Arobi's Queen: A Mate Index Romance (The Mate Index Book 11) Read online

  The Arobi’s Queen

  S.J. Sanders

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by S.J. Sanders

  The Arobi’s Queen

  A Mate Index Romance

  S.J. Sanders

  ©2020 by Samantha Sanders

  All rights reserved.

  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.

  Editor: LY Publishing

  Cover Artist: Samantha Rose

  Many thanks to all the people who made this book possible!

  Chapter 1

  Hayley sighed and stared at the dull gray wall of her cell. This was it. She was looking at the next five to ten years in this hellhole. She hadn’t expected this. Hayley wasn’t sure exactly what she expected when she shot her stepfather, but it hadn’t been this.

  Family stuck together, did anything for each other. Her grandmother taught her that, had said it all her life.

  She wasn’t sorry for what she did, not in the least. The asshole had it coming for years. With every bruise and broken bone her mama had tried to explain away, it built to the moment. She was only sorry her aim wasn’t better. He deserved worse than a bullet in the leg for what she had walked into.

  She hadn’t expected to find him beating the hell out of her mama when she stopped by with a small chocolate fudge cake—her mama’s favorite—as a birthday surprise. Seeing her mama lying in a bloodied mess on the floor had been the last straw.

  Hayley had shouted at him to stop, and threw the cake at him. When that didn’t stop the sadistic beating, she pulled her licensed handgun out of her handbag and gave him one last warning. Staring at the cell wall, she could still hear his cruel laughter as he’d turned toward her. Not even closing her eyes could dismiss the cold look on his face. Her mama had sputtered on the floor, begging her to leave.

  She had pulled the trigger, sending him to the floor screaming and cussing. She fired again and again. She could have killed the bastard if she’d wanted to… In retrospect, she should have. But she hadn’t wanted to end up in jail. Life’s little irony was that despite everything, that was exactly where she ended up. The police were called, and while they had both been hauled to jail, she was the one who’d been made a permanent guest. Watching her mama lie on the witness stand to protect her husband had been the worst moment of Hayley’s life.

  Family was supposed to stick together, but her mama didn’t seem to agree.

  Hayley’s lip curled in disgust. She was in jail, her career ruined—because even if she got out early, who was going to hire a high school English teacher with a felony?—and he got away with nothing more than a shot-up leg and hip, and a spot on his side where a bullet grazed him. The smug look on his face when she’d been pulled out of the courtroom haunted her.

  She definitely should have killed him.

  The cell door swung open with a loud creak, drawing her attention to the guard waiting patiently on the other side. Officer Gravis looked as stern as her name implied.

  “Miss Benito, you have a visitor,” Gravis informed her.

  Hayley pushed herself to her feet and headed to the entrance of her cell. “A visitor?”

  She hadn’t had any visitors since her sentencing. The last person she saw was her lawyer, who offered a few apologies that did her absolutely no good. That was over a week ago. Maybe it was her grandmother. Hayley’s heart lifted at the thought. Her grandmother had been her only visitor during the terrible trial.

  The guard didn’t reply, but escorted her to a spartan room with a table and two chairs. This wasn’t the visitors’ area. In one chair sat a man wearing a stiff uniform. Hayley eyed him warily but slid into the chair opposite him. The door swung shut behind them with a loud click.

  Hard gray eyes glanced up at her and regarded her in a direct, no-nonsense way. “Miss Benito, I am Mr. Wallace. How are you today?”

  Hayley stared at him blankly. “I’m in prison. I think it’s self-explanatory.”

  “Indeed,” he replied as he shuffled his papers. “And what if I told you that you didn’t have to be here even a minute longer?”

  She leaned forward over her cuffed hands on the tabletop, hope burning in her chest. “My appeals have come through already?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing of that sort, I’m afraid. No, you are in here for a very long time. There is only one thing that will reverse your sentencing.”

  “And that is?”

  “Have you ever heard of the Mate Index?”

  A laugh bubbled up her throat. “Are you kidding? Who hasn’t heard of that? The government is all too happy to sell off our people to aliens to line their pockets. Only the desperate and crazy would go for it.”

  Mr. Wallace pinched his bottom lip between his forefinger and thumb thoughtfully. “And are you?”

  “Am I what?”

  “How desperate are you, Miss Benito?”

  “I don’t follow,” she mumbled, chewing her lip.

  “Simply put, the government is always looking for citizens who are willing to enrich our intergalactic alliances. Any women who agree to be matched through the Mate Index will have their records expunged and will be permitted to live their lives from that point on without legal barriers.”

  “You mean on another world… married to an alien,” she added.

