Alien Conquest

by Carter, Sadie

  She slumped forward, boneless, and felt Zandar lie on his side next to her, placing his arm over her back. She turned her head to stare at him.

  “I’ve changed my mind about this whole fighting thing,” she told him.

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “I could totally get behind you fighting if you come home in this sort of mood every time.”

  He smiled at her and her insides melted. Reaching up, she ran her finger over his eyebrow. “I really am sorry for keeping the medallion from you and stealing the communicator. It won’t happen again.”

  He didn’t say anything, but he did lean forward and kiss her.

  She guessed that was answer enough.

  * * *

  Where was he?

  She bit at her thumbnail, pacing back and forth along the passage. Zandar had been due home from his fight hours ago. She’d tried contacting him via the communicator she’d bought him several times, but there was nothing.

  “What to do? What to do, Noodle?” she looked over at the monkey worriedly. “Where could he be? Why isn’t he answering?” He could just be late. But something in her gut told her it was more. That he was in trouble. “We have to help him, Noodle.”

  If he wasn’t in jeopardy, then he was going to be pissed about her leaving the ship. She had been a good little mate and waited in the ship every time he fought over these last few weeks. They’d traveled to six different planets so far, only staying long enough to get supplies and refuel and for Zandar to fight. Every time he came home, he was horny as hell and she spent the next day walking around like she was bow-legged.

  He’d tried to order her into the regen chamber, but she wasn’t getting in that thing unless she was dying.

  Damn it. She would take his anger and his punishment if she was wrong. She’d rather that than she stayed here while something was going on with him.

  She quickly dressed in dark clothing, putting her knives in each of the sheaths and secret pockets she’d managed to sew into the clothing. Christmas had come and gone weeks ago. She’d gifted Goliath with his own special clothing and knife set.

  To her shock, he’d bought her two new weapons. A dagger disguised as a necklace—the dagger could be yanked free from the necklace with a push of a button—and a belt that had a knife hidden in the buckle. They were her favorite presents ever.

  But none of that was going to help her locate Zandar when she had no idea where he was fighting. At least he no longer locked the ship against her leaving, so she didn’t have to worry about that.

  She would have to try to track him through his communicator. He’d shown her how to do it, so she managed to bring up his communicator and pinged his location on a map.

  Here goes nothing.

  * * *

  She pinned the scrawny little green creature against the wall, holding her knife to his throat.

  “Where did you get that communicator?” she asked, speaking Standard.

  She had no idea if he could even understand what she was saying. She drew back and grabbed the communicator he had around his wrist and tugged it off, holding it up. It was Zandar’s communicator, the one she’d traced, and instead of finding her mate, she’d discovered this short, five-eyed alien wearing it.

  “Where?”

  “The auctions yards,” the creature stuttered out.

  “Where is the male you stole it from?”

  “No male. Dropped on ground.” Her stomach clenched. Something was very wrong. Zandar wouldn’t just drop his communicator.

  “Auction yards?” she asked again, not liking the sound of that.

  He or she—Georgie wasn’t sure which it was—nodded.

  “Show me,” she demanded.

  He nodded again. She kept hold of his wrist as he started moving, sheathing her knife. They moved through the market and she froze as she saw someone familiar.

  Oh shit, it couldn’t be!

  Ducking behind a stall, she dragged the scrawny, green-skinned alien with five eyes and a single antenna rising from his head with her.

  She looked around for Noodle, noting he was around the corner of the stall that she’d hidden behind. “Noodle, get over here.”

  He chattered at her but moved back.

  “What is Pinky doing here? He can’t be following us, right? We got rid of the medallion.”

  Noodle put his hands over his eyes.

  “Noodle,” she warned, a bad feeling developing her gut. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.”

  He reached around into his backpack and pulled out the medallion.

  “Ooh, pretty,” the alien said, reaching for it.

  She slapped his hand. “Bad alien. No touch. Shit, Noodle, Zandar is going to kill you. And maybe me.”

  If he wasn’t dead. No, she would know if he was dead. He’d explained that if one mate died, the other followed. She was fairly certain she wasn’t dead. But if she was, she had definitely gone to hell.

  “Let’s get a move on. We should probably get rid of that medallion, though.”

  Except something told her to keep hold of it. For now. She slid it into her pocket and looked around, searching for Pinky. Obviously, his radar was off since he didn’t appear to be following them.

  “Let’s go,” she told the alien. “We need to find Zandar. Now.”

  * * *

  “Holy fuck. Someone locked him in a cage! Those fucking bastards! They’re going to auction him off?”

  “No. He bought.”

  “What do you mean?” She stared down at the little alien, who was kind of growing on her. Except she did find it a little off-putting that she didn’t know which of his eyes to look into. She wondered how that affected his vision.

  Off-topic here, Georgie.

  “Been sold. To Arans.” He pointed over to some pale-skinned creatures. They were tall and wraithlike, and they all looked exactly alike.

  “They look evil,” she whispered.

  “Bad. Slavers.”

