Page 34 of His to Take

“Baby, you’re my little girl. No matter how big you get, or how old, you’re always my little girl. I’d give my life for you. You know that. If you don’t want to do this, say the word. Your father and I will take you away and we won’t look back.”

“But, Mom, that’s my job, to take care of you two! I can’t let you die because of me, or any of the others either. No, I have to do this.”

“It’s a vicious circle isn’t it?” Mary picked up a pair of panties from a stack on the counter and wiped at Ann’s face. “You want to protect us, we want to protect you, and none of us win except the aliens.”

“Our overlords.” It sounded ridiculous to say it out loud, but it was the truth. “If you get to live, and the Wolfsons, and everyone else, well, it’s worth it, Mom. I just had a moment.”

“Totally understandable, Ann,” Mary assured her and let the panties fall to the floor. The silky green panties fluttered to the ground, forgotten as they left the store. “I saw an antique shop just down the street. Let’s see if they have any hats.”

Ann laughed and left the store with her mother.

* * *

When they arrived home, they found a group of men in the driveway, all dressed in the soldiers’ uniforms the aliens all wore. That’s all Ann had ever seen them in, anyway, other than the supreme leader. Ann and her mother quietly hurried out of the transporter and walked into the house.

There they found the place as quiet as a church on Monday. There were no servants in sight, and neither one felt it appropriate to call out for John. They looked at each other and then walked down to the living room, with an arm around the other’s waist. John was there and so was the alien, Rager. That’s what his name was.

“Good afternoon, ladies! Out for a bit of shopping, were you?” Rager stood up, and Ann finally placed his accent. It sounded British for some reason. Why would an alien have a British accent? “Come and join us, won’t you?”

Ann saw two cups of hot tea, one with some kind of cream in it, on the table in front of one of the couches. “Hello, how are you?”

“I’m great, Ann. Thank you. How are you?” His eyes were hungry for her, and ate her up, despite the fact that her parents were in the room.

“I’m good, thank you.” She refused to call him Rager, it sounded ridiculous.

Where fear had been her constant companion lately, anger now took over. Who was he to come in here like everything was normal, and he hadn’t just blackmailed her into marriage? He acted as if they’d had a long courtship and now were on the cusp of uniting as one after a long wait. Damn, if it didn’t make her angry!

She had to be polite though, she didn’t want to rile the man. His sheer size quelled most of her anger down to a simmering rage. He could just swallow her, and there’d be nothing left, she thought as she took a seat beside her mother on the opposite couch.

“Good. You can get ready now. Today’s the day.” His smile was broad and showed off straight, white teeth.

Her body responded to that smile, and she leaned forward, despite her efforts to remain aloof. “The day for what?”

She blinked at him, hoping he didn’t mean that day. The one she’d tried not to think about.

“The day we become mates, Ann. If you want to get that lovely dress of yours, I want to show you the house I’ve had prepared for us, and then we can get on with the ceremony.”

Ann just blinked again. “Okay.”

She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, all she could do was stare at him. She sat there like a lump until her mother stood up and took her hand. “Come on, baby. Let’s do this.”

She wanted to scream profanities, to tell her mom to back off, to tell her father to put a stop to this, but she didn’t. She just followed behind her mother and went up to pick up the bag she’d thrown the dress in once he’d left all those days ago.

“Mom, I don’t want to do this. I know I have to, but I don’t want to.”

“I know, honey. Do you want to run? We can go, just you and me…” It was the tears in her mother’s eyes that slapped Ann in the face and brought her back to reality.

“No. I have to do this.”

She picked the bag up and squared her shoulders. “I can do this. I can.”

* * *

Thirty minutes later she was outside of a house that looked as if it belonged on a plantation in the Mississippi delta. It was a sprawling mansion, with columns, white marble, and a circular driveway of white gravel that must have been a nightmare to keep up. She realized it was the kind of home she’d dreamed of having when she was a little girl and didn’t understand the history of such places.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” he asked as he stopped the transporter he was driving, and the glass came up.

“Yes,” Ann said, her brain still rather empty.