The Vori’s Secret
A Mate Index Alien Romance
S.J. Sanders
©2019 by Samantha Sanders
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission granted in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction intended for adult audiences only.
Editor: LY Publishing
Cover Artist: Samantha Rose
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Prologue
The starship’s cargo bay reeked of livestock and animal shit, but that did little to dissuade the desperate woman who approached it. Humans had become a commodity on Agraadax once the Agraak discovered that humans made suitable breeders. To them, women were something to be owned and used and exterminated when necessary. Although rumors swirled that some women had bonded with Agraak males, most were not as fortunate. A foul stench was nothing compared to the harsh punishment that would be mete out to anyone caught escaping.
For Jenn, the risk of punishment was nothing compared to what she already faced. Escape was her only option.
So it was in the early hours of the morning that she didn’t hesitate to take her chances as a stowaway. The commercial vessel seemed like a clunker compared to others in the docking hangar, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
She froze when she noticed several swarthy Agraak workers standing off to the side, speaking in hushed voices with another who appeared to be delivering a number of crates. Each male was large and varied in hue from a muddy green to a light sage green. Lethal spines ran down their heads and shoulders.
Unlike the Agraak guards who worked offplanet, most males she’d seen since arriving on Agraadax took care of their grooming. Males and females alike scented their thick, textured skin with lotions and braided their dark hair in neat rows framing the lethal spines. These appeared to be no exception. Every male was carefully groomed, attentive to their instructor... and facing away from her!
She held her breath, certain that she’d be discovered at any moment, but no one noticed her. Jenn darted into the cool, dark interior of the ship. She had no idea where it would take her—and at that moment, she didn’t care. All she needed to do was get off Agraadax, and far away from the Agraak Extermination Unit. Regardless of its destination, she would be sneaking off at the next habitable planet.
Jenn wasn’t a fool; she was aware of just how dangerous her situation was. She could end up literally anywhere. The universe, after all, was an enormous place. There were many planets in the Intergalactic Union alone, never mind the numerous planets that existed outside of it. It was entirely possible she could end up on a hostile planet filled with predators determined to kill her, but given what she was facing on Agraadax, that didn’t seem like too bad a trade.
After several miscarriages over the five years she’d been held in captivity, her “mate” finally turned her in for a replacement breeder. This automatically marked Jenn for termination by the authorities running the Vereik Breeding Facility. She’d overheard the intake officer inform her “mate” that he’d have to fill out paperwork to have her exterminated as a failed breeder. He had complained about the paperwork and fees that he was subjected to due to a faulty breeder. His disgust was obvious when he shoved her into the arms of the waiting guard before leaving the room without a backward glance as he followed an attendant to select a new woman.
Jenn had never been so terrified. The fact that the guard glanced down at her with pity did little to soften the blow as he escorted her through the long corridors of the facility, a place she’d hoped never to see again when she left as a registered Agraak mate. The muted green halls made her stomach roll with nausea. She knew it was meant to be calming, but it failed miserably.
The room she was left in was the same sickening hue and offered no comfort beyond a cot and a low-mounted waste bowl to relieve herself in. But it didn’t have to be comfortable. Nothing was going to soothe her when she was left in there to wait for her scheduled day of termination. Days passed, during which she barely moved. She didn’t bother to leave her cell to exercise or socialize with the other women during approved community hours. What was the point?
It was only by the benevolence of some higher power that a guard risked her own life to smuggle Jenn out just hours before she was to be terminated. The guard had entered her cell with a cleaning unit. Jenn had watched in confusion as the unit’s mechanical arms went to work, releasing steam and cleansing fluids into the room, obscuring them from whatever surveillance system watched her. The guard opened one of the unit’s storage bins and pulled out the corpse of a woman. The body was branded with an ID from the morgue and wouldn’t fool anyone for long, but the guard assured her it would buy them time to get to the dockyard. The female Agraak laid the body on the freshly-made cot before helping Jenn into the storage bin.
Huddled in a soft pile of foul-smelling rags from the other rooms the unit visited, any view of her cell was cut off by the mechanical door sliding closed. She’d pitched forward as the unit rolled ahead but otherwise had no knowledge of anything going on around her. The unit slowed a few times, occasionally stopping, and she could hear the muffled voices of the guards exchanging pleasantries. But the bin remained closed as it made the long trek through the facility.
When the bin’s door finally slid open, she was hustled through the back of the mechanized cleansing and sterilization room. Jenn’s damp clothes had stuck to her skin in the hot steam that pervaded the room as the bots cycled through their programmed processes, but worse was the sunlight that stabbed at her eyes when the rear door was opened. It lasted only a moment before she was pushed into a small transport hovering outside the exit.
