Could it be true? Were we supposed to be together? After yesterday and almost losing him, I knew I couldn’t let him go. Plus, this shared dream made me believe that he really was my true mate.
How was it that we shared a dream? Was it one of those fated mates things? Did it happen because he held me all night long? Surely it wasn’t coincidence. While I believed in coincidence, this was too much.
I leaned in and kissed him good and hard, not caring about morning breath. He rolled me onto my back and leaned his body over the top of mine. He put most of his weight on one of his arms and let his other hand roam over my body. I opened my lips to accept him, and he bit my lower lip before giving me what I wanted.
My hands were roaming over his shirtless back. I could feel the ripples in his muscles and it turned me on even more. He pulled back, breathing heavily. “Does that mean, yes?”
I took a moment to get a good, deep breath. “Yes, if you can get assigned here, I will marry you as soon as possible.” He kissed me again, and it was at least an hour before we got out of bed.
That afternoon when we had lunch, Zelan told me that the Commander granted his request to stay. “I think that due to the Zateelian issue, it will take longer than the next four months to eradicate the bugs. This settlement is going to need fully trained warriors to stay here for some time to come.”
“I wonder if Earth’s pesticides would work on the tiny, mutant cockroaches. Next time someone goes there, they should pick up a bunch of cockroach spray. We could regularly spray the area surrounding the settlement if it works. I doubt it would work on the grown ones, but maybe on the newly hatched it would?” It was a stretch, but totally worth trying.
“Hmm. Maybe when the Commander’s new ship arrives, he can find a way to go to Earth before heading off to war.”
That just might work for Paris’ plan too. Maybe she could start working on a way to get volunteers to come out here so that the V’Zenians could stop abducting humans.
“So, this means we can really get married? Can we have Commander Venay perform the ceremony for us? I know that Croso is in charge here, but since we know Venay so much better, I would like for him to do it. What do you think?”
He smiled. “I take it this means you have given it more thought since this morning in bed?”
My cheeks heated and I looked down at my plate and whispered, “I want to continue what we started this morning, but not until we are married. I saved myself for my future husband all these years and I want to wait until our official mating before we go further. Are you okay with that?” This topic made me nervous. I wanted more with Zelan, but I wanted to wait for our wedding night even more.
Ben was fine waiting, but now I knew it was because he never cared much for me. Zelan, on the other hand, was very obvious with his feelings for me. It took him over an hour to turn his red pulsing veins back to purple this morning.
He reached out for my hand. “Natalie, I told you I would wait, and I meant it. But that doesn’t mean that I want to put off our ceremony now that you have agreed. How about we see if Commander Venay can perform our ceremony sometime this week?”
My heart started beating very quickly with anticipation. “Yes, as soon as possible would be great. Now that you are permanently assigned here, there’s nothing to stop us.” I took a deep breath and felt my eyes tear up a bit.
This was what I wanted. That dream was shared between the both of us for a reason. I was meant for this life and didn’t want to put it off any longer.
There were still issues I needed to work through, but Zelan was not going to be involved in the slave trade. Maybe I could even use my position here to help advance this settlement, and maybe even one day we could show the President how much humans can give back when we are free and not burdened with the yoke of slavery.
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as I leaned in for a kiss and started to plan my wedding. Paris was going to be so excited! I hoped she would be my maid of honor.
Once we have dealt with this cockroach infestation, we could re-focus on ways to stop slavery. Hopefully one day soon, we could even open up discussions with the leaders of Earth and get some trading set up between the two species. There were so many positive options moving forward. I had a permanent smile the rest of the day.
Epilogue
It only took us two days to put together our mating ceremony. The entire settlement was very excited about it. Some thought it was the perfect way to try and move forward from our losses.
“Paris, I’m so nervous! Was it like this for you?” She had to be nervous on her mating day, right?
Paris chuckled and hugged me, but not too tight as I was wearing my wedding dress. The seamstresses here worked overtime creating a beautiful, white gown for me. “Yes, I was nervous, and also so excited that I put my nerves aside in order to enjoy the day.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll try that. Zelan said we can go away for a couple of days once the bugs are destroyed. I’m bummed that we don’t get a proper honeymoon right now. I guess that’s how you feel too?” Butterflies were zooming all around my stomach and my entire body tingled with anticipation.
“Yes, but I know that when we do go away, it will be perfect. I wouldn’t want to leave right now, not when there are so many unknowns on this planet. It would be even worse if Venay was called back as soon as we got there. I’ll wait.” She shrugged her shoulders as she walked around me checking my dress and hair.
“Paris, thank you for being my maid of honor. No one else could have taken on this role.” I took her hands in mine and did my best to hold back the tears threatening to form.
