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  Rogue Alien’s Woman

  Alien Outlaws Book Two

  Kate Rudolph

  Want more sci-fi romance from Kate Rudolph? You can get a free, full length novel by joining her reader club. Download Ruwen today!

  More by Kate Rudolph

  Alien Outlaws

  Rogue Alien’s Escape

  Rogue Alien’s Woman

  Rogue Alien’s Secret

  Rogue Alien’s Legacy

  Detyen Warriors

  Also available in audio!

  Soulless

  Ruthless

  Heartless

  Faultless

  Endless

  Rogue Alien’s Woman © Kate Rudolph 2019.

  Cover design by Kate Rudolph.

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Kate Rudolph.

  www.katerudolph.net

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  About Kate Rudolph

  Preview Soulless: Detyen Warriors Book One

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  SHE NEVER SHOULD HAVE kissed a killer.

  Stupid. Reckless. Impulsive. Those words had echoed in Andie Munster’s head when she’d reached out and kissed Xandr that first time, and they hadn’t stopped whispering at her in the week since. Back on Earth she never would have done something like that, but she hadn’t seen the blue skies of Earth in more than six years and she was starting to forget some of the details. Being a prisoner for more than half a decade on the other side of the galaxy would do that to a girl. And her escape from that shitty little city called Ixilta was probably enough of an excuse to write off any momentary insanity that had her kissing strange aliens who admitted to murder and kidnapped her, but Andie still wasn’t sure she wanted to pretend it never happened.

  God, it had been a hell of a week.

  “Are jobs normally this boring?” she asked Sayevi Carvahlo, the pilot and only other human on the ship. They sat in the cockpit while the rest of the crew was off getting into trouble and Andie only hoped she wasn’t bothering Sayevi too much. She needed at least one friend on the Seventh.

  “They are if we’re lucky,” Sayevi acknowledged. She had an accent Andie couldn’t place, something that came through the translators they both wore. Sort of like Italian mixed in with Greek, but whatever she was speaking wasn’t any Earth language, at least not one that Andie recognized. Sub-dermal translators were her favorite invention. It meant that she could sit and talk with anyone and they didn’t need to get hung up on communication errors.

  Most of the time. And the errors that happened when translators malfunctioned were usually funny enough to smooth over any misunderstandings.

  “Do you know how much longer they’ll be gone?” Andie cringed as she asked. If a puppy could talk, that was the type of thing it would ask. And she was no man’s pet, even if she hadn’t quite figured out what the hell she was doing with a bunch of intergalactic outlaws on the edge of a barely civilized system.

  She should have taken the offer to go home.

  Sayevi had a curious look on her face, her lips pursed, and big eyes narrowed as if she was holding a question back by sheer force of will. It only took a moment for that will to crumble. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

  Andie shrugged. “Have at it.” It wasn’t like she was hiding any big secrets.

  “How’d the capt─” she cleared her throat and gave her head a shake, “the first mate hire you? How’d he find you? Why?” Sayevi turned her sharp stare on Andie and pinned her in place. She had dark eyes and skin that looked eternally sun-kissed. Her hair was black and had a natural curl, but she kept it cut short and held back with a scarf tied tightly in place. Andie had wanted to ask her what system she hailed from; before leaving Earth she hadn’t heard of human civilizations outside of the Sol system. But after her experiences on Ixilta she didn’t want to trigger any negative memories and she feared it might be rude to pry into a stranger’s past.

  But maybe it was time for a little rudeness. Andie and Xandr hadn’t discussed how they’d introduce her to the crew, and when he’d kissed her in front of all of them when they boarded, it might have made people think things that weren’t true. Might have led Andie to forming a few conclusions herself. But then the captain had announced this new job and suddenly the crew was too busy prepping to do more than breathe and eat and Andie and Xandr hadn’t spoken beyond quick greetings in days.

  When Andie met Xandr he’d been escaping prison in the city of Ixilta where she’d been held as a citizen captive for six years. Her job had been to man one of the city’s teleporters and he’d hoped to use it as a means of escape. That hadn’t worked, but for some reason Xandr had wanted Andie to tag along with him. It took nearly two days to make it out of the city and find his ship, and in those days she’d thought she’d gotten to know the man. He’d been the captain of the Seventh, a position now held by his former first mate, he’d killed a former crew member for trying to rape a woman and sell her into slavery, and he’d rescued a complete stranger from her shitty life on a terrible planet just because she’d helped him. He’d offered to find her passage back to Earth, but after that time by his side and a kiss that had curled her toes, Andie had agreed to join his crew.

  She just didn’t know what the hell that meant or what she was supposed to do.

  Andie wanted to answer Sayevi. She knew she should. The woman was the only person who’d bothered to be nice to her since they’d met, but when she tried to come up with an answer, her mind went stubbornly blank and she couldn’t think of anything. All Xandr knew was that she could follow instructions and provide a handy distraction at the right time. And that she wanted to kiss him. She’d never fired a blaster before, she didn’t know anything about ships, she couldn’t plan a heist if her life depended on it, and there was nothing in her skill-set that suggested she belonged on an outlaw’s crew. “I have no freaking clue,” she finally muttered, more to herself than her companion.

