Veiled Vixen: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Harem Station Book 6)

by JA Huss

How would it make her feel to find my door locked?

  Who was I specifically locking out?

  My heart hurts for a moment when I picture her coming to my quarters while we were supposed to be resting. How she might place her palm on the mechanism to open my door. How she would feel when the panel lit up with big capital letters in red that said LOCKED.

  She would know that the only person I was locking out was her.

  And that same gut-wrenching fear sits at the bottom of my stomach as I reach my hand towards her door mechanism and pause.

  It lights up green. UNLOCKED.

  Then I feel worse.

  The door opens and I peek my head in. “Veila?” I call softly.

  She lifts her body up from the couch. Her hair is a tangled mess of long, blonde curls. Her too-big sleep shirt is crooked, so I can see one bare shoulder. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “No.” I shake my head as I cross the room and stand in front of her.

  Her eyes catch on my chest, then slowly lift up to meet mine.

  I’m shirtless, I realize. Probably should’ve thought that through a little better. Because it looks like I’m here on a booty call. And I pretty much am here on a booty call, but that’s not the only reason.

  “I just… wanted to make sure you’re OK.”

  She smiles a little. “I’m OK. Why? Are you not OK?”

  “No. I’m OK. Everything’s OK.”

  “OK.”

  We both laugh.

  God, this is awkward.

  “Sit down,” she says.

  “If I’m disturbing you, I can go.”

  “You’re not. I was just…” She sighs. It’s one of those long tired sighs. “Just thinking about things.”

  I spy an e-reader on her coffee table. Not open to the title page, but there are diagrams and charts that give the title away. And when I look back at her, she’s looking at that periodical screen too. Then her eyes dart up to mine. “I… it…”

  The book is the same one she was reading the first time I was in here. The one on motherhood.

  I sit down next to her. Look into her eyes.

  “What?” she whispers. “Why are you looking at me?”

  “I’m just… sorry. You know?”

  “For what?”

  “Everything that’s happened to you.” I nod my head at the book.

  “Look, I don’t need pity or anything. I’m—”

  But I lean in and stop her talking with a kiss. Her lips are very soft at first. Then they stiffen a little.

  I pull back, taking that as a no. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to kiss you.”

  Her fingertips come up to her lips, stay there touching them for a moment. Her eyes meet mine and there’s a sparkle of pink fire in there. She is so thoroughly pink now I almost can’t remember what she looked like as a silver.

  “Oh,” she breathes. “Sorry. You just… surprised me.”

  I sigh and lean all the way back on the large couch until I’m flat, but my feet are still on the floor. “I’ve been thinking…” I eyeball her, then look back up at the ceiling.

  “About?”

  “How unfair this is for you.” I eyeball her again and catch her pouting a little.

  “What’s fair, anyway?” She shrugs. “I lost interest in fair a long time ago.”

  “Not true at all. You’re the one who asked me about it first.”

  “When?” She scrunches up her nose.

  “That day. When you said I have all these choices of people. Luck, and Tray, and Brigit. You said it was unfair.”

  “Oh.” She looks forward, out her massive space window. “It kind of is, I guess. But I was moody that day. Things were… not going well.”

  “But you’re right. It’s not fair.”

  “Well, like you said. You’re just one of those likable guys.”

  “No, I mean… it’s not fair for you to have no one. So that’s why I’m here interrupting your rest.”

  She stares at me, confused.

  “I have decided to be yours.”

  “Mine?” She laughs.

  “Mmm-hmm.” I nod. “Yours. If you’ll have me.”

  “I… well… what does that even mean?”

  “Come here,” I say, taking her hand and pulling her towards me.

  She’s got her legs all curled up. Knees pressed against my thigh. But she rests her head on my chest. Stays stiff and still for a moment. Holds her breath, I think. Because suddenly it comes out in a rush. “What are we doing?”

  “Holding each other.”

  “Oh.”

  “Have you ever done that before?”

  She hesitates. “Well, you hugged me that one time.”

  “That’s it? That’s the only time?”

  She nods her head against my chest.

  “That’s sad, Veila.”

  “Look, I know I’m a freak. OK?” She tries to pull away but I keep her close.

  “No, you’re not a freak. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m telling you that it’s sad that you’re all alone and I have all these people to choose from. I’m telling you that I want to be that person for you. And if I’m the only one, wow. I feel special. But my hope for you, Veila, is that one day soon you will wake up and realize that you have too many people who love you and some other, sad, unfortunate person is looking at your life with envy.”

  She huffs. “That’s never going to happen. Everyone has made up their mind about me already.”

  “Yeah, but… someone very wise just told me something true.”

  “What did they tell you?”

  “That time is the gift of new perspective.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Baby. Just a little while ago. He thinks I should take a second look at you. See something else besides the person you were. Formulate a new perspective based on how you’ve helped rebuild a station that isn’t even your home.”

  “He… did?”

  I nod. “So you know, that whole ‘I’m your only friend’ thing I was just fantasizing about? Not gonna happen. You already have two. And this place is your home now. You put it back together.”

  “We did,” she corrects me. “All of us.”

