Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter One – Gaia
Chapter Two – Rikka
Chapter Three – Gaia
Chapter Four – Rikka
Chapter Five – Gaia
Chapter Six – Rikka
Chapter Seven – Gaia
Chapter Eight – Rikka
Chapter Nine – Gaia
Chapter Ten – Rikka
Chapter Eleven – Gaia
Chapter Twelve – Rikka
Chapter Thirteen – Gaia
Chapter Fourteen – Rikka
Chapter Fifteen – Gaia
Chapter Sixteen – Rikka
Chapter Seventeen – Gaia
Chapter Eighteen – Rikka
Chapter Nineteen – Gaia
Chapter Twenty – Rikka
Chapter Twenty One – Gaia
Chapter Twenty Two – Rikka
Chapter Twenty Three – Gaia
Chapter Twenty Four – Rikka
Chapter Twenty Five – Gaia
Chapter Twenty Six – Rikka
The Hierarchy
Also By Harmony Raines
Found
Warriors of Karal
(Book Two)
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Note from the author: My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.
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All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2015 Harmony Raines
Silver Moon Erotica
Kindle Edition
Chapter One – Gaia
Gaia watered the small rose bush that was the last of her mom’s plants. After her mom’s death a year ago, she had felt compelled to keep this plant alive. It symbolised the difficult relationship she had endured with her mom. It also symbolised the last fragments of her love for a woman who had given her a difficult childhood. Gaia’s fear was that if she had allowed this rose to die, any love she had held onto for her mom would finally die too.
So she had nurtured it, watering it with purified water and feeding it with special food, looking after the plant better than she looked after herself. In return, it had bloomed, its small frame covered in the most vibrant of blooms, one splash of colour in an otherwise grey world.
“You will take care of it?” she asked.
“For the hundredth time, Gaia, I will look after it like it was my own child,” Ola said.
“I wish I could take it with me,” Gaia said sadly.
“I know how much it means to you, Gaia. It’s a pity the Karal don’t allow you to take plants to their planet. Surely, they couldn’t be against you taking a small rose bush. You could plant it there and watch it grow.” Ola leaned down and sniffed the blooms.
“I have some pressed leaves I am taking. I don’t think they will object to those.” She placed a book in her purse. Between the pages were two deep red petals that she had pressed when the rose had begun to bloom two months ago.
“Listen. This is what your mom dreamed about. If only she had been alive to see the day the Karal landed, she might have found the will to live. A planet filled with life, filled with the power of nature. It’s perfect for you. So go and enjoy it, and fill your senses and your heart with new plants, new life.” Ola hugged Gaia tightly.
“I can’t believe I’m not going to be able to walk down the street to your house and gossip about the small stuff that’s happened in my day,” Gaia said sadly. “I will miss you so much.”
“And I will miss you. But this doesn’t mean we might not meet again. The Karal need lots of women, and you never know, I might get picked too,” Ola said, releasing Gaia, who picked up her luggage and stood looking around the room for one last time.
“I’m going to miss this house so much,” Gaia said, and her voice cracked with emotion. She never thought she would feel this much sentimental attachment to the place where she had cried so many tears, and lost so much of her joy.
“I’ll look after it too. I can’t tell you how happy you’ve made me. I thought I’d never have a place of my own.”
Gaia smiled. “At least you can still run home to your mom if you need to.” Ola had lived only a few doors away from Gaia’s house her whole life. They had been lifelong friends, always there to support each other. This had been particularly fortunate when Gaia’s mom had passed away last year. It had been Ola who had stayed with her and comforted her.
Since then, Ola had practically lived with Gaia, although officially she still lived with her mom and dad. Now that Gaia was going to Karal, she had given the house and everything in it, including the rose bush, to Ola.
“It’s the one reason I doubt I’ll ever use my tag to enter the lottery. I couldn’t bear to leave them,” Ola said, looking sadly at Gaia.
“I know, and you are truly blessed with having such wonderful parents. But for me, since my mom’s death, I have struggled to find happiness.” In truth, Gaia had struggled to find happiness her whole life. But her mom’s passing had made it clear that it was time to move on, find her inner joy, or she would spiral into the depths of despair. And she was determined not to be like her mom. She couldn’t give up on herself before she had even had a chance of a life of her own. “Maybe I’m running away, but I kind of need to find a way to feel alive again. And that is hard here on Earth.” She stroked the petals of her red rose one last time. “But I will miss so much.”
“And we will miss you. My mom sends her love, but she couldn’t bear to come and say goodbye.” Ola let out a sob. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. Because I know this is the right thing for you, but I am going to miss you so much. I’ve always thought of you as my sister.”
