Betrayed: An Alien Brides Romance: Aliens of Malum, #2

One king. One childhood friend. One quest.

Andy

Being a king isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when I find out I have to take a bride. It's some sort of secret clause nobody bothered to tell me about, which is fine because I'm not doing it. I'll find a way around getting married if it's the last thing I do.

Lane

He has to do it. He has to take a bride. I'll set everything up. I'll arrange showings of the best women from every planet known to Malum. I'll create a customized menu of everything he could possibly want because if he doesn't find someone, if he doesn't get married, then he's going to lose the crown.

And I'm going to lose everything.

BETRAYED is the second book in ALIENS OF MALUM. It can be enjoyed as a standalone story; however, you may want to read DECEIVED prior to this in order to understand the ruling system of Malum. This is an alien brides story with romance, steam, and an incredible adventure.

For my readers

Thank you for all that you do.

Prologue

Andy

My brother had himself a bride.

Good for him.

Ryssi and Paige were going to rule Gideon together, which honestly shocked me. It wasn’t that my brother would make a bad king. On the contrary – he’d be a fantastic ruler. I’d always known he would be.

The reality was that he was basically born to rule. He was strong and quick-witted, even-tempered, and he was charismatic as fuck.

Everyone he met either wanted to fuck him or fight him, which was a pretty damn good way to live your life, if you asked me.

Still, I hadn’t expected a human to sweep him off his feet the way that Paige had. She’d crashed into Malum like a tornado, and she’d broken down my brother’s defenses. She was everything he’d ever needed and more.

Good for them.

As I made my way down the halls of the castle, I thought about their new position in life. The two of them were going to rule over Gideon. They were going to change the way the citizens of their planet viewed the rest of the universe, and hopefully, with their heads together, they were going to create a beautiful future for both of our planets.

It was the ultimate love story.

I reached my private office and paused outside of the door. Someone was inside waiting for me: someone I really, really didn’t want to deal with. I took a deep breath, and then I placed my palm on the door.

I can hear you breathing, the feminine voice called out.

Fuck.

You might as well come inside and get this over with.

Did I have to?

I had to, didn’t I?

I sighed and pushed the door open. Sure enough, standing at nearly seven feet tall was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.

She was also the wildest.

Andy, she said, smiling.

I see you’ve made yourself comfortable at my desk, I pointed out the fact that she was leaning against my desk that sat in the center of the room. It had been carved out of wood from the planet Sapphira, which meant that it had a beautiful deep-blue hue. Also, I prefer to be addressed as King Andryssi.

The woman considered me for a moment, and for a second, I almost thought she was going to give in to my request, but she didn’t. Instead, she stood up, shook her head, and simply told me no.

No.

Excuse me?

No. I’m not calling you that. We’re going to be working together, and I’m going to call you Andy. That’s what your friends call you.

We’re not friends.

We’re going to be, she said simply. Very soon, in fact.

What the hell are you talking about?

Haven’t you heard?

Heard what?

Why, Your Majesty, a thin smile spread over her face, you need to take a bride.

Chapter 1

Andy

I ’m not the kind of king who needs a bride.

The woman standing in my office looked at me, amused. She had a smirk on her face that could only be described as smug.

"Perhaps you’re not the kind of king who wants a bride," she corrected me.

I’m not.

You are, however, the kind of king who will take a bride. If you choose not to, you’ll be forced off of the throne.

According to who?

Whom, she corrected. 

Are you fucking kidding me? I spoke through gritted teeth, irritated at this turn of events. I’d just been hanging out, minding my own business, ruling my damn planet, when this had happened.

The woman in my office seemed to understand my irritation, because she took a deep breath and steeled herself. I could tell that despite her business-like outfit and neatly styled hair, she was still nervous around me.

Good.

She should be.

Lane pressed her lips together.

Andy, how long have we known one another?

Long enough.

Then you know that I don’t bullshit. She walked to the window and looked out. From up here, there was a perfect view of Tria: the capital city of Malum. I also had a perfect view of Lane’s round ass and her long, pointy tail that peeked out from beneath her dress.

I’d always wanted to ask her about the tail.

Most alien creatures didn’t have them. Horns? Yes. Tails? Not so much. They just weren’t very common, at least not on Malum. Her blue-tinted skin screamed of the planet Sapphira, but the tail had always been a mystery to me.

She turned around, frowning.

This is serious, Andy. You have to take a wife.

