by Aidy Award
Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by S.E. Smith. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Magic, New Mexico remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of S.E. Smith, or their affiliates or licensors.
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A Tangled Fate
A Fated for Curves Novel
Aidy Award
Magic, New Mexico
Kindle Worlds
Copyright © 2018 by Aidy Award.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions” at the address below.
Aidy Award
www.AidyAward.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book Layout ©2018 BookDesignTemplates.com
A Tangled Fate/ Aidy Award.—1st ed.
ASIN
Dedication
This one’s for my dad, even though he never reads them. He still always believes in me and tells me to Never, Never, Quit.
Happy Birthday.
Save the Geek Girl, Save the Galaxy.
Ash Ayininkalbi has spent her whole life searching for who she is supposed to be. She doesn't know where she came from, why she can use magic,
or why these two mega hot alien bear-shifters
have suddenly kidnapped her.
But, she does know one thing. Science. Her brains have gotten her out of worse situations than being stuck between two...aliens? bears? supermodels?
Russ and Dunn Barrett need a weapon to defend thousands of innocent lives from the spectral warriors who have been stealing souls throughout the galaxy. They know exactly how to get one.
But, cut off from Star Coalition,
they'll have to kidnap an Earth scientist
and coerce her into making it for them.
That task becomes doubly hard when the curvy, lick-worthy scientist turns out to be both a witch with erratic powers and their fated mate.
When the spectral scourge attacks, these twin bear-shifter warriors will have to choose,
save their soul mate or save the universe.
Save the geek girl, save the galaxy.
―Aidy Award, A Tangled Fate
Contents
One: Russet’s Wise Mind
Two: Ash’s Fate Shows Up
Three: Dunn’s Smart Heart
Four: Ash is the Flash
Five: Russet Must
Six: A Pass at Ash
Seven: Dunn with Waiting
Eight: Ash Gets Mashed
Nine: Russet’s Fuss
Ten: Ashes to Ashes
Eleven: Dunn with this Bearshit
Twelve: Ash Smash
Thanks
One: Russet’s Wise Mind
Earth women were not easy.
They were smart, they were sophisticated, they were sexy as hell. But, for the first time in his adult life Russet couldn’t talk a woman into his bed to save his life.
In fact, at the moment, he was being kicked out of one. The third one this week.
His twin brother Dunn’s luck had run out too, if the slap across his face was any indication. Russ rubbed his own cheek, feeling the sting as if the pretty raven-haired beauty had struck him.
First their shirts and then pants went flying out the door, over the little balcony, and into the parking lot of the lodgings. Their boots were already down there. “Take your limp dicks and get the hell out of here.”
It wasn’t like he had performance anxiety or some shit either.
They’d be going along just fine, and at some point, his bear would revolt, and his libido was done. It wanted nothing to do with her.
He’d been hard been pretty much since they’d gotten to Earth. Didn’t matter how many times he’d taken care of it, in the shower, in his own bed at night, he was hard as an Anterrian miner’s pick axe all the damn time.
It had never mattered to his bear before who he fucked.
He knew why too.
She was here.
His fated mate.
It was the only logical explanation for why the talisman he wore around his neck, his soul ember, had been glowing and a deep yearning for something he couldn’t have burned through his brain cells.
It drove him to distraction like nothing else had. This lust, this need that couldn’t be slaked.
Russ walked out the door and into the warm night air not caring who saw him naked. Maybe he’d catch a break and she would see him.
Whoever she was.
Fates be damned. He pounded his fist on the metal railing hard enough to bend and warp the metal. The bear inside of him growled and shimmered to the surface. It didn’t care that they had a mission to protect the galaxy. It’s base instincts to rut and claim threatened to take over.
He took a deep breath and pushed the bear back down. Emotions didn’t rule him. He knew better. That was Dunn’s department. He was the wise mind, his brother was the heart.
But, the drive to find his mate, their mate, was taking over that logical and controlled part of his mind. She was here.
He just couldn’t find her.
“We don’t need our cocks to bring you more orgasms than stars in the sky, pretty bird.” Dunn never quit. Not until he got what he was after. Which had gotten them both into trouble more often than not.
It was also what had gotten them into the Star Guardians and onto the elite team hunting spectrals.
Russ wasn’t going to waste his efforts on a woman who didn’t want them. Who wasn’t the one.
They’d both thought this woman might be. But, then again, every female in New Mexico, at least the towns of Roswell, Carlsbad, and Magic, lit up their soul embers. Actually, to be fair every guy had too. The whole state had the talismen they wore around their necks glowing.
A door slammed behind him and Dunn tumbled out onto the landing. “Whoo, that one had some fire in her.”
