Horde Queen, page 1
HORDE QUEEN
VAHKING HORDE
BOOK 1
CELIA KYLE
ANNE HALE
CONTENTS
Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
About the Authors
DESCRIPTION
Humans are seen as weak. Helpless. Crude. And yet, I hold the heart of the Vakhing King.
Thor found me battered and beaten—he believed me to be frail—but I taught that Vakhing what it means to be human… To be fierce.
He nearly gives up his throne to be with me, but I can’t let that happen. Now, it’s time for me to show everyone what I am capable of. I will prove to this race that I am as strong as their warriors. I am meant to be with the Vakhing.
Thor’s blood Sang for me. And the blood cannot be denied.
But when it comes time for the trials, something is wrong… My tasks are laden with traps. They are nearly the death of me. But as a human, I refuse to be defeated.
I have only two options: win my place at the side of the Vakhing King or… die.
CHAPTER 1
Adeline huddled in the oversized shuttle seat. She felt like a child again, in all the worst ways. Instead of whimsy and wonder, she was small and vulnerable.
Her seat ranked among the cheapest available. Caprice, her contact on Tau Station, had not spent one spare dime on her accommodations. In a way Addy felt grateful. Even though the section she sat in was dark, cramped, and cold—and featured no portholes or windows of any kind—at least she didn’t have to talk to anyone.
The sole other passenger on the shoddy craft lay stretched out across two seats all the way at the end of the cabin. His snores seemed to indicate a deep drunken coma he would not soon awaken from.
Addy rubbed her arms through the thin sleeves of her jumpsuit. If she’d known it would be so cold, she’d have packed something warmer to wear or at least brought something to put over the jumpsuit. She couldn’t see her breath, but it had to be close to that point.
At one point in her childhood, she’d wanted to be an astronaut. She thought it likely all children went through such a phase. In her case, she’d been cured of such flights of fancy earlier than most.
Whimsy nor adventure had brought her on this journey to the stars. It was survival. Addy did what she had to do in order to survive. When the Preor first visited Earth, people believed the dragon-like aliens would usher in a new golden age of prosperity.
She heard about it on the news and on the web all the time. The headlines stood out in her mind. Preor tech cures juvenile diabetes in ninety percent of cases. Ocean plastics are down to an all-time low thanks to alien technology. Preor deliver clean energy power plant.
Well, all of that prosperity had yet to trickle down to her. Her life hadn’t changed much because of the Preor, the Vahking, and whatever the hell else beings were in the galaxy. Her life was still hard.
She snorted with mirthless laughter. The Preor had given her something, at least. Opportunity. Thanks to their propensity for choosing human women as mates, she had a chance to make the biggest score of her life. It wouldn’t set her up forever, or even for a year, but it would give her some breathing room.
The shuttle’s throbbing engines lowered their tempo. She felt the whole craft shake and rattle, jostling her a bit, and saw the yellow light indicating artificial gravity had shut off. The gravity system in Tau Station made the shuttle’s own unnecessary.
She clutched her single carry-on in her hand. The ugly, stained canvas bag sported a faded rainbow emblazoned on the side. Addy had found it abandoned at a rail station in Borneo, already emptied out by a thief, apparently. She’d grabbed it because it had the orbit symbol indicating it was safe for space travel.
Now she held it tightly like a security blanket as the shuttle settled onto its landing pylons. She was jostled a bit from the rough landing, and then a loud, obnoxious buzzing sounded through the cabin. The noise failed to rouse the sleeping drunkard as she shuffled toward the end of the cabin, where a metal hatchway swung open with a groan.
Addy stepped off the shuttle and onto the docking ring. Her mouth gaped open at the sight of Tau Station. Sleek design elements made it feel open and airy after the confining shuttle. The dragon-like Preor moved about individually or in groups. She never had gotten quite used to the winged humanoid aliens.
She saw humans as well, primarily women. Most of them had come to Tau Choosing Station in hopes of finding a Preor mate. Adeline had even considered it at one point but ultimately decided against it. She may not have had much, but at least she had her freedom. Being mated to a giant, aggressive and loud alien didn’t sound like freedom to her.
A couple of dock workers gave her funny looks, and she realized she had been standing there staring around like a tourist for a long time. Addy walked away from the shuttle on legs stiffened by her long, cramped flight.
She approached the official station entry, a set of gates where Preor security filtered people into the station, and fell into the end of the line. She wiped her sweating palms on her jumpsuit as her heart thudded in her chest, but she tried to keep her expression neutral.
Which proved almost impossible when she realized everyone was being searched, including their bags. She gritted her teeth, clamping down on a whimper.
