Mated to the Alien Warrior (Spirit Mates of the Laediriian Exiles Book 1)

Chapter 1

Haley

I toss back the heavy covers with a sigh.

It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting any sleep tonight, either, and the weighted blanket I bought yesterday is still not living up to its hype.

Earlier tonight, I scoured my small kitchen until every surface gleamed. Last night, I did the bathroom, and the night before, I tackled my bedroom, filling up a couple of trash bags with clothes I never wear anymore that I plan to donate.

If only I could rid myself of a broken heart just as easily.

Well, calling it a broken heart is being a little generous. More like, disappointment with an unhealthy dent to my self-esteem and finding myself suddenly single after three years.

Chad might not have been Mr. Right, but he was Mr. Good Enough. Besides, I’m thirty-three, if my soulmate was out there somewhere, I would have already met him by now. Not that I believe in stuff like that. Uh-uh, soulmates and true love are the stuff of fairytales, and I’ve always been a practical person.

So, I’ve decided to be jaded. . . after the week I’ve had, I’ve earned it.

While Chad didn’t make butterflies flutter in my stomach or my heart pound, he made me happy. Well, at least, content. We were together for three years. Three long years. It was the best relationship I have ever had, and now it’s gone. Gone like the crusty mystery stain I scrubbed off the shelf in my refrigerator.

To be fair, I’ve never had the greatest track record with men. My last boyfriend and I were together for nearly a year, and it ended when he stole my credit card. The one before that was okay, but he and I broke up because we agreed we were better as friends. Then, there was my college boyfriend. I broke up with him when he cheated with my best friend. I dumped both of them as soon as I found out.

So, when I met Chad – a stable guy with a steady job and I was attracted to him – I was thrilled. I thought we had a solid relationship and that we were on the same page. I even thought he was going to propose soon.

Turns out, he was going to propose all right. Just not to me.

I really, really shouldn’t have snooped on his Instagram this morning. He and the new girlfriend – ahem, fiancée – are in New York City on an impromptu vacation. Where he proposed.

And they announced they’re expecting a baby. The hateful words Chad yelled at me make total sense, now. It’s only been five days since I walked into his house to find him balls deep in another woman, but that image and the things he said afterwards keep running through my head on repeat. Not to mention the sleazy offer he made me.

After he hustled the other woman out, asking for a few minutes to explain everything to me, he suggested that things didn’t have to end between us. He actually had the gall to say he wanted to keep seeing me. Secretly, that is, without the other woman finding out. In other words, I’d be the sidepiece.

Ugh, men. I swear, all they care about is getting their dicks wet. I really hope his falls off.

I’m not proud of how I reacted. I wish I could say that I was strong and chewed him a new asshole and told him exactly what I thought of his suggestion.

No, instead, I stared at him and then I started giggling. Like a maniac. That’s when he let loose with every vile insult he could think of in an attempt to hurt me.

I heave another sigh as I turn on the television across the room and search for my favorite show. Maybe a distraction will help me relax so I can finally get some shut eye. If nothing else, it’ll at least take my mind off of the carefree photo of the happy couple in Central Park that I wish I hadn’t seen. I really shouldn’t have snooped on his Instagram. Or hers.

“Stupid Chad,” I mutter under my breath before snuggling into a soft pillow and turning my attention to the TV.

It’s one of my top five favorite episodes of The Golden Girls – the one where one of the characters thinks she’s seen a UFO. I’ve watched this episode and all the others at least a hundred times and can quote the lines from memory. As the antics of the characters play out on the screen and the eighties laugh track acts as background noise, my mind begins to drift.

I haven’t been on a real vacation since I was a kid. At least, not one further than a couple of hours away. Maybe I need a change – somewhere exotic and sunny with a beach. Or a cabin on a mountain somewhere. I can start planning the trip tomorrow and use the time to relax and forget all about Chad.

Stupid Chad. A change of scenery is just what I need.

