by Jana Leigh
As she exited the van, Ash gasped as she looked up and observed the beauty of the lodge. The lodge was nestled in the middle of the mountain. Twinkling lights draped around the trees. The views of the mountains were the most beautiful views Ash had ever seen. The pictures Nash sent her didn’t do the place justice. This place looked like it was made for the rich and famous instead of a bunch of cops for a conference. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to stay there. She had been in beautiful hotels in New York that catered to the rich and famous but this place was beautiful and rustic. Ash couldn’t understand the feeling of home she felt when she looked up at the lodge.
Ash stood outside of the van, looking up at the lodge and the mountains. She didn’t have the words to express how beautiful the lodge was.
The two gentlemen who were staring at her in the van came up and stood beside her. One of the men asked, “Have you ever been to the Meadows?”
Ash shook her head out of the trance to answer the man. “No, sir, this is my first trip, and it is exquisite.” Ash couldn’t look at the men long without blushing so she turned her head back to look at the lodge.
“Yes, she is.”
Ash didn’t think he was talking about the lodge. She looked down and then up at the man. He winked at her then both men started walking toward the front door of the lodge. Ash turned around and walked to Jessie, who was unloading the luggage. She pointed at her two pieces of luggage and told him those were hers. “Yes, ma’am, I know. We will bring it in for you. It’s too cold for you out here. You can go inside, and I will bring your luggage in for you.”
Ash smiled at Jessie. “Thank you.”
“Yes, ma’am, your welcome. And, ma’am, welcome to the Meadows.”
Ash turned around and walked up the stairs to the lodge. She loved it. The large wraparound porch with all the rocking chairs placed where anybody who sat in them could see the mountains. Ash could see herself sitting outside early in the morning, watching the sun come up while she drank a cup of coffee. She could see the snow laying on the ground and breathing in the crisp air as she rocked in the rocking chair. Ash noticed the baskets lying beside the chairs that had blankets in them that could be used to cover your legs with as you sat on the porch. She couldn’t wait to experience as much as she could before she went back to New York.
As Ash approached the front door, a young woman opened the door and welcomed Ash into the lodge, directing her toward the front of the large room where the reception desk was located. Ash walked into the breathtaking room and was welcomed with the smell of wood burning in the largest fireplace she had ever seen. The fireplace was made of stone and stretched halfway across the wall. The scent of cinnamon tickled her nose as she closed her eyes, smelling the stimulating scents. She was next in line as the receptionist greeted her and welcomed her to the Meadowland Lodge. She informed Ash that she could sign in for the law enforcement convention in the next room. It didn’t take Ash long because she had already preregistered and faxed all the information prior to her arrival. She gave Ash the key to her room and informed her that her luggage would be waiting for her when she arrived to her room. After thanking her, Ash turned around, and walked toward the area designated for the convention.
Excerpt from Meridian Warriors: Xander & Des
Meridian Warriors Book One
By Jana Leigh & Zack Collins
Prologue
“We are losing the battle with the Hopis, they have powerful weapons, and I fear soon they will break through our defenses, no matter what we do,” the King said to Xander.
“”Their numbers are too many, no matter how many Warriors I have; we will not defeat them. Sir, we should think of evacuation,” Xander said.
Xander was the leader of the Warriors, he was the one the King went to for military strategies, and so far, in this battle they had done well. Partly because they were underwater and the Hopis didn’t know how to fight underwater, but fighting was not what they wanted—it was the water. And they had finally found a way to begin draining the planet.
“Sir, our planet is being sucked dry from its resources. Our greatest protection from others was our water. We have lived hidden from everyone for millennia. The Hopis have developed a way to steal the water from our surface,” Xander explained. “There is a large ship on the farthest side of the planet, which they are using to exact the water. Every day it goes down further and further, soon we will not be able to hide.”
They lived in a huge force field built around the ships their ancestors arrived to the planet in. It was amazing. They built homes, buildings, and businesses as they moved out of their ships. They grew food, learned to live underwater, and flourished in the new environment.
The Meridians were an intelligent species, and their technology was advanced. They found in their travels that many of the other species were eager to buy and learn what the Meridians were more than happy to teach and sell.
According to the scripts, they evolved over time to adapt to their surroundings. The Meridians were known for their shifting ability. When in the water their legs changed into one long tail with scales that allowed them to swim and hunt underwater.
