Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Rader's Bride

AMAZON

Available on Kindle Unlimited


      Skye Carter’s life changed abruptly when the Drayids attacked Earth and cut a one-mile section out of a dozen cities all over the world. The hole they cut in Washington, D.C. took out the bookstore/internet cafĂ© business that she had worked five years to build. It was all gone, leaving her a mountain of debt. She decided to sell her house and look for a job to pay for her losses. Then she found an ad for the Narovian Interstellar Matchmaking Service. It promised a ninety-nine percent guaranteed her match would be her soulmate. 

      Rader Knight was a cyborg warrior in the Alliance Defense Force, retired after thirty years’ service to a backwater colony with a shortage of females. He applies to the service hoping they will find him a soul mate. After two years, they found Sky Carter, and she was willing to make a leap of faith and accept his proposal and take a three-month space journey to be his mate.
Did Skye Carter really know what she was getting herself into?



Excerpt: 


     Rader was on patrol when he received Skye’s acceptance of his mating proposal from the matchmaking service. The usually calm and stoic cyborg commed Makus excitedly after he had reviewed the acceptance several times to be sure his new emotions were not causing him to misinterpret the message.

     He now had a mate, and she was coming to Glasica to be with him!

     Impatiently, he signaled Makus’s com a second time, and the other man answered.

     “Yeah, Rader. What’s up?”

     “Skye Carter from the dirt planet has signed the mating contract, and she’s coming on the next ship. It will take three months.” Rader said grinning.

     “Man, that’s great Rader, I am happy for you. Jhenre will be almost as excited as you are. She wants you to be as happy as we are. I don’t know much about Earth---just that the people are human like we are. But I’ve heard only good things about the matchmaking service. It could be rough getting to know each other at first, but you’re smart. You’ll figure it out.”

     “I have studied everything I could find about Earth culture of the people indigenous to the area around our base there. They seem a lot like us but low tech. But Glasica is very much Earthlike. It will all depend on how we do together. I worry that she might not like me in person.”

     “Don’t do that, boss. Jhenre said any woman with half a brain will see you have a lot to offer in a relationship, not to mention that all you cyborgs are good to look at.”

     “Jhenre thinks I am attractive?”

     “She does, but she’s mine,” Makus chuckled.

     “Of course, I know that. If Jhenre thinks I am attractive, then Skye may think so too.”

     “Right,” Makus said. “Don’t forget that you will be able to com with her interactively once she leaves Earth. That will give you time to get to know each other while she is traveling here.

     “I have not forgotten. Is it normal to have this much apprehension about the esteem of a female?”

     “I believe it is.”

     “Life was so much simpler when all I had to do was kill the enemies. I really want this female.  I feel like she is intended to be mine.

     “Apparently Narovian Matchmaking came to the same conclusion. Don’t worry Rader. After she comes all this way, she can’t just turn around and go back. She could have the same feelings about this as you.”

***

     “Are you crazy?” Janie squealed when Skye confessed her plans. “You’re going to another planet to be some man’s wife you never met?”

     “But the service said he is my soul mate. They match people by DNA.”

     “Why are you doing this? Is it because of the attack last month?” Janie asked.

     Skye sighed. This was exactly the reaction she expected and the reason why she’d waited so long to tell her. “That’s part of it. Janie, I lost everything in that attack. When I was looking online to see what had happened, I found the matchmaking site. Then I thought why not?”

     “Why not use one of those dating sites here? Skye, you’re beautiful. You should be able to find a husband right here on Earth.”

     “I haven’t had a date in two years. I can’t even remember how long since I got laid,” Skye told her. “I’m twenty-eight years old. I don’t have that many more years to have kids. If I started dating a man right now who I could marry, it might be two more years before that happened.”

     “They couldn’t find a man here on Earth out of seven billion people?”

     Skye shrugged. “There might not be that many in their database from Earth yet. I don’t know.”

     Skye took out her smartphone and scrolled through her pictures until she found the ones of Rader. “Here, this is him.” She handed Janie the phone.

     Janie took it and groaned as she looked at Rader’s handsome face and broad shoulders. “Well, they sure picked you a pretty one. Ooh, wee. But still, three months in space to another planet. I wouldn’t do it---not even for this handsome hunk.”

     “Well, I am. I’ve already signed the mating agreement. It’s all arranged,” Skye said. “Anyway, I didn’t call you here to have you talk me out of this. I wanted to see if there’s any of my stuff here you want before charity comes to pick it up. I’ve got kitchen stuff, clothes, any of the furniture. The appliances are staying.”

     “When are you leaving?”

     “Day after tomorrow,” Skye said with calm determination.

     “What about the closing on your house?”

     “The lawyer will handle it, and the money will be deposited in my account. It will be converted into Alliance funds as will all my savings.”

     “Will that be enough to get you home if you find you have made a colossal mistake?”

     “Possibly,” Skye said, “Or it might be enough for me to start a new business on Glasica.”

     “That’s the planet name?”

     “Yes.”

     “Will I ever see you again?”

     “Possibly not, but we can keep in touch on the internet.”

     “I’m going to miss you.” Janie suddenly hugged her.

     “You are one of the few people I will miss,” Skye said blinking against the sudden prick of tears. Janie had always been more than an employee. She had been with Skye since the beginning five years ago when it was just the two of them running the “Books and Data Stop.”

     After their hug, Janie started looking through the clothing on the living room sofa that Skye was getting ready to pack in boxes for the charity pick-up. Janie picked a few things, and Skye packed the ones she rejected into boxes.