Under By Treaty (SciFi Romance)
Read Under By Treaty (SciFi Romance) Online
Authors: Kayla Stonor
Un
der By Treaty
Kayla Stonor
He’s hers by treaty. She wants his devotion.
Fourth
Kindle Edition
Copyright
© 2014 Kayla Stonor
Editor: Travis Luedke
Cover
Design: Truenotdreams Design
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and publisher of this book
. The contents and characters in this book are entirely fictional and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All persons depicted on cover image are models and the cover is illustrative only.
CONTENT ADVISORY
This scifi erotic romance novel contains scenes of graphic violence and graphic sex unsuitable for underage readers. Although it contains elements of BDSM fantasy, this is not a BDSM novel.
“
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a lizard by its toe. If it hollers make it pay…” General Jaden tapped his finger at the image on his tactical display.
“General Jaden, Command requests we resume course to the palace.” The pilot
’s communication buzzed in Jaden’s ear via his cochlear implant.
“Belay that order
,” Jaden replied. “This one’s incoming.”
He
twisted his head trying to spot the enemy intruder. Blowing off his meeting with President Johnson to track a K’lahn flyby was going to have consequences, but he had a lizard in his sights. Although this flyby wasn’t the grandiose threat he usually faced from the K’lahn, his instincts told him the situation merited his personal attention.
When it came to the reptilian K’lahn, even a simple shuttle vessel like this one, Jaden’s policy was s
hoot first, ask questions later. The transparent cockpit gave him and his pilot a panoramic view, but the smog made it hard to spot the lizard’s ship.
Jaden
glanced at his frozen tactical display. Damn lizards were running some kind of scan interference. Keeping up with the advancements in enemy tech was a battle all of its own.
He searched the sky
again
. Where the fuck are you?
Jaden eyeballed the stream-lined
space-jet first. “Three o’clock, Captain.”
His pilot lock
ed the enemy into weapon system’s sights.
“Fire at will,
” Jaden ordered. “Take it out of the sky.”
Particle beam shots traced the evasive dance of the alien ship. This baby was exceptionally crafty, made for a hard target to lock onto.
“Gotcha!” Jaden snapped his fingers as a direct hit sent the K’lahn shuttle into a tumble. Not too many pilots could pull off a landing from that mess.
Okay, Command
might roast his five stars for this one, but his instincts had paid off. He could tell by the sleek design of the ship, this wasn’t a normal flyby, and a troop of K’lahn running loose on Earth was unacceptable.
That had to count for something.
President Johnson would probably write it off as youthful arrogance. When the K’lahn wiped out the old command base ten years ago, Jaden was already earmarked for military command. Now in his early-thirties, he had reached the highest level in Earth’s military forces, a far cry from his days as a field commander intent on direct engagement with the enemy.
“Sir, we have K
’lahn on the ground, awaiting orders.”
Jaden
’s eyebrow shot upwards.
Amazing
. The damn ship had pulled off a landing in one piece. The K’lahn had top notch warship tech. In the early years of the war, when Jaden was still a snot-nosed kid, K’lahn ships had devastated a good portion of the metropolitan areas of Earth using brute force. Huge battleships had pounded the planet surface. They’d never bothered with small raids.
After having their asses handed to them enough times, m
aybe they’d switched tactics.
“Are we
picking up signs of life, Captain?” Jaden scratched his jaw, hoping there were no survivors. The ship had touched down in the outer edge of a high-rad zone, and he’d rather not send men into potentially lethal radiation over a handful of lizards.
“I
’m getting confirmation now, General, at least one survivor, and its moving.”
Shit.
“Take us down, Captain.”
“Sir,
my orders are to get you to the palace for an urgent briefing. Let the marines handle this…”
“
The nearest marines aren’t enabled for High-rad combat. I am. Have my gear prepped, Captain. That’s an order. Command can send backup.”
*****
“General, heat signature at three o’clock.” The captain’s voice in his ear conveyed urgency.
