by Cara Wylde
THEIR WINTER MIRACLE
- reverse harem -
A Winter Starr Holiday Romance
Starr Huntress
http://starrhuntress.com
Copyright © 2018 by Cara Wylde
Cover by Emma Griffin
All rights are reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EPILOGUE
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CHAPTER ONE
Pippa
Pippa held her breath as she tiptoed down the long, eerily illuminated corridor leading to the emergency pods. Having been trapped on the spaceship for almost two weeks, she’d had enough time to study it and its crew, figure out where the pods were, and steal an access card from one of the guards. Said guard was currently sleeping peacefully, courtesy of Pippa’s uncanny ability to manipulate people’s energies. Human, no human... the energy field around one’s physical body worked on the same principles, and Pippa had mastered those principles instinctively since she was little. Then, why had it taken her so long to escape the ship? Two reasons: first, she’d needed a couple of days to wrap her head around the fact that she’d ended up on a slave trade ship instead of a nice, clean ride to the other side of the Milky Way, and secondly, she really hadn’t wanted to use her abilities again. But dire times required tough decisions, and even breaking a vow or two. She couldn’t end up a slave on a foreign planet, in a faraway galaxy. She had to find her way back home, to the Milky Way, even though she was still done with Earth.
Pippa stopped for a second, breathing in and out calmly, checked her surroundings, and paid attention to every little sound. So far, her plan seemed to be working. She nodded to herself then took a turn and started down another dimly lit corridor. The ship was a maze and a serious pain in the bum, but at least it used pretty old technology, which was in her favor. As long as she didn’t run into anyone, she should be good. It was called the Black Laverna, a name that didn’t say much to Pippa. The tall, red-skinned girl from Proxima Centauri had translated it for her, as it was written in strange, embellished characters all over the ship, in a language Pippa had never heard or seen before.
A knot formed in her stomach. All the girls who’d been kidnapped from their home galaxies, or tricked into boarding the Black Laverna, were sleeping or praying in their tiny cells while she was making her way out of there. She wiped a tear off her cheek and clenched her teeth. This was the only way. She had to save herself first and see if there was anything she could do for the others later. How could she help them now, when she didn’t even know where they were in space, where exactly they were headed, and whether they were still in the Milky Way or not? By her calculations, they could be very far from her home galaxy, and she cursed herself for having been too weak, scared and broken to take action sooner, but she couldn’t feel sorry for herself anymore. Not now, at least.
The pod bay was in sight, and Pippa started running soundlessly, almost tasting freedom on the tip of her tongue. She stopped in front of the first pod, licked her parched lips, and pressed the access card against the colorful, blipping screen. A green message flashed on the screen, and even though she couldn’t read the weird characters, it appeared that green meant “access granted, go ahead, missy” across the entire universe, because the sliding doors of the small pod opened before her and closed once she was inside.
“Damn it. This doesn’t look very comfortable,” she whispered to herself. “Let’s see...”
Just like the ship, the escape pod seemed to work on older technology, so Pippa figured it out rather quickly. All she needed was to set it to evacuate the ship, and the thing would autopilot itself until it reached the closest habitable planet. Seeing how she only had the clothes on her back, and the pod itself didn’t seem to be very well equipped, Pippa could only hope whatever planet she landed on would be on the friendly climate spectrum.
“No need to worry,” she mumbled under her breath as she strapped herself to one of the two available chairs. “I got this. I got this. I’ve made it this far.”
She closed her eyes when the pod started shaking and rumbling, and she focused all her intention on getting out of there unseen. Sure, the alarms would go off in a second... Oh, there they were! But she could keep the guards and the crew away for a while. She could make them blind to her escape, confuse them about what was happening and why the alarms had gone off, and cause such a thick brain fog in their heads that they wouldn’t even notice the dot on the computer screens that showed where the rogue pod was heading. This was why she couldn’t save anyone else but herself. The amount of concentration it was taking to ensure her own escape was almost too much. She furrowed her brows and dug her nails into the armrests. Her lips trembled as more and more colors exploded behind her closed lids, each color signifying someone on the Black Laverna who was trying to catch up to what was happening. Too many to handle... She recognized the energy signature of the short, stocky, green-skinned alien who had welcomed her on board with a sneer and a flash of rotten teeth and placed a pair of tight shackles around her wrists. That was when she’d known: that wasn’t her trip to planet Uthea, it was her trip to a new, fresh life of slavery.
The pod was outside of the ship’s range. Pippa opened her eyes, let out a sigh of relief, and wiped the sweat off her brow. She relaxed in the uncomfortable, tattered chair, and fixed her eyes on the small window before her. She should have used her psychic abilities before boarding that ship. She should have.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. This was the last time.” She lifted her gaze to the round ceiling, as if she was talking toward the skies. Which was weird, given that there was sky all around her. “I promise, Mom. This was the last time.”
