Sold to the Alien Outlaws

by Cain, Corin

  As humiliating as it was, the splash of cold water helped a little – but it’s still another ten minutes before I can think clearly again.

  Jenna shakes her head slowly. “Sometimes, I don’t envy you.”

  I shudder. “I don’t think you’re suited for the Bond.”

  She laughs. “Imagine, me Bonded to a triad? The three-thousand-year lifespan is appealing, but it would only take me a year before I had three Aurelians by their balls!”

  She laughs, but it’s true. If anyone could subdue and tame a triad of these proud warriors, it would be her.

  The tears dry from my eyes, and my lust subsides. The Bond isn’t all bad. The Aurelians have a sparring gym on the ship where they grapple and train in unarmed combat. They have a few weights lying around, as well, and once Jenna tried to lift one as a joke. She couldn’t even get it off the ground.

  I lifted it up easily, though. We were both shocked. The Aurelians have become stronger and more powerful through the Bond, and so have I. As long as I can keep my mind my own, there’s no question that it’s the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

  And once I make the decision to have children… Oh, Gods! The pleasures the Bond will let me feel…

  I sigh. “Maybe the three of them are right. Maybe I need some time away from them. We’re going to be starting a new hospital on Nova. Should we go pay a visit?”

  Jenna smiles. “That sounds like a great idea. I’ve got the fact sheets here. We’ve expecting treating twelve-thousand of the lowest levels of poverty, subsidized by a genome sequencing wing that will attract capital from the entire galaxy. We already have enough indications of interest to safely assume scalability for a decade.”

  I nod. “Good. That’s… That’s really good.”

  I should be over the moon. Starting the hospitals was my idea, and offering high-end medical services that were in the grey market to fund this public healthcare was Jenna’s. It’s not enough to draw the ire of the Aurelian Empire, but it’s enough to let us help a huge number of impoverished souls.

  We’ll visit, and the doctors and nurses will be working quickly and efficiently around us. We’ll see the spotless new wings and know we’re doing something good and productive with all the blessings that fate has bestowed upon me.

  But it won’t heal the hole in my heart.

  My eyes grow wet again. I know I’ll never be able to stop my beloved Aurelians from putting themselves in danger. It’s simply in their nature as warriors. I’ve watched the combat feeds from the body cams that Korgath outfits all of his security agents with. The three men have no concept of danger. They’ll fight and kill no matter what the odds. I could only watch a few minutes before I threw up.

  I remember how they saved me from being wedded to a monster. I remember how they used their skills in combat to give me a better life. Now, their battles just make me stressed and anxious.

  Jenna and I travel to the hospital together. The lead genome researcher gives us the tour, but I’m not really there – I can’t really focus.

  All I can think about instead are the Aurelians – off on some new battleground somewhere. I can’t feel anything of them through the Bond. Their auras are so grey that they could be chewing down food or bleeding out in the middle of nowhere and I would have no idea which… Not until they simply disappeared from my mind to mark the horrific, unthinkable moment of their death.

  We wrap up our business at the hospital, and for the entire trip back Jenna tries to talk as she pilots our sleek starship – but I’m silent.

  I feel horrible and empty inside.

  We dock in the landing bay of our transport ship. There’s a certain irony to living and working from this massive transport ship, owned by Korgath. It’s far beyond what his normal employees – even the Aurelian triads who work for him – would be living in.

  This immense ship was granted to us for the sole reason that we’re a Bonded triad, and Korgath wants us to be safe, secure and comfortable – so that we might eventually start contributing to the vital work of continuing the Aurelian species.

  Somehow, Raekon and the others accepted this, in addition to their exorbitant salaries, without viewing it as “charity”.

  But I know, deep down, that the real reason is that the Aurelians can’t picture themselves without a battle to fight. They’ve been soldiers their whole lives. I learned all about their hundred years of service to the Aurelian Empire – the hundred years they cut short, to save the citizens of Tear from the Scorp invasion.