She hadn’t expected them to search her personally, just her bags. What threat could a human woman provide to the giant, scaly dragon men or the other aliens who sometimes came to the station?
Addy reached into her pocket and found the hidden seal. They would almost certainly find it on a pat down. She reached inside and extracted a glass cylinder about an inch in diameter and three inches long.
Inside, white crystals caught the light. She closed her fist around it and hoped nobody asked her to open her hands.
The line inched forward, every moment torture. She thought any second a guard would lay a big, clawed hand on her shoulder and the jig would be up.
At last, her turn came. The green-scaled Preor guard smiled at her, and for all that it was worth his eyes seemed friendly, even kind.
“Hello there. Identification passport, please?”
She put her luggage on the conveyor belt to be rifled through—nothing in there that worried her—and showed him her ID. That, at least, should stand up to official scrutiny. Her name had been added to the roles of those Earth women looking to be chosen.
“All right, looks good,” he said, handing it back to her. “Please lift your arms.”
She did as she was told, praying he wouldn’t notice she was clutching something in her hand. He patted her down, being totally professional about it, and then smiled.
“You’re good to go, Ms. Scott. Welcome to Tau Station and I hope you find a match.”
She managed a watery smile and then fought the urge to run as she strode away from security. Addy didn’t relax until she got around the corner of a bulkhead. Then she leaned against the wall, her knees weak and whole body trembling.
Once she’d regained some measure of composure, she ventured into the station. At a point marked for maintenance personnel only, she came across a hatch-style door sealed shut and apparently locked tightly.
She tried the wheel and found it spun in her hands. Caprice had said it would be unlocked. At least he was playing it straight with her on that.
Normally she didn’t do business with guys like Caprice, a human who’d also found opportunities in the stars. Only in his case, his methods of exploiting that opportunity were far more sinister.
Only, she had to survive. And with no other prospects and her money running out, Addy had to take the risk of working for him.
She made her way deeper into the bowels of the station, past corridors the towering aliens no doubt thought of as cramped. In some places the ceiling was right over her head.
At last, she reached an area where dozens of metal pipes of different sizes twisted around a curved corridor. She’d been told to look for such a wall of pipes. Addy followed the bent wall into a section of near total darkness.
She paced through the black, her breath seeming loud in her ears. Only a faint white light in the corridor ahead of her gave any indication of where she was going.
Addy kept a hand on the wall, moving slowly so as not to trip on anything unseen. She emerged into the light, squinting her eyes against the sudden brightness. She found herself in a section filled with wall-to-ceiling pipes, many of them dotted with condensation. The chamber seemed to go on for quite a way and smelled vaguely unpleasant.
“Well, it’s about fucking time.”
She glanced sharply to her left as four figures emerged from the darkness. Caprice was in the lead, his dark eyes seemingly like black pits in his pallid face. With his shaven head, he resembled a skull.
The other humans didn’t look much better. They spread out to flank her, one of them flipping her long hair with his fingers.
“You’re an experienced courier. I figured you would know that without me having to say shit about it.” His voice held a strange waver to it, like an old timey yeoman from a medieval village. “Have you got my drugs or what?”
Addy snorted.
“Have you got my money?”
Caprice cocked an eyebrow.
“You expecting me to rip you off or something?”
Abby sneered.
“As you said, I’m an experienced courier.”
“Fair enough.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a credstick.
“Untraceable, just like promised,” he said, handing it over.
Addy reached for it, but he held on to the pencil-sized gray object.
“Let go.”
“I will when I have my drugs.”
Addy opened her hand and gave him the glass cylinder. He finally let go of the credstick, and she stuffed it in her pocket, nodding.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said.
Addy turned to leave. As she walked away, she checked the credstick.
The balance said zero.
“Um, Caprice, what in the actual fuck?”
She turned around to find all four of the men staring at her. Caprice heaved a resigned sigh.
“Damn it, couldn’t you wait until you were gone before checking that?”
“You better pay me, you son of a bitch.”
She stalked toward him. His minions surged forward and grabbed her, throwing her against one of the pipes. She fought like a madwoman, biting, scratching, and screaming. Addy knew she’d have to suffer the beatdown, but at least she’d manage to get some licks in.
Pain exploded all over her body as they continued to kick and stomp her on the floor. It was far from her first beating, but it might have been the worst.
“Fucking bitch,” Caprice said, holding his hand over his badly broken nose. He kicked her hard in the ribs, punctuating each kick with another invective. “Stupid. Fucking. Bitch!”
The pain proved unbearable, and she blacked out for a moment. When she came too, she could hear their laughter as they wandered off into the darkness.
