Caged by the Alien: A Scifi Alien Romance (Fated Mates of the Titan Empire Book 2)

by Tammy Walsh

My stomach growled and it started me awake. I pressed a hand to my stomach. I needed food soon. I was very hungry.

  I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

  It was the middle of the night. The only way I could know that was because the lights had automatically dimmed. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but they must have gradually risen and fallen throughout the day.

  So this was it. I was going to starve to death and that would be the end of me. No one would know I was here. No one would know I was dead. I would die here and I would rot. Then maybe those who put me in here would come for me.

  And that’s when I had my plan.

  I would pretend to suffer a heart attack or fall over and hit my head and just lay there. That way, they had to send someone in to check on me.

  I’d have to make sure I fell over into a comfortable position. Maybe on the bed. I would lay there without moving a muscle.

  But that meant they would have cameras. Were there any on me now?

  I hadn’t seen any. I didn’t think so.

  I shook my head. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel with my idea. I would do it, but only when I didn’t have any other option.

  I wracked my brains for another solution but came up empty.

  Agitated, I rolled onto my side with my eyes shut, trying to think through the situation.

  There was always a way out. You just had to think harder.

  I strained myself and…

  Nope.

  Nothing.

  I was doomed to rot in this room alone.

  I opened my eyes.

  A pair of eyes stared back at me.

  I flew back and fell out of bed. I landed on my ass but didn’t even register the pain that shot like lightning up my back.

  I skidded along the floor until I ran into the wall. My eyes were bulbous and my breaths rasped shallowly in my throat. My heart beat faster than a rabbit’s. I stared at the lump in my bed.

  But it wasn’t a lump.

  It was a man.

  And he’d been staring right at me.

  But if he was in the same room as me—in the same bed as me—he had to have gotten in somehow.

  I peered around the room for the door or entrance or passageway he must have used.

  But I saw nothing.

  I glanced back at the bed. The man still lay there, unmoving.

  Dead?

  He grumbled in his sleep.

  No, definitely not dead.

  I crawled along the wall sideways, keeping as much distance between me and the man as possible.

  My sexy negligee rode up and exposed my nakedness underneath. I drew it down to cover myself. Then a boob popped out, on full show.

  Why would someone dress me up in this thing? It concealed nothing!

  I got to my feet. It was the only way not to flash the man.

  I peered at each of the walls in turn. None showed any means of entry.

  How the hell had he gotten in here?

  I cursed myself for falling asleep. If I’d stayed awake, I might have seen how he entered!

  The man rolled over and smacked his lips. He was a slumbering giant.

  And any minute now, he was going to wake up.

  And find himself locked in a room with a half-naked girl.

  It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out how that situation would pan out.

  The man groaned and tossed the blankets to one side. He swung his legs out of the bed and stretched his arms.

  My heart rate reached a fever pitch.

  I needed a weapon. Something to defend myself with.

  But what? There was literally nothing in this place!

  The pen and paper!

  I didn’t think about how effective a weapon it would be. I just needed the confidence it would give me.

  I dashed for the desk and snagged up the notepad and pen. I removed the pen cap and tore a single page from the notepad.

  The man struggled up onto his feet.

  “Hold it right there, bub!” I said in as stern a voice I could muster.

  “Ngh?” he said.

  His hair stuck up with a bad case of bedhead. He stumbled from one side to the other, unsteady on his feet. He wore nothing but his underwear. A rather fetching—and very distracting—pair that worked wonders in revealing his impressive physique.

  “Stay away!” I said.

  “Wha?”

  “What are you doing in my room?”

  Okay, so it wasn’t my room but I was here first, goddammit! If he wanted somewhere to sleep, he was going to have to find his own place!

  The man blinked, doing his best to wake up. It was only then that he noticed me standing there armed with my pen and paper. He peered at the rest of the room.

  “What the hell?” he said. “Where am I?”

  “Where are you?” I said. “You’re in my damn room! Get out!”

  He raised his hands.

  “Look, I’m as surprised I’m here as you are,” he said. “There’s no need to get all aggressive. This is a mistake. I’ll go.”

  He turned from me and marched toward the nearest section of wall. He placed his hand to it, feeling for where the door ought to be. He turned and surveyed the rest of the room. It was a little dark and dingy with the doused lights.

  “So, where’s the door?” he said.

  My shoulders fell. I’d been hoping he would lead me to it.

  “Why don’t you show me?” I said. “You must have used it when you came in.”

  “How could I when I don’t even know where I am?”

  “You were lying on my bed a minute ago!” I said. “I rolled over and there you were. You must have gotten in somehow!”

  “I’m damned if I know,” he said.

  “Your eyes were open!”

  “Sorry. Sometimes I sleep with them open.”

  “It’s freaky.”

  “I can’t help it.”

  This wasn’t getting us anywhere.

  “Who are you?” I said.

  “Chax. Who are you?”

  “I’m Madeline. Maddy. Are you the one that locked me up? I swear, I won’t tell anyone what you’re doing. I don’t even know what you’re doing here! Just let me go and I’ll never tell anyone anything, I swear.”

