Bradi: Paranormal Shifter Fated Mate Galactic SciFi Military Romance (Interstellar Alphas Book 2)

by Mandy M. Roth

  “Janelle, tell me it’s going to be okay again,” Marisa said, squeezing his arm more and breaking his heart in the process. “Please tell me that. I need to hear you say it. I trust you and need to—”

  Against his better judgment, Bradi gave in to what she needed to hear, all the while wishing she’d call him by his first name. “It’ll be okay, baby. I promise.”

  Marisa’s grip on him tightened and he looked into her green eyes just as the sea greeted them.

  *

  Marisa lifted her head slowly, unsure if she was alive or dead. By the nasty crick in her neck, she was guessing alive. A deep cough caught her attention and she looked over to find that she and Bradi were still strapped into the POD. Blood-red water surrounded the POD.

  “Janelle, how bad are you hurt?” He didn’t answer. She unfastened her seatbelt and willed her stiff body to move to him. She couldn’t get a good angle and ended up partially on him. Placing her hand on her head, she activated her embedded chip. “Diagnostics scan.”

  Closing her eyes, she assessed the damage to his body. For a split second she could have sworn that the chip indicated broken legs, but when she checked again there was no sign of injury.

  “Doc?”

  Instantly, Marisa’s chip scan fizzled out and pain shot through her head. She closed her eyes tight. Bradi touched her hand and she peeked out at him. “Hey,” she said, smiling, happy to see him alive and responsive. “Are you okay?”

  “What, would you miss me if something happened? Or are you just hoping I stay alive long enough to get you to safety?” The tone in his voice made her lip curl.

  “Asshole.” She pushed up extra hard off him and smiled when she heard him grunt. He unlatched himself and rose to meet her. The POD creaked and the sound of cracking glass made them both turn around.

  Bradi grabbed her and pulled her down to the floor. She began to protest and he kissed her lips, rendering her silent. As his tongue moved into her mouth, hers greeted it, shocking her and apparently him. He moaned and Marisa took the lead, sucking gently on his tongue.

  Bradi pulled away, his blue gaze running over her. “Take a deep breath now!”

  Without thought, she did. Bradi flattened his body against hers. The window shattered. Blood-red water poured into the POD and within seconds they were submerged.

  Lifting her quickly, Bradi pushed her toward the window and gave a good shove to get her through. Shards of broken glass ripped at her legs and she had to fight to keep from screaming out in pain.

  Once free of the POD, Marisa turned and waited for Bradi. He didn’t come. It was then that she realized the window wasn’t big enough for his six-foot-six-inch muscle-bound frame to get through.

  The pressure in her lungs was excruciating as she attempted to climb back through the window. Bradi pushed her hard, shaking his head violently. She had no intention of leaving him and was prepared to die with him.

  Something brushed past her back and she froze. Every gut instinct told her not to turn around and look, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Turning slowly, she found herself face to face with a large yellowish eye. Upon further inspection, she found it firmly attached to the largest eel she’d ever seen.

  Not thinking, she punched out and caught it in the eye.

  It slammed against her, squishing her between the POD and its body. It pushed hard and seemed to be trying to lift her to the surface. She fought against it, not wanting to leave Bradi behind.

  Water rushed into her lungs and she felt as if someone had lit a fire in her chest. Being a doctor, she knew the process involved in drowning and she knew that it was one of the worst ways to go.

  Better to be unconscious before the eel eats me, she thought to herself as the blackness swallowed her.

  *

  Bradi’s senses picked up a predator nearby and he could only guess what stalked them. The seas of Sargaidia were littered with creatures that even he feared. When he saw Marisa turning back for him, his heart melted. She cared whether he lived or died, and that meant something to him.

  Marisa’s body struck the POD and Bradi let the beast within surface. Slamming into the side of the POD with his clawed hands, he tore his way through the metal as if it were nothing more than paper. Swimming out of the POD, he found Marisa descending slowly in the water. There was no sign of the predator he’d sensed and he wondered if his natural warning system was getting faulty. Something had hit Marisa. But what?

