Stolen By An Alien Page 24

  The snarly one would be the monster that is Arokh's biggest brother, Zadeon.

  Hoooollly shit.

  But it doesn’t matter.

  Because they brought food. Food we liked. That was a big deal - huge. Because others had tried coaxing us humans to eat and were amused (and/or frustrated) to find out how ‘picky’ we were - even more than normal for a Gryfala.

  Thankfully for me, Arokh found this trait to be “quite precious”.

  Yeah. I was totally getting spoiled with this kind of reception to my ‘quirks’.

  The guys set up a table of foods, and even erected a tent big enough to fit all of us, giving shade from the suns.

  Initially there was some disagreement about placement of said tent, necessitating a heated discussion to be settled by the brothers cracking their horns together. The noise was deafening - and more than a little nerve racking.

  I spilled my drink down my front. “Knock that off!”

  Looking chagrined, they shot us sheepish looks reminiscent of little boys, not giant hulking aliens.

  To make up for it, Arokh hand selected my food.

  Which was fine; this was after all our modus operandi and I certainly didn’t know what would be to my taste. Now, I pointed to the blue sphere in Arokh’s palm. He’d tried offering me one earlier but I hadn’t been feeling very adventurous - until he snacked on them for awhile and made them look especially good. “What are those?”

  The food halfway to his mouth, he stopped, then popped it into my mouth instead. “Mmm,” said thoughtfully as I chewed. Then I noticed many of the alien guys around us were staring.

  I swallowed. “What’s up?”

  “He gave you his food.”

  “You’ve seen him give me food plenty of times,” I said this to Dohrein, who was also giving us a weird look.

  “I have seen him feed you, of course. But not share his portion of food. That is…” Dohrein’s brows scrunched. “Rakhii are normally extremely food aggressive and possessive. His kind are even given a wide berth at public functions and at ins where food is served.”

  “He shares with me.” And yeah, I might have said it a little smugly.

  “I share with my Angie unconditionally,” Arokh agreed, his voice a low rumble at my ear.

  “It’s a sign of extreme affection in his culture,” Dohrein continued, and the scholarly side of him was peeking out. “I’ve read that even mated pairs don’t always share. I know for a fact that, in service, Rakhii guards aren’t expected to share with their Gryfala – though she wouldn’t eat from anyone but her hobs under normal circumstances anyway.”

  I felt another odd little thrill knowing that my alien showed me in all the ways he could how much he cared.

  Later, Arokh informed me that he’d overheard hobs saying that it was good for Gryfala digestion to walk after a full meal, to which I confirmed this was true of humans also - thus we strolled, Arokh keeping me at his hip, with my arm reached as far as it could wrap around his back… which wasn’t far. It was companionable, it was nice, it was quiet, until we stumbled right into a conversation led by Bitchy.

  “So hobs are basically housewives. What, exactly, does a Gryfala do all day?”

  “Anything she wants,” a hob answered slowly.

  “Of course.”

  Cue much eye rolling.

  “Many females concentrate on design-,”

  Bitchy scoffed - some of the other women shushed her… while the rest seemed to agree with her.

  “-Ship design, Weapon design, planning superior fleet upgrades, the study of antiviral treatments to be used in treaties with other planets-“

  “Wait, what?”

  “Seriously?”

  The hob looked around at our stunned faces. Then he whipped out a tablet and rattled off the careers of his hob friends’ dams as further examples.

  “Mind. Blown.” I muttered, rocking back on my heels. “Is it just me, or was everyone else expecting empty-headed, glitter-loving bimbos?”

  “What’s wrong with glitter?”

  Kate leaned around the others so she could meet my eyes as she raised her hand. “Right here; me too.”

  “Instead, we have freaking nuclear physicists, weapons designers, chefs, agriculture gurus, and a dean of the… wait, you said the school. You almost make it sound like it's the only one, period. But there are multiple schools that hobs go to, right?”

  The hob shook his head. “No. Just one.”

  “Only one school for an entire planet? How is that possible?”

  “It is very exclusive.”

