by Gabby Dark
Freya glanced up at me with her expression pained, but her actions were solemn. She didn’t fight the medic as they laid her down into the pod. She seemed at ease given the circumstances, but then I remembered what her fate would be. Somehow, I didn’t blame her for not fighting to leave this place. Freya closed her eyes and they shut the lid on her.
“Please, let me go,” I jerked out of the medic’s grasp. All through my struggles, women were being placed in the pods around me. The big warrior must have seen my protests and came to me. I didn’t expect him to aide me because, after all, it was he who declared in front of everyone that he’d already claimed me.
He told the medic something that I couldn’t understand. The medic stepped back and went to strap another woman down into the pod to the left of me.
I looked up at the handsome brute. God, he was big and meaty. He was made up of miles and miles of muscles. His gray skin looked like smooth stone. He might as well have been naked. The straps of cloth and leather that covered him…well, it barely covered anything at all. Beyond his perfect Adonis belt, I could make out the imprint of his manhood behind the cloth. His thighs were thick as tree trunks. His hands were big and calloused. I jerked my attention up to his battle-hardened face. Weird as this whole situation was, he was the most handsome male person I’d ever seen.
I couldn’t let him see me give in. “You cannot claim me! I am not an object. So, you can take your bag of treasures and stuff it up your ass.” I gestured to the bag of spoils he had strapped across his shoulder.
He leaned forward. He was so close, I could smell the dominance rising off of him. “I know you’re not an object, she-devil. You breathe and live, just like me.”
“I’m not just like you! You’re an alien. This is all fake.”
“Not fake. What you see is what you get. I wear no cloaks or disguises. This is who I am. Ǔre and all.”
The veins in his body began to light up with what looked like lightning red flashes. His eyes even beamed red. What magic and evil was this?
“Then again, you’re right,” he said. “I am gifted with senses beyond your own. Senses of the ǔre. Your body was not made like mine. Perhaps it was made as a distraction to lead me to my quick end for these cravings for you are great and unrelenting.” His feral gaze danced across me. “You can demonstrate your differences some other time when you are without the rags of your common people. Your body was meant to wear much finer things.”
He was talking about the drab, dull blue dress I was forced to wear as a personal maid after being sentenced to a life of servitude and forced to remain chaste. Pent-up anger over what had happened to me controlled me. I couldn’t help myself, and maybe I didn’t want help.
I slapped him hard across the face. “Say nothing about my body. It’s not for you. It’s not for anyone.”
He grimaced and his lips twitched. “In under thirty minutes, we take off. The air will be pressurized. Low oxygen. Under these conditions, the human body may not survive. It may, but the transition to our dimension is very unpleasant the first few times. Many cannot endure it. You are, of course, too fragile, little devil.”
I had no idea if his touch was making me delirious, but I felt myself being led to lie down in the pod. I didn’t struggle much either.
He continued his explanation, “You do not know how to conserve energy during this stage so you must go into cryo-pod and there you must stay until we reach home. When we meet again on Zunator, she-devil, I will take you to my bed and claim your body over and over again. That is my promise to you.”
He meant what he said and he closed the lid. The last thing I remembered was my breath fogging up the glass until I couldn’t see my handsome alien warrior anymore.
I woke up one or two, maybe even three times after that in different settings. But everything was a blur…
What wasn’t a blur…my warrior’s claim and intentions for me and the fact that my body, despite my show of arrogance, wanted him.
Chapter Four
Aurora
* * *
Twelve days. I slept in a pod for twelve days in a cleansing chamber and that didn’t even include the days it took the aliens to transport me back to their planet. Zuna. I’d never heard of it. Nor the colony of Zunator.
After waking up, I’d felt a sense of serenity. That was a change. On Earth, even though I lived in what others would consider a castle, I often woke in the middle of the night with a start and filled with anxiety.
In the hospital, or whatever it was, the walls were white. Some were even made of glass or crystal. The nurse who took my vitals remained calm even when the machines showed that my pulse had skyrocketed.
Tak’mena was the first alien woman I saw on the planet when I woke up. For three days, I stayed in a little room where she claimed she was preparing me for their world and making sure that I hadn’t contracted any illnesses on Earth. I spoke to no one but her. I only had the sounds of calming instrumental music and the hum of the machines as my vitals were recorded every hour on the hour.
No one was permitted in the room but Tak’mena. Her hair was blond with highlights of black. Just like the other aliens, she was gray—maybe a little lighter. She didn’t say much and sometimes she danced around my questions about what would happen to me. But of course, her English was very broken. She gave me a notebook. I drew things I wanted her to interpret for me.
The beam under their skin, within their irises, and running through their veins was called ǔre. Or aura.
The aura foretold a Zunatorian's purpose. Tak’mena had a white ǔre for healing. Sometimes white even designated that the person was very destructive, as in causing the death of others.
I remembered the warrior who supposedly had already claimed me. His red ǔre meant that he was an empath. He intercepted and fed off many different emotions and energies.
