Krinard, Susan - Kinsman's Oath

Title: Kinsman’s Oath
Author: Susan Krinard
Series: Kinsmen series
Pub: Berkley Sensation
Pub Date: May, 2004
ISBN: 0425196550
Genre: Futuristic romance
Time Period:
Setting:
Hero: Ronan VelKalevi
Heroine: Captain Cynara D'Accorso

Summary:

Ronan VelKalevi was a man torn between two worlds. Born into the human race, he was kidnapped at the age of six by the alien shaauri. More than twenty years later, he has found himself on the run from the aliens who raised him--and being saved by a ship of humans. Captain Cynara D'Accorso, commander of the Pegasus, has no reservations about rescuing the telepathic Kinsman from his damaged ship. But she isn't expecting the dangerous emotions this troubled man awakens in her--or that he isn't the innocent fugitive he claims to be. Now, as their hearts fall prey to passion, Ronan and Cynara must discover the paths to which they were born before their destinies destroy them both ...

Excerpt:

Prologue

The boy was young--young enough to be barred from the areas of the Persephonean corvette he most wanted to see, and to be assigned one of the Archon's own special agents during the voyage into shaauri space. Too young for wandering the corridors, where he might interfere with the duties of busy crew; too young to visit engineering with its vast sparkling pillars filled with dancing light like rainbows in a bottle, or to join his parents on the bridge.

All during the journey, he had spent most of his time in his small cabin or in the Aphrodite's mess hall, where he played games on the holosim or cards with Agent Teklys. She laughed when he almost beat her at Nova and told him he was too young to be so good.

But he was not too young to know when something had gone terribly wrong.

The first warning came when the Aphrodite shook as if a great fist had slammed into its hull. Agent Teklys jumped out of her seat, hand flying to the gun at her belt, and stared up as if she could see through the overhead to the source of the explosion.

The boy followed her gaze. "What is it?" he asked. All of a sudden he was very excited and very scared. "Is someone attacking the ship?"

Before she could answer, the first alarm shrieked over the intercom. Agent Teklys muttered something fierce under her breath. The boy felt her fear; he couldn't read thoughts, not yet, but he sometimes caught images, feelings. What he glimpsed in Teklys's mind made his stomach flip-flop like a spike-eel in a fishing net.

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Comments:

The Kinsmen series

Book 1: Kinsman (in Out of This World anthology)
Book 2: Kinsman’s Oath