By the time the door opened, I’d started reciting the decimals of Pi. I scrambled to the back of the bed, as far away from the door as possible.
Laki entered, smiling, strolling into the room as if he hadn’t drugged and kidnapped me.
I glared at him. I could have begged him to return me to Earth, but I knew it was useless, so I stayed quiet, saving my energy for when I actually had a chance to change my fate.
“I thought you might need the bathroom. I’m afraid we don’t have en-suites like you do on Earth.”
I wish I could have refused, but my bladder was getting impatient.
“Where are we?”
“On route to Lo, one of Athion’s moons. We can’t take you to Athion itself, but Lo is both far and close enough from the planet. The government isn’t as strong there. Lo has its own regent, a man who’s sympathetic to our cause.” He smirked. “And our money, mostly.”
They didn’t want their kin on their home planet to find out they’d kidnapped me. That gave me a tiny bit of hope. Maybe if I met a decent Athion on Lo, I could tell him what had happened and they’d return me home to Earth.
“How long will it take?”
“Six months at hyper speed. We thought about putting you in a pod as a sleeper, but it would be much more fun to get to know our new wife during the journey. It gets boring.”
I gasped. “Wife?”
His grin gave me shivers. “Of course. What did you think you’d be? Our maid?”
“I didn’t want to be anything! You kidnapped me!”
Tears were threatening to spring from my eyes, but I fought hard to keep them away. I didn’t want to seem weak.
“It’s your purpose. Human men are spineless. They don’t deserve their females. I’m glad the Trads discovered your Earth. It gave us the chance to follow and see the potential. A planet ripe for the taking. If it were up to me, every Athion man would get his own human woman. Sadly, the government doesn’t agree.”
He spat, actually spat, his spittle landing on the floor. “We applied to get our own wife, but with my brother’s record, they wouldn’t give us one. But we’re owed one. We almost died for the Emperor. We’re owed a female. For now, we’ve agreed to share you, but only because we had to leave Earth sooner than planned. Maybe we’ll steal another from Athion itself. It might even be easier than kidnapping you. Females are so gullible.”
He was crazy. I was in a spaceship with two madmen.
“Record?” I asked, dreading the answer, but I needed as much information as I could get. It might save my life.
Laki shrugged. “My brother killed a lieutenant. And a few Custos. It was self-defence.”
Custos, I’d heard of them. Athion elite soldiers. They were the first to land on Earth after the invasion. They’d talked to the human governments about letting women travel to Athion to be safe from Trads. And Arri had killed several of them. I was in a spaceship with cold-blooded murderers.
What the fuck was I going to do now?
I rarely swore; I was a teacher after all and had to set a good example. But right now, fuck was the perfect word to describe my situation. Fucked up. Hopeless. Crazy.
“Do you want to go to the bathroom or not?”
I kept glaring at him, but got off the bed, angry at my traitorous body.
“Don’t try anything stupid. We’re in space, far away from Earth or any other civilisation. You’re stuck with us, sweetheart.”
Something snapped in me and I stormed forward, slapping him in the face. He stared at me in surprise, then laughed. “It seems we got ourselves a little poomii. That will make it even more fun. Breaking you.”
I didn’t ask what a poomii was. I didn’t care. And I certainly wasn’t going to let them break me. I’d fight tooth and claw until I escaped.
“Show me that bathroom,” I demanded, pretending to be a lot more confident than I felt.
“No.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Since you’ve decided to behave like a poomii, you’ll be treated like an animal until you learn to behave. I shall get you a bowl.”
He left me speechless. I hammered against the door in the vain hope that he was just joking, but two minutes later, he returned with a plastic bowl, carelessly throwing it onto my bed.
“There’s your toilet. And don’t expect to get fed today. I want you to think of how wrong it was to slap me while your stomach growls.”
I launched myself at him again, but he expected me this time, grabbing my arms and pushing me back with more strength than I’d thought he possessed. I fell, landing on the floor with a thud.
“Maybe I should get you a collar and leash. Yes, I think that would be fun.”
He closed the door behind him and as soon as he was gone, I finally let my tears fall.
Chapter 3
Laki made true on his promise. Nobody came to give me food or water all day. I was alone with my thoughts and fears.
At some point, the lights in the room automatically dimmed, probably to simulate nightfall. I crawled into bed and hid underneath the fluffy blanket. It didn’t feel very different from my duvet back home. I could almost imagine that I was back in my room, safe and mostly happy, with Tonya next door. She used to snore loud enough for me to hear it through the walls. Back then, it annoyed me, but now I would have given anything to hear her snore.
There was no sound besides my own breathing. The ship vibrated softly as we tumbled through space, noticeable whenever I put my feet on the floor, but it didn’t give off any sound. Maybe my room was soundproof, or maybe the ship was simply really, really quiet. This was my first time on a spaceship, so it wasn’t as if I had anything to compare this to.
As tired as I was, sleep didn't come to find me. I turned and tossed, then stilled and cowered beneath my blanket, only to start rolling around again.
