Piper: Alien Surrogate Agency #1 Read online

  PIPER

  ALIEN SURROGATE AGENCY #1

  TASHA BLACK

  13TH STORY PRESS

  Copyright © 2022 by 13th Story Press

  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.

  13th Story Press

  PO Box 506

  Swarthmore, PA 19081

  [email protected]

  Cover designed by Sylvia Frost of The Book Brander

  CONTENTS

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About Piper

  Piper

  1. Piper

  2. Piper

  3. Brax

  4. Piper

  5. Piper

  6. Brax

  7. Piper

  8. Oberon

  9. Brax

  10. Piper

  11. Brax

  12. Piper

  13. Oberon

  14. Piper

  15. Brax

  16. Piper

  17. Brax

  18. Piper

  19. Brax

  20. Piper

  21. Oberon

  22. Piper

  23. Brax

  24. Piper

  25. Piper

  26. Brax

  27. Oberon

  28. Piper

  29. Brax

  30. Piper

  31. Piper

  32. Piper

  33. Brax

  34. Piper

  35. Piper

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About the Author

  One Percent Club

  TASHA BLACK STARTER LIBRARY

  Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, alien adventures, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!

  Get your FREE books now at tashablack.com!

  ABOUT PIPER

  She signed up to give him an heir, but what he really wants is her heart.

  Piper’s infertility sent her childhood sweetheart into the arms of another woman. Now she’s cashing in her credits at the local fertility clinic so she can do the traveling she’s always dreamed of.

  But when the clinic offers her a secret third option, she can’t resist.

  The plan? Act as a surrogate for an alien male, and have her own fertility restored in exchange.

  The catch? She and the tall, dark and handsome alien will need to do it the old-fashioned way.

  He’s wealthy. She’s poor. He’s set in his ways. She longs to travel. The only thing the two agree on? They’ve both made a terrible mistake.

  Their pact is simple - convince the staff of the Midsummer Center that they’re trying their best. They’ll go their separate ways when it’s over.

  All they have to do is manage not to fall for each other in the most romantic place in the known universe, where the admin, the staff, and the system’s most gifted AI are all working together to make falling in love (or at least in lust) completely irresistible.

  PIPER

  1

  PIPER

  At nine o’clock on a peaceful Saturday morning, Piper Arquette decided she wanted her life back.

  “Piper?” her best friend said in her earpiece. “You still there?”

  “Yeah,” she said distractedly. “I think I’m going to clean out my apartment. It’s time.”

  “Yes,” Haven hissed gleefully. “Want me to come help?”

  “Nah,” Piper told her. “I think this is something I have to do on my own.”

  Partly, she did want to do it on her own. But she also didn’t want Haven to see the extent of the post break-up nest she had built for herself. The place looked like a scented candle and cardigan sweater shop had exploded in it.

  “Are you going to the fertility clinic after?” Haven asked sternly.

  Piper sighed.

  “You’re over him, right?” Haven asked encouragingly. “You know you can reclaim your unused credits and go enjoy some retail therapy.”

  Haven was right, but it still hurt to think about.

  Their home planet, Terra-58, had been specially designed to be a superior society. From the first-rate terraforming to the carefully planned cities and green spaces. nothing was left to chance.

  Many said that it was this careful design that made life on Terra-58 so special, and gave the planet esteemed standing in intergalactic relations, especially compared to the earlier attempts to colonize space by the descendants of Old Earth.

  Piper’s mother always told her that it was the female leadership.

  The matriarchal society adopted by all who chose to live in this paradise was protected by a special custom. Before becoming eligible for marriage, each woman of Terra-58 bore a child of her own. As the eldest, this primary heir would inherit the lion’s share of her assets, ensuring at that all wealth passed through the maternal line.

  So of course, families of means paid for the best genetic materials for a daughter’s primary pregnancy. A baby with luxury modifications was a feather in the mother’s cap, and could help a woman land the most desirable and attentive of males.

  It was doubtless a system that worked well. Terra-58 had a low divorce rate, and a high marriage satisfaction rate. They had trade agreements with nearly every local system. And their children were adored and well-educated - all of them, not just the primary heirs.

  But for some, like Piper, the system could be cruel and unjust.

  “Sure,” she said, willing herself not to fall apart again. “Sure, I’ll go do that.”

  “Good girl,” Haven declared. “Want to leave me on your comms in the background while you clean out? I’ve got some work to do, but I’ll be here for moral support if you need me.”

  “Sure,” Piper said.

  She swiped her bracelet so that the conversation was on the background setting. The feed would go into low-power mode unless one of them spoke.

