by Maia Starr
I talked to him for several minutes longer before a loud voice came over the ship’s sound system alerting all humans to get to cry deck immediately.
We were told that all the females were trained and well aware what would happen from here on out.
The cryo-bay was much different than the rest of the ship. Unlike the white lights that illuminated the other corridors, the cryo-chamber was dark, only illuminated by the hazy blue screens that seemed to light the room. There was one screen for every four girls. Once the cryo was administered, the screens would show the women’s health stats and doctor-trained shifters would monitor them closely for the nine-week duration.
The room had wires and robotic arms that controlled the room on tracks from the ceiling. The mechanical arm would emerge from above and help all the girls into their cryo-pods. The system would be scanned for any errors. After this, the girls would have fluids hooked into their veins that would put them in a frozen sleep. They would awaken the morning we landed feeling refreshed and ready for their new lives.
Weredragons didn’t need to undergo cryo. We were fully accustomed to the speeds we would be traveling to return to Udora. Regardless, I’d tried it once myself, just to see what it was like. As a security officer, I felt it was my duty to experience what our human guests would experience so I would be able to answer any questions they had about it. When they asked what it was like, I would simply say, “It’s a long sleep.”
The walk to the cry chamber felt long and intrusive. To my surprise, the rest of the shifters still hadn’t said anything about my choosing. Many of them didn’t know about my special predicament with our Koth. My punishment. Still, some must have thought it odd that their security officer was taking a mate during a choosing.
I escorted Ari to the chamber and helped her in. Many of the girls made loud noises as they entered their pods: squeals of excitement mixed with hesitant, fearful laughter as the glass closed up over them. Ari simply looked up at me and smiled, her eyes darting back and forth from mine.
“You’re not coming in?” she asked innocently.
I looked the pod over and offered her a wink. “I don’t think I’d fit.”
“Shh…” she laughed. “You know what I mean. You guys don’t go under or anything?”
I knew she already knew the answer to her question and hesitated to think why she might have been asking. I knelt down to be at eye-level with her pod and brushed her hair with my hand. “I won’t leave your side, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t,” she lied. I could hear it in her voice.
She had the same worry that I did: Brenem. I wished I could tell her that he’d never meddled with a cryo-pod before, but in truth, he had. One week before landing, he’d smashed a pod open in an attempt to enrage the shifter who had chosen the girl. The girl survived, but the mission was slowed by a month’s time so the captain could slow down from the dangerous speeds for her safety.
Brenem got a slap on the wrist and nothing more.
Ari stared at me for a moment, her eyes fluttering. My demeanor betrayed nothing of my worry, and so she seemed relaxed once more.
“So, I guess this is goodnight?” she said, and I nodded. “Can I give you a kiss?” she asked.
I looked around the room. As much as I wanted to feel her lips against mine, I knew it was too risky with so many personnel around. I shook my head, and she frowned playfully. “Fine,” she snipped. “Just, don’t forget about how much you like me while I’m gone.”
“Never,” I said.
With that, the mechanics started up, filling the room with a familiar hum, and one by one, each human was put down and sealed up like stolen treasures amidst our vessel.
Chapter Seven
Ariella
I gasped for air. I could feel it enter my lungs like an icepick, coldly sifting its way through what felt like blocked passages. My lungs felt like they’d never breathed before. A chill went through my body that caused every hair on my body to stand up. I gasped again, my body desperately searching for the air it craved, and the less of it I found, the more my body waged war against itself.
Finally, a hot mist filled my chamber so fiercely it began to overwhelm my senses. I swiped my fingers against the condensation that had formed on the glass that encased me, and then all of the sudden, I heard a deathly, piercing sound that from my glaze of sleep began to horrify me. It was then I realized the sound was coming from me. I was screaming.
I banged my hands against the glass and through my panic, I suddenly saw a familiar face. Purple hues that seemed so ignite with a glow and long wings that shielded my pod from the sudden light. It was Caridan.
