Savage Seed: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Warriors of the Oasis) Read online

  Savage Seed

  Warriors of the Oasis - Book 3

  Ivy Sparks

  Copyright © 2022 by Ivy Sparks

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Bonus Epilogue

  1

  Leslie

  Planet Xersie’s unforgiving deserts spanned such great distances that even from my vantage point on the transport shuttle, all I could see below were golden dunes. How any race could survive here, I didn’t know, yet supposedly barbaric tribes were scattered throughout the lands.

  Lucky for me and my team, the tribes avoided our mines. They also steered clear of the star port humans and other species had established near the northern region. It wouldn’t be long before we landed there, and I could breathe easily again.

  I reached up and rubbed my eyes, swallowing a sigh. The day had been brutal, more so than usual after one of our drilling machines malfunctioned. We didn’t have any spares, so every time one needed repair, it stalled our progress. And we were already operating on razor-thin margins.

  No need to worry about that right now, though. I had to leave work at work, or else I’d become as stressed as my father. I turned my focus to the miners and technicians huddled together in groups throughout the shuttle cabin. They seemed happy enough in each other’s company, but something about them caused a knot to form in the pit of my stomach. Though they respected me well enough, they had always kept me at arm’s length. It probably didn’t help that I was the mine owner’s daughter. That seemed to make me off limits, even for friendships. There was Ava, my closest and only friend, and my supervisor, but she was often too preoccupied with her own problems.

  So here I sat, alone.

  The shuttle tilted suddenly, and I braced myself in my chair. A few of the employees and shuttle crew fell against one another, their arms touching and lips curving into relieved smiles when the shuttle chugged along as normal.

  I spotted Ava, sitting across the aisle and staring blankly out the window. She had seemed distracted in the mines. Madison, her little sister, was sick. Very sick. I wondered if she had gotten more bad news in that regard.

  Though I had thought it’d be better to give her some room, I decided that tactic wasn’t working, so I unbuckled myself and approached her.

  “Ava?” I began gently.

  She jerked upon hearing me, then put a hand to her chest and laughed. “Oh! Sorry. I must have been daydreaming again.”

  “Is everything okay with Madison?” I asked, sitting down in the chair next to her.

  “Actually? Yes. She’s starting to see some improvements.” Ava smiled, though I sensed something was still off. And that was when she admitted, “It’s just the bills… They keep growing and growing, and I’m just not making enough.”

  “Shit,” I said.

  Ava gasped playfully. “Did you just cuss? You never cuss!”

  I laughed. “I guess it’s all wearing on me. I wish I could help, but my father and the mine are already stretched so thin.”

  “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll figure something out.”

  That was when the shuttle bucked again, but this time more violently than before.

  Ava and I both looked down at my unbuckled seat belt. “You, uh, gonna buckle up or what?” Ava asked.

  I laughed again, though this time with much less humor. “Eh. A seat belt won’t make much of a difference if we go hurtling into the desert sands.”

  “Good Lord, Leslie,” Ava said. “That’s not what I want to hear right now.”

  “Maybe we just hit a sand bird,” I joked, forcing a smile and playfully punching Ava in the arm. She and I shared a running gag that there was a sand variety of just about every Earth animal here.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Ava got that faraway look in her eyes again, then unbuckled herself to stand, her focus turning to one of our technicians in the front of the shuttle. “I need to talk to Gregory about something. Would you excuse me?”

  I nodded and watched her head off. I wondered if she and Gregory had anything romantic developing between them. He was nice enough, and I wasn’t sure what other business she’d have with him.

  If only I could just easily chat up a guy like that. Instead, all I had in my life was the mine and my father. And for my father, all he had was the mine and me. Remembering that, I buckled my seat belt and closed my eyes, focusing on him. He had sacrificed so much for me. Regardless of whatever things that I thought might have been missing from my life, I was grateful I still had him.

  Just as I opened my eyes again, I glimpsed something large and bright hurtling toward our shuttle. Other than a quick inhalation, I had no time to react. It happened that fast.

  The object collided into the side of the shuttle and ripped the hull in half. The deafening screech of tearing metal assaulted my ears as the world suddenly spun around me.

  I couldn’t see, couldn’t think, could hardly breathe as I felt myself free-fall to the desert sands. One moment, the wind rushed past me and I clutched the arm rests for dear life. The next, I hit the ground, tumbling several times end over end.

  Once the tumbling finally stopped, I took a moment to breathe. I looked down at my legs, my arms, my body. I was still somehow in one piece. The soft sand beneath me had cushioned the blow.

  The rest of the shuttle wasn’t so lucky.