  She sucked in a breath of air and blew it out slowly, reminding herself how much she had to be grateful for. She really was lucky in so many ways, and she knew it.

  For starters, Haven was a phenomenal best friend. They had met on one of the infertility support feeds a few years ago, and had become close almost immediately.

  Piper’s menial job didn’t pay well, but her boss was kind-hearted and easygoing, which had been a lifesaver when she was trying to get pregnant.

  She had a beautiful, if tiny, park-view apartment. And even though it looked even tinier than usual right now, Piper didn’t mind. She liked the cozy space.

  But there was one area of her life where luck just wasn’t on her side, and it made her feel like everything was falling apart.

  It had all started off so well. Piper and Thon had been obsessed with each other since they were kids. They couldn’t wait to finally get married. He had waited patiently while her family completed one pregnancy treatment for her, and another when that one failed.

  When her mom told her that the third attempt was the last they could afford, Thon had held her hand and prayed to Mother Stars with her. And he had held her while she wept when she learned it hadn’t taken.

  For another year, he had thrown caution to the wind and secretly attempted to impregnate her himself, so many times that she lost count. So many times that it stopped bringing pleasure and only made her heart shiver and break.

  And still her arms were empty.

  She began tossing as much of her own money as she could into the account at the clinic, hoping to put together enough fo
r one more try. But after a while, Thon began to drift away.

  Piper told herself it was just a rough patch, and then she got the worst news of all. He was going to marry someone else.

  And not just any other woman, but the neighbor girl who had followed Piper in everything.

  If Piper got a hover board for Hearth Day, Heloise got a better hover board. If Piper was wearing a gown for the town dance, Heloise had the same gown but with a float bustle.

  And then the little upstart had set her eyes on Thon.

  Lifelong outwardly platonic friendships between men and infertile women were not unheard-of on Terra-58. In retrospect, Piper had probably been too secure in her confidence that Thon would stay.

  But Heloise’s primary heir was a beautiful boy with features so strikingly similar to Thon’s that Piper could only believe Heloise’s parents had purchased the genetic materials with that effect in mind.

  The alternative theory was unthinkable.

  Thon had come to her in person a month ago and explained his decision. He cared for her, but he wanted a family and children.

  In her heart, she wanted it for him too. But not like this.

  Don’t think about it, she advised herself, biting back a sniffle. She didn’t want to let Haven, still on the other end of her comms, hear her getting down again, after she had claimed to be doing so much better.

  Piper ran a hand through her honey-colored hair, then carefully picked up a picture of her and Thon at the town fair and placed it in a plastic cell.

  She added a photo of them at the final school dance, and another of them kissing on the floating balcony of a popular restaurant.

  The cell expanded as she threw in his sweaters and personal effects.

  Then she began gathering up the items that she had used to comfort herself through the bad break-up.

  She placed the honeysuckle candles in a drawer, and grabbed half-eaten boxes of chocolates and threw them in the trash.

  Her meditation mat and speaker went back in the closet, along with the slippers and robes her friends and family had dropped off over the last month.

  One of the hardest parts about the break-up was that it was supposed to be a secret. No one was allowed to know she’d had a romantic relationship with Thon, let alone a sexual one.

  At work and in public, Piper had to pretend she was just another single woman, saving for her next treatment.

  Even her parents didn’t want to know how far she and Thon had gone to make things work.

  Now she was infertile, her virginity gone. She would not become the leader of a bustling family. She would not grow old with her childhood love.

  Piper was coming to terms with the fact that the life she had imagined for herself was not meant to be.

  But what was left was still good. And she was determined to keep that foremost in her thoughts. She had two living parents, younger siblings whose children might one day be her nieces and nephews, and close friendships with the other women in her support feed for those days when she needed to vent.

  I’m going to be okay, she told herself silently. Everything is going to be great.

  Reluctantly, she removed her fuzziest slippers and soft sweater, and took a long, hot tour in the refresher.

  Afterward, she dried off and dressed herself carefully in a flattering wine-colored tunic and soft gray leggings with matching lift boots.

  In spite of all the chocolates and the crying, she was still a healthy and reasonably pretty woman. She silently promised the woman in the mirror that she would do a better job giving her fresh air and fun from now on.

  Glancing at her bracelet, she saw that she had just enough time to catch the hush-line to the fertility clinic.

  Ignoring the pang of pain in her chest at the thought, she grabbed her bag and slid her finger down the sensor of the door, alerting it to be on full lockdown until her return.

