“According to my scanners, we are approaching the main garage now. Within moments, they will disable my interface and replace it with their own. They will run scans and, if you are discovered, will send a force to take you out.”
“Do I have time to escape before that happens?”
“Negative. But if you climb back in the pod, I will eject you at the most opportune moment for them not to notice you.”
Get back in the pod…
It yawned wide like an open casket.
But I had trusted the ship this far, I might as well trust it a little longer.
With the short timeframe, it wasn’t like I had much choice.
“The engineers are accessing my systems now,” Computer said. “I suggest you hurry.”
I ground my teeth and hopped inside the pod.
The instant I was inside, the force shield snapped into place and locked me in.
The pod shifted to one side and a hatch door opened in the wall.
“Thanks for your help, Computer,” I said.
“I exist to serve, Captain.”
The lights flickered and the pod suddenly shot forward, zipping through the hole.
In an instant, my stomach lurched like I was crashing into an alien planet again.
I braced the walls of my miniature prison with my arms and legs as the pod struck something hard, rolled end over end, and only came to a stop when it slammed into a wall.
The pod’s lights flickered and went off.
I placed a hand on the pod and thanked the ship once more.
I looked up to see the dented and damaged M’rora ship enter the large factory and disappear from view.
I climbed from the pod and was relieved when no one came to investigate what’d happened.
I took off down the street and merged with the crowd.
They were all heading to the Shadow Citadel.
Isabella
I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever been this numb.
Even when my best friend disappeared I never felt this low.
I grew up with her and knew I would never forget her, but it wasn’t the same as losing my soulmate.
The heavy boots thudded in the hallway outside as they unlocked the neighboring cells and dragged the occupants out.
The prisoners screamed and struggled but they could not escape.
Strangely, their cries did not affect me.
I was dead to the world and there was no reaching me now.
I didn’t feel sorry for myself.
I only felt…
Numb.
It was the only way I could describe how I felt at that moment.
Numb to the world, numb to the pain.
Numb to my core.
I knew the guards would soon come for me.
There wouldn’t be anything I could do to stop them dragging me kicking and screaming from this cell and out to wherever they took me next.
So, I wouldn’t fight.
I wouldn’t put up any resistance.
I was beyond caring.
They might fuck me, one after the other, but they would be fucking a corpse.
I was already dead on the inside, so what did it matter?
There’s only so much loss you can suffer in life before nothing remains.
I had opened myself up to love and was willing to take the risk it might actually work this time.
And once again, my hopes had been dashed against the rocks and I was running on empty.
It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
Ha.
What a joke.
Whatever asshole had said that had no idea what he was talking about.
I regretted ever meeting Clint, or Ras, or whatever his real name was.
I regretted falling head over heels in love with him.
I regretted being in a relationship with him and wished I’d never seen his ship crashland in Phoenix Lake.
I regretted…
I regretted…
The tears streamed down my cheeks.
Just when I thought all the hope had been taken from me, here was a fresh batch, served cold.
The truth was, as much as I was hurting, I didn’t regret meeting him.
And I didn’t regret falling in love with him.
I only regretted losing him.
I regretted all the moments we would miss together, those we were supposed to share.
I would never see them.
“I miss you so much,” I muttered so softly it barely even registered as a whisper.
He was gone and I was going to have to get used to that fact.
I was alone, just as I was meant to be.
I sniffed as I wiped a hand over my face.
He was gone and I was all that was left of our time together.
I braced myself on the wall and struggled up onto my feet.
It wasn’t only my heart that felt numb.
So did my legs!
They were alive with pins and needles.
If I was going to survive, I was going to need to be a whole lot tougher than this.
Ras wouldn’t want me to be like this, a broken mess on the floor.
He would want me ready and raring to go, fighting every moment.
I couldn’t bring myself to hope I might get out of there, but I could at least act like this wasn’t the end of the world.
And how exactly wasn’t it the end of the world when it came to being fucked mercilessly by an army of cocks?
I ignored the question.
The door at the end of the hall clanged—the guards were always a little overzealous when they threw it open.
They marched down the hall in my direction.
Their keys jangled as they approached.
For the first time since I came to this place, I paid attention to the noises around me, to the heavy thumping footsteps of their boots and the shuffling of feet in the adjacent cells and the soft whimpers of the damned.
The boots stopped right outside the cell.
My cell.
I turned to face them, hands by my side and feeling every bit like a gunslinger.
The door opened and a huge figure stood silhouetted by the harsh overhead lights.
He was big.
Too big.
No way I was going to fight him off or sweep around him and bolt my way to freedom.
I hung my head and adopted the temperament of someone whose spirit was beaten which, until a moment ago, was true.
I stared at an indiscriminate section of the flagstone floor and waited as the figure approached.
I clenched my right fist,
