by Vivian Star
Rebel Claimed
The Mates Lottery Series: Book Two
Vivian Star
Rebel Claimed © 2020 by Vivian Star
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
* * *
Cover Design by Covers by Combs.
Edited by Polished Perfection.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Description
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Glossary
About the Author
Description
Entering The Mates Lottery was the only way to save my sister, but things went to hell when three of my sisters and I actually won and were scattered about the galaxy.
And then I got kidnapped by a rebel assassin who won't let me go.
* * *
We make a deal.
I help him sneak onto his home planet, and in turn, he helps me save my sisters.
* * *
My kidnapper, Xair, claims that I'm his mate, but he doesn’t want me—or anyone close to him, for that matter. He might be the sexiest alien assassin I have ever seen, but he's also infuriating. He does keep saving my life though.
* * *
I don’t know much about mates, or fate, but how am I going to escape?
* * *
Rebel Claimed is the second book of an eight-book series called The Mates Lottery. Sexy alien warriors meet feisty Earth women who steal their hearts in this series. Will they steal yours too?
Prologue
"You have to see this, Sav," Darcie's horrified voice fills my ears as I finish checking on one of the patients in the healing water, and the green woman smiles softly at me. I don't regret for one second begging Zex to train me how to be a healer. I frown, turning around as Darcie waddles into the room, and Rox, her loving mate, comes running after her like the big green giant he is.
"You shouldn't be running with twins at eight months pregnant!" I shout, telling her off, but when I see the tears in her eyes, I look down at the tablet in her small shaking hands where a video plays.
"Earth is burning. I can't tell you anything else, but we are seeing several tears in space, and dragon-like creatures are pouring out of the cracks. They are taking over the planet. We cannot get in contact with Earth, and we are in a ship passing by. This is the only footage we have."
The picture changes from a green-skinned panicked alien to an image of Earth like I've never seen it. Massive purple cracks fill the space around the Earth, and it burns red where the land used to be. Two creatures can be seen, huge dragons the size of cars, with silver scales flying right down to Earth.
"Oh my god. Isabelle! Is she on the transport?" I demand, meeting Darcie's eyes as she shakes her head, and my heart drops.
No, no, no, no.
"The ship won't arrive for another two months," she whispers, and I shake my head, my back smacking into the medical unit. I didn't even realise I was falling until I hit it.
"She has to be alive. Isabelle is smart and…and…," I drift off, stumbling over my words. Rox picks Darcie up, cradling her as she bursts into tears, and I meet his eyes. Darcie passes out, a common thing for her at this stage of pregnancy when there is too much stress. I watch how Rox looks down at her and holds her to his chest.
True love is real, and I've been lucky enough to see it.
"I have to leave today. You must have a ship and some men, right?" I demand of him, crawling to my feet. I lower my voice. "Please."
"It will not be safe. We have fought those creatures before," he reminds me. I know their history; I've been living here for months. "But I will not stand in your way. You may take the royal ship. Find Strad on the docking floor and tell him to prepare the ship."
"Thank you!" I say, looking once at Darcie, so small in his arms, before meeting Rox's gaze.
"Protect my sister. I will come back, and if you don't, this human is going to be your worst nightmare."
"She is my queen, the mother of my soon-to-be born twin children, and most importantly my mate. I would die before any harm becomes her," he tells me, and I believe him. Considering I don't trust men at all, it must mean he is a good man. Anyone that puts up with Darcie is a saint in my books anyway. I stroke my sister's cheek before running out of the room, grabbing my medical bag on the way out. I rush down the corridors of the castle, moving in and out of the archways before getting to the elevators.
This place is a maze mixed with modern tech and old stuff.
And I love it.
The elevator doors open, and I step in, pressing the button for the docking floor below. Just before the elevator closes, a blue hand stops the doors, and jolting pain hits me hard in my stomach. I hold my stomach, even though there is nothing there, as a blue-skinned alien man steps into the elevator, looking like a sexy blue model with wide shoulders, toned body and tattoos peeking out of the rips on his shirt. His blond hair is the colour of ash and messily mixes in with the slight blond beard he has going on. His ears are high and tipped, and if I remember right, he is from the planet Noveta.
He pauses, slowly looking me over from bottom to top before smirking.
It's only then that I notice the handcuffs hanging from his wrist, and the green blood on his black clothes. And the cuts on his skin.
The doors shut as I slam my back against the wall, and alarms start going off in the distance. The man never once takes his eyes off me as he lifts his hand gripping a gun and points it at my chest. I didn't even notice he had a gun on him.
