Akron stands and wipes his hands. By the way he sighs, I can tell he’s not finished. “Tempting, but I can’t accept.”
My alien captors look like a bomb just exploded.
Puffing his chest, Lök closes the hologram and heads to the door.
“Come on,” Lök says, waving us forward. “We’ll find someone else to make rich.”
“There is no one else,” Vraik says.
Lök glares at Akron, eyes turning a blistering red. “When we win, you’ll be the first to go,” he says.
As he swings open the door with grace, his warning is cut short. A weapon that looks like it’s made from metallic bones rests inches away from his face.
It’s the lone sentinel.
I grab my garb and quickly wrap myself, but it’s too late. I’ve been seen.
The sentinel forces his way into the room. Faster than anyone can react, he hits a button on his uniform, signaling an alert of some sort.
“Scanning initiated.”
Now that I can see the sentinel clearly, I can see why they warned me to keep my eyes down. The alien’s eyes are hollowed out, replaced with a mask that seems to provide artificial sight.
Its voice slithers slowly like a python. “A female...”
With all eyes on me, I inch backward. My spine hits the wall.
Rekker bows, breathing with urgency. “Sentinel, we have strict orders to bring her to Slain,” he says.
The sentinel laughs, but his mask does not move. He scans them with his eyes. “I do not have to ask for your holodex to know you have no such orders.”
Lök gulps. “How much do you want?”
The sentinel ignores him, walking toward me. “I want to talk to her,” he says.
“N-N-No,” I murmur.
I thought my captors were bad, until I saw this planet. Now that I’ve seen the inhabitants of this world, they look like saints.
Too scared to speak, I hesitate and latch onto the table in front of me. I push it over, attempting to block him, but he easily grabs my neck.
He scans my body, eyes shooting red lines over my skin. “Newly installed identification chip. You have broken four different intergalactic laws,” he hisses.
Akron backs into the opposite corner. “Listen, I had nothing to do with this.”
I choke as the sentinel lifts me. The tone of his voice drifts. “Filthy cunt.”
His other hand grabs my inner thigh.
“Please,” I whisper. “Don’t touch me.”
A soft chuckle near my ear sends chills down my spine. The sentinel clicks a button on the side of his mask. Automated appendages make a noise before unlatching.
Slowly, he slides the concealment away, revealing his hideous face.
My heart shocks me to action. I jump away, only for him to grab my ankles, lowering me onto the table.
His jaw is completely missing. His skin is scarred so badly I can see some of the ligaments in his jaw. Half of his tongue is missing.
I don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to hear him speak.
Help...
He slithers over me. “We don’t have to tell anyone about this infraction,” he says, arching his hollow face over mine. “Just give me the cunt. My department will share her, and you will go without punishment.”
“Take her,” Akron says. “Just leave me out of this.”
The sentinel breathes near my neck. He lowers his green and slimy tongue. I close my eyes and tense, shaking so hard I figure I might explode.
The aliens aren’t saying a thing. He’s going to take me. I’ll be tortured and used by a room full of sentinels.
“No.”
Lök stands, pistol stretched toward the sentinel’s head.
The sentinel is astonished. “What?” he cries.
Akron hyperventilates. “This is all recorded,” he says. “Be careful what you do.”
Lök locks the hammer in place. “I won’t let you hurt her. She is far too pure for your kind.”
Vraik raises his weapon. “Get off her,” he commands.
The sentinel backs off, replacing his mask. “As you wish,” he says. “But her information has been saved. She has been registered for the Empire Lottery’s breeding program.”
Rekker rolls his cape over his shoulder. Reaching into a pocket on his bicep, he takes out a blade. “You didn’t...”
My chest feels like it’s going to cave in. “Lottery?” I ask.
“It won’t be long before my team arrives,” the sentinel says.
Rekker does not wait to hear any more. He throws the blade, piercing the soft flesh of his neck.
The sentinel falls, dying. Blood covers the walls and floor. It’s the most gruesome thing I have ever seen.
When I say that I’m in a nightmare, I mean it. It only gets worse from here on out.
I cower to the other side, falling into Vraik’s body. “Don’t you worry,” he growls. “We will protect you.”
I don’t know what to say. They saved me. They didn’t have to let me live. They could have used me as a bargaining chip, but they didn’t.
They saved my life.
Akron lunges at Rekker. “Do you know what you’ve just done?”
Rekker sniffs and stands confidently like a warrior. A small indent forms on the side of his cheek where he bites.
He yanks the blade from the disgusting alien’s neck and begins cleaning the blood. “I have killed a sentinel in your bar,” he says.
Lök chuckles and throws his arms around Akron. “Looks like you’re a wanted man, Akron,” he says.
Akron’s face distorts. “You bastards. You set me up.”
“Luck of the draw,” Rekker says.
He reopens the hologram and bends, showing him the deed once more. “Now, I’m going to ask you again. Are you going to join us, or not?”
I don’t hate them for what they’ve done.
No, in the strangest way, I admire them for taking me.
Nine
Emma
I’m horrified. I’m panicked. I am… tempted?
