Captured: The Xandari Chronicles (Book One) (Dark Sci-Fi Romance)

by Raven Dark

  Shelly. She’d said she was sorry…

  God. I felt physically ill. A thousand questions raced through my mind, but I put them aside and focused on the problem at hand.

  “What the hell do you want from me?” I snapped. “Why am I here?”

  He said nothing, but I knew he was taking in my words, measuring them. I had the creeped out feeling he was assessing everything I did. Storing it for later. Feeling out his prisoner.

  “Why am I here?” I gritted out.

  The corners of his lips curled up in a hint of amusement. As if he knew a secret.

  “Oh, come on! Get me the fuck out of here!” My voice cracked with something close to terror.

  I was also still squirming, making my boobs bounce. His eyes followed the movements as if my nipples had magnets on them.

  Below his belt, the bulge in his pants grew, pressing at the leather as if it might punch a hole through it.

  Great. He was hard. I was naked and helpless in front of him, and the alien’s dick was hard.

  And he wasn’t letting me go.

  Fuck my life.

  A second after he’d stared at my lady bits, his eyes snapped up to my face and his expression masked over with a look of stoic reserve.

  “Look, Goliath, people will start asking questions. My father will go to the authorities. You won’t get away with this.”

  My father. Ha, he would probably laugh and say I got what I deserved. But if the threat of a conspiracy being uncovered shook the alien up, it might be the only hope I had.

  It didn’t shake him up at all.

  Unmoved by my threats, he drew closer. He took the same sort of wand Purple Eyes had used from his belt and ran it over my shoulder.

  My shoulder. That was the second time someone had done that. Was there something in my fucking shoulder…?

  The wand didn’t respond.

  He replaced the wand and reached for the cuffs on one of my wrists.

  My breath froze in my lungs. As soon as my hand was free, I’d have my first real chance at escape. What the hell I’d do once I was free, I had no idea, but I couldn’t just hang here and let whatever was going to unfold here happen without at least doing something.

  His hands froze on the mechanism I assumed was meant to open the cuffs. His eyes met mine, and he put one finger close to my nose.

  The words he spoke were as incomprehensible as anything else I’d heard on this ship, but they carried a tone of warning, his expression cold.

  He’d told me to behave, or something of the sort.

  I put my head back, let my body go limp, and swallowed. Hoping I looked as compliant as I intended. Like I wouldn’t try to fight him or escape.

  Goliath unlocked one cuff and went for that wand on his belt.

  I swung my hand hard, right for his face.

  He caught my wrist in a trained grip and brought my arm to my side, holding it in place. His eyes flashed with irritation, but his lips also turned up. He’d expected me to try that.

  He ran the wand quickly over my shoulder area, it did nothing, and he put it back on his belt. Apparently, he’d unlocked my hand for better access to my shoulder. That done, he shoved my hand back up into the cuff and snapped it shut.

  Then his palm collided with my face in a single slap.

  The sting scalded my cheek, rattling me from the inside-out with the sudden show of force. I was no stranger to violence, and I had tried to punch an alien whose views on women were less than equal. I shouldn’t have expected anything else, and yet the single slap filled me with the first real bite of bone-chilling fear.

  I was in a hell of a lot of trouble here.

  I’d also gotten the message, even before he’d put his finger in my face again and said a string of words in a slow, cold drawl that left the meaning no less clear.

  If I tried anything like that again, I was in deep shit.

  “Message received, Goliath,” I said, lacing the words with as much sarcasm as would fit inside them. “Bad female.”

  His face split into a huge grin that, were the situation different, would have made my knees wobble. He gave a confirming nod that, in no uncertain terms, told me I was exactly right.

  “Ak damka, Vahashatai.” He patted my cheek. Then he strode in the direction his crewmate had gone, his work here done.

  I gritted my teeth, feeling a sudden and burning hatred for him deeper than anything I’d ever felt for anyone else in my life.

