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  The Alien Mate Index

  Book 2: Protected

  Evangeline Anderson

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Evangeline Anderson Books

  The Alien Mate Index

  Book 2: Protected

  Copyright © July 2016 by Evangeline Anderson

  E-book License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book 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 person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the e-book retailer of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Dedication: With love to all my Kindred readers. If you like Kindred, I think you'll love Alien Mate Index as well. I write these books with all of you in mind. I feel very blessed to have such awesome people to pretend with me.

  Hugs and Happy Reading to you all!

  Evangeline

  Disclaimer : This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. So please don't get your panties in a twist--this is all in fun. ; )

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  The End…or is it?

  Epilogue

  Descended: Book 3 of the Alien Mate Index Series

  The Warriors of The Alien Mate Index

  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Location: Aboard Assimilation ship EOC-2789, the private vessel of Count Doloroso.

  Time: .05 solar seconds following the departure of invaders who absconded with the Earth female, Zoe McKinley, a known Pure One and La-ti-zal, marked for impregnation with the first organic Assimilated.

  The echoes of the invaders boots had scarcely faded from the corridors of the Assimilation ship when a panel in the control room slid aside and a small, silver insect came buzzing out. It paused for a moment to ascertain that the invaders were truly gone, then continued its flight down to the medical suite. It hovered for a moment over the fallen body of its last host, the pink, featureless face twisted almost completely backwards with the blow that had broken its neck.

  The nano-chip inside the silver insect hummed. A waste. But this body had almost outlived its usefulness anyway. It had been chosen for its durability and the great wealth of its previous occupant—both of which had been nearly exhausted. The Assimilation had been hoping to make it last until another of the correct kind became available. Only a body of one of the Twelve Peoples, those grown from seeds scattered by the Ancient Ones, had long term compatibility with an Assimilation mind.

  But though no such organic body was available, there were a few “burner bodies” stored in the stasis booths located in the hold. The silver insect buzzed its way towards the hold and the large doors slid open soundlessly to admit it.

  In front of the first stasis booth, the insect hovered, waiting patiently as the organic unit inside was brought slowly back from the suspended animation it had been held in for the last fifty cycles.

  Soon enough it came stumbling out of the booth, its black, compound eyes blinking stupidly, its long ears twitching as it tried to ascertain its situation. It had green skin and a small, wrinkled blue hole for a mouth—a Grubbian. They were a species of traders and merchants, practical to use as temporary organic units since they were ubiquitous to the entire galaxy and so never attracted attention.

  The silver insect gave the Grubbian no time to get its bearings. Before it had taken two steps, the insect struck. Sinking the silver barbed stinger located at the end of its metallic abdomen deep into the greenish, pebbled skin at the base of the target’s neck, it injected its payload.

  “Ah!” The Grubbian cried out and flailed wildly—but only for an instant. As the nanobytes injected by the silver insect reached its bloodstream, it came under the control of the Assimilation. Its brain function was circumvented as new thoughts raced through the neural synapses. Soon the Grubbian’s personality was nothing but a distant memory—it had, in effect, ceased to exist.

  It had been Assimilated.

  The being lately known as Count Doloroso smiled and stretched his new arms. It was good to be in a fresh body, even if this one was only temporary. Of course, this body wouldn’t do for the planned impregnation of the La-ti-zal he had marked as the mother of the new race of organic Assimilated. He would have to find another and neither of the two in the stasis stalls would do. They were both of outside races, those not descended from the Ancient Ones.

  He frowned. Of course, it would do him no good to have the correct body, if he had no female to impregnate. Zoe was gone, in the company of two large and very capable males. She would be nearly impossible to recover.

  Reluctantly, Doloroso decided she was a lost cause. He would have to turn his attention to finding another female to take her place.

  Luckily, he had an idea of where her home planet was located. And he had two names to work with—the names of her friends who she had told him to leave alone.

  “Charlotte and Leah,” he mused, his voice hissing from the small, puckered blue hole of his new, temporary mouth. “Hold on, my future wives. As soon as I find the correct body to wear, I’ll be coming for you…”

  Chapter One

  Grav

  I’m not a nice guy.

  I’m a murderer and an ex-con and an all around son-of-a-bitch, ask anybody who knows me.

  But I’m also a Protector.

  I took an oath to guard the females I take as wards with my life, and I take that oath very fucking seriously. That’s why, when I see someone I’ve sworn to protect in danger, I take immediate action, even if the female I’m acting for doesn’t know I’m assigned to protect her.

  Of course, it helps if she knows I’m watching out for her—helps if she knows she can trust me. Because, unfortunately, I’m not the kind of male females trust on sight.

  I’m one ugly bastard, is what I’m trying to say.

  Half Braxian and half Vorn—the two most hated and feared of the Twelve Peoples the Ancient Ones seeded the galaxy with. I’m not smooth like an Eloim or pretty to look at like a Majoran. I have bluish-gray skin, black curling horns, and white-on-black eyes that can see every spectrum of light.

  And don’t forget my prison tats.

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