Ascension Saga, Book 8: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga

by Goodwin, Grace

  Ascension Saga, Book 8

  Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga

  Grace Goodwin

  Ascension Saga, Book 8: Copyright © 2019 by Grace Goodwin

  Interstellar Brides® is a registered trademark

  of KSA Publishing Consultants Inc.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, digital or mechanical including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning or by any type of data storage and retrieval system without express, written permission from the author.

  Published by KSA Publishers

  Goodwin, Grace

  Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga, Book 8

  Cover design copyright 2019 by Grace Goodwin

  Images/Photo Credit: Period Images; BigStock: forplayday

  Publisher’s Note:

  This book was written for an adult audience. The book may contain explicit sexual content. Sexual activities included in this book are strictly fantasies intended for adults and any activities or risks taken by fictional characters within the story are neither endorsed nor encouraged by the author or publisher.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  The Ascension Saga

  Let’s Talk!

  Find Your Match!

  Get A Free Book!

  Connect With Grace

  About Grace

  Also by Grace Goodwin

  Prologue

  Queen Celene, Planet Alera, Optimus Unit Prison, Cell Level C

  I heard them before the door to my cell swung open. Heavy boots. Two males and one female. All three wore clerics’ uniforms, the emblem on their chests that of the clerical order itself, rather than from one of the noble families.

  Orphans then. Which explained why they would be so fervently loyal to this mysterious master I’d heard so much about over the last few days. The master who was responsible for my first husband’s death, for the attempt on my life, for the hunters who had searched for me for twenty-seven long years and stolen me from my home on Earth to bring me… here.

  On one hand, I was glad they were finally talking about him. On the other? I knew that any information I gained now was most likely because they would kill me soon.

  Whatever they had wanted from my daughters, they had been sorely disappointed. As far as I knew, they still lived. But that meant they’d switched their focus back to me.

  “Good morning, Celene. Stay warm enough last night?” The eldest cleric spoke for all three of them. She always did. I’d been in this cell for several days now, and other than the male who’d killed the man I thought of as Scarface right in front of me, hers was the only voice I’d heard.

  “You know I didn’t.” She’d made sure of it, taking my blankets and leaving me to shiver and sicken each of the last three nights. It had been cold in Mytikas, our capital city. Cold in the mountains surrounding us. Even in the depths of the cell block, inside the building, it was cold. I hated the cold.

  “Yes, well, you have not earned the privilege of comfort.” She was close to my age, nearing fifty if she was a day. Her long brown hair was streaked with gray and pulled up into a rather severe bun on top of her head, the tight pull causing her cheeks to thin and lines to fan out from the corners of her eyes to her temples. She was fit, her muscles outlined by the cleric uniform’s tight black pants and fitted tunic. I had never seen her before and did not recall her from my youth. But she’d been close to my age when the attack happened at the palace, when my beloved had been taken from me and I’d been forced to flee to Earth with my unborn child.

  “I am the queen of Alera. This building belongs to me. As does the blood running in your veins and the clothing on your backs. Claiming otherwise does not make it so,” I stated.

  Her dark blue eyes narrowed and the young male behind her stepped forward as if to strike me with his fist, but she placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. “Our master arrives in a few days. I thought you would want to know. You are running out of time.”

  When I’d first been kidnapped, I’d been beaten and tortured for answers. They’d given up on that. Then I’d been held in warmth and comfort. Now, the comfort was lacking. It seemed I was at the whims of my latest personal warden. Clearly, she didn’t like me and wanted me as miserable as possible. All of them had been pawns to this master. They were all dead. This female, she too, was a pawn. I had to wonder if she would be dead within a few days as well. She had a purpose… now.

  Finally. Finally, I would know who was behind everything. Who’d masterminded so much evil. Why I was still being held. What he truly wanted.

  “Time for what?” This female elder, this pawn, was bat-shit crazy. The old Earth term jumped to mind, and I applied it happily. The fervor in her gaze was alarming. There was no logic there, no analysis or contemplation. Pure devotion. Obedience. She was like a trained dog. To him. My impatience to know the truth made me antsy.

  “When he arrives, he will use you as bait. You will be the one to help him kill your daughters.”

  I frowned. I hadn’t been kidnapped so my daughters could die. No, this master had gotten more than he bargained for. A queen with three daughters.

  “That’s not possible,” I told her. “I know what he wants. He wants the royal jewels so he can take the throne.” I stood, despite the fact that my knees were shaky. If nothing else, I needed to keep moving to stay warm. I hadn’t slept more than a few minutes in days. It was too damn cold. “But it won’t matter. The truth will come out. The people will reject him. Jewels or not.”

  “You are a fool.” Her cackling laughter made the hair on the back of my neck raise in alarm. “He doesn’t need the jewels. He never needed the jewels. What would he need with such worthless relics?”

  I thought of the way Wyse had wanted them so desperately. So it hadn’t been for their master, but for himself.

  “He needs me alive,” I countered.

