Dad Panther
Alien Guardians of Earth #3
Donna McDonald
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Copyright © 2019 by Donna McDonald
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.
This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.
Cover by Mina Carter
Edit by MYST Partners and Madison Kamer
Created with Vellum
Contents
Acknowledgments
Book Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Note From the Author
Excerpt: Ariel
Excerpt: Matchmaker Abduction
The Demon Prince’s Dragon Queen
Other Books By This Author
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the lovely Mina Carter for the alien panther shifter inspiration and the terrific cover!
Thanks to MYST Partners and Madison Kamer for the edit.
Book Description
Bad Panther is about to become Dad Panther…
Dr. Sugar Jennings, host of a Protector Blade, is about to become the mother of twins. Axel of Rodu, her alien panther mate and next in line for the Lyran throne, is already in Dad Panther mode and freaking out.
When the fourth and final blade surfaces and sends out a distress call, Sugar has no choice but lead the existing blades on a rescue mission. The Creator Blade and its reluctant host are on the run.
Don’t miss the action, adventure, and fun in the next installment of the Alien Guardians of Earth.
1
In the Alien Guardians of Earth library of artifacts…
“You’ve been staring at that metal serving platter for months now, Dr. Jennings. Don’t you know what it says yet?”
Sugar arched an eyebrow as she lifted her head. “It’s not a serving platter, Junior. It’s a manuscript of some sort, and I’m learning the alien language on it. Don’t you have something better to do than hang around in the library and annoy me?”
Lake frowned as he plopped down in the chair on the other side Sugar’s desk. “No. I’m tired of fighting the cats. My skills and strength outpaced theirs the second month I was here. Now I’m always worried about hurting one of them. It hardly seems worth my time to work out with anyone in the palace outside of Axel.”
Sugar grunted as she lifted her gaze once more. “Go visit Gina then.”
Lake shook his head. “Gina won’t talk to me.”
“Because you always start a fight and make fun of her work. You’re lucky she doesn’t kick your ass every time you come around. From what I witnessed before, I’m sure your blade would let her. Getting on Gina’s good side wouldn’t be a problem if you stopped playing the same games with her that you do with all women.”
Lake shrugged as he frowned. “I didn’t say Gina was a problem. My problem is that I don’t have any problems, which is why I’m bored. I don’t handle being bored well.”
Sugar’s irritated sigh filled the library. “You’re not two years old, Lake. Be grateful we have no huge battles to fight. Go find something productive to do with your time before I kick your ass myself.”
“Don’t you ever feel like a prisoner here? If we weren’t confined to this place twenty-four seven, maybe I could find something to keep me busy.”
“For pity’s sake, ask Axel what needs to be done. He takes after his mother and enjoys putting people to work, which is why I hide out in here doing my own thing.”
Lake laughed dryly at the suggestions. “Bloody hell no. It’s bad enough the cat prince thinks he’s my personal trainer. And before you suggest going to the original Rodu, all he wants to do is read. Rodu’s worse than you, but can you believe he reads sociology books? I used to skip those classes in college. He says he enjoys looking at the ‘big picture’ of each age—whatever that means.”
Sugar found Rodu’s study habits interesting, so she didn’t respond to Lake’s whining. She needed her energy for other things. For several months now, she had been studying the metal plates Nyomi and her elite guards had retrieved from the Temple of the Moon cave at Machu Picchu. She and Rodu had gone to retrieve the now annoying host of the new Protector Blade. When they’d found him, Lake had been in a secret room full of alien artifacts and ancient Peruvian treasures.
“The man is over a thousand years old, Junior. He means he wants to understand how the world has changed since he got trapped inside a pyramid. Just the last century has been full of incredible leaps in technology and social thinking…”
Lake held up a hand. “Please—not another lecture about the alien impact on our history.”
“Well, it’s true, not that anyone knows it but us,” Sugar said, giving her best professor glare.
Unable to activate the portal she and Rodu had used to enter the hidden space in the Temple of the Moon cave, Nyomi’s people had instead carved out one of the ‘fake’ doorways, then used some of Gina’s tools to seal the damaged rock face back afterward. They’d purposely left a few fissures behind which would weaken and split, eventually. This would let the rest of the valuable objects get into proper Peruvian hands.
Lake’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “Have you ever wondered how much of human history was just a series of situations the aliens set up to happen?”
Sugar lifted a shoulder. “It has crossed my mind, but I don’t let myself dwell.”
