Warrior Revealed (Cadi Warriors #7) - Stephanie West

Preface

After the week Nadzia had, she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Learning aliens exist was freaky enough, let alone being chased and imprisoned by her own paranoid government. Then her baby sister decided to go live on a foreign planet, and her dad was nearly killed by a missile strike. It was enough to bring her to her knees.

Aculus, a bone-armored warrior, proved to be her lifeline. He saved her more than once, and assured her he had the ability to heal her dad on his home world. Aculus even reunited her with the sister she thought died in a plane crash. Putting up with the hopeless flirt and total bonehead as they traveled across the cosmos was a small price to pay for such miracles.

When Aculus met the delicate beauty, she was wounded and afraid, instantly inciting his protective side. But Nadzia swiftly put him in his place, making him laugh with her spirited retorts. Then he discovered she was the only one who could strip away his armor, revealing the male within. He should’ve been overjoyed to find the female every Osivoire male hunts for, his weakness; except the timing couldn’t be worse. Nadzia was courageous, but she’d need more than her brazen wit to survive, if the Conclave discovered she was his mate.

Somewhere between Earth and Osi, amidst their sarcastic banter, Nadzia fell in love with Aculus.

Is she brave enough to take a chance on love?

Can she prove to Aculus and everyone else she’s more than some weak human?

To hold onto the man she loves, Nadzia will have to dig deep and unleash her inner warrior.

Caution – This book has adult content.

Prologue

Earth

Aculus

“Well this mission went soft fast,” Aculus grumbled as he sat in the cockpit of his cruiser.

Anxiously he waited for Ashtoret to hail him with the location where the Cadi male could be picked up.

At least I haven’t lost his signal again. He glanced at the blip on his communicator.

The moment Vintor and Ashtoret landed near the human’s military base their tracking signals had gone dead. He’d searched for them, but even with all the tech at his disposal he hadn’t been able to pick-up their signal till recently, and then it took several attempts before Ashtoret answered his comm.

“Primitive species my shell!”

The humans possessed some sort of technological advancement outside what initial scans revealed to be able to mask a tracking signal that effectively. They’d come to the little blue planet to set up a cloaking device that would hopefully hide the developing species from bastards like the Jurou Biljana, but it was looking like the humans might already have all the help they needed.

And apparently, they think we’re the threat, he sighed in frustration.

It was discouraging to learn Vintor and their human liaison, Brennan, were captured by the human authorities. They’d been warned the humans would react poorly, so none of this should have come as a surprise. Thankfully, Ashtoret was getting help.

He said Providence’s sister is helping him. Aculus smiled and shook his head incredulously. That shouldn’t have surprised him either, and yet it did over and over again. The handful of human females he’d met were absurdly brave.

Still, there was only so much Ash and the female could do when up against a whole government with unexpected technical advances.

Come on, Ashtoret. It was taking forever for the Cadi warrior to contact him again.

Aculus focused on the viewscreen, studying the marshy landscape outside his cruiser. Hopefully he hadn’t been detected when he landed on the tip of the peninsula called Florida. He didn’t like how close he was to the sprawling human city, but he wanted to be nearby when Ashtoret hailed him. Besides the birds and reptiles, he didn’t see any unusual movement amidst the trees branching out of the stagnant water.

“So much water,” he murmured in awe.

He’d travelled to numerous worlds, some totally covered in water, and yet it still amazed him, coming from a planet where the resource was scarce. With all the wispy clouds in the bright blue sky he might get lucky enough to see rain while here.

Aculus tugged off his harness and pulled himself out of the seat. With time to kill, he might as well do it taking in the lush planet. He wound his way through the cruiser and opened the hatch door. Aculus stood up tall as he pulled in a deep, appreciative breath of fresh air. He was accustomed to the manufactured air on his ship. It wasn’t that bad, though