Stolen
Brides of the Kindred, Book 25
Evangeline Anderson
www.evangelineanderson.com
Stolen, 1st Edition,
A Brides of the Kindred Novel
Copyright © 2020 by Evangeline Anderson
All rights reserved.
Cover Art Design © 2020 by Reese Dante
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to a retailer of your choice or evangelineanderson.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only.
Any person depicted on the cover is a model.
Contents
Stolen
Author’s Note
Prologue
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Epilogue
The End?
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About the Author
Stolen
Brides of the Kindred, Book 25
Penny is an archeologist on the hunt for a dangerous artifact.
V'rex is the Hybrid space pirate she's been warned about.
When both of them are kidnapped by a fertility cult
And forced together as "Forever Mates,"
Can they find a way to survive and escape?
You'll have to read Stolen to find out...
Dr. Penelope Wainright is an archeologist on a serious mission for the Kindred. She must find the Eye of Tengu, an ancient stone artifact, before it awakens and causes horrible death and destruction. But before she goes to the Yown System, where the Eye has been hidden, she is given a warning—stay way from Hell's Gate Spaceport and the notorious pirate, V'rex, who makes it his home base. But through a series of mishaps, where does she end up? On Hell's Gate Station, alone and vulnerable, of course. And you can guess who she runs into...
V'rex is a Hybrid—half Beast Kindred and Half Kru'ell One. The minute he sees Penny lost and alone, he knows he has to have her. The curvy little female is exactly his type and he's about to go get her...when fate intervenes. After being drugged and kidnapped, he wakes up in the compound of a fertility cult. By chance, Penny has been kidnapped as well, and soon they are forced together as "Forever Mates" by the fanatical cult leader.
Penny is frightened to death of the huge Hybrid, who is tasked by the cult to impregnate her. V'rex wants the little human, but he doesn't want to hurt her. Now they must work together to escape what seems to be an inescapable situation. But can Penny trust the male she has been warned against? And can V'rex keep her safe from the fanatical cult and their "Glorious Leader?" You'll have to read Stolen to find out...
Author’s Note
I have to apologize to my readers for not continuing the story of Commander Naught and the pretty young priestess. I tried for a long time to write their story, but my muse was blocked at every turn. Finally I realized it had been over a year since I wrote a Brides of the Kindred book—I had been writing only Kindred Tales for ages. I finally understood that I would either have to give up writing the original series for good, or write something completely different. Of course, I didn't want to give up on Brides—it's my baby. And then I got a crazy, weird, wonderful idea for a whole different plot line and a new Brides book.
That is the book you are holding now. In it, we begin a whole different adventure that I hope you'll love reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. I do someday hope to be able to get back to Commander Naught and the priestess, but in the meantime, I hope you can forgive me and enjoy the story of Penny and V'rex and their amazing, crazy, sexy adventures in the Yown System and all the weird situations they get into (and out of) together. And don't worry�
��you'll see your old friends from other books here as well. No Brides book is complete without some help and love from the Mother Ship and the Goddess.
Hugs and Happy Reading to you all,
Evangeline, October 2020
Prologue
The Cruel Father looked down upon his creation…and was severely displeased.
His universe had been corrupted. His Kindred, the Kru’ell Ones, had been tainted by love…by compassion…by tenderness and mercy. All those womanly emotions he so despised and had taught his children to despise as well.
He had created the Kru’ell Ones to rule over females. To take them as concubines to feed their emotional appetites and then discard them, as easily as a man drops a used tissue. But now, what did he see when he looked down upon them?
“They have taken mates,” he growled to himself, glaring with his all-seeing eye upon the gray-green version of Earth which resided in his universe. The new Overlord, Kane, had taught the other Kru’ell Ones to revere females and treat them with respect. He had purged the hate from their hearts and fostered love instead. He had taught them to take females as mates instead of disposable concubines and to form a permanent bond with them.
“Mother of All Life,” he growled to himself, thinking of the Goddess who was his counterpart in the parallel universe which ran along side his own. She had done this thing. She had interfered in his territory and had brought her disgusting attributes of love and fidelity, spreading goodness and peace wherever she went like a pestilence.
The Cruel Father raged to himself. How dare she meddle in the affairs of his ‘verse? How dare she bring her sickening love and kindness into his territory?
And how could he repay her deed in kind?
Luckily, the Mother of All Life was not the only one who had a stronghold in the enemy’s territory. Long ago the Cruel Father had waged war across the dimensional divide with the female deity. He had been forced back, but not before he had left a small token—a scion of himself—within her domain.
Of course, the Goddess had instructed the ancient First Kindred to hide the relic—the Eye of Ten’gu they had called it. And so they had buried it deep, hiding it in the far recesses of their universe on a planet so icy and inhospitable they were certain no one would ever find and awaken it.
The Cruel Father reached across the divide, using just a tendril of his power— not enough to sound any alarms—and touched the Eye. For millennia it had lain dormant, his scion sleeping in endless, dreamless slumber.
