by Maia Starr
"Understood, my leader,” Duron said as he saluted him. Then he wrapped his hand tightly around my arm and pulled me away from Alexis.
"No! Where are you taking her?! I demand that you release me! I demand that you release her!” I shouted.
"Shia?” Alexis said with fear in her voice as she stood there shaking.
"Do not be afraid, my delicate female. You will not be harmed. You will be treated like a queen,” I heard Baradur telling her as Duron pulled me away.
He yanked me through the halls of the base. It was a maze of hallways and there was no way that I would ever understand how to get back to Alexis. The base was a sprawling complex, and in my rage and adrenaline, I could not make sense of anything. Then he stopped at the deadend of a hallway.
“Get your hands off of me! Where is Alexis?” I shouted.
“Shut your mouth, human!” he roared at me. He pressed his hand against a screen on the wall and a door opened. He pushed me in and I fell to the ground inside another room.
"You don't have to be so rough! Where would I run off to?” I said to him, giving him a dirty look. I looked around at the surroundings. I was in an apartment of sorts. “What is to be done with her? What is to be done with Alexis? You cannot do this to us! It is wrong!”
"You should worry about what's to be done with yourself,” he said in a stern voice as he moved over to a table and poured some liquid into a glass. He shot it back quickly. I got up from the floor and moved toward him putting only a foot between us.
"What?! Why do you say that? What the hell is going on here?” I asked.
I was so angry that I could barely catch my breath. I was standing there in this slinky green dress and it only made me feel that much vulnerable. He pulled the glass from his lips. He was tall, looming over me. His hair fell over his face a little. His blue eyes were glassy, a shade of blue that reminded me of Earth when you looked at it from space. They matched the color of the scales down the right side of his body. But I tried not to let my eyes waver from his. I did not want him to know that my curiosity in this race was making me want to look over every inch of his body. But my curiosity was specifically scientific, and nothing more, I hoped.
He tilted his head and let his eyes roam over my hair and down my face. I was breathing hard. I could not help it. His eyes caressed my bare shoulders. I felt like I was naked, because Duron looked at me up and down, taking his time. I suddenly felt my body responding to his stare; I felt desirable. It felt wrong! It felt very wrong! I knew I should not be feeling excited and aroused. He was a cold-blooded killer of humans! Yet there was something about the danger of the moment. There was something about not knowing what was going on. There was something about being in this male-dominated world. It was intoxicating. I felt more feminine than I ever had. Soldiers of Earth were also ruthless killers, so how as this any different? But as soon as I felt that way, I forced myself to stop. It was wrong!
"Ask no more questions, human female. Just do what I say and you will stay safe, for now,” he said as he slammed down his cup and then walked out of the living quarters.
"Wait!” I shouted after him as the door closed on me. I pressed every button I could to try to open the door, but I was locked in. I was a prisoner. I was officially alone and a captive of a strange alien warrior race: a Corillion captive. What was I going to do?
I was infuriated as I walked around the living quarters. I was extremely sad to lose my fellow scientists and crew on the space station. I wondered if any of them had sent a signal to Earth to let them know that we had been attacked. Would any of them know that we were missing, Alexis and I? Would it matter? It's not like they could come for us.
I walked into the center of the living quarters and it was surprisingly very familiar. There was a sitting area and a sleeping area. I swallowed hard as I realized there was only one bed. Where was I going to sleep? What would Duron expect of me? I looked up at the ceiling and was surprised to see a very large skylight. It looked out into the blackness of space. At least I could have a feeling of not being locked in and look at my precious space. I walked around, placing my hands on various things and controls.
I noticed a panel on the far wall. I pressed a button and part of the wall slid open to reveal a window. I gasped at the view. Duron must be a very high ranking commander in order to have a view like this, I thought.
It looked out onto the barren moon landscape. There were no buildings just a view of the light brown dusty environment. Looking out this window made you feel like you were the only creature on this moon. It was very beautiful. If I was going to be stuck in this place, at least I had a nice view to look at.
I moved over to the counter where Duron had poured himself something to drink. I smelled the various blue and green liquids; they all smelled very strong.
"Smells like vodka. Good, I’m going to need to calm down if I’m going to get through this. It’s a miracle you are alive after not holding your tongue,” I said out loud to myself as I held up a green liquid. I poured a small amount into the cup and took a sip.
"Oh my God, that is freaking strong!” I coughed. Then I poured myself another and took it over to a bench to stare out the window. This was unbelievable. Here I was, staring out at an alien planet as captive, with some unknown alcohol in my hand.
