by Pearl Tate
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About This Book
CHAPTER ONE - Jenny
CHAPTER TWO - Devlin
CHAPTER THREE - Jenny
CHAPTER FOUR - Jenny
CHAPTER FIVE - Devlin
CHAPTER SIX - Jenny
CHAPTER SEVEN - Jenny
CHAPTER EIGHT - Devlin
CHAPTER NINE - Jenny
CHAPTER TEN - Jenny
CHAPTER ELEVEN - Devlin
CHAPTER TWELVE - Jenny
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Jenny
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Devlin
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Jenny
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Jenny
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - Devlin
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Jenny
CHAPTER NINETEEN - Devlin
CHAPTER TWENTY - Devlin
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Jenny
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Jenny
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - Devlin
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - Jenny
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - Devlin
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - Jenny
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - Devlin
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - Jenny
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - Devlin
CHAPTER THIRTY - Jenny
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - Devlin
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Jenny
About the Author
DEVLIN'S DARLING
By Pearl Tate
Copyright © 2018 Pearl Tate
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Book Cover Design by Alena Marie
Website: http://pearltate.com/BookCovers
Instagram Account: http://pearltate.com/covers
This book is dedicated to all my childhood friends who have inspired many of the characters in the series so far. Thanks for being you!
DEVLIN'S DARLING
Jenny
Positive thinking, being kind to others, persevering through my illness… those are the cornerstones to my existence. That’s what helped me get through all the medical appointments and the trials of going to college with a lot of very experienced women.
Then aliens stole me from Earth, from everything that made my life safe. Beautiful tattoos have surfaced on my body… mating marks… marks that tie me to one of the aliens on the prison planet. I’m intrigued—and a little bit scared. The prisoner whose marks match mine, well he’s really big, and feared by the other aliens. Will he even like me? I’m not sure what to expect, but I believe in destiny. I’m hoping he won’t turn me away. He’s all I have now.
Devlin
The smart prisoners here know to stay away from me. I have my territory—a territory I fought hard for. No one will take what’s mine from me, especially not a female looking to add me to her harem. I’ve been used enough and will not return to that life.
When marks erupt all over my body, I wonder if I’ve been infected by a parasite, or someone dares to play a trick on me. Then I meet the female whose marks match my own. She’s small, fragile, but strong of spirit. I need to get to know her, to protect her… to make her mine.
DEVLIN’S DARLING is the sequel to BREN'S BLESSING (Book One of the Quasar Lineage) and MATTHIAS'S MIRACLE (Book Two of the Quasar Lineage) and AMARI’S ADORED (Book Three of the Quasar Lineage).
You don't have to read Bren's Blessing, Matthias’s Miracle, or Amari’s Adored in order to understand the plot, but the story will be more well-rounded if you do!
CHAPTER ONE
- Jenny
Dragging my feet, I shuffle up the stairs to the brick building. I’m not really paying attention to where I’m going. Just concentrating on breathing.
It’s been a rough week. Nothing super new for me, but hard nonetheless.
I'm one of fewer than a hundred thousand people in the world with cystic fibrosis. Having trouble inhaling and exhaling is a regular issue. Reaching the top of the short flight of stairs into the building, I pause. I dread climbing up the next two flights to the third floor.
“Hey, Jenny. Wait up!” Swinging around as I pull open the door, I see Rachel bounce quickly up the half a dozen stairs. A stab of jealousy shoots through me and I immediately say a silent prayer for forgiveness.
She’s been a great friend and once asked me what my disease feels like. Of course, that question was alluding to my breathing. It’s something I struggle with regularly.
I’m sure I sound as if I’ve smoked a couple pack of cigarettes a day for twenty years. The easy answer is it’s similar to breathing through a straw. You definitely recognize your lungs working in your chest.
Her wispy brown hair flies around her head as she enters the door I’ve held open. “Hi, Rachel. How have you been?” None of the women in this study group are close friends except us. We’ve been meeting once a week for a little over a month. Rachel’s the best though. Her optimistic attitude is a reflection of my own.
Rachel seems so tiny as she walks backward in front of me. “I’ve been better. I feel like I keep slipping a little further and further behind.” She swings back around to walk up the stairs.
“I totally know what you mean. It’s frustrating. Why I need this math course for an art major is beyond me.” My voice is breathless as I finish and concentrate on pulling air in and pushing it out. Rachel’s laugh tinkles and echoes in the stairwell.
I’m trying to keep up. But Rachel seems full of boundless energy and it’s when I’m with people like her, I realize how weak I really am. As we reach the door to the second floor, I stop to catch my breath.
It’s not usually this bad. Normally, I maintain a rigid regimen of exercise so I don’t get so fatigued so quickly. But I’m recovering from my latest lung infection. It’s been such a drag.
“Are you okay?” As Rachel reaches the landing between flights, she realizes I’ve stopped.
