Destiny Found (Epsilon Chronicles Book 1)

by Beth Valentine

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Natalie now knew what it was like to be abducted by aliens. And she would be sure to warn others that it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

  When the black ships had converged on her location, they immediately transported her ship onto one of their freighters, and all she could do was sit there, in shock and fear, and let it happen.

  No engines and no weapons had made her such an easy target.

  She buckled up her harness as the ship was jerked into the freighter, listening to the grinding of the bottom of the ship against the floor. The ship gave one last jerk as it settled.

  She didn’t hear their approach, but all of a sudden a sharp buzzing sound filled the air near the hatch. She unbuckled her harness and made her way down the small hallway to the door. As she watched, a bright red-orange line appeared.

  It seemed she was about to be boarded.

  When the door to the ship was welded and pried open, the ugliest, scariest beings she had ever seen looked back at her. There were three of them standing outside the ship, staring in at her.

  They were humanoid in shape, with yellow-green eyes that reminded her of a snake because of their vertical pupils. They had pig-like noses; all scrunched and flat. Their skulls were slightly elongated at the crown, reminding her of the ancient paracas skulls. And on top of that, they were all bald.

  Their skin was almost translucent, with black lines tracing beneath the surface, like her blue veins did. It also seemed to be extremely dry considering the fact that there were large patches of what appeared to be skin flakes just hanging on the exposed parts.

  Their teeth were probably the scariest part of their looks; they looked like they were razor sharp. It almost appeared as if they had shark teeth. They could probably tear through flesh if they wanted.

  Natalie gasped in fear and took stumbling steps back into the cockpit. Of all the different things these aliens could possibly have looked like, she never imagined it was like this. If anything, she assumed they would be closer to the entertainment industries version, but apparently not.

  Why couldn’t she have found some hot alien men instead? Ones who wanted someone to have their babies and treated them like queens. It wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?

  As that last thought flitted through her mind, the apparent leader of the group lunged forward and grabbed her arm while pulling her into his body. He stared at her before grinning, flashing his sharp teeth. He shifted her body to the side so he could bury his face in her neck and took a deep inhalation. Evidently he enjoyed what he was doing because he started licking her neck, making little humming noises in his throat. It was all Nat could do not to vomit. He gave a few more licks, a few wet kisses, and then raised his head to stare at her.

  “You understand me?” he asked in a deep guttural voice.

  It raised the hair on her arms and caused a full body shiver.

  She was hesitant to respond, but as he tightened his hold, she thought she better answer.

  “Yes, I understand you. Now I insist you let me go.”

  She tried to take a step out of his arms, but he tightened them again.

  “You no leave me yet, pretty one. You be my special friend…and maybe my men special friend too.” His heated gaze lowered to her body and stared boldly while his hands started to wander. “No, you just be mine, I think.”

  She started to struggle, wiggling and squirming, trying to get away from him and his groping hands.

  “Let me go, you disgusting animal. How dare you! Unhand me right now.” She shouted the last part as he tried to tear open her flight suit.

  With a big ripping sound, he tore the top of her suit open to the waist, and reached inside to grab her breasts.

  It didn’t seem to matter that she was trying to escape his grasp; in fact, it only seemed to excite him more. She despaired when he ripped her bra open and handled her bare breast with such bruising cruelty.

  “Oh, you a beautiful one. I have much fun with you.”

  He turned to call to the two men standing behind him, and as they moved forward, he shoved her toward them. They pinned her arms behind her, bending her back slightly so her breasts were thrust up into the air.

  The first one again grabbed her breasts, pulling on her nipples with such brutal force she screamed. He seemed to enjoy it and did it again. He lowered his head, and she started to thrash, knowing deep inside that he was going to bite her.

  Unfortunately, or fortunately, because of her struggles, his teeth embedded into the skin of her shoulder and he bit down.

