REIGN
(The Draax Series Book One)
By Elizabeth Kelly
Copyright © 2018 Elizabeth Kelly
Published by
EK Publishing Inc.
eISBN-13: 978-1-988826-22-6
This book is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, scanned or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Adult Reading Material
Edited by
L. Nunn Editing
Cover art by
The Final Wrap
REIGN
(The Draax Series Book One)
One small mistake. Two lives changed forever.
Sabrina
I would do anything to save my sister’s life. Which is why I‘m about to be living on the alien planet of Draax. Giving up three years of my life on earth to be a nanny for the alien who healed my sister should be easy.
Only, I think there’s been a mix up. This is a palace, not a farm.
I’m on an alien planet with a malfunctioning translator, a storm trapping me in a home I don’t belong in, and a silver-eyed, sexy alien warrior who keeps touching me like I belong to him.
I have a bad feeling he thinks I’m here to have his baby.
Quillan
As king, my people demand a queen and an heir to the throne. With females of our own kind nearly extinct, breeding with the human females is our race’s only chance at survival.
I have no desire to be mated for life, but from the moment I see my future queen, I’m obsessed. I want the curvy human in my bed and by my side at the throne. Her soft kisses, fiery spirit and response to my touch, ignites an unending need for her.
There’s only one problem – she’s breeding incompatible and cannot be my queen.
* * *
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Table of Contents
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 One
Sabrina
Inoperable.
Incurable.
Two words that had torn through me like a meteorite through a jumpgate.
But two years later, my little sister had beaten cancer. All thanks to a sweet-tasting pink drink called gallberry juice.
I walked into Carrie’s bedroom, smiled at my sister, and eased my chubby body onto the bed beside her. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. I feel like a new person, Sabrina.”
“Good.” I studied Carrie’s pale and thin face before handing her the glass I was holding. “Drink the last of it.”
“I don’t think I need to,” Carrie said. “I feel much better and it might be best to save some of the gallberry juice. It’s so hard to get.”
“You have to drink it all. It’s exactly the amount needed to heal you completely. Drink.”
Despite being twenty-three, Carrie drank with the obedience of an eager-to-please toddler. When she’d drained the glass, I took it back and set it on the nightstand. “Would you like to get out of bed?”
Carrie nodded, and I pulled back the bedcovers and helped her stand. Shaky and weak, she leaned on me and we walked slowly past our parents’ second-hand hologram screen and into the living area. Only five days ago my sister was on the verge of death, and now she could get out of bed.
A miracle.
Not a real miracle.
A gallberry juice miracle.
I settled Carrie on the sofa and tucked a heated blanket around her.
“Sabrina?”
“Yes?” I was checking messages on my PAR phone. It was a third-generation model and the holographic capabilities were almost non-existent, but it was all I could afford. I looked up when Carrie touched my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you have to go to the Draax planet?” She wasn’t crying yet, but she was close.
“I can’t renege on the contract. I don’t look good in prison orange.”
“It’s a shame you have to give up three years of your life for me.”
Her words were right, but the tone was off. Like all I was giving up was a trip to the moon. Hell, even people like us can afford that day trip. But it didn’t matter. I would give up fifty-three years to the Draax if it meant Carrie would live.
I said something I needed to believe was true. “You’d do the same for me. Besides, you’ll be fine. You have Josh.”
“But I need you, too.” Carrie’s voice was a quarter coaxing and three quarters demanding. “Seventy-five light years is so far away. What if I never see you again?”
“Don’t be silly, it’s an adventure.” My tone was as brisk as a cold mountain wind. “I’ll send you a hologram or email every day.”
“I’ve heard the Draax aren’t nice,” Carrie said. “What if your new boss is mean to you?”
Mean to me? I should have been used to Carrie’s child-like perception of the world, but that was my fault for sheltering her. Carrie had always been the fragile one.
“Why would he be?” I said. “I’m qualified and competent and children frickin’ love me. His kid will think I’m the bees’ knees.”
The old saying lured out a sliver of a smile. “But what if they try and keep you there for breeding?”
“They won’t. I have a nanny-only contract.”
“Their race is dying out. What if the Draax are lying? What if he puts you in chains? What if he forces you to breed?”
I laughed. It was erratic and irregular. Uncertainty coated it. “You have to stop believing everything you read on the InfoNet. The Draax are our allies in the United Space Coalition. The breeding program is voluntary, no one is ever forced.”
Carrie continued to stare at me and I leaned forward and took her hands in mine. “The agency is very reputable. He’s a farmer whose wife died in childbirth. This is just another nanny job.”
“It isn’t just another nanny job.” Her voice rose with a what-the-fuck vibe. “You’ll be on a different planet in a different star system.”
