Love And Aliens
Dragon Approved™ Book Eight
Ramy Vance Michael Anderle
The Love and Aliens Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Kelly O’Donnell
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Kathleen Fettig
Deb Mader
John Ashmore
If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
This Book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2020 by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle
Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design
http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US Edition, April 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-833-1
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-834-8
Dedication
To Waleed and Rana … romance is in the air!
—Ramy
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Author Notes Ramy Vance
Other Books by the Authors
Connect with The Authors
Chapter One
Myrddin declared a holiday at the Wasp’s Nest, the first ever. Most of the staff didn’t know what to do with their time, and none of the students did.
Other than Alex Bound.
She knew exactly how she was going to spend her day off.
And who she would be spending it with.
The wind was rushing past Alex’s face, bringing out the red in her cheeks. She almost gasped for breath. The cold air had come out of nowhere, but it was refreshing. She continued to climb into the clouds as if she were trying to get as far away from the ground as possible.
Her dragon, Chine, had been silent for most of the ride, trying to give Alex space. It was a big day for her, and they’d discussed the proper boundaries the night before.
The reason it was such a big day was that Jim was flying in his mech dragon next to Alex, both of them heading toward some destination Jim had picked out. There were many ways in which Alex could see this day going terribly wrong, and each of them had something to do with her. They were generally vague notions, but if she thought long enough, a crystal-clear version of her screwing things up would manifest itself.
Alex had no idea why she was so nervous. She’d been through much more nerve-wracking experiences over the last few months. She was thousands of feet in the air on the back of an ether dragon, which would have been enough to freak most people out. Going out with Jim should have been a walk in the park. I wonder if he’s taking me to a park? Alex thought. We didn’t bring anything to eat.
A gust of wind pushed past Alex and sent another set of shivers down her spine. She tapped the environmental control on her dragon anchor and felt her suit warming up.
Jim had hardly said anything since the two of them had left the Wasp’s Nest, the main base of the dragonriders. He had been all jokes and flirty glances when Alex had been getting her dragon ready. Now there was comm silence between the two of them.
Alex wondered if Jim was as nervous as she was. This was technically a date. Maybe everyone was nervous on their first dates, but that didn’t make any sense for Jim and her. They had spent years playing Middang3ard VR together, and since then, they had gone on several death-defying missions as members of the dragonriders corps. She’d think they could hold a simple conversation.
Yet here they were, flying through a perfect sky, on the way to a date they were both looking forward to, riding in complete silence.
What did people do in situations like this? Alex wished she knew what to say, but any time she felt like she was supposed to say something, she froze. It was almost as if awkward silences made her brain shut off.
Was it awkward, though? Wasn’t one sign of a good friendship that you could be comfortable being quiet with someone? What if that was all this was—just two friends going out? Jim hadn’t said it was a date…or he hadn’t used those words specifically. What if this was just one of those “friends” type of things?
Fighting the Dark One’s forces was nothing compared to the stress of this ambiguity.
Alex cleared her throat and looked at Jim as she hit her comm. “So, where did you find out about this place?”
Jim looked through his cockpit’s windshield as he answered. “Gill told me about it,” he replied. “Said it was a nice, romantic place.”
Alex felt a dagger in her chest. Figures I’d say something that would bring up Gill. She still hadn’t thought about her feelings about Gill, but she’d already made up her mind about Jim. It didn’t seem like Gill’s feelings had been hurt, either. I mean, he did recommend a romantic place for Jim to take me. He can’t be too heartbroken, Alex thought.
Chine interrupted Alex’s rambling train of thought. You seem to be having a problem speaking to the human you’re infatuated with. Perhaps you two could talk about the weather?
Chine, shut up. I’m not having a hard time talking. Just, this is my first date.
Chine chuckled as he soared higher. Ah, human mating rituals. Your species is downright adorable when you’re trying to—
Alex interrupted Chine, shouting, “Wait, who said anything about mating? This is just a first date. Like, my first date ever.” Alex realized she
