ONE
This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening, Kate Harper thought wildly, casting her eyes from side-to-side as the group she was in—all chained and as naked as she—were led into a massive open-air room that could only be described as an arena.
A roaring crowd made her ears ring and she winced, wanting to squeeze her eyes shut to block everything out, to wake up from this freaking nightmare. Because she was just going to come out with what she knew was undeniably true…
Aliens.
There, she’d said it.
At first, when Kate had woken up in the dimly lit room with shaking walls of metal and to the weeping, hysterical cries of women she’d never even seen before, she thought she’d been kidnapped by sex traffickers straight out of her bed, because turning in for the night after watching an episode of the Walking Dead was the last thing she remembered. Except her ‘sex traffickers’ weren’t even human. They had scaled green and brown swirled skin, the eyes of lizards, and the mouth of—she shuddered—a…she didn’t even know. They were hideously ugly, even more hideous than the zombies she’d been watching just hours earlier.
So, at first, she thought her mind was playing tricks on her. Then she just never woke up from her dream. It got worse. She’d watched in horror as the aliens took the women out of their cages one-by-one and stripped them naked, chaining their hands in shackles the color of brushed steel and attaching them to together in a single line. She was one of the last women. She could still remember the feel of their cold talons on her flesh as her clothes fell to the floor—her teddy bear pajama shorts she’d had for years and her worn college alumni shirt—and the way their scales looked almost wet and slimy underneath the harsh lighting. Shortly after they’d all been lined up, the whole room shook and vibrated, a loud booming sound and a mechanical whirring reaching her ears.
It was then she realized they were on a ship.
A freaking spaceship.
Kate had never been one to flip out. She had a very matter-of-fact attitude about her, one that had served her well over the years. So, she didn’t weep or cry out or beg as the line of naked women was led from the ship and straight into a long, dark tunnel. She could hear the noise, the chanting voices getting louder and louder. It was hot in the tunnel. Almost unbearably so. Sweat broke out over her body and she tried to curl in on herself to shield her naked breasts. They jiggled with every step, as did her thighs and tummy. She wasn’t stick thin like some of the other women.
She was one of the curvier among them…which led her to realize that there was no discernible pattern among the women the aliens had captured, except that they were all relatively young, in their 20’s. They were all different ethnicities, all different body types. Some were crying, others were blankly staring in front of them, as though on auto pilot. A few, like herself, were looking around, probably searching for a method of escape.
One of their captors led the chain at the front and she realized that he had a long tail like an iguana that hovered just above the ground as he walked. They passed another alien and the one in the front spoke to him, a series of hissing, throaty sounds that she knew no human could ever hope to replicate. Chills broke out over her body despite the heat.
A few moments later, they were led into the arena.
It was a massive structure made out of stone. She’d never been to Rome, but she’d seen the Coliseum in photos…and this place reminded her of it. Except they weren’t in Rome. Not by a long shot.
Automatically, she brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the glaring light, her chains jingling. The top of the Coliseum-like arena was open and her eyes widened when she spotted two suns. The bright stars were steadily sinking into the horizon, casting an intense golden glow over finely ground red rock followed by deep shadows from the stone pillars of the structure that jutted up towards the reddening sky.
A cumulative cry erupted from the women as they were led onto the rock—and a few moments later, Kate realized why. The rock was hot. Tears stung her eyes as her bare feet made contact. She hopped from one foot to another, the soles of her feet starting to blister. The alien leading the chained women made a harsh sound and slapped the girl at the front of the line across the face, whipping her head to the side.
The woman whimpered. Most went silent, but the crowd only grew louder. Kate grit her teeth, trying to ignore the pain as she pulled on the chains, testing them. She was beginning to realize that she was in deep shit. Seriously deep shit. This was becoming more and more real by the second.
What was also becoming more evident was that escape might be impossible. The chains were thick and strong. There was no way she’d be able to break her bonds, not without some sort of tool. And even if she somehow managed to slip away, how far would she get? She was on a strange alien planet. Everything she thought she knew was slowly being turned on its head.
And soon, her feet would be useless too. Every step zapped pain down her spine. Could she even run if she got away? She needed to be smart.
Focus, she commanded herself.
Her eyes finally adjusted to the light and she scanned around the stands of the Coliseum. A knot lodged itself in her throat when she realized that there were different species of aliens. Some looked like their captors, a lizard humanoid alien, but others…not so much. Some were nothing more than jellied blobs of matter, others looked more human. There were seemingly thousands of them. The combined noise of their languages and sounds created an ear-splitting buzzing that gave her an intense headache.
And then, suddenly, it went quiet.
The hissing, crackling voice of one of her captors filled the arena. The lizard-humanoid alien used something like a microphone that amplified his voice and whatever he was saying was met by cheers.
The women were shuffled into an empty stand, just feet away from the arena floor, and Kate was thankful for the cool relief of the shaded stone beneath her. They were lined up so that they were side-by-side, completely on display and nude. Her nipples tightened into stiff points from fear, from vulnerability, and she swallowed, trying to come up with some semblance of a plan. She’d always had a plan.
