β Scribed by Bristol, Cara
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
For an alien and a human girl, allβs fair in love and courtshipβ¦
Attorney Toni Sutterman is on the fast-track, her success all but an open-and-shut case when she realizes she lacks whatβs important: true love. With marriage-minded men in short supply on planet Earth, she joins the Intergalactic Dating Agency hoping to find a good match with an extraterrestrial. When her alien mate finally arrives, he proves beyond all doubt to be the man of her dreams: tall, sexy, romantic, and totally devoted to her. So what if thereβs a bit of gray area about how he actually got here?
Aton of planet Dakon doesnβt mean to pull a fast one. He has every intent to play by the rules until false accusations get him escorted from the spaceship just before it blasts off. Neither spurious allegations nor the vastness of space will keep him from his mate, so he makes his own way to Earth to claim the female he was promised. As soon as he sees Toni, he recognizes her as his Fated mate. Confident heβs acted in good faith, he focuses on courting her and beginning their life together.
But when a rival discovers the truth and administers some rough justice, will Toni be willing to break the rules and become Atonβs partner in crime to save their futureβ¦or will she play by the book?
**
*An excerpt from ATON: Dakonian Alien Mail Order Brides #2 *
Mr. Uber pulled his vehicle to the curb. "This is the lastone," he said.
I peered dubiously at the soaring glass building squeezedamong other tall structures. "This doesn't look like the kind of hut in whichmy female would live." Honking vehicles sped by. Sirens wailed in the distance.People with heads bent over small devices crowded the walkways, rushing amongbrown-and-gray reflective towers that blocked out much of the sky.
We'd been to two dwellings in more habitable areas, butneither of the females living in them was mine. They'd gaped at me like I wascrazy when I asked if they had expected me, but even before their resoundingnos, my heart had whispered they weren't the right one. I'd never met my mate,didn't have any idea what she looked like, but I felt certain when I saw her, Iwould recognize her. The Fates would ensure it.
Mr. Uber squinted at his phone. "This isn't a house; it's an office building for Antoinette Sutterman,attorney-at-law. I'd wait for you...but I got another fare..." He tapped on hisdevice.
"No, you go on. There's nothing more you can do anyway." If myAntoinette Sutterman didn't live here, I would need to regroup and figure outwhere else to search.
"Good luck! I hope you find your woman," he said.
"Thank you." I slid out of the vehicle onto the curb.
With a wave, he merged into the stream of moving vehiclesand disappeared.
I peered up at the tall building and prayed to the Fates. Please let this be the one.
I'd left Dakon with no information other than the name of mymate and her camp--New Los Angeles. To my dismay, her camp turned out to be muchlarger and more populated than I had expected. I'd had no idea where to beginmy search. I couldn't go to the Intergalactic Dating Agency for help because Iwasn't supposed to be here.
Fortunately, as I'd wandered the streets, the hand of theFates had guided me to the Stellar Dust Bin, a tavern frequented byextraterrestrials, one of whom happened to be a Dakonian who'd been on Terrafor about a year. Rojak used his phone to locate the huts where all theAntoinette Suttermans lived and called Mr. Uber to take me to them.
On my planet, everyone had a unique name. I never consideredthere could be more than one female named Antoinette Sutterman. Then again, Inever imagined a village as large as New Los Angeles. I guessed when a planethad a lot of people, they ran out of names and had to triple up.
I entered the building, stepping into a large cavern with ablack-veined white stone floor so smooth my kel boots wanted to slide over the surface. A dozen people milled around conversingin small groups. Standing before a metal door, studying a moving light, werethree females. Could one of those be mine? I scrutinized them, but my hornsdidn't even twitch.
"Antoinette Sutterman?" I called out anyway.
A man frowned. "The office listing is right in front ofyou." He gestured to a board with white scribblings.
I could understand and speak Terran because I'd beenimplanted with a translator before they'd dragged me off the ship, but Icouldn't read it.
The metal doors where the women waited dinged and opened.One of the females glanced back at me. "Her office is on the eighth floor."
"Thank you." Eight floors? I saw only the shiny one I stoodon.
"What are you waiting for? I'm holding the elevator for you." She motioned.
"Will it take me to Antoinette Sutterman?"
"Yes! Come on."
I ran to join her. The doors closed without anyone doinganything, and I found myself enclosed in a metal box.
The female pushed a couple of buttons. The metal box rose. Igrabbed the railing and braced myself. Unconcerned, the females stared at a movinglight. Seconds later, the metal box jolted to a stop, and the doors opened.
What now?
"This is your floor," the helpful female said. "Her officeis at the end of the corridor."
She was a very nice female who would make some male veryhappy. "Thank you." I bounded off, relieved to be out of the metal box andeager to find my mate.
As I approached the door at the end of the hall, my hornsthrobbed. Obah! Excitement and reliefwashed over me. I had located my female! She lived here. The Fates had guidedme, and they were never wrong. Calm confidence filled me.
I opened the door, and the sense of rightness grew stronger.A woman, her dark hair threaded with gray, sat at a large glossy table, peeringat one of the ubiquitous lighted screens. Earth people seemed to spend a lot oftime watching screens. "Can I help you?" she asked.
I ducked to avoid acquiring another painful knot on my head.Terrans were short, and few of their doorways were tall enough to accommodatemy average height. My body signaled my mate was nearby, but I doubted thisfemale was she. I got no sense of recognition. "You're not AntoinetteSutterman."
"I'm Megan Nichols, Ms. Sutterman's assistant. Can I help you?"
Relief she wasn't the one washed over me. "I'm Aton. I'mhere to see Antoinette Sutterman."
"Do you have an appointment?" She swiveled to her screen.
"No."
She peered at me over spectacles perched on her nose. "Isshe expecting you?"
"Yes, I'm her mate. The Fates have selected her for me, andI'm here to claim her."
Megan Nichols sprang up. "I'm going to have to ask you toleave."
"Not until I see her!"
She pressed a button on a device on her table.
"Yes?" came a disembodied male voice.
She kept her gaze on me. "Code fourteen. Suite 804."
"We're on the way."
"Uh, he's very big and...uh, not human." She eyed my horns.
"Got it."
Behind her were two doors, both closed. The one on the leftdidn't give off any vibration, but as I leaned to the right, my horns tingled.There! She was behind that door. I stepped toward it.
"Where are you going?" Megan Nichols leaped out and barredmy path.
If she'd been a male, I would have shoved her out of theway, but she was female, Terran, and small. I could hurt her without intendingto.
"I came to retrieve my female. Antoinette Sutterman!" I shouted.Maybe she would hear and come to me.
"You need to leave," she said. "Security will be here anyminute."
When I tried to step around her, she moved, too, then theouter door burst open, and three males barreled in.
"Thank god you're here. He's ranting and raving, talkingcrazy, and demanding to see Ms. Sutterman," Megan Nichols said.
"You need to leave the premises right now." One of the malesaimed a handheld device at me. He motioned to Megan Nichols. "You should moveout of the way, ma'am."
She scooted behind her table, and I rushed at the door onthe right. "I'm meeting my mate--"
"Taser! Taser! Taser!" Two darts shot out of the man'sweapon. One bounced off my kel tunic, but the other barb lodged in my neck.Lightning splintered through my body, locking up every muscle in agony. Icouldn't move; I couldn't speak. I fell face forward onto the hard floor.
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
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