The enthusiastic Cheerleader Clipboard was calling out to us as we were led through a plastic-looking tunnel.
“You ladies are promised a bright future. Believe me. We will use your testimonies about how wonderful your life is here to recruit future volunteers!”
As if we’d volunteered.
“We didn’t volunteer for this!” I shouted. His smile didn’t waver, he simply turned his back to me and kept on moving.
We were told that we would be led through gates to an event area and that we would then be let loose to mingle with the men, men who had expressed interest in us through information they’d been given before our arrival. They didn’t explain beyond that.
It sounded like they’d gotten dating profile information about us but we hadn’t provided this information knowingly. We were filling out college-type applications. Granted, there were a lot of questions. Strange questions, too, like our food likes, how we took our coffee, our favorite colors and scents. And we’d had physicals and psychological evaluations, too. I’d gotten an extra one beyond everyone else due to my being difficult but I’d tried to fuck with the psych Clipboard Asshole. Photos flashed at me all looked like gory scenes (they didn’t but I described them that way), which I described --- in detail. And every bloody murder scene included a clipboard lying there. Ha.
“Oh, that’s a guy who had his brains blown out and his dick cut off. Oh, and what’s that? It’s a clipboard laying beside him. Hm.”
They weren’t exactly impressed.
We were told that we’d have vitals checked and that after the mingling party, we’d adjourn to quarters on the planet. They didn’t elaborate. I tried to ask more questions as they took my vitals but they created a distraction instead of answering me. It was getting old; they kept doing that.
They said there would be more women in each round of introductions than men. The girls remaining would be sent to the next round, and so forth.
“Until we’re all paired up?” I’d asked.
“Yes,” Bald and scowly-faced Clipboard Asshole had replied. He was walking right beside me. I’d bet money that was intentional.
“And we have three days to fuck one of them or we die?”
The tunnel was so quiet you’d have heard a mouse fart.
Another glare aimed in my direction was cut short when bald scowly-face guy’s phone rang so he gave me the ‘one second’ index finger and then answered his call. He left us during that call and disappeared ahead of Cheerleader Clipboard. Another clipboard-holding guy appeared at my side. He never said much. Stoic Clipboard. A moment later, we were outside.
A few days back when we got those two-piece implants put into our ears, the other girls were told they were multi-purpose. I was having my two day nap while it was being put in so I only knew what the girls had told me. They were trackers. The cartilage piercing was a cute little pink gem but it felt like we’d been tagged like cows. I tried to take mine out but I couldn’t figure out how. And I couldn’t feel anything in my ear canal so that part of the implant must’ve been pretty small and pretty deep.
In addition to being language translators, they would also provide data about us to whoever had been given access to look up that data but we weren’t told what sort of data.
We were told that the men participating in the meet and greet would also have ear implants. Anyone involved in Project D would.
This would help them communicate with us. They would have handheld tablet-like devices that would provide them with details about us based on our statistics, our background, and current readings.
“Oh. When do we get our handheld devices?” I had asked loudly in the line-up.
Bald, scowling Clipboard Asshole had given me a look like he’d had just about enough of my questions. I bet he was thinking that since our group was first, it’d be over with soon. I’d be my future husband’s problem.
I shuddered at that thought but didn’t let myself dwell. I couldn’t even fathom what was ahead of me. Didn’t want to.
One minute and one breath at a time, Jetta…
“No. That won’t be necessary. Believe me, any of these men that will be here are worth your time, ladies. They’ve been vetted, just as you’ve been vetted.” He’d flashed a grin that didn’t reach his eyes, “So if you’d all line up in single file beginning in front of me---”
“Why don’t we get handheld devices? Don’t we deserve to read their stats?” Lauralee had piped up, not a trace of humor on her face. Shit was getting real.
He took a breath and glared at me. Glared. Like it was my fault that she’d asked that question. It wasn’t like I was the only one asking questions but I think I’d been the most troublesome of the trouble-makers. And that’s what they’d sort of said to me the day before, behind closed doors, when I was reminded that my demeanor was having a bad affect on some of the other girls. Yeah, those girls? They were sheep-ple. People following the herd. Not asking questions. Blindly going only where everyone told them to go.
(See what I did there? Star Trek? Blindly go where no one has gone before? Okay, so that was lame.)
Yet again someone came in and started to speak in his ear and then things got a bit distracted, which I’d noticed had happened several times, like there was a Clipboard Asshole watching for when we might become unruly and then we’d be distracted into some sort of organized chaos.
We were led out of whatever we’d been in and walked directly from the entrance into a bright above-ground tunnel. We were then taken to a large circular glass atrium where very tall older men took our vitals but not with traditional medical equipment. They held tiny calculator-sized screens and held them up near our ear and then read their screens. They wore dark tuxedo-like suits without ties. They were definitely older but they didn’t look old. They looked like they were aging well. Were these the aliens? One put a blue slim pen-like device to my neck. I jerked back. It didn’t hurt but made a beep sound. He backed away and then I was hustled along, feeling almost kind of buzzed and euphoric. Weird.
