Training the Warrior

Training the Warrior

Jaylee Davis

Edited
by Marisa Chenery

Cover
design by April Martinez

Copyright
2014 Jaylee Davis. Published by Forever More Publishing, 31 Wycliffe Place,
Kitchener, Ontario, N2M 5J6, Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the author.

ISBN:
978-1-92785-932-2

This
ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for
your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the
hard work of this author.

This
is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are
of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance
to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

After
her mate’s death, Lydia must carve out a new life on an alien world. She
becomes the first human initiate accepted into the respected teacher clan,
thrusting her into the sensual and secret domain of the warrior-born Tauran
males. Sexual pleasure paired with punishment is required to overcome their
fierce rage after blading. Lydia must battle her own morals and self-doubts
while she masters all the basic methods required to soothe the newly-bladed
warriors.

Taelor, a Tauran warrior, is summoned by his
sister. Her warrior-born son suffers from blading fever and her ship is days
away from the teachers who can save him. Reluctantly, Taelor agrees to help,
but his nephew's plight dredges up unpleasant memories for him, ones he'd hoped
to bury forever. While he was away on a mission, his mate, the female he loved,
took her own life. The idea that she’d choose death over being mated to him
torments Taelor. Although he knows the choice isn’t his to make, he vows to
never claim another unwilling female.

Two broken souls from different worlds live
separate lives until fate brings them together. Afterward, only death can keep
them apart.

Dedication

To my husband, the love of my life—thank
you for your patience and support.

I want to thank my editor, Marisa, at
Forever More Publishing for all her hard work, and a big thank you to April for
the fab cover.

To my BFFs, Shirley and Cindy, for encouraging
me along the way—I’m forever grateful.

Last but not least, thank you, Andy Starr.
Dreams really can come true. Believe.

Chapter One

Part One: The Teacher

Location: Tauran Empire, Fortress World

She’d been so wrong, so very wrong. Fairy tales
did come true. Honorable men, faithful men, existed. They just weren’t from
Earth. There was one glaring untruth about them. The living happily ever after
part didn’t exactly mean forever. Tragedy had ended her fairy tale life on
Fortress World.

Lydia prayed for death every single day of
her mourning time. For six months she suffered, missing him, wanting him and
wishing she could be with him, even in death. The others watched over her. They
cared for her in her sorrow. No drug was available to end her suffering. Not
even the herbal tablet that eased the ache of separation when a warrior and his
mate were apart for longer than a month could help.

 The females who tended her knew her pain.
They’d also lost their mates at some point in the past and had undergone the
withdrawal that followed when the scent of their warrior faded. She was one of
them now. They were the unmated.

To Lydia, the title sounded insulting in a
way. On Earth it might translate as divorced instead of widowed, but to the
Tauran warriors, it was a title of great respect. The slim, bracelet-style
tattoo encircling her left wrist identified her as Kern’s mate. She belonged to
him. As soon as he was declared dead, a small portion of it had been erased,
breaking his claim. It was a legal requirement.

Another six months passed and she still
missed him, his distinct masculine smell, the security of his arms holding her
at night and their lovemaking. Oh, god, how she missed their lovemaking, the
sex, the outright fucking. Lydia had to admit she even missed his fanatical
possessiveness.

Mine.
How she longed to hear his deep,
grumbly voice trying to whisper or growl that one single word to her again.

When Kern had claimed her as his mate and
taken her away with him, the other claimed females living on Fortress World hadn’t
welcomed her with open arms. She wasn’t a Tauran female. She was the alien in
their world. To be sure, there were other females who were considered
offworlders, but their planets of origin were well known and well within the boundaries
of the Tauran Empire.

Lydia was from Earth. No one had ever heard
of it. When she’d asked about Sol, Earth’s sun, they’d told her the star and
its companion planets weren’t listed on any of their nav-charts. Kern seemed
convinced her planet wasn’t within the Tauran Empire.

The Taurans referred to her as humanoid.
When Lydia explained she was human, they simply shrugged and dismissed her. The
difference wasn’t important to them. She realized
she
wasn’t important
to them.

But to Kern, she was the single most
important thing in his universe. Her giant warrior loved her to distraction,
and she loved him back with all her heart and soul. And now her heart was
broken and her soul cried out for him. The man who’d saved her from a life of
slavery was gone. Unbidden, her thoughts went back to the events that changed
her life forever.

* * * *

Two years before

Everyone left on board the Sea Siren that
evening had been taken from Earth. Abducted by humanoid-shaped, stumpy, bald
aliens armed with powerful hand blasters, they’d been captured with ease.
Communication between them and the aliens was impossible since none of them
spoke English or any other Earth language. So they followed hand gestures and
were separated, males from females, then crammed into two different space
shuttles and taken off planet.
Lydia never saw the human men again.

After they were transferred to the main
ship, they were taken to a large room, forced to strip naked, fitted with thin,
choker-style collars and locked inside. There was a communal bathing area to
one side, which contained a toilet contraption. It was quite alien in nature,
but the correct method of use was easy to decipher. Squat and hover, then get
out of the way before you got your ass zapped. They all longed for a good old-fashioned
Earth-style potty seat.

