The Ozar Triad Read online

  Copyright

  © 2020 by Charmaine Ross

  Edited in UK/Australian English

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Published in Australia

  First Published 2020

  web: www.charmaineross.com

  twitter https://twitter.com/CharmaineRossAu

  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/charmaine.ross.01

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  The Ozar Triad

  A Negari Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Reverse Harem Romance

  Book 1

  Three Alien Warrior Princes. One human female abducted by an evil race of Reptiles intent on taking over the universe by any means possible.

  Riley

  Riley Sharp can fight her way out of anything. She’s a special ops soldier. Trained for war and hardened for battle. Nothing surprises her, but when she finds herself in a battle with Reptile aliens, she fights for her life as well as her sanity.

  Rujali, Setzan and Klaej - The Ozar Triad

  The Ozar Triad are on a last-ditch mission of revenge. They are tracking the stolen crystal that powers all life on their Homeplanet. Without the crystal, their species is on the brink of disaster.

  What they don’t expect to find is their fated mate—the only female in the universe that can turn their Triad into a Quad. But when Riley fights them every step of the way, they find themselves in more trouble than just retrieving their precious crystal and saving their Homeland. She’s their saviour. Their mate. Their everything.

  Only she has no idea.

  Can one human female fend off three sexy-as-sin alien warrior princes and find the love she never thought she would find, while fighting nefarious forces, or will she succeed in returning to her world nobody has heard of before?

  The Ozar Triad is book one is the next series after The Hexonian Series set in an alternate universe where the Reptiles have developed into intelligent evil beings intent on bringing the unseen entity into another universe. You don’t have to read The Hexonian Series to enjoy The Ozar Triad, but if you like sexy alien warriors and not-so-helpless plucky human females fighting an enemy too evil to be true, then you might like to start your journey with Jo’Aquin.

  Begin the adventure with:

  The Hexonian Series:

  Jo’Aquin – Book 1

  Striker – Book 2

  Alastor – Book 3

  The Negari Series:

  The Ozar Triad – Book 1

  The Arabis Triad – Book 2

  The Erion Triad – Book 3

  Chapter One

  Riley

  The change in pressure made Riley’s ears explode. Black spots spun across her vision. Her knees gave out and she came down fast on a hard, cold surface. This was not the gritty sand of wherever the hell she’d been. Her nose was now intimately acquainted with the slightly oily surface of wherever the hell she was with no idea how she got here.

  She had been fighting monsters straight from her nightmares that had turned out to be real. When she’d first regained consciousness, it was to find herself trapped in a cold, slimy cell she’d had to tear herself out of, and then she’d stepped into a battle with lizard people that looked more prehistoric with their long snouts, rows of razor-sharp teeth, deadly claws and dark-green scales that sucked the light out of the air. They were more terrifying Iguanas that walked upright and were killing unarmed women. Civilians.

  A battle, she could understand, and she’d kicked straight into soldier mode. Maybe it was survival mode. It sure as hell beat the reality in front of her. So, she’d fought. She managed to kill a couple of the creatures before people—or not-people, but massive men with skin the color of gold—charged into wherever they were to fight the reptilian monsters as well. She’d barely drawn a breath when some of the golden men had surrounded her. She didn’t trust the reptile monsters. She sure as hell wasn’t going to trust men that didn’t look quite right.

  She did the thing she did best—fought them—when she was surrounded by frigid black clouds. Claws grabbed her, she was pulled into a void of nothingness. Her head exploded and darkness had descended on her. That was all she knew until she found herself face down on an oil-stained surface, head pounding, ears ringing, and stomach churning.

  A nightmare. She was still in that nightmare. That had to be it. She wondered vaguely why she was still trapped in it. Maybe she’d finally gone insane.

  Her ears rang with a low-pitched tone, obscuring all other sounds. NIHL. Noise Induced Hearing Loss. She’d suffered that multiple times in training when a grenade had blasted too close while on duty in the side alleys of Yemen, or she’d forgotten to put in ear protection at the firing range. But added with the change of pressure, as though she’d come up too fast from a deep scuba dive, her brain pounded in protest and her stomach fought to expel its contents.

  She tried lifting her head, but the damned thing was too heavy and all she could do was stay where she was, sprawled on an oil-stained ground, dragging in jagged breaths.

  A rough hand grabbed her bicep. Only it wasn’t a hand. It was a claw with vicious, long black talons that sank through her skin and muscle like it was as substantial as butter. Agony ripped through her as she was lifted from the ground. Her legs wobbled beneath her. Only the claw impaling her arm kept her upright. She might have screamed—she probably did—but she couldn’t tell from the tinnitus in her ears.

  The thing that impaled her moved its maw, only she still couldn’t hear what it said over the ringing in her head. Her heart pounded with rapid-fire beats as she came face to face with one of the reptilian monsters.

  Its black, beady eyes were intelligent, and it pierced her with a hard stare as though she was no more than a hunk of meat. Saliva dripped from the corner of its jaw, splattering onto the ground. She shivered. Two more reptiles surrounded her, one on either side. The monster shook her until her head rattled on her shoulders.

