Alien Commander's Chosen Complete Collection

by Erin Tate

  “Commander? This Terran female is unclaimed?”

  “She is Doshan,” Kede growled.

  “I’m Terran.” She spun to face the blade-wielding jerk.

  “Genetically, you are now Doshan. You are a citizen of Dosha, Joyce.”

  She glared at him. “I am—”

  “Yet, the female named Joyce is unclaimed?” Mr. America piped up.

  “No one is claiming me,” she snapped back.

  “Commander, I petition for the Right of—”

  Hell no. Him, too?

  Joyce held up a hand, halting his blah, blah, blah-ing. “I am not claimed. I shall not be claimed. I am the unclaimed of the unclaimable in the land of Unclaimed.” She slowly panned her attention back to the blond haired soon-to-be God of America. “So, fuck off.”

  His eyes flared brightly, red and blue seeming to glow. “Yes, please.”

  “Oh my fuck.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Kede, gimme one of your knife things. I’m gonna stab him a little bit and he can pass the message along to his buddies.”

  Joyce reached for Kede’s big knife, but suddenly he wasn’t there. No, one second in front of her and next second— A low “oomph” drew her attention around to Mr. America. Mr. America being held a foot off the ground by Kede with one hand while the other pointed his blade at blondie.

  “Hey,” she growled at Kede and blazed through this newest potentially bloody fun. These aliens were entirely too violent. How the hell had they lived this long if they were constantly hammering at each other.

  Oh. Wait. Terra was still kicking, wasn’t it?

  “Kede, you can’t beat up one of your little guys.” She tugged on his arm, unsurprised when he didn’t budge.

  His head, however, did turn until he was glaring at her. “Little guys?”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “Warriors. You can’t beat up on one of your warriors. This isn’t one of those Carrie things. I’m pretty sure this isn’t allowed.”

  “Carrie things? You call the Kero—” He took a slow, deep breath. “I am the commander of this vessel and punishment is doled out at my discretion.”

  “He’s turning purple.” She wiggled her finger in the direction of Mr. America.

  Kede didn’t move a muscle. “He will live.”

  “You know, just because no one on your ship gets the fact that ‘fuck’ doesn’t mean ‘yes, please’ doesn’t mean you can beat up on them.”

  “Yes, it does. Not only that, he attempted to claim a mated harae—”

  Blondie gasped.

  Joyce glared.

  Kede ignored her.

  “It would be helpful if you acted like a mated harae.”

  “It would be helpful if you told me what the fuck a harae is.” The heavy thump of boots on metal announced someone nearing their small group from behind her. Without tearing her gaze from Kede, she raised her hand toward the newcomer, palm out. “That is not an invitation so keep your alien peen over there.”

  “I have told you this, Joyce. You are mine.”

  “I’m not yours, I’m mine, and that guy is turning almost black now. I really think you should let him go.”

  Kede glared at her one last time and finally released the male.

  Joyce glared back, but waved her hands at the gasping male. “Leave fast like an alien ninja before he calls for another Carrie thingy. Shoo.”

  “That is what I’m talking about!” Kede roared and both men nearby scrambled down the hallway. “You are speaking to them and you deny my claim and then I shall have to kill them all!”

  Oh, his voice kept getting louder. Good thing she learned the fine art of arguing in the Enner household before she was shipped off to foster care.

  “Hell yes, I’m speaking to them, you big bastard!” They stood toe to toe and she tilted her head way back, but she wasn’t giving up. “And I’ll deny your claim forever because I don’t know what it means!”

  “It means you are mine! I found you, I converted you, and I claimed you. No male has the right to speak to you, no man has the right to look at you, and they do not have the right to accept your invitations which you throw around as if they were treats for children!”

