Surrender [Coalition Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Allure)
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Coalition Mates 4
Surrender
Sally Owens was content to spend her life hiding in plain sight, that is…as long as no one got too close or tried to wrestle the reigns away from her.
When she goes out for a night on the town, getting kidnapped and shipped out into space was NOT what she had in mind. But above all else Sally is a survivor and she soon comes up with a plan to thrive in this new world.
Arkenon Quinn is informed that one of the human refugees wants to join the Courtesan Guild and of course he is curious. However, when he meets the audacious and beautiful Sally he finds himself signing up to mentor her against his better judgement. What he couldn’t have anticipated is how quickly this fascinating creature would steal his heart, forcing him to do something he’s never had to do before—chase a female.
Will Sally’s painful past keep her from finding a future with the man who’s like no other she’s ever met? Or will she have the strength to place her body and soul in Arkenon’s extremely capable hands?
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 46,443 words
SURRENDER
Coalition Mates 4
Sarah Marsh
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
SURRENDER
Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Marsh
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-785-4
First E-book Publication: October 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 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
Dear Readers,
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Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
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This is Sarah Marsh’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Sarah Marsh’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
I’d like to thank my incredible beta readers, Marissa and Julie. I really would be lost without your input! Julie you’ve been so amazeballs with all the graphic design work, even if sometimes I might be a teensy bit OCD, I love you both!
I’d also like to thank Elena Kincaid and Maia Dylan for their insights and support….not to mention the crazy antics! As well as the wonderful members of the S.M.E group for making me laugh every day!
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
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
About the Author
SURRENDER
Coalition Mates 4
SARAH MARSH
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Surrender
Seduce me with words.
Inspire me with passion.
Blind me with longing.
Break me with need.
Bind me with love.
As Sally slowly came awake, she resisted opening her eyes. She’d obviously overdone it on the shots last night because she had the hangover to end all hangovers. Perhaps Evie had been right and she should’ve abstained from that last tray…but who could say no to free drinks, right? She tried to replay the night in her head. Most of it seemed to be coming back to her. Sure, it was a bit blurry, but it was there.
Overall it had been a pretty good night, after a really bad day where almost their entire office had found out last-minute that they were getting laid off. The girls wanted to do one more night out on the town before everyone went their separate ways. So Sally naturally had taken it upon herself to flirt her way through the bar, looking for her next ex-boyfriend, and making sure the girls had a steady flow of free drinks while they danced and had a good time. It was tough work (yeah right), but a coy smile here and a little cleavage lean there, and the men were lining up to help her out.
The most promising mark out of the bunch that evening was a tall, rather blandly good-looking fellow named John, or Joe, or…something, who was a lawyer—or an accountant, was it? Oh well, if she saw him again, she’d figure it out. All she knew was he wasn’t afraid to open his wallet, he wore an impeccable suit, and he let her be in charge. He had seemed perfect.
* * * *
Cute enough that dating him wouldn’t be a chore, but not so good-looking that it would tempt her to get distracted and start feeling things, she thought as she looked at him again through the dark lighting of the club. Damn, she must’ve been much drunker than she realized because she could have sworn she saw his eyes change color for a second. Sheesh, maybe it was time to switch to water. She turned back to the bar just
in time to see Eve winding through the crowd to reach her.
“Evvvvie, why are you frowning?” Sal said with a slur as she draped her arm across Eve’s shoulders. “All thesse cute guys are buying uss drinkss. Frowning gives you wrinkles.”
Eeeks, she also sounded much drunker out loud than she did in her head. Perhaps she shouldn’t talk so much right now…
“It’s nothing, Sal. Maybe we should cut out. I’m pretty drunk, and so are you. Should we get a cab?” Eve asked, trying to hold Sally steady on her four-inch stilettos.
“Ladies, please allow me to take you home. I have a car waiting outside that my company is paying for. We might as well make use of it,” John piped up and offered help to steady Sally.
“Oh, John, that’ss sssoo nice. Thanksss!” Sally said as she launched herself at the man and gave him a sloppy hug.
* * * *
That was it. That was all she could remember before now, and that scared the hell out of her, because she could tell from the feel of the super-comfortable mattress underneath her, and the smooth, expensive feel of the sheets covering her bare legs, that she wasn’t in her own bed. Well shit, it’s time to stop being a chicken and open up your eyes, Sally. So she did, but only one at a time just in case there was some super-sinister villain waiting to gouge them out once she opened them. This way she’d still have one left.
As she opened her eye slowly, all she saw was a low-lit, well-decorated room. She could tell that it wasn’t Eve’s place, so she was still wondering where the hell she was when the door swished open and a pleasant-looking woman came in and sat in a chair beside her bed.
“Hello, Sally Owens. How are you feeling? Are you hungry or thirsty at all?” she asked in a low, caring tone.
“Hello, can I please have some water?” she answered.
“Certainly,” the woman replied quietly, looking very pleased that Sally had responded at all as she turned in her chair and poured a glass of water for her.
“Where am I?” Sally asked as she took the glass and drank it all down her parched throat.
The woman picked up a tablet from the counter, turned it on, then handed it to her.
“You are on Sirus, Sally Owens. I have a vid here from your friend Evangeline Scott that will explain everything. I will leave you alone to watch it. Then I will bring you some dinner,” the woman said before she turned and left the room, leaving Sally to stare at the vid in front of her wondering what the hell was going on. So she pressed play…Then her whole world turned upside down.
It was such a relief at first to see Eve’s familiar red hair and blue eyes looking back at her, but this Eve staring back at her was glowing unlike she’d ever seen her friend glow before. Was it possible in the entire time she’d worked daily with Eve she’d never seen the other woman actually happy? It was obvious now that she was deliriously happy, and most likely in love from the swollen lips and hickeys she could see on Eve’s neck, but whatever it was, it sure looked good on her.