Jaden brought his weapon to bear on the red spot projected by the digital lens inserted over his right cornea and fired a burst of metal-piercing bullets. The infrared heat signature leaped, twisted mid-air, and faded out.
“Shape-shifter,” he snarled. The K’lahn had a chameleon-like ability to turn cold-blooded and undetectable.
He scanned the shadows. He was on the second floor ruins of an office building abandoned almost thirty years ago. Washington DC
hadn’t lasted a week. Now it provided a home for displaced refugees eking out an existence in the remains of the once proud capital.
No sign of any radiation-scarred homeless today; probably scattered when the K’lahn ship crash-landed into the upper stories. The dilapidated structure already looked weakened beyond the point of no return.
A noise behind him made him dive to the floor. He twisted, pointed his weapon at the ceiling only to have it smacked out of his hand. His foot engaged the blur spinning over his body, connected with something solid, and kicked.
The K’lahn flew overhead.
Jaden flipped over as the alien landed on both feet. She stared down at him with those quasi-reptilian pupils that enhanced the K’lahn’s peripheral vision, a flash of golden color shifting in their dark depths. He stayed low in a crouch, one finger placed against the floor for balance, entranced. Her slightly scaled skin carried a soft blue sheen. She looked dainty with beautifully proportioned curves that made the average human female a sad disappointment.
This stunning creature was nothing like the K’lahn Jaden had killed many times over. Even more unusual, she waited for him to make the next move. Jaden rose to full height and shifted into a watchful stance. He had many years of experience countering and anticipating the faster, stronger species from the other side of the galaxy. He had no idea what to make of
this
female
.
She lifted a delicate eyebrow, mirrored his
stance, but then stood in place, waiting. Her eyes raked him up and down, and he could feel her evaluating his weight, strength, and capabilities. Damn, she made an impressive package, but her alien beauty contradicted a warrior’s proficiency. This creature wearing black armor that looked painted on had just disarmed him. Jaden began to wonder at K’lahn female biology. He’d never seen a female in the line of combat before and this was no ordinary lizard.
“You
’re making a big mistake,” she said in perfect English, her voice as silky as her black hair shot with copper red.
Jaden forced a grin. “
You’re the one who landed on the wrong planet. This is Earth. We kill K’lahn on sight.”
Her incredible eyes narrowed to thin slits. “I have been
assured diplomatic immunity directly from your President,” she replied.
“Diplomatic immunity? No such thing, sweetheart.”
“You are misinformed. I am here to negotiate terms for a truce.” She waved her hand, a gesture that encompassed the room. “This sewer you call a planet will be saved by my decree alone.”
Jaden activated his nanocom to transmit a thought query direct to Command.
You getting this?
A voice spoke in his ear. “Affirmative, Sir. Stand by for orders.”
Her head tilted. She seemed to be listening.
Fuck
. Her damned inhuman, pointy ears had heard that last transmission.
“Yeah, well, I’ve seen the sewers that spawned your kind,” he said out loud.
Reptilian eyes dilated. “Skal! Your unruly tongue will get you whipped like a h’pox and thrown to the filthy pits of Narl.”
She vanished in a blur, came at him from above. He held his nerve, sidestepped at the last moment, and chopped his hand into her throat but not before a glass shard pierced his shoulder.
Fuck. The bitch had meant to slash his jugular.
The K’lahn collapsed at his feet. Her hands clutched at her throat as she gasped for breath. He tossed her over, twisted an arm into the valley between her shoulder blades and pressed his knee into the small of her back. It took all his weight to pin her down. He grasped her hair and slammed her pretty face into the rotting carpet.
Blackish blood trickled out of her nose. Long ago he learned that the sight of blood was a good thing. If it bleeds it can be hurt, or killed.