“We are sisters, Ola. To me we always have been. I could never have wished for a better friend. Never.” Gaia began to cry too, big heaving sobs, but she breathed them back in and stood up straight. “This is no way to go and meet the Karalians, is it?”
“No,” Ola agreed, wiping the tears from her face. “You go and have the best time. You make sure to breathe in lots of their fresh air and eat loads of yummy food.”
“I will. Each time I take a breath I’ll think of you.”
“No you won’t,” Ola said firmly. “You will let go of thoughts of us and find happiness with one of those big, brooding Karalian men. I hope he knows how lucky he is, because whoever gets to have you as the mother of their child is the real winner.”
“Thank you, Ola.” Tears threatened once more. “OK. I’m going to leave now. Please, don’t come to the door; you stay here, or else I’ll be a blubbering mess.”
They embraced one last time, Gaia bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying, tasting the blood as she pierced the skin. She had to keep herself together and be strong. Coping with her mom, she had learned how to find her inner strength, and that was what she needed now.
“Goodbye, Gaia. May we met again,” Ola said, as Gaia left the room.
“In this world or the next,” Gaia replied, thinking how strange that of all the times she had heard that phrase, she had never thought of it
in the context she saw it now. She had whispered it to her mom as she lay dying, meant as words of comfort to a woman who believed in a spirit world. But today Gaia was going to a different world: to Karal, a world that was very much alive.
These thoughts kept her occupied as she made her way out into the grey streets. She had a long journey ahead; it would take her two hours or more to travel to the airport where she was to meet the Karalian spaceship. In that time she planned to let go of her life on Earth and be ready to begin again. Yet as she walked past familiar sights, buildings she had walked past every day of her life, people she had known from the day she was born, a deep sadness settled on her.
Was this a mistake? Should she have simply accepted her life here on Earth and stayed? Her family had never had much, but she had still experienced a richness many never did. Despite her mom’s condition, Gaia had still felt love, laughter, and the feeling that she belonged to something greater. Now she was leaving it all behind.
“Goodbye, Gaia,” a voice called.
She turned. It was Mr Hargreaves, the baker. Not that he had much to bake these days. Fresh ingredients were scarce and practically everything was simulated. Still, on days when he got hold of flour, the smell of fresh bread would fill the air. “Goodbye.” She waved, smiling despite the heaviness in her heart.
“May we meet again,” another voice called out, and she turned to wave again. Her reply, in this world or the next, stuck in her throat, because to speak would be to unleash tears that she could not afford to let loose.
Ducking her head, she walked on, the edge of the town appearing. A dirty river, polluted and stinking, marked the point where she would leave the place she was born, never to return.
“I thought you might need a lift.” There, waiting for her on the road, was Johnny Marshall, the man she always thought she would marry.
“You don’t have to,” she said, but was grateful he was here. They had parted on bad terms when he found out she had entered the lottery, and he hadn’t spoken to her since news she had won had spread.
“Yes I do. I need to say I’m sorry.” He opened the door of his car, and she got in, not wanting to offend him with a refusal.
“The gas will cost too much,” she said. “Just take me down to the factory and leave me there. I can walk the rest of the way.”
“No. I have some deliveries to make and errands to run. And if these are the last minutes I’m going to have with you, then the gas is worth the price.”
“I wish it could be different,” she admitted when they were driving along the road and she trusted herself to speak without bursting into tears.
“So do I. But I have been thinking about everything and I know you are right to go. I also know that if it was the other way around and I was the one leaving, you would wish me well.”
“I hope I would,” she said, looking at him. The lump in her throat grew bigger and threatened to choke the life from her. Why was she doing this? Why didn’t she accept things as they were, settle down, and have a child with Johnny?
“You would,” he insisted. He fell silent and they drove on, each lost in their thoughts until the city loomed in the distance.
“I hope you find the right woman for you, Johnny,” she said, and she meant it, she didn’t want him to pine for her.
“I thought I already had,” he said, smiling wryly.
“I was never going to be what you wanted. What you needed. But I do love you.” It was the truth, and maybe then she realised the other reason she was leaving Earth for Karal. All their lives everyone, including her mom, had thought that Gaia and Johnny would marry. And she had gone along with that to keep people happy, to keep her mom happy. Gaia was scared that if she made it clear she wasn’t interested in Johnny romantically, her mom, who had lived as a single woman all her life, would have slipped back into despair. Ironic that that had happened anyway.
When her mom died, a weight had gone from Gaia’s shoulders. Suddenly Gaia could be who she wanted to be, and that wasn’t Johnny’s wife.
“There it is,” Johnny said, pulling the car over to one side. “Your destiny awaits.”
“Thank you, Johnny.” She took off her seatbelt and opened the car door. “One last thing I think you should know.”