“Natalie, I’m honored to be chosen as your maid of honor. I think Venay is also honored to be the one who performs your ceremony. Technically, it should be Commander Croso, since he is the colony leader. But I think he understands. He might even enjoy just sitting there and watching for a change.” She smoothed a few strands of hair away from my face. “Now, no tears. Otherwise you’ll mess up your perfect make-up.”
We both giggled and I blinked back the tears that were threating to spill.
I never thought I’d marry a man I loved. I knew life wouldn’t be perfect but marrying someone I had real feelings for who also loved me was a dream come true.
“I think you’re perfect. Are you ready?” She walked over and picked up my bouquet.
“Yes, I am. Clarissa sure was sweet to put this hibiscus bouquet together for me, wasn’t she?” I smelled the beautiful flowers in my hand and thought back to a family trip to Hawaii. For one brief moment, I was sad that my parents couldn’t be here for this. But I wasn’t going to let it ruin my day.
I thought back to Zelan and all the wonderful things he had done for me and I just knew … it was going to be a perfect day, and a perfect marriage.
Paris led me to the door that would open up to my wonderful new beginning.
The End
**Keep reading for a sneak peek at Worlds Entwined!
What’s Next?
Book 3, Worlds Entwined is coming soon! In fact, by the middle of May it should be out, maybe sooner. Check my website for updates: https://jlhendricksauthor.com
You can also keep reading to get a snippet of the book!
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evealed, sign up for my newsletter at: https://jlhendricksauthor.com/newsletter/ I will only send out a few e-mails a month. I hate spam and lots of e-mails from others, so why would I do that to you? I won’t. And I will never sell your address either. I will however, do cover reveals, snippets of new books and giveaways or promos in the newsletter, some of which will only be available to newsletter subscribers.
Acknowledgements
I have to give a huge thank you to my editor! Rebecca Reddell who worked extremely hard on this manuscript with me. She gave me so many ideas to make this a better book! I complained for three days. That is how long it took me to get through her edits and re-writes! Normally, it’s a one-day process. But I believe that the book is so much better for it!
My beta readers are awesome!!! I have two who returned and added a few new ones too. Thank you so much to Leo Roars, Dawnya Goode, Kathy Knuckles, and Angela Weiner. You ladies did a great job catching anything that made it past all of the edits and re-writes! This is a much cleaner manuscript because of your efforts!
A special shout out to my peeps in the 20BooksTo50K group! You all rock!!! Thank you all so much for your help and support!
This is the second edition of Worlds Collide. In the 2 years since I originally wrote this series, I’ve learned a lot about writing and editing. While the story line is the same, I did change up some scenes and how I told the story. I believe that this version is much richer and is also a lot closer to the vision I had in my head of what this story should be.
This month marks my 3-year anniversary since I launched my first book. I have truly come a long way in this time, and I have Michael Anderle to thank for it all. There are also a ton of indie authors who have helped me along the way. But it was Michael who got me started in this business of storytelling. I always had stories running through my mind, but I hadn’t tried to put them down on paper in a very long time. Thank you, Michael, for always believing in me and supporting me, you ROCK!
Author’s Notes
I have had such a blast writing this series so far! It started out as a fantasy about me getting abducted. Of course, it was after I read my first clean Sci-fi romance book. In my vision, I was Paris. Worlds Collide is an extension of that fantasy. Worlds Entwined (book 3) will be a culmination of that dream!
There was also a part of Natalie’s past that is actually from my own past. When in college I did a study abroad to Estonia for a semester and I experienced culture shock. I’m not normally someone who gets depressed, but there are things that can trigger it. Culture shock is very common when you are in a totally new environment for a long period of time. I met a missionary who took me under her wing. She and her family were so wonderful to me. She really did make pancakes and maple syrup from scratch because at the time, no stores in Tartu, Estonia sold syrup. They also didn’t sell Bisquick, which is what I normally use when making pancakes at home. She didn’t put chocolate chips in them like my Aunt has done my entire life, but the Missionary’s pancakes were fantastic. One night we also watched When Harry Met Sally. At the time, it was one of my favorite movies and she had the VHS. Yes, this was back before DVD was popular LOL. I’m old.
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this book! I read all the reviews on the eBook retailer sites. I have been so happy with what I have read! Even the low starred reviews are good to read. They show me where I need to improve. An editor and other authors can help me a lot, but it is the reader’s opinions that are the most important. So, keep providing me with your reviews!
Currently, there are two short stories in this world. One is the story of a young widow named, Maddie. Worlds Explode is out now if you want to read her story! It’s pretty exciting and fun. The other is Worlds Revealed and tells the true story of Roswell from Venay’s grandfather’s perspective! Currently only available to those who join my newsletter.
