by Mina Carter
Table of Contents
Saved by the Alien Lord
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...
About the Author
Saved by the Alien Lord
Warriors of the Lathar
MINA CARTER
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Copyright
Copyright 2015 Mina Carter
Cover Art by Mina Carter
Published by Blue Hedgehog Press: May 2015.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Author's note: All sexually active characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.
SIGN UP FOR MINA CARTER’S NEWSLETTER FOR THE LATEST NEWS!
http://mina-carter.com/newsletter/
Chapter One
The alien invasion force had five ships. That wasn’t many at all.
Cat Moore stood by a large window in the big room behind the bridge of the alien flagship and studied humanity’s opponents. She refused to even think of them as humanity’s masters. They might have won a battle by capturing a remote base and enslaving all its personnel, but the war hadn’t even started.
Heaven, or whatever gods they worshiped, help them because they thought by sectioning off human women, it would make them docile.
They would learn.
Hand on the cool metal by the window, she glanced over her shoulder. A group of alien warriors clustered around a large table in the middle of the room. They were all big, with more muscles than any man had a right to, and outfitted in leather.
A week ago, she’d have said she’d walked smack bang into the middle of one of her greatest fantasies… ripped, leather-clad aliens were so her thing. You’d only have to check her reader to know that. The virtual shelves almost burst with alien romance. But that was all it was. A fantasy. The reality of being claimed by an alien warrior, correction, an alien warrior lord, was sexy, but if she had anything to do with it, short-lived.
“So you’re saying they should never have left their own system, never mind made it this far?” Tarrick, her captor and would be “Master,” asked, his hands resting on the holographic display table in front of him.
She paused for a moment, her attention caught as his muscles pulled at the leather of his uniform jacket. A uniform she knew he wore nothing under. Heat uncoiled to loop through her veins, her intake of breath more a shiver. As a species, the Lathar were big and muscled, but there was that little something extra about Tarrick that hit her on a primitive, female level. If she’d met him in other circumstances, he’d have caught her interest for sure.
Down girl, she reminded herself and folded her arms. We’re making plans to bring about their downfall, not to climb their leader like a tree.
Infiltration, that’s what it was all about. And what better place to do that than from their leader’s bed? She flitted a little closer, her steps silent in the delicate sandals she wore.
“I’m surprised they even made it out of orbit,” another warrior, Jassyn, replied as he looked over the schematics displayed on the table—records pulled from the Sentinel Five computer that the base commander ordered deleted, but reconstructed by the alien ship’s AI. She knew the Sentinel commander issued the order because she’d been the one to wipe them. Right before one of their combat-bots captured her.
Computer wipe was standard operating procedure to ensure all records and star charts remained out of enemy hands. They just hadn’t counted on facing a far technologically superior enemy. From what she could work out, the Lathar had ruled the galaxies for generations. One primitive little species like humanity trying to pull a fast one would never work. Not unless they got inventive.
“But somehow, they got out of orbit and seem to have spread like fucking wildfire.” Jassyn’s hands moved over the console in front of them, flicking documents out of the way to show star charts called from the reconstructed records. Swift movements of his fingers drew lines over the charts and highlighted the edges of what looked like human-held space. She moved closer until she could feel the hum of the holographic field over the table. “They have quite a sophisticated network here. From what I can work out, they also have a subspace communications array with relay points here, here, and here.”
Crap, crap, crap…how had they figured that out? Far from being the beefcake grunts she’d assumed, Tarrick’s warriors were scarily intelligent. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Her grandmother had been fond of saying that.
Tarrick looked up, his gaze focused on the men around him and not noticing her by the edge of the table. “I thought they just had conventional communications? Subspace is a different matter. Does that mean their central command knows of our presence?”
With any luck, yeah… If command knew about the attack, they’d already have mobilized destroyers to head out to the base. Five ships shouldn’t stand a chance against the joint might of the Terran fleet.
“No, I don’t believe so.” Jassyn shook his head, his long hair dancing on his shoulders. This close she could hear the faint creak of leather when he moved. “Our suppression fields knocked out any outgoing messages as we attacked. Overwhelmed the signal, and before it came back online we had control so nothing’s gone out. We’ve been getting regular pings on the relay since though.”
He pushed the star charts to one side and brought up what looked like a communications log. The rest leaned forward to study it, cutting off her view of the table.
“They’re assuming technological malfunction? And what's this stuff that looks like dots and dashes?”
“That I don’t know yet. It seems to be a layer below the primary communication. Perhaps an echo or some kind of repeater pattern?” Jassyn shrugged, his expression saying he had no clue.
