by Roma, Laurie
3013: MATED
3013: THE SERIES
Laurie Roma
3013: MATED
Alexis Donovan is a woman whose dream of falling in love with the perfect men has been dashed because of her infertile status. Still recovering from a war that almost destroyed the world, humans have fought to rebuild and have once again opened their shields to outside visitors. As a liaison officer for alien races that are visiting Earth, Alexis does her best to ignore what she can never have, but when she is put in charge of four visiting alien warriors, her entire world changes...
Dragons Warriors from Arcadia, Xavier and Galan Tesera and their best friends Thorn and Brydan Volis, have been curious about Earth ever since they helped the humans defeat their enemy years ago. As commanders of their own space vessel they travel the galaxies searching out the unknown, but in their hearts they know they will never truly be satisfied without a mate by their side.
When the four Dragon Warriors land on Earth they are instantly enamored with the sharp-tongued liaison who ignites a burning passion in their hearts, and know that she is the mate they have been searching for who will complete their souls. Will Alexis take a chance on four alien warriors or will the fear of leaving everything she has ever known destroy her chance of finding true love?
An Erotic Romance Novel.
3013: MATED by Laurie Roma
Copyright © 2013 Laurie Roma
Kindle Edition
First E-book Publication: December 2013
Cover design by Sloan Winters
Editing by S.L. Whitcomb
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. It is fiction so facts and events may not be accurate except to the current world the book takes place in.
DEDICATION
To my ladies of 3013…
Thank you for sharing this world and for joining me on this journey into the future.
***
Prologue
The year is 3013.
Earth barely survived the Alien Wars that have ravaged the planet, and an unknown virus had nearly wiped out the entire population. On the brink of extinction, humans struggle to rebuild their civilization, although nothing would ever bring back what once was.
Enforcing martial law, a new age of mankind is born, where warriors rule and women are the ultimate prize. Only the elite earn breeding rights and are granted leave to claim a woman in pairs. Men dream of the day that they will be able to claim a woman to love, but for those chosen being claimed means the end of their freedom and a beginning to a lifelong bond with two strangers. The warriors may have the choice, but the battle for their woman's heart has only begun…
***
Chapter One
“You want me to what?”
Alexis Donovan stared at her commanding officer with wide eyes, not believing what she had just heard. She was one of the only top-level liaison officers in the Northwest Quadrant that was currently available, but asking her to act as the host to four visiting male warriors alone was like sending her to the badlands stripped naked and defenseless.
It was a new world in 3013.
For centuries Earth had prospered as an advanced society, coming together after the need for civil unrest had been pushed aside. Part of the healing between nations had been because of the space program. It allowed all humans to work towards a common goal, to reach for the stars and explore new possibilities. New technology such as spaceships and jump drives had changed Earth, and the advancements had enabled contact with alien races far beyond anything once imagined.
But those changes came with a price…
In the year 2960 a new alien race came to Earth called the Zyphir, and they certainly did not come in peace. The Zyphir were a colony race of insect-like creatures that stood on two feet, looking like something right out of a nightmare or horror vid. What they came for was total annihilation of the human race, after which they would take over Earth and deplete the world of all resources until moving on to the next planet that suited their needs. A three year war ensued, during which large portions of Earth were destroyed. Not just by battle, but by an unknown virus the Zyphir carried that nearly wiped out the entire population.
Only with the help of other allied alien races was Earth finally able to defeat the Zyphir. After the war, humans struggled to survive. Martial law was declared, and the world was left under the rule of the United Federation Command Alliance, or as it was more commonly called, the Alliance.
Although the war was over, the battle had just begun to rebuild Earth to its former glory. And that wasn’t so easy after the virus swept through the world, altering the genetics of the survivors. More accurately, the virus seemed to attack the female reproductive systems, leaving most women on Earth infertile. No matter how advanced medical technology had become, the cause for the infertility remained untreatable.
And so, a fertile female became the ultimate prize.
Over the last fifty years it had become mandatory for all females to be tested for fertility at the age of ten. Those that were determined fertile were tattooed with specialized scroll markings on the right side of their faces near their eye, showing the world that they were special. Those tattoos would become darker with age, turning a mercurial black when the female became of claimable age. Fertile females were also implanted with nanotechnology that made it impossible for them to get pregnant until the birth control was deactivated after their eighteenth birthdays or later when they were claimed by a pair of elite soldiers.
Infertile females were given a simple star as proof they were tested…and found lacking.
The Alliance created the harshest of punishments to ensure the safety and welfare of breedable females. The stylized markings on a fertile female’s face meant that it was every soldier’s duty to protect them, and all men longed for the day when they would be able to claim a woman as their own.
