Royal Recruit: OtherWorldly Men #2 Read online

  Royal Recruit

  OtherWorldly Men #2

  Susan Grant

  Contents

  About Royal Recruit

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  From the Author

  Also by Susan Grant

  Copyright © 2007, 2020 by Susan Grant

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction about fictional people.

  * * *

  Cover art: Biserka Design

  About Royal Recruit

  Warrior Queen Keira is as famous for her beauty as she is for avoiding marriage. But when an upstart little planet called Earth threatens her worlds with its fleet of spaceships, the fate of her people lies in her hands. She must bind herself to a barbarian from the rogue world—or face the destruction of her own.

  Fighter pilot Jared Jasper knows the trick Earth pulls on the alien invaders isn’t a permanent solution. What they need is a peace treaty. It just never occurs to him that he will wind up on the bargaining table. Playing the pushover groom to a bossy alien babe who likes throwing daggers is not exactly his idea of fun. But with billions of people depending on him, he doesn’t have much choice—sleep with the enemy…or bring on interstellar war.

  An arranged marriage with a twist, this galactic alliance may just turn into a love match.

  “I loved this book!” — Sylvia Day, New York Times bestselling author

  (Based on the title My Favorite Earthling)

  Chapter One

  CALIFORNIA POLITICIAN AND ALIEN LOVER SAVE THE WORLD

  Reuters—one hour ago

  WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters)—After spending much of the night in emergency meetings, a visibly emotional President Laurel Ramos announced that the alien invasion force threatening Earth has been turned away. “Today we have two new heroes—California State Senator Jana Jasper and her extraordinary extraterrestrial friend, Cavin Caydinn. It is not an exaggeration to say that the two of them have saved the world. I hereby rescind the state of emergency and declare this day a national holiday. Senator Jasper, Major Caydinn, today we celebrate your courage and vision as one world newly united by a common cause. A very grateful world indeed.”

  Over the weekend, Jasper, thirty-two, and Caydinn, thirty-four (est.) were taken by officials to an undisclosed location in the western United States, where the pair were successful in deterring the invasion. Because of possible monitoring of Earth communications by the aliens, full details on the operation will not be revealed. At the news, celebrations broke out all over the world.

  The tale of terror and daring had a romantic beginning. Jasper, the youngest child of U.S. congressman John Jasper and former Soviet ballet dancer Larisa Porizkova, met Caydinn when they were children. Caydinn’s father, a scientist, traveled to Earth to determine its suitability for acquisition, a fact not immediately known by Caydinn at the time. Sources close to the couple say that after landing in the invisible spacecraft on the Jasper family ranch, young Caydinn sneaked away to explore on his own and encountered the girl. “It was love at first sight,” enthuses Evie Holloway, thirty-five, Jasper’s sister.

  Despite the passage of over two decades, the pair never forgot each other. According to sources close to the couple, Caydinn abandoned his post as a high-ranking military officer to warn Jasper that plans were underway for a takeover of Earth. Despite several attempts on his life by a biomechatronic assassin (popularly known as a cyborg), now presumed dead, Caydinn seems to have triumphed, Jasper at his side.

  “I wouldn’t get your hopes too high,” the state senator warned officials after leaving the remote location where she and Caydinn are said to have rebuffed the alien fleet. “It was a delay tactic, not a permanent fix. It buys us time to prepare and that’s all.”

  “The Coalition Fleet is coming back, no doubt about that,” advised Jared Jasper, thirty-six, the senator’s brother. “And whether we like it or not, all of us will be on the front lines when they do.” The Sacramento real-estate developer and national guard fighter pilot assisted in turning back the alien invasion, although details on his role in the operation were not available due to security concerns.

  A press conference is scheduled for later today at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, where legendary Jasper patriarch and former California governor Jake Jasper was rushed early this morning after suffering a massive stroke.

  * * *

  Three weeks later, near a planet far, far away…

  The Coalition’s interim Minster of Intelligence wiped his wet palms on his trousers as he briefed his superior on the brazen conspiracy he’d uncovered.

  Standing in his boss’s luxurious office, he swung between alarm and grogginess. An incident with an unaligned isolated world known as Earth had kept him up far too late. Combined with his sudden appointment to this post, a position he’d held for exactly one week, and now this bombshell intelligence, he was downright rattled.

  Focus. He fought to collect his thoughts. The enemy is amongst us.

  Outside a nearby porthole, he could see countless similar portholes, glittering like jewels on the enormous space station high above the icy planet Sakka, the Goddess Keep. The magnificence of the Ring, the seat of their parliament and the headquarters of their military, never failed to leave him awestruck. After finding what everyone else had so carelessly overlooked, he was confident he would be installed as the permanent minister, assuring job security for years to come.

