Scen's Mate E-Book

Nova Edwins

• Herausgeber: Black Umbrella Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 78

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

I've read enough science fiction and fantasy novels to know that I'm in big trouble when I wake up in the cargo hold of a spaceship with several other women—and unfortunately, the aliens who abducted us are neither nice nor attractive. My luck finally seems to turn around when different aliens show up to rescue us. Although I'm not really sure it's a rescue. Because I end up in the arms of an unfriendly giant who promptly separates me from my friends...   Slightly dark-ish sci-fi romance. Features a grumpy alien, a bold heroine, and just enough electricity to keep the sparks flying.

Leseprobe

SCEN’S MATE

NOVA EDWINS

A DARK-ISH SCI-FI ROMANCE NOVELLA

CONTENTS

Scen’s Mate

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About Nova Edwins

SCEN’S MATE

I’ve read enough science fiction and fantasy novels to know that I’m in big trouble when I wake up in the cargo hold of a spaceship with several other women—and unfortunately, the aliens who abducted us are neither nice nor attractive.

My luck finally seems to turn around when different aliens show up to rescue us. Although I’m not really sure it’s a rescue. Because I end up in the arms of an unfriendly giant who promptly separates me from my friends...

Slightly dark-ish sci-fi romance. Features a grumpy alien, a bold heroine, and just enough electricity to keep the sparks flying.

PROLOGUE

“Darling, you look stunning! Just gorgeous.” Willow pressed her hands to her chest and beamed at my daughter.

And she was right. Lilea looked stunning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but feel a little old at that moment as I watched my daughter get ready for her first date. She applied lip gloss and pressed her lips together before turning for us to see how the skirt swung around her slender red legs.

Her skin wasn’t as deep red as her father’s, though not even close to my pale white skin either.

“The skirt’s too short.” Scen appeared in the doorway, frowning so hard that Willow laughed.

I tried to hide my smile by taking another sip of wine.

Lilea blinked in confusion before looking down. “It isn’t. It’s almost ridiculously long.”

Well, that was an exaggeration too, since the hem didn’t even cover her knees, but I could see her point. She was old enough to go out and, more importantly, to tell her bossy father not to interfere. Scen’s heart was in the right place, but thanks to his genes, our daughter was much better at keeping unwanted attention at bay than I had ever been.

Just like him, she could extend razor-sharp claws on command. When she was angry or scared, sharp spikes would shoot out of her neck, shoulders, and upper arms. No one could grab our daughter from behind and drag her into a dark alley. She had been six years old when her eyes had first lit up from the inside before she accidentally tore the stuffed animal in her hands to shreds because I had forbidden her to eat more ice cream.

Her father had done very well in teaching her how to control her Tedoleran side. He was fascinated to this day that Lilea’s arms were also covered in spikes, as this had been a trait of the Tedoleran women until they had been wiped out by a virus hundreds of years ago. Therefore, Tedolerans preferred humans because we were compatible with them.

“Will you at least take the dagger?” Scen held the weapon out to her and Lilea snorted.

“I was going to use this purse.” She pointed to a tiny clutch.

Scen eyed her. “You could strap it to your thigh.”

“Good grief, Scen, she’s just walking down the street to a friend’s house, not going off to war.” Willow raised an eyebrow.

“A friend whose parents are home,” my daughter added.

My mate let out a low and exceedingly displeased growl before turning to me. “How about a little help, Sophie?”

I almost choked on my wine. Oh no, not again. “I think our daughter’s more than capable of defending herself, and can certainly manage on her own. I don’t remember you making such a fuss when her brother went out after dark for the first time.”

Scen folded his massive arms in front of his even more massive chest. “Her brother is taller than me and can rip the spine out of a full-grown man. Look how tiny she is in comparison.”

Lilea’s eyes narrowed and promptly began to glow. “I can defend myself just as well.”

Willow winced, apparently unaware of how deep Lilea’s voice sounded when she switched to what the Tedolerans called “battle mode.”

“Imagine if Mom’s dad had never let her go out—you two wouldn’t have met at all.”