The Hopis were people from another planet only two light years from them, they were vermin. While traveling the universe, they found their planet, Meridian. Meridian was a small planet whose surface was entirely covered in water. At first, the Hopis didn’t bother the planet because it didn’t seem inhabited. The Hopis planet was inhibited and they thought they could just use the water resources for their own, coming back every few years and filling their tanks with water.
When they discovered by accident through their defense field that there were inhabitants on the planet—the attacks began. They wanted the water for their own, along with the Meridian’s technology.
For thirty years, Xander led the Warriors in protecting their home planet. However, the Hopis would not give up. Through many prisoner interrogations, they learned the Hopis home planet had dried up a century ago, sending its inhabitants into space to find water for their people. They thought they hit the payload with Meridian—only to find out that Xander and his people were there.
They wanted the water, but when they found some of the technology the Meridian had, they wanted that too. The Hopis were brutal in their attack, Xander grimaced a little as he thought about the torture many of his men succumbed to. “Sir, what can we do?” Xander asked.
Rolf, the Leader, and large Warrior himself, said, “We must gather the ships. One of our men discovered a planet in the early stages of development, if we land in their waters, we could stay hidden for many years. It is our only hope.”
Xander led the evacuation, they tried to keep it a secret from the Hopis but of course, they found out. The day they all left their home planet, Xander thought they’d planned the escape to perfection. The only thing their leader didn’t consider was the Hopis in their greed to obtain everything—destroyed the planet while they were still too close. Xander and his men’s ship was the only one to escape the blast. The ship held fifty-two men, no women, and no children—they were stagnant. Left to survive on a strange planet without the benefit of companionship.
They plotted the course for Earth and landed in the body of water, which is now called the Pacific Ocean. The planet was in its early stages of growth, so the men stayed underwater all the time in its early years. They discovered they were still able to shift into their Meridian form when they entered the water. Their legs disappeared and a long, large tail fin appeared with brilliant colors, showing their ranking in the Meridian City.
Slowly over time, they discovered that most of the men were mates, and were just missing their female. Xander always figured it had to have been the rest of the race being destroyed that triggered their mating instincts with the only survivors. Xander and Des had been friends since childhood, and they never felt the pull until one day while they were swimming in the ocean.
It was amazing to have a large area to swim in
, their planet was much smaller than Earth, they could have swam their entire planet in two days, but Earth, hell it took more than a week, and that was if they swam steady the whole time.
The group of men knew their limitations; they needed materials from the surface to help them live.
They lived in the ship they escaped on for a long time. It took their brilliant Warrior technology man to slowly create a shield that expanded and formed into a large bubble-like barrier between them and the surrounding water. It was similar to their own planet; however, Earth’s water had a different compound—salt. Meridian had not had salt in their water, so it took a while for Cash’s mate, Rosul, to create a new barrier bubble. Now they had approximately a five-mile city built to accommodate them.
Over the years they went to the surface and discovered they could shift above the water and search for materials. When finished, they could reenter the water and shift for the return to their underwater city. They also discovered the Warriors could only stay above on the land for about seven rises of the sun before they began to get sick. They needed to be in the water to survive now.
A surprise source of help came when the men rose from the ocean one night only to find a ship of Pirates waiting for them. The battle lasted only briefly as the Warriors overcame the men from the ship. Then a bargain was struck, and had been in place ever since.
The humans developed and evolved, although the Meridian had not wanted to interfere, they did feel that since they had come to Earth to survive, they owed the humans something. Xander and the others began letting some of the technology surface with them. A few well-placed ideas—in the right minds—had allowed the humans to develop as well.
Xander also felt the need to protect the humans. They did not want what happened to their home planet to happen to Earth as well. They sent out a tracking beacon, and they could tell when another race moved too close. Some of them were harmless, although some were not. Therefore, they did what they had to do in order to protect the humans.
Around a hundred years ago, the Hopis discovered Earth, and although they could not completely protect the humans from them, they did help deter them. The Warriors set out to kill any of the Hopis that came to Earth to scout; however, it wasn’t until fifty years ago they found out, through interrogation, the leader of the Hopis searched for them. For some reason the man had vowed to find and destroy the last of the Meridian, the Meridian Council all assumed it was because the Hopis didn’t want it to get out to some of the other species what they had done.