An unfamiliar male in a brown and scarlet uniform was waiting for them, his face pinched with worry that only seemed to ease when the guard climbed in behind Jenn. She’d watched them press their noses together affectionately before the female whipped off her uniform, exchanging it for a simple dress that she’d produced from a small bag stored beneath the seat. She packed several items that had been wrapped in her dress into the same bag: a fire-starter, a thin folded blanket, and some packaged food.
This bag found its way into Jenn’s hands as the guard, who’d introduced herself as Alegraya, informed her that it was time for them to part ways. Due to her actions that would now brand her as a traitor, Alegraya had to escape Agraadax with her mate, who was waiting for her at their private star cruiser while his twin brother aided their escape.
Jenn understood that her success from that point would be determined solely by her own actions, and she couldn’t be angry about that. It was more of a chance than she would have gotten on her own. Instead, she thanked Alegraya and listened carefully as the guard advised her on the best way to board a s
hip without detection. Since it was early and many ships were being loaded, it was her best chance to take advantage of the commotion.
Before long, Jenn was dropped beside a trading vessel with nothing more than a few supplies and Alegraya’s heartfelt words bidding her good luck. She could live with that. Her daddy was an ex-Marine and survivalist. He taught all his children to be prepared to live off the land in foreign and hostile environments. As long as Jenn got off the planet, she was good as gold. It didn’t matter that she had no credits and didn’t have a single friendly face to rely on; Alegraya had given her what she needed for a decent shot at surviving.
Once she was on another world, she knew of other things going on in the Intergalactic Union that could only work in her favor. Things she’d overheard in the house between her “mate” and his friends. She had been relieved to hear that the Intergalactic Council knew what the Agraak had been up to and had been sending out task forces over the last three and a half years to inspect areas suspected of harboring humans. Unfortunately, she also knew that because the Agraak kept the location of the breeding facility a carefully guarded secret, there was little hope that the Intergalactic Council would find it any time soon—if ever.
Jenn didn’t have time to wait around to be found. But if she were lucky enough to escape to a planet that was a member of the Union, she could get a message to the ambassador. Then, it would just be a matter of waiting for the Council to return her to Earth, as they swore to do for any human captive they found. Any fascination she’d once felt about exploring the universe had disappeared. She certainly had enough of aliens to last her a lifetime.
As she crept through the cargo hold, she felt a twinge of guilt that she was leaving other women behind. But at this point, she didn’t have any choice. She couldn’t do anything for anyone else until she contacted Earth’s representatives, and that couldn’t happen until she was away from Agraadax.
She would have to leave them so she could eventually help free them all.
The smell of livestock was overwhelming in the cargo hold, as was the odor of various ice-packed fish, meat, and eggs that added to the unpleasant aroma. Pinching her nose shut and tucking her red braids behind her shoulder, she ducked between the bodies of some large cow-like creatures and made her way to the back of the pen. She dug herself into the reddish Agraadax straw and grimaced as beasts ambled up to her. A nauseating scent rolled off their massive yellow bodies as the singular eye each beast sported blinked at her as they nibbled at the offerings. Their strange hooves, webbed and tipped with claws, stomped the ground. More than one set of claws came perilously close to slicing her.
Jenn muttered to herself as she drew her blanket around her. The Agraak dress that she’d worn since being dragged to the breeding facility was dirty and far too thin for a comfortable flight. She only hoped she arrived someplace warm. She was going to shit herself if it was a frozen tundra like the planet where the lab that experimented on them had once stood.
Chapter 1
Jenn had no way to mark the passage of time. She slept when she was tired and nibbled on the bit of food that she’d rationed out for herself when she was hungry. To her mind, it seemed like several days had passed when the sudden lurch of the ship and thud of the lowered loading plank woke her.
Humid heat filled the cargo hold, immediately sinking into her cold, stiff muscles. She bit back a moan of relief, stretched, and tip-toed to the crates stacked near the entrance. Two irritated male voices drifted in from outside the door. Tucking her blanket back into her bag, Jenn moved toward the exit.
Her lip curled when she spotted a pair of Budo males shifting heavy crates deposited in front of them by a long mechanical arm attached to the ceiling. Despite the majority of the work being done by the machinery, the squat aliens were already drenched with sweat, large stains appearing under their arms, down their chests and bellies and their inner thighs as they worked.
Though these aliens didn’t look like the same ones who had kidnapped her and the other humans under false pretenses and delivered them to the Agraak laboratory, they clearly belonged to the same species. The heavy tusks jutting from their huge lower jaws made it unmistakable. One leaned back and mopped his jowls with a stained cloth.
“May the gods piss on Vora. I can’t stand this planet. It’s too hot and smells strange. All the green stuff—it’s just not natural. I hope the boss changes our route with the Edoka pushing in. Pickings are slim now that we cannot legally trade within the Union, but the Vori make my skin crawl,” one complained.
