Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you had a great week! I love how much everyone is responding to this story! I do two types of stories very well, mafia and Edward with a tail, ha-ha. This one is Edward with a tail. Well, here's chapter three, please enjoy! *New update on Sundays*
Chapter Three
"You think the memory tap would work on her?" I asked as I turned around.
"I think it would give us a good sense of what her life has been like," He said. "We could see if there are others. We could see what's out there."
It took me a moment consider it. Dad took a step towards me.
"Alice is the best at the memory taps," He said. "I could wake her and have her come in here. You know early human studies is her area of expertise. She would be a lot more help than I would."
"I don't want others to question why Alice is the only female that is awake. I don't want anyone in here, scaring the female."
"We need to understand more about her," He said. "All we know, right now, is that she is human. A lot of years have passed since we've been this close on the evolution chart. Many things have changed. We don't even know if she shares the same diet we do."
When I didn't answer, he continued.
"In order to help the female, we must know more about her. If I could see what she does and what she eats on a daily basis, we could help her."
I sighed heavily. "Fine. Do it. Please be very discreet"
I took a step to the door, then looked back at the female. I felt torn. I didn't want to leave her side. I wanted to stay and protect her.
"Go Edward. A scan needs to be done of the planet before anyone gets hurt."
I sighed and nodded, forcing myself to leave.
My father was right, I needed to scan the planet and make sure there wasn't anyone else. As I walked to the common area.
There were several people already waiting in there. I had sent drones to call everyone else into the room.
"What's going on, Edward?" Emmett asked as he and Jasper walked up to me.
"We need to shut operations down immediately and do a thorough scan of the planet."
"Did you find something?" Jasper asked.
"Someone."
Their eyes widened. I turned to everyone else as they crammed into the room.
"We must stop all operations," I said loud enough for everyone to hear. "Life has been found and we cannot proceed to strip the land."
Their voices raised, chattering in both nervous confusion and frustration.
"Quiet!" I snarled. "No work will be done until we've done a thorough sweep of this planet! We cannot take a planet that has already been inhabited. If we do that, then we are nothing but blood takers."
"We knew there was simple life we when did a scan of this planet! Stopping all operations because of some bacteria—," A man was yelling but was cut off by another
"We want the generator in the ground so we can wake our mates!" Someone snarled.
"If the mate of the commander's second is being awoken, then we should be allowed to wake our mates!"
"What!?" Jasper gasped, his head jerking towards me. "You're waking Alice!?"
I growled, the yelling now making me extremely angry. My tail flickered angrily, and I resorted to the last thing I could do to get order. I inhaled deeply and let out the best roar I could muster. It vibrated through me, nearly knocking me off my feet, but I stood tall.
Only a matter a seconds passed before everyone bowed, forced to their knees.
"I AM THE COMMANDER! I AM IN CHARGE!" I snarled; even though my throat was burning, I still needed to prove I was in fact in charge.
"I will NOT be waking anyone else's mate until I see fit! You will all follow my orders! And if ANYONE feels like challenging my word, then by all means, take the commander title from me!"
I paced in front of their bowed forms. "Anyone who wishes to challenge me, stand! Prove yourself!"
When no one stood, I snorted.
"That's what I thought," I hissed. "For anyone who wants to challenge me, find me. I will be more than happy to prove my rightful ranking."
I turned and stormed out of the common area. I kept myself on high alert though. If anyone did challenge me, I needed to be ready to drop them.
When footsteps sounded behind me, I spun and prepared to defend myself. Jasper put his hands up.
"I'm not challenging you," He said. "I want to see Alice."
"No." I hissed.
"You've awoken my mate!" Jasper hissed back. "By our laws, I have every right to check on my mate and to be with her."
I stepped up to him, puffing my chest out.
"I. Said. No."
"Why the hell not!?" He snarled.
"Because your presence could jeopardize my mate!" The words left my mouth so fast I couldn't stop them.
"Your mate?" He asked, cocking his head to the side. "When did this happen?"
I turned my head away from him. I didn't mean to say that. I wasn't even sure if it was true. The mating frenzy could be wrong.
"Does it have something to do with the life you found?"
"Yes." I said. "Keep everyone in order. If there are any problems, make it known I will be dealing with them by force."
"Please let me see Alice," Jasper said as I turned away.
"Give me a few hours. I will allow you to see Alice in a while."
Jasper huffed but nodded. "Thank you."
I nodded once at him and turned to walk back to the infirmary. As I walked, I had a sudden, overwhelming feeling, and I knew I needed to check on my mate.
I quietly hissed at myself. I kept referring to her as my mate. Why did I keep doing that? There was no guarantee that the female was my mate. And there was no guarantee that she would ever be well enough to be my mate.
When I walked into the infirmary the female was sitting up, her wide eyes darting between my father and Alice. But as soon as I walked in, she squealed and leapt off the bed. Dad and Alice jumped to catch her, as did I, but she jumped so quickly, she tumbled to the ground, her knees absorbing the blow.
I raced over to her and pulled her into my arms, lifting her off the floor.
"Are you alright?" I asked her.
