The Zoran's Mate (Scifi Alien Romance) (Barbarian Brides) Read online

  THE ZORAN’S MATE

  BARBARIAN BRIDES

  LUNA HUNTER

  CONTENTS

  Also by Luna Hunter

  Foreword

  1. Ava

  2. Ava

  3. Ava

  4. Ava

  5. Ava

  6. Turnon

  7. Ava

  8. Turnon

  9. Ava

  10. Ava

  11. Turnon

  12. Ava

  13. Ava

  14. Turnon

  15. Ava

  16. Turnon

  17. Ava

  18. Turnon

  19. Ava

  20. Turnon

  21. Ava

  22. Turnon

  23. Ava

  24. Turnon

  25. Epilogue

  26. Epilogue

  Afterword

  Preview of Alien General’s Baby

  1. Jillian

  2. Vinz

  Also by Luna Hunter

  About the Author

  ALSO BY LUNA HUNTER

  Zoran Warriors

  Alien General’s Baby

  Alien Warrior’s Baby

  Alien Soldier’s Baby

  Alien Guardian’s Baby

  Galactic Mates

  Thabo

  Fenrir

  Bojan

  Novak

  Dusan

  Zivan

  Vukan

  Drakan

  Barbarian Brides

  The Zoran’s Bride

  Copyright 2017 Luna Hunter.

  Published by Luna Hunter at Amazon.

  This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only. All characters represented within are eighteen years of age or older and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This work is property of Luna Hunter, please do not reproduce illegally.

  FOREWORD

  Thank you for picking up my book! The Zoran’s Mate is the second entry in the Barbarian Brides series.

  It can be read as a standalone, but if you want the full backstory, I recommend picking up The Zoran’s Bride first.

  And in case you want to completely submerge yourself in a universe filled with imposingly tall alien warriors, I’d suggest starting with my Zoran Warrior series and reading your way through. However, it’s not needed to enjoy this book!

  Never want to miss another book? Sign up for my newsletter at lunahunter.com/newsletter.

  You’ll also get Zoran Wedding for free! It’s a short story that takes place between the events of the Zoran Warriors and Galactic Mates series.

  Happy reading!

  1

  AVA

  “GOOD MORNING, class. My name is Ava Payne and I’ll be your substitute teacher for today.”

  A collective groan passes through the classroom, and already I can see some students close their laptops and head for the doors. Off to a great start…

  “Not so fast,” I protest. “I know you all came here to see Dr. Granger, but unfortunately, she can’t be here today. Or tomorrow. Or the rest of the semester, for that matter.”

  “Why not?!” a blonde girl on the front row protests as she pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “We all took this class especially to meet Sarah Granger!”

  “She is on maternity leave,” I say.

  My best friend got herself knocked up by a big, blue Zoran warrior, and I get pick up the pieces.

  “However, I was on the Spearhead as well,” I continue. “I traveled alongside the Suuna. I’m sure you were dying to quiz Dr. Granger, but I can answer all of your questions as well.”

  “Oh yeah?!” the prissy blonde in the front says. She grabs a copy of her textbook and holds it up for me to see. My Life on Archon — 24 Hours with the Nezdek or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zoran. The book Sarah wrote about her adventures on Archon, dealing with the Nezdek has become a runaway hit. “Were you enslaved by aliens? Did you face the Demogorgon in the pit? Did you strike down the otherworldly beast with your own two hands? Have you been embraced by a Suuna and seen the Drua, Miss Payne?! Have you found love in the hands of a wounded alien warrior?!”

  I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy class to teach — Sarah is a hard act to follow, through no fault of her own — but they’re really giving me a hard time out there. Hundreds of eyes are looking at me, each one scowling, filled with disappointment and anger.

  “No,” I say. “No, I haven’t been impregnated by a Zoran, if that’s what you want to know.”

  And I hope I never am. Yeah, they’re sexy, tall, strong — but they’re also cocky, arrogant, impossible. Possessive. I can’t be tied down like that, I’m a bird. I need to fly.

