by J. S. Wilder
Table of Contents
About Fire Planet Vikings…
About J. S. Wilder
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
About J. S. Wilder
Fire Planet Vikings
Hot Dating Agency
Book 1
by
J. S. Wilder
© 2017 J. S. Wilder
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author's imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
About Fire Planet Vikings…
Take two dying alien races and one human female. What’s the result? A dating agency.
Stevan leader of the Fire Planet wants to save his own people, once he shifts and lands on Earth. He abducts Catherina after seeing her bring a man to his knees after he tries to mug her. Stevan decides that she’s exactly what his people need, he soon realizes that he needs a lot more than fighting to join the two races. He needs a way to connect them and Catherina uses her skills of working for a dating agency back on Earth to connect them.
Catherina has a dead end job back on Earth, with the rise of technology - dating agencies have become a thing of the past. She enjoys bringing the two races together. Her role on the planet is done, but there’s just one problem. The passion that she shared with the seven-foot leader makes her want to stay. Sereni has other ideas as she wants to claim Stevan for her own, and she doesn’t want a small, pale-blooded human to take her place as Stevan’s rightful mate. Sierra is out to get Catherina before Stevan begs Catherina to stay. Can Catherina win against Sierra for the heart of the leader?
Author's Note:
The Fire Planet Vikings is a stand-alone novella and the first book in the Hot Dating Agency series. I hope you enjoy the action-packed adventure with plenty of steam in this alien love triangle romance.
About J. S. Wilder
J.S. Wilder has spent many years working in the IT industry. She has left the computers behind and taken up her passion of writing. She loves to write romance and still believes in fairy-tales.
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Prologue
“My Lord,” Kergah said as he entered the large, opulent room, dropping to one knee just inside the door with his head lowered in the ceremonial offering of his life.
This was Stevan’s office, his work room, the room where affairs of state were conducted, not the Grand Hall that was used for pomp. Stevan smiled, and beckoned to his oldest friend. Kergah knew he wasn’t expected to kneel, but that was Kergah.
“Rise my friend.” Kergah rose, but not with his customary smile and Stevan felt his heart sink and a weight settle into his stomach. “What news?”
Kergah strode across the room, paying no attention to the polished stone walls covered in the pelts of tanned Sartuck or the gleaming ceremonial battle armor that decorated the room. Tergah was twice Stevan’s age, but he still carried himself with military precision, his hair cut close, just as he’d worn it when he’d commanded Stevan in his battle group.
“Terisha miscarried,” Kergah said softly, his lips thinned and his eyes haunted.
Stevan stared at his second in command, his own lips pursing at the news. “When?”
“During the night. I just received word. The doctors, they delivered the infant, but she was too young and fragile. She lived for only hours.”
Stevan scrubbed at his face. He wanted to lash out, to draw his long knife and plunge it into Kergah’s chest and feel his hot blood run over his hands. He wanted to rip and kills, to destroy all those around him that had brought them to his place. He was head of the Firaspatciti, the mightiest warrior of the most fearsome race in the known galaxy, but even he couldn’t defeat fate. While Kergah would willingly give his life for nothing more than his request, killing him would do nothing to change their situation, and he would lose his most trusted advisor.
“Do they know what happened?” Stevan asked, shoving the rage down deep.
Kergah shook his head. “Same as always.”
Stevan bolted from his chair. A lesser man than Kergah would have flinched. “She was the first woman to carry a child this near to term in twelve years!” Stevan roared. “The doctors assured us they’d discovered the cause and could control it!”
Kergah nodded, ever unflappable. “They have, my Lord. But knowing the cause and being able to correct it are not the same thing.”
“We are going to go into the long darkness!” Stevan bellowed as he began to stomp around the room.
He knew it wasn’t Kergah’s fault that Firaspatciti’s birth rate had been at near zero for a hundred years. It wasn’t his fault that youngest person on the planet was now eight years old. It wasn’t his fault that every Firaspatciti woman that conceived was miscarrying within weeks. It wasn’t his fault that a genetic flaw had crept into his people and was killing them from the inside. None of it was Kergah’s fault, just as it wasn’t his, but Stevan was boiling over with rage. His people were dying, and he couldn’t prevent it.
“What of the Aquallians?”
Kergah shook his head bitterly. “Nothing. Genetically we are compatible, but they just can’t conceive. The artificial hormone is ineffective.”
Stevan placed his hand on his desk and leaned in heavily, staring at the top as he breathed deep and hard, choking off and smothering his fury. Battles were lost when bloodlust took over. Kergah had taught him that. When you stopped thinking and simply struck out blindly, your enemies could use your rage against you. He couldn’t allow his wrath to consume him because this wasn’t a battle he could afford to lose.
