An Alien To Die For (Zerconian Warriors Book 10) Read online

  An Alien to Die For

  Zerconian Warriors

  Sadie Carter

  Copyright

  Sadie Carter

  An Alien to Die For

  © 2017, Sadie Carter

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  This story contains explicit sex scenes. R18

  Cover Design: No Sweat Graphics

  Editor: Christie Giraud: EbookEditingPro

  Books by Sadie Carter

  Zerconian Warriors Series

  Alien Warrior

  Alien Lover

  Alien Mate

  Sweet Alien Savage

  Alien Savior

  Alien Morsels

  Alien Mine

  All I Want for Christmas is my Alien

  Alien Sacrifice

  An Alien to Die For

  Joyadan Mates

  Rye

  Shadowpeak Wolves

  Big Wicked Wolf

  Sinfully Savage Wolf

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  Chapter One

  Alice Carmody was so excited, she nearly peed herself.

  Her nervous bladder was an affliction she’d suffered all her life. During her first dance recital, at age five, she’d half-skipped off stage in search of the toilet. People had actually clapped. Her dance teacher told her it was her best work yet. Solo in the musical at ten, mid-note she’d raced out of the room. Afterwards, her father told her it was just as well as his ear drums couldn’t take much more. During her wedding proposal, she’d hopped around so much her soon-to-be fiancé had asked her if she was having a seizure.

  She frowned, thinking about Frederick—her cheating, arrogant ex-fiancé. Urgh! She didn’t want to think about him. Especially not today. Today was a happy day, and she wasn’t about to let anything ruin this moment. Not her horrible ex, not her easily excited bladder. Nope, nothing would ruin the first time she stepped foot on Zerconia.

  “Alice? What are you doing?” a male voice asked from behind her.

  She turned, wobbling on her new high heels. She’d spent a good deal of her savings on these shoes. Not that they’d cost that much, but she was a bit low on credits. Thankfully the Earth Council was paying for this trip to Zerconia. Otherwise she’d never have been able to afford it. They’d even given her some credits. Which was lucky since she’d left home with just a few credits she’d stolen from her father. She still felt guilty about that. She planned to send them back to him as soon as she could.

  Her cousin had offered to send her funds, but she’d refused. She had some pride after all. And he was already doing enough to help her. So what if she couldn’t buy little souvenirs at the stops they’d made during the journey? She didn’t need things.

  “Here, let me help you, Alice.”

  She peered up into his face, trying to pull the blurred image into features she recognized. “Mark?” Mark was a member of the transporter’s crew.

  “Alice, where are your glasses?”

  “In my luggage.”

  “Why aren’t they on your face?”

  Because they were ugly and she wished to look…well, not pretty, she knew she’d never be pretty. But the glasses covered what she thought was her best feature.

  Her eyebrows.

  Okay, so it might be weird to think your eyebrows were your best feature. But Alice’s eyebrows were dark and full. They arched ever so slightly. She didn’t even shape them that way. They were completely natural. No one ever believed her, of course. She’d had plenty of women stop her to ask her where she’d had them done, only to storm off in a huff when she told them she never touched them.

  So, today of all days, wearing glasses was out of the question.

  Mark’s voice had been a bit snappish, but she didn’t take offense. She knew the Mark quite well by now. It had been a long journey from Earth to Zerconia. No doubt he was a bit testy because he was tired.

  “Because I don’t want to wear them when we disembark. I want to make a good first impression.”

  “Alice, we’re still two days out from Zerconia’s airspace.”

  Oh, shoot. She looked away in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. She could’ve sworn she’d overheard one of the crew members say that today day was ‘the day.’ She was the first to admit she wasn’t good at keeping track of time or days…or anything for that matter.

  Her mother called her flighty.

  Her father just called her an idiot.

  She pushed away those negative thoughts. She was free. She didn’t have to live under her father’s rule, to put up with him belittling her and her mother.

  Alice took a deep breath and looked up at Mark, forcing herself to smile through her embarrassment.

  “Whoops, must have got my days wrong.”

  “Let me take you back to your room.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She took a step back and nearly fell again. Drat! She should have practiced walking in these shoes first. “Thank you for your concern.”

  “What the hell are you wearing on your feet?”

  She peered down at her feet, blinking rapidly. While most people could have their vision issues fixed in less than ten minutes, with the aid of a laser, she was one of the few who could not.

  “They’re shoes.”

  “I know they’re shoes, but what are they doing on your feet?”

  “Um, because that’s where shoes go. Mark, are you feeling all right? I know you’re tired—”

  “I’m not tired,” he snapped. There was a pause. “I apologize. You’re right, I am tired. Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable in flat shoes? With your glasses on?”

  She patted his arm to let him know she forgave him. “You’re so sweet to worry about me, but I’ll be all right.”

  “Not just you I’m worried about,” he muttered.

