Betrayed
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:
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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 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.