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  Alliance

  Book Three of Paradise Reclaimed

  Aubrie Dionne

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Alliance (Paradise Reclaimed, #3)

  Chapter One | Empty Bed

  Chapter Two | Priavenus

  Chapter Three | Aria

  Chapter Four | Strawberries

  Chapter Five | Risk

  Chapter Six | Convenience

  Chapter Seven | Time Bomb

  Chapter Eight | Warning

  Chapter Nine | No Return

  Chapter Ten | Hope

  Chapter Eleven | Volunteer

  Chapter Twelve | Sprint into Darkness

  Chapter Thirteen | Stowaway

  Chapter Fourteen | Admission

  Chapter Fifteen | Direction

  Chapter Sixteen | Multiple Sight

  Chapter Seventeen | Hesitation

  Chapter Eighteen | Eyesore

  Chapter Nineteen | First Steps

  Chapter Twenty | Mercy

  Chapter Twenty-One | Precious Cargo

  Chapter Twenty-Two | Maze

  Chapter Twenty-Three | The Lull Before the Storm

  Chapter Twenty-Four | Armada

  Chapter Twenty-Five | Foolish Inclinations

  Chapter Twenty-Six | Sight

  Chapter Twenty-Seven | Mailbox

  Chapter Twenty-Eight | Trivial Thoughts

  Chapter Twenty-Nine | Sacrifice

  Epilogue

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Enjoyed This Book?

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, places, or events is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case the author has not received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Alliance: Book Three of Paradise Reclaimed

  Copyright © 2014 Aubrie Dionne

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13 (print): 978-1-939590-28-2

  ISBN-13 (ebook): 978-1-939590-27-5

  Library of Congress Control Number:

  Inkspell Publishing

  5764 Woodbine Ave.

  Pinckney, MI 48169

  Edited By Rie Langdon.

  Cover art By Najla Qamber

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The copying, scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions, and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  DEDICATION

  For anyone who has had to fight for love....

  Chapter One

  Empty Bed

  The scar burned between my breasts. Would I ever feel whole again? I smoothed my fingers over the fabric of my uniform, where the sunburst blossomed red and pink on my skin. My other hand traced the exotic, inky patterns on the face of the alien who lay on the examination bed beside me. Only he could understand my pain. We’d both been cocooned on that wretched arachnid ship, waiting to die.

  “Lyra, you have to leave him. The ceremony’s in twenty minutes.” Tauren stood with his arms crossed over his broad chest. A forehead worthy of an Old Earth caveman hung over his little, beady eyes as he stared with suspicion. “Don’t you want your medal?”

  Behind me, monitors beeped with a steady, abnormally slow heart rate. A line fluctuating on a graph showed unprecedented brain activity. My ward dreamed. What of, I wasn’t sure: star systems I’d never seen, or maybe his home planet. My fingers traced his shimmery golden skin, soft and smooth except for the calluses on the underside of his palm and the hard, ripped abs underneath the sheets—not that I’d peeked. For an alien, he looked more like a demigod or one of those statues of Roman warriors from my history text.

  I brushed back a strand of cobalt hair from his eyes and tucked in the bed sheets. “I don’t care about medals.”

  Tauren lurched toward me and grabbed my wrist like I was his toy kite that had drifted too far on the wind. His fingernails dug into my skin. “What do you care about?” His voice was hoarse, his smudge-brown gaze desperate.

  My thoughts wandered to the survivor. I hadn’t even spoken to him or learned his name. When I first saw him, wrapped in the arachnids’ cocoon aboard their metallic ship, my emotions had ignited. Far from his home, he lay in stasis, trapped until the arachnids drained his body of life. I’d been in the same position until Nova saved me.

  I had to save him.

  I’d been saving lost souls my whole life: a chick in the ventilation pipes, a little boy who wandered into the recycling bins, and my brother when his mind drifted back to the past. This was no different. Tauren would never understand. How could you explain unwarranted compassion to a young man who’d grown up in a family with logic, rules, and no nonsense? He was, and always would be, Commander Crophaven’s son.

