by Keri Kruspe
Ki's Redemption
An Alien Exchange Trilogy Book Three
Keri Kruspe
StarChance Productions
Contents
Book Description
Are You Part Of The Fun?
Also by Keri Kruspe
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
About Keri
Also by Keri Kruspe
A doomed woman. An honorable male suffering a terrible burden. Can her love redeem his broken soul?
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Earth’s fate rests in the hands of shape-shifting dragons, studly aliens, and a determined woman who demands a say in her own fate. In this exciting finale of the An Alien Exchange trilogy, follow their adventures across the galaxy to a tale that features mounting action, stimulating passion, and heart-pounding emotions.
Sherrilyn Marie Cantor firmly believes success doesn’t come to those who sit around and wait for it to show up; it takes determination, discipline, and hard work. At thirty-four, she has it all – a successful business and more money than she can spend until a jealous partner sets her up and frames her for stealing trade secrets. She loses everything and faces a twenty-year federal prison sentence. When an unexpected offer to find “love among the stars” comes her way, she doesn’t hesitate to escape her unjust fate and leaves Earth forever.
A Zerin descended from a secretive line of dragon shapeshifters, M’alalu (Ki) Ki E’eur ignores the fact he’s living a half-life. Broken from childhood guilt for the murder of his parents and six year-old sister, he silently goes through the motions of everyday life. A former mercenary and friend of the crown prince of Zerin, Ki absorbs a debt his prince intended to take. He’s expendable; the prince isn’t. Now he’s in the crosshairs of a power-hungry despot determined to overthrow the current democratic galactic government.
In a twist of fate, two very different people are thrown together—a woman who believes love is a fable and a male who has made an ancient pact to never find his TrueBond. Desperate to save Earth from a planned invasion, can two stubborn individuals determined to remain apart allow love to bring them together?
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Check out Ki’s Redemption – the action-packed finale of the Alien Exchange trilogy that one reader sums up as: “You know it works when you have a big smile on your face as you read the last sentence in a book! And I'm grinning like a fool!”
Copyright © 2019 by Keri Kruspe
ISBN: 13: 978-1-7326584-4-8
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All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For those of us who have been betrayed by the people we trusted the most – chin up, achieved success is the sweetest revenge. And, for those of us who’ve made mistakes along the way, redemption is already within you… all you have to do is be brave enough to embrace it and yourself.
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Also by Keri Kruspe
An Alien Exchange
D’zia’s Dilemma
Chapter One
KI
The Mineral Wealth Industries on Reinus45; 106 solar years prior
“But nytsa!” Young fourteen-year-old Ki whined to his gentle mother as only a youth his age could. “I’ve made plans with my friends! I can’t watch Yn’eo tonight.” Now came the pout and soulful eyes. Worked every time.
Gah! Except now. Pitiful eyes and begging wasn’t working on his normally agreeable mother, Jexa.
“Now, now, my strong little warrior.”
She wagged a finger in his direction.
“You were well aware your father and I had to go to the awards dinner tonight. There’s no excuse for you to make other plans.”
“Don’t you want to be with me, mihr?” His six-year-old baby sister, Yn’eo, asked with a quivering voice. Her wide eyes filled with tears covering her dual-colored irises, a mirror image of his own navy blue surrounded by hunter green. “I thought you loved me.”
Now came the manipulative sniff. Danka shit! Yn’eo was better at this than he was. With a heated face, he clenched his fists under crossed arms. An annoying sprite, she’d had their parents twisted around her little finger since the day she was born…and knew it too. Ki gave her a narrow glare and a slight shake of his head in warning.
She returned his threat with a twinkle before the shimmer of tears spilled out.
“Nytsa… Ki is being mean to me!” Yn’eo put her fists on thin hips and stomped a foot. Her dark mahogany hair unraveled and floated around her disheveled head as if to emphasize her distress.
“Ki.” The gravelly voice of their father Tror’yrc rumbled as if he talked through a cluster of boulders. The terse words delivered through his deep tone commanded instant obedience.
With pangs of bitter acid churning in his stomach, Ki let his arms drop as he turned toward their glaring sire. Game over. Ki’s shoulders drooped. “Yes, sir.”
The elder E’eur, a full foot and a half taller than Ki, widened his legs while he crossed his massive arms over an equally massive chest. Everyone who first met him assumed he was a soldier or a mercenary, not a bureaucrat—a paper pusher for the mining company.
Due to his Crart birthright, Tror’yrc could be more dangerous than any soldier or mercenary in the known nine systems. Part of his genetic heredity enabled him to fuse an impenetrable battlesuit at the cellular level whenever he wanted.
