Ragnar: Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Raiders' Brides Book 4) Read online

  Ragnar

  Alien Raiders’ Brides

  Vi Voxley

  Contents

  A Little Taste…

  Copyright

  1. Selena

  2. Ragnar

  3. Selena

  4. Ragnar

  5. Selena

  6. Ragnar

  7. Selena

  8. Ragnar

  9. Selena

  10. Selena

  11. Ragnar

  12. Selena

  13. Selena

  14. Selena

  15. Ragnar

  16. Ragnar

  17. Selena

  18. Ragnar

  19. Selena

  20. Ragnar

  21. Selena

  22. Selena

  23. Ragnar

  24. Selena

  25. Ragnar

  26. Selena

  27. Ragnar

  28. Selena

  29. Ragnar

  30. Selena

  Epilogue

  Also by Vi

  About the Author

  Thank you for reading!

  A Little Taste…

  Ragnar observed the blue-green planet from above, focusing on his target.

  The harbinger tried to force himself to be excited about the prospect of finding his fated. Terran females were considered a sign of good luck on Luminos. Several of the other harbingers had Terran fateds and they seemed to be strong enough to endure life on his cruel home world.

  The fighter sped up and the first heat signatures began to appear on the screen as the ship breached the atmosphere of Terra. Ragnar set course for two of them out in the open, distantly noting their closeness to the emergency shelters.

  So far, Terrans hadn't come up with anything that could hold Nayanors off the precious females.

  As they got close to the ground, Ragnar signaled the pilot to keep on patrolling, making sure that none of the females escaped the perimeter.

  Then he dropped through the hatch in the floor.

  Cold air hit his face, but it was nothing compared to the long night of Luminos – the massive, deadly storm that reigned over the planet every year for a whole month. It was the second reason why Nayanors were still dwindling despite all the raids.

  Ragnar landed on the ground, standing after a crushing impact.

  Two Terrans stared at him, clearly frozen in the middle of an argument. One of them was male and Ragnar discarded him immediately as nothing more than a body in his way. Except for the hand that was wrapped around the arm of the female.

  A red-haired beauty with a divine body and piercing sky blue eyes.

  His fated.

  She shone like a splash of color in the middle of the gray and white fields of nothing that only served as a background to her breathtaking image.

  Seconds ticked by and her arm was still in the grip of the male. Ragnar felt his blood catch fire as everything in him roared at once. The fury that surged through his veins was unlike everything he'd ever known before.

  A male, a measly Terran male, dared to lay a hand on his fated mate.

  "Back away," the male said, pulling a small dagger as if that was going to save him. "This one's mine."

  Mine, the word echoed in Ragnar's head.

  Copyright © 2017 Vi Voxley

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Ragnar

  Alien Raiders' Brides

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Vi Voxley. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

  Cover © Jack of Covers

  1

  Selena

  Two trips are for weaklings!

  The thought kept spinning in Selena Gordon's tired mind as she made her way in the tight corridors of the library. She could have sworn someone cruel and incredibly passive-aggressive had taken a lot of pain to arrange the gigantic hall so inefficiently.

  There was so much room there Selena had a hard time seeing the other end of the reading room, yet the spaces between the rows upon rows of tables were miniscule.

  And her vision was impaired.

  By not one or two, but twelve heavy, thick books stacked on top of one another.

  "Miss Gordon!" hissed the custodian Mrs. Bullock, rushing her way like a quick little thunderstorm. "What in the name of gods are you doing!? Those books are priceless!"

  Selena groaned, stumbling under the weight of her burden. She stopped breathing for a whole three seconds and even Mrs. Bullock froze, a look of pure horror on her face, as the books teetered in Selena's arms.

  Over the cover of Basic Anatomy of Common Human-Alien Hybrids, Selena flashed her most charming smile at the custodian. At least she hoped she did. Somehow she felt like she was grinning like a lunatic holding a match over a very flammable pile of paper and her hand was hovering.

  That was how Mrs. Bullock viewed her, at least.

  The custodian looked like she was born to do her job. She was as tall as Selena was, but where Selena had curves and the distinguishable figure of a woman, Mrs. Bullock looked like a skinny skeleton. Selena had considered using her as a model when she had to retake the examination of human bones.

  Selena tried to blow a strand of her thick auburn hair away from her face, but even that small gesture seemed to upset the delicate balance. Mrs. Bullock looked to be on the brink of a heart attack.

  "I'm sorry," Selena whispered, heading for the nearest table now instead of the one she'd chosen in the far corner of the room.

  She could always move her things, but there was no helping pissing off Mrs. Bullock.

  The custodian shuffled closer, choosing to help rather than keep hissing at her. Selena managed to hand off half of the books and they rested the two piles on the table, spreading them out so as not to create any more danger to the precious commodity.

