by Tammy Walsh
She screamed again.
Why would she be screaming? I thought. Was there something wrong with the procedure? Had it failed?
My blood turned cold when I heard that voice.
His voice.
My Shadow.
He’d crept aboard the ship and now had Isabella in his clutches.
I attempted to leap up, to pull myself from these dreams that had suddenly become a nightmare…
But remained trapped there.
“Isabella!” I yelled. “Hold on! I’m coming!”
“Let him serve out his death, Breeder,” Sar said. “You have a date with destiny.”
She kicked and screamed but he was too strong for her.
He dragged her away.
It was the worst noise imaginable.
I didn’t want it to be the last thing I associated with her.
The chair-bed turned and a shield formed over the top.
The chair unlocked itself from its holdings and I floated toward a hole that opened in the wall.
“No!” I yelled. “I’m still alive! Let me go! I need to go!”
But Computer said nothing.
Isabella
The asshole threw me in a room and locked the door behind me.
I banged on it with my fists.
“Let me out! Let me out!”
When it wouldn’t give, I kicked at it and immediately regretted it.
I hopped back and rubbed at my mashed toes.
The door didn’t budge and no amount of pounding was going to change that.
I took a moment and gathered my strength.
How did Ras command this ship again?
Oh yeah…
“Computer, unlock this door.”
Computer made a noise that sounded negative.
“You lack the proper authority.”
“So give me the proper authority!”
“Please speak to your station manager to attain greater access.”
“I don’t have a fucking station manager!”
Computer didn’t respond.
I had to remind myself the voice I was speaking to was little more than Alexa or Cortana on my devices back home.
“Okay,” I said, summoning what few reserves of patience I had remaining. “I came on this ship with Clint.”
“I have no file under that name.”
“Clint… Clint! The guy you did your little operation on a minute ago!”
“You’re referring to Captain Ras Archilon.”
Captain Ras?
Was that his real name?
“Right,” I said. “Ras. I came on board with him so give me the same authority he has.”
“Negative. You may speak with him personally but I cannot authorize you to—”
I growled and stomped my foot.
This Computer was both the smartest and the dumbest thing I had ever come across.
It was only then I realized I was in a room that might have multiple exits.
I cast around.
A single bed sat pushed in the corner and a broad window looked out on the lake outside.
The sun had already risen and cast long shadows across the road.
It would have been an idyllic morning… if it wasn’t for the fact I’d been abducted by Liam or Sar or whatever that thing was!
On the wall adjacent to the main entrance was a second door.
Aha!
I ran, threw it open, and bolted through it.
I skidded on the tile floor, barking my shin against the bath’s edge.
I lost my feet but my momentum carried me forward.
I rolled inside it and struggled to get to my feet, flailing worse than a turtle that’d been knocked over.
The bathroom.
Of course it was the bathroom!
What else could it be?
Well, I’d never been on a spaceship before, so I supposed it could have been anything.
I marched back into the room and staggered as the entire room shunted to one side and drifted on its axis.
I stumbled and pressed my hands to the wall.
Out the window, the obviousness of what was happening played out before me in real-time.
I was flying.
Well, I wasn’t flying but the ship sure was.
It floated up, turned in a long arc, and then rose into the sky.
As it picked up speed, the view showed the world becoming smaller and smaller.
I fell to my knees and held on tight to the wall and clenched my eyes shut tight.
I’d never been the biggest fan of heights.
I peeked out through one eye and watched as the entire continent of the United States zoomed away from me.
We pierced through the atmosphere with great ease and sailed into the long darkness of space.
Although I didn’t like heights, space was entirely different, like being on a large boat when you were afraid of the water.
You could fool yourself into believing you were in a hotel and not floating out in an ocean that could kill you a million different ways if the boat wasn’t there.
I got to my feet and surveyed my situation.
I hadn’t moved an inch and yet it had become a million times worse.
I was in space.
Space.
The final frontier.
The big dark.
The infinite nothing.
I gasped in surprise as a ball of red zipped past the window, swiftly followed by large chunks of asteroid.
We must be traveling at some speed to be passing through the solar system this quickly.
I couldn’t even make out the Earth from here.
Home.
It was gone, taken from me the same way Ras had been…
Ras!
I spun around to face the door—I didn’t know why I did that as presumably Computer was everywhere.
“Computer!” I yelled. “Has Clint, I mean, Captain Ras been blasted into space yet?”
“Negative. He remains in storage bay twelve.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“He’s scheduled to be ejected in ten minutes,” Computer said.
No…
“Cancel that order!” I said.
“Captain Ras issued the order himself. It cannot be canceled by anyone of inferior rank.”
