Sirein: A Dystopian World Alien Romance Read online

  Sirein

  A Dystopian World Alien Romance

  S.J. Sanders

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Other Works by S.J. Sanders

  About the Author

  ©2020 by Samantha Sanders

  All rights reserved.

  Editor: LY Publishing

  Cover Art: Sam Griffin

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission granted in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction intended for adult audiences only.

  Created with Vellum

  Prologue

  Nerida woke as someone shook her shoulder. Blinking sleepy eyes, she turned her head and looked at the shadowed form of her mother hovering over her.

  “Get up and come out onto the decks, Neri,” her mother said.

  It wasn’t even daybreak yet. Her younger siblings were still nestled in their bunks sleeping soundly. Nerida brushed the sleep out her eyes and beamed up at her mother as she scrambled out of bed.

  There was only one reason her mother would wake her so early. It was her sixteenth birthday. She had reached the age of allowances. She was finally allowed to join the adults and take up duties on the boat, rather than the chores confined to the living quarters with the children. She’d been counting down to this moment for years!

  Filled with excitement, Nerida quickly pulled on her rough-spun, weathered clothes and ran barefoot up the steps to the deck. The ships of their pod were still moored together, drifting along on the current. Good cooking smells filled the air and her stomach rumbled with excitement. She was actually going to have hot food rather than the rewarmed leftovers reserved for the children.

  Relatives and podmembers looked up to greet her cheerfully as she passed.

  “Good morning, Neri.”

  “Happy birthday, Neri girl.”

  Her mother pushed a plate of food into her hands, the fish stew still steaming, and the small portion of bread warm from the oven. Nerida sat at a long table, her mouth watering. Bread was a rare treat. The carbs from the precious traded grains helped to fuel the adults through long hours of work. She groaned with joy when she took a bite.

  “Happy birthday, Nerida,” a deep voice spoke startlingly close behind her.

  Nerida slowly turned her head and nearly choked as she saw the one person who she had been truly looking forward to finally meeting—her betrothed. Erik.

  A tremor ran through her as he pressed in close beside her, and she awkwardly scooted to the side so he could slide into the seat next to her. Excitement that he wished to sit with her was doused by a wave of fear at having a stranger pressing far too intimately close to her. Swallowing nervously, she glanced up at him as he leaned over her.

  She had to be overreacting. After all, she had never actually seen him up close before, much less spoken to him. All she really knew of him was that she was promised to be joined to him when she reached her majority, on her twenty-first birthday. Thanks to their daddies being friends, and the fact that she was the only female not related to the Quinn family born within a decade of Erik, it had made sense. It was natural and almost romantic to Nerida that they were promised to each other. Like fate had specifically made them for each other.

  Ever since her fourteenth birthday, when she was told that he was hers, she had watched for him, catching distant glimpses through the porthole of the central cabin. Naturally, seeing his lean, muscular frame as he worked alongside his family over the last couple of years had filled her imagination with all sort of fantasies. In her stolen glances, he appeared so handsome and strong, and she spent far too many hours daydreaming about her intended. But somehow, this didn’t feel like she thought it would.

  Her mouth immediately dried up with nerves. She barely recognized the man leaning over her, and he had come to meet her at the worst possible moment. Heat rose into her cheeks at being caught with her mouth stuffed full. It wasn’t the way she wished to first meet her intended.

  “Thank you, Erik,” she mumbled around her bread.

  Nerida quickly chewed and swallowed before smiling sheepishly up at him. He leaned in closer—far too close. Uncertainty flared, and for some indescribable reason, her skin began to crawl when he looked her over as if she bore his stamp of ownership rather than a woman to woo. It fell sadly short of what she had expected. She glanced away from him, hiding her confusion.

  Wasn’t he supposed to shower her with kindness and little courting gifts? Even her father had sweet words for his wife despite their many years together, a gentle touch at the end of a long day when he sorely missed her presence. There was nothing gentle about Erik as he curled his fingers around her arm, holding her firmly in place beside him.

  She risked a quick glance at him as he adopted a smile that didn’t reach his hard, cold eyes. They were fixed on her, as unfeeling as the predatory gaze of a giant whip shardon that prowled the waters of the planet. She battled back a wave of nausea as he touched one hand to her hair.

  “I can’t believe you’re already sixteen years old. I remember the day you were born. You were red and screaming angrily, and at the age of eight, I thought you were the strangest thing I ever had seen. But now look at you. You’re growing up to be a beautiful girl.”

