by Rebecca Pond
“We’re done here.” Zeb said, “Let’s get out of here before someone else comes along.” Zeb pushed the cart out of the room and down the corridor. “Thank you for doing this for Avery and me. I owe you one man.”
“I would do anything for you and your mate, you know that.” Brylon slapped his friend on the back as they both pushed the heavy cart.
“I know and I’m grateful to have you as my friend and engineer.”
It didn’t take them very long to make the journey to Zeb’s quarters. It was fortunate that they didn’t run into anyone on the way there. Once, the cart was inside the living room and the door closed behind them, Brylon made a quick exit. He ran back into the electronportation room. He carefully programmed the coordinates to Emma’s home and a timer into the computer that would bring him back in twenty minutes. In this time he would have to gather whatever he could of Emma’s personal belongings, and then return to the ship. Just to be on the safe side, he would bring a remote communication device that would allow him to access the ship’s computer system from down on the surface of the planet if the timer didn’t bring him back when it was supposed to, or if something else went wrong. He knew he should have informed Zeb of what he was planning to do, but he didn’t want to involve his Commander in this obvious breach of procedure, just in case he was caught.
With the timer set, Brylon beamed down to the planet, right in the middle of Emma’s apartment. Now that it was daylight outside, he got a better look around the place. It was small and didn’t contain a lot. There was a bed that was positioned along the wall, a small make shift kitchen with a little table in one corner, a dresser on the opposite side of the room that had a few things on top, and there was a single door that lead into a very tiny bathroom. He was amazed at how small her home was and how very little she had. It was beginning to sink in now. He could understand what she had told him about being alone for most of her life.
Spying a bag hanging on the door of bathroom, he grabbed it and went over to the dresser that had several drawers. He stuffed everything that was in the drawers into the bag and soon it was overflowing. He looked around for anything else to put stuff in and eventually found a large case of some sort underneath the bed that would be big enough to put the rest of her meager belongings. He opened it and placed it on the bed. Then, he went into the bathroom and scooped up the items in there and tossed them into the case.
The only thing left in the apartment that he noticed was a plant in the window. It was a funny looking plant with green fuzzy leaves and small purple flowers sprouting from the middle. He smiled when he looked down at it. He associated the plant that was sitting alone in the window with his mate. He couldn’t leave it behind to die since Emma’s hands had been giving it the care that it needed to survive, and he had taken her away from it. He figured that the right thing to do would be to return it to Emma’s care. Maybe the act of caring for it once more would help her accept her fate.
His timer starter to beep to let him know that the electronportation device was going to beam him back to the ship shortly. He gathered up the bag, case, and without thinking, he pulled the thick blanket off the bed and threw it over his shoulder. Seconds later he felt the tingling sensation as he started to fade away, and reappear in the electronportation room. He checked to make sure he had made it back in one piece. He laughed as he realized he had pulled of the stunt off by himself without a problem. He was so excited that he was able to bring Emma her things, hoping he would see her smile for the first time. Maybe this would bring her peace.
He returned to his quarters with everything he took from her apartment. He left Emma sleeping hours ago, so the hexano should have worn off by now. She should be feeling a lot better than she did earlier. Walking into his quarters, he dropped his gifts onto the floor near the entrance of their quarters and went to the bedroom. He opened the door quietly in case she was still sleeping, but was surprised to find the bed empty. He walked to the open bathroom door where he heard the sound of water running. Emma was standing in the shower and letting the water fall onto her naked body. He was frozen to the spot as he watched her wash herself through the glass of the shower stall. She was slick and wet from head to toe. He could only see the back of her body, but what he did see made his cock ache for her.
Her long black hair hung down to her ass as she leaned her head back to let the water flow down her throat and chest. Her ass was perfectly formed and tight, and just beneath it were shapely thighs and calves. He wanted so badly to undress and join her in the shower, to feel her wet body pressed up against his. He wanted to take her from behind while massaging her breasts. He wanted to be able to let his hand drift down to her front and rub her most sensitive spot while he buried himself deep within her. He was totally lost in thought when he heard her shout.
“Get out!”
He shook his head and took a step away from the door of the bathroom. He covered his eyes, to block the vision of what he saw through the glass of the shower door. She was trying to cover herself as much as possible as she squatted down as she covered her breasts with her hands. “Get out! You have no right to be in here.”
He called out to her from the bedroom, “I am sorry, Emma. It was just that I have never seen anything as beautiful as what I saw as the water was pelting your body. Please, forgive me. I should not have looked. I will wait for you to get dressed and meet me in the living room. I have a surprise for you.”
