by Lisa Lace
Katie glanced at the woman out of the corner of her eye. Sure enough, Chixo’s mouth was curled up in an expression of criticism.
“I don’t see the point in studying their technology when it’s so far behind what we have,” she snarled. “It’s a waste of time. I’m surprised Troxeo lets you keep your little trinkets here.”
Enan bobbed his head, his chins wagging. “Fair enough. But I know what you like to do with your scalpels and your scanners and your preserved bits in jars. Not all males are cut out to be soldiers, Chixo, no matter what the majority of Oretoz think. Besides, this ship would be rusting in the ground if it weren’t for people like me.” The longer he spoke, the more the fat alien gained confidence.
Chixo wrapped a strong, wiry hand around Katie’s arm and dragged her back toward the door leading out of Enan’s room. “We’ll be going now.”
Enan returned to his position behind his desk. “Visit me whenever you like, Earthling. I rarely get company here in my fortress!”
Katie thought he might have said something else, but she didn’t hear it because the door had closed already. “He seems nice,” she remarked. It felt odd to make conversation with an alien, but she might as well try to blend in a little.
“Being nice is not a highly-valued quality in Oretoz society,” Chixo murmured.
“Yeah, I could have guessed that.” Katie sighed to herself. This woman was impossible to befriend.
Chixo used her finger to open a much wider door. Katie gasped when it slid open and she saw what was behind it. They stepped into a room that could be nothing other than the bridge. Unlike the narrow corridors she was familiar with, the floor here was wide and open. There was plenty of room to move around. Various panels were inserted into the walls or on a massive dashboard that ran around the circumference of the chamber. Two tall, comfortable looking chairs sat at the front of the room, facing huge windows showing stars flicking by.
Katie’s stomach turned to water as she watched. There was a window in her room, but it was much smaller and didn’t do justice to the way they were moving through space. Katie realized with a sudden jolt that not only was she further from home than she ever could have imagined, but she didn’t even have the comfort of day and night any longer.
What time was it? She had slept but didn’t know for how long. Was it morning or evening back on Earth? The sun had been swirling around her head and dictating the daily routine of her life for so long that she had taken it for granted.
An alien sat in one of the chairs, but it wasn’t Troxeo. This man’s hair was darker and longer, clubbed at the nape of his neck. He swiveled in his chair at the sound of the door, and his dark eyebrows went up in surprise.
“I see the guest has been allowed to roam.” He stood up.
Katie’s stomach hadn’t had a chance to settle itself, and it continued to swirl as she took in the appearance of the new alien. He had a build similar to Troxeo, in that he was absolutely huge. As she studied him, she thought he wasn’t quite as wide across the shoulders as Troxeo, but he was still far bigger than any man she knew back on Earth.
He wore the same clothing that apparently all the other men on this ship did, arm muscles bulging out of his black sleeveless shirt and thighs pressing against the constraints of his pants. His chiseled features were nearly a reflection of the other man’s. It was as though Troxeo’s face had been replicated but with different coloring. The man scrutinized Katie with his deep brown eyes for a few moments before baring his teeth in a semblance of a smile.
He was scary in a different way. “H-h-hello,” she stammered. “I’m Katie.”
The man folded the bulk of his arms across his chest and glanced at Chixo. “Yes, I’ve heard. It seems the humans are very interested in knowing names. On Oretoz, knowing someone’s name is a sign of trust. I take it that by revealing your name, you trust us?” He raised his eyebrows at her and waited.
Katie’s mouth gulped like a fish out of water. Was there a correct answer to the question? Should she lie to save her neck, or be honest and run the risk of punishment? She still hadn’t gotten over the way Chixo regularly watched her body, or how Troxeo seemed on the verge of exploding around her. She wasn’t sure if he was restraining himself from fucking her or beating her to a bloody pulp. He kept his distance from her, standing next to his chair, but he inspected her with an intensity that made her feel as though she were under a microscope.
