Page 3 of Stolen By the Alien Mercenary

“I think she’s waking up,” a female voice said softly. Moisture rushed to my eyes at the sound of that voice, and I wasn’t sure why. “Here, drink something,” she went on to say and a straw came into my field of view, then pressed against my lips. I could not see the hands that held that straw. I couldn’t tilt my head, but I could open my mouth just enough to drink.

Blessed coolness soothed my parched mouth and eased my throat as I swallowed. “That’s good, easy now,” the female voice said again. I wasn’t alone, that’s why I was getting emotional, and on top of that, she sounded human. She spoke English with an Australian accent, her words crisp but kind. Was I home? Or at least on Earth again?

The straw was pulled from my mouth too soon; I wanted to keep drinking my fill. Instincts told me that I might not have more water for a long time to come, and I needed to drink as much as possible even if it made my stomach churn when I did. Water was life; I needed water to survive.

Then a human face bent above me and I could finally see the speaker. A round face with a dainty chin, dark brown eyes filled with kindness, framed by silky black hair. She was definitely human, likely Chinese ethnically, and the best thing I’d seen in ages. My eyes filled again with moisture, and tears spilled from the corners unchecked. “Are you real?” I asked her.

She smiled gently, “Oh, yeah. I’m real. You’re safe now. Can you tell me your name?” My name? I hadn’t been addressed by my name in so long, it felt like forever. To that scary alien and the others on his creepy spaceship, I had just been ‘you’ or ‘it’. And in the vault… some guards that came in when they put their precious ores in the vault had taken pity on me. They’d given me water or bits of food sometimes. I wasn’t sure if they’d done me a kindness that way or just extended my suffering, but none of them had called me anything but ‘female.’

“It’s Harper,” I said huskily, “Harper O’Neill.” It felt foreign to introduce myself when it had been so commonplace before. My major had been in journalism. I’d regularly introduced myself to people all over town as I worked on articles and attempted to cultivate sources. I was a total people person, and I loved talking and charming them so they felt comfortable enough to tell me what they knew.

“Well, I’m Zhu Manyin, but my friends call me Mandy,” the woman said. “Are you feeling strong enough to sit? You’ve been in stasis for quite some time.” Stasis. I instantly flashed back to the oblong but rounded coffin thing I’d been pulled from aboard Batok’s ship. The harrowing first hours after I’d discovered I’d been abducted from Earth by freaking aliens. I shuddered at the memory but nodded. I was tired of staring at a ceiling anyway, and I had so many questions bubbling inside my head now that I was starting to feel a little better.

I wasn’t sure what Mandy did when she dipped out of sight, but then the bed beneath me moved. It was just like one of those hospital beds, raising the head part, so I ended up in a sort of upright position. It finally allowed me to get a good look at the room I was in, even though it spun a little dizzily at first.

It was white, with several more cots and sci-fi-looking screens. There was even a robotic arm stuck behind a glass panel next to one of the beds. Vials and bottles were neatly stocked inside cabinets along one wall, and a desk was against another. The whole place would have looked clinical and cold if not for several plants on the desk and a colorful painting across from me. The desk even looked cluttered with papers and actual books.

For a moment, I could try to imagine that this was just a very advanced hospital room on earth, but then that hope was dashed. I sighed with dismay, not because the alien frightened me, but because it meant I wasn’t back home. He was hovering far back, in a doorway that led to a brightly lit room. His skin was a dark blue, his eyes all black, and a shadowed orb sat in the middle of his proud forehead. His white doctor’s coat told me who he was, but the cluster of pink and purple tentacles he had instead of legs was shocking.

“That’s Dravion, the doctor,” Mandy informed me calmly. “He’s a good man, and you’re in excellent hands. Don’t worry.” Don’t worry? He was the weirdest alien I’d seen to date, even if he looked calm and was keeping a respectful distance. Mandy seemed to be the one in charge, but she was definitely not dressed like a doctor or a nurse.

The small woman was wearing a silky green tunic over a pair of black leggings, a belt secured around her waist that was weighted down with something that looked like a sci-fi pistol. I’d seen such weapons on the guards that accompanied Batok everywhere. “You don’t seem surprised to see an alien. Does that mean you were woken from stasis before?” she asked me.

I struggled to understand her question, my head still a little dizzy. I felt weak and lethargic but after the dehydration and the malnourishment, that was no surprise. I didn’t even want to look down at my body to see what I looked like right now; it would just be a reminder of the horrible time spent imprisoned in that vault.

“Is there any food?” I asked instead of answering. My stomach didn’t rumble. It didn’t tell me I was hungry, but I wanted to eat if they let me. I hadn’t felt hunger in a long time, but that didn’t mean my body didn’t need sustenance.

