Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11
Read Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 Online
Authors: Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred
Book 11: Devoured
Evangeline Anderson
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Evangeline
Anderson Books on Kindle
Brides of the
Kindred
Book 11:
Devoured
Copyright ©
2014 by Evangeline Anderson
Kindle
Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other
people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're
reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use
only, then you should return to
Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the
author's work.
Author’s Note #1:
Though I have tried to handle it in a
delicate way, readers with a past history of domestic abuse may find parts of
this book disturbing. Sadly, all of the situations my heroine encounters are
taken from true accounts of abused women. If you are in an abusive situation,
please seek help.
In the US you can visit the National
Domestic Abuse Hotline online or, if you’re afraid your computer is being
monitored, call 1-800-799-7233
If
you are in the UK,
you can call the Freephone 24 Hour National Domestic Violence Helpline at
0808-2000-247
Author’s Note #2:
For those of you with friends who haven’t
tried the Kindred yet, I now have the first four books collected in one volume.
It’s called Brides of the Kindred Volume One and you can find it on Amazon or
at my
website store
. It’s a
great way to dip into the Kindred world and you save a couple of bucks buying
it as opposed to buying the first four books individually. If readers seem to
like it, I may put the next four into another compendium and the next four once
I have book 12, Enhanced written.
Author’s Note #3:
Please no piracy. The Kindred pay my
mortgage now and without them, I’d have to go back to doing MRI full time.
Since writing hot sex and complicated emotions is way more fun than shoving
people into a magnetic hole all day, I would ask that you please buy your book
instead of trying to find a pirated copy and encourage your friends to do the
same so that I can keep writing and you can keep reading. Thanks!
Hugs
and Happy Reading
to you all,
Evangeline
Anderson June, 2014
Table of Contents
Chapter
One
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Tess
Evans-Hughes looked around the Human/Kindred Relations building, or the HKR, as
the people who worked there called it. One of those people happened to be her good
friend, Di, but what she was suggesting made Tess awfully nervous.
“Safe?” Di raised one silver eyebrow at
her sardonically. “Sure, hon—a hell of a lot safer than you are down here in Tampa.”
“But what do I do once I—” One of the
massive Kindred warriors walked by and Tess dropped her voice to a whisper
before continuing. “What do I do once I get up there?”
“Hide, of course. Until it’s safe to come
back down here and move to Hawaii or China
or the Moon or wherever you can think of that Pierce won’t follow you.”
Tess closed her eyes for a moment.
Don’t bother running, Princess,
Pierce’s
voice sneered in her head.
You’re
mine
and I never let go of what’s mine.
“There’s no place he won’t follow me,” she
said in a low voice. “No place he won’t
find
me.”
“Correction, hon—there is
one
place he can’t and won’t find you
because he can’t get up there. And that’s the place you’re headed.”
“But—”
“No ‘buts,’” Di insisted. “My next tour of
the Mother Ship leaves in fifteen minutes and it’s a big one—big enough that
nobody’s going to notice if we come back with one less tourist who’s dying to
check out the Kindred way of life.”
“But I don’t know anything
about
them,” Tess protested. “I’m not
even registered for the draft.”
The draft was an agreement the governments
of the world had with the Kindred that allowed males of their race to call
brides from Earth. Being something like ninety-nine percent male because of a
genetic mutation—supposedly the same mutation that made them all over six foot
six and hugely muscular—meant the Kindred were always short of women.
All unmarried women of a certain age were
supposed to be signed up for the draft but Tess wasn’t because technically, she
was still married. That was because Pierce wouldn’t sign the divorce papers no
matter how often she sent them over.
Instead, he just kept coming over to her
apartment and talking about how he’d changed and he wanted her back. Tess had
been down that road before so she had refused. But now it seemed he was done
asking. The last time she’d sent the divorce papers she came home to find…
Tess shook her head. She didn’t want to
think about what she’d found inside her apartment. Just remembering made her
feel like she might cry or throw up.
Poor
Gus…
“You don’t have to know anything about the
Kindred except they’re good guys and they don’t beat and imprison their women,”
Di said, interrupting her morbid thoughts. “Unlike certain ex-husbands I could
name.”
“He’s not technically my ex since he won’t
sign the papers,” Tess pointed out.
“You wanted him out of your life badly
enough to cough up for a divorce lawyer when you could barely afford to pay
rent,” Di pointed out. “Just because Pierce is being an asshole about it—like
he is about everything—doesn’t mean he gets to win. As far as I’m concerned, you
two are splitsville.”
Tess smiled at her friend and pressed her
hand.
“Thanks, Di. You know, you’re the only
friend I’ve ever had that could see through him. He can act so charming when he
wants to—he even had my mom fooled, right up until the end.”
“You mean when he refused to let you go
see her in the hospital?” Di shook her head. “Yeah, I see through him all
right. Bullshit is bullshit, no matter how you try and dress it up.”
“Thanks.” Tess pressed her hand again and
wiped away a stray tear. Even though her mom had been gone for well over a
year, it still hurt to think of her. Hurt to think she had died alone because
Pierce was too crazy jealous to let Tess go see her in time.
She turned her head for a minute to try
and get control and saw her reflection in the shiny smoked glass window to her
right. A short, plump girl with long dark hair that was almost auburn and big
brown eyes stared back at her.
I’m
nothing special to look at,
she thought, swiping at her eyes and taking a
deep breath.
I mean, sure I have a pretty
face but it’s on a plus-sized body. What is it Pierce sees in me? Why won’t he
leave me alone?
