Core, p.1
Core, page 1
PRAISE FOR CANDICE GILMER
Candice Gilmer is hilarious.
FRIEND FROM WORK
I can’t put her books down, like ever
THAT ONE FAN
She’s great. Just great. Now where’s the coffee and donuts you promised me?
THE BRIBED FELLOW AUTHOR
CORE
INTERGALACTIC DATING AGENCY
MOST WANTED ALIEN BRIDES
BOOK FOUR
CANDICE GILMER
CONTENTS
These miners are ready for their women.
Prologue
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
Intergalactic Dating Agency
Read on for the Next Book
Shaft
Intergalactic Dating Agency
The Temptress’s Cyborg
Dear Reader
About the Author
Other Books by Candice Gilmer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Flirtation Publishing
Wichita, KS
Core
Most Wanted Alien Brides: Intergalactic Dating Agency
Book 4
Copyright © 2022 by Candice Gilmer
Cover by The Book Brander
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
THESE MINERS ARE READY FOR THEIR WOMEN.
BUT ARE THESE EARTHLINGS READY FOR THEM?
Xianan Phares comes from a long line of bastards, and he doesn’t want to continue that heritage. But an accident in the mines sends Phares to medical where he learns that his injuries jump-started his Fever, and there is no way to control it.
Though not many want to mate with the monstrous Xian, and he has no interest in finding love, Phares agrees to work with the Intergalactic Dating Agency to find a partner so he can quench his Fever and get back to work.
After discovering her boyfriend’s horrible lies, Jana just wants to walk off her heartbreak in the park. The last thing she expects is to fall through an intergalactic portal and be thrown across the stars. Now she’s supposed to mate with this giant purple alien with bones sticking out of the top of his shoulders and piercing eyes that seem to stare into her soul.
She’s never had the best luck with men, but seriously? A giant purple alien who treats her better than her boyfriend?
She’ll be surprised if this ends well…
PROLOGUE
Re-lee looked over the cluttered, congested space and no matter how many times she saw this laboratory, that so much of the Intergalactic Dating Agency's services came out of this underground room.
The technology that powered their proprietary portals was a mystery to her, except that they worked. They located mates for those in the Intergalactic Dating Agency’s systems from anywhere. Across space, and sometimes, across dimensions.
Just like what had happened on Disguised Serenity.
The newest offices had been established because there weren’t any IDA offices in that quadrant, and the space station—a huge post that started off as a junk port—had become a premier spot for aliens from across the quadrant to mingle and buy and sell wares. Many called the station home, and many more shuttled through the port daily.
A perfect location for the Intergalactic Dating Agency to set up offices. Find the lonely their perfect humanoid partner or group.
Finding Happily Ever Afters was Re-lee's specialty.
Unless the technology leaped across dimensions because of a—
"Roooowwwwaallll," the little purple-spotted starline purred as he wandered across the desk right behind his owner. Re-lee watched the animal step around the smallest things as it pranced, its double-ended tail twitching and flicking over items on the desk.
"You know," she said, glancing at the technician, Jorak. "We cannot have a mistake like this again.”
When she found out exactly what had happened, that a portal had been placed on a Terran-like planet in another dimension called Earth, she had been livid.
Mostly, anyway.
"I know." He pressed a few more controls, though his attention wasn't on her. She probably was supposed to think he focused on his terminal, for he kept looking at it as he worked, but she couldn’t help noticing how often he glanced at his cup filled with steamy, dark liquid.
Whatever it was, it drew his attention away from her.
She wondered if it was some kind of addictive drink.
The feline crossed over, paw poised to step on yet another set of data controls.
Jorak didn't see it.
Re-lee did.
She caught the furry pet before another devastating situation occurred.
They were lucky that the two Terran-esque females had matched so easily with the Rhimodian cyborgs. A strange match, to be sure, but it had worked out.
However, another mistake like that could not happen.
She knew that something had occurred initially, but it took some digging to discover that Jorak's pet had caused one of their scanning portals to be established on a planet of humanoids that didn't even have solar system travel yet. Or any clue about intergalactic or inter-dimensional travel.
A mistake that had to be remedied.
Their superiors were not happy with Jorak, and it had taken some testimony from Re-lee to keep Jorak in his position.
Despite his mistake, he truly was one of the best with the portal rings. He had made some remarkable leaps forward with the technology, programming them with many defense mechanisms to protect them, no matter what world they landed on.