I’m not interested.

Well, Dreagle is.

Dreagle.

The Dark Planet.

Dreagle was a place filled with chaos and malice. It was the worst planet in the damn galaxy – even worse than Planet Hawk.

That was saying something.

What are you talking about?

She pressed a button on her bracelet, casting a holographic image to appear in my office. She rose her hand, sorting through the difference translucent images that appeared, searching for the one that she wanted.

This is from three days ago, she said.

KING OF MALUM REMAINS UNWED, I read the headline and then glanced over at Lane. It sounds a bit sensational.

It’s more than that, she told me. They’ve found a loophole.

I’ve been the king for years, Lane. Why didn’t I know about this loophole before? It seemed a bit unbelievable, to be honest. Loopholes were something that happened to other people. Not me. I was the king, fair and square, and nothing was going to take that away from me.

Nothing.

None of us knew about it, she said, shrugging. When your parents passed away and you were crowned king, your brother wasn’t interested in the throne, was he?

No.

He’d been perfectly happy to go fight in wars and then run off to hide in a little cave by the ocean. Now he was living happily, again, on Planet Gideon with his bride. He was a king there, now, but everyone knew that as the true heir to the throne, his wife, Paige, made all of the serious calls.

Well, apparently, on Malum, if the king is unmarried and an heir to the throne becomes married, the king has only three months to follow suit.

Follow suit...and get married?

Yes.

Or what?

Or your brother gets the throne and there’s nothing either one of you can do about it.

He doesn’t want the throne.

Then your planet is going to suffer. Our planet, she corrected herself quickly. "Andy, you can’t let this happen. Dreagle will try to place someone on the throne here. You won’t be able to stop it."

That’s never going to happen.

Irritation washed over me. It would never happen. It couldn’t. I just wouldn’t allow it. I was the one in charge, so what I said was gold.

Only, Lane didn’t seem to think that I was as correct as I thought.

Three months, she said. How long has your brother been married?

About a month, I sighed.

That only gives us two months, she said. And Andy, you have to choose someone serious. It has to be someone you can get along with.

Why? I asked. I was already trying to think of ways to get out of the marriage. Maybe I could wed someone, but quietly date around until I managed to find someone I liked. Then I could divorce the one and remarry the other.

Wouldn’t that work?

As if reading my mind, Lane shook her head.

No divorcing, she said.

Excuse me?

Read the article, she gestured toward the holograph. I didn’t want to read the article, though. I was irritated that Lane was in my office. I felt uncomfortable around her and off my game.

She was right when she said we weren’t friends. 

We had been, though, once upon a time. Oh, it had been a long time ago.

Too long.

A lifetime.

Can you sum up for me?

Andy, this is serious, she whispered.

I knew that. I knew it was serious. I was the fucking king, after all. I knew that what she was telling me was going to change everything. It was going to change so much, and I wasn’t ready.

Perhaps more importantly, I didn’t want it.

I don’t want a wife.

I was happy being a single ruler. I was content. I didn’t need the pressure or trouble that a wife would bring. If I had wanted to get married, it would have been to Lane years ago, but that hadn’t happened. She’d gone off, and I’d taken the throne.

Now I had to choose someone or risk my crown being taken away.

Awesome.

I know, she whispered, looking at me. I hated the way she had so much pity in her eyes. I hated it. I know.

Chapter 2

Lane

I know that you know , he said. He was tense. Every one of his muscles was tight, and I wished that I could do something – anything – to help him feel better. I wanted to reach out and massage that tension right out of him. The king needed someone to calm him down, and I desperately wanted to be that someone, but I couldn’t.

We both knew that I couldn’t.

Andy and I were no longer childhood friends spending whimsical days exploring Tria. Now we were adults who hadn’t seen each other in what felt like a million years. 

Ruling the planet had done wonders for him, though. He wasn’t a scrawny kid anymore. Now he was taller, thicker. He was more muscular. He seemed to have grown both in size and in attitude since I’d been gone. 

My tail twitched as I looked at him. I hoped against all hope that he hadn’t noticed. I’d always been nervous when it came to other people knowing I had a tail or seeing it outright, so I couldn’t really explain why I’d chosen to wear a dress where my tail peeked out the back when it came to seeing him.

He’d spotted it right away when he’d come into the room. He’d tried not to let me know he was noticing me, but I wasn’t an idiot, and neither was he.