“Come on, Lena. You know that’s not true.”
I can’t keep still. I stand up and pace around my living room with the phone glued to my ear. “What are you talking about? I’ve bent over backwards to make you happy.”
“You want me to give it to you straight? All right. Here it is, but just remember, you asked for this. I wanted to let you down easy, but you wouldn’t let that happen. You are the most controlling woman I have ever had anything to do with, and no man in his right mind would date you if he knew what you were really like. I fell for you in the beginning because you’re so successful and beautiful and....well, dominating. But then I got to know you, and look out! You manipulated me to wring every last drop of life out of me, and you did it all under the guise of managing me on your team. I can’t wait to get as far away from you as I can.”
I stop pacing. I can’t be hearing this....again. “So what about work? How’s it going to be with us working together?”
Paul regains his composure. He could be talking to my answering service. “When you get to work on Monday morning, you’ll find my letter of resignation on your desk.”
A lump sticks in my throat, but I keep my voice calm no matter what. “Where will you go? What will you do?”
“I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure, but I just got offered the management position at Tempo & Sons.”
I gasp. “The competition? How could you do that? How could you stab our company in the back after all the work we’ve done together? I thought you believed in this company.”
“That’s just like you, Lena. You think everyone is as obsessed and driven as you are. Some people aren’t, you know. I had to get away from you. That’s all there is to it, and with the experience I gained working under you, Tempo & Sons made me a very attractive offer.”
I close my eyes, but I can’t shut the raw truth out of my mind. “Fine, then. If that’s the way it’s going to be, I’m better off without you.”
Paul snorted. “Yeah, right.” He hangs up, and the phone goes dead.
I stare at the screen for a second while the tragic reality sinks into my tortured soul. Then I hurl the phone across the room with a feral shriek. I spin away and stride across the room, as far away from that phone as I can get.
I pace up and down in front of the full-length windows overlooking the central city, but when I gazed out over the park, my emotions catch up with me. I collapse on my cream leather couch, my shoulders slumped, and I sob into my hands.
How many times have I gone through this same ordeal over the years? I can twirl these men around my little finger for so long before they break and run in the opposite direction. My luxurious condo apartment on the upper floors of an expensive building in the city’s center doesn’t hold them. I always wind up alone in the end. Will I ever be able to trust anyone enough to love them and let them love me?
I throw my head back and blink the tears out of my eyes. I can’t let that scum drag me down. I have too much going for me in life. I rush across the room and retrieve my phone from the cushions of my recliner. At least the cushions protected it from destruction. I’ve replaced my phone four times in the past year after random outbursts of emotion, but at least I had them in the privacy of my own apartment. I never let myself lose control at work or in public.
I tap my phone and call Tanya Reynolds. Tanya always answers right away. “Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“I thought you might like a break from all the wedding plans to go out for a drink.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Does there have to be an occasion to get together with my best friend? I want to see you. Isn’t that enough?”
“You’re sweet, but I can’t. I’m sorry. I have to go to a cake tasting with Ron.”
“Do you have to do that now? Can’t you postpone it?”
“Sorry, honey. I already forgot about it once and had to reschedule it for now. If I don’t go, there’s a $500 fee. Let’s do it tomorrow.”
I can’t exactly say, “But I need you RIGHT NOW!” I couldn’t bear the indignity of that, so I just say, “Okay. Call me when you’re ready.” Then I hang up.
Well, I can’t sit around an empty apartment all day. I have to get out into the open air. That’s the best way I know to deal with these situations, and heaven knows, I’ve dealt with enough of them.
I take the elevator down to the parking garage and head out to the state forest. Even the drive does me good, and by the time I park and look out over the unspoiled countryside, I can see past Mr. Slick Willie to life beyond. There are plenty of other fish in the sea, and they all want a tall, athletic woman with a decent disposable income. I’ll have another man begging to take me out before the end of the week.
I think I might go to my favorite watering hole tonight and pick me up something nice and muscular. The idea excites me, and I head down the trail with a smile on my face.
I enjoy pushing my limits, and I’m panting by the time I get up to the lookout. I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks, and my hair waves down into my eyes, but I’m happy again. The pure air clears my head and cheers me up no end.
I slow down when I get to the top when I spy two guys standing next to the wooden lookout bench. I don’t mind the look of them, and they give me that knowing smile to tell me they’re thinking the same thing.
“Do you guys come up here much?”
“Not much.” The shorter one has beautiful blue eyes and curly hair. “We’re visiting from out of town.”
“What brings you to town?” I ask.
“A business meeting.” The other one is slimmer, but just as strong and square around the shoulders. He has straight dark hair and bright black eyes. Yum.
“Too bad about that. Do you get out much when you’re not in business meetings?”
“This is our first outing.”
Outing? I haven’t heard that word since kindergarten. They might be foreign, but they don't have any accent. “I’m going out to a bar I know tonight. You guys should come along.”
The tall one gives me a gorgeous smile. “We just might do that.”
I hand him one of my business cards. “Here’s my number. Give me a call, and I’ll tell you how to get there.”