My door was locked from the outside, but I had no way to lock it from this side. There was no chair that I could have shifted underneath a handle (which didn’t exist, it was an automatic sliding door), and my bed was bolted to the floor. If the aliens wanted to come inside to do me harm, there was no way I could stop them.
When the lights came on to signal that morning had arrived, I’d not slept for even a single minute. I got up and used the bucket, cursing the Athions. I’d not give in though. I’d rather go without a toilet if it meant resisting them. I’d never willingly become theirs. No way in hell.
I sat back on my bed and waited. I wished I was wearing a watch, but that was in my bags, which were probably still on Earth. I couldn’t imagine the aliens taking care to take my baggage with them. The loss of the watch didn’t hurt as much as the other things I’d taken with me to London. Photos of my family. The children’s book my mother had written when I’d been a toddler. A picture of Tonya and the other girls in the house we’d shared. An old, tattered teddy bear my grandma had given me shortly before she’d died. A silver spoon that had belonged to my granddad. Those were the things I was going to miss most. Without them, I had no history. Now all I had left were my memories. I’d not let them take those from me.
I was going to stay myself. The woman who’d resisted both Trads and Athions for years. I could survive on my own, no problem. I just had to get away from them and somehow find a safe place. There had to be a place like that in the universe.
The door opened without warning. Arri entered, wearing nothing but loose yoga pants, his blue chest exposed. In another life, I may have found him somewhat attractive, but right now, the only emotion I felt was terror.
He grinned at me. “Shower time.”
The way his eyes roamed my body made it clear that I wasn’t going to shower on my own.
“No way.”
I glared at him with as much energy as I could muster. I bet there were dark rings beneath my eyes which likely made me look weaker than I wanted to appear.
“You will come.”
“No.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest, forcing myself to
give up my protective position.
His smile disappeared. “I wasn’t asking. We can do this the easy or the hard way.”
“Don’t you dare touch me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re our wife. Laird help me, I’m going to touch you as much as I want, whether you like it or not. Now get up or I’m going to make Laki put a collar on you like he’s been planning to.”
A shiver ran down my back at the threat. They were going to break me. Not now, not soon, but eventually. They were two large, strong men and while I knew some basic self-defence, I knew it wouldn’t do much good against them. If I wanted to survive, I needed to change my strategy. Pretend to play along, preserving my strength. I wouldn’t be able to escape if my body was bruised and broken.
“On Earth, we marry before we become husband and wife,” I said quietly. “Do you have something similar on Athion?”
He didn’t reply, so I continued talking. “A wedding is a very sacred ceremony. It means they truly belong to each other.”
Arri laughed roughly. “You already belong to us. We don’t need a ceremony to prove that.”
“But it would make it official.”
“Would you obey us if we’re married?”
I suppressed a shudder. “Yes.”
No, obviously not. I was just trying to buy myself time.
“Laki likes his women rebellious, but I have to say, a good obedient wife is much more to my taste. How do we do this wedding ceremony?”
"There are many different religions on Earth and they all have different ways of celebrating marriage. Don't you have anything like it on Athion?"
He rubbed his chin. "We did, yes, before the women died. I was a child back then and never went to one. There was something about binding the root of the Yurra plant around the couple's hands, connecting them through nature. A kiss at the end. Lots of speeches. Boring."
I certainly didn't want to be bound to these men with some kind of root. That sounded way too dangerous. What I needed was a chaste, safe ceremony, one that probably didn't even exist on Earth. They didn't need to know that though.
"It takes five days," I began, making it up as I went along. "On the first day, the couple talks while eating lots of food, getting to know each other. On the second day, the man brings the woman gifts and they go on excursions together. Like the zoo or a museum. On the third day, it's the woman who gives the presents and who organises what they do. On the fourth day they invite all their relatives so that they can meet their new family. And on the fifth day is the actual ceremony. That's the first time the couple can share a bed."
I should have made it longer than five days, but that may have been too much for the Athions to believe.
"Five days, huh?"
I nodded, keeping my expression neutral. "Five days, but after that, the bond between husband and wife is strong. Nobody can get between it, and all accept it to be an everlasting relationship.”
The cogs turned in his blue alien brain, that much was clear.
“And you’ll be our submissive wife after?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“Laki is planning to break you, but I can’t help but think how much effort that would be. I’d much prefer having a pliable little human sucking on my cock without needing force to make her. A wedding it is. And today is the first day. Let me prepare some food.”
My stomach growled in response. Thank goodness that I’d made up something that involved eating. I could devour a horse and still be hungry.
He left the room, mumbling something about Laki under his breath. Hopefully, Arri would be able to convince his brother that this was the way forward.
Five days, that was all the reprieve I had. Five days in which I had to find a way off this ship before I was trapped with these aliens forever.
Chapter 4
It took about two hours for Arri to return. That’s what it felt like, anyway. He’d put on a shirt, thank goodness, and was smiling at me in an almost non-creepy way. My stomach lurched nonetheless.
