Page 1 of Betrothed to the Alien Mercenary

Prologue

Evie

“You have to promise,” Evadne implored. We sat huddled together inside a cold, damp cell, surrounded by darkness, shivering bodies, and the stench of despair. It weighed on me like nothing I’d ever experienced before, dragging me down into its greedy jaws. We were going to die, and nothing Evadne said was going to change that. I couldn’t hold the same kind of hope that she did; I’d seen more than enough darkness in my short life to know that this was the end. Her guards knew it too.

Theronix lay on his side, hands bound behind his back, muscles bulging from the strained position. There was no luster or glow to the gold markings that swirled over his arms, and his eyes were dark and sunken. Mikalys sat shoulder to shoulder with Zandrios, both completely apathetic to what was going on around them. There wasn’t so much as a hint of fire or will to fight; lack of hope had done that.

“Promise me, Evie!” Evadne insisted more firmly. Her red eyes gleamed scarlet in her beautiful face. It made my stomach twist to think of my friend and boss as beautiful because it was almost like calling myself beautiful. I was her body double, her perfect lookalike in case of a threat to her life—not that it was helping her now, or would ever again.

The crimelord who had captured our stealth ship a week ago had known which one of us was the real one. My DNA said enough: I wasn’t Xurtal; I was human. And he’d proceeded to cruelly brand the real Princess Evadne on her cheek so there could be no mistake.

“What do you want me to promise?” I said to my friend, my eyes lingering on the barely healed mark that bisected her pretty, emerald skin. There was no getting out of this, no matter what she thought—not for either of us. Nobody knew we’d been captured because our mission had been top secret and of great national importance to the entire Xurtal nation. This crimelord had found us by sheer chance, and he was doing a “favor” for a friend on Ov’Korad to end the meddling ambassador.

“I’m not getting out of this,” Evadne said firmly, and it made what remained of her guard shift uneasily around us. Those words felt like failure resting on their shoulders. When our cell door opened in a little while, I knew they’d rise and fight, even though they knew it was pointless. “Hush,” she said to her guard, though they had not made a sound. “This is true. Batok will soon tire of seeing my fear and end me, but Evie might live long enough to escape; he does not care about her.”

I knew what it was she wanted me to promise now, and my stomach sank. There were a lot of conflicted emotions in my relationship with Evadne: loyalty, friendship, resentment. I couldn’t deny her my promise when her pretty ruby eyes filled with tears. “My people count on you. You’re our only hope.” Her words triggered a sudden, vivid memory of my childhood back on Earth, one I was barely old enough to remember—watching a movie with my father, in which a princess implored a hero to save her people. Well, I was certainly in a galaxy far, far away. Evadne even had her lush strands of moss-green hair twirled into buns on the sides of her head.

“I promise to carry out your mission if I manage to escape,” I said to her. All her guards went stiff, and several pairs of eyes shifted from their dark, emotionless looks to something that glinted with a hint of their former fire. They knew what Evadne had asked of me, and what I’d sworn to do: impersonate her, not just for her safety, but fully. To lie to the Ovters and the Xurtal people for the sake of securing the treaty her people so desperately sought. It was even closer to blasphemy than what I already represented, and I could feel that in the burning of their eyes—their dislike for me and the disrespect I represented to their princess.

Despite my promise to be their people’s salvation should I survive, they hated me. Nobody said anything, not even Theronix, the de facto leader of the guard after Platorix had been eaten by our captor. I curled into myself, huddling close to Evadne for warmth. Then the doors opened, and our numbers diminished.

I feared the swish of that door, feared the moment when she was taken, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. It didn’t feel fast, and yet it felt like the blink of an eye when there was nobody left but Theronix and me. I didn’t grieve for those we had lost, didn’t even grieve for Evadne, though I missed her warmth. There was only numbness. And then, my number was up.

Chapter 1

Aramon

I watched the proceedings on the bridge with narrowed eyes, my foot tapping impatiently against the deck. It was driving my brother crazy, tension rising rapidly in his lean frame. Tough luck; I couldn’t control my tension any more than he could control his, and the psychic circuit between us only intensified those feelings for both of us. What I needed was a good fight or a good fuck—I wasn’t picky.

Jaxin was at the weapons station, his hands hovering over the controls as he awaited the captain’s commands. I glared at those buttons as if they’d personally offended me. They hadn’t, but Jaxin was about to if he fired a shot. I wanted that fight, and space combat just wasn’t the same. Unless we were dealing with a supreme force, maybe. Some tense evasive flying would work too. Iwasa pilot, and by definition, pilots were adrenaline junkies. At least the kind I was.

All we could see on our viewscreen was the sleek, silver shape of a Star Class Cruiser and a small orbiting station beside a mining planet. This was no challenge for a beauty like the Varakartoom; she was a beast, and that ship was her prey. I grinned as I pictured Vara chomping down on that shiny silver tail fin, sharing the image with my brother. He rattled in his navigator's seat, grinning back with his sharp, filed-down teeth. We were on the same page now, our focus locked on the ship as we craved the possibility of a fight.

