Venomous: (Alien Warrior Book 1)

by Penelope Fletcher

  “As stated,” Dare Viper to Bite began with far more respect in his tone, “the Great Alpha will see our coming to him as weakness, and take advantage. We may gain an ally today only for them to become an oppressor in future. It has happened before.”

  “We’ll be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. The Scholars will help me review what happened back then, and ensure–”

  “There is no time. We have less than half a span to contact the L’Odo Chieftain, and try to salvage–”

  “I’m well aware we’re running against the clock. If you’d jump off my back, and let me do my job, you’d see I have a plan as Ambassador to send those bullies running with their tails between their legs!”

  A silence almost as prenatally bloated as I was.

  “But, Lumen of the Stars, we have not yet offered you the position,” said Calm as Thunder.

  “Right.” I tittered, eyes darting. “Sorry. Got a little ahead of myself there, didn’t I?” I put my hands behind my back. “May I have the job? I explained why I believe it’s critical to the security of home world. Do you not agree?”

  I got nine yeses.

  Turns out, I wasn’t a Scholar or a Warrior.

  I wasn’t an Artisan, a Healer or an Elder.

  Turns out, I was all of these things.

  I learned, I fought, I created new life, I healed the wounds of three amazing males, and through those trials, I’d gathered wisdom enough to save my adopted planet from destruction.

  I was not average, not anymore.

  With heart-rending effort and bloody hard work, I’d grown into more.

  I’ve become a leader, who knew?

  My gaze lowered and unfocused as I experienced a flash of memory.

  ‘No fear. Lumen weak body. Venomous One born warrior. Am strong.’ A ghostly touch brushing my cheek. ‘Lumen warrior mind and heart. Know this. Light of the stars lead me do better. Speak.’

  Venomous had known from the beginning.

  Everything I had seen, heard, and suffered since being abducted from Earth led me to an awakening.

  I’d survived off the strength of others.

  Now I thrived on my own.

  Dread the Darkness said to me, “Proceed with your plan,” as if saying, “Now sprinkle star dust and conjure fantastical dreams.”

  “A nanosec, please.”

  Pulling a palm-sized oval from my cloak pocket on a grand flourish, I fumbled with my personal communicator.

  My fingers shook.

  I near dropped the futuristic device.

  “Stupid thing,” I muttered.

  I smacked it on the side of my fist when it didn’t do what I wanted.

  I got hot in the face and panicky because it had chosen the worst time to malfunction.

  A wall of protective male surrounded me.

  I looked up feeling wretchedly silly. “Hi.”

  “What do you need?” Venomous asked with nothing but devotion in his voice, the poignant emotion reflected on Cobra and Fiercely’s expressions.

  “A holocall to Wyn,” I rasped out a throat bone dry. “He’s expecting us.”

  The cunning that stirred his dark brille when we’d first met whirled.

  A fang-filled smile glinted in the sunlight. “As you wish.” He used his communicator to make the call.

  He placed it on the floor before the Elders, so the device would enlarge the multidimensional images for those in the enclosure, and the spectators outside.

  Blue light transformed into a life size hologram of Éorik. “Lady Lumen.” He bowed. “An honour as always.”

  “High Commander Éorik.” Having rehearsed this mentally on the journey over, I inclined my head. “As Ambassador for the Rä, I request a conference with the Great Alpha to open talks for a mutually beneficial alliance between our people. Please and thank you.”

  Éorik’s lips twitched. “Of course.” He stepped back, and the hologram widened to include an opulent throne room. “I present my liege.”

  On a colossal throne of alien skulls gilded silver reclined King Beowyn ThunderClaw.

  Brawny, darkly furred chest bare, he was clothed in his ancestral loincloth and thigh high boots, the splendiferous Crown of Bones perched upon his black and silver mane.

  Head pillowed on large breasts, his sword lay across his muscled thighs, and he sipped from a jewel-encrusted goblet proffered to him by an oiled-up male of stunningly erect proportions.

  Naked concubines lolled at his feet, waved giant leaves to cool him, and knelt holding heaped platters of exotic meats and fruits upon their heads.

