Xandr's Prize (Chaetdorian Mates Book 5) Read online

  Xandr’s

  Prize

  By E.M Reders

  Copyright

  All rights reserved by author

  Copyright©2017 by E.M Reders

  Cover Art by E.M Reders

  Cover Original Images Copyright

  Published by E.M. Reders

  This is a work of fiction

  Xandr’s Prize is a work of fiction and all characters, events and dialogue found within this story are of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Prologue

  Vampires are a myth, right? A story told to scare children - and the occasional adult - at night?

  Well, not exactly.

  Vampires are real, though they are not exactly what you think they are. Do they drink blood? Yes. Are they allergic to sunlight? Yes. Do they live forever? Well, no actually. But they do live for a very long time. But the reasons for these are not because they are the undead. They are, in fact, very much alive. They’re just not from this planet.

  You see, many centuries ago, the planet Chaetdor was destroyed and the survivors of that planet set out on a mission to find themselves a new home. Earth was never part of the plan. A primitive world with little technology and a sun that was harmful to the Chaetdorian body. When there was a fault with the ship, they had no choice but to land on the foreign planet and hope that they could fix the problem quickly so that they could continue on their journey. That did not happen. The fault was worse than they had first thought and had caused them to crash during landing, seriously damaging their vessel. With the lack of technology on earth at that time, they were stuck. They hid their craft and adapted with their new world in order to survive.

  There were just two problems. One, they were highly sensitive to the earth's sun, meaning that they could only venture out at night. And two, in order to maintain a humanoid appearance, they needed to consume human blood. Stories of large, handsome, pale men with fangs soon spread, and the myth of the vampire was born.

  But now, it is time for them to leave…

  Chapter 1

  Xandr, like all others of his kind, had waited for this day. The day that their ship was fully repaired and they could begin preparations to leave Earth. It had been a long time coming, centuries in fact. But finally, that day had arrived.

  Now he and a team of others had been sent to an abandoned warehouse to meet and transport a group of human that had volunteered to join them on their escape from Earth. But at a price.

  The Chaetdorian race had the ability to physically change their form by consuming the blood of other races. It was how they had remained hidden from the human world so successfully. There were a few trusted members of the human race that knew, of course, and it was those that had been given the opportunity to travel with them. Due to the length of time they had been dependent on human blood in order to blend in, they now needed to wean themselves off it. Otherwise, the side effects were less than pleasant. That was where their human travel companions came in.

  Gazing over the group of human males and females, Xandr was once again grateful that he had never been dependent on their blood. There had been a time or two when he had needed to alter his appearance - hide his markings and dark eyes – but he had never had to maintain the changes. Though, in truth, he was always hiding his markings. One of them at least.

  “What has put that frown upon your face?” Mandy asked as she sauntered towards him, her hips swinging provocatively.

  “Nothing of importance.”

  “Well whatever it is, I don’t like it.” Going up on her tiptoes, she leant over, pressing her breasts against his arm. “How about we sneak off somewhere, and I can make it all better?” she whispered.

  If only that were possible. He and Mandy had been together for a little over a year, and while she was not his true mate she helped keep the loneliness at bay, helped keep him sane. Still, he had a job to do. And no matter how hard she had him at that moment, he could not abandon his mission.

  “Maybe later. Now go and gather your things, the shuttles will be here shortly.”

  “Spoilsport,” she said, quickly glancing around to make sure no one was watching them before she planted a warm kiss on his cheek. “Love you.”

  He wanted to say the words back, to tell her what she wanted to hear, but he could not lie to her. Every Chaetdorian male had one mate, one perfect partner out there in the universe made just for them. And Mandy was not his. He knew that. She knew that. But still, Mandy had fallen in love with him.

  An hour later and they were ready to go, almost.

  “Fourteen of the humans are accounted for and ready to depart,” Xandr said as Torq, the leader of the Slayer tribe approached, an unconscious human female in his red marked arms. Hearing shouts coming from the alley, he asked, “Something happen back there?”

  “Nothing of importance. You said only fourteen of the humans were here, where is the last?”

  “I have no clue,” he admitted. Mandy had yet to return from collecting her bags from where she had left them, and her friends among the other humans didn’t seem to know where she was. He had no idea what was taking her so long, but then again, it was Mandy. She was terrible at time keeping. Xandr had lost count of the number of times she was late in meeting him. “The twins are searching the building now to find her.”

  “Her?”

  “Yes, Mandy’s the one that has gone walkabout.”

  “Find her,” Torq growled. Obviously, he was in a rush to leave, and judging by the sudden silence that descended in the alley behind the warehouse there was a good reason for it. Slayers were the assassins of their kind. It was their job to make sure that their existence stayed secret, and it was a bloody job at times. Some said that was why their markings were as red as blood.

  As the Slayer leader departed, Xandr went in search of the twins, Jepa and Hecto. Finding them alone on the second floor, he began to worry.

