Koop's Spark (Gracian Mates Book 2) Read online

  Koop’s Spark

  by

  T. Cobbin

  Koop’s Spark

  Copyright © 2018, T. Cobbin

  ISBN: 9781949300123

  Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.

  Electronic Publication: September 2018

  Editor: Pamela Tyner

  Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs

  eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Back Cover Copy

  Can a kidnap victim overcome her distress by helping the species that saved her?

  Maggie is among a group of human women who were kidnapped by aliens. The Lesh intended to sell them into slavery, but thankfully, before that could happen, they were rescued by the Gracians. All Maggie wants to do is return home to her twin sister and her life as an architect. But the women’s rescuers have informed them they cannot return home. Maggie is despondent as she struggles to accept her new life aboard the Gemorph.

  Among the kidnapped victims, several Gracians have found their sparks, or mates. They are ecstatic as their race was in danger of becoming extinct, but now they have hope for survival. They want to visit Earth to see if more mates can be located, but first they need to train to become more human-like. They ask Maggie to help in that endeavor. As part of the plan, she gets to return to Earth, for a short time at least, and will ask her sister for assistance with executing the first step of the plan.

  Koop is an officer on the Gemorph. When his captain asks him to work with Maggie, one of the human females, to create an area for their warriors to train in, Koop accepts the challenge. But things don’t go as planned when a human custom of shaking hands goes wrong. As soon as the pair touch, it’s obvious that they are sparks.

  But Maggie has struggled so hard with the idea of being on the Gemorph, unable to resume her life on Earth. How will she deal with being a Gracian’s spark? Koop would never force her to accept him, but if she doesn’t, it’s a death sentence for him...literally.

  Content Warning: contains strong language, some violence, and lots of hot, steamy sex scenes

  Dedication

  To my group of pirates. You have been the inspiration for most of this book. Your love, lives, and laughter have helped me so much over the years I have known you.

  It is true when people say a real friend is someone that even if you haven't seen them in years, you can carry on a conversation as if no time has passed. Froggy, Missy, Tec, Nv, V, and everyone else in our little band, this one is for you. I loves ya!

  Acknowledgements

  To Pamela my editor, you are priceless—you probably cringe so much reading my work and seeing my mistakes, I can see you developing a permanent tick.

  Tara, for your awesome artwork and covers.

  And to the many behind the scenes who helped make me look a whole lot better than I think I am. Thank you.

  But most of all to my readers who keep on reading.

  Author’s Foreword

  We aren’t alone in this world, no matter how much we think we are. The world is big, space is huge, and the universe is massive.

  You could feel as if it’s you against the world. But if you open your door, heart, and mind, and really see, there are many others who are fighting the same fight. You could be the one who helps them!

  Prologue

  Maggie-Rose Green gazed down at the blueprint in front of her. The thin, blue lines seemed to blur into each other. With a sigh, she sat back in her chair and closed her tired eyes. Raising a hand, she rubbed her fingers along her eyelids gently.

  The last week had been long and arduous. She needed a fucking holiday, but with her small architecture business, with its five employees, only just starting out, she couldn’t afford to take any time off. She needed the money to keep going. This time last year she had been running a well-known, profitable firm in central London that she’d built with her husband of ten years.

  Maggie thought everything in her marriage was going well, and with their business flourishing, she and Todd were going to start the family she had always wanted. But all her hopes and dreams were dashed one evening when she walked into her husband’s office to see him screwing his blonde, skinny PA. When he noticed she was standing in his doorway, he didn’t even try to apologize or come up with some feeble attempt at an excuse. The piece of shit simply smirked and said it was time for a divorce. Thinking back over the years, she’d been blind to her husband’s fading affection toward her.

  It wasn’t until Maggie had fled to her sister’s that the scumbag admitted she hadn’t caught him shagging that blonde bimbo, he’d planned it so she would see him do it. He also confessed he didn’t and had never wanted children, which broke a little more of Maggie’s heart. And to rub salt in her wounds, the git had admitted to numerous affairs and had even had a vasectomy to make sure the children Maggie had so dearly wanted never happened with him.

  The first thing Maggie did while packing her clothes was phone the one person who had never let her down. Her best friend...her twin sister. All they had left was each other; their parents had died when they were barely eighteen. After their parents’ deaths, May had moved to Scotland. Upon hearing what had happened, May suggested that Maggie come and stay with her for a while. Maggie wallowed in her grief and misery for about a month before picking herself up. She not only started divorce proceedings but planned on starting a new business to keep herself busy.

  Never in her thirty-eight years did she imagine being where she was now—divorced, friendless, and starting anew. Most of her friends had drifted away after she and her husband had split. She supposed they hadn’t wanted to take sides. Or perhaps it was because she’d spent a month lounging about, feeling like a bag of shit, not talking to anyone but her sister.