  Pain exploded through her head, a white-hot agony that temporarily blinded her. She screamed long and loud, a sound that was full of pained surprise.

  As he let go, she looked at her shoulder and saw that blood was now flowing down her chest and onto her stomach. Her shoulder was on fire, and she was shocked by how much it actually hurt.

  Then again, with teeth like that, even a small nip was going to hurt.

  She looked up into the man’s cold eyes and her heart sank. He was grinning, licking the blood off his lips and staring at her breasts yet again.

  “I like blood. It make everything taste better. Now it on your tits, and I lick it off for you.”

  As he bent his head to her chest again, there was a shout from outside the shuttle. Someone came pounding into the cockpit and stopped, panting from exertion.

  “Sir, the Tarlons have followed. We leave now, sir, or we be caught.”

  He looked a little frightened, as if anticipating a blow, whether from his words or from having interrupted the man’s play time.

  “Fine. Set course for home. Take pretty girl to my room. Tie her there. I be there soon.” And with a lingering glance at Nat, he stalked off with the other man.

  The two holding Nat started dragging her off the ship. She didn’t move, still in shock, and pained from the bite she had received.

  She couldn’t believe this was happening, that aliens were actually real. She also couldn’t believe that in a very short time, she was in for rape and abuse at that man’s hands. She would be lucky to get out of this alive if he liked the taste of blood.

  She despaired, praying for someone to save her as she was dragged into a dimly lit room. When she saw the bed, she struggled anew, fear galvanizing her into action. One of the men let go of her arm, and when she took a step toward the door, swung his fist right into her face. She went sailing to the side, only to be jerked back by the other hand still holding her arm.

  As she hung from his grip, limp, she heard the man holding her say, “Gile, you not supposed to hit. She is Imhal’s property. He kill you, and maybe me. You damage her.”

  He sounded worried, trying to pull her up onto her feet.

  “Targ, Imhal not punish me. He understand she need discipline. He agree with me. Last female, we punish together. I his second. He need and respect me.” Gile sounded smug, smirking at Targ as he tried to help the small female. “I think we strip her, do not you, Targ?” he asked, eyeing the female’s small body.

  As he grabbed her other arm, he gave it a vicious shake, and tightened his grip until she winced and cried out.

  Natalie was trying to stop herself from crying, but tears fell needlessly, unchecked, down her cheeks. It was a betrayal of her weakness and fragility and she hated it. She almost didn’t notice when they threw her onto the bed in the corner, too lost on the waves of pain from the abuse she had suffered, thus far, at their hands.

  She came aware when they smacked restraints onto her wrists and ankles and secured them to the bed supports. She was conscious of when they ripped off the remainder of her clothing, baring her body for all to see.

  When the mean one, Gile, tried to take her underwear, the quiet one, Targ, grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door.

  “Imhal not like you see her naked first. We go now, and report to Imhal we done with female.” Targ kept tugging at Gile, pulling him into the hall and shutting the door.

  As Natalie lay th
ere cold, basically naked, and in pain, she prayed that someone would rescue her before Imhal came back for her.

  Chapter Four

  Natalie tried to turn onto her side, but the tight restraints wouldn’t allow her to get very far. There was no way she could contort her body, no matter which way she turned, into the semblance of a comfortable position.

  She sighed as she stopped, defeated and resigned to the fact she was in for a very uncomfortable wait.

  As she looked up at the dull metal ceiling, she couldn’t help but let her mind fill with questions. How could this have happened to her? Would the silver ships attack and rescue her, or would they also abuse her? Who would have thought that aliens could actually have existed?

  If it weren’t so frightening, it would have actually been kind of cool. All the years they had been travelling into space looking for a new home, they had never once made contact with, or even seen signs of, extraterrestrial life.

  She sighed again, the throbbing in her head and the fire in her shoulder keeping her from falling asleep. She had rubbed her ankles raw, and her wrists bloody, all to no avail. There was no way she could get out of these restraints to escape, let alone to protect herself against Imhal when he returned.