The woman next to her was a petite, thin blonde. There was a deep scar that ran up the side of her thigh. What surprised Kate the most was that the woman seemed calm. She stared ahead at the crowd of aliens like it was an every day occurrence, like she’d seen it millions of times before.
The woman saw her looking and inclined her head just a tad, before her gaze flitted to the alien at the end of the line that had secured them into the stands.
It seemed odd to introduce herself, especially in a situation like this, but the woman spoke before Kate could.
“You get used to it after a while,” the blonde murmured quietly. The loud alien voice droned on in the background, being met by cheers every now and again.
Kate’s breath left her. “You’ve done this before?”
“This is my third time now.”
“What—” Kate felt lightheaded suddenly. “What is happening? Where are we?”
“Lower your voice,” the blonde said quietly. “Or they’ll come over here.”
“Sorry,” Kate whispered, her arms trembling. “I just—I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Only me and the redhead at the end over there have returned,” she said, tilting her head down the row of women. The blonde looked back at the arena before them. The air was charged with an electricity that prickled her skin in awareness. It felt…ominous. The blonde continued, “This is a fight. Winner takes his pick.”
“Pick of what?”
The blonde looked at her oddly. “Of us.”
Kate physically felt the blood drain out of her face. All thought ground to a halt and she could only say, “But they’re aliens.”
No shit, Sherlock, she mocked herself.
“Like I said…you get used to it after a while. My first time? I freaked the fuck out.”
Kate wanted to laugh, the kind of hysterical laughter that people only had when they couldn’t believe what the hell was happening or when something had gone seriously, seriously wrong.
“What happens after that? What happens after one…picks you?”
Kate got a shrug and their chains tinked together. “I bit the first one that tried to take me so he chose another girl. Your guess is as good as mine. But let’s just say that I think there is a reason why we’re naked.”
How can she be so calm and collected about this? Kate wondered.
She realized the answer a moment later. Because she had to be. Kate realized that freaking out would get her nowhere. It was very likely that the blonde had come to the same conclusion: that they were fucked escape-wise. Their options were limited.
The alien must’ve ended his little speech with a bombshell because the arena went completely silent before chaos erupted. Kate realized they were excited, even more so than they had been before. And she couldn’t help but wonder why.
She glanced up at the setting suns and realized that was the least of her worries. How the hell was she going to get off this planet and get back home?
Steel doors on opposite sides of the arena hissed open slowly. The crowd went quiet. With bated breath, Kate watched as a hulking, hunched alien emerged from the tunnel. It had two legs and two arms, but its limbs seemed stretched, corded together by surprisingly thick muscles. Its skin was a velvet brown, its teeth sharp like razor points. Drool pooled on the ground as it walked and the alien let out a roar so deafening that it made the hair on her arms stand on end.
If this fight was for what Kate thought it was—to take one of them as a sex slave—there was even more reason to fight back. There was no way she’d let something like that get close to her, touch her.
Another big worry, however, had just appeared. Striding out through the double doors on the opposite side of the arena was a man. No, not a man, she realized. One of them. An alien. The crowd went absolutely bat shit crazy when they spotted him.
A pulse of awareness fluttered through Kate, reverberating to her very bones.
The alien was massive. Easily seven feet tall with ropes and ropes of muscles that lined his shoulders, his chest, his abdomen, his forearms, his thick thighs. His skin wasn’t green, or brown, or blue, but rather a subtle gold. His skin shimmered like a mirage, reflecting the light of the fading sun. That wasn’t the oddest thing, however. He had horns. Black horns that jutted up from his temples and curved around his head, fading into long, dark hair that fell to the middle of his back. He wore no armor, as the other alien wore. The golden one was bare chested, proudly showing off a multitude of scars that crossed and dissected his skin. A solid gold band wrapped around one of his biceps and she saw the glinting of metal pierced through his dusky nipples.
Brutal. Deadly. Intense.
Any one of those words would describe him.
What took her most by surprise was the heavy feeling in her breasts as she looked at him. And the faint throbbing between her thighs. Kate cursed herself. Feeling desire was the last thing she should be feeling right now. She’d been kidnapped. She was chained and naked in an arena full of aliens. She was lined up before two of those aliens who were about to fight one another to take one of them.
So why couldn’t she rip her gaze from him?
The alien looked around the arena, scanning the crowds, eyes narrowed, as if searching for something. His eyes tracked to the line of women she was standing among. And then, suddenly, he was looking straight at her. Not at the blonde next to her. Not at the woman on the other side of her with flawless, mocha-colored skin. Her.
There was no mistaking it. His expression didn’t change but something in the lines of his body did. His whole body tensed, his stomach clenched. For a moment, Kate wondered if she’d angered him somehow.
At his sides, his hands flexed. He had claws, tipped in sharp black nails. Kate gulped down air. Why was the air so thin suddenly?
Then, he tore his gaze away from her as though being forced to. His eyes sought out his opponent. Kate felt bad for the velvet brown alien. Almost.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blonde glance her way. Kate turned towards her, her heart pounding, suddenly very nervous about what the outcome of the fight would be.
Pity shone in the blonde’s eyes. Because she knew what Kate already suspected.
“Good luck,” the blonde whispered.
Quicker than Kate could blink, the fight began.