Toss of a Coin [Other World 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)
Page 1
Other World 1
Toss of a Coin
Year 4014: Medicine for females. A simple pact between two desperate planets.
Prince Luken DeZaccherus swings by Earth on a secondary mission of female hunting. He doesn’t find a match until Keneese Culpepper walks out of a food court. With a serious face and lust building in him, Luken approaches her. One whiff of Keneese and he knows he’s found his natural mate.
Keneese is eating another boring lunch and wishing for change when the tallest man she’s ever seen walks straight up to her. Desire hits her hard. She restrains the need to jump him until she finds out she’s been chosen as one of the females to fulfill the pact between Earth and VisOrrenta.
Thanks to technology, Keneese is taken from Earth and a few hours later is millions of light years from the only home she’s ever known. In time, she realizes how important her role is. That her prince flips all of her switches doesn’t hurt either.
Genre: Futuristic, Science Fiction
Length: 25,994 words
TOSS OF A COIN
Other World 1
Dakota Dawn
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
TOSS OF A COIN
Copyright © 2014 by Dakota Dawn
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-776-1
First E-book Publication: May 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
To my husband and children for all their crazy support. Love you guys!
And to all the people who love a juicy alien story—I’m with ya!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
About the Author
TOSS OF A COIN
Other World 1
DAKOTA DAWN
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Year: 4014
Prince Luken DeZaccherus of VisOrrenta stared narrowed-eyed at King Bafie, the ruler of planet Grarris K. “One more incident with any of your people on my planet and all trade between us stops for at least three years.” With a thought, his fingernails turned into menacing claws.
Tor, one of Luken’s best and biggest men, grunted when Bafie sucked in a sharp breath.
The startled ruler’s skin turned a dark shade of orange and his shoulders sagged. “It won’t happen again. With the footage you’ve given us, I’ll make sure the ones responsible pay for their crimes and for all the trouble they’ve caused you, Your Highness.” King Bafie nodded to one of his men. The man opened the door to the room and two men entered carrying a large chest.
King Bafie gestured toward the chest. “Please, take this gift back to your honorable father as a token of my appreciation for our continued trade.”
Tor stepped forward and motioned for the men to open the chest. They quickly did as he bid. The chest was loaded with precious items from their planet. After having the men move the items around in the chest, a nod from Luken had them closing the lid.
“I’ll see that my father gets it. Keep in mind that one more incident caught on surveillance or even a complaint from one of our people and all trade stops.” He sliced his hand through the tension-filled air. Luken hoped the orange ruler was having visions of how easily his claws could kill.
“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. Have a good trip home.” King Bafie looked at his servants. “Take the chest to their ship and place it wherever they say.” The king then turned back to Prince Luken and bowed deeply.
He gave a curt nod to the ruler of Grarris K and then strode from the room. Tor followed closely behind him. He was sure his friend was glaring at anyone and everyone that had the misfortune of being in their path. Luken didn’t worry overmuch about being attacked on this usually friendly planet, that’s why only the two of them had come on this mission.
Luken had learned long ago that if you took away a man’s luxury items for a while, he would play nice in the future or die trying to take what he wanted. The people of VisOrrenta would do whatever it took to protect their families and possessions. All of the males on his planet were warriors. Even if they owned an orchard, they were still trained to defend what was theirs.
Once the chest was stowed away and the servants had left his spacecraft, Luken and Tor took off to their next destination. Earth.
Excitement bubbled up inside him, and he tried to cover it, but knew he’d failed when Tor glanced over at him and chuckled. Luken wasn’t offended in the least. As the oldest prince, he was ready for a mate. He had been for a few years. Hope filled his chest and lightened his heart. Maybe this time he’d find her. With
his schedule, he’d only had time to look twice before. The warmth in his chest had him smiling. The sensation surely was a good sign.
“I have a good feeling about our Earth trip. This time we’ll be successful. Even if we don’t find our own mates, we could find some for the other men.” Tor flipped the autopilot switch as soon as they were on a steady course.