Thank the Goddess, he wasn’t going to wear it that night. For whatever reason, his father planned on leaving it behind. Which gave Ki a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take the suit and show that bully Drirux and his gang a thing or two. Those disgusting puntnejis had insulted him for the last time. If only Yn’eo would spend the night at her friend’s house. The spoiled little monster refused to cooperate, and he was stuck with her. Gah! She was such a pain.
No matter. He’d just sneak out after she fell asleep. The only thing to worry about was how to get the dragon to cooperate since the symbiont who lived in the suit hadn’t been transferred to him yet. No…he’d come. Yeah, the dragon didn’t have a choice. After all, Ki was the eldest E’eur, next in line to inherit. It’d be perfect. He imagined the looks of terror on Drirux and his gang when they got a load of him when he morphed into the dragon. First thing he’d do was blow fire at thei
r sorry asses.
No way would those jerks mess with him again.
With a brave front, Ki stared back at the narrow look his nytso gave. He began to shake. What if his father suspected what he planned on doing? His mouth dried. But he had to do something! The constant harassment at school was starting to get out of hand. Oh, at first their taunts and name-calling were easy to ignore. But lately they’d taken to surrounding him on his way home from school. Hiding bruises and cuts from his vigilant mother was getting harder to do. So, he’d made an agreement to meet with them that night and settle everything once and for all. If he didn’t show up… He shuddered. He couldn’t begin to imagine the horrors he’d have to put up with at the tutorial academy the next day.
“Yn’eo has already had dinner and I’ve made your favorite for you.”
His mother interrupted before Ki hyperventilated and passed out from his scary thoughts.
She spoke in her normal, whisper-soft voice. “Be sure to clean up the food prep room after you eat and don’t forget to finish the assigned lessons from your instructor.” Jexa reached over to brush his long hair over his shoulder before caressing his cheek.
The comforting scent of her floral fragrance calmed him.
Her smooth forehead creased as she studied him in her typical annoying, mother way.
Ki gazed back. Earlier that year he’d reached her height and before long would tower over her petite form. Gently, he laid a larger palm over hers and squeezed with a sheepish smile. Was there any other female in the universe more beautiful than his nytsa?
She had thick alabaster-white hair, its heavy length wrapped in a large bun at the nape of her slender neck. A dark, black ring separated her equally colored dual-emerald irises. While green eyes might be normal for a Zerin, ususally the inner ring had a darker color than the outer. So, when she met people for the first time, they commented on her strange, matching shades of green eye color…that is, until they caught sight of Ki’s father.
Tror’yrc E’eur had the same basic characteristics of any Zerin, with slightly pointed ears and russet-brown skin overlaid by an iridescent sheen. His three fingers were the same length accompanied by one thumb. Ki inherited his dark-mahogany hair from his father, who had braided his long tresses in a tail that reached the back of his knees. A smattering of yellow at his temples denoted his advanced age, a respectable 256 solar years with no sign of slowing down.
Ki hoped he looked half as good when he reached his maturity.
The colors of his father’s eyes gave away his genetic anomaly. He’d inherited dark and light navy-blue irises from his father’s alien grandfather, a Crart.
Ki also ended up with weirdly colored irises, one navy blue, and one hunter green. That was the very reason Drirux and his merry band of aHxxjt assholes kept harassing him at the tutoring halls. Past time to show those puntnejis he wasn’t someone to mess with.
“Don’t worry, nytsa,” Ki reassured his mother. “I’ll take care of everything.”
“See that you do.” The unyielding baritone of his father left no doubt of the severe consequences if Ki ignored him. “Come, yofie-na.” Jexa was enfolded in a tight hug as his father’s rumbling tone changed to a silky-smooth croon. “We’ll be late if we don’t leave now.”
Their foreheads rested together, showing the matching swirls of their MalDerVon scrolls on their temples and upper cheeks. Heir crystals nested in the middle of the purple ink at their temples winked clear and brilliant in the light of the room.
His mother’s emerald eyes returned her mate’s loving gaze and she pressed closer.
Ki fought to keep his face from twisting in disgust. Goddess, did they have to do that in front of him? By the father of all… they weren’t the only people in the room… gah!
Tror’yrc straightened and sent him a warning glare.
Ki held his breath and breathed a sigh of relief when they finally left. He barked at Yn’eo to join him in the preparation room while he ate. He might as well get her a frozen treat to keep her from bugging him.
Several macroclicks later, Yn’eo whined her last complaint and finally went to bed. Normally she was a sound sleeper and wouldn’t wake until sunrise.
