Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery Read online

  Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery

  The Khanavai Warrior Bride Games Book Four

  Margo Bond Collins

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Join Margo Online

  Read More of Margo’s Books

  Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery

  Copyright © 2021 by Margo Bond Collins

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.

  Published by Dangerous Words Publishing

  Cover by Covers by Combs

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

  Created with Vellum

  About Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery

  I’ll do whatever it takes to destroy the Bride Games.

  A year ago, I did the unthinkable.

  I helped a woman running from the Alien Bride Lottery.

  I spent three months in a federal prison for it, too.

  As soon as I got out, a secret organization recruited me. Our goal is to end the Bride Lottery program forever.

  So when my name is drawn in the lottery this year, I know it’s a set-up. But my friends in the organization insist it’s for the best, because now I can feed them information from inside the Bride Games.

  But when I arrive on Station 21, I realize there’s even more to this set-up than I knew. Because the first person I meet is that green alien bastard who turned me in. Worse, he’s one of the grooms in the Bride Games.

  If he thinks he can make up for all the damage he’s done, he’s in for a surprise.

  Because I’m going to do whatever it takes to bring down this entire system.

  Chapter One

  Deandra Casto

  The first time I saw one of them—one of the Khanavai warriors—I was working the night shift as a hotel desk clerk when a frantic, thirty-something woman with hair dyed a kind of burgundy red dashed in from a car that had pulled up in the half-circle drive outside the lobby.

  I glanced up from the magazine I’d been flipping through. Her gaze shifted around as if checking out all our security cameras, and then she ducked her face down.

  That’s when I recognized her.

  Amelia Rivers.

  The runaway bride from the Alien Bride Lottery.

  She had been all over the news for days. The authorities of two planets, along with a whole mess of bounty hunters, were after her, a human doctor who, as far as I was concerned, should have been exempt from even having to participate in the Bride Lottery.

  Quietly, I reached over and turned off the switch to the surveillance system. “Cameras are off,” I told her, keeping my voice down.

  Her eyes welled up with tears. “Oh, God. Thank you.”

  I nodded and watched to see what she’d do next.

  “Can you help me? I need to pay with cash.”

  Oh. I could do better than that. “Sure. I’ll even check you in under a fake name if you’d like.”

  She exhaled shakily. “Please. Yes.”

  “Come on—let’s get you into a room and I’ll fill out the paperwork afterward.” That was one of the benefits of working at a no-name highway hotel, where we mostly got long-distance travelers, clandestine lovers, and the occasional trucker looking for a night of something more luxurious than his cab. No one really asked questions, as long as we got paid and they didn’t trash a room.

  Still, offering to hide her was a stupid thing to do. Not to mention illegal.

  But I had grown up in West Virginia, where my father had been what used to be called a “prepper”—he spent his whole life preparing for the possibility of a war that never actually made it to Earth. In the process, he taught me to hunt and fish, how to grow and can food myself, and, most importantly, how to avoid the authorities whenever possible.

  So the idea that some alien jerk could just claim a human bride and force her to marry him made me sick to my stomach. I hadn’t ever even been entered into the lottery—I had married early to avoid it, and we had never gotten divorced, even though I hadn’t seen Sammy in years.

  It was safer that way. I was already married, so they couldn’t steal me away from my home planet.

  I didn’t blame Amelia Rivers one little bit for taking off when her name was drawn. I wouldn’t have wanted to end up with one of those giant, brightly colored monstrosities of a man-shaped alien, either.

  “Need any help hauling your stuff in?” I asked her as I coded a keycard and handed it to her.

  “Actually…yes, I do.”

  “Your room is on the side of the building. Drive around and I’ll meet you out there.” The idea of helping her escape sent a little thrill through my body, and I hurried to get a “Jane Smith” checked in.

  “Thank you so much for this,” Amelia said moments later as I walked around the corner of the building. But when she opened the car door, I froze.

  She actually had an alien right there in the car with her. A giant, hot-pink one, out cold in the back seat.

  I couldn’t tell any of them apart—other than their skin colors, of course—but I was pretty sure this was one of the ones I’d seen on the vids, chasing her across an airport or bus terminal or something.

  “Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for one of them.” I didn’t reach out to help her. Not yet.

  “It’s … complicated,” Amelia said, sighing.

  “I bet it is.” I reached out to grab the unconscious alien’s arm, placing my shoulder under his and lifting with my legs to help Amelia haul him out of the car and into the room.

  She’d paid in cash, after all.

  It was none of my business if she wanted to drag a passed-out alien into her hotel room and… do whatever it was she planned to do with him.

