Viper (Naga Brides Book 1) Read online

  Another wave of shouts soars the air. I lift my spear and release a bolt of electricity to the sky. I like this. I will win. I have destiny on my side. Vicious, red destiny.

  The other males pound their chests, and some release their well-hung and hard members from their scales. Tails coil and thump the ground. For a frenzied moment, excitement and real camaraderie return to us. It is a rare thing. We are deadly as a group.

  We are deadly alone, but together… The world would tremble with fear.

  But the excitement does not last. I turn back once again to see if my bride is outside, if she’s being gathered with the other females to be handed over.

  And for a second, I see her. My heart stops.

  She’s being led to one of the flying transport machines. Another female is fighting, kicking, and screaming behind her. She’s lifted off the ground and hauled to the machine.

  My female goes calmly.

  She knows her fate. Knows who awaits her

  Me.

  Venom fills my mouth. My heart revs back up.

  The others have gone silent, and I know they are watching as well.

  “She is the one I want,” Azsote rumbles. My eyes flick to the Boomslang watching my female, and I slam my spear into his side.

  I attack him, striking out with my tail, knocking him over. He evades my speartip, rolling away before I can plunge it into his gut.

  “She is mine!” I roar, fury surging through me. “Mine!”

  How dare he want her. How dare he even look at her! Azsote strikes back, hitting me with his fist, slicing me with his claws across my bicep. The sting of pain erupts, but I barely notice, needing to see his blood splattered across the ground.

  Hands grab us, pulling us apart.

  “Enough!” Zaku shouts.

  Fighting his hold, I spit venom in Azsote’s direction. He pushes his capturer away and shrieks a battle cry. Furious, only his blood on the ground and his spine in my hand will appease me now.

  “I sssaid enough! They’re coming! Do not let them see us fighting.” Zaku shoves me away, getting between us. Growling, I rise to fight the King Cobra as well, but he’s facing the horizon.

  Behind him, the humans’ transport vehicle is heading our way. It glides soundlessly through the air.

  All thoughts of Azsote and the others fall from my mind. My female is heading for me.

  In mere moments, I will see her up close for the first time. My body tenses to not only fight, but to rut as well.

  “Present the technology,” Zaku orders.

  Vagan hands Zaku a small metal box. A data collection. An ancient thing left here by aliens. Both this technology and humans once shaped this world, but for countless years, both have been ours. Times have changed and now the technology is wanted by these humans that have returned from the sky.

  I don’t care about the technology. I have my den, my weapon, and enough resources to last me into old age. These trinkets that we are giving the humans are nothing compared to what we keep hidden.

  The transport flies past us to land on the clearing behind. Some of the males scatter, readying themselves for the coming hunt.

  When the transport opens, the only ones left are me, Zaku, and Vagan.

  I will not lose this chance to finally see my female up close.

  My fangs drip. A male dressed in a powersuit steps out.

  My spine stiffens when another man follows after.

  Where are you, little female?

  I clench my hands.

  Then I see her, and my mind blanks.

  Two

  Thrown to the Snakes

  Gemma

  “Daisy, calm down,” Peter says.

  Daisy sniffles louder. “Fuck you.”

  “Crying isn’t going to change anything. You’re acting like a damn fool.”

  I glower at Peter, sitting across from us in the skiff, and tighten my arm around Daisy. “Can you blame her? You’re throwing us to the wolves.”

  “Earth doesn’t have wolves anymore.”

  “Fuck you.” I agree wholeheartedly with Daisy here. “You said it would never come to this.”

  “No, you’ll be the one fucking an alien snake. Not me. High and mighty Gemma Hurst, fallen from grace. You knew this course of action was in the cards the moment the locals offered a trade. What’s at stake is too important...”

  “It’s only been weeks! We’ve barely begun our search—”

  “Central Command does not want to wait.”

  I hold Daisy against me as I glare at Peter. I can’t believe what a prick he’s become. I’ve worked with the guy for nearly two years, and I’ve never seen him be so cruel, especially to someone under his command.

  Peter pointedly looks at the screen in his hand.

  He can’t even meet my eyes. He knows what he’s doing isn’t right. Maybe he thinks if I hate him, it’ll be easier for both of us. It’s not.

  But I get it.

  I get it—and I hate that I do. Central Command is breathing fire down our necks, demanding a solution to their war problem and to bring them that solution fast, now that Earth is safe to travel to. Peter’s feeling the heat. It’s his neck on the line if he doesn’t give Central Command what they want.

  It’s my neck too, and Daisy’s. Except we’re not as high-ranking as Peter. We don’t get what he gets. We’re expendable. At least more so than Peter.

  What he’s doing still isn’t right, but I get it, in a deranged, depressing, horrendous way. Depressing because I can almost forgive him for this. He’s desperate, and desperate people do shitty things.

  Daisy trembles and any chance of forgiving Peter flies out the window.

  “What about you, Collins?” I cut my eyes to Peter’s second-in-command. Collins is gazing out the window, unable to look at me or Daisy, just like Peter. He doesn’t even try. His face blank, unreadable. He’s shut down.

  None of the ranking crewmen can meet my eyes.

