Norlanian Brides Volume One
By R.E. Butler
4.5/5
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About this ebook
This book contains the first four books in the Norlanian Brides series: The Gigolo's Bride, Paoli's Bride, Warrick's Bride, and Dex's Bride. If you already own these books, please do not purchase this book.
***
The Gigolo's Bride
When Ashleigh Turner receives a necklace as a gift from a secret admirer, she has no idea who sent it. When another delivery shows up at her home, instead of finding out who sent her the necklace, she finds herself transported onto an alien spaceship as it speeds her away from earth to become a bride. Will she ever get home, or will she find home in the arms of the alien that chose her?
***
Paoli's Bride
When Paoli, a recently freed slave, sees Kate, an abducted human, in the government-owned brothel, he knows that she’s the one female in the whole universe for him. He sacrifices everything to pay off her debt and set her free. Will Kate ever put aside her hope of going back to Earth someday and embrace Paoli, or will she always want to go home?
***
Warrick's Bride
Sloan Atarn has known for years that, like most Norlanian females, she’ll never be able to have children or get married. When she wakes up in the mountains with the sexy Warrick telling her that he’s risking everything to make her his forever, she knows the right thing to do is to leave and let him live his life without her. If she can only walk away from the only man she’s ever loved.
***
Dex's Bride
When an alien male saves escaped slave Bella's life, she knows her only chance to get away is to leave him fighting for his life, but she can’t walk away, even if it might mean that she spends the rest of her days as a slave. Will Dex let her go or is saving him the biggest mistake she’ll ever make?
R.E. Butler
A Midwesterner by birth, R.E. spent much of her childhood rewriting her favorite books to include herself as the main character. Later, she graduated on to writing her own books after "retiring" from her day job as a secretary to become a stay-at-home mom.When not playing with her kids, wrestling her dogs out the door, or cooking dinner for her family, you'll find her typing furiously and growling obscenities to the characters on the screen.Her best-selling series Wiccan-Were-Bear, The Necklace Chronicles, Hyena Heat, Wilde Creek, Were-Zoo, Arctic Shifters, Norlanian Brides, Saber Chronicles, and Ashland Pride are available now.
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Norlanian Brides Volume One - R.E. Butler
By R. E. Butler
Sold into slavery....
Only one person can truly set former sex slave Eden Atarn free: his soul mate.
Taken from her planet....
When Ashleigh Turner receives a beautiful necklace as a gift from a secret admirer, she has no idea who it came from. When another delivery shows up at her home, instead of finding out who sent her the necklace, she finds herself transported onto an alien spaceship as it speeds her away from earth.
Will she be what he needs or find herself a slave as well....
On a planet where forced prostitution is a punishment and young adults are sold by their families for money, Ashleigh must decide if she can be what Eden needs when she comes face to face with what he once was. Will she always want to go home, or will she find that the place she longs to be most is in Eden's arms?
Chapter One
Five Years Earlier
Norlan Homeworld, Dena System
Giu Medical Center, Kyvern City
Eden stared up at the ceiling of the medical center, silently cursing the friend who had saved him. Overdosing on kotik would have been so simple. He’d already started to drift away, free of pain and misery for the first time in ten years. It was bad enough that Paoli had saved his life, but Eden would now have to add the hospital stay to his long list of debts.
The door to his room opened, and he heard his sister Sloan’s soft gasp of alarm. Of course she had come. She thought he could be saved. But there was no hope for him. He was an empty vessel: his soul long gone, his heart so broken it would never mend.
I know you’re awake, Eden,
Sloan, older by four years, said angrily.
He turned his head toward her, his unkempt blue hair falling across his eyes. He’d tried to lessen his appeal to potential customers by not grooming himself, but it hadn’t seemed to matter. They wanted him, clean or dirty.
What do you want, Sloan?
His voice was weak, his throat dry. He’d been in the medical center for three dins now, and he knew it wasn’t the first time she’d come.
Sloan was lovely and kind. A medical officer, she had an affinity for lost and broken souls. Eden’s soul wasn’t broken, it was missing entirely. She tucked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear.
I wanted to tell you that I think you’re an asshole and an idiot, and selfish, too.