When he was sure she was out for the night, he rushed to his father’s study to the cocoon the suit lay in. Having watched his nysto unpack the suit countless of times, he mimicked the movements to free the garment. He gave a grunt when he picked it up. It was heavier than he thought.
With an eager hand, Ki tore off his clothes and put the black matte suit on feetfirst. A whiff of animal musk reached his nose. Sheesh, what a snug fit. With a wiggle, squirm, and hard tug, he pulled it over his thin form. How did his huge father put the damn thing on? That was a mystery for later. After he put his arms through, the front closed automatically. A light sensation similar to an arm falling asleep after laying on it too long traveled from the top of his head down to his toes. An echo of “hatchling” made him pause, but the sound passed before he could process it. Shaking his head to focus, he snuck out of the house so Yn’eo wouldn’t hear him leave.
It was time to give those guys the butt kicking they deserved. They needed to be taught a lesson, and he was just the professor to give it to them.
All too soon, Ki arrived at the prearranged grove where the bullies waited.
They didn’t waste any time surrounding him.
The stupid puntnejis with their predictable taunts made him leer with arms crossed. The idiots should come up with something else besides calling him a freak and a loser as they teased him for showing up. Their lack of imagination was laughable.
Dressed in the impenetrable battlesuit, Ki let the five males shout their stupid words all they wanted.
When he didn’t respond, they jabbed him with either fingers or rocks they’d picked up from the grassy ground. When they didn’t get any reaction, shoves began, and fists flew. Emboldened, the bullies attacked.
With glee, Ki reached deep inside to access his Crart heritage to let the Solaherra dragon have free rein.
Nothing happened.
His stomach knotted as his knees became weak. While the suit protected him from the harshest blows, some fists made their mark on his face and hands. He covered his head to protect himself when a searing pain ripped inside, throwing his hands wide as he screamed in terror. Every nerve exploded as they reformed around muscles that bulked and expanded beyond his control. His bones broke apart before they sucked together in a denser form.
What scared Ki most was the loss of control. His consciousness was thrown into a metaphoric hole, locked away from any decision-making ability. Oh, Goddess! What if he couldn’t change back?
“Hatchling.”
A deep, powerful voice boomed and echoed in his skull.
It was Grirryrth, the dragon. “Wherever is your sire?”
Huh? Sire? It was hard to focus. Drirux and his buddies were making too much noise as they ran away and screamed like the whiny little babies they were.
“Yes, hatchling. You are not supposed to be with me until your sire deems it to be so.”
Ki made a lame attempt to respond when a loud, screeching noise pierced his ears. He’d have covered them if he had any. Looks like being incorporeal had more than one disadvantage.
“Tror’yrc!” The booming internal voice of the dragon was full of anguish. “No! He is in mortal danger, we must go to him!”
With the dragon’s cry, an overwhelming panic choked Ki. Oh my Goddess! Something had happened to his father! The next thing Ki knew, he was weightless in winged flight as he and his newly changed body took to the skies and headed home.
Over the dusty, hole-ravaged landscape of the mining planet they flew.
Ki sat in the back of the dragon’s consciousness, quaking like a coward. If he concentrated, he could see out of the dragon’s eyes. With a detached air, he watched the zooming black landscape pass by at a dizzying rate. Good thing he and the dragon weren’t in his body, because he’d have thrown up
by now.
Then, there was home right in front of them…but something was wrong. Black, billowing smoke stained the sky from the back of the house. Roaring flames licked the structure with greedy mouths of destruction.
Ki scrambled to take control, but the dragon kept a firm grip on their reality.
He swooped down and landed with a loud boom when his hind legs touched down. Wings flapped behind as the beast ran toward the home on gargantuan legs that shook the ground. When they reached the two-story house, the dragon grabbed the roof, pulled it off, and threw it away.
The first thing Ki saw was the twisted, broken body of his dead six-year-old sister.
Her head lay facedown at one end of the room while her body was crumpled in a heap at the other end like a piece of trash.
“NO!” Ki gave an internal scream while the dragon bellowed his sorrow with him.
A desperate war cry caught the dragon’s attention, and he twisted toward the sound.
There was Ki’s father, unsteady on his feet as he clutched his blood-soaked tunic with one hand.
Next to his father was his beautiful mother, bloody and broken. Her neck was bent at a perverse angle, her elegant silver tunic ripped, exposing her nude body to the horrific last moments of her life.
At the dragon’s answering roar, his father looked up. His face became red as his brows furrowed and his lips thinned. “Grirryrth… destroy!” Tror’yrc’s thunderous war cry followed as he gestured at the seven ragged criminals surrounding him.