  “Right. That’s obvious, since they just bought my mate. Wait, you said they’re Arans? They’re the guys who enslaved Zandar the first time around. The ones he escaped from.” These were the guys that had enslaved Zandar? Her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to take them out. To punish them for ever touching her man.

  “He escape? No one ever escape except big man. He big man?” the alien asked.

  “Well, yeah, you can see him. He’s pretty big.” Which made her wonder how anyone had caged him. Obviously, they’d either injured him or drugged him since he was just sitting in the cage, his head leaning against the side, not moving.

  Panic threatened to fill her. But she had to help him. There was no other choice. She wasn’t going to lose him. She reached for their bond.

  Zandar, wake up.

  Nothing. God. Please be all right.

  I need you.

  “He big man who escape. Famous.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Really? Zandar is famous for escaping?”

  “Yeah. Only one.”

  “Only slave to ever escape?”

  The little alien nodded. “Their slaves not last long. Die. He make them lots credits.”

  “So they like money? That’s their weakness?”

  Alien shrugged then nodded.

  “Okay, I can’t keep calling you ‘alien.’ What’s your name?”

  He said something in a complicated language that sounded like Anchacoocoalo.

  “That’s way too complicated. I’m just going to call you Cocoa. Why do you suppose they’re just standing around waiting?”

  “Auction not finished. More slaves. Transport them.”

  Shit. Okay. How had he ended up in the auction in the first place? Obviously, he’d been hurt or drugged since he wasn’t moving. Worry made her stomach bubble with nausea. Did she rescue him now or wait? Shit. Shit. Shit. She counted the number of Arans around. Four. Three of them patrolled around the twelve occupied cages. Zandar’s was third from the left. One of the Arans stood off
to the side, overseeing.

  “Any idea where the keys to the cages are?” she asked her helpful little friend.

  He nodded at the guard who was watching everything.

  “Right, he’s the head honcho, huh? The big banana.”

  Cocoa just stared at her.

  “Don’t worry. I’m just trying to figure this out. Okay. . .here’s what I’m going to do. Noodle, gonna need your help for this.”

  Noodle pulled his finger out of his ear and chattered at her. She had no idea what he was saying. She just hoped like hell this worked.

  * * *

  “Woo-hoo, oh, boys.” She winced at the ridiculous noises coming from her lips.

  Zandar, you better bloody appreciate this.

  She strolled her way down to the head guard, swinging her hips. She’d made a few strategic rips in her shirt so her boobs were half-showing. She actually had a little more in the boob department now with Zandar feeding her up.

  The head guard turned his face towards her.

  “What are you doing here!” Another guard moved towards her. Nope this wouldn’t do. She didn’t want to get kicked out before the head guard got a good look at what she was packing.

  And she wasn’t talking about her boobs or knives.

  She made certain to turn so the sun glinted off the medallion. Hopefully, the head guard was greedy enough to pay attention.

  The other guard reached for her, pulling her to a halt, preparing to drag her away and probably murder her in some alleyway, if the look on his face was anything to go by. He commenced with the dragging. She let herself go limp, determined not to make this easy on him.

  Just as dismay started to fill her. No! She could not fail. She couldn’t lose Zandar.

  The head guard called out something she didn’t understand.

  The guy holding her—if you could call it a guy, since they all looked the same. The head guard just wore a different-colored robe. His was emerald green while the others were dressed in royal red.

  The guard started dragging her in the opposite direction, not even letting her get her feet under her so she could walk. Asshole. Dickface. He let her go suddenly and she fell in a heap at the head guard’s feet. She glared up at the other guy as she got to her feet.

  “Awesome people skills there. Asshole.” Then she dusted herself off and smiled at the head honcho. “Hello, I have an interest in obtaining one of your slaves and thought we might do a little trade.”

  His eyes were riveted to the medallion hanging around her neck. She’d created a rope using her shoelaces, so her sneakers were kind of just hanging off her feet.

  “One of the slaves?” he asked in Standard.

  Okay. That was a start.

  “Yes. Do you want to swap? The medallion for the slave?” She held up the medallion.

  “It is real?”

  “Of course it’s real,” she replied.

  “Let me see.”

  Georgie pulled the medallion over her head and handed it to him, but just as she was about to hand it over, a loud shout caught her attention. The head honcho grabbed the medallion, not that she gave a damn about it. She was just using it to get close to him. She pretended to stumble forward and lifted the oblong object, which Cocoa said could remotely release the cages. Damned if she knew how to use it, though.

  The head honcho grasped hold of her shoulders and thrust her away with a look of disgust.

  Trust me, buddy. I don’t want to touch you either.

  He said something, which she was pretty sure translated to take her away and kill her, but she no longer cared. She had the key to unlock Zandar’s cage. She just needed Noodle to do his part and create a diversion. She quickly rolled away from the head guard, tucking the key up her sleeve as another shout came, this one closer.

  “There it is! My medallion!”

  Holy shit. It was Pinky racing towards him, his horn glinting in the light. Around him, a gang of unicorns followed, all of them racing towards the head guard, who just stood there. Probably in shock.

