Blades of Arris: Ranse Audiobook

Narrated by J.F. Harding, Hazel Addison, and Thomas Locklear.

On an alien world, the Prince of Blades will do anything to possess me.
I can make him an emperor.
He better treat me like a queen....

"I really love this series. Characters I care about and worlds I want to explore. There is an actual story in this sci fi romance, not the predictable norm. I really hope we get stories for Erion, Jian and Cullus’s son." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reader

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• Primal Mating Mark/Bite💜
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• Protective Hero⚔️
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• Spice 4 out of 5

"What a fun story; I recommend it to anyone looking for a distraction because this is an intense and complicated story line. I am thankful that the horrors are kept at bay, enough information to understand what was done without the lingering details that bring nightmares. This is highly imaginative and suspenseful. The word play is fun. Thank you for the hard work." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reader

Sample from Chapter 4:

~RANSE~

Movement above draws all eyes. I keep mine on Ishula—and she does the same with me—but we also angle to watch as Allie’s hand curls around the edge of the door and her shapely leg moves out of the pod. We can see it in the massive viewscreens that project my image on the walls of every level.

The nightclub murmurs as she steps out of the pod onto her odd stilt-shoes, her curves such a contrast to our sensible flat shape. Her brown eyes rove over the gathered customers, tracing the heights and depths of her surroundings, but she doesn’t look intimidated or awed, just that she’s taking their measures. Her gaze continues downward and centers on me.

She gives me a warm smile, and it feels like being kissed by raw sunlight. “There you are.”

“Here I am.” I walk jauntily toward her platform, even though she’s far above me, drawing out the interaction to prove the point to Ishula. “Did you hear? This covetous man wants to take you away from me.”

Orunfax seethes.

Allie’s brows lift, and she puts a hand on her hip, silently challenging anyone to try. “Oh, I heard everything.”

“Did you?”

“You have an amazing sound system. I feel like I’m right beside you.”

“Ishula,” Orunfax snaps.

The captain of the guard ignores him.

“Lesser.” Orunfax’s voice is filled with the order of doom, and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I can’t imagine how scary it must be to Allie. “In the name of the empire, come down here.”

Allie’s eyes go wide.

“You want me to come down? You want me to…” Allie glances around the throne area, then steps onto the small floating drink tray next to my throne. It’s barely big enough for her to stand with her feet spread apart, and it’s definitely not safe for a lesser who has no idea how to control her body. “…to fly on down and serve myself up to you? Is that what you want?”

“Stay up there,” I encourage Allie. “Out of the way.”

“But can I? Oh, goodness.” Allie makes her lips into lush “oh” and covers them with her studded nails, but there’s something a little off in her reaction. “So many conflicting commands. Oops.”

She extends the long handle that controls the tray and begins to descend, then wobbles to a stop. “Ooh. I’m just unsure. I know Ranse, and he seems like a person I should listen to. Who do you think you are?”

Orunfax is a block of ice. “I am the leader of the high commanders and special adviser to the emperor.”

“An adviser?” She wrinkles her nose in disdain. “That’s all?”

“Come down, lesser.”

“Hmm.” She moves the handle. The circular drink tray lifts, causing her to rock on her heels.

My stomach dips, but she corrects herself with a laugh and rises to what must be a dizzying height for a lesser.

Orunfax snarls. “I ordered you to come down here.”

“And Ranse ordered me to stay up here.” She looks down at him, peering between her feet. “You might think advising is important, honey, but he’s a prince.”

“Arrisans have no princes. Lesser—”

“Next in line to inherit.” She rolls her eyes like he’s being pedantic, then chants in a little singsong. “He is a prince, you are a nobody, he’ll inherit everything, you’ll get nothing.”

His jaw drops.

I choke on a laugh. Even though I can’t strike him down where he stands, seeing him filled with incredulity is almost healing. I didn’t know how badly I needed this. My chest moves, and I give in to honest mirth.

Orunfax whips to me with a fury that he doesn’t normally show out in the open. To those beneath him, he inspires terror, but to people like me, he has to keep it behind the facade. He refocuses on Ishula, barely controlling himself. “Get her. Bring her down.”

It would have been easy to capture her while Allie was on my throne, but now she’s swerving on a tiny unstable drink tray. Ishula’s shoulders lift and slump with a drawn-out, put-upon sigh.

“She’s a danger to the empire,” Orunfax reasons coldly. “She’s going to be taken by our enemies if we don’t take her first. And…”

Allie’s singsong voice echoes down to us from the top of the nightclub. My sound manager must be on her as she flutters and poses in front of the rowdy crowds.

“Am I dangerous?” Allie slides down the handle, then rises, puckering her lips. “Do I scare you? Am I frightening?” She trails one hand over her curves, accentuating them. “Do I terrify you?”

The closest tier falls over themselves, and my staff fight to hold them back, but she floats the tray away, out of danger, and switches to an ordinary conversational tone. “Hello, Arris Central, my name is Allie and I’m a lesser from Humana. You’ve probably never heard of us. We’re out on the fringe.