Still, mistakes had to be tended to.
She petted the floppy-eared animal before letting him go to dart out of the room. "He's charming."
"He is a pain sometimes," Jorak said with a grin.
"You need to keep a better watch on what he does in here."
Jorak sighed. "One time. One time he--"
"He almost caused an inter-dimensional incident that we were going to be responsible for."
"I know.” Jorak looked down. “And I know what you did. I thank you.”
She leaned forward, smiling a bit. “You owe me for that.”
“As you like,” Jorak replied. “Is there anything else you have, Re-lee?"
She sighed because she knew part of her issues with that first batch of clients had been as much her fault as his. She had been so enthusiastic to start her first series of clients that she hadn’t realized the raggedy males arriving in her airlock were not the right males looking for their mates.
That was her failure.
She should have paid more attention, but by the time she realized what had happened, the process had begun, and they had scanned everything in.
At least the system still worked correctly, and she made proper matches. But she still had to return her first set of new clients from the mining colony. Those colonies were some of the Intergalactic Dating Agency's best clients—workers who were ready for mating but had no time for searching because of their livelihood. The miners had been somewhat good-natured about the rescheduling, but she doubted they would wait very long. There were other options in the galaxy for pre-determined mating.
The Intergalactic Dating Agency was the best.
"I just want to make sure we're in the right place, Jorak.”
He nodded. "We'll be ready. The Disguised Serenity IDA offices will have the best reputation in the quadrant for true matches.”
"Good, I appreciate your enthusiasm.”
About that time, Comet, the starline, came back into the room and leaped onto the desk.
This time, Jorak caught him and gently put him back on the floor.
"We'll be ready," he said. He glanced at the feline. "Won't we, Comet?"
Comet yawned like he didn't care one way or the other and started flicking his tail around.
Jorak chuckled and swung around. When he did, it bumped the cup with the dark liquid in it. Jorak caught it before it spilled.
"What is that?" Re-lee asked. "I don't recognize the smell.”
"It's called coffee. I find it very stimulating," Jorak said.
"Where's it from?" she asked.
"You don't want to know.”
She raised her eyebrow and nodded. "Probably not. I hope that's all that I don't want to know about.”
He grimaced. "Let me do my job. The portals will be fine. You'll see.”
She smiled.
Her communicator in her pocket buzzed. It was Addy, with information about the latest round of applicants for the dating agency.
"I must be going," she said. "The miners will come soon, so everything should be working perfectly, correct?"
"Sure," Jorak said, picking up his cup and sipping the brown-black liquid. "As you like, Re-lee."
She nodded.
“Yes, that’s what I need,” she said.
Everything as s he liked it.
Re-lee stepped onto the transport just as her communicator buzzed again, and she pulled it out for a quick message. She assumed it would be from Addy, who had been a part of the situation with the cyborgs and the women from the other dimension. Addy, a Terran Empire soldier, was the officer who had brought the Rhimodians to freedom as part of the treaty to create peace between the Terrans and the Rhimodians.
Addy was working out very well with the Intergalactic Dating Agency. Re-lee was considering hiring her as a permanent employee. When the business grew, she would need a strong staff. Addy was a prime example of how the program worked—they matched her to the Rhimodian cyborg Soldan, though neither of them had ever considered such a connection. Yet here they were, happy as they could be.
"What else is there?" Re-lee said into the communicator.
"Do you need more from me?" a deep baritone voice asked.
Re-lee sat up straighter and tapped for the visual because that was not Addy's voice.
Sure enough, Addy did not appear before her.
It was Fwan.
Her contact in the Mining Guild.
Dark skin that glinted in the low light, and contrasting lighter marks of scarring on his brow, he intrigued her. The shadows from his transmissions gave him a mysterious look. Everything around him was dark, and it was unclear whether he was in a mine or in an office, or in deep space, as far as that went.
In any location, he would be an intimidating figure.
Even in the small size of the communicator, he could frighten someone.
Re-lee liked that about him.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked.
"Confirming my males can head over to Disguised Serenity.”
She smiled at him. "Of course. You spoke with Addy, and she checked everything, correct?"
"She is not you. I deal with you," he said, his deep voice extra rough on the last word.
"As you like," she said. "And yes, I will be ready for your miners when they arrive at the station, with everything I promised for them.”
He harrumphed.
"Fwan, I told you; this was not my assistant's fault.”