  I yanked my hand away. “I’ll go to the ceremony to honor Nova saving my life. Not to receive some shiny token.”

  Tauren’s mind was so small. Always focused on honors and pride, on proving himself to his father. There was so much more to life.

  He shifted his beady eyes and scrunched his eyebrows as if I’d insulted him personally. “It’s the Guide’s highest honor to receive a medal forged from the minerals of Old Earth.”

  Here we go again with the Guide.

  Tauren had memorized every passage. He probably recited that dogmatic rule book while he peed. Thankfully, Commander Barliss had destroyed the pairing system and called all non-consummated matches null before he’d died, or I’d have had to hear about the wisdom of the Guide for the rest of my life.

  Now, all I had to do was find the right time to let Tauren down... not today. Not right now. I had to get the ceremony over with and come back before Mr. Gorgeous woke. I didn’t need a zealous Guide worshiper trying to convince me the pairing system came from the right hand of God.

  Tauren tilted his head, as if he could read my thoughts. His eyes narrowed in jealousy as he glanced back to the bed.

  Would he do something crazy? Rip off the sheets or yank out the cord to the heart monitor?

  I took his hand and pulled him away. “Minerals from Old Earth are special. Yes. You’re right. Let’s go before we’re late.” My voice fell flat with all the lies, but Tauren didn’t seem to notice. He tightened his grip on my hand as I stole one last look at the examination bed.

  The man’s hair curled around his high cheekbones in waves of cobalt, reminding me of Old Earth’s oceans. His tattoos ran from his neck to his forehead, swirling around his left eye in intricate spirals. After examining the alien’s skin cells, the doctors had concluded the patterns were naturally occurring, which made him ultra swoon-worthy.

  I needed to be there when he woke, to reassure him of his safety. I also had to pay my respects. Nova saved my life twice, and Crophaven conducted this ceremony in her honor. I let Tauren lead me from the room and through the chrome corridors of the New Dawn. Once again, I played the game, waiting until the time was right.

  We pushed through the crowd congregating on the ceremonial viewing deck. Paradise 21 filled the main sight panel, along with dense, chaotic vines and blossoms, all glowing in the reddish-purple sunset. Some people cursed its wild and dangerous nature, but the primal beauty struck me much more than the threat. Since landing, I’d cataloged a flood of new colors I’d never seen before, like eye-bleeding fuchsia and dark, velvety vermillion. For each poisonous flower, I’d found a dozen benevolen
t blossoms the perfect size to thread through my tangled, dark curls.

  Lieutenant Crophaven stood on stage with the other members of my team, the team that had beaten the arachnids and saved the colony under Nova’s leadership. We’d also saved a pool of specimens from all of the planets the arachnids had pillaged. That’s how I’d found my mystery alien.

  Gavin, the redheaded linguist, more interested in lifting weights than talking to ancient civilizations, sat on the stage beside Crophaven. On Crophaven’s other side sat Alcor, the wiry medic whose parents made great leaps in the organ regeneration lab. Gavin and Alcor smiled when I emerged from the crowd. Dark circles haunted Gavin’s eyes, and a mesh of scars covered Alcor’s face. We’d been through hell and back together, and they’d be my friends for all time. My own scar, where the spire had lodged in my chest, continually burned and itched. I’d gotten away with relatively little harm, thanks to Nova.

  Tauren bowed, and the top of his shiny, shaved head caught the fluorescent lights as he released my arm. “Congratulations, Lyra. Enjoy the ceremony.”

  I gave him a tight-lipped smile and nodded curtly. “Thanks.”

  After saluting his father, Tauren took a seat in the front row. As always, he behaved spectacularly in public. The stolen, private moments where he freaked out made me thankful I could break our lifemate tie.

  All in good time.

  Crophaven raised his hands and the crowd silenced. With the previous commander gone, he was the most powerful man in our new colony.