Her mouth curled in a snarl, her brown eyes dark and stormy.
What?
Sloan had never talked to him that way.
You heard me. How dare you try to take your life! Do you know how important you are to me? You’re my only brother, Eden. I love you. I need you to stick around.
She dashed tears angrily from her cheeks.
His mouth opened in surprise. I...I...
he stammered, but he didn’t know what to say.
She handed him a credit. I paid for you to do the soul-walk, Eden.
Bile rose in his throat. No woman would want someone like him. Someone used up. He had nothing to offer anyone.
Sloan sat on the edge of the bed. Her angry snarl softened, and she smiled sadly. Taking his hand in hers, she said, I know you hate yourself. I tried to love you enough for both of us, but that didn’t work. I realize now that you have to love yourself, too. You have to forgive yourself for the life you were forced into and make changes for the better. When you get out of here, do the soul-walk. If you have a bride out there, then killing yourself is selfish and insane. You will leave her for someone else to have.
I’m not worth having,
he said in a voice thick with sudden tears.
You are, I promise. You’re the kindest, sweetest person I’ve ever known. Any woman in the galaxy would be lucky to have you.
She leaned over and kissed his forehead. Straightening, she said, I paid for your hospital stay. They’re keeping you here for another two dins, and then you’ll be released to my home for one more din. You can do the soul-walk then. Think hard before you decide to throw that credit in the trash, Eden.
Ashamed, he nodded at her mutely and watched her leave. Turning the credit in his hand, he wondered if there really was a woman out there in the universe that was waiting for him. There were males that came back from the soul-walk without finding a female, but the majority were linked to a female somewhere.
Maybe, though, if he did find himself linked to a female, he could get her to love him first before he told her about his long life spent degrading himself for his own people. Maybe if she loved him enough, she could overlook all that he’d done.
For the first time in years, a glimmer of hope shone inside him. He clutched the credit in his hand and made a vow to the heavens that if he was given a mate, he would do everything in his power to set his life to rights and make her proud of him.
*Three Days Later*
Eden Atarn?
A young male called out as Eden sat next to Sloan in the soul-walk agency’s main office. He was still feeling a little shaky from the drugs used in the soul-walk, but he was euphoric with the news that he did have a soul mate, somewhere in the universe.
He waved his hand and the young man came over to him. Your bride is on a planet called Earth. So far, only three other males have females on that planet and the minimum for an extraction trip is twenty-seven.
He nodded, taking a small memory chip from the young male that contained the images Eden had seen in his mind during his soul-walk. How long?
The young male shrugged. It could be several lunar-cycles or it could be years. There’s no way to know. Everything you need to know about the abduction trip and costs involved is on the memory chip. When the twenty-seventh bride is located on the planet, a message will be sent to you. Fifty percent of the cost will be due then, the remainder two dins before the trip’s scheduled departure. If you fail to pay the appropriate fees, your bride will not be abducted and you will have to wait for the next trip.
He nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. Without knowing for sure how long it might take to get the trip ready, he was going to have to work hard to earn enough money. Not only to set himself free, but also to pay for the trip.
Eden thanked the young male and turned to Sloan. She stood up and helped him up. They walked out to Sloan’s hover-machen, and she drove him back to the Bordelayz. The hover-machen lingered above the ground as she pulled in front of the building and got out, offering him her arm to help him make the walk back to his room.
Bile rose in him as he walked through the front door, past the two guards who were always stationed there, and down the long, twisting hallways that led to the small room he shared with Paoli. The scent of disinfectant mingled with sex assaulted his nose, and he had an urge to find a needle of kotik and forget his troubles. Then he remembered the beautiful woman in his soul-walk, and he shook himself out of his destructive desires. She was his, and he needed to snap out of it so he could bring her home. Home to him.
Paoli rushed to him, hugging him tightly. I missed you, friend,
Paoli said, tears shining fresh in his eyes.
Eden said what he hadn’t said during his time in the medical center, when Paoli had kept vigil at his side. Pressing his forehead to Paoli’s, he said, Thank you, my friend, for saving my life.
