Mesmerized by the Alien Mercenary Read online

  Mesmerized by the Alien Mercenary

  The Kurians Book Six

  Ashlyn Hawkes

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Other Books By Ashlyn Hawkes

  About the Author

  Special Author Note

  1

  Tox

  I growl and run my tongue along my teeth.

  “What is it?” Nos asks.

  Gus eyes me. The two Kurians are best friends, and they’re close friends with me too. All of the Kurians are. After all, we’re practically brothers in a sense. While we aren’t related by blood, we all share a common ancestry.

  All of us have mothers from Earth and fathers from Nore. We all live on Kuria. Well, a few now live on Earth, and Flynn has been raised there, but every few years, he’ll come to Kuria to visit us.

  Kuria, yes, that’s where the Kurians and the Novans now live, the Novans being the species from Nore. A long time ago, a war raged. Nore is no more, and Kuria is now our home. None of the Kurians ever got to see our fathers’ home planet.

  I toss the krislasher to the side. We’re supposed to be training a bit, working some of the same drills the soldiers do, but honestly, it’s boring. I’ve used a krislasher since I could walk. I know how to use the weapon to kill animals, to strip their skin, to get to the meat underneath. While I’ve never used it against a person, I would know precisely where to strike to reach through the ribs to get to the heart.

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid to go up against me,” Gus jokes. “You know I’m next.”

  “I’m done.”

  I flick my krislasher. It lands directly upright in the red rock. All of Kuria is a red rock, the stone everywhere. With the advantage of having levitation devices at our fingertips now thanks to a genius Earthling woman, we are hoping to change the landscape of this place, to have water above the stones in ponds and lakes and rivers instead of within the mesas that cover the planet. It’s an ambitious project, to say the least, and there has been talk of entirely levitating cities, but it will take years for that to happen. Many Novans are clamoring for the project, eager to sign up and help in any way that they can, but honestly, I don’t want to. It doesn’t call to me, doesn’t speak to me.

  Nos and Gus exchange a glance. I flop down onto the red stone beside my krislasher and stretch out my long legs. The sun beats down on me, but I don’t feel any warmth. Inside, I’m cold.

  I’m done with more than just this silly, useless training exercise.

  Gus sits beside me. “Why don’t you tell us what’s on your mind?” he suggests.

  “I bet I know,” Nos grumbles. “If your dad is anything like mine, I bet he’s pressuring you to become an officer so you can one day become a captain. It’s all my dad ever talks about.”

  I eye Nos. “Well?”

  "Well, what?"

  “Do you want to?”

  Nos snorts through his nose. “No. That doesn’t interest me at all.”

  Gus rubs the back of his thick neck as he starts to pace. “You ever notice how the Kurians are all so reckless?”

  I lift my eyebrows. “I disagree. We aren’t reckless.”

  Gus halts and pointedly stares at my krislasher.

  I scratch beneath my chin at him. A vulgar Earthling gesture, I believe.

  Gus shakes a fist at me, but it’s all in good fun, and we laugh, the mood a little lightened.

  “I would say restless,” I explain.

  “Okay, maybe,” Gus admits. “No matter what our parents want for us, we tend to forge our own paths.”

  “That what this about?” Nos asks me. “Is it your turn to find your own path?”

  I slowly nod and quickly jump to my feet. My hand grasps the handle of my krislasher. “Yes, yes, I think so. I thought being a soldier might work for me, but I don’t want it. Why do we even need soldiers? The Grots were destroyed.”

  “Yes, but there could one day be another threat,” Nos says.

  I roll my eyes. “We’ve been on Kuria for how long?”

  “How old are you?” Gus teases.

  “Keep it up,” I joke. “I’ll go a round with you after all just to put you in your place.”

  “You know you’ll lose,” Gus retorts. “That’s why you’re quitting. You hate to lose, but you know you will.”

  “Ovian bastard.”

  We all laugh.

  “My point is that Kuria has been occupied by Novans and Kurians alike for decades. Over thirty years. In all of that time, we haven’t seen any other species than Earthlings. No other ships have come close. We’re fine.”

  “We’re fine until we aren’t,” Nos says firmly.

  “You want to be a soldier, then?” I ask. “Train to be a fighter pilot when there hasn’t been an aerial battle since the Novans killed every last Grot bastard?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Nos says uncomfortably.

  “Didn’t think so.” I stretch and then begin to toss my krislasher from hand to hand, the blade moving so quickly it appears to be a blur. “I don’t want to be an officer. I’m not a builder, not a driver, none of that. The jobs here on Kuria… not one of them appeals to me.”

  “You think Earth has more to offer, don’t you?” Nos asks.

  I nod. “Can’t hurt to check it out. Besides, I can go and see Brock and the others. Make sure they aren’t getting into trouble.”

  Gus nudges me with his arm. “You just want to check out the women. I’m sure their girlfriends and wives keep the boys out of trouble. They don’t need you around for that.”

  I roll my eyes. “I’m not worried about—”

  “You can’t say that,” Gus protests. “Every Kurian is a horndog.”

