Beast: A Scifi Alien Romance (Galactic Gladiators Book 7), page 15
“Sort of?” Rory’s eyebrows rose. “I’m pretty sure being engaged is like being pregnant. You either are, or you aren’t.”
A flush of pink filled Ryan’s cheeks. “Charlie and I have known each other a long time. It was sort of more assumed than official…”
Rory snorted.
“Leave her alone,” Mia said. “Is your room okay?”
“It’s a great room,” Ryan said. “A huge bed, loads of clothes. After months of wearing the same freaking outfit, it is nice to have choices. And scary Galen and Rory set me up with this.” She waved at the comp system.
“Galen’s got an ulterior motive,” Rory said. “If you can do the work he needs done, he won’t have to hire Zhim, who costs a ton of money.” Rory reached for a bowl resting beside the comp screen and fished out a handful of some sort of nuts. She started popping them into her mouth.
“Did I hear my name?” Galen entered the room, a tight, black shirt covering his chest and his black cloak falling behind him. Kace was with him, and the tall gladiator moved instantly to his woman, pulling Rory in for a kiss. His big hands covered her belly protectively.
Vek studied the couple. Kace did not show much emotion, while Rory let everything show on her face. But now that Vek had Mia, he could recognize the looks on their faces. Love.
He suspected it was exactly the same look he wore when he looked at Mia. He pulled her in close to his side.
“You’ve recovered?” Galen asked Vek.
He nodded. “Thank you. For everything you have done.”
Galen inclined his head.
Mia smiled. “By the way, Vek and I have made it official.” She beamed at them all. “We’re mated.”
“Congratulations!” Rory hurried over to hug Mia, and then threw her arms around Vek.
He stilled, the hard mound of her belly a curious pressure against him. Then he felt a definite kick and he jerked.
“Sorry.” Rory stepped back, rubbing her belly. “This mini gladiator has a kick like an enraged mule trying out for the NFL.”
Vek had no idea what a mule or the NFL was. However, he saw Kace was smiling with pride, so he figured it was a good thing.
But then Mia’s gaze moved back to Ryan and her smile dissolved. “Any luck locating Dayna? Or tracking Neve?”
Ryan’s face fell. “Nothing, I’m sorry. I’m still combing through all the Srinar data. There has to be something in there about Dayna.” Ryan’s tone hardened. “But I won’t stop looking. We won’t abandon her.”
“And Neve?” Mia asked.
Ryan shook her head. “The woman is a ghost.”
When Mia leaned into him, Vek sensed her sadness. Instantly, he wanted to ease it. He spun her into his arms. “I promised you that we’d find them. We won’t give up.”
Mia nodded, pressing her cheek to his chest. “It just feels so wrong to be so happy when I know they’re out there, somewhere, all alone.”
“We will continue, no matter what,” Vek murmured. “As will they.”
“Vek,” Galen said.
Vek lifted his head and looked at the imperator.
“The healers tell me that the drug cravings and aggressive bursts in your system have eased. They believe that the mating frenzy caused some biological response that helped cleanse your body.”
Mia made a small sound and the faintest flush crept into her cheeks.
“You’re more likely still prone to aggression, but you’ll be able to control your responses and channel them. When you are ready, I’d like to invite you to train with my gladiators. You’re House of Galen, now.”
Vek went still, and sensed Mia holding her breath. Something in his chest tightened. He’d never belonged anywhere before.
He turned the offer over in his head. He’d been wondering what he was going to do with himself. This was a chance for him to contribute to the House of Galen, and to make something of himself. To use the skills that he’d so abhorred for something else…and to never have to fight to the death again.
He nodded at Galen. “It will be my honor to wear the House of Galen colors.”
Mia’s hands tightened on him, her face glowing with happiness.
Galen reached out an arm, and Vek pressed his forearm to the other man’s. A warrior’s clasp.
Then the imperator looked at Mia. “I’ve also been fielding several calls from Rillian for you, Mia.”
Vek growled and she shot him an exasperated look before looking back at Galen. “What does Rillian want with me?”
“He heard you sing on the shuttle, and he discovered that you write your own songs. He’d like to talk to you about performing at the Dark Nebula Casino.” Galen’s lips quirked. “I believe he mentioned something about me being a greedy imperator for keeping such an incredible gift within the House of Galen and not sharing it. And also something about paying you a small fortune for your talents.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open. “He wants me to perform? And pay me for it?”
“Pay you an obscene amount of money for it.”
She blinked and Vek sensed her stunned disbelief. He looked at her with pride, their gazes meeting. Mia had such talent and he knew it would be wrong to hold her back from sharing it.
She swallowed. “Um, tell Rillian I’ll think about it.”
“One more thing, Vek,” Ryan said, standing. “I found your species listed in the Srinar database.”
Mia gasped and Vek felt his stomach jump.
“The Nerium were the ones to take you from your homeworld.”
That meant the vague fragments of memories of being snatched by Nerium were real. Now his heart started beating hard against his ribs. Mia reached out and grabbed his hand.
“You’re a Solokhian,” Ryan said.
The name settled inside him. He didn’t recognize it, consciously, but it felt right.