Being both an archaeologist and a historian, of course, Sugar saw a disturbing alien-directed pattern to Earth’s most significant archeological discoveries. She preferred not to think about their involvement, but every now and again she kept smacking into proof they’d been around practically as long as humans had.
When Lake groaned again, his male complaining made her chuckle. There was no more human and imperfect creature on this planet than a young male bored out of his mind.
“Will you at least talk out loud or something? There’s no music or TV here. I’m going mad from the silence alone.”
Grinning, Sugar looked over her notes for something Lake might find intriguing. “There’s nothing in my notes you’d appreciate.”
“Try me,” Lake ordered. “I’m desperate.”
Sugar chuckled. “Okay. There are symbols on here that look like musical notes and graphics that look like giant buttons. These markings could be a form of writing like braille, or they could be some sort of graphical map. I haven’t been able to decide which is more likely to be the case.”
Lake rose and walked around the desk to peer over her shoulder. “They look like Egyptian hieroglyphics t
o me. You should ask Rodu. He could probably tell you for certain.”
Sugar looked up and rolled her eyes. “Rodu and I studied these together when we were saving you. We had six whole hours to kill while your blade healed your body enough to travel. During his original life, Rodu was a scribe who could read and write in multiple languages. None of these symbols are Egyptian.”
“Oh,” Lake said, tilting his head. “It also looks a bit like a computer circuit board. Maybe you should ask Gina if it could be that.”
“Anything to get Gina to talk to you, eh?” Sugar concluded with a smirk. Then she did a double take as her gaze returned to the metal plate. She turned it sideways and suddenly saw the same thing Lake had. “Huh… it does kind of look like a circuit board. Maybe I will ask Gina about it.”
Lake lightly smacked her shoulder. “See? I can be useful when you take the time to talk to me.”
Rolling her eyes over Lake’s happy claim, Sugar gave in as gracefully as she could. “All right, Junior. You’ve convinced me. Let’s go see if Gina has time to check this out.”
Fairly sure from all the kicking going on inside her that she was pregnant with two future football players, Sugar rubbed her protruding middle as she walked into Gina’s lab with a fidgeting Lake on her heels. The man was in his early twenties, but with his restless energy and a tendency for mischief, Lake acted more like a rebellious teenager.
“Greetings, Gina of Rodu. How do you fair today?” Sugar asked in greeting.
“I fair well, Sugar of Earth, and you are looking well. As my brother declares to anyone willing to listen to him speak of his mate, gestation suits you.”
“Thanks,” Sugar said with a giggle. Axel was more excited about the babies than she was. She patted her belly and felt twin kicks of acknowledgment.
“Did your human shadow talk you into coming along with him to annoy me?” Gina asked as she looked back at her work.
“Hey now… the human shadow has a name,” Lake protested, his mouth lifting in a lopsided grin. “And for your information, Princess Too Busy To Be Friendly, Professor Sugar Jennings has important business to discuss with you. I’m only keeping Sugar company because I had nothing better to do.”
Gina glanced at the metal plate in Sugar’s hands. “I am neither a historian nor an archeologist. What help can I provide with your research?”
Sugar held up the metal plate and turned it sideways. “I was trying to decipher the symbol language on this when Lake noticed the whole thing looked like a computer circuit board. What do you think?”
Gina walked over and peered at the tablet. “At first glance, I would say it is a message for a reader of the same language… or possibly it could be a graphical map.”
“Those were my thoughts,” Sugar confirmed with a nod.
Gina stepped closer while Sugar held it out more. “However, I see what Lake means. May I inspect it more closely?”
“You actually agree with me?” Lake asked in surprise.
Ignoring Lake’s reaction, Sugar handed the metal plate to Gina and watched as she walked to a table with it. Her half-alien sister-in-law pulled a device down over the plate and looked at the readout on a nearby monitor.
To Sugar, the machine Gina used looked like something belonging in a hospital surgery room. Speaking commands in Lyran, Gina soon was directing lights to scan over the plate. The light scanning went on for several long minutes then finally stopped.
Eventually, Gina turned back to them. “I ran the full light spectrum. The metal is not light activated. Sound could activate it. Are you familiar with the thirteen crystal skulls found on Earth?”
Sugar shrugged. “Only as a myth. Let me guess—they’re real and they’re alien.”
Gina lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “The crystalline material they were made from is from Earth, but the storage technology is not. Each contains vast records from human history around the planet, which is why the skulls look human. My father refuses to hear the stories on them because they explain the creation of his original people—among other things. Mother has seven of the skulls. The other six are scattered around the world. Gathering them up is on her to-do list but has not yet been done.”
