Her Alien Captor: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Alien Pirates Of Cania Book 1)

by Zara Zenia

  “Voila,” she said as the lock clicked open, granting them access to Nor’s fortress.

  We’re coming, Devron, she thought, throat tightening for unknown reasons. She just hoped they wouldn’t be too late.

  31

  Melody felt like she already knew the way through Nor’s fortress since they’d spent so much time studying the blueprints Rayhan had provided. Things were moving smoothly as they silently slipped through back corridors. Melody kept one hand hovering on the blaster at her hip, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to use it until she ran into Nor himself.

  The guards who worked for him here were her enemies, no doubt, but after getting to know Rayhan a bit, she wondered how many of them were in similar tough spots, forced into a job they didn’t agree with because of circumstances beyond their control.

  This Nobleman’s Frenzy impacted all Canians, not just the noblemen. The women were mistreated, discarded, and assaulted without any recourse. The ones who were fertile frequently wound up bearing the children of those assaults, and their sons were victim to the same curse, keeping the cycle going.

  It was horrible all around for everyone, but that was a problem too large for Melody to tackle, and she knew it. Freeing Devron was the only mission she was focused on, and the closer she got to him, the stronger the pull between them grew. She could tell he was close, and it made her eager to hurry. It made her reckless.

  That’s when the plan started to fall apart. Melody stepped into a hallway without checking it—like a goddamned rookie—and was immediately spotted.

  “Hey! What are you doing down here, Omega?” the guy barked, not seeing the others behind her. Melody tensed all at once, the familiar epitaph making her rage inside.

  “I have a name,” she growled, fingers closing around the blaster grip.

  The Canian’s eyes darted, following her hand, and his brows lifted a moment too late. Naela was a hell of a tutor, and Melody whipped the blaster from its holster and shot the guy square in the chest before he could reach for his comm.

  Cold flooded through her, the blaster still humming and warm in her shaking fingers.

  “Good shot,” Naela said, bending over the guard with a satisfied nod.

  “You had no choice,” said Sina, resting a clawed hand on Melody’s shoulder. Melody still trembled with the shock of it. She’d never shot anyone, never thought she’d be capable of killing like that. But Sina was right. If she’d given him another moment, he would’ve called it in. There would be backup. They’d be discovered.

  She looked back at Rayhan, who remained expressionless as he rifled through the fallen guard’s pockets. He took the comm, the keys, and they guy’s ID card.

  “Keys to the kingdom,” he said, tucking the comm into his front pocket. There was idle chatter coming from the speaker, nothing important, guys being guys.

  That was good. No one had any reason for concern yet.

  In her head, Melody pulled up the map of the fortress and envisioned where they were, where Devron was likely being held.

  “This way,” Rayhan said, ushering the group after him. Melody stayed put.

  “We have to keep moving,” Jorwon said, grabbing her wrist. She snatched it away, feet firmly rooted, looking down the opposite direction.

  “Devron’s not the only prisoner he has here,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip. Devron was their mission, the only thing that should matter, but . . .

  Melody couldn’t forget the feeling of hopelessness and despair that flooded her every moment when she was under Nor’s thumb. And she couldn’t ignore that he had dozens of others locked up in the same situation, girls he was training, saving to sell to the highest bidder.

  She couldn’t leave them there.

  “We’re not here for them,” Gaddis hissed, looking to his mate for support.

  Melody looked to Sina too, pleading with her silently. “They don’t deserve this any more than I did,” she said, her voice imploring but firm. She wouldn’t back down, even if they weren’t going to help her.

  “Devron’s waiting for us,” Naela said. “You’re wasting time, and he may not have much left.”

  Melody’s stomach twisted. Naela wasn’t wrong about that. Melody knew that Nor wouldn’t hesitate to kill Devron, that he was only toying with him and prolonging the inevitable. She knew any time wasted on distractions was time that could mean Devron’s life.

  And still, she couldn’t walk away.

  “I’m sorry. I have to,” she said, dashing down the hallway before any of them could stop her.