Addy struggled to all fours, blood pouring out of her nose and a deep cut on her forehead. She coughed, and it felt like someone was punching her in the ribs. Addy spat up foamy blood and almost passed out again.
With great effort, she heaved herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the wall. What had taken about five minutes before now took almost an hour as she limped back to the main areas of the station.
Addy stared through the eye that wasn’t swollen shut and realized she’d made it practically to the choosing chamber’s entrance. A thick knot of Preor males and human women awaited entrance. So much was going on that nobody seemed to notice her beaten and bedraggled state.
“Works for me,” she whispered, leaning heavily on the wall. Her legs just sort of slowly gave up the fight, and she slid down to her rump. It hurt to breathe, and she kept one hand clasped to her ribs, which sort of helped.
Her vision dimmed around the edges, and it occurred to her she might die of her injuries before anyone even noticed her in the busy chamber.
That’s okay. I’ll just lie here on the floor and die.
Everything went back, and she wondered if she’d gotten what she deserved.
CHAPTER 2
Thor stared at his horned reflection in the translucent viewing panel. He rode in a Vahking ship, near the prow. He had chosen this spot to await their arrival to Choosing Station Tau in hopes of getting a better view.
“You’re awfully pensive, brother.”
Thor turned about to face the dark-haired Vahking beside him. An inch taller but somewhat slimmer, his brother Rune wore his usual smile that said everything was all right with any galaxy smart enough to have Rune squarely at its center… and everything was all right with the galaxy.
“I’m hardly pensive.” Thro glanced his brother up and down. Rune shrugged his fur-clad shoulders.
“I only observe what I can see. You’ve been either staring out the window and brooding or staring at your lap and brooding, punctuated by pacing the deck… and brooding. You’ll forgive me for thinking you were pensive.”
Thor gave him a glare.
“I never forgave you for sleeping with Lady Seph when you knew I was interested in her.”
Rune scoffed, his bearded face stretched with incredulity.
“In that case, you should probably thank me.”
Thor knew Rune liked getting under his skin. Yet he couldn’t resist riding to the obvious bait.
“For what possible reason would I thank you?” he growled.
“Well, for one thing, Seph was not your type at all. For another, you hardly want for female company. I’m surprised you didn’t carry off one of the human women during your initial raid on Earth.”
Thor knew Rune was still teasing him. His brother knew Thor had been captured on that raid, which nearly led to an intergalactic war between the Vahking and the Preor and their human allies.
“I would have, if I’d have felt my blood sing. It sang for none of them.”
“And did your blood sing for Seph?”
Thor shot him a withering look.
“Yes, I thought not.” Rune chuckled low in his throat, his dark eyes glittering with intent. “She wasn’t even that good of a lay.”
Thor turned away to stare out the window so his brother would not see his sour expression.
“She was strong.”
“Yes, she was strong. Is that all that concerns you? Really, it seems like only a tiny facet of what one might want from a mate.”
Thor gaped at Rune.
“Brother, many times things come out of your mouth I can scarcely believe.”
“Why so incredulous?”
Thor turned on him with a scowl.
“It is easy for you to say strength isn’t of great importance in one’s mate. You are not staring down the barrel of rulership. When our father dies, I will have to assume the mantle of king.”
Rune rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Yes, yes, I know. The burdens of the heir!” Rune waved his hands about as if troubles assailed him from all sides. “Oh, the calamity! Oh, the anguish! How difficult it is to face being the most powerful Vahking in the galaxy…”
“Enough of your mockery, Rune.” Thor’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “I know you want the throne. You’ve always wanted it.”
“I want the trappings that go along with the throne. I will admit,” Rune said. “But the actual job? People coming to me night and day with their problems? No longer free to go on raids and wet my blade in the blood of our enemies? No thank you.”
Thor snorted.
“You’re just enough of a wastrel that I almost believe you. Except I’ve always been able to tell when you are lying, brother.”
“Oh?” Rune didn’t even seem offended by the accusation. “Is that so? I didn’t know I had a tell. Please, by all means, explain what it is.”
“Fine. I know you’re lying whenever your lips move.”
Rune laughed and slapped Thor on the shoulder.
“Why, that’s marvelous. Great setup, brother. I walked right into that one, as the humans might say.”
“I’m surprised. You often set such traps but seldom fall into them.”
“Ah, you’re right, of course.” Rune grinned. “You have always excelled at athletics, but I have always excelled in the arena of the mind.”
“It is so.” Thor snickered. “If you put us together, we would be the perfect warrior.”
“Ah, yes, your obsession with strength.” Rune’s grin melted off his face. “Tell me, brother, is strength truly all you care about?”
