Table of Contents
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
Ice Planet BarBEARians (Book 1)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
Ice Planet BarBEARians (Book 2)
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 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
(Flames of Freedom Series Book I)
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
Flames of Freedom (Book 2)
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
Copyright © 2017 by C.J. Scarlett.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published in the United States of America
Other Books by C.J. Scarlett
Fire Princess (Prequel)
Celestial Mates Complete Box Set (Books 1-5)
Maruvian Bride (Book 6)
Queen Maker’s Bride (Book 7)
Hero’s Bride
New Celestial Mates Series
Diplomacy of Love
Artistry of Love
Want a free book? C.J. Scarlett is giving away a free copy of Fire Princess, the prequel to Ambassador’s Bride (no strings attached). This book is exclusive to her VIP Reading Team.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Assassin’s Bride
Glossary of Celestial Mates Terms
Bonus Series 1
Ice Planet BarBEARians (Book 1)
Ice Planet BarBEARians (Book 2)
Bonus Series 2 – Flames of Freedom
Spark (Prequel)
Tekkin (Book 1)
Flames (Book 2)
Assassin’s Bride
C.J. Scarlett
***
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Chapter 1
Haden’s Fall
~ Haden~
Music Mix
Haden felt as if a dense fog had settled around his mind. He walked, yet knew not where he went. He talked, but the words were not his own. Being subject to the wishes of a Maruvian queen had always been a difficult life. He had been punished on a whim, starved for failure and watched friends picked off as the queen saw fit.
In all his days, nothing like that had ever happened to him before. It was horrible to be trapped in his own body, unable to call out for help or warn anyone of what was coming. His Maruvian brothers had let him walk right up to them, never suspecting he was a ticking time bomb. He’d sliced through them with barely any effort at all.
Whereas they might have been on guard with another drone, they welcomed his approach. They didn’t see that their one-time leader had been turned into a tool for their exiled queen until it was too late. Though his imprisoned mind screamed for him to stop, his weapons did their despicable deed, sickening him to the core.
The memories came unbidden in the light of day just as easily as they did while he slept. He remembered walking into the queen’s chamber. She was enjoying a relaxing bath. Her small naked body seemed defenseless and weak to his eyes. However, her frail beauty could not be denied. His mouth opened and words that were not his own sprang forth with such ease.
“It is true what they say. Humans are pale and weak.”
Popping her eyes open, the queen glared at him. He watched her eyes sliding over his muscles and scars. He wanted to shout a warning for her to run and seek safety, but his lips were sealed against such utterances.
He’d been sent to kill her in her sleep. The mind control device bled away his resolve to fight against the foul commands being forced into his brain. An oversized, ugly serrated blade twitched in his hand, dripping crimson blood on the carpet. It was the blood of his insectoid brothers-in-arms.
Slowly coming to her feet, the beautiful naked queen grabbed a cloth and began drying herself off. She was offering the primitive male portion of his mind a distraction. It was effective, as his mind processed her naked form, he was able to wrestle some control back. Climbing out of the water, she tied a cloth around her waist. Her plump breasts and slim waistline were on full display as she finger-combed her long hair. He watched her twist it up into a messy knot on the top of her head.
Spiteful words not of his choosing escaped from his lips, yet again. “It seems a shame to waste such a lovely pale body.”
The human queen placed her hands defiantly on her hips. “I’m not just a pretty face. You know that, right?”
His head snapped up from the swell of bare breasts to her face.
Catching her eye, her heard the tension in her voice. “On my home world, I was a soldier. My job was to keep the peace on the Galactic Council’s space station, orbiting Earth.”
Haden focused on standing his ground when the puppet master in control of his body wanted him to move, maim, and kill. The small queen continued with her distractions.
“Some days it was a breeze. Other days it kept me hopping. Have you ever tried to break up a Tardazian bare-knuckle boxing match. They really don’t have knuckles, since they’re gigantic squid, but they seem all arms and legs in a fight. I made the mistake of squeezing one a little too hard and his
tentacle just fell off. It seems they’re a little like lizards and can release their tentacle to get away from an aggressor. It was all kinds of weird to see when you’re not expecting it.”
“Stop talking, human. Your distractions will not work on me.”