The pod cruised through space at a gentle speed, which made Pippa believe it wasn’t capable of more. She pulled herself together and touched the screen, thinking the computer certainly had a few maps of galaxies and solar systems. She’d never quite been the astronomy geek, but she had to try. Of course, nothing was in English. Those damned embellished characters were everywhere, littering the screen at every touch of her finger. She discovered something that looked like a map, with bright points and distances marked between them, but she couldn’t understand a thing. She huffed and gave up. The screen turned to its initial image of the closest celestial bodies, and the pod continued its journey to God knew where. Deep down, Pippa was still hoping and praying that she was somewhere in the Milky Way. It would be easy to catch a ride back to Earth or, even better, to Uthea, which was her actual destination. She’d just have to be damn careful this time and not end up on another slave ship. That was what happened when one chose the cheapest flight off of the most obs
cure intergalactic travel aggregator online. Not that she’d had much to work with... Then, maybe she shouldn’t have been so proud and stubborn, and asked a friend for a loan.
“What’s done is done,” she said when she realized her inner judge was having a great time tearing her to shreds for having been so stupid and reckless. “It’s fine, I got this. It’s like... traveling to Asia. All by myself. With no money.”
She chuckled nervously, moaned in frustration, then closed her eyes and started fighting each and every worry as it arose. Time passed slowly. She drifted off to sleep, was in and out a few times, then was startled awake by the pod executing a very ungraceful landing. Heart beating wildly, she unhooked her safety belt and rushed out of the small craft. It was night. And it was freezing.
“You must be kidding me...” Her breath rose from her lips and nose like a thick cloud of white smoke. She could already feel her nostrils gluing themselves shut from how ridiculously cold it was. “This is just my luck.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and looked around. As far as the eyes could see, the landscape was white and completely barren. She must have been somewhere in the mountains. She took a few steps toward the nearest cliff and shuddered at the sight of rolling hills of snow and ice. A few trees here and there, but it was obvious this planet lacked in vegetation. To make things even worse, it started snowing. Huge, round flakes of fluff hung to her long, wavy red hair and light blouse. They fell on her cheeks, shoulders, and chest, nestling in her generous cleavage. Soon, her red hair had turned white almost completely, and her eyelashes were heavy with drops of melted snow. This was not a great time to be outside.
Pippa wobbled back to the pod and started rummaging through the supplies. She found a blanket and wrapped it around herself quickly, but that was about it. The pod wasn’t equipped with any kind of clothes. Or boots. Oh, how she’d have loved to sink her feet into a pair of boots right about now. Seeing how hostile the weather was, she didn’t have much of a choice but to spend the night inside the pod. She’d seen some lights far in the distance, at the foot of the mountain, and she was pretty sure they indicated a town. She’d have to try and get there in the morning. For now, it was freezing cold even inside the tiny craft, and she was stupid hungry. All she could find was a few packs of what looked like biscuits, and a bag full of water pods. The water was fresh and delicious, but the biscuits tasted like old socks and carton.
“Just my friggin’ luck...”
* * *
Trev
Trevkon B’haduc stepped away from the telescope, wrote something down in his thick notebook, barely finding some free space on the cluttered page, and rubbed his temples in frustration and exhaustion.
“It has to be tonight,” he mumbled to himself. “The stars are right, both moons have reached complete obscurity, yet the sky is clear. No trace of comet, falling star, or... or... whatever I’m looking for.”
He looked through the telescope again, and he didn’t care that he’d have to stay up all night and stare at the sky. Everything in the Prophecy was happening right now, up there. All the celestial bodies in the Lichora Galaxy were positioned as the Prophecy described, and there was no way this was just a coincidence. This sort of alignment and celestial dance occurred only once every 77 years. Trev had been waiting for it all his life, but he was only 28. His planet, Iarna, had been waiting for it for almost 50 years, since the eternal winter had taken over its lush forests, green valleys, and rich fields. What had once been the granary of the entire galaxy was now reduced to a frozen, hostile wasteland. Snow and ice.
“Please,” he whispered as he studied the heavens. “It has to be tonight.”
It was half an hour past midnight, and the stars, satellites, and planets were continuing their mystical dance, slowly stepping out of the lines established by the Prophecy. Trev was getting anxious. It didn’t help that he was alone in his observation tower and he had no one to air his worries to. Kayvor was sleeping soundly in his room downstairs, and Ashtar was probably getting drunk at the Angry Cerber. For the first time in his life, Trev felt like the three of them might have made a mistake by refusing to take a wife. Not that there were any great picks on Iarna, since most of the young women had chosen to flee the planet for more welcoming lands, but still. Kay’s father was in the Council of Four, Ash was a mighty warrior, and Trev was... well... Trev. He was a respected priest of the Temple of the Heart, but that didn’t weigh as much as Kay’s political connections and Ash’s military career. It didn’t matter. Their triad didn’t have to be perfect. Those two could surely ensure the most beautiful, fertile, and exquisite Iarnian girls would fall at their feet. And they only needed one. One woman for three men. These were tough times, and the Iarnians had adapted to them by tweaking their family law here and there, so that the few women left on the planet would be well taken care of by more than one man. Anything for the preservation of the species.
“By Esus! There!”
