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  MATE OF THE BEAST

  Starr Huntress

  &

  Sonia Nova

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  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

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ARE YOU A STARR HUNTRESS?

  MORE SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE

  MATE OF THE BEAST

  Copyright © 2017 by Sonia Nova

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. Names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Starr Huntress & Sonia Nova

  www.starrhuntress.com

  www.sonianova.com

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  CHAPTER 1

  ALYSSA

  Alyssa Evans looked quietly out the window of her cabin on the Va’ii spaceship Ka’elea. Her palms sweated and her whole body shook with nervous excitement as always when she left Earth, but this time, it was accompanied by the frantic beating of her heart.

  She had traveled to space many times in the past – to conferences and trainings on space stations in the Solar System – but this time was different. She wouldn’t just be dropped off at the nearest space station. This time, she was going on a real Agency mission, one that she had dreamed of ever since the aliens had first made themselves known to humans, and she was more than a bit nervous about the journey ahead of her.

  As a part of the new Immigration Team, her job was to enter the newly contacted planet of Agaria to learn more about the Agari culture and to form a suitable immigration agreement between their people and Earth. A definite improvement over her last job at the Agency’s Immigration Office, scanning papers and hardly ever even seeing aliens – which is why she couldn’t screw this one up.

  Glancing at the computer screen on the cabin wall, she noticed it was still only 10:15 AM Standard Earth time. Her first meeting with her new team wouldn’t be for another hour. Maybe she should go through the documents on Agaria again? Just to make sure she remembered everything for the meeting...

  Reaching for her work tablet, she started to skim through the mission files, when a sudden buzz at the cabin door startled her. Alyssa wheeled around on her seat, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Was someone at her door?

  They had hardly even left Earth and as far as she knew, there was nothing on her schedule for now. Crap, had she missed something? She so didn’t want to screw this mission up. Returning to the Immigration Office to file papers was… not acceptable.

  When the doorbell rang another time, Alyssa scrambled up from her seat, rushing to answer it.

  “Miss Evans?” a melodic voice said as the door slid open before her, and Alyssa found herself face-to-face with an elegant, long-necked Va’ii woman.

  Lady Eneria, she realized, her eyes rounding in recognition. Alyssa had only seen the woman in photos so far, but she knew that Lady Eneria was one of the people – or in this case, aliens – in charge of her mission.

  “Yes?” she managed, completely dumbfounded to find the woman on the other side of her door.

  Realizing she hadn’t arrived alone, Alyssa’s eyes quickly darted behind the Va’ii woman. Cold dread filled her all of a sudden as she took in the sight before her. Behind Lady Eneria stood three huge, bulking men. Two Ekrin with their long hair and pointy ears – almost like elves, if not for their purple skin – and one horned Ezak-X male who looked more like a demon than anything else.

  Bodyguards, she realized, but the thought hardly set her mind at ease. All three men wore deep scowls on their faces. They were obvious predators, and suddenly, Alyssa felt like the small prey that the three of them likely ate for breakfast. Her hair stood on end and she shrunk back deeper into her cabin.

  Seemingly oblivious to her shock, Lady Eneria asked in a cool voice, “May I come in?”

  Averting her gaze from the bodyguards behind her, Alyssa’s eyes snapped back to the Va’ii woman.

  Get a grip, she told herself. Sure, this was her first real mission to space, and sure, she hadn’t seen that many aliens before this – mostly just Va’ii and Ghelians – but she was about to see a whole lot more than just some Ekrin and Ezak-X.

  She was traveling to a whole new planet and likely nothing would be the same as at home – not even close – and if she wanted this mission to be the first of many instead of her first and last one, she couldn’t afford to be shocked by every single person that didn’t look like your average Joe from Earth.

  With a muster of strength, she said, “O-Of course. Please.”

  She gestured for Lady Eneria – and her bodyguards – to enter, and they swiftly passed by her to the cabin. Hardly big enough for a bed, a couch, and a table, when the Va’ii woman entered with her whole entourage, they effectively filled the whole space in the small room.

  “There has been a change in protocol,” the Va’ii woman announced immediately as Alyssa closed the door behind them. “I have received a notice from the representatives in the Agari space area, and they have told me that the current situation in the Agari region is… not ideal.”

  She paused before the end of her sentence, and a sense of unease entered Alyssa, making her wonder what exactly had happened that was so bad.

  Perhaps the question showed on her face, because Lady Eneria continued, “As you are aware, Agaria is a new planet to all of us, not only to humans. The Agari people started their first space missions some years ago and thus, the decision to contact them was made, just as it was done with humans about a decade earlier.”

  Alyssa knew this. It had all been on the files she had read for her mission. The First Contact Divisions of several planets – including Earth – had recently entered Agaria to establish initial relations with the planet.

