Eyn – the alien turtle

VS: From STAR CRUISE TIME LOOP (“GROUNDHOG DAY in space…”)

Excerpt: From the beginning of the novella – an alien glass orb has caught our Female Main Character’s eye while on shore leave:

Stressed, Raelyn wanted to set the orb down and walk away but found the idea of relinquishing the item was more than she could deal with. “All right, you win.” She found another ten credit token and placed them both on the table. Ignoring the profuse thanks from the vendor, she tucked the expensive impulse item in her carryall and sprinted to the shuttle. Her friends pulled her aboard as the large groundcar began to move and she heaved a sigh of relief as she fell into a seat.

This is not the week to come to the captain’s attention in a negative way. 

Back in her small cabin aboard the luxury cruise liner, in orbit far above the planet, Raelyn craved a shower more than anything. The weather on Mabann Two had gone from balmy to humid and hot in a few hours while she was there. She could examine her purchases later, after dinner maybe. Stripping out of her casual clothes, she paused at the side table next to the bed and extended her arm. “All right, Eyn, we’re home.”

The red-and-purple spotted bracelet around her wrist twitched and uncurled, becoming a moyed from her home planet, blinking at her sleepily from three eyes for a moment before leaping from her wrist to the large, ornate shell which was its home.

Pets weren’t allowed on the ship ordinarily, although exceptions were made, but Eyn was more than that, being a symbol of Raelyn’s clan and emblematic of the deity to which her tribe prayed. The goddess she worshipped was believed to use the moyeds to transmit messages and to observe the human activities, and the oldest folktales said the planet itself was carried on the back of a giant moyed.

She’d had Eyn since she was a girl, acquiring the creature in a special ritual which she barely remembered anymore. The cruise line for which she worked was accommodating to crew members’ special needs and it pleased Raelyn to have a companion from home. She’d roamed the Sectors as a stewardess for the CLC Line and loved her travels but Eyn was a nice tie to her place of origin and her family.

The Ship’s chief hydroponic officer allowed her to raise a special variety of insects for Eyn to eat in a small enclosure on Deck Nine.

Now, the little creature scooted into its shell and snapped the front flap shut.

With a chuckle, Raelyn took herself into the bathroom and a relaxing shower.

The book blurb:

Raelyn Cantorini, senior stewardess on the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr thinks the alien artifact she bought on the last planet the ship visited was just a pretty glass orb…until her pet Eyn knocked the ornament off a table, shattering it and sending her into an infinitely repeating time loop.

Stuck reliving the same day over and over, Raelyn has only hours to try to save the ship and everyone on board from dying in a terrible catastrophe. As she tries to solve the mystery of what happens to the ship right before midnight each time the day repeats, Raelyn meets Kev Stevens, the former Special Forces soldier turned actor and finds herself falling in love with him. Each time the day repeats, she learns more about him while he has no memory of her. Can she persuade him they’ve met before? Will he trust her enough to help stop the Nebula Zephyr’s destruction?

And if they do save the ship, will that reset time for Raelyn?

Amazon     Apple Books    Kobo    Nook    Google Play

HAVE YOU BOOKED YOUR STAR CRUISE YET? 14 Voyages to choose from…

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!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

Taking excerpts now from my new release, TRATUS, a scifi romance novel.

I’ve jumped ahead to where we meet Katrin, who is a prisoner of the Khagrish scientists along with many other humans. She trying not to be noticed by the enemy or by the three handsome alien soldiers. Drawing attention is never a good idea in the labs. The ‘third man’ is of course TRATUS but she doesn’t know him yet.

Now the Khagrish and the men were inside the cell, walking slowly along the line of women. The alien leader passed her by without a second glance, which left her with an odd sense of relief.  The way he held himself made her think of a dangerous predator and she caught a whiff of what smelled like a high priced alcoholic feelgood as he walked along.

Could he be drunk this early in the day? What in the seven hells is going on here?

The leader indicated a woman and then another. The Khagrish guards dragged them out of line and bound their hands behind their backs. Now the man was making his second trip along the line, rubbing his chin and making remarks to Dr. Sheyall in Khagrish, which Katrin didn’t understand..

The third man stopped in front of her and she raised her head to stare into his eyes, which glowed slightly golden.

“I’m sorry,” he said in Basic, so quietly she could hardly hear it.

Next thing she knew he’d taken her by the arm and pulled her away from the other prisoners, holding her close to his side.

