by K Webster
The Determined Hero
Copyright © 2020 K Webster & Nicole Blanchard
Cover Design: IndieSage
Editor: Emily Lawrence
Formatting: IndieSage
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information and retrieval system without express written permission from the Author/Publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
About The Determined Hero
The Lost Planet Series Note
Prologue
1. Quinn
2. Ozias
3. Quinn
4. Ozias
5. Quinn
6. Ozias
7. Quinn
8. Ozias
9. Quinn
10. Ozias
11. Quinn
12. Ozias
13. Quinn
14. Ozias
15. Quinn
Epilogue
Join The Faction
Acknowledgments
About K Webster
Also by K Webster
About Nicole Blanchard
Also by Nicole Blanchard
About The Determined Hero
Our world is dangerous and destroyed by our ancestors.
We’re a bunch of hulking, broody mortarekkers left on this wretched planet, and it’d be enough to frighten any alien female upon waking to see our ugly nogs.
But my mate isn’t frightened.
The moment she wakes, I claim her.
How could I not when she’s the bravest and most beautiful female to ever walk this earth?
Surprisingly, she’s excited for this new adventure. Eager to be my side. A heroine like in all the stories she so fervently retells.
We could even have the happily ever after she speaks of.
If only an army of evil, violent, cruel Kevins weren’t headed our way.
And I’m the one everyone is relying on to save them.
Each solar flies by quicker than the last. It’s a race to build a powerful weapon to blow them out of the sky and woo the prettiest female at the same time.
I’ve got this.
I’m a mort of many talents.
I’m one determined hero.
These Kevins think they’ll take away our happy ending?
I rekking think not.
Need to catch up?
Start the Series
The Lost Planet Series Note
In the beginning, there were many who survived the initial blasts of radiation and the resulting catastrophic environmental disturbances. The morts, the only inhabitants of Mortuus, The Lost Planet, ever changed from the effects of the radiation, learned to adapt and, more importantly, to survive. In doing so, they became highly skilled and intelligent, capable of surviving even the worst conditions.
The planet was dangerous and life wasn’t easy, but the morts had each other and that was all that mattered. They flourished in the protective shell of an abandoned building they converted into living quarters. Morts were given jobs, trained from birth in order to pass knowledge from generation to generation. Eventually, the morts hoped to extend the facility and conquer the wild, untamable outdoors.
Then, disaster struck.
The Rades, a disease contracted from complications of the radiation, began to infect increasing numbers of their population. First, there was fever, followed by sores, then finally madness and, inevitably, death. Quarantining the infected helped, but by then it was too late. Women, children, and the elderly, were the first to go. One by one, morts caught The Rades and died. Whole families wiped away.
Until only ten males remained.
Salvation came years later when the morts discovered a ship filled with aliens—female aliens. Knowing it was their only chance at survival, they snuck on a passing ship and brought five females home to study—and to breed.
It was their only chance at survival.
Four females have been claimed. One remained.
The unmatched morts didn’t ever think they’d have a mate of their own. But the discovery of a prison full of females on the other side of Mortuus changes everything.
Now, hope is all they know.
Hope will be the only thing between them and destruction when the humans who used to inhabit their planet return to destroy them if the return of the Rades doesn’t wipe them out first.
Prologue
Ozias
Fourteen Solars Left
I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s like we have a date set for our extermination. That’s what this is after all. When they bring their “rain,” we all get sent to The Eternals. At least that’s what Julie says.
“We could build more ships,” I tell the quiet one. “But do I have enough time to design one and then make multiples? Probably not.”
Leaning back in my chair, I twist on the dial of the project I’m working on. It cranks and whirs.
“Ships won’t stop hundreds or thousands. Julie isn’t sure how many they’ll send.” I stop and regard the one who never talks back. “How many do you think they’ll send?”
I wait. She never answers, but I always give her time to respond.
“A rekking bunch. I agree,” I say with a sigh. “Hmm.”
Galen steps into the Medical Bay and shakes his head. “Don’t you ever get tired of talking to someone who never talks back? I thought you were ‘commsline dating’ as Molly calls it. What? All the females at the prison aren’t trying to escape to come mate with you? I’m so surprised.”
His dry tone indicates he’s anything but surprised.
I roll my eyes at him as I shove my tool into the side of my device and twist it. “I talk to Whisper because she’s a good listener.”
“Whisper? And that’s because she’s halfway to The Eternals.”
I glower at him. “Take it back.”