"I need to get out of here, and you're coming with me as my hostage. I need a female to break into my planet. The name's Xair. Now move."
Chapter One
I'm being kidnapped by an alien who looks like a blue god.
Just fantastic.
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be," my kidnapper suggests with a casual smirk even as alarms blast around us. His perfect blue eyes stay on mine as the elevator goes down. His wide shoulders take up most of the room in the elevator, his toned body is super distracting, and his tattoos peeking out of the rips on his shirt make me want to investigate what else is under there. His blond hair is a mess right now, but I like how it blends into the slight beard he has. I've always liked bearded guys.
"Xair…right?" I ask, straightening my back and never breaking eye contact. "How the hell do you think you're going to escape the planet with the queen's sister?"
"Easily," he replies in a super patronising way. I already hate him. "Queen's sister? Makes sense, you look like her."
"How do you know my sister?" I demand, and he doesn't reply to me, but he does move closer. He moves to my side, pressing the gun into my ribs as he leans down, his hot breath blowing against my ear. I shiver, and despite everything, he feels good pressed against me.
"I saved her life, and it cost me my escape once upon a time. Now you're going to be a good little girl and walk," he whispers to me as the elevator doors open. We are greeted with a nearly empty room, a royal ship parked right in the middle of it. It's a small black ship with a few windows and a glass front. It's only a quarter of the size of the usual royal ships, and I have to wonder why it's here. The other ships are kept away from the castle, in case of kidnapping. Just like right now. Two guards, one I recognize named Strad, are talking near the door to the ship, and they don't notice us right away.
My heart pounds in my chest, and my legs feel like jelly as Xair nudges me out of the elevator and we walk across the room. Strad looks up, his eyes going wide as he sees us, and instantly he pulls out his gun, the other guard mimicking the action. We both know it's too late. Strad is one of the royal guards, and he would never shoot with me so close.
"Did you miss me, Strad? You never came and saw me in my prison," Xair sarcastically asks him. "Shame I can't stay for long this time and kick your ass again. I have places to be, people to kill. You know how it is."
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave with her or at all," Strad coldly replies, the gun in his hand looking deadlier than ever now that Strad is angry. I always thought Strad looked like a green version of a Ken doll from Earth. "You are held here on high treason, and now you have kidnapped the queen's sister; they will want you dead."
"Ouch, your words really hurt me." Xair pauses to laugh, and then his tone changes. "Now get out of the way, or I will shoot her," Xair nicely answers him, the nice tone in direct contrast with his words and threat of ending my life. Strad looks between us before focusing on me.
"Just let us go. He won't kill me, he needs me for something," I tell Strad, gulping down the fear of what Xair actually wants with me. Strad lowers his gun first, the tic in his jaw pulsing and his eyes burning with anger as he steps aside. The other guard follows suit until the pathway is clear.
"And fair warning, if you want me for a breeder or some toy of yours, I will kill you before letting that happen," I growl as I'm forced to walk to the edge of the pathway and up the steps to the door.
"The more you talk, the more I like you," Xair tells me, a light chuckle leaving his lips that sends shivers down my back as we get into the ship. Xair picks up my hand, feeling warm in his grip, before placing it on the touchpad of the ship. It lights up, and the door behind us slams shut.
"Welcome, Savannah Jackson," says the ship's soothing autopilot voice over the intercom.
Xair forces me down the corridor and up the stairway to the engine room of the small ship. After using my hand again, we get into the control room with a giant touchpad and four seats in front of it. Xair drags me to one of the seats and pushes me into it, sets my medical bag on the floor, then pulls the straps around me and clips me in.
"Don't move," he warns me, and I innocently smile. Sure.
I watch as Xair sits on the seat next to mine and starts working on the touchpad like an expert. I briefly wonder how he knows this ship so well or how he's hacking it so easily. Who the hell is this blue alien? His fingers move superfast, clicking dozens of buttons, and soon I hear the sound of the engine starting up, the safety door outside disappears like a hologram, and I really begin to panic for the first time. As the ship lifts up off the ground, I unclick my seat belt and make a run for it.
"Fuck! Don't!" is all I hear Xair shout before my feet lift up off the floor, and I'm thrown against the wall, my head smacking hard against the steel as the engine purrs under my feet. As I fall to the floor, I see the ship speed out of the hangar through an actual wall of the castle and up into the sky.
Then all I see is darkness.
Chapter Two
"I'm sorry, Miss Jackson. Your parents didn't make it, but I think you know that," the doctor officially tells me, but I don't move. I can't move from the chair I'm seated on in the hospital waiting area that smells like candy and tears. I'm just nineteen...and my sisters are so young. Chloe and Alice are only fourteen, how do I tell them all?
