Jessica's Mates: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Brides of the Aashi Book 4)

by Belle Harper

  Jessica’s Mates

  Brides of the Aashi Book Four

  Belle Harper

  Contents

  Blurb

  1. Jessica

  2. Jessica

  3. K’Tem

  4. Jessica

  5. Jessica

  6. K’Tem

  7. Jessica

  8. Koh

  9. Jessica

  10. K’Tem

  11. Jessica

  12. Tomlee

  13. Jessica

  14. K’Tem

  15. Jessica

  16. Tomlee

  17. Jessica

  18. K’Tem

  19. Jessica

  20. Koh

  21. Jessica

  22. Tomlee

  23. Jessica

  24. Koh

  25. Jessica

  26. K’Tem

  27. Jessica

  28. Koh

  29. Jessica

  30. Tomlee

  31. Jessica

  Afterword

  Other Books by Belle Harper 

  Belle’s Books

  About the Author

  Blurb

  I’m Jessica.

  I applied to a job ad that turned out to be the total opposite of what I was expecting.

  It was bad.

  Aliens existed, and I was on a one-way flight to be married to one. Being sent to an Alien Planet to marry an Alien guy sounded like the start of a nightmare.

  I was the only one to feel cheated in this, the other women were happy. I didn’t want this, but I would rather live with these aliens than not live at all.

  Who knew that I would actually meet my soul mate… only he was the wrong alien species, and he was leaving me here?

  Chapter One

  Jessica

  You know when something was too good to be true, but you still fall for it hoping it wasn’t? But instead of signing up to something and having an inbox full of spam emails, or losing fifty dollars because you thought you were helping out a prince in Nigeria… your life has been scammed away.

  Okay, I might sound dramatic, but I was not given much of a choice. I applied to this amazing job ad, it sounded great to me. Travel: that was something I couldn’t afford with my current job. I only made enough to barely cover rent, bills, and food. What I wasn’t expecting was travel outside of Earth. Oh, and that I was to marry some alien guy so the people back home could have spaceships powered by a rock they mine on this planet.

  That’s right, I was just a pawn in their scam. Swapping human females for rocks.

  When I walked up to the agent and said I wanted out of this crazy ride, well… Agent Booker said, “Let me show you how to leave. And I will only ask you once if you’ve changed your mind.”

  Yeah, like I would change my mind. None of the other girls who were in the same group interview came back. My only thought was, why didn’t I leave earlier? I guess I was curious about aliens and if this was for real. Aliens were real, and he wanted to ship me off to be married to one. Change my mind? I don’t think so. He took me to a room with other women. I looked around the room, there were eleven women… wait. This was where the other girls ended up? They hadn’t gone home already.

  “Jessica, you have a choice: go to marry these aliens, or…” he pulled his gun out of the holster, my eyes following it as he held it up. I watched his face change expression for the first time, to an evil grin. Sadistic asshole.

  “I signed the NDA, I won’t talk.” Was he being for real right now? He waved the gun around the room and I watched as the women ducked and sobbed. These other girls were crying… this wasn’t happening. They had wanted out; days ago they left the interviews. They were still here, and I was starting to see what the choice was.

  I closed my eyes and pinched myself. This had to be a dream, but when I opened them, he was still here, his head cocked to the side waiting for my answer. I looked over to the women now huddled tightly.

  “Go,” some of them mouthed to me. Wait… my heart started to race. Was he for real? Would he kill me? He couldn’t do that. People would know. Wouldn’t they? No… no, they wouldn’t. It was one of the reasons I got through this far in the interviews. It was part of the whole process. Do you have living relatives? Someone who would miss you?

  No.

  I had no one; I was alone in this world. I grew up with my grandmother before she passed away. My mom died at the end of a needle, and I didn’t know who my father was. No one would know I was gone. Maybe someone I used to work with or an old school friend, but not someone who would look for me. Fuck. I was alone more than I ever felt.

  “I’ll go back.” I exhaled a deep breath, my hands shaking. I didn’t want to die, I wanted to live. I watched as his smile twisted and he nodded. He led me back out of the room, grabbing my upper arm with such a force it would leave bruises.

  “Don’t you tell those other girls what you saw. They are happy to be going and saving the world. You are weak. You don’t have what it takes, but they need six willing girls. With you we have five; we just need one more. And I don’t care if you’re happy or not. If all goes well, there will be more after you. So suck it up, princess, and smile. You’re about to get some alien cock. And you will pretend to love it.”

  That fucking asshole. I wanted him to get some alien cock. I hope it fucking killed him. I walked back into the room and four pairs of eyes watched me.

  “She just needed to see medical, she is all cleared now,” Booker lied. I guess it was so I didn’t have questions about where I went and why I was back so soon. I was angry at the agents, at myself, the whole situation. I took it out on those around me and I couldn’t stop. How could they be happy? How could they not see I was miserable and not here by choice?