Alarmed, Scen straightened his back with a little bit of panic in his eyes while our daughter turned to me. “Ha. How did you guys meet? You never talk about that.”

“Oh, we met on a space station right after I arrived from Earth. I ordered a drink that humans couldn’t handle, and your father was kind enough to point it out to me. After he was done being rude and grumpy, of course.”

Lilea laughed and even Willow grinned, while my husband gave me a reproachful look. I was aware that I had lied, but he certainly didn’t want me to tell her the truth, did he now?

“See?” Lilea threw her arms in the air. “Even a weakling like Mom got to go out and everything turned out fine, Dad.”

I cleared my throat. “Didn’t we talk about how Mom dislikes being called a weakling?”

“Sorry, Mom.” Lilea put the lip gloss away, opened a drawer at her dressing table, and took out an extremely sharp, albeit very small, dagger that fit in her small clutch. Her father nodded with satisfaction and Lilea smiled at him.

“You’ll be back by midnight,” he said.

“Midnight sharp,” she assured us.

We both got a kiss on the cheek before she disappeared. After that, it didn’t take more than thirty standard seconds for Scen to turn around and clench his cyborg fist.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“What do you think? I’m following her, of course.”

Willow raised her glass. “Actually, we thought you’d get us more wine.”

“Yes, seriously, Scen. You have to let them make their own mistakes and have their own experiences.”

My husband looked like his head was going to explode any second now. “I don’t like this,” he growled.

“You didn’t follow Krean either, and his sister has the same right to privacy.”

He muttered some swear words and walked away.

“Are you going to get us wine now or not?” Willow called after him. She just laughed when he gave her the middle finger. I had taught him this very human gesture, and he’d been using it with great enthusiasm ever since.

Willow waited a moment before turning to me. “But seriously—how did you two meet? And don’t give me any of that bullshit you fed your daughter.”

I laughed softly. “It’s a long story and not something I want to traumatize her with. Especially not before her first date.”

“So, unless you want me to tell her how I ended up with five guys at once on a prison planet, you better tell me every detail right now.”

1

My stomach growled, but instead of just going to the fridge and getting a snack, I wrapped my fingers around the bars of the cage and prayed the aliens didn’t come back to feed us.

Zerna in the cage next to mine gave me a pitying look. Her ears were outstandingly good, which was why she always let us know when our captors returned.

It had taken me a while to get used to her appearance, but it probably hadn’t been any different for her. While I was rather short, Zerna was tall and slender; she had an elegant tail, small, curved horns, and the cutest elf ears. But the assholes who kidnapped us from our respective home planets had gone so far as to cut off her wings so she could fit in the cage with the other women. As far as I could tell, I was the only human on board. That’s probably why I was alone in my cage while the other women had to share one.

I wished I could at least talk to them, but so far we had only managed to teach each other our names—assuming that her name was actually Zerna and it didn’t just mean “help” in her language.

Then there was the blue woman with the three eyes and the three breasts, a dragon woman whose wings had also been clipped, and an egg. No, this wasn’t a joke. There was a huge egg in the cage with them.

I didn’t have the slightest idea how I had gotten there. After watching far too many episodes of Suits, I had gone to bed and woken up in this cage. The first thing I saw was the dragoness being brought back into the room by some green aliens—she’d been crying and the stumps of her wings were still smoldering. The lousy asshole aliens must have just burned her wings off. Since then, the dragoness hadn’t said a single word, and I could understand her silence all too well.

Besides, I had read enough fantasy and sci-fi novels to know that this couldn’t end well for us. Not even for the egg.

Zerna straightened up and the tips of her elf ears twitched. She slid backwards and pressed her back against the wall, so I knew it was feeding time.

I couldn’t suppress the shiver as one of the aliens entered the room. The door was always open, but I couldn’t see much from my position. All I saw were smooth metal walls, smooth metal floors, and, unsurprisingly, a smooth metal door frame. As far as I could tell, I was in a cage inside a huge roll of aluminum foil.