Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart
Page 84
Oh, and she couldn’t forget her best idea yet—getting in a truck with a guy who had more piercings and tattoos than a model for Prick Magazine instead of walking the three miles to the bar she had seen a roadside sign for.
No, I had to get my fat—Riley sighed. No, my maturely figured ass into the scum-bucket’s truck.
Riley sighed again. I really, really should have taken those anger management classes like my sainted sister, Tina, said I needed.
Unable to keep the grin off her face, Riley thought back to the look on the pierced, tattooed guy’s face when she shot him the bird as he drove off leaving her in the middle of that godforsaken hell’s beach just as it was getting dark.
Give him a fucking blow job if I wanted a ride out of the desert, Riley thought savagely. Not bloody likely.
She showed him! As soon as he pulled over to the side of the road she had been out of the truck cussing him up one side and down the other. Her Grandma Pearl would have been proud of her. She remembered every cuss word her grandmother ever said and a few her grandma probably didn’t even know. Of course, he had left her mature ass in the middle of nowhere.
Riley thought she was a goner until she had seen all those little lights coming toward her. How the hell was she supposed to know the fucking aliens had messed up where Area 51 was and ended up in Nowhere, Arizona? Riley had thought she was about to be rescued by a dwarf biker gang riding dirt bikes, not some alien spaceship out for a Monday night cruise for well-endowed women.
"Choose!" the tall creature growled out loudly.
Riley cleared her throat before turning to the stick-figured alien dwarfing her. "Choose what?" she asked, unable to hold back the slightly crazed giggle that had been threatening to escape her.
She giggled again at finally making the creature’s blank face break into a frustrated scowl. The creature slowly fisted its clawed hands before its shoulders actually drooped.
"Choose a male," Antrox 785 said wearily.
Riley raised her perfectly arched eyebrows at the creature before turning to look at the selection of men who had been paraded in while she had been reflecting on how her attitude might have played a part in her present predicament. She had been watching haphazardly as a different female—at least she thought they were female—had been led to stand where she was now. She was told—in a rather rude manner if you asked her—that she was being given the last choice because of her being so disagreeable, unpleasant, and downright ugly. She had, of course, taken it all in stride until the last comment and had to be restrained again after she‘d punched the stickman guarding her in what she hoped was his balls. Whatever the creatures had under their tunics, it laid the guy out cold.
Now, she was staring at one eight-foot-tall glob of green, oozing snot, something resembling a two-foot, two-headed lizard, and three six-foot-four or more drop-dead gorgeous hunks. Riley’s eyes widened. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was thirstier than hell so she didn’t have the capacity to produce enough spit, she would have sworn she was drooling.
She could tell by their build and their eyes and maybe the markings on their arms, chest, and shoulders, oh and did she mention their sharp teeth as they growled at the stick-alien, that they weren’t human, but man-oh-man did they look yummy! Riley thought dreamily for a moment before perking up again.
"What happens to the males that aren’t chosen?" Riley asked curiously, never taking her eyes off the three males.
"They will be used as food," Antrox said with a frown. "Choose! All mated males will be kept to work in the mines. Mated males are easier to control as they are protective of their female. Now choose your male!"
"What if I don’t want to choose a male?" Riley asked sarcastically as she turned to face the tall creature next to her. "What if I don’t feel like choosing a male? What if I don’t even like males?" Riley added.
Right at that moment, she honestly believed she might not ever like any male ever again! After all, it was men who had started this whole hateful series of events starting with her no-good, dim-witted boss. Now, this overgrown toothpick expected her to just pick one of the bastards and mate with him?
That is so seriously not going to happen. Restraints or not, I will beat the shit out of any guy who tries to mate with me, she thought fiercely.
She wasn’t going to mate with any alien, no matter how cute they looked. She had watched enough science fiction movies to cure her of ever wanting any alien booty! What if those things decided to do some body snatching or exploding out of her? A shudder went through Riley at the thought.
Antrox 785 looked back and forth between Riley and the men on the platform below him with a confused expression on his face. "Why would you not want to choose a male? You are female! All of our data points to you being the weaker of your species and in need of a male for protection." Antrox looked from the males back to Riley again. "Why would you not like males?"
Riley let loose a slightly hysterical laugh. Okay, maybe she was still just a little terrified. "Why don’t I like males? Now, that is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, isn’t it? How about we go get a bottle or two of your strongest booze, get good and drunk, and I’ll tell you why I don’t like males anymore!" Riley’s voice was growing louder with each word. "Let’s start with you!"
* * *
Vox looked up in surprise as he heard a husky feminine voice shouting. He growled low as he caught his first sight of the buxom female who had turned toward the Antrox male. He wanted her. He didn’t understand why, but he wanted her—right now. His body instantly responded to her voice. He felt the primitive need to mate. To possess. When he saw the face and body that went with the voice, it took everything in him not to struggle against the restraints holding him captive. She was curvy, with large breasts, a small waist, and hips that made his mouth water at the thought of holding on to them. Her hair was the color of their sun and flowed in thick waves down her back almost to her lush, rounded ass.
She is built for loving, he thought in awe as he watched her.