  We all laugh again. The Novans are a sexual race, driven by lust in order to find love. The Kurians are the same way, but there hasn’t been a shipment of women from Earth in a long, long time. The Earthling women on Kuria are all much older than we are, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t fooled around with some, haven’t enjoyed ourselves and made sure the women enjoyed themselves too. There are female Kurians, of course, but for whatever reason, the males greatly outnumber the females. We need Earthling women yet if the Kurians are to thrive.

  Because that’s just it. When the Grots came to Nore and destroyed the planet, they also devastated all Novans by killing every single female, no matter her age, as well as all of the young boys too. It had been a dark, dark time for the Novans, but they managed to not only survive. They achieved their goal of revenge, and now, the Kurians need to take up the quest and repopulate Kuria so that the Grots can’t win and kill off every last Novan and allow the species to become extinct.

  Although, to be honest, when the last Novan dies, that’s it. There will never be another Novan. There will be the Kurians to rise from the ashes with the help of Earthlings. A new dawn, a new age, a new planet, a new people.

  And yes, a new planet is right because the overlord, Overlord Nestrol, has plans to see to it that Kuria is reforged and altered to become exactly what the Kurians will need to thrive and prosper.

  Overlord Nestrol…

  “You thinking about how many women you want to fuck?” Gus asks.

&nbs
p; I glare at him. “I’m thinking about how I need to see the overlord.”

  “You want to leave now?” Nos asks.

  I grin. “Do you know me, or do you know me? When I make up my mind, I move forward straight ahead.”

  “Yes, and sometimes you even run straight into walls,” Gus deadpans.

  “I was three,” I mumble.

  The two of them laugh, and I give them the finger—another Earthling rude gesture—as I walk away. It’s time to have a chat with the overlord, and hopefully, he’ll be in a good mood. Lately, all he’s cared about is the Rebuild Nore project now that it has been shifted entirely on its head because of the invention of levitation.

  The overlord isn’t the only one in his office when I show up there later that evening. He agreed to the meeting, but I hadn’t realized that my parents would be here too. I suppose it’s for the best. They would have to learn about my leaving, and I would need to say goodbye.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I invited Captain Stox and Colonel Lara to join us,” Overlord Nestrol says as he gestures for me to sit across from him at the huge table.

  I shake my head. “Not at all,” I say as I claim the seat. My parents sit on either side of him, which makes it seem to be three against one since the table is that long that I am not near any of the trio.

  “I take it you have a request to ask of me.” Overlord Nestrol folds his hands and rests them on the table.

  “Yes. I would like to head to Earth.”

  “Why?”

  “Honestly, I don’t think I’m suited for any of the jobs on Kuria.”

  My dad lets out a snort.

  I flare my nostrils.

  Mom laughs. “And just what job are you suited for that is on Earth?”

  Ovian.

  I hadn’t thought about what I would do once I got to earth.

  Reckless is right. Damn Gus.

  I clear my throat to stall. “I just feel that there are more opportunities on Earth.”

  The overlord leaps to his feet and narrows his eyes as he points at me. “What do you mean by that? What are you insinuating?”

  I swallow hard. Shit.

  “I didn’t mean any disrespect,” I say. “I just thought that I…”

  “Were you thinking?” Dad asks once the meeting is over and we’re at my parent’s house, eating a late dinner.

  “He wasn’t thinking,” Mom says idly. She shakes her head. “It’s one thing to want to see the overlord. It’s quite another to insult him.”

  “I didn’t mean to insult him,” I grumble.

  The rest of the meeting went downhill from there. The overlord ranted and raved about how the Kurians are the most ungrateful lot he’s ever seen, that we just want to fuck him over and do whatever we ovian want, the rest of the world be damned. I couldn’t argue with that, considering that’s what I want. Not to fuck him over. Hell no. But to do what I want? Hell yes.

  “But in the end, you got what you want,” Dad says.

  I nod past a lump in my throat. Before the overlord basically threw us out of the meeting, he said, “Fine. Go to Earth! I don’t want someone so disrespectful and backstabbing as you here on Kuria. You’re a damn mercenary. That’s what you are!”

  “Do you still have no idea what you’ll do once you get to Earth?” Mom asks.

  “I think I might,” I muse, smiling to myself.

  The overlord himself gave me the idea.

  A mercenary. A jack of all trades. I can take on what jobs I want and decline the rest.

  I’ll be able to do a little bit of everything.

  It’ll be perfect for me.

  And that’s exactly what I do. I opt for the deep sleep on the flight over to Earth so that I’m wide awake and ready to set up shop as a mercenary from the moment I set foot on the bright, colorful planet. As I inhale a deep breath and enjoy the green grass, the towering trees, the sheer lack of red stone, I think I’m going to enjoy Earth very, very much.

  2

  Sophia

  My lungs burn, but I’m grinning. Yeah, so I’m being chased by a pair of thugs. Yes, they want to kill me, but I’m not worried. I’ve been in more harrowing escapades before, and I’m still alive. Others have tried to kill me. No one has.

