Chapter 11
ALETTA
When Aletta woke, her first thought was that she really needed to pee. Her second thought was of Gark.
Then reality caught up, and she bit back a curse. She should be worried about Dylan, not the big, grumpy alien captain whom she’d only just met. Even if she felt like she’d known him forever, and he kissed like a god.
Well. He wasn’t here now because A’Kar had kidnapped her and dragged her to… Actually, where exactly was she?
She was lying on her side on the floor, that much she could tell. It was so cold she felt like she was in a walk-in freezer, but after spending almost a week on The Lady, she could attest that space was absolutely freezing. So, in space.
But the low humming that reminded her of a barely functioning air conditioner was unexpected. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking as she tried to see in the dimly lit room.
She was definitely on the floor. And it was definitely some kind of spaceship. Her wrists were tied together in front of her, and she moved her hands, trying to get some feeling back into them, as she surveyed the ship. Yes, definitely a spaceship. But a really shit one, she thought with a snort.
From where she was lying, she could see the entire thing.
It was tiny. If she looked by her feet, she could see the outline of a cargo hold door, like the one on The Lady.
If she tilted her head back and looked to the other end of the ship, she could see two huge seats in front of a bank of controls that flashed with lights.
Above the controls was a viewscreen like that on The Lady.
She could only see bits and pieces, but it looked like a map was currently on the screen.
An arm moved, pointing at the screen, and she realized the seats were occupied.
She couldn’t quite hear what they were saying over the hum of the engine noise.
There was a wire wall, like a cage, separating the space where Aletta was tied up from the front of the ship.
Stacked along the sides of the space were crates and boxes.
It looked like she’d been dumped to one side with the cargo.
She wriggled her fingers, the tingling pain of the blood moving back into the cold digits making her gasp.
But she could move them, and the tape she’d been bound with was loosening.
Just a little more and she’d be able to free her hands.
She might take some skin off as well, but that was a small price to pay for even a little bit of freedom.
She couldn’t reach her feet unless she sat up, so she wriggled around and pushed herself onto all fours. From the new angle, she could see four more seats on the other side of the cage, two on each exterior wall facing each other. They were all full.
So there were six big, black-clad aliens to get past. She swallowed past a lump in her throat. That wasn’t good.
But Aletta wasn’t one to let a little thing like bad odds get in the way of her plans. She thought back, trying to work out who these people—aliens—were that had taken her.
The last thing she remembered was the tears on the woman’s face in the bar, as if she knew what was about to happen to Aletta. She sifted back through her memories. The bar, the human woman—the first human she’d seen since leaving Earth—and the slimy bottom-feeder A’Kar dragging her there.
And the surprise she’d felt as she’d been stabbed in the neck with a needle. She’d been drugged, and if they’d done it once, they could do it again. Her head hurt as if she’d been on a weeks-long bender. Who knew what they’d given her and if it had any long-term effects.
Well, first things first. No matter what else happened, she had to get out of here.
She wriggled to a sitting position and bent forward, using her hands to pull the tape off her ankles, when a pair of boots appeared in front of her—big, black, shit-kicking boots.
Aletta’s hands froze. She was caught. There was no point in denying it.
“Well, look what we have here.” The deep voice put her teeth on edge. A hand reached down to grip her chin in rough fingers, jerking her head to look up.
Aletta winced as a sharp pain speared her neck. She jerked her head away with a scowl.
He was huge, with thick arms corded with muscle and thighs like tree trunks.
His blond hair was pulled back in some kind of topknot, and the sides of his head were shaved, revealing tattoos on his skull that disappeared into the collar of his shirt.
He tilted his head to one side as he looked at her.
He smiled slowly, revealing a missing front tooth.
“Keep fighting. I love it when they fight.”
He bent down and grabbed her by her upper arms, pulling her to her feet. Feet that were still bound together. The shuttle shuddered, and Aletta lost her balance, falling into him.
“Look at this, Jerrick!” He turned and called over his shoulder. “She wants it bad.” He chuckled, wrapping an arm around Aletta and lifting her easily off her feet.
She kicked her legs as much as she could, struggling against his hold. “Let me go!”
Another alien, even bigger than the one who had grabbed her, appeared. This one looked her over and snorted. “Put her down, Xerrick. You know the rules.”
Oh god. Jerrick and Xerrik. She’d been abducted by Alien hicks.
Xerrik’s arm tightened around her. “Fuck the rules! They’re useless by the time they make it to a brothel. No fight left in them.”
Brothel? Oh fuck.
She started fighting harder, catching Xerrik on the side of the knee with her heel.
He grunted and dropped her to the floor, her legs crumpling under her.
She barely managed to get her hands up in time to stop her head from hitting the edge of a crate.
