A Princess Found

By Odette C. Bell

Andalusia’s trapped. Her worst nightmare is coming to pass. Once her people recognize her, they will contact Winters, and he will come for her.
Unless she finds someone to believe in her. Just when Andalusia fears there is no chance, she meets something from her past, and it rises up to give her one last chance.
A Princess Found drags Andalusia back into the past she fled and back into the arms of the men she left behind.
....
Rising Princess follows a runaway princess and the loyal guard who’ll do anything to find her fighting for the throne. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Rising Princess Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Sep 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463696330

Book preview

Chapter 1

Crown Princess Andalusia

She had a split second, a single moment to appreciate that she’d been captured. And in that moment, her every horror was realized.

So much terror pulsed through her, it felt as if it was tearing her apart.

She couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything, and all she could do was wait for the mech to recognize her.

Veri had become completely, eerily silent, as he either waited for what would come next, or as he fought to bypass the mech’s advanced communication shielding.

Split seconds turned into seconds, and they bunched together. The more that passed, the more fear tore through Andalusia. It brought with it more than a sense of Winters’ ghostly grip around her throat, more than a sense of his desire to destroy the Milky Way with her Empire. Deep within Andalusia, she could feel something boiling. Did it come from her heart; did it come from her Royal blood? Or did it come from something far deeper?

She couldn’t hear what was happening outside. The mech’s massive hand had such a perfect grip around her, it occluded all sounds. All she could do was wait for the mech to react to her, for it to warn the pilot, and for all of this to end.

… But it wasn’t happening.

Andalusia’s heart had never beaten harder. Even on the fateful day she’d managed to escape her own kingdom, fleeing from her people as if they’d meant nothing to her, she still hadn’t felt fear like this.

Though there was no light as she was trapped in this fist, she started to see illumination, nonetheless. It took her a moment to appreciate it was coming from her stone armor. It was bleeding right out of the top joint that was secured around her elbow.

What was happening to her? What was happening out there? And why, why wasn’t the mech reacting to her?

Even as the Crown Princess, Andalusia was not privy to every single secret of the Royal House of Xantos. There were many that were beyond her. The true source of power at the heart of these mech units was one such secret. Sure, technically on the surface they ran on xene crystals, and it was only the Xantos Empire that had that technology. But she understood enough about her people to know there was a secret that ran far deeper than that.

Now, in the most terrified, pressured moment of her life, she wondered what it could be.

She had no idea how much time had passed, but while the mech hadn’t reacted to her yet, there was another possibility. Perhaps it was broken and couldn’t recognize her? So perhaps there was nothing stopping the pilot from crushing her.

She waited. And she kept waiting. The seconds turned into minutes, and there was still nothing. The minutes started to string together, and there was still nothing. No screams and cries and shouts. Just the light bleeding out of the arm joint of her gauntlet and nothing else.

Veri didn’t say a word to her, and no matter how much she tried to communicate with him, it didn’t matter. He was deadly silent for some reason, his processors either going wild, or having shut down completely.

Growing up as the Crown Princess, Andalusia had learned how to deal with loneliness. It was the central part of her job. No matter how close someone got to you, there was always a wall between you and them. For you were always different, and that would never change.

Now she felt loneliness in a way she never had before. The complete abandonment that came with the realization your life was over.

And yet, somewhere deep down within her, she swore she could feel this connection growing. She wasn’t connecting with Veri, and yet the connection felt the same. This electronic mental tether that occurred whenever her thoughts were relayed to him.

With nothing else to hold on to, she held onto that, with all her might as the rest of her world crumbled and crashed around her.

Chapter 2

Saz Sommers

It was over. Goddammit, it was finally over. In the nick of time, he’d saved the day.

It was chaos around him.

The room had been all-but trashed, and though Saz could try to pretend it had been the assassin that had done it, he could appreciate the crushed chairs, broken floor plating and warped walls were all down to him. The damage bill would be exorbitant, but at least he’d saved Lady Veta.

She was standing on the podium, her Royal Guards forming a contingent in front of her. With the targeted light settings of his mech, he could zoom in on Veta’s face perfectly, so he could detect the look of utter adoration. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and her expression was swamped with relief.

God, he’d done it.

Unconsciously, Saz sent a command to squeeze his hand. He didn’t want to crush the assassin, not now he had her. Now she was literally in-hand, he would question her in every way he knew how. He just knew she was at the heart of Andalusia’s kidnapping, and now he had his first lead in three years, he was not going to give it up. And yet, even as that unconscious command was sent to his mech unit to slightly tighten his grip, something pushed back. It was such a slight sensation, Saz almost ignored it. But it was still lodged there in the back of his mind.

Even as the mech’s hand had shot forward and grabbed up that assassin, his armor had reacted slower than usual, his grip loosening, right? Or was that just stress talking? Was he making that up because the fight had been so fraught?