“And on that little planet of Humana, I never thought of myself as terrifying, but I’ll let you big, bad Arrisans decide. Where I’m from, I’m just an ordinary girl. I’m not even that sophisticated.” She laughs and descends to the next level eagerly awaiting her attention, then switches back to song with an undulating hip shake. “Do you want to touch me? Lick me? Breathe me in?”

They swoon.

She floats out of their reach, twirling to look over her shoulder. “I’ve driven plenty of men wild, but I never realized feelings could threaten the empire.” She sings in the middle of the nightclub, “I am dangerous. My love will burn you up. And I’ll just walk away. Because you’re nothing, nothing, nothing.”

With the last word of her song, she looks down at Orunfax again.

I think I love this woman.

Allie asks the next tier of raving fans, “Have you ever been this close to a deadly weapon?”

They raise their glasses and slosh drinks, simply captivated.

Ishula still hesitates.

“Well, it’s time for you to go.” I clap my hands at the palace guards. “If you stay, you’re going to have to pay the cover. It’s triple for anyone from the palace.”

Orunfax glares at Ishula. “Her blood is needed for the security of the empire. Obey.”

There’s a long pause.

“You know…” Ishula’s chin remains tilted up at her target, but her gaze slides over to Orunfax. “You never actually showed proof that this retrieval was ordered by the emperor.”

He turns a darker shade of gray. “I order you—”

“We don’t obey the High Command.” Ishula straightens and jerks her chin at her guards. They pivot gracefully, wrists down, and exit.

His argument trails off in shock.

I’m going to send Ishula a nice liquor on the house. “You’re not allowed in under any circumstances.” I shoo Orunfax. “Out, out.”

He holds my gaze with cold promise. “You know I’ll take her away from you.”

My blades extend to the tips of my fingers. “Oh, do I know that?”

“I’ll destroy her before I let an insignificant thing like that threaten the empire.” A subtle breath note is on the last word, as if he’s suppressing the fury that’s quaking inside him. “And I…” He catches himself, frowns at his fingernails, then, when he looks up at me again, it’s with the false warmth that’s fooled so many others. “Your brother listens to me quite devoutly as his special adviser, unlike you, who are exiled to this pointless nightclub. Enjoy your time with your lesser, because it’s going to end far sooner than you think.”

The dig about my brother hurts because it’s true.

“Do I make you crazy?” Allie sings now as she sits on her drink tray and rides it. “Everybody wants me, but only one man can have me. I collect hearts. You give me all your stars. Baby, I’m queen of the universe. Give me wings and watch me fly.”

She’s so alive. Acting like the rules don’t apply to her, like she’s not a lesser at the mercy of us, her rulers, in this empire. She’s surrounded on all sides, and the danger just makes her shine.

My rage calms as I look back on the man I hate with everything I have. “You’ve been wrong about a lot of things lately. I wouldn’t be so certain.”

He blinks, and there’s something in his face, some “caught” micro-expression that’s gone so fast, I can’t quite tell what it was. It almost looks like surprise, as if I discovered something about him that he was desperately trying to keep concealed.

He hurries to the exit and is gone.

Huh.

I stretch. My shoulders are finally loose, chest no longer tight. This is the first time since my father’s assassination I’ve felt almost normal...

TRIGGER WARNINGS: 

"What a rush!!! How can the author possibly TOP this one?? Oranfax and his political manipulations, intrigues and coveting of the Arrisan throne feature prominently in Ranse and Allie’s story but does not detract from their epic in scope storyline which begins to unravel the many diverse threads that are weaved into its extraordinary tapestry of action, adventure and love. YES, lots of steamy, passionate overwhelming love! This was a FANTASTIC read and I was immersed in every delicious larger-than-life well written word that pulls a reader in and WON’T release them until its imaginative high energy narrative has reached the final satisfying page. Allie, you surely are a kingmaker, Amante of Ranse." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reader

"As a woman of color, I feel seen and represented and in the deepest most apolitical, human way. This review took me days to write. This book shook me because people who look like me are not usually positive main characters in Western media. We're not usually the main love interests. We are not represented with the vulnerability, delicacy, or intelligence of others--as human, flawed, thoughtful, loving, capable of all the same human things as others. Our hair, skin, hands, and feet are not seen and touched as objects of beauty in mass media. This book did all of that in the most natural, human way and it means the world to me. I never grew up with that and the absence of that was healed some by this book. Thank you Starla." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reader

"I waited for months to read the story and as soon as it dropped, I immediately read it in one night. I was not disappointed in all I can say about this book is wow! There are so many things that go on in this book that you may have to read it two or three times to grasp just as much that happens in this book. Slow start but man once you get past about the fourth chapter? It turns up really fast! So much chaos and so much extenuating circumstances that it's worth it." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reader

 

Runtime: 10 hr 29 min.