The Thief: alien dragon shifter romance (Mate Hunt Book 3), page 1
The Thief
Riley Onyx
Copyright © 2021 by Riley Onyx
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Created with Vellum
Contents
The Thief
1. Olivia
2. Kayrus
3. Olivia
4. Kayrus
5. Olivia
6. Kayrus
7. Olivia
8. Kayrus
9. Olivia
10. Kayrus
11. Olivia
12. Kayrus
13. Olivia
14. Kayrus
15. Olivia
Epilogue
Also by Riley Onyx
About the Author
The Thief
Kayrus
I have one task: locate and activate the beacon to find the ship that was left on Earth over a thousand years ago. Without the ship the stranded Merlzhen have no chance of summoning help. With everyone searching for anyone who appears the tiniest bit alien it’s getting harder to move around. And I’m not the only one after the beacon…
Olivia
When my Gran gives me a family heirloom, I don’t expect the ring to be a long-forgotten alien artifact that attaches itself to my finger. My head fills with ancient memories and then an alien shows up, claiming I’m the only one who can help him save the world.
One
Olivia
It’s been a week since the alien spaceship was shot out of the sky and rather dramatically fell to pieces all over the southwest of England. Since then all everyone, and I do mean everyone, has been talking about is aliens.
The weirdest thing is the government, and the military, didn’t even try to keep it a secret. Like, I mean, why tell the truth now? This can’t be the first time aliens have visited Earth, not if they were prepared to invade.
It doesn’t make sense. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but something is going on. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Gran has been calling everyday asking when I’m coming to see her. Each time she is more insistent.
Dad wants me to stay home because of the unrest, but I need to get out. Besides, she’s only two stops away on the train and I know the trains are still running. Not only that, but she’s an old lady in a big empty house. It’s not good for her to be alone so much.
It must be Dad’s day off as he’s still at home. Damn it, I’d been hoping that he’d have picked up another shift to help quell the trouble or search for aliens or something.
He looks up from the TV. “Where are you going?”
I consider lying for a heartbeat, but he’ll be able to tell. Having a cop for a father sucks.
“I’m going to check on Gran. She might need something.” I give him a small smile and a shrug.
“If she needed something, she’d say. She calls every other day.”
“She’s lonely.”
“She’s a crazy old witch, that’s what she is,” he snaps.
This time I can’t hold my tongue. “Why? Because she always said aliens are real? Or because she refuses to move out of that house?”
Dad wants her to sell and live somewhere smaller and cheaper. He thinks she’s holding onto Mum’s inheritance when he could be using it. I think it’s her house and she can do whatever she wants. The house is old, and amazing, and worth a stack.
He scowls at me. “It’s not safe out there. We’ve been invaded and they look like us.”
“Which ones?” I shouldn’t be picking a fight, but I can’t help myself. Maybe I’ve been stuck in the house for too long. “The ones that were shot down or the ones that were already here?” I’ve been following the rebels on social media. They post up evidence that aliens have been here for one hundred and fifty years. Their theories are very convincing.
“Don’t believe that crap.”
“I’ll see you later.” There’s no point in trying to discuss the aliens with him. I don’t know if he’s been told he has to support what the government is saying or if he believes the spin. I don’t trust anyone right now. Especially anyone that claims to be telling the truth.
He softens his voice. “Olivia, I mean it. It’s not safe.”
I’m already at the front door. “If it’s safe enough for me to go to work, it is safe enough for me to see Gran.” I open the door and go out before he can argue. He treats me like a child. Maybe I should move in with Gran, I can imagine that making his head explode. But I can imagine living in that grand old house too easily.
I almost regret taking this year off between school and university, but I needed the time to make some money so that I can move out. All my friends are at uni and they’re moving on with their lives. Meanwhile, I’m stuck at home and helping my younger brother and sister with their homework when I’m not working.
I walk the block to the train station. There are soldiers on the street that weren’t there yesterday. They mill about, watching everyone enter and leave the station. Do they think an alien is going to catch the train?
Would they?
If they are trying to fit in, that’s a really good way to do it.
I jog down the steps, scan my card, and wait. Three minutes later, I’m out of the cold and heading toward London. The train is less busy than usual, with people avoiding non-essential travel. It was a recommendation, not an order. How long until it becomes an order?
I glance at the other travelers. Most have their gazes lowered as they stare at their phone—that’s how to spot an alien. They probably wouldn’t be holding a phone, so they’d be sitting around watching everyone else. Like me. My gaze catches with a guy’s. He looks away first and says something to his friend. Then he glances at me again.
This time I pull my phone out of my pocket and pretend to be very busy.
