Chapter Twenty
Juliet
In the past 24 hours, I’ve had sex with an alien, learned I’m going to be baby mama to an alien, been kidnapped by aliens…and oh yeah just maybe might be turning into…you guessed it, an alien.
I was not into sci-fi when I was a kid.
I never even liked watching the Avenger’s movies. Of all the people for this to happen to, it just really should not be me. Like Ana. She was trying to hide it, but I could tell she was excited when I showed her my new skin and told her about Shak.
Why couldn’t it have been her he picked that day in the coffee shop?
Okay, so the second after I think it, I feel a stab of jealousy.
But seriously. This shit is scary. Like the alien guy who grabbed me and then flew away with me in his arms. What the fuck!?
Then he tied me up and threw me in the back of this space shuttle thing. And then we flew into space and landed In. A. Spaceship.
Where they promptly did some weird laser scan thing of my entire body and then tossed me into a cage.
I’m in a big room with four examination tables. If I were an optimist, I would say it’s their version of a hospital, but I’m afraid it’s more something out of a horror movie. Like a lab where they’re planning to do experiments on me.
If I get that lucky.
Because one effect of the laser scan? Suddenly all their constant hissing noises started making sense. Like a language I could understand.
And all of the six dragon men circled in the corner are talking about me.
“We should kill it now before it takes root any further. It is an abomination.” This from the purple dragon guy who’d kidnapped me.
Awesome. Glad they gave me the language zap just in time for me to hear that. I scoot back to the furthest corner of the cage. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Another dragon guy—or girl, I can’t really tell the difference at this point—shoots back, “Your father the King believes this is the only way. And the offspring has taken root. You saw the scan. Its heart beats. It grows strong and quickly, like any other Draci babe.”
The purple guy spits on the floor in disgust. “Better our race die off with dignity then become this mutant abomination.”
He’s fond of that word, isn’t he now? I glare at the floor of my cage, my hand going to my stomach.
In all the craziness of this morning and my preoccupation with the changes my body is undergoing, I haven’t really stopped to think. But holy shit. I’m pregnant. With a baby who has a little heartbeat.
How could it happen that fast? It takes weeks for— But the dragon guy did say it was growing quickly, and it sounded like that was normal for their kind.
Will it be a boy or girl?
What the hell will it look like? Half human and half alien? Or more on the human side since Shak has some human DNA, too?
Dear God, does it matter what they look like? He or she will be a little person, vulnerable and in need of protection.
I feel my bottom lip wobble.
I was never going to have kids. Never ever.
I see Mariah’s face in my mind and her terrified eyes in that moment right before the end. Me knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it. To save her.
My eyes flash up at the purple dragon man in fury but he doesn’t notice. Of course he doesn’t. I’m so far beneath him he probably considers me little more than a bug to be squashed.
But he’s apparently done arguing for my immediate death. He leaves and the others file out after him, leaving only one dragon guy behind. He never looks my way. I assume he’s some sort of technician because he is glued to his chair by a control console, his hands rapidly moving over glowing screens. The screen is angled away from me so I can’t see what’s on it.
I shiver and rub my arms. Because oh yeah, they ripped off all my clothes before the scan and it’s freezing in here.
For about an hour, nothing happens.
When the door to the room opens again, I tense, preparing for the purple dragon guy. Did he get his way? Is he going to kill me?
But then my mouth drops open.
Because it’s Shak who walks through the door.
I sit up straighter and make sure I’m covered as much as possible.
It’s dumb to want to have some dignity in his eyes when he’s the one who got me in this situation in the first place.
But when he sees me, his eyes go from worried to pissed in about three point two milliseconds.
And then he starts to roar. “Release my mate! She is carrying the grandson of the King and you cage her like an animal?”