Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
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Azra & Elise’s Story
Uoria Mates IV | Book 10
Ruth Anne Scott
Personal Note
Thank you so much for your interest in this book and the Uoria Series as a whole. Uoria Mates launched my career as an author in 2015. Since then it’s been a multiple time bestseller and read by thousands of raving fans. I’m truly humbled by your support.
This is the fourth Uoria Mates Series and should be read in order. If you’re a first time reader, worry not, I’m including the complete Uoria Mates I for your viewing pleasure to get you started. To read this book, please read the Uoria Series (now conveniently available in complete box sets) in the following order.
Uoria Mates I
Uoria Mates II
Uoria Mates III
A Uoria Christmas
Another Uoria Holiday
Again, if you’re brand new to Uoria, I’m including the complete Uoria Mates I to get you started. I’ve included some extras and goodies for you as well, don’t forget to check them out.
Buckle up and let’s go on this sci-fi romance adventure!
CONTENTS
Azra & Elise’s Story
EXTRAS
Exclusive – The Bear’s Princess
Exclusive – The Dragon’s Slave
About the Author
Chapter One
The world fell strangely silent around him as Azra ran across the deep desert sand toward the clash that he saw ahead. He felt the battle yell coming from his throat, but he couldn’t hear it. It was as if there was so much happening around him that his senses had shut down to prevent his mind from becoming overwhelmed. The lack of sound allowed him to focus intently on the people around him and the weight of the weapon that he had taken into his hand. As soon as his feet brought him into the center of the battle, though, all of the sound rushed back. Azra could suddenly hear the roar of voices, punctuated by the metallic sound of blades hitting. Pyra’s voice rose above all the others, and Azra felt galvanized.
Ahead of him he could see a hooded man that appeared nearly as tall as the Denynso warriors but more slender. The man had one hand outstretched in front of him and George was lying on the sand, struggling against an unseen force that appeared to be holding him down in the burning grains. The human scientist clawed at his neck and chest, his heels digging down into the ground beneath him as if he was trying to pull hands away. Azra knew that meant that this particular hybrid had Valdician blood. He ran forward and dug his blade into the back of the man’s shoulder. He didn’t intend to kill him, but rather force him to lose the concentration that was necessary for him to maintain his hold on George.
The hybrid reared back with the pain of the stab and almost instantly George scrambled to his feet. Azra lifted his blade above his head and brought it down again, slashing at the hood so that it fell away from the creature’s head. He wanted to see its face. He needed to break through the ambiguity, to see this being for itself rather than allowing it to remain an abstract thought in his mind. Abstracts enabled him to fight indiscriminately, to simply put the inborn compulsion for war in control and lash out at whatever was near him without thought. That was no longer an option. Surrounded by more species than he had ever known existed, Azra knew that the battle lines were no longer like they used to be. Before the Denynso warriors left the compound, things had been straightforward and easy to understand. There had been the Denynso and everyone else. There was a vague understanding that there were species in other places throughout the galaxy, and even the entirety of the Universe, that respected the Denynso and considered themselves neutral with them, never interested in fighting and always happy for the warriors to handle the enemies that they did have if they happened to venture on to Uoria. For the most part, however, there was only the warriors and the enemies that came onto the planet in an effort to destroy his kind or to take over his planet.
During those days, when they stood on a battlefield, it was easy to recognize who was the enemy. This was no longer the case. Now he could look to either side and see people of all kinds embroiled in the battle that raged hotter with every passing second. Though most of the hybrid army soldiers wore hooded cloaks, it wasn’t enough to delineate clearly which people were fighting for the same convictions and which were pushing back against them. He couldn’t help but remember what the hybrid that Rilex had left with, the one that the women now called Severine, had told them about the hybrids. Not all of them had the violent compulsions within them or had any belief in what Ryan wanted them to do. They were slaves forced to follow through with the scientist’s grisly ideals, and that made the delicate delineation between those who were on his side and those who he was meant to be fighting against much more difficult to discern. He had to pay close attention to each person, hoping that this time, this fight, would be different. This time maybe he would have the chance to change the outcome.
Ahead of him Azra saw one of the hooded figures run past with incredible speed that reminded him of Ero. He knew this meant that that hybrid was part Mikana, like the Denynso warrior that descended from a Denynso and Mikana pairing many generations before. Soon he was aware of others, of the people in both his group and the hybrid army moving at the same blazing speed while others moved people and objects around them without ever placing their hands on them, and still others grabbed those around them with massive hands and tossed them with overpowering strength. It was as if his mind had isolated each of the different species and separated them, allowing the most prevalent abilities in each of the people, both hybrid and not, to show through the strongest. Suddenly they seemed at once indescribably different and yet more alike than ever before.