Paoli nodded silently, and Eden turned back to Sloan and hugged her. All their lives, he had envied her. Although he found her beautiful, by Norlanian standards she was too tall, her cheekbones too high, her lips too full. Their parents knew that she would not marry well financially, so they had supported her desire to go into the medical field. But he had never had a choice in his schooling. When he wished to learn about art, he was chastised and punished. His young life had been spent in classes learning about polite society – your betters
, he’d been told. He didn’t hate her for what their parents had done to him. He never had. He counted himself lucky to have her as his careful guardian and supporter.
I love you, Sloan. Thank you for everything.
I love you, too, Eden.
She brushed a lock of hair from his forehead. I wish your life had been different. I wish I could have stopped them from selling you, using your beauty to increase their place in society.
It was the path laid out for me.
He held up the memory chip. I have a new path, now. Thanks to you.
She winked at him with a smile, kissed his cheek and left.
After meeting with Yuil, the owner, he found out how much money he owed on his debt to free himself, and added it to the amount needed for the abduction trip. His heart stuttered a bit at the large amount, but he knew he could do it if he had enough time. He didn’t want to ask Sloan for it. It was important to him that he saved himself first and set his life right before he brought his bride home.
That night, as Eden lay with one of the females who had paid for his time, he pictured his soul mate instead, imagining it was her light skin that he caressed, her moans of pleasure that touched his ears, and her hands on his body. Each woman he touched brought him closer to freedom, closer to her. He was ashamed of his life, his slavery. He didn’t know how she would react to all that he would need to do to set himself free and bring her here. But she was his perfect match, and he could only hope that she would love him enough to overlook his faults. That she wouldn’t loathe him for selling his body. By law, until he freed himself from his contract, he could do nothing else to earn money except have sex.
No,
he told himself as he stretched out his sore body on the cot in the small room he shared with Paoli several hours later. No, I will keep my past from her until she loves me so much she can overlook all I had to do to bring her home. I’ll love her more than anyone has ever loved her. I’ll give her everything she could ever want or need. I may sell my body to pay her way here, but when she’s with me and I’m free...I can make her proud of me. Proud that she loves a man, not ashamed she loves a brokah.
For the first time since his freedom had been taken from him, he felt not only hope at the future, but happiness. According to the soul-walk company, her name was Ashleigh.
His hope for the future.
His bride.
Chapter Two
I have a delivery for Ashleigh Turner,
a young man said as he walked into the Lyttle Tots Daycare. Ashleigh looked up from the reception desk, where she was filling in for Gwen on her lunch hour.
Oh, that’s me!
She signed the small clipboard and took a heavy vase filled with rainbow-colored roses. The delivery man disappeared, and Ashleigh put the cut-crystal vase on the reception desk and looked for a card.
Please tell me those flowers are really for me,
Gwen said as she came back into the reception area.
Sorry, they’re for me,
Ashleigh said with a smile as she pulled a small envelope from the plastic pick and opened it.
You have a new boyfriend I don’t know about?
Gwen stowed her bag in the bottom drawer and sat down in her chair.
Nope. Maybe it’s Tate, wanting to get back together.
Tate was Ashleigh’s ex-boyfriend. They had split two months earlier when she had found him in bed with her cousin.
There was no card inside the envelope. Instead, she pulled out a delicate white-gold chain with a sapphire gem the size of her thumb hanging from it.
Oh, wow,
Ashleigh said under her breath as she lifted the necklace up so the overhead lights glinted off the stone. Sapphire was her birthstone, and she’d always been partial to the color blue. Her first thought had been that it was a gift from Tate, but she couldn’t remember ever telling him what her favorite color was. Would he know that sapphire was her birthstone?
The necklace was pulled from her fingers. Holy crap, this thing is gorgeous! What’s the card say?
Gwen gushed.
Possessiveness flitted through Ashleigh briefly as she gently retrieved the necklace from her friend. There wasn’t a card, so I don’t know who it’s from. Maybe Tate.
You don’t sound so sure,
Gwen pointed out.
Well, he did give me earrings for Valentine’s Day, but that was before we broke up. He hasn’t called me in a few weeks. The last time he did, I shot him down pretty good, so...
She didn’t finish her sentence. She decided to call him when she got home and find out if he had sent her the flowers and necklace.
