Read the opening below to get a real feel for the characters, voice, and pacing before choosing an edition.
Beauty and the Beast
by Grace Goodwin
Chapter 1
1
Warlord Bahre, Bachelor Beast set, two floors below 9 News
“I asked the odd male, Chet, to bring us an item of clothing from each of the twenty-four females.” Tane sat on the edge of the very stage I’d seen Wulf leap from to claim his female. The rest stood or paced in the open space, as I did. We all understood what was at stake for the others back on The Colony. One of us had to participate in this human mate-finding mockery of a television program. One of us had to choose a female from among those they offered. “We should each try to scent the females before we meet them tomorrow. Perhaps one of us will find our mate.”
It would not be me. My enhanced cyborg sense of smell had already cataloged and dismissed every single female participant, and I hadn’t even met them yet. Still, the others did not have the unusual integrations Dr. Helion reserved for those in his service with the Coalition Fleet’s Intelligence Core. I was not a typical Atlan warlord. Hadn’t been for a long time.
“Agreed.” Iven ran his hand over his head in agitation. He’d lived on The Colony for more than a year, and Maxim had added him to this Bachelor Beast group when he still had not heard of a match from the Brides Program. “Where are the items that carry the females’ scents?”
“I have them here.” Tane reached into a small case and withdrew clear sealed bags of some type, colored pieces of cloth in each of them. Tane and I had worked together in the past, although he was not part of the IC. He and I were the closest among the five. A friend.
“Bahre?” Tane held out one of the sealed bags to me, but I shook my head.
“My mate is not among them,” I replied.
“How do you know?” Kai asked. He was the youngest of us and the latest to have escaped the Hive.
“I have already caught their scents, and my beast is not interested.” I wasn’t sure if my words sounded bitter because I was disappointed or bored.
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” Tane shook his head and offered the colorful red item to one of the others as I paced the small space between cameras and other equipment, feeling more and more trapped with each passing second.
“How the fuck did you manage that? They’ve been keeping us separated from the females. You sneak out of here and not tell us?” Iven asked. The corner of his mouth tipped up in what would be considered a smile on a warlord.
“No.” My neck ached, so I leaned my head to the side and stretched the scarred tissue there. “The female scents have lingered on the set from Wulf’s time here.”
Iven stared at me in surprise. “That was weeks ago. How the hell are you picking up their scents now?”
Tane shoved Iven in the shoulder. “He was IC. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”
Iven tipped his head. No one questioned what happened within the IC. “Apologies, Bahre.”
I nodded so he would know I held no grudge. All the others here had been captured by the Hive, integrated, and banished to The Colony. I had not. My integrations had been done deliberately by Dr. Helion to help me track, hunt, and kill Hive as well as other dangerous criminals and killers that tried to prey upon the Coalition worlds. They knew everyone who had cyborg parts held different extra abilities. None of them knew what the IC was capable of. I did. All too well.
We all had scars, but mine were extensive and had never been healed. Most who’d been captured by the Hive had integrations, many of them visible on their body. Head, neck, hands, eyes. Silver all over. Mine were not on the surface, but the poorly healed wounds were. I’d been trapped with the Prillon ambassador, Lord Niklas Lorvar and his second, Sambor Treval, on an asteroid for days, fighting off Hive attackers before the ReCon teams found us. The scars had been set by then. Too late to repair with a ReGen pod unless I chose to have reconstructive surgery. I did not. The scars reminded me of those we’d lost that day, of how close we’d come to losing the Prillon ambassador, a very important male in Prime Nial’s service. The scars reminded me to be vigilant. To never relax my guard. I was a protector and a killer, in that order, and I welcomed the reminder of my failure on that cargo ship. It would not happen again.
My beast did not operate on emotion or fear. Most of the time I felt nothing. But right now I felt… restless. Anxious. I did not have mating fever like Wulf and Braun had when they arrived on Earth, yet my heart beat too fast. The pressure in my veins was too high. My beast prowled within as he did before a battle, but there were no enemies before us. Chet, the male with the human ailment of pink eye, had been like a spoiled child every time we saw him, which was more than once a day.
There was no threat here. No danger. Florida was safer than the Prime’s palace.
And yet—
“Bahre. What’s with you?” Tane set aside the female item he’d been holding and walked to me, slapped me on the shoulder. “Are you well?”
“I do not know.” I curled my hands into fists and fought to control my breathing. Slow. Steady. I did not have this type of reaction. Ever. And yet here I was. Something was affecting me.
“Is it mating fever coming upon you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.” This was not a fire in my blood. There was no rampaging beast clawing to break free and kill anything and everything we encountered. I was mentally calm. As always. But my body was behaving strangely, like it had a mind of its own. “Something is… off. I can feel it.”