So far, they had been lucky, they avoided their detection every time, although Xander knew that someday they would not be so lucky, there were too many of them and the Hopis were sending more scouts. They had probably figured out the Warriors were here since many of their scouts never returned.
Rosul made only one entrance to the city, and only a Meridian would be able to enter. Rosul embedded the entrance doorway to recognize their blood markers. Anything else trying to pass through the doorway would be trapped and if not allowed in, thrown back out into the ocean after a certain amount of time. Fish and other creatures sometimes wandered into their passageway, which saved them from going out to find food.
The entrance was remarkably well hidden, as was their city. Over time, with the development of the planet, rock formations shifted and Cash used them to incorporate the city. On the far side of the city was a lake, Meridian made of course, but they kept it well stocked with fish now. However, to leave the city, they had to dive into the lake and pass through a rock tunnel. Their doorway worked both ways, except anything entering had to be accompanied by a Meridian. If not, it or they were killed.
They developed a Meridian Council just as they had on their home planet. Xander was the leader, but the Council was also in charge. They made the laws of their underwater land and everyone obeyed them.
Chapter One
Xander stood on the balcony and felt his male mate enter the room behind him. He smiled and waited. Des was late; he was probably training the rest of the Warriors with the new toys that Cash developed. They would do well when they had to go to the surface and blend in.
“Xan?” Des yelled as he walked back into their home. The home was traditionally decorated in their home planet’s décor. When they barely escaped the planet’s destruction with the ship, they at least planned ahead of time and put their personal belonging aboard since they knew they would no longer be able to return home.
The bold colors of red and blue adorned the furniture along with the huge pillows on the floor, while the wall held pictures of their lost planet, and the families they would never forget. It was hard, even after all this time, to know they had lost so much all because the Hopis wanted to have what they had.
“Des, here,” Xander said and looked at his mate closely. The training had been rough; his mate had marks on his shoulders and arms where the new weapon had been used on him. Xander hoped the other new toys were useful.
Des smiled at him arrogantly and bowed his head. Even though Des was his mate, he insisted on the formal greeting, after that though, Des walked to him and kissed him passionately. Xander pulled his mate’s long, thick, black hair that was tied behind his back with a traditional wrap from their planet, angling his head so he would be able to get the most out of his mate’s kiss.
They were large, tall men, both leaders, and both dominant. Sometimes both of them wondered how they were ever paired together. The Gods truly had a sense of humor. Xander was the leader of the city they lived in, Des was his Second, and they were a force to be reckoned with when challenged.
Standing well over six foot, Des had black hair and Xander had white. They were opposites in looks and demeanor. Xander was Alpha all the way. He dominated every room he was in, where Des was a bit lighter and had a lot more humor according to him. Xander would shake his head and laugh every time his mate made the statement.
Xander had been the leader of the Warriors when they left their planet. However, when all the other ships were destroyed in the blast from the planet blowing up, he became their overall leader. Unfortunately, the ship they were on was only filled with male Warriors. None of their women had survived. They knew they were supposed to have a second mate, it was the way of their planet, but since the females were all dead, they were forced to accept and be happy with only one mate.
Xander never complained, he loved Des like a mate, like a man, and like a friend. There was no one he would rather be with—in time of trouble or happiness—than Des, though both of them felt the emptiness of their missing mate.
The leader pushed his tongue past his mate’s mouth and demanded a response. Des did not let him down, and they explored each other’s mouth as if it was the first time they’d kissed. Thankfully, Xander had just gotten out of the shower, and hadn’t bothered to dress so the cloth around his waist was quickly dispatched. Des only had on sparse clothes from his workout, which were quickly removed while they continued to kiss each other.
Des ran his hands over Xander’s shoulders and chest. Their muscles were sculpted showing how they kept in shape in case they needed to defend themselves. Xander’s face was angular, and what some may not consider handsome, until they looked into his eyes. They were the most amazing color. Some would say they were purple, but whatever, Des loved looking into them. While Des was boyishly handsome, no matter their three hundred human year age, he had a perfect nose, cheekbones, and mouth. His face would be one many of the human women swooned over when they surfaced.
Xander ran his hands down his mate’s back and grabbed his ass. It was tight and firm and he loved to pull his mate close and rub their cocks together while they petted and kissed each other.
When Des finally pulled back, he looked at Xander and smiled, “Well, welcome home to me.”
“Yeah, well we need to talk, but I have something that needs taken care of first,” Xander said and looked down at his engorged erection.