“What? Since she’s no longer in cryo, I have to come fill these bags all day with nutrients. Without these, she would perish. It’s sad, really. No one should have to continue to exist this way. If Breccan would let me, I would just cease feedings—”
“Out!” I roar, my sub-bones popping violently in my spine. “She can hear you.”
He flinches at my words but swaps out her feeding bags. “I apologize. It was unkind. I’m just…” He trails off with a sigh. “Antsy and agitated.”
Aren’t we all?
Galen is an unpredictable mort. Unlike Breccan or Draven who wear their grumpiness on the outside, Galen holds his inside. It just feeds and feeds until it grows into something uncontrollable. He simply explodes one solar without warning, raging and roaring, requiring several morts to calm him.
“You’re forgiven, by me,” I say, “but you will need to grovel some more with my mate.”
He pauses. “Your what?”
“What?”
“You just called her your mate.”
I laugh because I most certainly did not. “You need sleep, Galen. I did not call Whisper my mate.”
He gapes at me. “Oz, I know what I heard.”
Ignoring him, I prod on my device a few more times and then lift it up to show him. “W
hat do you think?”
His nostrils flare at my blowing him off, but he inspects the zuta-metal contraption. “What is it?”
“What dries out rain?” I ask, smirking.
“The sun.”
“The humans are bringing the rain…” I remind him, hating how he flinches. Everyone is worried. I have a plan, though. “See this here?”
Galen nods.
“It uses a special thermal scanner to locate the hottest areas of the sun and absorb it.”
“Into that tiny thing?” he asks, astonished.
“No, this is a replica. A design based on some drawings of Earth II technology Julie explained. What I am going to build will be bigger. Much bigger.”
He cocks his nog to the side. “Then what?”
“I’m going to blow them out of the rekking sky with the heat of a thousand suns. Every last one of them.” I grin wide. “Jareth and I are going to start building it this evening.”
Galen smiles. “It better work.”
“It’ll work,” I tell him in confidence. “Now tell Whisper you’re sorry again.”
He chuckles. “I apologize, Whisper. It was thoughtless of me. I promise I won’t stop feeding you. Please don’t tell Molly. She’ll whip me.”
We both laugh as he leaves.
I look back down at my miniature thermablaster. I’m certain I can build one, and if I can get the specifics back to Julie, I could probably walk Theron and Hadrian through building one too. This has to work. It will work.
“Don’t worry, Whisper,” I tell my mate, “I won’t let them hurt you.”
It’s then I freeze.
I thought of her as my mate.
Galen didn’t mishear.
Rekk, I’m losing it.
You can’t want to mate with someone you’ve never met or spoken to. Whisper is a sleeping beauty, just like the story Emery told Hophalix one solar when I happened to be nearby. Asleep and waiting for her prince to save her. The story sort of resonated with me, but I am no prince. I’m a mort with a love for machines.
“You think I’ll ever find a mate?” I ask Whisper as I tinker. “Maybe one of Willow’s friends over at Exilium? I was only teasing when I said I could have multiple.” I let out a heavy sigh. “I just want one. I’d bring down all the Kevins in the universe just to have a future with one.”
“I think you’ll find one,” Whisper croaks.
“Thank you,” I start and then nearly drop my thermablaster replica. “Whisper?”
I dart my eyes to hers, expecting to see them closed. Instead, bright blue eyes like the crystal waters in the underground wells bore into me. I’m snared in her gaze.
“You’re awake.”
“I, uh, I have been for some time.” She bites on her bottom lip, her brows furling together. “I needed to make sure you wouldn’t hurt me.”
The thought of hurting her makes my guts twist.
“You overheard what Galen and I were talking about?”
She swallows and nods. “I hear everything. Or at least I have for several days. I was pretending to sleep because I was scared.”
I set my contraption down to take her tiny hand in my greasy, calloused ones that are littered with cuts from the zuta-metal constantly snagging my skin. “So you know the humans are adored here then? That we’d never hurt you, Whisper?”
“I’m Quinn,” she says. “And from what I’ve gathered, you guys are a lot nicer than the ones we came from.”
I don’t let go of her hand that feels right in my grasp. She’s not my mate, but she’s my something. I’ve felt it for a while now, drawn to the Medical Bay where she sleeps—or in her case, has been pretending for several solars.
“Ozias,” I tell her. “Oz for short. We are not Kevins. We are Kevin killers.”
She scrunches her nose up in confusion. Rekk if my cock doesn’t react. “Kevins?”
“Julie calls them guards. Aria calls them rapists. Zoe calls them assholes. Molly calls them pigs.”
“Ahh, human men.”
“Correct, mat—” I cut my word off mid-sentence. I almost called her mate. I’m in serious trouble. “Quinn.”