“Any success will be good. Mom has been pressing me to get out and find my mate. She’s looking for grandchildren.” The thought of how babies were made had Luken’s blood pumping in all the right places. He shifted his burgeoning erection to a less painful position in his pants.
“Finding our mates would be great. I hope we come across at least two human females that meet our criteria.” Tor stretched and checked the time. “We should arrive in about an hour.”
Luken felt a touch sorry for the Earth females, but not sorry enough to forgo this mission. As part of Earth’s pact with VisOrrenta, they were allowed thirty females a year in exchange for medicine. They were allowed to take any female they wanted, but VisOrrentians didn’t take mothers from their children or married women from their husbands. They weren’t that desperate yet and he hoped they never got that desperate.
Their current, self-imposed rules made the task more difficult, but not impossible. If VisOrrentian males didn’t produce ninety-nine percent male babies, this pact with Earth wouldn’t be necessary. It had been this way for the last three hundred years. Their people were not sure what had happened to slow the female birth rate. It was starting to strongly affect them though. So far, they hadn’t taken but a few females. The ones that were on his planet were reportedly doing well.
If they hadn’t been able to handle moving to VisOrrenta his people would have figured out some other form of trade with Earth. They were warriors, not heartless animals. He hated the females being scared for even a short amount of time, but it couldn’t be helped though. Without the females, his people couldn’t survive.
The signal that they were close to their destination pulled him from his thoughts. In a whirl of activity, he and Tor started going through the landing procedure. Once they were safely on the planet, both men strapped on their wrist scanners and headed out.
They were in one of the larger cities. This increased their odds greatly. Tor waved Luken over to a shadowed area and pointed out several women sitting around tables and a water fountain. Their scanners showed that most of them were taken or had children. Patience proved to once again work in their favor when out walked a few more as some of the others wandered away. They were near a food court that catered to people working in the nearby businesses.
He and Tor stayed out of sight because of how tall they were, compared to the humans. No sense in alarming them for no reason. At seven feet tall, Luken was of average height for his people. Tor was seven and a half feet tall. If they didn’t find any females, they’d just leave without spooking any of the short earthlings.
Getting back to the task at hand, he scanned another promising female. Her information started running across his scanner. Mary Walters, breeding status—zero, twenty-five years old, healthy, five feet two inches tall. This is promising. She’s a little short for my taste, but she will work fine for one of the other males. His hopes were dashed when his scanner finally revealed that she was married.
Damn. Luken shook his head and leaned toward Tor. “I’m going to have to get Thavon to have these scanners reprogrammed to give the marital status right after the breeding status. Then her breeding channel depth should come next.”
“I agree. Your brother can do it in no time and it’ll save us a lot of time.” Tor continued to scan any newcomers on his half of the area.
A tall-by-Earth-standards female walked out of the exit door of the food court. His heart started racing. She’s beautiful. As she sat on the foot-wide stone wall surrounding the fountain and started eating her lunch, he aimed his scanner at her.
New information brightened the screen. Keneese Culpepper, breeding status—zero, twenty-eight years old. Ripe for the picking. The scanner continued, healthy, six feet tall. With a pounding heart, Luken waited for the next bit of information to appear. The lights blinked on his scanner. “Unmarried” flashed before his eager eyes.
Yes!
Another flash stated, breeding channel—acceptable.
Yes!
The wind blew some of her blonde strands into her lovely face. As she brushed them back, he wondered what the sun-kissed strands felt like. Very soon, he’d find out. He glanced at Tor, who was seriously scanning one of the women.
A smile curled Tor’s lips. “I found one. How about you?”
“Yes. She could be the one for me. Let’s go meet them and if they pass our test, we’ll meet back on board.” Tor nodded and they both stepped out of the shadows.
