by Lily Thomas
Her head snapped back as she stared at her father in silence. “What are you talking about? Of course, he is! He’s the only one with a motive.”
Vroe snorted, and she felt Roeq tense behind her.
“Your brother, Liam and you were the only ones who were allowed close enough to your ship to tamper with the engines.” Her father continued.
“So?” She raised an eyebrow wondering where he would go with this.
“Nayli, sweetie, your brother planted the device.” Her father’s words hardened a bit as he uttered the word, brother.
Silence reigned over the room as she blinked dumbly, trying to process this information.
“Liam?”
Her father nodded, and her mother just looked into space, probably unwilling to think her dear little boy could do something like this. And for once, she and her mother were in full agreement.
“Her brother?” Roeq spoke up first. “Is there proof?”
“Yes,” her father nodded, “the only fingerprints on the device were Nayli’s and Liam’s. When we traced where it’d been bought… Liam’s name was all over it.”
“He could have been set up.” Nayli finally found her voice as her eyes darted over to Vroe. “Vroe could’ve set him up.”
Her father shook her head. “He just admitted to it, and is now sitting in a cell while waiting to be processed.”
“Why?” It was the only word she could get out.
“It turns out he wasn’t fond of the attention you were receiving over him.”
“But to try and kill me?” They’d always been thick as thieves and a sibling love that everyone else had been envious of.
Her father leaned back in his chair, as he pulled on the cuffs of his suit. “He hadn’t wanted to kill you. He’d been looking to just knock you out of the spotlight.”
“I… I…” Nayli glanced up at Roeq.
“What happens to him now,” Roeq asked knowing she’d wanted him to step in.
“He goes through the Daen’su legal system since he committed the crime on their space station.”
“Will we…?” Nayli asked.
“Your mother and I will provide him a lawyer, but we will also make sure he faces jail time.” Her father shook his head, his lips in a grim line. “What he did needs to be punished.”
Wow.
She gulped as it all really began to hit her. Her own brother had been the one to knock her out of the race. Never would she have been able to guess that he was the culprit.
Vroe stood. “We may have had our differences human, but I have no need to kill my competition to beat them.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, but she wasn’t in the mood to throw any banter his way. Her own brother had been the one behind it all. And even though his intention hadn’t been to kill her, he’d almost done just that.
“Come, Nayli. We have a new ship to buy.” Roeq helped her onto her feet.
Nayli rose and tossed Roeq a smile. He was trying to get her mind off this new turn of events, and she was grateful for that. “You’re right. We do.” She turned to her parents. “I’d like to be kept informed about the case.”
“Of course.”
With that, she let Roeq guide her out of the room. At least her brother would face justice, and it might be strange of her to think this, but she almost felt bad for him. All he’d wanted was to be the star of the family again. But it also didn’t make what he’d done right.
“How are you?” Roeq asked as they took the quieter corridors back to her room.
“Feeling a little betrayed, but also happy my brother is being held accountable for what he did. He should have just spoken to me.” Her heart broke in her chest. She’d thought he’d been happy.
Roeq reached out, captured one of her hands, and squeezed it. “Until his trial, I know the perfect way to help distract you. It’s called ship shopping.”
She smiled. That was the perfect way to distract her. One part of her life may have gone down the hole, but another side was going completely right.
Epilogue
“What’s the next obstacle?” Nayli asked from the pilot’s seat as she finished guiding their ship around a star. A couple of flares reached up, trying to engulf their ship and drag them down to their deaths, but with a few flicks of her fingers, she saw them safely away.
They weren’t alone though. There were other ships hot on their asses. This was the last race of the Daen’su race series, and they were currently tied with another pilot. They would have to win this race, or they would only get second.
“We’ll be passing through a dense asteroid field, and on the other side will be the finish line,” Roeq spoke up from the navigation console. “Just remember win or lose, we have a vacation planned to celebrate either way.”
Nayli smiled. While the trial for her brother had been going on, he’d made plans for them to go back to the planet where they crash landed as a getaway from it all. It was romantic and cute that he was turning the betrayal into something to celebrate.
He was a sweet man.
“Watch out!”
Nayli focused back in on the viewscreen and saw a large asteroid headed straight for them. With a few quick commands, she sent their ship barrel rolling off to the side, narrowly missing the lumbering space rock.
Then she saw it. The finish line.
“We have someone coming up beside us!”
Nayli swerved their ship in front of the other ship, causing them to slow down or collide. The other ship slowed down, and Nayli punched the thrusters, and they zoomed through the finish line.
“Yes! First place!” Nayli put the ship into autopilot and jumped up from her seat. Then she dashed over to Roeq and jumped onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and came in for a quick kiss. “Best idea you ever had to be co-pilots.”
“It definitely was.” He beamed under her praise.
