Claimed by an Alien Warrior Read online

  Claimed by an Alien Warrior

  A Novel

  Tiffany Roberts

  Contents

  Title Page

  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

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Also by Tiffany Roberts

  About the Author

  CLAIMED BY AN ALIEN WARRIOR

  A Novel

  By Tiffany Roberts

  Copyright © 2018 by Tiffany Freund and Robert Freund Jr.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including scanning, photocopying, uploading, and distribution of this book via any other electronic means without the permission of the author and is illegal, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publishers at the address below.

  Tiffany Roberts

  [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Illustration © 2018 by Cameron Kamenicky and Naomi Lucas

  Proofread by Cissell Ink

  Created with Vellum

  To all of you, our readers.

  Thank you to our cover artists, Cameron Kamenicky and Naomi Lucas, for always creating such beautiful covers for us. You help bring our characters to life!

  And special thanks for Ronika Williams and Tammy Simmons. You ladies are amazing!

  Chapter One

  What am I going to do now?

  That question echoed in Zoey’s head as she drove home with her final paycheck and a handful of tip money stuffed in her purse.

  Now, she wished she could take back all her complaints — about the filthy, greasy kitchen, the rude customers always trying to scam free food, her touchy-feely coworker, and her drunk of a boss — just for the security of having her job back. But it was too late.

  What was done was done.

  Waiting tables and cooking at Bud’s Diner was shitty, backbreaking work, but it paid the bills, even if only barely, and it had been the best she could get.

  “Place not good enough for you?” Bud had said. His breath had only smelled faintly of whiskey. He’d scrawled out a check and slapped it on the dirty counter. “Don’t bother coming back. You’re fired.”

  I should have just kept my mouth shut and worked.

  How would Joshua react when she got home and told him?

  He’d been fired from his construction job a month after they rented their apartment together. It’d been a devastating blow to their income, and he’d been unable to find any replacement work in the five months since. He was trying. While she was out working, he was going through classifieds and hiring websites, and making phone calls.

  Things would get better soon. Zoey had to believe that. They just needed to hold out…

  They were approaching the one-year anniversary of their first date. Though things had been tight financially, they got along well and rarely argued. Maybe they weren’t as intimate as she’d have liked, but things were good between them. Sex wasn’t vital to a healthy relationship... Right?

  Zoey parked at the curb in front of her building. It was early afternoon, still a couple hours before most people got off work, so — for once — she had a decent parking space.

  Squeezing the steering wheel, she stared up at the chipped, faded red paint of their door up on the second floor, which only made the pine wreath she’d hung on it look withered and sad.

  A rush of anxiety filled her. She didn’t want to go up there. Didn’t want to explain her failure to Josh. Her only solace was the knowledge that their bills were paid through the end of the month. One of them would find work in that time.

  “He’ll understand,” she mumbled.

  Turning off the car engine, Zoey leaned back against her seat, closed her eyes, and searched for inner calm. For strength.

  “One day at a time,” she said, hearing her father’s voice in her mind as she spoke the words.

  The past is gone, and tomorrow will come. Live for today, Zoey, he’d tell her.

  A mingling of sadness and hope swept through her; she always felt that way when she thought of her dad. One day at a time had been their saying. Whenever things got tough, whenever she’d felt overwhelmed with life, they’d chant those words together again and again.

  There was no sense in worrying about a future you couldn’t control when the present was slipping by.

  Those words had seen her through many rough patches over the years.

  Zoey lifted her head, opened her eyes, and looked up at her apartment door.

  “Just one day at a time…” She exhaled. “Let’s get this over with.”

  She got out of the car, slamming the door behind her, and paused briefly at the mailbox to pick up their mail as she walked along the path to the stairs. She flipped through the small pile of letters and frowned when she discovered an envelope from their landlord. Tearing it open, she unfolded the paper and stopped dead in her tracks.

  For a moment, her chest was too tight to breathe, and her surroundings blurred to leave only the cold, black text on the crisp white paper in focus.

  FINAL NOTICE: You are in default in payment of rent. You must either pay the overdue amount of $2100.00 or vacate the leased property within three (3) days of receiving this notice. If you fail to comply, eviction proceedings will begin immediately…

  “This can’t be right,” Zoey whispered, rereading the letter twice more.

  She hurried to the staircase, rushed up the concrete-slab steps, and jogged to her door. Sweat dampened her hair and trickled down her neck, back, and between her breasts.

  Josh paid them! This is a mistake. It has to be.

  Her hand shook as she fished her keys out of her purse, and it took several tries to insert the right one into the lock. Before she turned the key, she forced herself to take a few slow lungfuls of air.

