by Kali Argent
STAR FALLING
City of Hope, Book Two
Copyright © Kali Argent
STAR FALLING
Copyright © August 2017 by Kali Argent
Cover Art by Black Butterfly Designs
Published by PECCAVI PRESS INC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, except for the case of brief quotations in reviews and articles. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
STAR FALLING
White. Everything in the city is one startling shade of white—the walls, the floor, the furniture, the clothes—and Star Donavan is over it.
Before the destruction of Earth, Star had been a highly-respected fashion designer. On Aleucia, she’s nobody, assigned to the laundry room on the lowest level of Hope. The one bright spot in her otherwise monochrome existence is the sinfully gorgeous captain of the guard, but he’s one temptation she’s determined to resist.
It’s been months since Captain Valen Otar has even looked at another female besides Star. She’s his last thought before falling asleep, and the first person he seeks out each morning. Star is his—or at least she would be if she’d stop being so stubborn. Aleucian warriors don’t beg, and they certainly don’t grovel, but he’ll do both if that’s what it takes to convince Star his feelings for her are more than just a passing fling.
PROLOGUE
It was in the late twenty-third century when the Aleucians first made contact with Earth. A race of warrior beings with long fangs and ethereal, sapphire blue eyes, the males stood well over six feet tall, most reaching closer to seven feet, and even the females towered over many of the humans.
Their initial arrival was met with fear and hostility as the humans raged against what they didn’t understand. Eventually, the smoke cleared and the discord settled, and ten long years later, Earth welcomed the Aleucians as both friends and allies.
Unfortunately, their continued presence on the planet soon attracted other visitors from across the galaxies, and not all came in peace.
Wars ensued.
Cities burned.
By the end of the century, only a fraction of the population remained, and Earth had been reduced to nothing more than a barren wasteland. The Aleucians offered refuge and safe passage to their homeworld, and as their own planet died, humans had no choice but to accept their generosity.
Still, survival came at a cost.
The arid surface of Aleucia reached deadly temperatures during the daytime hours, and its thinner ozone meant the sun produced third-degree burns in humans within a matter of minutes. The nights, on the other hand, turned bitterly cold, well below freezing, with brutal, arctic winds.
While covered in slender, transparent scales that protected them from severe temperature changes on their homeworld, the Aleucians quickly realized the environment would be uninhabitable by what remained of the human race. In response, they’d built a vast, sterile, underground city that reached seventeen levels and nearly two miles below the planet’s surface.
There, the humans remained, never to see the sun, moon, or stars again.
It was the price they paid for safety, security…survival.
Welcome to the city of Hope.
CHAPTER ONE
“Good morning,” a robotic feminine voice said pleasantly from the speakers in the ceiling. “The time is currently six o’clock, Earth Standard Time. Please report to your assigned station within one hour. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.”
Rolling over on her cot, Star Donavan groaned, burying her face into her snow-white pillow as the lights in her living pod switched on automatically. Today was the day, the one year anniversary since she’d first stepped into the surgically white, underground city of Hope. Three hundred and sixty-five days since she’d seen the sun, walked along the beach in the moonlight, or spent a lazy afternoon in bed watching old movies and eating pistachio ice cream by the pint.
She missed Miami’s sunny beaches. She missed her friends and her family, all of whom had died in the wars before Earth could be evacuated. She missed color.
The walls, tiles, fixtures, and furniture in her living pod were white. Her clothes, her sheets, the pillow she slept on, and the sandals she wore were all the exact same shade of pure, blinding white. The few things that weren’t white in the city, where a depressing black instead, like the guards’ uniforms or the blinking numbers on the digital clock above her bed.
Pushing upright, Star rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she yawned, then lifted her arms over her head, arching her back to stretch the tight muscles. Mostly, she didn’t mind the routine, but some days, she’d give anything for the chance to sleep until noon.
That wasn’t happening today.
Sighing, she curled her toes against the white tiles, rubbed her eyes again, then rose to her feet with another sleepy yawn. The dome-shaped button over her bed glowed and blinked a muted red, and she frowned at the offending thing as she slapped her palm against it, flipping her mattress back into its hiding place in the wall.
Gathering her long, golden hair into a high ponytail at her crown, she shuffled over to the mirror and toggled the switch on the wall with her elbow. The mirror, sink, and vanity disappeared, lowering into the floor to make room for a single rack of clothing to descend from the ceiling.
“Star, you’re late,” a deep masculine voice boomed inside her mind.
Having her mind invaded had been a hell of a trip when she’d first arrived on the new planet, but now, it barely fazed her. Thankfully, the telepathy only worked one way. The Aleucians could understand and speak any language after hearing it only once, and while they could speak aloud, most chose telepathy as their primary means of communication.
“I am not,” she yelled through the closed door of her pod. “Go away, Valen.”
“Your morning routine is inefficient.”
“Go. Away.”
“Is that what you really want?”
