Jacob & Phaedra's Story: Alien Warrior Mates IV, #2

By Grace Kensington

In his short time back on Earth Jacob has realized that his unlikely friendship with Jem has led him into something he could never have imagined, but that something within him is driving him to stay and join the fight. In an instant Jacob is confronted with his past and with a future that he might not ever be able to have.

With the battle with the hybrids over, most of the group is recovering and working to heal the wounded, but Eden can't get the voice of the dying hybrid out of her head. Together they explore the abandoned hospital further and discover something that will bring the full magnitude of Ryan's experiments, and the danger that they all face, into closer focus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace Kensington
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393813507

Book preview

1

The silence that had settled in the hallway made Jacob’s breaths sound heavy and ragged in his ears. He paused where he stood, his arm still holding his blade out to his side as if even the sight of all the fallen creatures strewn across the ground didn’t convince his mind that it was over. Around him the silence began to crumble away, eroded by the sound of groaning as the wounded became aware of their injuries and poured their pain and desperation out into the shadowy space. The adrenaline that coursed through his veins was familiar. If he closed his eyes he could have felt the cold, biting wind of the frozen planet where he and Angela had struggled through the last years. They had been faced with danger there before. Many times when he stepped out of the cave that they had created into their shelter to find food or to gather fresh snow to melt down into water, he had come face-to-face with fearsome beings that he had to fight off to survive.

As he lowered his hand to his side and slowly steadied his breathing, he thought of all the times when he wondered why he fought so hard. Why was the compulsion to survive so hard that he would put himself through the struggle and threats that waited out in the snow? They had little hope and every moment that they spent huddling against the freezing temperatures was a reminder of what they had left behind when they tumbled inadvertently through the portal. He had had a life on Earth. Much of it had revolved around his career with the excavation team, but there was more. There were people he cared about, places he thought of when his eyes closed and he could pretend, if only for the few hours that he would sleep, that he was. There had been so much more than the daily struggle clawing just to stay alive. During those clashes, all his mind could focus on was the fight. He would use the weapons he and Angela constructed out of the meager plants and other materials that they could find and battle until he had either destroyed the creature or managed to escape. When he returned to the cave, he was thrown right back into yet another struggle to survive, trying to keep warm in the frigid temperatures and stinging snow, and scrambling to find enough food to keep them going.

Now as he stood in the hallway looking out over the aftermath of the battle that had come up so suddenly and yet had consumed his focus, he realized that it wasn’t just the frozen planet that had driven him to fight to survive. There was something deep within him that went beyond just the basic desire for survival that had kept him alive when he thought that the life that was ahead of him in the endless snow was hopeless, and it continued to fuel him as he faced down an enemy that he didn’t understand and that posed a threat not only to him but to all of those around him.

Jacob heard a groan and he looked around the space to try to find its source. His stomach sank as he saw Jem leaned against the wall, his hand clutched at a wound in his chest. Though he hadn’t spent much time with him, the warrior had come to represent so much to Jacob. Not just the new mate to the only friend he had had throughout his time lost in the streams, Jem was also the most courageous and honorable man he had ever met. In even the brief time that they had spent together, Jacob had developed a great sense of loyalty and dedication to Jem. Seeing him stretched across the floor with blood spilling between his fingers was gut-wrenching. Eden ran to Jem’s side and soon the others who weren’t injured in the battle burst into action. They started gathering the wounded and bringing them toward the gap in the closet that led down the concealed set of stairs into the abandoned portion of the laboratory. They still hadn’t gotten an explanation as to how the others ended up in the ancient hospital, but as unnerving as it had seemed when Rilex had first mentioned that as a possibility, now Jacob was relieved that there was a place where they could go to come back together and recuperate after the battle.

Tucking his weapon away, Jacob reached down and helped one of the women off the ground. She was clutching her shoulder, but otherwise seemed like she had weathered the fighting well. She nodded as she got to her feet.

Thank you, she said. I’m alright.

Leia, one of the massive Denynso warriors said from behind her, what happened?

Jacob watched as the tiny woman turned toward the warrior. In an instant, he swept her into his arms and Jacob saw him rush her toward the stairs. He knew that that must be her mate by the ferocity in his orange eyes. It was one of the things that he had learned from Jem as he watched his relationship with Angela grow. Jacob looked around and watched as the others made their way down the hidden staircase. He grabbed under one arm of the large winged man who appeared injured and helped support him into the closet. They climbed through the broken portion of the wall and he helped guide the man through it and down the narrow stairs. The only light in the staircase was the glow from the lightsticks that had been placed on a few of the steps. It wasn’t enough to fully illuminate the space, only to break through the thick blackness of the abandoned core of the building and allow him to see each of the steps.

Jacob felt like he couldn’t remember being in the light. He knew that he had been under the shine of the bright sun that surrounded Jem’s planet before they left, but he couldn’t remember how it looked or felt. They had been ensconced in darkness since they arrived on Earth and though it