“Awake,” the Cruel Father called to it. “Awake and claim your birthright. Decimate the Goddess’s ‘verse as she has ruined mine.”
He felt the Eye tremble…perceived that his scion was rising from the sleep which had claimed him when the First Kindred had buried the relic so long ago.
It would take some time for his scion to come fully awake—some time before the Eye opened and understood what he must do. But the Cruel Father could wait. After all, was revenge not sweetest when it took some time in coming?
“You will be sorry, Mother of All Life,” he growled to himself. “I will teach you not to meddle in my domain. You have turned my own Kindred into sniveling female-lovers like your own. We will see how well you like it when your own children are corrupted by my darkness. When the Eye of Ten’gu opens, your ‘verse will know pain and discord as it never has before.”
This he vowed. And then he sat back to watch as the events he had set in motion began, slowly but inexorably, to unfold…
Far from the Cruel Father’s universe, on First World, Nadiah woke from the dream with a gasp of fright.
“The Cruel Father…the Eye…the Eye must not open! It must not open!” she cried.
“What?” Rast, the Challa of First World, the home planet of the Kindred, sat up in bed beside his mate. In the dim light of their bedchamber, he saw that Nadiah’s blue-green eyes were wide with panic.
“The Eye…” She was nearly panting with fright. “The Eye is waking but it must not open!”
Another male might have shaken his mate to bring her out of what appeared to be hysteria but Rast had a better solution than that. He spread his great, feathery wings—the ones that had grown when he had proven that he was truly meant to be the Challa of the Kindred home world—and enfolded his wife in them.
Nadiah came to him at once and Rast could feel her trembling against his broad chest as he poured healing warmth into her through the enfolding feathers.
“What is it, sweetheart?” he murmured, stroking her golden hair and holding her close, trying to comfort her. “What’s wrong? You must have had a nightmare.”
“N-not a n-nightmare.” Nadiah’s teeth were still chattering in fright. Rast held her tighter, disturbed. He had never seen his mate so upset before.
“If it wasn’t a nightmare then what was it?” he asked gently.
“A vision.” She sat up and her eyes turned suddenly from blue-green to pure emerald—the color of the Goddess. When she spoke again, her voice was not her own.
“The Father of Cruelty with reach from Afar
To the Eye of his scion asleep in the Dark
Buried so deep ‘neath the mountain Ra’gar
It must not awake or the future is Stark
Do not let its lid rise, do not let it awake
For if it sees daylight, our ‘verse is at Stake!”
Though he and Nadiah had been joined for years now and had three children together and he knew she was the Mouthpiece of the Goddess, it still unnerved Rast when the Mother of all Life spoke through his wife.
“Goddess,” he said, addressing the deity who was speaking through Nadiah. “What must we do?”
“Warn Sylvan of the Mother Ship,” the Goddess said through Nadiah. “The Eye of Ten’gu must be unearthed and destroyed before it awakens.”
“The Eye of Ten’gu? What’s that? And how can we destroy it?” Rast asked, but the Goddess had gone. Only Nadiah was left, drooping in his arms, completely worn out from acting as a vessel to the Goddess.
“Oh, Rast,” she whispered, leaning heavily against him. “That was so scary—I don’t know when I’ve been so frightened!”
“Are you all right now?” Rast looked at her anxiously.
“Not scared anymore. Just…tired.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “The Goddess drove out the fear but hosting her is…taxing.”
“Of course it is, my Lyzel,” Rast murmured, stroking her hair tenderly.
“What did the Goddess say through me?” Nadiah asked. “What must we do to keep the Cruel Father at bay?”
“She said we must destroy the Eye of Ten’gu—whatever that is.” Rast frowned.
“The Eye of Ten’gu?” Nadiah sat up straight. “But that’s been hidden for millennia!”
“You know about it?” Rast asked in surprise.
She nodded, her long blonde hair swishing around her slender shoulders.
“Of course—it’s in some of our earliest scrolls and documents. It’s an ancient artifact, as old as the Kindred race itself.”
“Well, what does it do?” Rast asked, frowning.
“I don’t know,” Nadiah admitted. “But I do know that the very first thing the Kindred males who originally left First World did was to get rid of it. They buried it in the side of a mountain on Yown Beta where no one could ever find it.”
“Well it sounds like someone is on their way to find it now,” Rast said grimly. “The Goddess told me we must warn Sylvan and that someone has to go dig it up and destroy it before…” He hesitated, not wanting to scare his wife again.
“Before what?” Nadiah demanded. “Come on, Rast, tell me!”
Rast could see she wasn’t going to let up until he told her.
“She said the Eye of Ten’gu must be destroyed,” he repeated. “Before it awakens.”
Nadiah didn’t reply. She just buried her head in Rast’s chest and shivered.
A time of darkness was coming. The question was, would the Kindred be able to stand against it?
One
The first thing V’rex noticed about the little female, when she walked into the Hell’s Gate Spaceport Lounge, was her ass.