He placed his hand on top of the chamber and enunciated his words to me, though I couldn’t make out what he’d said. He knelt down closer to my face, and I felt another chill run through my body despite the hot air that was flooding my bed.
I felt my back ache as I made to move and so I decided it would be my best bet to stop. I slowed my breathing until I was calm enough to take control again. I lowered my hands from the glass and looked up at Caridan’s colors through the glass. It all came back to me after that; the choosing, my sister, the night I’d spent enticing Caridan and tempting myself against my own will to fall for him.
I remembered that I was his illegal bride.
Noises filled the room; shifters barking orders and robotic movements. Then came the sound of the pods opening. One after another, I could hear the sliding of glass and calm voices awakening back to life.
It was a strange thing to wake up. The last thing I remembered was Caridan telling me he’d never leave. And now here he was, by my side. It felt as though we’d just had that conversation, yet my body knew I hadn’t been awake for some time. I felt the urge to run; to get out. I was starting to feel confined and afraid when all of the sudden, the glass in front of me slid forward and the air of the shuttle flooded my lungs.
Instantly I began to shiver as I sat up on my makeshift bed. My teeth chattered violently as I reached for Caridan. He pulled me out with a smile and whispered, “Almost done; I promise.”
“You sure love making promises,” I jeered quietly, stepping out of the pod and taking my first stand in weeks. “Did you forget about me?” I blurted out.
I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to know. My mind couldn’t decide whether nine weeks was a long time or a short time to be away from someone. Regardless, something hit my gut when I heard his voice that reminded me I was really starting to like him. What if he’d been separated from me so long that he’d forgotten what he might be feeling?
Caridan shifted from one foot to the other and chuckled quietly, now holding onto my waist. I’d almost forgotten the angles of his face. His jawline seemed more pronounced than the last time I’d seen him. And he now had small spikes that protruded along his cheekbones. His teeth were partially fanged, and my delight suddenly turned to worry as I noticed the bites and scrapes that decorated his face.
“Are you alright?” I asked quickly, forgetting all about my previous questioned as I reached to his broad shoulders to balance myself.
“Just excited, that’s all,” he said with a breath.
I stared at him carefully before deciding it was best to believe him, at least for the moment. I offered him an accepting smile and wrapped my arms around him almost involuntarily, and he hesitantly hugged me back, albeit only with one arm. I stared in wonder at the oil slick of colors that shimmered through his wings before backing away.
“Was it a long wait?”
“I should be asking you that,” he smiled and took my hand.
“Oh shush,” I batted him away. “I was sleeping. All I remember was feeling cold and then dreaming about collecting samples from these really steep cliffs on Udora before Meg pushed me off. And… yep, that’s about it. So, did it feel like a long time?”
Caridan raised his brows and then quickly lowered them as he led me down the hallway towards our room. “I forgot how much you wo
men love to talk,” he half-joked.
He still hadn’t answered my question. Obviously, this guy wasn’t too slick with the ladies, or he would have realized all I wanted him to say was that he missed me. His lack of response made my stomach turn. I set my jaw stubbornly as I walked beside him and finally asked, “What did you do while I was out?”
Caridan kept walking, somewhat ahead of me, as we reached the elevator. He pressed it closed before any of the other couples could enter the space with us. I could hear their shouts of disappointment as he watched the doors lock behind us. Before I had the chance to ask another question, he pushed me against the wall and held my chin between his thumb and forefinger before meeting his lips with mine.
He pressed his built body against me, and I ran my hands along his muscles and across his shoulders. The azure scales warmed beneath my hands and made me want him even more than I already did. He cupped my breast in his hand and began kissing down my neck as I made a loud moan. If this is was how much my body craved him, I couldn’t imagine how he’d felt after nine weeks.
“I never left your side,” he said through lusty breaths. His tongue trailed from the crook of my neck up to my jaw. His lips found their way back to mine, and his tongue flicked into my mouth with a tease. I exhaled loudly and ran my hands through his dark, thick hair.
