Uncharted

by Evangeline Anderson

  “The Goddess healed me,” Terex whispered, reaching up to feel his throat where the skin was smooth and whole again. He looked at Elaina. “That was amazing—I’ve never felt her presence so clearly or spoken to her before.”

  “I’ve never spoken to any deity,” she admitted. “But…” She bit her lip, looking worried. “What about the warning she gave us? Should we go tell Commander Sylvan right away?”

  “I think she was warning us of something in the future,” Terex murmured. “I was planning to leave him a letter about what Two said to me, but I’ll have a meeting with him first thing tomorrow instead. We’ll need to start fortifying the Mother Ship—getting prepared.”

  “What is the dark force that’s aware of the Kindred now, do you think?” Elaina asked, still sounding fearful.

  “I don’t know.” Terex frowned. “Before I killed him, Two’s scion spoke of ‘the Hive.’ I’ve never heard of them before but he seemed to indicate that he’d alerted them to our presence somehow. They’re on the other side of the Blind, a few hundred thousand light years from the Nixian world, I would guess.”

  Elaina shivered. “Well, I hope they stay over there! I don’t want anything to do with them.”

  “No matter what happens, we will be together.” Terex gathered her into his arms and held her tight, loving the feel of her warm, naked body against his own much larger and harder one. Speaking of harder, though they had just finished bonding he could feel his shaft stirring again and through their newly forged link he could feel Elaina’s hunger growing as well.

  “The Goddess healed me,” he said, pulling away to look into her lovely gold-flecked yes. “But not you, sweetheart. Do you…are you truly still feeling the effects of the Need?”

  “Maybe a little.” She blushed and looked down at her hands. “Maybe it’s these weights on my nipples. When I move…” She demonstrated by swaying her breasts, which caused the heavy gold charms to dance. “They, uh, tug on me and make me…make me want…make me need…”

  “I know what you need,” Terex growled softly. Leaning down, he captured one of her tight buds between his teeth and bit down gently, nipping her pink peak until Elaina squirmed and groaned with the combination of pain and pleasure.

  “Ahh! Terex!” she gasped, pressing her breast to his mouth for more.

  He released her nipple and looked at her sternly.

  “No—don’t call me that. Not while we’re making love.”

  “Master?” She looked up at him with wide eyes.

  “That’s right.” He kissed her approvingly. “Call me Master while I take you.”

  “Yes, Master.” Elaina’s big eyes were filled with love and trust and need. “Then will you do it? Will you take me again?”

  “With pleasure.” And he did—bonding her to him again and again all night long.

  The End…for now

  Epilogue

  “My Sovereign, the time has come—the ship from Galen Prime is here. The Princess is aboard—a royal female of good pedigree. She should be suitable for your needs.”

  The low, buzzing voice of the messenger was music to Ysldred X’izith’s cochlea—which were scattered all over his body from the sides of his bulbous head, to the hidden folds of his transparent wings, to the sides of his chitinous, many-jointed legs.

  “Good, very good,” he buzzed. Another race conquered—another Breeding Queen to fill with his grubs. And the hunger of the Hive would be satiated—at least for a time.

  All around him in the densely packed darkness he could hear his people hard at work. Down in the flesh pits, the workers harvested meat from the rotting bodies of the Hive’s enemies. Quickly and efficiently, they butchered the bodies with their mandibles and swallowed the oozing chunks. They would convert the dead flesh to Blood Honey in their twisted gullets for the feeding of the royal grubs and other purposes.

  Elsewhere, guards patrolled the corridors, their long, sleek bodies crawling along walls and ceilings as well as floors in their ceaseless vigilance to protect their many chambered home.

  The buzzing hum of wings came from the common nursery where the newly hatched larvae were fanned by attendants to keep them cool as they molted and mutated into the forms they would take in adulthood. Soon, they too would take on the work of the Hive—the never-ending quest for new victims to eviscerate, new worlds to pillage and rape, new females to breed.

  And somewhere in the breeding chamber, a new bride was being prepared for him.