  “I didn’t lock you up.”

  I looked him over. His expression seemed genuine enough. He appeared to be telling the truth but since when did that mean anything?

  “Seriously,” I said. “If you’re part of this, just let me go. I’m no danger to you.”

  “I told you. I don’t know what’s going on here. For all I know, you’re the one that put me in here.”

  Was this guy trapped the same way I was? I didn’t know whether or not to be relieved. I mean, I wasn’t on my own now. That was a good thing. But if he had no clue about where we were either, it didn’t exactly bode well for either of us.

  I lowered the pen and sheet of notepaper but didn’t put them down.

  “All I know is, I woke up here yesterday and I don’t know where I am,” I said. “I checked the walls for a door but couldn’t find one.”

  “There’s no door?” he said. “Then how did we end up in here?”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “I can’t be here,” Chax said. “My parents need help bringing in the crop. I only went out for a walk in the woods and…”

  He froze and turned to me.

  “What?” I said, prepared to bring my weapons up at a moment’s notice.

  I knew what the words on his lips were going to be next. Just as they had been on mine.

  “The bright light,” he said.

  The blood drained from my face. I’d been expecting it and yet it came as no less of a surprise.

  “I couldn’t move,” he said. “I was stuck there, pinned in place. I couldn’t escape. Then the light grew brighter and brighter until…”

  His eyes fixed on mine.

  “It sucked you up into the sky,” I said.

 
“How could you know that?” he said.

  “Because it happened to me too.”

  I took a seat on one side of the dining table. I couldn’t sit on the bed. Not with a stranger. It seemed too… intense.

  “We were abducted,” I said.

  “Oh, man,” Chax said, falling into the opposite chair.

  He was big and swamped it. He placed his head in his hands.

  “Your name’s Chax?” I said. “Where are you from?”

  “Phod,” Chax said.

  “Phod?” I said. “Where’s that?”

  “In the Phodrian solar system.”

  “Solar system?”

  My eyes bulged and I leaned back in my chair.

  “Wait,” I said. “You’re telling me you’re an alien?”

  “Sure. You are too. To me.”

  I never thought of it like that before.

  “But you look so human,” I said.

  “Human? That’s what your species is called. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of humans before. Are you a space-faring race?”

  “Space-faring? Well, yeah, I guess so.”

  “How many colonies does your species have?”

  “Colonies?”

  “You know, other planets, moons.”

  “Uh. None. Just our moon.”

  His shoulders fell.

  “Then there’s not much chance your species is going to come rescue us,” he said.

  “Not for at least a few more hundred years,” I said. “What about your… species?”

  The terms felt funny on my tongue. Planets. Moons. Solar systems. Species. I felt like I was back in physics class.

  “I’m a Titan. We have one of the largest empires in the galaxy.”

  “That’s good, right?” I said. “Your species is space-faring. They can rescue us.”

  Chax shook his head.

  “I’m afraid not,” he said.

  “Why not?”

  “The bigger the empire, the more stretched out the defense resources,” he said. “And I’m only a farmer. Nobody is going to waste resources to come looking for me.”

  These Titans might be more technologically advanced, but their way of thinking between the classes hadn’t changed.

  “If you’re an alien, how come you’re speaking English?” I said.

  “I’m not speaking English,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Oh, okay, then,” I said. “Speaking American.”

  “I’m not speaking American either. I’m speaking Titian.”

  “Then how come I can understand you?”

  “Because of this.”

  He pressed a hand to the plastic strip at his neck. My hand went to the identical strip on mine.

  “It’s called a translator strip,” he said. “It makes it possible for different species to talk to each other.”

  My stomach growled loudly.

  “Are you hungry?” he said.

  “No,” I said, still processing the information.

  I had so many questions, so many—

  My stomach growled again. Traitor.

  “Are you sure?” he said. “Because when most species make that noise, it’s because they’re hungry.”

  “I’m not,” I snapped. “It happens when I’m scared half to death by a half-naked man suddenly turning up in my bed in the middle of the night. People have been shot for less.”

  “Well, I’m hungry,” he said.

  He leaned over to the recess in the wall I noticed earlier.

  “It can make whatever you want,” he said. “You just have to tell it. Computer, make a Methusida steak. Medium rare.”

  The machine glowed with light and a moment later, a plate appeared with a steak and some funky-looking purple vegetables on the side.

  I could even smell it. Had I lost my mind or did I just see food pop into existence from nowhere?

  I reached out a hand.

  “Take it,” he said. “It’s a Titan specialty.”

  Instead of going for the plate, I snatched up the knife and turned it on him.

  “Woah!” he said.

  He raised both his hands in surrender.

  “Don’t come near me!” I said, swiping at the empty air. “I’ll cut you! I will!”

  “Take it easy!” Chax said.

  “Let me out of here!” I said. “Let me go right now!”

