Sep 24 2022

What Is He To You Weekend Writing Warriors

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!)

I’m now taking excerpts from my recently published book in the award winning Badari Warriors series, REEDE’S MISSION TO THE SECTORS. It can be read as a standalone (mild spoilers for first book, REEDE.)

The excerpt: I’ve gone a short way into the book, when Reede’s ship has been intercepted by a Sectors Border Patrol vessel. Fallyn Damara is Reede’s human mate and a Sectors Survey Scout. The not so warm welcome-to-the-Sectors continues. Reede and Walt are in a guarded conference room and Fallyn is meeting the captain of the ship they’re on. The captain has just asked how many soldiers the Badari can put into the field.

Fallyn made an instant decision and felt the underpinnings of her career shake. “I don’t know, sir. I was taken to the island where the ship was hidden and there was only a minimal force there. Four or five men and a few human techs.” Strictly speaking the statement was true but she was leaving out the entire time she’d spent in Sanctuary Valley, where she’d observed several hundred Badari.

Captain Ballard raked her up and down with a highly critical eye and Fallyn stood unflinching under the scrutiny. “What is this envoy to you?”

“He’s my mate, sir.” She and Reede had decided not to try to hide their relationship, although truthfully she’d argued to keep it quiet but Reede refused to do anything involving even a for-show denial of their mate bond.

“So you’re sleeping with him. “ Now the captain was playing with his coffee mug. “I figured as much. I’d heard the Survey Corps played it fast and loose when it came to fraternization with the natives. There’ll be none of that on my ship. And I’ll be making a note in my report so be sure your own report is full and complete.”

“Mate is their term for a formal union, sir,” she said, stung by his contemptuous attitude. “Envoy Reede and I are committed for life now.”

“Which has no bearing on your status here in the Sectors, except for showing a shocking lack of discipline on your part.” He raised his thick eyebrows. “Unless of course you undertook intimate relations to ferret out classified intel?”

“Sir, Envoy Reede and I are partners.”

VS: But things go from bad to worse all too soon…

REEDE’S MISSION TO THE SECTORS: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 15) by Veronica Scott

Reede’s people sent him to the Sectors on a desperate mission to beg for help against overwhelming odds in their battle to destroy the alien scientists who created them centuries ago. He knew the task wasn’t going to be easy but as a Badari Warrior, he vowed to do his best. When he’s arrested by the border patrol and thrown in the brig, things go from bad to worse. He faces difficult choices ahead and unimaginable obstacles to making his case to the authorities for help.

Fallyn is Reede’s human fated mate but also the active duty military scout who guided him to the Sectors from his own planet. Reede’s choices after his arrest put her in a difficult spot and his actions threaten their mate bond. Will she give up her career to help him and the Badari succeed in making a treaty with the Sectors?

The desperate attempt to find new allies takes Reede and Fallyn on a wild set of adventures across the sprawling interstellar Sectors civilization and places them, their friends and their love in harm’s way.

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Jul 2 2022

You Should Be Running Weekend Writing Warriors

Sharing from my second scifi romance gladiator novel RENNYR.

If you want the full story of what they go through and how they battle to survive and protect each other, and their romance, with all the nuances and details, the book is available wide.

The excerpt, switching back to Rennyr’s POV as he races from his cell to try to save her:

Rennyr burst through the door of the holding chamber. As he’d hoped, there were no guards present and the security robos sat idle against the wall, apparently not programmed to consider a prisoner might break into the area rather than try to escape. The medics were setting up their portable treatment stations and watched him with their eyes wide and their mouths open as he sprinted toward the wall which was the door to the arena. A few clambered hastily over the equipment to avoid him in his headlong rush.

A timer was running in his head—he didn’t think Jaine could survive long but he prayed to his goddess to keep her safe until he could reach her. There’d been a few minutes of mass confusion at the start of the melee he’d been tossed into, probably to give the audience the opportunity to pick favorites and make bets. Jaine had to be all right. He refused to accept any other outcome.

He was brought up short by the wall, having no idea how to operate the controls which would open to the arena. Snarling, fangs and talons deployed, he stalked along the length, searching for a way in. At the other end, he found a one person-sized portal set into the larger expanse. The control panel was dark and after a quick, fruitless swipe of his claws across the tabs, he put his shoulder to the door-within-a-door and battered it relentlessly.

