Genmate Imperiled: Genmate Dilemma, #3

By Cara Bristol

Mysk is a powerful alien psychic, but will his mental powers be enough to save his genmate? Or will the mistakes he's made claim her life? Read Genmate Imperiled for the exciting conclusion to the Genmate Dilemma series.

 

Series description:

A desire for vengeance keeps 'Topian Edwin Mysk from surrendering to the pain of the destruction of his home world and the loss of the genmate he might have had. One day the Xeno Consortium will know his wrath. Until then, he will pursue his self-imposed mission to locate and reunite the massacre survivors.

 

When he lands on Laxiter 4, he finds the 'Topian settlement abandoned, except for a lone woman. Lala. Their immediate, intense bonding proves she's his genmate, the one female his genetics have chosen for him—the one he'd believed lost forever. With Lala at his side, he resumes his search for the others.

 

But Lala is not the 'Topian he thinks she is. She's a shapeshifting Xeno, a disgraced former general in the consortium military wrongly convicted of helping 'Topian insurgents escape annihilation. Edwin Mysk offers her best chance to locate the escapees and receive a stay of execution—as long as he doesn't discover her secret.

 

Will the gulf between hatred and love, despair and desire, prove too wide for them to cross? Is their genmate bond a tragic mistake?

* * *

The Genmate Dilemma series should be read in order: Genmate Mistaken, Genmate Forsaken, Genmate Imperiled.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cara Bristol
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781947203389

Book preview

Genmate Imperiled (Genmate Dilemma 3)

Copyright © February 2022 by Cara Bristol

All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

eISBN: 978-1-947203-38-9

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Editor: Kate Richards

Copy Editor: Nanette Sipe

Cover Artist: Croco Designs

Formatting by Wizards in Publishing

Published in the United States of America

Cara Bristol Website: http://carabristol.com

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

Related Titles by Cara Bristol

About Cara Bristol

Acknowledgements

Mysk is a powerful alien psychic, but will his mental powers be enough to save his genmate? Or will the mistakes he’s made claim her life? Read Genmate Imperiled for the exciting conclusion to the Genmate Dilemma series.

Vengeance keeps ’Topian Edwin Mysk from surrendering to the pain of the destruction of his home world and the loss of the genmate he might have had. One day, the Xeno Consortium will know his wrath. Until then, he will pursue his self-imposed mission to locate and reunite the massacre survivors.

When he lands on Laxiter 4, he finds the ’Topian settlement abandoned, except for a lone woman. Lala. Their immediate, intense bonding proves she’s his genmate, the one female his genetics have chosen for him—the one he’d believed lost forever. With Lala at his side, he resumes his search for the others.

But Lala is not the ’Topian he thinks she is. She’s a shapeshifting Xeno, a disgraced former general in the consortium military wrongly convicted of helping ’Topian insurgents escape annihilation. Edwin Mysk offers her best chance to locate the escapees and receive a stay of execution—as long as he doesn’t discover her secret.

Genmate Imperiled

By

Cara Bristol

Chapter One

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Lalaaa! No! Lalaa! You can’t be dead. You can’t be. You can’t be!

Mysk rocked the lifeless body of his genmate and wept. Please, Lala, no. Come back.

He’d killed her. As if he’d taken her life by his own hand, he’d caused the death of his one true mate. Hatred and pursuit of revenge had blinded him to how sick she’d been getting. She’d been dying—and he thought she was faking it.

He’d been so angry and hurt, when she tried to sneak back to her space pod, he’d refused to speak to her, had avoided even looking at her. When she lagged, he’d assumed she was trying to hinder his progress. He’d blamed her for everything that had happened to his people.

Except Lala hadn’t participated in the destruction of ’Topia. She hadn’t murdered innocent people. She hadn’t killed anybody. Deep in his heart, his mind, his soul, he knew that because his heart, his mind, his soul knew her. She was his genmate, and he was a mind-reading Verital. The times they’d merged minds, he hadn’t ever detected malice toward him or his people. Why, why, why hadn’t he remembered that? She’d tried to explain why she went to contact the AI, but he wouldn’t listen to her.

Hate is easy. Love will take courage. Psychic Mandy Ellison had warned him before he’d left Earth. To his misfortune and peril, he hadn’t given her words a second thought.

It had been too easy to hate the Xenos and to let that emotion corrupt his perception of his genmate rather than risk believing in her. He’d lost sight of what was important. How many chances had he had to reverse course, accept her, and embrace the happiness that could have been theirs? Angry, stubborn, filled with loathing, he’d rebuffed every opportunity.

A desolation so deep rolled through him, he felt like he was drowning in the river again. Except then, Lala had been there to save him—more proof of her veracity. If she’d intended to summon the Xenos to Laxiter, she could have let him drown. But she hadn’t. She’d fought to save him—while he hadn’t paid enough attention to her to see she needed saving.