  My line of work is a bit dangerous, yes, so maybe I’m asking for this. What bounty hunter doesn’t have a lot of enemies? But I have some friends in high places too as a result of my profession. Although the Global Countries of Earth won’t admit it, they hire me to collect the men and women who have dodged their attempts at capture or who need to be questioned or… I don’t always know the reason behind an assignment.

  My world is dog-eat-dog, and no two days are ever the same, but it’s thrilling, adventurous, and exciting.

  I can’t imagine some kind of boring job. It’s just not me.

  My thighs are starting to become a little tight. I've been running for an hour straight, and it's not as if the terrain is a flat plain. Nope. Uphill, down a slope, on gravel no less, so that makes rolling an ankle far too likely… Thankfully, I know to run sideways downhill.

  The thugs hadn’t. One fell, and the other almost tripped over the first, but that little bit of extra time I’ve gained, I’m slowly losing.

  I’m five foot even so although I have stamina and can run for hours, my legs are short. Which means my strides aren’t as long as I would like. They’re catching up to me because of something I can’t control. It’s not fair.

  Life isn’t fair.

  Honestly, I'm not even sure why they want to kill me. My best guess is that they're thugs employed by Garcia Sagen. He's the latest guy I brought in for the government, and he had been basically a small-time crime lord. It seemed to me he was trying to set himself up as a mob head, but a mob is not something the government is going to allow. I have to give Madelaine Downing credit. The leader of the Global Countries of Earth is willing to do anything and everything to try to stop crime as quickly as possible.

  But mobs tend to have numbers, allies, and yeah, my guess is that these thugs are his. Garcia hadn’t been the easiest to take down. He had never been alone, and I hate to fake a call as a doctor to his wife about her sister to get her to leave the house so I could get to Garcia alone. Yes, I’m willing to resort to a bit a treachery to collect my bounties. It’s a lucrative job, and I make the world a better, safer place with every job I complete. Win-win.

  A gunshot goes off, and I duck behind a boulder. Shit. They hadn’t been close enough to aim with any sense of accuracy for a long while now.

  My breathing is a bit frantic and loud, and I force myself to breathe through my nose and out my mouth to help me calm down some. Once I can hear noises beside my swiftly beating heart, I glance around the side of the boulder.

  The thugs are standing above me, bearing down, much too close for comfort.

  No big deal.

  I grab a rock and toss it to the right. The thugs aren’t distracted by it, but when I then toss them my hat, they shoot five rounds.

  Another peek. My hat's been destroyed, all riddled with holes. They're decent shots.

  "Not bad, Sagen," I mutter. A lot of thugs are wastes of space. Seems like these thugs might be a bit better than your average goon.

  Doubt they can be reasoned with, but it's worth a chance. I'm no cowering, yellow-bellied wimp. I'm no shrinking violet, and I'm not a damsel in distress.

  I'm a bounty hunter, and I hunt bounties. Just because there aren't active ones on these two thugs doesn't mean I can't pretend there are.

  I hold up my hands. “Wait. Please. Don’t shoot.”

  I lift my hands even higher, and another shot is fired. I bring my hands down, and I grit my teeth.

  “You’re coming for me because of Garcia Sagen, aren’t you?” I ask.

  I’m not stalling. Intel is always appreciated. Sometimes, a bounty hunter moonlights as an informant. There’s been more than one occasion in which I basically gave the government certain names, and they created bou
nties on the spot for them.

  Easy money. I’m telling ya. Dangerous, yes, but who doesn’t love a little thrill? Plus, the cardio is so much easier to handle when you’re running for your life. Fuck treadmills.

  “Yes.”

  A thug bears down at me, his gun pointed right at my head. The boulder separates us.

  I lift my hands again. This thug has a nose that’s clearly been broken several times. His teeth are perfectly straight and white, though.

  The other thug comes into view. He has a bit of a belly, a layer of fat to cover his muscles. Both are far more winded than I am from the chase.

  “Garcia Sagen,” I murmur. “You two his righthand men?”

  They glance at each other. The heavier one also has his gun out, but it’s pointed at the ground, so I focus on the broken nose guy.

  “You have to be, right? I mean, you’re so damn loyal. I’m sure he’ll be so happy that you’re such good lapdogs.” I widen my eyes and cover my mouth with my hand. “I didn’t mean it like that, boys. No. In fact… No. Well, maybe.”

  “Maybe what?” Broken Nose spits out.

  “You two wouldn’t want to take over his operations, do you?” I ask. “I mean, Garcia had been really busy. I bet he had you two running all over the place for him. You two know the ins and outs better than anyone but Garcia, am I right? You could take over the mob. Well, finish building it up because it’s not quite real mob level yet.”

  “The hell you talking about?” Broken Nose asks. He jabs his gun against my temple.

  “She’s right,” Heavy says. “It can be bigger.”

  “It’s plenty big,” Broken Nose argues.

  “Think about it. The bigger it is, the better it’ll be. More money. More power.”