"Are you sure?" Fwan asked.
"I made the initial mistakes that put us in a bind. Not my assistant. She, however, informed me of the issue at the mines.”
He grumbled again and shifted in his seat.
“And I promised you then that we would get it all taken care of to the best of my abilities. You have been so willing to work with me and I appreciate it. I prepared several special arrangements specifically for your men to make up for this inconvenience.”
She had promised everything she could, including top-tier apartment upgrades for all the miners because their appointments had to be rescheduled. Because Re-lee had assumed the Rhimodians were her customers instead of properly checking everything before, she charged ahead. She had been so enthusiastic when the ship hit her airlock that she leaped in immediately.
It made the miners, who had already booked, wait.
To make up for rescheduling, she offered Fwan the best facilities she could, as well as extra meal and shopping credits so they could be comfortable while they stayed on the base for the thirty-day trial.
"They need the mates. They don't need all the other.”
"Fwan," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Don't you think the new couples should spend some time together before returning to the Mining Guild?"
"There is no need," he said.
"Ever the romantic," Re-lee said.
He shook his head. "The ores will not mine themselves.”
She nodded. "I understand. Fortunately, I only have three miners this time.”
“It is more than enough,” he grumbled.
1
Phares slammed his tools on the ground.
"I just fixed this," he muttered as he started working on the frames that kept the asteroid pocket stable for mining. The rails ran around the chamber, sliding and adjusting automatically to support the inside of the asteroid as the miners worked.
The rails were supposed to, anyway.
When they worked.
"If you'd fixed it right the first time," came Shoval from behind him, "we wouldn't be back here."
Phares turned and glared at his parental unit. "I didn’t ask you."
"You should have. I would have told you that the setting was wrong." Shoval crossed his beefy arms. His purple scales were more faded than Phares's, but he remained as big and strong. Even the bones that stuck out of his shoulders looked harder and meaner than Phares's.
His parental was just more of everything than Phares was.
“It wasn’t wrong,” Phares muttered and gritted his teeth.
“Well, we’re here. If you had done it right, we wouldn’t be here.” He sorted through his own tools, the metals clashing together in his kit, in that way he would do to make Phares crazy.
"I thought I did.” Phares pulled out his gear.
"Evidently not.”
He went over the scans and looked at all the rod properties and their network. He also checked the chamber’s work history to see if something else had happened in there, and another technician had been in to fix something.
There had been.
Stoval. Phares gritted his teeth again.
“Why were you down here?” Phares snapped.
His parental glared back at him defiantly. “You don’t have the talent to—”
Phares spun and threw his scanner. The device sparked as it hit the wall, and a casing popped off.
Which only made Shoval laugh. “You really should go back to the mines. You’re not made for this work.”
“Your words are not accurate,” he said, though even to his own ears, it lacked conviction. Children did not fight back against their parental units, of course.
Shoval leaned in. “We wouldn’t be back down here if I was wrong.”
“The blasts knocked the asteroids off course—”
“Excuses don’t fly.” He closed in on Phares. “Lives were lost, and you’re blaming it on the asteroid’s orbital pattern? You didn’t do your job. Plain and simple.”
Everything in space orbited another object of greater mass and gravity. It was how space worked. Asteroids orbited planets, making rings. Or larger ones orbited stars. Maybe planets that never fully formed. Maybe planets that had died in a celestial collision.
The Mining Guild mined all of it for resources.
Humanoids like Phares and Shoval kept the interiors stable while the miners worked. That was the intention.
However, some things did not allow for that.
Like user error.
The explosion a few days ago had triggered a cascade that made the asteroids shift their positions to unstable orbits. Unstable meant collisions, which led to more explosions and more lost lives. Phares needed to re-stabilize the asteroids. He’d worked hard to get them solid, and now it seemed like it had been a waste of time.
Or that the asteroid was more unstable than originally calculated.
Phares opened his mouth to object when an enormous explosion nearby thundered through the chamber. The two of them stumbled as the explosion knocked the asteroid’s axis off. Everything tilted, and he fell into the wall, the bone protrusions scraping across the stone.
He winced at the scrape and glanced at his paternal to see if Shoval was unharmed.
“What in the stars was that?” Shoval asked.
Phares shook his head. “Another explosion.”
Shoval glared. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Phares looked away as he stood again.
He held out his hand to help his paternal up, but his elder brushed away the help.
