Romancing the Feral

By Gail Koger

Much to her parents’ delight, Zadie’s angelic appearance and unique psychic abilities won her the title of master thief by the time she was twelve years old. Zadie wasn’t so elated, she hated stealing.

Her parents’ life of crime was how they ended up on Gliese, the hellhole of the galaxy, where every day was a fight for survival, and the inhabitants would slit your throat for a scrap of food, or a bottle of clean water. Zadie’s innocent appearance hides the feral warrior she’s becoming.

Jedrick, commander of a Coletti battle group, is stunned to discover this dangerous child is his future mate and it's a full-time job keeping her alive. Will she live to see twenty-one?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gail Koger
• Release date: Apr 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224274628

Gail Koger

Howdy. My name is Gail Koger and once upon a time I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Too many years of wild requests, screwy questions, bizarre behavior and outrageous demands have left me with a permanent twitch and an uncontrollable craving for chocolate. I took up writing science fiction romance to keep from killing people. So far, it has worked.

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents.

Prologue

From space the water world of Gliese looks like a peaceful paradise. Small islands with stunning white sand beaches dot the beautiful emerald seas. Bright turquoise Riu trees sway in the gentle breeze.

It’s an illusion. Gliese is a hellhole where few survive past thirty. Most of the inhabitants live in shacks and would slit your throat for a bottle of clean water. Those white sand beaches are full of hungry blood fleas. Any lifeform that sets foot on an untreated island is dead within an hour.

The wandering groves of carnivorous Riu trees thrive in the warm water and are incredibly difficult to outswim. They have sharp, spiky leaves, and if cut, ooze crimson sap. Their tentacle-like roots propel them across the seas in their search for food. Anyone stupid enough to get too close finds themselves wrapped in small feeder roots and digested until only a desiccated shell remains.

Fishing is Gliese’s sole legitimate business. Factory trawlers of all shapes and sizes sail the oceans searching for a clawed lobster-like fish called fangtooth. The popular delicacy sells on the open market for six hundred credits a pound. The fangtooth are difficult to catch and a single bite triggers an agonizing death.

There are no cities. No skyscrapers. Only a handful of villages scattered around the planet. Agbon spaceport’s primary function is to export fangtooth. The spaceport was built on a rocky island stripped of all sand and vegetation. A labyrinth of thousands of floating shanties surrounds the port. Independent fishermen, day laborers and the lost live in these slums. The two room shanties are made from poly-plastic which offers little protection from the blazing sun or storms. The shantytowns have no police, or garbage collectors, or working toilets, or power. A few lucky souls have small solar generators.

The only form of government is the Shadow Thieves Guild. Master Crom is the current leader. He reminds me of a fat toad with pebbly green skin and soulless black eyes. His father was a Hrungnir trader, and no one knew what race his mother belonged to. Crom murdered his parents when he turned twenty-one for the bounty on their heads. Crom rules his empire from a fishing trawler he converted into a lavish palace.

How did I end up on Gliese? My parents had a history of making bad decisions. My father, Jabaan, was a half-Coletti, half-Farin thief who helped himself to an Alliance prototype weapon during a Tai-Kok attack on Earth. My mother, Kismet Dragos, also a thief, had been tasked with stealing the same weapon. According to my mother, the minute their eyes met, they fell in love.

Uncle Ax, my father’s brother, said if they had done their homework, they would have known a Coletti battleship was also in orbit and aborted the heist. But they didn’t. The Tai-Kok ship was vaporized, leaving my parents running for their lives with the stolen prototype.

They fled Earth and settled on Gliese. Why? Because there was a million-credit bounty on their heads and even the deadly Coletti warriors avoided this hellhole.

I was one of those surprise babies. Mother wanted to leave Gliese when she discovered she was pregnant, but my idiot father had signed a contract with the Shadow Thieves Guild. They were stuck doing Crom’s bidding for the next ten years. Somehow, they managed to keep me a secret. Mother fashioned a baby carrier and took me to all their heists. If I started to get fussy, she’d link with me telepathically and sing me to sleep.

I developed my first psychic power when I was three years old. My delighted parents discovered that when I was angry, I had the ability to disrupt power sources with a single touch. I knew they loved me, but I suddenly became a valuable tool to be used as necessary. In that instant, childhood ended and my training as a thief began.

Mother and Father only left Gliese on Guild sanctioned jobs and a few profitable side-gigs. Their ship was barely space-worthy. They targeted isolated space stations, merchant vessels, and luxury liners. My parents would send out a distress signal that their life support was failing. Once the target answered, Mother began her act. Taking wheezing breaths, she would plead, Don’t let my daughter die. Please help us. Please. The camera was angled so the captain could see me lying on the floor and gasping for air. Yes, I was quite the little actress.

The con never failed. Once we docked, and security had cleared us, they had me disable the alarm systems, cameras, and shields. Father and Mother discreetly pillaged the ship. If the enforcers showed up, I did my lost child act, giving my parents plenty of time to stun them. It was a miracle we were never captured or killed. By the time I was eight, I was well on my way to becoming a master thief.

