Betrayed Read online

  Betrayed

  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:

  kasmitcovers.com

  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 Dragon's Fake Fiancée

  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

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

  Prologue

  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
br />   Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Author

  Destroyed

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  Further Reading: Vanquished

  Also By Sophie Stern

  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.