Where the hell had that thought come from?
The leader, or who I guessed was the leader, walked forward and placed his hand on top of the blonde girl’s head. She didn’t even flinch.
I wondered how long they had had her, how long it had taken to break her. I wondered if they’d taken her against their will. What the hell was I thinking, of course they had. That’s just what they did.
With their stares burning into me, I shivered as I imagined what they would do to me. I’ve heard stories, of how the Vakarrans bred women, whipped them, and trained them to submit without question. I trembled at the thought.
I’d escaped from the aliens before, but for some reason, this group of four seemed different, more intelligent and much less arrogant than the others. They appraised me with a sort of wariness that hinted at some weird manner of respect that was rather unexpected. It left me feeling a bit unsure.
In all my life, I’d only been captured twice. The first time, I wasn’t watching where I was going and didn’t check out an abandoned grocery store close enough to see if anyone was there. At the time, I had enough forethought to have my weapons on me and a pair of Vakarrans had ambushed me. They had me in their grasp for a few hours, but I had been able to hide a knife in my boot, which I used to slice their throats in order to escape. The second time, I had badly sprained my ankle after falling down an embankment and had tried to signal my sisters but ended up exposing myself to the Vakarrans instead. They’d held me for a couple of days, enough to learn my name and to assess my vitals, as well as load my data into their network. I killed them though.
I’d been on their radar ever since. I had never hinted, not even once, at the existence of my sisters of my band of refugee humans, but I never would. I’d never betray them and would take that secret to the death.
My mouth felt dry like cotton as I stared at the Vakarrans standing in front of me. For the first time in a long while, I was really scared. The one at the front met my eyes directly and my body heated, reacting viscerally to his assessment.
“Kira Stryke. It’s an honor to make your acquaintance,” he said, his voice low, gravelly, his tone that of a leader that was used to being obeyed.
I lifted my chin in defiance and glared back at him.
“I can’t say the same for you, assholes,” I retorted, spitting in his direction.
“Ahhhh, just like your file suggests, always the feisty rebel,” he replied, my insult just sliding past him. My spitting aim sucked too, only flying a few inches ahead of me, nowhere near the self-confident aliens watching me. Even as I glared daggers in their direction, nothing I was doing seemed to intimidate them in the slightest.
I gritted my teeth. Instead, I studied the guns on their waist and spotted a dagger on the left side of all their belts. With a slight grin, I began to formulate a plan. I’d figure out some way to steal that soon. They weren’t going to keep me hostage, not if I could help it.
“You have no fucking clue,” I replied.
He smiled in my direction and my insides squirmed with nervousness.
“Oh, I think I do,” he responded, and turned to look down at the woman by his side. “Clair, why don’t you tell Kira here about the law about human females, and what can happen to those that ignore Vakarran decree here on Earth.”
“Yes, Master,” she replied, lifting her head a little. “Human females are required to report to the training camp and aren’t allowed to live on their own. When a rebel is captured, she’s punished in front of the entire population as an example to the others,” Clair said, her voice hardly audible.
I swallowed heavily, my stomach tightening at her words.
The blonde trembled, pressing her thighs together anxiously. It almost seemed like she was uncomfortable sitting there in the jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt she wore, as she scratched and pulled at the fabric on her arms. I narrowed my eyes as she fidgeted, suspicious of her every move.
“You see, Kira, you’ve become somewhat of a symbol in our camp, a sort of mythical creature that has evaded capture for years now. Rumor has it, you even have hidden away a group of humans, but I’ve found no evidence to confirm that yet.”
I was very careful not to react to his words, keeping my features schooled with non-concern. Instead, I let him continue unabated.
“Because you’ve taken it a step further and killed a handful of my kind in your attempts to remain free and not submit when you should have, we’re going to make an example of you. My commander is very unhappy with what you’ve done. He wants to see you whipped and punished for your insolence, but myself and my officers here have a different idea of how to accomplish that,” he warned, and I saw the other three aliens grin darkly behind him.
For some strange reason, I felt my nipples peak underneath my shirt. My chest rose and fell with anger at his confidence and the fact that he assumed it was his right to own me.
“We’re going to let you down carefully, but Jax, Aedan, and Coltan here are going to come and restrain you. Try to fight, and I’ll hurt Clair here,” the leader explained, and I gritted my teeth in anger.
Fucking asshole. Clair didn’t move a muscle or protest in any way. My heart broke for her. She just sat there, on her knees on the ground and just submitted to them.
One of the four men moved to the side and switched a lever. My rope cage fell on the ground and I landed on my ass, hard. All at once, aliens surrounded me and gripped my upper limbs and my legs, their grip tight and strong. Even though I still tried to fight them, they quickly overpowered me. I glanced in the leader’s direction and saw him petting Clair. Even as I fought, he never even indicated even remotely that he’d hurt her.
Even more odd, Clair’s face stayed serene, almost like she was delighted with his attention. I even saw her press into his touch a little, like she enjoyed it or something. It was crazy. I could never enjoy being made to submit like that, no matter what.
Leather cuffs clasped around my ankles and wrists after they twisted my limbs together in front of me. I tried to squirm out of it, but my bonds held tight.
Like a stuck pig, they fucking hogtied me. They attached my cuffs to a long steel pole and carried me, two of them in front of me and two behind me. The leather rubbed against my skin and with each step they took, the jostling shifted me in my restraints. They walked through the forest until it began to thin out and tossed me in the trunk of
an all-terrain vehicle. I glared back at them when they closed the door behind me, but I was silently grateful for the few windows in the back door.