by Tana Stone
Stolen
Tribute Brides of the Drexian Warriors #9
Tana Stone
Broadmoor Books
Contents
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Preview of BOUNTY—Barbarians of the Sand Planet #1
Also by Tana Stone
About the Author
One
Kos rocked back on his heels, dragging a hand through his short brown hair, as he peered out the window of the ship. Slashes of light zoomed by as they cut through the blackness of space, the spaceship flying at warp speed toward their destination.
Even though the computerized beeps and whirring sounds reminded him of the bridge on the space station—casually referred to as the Boat—the Inferno Force ship was worlds away from it. Not that he minded. He found the dimly lit ship with its stripped-down steel interior to be a welcome change from the brightness of the station. This ship was a bit battered, and more than a little bare-bones, but it flew fast and had impressive firepower—both things he was grateful for on the rescue mission.
As a Drexian, he was part of the warrior species known throughout the galaxy as fierce fighters who defended others. Drexians had saved countless worlds from destruction from the violent Kronock. They also defended Earth—unbeknownst to most of the planet’s inhabitants—from alien invasion. In return, Earth provided the Drexians, who hadn’t produced females in a generation, with brides for their warriors. Tribute brides, they were called. It was one of these Earth brides that Kos was on a mission to rescue. His tribute bride.
Not that he’d ever laid eyes on her. He bit his lower lip as he thought about putting off meeting the human when they’d been on the Boat. He’d been an idiot, and now he was paying the price. Of course, he’d never anticipated that she would be kidnapped along with the other new brides or that he would crash land on an alien planet after the station evacuated. Still, he’d wasted his chance and now she was missing. He grunted and slammed a palm against the glass.
One of the Inferno Force warriors spun around and eyed him. “Don’t worry. We’ll get your tribute back for you.”
Kos nodded—remembering that the first officer’s name was Kalex—but didn’t respond as the soldier with shaggy brown hair and tattoos banding his arms turned back around.
He knew he was lucky to be with the team of Inferno Force warriors sent to locate and rescue the abducted tribute brides and their handlers, but he also knew he didn’t belong with the edgy fighters. Where he followed protocol, they broke the rules. He prided himself on regulation-short hair and a pristine uniform. Inferno Force warriors let their hair grow long and sported tight shirts that showed off plenty of ink. Still, he knew he should be grateful to be on the mission with them.
The rough Drexian warriors rarely let others join them on missions. They preferred to operate on the outskirts of the galaxy, out of reach of the Drexian High Command. Commanders and captains of Inferno Force ran their fleets and ships with a fight hard, play hard mentality. It was a sharp contrast to the protocol expected from officers on the Boat, but one Kos was glad to adapt to since he’d had to fight for the right to join them.
Kos thought back to the meeting where the rescue mission had been finalized and to his own out-of-character behavior. He’d finally been allowed to join the Inferno Force mission only because one of the missing human women was the tribute bride assigned to him, and he’d argued vehemently that it was his duty to hunt for her. His face warmed as he remembered brandishing a blade and threatening harm to anyone who tried to keep him off the mission. The Inferno Force captain leading the mission had liked his insubordination. Any warrior with that much passion was welcome on his crew, he’d said once Kos had stopped yelling. Kos did feel passionate about finding his tribute bride. Even though he’d never met her. Especially because he’d never met her.
While he’d been stuck on the station’s bridge during the Kronock attack, his tribute bride, Hope, had been meeting with her wedding planner and liaison and learning all about the Drexians and the secret treaty with Earth and how the Boat had been designed specifically to help Drexian warriors woo their new brides and to assist the humans in planning their dream weddings. He’d missed his introduction to her when the station had begun evacuation procedures, and he’d been further delayed when the shuttle he’d been on had crashed onto a jungle planet along with Captain Varden, one of the reject tributes, and the Perogling.
His only comfort had been knowing that his intended bride had been safely evacuated by her wedding planner and liaison, along with a few other human tributes. He knew enough about the Gatazoid wedding planner, Serge, and the Vexling liaison, Reina, to know that they would take good care of the tributes. Of course, that was before he’d discovered that the shuttle with the handlers and tributes had disappeared en route to the Drexian rendezvous outpost where all the residents of the Boat had gone during the Kronock attack.
You should have been with her, he told himself for the hundredth time. His stomach had been a hard ball of fear and regret since he’d found out that Hope was missing. Even though he’d never met the female, he knew she’d been his to protect, and he’d failed.
Just like you failed before, a little voice in the back of his head whispered. He shook it off, but the cold ball in his gut tightened. He would not fail this time. No matter what.
“Approaching the last known coordinates of the shuttle,” Kalex said, tapping his fingers to slow their speed.
