Claimed for the Alien Bride Lottery

by Margo Bond Collins

  Then I took aim and shot that shapely ass with a splatter of purple paint.

  Mia squealed and jumped, spinning around and opening fire on me. “Not fair,” she yelled out, even as she covered my chest in green paint.

  “Oh, I’ll show you ‘not fair’,” I growled through my laughter. I dropped my paint weapon entirely and lunged for her, picking her up and draping over my shoulder as she squealed and kicked. I took a few steps, then swung her down to place her gently on a bed of purple Earth heather. I stretched out over her, tucking one hand under her hip and the other under her head to pull her into a kiss.

  As always, she met my touch with equal passion. My cock hardened at the feel of her under me, and she whimpered deep in her throat as she felt it brush up against her through my chavan.

  Within moments, though, she was pulling away from me—as she had done every time I had kissed her. “That green paint on your skin makes you look like Christmas,” she murmured, reaching up to run her finger through the paint on my chest, drawing an Earther’s representation of a heart.

  I glanced down at myself. “With some interesting purple smudges where it touched the paint on your chest.”

  “On my shirt,” she corrected.

  “We could change that. I would love to rub this paint all over your skin,” I murmured as I ducked down to claim her lips again.

  The more time I spent with Mia, the more certain I became that she feared taking a mate at all. It wasn’t me—I was certain of it.

  She responded to my kisses, but she feared her own response.

  I must find a way to change that.

  A ding from my wrist interrupted us, and I pulled away from Mia to check my com, groaning aloud when I saw the message. “Vos Klavoii wants us to meet him in Medical in an hour.”

  She wiped her hair from her brow and frowned down at her soiled clothes. “That should give me time to shower and change, then. I’ll meet you there.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mia

  Back in my room, I took a quick shower, then pulled on a bright red dress that swung around my legs.

  As I made my way toward Medical to meet Eldron, I considered how well the day had gone.

  Not just the game, though I had to admit I enjoyed that part even more than I had expected to.

  No. The game hadn’t actually been my goal. I had spent all day wandering around Station 21, ostensibly to gather up supplies for the impromptu paint gun game.

  Really, what I had been doing was figuring out how to get away. And also determining whether there were any sneaky methods of getting weapons. Not to use on anyone here—at least, I didn’t plan to. But if I could get some kind of weapon off the station and down to Earth with me, I might be able to use them to protect myself and Josiah, if I ever needed to.

  I had gotten the information I needed, too.

  It had been easy to pretend to be turned around, lost in the station. And I had watched everyone as they had gone about their day, using their wristcoms in place of typical Earth ID badges.

  So that was it. All I had to do was steal an official wristcom and use it to make my way off the station.

  A bitter laugh echoed in my head. Like that’s going to be easy.

  But at least it was a plan.

  Eldron was waiting for me outside Medical, where he took my hand to lead me inside, where Cav and Natalie stood with another Khanavai male with skin the same hot pink shade as Thorvid’s nose-braid. They all gathered around a medbay gurney holding a human woman.

  It took me a second, and I did a double-take when I realized the Khanavai male was Zont. That meant…I glanced over at the woman on the gurney. Yep, that was Amelia Rivers, the runaway bride.

  My stomach sank at the reminder of how difficult it was to get away from the Khanavai.

  Cav was already speaking, introducing us to them. “Zont, Amelia, I’d like you to meet Commander Eldron Gendovi and his bride, Mia.”

  I stiffened at the description and Eldron glanced down at me briefly. “Only a prospective bride thus far,” he said mildly.

  “Nice to meet you, Sir,” Zont said, doing that chest-thumping salute thing of theirs, but ending with a flourishing bow.

  Eldron gave an abbreviated version and did not return the bow. I wondered if that had something to do with their rank.

  “The commander specifically asked to meet with you and Amelia,” Cav said. “Especially since he and Mia are about to have to go through a round of Bride Games themselves.”

  I turned a startled glance toward Eldron. I didn’t know he had asked to meet them.

  Then again, I hadn’t even known they were on the station.

  Can I really get away from these guys?

  “You think they’ll make us go through the Bride Games?” Zont was asking.

  “Probably.” Eldron nodded. “I wasn’t able to get us out of it. No matter how many favors I tried to pull in.”

  Something else I hadn’t known.

  If I had even the slightest plan to end up marrying Eldron, I would be insisting on having him practice some better communication skills.

  Lucky for me, I had absolutely zero intention of sticking around.

  Zont looked fairly panicked and grabbed Cav’s arm as if to say something, but Vos Klavoii’s human assistant, Anthony, bustled into the room.

  “Oh, good. You’re all here. Please follow me to Mr. Klavoii’s office.”

  “Not us,” Eldron whispered to me as Zont helped Amelia off the gurney and the other two couples followed Anthony.

  “What was she in here for?” I asked once they were gone.

  “Amelia? Implant replacement. She and Zont spent the last week on Earth unable to even talk to each other.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip. That meant that Medical had replacement chips in stock? I wondered if I could snag one of those before I left, too.

