by Kate Rudolph
Dekon
Dekon
Fated Mate Alien Romance
Mated to the Alien
By
Kate Rudolph
and
Starr Huntress
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Detyens are doomed to die at the age of thirty if they don't find their fated mates in time. The Mated to the Alien series can be read in any order and there are no cliffhangers!
Start reading this growing series today: Mated to the Alien
Copyright
Dekon © Kate Rudolph 2021.
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.
This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature readers.
Published by Starr Huntress & Kate Rudolph.
www.starrhuntress.com
www.katerudolph.net
About the book
She's sick of waiting.
Manda knows she has a mate out there. Somewhere. But Deke took off four years ago, afraid to face the potential connection between them. What was supposed to be a short trip has turned into a multi-year voyage. She's done waiting. Her mate is out there somewhere and she's ready to find him.
He found his mate, but he can't have her.
Four years ago the denya bond ignited and Dekon found his mate. But Manda was too young, too traumatized, and nowhere near ready for the kind of bond a Detyen male could offer. Something has been keeping him from returning to Earth. What will his denya say when she sees the man he's become?
Table of Contents
Dekon
Copyright
About the book
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
What's Next: Soulless
ALSO BY KATE RUDOLPH
About Kate Rudolph
Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?
Prologue
"Did they tell you anything?" Manda paced in Amy's office while Amy sat behind her desk and Doryan sat in one of the guest chairs. She didn't know what to think. And she was so freaking angry she could scream. "They just took off? Without saying goodbye?"
She had to squeeze her eyes shut to keep from crying. She wanted to hit something. Emotions churned until it took everything just to keep from lashing out.
"Vita, Brax, and Deke had to move fast." Doryan's comforting tone was more jarring than anything else. Everything was changing on her, even Doryan. "Your parents have moved around a lot in the last year. If they didn't leave when they did, they might have missed them."
Manda plunked down in the chair beside Doryan. She'd been abducted by aliens five years ago. Ish. Keeping time got a bit confusing in space. But five years had passed on Earth. Her parents had gone to look for her. And now she had friends going after them, her own parents, since she was safe back home.
As safe as a girl could be anymore.
"Dekon didn't want to see me--that's it, isn't it?" It made her sick to even ask.
"Manda..." Amy sounded pained. She was the newest member of their growing human/Detyen family, having just mated with Doryan. But Manda thought she could like the woman. As long as Amy understood that Doryan would always be her friend first.
"What's going on with him?" Manda had an idea. No one wanted to say it out loud. She was only sixteen. He was eight years older than her.
But they all thought she was his mate.
She wasn't sure what to think about that. Did she want a mate? Did she want to be Deke's mate? She couldn't even wrap her brain around it.
"We all need a little time to figure this out," said Doryan.
"I don't." She wasn't sure what she felt for Deke, but she didn't need to run to another freaking planet to deal with her emotions.
"He'll be back before you know it," Doryan assured her. "Then we can handle this."
Deep in her gut Manda knew it was worse than that. She'd grown to know Deke pretty well over the last few years. He was impulsive. Fun, but impulsive. And she couldn't help but think she wasn't ever going to see him again.
Chapter One
Deke sat alone in his quarters as Vita piloted her ship into Honora Station. Brax was up in the cockpit with her, and Manda's parents were in the small cabin they were sharing on the long journey back to Earth.
It had taken two months to get to this point. Two long, grueling months where at certain points he, Braxtyn, and Vita had feared that they would be too late, that they would fail their mission to find Manda's parents, Lilah and Jake Tracer, and bring them home.
Dekon wished they were still searching.
A better man would have spoken with them. Would have eased their fears and told them that their daughter was safe. She was recovering. She would be okay. But he didn't know how to talk to them. What was he supposed to say? Hi, I'm Dekon and I think your sixteen-year-old daughter is my mate.
No, that would get him a punch in the face.
Or worse.
And he would deserve it. He'd bought time. Time to figure out what he was supposed to do. But not enough.
Soon he would get home and he would still be too old and Manda would still be too young. Neither of them was ready for what fate said they could be. He was thankful that the bond hadn't fully bloomed, not yet.
But he knew deep in his gut that one day soon it would. One day soon he would ache. His heart already ached. But at least his body understood what was going on.
He hated this. Not Manda. Never Manda. But he hated the situation. He had just started to form bonds back on Earth, to make friends, to have a community. And now he feared going back to his newly claimed home.
