Soros (Descendants of Doom Book 3), page 1
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
CHAPTER 1
Unexplained Anger
CHAPTER 2
Dreaming of What Was
CHAPTER 3
The Other Half-Human
CHAPTER 4
Holding Hands
CHAPTER 5
Lake of Lava
CHAPTER 6
New York
CHAPTER 7
Relaxing Spa
CHAPTER 8
Erupting Volcanoes
CHAPTER 9
Rogue Lips
CHAPTER 10
Frustrating Humans
CHAPTER 11
Catching Up
CHAPTER 12
Chasing Ko’roz
CHAPTER 13
Trailing the Suspect
CHAPTER 14
Unforgivable
CHAPTER 15
Malbreean Puppet Master
CHAPTER 16
Tracking Tania
CHAPTER 17
Disrespect
CHAPTER 18
Breakthrough
CHAPTER 19
Trafficking
CHAPTER 20
Secrets
CHAPTER 21
Breakdown
CHAPTER 22
Hidden Treasures
CHAPTER 23
For Now
CHAPTER 24
Breaking Point
CHAPTER 25
The Fight
CHAPTER 26
Rejection
CHAPTER 27
Sins of Scilm
CHAPTER 28
Enjoying Every Last Moment
CHAPTER 29
Tambul
CHAPTER 30
Goodbyes
CHAPTER 31
Revealing Secrets
CHAPTER 32
A New Life
About the author
Copyright © 2023
By Elin Peer
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, excepting brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Asin: B0BYDYJB2X
Soros – Descendants of Doom #3
First Edition
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons or organizations is coincidental and not intended by the author. Recommended for mature readers due to adult content.
Cover Art by Miblart
Editing: Martin O’Hearn
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
For the best reading experience and to avoid spoilers, this is the recommended order of the books.
#1 Malliko
#2 Sival
#3 Soros
The books will also be available in paperback and hardback.
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DEDICATION
To L.L.
For giving me inspiration and making me smile.
Elin
CHAPTER 1
Unexplained Anger
Soros
Meeting Tania was so unexpected that for a moment, I was too shocked to think. She was supposed to live a peaceful life on Earth and now she was here on Markatoria of all places. This dreaded planet was inhabited by a callous and manipulative population who committed despicable crimes against other species. My initial surprise at seeing her standing among the crew on the Great Defender was quickly replaced by stress as my focus shifted from my work as a criminologist to keeping Tania safe.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her with a stunned expression.
Permanently stationed on Earth as an agent for the Federation, Tania had been my contact person when I worked there. We had shared a strong mutual fascination and attraction that had led to a passionate relationship. I had only fond memories of her and that’s why it made no sense that she watched me with pure hostility.
“I’m escorting Jade, who is human, and making sure she’s returned to Earth.” Tania’s tone was as cold as her expression.
My gaze went to the woman standing next to Tania. She had to be the human victim whom Captain Lios had talked about. I had never come across a human outside of Earth and so it made sense that the Federation would have asked an agent from Earth to escort her. And yet, Captain Lios didn’t seem to agree with Tania’s reasoning for being onboard the ship.
Turning to her, he asked, “But didn’t you say that you wanted to come so that you could meet an Ugon Master to erase some bad memories?”
Tania gave a short nod, which reminded me of a rumor I had dismissed as nonsense.
The last time I contacted K’rem, our mutual contact person at the Federation, he told me Tania had asked for a meeting with an Ugon Master to erase all her memories of me. For all this time I had been convinced he was mistaken and that she had been joking. But there was no trace of humor in her eyes as she stood glaring at me. Last time I saw her she looked at me with love and affection. Now, her nose was wrinkled as if I was a bowl of Kennel Worms.
Disappointment burned in the pit of my stomach as I figured that K’rem had been right after all. Tania truly wished to erase all memories she had of me… of us.
Revealing that I was fully aware of what memories she wanted to erase, I said, “But you still remember me?”
Tania narrowed her eyes. “I’m afraid so.”
A thousand questions and answers were tripping over each other in my mind. I was confused about how she had gone from declaring her love for me to hating me. We had been so close, and it seemed surreal that she wouldn’t be happy to see me again. Why was she so rude and indifferent to me?
Memories of us naked and tangled up while declaring our affection for each other made me want to reach out and pull Tania into a tight embrace. But it was as if the Tania standing in front of me was a stranger who didn’t remember the laughter and joy we once shared.
If we had been alone, I would have asked her what had happened to make her close off to me. It was frustrating that she couldn’t communicate with me through telepathy.
There were too many people around for us to have a private conversation in verbal form. The atmosphere was tense, and I could tell that the crew members watching us were confused about the hostility between Tania and me.
