I’m taking snippets from my most recently released scifi romance Timtur: The Teacher’s Alien Healer (Badari Warriors) this week.  (GABE just went to the formatter so it’ll be out soon, by the way.)

Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.

If you haven’t read any of my Badari Warriors books, here’s the background:

Genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, the Badari were created by alien enemies to fight humans. But then the scientists kidnapped an entire human colony from the Sectors to use as subjects in twisted experiments…the Badari and the humans made common cause, rebelled and escaped the labs. Now they live side by side in a sanctuary valley protected by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, and wage unceasing war on the aliens. The luckiest Badari find their mates among the humans. 

The alien scientists never bothered to create female Badari.

The excerpt – The pack Alpha, who is mated to a human, tries to answer Timtur’s question from last week about whether it’s possible to balance his duties with having a mate:

“I refuse to believe the goddess would send the human women to this planet at the very time, the first time in eight hundred years we’ve been able to enter into pair bonds as free men, and then expect you, of all people, to resist her gift. The Great Mother, as I understand her, isn’t a jealous or a capricious deity. I think she wants us to live. And mating and having children is the essence of life. She may even be counting on you to help show the way for others. A balance in all things is called for, true, but serving the needs of the pack and being a fully committed mate can be done.”

“Those are my hopes as well, but I take my duty to the pack so deeply,” Timtur remembered the interrupted picnic, when he’d left Lily and rushed off to care for the injured Badari soldiers. He still believed that was the right action at the time but now he could see he should have paused to reassure Lily he wanted to continue their conversation as soon as he could return to her. They had so little shared history, no deep understanding of each other’s life experiences, which he now saw was a lack he needed to rectify – the human life in the Sectors and his existence as a captive in the labs were so removed from each other that of course she had no instinctive comprehension of his pack bonds.

The Badari had no mating rituals and he’d no idea what courting behaviors a human woman might expect.

The blurb: 

Far from her home in the human Sectors after the mass kidnapping, teacher Lily Garrison is making a niche for herself in the valley by running a school for the Badari young. Although she yearns for Timtur, the pack’s healer, another Badari male has his eye on her and won’t take no for an answer.

Timtur feels the weight and responsibility of being the pack’s only healer, constantly on call as the soldiers fight ferocious battles against the alien scientists and their troops. With scarcely a moment to himself, he’s drawn to the gentle Lily but worries he won’t be able to juggle his duties, his loyalty to the pack and a relationship with a human woman.

When Lily’s stalker takes direct action to kidnap her and steal her from the safety of the valley, she’s forced to reach deep inside to find the strength to battle for her life. Timtur realizes too late how foolish he’s been to resist the bond with his fated mate and leads the rescue effort.

Before this situation can be resolved both will have to put their lives on the line and decide what really matters in a dangerous world ruled by the enemy.

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