“Are they coming for us?” she whispers, giving life to the name I gave her.
I give her hand a small squeeze. “They are, but we’ll be rekking ready for them.” I help her sit up, admiring the dark brown ringlets of her hair that bounce from the movement. “Tell me, sleepy alien, what do you know about the sun?”
A slow smile curves her plump lips up. My cock is hard in my minnasuit as I imagine horribly inappropriate things to do with her mouth—ideas that rekking Jareth implanted in my nog.
“Only everything,” she breathes. “Well, space too. Oh, and arachnids. I love arachnids.”
I narrow my eyes. “Are you a scientist like Grace?”
She shakes her nog, her curls bouncing wildly. “Better.”
Of course my mate would be better than Jareth’s and Sawyer’s. I can’t wait to rub that one in Jareth’s ugly face.
Wait…not my mate.
“Better?”
“I’m a librarian.”
I don’t know what a librarian is, but the way she says the word in a breathless whisper has a power over me that I cannot describe.
“Definitely better,” I agree, my voice husky. “Let’s go build a thermablaster and save the world, Whisper.”
She stares at me as if I’m the most interesting thing she’s ever seen in her life. It makes me want to bare my double fangs at her to show her mine are the sharpest of any mort, even Jareth’s. Males do the strangest things for their mates.
Not my mate.
“Let’s do it, Oz.”
Oh, we’re going to do it.
That and a lot more things.
Even if all we have are thirteen measly solars.
I’m a clever mort. I can do a lot in thirteen solars.
A whole rekking lot.
1
Quinn
He’s here again.
Or at least, I think he is.
My glasses must not have made it with me to wherever it is I’ve landed, so I can barely see the small window in front of me, let alone anything on the other side. At first, I was terrified. I mean, who wouldn’t be? The last good memory I had before the pod was staying late at the library sorting through a new shipment of books. It was arguably the happiest moment of my life.
All I’ve ever wanted is to spend my life surrounded by books. To hold them, arrange them, share them with other people who recognize their special magic. Obtaining the position as my town’s librarian…there aren’t words to describe what it meant to me. And I’d like to think I have plenty of words in my repertoire.
I’d only been working there for three months. Three months of heaven.
Until I woke up in hell.
Then I heard his voice.
I thought I was dreaming at first, one of my fanciful romantic dreams. I used to have them during college when the loneliness felt like a tangible entity. I let it lull me away from the growing panic to a place of peace. I was in and out of it the first few days, brought to consciousness by the sound of his voice. There were others around, I’m not sure how many, but it was his I recognized instantly. An intelligent voice, maybe a little bit of a rascal considering how often he butts up against the others.
From what I’ve gleaned through my two days of observation, the planet I’m on is Earth—or at least the Earth after it was destroyed by storms of radiation. The people who watch over me are the remnants of those who were left behind. Mutations, I think, but I can’t be sure. They’re never close enough for me to get a good look. I’d have to be inches away to see clearly without my glasses. Too much reading, my foster mother used to say.
There can never be too much reading, I’d answer.
Well, this isn’t any book.
The shadowed figures in front of me are clearly real.
This is happening.
I’ve been kidnapped by aliens.
How friggin’ cool is that?
Once the fear wears off as I listen in to my daily visitors, I begin to learn more about the aliens who care for me. I think they call themselves rekkers. And they have other human women and mates they’ve reproduced with. I could swear I heard a baby cry at one point. I wonder how that works. Are they anatomically similar to the males? Do they lay eggs like my beloved arachnids?
For a while, when they’re off doing…whatever it is they do outside my little room, I wonder if I could handle laying eggs in a nest with an alien lover. After a time, I drift back out of consciousness. I’m not sure why I’m awake and they don’t seem to be aware. Maybe there’s something wrong with whatever they’re doing to me. Maybe I’m dreaming.
In my dream, I hear two of the rekkers having a conversation. They may be arguing. It’s hard for me to tell. Then the other leaves and my arachnid speaks only to me. The fog in my brain dispels and I find myself answering.
Oh crap, oh crap, what was I thinking?
I’d been safe inside my little room, like I’d been safe behind my glasses or my books.
The more I speak with Oz, as I learn he’s called, the more I realize maybe I won’t be entirely safe with him at all.
“You said you’ve been awake for a couple solars?” Oz asks conversationally.
I try to remember to breathe. I may not be able to see them all, but the room beyond my little bed filled quickly once Oz ran to tell the other rekkers news of my being awake. “Solars means days? Then yes, that’s right.”
