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Authors: Stormie Kent

Cosmic Bliss

BOOK: Cosmic Bliss
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Cosmic Bliss

Stormie
Kent

 

Freedom fighter Shunyuan vows to
rid Earth of its alien oppressors, even as he is abducted into space to be a
slave. He’s rescued by a band of female pirates and agrees to pleasure their
lovely captain in return for help returning to Earth. He never expected to end
up the beautiful alien’s mate—or to find bliss in her arms.

Captain Acia must use a man’s body
for sex during the seven days of her fervor or suffer debilitating agony. She
makes a carnal deal with Shunyuan, never imagining he is her mate. Acia finds
herself bound to a captive who wants to return to his world—without her.

Their sensual bond and sizzling
passion tie them together even as Shunyuan’s duty to Earth’s rebellion
threatens to tear them apart.

 

A
Romantica®
futuristic erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

 

Cosmic Bliss
Stormie Kent

 

Chapter One

 

Shunyuan Taylor squatted in a waist-deep ravine and
inspected the terrain around him. Dusk rapidly descended over the Colorado sky.
Orange laced the horizon as the blue sky faded away. To the east of his
position, the original town was gone. In its place was flattened land and dirt,
barren and desolate.

His gaze swung west and he used his training to suppress his
reaction to the familiar, yet unwelcome, sight. He had to remain calm when he
felt anything but. His focus narrowed, even as he steadied his breathing and
minutely adjusted the large muscles in his body. His desire was to exterminate
the interlopers and annihilate the very signs of their existence. Instead he
observed, carefully noted and analyzed their every move.

Through night-vision goggles he surveyed the newly built
alien town. Constructed from the wood of the Douglas fir trees that used to
stand tall twenty kilometers from where he hid, many of the town’s buildings
had bizarrely sloped fronts and minimal windows. The largest building,
constructed of steel, loomed menacingly over the others. From the intel the
team could gather, inside the building were enslaved humans captured by the
alien invaders and awaiting their fate.

Movement caught his eye along the town’s border and he visually
tracked the night guard’s progress. From his position, all Shunyuan determined
was the guard was male and had the deeply sloped forehead, bulging brow bone
and extreme hairiness of the Trogo. Shunyuan frowned. The guard’s rotation was
as regular as clockwork and allowed for gaps in the alien settlement’s
protection. There was more wrong with the situation than simply the aliens’
unwanted presence on the planet.

Static crackled in his ear. “Fall back to rendezvous one.”

Shunyuan scanned his surroundings again and then slowly
climbed out of his shelter in the ravine. He painstakingly cleared his tracks
even as he used the natural toe and finger holes along the side of the gorge to
climb out.

He performed another visual sweep, his caution justified by
the brutality of his enemy. There would be no real cover until he reached the
mountain range, leaving him vulnerable to the unknown nature of the alien
technology. He had to be quick and silent as he headed back to the relative
safety of the mountain. He ran, pushing past the burn in his lungs and legs, as
he stretched his endurance to the limit. It was full dark as he neared the
rendezvous point.

The wet Colorado soil he had smeared all over himself began
to itch. He knew the Trogo found it harder to pick up human scent when it was
masked with mud. He had learned the hard way, with the creatures snarling and
growling in the distance as they’d caught his scent, that mud made human
tracking difficult, yet not impossible.

He cut a sharp left and disappeared inside a fissure created
during the alien attack. He pressed his back against the wall at the
unmistakable click of a cocking rifle.

“Free and brave or die,” he said.

There was a pause. “We’re all here,” Arthur replied.

Arthur, the mission leader, led the way through the cavern.
Shunyuan followed the men and women out of the cave and onto one of the many
alternate routes back to camp. He knew Nita covered the rear and wiped away
their tracks. The path was treacherous in the dark, requiring concentration to
safely navigate. The air held a new, slightly metallic smell. Even the air they
breathed had been altered since the invasion.

Shunyuan kept his footfalls quiet as they jogged through a
newly formed chasm in the mountain. He paced himself, as the journey took hours.
They entered another cave and he listened for tumbling rocks or scampering
hooves. The trail wasn’t the safest route to camp, but it hid them from air
patrol and cut travel time in half.