  Others flanked the throne in dramatic poses waiting to service their liege at the slightest crook of his claw.

  He really took it there.

  During our hasty comm call back at the lair, he’d ever so nonchalantly mentioned he’d ‘titivate’ to impress the Great Senate.

  Maybe I should have made him be a tad more specific.

  “Great One.”

  “Ambassador,” he drawled gaze twinkling mischief.

  Only just keeping from rolling my eyes, I made introductions.

  This duty took an outlandishly long time because Rä names were lengthy, complicated affairs due to the three genders and widowers.

  Finished with that, I summarised the imminent threat then wrapped up with a brisk, “Will you ally with us against the L’Odo, who are a blight upon both Vayhalun and Rök?”

  “Aye.”

  I turned a sunny ‘ta-da-jazz-hands’ smile on the flabbergasted Elders.

  Calm as Thunder’s voice was tentative, hopeful. “You offer aid?”

  “I stand with the Rä against the L’Odo. I pledge the strength of my legions. I vow to call upon my allies and their vast armies until the deed is done.”

  Taken aback, the Elders hissed agitatedly between themselves, pointing claws, flicking tongues.

  “You offer much but have demanded no terms for such support,” Dare Viper to Bite noted with care waving his equals quiet. “I cannot help but look upon this grand gesture with suspicion.”

  “I am aware the reputation of my species precedes me. We are known for pillaging those plentiful with the nubile. We are often in the mood to get frolicsome, and it takes countless hot, tight bodies to satisfy our passions.” He sighed lustily. “But my offer of aid is sincere, and devoid of hidden cost. I have no expectations. None but the hope, in the near future, we may use this short-term union as a bridge to build a lasting political and military bond between my people and yours. Such ties strengthen a realm.”

  “Why offer this?” Dare Viper to Bite asked, perplexed. “We have never aided you in the past, never sought a connection.”

  “Lady Lumen is my best friend,” Beowyn cried with a wave of his goblet. “Why I have bedded Empresses, Princes, and courtesans of incomparable beauty. I have crossed swords with the mightiest of warriors,” he grinned wickedly, “and debated with the keenest minds in the known galaxies. All wanted nothing but what my status gave. This human was the first to deny herself the awesome delight of my body.” He ran a hand down his brawny chest, chiselled abdominals, and then stopped over the shadowy crotch of his loincloth. He didn’t realise his sexual allure was lost on this crowd. “The first to deny herself the riches being mine would have rained upon her. Lumen of the Stars was the first to offer me a genuine hand of friendship.” His face turned serious. “How can I not repay this priceless gift by helping my friend and those she holds dear when in need?”

  I sent him a ‘you are so full of shit’ look.

  He smiled indulgently.

  “I call for the vote,” Dread the Darkness said. “Do we support Ambassador She, Lumen of the Stars’ proposition to, for the interim, ally our military might with that of the Verak?”

  I nabbed seven out of twelve yeses that time.

  Light-headed, I released a shuddery breath once it was over, unclenching bloodless fists.

  “Ambassador She, Lumen of the Stars has the majority,” Calm as Thu
nder announced. “I believe the deadline is upon us.” She glanced at the taciturn male beside her. “Song of my hearts, holocall the L’Odo Chieftain.”

  The powerfully built Rä’Vek prowled forward in his scarlet hardsuit, the embodiment of an honourable Rä warrior.

  He placed a communicator a fair distance from Venomous’ to avoid static feedback then retuned to his cushion beside his powerful Rä’Na.

  As soon as the hologram stabilised, the hunchbacked L’Odo Chieftain barked, “Are you ready to give up the human female, or face eradication, weakling soft-scalps?”

  Frothed drool slicked his scarred snout, and dented armour clanged as he paced a crooked line.

  Sorkbhal, crouched beside him, snuffled laughter.

  “Chieftain,” Calm as Thunder greeted icily. “In response, I defer to our newly elected Ambassador of Intergalactic Relations, known as She, Lumen of the Stars.”