“Still can’t believe the Daen’su didn’t have any illegal equipment on his ship.” Nayli shook her head.
Roeq shrugged his shoulders. “They checked it high and low and came up with nothing, but does it really matter? We still took back first.”
“No, it doesn’t matter.”
“Now that we have first, we have some time to go camp on that planet we crash landed on until the next race series.”
She smiled. “Don’t think this camping thing will be a regular thing.” She poked a finger against his suited shoulder. “You still have yet to convince me it’s the best thing out there.”
“Oh, I can convince you.” Roeq leaned in and captured her lips with his.
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The next book in the series, Zro’eq’s Fallen Star, will be released on January 31st, 2019!
Read below for a small excerpt!
Zro’eq’s Fallen
Star
Lily Thomas
Chapter 1
Sophia smiled as the Feosua clan celebrated around her. Vlek and Olivia had just been married, and now everyone was celebrating with food and what appeared to be a hallucinatory drug. Every time someone took a puff from the pipe their eyes would glaze over, and a high smile would dance across their lips.
A Feosua woman danced up to her and offered her a bone pipe. Sophia waved the woman away. The woman pouted, her golden eyes clouded over, but Sophia kept
waving her hand in front of her face.
“No thank you.” She preferred to keep her head straight instead of being clouded by a fog of drugs.
The Feosua woman shrugged unconcerned by the rejection and danced away to another human woman, Scarlett, and of course, she accepted the pipe and drew on it hard and long.
Snorting, Sophia shook her head as she watched the drug take effect and Scarlett began dancing around the giant bonfire they had going. This is why she didn’t do drugs. She doubted any of these women would remember what they did tonight. She preferred to be in control of her body.
She watched the jumping flames as their orange arms leapt into the night time sky almost as if they were trying to grab the glittering stars from the sky above.
Olivia walked over in her fur dress looking absolutely gorgeous. They’d done her hair up a bit, and she was a stunning bride. Olivia held out her hands, but Sophia shook her head.
“You don’t want to join in the festivities?” Olivia’s eyebrows nearly jumped off her face.
“I’m having a lot of fun people watching actually. There’s a lot you can learn from just sitting down and watching.”
Their group were still newcomers here, after being stranded on this tropical planet after their scientific space station had forced them onto the planet’s surface. Now, they had to blend in with a village of primitive aliens. So far, it hadn’t been the worst experience, but there was a lot to learn. None of them were used to a life away from their precious technology.
Olivia threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, come on! Have some fun, let go a little.”
“I will. I will.” Sophia rushed to tell her. “I’m enjoying watching these people and how they celebrate a marriage.” Despite being stranded here, it was a fantastic chance to observe these people up close. This had been the reason for their mission here anyways.
Olivia nodded. “Whatever you need to do.”
“Looking forward to your evening with Vlek?” Sophia tried to steer the conversation away from her and her inability to join in. It was making her feel antisocial, which wasn’t entirely her intention.
She watched as a blush crept up Olivia’s neck and blossomed over the other woman’s cheeks. “Oh yeah, but it’s not like I haven’t already slept with him. This time though, I’m sure you all will hear a lot since I doubt those fur walls of the tent will block any of the noise.”
“At least you convinced him not to have your mating ceremony in the middle of the village.”
“Tell me about it! I’m all for experiencing new cultures, but having sex with an audience? Ugh!” Olivia grimaced as she shuddered.
“Tell me about it.” Sophia parroted. “I wouldn’t have been able to look you in the eyes after seeing something like that.”
“Thankfully for you, it’s only for the clan leader and his mate. No one else would be expected to do it, if they start to pair off.”
“Eh, we’ll see if I find a mate among them.” So far, none of the men had shown any interest in her, and Sophia wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad for her. There was no telling how long they’d be stranded here and going without love seemed daunting, but at the same time, they could be rescued in a few months. And then where would she be if she joined with one of these aliens?
Olivia was risking a lot by joining with Vlek. Their superiors might demand that they leave the planet when and if a rescue came.
“You’ve got time,” Olivia reassured her.
“I’m just worried I won’t find a mate, and if we’re stuck here for the rest of our lives, then I’ll never have the possibility of children.” That was one thing Sophia knew she wanted in life. Children were something she needed in her life. She had a few nephews and nieces, and she’d been there when they were all born. Those chubby baby faces and that baby smell just called to something inside her.
“You too, huh?”
“What?”
“I was worried about not having children and discussed it with Vlek. Even though we are mates, it doesn’t mean we will be able to have children. We just won’t know until it happens.” Olivia shrugged. “Unfortunately, we know more about biology than they do, and for all I know we’re too different to have children, but good luck explaining it to people who’ve never heard of a microscope.”
Sophia waved her hand in the air. “Enough with the depressing talk. You go have fun and celebrate your union!” She ushered Olivia away. She didn’t want to taint this night with her pessimistic attitude.
