Finding the Jewel Read online

  Finding the Jewel

  A Kindred tales Novel

  Evangeline Anderson

  Loving a Stranger

  Evangeline Anderson

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Evangeline Anderson Books

  Copyright © 2018 by Evangeline Anderson

  E-book License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the e-book retailer of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  *Cover content is for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted on the cover is a model*

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  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  Claimed (also available in audio)

  Hunted (also available in audio)

  Sought (also available in audio)

  Found (also available in audio)

  Revealed (coming soon in audio)

  Pursued

  Exiled

  Shadowed

  Chained

  Divided

  Devoured

  Enhanced

  Cursed

  Enslaved

  Targeted

  Forgotten

  Switched

  Uncharted

  Unbound

  Surrendered

  Vanished

  Kindred Tales series (side stories in the Brides of the Kindred world which stand alone outside the main story arc.)

  Mastering the Mistress

  Bonding with the Beast

  Seeing with the Heart

  Freeing the Prisoner

  Healing the Broken (the first ever Kindred Christmas novel)

  Taming the Giant

  Bridging the Distance

  Loving a Stranger

  Finding the Jewel

  Alien Mate Index Series

  Abducted: (also available in print)

  Protected: (also available in print)

  Descended: (also available in print)

  Severed: (also available in print)

  Cougarville series

  Buck Naked (Also available in Audio)

  Cougar Bait (Also available in Audio)

  Stone Cold Fox (Also available in Audio)

  Big Bad Wolf (coming soon)

  Stand Alone Novels

  Purity (also available in audio)

  The Institute: Mishka's Spanking

  The Academy (YA novel)(Now available in Audio)

  Hunger Moon Rising

  Cougar Christmas

  Deal with the Devil(also available in audio)

  Planet X (also available in audio)

  The Sacrifice (Also available in Audio)

  Blood Kiss

  Born to Darkness Paranormal series

  Crimson Debt (now available in audio)

  Scarlet Heat (now available in audio)

  Ruby Shadows (now available in audio)

  The CyBRG Files with Mina Carter

  Unit 77: Broken

  Unit 78: Bred

  *1. All Kindred novels are now available in PRINT

  *2. Also, all Kindred novels are on their way to Audio, join my Audiobook Newsletter to be notified when they come out.

  *Author's Note*

  There is a bit of slightly rough sex in here but it is not intentional. If you're scratching your head saying, "what?" then read on to find out what I mean. I just wanted to let you know so nobody gets upset.

  ; ) Evangeline

  Listening to a good book is like reading it all over again for the first time. My Brides of the Kindred and Kindred Tales books are being put into Audio format with the first 7 already out. To be the first to find out when a new book goes to audio, join my Audiobook newsletter HERE--I only send it out when there is a new book to announce.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek at Book 2 of the CyBRG Files by Evangeline Anderson and Mina Carter

  Sneak Peek at Brides of the Kindred 22, Imprisoned

  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

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  Prologue

  “Let me out! Let me out, damn it!” Chloe pounded on the door and shouted at the top of her lungs—not that it would do any good. Not that anyone would let her out. They never did.

  Still, she couldn’t stop trying. She had been stuck in this hell-hole for almost a month and it was driving her crazy.

  “Let me out!” she shouted again, knowing it was useless. When she’d first been kidnapped she had spent a whole day and night screaming and pounding on the door and it had done her no good at all. But Chloe wasn’t a quitter so every once in a while she tried again.

  With an angry sigh, she slumped to the floor with the unbreakable wooden door at her back and surveyed her prison.

  It certainly was a far cry from the holding cell where she’d once spent the night after a peaceful protest she’d joined in college had turned into a riot. There were no bars, no bare floor, no lidless toilet streaked with unmentionable substances in one dirty corner. In fact, quite the opposite.

  Her jail was a freaking mansion. Or more accurately—a Smart House dressed up like a mansion.

  It had glossy hardwood bamboo floors, sleek modern furniture in shades of black, white and taupe, an oval fire pit in the middle of the living room, an infinity pool to swim in, a vast king-sized bed with five thousand thread count sheets, a soaking tub with massage jets, and a state of the art, surround sound entertainment theater.

  But none of those things mattered to Chloe. None of them made the house any less than what it was—a prison.

  A prison that was slowly starving her to death.

  As if in answer to her morbid thoughts, a square of light suddenly began to grow in front of her, about three feet above her head. It was an empty cube for a moment, then, suddenly a blue worm-like creature appeared, framed by the golden light. It had long eyes on stalks and multiple arms and legs sticking out from its wormy body. All of it was dark, indigo blue.

  The first time Chloe had seen this, she freaked out. Now it was almost normal—if anything in her new life could be considered normal.

