She guessed that was what she was.
It hadn’t taken her long to realize that, as a human, she had no rights in this intergalactic stew of aliens that she now existed within.
It had taken some getting used to, this new life.
And there was no returning home.
Another huff of a sad laugh came through her nose and she sniffled.
“Oh, Raxu.” The alien carrying her lifted its eyes to the roof covering the market. “It’s sniffling. I beg, don’t make it sick. I do not wish to catch its diseases. Who knows the effect it would have on me, and my lovely Cargga would be grossly inconvenienced by it.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “I can understand you, you know.”
The alien’s four eyes settled on her, a look of mild disgust on its face.
“I must get your language upload. Understanding your primitive speak would be beneficial.” He jerked a little with glee. “Oh, I do hope my Cargga likes you. I was lucky to be walking by the creature market to find you.” He looked down at her. “You’re not very pleasing to the gaze but I guess you will do.”
Lauren’s eyes widened. He just called her fat and now he was saying she was ugly.
Her mouth set into a firm line as she crossed her arms.
Let him carry her. He deserved to carry the weight.
Though, she had to admit, for his frail stature, he was doing a good job lifting her all the way.
Lauren turned her attention back to her surroundings.
Being outside the zoo, not separated from the world by a transparent barrier, felt strange.
There was so much…life.
She was just looking at a group of short identical aliens walking together when the alien carrying her stopped suddenly in front of an empty stall.
“Xid!” he called harshly and, a second later, a long, gray neck popped up from underneath the stall. Atop the neck was a head that she could only say was shaped like binoculars.
“You need?” the alien asked, his uninterested eyes on the alien holding her.
“A language upload. The language of this poor, ugly thing.”
Lauren’s eyes turned to slits as she regarded the alien holding her. He wasn’t light on the compliments at all, was he?
“Language code?” the alien inside the stall asked, and she realized only then that his mouth was in his neck.
She tried not to stare but couldn’t help it. He didn’t seem to mind anyway. His uninterested gaze was now on her but he said nothing.
“Ah, the code. I have it. That thieving zookeeper almost wanted me to pay extra for it.” The alien holding her braced her box on his leg as he reached across the counter to punch in a code on a device sitting there.
“Downloading,” the alien behind the counter said. “Done,” he said in the next second, and Lauren’s brows shot up.
Did he download the entire English language so quickly?
Next, the alien holding her leaned forward as another device like the ones doctors used to look into your ear was placed by the side of his head.
He let out a sound of discomfort before his four eyes squeezed shut for a second, then opened.
“Done,” the alien behind the counter said.
The alien holding her looked at her. “Can you understand me now…thing?”
“I could always understand you. And my name is Lauren, not thing.”
The alien’s face lightened a little and he leaned forward.
“I am Geblit.”
“Nice to meet you, Geblit.” She still had her arms crossed as her eyes narrowed a little. “Now, mind telling me what you bought me for?”
He leaned back then, all four eyes darting to the side.
“You are a surprise.”
A surprise?
That’s what she’d thought her name was as a child.
It’s what her dad had called her till he’d packed his bags and left in the dead of the night.
Safe to say, some people didn’t like surprises.
She could only hope that wasn’t the case this time.
3
“Get. That. Thing. Out of here!” The screech was so high-pitched, Lauren covered her ears and ducked a little into her box.
She didn’t need to ask if the female in the room wanted her there. It was quite clear.
After all, she didn’t want to be there, either, but the woman’s husband…male…mate—whatever Geblit wanted to call himself, bought her, so did she really have a choice? No. She had to sit in her box and wait like a good little pet.
It was either the box, roughing it out on an alien landscape, or the mines.
A low mumbling of words reached her ears as said husband tried to reason with his wife. Apparently, he failed to say the right thing because a loud crack was heard as something slammed into the door before it fell to the heap of other thrown things now congregated on the floor. She was glad she wasn’t in the room. That object could have easily been her. Wifey was not pleased AT ALL.
“It. Is. Hideous! How dare you buy such a deformed thing?!”
Lauren’s mouth fell open as her eyes grew wide. Was the woman referring to her…as…as hideous? Deformed? The accusation was so shocking, she found herself looking down at her body just to make sure that, after twenty-four years, she hadn’t been living in denial—failing to see what she really was.
“I thought you would have liked something that doesn’t look as beautiful as you do, my love,” Geblit replied and Lauren’s lip curled in annoyance. “You know you shine for my eyes only.”
“Well…” the wife’s voice became so sultry, Lauren wouldn’t have thought that just a second ago, the female had been throwing a fit. “I am beautiful.”
“Yes, you are, my sweetest dear.”
Ugh.
Plopping down to sit cross-legged in the box, Lauren crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, allowing them to go way back in her head as she mimed the couple’s words silently.
I am beautiful.
You are my love.
Oh, please. Did they hear themselves?
“But I cannot bear to look at the thing, much less have it join our matings. I wanted to add flavor to our beddings…spice! Not remove it by gazing on unattractive
