Alcandian Rage Read online

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Alcandian Rage

  ISBN # 1-4199-0098-6

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Alcandian Rage Copyright© 2005 Mary Wine

  Edited by: Sue-Ellen Gower

  Cover art by: Syneca

  Electronic book Publication: September 2005

  This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Warning:

  The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. Alcandian Rage has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

  S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

  E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

  X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

  Alcandian Rage

  Mary Wine

  Chapter One

  Earth

  “You should eat.”

  Zeva moved her eyes around to the doorway but only out of curiosity. A female voice was foreign to her captivity and the one coming from the doorway rated a look. Her abandoned food tray wasn’t worth considering. Zeva needed her body in top form and her limited exercise periods meant she had to control her caloric intake to avoid gaining weight.

  Besides, she refused to be predictable like some animal in a zoo that had long ago forgotten that it was a captive.

  “I am Cassandra.” Zeva controlled her urge to smile sarcastically at the female guard. The clothing she wore was the fabric Zeva had come to recognize as Earth’s military uniform. It was misshapen splotches of green, brown and beige. This Cassandra wore a pair of pants decorated in those splotches and a green shirt of the same fabric. Zeva detested the uniform. It drove home her state of captivity. It was amazing how you took for granted all of the little things in life that made you look forward to the next sunrise.

  Things like, being surrounded by people that you did not need to hide your smiles from. Here on Earth, Zeva had to tighten her attention and capture any little emotional display. The guards around her delighted in recording any and all things she did. Their security cameras never turned away from her.

  Cassandra walked into the room. Zeva watched the way she moved because her black boots did not make a sound on the smooth tile. That was a skill she could respect. It spoke of a female who valued training and Zeva understood that.

  “If you could tell me what food you prefer, I will make certain your meals are more to your taste.” Cassandra looked at the dark stain of sweat marking the Alcandian girl’s T-shirt. Her breathing had calmed now but she had been working out in the containment cell when Cassandra entered.

  Cassandra held a secret admiration for her. Zeva, she corrected herself. This woman might be an alien but she was a person. It was strange how a little knowledge could change your outlook on life. Like most humans, Cassandra had not been in the loop as far as information went on Earth’s contact with Alcandar.

  Cassandra grimaced. Well, it was a past association with the other planet now. The Alcandian girl in front of her was the only thing left of that relationship.

  “You can watch me through your television cameras just as well.” Zeva pointed out that fact as she moved her feet into a better stance. Knowing she was being watched every second of the day and night was one thing, having her jailer in the same room was more than her temper wanted to tolerate.

  Zeva frowned at her own thoughts. What exactly was she going to do? She was trapped in the room and any demonstrations of her anger on her pathetic jailers got her confined to a much smaller cell. They called it discipline—she had other names for it. Ones her mother would have scolded her for using.

  “Sorry. I shouldn’t have stared at you.”

  Zeva lifted an eyebrow. Now that was different. Courtesy from a human was indeed a rarity. This human had light-colored hair. Blonde, they called it. Her eyes were the same blue as Jessica’s brother too.

  “I came to see if you are interested in working. Command has decided to offer you a job. It isn’t very interesting work but I guess it would beat this room.”

  That would not be hard to do. Zeva studied the woman a moment. “What kind of job?”

  “Uniform warehousing. It’s boring work and the warehouse is always too hot or cold. You do a lot of lifting and walking. Of course York told me to warn you that if you tell anyone who you are—”

  Zeva snorted, cutting Cassandra off. “He will what? I will tell you what he will do…nothing! This York is a coward who sends others to carry out his orders. But I understand your terms. I would like to see this work.” Zeva held her face calm. Her body was jumping with excitement. Finally her patience had paid off! Getting out of her cell was the first step to freedom. She would never embrace the human lifestyle but she had to make them trust her, or at least trust the fact that she was beaten. Then her jailers would grow lax and she could plan her escape.

  * * * * *

  Alcandar

  Ravid knew he was close because his nose caught the scent of fresh blood. He didn’t bother to check the communication unit secured to his wrist. Four inches wide, the golden bracelet was a mark of his profession. Keenan wore an identical one as he moved beside him. The other team helping them search hadn’t reported in but Ravid sniffed the air once more and moved towards the metallic scent.

  Each of the four clans that his Judgment Hall was responsible for had female-only grounds. Mature warriors were forbidden to cross onto those areas. Among a race that produced too few females, there was strict law governing their contact with warriors.

  But not all warriors agreed on that point.

