Braxtyn

by Kate Rudolph

  Braxtyn

  Mated to the Alien

  Kate Rudolph and Starr Huntress

  Want more sci-fi romance from Kate Rudolph? You can get a free, full length novel by joining my reader club. Sign up now!

  More by Kate Rudolph

  Mated to the Alien

  Ruwen

  Tyral

  Stoan

  Cyborg

  Krayter

  Kayleb

  Shayn

  Braxtyn

  Doryan

  Braxtyn © Kate Rudolph 2020.

  Cover design by Kate Rudolph.

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  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 construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Kate Rudolph.

  www.katerudolph.net

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Preview Soulless: Detyen Warriors Book One

  About Kate Rudolph

  Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

  Also by Kate Rudolph

  Chapter One

  THE STREETS OF TEGGA Central could use a sweep. And a burning. The rank smell surrounded Vita Minnik until she was choking on it, and only years of discipline kept her from making a sound. She scowled, though, it was a street made for scowling. Teggians ambled down the path, many arm in arm in arm, their bodies varied with four or more hands and as many feet. At first it had been strange to watch them walk, their gaits ambling in a flow so different from a human. But Vita had stayed on plenty of planets, had seen plenty of aliens. After a few minutes the Teggians were the same as anyone else and she could care less about what they looked like.

  She wasn’t looking for a Teggian.

  She kicked a piece of trash out of her way and scowled harder when it unexpectedly bounced against an alley wall with a loud thwork that could give away her position to anyone listening. But she’d earned enough luck in a decade of blood, sweat, and servitude that no one paid the sound any mind. Roski would slap her upside the head for that stupid ass mistake, but he was light years away and it had been years since he’d taken her along on a job. He knew she did the work.

  “That’s more credits than we agreed to!” The accent gave the speaker away as a non-Teggian and the content of the complaint told Vita she’d found her prey.

  A puddle of filth splashed around her knee-high boots but she ignored it as her swift steps took her through the warren of alleys and streets to the bazaar full of vendors and teeming with Teggian life. She’d been avoiding this place for the last few days, hoping her prey wouldn’t end up there. It was crowded, and Teggian security was stringent enough that they might be able to stop her from doing her job.

  As if abducting one little being was some great crime.

  Collecting, not abducting. Erdek owed a debt. A lot of debts, actually, and instead of paying up or working with Roski to come to another arrangement, he’d run. No one ran from Roski for long. And if anyone did escape, they sure as hell didn’t stick around this galaxy.

  Erdek argued with a vendor on the edge of the bazaar, his hands waving and spittle flying as he tried to talk the price down. Vita stayed in the shadows and watched. It would be satisfying to walk up to him and see the color drain from his bright red face, but he was sure to be a screamer and she wasn’t going to lose him.

  Again.

  She’d tracked him to Tegga Central four days ago and should have had him minutes after she’d docked her shuttle, but Erdek was more slippery than she’d expected and he’d managed to evade her thus far. Her research said he didn’t like to stay on any planet more than ten days or so, and that tactic had kept him out of the hands of Roski’s trackers for more than a year. But now his vacation had come to an end and it was time to pay the bill.

  Erdek cursed the vendor and spun away, stalking off in her direction. He paused and jerked his head up, looking around as if he sensed that she was nearby, that she was watching. Vita held her breath and stayed absolutely still. Few people were able to evade Roski’s hunters for as long as Erdek had managed and she wasn’t going to underestimate him now. Finally he started moving again.

  Vita reached for the cuff in her pocket and, as always, had to swallow down the bile that tried to rise in her throat. Slavers used cuffs like that to keep their property docile. It was cheap, ubiquitous, and effective. The only other method that worked nearly as well were pressure injectors filled with some heady chemical mixes. But the chems only worked on certain species and the mixtures had to be specially crafted for each job. A slave cuff worked on just about everyone.

  Vita would know.

  But she wasn’t a slaver and Erdek wouldn’t be a slave. Once he sorted things out with Roski he’d be free to go.

  With that thought firmly in mind, Vita waited until Erdek was firmly in range before she flashed out and wrapped the cuff around his thick wrist. He struggled for a moment, but once the cuff was secure it sent a signal to his brain that he couldn’t fight. As long as Vita held the control receptor he would have to do anything she said.

  “Be still,” she said.

  Erdek stilled.

  “Confirm your identity.” She was certain he was her prey, but she still had to make sure.

  “Erdek Torgendens of Mratla.” He didn’t have much control over his body, but the hopeless glare might have made her feel bad if she didn’t know the pile of debt he owed.

  She flashed her ID scanner in his face for a secondary confirmation and was satisfied when the light turned blue, telling her she had the right guy. “Follow me,” she instructed her prisoner. “And don’t make any fuss.”

