Protected: Alien Mate Index Book 2: (Alien Warrior BBW Paranormal Science fiction Romance) (The Alien Mate Index) (50 page)

Hi, I'm Charlotte Walker, straight A student, surgical intern, and Empress of the galaxy.

Wow, that escalated quickly, right? But it's true--at least according to the muscular giant with multicolored eyes and golden skin who turned up in my ER the other night. He says his name is Kristoff Verrai and he's the Captain of the Goddess-Empress's Imperial Guard.

The Goddess-Empress being me.

See, I'm supposedly the new Incarnation of the royal and divine being who rules all sentient life in the Milky Way. Seriously, I can't even get my laundry done half the time and now I'm supposed to be the Queen of Everything? Who made up this system, anyway?

Now I'm dodging assassin-droids and competing with would-be imposters while I try to stop myself from falling for my gorgeous Guard. But because I'm a Royal and he's a commoner, I'll never be allowed to have him as my Consort.

It hardly seems fair. But then, neither does the fact that I'm
Descended
from the old Empress and destined to rule the galaxy.

What am I going to do?

Prologue

Location:
Aboard Assimilation ship EOC-2789, the private vessel of Count Doloroso. In orbit around the planet humans call “Mars”.

Time:
Several solar days following the death of Doloroso’s human host body and the subsequent acquisition of his new Ma
jor
an host body.

The new body was working out splendidly. Count Doloroso—for so he still preferred to refer to himself, despite his numerous recent physical changes— stretched his muscular arms with delight. He still couldn’t get over how much
better
he felt in the Ma
jor
an host than he had in the human one.

This body was young and strong and virile and best of all, it wasn’t orange. Well, not unless he
wanted
it to be. For Ma
jor
ans were chromatacromes, able to change their hair and skin and eye color at will. It was the perfect disguise—really, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t taken a Ma
jor
an as a host before.

It had been extremely lucky, his old host body dying just as a perfect new host was available right on his own ship. The little silver drone that carried his essence and injected it into new sentient host bodies had only had to fly a few feet to sting one of the Imperial Guards on the neck. No one had even noticed when he took over—the transition had been exceedingly smooth.

As for the other Imperial Guards who had been aboard the ship, he had managed to lure them down to the stasis booths in the belly of the ship. One by one he had tricked them into entering the empty booths and one by one he had frozen them in suspended animation. Now he had enough hosts to last him for years! Count Doloroso felt positively rich.

Of course there was still one problem, Doloroso admitted as he paced back and forth in the control area of his ship—he still lacked a
La-ti-zal
to utilize in his new breeding program. How could he begin production of a whole new race of organic Assimilated if he couldn’t get a
La-ti-zal
female to impregnate?

There was the one, of course—the last one of Zoe’s friends who was one of those females blessed by the Ancient Ones. But how could he get to her? Especially now that the Ma
jor
an captain of the Imperial Guard was watching over her? That was the question that had been occupying him for days as he orbited Mars, out of range of detection from his enemies.

A sudden thought made him stop pacing.

Then again, who said he had to get to her and take her away from Earth himself?

A slow smile curved his new lips. The Ma
jor
an captain would do that for him. Because he believed that Charlotte—that was her name, correct?—was the new incarnation of the Goddess Empress. And so he would take her away from Earth and head for Femme 1, where the throne and palace of the Empress was located.

Doloroso had a long history with the Empress—the old one, that was. She had been a
La-ti-zal
and a Seer—one who was granted visions of the future by the meddling Goddess of the Twelve Peoples.

Due to her unfair advantage, the old Empress had been able to wipe out his entire race. He alone had survived to try and propagate his species, that of sentient machines inhabiting living hosts. The Assimilation had once been a mighty force to be reckoned with and yet the Goddess Empress had brought them low and all but wiped them out.

What if he returned the favor?

Doloroso’s smile became a wide, evil grin. If he could get his hands on the new Empress, what amazing things could he accomplish? He could impregnate her with his seed, yes, but the possibilities went far beyond a single pregnancy. He could hold her for ransom and demand anything he wanted—he could even demand that every
La-ti-zal
in the galaxy be brought to him for his personal use and delectation. He could have a whole
harem
of
La-ti-zal
brood mares—all impregnated with his seed—all incubating organic Assimilated fetuses!

Doloroso rubbed his new, strong hands together in delight. Oh yes, he had plans for the new Empress. And he wouldn’t even have to go to the trouble of going down to Earth to find her. Captain Verrai would bring her right to him…on Femme 1.

Quickly, he went to set a course for the Ma
jor
an capital planet. He would have to make excuses, of course, for his delay and the “loss” of the other Imperial Guards, but those little details could easily be explained. There was much to put into place, many preparations to make in order to be ready.

He was determined that this time, he would not fail. The Assimilation would rise again and every sentient being in the galaxy would speak its name with fear and awe and wonder.

The Last Day would become the First.

Chapter One

Charlotte

I slipped into a supply closet at the North Florida Regional Medical Center hospital where I was doing my surgical rotation and crammed myself into a corner, breathing hard.

He’ll never find me here! I’ll be safe here,
I told myself. Yet how many other times had I told myself the same thing, only to find that I was wrong?

I took a quick scan of the closet and breathed a sigh of relief. Stacks and stacks of fresh sheets and towels, sterile trays for various procedures, bags of saline—it was all good. I didn’t see any shiny, reflective surfaces here. There was no way he could find me.

