Claimed by the Alien: A Scifi Alien Romance (Fated Mates of the Titan Empire Book 6)

by Tammy Walsh

  “What are… we going… to do?” Alice said through clenched teeth.

  The light might not have turned us into mannequins but it had made our bodies as stiff as a board.

  “Can any… od you… stand up… or mood?” I said.

  “No,” Alice and Vicky said.

  Neither could I.

  It was the same as it had been with the first time we’d been abducted. The sofas behind us shifted back toward the wall.

  I wanted to move in front of the other girls who’d been frozen by the light. At least then they would be able to think.

  But I couldn’t move a muscle.

  The next few words were going to be tough to hear but they were necessary.

  “They are… going to dake us,” I said.

  Vicky whimpered. It was a natural response given the situation.

  “Shut your… eyes,” I said. “And don’t… open dem until… the light… is gone.”

  “What den?” Alice said.

  “Then we… give dem hell,” I said.

  The sofas and armchairs screeched as they slid across the room and struck the back wall. One of the armchairs flipped up and smashed through the window.

  I shut my eyes and hoped it would be enough to block the worst of the light.

  I hoped we wouldn’t be abducted again and forced to take new masters.

  I hoped we would get out of this alive.

  I guess we weren’t so untouchable after all.

  Fiath

  We raised our ales and bowed our heads in respect to our ancestors. It was what we always did when we took the first mouthful of a new pint of ale.

  The other Titans seemed a good sort. I knew Kal well already and had grown up with him. Now he was Lord Taw. Strange to think he’d stepped into my shoes when everyone thought I was dead.

  I didn’t blame them. He was a good leader.

  He told the story of how he came to be in that position and how it had taken his girl, Sirena, to point him in the right direction and make him see how he was going wrong.

  It was the same story among all the other Titans.

  They were floundering, struggling to get by in their lives until their special human ladies showed up and rescued them.

  “Do you think all human females are like ours?” Nighteko said conspiratorially.

  “I can’t imagine anyone else is like Maddy,” Chax said.

  It took some doing but with enough alcohol poured down their necks, the others began to loosen up in my presence. It happened often with Titans. They felt like they’d known me their entire lives, what with my image up on their walls. Reciting their unbreakable pledges of allegiance to me was a part of growing up.

  That was something else I was going to have to fix, I decided. Reduce the way I came across as a deity to the people. It might help Hazel fit more easily into her new role.

  “And what’s your story?” Kal asked me, eying me over his glass of ale.

  It surprised me he didn’t refer to me by my titles. I liked it.

  I felt like I was back out there again, along with the other Titans fighting for the survival of our species and empire.

  “It’s much like yours,” I said. “I was attacked and my body was badly burnt. I didn’t think I was going to survive. Then this angelic apparition appeared and she nursed me back to health. I knew right away she was the one for me. She glowed.”

  The other Titan males nodded with understanding.

  “Then we went on the run, trying to reach the Fallen Temple before the Changelings could catch up to us,” I said. “We lay beneath a blanket of leaves that kept us warm against the bitter cold.”

  Dyrel leaned forward.

  “Have you guys ever been with someone who enjoys sex so much?” he said. “I mean, no offense to you or your fated mates. I know I would be nothing without mine. But she… she really enjoys it.”

  Traes chuckled.

  “I’m glad someone had the bravery to say it,” he said. “I’ve never had this much fun with a lady. I mean ever. And I can’t wait to get to her tonight. I don’t care what state I’m in.”

  We roared with laughter. It felt good to speak with the everyday Titan.

  “How do you feel about getting married tomorrow?” Chax said. “Nervous?”

  “Not in the slightest,” I said.

  Then I hesitated. I peered at the Titans around the table and glanced over my shoulders to check my servants weren’t within listening distance.

  I could speak openly with them, couldn’t I? I was aching to speak with someone who might understand what I was going through. I didn’t feel comfortable discussing it with anyone else in case they spread the rumor—accidentally or otherwise—that there was something wrong between Hazel and me.

  It could end up in the ear of an enemy who might seek to use it against me. Or it could become common gossip whispered among the people.

  Hazel didn’t deserve that.

  But with these men… I felt comfortable. Maybe it was because they dated her friends, because they knew what human females were like and might have an insight into how I ought to handle the situation.

  “The truth is,” I heard myself saying, “there is something I am a little worried about. You see, when we first met, Hazel had no idea who I was. I was so badly injured that not even the Titans recognized me. Then the time came when I had to reveal myself. I took the lead in fighting the Changelings back and that’s when she realized who I am.

  “She ran from the room and I chased her down and calmed her down. When I asked her to marry me, she said yes without hesitation, but the one thing she was nervous about was becoming the empress. I’m not sure how I can make her happy or come to terms with that. I mean, that is what she’ll be after the ceremony is complete. The empress of the Titan empire. Billions will look to her for leadership and wisdom.”

  Kal swilled his ale around in its glass.

