Veiled Vixen: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Harem Station Book 6)
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Contents
Veiled Vixen
DESCRIPTION
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE - VALOR
CHAPTER TWO - VALOR
CHAPTER THREE - VALOR
CHAPTER FOUR - VALOR
CHAPTER FIVE - VALOR
CHAPTER SIX - VALOR
CHAPTER SEVEN - VALOR
CHAPTER EIGHT - VALOR
CHAPTER NINE - VALOR
CHAPTER TEN - VALOR
CHAPTER ELEVEN - VALOR
PART TWO - INTERLUDE
CHAPTER TWLEVE - ALCOR
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - DRADEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - BOOTY
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - TRAY
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - ASSHOLE
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - ALCOR
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - DRADEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN - BOOTY
CHAPTER TWENTY - TRAY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - ASSHOLE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - ALCOR
PART THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - VALOR
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - VALOR
END OF BOOK SHIT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edited by RJ Locksley
Cover Design: JA Huss
Cover Photo: Sara Eirew
Copyright © 2019 by JA Huss
All rights reserved.
ISBN-978-1-950232-12-3
HAREM STATION BOOK SIX
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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DESCRIPTION
KC Cross is the pen name of New York Times bestselling author, JA Huss.
All his other Harem brothers have found their one true love and they are spectacular princesses.
Not Valor’s girl.
Veila is the definition of evil.
Not the kind of girl a guy falls for. Especially a stand-up guy like Valor. He’s not interested in her sexy glow, her pretty hair, or her glowing eyes.
No. Valor only wants one thing for his fated princess.
Death.
But it’s kind of hard to kill someone you have been genetically engineered to love. And Veila not only has total control over him, but also Harem Station. And the only way Valor can get Harem Station back is to use the soulmate bond against her.
Valor has to make Veila believe that their bond is true, that his feelings are real, and that he is willing to sell out his brothers, hand over all of Harem Station’s secrets, and leave his old life behind to help her get what she wants. But it’s never going to happen. Valor will never love Veila.
Ever.
He’d rather die trying to kill her than spend one moment as her puppet king. There’s just one problem.
The soulmate bond goes both ways.
Veiled Vixen is book six in the Harem Station series and features an army of pissed-off princesses, five brothers facing their past, a station filled with ruthless, rebelling outlaws, and a lesson in what matters. It’s a love story about revenge, and hate, and regrets – but also forgiveness, loyalty, family, and having the courage to see the truth behind the veil.
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE - VALOR
Alone in darkness.
That’s the only way to describe what the exit from cryosleep feels like. You are nothing and no one and then… boom, you’re something else.
It’s different than coming out of regular sleep in two ways:
One, waking up from regular sleep, for me, always starts in a dreamlike state. You kinda know where you’re at—the place where you fell asleep—and you kinda know you were just dreaming—damn, that was a weird one, right? Why was I doing that? And then you open your eyes and you’re like… Yeah, new day. OK. Let’s do this.
Waking up from cryosleep isn’t like that at all. It’s like being born. There is nothingness, blackness, and a sense of nonexistence and then boom! You are in the dark. Not awake, not asleep, not dreaming, but not lucid either. A sense of otherworldness.
And you stay there for a long time. It’s like being utterly lost. It’s creepy, and scary, and there is this building panic inside you that you will never find your way out.
Two, when you do finally come out of it there is an utter and complete sense of dislocation. You are almost never in the last place you remember. Obviously. Unless you’re on some inter-galaxy cruise ship and you went to sleep on purpose because you’re one of those people who likes to travel to distant places that are lifetimes away, you don’t wake up where you went down.
I’ve only been in and out seven times total, including this one, so maybe this isn’t typical. I’m not into galaxy-wide traveling. When I go into a cryopod it’s because Luck and I had some bad luck, no pun intended, and I got hurt severely enough to warrant a cryopod to save my life until we could get to a proper medical facility.
That sense of lostness is done on purpose, I think. I’m no expert on this shit but it happens to everyone and I’m pretty sure someone told me at one time or another that this is part of the wake-up protocol. It’s a chance to come to terms with your sense of self because let’s face it, cryosleep isn’t normal. It fucks with your head. And I’ve heard that if you do it enough you lose parts of yourself each time you wake.
Which I can totally see happening.
Seven is going to be my limit. There are no long trips in my future that require cryosleep, that’s for sure. I’m done. I don’t like it because each of the times I’ve been woken up, I’ve come out screaming.
Including this one.
“You’re OK,” Crux says, his hands on my shoulders, gripping and shaking me slightly. “You’re OK, Valor. Just calm down and look at me. OK? Look at me, brother. You’re home. You’re fine. You’re… you’re gonna be fine.”
