Hard Sands
She may be a gift from the Goddess, but he doesn’t want her. So why can’t he let her go?
Kalinda got on the Intergalactic Mating Agency’s ship with one destination in mind—a distant space station where she’s to meet her new mail order mate. Nothing in her plans includes crash-landing on a backwards, undiscovered, lizard-alien inhabited sand planet. Roughing it wasn’t what she signed up for and she wants off Atera. Well… maybe after she spends a little time with the Warlord Nakan, first. He’s a sexy, muscular, overwhelming gray-scaled presence that she wouldn’t mind exploring. But when she’s done with him, she’s figuring out a way off this godforsaken planet. She doesn’t belong on Atera no matter what the hottie lizardman may say.
Nakan does not have time in his life for a mate. With his sire recently deceased, he must care for his tribe and fight off challengers to his position as Warlord of the Hard Sands. A mate? And an alien human female, at that? No, he has other responsibilities that need his attention. Gift from the Goddess or not, Kalinda of Earth is not for him. It does not matter that her curves call to him or that her strange alien form appeals to him in ways no other female ever has and stirs his blood like a true mate.
Yet Nakan’s denial leaves Kalinda vulnerable. There’s a male who wants everything Nakan holds dear—his position of Warlord, the territory of the Hard Sands, and more important to him than anything else… Kalinda.
Chapter One
The ship’s blaring alarms wrenched Kalinda from sleep, throwing her into instant wakefulness and sending adrenaline surging through her veins. The glittering, smooth protective glass of the stasis pod remained in place above her, bio signs flickering across the embedded screen. Through the clear panel, she spied flashing red lights that flickered in time with the high-pitched squeal of the alarms. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in stasis, but the bright red lights and rhythmic screeching of the alarm told her they hadn’t placidly reached Nyx Station as planned. For some reason the ship had woken her.
The ship shook and trembled while screams—feminine screams—reached through her closed stasis pod to assault her ears. There were no bellows or deep shouts from the male crew that had been in attendance when they were put under. No announcement or pleas from the captain to remain calm. All she heard were the cries of the other passengers—all women.
Kalinda pounded on the top of her stasis pod, her screams joining the others when it wouldn’t budge. She kicked and hit the clear cover, demanding to be freed only to find herself still held captive—awake but unable to do anything.
The ship bounced and jerked, a rumbling roar joining the cries that filtered through the walls of the pod. They’d hit a planet’s atmosphere, turbulence shaking the ship so badly it felt as if it’d tear apart at any moment. Trapped in her stasis pod, there wasn’t a thing she could do but wait. Instincts and training urged her to rush to engineering and help with repairs, restore main power and get the engines back online to help save the falling ship. Maybe stall their free fall.
But she could do nothing.
She clung to the inner rails in the pod, holding onto them for dear life. A massive lurch of the ship nearly sent her colliding with the lid, but she tightened her hold on the rails. It was obvious the stasis field had failed and the safety systems were inactive now. She couldn’t imagine how badly the ship must have been damaged for them to go offline.
One of the other women aboard the IGMA Tranquility shouted orders, doing her best to organize the panicked and injured women. A wave of dizziness overtook her for a moment, the world seeming to spin.
Was the ship actually spiraling?
More shouts. More panic. Women became visible through Kalinda’s top as they scrambled and begged for safety—an end to the madness.
The yells for the crew didn’t last very long. Just until it became evident that the escape pods—and ship’s crew—were long gone.
Abandoned. A sick feeling churned in Kalinda’s stomach. Utterly abandoned.
Unable to escape or find safety, the others retreated to their stasis pods, climbing inside and pulling them shut as if they’d protect them during the crash. Kalinda clung to the sides of hers and gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut as they drew closer and closer to the ground below. Until the ship finally struck the planet’s surface. Bruises formed on her pale skin as she bounced within the stasis pod. She screamed and cried, helpless in the darkness with no way out. No one to save her. A small voice in the back of her mind wished for a fairy tale rescue—a warrior in shining armor to save her as the ship tumbled across the ground, completely out of control.
In the aftermath, the women explored the broken remains of the ship. One of the others—Sheri—asked Kalinda if she could open the hatch and Kalinda was thankful she could put her engineering experience to some use. She flipped up the access panel next to the hatch, bypassed the controls, and then both pushed, using their weight and strength to force the portal wide. Pale sand spilled in through the crack and a peek out the door revealed an endless expanse of white.
And the lack of the rest of their ship. Half had been completely torn away as they’d tumbled into the alien planet’s atmosphere.
Scorching heat burned through the open hatch. Dry air made Kalinda cough and choke. Twin suns blazed from above, practically cooking them with the high temperatures. Kalinda’s vision blurred, the brightness blinding her. There was a flash of white light and then—
Their first night on an alien world and Kalinda couldn’t get comfortable, lying under a makeshift tent propped against the side of their crashed ship. The others slept all around her, exhausted from the crash and their attempt to gather food, water, and supplies necessary to their survival. Some held out hope that they would soon be rescued but Kalinda knew better. She had examined the wrecked hull of their ship and the communications equipment that remained. There was no chance of getting a message out—a call for help. Even with her skills, there were no supplies on hand that she could use to build something from scratch.
Kalinda stirred on her pallet, the sense of being watched drifting over her in a gentle wave. Just one of the other women… That was her first thought anyway. Then a cool breath bathed her face. Cool, not warm like she expected from another human. She opened her eyes and there—leaning over her and overtaking her vision—a hulking gray-skinned alien with a reptilian face and pale gray scales. The alien was naked except for leather straps and belts that crisscrossed his body, weapons dangling from each one. He leered at her, his gray eyes roaming over her body from head to foot and back again, and she shuddered beneath his stare.
Claw-tipped fingers grabbed at her, wrapping around her arms, and she screamed. She kicked and twisted in his grasp, fighting to be free of the lizard-like alien, but he held fast. He pinned her to his chest and pressed his blunt, lipless mouth to her neck. Something cool rubbed her skin and she shuddered, imagining what touched her and hating every option her mind conjured. She cringed and snapped her eyes closed, still struggling for freedom, but the beast refused to release her.
At twice her size, she wasn’t surprised that he held her with ease. Trying to fight this being off was like a bird attempting to escape a crocodile’s jaws. The alien’s scales scraped and rasped against her skin while his claws dug into her pale flesh. At any moment he could rip out her throat and spill her blood on the cold, pale sands, and no one could save her. A glance around the area proved the futility of attempting to gain her freedom. Kalinda wasn’t the only one held captive by a lizard beast.