She was wearing a light pink top that molded to her lush curves. He couldn’t see what she looked like below her waist, but he could imagine it. He wanted to see her eyes. He knew they would be flashing with fire, and he wanted that fire turned on him. He snarled as another guard joined in using the stunning rods to force him back away from the edge of the platform.
He jerked in surprise, and his eyes widened as the female, who was tiny compared to the larger male, started jabbing the Antrox male in his chest and yelling at him. Vox snarled again when one of the guards pushed him back harder with one of the long rods. He ignored the sting from the shock and focused on the female’s hands which were shackled in front of her. Why would the Antrox shackle a female? Females were weak and to be protected. Vox had never heard of an Antrox male using shackles on one before. He listened in disbelief as the normally impassive species roared out in a loud, aggravated voice at the female.
* * *
"CHOOSE! Now, female, or I will choose for you!" Antrox 785 roared out.
He didn’t know what else to do. He was in charge of the mining facility. It was not his job to question who was brought to the mines. His job was to match a female with a male to ensure the males would be more docile. He had never encountered a hostile female before and did not know how to handle a female like the one poking her sharp nails into his chest.
Riley looked at the stickman standing in front of her and let out a sniff of indignation. "Well! There is no reason for you to get so uptight!" she said, turning her back to him and tossing her heavy mane of blond hair over her shoulder. "I choose all of them," she said with an exaggerated sigh.
"What?" Antrox 785 practically shouted.
Riley turned to look at him and rolled her big, baby blue eyes. "I said, I will take all of them," she repeated slowly with a slight shake of her head showing she thought he was a dumbass.
"But…but…" Antrox 785 stuttered in confusion. He looked down at the five men looki
ng up at him and then back at the female. "No, you must choose one."
"No, I don’t have to choose just one. I choose all five," Riley said stubbornly. "Five or nothing!" she added with another determined shake to her heavy mane of hair.
"How can you have five males?" Antrox 785 asked in frustration. "All other females choose just one."
"Well, I am not all other females. I am Riley St. Claire from Denver, Colorado, and I choose five," Riley said with a stubborn tilt to her chin. "If you have a problem with that you can just get over it. I’ve made up my mind, so there," she added with a raised eyebrow daring him to tell her no.
She would have crossed her arms to show she meant business if they hadn’t been tied together. Since she couldn’t do that, she put her nose as high as it would go in the air and gave her best "that’s my final answer" look. She even thrust one hip out to show she could not be intimidated into changing her mind. If she learned one thing while being a bail bondsman, it was that body language could be a very effective weapon.
Antrox 785 ground his gums together in frustration. Throwing up a hand to the guards below him, he signaled for them to take all the men to the cavern assigned to the female. With a jerk of his head, he motioned for the two guards standing back behind Riley to come forward.
"Take her to her living quarters where her mates are and bring me the trader who brought the female here," Antrox 785 said harshly.
One of the guards looked cautiously from Riley to Antrox 785 before replying. "The trader has already left, 785," Antrox 921 said.
Antrox 785 looked down at Riley who was baring her teeth at him and snapping them together. He took a step away, curling his clawed fingers into the palm of his green hands. With a nod of his head, he watched as the two guards escorted Riley out of the choosing room. Antrox 785 had already decided if it had not been for the law preventing an Antrox from harming a female—any female—he would have gleefully fed the female to the pactors, the large creatures they used to pull the ore out of the mines as food. Antrox 785 made a note to himself that the next time the trader came to the mines, he would not be leaving.
Chapter 2
Vox jerked at the collar around his neck and received another burning zap from it. He growled at the other males who watched him. He knew two out of the four. Tor was his chief of engineering, and Lodar was his medical officer. They had both been with him when he left his warship, the Shifter, to purchase crystals at the Valdier spaceport. All three of them had been enjoying some refreshments when a Valdier warrior approached them and said one of the members of the royal house of Valdier wished to speak with them. Vox vaguely wondered at the time if it was in reference to the tentative peace agreement they had established almost a hundred years before. As the ruling King of Sarafin, Vox d’Rojah, was expected to produce a son who would be joined in marriage with the first-born daughter of the King of Valdier. The problem was Vox had no intentions of having any sons, at least not in the near future. He was quite happy with the wide selection of females he had at his disposal.
They had sat down to drink with an older Valdier warrior named Raffvin. He said he had news for Vox that concerned the peace agreement between the two former warring species. He had already made up his mind to ignore whatever the old warrior was going to say. The male had been pestering some of his councilmen to meet with him. He was annoyed the Valdier had not taken the hint he wasn’t interested in meeting with him. As far as he was concerned, if he wasn’t their leader, Zoran Reykill, or Zoran’s brother Creon, he really didn’t give a damn what the man had to say. He had met Zoran Reykill off and on during their many years of war and respected the man for being a strong and fair warrior who fought with integrity and cared about his people. It was his friendship with the youngest royal, Creon, that had sealed the end of the war and produced a long and lasting alliance. Creon had saved his life during an assassination attempt by some of his own warriors aimed at igniting fury at the Valdier during the Great Wars. The resulting friendship had led to a collaborative effort to discover who was behind the war. A small group from the elite royal houses of Valdier, Sarafin, and Curizan were discovered to be working together to bring down the current ruling class of each star system so they could gain power.