It was the same question she had asked
herself back when she first met him, when she was in nursing school. What did
such a tall, handsome guy want with a short, plump nobody like her? Now she
knew that Pierce had seen her for what she was—an easy mark. But back then it
had seemed miraculous that he would want her. That was why it had been so easy
for him to cut her off from her friends and family and convince her to move
away from her mom…
Oh,
Mom…
Tess wiped away another tear.
“Sorry, hon. I shouldn’t have said that
about your mother.” Di looked genuinely distraught. “Me and my big mouth.”
“No, no—I’m fine. Just a little nervous,”
Tess protested, trying to smile. “I mean, I don’t even know where I’m going to
stay once I get up there.”
“I
do,” Di said firmly. “I know the perfect place for you.
You’ll blend right in and no one will be the wiser.”
“But what if I get caught? I don’t want to
get you in trouble.”
“What trouble?” Di shrugged. “If anybody
finds out we’ll just say you got lost from the tour and wound up spending the
night. Nobody has to know how long you’re up there.”
“But what if Pierce comes looking for me?
What if he figures out I’m up there and he comes up with a tour to find me?”
Di put a hand on her hip. “Do you have any
idea how long people wait to get on one of these tours now that the Mother Ship
is finally accessible?
Years.
And
once their name comes up, they have to be approved by the senior tour director.
Which just happens to be…”
“You,” Tess finished for her with a little
smile.
“Me,”
Di agreed, patting her neat cap of silvery hair. “So
guess who is
never
going to get
approved to go up there.”
“What if he says it’s police business?”
Tess countered.
“Oh, please!” Di scoffed.
“What
police business? No Earth agency
of any kind has jurisdiction on the Mother Ship. He’d have to go through the
Kindred High Council to get approval after I’ve turned him down.”
“Really?”
Di nodded firmly. “Really. And even then
he’d have to have a
damn
good reason
to go aboard. Somehow I don’t think the Kindred High Council is going to think
‘hunting down my ex-wife so I can continue being an abusive asshole to her’ is
a good enough excuse to let him go up.”
“Well…” Tess could feel herself wavering.
“Tess…” Di looked her in the eye. “Stop
making excuses and listen to me—more than fifteen hundred women a year are
killed by an abusive husband or boyfriend. You’re one of my dearest
friends—don’t make me watch you become a statistic. After what you found in
your kitchen when you came home yesterday—”
“All right, all right!” Tess held up a
hand to stop her. “Please don’t say it—I’ve been trying really hard not to
think about it.”
“Sorry, hon,” Di said steadily. “But you
know it’s true.”
“Yes, I know.” Tess took a deep breath.
“All right, I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to, if you really don’t
want to,” Di offered. “You can always stay with me.”
“And put you in danger too? I don’t think
so.” Tess shook her head.
“I told you before—I’ve got a gun and I’m
not afraid to use it. Especially on an asshole like Pierce.”
“He’s got a gun too. He’s a cop—remember?
No.” Tess sighed. “I guess…I guess this is the only way.”
“Good. You’ll be fine.” Di grinned at her,
obviously delighted.
“And who knows—maybe you’ll meet a tall, dark, handsome Kindred who can pound
Pierce into the ground for you while you’re up there.”
Tess shook her head. “You know I’m not
looking to meet anyone. Honestly, after these last few years with Pierce, I
might just swear off men all together.”
“Ah, but these guys aren’t just
men—they’re
Kindred.”
Di winked at
her. “It’s too bad all the ones my age are already spoken for but you’re plenty
young enough, honey. You could—”
“Di…” Tess raised an eyebrow at her.
“All right, all ready—I’ll stop. Just go
on over and join the tour group at the far end of the lobby.” Di gestured to
the small crowd milling around,
ooing
and
ahhing
at the various Kindred
warriors stationed around the HKR building. Many of them had whipped out
cameras and cell phones and several of the younger, obviously unmarried girls,
were posing for pictures with the warriors, who didn’t seem to mind.
It was a perfectly innocent sight but Tess
still felt her stomach knotting into a fist as she watched. Supposedly there
were three main types of Kindred—Beast Kindred who had golden eyes, Blood
Kindred who had pointed fangs, and Twin Kindred who always came in pairs. But
honestly, all she saw when she looked around were a bunch of big, muscular,
potential threats.
Pierce was a big guy—not quite as big as a
Kindred but big enough to have played football in college and he was still an
intimidating specimen. Tess ought to know—he’d used his size to intimidate
her
often enough. It was scary to see
guys who were even bigger and more menacing than him walking around.
Di could talk all she wanted about how the
Kindred never battered their women but after what she’d been through, Tess
found it was hard to trust that was true. Or at least, hard to trust it enough
to go up and live among the huge alien males on their home turf. For her, right
now, every male was suspect. Every one of them could turn out to be just
another Pierce waiting to hurt her.
But if she
didn’t
go up to the Mother Ship, where else could she go? Where
else could she disappear to that Pierce couldn’t find her and drag her back?
She’d thought about the battered women’s shelters but Pierce being on the Tampa
PD complicated things. The shelters were hidden from prying eyes but her ex had
a way of finding things out…
I’ll
just have to take a chance,
Tess thought
unhappily as she watched another smiling girl take a picture with a grinning
Beast Kindred.
There’s no other way.
Trying to look inconspicuous, she wandered
over to the gathered tour group and took a place in the back.
Mother Ship, here I come.