Book Description | Book Excerpt

Publisher: KC Press
Release Date: June 27, 2023
Genre: Futuristic Romance

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Reviews

5 of 5 stars from Fantasy Romance Reviews: “…the author took a complete new world with new possibilities and let it all blend into a mesmerizing, captivating world of danger…showing trust is the ultimate reason for love when you find right person.” click to read

4 stars from Pure Textuality: “[Mindlinked With The Alien] is ranking right up there among the top books I’ve read this year.” click to read

5 Bookmarks from First Page to Last: “What a ride and I’m so pleased she shared her vision with us.” click to read

4 stars from From Me to You: “[Mindlinked With The Alien] reels you into its world and keeps you captivated and curious as to see where the author will take you.” click to read

Description

We are not alone in the universe…and the aliens have a list of humans they want to meet

Ashley V, a disgraced actress, has a list too.

1. Masquerade as one of the scientists invited to the first ever alien/human summit
2. Dazzle everyone at alien cocktail hour (or equivalent)
3. Come home to publicity buzz and get my career back

Except once the humans arrive on the distant planet, the alien in charge is unsympathetic, unemotional, and uninterested in an actress. He sentences Ashley to die for the crime of not being a genius.

But when his own people turn on him, he winds up in the cell next door and before Ashley can blink, they’ve accidentally linked their minds together.

That was not on her list.

Being able to read the mind of her fellow inmate, whom she dubs Sam (because his alien name is ridiculous), means they can work together to escape. Sure it’s icky to be forced to let an alien read her mind in kind. Only he’s not quite who she thought he was…or who he thought he was.

No secret is safe, especially not their growing attraction to each other.

But some secrets are too big to be kept, and when the mysterious origins of Sam’s people come to light, the alien king will stop at nothing to silence them. Mindlinking with an alien is suddenly not the worst thing that can happen on a planet far from home, and trusting a male of any species is not in Ashley’s skill set.

Too bad their survival depends on it.

