Yes, Ari thought. I’m home—here with the man I love and all my wonderful new friends. I’ll live out my days on the Mother Ship as a Kindred bride with Lathe and thank the Goddess every day for my good fortune.
She smiled again, contentedly and let the rest of the conversation wash over her. She had a long, healthy, happy life with a man she loved to look forward to and as many friends as she could wish for. In fact, there were only two things troubling her.
First, who exactly had made the assassin robot and how close were their ties to Uriel Two? And secondly, she couldn’t help feeling bad for poor Slade. He had saved her life down in the lasher tunnel and had fought bravely with no thought for his own safety when they were getting free of BleakHall. What exactly had happened between him and the girl he had believed was a Pairing Puppet? And would he ever find her?
Sending a prayer to the Goddess for the big hybrid, Ari decided she would ask Lathe if they could have Slade over for dinner one night. It was the least they could do after he had helped them escape the nightmare prison. She only wished she could see him as happily settled as she and Lathe were.
But maybe he would be…someday in the future.
The End?
Of course not—I think you know what’s coming next. Read on for a sneak peek at Slade’s story, Bonded by Accident, coming soon to my Kindred Tales series. And look for Malik’s story in Kindred 23, also coming soon. (As long as no one else pops up and demands to have their story told first like Ari and Lathe did. Characters can be so pushy sometimes! ; )
Hugs and Happy Reading to you all!
Evangeline (in August 2018)
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If you've enjoyed this book, please take a moment to leave a review. Good reviews are like gold for an author—they let other readers know it's okay to take a chance on a new series. Plus they give me the warm-fuzzies. : )
Thanks for being such an awesome reader!
Hugs and Happy Reading,
Evangeline
And now, here's a taste of Bonded by Accident, available September 8 at the Aliens & Alphas Bookstore…
Sneak Peek at BONDED BY ACCIDENT—
A Kindred Tales Novel
A hybrid warrior, born of both worlds, belonging to none
Seeking to end his sexual torment without breaking a vow
A girl from Earth with an itch to scratch
Looking for no-strings-attached sex
But when you make love with a Kindred, things get complicated
What are Brandi and Slade going to do now that they are...
Bonded by Accident?
Slade is an ex-slave, an ex-con, and a widower who has made a vow never to love another woman since his mate died tragically. But after his escape from BleakHall Prison, he finds he has a desperate need for female companionship. How to scratch his itch without breaking his vow? Easy—visit the Pairing Puppets aboard the Mother Ship—female-looking androids without emotions that help unmated Kindred males relieve their urges until they can find mates.
Brandi Dixon is a single mom with a difficult life. She and her daughter live in a double-wide trailer in small-town rural Florida. Brandi longs for a man but she's picky and doesn't want to bring home a string of "temporary daddies" for her daughter like her mom did to her when she was growing up. Then her cousin wins tickets to tour the Kindred Mother Ship and tells Brandi there's a place where she can have hot, no-strings-attached sex with a Kindred warrior. Brandi wouldn't normally do such a thing but she's desperate—it's been a three year dry spell and she needs a man—even if it's only for a single night.
Posing as a Pairing Puppet, she gets picked by Slade for a night of passion. But imagine her surprise when, after the best sex of her life, she hears the big Kindred's growling voice inside her head!
Now Brandi is freaking out and Slade is pissed off that he broke his vow. Yet neither of them can deny the animal attraction that keeps drawing them together. When Brandi's daughter, Emmie, gets herself into terrible danger, Slade is the only one who can help. Will Brandi let the huge Kindred warrior into her life?
You'll have to read BONDED BY ACCIDENT to find out!
Chapter One
Slade was horny as hell, but it wasn’t his fault.
Being locked in solitary in a super-max prison with no female contact for five years will do that to a male. And of course, the eroto-lust stimulant his old mistress had given him, in an effort to make him fuck her brains out, didn’t help either.
Slade shifted uncomfortably on the exam table, hearing it groan beneath his considerable muscular bulk. Even for a Kindred warrior, he was on the big side. At seven and a half feet, he was taller than most of his kind and a look at his eyes revealed the reason why. The right eye was like melted gold and the left was a brilliant green.
Slade was a hybrid—half Blood Kindred and half Beast Kindred and he had both the fangs and the mating fist to prove it.
Not that anyone had looked at his mating fist in a good long time…
Just thinking that…imagining sinking balls-deep in some willing female and letting the fist swell within her had him hard as rock under the too-tight orange and blue striped BleakHall jumpsuit he wore.
Slade shifted again, trying to ease the pressure, trying not to think about finding a female to ease his need.
Of course, he didn’t want a real female, Slade reminded himself as a pretty little human nurse bustled into his room and started taking his vitals. She was as gorgeous as a Rathian gorna-flower in bloom, but so tiny she looked likely to break if he so much as looked at her wrong. Why were all these human girls so damn small?
But even if the little nurse hadn’t been too small and skinny for his taste, there were other factors holding Slade back from making a move. One, the little human female smelled strongly of another Kindred. Doubtless she was bonded to one of the males who worked aboard the Mother Ship—that made her strictly off limits.