  “Who?” The Chieftain’s bulbous skull crest separated then flared. His tail curled. “Ah, the human.”

  Despite all I’d been through, achieved, a welling of fear hollowed my guts.

  The L’Odo treated me despicably, nearly broke me into something less than human.

  Echoes of Sorkbhal’s debased treatment rendered me mute.

  Then I remembered my darling mates.

  I thought of my new friends, and recalled the overwhelming acceptance of the Great Senate declaring me Rä, and the immense responsibility of the post I’d fought for.

  Reacting to my inner turmoil, likely because my adrenaline levels were wild, I felt my miracle hatchling tumble, punch my cervix then lodge a foot in my ribs.

  Wincing, prodding the area in appreciation, I decided such a feisty tyke deserved to have a Mamma Jamma who was as badass as its daddies.

  Run this bitch.

  “I will make this brief and blunt, so even ones such as you will understand.” My voice cut like a knife. I flipped inside because I sounded killer. “Should the L’Odo threaten or participate in acts of aggression against the citizens of Rök, we will respond with swift, brutal action. All L’Odo craft orbiting our planet will depart without delay. If we find vessels connected with the L’Odo trespassing in our airspace within the next,” my eyes cartwheeled as I plucked a number out of the air, “span we shall see it as a declaration of war, and defend ourselves with ... really ... big weapons.” Running out of things to say, I threw my shoulders back, shook out my crazy hair, and said, “Do you under.... Uh....”

  Out the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Fiercely and Cobra signalling for my attention.

  Bouncing, waving, stabbing fingers....

  Aha!

  Pointing at something ... at....

  Hand to my stomach, I shifted my weight and so turned a bit.

  Venomous.

  Kneeling in a mime of a shackled man.

  He stood then forcefully broke the chains of enslavement to end with a chin lifted, chest thrust, hand on hips Superman pose.

  I seriously had to start teaching my males the more upper brow facets of human culture.

  He could have chosen a real hero pose like the Tommie Smith, Olympic Podium human rights salute.

  I remembered telling him of that, but no, he went with comic book ending.

  Okay, so I might have regaled him with stories of a dozen superheroes and their powers, but that was besides the point....

  Rubbing my belly, I faced the L’Odo and glared. “And no more slaves! Stop that. That’s it. I think. Believe.” I sniffed in a self-aggrandizing way to cover up my bumbling. “Do you understand?”

  Sorkbhal had stopped laughing and gaped at me.

  Wily, the Chieftain narrowed his oily eyes. “What allies?”

  Shimmering cloak fluttering around me, I swept out an arm in the most graceful movement I’d managed in my life, ever, and stepped aside to reveal the resplendent image behind me. “May I present, his most esteemed illustriousness and royal majesty, the Great Alpha Verak, King Beowyn ThunderClaw.”

  Eyelid twitching, I could see Beowyn almost had a stroke to keep from busting a gut laughing at the embellished introduction.

  He held it down and turned a stony face to the L’Odo. “I am indeed allied with the Rä. Through this alliance, they command the might of my legions. Through me, they hold alliances with the Yoni, the Hydok, the Drakni, the Baxnon.” Beowyn stopped to stare his enemy dead in the eye. “The Azteka.”

  The Chieftain’s sallow scutes leached what little colour they had.

  “You might win against one, even two warrior species, but seven? You are cut off from decent trade meaning soon you will run low on supplies, and will have to scavenge for scraps like the Dei San. The pirates will not take kindly to you encroaching upon what they consider their spoils. All but one of my named allies were wronged by you over the aeons, and recently, you had but a taste of our collective fury on the slave planet, where you held captive many of my own warriors.” Gripping the edges of his throne, Beowyn looked lethal as he leaned forward with a feral snarl. “I want you to be stupid enough to move against the Rä. I long to crush you.”

  The Chieftain glared at Beowyn, at the Elders, and then, finally, at me.

  I smirked. “That’s right. Schadenfreude, asshole.” I thumped my chest mimicking my mates then ended with a finger snap. “Feeling it, loving it.”

  “She was doing so well,” Fiercely muttered.

