Warlord’s Bounty, the second story in the Chamele Barbarian Warlords series, will be releasing on May 14th.
I’m sharing the first chapter while we wait.
You can read the first scene here: http://tasteofcyn.com/?p=6815
Today, I’m sharing the third scene.
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“He’s evading us by staying airborne.” Khan was certain about that. It was what he would do. “I say we ground our fleets and blast the remaining ships out of space.”
It was a drastic measure. There could be casualties amongst the innocent. But it should work.
“I have crafted a less risky plan.” Berke always had a strategy. He didn’t always deem to share it with the rest of them.
“Tell me what I need to do.” Khan didn’t care what the task was. He was ready.
His more-cautious older brother was not. “Murad, did you uncover any information on who has placed the bounties on our heads?”
Khan frowned. This was the first he’d heard of any bounties on their heads.
“All of the bounties originated within the sector. They…or he wants us alive. That’s all I could find out.” And that irked his technologically savvy brother. Khan heard that in his voice.
“Tolui must have funded the bounties.” That was the only being still seeking to harm them.
“That would be my wager also.” Berke shocked Khan by agreeing with him twice in one conversation. “He’s willing to pay to capture us.”
“He wants to kill us himself.” Khan preferred Tolui’s lifespan be ended by his own hand also. “His strategy won’t be successful. No bounty hunter would be foolish enough to enter our sector.”
They’d be blown out of the space. Chameles protected their own.
“Meet foolish bounty hunter number one.” Berke’s tone was dry.
An image of a mid-sized ship was displayed on the viewscreen. It was heading toward their border.
“That was fast.” Murad lifted his eyebrows. “The bounties were posted three planet rotations ago.”
Khan magnified the image of the ship. It was old and in poor repair. Its panels were dented and dull. The guns appeared to be barely functional. “He plans to retrieve us in that?” He snorted. That was insulting.
“Hunt, not retrieve.” Berke corrected him. “Retrievers were slaves to the Humanoid Alliance.” His elder brother’s gaze turned distant. “Bounty hunters are independent. They choose whom and where they hunt.”
What in the universe was his older brother yammering on about? “I’ll interrogate this bounty hunter-not-retriever.” Khan would force him to relay his client’s location.
“When did you suddenly become an expert in bounty hunters?” Murad stared at their older brother. “They don’t operate within our sector.”
“There will be no interrogation of the bounty hunter.” Berke’s eyes hardened once more. “This is my plan.”
He said that as though it explained everything…which it did. Their always-needing-to-be-in-control brother didn’t leave much to chance. He researched all players in any strategy he crafted.
“And she isn’t hunting us.” Berke shook his head. “She is tracking another target.”
“She.” Both Khan and Murad repeated that revelation.
Chamele females were as fierce as the males, often fighting beside them. But, according to Khan’s intelligence, many of the species outside their sector viewed females as weak, didn’t consider them worthy of being warriors.
The bounty hunter’s species must be an exception.
“She is tracking another Chamele?” Khan lifted his eyebrows. “How many of our kind have bounties on their heads?”
“I didn’t say her target was a Chamele.” Berke tapped on his viewscreen.
“Gale, are you there?” The most intoxicating voice Khan had ever heard filled the chamber.
His body responded to it, his muscles flexing, his cock hardening.
That extreme reaction could only mean one thing—the female speaking was his gerel, the one being genetically compatible with him.
She existed. His mind spun from the wonder of that realization. Some warriors never located their gerels.
He had.
“I’m always here.” Another female answered her query. “I don’t gad about the universe like you do.”
Murad’s head lifted. “What the—”
“I wished I gadded about it less.” Khan’s gerel sighed, the sound coiling around his balls and stroking his shaft. “The Vault didn’t reach its destination. That was a dead end.”
“So you’re coming home?” Hope lilted the other female’s, Gale’s words. She cared for Khan’s gerel, wanted to see her.
