Dragon Trap [Coalition Mates 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Coalition Mates 5

  Dragon Trap

  All Marisol Lewis had ever wanted was a family, but her ex-husband back on Earth made sure that would never happen while they were together. Now? After waking up on an alien planet, she has a plan, and she’s more determined than ever to see it through on her own.

  Luca and Baelion are dragon shifters with a troubled past. Shunned by their own people, they now work for the Coalition Council taking rescue jobs that no one else can do. They manage to find Marisol when she gets abducted—but their rescue plans take a wrong turn, and they all end up stranded on a dangerous, quarantined planet.

  Mari finds out the hard way that life often gets in the way of best-laid plans…and that dragon shifters most definitely get in the way of hers.

  It’s a good thing for her that dragons are naturally quite stubborn once they decide they want something—and they’ve decided she’s theirs.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Science Fiction, Shape-shifter

  Length: 54,391 words

  DRAGON TRAP

  Coalition Mates 5

  Sarah Marsh

  MENAGE AMOUR

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  DRAGON TRAP

  Copyright © 2017 by Sarah Marsh

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-808-7

  First E-book Publication: January 2017

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Dragon Trap by Sarah Marsh from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Sarah Marsh’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Sarah Marsh’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To all of my readers who have grown to love this series as much as I have, thank you for your support.

  To my two partners in writing crime, Maia Dylan and Elena Kincaid—what can I say about our friendship? You two are the wind beneath my dirty, dirty wings.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Landmarks

  Cover

  DRAGON TRAP

  Coalition Mates 5

  SARAH MARSH

  Copyright © 2017

  Prologue

  It had been almost six months since Marisol had woken and opened her eyes in a strange room and her whole world had changed forever. This new reality was so far removed from what she had known back on Earth. The planet Sirus…with its red suns and its alien peoples.

  It had been a shock, waking up to learn that she had been abducted by alien slavers while she waited on the side of the road after work one night for a tow truck. At first, she had imagined all sorts of things she could have done differently. Changes that would have meant she’d still have been on Earth, living her mediocre life, waiting for something good to finally happen for her.

  Then, after a couple weeks of sitting in a room with the other women who had been abducted alongside her, listening to their stories about what kind of lives they led and what new opportunities may lie ahead for them all, she had an epiphany.

  Mari had been dreading when it would be her turn to talk about her life in their group, as she knew there was nothing all that spectacular about the life she’d left behind. She had a job as a nurse at the hospital, and it had pretty good wages and benefits. She had a small house with a little garden in the backyard, a tiny patio that she rarely used because she never had company…and a crap car that was really the catalyst for this entire situation.

  She’d never gotten the family that she’d dreamed of when she got married. Hell, for that matter, she didn’t even have the husband left over from that debacle. Marisol had put up with years of an unhappy marriage in hopes that Jordan would provide her with the only thing she’d ever asked of him: a baby. But after four years of tediously boring s
ex and monthly disappointment when she took the test and it came out negative, she had been cleaning out their office at home and came across a medical aftercare sheet for a vasectomy that had his name on it. It had been dated for six months after they got married. She remembered that Jordan had been injured around that time. He’d said that he’d pulled a groin muscle playing hockey. He didn’t touch her for weeks after that, and she’d played the good wife, taking care of him.

  The lying asshole.

  When she’d confronted him about the surgery, he’d gotten defensive and said that he’d tried to tell her a million times that he never wanted to have children, but he was afraid she would’ve left him. Which of course she would have, but she deserved to make that choice for herself.

  Marisol had spent her whole life wishing to be a part of a big family. Once her parents passed away, she’d been left all alone, and she’d hoped that by marrying Jordan she could make that dream come true. But all he’d done was cheat her out of years of her life, and by the time the divorce was finalized, she was almost thirty-seven. She’d immediately gone to a fertility clinic to look into having a child on her own, but the doctors had been skeptical after a few examinations, telling her that adoption may be the best route to go rather than risking complications that arose using her “older eggs,” as he had called them.

  She’d been heartbroken knowing that she may have missed her chance to carry her own child. She couldn’t afford in-vitro treatment with donor eggs and sperm, and unfortunately, she wasn’t close enough to any male friends to ask that particular kind of intimate favor.

  So when they’d all woken up on an alien planet and learned they had a chance at a new life, all Mari could think of was finding a way to make her dreams of having a child finally come true. She’d spoken to her counselor about it, and even though she’d tried to convince her to wait, saying that she may meet someone first and fall in love…Mari knew that some people just weren’t meant to have that kind of luck in their lives. She’d settled when she’d married Jordan. Sure, she’d loved him, but she was never in love with him, and she wouldn’t go down that path again. Come hell or high water, she’d build her own path.

  Chapter One

  Mari stared at the sheer beauty of the male in front of her. His chest was a sculpture of rippling golden muscles. Fine beads of sweat made their way down his toned stomach, drawing her gaze ever lower. She watched as his hips swayed back and forth to the seductive music, his low, loose pants barely clinging to his lean body. She wasn’t sure if she’d even seen a more beautiful man before; it had certainly been long enough since she’d had her hands on any man at all. The sighs of the woman next to her finally broke the trance of his delectable gyrations and allowed her to turn her eyes away. No point in torturing herself any further with things that she couldn’t have.

  “God, Mari, how can you even look away from a sight that divine?” Devyn fanned herself with both hands. “I mean, I love Benic like a brother, but when that boy dances, even I can’t keep my thoughts platonic.”