We were then arranged into another single-file line and we were walked through a weird tunnel into another building, and then outside again. I was astounded as I took it all in. It became real when we got outside because until then I might have been telling myself that this couldn’t be real. Maybe we were still in a facility on Earth, maybe we were being told we were on another planet but we were really in some Area 51 type place.
But when I saw the sky, I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Well, not Kansas, I’d never been to Kansas, but I knew we weren’t on Earth anymore.
We’d been brought onto a patio that had several long tables filled with refreshments as well as several small tables for two that bordered the patio. The building itself surrounded us on three sides and it was castle-like. Tall columns, turrets. But it didn’t look ancient at all. It looked very official, almost regal, wherever we were.
The sky? It wasn’t blue, it was kind of pink. It wasn’t blinding but it was so vivid I can’t even explain. It was like the sky before a sunset, sort of. But bright. There were streaks of purple and darker pink and I could see what looked like stars. The ground below us was pebbled with grassy areas and flowers in bordered gardens. It was lush. The pebbles were jewel tones. They looked like actual jewels.
As I was absorbing my surroundings and the atmosphere, which felt clean and crisp, in an area that led to lush greenery the size of around three football fields, I noticed that across the way to the left, a gate slid opened like a pocket door and men were there. A gate opened on the far right, too, and more men were visible. Very tall men. They all started moving in our direction.
The half a dozen or so Clipboards that were with us backed up and the doors that had led to this patio area were shut, separating us from them. We were on our own. Yikes. Dread snaked through my gut. My attention turned back to the gates. Incoming. Um... whoa.
Not just men. Twenty-five or thirty giant specimens of absolute maleness. Some were stalking tow
ard us; some were taking big and decisive strides. A few broke out into a run and that made me jolt.
It hit me at once how determined they looked. Like they were starved men descending on a buffet and whoever ate the fastest would get the most. But they weren’t interested in the buffet tables in front of us. They were interested in us.
I was behind a table laid with tall fancy glasses and bottles that looked like wine bottles but more decorative, longer necks, intricate glass blowing or whatever. There were platters of unfamiliar but colorful looking fruits and vegetables and little fancy canapes. Music played low, from somewhere, speakers I guess, and it was some sort of orchestral music but it sounded like it was mixed with the sounds of nature.
Some of the girls had sat at the scattered tables and benches that were around the area and a few girls were near me, directly behind the table laid out with drinks and food when those gates opened. Everyone of us who’d sat now stood. Braced. Because the air felt absolutely electric.
They really did look like us. But bigger. Healthier. There were men that looked like Vikings with blond hair, beards, and barrel-like chests, men that looked like Greek gods with olive skin and dark eyes. Big black men who were svelte giants with silky-looking brown skin and full and sensuous lips. And muscles. Every single man that walked or ran our way had muscles. Muscles for days.
White, brown, black, and every shade in between. There weren’t as many of them as there were of us, but they were all larger than life, it seemed. Big, muscular, and movie-star handsome. My eyes scanned them as they got closer. I took in that some were dressed similarly to us. Kind of. They wore clothes of varying fabrics and styles. I wouldn’t call the clothes renaissance era but they looked different. They looked better made, if that makes sense. I saw a man in fawn colored suede pants and a leather-like blazer. I saw another in billowy cotton clothing, kind of like a pirate would wear. It was all very bohemian, I guess. Several were shirtless.
We had been primped by a group of male stylists who worked quietly through the groups of us to make us presentable with hair, make-up, thrusting dresses and shoes at us.
I was wearing a dress the colour of buttercups. It was short and revealing, with a halter neck that was crusted with rhinestones or some diamond-like gem, and then swaths of thin, silky rope-like fabric that was pliable like pipe cleaners had been wound around my biceps. The bodice and skirt were made of a chiffon-like material but it was somehow better, silkier, like the difference between scratchy hospital towels and the finest Egyptian cotton. Though it wasn’t cotton. My jet-black hair was straight and wispy, a couple of inches past my shoulders. My make-up had been applied to accentuate my light brown eyes. I wore winged eyeliner and my cheeks had been contoured and sparkly gold dust had been applied to my skin. They’d given me these fabulous black stilettos. And they were a mistake because they were really really hard to run in. Maybe that was the whole point.
As I’d said, three sides were the building and stone fence. Ahead it looked like forest beyond a large field. The trees were tall and lush, like they’d been drawn. And it was as if we were in an autumn scene with all the colour. Only their leaves weren’t warm autumn tones, instead they were in every colour of the rainbow. Some of the leaves looked like they were wispy and soft. Some of them looked like they’d been carved from wood. Many had colourful patterns tracing their edges. The leaves and the tree trunks were the colour of the Skittles candies rainbow but not just primary colours. Pastels, too. My brain was having trouble absorbing all of this. But it was hard not to notice because I was on another planet. Another planet!
It was as if I was on a movie set, the set of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but with hot guys instead of Oompa Loompas.