He parted from me on queue as the elevator doors opened up. He straightened his dress shirt and walked out of the elevator calmly. Though no one was in the hallway as we exited toward our bedroom, the whole act still felt so lascivious and deceitful, somehow.
Caridan opened the door to the bedroom, and it looked just how I remembered. The bed was made, and I quickly jumped into the velvety, green blankets, messing them up as I stretched my body across the mattress.
The shifter looked at me with obvious passion but didn’t join me. Instead, he picked up my luggage and made his way for the door.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What’s going on here?” I said with some humor in my tone.
“I’m grabbing your bags,” he said as though it should be obvious.
“Um. I’m not sure if you know how women work but, you can’t just get a girl all worked up and then take off. That’s called being a tease.”
“I’m aware,” he smiled.
I sat up on the bed, and my shoulders wilted as I played with the fabric beneath my fingertips. “So, uh…” I tucked a lock of blonde hair behind my ear and frowned at him. “What was that about, then?”
“I thought you wanted me to express…” he went to finish his sentence but suddenly stopped. I continued eye contact with him and he cleared his throat uncomfortably, a blush crossing his half-shifted face. “I thought you wanted me to tell you that I missed you.”
“Oh,” I said, now blushing myself. We looked at each other for a moment longer before I hopped up from the bed and neared him slyly, clasping my hands from behind my back as I squealed, “So you did miss me, huh?”
He smiled. “I should say so.”
I gave him my most flirtatious eyes and grabbed a bag from him as I raised my brows and asked, “Care to tell me about it again later?”
“Absolutely.”
It took hours for us to finally leave the ship. The rest of the girls spent the morning packing up their things and rehydrating after the long journey we’d been through. I didn’t see Meghan anywhere amongst the girls. What I did notice was the state of some of the shifters. Healing wounds, vicious bites, and scratches and scrapes seemed to adorn several of the Weres like ornaments.
Caridan didn’t seem open to talking about exactly what had happened, but whatever he’d been through, he wasn’t alone.
The shifters barely made eye-contact as they escorted us out into their spaceport. I breathed as big a breath as I could manage and was delighted to feel Udora’s cool, refreshing air pass through my lungs. There was no pollution here, was all I could think. I could almost taste how fresh this planet was.
The spaceport was a lot like ours, in some ways. There were metal runways with lights that ran down the sides of them. I looked around as I stepped onto the shifters’ land and looked up to see that their spaceport was set in a canyon. All around us was stone set hundreds of feet in the air. Structural pillars were built into the canyon walls to keep the stone strong.
From the ground, I could see there were skyscrapers above the canyon. A city not that different from our own just above us. I’d heard they’d taken on much of our architecture since their truce with Earth had begun. We came and built their cities up and helped them formulate medicines. Helped them populate. I was waiting with bated breath to see what we would get in return.
Suddenly, I saw a familiar face in the throngs of people. “Hey, there’s my girl!” I shouted with excitement as I spotted Meghan marching my way. My feet suddenly tingled like I wanted to run scoop her up into a giant hug, but as I watched her expression turn, I felt my stomach drop.
“Hi,” she said tersely as she approached.
I went in for a hug anyway and wasn’t surprised when she backed away from me with a look of jealousy creeping over her features. “How’s your chosen one?” she mocked, looking over my shoulder for Caridan. She raised her brows and lowered them quickly: her patented look of disapproval.
“He’s fine,” I said slowly. “Meg, what’s up? Why are you hanging around with Brenem?”
“Do you know what I gave up to be here?” she chattered quickly, narrowing her eyes at me and hushing her voice to a furious whisper. “Liam. I gave up my house that I spent ten years and all of my savings on to come here and fall in love. And what do you do? You write some bullshit paper about herbal remedies, and suddenly you have all of Udora salivating over you?”