Just as Dorothy is telling Rose that, yes, it was indeed a UFO that they witnessed flying over downtown Miami, I notice a flash of bright lightning streaking through the sky just outside my window. My muscles immediately go rigid with tension. I’ve always been a little fearful of storms and lightning ever since I was a kid. I wait, listening closely, but no thunder follows the streak of light.

I turn over onto my back and study the darkened sky outside my window.

That’s weird.

The forecast didn’t mention any storms. In fact, it’s supposed to be cool and clear for the next week. Maybe the forecast was wrong – let’s face it, they are a lot of times.

In the distance, I hear my neighbor’s dog erupt in a frenzy of barking before he suddenly falls quiet after a loud whimper. I shiver as a strong sense of foreboding goes down my spine and leaves the hairs on the back of my neck and arms standing on end. It’s insane, but I have the strangest urge to run and hide.

Sitting straight up in bed, I grit my teeth in firm resolve. Obviously, the breakup with Chad has triggered the anxiety attacks I thought I had outgrown, and now, I’ve been reduced to jumping at bumps in the night. No way am I going to cower in bed like a mouse. Not Haley Richardson.

I square my shoulders and steel myself to get out of bed and march over to the window to see what’s going on outside. Before I can completely stand up, though, another bright flash of lightning completely illuminates my bedroom.

Bright white spots dance in my vision, and I feel myself falling backwards onto the bed. My muscles are stiff and unmoving. Lying flat on my back, I rapidly blink my eyes to clear away the spots floating in my field of vision like a swarm of white flies.

Why can’t I move? Did the stress of walking in on Chad screwing his sidepiece cause me to have a stroke? My grandma had a massive stroke in her seventies and spent the last few weeks of her life bedridden. Things like that are genetic, right?

My vision finally begins to clear and that’s when I realize I’m no longer alone. Shit.

Standing in front of the window is a slender being. Being, because even though I can’t really make out many details, I instinctively know it’s not human. It’s something else. I try to open my mouth to scream for help, but my muscles are still frozen and the only thing that emerges is a muffled squeak.

At the sound, another light flashes and an excruciating pain explodes in my head. A swirl of black engulfs me as I pass into unconsciousness.

****

I jerk awake with a groan. My mouth is dry and there’s a dull throbbing behind my eyes that makes me wince. The thin mattress I’m lying on is cold against my skin and I shiver in discomfort wishing for the thousandth time that they would at least give me a blanket.

After ten days of this – at least, I think it’s been ten days – I should be used to it by now. Then again, how could anyone get used to being abducted by aliens?

That’s right. I, boring Haley Richardson, have been abducted. By freaking aliens.

Part of me is still in shock. This seriously can’t be real. It has to be some sort of really detailed prank. Maybe for some weird new reality show.

But it is real, and I feel a numbing sense of hopelessness every time I think about it. I want to curl up in bed and hide from everything, but I’ve never been the type to wallow in my despair. Sure, I give myself a little time to get over whatever is bumming me out, then I move on and try to find the silver lining. Even with the breakup with Chad, I would have gotten over it soon enough and made the best of it.

But this – being abducted by these freaky gray aliens – is beyond even my ability to find a silver lining.

A grunt emerges as I force myself to sit up and lean against the wall that lies along one side of my bed. I’m exhausted from jerking awake at every little noise during the night. My head aches with dull pain and my eyes are dry and gritty. It’s the same thing day in and day out. Sitting here, watching, and waiting. Waiting to see what the aliens are going to do with me. Waiting for the next thing to break up the never-ending monotony of the day.

The first day on board the spaceship, I woke up all alone in my cell scared to death. I shouted and banged against everything I could find. I begged them to let me go. But they ignored my pleading. All I got out of that was a sore throat.

Now, I know to wait. Soon, the lights will brighten to mimic the sunrise and it will be time for breakfast. We’re given three meals a day, and like clockwork, the first one always arrives shortly after dawn.

That’s the other thing . . . I’m not alone.

There are nine other humans locked up in here with me. I can just barely see them from my cell, but they’re there. They were brought on board on the second day of my captivity. We’ve spent our time since then whispering to each other and trying to figure out what’s going on, and they’re just as confused as I am.

