Oz (The Telorex Pact Book 1) Read online

  Oz

  The Telorex Pact

  Phoebe Fawkes

  Starr Huntress

  Copyright © 2017 by Phoebe Fawkes

  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.

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  Contents

  Introduction

  1. Molly

  2. Oz

  3. Molly

  4. Oz

  5. Molly

  6. Oz

  7. Molly

  8. Oz

  9. Molly

  10. Oz

  11. Molly

  12. Oz

  13. Molly

  14. Oz

  15. Molly

  16. Molly

  17. Oz

  18. Molly

  19. Oz

  20. Molly

  21. Oz

  22. Molly

  23. Oz

  24. Molly

  25. Oz

  26. Molly

  27. Oz

  28. Molly

  29. Oz

  30. Molly

  31. Oz

  32. Molly

  33. Oz

  Afterword

  Introduction

  On a mission to save his planet...

  The last thing Ozien Gace, engineer of the finest ship in the Mahdfel fleet, needs is a woman on board distracting him. He's on a secret mission to save his mother's planet and will go to any length to succeed.

  Then his match, Molly, arrives and she's everything he never wanted, and the only thing he can think about.

  Ripped from her life when it had only begun...

  Molly Galloway had plans. She was going to leave the family hardware store in her sleepy, little Kansas town and open a restaurant filled with gourmet meals of her own creation.

  She thought the hardest part would be breaking the news to her family.

  Instead, Molly is transported to a strange ship full of gruff and demanding alien males, willing to put her life in danger for some unexplained reason. Worst among them is her loner “mate” Oz. He keeps calling her outsider, and she can’t figure out why it bothers her so much.

  All she wants is to go home, not risk her life daily. …Even if the heat in his eyes when he looks at her makes her heart do that flutter thing.

  Oz knows keeping Molly with him isn’t the safest thing, but how can anywhere be safe without his arms wrapped tight around her?

  About This Universe

  Welcome to the Warlord Brides Universe

  The vicious Suhlik meant to enslave Earth and rob her of her resources. Only the Mahdfel warriors could stand against them.

  The Mahdfel warriors were once slaves of the Suhlik. Although they won their freedom, a lingering reminder of their oppression remains. They were genetically engineered with no ability to have female children. Now — in order to survive at all — these hunky alien warriors must demand one thing from every world that they protect.

  Every childless, single and otherwise healthy woman on Earth is tested for genetic compatibility with a Mahdfel warrior. If the match is 98.5% or better, the woman is instantly teleported away to meet her new mate.

  No exceptions.

  1

  Molly

  Her mother set the table while her dad ran the grill. Her brothers and their wives had brought the kids, and the kids’ rambunctious horseplay filled the silence. Molly could never breathe or think on these Fridays, ever since the draft began ten years ago.

  As Molly always did on one of these Fridays, she set a place for her eldest brother too, and her mother placed a flower across it. Her brother, and so many others, had died trying to defend Earth from the Suhlik invasion.

  For Earth, everything had been almost lost before the Mahdfel came. The Mahdfel turned the tide, gave Earth not only a fighting chance but a victory. Earth was saved.

  But Earth’s salvation came at a price.

  The Suhlik and Mahdfel had been at war for longer than Mahdfel memory. For not only did the Suhlik ravage worlds, but they enslaved its survivors. They’d taken the Mahdfel and changed them, at the DNA level, into soldier slaves. To keep the Mahdfel population under control, the Suhlik had changed the Mahdfel so it was almost impossible to find compatible mates, and if they did, they could only bear more male children, no females. The Mahdfel lived constantly on the edge of extinction.

  To continue their fight, the Mahdfel sought one thing from the worlds they saved from the Suhlik: a chance to find compatible females until they eradicated the Suhlik or at least undid what the Suhlik had done to them.

  On Earth, a draft was implemented, selecting random women to be tested to see if they were compatible to a Mahdfel male. If matched, the woman would get instantly transported to a mate she’d never met to bear his son.

  If all that wasn’t bad enough, there was one additional snag: sometimes the match didn’t quite take, and the pregnancy would kill the mother and baby.

  Setting the place for her lost brother was a way to remind herself that it was okay. Things could have been so much worse. To prevent her entire planet being lost, to prevent the Mahdfel from going extinct, she could do her part for the resistance.

  Her dad always closed his hardware store at noon on one of these days, and the family gathered at her home. It started casually enough, but now, she couldn’t imagine going through this without their support.

  Mostly Molly stared at her plate or studied her family’s faces, in case it was the last time she saw them. Her brothers carried on their conversation around her, never directing questions at her or expecting a coherent answer.

  Molly was staring at a bird in a nearby tree when her mother reached over and squeezed her hand. “Molly, it’s time.”