But here’s another thing I hate about waking up from cryosleep. You can hear them talking to you. You can hear yourself screaming, you can think clearly, and you can rationalize and understand these words.
But you cannot stop the screaming. You have no control over your body, or your innate instincts, or your reactions. So you just keep screaming.
It scares me. I’m not too manly to admit that. And I do know that how I come out isn’t the same as how anyone else comes out. The screaming, that is. Because Luck doesn’t come out screaming, he comes out swinging.
This makes me smile. Internally, of course. Because I’m still screaming like an out-of-control freak and have no control over my body yet. But I smile inside because that last time Luck came out of cryo he hit me in the eye. Fucking fist of his is like a sundamned piece of steel and my eye swelled up and needed anti-inflammatory injections so I could see that day.
But there is also something else unusual about how I wake up. I have this sense of having been somewhere.
It’s not a dream. It’
s really not like that at all. It’s more like… a possibility. Like I might’ve been there. Or like I could’ve been there.
Which is different in a very subtle way. Might’ve been there, as in maybe I was in a place and maybe I wasn’t. But could’ve been there is more like I was somewhere and it could be this place, or that place, or no place at all.
It’s very confusing.
I’ve asked Luck about this before and he had no idea what I was talking about. He says waking up from cryo is like being thrust through a spin node. Which I never understood before now because as far as I knew, he’d never been through a spin node. And neither had I, at that point anyway—that was a long time before this little adventure with Tray—so I didn’t really get it.
Well, I get it now.
Waking up from cryosleep is that in-between, left-behind feeling I experienced when Tray and I were traveling back and forth between the spin-node gate and—
“Valor,” Crux says.
I’ve stopped screaming.
“Open your eyes, Valor. You’re awake now and I need you to open your eyes.”
I open them.
Crux and Serpint are staring down at me, leaning so close to my face both my hands come up and push them back.
Serpint laughs. “There he is. Welcome back, asshole. Have a nice trip?”
I suck in a deep breath of air and then cough like crazy when it comes back out. “No,” I croak. “No, I didn’t.” My voice is raspy and deep. “Where the fuck—”
“You’re back on Harem,” Crux says, offering me his hand.
I look at it for a moment, wondering why he wants to shake my hand, then realize I’m lying inside a cryopod and take it, allowing him to help me up into a sitting position.
But I’m not in medical. I’m in my fucking quarters.
“We had you brought here,” Crux explains. “To make waking up a little easier.”
“Yeah, you were always a wuss when it came to cryosleep,” Serpint says. “And for some reason that bitch princess of yours didn’t mind when we said this would be better.”
“Who?” I ask, looking around at my quarters. I feel like I haven’t seen this place in several lifetimes. And then I laugh a little. Or kinda cough. Because I lived several lifetimes since I left here.
“Veila,” Crux growls. “She brought you here.”
Both hands come up to my head and grab my hair. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Yeah,” Serpint says, grabbing one forearm while Crux grabs the other. “We’ve got a lot to tell you, brother. So nap time is over.” They pull me out and drag me over to the couch, then unceremoniously let me flop back into the cushions. “We’re at war, did you know that?”
I sorta remember this. But only vaguely. So I don’t respond.
“Nyleena,” Crux says. “Remember? Tray told her and Luck to distract the Baby and Succubus so you and Tray could leave with Booty and Asshole?”
I scrunch up my face, because that wasn’t how it happened.
“Yeah, you two fuckers,” Serpint says, falling into the couch cushions next to me and pulling me into a hug so my face is smothered by his chest. Then he gives me a head noogie, which I immediately pull away from. “You and Tray, good plan, man. Leaving on Booty with the Asshole. Baby was pissed off about that.”
I look at Serpint and he’s smiling at me, one of those clenched-teeth smiles that isn’t really a smile, but more like a… warning. Then his eyes dart up to the ceiling real quick, and then focus back on me.
Ah. I get it. That’s the Harem Station Brothers Universal Signal for Don’t forget, he sees everything. Meaning ALCOR, but actually, right now, meaning Baby.
I nod. “Right,” I say. “I remember now.”
“Well, things have gone from bad to worse since you left,” Crux says. “Let me just summarize—”
“Dude,” I say, putting up a hand. “Can you just… give me a minute? You know how much I hate waking up from cryo. And before that I was—”
“I get it,” Crux says, interrupting me. I take that to mean he wants me to shut the fuck up until he can stealth-debrief me. So I do. Shut the fuck up, that is. “Get him something to drink, Serpint. That drink we give the princesses when we first wake them up.”
“On it,” Serp says, jumping up to his feet and crossing the room to the autocook.
While he’s punching in codes for the drink Crux takes a seat on the coffee table in front of me and leans forward. “A lot has happened since you left with Booty, Valor. Like I can’t even stress how much has changed here while you’ve been gone.”
