Daegan Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  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

  About Veronica Scott

  Also by Veronica Scott

  DAEGAN: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE

  (Sectors New Allies Series Book 10)

  By Veronica Scott

  Copyright 2019 by Jean D. Walker

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, places, characters, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Cover Art by Fiona Jayde

  DEDICATION

  To my daughters Valerie and Elizabeth, my brother David, and my best friend Daniel for all their encouragement and support!

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Julie C and The E-book Formatting Fairies!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Flo Michetti set the flyer down with perfect control on the landing field in Sanctuary Valley and opened the rear door so the squad of Badari soldiers could exit. “Another milk run,” she said to the man in the co-pilot seat. “I wonder when this war is going to heat up again and we’ll see some action? Of course I’ll be flying one of these, not stuck on the ground.”

  Camron grinned, showing the tips of his fangs. “The enemy is distracted at the moment, with the mountain fever problem and not having a central Security Officer. We need to make gains while we can.”

  Flo got out of the pilot’s chair and stretched. “I suppose you’re right. Hey, you did a good job flying evasive patterns today.”

  “I had a good teacher.”

  Smiling to acknowledge the compliment, Flo led the way out of the flyer, locking it up since she was nominally in charge, and then heading off across the field toward her quarters as Camron left to meet his mate for dinner. She wanted a good long soak in the communal hot springs pool and then a nice dinner in the big dining room, after which she’d see who was up for a game of cards. With so many of the guys getting paired off with mates these days, including Camron, it was getting harder and harder to organize a good table to keep the play exciting.

  “Flo!”

  Hearing her name, she paused and waited for Gabe, her old captain, to catch up. “I’ll do a report in the morning, boss,” she said, hoping to short circuit the conversation so she could get on with her plans for the evening, modest though they were. “The alien AI doesn’t need my data to crunch tonight. I’m sure the Badari gave him plenty from the lab we cleaned out today.”

  “Nothing to do with data—Aydarr wants to meet with you.” Gabe’s voice was unusually sharp and he frowned as if she was already tardy.

  Folding her arms across her chest and taking a deep breath to quell her annoyance, because she knew damn well there’d been no meeting on her calendar for tonight, she asked, “Why in the seven hells would the Alpha want to see me?”

  Gabe shook his head. “Something’s up for sure. Hush hush but everyone’s intense. And Jill was gearing up over at the armory about an hour ago.”

  “Wow.” Aydarr’s mate was ex-Special Forces and tough as nails but the Alpha hated to have her go into the field on a mission since the enemy would do anything to recapture her. “Are you invited?” Knowing her captain, he’d be even more annoyed if he was being excluded from whatever was going on.

  “Yeah.” As they turned their steps toward the path leading to the admin offices where Aydarr conducted meetings, Gabe handed her a wrapped sandwich. “Something to hold you off until you can make it to the chow line.”

  Her stomach rumbled as the delicious aroma of the offering. “You’re a prince and if Keshara hadn’t snapped you up already—”

  “Yeah, stow the bullshit, Florenzia.” He reached out to ruffle her spiky blue and purple tinted hair as a big brother might, because he delighted in the fact it annoyed her. About as much as calling her by her full name did. “You and me? Never would have worked, not even as a one nighter.”

  “True.” Actually she was glad she and Gabe had never had any chemistry between them. She preferred to keep her work as a mercenary, which is what she’d been in the Sectors, and her romantic life separate. Assuming of course there’d actually been any romantic life to speak of. Munching on the sandwich full of savory barbecued meat and rich sauce, she indulged in a little self-reflection as she hiked, which was unusual for her. Live in the moment was more her style but this damn planet and the war against the Khagrish required longer term thinking. She speculated idly if she’d ever be able to get off this rock and return to her freewheeling life in Sectors’ space.

  Gabe of course was mated to his Badari Alpha, Keshara. He sure wasn’t going anywhere else, which left Flo on her own to find new employment if she ever was able to leave the planet.

  She finished the last bites of the sandwich just as she walked into the admin building, licking her fingers to be sure all the sauce was gone.

  “Aydarr and Jill and the others are waiting.” Nicolle, the admin assistant to the Alpha and his mate, met them before they’d gone too far down the hall. “In the conference room.”

  Aydarr, his mate, MARL the ancient alien Artificial Intelligence Jill owned, the pack’s enforcer Mateer and senior soldier Kierce were waiting. The Alpha made quick work of offering Flo a mug of the local tea, which she accepted and then they were all seated and waiting expectantly for the discussion.

  “We’ve got a rare opportunity,” the Alpha said, getting right to the heart of the matter as was his usual style, “To finally locate the island facility where Kierce was created and where the other Badari he grew up with are imprisoned.”

  Flo glanced at the impassive Kierce, the only Badari who could actually shift into his animal form. “That’s good news. Are we flying out tonight or tomorrow?”