  When we were on the spaceship, things weren’t so bad. The M’Mori were not the nicest, but one soldier was; he was our guard in our section of the ship. We had a couple of guards but K’Tem was my favorite. He would talk to me and I felt safe with him; I didn’t know why, I just did. He would tell me about planets he had been to. He was only a young soldier, and had only been with the M’Mori army for a year, but told me how big they were in the universe. That M’Mori were everywhere, mining many planets, but Aarzyn had the best supply of aket so far.

  He also told me that M’Mori were listening all the time. To everyone. That his quarters’ tech had been modified by his older brother—he wasn’t a soldier but in tech. He overrode the system so the high up M’Mori couldn’t see or hear us when we were in or around his quarters. I promised to never tell the others—well, not until I was off this ship. Then, I would tell them everything about the girls and the many secrets K’Tem shouldn’t have told me.

  Like how he had come to find that his people used slaves and prisoners to mine the rock, aket, on the planet I was going to. He couldn’t believe his people were like that. There were rules and laws in space and the M’Mori were breaking many of them. The swapping of human brides as payment to mine on Aarzyn was something a space government had arranged between the Aashi and M’Mori, but it wasn’t a fair payment for what they were doing to their planet.

  Aarzyn was a planet that was not to be occupied or changed, the people lived as they always had. They were not advanced, and the space laws made by the Universal Federation—which was the governing power in the universe here—made sure that didn’t happen. The Aashi were a dying race, and they needed to save their species, so the arrangement had been made. Humans, we were a match with them. We could bear their children and continue their species. Even if it would be a half-human, half-Aash
i race. I hoped they looked human. Not like the M’Mori… Not that K’Tem was ugly.

  He had iridescent scales all over his body, a flat nose, and sharp teeth like a piranha. Oh, and he was bald… everywhere. They didn’t grow hair. He did have smaller ears than a human. His lips were blue and soft… so soft. His tongue was reptile-like, forked and blue.

  It didn’t take long before our friendship turned into more. You would think kissing a guy with all those teeth would scare me, but it didn’t. There was something about him. I was drawn to him in a way I didn’t understand myself… He was honest and cared for me.

  We spent a lot of time together. The girls started to notice but I tried to shut them down at any talk or teasing. I didn’t think it mattered much for me, I was on this ship for one reason only, but K’Tem would have gotten into trouble, and I think the girls got the hint and stopped.

  He was such a nice guy, and I didn’t want anything to happen to him, but I was drawn to him. I wanted him around me all the time. I loved to hold his hand… His palm was smooth and warm. And he was mine; he told me so. He told me he would come for me. Only, he wasn’t mine… I belonged to someone else.

  K’Tem was just the delivery boy.

  Chapter Two

  Jessica

  Aarzyn was a humid, purple planet, and the guys here… well, they were huge. And purple too. They wanted to be mine. They said that they were my Chosen mates, like, as in more than one. Yeah, there were five of them. M’Mori and the agents didn’t mention that little surprise, but then they were full of surprises. And none of them good.

  But these Aashi guys, they weren’t mine. I had already chosen a mate, one who I wanted, who I fell in love with, but I said my tearful goodbyes to him two months ago. He said he loved me, and he would come for me. He took my heart with him when he left and now I was waiting for him. I didn’t know how he would find me when he didn’t know where I was. There was no way for him to track me, and I was sure the Aashi would kill him if he got close.

  When I heard of Clan Wolf, I knew the girls were there. Or at least one. I needed to go to them, to talk to them. They would understand.

  Honestly, I didn’t know why these Aashi guys were complaining. I told them over and over I wasn’t interested in them, but they just acted like assholes and still followed me like lost puppies.

  “Jee-see-ka, you mate bond me. You are my Chosen. I am your male.” I turned back to see the largest of the chosen guys standing closer than I would like.

  “I told you, Bezen, I’m not interested. Leave me alone.” Ugh, I had been trekking through this strange forest for a week. Maybe I was lost but I wasn’t going to ask for help. Bezen and his chosen crew just kept telling me to return to Clan Ariaan. As if.

  I could see some Aashi males in the trees following us at times, a lot of the time I didn’t see them at all. And if one of the Chosen saw them get too close, they would chase them off. Not that I cared, I was sure they were after the same thing. And I had no interest in a whole lot more following me. These five were enough for me.

  When Bezen got closer, I screamed loudly and he froze. I knew the touching thing… I knew what it meant. After I already did it, of course. And I refused to touch them again. I made sure to learn everything after that, but the touching thing, that was a big thing to find out after. Like, come on, I touched this guy and now his cock works. I laughed when they first told me what I had done, I thought they were messing with me. Trying to get me to mate bond them. But it was all true. I needed to touch him so he would get the mating hormones. And Bezen was fifty-three. He had never been through puberty. Well, not until now.

