Bay's Mercenary [Unearthly World Book 1] Read online

  UNEARTHLY WORLD BOOK 1: BAY’S MERCENARY

  by

  C.L. Scholey

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  Published by

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  An Imprint of Whiskey Creek Press LLC

  Whiskey Creek Press

  PO Box 51052

  Casper, WY 82605-1052

  Copyright Ó 2013 by C.L. Scholey

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-61160-481-8

  Credits

  Cover Artist: Gemini Judson

  Editor: Melanie Ann Billings

  Printed in the United States of America

  WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT

  TITLE

  New World Book 2: Armor

  Armor is book two in C.L. Scholey's New World series…I was pleasantly surprised. Although I still don't like the fantasy/fairy tale elements of the world-building, the action elements kept me turning pages as fast as I could read, and I loved the character development in this second book…

  Merrylee - Two Lips Reviews

  Other Books by C.L. Scholey Available at Torrid Books:

  www.torridbooks.com

  Game On!

  NEW WORLD SERIES

  New World Book 1: Shield

  New World Book 2: Armor

  New World Book 3: Impenetrable

  New World Book 4: Apparition

  New World Book 5: Engulf

  VAMPIRE COVEN SERIES

  Vampire Coven Book 1: The Brethren of Tavish

  Vampire Coven Book 2: A Vampire to Watch Over Me

  Books by

  C.L. Scholey w/a Constantine De Bohon

  Available at Torrid Books

  VIKING WARRIORS SERIES

  Viking Warriors Book 1: Valhalla Hott

  Viking Warriors Book 2: Valhalla Wolf

  Viking Warriors Book 3: Valkyrie Heat

  Viking Warriors Book 4: Norse Valor

  Dedication

  For my family and friends, who encourage me.

  Chapter 1

  “What is it?”

  “The Tonan warrior I traded with said it was an Earth female.”

  “What’s an Earth female?”

  Blu looked at his commander with some exasperation. “That is.”

  Titus scowled at him. “Yes I know, but what the hell do you do with it?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Then why did you trade for it?”

  “It looked so pathetic lying in the tiny cage the Tonan had it in. It’s harmless.”

  “Is it housebroken?”

  “I hope so.”

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  “I thought I’d give it to Zane. He’s been a little unhappy since Betta died. I thought maybe if he had another pet to take his mind off of his toff’s death, he’d feel better.”

  “So, you thought you could replace a massive, intelligent toff with a bald un-housebroken female Earth thing?” Titus was scoffing at him.

  The idea had seemed right at the time. Blu hadn’t intended to trade, but the poor little creature had stared up at him with odd-colored, big brown eyes and looked so miserable, he hadn’t really the heart to say no. The Tonan was going to kill it anyway.

  “Well, just don’t let it loose on my ship. The last thing I want to be doing is stepping in piles of female earth shit or piss.” Titus gave his head a shake and walked away.

  Blu hunkered down to gaze at the little creature. It was funny looking in a cute kind of way. Blu had never seen its pink coloring before and he liked it, but the black, blue and purple coloring was a turn-off and looked strangely out of place. Especially around the throat, and he didn’t think it was dirt. He had tossed an old blanket in the electric box with it. Poor little bald thing must have been frozen; the air in the ship was cool. The box was turned off for now; before he went, he would have to turn it on. Blu didn’t know if the being could climb over the walls or not; the box didn’t have a lid, but it was three feet high. The Earth female had legs, but he had only seen it crawl on its hands and knees, which made it look smaller. Blu wondered if it was able to stand upright.

  A smell emanated from the female; it needed a good wash. Perhaps he should give it a bath; he would have to do it by hand. The wash stalls blasted their thick hides, and Blu was afraid the pounding water would peel the soft, smooth flesh from its bones. The little female, he was told, was harmless; it had no way to defend itself. The idea was intriguing, but the Tonan had to be right. Blu made an inspection of the little creature. The being didn’t look like it could grow bigger for battle; he couldn’t detect one decent wrinkle. It had nails on two of its fingers, but the others appeared shorter so they must be easily ripped off; they felt flimsy. Blu lifted its top lip. Its teeth were small, white and there were no spaces for expansion; obviously, the female’s teeth couldn’t grow either. He ran his thumb under the tiny row he exposed—they were all dull. Maybe the little creature was substandard; it had to be a birth defect.

  The Earth female made a small, moaning, raspy sound as he examined it. When it rolled over, it didn’t wake and Blu decided he could physically check it over later. He didn’t want to wake it and set it off again; its alarm was loud. The female had screamed when it had first laid eyes on him, the tone was high pitched and hard on the ears. He didn’t blame it, the female was so tiny physically—vocally it could bring a warrior to his knees. Blu was at least six foot eight and he was considered a little on the puny side by his warrior partners. His brother was two inches shorter and was teased mercilessly until he learned to toss everyone on their asses.

