Bound by Fate

by Maddie Taylor

  Adria wasn’t so sure, and dread knotted tighter in the pit of her stomach every time she saw Amy start when someone entered the clinic, or when she looked over her shoulder while walking down the street, or when they went to lunch at the new deli around the corner and she insisted on sitting with her back to the wall while facing the door.

  She couldn’t prove anything, other than a gut feeling.

  And like Beck’s, her instincts were seldom wrong.

  Other Titles by Maddie Taylor

  Claimed by the Warlord

  One people, divided by treachery and greed.

  A fiery, ruthless Warlord, a beautiful, ethereal Princess.

  They are drawn together by an intensely intimate connection.

  And, when fire and ice meet, its explosive.

  Abducted, caged, and auctioned to a red-horned alien devil whose black eyes foretell a very bleak future, Aurelia should be grateful to be alive. Though a rescue comes just seconds before the alien ship bursts into flames, she's sure death would have been more merciful when she discovers her hero is the powerful Warlord of Voltarre, sworn enemy of her people.

  After boarding a slaver's barge to recover three women inexplicably stolen from his planet, Lord Darios is shocked to find the Princess of Aeldor also on board the ship. Though their planets have a turbulent history, Darios can't leave an innocent behind and risks his own life to save the frightened captive beauty from certain death.

  With the crisis averted, the mystery remains - someone wants Aurelia dead. Though as different as fire and ice, Darios choosing to claim her to protect her; is it out of honor, or in light of the intimate connection neither of them can deny? Can these unlikely lovers mend the rift between their worlds, or will the evil conspiring against them, spawned of jealousy and greed, bring them to the brink of war, yet again?

  AN EXCERPT FROM Claimed by the Warlord:

  Mired in misery, Aurelia struggled to draw air past her parched lips and the rawness of her throat from near-constant coughing. Exhausted, she had long since given up trying to extinguish the growing fires with her ineffective powers. When a hissing sound filled the room, she lacked the strength to open her eyes and identify the source. It started low then grew louder. Only when a cool mist settled over her hot skin did she crack open one eyelid.

  Unlike the thick gray caustic smoke from the fire, a white, hazy vapor swirled between the bars. She thought she imagined it, and the pair of black boots that emerged from within it, but the misty spray against her hot skin felt very real.

  Squinting at the boots as they approached, she noted how they differed from those the Ophig slavers wore. They were much larger and attached to long, thick legs encased in metallic silver.

  Alarmed this was a new threat, perhaps sent by the horned red devil from the auction, she tried to move to the back of her small cell. Her muscles wouldn’t cooperate, however, nor would her lungs, which contracted in another spasm of coughing. She could only stare helplessly at the being on the other side of her cage.

  While craning her head back, she let her gaze travel past narrow hips and a broad upper torso, also covered in silver. It had to be a protective suit of some kind because affixed to it, atop incredibly wide shoulders, was a helmet with a dark, impenetrable face visor.

  Blinking rapidly, she tried to clear her burning eyes to be sure it wasn’t a hallucination brought on by the lack of oxygen. She’d heard visions and aberrations of the senses often occurred when close to death—this would explain the mist. But her doubts vanished when he moved forward, his legs nearly brushing the bars.

  He appeared huge from her place on the floor. She couldn’t tell for certain, but she judged him a head taller than her brother who stood taller than most of her people. The black shield covering his face prevented her from seeing who or what he was, and reflected only her image. Lying defenseless, her face flushed from the heat, with lungs heaving as she quivered fearfully in the awful cage wasn’t an image she’d soon forget—at least in what little time she had left.

  His legs bent into a squat, and he ran his fingers over the bars. Since he didn’t recoil in pain, she surmised the mist had cooled them enough to touch. Aurelia reached for them as well, intending to pull herself upright, but the metal burned hotter than before, and she cried out in pain.

  The being spoke sharply, but the words were muffled by his helmet. While she cradled one burning hand with the other, he gripped the bars and pulled.

