Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
I can’t reconcile the Zain who held me so tenderly with the Zain who thinks everybody in the village should be split up, never to see one another again, and sold to the highest bidder on his planet. It seemed like he genuinely cared about us — not just me.
It feels as though I am quite literally never going to get over this. I already didn’t much like or trust men, and now the one I chose to give not just my body, but my heart to, has turned out to be every bit the monster the villagers warned me he was. I have made a fool of myself and I have shamed myself and…
“The commander wants to see you, Emily.”
I am being summoned to the bridge to meet the man who saved us all. Of course, this is the second time I have met a male who saved us all, so I am slightly less impressed this time around.
Commander Rex is in his fifties, massive, muscular, with an aggressive, largely gray buzz cut. He makes me nervous, staring through me with a piercing blue gaze. This is a man who has done much and seen even more. Nobody has to tell me it is best not to lie to him. I feel as though his gaze is already perusing the very back of my mind.
“They’re telling me you knew the alien the best,” he says. It’s a very tactically nice way of calling me an alien fucker. Yes, I’ve heard the term being thrown around here and there when people think I’m out of earshot. It’s disrespectful, but given the way things are panning out…
“I don’t know if I knew him at all. I never knew he wanted to sell us. I thought he had come to stop us being captured and sold by Wrathelder.”
“Who are they?”
“I think it’s basically two powerful families on the alien planet they come from. Wrathelder and Voros. They compete with one another, sometimes lethally. Wrathelder wants to get a lot of humans all at once, but Voros wants just a few at a time. Same thing in the end, though.”
He grunts and nods. “So they are holding captive humans on their planet?”
“Yes. I met one of them on the ship. She seemed happy enough, but I don’t know if she ever really had a choice. I think once they take you to their planet, that’s it.”
“Some people will always choose captivity,” he grunts. “Doesn’t mean we won’t bring them freedom. This vessel’s got some fancy bells and whistles, but it’s nothing the boys and girls at the lab won’t be able to break down. I reckon within six months we’ll have a fleet ready to go.”
“You’re going to go save all the people they’ve taken?”
“Maybe we’ll save them. Maybe we’ll make that world our own,” he says. “Hard to say at this point. They’re big, mean bastards, but they don’t fight well.”
“Some of them do. Zain does. I saw him kill several of them, one after the other. They were armed and wearing armor and he was naked.”
“Zain is the alien who took you as his mate.”
“Yes. He called me his pet.” I feel a blush rising to my cheeks as I explain that part of things. “He was very kind, and he helped us a lot. I didn’t realize until we left the planet that he and his brothers sold people. As soon as I found out, I started planning our escape.”
“You used the bridge to contact us, and we initiated a transport,” he says. “You did very well, young lady. You should be proud of yourself. If you had not acted as you did, there is no doubt in my mind you and everybody you know would have been sold on the alien planet.”
I try to look pleased.
“We may yet call on you,” he says. “If the alien has formed a bond or attachment with you, we could use that. Be prepared for that eventuality.”
“Oh,” I say. “Oh. Okay.”
What I really want to do is scream hell fucking no. I don’t even curse, usually, but this situation is more than enough to make me want to start. What is it with absolutely every single male I meet trying to use me for something?
My grandmother tried to warn me. She told me that my reason for being was stronger than any attachment to any man could ever be. I thought I understood her then, but now it seems I am only beginning to understand what she meant.
New feelings are starting to rise in me. I haven’t had them before and they are strange, but powerful. I want to resist control. Not just the control of the aliens, but the control of the commander as well. Now I think about it, I want to resist all kinds of control, including the pressure of the other villagers.