  “Where is she?”

  “No idea.”

  It was Jepa that answered, unsurprisingly. Hecto had not spoken to anyone in months. He wasn’t sure why but his continued silence was worrying. If a Chaetdorian male failed to find their mate, they would go insane. The madness they called it.

  The fact that they had been stranded on Earth for centuries with no one finding a true mate was not good for anyone of them. It wouldn’t be long before the madness consumed one of them, he was sure. He just prayed it would not be his friend.

  “Well, we can’t wait around forever. She’ll turn up eventually. Let’s get the other humans transported to the ship on schedule, and I’ll inform Teks about Mandy.”

  “No doubt she’ll surprise all of us and find her way to the ship.”

  He hoped so because something just did not feel right about all this.

  Chapter 2

  Things had not gone as Jessie had planned. The night had started off well. She had arrived at the first pub at the exact time that she had planned. She had drunk the same drink she always drank at each and every pub and club they had visited. And she had been on track to stumble through her front door at the hour she had planned on doing so. But it had all gone so wrong, and now she was stuck on board some alien ship with no idea when or how she would get off it.

  And what made it worse? It seemed the aliens that had taken them captive were insane,
dangerous beings that could not be trusted.

  Not surprising really. The first of the aliens they had met had appeared in the alley they had used to escape Nora’s drunken ex-boyfriend. After spotting them leaving a club, he had decided to chase them, grab hold of Alice, and place a knife against her side. The alien had then descended into the alley from above and ripped off the guy's arm before snapping his neck.

  Nice.

  Then, upon first waking wherever it was they had been taken, they had found that Nora was missing. Now it seemed the woman had been shacking up with one of the alien males while they had remained confined to some remarkably white room with horrible food and no privacy.

  Her friends really could pick them. Then again, Jessie wasn’t any better when it came to choosing the right man. But at least she had an outlet for her frustration now.

  WACK!

  Jessie managed to get some good hits in on the alien male that had entered their prison and dragged Nora out of the room shortly after she had been reunited with them all, but it was Katie that got the final blow and knocked the bastard on his ass.

  A moment later another overly large alien male showed up, shoving the women out of the way. Looking him over Jessie realised something. All the males that had appeared in the alley had been covered in red markings. The one that had just attacked them had black, though they were very faint. But this one? Well, he was wearing long sleeves, covering his arms that she had no doubt were marked like all the others. But, peeking out from just under the collar she could see an almost shining silver point.

  Interesting.

  “Get back. He is dangerous,” the new male growled, his unnatural eyes sweeping the room as if looking for more danger. There was none. Jessie and her friends had made sure of that.

  “Actually he’s unconscious. I would say he is far from dangerous right now,” she informed him before spinning on her heel and heading back into the room to find Alice. The poor woman was scared out of her mind. And it was no wonder; the poor thing had been attacked by her previous boyfriend on more than one occasion.

  Within the hour the male that had attacked them had been removed, along with the bodies of those he had killed and injured on his mission to get to them. Nora had been secreted away once again by some massive black tatted alien male – Katie reckoned he was more than likely taking her off for some private probing. And they had all been dumped back in that damn room again with no clue as to what was going to happen next.

  “This is bullshit,” Jessie mumbled to herself as she gazed over the sleeping forms of her friends. How any of them could sleep she had no idea; she certainly couldn’t.

  They needed to get out of here, that was clear. Whatever these aliens were up to, Jessie wanted no part of it. The second those doors opened again she was out of there. She’d even steal her friend’s deadly handbag if she had to. Lord knows what Katie had stashed in it, but it had certainly been effective when it came to taking out that lunatic.

  Somehow she would escape and get home… No matter what it took.

  Chapter 3

  Mandy was still missing, and Xandr’s mind was running wild with worry. It had been two moons since she had disappeared from the warehouse and she had yet to show up or get in contact. Two moons of little sleep. Two moons of stress. They had to find her.

  The plan for this moon was to travel to Mandy’s home and other known regular locations to see if they could find any sign of her. If she had changed her mind for any reason – though Xandr did not believe that to be the case – they wanted to confirm that before they left Earth. Which hopefully would be soon.

  Walking onto the command deck, Xandr approached a very stressed Teks. Mandy’s disappearance had him worried too, but he also had to deal with the fact Torq had snuck a group of five human females on board. It turned out that the woman Torq had been carrying that night was one of a group, and for some reason, he had seen it fit to knock them out and bring them aboard. Some expected the Slayer leader might have found his mate, but so far, he seemed to be keeping his distance from the holding bay they had been stashed in, so maybe not.

  Teks was not happy with Torq’s decision, but one good thing had come out of it. Corr, the Warrior tribe’s Chaer, their leader, Xandr’s leader, had found his mate. One of the women had been removed from the holding bay by Sekon, a Warrior that it seemed had been taken over by the madness. Corr had happened to show up and had recognised her immediately. They were now happily shacked up in his room getting all sweaty no doubt.

