Tara's Warriors: Bondmates, #5

By Ann Mayburn

There are only two things in this world Tara trusts, her red lipstick and her family. Neither have ever let her down in a world full of betrayals and loss. But now her soldier daughter Lacey is missing, having vanished during a humanitarian mission with the Army overseas, and Tara is doing everything she can to find her. She just never expected the answers to her daughter's disappearance could only be found in another galaxy.

Kadothian Warriors Karwin and Phiniar have been waiting their entire lives to find their bondmate, the one woman in the entire Universe they are destined to love. But when they finally locate their promised bride they quickly realize winning Tara's heart will be no easy task. They have to break through a lifetime of mistrust and hurt, to convince Tara to take a chance on a love she never imagined existed, and secretly believes she doesn't deserve.

 

Author's note- this is a novella similar to Jaz's Warriors and it is highly recommended that you read this before starting Lacey's book as 'things' happen in Tara's books that will add depth to Lacey's story. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Mayburn
• Release date: May 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393618775

Ann Mayburn

Ann is Queen of the Castle to her wonderful husband and three sons in the mountains of West Virginia. In her past lives she's been an Import Broker, a Communications Specialist, a US Navy Civilian Contractor, a Bartender/Waitress, and an actor at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. She also spent a summer touring with the Grateful Dead-though she will deny to her children that it ever happened.From a young age she's been fascinated by myths and fairytales, and the romance that often was the center of the story. As Ann grew older and her hormones kicked in, she discovered trashy romance novels. Great at first, but she soon grew tired of the endless stories with a big wonderful emotional buildup to really short and crappy sex. Never a big fan of purple prose, throbbing spears of fleshy pleasure and wet honey pots make her giggle, she sought out books that gave the sex scenes in the story just as much detail and plot as everything else-without using cringe worthy euphemisms. This led her to the wonderful world of Erotic Romance, and she's never looked back.Now Ann spends her days trying to tune out cartoons playing in the background to get into her 'sexy space' and has learned to type one handed while soothing a cranky baby.

Book preview

Tara’s Warriors

Bondmates #5

By Ann Mayburn

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Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Tara’s Warriors

Copyright © 2020 by Ann Mayburn

Published by Honey Mountain Publishing

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

**DISCLAIMER: Please do not try any new sexual practice, BDSM or otherwise, without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Ann Mayburn will not be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in this book.**

Bondmates Series

Casey’s Warriors

Jaz’s Warriors

Paige’s Warriors

Roxy’s Warriors

Tara’s Warriors

Lacey’s Warriors

Glossary of Terms

Alyah- The affectionate name that Kadothian males call their bondmate. It means ‘eternal beloved’.

Amba- A deadly Kadothian predator resembling a giant condor covered in soft red fur instead of feathers.

Baldain- A boar like creature that travels in herds

Blood Brothers- Kadothian males with the genetic and spiritual makeup to share a Matriarch and have formed a romantic relationship together while waiting to find their wife. Most often the blood brothers both marry the same woman, but on very rare occasions they don’t and the bond between the blood brothers is broken.

Challenge- The realms of Kadothia are split up among the Warriors, each seeking to build a home worthy of their future alyah. Some Warriors never find bondmate and as they begin to creep towards madness, they can be challenged by unbonded males for their territory. Everything from a verbal disagreement to a full out minor war could result.

Gili Fertility Ritual- A tradition native to the Southern Continent where once a cycle the Lord(s) and Lady of the land make love before a gathering of Servants of the Lord of Life to bless the land and people with good crops and fertility.

The Great Sorrow- Over ten thousand Kadothian years ago, during a massive civil war, a virus was engineered to boost the psychic killing abilities of the Kadothian women in an effort to win the war. Unfortunately, the virus changed the Kadothian women, destroying any senses of love, compassion or empathy, turning them into the perfect killing machines. No cure could be found and in an effort to save themselves and the Bel’Tan galaxy, all Kadothian men are altered at birth to only have male children.

Hezper- A large creature resembling a crocodile mixed with a giraffe.

