Unintentional Addiction: Lotus Adaamas Series Read online

  Unintentional Addiction

  Lotus Adaamas Series

  Layla Stone

  Prompt Penworks

  Contents

  1. Stranded

  2. Taking Care of Business

  3. Down but Not Out

  4. Meeting from Hell

  5. Twisted Deals

  6. Seth of Stars

  7. Sleeping Silk

  8. What the Hell

  9. Whole

  10. How to Ruin Breakfast

  11. Maybe You’re Right

  12. Trust Isn’t Given

  13. Art in The Alley

  14. New Boss New Hell

  15. Strange Dreams

  16. Never-Ending Consequences

  17. Family

  18. Not Clear Yet

  19. You’re My Boss Not My Life

  20. Never Again

  21. Heart of A Fighter

  22. Kirca vs Adaamas Demons

  23. Name Your Enemy

  24. We All Fall Down

  25. Shame

  26. Life Happens Fast

  27. First Chance I Get

  28. The Truth Comes Out

  29. Old Enemies

  30. Starting Over

  31. My Mistake

  32. Unexpected Guest

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Untitled

  About the Author

  Unintentional Addiction

  Copyright © 2019 by Layla Stone.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Prompt Penworks

  For information contact :

  http://www.authorlaylastone.com

  Cover design by Croco Designs

  ISBN: 978-1-7335787-38

  First Edition: April 2019

  Created with Vellum

  1

  Stranded

  Adelia was using her finger to blend the charcoal on rough drawing paper. The mountain was from her home planet, the one she’d grown up on and had since been exiled from. Mostly, she accepted that she would never go home, but sometimes, she missed her family and her cold homeworld.

  This morning, she’d felt inspired to draw Shaye Mountain. It was not too tall, which made it great for hiking and spending afternoons. It was also where her brother had taught her how to cook and find peace.

  If anything, she needed that peace now more than ever. Two years had passed since she’d been exiled, and Seth of Stars was still punishing her for being dishonorable. Or fate just hated her and liked to see her miserable.

  A large male with no hair, a round belly, and sandy yellow skin stepped into the room. “You ready? The shipment is waiting to be picked up.”

  The inventory shipment. Adelia remembered.

  Setting down the charcoal pencil, she glanced at the sketch. A little more shading and she would be done. She got up from her bed and glanced at her wall of drawings—all the other places she missed.

  “I’m ready, Captain.”

  Following the male out of the room, she checked her Minky watch to verify that the supply list was there. As a cook, she was responsible for ordering food and picking it up. This time, she was picking up the order from the docks of Lotus Adaamas.

  “My contact said he dropped them off. Bastard didn’t wait until we verified the shipment. But you…you’ll make sure everything is there. I don’t want to be two galaxies away and then find out we’re missing something.”

  Adelia listened as they walked through the eve-merchant spaceship. The cargo hauler was a quarter mile long from stern to bow.

  “Where’s the next shipment going?” she asked as she watched one of the crewmembers use a hydro-crane to lift a large, wooden box into a cargo container.

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “No reason, just asking.” Namely because she was tired of living on a ship. She needed to find a place to settle down and start over. Stop dwelling on her past life on Yunkin.

  “Then I guess you don’t need to know,” the captain said snidely.

  “Okay.” It wasn’t as if it were a big secret. They were a merchant ship. They picked up and delivered goods. It wasn’t like they were pirates.

  The captain stopped by the transporter’s ramp. “Cam will drop you off on the docks. The shipment is waiting for your approval. Do not sign for it until you verify that everything is there. Once you approve, you send me a message, and I’ll send Cam back down to pick you up.”

  Cam, the pilot, usually brought Adelia down and stayed until she was done. “Why is Cam coming back to the ship?”

  “Because he has other jobs to do. He’s been back and forth all morning. You’re not special, and he’s not wasting time babysitting you.” The captain snapped his hand at the transporters docking bay. “No more questions, Grach. Get on the ship and do your job.”

  Grach. It was Adelia’s race, not her name, but the captain didn’t call her by her name. She doubted that he would appreciate her calling him by his race. Who wanted to be called Krant? Sounded like the name of an inedible plant.

  He was probably a tarq, a male who spent way too much time in space and did appalling things to his sex to make up for his lack of intimate company.

  A little vomit surged into her mouth just thinking about what her captain did alone in his cabin. She ignored his face as she stepped onto the ramp and walked to the transporter.

  The small storage area was gutted and didn’t have any chairs, so she took the one hallway that circled the entire ship and walked to the galley. It was a quarter of the size of the main vessel, so the simple room had a six-seater table, two counters, stacks of cups, and a synthetic food maker. The liquid it produced would keep you alive, but by day two of ingesting the stuff, you had to ask yourself if living was worth it.

