Rogue Alien's Woman: Alien Outlaws, #2

By Kate Rudolph

He stole the feisty human for himself...

Things should be going great for Xandr now that he's out of prison and back on his ship. Instead he's been stripped of his position as captain, his crew is questioning his decisions, and he can't keep his eyes off the alluring human woman he rescued from Ixilta. Demons from his past mean that romance isn't something he can offer, but every time Andie gets close he can't think of anything but her.

When a job comes up that's too lucrative to miss, Xandr and his crew will risk everything to pull it off. But can he keep Andie and do the job? Or will he be forced to chose?

Rogue Alien's Woman picks up right where Rogue Alien's Escape left off. Check it out for heists, adventure, a steamy alpha alien, a plucky human heroine, and a love that will steal your heart.

The story continues with Rogue Alien's Secret.

The Alien Outlaws series is complete.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Rudolph
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386343288

Kate Rudolph

Kate Rudolph never knows when to stop. Whether it’s riding her bike down the busy streets of Austin, Texas, fixing computers, or shooting off answers to trivia quizzes, she is doing something. She began writing at a young age and now has a stack of projects as tall as her. When she was a child, she visited a wolf sanctuary and became fascinated by the animals. She is concerned with animal conservation and protection. Kate has published one complete series, Stealing the Alpha, and several stand alones. Want to know when she releases a new book? Sign up to her mailing list to receive notifications of new releases and deals. The link can be found here: http://katerudolph.net/index.php/subscribe You can also find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katerudolphauthor Her website is www.KateRudolph.net

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

SHE NEVER SHOULD HAVE kissed a killer.

Stupid. Reckless. Impulsive. Those words had echoed in Andie Munster’s head when she’d reached out and kissed Xandr that first time, and they hadn’t stopped whispering at her in the week since. Back on Earth she never would have done something like that, but she hadn’t seen the blue skies of Earth in more than six years and she was starting to forget some of the details. Being a prisoner for more than half a decade on the other side of the galaxy would do that to a girl. And her escape from that shitty little city called Ixilta was probably enough of an excuse to write off any momentary insanity that had her kissing strange aliens who admitted to murder and kidnapped her, but Andie still wasn’t sure she wanted to pretend it never happened.

God, it had been a hell of a week.

Are jobs normally this boring? she asked Sayevi Carvahlo, the pilot and only other human on the ship. They sat in the cockpit while the rest of the crew was off getting into trouble and Andie only hoped she wasn’t bothering Sayevi too much. She needed at least one friend on the Seventh.

They are if we’re lucky, Sayevi acknowledged. She had an accent Andie couldn’t place, something that came through the translators they both wore. Sort of like Italian mixed in with Greek, but whatever she was speaking wasn’t any Earth language, at least not one that Andie recognized. Sub-dermal translators were her favorite invention. It meant that she could sit and talk with anyone and they didn’t need to get hung up on communication errors.

Most of the time. And the errors that happened when translators malfunctioned were usually funny enough to smooth over any misunderstandings.

Do you know how much longer they’ll be gone? Andie cringed as she asked. If a puppy could talk, that was the type of thing it would ask. And she was no man’s pet, even if she hadn’t quite figured out what the hell she was doing with a bunch of intergalactic outlaws on the edge of a barely civilized system.

She should have taken the offer to go home.

Sayevi had a curious look on her face, her lips pursed, and big eyes narrowed as if she was holding a question back by sheer force of will. It only took a moment for that will to crumble. Do you mind if I ask you something?

Andie shrugged. Have at it. It wasn’t like she was hiding any big secrets.  

How’d the capt─ she cleared her throat and gave her head a shake, "the first mate hire you? How’d he find you? Why?" Sayevi turned her sharp stare on Andie and pinned her in place. She had dark eyes and skin that looked eternally sun-kissed. Her hair was black and had a natural curl, but she kept it cut short and held back with a scarf tied tightly in place. Andie had wanted to ask her what system she hailed from; before leaving Earth she hadn’t heard of human civilizations outside of the Sol system. But after her experiences on Ixilta she didn’t want to trigger any negative memories and she feared it might be rude to pry into a stranger’s past.

But maybe it was time for a little rudeness. Andie and Xandr hadn’t discussed how they’d introduce her to the crew, and when he’d kissed her in front of all of them when they boarded, it might have made people think things that weren’t true. Might have led Andie to forming a few conclusions herself. But then the captain had announced this new job and suddenly the crew was too busy prepping to do more than breathe and eat and Andie and Xandr hadn’t spoken beyond quick greetings in days.