  Her laughter died off to a smirk that I wanted to punch right off her face. But the knowing grins on the faces of her two young attendants alarmed me more. They were not of her caliber, too young and stupid to feign such contempt. “For now. But not for long. And once your daughters are dead, everything will be exactly as he requires.”

  “Requires for what?”

  “To finally kill you and assume the throne. Try to stay alive until then. We wouldn’t want you to die prematurely, now would we?” She nodded at the guard next to her and he tossed a blanket at my feet. “Tonight you’ll be warm, but you won’t eat.”

  Fine. Fucking fine. I refused to answer her, protest, or rise to the bait. So, this master thought he was going to use me to lure my daughters into the open. Away from their protectors, into a trap. To murder them?

  Was it his plan to starve me into giving him what he wanted or was this female just a stone-cold bitch?

  Apparently, he believed the best bait to catch a royal princess would be me.

  Over my dead body.

  I knew enough now. It was time to stop sitting here and letting these people fuck around. No one was coming for me. I’d waited patiently for the hopes of rescue, but the queen’s guard either didn’t know where I was or couldn’t find me.

  My daughters had settled in, Trinity and Faith had taken mates, but they had not been able to find me either. It seemed when they’d moved me about, from one prison to another, they’d been careful. Smarter than I’d th
ought.

  Enough.

  I had to rely solely on myself now. As my girls would say, I was so fucking tired of this shit. It was time to get the hell out of here.

  1

  Destiny, Planet Alera, The Royal Palace

  “Harder.”

  With my ankles over Nix’s shoulders, he was bottoming out in me with every deep thrust. The raw sound of flesh slapping flesh filled the room, mixed with our ragged breathing and a growl from Nix every once in a while. My pussy should have been sore. Hell, it should have been broken by now.

  We were two days into our little staycation at the palace and my Ardor hadn’t been soothed. Our bodies were sweaty, we were covered in cum, because while Nix had put it all deep inside my pussy every time he came, I’d barely let him out of me and it had all slipped free. My thighs, my belly, his belly, his balls, his thighs. The sheets. It was everywhere.

  I lost track of how many times we’d come. Nix’s balls should have shriveled up and fallen off by now. But no. He was still hard, still pounding me with an insatiability that matched my own. Thank God. Because I wanted more.

  His hands gripped my ankles and pushed forward—I’d never doubt a yoga workout ever again—and he did as I requested. Took me harder. He leaned over me, bending me into a pretzel; the new angle had the base of his cock rubbing my clit, pushing me to the brink.

  “It’s not working,” I sobbed, my head thrashing on the sheets.

  Nix’s jaw clenched and his eyes met mine. “It’s working, mate. You should be unconscious by now from all the orgasms.”

  Tears slid out of the corners of my eyes. “That’s just it. I’m not. I need more. How can I need more?”

  A wicked grin spread across his handsome face. “Because you’re mine. We belong together. Your pussy is mine. It knows me. Needs me.”

  “Yes, but this much?” I asked.

  He pulled back, stilled. I whimpered. What the fuck? He couldn’t stop.

  “If you are thinking and talking in coherent sentences, then I am not doing it right.”

  He gripped both my ankles in one hand and turned, rolling me unceremoniously onto my stomach. Carefully, he lowered my legs so my toes touched the floor. One hand tucked under my hips and banded about my waist as his foot kicked my own wide. Then wider.

  I felt the wide crown of his cock at my entrance and he slid in again.

  My eyes fell closed and I groaned at the new position, at the way his cock stroked over new places. My fingers curled into the bedding and held on as he took me even harder.

  “You. Are. My. Mate.” Each word was punctuated by a deep thrust, fucking me in cadence. “You. Need. Orgasms. And. I. Will. Give. Them. To. You.”

  My clit rubbed against the mattress and I came, the hard pounding exactly what I needed.

  I cried out his name, sobbed through the pleasure, the feel of him swelling and coming, filling me again with his seed. But that was nothing to the ravenous hunger I had for his skin, his heat. His energy. My body pulled at his, that was the only way I could describe it. I drained his heat, absorbed it into my skin. Sucked it up like a sponge.

  Somehow, he knew, leaning over me, pressing every inch of his chest to my back, his hips to my ass, his thighs to mine. Contact. Skin. Heat. It was better than any drug I’d ever experimented with on Earth. Better than a hot bath, a massage and hot sex rolled into one. Combined with the orgasm, and his seed, and the megawatt of energy my body was absorbing on the inside—from his cock—I was blissing out.

  At once, it was like a drug fix. The clawing need to fuck eased.

  I began to count, silently, in my mind. I made it to thirty before the need came back to life inside me, clawing and twisting its way through my cells like a fever. Or a curse. I wanted him again. Needed more. More. More. Jesus.

  “Fuck.” I moaned the word into the bedding, hoping he wouldn’t hear me. This damn Aleran Ardor was a relentless bitch. I didn’t know how Nix was still walking, let alone feeding my body energy along with his seed. He must be some kind of Superman.