  Because it’s us that’s making this sacrifice. It’s the women who are being made to give up their lives to save the team, and we haven’t even been on Earth a month...

  “What about me?” Collins mumbles, avoiding my gaze.

  “Don’t you feel bad for doing this to me and Daisy? When it could be Shelby sitting here with us?”

  Shelby is Collins’ girlfriend, and she was spared because of it.

  Apparently, Shelby’s pregnant. That fact came out last night when Peter gathered the three of us women and locked us in a room together. Collins fought for her, sparing her. We can’t risk a child—especially when that child could become a soldier one day.

  Lucky lady. Shelby gets to stay. Hopefully, she’ll reach Central Command and tell them what’s happening down here on Earth.

  Collins shrugs, doesn’t answer.

  Of course he doesn’t. He saved the only one of us he cares about. He’s not going to go to bat for anyone else, not with what’s at stake.

  Because we’ve been sent to Earth for one thing and one thing only: alien technology.

  It’s the only thing that can save us in the war against the Ketts, a species of blob-like aliens that are highly intelligent, extremely adaptable, and fully capable of consuming all organic matter in their path. They’re always hungry, and humans make a great meal. Our bullets pierce their flesh but leave no mark. Our lasers sear their gelatinous bodies but then are absorbed. We can’t fight them with hand or fist, or weapons of old like swords and daggers. We can’t even crush them…

  They just reform.

  We’re losing the war.

  The Ketts are growing, breeding, expanding at an exponential rate, hunting humans down like cattle because we pose the only threat to their existence.

  It’s only a matter of time before we find a way to hurt them.

  Humans have a way of prevailing.

  Which leads to me and Daisy being sacrificed. Whether the locals want to eat us, experiment with us, or something far worse... I don’t know. And I refuse t
o find out—the same goes for Daisy.

  She’s a petty officer, whereas I’m Chief Communications Officer of our ship’s bridge crew. The Dreadnaut is now outside the moon’s orbit, hiding on the dark side so we don’t alert the Ketts to our plans on Earth.

  Until now, Earth has been a dead zone. A place to avoid at all costs. Occasionally humans ignored space law and visited the human mecca, but most never returned. The lucky few who did morphed into something… not human.

  Alien technology did that, and a whole lot more. Long ago, back before I was born or humans even knew the Ketts existed, a species called Lurkawathians descended to Earth and made a pact with mankind.

  For a while, their arrival had been good for humanity. Mankind established its first space port and got to study the Lurkawathians—dubbed Lurkers. We learned about the universe and reaped the benefits of their advanced technology.

  They helped us develop as a cosmic society and introduced us to intergalactic travel. They cured our diseases and traded us resources that were in short supply.

  In return, the Lurkers set up their own port on Earth and were allowed to study us.

  Through all of this advancement, they kept their technology secret. The Lurkers gave us just as much as they needed for us to comply with them and no more. They took us into space but never helped us expand or allowed us a foothold elsewhere. They discouraged it. They resented us for trying.

  According to my history discs, we were their special pets and they wanted to keep us that way.

  As for my ancestors and the rest of humanity… Well, we don’t like being told no.

  I stare at Peter head-on. “Once Central Command finds out about what’s happening, you’re going to lose your title, your ranks, be stripped of your credentials. You won’t even have the certificates to work as maintenance staff.”

  His brow furrows before smoothing. “You don’t understand the pressure we’re under, Gemma. The pressure I’m under.”

  “Try to make me understand. For all our sakes, try.” I know he’s taking heat…

  But how much heat?

  He shakes his head and looks out the window. Daisy wipes the snot from her nose and does the same.

  I take a deep, unsettling breath.

  Humans expanded anyway, despite the Lurkers limitations. Relations with them soured. Sanctions, taxes, killings. In the end, the Lurkers, realizing that we couldn’t be controlled, offered us a Trojan Horse of a deal. They offered to return Earth to its ancient glory. To purify our oceans, to give us back our forests, and to clean our skies.

  The government accepted this ‘gift,’ not realizing that to do so meant our destruction.

  The Lurkers unleashed devastation into the environment that manipulated and changed everything it came into contact with. Everything died. Everything.

  Those humans out in space were the only survivors, watching as our blue and green world turned brown.

  Afterward, the Lurkers left, never to be seen again. That was nearly fifteen hundred years ago.

  Lurker technology remains on Earth though, and now that Earth is safe to travel to again, it’s ours for the taking.

  There’s just one problem: finding it.

  “Peter, please,” I urge, trying hard to remain strong, when inside I’m panicking. My pulse drums in my ear. Peter ignores my plea. He ignores me completely.

  The Dreadnaut and Peter’s team—us—aren’t the first to land on Earth in the last century, and we won’t be the last. But we’re the first team to land near the old Lurker and human military base.

  According to records, that’s what the facility was, the same one now growing small in the distance behind me. We’d just begun to explore what was left of the ruins when a whole other problem presented itself.

  A shiver of fear skitters up my back.

  The locals.

  Three

  Serpent Men

  Gemma

  My gut hollows out, and I swallow down the bile creeping out my throat.

