Radoo (Scifi Alien Dragon Romance) Read online

  Radoo

  Dragons of Preor

  Celia Kyle

  Anne Hale

  Contents

  Blurb

  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

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  About the Authors

  Blurb

  The Preor came to Earth with open arms and hopes that they’d find their mates. They were greeted with closed fists and utter hatred.

  Livvy Drent holds no love for the Preor. They said they came in peace, but she didn’t believe them for a hot second. They claimed they wished to work together for a greater future for both races. Yeah, she didn’t buy that one at all.

  And yet, when they told her she was fated for one of the dragon-shifting aliens… she knew in her heart that it was true.

  It was not the Choosing that Radoo had anticipated through the centuries with anxiety-laden hope. Besides, while he fields most of the command duties of the Preor Third Fleet, he has no time for a mate. Or so he believes.

  Radoo’s world is rocked when he comes into contact with Livvy and the Knowing affects him. But what happens when the human fated to be his hates him and everything he stands for? When she belongs to the Resistance who will stop at nothing to drive the Preor aliens from Earth?

  Truly, what is Radoo to do when he discovers that his mate is his enemy?

  Chapter One

  “There are beetles in my underskirts!” the disembodied voice shrieked, piercing Radoo’s ears with her volume and shrill tone. “Beetles!”

  Growling, Radoo ignored the outburst and issued orders. “Penelope, direct the water mains to the training room. Someone belched and set the wall on fire. Do it now before it leaves a smoking hole!”

  “I can’t!” she countered, refusing a direct order. He would have her microchips for her insubordination… Just. Wait.

  “Do not tell me it’s the beetles,” Radoo muttered.

  “The beetles are real, you inexperienced little dragonlet! I am not exaggerating!”

  “Penelope, direct the water now!”

  “I can’t! Even if I could stop scratching at the beetles for ten seconds—which I can’t, by the way—the water is diverted to the gardens.”

  “Is Dawn doing something new?” Radoo snapped and then shook his head. It did not matter what the human female had underway. It could wait until the flames were handled. “She can wait. This is an emergency. Divert the liquid.”

  “The… pipes,” Penelope’s voice was low, almost a growl. Radoo tipped his head back and sighed, wondering if he would get a sensible answer before the ship blew.

  He was alone on the command deck and in spite of his determination to do well, he was unravelling. No senior officer had yet appeared to take over the ship while he was busy organizing things at the Whelon’s human clinic, so he had to return and straighten out the mess left by the collapse of the chain of command.

  He moved to the engineering station and slapped a few buttons, attempting to divert the water and drain it into the training room where the warriors could use the high pressure to put out the fire. Preors were far better at birthing flames than putting them out, but so far no one had been injured, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  The ship itself—not Penelope—made a high-pitched screeching noise followed by a very alarming grinding that vibrated out of the surrounding walls as the entire structure trembled around him.

  “Penelope…” he warned. If she did something to thwart his efforts… He. Would. Have. Her. Microchips.

  “The pipes have burst!” she screeched. “The gardens are flooded and there is no water.”

  “Penelope! Help me already,” Radoo demanded.

  “Beetles!” she wailed and then the speakers emitted a few short bursts of sound as if Penelope ran in circles slapping at herself like a human with a spider on their clothing.

  Someone needed to do something about Penelope and it could not be him. He would prefer to reset the entire system to construction settings and be done with her “quirky” personality.

  Radoo did not wait for any other response from the computer. He left the command deck and bolted straight for the gardens. He wasn’t Engineering Master Vende, not by a long shot, but he did know a bit about the workings of the ship.

  When he charged through the doors to the garden, he spied Dawn, Grace, and Carla—all in various stages of pregnancy—waddling and wading through knee-deep water, each attempting to move equipment from the tables as the clear liquid rose around them.

  “Why didn’t you turn off the water!” he roared. His good nature had been completely obliterated, at least for today, and he had no patience left.

  “We tried,” Grace gasped, holding her rounded belly, filled with a growing dragonlet, as she brushed damp hair from her face. “Penelope isn’t listening.”

  Now, he did growl, long and deep and torn from somewhere far inside his chest as it emanated from his dragon’s soul. It echoed around the room and the women stared at him in clear surprise, their eyes wide and mouths dropped open.

  “Get back!” he roared. He waited until the women scurried away to the main forest and then climbed atop a table, flapping his wings to rid them of any droplets of liquid. Then he leapt up high in the air, flapping his huge maroon wings as he took flight within the gardens, extending and flexing his wings wide to gain him a few more feet at the top of his jump.