“Oh, yeah. Kind of.” Starting up the flight of stairs, I try to act nonchalant. “Just have a chest infection.” I can see Rachel’s concern and quickly add, “It’s not contagious or anything!”
Her brow furrows, her cute nose scrunching up. “I’m not worried about that, silly. Are you feeling alright? Eating?”
It’s not surprising she asked that. I’m very thin for my five-foot-six-inch frame. It’s a common side effect of cystic fibrosis. The mucus that clogs up my lungs also does the same to my digestive system. Because I have a hard time digesting food properly, I’ve been on supplements since I was a child. I’m still painfully thin and it’s common for people to assume I’m anorexic or something.
Catching up, I pause to answer her. “Yeah. I’m not at one hundred percent yet.” Maybe she feels like she was prying and is trying to be polite because she asks nothing else. I appreciate her thoughtfulness. We exit the stairwell and walk in silence towards the room our study group meets in.
I don’t tell people about myself very often. Even though most people have heard of cystic fibrosis, very few actually know exactly what it is. How it affects a person long term. Usually, I don’t have the energy to get into it.
My family has been my lifeline, although things are strained with them right now. As a Baptist minister, my father was very against me attending a public college. My mother talked him into it. I’m s
ure my disease helped since I missed out on a lot growing up. I don’t suppose they imagined I would make it into my second year.
The independence though… it’s everything I ever dreamed of. No one to tell me what to do, when to pray or what to wear—it’s been wonderful! Liberating. To say my upbringing was strict is an understatement.
Rachel and I got to know each other a little over the last couple of weeks. Her father sounds as bad as mine. Of course, mine definitely wants the best for me and I can’t say the same for Rachel’s. He just sounds bitter.
Even with all their rules and restrictions, I know my family loves me. They are convinced every restriction we live by is all for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that I don’t believe the same!
It’s just that I want to be independent. I want them to see I can get by and live on my own. I don’t have to marry some man in our church to survive in this world.
And let’s not kid ourselves either… my life expectancy is lower than many people. Medical science has come a long way. In the past, kids with cystic fibrosis would be lucky to live past their teens. Now thirty to fifty is the new norm.
Rachel startles me by swinging around to face me as we reach the door to our study group. “I know we don’t know each other very well…” Her warm hands clasp my forearms I’ve wrapped around the books I'm carrying. “But please let me know if there is anything you need.”
Her sincere offer surprises me and I smile at her. “I will. Thank you, Rachel. I appreciate it.” I’m thankful she doesn’t make any bigger of a deal out of it. Swinging around to open the door, she holds it for me to go in first.
We walk in and hellos echo from the ladies around the table. Karen and Jo-Anne glance up at us. Jo-Anne kicks out the chair next to her with a smile. They continue their conversation about a new movie that just came out. I drop my books in front of me before sinking into it gratefully. Every breath feels like work as I try to slow down and relax.
I remember Rachel told me she had a date coming up this week. I think it was last night? “How was your date last night?” From the way her eyes drop to the table, I’m guessing it wasn’t great. That’s too bad. She’s such a sweet person.
“Oh… you know. Typical.” Picking at the table top, she doesn’t look at me as she continues. “He bought me a coffee. After we chatted for about thirty minutes, he wanted to walk over to his fraternity’s party. I left right after we got there.”
I don’t blame her. I’ve never attended any of the fraternity parties, but I’ve seen the after effects and heard the stories. They get wild.
Bam!
Rachel tosses her book onto the table and it shakes under my arm where I was resting my head in my hand. She has a grim look on her face, and I can tell asking about her date wasn’t what she wanted to think about. Pulling off my glasses, I clean them for something to do as we wait for the others.
“Damn! Are we late?” Lisa rushes through the door, holding up her basket which undoubtedly contains goodies.
“No. You guys are right on time. Especially since you have food.” Beth waves them over and pulls out a chair for Lisa to sit almost directly across from me.
Beth’s throws a pile of napkins in the table's middle, revealing the brownies underneath. They slide all the way over. Taking two napkins, I put one in front of Rachel before Karen and Jo-Anne each grab one.
“Mm.” Beth waves the brownie at arm’s length before sliding the basket to her right.
“Brownies almost make this class tolerable.” Everyone agrees. Too bad they don’t make us automatically understand it! Oh well. I pull out a piece of gooey perfection and place it on my napkin, inhaling the sweet scent.
Shelly claps her hands to catch everyone’s attention just as I take my first bite. “Ladies, ladies. Oh yeah! Brownies.” She carefully picks one from the basket before sliding it over to Susan. “Let’s break into groups for our specific issues. With eight of us here that should make it so we can cross reference our strengths and weaknesses for each other.”
She stands and pulls out her own paperwork. I’m trying to remember where we left off. Coughing, I pat my chest as I flip through pages, leaning over my book in front of me.
