The Alien Bounty Hunters Complete Series: Books 1-8

by Mills, Michele

  A goofy smile spread across her face. “Okay.”

  Zhoryan glanced at his friend. “Tell Dago Cho that Janet has acquired her Gravian strength. I will assume responsibility for her training. She is now House Ulmath and will learn to act accordingly.”

  “I will?” she smirked.

  He stared at her with hooded eyes and ran a claw along the side of her cheek. “You will.”

  Kia clapped her hands and squealed. “You’re Gravian now too? I’m not the only one. Yay! Mom and dad are going to be so happy, especially if they know Zhoryan’s in charge of you.”

  Janet rolled her eyes.

  “And you know this probably explains why some co-worker of yours has been sending messages to New Earth government complaining about how you attacked him and wanting you kicked off the mission…”

  Zhoryan let out a snort of disgust. “I will take care of that.”

  “You will? How?” she asked, genuinely curious to hear his solution.

  “All of them are going back unless you decide differently. Only you will continue on to Kolothan University, and you will decide who goes with you.”

  She blinked. “I’m still going to the University?”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t you?”

  “Uh,” Kia broke in, “Because you just knocked her up. She’s married and pregnant now and she figures your super-important career will come first. How can she focus on her education if you’re taking her all over the four sectors and she’s trying to take care of you and a small child?”

  His claw went to her stomach. “I will do whatever it takes to make sure you can continue your education. I will move for you. I will attend to our child. I would never compromise your career to further my own. You are brilliant and I want that nurtured.”

  She literally started to weep. Right there in front of everyone.

  “Oh wow,” Kia whispered. “That’s the most beautiful declaration I’ve ever heard.”

  “But, but…what if the High Command or your House won’t let you keep me and stay in the military?” she blubbered.

  “Then I won’t remain in this position and I’d go wherever you went. Ulmath is lucky to have a Gravian of ancient lineage added to our bloodline. And the High Command knows you have to remain with me, or I’ll go insane. My life has changed. My Bride and offspring will now always come first.”

  “You…you wouldn’t decide to break this off?”

  His brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”

  “Divorce? You wouldn’t divorce me to save your career or to—”

  Kayzon growled from the screen. “This would never occur…”

  Kia elbowed him. “Honey, stay out of this. It’s their relationship.”

  “I don’t know this word,” Zhoryan answered. “There isn’t a translation in my language.”

  “Divorce is when a mated pair decide they don’t want to be together anymore. They break their bond and separate, as if the mating never happened.”

  He looked shocked and disgusted. “This happens in your species? Is this what you are planning, to break our bond?”

  “What? No. We are not divorcing. I don’t want that. I want to stay with you until the day I die. Right, isn’t what you’re expecting?”

  “You are mine,” he snarled, and slammed a claw against the button on the night table and the vid blinked out.

  Then he rolled on top of her, spread her legs wide and notched his erection at her sopping wet entrance. “You are my Bride. We are not breaking our bond. We will have many offspring and remain together as long as days turn into time.”

  “Okay,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around his wide shoulders.

  “And your new training starts today. First, I’m fucking you. Then I’m taking you to the holo deck for swim lessons. I am going to personally teach you how to swim.”

  Then he slid inside of her in one smooth motion, his jaw locked and his body tight as he moaned out his pleasure.

  Oh gods. Long, hot and enormous. Her fingers dug into his biceps. “I love you,” she breathed. “And I plan on loving and taking care of you until the end of my days.”

  He tracked his fangs along her neck and pumped into her hot channel. “I know, my Be’Ih…I know.”

  THE END

  Acknowledgments

  The core plot of Zhoryan’s Game (the hunter becomes the hunted) comes from my careful adaptation of a story I admire - “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. Prior to my life as a full-time romance author, I was a High School English teacher and I taught this story for years to my Freshman English classes. And now my dream has come true, turning the story I loved teaching and had basically memorized, into the genre I adore. I worked my ass off merging that short story into this Science Fiction Romance novella and I hope you enjoyed the results!:)

  If you glance at the Wikipedia page for “The Most Dangerous Game” you’ll see adapting this amazing story is a time-honored tradition. I’m not the first author, director, etc. who has become enthralled with this fast-paced story from 1924 and felt the need to translate it for a modern audience.

  If you would like to compare the original to the novella you just read, because you want to see how the two are similar and how they’re different (I’d be curious if I were you!), then here’s the link to the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” which is free online. Or you can listen to the audio on Youtube.

  I hope you enjoy the exquisite language and the nail-biting action as much as I did!

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read Zhoryan’s Game. The next book in the Alien Bounty Hunter series, Daxon’s Hostage, (which is NOT an adaptation. Lol) is Live!

  xoxo

  Michele

  Daxon’s Hostage

  Daxon’s Hostage

  Daxon of Seven is trying to take make it through the first day of a new job. After being kicked out of the Illibrium mines, he’s starting a brand-new career as a Bounty Hunter. And with his ferocious size and mighty fists, he figures he’ll be a great fit. On day one he starts his ship, leaves dock and finds a stowaway.