  We dropped him on the bed and she stood back to stare at him critically.

  “You planning to kill him?” I asked, only about half-concerned. “Because if you are, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do it here. I need to keep this job.”

  She turned a shocked expression in my direction. “Kill him? No! Of course not. I’m hoping to heal him.” Reaching down, she pulled back the sash he wore with his alien skirt—more like a kilt, I guess, but it looked like a skirt to me. “He’s wounded.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Good. As long as he didn’t die, I could ignore them both.

  “Could you help me strip him before you go?”

  “Strip him?” I couldn’t keep the shock out of my voice.

  “Please? I’ve got to get him cleaned up better.”

  He muttered in protest, but we ignored him, struggling to pull his alien-man-dress off him.

  And to be honest, I took a peek.

  He was huge everywhere.

  “Sure hope this isn’t just some alien man-cold,” I said dryly, but when I got another glimpse of his wound, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him
.

  “He got that saving me from other Khanavai,” Amelia told me.

  I shook my head, not certain what to make of these two. “Well, let me know if you need anything.” I didn’t really mean it. It was just something I said when talking to guests.

  But of course, Amelia Rivers took me at my word. “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Deandra Casto. You can call me Dee.”

  “Actually, Dee, when does your shift end? Could I pay you to pick up some stuff and bring it back to us?”

  It sounded harmless enough.

  I should have known better.

  But I felt sorry for her.

  “I guess,” I sighed. “Give me a list. And the cash. I’ll be back in the morning.”

  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about the alien.

  I spent most of the rest of my shift scrolling the latest vids on them. They were playing on all the major channels, so it was easy enough to find him. Amelia Rivers had led this guy on a hell of a chase—that had somehow ended up with him injured in a stolen car and her planning to take care of him.

  As soon as Alejandro showed up for his shift, I headed out. “Room 118 checked in late last night. They said to skip the room cleaning this morning,” I told him, trying to keep my voice casual, even though my heart raced with the excitement of aiding fugitives.

  “Got it.” Alejandro didn’t even look up as he responded.

  Perfect.

  At the pharmacy, I picked up bandaging material and some packaged food, and then headed back to the hotel, hoping Alejandro didn’t notice my car as I returned.

  Amelia cracked open the door, then closed it to pull back the safety lock. She looked exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days, as she took the bags from my hands. “Thank you so much.”

  I moved into the room and shut it behind me, even though Amelia’s body language suggested she’d rather I simply left. I gestured at the alien, still lying on the bed. “How is he doing?”

  “It’s still touch-and-go. The antibiotics, if they are going to help at all, should kick in sometime soon.” Amelia sounded as haggard and worn as she looked.

  The alien on the bed opened his eyes enough to watch Amelia for a few seconds. He looked almost worried.

  Probably afraid she’d get away when he wasn’t paying attention.

  “The news this morning described the car you’re in,” I said. “You might want to move it around back. I’ll watch him while you’re gone, if you want.”

  “Thanks. That would be great.” Then Amelia was gone, and I sat down on the bed next to the enormous pink man, who opened one eye to stare at me.

  “Why are you helping us?” he rasped, his voice barely above a whisper.

  I gave him an assessing look, realizing that if I hadn’t been implanted with a translator as a child, I wouldn’t even be able to understand him. “I’m not helping you,” I finally replied. “I’m helping her. Because I don’t think it’s right that you guys have the option to take women away from their lives, away from their families, away from everything they love, just because you want to have babies.”

  The alien’s face fell, and for the first time, it occurred to me that he might care about Amelia. He nodded, acknowledging my statement. “I see what you mean.”

  And Amelia was sticking around to help him. She could have dumped him here and left. Could they actually care about each other? Just in case, I patted his hand gently. “But if she decides to go with you, you take care of her, okay?”

  “I will,” he promised.

  Amelia came back into the room, locking the door behind her. “Car’s moved,” she told me. “Thanks for the heads up.”

  “You should probably watch the news,” I said. “I keyed your room for our best vid pack. Don’t tell anyone.”

  We shared a conspiratorial smile.

  “Thanks again for that, too,” Amelia said, nodding toward a bag on a small chest at the end of the bed.

  “No problem. I’m headed home. Check in with me tonight if you need anything,” I said. “Assuming you’re still here by then.”

  Little did I know how much trouble it was going to cause me to have them there.

  Chapter Two

  Wex Banstinad

  I didn’t plan to find my mate on a trip to Earth.

  As far as I knew, Prince Khan had been the only Khanavai warrior who had ever actually gone to Earth in search of a bride. All the rest of us had to hope to be chosen to compete in the Khanavai Bride Games for one of the brides drawn in the lottery.