“What choice do I have but to trust you?” she heard herself say. For a non-answer, she thought it sounded pretty good. “I am in your care, and as far as I can tell I am unharmed.”
The alien nodded. “That’s very practical of you. We appreciate practicality on my planet. My name is Arkhan ar Trepniss. I’m Troxeo’s cousin.”
Katie smiled. Arkhan was definitely big, and he was definitely alien, but he didn’t have the gruff manner that Troxeo did. There was a sense of manners about him mixed with the cold, scientific viewpoint they all seemed to have. It was like he was an English gentleman combined with an engineer. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she could say for any of the others on board.
Troxeo was simply a monster, Chixo an overcurious analyst, and Enan was only interested in her for the possibility of technology. She wondered for a moment how the men of Bonaan would compare to these aliens if they were able to stand side by side. Would they seem weak or unmanly? What did it mean for an alien to be masculine? Was it the same as being a man on Earth?
“You have to understand that when we land on Oretoz, things won’t be quite so easy for you,” Arkhan continued. “You won’t be allowed to wander around freely or speak to whomever you like. Most of us will not openly reveal their names to you. You are being treated as a guest here, but technically you are our prisoner.”
Katie felt Chixo’s hard eyes staring at her. Could it hurt to ask one more question? “What I don’t understand is why I’m a prisoner at all. Did I do something wrong? I’m just a regular person. Why can’t I go home?”
“Wrong.” The alien said the word like a statement, not a question. “I don’t think there was anything you did wrong. But right and wrong don’t have anything to do with it. Someone needs you on our planet, and we’ve been assigned to bring you there.”
“You can’t go around snatching people up and whisking them to the other side of the universe. I want to go home.” Tears threatened to erupt from the back of her eyes, and she had to hold her breath to keep them from falling. These people were obviously not going to be moved by pity.
Arkhan ignored her demands. “I trust that your room is comfortable?” he asked, taking a few slow steps closer to her. “This ship is not a big one, but I assure you that worse ships exist.”
Somehow this alien easily got past her defenses. She had thought of herself as a solid stick of humanity, but he was bending her like a flower stem. He loomed over her now. Katie knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him if she wanted to. “Oh, um, no. I mean, the ship is nice.”
He gave an animalistic smile again. “Good, good. Tell me about your life on your planet. I confess I haven’t studied Earth life much. Do you have a mate?”
“A mate? Er...oh. No. Not anymore.” Her face burned, and there was no way for her to hide it.
Arkhan nodded sagely. “You got tired of him and threw him out of your home? Well, I suppose that’s to be expected eventually for any of us.”
“No, not exactly. He didn’t want me. But this isn’t any of your business.” She said the last part in a rush, hoping it would cover up her embarrassment.
Arkhan didn’t laugh at her. Instead, his dark eyebrows drew together on his forehead, and he leaned down to her. “Are you sure?” His eyes swept over her body. She suddenly felt self-conscious in a bodysuit that left nothing to the imagination. “You are obviously healthy and fertile.”
She crossed her arms over her body. The clothing completely covered her, but the thin material didn’t hide much. Arkhan was complimenting her in a way, and she knew tha
t, but his words were not making her feel any better.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She wondered how red her face was.
“I doubt you would suffer the same fate on Oretoz. In fact, you might be beating off potential mates left and right. Once they got over the fact that you’re an alien, that is.”
He stood straight once more, and Katie felt as though she could breathe again. “What’s so bad about being from Earth? If you don’t like where I come from, I would think you’d be eager to take me back there.”
Arkhan shook his head. “Earthlings, from what we can tell, are soft. Emotional. They are not good fighters. But you are needed on Oretoz, nevertheless.”
The door to the bridge whirred open once more, and Troxeo entered the room. He stopped for a moment and took in the scene before him. “Take the human back to her quarters,” he commanded to Chixo. “I have some business I need to take care of.”
“But I just got out!” Katie protested.
Troxeo stared at her. “I’m commander of this ship. Obey me.”
