Her Alien Bodyguard: The Guards of Attala: Book One Read online

  “You will not touch her, Branyx,” Lodyn says.

  The ferocity of his tone makes me freeze in place. Up until this moment, figuring out what is wrong with this space ship and how to fix it has been all consuming. And I want to be able to join the rest of my crew as soon as possible. Now that they’ve been taken by the other warriors and are on their way to the city, I suddenly realize how alone I am out here. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the ship and there are three testosterone fueled alien males bossing me around. Well, one of them is being bossy, the others are just looking at me like they’re waiting for the go ahead to pick me up and end this conversation all together.

  Turning away from them, I drop my weapon at my side and walk back to the control panel of the ship, eyeing the lifeless buttons with frustration. The whole system looks fried. No flickering lights, no sounds…just frustrating silence with the looming presence of three huge strangers at my back. I kneel down and slide the panel aside in order to take a look at the wiring that might have been affected when we unexpectedly flew into the storm. Best case scenario I’ll see a section that is black and fried from some sort of electrical surge. I’m worried if it isn’t obvious, it will take me much longer than I’d like to get the ship up and running again…if I’m able to at all, of course.

  “Margo,” the Attalan says again. It doesn’t even surprise me that he knows my name. He’s incredibly observant, probably one of his traits that put him in charge. The other women were shouting my name as they were carried away outside.

  He’s waiting for me to turn around but I’ve already said everything there is to say. I can’t leave the ship behind. Fixing the ship so we can get off this planet is on me now. I’m the last man standing, so to speak.

  “Margo,” he says, much more forcefully this time. He’s waiting for me to turn around but I’ve already said everything there is to say. I can’t leave the ship behind. Fixing the ship so we can get off this planet is on me now. I’m the last man standing, so to speak.

  “What?” I say, clenching my fists at my side while I stare at the clumps of wires in front of me. I turn my head so I can see him out of the corner of my eye. He has moved closer to me and I can tell by his rigid stance that he’s not used to having someone disobey him. His hands are clenched into fists by his side.

  “We are leaving. Get your things,” he says.

  “Oh no, no, no,” I say, standing up and turning to face him this time. “What was your name again?”

  “Lodyn. Get your things.” My insubordination is really testing his patience. Every muscle in his body is tense, from his jaw down to his massive legs. I know how he feels. My body is a mirror of his, tense from head to toe while I try to stomach all of his bossy demands.

  “Lodyn. It’s obvious you’re use to getting your way but you’re not listening to me. I can’t leave this ship, it is our only way home. Now that your men took the rest of the team, the job of fixing it falls to me. So now your choices are to either help me or go. I don’t need you to babysit me.”

  “Enough, Lodyn. Let’s take her and go. She knows nothing about this planet and the certain death she faces here on her own,” the one called Branix has lost his patience with me again.

  “I’m standing right here, you know. You can just talk to me.” I’m not a stranger to being talked about like I’m not in the room. Being a part of the military on Earth for four years taught me how to stand up for myself and be seen in an overwhelmingly male dominated environment where their natural instinct is to protect and shield you from danger.

  The other alien is still quiet and obedient, standing off to the side. I don’t like the look he’s giving me but at least it appears that he’s going to follow the chain of command…no matter how frustrating he might find the situation.

  “Branix,” Lodyn says aggressively, “Go get our supplies ready. We’ll be leaving shortly. Kjallak?”

  “Yes,” the other alien says, stepping forward.

  “Help him.”

  “Yes, Lodyn.” And just like that, we’re alone. For some reason I relax slightly with the other two gone. Three against one isn’t a fair fight.

  Lodyn is looking at me sternly again and I feel myself tensing up, getting ready for another round of back and forth. He just stands and stares at me, though, and I start to fidget under his gaze. I know he’s trying to figure out how to deal with me and for the first time all of my insecurities are threatening to unravel. They’re here for our protection, it’s his job to keep me safe. But it’s my fault that we’re in this predicament and I can’t leave before I fix my mistakes.

  I can’t hold his gaze any longer. Now that we’re alone, I notice a strange tingling feeling floating through my body. It’s probably just nerves or maybe the events of the last hour have finally caught up with me. With my arms crossed over my chest, I look down at my feet and work on an invisible scuff with my shoe, hoping this feeling will pass.

  These three are strangers, an alien race, and aside from what we studied about their language and culture before we arrived, we really don’t know anything about them. They might decide that I’m too much trouble and just bury my lifeless body in a snowbank.

  “Come back with us now. My people are very capable of helping you repair your ship. We won’t leave it long…we’ll be back as soon as the storm clears.” He unclenches his hands and they fall to his sides.

  I’m torn between my duty to stay here and make sure our only means of getting home stays in one piece and returns to working order, and not being a total pain in the ass to our new hosts.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, letting my stubbornness win. “You should have left with the rest of the group. I’m not leaving.”

  I run my fingers through my hair and take a deep breath. There’s so much to do before the rest of the team gets back and as the pilot it’s my job to make sure we can get home again. Especially now that Natalie, the ship’s engineer, is injured and in need of medical attention. I’m mentally compiling a list of things that I need to check as soon as these guys head out.

  “You have warm clothes?” he asks. I’m not sure of his intentions but it’s clear from his tone that this conversation isn’t over.

  “Yes,” I say, hesitantly.