The others are the only thing that has kept me sane in this place. I should feel guilty, but I don’t. Not really. When I woke up alone that first day, I thought I would go crazy. Facing whatever the aliens have planned for us is a lot easier to do with other people by my side.

The room we’re kept in is a large, cavernous cargo bay with dull metal walls and a line of cells along one wall. Each cell is equipped with a small bed that is bolted to the wall and floor and a narrow, recessed room that is like an alien version of a bathroom. The bathroom is so tiny that it’s the size of a broom closet.

Each bathroom contains a toilet and what the aliens call a cleanser. The toilet is basically just a metal bowl with a jet of warm air that acts as some type of weird space bidet. It was a shock the first time I used it and I remember jolting off the toilet with a shout.

The cleanser consists of a nozzle attached to the ceiling, and it releases a stream of warm air and bright blue light that somehow removes sweat and odor. I don’t know exactly how the cleanser works, but it always leaves me feeling clean after using it. Although, it doesn’t seem to clean my clothes quite as well. After ten days, the blue plaid flannel pajamas I was abducted in are starting to look a little worse for wear. What I wouldn’t give for a tub and a washing machine.

Hell, at this point I’d settle for taking a shower with a water hose. Anything that meant I was back home, but after this long, I have a sinking feeling I’ll never see Earth again. A feeling that is like a lead weight entrenches itself in the pit of my stomach as I think about my home. Each day that passes, Earth gets further away.

Most of us have our own cells, except Rose, Zoe, Mara, and Maddie. Rose shares a cell with Zoe, a little girl who is her student. They were both taken while waiting for someone to pick up Zoe after school. Mara and Maddie are sisters who were abducted together.

I think back to my own abduction. It still sends a shiver down my spine to remember the skinny gray alien standing in my bedroom like he had every right to be there.

I have hazy memories after that of a blindingly bright light shining in my eyes and shadowy beings standing around my prone body, observing me. Memories of a mist that smelled like antiseptic that was sprayed all over me. One of the shadows stretched a long gray hand with spindly fingers towards me, before I felt a massive amount of pain and pressure in my head. Then, more darkness.

The next time I woke up, I was sprawled on the floor of my cell drooling, and my head was sore like I had had the migraine to end all migraines.

I soon learned the aliens implanted a translation device in my head to make sure I could follow their orders – a development that I consider bittersweet. It eases some of my anxiety to be able to understand them, but at the same time, I really wish I could didn’t.

It’s obvious our captors have plans for us, though we don’t know exactly what they are, yet. We do know they refer to us as the merchandise.

I really hope it’s not experimentation. I spent entirely too many hours watching sci-fi movies with Chad, and now, my mind can all too easily conjure up horrific scenes of exactly what might await us.

The lights in the cargo bay are bright now, and from my vantage point, I can see my fellow abductees slowly waking up. The walls dividing each of our cells are made of narrow metal bars placed in a grid-like pattern, and they’re situated so closely together that we can’t even stick a finger through the openings. Believe me, we’ve tried.

Across the room, I hear the whoosh of the door slide open and the rattle of the meal cart being pushed by one of the gray aliens.

Zaez is smaller than the other aliens. He’s at least a foot shorter with a skinny frame that is almost skeletal. He is also the only one of the gray aliens that has been remotely kind to us. Well, kind might be pushing it just a little.

The other aliens have left our care almost entirely up to Zaez. He brings our meals, cleans the cargo bay, and answers some of our questions. When he wants to, that is.

We’ve learned he basically does all the grunt work for the other aliens and he’s very low on the command structure. Because his status is low in their hierarchy, there are some questions he doesn’t have answers to and others he simply refuses to acknowledge.

According to Zaez, he and the other gray aliens are Zyfeliks from a planet called Zyfel. They are spindly gray beings about five feet tall with huge, bulbous heads and black eyes – basically, the real-life incarnation of those gray aliens in sci-fi movies. They have thin little holes on either side of their heads that I suspect are ears, two tiny openings in the center of their face for a nose, and a narrow slit for a mouth. Their language is a series of gurgles and whines, but because of the translator that somehow connects to my brain, I can understand them.