  I thrashed in my restraints.

  “Let me the fuck out of here, you overgrown barbarian asshole!”

  He snorted.

  Snorted!

  Ten feet from me, he gave a short whistle. “Tarku.”

  “What the hell do you want?” I screamed.

  He ignored me and gave another whistle.

  That pink dog creature came running and stopped in front of him, wagging its floofy tail. The giant moved aside and pointed to the area where the partition had been earlier.

  “Amet,” he said, keeping his finger directed at the same area until the dog sat on the floor. Effectively blocking a path to the rest of the room and any of the doors to the rest of the ship. The creature kept its eyes on me.

  Obviously the giant’s command meant “Stay.”

  Goliath’s eyes lifted to me and he smirked. “Amet,” he said to me.

  Oh, God, I hated him.

  “You son of a bitch! Let me go!”

  He departed, leaving me alone, but not before I heard him chuckle with delight.

  Oh, yeah, I was in a fuck of a lot of deep shit here. And if I never saw that alien again, it would be too damn soon.

  After that asswipe of an alien had left me, no one came near me for a long time.

  I couldn’t work out if that was a good thing or not.

  On one hand, without knowing what the bastards wanted with me, I had no way of knowing if it would have been worse if someone had come. But on the other hand, no one was doing anything to me, either.

  Two things made the danger of my situation abundantly clear.

  One, Purple Eyes obviously wanted more from me than to ogle the naked woman splayed out for all to see. If the giant hadn’t stopped him, who knew what he might have done.

  And two, Goliath wasn’t any less dangerous. True, he was more self-controlled, but I’d seen the desire in his eyes, too. At any moment, he might change his mind and act on it. And let’s not forget, he’d slapped me. Nope, couldn’t forget that. He wasn’t beyond using violence to keep me in line. Throw in the fact that he could do whatever he wanted to me and I couldn’t stop him, and he was a very dangerous alien indeed.

  Maybe more so than the purple-eyed one.

  But perhaps most disturbing of all was the extremely powerful magnetic pull both men seemed to call up in me. I had to wonder exactly how I would have reacted if either alien had decided to do more than cop a feel.

  I might not have resisted either of them. I might not have wanted to, and that thought terrified me.

  With no way to discern how much time had passed, it was impossible to tell how long I remained standing there, naked and cuffed. There was nothing I recognized as a clock or a timer anywhere that I could see, but if I’d had to guess, several hours must have passed since the giant had left before I saw anyone other than him or his purple-eyed crewmate.

  The two aliens ignored me the whole time. They always remained in sight, going about their own alien business as if I wasn’t there.

  Leaving me alone with my dark thoughts. Leaving me with the hundreds of unsettling, unanswerable questions that chased themselves through my mind like rabbits on crack. With nothing to do but watch, wait, and hope that one of them said or did something that hinted at the reason I was here.

  No one did.

  To keep my mind off my fear, I took in all I could about my surroundings.

  To my left, nothing but a cold, grey metal wall stared back at me. The metal, like the floor, had the too smooth, slick appearance of material ob
viously not made anywhere on Earth. To my right, another glass partition walled off that side of the room, allowing me to see the rest of the ship’s bridge.

  In front of the screens on the opposite side of the room, four chairs were arranged in a semi-circle, each with a console in front of it. Everything I saw had the same too-smooth metallic appearance, a constant reminder of where I was and what those men were.

  Not that I needed any reminders. Through the window, that giant of a planet continued to grow larger, the mammoth sphere frightening in its sheer size.

  It sank in with icy certainty—we were not bypassing the planet. My alien captors were taking me to that unknown world whether I wanted to go or not.

  Do not pass the golden planet, do not collect two-hundred…garknak.

  Terror and desperation to escape whatever waited on that alien world, however illogical, kicked in. I glanced up at the cuffs on my wrists, frantically searching for a way out of them.

