Authors: Viola Grace
Tags: #Erotic Romance, Science Fiction, Shapeshifter, Paranormal
Defiance
Hunting for women is a tradition, but Teeny just wants a vacation. Is she prepared to defy the beasts?
Retrieval Specialist Christiena Montague—Teeny—is finally on vacation. Invited to the resort run by a former client, she prepares for a month of warm solitude and quiet socializing. When she arrives, she finds out that her visit is—coincidentally—at the same time as the annual mate hunt.
Zhomos is the owner of the resort and the brother of Thaka, a woman she retrieved years earlier. He has the uncanny ability to set her nerves on edge while sending her pulse racing. When he transforms from man to beast, will she accept his advances or defy the idea of the hunt?
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Defiance
Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-474-5
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Defiance
A Terran Times Tale
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Christiena Montague woke to the chime of the small intercom inside her tiny cell of a berth. “Damnit.”
She sat up and pressed the button near her head. “Hello?”
“A coded call for you, Retriever Montague.”
“Fine. I will be at the com centre as quick as I can.”
“Thank you. We will hold the call.”
Teeny slipped out of her bunk and looked around for her suit. She closed her eyes when she saw that she had not activated the cleaning cycle and her suit was still wearing much of her dinner. The rest of her clothing was stowed decks below. She would have to go to the com centre in her panties and t-shirt.
She savagely started the cleaning cycle in the refresher and stalked to the door of her berth. She eased the door open and looked both ways before she tiptoed out into the hall of the warship. She moved as quickly as she could, unable to walk flat-footed by reflex. If you were running around in your underwear and likely to get caught, you had to do it on your tippy toes.
By the time she made it to the com centre, nine crewmen, two medical staff and another passenger had all seen her sneaking through the halls half naked.
She arrived at the com centre and waved. “Hiya, I’m Retriever Montague. There is a call for me?”
The com officer looked up, her communications implants glowing in the low light of the screens. “Please have a seat at the private terminal. I will patch it through.”
Teeny nodded. “Thank you.”
She flinched at the cool feel of the chair under her while she settled. The screen glowed, and she pressed her palm to it for identification.
“Christiena, I am so happy to see you again. Are you ready for your vacation?” Thakasis smiled at her, her fawn-coloured skin set off by her brilliant green eyes.
“I am. Are the arrangements for me at the hotel still solid?” The lateness of the booking meant she had to go to a cancellation stand by.
“They are. You have been shifted to one of the traditional complexes, plenty of extras. You won’t want for anything while you are here.” Thakasis smiled. “Are you excited?”
“Excited? Not really. I am tired. I just want to lie on a beach or next to a pool and let the heat of the sun warm my poor, tired body.” She laughed.
“We can do better than that.”
“Good. I will see you in a week when this ship is close enough to dump me at Argathi Station.” She yawned.
“Did I wake you?”
“Yup. Don’t worry. This trip is nothing but eating and sleeping. I will be well rested by the time I get to Gakkada. I promise.” Teeny smiled, and Thakasis grinned in response.
She had come so far from the young, frightened woman that Christiena had retrieved from a slave pen deep in the Nyal empire. Thakasis’s brother, Zhomos, had contracted her for the retrieval and Teeny had filled the contract in record time with three ships on her trail and four slavers dead in her wake. There was now a bounty on her head in that section of Nyal space, but fortunately for her, she was not travelling that deep into the unrestricted wilderness of Nyal species and planets.
She preferred to wade in the shallows most of the time. Deep water was for those far braver than she was.
With the call over, she got to her feet and thanked the com officer before she tiptoed back to her room, giving another dozen crewmen a good look at her legs.
Once she was back in the relative safety of her quarters, she crawled back into the bunk and lay back with images of Gakkada beaches in her mind. She had been looking forward to a holiday for quite a long time, and now, she was actually doing it. She had enough money to keep her lazy and warmed by the seaside for six months, though she was only planning on a month. She might go mad from boredom, but she was going to risk it.
Sanity was over rated.
Teeny collected her bag and plodded off the ship. One short shuttle ride to the surface and she would be there.
Gakkada was a popular vacation spot for certain species, and so, there was at least one passenger shuttle per day to take her down to meet Thakasis. If she were lucky, she could catch one in a few hours.
Blinking in the harsh lights of the station, she looked around for the shuttle notices. The sign was blessedly near, and she smiled as she approached the booth.
The young woman looked her over and dismissed her out of hand.
Teeny sighed. “I need a shuttle to Gakkada.”
“Maintenance and domestic staff are on standby.” The woman smiled tightly.
Her appearance was a bit scruffy, but she hadn’t been able to do any maintenance in months. That was the first thing she wanted to deal with at the resort. “I have a reservation at the Imperial Dawn Resort and Spa.”
