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  “What happens if they come out and attack the camp? The machines will be useless against another full scale attack now and most of this camp is set up as tents that aren’t really claw proof. We only have limited guns and bullets, and like Hank said to me, we need to ration them out. So what happens if staying here is actually the unsafe choice? We were able to hide from them and move stealthily in that forest. In the camps, there’s no place safe we can hide.”

  I look up at him and watch his gaze pierce me for a long time, but eventually, I see him break. “I don’t like this.”

  “I know you don’t. I don’t, either, but what choice do we have?”

  “I need to get word out to Oden then I can find us help and transport off this planet.”

  “I thought you said communications were down?”

  “They are.” He frowns.

  “Will they come to investigate the fact that they can’t get in contact? Or at least try to find you?”

  “It depends. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m wondering if maybe my father is behind this.”

  “Why would he do this?” I ask him wearily. It’s merely another way to show how messed up his father is.

  “He’s suddenly got a few billion people to take care of, an amount that far surpasses our own number. You keep mentioning a rebellion and whether or not that is happening, it most likely has crossed his mind. I think maybe he’s trying to take you all out without it appearing like it’s his fault.” He winces, no doubt waiting for me to yell at him in outrage. Instead, I feel sad that his father is the type of person to do such a thing, to condone genocide.

  “He’d put these creatures on his planets? I thought you said your people were terrified of them? That they were a legend and that you vowed never to return to their planet as a sign of respect?”

  “That is what I always believed, but my father has already shown how ruthless he can be towards his own children, I doubt he’d bat an eyelash over wiping out another species.”

  I gasp as his words resonate with me. “Oh, no! What about Hannah, Logan and Lisa? Are they safe on Oden?” Panic builds inside of me.

  “Right now, Oden is the safest place you could be. He won’t assassinate anyone on Oden, and he definitely won’t let those creatures loose there. He wants to appear in control and keep our people safe. Having the claws attacking Oden would have the opposite effect.”

  “What if this isn’t your father, though? What if someone else is behind this?”

  “I keep coming back to that unknown spaceship and the fact that our technology put you on there. It means it is one of our spaceships. It means my father has to be behind this.”

  “Then he’s not going to stop until he kills us all,” I state sadly.

  “I know. If you are really determined to do this, if you really want to get Earth back, then we will need to take him out as well as my brother.”

  “Do you think that is possible?” He’s scoffed at my plan to take out Ival in the past. What would make this any easier since we’d need to take his father out, too?

  “They’re well-guarded and an assassination would be almost impossible unless you can get close to them.”

  “And you’re someone who can get close to them,” I murmur, my heart squeezing with that realisation. “If you manage to kill your father and brother, those guards won’t let you live. They’ll kill you.”

  “Yes, most likely,” he states it calmly, his gaze studying my reaction.

  I shake my head, my heart sinking. “Then we can’t do it.”

  “If you’re willing to risk your life for this, then I must do the same.”

  Panic seizes hold of me and I feel faint. I lean my head on his chest, tightening my arms around him and using him to keep me upright. His hold tightens around me, too.

  “No, we’ll find another way around it. You won’t have to do that.” I can’t stand the thought of losing someone else I love. I can’t sacrifice Marduke, but what if he could stop all of this? What if it is the only way?

  “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s focus on our most pressing problem now, okay?”

  I nod, tears already clouding my vision.

  “Let’s go see Geyt, find out what she’s learned about this pregnancy, and then go off to war.”

  “That sounds so… final.”

  “This is a war, Mattie. It started when Earth felt the first tremors of our machines landing, and this is just an extension of that war. We’re going to go into that forest, destroy those nests, and then figure out our next step.”

  “Thank you for supporting me. I know you don’t like it, and this isn’t technically your fight, but thank you for being by my side.”

  “I’ll always be by your side, Mattie, no matter what.”

  I warm hearing his words and let him lead me to the medical tent. I feel a lot lighter than I felt when I left Geyt yesterday, and there is a small amount of hope. If we can destroy those creatures, then we’re one step closer to our goal.

  I just wish Marduke and I could hold onto this moment a little longer, one where I feel safe and not alone.

  I wish things didn’t end up going so horribly wrong.

  Chapter 11

  Mattie

  I enter the medical tent and find Geyt speaking with another man. He eyes us warily when we enter, and I fear Geyt has not only told him about me being pregnant, but he also knows Marduke is the father.

  I’ve feared how humans would react to this news, but how will Marduke’s race react? Will they want to harm this baby? Or will they want this baby born so they can run tests and experiments?

  I freeze by the entrance, and while my thoughts run into more fearsome areas, Marduke pushes me farther into the room. We wait on the other side of where Geyt and the stranger are speaking, and when Marduke prompts me to sit, I do so on one of the gurneys, letting my feet swing over the edge.

  “You look pale. Are you feeling ill?” Marduke’s concern breaks through my inner dialogue, and it takes me a moment to focus on him and understand what he has asked me.

  “Who is that man?”