Excerpt

“Looks like one of their own,” Natalie whispered with a nod at the prisoner.
Ashley winced. Yeah, he wasn’t naked. How could she have not realized he was an alien? Maybe he deserved to be scared. “I’m not sure if it’s better or worse to find out they treat their own species as badly as us.”
A groan snapped their attention back to the heap across the hall. The prisoner stirred and rolled over, palm to his forehead. Agony twisted his features.
“If you scoot back against the far wall, the pain isn’t as bad. There’s like a sonic death ray surrounding the opening to the cells,” Ashley told him in as loud of a whisper as she dared. She didn’t think the aliens cared enough to come investigate if they heard the prisoners talking, but she’d prefer not to give them a reason to start. “Oh, I guess I should ask if you speak English first,” she threw in.
He lifted his head and peered at a spot above Ashley’s face, eyes unfocused and glassy. “I am familiar with most common words,” the stranger said.
Yep. Alien. He had the same bizarre accent as the talker from when they’d first arrived. This alien wore the cookie-cutter uniform of the other aliens, with one sleeve partially ripped from the jacket torso. A brown streak marred the collar. They must take clothes from just humans, then.
So, he was the enemy. She summoned up some serious hatred, but he was hurt and abandoned and she couldn’t hang onto it. He was the enemy, but also an enemy of his own people and therefore worth befriending. Maybe he knew how to get out of here.
“The blindness is temporary, but it takes a while to wear off.” Ashley inched closer, and recoiled as pressure increased between her temples. Natalie had said the closer she got, the more it would hurt, but she’d forgotten. She scooted a half foot back.
“That is excellent information.”
What a mix of inflection. Hanging out with Hugh for such a good chunk of time had filled her quota of boring British accents. The alien’s was as interesting as it was bizarre. She practiced it under her breath so she could add it to her repertoire.
In a move more graceful than it should have been, he crab-walked to the back wall. Though hurt and blind, he never hesitated or bumbled once, like he’d known exactly where to go. “What is a ‘death ray’?” he asked once he’d settled.
Ashley laughed. Out of all the things she’d said, he focused on that? “It’s something from old science-fiction movies. Aliens come to earth, bent on world domination, and conquer humans with weapons that shoot laser beams of death.”
Natalie elbowed her in the ribs and widened her eyes in nearly comical shock. “You’re talking to an alien,” she mouthed.
And she’d forgotten again he wasn’t human. “I mean, it’s just a story. I’m sure you don’t have anything like that,” Ashley amended lamely. “What’re you in for?”
“In for?” he repeated, rubbing the back of his neck and rolling his shoulders. “I do not understand the question.”
As he rotated his head, light beamed across his features. Wow, he was so…not repulsive. Angular jaw, high cheekbones and aquiline nose, nicely arranged and different enough from his fellow aliens to make him distinctive. His light brown hair was shaved in a military buzz cut, like all the other aliens. On him, it wasn’t as severe and refined his face, as if the style had been designed especially for this alien.
If she’d been in Vegas, she’d bet his eyes were hazel. An alien, freaky sort of hazel.
“What did you do to get in here?” Ashley waved at their luxurious surroundings and then remembered he couldn’t see. She dropped her hand. “Rob a bank?”
His mouth twitched. “I did nothing to the banks of the Darwa. The river is not safe.”
Was that a joke? Natalie shrugged at her quizzical glance, so she let it go. Drawing her knees up, she rested her forehead but the ache behind her eyes wouldn’t go away.
“Are you one of the Mora Tuwa?” he called after a while.
Ashley lifted her head. Natalie had fallen asleep, curled in a defensive ball in the corner. “Depends. What’s that?” she asked.
“From Earth. A human.”
“That’s what you call us? Mora Tuwa? It sounds like a cousin to yellow fin tuna.” Sushi. Ashley’s eyes almost rolled back in her head as she envisioned platter after platter of rainbow rolls, sweet eel. The way her stomach growled, even ahi wouldn’t get kicked off her plate.
“Tuna is a fish,” he said, but it sounded almost like a question.
“Yeah, it is. And I guess I’m a whatever you call humans. What are you?” she asked. He didn’t look like a lizard but maybe the reptile part was underneath his skin.
“A citizen of the Telhada.” He snapped it out like a SEAL stating name, rank and serial number upon capture by enemy insurgents.
Telhada was the name Rhonda the Betrayer had told them to call their “hosts.”
Well, they could get used to being called aliens. She squared her shoulders. What else could they possibly do to her if they didn’t like it?
Frowning, she tried to find a more comfortable position but hard ground and no butt did not equal comfortable. She’d give anything for a Snickers bar. The fat would be burned off by the shivering alone. “Do you have a name?”
He hesitated and she narrowed one eye. “Too hard of a question?” she asked. Maybe the aliens didn’t have names.
“I am ZXQ-One.”
She snorted. “That’s not a name, that’s a model number. I think I ordered something online with that exact one. Do Telhadas not have real names?”
“I am not a Telhada. The Telhada is the ruling class to whom all citizens of Alhedis pledge loyalty and obedience. Only the noble members of the Telhada have proper names.” He rubbed his forehead and blinked hard. It looked like his vision was coming back. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“You started it.” She reeled back her temper and the edge to her voice. Attacking him wasn’t going to get her anywhere. “Well, I’m not calling you ZXQ-One, like you’re a Terminator or something. My friend Sam played an alien in a movie and you look a little bit like him, so that’s what I’m going to call you.”
Sam suited him better anyway. A good, upstanding name for a solid sort of guy. Even if he was on the thinner side, he had a responsible air about him like he never forgot to file his taxes or fill up his car with gas. A guy named Sam was dependable and never late for anything. “So, Sam it is. My friend Sam’s alien movie grossed—”
“You also talk a lot.”
Okay. Of course he wasn’t impressed by who she knew. Unless her fellow prisoner had drinks three times a week with the head guy around here, she wouldn’t be impressed by who he knew either.
“Occupational hazard, I suppose.” Everyone in L.A. talked a lot, usually without saying anything. If she’d wanted to get a word in edgewise, she’d had to learn to speak up, be funny, be brilliant. Be something or be forgotten. Most of the time she’d had to settle for outrageous because she never knew what to say. “Are you starting to see lines and shapes and stuff?”
They couldn’t escape if he couldn’t see. Although he hadn’t given the impression he knew enough about anything to get them out of here.
“I am.”
“Are you going to talk like that all the time? Like you have a stick up—” She broke off. Maybe aliens didn’t have regular human-type butts, and she didn’t want to find out what they did have instead. “Never mind. Can you see me? I’m the redhead.”
She waved and her breasts jiggled. He raised an eyebrow and she thought he was about to make a comment about her being naked.
But instead, he stated matter-of-factly, “I do not see color.”