The young woman nervously licked her lips. “You are a guest?”
“For what I am paying, I really hope so. If this is how they hire, their advertising sucks.”
A deep voice agreed. “It is something we are working on.”
Teeny turned and smiled. “Hello, Zhomos. How is the family?”
The owner of the Imperial Dawn Resort and Spa smiled at her. His medium brown hair and dark brown eyes almost made him look human, but the strange musculature visible in his open shirt belied it, as did his ever-so-pointy ears. He was the poster boy for alien beach parties, and Teeny had to keep her hormones under guard when he was around.
“Thakasis is excited about seeing you, so she sent me to make sure you were not delayed.” He looked to the booking clerk. “Apparently, her instincts are correct, as usual.”
The clerk’s moderate tan drained of colour. “Sir. I didn’t know she was one of your guests.”
He grinned, baring teeth. “You did. She told you she was, and you confirmed it with a visual identification. You were just being a bitch and that is not something I tolerate. We also do not have a policy of making the staff fly standby. We need them more than we need guests.”
The clerk was shaking. “I am sorry, sir. We were told to make the resort sound more exclusive.”
“We are a resort in a jungle in the middle of a barely occupied planet. We are as exclusive as you can get.” Zhomos smiled grimly and took Teeny’s bag out of her tired hand. “Come with me, Christiena. My shuttle leaves immediately.”
She followed his lead as he walked through the archway to the shuttle docks. “Isn’t there someone coming with us?”
He shook his head. “No, I have no patience for others today. The hunt will be beginning in two nights, but there is still so much to do.”
“Thank you for coming to get me.”
He turned and grinned. “No thanks needed. For what you did, no task is enough. You saved my sister from a fate that would have destroyed her, and you brought her back a little wiser than she left.”
“Thaka is a good girl. She will be a good woman if no one runs off with her again.” Teeny referred to the kidnapping while Thaka was on holiday that had gotten her into trouble to start with.
He sighed, and the bay staff took a wide berth around him and his shuttle. “This way. We will be out of here in minutes.”
She nodded and watched as he stowed her bags, and she made her way to the spare seat at the front of the shuttle.
She knotted her fingers together in her lap and waited. Zhomos always had this effect on her. She wanted to stay quiet so as not to wake his inner instinct. He was intimidating enough when he didn’t see her as prey.
With a few toggles and his hands at the controls, they lifted off and were soon on their way to the planet’s surface. Gakkada awaited.
Teeny ran through her mental list of the things she needed to do and getting to the surface was the first.
Getting to the resort was the second thing on her agenda, and with Zhomos at her side, it was a fair bet that she had a ride to the resort.
“You pack light.” He smiled, and only a hint of his sharp teeth showed.
“I try. It doesn’t make sense to collect a lot of possessions when you travel as much as I do.” Teeny tried to keep her voice calm, but she was sure he could sense how her heart was pounding.
“Are you still running from world to world?” His tone was casual, but there was something predatory in his manner.
“Yes. Lost boys and girls are everywhere. If I don’t drag them back home, someone else would have to be recruited for the purpose.” She didn’t have any illusions as to her ability to find her targets. She could be replaced as soon as a likely candidate presented itself.
She cleared her throat. “Where do you think I can find transport to the resort?”
He gave her an amused look. “Come with me. My vehicle is waiting.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble.” Under the scrutiny, she fought the urge to check her hair.
“My sister has been nagging me to get you here for the three years since you brought her back home. Thaka is most persistent.”
Teeny laughed. “Yes, I am aware of that. It was a harrowing escape with her trying to tell me the fastest route the whole way from the slave pens to the shuttle pad.”
He snickered. “You will have to tell me the whole story. Thaka was surprisingly quiet about the whole thing.”
Teeny stilled. “If she didn’t tell you, I don’t think she wants you to know. I could not take more than her with me, and it caused her some issues on the way home.”
Zhomos frowned. “She speaks highly of you. It doesn’t sound like she harbours a grudge.”
Teeny sighed. “She doesn’t…can’t, but there is a slight difference between knowing a fact and accepting it. By the time we arrived at the shuttle, she knew that another body would have blown the entire operation.”
A sleek vehicle was waiting for them in a small parking area. Zhomos put her bag in the hatch and opened the passenger side for her. She slid onto the seat and tucked her hands between her knees.
The moment that they were away from the slave station, Teeny had sent a coded message to bring a wave of the Sector Guard down on the station. They had swarmed the station and set as many folk free as they could, but the laws of their own worlds stuck citizens of planets who allowed slavery. It was only the inhabitants of planets who had bans against sentient trafficking that had a right to demand their citizens back. It was the difficulty of dealing with the Nyal side of things. Their empire encouraged a very lackadaisical approach to slaving within their borders. They were not averse to purchasing what they needed, including personnel.