  X’izith extended his breeding barb from his lower thorax, unfolding the long, sharp appendage and allowing it to engorge with the black ichor he called blood. As thick as a man’s arm in some places, it ended in a jagged tip, as wickedly sharp as a needle, as deadly as a sword. How the females howled when he stabbed it between their legs! Especially the softer, fleshier species. The humanoid ones were the best to breed—he greatly enjoyed their agony.

  X’izith allowed his long black tongue to slither out and lick his mandibles in anticipation of the pain and pleasure to come. The forked tip slithered up to swipe over his compound eyes as well—huge disks of blackness placed on either side of his head like bottomless pits.

  “Come,” he told the messenger. “We must not keep my new bride waiting.”

  “She may not be ripe for implantation yet, my lord,” the messenger warned in his buzzing voice. “And…she has yet to see you without your mask.”

  “True…true.” He frowned, his mandibles clicking audibly in the steamy, stagnant air of the Hive. “These things must be managed with delicacy—we cannot throw off her breeding cycle with fear. Has she been fed the Blood Honey yet to bring on her heat?”

  “The workers are force-feeding her now,” the messenger assured him.

  “Good. The fleshy ones are so fragile—although certainly the most tasty to breed.” X’izith frowned—it was an odd expression on his insectile face. “A pity they are so rare.”

  “There is something else,” the messenger buzzed. “We have received a signal—a signal from beyond the Void—what some call the Blind.”

  “A signal from the other side? But the Void is impenetrable,” X’izith protested.

  “We always thought so,” the messenger admitted. “But there has been much activity of late—comings and goings from beyond the Blind. And the signal we got seems to indicate there are worlds to conquer on the other side.”

  “Inhabited worlds?” X’izith demanded.

  “Not only inhabited—inhabited by fleshy ones.” The messengers many eyes, which were scattered over his oddly shaped head, gleamed in the darkness. “A race called the Kindred—all fleshy—all ripe for the plucking.”

  “Indeed? You have my interest now.” X’izith unhinged one many jointed arm and groomed his gold-tipped antennae thoughtfully. “After we finish with the Galen people, we must see to the crossing of the Blind. The Hive is always hungry…we must have fresh meat to make Blood Honey for the royal grubs and bring the Breeding Queens to heat.”

  “As you say, my Sovereign.” The messenger bowed low. “As you say.”

  “Soon,” X’izith mused. “Soon we shall see about these Kindred. But for now, I must tend to my bride—my new Breeding Queen awaiting implantation.”

  Unfolding his wings, he fanned the fetid air and lifted himself into the darkness, his breeding barb throbbing between his many legs. Soon another generation of royal grubs would be born and after that, he would see to the part of the universe as yet unexplored by the Hive and this new race called the Kindred.

  But for now, the Galen girl awaited his attentions. X’izith didn’t intend to keep her waiting for long.

  Want more Kindred? Of course you do! That's why I'm hard at work on Kindred 19, Unbound. Read on for a blurb to get you excited for Unbound, coming March 2017 (Below is just a temporary cover, btw--the real one is coming soon from my talented cover artist, Reese Dante.)

  And then check out the blurb and chapter from Planet X--the book that started it all--re-releasing in
February.

  Hugs and Happy Reading!

  Evangeline

  Brides of the Kindred 19: Unbound Blurb

  They tore him from his family, erased his past, even stripped him of his name—all to mold him into the perfect fighting machine and ultimate bodyguard. They call him Varin—the Bound One—and he is utterly devoted to one woman alone, the Princess Brynalla of Galen Prime.

  Though he doesn’t know it, Varin is a Vision Kindred—able to see and decimate any enemy’s weakness immediately. His branch of the Kindred form a dream-sharing bond early—a fact that has been exploited to bind him to Princess Brynalla of the Royal House of Galen Prime. But the bond is only supposed to go one way—no one knows that Brynalla dreams of her silent, stoic guard nearly as often as he dreams of her. Though he can never have her, Varin is sworn to protect her with his life…but there are some things even he can’t protect her from.