“Do you want us to go get the other skulls for you?” Lake asked.
Gina glared. “No. The Elite Guards will get them when their queen declares it is time to do so. Most of them are in private hands and safe since Earthlings consider their value to be mythical.”
“Then why tell us about the rest of them if we can’t go after them?” Lake complained.
Ignoring Lake’s complaining, Gina turned to Sugar. “The skulls respond to sound frequencies just as the blades you carry do.”
“Fascinating,” Sugar replied—and she meant it. “Can you test that theory without harming the metal plate?”
“Certainly, but…” she glanced at Lake. “I’m not sure what effect intense sound might have on the beings you carry within you. The sentient blades may want to take you over to protect themselves.”
“We’ll risk it,” Lake said.
“We?” Sugar repeated in surprise, smirking at Lake’s willingness to risk her well-being. “I have more than just myself to worry about these days, Junior.” Sugar patted her belly as she stared at him.
Lake winced. “Oh, right. You’re growing baby panthers inside you. Sorry—I forgot.”
“They’re not baby panthers. They’re just babies.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes… now let me check something.” Sugar held up a hand and closed her eyes.
Artifact?
Yes, Sugar.
Is it safe for Gina to test the metal plate we’ve been studying with sound?
Potential result to hosts is incalculable.
Sugar opened one eye and peered at Gina. “What does potential result incalculable mean in Geek speak?”
Gina glared. “It means the blade does not know what will happen.”
Sugar opened both eyes. “Then it’s a risk just like Lake said.”
“That would be my interpretation of your blade’s comment.”
Lake snorted. “You should know better than most, Gina. You talk more like a computer than any of the blades do.”
“You waste your harsh words on my ears. Being Lyran, I do not find that offensive.”
Lake crossed his arms to keep from walking to her. When Gina went into full geek mode around him, he always got turned on.
“Junior—hush,” Sugar ordered sternly, shaking her head when Lake huffed. “Remember our discussion?”
Lake held up a hand in defeat and Sugar blew out a frustrated breath. What did the man want from Gina? If he expected the two-hundred-year-old intelligent alien female to change who she was for his disrespectful human ass, Lake might as well turn his annoying attention in another direction.
Sugar turned her focus back to how much she wanted to know what was on that plate. “Let’s test it. The blades won’t hurt us. Just don’t get scared if they show up.”
“I won’t,” Gina said firmly, putting her attention back on the device she used for analysis. She programmed in the three exact vibrational sound frequencies she had discovered in her father, Sugar, and Lake. “The test will begin shortly.”
At the first tone, Lake made a face. He waved away her concern when Gina looked alarmed. “Hurts a bit, but not too badly. Keep going.”
“It’s working,” Gina said, pointing to the table.
Sugar gasped when the metal plate started to expand and contract with movement in response to the frequency. She nodded and Gina added the next frequency to the sound.
“Ouch,” Sugar said, rubbing the children who were now jumping around madly inside her. “It’s like an orchestra, but all the instruments are out of tune. The kids and I both hate it.”
But as they watched, the metal plate twisted and molded until it had taken a pyramidal shape. Gina moved to the third frequency, and the structure began to vibrate so fast the pyramid wavered from
view.
“Is that all it does?” Lake asked.
“Unless it requires a fourth frequency to activate it completely. I used those of your blades. We do not know the frequency of the fourth one yet,” Gina said.
Creator Blade frequency is 110 Hz on Earth scale.
“Try adding 110 Hz,” Sugar suggested, not mentioning the source of her information.
“Of course,” Gina said, rapidly coding it in. “There are many stone temples, caves, and pyramids on Earth tuned to that frequency. Lyrans have searched for reasons, but no one knows why or how they came to be that way. What we know is that frequency affects the human body and mind in a way that creates a higher consciousness. It’s considered sacred in many Earth cultures.”
Sugar winced as she watched. “Does this type of communication device exist in other places than Earth?”
“Yes. From its shape-shifting abilities, I’m guessing the plate is a morphological holograph. Many planets went to this kind of storage after they exhausted their organic sources,” Gina said, adding the 110 Hz frequency.
In the first second that the sound became audible, the device began a rapid rotation on the table and levitated several inches into the air. The spinning generated light and then formed it into a shape above the metal.
“Look, it’s changing into a female,” Lake said, pointing. “See her breasts?”
Dad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 3) Page 1