  He snatched hold of her arm and headed for the surface. The minute their faces broke the surface, he drew in a deep breath of air and pulled Marisa to him. She gasped, coughing out water, and he exhaled.

  She would live. That was all that mattered.

  Looking around, he found the shoreline and headed for it—cursing the fates for putting him with a hotheaded woman who seemed determined to kill herself before the day was up.

  *

  Marisa hissed as Bradi pulled the soaked material off her legs. The scraps that had once been called her pants seemed to go out of their way to cling to the large gashes in her legs. “Ouch!”

  “Hold still and it won’t hurt so much,” Bradi said, scolding her like she was a child.

  “Easy for you to say.”

  “Baby.”

  She growled at him. “I wouldn’t have these if you hadn’t shoved me through that broken window!”

  “You’d be lying at the bottom of the sea, dead. Would you prefer that? I could throw you back in.”

  Marisa reached into his utility belt and grabbed his knife. His eyes narrowed as if daring her to stick him with it. As much as she wanted to jab him, she wanted to check her wounds first. Grabbing hold of the material, she sliced it off just below her crotch line. Following suit on the other side, she smiled as she handed his knife back to him. “There, I’m now stuck in the universe’s shortest shorts.”

  “Doc.” Bradi exhaled deeply. He touched her inner thigh lightly and heat pooled between her legs. He didn’t seem to notice that she damn near creamed herself with just the touch of his fingers, and she wasn’t about to point it out to him. “This one is bad. Can you heal it?”

  “Heal it? What, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll need to find something to act as a needle.”

  Bradi put his hand up, motioning for her to stop. “No, I mean heal it. Not mend it.”

  Marisa’s heart beat furiously and she fought to maintain her composure. “Umm. Stop looking at me like that.”

  Bradi leaned down and put his face directly in hers. “Listen, lady. I don’t give a shit about whatever it is you don’t want people to know about you, but you see these cuts?” He ran his hands lightly over her thighs, sending shockwaves of excitement through her body. “These will not only get infected, they will draw predators to us. Is that what you want? Do you want a group panthers or a pack of wolves to happen upon you overnight because they followed the scent of blood?”

  Marisa looked around at the edge of the forest and swallowed back the lump in her throat. “How do you know that there are panthers and wolves here? A month ago, you couldn’t even remember your name to board the ship after you spent the night living it up at the bars, and now you’re suddenly a survival expert!” She eyed Bradi for a response, but he gave none.

  Instead, he looked at her like he wanted to throttle her. In the next moment, he grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her. The kiss rocked her to her very core and she swayed a second before he tore his mouth from hers. He moved away from her quickly and stormed off into the woods, leaving her to sit on the edge of the shoreline—alone.

  “Janelle?” He didn’t stop or answer her. Marisa gulped as he stalked off deeper into the jungle. She’d only seen pictures of vegetation as strange as this and could only imagine how many plants and animals in there were deadly. The tall, black-barked trees had yellow leaves that seem to sweep to the forest floor. They were massive and distinctively different from the trees in the Earth museums.

  A soft splashing noise in
the red sea behind her caught her attention and she turned around quickly. The head of the mammoth eel appeared a few feet offshore, and Marisa found herself crab walking backwards to get away from it. The sand was softer than she was used to and she sank down slightly. The eel lunged forward and narrowly missed striking her as she rolled to her side.

  Pushing upwards in the pinkish sand, she somehow managed to get to her feet. She ran forward, stumbling again and again because of the pain in her legs. The long, jagged cuts opened more. She bled at an alarming rate. Risking a glance over her shoulder, she hoped that she was far enough away from the water to prevent another attack.

  Much to her surprise the eel began to slither from the sea. It moved toward her with a speed and efficiency that terrified her.