  “A small price to pay for freedom. To be able to have a career and follow your dreams. Prison is hard on a person, but no less than the life as an ex-felon. Are you prepared for that? Or would you like to take a chance on something better?”

  Hayley let a sharp bark of laughter. “And what if I’m mated to an alien slug or that cannibal species that rumors have been going around about? What then?”

  The cool smile that stretched across his face was unnerving as he shrugged. “There are no guarantees, but somehow I think you might want to take your chances out there.”

  Swallowing sharply, Hayley stared at the paperwork. It contained her only bid for freedom. Could she fuck an alien slug to get on with her life? That was debatable. Then again, there was nothing to stop her from bailing on her new husband and carving out a new future, contracts be damned.

  She would marry the alien, but then all bets were off.

  Plan in mind, she sat back in her chair and met the recruiter’s eyes. Her pulse fluttered anxiously, and her hands were sweaty, but she didn’t break eye-contact as she took a deep breath, held it, and let it out in a long exhale. “All right. Let’s do this.”

  His lips curved in a pleased smile. “So
happy to do business with you. Just sign here.”

  The paper and pen were pushed forward until they were just close enough for her to stretch across the table and grab ahold of them with her fingertips. Reluctantly, she dragged them the rest of the way to her.

  She glanced up at him. “What about my grandma? She has no one to look out for her.”

  “You are entitled to leave your bridal fee with any relative. List your beneficiary on page three.”

  Hayley narrowed her eyes. “All of it goes to my grandmother. My mama doesn’t get a penny of it. If anything happens to Grandma, I want it to go to a charity of my choice.”

  It must not have been a strange demand because Mr. Wallace nodded and tapped the table impatiently. “Make note of everything, and we will put it in your files.”

  That was that, then.

  Miraculously, the pen didn’t shake in her hand as she filled out the paperwork, and only quivered a little when she signed her scrawling signature to the final page. She had no sooner set the pen down than the document was snapped out of her reach.

  The recruiter abruptly stood and strode to her. His smile was polite as he nodded at her. “That will be all, Miss Benito. Your transfer to our facility will occur within the hour. You are now legally a Mate Index bride and give up all rights to Earth citizenship forthwith. You will be fitted with a translator in our facility and prepared for the next transport from Earth. Good luck.”

  With those parting words, he left Hayley alone with her worries. Officer Gravis entered on the heels of Mr. Wallace’s departure, a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth.

  “Everything will be all right now, Benito. You’ll see,” she said in hushed tones. “You never should have been in here. Only a fool would believe otherwise.”

  Hayley felt numb as she stood, but she let the guard’s words soak into her, clung to them even as she followed Gravis out of the room. Everything would be all right. She was no longer going to be in prison, she would have a translator, and she had a plan in place.

  She would be all right.

  Chapter 2

  Exeri wrinkled his nose as they walked through the Intergalactic Space Station. The press of bodies and the chaos of smells was overwhelming. The males of his pack grumbled as they followed close behind. As a general rule, Arobi didn’t like to be in space. None of them thought they would have a reason to return to space after retiring.

  That was the whole point. They had had their fill of space.

  Yet there they were, back in space, and not one of them was happy about it. His three pack brothers clustered tightly behind him, more often than not growling at those who intruded into their personal space. Tanji, at his left, bared his teeth at a curious onlooker and cut a questioning look toward him.

  “Why are we here again?” Tanji muttered under his breath.

  “To get a mate,” Exeri growled back, ignoring the chuffing of the other males behind him.

  “Yes, but why do we need to come here to find a mate?” his pack brother replied, his eyes shifting warily as aliens passed by closer than what was comfortable.

  Exeri grunted. Tanji was being obstinate. This subject was hardly a new one, as it came up nearly every lunar. They all felt the lack of a mate.

  Perhaps if they had retired on their homeworld, it would have been different. Over the last five revolutions, the Arobi enjoyed a prosperous technological revolution as packs and queens, liberated from their enslavement, brought common tech with them from Agraadax. After a full revolution of suffering the worst kind of boredom on a planet that had virtually locked out the rest of the intergalactic community, they left for an offered post on Antari Minor at the edge of Union space.

  Antari Minor was a small planet that possessed wide stretches of land good for farming, and ore-rich mountains for mining. Unfortunately, the far-flung planet also had some of the worst predators in the entire Intergalactic Union. Predators that tended to eat the local population.

  The planet not only attracted the worst sort of criminals who were willing to risk the inhospitable environment to disappear, it was also unsafe for the workers sent there. In response, the planet had sent out ads looking for a patrol team for certain zones. It turned out to be perfect for their pack, except for one problem: the females on Antari Minor shied away from them, and no Arobi queen was willing to even speak with them about a mating match.