  To anyone looking at them, they were just two aliens enjoying a stroll on Teggian streets. No one had to know about the blaster sitting on Vita’s hip or the knife sheathes she had on her arms. And they certainly didn’t need to know that the cuff Erdek was wearing controlled his every move.

  Her ship was docked in a public shipyard and racking up charges by the day. Roski would cover some of it, but this hunt had gone on long enough that it was starting to eat into the bounty she’d get for bringing Erdek back. She shoved him into the containment cell and closed the door. It might have been kinder to remove the cuff, but she wasn’t stupid. That thing wasn’t coming off until she turned him in.

  He was too slippery and she wasn’t going to fail Roski. He’d already put up with enough of her screw ups over the years.

  She saw she had a waiting message, but she’d look at it later. It wasn’t flagged as urgent, and delivering Erdek to one of Roski’s offices took precedence.

  The ship lifted off and glided smoothly through the atmosphere of Tegga and into the black of space. She keyed up the coordinates for the Consortium and sat back. It would be a l
ong ride, but that was part of the job. When she glanced back at her monitor she saw that the message that had been there was gone. Strange. Must have been recalled.

  As she got ready to sleep she let the thought slip from her mind. And then the messaging system beeped again and Vita cursed. She cracked her eyes, opened it, and called up the message.

  CORRECTED: Bounty 55842S2G61

  Disregard earlier message

  Target: Braxtyn NaZade

  Current Location: Unknown

  Last Known Location: Honora Station

  Vita grinned. One job done, and now she had a new one to keep her on her toes. Braxtyn NaZade didn’t know what was coming.

  BRAX TILTED HIS HEAD up and took in the bright blue sky overhead. It was still incredible to see something like that every day. Months on Earth and he hadn’t gotten used to it. There had been a sky like that when he was a kid, one that lit up in purples and yellows with giant fluffy clouds as far as the eye could see. Though the clouds had been a bit more green. But there was plenty of green on Earth. He just had to look down.

  The space was another thing that was taking some getting used to. They’d lived on Honora Station for so long that he’d forgotten what it felt like to be able to stretch his arms without risk of running into a wall or smacking someone else.

  “Ow,” hissed Deke.

  Okay, the smacking someone else was still a bit of a problem, but Deke was his twin so that didn’t count. “Watch where you’re going,” he shot back. He’d headed out of the house that he shared with his brothers and Naomi, his brother Shayn’s denya, with the intention of walking alone. It was nice to live with his family, but even in the giant house they’d managed to rent sometimes he could still feel the walls closing in. It had been even worse back when they’d lived on the space station, three brothers sharing a one room flat and living on top of one another. Now they each had their own large quarters with a bedroom to spare and rooms dedicated to entertainment, cooking, dining, and more. It was a wealth of space, and yet Brax still felt crowded.

  “I am watching,” Deke insisted. “You’re the one weaving back and forth, are you drunk?” He caught up to Brax and nudged his shoulder.

  Brax glared. That had been one time. How was he supposed to know how strong Earth whiskey was? When someone gave him a bottle back home, they meant for him to drink the whole thing. Why would Earth culture be any different?

  Luckily it had been a small bottle. Though the headache from that incident was enough to make him swear off harder spirits for a while.

  “I am trying to enjoy a walk,” said Brax. “What do you want?”

  “To spend time with my brother?”

  He snorted. “Try again.”

  “Shayn wanted to know if we’re doing anything for our birthday. Apparently these things are important on Earth.” Deke sounded puzzled. Where they’d been raised birthdays were just another day, and Honora Station had such a mishmash of cultures that it was difficult to know what was important to who.

  Frankly, Brax didn’t need the reminder that 80% of his life had already passed him by. “Does it really matter?” Shayn would insist that things weren’t dire. He’d point out that there were still six years before Brax and Deke might be forced to pay the Denya Price, and they had no way of knowing if they’d die. Being half-Oscavian and half-Detyen, they hadn’t even known until a few months ago if they’d be able to sense their mates. But Shayn had proved he was Detyen enough for that. Did that mean they were all Detyen enough to die?

  “We have plenty of time to find our mates,” said Deke. Of the two of them, he’d always been the optimist. “That is, if you were willing to actually try.”

  Brax sped up, ducking under a low hanging branch and hoping speed would be enough to lose his brother.

  Of course it wasn’t. “Come with me to the city tomorrow. There’s a meeting for displaced Detyens. I think it would be good for you to meet more of our people.”

  Brax stopped and turned fully to his twin. “If I agree am I allowed to continue my walk in peace?”

  Deke nodded with a grin.

  “Fine! Now go.” He waved his brother away, even as he could feel a matching grin threaten to split his face.

  Deke went and Brax was alone with the living forest around him.

  He knew his brothers had a point. Both of them had made an effort since coming to Earth. Shayn had taken a job with a pair of Detyen brothers who were trying to start up a colony for Detyens on Earth. Deke went to every meeting or event hosted for Detyens who’d made it to the planet, and Naomi was doing her best to reconnect to her birth planet, learning about the culture here and seeking out family she’d never known she had.