  “I tried that,” she muttered. “They’re solid. You’ll have to cut them...”

  Her voice stopped altogether when the now brightly glowing metal bowed outward.

  “Impossible,” she whispered, batting her eyes to clear them, convinced she was delusional.

  Whether real or imagined, it appeared that the being had used his incomprehensible strength to create an opening wide enough for her to squeeze through. Apparently satisfied, he let go, and reached for her through the opening.

  Though encased in silver like his suit, rather than fur, the gloved hand extending toward her too closely resembled when the Ophig abducted her from her caravan. She recoiled, fear inciting a burst of energy, at least enough to roll beyond his grasp.

  A grunt and some muffled words were all she could make out as he curled his fingers in a come here motion.

  Filled with uncertainty, she considered his hand one not dissimilar to her own. Did she trust him, or would she be making an unbearable situation worse?

  Before she could decide, a loud bang and a violent shudder from what could only be another explosion toppled her would-be rescuer onto his backside. Tossed around inside the cage, she rebounded like a rubber ball slamming into first one side of unforgiving bars then another. The force jarred every bone in her body and, as her luck would have it, snapped the chain securing it in place. The entire thing went careening into the wall. When it stopped, she landed on her back on the bottom of the cage, also made of unyielding metal.

  Aurelia lay moaning in agony, unable to move and hard-pressed to pinpoint a single spot on her entire body that wasn’t bruised and aching. When sparks suddenly rained down in a shower from the ceiling and the lights went out, she didn’t flinch. She also wasn’t surprised when the fire, which had dissipated some with the cooling vapor, flared to life once more.

  “What could I have possibly done to deserve such a fate?” she sobbed raggedly.

  “I don’t know, Princess, but now is not the time to debate it.”

  Hearing her language spoken quite clearly, she jerked her head around.

  Squinting through burning eyes, she saw his face shield remained in place. He must have switched on an external speaker and was perhaps using a translator too. “Who are you?” she rasped. “How do you know me?”

  “Both are topics better left until we get out of here.” He extended his hand through the opening once more.

  Aurelia froze. It was big, with long fingers, and the veins on the back stood out like ropes. She didn’t hesitate because of his size or strength—though she still found it hard to believe he’d bent metal—but rather from his hand, now bare like her own. She hadn’t seen him remove his glove, but skin to skin, with nothing to act as a buffer, she would feel his every emotion.

  Could she bear it in her weakened state?

  Her choice was no choice at all. Take it and suffer immeasurable pain or stay there and die.

  After all she’d been through, she didn’t want to die, not today. She chose option A. Except, when her brain told her arm to move, and clasp his hand, it didn’t cooperate.

  “Come to me,” he ordered, his tone rife with unyielding authority.

  “I can’t,” she replied, both sobbing and groaning in pain.

  “You must. The fire barrier I’ve created won’t last an eternity.”

  Her eyes shifted behind him amazed to see a floor-to-ceiling wall of flames held the smoke and sparks at bay. His ability to bend metal bars suddenly made sense. He’d heated them to make them more pliable. Only
one species she knew of had the ability to manipulate heat and fire.

  “Now,” he ordered sharply, his patience quickly waning.

  Her gaze swung back to him. Very near her breaking point, if not past it, she returned with a sharpness matching his own, “I didn’t say won’t, I said can’t, as in I’m unable to move.”

  Another grunt, and he grabbed hold of the bars again, pulling them wider apart. Comparing the opening with his upper body, her hope fizzled. No way would his shoulders fit through the narrow space.

  The ship shuddered and, this time, listed sharply to the right. The cage ripped from his grasp and slid across the floor, heading dead center toward the wall of fire.

  Aurelia screamed, unable to do anything to stop it.

  With a hard jerk, it came to an abrupt halt. The cage, not her. Nothing kept the momentum of her body from tumbling forward. This time, instead of slamming up against the bars, which she would have welcomed, she went through them.