  “This is insane,” he heard Teks mumble as he typed away at his console.

  “What is?”

  Finishing up his work, Teks turned off the console before turning to face him. “Dekon attacked the human females.”

  “He what?” Dekon was Sekon’s brother of blood and had been involved in the removal of Corr’s mate from the holding bay. Since they had learned of his involvement, the male had been locked away to await assessment. “How?”

  “He broke out, attacked the guards Corr had stationed to guard his mate while she visited with the other females and dragged young Nora from the room.”

  “Is she okay? Did our Warriors stop him?” Xandr had been off duty. Otherwise, he would have heard the call for assistance and responded himself.

  “Not our Warriors, no. It seems the females themselves were more than capable of taking the male out. When Corr and I arrived at the scene, Dekon was in the process of being pummelled by the material sacks the women were holding, one of which I expect weighs an awful lot as it did the job of knocking him unconscious. We were not needed.”

  “Say again.” Xandr could not believe what he was hearing.

  “The females stopped Dekon… with their handbags.”

  “Yeah, I thought that was what you said.”

  ***

  Jessie felt about ready to drop. Ever since they had first awoken in the white room, she had refused to sleep. There had been the odd moment here and there when her eyes had closed for a minute or two, but she did not count that as sleep. She needed to stay awake if she had any chance of escaping.

  When the door finally opened, she was straight to her feet, muscles rigid as she prepared to make a run for it. Unfortunately, Nora’s seriously large male hump buddy was standing in the way.

  “What do you want?” she asked sharply, her voice waking the other girls.

  “You have a choice to make. You can join us on our travels, or you can all go home.”

  “Simple. We go home.” There, easiest decision of her life.

  “But you must all decide to leave if that is what you truly want. If just one of you wants to stay, then you must all stay.”

  What? “Why? How is that fair?”

  “If you choose to leave all your medical records will be altered so if one word of us leaves your lips you will not be believed,” Corr informed them.

  And then they would be seen as insane and locked away for the rest of their days. Jessie’s lips were sealed.

  “But remember, Nora will be leaving with us no matter of what you all decide. Her place is by my side, and there she will stay, with or without you present.”

  Now that was the sad part about all this, saying goodbye to her friend. She didn’t want to, honestly, but she couldn’t stay. She had plans for her life and leaving the Earth with a bunch of aliens - no matter how hot they were – was not one of them.

  His strange galaxy filled eyes moved over them, finally coming to rest on Hannah. "So what will it be? Hannah?"

  "No."

  "Fair enough. Jessie?"

  Plain and simple. Easiest answer of her life. "No."

  "Katie?"

  "No."

  "What do you say, Alice? Do you wish to join us on our journey?" His question was met with silence. “Alice? Do you wish to stay with us?”

  Something was wrong. Dread began to well in the bottom of her stomach as Alice continued to delay in answering. What was going on in that girl’s head?

  Fi
nally lifting her eyes from the floor but focusing on something Jessie could not see, Alice whispered, “Yes.”

  “You have to be fucking kidding me!” Jessie yelled, the words blasting out of her mouth without a thought. What in the world was Alice thinking? They couldn’t stay with these overly large, hot as hell, alien freaks. They needed to get out of there. Jessie needed to get out of there.

  Within seconds Corr had escorted Alice out of the room, setting the door to close instantly behind them before Jessie could even take a step forward.

  “What do we do now?” Katie asked with wide eyes.

  Shaking her head, Hannah replied, “I have no fucking clue.”

  Making her way over to the wall, Jessie took a seat on the floor where she would have the perfect view of the door. “Well, I can tell you one thing. There is no way I am staying here. I’m going to get out of here no matter what it takes. Just you watch me.” She just needed to come up with a plan.

  When two identical alien males entered the room a while later, she was still clueless as to how she was going to escape.

  “Oh my,” Hannah whispered. And Jessie could not disagree; these alien males with their tribal-like tattoo markings were incredibly hot. Still, that wouldn’t stop Jessie from getting out of there.

  “What do you want?” she demanded. She didn’t like that they had been locked up again with no clue as to what was going to happen next and then this pair shows up.

  “We are to escort you to deck seven,” the one on the left stated. “Come.”

  “Like hell.” She wasn’t going anywhere with them, and neither were her friends if she had anything to say about it.

  She was just gearing herself up to make a run for it when the pair entered the room and made a grab for her. As one gripped her wrists to keep her from lashing out, the other pressed something cold against her neck, and within moments Jessie felt the world slip away from her and blackness descend.

  Chapter 4

  Landing the shuttle on the roof of the warehouse, Xandr turned to speak to the team of Slayers on board. With the fates of the human females that Torq had snuck aboard set and the assessments of all their males underway, there was only one thing left to do before their departure. Search the warehouse for any clues as to what had happened to Mandy one last time.