Actually the story of why I wrote FAINE begins with the previous book, NARIO. Ever since introducing both Badari Warriors in the book about their Alpha, Jamokan, I’d known I wanted to write a book for Nario and as I began working on that one, my Muse felt very strongly Faine would go on the trip to the Khagrish homeworld as well, and choose to be stranded there. So in a way I wrote NARIOFAINE as one long book, to tell the entire adventure, and broke it into two at the logical point where Faine decides to remain on the planet to attempt to rescue his hoped-for fated mate, while Nario takes the rest of the group home. I always say I’d never write a cliffhanger but I guess never say never, because Faine’s part of the story is unresolved at the end of NARIO! Of course Nario and his mate receive their HEA, however.
Faine’s not an enforcer although he is a senior soldier, so he sometimes makes unwise decisions but on the whole his adventures on the Khagrish planet show him another side to the enemy besides the cruel scientists and the sadistic guards and techs he knows from the labs and he does have to re-evaluate a few things he’s always held to be true. I strive to tell a different story in each book so Faine’s journey to rescuing Farah couldn’t be in any way like what he’d gone through when he was still with Nario and the others. I had fun imagining him navigating his way through the varying urban landscapes of a major metropolis (drawing upon various parts of the greater Los Angeles area, I freely admit) and encountering a variety of Khagrish citizens along the way.
I was recently in the local area I modeled the dining and shopping zone after and it was an odd feeling to stand there and ponder what if a Badari Warrior was hiding somewhere in the vicinity. Reality and scifi romance overlapped a bit there! (A vivid imagination is required to write the books I write.)
There were some loose ends from Nario’s book to tie up – no spoilers!
One aspect I shed more light on in this book goes all the way back to IVOKK and an incident readers had a lot of questions about at the time, so I made sure to work some answers into the story now.
When I start writing a book I typically know the beginning and the ending (always an HEA), the two main characters and probably a major scene or two. Then the rest of the story unfolds for me as I write. A few of the twists in Faine’s book surprised me but I think they make sense, given his journey and the circumstances.
In closing I’ll share with you that there’s a family joke how much I loathe Shakespeare and in this book I managed to work in a quasi-Shakespearean Khagrish reference or two, which was fun to do. Faine kind of expresses my opinion at one point…he and I would be in agreement!
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Here’s an excerpt from near the beginning of FAINE:
This was all much harder than he’d ever feared. Badari were pack members, with their brothers always ready to watch their backs, the mental bonds tight and reassuring. He’d never had the desire to be a ‘lone wolf’ as the humans termed it, going off on solo missions. He knew a few men who had done the duty, like Darik, and been fine, but even then the pack bond had held firm for him.
Faine rubbed his chest and swayed ever so slightly before pushing himself further back against the crumbling wall of his shelter. There was no danger lurking nearby. Slowly he allowed himself to slide to a seated position in the deep shadows where he’d hidden, away from even the light of the moons. He had no need of a light, much less a fire, thanks to the extraordinary night sight his kind had been given by their Khagrish creators. No one was going to sneak up on him.
His inner beast was restless, uneasy, prowling and trying to make sense of their current situation.
Fair enough. He wasn’t too sure of his condition either.
From the moment Farah had surrendered herself to the Khagrish noble to spare Faine from torture, he’d had known he wasn’t going to leave the planet without her. His heart was breaking in two as she walked away to save him and the others. Faine’s beast had nearly seized control, rousing him to a blood mad fury, desperate to escape the cage and rush after her. Only Nario’s intervention and dominance had allowed the man to regain control of the beast and return to his senses.
He completed the mission to help Nario and the others escape, as any honorable soldier would do, but then he regarded himself as free to find and rescue the woman who’d come to mean so much to him in such a brief time. How could he leave his potential fated mate in danger here on the Khagrish home world, in the hands of an untrustworthy noble with lascivious eyes?
He could not. The goddess wouldn’t expect him to, although briefly he had a few resentful thoughts about why she’d chosen to gift him a mate under these circumstances and then snatched her away again. Farah had been incredibly brave to leave the cage where they’d been held and go off with the noble. He had to answer her courage with his own.
I’ll find her and I’ll free her and we’ll get home somehow, he said in his mind to the faraway goddess. If you can and will help us, I’ll be forever grateful but I’ll do it on my own if there’s no other way.
Not surprisingly the goddess didn’t answer his defiant prayer.
