Wayyyy back in MATEER, book two of my award winning Badari Warriors scifi romance series, I left the heroine Megan happily established as Mateer’s fated mate and pregnant with the first ever Badari child. Since these soldiers of the far future are genetically engineered rather than born and their kind have been held by alien scientists as captives and experimental subjects for over 800 years, there was a lot of emotional investment by the Badari in Megan and Mateer’s child.

From me too! And from my wonderful readers, who have been hinting it was probably getting to be time for Megan’s baby to be born and I certainly agreed. My challenge as an author was to tell a good story that advanced the overall series arc a bit, maintained the elements readers have said they enjoy in each book and do justice to this highly significant event.

I decided to go for the shorter novella format because I felt that worked best for this situation. I didn’t want to draw things out too long and also since the heroine was going to be in the final stages of pregnancy, there weren’t going to be any steamy scenes, so this would be somewhat unusual for the series. And me! I’ve never had a scifi romance character pregnant or giving birth before…(I have written a birth scene in my ancient Egyptian paranormal romance series, which was different to say the least because the customs in 1550 BCE were obviously unusual to us here and now. Starting with the gift of hand painted birthing bricks…but I digress…)

I’d known since writing MATEER that the character of Harker was going to be a Very Bad Guy at some point, so hopefully no one is too surprised at the role he plays in the novella.

As I was writing the book, I felt the need to have a new romantic subplot going on. I love Megan and Mateer as a couple very much but I also wanted to ‘meet’ a new, just falling in love Badari soldier and human woman. The book didn’t feel complete to me without a new romance at least sparking. So Bettira, who we met briefly in KIERCE, finds herself in the wrong place at the right time, acquires vital information and seeks out the one Badari she trusts above all others to help her. It’s a low key romance and at this point I have no idea if I’ll give her and Skyl a book of their own. We’ll have to see how the plots develop!

One of my favorite characters in the series is Yonn, the young alpha-born Badari boy, who first appeared in TIMTUR and keeps finding his way into the books. I’m so fond of him now that I seriously think about writing him his own book, set maybe ten or twenty years in the future after this series arc would have ended. I was happy to find a way for him to take part in the story here. It’s really a delight to an author when a supporting character becomes so strongly realized and just inserts himself into the plot of succeeding books after he first appears. Yonn is an Alpha all right!

When it came to Megan’s actual labor, I didn’t want to get into too much detail on the page. Shall we say I suspected not all my readers would be equally as thrilled about living every moment  of every contraction with Megan. But I wanted Megan’s experience to feel grounded in reality.

The cover is by the amazing Fiona Jayde as always.

And finally, I included my late husband in the book dedication because he was there for me every single moment when I was having each of our daughters – for those who weren’t aware, they were three and five when he died so I was a single Mom on my own working fulltime  at the NASA/JPL day job for many years – and he was also highly supportive of my writing and efforts to become a published author. We first met in the 10th grade and started going steady our senior year, and he was always my rock and my most enthusiastic reader. He’s been gone many years now but our romance and the time we did have together shaped my life in so many wonderful ways that I’ll always be grateful.

I hope you’ll enjoy the story in this novella and the adventure. I sincerely hope I meet as many of your expectations for this event as possible.

I plan to have the next full length Badari novel out in July, which will be REEDE. The next one after that will be DAEGAN (who no one has met yet but I already have the fabulous cover) and Gabe’s teammate Flo will be the kickass heroine in DAEGAN. Not sure when I’ll have that book done but definitely in 2019!

Thanks for all your support and interest in my Badari Warriors! I love my readers! You make it all possible…and fun.

The blurb: Dr. Megan Garrison, mate to the Badari Warrior pack’s senior enforcer Mateer, is perilously close to the due date of their baby when she’s kidnapped by human malcontents in Sanctuary Valley. The kidnappers threaten to harm her and intend to ransom the half human-half Badari child to the evil Khagrish scientists in return for their own lives.

Mateer and his fellow Badari launch a desperate effort to save his mate and child but the situation is made more complicated as Megan goes into labor. Can they rescue her in time to save mother and child?

A 25K word novella…

Buy Links:  Amazon     Apple Books     Nook      Kobo  Google

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.

Excerpt: 

Dr. Megan Garrison, mate to Mateer, the senior enforcer of the pack, put a hand on her aching lower back and tried to find a more comfortable position in her office chair. At this late stage of pregnancy, there wasn’t one of course. The baby promptly kicked hard at being squished and she winced. “Chip” as she and Mateer referred to the child in utero was a big, active baby. Rubbing her tummy to sooth Chip, she hummed a lullaby her mother had sung to her long ago.

“What are you doing here?” Dr. Gemma Madarian, mate to Camron, stood in the door of their shared office, hands on her hips, head tilted and a feisty gleam in her eye. “This behavior doesn’t strike me like you taking it easy. Go home, elevate your feet, and relax. Tonight could be the night your little one decides to make her debut and I want you well rested.”

“Mateer’s in a meeting with the Alpha, and I have one more patient.” Megan closed the record of her previous patient, an older man with gout of all things, whose stepdaughter had brought him in to discuss possible dietary changes. She smiled—Bettira, one of the valley’s top admin personnel, was devoted to her stepdad and determined to get him to be proactive about improving his health. Megan wished everyone was as health conscious. Of course the Badari didn’t have to be, given their genetically engineered immune systems. “The last person on the schedule for today should be here any minute.”

“The patient might be but you won’t.” Gemma advanced into the office. “I’ll take over. Why are they coming so late in the day anyway? Our clinical office hours are over.”

“He’s an old…acquaintance, from the colony.” Megan couldn’t honestly say Harker was a friend. She’d had a pleasant professional association with him on Amarcae Seven before the pirates kidnapped basically the entire colony and brought them here to this alien world for experimentation. The former deputy sheriff’s behavior since then had bordered on problematic. “He said it was a personal, embarrassing situation and he’d rather talk to me about it than someone he didn’t know. No offense.”

“Probably a rash on his privates,” Gemma said with a frown. “Which I can treat perfectly well. Maybe it’s better I’m not from your colony in fact. I have no history with the man.”

Although tempted to accept the offer, Megan waved a hand. “Please, go ahead and have dinner with your mate. Mateer is coming to pick me up as soon as his meeting is over and we’ll go home together from here. I can see Harker, no problem.”

Gemma hesitated. “Rik is here working the night shift if you need help.”

“I’ll be fine. Honestly.” Megan reached for Gemma’s hand and squeezed her fingers. “I’m so grateful to have you here, not only for my own comfort but you’ve been so wonderful about splitting the patient load and taking the on call duties. I don’t want you overworking yourself either.”

“Which is why I’ve organized the auxiliary,” the other doctor said. “I’m actually off to meet with the volunteers in about half an hour, go over childbirth protocol and a discussion of newborn care, making sure the whole team is fully briefed before your big event occurs.”

“Big is right.” Patting her stomach, Megan laughed. “Such a good idea you had, to see who in the valley had experience giving birth or with childcare.”

“The Alpha scared me to death when I arrived, making it clear you and your baby were the highest priority so I figured I needed more backup than one nurse, efficient as Rik is, plus a few medics and the Badari healers.” Gemma tapped her chest and winked. “I’m no fool. All right, I’m off then but don’t let this guy take too much of your time.”

Shaking her head, Megan arched her spine in another vain attempt to get relief for her aching muscles. “If he’s still here when Mateer arrives, he’ll clear out fast. The two men can’t stand each other, going back to when we were imprisoned in the Khagrish lab together. They basically loathe each other.”