“I’m sorry, but the exact location of your planet isn’t listed in the data, but it does seem that it’s a long way from here,” Ryan added. “It is listed as orbiting a large, very bright blue star and was dominated by blue vegetation. Makes sense. If the sun is brighter and blue, the vegetation would have a blue tint to reflect the light.”
“I knew it,” Mia murmured.
“There is a record of the Nerium stealing several children from Solokh. They were viciously pursued by Solokhian ships, and barely made it out alive. The Solokhian ships were not designed for long-range space travel and the Nerium never went back.”
A tumble of different feelings washed through Vek. He hadn’t been abandoned or thrown out like trash.
“Vek?” Mia’s quiet voice.
He looked down at her. It was nice to have answers to questions that he’d always wondered about, but it didn’t change things. His past was his past, and Mia was his life now.
“I’m okay,” he said. “It is good that I have a name to give to our children.”
Mia smiled.
“Speaking of children,” Ryan continued. “I see some notes in here on the Solokhian species. They mate for life, and have a chemical reaction in their bodies that binds them to their mate.”
Chemical reaction or not, Mia was his, and Vek would never let her go.
“And, uh, they give birth to three or four babies at once,” Ryan said.
Mia straightened like she’d been struck. “What?”
“A litter.” Rory elbowed Kace. “Glad your super sperm only made one alien bub.”
Vek pulled Mia closer. “Mia is far too small to be pregnant with three or four younglings at once.”
“One day we’re going to have babies.” Mia’s face turned dreamy. “They’ll be gorgeous, with blue skin and golden eyes—”
“No.” He wouldn’t risk his Mia. “No babies.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes.”
“No.”
Mia crossed her arms. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“My money’s on Mia,” Rory whispered, but Vek had no trouble hearing it.
Galen cleared his throat. “One thing I’ve learned is that Earth women somehow seem to always get their own way.”
Vek felt a spurt of fear, but then Mia reached up and cupped his cheeks. She pulled him down for a kiss. She laughed against his lips and everything else fell away.
“You and me, babe,” she murmured. “We’ll make it all work. Together.”
Right here in his arms was his everything. The past that had scarred him for so long, was now just something that had led him to Mia.
And the future was laid out ahead of them, filled with freedom and bright shining opportunities. But most of all, it would be filled with love.
I hope you enjoyed Vek and Mia’s story!
Galactic Gladiators continues with ROGUE which contains two novellas. The first stars information merchant Zhim who finds himself confounded by human hacker Ryan. The second stars caravan master Corsair who collides with the mysterious and prickly Neve. Coming November 2017.
For more action-packed romance, read on for a preview of the first chapter of Marcus, the first book in my best-selling Hell Squad series.
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PREVIEW - HELL SQUAD: MARCUS
Her team was under attack.
Elle Milton pressed her fingers to her small earpiece. “Squad Six, you have seven more raptors inbound from the east.” Her other hand gripped the edge of her comp screen, showing the enhanced drone feed.
She watched, her belly tight, as seven glowing red dots converged on the blue ones huddled together in the burned-out ruin of an office building in downtown Sydney. Each blue dot was a squad member and one of them was their leader.
“Marcus? Do you copy?” Elle fought to keep her voice calm. No way she’d let them hear her alarm.
“Roger that, Elle.” Marcus’ gravelly voice filled her ear. Along with the roar of laser fire. “We see them.”
She sagged back in her chair. This was the worst part. Just sitting there knowing that Marcus and the others were fighting for their lives. In the six months she’d been comms officer for the squad, she’d worked hard to learn the ropes. But there were days she wished she was out there, aiming a gun and taking out as many alien raptors as she could.
You’re not a soldier, Ellianna. No, she was a useless party-girl-turned-survivor. She watched as a red dot disappeared off the screen, then another, and another. She finally drew a breath. Marcus and his team were the experienced soldiers. She’d just be a big fat liability in the field.
But she was a damn good comms officer.
Just then, a new cluster of red dots appeared near the team. She tapped the screen, took a measurement. “Marcus! More raptors are en route. They’re about one kilometer away. North.” God, would these invading aliens ever leave them alone?
“Shit,” Marcus bit out. Then he went silent.
She didn’t know if he was thinking or fighting. She pictured his rugged, scarred face creased in thought as he formulated a plan.
Then his deep, rasping voice was back. “Elle, we need an escape route and an evac now. Shaw’s been hit in the leg, Cruz is carrying him. We can’t engage more raptors.”
She tapped the screen rapidly, pulling up drone images and archived maps. Escape route, escape route. Her mind clicked through the options. She knew Shaw was taller and heavier than Cruz, but the armor they wore had slim-line exoskeletons built into them allowing the soldiers to lift heavier loads and run faster and longer than normal. She tapped the screen again. Come on. She needed somewhere safe for a Hawk quadcopter to set down and pick them up.
“Elle? We need it now!”
Just then her comp beeped. She looked at the image and saw a hazy patch of red appear in the broken shell of a nearby building. The heat sensor had detected something else down there. Something big.
Right next to the team.
She touched her ear. “Rex! Marcus, a rex has just woken up in the building beside you.”
