Alien Conquest

by Carter, Sadie

  He heard Georgie gasp behind him as his stomach turned. How a male could hurt a female was something he could never understand. Females should be cherished, never harmed. The strong should always protect the weak.

  He gave the male a disgusted look and turned away. He moved to another stall, with Georgie trailing him. He did not like the leash any better than she did. But it did give him some peace of mind. He did not trust Georgie not to do something stupid.

  He grabbed a light piece of cloth and turned to wrap it around Georgie’s head. The color matched her bright blue eyes. He reached into his pocket to pull out a credit. He did not like using Georgie’s credits, but he had none of his own. She told him she had taken them from the guard who attacked her, which had made him feel better.

  After he found someone to purchase the emergency pod, he would have more credits. And he would purchase Georgie some food. Too thin. Too pale. He did not like that he was doing such a poor job of looking after her.

  He continued through the marketplace. He had to work hard to keep the disgust off his face as he saw the way some females were being treated. One scrambled around on her hands and knees behind her “master.” Another was completely naked, her back and ass covered in angry red welts.

  He heard Georgie take in a sharp breath behind him. He turned to glance at her, prepared to give her a warning look. Her gaze fell immediately to her feet, her shoulders hunched.

  He clenched his hands into fists. He should not have brought her here. This place was not good enough for her. It was filth, when she was clean. Dark, when she was light. This place reminded him of where he had been for the past few years.

  He did not deserve her.

  It was hammered into his brain. He was dark. He was filth. He did not deserve to touch her.

  He came to a stop and felt her slide into him. He tensed then turned to grab her, but there were too many eyes on him here, people who were just looking for a weakness. A reason to attack. He could not show any softness towards her.

  “Careful, female!” he barked.

  He braced himself for her to snap back at him, knowing what he would need to do. If she protested those few small smacks on the ass he’d given her back on the ship, she would really hate what he would have to do if she disrespected or disobeyed him while they were here.

  But better a sore ass than her being taken from him.

  Something flashed across her face. Understanding. She lowered her gaze. “Sorry, Master.”

  He breathed out a sigh of relief. Perhaps he shouldn’t have worried. She might be impetuous and strong-willed, but she was also smart. Even though it was his fault that she had fallen into him, she had understood his reason for berating her.

  He turned around, making certain his face was set in a scowl. It wasn’t hard. He wanted to repel anyone who thought of approaching. But he was also furious he’d had to bring her here. This place held some of the worst scum in the universe.

  Scum like the creatures that had held him captive these past few years.

  That is over now. You are a prisoner no longer. You are free.

  He needed to get the emergency pod sold then find them a new ship and get them away from this planet. Not just because of the people here and the dangers they represented, but because they were likely being tracked.

  “Zandar, are you okay?” Georgie asked in such a quiet whisper, he knew no one else would have heard. She had herself pressed close to him. He realized he had stopped in front of the drinking establishment he had been searching for, and was just staring at the door.

  Back at the port, a Loblon creature had explained where to find this place and who to look for in order to sell the pod. He was glad for their help, even if he had not liked the way the tall, thin, four-armed creature had stared at his female.

  Mine.

  If human females could mate with his kind, then she could be his mate. He shook his head. No. He would know, would he not?

  He did not intend to have a mate.

  Broken. Dark. Lost.

  He took in a shuddering breath. “Let’s go, slave.”

  He spotted Georgie flinch and wished he did not have to be so harsh. Just an act. It will keep her alive. Keep her safe.

  He had explained all this back on the pod. He just had to hope she remembered it.

  * * *

  Well, this fucking sucked.

  It was even worse than she thought it would be. Not that she had high hopes for this planet or anything. No place that held slaves would ever be a place she wanted to live. That she had to pretend to be Zandar’s slave wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever had to do in her life. Not by a long shot.

  But having to kneel on this disgusting, sticky, filthy floor while all sorts of creatures leered at her, and the stench of so many bodies pressed in around her. . .

  Yeah.

  That was gross.

  Super, disgustingly gross. She’d slept in some questionable places. She’d been around some truly awful people. And still, this was right up there with worst things to happen to her. Not quite as bad as the time some asshole had dragged her into a dark alleyway to rape her but definitely worse than the time she’d dug through rubbish, searching for something to eat.

  Fuck my life.

  When would she catch a break? She’d had something good back on that transporter. French toast. Syrup. What sort of goodies was she missing out on? She sighed forlornly. She’d never know.

  Come on, Georgie. Look on the positive side.

  You’re not dead.

  Okay. She guessed that was a good thing. There was no coming back from dead, now, was there?

  Zandar was sitting across the table from this weird-looking creature with pinky-purplish skin. It had two arms and legs, but its eyes were tiny in its massive head and in the middle of them was a big, golden horn.

  Like a unicorn.

  His skin was kind of pretty and at least he’d been easy to find. But one look into his eyes and you could tell there was nothing pretty about his soul. He’d stared at her, a hungry, evil look on his face.

  Zandar had quickly pushed her to her knees. He’d warned her back on the ship, but she still hadn’t been prepared for how vulnerable it would make her feel. She was completely reliant on Zandar to protect her. It wasn’t easy. She’d been looking after herself for the last nine years. Hell, basically since Annie. . . She swallowed that thought.

