“Follow me,” he said quietly and she obeyed.
The two of them entered into a grand foyer, complete with a gorgeous crystal chandelier above them. The walls, painted with gold filigree, gave his home a rich and opulent feel that she’d never seen before, especially not on his ship.
“Before you say anything about this place, I’d like to explain that it wasn’t my design. The military commander is sent to live here, and it’s been designed with a certain set of protections meant to keep myself, as well as anyone with me, completely safe,” he said, looking around him with an expression of disgust. “This really isn’t my style.”
“I did notice the design is a little different from your ship,” she murmured.
“Come, it’s getting late. Let’s get to bed, Aubrie. I’ll introduce you to Venassathi tomorrow,” he said, his expression giving away his exhaustion. He held out his hand for her. Tentatively, she approached him and followed him into an equally opulent bedroom.
He helped her undress, but left her collar on and helped her to climb into bed.
“Edagon?”
“Yes, Aubrie,” he responded as he climbed into bed beside her.
“Why do you think I was told that Venassathi was going to attack Earth, if what you say was true? That you were never going to attack us?”
“I have no idea, Aubrie. I know little about Earth, other than the fact it’s in a small solar system far away. There’s nothing we want from it, either resources or technology. My people have never been involved in the slave trade either, you just happened to be captured by our allies the Klintok. They brought you to Minaria, where I found you,” he said.
She picked at the comforter beneath her, trying to recall the names of the other aggressors that she’d been told about, the ones that wanted to rule Earth and steal away humans for purposes unknown.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, right? Not about this?”
“No. I have no reason to lie. I own you. As far as I know, neither I nor my allies have any interest in a puny archaic planet such as Earth. Last I heard, they were so caught up in their own greed and corruption that no one in the universe wanted anything to do with them.”
Racking her brain, she tried to wrap her mind around the information he had given her. It couldn’t be true, could it? Why would she be sent to confront enemy forces that had no intention of attacking Earth?
* * *
That night, Edagon slept beside her for the first time, pulling her small body into his much larger one, and she couldn’t help but feel something for the man.
She didn’t hate him. He’d been a harsh master thus far, but fair. She’d been embarrassed to be spanked, but it had left no lasting marks on her skin. There had been moments where he could have slapped her, maimed her, and physically hurt her in a way that she couldn’t recover from, but he hadn’t.
He was the enemy commander. It was practically expected of him to make an example of her. He could murder her in cold blood and not a single person in this world would blink an eye. Instead, he’d touched her with tenderness and answered her probing questions.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe she could be happy with him.
Eventually, Aubrie fell into a fitful sleep, plagued by dreams where Edagon would both protect her and hurt her, leaving her in a state of confusion that shook her to the core.
The next morning, she awoke to a loud booming noise, feeling Edagon stir beside her. A protective arm wound around her waist, pulling her closer to him than before and she couldn’t deny that it felt good. He kissed the top of her head and she shivered.
The sound boomed once again and Edagon sat straight up. He jumped out of bed, pulling on a pair of pants and slipping on a pair of thick combat boots.
“Get up, Aubrie. Put on your dress,” he ordered and she obeyed without a fuss. She wondered what was happening, if there was some sort of explosion, if they were under attack. Rubbing her hand over the back of her neck, she tried not to hope that it was the Earthen forces come to rescue her.
Everything happened so quickly then as the two of them finished dressing in record time.
In order to get to the command center as quickly as possible, he had taken her and thrown her over his shoulder. She had tried to protest, but only earned a few harsh swats to her bottom and she relented. Instead, she had memorized the path they had taken to get there, focusing her efforts on more important things than escaping her embarrassing position. He spirited her away to what was a single room protected deep underneath the tall tower she’d arrived on.
The command center was a place she would have never seen if it weren’t for her current predicament. She was surrounded by alien technology, radars that far surpassed Earth’s, weapons she couldn’t identify, and a communication intel that connected a vast amount of alien networks all in one. She studied everything, making sure to stay out of the way as Edagon commanded his forces.
She saw no mention of Earth, no matter where she looked.
“What’s happening?” he roared as he stalked to the front of the room.
“Commander Edagon, a small legion of enemy forces has broken into the airspace of the dome. Pretending to be Venassathi ships, they have entered and begun to bomb our city. One of the ships whereabouts is unknown,” an alien man responded.
“Do we know their origin?” Edagon pressed.
“No. We have not had contact yet. We’ve initiated, but there hasn’t been any response,” the same alien responded. Aubrie guessed the man was second in command to Edagon.
“Last known location of the missing ship?”
“Near us, sir. The ship landed and disappeared just a few blocks away,” he responded.
“Put a team together and send them to investigate. Keep the mission stealth. I demand they do not engage. Have them report back to command as soon as they find anything,” Edagon ordered as he studied the incoming ship logs.
