Renegade Leo: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 1)

  RENEGADE LEO

  A SCIFI ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE

  DELORES DIAMOND

  DELORES DIAMOND

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Mailing List

  1. Astrid

  2. Leo

  3. Astrid

  4. Leo

  5. Astrid

  6. Leo

  7. Astrid

  8. Leo

  9. Astrid

  10. Leo

  11. Astrid

  12. Leo

  13. Astrid

  14. Leo

  15. Astrid

  16. Leo

  17. Astrid

  18. Leo

  19. Astrid

  20. Leo

  21. Astrid

  22. Leo

  23. Astrid

  24. Leo

  25. Astrid

  26. Leo

  27. Astrid

  Epilogue

  Also by Delores Diamond

  Copyright © 2016 by Delores Diamond

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  1

  ASTRID

  I curse as sparks fly from the power conduit. My goggles keep them from blinding me. “Damn cheap piece of shit. Nothing works on this rust bucket.” I kick against the wall to float up the tight corridor. I need to get a better look at the ruined connector. Looks like a busted power relay is the reason the coolant is offline.

  “Hey now.” The radio on my chest squawks at me. “The comms work.”

  “Barely. You sound like a tin robot.”

  “You think so? Maybe I'll find my heart on this planet.”

  I furrow my brows trying to come up with the reference but I'm drawing a blank. Rhea always managed to find an obscure reference to work into any conversation. I'd be mad at her for making me feel stupid, but I know she didn't mean it like that. She just can't help herself. “Okay, you smart-ass, you got me again. What's that from?”

  “That one's from the Wi-”

  Her explanation is cut off by high-pitched feedback from my comms. I scramble to turn down the volume and bang my head against the ceiling of the two-foot corridor. The impact bounces me against the deck before I press my hands against the corridor to catch myself. “Ow, fuck! Damn.” All I get for my trouble is a cut on my forehead to add to the ringing sound left behind in my ears. A drop of my blood floats in the air, hanging in front of my eyes, mocking me.

  “You ladies having fun wasting my time? I should add every minute of my time you're wasting to your ledger. I'll own half your House at this rate, if you ever manage to scrounge up enough merchs to buy your way in.”

  I hate it when Kole interrupts our conversations. Hell, I hate him period. He likes to remind us that a Merchant Prince Captain can see and hear everything that happens on his ship. And he does it often. There is no privacy on board the Recluse. But it's not like any of us has much choice.

  “I'm working on it, sir.” I nearly bite off the tip of my tongue spitting out that last word. But it's less painful to say than the consequences of forgetting. I can still feel the fading welts from last time I got uppity. “The power relay is damaged. Once I fix it, the aft coolants will be online and we'll be ready for an atmospheric burn to the surface.”

  I want to remind him that the coolants would be working if he could manage to keep us stocked with functional spare parts instead of castoff junk from derelict ships. But if there is anything he hates more than being disrespected, it's being reminded of what a shit House he belongs. The last Scion of the once glorious House Gaberdine. Reduced to trolling the edge of civilized space for salvage from long dead civilizations for a one-in-a-million chance of finding something to bring his House back to glory. “Fat chance,” I mumble under my breath.

  “What's that?”

  Shit. There I go again letting my temper get the best of me. “Nothing, sir. I was just talking to myself.”

  “You better have been.” He doesn't sound like he bought my excuse. I probably just bought myself another whipping. “Watch your mouth, Astrid. And get my coolants back online in the next half hour. I'm paying you a fair share of the salvage for your engineering skills. If I wanted someone with a mouth, I would have contracted a whore.”

  I wipe the sweat mingling with the blood from my run-in with the ceiling and tuck a loose blonde strand behind my ear. I make a smart decision for once and start disassembling the power relay instead of letting him know what I'll do to him once I have my own House.

  Rhea's voice breaks from the radio through the momentary silence. “Hey, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah, but get off the comms. Didn't you hear Kole? He's gonna have the skin off your back if he thinks you're distracting me.” I don't have to remind her that she can't take the punishment as well as I can. The last whipping I took was covering for her mistake. Plus, help from my lack of self-control.

  “It's fine, there's no way he can hear us. I switched us to a private channel I've been working on. I told you I'm good at my job.” That she is. Rhea is good at two things. Designing and building comms systems, and reciting all the bullshit from the old books she reads.

  I start filing the rust off the connectors on the power relay, secretly glad to have Rhea's voice for company.

  “Hey... Astrid. Do you think this planet might be the one? Kartak, right? You think we'll finally hit it big? Big enough to buy ourselves a House and finally live the good life?”