  Head and shoulders first, her upper body flew through the opening he’d made. When her arms scraped the sides, she tried to grab hold, but they slipped through her grasp.

  She closed her eyes, unable to watch the end of her life.

  From nowhere, pain seared into the back of her head. It took her a moment to sort through her terror and this new agony to realize his fingers had fisted in her hair and brought her unchecked descent into the fire to a halt. The next thing she knew, a band of steel encircled her waist, and she was pulled clear of the hated cage.

  When it fell with a crash and became instantly engulfed by flames, she could only stare at it through watery eyes while quaking over what might have been.

  “I’ve got her,” her rescuer called to someone behind them. Or was it above? She couldn’t tell anymore in the listing, rolling ship. “Throw me a line, and let’s get out of here.”

  “And go where?” she asked in alarm as he caught a cable sliding down the tilted floor toward them.

  “My ship.” With his feet braced against the wall and her body tucked into the curve of his, he grabbed the line, looping it around and around his thick forearm. “Pull us up,” he shouted.

  Slowly, they ascended, but a thought occurred to her.

  She didn’t know him or his intent. They had battled the slavers but could have reprehensible plans of their own. Ransom came to mind first, or they could intend to use her to force her father’s hand over something else. If they were Voltarrean, as she suspected, she wouldn’t put anything past them, truce or not. She could be going from one horrible situation into another. He could have horns under his helmet like the red devil for all she knew.

  As her fears mounted, along with her uncertainty, they brought with them a surge of strength, and she struggled to get free.

  “Release me,” she cried.

  “Would you rather stay here and burn to death?” he growled in disbelief.

  “Maybe,” she shot back as her panic increased. “I don’t know you.”

  “I mean you no harm, Princess.”

  “You could be worse than the slavers, or the awful beasts who took me from my home,” she cried, twisting in his hold and clawing at the rope, trying to pull herself up, but getting nowhere.

  “You can trust me,” he replied, through what sounded like gritted teeth.

  “Why should I believe anything you say?” She found his thigh with her heel and inched upward, but it slipped, and she lost the ground she had gained. Her body slammed into his, her nose in his chest, which made it easy to hear when he grunted from the impact.

  He recovered soon enough and delivered two sharp cracks across her bare behind at the same time he admonished, “Because I’m the only thing standing between you and a fiery end. Now, be still or we’ll both fall to our deaths.”

  The sting of the spanks snapped her out of her rapidly escalating panic. The fight went out of her as quickly as it had surged to life. Though she should have been outraged by his high-handedness, or, at the very least, curious how he’d managed to spank her while clasping the rope with one hand and holding her at the same time, instead, she sobbed pitifully. “I can’t take any more. I want to go home.”

  “Hush, now.” For the first time, his voice was soothing rather than brusquely demanding or brimming with impatience. “We’ll set things to rights, but first we must get you to safety.”

  PRIMARIAN MATES: THE Complete Series

  (All four novels in Maddie’s Bestselling Sci-fi series under one cover)

  Two worlds in crisis.

  Two missions that must be fulfilled by any means.

  But at what price?

  In a distant galaxy, under twin suns and a purple sky, a team of Earth scientists explores a jungle planet hopeful they have at last found a suitable new home for their people. Set upon by aliens they soon learn these warriors aren't quite what they seem. They have a mission of their own and the female scientists who are remarkably like them, are much too tempting to ignore.

  Whisked away to a far-off world, the Odyssey's crew find themselves mated to these powerful men. Expected to comply with the rules of both an old-fashioned and yet surprisingly advanced society, the women struggle with their new roles by testing limits, denying their fates, and ultimately escaping.

  Brought together again through an interstellar treaty, both the scientists and the warriors must face down the challenges of integrating their two differently-minded societies. Can there be a solution to the ill-fated futures of both Earth and Primaria?