  “She’ll come around,” he said. “Human females are resilient. There hasn’t been a single obstacle that’s come up that Sirena hasn’t met head-on and overcome.”

  “He’s right,” Traes said.

  “I admit I don’t know your mate,” Dyrel said. “But if she’s anything like Maddy, there’s no telling her what to do or what not to do. Once these human females want something—especially if it’s with something of the heart—they grip tighter than a jinxor in mating season.”

  “He’s right,” Nighteko said. “You didn’t make her fall in love with you. It just happened. The same way she could never stop you from falling in love with her. She’ll get used to being the empress. The same way she got used to falling in love with a Titan.”

  I smiled at them each in turn. They were right but it still didn’t make it easier to accept.

  I came with baggage. I never thought of my position that way before, but that’s what it was.

  “Thanks, guys,” I said.

  Shouts rang up from the guards outside. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, only that they sounded disturbed.

  I leaped to my feet. The other Titans were only an instant slower. Their eyes were bright and alert, instinctively circling to keep me safe.

  Then the shouts became more frantic and the words became clear:

  “Ship!” he bellowed. “There’s a ship!”

  My heart was in my throat.

  I had no idea what the ship was there for. Was it there to attack me again? To finish off the job it’d failed to do last time? Or was it there for another reason?

  With it coming so close to the palace and the guards yelling at the top of their voices, I didn’t think it was something to look forward to.

  My guardsmen entered the room and surrounded me.

  “We have to get you to safer ground, your majesty,” Garrick said.

  “The east room!” the voices outside bellowed. “It’s outside the east room!”

  The east room?

  But we were in the library.

  Nobody was in the east room
.

  Except…

  The blood fell from my face.

  The other Titans wore the same haunted expression.

  We moved as one, bolting toward the empty archway that led to the hallway.

  “Disengage all defenses!” I yelled at Garrick.

  He said, “But sir—”

  “Just do it!”

  The other Titans followed in my wake. The guardsmen tore after us to protect me and keep me from harm.

  But it wasn’t me they had to worry about.

  I kicked the east room door open and bolted inside. The sofas lined the back wall and glasses of wine turned in the air, their spilled cargo hovering in midair.

  I got there just in time to see Hazel encased in the bright beam of light. It pulled on her dress.

  I ran forward and reached for her.

  “No!” I yelled.

  Too late.

  The tractor beam yanked Hazel out of the window backward.

  I launched myself after her. I dived and stretched.

  My fingertips grazed the fabric of her dress as she floated out of reach and disappeared inside the hull of the awaiting ship.

  I hadn’t seen the other girls get taken but they must have been pulled away along with Hazel.

  The ship’s thrusters engaged and turned around.

  It was going to take her.

  It was going to take them all.

  If it broke through the atmosphere, I might never see her again.

  I grabbed the nearest guardsman and snatched up his communicator and one of his knives. I ran toward the broken window and slid the knife through the strap on the back of the communicator. It was a powerful magnet that kept it firmly attached to the guardsman’s armor at all times.

  I brought my arm back and threw the communicator as hard as I could.

  It didn’t arch. It flew straight and true.

  The ship engaged its rear thrusters and began to move away rapidly.

  The communicator missed. But as it began to arch downward, the magnet engaged and it arched back up, attaching itself to the ship’s underside with a solid metallic thunk.

  “Where will they take them?” Kal said.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But if it’s on this planet, we’ll know.”

  Please, let it be on this planet.

  My heart was already beginning to break at the thought of losing her.

  Hazel

  The light was blindingly bright. Even with my eyes clenched shut, I could see it. Worse still, I could feel its effects.

  It made me feel drowsy as if I’d been sitting behind the wheel of a car for hours on end and my mind had been wiped clean. Although I wavered on the spot, I didn’t fall or slump over.

  But I acted as if I had.

  The moment the light was gone, I eased my eyes open, ready to snap them shut an instant later if I caught even a glimpse of that light again.

  But even a glimpse was likely too much.

  I opened my eyes and a large purple square filled my vision. The after-effects of the light.

  I was somewhere dark and cold. I didn’t recognize it.

  I glanced out the corner of my eyes at the other girls. They stood like lobotomy patients, eyes glazed over and drool seeping out the corner of their mouths. Their arms hung by their sides and their necks might have snapped with the lack of movement.

  Had they all been made comatose with the light? Or were some of them pretending the way I was?

  I should say something. I should get their attention.

  Somewhere in the darkness, a door hissed open and slammed shut.

  I adopted my friends’ dead gaze and stooped over with my arms by my side.

  Two Changelings ambled into view. Ugly, vile creatures.

  “Do you think we got her?” one of them said.

  “We’d better,” the second one said. “Slak isn’t going to be happy with us if we didn’t.”

  “Which one is it? They all look the same.”

  “Which one is what?”

  “The future empress of these dirty Titan heathens.”

  “I’m not sure. That one, I think.”

  He pointed at me.

  Please don’t come near me. Please stay away.

  It was no use.