She shuddered, sighing heavily against me. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against my chest. I stroked her knotted mane.
"Amazing," Alice said as she walked over. "She wouldn't let either of us touch her, but she willingly threw herself into your arms."
"You look exhausted," I told Alice as I looked at the black circles under her eyes.
"I'm fine." Alice said as she pressed a hand against the female's shoulder.
The female spun her head and started spitting and snarling. The female was obviously overwhelmed and sick of being poked and prodded. I placed my hand on the female's back of her head to calm her. I also heated up my temperature, as it had calmed her before.
It had an instant effect because she settled against me, going slack in my arms.
"Why is she awake? She should still be sleeping." I said, looking at my father.
"It wore off," He shrugged. "She has an extremely high tolerance. I'm not sure how she's able to fight off the sedatives. It must be something to do with this planet."
"Her eyes are a dead giveaway for nuclear toxicity adaptation," Alice said. "I'm just amazed that her body isn't riddled with cancerous sores. She also has very thick hair. Which is strange." Alice said as she stroked the female's hair. "And she's well passed adolescence, but she hasn't produced any offspring. I'm guessing, she's somewhere between the ages of fifteen and twenty, but she's not any older or younger than either age."
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"Her body has long settled from the pubescent stage of adolescence, but her hips are not wideset to indicate childbirth. And humans of this time developed wrinkles as they aged, and she doesn't have wrinkles. So, I would say that she is within the prime female breeding age, which is between fifteen and twenty."
Her age hadn't been something I considered. I knew Alice was right, because if she wasn't in the stage of her life were she could successfully carry offspring, my body wouldn't be triggering the mating frenzy.
I was strangely relieved to know that she was the perfect age because that meant the mating frenzy could proceed. But I also knew that this female wasn't ready for me to start the mating dance, which was disappointing.
"I want to do a memory tap on her." Alice said as she crossed her arms.
"You can't do one while she's awake." I said.
"Edward we need to know more about her in order to help her. And if she won't be sedated, then we're just going to have to go ahead and do one while she's awake."
"She's right, Edward." Dad said. "Her heart rate is accelerated, and her stress levels are rising. There's obviously something she needs that we're not giving her. And we don't know what that is."
I thought about it for a moment before sighing heavily.
"Fine. Let's do it." I sighed heavily.
"Why don't you hold her, Edward?" Dad suggested. "You should sit on the bed and hold her tightly. It's… it's going to hurt."
"I know." I told my father as I lifted the female off the ground and hopped us up onto the table. The female whimpered and tightened her hold around me. I stroked her hair out of her face as she stared up at me with her strange eyes.
"You're such a strange little creature." I told her. "You can speak, I know you can. I just wish you would say more."
"She spoke?" Alice asked, her eyes widening.
"She said mother," Dad said. "That was all she said. Mother. And I believe she tried to tell us her mother had died. She covered her eyes and said mother."
"How interesting," Alice said as she moved the female's hair aside. "I can't wait to get a good look at her memories. I wonder what her life has been like. How she's survived on this planet for so long."
"Well let's find out." Dad said as he cleaned a spot on her neck. "Hold her tightly. She can't jerk."
"Don't worry, I've got her." I said as I tightened my hold on the female.
"Alright," Alice said as she poised the needle above her neck. "Here we go."
The female let out a horrific screech when Alice pierced her skin. I snarled at Alice, on accident. My instinct temporarily taking over. Alice shot me with a look, and I quieted.
The female started sobbing, black tears falling down her cheeks and staining her skin. I wiped the black tears away and whispered softly to her.
Dad was quick to collect a sample of her tears. He put them in the molecule machine. It would take an earth hour or two, but it would tell us a lot of the molecules that had turned her tears black.
"It's in." Alice said. "And it looks like it's calming her down."
I looked down at the female who was staring up at me, her eyes fading. The white spots in her eyes were disappearing as she slowly drifted to a much more relaxed state. After a moment, her head fell forward and her breathing slowing. Her body was completely lax now.
For a moment, I thought she had drifted onto sleep, but when I looked down into her eyes, she was still lazily darting them back and forth, looking through the white film the memory tap had done to her eyes. I placed a hand on her lower back and kissed the top of her head gently.
"Are you recognizing her as your mate?" Alice demanded.
"No." I hissed; I knew deep down I was lying but it wasn't fair for me to claim this female as my mate without her consent.
"Seems like you are." She said. "I can hear your purring."
I didn't even realize I was doing that. I stopped immediately.
"Why does it matter if I am?" I hissed at her.
"Well, for one, she's not close enough to us on the evolutionary chart. There's no way she'd be able to successfully carry your offspring. Two, you know nothing about her or the life she's lived. You have no idea if you could even start the mating dance with her. And what do you think the council is going to say? They aren't going to just let her go off with the first male who thinks they've mated with a human female. They're going to want to do studies. Even the commander has to respect the wishes of the counsel."
I snarled quietly at her. "You're crossing a line Alice. I suggest you keep your mouth shut."
She huffed but closed her lips. I didn't want to hear any more of this. I was already irritated.
"Here we go," Dad said as he broke the tension. "It's coming through."