Pursued: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance (Raider Warlords of the Vandar Book 4) by Tana Stone (world best books to read .TXT) 📕

being labeled a traitor by my people. Raas Kratos would not be surprised. He’d slapped down my challenges many times, but I suspected it was because we were cousins that he had never truly punished me. I had calculated wrong when I’d thought Bron would be as forgiving.

Even though I knew the Raas had been within his rights, rage still burned within me that he’d dumped me here—a pre-warp planet populated by humans and a native species that reminded me of overgrown Granthilian geckos, just on two feet instead of four. There was precious little technology, and virtually no weapons. The only reason the planet hadn’t been taken by the Zagrath was the fact that it had little of value. The climate was arid and not useful for scalable farming, and the core contained no valuable minerals worth mining.

“I’d rather have been put out an airlock,” I muttered under my breath.

My fuming was interrupted by a sharp rap at the door. The last thing I wanted was visitors, but since I was officially a guest on their world, I didn’t have much choice.

I opened the door and was greeted by two males—one human and the other a native Kimitherian.

“Welcome Corvak of Vandar,” the human said, giving me a tight smile.

The native who was covered in iridescent, greenish-blue scales blinked at me, the vertical pupil in his yellow eyes contracting. “We are happy to count you among us.”

I doubted that was true. They’d been paid handsomely to take me, and although they weren’t my jailors, we all knew it might be some time before I left their world.

“Thank you,” I said, giving them both a small bow. It was clear these males were representatives of their community, if not the leaders. “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but I assure you that I have no intention of being a disruption. You won’t even know I’m here.”

The human chuckled, rubbing his hands together. “I’m afraid that would be quite impossible. You’re the only Vandar on the planet and the only trained warrior.”

He had a point. I was at least a head taller than both of them, and while they were covered from head to toe in flowing robes, I still wore nothing but my battle kilt.

“I have no intention of fighting any of you,” I said. “Despite what rumors you might have heard, my people do not battle against the innocent. Our only fight is against the empire and those who enable them.”

“We know,” the native said. “That is why we agreed to take you. We fear the empire will not ignore us forever.”

I did not want to be blunt and point out that the empire could very well ignore them forever since their planet had nothing of value. I did have to coexist with these aliens, after all. “You fear an imperial attack?”

The human nodded, glancing over his shoulder. “Our hope is that you can train our males so we can defend ourselves.”

“Did my Raas know of this?” I asked. If I didn’t already want to kill Bron, I would have now.

“He assured us you would be the perfect Vandar to train our peoples in defense.” The human inclined his head, as if acknowledging an uncomfortable truth. “Although he looked at me much as you do now when I expressed my fear.”

“We have battled the Zagrath for many millennia, “I said. “We understand how they operate. They will only attack if they can profit off your destruction.”

The two aliens exchanged a wary look.

I huffed out a breath. “Is there something you did not tell Raas Bron?”

The native Kimitherian steepled his webbed hands and lifted them to his mouth. “There is something we have told no one, because it is too valuable and dangerous to be shared.”

I folded my arms across my chest, highly doubting that this rocky planet contained anything requiring this much secrecy.

“It is the planet itself that’s valuable,“ the human said. “Even we did not realize it at first, but it is why our two peoples have limited contact with others, and have kept our world from developing any technology that might draw interest.”

“Your core contains nothing of value,” I said. “Otherwise the empire would have established mines.”

The two males exchanged another cautious look.

“Tvek,” I growled, stroking a finger down my scar. “Tell me. Do not tell me. At this point, I’m starting not to care.”

The Kimitherian bobbed his scaled head up and down. “You are right. If we want your help, we should be honest with you. Your leader did say you were honorable to a fault.”

I flinched at the description. That sounded like something Bron would say.

“Kerl is nearly a thousand rotations old,” the human said in a rush of words, glancing at the other male I assumed was named Kerl.

“Okay.” I eyed them. “And one of your rotations is how many of our standard rotations?”

“That is in standard rotations,” Kerl said, his yellow eyes fixed on me.

I took in that information. Humans had a life expectancy of eighty to a hundred standard rotations and Vandar closer to one hundred. “Your species is long-lived.”

“It is not just my species,” Kerl said. “Once the human settlers arrived, they too became immortal.”

“Immortal?” I almost choked on the word.

The human smiled. “It isn’t that we can’t be killed. We can. We just don’t seem to age on this planet.”

I stared at them. “So the children I saw playing when I arrived?”

Kerl let out a laugh that was comprised of mostly clicks. “They are children. The aging seems to slow or stop once we reach our maturity.”

I slid my gaze to the human. “How old are you…?”

“Terel,” the man replied. “My name is Terel, and I’m three hundred and eleven years old.”

I cocked my head at him. He looked no older than me.

“Do you understand now why we need to protect ourselves?” Kerl asked.

I did. “If anyone were to find out, they would…” I let my words die in my mouth.

“Remove us or kill us all,” Terel said for