  Hopefully, Zane wouldn’t think the little thing before him was a gag gift. Then Blu would be stuck with it. He studied the being and again marveled at how bald it was. It was easy enough to see it was female by the exposed breasts. The females of Blu’s species only developed breasts when they gave birth, and then it was only for a short time. Their little ones began eating solids at a month—their mothers no longer needed the breasts and so those disappeared, at least that’s what Finn said and Finn would know. Blu did his best to avoid the females as did his many friends, and the females didn’t bother with the males of their species until they came into heat every other year or so. Blu didn’t think this female creature was lactating for a young one. It must be an Earth oddity.

  There was a small amount of hair between its thighs on its mound and Blu just shook his head at the sight. The fur covering stopped really before it even began—there was so little fuzz to begin with. To Blu, the little creature’s anatomy just didn’t seem fair—there was naked, but this was extreme vulnerability. There was dark, matted hair on the creature’s head and tiny lashes around its eyes and two eyebrows—each individual and really only a fine line of hair. The female shivered and Blu reached through the deactivated electric bars and pulled the blanket around it. He stood up and flicked a switch at
the side of the box.

  The box normally held pet toffs; the bottom was a soft mat. Even if it touched the glowing green sides of the enclosure, it wouldn’t be hurt. The tiny shock the bars held was minimal; if it wouldn’t hurt a baby toff, it shouldn’t hurt this creature either—it was just enough to keep them from trying to climb out. Baby toffs were a bit smaller than this female Earth pet and their hides were thicker. Blu thought about that for a moment; tofflings were also covered in an unruly mat of springy blue-black fur. Blu turned the electric voltage down a notch, not wanting to hurt it.

  Blu’s people were warrior mercenaries, not slavers, and this was obviously a pet of some kind. There was a bowl of water in with her and Blu felt there was no way the female could get away. He needed to resume his post.

  * * * *

  The little female was sitting up and rocking back and forth with the blanket pulled over its head in the very middle of the toff box, well away from the bars. Two other warriors were crouched down looking at it. The female was shivering and making tiny pathetic sounds. Its water bowl was empty, which was a good sign; she was drinking. Sometimes pets had a hard time when they changed owners.

  “How long has it been awake?” Blu asked and crouched down to join his friends.

  “Not long, we really just got here. Thorn and I were curious. Titus mentioned you had a bald female thing as a pet for Zane. He’s going to kick your ass. Gag gifts are not smart.”

  “It’s not a gag gift, Jax.” Blu practically growled the words. “I was hoping to cheer Zane up.”

  “Yeah, with the way it smells I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to pieces,” Jax said and rolled his eyes.

  Blu sighed. “It does smell doesn’t it? Maybe you could help me wash it.”

  “No way,” both warriors yelled simultaneously.

  “It’s not that bad,” Blu said.

  “Blu, you can’t put that tiny bald thing in our wash stall,” Thorn said. “You’ll kill it. Nothing says ‘cheer up’ like a dead pet.”

  “I already thought of that. I’ll use one of my drawers and fill it with water.”

  “Gross, Blu. You’ll have to sterilize it when you’re through, who knows where this thing has been,” Jax said in disgust.

  “Maybe I should feed it first,” Blu muttered.

  “What does it eat?” Thorn asked.

  “How the hell should I know?” Blu scowled.

  “Well, why not try vida bugs? Toffs love them,” Jax said and they all nodded.

  Blu went to another electric box that was more oblong than the toff box, except somewhat smaller than the box the Earth female was in. He scooped out a handful of huge hard-shelled creatures. The critters were about six inches long, basically all black except for two white, oval patches on their back. Blu remembered the female’s teeth were dull, but it should be able to break the hard outer shell to get the meaty, green moist innards. The furry long pincers clawed at his hand, but they couldn’t penetrate his hard skin. It tickled. Blu hunkered down near the female earthling.

  “Look, little female creature, I have food for you,” Blu crooned while smiling.

  The electric force field was off and Blu tossed the vida bugs in with it. The bugs seemed to be drawn by its smell and were soon all over it. The Earth female screamed and jumped up, stumbled and kept screaming. The female’s hands flew over its body trying to rid herself of the bug-eyed, beetle-like critters. The blanket the pet had wrapped itself in fell to the ground and tiny fine lines of a red substance began appearing on its white-pink flesh.

  “Shit, Blu,” Jax yelled as all three warriors jumped to their feet. “The food is eating your pet! Do something.”

  As Jax yelled, the Earth female was climbing over the side of the box to escape its attackers. Blu scooped the female up into his arms, away from the bugs that were now climbing up him to get to their meal. Thorn and Jax swept them off Blu and crunched them under their boots, making small splattered puddles of goo on the floor. The female continued to scream and was now pushing at Blu trying to make him release it.

  “For fuck sakes,” Titus bellowed as he entered the room. “What the hell is going on? And turn off that pet, it’s too loud.”

  “It doesn’t appear to have an off switch,” Blu yelled to be heard.

  “What do you mean—no off switch?”

