A Bride For The Alien King (Protectors 0f Svante Book 1) Read online

  A Bride For The Alien King

  Protectors Of Svante: Book 1

  Roxie Ray

  Contents

  1. Rosa

  2. Quatix

  3. Rosa

  4. Quatix

  5. Rosa

  6. Quatix

  7. Rosa

  8. Quatix

  9. Rosa

  10. Quatix

  11. Rosa

  12. Quatix

  13. Rosa

  14. Quatix

  15. Rosa

  16. Quatix

  17. Rosa

  18. Quatix

  19. Rosa

  20. Quatix

  21. Rosa

  22. Quatix

  23. Rosa

  24. Quatix

  25. Rosa

  26. Quatix

  27. Rosa

  28. Quatix

  The Protector’s Mate

  Free Bonus Chapter!

  A Bride For The Alien King

  1

  Rosa

  The light slanting into my boxy office space was feeble at best. The bulb above my desk flickered uncertainly, casting pale shadows across Madeline’s drawn face.

  “May I have some water please?” Madeline asked.

  She was a slight girl with thin blonde hair and fluttering brown eyes. The dark brown sweater she wore looked like it was drowning her, but she seemed more comfortable hidden behind it.

  “Of course.” I nodded, rising to my feet and moving towards the water cooler beside my desk.

  I could hear the heavy footsteps of other government employees as they walked up and down the hall on the floor directly above us. The McKay building hadn’t been my first choice location to set up a rehab facility, but given my work with the military and the IAS, I had been offered the space rent-free.

  Of course, that had also significantly lowered my bargaining power, and I had silently accepted the dreary space and counted myself lucky.

  “There you go,” I said, offering the paper cup to Madeline.

  She was carrying a small book and a thick journal that she refused to set down. They had remained on her lap from the moment she had walked in to meet me, almost twenty minutes ago. She sipped the water nervously, and I tried to figure out what was on her mind without making her feel as though she were being observed.

  “How have things been… at home?” I asked, wondering if that was the reason for her distraction.

  Madeline hesitated. “Mum’s been… out a lot,” she admitted. “Ever since dad’s arrest, it feels like she wants to run away.”

  “Do you know where she goes?” I asked.

  Madeline shrugged. “She comes back smelling of alcohol…”

  I suppressed a sigh. Madeline had worked really hard to get clean. I didn’t want her mother derailing all that progress.

  “There are places I can recommend, Madeline,” I said gently. “Places you can go to stay — for a little while at least — to give yourself some space.”

  Madeline frowned. “You want me to move out?”

  “I think it could be good for you,” I said, noticing how Madeline’s hand kept twitching towards her diary as though she were trying to protect something on the inside.

  “Have you been journaling a lot?” I asked.

  “Everyday,” Madeline nodded. “Just like you told me to.”

  I smiled. “That’s good. Does it help?”

  “It does, actually.”

  “I’m glad,” I said. “Madeline?”

  “Yes?”

  “Is there something the matter?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It feels like you’re… preoccupied today,” I pointed out gently.

  She tensed immediately, and I realized that I was making her nervous with my questions. I hadn’t seen her so defensive in quite a while. Goosebumps prickled over my skin, and my eyes ranged over her body, looking for signs that she might be using again. Was that why she was wearing that oversized sweater?

  “Madeline?” I prompted, trying to maintain my composure. “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you… if something were wrong?”

  “I… to be honest, I’ve been thinking of leaving a lot lately,” Madeline admitted.

  “Leaving your mother’s house?”

  Madeline didn’t meet my eyes but she nodded. “I want a fresh start, someplace new.”

  Why did it feel like she was only telling me part of the truth? I knew from experience, however, that pushing her was not the right way to go about extracting information.

  “Well… I can understand that,” I allowed. “I felt the same way, once.”

  Madeline looked up at me, truly connecting for the first time since she’d walked into my office. “Really?” she asked. “When?”

  I paused, feeling those long-suppressed memories catapult to the forefront of my mind.

  “I lost my sister when I was nineteen,” I said, forcing the words out despite the bitter taste they drew. “That was perhaps the darkest time in my life.”

  “Oh… I didn’t know you had a sister,” Madeline said, her eyes flashing with sympathy.

  “She was a lot younger than I was,” I said, remembering her rosy cheeks and the birthmark on her chin that was shaped like a four-leafed clover.

  “You’re lucky,” I used to tell her. “You’ll do great things one day.”

  I felt moisture prick at the back of my eyes, and I forced the memory back before I broke from the weight of the guilt it carried.

  “Was it just the two of you?” Madeline asked.

  I folded my arms together. “My parents were around, too. But I live alone now.”

  “Was her death the reason you got clean?” Madeline asked.