As the battle raged on around him, Azra became aware of a gnawing feeling in his stomach. No matter what he did or how hard he tried to push the thoughts away, he couldn’t get the image of Elise out of his mind. He was deeply concerned about her, even more so now that they had actually arrived on Penthos and were facing the battle that had been building up in their minds for so long. He was conflicted by her not being there with him. He was thankful that she wasn’t on the battlefield in danger and witnessing the carnage that was quickly escalating around him, but not being able to see her made him wonder where she was and if she was safe. His eyes fell on Lynx and he ran toward his brother, ducking out of the way of a blow from a hybrid soldier wearing tattered and bloody robes.
“Lynx!” he shouted. “Where is Elise?”
Lynx turned toward him.
; “She stayed behind,” Lynx said. “She’s safe. She and Lila are preparing the compound for everyone to come back.”
Azra nodded. Reassured by knowing that his mate was safe and secure, he turned back to the battle and began to slash his way through the wall of soldiers approaching him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a warrior double over as a blade went into his belly. He started toward him, immediately realizing that it was Ero. The young warrior lay on the ground, curled over onto his hip as he dug his fingers into the ground as if trying to pull himself away from the hooded creature that was lifting his weapon again. He dropped to his knees beside Ero and blocked him with his body as he forced his own blade forward into the man’s gut, reciprocating the injury that he had caused Ero. As the soldier stumbled back, he grasped Ero’s shirt and started to drag him back toward Pyra and Gyyx several feet away. He shouted their names and they rushed toward him. Pyra leaned down and scooped Ero up off of the ground as Azra continued to support his legs.
They rushed out of the center of the fray toward an empty expanse of the desert sand.
Chapter Two
Elise shook out the thin blanket in her hands and folded it over, then unfolded it and shook it again. The snap through the air was somehow comforting, as if it was reassuring her that each time that she did it she would remove any dirt that might be clinging to the fabric and would soften the fibers. She wanted it to be the best it could be when the men got there, just in case this was the blanket that Azra was going to use.
“Can you hand me another of the blankets?”
Elise turned toward Lila’s soft voice and saw the woman holding out one slim hand toward her. She noticed that there was a small stack of neatly folded blankets on the table in front of her. Elise nodded, wondering how long she had been standing there with this one blanket in her hands. She lowered it to the table in front of her and handed another to Lila. The other woman swiftly shook it out and folded it before adding it to her stack. Elise could smell the warmth coming from the fabric that came from drying them out in the intense sunlight of the planet after washing them from the one small pump that they had found behind another of the buildings in the compound. That discovery had been a tremendous comfort and reassurance to them. The water that they had brought with them was starting to dwindle and now that the ship had left Penthos they didn’t have access to the water caches any longer. Though she knew that the rest of the group had arrived in another ship equipped with a water cache, Elise couldn’t be sure that it was properly stocked before they left or that there would be enough to sustain all of them for as long as they were on the planet. Finding the pump, though old, outdated, and working only at a small trickle, ensured that they would have access to other water.
“Are you thinking about Azra?” Lila asked.
Elise felt slightly embarrassed to be caught completely lost in her thoughts about her mate. At that moment, she was supposed to be preparing for the group to get back from the battle, transforming the small, empty building close to their main shelter into a hospital. Though she hoped that it wasn’t going to need to be used, it was critical that they had it ready before the men arrived so that if any of them did need care, they would be able to get the treatment and healing necessary as fast as possible. She should be able to focus on that rather than allowing her mind to drift to Azra and how much she had missed him since she had said goodbye to him. If she had known this was going to happen, that in such a short time she would be struggling to keep her emotions under control as she waited to know if Azra got through a battle on a distant and desolate planet, things might have been different.
She nodded and walked out of the building, suddenly needing air. The smell of food cooking in the fire that they had built filled her lungs and she concentrated on that rather than the tears that were threatening her eyes. She stepped up to the cooking pit and stirred the thick stew simmering in a large pot they had found already in place on the pit. It wasn’t too long ago that Elise assumed that it had been more than a century since anyone had stepped foot on Penthos, but now she knew that that wasn’t the case. She could only hope that this compound was as safe and secure as Maxim seemed to believe that it was. While it looked as though it had been some time since it had been used, there were small details that they had discovered, like the pot in the fire, that made her worry that this section of the planet had been used in more recent memory, and that those who had utilized it might return for it before they left.