“Captain Ras is the one who’s going to be ejected! He wasn’t the one who gave the order! I was someone else! Someone called Liam. Or a creature called Sar that looks like him!”
“Negative. The captain’s voice perfectly matches that on the captain’s file.”
“I’m telling you it’s not him! You’re about to blow your own captain out the damn airlock!”
Computer didn’t respond with another reply.
Only silence.
Deathly silence that would condemn Ras to float in space forever.
I imagined him waking up in his pod at some point and find our plan had failed.
I had failed.
“Computer, please tell me there’s some way to stop the pod from being expelled into space.”
“The order can only be canceled by Captain Ras or a superior officer.”
I shook my head and slid down the wall.
No matter how many times Computer told me, the message hadn’t sunk into my thick skull.
But now it had.
I couldn’t do a damn thing to protect him.
Shink!
The door hissed open and someone stepped inside.
“Clint!” I said, bolting to my feet to meet him.
The door shut and the figure standing before me was unlike anything I had ever seen before.
He was tall, almost seven feet in height, and the horns that jutted from his head looked fearsome.
His skin was tinted green and shimmered when the light touched it.
His torso bulged with thick cords of muscle, aided by the fact he was bare-chested.
And his eyes…
His eyes.
The
y were the color of melted gold, shining even in the darkness.
At first, it was only his eyes I recognized.
They were Clint a.k.a. Ras’s eyes.
The man I’d lost my heart to.
No, not man…
A creature from another world.
Was it such a surprise?
No, I couldn’t say it was.
I realized a part of me knew the truth the entire time.
It just took a while for me to piece it together.
Seeing the spaceship come out of the lake, the advanced technology, his incredible strength when he fought Liam, and blasting off into space dispelled any further doubts I might have had.
His other facial features were similar to Ras too.
The sharp nose and square chin, the angle of his brow, and the thickness of his wavy hair.
Except, Ras had never looked at me with the same cold indifference Sar, his twin, did.
He lacked his warmth, his kindness.
I might as well be a cow or an empty vase.
He cared as much for me as either of those objects.
“Please,” I said. “You have to cancel your order to eject Ras into space. He doesn’t deserve that.”
The creature sneered at me with that same lack of interest.
“He is a M’rora. I am a Shadow. We have been at war for eons. He deserves death, and he would not hesitate to do the same to me if the situation were reversed.”
Yes, but you’re the bad guy.
You deserve it.
“I’ll give you anything you want if you spare his life,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. “Just name it and it’s yours.”
“You are what I want.”
I was afraid that was the case.
In the creature’s golden eyes, what had so mesmerized me about Ras from our first meeting, was what terrified me now when I looked upon the beast before me.
It had never been his golden irises that ensnared my attention, but the kindness and capacity for deep love within them.
Something this pair of eyes knew nothing about.
“Then I’ll be yours,” I said, the words dripping like treason from my lips.
I didn’t want to belong to this creature.
I wanted to be with Ras.
But I couldn’t be with him, not if he was blasted into space.
The creature reached out to touch me.
“You are already mine, Breeder.”
I pulled away and glared at him with the thickest level of disgust I could muster.
“You’re a monster.”
“I am what I was born to be. Nothing more, nothing less. We are all monsters in another’s eyes.”
I may have made the promise to belong to him but I knew I would betray it the moment I got the chance.
Not that there would ever be that chance.
“The capsule will be ejected in ten seconds,” Computer said.
My eyes snapped up at the alien creature.
“Please, don’t do this,” I begged. “I’ll give you everything you want. Otherwise, I swear to God, I’ll fight you with every fiber of my being!”
“You cannot hope to escape. You are a breeder and belong to the empire.”
“Five,” Computer said.
“A breeder?” I said. “Is that what you want? Then take me! Take me now and let us go!”
“Four.”
“I attempted to take you before because I believed there was no other way for me to claim you. Now I have you and will keep you for the mating ceremony.”
“Three.”
“I’ll refuse to do the ceremony! I’ll embarrass you in front of everyone!”
The tears that leaked from my eyes were cold.
“Two.”
“You will embarrass only yourself. A Shadow expects to take, even what is not willingly given.”
“One.”
I searched for something else to say, something I could threaten him with…
And came up blank.
“Pod ejected,” Computer said.
All hope and longing for the future I thought I would have with Ras had just ended.
We had failed.
I had failed.
And soon, he would be floating out there among the stars, never to be seen again.
The creature approached and turned me around to face the window.
The pod was a single chip of technology against the cold darkness of space, turning end over end.
I turned away and shut my eyes.