“But I don’t want to hear…”
She shook her head. “Probably not.” Gaia leaned forward and kissed Johnny one last time. “I wouldn’t have made you happy, Johnny.”
He nodded. “But it was a good dream.”
“Yes, it was.” She shut the door and watched as he drove away. Turning, she headed for the airport and her new life on a new planet.
Chapter Two – Rikka
“Do you ever get tired of returning here, Okil?” Rikka asked as they crossed out of the wormhole and headed through the beacons and on towards Earth.
“I thought I might. Once Tikki was with me on Karal. But no, I still love the first glimpse of the planet, so blue, so filled with knowledge beyond ours.” Okil smiled to himself, and Rikka found himself shaking his head. He would never understand what Okil saw in the human race; they were so flawed in their thinking.
“What knowledge can they possibly hold that is greater than ours? They have destroyed their planet and have no way of saving themselves unless we intervene.”
“It is something deeper, more profound than that. Their art, their music, it inspires me. They laugh at themselves in ways we would never dream of. They love, they hate, they have emotions we can only dream of possessing.”
“And that is why they have gone to war over and over again with themselves. Never learning that they were heading towards their own destruction.”
“And are we any better? So careful in everything we do. So blind to the joys of life,” Okil said, his eyes taking on a faraway look.
“Our sons will bring us joy,” Rikka said, and he meant it. He looked forward to the day he could point to the stars and tell his own son of the places he had visited, the things he had seen way out in the vast universe, places so far away you could not see them from Karal.
“They will, Rikka. They will. And when you take a mate you will see another kind of joy, a joy you never anticipated, or expected. A joy that will overwhelm you.”
“I doubt it, Okil. I am not as soft in the head, or in the heart, as you.” Rikka looked at his fellow Karalian and then thought he should temper his words. Okil had risen to some kind of power in the last few months since the discovery of Earth and its females. Rikka’s father had taught him to observe and respect those with more power than you. “I meant no disrespect.”
“None taken, Rikka. You can speak your mind with me. In fact, I appreciate it. In that way we can be sure we are on the same wavelength. It is of the utmost importance that you choose the right female to take with you on your mission, and to do that you have to be able to talk to me frankly.”
“I always thought the doctor, Darl isn’t it, made the matches. Is his selection process flawed? Is that why I have to choose?” Rikka began the descent through the atmosphere and down to the Earth’s surface.
“No. And he predicted the right choice for the first mission. But it is a far harder task than simply picking the right DNA. Your mate has to have the right temperament or else you may find yourself arguing for months, rather than fulfilling your duty to the Karal and making a child.”
“I do not need to be able to get on with a female to endure her company. I have travelled into deep space with Karalian warriors I would rather have left in some far unreachable zone, than journey back with. But I have never carried out those wishes and abandoned even the most infuriating warrior. So rest assured, a female will not get under my skin, no matter how annoying she may be.”
Okil laughed. “You say that now, but wait until you have been shut in a space cruiser for a week with a woman whose voice grates on your ears and whose very presence makes your skin vibrate with violet pulses.”
Rikka grinned at Okil. “No woman could be that bad,” he said
.
“I kid you not. Some humans are that bad. I know I like them, but I am not so soft that I would not like to leave a few of them on this dead, decaying Earth.”
“It must have been beautiful once,” Rikka said as they drew closer to the ground. From above the decay was not as obvious, but now he could see the grey pall of smoke that hung over everything, contaminating all below, and he shuddered at the thought of being intimate with a creature who dwelled on such a dirty, dead planet.
“Yes. And I hope if we can ease the burden, there might be hope for it to rejuvenate itself.”
“Now you do sound like you live in a fantasy world; there is nothing in our known universe that can help this planet. Even if you removed every last human parasite.”
Okil chuckled. “Once you have met some of your human parasites, you might hold a different view. And as you said, nothing in our known universe, but don’t think we hold all knowledge. There is always something new to find. Something we have not explored. As you will find out when you experience love for the first time.” They came to a halt and Okil undid his seatbelt.
“So this is it. You expect me to walk down the exit ramp and be somehow transformed into thinking that humans are wonderful and should be saved?” Rikka asked.
“No. This is where you walk down the ramp and wonder how anyone survives in this atmosphere. The air is terrible. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Okil said as he pressed the button to lower the ramp.
Rikka went to stand by the side of Okil, while he introduced them to the Earth females. An unusual sense of excitement was building up inside him. He had to concentrate hard to keep his colours under control, something he never before found difficult. However, as the ramp lowered and he saw the faces of the human females in front of him, he struggled not to find them attractive. He had visited the sim; he knew how a male and female fit together to make a child. Yet being with the sim, no matter how realistic it made the experience, did not educate him on what it was like to stand before seven real, warm females, any one of which could be his mate.
Found: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 2) Page 1
