Silver

by Siren Allen

  Siren Allen Presents…

  SILVER

  ~ Beastly Bites #1 ~

  Copyright © 2016 by Siren Allen

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, printing or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  Editor: Gina Fiserova

  Cover art: Driven Independent Media

  www.drivenindie.com

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all the Sci-Fi romance fans out there, on Earth and beyond. Thanks for reading Silver and Malia’s story.

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  SILVER

  All Malia Valdese wants to do is survive in the Outlands and serve food to the patrons of her diner. She doesn’t want anything to do with the handsome silver-eyed stranger who keeps showing up after closing time, asking her weird questions and making her feel something she hasn’t felt in years, desire.

  She doesn’t care that he’s the sexiest male she’s ever seen or that he stares at her like she’s the main course. Steering clear of him is her plan. Well, it was the plan, before he turned her world upside down with four words…. You’re coming with me.

  Apparently she has no say in the matter.

  She’s not on the menu. But she’s what he hungers for.

  Her scent tells him she’s his and the wanted pictures popping up all over the dark-net tells him he needs to lay low for a while. Having her next to him in bed while he tries to clear his name is the plan. Unfortunately, his enemies are closer than he thought and now they’ve found his weakness…. her.

  Can he shield his mate from the consequences of his dark past? Or will she flee to his enemies to escape him and the intense emotions he stirs inside of her?

  No matter what she chooses, he has no intention of letting her go.

  I like my life the way it is. Some may say I’m boring and old fashion, but who cares. I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve got. I’m not about to allow anyone to take that from me or distract me from my goals.

  -Malia Valdese

  My mate is an independent female. I love that about her. Unfortunately, time is my enemy. I don’t have days to woo her and convince her to be mine. I shouldn’t have to. Fate made that decree before either of us were born. I hope she forgives me for what I have to do next.

  -Silver

  On board The Striker Spaceship

  “What the hell are you waiting for, O’Connor? Put us into warp drive,” Sebastian Johansson, captain of The Striker Spacecraft, ordered seconds before his body was lifted into the air and slammed into the wall, his head connecting with the corner of the emergency fire safety panel.

  Vision blurry, he rose to his feet, his hand pressing against the wall as he tried to stay upright. He pushed his twisted locks out of his face and as his vision cleared, he took action, stumbling to the console, while the ship rocked to the left. Sparks fell from the ceiling, systems failed and computer screens flickered, some going black.

  They’d been struck again.

  If they didn’t get the hell out of there soon their favorite ship would become their final resting place. He wasn’t sure he wanted to share a casket with the three males on board. Friends they might be, but living with them was hell. He had a feeling they would be just as ornery in death.

  Rounding the corner of the command center, the first thing he noticed was O’Connor on the floor, bleeding from a head wound. The blood trickled down the unconscious male’s brown skin, pooling around his head. Sebastian knelt next to his friend and checked for a pulse.

  He was alive.

  Good.

  That meant he’d get a chance to kill him later for not following his orders promptly. He attempted to nudge the male, who was built solid like an asteroid, to the side with his foot while leaning over the console, trying to see how much damage had already been done to the ship. Shit. Warp drive would be impossible now.

  Their main propulsion engine had been struck, twice. Their enemies knew what they were doing. Of course they did. The enemy ship was a vessel they’d once followed. The crew on board was their kindred.

  The leader was their commander, or he had been, before the members of The Striker decided to go rogue. Before Sebastian and his crew determined they no longer wanted to be a part of the team they’d fought beside for years.

  Because of their betrayal, Sebastian and his crew were wanted by their people, presumably dead not alive. If their enemies thought they could bring them down easily, they were underestimating The Striker and its members.

  Sebastian stared behind him at the planet that was imploding on itself. Guilt assaulted him as missiles assaulted his ship. They were the reason those who lived on that world were dead. They’d been given an order, and they’d carried it out. No questions asked.

  A good soldier never wasted time asking questions. A good soldier took action. This time their actions led to the death of an entire research team. Hundreds of this galaxy’s greatest scientists were now gone. Innocent beings.

  Sebastian hadn’t known they were innocent when he accepted the mission. It wasn’t until they’d set their devices to implode on a remote area of the world and docked The Striker on the docking station of their commander’s ship, The Iron Bender, that they realized why they were truly destroying innocent people.

  He’d stumbled upon that information by mistake. After completing the task he’d been given, Sebastian had gone in search of Rhodes to give him a full report of the mission. He came up short outside the commander’s office when he heard Rhodes and his second in command inside talking.