  When a race of insectile beings called the Hive threaten Galen Prime, Brynalla’s father agrees to hand his daughter over to their leader, X’izith, as a Breeding Queen. Varin saves her from a fate worse than death but the Hive’s memory is long and hungry—Varin and Brynn won’t be safe until they find a haven to shelter them.

  Varin knows he has a people and a past—if he can find them, he can protect his princess. But the memory block that keeps him from remembering, also binds him to Brynn. Will he still love her when he recovers his past and becomes Unbound? And can even the might of the Kindred save them from the hunger and fury of the Hive?

  You’ll have to read Brides of the Kindred 19, Unbound, coming March 2017, to find out.

  Planet X

  (Another Temp cover here. Real cover coming from Reese soon)

  Chapter One

  Chapter One

  “No, no, Krisa! Come away at once.”

  “But who is he? What is he?”

  Krisa Elyison stared with fascination at the huge, blindfolded man who was chained in the metal-lined hold of the Star Princess. He was the biggest man she had ever seen, and it wasn’t just that he was tall, which was obvious even though he was sitting on a narrow metal bench. He was massive as well.

  The prisoner had a broad chest and thick arms roped with muscle that led down to a narrow waist and powerful thighs spread wide in a lazy slouch. Spiky, bluish-black hair was buzzed close to his scalp and his skin was a dusky, exotic tan that Krisa had never seen before. Everyone on her home planet was quite pale, owing to the configuration of their sun. There was a coiled tension in his muscular form that reminded her of a wild animal in repose.

  “Krisa, come away.”

  “But what’s he doing here, Percy?” Krisa turned to the small, nervous man behind her, one delicate eyebrow arched in question. The Star Princess was a light tonnage merchant-class cruise ship that carried an equal amount of cargo and passengers, but Krisa couldn’t remember anything in the glossy holo-brochure about it doubling as a prison transport.

  “That’s none of your concern, my dear. Now if you’ve got your luggage settled, then we need to go back to the blast couches and prepare for liftoff.” Percy gave her the small, tight grimace that passed for his frown.

  Percy DeCampeaux was her chaperone, sent to accompany her from her home planet of Capellia to Lynix Prime. Krisa had never met a more nervous and prissy person, despite the fact that a genetic variation in the Capellian population ensured that two-thirds of its inhabitants were female.

  Ignoring her chaperone’s orders, Krisa took a step closer to the bound and blindfolded man. She was supposed to be stowing her pale pink carryall cube in the hold and preparing for liftoff, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the massive figure chained to the dull silver wall of the hold. There was something fascinating about him, a masculinity so intense it was nearly primal. She patted the thick roll of hair at the back of her neck nervously, making sure all her chocolate-brown curls were securely in place, though the prisoner couldn’t possibly see her through the thick black blindfold he wore.

  “Krisa,” Percy said, in that high, nasal voice she found so annoying. Krisa glanced over her shoulder and saw that he was standing well back from the bound man, fiddling with his monogrammed luggage nervously.

  “Just a moment.” She took another step, moving around a mountain of luggage that had been strapped down securely for liftoff. Her long, sateen skirts rustled across the metal floor plates with a sound like the uneasy whispering of ghosts. Krisa had been hoping for a little adventure on her first and only interstellar trip, but she’d never imagined it would start the minute she set foot aboard the ship.

  It was her first trip off-planet and very likely her last. She was going to meet Lord Radisson, her future husband, who was the planetary envoy to Lynix Prime. Soon her only function would be to serve as a dutiful wife and hostess to one of the wealthiest men in the galaxy, and there would be no call for any further adventures in space. Which was why Krisa was determined to make the most of this one, no matter what Percy said.

  She took another step and the prisoner raised his head, his nostrils flaring in her direction. Almost as though he was scenting me. The thought made Krisa shiver even as she studied the man’s face. He had a full, red, cruel-looking mouth and his jaw was covered with dark stubble. Plain black trousers molded to his powerfully built legs and the black tank shirt he wore left his muscular arms and shoulders bare. She wondered if he wouldn’t get cold in the metal-lined hold.

  “Hello?” she said hesitantly. She was close enough now that she could smell a warm, musky scent coming from the chained man. It had a wild tang that, like his appearance, was utterly masculine. Somehow, that scent seemed to invade all her senses at once, making her feel restless in a way she couldn’t understand.