“Of course,” Mandy said, and she tilted her head to look over her shoulder at the weird alien. He inclined his head and crossed from the doorway to the desk nearby. I hadn’t noticed the covered tray, but when he picked it up, my focus sharpened. What was beneath that cover? Bread? Soup? Jello? I stifled a giggle at the silly thoughts about hospital food. I doubted it would be the same in outer space.

He only came halfway across the room, and Mandy met him to take the tray and bring it back to me. They were definitely trying not to scare me too much with his presence, which was nice. The smells that wafted up from the tray were amazing, and they woke up my stomach. The wave of hunger that rumbled through me was welcome. It made me feel like I wasn’t on death’s doorstep any longer.

Mandy fed me the first few bites of a savory broth, but I felt strong enough to raise my hand to finish the rest. The spoon scraped over the bottom of the bowl far too quickly, and I wanted to ask for more. My stomach did feel full, so I bit my tongue and waited. They weren’t talking, just watching me, and that made me feel a little awkward, even if the food had made me feel so much better.

“He’s not my first alien,” I finally admitted and Mandy grinned, her dark eyes twinkling when she glanced at the tentacle dude, Dravion. “I was pulled from a stasis pod by this guy called Batok, and then a week later, they locked me up in a vault. How did I get here?”

The two of them exchanged a quick glance before Mandy rolled a shoulder and offered me a reassuring smile. “You were rescued. And you were pretty sick, so you had to be placed back in stasis to aid in your recovery.” Her words all seemed perfectly sensible. They even rang true, and yet… I was certain they were hiding something. I wanted to ask questions, I wanted to ferret out the truth, but my full stomach was making me sleepy. I fought it, but exhaustion soon pulled me under.

Chapter 2

Mitnick

I roared when my palms slammed into the force field of my cell, and sparks flew. It burned against my skin, but that bite of pain was not enough to stop me from doing it again and again. They stole my mate from me; they took her! I flared out my wings and slammed my palms against the force field. My instincts were all-consuming; a single-minded focus immune to any attempts at rational thought.

Not only had they stolen my sleeping mate, but they had locked me up, and they’d taken all my weapons and my tools. I was useless in there, locked up tighter than tight, and felt powerless. It was not a feeling I relished when I was always the one in control, the one holding all the cards. I should be with her, I should be there when they woke her. She was my mate.

“Look at yourself,” a dark voice said coolly. The male’s voice preceded his arrival in front of my cell, but I knew who it was without seeing him. The Sineater. His arrival finally jerked me away from uselessly raging against the force field that kept me locked up. He was such a cold, threatening presence that my instincts tingled, jerking me back from the brink of insanity.

Look at myself? I was a mess, raging against technology when I had far better means than my fists to deal with a simple force field. I had not been thinking, my mind fixated bashing through my obstacles to get to my mate. That wasn’t me, that wasn’t how I normally operated. His words were like ice water down my back, shining a light on how crazy my instincts had made me.

They had not stolen my mate; they had taken her to see the doctor to heal her. If I acted calm now, I could see her soon. Then I glanced up into the Sineater’s silver eyes and my stomach shrunk, my hearts clenched painfully in my chest. That was not the gaze of a male ready to show mercy. He looked cold, unforbidding, and a sardonic smile curled his mouth.

I froze in place, my wings closing snugly behind my back. Without my cloak to cover them, I felt exposed, but it was more than that; it was him. That’s how Sin made anyone feel when he turned that gaze on you, and when his symbiont prowled on four legs in front of my cage, I knew he was feeding. Feeding off me. His favorite meal was the dark, negative feelings of everyone around him. I imagined I could see the symbiont swell in front of my eyes, though rationally I knew that wasn’t true.

“Let me out of here, Sineater,” I demanded, hiding my unease behind a cool facade. He stood in front of my cell in a military at ease pose, his legs braced slightly apart, and his hands clasped behind his back. His gray skin glinted silver beneath the bright overhead lights, faintly hinting at markings lying just beneath the skin. Even in my dire predicament, I felt my curiosity piqued at the sight of those. They looked just enough like some kind of script to make me wonder what was written on his flesh, or if it was just random happenstance.

“Let you out?” the male laughed, but the sound was cold, mean, and it rankled my frayed nerves. For a moment, my instincts, my battle rage, tried to take over again, but I managed to stay in control this time. I bared my teeth to show him my displeasure and raised the feathered crest on my head in a threatening display.

“Yeah, let me out! I’m in control now. There’s no reason to keep me here.” I wanted to demand he take me to my mate but swallowed those words, certain that they would make him more determined to keep me locked up. They thought I was a threat to her, but they didn’t understand. I could never harm her. My sole purpose in life was to keep her safe, to protect her in any way she needed me to.