I don’t expect to feel this way, but as soon as I exit that room, I’m smiling.
Lök’s arms glide over my shoulders. I lean my head against his biceps and breathe, feeling his heart pump against my back.
That’s not all I feel.
His cock bobs against my backside, just narrowly inching up the garb that covers my bare ass.
I should be disgusted and petrified. Instead, I feel warmth. I close my eyes and give in to his embrace, knowing that I shouldn’t.
But it’s just so damn hard not to give in to something that is starting to feel good...
Back home, I had no voice. I thought I was free, but I wasn’t. I woke up and did what I was told. Every day that passed was another chance to bury my true feelings inside.
I’ve tried to do my best to carry forward, but I’ve been lonely since the day my father died. I’m a hundred light years away from my past, and now I know what I have to do.
I have to open my eyes and alleviate the pain. I also need to learn a tough lesson: this is my life now. There’s no going back.
I will embrace it, and they will protect me from the chaos that closes in around us.
Lök carries me into a black craft, nudging me in a narrow crevice between two backseats.
Akron shuts the door, but I can hear his muffled voice. “The female. You don’t… love her, do you?”
Uncomfortably, I shift away from the window, but I can still hear their conversation.
To my surprise, Vraik responds with a swift punch in the jaw. “It’s none of your business.”
“You involved me in the execution of a sentinel. This entire thing is my business,” he shouts.
His voice echoes throughout the dimly lit streets. Soon, sentinels and Empire officials will be searching for our whereabouts. I’m sure of it.
“So, what? You’re going to turn us in?” Lök snaps. “Is that your master plan? The Empire will ride your
ass into the ground. You’re involved in this murder, and that means you need to follow our lead.”
I open the door and hiss, “You’re making a scene. Wherever it is you plan on taking me, we have to leave now.”
They stare at me, mystified.
Akron groans. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Lök runs to the entrance. “Believe it,” he says. “A new world is coming. Now is the time to embrace it.”
You can’t stop change. If there’s anyone who understands that point, it’s me.
You can fight all you want. Resisting the tide only makes things worse.
I’ve got a feeling I have yet to see all there is to see.
With everyone in the craft, we fly into a bleeding sunrise. From below, sentinels round the streets, but it’s too late. Akron presses a button, and the ship cruises through the top of the atmosphere. Their laser beams knock against our forcefield, but no damage occurs.
Soon, we are zipping through an open landscape. Old and degraded fences line the overgrown grass.
When we arrive to a lone structure, the sun is shining. The sky is clear. It’s actually a beautiful day, but the aliens don’t seem to enjoy the daylight.
“We’re here,” Akron growls. “Let’s move inside, fast. I don’t want any of the sentinels to pick up on our trail.”
“What is this place?” I ask.
Akron exits the vehicle, but Vraik takes my hand and answers. “An abandoned breeding facility,” he says. “We will be safe here.”
How long will we have to stay in hiding? Will I ever get to enjoy another sun again?
The building is shaped like a pyramid. A golden glow slightly emanates from the outside, but a dark green moss covers most of the brick.
As I walk up to the site, an odd feeling hits my stomach. It’s a mixture of both sadness and excitement. I’m sad because I know things are different. There’s a melancholy to letting go of the familiar.
But I’m also nervous. My life has purpose. And these aliens, as savage as I first thought they were, aren’t that bad.
Okay, they’re bad. But in the grand scheme of the universe, there is worse.
In the center of the pyramid are rows of rotting pods, shaped like wombs. All of them have opened long ago, split down the center. The outside flesh has started to decay. A liquid has dried below each “womb.”
Curiously, I step near them and peer inside. It looks like actual skin, designed and perfected to house life. “I don’t get it. They grew children in these?” I ask.
Lök nudges me back. “The experiment didn’t work.”
“Why?” I ask.
Rekker bites his top lip. “The children came out as mutants,” he says.
“Let’s not talk about it,” Vraik growls.
Akron groans. “Why? It’s been twenty years since I’ve seen you run away from the truth. Why not revisit it right fucking now?”
None of the aliens look comfortable with this place. I’ll admit it – it’s not exactly five-star quality. But it’s a million times better than sleeping on the streets with the sentinels on constant patrol.
I continue walking through the hall to another room. There are gold statues, alien goddesses with many arms and pregnant bellies. The statues have collected dust from years of neglect, but their expressions can still be seen, proud and defiant.
“They’re beautiful,” I say, circling around the gold figure.
“This pyramid is ancient,” Lök says. “It was only in the last thirty years they tried to turn it into an Empire facility.”
Akron stops near the doorway. He chuckles angrily to himself. “Lök, you bastard,” he mutters. “You took me here for a reason, didn’t you?”
Lök straightens his spine and cracks his neck. Every muscle in his body flexes. “We need a witness,” he says.
There are those words again. Witness. Breeding facility. Jesus, I should have known where they were taking me and what their plan entailed.
My time is running out. They are going to breed me. This is the place where everything changes.
Akron faces Lök, breathing. “After what you did to me? My life is over,” he screams.
