Deceived
Deceived
Aliens of Malum
Sophie Stern
Copyright © 2021 by Sophie Stern
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by Kasmit Covers:
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Also by Sophie Stern
Alien Chaos
Destroyed
Guarded
Saved
Christmas on Chaos
Alien Chaos: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Bundle
Aliens of Malum
Deceived: An Alien Brides Romance
Betrayed: An Alien Brides Romance
Fallen: An Alien Brides Romance
Captured: An Alien Brides Romance
Regret
Crazed
For Keeps
Rotten: An Alien Brides Romance
Anchored
Starboard
Battleship
All Aboard
Abandon Ship
Below Deck
Crossing the Line
Anchored: Books 1-3
Anchored: Books 4-6
Ashton Sweets
Christmas Sugar Rush
Valentine's Sugar Rush
St. Patty's Sugar Rush
Halloween Sugar Rush
Bullies of Crescent Academy
You Suck
Troublemaker
Jaded
Club Kitten Dancers
Move
Pose
Climb
Dragon Enchanted
Hidden Mage
Hidden Captive
Hidden Curse
Dragon Isle
The Dragon Fighter
A Dragon's Bite
Lost to the Dragon
Beware of Dragons
Cowboy Dragon
Dark Heart of the Dragon
Once Upon a Dragon
Catching the Dragon
Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 4-6)
Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 7-9)
Fate High School
You Wish: A High School Reverse Harem Romance
Freak: A Reverse Harem High School Romance
Get Lost: A Reverse Harem Romance
Good Boys and Millionaires
Good Boys and Millionaires 1
Good Boys and Millionaires 2
Honeypot Babies
The Polar Bear's Baby
The Jaguar's Baby
The Tiger's Baby
Honeypot Darlings
The Bear's Virgin Darling
The Bear's Virgin Mate
The Bear's Virgin Bride
Office Gentlemen
Ben From Accounting
Polar Bears of the Air Force
Staff Sergeant Polar Bear
Master Sergeant Polar Bear
Airman Polar Bear
Senior Airman Polar Bear
Red
Red: Into the Dark
Red: Through the Dark
Red: Beyond the Dark
Return to Dragon Isle
Dragons Are Forever
Dragon Crushed: An Enemies-to-Lovers Paranormal Romance
Dragon's Hex
Dragon's Gain (Coming Soon)
Dragon's Rush: An Enemies-to-Lovers Paranormal Romance (Coming Soon)
Shifters at Law
Wolf Case
Bearly Legal
Tiger Clause
Sergeant Bear
Dragon Law
Shifters of Rawr County
The Lion's Fake Wife
The Tiger's Fake Date
The Tiger's Pretend Husband
The Polar Bear's Fake Mate
The Wolf's Pretend Mate
Stormy Mountain Bears
The Lumberjack's Baby Bear
The Writer's Baby Bear
The Mountain Man's Baby Bears
Sweet Nightmares
The Vampire's Melody (Coming Soon)
The Sound of Roses (Coming Soon)
Team Shifter
Bears VS Wolves
No Fox Given
The Fablestone Clan
Dragon's Oath
Dragon's Breath
Dragon's Darling
Dragon's Whisper
Dragon's Magic
The Feisty Dragons
Untamed Dragon
Naughty Dragon
Monster Dragon
The Hidden Planet
Vanquished
Outlaw
Conquered
The Wolfe City Pack
The Wolf's Darling
The Wolf's Mate
The Wolf's Bride
Standalone
Saucy Devil
Billionaire on Top
Jurassic Submissive
The Editor
Alien Beast
Snow White and the Wolves
Kissing the Billionaire
Wild
Alien Dragon
The Royal Her
Be My Tiger
Alien Monster
The Luck of the Wolves
Honeypot Babies Omnibus Edition
Honeypot Darlings: Omnibus Edition
Red: The Complete Trilogy
The Swan's Mate
The Feisty Librarian
Polar Bears of the Air Force
Wild Goose Chase
Star Princess
The Virgin and the Lumberjacks
Resting Bear Face
I Dare You, King
Shifters at Law
Pretty Little Fairies
Seized by the Dragon
The Fablestone Clan: A Paranormal Dragon-Shifter Romance Collection
Star Kissed
Big Bad Academy
Club Kitten Omnibus
Stormy Mountain Bears: The Complete Collection
Bitten by the Vampires
Beautiful Villain
Dark Favors
Savored
Vampire Kiss
Chaotic Wild: A Vampire Romance
Bitten
Heartless
The Dragon's Christmas Treasure
Out of the Woods
Bullies of Crescent Academy
Craving You: A Contemporary Romance Collection
Chasing Whiskey
The Hidden Planet Trilogy
The Bratty Dom
Tokyo Wolf
The Single Dad Who Stole My Heart
Free For Him
The Feline Gaze
Fate High School
Dragon Beast: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling
Boulder Bear
Megan Slays Vampires (Coming Soon)
Once Upon a Shift: A Paranormal Romantic Comedy (Coming Soon)
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Also By Sophie Stern
Deceived: An Alien Brides Romance (Aliens of Malum, #1)
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
Cha
pter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Author
Destroyed
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Further Reading: Alien Dragon
Also By Sophie Stern
I never should have flown this close to Malum.