The pretty silk tunic I wore was called tʼǔn.
When I asked Tak’mena what they called me…what did they call all of the women they captured. She said nothing. I asked for my purpose. She told me nothing, only that it hadn’t been decided yet. There was a king named Crencik and he would decide.
On the day some suspicious-looking aliens came claiming to be there to take me to the dorms, she shoved a leather traveler’s notebook in my hand—the same one that we used to communicate with.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I will see you again after assignment.”
“Assignment?”
She wasn’t able to answer. The uniformed aliens took me away. To the dorms.
For five days I was made to room with the other women. We knew very little about what our fates would be. Some seemed to suggest that we were there to be used as no more than sex slaves. They were probably right.
I recalled the warrior saying that twenty human women were captured when we were being rounded up on Earth. But only twelve of us made it to the dorms, which made me curious about what happened to the rest. The woman with the letterman jacket was there. She used to be the most talkative of the bunch, but she didn’t say much. And Freya—she was there. She kept her head down, always. All the women knew that she was the daughter of one of the most hated men in the nation. Some of them despised her. If given the chance, I was sure some of them would kill her. Freya kept to herself. I took a chance and called to her once, but she looked at me like she didn’t even know me.
At the dorms, we were given a case of things and told to study them and learn how to use them. They looked very modern—just like the everyday tools we used on Earth to groom ourselves with and cook and eat with. The only time we congregated was during instruction time and mealtime. We slept in separate rooms, wore the same type of tunic every day, and had timed showers.
One of the instructors was human. Or half-human. I couldn’t tell. He wore a cloak, but he spoke English well. From what I perceived to be from sun up to sundown, we were taught common letters and words. We were given raw foods and fresh game and taught how to prepare them
for meals. We learned the names of many exotic berries and crops. Everything we learned was like getting a crash course on the ways of the Zunatorian, yet the burning questions that we had for them remained unanswered.
I was no dummy. We were being groomed for something big.
We learned what that something was on the day of auction when an important looking figure came to tell us why we were abducted from Earth. Their women couldn’t have children and we were chosen to bare a warrior their offspring. If we did this for them, we would be honored by the King himself. However, the messenger made it clear that our ultimate fate resided with the warrior assigned to breed us.
“Who are you? Will you assign us?” a woman from the back asked.
“No. Not me. I am but an advisor, you see. I advise those who listen.”
One of the girls raised her hand and asked, “What if we wish to go back to Earth?”
To that, the messenger replied, “Why would you wish for such fate? Who do you think fired the shots that brought down your prison walls like a pile of dominos so that the rebels could swarm and take over your city? You are free from such devastation now. Except for a couple of you, you all were marked as common servicewomen to your nation. Maidservants. Street beggars. Rebels. Criminals. Whether the news I bear is bad or good depends on you, of course. And your warrior.”
“But we are only here to have babies for your warriors,” a woman from the back of the crowd concluded.
“And for citizens. We need more warriors, yes, but we need people above all else. They are the most important resource, you see.”
“So, are we property?” one girl demanded.
“Property? Let me explain. We are raiders. We are conquerors. We take. We return with what we acquire. What we acquire becomes our property. We make use of all property. Our resources on Zuna are well-cared for, unlike that of your Earth at present.” The magical golden glint in his eyes gave me the idea that he was more important than he was leading us to believe. “Nothing is by chance. All things are predestined. You will not be treated less-than here, but you must first learn your place. We all start from the bottom on Zunator. Your lesson will begin with your warrior.”
“But we all can’t rise to the top now, can we?” a blonde girl in the front asked and then fixed her gaze on Freya who was standing off to the side twiddling her thumbs quietly. She didn’t look up when the girl made her the subject of her example. The tables had been turned and she was no longer considered rich royalty. Somehow I felt sorry for her, yet, she still would not acknowledge that she ever knew me. Strange.
“Not all of us can handle the top now, can you?” he asked her. “If you see me in the market, don’t be shy. They call me Sok’ke Norgol. Any more questions before you’re sent to auction?”
“Au-Auction?” one of the girls muttered.
To that, Sok’ke bowed out of the room and then in came the uniformed aliens to collect us.
Chapter Five
Aurora
* * *
“Make your case, Vaxar,” King Crencik demanded, leaning forward slightly in his seat. “You have interrupted the auction to lay your claim to this human.”
The small meeting room that we were shoved into was small or maybe it just felt that way because of all the bodies crammed in the room. The aliens were big, standing shoulder to shoulder for the auction. The women were placed on a podium between the chair where the alien king sat and the crowd. We had learned enough from the half-human instructor to distinguish the warriors from the citizens. From my observation, the demographics were split. Half were warriors. Half were normal citizens.
The handsome warrior who claimed me back on Earth came forward, pushing his way through the crowd. I hadn’t seen him in over a week, yet I couldn’t forget his seductive deep-set eyes or his body which appeared to be sculpted by the gods.