When a woman was chosen, the two elite soldiers that claimed her would have their initials tattooed on the left side of her face, marking her as theirs for the world to see. In return, the men would have a similar tattoo placed on their left neck, shoulder and arm as a sign of pride to have claimed a woman. These markings took the place of archaic symbols such as wedding bands to declare them a bonded unit.
At the age of ten, boys were also tested in order to determine if they would be taken for military service. Only the strongest and brightest males were chosen for the biological enhancements to become elite soldiers. The elites were bigger and stronger than normal humans, with increased reflexes and heightened senses. These enhancements were encoded into their genes, and would be passed onto their children.
Their enhanced genetics were the future of the human race.
The advantages that came with being one of the elite had caused resentment against the military that now ruled Earth, creating a new separation of classes. Although most fertile females were given genetic enhancements, some non-fertile females who pass the rigorous testing also received military enhancements to make them more productive and useful to society. As one of those females who had undergone the enhancement process, Alexis had thought that she would finally have a place where she belonged, but soon after joining the service of the Alliance, it was made clear to her that she would never be the same class as the elite male soldiers.
Alexis had worked the last six years to become a top-level liaison officer, but she knew that her male colleagues still looked down on all the
female officers, her included, regardless of how well they did the job. It didn’t matter thought. Being an officer of the Alliance gave her life purpose. As an infertile female she would never have the dream of having two men who loved her more than life itself. She would never hold a baby in her arms or watch it grow.
Those dreams had been taken from her the moment she was tested when she was ten.
“You heard me, Officer Donovan,” Director Farris barked out as he sat back in his chair behind his desk. Alexis thought his office suited his personality perfectly. It was dull, dreary and slightly uncomfortable to be in amid its stark gray on gray tones with nothing to break up the monotonous décor. The man himself wasn’t any better. Reginald Farris was a tall man, with dirty blond hair worn in a standard buzz cut. Some might have called him a decent looking man, but it was his perpetual wandering eyes that made Alexis dread being around him.
“Listen, I don’t have time to argue with you about this. These four visitors are last minute arrivals, and they’re special. I mean VIP to the max. You know the Arcadians were essential in helping us defeat the Zyphir. If they hadn’t come to our aid along with the Krytos and D’Aire we’d be bug food right now.”
Damn, Alexis had to force herself not to twitch at that.
She hated bugs and just the mere mention of the Zyphir made her skin crawl, even if the Alien Wars were over before she was born. She looked at Director Reginald Farris and narrowed her eyes even as she remained standing at attention. The older man was up to something. He wouldn’t have called her into his office and thrown this at her if there wasn’t more to this…request.
“I understand that these are important visitors, Director Farris. What I don’t understand is why I am being designated their liaison officer while they’re visiting, considering there are four males.” Alexis struggled to keep her voice steady, when what she really wanted to do was yell and bitch-slap the son of a bitch glaring back at her.
Since they opened their shields back up and started allowing visitors back on Earth, the Alliance had set strict guidelines on how visitations should be run. It was important that the liaison officers were well versed with the cultures that were allowed as guests on Earth’s surface. Since it was standard for the liaisons to stay with visitors for the duration of their stay in a spare room at one of the spectacular guest housing locations, it was even more important that they were protected as they performed their duties.
Which was why a single female liaison officer had never been asked to host four males at once.
“Are you questioning my orders?” Director Farris demanded.
Well, duh…yeah. Damn right, she was.
“You will do what I tell you, Officer. The Arcadians will be—”
“Dragon Warriors, sir.”
“What?”
“Arcadians who explore worlds and don’t live on their home planet prefer to be called Dragon Warriors. Sir.”
He waved a hand in the air, as if to brush her clarification aside. “Whatever. They will be arriving at the end of the week and you will be the officer in charge of their visit, unless…” His eyes took on a sly gleam. “I have a meeting on Delta Station in two days. I could always arrange for someone else to take on the liaison duty…if you were to accompany me on my trip.”
Alexis’ body went rigid and her jaw nearly drop open at the insulting insinuation. Holy hell, did the man have a few circuits loose, because clearly he had lost his damn mind. She wouldn’t touch him if he were the last damn man in the entire freaking universe!
Unfortunately, this was not the first time something like this had happened to her.
She had recently been transferred from Light City here to the Capital. To outsiders it looked like a promotion, but the truth was it was nothing so simple. Alexis had actually been part of an operation that focused on identifying high ranking men that were abusing their power within the Liaison Division and removing them from office. So far, no one knew she had been part of the team working undercover, but she thought she had put all of this bullshit behind her when she transferred to the Capital.