She could practically hear the cocky smirk in his reply. For her, Captain Valen Otar was the one bright spot in her life underground on an alien planet. Tall and muscular, with long, thick hair so black it looked almost blue in the light, she’d been intrigued by him from their first meeting.
She’d never admit it to anyone else—especially not Valen—but knowing he waited on the other side of the door made her pulse race and her stomach flutter. Still, she took her time going through her morning routine. Once she’d dressed in a loose, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of flowing pants, she toggled the switch twice more, rotating past the closet, her tiny shower, and finally back to the vanity. Then, she brushed her teeth, washed her face, and stared at herself in the mirror.
“Well,” she told her reflection, “this is as good as it gets.”
“Are you finished yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Pushy bastard.
Settling her features into a carefully constructed mask of indifference, she pressed her fingertips to the bio-pad on the front wall. The door slid open with a quiet whoosh, and she used the sound to cover her slow exhale before stepping out into the wide, surgically white corridor.
“See? I’m here.”
Valen’s bright blue eyes narrowed, his gaze raking down her body as he dragged his tongue over one elongated canine. “Good morning, Star.”
“Get out of my head.” She folded her arms across her chest and glared. “It’s just weird.”
“My apologies,�
�� he answered, his voice somehow deeper and even more appealing when used aloud. “I’m here to escort you to breakfast.”
His dusky, fitted uniform top hugged every dip and bulge of his powerful frame, and the matching leather bottoms clung to him like a second skin. Star swallowed hard to dislodge the lump in her throat. Her heart beat too fast, her palms slicked with perspiration, and a familiar ache throbbed between her thighs. It was the same every time she saw him, but as always, she held her impassive expression, unwilling to let him see how much he affected her.
“I can find my way to the mess hall just fine.”
“I know you can.” His predatory gaze strayed to her lips, and a deep rumble vibrated through his chest. “Maybe I simply wanted to ask you more questions about Earth.”
“Again?”
She didn’t know why he was so interested in her planet, but during the past few months, their routine had been as regular as the alarm that sounded in the morning. He arrived at her pod to walk her to breakfast, and on the way, he’d keep a steady flow of questions coming. He wanted to know about the mountains, the oceans, and the sand. He’d asked about cell phones, televisions, and microwaves.
While she enjoyed talking about Earth, mostly, she just enjoyed talking to Valen. He seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say, and he nodded his head at all the right times. He made her feel special, like he wanted to know her, and the way his eyes softened when he looked at her made her want to tell him anything…everything.
Nearing a curve in the hallway, a woman with short, dark hair and heavy shadows under her eyes caught Star’s attention, mostly because of the way she was staring at Valen. And that right there was why she kept the icy barrier between them, why she couldn’t let herself fall for the captain.
The woman watching them looked familiar, but not because Star knew her. She recognized her as one of the several women she’d watched Valen flirt with, take to his bed, then never speak to again. Oh, he was charming, and with the body of a god, she imagined he didn’t have to work too hard for what he wanted. Star couldn’t go down that path. She couldn’t open herself up that way, only to have him vanish from her life the next morning.
She needed him too much.
So, she feigned disinterest, bordering on annoyance, but she was careful to never push him too far away.
“Star? What’s wrong? What are you thinking?”
“Hmm?” Looking up at him, seeing the concern shining in his eyes, she reminded herself again why it was a terrible idea to fall for him. “Oh, nothing. Just thinking. What did you want to ask me?”
Busy preparing the underground cities for the Earthlings, Valen never been to their planet, but he’d heard stories from his brothers when they’d returned from battle. They’d said it was a glorious and majestic place, with sweeping fields and oceans as blue as its skies. As lovely as their descriptions sounded, he doubted the planet’s snow-capped mountains held even a fraction of the beauty as its female inhabitants.
When humans had first begun arriving on Aleucia, he’d been largely unimpressed with the males. Valen and his comrades had been bred for battle, each of them standing over seven feet tall and weighing close to three hundred pounds. Even Earth’s warriors looked like children next to them.
The females, however…oh, the females. Delicate and fair, with soft curves and smooth skin, he’d never seen any creature more alluring.
Then, he’d met Star Donavan.
She’d told him she was considered tall for a female on her planet, but the top of her head reached only to his sternum, and to him, she seemed petite, fragile. The billowy clothing she wore hid her curves from him, but every once in a while, she’d lift her arms, or move too quickly, and the hem of her blouse would rise, giving him just a glimpse of smooth, bare skin. The curve of her neck drew his gaze, and his mouth watered as he absently tongued his canines.
“What exactly is a farm?” He slowed his strides to match hers when she started to lag behind him. “Is it different than a ranch? Both harvest animals, do they not?”
He’d read the reports, and therefore, knew the answers to his inquiries, but he loved to hear her talk. The way Star pronounced even commonplace words fascinated him, and he found something strangely soothing in the cadence of her voice.