She choked. He sensed a vibrating tension building beneath him. His brow creased. She was full-length on the floor. He was six foot one and approaching ninety kilos. She couldn’t be much over fifty. He knew the K’lahn were strong, but –
She launched up and over, flying out horizontally. He rolled, and recovered, unharmed. She landed on her feet and kicked him square in the chest. She moved like a firecracker. The next thing he knew, he was flying backwards through the air. He hit the wall hard, and a new crack splintered the plaster.
He slid to the floor, stunned.
She wiped blood off her upper lip with her sleeve as she watched him wheeze and huff. Perfect. The whole place was coming crashing down and she had kicked the shit out of him. There was a crack of bone as she massaged her nose straight. Shit. He must have broken it.
Why didn’t she finish him off?
“General,” Command said in his ear. “The K’lahn Ambassador’s diplomatic immunity is confirmed.”
Jaden blinked.
Say again?
He desperately sucked in air.
“The K’lahn’s diplomatic immunity is confirmed, Sir. Stand down. You are ordered to honor escort the Ambassador to President Johnson.”
He raised disbelieving eyes to the blue bitch.
Immunity?
Escort? Ambassador?
These lizards were trying to wipe humanity from the face of the planet. They deserved nothing more than death, the same they had dealt to millions of people, including his parents.
“The order comes direct from POTUR, Sir.”
Had President Johnson lost his mind? More likely some last ditch maneuver to save his failing re-election campaign.
The sexpot lizard smirked down on him, and Jaden struggled to contain his irritation. “You heard that?”
“I did.” Her gaze swept the dilapidated ceiling. “Do you need assistance? I have no desire to remain here. This edifice is unstable.”
Jaden straightened, ignoring his aching ribs, probably cracked like the wall. The K’lahn checked her lacquered fingernails and discovered one broken. Her face clouded over. She flicked off black polish then glared at him. “Do not mistake me, you will regret your assault on me, but your punishment will not happen here.”
“You hear that Command? The
Ambassador
just opened negotiations. We got any decent manicurists on base? And where’s my backup?” He caught what looked like a smirk from lizard girl. “For this
escort
?”
“Landing south of your position now, General,” said a new voice breaking into Jaden’s transmission to Command.
Colonel Zubarev and the cavalry had arrived, but marines in full combat array couldn’t save Jaden from a lizard sexpot with diplomatic immunity.
*****
Guards snapped to attention and an aide leapt to his feet as Jaden entered President Johnson’s outer office. “General Jaden, the president requested you join him and the K’lahn ambassador the moment you arrived. The Secretary of Defense is with them.”
The aide announced
Jaden and Johnson beckoned him in. There was an irritated cast to the president’s expression. “Ah, General. Take a seat.
Ambassador
Sonil has been informing us of her plans for Earth.” The president’s irritation with their guest was evident.
Jaden
took the empty chair next to the Sec Def who threw Jaden a frustrated look. Seemed it hadn’t taken Sonil long to piss both men off. “Plans for Earth?” he said. “Guess I missed the memo that we’d surrendered. Perhaps it got delayed in the K’lahn galactic mail.” When Sonil’s eyes remained focused on Johnson, Jaden added, “All those subjugated worlds to get through.”
The ambassador stiffened
. “How is your injury, General Jaden?” She did not look at him.
Jaden rotated his shoulder, relieved Doc Parsons had been
on duty to treat the stab wound to his shoulder quickly. It was sore, but the nano-proteins were hard at work repairing damage to the muscle tissue. Sometimes he wondered how many of the tiny critters inhabited his body. Doc said they eventually died off and got excreted, but Jaden wasn’t so sure. His body had acquired an unnatural tendency to heal quickly.
“All better.”
He leaned into Sonil’s range of vision, stopped only by an uncomfortable rock-hard pressure filling his pants. So… are you a super-K’lahn, or something? Super-hearing; super-strength.” He paused, determined to provoke her. “Super-hot.”
Her eyes snapped to his. “I am of the Qui bloodline.”
“Qui bloodline? What does that mean, that you’re special or something?”
“Something
of that ilk.”