And of course, Worlds Entwined is coming very soon!
Connecting With Me
If you want to make sure you hear about the latest and greatest, as well as get a free book, sign up for my newsletter at: http://jlhendricksauthor.com/newsletter/ I will only send out a few e-mails a month. I hate spam and lots of e-mails from others, so why would I do that to you? I won’t. And I will never sell your address either. I will however, do cover reveals, snippets of new books and giveaways or promos in the newsletter, some of which will only be available to newsletter subscribers.
The rest of my social media addresses are:
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Worlds Entwined Sneak Peek
Slave or volunteer? What will the V'Zenian's choose?
With war on the horizon with the Zateelians, Paris and Venay are ordered back to Earth to abduct 2,000 factory workers, along with more women to be used as mates. Will Paris be able to change the minds of Central Command in time? Or will she be forced along with Venay to continue abducting humans instead of recruiting volunteers?
When Paris comes up with an exciting plan which will also include an Interstellar Dating Agency, will Venay talk his leaders into listening to his human mate? Or will he shut up and follow orders?
Eereen – Venay’s Second in Command. His future mate is being feisty and refuses to mate with him. If she doesn't change her mind, he could lose her forever.
Come and join the exciting trip back to Earth for the labor force needed to assist with the war effort against the Zateelians! If you have enjoyed the first two books in this series, then you will absolutely fall in love with Worlds Entwined! This is a pg-13 alien abduction adventure full of alien battles with mutant cockroaches, and feisty Earth girls.
Prologue
Captain Eereen
Second in Command to Commander Venay
I met her three months ago and I just knew, I knew she was the one. She doesn’t believe it. She thinks that I am manipulating her emotions. There are times where she might feel intense desire for me based on what I am feeling at the moment, but overall, her emotions are hers. I do not understand why Sarah does not recognize her own feelings for me.
Not one couple has taken this long to mate. She even refuses to see me more than twice a week. I received a message from Command yesterday, offering me my own ship. Now that I have been Captain for a year, I qualify to captain my own starship. If I leave, I am not allowed to take Sarah with me unless she agrees to be my mate. There is no way I can leave her.
Maybe I should tell her? Would she agree to mate with me if she knew I was to have command of a starship and leave this planet? Probably not.
Venay has new orders, the kind that will keep me here or at least close by for a while. I could use the time to convince Sarah she really is in love with me.
I thought for sure she would have agreed to be my mate after the attack at Zeronzen Lake almost three months ago. Right after that incident, multiple couples mated, including Maddie and Marcon. There is nothing like facing death to make you realize your feelings for someone else.
◊◊◊
Almost 3 months ago, Zeronzen Lake
“Sarah, look at that lake! Have you ever seen anything like it?” I asked my mate.
“That’s beautiful! How is the water purple? Is it contaminated?” Sarah asked with furrowed brow.
“No, there is an algae native to this planet that causes the lake waters to be purple. It is safe for you to swim in. Just do not drink the water.” I took her hand and walked her to the shore.
She took off her shoes and walked in. “Come in, the water is really warm.” She waved me over to join her. “I’m so glad you invited me here today! This is going to be a wonderful day!”
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arm around her tiny waist. After I rested my chin on her head for a few minutes I whispered, “Any t
ime spent with you is a wonderful day.” She smiled and I could not resist leaning over further to kiss her neck.
While I was kissing her someone screamed out so loud, the nearby birds all fled from the surrounding bushes and trees.
“What was that?” Sarah turned in my arms and looked at me with wide eyes.
I turned around to see what was going on and noticed several guards made their way to the meadow where Marcon and his mate, Maddie, were huddled. I took Sarah’s hand and walked her out of the water.
I walked up to the nearest guard and asked, “What happened?”
“Hold on.” He said. Then I heard him speaking through his implant. I hated hearing one-sided conversations. You never knew what was really going on when you could only hear the person next to you and not the one on the comm.
“Captain, Marcon and Maddie found the remains of a few human bodies. It is obvious they were taken by the Zateelians. We have called for a shuttle to come and get all of the females and take them back to the settlement. You might want to ensure your mate’s safety by putting her on the first one. There are too many here to make one trip,” Nextar said.
“Yes, thank you. She will be in the first group.” I walked back to where Sarah stood waiting for me. She kept trying to peak over the shoulders of the warriors in front of her.
“Sarah, we have to go back to the settlement, it is not safe here. Marcon just discovered the remains of humans who had been attacked by the Zateelians. The shuttle is coming to pick you and some others up. I need you to be on the first shuttle.” I wrapped my arms around her and drew her near. The intent was to comfort her, but in the end, it comforted me as well.
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