  Tampering with their genetic code had sent the Alcandian race into a new era of struggle. It might be thought that conquering disease meant nothing but happiness. Instead, science had unlocked a whole new chain of threats to life as Alcandians knew it.

  Males grew larger and their bodies became more dominant. That had been one of the major mistakes of the Alcandian genetic tampering. Males craved strength. Once it was tapped into, there were parts of the brain that refused to stop at just growth. Buried deep inside their brains were seeds of primitive hunters that grew right along with their bodies. Aggression bloomed with their height.

  The need to hunt for a mate went hand in hand with that building of physical strength.

  Alcandians were stretched between the ability to manipulate nature itself and the reality that they never should have tampered with life. As the male genes were genetically altered to be stronger and more powerful, they took over the reproductive centers of the brain causing the next generation to be born with dominant numbers of male chromosomes in the sperm.

  And that led teams
like him and Keenan to a run-down manor house on the outskirts of Bendark territory. Alcandian warriors could psychically link with a female, but only their mate. There was no known formula for finding that rare female. After touching her mind, warriors lost the urge to mate with any female but theirs.

  Before that, the enhanced male genes included a need to mate that was fueled by primitive cells that could not be separated from the more civilized ones.

  Ravid battled against that demon every day that he and Keenan patrolled their grounds. He believed in the laws that protected females. He wasn’t willing to see his homeworld dissolve into a civilization where males preyed on females and used their greater strength to force them into submission.

  Keenan stopped as the metallic smell of blood increased. His eyes moved over the tile floor as Ravid stopped in the doorway. They moved in unison because their minds were linked. It made them stronger—harder to defeat. Their thoughts flowed between them as Keenan brushed a doorway curtain aside.

  “We are Judgment officials.” Keenan kept his voice low as he lowered his body to look at their victim. Her eyes were wide with terror as her feet tried to push her back despite the stone wall her back was against. She was huddled in a ball as Ravid looked at the harsh evidence of Alcandian males who hadn’t developed discipline to control their own bodies.

  The female was bloody from hard use and her face swollen from abuse. It was a harsh reality that resulted from a male failing to become a warrior. Without honor, a male was a savage who preyed on anything weaker. Whether it was food or mating, the only thing a dishonorable male craved was feeding his own selfish desires.

  Ravid raised his arm to contact the other teams searching the area. A memory official would view the female’s ordeal through her eyes and hopefully gain enough information to begin tracking the deviants responsible.

  “Chandler, we have recovered the female.”

  There was no reply. Keenan turned his eyes away from the female to look at Ravid. He stood up and attempted contact on his own communication link. Silence made Keenan move through a doorway as Ravid punched in their location before moving along with his companion.

  Reaching up, Ravid gave the door curtain a sharp tug to free the fabric from its rod. He reached for their recovered victim and wrapped the length of dirty fabric around her body. Whimpers escaped from her lips despite the fist she had shoved in her mouth. Her eyes flew to his uniform as she tried to break out of terror’s hold.

  Ravid took her with him into the next room. He was caught between the need to back Keenan up, and protect their victim. Tension filled the air as silence stretched out. Chandler would have answered if the warrior could, the fact that he did not made Ravid move silently through the next room and onto the one connected to it.

  There was no blood this time. Death had been delivered to the team of Judgment officials from behind. Their skulls caved in by a heavy blow to each. Rage filled him as Ravid knelt next to Chandler and turned the warrior over. His eyes stared up without seeing as Keenan’s anger joined with Ravid’s. Judgment officials were family but Chandler was his own blood. The rage inside him boiled until it transfused into his brain on a cellular level. It went beyond emotion. It became a driving need that would haunt both Keenan and himself until blood satisfied it.

  * * * * *

  One year later on Earth

  It was mindless work, unless you were using it to teach yourself a foreign language. Zeva forced herself to understand the list on her clipboard. She spoke English but had never learned to read it. Her new job was full of little opportunities to learn. Knowledge was the key to her freedom. She watched the warehouse for any and all details that might help in her quest for freedom.

  She couldn’t give up. Despair stalked her but she resisted its lure. It had been a full year now since the humans had destroyed the wormhole that connected Alcandar to Earth. Just who was right or wrong she wasn’t sure about anymore. The only thing that burned clearly was the need to escape.

  Her people had built the gate to find mates. Earth was currently evolving into a female species. Alcandians knew that because their race was a millennium older and they had been enduring the same genetic difficulties, only on Alcandar, they were becoming all male. Females on Alcandar were rare. Only one in twenty births was a little girl. The males had turned to the stars to find mates to fill that gap.

