Fear of what was happening.
Excitement because the commotion could indicate a rescue. Is this it? Didhereally come back for me?
Anger for I couldn’t keephimout of my head.
I forced myself to focus, suppressing the maelstrom of emotions and halting my wishful thinking. Now was neither the time to panic nor get my hopes up—it was time to survive. Plenty of time to think ofhimafter I reached safety.
Placing my hand on the door scanner, I slumped with relief when it lit up green, unlocking the door. Easing forward into the doorway, I peered down the hall filling with the other female humans. Most hurried by with fear-filled faces. The few who noticed me met my gaze with shock in their eyes. One or two made a snide remark and snickered as they passed me, but all rushed down the hall toward the hangar. I ignored them, stepping out to elbow my way through the crowd. Survival was my focus; the others didn’t matter.
I crammed into the lift with a group of panicked females. They shifted restlessly and surged out of the lift as soon as the doors opened, then down the hall that led to the hangar. I trailed behind as the others pushed and shoved ahead of me, nearly drowning out the urgently blaring alarm with their screams of panic.
Each time the ship shook from an impact, the level of hysteria increased.
Panicking wasn’t going to help anyone in this situation. There was enough time to be scared once we escaped the fight.
I slipped into a side hallway and paused, allowing the other humans to continue to the hangar alone. This was my chance.
From the sound of explosions and how violently the ship shook with each impact, it was apparent we were losing. I needed to find my way to the Engineering Bay I knew contained personal escape pods.
Decision made, I sprinted down the hallway, taking a moment to pause at every intersection. Each hall was bare. It seemed everyone was busy either fighting or escaping.
At the last intersection before Engineering, I looked carefully around the corner.
All was clear.
As I rounded the corner, pain exploded across my face. My head snapped to the left and my vision blurred as my knees buckled from the impact. Before I could hit the floor, a hand tangled in my hair, and my head was wrenched back, dragging me upright.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a deep voice purred in my ear. A long, wet tongue slithered across my neck as he tightened his hand in my hair. I screamed and my eyes filled with tears of pain as hair was torn from my scalp.
He covered my mouth with his scaly hand, silencing my screams, then slammed me up against the wall, pinning me with his full weight. My whole body ached in pain as my vision began to blur.
“Looks like I got myself a little pleasure toy to enjoy during my escape.” A rumble of laughter rocked my forehead and chest bruisingly against the wall, and his grasp on my hair shook.
Pain shot through my skull.
I could feel his hardness digging into my lower back. Dread and revulsion filled me, followed closely by despair. I tried to flinch away, to arch my back away from his erection, but there was nowhere to go.
As he pulled me away from the wall, I stumbled, unbalanced by the sudden shift—his grip on my hair, my disoriented state, and the ship’s tremors.
An explosion erupted beside us. As the ship shook from the impact, the male lost his grip on my hair and on me. He staggered back, then careened forward into me, knocking usboth to the floor. I hit the wall hard on the way down, the wind whooshing out of me with the force of the fall.
I laid, stunned, on the deck.
My right cheek throbbed, and pain lanced through my face when I tried to open my mouth. I couldn’t seem to make my limbs respond as I struggled to turn over, the pain agonizing. My tears dried up as my brain scrambled to make sense of what had happened.
Was I dying?
I was determined not to give up. I let myself hope the ship was under attack becausehehad returned for me and kept his promise—no matter how fucked up the situation was.
Glancing behind me, I saw a miracle. Bless the Stars, Fates—whatever or whoever needed to be blessed. It didn’t matter. I would praise them all if I survived this.
The male who’d attacked me lay on the ground, his ugly reptilian body still smoldering in places—badly burned when the wall exploded. A huge chunk of his neck was missing, and his green blood flooded the floor.
His body had protected mine from the blast, killing him in the process.
As feeling returned to my body and the pain made itself known, I experimentally moved my limbs—agony—but I had to get moving. Gathering the last ounce of energy I possessed, I ignored the pain in my body and pushed myself off the floor. I braced my right hand on the wall and limped to the Engineering Bay.
Collapsing against the doorway as I entered Engineering, I scanned for the escape pods, my gaze frantic when it seemed all were missing. At last, I noticed a single pod remaining in the far corner and sent up another blessing to whoever it was who watched over me.