  “What do you think, Rhea? Didn't you think we would hit it big on our last three stops?” I can't help my bitterness seep into my voice. “How did that work out? We've barely made enough to cover the fuel for this fucking expedition. Hell, we might owe Kole after we are done on Kartak. ”

  I immediately regret my outburst. I can practically see Rhea's face trying to keep herself from crying. I don't know how she's managed to stay so soft without being sheltered by one of the Merchant Houses. But it's just that quality that draws me to her. She's so full of hope. Sure, she cries when life beats her down. But she always bounces back with an infectious smile. Like she never doubts that one day, the Saints will finally reward her for all the pain she's gone through.

  “I'm sorry Rhea.” I plug the power relay back into the socket and test the connections. “You didn't deserve that.”

  “It's okay. I know you don't mean it.”

  Satisfied with the connection, I turn the power relay back on. I'm rewarded with more sparks in my face and the satisfying hum of electricity flowing through the power conduit. “Yes!”

  “Hey, Astrid, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  I manage to hold back my default sarcastic remark. I'm not used to being friendly. Even to someone as nice as Rhea. Hell, especially to someone as nice as Rhea. I learned a long time ago that it's not worth bothering. Why make friends when anyone's contract could be sold by one Merchant Prince to another at any time, for any reason. But she's worth trying to beat my old habits.

  “Yeah, sure.”

>   “If we hit the big score, what are you going to do when you buy your House?”

  I laugh sarcastically. “I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I haven't really thought about it.”

  “Come on. What else do you have to think about? Don't you dream?”

  “No,” I lie.

  “Wanna know what I'm going to do?” She goes on before I have a chance to tell her no. “I'm going to buy a spaceship and travel the galaxy until I find my true love. Not a junker like this one either. A proper yacht.”

  “Just like in one of your books, huh?”

  “Yeah...” I know she believes it too. It really is a miracle that someone so naive has managed to make it out in space for this long. Living the salvager's life.

  “Alright. I'm done here. Let's go find out if Kartak really is our big score.”

  “Awesome!” Her enthusiasm is infectious. For a second I almost feel like this will be the one too.

  “Hey, Astrid. Do you think you'll ever find someone to love?”

  “It's too cold in space for love, Rhea. I'll settle for a warm bath, a hot cup of coffee and a few pleasure boys to work my back. And everywhere else. I'm going to pay them enough so they pretend they like doing it too.”

  Rhea laughs. “Astrid, you are beautiful. You need to stop beating yourself down on your looks.”

  I don't believe her, but it still comforts me to hear her say it.

  “Alright, let's get this mission started.”

  2

  LEO

  I stand over the corpse of the dead skinner. His cold blood spreads out on the hot sand. A waste of good moisture. There is never a reclaimer around when I need one. I squat down next to him and tear off a piece of his sleeve. I wipe my sword clean of his blood and slide it back into its scabbard.

  I pick through his belongings to see if there's anything worth taking. I snort in disgust. The only thing of value he was traveling with was his water, his lizard and his woman. Explains why he was desperate enough to attack me. I take his skin of water.

  I stand back up and climb on my jetbike. The skinner woman looks up at me and crawls closer to me on her hands and knees. She keeps her head bowed in submission and drops her face to the sand when she's within five meters of me. “Please... take me with you.”

  “Stand up if you want to speak with me. I've no need for slaves.”

  She hesitates. I can see her fighting against a lifetime of submission. She pushes herself off her hands and kneels before me, her head still turned down. I can see her thin features beneath her cloak. She has dark red skin, thin black lips and bright green eyes with no pupils. Most would call her attractive.

  “Please! I am nothing without my master. How will I survive if you don't take me? With no water to hold me until I find shelter?”

  I hit the ignition on the jetbike and the engine roars to life.

  “Please! I will be good to you. I will wash your wounds, cook for you... I will please you!”

  I know her offer is true, but it is wasted on me.

  “I will take no slave.”

  She scrambles forward, reaching out to me. “Then take me as your woman,” she pleads. “You are strong and ferocious. You slew my master with a single stroke. What woman would not have you given the choice?”

  There was a time when I was satisfied to simply slake my lust. But the touch of a woman who is not my fated mate no longer brings me any pleasure. I toss the dead man's skin of water into her outstretched hands. She grabs it greedily. I point at the thunder lizard he tried to crush me with. “Get on that thing before it rides off and find your way to someone who'll have you.”

  I rev the engine, swing the jetbike around and leave her behind like so much dust.