  “You’re joking, right?” she snorted, he still looked pissed. “You’re not joking. We’ll forget you’re calling me a whore with that last bit and roll it back to the beginning.” She kept her tone even, fighting the urge to stab him more than a little with his own Ginsu fucking knives. “You didn’t find me, I ran into you because you were standing like a fucking tree in the middle of the sidewalk. I did not ask you to convert me though I’m damned sure glad I’m alive. But giving me a transfusion does not mean you’re suddenly my lord, master, and primary fuck partner!” Joyce sucked in a breath, lungs burning from the lack of oxygen. “God, that felt good.”

  “You are overwrought from witnessing the Kerosa.” He jerked his head in a stiff nod. “I will see you to your quarters for a cup of soothing tea. My mother prefers it to—”

  She yanked out of his grip. “Are you kidding? You have to be kidding. I don’t want tea, Kede. I want you to realize I’m a person. I’m not going to be ordered around and you’re definitely not making some proclamation that I belong to you. I may be genetically Doshan, but that doesn’t mean I’m a pushover. You can’t just change me and claim me.” He mumbled something. “What?”

  Kede cleared his throat. “I claimed you before you became Doshan.”

  Joyce took a step back. “You…” She shook her head. “I was Terran then. You can’t just claim someone with a quick ‘because I said so.’ It doesn’t work like that on Terra.” Another mumble. “No more of this bullshit, Kede. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “This would be better discussed in our quarters.” He reached for her and she dodged his grip.

  “No, it’s best discussed now. In public.” In public and with an ever-growing crowd, but she didn’t care. “You won’t answer my questions in private.”

  She sensed Kede’s swelling anger. He was about to lose his shit in the middle of the ship, but this was the only way she got a word out of him. She’d been asking about this for days and no one would tell her.

  “I brought you from the surface as an unmarked female. You did not carry the designation of your home planet nor the Planetary Collective and as such you could be claimed. It is part of the Planetary Coalition’s treaty.” His lips pressed together until they formed a white slash across his face.

  “Claimed as what?”

  “Property,” a low whisper floated to her. She didn’t recognize the voice but she didn’t need to. Not when Kede flinched.

  “I,” she stumbled and leaned against the soft, biopad wall. Men reached for her and she hissed at them all. “Get the fuck away from me.”

  As one, they jumped back.

  “Property,” she whispered the word. “Slavery is outlawed on Terra. It has been for hundreds, thousands, of years. You can’t own someone, Kede. Just because I’m not wearing a dog tag doesn’t mean you can keep me as a pet.”

  “Your planet agreed to the treaty.”

  Her planet agreed to the treaty.

  “So because you plucked me from Terra and chose to claim me, that’s it. It’s done. What would have happened if you didn’t want me? Would I have become someone else’s slave?” She met his stare, giving back a good dose of his own anger.

  Kede’s gaze remained stuck to the gray wall. “No one would have claimed you. Resane would have given you the Collective’s mark, branding you as an ambassador. But I did not wish it.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting for calm. “Didn’t wish it… So you didn’t even withhold the information for my own good or to save me from someone else. You were simply being a selfish asshole. Nice.” She shook her head. “I don’t even have a life of my own anymore, do I?”

  Another whisper, “But you’re Doshan now.”

  She waved a hand toward the speaker, the male lost in the sea of men. “Thank y
ou, that’s right. I’m Doshan now. Are all of your females slaves? Or am I the lucky one? Should I bow and scrape and…” She wasn’t going to cry, she wasn’t.

  She also wasn’t going to shoot herself out an airlock. She couldn’t go home, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to live as some man’s slave.

  “You’re making this ugly, Joyce.”

  “Ha!” She chuckled and ignored that it came out a sob. “I’m making it ugly? Your planet, your society made it ugly. The god damned mother fucking Planetary Collective made it ugly! Now, answer the question. Is this how you treat your precious females?”

  “No, they are offered a choice. Their families—”

  “So I’m the lucky one then. I have no family. Especially a Doshan one. This is perfect.” Her vision blurred and she fought to blink back her tears.

  “When the female is of age, if she does not have a father or brother to help her choose, she is able to select for herself when she reaches the age of twenty-five.” Tension filled his body, muscles taut and straining against his skin.

