Caged by the Alien: A Scifi Alien Romance (Fated Mates of the Titan Empire Book 2)

by Tammy Walsh

  “He’s handsome,” I whispered to Stari. “You know, for a Yayora.”

  “Is he?” she said innocently. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  I kept my eyes firmly on her. When she glanced up at me, she couldn’t help but break into a grin. It was the first time I’d seen a blush rise to her cheeks.

  “He’s… okay,” she said. “Better than most of the other guys, anyway. Which isn’t saying much.”

  But it was saying a lot. She wasn’t the kind of person to throw compliments around.

  “You know what I think?” I said.

  “No. And I don’t want to know.”

  “I think you should kiss him. It might be your last chance.”

  “No way. We need to focus on the mission. I don’t need him to start thinking with his—”

  Her green skin blushed so hard she looked like an unripe strawberry.

  “You just try to keep your eyes on the goal,” I said.

  Stari glared at me until her face returned to its normal color.

  “Are you ready?” V’Sen said.

  “She’s more ready than you’ll ever know,” I said.

  The comment caught Stari off balance.

  “Yes,” she said sweetly. “We’re ready.”

  When V’Sen turned toward the opening, Stari slapped me on the arm.

  I took a deep breath. This was it. The calm before the storm.

  We weren’t going to get a better opportunity than this.

  Or a riskier one.

  We stepped into the sunlight and crossed the rolling dunes. I walked out front with dirt smeared across my cheeks and forehead, and my hands restrained behind my back. Stari and V’Sen followed, dressed in their hoods and looking every bit like the Changeling siblings they were mimicking.

  The deep caves provided easy access to the rest of the section with their sprawling caverns. One brought us to the spot where we knew the Changeling Control Room was located.

  We approached a blank stretch of land that looked unremarkable. No one would have thought anything was there.

  But we knew differently.

  The Control Room was right there.

  The future of the Yayora depended on it.

  Once we reached it, it would be up to how the Changelings in the Control Room reacted. Would they buy our disguises? Or would they twig us for who we really were?

  I wished there was a third option.

  Chax

  Iron Hoof was well-trained.

  Too well-trained.

  If it’d only been down to strength, I was confident I could take him. But he must have served in the military at some point or got special training because he always seemed to know where my next attack was coming from.

  He blocked my attacks and used them against me. He didn’t beat me to a pulp. He didn’t need to. He took pains to ensure he avoided hitting me in the face.

  That was for the benefit of the cameras. There was nothing an audience disliked more than having to stare at a bruised face.

  “T-Minus two minutes,” Computer said.

  She was my saving grace. My android angel.

  Iron Hoof pulled his punch and was surprised to find himself in the middle of the base. He’d lost himself in the moment.

  “Bring him,” he said, taking off at a jog toward the exit.

  The soldiers picked me up. I didn’t put up any resistance. I needed to get as far away from the base as they did.

  A loud siren wailed as we beat a hasty retreat.

  “Ten,” Computer said, counting down. “Nine… Eight…”

  The hallway stretched further and further away the closer we drew to it.

  “Five… Four… Three…”

  The soldiers burst outside and hurled themselves—and me—to the ground as they covered their heads with their hands.

  BOOM!

  The explosion knocked us across the ground in sagging heaps. A burp of fire belched from the underground caverns and set two of the struggling Changeling soldiers alight. The others beat at them to put them out.

  If I wanted to escape, now was my chance.

  While they were distracted.

  A heavy weight pressed against my back, pinning me in place. Iron Hoof stood with his foot on me. I struggled but it was no use.

  “Pick him up,” Iron Hoof said.

  “What about the injured men, sir?” a soldier said.

  “Leave them,” Iron Hoof said. “They’re already dead. They just don’t know it yet.”

  The soldiers shared wary glances. None were comfortable with the order but they were too afraid to speak up. They picked me up and carried me toward an awaiting ship.

  I glanced back and watched as a huge arc of fire swept the base up before it. A giant plume of dirt and dust rose into the sky from slits in the landscape.

  The shuttlecraft took off and rose higher. I got a clean panoramic view of the area. Caverns and cracks in the planet’s surface glowed bright like veins.

  That’s where Maddy was, escaping through one of those infinite spiderwebs. I was being hauled off to my inevitable death but a smile came to my lips. Maddy was safe. I was glad I had a hand in that, hurling myself into the fray.

  And I would do it again. I could be given the opportunity a thousand times and I would make the same decision. Even with its dire consequences.

  Maddy was safe. That was all that mattered.

  They put a blindfold over my face after that. They didn’t want me to know where they were taking me. But they didn’t need to bother. It wasn’t like I was going to escape.

  Not this time.

  I’d done too much to give away my loyalties.

  I hugged Maddy when the shuttlecraft exploded, blocking her from the worst of the carnage. She was supposed to die, just as dozens of other girls had.

  At home, the audience would cheer and laugh and clap their hands with joy. I had ruined that ending for them. I didn’t know the resistance would turn up to save her but it was all the same to the Changelings.