“What in the seven hells are you doing, man?” yelled a medic braver than the rest. “The guards’ll be here any second—you should be running.”

VS: But Rennyr’s mind is definitely not on escape for himself…will he get to Jaine in time? More next week.

RENNYR (BADARI GLADIATORS SERIES BOOK 2) by Veronica Scott

Rennyr was a genetically engineered senior soldier in his Badari Warrior pack until one day he woke up on a strange planet naked, disoriented and about to be sold into the gladiator arena for the rest of his life. Unscrupulous guards faked his death in the lab where he was created and sold him into slavery in the galaxy’s hinterlands. Kill or be killed is the rule in his new life and a Badari never gives up. He’ll fight to stay alive until the Badari goddess sees fit to decree his death and release him from the wretched existence.

Jaine Mitchel of the Sectors was on her way to an exciting research internship until pirates seized the spaceship on which she was a passenger and took her to feature in a gladiator ‘death match’ in the galactic hinterlands. She has no hope of surviving in the arena until a man she only glimpsed in passing breaks out of his cell and saves her life, declaring her to be his fated mate. Given to Rennyr as his reward for winning the death match, Jaine must share a cell and a bed with the handsome, not human, gladiator and together they have to find a way to survive in this merciless world of violence and death. Their mutual attraction is off the charts. Falling in love is the easy part, finding a way to escape or even to remain together is the challenge. At any time their mutual owner could decide thumbs up or thumbs down on one or both of them, or sell them separately.

Their only hope is a mysterious gladiator master from offworld who may be coming to buy Rennyr. Will he take Jaine as well? Could Rennyr win freedom for them both if he does well enough in the arena? Badari Warriors claim their mates for life and Rennyr has no intention of losing Jaine…RENNYR is an 80K word novel and can be read as a standalone. KYDEN is the first book in the series.

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Jan 25 2020

Flo Finds the Alpha Weekend Writing Warriors

Now taking excerpts from DAEGAN: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL.

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 series: 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 – skipping ahead. Flo has gotten to the island and she and the other women are about to meet the Badari there. Her mission involves finding the incognito Alpha, Daegan. (Aydarr is the Alpha of the northern pack, who sent Flo on this mission.)

Flo reviewed what she’d been told her about the Alpha who was strictly undercover. Her intent was to identify him and attach herself to his side, and then proceed from there as far as evaluating what to tell him and when.

The room was like a pavilion, open on three sides under a rustic-looking thatched roof, with benches scattered here and there. Flo paused, taking in the chaotic scene. There were easily sixty Badari already gathered in the space and the men were an overwhelming presence. Quickly she scanned the crowd but didn’t see anyone she thought fit the description of the Alpha. A few men were sitting on benches along the sides and her gaze kept returning to one man, all by himself. His long black hair blew in the breeze and his face was a blank mask as he watched the women.

That’s an Alpha.

She couldn’t have said exactly why she was so sure except this one soldier reminded her of Aydarr. There was a sensation of immense power contained for the moment but ready to be unleashed.

The book’s blurb: DAEGAN: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL

Ex-Special Forces soldier and mercenary Flo Michetti is bored with her assignment as a pilot for the genetically engineered Badari pack in their fight against the evil Khagrish scientists. She jumps at the chance to take a dangerous undercover mission. She infiltrates a group of human prisoners on their way to a secret lab in the southern ocean, where the Badari believe many more of their own kind have been created and are being experimented on. Once Flo has located the lab, found the Alpha among the Badari there and sent a report back, the plan will be to attack and rescue all the prisoners.

Arriving at the island Flo learns the true nature of the horrific experiment for which the humans have been brought to this remote location. Time will be perilously short to escape before it’s too late for all of them. She has to locate the Alpha of this captive southern pack, who conceals his identity to escape death at the hands of the Khagrish, and get him to join with her and her allies.

Daegan feels an instant attraction to Flo when the Badari and the humans are forced together by the Khagrish scientists, but there are mysteries and questions surrounding her. Before he reveals himself as the incognito Alpha she’s seeking, he wants answers to allay his doubts. He also wants Flo in his bed…but can he risk his heart to claim her as his mate?

Complicating the situation is a dangerous rival for Daegan’s position as Alpha, an oncoming hurricane and Flo’s resistance to abandoning her life as a soldier of fortune…as the Khagrish scientists prepare to initiate the experiment, the clock is ticking for humans and Badari alike.

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