Free Mikal (Second Wave Book 3) by Mikayla Lane Page A

with us,” Mikal said as he grabbed the two duffel bags from her and led her into the clearing.
    Alpha Two looked up at the bottom of the ship and saw Dree’s face peeking over the edge of an opening at her. She waved her hand, motioning for them to come up, and Two dissolved and reformed inside the ship next to Dree.
    Two looked around in surprise at the confined space of the craft and started to panic until Mikal came inside and sat down beside her as the door closed behind him.
    Mikal smiled broadly at her, strangely proud of how brave she’d been. He knew that she was nervous and a little afraid; he could feel it in her energy, but her love for her sisters and her determination to save them was driving her on and he admired that. He felt the same way about his own family. Mikal gently took her cool hand in his own and squeezed it gently until she looked at him.
    “We’ll be there in a few minutes. It’s a much bigger place and a whole lot more secure than that cabin. You and your sisters will be safe there,” he said in her mind.
    Alpha Two nodded her head absently as she looked around the ship and Mikal’s interesting siblings.
    “Are they always so . . .” she asked Mikal, surprised that most of them laughed and joked with one another almost non-stop.
    Mikal chuckled and gently squeezed her hand again.
    “Like you and I, they are different as well, even from their own. We’ve found a family together—people who love us and accept us as we are. We’re there for one another no matter what.”
    Mikal looked around at his teasing and playful siblings.
    “We’re all we have, so we try to spend our time together in fun and laughter because there’s always a chance that one of us may not make it back from a mission, and we want our memories of one another to be of joy and love,” Mikal explained.
    “What missions?” Two asked nervously, wondering if she’d just turned herself over to yet another group that would try to use her for their own purposes.
    Mikal sighed heavily, knowing it would be hard to explain.
    “You know that you and I, your sisters, are not human, right?” he asked.
    Alpha Two nodded her head slowly, wondering what he was getting at.
    “My siblings are half Valendran—an alien species that crashed here long ago—and half human. We’re called Dranovians because we’re different, even among our Valendran brethren. We have a mutation in our bodies that separate us from them. There are a lot of hybrids here on the planet, and we try to save as many of them as we can. The government and other individuals are after them for the same reasons they want you and your sisters: they have special abilities,” Mikal explained.
    “You said they were different from their own. How?” Two asked.
    “The Valendrans and Tezarians are part of a beast species. They have a parasite in the brain that gives them heightened senses and abilities. When that parasite, the beast, creates an imbalance in the mind of its host, it is our duty to destroy the beast,” Mikal said.
    “What is a Tezarian?” Two asked, wondering how many alien species were on the planet.
    “I’m a Tezarian!” Dree exclaimed with a grin.
    Mikal chuckled at Dree and turned back to Two.
    “When the Valendrans found out they had people here that were in danger, they came to rescue them. The Tezarians came to help,” Mikal said.
    Trick, Dree’s brother, snorted.
“They needed our mad skills to bail their asses out,” Trick said with a snicker.
    Cade playfully punched him in the arm.
    “Yeah, we needed someone dumb enough to be cannon fodder and look who volunteered first,” Cade said as he and Trick dissolved into a mini play fight in their jump seats.
    Most of the others shook their heads at the two playfully fighting.
    Dree giggled at them and turned to Alpha Two.
    “Don’t worry, these idiots fight all the time. They call it training. I call it too much testosterone. I damn sure love the idea of having some more girls