She picked up the envelope to put the necklace back inside, but then thought better of it. It was so beautiful and perfect, and she wanted to wear it no matter who it came from.
Gwen put the necklace on Ashleigh, and she left the brightly colored reception area to look in the mirror in the staff bathroom. The dark blue stone complimented her peaches-and-cream skin, and she lifted her long auburn hair up and piled it on her head so she could admire it.
Adrianna Lyttle, the owner of the daycare, came out of one of the stalls and washed her hands. Oh, that’s lovely, Ashleigh. Where did you get it?
It was a gift from a...secret admirer,
she said, enjoying the idea of a secret admirer more than her cheating ex trying to get back in her good graces again.
Ooh, mysterious! Any idea who it is?
Adrianna tossed the paper towels in the bin and held open the bathroom door.
Nope. But he’s got great taste.
She smiled at her boss and walked through the door. She left the flowers at the front desk and went back to the three year-olds’ room where she worked as a teacher. Even though she didn’t want to, she took off the necklace and placed it in her purse in the cabinet. She didn’t want to risk it getting broken by curious little hands. She had received her associate’s degree in early childhood development the year before, and after completing her certification work, she got a full-time job at Lyttle Tots. During her summers in high school, she nannied for a couple in her neighborhood with young children, and that was when she knew she wanted to work with kids.
There were twelve three year-olds in the class, and she and the other teacher, Hannah, had their hands full. It was stressful at times, but Ashleigh had always been able to handle stress and difficult situations with ease. Her mother said she had been born calm
and never freaked out no matter what.
When she was ten, she was in the front seat of her grandfather’s town car, and they were driving home from the grocery when he had a stroke and lost control of the car. Without a thought, she grabbed the wheel and pushed his foot off the gas pedal, steering the decelerating car over to the side of the street where it ran up on a curb and knocked over a mailbox. The homeowners rushed out and called the emergency squad, and her grandfather recovered. She remembered someone telling her mother that she wouldn’t have been able to react so fast and be so calm as Ashleigh had been, but Ashleigh hadn’t understood how freaking out would have helped anything.
Oh, no!
Hannah groaned, surveying the kids as they woke up from their after-lunch naps. Already they were active, several of the young boys deciding to try out some wrestling moves and knocking over a small table. As the table tipped, it jostled a shelf with paint jars that tipped precariously. Ashleigh closed the distance quickly, stopping the jars from tumbling to the ground and righting the table.
Turning her attention to the boys, who were rolling together in a tangle of arms and legs, she separated them and directed their attention to another, less hazardous activity.
She caught herself thinking about the necklace throughout the afternoon, even looking in her purse a few times just to assure herself it was still there. Everyone wanted to know who the jewelry and flowers had come from, and she found herself the topic of idle gossip for most of the day.
It was the night of her book club, so she grabbed a sandwich from the deli at the grocery and ate it on the way. She had belonged to the book club for over a year and loved the opportunity to talk to other women who loved to read. Growing up, reading had been an important pastime for her. Her mother hadn’t liked her watching television very much, so she’d happily buried herself in books from the library. That love of reading had stayed with her into adulthood.
The book club was held at the home of one of the founding members, who owned a bookstore with her husband. The monthly fee of twenty dollars for club membership provided the book for the month and a few dollars toward the snacks and drinks.
Ashleigh!
Kelly cried as she opened the door to her home. After a quick hug, Ashleigh put her jacket on a hook in the hall along with her purse and pulled out her copy of this month’s read, "A Time to Weep".
She was greeted warmly by the other seven women in the group, who ranged from as young as Kelly’s niece, who was nineteen, to as old as Mona, who was fifty-one. They were all very different women, but their love of reading brought them together.
Filling a small plate with a few pieces of cubed cheese and some crackers, Ashleigh sat down on one of the overstuffed sofas and put the plate in her lap. Taking a glass of white wine from Kelly, she took a sip and waited for someone to start things off.
The first hour of the get-together, the women discussed the book at length, asking questions of each other and exploring the serious nature of this particular story about child abuse. Because she took care of children for a living, the thought of someone hurting a child for any reason made her blood boil.
