Official release day is here!
You can get your copy of Clan Beginnings: Clan and Conviction at Amazon,
Amazon
UK, Barnes
& Noble, and Smashwords. Are
you ready for Clan Gelan?
The drug Delir is sweeping the Kalquorian Empire, leaving madness and
death in its wake. Investigator Dramok
Gelan has already lost his enforcer partner in a deadly shootout because of the
case. With no clues or suspects, he
despairs of putting an end to the epidemic.
Then a familiar face enters the picture:
new partner and former lover Nobek Wynhod.
Wynhod never forgot the Dramok he loved seven years ago, and his
assignment as Gelan’s enforcer is no accident.
However, Delir doesn’t kill just its users; those who get in the way of
its contagion die too. With the addition
of a savvy criminal psychologist and a lucky break, Gelan gets too close to the
truth.
Imdiko Krijero is a brilliant psychologist with insight into the
criminal mind. Gelan and Wynhod pierce
the man’s awkward facade to discover their perfect third ... but Krijero’s
broken heart from a past affair keeps them at arm’s length. Can the pair convince this reluctant partner
to give love a second chance? And can
they save Krijero when Delir’s evil mastermind discovers the psych knows his
identity?
This book is the prequel to Clans
of Kalquor 5: Alien Slave.
Contains elements of BDSM, including physical discipline, anal
play/intercourse, bondage, Dom/sub play, forced seduction, multiple sexual
partners and homoerotic situations (m/m/m).
Twenty-five-year-old Imdiko Krijero
burst into the small government-provided home he shared with his lover. He tripped over his own toes on the way in,
jerking around and barking his shins on a small table just inside the door. In his excitement, he barely noticed the pain
of yet more bruises added to his constant collection. He waved his handheld computer around in his
excitement. The vid image issuing from
it suspended just above his fingers. It
consisted of only a few lines of written communication, but those few lines had
just changed his life.
He shouted to his Dramok-to-be. “Pertak!
Pertak, I got it!”
He got no answer.
Krijero looked over their
government-issued quarters. His
enthusiasm edged down in the disappointment that Pertak wasn’t right there,
ready to celebrate. His gaze swept over
the greeting room’s nondescript seating cushions and tables that had come with
the place. The young Imdiko already
mentally catalogued how nice the furniture would be in their new home, the
apartment they would now be able to afford.
The place he and Pertak would start their official clanship now that the
last hurdle to their parents’ objections had been cleared. Krijero had a real job. Better yet, he had a career, one he’d been
looking forward to for years.
Sure, Pertak still had to get off his
ass and do the same. At 27 years old,
the laid-back Dramok continued to rely on the low pay of government-funded
infrastructure repairs, work delegated to those who hadn’t yet settled on their
life’s goals. His and Krijero’s parent
clans would no doubt still kick and bitch that Krijero couldn’t take on all the
responsibility. After all, Pertak was a
Dramok and needed to assume leadership.
Krijero had faith in his fun-loving,
somewhat irresponsible childhood friend though.
The Imdiko’s success would provide the spur to kick Pertak into gear.
Maybe Pertak waited in their
sleeping room, ready to celebrate in an appropriate lewd fashion. Krijero grinned and hurried into the small
space where the sleeping mat nearly reached from wall to wall.
“Pertak, are you here? Pertak?”
His boyfriend was not in the
sleeping room, and the wide-open restroom door showed he wasn’t in there
either. Krijero found no sign of Pertak,
though he had the day off and should be waiting to learn the news they’d been
hoping for.
Krijero’s arm holding the handheld
and its reason to celebrate lowered. “Well,
damn. Where the hell are you?” he asked
the empty apartment.
He tried not to let his lover’s
absence dim the excitement. He had
landed a criminal psychologist job at the local territorial police
precinct. He’d coveted the position for
months and had managed to beat out over twenty other applicants. Not too shabby for someone right out of
training, perfect evaluation scores notwithstanding.
It wasn’t just the challenge of the
work or the thrill of being a part in keeping the Southwest Mountain Territory
a safe place to live. As the third-most
populated area on the planet Kalquor, it was a big job. Krijero wanted to make a difference in his
community. Working with law enforcement
as support staff would be a fulfilling task as well. But knowing he and Pertak could finally
afford a home beyond what the government provided was exciting. Nothing big of course, but something more
than two rooms and a bath. Who knew? Maybe their parents would even give their
blessings to the match now. Krijero and
Pertak were old enough to clan without permission, but getting their parents on
board was important to them both.