  Sayevi opened her mouth to respond, but one of the lights on the ship’s dash started flashing and she jerked to attention. “It’s time,” she said, grinning at Andie. “That’s the captain’s chair, so I suggest you find another seat if you don’t want her to kick your ass once they’re back.”

  Andie’s eyes widened and she scrambled. The other chair in the cockpit was probably meant for the first mate, which meant there was no place for Andie to sit. She didn’t have a rank, didn’t have a title. She was just the stray that Xandr had picked up on his Ixiltan adventure. She headed back to the sleeping quarters and tucked herself into the room she’d been given. It was little more than a closet with a bed and a chair she could strap herself to. Sayevi, Captain Alleyva, and Dr. Hayk had managed to scrounge up a few outfits for her since she’d come to the ship with nothing but the clothes on her back. Nothing fit right and she either looked like a giant or a child depe
nding on whose castoffs she was wearing. Dr. Hayk towered over her and had shoulders broad enough to make him look like a hero of old. He also looked human, but there was something off about him, some feeling that Andie normally only got when she was looking at aliens. But he hadn’t treated her with hostility, and he’d given her a pile of shirts, so she wasn’t going to examine him too closely. Captain Alleyva was Oscavian, just like Xandr, and she and Andie were of similar heights, but Alleyva had the kind of curves that men composed poems about, whereas Andie felt like a half-starved rat. Until she put on diminutive Sayevi’s clothes and felt like an overstuffed sausage.

  If she had money she’d buy something at their next stop, but she couldn’t earn money if she wasn’t working jobs, and no one on the crew seemed willing to give her something to do.

  The ship jerked into motion and Andie’s hands gripped the arms of her chair, her brown fingers going white with the strain of her grip. She’d been abducted from Earth six years ago and that had been the first time she’d ever been on a space ship. Leaving Ixilta with Xandr was her second space journey and she wasn’t sure she liked it. It was terrifying enough to fly on a planet if she thought about it too much, but the chances of survival if something went wrong out in space were so small that they might as well have been non-existent.

  Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this.

  Stupid. Reckless. Impulsive. She didn’t know when she’d grown those traits, and if she wanted to survive for long she was going to need to do everything in her power to quash them. Especially the stupidity. Maybe a bit of recklessness and impulsiveness wouldn’t go awry with this group, but the stupidity had to go. She wouldn’t last long if she couldn’t start thinking for herself, couldn’t bring her own strengths to the team. She had to figure out something, or she wouldn’t last long, and she didn’t want to see what would happen when she finally tested the patience of half a dozen alien outlaws. She’d had six years to imagine and experience exactly what happened when people with power and no limits got mad. She wasn’t doing that again.

  XANDR KASKO FINALLY felt everything settle around him, clicking into place with the comfortable familiarity of a job well done. They had the loot, the authorities had no idea it was gone, and no one was hurt or on their way to prison. The whole thing had gone off without a hitch and the only thing that would have made him happier was if he was calling the shots. Keana knew what she was doing, but he’d been the captain for a decade. The Seventh was his ship, acquired through his knowledge and wits. But if there was one person in the universe he trusted to protect the crew and run their jobs it was Keana Alleyva. She’d been his closest friend for years and she made a hell of a captain in her own right.

  He just didn’t like being under anybody.

  “So how much does it chafe?” Keana grinned at him, sitting on top of a large crate filled with their haul. If things had been different they would have been perfect for one another. They were both Oscavian, with the tell-tale blue eyes, purple skin, and dark hair. Keana looked exactly like the kind of Oscavian maiden heroic epics were composed about, and she carried herself with the confidence of a woman born to rule. But from the moment they’d met, she’d been like a sister to him, and since she’d never been attracted to a man in her life it all worked out for the best.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Xandr replied, managing to keep his face from showing anything. His time in prison on Ixilta had brought things to the surface, emotions and reactions he was better off keeping hidden, and though he’d only been back a week he could feel his mind getting back into order. He might have not been captain anymore, but it didn’t mean he was going to stop caring.

  Keana laughed, the melodious sound enough to attract the attention of Kiran, Taryn, and Malax, who had all been speaking quietly. She nodded towards him and made a face; whatever she was communicating was simple enough that the rest of the crew looked away and went back to their conversations, long accustomed to the interactions between captain and first mate, even if those roles had just been reversed.

  “You’re a born leader, Xand, and both you and I know it. But you were stuck down there for months and things have changed. We changed. I can’t just step out of my role because you’re back.” She sounded sympathetic, her face soft and open, but there was steel in her words. She was just as much a leader as he was, and she could have been running her own crew for years. Xandr didn’t blame her for taking over and holding onto the position just because he was back.