“The Earth female,” he stated. “They tell me her name is Aurora. I brought her here for me.”
My pulse quickened as images from that fateful day in the woods came back to me.
“Oh?” King Crencik settled back in his chair.
“A seer once told me that my beginning and my end would start with an unlikely mating involving a woman with purple eyes. I have been on many colonies, planets, and many moons. It was not until you sent me on the last raid that I had seen any woman with eyes such as hers. And so, I believe she is mine.”
“Your beginning and your end?” King Crencik questioned. “Well, what does that mean?”
“As you know, I have won many battles with your son Anik. You chose me as alpha warlord many moons ago and to this day I have been challenged for my position but no one has been able to defeat me.”
“Well, yes…” King Crencik nodded. “You are undefeatable. Hard to kill.”
“Yet, all things must end. You say we must breed. You sent us looking for mates. I have found mine, Your Majesty. I have spent time in the cave of reflection. I now know what the seer was trying to tell me.”
“What is that?”
“My time as alpha warlord will come to an end only under one condition, Sire. My heir. I shall only relinquish my title to my heir,” Vaxar said with certainty.
“And you believe the Earth female with the purple eyes is the one to give you said heir?”
Vaxar nodded. “Mak. I haven’t wanted anything else this badly. Not like this. By auction or a challenge to direct combat, I will do anything to have this woman.”
Kind Crencik looked down from his seat at me. “She possesses some kind of energy. One we don’t have in our colony.” His eyes wandered over me. I knew he was trying to read my thoughts. Aliens with blue auras could intercept almost any thought process. But Crencik was the king. My thoughts must have been an open book to him. “I can read your intentions, Vaxar, and there is no reason for me to believe that what you’ve said is a lie. Strange. But she is blocked to me. Like the golden ones…she is blocked.” King Crencik frowned.
“She is not ordinary,” I said.
“I see. Is there anyone here who wishes to challenge Vaxar? Anyone?”
A tall warrior stepped forward. “We all know that Vaxar will kill for what he wants. No one wishes to die on this day. He shall have the purple-eyed witch if that’s what he wants.”
“She is yours, Vaxar. Cut her ropes,” King Crencik agreed.
By the time, Vaxar came to cut the ropes that bonded my wrists, I had already worked up enough anger to set the whole place on fire. I could feel the energy rushing through my veins. It wasn’t the only thing I felt. In the presence of Vaxar, I almost caved under pressure. I had never been attracted to hunky looking types like him. They were too pig-headed and arrogant for their own good. But there was something about Vaxar and his pride that caught my interest.
“I will never break a promise,” he said to me, reminding me of the declaration he made of the ship before they stuffed me in the cryo-pod.
“Well, I never tell a lie,” I challenged him. “My body will never breed you an heir. Choose someone else to take to your bed.”
Despite the auction proceeding without us, some of the warriors must have heard me defying him. They looked at me with disdain and almost pity for Vaxar. But Vaxar only smiled.
“No other woman will do, she-devil. No one here has a backbone like yours. But you will never break for anyone but me, Aurora, this I promise you.”
Chapter Six
Vaxar
* * *
I knew Aurora would defy me, but I was up for a challenge.
I wasn’t a patient being by all means but I would wait until she realized that I wasn’t the enemy. After all, she was the one who bewitched me as the seer had told me. She told me that I’d have no ordinary mate. The female I mated would have the magic of her ancestors running through her veins. Not the magic of the golden ones—the seers. But the magic of the ones who were prophesied to manipulate matter—the witches. All the witches of our bloodline were gone from Zunator now. Not one was said to have rem
ained behind. But I could see it now. In her eyes. How did she not know?
When we got outside, the look on Aurora’s face was that of amazement. I remembered that this was probably the first time she had seen our world. For almost two weeks, I was forbidden to see her or know if she would even end up at auction with the others.
“What is this place…?” She mumbled as she looked around. “It is beautiful. The skies…where are the clouds? This can’t be real.”
“It is real, Aurora. We have been here for hundreds of years.”
“I know. I learned from the instructor,” she said, and then she stopped and turned around, “I will not be your slave. For breeding. Like an animal. How dare you think I’ll be okay with making another one of you so you can go back and raid planet Earth?”
I frowned. Her words were vile, but her beauty was undeniable.
“You will not be treated like an animal, she-devil, but you will submit. Calm yourself.”
Her lips turned up in a scowl. “Why do you call me a she-devil?”
“You possess a great gift.” I closed the distance between us. “It is dormant. I feel the energy inside you. Crencik is telepathic and he could not see your truth because it is so deeply buried now that so much time has passed without exercise. But I am empathic. Do you know what that means?”
“You feel emotions. Then you should feel how angry I am that you would claim me just to bear your heir.”
“That is not all, Aurora. That is not all you’re here for. I feel emotions, yes, but I can also perceive them through touch, like now.” I pressed my thumb against her temples. “Has no one ever told you what you possess inside? An aura that not many humans have.”