  I had ruined their big dramatic finale.

  I was supposed to yell “No!” and make a false attempt to save her.

  That was why they chose Titans to act as the male stars in this program. We were good looking to Changeling eyes, in good shape, and healed fast—always necessary with the aggressive tactics the trackers employed.

  They didn’t know I informed the Yayora there was something fishy about the Changeling siblings. I still might have been able to argue my way back into Control’s good graces if I didn’t race to Maddy’s rescue in the base.

  But I had. And worse, she had escaped.

  They would punish me severely for that.

  I shivered at the thought of it and consoled myself with memories of Maddy.

  She was all I had to cling to now.

  The shuttlecraft descended and the soldiers hustled from it. They dragged me behind them with the bag still on my head, making a big show of how they had been the ones to discover me. They led me into Control.

  Usually, they took me downstairs. I was given comfortable quarters—doorless, of course. And I’d be allowed to wash and eat and recover from my most recent ordeal. They would only come for me once it was my turn again to take part in their sadistic little game show.

  But today was different.

  Today, they lead me upstairs, toward the Control Room. The entire building was referred to as the Control Room but there was only one part that actually controlled the show.

  It was the highest room in the building, giving it the best views of the entire section.

  They were gods and this was their domain.

  Iron Hoof wrapped his big hand around the back of my neck as we ascended the steps. Through a hole in the bag’s fabric, I spied a pair of soldiers stepping aside. The doors hissed open and Iron Hoof shoved me forward.

  The room was large, with monitors running along the walls on three different levels. They would be divided by task, not that I knew what those were.

&n
bsp; We wound up the steps from one level to another. I got looks from workers but they ignored me and bent back over their screens.

  So many workers to produce such a disgusting show.

  I was in the heart of the beast, the lion’s den. Press the right button and I could bring the whole thing crashing down.

  But I had no idea which button that was or if it even existed. It was Maddy’s jurisdiction, not mine.

  We came to the top floor. Iron Hoof whipped the bag off my head and I squinted against the sunlight. I was in a single room with glass walls that gave unparalleled views over the alien species’ rolling dune landscape. No computers in here. Just a single large table with a to-scale model of the section.

  I could make out the barn where Maddy and I last made love beneath the starry sky. And there, the farm the big lug beside me had demolished.

  The buildings had already been altered and rebuilt so they looked more like those outside. The model maker added the finishing touches to what appeared to be a new addition.

  A crater just off-center of the whole section.

  The Yayora base.

  Former base.

  The model maker straightened up and raised his microscope glasses to peer at me. He motioned to the model.

  “What do you think?” he said.

  “Very pretty,” I said.

  I kept my voice neutral. I couldn’t help but feel disgusted toward this man. It was only a model to him. It had once been a species’ homeworld and they’d taken it from them.

  The model maker morphed into his original shape, a Changeling, and moved to a small sink where he washed his hands and the paintbrushes he’d been using.

  “I find hands like yours are much better for small, delicate movements and creative acts,” he said. “Necessary for a piece of art such as this. Of course, you would never hear the Changeling Council say such a thing. It’s heresy to admit there are strengths and weaknesses to be found in every species.”

  “You’re in charge of Lovers’ Escape?” I said.

  “Yes,” the model maker said. “Does it surprise you?”

  His name was Ghoika and he was known as the Creator.

  “I thought you would be… different,” I said.

  “Different how? There’s no need to stand on ceremony.”

  Meaning: I was going to die, so anything I said didn’t matter. The outcome was always going to be the same.

  “I thought you would look more aggressive,” I said.

  “Why should that be? The ones at the top never need to take aggressive actions, only order others to do it for them. Like our friend Iron Hoof here. A fine, powerful beast. He could snap your neck like a twig if I told him to.”

  He looked excited by the idea. He might not physically look like a monster but he had the mind of one.

  “But I won’t,” he said. “We’ve developed a much more… dramatic end for you.”

  He approached me. Changelings were tall creatures, so he towered over me. He surveyed me with his black eyes.

  He appeared to be looking for something. I wondered what it was.

  He straightened up.

  “You’re not the first to ruin an episode and you won’t be the last,” he said. “I like to get a good look at the perpetrator before he meets his end. I’m always underwhelmed by what I see. Today is no different. Your family was relying on you. Now they will have to come to a sticky end. Or else we’ll recruit them for one of our other many productions. Tell me, what made you turn your back on them?”

  “I never turned my back on them,” I said through gritted teeth. “You never gave me proof they were still alive. I don’t believe they are.”

  The words stung my lips. I’d never said it out loud before—I didn’t want the Changelings to overhear my concerns and consider me too much of a risk not to continue using in their games. Both me and my family would end up dead in that situation—if they weren’t already. But I’d thought it many times.

  “What if you’re wrong and they’re still alive?” Ghoika said.

  “Then I’d have to hope they fight to escape you the same way I did.”

  Ghoika smiled at me.

  “You underestimate Changelings,” he said.

  “I only know what you’re really like.”