When Andie met Xandr he’d been escaping prison in the city of Ixilta where she’d been held as a citizen captive for six years. Her job had been to man one of the city’s teleporters and he’d hoped to use it as a means of escape. That hadn’t worked, but for some reason Xandr had wanted Andie to tag along with him. It took nearly two days to make it out of the city and find his ship, and in those days she’d thought she’d gotten to know the man. He’d been the captain of the Seventh, a position now held by his former first mate, he’d killed a former crew member for trying to rape a woman and sell her into slavery, and he’d rescued a complete stranger from her shitty life on a terrible planet just because she’d helped him. He’d offered to find her passage back to Earth, but after that time by his side and a kiss that had curled her toes, Andie had agreed to join his crew.

She just didn’t know what the hell that meant or what she was supposed to do.

Andie wanted to answer Sayevi. She knew she should. The woman was the only person who’d bothered to be nice to her since they’d met, but when she tried to come up with an answer, her mind went stubbornly blank and she couldn’t think of anything. All Xandr knew was that she could follow instructions and provide a handy distraction at the right time. And that she wanted to kiss him. She’d never fired a blaster before, she didn’t know anything about ships, she couldn’t plan a heist if her life depended on it, and there was nothing in her skill-set that suggested she belonged on an outlaw’s crew. I have no freaking clue, she finally muttered, more to herself than her companion.

Sayevi opened her mouth to respond, but one of the lights on the ship’s dash started flashing and she jerked to attention. It’s time, she said, grinning at Andie. That’s the captain’s chair, so I suggest you find another seat if you don’t want her to kick your ass once they’re back.

Andie’s eyes widened and she scrambled. The other chair in the cockpit was probably meant for the first mate, which meant there was no place for Andie to sit. She didn’t have a rank, didn’t have a title. She was just the stray that Xandr had picked up on his Ixiltan adventure. She headed back to the sleeping quarters and tucked herself into the room she’d been given. It was little more than a closet with a bed and a chair she could strap herself to. Sayevi, Captain Alleyva, and Dr. Hayk had managed to scrounge up a few outfits for her since she’d come to the ship with nothing but the clothes on her back. Nothing fit right and she either looked like a giant or a child depending on whose castoffs she was wearing. Dr. Hayk towered over her and had shoulders broad enough to make him look like a hero of old. He also looked human, but there was something off about him, some feeling that Andie normally only got when she was looking at aliens. But he hadn’t treated her with hostility, and he’d given her a pile of shirts, so she wasn’t going to examine him too closely. Captain Alleyva was Oscavian, just like Xandr, and she and Andie were of similar heights, but Alleyva had the kind of curves that men composed poems about, whereas Andie felt like a half-starved rat. Until she put on diminutive Sayevi’s clothes and felt like an overstuffed sausage.

If she had money she’d buy something at their next stop, but she couldn’t earn money if she wasn’t working jobs, and no one on the crew seemed willing to give her something to do.

The ship jerked into motion and Andie’s hands gripped the arms of her chair, her brown fingers going white with the strain of her grip. She’d been abducted from Earth six years ago and that had been the first time she’d ever been on a space ship. Leaving Ixilta with Xandr was her second space journey and she wasn’t sure she liked it. It was terrifying enough to fly on a planet if she thought about it too much, but the chances of survival if something went wrong out in space were so small that they might as well have been non-existent.

Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this.

Stupid. Reckless. Impulsive. She didn’t know when she’d grown those traits, and if she wanted to survive for long she was going to need to do everything in her power to quash them. Especially the stupidity. Maybe a bit of recklessness and impulsiveness wouldn’t go awry with this group, but the stupidity had to go. She wouldn’t last long if she couldn’t start thinking for herself, couldn’t bring her own strengths to the team. She had to figure out something, or she wouldn’t last long, and she didn’t want to see what would happen when she finally tested the patience of half a dozen alien outlaws. She’d had six years to imagine and experience exactly what happened when people with power and no limits got mad. She wasn’t doing that again.

XANDR KASKO FINALLY felt everything settle around him, clicking into place with the comfortable familiarity of a job well done. They had the loot, the authorities had no idea it was gone, and no one was hurt or on their way to prison. The whole thing had gone off without a hitch and the only thing that would have made him happier was if he was calling the shots. Keana knew what she was doing, but he’d been the captain for a decade. The Seventh was his ship, acquired through his knowledge and wits. But if there was one person in the universe he trusted to protect the crew and run their jobs it was Keana Alleyva. She’d been his closest friend for years and she made a hell of a captain in her own right.

He just didn’t like being under anybody.

So how much does it chafe? Keana grinned at him, sitting on top of a large crate filled with their haul. If things had been different they would have been perfect for one another. They were both Oscavian, with the tell-tale blue eyes, purple skin, and dark hair. Keana looked exactly like the kind of Oscavian maiden heroic epics were composed about, and she carried herself with the