His voice reverberates throughout the pyramid. It seems to trail off in my heart.
My life is over.
“You have left your old life for a better future,” Lök argues.
Akron crosses his arms, remaining defiant. “There is no future. I refuse to bear witness.”
While they argue, I eye a section of the room that leads into a dark tunnel. It appears to track to a hidden side of the pyramid, circling downward into an underground area.
If this were just a few days ago, I would take the opportunity to run. But things have changed. I don’t fully trust them, but there is nowhere to escape.
Maybe this can work…
This is a planet rife with inequality. I have seen the squalor in which their race is forced to live. I can see why they want to end the Empire.
I understand why they invaded Earth.
Oh, God. Is that so wrong to think? I know it’s my planet, but I’m starting to see it from the other side. Everyone is suffering, just trying to survive. Are they so different from us?
Angrily, Akron turns to leave the room. “I’ve been working all night. Now I’m going to sleep. Do not try to wake me.”
Akron leaves, and the aliens turn silent. I meander to a spot against the wall and lower myself down.
For the first time, I look at them as equals. “I think you owe me an apology,” I say.
Vraik shakes his head. “An apology?”
“Yes,” I say. “An apology. You know, just like, an ‘I’m sorry.”
Lök stands above me. “We saved your life back there. That twice by my count.”
I nod. “And you stole me from my home and loved ones,” I say.
If I can understand where they are coming from, they can understand me.
Lök’s face turns stern. “You came with us because you have no loved ones,” he says.
His words cause me to falter. A bitter taste hangs on the back of my tongue. Everyone is silent.
He has stepped over the line.
Shaking with slight fury, I turn the question. “And you? Who do you have? Two aliens? Some slaves to do your bidding? They’ll turn on you too, you know. Everyone will.”
I’m a Scorpio. Come at me, and I’ll come at you ten times harder.
This time, Rekker speaks. “You are correct. We have no one either.”
His voice is solemn, filled with grief.
Vraik clears his throat. “Forgive Lök. He is ill tempered. We’re just trying to survive, Emma.”
Lök hangs his head. “I am sorry.”
That’s all I wanted to hear.
“I know you’re going through a lot, but we both are,” I say.
The planet is mostly destroyed. In the center, high-rises and an inviting neon holograph morphs into the sky. But no one is allowed inside those pearly gates. It is an experience made for the ruling class only.
On the peripheral of the elite city is abandonment. It appears to be a place that used to hold promise, but now lays bare to waste.
“There is a great tragedy in all of us,” I say. “But yours is one I’ll never fully understand. Earth has never been this bad. But you can’t hold that against me. This isn’t my fault.”
I used to think Earth was a terrible place. Monotonous and cruel. I was spoiled and forgot everything that made it good.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
“Yes. For us, it has been war after war, after endless war. We have never known peace,” Rekker admits.
“Yet, you search for it with every fiber of your being. We all do,” I say. “That is why you took the Resnyx.”
“No,” Lök interjects, shaking his head. “If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that the Resnyx can never bring us peace. It is purely by chance we found you. Now, you are our only path toward pea
ce.”
“Even you must know that is a lie,” she says. “My presence only brings you instability.”
My face turns hot. Is this the start of something real? Or is it the end of structural order forever? If there’s one thing I know, it’s that hope can go a long way.
Lök eases forward, hands smoothing over her waist, cradling me. Every muscle in my body tenses, but I find myself giving into his malevolent strength.
Although he can be a little bold, his eyes are honest when he speaks. “We need you,” he whispers.
His mouth hovers close to mine.
“Are you sure? I’m a tough nut to crack,” I murmur.
No one has been able to “have” me. Not Ryan. Not the others I thought I loved. I have learned to live alone, so I always assumed I’d die alone.
The two others slide against me, muscles raised and rolling like rounded cobblestone. I catch my breath as I feel their cocks rise against my thighs and ass.
Fingers trickle up and down my body, teasing and tickling the parts that have forgotten touch. I squirm, but I find myself enjoying it.
They touch and kiss my clavicle. Someone’s hand glides behind my upper thigh. Another body forms around my waist.
I have forgotten what it’s like to be touched like this. So wrong, yet so fucking right. I have disregarded the power of sex, real sex. The kind of sex that leaves you breathless and plastered against a bathroom sink or living room window. The kind of fucking that leaves handprints.
They could take me. The alien brutes could easily ravage and consume every hole, but they merely tease. That’s half the fun. There is a risky expectation that I could find myself hurt at the end of this, but that only makes me want it more.
What is wrong with me?
It’s not worth it unless it stings a little.
I back away, ashamed of how I feel. Maybe I’m a closet masochist. No, that’s not it. I know the real reason for my strange and twisted lust.
When the brutes first arrived, I locked eyes with all three of them. From my office, I beckoned them to me. Not with my voice, but with my mind.
They read my thoughts. They knew exactly what I wanted, and they came to me with their calling cards on display.
Somehow, I think I knew they would take me. I can outwardly deny reality until the cows come home, but this is something that I wanted to happen.
Alien Bride: A Dark Alien Sci-Fi Romance Page 7