  Earlier, the giant had pressed a small button on the front of one of the cuffs. I could see the same button on both, but I couldn’t reach them. The metal restraints held my wrists just tight enough to prevent me from moving them but without cutting into the skin.

  Fuck. I looked at the planet again. Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck—it took up nearly the whole window now. The urge to escape before we reached that world twisted in my cut. Hopelessness and mind-numbing fear choked me in an iron grip. My eyes stung, and a sob escaped me.

  Damn it. I wasn’t a crier. My father had seen to it that tears came with a heavy price. It pissed me the hell off that those alien ass-turds could see my fear as clearly as I could see that planet.

  I pushed the tears back and closed my eyes, shutting out every sight and sound around me as best I could, forcing myself to face one simple fact. Even if I got out of the cuffs, then what? I had no idea how many men were on the ship or how big it was. I had no idea how to fly anything, much less an alien space vehicle. If I tried to escape, there’d be nowhere for me to go, and besides, the giant would probably make me wish I hadn’t tried.

  No, my best hope for escape was probably on that planet. I’d just have to keep my eyes peeled and wait for the right opportunity.

  If there was one.

  For the most part, the two aliens remained in the area of the room to my right, working at an arrangement of tables littered with some kind of tech equipment. I had no idea what the equipment was for, or what they were doing; they conversed in their harsh language, none of it lending a hint as to what they were saying.

  Over the hours that passed, the lights periodically flickered or went out, only to come back on moments later. The computerized voice spoke occasionally, giving announcements I didn’t understand. When the power failed, the voice died its slow death, only to be revived when the power returned. Other than shaking their heads and letting out what sounded like curses, neither of the aliens seemed the least bit concerned.

  Obviously the power outages weren’t an indicator that we were about to crash. Perhaps they were doing repairs to the ship’s equipment on those tables.

  Still, no one said a word or even looked in my direction. No one else appeared on the bridge. I had to wonder if the giant and his handsy crewmate were the only two men aboard.

  Thankfully, the most alien living thing I’d seen was that damned pink creature. The creature remained squatted on the floor not twenty feet from me, its eyes intent on me like some kind of otherworldly guard dog. At least it kept to itself, not coming any closer.

  I put my head back, trying to shut out the ache that pulled at my arms from being in an upraised position for too long. I really should have been better about going to the gym, otherwise they might not have hurt this much. My feet also ached, worse than any barista had probably ever felt after the world’s longest shift.

  “Shit, would you two at least let me out of here to rest my arms or sit down?” I shouted.

  The aliens continued their work. I thought I saw Purple Eyes grin at the giant, the only indicator either of them even heard me.

  Assholes.

  The power went out again. Darkness surrounded me for at least a full minute. By now, I should have been used to the power outages, but they still scared the hell out of me when I could hear only the two aliens talking in a language utterly beyond my comprehension.

  “Come on! At least let me have a chair or something to sit on!”

  The power flickered back on.

  “Guys?”

  They continued their repairs.

  Hatred for them quickly boiled away my fear.

  The pink creature—I’d never be able to think of it as a dog— shifted on the floor, bringing my focus to it. It cocked its head at me, its eyes curious.

  I glared at it, feeling a sudden irrational dislike for it, as if it were as responsible for my capture as its masters.

  “What the hell are you looking at, Falcor?”

  It made a small, quizzical whining sound in an all too adorable dog-like way.

  Of course. It had to be cute, didn’t it? The thing had beautiful eyes, an intense almost human color of blue, bright and inquisitive. The look it was giving me, like it wanted to know me, made it ridiculously difficult to be angry at it.

  It was an animal, acting at the command of its master. It didn’t know better. Still, it remained there, reminding me of my predicament—that I was trapped on an alien ship at the mercy of two men who weren’t human.

  Unfortunately, the thing apparently belonged to the giant, a huge strike against it right there.

  The creature continued to watch me, settling more comfortably on the floor. That was the thing—with those rows of pointed teeth, I knew without a doubt it could turn scary when it chose.