  A shiver courses through me, and try as I might to hide it, Daisy looks up at me. Our eyes meet for a moment, and she hugs me back. I take the comfort she offers.

  All we have is each other.

  Before yesterday, we had never spoken. Today, we’re sisters.

  I’m trying to be strong, but it’s hard. I’m scared. I know what’s awaiting us when Peter and Collins drop us off. I know what—who—will be there.

  Him.

  The red-scaled creature hiding in the forests beyond the facility. I saw him the first day I arrived. The facility had been deemed safe and clear, Peter and his guards inspected the place thoroughly enough, and the rest of the crew was given allowance to leave our transport ship.

  I hadn’t even stepped off the ship’s ramp when I spotted him. He hid in the shadows of the trees just beyond our jurisdiction.

  His dark eyes took hold of mine, and I knew it was a him, his large physique unmistakable. I’ve seen many alien worlds and have even encountered a Kett blob, but I’ve never met a being like the one in the woods.

  Earth wasn’t supposed to have sentient life on it. Or human life for that matter, but I can’t deny what I saw.

  A half-human, half-serpent male staring at me.

  My skin prickles with the memory.

  He had been large and ruby red, a red that I’ve never seen on another creature. He was a jewel, a bizarre, glistening beacon among the green of the forest, and I was shocked to discover later that I was the only one who saw him.

  Because he was huge! With discerning human features and a male’s chest, a man’s musculature. Though I couldn’t see all of him, I now know he has a tail because soon after I saw him, another one of the local aliens approached our compound to talk, causing a riot.

  And the serpentine male who dared enter the compound had the largest, longest tail I’d ever laid my eyes on. Unlike the scary red demon from the trees, the one that visited the facility had been yellow with dark brown and black stripes. He had an enormous cowl.

  I bite my tongue.

  We’d trespassed on their land, and now they want reparations. Reparations or death.

  The striped alien had the technology we came here for.

  He knew where it was.

  And he knew how to use it. Or so he threatened. It was enough to catch Peter’s ear.

  Right now, lost Lurker technology is the single most sought-after thing on this side of the universe.

  Who cares if Daisy and I are the price for it? She’s quiet under my arm now, and I hope she hasn’t gone into shock.

  Have I?

  I glance out the window of the skiff as we descend. We’ve flown to a plateau with a clearing. The skiff lands soundlessly, and I immediately search for the locals.

  Swallowing against the lump of fear in my throat, I see the red one, and my heart plunges to my stomach. Staring at me and only me, his eyes blacken out the color of him, stealing my awareness momentarily.

  How can he see me? The glass is shielded.

  His eyes are darker than I remember, black as the abyss and framed by deep shades of red. Above was a smattering of short black hair. Holding a spear, he rises on his tail as my eyes trail down his body, strutting like he knows I’m looking at him…

  He can’t see me through the glass, can he?

  I barely notice the two males beside him. I don’t want to see them. I have enough nightmare fodder clogging up my mind already, but one is the male who threatened us, and the other is a deep, sapphire blue—with a startling orange face that practically glows amongst the hue of his indigo scales.

  The door to the skiff opens, and Peter grabs my arm, dragging me out. Daisy’s hauled out next with a cry. I tear my eyes away from the group.

  I don’t quite know what will happen next, but I know I don’t want the red one to catch me… Not him. When I run, taking the chance I can reach the transport ship, I don’t want any of them to catch me, but that’s especially true for the red one.

  He eyes
me like I’m already his.

  My throat tightens.

  He’s been haunting me. He’s done terrible things to me in my sleep. He’s made me scream, beg, and run as if my life depends on it. The only reason I’m not running now is that I don’t want Peter to shoot me in the back. Because he will.

  Daisy wipes her nose on the back of her hand and straightens. I’m proud of her. I wish I could be proud of myself.

  But I’m scared, a lot more scared than I’d care to admit.

  “You still have the knife Shelby gave you?” I whisper.

  Daisy nods. “Yeah.”

  “Good.” If my voice trembles, she doesn’t acknowledge it.

  Collins glances over, and I go quiet until he turns back to the aliens. He’s speaking to them, but I don’t listen. I scan our surroundings.

  The plateau we’re on is high up on a mountain, but there are possible trails along the ledges for a quick descent down from it. If Daisy and I ran for one of the ledges, they would return us to the facility the quickest, but we would be exposed for the entire climb down. Not only that, below is a river that we’d also need to cross. If we managed to make it there, we’d have the cover of the forest on the other side. But there would only be one path—and every alien would know it because the forest lies in a gorge and on every side? Mountains.

  Mountains and forest as far as the eye could see.

  The cliffs stop Daisy and I from making a quick getaway back to the facility, but ahead and on either side of us, beyond the clearing, are ledges and the forest. We’ll have to detour, find a different route, if we want to escape this fate.

  We’ll need the cover of the trees for any hope of that.

  “We’ll stick together,” I tell Daisy. “We can get out of this.”

  “How?”

  “The first chance we get, we run, we fight,” I lower my voice. “Once we’re in the trees, the ones to our left, we can hide. We’ll make our way back to the facility from there.”

  “Pointless,” she breathes. “Peter and Collins and the others will just give us back.”