Braving Darkness: The Complete Series (Paranormal Scifi Romance) Read online

  Braving Darkness

  Complete Series

  Scarlett Grove

  Contents

  Marked By The Alpha Wolf

  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

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  25. Marked By The Alpha Wolf PART 2

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  47. Marked By The Alpha Wolf PART 3

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Touched By The Dragon Lord

  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

  15. Touched By The Dragon Lord Part 2

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  26. Touched By The Dragon Lord Part 3

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Desired By The Archangel

  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

  14. Desired By The Archangel Part 2

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  About the Author

  Also by Scarlett Grove

  Copyright © 2017 by Scarlett Grove

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Marked By The Alpha Wolf

  Chapter 1

  Efficiency and diligence safeguard the future, a friendly female voice pronounced through the dome-wide loud speakers.

  “Efficiency and diligence safeguard the future,” Cassie and her roommate Lindsey said, smiling at each other as they began their exercises on opposite sides of the small dormitory room.

  Always do your best, in all things.

  “Always do your best, in all things,” said Cassie and Lindsey as they stripped from their sleep shifts and stepped into the shower stalls.

  After their shower, they pulled on their matching gray jumpsuits, slipped into their soft shoes, and hustled out the door to join the rest of the twenty-year-old unit. The unit marched down the hallway into the dim sunshine beneath the roof of the dome. Cassie could see the ruined sky above, gray and black from the toxic storms that raged outside.

  Loyalty, fidelity, trust.

  The twenty-year-old unit repeated her words and continued to the cafeteria. Machines squirted food into the slotted trays for each youth. Cassie glanced down at her nameless, shapeless food, and a slight memory of fresh strawberries flitted through her mind.

  Gratitude, service, respect.

  She grasped her tray and sat at a long table with Lindsey and several other youths from her unit. Groups of children as young as five filtered through the doors and into the cafeteria.

  The youths silently ate, as was the custom for mealtime. The hall echoed with the sound of forks against trays and the occasional cough or giggle from one of the younger children.

  After breakfast, the twenty-year-old group marched to their lecture hall to begin class. Cassie sat in the front row and waited for her teacher, Professor Weston, to begin his lecture.

  “Today is the fifth anniversary of the end of World War Three. In recognition of what ended the world as we knew it, Pyramid Corporation has chosen to commence a long-awaited genetic rehabilitation project. A few lucky young women will be chosen to be the first to participate. The girls will be tested in The Program to determine their fitness. The girls with the top five scores will have the honor of leading the way with this important endeavor. All young women will stay here to receive instruction. Boys, you will study with class nineteen today.”

  The boys shuffled out the door. Cassie sat in the classroom with twenty other young women, all looking blankly at Professor Weston.

  Professor Weston led the girls to The Program terminal chamber –– a room dominated by steel and chrome. A series of reclining chairs circled a central, cylindrical computer terminal that reached up to the ceiling.

  Cassie took her seat and settled back in the chair, allowing the helmet to descend over her head. Behind the darkness of the mask, she heard Professor Weston move through the room, giving each girl a shot of serum that would allow her to enter The Program.

  Professor Weston’s smooth, cool hand gripped her arm, and the sharp needle pricked her vein. Cold fluid entered her bloodstream, and she fell into darkness.

  Slowly, she became aware of herself standing in an open field. The bright azure sky expanded above, and yellow grass shimmered under the intense sunlight. She squinted and shielded her eyes with her hand, taking in her surroundings. She hadn’t seen a landscape like this one since before the
war.

  A breeze blew over Cassie’s skin. She looked down to see her nude hourglass figure exposed to the world. She covered herself instinctively. The mind read The Program as reality. Pain, pleasure, embarrassment, and fear were all experienced as real.

  She assessed that the nudity was part of her test, so her first order of business was to find clothing. Covering her private parts, Cassie walked through the grassy field in search of a landmark.

  The field expanded in all directions, as far as she could see. The only marker was the sun that hung on the western horizon. Heat pricked her skin as the temperature rose, and the grass began to scratch her bare feet. A voice called behind her, and she spun to face it.

  “Cassie? Baby?”

  A woman shimmered like a mirage before her.