Hours went by and I drank more and more of the liquid, trying to numb my anger and sadness. Before I knew it, I was passed out asleep on the bed. I didn't even hear Commander Duron Spaunok come in. But I woke up to him standing and hovering high over me. He looked very, very, tall from my vantage point on the bed. My breath caught in my throat, because for a second, I forgot where I was. Waking up to see this formidable figure alien warrior in front of me was shocking. I quickly sat up.
"I fell asleep,” I said to him.
He growled at me as he said, “You do not sleep there. You sleep here!” he said as he moved over to a back wall and pushed a few buttons. A door opened. I walked over to it and peeked in. There was an entire bedroom, including a washroom. There was a small window with a view of the moon terrain. He pushed me in and locked the door behind me.
"Jerk!” I shouted as I tripped over my feet. Why was he so damn angry all the time? How was I supposed to stay in his presence? He couldn’t even have a conversation without yelling at me. But this was good, this new sanctuary. I now had my own space. I could stay in here and away from him.
I walked over to the bed and fell back to sleep. I didn't trust this Corillion jerk, but why did I want him to treat me better? That didn't make any sense. For some reason, I wanted his approval and respect. That stuff should not matter to me, and yet it did. I told myself it was because if I could get him to have a conversation with me, then at least I could get some information from him.
Over the next few days, he came and went while I stayed locked up in the living quarters. I had plenty to eat and drink, and absolutely nothing to do. It grew very boring, and I worried about Alexis. Was she being treated well? What had become of her? I longed just to see her or to have any sort of communication with her whatsoever.
But Commander Duron Spaunok would not answer any of my questions. He spent very little time with me. He seemed very irritated by my presence and was avoiding me at all costs. He would just stare at me and then become angry, and I did not know why. I had not tried to run away, and I had been accommodating to his moody arrogance. I had not slapped him again or done anything to make him angry. Yet he was always, always angry or frustrated about something. But even in that anger, I found myself checking out his body more and more. It must just be a side effect of feeling lonely, I told myself.
Finally, after five days of doing absolutely nothing as his prisoner, I’d had enough. I was going to confront him and demand that he give me some sort of information about what was going on. So as I sat there, staring out at the moon in the living area of his living quarters, I was very nervous. I had an entire speech ready to bombard him with. But I was so nervous, I did not know if
I could get through it. So I took a little bit of the green liquid in order to calm myself. I drank just a little. Half an hour passed, and I drank a little more. Then I drank a little more again. Before I knew it, I was full of courage; actually, I was drunk, but it didn't register like that for me.
The door swished open. Commander Duron Spaunok walked in with all of his formidable features on display. I stood up immediately from the bench. He looked at me as I lost my footing and sat back down. He furrowed is eyebrows at me.
"Shia,” he said.
It was the first time that he had called me by my name instead of human female. But that didn't matter; I was still going to give him a piece of my mind.
"Commander Jerk! I demand you to answer some of my questions. This has been completely insane. Don't you see that?!" I shouted at him. He just gave me a sideways grin.
"Oh! This is amusing to you, is it? What if this were you? What if you were the one that was taken against your will and locked up? How would you react to that?” I asked.
"That would never happen to me,” he said, crossing his arms.
I stomped over to him in my mad drunkenness and pointed my finger at him, shaming him. “Oh, you and your sexy arrogance! Of course you would never be captured; you're such a big, fierce warrior, aren't you?” I said in as mean of a way as I could muster.
He just laughed at me and said, “Do you want to get to the point here? I have a lot of work to do."
"My point is… My point is…” I said, not remembering my point at all. I just stared at him. I really had nothing to say, even though I had everything to say. But he was such a distraction.
"That's what I thought,” he said, moving past me. “Stay out of the green formula. You clearly can’t handle it.”
"Where is she?! Where is my friend, Alexis? What has been done to her? Is she alive?” I shouted.
He turned to me and said, “Of course she is alive. She is living with Baradur as his wife and forever mate. She is being treated with the utmost respect and care. She is living lavishly as the partner of our tribal leader.”
"What? Why?” I asked.
"Because that is why I brought both of you here for: for him. He needs a human female mate, or he will die," he said.
I sat down, sad, confused, and drunk.
"Is she happy?” I asked him.
"How would I know that?” he said to me.
I began to cry. “I need to see her, please. I am begging you, Duron. I just need to talk to her to see if she is all right. It is all that I ask,” I said, unable to control my tears.
"I do not like to see you cry. You are stronger than this. I do not want to watch this,” he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards my room. He opened the door and pushed me in as he said, “You have had too much of the formula. Take a shower and sober up.” The door closed.
I was drunk and angry with myself. Why did I drink too much of the liquid that he called the formula? It ruined everything. I was going to have a serious talk with him.