  “But, I am Sarah’s best friend, whether you believe it or not. I started off as her research assistant, but a lot has happened since then, as I’m sure you’ve all read by now. I was part of the Spearhead, of the mission, and even though I haven’t been through the same horrible ordeals as her, I’m still the most suitable person to teach this class. After all, you’re here to learn ‘Alien Etiquette’,” I say, pointing at the title of class up on the beamer behind me. “You’re here to become diplomats and ambassadors, are you not?”

  “Yes,” the class responds unenthusiastically.

  “Good, then let’s get started.”

  Our mission aboard the spaceship the HF Spearhead was to find a new home for the Zorans; the growly, seven-foot-tall alien warriors that have made Earth their home since their world was destroyed, several decades ago. Instead, we ended up with no fuel in the middle of nowhere, and Sarah and her Zoran bodyguard, Kazim, had to go ask the local aliens for help.

  The local aliens turned out to be of the enslaving raping murdering kind. The Nezdek, they’re called — tall, thin, ghostly pale, with white eyes and long hair and a penchant for torture. Sarah and Kazim barely escaped with their lives, and we rushed home, freeing their Suuna slaves in the process.

  Now, Sarah and I are lecturers at the Federation’s Academy, preparing the latest batch of fresh-faced recruits for what horrors they might face in deep space.

  At least, that’s what I’m trying to do. Instead, all they seem to care about is Sarah’s daring escape, or how Kazim changed from a bare-knuckled boxer to a hero, like this is just some fun, adventurous story.

  This is not some story to me and Sarah. This is our life!

  “Now, if you’ll all turn to ‘Chapter Three: First Encounter’ on your tablets. Who has read this one?”

  All hands fly up in an instant. At least they’ve done their homework!

  “Good! Can anyone tell me what this chapter is about?”

  A dark-haired girl with a red sweater raises her hand. I realize I should know all of their names, but this is my first class, and there’s hundreds of them. Articles of clothing it is.

  “Yes, red sweater?”

  “It’s about how defiant Sarah is, when faced with the slaving aliens!”

  “No,” the prissy blonde interrupts. “It’s obviously about how courageous Kazim is! God, can you even read?”

  “Be nice, white cardigan,” I tell her. “You’re both wrong, as a matter of fact. It’s not about courage, or defiance. It’s about adapting to the situation! The Nezdek consider women a commodity. To them, we are slaves. Servants. Cattle. Breeding stock. We could say we’re shocked, outraged and horrified, and trust me, you’d have good reason to be, but you can also say: now that we know this, how do we deal with them? When faced with this prejudice, Sarah and Kazim adapted to the situation. Kazim took the lead in the negotiations, even though Sarah technically outranke
d him. That, to me, is the core of this chapter.”

  The red-sweatered woman raises her hand again.

  “Are you suggesting we accept their backwards morals? I mean, they’re slavers! Shouldn’t we be fighting them?!”

  “So, you are suggesting we, as humans, are always right? That our moral compass is infallible?”

  The girl scrunches her nose. “Well, in this case… yeah.”

  “In this case, you’re right,” I say. “Of course the Nezdek’s ideas are barbaric. However, you have to remember that Sarah and Kazim were stranded in space, without fuel. They were helpless, and completely at the alien’s mercy. They had no other choice than to cooperate, really. And in the end, they used the Nezdek’s rules against them, using an ancient ceremony to free the Suuna and themselves. Poetic justice.”

  The class furiously scribbles notes, and I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere. Beforehand I was so nervous I got stomach cramps. Facing evil aliens is one thing, facing a class full of critical students is another!

  “Great. Now, please turn to Chapter Four, and —”

  Before I can finish my sentence my world is flipped upside down.

  Literally.

