Chapter 1
Holly
Standing tall, hands pressed together overhead, spine stretched straight, then slowly, gracefully, falling forward, hair in its loose ponytail toppling over her head, Holly practically folded herself in half.
She remained in that position for a few deep, intentional breaths.
Stretching her hips, her spine, letting her neck get pulled down by gravity.
With another breath, she pressed her fingers to the ground then stepped back, smoothly flowing into a plank pose.
She swooped down, almost but not quite touching the mat below, then pushed her torso up.
She breathed in that position for a few seconds, enjoying the pull on her legs, on her spine.
Then, with a push, she thrust her hips into the air, into the only yoga pose that existed in the common vernacular – for good reason.
Downward dog.
It was a great pose. Inverting her upper body and stretching her legs at the same time.
Head tucked into her chest, facing only her own heart.
Her own world. She stayed in that pose longer than the others – breathing, pedaling her feet a bit to enjoy the stretch a little more, letting the familiar and comfortable pose calm her uneasy mind.
After a few minutes she finally pushed herself up again.
First into a low lunge, then into another fold, then finally right back up into mountain pose, completing the sun salutation cycle.
Already, she missed the downward dog because she was forced to, once again, face out into the world she was using her yoga to try to escape.
A world so foreign, it was literally alien.
It had been a couple months since Holly had been abducted from Earth and sometimes, when she opened her eyes, she was still surprised to see the green tinted sky overhead and the purple leaves down below – the top of a tall forest canopy spread out in front of her like a rustling sea.
For a short time, after being abducted, Holly had been convinced she was about to die.
The giant dinosaur-lizard aliens that took her certainly didn't seem all that kind. The fact that they had a different alien – who made her think of a combination of a cat and a demon – already in a cage, using his own claws to dig into his ribs, made her think she and the other four humans weren’t going to do well.
Her life was definitely over at that point.
But, as it turned out, that other alien was the king-ish of an entire planet and when Peony – one of Holly's abduction buddies – offered him water, she had inadvertently bought them all tickets to easy street.
He said that they earned their own way by stealing the prison key and freeing him, but Holly wasn't naive enough to buy that.
He fell in love with Peony at first sight, took care of the other humans to keep her happy, and gave them all fancy titles to justify his actions to his people.
The title, apparently also Holly's new name, vora vakara, translated roughly as 'warrior in deed if not in name'.
It was given as an honorific to those who weren't warriors but did something great and noble and brave.
Peony had earned the name three times over.
The other girls in the abduction squad had done their best and worked together and always voted to do the noble, brave thing which helped earn their names as well.
Holly was the naysayer. She was the one who always voted to do the safe thing. Which was just a nice way of saying that she was a coward and always voted to do the cowardly thing.
A coward on an alien planet populated almost entirely by the brave.
The domini, the aliens of this planet, valued warriors above all others.
The strong, the skilled, the noble, the dauntless.
People like Peony – now mated to their king-kind-of-not-really, their Dominani, Atem – who was capable of fighting losing battles and somehow winning.
She got along with all the three eyed, tailed aliens of this planet like she had been born here, and she didn't jump when they camouflaged so well into their surroundings, they were only visible when they moved.
Unlike Holly.
Holly had never been the daring type. She didn't drive over the speed limit, she wouldn't go near roller coasters, she never got on a bike without a helmet, and she was always cautious and tentative in situations that were new and strange.
To be thrown onto a planet so alien that the color of the sky itself was different had left her a ball of anxiety and unease.
Some of that was lessened when the lead doctor had put her in a magical, alien machine and proceeded to straight up cure her depression and anxiety, but the fact that she was uncomfortable in strange situations at baseline hadn't been fixed at all.
Hence, the yoga.
Holly was the nervous sort and, as a result, she had an entire bag of tricks to calm herself and ease her pains – mental and physical.
She didn't have access to all of them anymore – walking in her favorite park or reading her favorite book were right out – but she could still do yoga.