  As it was, there were no existing trade or immigration agreements with the planet – that’s what her team was being sent there for. And while the Agari seemed like decent people, they were also a bit backward, just like Earth had been before establishing relations with the Ghelians, Va’ii, and their allies.

  “Obviously, as a completely new planet being contacted and many people traveling to the space area, there has been wide interest in Agaria and the region surrounding it – and not only by official sources…”

  The Va’ii woman cocked her eyebrow in a strangely human fashion, as if trying to tell her something without saying it out loud. The expression didn’t seem to suit her facial features in the least, and it was no doubt something she had learned when dealing with humans, and not a natural reaction.

  Alyssa simply frowned at her enigmatic words, failing to understand the meaning behind them. When she didn’t say anything, Lady Eneria pursed her lips, as if annoyed at her ignorance.

  “Pirates have been sighted in the area,” the Va’ii woman clarified after a moment, and Al
yssa’s whole body tensed up at the word.

  Pirates? A sudden feeling of dread settled deep in her stomach at the thought and cold crawled along her skin, making the hair on her body stand on end. This hadn’t been on any of her information files…

  Although Alyssa knew that space was filled with thieves and pirates and all sorts of shady organizations, she had never imagined that she would be going to an area where the possibility of being robbed – or worse – was... Well, a possibility. Definitely not on her first mission out of the Solar System.

  Crap… This was so not what she had signed up for when she had accepted the job. Sure, she had wanted to go on a real Agency mission almost more than anything, but… The things that pirates could do to her…

  Alyssa shivered. Space pirates weren’t like your common thieves on Earth. Sure, there were the thieving kind too, but there were also those who liked to kidnap people and either sell them as sex slaves or chop them up in pieces, selling their organs and limbs to whoever would eat it – basically, anything for money.

  “Agaria is a safe planet,” Lady Eneria added quickly, as if noticing the change in Alyssa’s demeanor. “No universal criminal organizations have yet established a presence there, but unfortunately, the space area surrounding the planet has turned into more of a problem than we had anticipated – which is why I came to see you.”

  She looked sternly at Alyssa, as if waiting for her to question her words, but Alyssa didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Thoughts of all the possible things that might happen to her now that she was traveling to a more dangerous area in space filled her mind, and she simply stood in her place – nearly missing Lady Eneria’s next words.

  “Because of these complications, you will be assigned a bodyguard for the duration of your journey to Agaria.” Alyssa’s gaze snapped back to the woman, her eyes rounding in surprise.

  A bodyguard…?

  She wasn’t sure she had understood right. Although their mission was important for Earth, to have good relations with all other alien species – she wasn’t important. She was a nobody. Kings, queens, presidents, and high-up Agency representatives had bodyguards, not people like her.

  “It is simply a precaution,” Lady Eneria continued as if this was nothing out of the ordinary – which perhaps it wasn’t. Not for Lady Eneria at least. “We do not expect anything to actually happen, but for safety reasons, everyone in the team will be guarded during the journey. Once you get to Agaria, you will be fine and will no longer need protection.”

  Shit… The reality of the whole situation started to penetrate Alyssa’s mind as one of the bulking men stepped forward – the Ezak-X male.

  Alyssa’s eyes rounded even more now and she swallowed, cold sweat crawling along her spine as she took in the man standing before her. Nearly seven feet tall, constructed of pure muscle, the man looked positively lethal.

  It hadn’t been difficult to distinguish him as an Ezak-X. As if his large build and completely black eyes weren’t a give-away, his dark grey skin, which was covered in short hair – almost like a fur – and the huge horns that decorated his head told it all.

  Gesturing at the man, Lady Eneria said, “Please meet Xarkhwi…” The rest of the name was a jumble of sounds that Alyssa couldn’t hope to keep up with, but she hardly heard the woman’s words anyway, she was so concentrated on the wall of muscle before her.

  The man looked like a rugged beast – which wasn’t too far off considering the abomination that he was. Ezak-X wasn’t exactly an alien species… But more like a mesh of several.

  Created as one planet’s fucked-up plan to build the ‘perfect army’ and gain ultimate power in the universe, the Ezak-X were genetically engineered hybrids with animal DNA and several alien species’ DNA mixed up together – including human, although what part of him was human, Alyssa couldn’t tell.

  It hadn't been long before the Interstellar Alliance of Planets had shut down the whole operation of the power-hungry species, and now, the Ezak-X served the Alliance in various bodyguarding missions and even in the military... because that’s what they were the best at, after all. The difference was that now they had their freedom and were paid to do it.

  Alyssa had never seen an Ezak-X before. Working in a cubicle at the Immigration Office meant that she hadn’t seen much, but the man before her looked just as scary as she had imagined. The lethal energy that seemed to be coming off him in waves didn’t make her feel any more at ease. He was going to be her bodyguard?