The door closed swiftly on Katie’s heels as Chixo escorted her back to the room.
Chapter Twelve
Troxeo actively tried to prevent himself from watching the human leave. He marched swiftly toward his seat at the helm instead. He sat down in the chair and ran a hand through his hair. The things he saw when he entered the bridge bothered him.
The human was standing in the middle of the floor, looking tiny and vulnerable with Arkhan towering over her. Troxeo realized that she must look the same way to others when he spoke to her, but he hadn’t thought about it before. The human was getting under his skin, peeling back a layer of his armor every time she looked at him.
“Is something troubling you, cousin?” Arkhan returned to his seat as well. “You don’t seem to be yourself.”
Troxeo stared out the front window of the ship as he thought about his next moves and even his next sentence. Arkhan didn’t realize how correct he was. Troxeo had been second-guessing every thought he’d had in the past several hours.
“Did you get any useful information out of the human during your interrogation?” Troxeo didn’t respond. “I know you were in her quarters for some time,” Arkhan said innocently.
Troxeo turned to glare at his cousin. He knew what the man implied, and it fueled a fire deep inside him. He didn’t know if it was anger or lust, but it burned regardless. “She didn’t have much to say.”
“Oh, I see. You probably mean there were no words that suited your purpose. Did she speak to you in other ways, perhaps?” Arkhan had an annoying habit of dragging out the end of a sentence to make it have an implied meaning of far more than the literal interpretation of the words themselves.
“What is the matter with you?” Troxeo slammed his fist onto the arm of his chair, feeling it shudder beneath him. “She is an alien from Earth. I didn’t fuck her.”
Arkhan shrugged. “If you say so. But I would be the last person to criticize you if you decided to pursue it. I mean, she’s surprisingly attractive for an Earthling. Somehow I thought they would be repulsive.”
Troxeo’s throat clenched as he struggled to swallow the first retorts that jumped into his mouth. He couldn’t agree out loud with his cousin’s appreciation for the human. Nor could he lie openly about his attraction to her. By all rights, the girl should have been nothing more than a piece of luggage. That was what he had intended.
But from the moment she looked into his eyes, there had been a word echoing in the back of his mind. Eleste. It was an ancient word, an old-fashioned idea that most modern Oretoz cast aside as something so silly it might as well be mythical. It was the word used for the deepest connection imaginable between two souls, a link between their bodies, their hearts, and their minds. Troxeo had never known anyone who had experienced such a thing. If they did, they would probably be too embarrassed to talk about it.
He had no connection with Katie’s body, not in the obvious sense. Troxeo hadn’t experienced sex with the woman. But he swore he could feel her heart beat to the same rhythm as his. And he felt a deeper sense, a primal desire to know more about her and understand her thoughts.
Did that mean she was his eleste? Maybe he was just fascinated by a new, shiny plaything.
“Hello? Troxeo?” Arkhan interrupted his thoughts, and a grin was on his lips. “At any rate, I’m happy to keep the human occupied for you while she’s on board the ship. You know, keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t try to kill herself or find a way to escape, keep her bed warm at night...”
Troxeo was on his feet before he knew it, leaning down over his cousin. “You won’t touch her!” He wanted to sink his teeth into Arkhan’s throat and rip it out. Every ounce of his body was alive and pulsed with a wild urge that had driven all logic out of him.
Arkhan put his hands up in a placating gesture, but the wicked grin hadn’t left his face. “Easy now, Trox. I had no idea you felt so strongly about the cargo. After all, you’ve been talking about what a disgusting creature she is. I took you at your word.”
“She is my prisoner, and she is under my protection.” Troxeo’s voice sounded rough and gravelly. He tried to look calm, but his muscles were too tense to allow him to sit down again.
On Oretoz, a man and a woman who decided to mate only stayed together for a season. It was enough to ensure there would be a new life to carry on their legacy. A woman was under the protection of her mate while she grew the baby inside her, safe from harm with a strong man at her side during the only time in her life she was vulnerable.