  “Mom?” Cassie said, recognition building. Her mother had died five years ago in the war, like her father. A tear pooled in her eye. “Mommy?”

  She ran to the flickering woman and tried to embrace her, but Cassie’s arms passed through empty air. “Where are you? Why can’t I touch you?”

  “That doesn’t matter right now. I have something to tell you. You must beware. The leaders of the dome have plans for you. It is not approved by the council. They have interfered…”

  Her mother’s voice broke into static, and the image wavered and disappeared. Cassie stood blinking under the hot sun, forgetting to cover herself. She’d never encountered either of her parents in The Program before. The likeness had been too real. Her stomach clenched, but she held back her sadness. It was just a projection.

  The Program was able to take information from the participant’s brain to create the simulation. She’d been training in The Program for five years and was one of the most adept subjects in the twenty-year age group.

  Cassie had worked hard to master every simulation The Program had thrown at her. She wanted to be chosen for the project, to do her best. Taking a deep breath and brushing off her sadness, she charged onward toward the sun.

  She plodded through the hip-high grass, her long dark-blond hair hanging nearly to her waist. In the distance, Cassie spotted a pole rising from the ground, high into the air. She jogged toward it, believing it would take her one-step further to mastering the simulation. When she reached the pole, her eyes scanned upward as she circled around it, trying to understand what it was. About fifty feet up the pole, her jumpsuit fluttered in the breeze. She smiled at herself, knowing she’d found the key to the test.

  She thought briefly about her mother and tried to connect her presence in the simulation with the clothing challenge. It didn’t seem to have a logical place in the test. Usually, The Program operated by the visible laws of physics, yet her mother had popped out of thin air and flickered like a hologram.

  It gave her an idea. If The Program could operate outside the laws of Newtonian physics, why couldn’t she? Cassie closed her eyes and imagined herself rising. When she opened them again, nothing had happened. She’d never done anything out of the ordinary in The Program before. What made her think she could now? She sighed and leaned against the pole, crossing her arms over her ample breasts.

  Cassie had also never seen a hologram of her mother before. She closed her eyes again and used the oddity of the experience to make her brain believe she could do the impossible—levitate. She held the impression of the woman in her mind, and slowly her feet rose from the earth.

  Inch by inch, her weight curled off the ground, and she rose. She didn’t dare open her eyes for fear of breaking the spell and falling. She felt the smooth pole under her fingertips as she glided upward.

  When Cassie felt the cloth of her jumpsuit, she grabbed it. With the motion of her arm, her mind faltered, and she fell several feet. Clamping her eyes shut, she kept her mother’s image in her mind. The fall slowed. Her feet felt the sharp grass as she descended to the ground. When she had warm dry earth below her feet once again, she opened her eyes and pulled on her clothes.

  Task one complete.

  She looked around and glimpsed a hint of a shadow on the horizon. It seemed as good as any direction to go. While she strode toward the shadow, she pondered the hologram’s words of warning. She had no reason to doubt her benefactors, Pyramid Corporation. They had saved her from the nuclear bombs. She owed them her life.

  Cassie drew closer to the shadow, which turned out to be a line of trees. A smile crept over her face, knowing that she’d found her second challenge. She broke into a run, ignoring the increasingly sharp grass slicing her feet.

  As she approached the forest’s edge, the hologram popped in front of her again. Cassie stopped short, panting.

  “Cassandra, the council has granted you a special gift. It will allow you to see the truth.”

  “What council?” she said, tilting her head to the side and putting her hands on her hips. She now assumed the hologram was her next challenge.

  “The Council of the Seventh House. I can’t explain this now. If Pyramid Corporation or the Anu find out I’m here, it will be dangerous for you. I might have stayed too long as it is. Please, beware.”

  “What gift? Who are the Anu?” she called after the fading hologram. Her mother’s mouth moved, but no sound came out. Cassie bit her bottom lip and looked around, wondering what to do. Why had Professor Weston decided to use such a disturbing simulation? Was her loyalty being tested?

  She continued toward the forest at a slower pace. When she broke through the tree line, the sight of sunlight streaming through the tree boughs mystified her. The cool air smelled of fresh earth and moss, smells she’d almost forgotten.