  I, however, had spent the last six months seconded to the Bride Games, relegated to running the technical aspects of the show while other warriors competed.

  So when Zont Lanov requested I join his backup team as he hunted for Amelia Rivers, I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to Earth, the planet that birthed the brides all Khanavai warriors longed for.

  None of us were expecting the Alveron Horde to follow us there. It had been years since anyone had even caught sight of a Hordeship in Khanavai-controlled space. But when Amelia Rivers ran, the Horde showed up, sending scout drones and Hordeships to try to catch her before the Khanavai did.

  Heading to Earth in a borrowed shuttle, those of us on Zont’s team all started in Las Vegas, the last Earth city where Amelia had been seen.

  When her trail seemed to lead in several directions, we split up to track down her possible routes from Las Vegas. I tracked down a lead for him. Then, as the primary coms tech, I stayed with the ship in the city with all the shiny lights, while Zont took off to follow a human land-transport—a bus, they called it—to the city of Chicago. I tried not to resent the fact that Zont sent most of his other team members to follow up on additional leads, even though I was certain of the intel I’d gotten from a human ticket agent.

  When Zont commed to let us know he had run down his quarry and would be taking her into custody in the Chicago bus station, the two of us remaining on the ship cheered—it was always a joyful moment when a warrior found his bride.

  Even if his bride ran from him initially.

  “Let’s get ready to head out,” said Yelt, our pilot—and in Zont’s absence, the next in command.

  “On coms now,” I said, prepping the signal to the other two team members to return to the shuttle so we could take off.

  Before I could tap in the send code, though, something scraped across our outer hull. With a frown, I pulled up the outer viewscreens. “Oh, vulk me,” I muttered.

  Yelt froze, his yellow-gold eyes widening as he took in the image projected onto the bridge. “What in the tri-galaxy system is the Horde doing on Earth?”

  “No vulking clue,” I muttered. “But that beam just took out our secondary coms array. We need to fight back before they destroy the shuttle completely.”

  Yelt was already sliding into the pilot’s chair, moving our small ship into evasive maneuvers.

  Just then, a message came through from Zont, set to broadcast across our entire in-ship network. It sounded like we had missed his first message. “I repeat, I have located Amelia Rivers,” his voice boomed out. “Please join me in Chicago. Alveron Horde scout drones have pinpointed our location, and we are having trouble escaping them. Immediate assistance required.”

  Dammit. Of course, he needed us now. That explained why the Hordeship had suddenly attacked our much smaller shuttle. They wanted to keep us from catching up with the leader of our little expedition.

  “Respond,” Yelt ordered me. “I’ve got weapons control.”

  I keyed on the com and tapped in Zont’s code. “We would love to come help you, sir,” I began, setting the com to send the message immediately, “but we are under attack in Las Vegas right now. I repeat, under attack—”

  A blast shook the side of the shuttle and the coms fizzled out.

  “Clavernat carkles!” I cursed. We did not have time for this.

  The miniature spaceship shuddered again, and I braced myself against the communications p
anel.

  “I need you on rear weapons.” Yelt spoke tersely, pushing his shoulder-length hair back from his orange face—always brightly colored, but now growing dark as he focused on the task before him.

  “Got it.” This shuttle wasn’t made for fighting—to do that, we’d need a bigger crew than just the two of us. But Khanavai were the best-trained warriors in the known galaxy.

  We can do this.

  “Fire when ready,” Yelt ordered.

  We spent the next Earther hour first destroying the Hordeship hovering over Las Vegas, and then tracking down all the drones in the city and destroying them, too.

  When our scans showed the last drone exploding under our fire, I finally drew what felt like the first full breath in ages. “Okay. Let’s go get Zont and his bride.”

  “Agreed.” Yelt tapped in Zont’s tracker code and frowned.

  “What is it?”

  “Zont. He’s not showing up anywhere on Earth.”

  “Try Chicago.”

  “I did that first. We’re not reading him there, or anywhere else.”

  I moved to the coms panel. “Let me try. It’s my job, anyway.”

  But no matter how much I looked, how often I scanned the planet for them, Amelia and Zont had simply…disappeared.

  Together.

  “How much longer?” Yelt grumbled.

  “The Horde took out our primary and secondary com arrays,” I told him, my voice echoing from under the panel where I was tugging out wires and stripping them down to splice them together. “I’m trying to patch communications through navigation. And if you think that sounds easy, you’re wrong—it’s not. Give me a moment and let me see what I can do.”