I discovered later my parents’ greed is what got them killed. A jealous associate ratted them out to Crom. Not only was there still a million-credit bounty on my parents’ heads, but they owed the Guild ten thousand credits in overdue taxes. To top it all off, they had failed to mention my psychic abilities. Which was a big no-no. Children with special talents were taken from their families and immediately put to work. Infants were the only exception.

Crom’s goons came for my parents while I was off planet with Uncle Ax. He needed me for a particularly tough job on the Deltax Space Station which was smack dab in the middle of Coletti territory. He was going after a hundred pounds of Ditrim crystals worth about five million credits.

I shut down everything on the space station but life-support and stood guard as Uncle Ax busily transported the crystals to our cargo hold. He let out a vicious curse when the transporter suddenly stopped working.

Poof! Out of nowhere, a huge, very angry Coletti warrior with red chains woven into his warrior’s braids appeared with a laser pistol in one hand. His cold amber gaze studied me for a moment and then dismissed me as harmless.

I rolled my eyes. Like Mother always said, ‘Males are predictable and incredibly stupid’. Uncle Ax had psychic abilities, but he seldom used them. If he had mentally scanned the area for any kind of threats, he wouldn’t be oblivious to the Coletti warrior standing behind him. Now would he? Once again it was up to me to save the day. I raised my hands and in my best scared little girl voice cried, Don’t shoot us. Please, don’t shoot us.

Uncle Ax’s head jerked up. His eyes began to glow as he summoned his berserker powers.

I smothered a groan. In his berserker mode, reckless didn’t even begin to describe Uncle Ax.

Totally ignoring the weapon pointed at him, Uncle Ax attacked the warrior.

To my horror, the fight lasted about sixty seconds. My uncle was abruptly face down on the floor and handcuffed. I am Battle Commander Jedrick, and you are under arrest for theft, sabotage, terrorism, and child endangerment. He held out his hand to me. Come to me child. You are safe now.

Like I said, predictable. He thought the laser pistol on my gun belt was a toy and he wasn’t wearing his battle armor. I whipped out my child-sized weapon and fired.

Jedrick’s eyes widened in surprise as the stun beam hit him in the chest. He crumpled to the deck as violent muscle spasms contorted his body. His gaze never left me. It was as if he was imprinting me on his mind.

Totally freaked out, I typed the emergency transporter code into my warrior’s bracelet. Thankfully, the transporter worked this time. As the glittering blue light engulfed us, the battle commander was getting to his feet. "I will find you."

I believed him. The next moment we were back on our ship.

Get us out of here, Uncle Ax commanded as he picked the lock on his handcuffs.

I ran to the control console and engaged the engines. Once Battle Commander Jedrick got the weapons systems back online, he would blow us to smithereens.

The comm-link’s emergency light was blinking frantically. I grimaced. What kind of crisis was Mother having now? After I entered the pre-set coordinates into the navigation computer, I played the message. My mother’s tear-stained face appeared on the screen. Do not return to Gliese. Some snitch turned us in. I’m so sorry baby girl, but they know about you. Your father is… There was a loud boom, and the screen went black.

I stared at the blank screen in horror. A snitch? I wasn’t surprised. People would turn in their own mothers if it got them food or credits. What would Crom do to my parents? Lock them up? Whip them? Goddess, he wouldn’t feed them to the Rui trees, would he?

My grim-faced uncle made sure we were out of range of the space station’s weapons systems before contacting several of his associates. He quickly discovered Crom had publicly executed my parents and put a million-credit bounty on me.

In shocked disbelief, I stared at my uncle. They’re wrong. My parents aren’t dead. They can’t be.

They showed me the vid of the execution.

I want to see it.

No.

But…

I said no! We have bigger problems. Every Coletti warrior and bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for us. My only option is to take you back to Earth. Good thing you look human.

Tears ran down my cheeks. I want to stay with you.

It is too dangerous.

No matter how much I protested or pleaded, Uncle Ax refused to change his mind.

Two weeks later, Uncle Ax transported me to a small stone cottage in the Italian Alps. He walked over and pounded on the door. An older woman wearing a faded blue dress cracked the door open and peered at us. What do you want?

Narcisa Dragos, this is your granddaughter, Zadie. Your daughter Kismet was murdered, and this girl needs a home. He shoved me inside. A few seconds later, a glittering blue light engulfed him, and he was gone.

Chapter One

I stared in dismay at the spot where Uncle Ax had stood seconds ago. The sense of abandonment was overwhelming. My entire body began to shake, and I wanted to scream, ‘how can you leave me with a total stranger?’ Earth wasn’t my home. It was just another alien world. Except for her green eyes, Narcisa Dragos looked nothing like my mother. I had watched Earth vids, and she did resemble one of those kindly old females who baked cookies. But somehow, I knew it was a masquerade and she was far from harmless.

Shutting the door, my grandmother examined me from head to toe. Is he your father?

No, my uncle. He said it was too dangerous for me to stay with him.

Is that true?

Yes.

Come sit by the fire, child.

I nodded numbly. Bypassing the green couch with a multi-colored, knitted blanket draped over the back, I sat on a wooden rocking chair. The first thing I noticed was the pictures of smiling children covering the walls. The second was the bag of knitting positioned on the end table. They were props in whatever con she was running.

A Cheshire-cat smile formed