  “Well, I’m almost old enough to be his mother, so I shouldn’t be gawking at him at all,” Marisol answered as she stood up from the stone bench where they’d been watching the dance performance. The gardens of the Courtesan Guild building were created for showcasing and practicing all sorts of exotic performance arts, and most of those who attended the classes or worked in the building loved to enjoy the shows.

  “You’re leaving right in the middle of his routine?” Devyn asked, looking back at her as if she were crazy.

  “I’ve got an appointment with the Guild Matron in twenty minutes. Sally says she’s found the perfect contract for me.”

  “Oh,” Devyn answered with a frown. “This soon? I thought it would take longer, that we’d have at least until I’m done with classes before you shipped off to planets unknown.”

  Mari reached over and gave her friend a tight hug. For some reason, little Devyn’s perky, outrageous personality had meshed perfectly with her own—surprisingly, since she’d been told on more than one occasion that she was too serious, too much of a control freak. So the tiny tornado of happiness had become her best friend here, and if she was sent off world, she would miss her something fierce.

  “Don’t worry, Devyn. It might not even be one that I want,” Mari said with a shrug. “No point in worrying over nothing. I’ll see you after.”

  As Marisol walked back through the education center and into the Courtesan admin wing, she had to admire the sensuous beauty of the building. If she had been ten years younger and perhaps a little bit braver, she would have loved to apply to the Courtesan Guild. It sounded so glamorous and fascinating, and Sally certainly couldn’t look any happier than she was in her new role as Guild Matron. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was a role that just happened to come with a smoking-hot husband, Guild Master Arkenon Quinn. A more devastating alpha male Mari had never met, and she couldn’t help but be a little jealous of her friend.

  She walked into Sally’s new office and was not surprised to see the intimidating Kalista Dax standing at the secretary’s desk, going over some paperwork. When the former Tokka assassin turned her unsettling solid blue eyes toward Mari, it was all she could do not to book it back out the damned door. Kali had always been very nice to the rest of the rescued Earthers and actively went out of her way to make friends, but the rumors of the kind of violence she was capable of left Mari just a bit freaked out.

  “Hello, Marisol. Are you here for your appointment with the Guild Matron?” Kali asked, an almost smile trying to form on her beautiful, pale white face.

  Mari knew that Kali liked to spend so much time with the Earth females because they were so expressive emotionally. She was only half Tokka and had been forced to suppress her physical expressions at an early age. Since Kali had defected from a society where it was unacceptable to show emotions of any kind, she was trying to learn by observing them, and sometimes the results could be…unsettling.

  “Yes, Sally said that she may have found a placement for me,” Mari answered, trying to maintain eye contact with the much taller woman.

  “Mari, come on in!” Sally bellowed from her desk, which made both Mari and Kali smile at how outrageous their new Guild Matron could be.

  Sally was up to her elbows in material swatches when Marisol sat down in front of the large desk. The office was beautiful, with an incredible view of the mountains through the floor-to-ceiling windows on one side. The furniture was all made in a black wood that looked exotic and expensive. But then again, Sally’s new position as Guild Matron was one of the most important on the entire planet of Sirus. It was just strange because Sally really didn’t seem to care about the prestige at all. She had really grown into herself since that day they had all walked out of their rooms for the first time and realized they were now on an alien planet, but she was still just Sally to the rest of her friends.

  “Argh, I’m supposed to decide on material for new dresses for the council meetings, and I seriously couldn’t care less. I wonder if I can hire someone to do all of this clothing crap for me?” the Guild Matron said, shoving the material to the other side of the desk with a look of disgust. “So how are you, Mari? How are the classes going?”

  “Good, Sal. I’m almost done with the EMT equivalent, so I’m sure that will be handy to have on top of my nursing experience. You said you had a possible match for me for placement?” She squirmed in her chair, trying not to look too excited.

  Sally picked up the folder in front of her, frowning while she opened it.

  “Are you sure you want to go this route, Mari? You never know when you might meet someone who could end up being the real deal. I know you want a child of your own, but I just can’t imagine how this arrangement wouldn’t leave you a bit, well—lonely,” Sally asked, genuine concern in her eyes.

  Of all the things that impressed her the most about her time on an alien world, it was how supportive and protective the other women had become over one
another. It was as though they’d decided to adopt each other as family, and Mari was touched that Sally was so worried about her choice.

  “Tell me about the contract, Sal. Let’s see if it’s even going to work for me first,” Marisol said as she motioned toward the file folder.

  “Well, it’s the Dolovian councilman who sits on the Coalition Council. He’s quite elderly and has no heir. He hasn’t been able to conceive with his last three wives; their species was hit pretty hard on the gene manipulation, and their population growth is down almost forty-five percent. He’s willing to offer you a large estate and dowry to live on Dolovia if you are willing to donate your genetic material for implantation in a surrogate. Of course, you would have no claim or contact with any offspring that may be conceived. You would be given residency—that’s why you’d have to live there, or his heir wouldn’t be eligible to inherit. With the sum he’s offering, you should have no problem affording the in-vitro treatments to have as many children as you want after that. What do you think?” Sally asked, looking at her cautiously.

  “At least I don’t have to sleep with some old married alien, right?” Mari joked to try and restrain the excitement that was bubbling up inside of her. This arrangement sounded almost too good to be true, so she wanted to make sure that it wasn’t. “I’m not familiar with Dolovia. Do you think I’ll have any issues living there? And how long will I need to stay? Are they meaning forever?”

  “Dolovians are a nice, docile species and they look fairly similar to us. That’s why he’s so interested in having a human donor. But that should make living there a lot easier, as well. You would only be committed to staying planet-side until his heir takes control of his estates, so basically when the old man kicks the bucket, you’re free to sell your holdings and relocate with your children,” Sally answered.