One of the soldiers took a step forward shielding Tania a little from my view. He was tall and well-built with green eyes and dark-blond hair. Captain Lios, who had requested my help to find a group of criminals, had introduced this man to me the first time I met them through a hologram. Searching my memory, I recalled the soldier’s name as Nerix.
“How about I show you to your cabin,” Nerix said in a curt tone. “It’s right next to the one Tania and I share.”
My spine stiffened. What did he mean that he shared a cabin with Tania? I stared at the man and then back to Tania, who remained cold in her demeanor. She met my gaze but didn’t say a word.
I’d been excited to meet the team on the Great Defender and praise them for their impressive work of collecting evidence.
With the way Nerix scowled at me with his shoulders squared and his chin held high, it felt as if I wasn’t welcome.
Why was he being so strangely protective of Tania, as if he considered me a physical threat to her? None of this made any sense to me, except for his comment that he slept with Tania. Maybe he wasn’t so much protective as territorial. And maybe her hostility was a signal that she didn’t want me causing trouble between her and her new love interest.
Glaring back at Nerix, I instantly disliked him and was relieved when another soldier came over and addressed me. This man was younger and less rigid in his body posture. He looked fit, but not as tall or broad shouldered as Nerix.
“I’m Elan; since you’ll be staying in my cabin, I thought I could show you where it is. I have a few things I need to grab since I’m sleeping in Ayedin’s cabin while you’re onboard.”
“Thank you,” I told Elan and with a last hard and disappointed glance at Tania, I turned and followed the soldier.
As we walked away, I had to stop myself from glancing back to see if there was any physical contact between Nerix and Tania. With their odd behavior, the only explanation I could find was that they were now in the same sort of passionate relationship that Tania and I had once shared. Back then, Tania had told me that humans typically kept to one person at a time. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense that her attitude was really a warning for me to stay away because she had given herself to Nerix.
I should be a bigger person and be happy for them. After all, I had been in plenty of fleeting relationships with Eidron women and never found it difficult to let go when the affair ended. So why was I so affected by Tania’s rejection?
The answer was screaming at me in my mind. Tania was like no other woman I had ever been with. She had made me feel treasured and special. Everything about her had drawn me in, from her rare beauty to her vulnerability and tough attitude. She was complex and I had thought about her a million times since I was forced to leave her. I had missed what we had together and now that the unexplainable forces of the Universe had brought us back together, it felt like a sick joke that she didn’t want anything to do with me.
My assignment to find the criminals and hold them accountable would be even harder now. How was I supposed to focus on work with Tania be
It occurred to me that for someone supposedly an expert at analyzing behavior, I was in deep water when it came to her. If Tania’s strange hostility was really a matter of signaling to me to back off and respect her new relationship with Nerix, then shouldn’t I do that? Humans were overly emotional in general and when it came to romantic relationships, they were irrational. For now, I would give her a bit of space while I worked on the case I had come to solve. But I would be observing her, trying to figure out how she had gone from loving me to hating me.
CHAPTER 2
Dreaming of What Was
Tania
I stirred in bed, trying to find sleep. Reliving my love affair with Soros for the millionth time made it impossible for my body to rest.
My stressed-out mind was trying desperately to understand how things ended this badly between us. I kept playing memories on my inner movie screen. Meticulously, I dissected snippets of conversations in no chronological order from the nine months that we spent together on Earth.
My love affair with Soros had been epic. Like something you see in the movies and yet, here we were with a complete breakdown in our communication.
Once again, my memories took me back to our first meeting.
4 years and 9 months earlier
Soros was the third alien I was asked to guide after accepting my position as an agent for the Federation six months ago. I was excited when I learned that he was Eidron like my father because I knew very little of my heritage on my paternal side. I was told that Soros’ assignment on Earth was to educate a selected group of humans who served as contacts for the Federation. In my information sheet, he was described as an expert on the different species in the Universe and the threat they posed to humans.
Picking Soros up at the military base, I kept giving him sideways glances on the drive to Los Angeles. With my five-foot-eleven, I was tall for a woman, but he had to be at least six-foot-five. Next to him, I felt small, which rarely happened. Soros wasn’t a beauty in the traditional sense, but he had gorgeous thick curly hair and large brown eyes that were nicely framed by his thick eyelashes. It was impossible not to feel instantly drawn to his charisma and charm because he was so vibrant when he talked fast, asking me all sorts of questions. Although I was new in this job, Soros made me feel like an expert when he asked about human eating habits, sleeping habits, and our criminal system. Those were things I knew about. The Tuncallons on the other hand had asked me questions that even Google hadn’t been able to help me answer.
