The ship groaned and trembled harder. I broke into a run, following Raf until we reached the dock in the belly of the craft. We’d not dared approach the burning ship with our own vessel, so we’d used the shuttle. It was going to be a squeeze with three people. Luckily, the human female was small. The shuttle wouldn’t have accommodated three Trads.
Raf took the driver’s seat while I carefully sat down on the floor which was usually reserved for small amounts of cargo.
“Is she alright?” Raf asked while flicking switches and setting our course.
“Unconscious,” I replied darkly. “We need to get her to the med bay, fast.”
He nodded. “On it. Hold on tight. This is going to be a little bumpy, there’s a lot of debris out there.”
I gripped the female tighter, making sure the cooling blanket was still covering her. Luckily, she hadn’t been burned, but the blanket should help soothe those bruises until we got back to the ship. We’d not expected the Athion vessel to catch fire that quickly, but those bastards hadn’t even tried to fight the blaze once the shields had come down. They’d escaped like the cowards they were. Leaving their female to die.
I growled. She moved in my arms, just a tiny bit, but I stilled, scared to wake her. I didn’t want her to return to her pain. Once we were in the med bay, I’d make sure that she was completely painless before I’d gently wake her. She was likely traumatised by the experience.
Raf and I had been speechless when we’d heard her emergency broadcast. Athions kidnapping a human female was unheard of. Taking her freedom was bad enough, but abusing her body like that… I suppressed another growl that threatened to burst from my chest.
We were going to look after her. I was going to make sure she was safe. Nobody would ever hurt her again. And those Athions would pay in blood for what they’d done.
Chapter 7
Amber eyes burned into my soul.
I blinked, expecting them to be just a trick of the light, but they stayed. Deep amber, with golden rings around the pupils. Thick dark lashes lined those eyes. I was afraid to look at the rest of the person looming over me, so I kept focusing on the beautiful amber. I never knew eyes could be this colour. Clear indication that this was an alien, even though the skin on his face looked human.
“Can you understand me?” he asked in a deep, gentle voice. “Kannst du mich verstehen?”
Was that…German?
“Yes,” I croaked. My throat hurt like hell.
A straw was pushed against my lips and I drank without hesitation. Clear, pure water ran down my parched throat, easing the pain a little.
“Are you in pain?” he asked, his eyes flicking over my face as if he was looking for signs of agony.
I took a moment to take stock of my body. Yes, there was pain, but it was dull enough to ignore for now. My right arm was the worst. I dimly remembered seeing it bent in a strange angle back on the Athion ship.
I moved to sit up, to take a look at what had happened to me, but a hand landed on my shoulder and pushed me down gently but firmly.
“Stay still,” the alien said softly. “The med pod is still fixing you. You had internal bleeding and your spleen was ruptured. It will take some time for everything to heal.”
“Where am I?” The oldest question in the book.
“You’re safe.”
I frowned at him. “That’s not what I asked.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “You’re on my ship, the Wataz. Phoenix, you’d call her in your language. My friend and I heard your distress call. I’m just sorry we didn’t get to you earlier.”
The regret mirroring in his face seemed real.
“What happened exactly?”
“We demanded the Athions give you up without us having to initiate a fight, but they refused. We attacked the ship until their shields gave way. By the time we boarded, the ship was on fire and the Athions had fled. There was no time to pursue them, we had to get you out of there.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry for what those kraktz did to you.”
“How bad was it?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
I nodded, regretting it instantly. My neck was sorer than I’d realised.
He looked away, unwilling to meet my eyes. “Internal bleeding. Ruptured spleen. Five broken ribs. Dislocated shoulder and a fractured arm. Bruises and slash wounds all over. Broken cheekbone. And looking at the marks around your neck, they strangled you. Human bodies are fragile. It’s a miracle you survived as long as you did.”
I swallowed hard. Those Athions really hadn’t held back. Luckily, I’d been unconscious for most of it.
“Did they…?”
I couldn’t bring myself to complete the question.
“What?”
Damn. The alien didn’t understand.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Have sex with me.” The words spilt from my lips in one garbled mess. I couldn’t use the r-word. That would make it worse.
I kept my eyes closed as I waited for him to reply.
“I don’t think I should say. I don’t want to upset you.”
I laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m already upset. Just give me the facts. Trust me, it can’t make things any worse.”
“They…they didn’t…penetrate,” he stammered, his voice a whisper. “But we found their disgusting blue…juices on your body.”
A tremble ran through me. I’d been wrong. It did make things worse. They’d broken my body and it had aroused them. How sick was that.
“You’re safe now. We’re going to protect you. Nobody is going to hurt you ever again.”
I opened my eyes and a tear escaped, running down the side of my face. “Can you take me home?”
He didn’t need to say anything for me to get my answer. The regret in his expression said it all.
“We’d never get close to your planet. The Athion ships surrounding Earth would attack us before we could even tell them that we have a human on board.”
“Why?”
“Because of what we are. Because of where we come from.”
