by A. G. Wilde
His gaze held a challenge and Lauren’s lips tightened. He knew damn well she didn’t have any money.
Glancing toward the hole in the wall that he’d walked through, she briefly considered making a run for it. But even if she made it outside the zoo, where would she go? What would she do?
“Don’t even think about it,” the zookeeper said, his cold hand closing around her arm before she could even move out of his reach.
She only had enough time to grab a few of her now-exposed stash of meal bars and stuff them into her pocket as she was pulled out of the room.
The stench of the market was unbearable. It smelled exactly like she remembered it, and this time she knew what the smell was.
It was the smell of unwashed bodies and waste.
With a jolt, the zookeeper set down the box he’d forced her into and hovered close by.
He seemed nervous.
His eyes kept darting around as if he was afraid of getting caught doing something wrong, and that made her wonder what exactly was going on.
The box was closed.
All she could see of the outside was through the little slits cut into the sides of the box, and thank God she wasn’t claustrophobic because she’d be suffocating right about now.
The box was big enough that she could sit upright, cross-legged in it, but with the lid closed it was dark inside.
Taking a deep breath, Lauren tried to calm her beating heart.
Turning around in the box, she tried to catch a view of the other aliens in the area to get an idea of what sort of buyers were scouting for goods today.
The last time she’d been at the market, she’d been in a cage, not a box. It’d been wide open and she’d been able to see them clearly and them her. She didn’t miss their leers or their creepy smiles.
This time, visibility was massively reduced. She couldn’t see the face of anyone close to the box, only those who were a way off.
What she could see clearly were cages with other creatures, some of them looking physically abused, some looking near dead. It didn’t help the uneasy feeling growing in her stomach.
There was movement above her head and the top of the box was suddenly opened.
The stench seemed even stronger now and it had her covering her nose with one hand and shading her eyes with the other from the bright light.
As her gaze adjusted and she took in more of the surroundings, her anxiety increased.
Something in a cage close to her that looked like a massive snake with three round heads hissed at her as she began to stand.
“Sit.”
A firm hand pressed against her shoulder and she looked up to see the zookeeper’s eyes still darting around.
He wasn’t even looking at her.
What was his problem?
He was up to something, or something wasn’t right.
It was still early, it seemed, because there weren’t many buyers.
This was a guy who cut corners and tried to save a buck at every turn.
Why would he bring her out now when there wasn’t a good chance of him selling her for much?
The Sphynx cats beside him also had their eyes darting around, as if they were keeping watch.
Curious.
As Lauren frowned, a few beings caught sight of her and walked over.
The zookeeper leaned in, his breath brushing against her skin.
He pressed his torture remote into her side.
Great. She hadn’t realized he had the thing.
“Don’t even think about running.”
She knew what that meant.
Running would mean collapsing on her face as each and every cell in her body caught on fire.
The first time it happened, she’d thought she was going to die.
The second time wasn’t better either. Neither were the third, fourth, or fifth times.
“You have no alien status here. You run. You get caught. You go to the mines.” The zookeeper’s mouth twisted in a smile. “You choose.”
Settling back in her box, she said nothing.
It wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned the mines and, frankly, it didn’t sound like a place she wanted to be.
Instead, she focused on the beings beginning to surround the box.
It was a group of the same species of alien. They were all black with sharp edges, as if their bodies were made of blades compacted together. Standing at over seven feet, she supposed, they were taller than even the zookeeper.
Their dark eyes were focused on her and Lauren swallowed hard.
She couldn’t see any emotion in those eyes.
And they were male. She could see very clearly they were male.
“What sort of creature is this?” One stretched forward to touch her and the zookeeper grabbed the alien’s arm.
Lauren’s wide eyes flew to the zookeeper.
Wasn’t he brave.
Or maybe his torture remote didn’t only work on her? Because seven feet of blades wasn’t the sort of alien she’d want to be in an altercation with.
“No touching. Touch it after you buy it for as long and as much as you want to,” the zookeeper said, and the suggestion in his tone made her pale.
The alien’s thin mouth twisted into a leery smile, and a shiver ran down her spine as she watched the others smile as well.
“A set of credits,” the alien offered.
A set? Just one?
Was that all they thought her life was worth?
Lauren glanced from one to the other and she moved back against the walls of the box.
Nope. She’d seen this movie.
Heck, she’d directed it in her head during her year with nothing else to do, and she knew how this was going to end.
She’d have to try to make a run for it. Fuck the pain that would come. She’d crawl through mud and excrement if that meant she had a chance of safety.
As she gripped the sides of the box, ready to make a run for it, another being caught her attention.
Four eyes blinked at her as the alien’s big, bubble-head tilted to the side.
He was skinny, shorter than all the aliens around her box, and looked as if even she could beat him up.