“Easy there, Aramon, Solear,” Asmoded drawled softly, a note of bite in his voice that warned me I couldn’t step out of line. I swallowed a hiss and settled down, even though I didn’t want to. The captain was right: if I didn’t get my anxious, excited tension under control, Solear was going to leap out of his chair and attack someone. That, I couldn’t allow to happen.

The captain had seen what my impatience had obscured, though I’d sensed it: there wasn’t going to be a fight. Mitnick had everything under control, like always—the fucking bastard. Although, hehadmade a mess of things over the past few weeks, starting with his obsession with one silly human female. It still baffled me that two males I’d always greatly admired for their cool minds had done something as irrational as finding their mate. First the captain, now Mitnick…

I tapped a fist against my armor-covered chest when a strange, heavy feeling settled there.Do you feel that too?I thought as I glanced at Solear, and I knew instantly that he did. There was a pinched look to his expression, his bony brows lowered deeply over his eye sockets, red eyes glowing like the darkest Aderian wine. He hadn’t lifted his hands from the armrests he was gripping, but I sensed his desire to claw at his chest, a desire he was barely keeping in check. I quickly dropped my own hand and gripped the yoke to help him, anything to keep my brother from harm.

All too soon, the entire bridge crew seemed to deflate on the spot; the chance of any action faded as the Star Class Cruiser turned and headed toward Kertinal-controlled space. Mitnick was communicating with us, and only the news that he was bringing refugees made my attention spike. Refugees? Maybe there would be some pretty females in need of comfort; that would scratch the itch…

I followed the curious crew to the hangar bay where our favorite hacker and his mate had landed the shuttle. Not my shuttle, but an old junker of a thing not worthy of the name. Despite my warning before he left with his mate, the bastard had gottenmyshuttle blown up down on that mining planet. I was going to have to make sure he understood what a grave mistake that was—I liked my shuttles in one piece. When Solear made a muffled noise at my side, I reined in my angry thoughts. This time, my anger hadn’t riled my brother but amused him instead.

“What do you think? Pretty females, old males? Whatever Batok didn’t eat had to be pretty skinny, don’t you think?” Solear didn’t reply, but I caught a warning glare from the captain. I rolled my shoulder at him and grinned. What? It wasn’t like we were getting paid for rescuing them. He was getting all soft and polite now that he had a human female for a mate.

Mandy was with him, tucked beneath his arm, and my chest felt odd again. I liked Mandy a lot; she was brave, stood up to those around her, and, despite her diminutive size, everyone respected her. Yeah, she was a good match for Asmoded, but it still made me feel weird seeing her with him.

“Batok needed servants,” Tass muttered from behind me. “He wasn’t keeping all those people just to eat them.” The lad had a point; a crimelord like Batok, a major player in the quadrant, would have a horde of servants to run his household. He’d keep the competent ones and eat the others, because as a Hoxiam, that’s what he did. Maybe not all members of his species, but definitely him. Man-eater, devourer of flesh and souls. Look at me, getting all fanciful. I glanced at Solear to see if he’d caught that thought and sensed a hint of amusement from him.

Then, the sight of the shuttle captured my full attention, and I lamented loudly over the sorry condition of the vessel. It was absolutely no replacement for the shuttle Mitnick had lost. It was also much easier to tease my friend about the ship than admit that I'd been a bit worried about the winged male over the past few days, particularly since he'd missed our meeting point and gotten caught by the Hoxiam crimelord instead. However, everything was sorted now, so there was no need for me to dwell on it.

When my eyes caught sight of her, I didn’t know what hit me. One moment, I was pushing away my worries for Mitnick and my relief at seeing him and his human mate healthy and happy. The next, I was staring into a pair of ruby eyes, and the whole ship seemed to tilt on its axis around me. What had been up was now down, and down was up. The things I’d always known to be true about myself uprooted, like trees struck by a tornado.

Ruby eyes, silky emerald skin, and lush locks of deep moss-green hair hung like a cloak around her slender shoulders. A Xurtal female; I knew that at a glance, and yet…it was more than that. The pert little nose and the impertinent tilt to her luscious lips gave her away. I knew instantly that she would be a female with a mouth, ready to fight and to rebel.

My cock grew painfully hard, desire rushing through my veins. I wanted to conquer that female, own her, possess her. More than anything, I wanted her to own me right back; for her to claim me and let everyone know that I wasworthy. That was a feeling I had never experienced before, and it shook me to my core.

Not just me, Solear was along for that ride, because I hadn’t managed to shield anything from him. He growled, fists curling, and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, readying himself for an attack. I flung out my arm and caught him across the chest before he could launch himself at her.My woman.For the first time in as long as I could remember, we were at odds. That desire for a fight roared to the surface in both of us, and the results were explosive.

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