  Titus stormed over and twisted the female around in Blu’s arms. He squeezed at its breasts, poked at the hole in its belly, yanked on fingers and toes, and when he looked in its mouth, shiny white teeth clamped down onto his fingers.

  “Damn it, this pet bites,” Titus said, snarling as he disengaged her teeth from him. “You can’t let a pet that bites near young children; they could get some kind of disease from it.” Titus smacked the female on its nose sharply. “Bad, female, bad.” The female yelped and went limp.

  “Aw, you hurt it,” Blu said.

  “Maybe that’s how you turn it off?” Titus leaned forward and checked its pulse. “I hope I didn’t kill it.”

  “No, I can hear it breathing,” Blu said and lifted her a bit higher in his arms, listening. He then wrinkled his nose and held it away from him. “Toff shit smells more pleasant.”

  “Maybe you should have Finn check it over,” Titus suggested when the little bald creature remained as still as death.

  “I think Finn would be annoyed if you asked him to look at a pet,” Thorn said, his look decidedly skeptical.

  “I’ll clean it up first; maybe if it smells better, he won’t try and kill me,” Blu said.

  With his pet held in his arms, away from his nose, Blu strode off into the ship hallway and headed for his chambers. A black door slid open into a large room; Blu set the female down on a scrap of floor covering and went to retrieve a drawer. He set the drawer down in his washing chamber and let the blasting water fill the squarish, leak-proof box. He stuck his hand into the water and frowned. Blu didn’t mind freezing cold water, but the little hairless female might be chilled. He tried to warm it up a bit, but didn’t know if it was now too hot—he didn’t want to cook it either.

  “Damn, this pet thing is trouble. I don’t know how to take care of it. I should have asked for an owner’s manual. Damned Tonan could have given me some instructions.”

  Determinedly, Blu marched into his living quarters and snatched up the female. When he set her in the cool water she stirred—and then things went from bad to worse.

  Chapter 2

  When Bay opened her eyes, her first instinct was to curl into the powerful warm arms surrounding her to escape the sudden cold. Until she realized it was the monster holding her. She screamed and beat at the massive creature, wailing and thrashing as the water in the tub—container-thing—sloshed everywhere. The alien was quick to grab an arm, a leg; he repeatedly plunked her onto her ass, almost leaning over her to keep her in the water.

  The monster was holding her, pinning her arms to her chest, grunting a series of frightening sounds, no doubt demanding she obey. Well, Bay wouldn’t. Her experience of being kidnapped from the planet Ulsy had gone from bad to worse. The new world was supposed to be the humans’ salvation as Earth died. When Bay had arrived on the new planet, she had been privy to two species warring—Castians and Tonans. Neither of the creatures looked approachable, and Bay had made a run for it. She hadn’t gotten far. The renegade Tonan who captured her in a raid after the Castian warriors had taken over the planet, had gone rogue.

  Once aboard the shiny, small gray vessel, the powerful warrior had beaten her into admitting the Castians had no idea she had even been on the planet. Like many other women, Bay found the strange beings scary and had hidden in a cave. The Tonan had been smug, thinking he had pulled a fast one on the Castians, but when he realized the Castians weren’t fuming from his great success, and no one in the galaxy would give him aid or any payment for her, he grew increasingly angry.

  News of the human females had spread through much of the quadrant and no one wanted to take on Castian warriors who were vi
rtually indestructible. Even when the Tonan declared Bay his, they had no reason to believe him—as his kind were known for their devious nature. When the Tonan realized he was stuck with her, he was furious. The warrior had heard of Tonans being rendered harmless from a human female’s emotional waterfall. The Tonan had wanted no part of her—she was useless. Bay was certain he was going to kill her. The Tonan had taken her far into the deepest reaches of the galaxy. The planet they landed on had what she could only describe as a market.

  Starving and beaten, after a week with the merciless Tonan, Bay had been tossed into a steel box. For hours, she had roasted in the hot sun as creatures—creepy, disgusting and spooky—had walked by shaking their heads as the Tonan tried to trade her for something. There were no takers. Bay couldn’t blame anyone—anything. She was a sorry mess; she smelled horrible. She could hardly walk or talk. Her tender flesh was adorned with hideous, painful bruises.

  When the powerful monster-type creature had approached her confines, Bay had screamed, adding more damage to her already tortured throat. The alien was massive, larger than her captor which was terrifying; the deeply tanned skin on his face and neck looked like leather or reptilian flesh. His long white hair moved as though alive. His shining red eyes glowed against the backdrop of his one long white eyebrow that stretched across his high forehead and down the sides of his face and neck to his shoulders. He wore no shirt—he didn’t need to. Thick, pure white fur covered his broad chest like an unusually hairy man.

  There was no fur covering on his wrinkled, oval-shaped middle that stretched from mid-chest to just above the belt line. Bay had never seen such a large expanse of chest. His arms bulged like tree trunks, and white fur went straight down the underside of his arms in a strip, to form furry white three-inch wide bands around his wrists. Four separate, horizontal strips of white fur stretched across his forearms, leaving the rest of his bulging muscles bare.