And second and more important, Slade had taken a vow.
Not a vow of celibacy or chastity exactly—more like a vow that he wouldn’t be with a real woman again. Not after Cinda. Though it had been nearly six years since she died, her memory was still fresh in Slade’s mind and he sure as hell didn’t intend to cheat on it.
Not with a real woman, anyway. Which was why he was extremely eager to get off this damn exam table and go find the Pairing Puppet House which he knew was somewhere in the Unmated Males section of the Mother Ship.
Pairing Puppets were female androids the unmated Kindred males used to relieve their needs until they could find the female the Goddess had for them and form a bond with her.
Only hybrids couldn’t bond with anyone. He hadn’t even been bonded to Cinda, though they had been together for five years. Even without the mental connection most Kindred shared with their mates, and despite the fact that both of them were slaves, it had been a beautiful relationship.
Right up until the time his old master had sold her…
Slade tried to push the memory out of his mind. Cinda was gone—dead by her own hand. The old master was history too—Slade had made sure of that himself. And as for the mistress he’d been sold to—the one who had bought him right off the chopping block—well, she’d gotten rid of Slade as soon as it was evident he wasn’t going to service her the way she wanted to be serviced. But not before she’d given him the eroto-lust stimulant to try and convince him to fuck her.
Slade closed his eyes, remembering the angry look on her thin, pretty face when he’d refused her advances…
“What’s wrong with you, slave? Did I not save you from death after you killed your old master? Have I not given you good food and a fine, thick mattress to sleep upon? And am I not beautiful?”
“I’m grateful for the food and the place to sleep and of course, for my life, Mistress,” Slade had growled. “And sure, you’re pretty. A little on the skinny side but hell, I guess that’s the fashion here. But sorry—I’m not gonna fuck you.”
“Such crude language
!” his mistress had sniffed. “Then again, your crudity is part of why I bought you. Along with your…other attributes.” She eyed the bulge in Slade’s leather slave trousers greedily. “All I’m asking is that you service me—not fall in love with me. So get started immediately—or else!”
Slade had thought privately that there was no way he’d ever fall in love with a skinny, stuck-up female like her. She wasn’t even remotely his type. But even if he had been interested in her, he wasn’t going to break his vow.
“Sorry,” he’d told her. “I can’t. Also, I won’t. Ask me anything else. You want me to fight for you—be your champion in the ring? I spent years in the Blood Circuit—I can win a hell of a lot of credit for you. Or I can help out around your house—fix anything that gets broken. I’m good with my hands.”
“I already have plenty of credit and I have no need of a male who’s good with his hands. I bought you because I was assured you were good with other things,” his mistress sniffed. “I’ve a mind to see how that huge knot at the base of your shaft feels inside me. You will service me or pay the price.”
“Sorry Mistress but threats don’t exactly make my dick hard,” Slade growled. “In fact, they tend to have the opposite effect.”
“We’ll see about that.” The mistress had motioned to her personal physician, who had been standing by and watching the entire show with a completely neutral expression on his face. Maybe he saw his mistress threatening males into sleeping with her all the time, Slade had no idea. But for whatever reason, he didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the conversation.
At the nod from the mistress, the physician had darted forward and jabbed Slade in the arm with a needle.
“Hey!” Slade hadn’t expected that—he’d been keeping his eye on the angry woman who had bought him. He reached for the little physician but the male had already danced out of range and was standing safely in the mistress’s shadow. “What the fuck was that?” Slade demanded, looking down at his arm where a single ruby droplet of blood welled, just above his elbow.
“Eroto-lust enhancer.” The mistress sounded pleased with herself. “We’ll see how long your resistance lasts once the chemicals hit your system. You’ll be begging to service me then—begging to sheathe that enormous shaft inside me and give me what I bought you for.”
Then she had turned on her heel and left.
To his distress, Slade had indeed begun to feel the effects of the enhancer not long after. His shaft seemed to be always hard, his thoughts constantly preoccupied by sex.
But Slade was a stubborn son-of-a-bitch—he refused to give in.
He jerked off on a regular basis to try and keep the lust contained and used meditation to clear his head—as much as he could anyway—a fact which baffled his mistress.
“How has he been able to resist the effects of the enhancer?” she demanded of her physician after Slade refused her yet again. “It cannot be that he is controlling his lust through self-pleasure. You assured me that only sheathing his shaft in a female would ease his need!”
“Forgive me, Mistress.” The little physician had bowed and groveled. “I do know what is the matter. I know the serum is effective—I injected it into one of your other breeding slaves and his lust could scarcely be contained.”
“Yes, I know—which is why half my female slaves are now pregnant,” the Mistress snapped. “Yet this one resists—how?”
“Maybe because you’re not my fucking type,” Slave growled. He was damn tired of standing there, watching them discuss him like he wasn’t even in the room. Like he wasn’t even a real person—which as a slave, he wasn’t. Not to his mistress, anyway. He was just a way to scratch her itch but by now Slade had decided he would be damned if he’d go anywhere near her.
His mistress wasn’t one to give up easily though. She liked to get her money’s worth.