The ship docked so smoothly that he didn't realize they were no longer moving. Brax came and slid his door open without bothering to knock. His brother looked happy, healthy, and so unlike him at that moment it was almost impossible to believe they were twins.
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Brax was just as tall as him, his skin just as blue, and their clan markings were nearly the same. But he was all smiles and satisfaction since he'd found his mate. Deke couldn't imagine the feeling.
His brother didn't seem to sense Deke's turmoil. "We're going to do a tune-up before the last leg of the trip. Just to be safe." He leaned against the door jamb and crossed his arms.
Deke was an asshole for being happy about the delay; everyone else on the ship was eager to get home. "How long?"
Brax shrugged. "Just overnight. We'll be back before you know it." He sounded excited. Why wouldn't he?
Vita came up behind Brax and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Her bright red hair glinted in the artificial light of the ship and Deke could make out the hilt of her blaster peeking out from her hip holster. "You ready to go? I booked the honeymoon suite," she asked her mate after giving Deke a nod in greeting.
The grin that stole over Brax's face was something that Dekon never wanted to see again. That was his brother.
"Just about. Have to tell them before we head out." Brax tilted his head toward the other room.
Vita kissed his cheek. "You know where I'll be," she said and took off.
"You can sleep on the ship," Brax told him once he could tear his eyes away from his mate's retreating form. "You just need to get lost while they're doing any necessary repairs. Shouldn't be until early tomorrow morning."
Deke nodded. Braxtyn seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but what was there to say? They'd been in close quarters for two months. All the needed words had been said.
That was a lie. They had barely talked about Manda and what she meant--would someday mean--to Deke. He wanted to talk about it. He needed to talk about it. But the moment passed and Brax continued down the short hallway to Manda's parents' room.
Deke needed to get lost before they saw him. The less time he spent with those humans, the better.
He'd sneak back on to sleep later, but for now he wanted to stretch his legs. The hallways of Honora Station were familiar. He and his brothers had lived here for years. But not anymore. Not since they had made a home on Earth. Not since Shayn had found his mate in Naomi, a human psychic who'd escaped the Oscavian Empire at Shayn's side.
Deke liked Earth. There was a growing Detyen population there and he preferred living on a planet to living in the cramped confines of a space station. Back when he and his brothers had lived on Honora, they'd been shoved into a single cramped room. Their house on Earth was gargantuan in comparison.
He couldn't go back.
The thought punched him in the chest, and he wanted to reject it out of hand. But the words tumbled around in his brain, and every time they repeated it made more sense.
He couldn't go home.
He had found his mate too early. She had growing to do and if he was there he would stunt it. Not on purpose. But there was so much pressure, how could he wait there like destiny breathing over her shoulder and expect everything to be okay?
He shuddered. He couldn't do that to her. And he couldn't do it to himself either. It would kill him to keep his distance. Not actually kill him, of course. Ironically, she was the one who would save him... eventually. If she wanted to accept him.
But he couldn't make her do it. If he tried, then he was no better than the aliens who had snatched her from Earth and held her as prisoner for years. She was only starting to heal, to discover herself once more. He couldn't be there to stop it from happening.
He had only felt inklings of the denya bond. But those inklings were enough to convince him that it would bloom into something true, something real. And what would happen when it was time? When would it be time?
He didn't know. He couldn't know. Perhaps fate would be kind and wait for her to be old enough, mature enough, for it to happen.
But he didn't think fate was ever kind.
He wasn't going to risk it.
He could stay on Honora. It wasn't ideal, but he was familiar with the station. He could get a room and talk to his old boss and see if he could work here. But even as he thought it, he knew it wouldn't work.
If his brothers knew that he was on Honora Station, they would come and drag him back home sooner or later. Would they even let him stay away for six months?
He didn't want to be separated from them for so long. But he feared he had no other choice. He couldn't stay on the station. He couldn't go back to Earth.
But there were always ships looking for crew at all hours of the day and night. He could climb aboard one and be gone before anyone knew what he was thinking.
Deke spun around on his heel and marched back to the ship. He didn't have many belongings with him, but he didn't want to abandon his stuff and take off with nothing but the clothes on his back.
It didn't take long to pack his bag, and he thought he was free and clear--the exit of Vita's ship was in sight--when Manda's mother crossed his path.