  It was then that Sebastian learned what was really going on. The world they destroyed was home to a research facility. That part was true. It was the rest of what they’d been told that proved false. There was something on that world the commander wanted, a weapon, and he’d gotten it.

  While Sebastian and his crew had been setting up devices to cause the world to self-destruct, Rhodes had been stealing a very important piece of cargo from the main research lab.

  That was the first red flag that caused Sebastian to question the real intent of their mission. Their orders had been to destroy everything, nothing was to be salvaged, no raiding and looting.

  Usually all of their missions involved raiding. They were the Galactic Raiders, pirates who roamed the universe to steal and claim lands. It was what they did. For this particular mission raiding had been banned.

  According to commander Rhodes, that order had come from the
Régime of their home world. Another red flag. Their Régime couldn’t ban them from doing anything. They were outlaws, outcasts.

  Each member of the Galactic Raiders was forbidden from returning to Zedona, their home world. Some were forbidden for crimes committed on their planet, others for joining the Galactic Raiders.

  Even though they couldn’t return home, that didn’t stop the Régime from using them on top secret projects. Whenever their people were under attack, the Galactic Raiders were the first line of defense.

  Whenever word of one of their enemies obtaining a futuristic weapon that could destroy any and all Time Dwellers reached the Regime, the Galactic Raiders were commissioned to retrieve said weapon. They weren’t fit to return home, yet they were fit to steal and murder for those who could.

  Hypocrisy at its finest.

  That didn’t stop the raiders from doing whatever they had to in order to protect the world that shunned them. They did it because they were loyal to the loved ones they’d left behind.

  Plus, there was always transparency in all their missions. If Sebastian and his crew came across an assignment that seemed shady or didn’t sit well with them, they sat it out. Their current mission had seemed cut and dry.

  Destroy the researchers that were creating a weapon that could destroy all Time Dwellers. No raiding, they were to take nothing from that world, everything there was a threat to them. So why the hell had Rhodes stolen something?

  Sebastian was nobody’s fool. The cargo their commander had swiped was now stored onboard The Striker. While the crew of the Iron Bender had been celebrating their victory, Sebastian and his guys had been breaking into the cargo hold and stealing the commander’s prize.

  It went against the oath they’d taken when they signed up to pillage for the Galactic Raiders. But Sebastian knew that the cargo container the commander had stolen stored a futuristic weapon of mass destruction and he knew exactly what a male like commander Rhodes would do with such a weapon.

  The commander was an efficient leader. However, lately he’d seemed distant and more destructive than before. Rhodes and his crew only took on missions that were level ten, which were kill only jobs. He’d once seen Rhodes return from a mission with someone else’s face plastered over his. The male was a psychopath.

  There was no way Sebastian could allow any type of futuristic weapon to fall into the hands of that maniac. And if Rhodes thought he was getting it back, he was sorely mistaken. The commander thought he could continue blasting them until their protective shield shut down and they were forced to dock on the Iron Bender or be blown to smithereens.

  Sebastian knew of a third option. If he timed it right, he could use the devastation and destruction done to the research facility to his advantage. The captain made a circle, steering The Striker back toward Precept 33, the world that was now on fire. His enemies followed.

  “Systems failing,” Striker, the ship’s computerized voice informed him as they moved closer to the planet.

  “I know,” Sebastian yelled, steering the ship toward a world he’d destroyed.

  “Fatal impact in seventy-two seconds.”

  “It won’t be fatal if I time it perfectly and get us to the right speed.” The captain increased his speed. The ship shuddered. He could do this. He had to do this.

  “You have a ten percent chance of accomplishing your goal.”

  Sebastian groaned, wishing for the hundredth time he wasn’t linked to the ship. Just because new technology was available, it didn’t mean you had to embrace it. The damn ship got on his nerves.

  “I got this,” he shouted just as Nigel and Alexander stumbled into the room.

  “I knew we shouldn’t have fucked with commander Rhode’s mission,” Nigel yelled, staring out into space as they approached the imploding world. “You’re going to try to manually jump galaxies, aren’t you?”

  “Damn straight. Warp drive is down. The ship isn’t doing too well.”

  “A little to the left,” Nigel instructed. “And faster. What the fuck? You have to go faster.”

  There was no time to ask questions. Sebastian veered to the left. He was trying to go faster, without warp drive it was damn near impossible to get to the needed speed.

  “A little to the right,” Alexander told him, strapping himself into his seat, always the cautious one.