  The layout here was different than on his ship, but it was still clearly a stable of women. Each girl had a small room, barely big enough to turn around in, each with the same broken, hopeless feeling that had consumed Melody during her time as Nor’s prisoner. They were from all over, aliens of kinds Melody hadn’t even seen before, but they were all beautiful in a way. Beautiful and broken.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Rayhan hissed, skidding to a stop beside her.

  Melody grinned over her shoulder at him. “Not sure I ever had one. You gonna give me those keys, or you gonna make me waste time breaking all of these open?” she asked, holding her hand out to him expectantly.

  Rayhan growled under his breath, and he wasn’t the only one looking at Melody like an escaped asylum patient. The rest of the group had followed, and they were all glaring, fuming that she’d derail the plan like this.

  She didn’t care. It was worth it to save these girls.

  Ray took the ID card he’d swiped from the other guard and pressed it to a keypad on the wall, typing in a sequence of numbers that made the keypad beep three times before every door in the hallway swung open.

  Nothing happened.

  Melody peered into one of the cells, and the girl was pressed back against the wall, trying to make herself smaller, hidden.

  “It’s okay,” she promised, offering her hand. “You’re free now. He’s not going to hurt you anymore.”

  She shrank further into her shoulders, a mess of curly orange hair obscuring most of her face.

  “Free?” came another voice. Melody stepped back, and one of the women was peering out of her cell, looking around bewildered.

  One by one, owl-like eyes peered out, wide and suspicious before the Omegas-in-training crept from their stables.

  “Jorwon, escort them out, please,” Naela ordered. Jorwon looked tempted to argue with the captain, but whatever argument he had, he didn’t voice.

  “Come with me,” he told them, waving after him.

  Following another Canian male seemed to be the last thing most of them wanted to do.

  “You have to go with him. It’s not safe here for you,” Melody implored. “He’ll get you out, he’s—”

  A deafening wail echoed through the corridor, all of them ducking to cover their ears except Rayhan.

  “Shit,” he cursed. “That’s the alarm. Get out now,” he commanded the women. The alarm seemed to spark some urgency in them, and they hurried after Jorwon who had his blaster raised and ready to go.

  “Will they be all right?” Sina asked, full of concern.

  Naela nodded. “Jorwon won’t let anything happen to them. He’s a crack shot. Don’t worry.”

  “There’s plenty to worry about,” Rayhan said, the alarms still blaring loud enough he had to shout. “We need to move.”

  Just as he said that, before he could explain the immediacy, the first of the bulkheads slammed down, blocking off the exit Jorwon and the Omegas had fled through.

  “Hurry!” he shouted, sprinting to the other end of the hallway. A thick steel door slammed down there, too, sealing them in place.

  “This is your fault!” Naela accused Melody, shaking a finger at her. “You had to deviate from the plan.”

  “Yeah, I did,” Melody spat back. “I wasn’t just going to leave them—”

  “You should have! Now you’ve—” Naela stopped, her tirade going silent in an instant as a faint hiss soun
ded in the room.

  Rayhan cursed again. “Gas,” he answered to their questioning looks.

  “Gas?!” Melody shrieked. She expected they were trapped, that Nor would capture them and they’d have to sort out a new plan. But he was just going to gas them and be done with it?

  What kind of lawless planet was this?

  “I’d guess we have less than a minute before the concentration is enough to knock us unconscious,” he answered.

  Melody relaxed a little. “It’s knock-out gas?”

  Rayhan was clearly confused. “Unconsciousness comes approximately thirty seconds before death,” he expanded.

  “Great,” Melody huffed, eyes darting around. She could hear the hiss, but there was nothing to see, nothing to smell. The gas was clear, odorless, and apparently deadly. She always expected poison gas to come in thick green clouds like in the movies. It was somehow anti-climatic.

  While she was pondering the end of her life, Sina and Gaddis had been studiously examining a panel on the wall connected to the bulkhead.