  And I’m going to disappoint his son.

  Resisting the urge to bite my nails, we waited for the formal procession to begin. My mind kept returning to the med bay. While riding on the corsair, the alien had murmured strange words in his sleep over and over, like the refrain to a melancholy song. Esoteria plagen droll, he’d said, over and over. I’d wanted the medics to boost his oxygen, but they’d sedated him instead. They said it was safer for all of us this way. He hadn’t woken since.

  Esoteria plagen droll.

  I asked Gavin, despite his apparent lack of skill in the linguistics department, to decipher the phrase. He couldn’t find anything similar in all his texts from Old Earth. Even now I wanted to search the computer’s database one more time.

  Alcor nudged my arm, his scarred face scowling. The white lines where the baby arachnids had slashed at his cheeks made a mesh of crisscrossing webs.

  I gave him an apologetic smile and straightened in my seat. Pay attention and maybe you can get back sooner than later.

  All heads turned as the portal dematerialized and Nova walked in on Sirius’ arm. With gleaming emerald eyes and cherry-flushed cheeks, she beamed like the queen of her new world. Her auburn hair glowed in the reddish light, rivaling the sunset. Sirius tightened his grip on her arm, his black hair slicked into a shiny wave and his charmingly sly face smiling with pride. I’d caught them kissing on the alien ship, and I wondered if the whole experience had brought them closer.

  My gaze wandered over to Tauren, sitting ramrod straight in his family’s pew, sucking in his six pack. Would I feel the same way about my lifemate had he been chosen for the team?

  My stomach tightened. No freaking way. Nothing could bring Tauren and me together. We were as opposite as a black hole and a sparkling star, Tauren sucking up energy and life, and me giving my emotions freely until I had nothing left.

  I was so over the lifemate pairing system, it wasn’t funny.

  Applause trickled through the main viewing deck like warm rain. I stood and brought my hand to my forehead in salute along with the other members of our team. Nova and Sirius paced the long aisle to the stage. I’d been so intent on taking care of the alien, I’d forgotten to thank Nova for saving my life. Twice. Today I had to stay until I got my chance.

  Halfway to the podium, Nova slipped, and my heart stopped as members of the congregation gasped. She braced herself with one hand on the floor and squinted against the reddish, hazy light. Had she fully recovered from the toxic effects of the spire she’d blocked with her body to save me? I’d already been hit once, and the second dose of the arachnid’s poison would have killed me. Nova had taken a direct hit to her gut. My carelessness had caused her weakened state.

  A bead of sweat rolled down my face. Would she make it to the stage? How embarrassing to stumble on your way down the aisle! My heart ached for her, willing her to be all right. I itched to run and help her up, but Sirius had already reclaimed her arm.

  Nova clutched Sirius like he was her lifeline. He whispered something in her ear and her gaze steeled with determination. She straightened and nodded, and they continued down the aisle.

  I breathed in relief as she climbed the steps and took her place in line. The ceremony began, and I took my seat on the stage, feigning interest in all the speeches and trying not to think about my sleeping ward.

  What would he think of me when he saw me? Would he look up into my face and smile or squeeze my hand? Could I learn his language? Linguistics had never been my forte, but I’d certainly try.

  Crophaven turned to me, and I jolted awake from my daydreams. Oh yeah! The illustrious silver medal, the third-highest honor stated in the Guide.

  I rose from my seat, my feet tingling from sitting in the same position for so long. Crophaven’s downturned nose and beady eyes resembled Tauren’s so closely, I shriveled. He leaned down and pinned the medal to my uniform. I smoothed my fingers over the bumps in the silver, raised in the emblem of a ship from Old Earth cutting through water. The medal weighed me down, feeling like more of an obligation than an honor.

  What did they expect of me now? The stage swayed, and I blinked, righting myself. Was the room heating, or did some of the arachnid’s poison still run through my veins? My collar itched against my sweaty neck.