“How long?” I ask. “How long has it been?”
“Six weeks Harem time,” Crux says.
“What? How is that possible? It was only a few days—”
“You’ve been here in cryo for a while. Veila didn’t want to wake you up until we had things… settled.”
“What things?” And now I’m getting a very bad feeling. Six fucking weeks. “Where the hell is Tray? And—”
“I’m getting to that,” Crux says, once again interrupting me. He flicks his eyes at the ceiling.
“Right. OK. I just have a lot of questions.”
Questions like where is Tray? And Brigit? Not that they would know who Brigit is. And Draden, and the Akeelian girls, and Angel Station, and Earth…
There is so much I need to tell them.
“Here’s the thing,” Crux says, just as Serpint comes back and hands me a pink drink. I look at it dubiously as Crux talks. “There is no more Harem Station. We’re done. It’s over. Veila has taken control and—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Crux sighs as he and Serpint trade uneasy glances. “The security beacons are offline, Valor. Veila has control of the station. What Luck and Nyleena are doing down on levels zero through ninety-five doesn’t even matter at this point. The Baby has made a deal with Veila and they are in control up here. It’s only a matter of time before they reroute the life support systems down below and kill everyone off. We need you to go down there and talk some sense into Luck.”
I smile at him. Wink. He juts his chin back a little like he’s surprised by my reaction.
“I’m fuckin’ serious,” Crux says.
“Yeah, yeah. You want me to go down there and talk sense into Luck. Sure thing. I’ll do that.”
“No, Valor,” Serpint says. “You don’t understand. We really need you to control Luck. Because Veila is going to kill him. She’s going to kill everyone if we don’t have full control over the lower levels in two spins.”
But now I’m confused. Weren’t they just hinting that we’re being watched and this whole conversation is for the benefit of Veila and the Baby?
“Can you do that?” Crux asks.
“Can I do what?”
Crux sighs through clenched teeth. “Go talk to Luck and make him surrender. Because if he doesn’t…” Crux doesn’t finish. Just shrugs with his hands and sighs.
I’m just about to answer him when the door to my quarters opens with a quick whooshing sound and who walks in?
That fuckin’ bitch Veila.
“I’ll take it from here,” she says waving a hand in the air. She’s wearing a long, silver, sequined gown and her silver hair is up in the highest hairstyle I’ve ever seen. Like she’s as tall as Serpint with that pile of hair swirling around the top of her head.
I get to my feet and rush towards her, ready to rip that fucking hair right out of her scalp. But Crux and Serpint both yank me back by the arms.
“You think you can what?” I growl at her. “Just come to my home and threaten my brothers and I’ll fall in line? Fuck you, Veila.”
It all comes out as a low, rumbling, threat.
Veila. God, I hate this woman.
Last year Serpint came home with Queen Corla. The queen of all the Cygnians. Crux’s soulmate. The mother of his children. But she arrived here in a cryopod and we haven’t been able to w
ake her up because once we did that her pod would send a signal to the Cygnians and they would know where she was.
At least that was the original reason.
But pretty much at the same time that Serpint was bringing Corla here to Harem another Cygnian princess was brought in by some random bounty hunter.
That was Lyra.
Mouthy, defiant, luminosity-challenged, Lyra.
Until we learned that she was sent out of the Cygnian System with her sister, Nyleena, on a mission to blow up a place called Earth, but was actually trying to escape Cygnian control and was using some kind of inhibitor to disguise her pink princess status.
Then we learned she was Serpint’s soulmate and from there this whole soulmate thing kinda blew up. Which is a joke. A bad one. Because it turns out these sexy Cygnian girls who light up when they orgasm are actually made to be… bombs.
That’s right. They are all a bunch of explosives.
Then Jimmy got caught up with another Cygnian princess—Delphi. Who, turns out, is Corla and Crux’s daughter—real daughter, that is. Not like how Jimmy and Crux are brothers-from-another-mother kinda of daughter. And even though Jimmy and Delphi are not genetically engineered soulmates and that means somewhere out there is Jimmy’s real soulmate, Jimmy and Delphi are pretending they are. Soulmates, that is.
Then Luck came home and yup. Nyleena was his soulmate.
Which kinda pissed me off because up until that time Luck and I were… well, not soulmates. Because that’s just dumb. But we were definitely best friends.
And then we weren’t. Because of Nyleena.
That’s when I figured out Veila was my soulmate. And even if I hadn’t seen that crazy message she sent Jimmy while they were all escaping her creepy Lair Station and been told about her sicko breeding program she was running on it using Akeelian boys, I’d still hate that bitch.
Because she is fuckin’ evil.