Our parents are everything. No, were.
"Do you need a transport home? Do you have other family to care for you and your sisters?" the doctor asks, but his eyes are on the tablet in his hands, and he looks like he wants to move on to the next patient.
"No. I am fine," I reply, and in seconds he has left the room. As I walk out of the hospital, I expect tears to fall, I expect to break apart and grieve, but I don't. I have to be strong for my sisters because I'm all they have now.
Even if I feel broken beyond repair.
* * *
I gasp as I wake up, instantly pulling my arms up to brush my stray blonde strands of hair from my eyes, but something holds my hands down. I sit up straight on the small bed I am on, seeing that I'm in an empty dark room. There is a little light coming in from a small window on the door, and the only sound is the dull noise of the engine of the ship. My head hurts, but I don't have blurry vision, and I certainly don't feel confused about anything. The medical training Zex, the royal healer of Strixa, gave me helps me figure out I don't have a concussion. My head is sore, and I might be freaking out, but nothing is majorly broken. No more than I was before I fell, that is.
Xair, the giant blue bastard, did this to me. I pull at my wrists, which are loosely tied with rope, and it's like he hasn't even tried hard at all to keep me restrained.
And I know why. He doesn't see me as a threat.
Well, he has made his second mistake. The first was taking me.
Once I get my restraints undone, I climb out of the bed and rush to the door. It's not even locked, no surprise there, and the corridor is empty of Xair when I step out. The sound of someone quietly singing fills my ears, and I follow the sound to a kitchen area, where the door is wide open. Xair is singing a song I don't know, or my language chip doesn't translate the words. Despite everything, it's a lovely song, eerily seductive, and I find myself wanting to hear more. Shame I have to make sure he knows I'm not going to be a pushover. Tearing my eyes from Xair as he cuts some yellow vegetables up, I catch a glimpse of a knife in the sink. I rush to it, my hand catching the knife just as Xair laughs.
"Good morning, Savannah," Xair says. "Don't do anything stupid. I'm halfway through making us breakfast. Murder and breakfast are never a good mix."
"Fuck you," I snap and run at his back with the knife held up high in my hand. He smoothly spins around, catches my hand and holds it in the air. He moved so quickly I didn't even see him. What the actual alien fuck?
"Now, now, that would be a bad move, Sav," he teases, slipping the knife from my hand, and I want to scream with anger. "You can't fly this ship, and you would have no protection. A woman in space is fair game to anyone for breeding. Not that there is a stop off around here for a while. I lost the Strixa ships tracking us an hour ago."
"Let me go," I demand, and instead of letting me go, he pulls me hard against his chest and wraps his arms around me.
"No, we need to talk, and it seems you only listen when you're close to me," he cockily replies. I smile sweetly as I bring my knee up and knee him hard between the legs. He groans and lets me go, grabbing his sore area as I step away.
"All men are the same, alien or not," I sigh. "And by the way, I will choose when I want to listen to you."
"Fine," he reluctantly agrees, looking paler than usual as he straightens up. "I want to make a truce."
"What kind of truce?" I ask, because what choice do I have? I haven't a clue who this guy is, but he is twice the size of me and clearly trained in fighting. I'm stuck on a ship in space, and he is right, I can't fly this ship on my own. Dammit.
"What do you want?" he asks me, his eyes meeting mine.<
br />
"I was planning on travelling to Earth to find my sister, Isabelle, and save her," I tell him. "Before you turned up and kidnapped me, you pain in the ass alien."
"I just escaped the royal jail cells of Strixa because they planned to send me back to my mother's planet of Giea, but I want to go to my father's planet, Noveta, to save my sister," he explains to me. I've never met anyone that is half of two planets; I just assumed he was fully from the planet of Noveta. I jog my memory for the history lessons I've had at the castle on Strixa over the months and remember that people from Giea can breathe underwater, and the Noveta race can move really quickly. "I don't expect you to believe me, but I was falsely accused. Not that it matters now. I must kill the man who kidnapped my sister and mated with her."
"Won't your sister have something to say about that?" I ask.
"She couldn't love him, he is a monster, but that is a long story. For now, I will promise to help you save your sister from Earth. With those dragon creatures there, you will need help," he tells me. "And lucky for you, I'm the best damn assassin in the galaxy."
"Quite an ego you have going on there," I point out. His eyes hold mine, amusement shining in them. Dammit, he has nice eyes to go with those dimples that appear when he smiles and the freckles littering his nose and cheeks.