  The ship began to rumble as the engines started. Situated in her seat, her stomach lifted when the transporter took flight. In the galley, a Minky screen mapped the flight path. She watched as the ship left the orbit-docked main vessel and descended into the thermosphere.

  A picture of the planet showed in the corner of the screen. More accurately, it was a picture of the only land mass on the acidic oceanic world.

  Lotus Adaamas was only three thousand square miles and made up entirely of five volcanoes named R, E, Y, N, and A. The original Demon who’d founded the planet had called them Reyna as if they were just one massive volcano. To this day, the locals didn’t distinguish them. If you talked about one or all, you used Reyna.

  And Seth help you if you made the mistake of calling a Demon from Adaamas a Kirca. Different Demon planets, different cultures.

  Adaamas was a non-Federation-run and regulated port planet.

  Supplies, merchandise, entertainment…you wanted something, you could find it there.

  Adelia had never set foot on the planet’s dock before. Two hundred square miles of landing pads for smaller ships to settle and park while they visited the planet.

  The transporter she was currently in stopped shaking, making the rest of the flight smooth and relaxing.

  Tapping the speckled grey table, Adelia waited until she felt the ship’s engines idle before she stood up and exited the empty room. Walking the hall back to the ramp, she watched for Cam. She waited a few minutes, but he didn’t come out to check on her. She figured he wasn’t coming.


  With a snort of disappointment, she left the ship and moved across the landing pad.

  The star that gave light to the planet was bright red and close enough to keep the island hot all year round. The air was humid, and after a few breaths, Adelia’s tongue started to sting.

  The air wasn’t toxic, but the acid in it from the ocean had its drawbacks.

  On the far side of the pad, several stacked boxes labeled Adelia were waiting.

  She used her nail to slice open the plastic sealing on one and opened it. A wave of cool air hit her face. Leaning into it, she remembered how much she loved the cooler weather. Unfortunately, the small bit of relief didn’t last long. The nitrous dissipated quickly, and she had started the clock on bringing the raw meats to higher than room temperature. She needed to count them, cover them back up, and hope that she could finish the inventory in under an hour.

  She had checked all the meats and vegetables. The grains took longer because they were scattered between four boxes mixed with fruit. The water packages and nutrient bars were boxed fifty to a box, and easy to verify.

  With two boxes left to search, she heard, “Hey, sugarpim, you need some help?”

  Looking up, she had to squint to try and see the male in front of her. He was standing in front of the star, so his face was too dark to see from her angle. Rocking back, she placing one elbow on her knee, she used her free hand to activate her Minky watch as she stood up. “I’m good. Thanks for the offer.”

  “It isn’t safe out here for females who look as delicious as you. I came to offer my services. I’ll watch over you. Keep you safe. For a small price.”

  Matching the stranger in height, she held out her watch and tapped it. “I’m ready to go, Captain. It’s all here.” Keeping her eyes on the male in front of her, she told him, “Try taking advantage of some other delicious female, this one’s poisonous.”

  “There’s no such thing,” he responded, nonplussed.

  “I’m Grach.”

  The male’s upper lip curled as he looked her up and down. “That’s a pity.”

  “Not from where I’m standing. It’s more like a blessing from Seth that a scumsucker like you can’t rape someone like me.”

  Adelia watched as the male’s expression soured and turned angry. She forced herself not to back up, not to look scared. But when he lifted his hand high in the air, she could only think of one result.

  Her instincts kicked in, and she covered her head and twisted away. The male’s voice in her ears was like a curse. Then she felt something grab her wrist in a vice-like grip. She let her legs drop to the ground, and she kicked out.

  Her Minky watch was ripped off her wrist, scraping her skin in the process. She tried to break the male’s kneecap, but she missed. He was fast. He jumped in time and then took off like a cloud hopper. She watched him go, not interested at all in following a thief for a Minky watch. She could pick up another one with her next paycheck.

  She remained where she was until she had scanned the area, making sure there was no one else ready to take advantage of her.

  Peering up, she used her hand to cover her eyes to get a better view of the sky. The transporter was not on its way down yet.

  Minutes ticked by.

  Still no ship.

  “Jerks. I could be dead,” she mumbled.

  A dark object was slowly descending. A small tremble of relief tickled Adelia’s chest. She watched raptly as the dot got bigger. Then she frowned when it landed on another docking pad. lt wasn’t her transporter, it was another small ship.

  She didn’t know how much time passed, but she felt drops of sweat trickling down her back and into her pants. It was so hot, she could feel the star’s rays seeping into her skin. It was then that she looked up at the sky and saw another black dot—another ship descending. And this time as it lowered, she recognized it as Cam’s transporter.

