Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery
The Khanavai Warrior Bride Games Book Four
Margo Bond Collins
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
Epilogue
About the Author
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Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery
Copyright © 2021 by Margo Bond Collins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.
Published by Dangerous Words Publishing
Cover by Covers by Combs
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author or authors.
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About Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery
I’ll do whatever it takes to destroy the Bride Games.
A year ago, I did the unthinkable.
I helped a woman running from the Alien Bride Lottery.
I spent three months in a federal prison for it, too.
As soon as I got out, a secret organization recruited me. Our goal is to end the Bride Lottery program forever.
So when my name is drawn in the lottery this year, I know it’s a set-up. But my friends in the organization insist it’s for the best, because now I can feed them information from inside the Bride Games.
But when I arrive on Station 21, I realize there’s even more to this set-up than I knew. Because the first person I meet is that green alien bastard who turned me in. Worse, he’s one of the grooms in the Bride Games.
If he thinks he can make up for all the damage he’s done, he’s in for a surprise.
Because I’m going to do whatever it takes to bring down this entire system.
Chapter One
Deandra Casto
The first time I saw one of them—one of the Khanavai warriors—I was working the night shift as a hotel desk clerk when a frantic, thirty-something woman with hair dyed a kind of burgundy red dashed in from a car that had pulled up in the half-circle drive outside the lobby.
I glanced up from the magazine I’d been flipping through. Her gaze shifted around as if checking out all our security cameras, and then she ducked her face down.
That’s when I recognized her.
Amelia Rivers.
The runaway bride from the Alien Bride Lottery.
She had been all over the news for days. The authorities of two planets, along with a whole mess of bounty hunters, were after her, a human doctor who, as far as I was concerned, should have been exempt from even having to participate in the Bride Lottery.
Quietly, I reached over and turned off the switch to the surveillance system. “Cameras are off,” I told her, keeping my voice down.
Her eyes welled up with tears. “Oh, God. Thank you.”
I nodded and watched to see what she’d do next.
“Can you help me? I need to pay with cash.”
Oh. I could do better than that. “Sure. I’ll even check you in under a fake name if you’d like.”
She exhaled shakily. “Please. Yes.”
“Come on—let’s get you into a room and I’ll fill out the paperwork afterward.” That was one of the benefits of working at a no-name highway hotel, where we mostly got long-distance travelers, clandestine lovers, and the occasional trucker looking for a night of something more luxurious than his cab. No one really asked questions, as long as we got paid and they didn’t trash a room.
Still, offering to hide her was a stupid thing to do. Not to mention illegal.
But I had grown up in West Virginia, where my father had been what used to be called a “prepper”—he spent his whole life preparing for the possibility of a war that never actually made it to Earth. In the process, he taught me to hunt and fish, how to grow and can food myself, and, most importantly, how to avoid the authorities whenever possible.
So the idea that some alien jerk could just claim a human bride and force her to marry him made me sick to my stomach. I hadn’t ever even been entered into the lottery—I had married early to avoid it, and we had never gotten divorced, even though I hadn’t seen Sammy in years.
It was safer that way. I was already married, so they couldn’t steal me away from my home planet.
I didn’t blame Amelia Rivers one little bit for taking off when her name was drawn. I wouldn’t have wanted to end up with one of those giant, brightly colored monstrosities of a man-shaped alien, either.
“Need any help hauling your stuff in?” I asked her as I coded a keycard and handed it to her.
“Actually…yes, I do.”
“Your room is on the side of the building. Drive around and I’ll meet you out there.” The idea of helping her escape sent a little thrill through my body, and I hurried to get a “Jane Smith” checked in.
“Thank you so much for this,” Amelia said moments later as I walked around the corner of the building. But when she opened the car door, I froze.
She actually had an alien right there in the car with her. A giant, hot-pink one, out cold in the back seat.
I couldn’t tell any of them apart—other than their skin colors, of course—but I was pretty sure this was one of the ones I’d seen on the vids, chasing her across an airport or bus terminal or something.
“Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for one of them.” I didn’t reach out to help her. Not yet.
“It’s … complicated,” Amelia said, sighing.
“I bet it is.” I reached out to grab the unconscious alien’s arm, placing my shoulder under his and lifting with my legs to help Amelia haul him out of the car and