  Hence, Exeri concocted a plan to get them exactly what they needed. All it took was every credit in their savings, but as far as he was concerned, it was worth it. His eyes shifted among the crowd, looking for the agreed-upon meeting place. The Edoka should be easy to spot.

  “Perhaps Exeri has been in contact with a female here on the space station,” Simah interjected from behind him.

  Exeri grimaced. If only it had been that simple. His pack wasn’t going to be happy when they found out that he spent their savings on a bribe to help them purchase a bride, but he hoped that they would understand the necessity. Purchasing from the Mate Index was the best solution. Frahnkee had reminded him of it when he spoke to her last. He had been rightly discouraged, and the solution she offered was so simple. He just had to get around one small problem: the Arobi, while a protected species, were not yet a part of the Intergalactic Union, and the planet they were posted on was not a recognized member. This meant that his pack was disqualified from using Earth’s Mate Index by legal channels.

  It was a stroke of pure luck that Exeri had been introduced to the male he was now meeting by a mutual acquaintance. An Edoka male willing to sell his slot to order a bride was strange, and the male’s price was steep, but Exeri was willing to overlook it. It was unlikely the opportunity would come again if he refused.

  “No,” he growled. “The female is not here.”

  He could feel the weight of his pack’s questioning gaze on him as he spotted an Edoka with peculiar coloring seated at a table outside of an eating establishment. The flashing lights that proclaimed the specials reflected off the male’s violet-blue scales. His long white braids fell down his shoulders as he scanned a flat menu screen in front of him.

  “Then what are we doing here?” Bilax asked, his tail snapping with impatience behind him.

  Exeri growled. “We are meeting an Edoka.”

  “The one sitting over there?” Bilax muttered. “How would he help us exactly? Does he have a sister he’s going to give to us? I hear that Edoka are peculiar in the way they mate.”

  “No,” Exeri hissed in a low voice. “We are paying him to purchase a bride from the Mate Index for us. The distribution program will only see that the request comes from him as a representative of his clannid. When she arrives, he will give her into our care.”

  The silence that fell behind him was telling as his pack considered his words. Not one of them met the news with excitement. Instead, he could smell their worry.

  “Is that legal?” Tanji whispered, breaking the silence.

  “Of course not,” Simah snorted. “Exeri, are you trying to get us imprisoned? Might I remind you that the Intergalactic Prison Planet is not the sort of place I want to retire to?”

  “Nor I,” Bilax mumbled.

  Exeri growled a low warning in his throat as they neared the Edoka. They couldn’t appear before the male seemingly at odds. An Arobi pack always acted decisively, together as one. The other three males went silent, their attention zeroing in on the lone male as they each took a seat at the table.

  The Edoka didn’t acknowledge them at first, his finger sliding over the screen lazily in front of him. He didn’t even look up when he finally deigned to speak.

  “Do you have my credits?”

  “I do,” Exeri affirmed. He could feel his pack stiffening and heard a soft gasp when he slid a chip of a considerable sum to the male across from him.

  The Edoka’s pitch-black eyes snapped up and fastened on the chip. A scowl tightened his features. “That is only half of the agreed-upon price.”

  Exeri held back a curse as h
is pack brothers glanced toward him in horror. “Half when we get our mate,” he murmured.

  The male eyed him, but a blue hand slipped across the table and closed around the credit. He was about to draw it back when Exeri’s hand whipped out and dropped over it. The male stiffened.

  “What is the meaning of this?” the Edoka hissed, his spines rattling.

  Exeri leaned forward with a grin. He wasn’t afraid of Edoka spines. Very little could penetrate an Arobi’s scaled hide.

  “I have some questions before we conclude business. To satisfy mine and my pack’s peace of mind,” he murmured.

  The other male stiffened but after a moment gave a short nod. Exeri released his hand, and the credit chip disappeared with the Edoka’s hand from the top of the table.

  “Now that I have your attention,” Exeri continued, his eyes boring into the Edoka, “I am Exeri, alpha of my Entanga pack. You are?”

  “Ka’sumar,” the Edoka growled back.

  “Thank you. Now we would like to know why exactly you agreed to meet and what assurances we have that you will not change your mind. You have, after all, asked for a considerable amount for this privilege.”

  The blue head nodded again, the spines flattening as he relaxed. “As it happens, this works out perfectly for me. My clannid is small, just me and my brother Et’ni, but he and I are… at odds, you might say. Not only does Edoka mating not work in a way that would make the Mate Index useful for us, I am unable to complete a mating without my brother. I have no use for my ability to procure a female.”