  Aydarr shook his head. “The situation is much more complicated. I need a volunteer for an undercover mission and I won’t lie—it’s going to be risky for a variety of reasons. MARL caught an intercept today indicating a small shipment of human women is to be sent to this island, wherever it is, to be mated to the Badari. Now the Khagrish can’t create any more of us in the labs, for whatever reason, the scientists are desperate to make us the old fashioned way.”

  “Using human women,” she said with disgust. The Khagrish had no redeeming virtues she was aware of, being a thoroughly repellent race lacking any vestige of ethics. They pursued their experiments and distorted research at all costs and with no compunctions about harming others, especially Badari or humans.

  “Right. The situation is evidently so desperate this secret base broke their silence to negotiate with Dr. Gahzhing at the central lab on this continent for a group of women, who are to be flown out tomorrow from a lab in the east.” Aydarr’s voice dripped contempt for Gahzhing, who’d held him captive at one time and attempted to molest Jill. She’d gotten the better of him and escaped but no one on either side would ever forgive or forget the past.

  A prickling on the back of Flo’s neck represented her well-honed instinct for danger waking up, making her wary but excited at the same time. As a former soldier, she craved the excitement and challen
ges of a major operation against the enemy. Her adrenaline levels rose just thinking about the possibilities. “Are we going to shadow the delivery flyer?”

  Aydarr shook his head. “Not a bad idea but even when we find the island, we don’t know the current situation. Kierce told us the pack structure was never instituted and the Khagrish there have actively sought to eliminate anyone showing alpha characteristics.”

  Flo swung around in her chair to gape at Kierce, who shrugged and elaborated. “We have our men we look up to but we keep their position among us a secret. And there’s no hierarchy such as we have here in this pack. Now I’ve been here in the valley for a while, I can see how effective the strategy has been at my original lab, keeping the Badari disorganized and less able to rebel.”

  Drumming his talons on the table, Aydarr wrenched control of the discussion back to his own agenda. “We can’t go in there blind. Flo, I need a volunteer to be substituted for one of the human women in the group, wearing a tracker and find the Alpha at the island lab, or whatever passes for one in their structure, and size up the situation. Give me an assessment of what will happen if we do mount a rescue operation. Maybe even negotiate an alliance.”

  Pulse pounding, she stared at him. “You want me to go undercover?”

  “Exactly. Gabe tells me you did this type of work before, when you were in the Sectors military. I need someone who can finesse the situation and stay alive long enough to find out what I need to know, whose judgment I trust and who happens to be a human woman.” The Alpha grinned but it was obvious his mild sally was surface amusement only. “You, in other words.”

  “I volunteered to allow myself to be recaptured,” Kierce said.

  “Not happening.” Aydarr’s refusal was immediate. “There’s no guarantee they’d take you to the island, since you’re the only survivor of the special experiment done on this continent. You might find yourself being studied at the central facility here by Dr. Gahzhing, who relishes conducting research in a lot of painful ways. We can’t risk you.”

  “Then we’d have to rescue your ass a second time,” Mateer said with a smile and a poke in the ribs that nearly dislodged Kierce from his chair. The two men were close in size, although Flo often wondered if Kierce’s ability to transform into a giant tiger gave him any kind of an edge over the enforcer.

  “So let me get the mission parameters straight,” Flo said, discarding the tangential thoughts about Mateer and Kierce and where they stood in the pack’s dominance hierarchy. Focus on the job at hand. “We fly to this other lab tonight, yank one woman out, substitute me, I get taken to the island, which you’ll then have the location of since I’ll be wearing a tracker—”

  “I’ll insert a manifestation of myself into your spine,” MARL said, from where he floated in the air next to Jill. His surface was dappled with shades of green today, like algae clouds in constant motion.

  Ok, Flo didn’t like the sound of that but leave the detail for later. “Riiight. I find the Alpha who’ll be incognito, tell him about us and…what?”

  “MARL says he can contact you via the device he plans to implant,” Jill said, entering the conversation. Anything to do with MARL was her department since the AI only answered to her. “Depending on your evaluation of the situation, we’ll decide on the next course of action.”

  “She’ll be going in pretty blind.” Gabe didn’t sound happy. “I know Kierce can brief her to some extent but conditions may have changed there since he was sent to this continent.”

  Flo appreciated her old captain watching out for her. She also had to admit the assignment was important and had intriguing aspects. And I love the fact no one else can carry this job out as well as I can. Professional pride banished the butterflies in her gut.

  “The thing is,” Kierce said, choosing his words with care, “Although the Badari on the island hate the Khagrish for the most part, some refuse to see with clear vision. A few men collaborate to gain special privileges, to be allowed to live past the standard termination date, or for a variety of personally motivated reasons. And as I said, there’s no pack as such. So even if the Alpha who was there when I left declared his support for Aydarr and led an uprising when we attack, things may not go smoothly.”