“Help me, my friend,” he finally said as he looked up. “I don’t know what to do.”
Kergah shook his head slowly. “Nor do I, my Lord.”
“Are we, as a people, doomed?”
“Perhaps it’s time we joined the Ancient Ones.”
Stevan shook his head. “Perhaps, but I’m not willing to go into the long darkness just yet.”
“Yes, my Lord, but we are hearing rumors that other peoples are starting to see a decline in their birth rates as well. Perhaps we are simply the first of what is to be the end. Perhaps our time has come.”
Stevan smiled, but there was no humor in it. “The Firaspatciti have long led the known galaxy as their protectors. But this one time I don’t wish to lead.”
Kergah snorted. “Nor I, my Lord, but what other options are there?”
Stevan shook his head. “I don’t
know. But I refuse to go into the long darkness without a fight.” He rose to his full height and shoved away his doubts. His line had ruled Firaspatciti for over a hundred thousand years. There was no way he was going to be the last Gerretterdedsath to rule.
“Perhaps it’s time to consider other options,” Stevan said.
“What other options?”
Stevan shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said softly.
Chapter One
Catherina
I was walking home after another shitty day. Another shitty day in another shitty week in another shitty month in another shitty year. That was the story of my life. It was, in a word, shit. I was thirty-two years old, worked as an assistant to a barrister of maritime law, and I hated my job. The money was decent, but the doddering old fart was verbally abusive, acting like I should be qualified to catch his legal errors, railing at me when I didn’t, being snide when I did, and belittling me when I brought something to his attention when it wasn’t an error.
He’d hired me five years ago for data entry, typing, filing and keeping his schedule. I wasn’t a legal scholar and didn’t pretend to be one. When I’d first started working for the great Samuel E. Dunbar, he hadn’t been so bad, but I now I suspected his mind was going. Perhaps he knew it and was taking his fear out on me. I didn’t know why he’d changed from just a crotchety old man into the devil he was now, but I’d quit twice in the last three months. Both times he’d apologized profusely, promised to change, and offered more money while begging for me to stay. Stupidly, both times I agreed. He was better for a week, maybe two, but then he would slowly return to his old ways. I was thinking of leaving again, and this time, no amount of money would be able to entice me back.
I wanted to go back to my previous job, the job I loved and was good at. I’d worked for a dating service matching up couples based on their profiles and provided personalized coaching and relationship advice. That was my strength, and that’s what HeartMatch offered. A computer could match up people based on tick boxes, but coaching a man or woman… that required a human touch. My greatest achievement was that eight of the couples I’d coached through their relationship had gone on to be married. I’d even been invited to three of the weddings.
I loved playing cupid, but it hadn’t lasted. As the internet and social apps gained traction, less people turned to HeartMatch, the firm I’d worked for, until it had finally folded. Clients weren’t willing to pay for coaching and relied on quantity and luck over quality. Now I was just another clerk, toiling for a wage. I felt like there should be more to life than simply typing dull and dry legal terms into a Word document, but that’s what I did. At least it kept food on the table and a roof over my head.
Not only was my professional life shit, so was my personal life. Thirty-two, never married, and worse yet, no prospects. I didn’t feel like I needed a man to complete my life, but I got so very tired of coming home to an empty two-room apartment. I’d had boyfriends, but for some reason, most of them never fully clicked with me. We were always closer to friends with benefits than lovers.
It was ironic that I worked for HeartMatch but couldn’t get my love life in order. There’d been one, Malcolm, and I thought he’d hung the moon. I’d met him through HeartMatch, setting him up on several dates, but none of them seemed to work out. We’d talked at length about what he was looking for, and the more we talked, the closer we became. When his contract with HeartMatch expired, we met in person for the first time, and the spark was instantaneous for both of us. We’d had dinner, and then we’d gone back to his place where we’d spent the entire weekend in his bed.
We’d moved in together about a year after, and I’d been in bliss… until I’d caught him with his cock in the mouth of some whore at a party. We were at a New Year’s Eve party with friends and we’d both gotten completely blotted. I’d stepped outside for some air to clear my head, and I guess he’d forgotten I was there. When the clock struck midnight, he’d kissed someone else. When I’d heard the cheering, I’d hurried back in, eager for my kiss, but by the time I’d found him, he’d taken the bird into the back, and she was on her knees. Sure, he’d been drunk, but that was no excuse. I could have lived with the kiss, but not that. I’d stormed out, and he’d followed while begging forgiveness, but that had been the beginning of the end for us. I couldn’t get past his betrayal, and three months later, I’d moved out. That was twenty-two months ago. I’d dated a few times since, but most of the men were interested in only one thing or already had a family from a previous relationship. I wanted kids, but not someone else’s kids.
