Captured and Captivated

Chapter 1

HARPER

Four aliens dragged me out of my cell and shoved me into a cold exam room. This was the third time this had happened to me this week.

I'd expected another round of violating tests- sticking beeping metal barrels into different parts of me seemed to be one of the lizardmen's favorite pastimes. That and ignoring me. Sometimes force-feeding, but I'll get back to that part later. Right now I was busy being prepared.

Small strips of glittering fabric were wrapped around my shoulders. They were so sheer it could barely even be considered clothing but it was also the most I'd been allowed since my abduction. Dressing me up to be the evening meal? Maybe. It certainly wasn't for any more practical reason. The exam room was so cold my breath fogged. At least my cell had been warm. I really wished they'd let me go back in it.

It had been just under a month since my abduction from Earth. This was based on the number of day and night cycles since I'd woken up in their spaceship. The species that took me were called the Krynn and I damn sure wasn't anywhere in Sol space anymore. That's all I knew about what was happening. The lizards didn't exactly talk to me, nor had they given me any idea why they'd taken me to begin with. Until today, that is. Now I was starting to get a hint.

Maalk!

I didn't speak Krynnese. Wasn't even sure if that's what the lizard-like aliens called their raspy language, but I'd learned a few words out of necessity.

I raised my arms up. Maalk. Up. The second Krynn made a low disapproving rumble as it poked at my concave stomach. I'd always been slim but after three weeks of poor treatment I was basically two dimensional.

Post-abduction week one and well into week two had been a miserable cycle. Rancid smelling food was brought to me and held to my mouth until I gave in and ate it. This was inevitably followed by a solid twenty minutes of vomiting and worse. The only saving grace was that the Krynn had seemed nearly as distressed by my reactions as I had been.

Great. So they weren't trying to kill me, or at least not yet. They just apparently had no damn idea what to do with me. They'd finally found a paste that tasted like overly salty wet bread that I'd been able to keep down, but that was about all it had done for me.

More slips of fabric were wrapped around my angular hips. As much as I was worried about the most obvious reason they might be trying to fatten me up, something else was starting to bother me. The way that I was being dressed right now was almost sensual. The Krynn were disgusted by me. They'd made that plenty clear, and the feeling was highly mutual. But, because they hated me, that meant that all this sudden new effort wasn't for their own benefit.

The implications of this blazed like wildfire through my mind but I forced myself not to think about it. About anything other than how to get out of here and find out if I really alone here or not.

On the night I'd been abducted, my best friend Lily and I had been hiding out in the desert together. We were on the run from the law and trying to keep a low profile The irony that I'd been abducted by aliens in the New Mexican wilderness wasn't lost on me.

Lily was the closest thing to family I had, and I didn't know if she was here with me or not. Maybe the Krynn hadn't even taken her? It didn't make sense that they would leave her and not me, but right now I had no choice but to play along. Pretend to be the Krynn's perfectly docile little dress up doll until I could come up with a plan.

Maalk ka'ar!

A third strip of fabric was held out- this one a shimmery shade almost identical to my skin tone- and the Krynn holding it barked at me.