  “Yes. We did. And I know that it’s not going to be easy for you going forward. When we wake everyone up from the time pause, they won’t have a new perspective yet.”

  “I know. I think I’m just going to stay on my ship and out of the way.”

  “No, that’s not the right answer. This is.” I lift up her shirt and slide my hand over her flat, warm stomach.

  She gasps a little. And for a moment I can’t even recall the silver princess I first met in that video she made after we took over Lair Station.

  And I suddenly realize what my problem is.

  I want her to be brand new again. Pink and pure. Soft and scared. I want to erase her past and start over.

  But that’s what’s really unfair about this situation. Not the fact that the bond exists and we don’t get to choose.

  It’s me. I’m the one making this unfair.

  Even if it were possible to erase her past—and who knows. Maybe it is? Stranger things have happened to me in the past few months—I should not want to erase her.

  I should be strong enough to accept her.

  My hand is still on her stomach and she’s still stiff. “OK, I think I figured it out.”

  “Figured what out?” she whispers.

  “Do I care that ALCOR killed millions of people thousands of years ago? Do I care that he is the reason that all this is happening to us?”

  Veila props herself up on one elbow.

  “No,” I say. “No. I don’t. I get it though. Other people do care. But I’m on his side, Veila. So I need you to know that I’m on your side too. No matter what you did. The only thing I care about is what you do next.”

  She frowns, her mouth a sad line of pink across her flushed face. “I don’t know what to do next. I have no idea what I’m doin
g or where I’m going, or who I’m fighting for. I just know… I’m lost.”

  I place both of my hands on her cheeks and stare into her lit-up eyes. “That’s perfect then.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Because your ship is literally connected to the one place in this galaxy that gets you. We’re all lost here, Veila. We’re all drifting and afraid. We’re all misfits and criminals. We’ve all done bad things. You’re no one special on our station. And isn’t that what everyone really wants? To be… normal? To fit in? To be accepted?”

  “They won’t—”

  “They will. Once we remind them of who they are and why they’re here. If they were freely given a second chance with no questions asked, then you get one too.”

  She stares at me. Face impassive. Mouth silent. Eyes… hoping. She wants this to be true. I can tell.

  Finally, she says, “Is that it, then? Is that why you came over here? To tell me I’m one of you now?”

  “No. Not exactly. I came here to find out what our special secret is.”

  “What special secret?”

  “You know.” I waggle my eyebrows at her. “What happens when we… really connect.”

  Her hand slides down my abs and slips under my night pants. “You mean…” She fists both my cocks, pumping them up and down.

  I close my eyes and smile. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  “Are you sure we’re ready for this? I mean… it might change things between us.”

  “Like how?” I mumble, just enjoying the feeling of her hands.

  “Once we do this then… it’s real, Valor. That connection will be there forever. And it will be out of our control.”

  I open one eye. “You having second thoughts about me?”

  “No, you idiot.”

  I laugh.

  “You might have second thoughts about me.”

  “Veila. I’m pretty sure I’m going to regret things about you for the rest of my life. But not for the reasons you think.” I open both eyes for this part. “I regret not knowing you from the beginning. I regret that you were alone after we left Wayward Station. I wish I could go back and be with you for all of it. And you might even drive me crazy, and I might even second-guess our connection. But it’s a very special thing to have an undeniable bond. I know this. Because I already have that with all my other fucked-up brothers, and the three insane AIs who help us out, and the scheming princesses who love us, and this station filled with the worst of the worst. You belong here. But most of all, Veila, you belong with me.”

  She smiles and a soft glow flows up from her body. She lets go of my cocks, slowly swings her legs over my thighs, and takes off her shirt.

  Her hands press down flat on my chest. And then she leans over and kisses me on the lips.

  I feel the spark there.

  I feel what’s coming.

  And then she must feel it too because her hands are pulling down my pants, and my fingers are tugging on her panties, and then she’s hovering over top of me, and I’m easing both my cocks inside her and then…

  Then I lose all sense of self.

  We meld together as she moves her hips, forcing me deep inside her.

  I sit up, hug her around the waist as she slides back and forth across my lap, her long hair brushing against my chest, tickling it and driving me into a state of pure bliss and ecstasy.

  And when we come, we come together.

  Time speeds up until it’s going so fast I get dizzy.

  And I see it.

  I see all of it.

  I see everything that’s coming.

  This is our shared secret and it’s the future.

  Some of it makes me happy.

  Some of it makes me sad.

  And some of it scares the living fuck out of me.

  But all of it is ours.

  END OF BOOK SHIT

  Welcome to the End of book Shit. This is the always the last chapter in the book and I use it to say whatever I want about the story. Please don’t judge my typos—I write these at the last minute right before I upload the book for publication.

  The first thing I need to say about Veila is this – wow. This girl was a hard sell. The supervillain of the whole series (up until now) gets a fated-mate love story with one of sweetest harem brothers.

  Poor Valor!