“Meg,” I argued defensively. Her words seemed so foreign, so unlike my sister that my mind couldn’t even comprehend who I was talking to anymore. “Look, I know you’re upset about the choosing. I swear, I wish it was you and not me. You know I wasn’t even into this, and if it makes you feel any better–”
“I saw you kissing him,” she seethed. “Saw him groping at you like a horny teenager before the elevator doors closed. Still want to play dumb with me?”
My mouth snapped shut, and my eyed widened in surprise. “Meg,” I whispered desperately, raising my palms to her. “Listen, he wasn’t even allowed to choose, so…”
“Yeah, Brenem told me. So, you’re in big trouble, basically?” She crossed her arms.
“Meg, stop! What I’m trying to say is that he wasn’t even ‘technically’ allowed to choose me,” I said with air-quotes. “So basically, we were both left out of the game!”
“And despite this, one of us is getting someone’s dick wet in her.”
“Wow!” I exclaimed with such shock that I actually started laughing. I’d never heard Meghan talk like that a day in her life. She stared at me with such hatred that I lost my train of thought. “We are not sleeping together,” I insisted with sincerity in my eyes, my tone suddenly dire.
“Oh, I believe that,” she scoffed.
“And you can’t tell anyone what you saw, okay? You could get us both in serious trouble. I mean it.”
“Then maybe you should stop.”
“Nothing is even started!” I laughed with frustration. “And you need to stop talking to Brenem. I’m not sure what has temporarily blinded your pretty little face, but that guy has some serious anger problems.”
“Oh, because Caridan backed down so quickly?” she mocked.
“Brenem started the whole thing!” I yelled.
Meghan stared at me with blank, unmoving eyes. She was a shell of the girl who’d arrived at Riddell with me. Usually, she was the one trying to make me feel better, not the other way around. She exhaled in a sudden huff and picked her bag up off the ground. “I love you, Ari. But don’t talk to me anymore.”
With that, she spun on her four-inch heel and walked away from me. I could feel my throat swelling up with emotion and my eyes began to blister with tears as she d
isappeared from my sight.
I breathed out shakily and finally turned back to Caridan, who walked back over toward me and put his hand on my shoulder.
“She’ll cool off.” He said it with such conviction that I wanted to believe him; to believe that he knew her well enough to make such a call.
Most of the research team was taken away in a glass elevator cabs that ran on tracks through a city like highways. This was how most got around. The research teams were shuttled off in these cabs to a different area of the shifters’ government buildings, while the women were taken up into the heart of the city.
Much like the shuttle station, the city was also another canyon. Tall walls surrounded the metropolis, and I couldn’t help but wonder what we would find on the next tier of this mountain. The sky was the same blue color I had grown so accustomed to back home, and I marveled at the moons that were visible even in the daylight.
The planet was warm, and I removed my coat quickly, slinging it over my arm. Caridan helped me into one of the glass cabs. Other men had taken our luggage, and Caridan assured me we would find my bags safe and sound at his apartment.
In the meantime, it was off to work.
Caridan liked to remind me that we were not a couple as we rode off into the mountains. He told me he was my security escort so that I could collect samples of their flowers and curious herbs rumored to carry healing properties that would benefit those back on Earth.
The fields of Udora were the most magnificent thing I had ever seen. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city were rolling fields of green. The fields were covered in a bright green moss, and there were spires of stone that shot up from the ground and held wide moats of crystal-clear waters around them. The sprawling hills felt like they went on forever. Some of the hills felt more like mountains, with thousand-foot drops that made my palms sweat just looking at them.
The large stone spires looked ominous, even as the sun hit them and brought out the warm tones of the rock. Some of the pillars had carvings of faces chiseled into their tops, while others looked naturally formed by the wind and sea. Many of the spires had tunnels carved through their bases. I could see shifters riding Malwai’s, a lizard-like horse, through the tunnels and across the fields at impressive speeds.