The ship came out of warp and the streaks of light became pinpoints again, flickering in the inky space around them.
Kos stepped forward, scanning the emptiness. “They’re gone now. Any residual power signatures we can track?”
More tapping on the console. “Nothing from our shuttle, but then again, we do have the most sophisticated shielding technology in the galaxy. There is a faint trace of something, but…”
“Why are we slowing?” Brok, the Inferno Force captain leading the mission, strode onto the bridge, his heavy boots announcing his arrival along with his loud voice. Like all Drexians, he was big and bulky, but he seemed to be more tattooed and more scarred than most. Even for an Inferno Force warrior. He wore his dark hair long, although there was nothing remotely feminine about it. A scar slashed through one eyebrow, but that only served to draw more attention to his aquamarine blue eyes.
“We’ve reached the last know location of the vessel,” his first officer said without turning.
Brok grunted, nodding at Kos, his mouth quirking up slightly. “Glad to see you lost the uniform jacket, Officer.”
Kos shifted. “Yes, sir.”
He’d taken off his Drexian military jacket after he’d realized that no one on the Inferno Force crew wore them—and after the captain had told him to. Even though it felt odd to be in only a black T-shirt and cargo pants on the bridge of a ship, he had to admit it was more comfortable.
“Anything out there?” Brok asked, tu
rning his attention back to his pilot.
“I was just telling Kos that I’m picking up on something,” Kalex said, his fingers flying across the shiny black console. “It’s a power signature we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Brok folded his arms over his chest. “Tell me that’s a good thing.”
Kalex spun around. “Only if you think Ganthar pirates are good.”
“Grek.” The captain spat out the word, his face darkening.
“Ganthar pirates?” Kos asked, looking from the pilot to the captain. “I thought they’d all but disappeared in our sector.”
“Apparently not,” Kalex muttered as he turned back to his console.
Kos drew in a breath, trying not to think about what this might mean for Hope and all the abducted females. “Okay, so we go after these pirates.”
“I can track their signature,” Kalex said. “I don’t know how much of a lead they have on us, but we’ll hunt them down.”
Brok nodded. “Send a transmission to our sister ship. We’ll need them to rendezvous. Ganthar pirates aren’t something we mess around with.”
“They can’t be any match for Drexian technology or Inferno Force,” Kos said.
“They aren’t,” the captain said, “but they also aren’t constrained by honor or fair fighting. We’ve been ambushed by Ganthar pirates before. They aren’t to be trusted.”
Kos swallowed hard. His bride was potentially being held by pirates with no honor. Even though he didn’t know her, he felt sick at the thought of one of the small, feminine humans being held at the mercy of space pirates. He’d seen images of Hope—her long blonde hair, her warm brown eyes. His chest swelled at the thought of holding her in his arms and telling her how sorry he was.
Sorry for not meeting her earlier. Sorry for not being with her during the evacuation. Sorry for not preventing her ship from being intercepted.
Brok clapped a thick hand on Kos’s shoulder. “We will get her back. We will get all of them back.”
Kos nodded. Inferno Force never doubted their abilities. He knew that came from years of fighting off the Kronock. Even though their enemy had recently revealed previously unknown technology, and had landed a few considerable blows to Drexian forces, Inferno Force was no less sure that they would beat them back.
Kos wished he had the same bold confidence as these warriors. His success had always come from working harder than everyone else, nothing more. He’d become the first officer of the Boat by putting in long hours, not by just knowing he could do it. That kind of confidence seemed to be relegated to warriors like those on Inferno Force.
But he had become first officer, he reminded himself. The officer that Captain Varden trusted above all others. The officer who would put the job above everything else and never let his superiors down.
Which is why you didn’t meet your bride, the nagging voice said. You were too busy on the bridge. She was evacuated without you while you got Captain Varden off.
Kos squeezed his hands into fists. He had never imagined she would be taken. How could he have? It was unthinkable.
“Setting a new course,” Kalex said, moments before the ship jumped to warp speed again.
“Ready to battle some pirates?” Brok asked him.
Kos squared his shoulders and met the captain’s gaze. “Ready, sir.”
“Good.” Brok propelled him off the bridge. “Now let’s go make you look like you’re ready.”
Two
Hope paced a tight circle in her cell, spinning on her heel each time she reached the steel bench that ran along the back wall. She’d coiled her long blonde hair up into a topknot, but it kept coming loose and falling back down.
“You really should try to relax, hon,” the blue-haired woman named Reina said from where she sat on the bench, her long legs crossed at the knees and her top leg jiggling up and down.