  A delicate New Earth female is sleeping in his bunk. Meanwhile, some rich idiot is screaming, red-faced through the holo vid that she’s his bride and he wants her returned, immediately.

  He should give her back—rich idiot has powerful friends. Except he’s inhaled her scent and he’s 99% certain this tiny human is destined to be his mate. Therefore, this precious cargo is his.

  And if anyone feels different…they’ll have to go through Daxon first.

  Author's note: Daxon’s Hostage does double duty - it’s book #6 in the Alien Bounty Hunter series, but is also the prequel to the Fever Brothers series!

  Copyright © 2019 by Michele Mills

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover art by Meljean Brook

  Edited by Aquila Editing

  Created with Vellum

  1

  “…her hair is shiny perfection, and her eyes are like the rarest jewels, green and amber mixed together…”

  Uh oh. Voices. Shoot. Darcy skidded to a halt on the paved garden path, the silky slide of her voluminous white skirts settling around her legs. She took a tentative step back. Her eyes darted across the area, swiftly landing on a perfect hiding spot. She ran over and took position behind a stone column, her breath coming out in short puffs as she fervently prayed the two young women chatting nearby couldn’t see her.

  “Darcy Chopra is soooo beautiful, right? I wish I looked like her…”

  Darcy let out a soft snort. Oh jeez. These two girls were talking about her.

  Why was she always the freaking topic of conversation in Singapore? It never ceased to amaze her how this last moon cycle everyone had become so fixated with a simple
farm girl from Tulare—pictures of her face and figure were all over the vid channels and plastered on giant holo vids around the city. If she went anywhere in public people tripped over themselves, trying to covertly capture a pic or vid of the girl who’d been declared “the most beautiful woman on the planet.”

  Total craziness.

  The most beautiful woman on the planet?

  Really?

  Apparently, none of them knew what she looked like first thing in the morning.

  One moon cycle ago a fabulously wealthy bachelor and his team of celebrity stylists had declared her the winner of the Bridal Tour reality show, and now she’d been taken to the capital city of New Earth so everyone could gawk at her famed beauty.

  The problem was she had zero interest in this “fame” and all she wanted was to return home to her parents and brother. Shoot, there’d been hundreds of other girls in this competition who’d been shockingly gorgeous, self-possessed trend-setters who would’ve been perfection in this role, but instead they’d chosen Darcy—who hadn’t even meant to be in the line-up. The girl least likely to give one shit about a beauty crown.

  Really, what a waste.

  She was now so desperate to return home she found herself wishing she could get back in time to work the damn Salphalfa harvest. Salphalfa! Even stinky, prickly stems couldn’t dim her determination to return to her quiet corner of the planet and the people she loved most in the world. She’d give anything to sit on the swing on the front porch again with her mother, the two of them sipping coffee and chatting comfortably while their cats rubbed against their ankles.

  To most people, being declared instantly famous and poised to marry into a super-rich family was the stuff of legend, but to Darcy it was living hell. Well, being rich would be lovely, of course. But this windfall of wealth wasn’t going to be her own money, and it all came with strings attached. And being talked about, prodded and dressed-up twenty-four-seven by strangers wasn’t her idea of fun, instead it was a total nightmare. She wasn’t the type of person who liked to speak in front of crowds. She lurked on the vid channels and chat rooms and could care less about gaining a following. She was an introvert who’d been shoved into a situation that required the social skills of a high-level extrovert.

  And most importantly, she didn’t love the guy she was supposed to be marrying, at all. In fact, she hated his guts. He was scary as fuck.

  “And her eyelashes, wow, how can they be that long and dark? Her teeth are perfect, and her family didn’t have to use any currency to upgrade her appearance.”

  “I can’t even believe that part. Do you know how much my new nose cost?”

  “Girl, please! I’m getting my breasts done next month and it’s craaaaazy how much currency those medi-spas charge.”

  “And get this, Darcy Chopra doesn’t need facials or have to get anything plucked. She doesn’t style her hair or put on makeup. She just steps out of the cleansing unit, throws on whatever, and looks stunning. Every. Single. Time.”

  “I am so fucking jealous. No wonder she’s considered the most beautiful woman on New Earth. And probably one of the most beautiful females in the four sectors!”

  Darcy bit her lip and shook her head. This was the weirdest part, being considered so beautiful. She hadn’t wanted any of this. She’d been “discovered” by the eldest son of the powerful Singh family; he’d taken one look at her and tore her away from her life and home.

  The story went like this: Gurpreet Singh, the incredibly rich heir to the Singh business empire and the most eligible bachelor on the planet, had boasted to his friends that he’d only marry when he’d found the most fantastically beautiful and virginal, woman on New Earth and until he met that perfect female, he’d remain a bachelor. This boast had grown into legend, and Singh had doubled-down on it, declaring it the truth. But how was he going to make sure he had really found the most beautiful girl? The solution came to him and he announced that he would make this vision a reality by traveling the planet, systematically searching for the most beautiful and untouched girl in the world, and when he found her (and confirmed through medical exam that she was a virgin), he would marry her.

