Forever Askole

By Gail Koger

My name is Ella McAllister, I’m a psychic witch and a healer. My life is kinda nuts. Not only do I have the Coletti hunters chasing me, but now I also have a very determined Askole High Commander after me. Why? I shot his ship down and it crash landed, and it blew up. Yep, itty-bitty pieces everywhere. My bad, but his ship was a dead ringer for a Rodan Marauder, and it was my civic duty to blow the enemy spacecraft out of the sky. Wasn’t it? Any hoo, I healed his owies and boogied.

I thought that was the end of it, but oh no. For some unknown reason, Sariel, the Askole High Commander, decided I would make him the perfect mate. As if. I think the blow to his head made him completely bonkers.

Sariel informed me the mating dance had begun and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The idiot had obviously never dealt with a witch before. I didn’t have the time to play games with him, so I did a little abracadabra alakazam and ran.

Sigh. The persistent Askole found me. Now I have a decision to make. Keep running or surrender to the High Commander. He is a damn good kisser.

Would the mating dance bring two lonely souls together? Who knew?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gail Koger
• Release date: Aug 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005876715

Gail Koger

Howdy. My name is Gail Koger and once upon a time I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Too many years of wild requests, screwy questions, bizarre behavior and outrageous demands have left me with a permanent twitch and an uncontrollable craving for chocolate. I took up writing science fiction romance to keep from killing people. So far, it has worked.

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents.

Prologue

St. Kilda Island is at the edge of the world. It’s wild, untamed, and wet. I’ve gone weeks without seeing the sun or another living soul except for the crazy birds. My name is Ella McAllister, and this Scottish island is my haven from the Coletti hunters who have been chasing me for nearly a year. Why? Because I’m female, a powerful psychic, and a healer. ’Nuff said.

Myself, my sister Skye, and our cousin Annie Russell are all that’s left of the once powerful McAllister clan. The Scottish Highlanders called our kinfolk witches. Was there magic involved? Hell, yes, but we liked to think of ourselves as gifted not Satan’s handmaidens. In 1885, their persecution finally drove what remained of our evil family from Scotland. The McAllister witches settled in Sedona, Arizona and blended in with the natives.

I was twenty-two when the Tai-Kok attacked our world, and nothing was ever the same again. How they had found Earth or why they considered us tasty, no one knew. The news media’s horrific stories about the Tai-Koks’ butchery made it clear. You fought or you died.

The alien blitzkrieg laid waste to most of Europe and the Middle East. Our military knew it was only a matter of time before they hit North America. The famous Jones clan stepped up. Their psychic abilities gave the world an early warning system, allowing people time to get to the hastily constructed underground shelters, before the Tai-Kok and their ally, the Rodan, could chow down.

Annie joined a local Arizona militia that patrolled northern Arizona and she fought the Rodan. The monsters look like something a mad scientist had whipped up. A weird mix of rat and dinosaur. They stood about five-feet tall, had black armor-plated skin and used their tails as a weapon. Like the Tai-Kok, they were always hungry.

Skye and I used our skills as healers to treat the wounded. If the monsters attacked our field hospitals, I turned their brains to mush with my mental grenades. Skye would unleash an electrical storm strong enough to bring down their ships.

For five long years, we fought the monsters alone. That all changed when Kaylee Jones linked psychically with Talree, a Coletti warlord. It turned into one hell of a first contact when Talree claimed Kaylee as his mate.

Talree’s father was Zarek, the powerful Coletti Overlord. Six hundred years ago, the Coletti warlords’ tendency to take things that didn’t belong to them had consequences. The Great Galactic War almost wiped out the Coletti race and chemicals used to attack their home world created a genetic anomaly. Now only one female child was born for every one thousand Coletti males. In other words, they were facing extinction.

To save his people, Zarek did what any fiercely protective warlord would do; he united the clans and promptly started raiding other planets and species for their prized psychic females.

When the Overlord realized Kaylee had unique psychic powers and her blood had the ability to heal cellular damage, he promptly seized control of Earth. He agreed to stop the Tai-Kok and Rodan from raiding our world, but there was a catch. Zarek demanded Central Command turn over all psychic females to him.