  The days before this had been trying—working with ill humans at Whelon’s clinic and ensuring all were cared for—but this day was worse than all others combined. Yet, at the moment of suspension in his fall, everything dropped away and left him emotionless. He turned in midair, flipping and pointing his upper body toward the floor with his arm extended and fist directed at the ground. He was completely calm and in control of himself and his beast.

  If this does not work, I’m going to end up as a shattered mess on the garden floor that not even the most skilled Healing Master can repair.

  As he dropped, he called on his other half. His form did not shift, not completely, but he did adopt some of the dragon’s bulk and weight as he dove toward the metal plates that made up the floor of the gardens. At the last second, he closed his eyes and tensed his muscles, body prepared for impact. He roared as his fist hit the hard floor with all his strength and collided with the hardened metal.

  Even though he heard the screech of metal renting apart and felt the layers of insulation break beneath him, he didn’t open his eyes until all resistance disappeared and he felt smoke-tinged air fill his nose. Mission accomplished. And he was not even injured save for some scraping and bruising. Excellent. With a tug of his arm and a flip, he landed on his feet in a neat crouch, water from the gardens rushing around him and through the new hole that led down into the training room below.

  Conveniently—luckily—the one that h
ad been aflame due to a training accident and an inopportune belch.

  Leaving the gardens, he quickly moved to the training room, traveling through maintenance tunnels rather than waiting for a transport pod that might never arrive if left within Penelope’s control.

  In the training room, water poured down in a torrent that flowed swiftly from the level above. He had punched through straight into the training room and was relieved he had come through at the right place. The other Preor took initiative and grabbed buckets from the maintenance cubby, working to gather the liquid and tossing it at the burning wall. It did not take them long to put out the long gash of flame that had leapt along the training equipment and caught on the edge of the room itself.

  “This indoor area is for basic training only,” Radoo wished he had a command presence like Jarek, Taulan, or even Vende, but he had always been content as a team player rather than an officer. He was meant to be a warrior, not a leader, but he had no choice. When he issued orders, his voice came out slightly plaintively and that infuriated him.

  “We were jumping from the top supports into the rope climb,” one of the younger warriors announced sheepishly. “I shifted as I fell and burped due to a soe-dah I had with lunch. It was an accident.”

  Radoo drew a hand over his face and shook his head before he turned to walk out when the intercom crackled. “Radoo?”

  “Please dear skies, what?” He tipped his head back, maroon hair falling away from his face, and addressed the ceiling.

  “It’s Grace, up in the garden? I’m thrilled you fixed the flood, but now we have no water.”

  “Isn’t there enough water up there for today?” It’d been flooded for skies’ sakes.

  “Yes, but we’ll need more to maintain the humidity levels. Also, if our taps are dry, the rest of the ship is also…”

  There was no getting around it. Only the human curse would do at a time like this. “Fuck,” Radoo swore. “No drinking water and no showers!”

  The other warriors chattered like gossiping zuhz amongst themselves and Radoo groaned aloud.

  “Penelope?” he called out to the ship, hoping she had straightened out whatever was causing her problems.

  “Radoo?”

  “I need you.” He admitted the truth. “I can’t fix this without your assistance.”

  “Then… get… these… fucking… beetles off me!” Her voice spiraled into a harsh shriek that pierced his ears and caused all of the males in his vicinity to wince.

  “That is it!” he roared with such fury that everyone actually took a step back to put more distance between them and the furious Preor male. Without another word to anyone, he bolted from the training room and down the hall, enjoying the feel of his body working hard. He longed to fly, or spar, or simply punch something… but he had been out of active training for quite some time now. He had not realized how much he would miss the basic workouts once they were no longer a part of his life.

  I’d do almost anything to go back to my recruiting days, he thought. Back then, I only had to grumble about early morning duty and crappy meals.

  He jogged through the ship, ignoring warriors as he ran past them, intent on his destination. When he got to the main engineering bay, he shoved the doors apart with his claw-tipped fists so hard the panels nearly jumped their tracks. The wide-eyed tech at the main comp station jumped up and watched Radoo with wide, fear-filled eyes.

  “Sir? May I assist you?”

  “Have you seen any beetles?” Radoo snapped.

  “Beetles?” The poor, lower-ranking Preor stared at him as if he had completely lost his mind. The male scrambled for words, obviously wondering what the protocol was for dealing with senior officers who went off the deep end while on duty.

  “Beetles!” wailed Penelope. “They’re everywhere!”

  “Surely, you’ve been hearing this?” Radoo jabbed a finger toward the ceiling.

  “Yes, sir. I’ve performed all the relevant safety checks and her tech is fine. No virus. No listening devices—what humans call ‘bugs’—of any kind. That’s got to be what she’s talking about and I have found no evidence of a problem.”

  “Are you invalidating my injuries?” Penelope spoke in a hushed, astonished tone. “Do you really think I don’t know the difference between a virus or human listening devices and an infestation?”