  For a moment, she could hardly take her eyes off him.

  And the man stared right back at her.

  His dark eyes were trained on her and he wore a deep scowl on his angular face – likely a normal expression for him. Alyssa could swear that she even saw the nostrils of his wide, flat nose flare – like a predator smelling out his prey.

  Suddenly, she felt like a gazelle trapped in a tiny cage with the king of the jungle. A shiver coursed through her body as she realized that this man could kill her in the blink of an eye.

  “Well,” the Va’ii woman said, clearly unamused by her reaction to her bodyguard, and the flat tone of her voice made Alyssa snap back together and look at the woman. She could not screw this mission up. “As I’m sure you’re aware, the first meeting for this mission will be held in an Earth hour’s time at Conference Room ZEA-034. I expect to see you there.”

  With those words, she nodded at Alyssa and turned toward the door, the two other goons following on her tail, leaving the Ezak-X male behind. The door opened and closed with a whoosh as she took her leave, and Alyssa realized that she was now the gazelle who was completely alone in the cage with the king of the jungle.

  Shit… Her heart beat in her chest and she slowly turned back toward her… bodyguard. God, that was a weird thing to say. She had a bodyguard. A lethal, scary-looking bodyguard, and honestly, at the moment she was more afraid of him than any potential pirates...

  Without warning, the massive man stepped closer to her, startling her almost to the point of a heart attack as he bent over her and… inhaled?

  “You smell weird,” he growled in the standard Alliance language as he pulled back. His nostrils flared again and the scowl on his face seemed to deepen even more, as if he was trying to solve an impossible puzzle.

  What the…? Alyssa’s eyes widened in shock. First of all, that he had smelled her? And second of all, that he had the audacity to tell her that she smelled weird?! Before she had the time to react to his more than rude comment, the man already walked to the entrance and punched the button to the side of it to open the door.

  “Wait!” Alyssa called out, and the man – Xarkhwi, or whatever his name had been – stopped on his heel. He only stopped, without turning around to look at her, and suddenly, Alyssa felt stupid. She had no idea what to do in a situation like… like getting a bodyguard.

  Feeling the need to say something now that she’d made him stop, she asked in a quiet voice, “You… You’ll wait outside?”

  She realized the stupidity of her question immediately as the words left her mouth, but it was too late. The man did turn back toward her now, cocking an eyebrow at her as if to call her out on her idiocy. “Unless you’d rather I stay inside?”

  The question was obviously rhetorical, and Alyssa’s cheeks heated up in embarrassment. Suddenly, she hoped a black hole would appear in the middle of the room and swallow her whole.

  Of course, he wouldn’t stay inside the small cabin with her… Or what was she supposed to do? Shove him into the tiny bathroom while she changed her clothes? Besides, there was only one entrance to the cabin so she was already secured inside it. It wasn’t like a bodyguard on duty would suddenly take off to the nearest bar or anything, either…

  Certain that her cheeks were crimson red at this point, she was suddenly eager for him to leave. “N-No need. Thank you,” she managed, glad to see him give her a final look and turn back toward the door without a word.

  He walked out of the room like it was o
n fire, leaving Alyssa standing in the middle of it, her cheeks flaming. When the door swooshed itself closed behind him, she grabbed a pillow from her bed, burying her face into it and hoping she could just disappear.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid…

  She wasn’t sure how she was even going to show her face in front of the bodyguard anymore… He probably thought her a pathetic little newcomer – which she was, but for obvious reasons, she didn’t want to give the appearance of one – not even to a bodyguard she’d likely never see again.

  A bodyguard… Shit.

  She’d finally been given an exciting assignment... As far away from Earth as possible... And now this?

  She might’ve just signed up for more than she had bargained for…

  CHAPTER 2

  XARQ

  Xarq rushed out of the Earth female’s cabin as fast as he could, his lungs pulling in a deep breath immediately when the cabin door slid closed behind him.

  Great… To think that he’d actually looked forward to this mission…

  Joining the military unit in the Agari space area to reinforce the protection of the region had seemed like a dream come true.

  After three Cycles of extensive psychological tests and more visits to the shrink than he could count, he’d finally been deemed ‘stable enough’ to become a MR-01 classified military official – meaning that he could actually join a real military mission instead of the shitty bodyguarding jobs he had been doing since his people had been freed.

  Gone would be days he’d have to stalk different high-up officials and stuck-up business people across the universe and he’d finally get to do something more exciting – or so he’d thought.

  As it was, it now seemed like his road to the military had one more bump on it – another damned bodyguarding job before arriving at Agaria.

  Turning around in the corridor, he leaned against the wall across from the human female’s cabin and gave the cabin door his meanest stare, cursing the pirates that had decided to make an appearance now.