  She was stuck, spread out for easy access, vulnerable, and frightened. She was sure Imhal liked it that way.

  The only good thing going for her was that her shoulder had finally stopped bleeding. She could only hope it wouldn’t start up again once he came to see her.

  Oh, who was she kidding? He would make her bleed again, and if it didn’t come from her shoulder, he would bite or cut her somewhere else.

  And that thought terrified her.

  Just as she was starting to panic, she felt something creep into her consciousness. She could feel a strange warm presence, as if someone or something was in her head. She knew it couldn’t be possible to feel someone else in her mind; then again, she didn’t think aliens were real, so who really knew anything.

  The warmth in her mind coalesced into a feeling of strength and safety, like everything would be okay, like just maybe, she would be rescued soon after all.

  As the feeling soaked through her body and into her bones, the door hissed open. All feelings of warmth and safety disappeared in the presence of the icy cold terror brought on by the figure engaging the locking mechanism.

  “We alone, finally, pretty. I Imhal, and I your master. You mine now.”

  His creepy eyes scoured her body, heating as they made their way from her feet to her chest, and locked there.

  He was carrying her kimono, and the sight of it is his grasp made her want to scream with rage.

  How dare he touch something so precious and clean?

  Just as she was about to scream at him to put it down, he threw it at the chair in the corner and turned toward her. He walked over to the bed, trailing his fingers up her legs, and over her abdomen, until he cupped her breast in his hand.

  She cringed away when his fingers started tugging her nipple. She looked up at his face, disgusted to note that his breathing had increased and his snaky pupils had dilated.

  He took his hand away from her breast and dipped his finger into the blood that hadn’t had a chance to dry from her shoulder. He swirled his finger through the congealing mess, then took it to her belly where he wrote his name in big block letters.

  He brought his hand to his lips, and as he looked into her eyes, licked the blood off his finger, stating, “See, pretty? You mine now. My name in your blood. We together, until death.”

  “Screw you, you sick freak. If you untied me, I would kill your ass! You wouldn’t stand a chance. You’re a coward, too scared to fight me. Too scared you would lose!” She yelled at him, channeling all her anger and fear into her voice, hoping against hope he would untie her.

  He stared down his nose at her, his freakish eyes missing nothing as he held his silence. Slowly, he started to shake his head, giving a small parody of a smile.

  “I do not want fight, pretty. I want mate. Mate hard, rough and bloody. You not like, but I like a lot. You will enjoy touch soon enough. It better to not be foolish, just give up and submit. It be easier for you.”

  Natalie closed her eyes, too sickened to look at him a moment longer.

  I will not beg, I will not beg! Natalie chanted to herself, so scared of what was to come that she thought she might pass out.

  When she heard a soft whirring, she quickly opened her eyes, too paranoid to keep them closed.

  He was starting to undress.

  As he lowered the zipper of his suit, she caught a glimpse of an emaciated, and yet muscular looking body. All muscles and bones stood in stark relief against his translucent skin, and yet he looked so strong, so capable.

  Meaning, for her, he was absolutely terrifying.

  As he removed his pants, his hard shaft bobbed in the air.

  It was the ugliest thing, besides his face, she had ever seen. It was obscenely large, about the size of her forearm, maybe bigger. It had the same translucent skin and a higher concentration of black veins, making it a weird mixture of whitish grey. It looked like a typical penis, except for the small barbs about halfway up the shaft.

  He saw her horrified gaze and gave a laugh.

  “It okay pretty, they not hurt…well until I come. Then expand and embed inside you, make sure we make offspring. Make sure you take my seed. It make you bleed, and that what we like.”

  He leered at her as he moved to take off her underwear. She struggled and squirmed, deciding if she was going to beg, it might as well be now before that hideous thing got inside her.

