Sold to the Alien Mobsters: A Curvy Girl Alien Reverse Harem Romance (Rogue Aurelians Book 2)

by Corin Cain

  I run the other way. The cockpit is ahead, but the doors to the war-room are open, and I can’t help but peek inside.

  The globe is flashing green and red. Something is happening back on their home planet. I walk forward like I’m in a trance, staring at the lines demarking the different mob territories.

  The spinning, three-dimensional map shows a huge manor house deep in Daran’s territory, now flashing red as the previously-blue borders are being closed in on by the green.

  Messages are popping up on the globe. Cries for help.

  A second hologram floats near the globe. It shows our own ship out in the far reaches of space, darting left and right as the two remaining attack ship pummel us with laser fire.

  Missiles fire out from our ship, homing in on the attack vessels. They don’t stand a chance – one after the other, they’re both blown into dust.

  The attack on our ship has ended… for now.

  I stare at the globe, not understanding what the flashing activity means. Green blocks of what-might-be-troops are closing in on Daran’s blue-colored territory. It looks like an all-out assault. I focus in on my thoughts, trying to project them to the three aliens.

  “War-room. Now,” I telepath.

  With the immediate threat taken care of, the three alien warriors storm into the war-room just seconds later. I feel so small compared to their bulk. Daran’s aura pulses with blackness, like he’s falling into an endless pool of oil. Kreos’ aura remains steady, smoldering like an asteroid. Riff’s aura isn’t flitting away for once – he’s here, right in the moment. All of him is present as the three men face the globe.

  Blinking lights are flashing all over the room and I realize each one is a communication link from a different member of Daran’s crime organization. He presses one, and the voice that comes through is shaking and scared.

  “They’re everywhere! The mansion is…” His voice cuts off in an explosive boom, and then the three-dimensional representation of the mansion that must be the Aurelian’s home base turns red…

  …and disappears.

  Grief pours through the Bond from Riff. “They’ve… They’ve killed them all,” he gasps, looking with horror at the globe.

  Daran’s voice is that of a natural leader.

  “Riff, take the controls. Plot a course to Taton. Kreos, get on the gunnery stations. If Don Slip’Nak sends another surprise attack we need you to combat them. Petra – come with me.”

  Daran takes my arm and pulls me out of the room. There’s nothing I can do but follow.

  In the hallway he turns looking me down. I expected him to be angry… Resentful…

  Instead, his eyes show understanding. Respect.

  “I know that you hate what I’m doing, Petra. I know you want me to just walk away – but the man I had been planning to go to war with, Don Slip’nak – well, he just attacked my home. He just killed seventy women who were depending on me for protection.”

  Daran’s face is a mask, but I can feel the overwhelming guilt and pain surging through the Bond.

  “I’m not going to let you be added to that tally, Petra. This is not about pride. This is vengeance.”

  I shake, my body trembling as I look up at the vicious warrior. His eyes are blank slates of grey – far from the bright, jade green I’d seen in them earlier. They look dull and empty; like when I’d first met Daran.

  Kreos and Riff rush to their battle stations, taking their positions at the gunnery stations.

  I feel their plan through the Bond, and it terrifies me.

  “No! No, you don’t have to go back to Taton. You don’t have to…”

  “I do,” Daran hisses. “Those women trusted me. They trusted Riff. They trusted Kreos. Now they’re all dead.”

  The raw grief pours through the Bond from Daran. He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t. He doesn’t look at me as a proud mafia boss – who only wants to take back the throne of a criminal empire because he views as his birthright.

  Now he just looks broken.

  But while his eyes are dull, the Orb-Rings on his knuckles are shimmering, drawing in the light to their blue-black form and somehow making it feel darker in this well-lit hallway.

  I look at them and it’s as if the Orb-material is speaking to me.

  Those Orb-Rings hunger for blood.

  I know it’s ridiculous. I know they’re just things…

  …but it’s like they’re talking to me.

  Simultaneously, I can feel the auras of Riff and Kreos changing in my mind. They have the same raw grief, mixed with overwhelming anger.

  They will not give up Taton – not even for me.

  Even Kreos desires to fight back against the murderers who killed innocents.

  I saw that globe. I saw the mass of forces that are squeezing in on Daran’s territory. They’ve already lost their home base, and their remaining borders are closing in fast. There’s no way in hell the three men are coming back from facing this rival cartel alive.

  “Don’t. Just don’t! There are too many of them!”

  Daran stops and looks down at me. With horror I realize he believes me.

  This beast-like man swallows hard. “You’re… You’re right. I… I am so fortunate to have shared my mind with you, my sweet. To have felt you in my being, to have known your aura. That is the greatest experience any Aurelian can have. Thank you, Petra.”

  My jaw drops. He’s saying goodbye. He doesn’t think he’s ever going to see me again.

  “No! No, Daran! You can leave all of that violence behind.”

  A sad smile comes to his face. “The violence is inside of me. There’s only one way to leave it behind.”

  I feel like I’m finally seeing the real Daran, and my heart breaks for him.

  “Then… Then I’m coming with you.”