  Sitting at her desk, Maggie mentally went back over her week. A new customer had contacted her, someone with a large company who had a decent amount of money. She had hoped it would be the big break her new firm needed to bring in some money and more business. But instead, it was turning into a nightmare. Charles had done nothing but constantly request revisions to the plans. He’d ask for something and she’d draw it in, only for him to disagree with it and ask for something else, numerous times over. So, instead of making money quickly, as Maggie had hoped, it was slowly draining her of what she had left. Which meant she spent most of the week going over the damn blueprints, trying to keep up with the man, and wondering how she was going to cover the next week’s payroll.

  Opening her eyes, Maggie glanced at the digital clock on her desk to discover it was nearly midnight. Another long night had come and gone. Sighing again, she stood, turned off her desk lamp and computer, grabbed her coat and bag, and walked through her office to the building’s front door. As usual Maggie had been the first to arrive and the last to leave. Her sister had been nagging at her this week for working such long hours. Maggie knew May was right, that she should slow down somewhat, but until Maggie received the money from her ex from their business and house, she was relying on the business to make money to pay back her sister.

  Maggie locked the door and then pressed a button to bring down the shutters. Turning around, she pulled her keys from her coat pocket and headed toward her car. A blast of icy wind had her tugging her jacket tighter around herself, making her wish she was already at home in her warm, cozy bed.

  Normally, she had no concerns about walking to her
car at this hour. But this night had an almost ominous feeling to it, like she was being watched. She could feel the tiny hairs on her neck and arms raise. Paranoia perhaps? More like tiredness! Listening to her gut, she walked a little faster, not wanting to stop and look around in case her instincts were right.

  Seeing her small, red Kia Rio sitting in her parking spot gave Maggie a sense of security. Once she was inside it, it would only be ten short minutes until she was home. Her car was the only thing besides the clothes on her back that was left from her marriage. And even though her husband had bought the car for her, she couldn’t let it go.

  Things would get better, right? Now that the divorce was final, she should have her half of the money from their firm and house soon...once the slug of an ex stopped delaying things. She just had to hold on and hope her small business could too.

  Pressing the button on her car keys, Maggie unlocked the vehicle’s door. Her gut screamed urgency at her by now, taking over all other emotions and making every hair on her arms and neck tingle with each step she took. The feeling of someone getting close to her nearly had her turning to look around. She didn’t take the time to do that though; it would take precious seconds away from reaching her car and potential safety. Once she was inside, with the doors locked, it might offer her enough comfort that she might take a moment to look around, even if it was just to laugh at herself if there was no one there. She couldn’t remember pissing anyone off recently, had she?

  Perhaps I’m just so bloody tired I’m imagining things. It is late, after all. As she reached out to open her car door, she felt a stabbing sensation behind her ear, like something had bitten her. She raised her hand to feel around and was surprised to find something sticking out of her skin. A stick? A dart? She pulled on it, tugging it out of her neck with a wince. She caught a glimpse of a long, thin piece of silver metal that looked similar to a dart as the world around her started to wobble. Oh shit along with not paranoia were her last thoughts as her knees gave away and she slid to the ground as darkness greeted her.

  * * * *

  Koop stood amongst the large gathering of crew in one of the hangers on the Gracian starship Gemorph. Being a bridge officer, he was privy to some of the information about to be given by his captain. But Trian had asked for all his crew to be present, so there he was.

  “Females?” someone asked on Koop’s right.

  “Yeah, they were rescued from that Lesh ship,” another warrior answered.

  “You think they could be sparks?”

  “Why else would the captain protect that planet or call this gathering?”

  “Shush, here he comes.”

  Voices quickly died away, their conversations dropping when Captain Trian appeared in front of everyone. He wore the standard Gracian uniform: black jacket, tight-fitting pants, and knee-high leather boots.

  Koop noticed that Iryano, their second-in-command, wasn’t with the captain as he usually was. In fact… Koop thought back. He hadn’t seen Iryano since the warrior had gone over with a small group of males to the Lesh ship.

  Trian stood before his men with fast-swirling, light purple eyes. “Thank you for joining me here. I won’t keep you too long. What I am about to inform you of will, I hope, give our people some hope for the future. As you all know, we have been searching the universes for many yarns seeking our sparks, who will be the salvation of our people. You know the backstory. The rise of male population over the female prompted us to seek out females in the stars. But while our warriors were gone, our planet was plundered, ruined, and the majority those who had remained behind were killed.”

  Trian halted a few moments while the men muttered and grumbled, before he continued again.

  “Recently, we entered this region of space and came across a Lesh ship. As you are aware, the Lesh are notorious for kidnapping innocent females to be used as slaves. No female should be subjected to that. So I decided to do something that we hadn’t done before. After disabling their ship, I sent a small gathering of officers to board it, and they found twenty-two human females, who have been brought back to the Gemorph. What we found amongst them was something we didn’t really expect, although we’ve been hoping for it. It has been discovered that there were several sparks amongst the human females.”