  Wasn’t every day you saw a herd of unicorns racing towards you. Was it called a herd? A flock? No, that wasn’t right.

  Focus, Georgie. This is the distraction you need.

  Noodle certainly hadn’t come through for her, but Pinky had created something even better. She raced over to Zandar’s cage and looked down at the oblong object. How the fuck did she use it?

  “Zandar! Zandar, now would be a good time to wake up.” She tried to tug at their mating bond again.

  Still nothing.

  He remained slumped and lifeless. Shit. Shit.

  “Here. I do.” She looked down and could have wept in relief to see Cocoa. He took the oblong object and pressed something. Suddenly, the cage door opened and she reached in to grab Zandar. Shit! How was she going to move him?

  “Hover cuffs!” Cocoa told her. “Here!” He pressed something on the oblong object and Zandar floated through the air. She leaned down and kissed Cocoa’s head.

  “You beautiful little green alien.” She turned to look over at the fight occurring between the guards and the unicorns. No one looked her way.

  Good.

  Her heart raced as she stared at the other cages. Most of the occupants were awake and staring at her with defeated eyes. Damn it. She couldn’t just leave them here.

  “Cocoa, can you free them too?”

  Cocoa looked around and nodded. He pressed some more buttons and the other cage doors opened, the prisoners racing out just as more of the creepy Arans appeared, running towards where their fellow slavers were fighting off the unicorn gang.

  “This is really the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Let’s go. Noodle! Where are you?”

  She saw the little monkey coming towards them, something held in his hands. Oh, hell no. “No, Noodle. Put the medallion down. Bad monkey.”

  He shook his head.

  “Put it down; we have to go.”

  He put it down, but she knew he wasn’t happy when he stuck out his tongue then mooned her.

  Being a monkey mama was hard work.

  * * *

  Her entire body started to shake as they entered the ship. She locked the door behind her and raced forward, directing Cocoa to where the regen chamber was.

  “Oh no, I don’t know how to use it!” she wailed. She looked at the machine in despair. “Cocoa, do you know how to use it?”

  The alien shook his head.

  “Okay, okay, don’t panic. If I put him in the machine and push the wrong button, I could do more harm than good.” She put her finger over Zandar’s pulse for about the hundredth time since they’d gotten him free of the cage. Somehow, they’d managed to get him back to the ship without anyone stopping them, although plenty of people had stared at the giant man floating through the air behind a woman, a little green alien, and a monkey.

  That sounded like the start of a bad joke.

  But once the unicorns and Arans stopped fighting, she knew one or both lots were going to come for them. Which meant she needed to get them off-planet. Now.

  Crap.

  Okay, Zandar’s pulse was good. He seemed to just be unconscious.

  “Put him on our bed, please, Cocoa.” She showed him where to go, and when Zandar was lying down, she placed a rug over him and carefully put a pillow under his head.

  Then she turned to the little green guy. “How can I repay you? I have credits. Would you like some credits?”

  He shook his head.

  “You must want something—”

  “Come with you.”

  “Come with us?”

  He nodded enthusiastically.

  “Are you sure? I mean, don’t you have a family or something you want to stay near?” she asked almost desperately. Zandar would kill her for adopting another pet.

  He’d have to wake up first.

  Shut up, doubting Dotty. Of course he’s going to wake up.

  Okay. Now was not the time to have an argument with herself. She neede
d to stay calm.

  “No,” Cocoa told her.

  “The thing is, we’re not exactly safe to be around right now. In fact, I’m never really safe to be around. Crazy things happen around me. You’d be safer far, far away from me.”

  “You fun. I stay.”

  “You and I have different definitions of fun, buddy,” she muttered. “Okay, fine, you can stay. Tell me, do you know how to fly a ship? Specifically, this ship.”

  His eyes widened and he grinned. “Fun.”

  * * *

  How many times could a person throw up?

  She was starting to realize what a good pilot Zandar was. She’d only gotten queasy during take-off and landing and only actually thrown up when they were in hyper speed.

  Cocoa was not a good pilot. Cocoa was quite possibly the worst pilot ever. She groaned as she made her way over to the bed where Zandar lay. Maybe this was some plot Cocoa had; he was going to kill them all with motion sickness then dump them out an airhole.

  She snorted as she lay next to Zandar. At this point, she might well welcome the airhole.

  Exhaustion flooded her and she closed her eyes. Just for a moment. She just needed a little rest so she could try and figure out what the hell to do next. She placed her arm over her mate’s chest.

  Please, Zandar, wake up. I can’t be without you. I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m scared.

  Tears leaked down her cheeks. Fuck, she hated this. Hated feeling helpless. This feeling reminded her too much of when Annie died.

  I can’t lose you too, Zandar. I won’t. I love you.

  You love me?

  She sat up, staring down at her mate. But he hadn’t moved. His eyes were still closed, and he looked like he was in a deep sleep.

  Great. Now she was imagining things.

  She slid down next to him, placing her hand on his chest, close to his neck so they were skin to skin. More tears slid down her face.

  All will be well, mate. Do not cry.