  Heat washed over her skin and her vision whitewashed. Despite after all she’d seen and done, she’d never been so terrified, and she’d been in some hairy situations in her time. Her experience ended at dealing with upright iguanas.

  Think, soldier. Keep cool. Think and survive.

  The claws slid out of the holes they’d made in her arm. Blood gushed from the open wounds and seeped between her fingers when she pressed them to her arm to stem the flow. She sagged to her knees, head swimming, her legs too weak to keep her upright.

  The three monsters argued with each other. One of them held a crystal that glowed with a strange golden light. The creature tossed it from claw to claw, handling it gingerly as though it was hot.

  The monster that had wounded her grabbed the crystal and pressed it to her arm. The crystal glowed so brightly that it blinded her, and she had to look away. Heat seared across her skin and pain ripped through her.

  Her senses slowly returned to find she was flat on her back on the ground and there was no sight of the crystal. The monsters were fighting a few feet away. One pushed the other. It staggered backwards, before it leapt forward, slamming its chest to its opponent. The other joined in and a fight erupted. None looked at her, their attention on their own fight.

  The little voice that had saved her skin more times than she could count, screamed at her. “Move! Run! Get away!”

  She clenched her teeth, summoning everything in her body to stagger to her
feet. Ignoring her screaming muscles and fading vision, she stepped back a few paces before the rest of the world materialized through her battered senses and she stumbled to a stop.

  Creatures of all shapes and sizes scuttled around her. Some were dressed in fatigues, some in gowns, others in clothes she couldn’t name. Some were so small, they came to her knee, others so tall she would have to crick her neck to look up. The creatures had skin of different colors. Some had hair and others did not, several boasted scales, a few glowed. There were gelatinous blobs that rolled along and a few stalking furry beasts with spikes down their back.

  While she wasted time gawking, more and more sets of eyes turned towards her. Some creatures stopped walking to outright stare at her.

  She had a horrible, sinking feeling that this was not a dream, or even a nightmare, that this might in fact be reality. Her throbbing arm and pounding head certainly made it real. Besides, her imagination wasn’t that good. She simply couldn’t make shit like this up.

  She was in some sort of airfield. Crafts of various structures and sizes scattered about, but they weren’t anything she had seen before. Some were circular, others square. A few sleek silver ones rested nearby, and beyond them, some were so black they seemed to suck the very light out of the air. Creatures scurried between them and down a central aisle that was as wide as a highway.

  There was a blast and a roar as one of the machines rose from the ground. Hot air and debris scattered everywhere before it levitated, hanging in mid-air for a moment and then disappearing from sight—one moment there, the next gone.

  No, her imagination definitely wasn’t that good.

  A door slid open in the side of the sleek, jet-like contraption close by and a man the size of a yeti appeared, silhouetted in the interior light. He wasn’t just huge, he was massive. Just the outline of his bulging biceps and thick shoulders was enough to make her look twice. He stood so tall that he ducked his head as he stepped through the doorway.

  Long, black strands of hair ran from his head down his back, the ends capped with golden beads. His skin was a burnt mocha color, of which a lot was showing as the only articles of clothing he wore were tight black pants and knee-high, thick-soled black boots that she instantly wanted for herself.

  His chest was darkened by thick, swirling tattoos that covered across his shoulders, down his arms that never seemed to end, across his defined pecs, and trailed over abs she could cut her teeth on, to disappear into the waistband of his pants. Leather straps that held various lethal-looking weapons within easy reach were strapped around his torso. A massive bladed weapon was strung low on his hip, the tip nearly reaching the ground.

  Behind him, two other men appeared. They were just as tall and muscle-bound. The one on his left was bald, and achingly handsome—square jaw, thick neck leading to shoulders that could balance barrels and still have room for more. His skin was a swirl of emerald green, intertwined with a pattern that looked as though it was made from golden thread.

  The one on the right had black hair that flickered with electric-blue highlights. Fine strands were brushed off his face, the ends grazing his shoulders. He wasn’t quite as broad as the others, but his arms were a work of chiseled art, decorated in swirls of deep lavender and black ink. He wore a sleeveless flak jacket, in which silver projectile-type objects were packed into the folds. Two pistols hung at his hips in a low-slung holster.

  Each of the men had horns that twisted from their temples, sleek and matte black. One set curled upwards, another swept backwards and into glossy black hair, and the other followed the curve of his skull to disappear behind his head.

  The men stilled in the open doorway of their craft. Their heads swiveled in unison to pin her. Pierce her. Impale her.

  Her heart pounded and she flushed hot from her head to her toes. Everything around her dimmed, fading to black, except for the complete and utter focus on these three beings. Her skin pickled with awareness and her core throbbed with a heavy pulse. What the hell was wrong with her?

  Move! Run! Get away! Survival drummed into her over many years kicked in. She forced her gaze from the strange men and the monsters, looking for somewhere to hide. She took a stumbling step forwards and fire lanced through her shoulder.