  “Yeah, it only takes males.”

  He nodded proudly. “Gryfala can go to any number of schools to learn their desired trade or profession. But only the best hobs are eligible for the study of service.”

  “What do you mean? What happens to the hobs that aren’t eligible? Who decides-“

  “Unh uh - we’ll have to get back to that in a minute. I’m still on the List of Success. Anyone else feeling really, really inadequate right now?” Bitchy looked around, and now I raised my hand.

  Arokh pushed it down with a frown.

  Kate shrugged. “I’m a microbiologist.”

  “Hey, cool! I’m a marine biologist.”

  I stared at them. “Damn. Did anyone else wrap foot longs for a living?”

  Bitchy cocks an eyebrow. “Is that a euphemism?”

  Beth chortles. “Does doing that now count? With multiple guys? Just asking. You know. Because I do,” she said smugly. With reason. Hovering all around her were her, erm, owners-of-fabled-foot-longs and trust me, I had heard the tales. Details. They all, and I mean all. Her stable of them.

  I started snickering.

  “What?”

  “I came up with a term for your hot guys,” I say.

  “Yeah? I call them my hunks.”

  “I was thinking they were studs! So I decided they were a Stable.”

  Her drink sprayed all over Bitchy.

  “I have a question for the human collective,” Dohrein said, and we settled down. A little. “Is it true that wings and claws are not normally present in humans?”

  "True story. We don’t have them at all.”

  “What are your other biological defenses or adaptive traits?”

  “Umm… We don’t really have biological defenses. Not natural ones.”

  The aliens had gone very, very quiet.

  “How do they keep themselves safe?” one whispered.

  “Must be a gentle planet.”

  Thinking of all the stings-by-scorpions, wasps, and snake bites and attacks by wild animals, attacks by domestic animals, not to mention plain attacks by people on people, I answered that one. “Noooot really.”

  Bitchy made a very snotty face. “Try not at all.”

  “She’s not wrong,” Beth added grudgingly. “And women are the same as your females in that we’re not a physical match for men. In most places, women aren’t safe alone, and in some countries women live and congregate with other family or cluster in groups of friends both for company and protection.”

  “Are these groups of friends made up of males?” one of Beth’s men asked darkly.

  “Nah. There’s more women than men on our planet, and the single women tend to get together to commiserate their… lack of a mate.”

  The air crackled. I glanced at Bitchy’s electro-boy, and thought maybe he was giving off some sort of charge.

  Saw all the faces around us. Disbelief, hope, greed.

  “There are females in need of mates?”

  “WHERE is this planet?” Another demanded. He must have been late to the party, because I’m pretty sure he’d otherwise have already jumped on the rescue-Tara’s-kids-mission.

  One word: pandemonium.

  Yeah. They were soooo going to glean from little planet earth.

  By the time everyone calmed down, I was feeling a little drained. A knuckle went under my chin and applied pressure until I was looking into Arokh’s tender
gaze.

  “Tired?” he asked softly.

  I smiled at him. “Mmm-hmm. A little.”

  He took my hand, and led me to a patch of shade where he reclined against a big boulder.

  He patted over his heart(s).

  I rested on top of him, and even started to drift off. But gasps had me jerking back to consciousness.

  “Like a snake! Eww! How would you even know?”

  “Because I saw. They didn’t even wait to take her somewhere else – as soon as they paid for her and the auctioneer hauled her out they dragged her to the ground and – they... - right there!”

  “Shhh! Shut up, look, she’s crying!”

  “Oh, shit - I didn’t think she could hear us, you know? She’s just been laying there, staring off all day, you know? I feel bad-”

  I was struggling up, (hey, a full belly slowed me down a little) with Arokh rising lithe and quick behind me, and we both moved to see where the catatonic girl was curled up. Arokh’s brother had set her down very carefully earlier in the afternoon - making a nest out of some sort of gel cushions that he’d brought from the ship. He hadn’t strayed from her side all day.

  And she hadn’t moved, or spoken, or shown any interest in anything happening around her.