  Quaking with pent up fury, the L’Odo Chieftain bent over double, opened his mangled snout and roared like a prehistoric monster.

  It was a beautifully horrific sound of unmitigated defeat.

  Mountainous body lumbering a turn, he hefted a spiked cudgel.

  As it descended in a death blow on the squalling Sorkbhal, the hologram wavered and the projection flickered out.

  “And that is that,” said Beowyn. He looked at me, and his domineering manner vanished. He grinned. “You. Me. Paniki pleasure station. Comm me once you drop cub then we will go.” He paused. Purred. “Bring your males.” The hologram disappeared.

  Calm as Thunder’s Rä’Vek picked up his bleeping communicator.

  He glanced at me broodingly then peered at the screen.

  His brow ridge bounced then he looked at me again.

  Harder.

  “I receive word from our planetary observation squadron and the advance scouts,” he said then paused. “The L’Odo battleships are pulling out of our orbit and retreating.”

  She, Deathly as It Goes hooted into the silence, startling her Rä’Vek.

  The burly male stared at her with heat, scandalously open about his desire for his life mate.

  The gruff huntress intimidated the crap out of me, but we shared a grin.

  Striding forward, Venomous picked up his communicator.

  Calm as Thunder’s Rä’Vek bowed low to him in deference, and then it clicked for me.

  “I am so freaking slow at times,” I muttered.

  ‘He commands all aboard until your mate is ready to assume authority.’

  ‘Worse, they would use you to control the strongest of us.’

  ‘...I knew that he was to be the greatest of us.’

  ‘...his might is surpassed only by his arrogance.’

  Venomous wasn’t just a warrior, he was considered the warrior by his people.

  And he’d been willing to relinquish that honour for his family.

  He tucked his communicator into a thigh pocket on his matte black hardsuit then stood before me, powerful, strong, a warrior that defended me mind, body and soul.

  Hissing a sigh, he cupped my face between his rough, warm palms.

  His sensual mouth puckered, and I readied for a kiss of inconceivable beauty, but he paused, glared then rumbled, “We are not going Paniki.”

  Biting my lip, thinking, ‘We so are,’ I took his mouth on a rush of breath then smiled radiantly as we parted.

  I turned in his embrace to face the stupefied Great Senate. “I feel we should discuss my salary.”

 
A deafening crash of sound thundered into the enclosure from the citizens outside and merged with the hissing, stomping victorious mayhem setting the Senate roof afire.

  EPILOGUE

  Venomous asked, “How did you do it? How did you persuade the Great Alpha to agree to such decisive action without making us beggar ourselves for it?”

  “Verak are notoriously ruthless marauders and skilled in negotiation,” Cobra added.

  Apprehensive, Venomous scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “How?”

  You know those people who are modest, demure, and shrug off feats of cunning and internal strength as part of a higher calling to help others, and so don’t preen like brazen hussies when they achieve greatness?

  That’s right, I’m that good, bow down bitches.

  Yeah, I didn’t quite get there.

  I strutted my stuff as we walked towards the goodbeasts and didn’t try to hide my awesomeness.

  I’d probably fuck up the next diplomatic task.

  Wisely, in my lauded opinion, I felt it important to bask in my accomplishment. “It helps when your best friend is the overlord of those ruthless marauders.”

  Fiercely took one look at my face then snorted. “And?”

  “Sweetheart, Wyn is so dazzled by my beauty and charm he’d deny me nothing.” I slid him a withering glare. “Learn from him.”

  “Lumen....” Cobra warned.

  “Oh, alright.” I stopped and crossed my arms in a snit. “I used the skills I’ve learnt on my amazing adventure across the universe. I traded Wyn the might of his legions for something....” I airily wriggled my fingers then looked down at my nails. “Something he wanted that only I could give.”

  “Indeed?” Venomous asked timbre laden with dangerous undercurrents. “What price did a rutting warlord ask of our Rä’Na?”

  Sensing I’d waded heedlessly into treacherous depths, I avoided his gaze to peer straight up at the star strewn night.