If I had stayed away, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this. Maybe I wouldn’t have crashed into the planet’s ocean and maybe I wouldn’t have climbed right into the cliff-side home of a creature so big, so wild, and so terrifying that I’m both horrified and aroused at our close proximity.
Now that I’m deep in the heart of Malum, a planet both forbidden and feared by the people of mine, but something is wrong.
Malum is nothing like I was promised. It’s not the horror-filled wasteland I was told that it was. In fact, it’s not nearly as scary as it should be, and the realization that my father lied to me is horrifying.
There’s a big problem on Malum.
It’s bigger than the ship I crashed.
It’s bigger than the dreams I threw away.
It’s bigger than the hopelessly handsome alien who is trying to guide me home.
And I’m the only one who might be able to save everything.
For my readers
Thank you for all that you do.
Chapter 1
Paige
If crash landing was supposed to feel good, then I was in serious trouble.
It didn’t feel good.
Like, at all.
Once I got over the realization that my ship was definitely in a downward spiral and that my chances of surviving its collision with the planet I was heading toward were slim-to-none, I focused on bracing myself.
Spears of pain shot through my flesh as my ship hit the water, and I closed my eyes. It was worse than I thought it would be. It wasn’t like I thought this would feel good, but I didn’t realize it would feel like I was dying.
“Fuck.”
Luckily, there was water, and I had somehow managed to angle the ship to hit it. The force was great, though, and the entire ship shook and started to shatter as it hit the dark waves and began to slide into the depths of the Malum sea.
It felt like needles were being shoved into my body: like someone was slicing me open. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to die here. I wasn’t ready to die.
“Focus,” I whispered to myself, trying to stay alive.
I had to focus.
My ship was going to sink. That’s what happened when you landed on water. It was going to sink, and I’d go right down with it if I wasn’t careful. Swimming had never been my strong suit, but I didn’t have much of a choice, did I?
There wasn’t exactly a co-pilot or a passenger who could ferry me to safety. I didn’t have a big, strong man to depend on. It was just me. It was always just me.
I pressed the emergency release button, grabbed my bag, and ejected myself from the ship. Every movement hurt, but I didn’t have a choice. If I let myself give in to the pain, I was going to die.
“Not today,” I told myself.
I wasn’t ready.
I had too much to live for: too much to fight for.
I held my breath and started kicking, fighting until I reached the surface of the water. I emerged, breathing like a madwoman, and looked around.
It was dark.
The lights on my ship were still flickering when I looked down. I could see them disappearing deeper and deeper into the water. I had either crashed into an ocean or some sort of huge, deep lake. I had no idea which direction land might be in, though. I didn’t want to swim in the wrong direction and then end up dying because of it.
“This was a bad idea,” I said out loud.
Apparently, I was full of bad ideas.
Planet Malum, for example, wasn’t really the perfect place to crash. If I could have chosen any planet at all on which to crash, it would have been Sapphira or even Orchid. I would have chosen a place known for being hospitable and welcoming: not a place the rest of the universe absolutely despised.
I spun in a circle, trying to glimpse anything at all that could help me decide where to go. I couldn’t see anything in the darkness, so I slapped the button on my command wristlet and instantly, a huge light was emitted from it. The wristlet was designed to help me communicate with other people from my planet, but it had a few other perks that made my life a bit easier.
For example, the huge light that was shining out of it. I shone the light outward, spinning again in a circle. I thought I saw a glimpse of something to the west. I stared, trying to make out what my light was hitting. It was definitely something.
“Where the fuck am I?”
My parents had never been fond of the language I chose to use, but they weren’t here, were they? I was alone on a planet I was forbidden to ever visit. I was alone, and if I didn’t hurry, I was going to sink down into the depths of the water with my ship.