“Quit squealing. Our instructions are to just leave the crates. At least they deposit the money ahead of delivery so we can just set it down and go. They won’t come out and get it until the weather gets cooler at night. I don’t want to be here lingering when they arrive,” said the other.
“The prophet knows it’s truth,” the first one returned. “The Vori don’t like taking any chance that someone might follow them to their nest. Gods of the Death Plane, let’s get out of here.”
Jenn crept out among the crates and watched the Budo males count the delivered cargo a final time before disappearing into the ship. She hunkered down between two of the largest as the engine started and the ship soared into the air. Once the Budo trading vessel was out of sight, she stood and took stock of her surroundings.
At least she had a name.
She had no idea what planet Vora was, or what the Vori were like. But given that she was standing in a rocky clearing surrounded on all sides by tall trees and thick fronds like in the jungles on Earth, at least she knew it was a planet that supported diverse lifeforms, including a sentient one. Whether that was a good thing or not, time would tell.
She walked the perimeter of the clearing, looking for any sign of a trail through the thick growth. She wasn’t equipped to hack her way through, since she didn’t have so much as a pocketknife on her. It was a shame that her guard friend hadn’t thought to equip her with some sort of blade.
Her eyes scanned where the trees seemed to thin out around a river that cut through the edge of the clearing. If she were careful, she could follow the river. She eyed a crate critically, wondering if it held anything useful. She circled another crate and was contemplating how to pry off the top when she heard the brush crash around her. She backed away from the crate, but her heart jumped in her throat when she heard a threatening rattle. It sounded like a copperhead, though a hundred times bigger. A fine sheen of sweat broke over her as she retreated.
“Okay,” she whispered, “It’s all yours, then. I’m just going to leave.”
She didn’t know if whatever made the sound heard her. If she wasn’t mistaken, it still sounded some distance away, but she wasn’t going to chance it. Better to pick her way along the river than tempt fate and face off with the mother of all snakes. Shouldering her small sack of provisions, Jenn stepped into the trees, setting a quick pace along the narrow strip of grass and dirt along the shoulder of the churning water.
One thing she became certain of: it was no gentle river winding through the jungle. White foam peaked over the surface in many areas, and in others the water swirled in dangerous undertows. It only seemed to get more violent the further she progressed. She thanked her lucky stars that she hadn’t attempted to raft down the river. That was never more apparent than when she arrived at a winding mass of rocks that seemed to stretch on for miles creating chaotic channels of water in the river. Water sprayed over the rocks, soaking her where she stood.
Jenn cursed as she looked down at the transparent length of her dress, glad for once since the miserable venture began that she was alone, and no one could see her shivering and a shade shy of naked. She considered pulling out her blanket but shook her head. It would do her little good for that to get soaked too.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she continued following the river, the heat from the air making the water on her steam uncomfortably but not enough to warm her. She had no doubt that if her hair wasn’t bound a
s tightly as it was into braids that it would be frizzing angrily in the high humidity. As it was, her braids lay plastered against her neck and shoulders uncomfortably, dripping water down her back.
Jenn was cold, wet, and sticky. In a word, she was miserable.
But as she continued to walk on, she was presented with another problem. So far, she’d seen no viable place to rest unless she wanted to try her hand at climbing one of the trees. Her acrophobia aside, Jenn wasn’t certain that the trees were any safer. The jungles on Earth were rarely safer in the trees than on the ground. Not only could she easily fall from the branches, it was possible there were many arboreal predators as there were in the jungles of her home planet. At least on the ground she was able to move more than she would while clinging fearfully to the trunk of a tree.
“Well, at least it can’t get much worse,” she said to herself.
As if a cosmic jokester had been listening, lightning cracked above her head seconds before a torrent of rain began to fall. She squinted up at the heavens and watched the sky darken as black clouds gathered and the rain fell harder in stinging splatters.
Blinking the water out of her eyes, she pressed on and cursed when twenty minutes later the embankment stopped in front of her. The grass and dirt gave way to a dense row of trees and bushes that lined the river, their roots tangling down over the edge. Many of the rain-slick roots were thick enough that they rose well above her hips. She couldn’t see it as anything less than a hazardous obstacle. The only good news was that she’d finally bypassed the jagged rocks that had so treacherously cut the river. Jenn glanced into the jungle before returning her thoughtful gaze to the river.
Would it be safer to risk getting lost in the jungle, or risk the river?
Jenn was still weighing her options when she heard the trees to her left rustle as if something large was moving through them. A few branches swayed but she was uncertain how much of that was due to her imagination fueled by the storm and how much of it was a real threat. She didn’t have long to wonder when the rattling sound she’d heard earlier resumed, this time much closer and much louder. Her eyes widened and her mouth went dry as she thought she caught a glimpse of something slide between the trees. She whipped around but whatever it was disappeared, hidden by the trees and the storm raging around her. Her skin prickled as she turned in a slow circle.
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