Vox was determined to cleanse his star system of those who would betray their own people. He had gone after them without mercy, whether they were male or female; to him, a traitor was a traitor. He knew it had affected Creon badly when he found out the female he was in love with, a Curizan princess, was one of those responsible for instigating the war. They had discovered it almost too late to save their friend. Ha’ven, the ruling Curizan prince, had been kidnapped in a plot to implicate the Sarafin and Valdier and to gain important information about the location of the Curizan warships. Vox had discovered one of his warriors returning late one night after sneaking off. He and two of his brothers had confronted the man. They discovered he had met with Aria, Creon’s lover. The warrior had been passing Sarafin information on to her. Vox had tortured every last piece of information from the man before he killed him and left his body on display in front of the palace for any others who thought to betray his trust.
He had approached Creon with the information he had discovered. At first, Creon had not believed him, but eventually he could not deny the evidence building up against Aria. They decided to set a trap for her. It had worked too well. Only he, Creon, and Aria knew of their reported secret mission to transport a captured prisoner. When the mercenaries Aria hired showed up at the trap, they had killed all but the leader of the group. Creon had extracted the information from him. The man’s dying words were of Aria’s betrayal. Later that night, Creon had the location of Ha’ven’s prison, and Aria was dead. Vox never asked his friend how he got the information out of her; he knew what he would have done. They had found Ha’ven three days later in a mining asteroid not unlike the one he and his men were currently imprisoned in. Ha’ven had been tortured and was more dead than alive. It was a miracle he had survived as long as he had, considering what Aria’s men had done to him.
Vox jerked back to the present when the door to the rooms he and the other men had been escorted to suddenly opened. He watched as three Antrox males entered. Two had long stunning rods, and the other had a strange-looking rectangular pink object on wheels. They were followed by the female he had seen earlier. She was talking to a fourth Antrox male who was following several steps behind her.
"Oh dear," she was saying as she looked around the room. "This place screams classic caveman! Fred and Wilma really outdid themselves this time. I’ll have to be sure and send a thank you note for the lovely rock walls. Really, would it have hurt to have updated the décor by a few million years? I really am going to have to mark you down on Trip Advisor. This is simply too blasé considering today’s fashions and travelers’ expectations."
The Antrox male behind her was grinding his gums together as she continued to ramble on about the furniture, floors, ceiling, and everything else in the room. Vox’s eyes followed the female as she tapped a slender finger on her chin when she stopped in the center of the room to look around once more. Heat filled him as her eyes swept by him. He wasn’t sure at first if the heat was from irritation that her eyes kept moving by him as if he didn’t even exist or his reaction to having her closer to him. One thing he did know, she was his and he wanted her now!
"Darling, you can put my luggage next to the bed. I hope you changed the sheets. I absolutely refuse to sleep on someone else’s dirty linens. Oh, Sticky-pooh, be a sweetheart and take off these adorable bracelets. As much as I like them, they really do clash with my outfit and totally say ‘prison inmate’ all over them," the female said, walking up to the Antrox who was standing next to the one placing her suitcase next to the bed.
She smiled up at him and innocently fluttered her eyelashes. Instead of making the tall Antrox feel better, he actually took a hesitant step backward, looking at the male behind her for guidance. The one who had carrie
d the strange large pink box looked relieved that she was focusing on someone other than him. Vox’s blood heated to boiling when he saw her beautiful face glow in amusement as she watched the way the Antrox moved nervously around her. Her plump pink lips parted to show off smooth, even white teeth and a small indent appeared on her cheek. He had never thought smooth-edged teeth were sexy before, but he decided right then and there he loved the way they looked on her.
The Antrox behind her nodded once to the other male and stepped back another step. The Antrox lowered his stunning rod and held out the key to the locking device. He motioned for the female to extend her hands in front of her. She did with a wide-eyed look and a nibble to her lower lip. Vox’s eyes followed the movement, and he almost groaned out loud as his cock swelled to a level of pain he had never encountered before.
The female gently rubbed her wrists and wiggled her little nose. "I hope you aren’t expecting a tip," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Because I have to say, I am not sure of the hospitality yet, much less the rest of the accommodations," she added as she put her hands on her hips and tapped her booted foot.
"We must leave," Antrox 264 said from behind her. "You will keep your mates calm and satisfied. They will be working the first shift so you may be near them."
"Whatever," the female said with a casual shrug. "I want clean towels brought in daily, and I’ll need a line of rope and several blankets delivered immediately."
Antrox 264 nodded at the other guards to move toward the entrance to the cell. "Why do you need these items? They are not budgeted for workers."
The female turned and glared at 264 through narrowed eyes, causing him to jerk backward another step. "Darling, put it in your budget unless you want me upset. You won’t like me when I am upset, do you understand? I am not a nice person when I am upset," she said, taking a menacing step toward him with her eyes glittering with fury and determination. "Now go get me what I requested! Chop, chop!" she growled out with a snap of her fingers, causing all four guards to jump and hurry out.