  I’m floating, my feet up straight in the air, my dark hair touching the ground. For a second I wonder if I’m having a bad dream; if this has all been some kind of weird, stressful nightmare and I’m seconds away from waking up, clammy and tangled up in sheets, but then the entire class screams. The high-pitched noise hurts my ears, and I cover them with both hands, my feet kicking up in the air — senselessly.

  The roof itself is lifted off the university roof with a hellish sound that makes the entire building quake. A white, blinding light surrounds me, and I’m floating up into the air.

  This must be a bad dream. It has to be.

  As I’m lifted up high, I can see the rest of the city — and it’s going up in flames. Thousands of spaceships are opening fire, seemingly at random, shooting, burning, killing.

  The sound of senseless destruction washes over me like an ocean, and I’m too stunned to even react. Instead, I just stare, my mouth open, my eyes wide. A single thought crosses my mind.

  Those alien spaceships have the same three-pronged design as the Nezdek ships.

  They followed us.

  And they’re invading Earth.

  2

  AVA

  I WAS HAVING the most horrible dream. The kind filled with evil aliens invading Earth, and being sucked up into the sky, and watching the entire city go up in flames.

  I’m glad to find myself back in bed, a cozy blanket covering me. Darkness surrounds me, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Time to get up and prepare for my lecture this afternoon. The students will be disappointed they won’t get ‘the’ Sarah Granger as their teacher, but it can’t get any worse than my fucked up dream.

  I try to open my eyes… but I can’t.

  Strange.

  Am I still asleep?

  I try to lift my hands, to stretch my arms above my head, but I can’t move them either. Something that feels like leather straps seem to be keeping them in place. I try to wiggle my big toe, but I can’t move my feet either.

  Oh god.

  What’s happening?

  Did I hit my head in the shower or something? Am I in some kind of coma?

  “Er slkave est woch.”

  The alien voice sends a shiver down my spine — or it would, if I could move enough to shiver! It feels close, like it’s almost being whispered into my ear. It can’t be…

  “Nem die nadel.”

  “Stimmt.”

  A whirring sound, like a dentist drill but a thousand times worse, makes every fiber of my being flood with panic.

  It wasn’t a nightmare.

  I’ve been abducted by aliens.

  My eyes fly open, and what I see is even worse than what I could have imagined. Two Nezdek are hunched over me, their giant, white, ghostly eyes peering down at me. The aliens are tall and thin, their skin so pale it’s almost translucent. Their white hair is tied up in a ponytail that reaches down their lower backs, and they are dressed in armor the color of the sun.

  The one on the left holds in his bony hand a massive drill which buzzes angrily, like a swarm of bees. My paralysis fades away, and I feel the control of my muscles returning to me. They must have used some kind of drug on me to keep me so sedated.

  I only now realize that I’m totally and completely naked. Leather wraps are bound tightly across my body, keeping me pressed down against the cold metal slab.

  I scream. I scream so hard and so loud that the two Nezdek wince and back away, scrunching their scary faces up.

  I’m not letting them dissect me like some bug.

  I struggle as hard as I can, but it’s no use. I’m bound too tightly. The aliens approach me with a strange device they try to place into my ear. I turn my head, but then a sharp, surgical knife is placed on my throat.

  “Net bewgen.”

  My stomach drops as I feel the strange thing slide into my ear… and the next moment, I suddenly understand their strange, guttural language.

  “Can you hear me, slave?”

  I turn my head towards the Nezdek. He’s frowning at me with his big bushy eyebrows. I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer.

  Irritated, he snaps his fingers.

  “Are you listening?”

  He turns towards the other alien.

  “This one is broken, Matif,” he says. “Look at her eyes. Braindead. These humans are weak.”

  “No, impossible, Lord Erran,” the alien responds. “According to my readings she can hear us perfectly. Can you not, human?”

  I glare as hard as I can at the two Nezdek, praying that it’s enough to turn them into vapor. Sadly, it’s not.

  “Answer my question then, slave!” Lord Erran barks. “Where is the one you call ‘Sarah Granger’?”