  Pieces of metal fell like paper in the wind, although the heavier chunks hit the ground at the same time as I had. I must have been alone; no one else was sitting in the back of the shuttle, and Ava had moved to the front earlier.

  Alone. Like usual. Maybe this was my fate. My destiny. To be alone and die alone.

  A piercing wail filled the air, and I flinched. Adrenaline coursed through my veins enough to get me to release my death-grip on the chair, but not enough to help me unbuckle my seat belt. My hands shook as I tried to grasp the buckle, but I couldn’t hold it steady enough to undo it. With a frustrated cry, I forced my fingers around a knife I kept strapped to my thigh and popped the thin leather holding it in place. Cutting my seat belt, I finally fell free and landed on my knees in the sand.

  The wailing had stopped, replaced by short, frantic breaths and shallow sobs. I turned my head and found another person—a stewardess by the looks of her outfit—lying on the ground with her hands over her leg.

  I rushed toward her, grimacing when I saw her injured leg. I’d seen enough injuries in the mine to know that there was no saving it. Even worse, her shin bone had punctured her skin, and she was bleeding profusely. Possibly a torn artery. Without the proper first aid supplies, there wasn’t much I could do.
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  But I had to try. I removed my belt from its loops and tied it above her knee. The woman didn’t even flinch at how tightly I pulled. “I’m going to find something for a splint,” I told her, turning before she could look at my face. I didn’t want her to see the truth in my eyes.

  I shifted across the sand and dug around the shuttle debris, looking for something, anything, that I could use to brace the stewardess’s break. I found nothing, and my desperation turned into a panic.

  We were in the middle of God knows where, far away from the rest of the crashed shuttle. No food, no water, no communication device. I cursed myself for not taking my dad up on buying me my own portable radio. “We don’t need the extra expense,” I had told him. “Save that money for the mine.”

  A lot of good the mine was doing me now.

  I beat my fists against my thighs, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. I needed to think. I needed to think rationally.

  Okay, Leslie. What would a smart woman do right now?

  I knew it was only a matter of time before we were rescued. That much was a given, assuming the front of the shuttle managed a safe crash landing. The crew would realize I was missing—well, Ava would for sure—and they’d come looking for me. But what if they were in as bad of shape as we were? What if no one else survived?

  Biting my lip, I tried to get the image of Ava calmly chatting with me earlier out of my head. Surely that wouldn’t be the last time I saw her.

  Would it?

  And then there was my father, who was safe at the office, not yet aware of what happened. I was all he had left, and if I died… A shiver ran down my spine despite the sunlight warming my skin. I’d seen my father broken once before, and I’d be damned if I ever let that happen again.

  So there was only one thing I could do: survive long enough to get rescued. But with only a knife for protection, what chance did I stand in this barbaric desert? I surveyed the perimeter to look for a trail or marker to let me know where I was, but all I saw was sand and sunlight. No, walking on foot would be a suicide mission. I wasn’t even sure which direction was north.

  I shook my head, trying to ignore all the things that weren’t working in my favor. I was still in one piece, and somehow didn’t break any limbs. That was a good start. And the knife was better than nothing. I could do this. I could survive.

  As I walked back toward the stewardess, I heard a subtle shifting of the sands, but there was no wind that could be moving it. It wasn’t until two creatures burst through the desert surface that I realized what I was looking at.

  These hideous creatures were no doubt sand beasts—one of the many fabled terrors of Xersie. Their bug-like armor glinted in the sunlight, and their praying mantis-like claws were sharp as razors. As I stared, one of them lifted its claws to its mandibles and licked it, no doubt imagining what I tasted like.

  I shakily gripped my little knife, my heart pounding as the first beast lunged straight for me.

  2

  Leslie

  As the beast lunged for me, the first image that flashed in my mind was of my father. I imagined him clearly, as if he was standing before me, hands on his hips, lips pulled into a thin line. “Do you know how much your death will cost us?”

  Funeral expenses. Another worker lost. The entire crew missing. Broken machines and rigs. No one to help him keep the books, or make sure he took care of himself and didn’t overwork. No one to confide in about how stressed he was, about how the mine just couldn’t take another hit, about how he couldn’t bear the thought of losing me after he had already lost so much.

  It was too much for one man to handle. First his wife, then his only daughter. Next would be the mine he’d worked so hard for, had spent so many countless hours building for his family.

  A family that would no longer exist if I died.

  Now my father knelt before me, his chest heaving as sobs coursed through his frame. Within his curled fingertips, I saw a thin black ribbon dangling loosely toward the ground. From the palm of his hand, a silver-white glow of a crystal pulsed slowly, the light continuing to soften until the beating ceased. The light went out, and the image of my father became nothing more than a silhouette.