  Claws sank into her flesh to the bone. She was dragged back against a scaly chest, her throat gripped by another clawed hand. Her lungs seized in agony, her airways constricting. She clutched its wrist, struggling to keep it from tearing her neck clean off.

  She was distantly aware of a thundering roar and through blurred vision, she saw the mountain-men race down the ladder from their craft and bolt towards her, looks of absolute fury on their faces. They clutched bladed weapons that could only be described as brutal.

  More reptilian monsters raced towards them across the highway between aircraft, meeting the trio in a headlong rush. The first man slashed into one of the reptilian monsters without breaking stride.

  She gasped sweet air as the monster pinning her released her neck to tug a weapon from its belt. She sagged, but was held upright by the claws still embedded in her shoulder. A light flashed, and a crimson streak appeared on the arm of the tallest man. He didn’t even flinch, simply stepped forward and decapitated another monster with an almost languid sweep of his hand that held the lethal sword in his grip. The head tumbled across the ground in a gush of bright green blood. The body dropped a moment later.

  If they could be so brutal to these monsters, then there was a high probability she would be next. Nobody pinned a person with stares like that if they didn’t have something on their mind, and by the size and aggression of them, she didn’t stand a chance. Inherently she sensed if she didn’t get away now, she never would once they reached her, and she was no man’s toy.

  A glimmer of metal caught the corner of her eye. She glanced down at the knife lodged in the belt of the monster that had clawed her arm. Her training kicked in. In one smooth motion, she yanked the knife free and sliced through the wrist holding her. The claws ripped through muscle and skin as the creature staggered back. She stumbled as a fresh wave of agony seared through her. The monster held up a severed stump, green blood pouring from the wound.

  She ripped the severed hand free from her shoulder. Pinning her arm to her chest in a futile attempt at minimizing the white-hot agony of her torn arm and shoulder, she used the confusion of the battle and pushed through creatures that had stopped to watch, disappearing between the crushing bodies of the crowd. She didn’t know where she was going to go, or what she was going to do, but she needed to get away from here.

  All she had to do was work out what sort of nightmare she’d found herself in and try and get the hell back home. Even if it was the last thing she ever did.

  Chapter Two

  Rujali

  It couldn’t be.

  Rujali could hardly comprehend they’d found their mate, but he knew it as a certainty as soon as he stepped out of their jet and into this godsforsaken place, loosely termed a space port in Isildur. It was a haven for the worst kinds of species, but the one their long search had brought them to.

  The Ozar Crystal was here without a doubt. After a year-long pursuit without setting foot on their Homeland, they were close enough to retrieve it. Hope was finally in reach. A blast of ethereal energy had alerted the central intelligence tracker on board the cramped jet they’d called home for too long and they’d flown to this hellshole of a place to follow the signal.

  The loss of the Ozar Crystal had been felt by every member of his Homeland. Without the crystal, no mate-bonds could form. Without mate-bonds, there were no Quads, and without Quads there were no children. That, coupled with the infighting between the Homelands of the Arabis and Erion, the Ozar Homeland’s future was at stake.

  They’d kept the loss of their crystal a secret. The Ozar wasn’t unique. Each Homeland was powered physically and spiritually by their respective crystals. Without the crystal, the Ozar Homeland was weakened. If the Arabis or the Erion
Homelands found out, with the power of their crystals behind them, the Ozar Homeland was seriously threatened. The three Homelands had been infighting and bickering on and off for centuries and no love was lost.

  Truly, Rujali was sick and tired of it. It was unrelenting and unproductive, but no matter how anyone had tried to rectify the situation over the decades, their differences had just been too difficult to overcome. So, for the protection of his Homeland and for the future of his people, it was imperative that they find and bring back their crystal.

  They could not return home empty-handed. He’d thought he’d be able to locate the crystal, and the species who had stolen it, the moment they landed. Instead, he’d found something even more precious. Something he’d never dared hoped to find out of their Homeland, let alone in a place like this.

  “Is it…?” Klaej asked with a gasp.

  Setzan nodded. “Mate.”

  Rujali’s gaze fell to the small female standing at the base of the jet staring up at them, as though she had been inexplicably drawn to them, just as they were drawn to her, held together on that transcendental moment of mate recognition. He couldn’t identify her species, but he had never laid eyes on one so perfect before.

  She was tiny, yet her small body revealed gentle curves he knew would be soft under his hand, different to their own hardness. Her skin was pale, lacking the deep colors of their own kind, yet alluring. Her mop of mid-brown hair flopped over her startled eyes, the color of his favorite dessert. Her hair was shaved on one side of her head, while a long lick of a fringe fell to her chin on the other side.

  From this moment forward, she would be his favorite dessert. One he would eat any time of the day if she would allow it. He could imagine folding her over his bed and entering her most secret of places over and over again. His cock twitched with the thought, something that had not happened in the ten years since the Crystal of Ozar was stolen. That part of him had remained as dead as his Homeland.