  “Yes.”

  Madeline’s hands kept folding over the journal on her lap. I noticed a piece of blue paper sticking out of it and wondered if she were drawing again. I hoped she was; embracing her old passions was a step in the right direction of her recovery.

  The lower sectors didn’t have very many employment or educational opportunities for the poor and working classes, but I was willing to pull some strings to get her into some kind of art program in the higher sectors, if she wanted.

  “Madeline, I think –”

  “I have to get going,” Madeline said abruptly, cutting me off. “I have somewhere to be.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling a little deflated. “Of course…”

  “I just wanted to come in today and thank you.”

  “Thank me?” I repeated, wondering why it sounded as though she were saying goodbye.

  “For helping me get clean,” Madeline continued. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  I smiled, feeling that little spark of life that flared up every time I helped someone — the spark that only intensified when I helped someone who reminded me of the person I’d been a decade ago.

  “It was my pleasure, Madeline.”

  She stood up abruptly, and I saw the nerves jump back into her body. She was at the door before I could walk around my desk to join her.

  “Madeline, are you sure you’re alright?” I asked.

  She nodded a little too quickly as her hand fumbled on the doorknob. In her haste to get out of the office, she dropped the book and the journal in her hand. I tried to help her pick them up, but she grabbed them hurriedly and backed out of my office.

  “Thanks again, for everything,” she said.

  “Madeline… where are you going?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  Madeline stopped short. She looked pale and nervous, but there was a sense of determination in her eyes that I couldn’t q
uite understand.

  “Somewhere better,” she said.

  Before I could say another word, she turned and walked down the hall toward the staircase. I waited till she was out of sight, and then I slipped back into my office, feeling rattled. She hadn’t told me everything. There was a secret she was hiding, and the only reason I hadn’t pressed her on it was because I was sure she wasn’t using again. She was entitled to have a secret or two. God knew I did.

  I turned off the heater and was reaching for my jacket and my purse when I felt something crinkle under my foot. I looked down and noticed a thin piece of blue paper, identical to the one that had been peeking out from Madeline’s journal.

  I bent down and picked it up, my eyes immediately scouring its contents. It was a flier, and the words alien and bride jumped out at me. I turned the flier over as a bubble of laughter escaped my mouth. Obviously, this was some kind of bizarre joke.

  The lower sectors were mainly in the dark about alien life forms, but those who lived in the higher sectors or traveled between them knew the truth. Aliens did in fact exist, and some of them even had contact with our governments. But it suited those governments to keep the majority of earth’s population in the dark about this bit of information. As I was so often reminded, too much knowledge made people greedy for more — and there was no way those in power were giving any of it up.

  Of course, there were a few among the lower sectors who had heard and believed the rumors. Every so often, there would be incendiary graffiti or anonymous articles and open letters circulating through towns and cities across the country. They were usually squelched early, however, and those that did garner attention were usually treated as a joke. You know how funny those crazy conspiracy theorists can be.

  Still, knowing and believing in aliens was one thing. Believing that the government would agree to some sort of alien mail-order bride program was another.

  I was about to throw the flier in the trash when I noticed something that turned the paper in my hands from a joke into something far more serious. I froze when I saw the government seal and barcode at the bottom of the paper.

  That was an official seal.

  My knees went weak, and I sunk into one of the chairs in front of my desk where my patients usually sat. I had to read through the flier three times before my mind starting to process the reality of what I was reading.

  “No,” I said, looking up toward the window. “No… it can’t be.”

  This had been in Madeline’s journal… was this the secret she had been trying to protect?

  I could barely feel my extremities, but I reached for the phone on my desk anyway. I punched in Edward Molley’s personal number and waited with baited breath for him to pick up. He answered on the fifth ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Edward, it’s me… ah, Rosa. Rosa Mays,” I said, tripping over my own name.

  I’d worked with Edward and his team on several projects to clean up the lower sectors and repatriate some of the wealth of the higher sectors. They hadn’t all been successful, but I had come to trust Edward — at least much more than I trusted some of his condescending colleagues, most of whom had ulterior motives.

  “Rosa Mays, I haven’t heard from you in awhile. How are you?”

  “Is the government running a mail-order bride service for aliens?” I demanded, cutting right to the chase.

  There was clawing silence on the line.

  “Edward?”

  “Where did you hear this, Rosa?” Edward asked carefully. His tone gave him away; it was piqued with unintentional admission.

  “It’s true?”

  “Rosa —”

  “I have a flier in my hands that states in no uncertain terms that young females are encouraged to sign up for the alien bride program,” I said, interrupting him. “Is the government selling young women to aliens?”

