re going to miss me,” she said.

  Scanning the shuttle passengers for potential threats, Seeran was slow to respond. “I look forward to the day your son returns to the clan. He will be a fine warrior.”

  “Like his father?”

  Seeran turned to her, eyes locked on hers. “Like his mother.”

  A grin spread on her face. “Aw, I didn’t think you did the touchy-feely stuff but there you go surprising me.”

  The grumpy, perpetually put-upon expression returned.

  Yeah, Seeran was going to miss her.

  Once the shuttle docked on the surface, they parted. From an earlier briefing, Carrie knew that she was not alone, despite appearances. Vox awaited her arrival and would shadow her movements.

  It was early evening when the auto-taxi pulled up in front of her parent’s house. The air held the damp, salty scent of home. Warm, humid air wrapped around her like a sticky, uncomfortable blanket. Dark clouds rolled across the sky. A storm was coming. She could hear the ocean, the proper ocean, not a recording.

  It was good to be home.

  Eleanor greeted her at the front door and wrapped her in a tight embrace. That was new.

  “Oh, my baby! Look at you.” Eleanor held her at arm’s length and inspected her. “Are you getting the right nutrition? Do you need vitamins? We’ll make an appointment with a specialist tomorrow.”

  “I’m fine and I have a doctor.”

  “A specialist?”

  “A xeno-natal specialist,” trying to remember the mouthful Meridan used to describe her specialty.

  Eleanor nodded, satisfied. “Good. Come inside before the storm hits.”

  Carrie was instructed to leave her bag at the door.

  “Do you need to freshen up? We held dinner for you.”

  “Really?” Also new. Josiah never waited to have his dinner. “Is Dad here?”

  “Of course, pudding.” Eleanor paused, a smile wavering on her face. “I’m glad you’re home. I mean, I’m sorry about what happened and I know you must be heart broken and I hate to see you in pain, but I’m glad you’re home.”

  Carrie was stunned. Eleanor had never demonstrated before that she was aware of Carrie’s emotional needs or feelings. “Thanks. For everything.”

  “Are you tired? Or can you eat?”

  She could always eat.

  Josiah was already seated at the table, reading from his tablet. He looked up as she entered and nodded. “Good to see you home, pudding pie.”

  Her father noticed her.

  Was this some sort of alternate reality? Had they traveled to a parallel dimension?

  “Where’s Justin?” she asked, taking her normal spot at the table.

  “He’s not… well,” Eleanor said. “You can get caught up tomorrow.”

  She handed Carrie a plate, heavy with lasagna, garlic bread and salad on the side. It w
as exactly the same food served to everyone else at the table. No special diet dishes for her tonight. This had to be a parallel dimension.

  “Isn’t this too fattening for me?” she asked.

  “You’re eating for two now. The cheese will do you good.”

  Her mother advocating her to eat fattening, calorie dense cheese… Wonders never cease.

  “Have you decided on a name?” Eleanor asked, tucking into her salad.

  “Um, no. We never really talked about it…” Carrie trailed off when a horrified looked crossed Eleanor’s face.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset!”

  “It’s fine. I’m not upset.”

  “Do you miss him?”

  “Vox is—was—very sweet. And funny. And full of joy. Yes, I miss him.” It was so bizarre to speak of her husband in the past tense. She didn’t like it.

  “Were you on a station or somewhere else? I hear there’s a base near Jupiter.” Eleanor asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation to a more neutral location. Up next: how was your flight?

  “A battle cruiser, actually.”

  “Oh, my. Sounds dangerous. All those,” Eleanor paused, catching herself before she used a mean and hurtful term, “men. Do they really walk around nude?”

  Carrie laughed. “No. They have uniforms. Lots of guns, though. And training. Like combat practice all the time. It was interesting.”

  “Sounds terrifying to me.”

  Josiah pushed away his plate, finished. “It’s good to have you back. We’ve miss you in R&D, that’s for sure.”

  “Really?” Praise? From her father?

  “Justin’s told me how you kept the department going for years but I just didn’t see it until you were gone.”