That is, until I had to go out again.

Which would be as soon as any of the dozen or so patients under my direct supervision had a problem and one of their nurses paged me. Which could be at any moment. So I needed to take a moment to enjoy my sense of peace and safety now.

Then I heard it—that high, squeaky voice that had been haunting me for weeks.

“Attention, Charlotte Walker,” it said, coming from somewhere overhead. “I have a message that I must deliver to you.”

Looking up, I saw that the light fixture in the supply closet had a curving, silver metal side which was shiny enough to reflect light. Only instead of the dull glint of the light bulb, it was showing a strange, blue worm-like creature with multiple arms and eyes that were mounted on stalks.

It was the same creature I had been seeing for weeks. It appeared
everywhere
—the bowl of my metal spoon when I was eating oatmeal or yogurt, the side of the toaster when I was making toast, even the shiny metal surgical instruments laid out on tray in the operating theater where I was supposed to be assisting.

The other day it had appeared in the middle of a splenectomy, speaking to me from the blade of a scalpel in its tiny, high voice that only I could hear.

The blue worm creature had startled me so badly I had dropped the scalpel I had been handing to the surgeon right into the patient’s open body cavity! Luckily, the scalpel had fallen handle first, so it hadn’t severed any major blood vessels or punctured any organs, but the surgeon had been livid with me and I had been dismissed from the surgery with a black mark on my record.

Day and night the worm followed me—unless I slept in a completely dark room with no reflective surfaces. But have you heard when medical interns get to sleep? That’s right—almost never. We’re constantly on call, constantly on the move. And we almost never get a good night’s sleep—or any sleep at all, for that matter.

It was awful and the main reason I was convinced I was going crazy.

“Charlotte Walker,” the blue worm said again. “I have accepted payment to deliver a message to you regarding—”

“No!” I screamed, finally “losing my shit” as my best friend Zoe would say.

Zoe. God, I missed her—she had disappeared months ago and nobody knew what had happened to her. When my other friend, Leah, and I had decided to finally stop looking for her, I had made the decision to go to med school and drown my sorrows in work. At first, everything had been fine—well, as fine as it could be after losing my friend. But then the blue worm had started stalking me. And now, after weeks of constant harassment, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Charlotte Walker—”

“No, no, no!” I shouted. “Leave me alone!”

I pulled off one of my comfortable clogs, stood on a plastic stool which was obviously used for reaching the higher shelves, and began banging on the light fixture as hard as I could.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed at the weird blue worm.
“Leave me the fuck alone!”

“What’s the matter, Walker—pager driving you bugshit?”

I looked over to see my friend and fellow intern, Sebastian Trent, leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed and a sarcastic little smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

“Shut up,” I said, climbing off the stool and quickly replacing my clog. “I just, uh, thought I saw a worm up there.”

“A worm?” He frowned. “What would a worm be doing on the ceiling?”

“Uh, spider, I mean. I thought I saw a
spider,”
I said quickly. “And I
hate
spiders.”

“Oh. I thought maybe your pager was going off when you were trying to catch a nap.” He smiled sympathetically. “I know how
that
feels.”

“I don’t nap on duty,” I said. “Especially not when I’m covering the pit.”

The “pit” was what we called the ER, which was generally jammed almost all the time. Tonight, however, it had been strangely quiet, which was why I had dared to duck into the supply closet to try and get five minutes of peace and quiet.

So much for that.

“Well ex
cuse
me for interrupting your ‘me time’ your royal highness,” Sebastian snapped bitchily. “I just thought you might like to know you have a new triage.”

“In the pit?” I asked. “What is it? MVA? Gunshot wound?”

“Knife fight victim.” Sebastian grinned. “And just
wait
‘till you see him.”

“Why? Is he in bad shape?” I was already moving down the hall with Sebastian jogging to keep up with me. “You think he’ll need surgery?”

It may sound ghoulish but I was kind of hoping he would. We interns are always trying to get more cases under our belt. What’s bad for the patient is often good for us. Not that I want anyone to die—I just kind of hope they’re in
danger
of dying and that I can save them.

Wow, that sounds crazy, right? But that’s the life of an intern—rushing from emergency to emergency, trying to save as many people as possible and soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can along the way.

If I hadn’t had that damn blue worm following me and popping up everywhere to yell at me in his high, Disney-character voice, I would have been having the time of my life. As it was, I was miserable—though the idea of a stab wound so bad it needed surgery
did
cheer me up considerably.

But Sebastian was shaking his head.

“No, I’m not talking about his trauma—I’m talking about his
ass,”
he gushed. “You should
see
this guy. He’s got to be over seven feet tall and every inch of him is pure
muscle.
Not to mention he has this incredible blue-black hair and these amazing eyes—”

“Sebastian…” I sighed and shook my head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Get me this guy’s number and ask if he swings both ways,” my friend said promptly.

“If he’s so hot, why didn’t you take him yourself?” I demanded. “You’re on pit duty too.”

“Believe me, I
tried.”
Sebastian opened his eyes wide and made a helpless gesture with both hands. “But he only wants you—he asked for you by name.”

“He
what?”
I frowned at him. “What are you talking about? Is he from Tampa or something?”

Tampa, Florida is my hometown and the city I had been living in until I decided to go back to medical school in Gainesville, which is a couple of hours north. But even in Tampa, I hadn’t known any seven foot tall guys with black hair and amazing eyes.