Something crunched loudly in her wrist, and a fiery pain radiated up her arm.
She cradled her hands against her chest, curling into a ball on the floor.
Breathe, Aletta. Breathe.
The pain was excruciating, but she pushed through it and managed to wiggle her fingers, much to her relief.
The two aliens were still discussing her as if she wasn’t there.
“—wants the first go?”
Were they talking about her? Like she was some fucking carnival ride?
Aletta looked frantically around her. She was still on the cargo side of the cage, separated from the main part of the shuttle. She could see all the other aliens, and none of them looked particularly friendly or helpful.
Scarred, tattooed, and bored-looking. Like this was just an average Tuesday. Ferrying cargo and the occasional kidnapped woman about to be sold into prostitution.
Lovely.
She was going to have to figure this out for herself. Unfortunately, even if the crates around her had anything that could help her, she was still tied up, with what she suspected was a broken wrist, and she couldn’t read the writing on the labels anyway.
What was she going to do? Politely ask her kidnappers to wait while she inspects all the crates to see if there’s something there to help her escape?
She snorted, shook her head, then gasped in pain.
Well, fuck.
Aletta was drawn out of her introspection as the first alien—Xerrick—stared at her, Jerrick at his side. Oh, great. It looked like they both thought she was on the menu. She shuffled backward on her butt, trying to get away from them.
“Fuck!” She cursed as her entire arm throbbed. If only she could get her hands free, then she wouldn’t be jerking her busted wrist around with every small movement. Holding her breath against the pain she knew would come, she rolled to her knees.
Then one of the aliens grabbed her by the hair, jerking her back onto her feet. He turned to face the cage. “Looks like I get first go.”
The aliens in the front of the ship barely glanced up except for A’Kar. She looked past him as if he were nothing.
“It’s not very often I get the first go.” He lifted her as if she weighed nothing, tossing her over his shoulder heedless of her injured arm, and headed toward the back of the shuttle, where he dumped her on top of a hard metal crate.
She groaned, rolling to her side. She was going to be black and blue tomorrow.
There will be a tomorrow. No matter what, I’m going to get through this.
Aletta drew in a breath, sitting up to face the giant who was unbuckling his belt.
Blood was rushing so loudly in her ears that it sounded like a washing machine.
This was not happening. She closed her eyes, then snapped them open.
She would not go quietly. She would not make this easy for him.
She eyed his belt that had been draped carelessly over the next crate, along with his shirt. The belt had a knife sheath.
She just needed to get his knife.
And then what?
She would deal with the next step once she had the knife.
She almost laughed with glee when he pulled out the knife and slit the tape holding her feet together. One step closer. She rolled her ankles to get the movement and feeling back and readied herself, propping her feet on the crate.
He absently placed the knife on the crate next to him and reached for her hips. Aletta cringed at the feeling of his hands on her, but she didn’t resist as he moved her closer to the weapon. Just a little further and she’d be able to reach it. She didn’t dare look at the knife directly.
The metal of the crate was cold as he pushed her onto her back and spread her legs.
She couldn’t help but fight to keep her legs closed; it felt so wrong.
She shuddered, but he forced her legs open and then ripped her shirt in two, exposing her breasts clad in a sports bra.
That, too, he tore from her body, and she reached up to cover herself, trying to pull the scraps of fabric back over herself.
“You’re going to regret this.”
He just grinned and reached into his pants to fist his cock. She turned away, her eyes landing on the knife.
It was now or never.
The shuttle shook, the crate she was on shuddered, and the knife skipped a little closer. An alarm wailed, and her would-be rapist looked toward the front of the ship, distracted.
Aletta sat up and lunged for the knife, grabbing it and twisting to plunge it into his abdomen.
He gasped, pulling his hand free of his pants and grabbing at the knife, but Aletta—adrenaline coursing through her body—gripped it with both hands and ripped it free.
Blood flowed out of the wound, and he looked with disbelief from his gut to her, holding the knife and snarling.
“Don’t ever touch a woman without her consent, you fucker!” She screamed at him, all the rage she’d felt since leaving Earth breaking free. “Fuck the lot of you!” She stabbed him again, losing her grip on the knife as pain shot through her arm.
He crumpled to the floor, and she slid into a space next to the crate, blood covering her. She started shaking and wrapped her arms around her body, gathering the shredded top and pulling it around her as best she could.
Aletta wasn’t aware of the loud bang, nor the blaster fire, as black-clad figures dropped into the shuttle from a hatch in the ceiling. And she didn’t hear the frantic shouts of her name as heavy crates were heaved out of the way.
“Aletta?” She looked up, meeting a concerned lilac gaze. “Let me take care of you.”
She blinked, nodding. And then she let reality go as strong, warm arms wrapped her in a blanket and gathered her close.