Tall Boy pockets the card. “Great. Talk to you later.”
I tear myself away. I’ve done everything I can do. If they don’t call, I’ve lost nothing by trying. I head downhill, but I haven’t gone more than a dozen yards when I notice clouds gathering around the hilltop. That’s strange. I didn’t notice them there before. I must have been distracted.
I walk faster. The first raindrops patter on my cheeks, but I catch sight of the parking lot. There’s my car, and just in time. The sky opens up and pelts me with rain. I break and run for it, but just as I cross out of the trees into the open, a woman’s scream rips through the woods. It sets my hair on end, and I look back over my shoulder.
If I don’t get into my car right now, I’ll get soaked, but I can’t ignore that scream. People don’t scream like that unless they’re in serious trouble. Whoever it is keeps screaming and yelling, “Help! Help!”
I hesitate for a fraction of a second. I really don’t want to go back out into that storm, but I have to go back and try to help her. I race back down the path. The rain plasters my hair to my head and neck and runs down into my shirt, but I follow the sound almost all the way back up to the summit.
At the last moment, I veer off into a side clearing, but when I get there, I don’t find anybody but the two guys I met at the lookout. I stare back and forth between them. “Did you guys hear a woman screaming?”
They only shift from one foot to the other. They won’t look at me or each other. They look at the ground and at the trees.
I try again. “You must have heard it. I heard it all the way down at the parking lot, and I followed the sound up here.”
The tall one shrugs. “We didn’t hear anything.”
I narrow my eyes at them. I don�
�t like this at all. Something tells me to get out of there in a hurry when the short one springs to life. He points over my shoulder. “Look over there! That must be the woman you heard.”
I turn around to look and my jaw drops. Bright lights flash between the trees, and a dark shadow shape moves toward me. “What is that?”
I don’t hear any reply, and when I look back over my shoulder toward the men, I don’t see any sign of them. They’ve vanished into thin air.
At that moment, I feel a pinch in my leg, and that’s the last thing I remember.
Chapter 2
I start awake out of a sound sleep, but I wouldn’t recognize the room I’m in if I’d woken up on another planet. Sterile white walls close me in on every side, and I’m lying on a plain white bed with white sheets. I don’t see a window anywhere, and I can’t figure out where the light comes from.
I hear two men whispering somewhere behind me. I try to sit up, but I can’t move my arms or legs. I take a closer look and find straps around my wrists and ankles holding me down. I’m tied to the bed. What in blazes is going on here?
I yank on the straps, but of course it does no good. The more I yank, the more desperate I become. I have to get out of here, and I don’t even know where I am. I can’t help calling out. “Where am I? What’s going on here? Let me out of here!”
The same two men step forward. I stare at them with my mouth open. I can’t place them in this strange room, and they look different in some way I can’t explain. They look human, except for their skin, which ripples iridescent rainbow colors, and they’re several feet taller than human men. I think I see tiny scales on their skin, but I can’t be sure at this distance. They wear no shirts or shoes, and the light overhead gives their skin a phosphorescent glow.
I can’t believe what I’m seeing, but their appearance startles me so much I explode into furious thrashing. “Let me out of here!
The tall one shakes his head. “That is not possible. You will stay here. You might as well get comfortable and be quiet.”
I don’t hear him. “You can’t do this to me! This is kidnapping. I’ll have the law on you. Let me go!”
The short one snarls at me. His eyes don’t look so nice now. “You should be grateful you were selected. We select only the best Earth females for our prizes.”
“Prizes? What are you talking about?”
“Every year, we select one Earth female to take back to our planet to be the prize for our annual dordon jousting tournament. We’re taking you to our leader for inspection. I’m sure he will approve of our choice.”
I can’t believe this. This can’t be happening. I thrash madly and tear at my straps. I can’t stop screaming and wailing and hurling curses at them. The tall one stands still and watches me, but the short one takes a rapid step toward the bed. He slaps me hard across the face, but I only scream and yell louder than ever. He slaps me again, but this time, he doesn’t move his arms. Something wet and sticky hits my face and leaves a slimy smear in its place.
That snaps me out of my insanity. “Be quiet and lie still, if you know what’s good for you. You can make this as unpleasant at you want, but you’d be wise to accept your fate. No one who comes to our planet ever returns to Earth.”
An alarm sounds somewhere out of sight, and the tall one walks away. He calls out, “We’re approaching Aranon now.”
The short one turns away to join him, and I see a patch of tentacles slithering out of his back. A sick feeling fills my guts, and I want to puke all over that nice clean room. What did I ever do to deserve this? I’m on my way to some alien planet to be an intergalactic sex slave.
The two things, whatever they are, hold a quick conversation in a language I don’t understand. The short one leaves, and the tall one comes toward me. He unbuckles the straps holding me down. “Get up.”
I almost burst into tears, I’m so relieved. “Oh, thank you! I can’t thank you enough.”
“Don’t thank me. You’re going to meet our leader to make sure he approves of your for the tournament.”
“Please don’t do this to me. I only want to go home.”