  It occurred to Selena, not for the first time, what a pain it was to live under the magnetic purple sky. Ever since Terra had misguidedly attempted to mess with their poles, the area that used to be Northern Canada was thrown back to medieval times. All technology went haywire there, from the ships to the tablets to her electronic toothbrush that had nearly knocked Selena's teeth out as a result of the awry magnetic poles.

  The positive side – the side that had drawn her there – was that it was Terra's least populated region due to the purple sky. It was safe, it was a bit lonely and most important, it was very far from Jake.

  "You're sorry," Mrs. Bullock intoned, repeating back her words. "Miss Gordon, I hope you remember I showed you great kindness when you asked to be reenlisted in the middle of the semester. This is not a good way to repay me."

  "I remember," Selena said hurriedly, words spilling out of her mouth like she was firing them at the custodian. "I'm very thankful to you, Mrs. Bullock. That's why I wanted to get an early start, get right to it and not stand from my seat until it was time for lunch. My only goal is to catch up to the others. I won't play around with the books, I promise. And two at a time from now on."

  Mrs. Bullock observed her over the narrow straight line of her glasses. Selena liked her, in an odd way. Now that she'd stopped seeing the custodian in her nightm
ares, telling her she'd been expelled for ripping a page from one of her precious books.

  The custodian wasn't a heartless woman, despite what she seemed sometimes. She had used her position with the university to get her back in the lists after Selena had dropped out.

  "Be careful," Mrs. Bullock said after a long pause. "You know how valuable the books are up here. They haven't produced paper in a while, these are all custom-made for us. I keep asking the government to bump up quantities, but they refuse. I think they're trying to force us to leave."

  Selena nodded. That was the prevailing theory. For some reason, Terra was rather embarrassed by that project and wanted to bury it deep in the past.

  "I will be," she told Mrs. Bullock and the custodian nodded.

  "Very well, then," the woman said. "Make sure you put them all back in the right place –"

  Right at that moment, a cry echoed through the pious silence of the library. Actually it was more like a roar and Selena recognized the voice without fault.

  No. He can't be here. He couldn't have found me. Everything was so good –

  "SELENA!"

  Jake Powers sounded drunk, or drunk with rage, more than likely both. Selena's heart dropped. Of all the lousy ex-boyfriends in the world, she was pretty sure she had a top contender. When they'd met, Jake had been a bouncer in a bar. He'd saved her from a thug one night and in her much younger foolish naivety, Selena had thought it was a good enough basis for a relationship.

  She had taken humiliatingly long to understand what a possessive, sexist asshole Jake was. Even more humiliating was how long it had taken her to leave. Learning Jake had faked her signature on a form to drop out of med school had been the last drop in the chalice of Selena's patience.

  And now he was there. Jake had found her.

  Selena didn't want to look at Mrs. Bullock. She had been in the university for less than two weeks. This time, she was going to get kicked out and there was no coming back from that.

  To her surprise, when Selena dared to glance in the custodian's direction, the woman's face was twisted with rage.

  "Is that him?" Mrs. Bullock asked.

  Selena had given her the short, technical and very PG-13 version of her bad break-up.

  "Yeah," she murmured, listening to Jake making a racket as he searched for her in the maze that the library was.

  "I think you should go," Mrs. Bullock said grimly, pulling a portable radio from her skirt pocket. "I'm calling security."

  Luckily for them, the magnetic fields hadn't thrown them all back to the Stone Age. Radios still worked and Selena hoped that campus security would arrive sooner rather than later.

  She knew Jake. When he was in one of his moods, the man became absolutely impossible to reason with. Like most maniacs, he lost all account of where he was until the matter that bothered him was resolved.

  Selena didn't intend to give him that, knowing perfectly well what he wanted.

  "I'm going," she said. "Thank you, Mrs. Bullock. Please try and stay out of his way. I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

  The custodian looked at her over the rim of her glasses.

  "You're a sweet girl, Miss Gordon," Mrs. Bullock said. "I don't know how you got yourself involved with a man like that. Go now, go!"

  Selena rushed to the exit, pondering the same question. The answers were many, none of them were pleasant and they all boiled down to inexperience and youthful stupidity.

  "SELENA!"

  The cry from somewhere behind her told Selena that she'd been noticed. Cursing the library's hundred shelves for choosing that exact moment to open a corridor between them, she ran. Taking three steps at a time down the stairs wasn't easy in the tight black pencil skirt she'd chosen to wear. The everlasting cold outside seeped into her bones at once, the wind tugging at her red silky blouse, being no protection from the weather whatsoever.

  Selena knew she wouldn't be able to outrun Jake, but she had never missed her jeans and trainers more. Her ex was a bull when it came to running. It took him a little while to get going, but when he did, Jake moved like a freight train. Selena had seen him take down guys with a massive body slam, only to have his victims cough blood on the street afterward.

  She hoped to gods Jake didn't tackle her.

  Selena had nearly made it to her car when Jake caught her. A painful strike against her arm made her drop the keys into the snow. Selena cried out, grasping her wrist that felt like something was broken.