  “We need to know. We need current intel,” Jill said, drumming her fingers on the table. “But first we need to know where the damn island is.”

  Aydarr was watching Flo carefully as if trying to read her mind. “You can refuse. I’m not ordering anyone to go into such a dangerous situation.”

  “Who would you send then?” Flo asked, already possessive of her assignment. “I mean, we do have a few other women with military skills among the population but no one to my knowledge with the specialized training and experience I have.”

  “You’re clearly the logical candidate, the best person for the mission.” Aydarr rose. “We can give you half an hour to decide. I’ll be in my office if you want to discuss this in private with Gabe and maybe Kierce. Then either we’re a go or I have to move on to the next candidate.”

  “No need,” she said, turning her head left and then right and cracking her neck to ease the tension building in the ligaments. “I’m in. Let’s get this rolling.”

  The Alpha showed no surprise. She heard Gabe clear his throat as if he might want to say something but when Flo checked with him wordlessly, he shook his head. “You’ve got guts, Florenzia.”

  She flipped him her middle finger. “And I hate my full name, as you know. I wish I’d never told you.”

  “You didn’t—it was right there on your military honorable discharge record.” Gabe smirked.

  “We’re keeping everything to do with this mission top secret,” Aydarr said, ignoring the banter. “Dr. Garrison will come up to assist MARL in doing the implant—”

  “Human anatomy is straightforward,” the AI interrupted, red flashes spiking through the green on his surface. “I require no assistance.”

  “Well you’re going to get it,” Aydarr said in a no nonsense tone, frowning in MARL’s direction. “I’m not letting you insert anything in a human without a human doctor observing and advising.”

  MARL rose higher in the air as if he planned to protest but a glance from Jill and he settled. “Very well.”

  The Alpha outlined the next steps crisply. “As soon as the implant is done, we’ll head out to the lab where the women are gathered. Gabe, you’ll pilot. MARL is going to help us infiltrate the lab, snatch a woman and put you in her place, Flo. We know the Khagrish don’t pay much attention to the details of any particular human, other than my mate here, so it should work. You can blend with the crowd.” Now he grinned. “Despite the hair color. Fortunately your fellow humans seem to go in for these exotic shades.”

  “I can take out the color with a quick rinse, if we have the right chemicals,” Flo offered. It was true, however, she’d seen many freed prisoners male and female with hair as spectacularly colorful as hers. The style was a Sectors-wide fad in fact.

  “I’ll check with Nicolle about the hair while you’re getting the implant from MARL but if we don’t have a way to reverse the colors, we’ll have to take the chance,” Jill said. “The intel we’ve gotten from recent rescuees is the Khagrish are mixing prisoners taken from various ships, so it won’t necessarily appear odd to any of the other women to have you in their midst. Kierce will brief you as much as he can about his island on the flight to the lab.”

  There was a knock at the door and Dr. Megan Garrison came in. Flo had forgotten she was telepathic with all the Badari. Probably the instant she’d said she’d do this crazy mission, Aydarr or Mateer, the doctor’s mate, must have called Megan. The doctor looked Flo over carefully.

  “You’re doing this of your own free will? You understand the risks?” she asked.

  “Seven hells, doc, who understands all the risks around here? I trust MARL.” About as far as I can throw him, which is not at all but this mission can’t succeed if I don’t take the implant. Wou
ldn’t be the first time Flo had been sent out on a job with new or experimental tech. Sometimes it worked and other times there was a spectacular fuck up. She’d deal. The chance to take on such a critical task and to have more real action than flying squads of soldiers here and there every day and training Badari to be better pilots was too good to resist. She’d been missing the extra edge real danger provided in life.

  For the implant procedure, Flo, Dr. Garrison, Jill and MARL removed to a smaller conference room where a bed had been set up.

  “Want me to come hold your hand?” Gabe asked, his manner flippant but real concern shining in his eyes.

  Flo shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, captain, but no one in our old branch of the service needs hand holding. If MARL screws this up, I’ll blast him, first chance I get.”

  The AI emitted a high pitched squeak, turned blazing orange and zigzagged across the room. Jill laughed and made a beckoning gesture at her sidekick as if wooing a skittish pet. “She was kidding. We all know you can’t be affected by our weapons. Come back here and do this. We don’t have much time.”

  Gabe shook Flo’s hand and left the room, saying nonchalantly over his shoulder, “See you on the flyer then.” He didn’t fool Flo—he was worried about her but he had confidence in her proven abilities to get a difficult job done.

  “If you’ll strip and lie face down on the bed, please,” Megan said, taking a portable scanner out of her medical bag. “I need to check for any abnormalities or pre-existing conditions before we let MARL do an implant.”

  “Here’s a medical gown.” Jill handed Flo the item in question, looted from a Khagrish lab.