“The Idalia system is only one jumpgate away,” I said.
“Maybe he’ll let you visit me?”
“Maybe.”
I doubted my new employer would allow me to visit. If the rumours were true, the Draax were rather emotionless. He wouldn’t care that I missed my sister.
It was the Draax race who had come to our rescue when the planet was attacked by the Gokmards nearly forty years ago. The Gokmards were brutal killers and their advanced technology had destroyed our defense systems within a matter of weeks. We were on the verge of becoming slaves to the Gokmards when the Draax had joined the war.
It had all happened before I was born, but I had watched the holograms of the war. The Gokmards had advanced weaponry while the Draax fought with huge steel swords. By all accounts, the Gokmards should have destroyed the Draax easily. But the Draax were a warrior race. Their large green bodies were as big if not bigger than the Gokmards, and they fought viciously and killed without mercy. At the time, humans believed they had a supernatural ability
to heal from the wounds they received during battle.
It wasn’t until the war was over that the Draax revealed what allowed them to heal so easily. The gallberry plant. The light pink plant was a miracle plant as far as humans were concerned. When harvested, the juice extracted from it healed everything from minor cuts to gunshot wounds to – I swallowed heavily – cancer.
“I hope he’ll let you visit,” Carrie said. “But what if your new employer is tricking you? There have been plenty of women who have gone to the Draax planet for nanny jobs and been tricked into breeding with them.”
Carrie had a valid fear. The Draax hadn’t saved our planet from the Gokmards out of the goodness of their hearts. Despite being an alien race, their anatomy was remarkably similar to ours – if you ignored the green skin and the tails – and the Draax needed us. Females were rarely born on their planet. Females of mating age were becoming increasingly scarce, and desperate to save their dying race, the Draax had been searching for an alien race that could carry their young.
In exchange for not only saving us from the Gokmards, but also supplying us with limited quantities of the gallberry juice, the Draax wanted to start a breeding program with us. Earth’s highest authorities had agreed quickly.
“He isn’t like that,” I said to Carrie. “He assured me by email that he had no interest in breeding with me. He only wants a nanny for his child. Besides, I’m not compatible for breeding purposes. It’s one of the reasons he chose me to work for him.”
Carrie gave me a doubtful look and I squeezed her hand reassuringly. Only seventy percent of human females were actually able to successfully breed with the Draax males. Something about a certain type of gene that some women carried. I didn’t know the specifics, and frankly, I didn’t care. I wasn’t breeding compatible and I was happy about that.
Are you? My inner voice whispered.
I flushed brightly. The breeding program the government had developed with the Draax was entirely voluntary for women. Not surprisingly, there weren’t many volunteers. Proving themselves to be intelligent as well as capable warriors, rather than take the women by force, the Draax had simply begun to withhold the supply of gallberry juice that Earth had already started to depend on.
Desperate to save their loved ones from diseases, more and more women had joined the breeding program. Once they had fulfilled the contract by giving their Draax mate a child, they were free to return to Earth. Many didn’t, of course. What mother would want to leave their child? The Draax used their reluctance to leave their children to their advantage, and in the last thirty years, their numbers had begun to grow. Female children were still a rarity, but even that was changing. The Draax race was no longer on the verge of extinction thanks to humans.
“Why are you so red, Sabrina?” Carrie asked.
“No reason.”
I was lying. I had never spoken to a Draax male, but I’d seen plenty of them. There were always tons of them here on Earth. They spent a lot of time trying to seduce women into breeding with them and joining them on their planet. It wasn’t illegal as long as they didn’t bribe them with gallberry juice. The use of gallberry juice was strictly regulated by the government and the agencies they had created. Of course, like everything illegal, there was a massive black-market operation for the sale of gallberry juice. Both humans and Draax were involved in it, and according to the government, it was becoming a large problem.
I was blushing because just the thought of being in a Draax’s bed brought a funny pulsing ache between my legs. Obviously, I’d never slept with one, but I knew the rumours as well as the next woman of the Draax’s legendary skills in bed.
In fact, most humans believed that our women didn’t return to earth after fulfilling their breeding contract, not because of their bond with their children, but because of their bond with the Draax male they had bred with. Because they craved the pleasure the Draax males gave them.
Draax males were very large and exceptionally strong. I had watched more than one Draax porn hologram in the privacy of my bedroom. Their dicks were huge, and just the thought of trying to take one, brought on that funny little ache between my legs and simultaneously scared the hell out of me. The women in the porn holograms never seemed to be frightened by the enormity of the cock they were taking, but they were professionals. I was about as far from a professional sex worker as you could get.