But when a man found his eleste, the connection was different. Instead of being marked as a mate for a few months, the bond was for a lifetime. Something happened during the mating process that changed both of them. Arkhan wondered which sort of protection Troxeo meant.
“Is she now?” Arkhan sat back in his chair, folded his hands against his abdomen, and looked up at his cousin calmly. He had always been content to let others think they were getting the better of him while he gained the upper hand. Troxeo knew this fact about him, but still often found himself trapped. “I wasn’t aware that you had taken those steps.”
Troxeo groaned. “I meant she is under my protection because I captured her. If you think I am implying anything else, you’re delusional.”
Arkhan nodded. “That all sounds good, cousin, but there’s a problem. What could you do if someone else were to lay his claim on Katie? Then you wouldn’t have any control at all.” He laughed a little. “I won’t pretend to be an expert on humans. My sample size is one. But I find it difficult to believe that she understands how things work for us. How could she know that women have the advantage over the men on Oretoz? They are the ones who decide when it’s time to mate and when it’s not. I’d be willing to bet I could do what I wanted to with her. I could go into her room, peel back her thin bodysuit, and run my hands over every curve of her little body. She would have no idea that the fact that I’m physically stronger than her doesn’t give me all the power in our interaction. If she said no, I would have no choice but to stop.”
The image Arkhan projected was something Troxeo had already imagined time after time in his mind. Why was Chixo compelled to give the human an outfit that was barely more than a second skin? It was a darker blue than her haunting eyes, but it only seemed to intensify their color. She had already driven him mad with desire when she wore the clothes from Earth. Seeing her dressed like an Oretoz woman nearly made him tremble inside. It made her look powerful and yet welcoming at the same time.
He longed to do what Arkhan described, to use his power and take what he had desired ever since he took her from the Earth ship. He wanted to feel himself sink into her soft warmth flesh. Troxeo fought to keep his spine straight. If he bent down to get nose-to-nose with his cousin, it would only confirm that Arkhan had succeeded in getting under Troxeo’s skin. He was still captain of this ship, and Katie was still his prisoner.
“All I can say, Arkhan, is that you ha
d better keep your hands off her. I am the one who will decide her fate. Not you, not Chixo, and not even Katie herself.”
Arkhan calmly got to his feet. He was chest-to-chest with his cousin for only a moment as he pushed past him to the door of the bridge. “Suit yourself, Trox. Just out of curiosity, how long do you think you can protect her once we reach Oretoz? How long do you think it will take the other men to forget she’s from Earth and focus on the reality that she isn’t as strong as one of our women? We are men who are strengthened by denying ourselves. We are forged by our urges and always in control. It doesn’t mean we’re perfect.”
The door slid shut at Arkhan’s back, and Troxeo slumped into his chair once again. Women had never affected him like this before. They had never made him question himself or his morals. It had never bothered him if a woman on Oretoz had been with another man before or after they had spent their time with him. That was how things worked, even if the other man was his cousin.
Katie was different. More than different. Special. He wanted to land on his home planet, dump the rest of his crew, and take the human away to a safe place of their own.
But he was a soldier, and he had orders.
Chapter Thirteen
The deep blue orb of Oretoz loomed ahead in the main viewing screen of Troxeo’s ship. He had only been away for a short time, but he felt relief wash over him at the idea of returning home. When he was on Oretoz, he knew what his duty was. He didn’t have to question his identity, who he was supposed to be, or what he should be feeling. Home was a place where things were straightforward.
On Oretoz, he hoped the last few peculiar days of his life would be over and forgotten, and his regular life would resume. There were no humans here, and his interaction with one particular human would be over.
Troxeo adjusted the ship’s computer, shifting the guidance systems to manual control. The ship was capable of landing itself by autopilot, but sometimes he liked to do things the old-fashioned way. He savored the click of cool buttons under his fingertips and the smooth motion of the acceleration lever as he wrapped his hand around it, pulling it toward himself.