  “Got anything?” Naela asked, sounding calmer than Melody thought she should. They were all going to die in a matter of seconds. How could she be anything other than panicked?

  “Canian tech,” Sina said, one of her sharp claws slicing through a wire on the exposed panel. “A joke, really.” She chuckled as the bulkhead lifted, others following suit. Gaddis stepped in, did something, and the hissing stopped too.

  “Nor never trusted the Selithi enough to buy their security,” Rayhan said, shaking his head in amazement. “Damn fool. We wouldn’t even be in space if it wasn’t for your tech.”

  Gaddis and Sina both preened a bit under the praise, but Melody was still reeling. Things had gone from zero to sixty and back again so fast she felt like she had whiplash. For a moment, she was so relieved to not be imminently dying that she forgot why they were here.

  “Let’s go,” Naela growled. “We’ve lost the element of surprise. No use in giving him more time to prepare for us.”

  Nor had tried to kill her too many times. He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into with Melody Blake, but he was sure as hell about to find out.

  32

  With the alarm blaring, it was impossible to communicate between them. Rayhan kept an ear tuned to the stolen comm and managed to steer them around the approaching guards at every turn. Whatever Sina and Gaddis had done to the system, the bulkheads and gas were completely inoperable, the metal doors popping up and down from their place in the ceiling, only ever descending a foot or so before snapping back into place.

  Melody’s heart pounded, not just because of the running and the danger, but because they were close. She could feel Devron’s presence, and it yanked at her like there was a rope tied around her intestines.

  Bootsteps echoed down the maze of corridors, and part of Melody hoped that Jorwon and the girls had made it out before the alarm went off. Naela was confident in her crewman’s abilities, but he was sorely outnumbered and outgunned if he got caught.

  Whatever Jorwon was doing wasn’t something Melody could concern herself with at the moment, though. She felt like she was moving through a dream, everything happening too quickly and in slow motion at the same time. Sounds were muffled and too loud, lights distant but blinding, her body was present but her mind felt like it was somewhere else, and all she could do was keep pressing forward.

  “That’s the detention block,” Rayhan said, pointing down to a set of double doors with a pair of guards.

  Nor might not know for sure what was going on in his fortress, but he wasn’t about to leave Devron unsupervised. Even he wasn’t that cocky.

  “There’s no way we’re getting past them undetected,” Melody said, voice trembling with every word. She was vibrating with energy, so antsy to go and get to Devron.

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  “You’re right,” Rayhan said, taking a deep breath as he straightened his spine and withdrew his weapon.

  “Hands up!” he demanded as he spun around the corner, blaster already trained on the guards.

  Startled hands shot up into the air without hesitation before the guards looked closer and recognized their old boss.

  “The hell?” one of them muttered. “What’re you—”

  “Open the door,” Rayhan commanded with a wave of the gun. Naela stepped up behind him, her gun pointed at the ready too. Then Sina and Gaddis. They surrounded the guard who wasn’t talking and disarmed him before restraining him. The other guard was disarmed too, but he didn’t put up a fight.

  “Ray, what’s this about?” the guard asked, suspicious even as he did as he was told, unlocking the doors behind him.

  “Get yourself out of here, Lezin. You don’t want to be caught in the crossfire,” Rayhan said, his mouth firm and grim.

  Melody didn’t care about their conversation. The moment the door was open, she pushed past the rest of them and rushed into another hallway of doors, each room empty until she got to the end and her breath caught in her chest.

  The door wasn’t locked—she assumed Rayhan’s doing—and she yanked it open without a second thought, her chest hurting, a big, open, gaping wound there as she tried to breathe.

  “Devron?” she asked softly, tiptoeing into the room. He was tied to a chair in the center of the room, his upper body slack against the bonds, head hung low, his pale hair matted and limp and caked with blood. She’d never seen a creature so broken and was surprised by the depth of her sympathy for him.

  “Devron,” she whispered again, stepping closer. His shoulders moved, only just enough to indicate breathing. “We’re going to get you out of here,” she said, stomach twisting at the sight of him. He was dirty and bruised, covered in blood caked on for days, it seemed.