  His superior folded his hands on his desk. “You learned of a REEF dispatched to track down a high-ranking Marine officer who had gone AWOL. This isn’t that unusual, minister. Even good officers can crack under pressure.”

  “True. But the REEF’s orders were to kill Prime-Major Caydinn, not take him into custody.”

  “Perhaps he resisted arrest.”

  “It appears to have been a kill order from its inception. An assassination order, although I can’t yet tell who gave the orders. It came from within my office. But of course my predecessor isn’t here to ask, goddess rest her soul.” He exhaled then proceeded. “The prime-major was to be selected as consort to the queen.” The poor bastard, he almost added. Years ago, the goddess-queen almost killed a man who’d tried to take her by force by castrating him with a smart-sword. After she had sliced off his bullocks, she’d kept him on at the palace as a eunuch—and as a warning for those who might be tempted to take similar liberties. Perhaps Caydinn’s untimely demise was a lucky break—it had saved him from a similar fate. “I find it troubling that someone wanted the top contender for the goddess-queen’s hand eliminated. More, a code inserted in the kill order will cause the REEF to self-destruct once it reports the mission is completed.”

  It struck him as barbaric, inserting a self-destruct sequence, if there were traces of humanity left in the engineered soldier. Though if one didn’t want tracks leading back to the source of this heinous crime, better to kill the killer and eliminate any messy evidence.

  The minister lowered his voice. “As
all this was transpiring, there was a spike in communications between sources inside the Drakken Empire and our government. I have only partially decrypted the messages, but I believe I have uncovered a plot, an unthinkable plot, to take control of Her Majesty’s Sakkaran lineage.” Divine rule—it was the purest of all powers. It would bring anyone who controlled that power superiority over the entire galaxy. “This is why they wanted Caydinn eliminated.”

  He couldn’t quite get over the sudden coldness in his superior’s eyes. You look as if you could do the job with your own two hands.

  “A very thorough briefing, minister. You have saved us all. I will be sending your report up the chain of command immediately. You are dismissed.”

  The minister opened his mouth to protest the sudden discharge then clamped it shut. He was only the interim minister. If he wanted to keep the position, he needed to know his place. Likely, his superior would get all the credit for his hard work.

  As he brought his fist across his chest in a show of respect, he heard the door open behind him. Reflected in a crystal sculpture on the desk was the image of a gun being aimed at his back.

  Terror engulfed him, his stomach plummeting. His mind raced, thoughts moving at lightspeed. Briefly, he thought about his predecessor. The woman’s death had been ruled an accident, but perhaps she had assisted with this dreadful plot—and then was eliminated for knowing too much.

  Or, perhaps she refused to cooperate, as he had made clear he would do.

  But he wasn’t as stupid or naïve as his superior thought. He’d left a warning to be triggered in the event of his disappearance. When the REEF opened his sec-comm to report the kill, it would connect to the royal direct line, alerting Her Majesty that something was amiss. He only hoped it happened before it was too late.

  The image of the wild and willful goddess’s likely reaction to the arrangements being made behind her back was so satisfying that when the fatal shot was fired, the minister died with a smile on his face.

  Chapter Two

  Earth

  Jared Jasper felt as if he’d been run over by a truck. An eighteen-wheeler. Fully loaded.

  His aching head and dry mouth weren’t from a hangover. The single bottle of beer he’d sucked down twelve hours earlier had metabolized out of his system so long ago that he barely remembered drinking it. It was post-saving-the-world syndrome, he decided, reaching for a little elusive humor to carry him through the day after another night spent tossing and turning.

  Saving the world wasn’t for the weak, especially when it was followed by losing a grandfather whose passing would leave a gaping hole in his life. Not to mention having to make an appearance in front of a cheering crowd of thousands outside the hospital an hour later. After losing a loved one, you craved privacy; it was only human. But his family didn’t enjoy the kind of privacy others did. The Jaspers were a political dynasty. Senators, congressmen, governors, both at the national and state level, they were called California’s “First Family.”

  No fund-raiser or election victory party had ever come close to matching the spontaneous celebration yesterday in front of the capitol building in Sacramento, where his sister and father had given speeches, a celebration Jared would love to have shared, but he knew too much.

  He knew the aliens were coming back. He knew they were so territorially ravenous that they combed the stars scooping up habitable worlds, collecting people and resources so they could stay one up on their opponent, the Drakken Empire, overseen by a Darth Vaderish warlord named Lord-General Rakkuu.

  Yeah, he would have celebrated if he didn’t know the Coalition would consider their take over of Earth an acquisition, not an invasion, even though it meant removing the entire native population and shipping them somewhere else.

