by S. E. Smith
Alphas Unleashed
Four Novels
by
S. E. Smith
Mina Khan
Carolyn Jewel
Michele Callahan
ALPHAS UNLEASHED
5 Hot Heroes/4 Authors/4 Worlds
S.E. Smith, Mina Khan, Carolyn Jewel & Michele Callahan
About the Books
A Warrior’s Heart (Marastin Dow Book 1.1) by S.E. Smith
Ben and Aaron Cooper think their luck has ended when the freighter they are on is captured by the Marastin Dow, a terrifying alien species known for their savagery. Instead they discover love with two warriors who capture their hearts. Now, they are in a race to keep the fragile gift they find before it is ripped away from them forever.
Sealed With A Kiss, A Djinn Novella by Mina Khan
Rayez, a smoking hot chef and fire djinn in exile, lands himself in deep trouble (at the bottom of a beer bottle) when he tries to help a mysterious beautiful woman.
Selene is pursued and desperate. She’ll do anything to keep her brother safe—including capture a djinn.
While deception brings them together, dangerous enemies make them unlikely allies. Can one wrong lead to two rights and true love?
Dead Drop, A My Immortals Novella by Carolyn Jewel
Wallace Jackson has so little magic she expects to be kicked out of her group of street witches being trained to use their gifts and work with demons. No one is more shocked than she is when a powerful demon proves her wrong. And then asks a favor of her.
The demon Palla is a warlord’s enforcer, a stone cold killer. Wallace Jackson is a pacifist witch with a dangerous power. He wants nothing to do with humans until he needs Wallace to help him free his former lover from a living death and release her spirit from unimaginable suffering.
Chimera Born: The Beginning (Book 1 of the Chimera) by Michele Callahan
Aron of Itara, Forbidden Son, has been a prisoner of fate since before he was born. Captured as a child by the evil Triscani, it’s been centuries since he’s felt the sun on his face or the tenderness of a woman’s touch. Determined to help humanity break the elusive but powerful Itaran Triads’ hold on Earth, Aron escapes with one goal, to find the one man who can help him save humans from an eternal prison. After that, he’ll fight to the death, but he’ll never go back in the cage.
Zoey Williams watched her sister die at the hands of monsters, and no one believed her. She’s spent the last five years using her journalism skills to track aliens, investigate paranormal activity, and hunt for answers. But she got too close to the truth, and now it’s not just monsters hunting her, but her own people. Zoey doesn’t believe she needs a guardian, but once Aron finds her he can’t leave her to the vicious hunters that would turn her to ash or to the power-hungry humans who seek to silence her. In fact, he discovers that he doesn’t want to leave her at all…
Table of Contents
A Warrior’s Heart
S. E. Smith
Sealed With A Kiss
Mina Khan
Dead Drop
Carolyn Jewel
Chimera Born
Michele Callahan
A Warrior’s Heart
Marastin Dow Warriors Book 1.1
S. E. Smith
About A Warrior’s Heart
Ben and Aaron Cooper’s life had never been one of ease. Deserted by their mother and raised by a drunken father, they fought to survive on the Kansas farm where their father worked. Life deals them a horrendous twist when they are kidnapped by an alien trader and sold.
Ben, the oldest by sixteen months, convinces the aliens who enslave them that he and Aaron will die if they are separated. It is the only way he can think of to keep them together and protect his younger brother.
The next fifteen years prove to be the most challenging of their lives. They do what they have to in order to survive. They are convinced their time has come to an end when the freighter they are on is attacked by a species known for their lust for blood and killing.
Evetta and Hanine Marquette are Marastin Dow; a species whose leaders thrive on living in the old ways where only the strongest, most ruthless are allowed to live. The life expectancy for most Marastin Dow is short, especially on one of the warships that all Marastin Dow, male or female, are expected to serve a mandatory service. Advancement usually comes by murder.
Evetta and Hanine want a different life and work together to stay alive in the hopes of finding a life away from the constant threat of death. Life changes for them when they encounter two strange and unusual alien males.
When the males’ lives are endangered, there is only one thing these warrior women can do to save them…run!
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my husband Steve for believing in me and being proud enough of me to give me the courage to follow my dream. I would also like to give a special thank you to my sister and best friend Linda, who not only encouraged me to write but who also read the manuscript. Also to my other friends who believe in me: Julie, Jackie, Lisa, Sally, Elizabeth (Beth) and Narelle. The girls that keep me going!
—S. E. Smith
Chapter 1
“What do you think will happen now?” Aaron Cooper asked as he leaned his head back against the cold metal wall of their prison cell. “Do you think this might be the end? Do you think they’ll kill us?”
“I don’t know,” Ben replied grimly, looking over his shoulder at his slightly younger brother. “I’ve heard some nasty things about this species.”