The Hive- When the female Kadothians fled their home planet they bonded together to form their own society, the Hive. Unable to form emotional attachments with each other, the Hive works together for their own self-interest, knowing in a coldly logical manner they have a better chance of surviving together than apart. They rule a portion of the Bel’Tan galaxy with a ruthless army made up of mercenaries and Hive members that seek to enslave and destroy. Emotionally dead on the inside, the only way they can feel any pleasure is by inflicting suffering and pain on others and feeding on their torment. Kadothian males, with the help of their bonds, are the only beings in all of the Bel’Tan galaxy that can resist the Hive’s psychic powers and the only thing that stands between the galaxy and utter destruction.

Kackle- A Kadothian herd animal resembling a mix between a cow and a giraffe

Kadothia- A matriarchal planet in the Bel’Tan galaxy close to twice the size of Earth’s sun. It is surrounded by fourteen moons, some of which have been terraformed to make them habitable. Once such moon is being used as a replica of Earth for the new Matriarchs.

Kadothian Continents- (in order from largest to smallest) North, South, West, Isle of Tranquility, Cliffs of Goeth, Plains of Pechana, Ice Fields of Ashon, Osymaya’s Delta, the Yason Mesa, the Fields of Swaycor, and the Felusa archipelago.

Matriarch- A woman who has been soul bonded/married to a Kadothian male(s) and is the head of their family House. For example, Lady Elsin Adar is the head of the House Adar.

Military classes- The Kadothian military is split into four distinct classes; Warriors, Healers, Scouts, and Negotiators. There is rumored to be a fifth class, a spy class, but no proof. Each class is headed by four men, elected by their class, to represent each group at the High Congress.

Terra- The Kadothian moon that is being transformed into a replica of Earth complete with Earth plants, animals, and replicas of historic monuments like the Egyptian pyramids. Upon complete it will be open to newly bonded Matriarch to settle, along with people from the Bel’Tan galaxy seeking a new home. Experts from Earth and their families have been carefully selected by the High Congress to help oversee Terra’s development.

Pleasure Servant- A woman trained to provide sexual release to a Kadothian male while keeping the relationship strictly sexual with no romantic attachments. This is an honorable profession in the Bel’Tan galaxy and there is no stigma associated with being a prostitute.

Primzit- A parasitic worm that eats fecal matter from decaying corpses

Pontui- A spicy version of coffee found on Kadothia

Venan- A large, river dwelling creature with a thick hide like a rhino and tusks similar to a wart hog with a long, spiked tail used for swimming and combat. Notoriously ill tempered, a venan will attempt to kill anything that enters its territory.

Zendor- An animal native to North Continent on Kadothia that looks like a large dog sized fluffy ball of various colored fur with legs. Hidden within the fur are retractable bone spikes that the zendor will use to defend itself, similar to a puffer fish. Zendors live in packs of up to two hundred in the wild and even a small pack of Zendors can defend itself against the majority of Kadothia’s predator animals. The Zendors have been tamed and used as guard animals by the Kadothians for centuries.

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Kadothian Political Structure

The High Congress- 300 members

The Elder Congress- 3,000 members

The Congress- 30,000 members

The Territorial Congress- 300,000 members

The Regional Congress- 3,000,000 members

The Lord and Lady of the Land- 84,233,897 members (the number constantly shifts as Challenges are won and lost)

Village/City Elders – 754,328,756 members (the exact number is constantly in flux due to shifts in the political structure due to the results of a Challenge)

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 1

Tara

Sliding the gleaming rapier with its elaborate hilt into the scabbard at her waist, Tara smiled with anticipation. The sun rose over the vast forest behind the tent-filled field. For eleven months out of the year, the ten acres of fields—including a barn, a twelve-horse stable, and a paddock on the far rise—appeared to be nothing special in this part of Georgia. Just another working farm run by the same family for generations.

But for four glorious weekends, this place transformed into something else.

Something magical.