  “What do you want?” she snapped at the creature who was staring at her with disapproval on its wormy-face—although how she could tell the worm was disapproving of her, Chloe would have had a hard time explaining. It was more a feeling the worm radiated than an actual expression.

  “Chloe Deems,” it said in a high, squeaky voice. “You are in violation of your scheduled routine. Why have you not weighed in yet? Your body-fat measurement system is calling for you, yet you ignore it!”

  Sure enough, from somewhere upstairs in the luxurious bathroom, Chloe could hear a plaintive voice
calling her name. The sound was somewhat muffled because she had tiptoed in that morning and piled the puffy goose down pillows from the vast king-sized bed onto the scale, hoping to shut the damn thing up. But still she could hear it…

  “Chloe, it’s time for your morning measurement. Chloe…come to be weighed…”

  Chloe sighed and pressed her fingers to her eyes, fighting back the urge to shout at her worm-like captor. It didn’t do any good to shout—they didn’t care if you shouted at them. It just got her all worked up for nothing and made her feel worse.

  “I don’t want to be weighed today,” she said in a low, mutinous tone. I don’t need to be weighed. I’m very healthy—I’m in good shape. That’s all that should matter.”

  “You are in quite good physical condition,” the worm acknowledged grudgingly. “But you do not appear as the sexual ideal for your planet. This is what we require you to look like.”

  For a moment his wormy face disappeared and another image took its place—a stick-thin model with glossy blonde hair, a pouty mouth, and about 2% body fat. It looked like a picture clipped from a magazine and Chloe wondered savagely if the Commercians—as the wormy captors called themselves—got all their fashion and health advice from Cosmo. Did they also think she needed to have her 10 most embarrassing beauty questions answered or know 101 tricks to keep her man happy in bed?

  “That’s been photo-shopped,” she snapped, pointing at the picture. “No real woman has a shape like that—you’d have to remove your last three pairs of ribs to get a waist that skinny. She’s like a skeleton with makeup on!”

  The picture of the glamorous model disappeared and her captor popped up again.

  “This removal of ribs—is it a medical procedure many Earth women undergo?” he inquired.

  Chloe swallowed hard. As bad as things were, they could always get worse. She didn’t need her wormy captors putting her under the knife to make her the perfect girl they wanted so badly.

  “Uh, no,” she said quickly. “No, I was just kidding. I was trying to tell you that the picture you showed me has been altered to show a woman who can’t really exist.”

  “If such a female cannot exist than why is she your planet’s ideal standard of beauty?” the worm demanded in his high, squeaky voice. “You must strive harder to reach this standard, Chloe. We have potential buyers coming and they expect only the best from Dimensional Doors Discount Females.”

  Chloe made a face. “Yes, because putting the word ‘Discount’ in your company name is a sure way to make people think they’re getting the best of the best.”

  “Assuredly it is,” the worm said confidently. Apparently his species didn’t get sarcasm. “Which is why we need you to look your best. Also,” he added. “You know you will not be allowed access to any food until you weigh in.”

  “Like the food you let me have is any good,” Chloe muttered, dragging herself to her feet. Nutrition pellets and celery—that’s what she’d been living on for weeks now. Like a freaking guinea pig in a cage. It was enough to make her want to give up.

  “If you have lost weight instead of gaining it, you may be allowed a treat,” the blue worm said enticingly. “You know there are many treats in the food-prep area—you just have to earn them Chloe.”

  “Shut up with your damn ‘treats’. I am not a dog you can train,” Chloe snapped, but nonetheless, she dragged herself to her feet. Upstairs in the bathroom she could still hear the scale calling her name… “Chloe…Chloe…”

  “Coming,” she shouted irritably as she made her way up the long, elegantly curved front staircase. “I’m, coming—just hold your damn horses!”

  As she trudged up the stairs, the fitness monitoring bracelet strapped to her wrist counted them off with breathless excitement.

  “Oh goody—stairs!” it exclaimed. “Two, three, four—look at you go, Chloe! You’re going to be in perfect shape before you know it. six, seven eight—Yay!”

  “Shut…up,” Chloe grated at it, knowing it would do no good. Every damn appliance in this horrible house talked to her about her weight and fitness and she wished she could break every one of them with a hammer. It was like living in an apartment full of personal trainers who had only one client—her.

  This really is a hell hole, she thought to herself as she trudged and tried to block out the chirpy voice coming from her wrist. How did I get into this mess in the first place?

  Oh right, she had been helping her friend, Amanda, take the perfect picture for that new dating app, Naughty-but-Nice…

  Chapter One

  One Month Ago

  “I’m telling you, Chloe, you ought to join. Are you getting my good side there?”