  The image of the bird froze in her mind: blue and beautiful and free. It leapt into the air, and she watched as it swooped to the ground and back to the sky.

  Only then could she bring herself to look at her mom.

  “You got this, kid.” Her mom leaned toward her, touching foreheads, still holding her hand. “It’ll be okay.”

  Molly pulled back, managed a smile for her brothers, and a quick dip of her head. She couldn’t meet her dad’s eyes — nothing to get worked up about yet — but she knew that her dad had the most trouble of all of them with the uncertainty of the draft.

  Then she realized she’d left her phone in the kitchen next to the bowl of marinade. Her heart started to flutter, and her stomach sunk to her shoes.

  “I don’t think I can get up,” she joked.

  “Hey,” her brother Max said. “I got you.” He pulled out his phone, tapped it twice on the table for luck, and slid it across the table.

  They’d always given her this. She was the only girl in her family. She didn’t know why, but she needed it this way: She didn’t want to be told; she wanted to see it for herself.

  She clasped the phone, tapped it twice on the table to receive the luck, and launched the app. Molly scrolled through the short list, studying it, honing in on what she saw. Finally. It was almost a relief to have the suspense over with. She’d always known — or at least a part of her had known — with that dead, sinking feeling on these Fridays; her numbers would show up eventually.

  She placed the phone carefully on the table, returned her hands to her lap.

  “Mom, I think I might be there.”

  Molly kept her eyes on the table, not wanting to look at anyone as she tried to process what she’d always
known would happen, but had somehow hoped would never happen.

  Molly tried to keep calm inside. She was only being called for the testing. There was still a chance — a good chance — she wouldn’t actually be matched to anyone. Her stomach felt hollow and heavy though.

  Her mom pulled the phone over as the silence continued endlessly. The kids had been mercifully sent away to play in the yard several feet away.

  Her mother didn’t say anything, but Molly felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and give her a squeeze.

  Her father broke the silence with a stiff voice. “You’re packed? In case they call us for it. You’ll give them our number?”

  “Yes.” She risked a glance up. Her father was moving his glass about the table, tapping it down, then moving it to smear the water ring.

  Molly heard the crunch of tires on the drive.

  “That’ll be them,” her father said.

  Nobody moved.

  “I’ll miss you all,” Molly managed. She wanted to get all the words in she could, in case it really happened. “If I can, I’ll try to contact you.”

  Matches were so rare, and her county had such a small population, that she was only aware of three girls that had been matched so far. Molly had no idea if she would be able to contact home …if …after. They hadn’t heard anything much about the others who’d been selected before.

  They heard the crunch of soldier boots coming around the house. Molly’s family had hung a sign in the door: “Out back.”

  Her brothers — four of them — tall, handsome, solid, good guys, placed their hands non-threateningly on the table. There had been stories of less than happy collections.

  The leader of the soldiers asked, “Molly Galloway?”

  “Here,” she said. She found suddenly she could stand. Her name had released her from her fear.

  “Good.” The man appeared to be in his mid-twenties, about Max’s age. “You can have three minutes to say your good-byes,” he said sternly.

  She stared at her family hoping they would close the distance, because she couldn’t do it.

  Her brothers and parents came up in a clamor and surrounded her. She was hugged and kissed. They said things in a tumble that she couldn’t process, but it filled her heart with warmth.

  She said ‘I love you’ a million times.

  Her mother stuffed something into her pocket, a note of some kind. Her mother kissed her cheek, clasped her face. “We love you, sweetie. Be good.”

  Her dad reached forward, and his bottom lip trembled slightly before he could stop it.

  “Feed Palo and Alto for me?” she mumbled as he pulled her into a big hug. Even though this had all been arranged when she bought them — nothing to be said about the fish — the words had tumbled out anyway.

  “Course,” he said. His bear hug crushed more of the fear out of her; out it went through her ribs.

  She pulled back, and the soldiers were waiting patiently by the entrance to the backyard.

  Her dad slid his arm around her back, so they could walk together to the soldiers.

  As her family drew close to the soldiers, her dad gave her a peck on the cheek. “You’ll come back to us, girl. You know the shop won’t last long without your level-head.”

  The soldier called toward his vehicle. “We’re clear here.”

  A nurse came forward. “Mr. and Mrs. Galloway? We’ll take it from here. I’ll be with her the whole time. Let you know how things go.”

  Things blurred in Molly’s mind as she crossed the gate’s threshold. Her family started to follow. “It’s okay. I got this.”

  Molly turned to look at them as the lead soldier crossed through and closed the gate between them. She memorized their faces.