  “Please don’t do this! Please! I beg you. I’ll give you anything you want, anything at all, except that,” she was crying in earnest now, watching as he worked her panties down the tops of her thighs.

  She was too tightly bound for her struggles to stop him from getting exactly what he wanted.

  This was actually going to happen. She was going to be raped. Not only raped, but brutalized, and possibly impregnated.

  Please! If there is a God, please don’t let this happen. I can’t bear this, oh please oh please oh please. Please God no. No! This can’t happen. Please God no!

  She cried out in her mind, praying as hard as she could, all the while struggling to get free. She didn’t care if he killed her in a fight, but she couldn’t deal with the rape and possible impregnation. She just couldn’t.

  Just before he slipped her panties over her knees, there was a great BOOM, followed by the ship shaking and the sound of sirens filling the air.

  Over the now ringing alarms, the speakers went off in the room.

  “Sir, Tarlons here. We go now or we die. Everyone to ships, we wait for you. Leave girl if want to escape.”

  Imhal gave a great yell of frustration, eyeing Natalie with anger and lust.

  “If I leave you, you maybe die, but maybe no. If I stay, I die. If I wait to untie you, I die. I leave, pretty, and hope you alive when I come back. I come find you pretty. You mine now.” With a last glare, holding a promise of what the future might bring, Imhal dressed quickly and left.

  Natalie let her head fall back to the bed, not believing that her prayers had been answered. It was too good to be true. She was probably in some sort of shock or a coma from being impaled and barded with that wretched penis of his.

  As she lay there, again staring up at the metal ceiling, she heard and felt as the ships were deployed from the freighter as the crew abandoned ship. She could also hear when it was boarded again, this time maybe by the mysterious Tarlons, because she hoped like hell it wasn’t Imhal coming back for her.

  Dread grew in her stomach like a lead weight. She started having trouble breathing, fighting the panic that he had come back, or that the new aliens were as bad or worse than the previous ones.

  She held her breath in anticipation, waiting to see what the door would bring. As she waited, she could hear the sounds of men shouting in the distance, accompanied by r
unning footsteps.

  A single set of footsteps drew closer to the room.

  She kept her eyes on the door, holding her breath to see whether they would pass by without looking into the room or stop to enter. As the footsteps grew ever closer, she felt that warm presence return to her mind, and unlike the dread she was feeling before, relief flooded her body.

  Whoever these people were, she knew they would rescue and protect her. She didn’t know how she knew, but she just did. As the footsteps stopped right outside the door, she held her breath in nervous anticipation.

  The door opened to reveal the most beautiful man she had ever seen. With his deep golden skin, the sheer greenness of his eyes gave him a decidedly otherworldly look, but other than that, he looked almost human. He was a huge man, with broad shoulders, and a head of short dark brown hair. He was so big, in fact, that he almost brushed the top of the doorframe as he walked into the room holding a gun.

  He had black body armour encasing his massive thighs and a chest plate over a black T-shirt that molded to his impressive upper body. He swept the room, checking for any aliens that might be hiding.

  Once he was certain that no one would jump out at him, his gaze went to her and paused. In horrified anger, his gaze swept over her bruised and battered body. As he lifted his gaze once more to hers, she saw it wasn’t just anger he felt, but a deep molten rage at what had been done here.

  He quickly approached the bed, tearing the covers out from underneath her to cover her nakedness. He put his gun into his hip holster and grabbed a wicked looking knife from his boot. He went down to her feet and started sawing through the restraints there. As they fell away, he removed them from her ankles, frowning at the reddened and raw skin that was revealed.

  He then made his way to the head of the bed, stopping near her head to gently caress her cheek. He refocused, hacking off the restraints on her wrists. This time when he saw the bloodied wrists beneath the restraints, his gaze grew deadly.

  Natalie, though she felt safe, was still a tad leery. She didn’t know what he wanted, even if it was a good sign he was removing the restraints, and even if he was angry at the way she had been treated. She just couldn’t know for sure.