He ran his fingers through his short cropped hair and cursed himself. What the hell had gotten into him? Here he was, ogling over her naked body, and what was this dominant feeling that would come over him in the instance when he was in her presence? He may have bought her at an auction but he did not own her heart, at least not yet. He had hoped that this day would have gone differently, because he had just gone to such great lengths to do something special for her. Did he just render everything he attempted to do by bringing her belongings up to the ship useless when he stared at her in the shower? Did he push her farther away? He did not like what he was turning into at all, a possessive and domineering fool. He wasn’t like this before she came into his life. What the fuck?
She came out a few minutes later, fully clothed and towel drying her long black hair and shouted, “I told you before, that I want to be returned to my home!” Her skin was flushed probably with the realization that he had seen her naked body.
He did not know what to say and blurted out, “Look, I told you that it is not possible for you to be returned to your home. But, I do have a surprise for you.”
“Please Emma, I have something for you.” He went to get her belongings from the entryway of the room.
She watched his every move as his went to get something near the entrance of his rooms. She drew her eyebrows together in confusion as he came closer when she recognized the bag and case that he was carrying over to her. The denim colored bag she had for years now. It was one of the first things she had bought with her own money as a teenager. The brown rolling suitcase she had bought right before her eighteenth birthday in preparation for setting out on her own. He brought the items to her and placed them on the coffee table.
She looked up at him with a quizzical look, “How did you get my things?”
He sat back down on the opposite sofa before answering her question, “While you were sleeping, I went down to your home and retrieved your belongings. I believe that I got everything. I even brought you this.” He stood up once more to retrieve something from the entry way.
“I could not leave this behind.” In his hands sat her violet that she had be nurturing and tending to for a while now. The ceramic pot sat in his hands looking totally out of place.
“You brought me my violet? Why?” She stood up and took the ceramic pot from him then sat back down on the sofa.
“I thought you might like to have it.” She could see the color of his skin redden when he told her that. Why would this huge muscular alien man want to do something nice for her? He was the o
ne who had taken her from all she knew, and now he was trying give her a peace offering. But, a thought popped in her head at that precise moment, “If you can go down to my planet so easily and get my things, then you can just as easily take me back home.”
“That is not possible, Emma. I brought you your things with the hope they would make you feel more comfortable here with me, nothing more.” He had a feeling that the direction this conversation was going would inevitably turn bad.
“It is possible and you know it! You just don’t want to do it!”
“Your life is here with me now. End of story. Do not ask me again.” His anger was rising and he didn’t want his act of kindness to turn into a full blown argument. He didn’t know when or if he was ever going to be able to get through the wall that she erected around herself.
“I have to return to work but would you like me to fix you something to eat first?”
“I told you already that I do not need anything from you now or ever,” she said as she walked away from him and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
“Gods’ help me!” he groaned as he left. He was going to have to try and think of a new game plan if he had any hope of ever winning her over.
Chapter 5
Emma watched as Brylon stormed out of their quarters once again. She hadn’t expected him back so early, so when she woke up she had decided to jump in the shower. Her headache was gone, thankfully, but her stomach was a bit queasy. She vowed she would never touch that foa drink ever again. It had knocked her on her ass, and left her with a feeling she didn’t care for.
The good thing was that she had come up with an idea on how to escape his quarters without being seen when she taking a shower. Up above the vanity in the bathroom, she saw an air vent that appeared to be large enough for her to slip her body through. The hard part would be figuring out how to get the vent covering off, but once she did get it off, she would slide through and make her way through the vent system. Hopefully, the vents would lead her to the area that contained the small ships she saw the night before.
Apparently, Brylon was an extremely busy man on this ship, with as much work as he claimed to have to do. It was either that, or she was the one that was making him to stay away, which was all the better for her. But, she wasn’t really sure of the motive that drove him to get her stuff. Was it really a peace offering or a way to get into her pants? She didn’t have very much experience in the dating/guy department, so a gesture like that was totally foreign to her. She almost wanted to give in to him when he brought out her violet, but the realization of where he had gone had hit her like a ton of bricks. He had gone into her home without her knowledge. If he could so easily go into her home then he could just as easily put her right back where he found her. This made her even more determined to go ahead with her plan.
After he left again, Emma went to get dressed in some of the clothes that he had brought to her. Digging through the bag, she pulled out a pair of black yoga pants, a pink t-shirt, socks, bra, and underwear. She wanted to be comfortable while crawling through the vents. A little further digging revealed her tennis shoes in the bottom of the bag. After dressing quickly and putting her hair in a braided ponytail, she went into the kitchen to find some sort of tool that she might be able to use to pry the vent covering loose. She found a large knife and a mallet that could be of use when she wedged the knife under the vent.