“That’s too bad. I like a little good conversation now and again.”
Haden jerked his head, trying to dislodge whatever was nesting there and slowly driving him to commit atrocities for which he could never hope to atone.
Finding his voice he intoned the best warning he was allowed under the circumstances. “My queen wants you dead.”
“You know the rules. She needs to challenge me in battle. I already beat her once, though. I think she’s afraid of me. That’s why she sent you to do her dirty work.”
Haden’s entire body jerked in response to her insult.
Taking a step closer to get a better look at him, she spoke coldly. “Kabelda is weak and unworthy of being your queen.”
More jerking ensued as he tried to keep from cutting her head off on the spot. Her eyes went to his neck. Without looking, he knew she’d discovered the root of the evil lurking inside him. A ray of hope filtered through to his brain. Maybe she would figure out he wasn’t in control and run. Attached to his neck, under the collar of his shirt the transponder was digging into his skin just like it was digging into his resolve to be an honorable warrior.
The little queen’s voice turned cold. “Your former queen is a coward and therefore unfit to rule. You know this.”
Trying to shake off the absent queen’s control, he mumbled, “I don’t… I… I am commanded to act.”
“Throw the blade away. It’s stained with the blood of your brethren.” The command in her voice was hard to ignore.
Looking down at the blade for the first time since entering the room, his face contorted into a mask of pain. “I didn’t want too… I must.” Snapping his mouth shut, he twitched again, caught in a raging internal conflict.
“Throw the knife away. You don’t need it.”
Lifting the blade, he concentrated on releasing it from his grip. The control device would not allow it. Intent on resisting, Haden swiftly brought his other hand up in a fist and punched himself in the temple. If he knocked himself out, he couldn’t kill anyone else. It stunned him and he knew the absent queen had not been expecting that at whatever control panel she was hiding behind. Unfortunately, she doubled down on the control she had and forced his body to act.
Fighting it every step of the way, he moved towards the delicate human queen. Words spilled from his mouth. “Queens command, drones obey.”
Just before he reached her, there was a commotion at the door and several drones came pouring into the room. The human darted out of the way and Haden felt his skin prick in multiple locations all at once. His brethren had stunned him, but he fought to stay awake. Though he was unable to keep his eyes open, he heard their voices.
The queen was near when she spoke. “I wish you hadn’t killed him.”
A deep voice responded. “We did not. Queens command, drones obey. You said no more killing. We stunned him.”
Small soft hands tore at his collar, exposing the blinking disk.
Suddenly his longtime friend Raec spoke. “It is a cerebral control transponder. His actions were not his own.”
“Thank God, you’re here.”
“I should not have left you alone this morning, my queen.”
She stated soothingly, “You did nothing wrong.”
Raec’s sire, Vraden spoke. “I came as soon as I heard. His name is Haden. He is one of our fiercest fighters.”
Raec added miserably, “He is also one of our most loyal and honorable drones.”
Hearing them talking about him like he was a warrior of worth, killed of a small part of his soul. They should cut his throat for threatening their new human queen. He shivered to feel her gently touching the transponder. “We need to get this removed.” Her sweet voice sounded so worried. Their queen was worried about him, a scarred warrior who just tried to kill her? It made no rational sense to his mind.
Vraden’s panicked voice broke in. “Don’t touch it. We’ll need to put him in stasis and work only with the small area the device is attached to. These devices are prone to explode if removed improperly.”
Gods of chaos, they were not going to risk the lives of others by trying to save him, were they?
“Let’s get moving before he wakes up again.”
He had the sinking feeling they were. Haden listened as they talked about the drones he had killed and injured. His gut twisted when he heard the numbers. He’d killed three and injured a couple more. May the gods forgive him. He wanted to fight the healers off from mending his wounds but he still did not have control of his limbs. Even if drones did not cry on the outside like humans, he was crying on the inside.
Chapter 2
Scared and Alone
~ Venice~
Music Mix
Venice wrapped her dusty scarf over her head and pulled it up around the bottom of her face as she sunk towards the back of the crowd. The holding bay was heaving with a mass of women and crying children. They had all faced various degrees of risk to make it this far. Still, Venice couldn’t help but respect the bravery of the mothers who’d made their way to the ships pregnant or with clinging children. This was their one final chance to avoid a life filled with endless hunger and deprivation.