My family wasn’t part of the Jones clan, so once Central Command began requiring all psychic females to register and get tracking chips, we faded into the background. We thought we were safe, but the Overlord’s hunters were relentless, and we were forced to leave Sedona. We split up to make it more difficult for the hunters to find us.

Annie had the bad luck of attracting General Saul Jones’ attention and ended up mated to him. Desperate to escape the Coletti hunters, Skye left Earth and found refuge on Domagal, an asteroid in the far reaches of the galaxy. She helped Jagger Kendon, a deadly assassin, run Pirate’s Keep. It is a combination of casino, pleasure house and a thief’s marketplace where they sold stolen goods, illegal weapons, and an assortment of other goodies. Her healing abilities were also highly sought after.

Me? I’m residing on a long-abandoned Scottish island. My home was a white stone cottage left over from the 1930’s. I missed my family so much, but any attempt to communicate with them brought the hunters down on me. I didn’t realize how much the isolation was getting to me until I found myself chatting away to Rosa McGregor as I cleaned her grave. She had been dead for over two hundred years and was never going to answer me.

Two weeks later, I started hearing voices. Was I losing my mind? Possibly. One voice stood out from the others. It was rich, deep, and authoritative. I could listen to him all day. I didn’t understand a word he said but eavesdropping on him lessened my loneliness. I got the impression they were searching for something important. My stomach knotted when I realized they were getting a little too close to my island. The last thing I needed were visitors.

I reinforced my wards and scanned the island. Huh? A big, black biometric vault had washed up on the leeward side of the island. I teleported to it. One look at the crossed swords and infinity symbol stamped on the side and I knew it belonged to the Askole. This had to be what the voices were looking for.

A quick open me spell disabled the biometric lock. The door opened, and I gasped. Holy Mother of God! It was full of Askole armor belts worth over eight million credits on the black market. I levitated the vault to a nearby cave and cast a spell to hide it from detection. To my relief the voices grew fainter and fainter until they vanished from my mind.

Skye’s last message to me was to find Hadj Smith in Marrakesh. He had agreed to take me to Domagal, but the cost was one million credits. An impossible price until now. A giddy laugh broke from me. All I had to do was sell the Askole armor and I could join my sister. Easier said than done. Avoiding the hunters tracking me would be hard enough but smuggling the stolen Askole armor to Morocco and selling it without getting caught was an almost impossible task.

Chapter One

I frowned as a chime sounded. Something had breached my outer wards. I ported to a two-hundred-foot cliff on the southside of the island. It offered a stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean. I scanned the area for hunters. A Coletti scout ship had been checking the surrounding islands. I wasn’t sure if they were still looking for me or the safe. Ignoring the clamoring seabirds swooping overhead, I reached out with my mind.

There. A short distance away, two Rodan Marauders and a Coletti scout ship were in a nasty dogfight. The Coletti pilot was winning until three more Marauders joined the fight.

I hated the Coletti, but they were protecting Earth from the Rodan. I zeroed in on the Rodan pilots’ minds and started lobbing my mental grenades. One by one, their ships fell from the sky. The Coletti warrior should be able to nurse his damaged ship back to their base in England.

Another Marauder broke through the thick clouds and pursued the damaged Coletti spacecraft. I frowned. This pilot’s mind was heavily shielded. I struck with every ounce of power I had. To my surprise, he easily deflected my mental grenade and hit back. Hard. The world spun dizzily around me, and I fell to my knees. Whoa! I shook my head to clear it. That hurt. A lot. Good thing my shields were unbreachable.

Most Rodan soldiers were telepathic, but they didn’t have any other psychic abilities. This one was an extremely powerful psychic. One look at his menacing aura and I switched tactics. Let’s see how he handled a little magic. Aga. Aga. Markoo yankata. Thone wasr giet, I chanted and smiled as his engines blew.

Instead of doing a nosedive into the ocean, the pilot managed to keep his damaged ship aloft. Color me impressed. I watched in amazement as he did a controlled crash on the narrow beach at the base of my cliff. Foamy spray dashed against the ship’s ruptured hull.