  “Bradi,” she whispered, as the need to panic beat at her.

  Something growled in the bushes behind her and she didn’t dare turn to see what it was. From the events that had happened since crashing, she could only assume that it was bad. When she heard matching growls coming from there, too, she knew that her suspicions were correct. She was screwed.

  Chapter Six

  “That no good, insolent, ungrateful bi—” Bradi took a deep breath. He was pissed at Marisa, but he cared for her. He’d wanted to keep kissing her and make love to her again in hopes she’d heal herself, but he’d nearly lost control of his shifter side.

  Being back on his home planet made his control weak, and he couldn’t risk harming her. He’d needed to step away and put some distance between them long enough for him to calm his beast. And he needed to look for a safe place for them to camp. The suns were beginning to set and nightfall only meant that the evil things would come out to play. Depending on where they were, they might be able to make it to an inhabited village or compound within a few days’ walk.

  He shuddered to think of what kind of reception he’d get. He hadn’t spoken to his family in nearly twelve years. The terms he’d left on had been anything but pleasant. The death of his mother had left him with a sharp tongue and a fogged sense of right and wrong. He didn’t think that his father would welcome him with open arms now, that much was for sure. Hopefully, he could get Marisa some medical attention and get them a ride off this godsforsaken planet.

  It still blew Bradi’s mind that she’d refused to leave him after the POD had crashed. He’d have thought that she’d relish the opportunity to rid herself of him. Of course, she’d be left all alone on an unfamiliar planet, but still. The woman was headstrong enough to make her throw caution to the wind and risk her life just to prove a point, whatever that point may be.

  He heard her call his name once more, this time in a whisper, and he smiled. She was a pampered woman. She probably was afraid of a little bug. “Let her sweat. It’ll teach her not to speak to me like a dog. Now, if she wanted to bend over and let me fuck her like a—”

  Something wasn’t right. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he tipped his head to the side, smelling the air.

  Panther.

  Shedding his clothes quickly, he shifted into his panther form. It had been years since he had been able to shift without worry and his inner beast was happy to be free. Bending down, he sniffed the ground and followed the scent of many of his kind. His heart hammered in his chest when he realized that the others had made a beeline straight for Marisa. No doubt the smell of fresh blood and human was too much for them.

  Bounding through the brush at the edge of the beach—he stopped when he saw Marisa stroking the top of one of the panther’s heads. Stunned, he could do nothing other than watch the spectacle unfolding before him.

  How had she calmed the animal?

  His senses told him that this was a group of werepanthers, not normal animals. They only respected humans if they were marked, and even then, that didn’t always save them. They were also known not to attack if the victim carried the scent of a powerful warrior panther.

  Instantly, he thought back to the POD and making love to Marisa. He’d put his mark on her then. He’d staked his claim. The beasts before her could smell it upon her.

  Focusing his mind and still in awe of the scene before him, Bradi tried to think of what else would make the others yield to Marisa. Had she tapped into the power he’d seen her use? Had she managed to kill one with her bare hands, proving that she was a skilled warrior? He highly doubted it.

  Coming to his senses, he walked toward Marisa slowly, in anticipation of a fight. When the other panthers only turned and snarled lightly, he understood that they wouldn’t harm her.

  A large male panther moved in from behind Marisa and from the way it dropped its shoulders, Bradi could tell it was thinking of exuding its power. There was no way in hell that he’d give up Marisa.

  She’s mine, he thought as he leapt before her with a vicious snarl.

  “Oh gods,” Marisa whispered.

  Fear radiated off her, and Bradi knew that it was him she was scared of.

  She looked around nervously as tears glistened in her eyes. “Bradi? Bradi, please help me. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please.”

  Each time she called out to him, using his name, he wanted to shift back into his human form and wrap his arms around her. That would no doubt scare her more, and if the Commission ever found out that he was part supernatural then he’d be let go and possibly brought up on charges—and that’s if they didn’t sentence him to death for hiding who and what he was. Hell, he’d be lucky if they threw him in the brig. Death at the hands of people who feared and hated his kind wasn’t something he relished. Not many would.