  The voice I hear doesn’t sound like my own. A spike of fear comes to my heart as I realize what I’m about to do. I’m going to follow these three alien warriors into the heart of a battle they already know they can’t win.

  Daran runs his hand down my cheek, making me shudder.

  “No. You’re going in Escape Pod Three. I’m going to send you far, far away from everyone else. I don’t know how Don Slip’Nak found me, but we don’t know the other women… I’m not going to put them on a pod with you.”

  I shake my head wildly. “You don’t get to choose my future.”

  All of the gentleness and vulnerability vanishes from Daran’s face. His eyes flash green as he takes in my being. “Very well.” He grabs my arm, yanking me down the hallway and pressing a button on the side of the wall. Concealed doors open.

  “Stop! Stop right now!” I yell at him, but Daran throws me into a circular room and shuts the door behind me. I bang against the metal of the door but there’s nothing I can do as I hear engines rumble – and then the escape pot shoots away from the main ship.

  I watch through a portal as I’m taken away from my Bonded triad, from my new friend, and from those other poor girls.

  “I will see you in the next life,” comes Daran’s voice through the Bond. His thoughts are raw and full of grief, and I know that nothing could change his mind.

  Suddenly, all three of the alien’s auras become distant and muted through the Bond. It’s like they’re cutting me out of their minds.

  I sit down on chair that’s the only furnishing in this small escape pod, and the horrid realization washes over me.

  They forced me out of their minds because they don’t want me to experience the horrors they are about to wade into.

  They don’t want me to feel their deaths.

  19

  Kreos

  I scan the empty space for any sign of Don Slip’Nak’s forces. The escape pod that contains my future tumbles away into the darkness of the abyss, and I know that I was fool to think there was ever anything but death and violence waiting me.

  “Mute your fucking aura. Petra doesn’t need to feel this,” Riff yells from the cockpit. As
one, the three of us dampen our being through the Bond. I can still feel her anger and confusion, and it hurts me to the core.

  But seventy women who trusted us to keep them safe just died.

  Our manor was destroyed in a surprise attack.

  More escape pods leave the ship, and I know Daran is jettisoning the other women we bought. The guilt rankles in my soul. We can’t keep them safe. They’re better off being transported to a friendly planet nearby, where spending cards pre-loaded with credits will give them enough to start a new life.

  My fists tighten on the triggers of the gunnery station. I need a target. I need an enemy to fire off a barrage of missiles at, followed by an onslaught of laser fire.

  The three ships attacking us were just a distraction. They were meant to slow us down before we could launch a counterattack. Our ship is burning at full capacity as we churn through empty space on a suicide mission towards Taton.

  Don Slip’Nak must have been preparing this attack for years. The fragile peace of Taton and the capital city of Tatonia had been strained before by the rival mobster’s surprise attacks, but he’d always launched strikes before. Never has Don Slip’Nak been so bold as to declare an all-out war.

  I wish I had an Orb-Weapon to use against Don Slip’Nak’s mob. Instead, I’ll have a choice…

  A week ago, I would have chosen a gun.

  Now my reflexes are honed to a level I never thought possible. I will enter our armory and come out with a weapon designed for hand-to-hand combat. My legs flex at the thought of closing the distance between me and those Toad bastards, and slaughtering all of them.

  I made a choice to abandon my leader to follow my fated mate.

  That was a foolish thought.

  Not a man of us is worthy of her.

  Seventy women. Seventy fucking women, dead.

  The rage boils up in me. I feel it in Riff and Daran, too. We feed off each other.

  The streets of Tatonia will be bathed in blood.

  First the Toads.

  Then ours.

  I just pray I can take down the Don before I breathe my last breath.

  20

  Riff

  The course is set. My future is locked in. There’s no room for Petra in my mind. Her presence is a glimpse into another man’s life.

  My father would have turned tail and run. He would have abandoned my battle-brothers to their fate. The guilt wells up in me - not just for the women I’d sworn to protect, but for Daran. I was going to leave him to die, to chase after bliss...

  …but bliss is not what I deserve.

  My life stretches back as if I’m watching a holo-vid of my own past.

  I see the evil I’ve committed. The men I’ve killed in Daran’s name. We took a lawless sector of Tatonia and turned it into a money-printing machine. We ran crime like a corporation, while the other gangs ran it with fear and brutality.

  There were times I had to kill, it’s true – but overall our presence had reduced the violence.

  Before I reached my station in the cockpit, I had the AI pull up a real-time map of the globe of Taton, zoomed in on our territories. All of our men wear GPS units to coordinate attacks. Already sixty-two of our nearly three-hundred soldiers have been slain…

  We left Taton to find our fated mate, and in that time our soldiers suffered and died.

  I’m no leader. I don’t deserve to have men follow me.

  The only thing I deserve is to fight for my vengeance. I will not turn tail and flee like my low-life, drug-addicted father. He dulled his pain in designer drugs and alcohol. I’ll quell mine the way an Aurelian should – in blood and battle.

  I’ll pay for my sins.

  Daran stands behind me. “How long?”

  “We’ll be sub-atmospheric in six hours. How the fuck did they find us up here?”

