Allies (Warriors of Karal Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

listened, waiting until the engines were at just the right pitch, and then he pulled back the lever and they launched off the Earth, heading up through the atmosphere and back into space. He glanced at the woman next to him. There had been no ambush; he had misread the situation.
    But still she seemed like an enigma to him. Not what he expected a lottery winner to be like, but then she wasn’t a lottery winner, was she? And as his colours flowed across his skin he acknowledged that despite his reservations, he wanted to know exactly what she was.
     

Chapter Five – Petra
     
    She dug her nails into the armrests of the seat, clinging onto them as if they would keep her safe as the cruiser hurtled up through the atmosphere taking her into space. She’d never been interested in space travel at all. Throughout all the years when humans were desperately trying to leave the planet and find a new home for humans to live on, never once had it appealed to her. The Earth was her home: it was where her father was buried and it was where she had wanted to live her whole life.
    Those thoughts had to be cleared from her mind now, there was no choice: she had left the Earth, she was going to Karal … with a male who was a stranger to her. Petra consciously made herself loose the armrests. She flexed her fingers, taking a deep breath in and out, and then relaxing. She tried to look at the controls of the ship, tried to put her mind somewhere else, and then as they left the Earth’s atmosphere, the moon glowed bright and white in front of her and she allowed the amazing sight to infiltrate her thoughts and ignite her excitement at this new phase of her life.
    “I never expected it to be quite so beautiful,” she said speaking to the Karalian beside her; there was no one else to talk to. “We don’t really see it, not anymore. Even with a telescope it is never clearly visible. I’ve seen pictures of it of course, but I never expected it to be so incredible.”
    He looked at her and then looked back at the moon. “I have seen a lot of planets, and I have seen a lot of moons. But both your planet and your moon are extraordinary in their beauty.” He looked at her again and something seemed to hang in the air between them. Maybe it was lust.
    All she could think of, was what would happen when they landed on Karal and he took her to his bed and made her his. She swallowed down the panic that followed that thought.
    The colour rushed to her cheeks, but it was nothing compared to the colours that flashed across his skin. Golds and blues, swirling around like clouds covering his skin, disappearing beneath the collar of his overalls. She longed to undo the buttons one by one and see where the colours headed. To see if they covered his whole body in a mass of swirling emotions.
    “And when we go into deep space, will we see lots of different planets?” It seemed like a stupid question. Of course they would, although for all she knew they might be put into some kind of cryogenic stasis, not seeing a thing until they woke up at the destination.
    “Yes, you will see things that you would never believe were true. The wormholes we travel down hold so much mystery, so many planets, so many stars, that we’ve never actually visited, but we can see them as we travel through space.” His voice was full of wonder, and she felt herself warming to him. Surely a creature who could see the beauty in his surroundings couldn’t be all bad.
    “So do you have a name?” she asked.
    “My name is Niko,” he said as he turned away from the moon and aimed the ship towards distant space.
    “I hope we get along, Niko. I’m sure I gave the impression I don’t really want to be here. And I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t make the best of it.”
    “I’m very pleased to hear that, Petra. We have a mission to do, and it is my duty to make sure it is a success.”
    “It’s more than duty for me, I need this to succeed so my people have a home