  One thing I knew going in was that there was no way in hell I was gonna be able to sell an insta-love story between these two characters. I don’t care how soul-mated they were, that was not gonna happen. Yes, this whole series is based on the concept that these brothers each have one true love and so I probably could’ve gone down the insta-love direction. I’m sure there’s plenty romance readers out there who would’ve been just fine with that. But not me. Veila was the bad guy and if she wanted one of my precious Harem Boys then she was gonna have to earn him.

  I used a few devices in this book that weren’t present in the other books. Namely, Veila was not given a point of view. At all. For me, her opinion didn’t deserve page time. This book was all about Valor and how he was the outsider. And how his new perspective came from the fact that Veila was also an outsider. She had no partner. And even though Valor did, three of them, in fact. Luck, Tray, and Brigit—there was no room for him. And this echoes Crux’s point of view in the Star Crossed book and how he was left behind while all his other brothers had these exciting and interesting jobs to do. He was basically an administrator. Which is super important, but not terribly exciting compared to bot liberators, and princess stealers, and virtual reality god.

  Baby was also an outsider. So all that was echoed in the background with how he came to terms with not fitting in.

  I also made a conscious decision to leave the AI characters with huge cliffhangers. This was not their book either, but their story is still important for the final book coming up.

  And the other thing I did was introduce a new nemesis – well, two, really. Crux’s father got a name. He didn’t have one in Star Crossed. And ALCOR’s real nemesis was introduced. MIZAR.

  So this ALCOR/MIZAR thing is actually… a thing. A real thing in our real world. Mizar is a major star in the Big Dipper’s handle. That’s The Plough for you non Americans. :) And Alcor is a second sun (from our perspective) that is so close to Mizar, they appear to be one sun.

  And when I was writing the Junco books I was very big on building culture so I had the Avians (the alien race in that series) have a saying that they used to describe Junco’s apparent ignorance of all the important details. The saying goes like this, “You can see Alcor, but you miss the full moon every time.” And that means you see the small things that don’t matter but then you always miss something obvious like the full moon. (Basically, what’s your problem, Junco?)

  Because when I was researching the ancient world (which is what I based the whole Junco story off of) I came upon this old saying in Arabic. And it was about how being able to see Alcor was a test of good eyesight. Because Alcor and Mizar are a binary system. Two suns that look like one. But ACTUALLY – that’s not even true. Alcor is a binary sun – two suns that look like one. And MIZAR is a quadruple sun- four suns that look like one. So they are this very unusual cluster of SIX stars that we *think* were born from the same stellar nursery.

  So if you’re into figuring out mysteries there’s a clue for you as to where ALCOR came from. Side note – the Seven Sisters are real too. They are called the Pleiades. Nothing to do with Alcor and Mizar in our real world, but the Seven Sisters are all over our ancient history. So many myths in so many ancient cultures reference this star cluster. They are everywhere. And they were important. And I’m in to stars so I like to include them in my world building when I write science fiction. Plus, back in Star Crossed, Corla made some pretty outrageous claims about stars. And we’re finally coming back around to her 20-year grand plan.

  My favorite scene in this book was… almost all of them, actually. I don’t know if I said anything in Shrike Bikes about ho
w difficult writing Bossy Johnny was, but it was. I had a lot of things going on that book. Some of it was set-up for future books and some of it was bringing old characters back, and some of it was mashing up the two worlds of Rook & Ronin and The Company with Bossy Brothers. It was not easy and it was stressful.

  But Veiled Vixen was the total opposite. I didn’t struggle with this book at all. All the scenes came out just the way I planned them and I enjoyed every minute of it. So I hope you guys enjoyed it too – even though there’s almost no sex in this book!!!! lol And yeah. I get it. Lots of my readers want the sexy. But this wasn’t a “hate fuck” story. This wasn’t even a “second chance” story. This was a “my soulmate doesn’t deserve me” story. And whether or not you believe Veila now deserves to be on Team Harem Station is up to you, but she met my threshold by the time I was done.

  Even though Valor played a pretty big role in Prison Princess, we learned a lot more about him in this book. He’s honest, and loyal, and is one of those stand-up guys. He’s a lot like Crux in that regard. He’s also patient, and easy-going, and has a lot of empathy for others. And so when he wakes up and discovers that the fake rebellion Tray asked Luck and Nyleena to start on Harem Station had somehow taken root and grown into something bigger and very real, he wanted to make things right, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone in the process.

  And although Valor did not succeed in patching things up with Luck, he did manage to find how he and Veila fit together. They might not know their specific role in the grand plan yet, but they now know that they are more powerful together than they are alone.

  But that wasn’t the only story in this book. We had a whole bunch of stories. Tray and Brigit and the little Akeelian boys. Asshole and Mighty Boss and the Akeelian Men from Wayward Station. Booty was struggling with her past, trying to figure out what it means, and Draden just wants to go home and see Serpint. And ALCOR… his plan is starting to unfold, but we’re not quite there yet.

  And… poor Delphi. I have been dropping hints that their story wasn’t over yet.

  All this brings me to the last book. Yes, there will be one more book in this “series”. And that one belongs to Crux & Corla. But I’m not saying I won’t come back to this universe because I actually love these people and there’s a ton of stories left to be told. Maybe not a fated-mate story, but there are definitely more love stories for all the secondary characters on Harem Station.