Michaela Read Online Free PDF

military?” Raxstad looked confused.
    Michaela shrugged. “Hell if I know. Once you get through that and reach the age of legal adulthood, you go on to basic military training. Lucky us, after that we would get to fight on the front lines in battles. It’s essentially training to be cannon fodder. Not that I’d have gotten that far. They would have found me out at the physical.” 
    “What exactly did you do as a junior serviceman?” Govi asked.
    “I slung hash in the mess.” At their confused looks, Michaela offered up her wonderful throaty laugh. “I served meals in the ship’s cafeteria and cleaned up afterward. It wasn’t awful. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to try and escape Earth for good. That’s why I signed up in the first place.”
    “A plan that has succeeded,” Korkla congratulated her.
    She gave him a rueful smile. “After over a year of waiting and hoping. I worried that I’d be shipped back to Earth to be trained when I became a legal adult. Being diverted to Plasius a few months ago saved my skin. That being said, my escape is still not quite a success. If the battlecruisers orbiting the planet find a way to send fighters to tear everything apart before I get out of here, I’m screwed.”
    Raxstad spoke in a forbidding tone. “They won’t get anywhere near you. Besides, you’re not going to be here much longer anyway.”
    Korkla grinned. “We are getting you and your friend Jessica McInness off this planet. No matter how you feel about my clan, you are going to Kalquor, where you’ll be permanently free from Earth.”
    Michaela’s sudden beaming smile was the most beautiful thing Korkla had ever seen. It was the smile of the terminally ill patient who had received a miracle cure. Her dark eyes, so brown they were almost black, brightened with unshed tears.
    She ducked her head to hide the burst of emotion. She stared down at her empty glass. In a choked voice, she said, “Well, hell. I don’t want to get stupid drunk, but I think the occasion calls for a little extra celebration.”
    Govi laughed and took her glass away to refill it, this time with the more expensive and inebriating leshella. As he did so, Korkla took the opportunity to slip his arm around Michaela’s waist.
    She started and looked up at him. The Dramok’s chest ached to see the young, beautiful face staring into his, her expression suffusing with warmth. He would have been happy had she merely allowed him to maintain the embrace. Israla had warned him Michaela avoided physical contact with others.
    However, the little Earther leaned a little against him, her gaze hopeful. With her soft body against him, Korkla was sure more than ever that he wanted Michaela Blake to be his.
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    Michaela peeled her eyes open to see the ceiling of her guest quarters in Israla’s home. Four small lighting globes, all dimmed to nearly dark, floated overhead. They bumped into each other occasionally like blundering newborn puppies.
    She stretched and yawned. It looked to be early. The first soft sunlight of a new day was only now filtering into the large picture window. Beyond the pane of glass stretched an expanse of verdant lawn. Dewdrops shimmered on the edges of tufted grasses.
    Michaela drowsily checked the firepit in the middle of the room, confirming it was dark with no smoldering remnants. She hadn’t lit it the night before. She could barely smell the perfumed dregs of the last fire that remained in the air.
    She turned over on the plush midnight blue lounger that served as her seating and sleeping surface. Her silk nightgown rustled against the downy covering that kept her toasty warm. She closed her eyes, ready to doze a little longer. And why not? The Coming of Age Festival was still a few days off.
    She and Jessica would be dancing an exhibition for the Plasians on that day. Their performance was scheduled to take place right after the young virgin men and women who had reached legal adulthood had