  But he didn’t want to talk about being a born anything. Especially not now. “If I thought you were doing a bad job, I’d do something about it,” he assured her. “But I can live for now.”

  “For now,” Keana echoed. “And it’s not like you don’t still have all of the captain’s privileges. Consider this a vacation.”

  “I thought you said the months on Ixilta were a vacation,” he shot back with a scowl.

  “Only you would think prison is the same as leave.” She leaned back, resting on her hands, and tilted her head up to look at the green sky overhead. The Seventh was due to rendezvous with them in a few minutes and they’d be off planet before sundown. Xandr wouldn’t breathe easy until he was sure they were away free, but the trip had gone smoothly so far, and he didn’t think things were liable to go wrong before they got on the ship.

  “They’re not captain’s privileges,” he countered. “I still own the damn ship. You just run the crew.”

  “You’re lucky you’re my friend,” Keana muttered. “Or I would have some shit to say right now.”

  “Then say it.” They’d been dancing around the issue since Keana laid out this job. The crew was only a few meters away, so they couldn’t come to yells or blows, theoretically, and things needed to be said. If Keana thought she could make him change course, she was sorely mistaken, but she was the captain now and he knew that if he didn’t let her say her piece this would only fester between them.

  “We’re not a passenger ship,” she grit out. “But I’d get it if you wanted to send her home. She did you a favor, I understand debts. But this isn’t you, Xandr. You weren’t even like that back home.”

  Home. She might as well have pulled out her blaster and shot him. “You know damn well why I was never anything at home.” And the less said about the past the better. Those icy memories could freeze him from the inside out and trap him like nothing else. “And you didn’t see her on the ground. She’s smart, resourceful, and more than capable of putting her fears aside to get the mission done. She could be an asset to this crew.”

  “And I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that she’s sexy enough that even I’d make a move on her, and you know how I feel about humans.” That came out a little loud and the crew looked at them again.

  Xandr glared and had to clench his teeth to keep from making some kind of ill-advised claim. He’d kissed Andie twice, it wasn’t a betrothal, there were no promises, and they’d barely had a minute to talk since she’d joined them. That still didn’t mean he wanted to fight Keana for the same woman. Amazingly, they’d never run into the issue before. “Give her a chance to prove herself,” Xandr insisted, ignoring Keana’s bait. “If she doesn’t fit, we can give her enough credits to get her back to her planet and you won’t hear me complain.”

  “Really?” Her face screwed up in a mask of disbelief. “Really?”

  “Okay,” Xandr relented. It sucked not being the captain anymore. He couldn’t pull rank. “I’ll complain, but I won’t try and stop you.”

  “And you won’t follow after her?” He heard the vulnerability in the question, heard the lurking ghost of a time they didn’t speak of. It wasn’t Xandr who’d left, but he remembered.

  “I’ve known her for barely more than a week,” he said. “What do you think?”

  “I think we need to be cautious. We don’t know anything about her, who she’s connected to, what’s in her past. If we’re not careful...” Keana trailed off, but she didn’t need to say anything more. T
his wasn’t the first time they’d had this part of the conversation.

  “She’s a human from Earth,” Xandr insisted. “No ties to the Oscavian empire, and certainly none to Mebion. I’m not going to start acting like a besotted fool and put us all in danger. But give her a chance, she might surprise you.”

  The roaring of their ship’s engines cut off any further conversation and the crew jumped into gear, carting the haul through the open freight door and keeping an eye out for any local forces that wouldn’t like to find out just what the crew had absconded with.

  At eight feet tall with bulging arms and tentacles, Malax managed to carry four crates at a time and the hungry look Taryn shot his way was enough to make Xandr vaguely uncomfortable. He didn’t want to think about what went on in their quarters after lights out.

  Kiran moved with the same controlled intensity he always did and Keana oversaw them all. It only took a few minutes to get everything on the ship and once the doors closed their doctor, Demaris Hayk, checked for injuries while Keana told Sayevi to take off.

  Another mission done. It was good to be home.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “DO YOU THINK WE’LL lose the human at Honora?” Andie could hear the voices filtering in through her door. The rooms weren’t exactly sound proof, something she’d discovered when she realized that the engineer and quartermaster shared the large quarters right next to her. And they were loud. Seeing the Zusotid next to the Oscavian woman, she had to wonder how the tentacles came into the equation, but she’d forced herself to tamp down on those thoughts. It was intrusive, and she really didn’t want to know.

  Really.

  “The captain doesn’t seem likely to let her go.” Andie couldn’t identify the two voices, though she was almost certain it wasn’t Dr. Hayk. It might have been her neighbors, Taryn and Malax, though the lower voice could have easily belonged to Kiran, an alien whose race she wasn’t certain of. He had golden skin and dark markings that crawled from one of his wrists all the way up his neck. His eyes were dark, but she thought she’d seen them glow red on one occasion, and an air of sadness hung over him whenever he spoke.