  His nostrils flared and he turned his head, as though tracking her somehow. Krisa felt suddenly breathless. She tugged at the high, confining collar of her dress, wondering why it suddenly seemed so warm in the previously chilly hold.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. He’d as soon bite you as pass a civil word.”

  Krisa gave a little scream and jumped back, putting a hand between her breasts to still her rapidly pounding heart. The tight cincher she wore beneath her clothes to give her a perfect hourglass shape pinched her sharply at the sudden motion, and she stumbled, falling into the chained prisoner’s lap. Reaching out blindly, she caught herself on one rock-hard thigh, feeling the blindfolded man’s muscles tense immediately beneath her palm. Krisa got a brief, blurred impression of immense strength, barely held in check by his bonds, and heard Percy shout a belated warning somewhere behind her. A low growl was building in the prisoner’s corded throat, but before he could say anything to her, she was yanked backwards and away from him.

  “Here, that won’t do at all.” The man who had spoken to her was giving her a look that was half concerned and half reproving. “You’re lucky he didn’t take off your face.” He wore a short maroon jacket trimmed with gold braid and narrow black pants that ended in shiny black boots.

  Krisa recognized the uniform of the Royal Space Corps at once. The man who was speaking certainly wore it well, but despite the broad shoulders which filled out the braided jacket admirably and his thick head of blond hair that gleamed in the dim overhead glows of the hold, Krisa’s eyes kept returning to the chained man. She wondered what he might have said to her if the officer hadn’t pulled her away. Indeed, she barely registered the fact that the man who had spoken was still holding her arm, but the inappropriate contact was certainly not lost on her chaperone.

  “I’m sorry, and you are?” Percy, who had been cowering in the corner of the hold, now stepped forward, bristling at the stranger’s audacity. “Be so kind as to unhand the future Lady Radisson,” he added, drawing himself up to his full height of five foot four, and looking the newcomer squarely in his delightfully cleft chin.

  “Terribly sorry, so rude of me, but I was concerned for the lady’s safety.” He released his hold on her forearm and stepped back a pace. �
��Allow me to introduce myself. Captain Owen Ketchum at your service.”

  He sketched a charming little salute and actually bowed over her hand when Krisa held it out to him. She caught a whiff of expensive Tazzenberry cologne and wondered where his accent was from. New Britton, maybe?

  “I’m Krisa Elyison of Capellia, and this is Percy DeCampeaux, my chaperone. We’re going to Lynix Prime,” Krisa answered before Percy could stop her. “Where are you headed, Captain Ketchum?”

  “Making my way back to Lynix Omega to deliver that brute.” He jerked his chin at the chained man who sat silently on the narrow metal bench. “Kurt Teague.He’s a Feral from Al’hora. He’s already escaped once, which is no mean feat when you consider the Lynix Omega Correctional Facility’s a triple-X maximum-security prison.” He shook his head grimly. “This time, as you can see, we’re taking no chances. Those magno-locks are rated for over ten thousand psi each.” He gave her a condescending little smile. “That’s quite a lot, in case you’re wondering, Miss Elyison.”

  No chances indeed, Krisa thought, as she returned her attention to the silent, blindfolded prisoner. Both of his muscular forearms were indeed encased in the unbreakable magno-locks, which were attached to chains affixed firmly to the walls on either side, forcing his upper body into a very uncomfortable-looking spread-eagle position. The thick titanium-steel manacles certainly looked strong enough to hold anyone in place but, remembering her earlier impression of his immense strength, Krisa wondered if looks might not be deceiving in this case.

  As she watched, the prisoner tilted his head back and bared white teeth in a frightening grin, just as though he knew she was staring at him. But that wasn’t possible, was it? Krisa shuddered and looked away quickly, squeezing the hand that had touched Teague’s muscled thigh tightly into a fist at her side. To think she had come so close to such a dangerous man! It gave her a curious little thrill along the length of her spine, even though she knew her interest in the huge prisoner was decidedly unladylike.