  “We’ll work it out. There was a mistake. We’ll fix this,” Zoey whispered, barely hearing herself over the hum of the air conditioner in the front window.

  She pushed open the door and stepped through, closing it gently behind her. The cool air was a blessing against her flushed skin. Normally, she’d be freezing — it was December. Who used air conditioners in December? But Joshua insisted on running the damned thing if the temperature outside was above sixty degrees. Today happened to be closer to seventy.

  It was a wonder she’d been able to keep up on the power bill.

  The living room TV was on the pause screen of some video game, the volume cranked up to blare orchestral music that seemed entirely too dramatic for a menu with options like RESUME GAME, SAVE, and EXIT. An open pizza box on their thrift store coffee table held two uneaten slices of pepperoni pizza and three empty beer cans.

  Zoey frowned; random pizza and be
er was outside the budget. They’d barely been able to afford the little Christmas tree in the corner with its single string of multi-colored lights. Did he have a friend over who’d paid for the food?

  “Josh?” she called after switching the AC off.

  A quick glance in the kitchen confirmed he wasn’t in there.

  She set her purse and the mail — except for the notice about the rent — on their little kitchen table and walked to the bathroom. The door was open, lights off.

  Where is he?

  If he was out job hunting, why leave the TV on and leftover food in the living room?

  That was when she heard the sounds from beyond the closed bedroom door — muffled, high-pitched cries and low grunts.

  Hurt and shame wrapped their cold fingers around Zoey’s heart.

  There was nothing wrong with masturbation, and she knew men were visual creatures. She couldn’t hold that against Josh. But she couldn’t help feeling inferior when she compared herself to the women in the porn he often watched. They were beautiful and thin while Zoey…wasn’t. She’d always been on the plump side, with a larger backside and thighs, heavier breasts, and a little extra around her middle.

  She’d struggled with her weight and self-image for most of her life, ever since her father died. It hurt to know that Josh preferred those women. He’d never said it out loud, but he’d never really tried to hide the fact, either.

  The last time they’d been intimate was more than two weeks ago; they’d done a little heavy petting before Josh asked for a blowjob. She’d felt so…detached from the act, as though she were just going through the motions. He’d been watching porn while she sucked him off.

  After he’d gone to sleep that night, Zoey had crept into the bathroom and cried. The whole experience had been so demeaning and hurtful. And it was her fault.

  Why hadn’t she tried harder to be attractive for him? To exercise, to pick a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar she shouldn’t have spent money on, anyway? If she cared about him, wasn’t it worth the effort to make him happy?

  At heart, she knew that train of thought wasn’t right, but that didn’t help her derail it.

  Zoey hadn’t found the courage to tell him how she’d felt that night — how she’d felt during most of the rare nights when they actually did something in their bed other than sleep. She’d been so starved for intimacy when it happened that she gobbled up whatever attention he offered, like a dog waiting under the table for scraps.

  She clenched her fists and wrestled back more tears, clawing for that calm she’d found a few moments before.

  Under the current circumstances, whatever Josh was doing right now was an insignificant issue.

  Turning the knob, she pushed open the door and stepped in.

  The breath fled her lungs like she’d been punched in the sternum.

  The stuffy air was pungent with the smell of sex. Joshua stood directly ahead, completely naked, his ass cheeks flexing as he thrust into the woman he was holding up against the wall. Her long legs were crossed at their ankles behind his back, her arms were draped around his shoulders, and her head was tilted back. The woman’s cries of pleasure sounded from her parted red lips, loud and clear now that they weren’t muffled by the door.

  Anger sparked in Zoey’s belly. “What. The. Fuck!”

  “Shit!” Joshua yelled, turning toward Zoey. He grunted suddenly, his face contorting in that way she knew so well as his muscles spasmed; his orgasm face. He stepped back from the wall, and the woman fell to the floor with a curse.

  Josh grasped his cock in one hand as though it pained him. Jets of semen sprayed from its tip to splatter the woman’s chest. “Shit, Zoey!”

  Guess he got his fucking money shot.

  “Ugh.” The woman grabbed Josh’s rumpled t-shirt from the floor and wiped off her spunk-splattered breasts. “Seriously?”

  “Who the hell is she?” Zoey demanded, pointing at the woman.

  “What’s going on, Josh?” the woman asked, tossing his shirt aside and standing up. She seemed unconcerned with her nudity as she gathered her discarded clothes. She was tall and slender, with subtle muscle tone under her tanned skin. Everything Zoey wasn’t. “You said you were single.”