“You will service me,” she’d told Slade. “Or I will have you thrown in prison. I’ll say you raped me and since you’ve already got a murder charge from killing your previous master, that will mean an instant life sentence.” She’d leaned forward, hands on her hips, her blood-red nails tap-tap-tapping against her sharp hip bones. “Think of that, Slade—you’ll be spending the rest of your miserable existence in a place with no females at all. And you know the lust enhancer I had my physician give you won’t ease until you sink your shaft into a warm, wet cunnie. Do you really prefer years of torment over servicing me?”
“Fuck yes,” Slade had growled. “I told you, Mistress—I took an oath not to be with another female after the one I loved died. All your drugs and threats won’t change that. So leave me the fuck alone!”
The mistress had stared at him for a moment, white dents of fury on either side of her long, aristocratic nose, fingers tapping at her bony hips. Then she’d turned on her heel and strode out of the small slave-hut where Slade was kept.
The next people to walk through his door had been a heavily-armed contingent of peace keepers, arresting him for aggravated rape of one of the ruling class—a charge that did, indeed carry a life-sentence.
Slade was charged, tried, and convicted all in one day. After all, it wasn’t like a lowly slave could afford a solicitor to argue for him in court.
From there, it was a short trip to the local prison. Where Slade, unfortunately, got into several fights and had to kill to defend himself. After twisting an attacker’s head completely off during a particularly brutal battle, he had gained the charge of “mutilator” to add to his other charges of murder, rape, and arson. It was then that the powers that be decided to transfer him to BleakHall—a triple max pen owned by the man-hating mistresses of Yonnie Six.
Slade had never believed he would get out of there. Solitary had been a bitch but he’d resigned himself to a life of it…until a chance to escape came up. Slade grabbed it with both hands and didn’t let go until he’d gotten to the Kindred Mother Ship.
Where he was told they had Pairing Puppets.
The android girls weren’t real, Slade reasoned, so it wouldn’t really be breaking his vow to Cinda to be with them. And maybe sinking his shaft into one of the artificial girls would finally quell the effects of the eroto-lust enhancer. He’d been living with the constant overwhelming sexual need caused by the drug his mistress had given him for six years by now and he was damn tired of being horny all the time and not being able to do anything about it.
Well, I’m going to do something about it now, he thought, shifting on the exam table again. He even knew who he wanted to do it with. For the last several months, he’d been dreaming of a Pairing Puppet with big brown eyes—a girl with a pretty face and a full, curvy figure. Wide hips, big breasts tipped with ripe, juicy nipples just made to be sucked, and a sweet little pussy able to accommodate his larger-than-average shaft were all just waiting for him.
Slade knew the girl of his dreams was a Pairing Puppet because in all his dreams he saw her in the Pairing Puppet house, surrounded by others of her kind, all ready and waiting to accommodate the unmated males of the Mother Ship. As soon as he got off this damn exam table and away from the med center, he was going to go and find her.
Or a puppet that looked like her, anyway. He knew he couldn’t really expect to find the exact Pairing Puppet he had been dreaming of. But hell, one with a full figure and brown hair and eyes would be good enough for him.
When he found her, he was going to sink his shaft deep in her willing pussy. But first he was going to drop to his knees and lap her long and hard between her thighs. He hadn’t tasted pussy in over six years which was a damn shame since in Slade’s opinion, there was no finer flavor in the entire fucking universe. He…
Slade realized that his thoughts were going in circles. Damn it, he had to get out of here! He had to scratch the itch that had been driving him crazy for the last six years. Then maybe he could think straight again and wouldn’t have to walk around with a constant hard-on.
Finally, after years of torment, relief was in sight.
“Don’t need to be examined,” Slade growled. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” A Blood Kindred doctor in a white coat came into the exam room as the nurse left. “Now then, it appears you’ve just come in with my colleague, Dr. Lathe, from BleakHall prison. Knowing the reputation of that place, I expect you’ll be physically run down—possibly even malnourished.” He was studying a tablet as he spoke but when he looked up at Slade’s massive, muscular bulk his eyes widened. “Well,” he murmured, making a note on the chart. “Perhaps not malnourished then.”
“The only thing I’m starved for is sex, Doc,” Slade said bluntly. “I’ve been locked up for six years now with no female companionship, if you know what I mean. If you’ll just point me the way to the Pairing Puppets I’ll be healthy and happy both.”
“Well…” The doctor’s pale blue eyes widened. “Direct, aren’t you, Brother?”
Slade shrugged his broad shoulders.
“It’s the only way I know to be. Now could you point me in the right direction, please? I’ve got a six-year itch that needs scratched.”
“I’m afraid the Pairing Puppets’ House is closed for the evening,” the doctor said, frowning.
“Fuck,” Slade growled in frustration.
“Not until tomorrow, I’m afraid,” the Blood Kindred doctor said dryly. “I’ll tell you what—I’ll check you out of the med center and get you assigned to a guest suite for tonight. Why don’t you rest and shave and shower—get a good hot meal and a good night’s sleep. Then you can be at the Puppet House first thing in the morning when they open to, ah, scratch your itch.”
Imprisoned Page 38