And to add to the inconvenience of being
kidnapped, there was no running water. The giant
shower
area radiated a
pinkish light, which was at first frightening, but they soon realized it left
them feeling cleaner. Open shelves near the toilet area were stacked with small
squares of paper-like napkins. Martha, a crew member from the Sea Siren, was
the first to figure out they could be used to staunch her menstrual flow. It
was one of their more exciting discoveries.

Mattress-like cushions on the floor filled
the remainder of the room. Each one had a thin blanket draped over the top.
None of them had any supporting frame work. If they had, Lydia was sure she
would have instigated a rebellion by breaking the beds apart and making weapons
out of the frames.

Meanwhile, time passed at an agonizingly
slow pace for them. Many of the women obsessed about their lives back on Earth.
They were all scared and frightened. Homesickness hit hard, especially the more
they talked about their families and friends. Lydia tried not to think about
her old life. She had few friends and hardly any family, except distant
cousins. Night classes at the local business college and her day job had taken
up all her time. The cruise on the Sea Siren had been a gift to herself in
honor of her twenty-seventh birthday. Hopping from one tropical paradise to
another, and perhaps a casual fling with a complete stranger, was all she
desired. A no strings attached Mr. Wrong would have satisfied her sexual needs
during her vacation. Burned too many times by men who promised everything but were
unfaithful left her disillusioned with the opposite sex and angry with herself.
The last one had taken most of her savings.

Lydia figured three months had passed
before there was a change in the engine sounds. The vibrations they felt under
their feet against the metal flooring slowed and dropped in tone. What happened
next was the most frightening of all.

Their captors shuffled into the room, but
they weren’t bringing food or water. Instead, a tall gray alien male with
spiked white hair came with them. His body was humanoid, but his features were
quite alien, vicious and evil-looking.

Instinctively, Lydia knew he wasn’t there
to rescue them. His bloodshot eyes sent chills up and down her spine. A shiny,
black tongue darted out to swipe across his thin, black lips as he stared at
them. He grunted a few sounds to one of the short aliens, who bobbed his round
head. Afterward, all hell broke out in the room.

Tall and creepy stalked toward Bambi,
grabbed her by the neck and dragged her toward the door. Lydia was the first
one to give chase. She slammed into the alien and pummeled him with her fists,
screaming and cursing him with every vile word she could think of. To her
surprise and short-lived relief, the other women joined her as they tried to
help.

Pain, breath-stealing pain, hit her. Her
last sight before unconsciousness claimed her was of the tall alien carrying
Bambi out of the room. The collars around their necks had a purpose.

* * * *

The muffled sobs of a woman crying greeted
Lydia as she came to. Her vision still clouded from the effects of the stun collar,
she strained to focus as she gazed about the room, trying to locate the source
of the sound. She finally spied Bambi curled into a fetal position on the floor
near the bath area. Sasha was next to her, trying to console the distraught
woman.

Lydia scrambled to her hands and knees and
crawled over to them. “Bambi, I was afraid we’d never see you again. What
happened?”

Sasha shook her head, letting Lydia know
whatever had taken place hadn’t been good.

Bambi covered her face with her hands and
sobbed harder. After a few seconds, she said, “He took me to another room. They
had this table there and they strapped me down.” Her voice broke. “They…stuck…something…inside
my head.”

“Like a probe thing?” Lydia grimaced,
realizing she sounded like some UFO nut.
Probe? Did I really just ask that?
Bambi
nodded and touched an area just behind her left ear.

“I was afraid it was going to hurt, but it
didn’t.” She went on to explain. “After they put it there, I could understand
what they said.” She shivered. “Sorvin told me it was a translating chip.”

“Sorvin?” Lydia prodded. “The alien who
took you?”

“Yes,” Bambi answered, then spoke in a
hushed voice. “He said his captain was willing to buy all of us if we were
compatible. And then he said he was going to…that he had to touch me to see…”
She cried once again.

Lydia and Sasha both embraced her.

“He raped you?” Lydia whispered gently.

Bambi shook her head. “No. Not like you
think. He just used his hands. He put his fingers inside me.”

Lydia shuddered. She remembered his hands
were large and they appeared rough.

“I think he would have done more than that,
but he said I wasn’t compatible with him. He showed me his
sex appendages.
At least that’s what he called them.”

“Them?” Lydia and Sasha asked together.

Bambi’s face paled. “I stopped counting at
three. I think he was turned-on or something. I thought he was going to try…but
he said if he tried to enter me he might injure his captain’s merchandise.
They’re slave traders and they’re buying us from the Delvans. That’s what they
call the little bald guys who took us. Sorvin told the Delvan captain there was
a mining colony that would pay well for sex slaves.” She fell silent and shivered.
Whether it was from fear or cold, Lydia couldn’t tell.

Sasha patted her sister’s arm, and said, “The
robe they gave you is too thin. I’ll get you a blanket, okay?”

Bambi’s tear-stained face brightened a
degree as she gave Sasha a grateful nod. After the other woman left, Bambi
grabbed Lydia’s hand and squeezed hard.