My gaze froze on the crossed swords with a red infinity symbol stamped on the side of the ship. Holy hell! It wasn’t a Marauder. It was an Askole fighter. That did explain his psychic abilities. I scanned the spacecraft. Thank God, the pilot was still alive. I ported into the ship.

A pall of ozone-tinged smoke filled the cockpit, burning my eyes and lungs. Blue sparks spewed in every direction as the command console shorted out. I grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and quickly doused the flames. Whew! Another minute and the console would have blown.

I turned my attention to the pilot and scanned for injuries. He was unconscious from a nasty concussion. Four of his ribs were broken along with his right leg and arm. I let out a breath of relief. Nothing I couldn’t heal.

A red warning light began to flash on the console, and the computer spouted some Askole gobbledygook. Shit! Time to leave. I released the Askole warrior’s battle harness and levitated him out of the pilot chair.

Dang. He was a big dude and he had to be wearing two hundred pounds of armor. Concentrating fiercely, I ported us into my temporary home. Sweat beaded my forehead as I levitated the pilot over to the bed and gently lowered him. Whew! He weighed a ton.

Kaboom! I glanced out my one window. A thick column of black smoke belched high into the sky. How angry was he going to be when he discovered his ship was now in itty-bitty pieces? I grimaced. Very. Very. Angry. Askole warriors weren’t known for their even tempers. Just in case he regained consciousness I quickly chanted a holding spell, Geendung tham Seville smeed.

The pilot let out a furious roar.

Huh? He had been playing possum. "Relax, you aren’t paralyzed. I just restrained you," I explained in Galactic Basic.

The pilot growled menacingly.

I patted his chest. "Very intimidating. Add in that horned helmet of yours, and I bet you scare the crap out of most folks. Once I heal you, you can go back to terrorizing the galaxy. I stared at his armor. But first I need to figure out how to get your armor off."

The word belt formed in my mind.

I blinked in surprise. He was cooperating. "Thanks." Sure enough there was a red crystal in the center of his belt. I pushed it.

Snikt. Schlik. Schlik. Schlik. Schlik. Schlik. Within seconds his armor retracted, revealing something out of a horror movie. Holy shit! I shivered as goosebumps erupted over my body and for a moment, I was tempted to run for my life. The only Askole warriors I had seen were on the news vids and they always wore their armor. Now I knew why. Tentacles squirmed about his snakelike features. His yellow eyes were clouded with pain. Instead of skin, he had black armor-plated scales. Whoa! Big Bad’s torso was sculpted perfection. Thick muscles corded his arms and legs. Who knew black scales could be so appealing and even sexy? My eyes bugged. Oh my God! He had the biggest penis I had ever seen. Their women must have gigantic vaginas.

A low moan broke from the pilot.

I gave myself a mental head smack. I was a healer not a horny teenager with overactive hormones. The fact that I hadn’t talked to anyone in almost a year wasn’t a valid excuse either. Disgusted with myself, I quickly recited a healing spell, Sepulcrum qui tumulo ibidem.

The Askole pilot’s tentacles stopped squirming.

"Feeling better?"

His compelling yellow eyes studied me for a long moment, and he answered in Galactic Basic, "Yes."

"Good. I also took care of your cracked fang. Should I tell him I had whitened his teeth too? Nah, why spoil the surprise. You should be careful who you bite."

The pilot cackled.

I shivered. Evil didn’t even begin to describe his cackle. Did Askole warriors even have a sense of humor? Curiosity got the better of me and I touched his face. His skin kinda felt like a rattlesnake’s. Dry and slightly bumpy leather. Two of his tentacles stung me. I jerked my hand back. "Ouch! Show a little gratitude will ya. Without me rescuing your mangy hide from that ship, you would be very dead now."

He bared his six-inch pearly white fangs. "You, little female, carried me out of the ship?"

I didn’t care for his skeptical tone. "My name is Ella, not little female, and I’m stronger than I look."

"Do you think I

Reviews for Forever Askole

[Crush · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Witches are here. As the McAllister sister join the battle with magic . As the next warriors falls for a human.