  “And would it surprise you to learn they’re still alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “So that’s why you chose to save your partner’s life?”

  “It’s one of the reasons.”

  “What are the others?”

  There was only one real reason. It trumped the others.

  “I fell in love with her,” I said.

  Ghoika threw back his head and barked an ugly laugh.

  “Yes,” he said. “That is always the excuse they use. For the longest time, I thought love was a kind of madness that made you act against reason. But as I studied it more, I realized it’s merely a dysfunction of your brain. A connection you develop to other things due to chemical imbalances.”

  “That’s a scientist’s explanation of love.”

  “What other explanation is there? Except for the usual fluffy word salad I often hear. Can you shed more light on the subject?”

  “Will it stop you from killing me?”

  “No.”

  “Then why should I help you understand the most powerful force in the universe?”

  Ghoika moved wicked fast. Between one blink and another, I found a pistol in my face.

  “Can your love stop a bullet?” he said.

  “No.”

  “Can it stop Iron Hoof from snapping your neck?”

  “No.”

  “Can it defeat the mighty Changelings?”

  “No.”

  Ghoika lowered the pistol.

  “Then it’s nothing worth learning about,” he said.

  He turned to Iron Hoof.

  “He’s due onstage in an hour,” he said. “Get him through makeup and costume, and then onstage. I want you to stay with him in case he tries anything heroic.”

  Iron Hoof turned me around on the spot and marched me toward the door.

  “There’s one thing you forgot when you asked about love,” I said.

  Iron Hoof growled and squeezed my neck harder.

  “Let him speak,” Ghoika said.

  Iron Hoof relaxed his grip and turned me back around.

  “Love isn’t alive, not until it comes in contact with a living thing,” I said. “But it’s not very strong by itself. It’s only powerful when it links two living things together. That’s love. And when its linked to more people, it spreads, growing even stronger. Can love stop a bullet? No. But a loved one might leap in front of someone to prevent them from dying. Can it stop Iron Hoof from killing me? No. Unless he loves me, and then he’d never hurt me. Can it defeat the mighty Changelings?”

  I smiled and noticed a flicker of hesitation on the Changeling’s face.

  “No,” I said, “unless a species loves their homeworld so much they’re willing to sacrifice their lives to reclaim it. That’s why love is so powerful. And that’s why Changelings will never be as strong as us. They’ll always fail when confronted by love.”

  Ghoika stood there a moment, letting the words run through his mind. Then he waved a hand, dismissing us. He still hadn’t moved a muscle.

  Iron Hoof marched me out the door.

  Can Maddy rescue me from my fate? No. But I would take her with me into the afterlife and love her until the end of time.

  Tell me if a blaster pistol could do that.

  I was rushed through hair, makeup, and costume and led into the green room by my chaperone.

  “Can I make a coffee?” I said, motioning to the facilities on a nearby table.

  “No,” Iron Hoof said. “Sit.”

  He shoved me into a chair.

  On a monitor, I watched as the after-episode talk show continued onscreen. Quus told a few jokes that made no sense to me and didn’t make me laugh, before motioning to a large
screen set up for the audience.

  “Of course, we all remember how Chax and Maddy met, don’t we?” he said. “And the love they developed over the course of the episode.”

  Love.

  Changelings didn’t feel love. They certainly didn’t understand it. And yet, by the look of adoration on the faces of the audience as they watched my relationship with Maddy play out, it was something they were obsessed with.

  They watched our most personal scenes that’d been replaying for the past few days. Us meeting and our initial argument, us sleeping together the first time, us fighting Iron Hoof, and escaping the Changeling siblings in the barn. And then me protecting her as a bolt of fire roared toward us, enveloping us both. The montage ended with a close up on our faces.

  How could these things be so enamored with love when they had no capacity to feel it?

  It was because they couldn’t feel it that they loved watching a show about it. The same way a poor man was enamored with his rich neighbors. There was something mysterious and unknown about them. The same way regular people were obsessed with their favorite celebrities.

  They fell in love with the idea of it, never expecting to get a piece of it themselves.

  Iron Hoof grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet. He led me out of the room and down the hallway toward the side of the stage.

  So was there a way for me to tap into the audience’s deepest desires? A way for me to appeal to them? To convince them to let me live? At least then I would have a chance to find Maddy and get out of there.

  What if I played on their emotions?

  With my death a foregone conclusion, I had nothing to lose.

  I had to try.

  “…please welcome to the stage, Chax!” Quus said.

  Iron Hoof shoved me forward and led me onto the stage. The audience got to their feet and clapped their hands.

  Did they know the truth about my situation? Did they even care about it?

  I raised a hand in welcome. The presenter shook my hand and led me to the sofa. Iron Hoof took a seat beside me.

  “Welcome to the show!” Quus said. “How about that crowd, huh? They love you.”

  “And I love them,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach at the sight of them.

  “Now, we’ve seen you on this show many times in the past,” Quus said, “but we all noticed a little something… special between you and your latest partner. Something the audience couldn’t get enough of. Am I right?”