  In his business as a commercial real estate developer, he knew this as imminent domain. It referred to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use. In the U.S., the government could take land only if they provided just compensation to the property owners. According to Cavin Caydinn, his future brother in law and the man who’d warned Earth of the coming invasion, the only thing the Coalition would offer was protection from the Drakken Empire.

  No, not gonna be enough. They weren’t handing over Earth.

  Jared made a sound of contempt in his throat as he pulled on a sweatshirt and prepared to leave the family ranch where everyone else was still sleeping. Give him half a chance and he’d teach the Coalition a thing or two about acquisitions and hostile takeovers. They wouldn’t like it. He guaranteed that.

  Problem was it wasn’t up to him—or guys like him. He considered himself more of a scrappy mediator than an eloquent boardroom negotiator. When it came to politics too many people in his family did it better. Or at least they enjoyed it, which was more than he could say about his feelings on the subject.

  The elder Jaspers hadn’t tried to stop him when he’d decided to pursue dual careers in commercial real estate and military flying. His grandfather, while accepting of his choice, had been somewhat disappointed, but soon he’d had Jana to groom, whose success had brought the old man immeasurable pleasure up until the day he died. But in Grandpa’s view, every Jasper was a public servant, politico or no. “Our duty to others comes before our own interests and ambition,” he’d say.

  Jared was no stranger to duty—his national guard career testified to that; he just wasn’t cut out for the “sacrifice your life for the greater good” thing. He’d fight in the trenches to the bitter end, but he wasn’t going to lead the charge.

  The sun was barely up as he grabbed the keys to his pickup and walked outside. The threat of alien invasion seemed to hang over the world like summer smog in the L.A. basin. He made up his mind to stick with his routine: Grab coffee, something to eat, then hit the gym. After working out, he’d head to the office, although his eerily efficient staff would probably ask why he’d bothered.

  How would he answer the question? That he was restless? Sleep-deprived? That somehow his view of life, his future, had shifted, and what used to feel comfortable about his existence now felt like a new pair of shoes that rubbed? He doubted he was the only one on Earth feeling this way, but his deeper involvement magnified the symptoms.

  Jared sat in the idling car, gripping the steering wheel as he watched the sun rise over the ranch-house roof. Everyone who mattered to him was inside that house. His parents, his sisters. And now Cavin. His family all maintained separate residences, but somehow they always gravitated back here, where they’d grown up.

  Where all the good memories lived.

  As firstborn, the ranch would be his someday. He’d raise a family here, and his kids would run through the fields and climb the trees, riding the old tire swing to splash landings in the pond. Sure, he was a ways off from settling down, but it was comforting somehow, knowing that life waited for him.

  Waited for him? Was he freaking hallucinating? An alien fleet was off somewhere, likely regrouping. Unless Earth figured out how to keep them away, extraterrestrials would be taking up residence at the ranch, not him. Not his family.

  He jammed the idling pickup into drive and skidded around the arc of the gravel driveway. Before he could drive off, the front door opened and his younger sister burst outside. “Jared, wait!”

  Dressed in sweats with a yoga mat tucked under her arm, Evie trotted down the driveway. “I’m on my way to get coffee,” he said. “Then the gym.

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  “Hop in.”

  A whiff of vanilla followed her into the seat. Evie always smelled good. She smelled like home. “What a night,” she said.

  “Yeah. Couldn’t sleep. You?”

  “I popped an Ambien and slept like a baby,” she said. Her laughter made him smile. If Jana was the heart of the family, Evie was the warmth. But that usually got him a dirty look because she took it as a comment on her weight, which in his mind wasn’t a problem. Something was wrong with society if a
woman with curves saw them as something to be shed. But lately she’d been taking yoga classes, which she loved. It was the best sign yet that she was getting over divorcing the asshole who’d cheated on her. For a domestic goddess whose home was the heart of her existence, seeing it break up had to be rough. It didn’t seem right that the world was now threatening to come unglued just as Evie was thinking about rejoining it.

  She slid her window down and inhaled. Her thick, dark-brown hair blew around her shoulders. “Springtime, finally. Think it’s too early for poppies?”

  “Let’s check it out.” He pulled off the road and four-wheeled it through the meadow. Evie’s shrieks of delight echoed in the morning calm as they flew over hills and plunged down gullies. He knew without talking about it that this was what they needed after suffering such a devastating family tragedy and nearly losing their little sister. But they’d always been a lot alike, he and Evie.

  Evie was even more disinterested in politics. While he’d gone to Stanford, Evie had suffered through two years at a junior college before realizing her lifelong dream of becoming a wife and mom. They might be Jaspers, but they wanted no part of the glory themselves.

  The pickup creaked as it bounced along over dirt and rocks. Evie pointed to a long ditch ahead. “That one,” she cried. “Jump it.”