Alien Savior: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (13 page)

For a moment, Danielle spoke not a word. She looked away and he watched her shoulders knot in tension, knowing he’d upset her.

He should have known. She wasn’t ready to hear the nature of things as they were, let alone to make movements to change them. Perhaps he would be better to hand her off to Jalil, to see if she was any more confident in the scientific realm than she was in matters of social and economic problems. “My Prince…can I speak freely?”

Her words were soft, almost inaudible, and when he registered them, the prince reached down to take her chin gently between his fingertips, urging her to turn her face upwards towards his once more.

Kaia had indeed taught her well. “You may.”

She flushed, hesitating, before finally putting words to her thoughts. “I think you might be asking them for too much…too quickly. I’ll be the first one to admit…I don’t know much about Garinian culture or history. Your people are a mystery to me. But, I do know humanity. And they’ve suffered, Kael. More than you can imagine.”

In that instant, the sorrow he often saw glimmering deep within her blue eyes suddenly rose to the forefront, and for a split second, she laid her heart bare for him to see. “We have lost everything. Loved ones, faith, hope…we’ve watched ourselves dying with no end – most of us for more time than we’ve ever been happy.

For people to have given up what they have…you have to give them time. If you force them…they’ll only resent you.” Danielle took a deep breath before she continued, her eyes perusing his expression carefully as she tried to gage his reaction. “Mourning is an essential part of what it is to be human. Let them mourn…and after…they might be more receptive to what you’re trying to implement.”

Kael forced himself to swallow his first impulse. He wanted to tell her that they had no time. That he had already waited far too long to repopulate and his people were looking to him for guidance. That to give the humans leniency where others had received none would be unjust.

But in many respects, Danielle was right.

They had never absorbed a race dwindling so quickly as the humans. Usually, when they conquered a people, the race was facing decreased numbers from conflict, but not a population that was decreasing with no chance for recovery. Not one ravaged by disease looking for a savior.

And in that respect, he found guilt churning in his stomach. He still hadn’t told Danielle, or any other human, for that matter, that they had been saved to assuage his own empire’s very real need. That they needed the humans as much as the humans needed them.

But now was not the time.

“How much time are we discussing?” He worked to make his words as diplomatic as he possibly could – so much so that he thought his sister might be proud of him. Danielle made a most unqueenly face before replying.

“It’s hard to put a label on things like this…these are their families we’re talking about Kael...their entire lives. Some will take longer than others.”

“If you
had
to put a timeline on things…absolute minimum.” The young woman frowned even as her gaze turned thoughtful, and she was silent for a moment before raising her voice again.

“One year One HUMAN year.” She spoke clearly, her eyes never leaving his. “You’re asking me to do something impossible, Kael…this is the best I can do.”

She could obviously sense his displeasure. Half a moon? His people had waited two entire moons already. He didn’t know if implementing such a timeline would lead to unrest. But if he didn’t try…then they might face rebellion from their newest citizens…atop the problems they already faced with the Remans.

And that, he could not afford.

He would have to speak to the council to see about implementing yet another delay in the repopulation, and he would have to do it fast to quell the rising dissatisfaction amongst the humans. But to address them…he would need his wife.

“If I were able to give them this time…would you address them?”

Danielle’s lovely eyes immediately widened. “Address them? How do you mean address?”

“I mean speak to them publicly.” He didn’t mince words. “They know that a human has married the prince of their empire, but they have seen nothing of her. It would comfort them, perhaps, to know the face of the woman in the royal house….speaking as their representative.”

Of course, she might never have thought of things this way – but with time, and a little luck, perhaps she would.

“Alright.”

He was momentarily taken aback by the speed at which she answered. He arched a brow. “Alright?”

Danielle nodded slowly. “If it would help you…if it would help the empire…I’ll do it.”

And in that moment, he saw, for the first time…that the empire might soon have a queen worth reckoning with. Danielle might not have been a woman he’d choose for himself in another life, but he could not say that life with her in his household wasn’t interesting.

No.

And it would only become more so as time went on.

Chapter Six: Unrest

She had been utterly terrified.

Even though a full two weeks had passed before Kael had thought the human population of Garinia calm enough to be receptive to her, when she had walked out onto the podium before them, she had been almost paralyzed with fear. She looked radiant, from her impeccable updo to her shimmering golden dress, yet still, she was human in the trembling of her hands and her unease.

Not yet two months a princess, venturing upon something most never attempted in their lifetime. But he could do nothing but watch her crest those steps and ready herself to deliver a speech that could make or break the human population she spoke to. Even with Kaia watching anxiously beside him, the prince still expected that things would end disastrously.

Danielle surprised him.

He had worked with her on the speech that she would present to the humans, making sure that she honed every aspect of her address to deliver the most impact. On certain aspects however, she had cautioned him to be gentler – that she had to emotionally connect with her people as one of their own. In that aspect, he could not guide her, and so he had allowed her to write those parts herself.

When he listened to the words she spoke – watched her eyes glow with the passion of her belief as she addressed those who had traveled to Garinia from so far away, he could see the first stirrings of the queen she might become. The more she spoke, the more her nervousness ebbed, until her voice was firm and decisive – her stance tall and proud. Beside him, Kaia smiled, watching her student blossom.