  There was another pause. “It’s not quite like that, Rosa —”

  “What is it like, then?” I demanded. “This is… insane. It’s illegal —”

  “It is not illegal,” Edward said firmly. “No woman is forced to sign up for the program. It’s a choice.”

  “Tell me Edward,” I said, spitting his name out like an insult. “Which women are being poached for this program?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Are women from the higher sectors being given these fliers?” I demanded.

  “I… I…”

  “I’ll take that as a no,” I said. “Which means the only women being offered these fliers are women from the lower sectors, women with low-income jobs, no insurance or health care, women with families to support and children to feed. Am I right?”

  “Rosa… they choose to —”

  “Please,” I snapped. “The chips have been stacked against them. They have no way of digging themselves out of the hole they’ve been put in. This is not a legitimate choice, and you know it.”

  “How did you get your hands on those fliers?” Edward asked.

  I gritted my teeth. “Does it matter?”

  “Those fliers contain classified information —”

  “Then maybe you should find a better way to recruit the lambs for slaughter —”

  “Now hold on a minute,” Edward said, finally raising his voice. “It’s not like that, Rosa. The Svantians may look… scary… but as far as aliens go, they’re not terrible —”

  “Svantians?” I repeated, scanning the flier once more and noticing a building name, date, and time on the bottom right hand corner of the page next to the government seal. “Is that what they’re called?”

  “Why don’t you come into my office this evening?” Edward said. “We can have a conversation about the program and everything it entails.”

  I realized that Madeline had been heading over to the building listed on the flier. The meeting time was set to start about fifteen minutes ago. If I left now and walked really fast, I would get there in ten minutes.

  “Fine… okay,” I said distractedly, with no intention of actually going to Edward’s office.

  I didn’t know what my plan was; I just knew I needed to see this for myself. I had believed in aliens for a few years now, but I had never actually seen one in the flesh. Perhaps that was my real motive. Perhaps I wanted to find Madeline so that I could stop her. Perhaps I wanted to make sure this was her choice and she wasn’t being coerced into anything. I just needed to get to Building 53 as soon as possible.

  I hung up on Edward while he was still talking, grabbed my coat and purse, and dashed out of my office. I sprinted out of the building and shivered as cold wind hit me from all sides. The sun was perched high in the sky, and while its rays touched my exposed hands, it barely left a trace of warmth. Several of the world’s leading scientists had given the sun another decade at most. After that, we were looking at the onset of a new ice age — one that would leave humanity on the brink of extinction.

  I had worked on this particular government compound for the last three years. I was familiar with most of the buildings on the West side, but the Eastern buildings were more or less closed off, and special clearance was required to access them. I had never questioned why before, but now it all made sense.

  I arrived at the large black gate that cordoned off the Eastern buildings from the rest of the compound. The walls of the Eastern block were always well manned, and I felt stupid for not suspecting what was going on behind them before now.

  “Hold on.”

  I stopped short as a uniformed guard approached me. He had a rifle strapped across his back and a handgun hanging from his holster. He looked at me curiously before his eyes fell to the blue flier in my hand.

  “Oh,” he said. “You’re here for the program?”

  Thankfully, my tongue clicked into action. “Yes.” I nodded. “I am.”

  “You’re late.”

  I hesitated. “Better late than never, right?” I said, forcing a smile onto my face.

  He didn’t smile back. Instead, he rolle
d his eyes and motioned for the gates to be opened. There were a smattering of buildings at the front of the compound, but it looked like I would have to walk a little further to find Building 53. I followed the neatly placed signs that were scattered through the area until I reached a towering building that I had spied numerous times through the window of my rehab facility.

  It was even more formidable up close, and I realized that was because the windows had been blacked out with a thin aluminum film that created a one-way mirror. The people inside the building would be able to see me, but I wouldn’t be able to see them until I got inside. I was walking around the building when a stocky older man in dark pants and a white button-up approached me. I noticed he was wearing a conspicuous black cuff around his right wrist.

  “You there,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

  I held up my blue flier. “I’m just trying to —”

  “Oh, the program,” he said. “You’re late… come with me.”

  I followed him into the Spartan building whose main foyer contained a single desk and a very bored-looking receptionist. I followed the man into an elevator and watched as he hit the button for the thirteen floor. As we rose higher and higher, my heart thumped uncomfortably in my chest.

  “How long has this program been in effect?” I asked, as we hit floor eleven.

  He turned to me with a frown, and I saw that his eyes were a filmy blue.

  “What?” I asked, self-consciously.

  “No, it’s just… that’s not usually the type of question I’m used to hearing from a potential recruit,” he said. “Usually they want to know what an alien marriage is like, what is expected of them as wives, how many children they will be expected to bear… that kind of thing.”