  Alcandians held the science to prove what humans were only beginning to notice on Earth. The rise in female births was deeply coded into their DNA and increased its effect on their race each generation. Alcandar was willing to share the data in return for allowing their warriors to silently search among the population for mates. Alcandian warriors needed to be able to psychically bridge with a female before they could claim her. It was a matter of honor to the men from her world.

  Earth had too many females and while it might be accepted that it was a match made to perfection, humans had resented it. Zeva wasn’t sure anymore. Alcandian warriors claimed their mates when and where they found them. It was based on their abilities to mind-bridge. Once that happened, the female was taken back to Alcandar. It was easy to see how humans might view that as plundering.

  What humans didn’t see was the tradition that surrounded those introduction rituals. Females, even ones taken from other races, were never allowed to be hurt. Warrior could tempt and attempt to corner them into passion but force was not tolerated beyond taking the female to Alcandar.

  Zeva looked at the open warehouse door and sighed. She did understand how that could be considered barbaric. Alcandian warriors had more determination than any creature she had ever encountered. They were relentless when they believed they had found their mate.

  Two faces floated through her memory. Keenan and Ravid. They were two Alcandian warriors who had been stalking her before her abduction. The two men were sculpted to perfection and she shivered at just their memory, but the idea of allowing them too near her sparked a fear deep inside her heart. Her temper often flared up as she thought about that cowardice. She did not like finding it inside herself.

  Alcandian warriors trained for battle every day. They grew far taller than humans, and even at her height of six feet, her head didn’t reach Ravid’s shoulder. In his embrace she would be helpless. Shame tugged at her because Ravid was a warrior. The man had honor and would never harm a female, but still the fear showed up every time she felt one of the two men near her.

  A little smile tugged her lips up. Yes, both men circled her. The humans held that little Alcandian fact against her race as well. When an Alcandian male was in his youth he always chose a companion. It was another male he could trust with his very life. If he ever went into battle, the two fought as one, a kind of team that made them even more fierce and harder to defeat. They mind-bridged to make it possible to communicate and thereby bonded into a form of brotherhood that was sometimes even stronger than death.

  Keenan was Ravid’s companion and the two were feared on parts of Alcandar. They were Judgment officials, enforcers of the law on other warriors. The two warriors didn’t negotiate or listen to pleas, they imposed their duty with iron strength.

  A shiver raised goose bumps on her bare forearm. Zeva looked at the reaction and frowned. She had never let either man get close enough to touch her mind but they had been crowding her into a smaller circle every day before she was captured. Warriors were not allowed in the unbound female areas of Alcandar.

  Once a warrior found his mate, a fever ignited inside him. If the female was too young for binding it might drive the male insane while he waited for her to grow up. Zeva rubbed her arms to smooth out the bumps. Whatever reaction she might have to Ravid did not matter now. The man was an entire planet away and so was Keenan.

  It was both warriors who wanted her. Alcandian unions were not monogamous. This time her thoughts made her smile as a pair of human military men walked by. The humans acted disgusted by her homeworld customs but three-member mating groups were very practical on a
world where there were too few females. Some warriors even had two companions and therefore they would have only one female among the three males. When one member of a warrior union became interested in a female, his brother-at-arms immediately shared his thoughts. They either shared her or fought over her.

  And that had left her struggling to outsmart both Ravid and Keenan. It had not been simple and Zeva still battled with the fear that drove her to do it. Not that it mattered here in her prison, but alone with her thoughts, the two men’s faces refused to leave her in peace. It felt like they were reaching for her across the expanse of space.

  Maybe they were. Zeva didn’t know for sure. She was to blame for that. She had kept to the female areas of her home despite the fact that she had reached her Triparh. Her Alcandian maturity birthday. At twenty-four she was allowed and encouraged to mingle with the male population until she encountered a warrior who could touch her mind.

  Her thoughts went somber as she thought about her mother leading her out of the female section that first time. Paneil was so proud of her daughter! Zeva had followed her mother because she just didn’t have the heart to disappoint her. It had been a secret relief to pass that first day without feeling the burning sensation of contact in her head.

  As that first day had been joined by others and turned into weeks and seasons, Zeva had relaxed back into her own life. She had her own studio where she trained girls in the Alcandian art of self-defense. Truthfully, she was relieved to be able to return to her life without the complication of binding mates. Binding with any warriors meant submission and that was something that her soul rebelled against. There was something wrong with her. Alcandian girls looked forward to mind-bridging with their mates, yet Zeva wanted to avoid it like death. The idea of being pressed between the hard bodies of warriors struck her as helpless and it turned her blood as cold as ice.