Krijero’s new job represented the last hurdle their elders had placed on
gaining their approval.
This was the day Krijero had been
waiting for. All that was missing was
his Dramok-to-be. Bursting with the good
news, he decided to com Pertak and find out where his lover had gone and when
he would be home.
The Imdiko went back into the main
room to use the house com. He finally
saw the message notification blinking over and over. A voice-only recording waited to be played.
Impatiently, he said, “Play
message.”
Pertak’s thick, uncertain voice
filled the room. “Hi, Krijero. Look, I’m sorry to do this to you over the
com. I mean you deserve to get this news
face to face, but I ... I just couldn’t do it.”
Krijero frowned. Damn it, he’d be pissed off if Pertak had
showed up late for work again, scoring yet another forced leave without
pay. Such screw-ups were the very thing
both their sets of parents kept scolding the Dramok for; a lack of initiative
and responsibility. Krijero knew his
boyfriend would do well in life if he would just try for once.
But no ... Pertak had had the day
off. It couldn’t be that.
After a lengthy pause, Pertak began
speaking again. His voice came out
choked, like it always did when he’d royally fucked up and felt terrible about
it. Like the time he’d wrecked the used shuttle
Krijero had saved two whole years for.
Whatever Pertak had to say, it
wouldn’t be good. Krijero tried to steel
himself for what was coming.
“Damn, this is hard. But what’s done is done. I can’t take it back, and I wouldn’t if I
could. Krijero, I’ve moved out. I took just my clothes; you keep all the rest
of the stuff.”
Moved out? Moved
out? Krijero stared at the com. It had to be a joke.
“I’ve ... I’ve been seeing someone
else for some time. Another Imdiko.”
His heart stuttered. A joke.
A really bad joke, and when Pertak showed up, Krijero would find
something big and heavy and beat him with it.
“I’m so sorry, Krijero. I asked him to clan this morning, and he
accepted.”
Krijero’s handheld slid out of his nerveless
hand. It hit the floor and pieces broke
off. The vid of the job offer, the job
they’d waited for, the job that was going to officially start their lives
together, blinked off. Krijero didn’t
notice.
“I know you’re pissed off, and you
have every right to be. My parents are
going to hit the roof. You know how they
wanted me to establish a career first – well, I guess you don’t care about
that, do you? I am so sorry. You’re a good guy, more than what I deserve,
and I know you’ll find someone who will make you a decent Dramok.”
It’s
got to be a joke. But Krijero had
known Pertak since they were children.
They had grown up together. He
knew every nuance of the other man’s voice, knew when the Dramok was pulling
his leg and knew when he was lying. The
regret in Pertak’s heavy, thick tone betrayed neither a joke nor a falsehood.
The nightmare spun on, delivered in
a recording that said nothing of over twenty years of first friendship and then
love. “I – I don’t know what else to
say. I just – I’m sorry. We aren’t right for each other. I’ll always care about you, but – I just can’t
be the Dramok you need me to be.
Goodbye, Krijero.”
The com clicked off. The message ended, along with Krijero’s life
and dreams.
He thought for a moment about
checking the closet, to make sure Pertak really had packed his clothes and
left. However, his legs wouldn’t move
for several seconds. When Krijero did
manage to finally shift, it was to drop onto the seating cushion he thought lay
behind him.
He landed half off the pillowy
surface, falling over onto the floor.
The thick fur rug Pertak’s mother had given them broke his fall when he
collapsed onto his side.
I
took just my clothes; you keep all the rest.
Krijero laid there with his chest
and stomach hurting. He laid there as
the afternoon crept into evening and evening into night. He laid there until sleep finally claimed him
and halted the silent tears that had come and gone through the hours.
When he woke the next morning still
curled into himself on the floor, no Pertak there to tell him it had all been a
terrible nightmare, Krijero screamed. He
screamed his hurt until his throat went raw.
And yet the horrible aloneness, the gaping hole left in his gut,
couldn’t be shrieked or sobbed away no matter how he tried to make it
happen.
Krijero had yet to learn the chasm
Pertak’s abandonment had left inside him would stretch empty for years to
come. He had no idea that the raw ache
of being tossed aside and deserted had just begun. This lack of awareness of the long, isolated
years ahead was the only kindness of the abrupt betrayal.
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