I’m not entirely sure how the translator works, and I try not to dwell on it too much because the reminder that alien tech is floating around inside my body freaks me out. And honestly, I already have too many other things to freak out about.

Zaez slowly moves across the floor, his large, unblinking eyes sweeping over each one of the cells as if he’s checking to make sure none of us have escaped. Huh, in our dreams.

He calls out a quiet greeting as he moves across the floor, “Good dawn.”

The other girls and I have kept ourselves busy during our time on board the spaceship by trying to observe everything we can, and we’ve managed to piece together a few other things.

Zyfelik society is very rich and obsessed with class distinctions. Very few Zyfeliks are born to poor families, but the ones who are are expected to work as servants for the rest of their lives. Zaez was born to a poor family, and this is his first job as a servant. There are a couple of other servants on board the ship, but Zaez is the youngest of them. Which is probably why he’s been given the job the Zyfeliks like the least – taking care of us.

Which is good news for us, since the other Zyfeliks have, for the most part, left us alone.

The few times a couple of the higher-ranking members of the crew came to the cargo bay, they stood around gawking at us like we were animals in a zoo and making comments about humans being dirty and stupid. Maybe that’s going to be our fate. A zoo full of humans.

At least with Zaez we don’t feel like we’re on display. I think it’s helped that we’ve tried to befriend him. Well, a couple of us.

Mara, who is a big fan of true crime, said we needed to try to get our abductors to see us as actual people instead of objects if we want any chance of escaping. I’m still not sure exactly where we could escape to since we’re in space, but that’s beside the point. I figure at the very least maybe we can get more information or better treatment.

So, I’ve tried to befriend Zaez. I chat with him sometimes when he has time, and little by little, he’s dropped quiet a bit of information. I even managed to convince him to search through our belongings that were brought on board and find the backpack Zoe was carrying when she was taken. Having the crayons and paper that were inside have really helped keep the little girl distracted from what’s going on.

I watch as Zaez heads to the cell furthest from me to begin passing out the day’s breakfast and my stomach chooses that moment to release a loud growl. Not that it’s going to be satisfied any time soon. Breakfast is always a thin porridge-like dish that weirdly has no taste at all. You would think that would make it easier to eat, but unfortunately that isn’t the case.

Our meal for lunch is always a small, hard brown thing that reminds me of a protein bar but tastes like sour fish. I vomited the first time I bit into it, but now, I’ve learned to hold my nose and chase it with plenty of water. Anything to keep my strength up. Supper is more of the porridge stuff, which I honestly prefer over the fishy protein bar.

I guess it could be worse, they could refuse to give us any food at all. Instead, they’re just slowly weakening us with small portions of really disgusting food.

In addition to Rose, Zoe, Mara, and Maddie, the other humans are Aria, Isabella, Crystal, Jayden, and Emily.

Jayden is only fourteen years old, the second youngest after Zoe. Isabella and Aria are both in their twenties – Aria was taken from her college campus and Isabella from her workplace’s parking lot. I think Emily said she was abducted while on vacation. Mara is close to my own age, while her sister, Maddie, is much younger.

I don’t know all that much about Crystal, but based on the drawl of her accent, I think she’s from somewhere in the south. Unlike some of the others, Crystal hasn’t been very talkative about herself. Not that I blame her, it’s not like this is a sleepover or summer camp.

We’ve figured out that most of us don’t have people we’re really close to in our lives or people who will miss us. Even Zoe and Jayden. Zoe is in the foster system and Jayden lives with a cousin who has five children of her own and barely remembers Jayden’s name most days.

Maybe that made us more attractive to the aliens and ripe targets to be taken. No one will miss us or make a big fuss about our disappearances. No one will make missing posters of us and plaster them everywhere or go on national tv to beg for our return.