  Zoey glared at Josh. “He what?”

  He lifted his hands in a placating gesture, but when he realized it left his dripping erection exposed, he dropped them to his crotch. “Now calm down, Zo.”

  “Calm down? You’re telling me to calm down when I come home to find my unemployed boyfriend having sex with another woman while I was at work?”

  “Why are you home so early, anyway?” Joshua asked, turning away from her as he hurriedly pulled on his boxers and a pair of shorts.

  “Because I lost my damn job!” she shouted. “But I’m not going to let you turn this around on me!”

  “I’m out of here,” the woman said, sweeping past Zoey. She carried her wadded clothing over her abdomen, making no effort to cover her nakedness.

  “Bridgit, wait—” Josh moved to follow, but Zoey blocked him.

  “Don’t you dare,” she growled before slapping the letter against his chest. “I want you to explain this.”

  Scowling, Joshua took the paper and held it out in front of him, lips moving silently as he read. “I didn’t pay it,” he finally said, tossing the letter onto the bed.

  “What?” Zoey’s heart stopped.

  Josh shrugged. “I didn’t pay it.”

  “Why not?” she demanded. “When I handed you that money, I said it was to pay the rent! You knew that. Why the hell wouldn’t you take care of it?”

  “I used it for a new console and some games, and took a few buddies out for lunch and drinks.”

  “That was our rent, Josh!”

  The apartment door opened and closed as Bridgit left.

  Josh’s eyes flicked in that direction, and he hardened his features. “And I’m tired of sitting cooped up in this place with nothing to do!” he yelled. “I’m bored as fuck. I want to have fun.”

  “I can’t believe I’m hearing his. You’re thirty years old and you spent our rent money on video games and booze?” Zoey turned away from him. Her eyes burned with tears of anger, frustration, and hurt. She latched onto that anger and frustration and swung back toward him. “You cheated on me!”

  Remorse flittered across his features; for an instant, he looked like a child who’d been caught sneaking cookies without his mother’s permission. “You weren’t supposed to know.”

  “And that makes it right?” Zoey shook her head. “How long? How long have you been going behind my back?” She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.

  Joshua averted his gaze and sighed. “Since the beginning.”

  Zoey stared at him. The tightness in her chest made it hard to breathe, but her heart wasn’t breaking. For that to happen, she would have had to love him. It surprised her to realize she didn’t. She cared for Josh, but her feelings had never quite strengthened to the point of love.

  Regardless, what he’d done still hurt like hell.

  “Why?” she asked, unable to produce more than a rough whisper.

  “I love you, Zo. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I do. I’m just…not attracted to you.” His eyes roamed over her body as he stepped closer to her. “I tried. Believe me, I tried, Zo, but what you have doesn’t turn me on. Maybe if you’d have put in some effort to lose a little weight. I just can’t—”

  “Get out,” Zoey said. She didn’t want to hear any more. Couldn’t hear any more.

  “Zo, don’t be like that. Where am I gonna go? We can still be room—”

  “Get out!” she screamed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Get out! I never want to see you again.”

  God, she’d never felt so used, so worthless, so…disgusting. She didn’t want to let his words affect her, but they did. They tore her up inside and left her feeling ugly.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Josh said, stepping closer and rai
sing his hands to touch her. “You’re hurt, I und—”

  Zoey flinched away. “Don’t touch me!” Knowing that those hands were covered in both his and Bridgit’s filth made her sick to the stomach. “And if I have to tell you one more fucking time to get out…” she gritted through her teeth, staring into his eyes.

  His face visibly paled, and his tongue slid over his lips nervously. “I’ll come back when you’ve calmed down. I can’t deal with this right now.”

  He grabbed a shirt off the dresser and walked past her. She didn’t try to stop him this time.

  His car keys jingled as he tugged them off the hook beside the door. “I’ll text you later,” he said.

  When the door closed behind him, Zoey’s legs gave out and she crumpled to the floor. She covered her face with her hands and cried.

  She couldn’t even lie in her own bed; the rumpled blanket and sheets likely meant he’d had sex in it with that woman. How many times had Zoey slept beside him without knowing he’d had another woman in her place while she’d been gone? Everything about their home, about their relationship, was tainted. It had all been a lie.

  What stung most was how hard she’d lied to herself.

  “I can’t stay here.” She straightened and wiped her eyes, laughing without humor when she saw the rent notice on the bed. “We were going to get kicked out anyway.” A fresh torrent of tears spilled from her eyes. “What am I going to do? All alone, no job, no home…”

  I have nothing left.