Free Nemesis: Box Set: Books 1 - 3 by David Beers

body had been his. No one else could lay claim to them, and that was the way the world worked. The way the whole goddamn universe worked.
    No longer, though.
    It took him time to fully calm down, but eventually the panic subsided, and for a while he sat alone, watching the huge animal sleep.
    Until it woke.
    All at once, coming to life like a car hooked to jumper cables.
    Bryan thought he knew fear before she woke. He thought he knew panic. But what he saw controlling his body, what he saw possessing his mind—he quickly realized everything he had felt was a single grain of salt in the ocean.
    Bryan Yetzer, she said, savoring the words like wine. I enjoy your language .
    Bryan had no response, had no idea what it even meant that the being was a female and that she was talking to him. Fear paralyzed him.
    Stay quiet, Bryan Yetzer. There is a lot to be done yet.
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    M orena walked down the steps , the hand she controlled reaching out to the bannister. This body wasn’t tough to get used to; it was a primitive thing, and that meant it lacked the capabilities of her own body. She couldn’t resurrect her own body yet, though she desperately wanted to. The risk was too great right now, using all of that energy to sustain her life, especially given what she might have to do here. If this planet didn’t work out, she didn’t know if she would have the energy necessary to leave this place.
    So this body would have to do.
    She reached the bottom of the steps and smelled…sustenance. The creature inside her knew what the sustenance was called—bacon and eggs—and his body was already reacting to it. She paused, not moving until she understood exactly what was happening. The body was hungry, meaning it wanted to consume the sustenance.
    Makers be blessed, this thing was ancient. The need to consume outside sources to continue living. Morena decided right then she wanted to understand the history of this species, to understand how long this evolution had taken. Depending on the time, she might just wipe out the entirety of them. They might not be worth the sustenance they consume if their genes were that weak.
    Still, she would have to eat, if for nothing else than to keep this creature’s body going.
    Morena plotted out her way to the kitchen inside Bryan’s head, wanting to be sure where she was heading before she started walking. Once she felt confident about what was expected of her in the next room, she moved forward.
    “Good morning, honey,” a female said from the left of the kitchen. Morena didn’t understand, but knew that she didn’t want to stop right here and try to figure it out. She continued walking, making her way to the table where Bryan’s memory told her she should sit. What did it mean, these words— good morning, honey ? Communication. That’s what was happening, this woman was talking to her, and she was…showing affection? Yes, that’s what Bryan’s memories relayed to her, though he was in no condition to actually tell Morena himself.
    The woman expected Morena to speak back.
    “Good morning,” she said as she sat down at the table. She heard someone else coming down the stairs, and continued her rapid assimilation of Bryan’s memories. This was going to be tougher than she thought. When she arrived at the house early in the morning, she was only concerned with healing the holes she made, not with getting a firm grasp of the social aspect of this species. They were social, though, intensely so according to Bryan’s memories.
    In this body, there was little she could do to protect herself against an attack. If this body died, it didn’t mean Morena died, but it did make everything else she had planned that much more unlikely. She needed to keep this body safe, at least for a time, and that meant she needed to understand the social structures these creatures lived under.
    A male figure, Bryan’s father, walked into the kitchen and Morena turned around to look at him. “Good morning,” she