  No. He wasn’t human. I had to remember that. He was Aleran. He was built for this shit. I was not. Being this dependent, this freaking needy was not making me happy. The human half of me was sulky and depressed. Confused and pissed off. I shouldn’t be this desolate at the idea of him removing his cock from my body. It was insane.

  Nix pulled out and I hissed, not used to feeling empty. His seed trickled down my thighs.

  He spanked my ass with the palm of his hand, not hard, but enough to sting. “I thought that’s what we just did. Again?”

  I climbed up onto the bed, then dropped, sighed. The tangled sheets felt cool on my heated skin. All at once, I was tired. Bone weary. Exhausted. I still felt the tingle beneath my skin, the need that I knew would grow from a smoldering fire to an inferno soon enough. And the worst? I wanted Nix to climb up onto this bed, wrap his arms around me, and hold me. Hold me?

  Two words I had never spoken to a man in my life. What. The. Fuck? That screamed dependent, needy, weak female. No man would want a woman that clingy. Especially not a warrior like Nix. He was hard core. I knew a soldier when I saw one. A no bullshit, no drama, alpha male. They didn’t go for women like me. They wanted control and I refused to be controlled. Which led me in a circle back to my original problem. Ardor.

  “Dammit. When’s it going to stop? When will I stop needing you?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, Nix stilled. His cock was still hard, still a dark plum color and pointed straight at me. It glistened with our combined fluids. God, he was gorgeous.

  And pissed.

  “You are my mate. You will never stop needing me.” His voice was flat. Emotionless.

  I closed my eyes, rolled over and tugged at my hair. We’d fucked in more places than just this bed. Against the wall, over the desk, in the shower. My black hair was starting to change back to purple from being washed so often.

  “Nix, you’re not making it better. It’s not going away. It only took Trinity two days to get over her Ardor.”

  “Are you implying that you would rather have Leo in your bed?” I thought his question was a joke, until I lifted my head and saw the fury simmering in his eyes. And my sister’s mate? Gag.

  “Hell no. Gross. Sisters do not break the sister code. I can’t believe you said that.”

  “I did not. You did.” He prowled closer but did not touch me. “Believe me, Destiny, the only male who will be in your bed is me.”

  “About this mate thing. We haven’t discussed that, Nix. I’m not sure—” I was about to say I’m not sure I’m the right kind of woman for you, but he interrupted before I could finish the sentence.

  “We spend two days in bed. I give you everything. Soothe your Ardor. Make you mine. Claim you as my mate. Yet you speak as if you will toss me out with the trash once your Ardor is soothed.”

  I curled up so I faced him, lying on my side. I’d hurt him. But how could I not? I didn’t answer to anyone. Sure, I’d had sex before Nix, but not like this. I craved him. I craved more than his cock. I actually liked him. A lot. Too much, if I were being honest. And the idea of him in another woman’s bed made my blood boil.

  But that didn’t mean I wanted an alpha male bossing me around. Forever. And once I agreed to this mate business, I was pretty damn sure he was going to get even more bossy than he already was. Not that I minded, in bed. But out of it?

  His words from our first night together came back to me often. In fact, they damn near haunted me—you are my mate and you will bend to my will. Oh, and the other classic— You will stop your searching and return with me to the palace.

  Seems he’d won that battle, thanks to my traitorous pussy and this alien Ardor business I had going on. Thanks to my body, I was simply not myself. And that fact alone made me nervous. Nix didn’t know me. Not really. He knew the sex-starved, submissive, begging version of me. And that wouldn’t last.

  I was not a wallflower. I was a fighter. And I loved being a fight
er. If I had to sit in meetings all day and act the politician or learn to run a household like a bona fide lady, I’d lose my freaking mind. He continued to insist that I would not be allowed to be in danger. As if. I wasn’t allowed to do anything. Hadn’t been for years. Even my parents gave up—although I did generally do what they wanted out of respect. But not fear. Never fear.

  So. Yes. Nix and I were going to have a problem. A serious problem. Why couldn’t he see that?

  “You’ve got a job to do and so do I, a serious one. You can’t have me underfoot when you’re working, and I can’t sit around the palace eating bonbons while my mother is missing—”

  He grabbed my ankle, tugged me so I was flat on my back. He dropped his hands so they were on either side of my head and he loomed over me.

  All I could see was him. God, what a view. He really was magnificent in every way.

  Get a grip, woman. You can’t keep him.

  “Even after we get Mom back, I’ll—” What could I say? I’ll go crazy if I have to be locked up in this palace like a prisoner. I wasn’t a criminal, I was royalty. But that reality had seemed a lot more romantic and special back on Earth. The Disney princesses in the movies didn’t seem to have this kind of problem.

  “You’ll what?” he asked.

  I licked my lips, thought. I had no idea, actually. I just knew I didn’t want to be tied down—to my title as princess or to the dictates of a man. And I really didn’t want to be addicted to a cock. Since I didn’t have a good answer, I chose not to say anything.

  “What will you do, Destiny?” he asked again. “Go back to Earth?”