Spring had sprung, and the smell of the new leaves seemed to sweeten the warm morning breeze. Tara’s deep brown leather pants creaked as she shifted her weight, turning her face toward the rising sun. Normally, she wasn’t a leather pants kind of woman. She also didn’t usually walk around with a rapier—one she knew how to use—strapped to her side. And back home, she’d never wear a matching leather corset over a kickass white silk poet’s shirt, with her sleeves billowing in the wind.

But here, at the magical place known as the South Georgia Renaissance Festival, she fit right in, weaponry and all.

In fact, she coordinated nicely with her bonny crew of lady pirates, known as the Sirens.

Their annual pirate weekend tradition started close to twenty years ago on a whim. She’d been going through a dark time and needed an escape from her stress. Her husband, Nathan, had passed away the year before, leaving her widowed with a young daughter at the ripe old age of twenty-four. To make matters worse, her mom and dad died from different illnesses not long after Nathan’s death. For a long time, she’d dipped in and out of a deep depression, but her close group of friends and family had fought to help her find her way back to happiness.

In an effort to lift Tara out of her funk, her cousins and friends had taken her to the Renaissance Festival. At first she’d been skeptical, especially when her cousin Mildred had convinced her to dress up for it in a corset that showed a generous amount of cleavage and a flowy blue dress. She’d felt silly at first, walking up to the Renaissance Festival dressed up like a ye’olde wench, but soon she’d fallen for the quirky charm of the event. There was a tangible air of happiness at the Festival, fun and laughter, life and joy. They’d had an amazing time, ending the night in one of the pubs for the traditional singalong. Things had been going fine until a group of assholes arrived and spoiled the atmosphere.

The group of guys—the so-called Pirate Kings—lorded over the pub. They considered themselves hilarious, but they were really just a bunch of misogynistic pigs. The kind of guys that would catcall women, try to grab their asses, and just be jerks in general. A few of the supposed Pirate Kings had tried to flirt with Tara and her friends during the big pub singalong in the middle of the festival, but they became insulting in a ‘ye olde’ way when they’d been blown off. At first, their insults could be laughed off, but when they got personal, Tara got mad. She’d marched up to the stage where the Pirate Kings were doing their bit, snatched the microphone out of the Captain’s hand, and proceeded to rip him up one side and down the other—in a charming southern way, of course.

She’d let loose and chewed his ass so well that, by the time she finished, the crowd lost their shit and applauded so loudly the floors shook. The owners of the pub talked with her afterward and convinced her to come back the next weekend with her friends, thus starting a tradition that gave birth to the Sirens. Not only was the once a year festival good for Tara, her daughter Lacey fell in love with the idea of knights. She’d acted as a squire to more than a few over the years, following the jousters around and sparring with some of the local weaponsmiths. Seeing how much her daughter became enamored with the idea of knighthood, it shouldn’t have surprised Tara that Lacey eventually joined the armed forces.

A pang of longing wrenched through Tara’s heart, and she clutched her daughter’s dog tags on the gold chain around her neck. Lacey left a few days ago, headed overseas to help with some out of control European forest fires. Her daughter was part of the military police and incredibly good at her job, so she was always in demand. Tara felt extremely proud Lacey chose to serve in the Army, just like Nathan once did, even if she missed her daughter fiercely when she was away.

After Tara’s late husband found out she was pregnant, he’d enlisted in the Army...as soon as he’d turned eighteen. When Lacey found out she was pregnant during her senior year of high school, she did the same thing her father had done after she had her baby—serving her country and getting the training she would need to have a good job once she got out. It wasn’t like Lacey got any money from Greg, the asshole/sperm donor who’d knocked her up. That little weasel had really pulled a number on Lacey, and if he hadn’t left town, Tara would have shot him on sight years ago.

But as much as Tara loathed Greg, she was glad he was gone and that he left the best part of himself behind. God had blessed Tara and Lacey when He sent Jillian into their lives. The little girl embodied pure happiness and love. Smiling from the moment she woke up until she went to sleep, Jillian was a courageous little girl with a heart as big as the world. Familiar giggles came from the big, blue sleeping pavilion tent behind Tara, so she people watched while she waited for Jillian to come flying out of the tent. At close to five years old, Jillibean, as they liked to call her, remained fearless