  Since it was late morning on the weekend, the shared corridor was mercifully empty. She took the chute down to the lobby and stepped out into the sunlight.

  Unlike the hallway, the city outside was alive with activity. People strolled along the moving walkways, chatting with each other or tapping their bracelets for the news.

  Gadabouts darted gracefully through the air in patterns that were seemingly random, but actually carefully planned and approved through the city’s Central Quick-Hub.

  Everything about Terra-58 was perfect, except for Piper’s rebellious womb.

  Cheer up, you’re going to get your life savings back, she reminded herself.

  Piper had always dreamed of traveling. And now maybe she would actually do it. She would no longer give all but a fraction of her earnings to the agency. She would not have to live by her cycle.

  The hush-rail pulled up at the station just as she arrived.

  Piper scanned her bracelet twice in a fit of indulgence, allowing herself a window seat upgrade instead of a stander’s handle.

  As the beautiful city blurred past, she felt a tiny kernel of hope begin to expand in her chest.

  The world did not begin and end with Thon Radnor. He was only one stop on the line.

  2

  PIPER

  Piper stepped through the front doors of the fertility clinic.

  As always, she was a little horrified at the sterile environment. The floors were white marble, the walls white composite. Even the ceilings were white. And the place was so perfectly clean and sanitized that the lack of scent practically hurt her nose.

  How was a person supposed to perform a biological function in a place so devoid of humanity?

  The woman at the desk gave her a sympathetic smile.

  Piper knew that poor woman had to give everyone coming here a sympathetic smile. This was not the fancier clinic on the other side of town, where wealthy families went to choose genetic donors out of a hologram catalogue.

  This was the cheaper clinic, where infertile women came to shed what credits they had, and pray to Mother Stars for a miracle.

  “It’s good to see you, Piper,” she said, her tentacles swaying slightly.

  “Thank you, Vavra,” Piper replied.

  “Here to see Dr. Xergova?” Vavra asked.

  “Not this time,” Piper said. “I’m closing out my account. I’d like to speak with someone in billing.”

  Vavra stole an almost imperceptible glance at Piper’s mid-section.

  Piper shook her head.

  “I’m so sorry,” Vavra said softly.

  Piper could tell she meant it.

  “Thanks,” Piper said lightly, determined not to cry anymore.

  “I’ll page the office,” Vavra said. “It’ll just be a moment.”

  Piper sat on one of the uncomfortable white metal chairs, across from a woman holding hands with an older lady Piper assumed was her mother.

  The two of them were murmuring a meditation Piper recognized.

  She looked away, hoping their recitations reached the ears of Mother Stars and won her mercy.

  “Piper Arquette?” a woman’s voice called out.

  She hopped up and headed back to reception, where a small trim woman with dark hair waited.

  “I’m the cancelation coordinator,” the woman said crisply. “Please follow me.”

  She took off down the hallway at an impressive pace given her small stature, leaving Piper to trot in order to catch up.

  Piper was suddenly and unpleasantly reminded of a gym membership she had tried to cancel once. But she set her chin and followed. She’d been through worse than this. She would get her credits back.

  The woman stepped into a doorway and Piper followed. The office was impressive, with floating chairs and a floor to ceiling view over the city park from the opposite angle of her own apartment’s, so that the great fountain was visible.

  “Please sit,” the woman said. “You’ve asked for your account to be canceled, and that will be done, and the credits returned at the end of this meeting.”

  “Oh,” Piper said,
wondering what they were doing in this swanky office if it was really that simple.

  “We always like to do an exit interview with our departing clients,” the woman explained. “Can you tell me why you’ve decided not to engage our services any longer?”

  “I don’t like saying I’ve given up,” Piper said carefully. “So, I’ll just say I’ve moved on.”

  “So, you are not dissatisfied with our services?” the woman asked.

  “No,” Piper said, wincing as she thought of the sometimes-painful procedures the doctors had implemented to test and attempt to augment her fertility. They were unpleasant, but she knew they had been necessary.

  “And there is no intended match, hoping that you will continue?” the woman asked. “Sometimes we encourage clients to keep the treatment rates they locked in with their credits until they are very sure any potential matches are also satisfied with abandoning treatment.”

  “There is no intended match,” Piper said calmly. “Not anymore.”

  “So, you are single and unattached,” the woman said, looking up.

  “I am,” Piper said, starting to feel offended.

  The woman nodded once, her eyes suddenly alive with interest.

  “In that case,” she said, leaning forward as if there were anyone else in the room that might overhear her, “we have another option to offer you.”