  Amanda flipped her long blonde hair to one side and looked over one slim shoulder, a pouty, flirty look on her pretty face.

  “I’m doing my best if you’d stop moving.” Chloe gave an exasperated laugh as she pressed the button, capturing her best friend’s pose. They were standing in front of her bathroom mirror—a wide pane of glass that covered most of one wall—and trying to get just the right shot. Both of them were reflected in the shiny surface but they could scarcely have been more different.

  Amanda was tall and lean—like a greyhound, Chloe always thought—with long blonde hair and big brown eyes like melted chocolate. Men regularly fell into and drowned in those eyes and Amanda knew it—she liked to flirt.

  Chloe, on the other hand, was 5’3” and round and plump where her friend was long and lean. She also had long blonde hair but she dyed it cotton candy pink because she liked pink, damn it. Her eyes were dark blue and fringed thickly with dark lashes, her nose was small, and her mouth was shaped like a cupid’s kiss. In fact, her face was prettier than her friend’s—not that it seemed to matter.

  Amanda was the ideal shape and Chloe…was not, at least according to the world’s standards. Which was one reason she wasn’t eager to join the new dating app her friend liked so much.

  Despite their physical differences, the two girls were best friends and had been since they were paired as roommates at USF in college. Amanda had gone into Clinical Social Work while Chloe had gotten a Masters degree in Speech Language Pathology. Though their fields differed, they were both committed to helping their patients—it was one thing that drew them together. Well, that and the fact that Amanda wouldn’t stop pestering Chloe to get out there and date.

  “I’m telling you, it’s awesome,” Amada said, moving again as Chloe snapped another picture on her cell phone. “I’ve had six matches already. I just have to decide which ones to take.”

  Chloe sighed. “Well that’s because you’re shaped like a ballet dancer and you look gorgeous.”

  “You’re gorgeous too,” her friend said, frowning for once. Chloe caught the expression with a click but she knew Amanda wouldn’t want to use it for the app. “You’re just gorgeous in an unconventional way. If you would just post some head shots and close ups…”

  “No.” Chloe cut her off. “Screw that. I post pictures of the real me—all of me. The time I let you talk me into just posting head shots on that one site I had that horrible date with that jerk who kept telling me how pretty I’d be if I would just ‘drop a few pounds’ and who ‘forgot’ his wallet so I had to pay. But of course, he acted like he was doing me a favor even going out with me, the asshole.”

  “There are jerks on every site,” Amanda said gently. “I’ve dated a lot of toads too—still looking for Prince Charming.”

  “Well, Prince Charming is going to have to accept me for who I am,” Chloe declared. “I’m a little weird and not at all thin—a curvy girl closer to a size twenty than a size two who likes Steampunk cos-play, anime, cheesy romance, baking cookies and then eating them, damn it!”

  Amanda laughed delightedly. “You should put all that as your dating profile!”

  “And then put, ‘curvy girl seeks guy who is actually into curvy girls—not just a wanna-be personal trainer looking to prey on her insecurities,’” Chloe sa
id.

  “What?” Amanda frowned. “You mean you wound up with a guy like that?”

  Chloe nodded and grimaced.

  “Unfortunately. After I posted some pictures of the real me, not just my ‘pretty face’ I ended up on a date with some guy who was just trying to sell me on the idea of taking classes with him at the gym. He negged me all night—kept saying how he could ‘whip me into shape.’ I don’t want to be whipped into shape, damn it! I’m not out of shape. Just because I’m plus-sized doesn’t mean I’m unfit.”

  “I know that’s true.” Amanda nodded. “You do fine when we do a spinning class together. Ugh—my legs are killing me after the first fifteen minutes but you just keep going and going!”

  “Exactly.” Chloe sighed. “I’m just never going to be stick thin. Because while I don’t hate exercise, I do love chocolate and baking and eating what I bake. Because let’s be real—I’m an awesome baker.” She made a face at herself in the mirror and laughed—a laugh which turned into another sigh.

  “You’re going to find a guy who loves you for you,” Amanda assured her. “You just can’t give up trying.” She shook her head. “It’s too bad the Kindred don’t have a dating site. But they match up with their women some other way, I guess.”

  Chloe gave her friend a surprised look.

  “Would you go on a date with one of them if they did? I thought you said they’re too big and scary.”

  “Well, for me they are.” Her friend laughed. “But you’re fearless, Chloe! And I’ve heard that the Twin Kindred especially love curvy girls.”

  Chloe made a face. “Sorry, girlfriend—that’s too many dicks on the dance floor for me. One man at a time please.”

  Amanda laughed. “Blood Kindred then—they have the sexy vampire thing going on.”