  “What are you so thoughtful about, my vanata?” Eldron’s question snapped me out of my plotting.

  “Nothing. Just wondering why Vos would have us come down here then immediately drag everyone else away.”

  He shrugged. “Almost certainly some scheme that will bring him more viewers.”

  With a snort, I agreed.

  “As long as we’re here, though,” the commander continued, “why don’t we go get something to eat?”

  No. I couldn’t spend any more time with him—not if I wanted to keep my sanity when it came time to tear myself away from him. “I’m so sorry. I’m more tired than hungry. I think I’m going to go back to my rooms now.”

  His expression fell, and I had to force myself not to change my mind.

  Josiah is waiting for you. You can’t get attached.

  But it seemed like Eldron was determined to do everything he could to convince me that we belonged together. When we reached my door, he gently drew me into his arms, his mouth slanting over mine in a kiss.

  I knew better than this. I shouldn’t let his kisses distract me from what I knew I needed to do.

  I needed to go back home.

  For the first time since I had left Frank, I was torn.

  If Eldron was really who he seemed to be—protective, calm, kind—then maybe I could fall in love again.

  But what if he wasn’t? What if, like Frank, it was all a ruse? An act to convince me, a way to lull me into complacency until I agreed to be with him. And then, once I was really and truly under his control, he would lash out.

  I shuddered and pulled away from Eldron’s kiss.

  “What’s the matter, my vanata?” He asked, cupping my cheek in his giant red palm.

  I shook my head. “Nothing,” I murmured, unwilling to voice my fears—if I told him my worries, he might get angry.

  That’s Frank, I reminded myself. Just because he would have resented your worries doesn’t mean that Eldron will, too.

  “You can tell me anything,” Eldron tried to reassure me.

  Was that true?

  I opened my mouth, inhaling as I
prepared to test my theory that Eldron was very different from Frank.

  What’s the worst that could happen? If he rejected me, I would go back to Earth.

  And if he didn’t?

  Maybe Josiah and I could have a new life. A different one. A life with a protector instead of an abuser.

  Just say the words, Mia.

  But as soon as I had convinced myself that it was safe to speak, an enormous shudder wracked the entire station, giant cracking noises coming from all around us.

  “What is that?” I gasped.

  “It’s the Alveron Horde. They’re attacking.” Eldron spoke into his wristcom urgently. “This is Commander Gendovi. Situation report.”

  An unfamiliar voice echoed from his com. “Two Alveron Hordeships have appeared inside our seventh sector and opened fire on the station.”

  Eldron cursed fluently, something that sounded like “Gravitiniax Goat Suckers” before turning his com back on. “Scramble the J-32 fighters, just as we discussed. Pattern Phlantox 327. I’m on my way.”

  He headed toward the door, then stopped as it slid open. “Stay here and wait for me.”

  I started to object, but he was gone, racing out the door and heading off to fight the battle he had been preparing for.

  I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I have to help.

  But what can I do?

  I could imagine Natalie barking orders to help get people moving, and Amelia was a doctor. I, on the other hand, had hardly any skills at all. And most of those were in the kitchen.

  I doubt anyone is going to want to eat while we are under attack.

  But I had also spent plenty of time cleaning kitchens, I thought as the station rattled and I heard objects falling in the hallways. There would be work for me once this was over.

  I also knew how to take orders—years of kitchen training had taught me that.

  If people are hurt, Amelia can tell me what to do.

  And maybe I’ll have a chance to snag a couple of extra tracker chips while I’m there.

  Without another thought, I headed toward the medbay.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Eldron

  I raced to the lift and made my way up to the battle bridge of the station, a room most humans didn’t even know existed on Station 21. For all that we were allies, the Khanavai still very much saw ourselves as senior partners, unwilling to share all our technology.

  By the time I got there, the view screens were showing the F7 quadrant—exactly the section sky I’d been having Captain Drais and his men scan.

  “What happened?” I demanded.

  “Two Alveron Hordeships just appeared out of nowhere,” Drais replied. “We’ve been scanning for days, and our instruments didn’t show anything.”

  “I knew it,” I muttered.

  The Alveron Horde had been quiet for years—occasionally popping up in the far corners of our territories, but rarely attacking.

  The Lorishi home planet had been the one exception to that in ages. Command Central had assumed that the Lorishi had been caught off-guard because no one had been scanning for Horde incursions. I was convinced that wasn’t what happened at all.

  “They have some new kind of cloaking technology,” I repeated aloud.

  Just as I have been saying for months.

  “Our fighters are leaving the base now,” Wex’s replacement, whose name I couldn’t remember, announced.

  I stepped closer to the viewscreens, as if my physical presence could help the fighters as they darted around the two visible Hordeships.

  Part of me wished for an Earther vid-style space battle, full of explosions and zapping sounds as the fighters fired on the Hordeships. But that’s not how space battles really happened. They were silent and slow, and I only knew for sure that the first Hordeship had been disabled when our instruments told us there was no more energy running through it.

  It was just a giant hull floating in space.