  Pinky had a rope hanging around his neck. At the end of the rope was a golden medallion with brightly colored stones embedded in it. So pretty. She liked pretty things. And this guy was a jerk. He was toying with Zandar and she could feel from the way Zandar was growing more and more tense that it was getting to him.

  Hmm, she’d bet that medallion was worth a few credits.

  A screeching noise caught her attention and she stared across the room, scowling as she spotted a huge, hairy creature holding a little animal that bore a striking resemblance to an animal she’d once seen in a book. What had it been called? Oh yeah, a monkey. They were long extinct, but this creature looked exactly like one. The hairy beast swung the poor monkey by its tail in the air. The monkey managed to latch on to the creature’s wrist and bite down.

  Go, monkey, go!

  The hairy beast dropped the monkey with a roar. The monkey raced through the crowd, climbing over other beings as they yelled out, trying to grab it. She had to grin. That monkey was totally her spirit animal.

  Feisty and crazy.

  The big, hairy creature, who bore a startling resemblance to a sasquatch, let out another roar of fury and started stomping through the crowd after the monkey.

  Oh no, you don’t, asshole!

  As he grew closer to her, she threw herself at his legs, making him trip. Where he brushed against her bare skin, agony broke out and she let a cry. He thumped to the floor and she jumped away, knocking into a server carrying food.

  “Georgie!” Zandar cried out as she saw the food fly through the air and land on the pretty-colored a
lien.

  Perfect.

  She jumped towards Pinky, pulling the knife from her wrist sheath that was hidden with her top. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Here, let me help you.”

  She pretended to clean him off, her knife slicing through the rope, the medallion going up her other sleeve.

  Just in time, before a rattling roar sounded behind her and something grabbed her, throwing her through the air.

  Oh right. Sasquatch was not a happy camper.

  She landed on the floor with a thump. Owie. She tried to push herself up, when her hands slid through some slimy stuff. She pulled them back, staring at the blue bubbling stuff in disgust.

  Ew. What was that?

  Fuck. Why was the slime bubbling? What the hell? Was it eating through her skin? Was it some sort of acid? But she couldn’t feel any pain. It looked like the slime that kids on Earth liked to play with. Except for the way it bubbled. Was it smoking?

  Where was Zandar? Why wasn’t he helping her? There was fucking blue bubbling slime on her hands.

  Deep breaths. It was just slime. Although, for all she knew, it was some disgusting alien’s jizz.

  She started dry-retching at the thought. A shout caught her attention, followed by a pained cry. She looked up to see Zandar fighting off the sasquatch. Oh shit. Around her, fights had broken out and she crawled towards the bar, trying to avoid being kicked or stood on.

  “Georgie!”

  She winced at Zandar’s agonized roar. He was going to kill her. If she got out of here alive, that was. A foot whacked into her side, sending her flying. She lay on her back, trying to breathe. She was definitely going to die.

  Then Zandar appeared in front of her. Blood ran from a cut in his head, and his eyes looked wild as he stared around. But he picked her up, setting her over his wide shoulder.

  The bar had fallen into a brawl. Total disarray and chaos.

  Huh. Funny how that always seemed to happen around her. Maybe she was cursed.

  She stared down at a perky, muscular ass. She knew this ass. She was entirely grateful to now be hanging upside down and staring at this ass.

  He pushed his way through the fighting horde, which were thankfully too interested in trying to kill each other to pay attention to the furious Zerconian male with a woman lying over his shoulder. But who knew how long that was going to last?

  He finally burst outside and she breathed a sigh of relief. Until she heard a yell come from inside the bar. Zandar took off towards the port. She glanced back and saw several creatures racing after them.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Zandar! We’re being chased!”

  He grunted. She was going to take that as a sign that he knew. He pushed faster.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  She had to take shallow breaths, telling herself that she was not going to throw up the protein bar she’d eaten earlier.

  “Hold on!” he demanded.

  Hold on? Why? And to what?

  She grabbed hold of his shirt as he crouched then jumped into the air.

  Fuck. Fuck. Shit.

  That was not what she’d expected to happen. He jumped over some sort of sludgy-looking river that she would never in a million years touch, let alone drink from. Then they were entering a wooded area. Branches tugged at their clothing, but Zandar plodded on, barely slowing.

  Only once they reached a small clearing did he stop and let her slide off his shoulder. She wobbled, the world around her spinning as she stumbled back and fell on her ass.

  Graceful as always.

  Her hair brushed into her face and she pushed it away. Something started moving in the strands and she leapt to her feet with a cry.

  “Get it out! Get it out! Is it a spider? Oh God! Get it out!”

  “Female, what do you do?” Zandar demanded as she danced around him, brushing at her hair frantically.

  Was it not obvious that she was preforming the “there’s a spider in my hair dance”?

  “Female!” he snapped.

  “Get it out!”

  “Get what out?”

  “Whatever is in my hair. Is it a spider? No! Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. Just get it out right now!” All right, so she might have a slight phobia about spiders. But would you like one creeping around in your hair?