  The creature shoved his ugly face in front of me. All I could do was stare blankly.

  And drool.

  “She doesn’t look like much, does she?” it said. “Welcome aboard, your royal whore-ness!”

  He grabbed my breast and squeezed it painfully.

  “I don’t know why anyone would like these hanging lumps of fat,” he said. “They don’t do anything for me. But it sure does feel good to be squeezing the tit the emperor likes sucking on. Maybe I’ll bite it off and send it to him.”

  He lowered his mandibles to my breast and nibbled on it.

  At least I had the bra for padding. That was something, at least.

  “Nope,” he said. “Nothing.”

  “Quit playing with the merchandise and give me a hand putting them in the pods,” the second one said.

  The pods.

  I shivered and felt sick to my stomach.

  “Wait,” the first one said. “Did you see that?”

  “What?” the second one said.

  “I think she moved.”

  Oops.

  “She couldn’t have,” the second one said. “They were neuralized.”

  “I’m telling you, she moved.”

  The second one shoved his face up close to mine and peered closely at me.

  “Nope,” he said. “She couldn’t have.”

  “Let me neuralize her again just in case,” the first one said, snatching up a handheld machine.

  What was I going to do?

  I couldn’t let him use it on me.

  And I couldn’t shut my eyes to avoid it either.

  I was going to have to attack him or run.

  The old fight or flight response.

  But there were two of them and only one of me.

  Could I take them both down? I could if I were a powerful Titan.

  Damn it. Why wasn’t I a powerful Titan?

  The second Changeling snatched the machine from the first one’s hand.

  “Don’t neuralize her too many times,” he said. “She’ll end up a vegetable and then she’ll be useless to Slak.”

  “I won’t turn her into a vegetable. I just want to make sure…”

  “What’s going on here?” a deep, booming voice said.

  Whoever they were, they were my savior!

  My opinion changed when my hero entered the circle of light.

  Slak.

  Wait till Fiath learns who took me away. He was going to go insane!

  But only if I could get out of there and send him a message.

  But how?

  How?

  “Why aren’t they in their pods yet?” Slak snapped.

  “We were just about to do it, sir,” the second Changeling said, putting the handheld neuralizer down and scowling at the first Changeling. He turned to us and spoke in a clear voice.

  “Everyone to the pods!” he said.

  The girl shuffled toward the six empty pods awaiting their cargo.

  We stood in front of mine.

  I couldn’t go inside it. I just couldn’t.

  I would rather die.

  Which left me with few alternatives.

  “Get in the pods,” the second Changeling said.

  It was now or never.

  I yanked the tiny pebble with the razor-sharp edge out of my pocket and screamed as I swung it at the nearest figure.

  It was the second Changeling. I caught the chest plate of his external armor and the blade sliced it but didn’t cut into him.

  Shit!

  “I told you!” the first Changeling said. “I told you she was still awake!”

  “Don’t just stand there!” Slak said. “Subdue her!”

  The first Changeling snatched up the ha
ndheld neuralizer and aimed it at me.

  The second Changeling bent forward to grab my arm.

  I ducked and moved behind him.

  The blast from the neuralizer struck the second Changeling full in the face.

  His head lolled and his arm fell to his side.

  I ran for Slak. He was a regular Titan. He had no external shell but plain flesh and bone.

  I swung at him with the razor-sharp pebble.

  But the first Changeling was there with the handheld neuralizer.

  I slammed my eyes shut just in time. The glare flashed and I caught sight of the veins in my eyelids. They blocked the worst of the neuralizer’s effects but not everything.

  I stumbled as my legs lost the will to move. I crashed to the floor.

  “I’ve got you now!” the second Changeling said.

  I raised my arms to block my face and eyes. The ray was strong and it was tough to block it all. I kicked out with my leg.

  Slak stamped on my upper arm.

  “De-neuralize her!” he growled.

  “I’m trying!” the first Changeling said.

  He kept waving it at me, searching for a hole to flash it in my face.

  I screamed and tried to roll away but Slak’s foot pressed on my upper arm wouldn’t release.

  I was pinned down.

  I was doomed.

  YAAAARGGGGHHH!

  A pair of wailing banshees threw themselves at my assailants. One crashed into the first Changeling, the second into Slak.

  I peered over my arms and found no bright light aimed at me. I sat upright. Vicky wrestled with the Changeling. She was holding her own too. I recognized the style of fighting. Titan military training. The Dance of Death. I wondered how she’d learned it.

  Alice was coiled around Slak with her arm locked around his neck. He choked and struggled to shake her off.

  These bitches were crazy!

  My girls.

  I scooped the handheld de-neuralizer off the floor and found the trigger. I fired it at the floor to ensure I was holding it properly. I aimed it at Vicky and the first Changeling.

  “Bedtime,” I said.

  They both looked at me. Vicky was first to understand my little clue and snapped her eyes shut.

  I yanked the trigger and the first Changeling turned comatose.

  “Nice work,” Vicky said, panting and out of breath.