Russet sensed his brother’s volatile bear near the surface too. Closer to taking over than normal.
Maybe a shift and a fight would do them both good. Blow off some steam so they could get focused again.
Dunn flipped up to his feet, noticed the twisted metal of the railing and glanced at Russ. He laughed, suppressing his anger in a way Russet couldn’t.
“Fucking Fates. Black said we’d know. That he had no doubt the second he saw Kady. So, why the hell haven’t we found her?” Dunn kept his tone light as if this was all a joke.
It wasn’t.
They both knew the answer. No twin bears had ever found a woman that could handle the intensity of combining souls like theirs before. What if she simply didn’t exist.
Or worse, what if she did and they destroyed her?
A red fox trotted across the parking lot and shifted into human form. “Hey, are you two going to stand around all night with your dicks in your hands or are you ever going to answer your comms?”
Both of
their comm units were in their pants which were in the parking lot ten feet below them.
“Dicks,” they both said in unison.
Titian, the sneaky bastard on their team rolled his eyes at them and crossed his arms. “It may be your last chance. Passion is ready to tear yours off.”
“Shit.” If their commander was calling them back in now, it meant she’d talked to Star Coalition’s council. Had she convinced them not to condemn the thousands of victims of the spectral warriors to death?
They’d been working non-stop to find a way to defeat the scourge plaguing the galaxy, destroying lives, families.
Their family.
“You two have a new mission and you’re not going to like it,” Titian said, his face grim.
For a snide fox who thought everything was an opportunity to dick around, that was bad.
Shit. Dread scraping across his mind called the bear back to the surface, Dunn’s too. Claws extended from his hands and fangs extended from his mouth.
He used that fuel to jump the remains of the railing and down to the parking area below. The asphalt cracked under his weight and the force of the landing. More ground shattered when Dunn landed beside him.
“Let’s go.” Russet pulled his clothes on a lot faster than he’d taken them off. “You can fill us in on the way back to the ship.”
Dunn tapped a few buttons on the comm unit and they heard the black hole drive on their fighter ship whir to life.
Titian barked out a laugh. “You left a spaceship parked in front of a motel in broad daylight?”
“Yeah.” Dunn pointed across the street where an entire café that looked like a Drachnar cruiser sat. Next to it was another transient lodging with a ship resembling an older model of their own sprawled across the roof.
“It probably brought in some business for the owner while we were here. Besides, Roswellians aren’t even phased by our extra-terrestrial presence. How do you think I talked that chick into letting me take off my clothes for her in the first place?”
“Lead on then, bear boys. Beats running my ass all the way back to Magic.” Titian strolled inside the ship and made himself comfortable. He tapped on his own comm link while Russet and Dunn put the ship in stealth mode and took off.
They were landing near the garden their brother Black and his mate Kady shared with some weird, but tough little gnomes within minutes.
Black and the one other member of their team, Fedelis, a lion shifter, were waiting.
“Welcome back, dicks for brains. Gather us any new intel on your reconnoitering mission?”
Black knew exactly what the two of them had been up to. But, what did he expect when he and his beautiful new mate were lighting up the sky constantly with all their love-making? Everyone in town knew exactly when Black and Kady were getting it on.
Kady was new to being a witch and hadn’t completely learned to control her powers, which it turned out was fueled by sex. Black didn’t give a fuck if everyone knew he liked to give his mate a half a dozen orgasms a night.
She held their brother’s soul, had saved it too, and no one would begrudge them their fireworks.
Neither Russ or Dunn answered Black’s question and he didn’t waste any more time getting to the mission at hand.
“I just got off the comms with Scarlet. She says Passion has been working tirelessly to convince Star Coalition to use the intel we transmitted about our last battle with the spectrals and Task Force Omega to get us a team to down here to develop a weapon or a strategy or something.”
The people in this strange Earth town had discovered more about protecting against the spectral warriors’ attacks and what hurt them in a few days than the elite Star Rangers had been able to figure out in months of battling the scourge of the galaxy.
In fact, this was the first time they could even say they’d won a battle, saved lives instead of losing souls.
The tide of the war could turn in their favor if Passion, Star Coalition and the galaxy’s best scientists could figure out a way to harness the witch’s powers.
Fedelis hadn’t looked a single one of them in the eye since they’d landed. He wasn’t normally a big talker, preferred action to words. But, the way he shifted from foot to foot was off. He knew something the rest of them didn’t. Before Black could continue, he butted in.
“All Star Coalition has heard was that we found a way to eliminate a spectral from existence. They want us to hunt down and destroy the spectrals here immediately. Scarlet has already transmitted our orders.”