My cheeks now felt like they were on fire. I spent my time working and taking care of my sister and there was no time for dating. I was the only twenty-five-year-old virgin I knew, and it embarrassed me more than I would admit. I was anxious to get rid of my virginity – hell, I had more pent up desire and lust than was healthy - but sleeping with a Draax male for my first time was a very bad idea.
I hadn’t actually heard of a woman being split in two by a Draax dick, but it’s not like they’d let that information get out to the general public, would they?
You’re being ridiculous, Sabrina! My inner voice snapped. Human females wouldn’t still breed with them if they were actually being hurt by the sex.
Sure, they would, I thought morosely. Desperate people did desperate things. If they needed the gallberry plant bad enough, they’d risk the chance of permanent vaginal damage by Draax dick. Hell, in less than a week I’d be on a completely different planet looking after an alien kid because her father agreed to save my sister’s life with gallberry juice.
Yeah, and you would have bred with one if you were compatible.
It was true. I had applied for the breeding program first as there were more available positions there, than with the nanny program that had cropped up in the last ten years. When I tested incompatible, I applied to the nanny program in desperation, not really expecting to get chosen. To my surprise, an alien had chosen my application – a combination of my nanny experience, plain old luck, and his desire for a human female who he couldn’t breed with.
I shook off the small trickle of hurt I felt. It was ridiculous to be hurt by a Draax’s lack of interest in mating with me. It had nothing to do with my looks or the chubbiness of my body. I wasn’t compatible for mating so a Draax would have no interest in me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have many prospects with males of my own kind either. I was taller than most men cared for – why did so many men want women who were short? – and the extra forty pounds I carried wasn’t appealing to them either.
Feeling sorry for myself and my inability to lose my virginity was stupid. I knew I could find a guy who was willing to overlook my chunky thighs and stomach for a wham, bam, thank you ma’am quickie before I left for the Draax planet, but I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t into casual sex, even if it meant I would be the world’s oldest virgin when I finally returned to Earth.
How do you know you’re not into casual sex? My inner voice pouted. You might be. You could at least try it and see, for God’s sake.
“Sabrina? Are you still in there?” Carrie’s finger poked me in the middle of the forehead.
“Yes. What did you say?”
“I asked about the…other thing,” Carrie said. It was her turn to go red even though she’d had sex and was no innocent.
“The other thing isn’t going to be an issue. I already told you that he’s not interested in me like that.”
“But what if he is? What if he’s interested and he wants you to have sex with him and – and another?” Carrie’s face went down in a little moue of disgust.
I tried to arrange my face to mimic hers. “I’m not going to have a threesome with my employer and another Draax male.”
“But they like that sort of thing!” Carrie almost wailed. “You know they do.”
My little sister wasn’t wrong. Compared to humans, the Draax had a very free-spirited attitude when it came to sex. Their fondness for threesomes with a human female was well known, and there was plenty of pornographic hologram evidence to back it up. Although the research I did before I applied to the breeding program suggested that, when it came to
marriage and breeding, the Draax encouraged females to choose only one male.
A little shiver went down my back. What it would be like to be with not one Draax, but two? I wanted to be disgusted like my sister was, I wanted to pretend it was wrong and sick, but the heat in my belly and the sudden throbbing of my pussy wouldn’t let me.
I almost laughed out loud. I’d never taken a single dick and here I was fantasizing about two. What was wrong with me?”
“Sabrina? What are you thinking about? Your face is really red now,” Carrie said.
“Nothing.”
Carrie gave me an uncertain look but then said, “Is he handsome?
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve only seen pictures of his daughter. She has purple skin and is a pretty little thing. I’m sure I’ll get along very well with her.”
“What if he’s handsome?”
I frowned at her. “What does it matter?”
“You might fall in love with him and stay on the planet forever. I’ll never see you again.” Carrie’s face drew down into a pout. “I need you, Sabrina. Now that I’m better, Josh and I are thinking of having a family. I can’t have a baby without you here to help me. You know I need you, right? Promise me you’ll come back after the three years are up. Promise me you won’t be like other women and fall in love with one of the aliens.”
I tried not to think bitter thoughts. Carrie didn’t mean to be selfish. She didn’t really want me to be alone forever, with my only purpose in life being to make hers easier. She was just young and immature, and she depended on me and Josh to take care of her.
I squeezed her hand again. “Honey, that’s not going to happen. Stop worrying, okay? Everything is going to be fine. I’ll be back before you know it and while I’m gone we’ll email every day and hologram chat at least once a week.”
Carrie’s lower lip trembled before she sniffed. “Yes, okay. Just please say that you’ll come back to me. Please.”
Reign Page 1