Aliens aren’t the danger.
If the men follow me off, I’ll go into the nearest shop. I plan my escape route, but they get off at the stop before me. I breathe a sigh of relief.
When I get off there are soldiers at the exit, and they are speaking to everyone slowing up the line. I try to peer ahead, but I’m too short to see past the people in front.
So like everyone else I wait, with my hands shoved deep in my pockets to keep them warm. The aliens picked the wrong time of year to visit because it’s freezing—there’s even talk that the Thames might freeze and it hasn’t done that in several centuries. Climate change: making things shit everywhere. Though my toes would appreciate a little global warming right now. I shuffle to the front of the line.
“ID.” The soldier puts his hand out.
I rummage through my handbag and pull out my wallet to show him my driver’s license.
The soldier checks my ID against something in his hand. Do they have photos of the aliens? Does he really think aliens are walking among us, catching trains, and pretending to be human? I’d much rather pretend to be an alien—and according to the news, there have been a few of them too.
My heart quickens with excitement even though I’m not sure I want to meet an alien. What if those men on the train were aliens? I try to remember if there was anything special about them, aside from looking hot, and most definitely trouble. They had that air about them, like they were heading out to kick some heads—I see that look every time I go to work.
Officially the aliens appear like us, mostly, but have a tail and can shape-shift into blue dragons. They are considered dangerous and to be reported on the special hotline.
The soldier stares at me. “You shouldn’t be out.”
I do my best not to roll my eyes. He sounds like my father but is only half his age. “I need to check on Gran, she’s old and lives alone.”
Unofficially, the dangerous aliens have horns, or horn scars, beards that hide another set, and they have a musky scent.
This guy has an overly generous beard. I hold his gaze and wonder if beneath his uniform hat he also has horns. I don’t know who to believe.
I should believe the government, but they shot at an alien ship without bothering to say hello. Maybe they did, and that’s how they knew the aliens were here to invade. But if I was an alien wanting to invade a planet, I wouldn’t only bring one ship. I’d bring a swarm, or whatever a group of spaceships is called. Fleet? Flight?
I curl my toes, waiting to be let through.
The soldier calls over his buddy. “That’s not a good enough reason to be travelling.”
I stare at them. “Yes, it is. She lives alone. She needs groceries and I need to make sure she’s taking her medications.” Gran will be mortified that I implied she can’t take care of herself.
And if I have to stay at home all day every day, I will lose my mind. My mother is fretting about what’s going to happen if they don’t catch the aliens or if more show up. My father is spending more time at work, trying to catch the survivors from the crash and the alien supporting rebels.
I asked him why, and he didn’t like that.
Since then, I’ve bitten my tongue and try to say all the right things.
The
How many aliens are running around England?
No other countries are reporting any aliens. And most are supporting England in the crack down. Weird that no one wants to find them for science or anything. But it makes sense if the people in charge have all been taken over by the horned aliens as claimed by the rebels.
I remind myself not to buy into the conspiracy that Earth has already been invaded and the winged guys are here to help, as I walk the rest of the way to Gran’s large, severe house. Well, it’s more of a small mansion. When I was going through my goth phase, it was the perfect place to sit on the front step and pretend to be cool under the watchful eye of the ravens that haunt the trees outside.
I was not cool.
I was just a chubby girl with home-dyed black hair and ripped tights. Gran totally enabled all of that. Mostly because she was goth from way back before it was a thing.
I knock and can’t help but smile at the memories of sitting out the front. The time spent inside exploring the rooms, the attic. I used to beg to be allowed to sleep over, but Dad never allowed it.
The door swings open and Gran smiles. “I was expecting you, come in.”
I swear she must track my phone or something, because she always knows when I’m going to arrive. I hang my purple coat up on the hook and go through to the sitting room. Tea and cake are already laid out.
She’s so weird.
But she’s always had time for me and never expects me to do anything. With her, it’s enough that I exist. Sometimes she’d tell me stories, or we’d go through old photo albums. It was an escape from the press of my family.
“How was the trip?” She pours the herbal tea. It smells sweet and looks like blood.
“Fine, except for the soldiers.”
She nods her head and her necklaces clink together. I count five chains. A variety of stones and charms will be hanging from them. Her bony hands are always decked out with rings, so she looks like a fairy tale witch. I’ve always wanted to be like her, because she doesn’t care what other people think.
“How are you going with the extra security? Do you need me to run errands?”
“No, I’ve been ordering online.” She sips her tea and there’s a glint in her eye. For the first time, she wants something from me.
“I have something to give you. I’m too old and the time is right.”