  Yet, I can’t believe that after so many fights, they still want to keep going back – but the aura of the three Aurelians changes in battle. They attain a level of focus and vibrancy that I simply can’t give them in their quotidian lives.

  I’ll never be able to compete with the pure adrenaline of taking down a monstrous beast, or a thirty-feet-tall Scorp Queen. I had hoped that siring their children would be enough for them – but now I know it isn’t, and might never be.

  Jenna expertly lands us in the landing bay. In the past decade she’s become quite the expert pilot – making up for perhaps the one area of her skillset that wasn’t complete.

  I’ve learned now that when my mother first sensed that her heart might one day give out, and found Jenna on the streets, she hired the best trainers to make this poor little street urchin the perfect protector for me. My mother knew that my father would never let me learn unarmed combat, shooting, or the tactics of war – so she did the next best thing and rescued a promising young girl from poverty to give her that training instead.

  In the last ten years I’ve become competent in many of the skills Jenna learned under the tutelage of my mother’s hired trainers – and she in return has eclipsed even my piloting skills. I might be steady behind the controls of a starship, but I’ll never enjoy piloting like Jenna does.

  The doors of our ship hiss open and we step out – home at last.

  I gasp.

  Raka, Raekon, and Leon are waiting for me. I had no idea – their auras are still muted through our Bond.

  I’m horrified to see that Raekon has a purple bruise on his cheek. The muted grey of their aura flares up, as they open the Bond to me after so many days of silence.

  Raka steps forward as I’m flooded with their emotions and thoughts.

  “We… We made our decision,” he declares in that commanding voice of his, echoing across the room.

  Raekon chuckles. “Though it took more than words to convince me.”

  He rubs his cheek, and I realize it wasn’t Scorp or another alien menace that caused his injury – it was his own battle-brothers, as they had a spirited ‘debate’ as to the right course of action.

  “We realized,” Raekon begins, before correction himself: “No, I realized… I realized that you’re right, Lezena. My job isn’t to go out there killing Scorp to protect people. My duty is to you.”

  “Our duty is to you,” Raka corrected him.

  Leon smiles. “We’re on training duty now. We’ll give crash courses to new recruits of Korgath’s security company. We ironed out all the details with him today.”

  I nearly break down. “I… I thought you guys were leaving me!”

  Raka shakes his head. “Never, my love. We just had to make the arrangements… and convince the more… unwilling member of our triad that this was the right thing to do.”

  I don’t let Raka say another word. I rush forward and he hugs me in his huge arms.

  The Bond pulses, and I feel so loved – overwhelmed by the adoration of all three of my gorgeous, looming, alien lovers.

  Finally, after all these years, I feel safe.

  All the stress and weight that has burdened my shoulders for this past decade instantly melts into nothingness.

  I always hoped the Aurelians would do anything for me.

  Now I know it.

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  Thank you for reading my book :)
I hope you enjoyed it!

  Sign up to my newsletter and I’ll let you know the instant a new book in the Aurelian Empire becomes available. http://eepurl.com/dEk-p5

  * * *

  Haven’t read my debut novel, Sold to the Alien Gladiators? It tells the story of Queen Jasmine’s beginnings as a dirt poor scavenger to Queen of the Aurelian Empire.

  We will claim her.

  She looks at my triad with disgust and hatred.

  We stare at her with pure hunger.

  Captured and forced to battle in the blood-soaked arenas of Bugra, my triad will live and die under the scorching sun.

  The only thing that moves our weary muscles and overcomes the pain of our wounds is the obsession of claiming our fated mate.

  She is brought to us humiliated and disheveled, and yet still her eyes burn with defiance.

  We are born to battle. We are born to blood and violence. Aurelians have no master, and when we break our shackles there will be a reckoning.

  She will be ours, even if I have to level empires and plunge the universe into war.

  I would kill for her, die for her, even as her hatred burns me to the core.

  She will be ours.

  Read Sold to the Alien Gladiators today!