He shakes his head and leads me out of the room. He holds me by the arms with superhuman strength so I can’t get away. In the next room, he shoves me into a cage covering half the wall and locks the door.
I break down all over again. First they took me from my home planet, and now I’m locked in a cage like a wild animal. “Please, please, please, I only want to understand what’s going on. What’s going to happen to me?”
He turns around, and right in front of my eyes, he changes back into the handsome guy I met on the hilltop. His skin changes from iridescent rainbow scales to plain white human skin, and his black eyes regard me with a mixture of kindness and pity. “We already explained it. You’re on your way to the planet Aranon. Every year, we hold a dordon jousting tournament with an Earth female as the prize. Our two species, the Rekyl and the Zerq compete for the prize. We’ve done this as long as anyone on Aranon can remember, and we’ll do it as long as we exist.”
I wring my hands. “Who are you people?”
“My name is Axl, if you really want to know, and my friend is Itchi. We belong to the Rekyl tribe, and we can change back and forth from our true form to human form. That’s how we pass on your planet to make our search for the prized Earth females. Our leader Rami is coming here right now. You’ll meet him in a few minutes.”
I look back and forth, but there’s nothing to see but this metal cage. “You can’t do this. The authorities will be looking for me back on Earth. They’ll figure out what happened to me.”
He gives me a sad shake of his head. He puts his hand in his pocket and brings out a glass sphere. He holds it up in front of my eyes. “Take a look, and you’ll see you’re wrong. No one is looking for you.”
The sphere changes. I see Tanya talking to the police, but I can tell from their expressions they don’t take my disappearance seriously. As soon as she finishes reporting me missing, she goes back to her wedding preparations. She has more important things on her mind right now than me, and we haven’t spent much time together since she got engaged.
Then I see some of my coworkers. Days pass, and they’re having a grand time without me around. Paul Tariq is riding to fame and glory with Tempo & Sons. No one misses me.
“I’ve taken hundreds of women from Earth,” Axl tells me. “We do research before choosing a woman. We make sure to choose someone whose disappearance will not arouse any suspicion.”
At that moment, the door opens, and Itchi comes back with another rainbow-skinned alien. His eyes widen when he sees Axl in his human form, but the next minute, he copies him by changing into the most delicious tall specimen you ever saw. He looks a lot like Axl, with straight dark hair and crisp black eyes that look straight through you. Then again, maybe I only think they look alike because they’re standing next to each other.
He comes toward the cage and surveys me up and down. “What is your name?”
I gulp. “Lena.”
He nods in approval. “Lena. I like that. I am Rami.”
I glance at Axl. “He told me.”
He smiles. “I like you. You’re a perfect specimen. So tall and slender and strong. I’m going to win you, and then you’ll be mine.” He puts his hand through the bars and tries to touch my leg
My surprise and despair evaporate into rage. I slap his hands away and throw myself back into a corner far away from him. “You can’t do this to me. How dare you drag me here and lock me up like an animal? I demand you let me go and return me to Earth.”
“I can’t do that, and I wouldn’t do it even if I could. I’ll have you for myself. I’m going to win you in the jousting tournament, and you’ll stay with me.”
“I won’t stay with you. You’ll have to kill me first.”
He retreats and whispers under his breath to Axl. He smiles and nods to me, and Axl nods back.
I can’t contain my curiosity. “W
hat are you going to do to me?”
Rami waves a hand toward Axl. “My brother desires you, too. We can’t decide who will compete for our tribe at the tournament.”
“Your brother?” No wonder they look alike.
“Rekyl compete against Zerq, so we would have to joust against each other to decide who will win you. We don’t want to do that.”
“Why not? Why don’t you want to joust against each other?”
“Dordon jousting is dangerous. The competitors often wind up maimed or even killed. We couldn’t to that to each other, but that’s the only way we could decide who would have you.”
“So what are you going to do?”
He rubs his chin. “I don’t know. It’s a puzzle.”
He walks out of the room and leaves me to think about it. Axl still watches me from across the room in his human form. I can’t get over how attractive he is. If I wasn’t locked in this cage, I could get used to the idea of being with him.
I don’t have time to think about it when Itchi steps between us. His leering rainbow face sends chills up my spine. “I don’t have to joust anybody to have you. I’ll have you right now.”
He moves his hand over the lock and the door pops open. He steps into the cage with me, and the door snaps shut behind him. I back into the corner. I’m ready to fight him off if necessary. I don’t think his illustrious leader will be too pleased if I die defending myself against this alien scumbag.
He moves closer and pins me into the corner. I can’t get out now, and dozens of tentacles slither out of his back to surround me. They close their slimy wetness around my arms. I tense myself for the inevitable when he flies away from me with incredible speed. His back slams against the bars, and Axl moves between us.
He’s changed back into his alien form, but for all that, he hasn’t lost any of his dynamic power. I can see the handsome Earth man through his shimmering skin and tentacles. He glares at Itchi. “If you lay a hand on her, I’ll tear you to shreds.”
Itchi snarls at him through bared teeth, but he slinks out of the cage and out of the room without a word. Axl turns to me. “Are you hurt?”
Collared By The Warrior Page 72