  The pure Vyrec crystal was a gift my father had given my mother upon opening the mine, and other than my complexion, it was the only thing she passed down to me. When Dad first gave it to her, she had fashioned it into a necklace and wore it every day. It signified a new beginning, a new chance at life—until she left us.

  Though it was all I had left of my mother, I had never been able to wear it. Just looking at it made my skin crawl. She had taken so much from my father that it seemed an insult to wear it, so I never did. But I never tossed it out either.

  It was a pure, flawless crystal, and those were very rare for a mine our size. So I brought it to work with me every day, in case I needed a specimen for comparison to anything we pulled from the ground. At least, that was the reason I told myself. I told myself every day that the crystal meant nothing anymore—not to me, and not to my father.

  So why was he holding it in my vision, as my life flashed before my eyes?

  A sudden hot pain ripped into my hip, bringing me back to reality as the sand beast cut through me like butter.

  I screamed, making the beast recoil, which bought me time to scramble away. The initial damage was done, though—a nasty gash split my hip open. But there was no time to assess the wound any further as the beast lunged again, this time with its mandibles lashing out toward me.

  I brandished my knife, hoping that would be enough to keep this thing away from me. I tried to back away, but each time I scooted farther back, the creature scrambled forward twice as much. It was only a matter of time before I became its lunch. I quickly stole a glance at my only human companion and saw the other beast lurching toward her. Panic gripped me and a scream caught in my throat. I choked out a weak warning, saying, “Look out!”

  The woman turned her face toward me. But with her destroyed leg, she couldn’t even stand, much less run.

  Her fate was certain.

  Tears stung my eyes as I watched the sand beast closest to her close in. As much as the scene horrified me, I couldn’t let this woman die feeling completely alone. I opened my mouth to say something, perhaps something soothing or encouraging. But it was over before I got a single word out. The beast tore into her neck, her screams turning into gurgles as she choked on her own blood. Only a second later, she was silent, her head hanging limply as the beast tore into her.

  I swallowed dryly and finally averted my eyes, trying to block out the crunching sounds of her bones being eaten.

  I was on my own, now more than ever.

  But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do this. Dad didn’t raise a wimp, I told myself, forcing my legs to stand as I turned my attention back on the sand beast before me. I raised my knife higher and gripped it so hard that my knuckles turned white.

  The sand beast continued to advance. My hands shook and my throat dried as I side-stepped its attacks as best I could, but then I stumbled backward over a piece of the fallen shuttle, landing on my back and leaving myself wide open.

  The creature was fast, and a moment later it had drawn so close that it blocked the sun shining overhead. I got a clear picture of it, clearer than I ever would have wanted. It paused, seeming to revel in my frozen fear. I took a shallow breath and felt the grit on my tongue, the dust in my lungs, and the frantic beating of my heart in my chest.

  This was it. This was the end. There was no other way out. Nothing short of a miracle was going to save me, and I didn’t believe in miracles. There were no knights in shining armor in the real world, and definitely not on an alien planet like this.

  Screw this, I thought. If the bastard was going to get cocky and try to play with its food before killing me, I was going to leave a lasting mark on it.

  Just as I pulled back my arm to stab at its squinted eyes, a loud roar pierced the sky and startled us both. The noise ca
used me to drop my knife, and I cursed loudly as it fell to the sand.

  The beast fidgeted its mandibles and tilted its head to the side to listen, forgetting all about me for a moment. The sound was close—too close for comfort—and my stomach dropped. Whatever that roar was, it wasn’t from a sand beast. Was there some other apex predator I wasn’t aware existed out here?

  Regardless, this distraction proved the perfect opportunity for a counter-strike. The creature was no longer looking at me, instead turning its head in the roar’s direction. The other beast had also stopped moving and mimicked its partner’s stance, as if the two were part of a hive mind.

  Steeling my nerves and willing myself to believe in myself, I bent over, grabbed my knife, and adjusted my grip to prepare for an underhanded stab. As I sent out a silent prayer that I’d see my father again, I swung the knife up toward the sand beast’s head.

  3

  Kade

  Rubbing sand between my fingers, I watched as the grains clumped together instead of falling apart. Only a recent footprint would clump the sands like this.

  She was close, my prey. Close enough that I could taste blood in my mouth. My chest heaved as I envisioned myself standing over her dead body, and I grinned despite myself. It was unwise to think a battle won before it began, but I knew I was going to find what I truly desired—what I’d been dreaming of for years.