I think I know already, yet I need him to say it. Need to confirm my fears. Only then am I allowed to freak out.
He clears his throat. “We’re from Planet Tradrych.”
Yes, now I can panic.
From the fire into the frying pan.
I close my eyes and decide it’s time to pass out.
Rafaz
I should have waited to tell her, but she would have found out eventually.
“How is she?”
Vuk was waiting for me outside, his muscular body leaning against the wall, seemingly relaxed, but I know him well enough to see the tension in him.
“She coped well until I told her that we’re Trads.”
He sighed. “As was to be predicted. Let’s hope she’ll be able to get over her fear once she realises we’re the good guys.”
“She’s been told for years that we’re evil. She’s seen our kind take human women for breeding. Who knows what happened to her during the invasion. Maybe she lost family and friends. I don’t think it’s going to be easy to change her mind.”
“Still, we’ll try. With patience.”
I wish I had his optimism. I saw the horror on her face just before she fainted. She’s not going to accept us as allies anytime soon.
I shifted into my Trad form, rolling my shoulders in pleasure. I wasn’t a fan of pretending to look like a human, and I wasn’t very good at it, but I’d do it for this frail little human. Her brokenness called to me, enflaming my instincts to protect her.
“She’s sleeping now,” I said, turning to walk back to the bridge. Vuk joined me, his tail playfully touching my back. “I gave her something to help with the pain and to keep her asleep. The med pod will take another eight hours to fix the worst of her injuries, but she’ll likely still be bruised and in pain after. We should prepare some suitable quarters for her. Somewhere she can feel safe while also be
ing comfortable.”
My friend nodded. “What do humans like? They’re so fragile. Lots of blankets, me thinks.”
“Sounds about right. I’ll gather every pillow and cushion I can find. Let’s make her a room fit for the most precious of females.”
“We should get some books too. Do you still have that human romance novel you’ve been hiding in your nightstand?”
I could feel a blush spread on my cheeks. I hadn’t realised Vuk knew about that book. I’d found it on the last ship we’d hijacked and took it to improve my English, not realising that it was a romance novel. We don’t have those on Tradrych. Love isn’t something that’s talked about anymore, not since all our females died. We might sometimes fall in love with other males, but it’s not the same. It’s not something we linger on. I’ve read the book several times, intrigued by the way humans seem to do love and intimacy. It’s very different from how I remember my parents to interact, but my mother has been dead for a long time, as have all the other females that I knew as a child.
I don’t really want to give up that book, but he’s right, the human might like to have some entertainment. I doubt she’ll be interested in the dictionaries we have stashed away, the only other books in her language.
“What do humans eat?” Vuk asks. “Will she like our food?”
“No idea. Guess the only way to find out is to get her to try something. For now, the med pod is providing her with all the nutrition she needs.”
I was kind of annoyed that I didn’t take part in the invasion now. Having never been to Earth, I didn’t know enough about humans. All I’d learned about them was from talking to other Trads – and since most of them saw us as traitors, that wasn’t a lot.
I sighed. “Let’s make her as comfortable as we can. Maybe that will help prove to her that we’re not going to harm her.”
“What happens if it doesn’t work?” Vuk had stopped, his tail wrapped around his waist. Something he only did when he was nervous or scared.
“Then we’ll find a way to get her back to Earth. These Athions were exceptions. If we could give her to a decent Athion ship, they could take her home.”
“They’d likely kill us.”
I met his eyes. “Yes. They would.”
Chapter 8
I woke in a box. High walls towered all around me. I sat up, blinking the sleep from my eyes. No, it wasn’t a box. I was surrounded by mountains of pillows. Dozens and dozens of pillows and cushions in all shapes and sizes. What. The. Fuck. It looked like I’d been transported into a bedding shop.
My body was resting on a soft mattress and covered with a thick blanket. More folded blankets were stashed at the end of the bed. As if I needed any more. I’d sweat to death.
I pulled my legs to my chest, evaluating my situation. If my mind wasn’t messing with me, I was on a Trad ship, having been rescued from the Athions. My body was sore, but it wasn’t actual pain, more like I’d done an arduous work out the day before. I flexed my right arm. It was working again. No longer broken. Those Trads really had some excellent medical tech. Unless they’d put me in a coma for weeks and waited for me to heal before they woke me up. For all I knew, that could be what had happened.
The pillow fort was too high for me to see anything besides a shiny rose gold ceiling. I slowly got to my feet, wavering a little. My legs were weak but I managed to stand without collapsing. At least falling here wouldn’t hurt with all those pillows.
Standing I was finally able to see beyond the cushions. I was in a spacious room with a large window on one side and a closed door on the other. Several cupboards and some empty shelves lined the wall, as well as a tall wardrobe. The shelves had a strange cord strung above them, probably to keep things from falling out should the ship experience a bumpy ride.
Blinds hid the world beyond the window. I was glad for it. Looking at the emptiness of space was something I didn’t want to have to do again.