Lilah Tracer didn't look much like her daughter; her skin was darker and her hair thicker and a darker brown. But she had the same defiant light in her eyes, the same determination to survive, that he had seen in Manda. Her gaze flicked to his bag and then back to him. "You're going?" she asked.
They hadn't had anything approaching a conversation in the last week since she and her husband had been retrieved. After Manda had been abducted, the Tracer's had left Earth to find her. She'd made it back to Earth on her own and now Deke, Brax, and Vita were delivering her parents home safe. It still felt wrong to talk to her when he knew something she didn't, when he was keeping his big, soul-saving secret from her. "Yeah."
Her eyes narrowed. "You're not coming back." It wasn't a question.
"How do you--"
She cut him off. "I know the look of a person running away."
What was he supposed to say? He couldn't lie to his denya's mother. But he couldn't tell her the truth either. He had one excuse that was something like the truth, if not the whole truth. "I've never been on my own before. I need to..."
"Loneliness won't fix whatever your problem is either," she said, like she knew from experience. Maybe she did. Maybe Deke could learn fascinating truths if he bothered to talk to her.
He wouldn't.
"Time will." It sounded so simple and yet it was true. At least he hoped it was true. He would give Manda time to grow. Time to figure out if one day she might be able to accept him. He would ask nothing of her. Not until she was ready.
"Broken heart?" she asked.
A broken heart would be simple. He could deal with that back home. "Just the opposite." He was so full of hope that he feared his heart would crack. But it was a hope for a future he couldn't even imagine. He didn't know when or how. But he knew who. Eventually. He hoped.
"Now I'm confused," she said, and her face showed it with a scrunched forehead and squinting eyes.
"I don't have time to explain." He couldn't risk being caught. The longer he stood there with a bag slung over his shoulder the more likely it was that he would lose his nerve.
Manda's mom must have sensed his hesitation. "You don't need to leave," she insisted.
"I really think I do. And I'm going to be gone before you take off. Brax and Vita would never let me leave otherwise." He wouldn't put anything past them. Vita probably had some kind of manacles around and she would keep him detained.
"That seems drastic."
Deke shrugged. "Family." They had fought so hard to stay together and now Deke was ruining it. But his family would be together again. Eventually. He would make sure of it.
Manda's mom finally nodded at him as if she was giving him permission. "I won't say anything."
Relief washed over him. "I..."
"What?"
He wanted to say something about Manda, wanted to give Manda a message. He couldn't freak her mom out. But he couldn't say nothing. "Tell Manda that I'll see her when we get back." It wasn't good enough. It wasn't nearly enough. Then he added, "I'll see everyone."
H
er eyebrows scrunched together. "Why do you need time?" She sounded suspicious.
"I need to go." Deke didn't stick around or let the interrogation go on any longer. He had a feeling she could get the whole story out of him if he waited much longer.
And the conversation had gone on too long already. Brax was jogging up the ramp to the back entrance of the ship and his blue face lost a bit of color when he saw Deke's bag.
"Where are you going?" There was a hint of accusation in the question.
Deke didn't want to lie. He never lied to his twin. But he had to if he wanted to get off of Honora Station before he could be stopped.
He almost said something about finding a bed partner for the night, but the words were ashes in his throat. He had found his mate. It didn't matter that it would be some time before he could even think of her as anything more than a possibility for the future. "I wanted to get a good wash in on my clothes before we left. They're grimy."
Brax looked relieved. "Good idea! Vita's waiting, and you do not want to see her angry." He seemed more excited than apprehensive about this, and Dekon did not want to think about it. "I just have to get something I forgot." Deke didn't ask for details. If Braxtyn wasn't offering specifics, it was probably something sex-related.
"Best hurry up then." He had to get his brother away from him.
Brax clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Deke leaned in and turned it into a hug. "Yeah." He hung on for as long as he could manage without it being weird.
As they pulled apart, Brax seemed to sense that something was wrong. "We'll figure the Manda thing out."
Deke mustered a smile, though he knew it was strained. "I know. Now go, your mate is waiting."
Brax hesitated for a second before he went.
Deke took off toward the wing of Honora Station most likely to have people looking for workers. It didn't take long to find a ship, especially since he didn't care where it was going. They needed a mechanic and he was good with his hands. He climbed aboard and was happy to know they would be taking off in less than an hour.