by Wells, Juno
Mated to the Alien Warriors
Juno Wells
Contents
1. Hannah
2. Veiko
3. Hannah
4. Hannah
5. Hannah
6. Aavik
7. Hannah
8. Aavik
9. Hannah
10. Wraxic
11. Hannah
12. Veiko
13. Hannah
14. Aavik
15. Wraxic
16. Hannah
17. Aavik
18. Hannah
19. Wraxic
20. Hannah
21. Veiko
22. Wraxic
23. Hannah
24. Hannah
25. Wraxic
Epilogue
More Juno Dragons: Alien Warrior’s Captive Bride
1 Hannah
Hannah bounced her leg, waiting for her name to be called.
People bustled around the office and she tried to memorize all of their faces. It was something she was going to need when she was a member of the CIA. An ability to memorize faces, dates, names. Her memory was good, but she was determined to improve it. She would improve everything that would make her better at this job.
Because she was certain she had got the job.
Her three rounds of interviewing had gone well. She had an internship in another government agency under her belt. They wouldn't have bothered asking her to come back into the office unless they were giving her the position. It would have been a quick phone call or letter telling her that they were sorry, but the position wasn't hers this time.
No, she was here to be given her congratulations and to sign a lot of paperwork.
And she'd earned it. She'd been filled with soul-crushing doubt that her lifetime dream was going to fall through her fingers ever since the last round of interviewing, but all that had melted away when they'd asked her to come in.
"Hannah McClellan?" Someone stuck their head out of an office to call her.
She was on her feet in seconds, smoothing down her white blouse over black straight-legged slacks. Her shoes were flat and practical. Her blonde curls pulled back into a practical plait. Make-up minimal, just a small amount of foundation and mascara to make the normally yellow eyelashes stand out against her blue eyes.
It was how her mom had always dressed when she was going to work at the very office she was standing in now.
The woman's office was so clean it looked clinical. There were no personal items, not a spot of mess. A name plaque sat on the desk. Special Agent Yvonne Montague.
It wasn't a name or face Hannah recognized from the interviews, or even from the department.
Yvonne held out a hand for Hannah to shake, and she did so firmly.
"Please, sit down," Yvonne said.
Hannah did as she was told and pulled the chair in a little. There was a thin cardboard folder on the desk, pointing in her direction. Exactly as she'd expected.
"Before we have this conversation," Yvonne said. "I'm going to need you to sign that before we talk any further."
When she opened the folder, she was surprised to see a declaration under the Espionage Act 1917 for her to sign. She looked up at Yvonne, who was blank-faced. "I don't understand. I thought I was coming here about the job. I had some interviews--"
"I'm afraid we aren't going to offer you that position."
Hannah's face fell, and she knew it wasn't a professional response.
Yvonne continued without showing if she was disappointed. "But we have another opportunity for you within the agency. Before I can tell you about it I'm going to need you to sign the declaration, though."
The hesitation was minimal after that and had nothing to do with doubt about wanting to sign the declaration. Her mind was too busy racing with endless possibilities to command her hand to move immediately.
It did move though and she formed her signature with the expensive pen on the expensive paper.
She gave Yvonne a polite smile as the woman picked up the paper and examined the signature. No doubt she'd seen a copy of the signature Hannah had put on her job applications and was comparing.
"Okay, that's great," Yvonne said, and folded her hands on top of each other on the pristine desk. "Now. We have a very rare opportunity to offer you. In fact, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You would be the first person in the world to take this kind of job."
It should have been enticing--it was obviously meant to be-- but it made Hannah's gut twist uncomfortably. She might have gotten a good degree and good experience on her resume, but she was hardly a super spy yet. "What kind of job is this?"
"Before I tell you this information, I want to remind you of the consequences of breaking the declaration you've just signed."
"I understand the declaration." Hannah was trying not to get snippy.
"The United States of America has recently made contact with extra-terrestrial life forms."
Hannah laughed. "Wow, normally my dreams aren't this vivid." She'd been dreaming every night of coming into the offices and accepting her new job, but she'd never realized in her dream that it was a dream before. That was a first. And normally you recognized people in your dreams, didn't you? It wasn't possible to imagine a new face out of nowhere like Yvonne's was.
"I can assure you that this is neither a dream nor a joke." Yvonne's face remained the same blank slate, and she handed Hannah another file. "Though of course I understand that this is a lot to take in."
Hannah took the file but didn't open it. "You've met aliens," she repeated, then shook her head and laughed. It had to be a dream. Maybe she'd been conned these past weeks by a reality TV show. "And what job did you have in mind, related to these aliens?"
"We'd like you to go to their planet."