Those two were so cute. She watched on as Olivia waltzed over to Vlek and he took her in his arms and planted a firm kiss on her lips.
A sigh escaped her lips. She might never have such an amazing love as the two of them. They had what everyone dreamed of when it came to love. Those two had been born to be with each other. Each was a leader and ready to guide them all through this turn of events.
Then she felt it, eyes boring into her from a distance. Glancing over to her side, she spotted Zro’eq glaring at her. The firelight did him no favors. It made him seem even fiercer and sent her heart skittering into her throat. Yikes!
He’d been glaring at her the moment she’d been introduced to him, and since then she’d done her best to avoid him, which was hard since the village wasn’t the largest in the universe. If he didn’t like her, that was just fine with her. She was more than happy to ignore his presence.
His golden eyes continued to bore into her, and she felt a frown slip across her face. He was wrecking her enjoyment of Olivia’s wedding. If only he’d been off hunting… damn him.
Someone plopped down next to her on her log, and she turned to find Riley sitting beside her.
“How are you?” She asked Riley thankful for the distraction.
“Hating every moment of this.”
“I thought this would have appealed to us all.”
“I love studying new species from space, not being forced to live among them without any modern amenities.”
Sophia wrapped her arm around Riley’s shoulders and hugged her. “It’ll all be fine, trust me. Olivia is married to Vlek, and he won’t let anything happen to us.”
“I’m more worried about one of these men wanting to mate me.”
Riley had to be one of their more reserved women. Sophia could understand how this might seem daunting to her. Not everyone was into being in a relationship with an alien, and such a primitive alien. These people didn’t even have any metal tools yet.
“If one of them wants you, you let me know, and we’ll work it out,” Sophia told her, because she wasn’t sure what else she could say.
“Assuming they don’t just take me on the spot.”
“They won’t.” Sophia glanced around at the people celebrating around them. “They might have mates and aren’t as advanced as us, but that doesn’t make them barbarians.”
“I hope you’re right.” Riley continued to sulk.
“Give them a chance.” If anyone needed a puff of that pipe that was being passed around it would have to be Riley. Sophia waived the Feosua woman who had the pipe over. The Feosua woman smiled and danced over, probably thinking Sophia wanted some finally.
Taking the pipe out of the woman’s hands, she handed it to Riley. “Take a puff.”
“What?” Riley gazed at her like she’d grown wings.
“Trust me, you should.”
Riley stared at the pipe in Sophia’s hands, and then slowly raised it to her lips and took a long puff, before coughing like crazy.
Sophia rubbed Riley’s back as she handed the pipe back to the Feosua woman who then offered it to Sophia, but she shook her head. She still wasn’t going to take a puff of that thing.
The woman danced away completely unfazed. Maybe her role in this ceremony was to make sure everyone got high. It was interesting.
Riley smiled. “I feel less tense.”
“That’s what happens when you smoke a mystery pipe being passed around a large bonfire. Now go and be free.” Sophia wave
d her away.
Riley got off the log and walked away with a little more spring to her step.
Then she felt it again.
Seriously?
Spinning around on her log, she found Zro’eq leaning against a tree glaring at her some more. This man just wouldn’t stop it, and he seemed to hate her the most out of everyone.
They hadn’t even spoken one word to each other yet, but there he was judging her. She could feel the judgment pouring off him in unrelenting waves.
He was one of the most formidable warriors in the Feosua clan, and despite her best intentions, she did find her eyes skimming over his tall, athletic form. She was a sucker for a well-trimmed man, and those black lines on his body intrigued her. They weren’t tattoos, just another skin tone, like the stripes on a tiger.
She’d love to follow some of those lines under his clothing and find out exactly where they led. Her eyes skimmed up to his face to find him studying her in return with his intense golden eyes.
He’d better like what he saw because she’d done her best to stay fit. Her one weakness, donuts, weren’t going to be a problem on this planet. Fried dough was a thing of the past for her now.
Damn. She was going to miss it. If she ever got back up to space, she was going to enjoy more donuts. This whole adventure was showing her just how short life could get, and she wanted to make sure she enjoyed the small things in life.
Zro’eq pushed off his tree with a shoulder and went to grab something to eat on the other side of the bonfire.
Good. She really didn’t like him staring at her so intensely.
She’d been having dreams about him from the moment they encountered the troop of Feosua warriors in the forest. These dreams weren’t of the innocent kind though. They involved a lot of fun and even made her cheeks fill with a hint of color.
Scarlett danced by with a couple of Feosua women. At least the Feosua women had calmed down since Olivia had accepted Vlek’s claim to her, which made life for all of them a little easier. There was still a bit of animosity since they looked so different, but now that they were becoming a part of the clan, the women were welcoming them slowly.