  But now she was sobbing silently. The gossipers were frozen, looking ashamed. Stupid cows! They couldn’t have moved further away to recount the girl’s rape?

  But Arokh’s extremely grim, extremely huge, extremely terrifying brother gave them a killing look, possible evidence that not all Rakhii were ‘incapable’ of harming a female (if that female had caused hurt to his female, that is) and he swooped down, scooping the catatonic girl up - and was surprisingly tender when he gathered her to his chest. He walked to a corner of the tent, speaking softly to his girl until the tears stopped rolling down her cheeks.

  Arokh had an odd look on his face. I thought it was because of his brother, but then he looked up sharply.

  A moment later, the sky darkened.

  I started to look up too, and nearly tripped when Arokh gave a muted alarm call.

  “What is it?” I breathed.

  His arms came around me and suddenly I was up, and he was running with me. He was headed for the ship, and looking over his shoulder, I saw other males grabbing females and running for their own vehicles. Briefly, amidst the panic taking over my mind I contemplated that in the very middle of this chaos would be a good time to snatch a woman who wasn’t being protected closely, but then again, what male would have stepped far enough away from his girl for that to happen?

  Thank God not mine. I wrapped my arms around Arokh’s neck and held on. We’d almost made it to the ramp, Dohrein racing to reach our side, when the ramp sucked backwards and just disappeared.

  “What the…”

  “They are taking off,” Dohrein grated.

  “Those-!”

  Arokh gave me a slow stroke starting at the back of my head, and dragging down my spine. Firm. Almost resigned. “They waited as long as they could. They have a youngling and their own female to protect.” He spun us around. “Did my brothers get away?”

  Dohrein moved so that his back bumped to Arokh’s. They searched for a moment. “I see the large one - the one with the damaged female. She’s… Oh no...”

  “Creator…” Arokh exhaled the word so softly I almost didn’t hear it.

  “What! What is going on?” I tugged on one of his spines to get his attention.

  Behind me, I heard the soft poof, and felt a strange ripple - the sensation one I’d come to learn over the course of the day was the feeling of a ship quietly making its landing.

  Dohrein spun, and both he and Arokh were staring at whatever was behind me. With dread, I craned my neck to look too.

  The ship was unlike any I’d seen yet. No wonder it had darkened the sky; it was a massive monster of a vessel, and I could say that with authority since I’d seen serious shipage today.

  A ramp touched the ground, and many, many booted feet began to bang down it.

  “Arokh…”

  “Shhh,” he soothed, and began petting me again, his voice tight.

  “It doesn’t look like many were able to override the lockdowns,” Dohrein said.

  “What lockdowns?”

  Troubled eyes met mine. “Protocol. They lock all ships for detainment, and it would take excellent skill to break a ship free from it in time.”

  “In time for…” I made a rolling motion with my hand which Dohrein watched with a curious expression before he shook himself.

  “In time to get away.”

  “From who? Who are they?”

  A voice barked loudly at my back, making me jump in Arokh’s arms. He tightened his hold and tried purring for me, but it was obvious he was too stressed to give it his full attention.

  “GENTLY PLACE THE GRYFALA ON THE GROUND. DO NOT ATTEMPT RETALIATION OR WE WILL ACT WITH FORCE.”

  Arokh looked at me then. And his eyes were sad, tortured - and I was beyond scared. “Don’t put me down,” I pleaded.

  “I have to,” he said, voice ragged. “Angie do not fight. They will not hurt you.”

  I hadn’t been worried about me – I should have been, I mean, it wasn’t like I’d met more nice aliens than really, really scary ones, but I was worried for Arokh. And Dohrein.

  I looked around then, but Dohrein was gone! No - my heart calmed a little – there he was, but he’d moved away, was being shaken down, and he was gesturing wildly, shoving away accusing hands and looking even angrier than his normal self.

  And the wall of aliens ignored him.

  And they were coming for us.

  I clung onto Arokh’s arms, and even when my feet touched the ground, I wouldn’t let him go. He was going to have to pry me off, I thought.

  It turned out, I was wrong.

