From KIERCE: A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel.

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 excerpt – The guards at the lab prepare to toss Elianna into the cell with a huge alien predator.

The beast paced from side to side of the cell, roaring when he turned, and eyeing them with alarming intensity. Elianna was so terrified she could barely stand. She imagined the cat tearing into her with its huge claws, and the massive fangs rending her flesh.

Praying to the Lords of Space to die now, before the agony of being eaten alive, she nonetheless tried to study the cell and the cat, to identify any kind of weapon or space where she might be able to hide from it. She’d heard wild animals had sensitive noses. Should she punch at its snout? Maybe try to gouge at the eyes? Pulling his tail would have as much effect. Play dead? But the cat knew she was alive, and the Khagrish weren’t going to rescue her if they were after a big payday for a gory vid. An old piece of advice came to her mind, to stand tall and act bigger than she really was. Right, because this creature is as tall as I am and probably outweighs me by seven hundred pounds.

(When the guards throw her into the cell, the alien cat attacks one of them and during the confusion Elianna manages to escape through a small door in the outer wall…)

Stunned, she gaped at her new location in an outdoor enclosure. The yard was fairly large, bounded by sparkling force barriers rising high into the sky, and a spindly tree grew in one corner. Desperate, Elianna ran to the tree and scrambled up the trunk using low hanging branches as handholds. She crouched in the fork of the trunk, about twenty feet from the ground, and tried to control her breathing so she wouldn’t pass out. The barrier walls rose high above her head, leaving no possibility of leaping from the tree to escape.

The beast could probably climb better than she could, being a feline, but in her panic she sought out any chance of prolonging her life even for a few more minutes. She wondered what was happening inside the cell but she wasn’t planning to go find out.

A few minutes later, the flap of the opening lifted, and the cat flowed through the space to stand in the yard. Immediately, he fixed his golden-eyed stare on her, and he padded over to the tree to sit on his haunches and contemplate her.

Like a bird in a tree. Elianna’s heart pounded and nausea threatened to overwhelm her as she considered the hopelessness of his situation, but the longer the cat merely sat at the base of the tree, the more she regained her self-control.

Making a soft sound between a purr and a throaty meow, the cat tilted its head. Blood stained its muzzle and throat.

She swallowed hard. Much as she loathed the Khagrish, the visual reminder of what the feline was capable of, and what it would do to her next, nearly made her pass out.

But the animal continued to make no aggressive moves and finally lay in the grass in a patch of sunshine between her and the building. Embarking on a long, thorough bath of its dark blue-and-white striped fur, the cat seemed to have lost all interest in Elianna. Easily fourteen feet long, the animal sprawled carelessly in the yard, undisputed king of its domain.

Now what? Her options were limited. Descending the tree and making a break for the jail cell would be foolish. Even if she somehow beat the cat inside, she had no way to bar the door to keep it out. And, of course, the Khagrish were waiting.

“No way out of this fix,” she murmured.

The cat stopped bathing and perked its tufted, blue fur covered ears, rising to its feet and staring at her. Elianna checked the branches above her to see if she could possibly climb higher but there were no handholds. “I think we have a standoff,” she said to the alien tiger.

In a leisurely fashion, the cat strolled to the tree, sharpened its claws on the wood for a minute, which made the entire trunk shake, eliciting curses from Elianna as she clutched the tree, and then stood on its hind feet, leaning its forepaws on the trunk. The display made it abundantly clear her adversary could pluck her from safety at any second. The cat flicked its pink tongue at her and licked her ankle before going to all fours and pacing away from the tree. It lay on the grass, again facing the building.

As if he’s guarding me.

The blurb:

Elianna McNamee, spaceship engineer, is far from her home in the human Sectors, kidnapped along with all her shipmates to be used for horrifying experiments conducted on a remote planet by alien scientists.

Her captors decide to toss her in a cell with a ferocious predator, expecting him to kill her…but Kierce, the Badari warrior in question, has too much honor to mistreat a human woman. The trouble is, he’s trapped in a form drastically different from his own as a result of twisted genetic meddling and hiding dark secrets to save other Badari lives.

Able to become a man again briefly with Elianna‘s help, he and Elianna bond over their mutual hatred for the enemy but when rescuers finally arrive, the pair are separated by well-meaning Badari authorities.

Kierce struggles to overcome flashbacks from the torture and drugs the alien scientists inflicted on him. He and Elianna despair over whether he’ll ever be able to regain his rightful place as a man and a soldier in the pack, much less be ready to claim a mate.

Elianna accepts a risky but essential assignment far away from where Kierce is being held, working with another man who’s more than professionally interested in her. Her heart belongs to Kierce and she can’t forget their two nights of shared passion but will that be enough to lead them to a happy reunion?

Amazon     Apple Books       Nook     Google    Kobo

********************************************