excerpts

Entranced

Main Page

Books

Reviews

Contests

Work in Progress

Biography

Renders

Links

Creatures, Creations and Critters

Available from Extasy Books.

Welcome back to the Champions of Terra Universe!

Can a woman taken from everything she knows fine happiness in the arms of a mercurial shifter or will Lora have to hire a trainer for the Lion-shifter, Tiern? Bad kitty.

Lora Gainer has spent her time in space researching the physical aspects of Alliance races. Her life takes a sudden switch with her abduction and sale to a lion shifter who isn't even sentient by Alliance standards. Tiern has a plan. He and his cloned brothers have gotten an agreement from the Alliance that if they breed true, the Seth-Ari clones will be granted citizenship to the Alliance of Federated and Sentient Planets. Their children will prove what the Seth-Ari already know, they are living, thinking and reproduction capable creatures. Now, the all male race just needs to find women who don't spur their hunting instincts. Since Lora will tolerate Tiern's touch, she is looking to be the first subject in their grand plan. She can hardly contain her excitement.

Excerpt:

Someone was watching her.

Lora Gainer, Bio Tactics Specialist to the Alliance, opened her eyes and glared at the face on the other side of the glass that protected the shoppers at the slave market on Geehee Nine. She was in the middle of her morning meditation and it was irritating to have to spend her time scowling at a prospective buyer.

The light inside her cage told her that the hooded figure wanted her to rise so that they could assess her physical form. If she didn't comply, the floor would be electrified so she stood. The gauzy folds of her covering fell delicately around her from her shoulders to her feet. When they tried to get her to pose naked, she had simply turned her back on the buyers. Nothing they could do would make her parade naked in front of strange creatures.

Her gaze met that of the creature in the cloak, she got an impression of liquid silver eyes while a surprised flicker touched her mind. She slammed her mind shut on him, it was definitely a him, and waited for the signal to resume her day.

The light flicked off and she sat back down to resume her meditation.

The creature in the cloak nodded to the dealer and they continued down the rows of women in cages.

Lora sighed in relief. No sale meant she had one more day to try to find a way to contact the Alliance for a rescue.

Her first two attempts at escape had been stymied by the dealer who had bought her from the pirates she had run into in the first place. He was wise to the ways of the Alliance and had no interest in bringing them down on his own head or that of his world. Her messages had been wiped from the minds of outgoing slaves and she had been put in a solitary display.

Crap.

Days blended together. She kept up her regimen of exercise and meditation to keep her calm. She had gotten quite the beating from the pirates who had taken her shuttle and had no urge to have the same experience again. Being outnumbered in hand-to-hand combat was not the way to win the day. Persistence and dedication were the only way she was going to get back into Alliance space.

She was just becoming focused in her morning meditation when the door at the back of her cell swung open.

"Come with me. You have been sold."

Her pause took just a little too long and a jolt went through her muscles. Four other females were leaving their private cells with attendants and she was shepherded to join the herd.

Conversation was not allowed as they went through decontamination showers and pulled on gauzy togas that ended just above their knees and were cross-tied to make their breasts a little more obvious. The attendants swiftly braided the hair of all the females in the group and handed them over to their buyers.

Buyers it was, for there were five figures wearing cloaks and each took possession of one of the slaves.

When a strong, warm hand wrapped around her upper arm, Lora looked up and into the molten silver eyes. They promised her safety and she could almost hear the whisper that she just needed to keep calm and everything would be all right. It would all be fine, as long as she trusted those swirling silver eyes.

A drifting sense of well-being took her over and she followed her owner to the large shuttlecraft that he and the others of his kind had brought to the station. She calmly buckled her harness when she was led to a seat and her mind drifted in a light fog as they left the station and progressed through the deep blackness of space. Lora didn't know where they were headed, but it was okay. Everything was okay. Those silver eyes were in her mind now, telling her that everything would be all right.

* * * *

"He's sleeping on the pod again." Daka shook his head at his brother's behaviour.

Eto was confused and wasn't shy about it. "Why does he do that? She doesn't know he's there and it won't help the bonding."

Siro brought his beverage to the table and sat with his siblings. "He says that she knows he's there."

Ahkon was insistent. "Nonsense. The pods are keeping them completely under. There is no way that she could be aware."

Daka looked at the table of faces identical to his own, Ahkon was the eldest, but Tiern had the most instinct for their undertaking. "It is what he says. You go drag him off the pod."

"I have better things to do. Where is my lunch?" Ahkon drummed his fingers and waited for his brothers to bring him food.

It was a long journey home and spending it with one's siblings was a trial. Knowing that the women they were bringing with them would likely not survive the first weeks was also a concern that hovered in the backs of their minds.

The last batch certainly had not lasted long. When instinct overrode thought, everyone suffered and the women died. Daka was hoping that this batch would last long enough to start relationships or at least the children that they needed.

The Seth-Ari would be born and would take their place in the Alliance.

Entranced available from Extasy Books