She blinked, hiding her surprise. They hadn’t picked up the morse code. She was stunned aliens with such a high level of technology hadn’t worked out the simple system. Why hadn’t their super-duper computer picked it up? Either way, it was an advantage she’d take, even if she didn’t know how to use it at the moment.
“But yes, they seemed to assume malfunction so far,” Jassyn continued.
“They haven’t encountered an advanced species yet so they weren’t expecting us. Without information, they seem to think malfunction rather than attack. But they will want to find out what happened. Given their level of technology, I would expect a ship or two to come and investigate soon. From the records we pulled�
��” He moved the star chart back to the center of the table. “They have ships here and here. Either of these could make it here within twelve hours.”
Twelve hours. She smothered her intake of breath. That wasn’t a lot of time for her to find a security lapse to exploit. Not when she was with Tarrick or he had those monster remote piloted robots watching her. She flicked a glance sideways to the door. The metallic arms of the two guards outside were clear to see through the glass. They were always on watch.
“Okay, monitor the communication relays for movement from those ships. I want to know the instant anything changes. Even if they go dark… Especially if they go dark,” Tarrick ordered, flicking a glance at her.
“Moore Cat?” he called out, still mangling her name even though he knew its real format. It seemed to amuse him. Asshole alien.
Blanking her expression, she looked at him, her face a porcelain mask. Irritation flashed in his golden cat-like eyes and she suppressed her smirk. He didn’t like her poker face. Good.
“You belonged to your species military.” He motioned her forward so she took another step, her stomach brushing the edge of the table and looked at the documents laid out. “What should we expect, by way of response?”
Her eyebrow lifted into a delicate arch and it was a moment before she spoke. “Well, it’s rather hard to say, to be honest. Our great leaders would have to consult the oracles before plotting a course of action.”
“I recall no mention of oracles or prophets.” Jassyn’s brows snapped together and he rifled through the documents again, looking for further evidence. “In fact, humanity didn’t appear to be religious.”
“Depends on the situation.” She shrugged. “When in doubt, you can always refer to one of our standard religious signals. I’ll show you if you like?”
All eyes in the room turned to her as she lifted a hand, fingers curled into a fist facing away from them. Then she extended her middle finger and smiled.
“And that means ‘screw you.’ You really think I will help you?”
There were two snorts and Tarrick’s expression set. She’d insulted him in front of his senior warriors. That had to bite. No, that had to burn.
The healer standing next to Tarrick snorted with amusement and his face split into a broad grin. “Ha! I like her.”
“Humans,” Tarrick growled, his hard expression promising retribution. She refused to acknowledge the shiver of need that wormed its way up her spine and smiled back. What would he do if she stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him?
“Tell me about it.” The growled complaint came from the big warrior at the end of the table.
His expression hovered somewhere between anger and frustration. “The males were easy to deal with. We worked over a few, showed the others the error of their ways, and they’ve been quiet as a gethal since. The women… argh! Half are refusing to eat, at least five keep trying to escape, and all of them refuse to acknowledge any warrior’s existence.”
The healer nodded, leaning forward. His smile disappeared, replaced by concern. “He’s right. I’ve had to sedate a couple and I’m a little concerned if the fasting continues. None of them will say why they’re not eating, so I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing with them. I’m reluctant to let it continue…so perhaps we should force feed them?”
“You do, and they’ll make themselves vomit,” Cat broke in.
Tarrick looked up, meeting her eyes. “Oh?”
“It’s called a hunger strike.” She moved away from the table, her movements graceful. Her own clothing was gone when she woke this morning, replaced instead with a thin dress that looked more like a silk nightie. Far from feeling half-naked though, the inner layer of fabric molded to her figure, giving nothing away as the outer layers swirled around her, bunching around her ankles. The effect made her feel like a fairytale princess and she had to resist the urge to twirl just to swish the skirts.
Small pleasures, she reminded herself, don’t fall prey to the bigger concerns. Deal with them, don’t panic.
“Humans aren’t stupid, and we have a pathological allergy to being enslaved. We’d rather starve to death than be slaves. Force feed them and they’ll expel whatever you make them eat.”
The warriors exchanged startled looks around the table, but it was the big guy who spoke, his lips curled back to display his disgust. “They’d rather die than accept the shelter we offer. How twisted and barbaric is that?”
“It’s called free will and choice.” She shrugged again. “And you’re a fine lot to talk about barbarism. Not a benevolent superior race, are you? Rather than helping a less able race to defend itself. Rather than guide and aid…you storm in and enslave. Humans, for all our primitive and barbaric ways, outlawed slavery centuries ago.”
