Chapter Two
Another one bites the dust, Lainey couldn’t help but think as their dwindling group of women huddled in a tight circle, whispering together.
“What do you think we should do?” Crystal asked.
The ordinarily upbeat blonde seemed quiet and unsure and her gaze flitted from each of them, trying to gauge reactions.
Lainey looked over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing. The leader of whatever planet they’d been brought to—Luxiria, it was called—stood with his arms braced at his sides, speaking with the guards that had come in with him.
His tone seemed terse as he spoke in his language, giving the women privacy and time to make a decision.
“I don’t trust them,” Lainey said, whipping her head back around to their small group. Only Erin, Crystal, and Bianca remained, including herself. They’d already lost Cecelia and Taylor to these Luxirians…not to mention Beks, who had also been rescued from the other aliens with them all.
Bianca was quiet. The news that the leader brought—that the fuel necessary to power their spaceship home had been lost—sent her into hysterics and she’d only just begun to calm down. She’d been so happy lately, thinking they would be sent home any day. She missed her daughter, her husband.
“It’s a little too convenient that this fuel has mysteriously disappeared the moment we were supposed to leave,” Lainey pointed out. “Not to mention that suddenly Taylor hasn’t come back, even though that alien claims that she decided to stay behind with her ‘mate.’Puh-lease. They’re playing us!”
“Lainey,” Erin said softly, catching her eyes before darting her gaze to Bianca’s slumped shoulders.
Lainey felt a sharp twinge of guilt and looked down at the floor of the room they’d been ‘housed’ in ever since arriving on this godforsaken planet, her jaw ticking.
Housed, Lainey thought, with a bitter twist of her lips. More like kept imprisoned. No windows. One door that was locked from the outside. Only two guards that came and went at scheduled meal times.
Needless to say, they wereallgoing a little crazy.
“I think he’s telling the truth,” Erin said quietly, her gaze going to the alien leader again. “I believe it when they said they were sending us home.”
“Why move us then?” Crystal asked, with a nervous dart of her gaze. “I thought the whole point of us being here was so that…that none of the males would…beawakenedor whatever they call it.”
Because that was what Cecelia told them. That these Luxirians had something inside them that could potentially choose a life-long mate. Something dormant that came alive when they saw this mate for the first time.
If those stories were to be believed, then that was what had happened to Beks, Cecelia, and now Taylor. Not to mention Kate, the alien leader’s mate.
Cecelia had told them that was why the leader—called Vaxa’an—had housed them there. So other males wouldn’t be awakened, so the women would be free to go back to Earth without any attachment.
Load of bullshit, Lainey thought. She liked Cecelia, but it was a little hard to believe.
Erin answered Crystal’s question with a helpful, “I don’t know.”
Lainey was just about to open her mouth and say something she’d regret later when she caught sight of Bianca again…and managed to swallow the words down.
Her lips pressed together, as if it would keep them inside, before she spun on her heel and stalked towards Vaxa’an.
His head cocked to the side when he noticed her and straightened.
“Have you come to a decision, fem—”
Lainey cut him off with, “Why should we trust you? Because frankly, buddy, you’ve given us no reason to trust you.”
Vaxa’an frowned, seemingly in confusion, at ‘buddy’ but replied, “The events that have happened are unfortunate, female, but one of my Ambassadors is looking for the crystal at this very moment.”
His calm tone irritated her. “And what happens if it’s never found?”
His pupils contracted. “I do not know,” he said quietly.
Realization hit Lainey and she took a step away. Was it possible he was telling the truth about the crystal?
She cleared her throat and asked, “And why move us?”