  The second ship withdrew almost instantly, disappearing as it engaged its hyperdrive. I heaved a sigh of relief. “What do our casualties look like?”

  “Minimal structural damage, Commander,” Drais reported. “Casualties coming in from several decks, but overall, I think we did pretty well.”

  “Agreed.” I ran my hand across my forehead. Could I have caught this if I hadn’t been so engrossed in getting to know Mia?

  Maybe it was a bad idea for me to continue this farce of a mating game. But even the thought of letting her go made my heart constrict in my chest.

  No. I needed her. Now that I had found my mate, there was no way I could let her go.

  Nothing would ever convince me to walk away from her.

  For now, though, I needed to focus on how this attack had happened.

  “Someone get me a suit,” I said. “I’m headed over to the Hordeship to see if I can figure out how they got past all our scans.”

  “Are you sure?” Drais turned a startled gaze toward me. “We have technicians who can do that for you.”

  I didn’t know how to explain to him that everything about this had come to me by instinct. I hadn’t been able to explain to General Clovad how I knew that the Alveron were planning something. And now, I couldn’t explain why I knew that I had to be there in person to figure out their new technology.

  I simply shook my head. “This is something I have to do myself.”

  “Yes sir.” The officer thumped a salute on his chest, and I acknowledged it with a nod.

  Down in the fighter bay, I fastened the closures on my suit. Technically, the Alveron Horde needed the same oxygen-nitrogen mix we did. But if their ship had gone dead, there was no guarantee I could survive without a suit. Not to mention the possibility that the Horde had left behind something designed to hurt any Khanavai who showed up later.

  “Are you certain you don’t want to take an entire team over, sir?” the technician who strapped me into the fighter jet asked.

  “Not yet. After I do an initial survey, I’ll open it up for your team. You’ll get your chance, don’t worry.”

  The tech grinned at me, then closed the canopy. It had been a while since I’d been in one of the jets but flying was always like coming home.

  As I made my way to the Hordeship, the silence of space stretched out around me, echoing with the nothingness in between the far-flung stars.

  This is what it would feel like to be entirely alone forever.

  But with Mia in my life, that would never happen.

  Shaking off the thought, I maneuvered through the oddly shaped entrance to the Hordeship’s flight bay, docking my ship and engaging the magnetic locks.

  The Horde, unlike humans and Khanavai, functioned with a base-eight system, and that extended itself out to the whole ship.

  Octagons everywhere.

  Humans had called it a honeycomb the first time they had seen it, and the name stuck with me. Apparently, it had something to do with a food-producing bug on Earth.

  Human eating practices were strange.

  For an instant, I wondered if Mia liked honey, or if the thought of bug goop made her stomach turn the way it did mine.

  I shook off the thought, forcing myself to focus on the job at hand.

  The ship itself seemed dead. As I walked across the bay, the magnetic soles of my boots clicked in odd echoing noises around me.

  I wondered if the Horde believed in ghosts.

  If they did, the ship would be full of them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mia

  I ran into trouble halfway to Medical. The attack on the station had sent everything in the central area flying—people, tables, plates, chairs. Humans and Khanavai were staggering to their feet, some of them with wounds, others simply looking dazed and confused.

  I paused to help a human male to his feet. He cried out when I touched his shoulder.

  “You’re hurt,” I said. “Come on—I’m headed toward the medbay. Let’s see if we can get you some help.”

  Insi
de Medical, it was pure chaos. Med techs called out to one another as they tried to triage a steady stream of patients.

  I glanced around, looking for Amelia, hoping to find a friendly face—or even a familiar one.

  A Khanavai male stopped in front of me, scanning me with a handheld device. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing—I’m fine. This man has a hurt shoulder, broken or dislocated or something.”

  “If you’re not hurt, you need to go back to your quarters,” the tech said brusquely.

  “What can I do to help?” I asked.

  He gave me a narrow-eyed stare. “Do you know how to read a med scan?”

  “Just the basics—first-aid kind of stuff.” I shrugged. The kinds of things I had learned as a parent, though I didn’t say that part out loud.

  “That’ll work.” He handed me the device he was carrying. “Do a general scan of each patient—you know how to do that?”

  I nodded.

  “The scan should tell you if someone needs immediate help or if they can wait. If they can wait, send them to the seating area over there.” He pointed off to our left. “Emergencies, send to intake. I’ll send a tech trainee to get those people in for help as soon as possible.”

  “And what about the guy I came in with?”

  “Mid-level cases. He won’t die in the next fifteen minutes—or even an hour or two—so he can wait. As soon as we have room for anyone else, we’ll get to those cases.”

  Okay. I could do this. It was straightforward enough—the kind of decisions I made every time Josiah fell down and skinned his knee.

  Another shudder went through the station, the walls around us creaking. The tech reached out a hand to steady me. “Thank you,” he said. “We appreciate the help.”

  And then he was gone, and I was left with the stream of frightened, hurting people as they made their way to the medbay.

  When Cav and Zont came racing into Medical carrying an injured Vos, with Amelia barking out orders and Natalie making sure they were followed, I knew that was my moment.