Hope paused to take in the alien for a moment, wondering how the creature could sound so calm when she was clearly just as nervous as her. “How am I supposed to relax? I was abducted from Earth and taken to a space station where I was told I’d been picked to be a tribute bride for a Drexian warrior—whatever that is—and before I could even absorb all that ridiculousness, we were evacuating the supposed space station because we were being attacked by other aliens and then our ship was intercepted and I was knocked unconscious. When I finally woke up, you tell me that we’ve been taken captive by Ganthar pirates. That was a few days ago, and we’re still stuck in this cell with no idea where we’re going or what’s going to happen to us. Did I leave anything out?”
Reina gave a nervous laugh. “No. I think that about covers it, but you forgot that the Drexians will be coming after us.”
“Right.” Hope snapped her fingers. “The mythical Drexian warriors who are, according to you, the biggest badasses in the galaxy.”
“They are,” Reina said, her gray face earnest as she bobbed her head up and down. “I know you were too overwhelmed to notice them much on the Boat, but they’re quite impressive. And I have no doubt they’re searching for us right now. I’m sure your groom is sick with worry.”
Hope put her hands on her hips. “My groom? That’s a phrase I never thought I’d hear. If there’s a Drexian warrior that I’m matched with—or so you claim—then why didn’t I meet him earlier? Was he not on the space station?”
Reina nibbled her lower lip. “Actually, he was, but…”
“But he was as wild about the idea of marrying a stranger as I was?” Hope resumed her pacing and whipped her loose hair up into a knot again.
“Oh, no. That’s not it. I’m sure he was very pleased to be matched with you,” Reina said. “But Kos is the first officer of the space station, so I’m sure he was incredibly busy when we had to evacuate. It had nothing to do with you.”
Hope raised an eyebrow. “Nothing to do with me? How flattering.”
Reina smiled. “I’m glad you think so.”
So much for aliens getting sarcasm, Hope thought. It hadn’t been bad being stuck in the cell with the tall alien who claimed to be a Vexling. At least she’d had someone to talk to, but the nervous creature definitely didn’t get her sense of humor.
“So, we just have to hope that these Drexians get here before what…? The Ganthar pirates make us walk the space plank?”
Reina’s gray skin lost a few shades. “Oh, no. I don’t think they would do that.” She tapped a bony finger on the side of her face. “I don’t even think they have a space plank.”
“Kidding,” Hope muttered. “What do these wankers do when they take prisoners anyway?”
Reina stood and crossed to the circular door with a small round window, peering out into the dim, gunmetal gray corridor. “I don’t know for sure. Usually they steal things they can sell.”
Hope gulped. “We’re going to be sold? Like as slaves?”
Reina shook her head. “I’m sure we’ll be rescued by the Drexians before that happens.”
Hope sank onto the metal bench and put her head in her hands. Even though she’d pitched a fit when she’d woken up on the Drexian space station, she wished she was there now. The holographic fantasy suite that had been designed to look, smell, and feel like a Caribbean bungalow seemed like a lifetime away now. Why had she been such a pain in the ass to everyone when she’d found herself overlooking the crystal blue waters? Why had she been horrible to the little wedding planner with purple hair?
Because they’d freaked her out, that was why. You couldn’t expect to tell someone they’d been taken off their planet by aliens and conscripted to be a bride and have them go along with it. Her reaction—disbelief followed by hostility and threats followed by hysteria—had been totally normal. At least for her.
Hope had been on her own for so long that the idea of being told what to do by anyone made her bristle. And the idea of her entire future being dictated to her made Hope want to run away screaming. She’d always prided herself on her independence—it’s what came from having a
space cadet mother who’d eventually run off with her shaman—and no way was she going to be mated to some alien stranger without a fight.
“What happens then?” She looked up at Reina. “What happens when we’re rescued?”
Reina’s expression brightened. “Then we go back to the Boat, or if the station was damaged too much, to the rendezvous outpost.”
“So, no chance I’ll be taken back to Earth?”
“Once a human is taken to be a tribute bride, they can’t be returned to Earth,” Reina said. “Can you imagine the hysteria if women went back and started talking about aliens and space stations and invasions?”
The Vexling had a point. It would create pandemonium.
“What if I promised not to talk?”
Reina smiled at her, her wide eyes unblinking. “Of course, I would believe you, hon, but it’s not up to me. I’m just a liaison. I don’t make the rules.”
Hope nodded. It probably didn’t make sense to worry about the Drexians taking her back to Earth when she hadn’t even been rescued yet. Reina seemed convinced it was inevitable, but they’d already been held captive for several days. Hope didn’t want to think about the other alternative—being sold into alien slavery. Being a tribute bride didn’t sound so bad in comparison.
Reina walked over and sat next to her on the bench. “Just you wait until you meet some of the other brides. You’ll love them. There are women from all over. Even a couple from New Zeenland, like you.”