  THE BARBARIAN'S CAPTIVE- book 1

  #1 International Sci-Fi Bestseller - Eva finds herself mated to the all-powerful Princep of Primaria. Despite their intense attraction, she finds his arrogant, often inflexible manner, both alluring and off-putting. When she doesn't transform like the others, she feels there has been a mistake. She doesn't learn until they are violently torn apart, how wrong she is, and how much she has come to love her gorgeous, golden-eyed mate. But does her realization come too late to salvage what they had, and pull him back from the brink?

  HIS BY COMMAND—BOOK 2

  When the Primarian Fleet Commander and the Odyssey's Captain face off, sparks fly. Maggie has never bowed to any man but will do what she must to save the 300 hundred lives on her ship and complete her mission. Roth refuses to concede to a female, but with grudging respect, believes Maggie, might be the first.

  HIS REBELLIOUS MATE – book 3

  The strong, capable, Master Warrior of the Primarian Army has never been bested. That changes when he finds himself matched to Eryn, the fiery, fiercely loyal, stubbornly defiant security chief who will stop at nothing to fulfill her mission, but is also, unbeknownst to them both, his fated mate.

  DEFYING THE GENERAL – book 4

  Trask is the lucky one, finding a sweet, compliant female as a mate, well, other than the knee to the groin the first night in his tent. But she matches him, no matter what the tests say. One day, without explanation, she runs from him, telling him it was all a mistake, she had no choice. The damn treaty between their worlds keeps him from giving chase and claiming what he feels belongs to him. Time passes, and when their paths cross again, they learn manipulations and lies are to blame. Can they recapture what they had? More importantly, can Trask forgive the unforgivable, and love her again?

  MARSHAL’S LAW

  (Jackson Brothers, Book 1 of 3)

  When Janelle Prescott is thrown from her car as it careens off a slippery road, she expects to wake up in a hospital. Instead, to her utter disbelief, she wakes up in a jail cell which looks like something from an old western movie set. It is there, hurt and alone, with no idea what happened or how she will get back home, that Janelle first meets Aaron Jackson. As she regains her wits, however, Janelle realizes that something is terribly amiss, and her worst fears are confirmed when she learns that Aaron is the marshal of Cheyenne County, Wyoming... and the year is 1878.

  When an injured, apparently addle-headed woman falls into his lap, Aaron takes it upon himself
to keep her safe and nurse her back to health. Truth be told, he is instantly attracted to her despite her sharp tongue and her bizarre story—a story which the evidence quickly forces him to accept as genuine. After Aaron takes her under his wing and into his family’s home, the two clash frequently, but Aaron is more than ready to lay down the law...even if that means a good, hard, bare-bottom spanking for this feisty brat from another era.

  Having little choice, Janelle must learn how to live as a woman in the Old West, including submitting to the firm-handed marshal who, in spite of everything, seems to have laid claim to her heart.

  CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

  (Club Decadence Series, Book 1 of 7)

  Special Forces Captain Tony Rossi is back from Afghanistan and ready to settle into civilian life. He has his business affairs in order and is now ready get on with the personal business of Megan Sinclair. Kept apart for 15 years by distance and circumstance, those barriers no longer exist and Tony is ready to claim his woman. Will she be willing to accept his belief in a traditional relationship where the man is the head of the household? What about his part-ownership in the local bondage club? He is determined to win her, no matter the obstacles that get in his way.

  Megan, for her part, has loved him since high school but believes he just thinks of her as a cute kid sister. When she realizes that Tony is interested, it’s a double-edged sword. As an independent businesswoman, can she conform to Tony’s old-fashioned beliefs and demands and be spanked? Can she bring all her secret fantasies to life and submit?

  Finally, when they are both available to work on a relationship, life interferes. Megan accidentally becomes embroiled in the conspiracies of a local drug dealer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel. Tony must keep her safe at all costs, something that now she is not at all sure she wants. When fantasy meets reality, bottoms get sore, and suddenly that’s not quite so much fun. Or is it?