Enslaved by the Alien Dragon

by Stella Cassy

  I guffawed along with Wrigo and rubbed the scar behind my ear that disappeared into my hair I’d gotten from just that scenario five years ago. “You’re ready to abandon your own after a single day, right?”

  “It is practical.” the Luhap pushed aside two other species, all of which I could name but the tiny one scrambling back against the glass.

  “Stab us in the back at the first opportunity,” I said. What I had done and would do again to avoid becoming a slave at one of those pleasure planets or winding up dead. “Tried that before, didn’t we, Wrigo?”

  “That situation will never be repeated,” Wrigo said, baring his four rows of teeth.

  “I have many skills, “the Luhap yelled.

  I tuned out his raspy voice, turned my back on them and then continued past the cells to the floor-to-ceiling window next to the lift. Down in the flight bay, two small but nimble fighters we had recently acquired were already being divested of their yellow stripes and blue diamonds and replaced with a discreet spatter of my fleet’s signature black with gold stars.

  I put a hand on Wrigo’s shoulder and whispered, “What is that small one with the russet and cream fur in the back of the Luhap’s cell?” I cast an eye back at the little creature, who could be no more than three feet tall, trembling against the glass. It looked like a gigantic teddy bear with a lion’s mane of reddish brown hair in a big ponytail with two fluffy smaller ones, which had to be hiding ears.

  “I don’t recognize the species, but it looks well cared for.” Wrigo glanced over his shoulder. “They’ve all been logged and catalogued along with the rest of the cargo. There should be some information on it.”

  It looked like my last foster mother’s Pomeranian, if the dog could stand on two feet and had hands. This creature’s tiny fingers weren’t that useful. It was as cute as the dog and probably just as mean.

  Just then, a high pitch caw sounded behind us. The Luhap had the little guy by the shoulders shaking it. It kicked his stubby legs and feet.

  “Inanimate cargo is preferable.” Wrigo let out a long breath and rolled his eyes, then instructed the Luhap to release the little one.

  “The small one might be more valuable than all the others,” I said. As soon as it was released, it scampered to the opposite side of the cell.

  “Is it a young one?” Wrigo asked in the same tone he used during our daily meetings about humdrum stuff like inventory.

  I rubbed a hand over my head, pricking my finger on one of the jeweled pins that I had arranged from ear-to-ear. It was my lucky style, and I wore some variation of it every day. Wrigo referred to it as my captain’s crown.

  He continued to stare at me as if my limited knowledge of human children transferred to all young beings in the universe. It wasn’t as if we encountered many in our line of work. But then I was supposed to be a mother of two. It had been a convenient lie, and I’d been telling it so long, sometimes I almost believed it.

  Usually, Oyna was around when this topic came up, she supplied any information about children, and I remained silent.

  “It is short and ...” How did an alien child act? I grasped for any tidbit from my childhood when I was under four feet, when I was—five years old? Seven? The longer I spent away from Earth, the more I forgot, and the less human I felt.

  I did what I always did: said little and stared off into space with an expression I hoped was appropriate for a mother whose two kids were back on Earth being raised by my heartless rich ex-husband, also nonexistent.

  Wrigo laid one of his three fingers on my shoulder. I closed my eyes briefly. “We should move it to a separate cell, right?”

  He nodded for a long while, his frown flattening out enough that I knew my answer was within an acceptable range for a mother. “If we had one free...We will have to double them up. What are we going to do with them, Captain?”

  “We’ve never had so many at one time. Let’s have the doctor look them over. Don’t want to lose any.”

  “Sensible.”

  “How far are we from the next trading station?” I asked.

  “If we deviate course, we can backtrack a day otherwise the next one on our current course is about five days out,” he said.

  “Expend five days of resources or backtrack a day and profit early? What a dilemma.”

  “Ha.” He laughed in his dry humorless way and opened a link. “Enziji, we are altering course to Quadrant 3, Trad—”

  Red light bounced against the glass from the ceiling. Both our interlinks chimed at the same time. “Multiple incoming.” Oyna’s voice reverberated from Wrigo and my wrist comms.

  “Who are they and what are they transporting?” The words leapt out of my throat. Good thing we were heading straight to the trading station. None of our ships had room for much more. I rubbed my hands together. The best kind of dilemma to have.

  “I’m checking their identity,” Oyna said.

  I jogged back by the containment cells with Wrigo at my side. A caw sounded behind us and we both looked back. The little puff ball stood at the front of the cell clasping the bars. Its round cherry lips puckered and its beer-brown amber, round eyes stared after us. It extended its mitten like paws. Its eyes reminded me that I hadn’t had an ice cold lager in a decade, probably never would again — malted barley, eh, everyone’s liver could do without.

  With a last glance at the cells, I said, “We’ll deal with them later. We have more company.”

  “They are Drakon!” Oyna’s shouted. “An entire fleet of them.” She chortled.

  Wrigo and I exchanged glances and broke into a run back up to the bridge.

  Mopping my sweaty forehead with my sleeve, I plopped in my chair, “Full cloak.” We were near Thirren, but why would an entire fleet of them be headed this way? They were vindictive assholes and I had killed one of theirs, a low ranking fugitive who was on the run for some treasonous act. “They couldn’t have detected our small fleet and identified me already,” I said. “Surely they wouldn’t send an entire fleet after me. I did them a favor by turning him into space debris.”

  “Unlikely,” Wrigo said.

  “How far out are they?” I asked.

  “They will be here within two hours.” Wrigo’s voice and gray eyes lit with excitement. His slate gray body switched to cucumber green from the top of his shiny head to his triangular feet.

  “Is everyone invisible?” I called out as soon as I stepped onto the bridge.

  “Yes, all cloaked,” Oyna said.

  “Yes, Captain,” my six lieutenants called out one by one. Their eager faces stared back at me from the central battle screen.

  Thanks to a crew as diverse as the galaxy, our cloaking signature changed almost as much as we did locations. We could remain invisible longer and more often than most. I hoped that with a fleet of fire-breathing Drakon headed straight for us that the universe was in our favor once more. It would tax all our abilities and resources to withstand a confrontation with them, but the Drakon lacked one thing we had in abundance: a wealth of experience from many different species.

  Get ready for book 5 in the Galactic Alpha’s Conquest Series, Taken By The Alien Dragon.

  Available Now!

  Free Prequel!

  Cosmic Collector delves into the past, offering a glimpse of Tarion as a hatchling after the death of his birth mother. Through the alternating perspectives of Tarion's sire, Silea, and Alana, a human woman that captured his heart, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the Hielsrane dragons, from their possessive tendencies to their battle-hardened exteriors.

  Click here to download your FREE Prequel, Cosmic Collector, by signing up for Stella Cassy’s Insider Club!

  Enslaved By The Alien Dragon

  Galactic Alpha’s Conquest: Book 4

  Stella Cassy

  © 2019

  Disclaimer

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, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.

  This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18).