As I said, these guys were moving toward us like predators. As they got closer, some looked like they were focused on a particular woman. Some appeared to be scanning the crowd and pivoting their handheld devices in order to find the one they were looking for. But many looked like they’d feasted their eyes on us as a whole instead, and one of the ones who’d broken into a run and got to us first, headed right to Tanya, the redheaded librarian that I’d been chummy with.
She was sweet and kind of timid. She had not been lured with the promise of a scholarship. She’d been transferred from her job at a library to work with the government for an education program, or so she thought, and was with our group expecting it to be an orientation. It looked like she got drafted into our group, probably because she was seriously pretty and likely met all their guidelines.
She was trying to make the best of this situation and had backed off over the past few days because I was anything but positive. I felt downright scowly.
The guy running for her was a total Adonis. Gorgeous. Tall, curly dark haired, and smiling with dimples. He got to her, made a masculine roaring sound of triumph and threw her over his shoulder and started running toward the opened gate.
OH, MY LORD!
My eyes cut to my left. Two men were in a tug-of-war over Tiffany.
Lacey’s eyes widened and she dropped to the floor and hid under the table where all the wine and food was laid out. I felt eyes on me as the rest of the crowd of men got closer.
“Get down here!” Lacey tugged on my hand but they’d gotten too close. If I did, I’d give up her hiding spot.
I heard a woman cry as she was tackled to the ground by a tall Viking-looking guy and he looked like he was trying to get his pants undone. He looked absolutely psycho with lust.
I was outta here!
I’d taken off running. Three men were running toward me, their intention clear. Scarily clear.
I booked it. I ran like my life depended on it.
Some girls had been grabbed within seconds. They were closest to the men who were coming. Some girls, like me, ran as fast as we could but some were tackled to the ground as if we were in a football game. I think I got the farthest.
I had to run. It was instinct.
I saw hunger in their eyes. Stark raving hunger was the only way I could think to describe it. It set off my flight or fight instinct and since there was no way to fight off these huge men… flight it was gonna be.
I’d run as fast as my stiletto-clad feet could carry me, deeking out men, ducking under their arms. The one in the kilt caught me by hooking his arm around my waist. I struggled and I tried to get free but he was so strong that it was a physical impossibility until someone tried to take me from him and while they were fighting over me, the sound of their fists hitting body parts so loud and sickening it churned in my gut. A third went to grab me and I tripped him (the pirate guy) so I took that opportunity to book it.
In my peripheral vision, I’d seen women over men’s shoulders, being taken somewhere. I heard screaming. I saw another girl taken right to the ground by a man, this one a Latin-looking lover type with a long goatee. He pinned her and started kissing her throat. He looked at her like he was ready to make babies ON THE SPOT.
If a man had come out wearing fur underwear with a big wooden bat and dragged a woman off by her hair I wouldn’t have been in the least bit surprised.
We were all completely out of our element.
They looked like giant athletic handsome movie stars. Every single one of them. But they looked like they were ravenous with sexual hunger and that was a little bit more than petrifying.
It was all just so surreal!
So, I’d run and run to a forest that was beyond the triple football field and hid behind a tree until I heard that they’d passed me but then I scared the pink short-eared screaming bunny thing as I’d found a stone wall and I tripped. This happened as, out of nowhere, definitely not from the direction the others had come, this new large and muscled green-eyed man appeared. He appeared and did so just as I fell, at his feet, and oh…my…goodness.
And he was the man that I was on the ground in front of right now. It was just him and me and when our eyes met…
it felt like lightning struck me right between the
legs.
***
“Go; she’s mine,” the green-eyed specimen of male perfection called over my head. I heard rustling. One or more of the others had arrived. I wasn’t surprised they’d come back this way after hearing that little pink thing scream its head off. But the green-eyed one who said go? His lips hadn’t moved as if they’d said go, she’s mine. His lips moved for an extra syllable. It was as if he was being dubbed. How odd.
The ear thing. I touched the stone that sat on my upper ear.
“You, too, are participating, Daxx?” a voice called out from behind me.
“I am. Turn and go so I won’t have to flatten any of you.”
“But, you already have Treya…” another voice started and then all of them were talking at once and it must’ve been too much for the implant to translate because I heard this weird R2D2-like sound in my ears. It got kind of high pitched and painful. I covered my ears with my palms and I looked behind me and could see they were arguing.
“You three fight over Treya then. I want this one. No difference to you,” the green-eyed man said and then he leaned over and scooped me up in his arms as if I were a small child. I tried to struggle but he started petting my head and cooing at me as if he were trying to soothe a startled pet.
“It’s okay, little beauty, I’ll take good care of you.”
“Let go. Put me down.”
His eyes were so green they were like pools of liquid milky jade. I know I’ve said that already but he was immensely gorgeous. He was huge. Muscles. His hair was shiny and black, much like mine, only darker, but it also looked like he’d been running his fingers through it like crazy.
Hot Alpha Alien Husbands: Book One: Daxx and Jetta Page 3