For weeks, he’d been bombarding her with questions about her homeworld, and while she feigned annoyance, he detected a warmth and fondness in her tone.
“For the purpose of simplicity, they’re basically the same,” she said, her gaze far away as she thought about the answer. “Farms do have some animals, but they also grow food.”
“I thought you ate the animals for food?”
“Well, some, yes.” Her eyes narrowed, and her eyebrows drew together. “We also eat fruits and vegetables, nuts, things that aren’t meat. Some farms even grow wheat and other grains.”
He found it interesting that she still spoke of her planet in the present tense, as though she would someday return.
“You miss it.”
Star’s nostril’s flared, but she stared straight ahead and didn’t comment. For her, he made a concentrated effort to speak aloud instead of directly into her mind. It seemed incredibly inefficient, however, and vocalization didn’t come naturally to his race. Before he’d met the human female, he’d sometimes go months without uttering a single sound, not even a grunt. In fact, he’d probably spoken more in the short time since he’d known her than he had in the past two years combined.
“I do,” she finally admitted. “I miss a lot of things.” When they reached the double sliding doors that led to the cafeteria, she glanced at the fingerprint scanner but kept walking. “I’m not really hungry.”
Thankfully, he’d eaten before his shift started, so he didn’t mind skipping the loudness or the chaos of the mess hall. While he did worry about Star’s lack of appetite, he also knew it would only instigate an argument if he commented on it. He had so little time with her as it was, he didn’t want to spend it fighting.
Instead, he asked, “What do you miss the most?”
“I miss colors.” Ducking her head, she peeked up at him through her long lashes. “I miss the stars.”
A slow grin stretched his lips, and he grabbed her hand, squeezing when she tried to pull away from him. “Trust me.”
“I don’t even know you,” she argued, still trying to wrench her arm away as she struggled with him in the middle of the corridor. “Let me go.”
She pretended to be uninterested, unaffected, but Valen knew better. He could hear her pulse race, smell the sweet nectar that pooled between her legs. Her pale gray eyes narrowed, but not from anger or fear. No, there was something else there, something holding her back. Yet, it was obvious she wanted him. Almost as much as he wanted her.
Jerking the female forward, he locked his free arm around her waist, trapping her against his chest. She fit against him perfectly, like finding a missing piece of himself. His nostrils flared, and a low growl rumbled through his chest as he inhaled her sweet scent, the sound startling several passersby. The intoxicating fragrance reminded him of the cadinor plant—black reeds similar to Earth’s sugarcane—that grew along the banks of the underground rivers on Aleucia.
She’d been so skittish when they’d first met, and so he’d given her time, letting her get to know him, trust him. Patience wasn’t in his nature, and while she was worth it, he was tired of waiting. He wanted her, more than he’d ever wanted anyone or anything, and he intended to have her.
“You do know me, ahna,” he whispered into her mind. “Look at me.”
Star stopped struggling and relaxed into him with a pretty sigh. “I am looking at you.”
“No, you’re looking through me. Why are you afraid?”
Her chin jutted defiantly, and her cheeks flushed. “I’m not afraid.”
“Then, why do you fight me?”
“Maybe I just don’t like you,” she answered, but her tone lacked conviction. “I’m sure you’r
e used to women just dropping their panties for you, but that doesn’t mean you’re irresistible.”
What she said was true. He’d never found it difficult to bed a female, whether human or Aleucian, but he didn’t want someone else. The gods help him, but it had been months since he’d even looked at another female.
“I don’t want them. I want you.”
“Well, you can’t have me.” Star resumed her struggles, her heart beating frantically inside her chest. “Let me go.”
Frustrated by her resistance, especially because he knew her words to be untruthful, Valen released her with a sharp growl. “Why are you so stubborn?”
“Why do you care?” she countered, standing her ground.
Remembering that he didn’t want to fight with her, Valen exhaled slowly and reached out, catching her hand before she could pull away from him again. “Come with me, Star.”
Star stared back at him for several heartbeats, her expression unreadable. Then, she sighed, releasing the tension in her shoulders. “Fine, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” His grin stretched wider, and he pulled her close, leaning in to skim his nose along the curve of her jaw. “I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
Then, he stepped away, took her wrist, and practically dragged her through the throng of bodies congregating in the hallway.
Jogging to keep up with his long strides, Star couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. His excitement was too infectious, and by the time they reached the end of the corridor, she found herself laughing, a genuine, pure sound full of joy and anticipation.
As an added bonus, with the guard as her escort, she had the perfect excuse to skip out on wash duty.
Not only did she loathe washing other people’s underwear, but the laundry room resided on the lowest level of the city, seventeen stories underground. She’d never been prone to claustrophobia, but even in the brightly-lit, cavernous room, she often felt like she couldn’t breathe right.
“Where are you taking me?” Slowing to a stop, she managed to slip her wrist free of Valen’s grasp and eyed the lift reserved exclusively for the guards with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. “I’m not allowed.”