  “Max, you’ll pack my badge in my suitcase for me?” It was so silly to get sentimental about a job she didn’t even like. To his credit, Max raised his eyebrows but only nodded.

  “Miss, you’ll need to bring your things with you.”

  “It’s in my room, on my bed,” she managed toward Max.

  “Right this way,” the nurse said, all business. Apparently the soldiers would get her bag from Max.

  Once they’d loaded up, as the vehicle pulled into the road, the nurse commented, “You have a lovely family.”

  Molly watched as her family waved. The kids leapt about joyfully like grasshoppers, too young to understand.

  “We’re a couple hours from the center. We have the newest releases here — not even in theaters yet — if you’d like to take your mind off things?”

  Molly pointed at a random cover as her eyes clouded with tears. It was crazy to think that she might not be here when these movies made it to the theaters. What a strange thing, never to see Earth again.

  The sound of the opening credits filled the compartment, and Molly settled back to stare without seeing, grateful for the noise and distraction.

  She could feel the lump in her pocket from her mother’s note but avoided touching it. To touch it would make it real, make it necessary to read. She hoped to return it to her mother, unseen and unread.

  At least by nightfall she would be free of all this uncertainty; no draft would hold anything over her again.

  2

  Oz

  “Everything’s set here, Captain. Should I go ahead and send, or did you have anything additional to include?”

  A pause, a few crackles, and Captain Vren came back over the com. “Good timing. I was thinking we should get moving. Go ahead Oz; we’re good here. We’ll send along some personal items with tomorrow’s shipment. I think we’ve about wasted this rock.”

  “Understood. In 5…”

  The haul hadn’t been great today, but it was something, and it granted their planet a little more time without suffering.

  The teleport let out a hiss of steam and light. The miscalibration was back. Oz would need to make some repairs next time they docked, but for now, the issue was minor enough to resolve with the tools he had on hand.

  As Oz went to grab his kit at the back of the engineering lab, he noticed his band blinking at his station table- silent flashes to remind them the matching selection would be today. Their planet’s council had implemented the reminders after a few heartbreaking scenarios in the quarantined zone. It meant: if you are seeing this band blink, get to a non-quarantined zone immediately, because there’s a chance you might endanger a future mate’s life.

  Strange though as the crew had always been removed from the list before. He’d have to let the Captain or Fyn know. It wouldn’t be good with everything else to have a woman running about the ship.

  Not his problem right now; he had more pressing things to take care of.

  Still, he grabbed the band and put it on.

  Besides, the crew typically had their bands nearby. Possibly the captain had already noticed the blinking. The captain would straighten it out. Or more likely Fyn, the First Mate. Fyn was the one with influence on the council. The one who had put their crazy harvesting/research crew together and — when they’d realized their greater purpose — talked the council into removing the ship’s crew from the list.

  Sometimes it felt like his crew was the only thing preventing everyone from dying on his mother’s planet. The council moved too slow, saw always a need for caution so that word would not get out to the Mahdfel about the true state of affairs on his mother’s planet.

  Oz’s crew was doing what was needed — frasken rules or not — regardless of whether the council would approve of the finer details of their missions.

  Oz made quick work of the repair, and soon the portal was humming along at maximum calibration. He’d need to request some additional parts from Haze, but they should be good for a month or two more, should nothing too untoward happen.

  Perhaps a month was an overly optimistic view of things. They lived past the edge of safety every day. Still the Xeo Tarlith was a good ship. Optimism was warranted, even here at the edge of Suhlik territory.

  While he was at it
, Oz ran some checks on ship systems and made notes of some readings off the asteroid. He’d have to re-calibrate against the crew to confirm they remained unnoticed. It was then he noticed a potentially large pocket of the mineral on the E-A4 sector, lower hemisphere, previously a dud location.

  Trying to maintain his concentration, Oz quieted the sudden, excited noise in his brain. He clicked around, rechecking. The latest excavation had apparently removed some Gralyth that always messed with their sensors.

  Perhaps they would need to stay where they were for a few more digs… maybe many if this was at all accurate.

  “Captain,” Oz called over the com, his voice shaking slightly with excitement and his tail flicking back and forth against the desk. “I’m sending you a new reading; Priority Ass One review, captain.”

  “Oz,” Fyn broke in. The First Mate was a stickler for order.

  “Just check, Fyn,” Oz said putting a lid on his glee with difficulty. “You can write me up later.”

  Oz adjusted a few more dials. The revealed pocket of Varstath potentially meant years of pain-free life for his mother’s people, maybe many more than that. It was the find of a lifetime. Thank stars he was such a stickler for ‘check and check again’.

  All thought of his blinking band went completely out of his head as he concentrated on refining the search and sending data after promising data to the command center.