  “What was that?” She peered up at him, trying to read his expression. Who was she kidding? He was so blurry she couldn’t tell his nose from his mouth. Maybe she should wear her glasses. She wanted to look nice for these Zerconian hunks, though. She was searching for a mate, after all. She should try to put in an effort, right?

  Nerves tightened her stomach. What if none of them chose her? Would she be allowed to stay or would they make her go back to Earth? To her family?

  Nerves morphed into panic. Her breath left her in a whoosh, her lungs tightening painfully. Spots danced in front of her eyes.

  “Alice? Alice, you okay? Here, come sit down.”

  She let Mark steer her to a bench seat and sat, dropping her head down between her knees.

  “Sorry,” she told him when she caught her breath.

  “I’ll call for the doctor.”

  “No!” she half-yelled. She forced herself to smile. “I’m fine. Just felt a little dizzy is all. Been on the ship too long, I guess. I’d love some fresh air. Guess you were right. There’s no way I can walk in these shoes. I read somewhere that high heels make you look taller and slimmer.”

  And she needed all the help she could in that department.

  “Alice—”

  “Vanity is a sin, though, isn’t it?” At least that’s what her father always lectured whenever she’d tried to improve her appearance.

  Mark cleared his throat, and
she guessed he was growing impatient with her.

  Men didn’t like to listen to women’s problems, as her mother liked to tell her. A woman should keep a peaceful home, should cater to her husband’s needs, should keep her opinions to herself…the list when on and on. Normally, Alice tuned out her mother’s voice by this point in the lecture.

  She knew that not all men and women had a relationship like her parents. Most didn’t. But in the Church of the Enlightened Souls, men were head of the household and women were…well, women did what they were told.

  Alice wasn’t very good at doing as she was told.

  “Come on, I’m taking you back to your room. No arguments. You really shouldn’t be walking around without your glasses. Especially wearing those shoes.”

  Alice nodded and let him help her back to her assigned room on board the Mariana. The transporter had been named after the Captain’s wife. It was a romantic gesture. What would it be like to have someone love her like that?

  Perhaps her parents had loved her at one stage. But mostly they were disappointed in her. Once she was alone in her room, she pulled her glasses out of her luggage, putting them on. The room’s communicator buzzed as she was changing her shoes. She limped over, her right foot still encased in the high heel.

  She placed her hand on the pad by the door without checking who it was. She knew everyone on the transporter.

  “Hi, Alice.” Maisy stepped into her room with a smile.

  “Hi!” Alice replied cheerfully. “Come in. Have a seat.”

  Maisy sat down on her bed. The other woman was the closest friend Alice had, even though they’d only met at the beginning of this journey. Alice limped over towards her luggage.

  “I’m so bored. I can’t wait until we land on Zerconia. This trip has been the pits.”

  Alice thought the trip had been amazing. They’d had several stops, and she’d even managed to do a little sightseeing. The sheer number of different species she’d encountered had taken her breath away. Her father hadn’t allowed her to study other races, in his mind, there was only one race. The human one. She didn’t like to think of her father as racist, but the way he’d talked about alien races had made her think they were all intellectually inferior with no moral conscience and bad hygiene—actually, maybe it was her mother who’d told her that.

  During this trip, she’d been determined to learn as much as she could about other races and their cultures. Especially the Zerconians. She’d even taught herself their language. She’d found it easier than she’d thought, so she’d downloaded a few other languages to learn and picked up those just as quickly. It seemed she had a real knack for languages.

  It felt good to study something other than her father’s biblical teachings, which mainly consisted of preaching about how inferior women were, how all sins fell on their shoulders, and how it was their duty to be subservient to their husbands, fathers, and their God. She usually tuned out after a few minutes.

  But she didn’t want to disagree with Maisy, so she simply nodded.

  “Alice, why are you wearing two different shoes?”

  She sighed. “I nearly tripped over in the high heels, so I thought I’d better change. From the way Mark reacted when he saw me in them, I don’t think I looked that good anyway.”

  Maisy snorted. “Mark is a stick in the mud. And he’s rude.”

  “He’s just tired. It’s been a long journey for him.”

  “He doesn’t approve of what we’re doing,” Maisy told her.

  Alice paused as she was removing her shoe. “What do you mean, he doesn’t approve?”

  “I overheard him talking to Paul about how he thought we were whoring ourselves and how the Earth Council had basically sold us to the Zerconians.”

  She sat back, dumbfounded. “But that’s not true. We’re not whoring ourselves. We haven’t been sold to the Zerconians.”

  Maisy looked a little unsure. “Then why is the Earth Council paying for us to go to Zerconia? I didn’t really think about it before. I was just tired of working such long hours and living in a horrible little apartment. I wanted a better life, but what if we have been sold to the Zerconians?”

  “That’s ridiculous, Maisy. We’re allied to the Zerconians; the Earth Council is merely trying to help them. They need mates, or their race will die out. The recruitment officer I spoke to on Earth said we can leave when the Mariana departs Zerconia again in four weeks.” If they hadn’t met their mate by then. And she desperately hoped she would find her mate.