  Sebastian veered slightly right.

  “Captain, if you don’t go in at the right angle we’re going to be splattered on the walls of the ship in a few moments.”

  Sebastian hated Nigel’s overactive imagination. Then again, the male was right. Sebastian held the steering steady. Even the smallest veer from their current trajectory would lead to the death of everyone on board.

  And what a horrible death it would be. Galaxy jumping wasn’t easy. It definitely wasn’t safe. He’d seen many of his friends attempt to enter black holes. Most of them never made it out.

  “Your chances of entering as the black hole forms have increased to forty percent,” Striker’s monotone voice filled the air.

  “That’s still not good enough,” Nigel yelled.

  It would have to do. The ship rocked again as another missile struck them.

  “Would you like for me to fire up the level four propulsion now?”

  “No, wait until the last second.”

  “I recommend doing so as soon as…”

  “Striker, do it at the last second,” Sebastian told the ship. They would need that extra push the moment they entered the newly forming hole or they wouldn’t be exiting.

  “Impact in twenty seconds.”

  “Is the cargo secure?” Sebastian called to his crew.

  “It is,” Nigel responded, latching himself into his seat. “Though I don’t know what good that’s going to do since we’re all are about to die in a few seconds. By the way, where is O’Connor?”

  “He’s on the floor.” Sebastian released the controls.

  There was nothing else he could do. The gravity from the dying planet had its hold on them, pulling them into its tumulus embrace. He stared at the monitor showing him his perimeters.

  The Iron Bender was slowing down, not wanting to get caught up in the gravitational pull of the world once known as Precept 33. They were free of their enemies. Now they had another problem to face: surviving an unplanned galaxy jump. Sebastian seated himself and buckled up as the ship rocked. Damn, he needed to get O’Connor buckled up.

  “Closing shutters over the windows,” Striker announced. “Impact in five seconds.”

  “Fire up the level four propulsion now, Striker.” Sebastian unbuckled his belt and threw his body over O’Connor’s just as the ship was pulled into the darkness.

  Pain jolted his senses and he could hear the yells of the other males onboard. A terrible grinding noise could be heard, as if the ship was bending, breaking. Then suddenly he heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing.

  Was this death?

  ***

  Screens blinked on and off. Blood was smeared on the walls and floor. Smoke rose from the consoles. The crew of The Striker was silent.

  “Weapons down. Force field down. Warp drive down. Attention needed within thirty-two hours. We are entering the Milky Way Galaxy,” the ship announced. “Please enter in your coordinates.”

  Silence.

  “Please enter in your coordinates.”

  Silence.

  “The link between computerized host and living host is still intact. Ship is now entering Captain Sebastian Johansson’s subconscious to find emergency protocol instructions. Subconscious tapped. Destination found. We have enough fuel to make it to our destination. We will need to refuel before departure. Recalculating date and time…”

  Battered but still functional, The Striker journeyed toward its new destination.

  Venus.

  Chapter One

  Malia Valdese rushed to get things in order, wanting the place empty at closing time, not a second later. She didn’t want to think of what would
happen if she closed a second later than scheduled.

  There was only one more table to wipe down and one more customer to leave, Old Jerry. You would think, with six tentacles, the male would be able to consume his food at a faster rate. Poor guy. He didn’t move as quickly as he used to.

  Malia came to stand next to his table. Pushing an errant strand of hair behind her ear she cleared her throat. “Jerry, we close in five minutes.”

  He used two tentacles to shove some more of the turnip pudding into his mouth. Chewing with his mouth open he told her, “That means I have five more minutes to eat, in peace.”

  So basically he wanted her to leave him alone. She could take a hint. Malia sighed, walked over to the glass exit door and peered out into the night. It was quiet out. The only transportation unit in the front parking lot was Jerry’s.

  She stared across the road where a hilly terrain prevented her from seeing what was on the other side. She didn’t have to see over there to know what was over there. She knew this area like the back of her hand, having lived here her whole life.

  Mrs. Shumack owned a tiny boutique in that direction. There was also a book store and a hair and cuticle salon about two zones away. But those were farther off in the distance. No, what worried her was much closer, possibly right behind the hills, leaning against them… watching… waiting.

  She knew he was out there. She could feel him. His presence raised the hairs on her nape, made her palms itch and her heart race. Those were probably signals from her body alerting her to danger.

  As of now she was safe. He wouldn’t dare show himself while other beings were present. But he was there. And because of that, her body was reacting, telling her to be cautious, to steer clear of him