“Hell, heard! You saw what they did to the rest of the crew on the freighter,” Aaron said tiredly. “Maybe it is just as well. I’ve given up hope of ever making it back to Earth.”
Ben didn’t say anything. What could he say? He had lost hope of ever seeing Earth again years ago. He might only be sixteen months older than Aaron but he had always been a lot more pessimistic about life than his brother.
Life had never been easy for them. Their mother had deserted them and their father shortly after Aaron was born. If that hadn’t been bad enough, their father began drinking so much that by the time they were old enough to open a box of cereal they were pretty much on their own. Then the unbelievable happened. They had been kidnapped off of the Kansas farm where they lived by an alien slave trader.
It had been almost ten years since that day. He had been fourteen and Aaron twelve at the time. They had been repairing barb wire fencing along one of the lesser used fields when they were taken. Their dad was supposed to have been doing the work but he was too drunk to get his ass out of bed. Ben had driven the old pickup truck and he, along with Aaron, did the work their father was supposed to do. It was the only way to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, though they spent more time hungry than fed.
If they thought life was hard before, it had become brutal for the first five years after they had been taken. It wasn’t until the captain of the last freighter had won them in a game of chance that things changed slightly for the better. Life still hadn’t been easy but at least they had been able to scrape a little bit of a normal life together.
Ben had convinced every one of their previous owners that he and Aaron had to stay together or they would die. It had been the only thing he could think of to keep them together. Since their species hadn’t been seen before, it had worked.
They had spent the last five years working on the freighter; cooking, cleaning and repairing it. The captain had even let them have a few credits from the sale of the illegal merchandise that he carried. They had saved every credit in the hopes of buying their freedom or escaping, whichever came first.
That dream came to an end when the freighter was attacked. All of the other crew members were killed except for him and Aaron. He
didn’t know why. Maybe it was because the Marastin Dow, a Spartan type species according to what they had learned over the years, had never seen a human before. Or, it could be because the purple bastards wanted to have fun as they killed them. He didn’t know, and truthfully, he was to the point he didn’t give a damn anymore.
Aaron rose when the door leading down to where they were being kept opened. A large Marastin Dow male walked up to the metal door holding them in. He looked Ben up and down before turning his gaze on Aaron.
“Do you understand me?” The male asked gruffly.
“Yes,” Ben replied.
“You will not fight. You will do what you are told. Do you understand?” The male stated.
“Yes,” Ben replied again.
“What are you going to do to us?” Aaron asked.
The male looked at Aaron. “You will work. You will keep your head down. And you will live if you are careful. Do not trust anyone unless I say you can. Most of the crew would sooner slit your throat for the fun of watching you die than help you. If you do as I tell you, you might live long enough to get off this ship alive,” the man explained in an emotionless voice.
“Why?” Ben asked, puzzled. “Why don’t you just kill us like you did the rest of the crew?”
The man shrugged and briefly looked away. “I saw that you were different,” he said quietly. “I saw the way you protected the younger one. You did not try to push him in front of you so you could escape. I want to learn more about you and your species. In exchange for information, I will do what I can to protect you both.”
“Why?” Ben asked again, pressing the male standing in front of him. “Why do you want to know more about us?”
The man stared taciturnly back at Ben. “I am a scientist. I study other species. I believe there are other ways to…live. I want to know…learn about them. Others of my kind want it as well. You will give me the information I need.”
“For how long?” Aaron asked. “For how long will you help protect us?”
The man finally sighed. “For as long as I can or until someone on board this warship decides to kill me,” he stated in resignation. “I am the Chief Science Officer. If someone else desires my position, my life expectancy significantly drops.”
“Then I guess we better make sure that you have someone watching your back as well,” Ben said quietly. “My name is Ben Cooper, by the way. This is my brother, Aaron.”
The male looked at the hand Ben was holding out through the metal bars. He looked back at Ben’s face for several long seconds before he hesitantly held out his own hand. He started when Ben shook it and released it.
“That is called a handshake,” Ben explained. “Humans do that as a way of greeting each other.”
The man looked at his hand, turning it over to stare at his palm before his dark eyes rose to study Ben and Aaron. “My name is Behr De’Mar, Chief Science Officer aboard the Disappearance. I’ll do what I can to protect you. It is best until you learn your way around if you stay on the levels I tell you. Those levels have crew that I trust and that is not an easy thing to find among any of the Marastin Dow.”
*.*.*
Four years later:
Aboard the Marastin Warship Disappearance
Evetta Marquette, Engineer Technician First Class, scowled at the large male who was crowding her in the deserted corridor. She seldom ventured far from her assigned post in engineering when she was working. In fact, during the past year she and her sister had been aboard the Disappearance, neither of them had been beyond their assigned duty stations or the three upper decks that housed their sleeping quarters, dining or training rooms.