I hurried along the crowded streets of Glasgow. It looked like rain, and I wanted to get my shopping done before it started. There was a greengrocer between the tube entrance and my apartment where I purchased most of my produce, and if the rain would hold off for another twenty minutes, I’d be home.
I’d just stepped into the greengrocer as the first fat drops began to fall, dotting the concrete walk with darkened polka dots. I pulled the tightly rolled canvas bag out of the oversized purse and gave it a quick flip to open it. Maybe if I were quick, I could still get home before it began to rain in earnest.
I swiftly moved through the market, adding a few oranges, a head of cabbage, and six potatoes and an equal number of carrots to my bag. I was on my way to pay when I walked past some particularly delicious looking pineapple. I paused for a moment, staring at the fruit, and decided to add a pineapple to the bag. Tomorrow would be the butcher, and the day after that, the market. When I shopped, I purchased only enough for a couple of days. My apartment was so small that I didn’t have a lot of storage space. My pantry and refrigerator were only large enough to hold a few days’ worth of food at a time.
I handed over my Pound notes, returned the items to my bag, then stepped out of the shop. The clouds were low, dark and threatening, but so far the rain was holding off. Three blocks. If it would only wait long enough for me to make it the three blocks to my apartment. I’d made it a block and a half when the drops started again. I ducked my head and picked up my pace, purse over my left shoulder, my canvas bag of produce in my right hand.
I turned the corner just in time to see a man knock an old woman down, ripping her purse from her shoulder as he did. I lived in a relatively safe neighborhood, but mugger and purse snatcher roamed everywhere. The man turned and ran toward me, tucking the purse under his mottled green army jacket as he did.
I can’t explain what came over me. The smart thing to do would be to let the man rush and not get involved. He would duck into an alley somewhere close, take the money and dump the rest. With a bit of searching, the woman could probably get everything back except her cash. But today Samuel had belittled me in front of the guest in a way that had left me seething. I was looking for a target for my frustration, and this asshole would do fine.
As he rushed toward me, I grabbed the handles of my canvas shopping bag with both hands and spun in a three hundred sixty degree circle, building up momentum like I was in the hammer throw. I timed it perfectly, and the bag hit him square in face as he passed. I felt the blow all the way to my shoulders, but it was nothing compared to what he felt. The heavy potatoes, pineapple, and cabbage packed a lot of momentum, and the force of the impact stopped his head cold. Unfortunately for him, the rest of his body didn’t get the message, and as I continued my spin, the bag dragging me around, it appeared he flew backward like a cartoon character. He went down hard on the flat of his back, barking out as the impact drove the air from his lungs.
I rotated through another three hundred sixty degrees before I could get the bag stopped. As I stumbled to a halt, the man was still down with blood pouring from his shattered nose and busted lips. He was trying to get up, but he was obviously woozy from the blow to the head and the hard fall to the walk. I had a target, and all my frustration came boiling out of me. I kicked him in ribs as hard as I could.
“You stupid shite!” I screamed as I kicked him again, my brogue d
eepening with my rage. “Stealing an old woman’s purse!” I wound up and kicked him like I was trying to score a goal for The Celts. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” He tried to protect his ribs, rolling to his side and covering with his arms. I didn’t care, and I kicked him in the back. “Give it back!”
He began to rise and stumbled to his feet, but then fell to his hands and knees. I kicked him again, in the stomach this time. The purse fell from inside his jacket as he scrambled a short way, trying to gain some distance from the wild woman that was attacking him. Out of range, he regained his feet again and ran. He was hunched over; his right arm tucked in tight against his ribs, his face like something out of a horror movie. He caromed off the corner of the building like a billiard ball before disappearing around the corner.
I stood shaking as the adrenaline began to flush out of my system. It was all over in seconds. I picked up the woman’s purse as several people watched me in shocked amazement, their eyes wide. I hurried to the woman’s side as the other pedestrians began to recover and moved in to help. Several people were converging on the woman, but I was closest and arrived first.
I knelt beside her as she pushed herself to a sitting position and looked at her hands. She didn’t appear to be hurt other than a few scrapes.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.
“Yes. Yes, quite alright. Help me up?”
I rose and held out my hand. She took it, and I helped pull her to her feet as a man used her elbow and helped her as well. I held her purse out, and she took it, smiling at me.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she said, looking down in obvious embarrassment. “You were brilliant, but you really shouldn’t have put yourself in danger for what little money I have in here.”