  “So your plan was what? Just keep the little Terran abomination half-breed whore ignorant until it was too late?” She released a hysterical laugh, unable to keep it hidden inside herself. “That’s what it was. You were just going to keep it quiet. You haven’t let Resane or Hassee tell me.” Another sob escaped. “Were you going to wait until you fucked me and then popped out with the ‘by the way you were a slave for a few weeks, but it’s okay because we’re married now’?”

  “Joyce…” Beneath her continued rage, his expression softened and he reached for her, taking a step forward.

  “Go fuck yourself, Kede.” She leaned against the biopad, letting her head bounce against the soft surface, and closed her eyes. She ignored the soft rustle of cloth, the creak of the metal beneath their feet, and the deep breathing of the gathered males. She ignored someone’s cough and another’s sniffle. “If it wouldn’t kill me, I’d return to Terra right now. But since I can’t, then I want my own quarters.” Kede’s quick inhale reached her and she stood straight as she leveled a glare on him. “My private quarters. I don’t want a single person to have access to my space. Not you, not your officers, no one. I was forced to come here, and I was forced to become Doshan, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be easy access to any male who comes sniffing after me like a dog. I’m better than that. I deserve better than that. And if you don’t give it to me, I’m going to take it.” She did not break his stare. “And if you think, even for a moment, that you won’t grant me the rights of a Doshan citizen, I’d like to remind you that you’re a man like any other. And all men have to sleep.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Joyce stared at Resane, knowing that speaking with him was a necessary evil, but she hated it just the same.

  Knowledge lived in the ship’s data centers, but she couldn’t access them. Or rather, she couldn’t read them. Unless Resane helped her. She really hoped he agreed. Otherwise the Vehly would be down a chief medico.

  Well, not permanently down. She wasn’t quite to the point of murdering someone. Maiming though… maiming was definitely a possibility.

  She stood before his desk, the stark white walls of medical reflecting the bright lights of the room. Sterile. Blank. Unsettling. She hated hospitals and even if she was flying in space, medical was still a hospital.

  One that reminded her of the time she’d spent healing within its confines with Kede at her side.

  Of course, he’d be there for his pet, his slave, wouldn’t he?

  “Mistress Tria—”

  “Joyce or Mistress Enner, Resane. Those are your options.” Joyce wasn’t given a choice when it came to being Kede’s harae when he’d stolen her, but now things were different. Now, she was her own person, a Doshan with all rights and privileges. She wasn’t sure what that meant just yet, but she would before she left the damn room.

  The medico flattened his lips, pressing them together until they slashed across his face.

  Let him be annoyed. She was just as pissed.

  “Mistress Enner.” His eyes sparkled, the green hues flashing with his annoyance. “As I explained previously, Commander Tria-se has ordered that I cannot—”

  Joyce held up a hand, halting the male’s progress. “First, unless he mated someone between yesterday and today, he is Commander Tria. Second, I…” her heart thundered, fighting the walls of her chest.

  Her head pounded, thumping in time with her heart. She rubbed her temple wishing the constant headache would lessen already. But it hadn’t. Not after the knock-down drag-out fight she’d had with Kede in the middle of the corridor. Half the ship heard, or heard of, the trouble in alien paradise.

  “Joyce?” The wheels on Resane’s chair rolled over the smooth floor, hardly making a sound. But his pounding steps did, they rattled in her brain and she pressed her palms to her forehead.

  Dammit. Now was not the time for a migraine. How could she be a badass bitch if she was whining in the corner?

  “Joyce?” Funny how he’d been all about the “Mistress” title before and now she was back to Joyce. She’d laugh if it wouldn’t make her head explode.

  “I’m fine.” She gritted her teeth and stumbled backward, shuffling until her back collided with the wall. She propped herself against the biopad, using the cushioned surface for support.

  Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist and then the telltale pulsing hum of one of Resane’s machines vibrated the air around her. She snatched her hand away from him and put space between their bodies.

  “I’m fine.” She eased away. “It’s just a migraine. It’ll pass.”