It didn't matter. I just needed more information about what was going on because I was going to go crazy if I didn't know. I had the mind of a scientist, and because of that, I needed to know what was going on in order to make sense of it. I needed to know more about the Corillion and why I was there. He said that Alexis and I were brought here to be the forever mate of his leader Baradur, but why? Why us? Were we just randomly chosen? I needed to know more, and I needed to know everything. Why did he say that his leader would die if he did not mate? None of that made sense to me.
Chapter 4
COMMANDER DURON SPAUNOK
Being in charge of the human female known as Shia Heton was growing harder and harder every day. I stayed away from the living quarters as much as I could and I began to regret Baradur's decision to hold me accountable for her. I was to watch after her so that she would not fall into the arms of any other warrior on the moon base Altid.
Yet I found myself becoming the biggest threat to Shia. The longer she stayed in my quarters, the more I wanted her. I was growing angrier by the day. Looking at her and knowing that I could not have her the way every Corillion wanted to gave me great frustration and made me lash out at her. Yelling at her and leaving her presence was the only way that I could cope with the growing attraction I had for her. But I found myself lashing out at her more and more, and I was in a state of constant anger. I could only speak to her for a few minutes before I had to leave again, otherwise I would grow aroused. I had to grab her and forcefully put her in her room and lock the door so that I would not look at her. So that I would not want her. It was all that I could do. But seeing her drunk was very charming and it disarmed me a little. Seeing her that way touched me somewhere deep within that I did not understand. She even made me smile with her sloppiness.
But when she broke down her strong façade in front of me and cried, it was hard for me to not scoop her into my arms and console her. It was so unlike me. I was the high-ranking Commander Duron Spaunok! I was a ruthless and fierce warrior that captured human females and took no male prisoners. I was the best of the best warriors in the Corillion worlds. I did not give in to a crying human female, and yet here I was, having to force myself from the distraction of her. I didn't know what was happening to me.
She wasn't the first human female I had met; my entire warrior career relied on me capturing human females and taking them to our great leaders all over the Corillion world. I had met many human females over the years, and yet none of them had grown on me like this one. She had stunned me from the very first moment that I laid eyes on her. She was unlike any human female I had ever encountered, and she was put in my care. For some reason, being with her for short amounts of time only made me want her.
But she was off-limits to me. I was not a leader; only the leaders of the Corillion world were able to claim a human female for mating at this time. Shia would eventually be given to another Corillion leader on another base. I, as a Commander, would get a human female mate whenever we caught a large bounty of them, and that was rare, especially now that we were at war with the humans of Earth. This was the system, and many Corillion warriors died waiting for a mate. I always assumed that this would be my fate. But now that I had met Shia, I was not satisfied with that destiny; I wanted more. I wanted her.
"How much longer are you going to avoid me? How much longer are you going to avoid my questions? I'm going crazy here,” Shia said to me when I walked into my living quarters after a long day of work on the base.
"You are not going to give up, are you? Why can't you just be docile like the other human females?” I said, walking in to pour a cup of formula. I was going to need it if I was going to listen to her cry to me once more.
"No, I do not give up. On Earth, I am known as a scientist. I study and search for answers. That is what I was doing on the vessel that you blew up so ruthlessly, killing those I knew and cared for. You took so much from me. I think you owe me this,” she said to me.
I knew what a scientist was. I was impressed that she was one, but it made sense. This was why she was so inquisitive. But hearing her say that I murdered her people stung me a little. I didn't know why. I had been killing humans for years without any remorse. Why did it bother me that she was hurt by my actions?
"What do you want to know, scientist?” I said, taking a big gulp of the formula.
She had a surprised look on her face. I did not think she expected me to reply in such a way. I enjoyed shocking her with my behavior.
"Everything. I want to know everything. What are you? Why are you stealing females from Earth? Where are your females? Why am I here? What is to be done with me? Where am I?" she rambled on and on with questions.
"Wait. Stop. That is enough. Slow down,” I said to her.
"I am waiting,” she said, crossing her delicate arms across her chest.
"I am a Corillion. I am from an asteroid known as Spaunok. All Corillions that spawned on that particular asteroid are called Spaunok
. My name is Duron Spaunok. Baradur is Baradur Spaunok, and so on."
"Wait, did you say spawned? Not born,” she asked in surprise.
"Exactly. We are not born like humans are. We grow on the asteroid the way plant life on Earth grows."
"That is incredible. How?” she asked as she came toward me with interest in her eyes and fascination.
"We do not know what starts the spawning. We are dormant for thousands of years, and then suddenly we will begin to spawn once more. Now is the time of spawn.”
"But what does it look like? Do you grow like trees?” she asked.
"No. I do not think so. Not what I have seen of trees on Earth. It is a spore, like a mushroom on Earth. It is covered in a film of sorts until we are this size,” I said pointing to my own body. “Then we wake up and tear through the film and we are Corillion.”