A shiver raced down Aria’s spine. Had she and the others been brought here as breeding stock? Were they to provide genetic material to keep his race healthy? Nausea tightened her stomach into a quivering ball as she imagined herself chained to a bed, a trail of men lined up to impregnate the alien female.
She imagined him first in line, his mouth capturing hers in a passionate onslaught, his naked body compressing her breasts tightly against his chest. She felt her cheeks flush and she tried to drive the thoughts from her mind as she concentrated on his words.
“As a race matures, nata’tai gives its people the ability to sense their tanash’ae—what you would call their soul-mate—even over great distances. To ensure a mingling of races, nata’tai directs the spirits of tanash’ae—soul-mates—to be born in different races on different planets.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you’ve brought me here because you think I’m one of these tannashays?” She sucked in a breath. “Do you think that you and I…” Her finger flicked between them. “That we are…soul-mates?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Would that be a problem for you?”
No, a voice inside insisted, but she ignored it and sucked in a breath.
“Yes! Of course it would. I don’t even know you. I don’t intend to marry a man I don’t even know.”
He flashed a devil-may-care grin. “Who said anything about marriage?”
“Oh, I see.” A blush crept up her cheeks. “When you said soul-mate I assumed you meant, you know, love and marriage.”
This was all too much for her. The reality of the situation was finally sinking in. She didn’t even want to think about what he actually meant. That image of the chain and the bed swept through her brain again and not as an attractive fantasy this time. Her head sagged forward as tears pooled in her eyes.
“Aria, I’m sorry. I was teasing you. I’m not your tanash’ae.”
“Then why—?”
“Your tanash’ae is our king.”
Her head jerked up.
“I’m supposed to marry a king?”
“Does the thought appeal to you?”
“If I believed you, which I don’t, I would be honored, of course. It’s like a fairy tale, in a nightmarish sort of way, but I’m not going to marry some stranger on another planet, king or not. I don’t want to leave my family and friends behind.”
He leaned toward her, his silver gaze piercing her delicately maintained composure.
“Aria, you don’t have a family. You were separated from your mother at a very young age and she refuses contact with you.”
She felt as though he’d stabbed her heart. The pain of long, lonely years in an orphanage, then a group home and foster care, slammed through her.
Of course, anyone would understand why her newly widowed mother might decide to give up her young baby when she barely had the resources to care for her other four children. It had been the responsible thing to do, given the situation. Supposedly, she’d wanted Aria to have a better life than she could provide—but wasn’t being surrounded by brothers and sisters and a parent who loved her a much better choice than leaving her all alone in the world, rejected by the one person who should love her no matter what?
Logic dictated that her mother could not have truly loved her.
Aria stiffened her back against the debilitating pain, refusing to meet the man’s gaze.
“I don’t want to leave my world behind.”
He leaned toward her, his hands folded between his knees. “If he weren’t a king, you could have negotiated where you’d live. Our home world or yours. But in this case, nata’tai has given you no choice.”
No choice. Déjà vu or what? She knotted her fingers together and sighed heavily. “Will I be expected to have sex with this guy?”
He smiled, kindness lighting his eyes. “That’s usually what two bonded people do.”
She glared at him. “Why do you think I’d have sex with a strange man after being abducted?”
He smiled broadly. “You mean, you’d have sex with a strange man if we hadn’t abducted you?”
She stared at him blankly. She couldn’t believe it. This alien captain was teasing her.
Alien.
Oh, God. Although he looked quite human, he was an alien. A man from another planet.
She felt trapped. Fear and pain built inside her as she realized this was really happening. This man—this alien—had kidnapped her and intended to drag her untold light-years from Earth. She was being torn from her home, again, regardless of what she wanted.
All the tension that had been building in her ever since she’d taken that strange elevator ride curled around her chest and tightened painfully. Dizziness overwhelmed her and breathing became difficult.
Everything went black.
Runner
Anitra Lynn McLeod
There’s always a loophole. Just don’t let it close around your neck.
The Fringe, Book 3
Bounty hunter Foster Nash is a ruthless bastard—just ask him. Thanks to an ex-girlfriend who robbed him blind, and another who nearly bit off his trigger finger, he’s not too high on women in general right now.
Desperate for funds to refill his retirement coffers, he jumps at a very lucrative contract: to bring in the doctor who created the Tyaa plague. Except his voluptuous target doesn’t behave like a criminal. Instead of rattling the bars, she accepts her fate with cool, cultured aplomb.
Jynx Brennan toiled for three years to save humanity from a disease she’s now blamed for creating. Since she refuses to use her psi ability as a weapon, it doesn’t help her escape Never-Fail Nash. In a moment of clarity, she decides there’s no point in denying herself a last fling with a living, breathing erotic fantasy.
After he recovers his surprise, Nash indulges the full depth of his physical needs upon her body—often, and to their mutual pleasure. But when it leads to unexpected emotional intimacy, he finds himself willing to risk everything to break a contract that will force him to deliver her to certain execution.
Warning: This futuristic romance contains one bad-ass bounty hunter, a refined lady doctor, a ship with a vile history, a villain with a viler history, and a wide black leather belt, slung low.
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Runner
Copyright © 2012 by Anitra Lynn McLeod
ISBN: 978-1-60928-562-3
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
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
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
; Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
About the Author
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Copyright Page
Runner: The Fringe, Book 3 Page 28