  “Joyce—”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m. Fine. I came here for a reason and I refuse to be distracted by—”

  “Your own health?” It was Resane’s turn to snap. “I did not heal you so you may destroy my work with your stubborn—”

  “You healed me? Stubborn?” Pain forgotten in the face of yet another alien telling her what they’d done for her. “You didn’t heal me, Resane. Or rather, you did, but at the request of my master. I was a slave, right?” Rage still burned her gut and, really, she’d come to medical looking for answers. Other than Kede, who she hated, and Yare, who was too afraid of Kede to speak, she was only left with Resane. Especially since Hassee was conspicuously absent. “Am I still a slave? Is that why no one will answer my questions or help me?”

  “No, Joyce, you don’t understand… The guidelines require… The treaty…” Resane shook his head as if the explanation was beyond him.

  Nice try.

  She pushed herself upright, refusing to appear weak before the male. He wasn’t just a doctor or an officer, but a Doshan warrior as well. She’d show him a strong female, show him she wouldn’t take this lying down.

  She swayed a little, fingertips brushing the biopad. “I want answers. From you or someone else on the Vehly. But I’m getting them.” She listed to the right, body seeming to reach for the wall. “Just as soon as I sleep off this headache.”

  “Headache?”

  Joyce listened to Resane poke and prod at his datapad, probably hunting up yet another hiccup of Terran physiology to explain her headache.

  “Yeah,” she ran her fingertips over her forehead and along her temples. “Pain. Sometimes it throbs, other times it’s more of a pounding. The bad ones come with light sensitivity and nice little floating sparkles. Sounds great, but it sucks.”

  “What causes them?”

  “When—”

  “How are they treated?”

  “Usually—”

  “I must do more research. What do—”

  “Resane?” She grasped the hand coming at her, hypospray poised and ready to deliver yet another Doshan drug into her system. “Stop it.”

  “Why did you not have this headache before? I—”

  It was her turn to cut him off. “The migraine I currently have is because I suddenly discovered I don’t control my own life any long
er and no one will tell me what that means. I can deal with being kidnapped, I can even handle being converted to Doshan without any warning or permission. What I can’t tolerate is finding out that I am claimed like some stray dog. That I haven’t made a single choice on my own since I picked out my shoes before work over a month ago.” The steady thump increased in tempo, shooting pain through her entire body. “And all I want to do now is figure out the pot of crap I’ve stepped in and how to make it smell a little more like roses.”

  “We do not have roses on Dosha. Please explain.” He looked so earnest and worried and she just didn’t care.

  Yes, she’d taken her bitch pills. Hell, it seemed like a great big bitch IV was constantly pumping the drug into her veins. She was not this person and yet…

  It was another thing to throw at Kede’s feet.

  “Resane.” Joyce let her eyes drift closed, cutting off the brightness of the room. “I need to understand what’s happening to me. I need to know what’s expected of me. I can’t do any of that without information.” Tears gathered behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She wasn’t a big crybaby. “If you won’t direct me to someone who can tutor me on being a Doshan female, at least check my implant so I can read your language. That’s all I want.”

  Those steady fingers stroked her again, testing her skin while the low whir of his machine floated around her. “Will you let me treat you? This head-ache could be from the implant or—”

  She turned her head toward the sound of his voice, but kept her lids closed. The pain was working its way up to one killer bout and she really didn’t want to pass out in the middle of medical. She was one faint away from getting confined to a damned bed in medical and it was the last thing she wanted.

  “I don’t give a damn if you treat me. The important question is will you help me?” A tear escaped. Fuck. “At this point, I don’t care what you call me. I need to know what kind of rights I have.” She fought to raise her lids and see past the pain and tears. “I need to know what was taken from me and how the hell do I get it back. And I want this information now. Today. Not when Kede or Hassee or Yare decide to show up and deign me with their presence. Whether I’m a slave”—she ignored his shocked gasp— “or a Doshan female, I want the knowledge now. If I have rights, I want them.”