Aubrie sat down in a nearby seat and tried to stay out of the way. The back of her neck itched and she scratched it, noticing that there was a bump growing there. She felt it again, realizing it was also in the same location of the tracking device that had been inserted ages ago when she joined the military. Until now, she hadn’t given the thing a second thought.
Her arm tingled then, almost as if an electronic signal was passing through her veins.
Something inside her mind clicked then and a transmission began.
“Commander Aubrie Kent. This is Sergeant Logan Shepard. Earthen forces have breached the dome of the Venassathi city where you’re being held captive. We know your coordinates but need you to try to get somewhere on higher ground so that we may rescue you. Once you are in a safe location, please tap your finger twice on the back of your neck to confirm. End message.”
Startled, she looked around to ensure that no one else had heard the male voice that had just played in her head. Blinking, she realized that the tracking device within her body must have other functions, such as emergency communication with prisoners of war. She watched Edagon for a long moment, seeing how busy he was and how much his people respected him.
As she wandered around the room, he didn’t seem to notice any of her movements. Scrutinizing her surroundings, she saw two exits. She moved closer toward the one she and Edagon had come through, and no one had any care for her carefully calculated explorations. It was a stark reminder that on this planet, she was nothing to anyone, a human slave owned by their commander.
An alien male entered the room, and she slipped out the door behind him. Quickly, she ran around the corner and waited, her ears met with overwhelming silence. Considering her options, she returned to the path they had taken to get to the command center. There was an elevator, but she also saw a door indicating stairs nearby. Remembering that Edagon had used his palm in order to power the elevator, she elected to dash toward the stairs.
Flight after flight, she tore upward at a full sprint, hearing nothing behind her but the heavy beating of her own heart.
Eventually, after what seemed like forever, she reached the top of the building. She was alone as she emerged out into the open air.
Taking in her surroundings, she saw a pile of crates and quickly moved to hide herself behind them. It took a long moment to catch her breath.
She tapped her neck twice.
“Commander Aubrie Kent to Sergeant Logan Shepard. Message received. Location changed. Please come find me,” she whispered, adrenaline coursing through her veins and cloaking her fear. If Edagon found her now, he’d surely kill her. There was no doubt in her mind.
She sat there for a long while before she heard a sound. Boots clicked on the concrete surface and she hazarded a glance around the corner, only to see a small group of familiar military faces. She sighed with happiness and stood up, waving to her Earthen military mates. The man at the head of the group carried a large AKX1200, a laser gun that was one of the most advanced technology that Earth had developed.
“Sergeant Logan Shepard?” she asked hesitantly.
“Commander Aubrie Kent?” the man asked, his dark brown eyes studying her. He wore a helmet that hid most of his face, the black gear telling her that he was a part of the stealth division. The men around him trained their weapons on her. Every single one of them narrowed their gazes at her. Something wasn’t right. They didn’t rush to rescue her or check her for injuries. Instead, their formation began to tighten. Fingers stiffened on triggers, eyes locked on sights that were pointed toward her. She began to feel uneasy in that moment.
“Yes. Identity confirmed,” she responded.
Sergeant Shepard pressed a button on his helmet, saying the words “target acquired” softly into the wind. She took a step backward then, a sickening feeling bubbling up from the bottom of her stomach.
Shepard lifted his weapon and trained it on her.
She knew it then and she cried out in defeat. This wasn’t a rescue mission, this was an assassination. Earth had abandoned her, deemed her worthy of nothing but death. She had important information about the human forces and they could no longer afford to keep her alive. She knew too much. It was a danger to allow her to live. Shock stilled her. Everything she had worked for, her entire life, all the time and dedications she had willingly given the military, it was all for nothing.
She was now a liability.
She was as good as dead.
“I’m sorry, Commander, but orders are orders,” he said, without a single hint of emotion in his voice.
The sergeant moved to pull the trigger.
A golden shimmer moved behind him and the outline of a tall form materialized. She blinked, convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her. After a long moment, Commander Edagon appeared behind Shepard and he did not look pleased.
All at once, golden shimmers appeared everywhere and the Venassathi men appeared within the small group of men. The battle began and ended in a matter of seconds, the human forces taken by surprise. The alien men were bigger, more powerful, and most important, had access to weapons that left human technology in the dust.
She watched in both horror and relief as each alien man dispatched the humans, leaving them paralyzed and shackled as quickly as they appeared, all with a tiny handheld device in each of the alien’s hands.
Commander Edagon walked toward her, his eyes dark, stormy, and incredibly angry.
“See to it that the prisoners are detained and questioned. Take down the last remaining ship in the air and see to it that their escape routes are destroyed. No one is to enter the dome without first providing proof that they are indeed Venassathi. Am I perfectly clear? This breach of our great city will never happen again,” he warned, his voice loud and quaking with ire.
“Yes, Commander. Consider it done,” one of the aliens responded.
He purposely moved in front of her and she suddenly felt very small.
“You and I have much to discuss, slave,” he growled and she trembled before him.
He offered her his hand and stared at her then, daring her to defy him.