The warrior snorted and she rounded on him, anger surging through her. “What if it were the other way around and you were the slave. Would you find it so acceptable then?”
Anger flashed in his eyes and he stood to his full height, glaring down at her. “You go too far, human!”
“Go on then, hit me.” Her lips curled back into a snarl, but she refused to back down even though he was larger. Just one punch and that would be it. She didn’t care though. Let him try, she’d go down fighting. Maybe quickly but it would be fighting. “Do whatever you want. I’m a slave, remember? No choice, no opinion. Nothing other than a soft body to fuck. Not like we’ve got brains to use, now is it?”
“Karryl…” Tarrick’s voice snapped out in warning, and the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Karryl flopped into his seat, his expression unreadable, and Tarrick transferred his attention to Cat. Great, she’d pissed off the big-bad.
“Go to my quarters, wait for me there.”
“Yes, my lord.” She mock-saluted him, spun on her heel with a satisfying swish of her skirts and swept out of the door. A sliding door meant she couldn’t slam it, so she settled for strutting away with her head held high. Two bots peeled off to escort her, with metallic clicks against the deck plating, as she did her best to storm down the corridor in soft sandals.
Asshole aliens, the lot of them.
***
Laarn blew out a breath after the human woman left the room and broke the silence.
“Anyone else think they’re a lot more like us than we bargained for?”
“Seems that way, yes.” Tarrick sighed and shook his head. It had been less than a day since they’d taken the base and already he was realizing dealing with humans was fraught with headache. His.
“Okay, Karryl, try and get the women in the cells calm. And leave them in there for now. Until Fenriis arrives with his war group. I don’t want the men distracted.”
“Huh, just you then?” Laarn, as always, got the jibe in at light speed. “And just how did your night with the little human go? I see she’s dressed as befits the mate of a war commander. She accepted your claim, I take it?”
Tarrick clenched his fists, resisting the urge to strangle his brother. He had a point though. They’d all been without women for far too long. To have them just within reach but not be able to touch them would be utter torture.
“Explain that we have to quarantine them for the moment, to ensure their health and safety.” Just the mention of a threat to the women’s health would have his men toeing the line, no matter how eager they were to claim one for themselves. “Laarn, run full level tests on them to make sure they are all fit and well. That should placate the warriors.”
“Of course.” His twin’s eyes gleamed at the prospect of being able to gather more data on the new species. Tarrick shook his head. Sometimes he didn’t think Laarn was male in the traditional sense of the word.
“The rest of you, back to your stations. I want full level readiness drills run in case the humans arrive before Fenriis. Dismissed.”
The warriors filed out, but Tarrick remained in place. Dropping his head back, he closed his eyes for a second in frustration.
They were r
eady to move onto the next target, the next base in the chain. All the information they’d gathered showed it was larger than the base the humans had designated Sentinel Five. Larger meant more women. More spoils. But they couldn’t move yet, not without ships to secure the sector.
But he couldn’t hope to hold the entire area with just one war group. It meant bringing in another war commander, his cousin Fenriis, and sharing any spoils the sector might yield, but that was preferable to losing the lot to another clan. It had happened before, and it would happen again. But not this time. Not on his watch.
But first, he had another problem.
Pushing off from the table, he left the briefing room and headed toward his quarters. The two bots he’d assigned to Cat stood in the corridor. He nodded to them as he passed, his thoughts filled with the woman within.
His little human. His little Cat.
As soon as he entered the room, her scent surrounded him. Exotic, erotic, and familiar, all at the same time. She stood in the main room, by the window again. He drank in the sight of her, all sensual curves and softness. Her uniform was gone, replaced by the traditional robes of a Latharian woman.
Gray silk clung to her curves, jeweled straps twinkling on delicate shoulders. The garment dipped low at the back to show the sensual curve of her spine. Jeweled clips held up her hair away from her neck, and bangles glittered on her narrow wrists. Not finery from the K’Vass family vault, just generic ornamentation. It was all he had. He couldn’t wait to take her home though, and dress her in the starlight sapphires that had marked his family for centuries.
Unbidden, the image of his mother’s bonding necklace flashed through his mind. It was in the family vault, nestled on midnight silk. The most ornate piece of jewelry a latharian woman owned, bonding necklaces were intricate and detailed. His mother’s had been modeled after Herris Blossom’s, wrought in tri-pladium and set with sapphires. When she wore it, the jeweled flowers looked almost alive against her skin. They would look even more alive against the almost translucent, non-latharian ivory of Cat’s skin.