  Lucky girl!

  The entire planet had been entranced, loving the idea of a reality show where they could watch the most eligible bachelor on the planet discover his fiancée, because of course the whole thing was being broadcast planet-wide for the vid channels. For six moon cycles the young, rich and handsome Mr. Singh went looking for his bride among the people of New Earth. He traveled through every village, town and city. All fathers and families, rich and poor alike, showed off their young, unmarried daughters to Mr. Singh. He set up pavilions so the locals could wine and dine him and run each daughter past him. It was said that his assistant took a pic of each girl in line and rated her using a program that analyzed her features and immediately produced a numbered value.

  And the start of this Bridal tour was exactly the moment when Darcy’s life turned upside down. She’d been eighteen and poised to start a coveted machinery apprenticeship, and then it had been snatched away and given to someone else. Given to a young man, of course, who she knew for a fact wasn’t as good as her.

  What the fuck?

  It turned out that basically everyone Darcy had known—friends, family, neighbors, mentors, probably even the damn animals and the weather—were conspiring to keep her living in isolation, and she’d been resentful. So. Very. Resentful. Then she’d turned nineteen and found herself engaged to the eldest son of the neighboring farming unit because this was the “safe” option everyone had chosen for her.

  At the time she hadn’t understood, and she hated the way her father, mother and brother had boxed her into a life of so many restrictions and zero choices. Although now, half a year later, she felt terrible for all the times she’d raged, yelling that they were smothering her, that she was an adult and wanted to experience life and think for herself, make her own decisions. She’d always thought they’d had her instantly engaged and ordered her to stay on the grounds of their own farm because they’d wanted to control her every move, but instead everyone she’d grown up around had known what should’ve been obvious because it was the biggest news on all the vid channels, that Gurpreet Singh was on a world-wide Bridal tour looking for a virgin just like her.

  “And also…” The two girls moved closer to the column. Darcy pressed against the stone and sucked in a breath. “…Darcy Chopra has that sexy, raspy voice,” one girl said.

  “And that tiny waist and her…” The other one cupped her hand and moved it into an exaggerated curve.

  They both gasped and giggled. “Her…her…”

  Her ass. Everyone loved her rounded ass. It was ridiculous.

  “And she’s about to marry the most eligible bachelor on the planet. He’s so handsome and rich. She’s sooooo lucky.”

  “I can’t believe we were lucky enough to get an invitation to the wedding of the century. The ceremony is being broadcast live all over the planet.”

  “Right?” The two girls squealed in tandem and giggled some more, walking along arm in arm, their heels clicking on the pavers. They continued past her and on their way across the gardens, which joined the main pathway that eventually lead to the back entrance of the Singapore multigod temple.

  Darcy wanted to go up to them and give them both a good shaking, because she wasn’t lucky at all. Her supposed beauty was a burden that had led to this—being torn from her home and forced into marriage with a man she despised.

  None of the citizens of New Earth had any idea that this rich handsome bachelor who portrayed himself to the world as a smiling benefactor, was in fact a murderer and an abuser of women and children. And Gurpreet’s father, the patriarch of the Singh business empire, was constantly covering up his son’s atrocities.

  She didn’t care how rich, famous and powerful he was, she wasn’t marrying a murderer. Darcy was willing to risk death while trying to run away rather than perform a marriage
ceremony to that monster, because there was no other way out.

  She’d tried to say no when she’d been initially identified out of the glittering line-up at the pavilion, “I declare that Darcy Chopra is the most beautiful woman on the planet and…after her virginity has been confirmed, she will be my bride,” he’d announced. No one had heard her protests, the world’s attention had been centered on the smiling Gurpreet who was holding up her hand with an iron grip. Music had swelled, confetti cannons burst, and everyone cried and gushed about how lucky she was and attributed her initial dismay to shyness and nerves. Vid drones hovered right in her face. The crowds had cheered and clapped. Attendants patted her hand and pulled her along, while armed guards walked alongside to keep her in line, and other people back.

  It had been decided that Darcy was marrying Gurpreet and that was that. Forget her prior engagement to her brother’s best friend (a man she hadn’t wanted to marry anyway), that was tossed aside and not even mentioned. She was confirmed a virgin, so this new marriage was happening.

  The Singh family owned squadrons of armed guards, and they could bribe anyone, even the President, so her whole family was rounded up and brought to Singapore to witness the ceremony. Her parents were putting on a brave face, although her brother was having the hardest time controlling his anger. Hector had never believed the propaganda about Gurpreet Singh and his good-will and generosity. Her brother had always thought the heir to the Singh fortune was the worst kind of human being. And Hector had been the main instigator in her “safe” engagement to their neighbor, which she’d kept putting off.

  Speaking of…

  She glanced around. Where was Hector? She was supposed to be meeting her brother here, in the garden.

  2

  “Darcy?”

  “Hector!” Darcy cried out as she raced across the garden path, throwing her arms around her brother’s neck. “You’re such a pain in the ass. You scared me. I was worried you weren’t going to make it…”