  Because she couldn’t go back.

  Her cousin had offered her a home, but she couldn’t be a burden to him. He had his own life, and she needed to create a life for herself.

  “Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true, Alice,” Maisy told her.

  Alice straightened her shoulders, feeling a little naive. “Of course it doesn’t. But they were very genuine.”

  “People lie. All the time. You’ve got to start protecting yourself, Alice. You’re so innocent, I worry about you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I can look after myself.” She was a little annoyed. She wasn’t some naïve fool, she just liked to believe that most people were good and kind and honest. But she also didn’t want to anger Maisy.

  “Just try not to be too trusting.”

  “Everything will be fine. We’re both going to find our Zerconian hunk and live happily ever after.”

  “Well, I have heard these aliens are to die for,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”

  Alice didn’t. But she didn’t want to look like an idiot, so she nodded.

  She didn’t understand why Maisy had decided to come to Zerconia if she didn’t truly believe she would find her mate. It didn’t matter, Alice knew everything would be okay.

  It had to be.

  ***

  A jolt sent her flying off the bed. She landed on the floor with a groan, every bone in her body aching.

  “Sugar, that hurts,” she muttered, pushing herself up, so she was sitting. As she reached up to grab her glasses from where she’d left them on the bedside table last night, siren blasts filled the air.

  “That can’t be good.” They’d had practice drills for emergency evacuations, but never at night. And it seemed kind of silly to have one when they were two days out from Zerconia. She brushed her hand against her glasses, sending them flying.

  “Oh, sugar plums!”

  Maisy often teased that she wouldn’t know a good swear word if it came up and bit her on the ass. But her parents had believed swearing was the devil speaking through her and the few times they’d caught her swearing, they’d ‘purged’ her of the devil. Alice had quickly learned to swap her swear words for something more acceptable, even if she did sound a fool.

  On hands and knees, trying to think past the panic clouding her mind, she searched around for her glasses. “Come on. Come on.”

  She’d never make it to the evacuation area without her glasses.

  “Evacuate immediately. This is not a drill. Get to your escape shuttles. Evacuate immediately.”

  “Oh God, please help me,” she prayed.

  Finally, her fingertips encountered something circular and metal, and she let out a thankful cry as she drew her glasses on. Quickly pulling on a pair of pants, a sweatshirt, and some shoes, she grabbed her communicator and slipped it onto her wrist as she took off racing down the passage towards the escape shuttles. As she rounded the corner, she came to a skidding stop, barely managing not to body slam the woman in front of her. She reached out and grabbed the woman to stop them both from falling over.

  The woman turned, her arms coming up defensively, a cry of fear escaping.

  “I’m so sorry,” Alice panted, giving the other woman an apologetic look. She hadn’t spoken to the tall, blonde woman before, but she knew who she was. Everyone knew about Sophie. Alice tried not to listen to gossip, it was another of the devil’s instruments, but it had been hard not to hear s
ome of the comments or to wonder about the bruises on Sophie’s face and the defensive way she held herself.

  She rarely came out of her room, even taking her meals there with her sister, Saffron. Where Sophie was tall and thin with honey-blonde hair, her sister was shorter, rounder, her hair dark. Saffron took care of Sophie ferociously, glaring at anyone who even looked at her wrong.

  Alice wondered where Saffron was and why were all these women standing around in outside the evacuation area? Shouldn’t they be taking their seats on the escape shuttles? Where were the crew?

  “I was racing to get here, and I got a bit carried away. Sorry, I should have been watching where I was going.”

  She watched as Sophie’s breathing slowed. She still looked frightened, her face pale, eyes wide and unfocused in her too-thin face.

  “Sorry,” Sophie told her.

  “Not your fault. Totally mine.” Alice held her hands out to her sides, uncertain why she did it. Even though Sophie was thin, she was still bigger than Alice. But something about Sophie seemed infinitely fragile.

  There was nothing fragile about Alice. She’d built up plenty of muscle working in out in the fields with the other women in her father’s congregation. Even when she’d still been at school, she would get up early and work then come home to more chores.

  “Um, what is everyone doing out here? Is it another drill? Where is your sister? Isn’t she here with you?”

  Sophie blinked at her.

  “Sorry.” Alice laughed even she could hear the hint of hysteria in the noise. “I always talk too much when I’m nervous or excited or well, anytime, really. But, what’s happening?”

  “I don’t know,” Sophie told her. “My sister is trying to find out what’s going on.”

  Someone screeched, a sound filled with anger. Another woman cried out in fear. Ahead of them, a group of women broke into chatter, some bursting into tears.

  What was going on?

  A sinking feeling developed in Alice’s stomach as the ship gave another lurch and she flew sideways. Sophie, whose balance seemed to be unaffected, reached out and grabbed onto Alice, steadying her.