“You’re very different from the two other aliens I’ve helped so far,” I said after he threw his first ten questions at me.
“In what way?”
“I honestly think I’ve heard more words coming out of your mouth in the twenty minutes since I picked you up, than I did in the two months the other two were on Earth.”
“Ahh, they were Tuncallons then.”
I gaped a little. “Yes, how did you know?”
Soros laughed and turned his body in the passenger seat to face me. “Because Tuncallons are notoriously shy and introverted. I think that’s why they developed a purple skin color. They needed to stand out or they would get completely overlooked among the rest of us Descendants of Doom.”
“Nooo…” I said in a tone that indicated that I knew he had to be messing with me.
Soros laughed and looked human when he threw his hands up. “Who knows?”
Focusing on the road ahead for a moment, I asked him, “Seriously though. Do you know why they have that color and why they’re so slender and little?”
“I just told you it’s to stand out.”
“No, what’s the real reason?”
Sitting back in the passenger seat, he explained, “We learned about it in speciology. The short version is that it has to do with the environment on their planet, Callax.”
Turning my head, I looked at him. “Have you been to their planet?”
“I have. Several times. It’s very quiet there but beautiful.”
“Funny how you put a but in that sentence. As if quiet is a bad thing and the beauty of the planet makes up for it.”
“I’m not saying that quiet places are bad. Personally, I just find it hard to stay silent for days at a time. On Callax you can easily feel like a loud and intrusive person, even when you’re doing your best not to be a nuisance. That’s why I’m so excited to visit Earth. I’m told that you humans are lovers of music and talk a lot. I’m particularly fascinated to learn if it’s true that you speak hundreds of different languages.”
“We don’t. Well, I mean there are hundreds of languages, but no one speaks all of them. We don’t have access to a mental language archive the way you do. The closest things are these small translation devices that people can buy now. I’m not sure how well they work though.”
“Fascinating. So, is it true that you humans lost the ability to connect telepathically? I’ve been trying to connect to you since we met and I’m getting nothing.”
I looked out the side window, angling my head away from Soros. He had just touched on a sore subject, but I didn’t want to sour our first meeting by explaining to him why I was bothered by his reminder that I didn’t know telepathy.
“Did I say something wrong?”
His astuteness surprised me as I hadn’t actually said anything. “No.” Giving him a polite smile, I added, “Did they tell you I’m a hybrid? I’m part Eidron like you.”
“I didn’t know that.” His eyes widened. “How unusual.”
“You can stop looking at me like I’m a new species to dissect and study.” I gave a nervous laugh.
“My apologies. I’ve just never met a hybrid who is part human.”
“Yeah, well, unfortunately my father’s ability for telepathy didn’t get passed on to me. Nor did he stick around to teach me about his people.”
Soros leaned forward and looked at me with great sympathy. “Sounds like there’s a story to dive into and things that I can teach you about our people.”
My shoulders eased and my expression softened as I gave him a grateful smile. I liked how he said our people, making me feel included.
“Yeah, but first let me get you settled into the apartment. The good thing is that we don’t have to think about disguising you. With the Tuncallons that was time-consuming and stressful.
“You think I’ll blend in among humans?”
“Yes. You might stand out because of your height a little, but there are plenty of human men who are taller so I wouldn’t worry about that. Are you hungry?”
“Yes. And curious to try human food. I’ve heard that some of it is very tasty but to stay away from something called Pozza.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not sure. Something flat that didn’t agree with K’rem’s stomach. He warned me.”
“Oh… I know what you’re talking about.” I laughed because K’rem was my contact person at the Federation, and I was the one who had served him pizza the last time he was here. “I don’t think it was the pizza but the wine he drank. But don’t worry, there are plenty of other delicious foods I can introduce you to.”
We smiled at each other, and I felt a delicious bubbly sensation in my stomach. When I drove to the military base this morning, I’d felt a little nervous, but Soros was delightful company and I already felt surprisingly at ease around him.
“I can tell that I’m going to enjoy my time on Earth,” Soros said and dipped his chin with a look of determination.
“Yeah? How do you know that?” I asked but felt relieved that he was being so positive.
“Because I’ve wanted to come here for the longest time and because you are here.” He said the last part as if it was self-explanatory.
I tried to control my goofy smile and ignored how my cheeks heated up from his flattery. I wasn’t normally easily affected by men, but Soros was so vibrant in his energy that I felt instantly attracted to him. “I’ll do my best to make you feel welcome,” I promised.
Aboard the Great Defender
Exhaling hard, I turned again and pushed away the memories of my first meeting with Soros. I knew from experience that if I didn’t shut it down, my inner movie screen would take me to more intimate memories that always made me yearn for him.