Alexis wanted to gag as Director Farris’ beady eyes glazed over with lust as his gaze roamed over her body. Even dressed in the standard uniform of a steel-gray jacket with off-center zipper, black sleeves and regulation black pants and boots, she felt dirty just from the way he was looking at her. Most people saw her pretty appearance as an asset given her chosen profession, but to Alexis, her looks were more like a curse.
Born with almost white-blonde hair and violet eyes, Alexis stood out in any crowd. When she was on duty, she usually pulled her long hair back in a ponytail, if she wasn’t wearing a more formal style when she was officially on assignment with visitors. One of the perks of her position was she wasn’t held to the more regimented standards of the other elite soldiers, since part of her job was looking and being approachable.
Unlike a true albino, Alexis had been blessed with the ability to tan, which made her even more unusual since she usually had light-golden skin that was striking against her other features. Adding to that, once she had gone through the genetic enhancements, her body had begun to blossom just like all the females who had undergone the change.
Where males developed more muscle mass, making them look like gods among men, women who were given the enhancements developed bodies that were more suited to sex droids. At five eight, Alexis had large breasts, a narrow waist and long legs, but she was stronger than she looked. She was trained in combat like all of the soldiers of the Alliance were, and was often underestimated.
That still didn’t help her against assholes like Farris who used their positions of power to get what they wanted.
Alexis’ jaw tightened, and she had to force the words out between clenched teeth when she spoke. “Sir, I will have to decline your offer and will accept the liaison position as ordered.” She activated her wrist unit and waved it over the console on his desk, instantly downloading the information needed for her new assignment.
“You may want to rethink your attitude if you plan to rise in the ranks, Officer Donovan. I can be a great ally for you…or a terrible enemy if you chose to cross me.”
Vile little fucker.
“I am confident in my skills as a liaison officer, sir.”
Scowling at her, Director Farris narrowed his eyes. “So be it. You will do everything in your power to make sure they are well taken care of, is that understood? I don’t want to hear any complaints about this assignment, no matter what happens.”
“Sir.”
Wanting to get the hell out of there, Alexis stood at attention and placed her right fist over her heart in salute then turned and left before he could say anything more.
Alexis let out a hiss of annoyance as she left his office and pressed a button on her wrist unit. She was glad she had gotten the entire conversation on her recorder and the fucker hadn’t even noticed….the dumb ass. She took a deep breath and tried to rein in her temper as she made her way out of the Liaison Division out into the fresh air.
Putting on her sunshades, she looked out over the Capital and admired the view. She always felt a sense of pride at seeing the towering steel and glass structures that made up the city, and her mind was at ease knowing that an invisible shield protected Earth from anyone approaching uninvited.
It had once been her dream to travel the skies to other worlds far beyond what she had seen, but because of her pale eyes it was very hard due to the glaring lights that accompanied space travel. Alexis had made a few trips to nearby space stations, however she’d never be able to obtain status to be stationed anywhere but Earth because of her overly sensitive eyes.
Whatever enhancements she’d been given allowed her to see even better in the dark so she wore sunshades most of the time, except when she was talking to a higher-ranking officer. She could have asked for an assignment on one of the dark planets, but those tended to be used for prison sites and other depressing facilities that she wouldn’t want to sp
end too much time at.
No, she was meant to stay on Earth, where she could live doing what she was good at and perhaps one day she could find a man or two to love her, despite her flaws. She watched with no small bit of envy as trios walked along the tiered walkways that connected the large buildings out in the open air. She could see the protective way the men all but surrounded the women between them, and felt an ache in her heart.
Scrolls.
That was the nickname given for the fertile women who were lucky enough to be chosen by two men. Even if she couldn’t give a man a child, there was still a small chance that Alexis would find two men to join her life with, but she wasn’t holding her breath.
A few years ago, Alexis thought she had been one of the lucky ones to have found an elite pair of men that could love her despite her shortcomings. She had naively believed the sweet words Draven and Cristof had given her, soaking up the attention they had bestowed upon her like a flower did the rays of the sun.
But it had all been a ruse just to get her in bed.
Both of the elite soldiers had just been biding their time until they were ready to claim a fertile woman to be their chosen. Even more insulting, now that the men had formed a bonded unit, they still offered to keep Alexis as their mistress.
And that was something she would rather die than agree to.
Once men joined the Alliance, it was common for them to quickly pair up, knowing that they would one day bond with the same woman. It was extremely rare for a single man and woman to be together, at least not in the cities where the elites reigned supreme. Even when Alexis took her first lovers, they had been a pair of men she had been in training with while still in the Academy. It had been right after they had graduated, and all three of them had known it would never go further than a brief relationship.