  “I sent out drones. The AI found a GPS tracker attached to our hull. It doesn’t matter now who betrayed us – whether it was one of the women in our harem, or a member of our household who slipped it on. Their betrayal was repaid with death.”

  “And what now?”

  “Now? We’re going for the heart.”

  My heart pounds and the tendrils of fear crawl into my heart. They’re drowned out by self-loathing and hatred.

  “What’s the exact plan?”

  There’s no mention of my betrayal. Daran might never let go of his own past, but he understands why Kreos and I made the choice we did. He must have been tempted as well.

  “We have one last escape pod. We’re going to use this ship as a distraction while we use the pod to land deep in Toad territory. We’ll cut the head off the snake…”

  “…and the body,” I finish. I pilot with one hand, confidence growing inside of me.

  There’s a way out. If we kill Don Slip’Nak and his top advisers, we can take control during the subsequent power vacuum. The Bond has given me the strength to do what is required.

  The fear is crushed under the lure of victory. If we can defeat all odds…

  …we can take over the whole fucking city.

  If we could claim the entire city, would we deserve her then? Could we keep Petra safe?

  I hate that she’s floating out in nothingness. If she gets unlucky and comes across another slaver in the vastness of space, there’ll be no one to protect her. Daran set the coordinates to a nearby space station. Funds will be sent, untraceable, to greet her there.

  When we’re erased from her mind, perhaps she’ll make a sculpture of us.

  Perhaps we’ll live on in her memories and in her art.

  21

  Petra

  “No! No, no!”

  My yell is heard by no one.

  My escape pod spins away until the ship that holds the three Aurelians – the men inexorably linked to me – disappears into nothingness.

  I’m alone in the vastness of space.

  It isn’t until I’ve lost them that I understand how badly I needed them.

  I know I’m the only one who can heal their wounds. I sensed their devotion to me, and I know why they cast me aside.

  Their fortress was destroyed. They didn’t think they’d be able to take care of me, and they don’t think they deserve me as a result.

  But I’ve seen the true Daran. I’ve felt the vulnerability of Riff and Kreos when they were willing to throw everything away for me.

  The escape pod has only a rudimentary AI system. I press the map icon, which loads slowly. Apparently, I’m four hours away from a space station. I have nothing but the clothes on my back – but I’m sure the Aurelians have already set me up with resources once I land.

  Good. Once I have money, I know exactly where I’ll be going.

  I don’t know how I’m going to help them. All I know is I am going to book the first shuttle to Taton and land in their territory. I can remember the globe and the details of the city clearly in my mind. I feel like it was more than just chance that brought me in contact with those three Aurelian gangsters. I’m not going to let them go.

  I don’t care how far they push me away. I’m going to get back to them.

  A surge of guilt hits me. My parents must be going insane right now – but I can’t waste a second. If I talk to them and they find out my plan, there’s no way I’ll have the guts to go through with it.

  22

  Daran

  The tactical globe shows the damage. It’s been three hours since the attack, and I’ve already coordinated the retreat. Don Slip’Nak and his men took complete control of our territory in a massive attack – one unheard of in the last hundred years of Tatonia.

  Where did he get the balls to make this attack? How did he know the other outfits wouldn’t hit him in the back while he used his forces to take over our territory? How did he pay off the government to let him make such a move?

  I exhale slowly. Those questions have no meaning anymore. They’re part of the past.

  The only thing now is war. I know I have to be focused. I know that
if there’s any chance for my triad to make it out alive, I have to be stronger, faster, and smarter than I’ve ever been before.

  And yet – she is in my mind.

  I can’t help but feel her aura. There’s a determination to Petra that still flows through the Bond. It scares me. It scares me more than even the thought of going up against a thousand of Don Slip’Nak’s men.

  I press the comms unit for my man on the space station – the one we sent Petra spinning off to rendezvous with. Our agent picks up quickly. Ex-military – of course he would.

  His name is Jung, and I wish he could be part of the final fight against Don Slip’Nak’s forces. However, Jung now has a more important job. He has to keep Petra safe.

  “The second she lands, you put her on a shuttle to Kinata 5A. Don’t listen to a fucking word she says. I don’t care if you have to drag her there. You get her on that shuttle and you go with her until she lands safely.”

  “Understood, boss,” Jung responds, and he ends the communication. Despite the order, I worry. I expected anger from Petra. I expected hatred.

  I didn’t expect to feel her certainty.

  Stop thinking of her. Plan your attack.

  I point to the holographic globe that hovers in the cockpit. Riff has his eyes on space as he pilots us towards Taton. We’re flying at full-burn, and the planet is already a dot at the end of our vision. Soon, that dot will grow to become a massive orb, and we’ll land perhaps for the last time on our urbanized planet home.

  Vast cities cover the surface of Taton, and below the refineries and factories produce huge amounts of heavy industrial materials. Some men and women who work on Taton live their entire lives in those factories – never seeing the sun from beneath the black cloud of smoke that hangs above the cities.

  It’s a place not worthy of Petra. And yet – I must conquer it.

  “We land there,” I mark a position on the map. “When we’re approaching, put the ship on autopilot. We’ll slip out when we hit atmosphere, so it looks like we’re just venting debris to burn up.”