She’d been trying to board the vessel herself for days, but kept getting forced back by a large group of human protestors. Calling them protestors was an inaccurate kindness. They were more of an unruly mob bent on interrupting the transition of women to the new Maruvian home world. It was reputed to be a lush tropical paradise, filled with clean air, pristine wilderness and sparkling clear oceans. It broke her heart to admit it, but the description seemed a fantastical dream world compared Earth. At first, Venice had been far too Earth-proud to consider relocating. Unfortunately, scraping by day after day with an empty belly and only an occasional odd job finally drove home the fact that staying was no longer an option.
Women outnumbered men almost three to one at this point and she’d never even had a boyfriend, much less anything resembling a prospective husband. Even if she were lucky enough to find one, Earth had instituted a one child rule decades ago to combat overpopulation. Now everyone was living in huge underground cities or bio-domes to protect from the ultraviolet radiation. Between losing the ozone layer and the solar flares, life had become pretty unpredictable as of late. Since all the food was being grown in the bio-domes, it was so becoming harder to come by real food items. Most people were living off specially designed nutrient bars.
Just when true hopelessness set in and the suicide rate began to spike, visitors from other worlds began running missions of mercy. They set up huge bio-domes to protect the population and assisted in creating underground cities. It was shocking how quickly those things happened. At some point the aliens realized human women had very adaptive reproductive systems. They were fascinated that human females cycled monthly instead of yearly, like most other humanoid species. The first interspecies children were born, and suddenly Earth had something worth trading. Over the last few years, several alien races had arrived on Earth with all sorts of durable goods in tow, looking to trade for females. The thing was, most women were dying to get off the planet and more than willing to be traded.
Interesting, tasty, and exotic alien samples found their way into circulation. Being a junker, Venice often traded scavenged items or electronics she’d cobbled together out of scrap for sustenance. A tiny Krylon meat cookie here, a Maruvian chelva wafer there and soon she was hooked on all things alien. Thirsty for information, she would question every person she could find who had any contact with aliens. Sometimes the humans who traded with them would come into the lower levels of the city where the poorest of the poor were housed and tell stories of their interactions. Venice always
listened with a greedy ear, forming images of them and their respective worlds in her mind’s eye.
Now she was on board a Maruvian vessel, seeing them with her own eyes. They were every bit as amazing as she imagined them to be. Wanting to pinch herself to make sure it was all real, she settled for watching as the alien males moved around below. They tended to the needs of the children first, as they calmed the women with kind words.
They were handing out bubbles of what appeared to be a clear liquid. The males demonstrated their use by popping one into their mouth. One woman tried it and announced gleefully, “The clear thin film dissolves. It tastes sweet, like candy.” All the children began clamoring for them. As more men poured into the space with trays of finger food and people began moving around, bodies pressed back on her. Venice quickly scampered up onto a small catwalk in the back of the room. Kneeling down, she grabbed the handrail and watched the action below with fascination. The males really seemed to enjoy caring for their visitors.
They all looked a little different. Though they had no hair, there were spots on their heads that were all unique. This was clearly an easy method for identification. They had large dark curious eyes that didn’t miss much of what went on around them. Every single one had a nice plump set of antennas on the top his head. They seemed to be sensing and reacting to their environment, because when someone spoke to one man his antennas swiveled around in the direction of the speaker before his body did. Their skin color was all different as well. Most were a variegated green or plum but some were brown, deep yellow or even red. Some had wings and others didn’t. Among those with wings, there was some variation, with some having shorter and others longer wings. She could imagine that longer meant a huge wing span once they opened. In the closed confines of the crowded room, none of them dared.
A huge holographic image shimmered into view. The female speaker was human and Venice recognized her immediately as the queen of the Maruvian home world, Queen Carolyn. Her greeting message played on a continuous loop in multiple languages. It was welcoming them, congratulating them on making the choice to visit their home world and telling the women that healers would be offering a hypo-spray of the multi-language bacteria. Thumbs up meant you approved of the implant and thumbs down meant you did not want it. Venice’s hand flew to cover her mouth. Who in their right mind would turn something like down? She’d wanted one for ages, but they were too expensive on Earth.
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