None of them wanted to even think about the solution Star Coalition was proposing. It meant the end of more than the war. It would be the destruction of everything they held dear.
Death to anyone whose soul had been ripped from their bodies and turned into a spectral warrior. Kill the body, kill the spectral.
That meant death to thousands of beings across the galaxy. Including the Barrett’s mother, father, and sisters.
There had to be a more logical solution. “We need more time. Kady—”
Black peered out into the night trying to hide his concern. “Isn’t the answer. Her magic isn’t unlimited.”
They’d almost lost their older brother to the spectral warriors. He’d even become one for a time. His true mate had brought him back with some powerful soul magic. It had taken a toll on both of them.
Dunn smacked a fist against the side of the ship. “I won’t do it.”
Anger zipped across their connection, heated by Dunn’s emotions. Russ felt the same but needed to get his own under control. One of them had to.
Black might be recovering from his run-in with the spectrals, but he was still in command of their team. “Which is why I sent Titian to go get you. I can’t defy a direct order without Coalition coming down on our heads. So, I’m going back inside my tiny house, finding my mate, and...”
Dunn held up a hand. “Stop right there. We all know what you’re going to do with your mate.”
Black got a big ole shit-eating grin on his face. Bastard.
The smile faded just as fast. “The point being, I know nothing about the mission you boys are going on, nothing about the plan Passion has communicated via Titian, and absolutely nothing about kidnapping a TFO scientist. Got it?”
Oh, shit.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I’m only here because Kady said to invite you all to dinner tomorrow night. She’s making something called mac and cheese for a lucky pot and we’ll be watching a Trek through the Stars marathon.”
“That’s a potluck and a Star Trek marathon.” Kady’s voice floated over from the doorway of their weirdly small tin hut.
There was no way more than two people would fit inside they’re tiny abode.
Kady walked over and snuggled up against their brother. Fates above she was beautiful, and Russ had more than a little crush on her.
The empty place inside of him he refused to acknowledge opened up to swallow him whole at the sight of her and the love she shared with Black. Inside his bear growled and snapped his teeth.
He wanted what Black had. Wanted it so bad, he would give his own soul for it.
Russet had only half a soul to offer a woman, and even together with his twin, well, no woman would be able to handle two alpha bear-shifters. In bed, sure. In her heart and soul?
They would completely overwhelm her, take her over, and it would destroy her.
He’d seen it happen on his home planet of Honaw and it had scared the shit out of him then. Now, that he knew better how to control his emotions, and his bear, he still didn’t believe there was a woman for him.
“The whole gang is coming over. Lacey, Frost, Topper, the babies, the boys. The Gunderson’s are going to set up an outdoor movie screen in the garden for us all.”
Russ took a step back, not trusting himself around Kady. “Thank you for inviting us, but we have to...uh.”
Kady wrinkled her nose at him. “You need to work on your alibi a little bit better t
han that if you don’t want Star Coalition up your ass.”
Black snort laughed while Russet stared at Kady, his mouth gaping wide enough to let the flies in.
“I’d suggest mentioning that the two of you have hot dates. With your good looks and sex-appeal no one would doubt it for a second.”
Black’s laugh cut off mid guffaw. “I’m not entirely comfortable with you thinking my brothers are sexy.”
“Oh, come on. Those beards alone have half the women in town swooning over them.”
That was the first he’d heard of anyone in Magic even thinking twice about him. Who exactly were these swooners? He was about to ask, but Black and Kady had already forgotten anyone else was even there.
“Beards, huh? Is that why I haven’t been able to find my razor in the past few days?”
She patted his cheek and her fingers definitely lingered. “Maybe.”
Dunn grabbed Russ’s arm and backed them both away before they had to see something they really didn’t want to.
Titian and Fed were already waiting by the fighter. Fed stood with his arms folded, not saying a word, as was usual. Titian handed over two comms tablets. “Something fishy is going on at Star Coalition. Passion used a... private channel to get me this information.”
They looked down at the tablets. Schematics for the TFO base they’d rescued Black from were on the screens. This one had way more detail and a target for them.
“This is phase one of her plan. You boys are on snatch and grab duty. Get in, get the scientist working in this lab and get out.” Titian pointed to the highlighted area and zoomed in on the floor plans. “We have Intel confirming that TFO has been working on a containment field for the spectral's. Passion thinks we can turn that into a weapon.”
“What does high command think?”
“High command can fuck off.”
Russet and Dunn both nodded. While the space rangers had given them the opportunity to fight and protect their people and home planet, the twins’ loyalty would always lie with whoever would continue to help them do that. If Star Coalition had their heads up their own asses, then they were prepared to take matters into their own hands.