Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Concentrating hard—it was surprisingly difficult to push aside the thoughts of my new pet—I finally got my ship on its way. I had a long way to go and much to do before I could return to my own galaxy and my home planet of Korrigon Four, where I was the Overlord of the Northern Continent.
I just hoped that the research I was doing here would save this galaxy from the predatory plans of my rival, the Overlord of the Southern Continent.
FIVE
ELLI
When the gray giant left me alone in his bedroom, locked in the coffin-like “crate,” I felt at first like my heart might burst from fear and claustrophobia. But I knew that getting hysterical wasn’t going to help me get out of this situation—which was definitely the weirdest and scariest fix I had ever been in, in my entire life.
“Breathe,” I told myself out loud in a shaky voice. “Just breathe.”
I had done some meditation classes at my local YMCA—they actually helped me a lot when I was dealing with Aunt Maizy’s bullshit. So I closed my eyes, pushed everything out of my mind, and just concentrated on my breathing for a little bit.
When I opened my eyes, I no longer felt quite so close to having a panic attack, and I was able to assess the situation calmly. Well, as calmly as anyone who’s just been abducted to serve as an alien’s pet can be, anyway.
First things first, I looked at the door to my crate. (By the way, I still couldn’t believe he had crated me like a naughty puppy who had piddled on the carpet!) The sides of the crate were made of some rigid material that wasn’t plastic but also wasn’t glass or metal. Was it some kind of alien material? Possibly but I didn’t have time to worry about that now.
There were some air slits in the sides and back of the crate, but none was big enough for me to crawl out of. A skinnier girl might have managed it, but I was just too curvy. It occurred to me that maybe this was one reason why my captor had chosen me—because I was too big to escape the crate.
But no—the look in those full-black eyes of his when he had said he liked my “lines” had been unmistakable. He had promised not to use me as a “Sex Pet” but I wasn’t going to trust him about that—I had to get out of here before he showed his true colors!
The floor of the crate was padded with a strange, spongy substance that gave under my feet when I stepped on it. I frowned—was this some kind of absorbent lining? A piddle pad, like you’d put down for a puppy who wasn’t housebroken yet?
It was infuriating, but I thought that was probably the truth. I hoped the gray giant didn’t plan to leave me in here until I wet myself—I had no wish to test the absorbency of the alien piddle pad. Which meant I needed to escape, because I already had to go. Being in a stressful situation always makes me have to pee and this was insanely stressful, as I’ve mentioned before.
Since the back, sides, and floors of the crate held no options for escape, I began examining the front of the structure I was in. It had a lattice of metal bars, woven into a crisscross pattern which at least allowed me to see out.
Looking through this lattice, I could see the latch to one side of the door. It was difficult to see in the weird, blue glow, but after a moment, I realized it wasn’t that different from the latch on a pet carrier back on Earth—the kind where you pinch the two halves together, compressing the internal spring to free the metal pins from their holes, and then the gate swings open.
I was kind of an expert on pet carriers after working for Aunt Maizy for so long, so I figured it should be no problem to get this one open. I reached both hands through the bars—the metal squares that made up the lattice were about a foot square, which made this possible—and began fiddling with the latch.
It was, indeed, the kind of latch I was used to but what I hadn’t counted on was how strong I would have to be in order to work it. The springs inside it weren’t light and also, it was built on a much larger scale than the pet carriers I usually worked with, which were made for small dogs. In the end, I had to use both hands to push the two metal bars together and it took every bit of my strength to unlatch the cage and push the metal gate open.
I was panting and sweating by the time the gate finally swung open and my arm muscles felt like limp spaghetti noodles—but at least I was free. Well, free to explore the bedroom, at least.