Ashleigh put her now-empty plate on the coffee table and sat back, taking another sip of her wine. This book was so sad. To think that those parents profited off selling their children like that, it’s just so sickening.
Mona nodded, Makes me wonder what this world is coming to. Parents selling their sons and daughters for drug money, caring only about themselves.
She shuddered, and Ashleigh felt that same revulsion fill her. Her childhood hadn’t been perfect, but it was leaps and bounds over what the children in the story had suffered. She wanted to find those parents and wring their necks. Putting themselves above their kids like that; putting their own hopes and dreams over the welfare of their own flesh and blood.
Can we not read something so depressing this next time around?
Colleen, a mother of two, said, putting the book down and settling back in one of the wing chairs surrounding the coffee table.
I second that,
Ashleigh quipped.
Kelly stood up and brought a box of books out. I knew you’d want to go lighter this month, but before I show you the new book, I wanted to tell you that Bob and I are going to donate money to the abused children’s charity set up by the author. If you want to give some money tonight, we’ll match it dollar for dollar.
I’m in,
Ashleigh said quickly, and the other women around her answered the same. Kelly smiled and opened the box.
She passed out a thick paperback titled "The Rake and the Rose."
An historical novel set in 1800s London, about a duke who falls in love with a woman betrothed to another man. It’s supposed to be lightly humorous and just a bit sexy.
Kelly winked and the women laughed. Ashleigh liked historical novels, and the premise sounded really cool.
They put the books aside and spent the next hour chatting about what was going on in their lives. Although the women kept in touch via email and phone calls during the month, getting together in person was sweet and fun. She shared her news about the necklace and flowers, and when asked, she extracted it from her purse for everyone to see. Met with jealous grins and threats to steal it away from her, she tucked it inside her new book as she walked out the door, saying goodnight to her friends until the next month.
When she walked through the front door of her two-bedroom apartment, she kicked off her sensible heels and wiggled her toes in the thick white carpeting, glad to be home. Book club night was always a late one, but she loved it.
She pulled the necklace from the book and laid it on the top of her cherry-wood dresser. She immediately wanted to put it on, to feel the slight weight of it against her skin, but she ignored the desire and left it alone. She loved the necklace, but she didn’t want to risk forgetting about it and accidentally falling asleep with it on.
She changed into a pair of lilac lounge pants and a brushed cotton short-sleeved shirt, walked into the kitchen and reached for her cell. Even though Tate’s number had long since been erased from her contact list, she thumbed through the recent calls until she found where he’d called her last and dialed his number.
Yeah?
he answered.
Hi, Tate, it’s Ashleigh.
There was a pause, and then he said brightly, Ashleigh! How are you?
Fine. I wanted to ask you if you sent me something at work today?
Excuse me?
he asked.
I asked if you sent me something at work today, Tate.
Tate sounded suspicious. No, I didn’t. Must have been some other guy.
I guess so.
She felt stupid for calling him. She hadn’t really thought he was sweet enough to send her flowers and an expensive necklace, had she? He hadn’t been that attentive when they’d been together.
Sorry to bother you.
No, wait, Ashleigh, it’s not a problem. Look, if you’re not busy, maybe I can come over and we can chat. I miss you.
She felt a bubble of anger well inside her. You didn’t miss me when you were having sex with my cousin behind my back. Forget I called.
She hung up and dropped her phone on the counter with a clatter. He called back immediately, but she sent the call to voicemail and then turned the phone off.
She felt like a first-class idiot for calling. Now he would call her constantly and beg her for just a few minutes to talk, which she wouldn’t give. She’d met Tate at her friend Suzanna’s birthday party in January. Tate and Suzanna’s husband were close friends, and both worked for the same mortgage company. They’d hopped into bed immediately – something that Ashleigh had never done before – and the relationship had moved fast and fizzled equally as fast. He was charming and a shameless flirt. It hadn’t really been much of a surprise when she had taken Tate to a family reunion and then found Tate and her cousin Brit in bed together a few weeks later. She’d ended what little remained of the relationship in April, and he’d been calling her off and on for the last two months, asking her to give him another chance.
She poured a bowl of cereal for herself and sat down at her laptop to check her email. Her mother had sent her several messages over the last few weeks, asking Ashleigh to call her, but she hadn’t. She’d sent standard I’m busy
emails, but she knew that eventually she would have to speak to her mom.