She wouldn’t be here now if it hadn’t been for a faulty sensor that she had been ordered to replace. The technician who would normally handle such things had been hurt during a fight the night before and was in medical. She found the damn thing had been tampered with when she removed the outer casing protecting it. She suspected she found out who had done it when she turned and found the huge male behind her.
“Leave,” she ordered the lower class maintenance worker.
“I’ve been watching you,” the large male grinned. “I want you.”
“Too bad. Now move away,” Evetta hissed in a cold voice. “I will not tell you again.”
“Not until I get what I want. I hope you like it rough, female. I am looking for some satisfaction,” the man goaded her as he stepped closer. “You and the other one have heated my blood. When I am done with you, I’ll see if she can help cool it.”
“I will kill you first,” Evetta snarled. “You will not touch either of us.”
The man just chuckled as he swung his fist toward her jaw. Evetta was prepared. She and her sister trained every available moment for just such a situation. They often tried to sneak up on each other and take the other unaware. It was necessary to be prepared for deceit and violence if they were to survive their mandatory required service in the Marastin Dow military.
Evetta jerked back at the same time as she kicked her booted foot into the male’s groin. She didn’t wait to see his reaction. Pulling out the small metal weight she carried in her pocket, she swung it at the back of his head over and over again when he bent forward.
She didn’t stop even when he fell to his knees then to the floor. He would kill her if she didn’t kill him first. With one last blow, she jerked backwards away from the blood pooling on the floor around the dead man. Nausea threatened to choke her but she swallowed it down. With shaking hands, she cleaned the small metal pipe and as much of the blood off her skin and clothing as she could before she slid the pipe back into her pocket.
She glanced up and around. She did not need to worry about anyone seeing her unless they walked up on her. The Marastin Dow were a blood-thirsty species who killed each other with ease and could care less.
She knew there were those trying to change how they worked and interacted together. Unfortunately, those still ruling their world believed in the old ways; survival of the fittest. She could only hope there would be changes before too long. She had heard of a rebellion against the leaders who believed in and encouraged the blood-bath.
Still, it was just rumors. She and Hanine hated living in fear. They hated the constant threat of violence. She and her sister had witnessed the brutal murder of their own parents when their father had been chosen to participate in the ‘games’ as they were called.
Her mother had fought to protect her father only to be slain for resisting. Their parents believed in a better way of life. They had been merchants who dealt in herbs from different worlds and met many other species in their travels.
They had lived in one of the smaller villages that had already started to see that violence was not a normal way of life. It wasn’t until a new governor for the region had killed the existing one that things changed. Their parents had been vocal about living in peace. That had been the beginning of the end for them.
Once she and Hanine reached the age of enrollment at sixteen years, they had both been forced into a twenty year enlistment into the military by a new law the governor enacted. This was their sixth year of service and their second assignment. She wasn’t sure how much longer they would last before they were either raped or murdered. They had barely survived their last assignment and this one was proving to be even more challenging. Already, Hanine had been attacked twice. This attack made it the fourth time against her in less than two years.
Drawing in a deep breath, Evetta turned to head back toward the lift. She stopped when she heard the echo of voices coming toward her. Glancing around, she turned in the opposite direction. She had never been to the lower levels of the warship. It looked like she was about to discover it.
*.*.*
An hour later, Evetta leaned back against the side of the bulkhead and sighed. She had been weaving in and out of the corridors, avoiding the staff on this level. She pushed off the wall and frowned when she heard the unusual sound of music echoing through the empty cor
ridor. The haunting chords wrapped around her, as if invisible ropes were pulling her toward the melody. She moved slowly, hesitantly toward the sound.
Pausing outside the opening to a small room, she tilted her head in wonder. A strange alien male sat in a chair up against the wall. His feet were propped up on another chair and he was blowing into a small metal device that made beautiful music.
Her eyes roamed hungrily over his bent head. He didn’t know she was there, or at least she didn’t think he did as he didn’t change his position. She stepped gingerly into the room, wanting to see more of his face. His hair was a dark brown and was long and shaggy. The ends were ragged, as if he cut it himself. His skin was a natural tan color and darker brown hair covered his forearms. He was tall. As tall as the males of her species and he was just as muscular if the fit of his shirt was any indication.
She froze when he glanced up at her. He never paused in the song he was playing. Dark brown eyes gazed back at her with such intensity she started to take a step back before forcing herself to remain where she was standing.
Her eyes scanned the rugged face of the unusual male. He had high cheekbones and a long, narrow nose that was slightly crooked in the center. Dark stubble covered his cheeks, jaw and around his mouth. His long fingers moved with a grace that held her mesmerized as she watched him slide them back and forth across the silver metal making her wonder what it would feel like to have them slide across her skin.