  Another wave of nausea rolled through her stomach as his fetid breath hit her. Had he never heard of brushing his teeth in the morning? Or ever? Nerida wrinkled her nose and attempted to breathe through her mouth. She had never imagined that, of all faults her intended spouse might have, he would be so plainly disgusting. He wasn’t the man of her girlish fantasies.

  Her skin crawled yet again as he leaned toward her and traced a finger down her cheek as if brushing away an imaginary bit of dirt. When she refused to look at him again, pretending to focus on her food, his fingers closed around her jaw, turning her head to look at him. Once he was certain that he had her attention, he smiled down at her, his thumb moving in tiny circles on her skin.

  “That’s better. You have such pretty eyes… hazel, changeable like the sea itself. The day you turn twenty-one, I am going to be the envy of any man our pod comes across.” He leaned forward, his breath hitting her face even as she scrunched up her nose and desperately held her breath as he whispered close to her skin. “I can’t wait until the day comes that you will finally be mine…”

  The violent need to vomit overwhelmed her. No, no, no. She couldn’t marry this man. She refused—

  “Erik, come and join the men for morning brew. Nerida isn’t going anywhere,” her father’s voice enthusiastically boomed across their familial ship eliciting a number of chuckles from the men standing nearby.

  A small scowl drifted over Erik’s face, but his expression blanked just moments before he adopted a fri
endly grin and pushed to his feet.

  “Certainly, Donovin. A cup of morning brew is just the thing to begin the day celebrating the health of our pod and joining families.”

  “Indeed, indeed,” her father agreed with an exaggerated nod of his head, his expression friendly and open.

  It was no secret that he admired the Quinn family and had sought a marital alliance with them. It would make her family stronger and make it easier for her younger siblings to find good matches. How many times had her family praised her for making such a fine match that would provide for her family? Far too many to count.

  As much as she wanted to beg him to call it off, the words died on her lips. Her family would struggle to recover from such a humiliation. At least her father was giving her this one reprieve. She was grateful that, despite his admiration of the Quinn family, her father was a shrewd man. His eyes narrowed on her as he clasped Erik on the arm, drawing him to his side.

  “Just a few more years yet. Be patient, Erik. I know it is difficult for a man of your age. But the day will come soon enough. Until then, you will have plenty of opportunities to get to know your bride. We will be arriving soon at the floating city. It will do you good to get off the boat and expend some of that impatient energy.”

  A queasy feeling twisted in her gut. For all his handsomeness from afar, this was not a man she was the least bit interested in getting to know or being attached to for the rest of her life. Her bread crumbled between her fingers. Feeling the tiny grains, she glanced down at it in dismay. Everything was already changing, ruined by the hard reality she was presented. Even a birthday treat couldn’t bring her happiness now.

  Warily, she glanced back up at the retreating men and noticed the moment that Erik’s shoulders relaxed, his laughter coming easier as they joked of the pleasures of the floating city. She felt her cheeks scald with their talk and was grateful when their voices eventually joined the noisy throng of the pod celebrating her birthday.

  Nerida stumbled to her feet. It should have been a happy day for her, but she felt nothing but a screaming panic. Ducking into the shadows for some solitude, Nerida sought out the one place on her family’s vessel where she could escape. Scooping up some water from a water storage container, she wetted her hand and scrubbed it against her cheeks in attempt to wipe away the memory of his touch. The tears came gradually as all her dreams came crashing down around her.

  In just one brief encounter, she no longer felt joy at the thought of reaching adulthood and marrying her betrothed. Now only dread filled her. She would be handed over to him, the alliance between their families already sealed with the betrothal. She was terrified of what that would mean for her.

  There was the option to attempt to escape him, but in fleeing, she would not only be free of him. She would also be abandoning her family and pod. She would be a podless woman: an unfortunate person who relied on strangers to feed her, if she didn’t succumb to the very real dangers and monsters, human and not, that lurked around the floating cities. Or potentially worse, she would be a lawless sort who lived wild and alone, away from civilization and family.

  Those who sailed the seas alone were spoken of in hushed whispers. There was a sort of madness to those who risked the seas without a pod. It was why many podless women stayed in the floating cities despite the dangers there. Few people were willing to face the predatory beasts and men who hunted the seas.

  Was it worth risking in order to escape Erik? Either way, she would never be able to return to her family again.

  Leaning against the weathered board of the family quarters’ wall, Nerida stared at the lapping waves, watching as the sun rose higher over the edge of the water, making the calm surface sparkle as if strung with jewels.

  After a time, a warm, familiar presence settled beside her. Nerida glanced over at her mother’s somber expression.

  “Mama…”

  “I know,” her mother sighed. “I am not happy with this match. Nor is your father. If he would let go of his pride and worries enough to acknowledge it… but to break off the betrothal…”

  “It would ruin things for our family,” Nerida finished miserably.