  Marduke gazes over at him, not appearing anywhere near as worried as I feel. “He is probably another medic. Why, what is wrong?”

  “Do you think he knows?”

  “No, Geyt assured me she’d keep this a secret.”

  “But you don’t know her; she could have lied.”

  “I trust my people, and my people are brought up respecting their leaders. I am part of that leadership, which means I receive their upmost respect.”

  “What would your people do if they found out you and I had slept together and I am now pregnant?”

  “Honestly? My father would do everything in his power to prevent anything like that from coming out. He’d most likely have you killed,” his hands fist at his sides, his jaw tensing for a moment before he continues speaking, “so there would be no evidence of what happened, and he’d kill me just for putting our family in such a compromising position.”

  I gape at him. I know he has mentioned as much to me back on Earth, although that was just because of us being together. Obviously neither of us ever considered pregnancy as a possibility back then.

  I swallow passed my shock over my possible assassination being discussed from Marduke’s own father. Talk about awful in-laws.

  “You say that so calmly. My father loved me unconditionally. He’d have been angry that I was pregnant, disappointed that I most likely delayed—if not destroyed—my basketball career, and he might have given you a hard time for a few years, but he’d never do anything so extreme.”

  “He would have given me a hard time? How so?”

  I smile, imagining my dad facing down Marduke. “He’d have scared the crap out of you by stating that, if you ever hurt me, you would have to deal with him. He would have been holding one of his guns at the time, no doubt. Then, he would have asked you a bunch of questions about money, your job, and how you planned to support us. Then he probabl
y would have teased you and told you with an absolutely straight face that triplets run in our family.” I laugh at that one. He wouldn’t have cracked, either; he would have waited for Marduke to start sweating and maybe even have let him faint before he clued him into the joke.

  “Triplets run in your family?” Marduke suddenly looks alarmed, and it only adds to my laughter.

  “No, but he would have let you think it for a while. I think he would have liked you, eventually. You’re a good man, and he would have seen that.”

  “That is high praise. I’m sorry I won’t ever get the chance to meet him.” He bows his head to me in respect and my laugher dies then tears of sadness fall down my face.

  “I wish I could have one more day with them. I wish I knew that the last time we spoke would be the last. I think I told them I loved them, but I can’t exactly remember now. Did they know I meant it? Once I rang a shoe store to ask them if they had my size in my Nike runners because mine had just fallen apart, and out of habit, just before I hung up, I told the shop assistant I loved him.” I smile sadly. “I was so embarrassed when I realised what I’d said. I was just used to speaking to Mum and we always ended our calls that way.”

  “Then you would have told her that you loved her.”

  “Yeah, but I got so used to saying it that it didn’t hold the same weight as how I felt. I should have stopped and thought about it. Made sure they knew I really did love them and that I appreciated everything they had done for me. That I missed them every day I was away.”

  “They would have known. I’m sure.”

  I nod, wiping away the few stray tears that roll down my face. I hope he is right. I always had a great relationship with my parents, and I should at least be grateful it didn’t end with a fight or nothing at all. I did get a last conversation, and it was without the horrors of what is happening now. It was a conversation over Skype and Mum was telling me Dad was driving her crazy because he had forgotten their wedding anniversary. I already knew he hadn’t forgotten it. He called me earlier to arrange for me to speak to her just before dinner time so he could set up.

  It was past midnight my time when I called and I just told her I was feeling lonely and homesick, knowing she would talk my ear off, hoping to distract me from feeling like that. Then Dad snuck in behind her, a bunch of beautiful, red roses behind him, and proceeded to jump out and scare the shit out for her. She’d screamed bloody murder before she realised it was him, and then her eyes landed on the flowers. Next, she smelled the Chinese food he’d picked up and laid out on the dining room table, and I heard her gasp when she saw the candles placed around the room. Dad carried the laptop in so I could see, and then we signed off because I was falling asleep while they had a romantic dinner to attend.

  Hannah had been at a friend’s house. That was three days before the invasion hit Earth. I was so tired that a lot of what Mum spoke to me about was forgotten as soon as I logged off my own laptop. I wish I had paid more attention to what she was saying to me.

  “What are your parents like together?” I ask Marduke, wanting to get an understanding of what he grew up around.

  “They aren’t together very much.”

  “But they love each other, right?”

  “No, we don’t mate for love on Oden. We can care about someone and be fond of them, but love isn’t a consideration and especially not in my family.”

  “So, if you hadn’t come to Earth, you’d have married someone you didn’t love?” I feel sadness over that. I know not everyone has the noblest intentions on Earth when they marry, yet I assume, the majority of times, it is done purely for love.

  “Yes, my mate was already chosen.”

  “You have a fiancée?” I feel both guilty and jealous.

  “Not exactly. There was an agreement between my father and hers that, when we reach of age, we’d mate and join our families.”

  “Is she nice?” My voice sounds high-pitched as I suddenly wonder what this woman looks like. Even if Marduke doesn’t care for her, does she care for him? Would she come looking for him?

  “I never met her. There was no need to, not until the time came for us to move in together and produce children.”