  I think that in itself was a tragedy, and not my refusing to be his mate. At least he could jack off or something. At least it worked… I knew it did because he liked to present it to me… They all did. Like it was a magic stick, they just didn’t get what to do with it. I didn’t want them, and if that was their version of a dick pic, well, that was never what a girl wanted.

  “Mate bond with me,” Bezen pleaded, the translator always a moment delayed, but I knew what he was asking. I screamed longer and louder than before. When I stopped, my throat felt hoarse, sweat trickled down my forehead, and I felt dizzy. Come on, this was insane. This clan should be close. It had to be.

  “Jessica?” I heard called out through the trees, and my heart started to race. I swung my head around but all the trees looked the same… Was I hearing things?

  “Hello? Elle?” I swear it was Elle I could hear, or maybe my dehydrated mind was playing tricks on me. It had to be one of the girls; I needed it to be. Was I close to Clan Wolf? Was this it? My breathing sped up as I listened.

  “Where are you?” I heard called again, yet this voice was different. They were really there; I'd made it. I did it

  “I’m here, hello… Hello, can you see me?” I called out, hoping they could see me. By the looks on the chosen guys’ faces, I could tell they weren’t impressed by my new find, but me, I was happier than I’d felt in two months.

  When the girls came into view, they had four Aashi males with them. They were shorter than my chosen ones. But they had dark mating stripes on their thighs. Ugh, I guess they got their alien husbands.

  “Hadley, Elle, oh god, are you girls going to this Clan Wolf?” I rushed to them and hugged them. I wasn’t close to any of the girls, but that was because I kept my distance. I had to.

  “It’s close. Zurcov, he knows the way.” Elle gestured to the Aashi male beside her. He nodded at me as I watched him stand taller. I could see his eyes were on my Chosen. He was shorter than them, and from the way he eyed them, I was sure he didn’t like that he was outnumbered, even with what looked to be Hadley’s two guys. The four of these males were no match for the Chosen males from Clan Ariaan.

  “Let’s go then, I need to get there, now. I need to get away from these assholes.” Hadley watched them from the corner of her eye as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder. I needed this; I needed some human comfort. I was tired, emotional, and grumpy. But I held it in. I didn’t want to upset everyone when I got there. I know I had been a bitch on the ship, I just didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. If I spilled my secrets, we all could have been in danger. From the M’Mori, from the government agents… We weren’t safe. Even here, I wasn’t safe from these guys.

  The girls were talking so fast that it was hard to keep up at first, but it was so nice to hear English. They both held onto my arms, it made me feel safe. We had made it to Clan Wolf… I sighed in relief. That was until my Chosen surrounded us girls and threatened any male who came close.

  I felt terrible that Elle and Hadley were caught up in this macho bullshit, and the Chosen guys wouldn’t move to let them out to their mates who stood as close as they could. They wanted to free their mates. I could hear Elle telling them to hold on, not to do anything stupid.

  As far as first impressions go, I had only made bad ones.

  Chapter Three

  K’Tem

  I looked down at my chest for the hundredth time, and what I saw was still the same. The glowing swirls on my scales, it let others know I had found my mate. My fated mate. Many M’Mori searched for their mate for many years. I had been blessed by the gods to have found mine so young in life. I was only twenty-one years; most don’t find their mate until they were more mature. But I met her and she was everything I could ask for in a mate.

  Beautiful, smart, kind, and generous with kisses. She had the most amazing hair color, like that on the sun back home on Mori Mori, and her nose was protruding and so unusual. But her smile and those blunt teeth… She wasn’t afraid of me. When I first saw her, I knew she was my fated mate. I also knew I was in a lot of trouble the moment my body reacted to her. I didn’t believe the M’Mori government knew that we, the M’Mori, could be fated to humans. I had never heard of it before to any species other than our own.

  Jessica, the human, she was my fated mate.

  “K’Tem, are you there, brother?” I quickly
covered my chest as I grabbed the datapad my brother, R’Nam, was secretly contacting me on. He had given it to me when I was assigned the special mission. He had been convinced for many years that the government was up to something; he was right. But he didn’t know how corrupt they really were.

  “Yes, I am here. Were you able to locate her?” I stared back as my brother pressed buttons on his screens; he was very skilled in tech. He enjoyed hacking into other species’ systems to see what they were up to. He never did so to cause harm. He did it because he could. But it had been almost impossible for him to hack the M’Mori ship I was on now.

  Earth was a world in which no other species had contacted or been allowed access to. But now, M’Mori had a special license to make contact. There were many off-limit planets that you were not allowed to visit or touch—Aarzyn was one of them. But as soon as the M’Mori government saw what they wanted, they had the status changed so they could mine there. That was my brother’s first hint that something was going on.

  It was not good. The aket which they mined was not good for any living creature. It had a mineral inside; it was the mineral that powered the ships. It would also make you sick if you were exposed to it for long periods of time. The thing was, the Aashi were living so close to where they mined, it worried my brother. And now it worried me more as my fated was there, living with the Aashi.