TRATUS: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 14) by Veronica Scott

Katrin Rodgerr, ex-Space Navy, was perfectly happy as Third Officer on a tramp freighter in the Outer Sectors, until the day she and everyone on board the ship were kidnapped by alien scientists to become subjects of gruesome experiments. Far away from home or help, Katrin does her best to bolster the other prisoners’ morale and look for a way to escape.

Until one day she’s chosen for an experiment of another sort – given to a pack of alien supersoldiers as a prospective breeder.

Tratus, senior enforcer of the Tzibir pack, never expected to find his mate, much less to meet her among the human prison population of the labs. But there she is and there’s no denying the instincts. Despite his Alpha’s objections, Tratus manages to convince the alien scientists to give Katrin to him and he vows to protect her. Deeply unhappy with the way his leader runs the pack as he disobeys all their goddess’s commandments and refuses to ally with other Badari packs to fight the scientists who created them, Tratus plots a revolt.

Despite herself Katrin is drawn to the giant humanoid warrior with alien predator DNA who treats her so respectfully. His scales and other differences from human males only make him more attractive in his own way. But the Alpha distrusts her and Tratus, and time is running out for them both…Can Tratus defeat the Alpha leading his pack to inevitable doom? Can he and Katrin survive the consequences and find their way to claiming each other as true mates or must he let her go?

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook     GooglePlay

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!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

Taking excerpts now from my new release, TRATUS, a scifi romance novel.

I’ve jumped ahead to where we meet Katrin, who is a prisoner of the Khagrish scientists along with many other humans.

There was a rumor among the various prisoner populations about a group of people who’d escaped the Khagrish labs and returned on occasion to save others. Some of the rebels were said to be large aliens, which three of the men standing outside her cell certainly were. She herself had seen equipment in several medlabs sized to fit humanoids much taller and heavier than humans, which gave credence to the story but Katrin assumed if the escapees came to break humans out, they’d launch a military style attack, not stroll in on good terms with the Khagrish.

The trio were easily seven feet tall, frames filled out with massive muscles and the handsomest faces she’d ever seen outside of a trideo. As the soldiers moved and the lights in the corridor shone on their bodies, she saw the faint glimmer of scales on their cheeks and forearms. Her attention was repeatedly drawn to one in particular, standing behind the other two. Something about him drew her eye, until she realized he was looking at her and then she swallowed hard and hastily studied the scuffed floor as if the answers she sought were written there.

Best not to draw any attention in the lab, if possible. She’d had the lesson drummed into her head by others who’d been held much longer than she had.

TRATUS: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 14) by Veronica Scott

Katrin Rodgerr, ex-Space Navy, was perfectly happy as Third Officer on a tramp freighter in the Outer Sectors, until the day she and everyone on board the ship were kidnapped by alien scientists to become subjects of gruesome experiments. Far away from home or help, Katrin does her best to bolster the other prisoners’ morale and look for a way to escape.

Until one day she’s chosen for an experiment of another sort – given to a pack of alien supersoldiers as a prospective breeder.

Tratus, senior enforcer of the Tzibir pack, never expected to find his mate, much less to meet her among the human prison population of the labs. But there she is and there’s no denying the instincts. Despite his Alpha’s objections, Tratus manages to convince the alien scientists to give Katrin to him and he vows to protect her. Deeply unhappy with the way his leader runs the pack as he disobeys all their goddess’s commandments and refuses to ally with other Badari packs to fight the scientists who created them, Tratus plots a revolt.

Despite herself Katrin is drawn to the giant humanoid warrior with alien predator DNA who treats her so respectfully. His scales and other differences from human males only make him more attractive in his own way. But the Alpha distrusts her and Tratus, and time is running out for them both…Can Tratus defeat the Alpha leading his pack to inevitable doom? Can he and Katrin survive the consequences and find their way to claiming each other as true mates or must he let her go?

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook     GooglePlay

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!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

Taking excerpts now from my new release, TRATUS, a scifi romance novel.

From the beginning of the novel, continuing on directly from last week:

Tratus rubbed his chest, where the pack bond tying him to all his pack brothers ached. He tried to reach out along the link to discover what was wrong but could only detect two of the five men he was expecting to sense. Despite being a highly dominant enforcer, he was too far away geographically to link to the men left behind at their new settlement but he should have been able to connect to the squad of five they were here to pick up after a deployment.