  Project Exorcism had rid the Commission of most of its supernatural problem, or so they thought. Bradi knew better, but he wasn’t about to start talking.

  Bradi swiped his claws at the large male in a show of dominance and it heeded his warning. It turned and ran toward the woods, followed closely by the rest of its group. A piece of him longed to run with them. He missed the days when he and his siblings, well, all the ones who could fully shift that was, ran together.

  He looked up at Marisa and took another step toward her. She tensed and the smell of her fear excited the beast. “Bradi, please, I’m sorry. Please, don’t leave me here. Bradi, please—”

  The soft plea in her voice brought the man within him back to the surface. He spun around quickly and ran off into the forest to find his clothes.

  *

  Bradi stood silently in the shadows, watching Marisa. She sat on the beach with a large stick clutched tightly to her, wiping tears from her cheeks. He wanted to run to her, hold her and tell her that everything would be all right, but he didn’t. Instead, he took the coward’s approach and rustled the bush next to him with his hand to alert her to his presence.

  She wiped her cheeks again and righted herself. “Bradi, is that you?”

  “Yeah,” he said, unsure if he could offer any more without breaking down and confessing all his secrets to her.

  She sprang to her feet and ran toward him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she sighed. Bradi froze. “This huge eel came out of the water, and then all kinds of big leopards ran out at me. One knocked me down and I threw sand in its eyes. I thought it was going to rip my throat out, but it stopped and started to sniff me.” She tightened her grip on him, and he wrapped his arms around her slowly, cringing slightly at her use of the word leopard as his kind preferred to be called panthers.

  “It nudged me a few times before it stuck its nose right into my crotch.” She flushed as she spoke.

  This piqued Bradi’s curiosity, as he wondered what had driven them to accept her. The mark had something to do with it. She was his female, his woman, but that wasn’t always a guarantee. He stroked the back of her long, layered hair and nodded to her, encouraging her to go on.

  Something flickered across her eyes and she narrowed her gaze on him. “I called for you, you stubborn bastard, and you never came.” Her hand came up fast and struck him square across the face.

  Knowing
that he deserved it for leaving her alone, he said nothing, but when she attempted to strike him again, he grabbed her wrists.

  “Let go of me!” she cried out and then snapped her teeth at him.

  He snapped back and gave her a wicked grin.

  “Ooo, forget it! If your teeth broke my skin I’d probably end up with some sort of disease, considering the way you run around with the ladies.”

  He resisted the urge to inform her that she was now considered one of his ladies, the only lady in fact, and that his teeth had indeed broken her skin. “I’ll have you know, Doc, that I’m up to date on all my shots, or are you forgetting how you drooled over the sight of my ass as you injected me with them?”

  The Commission had instituted mandatory shots for diseases and STDs to all of their enlisted, and Marisa seemed to take great joy in throwing what she thought was his sex life into his face every chance she got. It was pointless to give him the shots. His genetic makeup didn’t allow for him to catch any sort of human disease. The worst he had to fear when bedding a woman was getting her pregnant. The shots, while they contained population control additives, did nothing to lower his sperm count.

  It didn’t matter, really. The only way he could get a female pregnant was if she was his true life mate. He highly doubted Marisa was that. His mate, sure. His true life mate, he wasn’t so sure. Besides, she was on Commission shots too, so even if she was his true mate, not just his chosen, she’d be protected from pregnancy.

  “How could I forget?” She glared at him. “And, for the record, should I cut myself on a rusty eel, I’m as good as dead. I’m allergic to the binding agents they use in the shots so I have none.”

  “A rusty eel, huh?” Laughing, he pulled her close to him, not caring if she protested. “I’ll do my best to keep you away from any more sharp objects or rusty eels.”