Still, the tears stung my throat and ran down my cheeks.
The creature held me by my head in his powerful hands and turned my face around to peer out the window.
“Watch.”
I refused and kept my eyes shut tight.
“Watch, or I will remove your eyelids. The empire has no need for them, only your ability to breed.”
Despite the threat, I couldn’t bring myself to look.
Not right then, not at Ras’s fate.
But hope got the better of me.
Hope that I would see Ras perform some miracle, manage to escape from the pod, and command a remote army somehow.
Instead, I watched as that small chip of metal spun end over end silently into the dark infinity of endless space.
I whimpered as I watched.
I fell to my knees, unable to keep myself upright any longer.
But my lowest point still hadn’t arrived.
“Computer, destroy the pod,” Sar said.
My eyes rose to the creature and the cruelty he was capable of.
As deep as the love and affection Ras was endowed with.
“Watch,” Sar growled.
I didn’t and only stared at him.
He sneered in derision but seemed content to watch my expression instead.
“Torpedo loaded and ready to fire,” Computer said.
Sar kept his eyes focused on mine.
“Fire.”
I didn’t see the weapon launch or the impact, but I saw the flash of yellow light play over the creature’s features when it exploded.
I didn’t mutter a single word.
Ras had been sentenced to a life adrift in space.
There wasn’t anything worse than that.
Death was, in a way, a blessing.
At least, that was what I told myself.
Secretly, I hoped Ras would somehow come back from the brink, would return, and rescue me.
Somehow.
But now that he’d been blown to smithereens, my hope was shattered.
Inside, I was a broken woman.
On the surface, I peered at the creature with cool indifference.
He seemed confused by my reaction.
It wasn’t what he’d expected or hoped for.
I was grateful I didn’t give him that much, though it cost me dearly.
He turned and marched out of the room.
I didn’t begin to weep until after he left.
My fated mate was doomed.
And so was I.
The rest of the journey passed quickly and uneventfully.
I remained on the floor where Sar had left me.
I hadn’t moved a single muscle.
Not even now, as we came in to land.
I didn’t care where I was.
I didn’t care what would happen to me.
The only hope I’d fostered died in that pod hours ago.
What would follow in my future wouldn’t be good, I knew, but it couldn’t be worse than what had already happened.
How could it?
I’d both fallen in love and lost him within a short span of hours.
When the ship sat down, I didn’t turn to look at where we’d arrived.
I wasn’t interested.
I didn’t care.
I ignored Sar when he entered my room.
I was barely even aware of the orders he gave.
He picked me up, put me on my feet, and shoved me forward.
&nb
sp; He placed a hand on the back of my neck and squeezed tight.
He guided me forward, into the hallway, and down the corridors until we got to the ramp that fed onto a new world.
There were other people here—or, more specifically, other aliens.
I didn’t give them a second look.
Sar brought me to a stop and spoke with a horned monster that smelled strongly of oil.
“What’s the reason for bringing a M’rora ship to the Citadel?” the oily Shadow said.
“I had a tangle with a M’rora,” Sar said. “Trust me, he came off worse.”
The oily Shadow chuckled and snorted.
“Good. One piece of junk is enough for the Citadel. I’ll have it sent to the garage, stripped, and replaced with Shadow parts.”
Sar nodded and shoved me forward.
He led me across the huge landing bay where dozens of black ships came in to land.
The wind was strong and rustled my hair and clothes.
We joined hundreds of other creatures with their own captured mates.
I didn’t eye any of them and kept my eyes on the floor.
I studied the black marble-like material underfoot and the various shoes and rags of the other alien species that passed before me.
I didn’t look up when I was guided down a series of stairs and into the belly of the building.
I didn’t utter a word as Sar led me down a row of cells, to the door held open by a giant prison guard.
I didn’t fight when he shoved me inside and the door was slammed shut and the locks engaged.
I only began to weep when the footsteps faded and I was left alone.
I wept so hard my body ached.
And then I wept some more.
Ras
I bolted upright and banged my head.
I hissed through my teeth and rubbed at the bump already forming beneath my fingers.
I glared at the ceiling I’d struck forcefully and thumped it with my fist for no other reason than to vent my anger.
It was only then I noticed I was lying on the chair that I’d sat on when Computer had carried out the procedure.
“What the hell?”
I ran my hands over the ceiling and peered at the world on the other side.
One thing was for sure.
I was no longer in the medical bay.
The medical bay…
Isabella should have been sitting to one side…
Except she’d been dragged away by the creature dressed as Liam.
My Shadow.
Sar.
I’d struggled to wake up and only managed it after I calmed my mind and willed myself awake.