It had been bad enough when Brit and Tate had betrayed her. But then her mother had sided with Tate and suggested that Ashleigh should forgive him and take him back. She said that everyone made mistakes, and it wasn’t very kind of Ashleigh to hold his one indiscretion against him. Ashleigh and her mother had not always seen eye to eye on things, and Ashleigh’s insistence that she couldn’t just get over
Tate’s cheating had been a thorn in their relationship ever since.
Ashleigh knew that her mother’s concern came from a loving place, even though it hadn’t felt like it at first. When Ashleigh’s father had died of a heart attack when she was seventeen, leaving her mother with a mountain of bills and not enough insurance, she’d had to return to work after being a stay-at-home mom for all of Ashleigh’s life. It had been hard for her mother, and she’d worried ever since, insisting that Ashleigh find a man who could provide for her. Her mother wanted to know that Ashleigh was taken care of, and Tate, who came from money and had a steady job, represented the fulfillment of that goal. Unfortunately, Ashleigh didn’t trust him, and if she couldn’t trust him, she couldn’t love him.
She glanced at the clock on the TV and saw that it was too late to call her mother. I’ll call her tomorrow, after work, she decided with a yawn, closing her laptop and heading to bed.
As she passed by the necklace, she touched it, the blue stone winking at her as if lit from within. It was an oval cabochon, in the deepest, truest blue color she’d ever seen. She slipped into bed and turned off the small lamp on her side table as she settled under the covers. The light from the streetlamp outside her window cast an amber glow over the bedroom. Ashleigh couldn’t take her eyes off the necklace until exhaustion tugged at them. She drifted off to sleep, the gorgeous necklace the last thing on her mind.
Chapter Three
Gwen was waiting expectantly when Ashleigh walked into the daycare. So?
It wasn’t Tate.
Ashleigh paused at the front desk. She’d had a long debate with herself that morning about wearing the necklace, but in the end she knew it was safer at home.
Well, that’s probably a good thing, right?
Yeah, but he left me a half-dozen messages last night and sent me a couple of texts this morning. He wants to know who my secret admirer is, and what he has to do to compete with him so he can get me back.
Ashleigh rolled her hazel eyes.
Gwen gave her a sympathetic look. If he had cared this much the first time, he wouldn’t have slept with Brit.
True.
Her body demanded sugar and caffeine, so Ashleigh said goodbye to Gwen and headed to the kitchen, grabbing a lemon-filled donut and a cup of coffee in a lidded mug before heading to her room. The three and four year-olds were going on a field trip to a local fire station to meet with the firefighters and see their equipment, so the day was incredibly busy from start to finish.
All Ashleigh had been thinking of on her drive home was the necklace. Even though she felt silly, she wanted to wear it. And she really, really wished she knew who it came from. Hopefully her mystery man would reveal himself soon. She dropped her purse on the counter and went into the bedroom, picking up the necklace and slipping it on. When the cool, slight weight of the stone rested against her skin, she smiled.
Turning back to the kitchen, she dug her cell out of her purse. She didn’t want another day to get away from her without setting things right with her mom. Just as she was about to call, there was a knock on her door.
She looked through the peep-hole and saw the same young man who had brought the flowers and necklace to her the day before, holding a long black box with a red ribbon on it.
Yes?
she said, loudly enough to carry her voice through the door.
I have another delivery for Ashleigh Turner.
Her thumb ran a small circle around the ‘call’ button of her phone as she opened the front door slowly.
Ashleigh Turner?
the delivery man said with a tight smile.
Sure. I remember you from yesterday.
She opened the door further and reached for the box, but he lifted the lid and a cloud of dark blue gas burst in her face, making her head spin.
Wh-what’s happening?
she mumbled through thick lips. Her knees went weak and her vision tunneled as arms grabbed her and kept her from falling to the ground when her legs went out completely. Her fingers lost their hold on the phone and it clattered to the tiled floor.
She heard several different masculine voices, but they spoke in a language she didn’t understand. She opened her mouth to speak, to call out for help, but nothing came from her lips, and she drifted away into the