  “Lyra Bryan, you have served the Guide honorably once again.” Commander Crophaven’s eyes held expectation. Did he think of my pairing with Tauren? He wanted only the best of the best for his son, and here I was, accepting another medal, making me one of the most wanted lifemates on the planet. At least to him.

  Great. Just what I want.

  Note to self: next time, fail. Epically.

  The crowd applauded as I bowed and took my seat, feeling ridiculous. I’d only accepted the mission to get away from Tauren. Besides, all I did was follow Nova’s orders. I complained about them at the time, but the team had forgotten my doubts in our victory. I was about as heroic as a desert cow.

  Speeches followed. So many I forgot who spoke as my mind drifted. I watched the digital candles flicker, and the wallscreens change from scenes of previous medal ceremonies to the proud faces of the recipients.

  The ceremony ended with Nova accepting the position of lieutenant-in-training. As she uttered the word yes, people leaped from their seats and rushed the stage with congratulations. I pushed my way through sweaty bodies to stand in a receiving line already five people long.

  Tauren rounded the stage, working his way toward me. People parted in front of his bulky body like minnows before a shark. My body jittered with nervous anxiety, and I bounced on my heels impatiently. I had to reach Nova before Tauren grabbed my arm, or I’d never get back to the med bay tonight.

  Tauren’s gaze met mine, and I dropped my chin, my curls hanging as a shield.

  Why did I always have to look?

  “Lyra—”

  My stomach clenched and I kept my back turned. Lyra who? Don’t know her.

  Thank the Guide, Crophaven chose that instant to push by me and block Tauren’s view. I stole a glance across the crowd, watching the commander pull Tauren aside to a quieter alcove behind the stage. They turned their backs to the congregation, speaking in a hushed conversation.

  What were they discussing? I bit my lip, tasting my cherry lipstick. It didn’t matter as long as their meeting took longer than Nova’s receiving line. For once it felt good to be out of the loop. I’d had enough adventures in the last few months for a lifetime.

  Tw
o more people to go.

  Nova thanked each guest in her usual curt manner. Maybe she wanted this whole charade to be over as well. A balding man with a round belly stood in front of me. Nova turned to him and the man’s thin lips set in a grim line as he shook Nova’s hand.

  “Lieutenant-hood is not to be taken lightly.”

  Nova’s face remained impassive, but a muscle twitched in her jaw. “I’m well aware of that, sir.”

  “You’re a little young.” He crossed his arms.

  I stepped back in shock, almost bumping into the woman behind me.

  Nova’s fingers tightened into a fist. “I’m as old as Andromeda Barliss, and Crophaven promoted her only a month ago.”

  He planted a stubby hand on his rather large hip. “Yes, but you’re not the commander’s great-granddaughter.”

  Nova’s cheeks flushed red. “What are you implying, sir?”

  The man crossed his arms and grinned smugly. “You had a streak of luck with the arachnids, but it won’t last. Someday you’ll have to make a tough decision. Do you have what it takes to put your personal feelings aside and do what’s best for the colony?”

  My temper threatened to boil. Who was he to question her?

  I pushed myself between them and pointed a finger into the old man’s chest, glimpsing his name tag on his ID card around his neck. “Excuse me, Raymond Drum climate specialist, a.k.a. weatherman. Nova is the best leader there is. I’ve seen her make tough decisions. I’ve been with her for two missions now.”

  My intervention caught him off guard. Two young women ganging up on him must have been too much. He stepped back. “We’ll see.”

  Raymond raised his hairy, gray eyebrow and slinked away, disappearing into the crowd.

  I almost followed him to drive my point home, but I had to thank Nova before Tauren decided to take my destiny into his hands.

  “Thanks, Lyra.” Nova placed a hand on my shoulder, and I felt like I supported half her weight. “For following my crazy orders.”

  “They weren’t crazy. Your orders saved the colony. I’m sorry I ever questioned them.” I glanced over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see Raymond’s balding head to shoot them at. “That man has no right—”