“It’s alright to be thinking about him,” Lila said as she came up behind her and checked on the loaves of bread that they had rising in the heat that was still high even though the sun was dipping low in the sky.
The evening was rushing in and she could see Lila’s shadow stretch across the courtyard in front of the building, in the light from the torches that they had positioned around the edge of the compound. Though she didn’t like the idea of announcing their presence to the hybrid army, they knew that they needed to be as evident as possible to the men when they were on their way back. With the exception of Maxim, Zyyr, Lynx, and Avery, they didn’t know how to get to them, and if they were separated they needed to have a clear path to the safety that waited them here.
“There’s too many other things that I need to be doing right now,” Elise said. “There’s a huge group that will be here soon, and there are only two of us to get this place ready for them. They will need something to eat and water, and they might…”
Her voice trailed off and she turned back to the food.
“There will be injuries,” Lila said. “You need to understand that.”
The words were stark and the woman’s voice held more strength and insistence than Elise had ever heard in it. She turned toward Lila, put off by the seeming lack of care and concern in what she had said. She didn’t know how to respond, and suddenly she felt even more alone. Dropping the spoon that she had been using to stir the stew onto a stone platter beside the pot, Elise turned and rushed back into the building that they were outfitting as a makeshift hospital.
Her hands shook as she took up a sheet and spread it over one of the tables to create a bed. She was repeating the process on the other bed when Lila stepped into the room. Elise grabbed a threadbare sheet and started ripping it into long strips, the force that it took and the sound of the fabric tearing was a release for the frustration and fear that she was feeling.
“I’m sorry,” Lila said as she took a step toward Elise. “I didn’t mean that to hurt you.”
Elise tossed the bandages to the table and looked up to stare at the other woman incredulously.
“You didn’t mean it to hurt me?” she asked. “So, your idea of comforting me is to point out that they are going to be horribly wounded, and I just need to get my mind around that?”
“That’s not what I meant by it,” Lila said. “It’s not that I want you to think that there are terrible things happening or that they are all going to come back hurt.”
“Then what?” Elise asked. “What could you have possibly thought that I was going to think when you said that?”
“You are from Earth,” Lila said. “From what the Nyx 23 crew and the human mates of the Denynso warriors have told me, there hasn’t been a large-scale war on Earth in a long time. Certainly not during your life. The only warfare that humans have seen has been on other planets or in very small, isolated battles. Even those are technological wars. They are distant, impersonal. War is different on Uoria. Our kind, even those who have never seen battle ourselves, live with the scars passed down through generations that have known what it is to look into the eyes of the person in front of them on the battlefield and watch the life drain away from them as they feel their last breath on their skin. You can’t understand what is happening out there because it hasn’t been something that has been a part of your existence. I know that in your heart you don’t want to think about the fact that they are fighting as ferociously as they are, but you need to remember what you’ve already seen. You nee
d to remember what Kyven and Emerie went through. What happened to Nylek. What happened to Zyyr. That has to be what is in your mind when you think about what they are going through and what will have happened when they get back here. That is the only way that you are going to be able to be prepared. If you think that everything is going to be fine and that there is nothing for you to worry about, it will be much harder for you to face the real aftermath of a battle. That can cost lives.”
Elise drew in a shuddering breath. She knew that Lila was right. She couldn’t let herself remain buried in the denial that she had surrounded herself with like a protective casing. It felt comforting in a shallow way, but it also kept her from processing the reality that she needed to accept before she would be able to be any benefit to Azra or to anyone else.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she admitted. “I’m a flight attendant.”
Lila shook her head.
“You are the mate of a Denynso warrior. You have been since birth. That makes you so much more than anything that you have ever thought of yourself. None of us really know what to expect here. All we can do is prepare ourselves in the best way that we can, and hope that it is enough.”
“And if it isn’t?”
“Then we figure out what else we need to do, and we do it. Life is different now, Elise. You don’t have someone planning and scheduling your every moment for you anymore. You aren’t living for other people or to fill some expectation. You are just…living.”
“I don’t know if I know how to do that,” Elise said.
“You do,” Lila told her. “You just have to find it.”
Elise concentrated for a few moments on tearing another sheet into long bandages and then looked back up at Lila.
“You know, the most impulsive thing that I ever did was fall in love with Azra.”
Azra & Elise’s Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 10) Page 1