“Sally! I hope you’re okay! They told me you were, so you’d better be, or I’m going to tear Ark a new asshole! Anyways, so you’re probably wondering where the hell you are, right? Well, here is the Coles Notes version since I couldn’t be there to see you when you woke up. I’m sorry about that, but I’m currently en route to meet the in-laws of one of my husbands…That’s correct, I said husbands. We’ll dish about that later, once you get comm clearance, but for now the gist of what you need to know is this: that tall dude that you were hitting up for drinks at the bar all night was really an alien slave trader, and he kidnapped us, along with ten other women, and took us off of Earth and out into space.
“Are you still with me here?
“So you were in a cold sleep, and I happened to wake up first. That’s why I’m not there with the rest of you guys. But you’re safe. We were rescued by some good aliens. Gosh, that sounds weird, doesn’t it? Anyways, we were rescued by my husbands, actually, and now the rest of you ladies are there on Sirus so you can figure out where you want to go from here or what you want to learn to do. It’s quite exciting actually. The Coalition is covering the cost of all of the educational implants and instruction, so you can be anything you ever dreamed of!
“I know what you’re going to ask, and I’m sorry, but no, we can’t ever go home back to Earth again. They will explain all of this better to you, I’m sure, and there are counselors to talk to if you need them as well. Give me a call as soon as you’re cleared. I can’t wait to talk to you! Bye!”
With that, her friend was gone, and she was staring at the blank screen wondering if this was some kind of joke, an intervention maybe? Maybe Eve thought she had a drinking problem and this was her way of scaring her straight. Well damn. It may have just worked.
She watched the vid about six more times before the other woman came back into her room with a meal tray, but before she left, Sally gave her a thorough look and came back with only minor differences. She was a very pretty woman for her age, with exotic green eyes and lovely tanned skin, but nothing about her screamed “alien.” Sally obviously needed to investigate to see if Eve was messing with her.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch your name earlier,” Sally said with a smile to the woman.
“My name is Dahl. This is your evening meal. Please alert me if you require anything further this evening. If you feel a mild buzzing sound in your ear, please do not be concerned. It is just your body adjusting to the universal translator. It will cease to bother you in a few days. Orientation will begin tomorrow morning,” she answered as she gestured to the small terminal on the wall by the door and the green button there.
“Thank you, Dahl. I am having just a little bit of trouble believing all of this. I was hoping that you could take me outside for a moment for a breath of fresh air?” she asked sweetly.
Dahl looked to be thinking over her request for a second, then shrugged and accepted, opening the door and walking through, waiting for Sally to follow. When they reached a large set of doors that opened to a beautiful garden space with a fountain that overlooked the setting suns, Sally’s breath was stolen from her chest.
It was stolen from her chest due to the red-hued foliage and the even-deeper-red twin setting suns. Well double shit. Alien planet it was indeed.
“All right, Dahl, I think I’m good,” Sally said, abruptly turning around and walking back into the building to her room. “What’s for dinner? I hope it isn’t meat loaf. I hate meat loaf.”
Chapter Two
The next morning Sally hauled herself out of bed when the strange alarm sound softly beeped as Dahl had warned her it would. She didn’t think that she’d gotten even a full hour of sleep with all of the things flying through her head all night. She put on the comfortable loose pants, wrap top, and shoes that were there for her and then popped her head out the door to see who else was ready to start their Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in the Universe…not that she was ready, but she’d always been rather good at faking it.
There were several other women standing by their doors with cautious expressions on their faces, and standing in front of the room next hers was one tiny woman with pink spiky hair that looked way too excited to be here given the circumstances…Clearly she was crazy.
“Oh my God! Isn’t this super exciting! I’m Devyn. What’s your name?” the crazy woman gushed as she rushed up to Sally. She was practically bouncing up and down like a hyper puppy.
Most of the other women just gave her a look like she was a complete nut job, and Sally was so taken aback by her enthusiasm that she just stared for a moment.
“Hello? Are you okay?” Devyn asked again, waving her hand back and forth in front of Sally’s face.
“Yeah, I’m fine. My name’s Sally,” she finally snapped out of it and answered, batting the crazy woman’s hand away from her face. “Do you know where we’re supposed to go?”
“Yes, Dahl was just here. She said to go straight into the great room area that way,” Devyn answered as she pointed d
own the hall.
“All right, let’s go see what we’re in for then,” Sally said, making her way down the hall with a bouncing Devyn by her side and the rest of the women following timidly.
When they arrived in the great room, there was Dahl, along with four other clearly alien women with welcoming smiles on their faces. They were told to grab breakfast from the buffet that was laid out in front of a huge bay window overlooking the gardens that had made such a big impression on Sally last night. Clearly most of the other women hadn’t seen outside, as there was a chorus of gasps and curse words…and more bouncing and squealing in excitement from Devyn.
Eventually all the women were seated at the tables, nibbling on their foreign continental breakfast, and another, older woman came into the room and stood in front to address them.
“Hello, ladies, my name is Lady Samal Quinn. On behalf of my people, I welcome you to Sirus. The circumstances that may have brought you here are no doubt traumatic, but we are here to help you through it and to help you to begin your life anew.” The elegant woman spoke with rehearsed confidence.
It was clear that Samal and Dahl were both of the same species, with their dark, richly tanned skin and exotic bright-green eyes, but the other four women behind Samal were a menagerie of skin colors, from blue to sparkly yellow. Sally knew she wasn’t the only one still staring at the differences, trying to reconcile that they were in a roomful of aliens.
“Now,” Samal continued, completely ignoring the openmouthed stares coming from most of the Earth females, “once you have completed your breakfast, we will be working with you each on filling out some information so that we can better help you to find the correct placement.”