She wailed mournfully, her hands gripping the pod’s sides, fighting to escape. It was a losing battle. She was going to end up inside it unless I did something.
“I’ll take care of her,” I said.
The Changeling soldiers peered over at their commanding officer, who nodded. They released Alice and let me grab her. She flailed and fought worse than a cornered cat.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I said. “It’s me.”
She slowed her attack but still wouldn’t open her eyes.
“You can open your eyes,” I said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Alice did—slowly. She looked up at me and wrapped her arms around me.
“I was so scared,” she said. “I thought they were going to put me back in the pod again.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Rogers was telling his underlings about their mission to act as my crew and help deliver the cargo. I moved Alice to one side so we were out of sight.
“They would have,” I said. “How did you manage to get yourself caught? I thought you were heading home?”
“I needed to make a statement at the police station, to tell them what happened to me.”
I frowned. Tell them about our adventure? I was lucky they hadn’t already shot me.
“Not the truth,” Alice said. “Something I thought they would believe.”
“They’re Changelings—”
“I didn’t know that!” she hissed. “The whole town is fake!”
“They set it up to attract human females. They arrange for them to be abducted.”
“It’s a honeytrap,” Alice said. “I heard Stryder talk about it after your Challenge.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Heat seared through my chest. “I didn’t think you would be stupid enough to go back to them!”
“I told you. I needed to make a statement. My friends’ parents would wonder what happened to their daughters. It would look a bit suspicious if just me came back and there was no explanation, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t think about it,” I admitted.
Alice turned her nose up. “Clearly.”
We looked at each other. I couldn’t keep myself from smiling.
“It’s good to see you again,” I said.
She warmed to me. “It’s good to see you too.”
We drifted closer, our lips coming within inches of each other. My heart ached to be joined with her again. To bond and become one. And this time, I swore to myself, I wouldn’t let her go.
I pulled back and shook my head. “We don’t have time.”
“It’s simple,” Alice said. “Put me in a pod and wake me up as soon as we get away from here.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Changelings are determined to give me a new crew… Them!”
Alice’s mouth flapped open and shut. “I can’t get in the pod. You might never be able to let me out again.”
“No.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
I had no idea. And time was running short. We needed to come up with something.
“Why don’t you fight the Changelings as soon as we take off?” she said.
“They’ll send a message back to their base. Then we have to deal with their fighters. Their warbirds will tear us apart. We’ll never escape.”
Alice checked over her shoulder. She eyed the pods lined up in long rows. “We couldn’t do that anyway. What about everybody else? What about all the other women in here? What about the women that will be abducted in the future?”
“They have to fend for themselves,” I said. I ran a finger over her cheek. “They’re not you.”
She slapped my hand away. “They are me! Don’t you see? They are me before you fell in love with me. Before we bonded. Every one of these women is me. And every single one deserves to be free, to find true love the same way I did. But back on Earth.”
Her words shook me to the core. They are all me.
“If we’re not going to help them and everyone else in town, I might as well get in the pod,” Alice said.
The Changeling soldiers stamped their boots and saluted. “Sir!”
We were out of time. And we still didn’t have a plan.
“It’s up to you now,” Alice said, drifting toward the empty pod. “Find a way to save us. All of us.”
She climbed in the pod and laid down. “I love you.”
The lid slid into place. She kissed her fingertips and placed them to the lid. Then she lay back as the pod prepared her for interstellar travel.
“Captain,” Rogers said. “The men are yours. They’ll be keeping a close eye on things for us. We don’t want a repeat of what happened with your old crew, do we?”
I wasn’t listening to him. I heard only her voice echoing in my mind.
They are all me.
Inside each pod was a frozen figure. A life not lived. A bond someone wouldn’t be paired with. I had always thought of alien species as the same as any other merchandise I transported, but they weren’t. They could feel, they could breathe…
They could love.
They could be intelligent, passionate, courageous… and as sexy as hell.
This whole time, I didn’t think of them as living creatures, but things to be owned by richer beings. They were products.
Like me.
But I had been a Titan once. I grew up in a proud village on planet Tordal. They forced me into slavery. They force me to believe I was merchandise, that I was a product that could be bought and sold and never free.
Rogers was looking at me expectantly. “Well, do you?”
“Do I what?” I said.
“Do you wish to lose your contract with the Changelings?” Rogers barked.
A grin spread across my face. “Yes. I think I do.”
Rogers’ expression morphed first into incredulity and then horror as I brought my giant fist up, veins protruding with adrenaline, as I smashed him in the face, sending him sprawling to the feet of his soldiers.
They reacted fast, extending their impulse rods and jabbing me in the side. They stung—badly—but they were not the knockout blows they should have been.
I hammered one Changeling in the face after another. Their weak bodies slammed into the