I peered into the darkness, trying to make out the shapes I could see. They could be good or bad. I had no way to know, but I needed to start swimming in that direction.
First things first.
I tread water as I tried to use the command functions on my wristlet. The unit was supposed to let me communicate with different people in different places, but it didn’t seem to be functioning correctly. It was possible that I was too far from a city. Maybe if I got to a place on Malum with more people, towers, and communication abilities, I’d be able to reach home.
For now, I needed to start swimming toward the dark shapes ahead of me. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stay here. If I didn’t pass out and sink to the bottom of the sea, I had a feeling that a giant fish might come eat me.
I started to swim, trying to egg myself on as I moved slowly through the gentle waves.
Maybe I’d find land.
Maybe I’d find answers.
I shut off the light temporarily. I wanted to find a safe place to hide or sleep until I could figure out how to get back home. Crash-landing hadn’t been on the itinerary for this little vacation.
Nope.
The goal had been to take off, travel around for a few days, and do some sightseeing before the wedding. After the huge fight I’d had with the groom, the last thing I needed was a disaster like the one I’d found myself in. The goal had been to relax.
Well, apparently, I’d outdone myself.
It felt like hours before I reached the thing I’d seen, but I knew it had been at most, ten minutes. I was sore and tired as I pressed my hands to the thing before me. It was cold. Wet.
Despite my best hopes, it wasn’t a beach. It wasn’t an open field I could crawl onto and pass out on. Nope. It was a sheer rock wall.
That’s what I had seen: a cliff.
I clicked the light on again and shone it upwards. There was a sheer rock wall that stretched up as far as I could see. So, that was what I was dealing with: a huge wall. It was wet, but I could climb it.
Maybe there would be a cave to hide in along the way. Once I was settled, I could sort through my stuff and see if anything still worked or was able to get a signal on this forsaken planet. I doubted most of my items had been damaged by the water. The stuff I carried in my bag was supposed to last me for years upon years, but shipwrecks were unpredictable.
You never knew what you were going to need until it was too late.
When I finally managed to reach the side of the stone wall that stretched into the sky, I was exhausted.
My arms hurt.
Everything hurt.
The stone cliffs were wet, and I knew there was no way to grip onto the side. Fortunately, I had grip-gloves with me. I slipped them onto my hands, pressed my palms to the side of the cliff, and started climbing.
It’s a funny thing, climbing.
When you’re young and you’re training and learning how to do things, you think it’s the
hardest thing in the world. Then you grow up, and you realize there’s a tool or toy for every task you could ever encounter, and you realize that money will buy you anything you need to succeed.
It’s a beautiful thing.
I made my way up the rocks until, sure enough, I reached an opening to a cave. It looked out over the water, which was just as well. I could sleep in the cave, or at least try to sleep, and in the morning, I could make a plan.
“There’s no point in panicking,” I reminded myself.
I didn’t want to sleep here tonight. I wasn’t as prissy as my sister. I didn’t need a hotel or a special bed or fancy pillows. Crashing on a stone floor wouldn’t be too terrible, but it was going to be lonely.
Was my family worried about me?
Did they know something had happened to me?
I climbed into the narrow opening. It was tiny: barely big enough for me to enter standing up. Once I was inside, I turned my wristlet light back on and shined it around. The cave seemed strangely clean: almost occupied.
That would be crazy, though.
I shook my head and looked around again. The cave was dry, for one thing. It was free from dust and debris, for another. Shouldn’t a cave this close to the water be filled with moss and seaweed and maybe a dead bird?
I was in a single, empty room. The walls were perfectly flat and straight, as though they’d been created by someone and not just randomly carved by nature. It was the type of cave I’d read about in story books long ago.
“Where the hell am I?” I muttered, looking around.
“Funny,” a deep voice said suddenly. “I could ask you the same question.”
I whirled around, terrified that I wasn’t alone, and I reached for the knife I kept sheathed to my hip. It had survived the crash, and it had survived my swim, but it was about to be brought into action.
Only, before I could grab the knife, two strong hands were on my wrists. Whoever caught them spun me around and pinned me against the wall. Despite my wristlet light, I couldn’t see who the person was.
I didn’t need to see them to know that whoever this was...they were unhappy about my arrival. Their anger and irritation radiated from their body. It was a man, I thought.
A big one.
“I didn’t know anyone lived here,” I said. Perhaps it was a stupid thing to say, but it was the first thing that popped into my head.