Tane and the others reacted at once, putting the silly female garments aside. We might not be in a Hive-controlled sector of space, but we were warlords first and foremost. They fanned out around the room and searched for threats.
I did the same, heading for a doorway not already covered by the others.
Inhaling, I caught a scent. The smallest hint of sweetness I had not experienced before.
Delicate.
Mysterious.
Female.
Mine.
I groaned low and deep.
My female—my mate—was in this building, or had been a few hours ago.
The knowledge settled over me and my beast like a cold mist over water. Everything within me settled as my body’s reactions began to make sense.
Somehow my body had responded to her presence even before I realized she was here. She was close. I glanced about, trying to find her, as if she’d just miraculously appear. Yet the five of us were alone on the set.
I shoved open the door and walked out into the plain, cold stairwell. I’d been told this was for emergencies, which this was quickly becoming. A frantic need to find her. The scent was stronger here, and I breathed deeply, pulling her into my lungs, my soul.
My mate. Perhaps she could melt the ice around my emotions. Perhaps, with her, I could feel something other than cold and empty.
“Bahre?” Tane joined me in the stairwell as I looked up and down, deciding which direction to begin my hunt. The building was tall, multiple floors, and she was on one of them. “What is it?”
“My mate is here.” I never thought I’d say those words aloud.
Tane stilled, then smiled. I saw the beast rise in him with excitement. “Here? Where?”
I gave him a negligible shrug as I scanned the vacant staircase. “I don’t know. Somewhere in the building.”
“Her scent?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Let’s go get her.”
His words made me smile, the first time in what seemed like years. I took a deep breath and decided to go up. Her scent was hours old, and logic indicated she had come into the building to begin her work and not yet exited.
Unless she had taken the lift system the humans called an elevator. I would deal with that challenge if and when a true hunt became necessary. I turned to Tane. “Tell the others, but they must remain here. I detect no threat to her, so I do not wish to frighten my female.”
“Understood.” Tane left me for a moment to inform the others where we would be going, but I did not wait for him. My beast was suddenly eager, and I moved up the steps like I imagined an Everian Elite Hunter would. There was no room for error in this, the most important mission of my life. I would find my mate.
Mentally I prayed to the gods she could accept me. I was not typical, even for an Atlan. Scars like mine were rare as most who survived their wounds were immediately taken to a ReGen pod to heal. I had not been so lucky. Nor did I wish to undergo the surgical procedures required to make me pretty. I’d never cared what I looked like before. But now? I worried she would be afraid of me. Repulsed.
I was a warlord. Being scarred and frightening helped me do my job for Dr. Helion and the Intelligence Core. However, my appearance would not help me woo a female. My female.
After climbing two sets of stairs, the delicate scent disappeared. I looked to the exit door for this floor and knew she’d gone through it. She was here, on this level.
When I opened the door, a dark room appeared on the other side, and I recognized the scene from one of the human news comms that broadcast local items of interest. Screens in the lobby showed the program as I assumed advertisement of some kind, although the machines provided no sound.
Around the large space, there were many humans standing in dark areas, behind cameras, monitoring microphones and moving behind computer screens.
We’d come directly onto the set of this program. As I leaned against the open door, I took a deep breath. Yes, she was here. I scanned the dark area, but a male voice had me turning my head.
The human was behind a desk and staring at one of the cameras. He spoke of something about the weather. The lights shifted and brightened the right section of the set. And there, in front of an odd green wall, was her.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
Tane set his hand on my shoulder, and I pointed at the human female.
At my mate.
I scanned her from head to toe. Red hair, the color of The Colony’s barren land at sunset. Her skin was pale and smooth, almost glowing under the program’s intense lighting. She wore a cream colored dress that hugged her lithe shape and made her hair even more vibrant. However, the color of it clashed with the harsh green background. She was looking at the camera and speaking, her hands pointing to the blank wall. She spoke about clouds and temperatures, moving her arms around and pointing as if something were actually behind her.
I had no idea why humans wanted information from a green wall, but if it was on a television program, it had to be important. When she pointed toward the ground, my eyes followed, took in her long legs that might actually wrap around my waist when I claimed her, holding her hands over her head, my cuffs about her wrists and affixed to the wall.
I growled and Tane squeezed my shoulder. No one was speaking but my mate.
She took a step and pointed once more. Those strange Earth shoes on her feet had heels that raised her height by four inches. They looked impossible to walk in but, I admitted, were sexy as fuck. Having those sharp points press into my ass as I
[Preview ends before mature content.]
