Bonus scene!
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 04:32:10 PM
Thank you to everyone who's backed the project! As a special treat, I wanted to post a bonus scene. Don't worry, there are no spoilers here! Here's a little look at Kayleb and his brother Krayter before they came to Earth to find their mates.
Bonus
Kayleb looked at the screen and blinked. Hard. Not much could surprise him these days, especially not with Krayter determined to use up ever ounce of incredulity that still existed in his system. Little brothers were… difficult.
He used to be a little brother.
No use thinking of that now. Karwan was dead, the Denya Price taking it’s toll, and there was nothing he could do about it. And he didn’t want his mother to catch him looking sad about it.
He and Krayter had years yet. Not many, but enough to find their mates.
He hoped.
And for the first time… ever… there was a new kind of hope. Kayleb looked at the message again, at his cousin, beaming into the camera with his arm around a dark haired human woman who was looking at him with the kind of playful frustration that could only come from a loved one.
This is Lis. My denya. She’s from Earth.
Three sentences from his cousin Ruwen. Three fragments that changed… everything.
Without finding their mates, Detyens died at the age of thirty. And thirty was ticking closer and closer for Kayleb. A century ago it might have been no issue. The planet Detya was full of Detyens and had state of the art matching systems that he couldn’t fathom. But Detya had been destroyed a hundred years ago. And now Kayleb had no idea how many Detyens were even left across the galaxy.
Not enough. Never enough. It was a slow extinction, death by unstoppable death.
Until this.
Krayter bounced into the room looking refreshed after a night out. “What are you doing?” he asked, leaning beside Kayleb’s desk and craning his head around to look at his screen.
Kayleb had the defensive urge to hide it from Krayter, but that just came from having an annoying little brother. Truthfully he’d never been more relieved. “It’s Ruwen.”
Krayter sighed, shoulders slumped. “Dead, then? It was just his birthday, wasn’t it? What was his plan? Live it up on Hedonia for his final days, drunk and sated? Not a bad idea.”
“As if you need a pleasure planet for that,” Kayleb said drily.
Krayter made a rude gesture.
“Ruwen met his denya.” Kayleb backed up to let Krayter see and his brother darted in, staring at the screen as if it held the secrets to the universe.
Perhaps it did.
“She’s human!” Krayter was blinking just as much as Kayleb had when he’d first seen the image. “That’s impossible. Isn’t it?”
It felt like it should have been. Kayleb had never heard of a human denya. There was a sizable Detyen population on Jaaxis, so it seemed like he would have by now if it was possible. But Detyens were spread all across the galaxy, and stranger things had happened. They must have.
Kayleb wasn’t sure he could contain the hope inside of him. He’d met every eligible Detyen in Jaaxis more than once. None of them were his denya. Staying here was a death sentence.
But there were humans everywhere.
“What if we went to Earth?” the words were out of his mouth before he’d fully thought them through. But that was where Ruwen’s Lis was from. It was the hope planet of humans. If humans could be Detyen mates, then maybe there was a chance.
“Really?” Krayter’s eyes shone with excitement. “You hate travel.”
“For this chance, yes. Let’s do it.”
Krayter started at him for several seconds, a grin slowly blooming on his face. “We’re really doing this. I’ll start looking for transportation.” He pause for a moment, the grin slipping, and narrowed his eyes. “You tell Mother.” Then he was off and running away before Kayleb could stop him.
Kayleb looked at Ruwen’s picture for a little longer.
Earth. Maybe there he’d find his hope.
200% funded!
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 02:50:53 PM
Thank you so much! This Kickstarter is 200% funded! I'm so happy to see this that I keep doing a little happy dance (sorry, no video of that available). I've already gotten in touch with Maxx Pinkins and he's agreed to do the narration of Kayleb and he's already working on it. So hopefully that means the book will be ready even sooner after the Kickstarter than anticipated.
Want to listen to a Mated to the Alien audiobook today? Ruwen is up for free on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPsMNTP35ds&feature=youtu.be
Zachary Michael is the narrator for this book, so just a warning that he sounds different than the narrator for Kayleb.
Again, thank you so much. And remember, if you are interested in other things offered in this Kickstarter that are different than your reward tier, you can change your reward tier!
Happy reading and listening.
Kate
