Reclaiming Isis is coming July 9th from Changeling Press. I’m so excited about this new release. It’s my first foray into science fiction romance. If you’re a fan of menage, check out Reclaiming Isis.
Excerpt from Reclaiming Isis
The grand hall smelled of sex and sweat. And fear. Bodies brushed against her. Heat crept up the back of her neck as she ran toward the light. “Natacha?”
Her friend didn’t answer. Isis gulped back her fear and pushed on. One of her oldest memories was of an Octican scare. She’d been young. Some of her friends hadn’t made it to the ship in time. She tried reasoning with herself. In recent years the Octican warnings sounded when the level of Octican reached deadly levels on PrimeC. She silently prayed she’d have enough time to get on board. Once on a lifeship, they could wait until the levels returned to normal… she just had to get there.
There had to be a shortcut. Her hand brushed a knob and she twisted it. “Natacha!” Her friend still didn’t answer. Natacha had always been the faster runner. She was probably all the way to the end of the hallway by now. Isis worried her bottom lip for just a moment, wondering if she should take the shortcut.
The voice over the speaker system thrust her into motion again. “Octican warning. Octican warning. Please board the nearest lifeship.”
Isis slipped through the door and found herself in another hallway. Her eyes were finally adjusting to the dark, but the floor was freezing against her bare feet. Ahead, she saw the blazing red symbol for the ship pad. She paused, sighing with relief, then ran toward the glowing sign, every muscle in her body moving in perfect unison toward one goal: getting off this planet.
Her sore toe snagged on something and she pitched forward. Pain throbbed up her leg from the arch of her foot. “Oh!”
The warning bell continued its annoying blare overhead. With limbs heavy from the orgasm, the cold, and the exertion, Isis pushed on. Shivering, she focused on the glowing sign, concentrated on putting on foot in front of the other.
Her time wasn’t meant to end by suffocation and the explosion of her capillaries. She was supposed to be pregnant. A mother. A real woman.
All of a minute passed before her hand closed over the heavy bar that bisected the door. She pushed and the door swung wide. The deck of the ship pad was a blur of motion. Women ran in all directions it seemed, anxious cries falling from their lips. She looked for Natacha or any other face she recognized. But these were not the women she knew.
They wore suits, head-to-toe white. Their feet were not bare. They wore thick-soled boots that came to just below the knee and laced all the way up. Their hair was braided and they carried guns. Isis shrank back.
PrimeC was a peaceful planet. These women were dressed and outfitted like soldiers. An army of worker ants. She watched them, noting how what she’d thought were chaotic movements were really a neat assembly as they headed for lifeships.
And just as quickly, they were gone. The floor was cleared. The polished white surface looked freshly washed, as if no one had ever been there. The doors to the lifeships closed with a barely audible whir. And Isis was alone.
Panic gripped her for the first time since the siren had gone off. “Wait!” Unable to move, she watched the ships levitate and float out of the big door at the end of the yard, and felt like she would throw up. There must have been a dozen of them at least. And she wasn’t on a single one of them.
Tears filled her eyes. She brushed them away and tried to come up with a plan. Maybe there was another bay. Maybe they’d send more ships. Momentarily, she debated chasing after them, but as the last vessel flew away she saw another ship, hidden by the monster-sized lifeships. Sleek, almost elegant in its design, gleaming silver, it was unlike any ship she’d ever seen.
She made a run for it, racing as fast as her freezing feet would carry her. Who knew how long it would be until the gas levels became lethal. She was ten steps away when someone darted from the shadows beside the vessel.
She skidded to a stop, her heart pounding in her chest. She trembled with fear that threatened to buckle her knees. A male, she was almost certain, though she’d never seen one, stepped into the light. Tall and broad shouldered, he had long, black hair, and a dark mask covered his face, revealing icy-blue eyes. Ink laced his arms and he had a dagger tucked into his wide belt.
Isis took a step back. Tripping over her gown, she went down hard. A cry escaped her lips as bone connected with the metal platform, but she couldn’t hear it over the ship’s engine.
The male strode forward, a determined glint in his eyes. He looked every bit as dangerous as the maid-mothers said he would. There was a power to his movements, a grace she wasn’t familiar with, yet admired even though he scared her.
He reached for her. She opened her mouth to scream but he moved like light. Silently, easily, he lifted her. His strength astonished her. He settled her over his shoulder, and for an instant she was still, unable to do anything but wonder at the foreign hands touching her.