  Oh god.

  As if having a bunch of students yell at me because they wanted to see Sarah wasn’t bad enough… now I’m getting kidnapped by these creeps because I filled in?! This is the last time I’m ever substituting, that’s for damn sure!

  “You can start by using my name.” I scowl.

  Lord Erran laughs haughtily. He grabs the drill, and the sound it produces makes my stomach drop.

  “Talk, slave, or I’ll cut out your brainstem and I’ll get the answer from your grey matter directly.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat.

  Can he really do that?

  “I don’t know,” I say.

  The alien glares furiously at me. “She was supposed to be there!”

  “Well, you got me instead. Sucks, right? You’re not the only one disappointed, if you can believe that.”

  The pale alien raises his bushy eyebrows questioningly.

  “Forget it,” I say. “Anyway, now that we both know we’ve got a mix-up going here, there’s no shame in dropping me back off, right? You don’t need to take me all the way home, just anywhere on Earth will do fine.”

  “Bah!” the alien spits. “The Czar will have my head for this. I promised him the fiery blonde.”

  His creepy eyes scan my naked body.

  “Perhaps she will do,” he mutters to himself. “Matif, sedate her. Her babbling annoys me.”

  Oh hell no. I’m not going back under.

  Using every ounce of strength I have I manage to slip my hand out of its bonds. My hand freed, I loosen the wraps around my naked body as quickly as I can. The Nezdek are taken by surprise, and before they can stop me I jump up, snatch a surgical knife from the counter and point it right at the two aliens.

  The Nezdek hiss at me, pointing that giant buzzing, whirring drill my way.

  “Don’t move,” I snap. “Turn this ship around!”

  The two aliens laugh, and the anger makes my cheeks flush bright red.

  “Stop it!”

  “You’re as fiery as Sarah,” Lord Erran says. “The Czar will enjoy breaki
ng you.”

  The two Nezdek circle me, and my eyes dart from one to the other. Taking on one alien would be difficult, but two? While naked? That’s a whole different story.

  Erran lunges for me with his long, bony arms. Panicked, I slash at him, and he lets out a piercing scream. Blood gushes down his pale face — a deep cut across the left side of his face, across his eye.

  “You bitch!” he cries, his hands covering his face.

  I look at him, stunned, my hands still gripping the surgical knife. Did I just do that?

  Then I feel a prick in my left shoulder, and a dull pain instantly courses through my veins.

  I already know it before I see it — a needle is sticking out of me.

  The damn Nezdek drugged me again.

  I stumble and fall to the ground, pulling over a table of surgical supplies, fighting the drug as hard as I can… and failing miserably.

  The last thing I see before I pass out is the pale face of the Nezdek doctor smiling down at me, baring his sharp teeth. I feel the last bit of hope I had left flow away along with my consciousness.

  3

  AVA

  I’M JOLTED AWAKE. I sit right up, and my hands glide down my body.

  Arms. Legs. Boobs. They’re all still there.

  Thank god.

  Thankfully, I’m no longer naked. A white surgical gown now covers my frame. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.

  “Good morning,” a guttural voice says.

  Eyes wide, I whirl around. A Nezdek guard is grinning at me from behind bars. His eyes are as white as milk, with no iris in sight. It’s incredibly unsettling.

  The room I’m in is so dark I can barely see a thing, except for the Nezdek’s face. I blink a few times and slowly but surely I can start to make out shapes in the darkness. I’m in a cell of some kind. Alone.

  “Aren’t you going to say something back?”

  “Fuck off,” I croak. My voice is hoarse and my throat hurts, as if I just spent hours screaming.

  The alien laughs. “Erran said you were feisty. I can see he wasn’t wrong.” He licks his thin lips, and I pull my knees up to my chest, trying to make myself as small as possible. “You’re lucky the Czar himself wants you, you know. Unspoiled. Because I wouldn’t mind sampling the wares… I’ve been looking forward to tasting human.”