The room was a lot bigger than the one I’d had on the Athion ship. A little table and two chairs were stashed in one corner, almost making it homely. The only thing missing was some sort of decoration on the bare walls.
Did Trads sleep in this way? In a nest of pillows? Somehow, I couldn’t imagine these scaled monsters do that. I’d only ever seen them in their true form on pictures, but with their horns and tails, they looked like devils or demons. I bet they looked even scarier in real life.
I sat back down – and something hard poked my bum. There was something beneath the blanket. I carefully reached for it. A book, tattered and well-read. And not just any book. Outlander. Of all the things to find on an alien spaceship, this wasn’t it.
Finding a familiar book somehow made me feel more comfortable. Not safe, not with Trads in charge of my destiny. But it helped quench the panic within me a tiny bit.
What now? I was thirsty, but like hell was I going to leave this room. I was just going to have to wait for whatever happened next. Hopefully, it involved them coming to tell me that they were going to take me to Earth after all. Even though I no longer had a home and it wasn’t completely safe there, it was still better than being stranded in space with aliens known for impregnating and kidnapping women.
I took a few of the pillows and used them as a headboard to sit against. With a blanket wrapped around me, I opened the book and tried to immerse myself in the imaginary world of Diana Gabaldon. They say reading is an escape. It’d never been more true.
Rafaz
I’d been watching her for hours. First, when she slept, and now that she was reading. She seemed to like the pillow nest we’d made her. She’d only removed a few cushions to have a better view of the door. Clever girl. We’d left her alone so far, but she had to be hungry and thirsty by now. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to leave the bridge. Here, on the screen, I could see her, yet she didn’t know I was watching. She didn’t look at me with fear in her eyes. She didn’t scream or faint at my sight.
I gently wiped my thumb over the screen as if I was stroking her face. She looked so small in the nest. She’d wrapped two blankets around her tiny body, which made her seem even more fragile. Trad females were so different from humans. They’d been as large as males, sometimes even more so. Their bite was venomous and their tail lined with spikes. They were equipped to defend both themselves and their offspring. This human female was the opposite. She had no defences at all. How had her species even survived for this long? It seemed like a mistake of evolution.
Vuk had retreated to his room, so it was just me here on the bridge. The Phoenix was on autopilot and I wouldn’t have needed to be here, yet I couldn’t bring myself to stop watching the camera feed. I could have done that in my room too, but that was at the other end of the ship and I wanted to be close in case she needed me.
I should have really brought her some water and food. I almost wished Vuk would do it. Then she’d look at him in fear and not me. I was afraid of repulsing her.
Those Athions had so much to answer for. The ship’s AI was scanning space for them and we were going to be notified as soon as they were found. Their escape pod was too small to show up on most scanners, but I’d also sent a message to fellow pirate ships in the hope that they’d help. Us pirates had a strange code in interacting with each other. If you were part of the unofficial pirate union, you didn’t attack the other ships. You’d assist if someone was in need. You’d share valuable intel. And you’d protect the weak. We didn’t board ships with the aim of hurting the crew. Yes, other pirates did that, but they weren’t part of our club. We were only after their cargo and as long as they handed it over, we didn’t harm anyone. That was the theory, anyway. Most of the time, we did have to spill blood, but we always tried not to kill. Although I would have no hesitations once we caught up with the Athions. I was going to tear them apart.
Watching the female huddled beneath her blankets made me hate them even more. They took a beautiful creature and broke her. We fixed her body, but it was clear that her mind was hurt.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she was never going to trust anyone ever again.
She flicked a page and I zoomed in to see what chapter she was at. Oh yes. I liked that one. I always laughed when I got to the third paragraph. I made the camera move to her face. And yes, a tiny smile started to curve her lips. My heart warmed at the sight. And it almost exploded when a small chuckle escaped her. Her enjoying the book I had read so many times made me happier than I had thought possible.
I stroked the screen one more time, then got up from my chair with a groan. It was time to face her.
Wren
A soft knock on the door pulled me from my bookish world. I'd managed to immerse myself in the story despite my hostile surroundings. Luckily, my mind had taken pity on me and given me that small respite.
What was I to do? I didn't want one of the Trads to come in, but I couldn't exactly stop them either. It was their ship. If they wanted, they could do to me whatever they wanted and I had no way to stop them. So far, they'd left me alone, but Trads were known for their deceitful natures. It was only a matter of time.
I was running out of options though. Most of my injuries were healed, but I felt a lot weaker than I had been on the Athion ship. I'd somehow managed to survive, despite their plans for me. I doubted I'd be able to pull it off again.
Another knock. I let the book fall onto the mattress and pulled the blanket closer, as if it would somehow protect me from the aliens.
"I have food for you," a male voice called from outside. "I thought you might be hungry."
It was the same alien I'd talked to when I'd woken up. I'd never found out his name. He'd mentioned a friend who was on this ship with us. Was that one standing on the other side of the door? Were they going to attack me together?
Stolen By Them: Page 4