I didn’t know if I stayed there for one minute or ten, but eventually I noticed the same cold metal pressed to my thighs, my hip, my nipples. I was naked.
Why the hell was I naked?
Shocked into movement, I opened my eyes and tried to push up off the floor. Everything dipped and spun, and I collapsed onto my side, panting, swallowing the gag reflex swelling in my throat. I didn’t have any idea when I’d eaten last. I didn’t know what day it was. The last thing I remembered was that blue water, Warden Egara’s voice, then falling asleep.
Now…this.
“My lady?” A deep, resonant voice vibrated inside my skull like my head was a gong.
“Are you talking to me?” I whispered my question, concentrating on the cold pressed to my cheek.
“Indeed.” Moments later, something large and soft was draped over me like a blanket. Maybe it was a blanket. I didn’t open my eyes to look. If I looked, I’d have to acknowledge whoever this was had just seen me naked. Groggy. Gagging. My hair probably looked like greasy straw, and I doubted I had my usual carefully applied makeup in order. My armor. I felt like a weakling. Scared. Sick. Whining like a baby.
Pathetic.
Oh, shit. What if the guy who’d covered me up was my mate? My Cormac? And I was making a fool of myself? Great way to start.
I opened my eyes, a soft groan escaping me as the light pierced them like toothpicks shoved deep. I squinted against the pain and looked at the alien—totally freakingalien—who was kneeling within arm's reach. Skin the color of burnished gold, angular features, eyes like yellow diamonds. He did not have short, dark hair. No haunted, intense eyes. No fangs.
Nope. This guy was a Prillon. Big and handsome? Yes. But not mine. Not. Mine.
I wanted my man, my mate, the one guaranteed to care about me and put me first. I’d never had that from a boyfriend, never even from a best friend, until Elena and Dominique had shown me what real friendship could be. I’d never had it from my father. My mom? She’d been amazing, but she was dead. Gone. For years. I was tired of being alone and ignored by the people I loved and loved by people who had no idea who I truly was. I had millions of followers on social media back home. Some of them said they loved me. But they had no idea what they were talking about. They loved a mirage. A fantasy. The person I pretended to be in order to make them happy.
My entire life was lies and games and illusion. I was tired of pretending. Cormac was going to be the first real lover I’d had in my life. This Prillon didn’t matter to me. Only Cormac.
“I have summoned the doctor. You transported a vast distance, and you are very small.”
Oh no, he didnotjust use my size as a reason for weakness. A boy in school once laughed at me when I was so furious I wanted to rip his head off his shoulders and dance in the shower of his blood. He’d grinned, said I was three hundred pounds of sass in a hundred-pound body and informed me I was cute when I was mad.
Cute.
Fuck cute. Fuck this rolling nausea. Fuck this headache. I was tired of being cute. I shoved up into a sitting position and fought tooth and nail to remain upright. I succeeded. “Where is Cormac?”
The Prillon studied me for long seconds before smiling. “You’re from Earth, aren’t you? A human female?”
“Yes. What difference does that make?”
His smile turned into a chuckle as another Prillon, this one with skin the color of copper and eyes like dark coffee, knelt next to him and extended his arm to hold a glowing green wand over me. “I am Doctor Benten. Human females have developed a reputation in the Fleet.” This new male, the doctor, wore a dark green uniform and was smiling as well.
“What kind of reputation?” Sitting fully, I wrapped the blanket around me like a tent and put my legs into a crisscross to help steady me as the doctor paused with the green wand near my temple. The nausea and headache improved noticeably in the span of a few seconds. I couldn’t stop the sigh of relief when the pain faded completely and my stomach settled.
“Better?” the doctor asked.
“Yes. Thank you.” Wow. I really needed to get one of those green wand things. Maybe Cormac would have one. Surely he would if these Prillons did.
The doctor remained kneeling, keeping himself low enough that I didn’t have to crane my neck to speak to him. Trouble was, I didn’t want to talk to him. I wanted my mate. I wanted clothes. I wanted to feel safe and protected and like I belonged somewhere.
“Where is Cormac? He’s from Styx legion. Do you know where he is?”
The Prillon doctor’s dark eyes narrowed. “How do you know him?”
Oh no. Warden Egara said I had to lie. Scratch that. She’d told me Cormac would be here waiting for me and we would pretend to know each other. No one was supposed to know I was an Interstellar Bride, or the whole spy thing Styx legion was doing for the Intelligence Core would be exposed, and I would put my new mate in danger. So where was he?
“I—”
Before I could finish making up a plausible story, a sliding door opened, and the biggest, scariest bastard I’d ever seen stomped into the room like he was going to kill everyone inside. He was huge, his shoulders at least twice as wide as mine. Legs like tree trunks. He was covered head to toe in some kind of armor in shades of gray and black, and a silver band wrapped around his upper arm on one side. Worse, he was covered in gadgets and weapons I had never seen before. I recognized a large, serrated blade as a dagger, and he had a shiny silver space pistol as well as a huge rifle strapped across his back.
“No weapons in transport. I don’t care what legion you’re from. You know the rules.” The golden Prillon stood between the giant and me, blocking my view. I leaned to the side, peeking around his legs to study the markings the intruder had painted onto his face and neck in a pattern that looked like something I’d once seen in a documentary about Navy SEALs who camouflaged their skin when they were on a mission. Was this terrifying alien on some kind of military operation? And why was my entire body suddenly on high alert, code red, heart pounding, mouth gone dry?