Nevertheless, he pushed between the tall bladey aliens to come to the front and blinked at her, all four eyes scanning her from head to toe.
“Two sets of credits,” he said.
Lauren stared at him.
He didn’t seem as bad as the others. Her hands relaxed a little on the box.
The tall, dark aliens looked at each other.
“Two sets and fifty,” one of them said.
The zookeeper’s eyes lit up a little.
“The creature can speak and follow instructions as well.” His gaze jumped from one potential buyer to another.
He was trying to up their bids.
Lauren scowled at him. Such a piece of shit.
Hadn’t he earned enough because of her? She’d been in his zoo for a whole year.
“What we want to do with it will not require speaking…” one of the tall dark aliens said.
“…or following instructions. The creature will do what we want… willingly or not,” another chimed in.
Shit.
She knew what they were suggesting and it made her want to puke.
“Four sets of credits,” the thin green alien said.
The zookeeper grinned and the tall, dark aliens glanced at each other.
“For that price, we can get three Umongals.”
There was a pause as they looked at her again, then, with a sound of annoyance, they walked away without making another offer. The small green alien’s mouth moved as if he was smiling a little.
“Sold to the Torian.” The zookeeper pulled out some sort of device and completed the transaction as Lauren watched the green alien with interest.
She couldn’t read him.
She had no idea if he was good or bad, and that was worrisome.
So far, from her experien
ce, there was little good in this universe. Most beings seemed bad…
Hopefully, this deal wouldn’t make things worse.
“Goodness me, you are heavy.” The voice came from above as the green alien carried her in the box.
The scent of the creature market was now behind them and Lauren could now see other parts of the marketplace.
It was a colorful exchange, full of shoppers and stalls on each side of the wide road.
“What have they been feeding you to make you this heavy?” the alien continued.
Was he calling her fat?
“I can walk, you know,” she said, but the alien only looked at her as if he couldn’t understand.
He made a sound in his throat, his four eyes flicking from her to the surroundings then back, as he gripped onto her box.
She felt like a puppy he’d just bought from the pet store.
A huff of a dry laugh came through her nose.
She guessed that was what she was.
It hadn’t taken her long to realize that, as a human, she had no rights in this intergalactic stew of aliens that she now existed within.
It had taken some getting used to, this new life.
And there was no returning home.
Another huff of a sad laugh came through her nose and she sniffled.
“Oh, Raxu.” The alien carrying her lifted its eyes to the roof covering the market. “It’s sniffling. I beg, don’t make it sick. I do not wish to catch its diseases. Who knows the effect it would have on me, and my lovely Cargga would be grossly inconvenienced by it.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “I can understand you, you know.”
The alien’s four eyes settled on her, a look of mild disgust on its face.
“I must get your language upload. Understanding your primitive speak would be beneficial.” He jerked a little with glee. “Oh, I do hope my Cargga likes you. I was lucky to be walking by the creature market to find you.” He looked down at her. “You’re not very pleasing to the gaze but I guess you will do.”
Lauren’s eyes widened. He just called her fat and now he was saying she was ugly.
Her mouth set into a firm line as she crossed her arms.
Let him carry her. He deserved to carry the weight.
Though, she had to admit, for his frail stature, he was doing a good job lifting her all the way.
Lauren turned her attention back to her surroundings.
Being outside the zoo, not separated from the world by a transparent barrier, felt strange.
There was so much…life.
She was just looking at a group of short identical aliens walking together when the alien carrying her stopped suddenly in front of an empty stall.
“Xid!” he called harshly and, a second later, a long, gray neck popped up from underneath the stall. Atop the neck was a head that she could only say was shaped like binoculars.
“You need?” the alien asked, his uninterested eyes on the alien holding her.
“A language upload. The language of this poor, ugly thing.”
Lauren’s eyes turned to slits as she regarded the alien holding her. He wasn’t light on the compliments at all, was he?
“Language code?” the alien inside the stall asked, and she realized only then that his mouth was in his neck.
She tried not to stare but couldn’t help it. He didn’t seem to mind anyway. His uninterested gaze was now on her but he said nothing.
“Ah, the code. I have it. That thieving zookeeper almost wanted me to pay extra for it.” The alien holding her braced her box on his leg as he reached across the counter to punch in a code on a device sitting there.
“Downloading,” the alien behind the counter said. “Done,” he said in the next second, and Lauren’s brows shot up.
Did he download the entire English language so quickly?
Next, the alien holding her leaned forward as another device like the ones doctors used to look into your ear was placed by the side of his head.
He let out a sound of discomfort before his four eyes squeezed shut for a second, then opened.
“Done,” the alien behind the counter said.
The alien holding her looked at her. “Can you understand me now…thing?”
“I could always understand you. And my name is Lauren, not thing.”
The alien’s face lightened a little and he leaned forward.