“Not yet. I got a ping off the target’s ship. It was faint but I was able to track its location.” His female loved the hunt. He heard that in her tones. “It’s close to my current location, but not in an optimal place, unfortunately. I should still be able to get to it.”
“If the site is difficult to access, the Designer likely died en route to it.” Gale offered that logical advice. “The client wants him alive. He’s no use to us in any other state.”
“He’s there and he’s alive.” His gerel’s optimism rang through the transmission lines. “He’s got to be.”
Gale clucked her tongue. “Don’t take unnecessary risks.”
“I never do.”
“You always do, Zeta.”
Zeta. His gerel’s name was Zeta.
“You’re right.” She laughed, her mirth bubbling around him. “Taking risks is part of the fun.”
“It won’t be fun if you die.” The other female disapproved of his female’s fearlessness. “Which reminds me…did you remember to secure the line this time?”
“Of course, I remembered.” His gerel sounded indignant.
“Did you secure both the audio and the video?” Gale pressed the issue. “You know your ship no longer syncs the two.”
The vessel didn’t sync audio and video? Khan stared at the blank viewscreen. How antiquated was it?
“Shit.” His gerel cursed. “I forgot to secure the audio.”
The transmission ended. The silence formed a void inside him, a space where her voice had once been.
“We’re not blowing up the bounty hunter’s ship.” He blurted that thought into the quiet.
Both of his brothers looked at him as though he’d lost his mind…which he supposed he had. The enemy should be his focus, not his gerel.
He would have a lifespan to dedicate to her.
“Blowing up the bounty hunter’s ship wouldn’t suit our purposes.” Berke crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We need her to trap Tolui.”
Khan didn’t like that idea either. “She’s chasing a different target, the Designer being they mentioned.” He paused, some of the pieces falling into place. “That ping was from the ship on Chamele 4, wasn’t it?” Murad’s males had downed it. He shifted his gaze to his brother. “The tracking device was left on it, fully functional.”
Murad rolled his eyes. “The tracking device was buried deep in the sand. It would have taken too long to retrieve.”
That could put them all at risk. Khan pressed his lips together. The signal could attract potential enemies.
He would have insisted his warriors retrieve the tracking device.
“Her target is dead.” Berke met his gaze. “She needs a new target.”
His brother’s plan became clear.
“I’ll be her new target.” Khan claimed that prized role, eager to take action. “We’ll use me as bait. Tolui will rendezvous with her ship, expecting to take delivery of me, and I’ll kill him.”
Read the next installment (Available May 6th): http://tasteofcyn.com/?p=6832
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Warlord’s Bounty
Wanted: One Barbarian Warrior.
The bigger the bounty, the more dangerous the target.
Khan, a Chamele Warlord, has a huge bounty on his head. His enemy wants him captured and is offering any being in the universe an outrageous number of credits to accomplish that.
Khan wants to be captured, but only if the being apprehending him is a tiny, brown-eyed female with wickedly sharp daggers and an even sharper tongue. His passion for the feisty human can’t be inhibited by restraints. He’ll allow her to subdue him…in a variety of enticing ways.
When she finally collects her credits, he’ll collect his revenge, killing his enemy and claiming his little bounty hunter forever.
Zeta doesn’t do forever. After a lifespan of chasing dangerous beings across galaxies, apprehending and trading them for credits, she doesn’t get involved emotionally…with anyone.
Khan might be fierce and sexy and the most dominant male she has ever encountered, but the barbarian is also her target, and once she sates herself with his body, she’ll betray him.
That’s her job.
* * *
Warlord’s Bounty is based on a much shorter story sharing the same title.
(If you already have the shorter story, please contact me.)
It is a STANDALONE Alien Barbarian SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes violent universe.
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PN8ZKK1
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PN8ZKK1
Apple/iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/warlords-bounty/id1456156354
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1113984150
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/warlord-s-bounty-1
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/928431