  The room suddenly filled with cheers and chattering. Various men yelled questions at the captain. Emotional energy that contained hope vibrated around the hanger.

  “Quiet,” Trian bellowed out over the voices.

  After a few moments, the noise dimmed, and everyone waited to see what their captain would say next.

  “I know some of you have lost close friends, and some of you are close to flaring, or even already are. And I’m sorry to ask this, but please be patient. These females have been traumatized and will need time and space to understand what is going on around them. Their species, as you can imagine, is somewhat different from ours.”

  “Not that much different I hope,” someone shouted out from the crowd with a lustful tone.

  “Enough,” Trian ordered, a serious expression on his face.

  He waited for the room to go silent before continuing.

  “Based on the initial reports I have received, we will be able to breed with these humans. But...” Trian held up his hand to halt the voices as the men began asking questions. “We need to assess the females and learn of their culture. I ask you to be patient and wait for more news. Either I or my bridge officers will keep you informed. I will warn you though, at the moment the females are being house in the medical bay, if anyone approaches them without my permission, you will be escorted to the brig. And if several of you disobey that order, it is going to get mighty cramped in those small cells.”

  Koop glanced around the large hold where the meeting was being held. Over five hundred men were aboard the Gemorph, along with only ten females. Their species had been seeking out mates for a long time. Maybe now they could live instead of just existing.

  Chapter 1

  Koop sought out the information he needed to finish the plans for a project his captain had assigned to him. It had been two months since the Gemorph had come across a Lesh ship near a planet named Earth. The planet was a picture of beauty—blue, greens, and swirls of whites surrounded it. But best of all was the resurgence of his people’s hope after the discovery of several sparks found amongst the human women the Lesh were holding captive. A spark was a person’s one true mate meant only for them. The one that would be able to birth a child and continue their existence.

  The Gracian people hadn’t always flown around space. At one time they had lived happily on their home planet, Guaturn. But over many yarns it was found that the male population exceeded the females. Fighting had begun as the females grew more scarce.

  The trouble was that both Gracian males and females needed each other to continue to live. The males created the energy needed to sustain their females or young in their bodies. He shared his energy with his spark during sex through their iungos. Their younglings were slightly different. The males had to be sustained by their parents until they were about twelve yarns and started to produce their own energy, whereas a female would need her parents’ help until she found a mate.

  For yarns, scientists tried to change the outcome of more males than females being born, but they didn’t succeed. After a lot of deliberation by the Gracian’s council, it was deemed that more spaceships would be built, and they would take to space to find their sparks. But while most of the men were away seeking out female sparks, tragedy struck at home. A species known as the Gange attacked and plundered the planet until it wasn’t fit to live on. Only a few women were found alive, hidden deep in the mountains. They now traveled on various ships along with their families or mates.

  One of those females was Koop’s nepti, a relative that the humans called a niece. When he returned to his planet after the emergency call was heard, he was one of the first to witness the horror of the Gange’s destruction. He was also the one to
find the body of his naked, bloody soror—what the humans called a sister—curled up into a ball around her one-month-old fillia. The babe was so close to death, the medics didn’t think she’d survive. Not being able to find Juper, his soror’s mate, Koop was asked to try to transfer some of his energy to the child to see if they were compatible. They were...barely.

  Koop had to watch Twirl spend many of her childhood years sick and feeble because his energy wasn’t rich enough for her. He was her frater, not her parent. But at least she was alive. When Twirl eventually found her mate, Koop’s heart sang with relief and delight. She began to fully bloom, she lost the pale coloring to her skin, she gained weight and looked healthy for the first time in yarns. And now, several more yarns later, his nepti was the mater to a son, one of the few children aboard the ship.

  When the Gemorph came across the small blue and green planet, Koop and his fellow Gracians had no idea what lay ahead besides the initial surprise when their captain gave the order to fire upon the Lesh ship. To add to the bridge officers’ astonishment, the captain then declared that they were now protecting Earth and its women from being future slaves. But Koop knew no matter what their captain decided, they would be behind him in every way.

  Gracian men were honorable warriors. But the yarns had taken their toll as they passed many planets, seeing struggling or suffering occupants and not doing anything to help them. The feelings of despondence and worthlessness had many males flaring earlier than they should have.

  While Koop was bringing up Twirl, he hadn’t had to worry about flaring, what with sharing his energy with Twirl. Unlike his captain recently. Koop had watched Trian’s moods change, and once he’d even seen a single burst of energy leave his captain and hit a wall. Koop remembered that day like it was yesterday. The look of realization on every bridge officers’ faces had been the same. They knew their captain was dying. Luckily for Trian, he found his spark in time before his energy built to a point where he couldn’t manage it anymore.