  "What are you doing!?" she yelled at Jake. "Tell me, what exactly is going through that mind of yours right now? I will have you arrested for assault, stalking and I don't even know what else!"

  Leaning heavily against her small hovercar, Selena panted, looking at her ex-boyfriend.

  Jake Powers looked exactly like she remembered him. He was a big guy, buff and brutish, with the shaved head only adding to the viciousness of his appearance. The warm, heavy coat around his shoulders boosted his bulk even further. That was new, but Selena knew there was a T-shirt with a picture of one of Jake's favorite bands underneath.

  Other than that, everything else was same old, same old. Light blue jeans, heavy black boots and eyes that said I missed you, baby.

  When Jake finally opened his mouth, his cruel dark eyes regarding her like a piece of meat, the sentiment was pretty much accurate to her expectation:

  "You thought you'd get away from me, huh, Selena? Do you have any idea how much fucking trouble I had to go through to find you here? I'll make you pay for that, you little bitch. Of course you made it easier for me by enrolling in your stupid university again. Didn't I tell you that was not a place for my woman?"

  Selena had enough. Years of answering that with an "I'm sorry" and "If you think that's better" were boiling in her memory, urging her on. Her cheek was aching in the anticipation of a blow she knew was coming, but there was no other way that she could see. She wasn't the same little naïve girl anymore and standing up for herself was the only weapon she had.

  "I'm not yours," she said firmly. "I left you, Jake. Get over it. I'm giving you this one chance to turn away, leave me alone and escape the legal action I'm going to bury you in if you don't get out of here right now!"

  Jake observed her with a disheartening, possessive grin. Selena couldn't smell any alcohol on his breath, which somehow made the entire situation even worse. It meant that what she was seeing was Jake's actual sober, considered decision.

  "See, this is what I'm talking about," Jake said, grabbing Selena's hand and pulling her closer. "It's that fucking university, filling your pretty little head with all this nonsense. You're coming back home with me now and we'll see about this new attitude."

  Selena struggled, but Jake's grip was like a vise.

  "Are you hearing me?" she asked, fury building in her. "Do you hear the words coming out of my mouth? I thought I explained to you already a month ago when we broke up. That we broke up. I'm done with you. We are not together!"

  Jake's dark eyes flashed with anger and the grip on her hand grew more painful.

  "That is not for you to decide, baby," he said menacingly. "We're done when I say we're done and we're far from it."

  "No," Selena stated, as clearly as she could. "Let go of me or –"

  "Or what?" Jake asked, laughing without humor like he always did.

  For the second time that day, Selena was interrupted. First, it had been Jake's coarse call in the library.

  This time, it was the shrill, piercing sound of the Nayanor alarm.

  Selena froze to the spot, not that she would have been able to run if she'd tried. Jake had stilled as well.

  She tried to find the first nugget of fear in his eyes. Usually Jake was the largest guy in the room and had no problem taking out anyone who picked a fight with him. This time, he was incredibly outmatched, but it didn't show on his face.

  Selena could only stare. She didn't want to look up at the sky where the sleek, sharp raid ships sped her way. That was a sight that e
very Terran woman dreaded, that none of them wanted to see.

  It meant the alarms were too late. The Nayanor raids had become so common that Terrans had developed a saying about them.

  If you see the fighters, it's already too late to run.

  It meant she was toast. The warrior race of Nayanors had run out of women on their cruel, impossibly distant home world. Now they appeared from thin air through wormholes that were as unpredictable as they were unexplainable and kidnapped everyone who didn't outrun them. All their victims were taken back to the planet Luminos, to see if they were the fated mates of one of the warriors.

  Selena couldn't believe Jake wasn't already running. Nayanors didn't leave anyone behind. The women were gone and the men were dead – that was how the raiders operated, always. Yet Jake was there, still holding on to her, trying to force her into the hovercar.

  She wondered if it meant Jake really had cared about her, but she couldn't bring herself to buy that. Selena considered it much more likely that Jake's possessive stubbornness simply wasn't compatible with logic. He had come for her, she was still there and not even a Nayanor raid could sway him.

  "Let go of me," Selena yelled when Jake tried to force her into the car. "Let go, Jake! Let me run to the shelter!"

  "You know they don't work," Jake argued, right for once at least. "The hovercar is your only chance. I'm not letting you be dragged off by these alien fucks! You're mine, Selena!"

  She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to tell him that he was just as bad as the Nayanors.

  She didn't have time for any of that.

  A fighter was heading straight their way. It came at them with such speed that a small scream escaped Selena's lips. For a second, she thought the alien ship would ram itself against the ground and take her out with it. Then common sense clicked back on.

  Nayanors didn't hurt women. They got furious if they found one of them dead, but that wasn't so uncommon anymore. Back when the raids had first begun years and years ago, Terra hadn't really known what it was dealing with.