  She walked slowly, her feet padding over soft fallen leaves. The shade of the forest gave relief from the burning sun and sharp grasses of the field behind her.

  Cassie’s feet were scraped raw and were bleeding. She had to find a way to wash and bandage herself to complete the trial. She followed the path through the woods, searching for a water source.

  She ducked through a thick stand of willows and emerged on the rocky shore of a stream. She sat on a large rock and dipped her feet into the cool water shimmering below. The blood washed away, and so too, it seemed, did her cuts.

  A low muffled growl rumbled in the distance. Cassie drew her eyebrows together, not knowing what could have made such a sound. She scanned the forest until her eyes settled on a shaking bush ten paces away and up a gradual slope.

  A giant monster broke through the bush with its sharp, white teeth, snarling. Before she could think, several other monsters followed. Wolves. She scrambled to her feet. Her legs felt weak, but she forced herself to run.

  Cassie could hear them gaining on her, yipping at her heels. She tried to force herself to levitate as she had before. Fear pumped through her bloodstream, and she couldn’t make her brain cooperate.

  She glanced behind her as she ran and crashed headlong into an earthen wall. She whirled around to face her predators. They gnashed their teeth, snarling and salivating. Cassie put her hands out toward them, willing them to disappear, but she couldn’t get her fear under control.

  She fell to her knees, and the leader of the pack lunged forward.

  Blackness.

  Unconsciousness.

  Chapter 2

  Cassie shook her aching head, trying to clear the confusion. Coming out of The Program was always disorienting. She swung her feet around and placed them on the cool concrete floor beside her cot. On the small steel table by her bed, she saw a cup of water and two pain pills.

  She grabbed the pills and downed them with the water. Moments later, her pounding headache subsided. Her roommate Lindsey walked through the sliding steel door and lay down on the bunk beside her.

  Lindsey was a tiny girl, several inches shorter and much more slender than Cassie. Lindsey was like a little bird while Cassie was voluptuous and tall.

  “Didn’t you get chosen for the project?” asked Lindsey as Cassie curled under her blankets.

  “I don’t know. I must have passed out. The
Program was messy today. A lot of scary, confusing stuff. Did you get chosen?”

  “Yeah. I was the first to go in. It wasn’t so bad. They just gave me a shot. I woke up with tingly pain between my legs and two little wounds on my neck. I must have got my monthly because I’m bleeding now.”

  Cassie turned to Lindsey and stared at her. Why did it hurt between her legs? Cassie’s eyesight went black, and she sucked in a deep breath.

  Lindsey’s tiny, naked body lay spread-eagle on a table. A strange, towering being with luminescent white skin entered the room, totally nude. His massive phallus stood fully erect. Eerie long fingers with sharp pointed nails slid over the girl’s body. It threw its elongated head back, mouth wide open, revealing long, sharp canines that protruded from his upper jaw.

  In a flash, he sank his teeth into Lindsey’s neck as he drove his phallus inside her. He sucked from her neck. Rivulets of blood rolled onto the steel table below. He thrust himself into Lindsey mercilessly, holding her little body as if it were a rag doll.

  Finally, the creature convulsed and dropped her back on the table. He withdrew, pulled on his robe, and walked away.

  Cassie came out of the vision, staring horrified at her friend.

  “What’s wrong, Cassie? You’re freaking me out.”

  Cassie covered her mouth as if to scream, but nothing came out. She’d never seen anything more terrifying in her life. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. It took her several minutes to calm down enough to come up with an excuse for her alarm.

  “It’s nothing. I just remembered something from The Program today. I got really scared.” All she could think was that there was a possibility that the creature had violated her as well.

  “It will be okay. It’s been a long day. We need to sleep,” Lindsey said, yawning.

  Lindsey was out cold in a matter of minutes, and Cassie could feel the fatigue grip her brain as well. She realized the pain pills were making her drowsy. Soon, she had no choice but to sink into the blackness of sleep.

  In her dreams, her mother came to her again. Cassie could see herself lying in her bed, paralyzed. The woman stood over her, making soothing sounds so as not to terrify her more than she already was.