Being a base model pleasure droid isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. Alexis can’t remember a time when she wasn’t the property of others. Multiple surgeries, and endless tests, have amounted to a life not worth living. When a pirate crew visits her facility, she sneaks onto their ship. Desperate not to be returned to her owners, she strikes a deal with the alluring captain. Pretend to be Margot in exchange for freedom.
His Metal Maiden Excerpt
The Conqueror, Deep Space
“Solar balls and black holes!” Rick ran into the common area of the ship. Breathing hard, he panted, “Alarm. Alarm. Cockpit. Alarm.”
Captain Lochlann turned his halfhearted attention toward the pilot. Many of Rick’s outbursts were just fits of boredom, or signs of mischief, or, worse, bored mischief that would land them in some intergalactic quagmire. Ever since the pilot had brought a Lintianese curse down on their heads, Lochlann had lost patience for the man’s antics.
Lochlann’s situation was complicated enough without having his future love life doomed before it began. According to his dragon-shifter people’s custom, in order to marry he needed to be on his home planet on their one night of darkness to participate in the breeding ceremony. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except for the fact he was banned from returning to his home planet. Not only couldn’t he marry in accordance with his people’s beliefs, the chance of finding a woman at all was cursed to fail thanks to Rick’s big mouth. Mating was hard enough for dragons. They weren’t like other alien cultures. When they married, it was for life. One woman. One wife. One chance at happiness.
“What did you do now, Rick? Asteroids, mine fields, Federation vessels, or ex-girlfriend?” Lochlann drawled, unconcerned. Being in charge of space pirates wasn’t something he’d asked for. It just happened. Life was unexpected that way.
Though, to be fair, they weren’t true space pirates. More like borderline mini-pirates. They didn’t follow all the galaxy’s laws, but then they didn’t attack innocent spaceships and intentionally harm people. They were adventurers—planet-less adventurers—joined together by brotherhood, wanderlust, and a shared need to survive.
“Actually, don’t answer. Just fix it.” Without indulging whatever Rick was going on about, Lochlann turned back to the game grid before him. Jackson had acquired the new board for Frendle’s Chips on their last fuel stop. Metal discs hovered above the grid. Random currents of electricity ran between them in short bursts. The goal was to first sweep the discs out of the grid without getting shocked. Then you had to toss the discs back into place without letting them touch the electricity. Otherwise your disc would turn into particles. The game was popular with serious gamblers, but they were having a hell of a time mastering it.
“There has to be an easier way to win money. Want me to fix it so you never lose?” Viktor was their mechanic and could pretty much rig anything.
“Some of us don’t need to cheat to win,” Lucien said, mostly to be contrary to his brother. Slender and pale with red-green and red-brown eyes, Viktor and Lucien took after their Dere heritage more than their human side. Irrelevant arguments were pretty much the only way they communicated with each other.
“Cockpit alarm,” Rick repeated louder from the doorway when no one gave him the reaction he was looking for. They continued to ignore him.
“No, you’re not rigging my board,” Jackson asserted. Out of all the current crewmen, he’d been with Lochlann the longest. The man had a secretive military background and, up until very recently, had spent most of his time in the ship’s VR room training with his security officer counterpart, Dev. However, since Dev fell in love with Violette Stephens, he didn’t have much time for training anymore. Now Jackson was on some strange, almost lonely quest to master every challenge that crossed his path.
Violette’s half-sister was also on board. They’d rescued Josselyn Craven from an ice prison, and she’d married the ship’s empath, Evan Cormier. Violette and Josselyn weren’t the best of friends, and like Viktor and Lucien they bickered if they were left in each other’s company for too long. For that reason, he’d encourage their husbands to keep them out of the common area and in their quarters during longer trips.
Maybe arguing was a sibling thing. Lochlann had no idea. He didn’t have brothers or sisters.
“We need to do something to earn space credits,” Viktor stated. “Our last treasure hunt was a bust, and there is no way I’m ever going back to that abandoned icehole called Florencia’s Fifth Moon to search for a third time. My balls still have frostbite.”
“That’s not frostbite. You have to have balls before they can…” Lucien tried to reach over the active game grid to swipe a disc. Electricity zapped his finger, and he jumped back. Shaking his injured hand, he finished weakly, “be bitten.”
“Zenni District,” Rick stated, the words softer than before.
That got their attention. All eyes turned toward him.
“Your sex life does not constitute an emergency. We don’t have the space credits to afford a pleasure droid,” Lochlann denied the unspoken request. He knew being a single man forced to see two happy couples every day in the close confines of the ship wasn’t easy. Sacred cats, he was lonely too. He’d love to buy a pleasure droid to fake companionship on desolate nights. “And we’re not burning fuel to go to the Zenni District so that you can walk around and gaze longingly into canister pods in a storage facility.”
“We have to go. There’s an alarm,” Rick insisted.
“What do you keep saying about an alarm?” Jackson frowned. “I have received no security notices.”
“Captain Jarek must have set it before he went home. The computers are running a continuous scan for, um, something important,” Rick explained ineloquently. “I think in honor of our former captain, we should go to the Zenni District to see about the match the alarm has found.”
A zapping noise drew Lochlann’s attention back to the game.
Lucien sucked on an injured knuckle and glared at the grid. “You stupid…game.”