Total concentration gave way to instinctual movement as they
moved farther and farther along the trail. The long journey allowed his mind to
clear and he concentrated on the information he’d gathered. The wind was cool
against his face, keeping the run comfortable even in the last hour of his
journey. He turned the evidence he’d gathered over in his mind. He couldn’t
shake the feeling of wrongness he felt in connection with the alien town.

He slowed with the team as they approached the opening to
the cavern and the end of their journey. Arthur signaled Craig with a nod. Craig
cautiously approached the exit and used the thermal imager to check for life
forms. He waved them forward and onto the mountain trail. Their destination, a
secluded campsite formerly used by extreme hikers, lay across the path and
behind a line of trees.

The makeshift tents marked the unofficial edge of camp. He
walked through the paths between the manmade shelters. Shunyuan removed his
night-vision goggles as he entered the command center of the camp. Kerosene
lamps and portable flashlights lit the tent. Both items were on the ration
list, but the information the team brought was important.

“What can you tell me, ladies and gentlemen?” asked Sue
Kramer.

She was the unofficial leader of the camp. He respected her
credentials as a retired marine brigadier general. She was used to devising
strategy and making hard decisions. Statuesque with graying midnight hair and a
discreetly lined face, she looked official and competent in her fatigues.

Arthur stepped forward. “The situation remains much the
same.”

Shunyuan slipped farther into the room, careful to remain in
the shadows cast by the kerosene lamps. He listened to each member’s report,
growing more unsettled as each man or woman delivered their accounting of the
night’s events. They each revealed the same thing. The aliens’ patterns
remained the same.

Sue’s gaze unerringly found him in his dimly lit corner.
“Shunyuan, what is your news?”

“I also have observed the guard schedule is the same.”

“But?” Her eyes never wavered from his face.

Shunyuan forced his tone to remain neutral. “The pattern
worries me. These beings have the technology and tracking skills to fully take
over our planet, yet they send the same guards out at the same time each
evening, never rotating or varying their schedule or manpower. Their security
looks easy to trick or bypass. It doesn’t sit well with me. It doesn’t feel
right.”

Arthur lightly tapped his fist against the folding card
table, which displayed a newly created map of the area. “Maybe they feel as if
we aren’t a real threat to them. I think if we take a small force in we can
successfully get in, free the humans and get out.”

Shunyuan drew breath in through his nose slowly and relaxed
his body. He wouldn’t argue. All the information they had been gathering over
the last few weeks appeared to support Arthur’s conclusion. Shunyuan didn’t
think so. In his gut he knew they were being lured in and set up. He seemed to
be the only one who thought so.

Sue glanced around at the mud-painted women and men. “Meet
back here at twelve hundred hours to finalize strategy. Our people can’t wait
any longer to be freed.”

Shunyuan stepped out into the camp’s nighttime activities. A
small boy darted across his path and hid behind his mother at one of the picnic
tables. Shunyuan walked through camp slowly. He made it his ritual every night
to observe and listen. The more than three hundred refugees were mostly good
people who had come here scared and traumatized by the invasion. Every once in
a while someone decided they could prey on the vulnerable and helpless. He
patrolled the alleys of the camp to make sure assaults did not happen.

“Shunyuan.”

He turned. The young woman moving toward him clutched a
blanket. She thrust it at him. He searched his mind for her name and dredged it
up from a dark night and an even darker alley filled with harsh laughter and
soft cries.

“My grandmother and I want you to have this. It isn’t much,
but we’re real grateful for what you did for us.” Tears gathered in the corners
of her brown eyes and he prayed she wouldn’t cry.

“I can’t take your blanket, Isabella. Your family needs
this. There are three of you and one of me. It wouldn’t be right.”

“It wasn’t right for those men to try to hurt me either. If
you hadn’t been there…I don’t know what would have happened to me.” She moved
closer. The blanket fell beside her and she pressed her soft curves against his
body.

Shunyuan stared down at the very attractive woman with skin
the color of café au lait. Twenty something, well made and quite pretty, she
enticed almost innocently. He knew many of the camp residents took their
pleasure freely and often. He felt the urgency too. He understood the deep need
to prove how alive you were. Who could predict when the aliens would stop
turning a blind eye to their hiding place in the mountain?

Unfortunately, he couldn’t make himself find a partner. He
needed his entire focus directed at protecting the people of the camp. He
couldn’t risk becoming part of a family group and dividing his focus between
his duty to his partner and his duty to the camp as a whole. He wouldn’t trade
his conviction for the chance to come home to comforting arms at night. He took
a firm step back, ignoring the disappointment and hurt swimming in her eyes.