“Come. We’re having our meal in the galley. I had to make Laki’s favourite stew to keep him happy. He thinks a wedding is a waste of time, so you better behave.”
I nodded, cringing at the thought of Laki punishing me for making him wait. Five days.
“Will you come with me without problems or do I need to tie you up?”
“I’ll follow you,” I muttered demurely.
“Promise you won’t run.”
“I promise.”
Not that I intended to keep to that. Promises made under duress didn’t count in my book. My life was in danger, which gave me the excuse to lie as much as I needed to survive.
“If you run, I’ll catch you and the deal is off,” he warned. “My brother is only waiting for an excuse to break you. It will hurt, so be good now and you might avoid that fate.”
I nodded again, not having to pretend to be intimidated.
He opened the door and motioned for me to walk in front of him. Every fibre in my body was screaming at me to run, to make a dash for freedom, but there was no point to it just now. I needed to gather more information first and figure out a way to get help. I wasn’t going to get off the ship without assistance from others. Unless I discovered something like an escape pod. Did Athion spaceships actually have them or was that something solely found in sci-fi films? I needed to explore the ship.
Arri led me along polished corridors, their walls curved slightly, giving it a claustrophobic feel, as if the ceiling was going to come crashing down on me any second. The ship was bigger than I’d thought. Definitely not made for just two Athions and their captive.
“It’s that way to the bridge,” he said and pointed to my right when we reached a crossing. “But you don’t need to know that. Unless we want some entertainment while flying.”
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. I shrieked and tried to jump away from him, but his grip was tight. Something hard pressed against my back. Oh god. He was aroused by this.
“You’ll be on your knees,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath making me shiver in disgust. “And I’ll thrust into your pretty little mouth while you gag and squirm.”
One of his hands moved up until he squeezed my breast. I clawed at his arm with my fingernails, but all he did was laugh.
“I’m looking forward to that. Maybe you’d like to give me a little taster now, to keep me satisfied until the wedding?”
“No sex before the wedding,” I hissed.
“There are many things you could do to make me happy that don’t qualify as sex,” he said with a smirk, but he released me.
I stumbled forward, putting as much distance between him and me without it looking as if I was about to run.
“Where’s the galley?” I asked angrily, turning to glare at him. He needed to know that I wasn’t going to give in to his advances.
He chuckled. “My brother was right; you are a little poomii. I wonder if you’ll purr when I’m thrusting inside you?”
“Five days,” I snarled. “Now where’s the galley? I’m hungry.”
He pointed to the left. “That way. Around the corner, then right, then the big silver door to your left.”
I followed his directions without looking back. Seeing Laki lounging on a chair behind a table laden with food was almost a relief. With Laki, I knew where I stood. He wanted to break me and he’d take pleasure in it. Arri was much harder to read. One moment, he said he wanted an obedient wife, the next he enjoyed me fighting back. I was starting to think that he’d be the more dangerous of the two.
“You took your time,” Laki drawled. “I’m hungry.”
I shot him a glare. “Me too.”
I sat down on a chair opposite his and took in the buffet in front of me. I didn’t recognise any of the dishes, although some were vaguely similar to things I may have eaten on Earth. Something that looked like pieces of fried chicken caught my eyes.
Arri put
a plate in front of me, pressing against my side as if by accident. A shudder ran down my back. This wasn’t going to be easy. I should have been more explicit about no touching until the five days were up, but I’d thought saying no sex would give them that message. I’d been wrong. Those aliens were horny and I was their biggest temptation.
I ignored Arri and put some pieces of maybe-chicken on my plate. There was no cutlery besides some spoons intended for the massive pot of stew to my left. I shuddered in revulsion when I saw something that looked like an eyeball float at the top. I was probably mistaken but I wasn’t going to look a second time to make sure.
Arri took a seat next to his brother, so that they were both able to watch me. I could have jumped up and run out of the room before they could grab me from their side of the table, but that was a terrible idea. For now, I’d enjoy the illusion of freedom.
I nibbled on my piece of fried meat. Not chicken. It was strangely sour and very dry, but edible. I took several more pieces and wolfed them down, calming my stomach’s rumbling.
Laki pointed at a bowl that contained something that looked like blue salad. “Try that. It’s said to act as an aphrodisiac.” He wiggled his eyebrows at him.
“Do you ever think with anything but your dick?” I shot back and pointedly ignored the salad, helping myself to some bright yellow breadsticks instead.
He smiled at me, but there was no warmth in it. “I’ve not had a woman in over a decade. Men’s arses just don’t feel the same as a woman’s wet pussy. If it weren’t for my brother’s soft heart, I’d take you right here, right now, until you were screaming for mercy.”
Thank goodness for Arri. Even though he was a creep and a murderer. For now, he was protecting me from Laki, in a sick way that had nothing to do with empathy or pity. He was simply too lazy to go through the effort to turn me into the submissive wife he desired.
“What do we do after eating?” Arri asked, chewing on a very red piece of meat.
I thought back to what I’d told him earlier, not wanting to make a mistake. “We talk. Get to know each other.”
Stolen By Them: Page 2