“Fuck! Get us out of here. Now.”
Oh, God. Elle swallowed back bile. Images of rexes, with their huge, dinosaur-like bodies and mouths full of teeth, flashed in her head.
More laser fire ripped through her earpiece and she heard the wild roar of the awakening beast.
Block it out. She focused on the screen. Marcus needed her. The team needed her.
“Run past the rex.” One hand curled into a tight fist, her nails cutting into her skin. “Go through its hiding place.”
“Through its nest?” Marcus’ voice was incredulous. “You know how territorial they are.”
“It’s the best way out. On the other side you’ll find a railway tunnel. Head south along it about eight hundred meters, and you’ll find an emergency exit ladder that you can take to the surface. I’ll have a Hawk pick you up there.”
A harsh expulsion of breath. “Okay, Elle. You’ve gotten us out of too many tight spots for me to doubt you now.”
His words had heat creeping into her cheeks. His praise…it left her giddy. In her life BAI—before alien invasion—no one had valued her opinions. Her father, her mother, even her almost-fiancé, they’d all thought her nothing more than a pretty ornament. Hell, she had been a silly, pretty party girl.
And because she’d been inept, her parents were dead. Elle swallowed. A year had passed since that horrible night during the first wave of the alien attack, when their giant ships had appeared in the skies. Her parents had died that night, along with most of the world.
“Hell Squad, ready to go to hell?” Marcus called out.
“Hell, yeah!” the team responded. “The devil needs an ass-kicking!”
“Woo-hoo!” Another voice blasted through her headset, pulling her from the past. “Ellie, baby, this dirty alien’s nest stinks like Cruz’s socks. You should be here.”
A smile tugged at Elle’s lips. Shaw Baird always knew how to ease the tension of a life-or-death situation.
“Oh, yeah, Hell Squad gets the best missions,” Shaw added.
Elle watched the screen, her smile slipping. Everyone called Squad Six the Hell Squad. She was never quite sure if it was because they were hellions, or because they got sent into hell to do the toughest, dirtiest missions.
There was no doubt they were a bunch of rebels. Marcus had a rep for not following orders. Just the previous week, he’d led the squad in to destroy a raptor outpost but had detoured to rescue survivors huddled in an abandoned hospital that was under attack. At the debrief, the general’s yelling had echoed through the entire base. Marcus, as always, had been silent.
“Shut up, Shaw, you moron.” The deep female voice carried an edge.
Elle had decided there were two words that best described the only female soldier on Hell Squad—loner and tough. Claudia Frost was everything Elle wasn’t. Elle cleared her throat. “Just get yourselves back to base.”
As she listened to the team fight their way through the rex nest, she tapped in the command for one of the Hawk quadcopters to pick them up.
The line crackled. “Okay, Elle, we’re through. Heading to the evac point.”
Marcus’ deep voice flowed over her and the tense muscles in her shoulders relaxed a fraction. They’d be back soon. They were okay. He was okay.
She pressed a finger to the blue dot leading the team. “The bird’s en route, Marcus.”
“Thanks. See you soon.”
She watched on the screen as the large, black shadow of the Hawk hovered above the ground and the team boarded. The rex was headed in their direction, but they were already in the air.
Elle stood and ran her hands down her trousers. She shot a wry smile at the camouflage fabric. It felt like a dream to think that she’d ever owned a very expensive, designer wardrobe. And heels—God, how long had it been since she’d worn heels? These days, fatigues were all that hung in her closet. Well-worn ones, at that.
As she headed through the tunnels of the underground base toward the landing pads, she forced herself not to run. She’d see him—them—soon enough. She rounded a corner and almost collided with someone.
“General. Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“No problem, Elle.” General Adam Holmes had a military-straight bearing he’d developed in the United Coalition Army and a head of dark hair with a brush of distinguished gray at his temples. He was classically handsome, and his eyes were a piercing blue. He was the top man in this last little outpost of humanity. “Squad Six on their way back?”
“Yes, sir.” They fell into step.
“And they secured the map?”
God, Elle had almost forgotten about the map. “Ah, yes. They got images of it just before they came under attack by raptors.”
“Well, let’s go welcome them home. That map might just be the key to the fate of mankind.”
They stepped into the landing areas. Staff in various military uniforms and civilian clothes raced around. After the raptors had attacked, bringing all manner of vicious creatures with them to take over the Earth, what was left of mankind had banded together.
Whoever had survived now lived here in an underground base in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney, or in the other, similar outposts scattered across the planet. All arms of the United Coalition’s military had been decimated. In the early days, many of the surviving soldiers had fought amongst themselves, trying to work out who outranked whom. But it didn’t take long before General Holmes had unified everyone against the aliens. Most squads were a mix of ranks and experience, but the teams eventually worked themselves out. Most didn’t even bother with titles and rank anymore.
Sirens blared, followed by the clang of metal. Huge doors overhead retracted into the roof.
A Hawk filled the opening, with its sleek gray body and four spinning rotors. It was near-silent, running on a small thermonuclear engine. It turned slowly as it descended to the landing pad.
Her team was home.
