Despite her sharp scientific mind and her degree in bio-molecular genetics, Dr. Ariel Jones still can’t figure out how her life so completed changed in a single day. Before she can ask why she’s strapped to a medical gurney, Ariel is injected with a billion nanos and some very potent wolf blood. Now she’s an alpha wolf fighting for her life and the lives of the two women unlucky enough to share her fate. Becoming a living experiment is not the scientific career she planned for herself. Science may have made her, but only love will control her destiny.
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Another long walk across a solid surface followed the silent air jet ride until finally one of them opened a door for him to pass into what felt like a metal building given the noise the door made clanging against shut when it closed. They led him down a hallway with some twists and turns before finally stopping in a room heated to an ambient temperature. The hallway had been chilled so the warmth was very welcome.
He couldn’t prevent himself from sighing in relief when one of the two males removed the blind-fold he’d been forced to wear. Some hero he was turning out to be…
Then he saw her. After all the endless days of being worried, a still living, breathing Aja stood three short feet in front of him. It didn’t surprise him that her eyes were blank of any recognition. Without the original processor chip she’d so carefully protected over the years, Aja had become a blank slate.
Nero lifted a trembling hand to touch Aja’s face. He wanted to make sure she was fully alive but paused in his action when he remembered that Aja was a cyborg that could easily damage or kill him when the right command was active. He had no idea what had been done to her cybernetically. He wasn’t sure how he would react to hearing what she’d endured.
The thought of anyone hurting Aja made him ill.
“It’s okay, Dr. Bastion. You can touch her,” his prospective employer said softly, waving a hand in Nero’s direction. “The processor I put in Aja 490 is running a companion stasis program. She won’t be breaking free of it like she did her older code. I fixed that little rebellion problem several companion prototypes ago. My code renders her perfectly safe.”
“What have you done to her?” Nero demanded.
“Nothing—just like I said,” his white-coated tormentor said.
Filled with a level of hate he hadn’t known he could feel, Nero wrenched his gaze away from the male who was speaking. He couldn’t afford to yell or scream… or at least not yet.
His hand brushed against Aja’s cheek and he thought her pupils expanded at his action. He wanted badly to believe Aja knew he was there, but no cyborg he’d ever worked on had ever been able to function as human without their processor being stripped of the constant code first.
And Creator Omega—who he assumed was the white-coated, gloating scientist—had done this her. The bastard had managed to turn a woman who’d fought for a decade to save herself into a human robot. Shame for his own part in this tragedy engulfed him. He’d done the same to his fair share of cyborgs over the years.
His hand dropped away from Aja as Nero reluctantly turned to the scientist. “I’m here as you demanded. There was a condition to my agreement and I expect you to meet it. Set her free.”
The scientist smiled. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep her? I can tell you’re fond of this particular companion model. I could rework Aja 490 with my latest companion code and she would serve you reasonably well. She’s aged some since she was converted, but I’m sure the important parts of her still function well enough.”
Nero felt the urge to kill the man and welcomed the burning that rose inside him. Once Aja was safe—no, he’d only think about the man’s death then. He could not think of it now. She was still in too much peril. They both were.
“If you expect my cooperation to continue, you’ll let her go.”
This week I’m featuring another talented author from the USA Today Bestselling Pets In Space 4 Anthology. Welcome, Regine Abel!
It’s such an honor to have been invited to participate in the Pets in Space Anthology this year alongside such a fabulous line up of sci-fi romance authors. Coming up with which story to write has been instantly clear to me.
I had always wished to write my own spin on the transfer of consciousness theme found in The Matrix, but I wanted the whole thing happening in the real world. This led to the creation of the Xian Warriors and their Soulcatchers: the psychic women of the Vanguard capable of holding the souls of fallen warriors until their rebirth. Ever since I published Legion, the first book in my Xian Warriors series, I knew that I needed to write the origin story of the human Soulcatchers. It only made sense to seize this opportunity to introduce Doom and his woman, Victoria, the very first alien and human female couple in Earth’s history. Seeing how most of my sci-fi romance novels have epic battles, and how Doom is a badass, genetically engineered super warrior, my pet in space was bound to be some kind of war creature.