  It took him a long time, but slowly, Devron’s head began to lift. He raised his eyes, hard and unfeeling, up to her, and his whole face changed. He didn’t believe she was in front of him. Didn’t believe it was possible. He was going to die in this place—any minute now, the way it felt—and he was never going to see her again.

  He’d made his peace with that.

  Was she a mirage? A vision or a dream of his last waking moments?

  His heart beat for what felt like the first time in ages. He looked at her, and his pulse quickened, his blood warming with determination that had been missing while he felt sorry for himself.

  “Melody?” he croaked, sure she wasn’t really there, sure he couldn’t be so lucky.

  “Know any other humans on this planet?” she teased, circling around to work on the ties binding his wrists. The moment the knot was loosened, his arms fell forward, the dead weight heavy and limp, painful as sparks of sensation woke up every nerve ending.

  “How?” he asked, and Melody shook her head from where she was working on the binds tying his ankles.

  “It’s kind of a long story. Your mom helped,” she said, making a face. “Okay, so your mom kind of planned the whole thing. She’s sort of a badass, you know?”

  Somehow, Devron found the energy to chuckle at that. No denying that his mother was a force to be reckoned with. Melody getting to see that firsthand must’ve been something else.

  “Do you think you can stand?” she asked, looking at him dubiously.

  Devron wasn’t sure, to be honest. He could hardly feel anything at all at the moment other than the pins and needles racing through his limbs. His muscles were sore, aching, and stiff from being in the same position too long, and his joints weren’t faring much better.

  But he had to get out of here while he had the chance. There wasn’t going to be another.

  “Here,” she said, offering her hand to him. Devron looked at it skeptically for a moment before accepting it. What was she doing here? He’d expected her to be dead after Nor shot her, but she wasn’t dead . . . unless this was some kind of pre-death hallucination.

  Not only was she not dead, but she was here, for him. Why wouldn’t she have gone home whe
n she had the chance?

  She helped pull him to his feet, and Devron wobbled where he stood, reaching out to her for support. Melody didn’t flinch away or shove him off. Instead, she slid an arm around his back for more support, her arm barely hovering over him out of fear of hurting him more.

  “What’s taking so long?” Gaddis asked with a trademark Selithi hiss. Devron never thought he’d be so happy to hear one of the lizards’ voices, but he was. Gaddis had turned out to be one hell of a friend.

  “He needs help,” Melody said, buckling under the effort of supporting him. Gaddis quickly stepped up to the other side, looking ungainly on two legs when he was so clearly more comfortable on all-fours.

  “Maybe you want this, too,” Gaddis said, offering a blaster to Devron—one of the ones stolen from the guard, probably.

  His hands were shaking like a late-stage Jenga tower during an earthquake, but he took the blaster and clutched it tightly.

  “Thanks,” he muttered with a nod.

  “Blazing stars, Devron,” Naela said with a gasp as they shuffled toward the group. Sina was clearly concerned too, but she didn’t voice it. She was a skilled healer, from Melody’s experience, so hopefully, she could help him.

  “I’m fine,” he grunted, pain obvious in his voice. Fresh spots of blood bloomed on his tattered tunic where movement ripped open old wounds. He didn’t let it distract him. Wounds healed.

  “You aren’t,” Naela insisted.

  “He will be,” Sina said, “once we’re out of here.”

  Naela obviously wanted to argue that he was in no shape to be going anywhere, but she was vastly outnumbered and knew they didn’t stand a chance if they stuck around any longer.

  Lezin, the guard Rayhan seemed to know, led the way. Melody wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but Rayhan hadn’t steered them wrong so far. She had to hope he knew what he was doing this time.

  33

  Somehow, some way, through divine intervention, luck, or some force Melody couldn’t name, they were going to make it out of this place. Retracing the path they took was out of the question, but Lezin knew the fortress even better than Rayhan who’d had some time to forget minor details.