When he realized that his wife wasn’t going to fall apart, however, Kael turned his eyes to the human population at large. Every one of them had been gathered into an immense atrium, and they stood, gazing wide eyed up at his human wife as she assured them that she knew their suffering and pain. That they would be given time, but when that time came to an end, they must try their very best to fit into the world to which they’d been brought. They had to live, for those on Earth who would die.

Then, in halting tones, the Prince listened to her speak of her own personal experience with the virus that had killed off the vast majority of the human race. Her story was enough to make him turn his attention back from the assembled crowd of wide-eyed humans and to the woman standing on the podium before them.

She had lost both her mother and father when she was very young, and then, shortly after, her two elder siblings had succumbed to the disease. While she had been devastated, she’d kept on living to care for her youngest brother, who had fallen ill when he was eight years old. He died when he was fourteen – a scant few weeks before the Prince had arrived on Earth, and when he had, Danielle had felt like she had nothing left to live for. She’d been utterly crushed.

The one reason she’d chosen to keep on fighting was so that she might find a cure; and the only cure that they were able to contend with was the one that was being offered to them right now: to have children with Garinians that would carry permanent immunity in their genetic code. Once mature, those children would be returned to the Earth in order to repopulate it with those that could withstand the virus.

Danielle commiserated with her people in a way that was impossible for the prince. She understood more than he could about humanity, and he could see in their eyes that as they watched her, they began to believe. They began to settle…and they began to comprehend. Kael felt the tension in his muscles ease as he realized that his wife had truly made an impression on those who listened to her. And the moment he began to relax, other fiercer emotions began to creep in.

Pride, amazement, and a tinge of regret. Danielle was altruistic not because she’d lost any less than her fellow humans, but because, somehow, she found the will to keep on living when other options seemed much easier. Kael knew that if he lost everything dear to him – his sister, his brothers, and his nephew, he would be able to go on; but not because he did not feel their loss. He would continue because it was his duty – because he had no other option.

In some ways, Danielle was stronger, even, than himself.

The thought made him frown as he remembered the promise he had made to himself. His marriage was supposed to be for political reasons. He had resented the idea from the start, and he had sworn that marriage would not make him soft and emotionally pliable like the rest of his family. Unlike his brothers and sister, he was a warrior – the only one among them who could make important decisions when it came to life and death.

Undue affection for a family he’d never wanted would change that.

However, try as he might, he could not quell the pride that rose in his throat at his wife’s triumph – nor could he deny that when the humans raised their hands in applause, her smile was more radiant than he had ever seen. With careful grace, she turned from her fellow humans, striding towards him and Kaia as her face glowed with triumph.

And that’s when it happened.

There was a sudden explosion that rocked the foundations of the amphitheater, sending stone and dust into the air. Shrill screams came in the wake of the awful din, and as Kael’s heart leapt into his throat, he called for the guards stationed around the perimeter of the podium.

He could hardly see – and his ears rang from the cacophony that had erupted. Next to him he felt Kaia clutching his arm – heard her frantic cries. In that moment, he thanked the Gods that he had persuaded her to leave Hadric behind at the palace. He glanced over to her, his eyes scanning the dust that covered her gown and her pale skin in a search for blood and broken bones. However, after a quick perusal, he found that Kaia had sustained no injury.

Kael leapt into action. Bellowing directions, he commanded four guards to stand watch over his sister as others dispersed into the crowd to help the humans. Kael quickly realized that their mounting cries were not only of shock, but panic and pain.

Some of them had been injured. Within minutes, the air was thick with the scent of blood and medics had been sent for. There was an immense hole in the Northern wall of the amphitheater, where it was all too clear that someone had planted an explosive – just to the east of the podium. The raised platform itself had been torn apart on one side, the stone in crumbled ruin, dust particles thick in the air.

Kael couldn’t breathe.

With the aid of ten guards, he stepped onto what remained of the platform to search for his wife, calling out her name. She hadn’t been far from the initial site of the explosion, the implications of which he hardly wanted to consider.

Her smile.

She’d been smiling so beautifully – so radiantly. He couldn’t bear the thought of finding that face in tatters.

He would find who had done this – and they would pay.

But for right now, his first priority was finding Danielle.

Gradually, the dust began to settle, and when it did, he and the guards began clearing huge pieces of stone that had collapsed in the explosion. They were looking for their princess among the rubble; and as Kael’s muscles strained to move the debris, he only hoped that he wouldn’t find her under any of it. There was no way her fragile body would have survived the impact.

After several minutes that seemed like an eternity, there came a shout from just behind what used to be the rear barrier of the podium. There, in a niche that had been created by the pressure of two immense stone edges, lie Danielle’s unconscious form. Kael rushed to her, his heart pounding as he immediately lifted her limp form into his arms. There was a thin scratch across her forehead from where a fragment of stone must have cut her, and at the back of her head, a knot rapidly swelled.

Apart from those two injuries, he could see nothing life threatening. His wife was covered in dust and her gown was ruined, but medics quickly confirmed that she’d only been knocked out, and might have a possible concussion. Kael quickly gave them leave to take her to the nearest medical facility, accompanied by his sister and twenty armed guards.

He himself had to stay behind. There was damage control to be done, and he needed to show the humans that their new leader would not abandon them in their time of need. As his wife had so poignantly pointed out during the time they’d taken to compose her speech – he needed them to like him. Not only as their prince, but as someone they trusted.