  “Female. No spider.”

  “There’s not? But there’s something in there. I can feel it moving.”

  He pushed her hands away, carefully checking her hair. “Just blue goo.” He pushed her hair away from her face so she could gape up at him.

  “Blue goo? Oh God, the stuff from my hands? But it feels like it’s moving!”

  He nodded. “Goo do that.”

  “Goo do that? Seriously. Is that all you’ve got to say? What is this goo? Please don’t tell me someone boxed the one-eyed champ in that bar.”

  “What?”

  “It’s not jizz, right?”

  “What jizz?”

  “Okay, this is something your parents should have explained to you. If you don’t know, I’m not telling you. Just please tell me this did not come from any alien’s orifice.”

  “It is a drink.”

  “People drink this shit? Gross. Aliens are gross. And horrid. Like that sasquatch.”

  “Sasquatch?” Zandar frowned, two lines appearing between his eyebrows.

  “The hairy beast who threw me across the room.”

  “He injure you?” He crouched down and ran his hands over her, touching every inch as he inspected her.

  She had to bite her lip against a groan of pleasure.

  Not the time, Georgie. Bad Georgie. Down, libido. Down.

  What the fuck was wrong with her?

  “I’m okay. I’m all right.” Her voice came out weak and thready. Shit.

  He stood, looming over her. His eyes flashed red. Uh-oh. “What you thinking?”

  Umm. She hadn’t been?

  “Foolish female. You knew rules.”

  Zandar paced back and forth across the clearing. Okay, so she’d messed up and broken the rules. She’d had a good reason. She frowned at him.

  “Messed up deal.” Her frown grew into a scowl. “What do now?”

  All right, her scowl eased as she realized he was just worried. So was she. It was growing dark. They were in the middle of a forest on a strange planet, it was freezing cold, and who knew if those assholes who’d chased them were still looking for them.

  “Sorry, he was being mean to the monkey.”

  Zandar turned to her. “No. Talk.”

  She slammed her lips together. Got it. Excuses didn’t mean much anyway. She had to come up with some way of getting them out of this mess.

  11

  A scuffling noise had her tensing.

  Zandar moved in front of her, protecting her, even though he was seriously pissed at her. Not that she blamed him for his anger. She totally messed that up.

  She just had a soft spot for animals and that sasquatch was an asshole and. . .was that the same monkey peering out at her?

  How likely that there were two of them? Unless they were native to this planet, she guessed.

  “Monkey!” she called out, taking a step out from behind Zandar.

  “Female! Behind me!” Zandar grabbed her and shoved her behind him once more. She nearly lost her footing and glared at his back, barely resisting the urge to poke out her tongue.

  “Hey! You nearly shoved me over, asshole!”

  His shoulders tensed. “I apologize.”

  Okay. That was unexpected. There was something going on with him. He seemed more wound up and grumpier than usual. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was on the run with a woman he barely tolerated, who had just set off a bar brawl, and they’d had to run for their lives to hide in the forest.

  Not that she’d done much running.

  “It’s okay. You’re stressed. But he’s just a monkey. Aren’t you, boy? What’s your name?”

  She crouched down and held out her fingers
, rubbing them together. Everyone knew that was the universal way to get an animal to approach. Right?

  Actually, now she wasn’t so sure. So she smacked her lips together as well.

  “What do you do?” Zandar asked, staring down at her.

  “I’m trying to get it to come to me. Poor thing; look at it. It looks so sad.”

  The creature actually made a chattering noise as it grew closer. He looked like he had a small backpack on his back. How cute. “Can we keep him? Please? I think I’m going to call him Noodle. That’s a good name, right?”

  Zandar made an exasperated noise. “Keep him? How? Where?”

  Hmm. That was a problem. She sighed and stood. “The big guy is right, monkey. Right now, I can’t look after myself, let alone you. I have no home. No food. No money.”

  Then she remembered the half-wrapped protein bar in her pocket. She pulled it out and unwrapped in, throwing it a few feet closer to the monkey. “Here you go.”

  “Female! You fed it?” Zandar gave her an incredulous look.

  “Oh. Sorry. Should have probably kept that, huh? He just looked so hungry.”

  Zandar ran his hand over his face, looking tired for the first time since she’d met him. He muttered something under his breath, but she didn’t bother trying to listen to him. She got it.

  Bad Georgie.

  She glanced down at the blue stuff still coating her hands as the monkey moved forward and grabbed the bar. He then took his backpack off and, reaching inside, pulled something out, dropping it onto the ground before stuffing the bar in.

  A trade. Fair enough.

  “What is this?” She picked up the black disc.

  Zandar came closer and stared at the item, pulling it out of her hand. “Starter for ship.”

  “Huh? Like a key?”

  “Some ships have this.” He stared down at Noodle. “Wonder got it from.”

  “If the ship that it starts is in the port, then could we use it to get away from here?” she asked. He turned to her and then he smiled.

  She nearly fell back on her ass again. That smile. It was everything. It made her knees go weak and her brain turn to mush. Not that there was a lot going on up there at the best of times. But still. At least she could usually find words to use.