Tentatively, she took it, knowing whatever was to happen next would probably not be good for her. She had no other options though.
“I’ll handle my slave, gents. I’ll see to it that she won’t even think about betraying us again,” he warned loudly and she shivered.
She was going to die.
Chapter Six
The walk back to Edagon’s chamber was eerily silent except for the sound of their steps echoing in the hall, ringing like a bell tolling her doom. She felt numb. Cold. Like it was all about to end.
He thought her a traitor to him. Her enemy. There was no reason he would allow her to survive this. Hell, even Earth had planned to kill her. She watched as he placed his palm on the reader, the familiar heavy steel door opening for them and closing with a loud click after they entered.
She stood there alone as she felt his presence approach behind her. She felt the roughness of his touch on her back as he gripped the fabric of the dress covering her body. A terrible ripping sound echoed around her and she cried as he tore the gown off of her. The shredded fabric fell to the floor, revealing her nakedness to him once again. She moved to cover herself, but he quickly knocked her hands away.
She felt his breath on her skin—hot, angry, vengeful—and she struggled to keep silent in her fear. Trembling, she closed her eyes.
He moved behind her, pushing her hair to the side and revealing the back of her neck to his view. His thumb pressed against the bump on her throat, running over the tracking device with the tip of his finger.
She couldn’t see what he was doing then, but felt a sharp sudden pinch of pain at that very spot. It took a moment for her to realize that it was the edge of a knife that scraped shallowly against her throat. In agony, she cried out when he pinched the wound in her skin. With alarm, she felt the tracker first dislodge, then move and pop out of her skin.
“Please. Don’t hurt me,” she begged, her hand flying to her neck, the feel of her blood flowing across her sensitive flesh.
He didn’t say a word as he placed the flat of the blade against her neck. The metal was cool at first, but then warmed against her skin. Electric pulses awoke every nerve, overwhelming her senses. She yelped, but then the sharp pain began to fade away just as quickly as it had come and she felt her flesh begin to knit back together.
A soft fabric brushed against her, wiping away any semblance of blood that remained. There was no more pain. She reached back to touch the place he had sliced open and felt nothing; no bump, no scar, no more blood, just the seamless, unmarred softness of her own skin.
It was like it had never happened. He had healed her. Why would he do that?
“I didn’t know they’d come,” she said softly.
“I know,” he responded, the anger drained from his voice.
He turned her around and held his palm up in front of her eyes, the small tracking device blinking green before her. Slowly, he made a fist and she heard the thing crackle and pop. When he opened his palm again, the only thing left was the shattered remains of the tiny object. It didn’t blink anymore. It was dead.
She swallowed heavily.
“If I am to die, I only ask that you make it quick. It’s okay if it hurts, but please don’t torture me. That’s my only wish, Commander Edagon,” she said, tears freely falling down her cheeks.
He wound a hand around her lower back and cupped the back of her head so that she looked up at him. She studied his eyes, but could discern nothing.
“You think I mean to kill you,” he began, and she choked on a sob.
“After everything that’s happened? How could you not? Your men saw me up there, they probably think that I arranged the entire mission. I’m not only your enemy and your slave, but a traitor in their eyes,” she whispered, her voice shaking with fear.
“I don’t think you should die, Aubrie,” he replied.
“Please don’t torment me,” she begged and he stilled.
“Aubrie, look at me
,” he ordered and something inside her broke.
Her vision blurring with tears, she struggled to obey.
“Have I ever physically marred you before? Tortured you for no reason?” he asked, his voice clear and firm.
“No,” she whimpered.
“The correct response is ‘No, sir,’ Aubrie,” he corrected.
“No, sir,” she whispered.
“Do you think I’ll begin now?” His dark eyes studied her, small flashes of red glimmering, and she quaked with her fear.
“No, sir,” she replied softly, a small glimmer of hope coming to life inside her.
“While you certainly misbehaved and tried to escape from me, you were most definitely not involved in your very own assassination mission. Instead of killing you or torturing you, I plan to teach you that you are mine. You will always and forever be mine. I refuse to share you and you would do well to remember that. You are my slave, Aubrie. You are my woman,” he declared and she trembled from the power in his voice.
“You’re going to teach me?”
“Oh, yes, little one,” he replied, a dangerous smirk growing at the edge of his lips.
Her bottom tingled then.
“What’s going to happen? What are you going to do?” she asked worriedly.
“Why don’t you continue on to my bedroom and you’ll find out?”
She shook nervously then. Watching as he flexed his hands, she bit her lip. Despite her nerves, her legs pressed together with hidden desire.
He pointed down the hall and she hesitantly began walking in the direction he wanted. She heard him following her, knew he could see the naked curves of her backside as her hips swayed and she felt her wetness grow between her thighs.
When they reached the bedroom, she heard him close the door behind her. Her heart hammered and her blood boiled with feverish passion.
Alien Alphas: Twenty-Three Naughty Sci-Fi Romance Novellas Page 8