Gasps draw my attention from the page in front of me. I realize there’s a bright light streaming in through the windows to my left. It’s so bright! What could be going on?
Across from me, chairs screech and bang as Susan, Beth and Lisa hop up to check it out. Rachel stands next to me, following Shelly’s lead. Karen has moved out of her chair and I stand too as she makes her way up behind Beth.
“What is that?” Lisa sounds scared and at first, I assume she means something outside. But right as I consider that, I realize she’s talking about the light. It’s coming right at us.
It makes no sense, but we can see the light. Not just what it illuminates around us in the room. The light itself has its own form. Beautiful prisms dance in the air and stream towards me. It doesn’t stop, just continues to dance around us.
I look at Rachel, dying to know if she can see the same thing I can. She’s reaching for me. I try to speak, but realize that I’m frozen in place. This is bad.
I'm aware of my entire body twitching and a small moan escapes me as I fight to breathe. Anxiety and dread seem to tighten my lungs even more and they labor even harder than normal. But right as I suspect it’s fear, I realize that the light is pouring into us.
Rachel and Shelly both have prisms of light pouring into their mouths, noses, and ears. It tickles as it dances down my own sinuses. Everything gets lighter and lighter, like an overexposed photograph. My vision fades.
So, this is how it ends. After all the worry and doctors and tests, it isn’t cystic fibrosis that ends my life. This must be the light from a nuclear explosion and now our bodies will be blown apart.
“Dear Lord and Savior, please comfort my family as you welcome me into your gates…”
CHAPTER TWO
- Devlin
“Devlin? You got time for me?” Brice’s nasal voice carries down the hall to my dwelling.
I heard him coming for the last couple minutes, but I didn’t go out to meet him. I’m not positive I want to deal with him today, but I promised Carten I would get him some supplies. He rarely leaves the tunnels beneath the prison.
“I’m coming.” Throwing on the yellow prison shirt, I realize it doesn’t cover all the marks that have shown up on my chest and arms. I’m not sure what they are, but there isn’t anything I can do to remove them. I tried.
They were faint at first, not much more than red outlines on my skin. A week ago, I was not concerned, but now they have gotten darker and more colorful. They look like I’ve been infected by a parasite by the way they twitch and move.
The last thing I need is Brice reporting it, and a team coming down to kill me. It might happen. But with the way I feel, I would welcome it.
My skin stretches tight, itching and pulling. I’m anxious and angry at nothing. A good fight would be welcome at this point.
I leave the living area of my home and walk down the hall towards the cart that Brice has parked at the end. My shadow stretches out in front of me and I'm aware he can’t see me as well as I see him. He moves backward and puts the cart between us. It’s just another reminder I’m different. I scare people.
It wasn’t always like that. My size was a good thing in our society where the females tend to be much larger than the males. I was one of the few as large as my Ermada.
“Have you learned the news?” Brice’s voice lowers even though there’s no one who would dare come into my building. “About the ship?”
Jerking my head no, I level him with my gaze to get him to continue. He is a gossip. Some information is worth the suffering. Although often, I count my breaths until he leaves.
“Earlier today, an imperial family shuttle came down outside the dome. It looks like it was in some kind of firefight.” His voice is getting more animated as he continues. “I saw
it when they brought it into the dome. It was a real mess.”
“So, what? Why would this interest me?” I couldn’t care less if all the fucking imperial family is killed off by space pirates.
He leans forward and his voice drops lower again. “There wasn’t any crew on it. It had been programmed to come here, and that’s probably why it practically crashed. But it had some interesting cargo on it.”
He pauses dramatically but I don’t take the bait. Brice loves this. He lives for it. It’s both a good and bad thing.
I realize as soon as he leaves me, he will tell everyone he goes to after me that I’m sick. Or I’m letting Carten paint his designs on my skin… that’s not a bad excuse for whatever is happening to me.
“Females.” He barely breathes the words.
My face must show my shock because he laughs. Ignoring his cackling, I briefly think about the female I’ve seen in my dreams. She’s beautiful. Long, brown hair lays flat on her head and continues past her shoulders to her ass. She has it pulled back with a fabric band that highlights lighter streaks coming off her temples. Exotic, blue eyes stare intelligently at me…
“Yes. I discovered three of them have been taken to the Warden’s building.” He stammers and I realize that he’s moving from truth to speculation. “They were in stasis and a little banged up—but alive.”
But for how long? The asshole Benard will imprison them as he has done so many others. His small group of followers who run this prison dome will abuse them as they do the weak males.
“That’s too bad,” I growl out. “Dying in the crash would have been a blessing.”
Brice just shrugs and pulls off the bins of supplies I normally require. My skin tingles with irritation at his slow movements. I try not to let it show as his high-pitched, annoying dialog continues.
“Maybe.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye as he pulls out the supplies for Carten. “Maybe not.”