Lalaaa! Lalaa! Please, please. No. No.

Life wouldn’t be worth living without her. He couldn’t lose her! He refused to accept she was gone. She couldn’t be gone! He cupped her feverish cheek. How could she be dead if her skin felt so hot? He pressed a hand to her chest. Against his palm, he felt a faint thump. A heartbeat! As long as her heart beat, there had to be a psychic thread. If he could find one, just one...

Marshaling his mental power, he shot out hundreds of invasive tendrils. All he needed was a wisp of consciousness. In darkness, he followed her neural pathways, leaping over synapses to delve deep into her mind, searching for cognitive traces, a memory, an emotion. He found the collapsed remains of barriers she’d erected against him, and he flowed over the rubble to enter the hidden corners of her psyche.

There was nothing but darkness around him, bleakness inside him.

She was gone.

How would he live without her? How would he do it? He would never forgive himself for his negligence and stubborn disregard. He’d accused her of malice, but he had been the malicious one.

With great despair, he retreated, tightening and withdrawing his psychic tendrils—and then he felt a tingle in one slender thread. He focused on the sensation, and he found a memory. Lala stood in an imposing imperial chamber as seven Xenos peered down from their thrones. The anti-shift detonation band around her neck chafed. She was terrified, expecting to be executed for crimes committed by Chameleon. Then she’d been granted a reprieve—if she could find the escaped ’Topians.

He followed her memories to the launch from Xeno, conversations with her AI, her investigation into the bombardment, and the epiphany the Xeno Consortium High Council had committed a horrific atrocity. Her memories shifted to the landing on Laxiter 4, her first glimpse of him—and her fear, her decision to personify a Verital.

She’d been wise to fear him. It had saved her life. If she’d confronted him in her natural form, he would have shot her on the spot. Her personification had given the genmate bond time to solidify.

It had been said when a person died, their life flashed before them. Was that what he was seeing?

Lala! Lala! Concentrating hard, he searched for cognition that put her in the here and now.

There! There! He raced toward the tiny, feeble flicker. Not full consciousness, rather a hibernating sentience. Lala! Lala, please answer me. Wake up, sweetheart. Please!

Mysk?

Oh God. Oh God. Yes! It’s me. His hands, cupping her face, trembled. I was afraid you were dead.

I am going to die.

No! You can’t. I won’t let you. Tears coursed down his cheeks.

I don’t have much time—

Don’t talk like that.

Listen to me. I don’t have long. I love you, Mysk. I wasn’t going to betray you, you have to believe that.

I do believe you. I love you, too. I’m so sorry for what I put you through. But, you’re not going to die. I won’t let you!

Unfortunately, my love, this isn’t something you can control, she said. Do you have weapons aboard your ship?

What?

Weapons. Plasma blasters.

Yes... Why? Why would she ask that?

Listen to me, Mysk. You must blow up my ship before the AI reports me missing.

He shook his head. You’re going to recover, and you’ll send the message like you had plan—

No. I’m not. The Xenos will come if you don’t destroy my ship.

That will give them more reason to come!

Yes, but not until they realize they’ve lost a ship. You’ll have more time to lead the ’Topians to safety.

We’ll talk about it when you’re well. When we can discuss it face-to-face.

That’s not going to happen.

It will if you let me help you. He would do whatever it took to get her well. First, he had to determine what was wrong! Before he could fix it, he had to diagnose it.

I hurt all over.

Let me feel what you’re feeling. He suspected her coma was her body’s defense mechanism against the physical discomfort. He’d assumed she’d been suffering from something akin to the Earth condition, turista, temporary gastrointestinal distress often experienced by travelers. Now, he feared her illness might be more like cholera, an often fatal Earth disease. What if he’d caused her illness? What if he’d carried and infected her with a microbe from Earth her body had no defense against?

It hurts too much, she said.

I’ll work as fast as I can. Then I’ll block your pain again. But you have to show me so I can figure out what’s wrong.

The silence lasted so long, he feared he’d lost her. Lala?

All right. A wall lowered, releasing body ache, heat, and tiredness, and then the barrier crumbled, and a tidal wave of sickness crashed over him as Lala cried out and jerked in his arms. He merged into the physical sensation so that her illness became his and he felt what she felt.

His veins were on fire. So laden by fatigue and weakness, he could barely lift an arm. Holding her required all his strength. Muscles cramped. And everywhere that burning, burning pain. Herian, this is what she was experiencing? No wonder she’d fallen unconscious.

Lala moaned and thrashed.

He could hardly think straight from the pain and sickness, but he traced the physical discomfort to the point in time where the tiredness, the aches, the nausea began. Each symptom originated from the same source: a soreness in her neck. He’d assumed she’d gotten ill from tainted water. He turned her slightly to examine her nape, and alarm shot through him at what