  I stamped my foot for emphasis. God help the man—or Titan or whatever he was—if he ignored a woman who stamped her foot.

  “Put the knife down,” he said. “You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

  I swiped at the air, a warning as he drew closer.

  “I’m not going to hurt myself!” I said. “I’m going to hurt you!”

  “You can’t hurt me,” he said.

  “You wanna bet? Just open the door or however you got in here and let me go!”

  “I told you. I don’t know how I ended up here. The same way you don’t. So just hand me the knife and—”

  He stepped forward with his huge hulking mass. Too close. I swiped sideways and caught something solid.

  Chax hissed through his teeth and pressed one hand over the other. Blood spilled from between his fingers as he rushed to the bathroom.

  I immediately dropped the knife.

  “Oh my God!” I said. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

  “Waving a knife around tends to have that effect,” he said. “It’s fine.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re hurt.”

  “No, really,” he said. “It’s fine.”

  He turned the tap on and rinsed the blood off his hands.

  “Show me,” I said.

  I took his hand and peered at it. There was a single notch where the knife had caught him but it was much smaller than I expected. A little blood spurted from it. He rinsed it with more water. When I looked at his hand again, even the notch was gone.

  My mouth fell open and I just stared at him.

  “But it’s… No… That’s impossible,” I said.

  “For a human, maybe,” he said. “Not for a Titan. We heal very fast.”

  Okay, consciousness, come up with a reasonable explanation for that one.

  I couldn’t think of one. Except…

  He really was an alien.

  We both really had been abducted.

  Nothing else made sense.

  The bright light in the sky was from a UFO. Me and my friends had been abducted. I didn’t know where they were. Maybe they were in rooms like this one. Someone locked me up in here as a cruel game. Or torture.

  And then put a male Titan in here with me.

  For what purpose?

  I felt sick.

  This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t.

  I lived in the real world. Not Fantasy Land.

  “Now I really am hungry,” Chax said. “Fast healing takes energy. Lots and lots of energy. Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

  He drifted back over to the dining table.

  “Uh, yeah, actually, I am,” I said.

  “Good,” he said. “But I think we’re going to need a new knife. Titan blood might be powerful but it sure doesn’t taste great.”

  “Sorry again for cutting you,” I said.

  “I’ve had worse shaving,” Chax said.

  I found that hard to believe. What did he use to shave with? A shard of glass?

  Chax moved to the machine and nodded to it.

  “Just tell it what you’d like,” he said.

  “Computer,” I said, repeating what he said before. “I’ll have… spaghetti bolognese.”

  A moment later, the meal was there. It came with a fork and spoon and a side dish of parmesan cheese.

  “Wow,” I said. “It’s even faster than McDonald’s. What is this machine called anyway?”

  “It’s a replicator.”

  It was all I could do not to wolf it down. If Chax wasn’t there, I would have.

  Chax turned away to bring the ste
ak to his side of the table. I took the opportunity to get a better look at him. He wore nothing but his tight pair of dark underwear. His body was ridiculous. Toned muscles popped and flexed in places I didn’t even know muscles existed. He could have been a model for Hugo Boss.

  I tried not to gawp but it was difficult.

  It wasn’t every day you saw a guy with that physique. Even less often when you were trapped in a room with him.

  He had a nice ass too. The type that crossed a room and begged for attention and wouldn’t let up until it got it.

  Well, it got mine.

  In another time and place, I might have been interested.

  But not here. Not with the threat of being trapped in this room for the rest of my life hanging over me. We were going to get out of here, no matter what it took.

  He brought a mug of drink over to complement the steak he ordered for me earlier.

  “What exactly is a Methusida steak, anyway?” I said.

  “It’s a steak made from a creature called a Methusida.”

  “You’re kidding?” I said flatly. “I never would have guessed.”

  He chuckled.

  “Tell me what it looks like,” I said.

  He cut off a slice and put it in his mouth.

  “It’s a big creature,” he said. “Scary. Not the kind of thing you want to stumble on when you’re going for a walk in the woods. A full-grown Methusida consists of two bodies, each with its own head. They look like a pair of sisters but they’re not. They’re part of the same creature. One is in charge of creative thought, the other of physical actions. Oh, and she has snakes for hair.”

  A meatball rolled off my spoon. I thought he was kidding until he said the last part.

  “Snakes for hair?” I said. “You’re talking about Medusa.”

  “Methusida,” he corrected.

  “It’s a mythical creature where I’m from.”

  “It’s real where I live. And they’re deadly. But they make delicious steaks.”

  I shook my head. It made my meatballs sound very dull in comparison.

  “Do you have any idea what we’re supposed to be doing here?” I said.

  “I guess they want us to stay here,” Chax said.

  “Like a prison? But what for? We didn’t break any rules, did we?”

  “A lot of strange things happen in the galaxy,” he said. “If you ask me, we’re pretty lucky. We’ve got a replicator for everything we need and a nice, big comfy bed to sleep in.”

  “I have a nice big comfy bed to sleep in,” I said. “You’ve got the floor.”