Suffice to say, Saz couldn’t stand there all day staring at his hand. The room erupted into yet more chaos. Alarms were blaring through it, so loud it sounded as if the floor and walls would fracture.

As he tilted his head back in the direction of Veta’s security detachment, he could see they were surrounding her, their guns at the ready. Though some of them were pointed stupidly toward Saz’s mech and the assassin trapped within his hand, the smart ones were aiming up toward the broken maintenance vent above.

… Which brought Saz’s mind back to what that assassin had done. She’d revealed the other assassin. That made sense, right? It was the only thing that had saved her life. That other assassin had been going after her with a targeted laser.

And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off here.

He also couldn’t shake the feeling that treacherously told him to open his hand just so he could stare at what was inside. He knew what was there. Goddammit, he’d seen the woman on that footage of her breaking into that security facility. And yet….

Don’t just stand there. Take her to the ship. I’ve got this, he heard somebody bark, a comms feed connecting to the mech.

Despite the situation, he cracked a grin. Vandel? Is that you?

Of course it’s me. Not only do you recognize my voice, but this is a coded security channel.

That assassin didn’t kill you?

There was a long pause. And in that long pause, Saz could tell that Vandel, just like Saz, was trying desperately to sift through this seemingly impossible situation.

Though Saz didn’t want to think about this right here and now, there was something off about this assassin. She’d had the opportunity to kill Saz when she’d hacked his armor. She’d had the opportunity to kill Vandel, too, and yet she had kept them both alive.

Saz heard Vandel clear his throat. Yeah, I’m alive. You got her?

She’s in-hand right now.

And she’s alive?

Yeah, she’s alive. As Saz said that, he jerked his gaze to the side and stared at a live telemetry reading playing across the inside of his cockpit screen. The mech, like most mechs, didn’t have a true cockpit. He was right up there against the viewscreen, his hands lodged into the two control arms and his feet resting in movable docks. He could barely move, but that wasn’t the point. The point was proximity. This close, you became your mech. And the more you got rid of your own sense of self-perception and melded with your massive robot, the better.

So it barely took a single flick of Saz’s eyes as he registered the life signs of the assassin still lodged in his hand.

I’ll meet you on the ship. As Vandel spoke, Saz could tell he was running somewhere.

I’m not leaving this room until— Saz began.

From behind him, he picked up a new detachment of security forces entering in through the busted door.

He was surprised to see Vandel. He was back in armor, and this time, it was about the most sophisticated stuff that was available on Veta’s ship.

Vandel, like all senior members of Veta’s security staff, had a distinguishing badge across the left side of his shoulder. Even if that had somehow been scrubbed off, Saz would still have recognized him. It was all in the build, but more than that, the unique way Vandel held himself.

There didn’t seem to be anything Vandel couldn’t do.

Yeah, but he’d still had his armor shut down, a voice in the back of Saz’s head said.

That just made Saz stare down at his hand once more. It was hard to control the urge to open his fingers. And as he controlled the urge, he swore he accidentally sent the wrong command to the hand unit of the armor, telling it to clench slightly. But did it clench?

No.

Saz was only barely aware of that, though, so he didn’t question.

He tilted the massive head unit of the armor toward Vandel.

We’ve got this, Vandel said as he brought up a hand and slammed it on his chest piece.

Though the sound wasn’t loud, and like all Royal armor, especially units as sophisticated as the one Vandel was in, the wearer got to choose how much sound echoed out.

That didn’t matter. Saz’s mech was one of the most sophisticated in the Empire. He could pick up even the slightest sound vibration blocks away.

… Which posed a certain question. When he’d scooped that assassin up, she’d screamed. It had been such a throaty, fearful scream, she’d clearly thought he was about to crush her.

Yet as soon as his armor had closed around her, all sounds had stopped.

Either she’d appreciated she was trapped, or… what? His armor was stuffing up? She was attempting to freeze it, just like she’d frozen those other units?

He didn’t have to pay too much attention to that thought. Hacking through standard single-man armor was one thing. It would be categorically impossible to do it to a mech unit.

Vandel jammed his thumb over his shoulder. Get going. We’ve got this. His voice filtered through Saz’s communication unit.

Slowly, Saz stood, though he didn’t dare push the mech to its full height. Do that, and he’d do yet more damage to this already trashed room.

He watched as Vandel put his hands on his hips, twisted his head to the side, and surveyed the damage.

Vandel even bothered to let a whistle echo out over the comm feed. Someone is going to have to pay for this.

At least Veta is alive and Senator Dalia’s safe too.

And at least you have an assassin capable of hacking through Xantos armor. It’ll be fun questioning her, Vandel quipped. Though his voice was controlled in a way that suggested he was just making a joke, Saz saw through it.

Vandel, just like Saz, would’ve appreciated that someone with technology like that could have something to do with Andalusia’s disappearance.

It was that thought that finally pushed Saz into gear.

He kept a tight lock on his hand as he shifted toward the open doors.

Bits of metal – from crushed chairs, to warped floor plating, to things