Trev’s heart jumped in his chest, and his stomach did a dangerous flip when he saw the shimmering object crossing the dark sky, making its way toward the mountains. He adjusted the telescope lens and saw the thing looked like an emergency pod. It didn’t look like it belonged to one of Iarna’s spaceships, either. He cocked an eyebrow, scanned the text of the Prophecy quickly, then decided it was no use splitting hairs. The Golden Moon was already moving out of obscurity, and her sister, the Silver Moon, would soon follow. The Prophecy didn’t say anything about a person, – because there had to be someone in the pod, right? – but it didn’t matter. It mentioned lights in the sky? Yes. Did the pod have red and yellow lights all around? Yes. That was enough for Trev. He had his lights in the sky, and it was time for Kay and Ash to prove themselves useful for once.
He barged into Kay’s bedroom, woke him up, and dragged him out of the house. The Angry Cerber, Ash’s favorite dingy bar, was a few miles away, at the edge of the city, so they took the Red Beast, as Ash had named the humongous snow vehicle that was so popular on Iarna since the eternal winter had settled in. They lived pretty far from the city, in a luxurious yet isolated villa on top of a small hill. Kay loved the silence, Trev needed space and solitude to work on his projects and study the Prophecy, and Ash hadn’t had much to say in the matter.
“At some point, you’ll have to stop this madness, Trev.” Kayvor V’tal had his dark brown eyes fixed on the window, even though he couldn’t see a thing through the thick glass. His long black hair was disheveled, and he’d had to slip back into yesterday’s clothes since they’d been the closest to his bed when Trev had pulled the covers off of him. “The Prophecy of the Heart is a myth... a legend, a fairytale. You name it. It’s anything but real.”
Trevkon huffed. He was behind the wheel, and he was really stepping on it. The Red Beast’s oversized tires were digging through the fresh snow like a sharp knife through soft butter.
“Myths and legends are real,” he said. “I don’t like the fairytale bit, though. Offensive. These past few years have turned you into a pessimist and an atheist. I’ve dedicated my life to the Temple of the Heart and to studying the Prophecy. Do me a favor and don’t make the gods angry, okay? Not when we’re so close.”
Kay rolled his eyes. “The only thing we’re close to is Ash’s drunken ass.” The Red Beast halted to a stop, and Kay jumped out as fast as he could just to piss Trev off. He really didn’t appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night.
In terms of career, Ashtar Y’tamin had drawn the short straw. What was a warrior without a war? Since all the planets in the Lichora Galaxy had entered the Coalition, all there was for him was peace, boredom, meaningless trainings with his boys, daydreams about how cool it would be to attack some neighboring galaxy, and the bottle. As he was swaying from side to side on top of a table, giving a slurred, incomprehensible speech to his equally drunk comrades, Ash looked like a clown more than a General. A tall, bulky, tattoo-covered, and hot as sin clown whom women loved to adm
ire from afar but ran away from like wild rabbits ran away from the big bad wolf.
“Kay, Trev! You’ve finally grown the balls to join us? Zolt, drinks for my boys!”
Kayvor shot a look of warning at the bartender, and the bulky Iarnian shrugged and went back to minding his own business. He knew better than to annoy a V’tal. Even with the current social and financial situation, powerful families still meant something on Iarna.
“Come on, we’re going.” Trevkon pulled Ashtar off the table and supported his weight.
“Nooo! Why? Where are we going?”
Kay rolled his eyes, grabbed Ash’s arm, and pulled him roughly toward the door. Ash wobbled but regained his balance.
“Trev says he found us the lights in the Prophecy. Move your lousy ass, brother. The sooner we’re through with this, the better.”
Ash turned to Trev and gave him the thumbs up, a huge, silly grin on his inebriated face. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but the Red Beast was parked in front of the Angry Cerber and it looked like they were going on an adventure. He was so in!
To Ashtar’s dismay, though, one hour later, they were still driving through the heavy snow, the Red Beast moving slower and slower as they neared the mountains. They’d left the city of Kriva behind, and now their very lives depended on the GPS and Trev’s calculations. It was freezing cold, and the Beast’s heating system barely kept up. Even though they were all wearing warm, thick clothes, they could still feel the bite of winter. It was as if the cold had entered their bones since the very moment of their birth, and it was part of them now. They had all been born during the eternal winter, and when their parents and older relatives and friends told them about the time before the cold season, they couldn’t quite picture Iarna covered in flowers, green grass, and blooming trees. As winter children, Trev, Ash, and Kay, as well as all the other Iarnians born in the past 50 years, had two distinctive features, both meant to conserve body heat and protect them from the unforgiving weather: their ears were square instead of round, with thick skin around the shell, and a soft collar of natural fur grew all around their neck and shoulders, the color matching the hair on their head. Even so, they still couldn’t shake off the terrible cold that had latched itself onto their bones. As the Red Beast advanced through snowdrifts and hidden obstacles, Ash pulled a blanket over himself and drifted off to sleep. It was better than to keep asking Trev whether they were there yet or not.