“I am Geblit.”
“Nice to meet you, Geblit.” She still had her arms crossed as her eyes narrowed a little. “Now, mind telling me what you bought me for?”
He leaned back then, all four eyes darting to the side.
“You are a surprise.”
A surprise?
That’s what she’d thought her name was as a child.
It’s what her dad had called her till he’d packed his bags and left in the dead of the night.
Safe to say, some people didn’t like surprises.
She could only hope that wasn’t the case this time.
3
“Get. That. Thing. Out of here!” The screech was so high-pitched, Lauren covered her ears and ducked a little into her box.
She didn’t need to ask if the female in the room wanted her there. It was quite clear.
After all, she didn’t want to be there, either, but the woman’s husband…male…mate—whatever Geblit wanted to call himself, bought her, so did she really have a choice? No. She had to sit in her box and wait like a good little pet.
It was either the box, roughing it out on an alien landscape, or the mines.
A low mumbling of words reached her ears as said husband tried to reason with his wife. Apparently, he failed to say the right thing because a loud crack was heard as something slammed into the door before it fell to the heap of other thrown things now congregated on the floor. She was glad she wasn’t in the room. That object could have easily been her. Wifey was not pleased AT ALL.
“It. Is. Hideous! How dare you buy such a deformed thing?!”
Lauren’s mouth fell open as her eyes grew wide. Was the woman referring to her…as…as hideous? Deformed? The accusation was so shocking, she found herself looking down at her body just to make sure that, after twenty-four years, she hadn’t been living in denial—failing to see what she really was.
“I thought you would have liked something that doesn’t look as beautiful as you do, my love,” Geblit replied and Lauren’s lip curled in annoyance. “You know you shine for my eyes only.”
“Well…” the wife’s voice became so sultry, Lauren wouldn’t have thought that just a second ago, the female had been throwing a fit. “I am beautiful.”
“Yes, you are, my sweetest dear.”
Ugh.
Plopping down to sit cross-legged in the box, Lauren crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, allowing them to go way back in her head as she mimed the couple’s words silently.
I am beautiful.
You are my love.
Oh, please. Did they hear themselves?
“But I cannot bear to look at the thing, much less have it join our matings. I wanted to add flavor to our beddings…spice! Not remove it by gazing on unattractive things while you pleasure me!”
What the fuck?
Eww.
Lauren’s head snapped in the direction of the closed door as she glared at it.
That’s why that skinny little alien had bought her? So she could…could…join him and his wife in bed?
Her stomach heaved at the thought.
No, thank you.
What was with it with these aliens and sex? Goddamn.
Raising her eyes to the ceiling, she uttered a silent prayer.
It’s one thing to be degraded like a pet, being carried around in a box and expected to sit there and wait obediently, but to be bought as a sex pet?
Eww.
“I cannot bear to look at it. It’s too…it’s too hideous!” the female within the room continued. “Two eyes! Missing limbs!”
Geblit groaned. �
��It is my mistake. I did not remember that you don’t like beings with missing limbs. I was so focused on getting this rare find.”
Something else smashed against the door and fell to the floor.
“Take it away, Geblit!”
“Anything for you, my love.”
The door opened and Geblit stepped back out, his form slightly bent as he bowed to his wife. There was just enough of a gap between the door closing and his exit for Lauren to lay eyes on the offensive wife, and it only made her face scrunch up more in annoyance.
Heh.
She was no prize, but the wife wasn’t either! She was at least five times the size of Geblit, who was skinny, but still. The big bubble on the back of Geblit’s head had looked enormous to her but his wife’s was even larger. And where he had four round, kind eyes at the front of his head, she had six enormous, fire-spitting ones.
With a huff, Geblit came over to her box, which he’d left in the middle of the floor of his dwelling.
“Now I have to return you,” he said, tiredness in his eyes. She guessed this wasn’t the first time he’d had to do such biddings.
But return her?
Back to that creature market?
Images of the tall, dark aliens who’d wanted to buy her came right back.
Shit. She couldn’t go back there.
Geblit’s four arms extended and grasped the underside of the box. He lifted her quite easily as he headed out of his mushroom-shaped dwelling to where he’d left his hovercar.
A soft wind blew as they made the trek in silence.
Lauren bit her lip.
She needed to do something about this or she was going to be in deep poop.
“To travel all the way back to the exchange,” Geblit mumbled.
“You don’t have to take me to the exchange, you know,” Lauren said and Geblit’s eyes widened a little.
“I forgot you can understand me,” he said.
“You seem to forget a lot of things.” Lauren sighed and crossed her arms. “Yep, I heard every word.”
Geblit looked at her, his gaze lingering on her arms as if he was indeed a bit turned off by her lack of extra limbs.
“It is rude to listen to private conversations,” he said.