I almost choke on my tea. “What? Are you dying?”
“No…but this is a job for a young woman.”
I can feel my eyebrows lifting and my heartbeat quickening. “What kind of job?”
When I was a kid, she’d pay me to polish her silverware or clean her jewelry—things I’d have done for free to spend time with her. This sounds a little more ominous.
“You are a child of Morgen.”
She’s always claimed we are descended from witches. “I know the story.”
“No, you don’t. You know bits. And it’s not a story.”
My father’s words echo in my skull. Crazy old witch. I eat some cake, so I don’t have to say anything.
She puts down her teacup and stares at me. “My cousin disappeared one hundred years ago. She was taken by the Merlzhen to join them.”
This is not the same story. I know about her missing cousin. Presumed dead after running away with a boy. But Merlzhen is the name of the winged aliens, the ones that the military is hunting. The cake clogs my mouth.
“The Merlzhen return every hundred years, seeking mates. They don’t want to invade.”
I swallow the lump of cake. “They came to kidnap human women?”
“You have Merlzhen blood, as do I. Morgen was Merlzhen. Arzhur’s half-sister.”
I have been hearing Arthurian mythology from Gran all my life. But not quite like this. She told me about battles and magic.
“I don’t understand.”
She puts two rings on the table. “You will need these.”
“Why?” I pick them up, even though I suspect I shouldn’t. The rings are heavy in my hand. Not ones I’ve seen her wear before. They are kind of old looking with dragons wrapped around the blue stones. I want to slip it onto my finger.
She reaches out before I can. “Don’t put them on yet.”
“Then what am I supposed to do with them?” Sell them? They are gold and must be worth a small fortune.
“I have failed because I should’ve seen the signs years ago and I didn’t. The Fomuri have been among us, not invading by force but by stealth. As a daughter of Morgen, it is your job to activate the signal to wake Arzhur and summon the Merlzhen.”
I stare at her. She spoke English, but the words aren’t making sense.
“I have to what? We can summon aliens?”
“Only if we are under attack. Which we are…but it may already be too late.” She puts her hand over mine. “You mother will not do this. She never cared about our heritage. But you do. I can trust you to do this.”
The rings bite into my palm. “So the winged aliens are the good guys and we’re part alien?”
“Only a tiny part,” she says with a sincere smile.
Shit, she’s not joking. “And I’m supposed to do what?”
“Activate the alarm.”
“Which is where?” I say like this is a perfectly reasonable conversation to be having with my grandmother.
“St Mary’s.”
“Which one?” There’s at least a dozen in London alone.
“That I do not know.”
Of course she doesn’t.
Two
Kayrus
My tail is aching from being tucked out of site for the last two days as I do my best to pass for a human. I have no human in my lineage but clothed in winter garb I believe I’m passable. I glance over at the other man that I was forced to take with me—though honestly, this is a job I could’ve done by myself.
I spent over ten years carrying out secret missions for the Merlzhen military. As a reward, I was put on this protection run. It feels more like a demotion. For the last ten years, there has been nothing to do but watch the others find their mates and wait until my name was selected. Not even I know how the selections are made. Maybe I was chosen for this planet because of the lack of human blood in my veins.
Now those that found their mate first are all gone. Few men and fewer mates survived the destruction and fall. Those that made it to the survival pods are scattered—and I assume in hiding. Which makes finding the beacon even more important.
Find the beacon, kill some Fomuri. It’s a mission I can get behind, and more exciting than stealing to equip our little rebellion. I flex my fingers, eager to be doing something with all my training.
“You’re in a good mood,” Malo says.
I grin. “Yep.”
While finding the beacon is going to be like finding one particular pebble in an asteroid belt, I look forward to the challenge. For a long time, the beacon was kept safe by the King of this place. But that was when they knew what it was they were guarding. These days…these days the city looks like some backwater planet that hasn’t figured out what to do with its litter and is more concerned with reaching for the stars than looking after its people.
In another hundred years Earth will have sorted itself out or ended itself. I’ve seen it go both ways. Stepped in to assist development once—it’s not something we like to do, but strategically it was better to have them as allies than let them be taken over.
Malo looks at me like I’m some kind of freak.
All the men are here because they want a mate. But I have made diplomatic missions on every planet we stopped at. Few on the ship know what I am. Most believe that like them, I need a mate. I am happy to let them assume.
I lean against the post in the train, watching people get on and off. For the moment, we have no plan beyond exploring the city. I have a small device that locates Merlzhen tech, but it only works at close range. And the beacon will be giving off a very faint signal, if at all. It’s been so long…
