“What are you planning on doing with me?” She pushed everything else aside and focused on why she was here and what he, or they, planned on doing with her.
“I’m Brawn, and currently you’re on the spacecraft I have with my two brothers, Thorque and Lukin.” He was silent for a moment, possibly to let her process that information.
So she was on an alien spaceship with not one demon-looking male but three. She glanced at the tube in her arm, and as if she said the words out loud, Brawn was standing right beside her and disconnecting it from her.
“What are you called?” he asked.
She ran her palms over her thighs and took a steadying breath. “Minka.” She had no last name. No humans did. She knew before the collapse of her species’ home planet, Earth, far before she was even born, humans had thrived.
Minka didn’t even know if the stories she heard were the truth. How specific and exact could they actually be when the ones who told them heard them from others and not experienced it for themselves? Surely, information got mixed-up and changed. It didn’t matter anyway, because that was a time long ago.
Time had passed, war raged between species and galaxies, and humans were all but extinct now. They were nothing more than a weak species that was at the mercy of any and all aliens that wished to take them, use them, or simply kill them off.
“I’ve turned the machine off anyway, since your medic cycle is complete, and over the course of the next few days, your weight will continue to increase.”
Minka looked at his face, felt this fear settle inside her because of his sheer size alone, but then she also felt gratitude that he saved her. He could have easily left her there to die, which—given that she was a human and one of the weakest species in the galaxy—would have been far easier for him in the long run.
She couldn’t contribute to him, his brothers, or his ship, not in any way she could think of.
“Once we have you settled, we can explain everything to you.”
Explain everything to her?
“But you’re safe, so don’t worry about that.”
“Thank you,” she said instantly, knowing she had been so worried about everything else that she hadn’t said the small token of gratitude. “I’m not sure why you saved me, but thank you anyway. I certainly didn’t want to die, and not by a Razzora Beast.”
He didn’t respond right away, but there was this expression that covered his face for a split second. He nodded then, and said, “I certainly couldn’t leave you there, not when I plan on having you as my mate.”
“And ours.” Another male voice came from behind her.
Minka stared at the other two red-skinned men, and her heart stalled. When she looked at the man named Brawn again, she felt the world around her fade away. “A mate?”
Brawn nodded. “Our mate, for the three of us—to be more specific.”
She shook her head, not knowing what that term meant to their kind. She knew to some species it was a term of slavery, of servitude that pushed the “mate” to the breaking point. To other species, it meant nothing more than a vessel to procreate, to bring more bi-species into the galaxy, and then when the “mate” had served its purpose, they were discarded as nothing more than trash.
What exactly did that term mean to this breed of men? She licked her lips, looked among the three of them again, and then compartmentalized the whole mate thing in her brain for the time being. “How long have I been out?” She started to rub at the crook of her arm where the tube had gone in, but the gel Brawn placed on the small puncture wound was accelerating the healing process.
“One sunset and sunrise,” one of the other men said. She didn’t know which one was Thorque and which was Lukin. But she supposed it didn’t matter anyway. “I gave you a substantial amount of nutrients to increase your weight, but you’ll need to supplement that weight gain by eating solid foods.” One of the men stepped forward. “I’m Thorque, by the way.”
She didn’t respond, because frankly she didn’t know what to say to any of this. They all looked similar in appearance, but where Brawn had cropped hair, the one named Thorque had longer hair that brushed the tops of his broad shoulders.
The one who had to be Lukin was still leaning against the entryway in the same manner that Brawn had done when she first awoke. But Lukin’s head was shaved, and only the lightest dusting of black hair lined it. Either way, they all frightened her, and she was at their mercy.
“Well, come on then, because I’m starving,” Lukin said, his gaze trained on her, and the feeling that he could see right through her ratty clothes slammed into her.