  “Yes. If we called it off, our situation would be very bad,” her mother agreed. She turned and met Nerida’s eyes. “But I will insist on your behalf. It is not right to ask you to sacrifice your happiness. We will manage somehow.”

  Nerida shook her head sadly, her eyes staring out into the wide expanse of the seas. There was so much space out there where a lone person could easily become lost and never found. Space where she could be free—but at a great price.

  Chapter 1

  Nerida glared up at the bright midday sun, her hair falling in masses of sun-bleached braids and her lips cracked from the dry heat. She hated the days when the sun shone down with its blistering, unrelenting heat. Normally, she would be asleep during the hottest part of the day. Staying out of the direct harsh light of the midday reflecting off the expanses of water was the safer course. Today, however, anxiety had her out pacing the deck of her family’s boat. Some would have considered her woes to be trivial compared to what humanity had suffered the last several generations, and her desperation to escape it as selfish.

  Over the last several years, she struggled with what she was to do, knowing that running away would be considered the ultimate betrayal. Not only betraying everyone in her family and pod, but everything she was raised to believe.

  All her life, she had been told that survival depended on community and the joining of families for wavelanders. Arranged marriages were made between unrelated or very distantly related children by their parents, to be consummated when the younger of the pair reached his or her twenty-first birthday. If they weren’t marrying within their pod, then they were exchanged with another pod by arranged contract, where they would marry to bring in new bloodlines.

  This was the fate of every woman and man, although men at least had the security of never being forced to leave their pod of birth. Marriage alliances and reproduction were duties to one’s family and pod… it wasn’t about one’s own desires, or love. It was survival in an alien world naturally hostile to them. Every child grew up with stories of the grand adventures of the first colonial age before the transports from Earth ceased coming and all communications disappeared.

  It had been a golden era of their colony where anything was possible; where men and women who dreamed of adventure and wealth mapped out their own lives. Terra II from all accounts had been a different world then. The planet had been wealthy, and their scientists had been some of the foremost thinkers from Earth. They fought for the privilege to offer their skills in genetic manipulation to increase crop yields and splicing herd animals with native wildlife to feed their populations. But that was long, long ago, before Earth fell silent.

  The wavelanders that rose since then were the product of the second colonial age, in which the colony governor and elite, under the guise of concern for the sustainability of humanity without the trade ships from Earth, pushed two-thirds of the people out to the farthest seas. People of her ilk never had the opportunity to even set eyes on dry land. That was reserved for the elite and their bonded service class and agri-worker families, and for the estates of the merchants who transported goods to and from dry land.

  To make matters worse, the scientists who were once employed in ways to provide luxury and greatest benefit to the colonists, began creating secret, forbidden things in attempt to increase the survivability of those cast off from the continent. Those terrible monsters, the mogma, were the boogey of every child’s nightmare. They were a warning against the folly of the mainlanders who attempted to warp nature to suit their purposes, and when they failed, the results were as great of a devastation to the sea-dwelling people as their exile had been.

  Those who were tossed to the seas attempted to recreate some sense of civilization by building vast floating cities. Unfortunately these were subject to frequent raids from the mainland during the su
mmer season, and became deadly hunting grounds of the mogma when the winter fogs rolled in, driving the creatures out to hunt for easy prey. Due to these factors, among others, Nerida’s family, like so many, abandoned them, preferring the freedom of the wide seas. There, for generations, they pulled in fish and monstrosities from the depths the likes of which most had never seen. During the cooler hours of the day, their houseboats sailed with other families, eventually forming pods: small communities that traveled together and were moored to each other during midday and the darkest hours of the night.

  Such changes had a price. Cut off from many of the advantages, medicine and technology of the land—with the exception of what merchants were permitted to trade to the floating cities—their exile to the seas had marked the beginning of the struggle for survival.

  For Nerida, survival meant that she would be marrying the one man she loathed above all. Now that she was twenty-one, that day had finally come. It had, in fact, been coming ever since she reached the age of allowances. Every day since that first meeting with Erik, she had known it, had agonized over it, and had weighed her options when she wasn’t trying to just forget about it and embrace some fleeting happiness.

  Forgetting about it was no longer an option. Today was her twenty-first birthday, marking the end of the life she had known and loved. She was thankful that at least she’d had to endure little of Erik over the last few years. In accordance with the ways of the pod, they were kept separate, brought together throughout the year during purposely staged meetings—such as on her birthday and at the numerous joint celebrations held. Those meetings were mercifully brief, but not so brief that the passing of the years hadn’t informed her more than she liked as to his character.