  When it landed, Cam didn’t get out, but the captain did. “Why the hell aren’t you answering my calls?”

  She held up her wrist. “My Minky was taken.”

  The captain’s sandy yellow nostrils flared. “Why did you let that happen?”

  “I didn’t let someone take it. It was stolen from me with force. Look.” She pointed at the scrapes in her skin.

  Shaking his head, the captain said, “This is why I didn’t want to hire a female. Can’t take care of herself.”

  If the captain thought his words would hurt Adelia’s feelings, he would have to get a little more creative. She had a heart as thick and impenetrable as his skin. “Riiiiiight.”

  “What was that?” he snapped.

  “Nothing.”

  “That’s what I thought, Grach. Now, get those boxes in the cargo hold.”

  Without argument, she picked up the open box with raw meat and waddled forward. The supplies were heavy, and she wasn’t a massive male full of muscle. The captain picked up four boxes, stacked them, and brought them inside. She grabbed another single box and moved it into the cargo hold.

  When she set down the box, the captain pointed at the unopened containers. “Did you check those? Why are they unopened?”

  “Didn’t want to check any more raw goods until I was in cooler temperatures. Exposing them to the heat gives bacteria time to spread,” she lied.

  The captain pulled out a knife and opened the first box. “Then how do you know all the items are here if you didn’t check?”

  “Everything else was.” She shrugged. Basic rules of deduction.

  The captain eyed her, clearly not happy. Then he opened the rest of the shipment. When he opened the last box, he leaned back and growled. “What’s this?”

  Adelia leaned over and peered inside. The box was full of dark sand or granules of some sort, kind of like black salt. The smell tingled her nostrils. Whatever it was, it wasn’t edible. “I don’t know.”

  The Krant pushed his hand down through the material, swishing it from right to left. After two passes, he stopped and pulled out a clear ball filled with opaque liquid. It was a thick substance, and it gave off a little florescent glow.

  “I have no idea what that is,” Adeila offered before the captain could ask her what it was or why it was in the box.

  “It’s homner.” The captain gently placed it back inside the dark sand. “It’s a magnetic, luminescent substance with electrochemical properties. Unique in that it’s a perfect energy source. Never decays and has been off the market for over fifty years. You can’t find it anywhere.”

  Adelia had never heard of the stuff. “Apparently, it can be found somewhere, because it’s right there.”

  The captain picked up the lid for the box and placed it on the container gently as if he were worried that it would explode. He flicked his wrist towards the open door. “Take this off my ship.”

  Adelia was confused. Why would he return something of that much value? “Okay…”

  Slowly, she set it in a designated spot for shipment pickups and drop-offs. The sound of metal creaking and a hiss from a pressure valve made her stomach drop. Whipping around, she saw her fear realized. The ramp was folding up and rising into the air.

  “Hey!” She ran, trying to jump. She missed the ramp by several feet. “You can’t leave me here!”

  “Someone didn’t just leave that there. Either you were trying to smuggle it on my ship, or someone stashed it there and saw you touch it. I don’t need that kind of trouble from the Demons on this planet,” the captain yelled.

  “Are you insane? I don’t know whose this is. I didn’t take it! You can’t blame me for this,” she screamed back at him, once more trying to grab onto any part of the ship she could.

  The ramp closed with a hiss, sealing itself. Adelia hit the side of the vessel. The hard metal didn’t budge, and she felt a deep throb in her hand, almost to the bone. “I didn’t take it!” she yelled one more time. Then, for good measure, she added, “You dirtbogger.”

  2

  Taking Care of Business

 
Zane was inside his air-conditioned Grummer. A double-engine hover vehicle that’d cost him eighty-thousand keleps. Roomy, of excellent quality, and with more features than he would ever need. Usually, he enjoyed when he showed it off as he dropped off packages on the docks.

  His ride and clothes said that he made money. That’s what pulled in potential customers.

  His reputation for getting what a person needed when they needed it, was what sealed the deal, giving him an edge over all the other merchants on Lotus Adaamas.

  Which was why he was parked next to a luxury galleon, watching his associate offloading boxes of high-performance engine parts onto a dolly.

  The entire order totaled one hundred and twenty thousand keleps. Zane should have been celebrating with three fingers of jubriaan, a Demon alcohol made especially on the island. But he couldn’t celebrate a large order when he didn’t know for sure if the parts he sold were in top condition.

  Not that he didn’t buy quality engine parts from equally quality manufacturers. He did. But he’d found out last night that someone was breaking into his warehouse and disturbing the merchandise.

  That person was his associate, Trent. The male who was currently walking into the galleon with a dolly full of equipment.

  Zane’s Minky monitor pinged. An incoming call.

  Riam.

  Touching the panel, Zane accepted the voice call. “Riam. What can I do for you?”