Stran is a Creckel, a warrior beast that resembles a pangolin with a dragon head. Bigger than a Tibetan mastiff, he’s covered with thick, dark scales that protect him from almost any form of damage when he rolls up into a ball. As Doom’s lifelong friend and war companion, he has come to Earth to help free humanity from the Kryptid invaders who had also previously attacked his homeworld. Though he cannot speak, Stran is extremely smart and can communicate through telepathic imagery. The minute he sees Victoria, he recognizes her as his best friend’s soulmate and becomes extremely protective of her.
Here’s a little snippet from Doom featuring Victoria and Stran, shortly after they first meet amidst a massive Kryptid invasion:
Although his companions fought as savagely as he, I couldn’t take my eyes off Doom. I couldn’t say if it was because he’d been the one to talk to me, or the gentle, respectful tone of his voice when he’d addressed me. All I knew was that for the first time in two weeks, since the beginning of the dreadful invasion, I felt a sliver of hope.
A cold wetness on my hand startled me. I looked down to see Stran rubbing his dragon snout on my palm then lowering his head so that my hand would rest atop it. While I’d been busy gaping at his friend, the Creckel had closed the distance between us.
“Thank you for saving me, Stran,” I said in a gentle voice while caressing the top of his head, careful not to cut myself on the sharp horns fanning across his forehead.
He emitted a deep sound, halfway between a growl and a purr, then lifted his chin, exposing the leathery underside of his neck. I grinned and scratched his neck. The Creckel rewarded me with an even louder purr. Although he clearly enjoyed getting petted, he pulled away from my touch, licked my hand with his forked, lizard tongue, then looked around us, keeping watch for possible aggressors.
At last, a sense of safety washed over me. Humans weren’t alone. And maybe, just maybe, we had a chance after all.
Grab your copy of Pets in Space® 4 today! For a limited time, Pets in Space® 4 brings together today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors to help Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that helps our service veterans and first responders.
My guest author today is a fellow author from the Pets In Space 4 Anthology. Welcome, Tiffany!
We are thrilled to a part of the Pets in Space Anthology this year. It’s an honor to be included among so many amazing sci-fi romance authors, and we had a blast writing our story.
All our books tend to be conceived around their central characters—our process almost always has the characters created and fleshed out first, and then the story is built around them based on who they are and how they mesh together. That was different for Entwined Fates, just as it was for our contribution to Pets in Space 3, because this anthology series forces us to think outside that usual box and make a pet integral to the story.
This year, our pet is a shape-changing robot named Cypher who became very dear to us during this process. Cypher served as the backbone of the love story between our main characters, and he was integral in the evolution of their relationship, providing much-needed support and affection when our characters needed it the most.
That support that is so often provided by the animals we bond with is integral to this anthology series and the charity it supports—Hero Dogs. Pets in Space contributes a portion of its proceeds to Hero Dogs, a non-profit organization that works to train and pair service dogs with veterans and first responders. What’s better than giving back to the people who put their lives on the line to keep us safe every day? Not only does it provide veterans and first responders with dedicated service animals, it allows those dogs to make bonds with their new owners that can run as deep as the romances we write about.
We spend our days writing about far-flung worlds and alien species that sprouted from our imaginations, but the most fulfilling aspect of our work comes through the connections we make with people right here on good old planet Earth. And the support we can provide to Hero Dogs through our contribution to Pets in Space is among the most meaningful of all.
Grab your copy of Pets in Space® 4 today! For a limited time, Pets in Space® 4 brings together today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors to help Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that helps our service veterans and first responders.
Cats, Dogs and Other Worldly Creatures Books is thrilled to announce that the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning Pets in Space® anthology is back for its 4th year!
Pets in Space® 4 released on October 8th, 2019 and once again, 10% of pre-orders and the 1st month’s royalties go to Hero-Dogs.org who raise, train & place support dogs with U.S. veterans.
Contributing authors this year are S.E. Smith, Anna Hackett, Tiffany Roberts, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Donna McDonald, Regine Abel, Alexis Glynn Latner, JC Hay, E. D. Walker, Kyndra Hatch, and Cassandra Chandler. I hope you are as excited as we are!
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