  I shake my head at him. “It’s times like these I’m reminded that we’re so different. Do you think that’s normal? Does it even faze you that you would marry someone you didn’t know? That you didn’t love? Do you think it’s normal that your parents don’t love each other? That your father was willing to kill you?”

  “It’s what I’ve grown up knowing.” He shrugs at me.

  “So if this is real and this baby comes,” I hold my hands over my stomach, “you would treat it like you’ve been treated? You would be okay with placing it in harm’s way? You would disown it if they did something you didn’t understand?” I know we have already touched upon this and Marduke has assured me he wouldn’t treat our child badly. Yet, how can he do any differently if he doesn’t understand that how his parents are isn’t right; when he isn’t even fazed by what they have done to him and continue to do?

  “No, I couldn’t ever treat our baby like I was treated. I don’t have it in me to be cruel. Besides, I want to make you happy, and I’m sure, once our child is born, I will do anything to make it happy, too.”

  “What about us? Will you just get tired of me and stop caring? Will I never see you because you’re too busy for me, for us?” I hate how insecure I sound, but I need these answers.

  “No!” He steps towards me, parting my legs so he’s directly in front of me and places a hand on each side of my face, moving his head so he’s only a few inches from my face, his eyes locked with my own. “I’ll never get tired of you, and I will never harm you or our child. I’m not my father, and if I ever do something that upsets you, you need to tell me. I don’t know how to be a father, let alone one as great as what you had. I’m going to do things wrong, but I know you’ll steer me in the right direction. Together we can do this.”

  “You seem so put together, so calm. I’m terrified, Marduke,” I admit.

  “I’m only filled with terror at the thought of losing you.”

  “Is that why you didn’t tell me sooner that you thought I was pregnant? You had to know as soon as we landed on your spaceship. Geyt figured it out as soon as I touched her medical thing and it worked for me.”

  “I had a suspicion earlier actually.”

  “You did?”

  “My mother spoke to me after Ival raved on about our possible relationship. He never guessed it went further than friendship, which is lucky because, if my father even suspected…” He takes a deep breath. “Anyway, she told me that, if we had sex, there was a high risk of you falling pregnant. Our families need to produce heirs. A usual leader family has over ten children. It used to be because of illness or death. As our medicines improved, the need wasn’t so great to have as many heirs, but it’s tradition to have large families. My mother was only able to give my father two children, but luckily, they had two sons. If they’d only had one or none, my father would have been mated to someone new.”

  “That’s awful.” I can’t help feeling bad for his mother and the pressure she must have been put under.

  “Apparently, we were given something that makes us reproduce easier. Since we do not mate with more than one person, this is not usually a problem.”

  “So you have like, super sperm or something?”

  “I guess you could say that. My mother insisted that I get away from Oden and find you. She was acting different. She’s never spoken out of turn or ever really looked at me before, but she saw me. She saw how much I cared for you, and she helped me get away.”

  “Wow, she didn’t care that I was human?”

  “She said she cared about me, and I think she knew that, if my father found out, we’d both be dead. I suppose she thought me leaving and being alive somewhere in the universe was better than that.”

  I try to take that in. That is all the compassion his mother could
muster for him?

  “When were you going to let me know that I might be pregnant?”

  “I didn’t want to say anything to you in front of Kane, and to be honest, I didn’t know how to tell you. I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.” He smiles at me, hands sliding down until they rest over my shoulders.

  “Does it make me a bad person that I wish I’m not pregnant?” I whisper, feeling awful for even saying the words.

  His hands tense. “You don’t want to have a child with me? You don’t want yourself tied to me like that?” He eyes me, his hurt from my words obvious.

  “It’s not that! Just look at the situation we’re trapped in. Look at what still lies ahead of us. How am I supposed to take care of a baby in this place? How am I even meant to be pregnant in this situation? The food on this planet is weird, pale mush. I’m constantly stressed, which I don’t think is a good thing for the baby. And what happens when I start getting fat? I won’t be able to run when I’m eight months pregnant and I’ll be too heavy for anyone to lift me. My mum told me she doubled her weight when she got pregnant with me and my sister. I can’t weigh two of me, Marduke!” I whine loudly, my panic increasing my volume.

  “On Oden, pregnant women only gain the weight of the child, I think.”

  “Great, so I’ll be some weird, obese human carrying your baby.” I throw my arms up in the air. “And what happens if this thing is going to come out soon? What if I wake up tomorrow and I weigh a tonne and I can’t get up?” Okay, even I know that sounds crazy. Knowing it doesn’t make me feel any better, though.

  “That is why we’re here, to find out about this baby,” Marduke soothes, leaning in and kissing my neck while his arms wrap around me. I get lost in his kisses until his hands move to my hips and then to my thighs, working their way back to me, gliding along my inner thighs.

  “No!” I pull away from him, lightly slapping his hands. “I refuse to let you seduce me. We’re already in enough trouble as it is, and I swear, with my luck, you’ll be able to knock me up twice or something, and I’ll have two babies growing inside me.”