Back in the bathroom, she climbed up on top of the vanity with her tools and went to work. Surprisingly enough, the cover came off with very little resistance and a slight pop. “Yes,” she said out loud. She put her tools of escape out of the way on the counter then carefully tried to pull herself up into the vent. Unfortunately, she was a bit too short to get a good enough grip on the slick metal walls inside the vent to fully pull herself up. She was breaking a sweat now with the effort of trying to get up and was looking around the bathroom for something that she could stand on to boost her up. The evidence of the vent cover being off was obviously going to give away her whereabouts, but she could only hope that it would be hours before Brylon decided to come back for the night. She jumped down off the vanity and went into the bedroom to look for anything she could use to stand on. She couldn’t find anything there so she went into the living room and looked around.
“Aww, come on, there has got to be something around here that I can use,” she spoke out loud as she made her way around the room. Turning around in a circle again for another look, she was almost at her wits end. Everything in the living room was too big to put on top of the vanity. With her hands on her hips, she went to lean against the wall that she thought was behind her, but was surprised to find that the wall had swung open causing her to stumble backwards.
“You have got to be kidding me, Emma. Why the hell didn’t you think about his office before now?” She went into Brylon’s office and the lights automatically switched on. She laughed out loud when she saw the bookcases filled with books, books that she could use to stand on. She rushed over to the nearest shelf and pulled off as many of the books as she could carry and headed back to the bathroom.
She carefully stacked the books, one on top of the other, and then climbed back up on top to reach her escape route. She stepped carefully on to the top of the stack while holding on to the sides of the vent hole. The books wobbled a bit as they shifted under her feet, but managed to stay stacked. She was more than waist high now with the help of her makeshift step ladder so pulling herself up the rest of the way was going to be a breeze.
She leaned forward and braced her hands on either side of the walls in the vent then jumped. The books that were under her feet slid out from underneath her and crashed to the floor. She was kicking out her legs to help her get the top portion of her body to slide further into to the vent while walking her hands along the walls. Finally, after one last kick, her body was all the way in the air duct.
She rolled over onto her back to catch her breath and rest for a moment. She stared up at the silvery steel ceiling that reflected her image back to her. She laughed at the image she saw staring down at her, “I am so crazy to be doing this. Shit, I didn’t think about bringing a light.” She bit her bottom lip as she thought about leaving the vent and returning to Brylon’s rooms in search of a light to bring with her. “Too late now,” she rolled onto her hands and knees then proceeded to crawl further into the ductwork. It wasn’t as small as she had thought it would be on the inside, she actually had room to sit up against the wall. But, not enough room to stand. She crawled forward until she came to a junction, and she was not sure which way to go. Glancing behind her, she could faintly see the light coming from the bathroom she came in at. In front of her, she had three options that she could choose from. She decided to keep heading straight until she reached the next junction. She figured that if she had turned left or right it would just lead her over other living quarters and not the area that she needed to go.
Amazingly enough, the vents were not completely dark since there were tiny glowing lights every few feet along the top of the duct. At times, even more light would shine into vents when she passed near an access panel. Occasionally, she could hear the sound of voices echoing through the vents. She wasn’t sure how long she had been crawling for, when she needed to stop and give her knees a break. She sat back and leaned against the wall to catch her breath for a few minutes.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea,” she said to herself, “I have absolutely no idea where I am.” She had thought her plan would work without a doubt, but now sitting in the confines of the vent system, she pretty sure that she was hopelessly lost. With no windows, there was absolutely no way for her to tell if she was close to the ship’s docking bay or not. While she was looking out the window last night, the bay didn’t really seem that far away. But, right now the docking bay seemed as far away as Earth was.
Taking a deep breath she got back on her knees and continued to crawl through the maze. The more she crawled, the more her emoti
ons started to get the best of her. Tears started to blur her vision as she cursed silently to herself. She cursed everything from the day she was born to the day that the three aliens decided to take it upon themselves to change her life forever. Why had life treated her so unfairly?
“Keep going Emma. That’s all you can do now,” she muttered to herself. A cool breeze flowed past her as the ventilation system circulated the air in the ship. She would probably get a bit chilled if she stayed in the vents for an extended period of time because she wasn’t wearing the right kind of clothing. But what was the right kind of clothing to wear when crawling around an alien ship vent system, she thought to her herself.
She came up to another vent cover and as quietly as she could, she crawled over to see what she could see through the thin slats. It was an office of some type with a large round table in the middle that was surrounded by chairs that were now occupied with several of the so called warriors. They appeared to be in a meeting because there was one warrior who was standing as he addressed the others.
The warrior that was speaking, she instantly recognized as one of the men that had invaded her home, but she wasn’t sure who he was. He must be someone of great importance because he had the undivided attention of the others in the room.
“Just make sure that you do not let your females travel around the ship unattended until you are fully mated. We don’t want any warrior who did not buy a mate at this point to get any bright ideas. This is really more for safety precautions for the time being. We are planning on going back down to the planet and acquiring more females. That mission has yet to be determined so for the time being keep your females close, are there any questions?” The speaker asked as his eyes moved over the room.