As for me, my parents would have hounded every news station and police department they could to find me, but they’re both gone. Dad died in a car accident just after I graduated from college and my mom passed away from cancer years before that.

There’s no one to miss me. Not anymore.

Well, my colleagues probably noticed my absence when I didn’t show up for work. Cheryl, who sits – er, sat – at a desk next to me, may have even shed a tear or two. She always liked showing me pictures of her grandkids and her dog. But even she’ll forget about me over time. My landlord will miss me, but only when the rent doesn’t get paid.

Other than that, there’s no one. I’ll end up being just some story my colleagues tell about that woman they once knew who went missing. It’s a sad statement about my life, and I’ve had a hard time processing it.

Which brings me to my current existence – waiting for a small alien to make it to my end of the cargo bay and serve me a bowl of tasteless gray porridge. Zaez passes the small bowl and spoon through a narrow slot that opens just for that purpose, and quickly moves away. Usually, he stays around to do a little light cleaning of the room we’re in because apparently the Zyfeliks are obsessed with cleanliness and germs.

But today he only moves away a few steps before stopping and staring at me. I watch as the thin slit that is his mouth opens and closes a couple of times like he has something to say but can’t get it out.

I swallow a large gulp of the porridge and clear my throat. “Zaez, are you okay?”

He glances down the line of cells, worriedly eyeing each of us before he turns back to me and says, “I overheard two crewmembers talking. They said we will be arriving soon at a Kakiav space station in the Eris system. You will be sold there.”

“Sold?” I squeak out.

“Yes, sold at auction.”

“Wait a minute. . . what are the Kakiav?” Down at the other end of the room, Rose speaks up.

“The Kakiav are known as some of the vilest lawbreakers in the Alliance.” A visible shudder goes through the small alien’s body. “They have been banned from many space stations and planets. They earn credits by hosting auctions that facilitate the buying and selling of merchandise that is illegal. Unapproved dark matter weapons that could destroy entire planets, forbidden hallucinogenics, and illegal slaves.”

“What do you mean by illegal slaves? All slaves are illegal.” Mara moves closer to her cell door and grabs hold of the bars.

“Not in the Intergalactic Alliance. Slavery contracts are an acceptable form of employment. My job as a servant on this ship is a legal slave contract. My family was given a small sum of credits for pledging me to the captain’s service. In return, I will work for him for a set number of years before moving on to another servant post. It is standard practice for individuals from lesser families on my planet.” Zaez pauses a moment. “But you are humans and from a different galaxy. Your planet is pre-space flight.”

“We have space flight.” Jayden huffs out a breath of annoyance and rolls her eyes. “We’ve even been to the moon and everything.”

Zaez shakes his head. “You have not made contact with other sentient lifeforms in space. You are a Class Two planet. Intergalactic Alliance laws prohibit unsanctioned contact with Class Two planets. With humans. It is forbidden.”

Crystal snorts. “Well, someone should have told your buddies that.”

“Many Zyfeliks value wealth above all else, even the law.” Zaez hangs his large head as if he is saddened. “Since it is forbidden to contact Class Two species, they also cannot enter into legal slave contracts. I overheard the crewmembers say that you will be auctioned off to the highest bidders once we reach the Kakiav station.”

Shit, I really don’t like the sound of that. What sort of buyers would frequent an illegal slave auction? Not anyone I want to meet. But at this point, what can I do? The girls and I have discussed trying to escape, but there’s nowhere to go. We’re in freaking space. If we managed to overpower the crew we wouldn’t be able to fly the ship.

So, what are my options? Wait to be auctioned off and hope that I’m sold to a kindly elderly person who just wants a companion to talk to. Somehow, I doubt that’s going to happen.

Rose’s voice rings out from the other end of the room. “Zaez, how long do we have until we reach the auction?”

“Four days.”

His words send a shiver down my spine. In the cell next to me, I can hear Emily sobbing as Zaez slowly shuffles away to his duties, but I’m too distracted by my thoughts to comfort her.

Four days until everything changes, and once again not for the better. Shit.