He lectured himself as he walked behind Briator and Ghazhing. Now wasn’t the time to let his mind wander. A Badari needed all his wits about him when dealing with the Khagrish. Briator was half drunk already on his day’s ration of human feelgoods and liable to agree to anything Dr. Ghazhing wanted from this meeting, to ensure the supply of his intoxicants was uninterrupted. With a suppressed sigh, Tratus paid more attention to the discussion.

“Yes, the home world sent us a replacement security chief,” Ghazhing was saying. “Knows his place, knows how to work with scientific authority in the proper style.”

By which he means, knows how to be a yes man to the scientists, Tratus thought. Which thankfully will make him less effective.

TRATUS: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 14) by Veronica Scott

Katrin Rodgerr, ex-Space Navy, was perfectly happy as Third Officer on a tramp freighter in the Outer Sectors, until the day she and everyone on board the ship were kidnapped by alien scientists to become subjects of gruesome experiments. Far away from home or help, Katrin does her best to bolster the other prisoners’ morale and look for a way to escape.

Until one day she’s chosen for an experiment of another sort – given to a pack of alien supersoldiers as a prospective breeder.

Tratus, senior enforcer of the Tzibir pack, never expected to find his mate, much less to meet her among the human prison population of the labs. But there she is and there’s no denying the instincts. Despite his Alpha’s objections, Tratus manages to convince the alien scientists to give Katrin to him and he vows to protect her. Deeply unhappy with the way his leader runs the pack as he disobeys all their goddess’s commandments and refuses to ally with other Badari packs to fight the scientists who created them, Tratus plots a revolt.

Despite herself Katrin is drawn to the giant humanoid warrior with alien predator DNA who treats her so respectfully. His scales and other differences from human males only make him more attractive in his own way. But the Alpha distrusts her and Tratus, and time is running out for them both…Can Tratus defeat the Alpha leading his pack to inevitable doom? Can he and Katrin survive the consequences and find their way to claiming each other as true mates or must he let her go?

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook     GooglePlay

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!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

Taking excerpts now from my new release, TRATUS, a scifi romance novel.

From the beginning of the novel: 

Tratus always questioned his own sanity when he voluntarily walked into a Khagrish lab complex. Of course he was following Briator, the Alpha of his Tzibir pack and therefore really had no choice. The Alpha’s decrees were not to be challenged and Briator had gambled the lives of his entire pack on the alliance he’d made with the alien scientists who created them.

Watching his Alpha greet Dr. Ghazhing, the Chief Scientist, like an old friend, turned his stomach but Tratus was good at maintaining a stoic expression and giving away nothing of his true feelings. How could Briator disregard the years of experiments, torture and death the Tzibir had been subjected to, along with the other two Badari packs, to make common cause with the Khagrish now?

Not for the first time, Tratus wished they’d made an alliance with Jill Garrison the day she freed them from the original lab. Life would be very different.  Briator had assumed the human and her mate Aydarr would fail in their rebellion and quickly be recaptured so he refused to ally with them. Instead of proving him right, the other Badari were doing a creditable job of destroying labs, freeing human prisoners and remaining out of the reach of the Khagrish. All of which added up to victory in Tratus’s mind. Those other Badari were free…and he was still tethered to their masters.

TRATUS: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 14) by Veronica Scott

Katrin Rodgerr, ex-Space Navy, was perfectly happy as Third Officer on a tramp freighter in the Outer Sectors, until the day she and everyone on board the ship were kidnapped by alien scientists to become subjects of gruesome experiments. Far away from home or help, Katrin does her best to bolster the other prisoners’ morale and look for a way to escape.

Until one day she’s chosen for an experiment of another sort – given to a pack of alien supersoldiers as a prospective breeder.

Tratus, senior enforcer of the Tzibir pack, never expected to find his mate, much less to meet her among the human prison population of the labs. But there she is and there’s no denying the instincts. Despite his Alpha’s objections, Tratus manages to convince the alien scientists to give Katrin to him and he vows to protect her. Deeply unhappy with the way his leader runs the pack as he disobeys all their goddess’s commandments and refuses to ally with other Badari packs to fight the scientists who created them, Tratus plots a revolt.

Despite herself Katrin is drawn to the giant humanoid warrior with alien predator DNA who treats her so respectfully. His scales and other differences from human males only make him more attractive in his own way. But the Alpha distrusts her and Tratus, and time is running out for them both…Can Tratus defeat the Alpha leading his pack to inevitable doom? Can he and Katrin survive the consequences and find their way to claiming each other as true mates or must he let her go?

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook     GooglePlay

Here’s the LINK for my book trailer on Tiktok (you don’t have to be a TT member to see it).