With the remainder of humanity in chains, Shasta keeps her head down and tries to weather the storm. Servicing the filthy needs of a superior alien race, each day passes in a blur, the struggle to survive outweighing everything else.
After ten years...
From the cathedral-like crystal of the ship, I was expecting something grand—a futuristic paradise. Instead, I'm met with a muddy camp.
Tan canvas tents as far as the eye can see. There must be a thousand of them.
A rough hand shoves me forward, and I stumble, my feet sinking in the mud. "Sorry!" I put my hands up, hoping that he will give me a moment to get my bearings.
I slip again, this time falling completely onto my knees in the sludge, when he pushes me again.
His low, rumbling voice growls out something that I can't understand. Quickly, I pull myself up. I can't understand his language, but I know when someone is growing irritated with me. If I don't hurry, the likelihood is that he will start to lose his patience. I would rather not see what happens then.
He leads me into a tent and leaves me there. Slowly, everyone else begins to join me. Huddled in a cold, wet, trembling mass, we sit together, waiting for whatever fate is coming our way.
Eventually, one of them comes back and starts to angrily shout at us.
"What?" A woman that I don't recognize starts screaming. Her hands come up to cover her ears. "Stop!"
The room goes eerily quiet as the alien looks at her. He looks confused for a moment, staring blankly at her.
When he suddenly steps forward, everyone tenses, stepping away from where she's flailing around. He grabs her by the arm and yanks her up and into the corner of the tent. He throws her into a large bucket, and water shoots up from the bottom, scaring her but washing her clean in an instant.
He pushes her out of the bucket and growls, gesturing for someone else to step in.
When no one steps forward, he starts to turn, his lips curled, ready to yell.
"I'll go." I step past everyone. I don't want to anger him more than necessary. I've already had my ass kicked once tonight, and I don't want to give him a reason to do it again.
The water is freezing and the pressure stings my skin, but I've never felt cleaner. I've been thoroughly washed.
Shivering, I step out, making room for the next person. When the mud has been sprayed from all of us, we're led out of the tent.
"Where are they taking us?" Everyone is frantically whispering, panic spreading through the group.
Pushing down my own curiosity, I keep my head down and walk. The camp is full of tents, but it appears to be completely empty. There isn't a sound anywhere. The footprints in the mud are the only sign that there have actually been other people here.
The alien growls and pushes me forward up a small staircase into a large circular tent.
When I step inside, I freeze.
Thousands of eyes are on me. I'm on a stage in front of hundreds of aliens. The silence makes my skin prick and my body trembles so hard that I can't take a step. The person behind me runs into my back, and I fall forward.
A long tentacle comes up, touching my face before it wraps around my waist and pulls me up. It feels cold and wet, and I try to scream, but no sound will come out. Set back on my feet, I stumble away to the far side of the stage.
My muscles lock, and I feel my body swaying as I look out over the crowd. There are things in here that my eyes can't believe are real. I see them seated before me, but there is a disconnect somewhere in my brain.
There are creatures sitting before me that frighten the life out of me just by the look of them.
Some appear humanoid, while others have no human features whatsoever. Razor-sharp teeth, and tentacles—some appear amorphous, others are ghostly pale. My eyes move through the crowd until I come to the group that brought us here.
Thick black horns spiraling up from their heads, they sit stoically in the center of the tent, right in front of the stage.
The woman beside me is dragged up to the front of the stage. Her body hangs limply from the large hand holding her. His voice booms over the crowd, and several aliens stand, yelling out in response.
This isn't the first time I've been auctioned off.
When we were taken from Earth, everyone was split into groups, separated, male and female, old and young. I was taken with a large lot of young women.
The woman is handed off to an alien with an elongated body and slimy-looking skin.
Another woman is grabbed and pulled to the front. One after another, we're held up, cattle to be purchased.
My turn is coming; I can't avoid it. There are only so many others that will get picked before it comes my time. It's inevitable.
A girl I recognize is pulled forward, and the aliens that brought us here stand. Three of them growl something at the auctioneer, pointing at me, then two others.
I take a breath, trying to stay calm as we are yanked forward and pushed off the stage into their very large, waiting arms.
The four of us are pulled out of the tent.
We're going back to the ship.
The women with me are crying and sniffling as we walk through the mud. I feel nothing. My body is as numb as my bare feet. My mind races, trying to find something that connects us. We all look completely different—height, weight, hair color, and ethnicity—we're different.
Inside the dark cages, we sit huddled together again. No one speaks; I think we're too tired and emotionally drained to even speak to one another. We all know what this is; we belong to these guys now, and there is nothing to say about it.
When the subtle movement of the ship moving through space finally stops, I hold my breath. We're here. What horrors wait on the other side of that door?
Blinding white light makes my eyes squint closed. Forcing my eyes open, I watch the silhouette of one of the aliens coming right for me.
--
⚡Read up to 5 chapters ahead and unlock 30 other adult romance titles at patreon.com/MyrandaRae
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