Hannah laughed again, but it was more strained every time. Yvonne was keeping up the act too well. She had to be an actor, or a figment of Hannah's imagination. "You want me to go to their planet. Right. I'll just get on board one of their spaceships, shall I?"
"Yes, that is the method of transport they have suggested."
"And what exactly do you want me to do on this planet?"
"To integrate with their culture. To gather information on their technology, their habits, their way of life. There's a whole universe of extraterrestrials out there and a lot we can learn from them."
"Why me?" She realized she sounded like she was buying into this absurd scenario, but the questions came flowing out of her. Something in her gut told her it was real.
This was what being a spy was about, wasn't it? Being able to adapt to new information without losing it. Overcoming unexpected situations.
This was sure as fuck unexpected.
"Because the agency believes you have all the qualities of a great agent."
"All the qualities of a potentially great agent. I'm unproven."
"So are all the people that fit the requirements that the Vaherians have given us."
A shiver crawled up Hannah's spine. The Vaherians had to be the alien race. "Requirements?"
"Our planets are proposing a trade. They will grant us technology in exchange for a human."
"What are they going to do with me?"
"Their King has given his assurance that you will be welcomed on Vaher as an honored guest."
"But why would they want a human?"
Yvonne's face hadn't budged until now, but she frowned just slightly. "Earth as a planet has very little to offer in the way of bartering chips. Our technology is subpar and our raw materials are of no interest to the Vaher. They want instead to gain an understanding of our race and culture by having a human on their planet."
"And what requirements di
d they ask for exactly?"
"They wanted a young woman to be sent to their planet."
A young woman. At twenty-six, it felt like forever since Hannah had felt young, but she supposed she was. "Why would they require that?"
"I suppose because they think a woman will be less threat."
Hannah didn't buy it. "I don't know."
"There's no need to make an immediate decision, and I have more information about the planet you'd be going to in that folder. You can't take it from the building, but I have a room next door you can borrow."
"When would you need a decision?"
"By the end of the week."
It was already Wednesday.
Hannah already knew she was going to take it. There were so many factors guaranteeing that she would snatch up any job offer the CIA gave her, but one that involved going to space? Seeing a new planet? Being perhaps the first person to leave Earth and travel across the galaxy?
Of course she was going to take it, no matter the risks. She didn't want to appear too eager though, and she wanted to make sure she got as much information out of Yvonne before she snatched her hand off to become the agency's first intergalactic spy.
"Do you think I'd ever be able to come home?" she asked, though there was nothing much keeping her on Earth. Her family was dead, and her friends had all moved away. She saw them maybe once or twice a year, if she was lucky.
She'd always just assumed she would make like-minded friends when she realized her destiny and joined the CIA, following in her parents' footsteps.
"I'm sure that would be possible," Yvonne said. "I'm told the trip to Vaher in their technology isn't incredibly long or dangerous."
"Okay," Hannah said, trying to play it cool. "Then I'll just take the file and have a look and take a few days to think about it."
Yvonne gave a small smile, and Hannah felt sure it was smug. Yvonne could probably read her like a book.
Hannah didn't care.
She was going to space, for fuck's sake.
2 Veiko
Veiko hand his sword over his knee and he pulled the whetstone over it in even strokes. They had technology that could have sharpened the sword in much less time and with much less strain, but Veiko liked the traditional method. It was therapeutic.
His fellow interior guard, Aavik and Wraxic, were watching their weapons be shined and buffed by a robot designed for the purpose.
"Do we really want to win?" Veiko asked.
"What?" Aavik demanded, folding his arms and towering over the sitting Veiko. "Of course we want to win."
Veiko didn't normally tolerate Aavik's continued habit of overstepping his authority, but this time he allowed it. He wanted this conversation to be honest from everyone. Veiko might be in charge of the king's personal guard, but this wasn't a professional topic. This was about something entirely personal.
"It's not up to us whether we win," Wraxic said, rocking on his heels. The youngest member of the interior guard, Wraxic was a constant ball of energy. Veiko wanted to strap him down. "It's fate. If we win, then we're meant to claim the prize. If not, then she wasn't the one for us."
It was an argument none of them could really dispute, but it still didn't sit right with Veiko. "It might be fate that determines whether we win if we're all putting up our best efforts, but not everything is determined by the gods. If we back out, or lose on purpose, then that's something else completely."
Aavik took a step closer to his superior and crossed his hands across his bare chest. "We're not throwing the tournament."
"So you'd trust an outsider, would you?"
"Do we have any choice?"
Veiko looked away. Even alluding to Vaher's current situation was enough to make them all flinch.
"I suppose we don't," Veiko admitted. "But that doesn't mean I want to be the one to realize that they can't be trusted."
"We're the best warriors on the planet. We're exactly the ones who should find out whether they're to be trusted," Aavik argued.