  Brax took walks. He breathed in the heavy air of the forest and thought. He didn’t like the city. It was too chaotic. Honora Station had been a crowded hub of every kind of alien, but there’d been order to it. There had to be. One couldn’t survive on a floating metal island in the middle of a star system without order. The crowded cities of Earth were nothing like home.

  He stopped when he saw a large hunk of wood that seemed to have fallen from a nearby branch. It was smooth, the bark worn away by the weather or something, and too thick for him to wrap his fingers around. It was a bit longer than his forearm and already Brax could see the shape inside of it that was begging to be let out. Vines should be twirling up the side of it, with scales hidden underneath, a creature unsure if it was plant or beast, stuck between two worlds.

  It wouldn’t take much to pull the potential from the wood, but what was the point? Brax was no artist. He’d been a laborer back on Honora, keeping the station running through a mix of back breaking work and mechanical know how. There’d been no time and no room back home for him to collect and design knickknacks. Sure, he hadn’t been able to resist a few things here and there, mostly little toys made out of synthetic wood that he’d donated to the children of the station. Not even Deke knew about it.

  He had to put the stick down. But he couldn’t.

  All Brax had now was space and time. What harm would it do to carve one little sculpture? To let the creativity inside of him out for just a little while? He’d already promised to go to the Detyen meeting tomorrow. This little trinket would be his reward.

  Brax circled back home, and by the time he got there Deke was nowhere to be found. His twin couldn’t stand to sit around the house when there was a huge world around them to explore. And yet he seemed to have trouble understanding Brax’s desire to walk in the woods.

  Shayn was sitting in a chair under the shade of a huge tree that towered over their house. He nodded toward the chair next to him when Brax approached. “What’s that?” he asked, nodding toward the stick.

  Brax had the urge to shove it behind his back, to protect it. He shrugged and took a seat. “Nothing much. Where’s your prettier half?”

  Shayn scowled at him. “I’d rip your arms off if I thought—”

  Brax rolled his eyes and had to shake his head. “If you think the jealous posturing is going to work, clearly we’ve never met.”

  Shayn shook himself and gave a sheepish grin. “My apologies. Sometimes the bond...” He took a deep breath. “It’s a living thing within me, a connection so deep I could have never comprehended it before.”

  “Do you think it’s the same for other Detyens? Or is it weaker?” Their mother was Oscavian and their father had been Detyen. They hadn’t been mates, and for that reason their father had died on his thirtieth birthday.

  “If this is weaker than others, I don’t know how any mated pair ever leaves the bedroom.”

  Brax scowled at his older brother. “That, I do not need to know.” They’d lived in such close quarters for so long that it was impossible not to know many details of their respective love lives, but ignoring that information had been a requirement for their survival. Now that they had room to stretch out, Shayn seemed to want to test the boundaries. Or maybe he just couldn’t resist talking about his denya.

>   “Where is she, anyway?” Shayn and Naomi were rarely apart when they were both at home. And, as Shayn implied, they often spent that time together in their bedroom. Thank the stars for soundproofing.

  “She has a call with a research institute. She wants to study her ability, but finding a facility has proved difficult.”

  That was an understatement. Naomi had been raised since she was a teenager by an Oscavian corporation that had exploited her natural intuition and tinkered with her brain until she was a full blown psychic. She could see the future, though could only rarely control what she saw. She’d been experimenting with her powers since they made it to Earth, but there was only so much she could do on her own. But finding a place that wouldn’t exploit her or return her back to the people who’d raised her was a delicate task.

  As if she’d sensed they were talking about her, Shayn’s denya exited the house and made her way over to them. Her curly brown hair was held back by a bright headband and her brown skin looked even darker against the white top she wore. Rather than sit in the third open chair under the tree she sank down into Shayn’s lap and gave him a sound kiss before leaning back against him.

  “Did the call go well?” he asked.

  Naomi got the faraway look she sometimes had when trying to summon a vision, but it cleared quickly. “Not sure yet. Better than the last one.” She turned to Brax. “I see Dekon was successful in summoning you.”

  “I was two kilometers away, not two light years.” Was it really so strange to walk? “And I’ve agreed to go with Deke to his meeting tomorrow.” If that simple concession would make his family give him peace, he’d gladly make it. Well, he’d grumble, but that was expected.

  Naomi stared at him for a moment before nodding. “You have good instincts. Follow them.”

  He wanted to ask if that was psychic advice or regular advice, but as a family they’d decided not to turn Naomi into their own private fortune teller. If she wanted him to know she’d seen a vision of his future, she’d tell him.

  Brax picked up his stick and stood. “I’ll see you at dinner.” And then he followed his instincts back into the house and closed the door behind him. Odds were good Shayn and Naomi would be all over each other in a matter of minutes, and that was something he didn’t need to see.