  A hand landed on my shoulder, “Prin-“

  Arokh went insane. He swelled up like a cobra and his tail lashed around to nail the guy that dared to touch me. The next thing I knew, Arokh’s fangs were bared and dripping and our attackers were prying Arokh off of me – a mass of bodies landed on him, pinning him to the ground, tearing him from me.

  I screamed.

  Arokh roared, and threw one male clear off in his effort to gain his feet.

  “Angie, you can’t scream!” Dohrein yelled. “You have to stop. Right now!”

  They shoved a black stick into Arokh’s back. He lit up like Rockefeller Center at Christmas; literally light haloing him for a moment before he collapsed.

  “NO!” I shrieked, and Arokh revived, struggling again. I intended to run to him, to do what exactly I didn’t know; if Arokh was being brought down, then I had absolutely no chance, but arms snatched me. “Let me go! Fucking let me go!” I screamed again, so angry, scared.

  Arokh bellowed in response and finally made it to his feet.

  They nailed him with that stick again.

  A hand clamped over my mouth and Dohrein growled in my ear. “Shut your mouth. Every time he hears you, he will renew his battling. If he can regain calm, we have a chance. If he continues to rage mindlessly, they will kill him right in front of you.”

  I was shaking. I was almost suffocating against Dohrein’s hold on my face, thinking this must be what a panic attack felt like. My lungs were squeezing, I was seeing spots and I wasn’t sure if that was due to a lack of oxygen or if it was that weird thing that happens to your retinas after being flashbulbed. Just how many times did one need to blink in order to clear that after their alien lover was Lite Bright’d right in front of them?

  They managed to drag Arokh to the ship. Dohrein held onto me as we were surrounded. I was faintly aware of other noises, of the others who were dealing with similar attacks around us. But my attention was on Arokh as his horns made furrows in the dirt, as they dragged him by his incredibly sensitive tail, using it to haul all of his weight. That was going to hurt him and I hated them for it.

  “Princess?” a surprisingly def
erential voice finally pulled my gaze away from the door that Arokh had disappeared into.

  Dohrein’s hand dropped from my face. But he didn’t step away from me, and I was really, really glad to have him at my back. Because all around us were large, muscled, males.

  They were hobs. A whole lot of them.

  “Are you injured?” the speaker asked.

  I felt my jaw jut out. “Am I injured?”

  “She’s not,” Dohrein answered for me quickly. “She is concerned for her Rakhii.”

  The hob’s expression turned cold. “His behavior is incredibly concerning.”

  “He was worried for me!”

  “He attacked a hob.”

  “That guy grabbed me-“

  Dohrein pinched me, making me jump. That little weasel just pinched my-

  All hobs turned on him, and if I were Dohrein right now, I’d be worried about getting the Arokh-treatment.

  Dohrein smoothed his hand over my hip, like, ‘Nothing to see here,’ and he said, “Why have you detained our guard?”

  “Again; he attacked a hob. And don’t play stupid, Son of Dohartaigh. That Rakhii is acting like a bonded male.”

  “Hardly,” he countered, and his fingers dug into my skin to warn me to keep my mouth shut. “He was acting like a guard protecting his princess. It’s a shame about the hob but you can’t imagine the stress he endured protecting this female; his quick defenses in the past few days are solely responsible for her standing safely before you. Now. Release him; we have much to discuss with you regarding the auctioned Gryfalas.”

  “Discuss we will.” He glared at Dohrein. “But his reaction was more than mere protectiveness. I don’t appreciate your attempt at misdirection, and you can believe that I’ll be speaking to your dam about this, as well as your part in cloaking all of these ships.”

  I was close enough to see the skin around his eyes tighten. “I would expect no less, Father Nine.”

  Father… nine? This was one of… I looked at the male, taking note of the angry face and wondering if maybe that wasn’t just a this-situation-upsets-me look, but a this-is-my-face look. Dohrein’s Dad? And there were eight others? Dohrein’s mom had nine guys? Nine! Dohrein really didn’t have to keep squeezing me; I couldn’t have spoken if I’d wanted to.