Lochlann missed his captain predecessor. Jarek had been his friend since they were boys shifting and running in the woods of their home planet. They’d left Quirlixen because they saw no other choice. Lochlann was a Draig dragon-shifter and Jarek was a Var cat-shifting prince. Their people had been at war in some age-old feud that no one understood. The fighting was so ingrained that even during times of peace they still had petty skirmishes. It wasn’t like they fought over territory, or social injustice. They just fought because both sides didn’t seem to like the other.
Lochlann hadn’t wanted to kill anyone. Prince Jarek felt the same. So they left for offworld adventures. Jarek had captained the crew since he was a prince and it was his ship, and Lochlann had been his second in command. Everything had been so new and shiny back then.
But that was years ago. The Draig-Var war had ended, supposedly for good with the death of Jarek’s father. Lochlann had his doubts. Peace never seemed to last.
For him, adventures had turned into a way of life, life turned into normal, and now he was no longer Lochlann of the Draig, dragon-shifter exploring space who had a home planet. No, now he was Captain Lochlann of The Conqueror, newly in charge of a misfit crew and a traitor on his homeworld for refusing to kill cat-shifters.
Jarek had promoted him before moving home to the Var palace with his wife and infant son. The prince’s brothers welcomed him with open arms as if he’d never left. The Draig were not as understanding with Lochlann.
A battle had taken Lochlann’s father. Grief killed his mother. He had no siblings. As was the dragon way, others raised him until he was old enough to train for war. He never went hungry, never was without a place to sleep, and had usually been treated kindly, but he was passed from home to home. He’d been a community responsibility.
His youthful decision not to fight didn’t go over too well with his people. All he wanted was to remove the label of traitor from his name. He had to restore his honor before
he could return home, and the dragon-shifter nobles had given him a way to do just that.
It should have been simple. He had to find one lost human and bring her back to her noblewoman sister. How hard would it be to track one girl? It’s not like this Margot was some kind of master criminal. She was a girl from a space fuel dock.
Then why in all the black hole, cursed port, bloody novas could he not complete that one task to find the blasted Margot?
He couldn’t even find a trail to follow.
“It’s the responsible thing to do,” Rick insisted, drawing Lochlann’s attention back.
“Is this alarm a sales notification?” Lochlann drawled wryly.
“I don’t think Jarek’s wife would appreciate his shopping for a pleasure droid,” Jackson added.
Lochlann knew for a fact Jarek would never shop for such a thing. He was madly in love with his wife.
“The fact that the pleasure droid manufacturer is located there is not why we’re going,” Rick said, “but there was an alarm set to go off to let Jarek know, and we need to—”
“I’m thinking Rick may have a point,” Viktor interrupted. “And I am in no way basing my opinion on the encoded airwaves Lucien decrypted of the new pleasure droid model advertisements.”
“I am completely basing my vote on that,” Lucien said. “I say Zenni District.”
“This is not up for a vote,” Lochlann stated. “We’re low on space credits, and fuel reserves. It’s my job to make sure we make responsible decisions and don’t end up floating in the deep black hoping someone reputable rescues our sorry asses.”
“What is the alarm for specifically?” Jackson asked.
“Something called a mar-got,” Rick said with a shrug.
Lochlann stiffened. “Did you say Margot?”
“What’s a Margot?” Jackson asked.
“A girl,” Lochlann whispered. It couldn’t be. His chest tightened, and he found it hard to breathe.
He missed home. He wanted to see the red dirt and green-tinted skies, to shift into dragon form and run through the shadowed marshes near the borderlands. Instead, he was condemned to the high skies, sailing the deep black looking for a woman who might never be found.
Until now.
Had he finally found Margot?
To find out more about Michelle’s books visit www.MichellePillow.com
Space Lords Series
His Frost Maiden
His Fire Maiden
His Metal Maiden
His Earth Maiden
His Wood Maiden
Reading Guide
From the same world as Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Some Books are Coming Soon
Click on the Links to be taken to the books’ buy page if available. Otherwise, check MichellePillow.com for release dates and other details
Dragon Lords World Reading Guide
Dragon Lords Series
Barbarian Prince
Perfect Prince
Dark Prince
Warrior Prince
His Highness The Duke
The Stubborn Lord
The Reluctant Lord
The Impatient Lord
The Dragon’s Queen
Lords of the Var Series
The Savage King
The Playful Prince
The Bound Prince
The Rogue Prince
The Pirate Prince
Captured by a Dragon-Shifter Series
Determined Prince
Rebellious Prince
Stranded with the Cajun
Hunted by the Dragon
Mischievous Prince
Headstrong Prince
Space Lords Series
His Frost Maiden
His Fire Maiden
His Metal Maiden
His Earth Maiden
His Wood Maiden
Zhang Dynasty Series
Seduction of the Phoenix
Temptation of the Butterfly
Having trouble finding the books?
Vendors links sometimes change.
Updated Buy Links Here
To learn more about the Dragon Lords World series of books and to stay up to date on the latest book list visit www.MichellePillow.com
Intergalactic Dating Agency
Featuring Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Spark, Flame, Blaze
Trilogy by Michelle M. Pillow
Buy them Now!
Intergalactic Dating Agency
Looking for a love that’s out of this world?
Join eight authors as we explore the friendly skies and beyond with trilogies of cosmic craving, astral adventure and otherworldly lovers.
RomancingtheAlien.com
Blaze: Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Page 9