“You shouldn’t challenge them,” the guard said. “They’re all bred to fight, and the idea of defeating a female only makes them harder.”
“I’m a fighter too,” she hissed.
He looked at her, his gaze lingering on her bruises, and she could have sworn a brief flash of sympathy crossed his face. “How’s that working out for you?”
Not waiting for a reply, he continued to lead her up the corridor, and she tried not to reveal how much his words stung. Fighting hadn’t helped her at all so far—it had only resulted in more abuse—but what alternative did she have? She couldn’t give in to these monsters.
When she had woken up on an alien spaceship, she had been too shocked to immediately recognize just how much her situation had changed. Even though she had never seen anything like the creatures surrounding her, she had convinced herself that it had to be some kind of movie set.
Had someone drugged her? Her clothes were missing, and her head ached. A small cage surrounded her, one of a line of cages that curved away in both directions, and she had to fight back a wave of claustrophobia. Getting out of it was first on her list. When she couldn’t find a lock, she tried wrestling with the bars, but the metal felt disturbingly sturdy, and the bars didn’t budge.
“Let me out of here!”
Her voice echoed down the long, curving corridor and caused an uproar from the surrounding cages. A cacophony of growls and shrieks erupted, mingled with a few voices telling her to shut up.
She ignored them all. When no one appeared to answer her call, she grabbed the two metal bowls attached to the front of the cage and began banging them together. The noise escalated again, and this time, there was a response.
A tall blue figure strode up the corridor, jabbing a stick into the cages he passed—a stick that sizzled when it connected and was followed by cries of pain. As he drew closer, her certainty that this was some type of elaborate hoax faltered. Red eyes gleamed from a dark-blue face with a crest of dark hair running back over his scalp. While those could have been explained by makeup, his proportions were subtly wrong—his arms too long and his legs too short. He wore a tattered black uniform with a vaguely military look, but it didn’t hide his obvious strength.
“You will be quiet,” he growled.
She had never responded well to orders. “I will do no such thing. Where the hell are my clothes? Let me out of here right now. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but I’m going home.”
“Home?” He laughed, revealing a mouth full of pointed yellow teeth that looked all too real. “Your system is three days behind us.”
“No! You’re lying to me.” Her mind whirled dizzily. Could it be true? She took another look around, studying the strange variety of lifeforms surrounding her, the dirty floor of the corridor, even the male standing in front of her. She wanted to believe that he was lying, but part of her mind was screaming. He stepped closer to the bars, and the smell of him washed over her—as rank as roadkill lying on the side of the road for a week in the Texas sun, but with a strange metallic undertone like nothing she had ever experienced before. And that was what convinced her. Her stomach churned as she realized that this was real, that she was on an alien ship, that she was a slave on an alien ship. Three days of bile gathered at the back of her throat, and then she vomited, straight into the alien’s face.
He roared, and a moment later the stick came through the bars, jabbing into her stomach and sending her crumpling to the ground as the world went dark.
When she woke, some indefinite time later, she was sprawled on the floor of her cage and nothing had changed. Her stomach throbbed and her head ached as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Her throat was dry, and her mouth tasted like a barroom floor. She looked desperately for the bowls that had been fastened to the front of the cage, but they were on the floor, empty.
How had she ended up on a fucking spaceship? The last thing she remembered was walking back to her apartment after her last shift at the diner. She had taken a shortcut through the park, anxious to get home and complete her law school assignment for the next day. The park had been dark and deserted, as it always was at that hour, but she lived in a quiet little college town, and she had never been worried before. Still, while she had mentally reviewed legal precedents, she kept her hand on the illegal can of Mace that her boss at the diner had given her. That was the last thing she remembered. Or was it? She suddenly remembered hearing a faint noise, too vague to be a footstep, and catching a whiff of something unpleasant. The alien, she decided now.
A whine came from the cage next to her, and she glanced over to find a small lizard-like creature looking up at her with enormous golden eyes.
“Hello there,” she said cautiously. “I bet you don’t want to be here any more than I do.”
“Then you shouldn’t have let yourself get captured by the Derians.” The gruff voice came from the cell on the other side of the lizard creature.
A small gnome-like male was staring back at her. Like the lizard, his skin was covered with scales, but he had a thin fringe of white hair. Bulbous green eyes studied her from under bushy white brows.
“I can understand you.” Just as she’d been able to understand the guard, she suddenly realized.
He snorted. “Fucking