“Just keep your family close and your eyes open. Help
someone else if you can. That’s all the thanks I need.” Shunyuan turned away
before she could entice him further with fully rounded hips and firm thighs.

He had to have a clear head. There was no room in his life
for soft attachments. The weaker among them formed alliances with those who
could keep them safe. His need to rid this world of invaders was too strong to
take on the responsibility of a family.

 

Two nights later, a mud-covered Shunyuan assessed his
surroundings from his lookout point in the ravine, his assault rifle at the
ready. The familiarity of the narrow stock’s firm pressure on his shoulder was
reassuring. He knew what to do with a firearm. His weapons training had never
failed him in a tight situation. He waited for the signal to go, though he still
believed they were missing something. He had already made peace with the fact
that he could and probably would die tonight.

He saw movement to his left and adjusted his rifle to cover
Arthur and Gira as they stayed low to the dry, dusty ground and moved closer to
the town and the slave building. Inside the town’s perimeter there was no
movement besides the lone Trogo guard making his last pass before disappearing
inside the guard house.

Arthur and Gira reached the edge of the town
and…disappeared.

“What happened?” Shunyuan heard through his earpiece.

“I can’t see them any longer. I’m getting closer.” Shunyuan
left his position in the ravine.

“No, Shunyuan. Stand down. Maintain your position.”

“I can’t.”

Shunyuan stayed low but covered ground quickly. He panned
the rifle back and forth, trying to be prepared for anything. He reached the
edge of the alien town and paused. Moving forward, he stepped into an entirely
different world.

A wall of Trogo spread out before him, armed with knives and
black firearms shaped as though they were squared hand guns. He knew from
experience these weapons fired lasers, not bullets.

“Look who decided to join us,” said a Trogo female. She was
dressed in the khaki Trogo uniform.

Arthur and Gira lay trussed by their legs and wrists on the
ground. Nothing was as it should be. The buildings behind the Trogo were awash
with light. Aliens roamed the streets between the metal and stone buildings.
There wasn’t a wooden structure in sight.

Could he make it out of the ambush alive and free?

“Fuck it.” Shunyuan began firing.

Free and brave or die
were more than words to him. He
fully intended to die by the motto.

The Trogo’s blood splashed purple as each bullet hit a mark.
He aimed for the forehead or chest, firing continuously. Five of the trackers
fell to the ground dead. Weight slammed into his back. He propelled forward,
continuing to shoot before he hit the ground. His rifle skittered away from
him.

Pain exploded along his body as the Trogo punched and
scratched him. Blow after blow rained down on his head and body. He absorbed
the pain, leaned into it. He wanted it to fuel his determination and rage. His
goggles were knocked off. He pushed up, but bodies piled on top of him. The
growling and snapping ringing in his ears reminded him the beings surrounding
him weren’t human.

His limbs were no use with so many Trogo restraining him. He
twisted as they tied his arms and legs. Maybe he could create a weakness in the
bonds. Slowly, the weight of the alien bodies lifted from him. Once they’d all climbed
off, one of the aliens landed a solid kick to his ribs.

Shunyuan glared at the Trogo from his position on the
ground. Behind them, a crowd of alien species in all colors and sizes formed.
They whispered and pointed. He sneered at them, holding back a flinch as his
busted lip split farther. There were lizard people, strong bodies covered with
fur and other beings too strange to take in at the moment. They stood around
and gawked while he was trussed for slaughter.

What appeared from the outside as a quiet, sleepy town was
in actuality a budding metropolis. The imagery from the outside of the alien
town was an illusion. The metal and stone buildings were elaborate. The streets
were paved. He looked to the left. Outside of whatever illusion cloaked the alien
town, the terrain remained the same, desolate, flat and empty. They’d fooled
them with some kind of hologram. Once again the aliens had bested them with
advanced technology.

Shunyuan banged his forehead against the ground.

“Oh good. I love the warriors. Slave arena fighters are in
demand now. You three will make me richer than I already am.”

Shunyuan looked up. An alien male called an Orpuwanou stood
above him. From what Shunyuan could tell, the Orpuwanou race’s main trade was
slavery. The male was bald, corpulent with rolls of skin that seemed to hold
streams of water instead of fat. He smelled faintly of the sea.

BOOK: Cosmic Bliss
6.72Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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