But Aavik wasn't so eager to win the tournament for that reason, Veiko knew. He was slightly older than Veiko. Four years. He'd been searching for a mate from the moment he became of age. He'd gone nearly forty years without meeting the woman who was meant to spend the rest of her life with him.
And then, one night, all the women on Vaher had vanished. There had been no clues, nothing to suggest where they had gone. Some people reported being with women who had just disappeared right in front of them.
It had left the planet completely barren. There was no way for them to reproduce. No way except to find a species genetically similar that were willing to corrupt their gene pool by reproducing with the Vaherians.
Their King had found Earth. A planet uncorrupted by the universe, living a solitary existence until the King had made contact. Veiko could appreciate that-- the Vaherians lived as solitary an existence as they could, too. They resisted contact with other planets, had a strict closed border policy that prevented settlers living on their planet. War and destruction in the past by invaders had colored their attitude to other people in the galaxy their entire lives.
Veiko didn't want humans on his planet either.
He certainly didn't want to mate with humans. He wanted to do his job, to protect the king.
His team were not on the same page.
"Us winning the right to the first human woman doesn't mean you have to be her mate," Wraxic said. "You can deny your fate and stay out of her way. I'm sure Aavik and I will be more than enough for her." He flashed a grin at the pair that revealed two dimples in his lilac cheeks.
Veiko rolled his eyes, but he supposed he couldn't deny the point. He would be close enough to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn't there to destroy their planet, and his friends could get what they wanted, too.
"Then we'll try our best," Veiko said, standing up and placing the whetstone back in its place.
Aavik squared up to him, though. "I won't have you ruining my chance to find my mate by throwing this tournament."
Veiko stared him down easily. This was a routine occurrence. "I'm not always trying to sabotage you, Aavik."
"I won't forgive you if you ruin this for me."
"I'll fight my hardest." He lifted his palm and pressed it against Aavik's chest, right between his hearts. It was the gesture of a promise. "I'll fight to win."
Wraxic wrapped his arms around the shoulders of both men and beamed. "I really hope this human woman is gorgeous. What do they even look like, do you know?"
Both men ignored Wraxic's incessant questioning. He was asking for things he knew no one had the answer to.
All Veiko knew of the humans was that they were genetically compatible with the Vaherians.
And that they weren't to be trusted.
3 Hannah
Hannah was wheeling such a heavy suitcase behind her as she walked into CIA headquarters at Langley that she was worried it would kill her if she lost her hold on it. And she wasn't weak-- she kept her fitness levels in tip top condition in preparation for the fitness test she knew she'd have had to pass if she was going to get a job at the agency.
As it stood, she hadn't been forced to go through any trials for the position she had accepted. That made her nervous. She realized there was a time constraint before her deployment-- she was going to be fired off into space only five days after accepting her position-- but most of that time had been spent telling her what kind of information she should be gathering rather than how she would be gathering it. Time was spent on how they would be explaining her sudden disappearance to the few acquaintances she had in the area and her long-distance friends so they wouldn't start raising a fuss, on what they were going to do with her meager assets.
There was no firearms training-- although she already had several courses, paid for by herself, under her belt. No espionage training. No interrogation training. No secret-keeping training.
She was being thrown into the wilderness and left to fend for hersel
f.
When she allowed herself to think too hard about it, she knew she wasn't being sent as a spy. She was being sent as a commodity.
Clinging to the fact it was the agency sending her was the only comfort she had. She could still prove herself an asset to the country-- to the world-- even if no one was expecting anything from her.
Yvonne met her at the reception area and quickly ushered her through a labyrinth of doors and corridors. She didn't offer to help with the suitcase.
It was only when Hannah had started trying to fit all her possessions into a single suitcase that she realized how little she owned. She hoped Vaher had clothes, because she'd opted to leave most of hers at home in favor of bringing home comforts like her straighteners along.
There had been no real indication of how far away this planet was, or if she'd ever be given the opportunity to come back to Earth. Amazon probably wouldn't deliver to Vaher.
Eventually the reached a room that Yvonne stopped in.
For a moment Hannah didn't even notice the alien standing opposite her. It was so thoroughly out of place, so unexpected and wrong looking, that her brain didn't register.
There hadn't been any pictures provided in the slim file of information Yvonne had given her about the Vaherians.
The man in front of her-- and he was quite clearly a man, surprisingly human looking-- was stood with arms folded staring straight back at her.
She'd expected green skin, because she was a sucker for a cliché, but he was a deep turquoise. His eyes matched the color of his skin, which was unnerving for a second, but they held no malice. It just took a moment of getting used to. The skin wasn't smooth like Hannah's though, it looked leathery and worn. She was sure she could see patches of scales on the bare chest, and she fought the urge to reach out and touch them.