If anything, yoga was more comforting now since her lupus had also been cured and moving no longer hurt.
To help cope with the severe culture shock, Holly had created a schedule for herself. Having a bit of order and control was incredibly helpful to her mental health. Even if that control was nothing more than a daily routine.
Logically, she knew she was incredibly lucky.
Being adopted as the sister of the dominani, kind-of-king of the entire planet of Turv, meant she had everything she could want or need.
He had given her full leave to do whatever she wanted, or nothing at all.
Her myriad of medical problems, including those she didn't even know she had, were cured outright.
She was completely safe because the beautiful, golden stone palace that rose over the canopy of the alien forest was constantly guarded by both advanced technology and the greatest warriors of a species that was apparently famous in the greater universe for being the greatest warriors overall.
But she had no idea what to do with herself with no bills to pay, no doctor's appointments to keep up with, and no family to love.
That was perhaps the hardest part of being here. Holly didn't like new situations, she really didn't like change, especially drastic and uncontrolled change, but it might have all been bearable if she still had her family at her side.
She came from a big family. She was always with at least one of her many siblings or cousins. She didn't know what it was like to be alone.
And now, she was alone all the time. The abduction squad hadn’t really disbanded, but everyone was off doing their own thing. They weren’t family. They were friends made close by terrible circumstances, and that wasn’t the same. She needed her family.
But she couldn't rely on Atem for that. Despite being called his sister and, by all accounts, being treated exactly like one, he was a busy male. Being the ruler of a planet came with a lot of responsibilities. Even more so now that he was mated and expecting a baby.
Because, apparently, humans could get pregnant by the domini.
No one knew how. Peony apparently had been knocked up the first time they slept together before they even reached Turv.
Since no one knew how it happened, no one could say if it was just a strange trick of Peony's genetics, or maybe just Atem's, or if it was all humans that had that ability.
The science was beyond Holly's understanding. Finding Earth was beyond her abilities. Helping Atem in any way was beyond impossible.
Holly was a useless coward who disliked change and missed her family with an aching pain in her chest that she knew would never heal and had no skills or responsibilities to help anyone or take away from the draining monotony of life.
So, she did yoga.
She focused on herself. On her breathing. The alien forest didn't smell like the one at home. The scents were similar, but just a bit off. It was still a comforting odor though. She could close her eyes and pretend it was a forest candle that got the scent just a little wrong.
Holly had invited the other human girls to join her.
However, Peony was busy being examined from every dimension and direction since her hybrid baby was a complete unknown.
And when she wasn’t doing that, she was following Atem around.
She was carrying like a domini female and had all their pregnancy instincts, including a vicious, powerful need to be around her mate as often as possible.
Scarlet was off studying to be a healer because she had always wanted to be a nurse and that didn't change just because she switched planets.
Hattie didn't wake up early and, when she did get up, she preferred to go down to the kitchens to learn to cook alien recipes.
Alanna could sometimes be convinced to join her, but most of the time, she was busy interviewing random domini she came across, studying the Omoni Otorsi – the book of philosophy that their entire modern culture was built upon – and investigating the new world.
Everyone had a place here. Everyone had made her own place here.
But Holly was still too scared to go wandering around. She couldn't bring herself to be alone outside of the safety of their rooms. She felt like an outsider. The few times she had left the suite with the others, she always felt like the domini were staring at her. Judging her.
She took another deep breath and sank into another sun salute.
Trying to push away all those negative thoughts.
Focus only on herself. On her healthy body that she still couldn't quite believe was pain free.
On her healthy mind that she still couldn't quite believe was no longer trying to sabotage any attempts to make herself happy.
There were good things about being here in Calvitorum, the capital city built in a dense, purple rainforest under a pale green, wide open sky. She could focus on those things as she stretched her body and relaxed her mind in her new routine.
And she wouldn't let that routine be disrupted again.