* * * *
Keneese Culpepper finished her boring lunch and frowned at the strange feeling coursing through her. Heated excitement charged through her body. Looking around, all she saw were the normal women and a few married men.
Her dry spell in the lovemaking department must be causing her hormones to go crazy. At her height, it was hard to get a man’s attention. Well, in the right way, that was. They could all spot her from a mile away. That didn’t make her appealing to most of them. Other than getting her to reach for stuff above their heads, of course. At times like those, she was very popular with men and women alike.
“I should get away more,” she said to herself. Finding big, tall, and gorgeous men in her apartment was obviously never going to happen. Her college lovers had moved on long ago and she’d been fine with that at the time. Her career in Human Resources had been the most important thing in her life for the last few years.
Keneese still loved her job, but lately her inner clock had started ticking very loudly. A family was what she now longed for. With her parents dead and no siblings, she was lonely. Even more so around the holidays. What was her purpose in life? Yes, she was well aware of the fact that she helped people daily. Her heart cried out for a new purpose. One that included a lot of little feet following her around.
Feeling whimsical, she pulled a coin out of her purse and closed her eyes tightly shut. I wish for a big change, several children, and a man who loves me with all of his heart. With a flip of her hand, she tossed the coin over her shoulder. The water splashed up and hit her on the back at the same time as her senses went on high alert.
She opened her eyes and almost fell back into the fountain. Two of the tallest men she’d ever seen were walking into the small park. Her jaw dropped when one of them headed straight for her. He’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.
At his height, she figured he was a star athlete. But what was a star doing here? Games were played on the other side of the city, forty-five minutes away. Her gaze drank him in. As she drooled over the guy, she forced herself to stay seated. Jumping stars was a crime she could go to jail for.
As her wayward gaze scanned him again, her hormones went bat-shit crazy and she guessed a little time behind bars might be worth it. This godlike creature flipped all of her switches, plus a few she didn’t know she had. Keneese pressed her thighs together in hopes of quelling some of her desire for him. The wind blew his masculine scent over to her and all hope of suppressing her quickening desire was blown away.
When he was right in front of her, she looked up and asked, “You’re not a star athlete, are you?” With his masculine features and bewitching two-tone blue eyes, she sure hoped not. The guy had to be wearing contacts. They suited him so well, she felt like she was drowning in his hypnotic gaze.
* * * *
Luken might have been startled by her question, but he was ecstatic about his scanner’s input on her elevated hormone levels since she’d laid those beautiful green eyes on him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Tor approaching a curvy brunette.
His scanner showing her levels rising had him smiling in relief and happiness. “I’m not a star. Why do you ask?” Luken
’s erection pulsed when two bright red spots colored her cheeks.
She opened her lovely mouth to say something and then closed it and frowned. “Aren’t you from here?”
“No. I’m from VisOrrenta.” Luken watched her response closely. Her breath hitched and she looked around. Her eyes zeroed in on Tor.
“Ar…” She cleared her throat and looked up at him. “Are you here looking for females?”
He could practically feel her nervousness. Not letting that stand in his way, Luken looked her over. “Yes. The law states you have to answer me truthfully.” His voice was gruffer than he’d like.
It was a shame he’d met her right after being on a threatening mission. It was damn hard to switch gears from menacing to kind and loving. Especially when his body wanted to toss her over his shoulder and fuck her in his spacecraft for at least a few hours.
After tightly clasping her hands, she composed herself. “I’m aware of the law. What would you like to know?”
“What do you think of the pact between our worlds?” It took all of his training to stand there acting like he was just having a polite conversation with some ruler’s wife when in reality his pulse was beating wildly in his groin and every fiber of his being demanded he take her.
Her pink tongue darted out to moisten her lovely lips. “I believe it is a necessary agreement made up to help both of our worlds.”
The scent of fresh flowers and woman wafted to him. He sucked in the desirable scent and held it for as long as he could. Her answer to his question had been an excellent one. It was now time to test her honesty on a different level. “What’s your name?”