Fate Unexpected: Earth Defender, #1

By Marisa Chenery

A summer storm of red rain changed life as Kylah knew it, and her in ways she couldn't imagine. Humans around the world sickened and died, or turned into wild creatures with red eyes that hungered for flesh. Her planet was on the verge of extinction, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Rune, a Dracan mercenary, had signed on with the Xphens to fight for them during the Earth conquest. Having Kylah capture him changed everything. She had him questioning which side he wanted to be on.

Kylah finds herself drawn to the large cat-eyed alien. Fleeing with Rune to the Cascade mountain range, she lets her feelings for him cloud her judgment. From two different planets, theirs is a relationship that could end before it had a chance to start.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marisa Chenery
• Release date: Jun 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781927859711

Marisa Chenery

Marisa Chenery was always a lover of books, but after reading her first historical romance novel she found herself hooked. Having inherited a love for the written word, she soon started writing her own novels. She now writes young adult books and erotic romances. Marisa lives in Ontario, Canada, with her four children, four grandchildren (she’s a young grandma in her fifties) and three rabbits.

Book preview

Fate Unexpected

Marisa Chenery

EDITED BY MARISA CHENERY

Cover design by April Martinez

COPYRIGHT 2016 MARISA Chenery. Published by Marisa Chenery. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-92785-971-1

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. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

A summer storm of red rain changed life as Kylah knew it, and her in ways she couldn't imagine. Humans around the world sickened and died, or turned into wild creatures with red eyes that hungered for flesh. Her planet was on the verge of extinction, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Rune, a Dracan mercenary, had signed on with the Xphens to fight for them during the Earth conquest. Having Kylah capture him changed everything. She had him questioning which side he wanted to be on.

Kylah finds herself drawn to the large cat-eyed alien. Fleeing with Rune to the Cascade mountain range, she lets her feelings for him cloud her judgment. From two different planets, theirs is a relationship that could end before it had a chance to start.

Chapter One

Kylah sped down the main street of the small town of Republic, Washington, where she’d lived for all her twenty-three years of life. She was late for her job at the local drugstore. Her damn alarm clock hadn’t gone off. She’d slept in twenty minutes longer than she should have, and she usually cut it pretty close when she woke up when she was supposed to.

She parked her older-model compact car behind the building of the drugstore, turned off the engine and quickly climbed out. Kylah ran to the back employee entrance and then used her key to open the door. She raced inside.

Her boss, Mary, met her once Kylah reached the backroom doorway. Mary was in her fifties, and was the owner as well as the pharmacist. The older woman smiled and shook her head.

Had a slow morning, Kylah?

Kylah nodded. Sorry about being late. My alarm clock decided not to go off. I swear I set it before I went to bed.

Mary chuckled and waved her words away with a flick of her hand. Don’t worry about it. It’s not as if we’re overrun with customers. Besides, you’re usually on time. Now that you’re here, you can take over the store while I get to work on filling prescriptions.

She nodded and walked past Mary into the main part of the drugstore. While Kylah went toward the front, Mary headed to the back area where the pharmacy counter was located.

Kylah did a walkthrough of the aisles to see which items needed to be restocked. Republic had a population of slightly over a thousand. So the store wasn’t large, by any means. Besides her, there was only one other employee, a woman who worked the evening shift. Deidre was in her mid-thirties, and was a single parent of two small children, a boy and a girl, ages two and three.

After restocking the few shelves that needed it, Kylah went to the very front of the store to the check-out counter. From there, much of her day passed in its usual way in serving customers and anything else that needed doing. She hadn’t aspired to work in the drugstore while going to school, but with so few jobs in Republic, she’d counted herself lucky to have it, and she enjoyed working with Mary.

It was a half hour before her shift ended that loud thunder boomed outside. Kylah just about jumped out of her skin. She looked out the large plate-glass window. Her brows drew together. That was weird. The sun shone brightly, and when she peered at the sky, there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. In a blink of an eye that changed, though.

Kylah walked closer to the window as the clear blue sky turned to thick, dark red clouds. Lightening streaked across them, followed by another loud boom of thunder. She’d never seen the weather change so dramatically so fast, or the clouds take on that color.

They weren’t calling for rain today, Mary said as she came to stand beside Kylah and looked out the window.

They weren’t, Kylah replied. What’s up with the red clouds?

I have no idea.

The sky was split with more lightning, which was followed by thunder that was louder than the other two. It rattled the window she and Mary stood in front of. Kylah noticed they weren’t the only ones who were curious about the weather conditions. People had stopped on the sidewalk or came out of other businesses to stare at the sky. It grew darker with a funny reddish tinge to the remaining light.

After one more flash of lightning and crack of thunder, the clouds opened. The rain didn’t start off in a light shower. It came down in buckets. People scattered, running to any spot where they’d be sheltered and wouldn’t get drenched. The water quickly gathered in the street, forming large puddles. Just like the clouds, the rain was tinged red. Even those people who hadn’t gotten out of the storm were spotted with red wetness. Kylah couldn’t help feeling this was no ordinary summer rainfall.

Deidre came running through the drugstore entrance, looking like a drowned rat. She only lived a block away and walked to work every day. Red water dripped down her face and had plastered her short, brown hair to her skull. Her clothes were also drenched.

Holy crap, that storm came up fast, Deidre said as she wiped the wetness from her face. She looked down at her hands. I’ve never seen rain this color.

Nobody has, Mary replied. You’d better dry off in the backroom.

And wash up. Deidre scratched her forearm. It’s itchy. It’s a good thing I keep a spare set of clothes in my locker. She looked at Kylah. I won’t take too long.

Take your time. I’m in no hurry to go out in that. I’ll end up soaked to the skin just making the short walk from the store to my car. I’ll wait for it to stop.

Kylah turned back to the window. The rain came down even harder. The street was now flooded. It looked as if a light red river ran down it. She hoped it ended soon. The sewers wouldn’t be able to keep up with the runoff at this rate.

It continued to rain for another fifteen minutes, then as if someone had turned off a faucet, it completely stopped. In seconds, the sun came out as the red-tinged clouds quickly dissipated. It was a little bit freaky.

Deidre stepped out of the backroom and came to stand in front of them. She was in dry clothes, and she must have used the hot air hand drier in the washroom to dry her hair. Since she wore a t-shirt, red marks, almost like hives, were visible on her forearms. They looked itchy. As if to prove her correct, the other woman scratched the ones on her left arm.

I can’t believe how itchy these are, Deidre said. I washed them with soap and everything, but it won’t go away. Even my face is itchy. I wonder if acid rain had to do with that weird storm.

Stop scratching, Mary said. You’ll give yourself an infection if you break the skin. Come on, I’ll get you some cortisone cream to put on it.

As the other two women walked toward the pharmacy counter, Kylah went