  “Where?”

  “In the sleeping quarters, down the first corridor.”

  He’s standing in front of me, wearing only pants made out of leather. He’s not wearing any kind of shirt or jacket, just two brown straps that cross over his chest where he wears an emblem in the center. It is what they all wear so I’m assuming it’s the symbol of the Attalans.

  While I’m preoccupied with my thoughts about how little they wear on such a cold planet, he turns around and leaves.

  Considering Attala is an ice planet, we came prepared with cold weather gear. On a normal day the average temperature is zero degrees fahrenheit but during the frequent storms that plague the planet, the temperatures drop to dangerously cold levels. I’m hoping he was just checking to make sure I’ll have plenty of things to keep me warm when they leave.

  I’ve turned back to the main controls, checking to see what functions are still working and which sections of the main board are dead. Things aren’t looking good so far. I hear the sound of clothes rustling behind me. Lodyn is back when I turn around and he’s holding a pile of my winter clothes in his arms. He drops them to the floor in front of me and crosses his arms again.

  “Put these on and then we’re leaving. If you refuse to put them on yourself, I’ll put them on for you and carry you off this ship over my shoulder.”

  After giving me my directive, he turns and stalks out of the room. I guess I’m out of options. It isn’t a question of whether or not he could make me do it. It’s obvious he can, he’s head to toe muscle. He’s also quite bossy which really rubs me the wrong way. I don’t like being ordered around.

  Exhausted from this fight, I pull on my snow pants and secure my winter coat tightly to my body. I’m willing to ack
nowledge my defeat, although when I think about it rationally, he’s probably right. I’m sure they do have the technology and the alien power to help get this ship back up and running.

  The three Attalans are standing at the main doors when I emerge. Before leaving the deck, I detached the small box that looks like a remote. It will show me on the screen where the ship is if we have a hard time finding it again. I have no idea how fast the snow can accumulate or if it’s possible for it to bury a ship as massive as The Sparrow.

  “I’ll carry you on my back,” Lodyn says with complete sincerity when I walk back to rejoin the group.

  A noise that sounds like a mixture between a laugh and a snort escapes my lips before I can stop myself. But really, does he think I’m that helpless?

  “No, thank you. I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own.”

  Once again he stares at me just a little too long. Under his gaze I start to fidget with the straps on my engineering pack. I’m not sure what these looks from him mean. Maybe he’s deciding whether or not I get to make any of my own decisions or if he’s going to continue to take control.

  Finally he extends his hand and says, “I’ll carry your pack for you at least. The snow drifts will be high and you’re short.”

  There’s no reason to argue with that. Anyone would seem short compared to their seven foot massive frames.

  I shrug out of my backpack and hand it over to him. He throws it on his back effortlessly along with the pack he’s already carrying.

  One of the other guys is standing in front of the door, seemingly at a loss as to how to open it. I push ahead and grab onto the door handles, manually turning them so the locking mechanism begins to turn and unlock.

  “On the backup systems all of the doors need to be manually opened and closed,” I say as I turn the wheel around several times.

  With a final click I’m able to push the door open as far as I can. The wind is pressing heavily against it, threatening to slam it closed again right in my face. Then Lodyn is next to me, using his body to push the door open. He makes it look easy, like opening a screen door on a breezy summer day.

  He walks out and I follow. The wind hits my body and it punches the breath out of me. I almost go down before my feet even reach the snow. When I inhale for the first time, the air is so cold that my lungs feel like they’re burning. This is a cold I’ve never felt before. Lodyn was right, it’s a cold that could easily kill me.

  As if he knows what I was just thinking, he turns around and fastens a belt around my waist. Now I’m tethered to him. He knows how easily the planet could consume me. In my right hand I’m gripping the homing beacon, the small square box the only thing making sure I’ll be able to find my way back to the ship again.

  As we start walking, I keep my head down, focusing on my feet and following in Lodyn’s steps. The snow drifts are huge and I practically have to jump over them with each step. It doesn’t take long for me to regret turning Lodyn’s offer down of a piggy back ride.

  When I pause for a moment before taking the next step, the belt around my waist jerks me forward, nearly pulling me down face first in the snow. As my body lurches, I drop the device in my hand, instinctually trying to catch myself as I fall. When I hit the snow, my body is pulled forward again. Without thinking, I reach down and unclasp the belt around my waist to keep from being dragged face first. My only thought is of finding the beacon before it’s lost in these huge drifts.

  Once I’m free from the tether, I turn my body to search for the blinking red light. A huge gust of frigid air hits my body, lifting me clear off the ground and into the swirling vortex above. My lungs hurt too much to even scream. Then everything goes dark.

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  Mira Maxwell is a midwestern girl whose first act of rebellion was watching Tron from the backseat of the drive-in movie theater when she was supposed to be asleep. There was no turning back after that. The Thing. Terminator. Alien. Aliens. Star Wars. Blade Runner. Star Trek. She loves them all. Captain Kirk was her first crush, and she’s never fully recovered.

  Now, she enjoys writing about sexy alien alphas and the Earth women who love them.

  Sign up for Mira Maxwell’s newsletter for exclusive access to bonus content, cover reveals, and advance notice of all new releases. Click here to join.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Her Alien Bodyguard Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Her Alien Protector Preview

  About the Author & Newsletter