  3

  ASTRID

  The door stutters awkwardly before opening to allow me onto the bridge. Kole glares at me from the Captain's chair like it's my fault. I pretend I don't notice and take a lot of interest in the blinking lights on my magnetic boots. I sit down at my station next to Rhea and scoot my butt to the edge of the seat where there's still some padding left. She gives me a knowing smile. I almost laugh when I notice she put on some of her lucky pink lipstick for the occasion. She really does think the Saints will one day lead her to her true love.

  “Looking good, Rhea. Expecting to find a hot date on Kartak?”

  “You know it.” She winks at me. But her smile quickly vanishes as Kole turns to glare at her.

  I see Graidi laughing at her discomfort. He doesn't have to worry about Kole's temper. The Merchant Princes know not to fuck with the money guys. A xeno-archaeologist who could not only identify what'll sell, but also tell you what planets you were most likely to find something worth selling on is worth his weight in adamantium. He'd made Kole replace his chair too. Damn thing has more padding on it then my bunk.

  The other two on the ship weren't much good at absorbing any of Kole's wrath either. Jamir has been his helmsman since Kole took over the Recluse from his father. Jawn is Jamir's oldest son. So they put him on the weapons system. If you could call what this ship had weapons. The best the lasers on this ship could manage was to give our enemies a bad sun burn.

  A quick glance at my station shows me my repairs are holding. All the coolants are online. I could already feel the temperature dropping on the bridge. I test the thrusters and they are all functional. Capable of running at 80% power. That was the best we could hope for on the Recluse. There is no way I could get the thrusters to full capacity without substantial investment in replacement parts. The atmospheric thrusters are even worse. They are capable of running at 50% capacity. It's going to be a rough landing. Nine round trips through a variety of atmosphere had really wore them down, and they weren't that great to begin with. It's really a miracle that I'd managed to kept the Recluse running the way I had for the last two years. Not that Kole would ever admit it. She should have been retired before I was born.

  Kole starts running through the pre-entry checklist.

  “Life support systems, check.”

  “Check, sir.”

  “Maneuvering systems, check.”

  “Check, sir.”

  “Engineering systems, check.”

  “Check, sir.” I replied.

  “Weapons systems, check.”

  “Check, sir.”

  “Communication systems, check.”

  “Check, sir.”

  “Sensors, check.”

  “We still can't get any reading through the atmosphere, sir.” Rhea said. Her voice squeaked when she felt embarrassed. “There's some sort of electrostatic interference. It's going to take the computer a long time to get any sensor readings through the interference. I still can't scan for power sources, or radio waves below low orbit. We're going to have to pick our target site based on visuals alone.”

  “I didn't bring you along for your excuses Rhea. Tell me what I have to work with. Send us what you have for potential landing zones.”

  “Yes, sir.” She turns back to her console. I could still see the tears swelling in her eyes, but I pretend I don't notice. No need to make her feel even more embarrassed. That fucker. What I would give for a chance to teach him a lesson.

  “Kartak is the third planet from the G-type main-sequence star. The planet is terrestrial with an active hydrosphere. We've got three potential landing zones. You should all have them on your comms systems.” The crews' comms systems beeped in unison, confirming her statement.

  “I think our best shot is to explore the ruins in the northern hemisphere. There's a large area of man-made structures embedded into bedrock. About 22,000 square klicks. A large range of mountains protects much of the man-made structures from sand encroachment. The second potential landing zone is approximately four k-klicks south of that. It should be easy to travel to the second landing zone from the first. It's not very large, about 10,000 square klicks of man-made structures with about 50% sand encroachment. The last landing zone is on the other side of the planet, in the southern hemi
sphere. It's similar in size to the first, about 19,500 square klicks of man-made structures, but there's a lot more sand coverage. Nearly 75%. And it's not near any other landing zone. I recom-”

  “That's good,” Kole cut her off. “I told you before. Just give me the facts, I don't need your recommendation.”

  “Yes, sir,” she replies back softly and drops her eyes back down to her console.

  “Deploy the relay satellites.”

  She presses a few buttons quietly. “Satellites deployed, sir.”

  Kole straps himself into his chair and locks it in the forward position. The rest of the crew begins doing the same. Preparing themselves for acceleration followed by an atmospheric burn.

  I deactivate my magnetic boots and scoot back onto the uncomfortable half of my chair to strap myself in. I double check my survival suit. It never hurts to be sure. The odds of a hull breach during an atmospheric burn are not insignificant. Especially on-board a rust-bucket like this. My coolants are running low because the ship's temperatures are running high because of the busted coolant. I make a mental note to recharge the coolants after we land. I pat the helmet mounted on the back of my headrest to assure myself it is still there.