Page 1 of Claiming Sarah

CHAPTER 1

Sarah

After rushing back from Earth to planet Halla to join my alien mates—Deacon and Jac—I stood frozen to the spot as I listened to a familiar voice say, “…day of Muraska, I unite Deacon Amroll-Bellket Ladrang to the Princess Silence Reticent Bateen. May you produce many heirs.”

I blinked as those words floated through my brain. Had I heard Wave—Allegiant’s biologist and part-time clergy—right? Did she just unite Deacon Ladrang and Silence Bateen? Did the man I love and had been united to myself already move on with the woman who’d betrayed him with his own father?

Seeing the pair together, accepting the words that were just spoken to unite them, it appeared so, and the knowledge wrecked me to the core. I couldn’t hold back the devastating sound that escaped me, which caused Wave to glance toward where I’d just stepped out from the copse of trees that formed a circle around them for the ceremony.

The alien historian inhaled a sharp breath at seeing me. “Sarah?”

The crowd turned to face me, and they gasped, too. Deacon’s whole crew was there, along with his father, Valor, in his ghost form, and his friends. And Silence, a stunningly beautiful alien, with silken hair and obsidian skin—who was once Valor’s paramour and was now Deacon’s mate.

No one moved for a beat. Deacon’s hazel eyes widened as he saw me. His long, trimmed gray hair blew in the breeze. By his shocked expression, I wasn’t sure if he was happy to see me or not. But the pink tinge of his tan skin shimmered in waves like when he orgasmed, and his furry tail swished side to side.

His muscular body met no resistance when he pushed past the crowd as he ran to me. “Sarah, you’re really here.”

I looked all the way up to his handsome face. Our two and a half foot height difference made it strange, but I had grown fond of most of the strange things that had come with being united to my Ladrian…who wasn’t mine any longer, it seemed. Despite my affection for him, after what I had heard Wave say, I was at a loss for words.

“Should I go?” I whispered around the lump formed in my throat.

“What?” Confusion married his handsome features. “Why would you go?”

Surely an alien as intelligent as Deacon wasn’t that obtuse. “Ididjust hear Wave perform the union ceremony with you and Silence, right?”

He reached a hand out to touch me. “Yes, but—"

“Then, I should go,” I said in a rush, then turned and ran before he could brush those warm fingers along my cheek and crumble the last of my pride. I didn’t want him to see me cry, and my eyes burned a warning. Tears were coming, whether I wanted them to or not.

But at eight feet tall with long, muscular legs, it didn’t take long before Deacon blocked my path to the front yard, forcing me to stop. “Where are you going, Consort?”

“I’m not your consort,” I croaked as I cried, while a ball of anger rose up inside of me that he’d move on so quickly after my departure. “I’m nothing to you—was I everanythingto you?”

“You areeverythingto me, Sarah!” he said, a pained look in his eyes as he gripped my shoulders in his big hands. “How can you even ask me that?”

I pointed wildly to the union party who were coming toward us. “Because you just united with Silence, aka the woman you were engaged to before we met!”

He closed his eyes and sighed, before opening them again. “This is nothing like what it looks to be, I swear to you.”

I shook my head wildly at his excuse, my heart barely beating in my chest. “I heard Wave, Deacon. You can’t lie to me!”

“He is not lying to you, Sarah,” Silence said in her melodic tones. Normally, her sweet voice was a comfort. But in the moment, it grated like mockery and I wanted to claw this other woman’s eyes out for making a move on my man.

Jealousy was a powerful thing, I realized, and I checked myself before I did something I’d regret. I’d never been the vindictive sort, and I wasn’t going to start now, no matter how much the urge struck.

On planet Orhon, Silence had been a princess and Deacon’s fiancé, before his life had turned to treason and danger. The first time I had seen Silence Bateen, as messed up as it was, I was relieved that she was pregnant with Deacon’s father’s children. Her beauty was beyond anything I personally had—dark, luminous onyx skin, amber brown eyes, and a round face so pretty, on Earth she would have had paparazzi stalking her. But instead of a life of luxury, Silence had to be sprung from the royal prison after her own father beheaded her lover—Deacon’sfather, Valor—then had locked his daughter in a dank cell to wither away as punishment.

She stood there, pleading with her perfect eyes for me to hear her out, but my agony was too great and I didn’t care what she had to say. “I hope you have many heirs,” I spat at them both and tried to worm my way around Deacon.

But he grabbed my arm to stop me, his grip gentle, but firm. “Just wait—”

“Let me go!”

Valor stepped in front of me. The similarity between father and son was striking, with the exception of Valor being older and a ghost. His translucent body couldn’t touch me, and I couldn’t touch him, but the weight of his presence was enough to stop me from struggling against Deacon’s hold.

“Sarah, please,” the older man implored, his gaze kind. “My son united with Silence at my request. I intend to raise our children here, on Halla, with her. But as a ghost, I am not permitted to legally unite with her, and a legal union is the only thing that will protect her from possession. Since you left to go back to live on Earth, Deacon’s union with you was legally nullified, due to abandonment. This left him free to unite again, and we seized an opportunity to keep Silence and my children safe. This is not a love match. It is a favor to me.”

The fight eased out of me as I considered what Valor had said. “Possession…that’s where a ghost controls you, right? I mean, that’s not great, but—”

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