  Just like its owner.

  Its gaze was starting to unsettle me, unwavering. I couldn’t decide if it was plotting to kill me or just trying to figure me out.

  “Hey, look somewhere else, okay?” I grumbled. “You’re creeping me out.”

  Instead, the furry thing got up and walked over to me, looking up with another tiny whimper that belied its massive size.

  “Just stay away from me. Go back over there.”

  It didn’t. Instead, it flopped down onto my feet and wriggled so that its heavy, furry body covered them.

  “Uh. Really?” I rolled my eyes.

  It put its head down on those massive paws.

  “Oh, yeah, real cute.”

  Except it didn’t go unnoticed that my feet were growing nice and warm, the creature’s coat chasing away a chill I hadn’t even noticed was there until now.

  That was the thing about animals. They knew when their cuteness act worked. They knew exactly how to make it impossible to stay mad at them.

  So there I stood, chained up and naked, with the fucking giant’s pink pooch warming my feet like a huge Snuggie. It bothered me that his pet showed me more compassion than he or his crewmate had.

  I pushed down the despair that threatened to take hold.

  A new male voice spoke from near the tables, catching my attention. It was quieter than the others, husky, turning these alien’s language into something elegant and beautiful, and instantly peaking my curiosity. I looked through the partition.

  My eyes widened.

  Hello, Gorgeous.

  As tall as Purple Eyes, and as heavily muscled, his hair was styled in an unusual way, short on the top, with a few long black braids falling down each side of his powerful chest. Silvery white flecked through the jet black hair on top, suggesting age, but his cinnamon colored features were smooth and chiseled, giving the impression of a hot older warrior. He looked like he was in his late thirties.

  The giant said something and handed him a hand-held screen. The older alien scrubbed his hand down his face with a tired yawn, massaging a strong jaw so smooth he had to have just shaved. He read over whatever was on the screen, his brows furrowing before he glanced at me.

  Curiosity flashed in a set of deep silvery eyes. I
swallowed hard. They weren’t grey, but silver, like pools of molten metal. I read questions in them, but also a different kind of fascination than I’d seen in the other two, though I couldn’t have said how it was different. I couldn’t tell what he thought before he frowned at the screen, muttered something with a nod, and clasped the giant on the shoulder.

  Then he headed toward me.

  My heart rate sped up. After the treatment I’d received from the other two barbarians, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing what this one might do to me.

  As soon as the warrior started toward me, the dog got up and crossed the room to where he’d been before. On his way to my section of the room, the older warrior paused and squatted at the dog’s side. He murmured in the same alien language, glancing at me while scratching behind the creature’s ears and patting its furry side. He was obviously talking about me. I caught the same word the other two aliens had used when speaking to the animal before.

  Tarku.

  It was probably the creature’s name. With odd mix of cute and scary, the name fit, him somehow.

  Even ten feet away, I felt the warrior, exactly as I had with the other two aliens. His presence produced a flush on my skin and heated my blood, as though the room’s temperature had suddenly gone up a degree.

  Great. I was inexplicably drawn to not one of these brutes, but all three of them?

  “I don’t suppose you’re going to let me out of here, either, are you?” I asked.

  He glanced at me again, amusement and what I thought was surprise in those captivating silver eyes.

  The creature licked the warrior’s face and received a hearty rub on its belly before the warrior straightened and crossed the floor to me. “Guntu, nayna.” His voice was as relaxed as his eyes, making me think the words were a greeting.

  “Look, my feet are killing me. At least let me sit down.”

  He didn’t reply, but as soon as he came to within a few feet of me, he froze in mid-step. His pupils dilated until only a thin line of silver iris surrounded them. His nostrils flared, but instead of feeling me up as Purple Eyes had done, he just watched me for an instant, his eyes intense with interest.

  The alien seemed to catch himself, cleared his throat, broke the space between us, and touched me under the chin. “Nist, nayna.”