Rubbing his chest again where the pack bond had always rested, from the moment he first came to consciousness in the cursed lab so many years ago, Faine closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. The emptiness was wrong. A Badari was never without the pack bond and the reassurance it carried. The Alpha was there as well, if not in person, an integral part of the mental link. He hadn’t realized how much Nario, who was an enforcer, had been anchoring him in the absence of the pack bond until his friend was shooting into the Khagrish sky on his way home in a hijacked cargo hauler. And the remnants of the bond dissipated. Maybe his violent mood swings were due in part to the lack of the anchoring influence. Another factor to be watchful of as he went about this mission.
Thinking about Nario reminded him of the enforcer’s last gift before leaving. Going deep into his mind, Faine approached the glowing packet of power his friend had sent through the diminished pack bond. It was a warm glow, pulsing slightly, waiting to be tapped into when the right need arose. Faine was grateful for the gift but hoped Nario hadn’t made himself dangerously weak. His friend had the six week cruise home to Ushandirr to recuperate and of course once he got home their Alpha would provide power, as would the Supreme Alpha, to assist Nario in recharging his own.
Faine closed the mental search with a regretful thought. If he had to use Nario’s energy, the situation would be dire indeed.
With a rueful chuckle, he dug a snack pack out of his pocket and munched. Not much sustenance for a Badari Warrior but his people had been engineered to function for a long time on little water and scant rations.
Vowing to do better for himself tomorrow, Faine sniffed the air and was relieved not to scent smoke. After leaving the spaceport he’d gone deeper into the slum area, avoiding the still burning complex from which they’d escaped. There were active patrols in the vicinity, mopping up after the government attack and he was sure the authorities were keeping an eye out for the Badari, in case they might have survived the assault. No one appeared to be fighting the fire, allowing it to burn itself out, although there were efforts to prevent the blaze from spreading to neighboring structures. The entire area was ostensibly deserted ruins anyway but even the uncaring Khagrish authorities had no desire to allow a big portion of the city to burn to the ground all at once.
Snack finished, he drank one of the remaining nutrition rations and then pulled Prue’s gift from his other pocket. She’d left him with the Khagrish handheld she’d been hacking and promised he didn’t need more than basic proficiency to access the files she’d marked for him, to help him in his quest to find Farah. While he was no IT whiz, he had a firm grasp of the principles involved and of course was fluent in Khagrish. Shielding the screen to prevent any stray light from escaping his hidey hole, he scanned the research she’d done for him. There was a long file about the Khagrish ruling family, including Shymzynnar, the man who’d taken Farah. Faine decided to read it later, although he studied the portion about the noble’s various homes with interest. The one Prue indicated was most likely to be Farah’s destination lay several hundred miles outside the city.
Examining the maps on the screen, Faine agreed with Prue’s choice of primary target. He didn’t need any external guide to pinpoint Farah’s location. Deep in his heart a tiny, thin golden thread flickered —the nascent mate bond between the human woman and him. The link, tenuous as it was, pulled at him and he knew he could start walking now with his eyes closed and end up standing in front of her.
Unless of course he fell off a cliff, got hit by a groundcar or shot by a Khagrish.
FAINE: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE (SECTORS NEW ALLIES BOOK 17) by Veronica Scott
Left stranded on an enemy planet, can Faine find and rescue the woman he believes to be his fated mate?
Choosing to remain behind when the others in his party escape the Khagrish homeworld, Faine is determined to locate and rescue Farah, the human woman he loves. Somehow he’ll get the two of them off the planet and safely home to the Badari Warriors’world far away. Alone, feared and hated by the aliens on this alien world, cut off from his pack, Faine must traverse a city and countryside full of danger on his quest to locate Farah.
Farah Saunders was a teacher in the Sectors until she was kidnapped by pirates and sold to become a subject of lab experiments. Taken to the Khagrish home world with a small group of humans and two Badari prisoners, she was selected by a Khagrish noble to become his personal special project. Her situation is hopeless yet she can’t stop thinking of the one man who might be able to save her – Faine. She barely knew him but feels an uncanny connection to the fearless, genetically engineered soldier. What is this link tying them together?
Reunited, the two of them go on the run, hunted ruthlessly by the Khagrish authorities and the infuriated noble. Can Faine accomplish the miracle he’s hoping for and find a way for them to escape? Will Farah ever agree to become his claimed mate?