  “Penelope, you are well,” the tech smiled and pointed at his station, indicating the most recent diagnostic scan displayed there. “You’re just a bit—”

  “Hysterical? Emotional? Sensitive? Finish that sentence, Harin, I fucking dare you!”

  The engineering recruit had the grace to appear sheepish, but still gestured to the diagnostic report and shrugged. Radoo could see that it all indicated Penelope operated within acceptable parameters so why did she say she was infested?

  “Where is Vende?” Penelope moaned. “He would know what to do…”

  “I did not see him, but I imagine he’s now with the girls helping handle the repercussions from the flood.”

  “That would be right,” Penelope almost sounded bitter. “Clearly he likes his mate more than me.”

  Great, he was dealing with a jealous computer.

  Radoo left that alone and looked at the nearby panels, hit with a sudden bolt of brilliance that only occurred to him because of his knowledge of Earth pop culture.

  What would Vende do?

  Radoo took two quick steps over to the panels that covered the main circuits. The ship was incredibly complex, cords running through her that were a lot like nerves and blood vessels. Main engineering was the heart of the ship where every cable had to go through the area at least once. He could at least look behind the panels themselves, as it would be Vende’s first idea.

  Maybe they could use a clean, he thought. If her connections are dirty, she might be misfiring neurons, like she’s brain damaged in a way.

  “Penelope, we need to consider a reboot,” he murmured gently. “We can get Lily up here to look at you.” He kept his tone soft and soothing as he carefully removed the screws from panels. “Now, I’m going to take these down and once we discover what’s going on, we can talk about rebooting you.”

  Penelope gave a little gasp, sad and scared.

  “I like you Penelope, but you’re putting everyone in danger right now,” Radoo balanced the huge metal sheet in his hands, ready to set it aside by leaning it against the wall. “Now, we’re going to look behind here and I’m going to prove to you, once and for all, that there are no—”

  “Beetles!” screamed Harin. “Skies-fucking beetles!” He leapt from the ground to stand atop the console as he shouted and pointed at the obvious—beetles.

  Radoo dropped the metal sheet in surprise as waves of little grey, hard-shelled beetles went tearing out of the hole in the wall. The wave of bugs split so some went into the main hallways while others traveled into different sections of the wall.

  Radoo stood there in disbelief, one hand to his head as he surveyed the damage the bugs had done to the fine mechanics inside.

  “I fucking told you so,” Penelope grumbled miserably and Radoo simply shook his head.

  Fire, flood, and plague… All on my watch on the first day!

  Chapter Two

  The sun barely peeked above the horizon, only just lighting the camp, the air still crisp and cool as Livvy sipped her coffee. She watched the day break from her position on a rocky outcrop at the foot of the mountains.

  With the recent laws set in place governing Earth’s relationship with the Preor, the majority of the resistance movement had relocated to the North Georgia Mountains. Some die-hards still remained in Tampa and worked from the inside to bring them intel and help with infiltration. Some of their operatives worked at Preor Tower itself and were enrolled in the Preor classes or involved in other Preor projects.

  The aliens are so arrogant they don’t even consider the fact that they are infiltrated.

  Livvy took another sip of coffee and pulle
d her blanket even tighter around herself to guard against the chill. The cool wind would settle soon and then the day would warm swiftly as the sun climbed into the sky. Livvy missed the easy warmth of Tampa Bay and the lull of the waves stroking the shore, but like a lot of others, she had no choice but to leave her home.

  She traced the edge of her mug with a finger, letting her breath mist the air as she watched the camp below slowly wake. A few temporary buildings had been present when they came, and a tent city had quickly risen with a few caravans scattered along the outskirts for good measure. Livvy knew it had once been a Ranger station, and the guys in charge said it had been abandoned prior to their arrival. It seemed odd to her that the only local post went unmanned, but she didn’t question the men who had brought her to safety. They had saved her life and she was grateful every day. They had no reason to lie to her because everyone in the camp had the same goal…

  To get away from the Preor.

  A wave of anxiety overcame her, a familiar twitchiness that often went untamed, and she felt the urge to stand and head back to camp. Normally, she would stay high on her perch for a while longer, but she couldn’t fight the restlessness that attacked her stomach as soon as she thought of the Preor.

  Alien… Part of her mind shrieked, nerves on edge. Beautiful, awesome, even stunning… but alien!

  Livvy set her jaw and took deep, controlled breaths as she struggled to self-soothe. She was trained to deal with stress. She could handle this—herself. Except… except her hands trembled and her mug tumbled from her grip, shattering on the rocks beneath her feet. She gasped in dismay, grimacing at the loss of her favorite cup, and clenched her fists as she begged her body to obey her.