by Renee Rose
Kallista is happily married to her own erotic Knight. He keeps her supplied with endless cups of Cowboy Coffee when she's writing and plenty of new material for her next naughty scene the rest of the time.
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Kenan’s Mate
by
Sue Lyndon
Chapter One
The wormhole swirls brighter and larger in the window. A vibrant shade of blue, the interstellar portal sparkles against the vast blackness of space surrounding it. God, what a sight. All my life I’ve dreamed of this moment.
From my swanky quarters on the Stargazer, I have the perfect view.
With shaking hands, I snap a couple of pictures then sit cross-legged on my bed and watch as the ship travels closer and closer to its swirling blue destination. Today is my eighteenth birthday, and I doubt any future birthdays will top this one. Aunt Mabel, my mother’s quirky younger sister, gave me this trip as a birthday/graduation present. Not only do I get to glimpse the Anders-Perkins Wormhole, but I also get to spend three months on Tallia, a beautiful tropical planet located on the other side of the whirling blue gateway.
My heart leaps when the captain’s voice blares over the intercom.
“Attention passengers. In moments, we will enter the wormhole. Please find a seat and buckle up for your safety. As always, thank you for traveling with Celestial Enterprises.”
I sink into the chair beside my bed, making sure to fasten the harness securely. The brochures claim the ride through is usually smooth, but I’ll follow the captain’s directives anyway. Besides, I can still see out the large window in my quarters without any trouble.
Aunt Mabel had splurged on my accommodations, booking a four-room suite with a guaranteed view of the magnificent passage upon approach. You only graduate from high school and turn eighteen once, Laylah, she’d insisted after I protested she had spent too much money.
A shudder runs through the ship, and the wormhole resumes growing larger in the window. My skin prickles and a jittery sensation grips me. Sharp vibrations course through the hull, increasing my nerves. I tell myself I’m not scared, but, deep down, I’m having second thoughts about my interstellar vacation.
What if the wormhole rips the Stargazer into a million tiny pieces? What if the engines stall and we end up stranded in the bright swirling light forever?
No. Don’t even think it, Laylah. Pushing these worries away, I refocus my thoughts on Tallia. I can’t wait to explore the forests and observe the animal life. I’ll stay on the tropical planet until early September, when I’ll return to Earth for my first semester at Harvard. If I maintain a 4.0 in my exobiology classes throughout my third year of undergrad, I’ll spend my last two semesters on Tallia, studying under leading scientists in the field.
My long-term goal, of course, is to work on Tallia as a researcher. Though it’s not my first career choice, it’s the best way to guarantee I’ll one day call the planet my permanent home. Earth’s fascination with Tallia runs so deep, there is actually a shortage of scientists willing to relocate to the planet. It seems every day there’s a call for more scientists to volunteer for a new expedition on one of the large, untouched continents.
If I could be a waitress in one of the restaurants in Capital Acres or clean hotel rooms in the Tallia Grand, I would apply for such a position in a heartbeat. But the waiting lists are far too long. While it’s difficult to convince enough scientists to leave their families on Earth for years on end, young, unattached adventure seekers in droves line up for the more menial jobs Tallia offers.
The Stargazer enters the wormhole, and I clutch the armrests until my knuckles turn white. I feel lightheaded and tired, a common side effect of interstellar travel, but I force my eyes to remain open. I stare out the window at the fantastic swirl of blue. My stomach lurches as the ship picks up speed. Then, we’re moving so fast, the wormhole becomes a blur of blue and white sparkling lines.
I shut my eyes and my queasiness lessens. The trip through the wormhole takes all of five minutes. I blink at the new view after the captain announces our arrival on the other side.
From space, the blue-green planet of Tallia looks almost like Earth. I smile. I’m finally here.
After unfastening the harness, I move to the plush sofa in front of the window and gaze upon the planet I’ll call home for the next three months. I also snap a hundred more pictures. Ten times the size of Earth, the previously uninhabited world will gradually be settled by more and more humans, and I’m grateful for the chance to visit before it becomes as overcrowded as my homeworld.
“Thank you, Aunt Mabel,” I whisper. “This is the best present ever.”
The next few minutes are an excited blur as we approach the planet. I hurry to dress in a cute yellow and blue sundress and pack all my belongings, placing three large suitcases near the door. A Stargazer employee should arrive at any moment to collect my things and oversee their transportation to the Tallia Grand after we land. Until then, I have nothing to do but wait and stare at the breathtakingly beautiful planet.
As I stand at the window, a large object enters my peripheral vision. By the time I tear my gaze from the planet to glimpse the object, there is more than one. I gulp hard. I want to fetch my camera out of my purse, but I hesitate to spare a second to look away.
Five massive spaceships approach the Stargazer, until they’re completely blocking out the view of Tallia.
I don’t recognize the ships. They don’t resemble the passenger vessels built by Celestial Enterprises, like the Stargazer. Blue and green lights flash around the perimeter of the sleek gray vessels.
My heart races. No intelligent humanoid species call Tallia home. The brochures promise that. But these ships sure as fuck make me doubt the claim. Though alien plant and animal life has been found on Tallia, and fossils of once-living creatures have been discovered on a handful of other distant planets, humans are still very much alone in the universe.
Intelligent alien life hasn’t been discovered yet. However, looking at the ships, I can’t help but entertain the possibility they’re manned by a non-human crew.
An earsplitting alarm sounds, and the overhead lights flash red. The captain announces something over the intercom, but I can’t discern his shouted words. One of the strange ships sends a series of white blasts over the Stargazer.
Panic sets in. Weapons. The five ships blocking our course have weapons. As far as I know, the Stargazer isn’t armed. It’s a passenger ship, like all the other crafts built by Celestial Enterprises.
I stand at the window, trying to wrap my brain around what’s transpiring. In the midst of my burgeoning fear, a sense of awe rises. In the back of my mind, beyond the panic and shock, I understand this is a historic event of the sort humanity will eternally discuss and ask questions like, “Where were you and what were you doing when you heard the news?”
Another series of white blasts zoom over the Stargazer. Are they supposed to be warning shots? Or are they aiming at something else? The wormhole rests directly behind us. But why open fire at the wormhole? Terror makes my blood run cold. Whether the five gray ships have human or, God forbid, alien crews, I have a very, very bad feeling about this encounter.
The shrill alarm pounds against my skull like a hammer. I wince and cover my ears. My stomach flips when the five ships change their configuration to form a triangle.
Then all chaos erupts.
Countless white beams fire from the ships and impact the Stargazer. I fall to my knees as the power of the blasts shake the ship. The hull groans. When I look up, I see nothing but blinding white outside the window. It hurts my eyes and momentarily steals my vision. The ship shudders for another minute, but then the blasting ceases. Smoke fills the air.
Suddenly, a voice comes over the intercom. I can’t tell if it’s the captain speaking, or someone else, but the panicked announcement sends a chill down my spine.
“We’ve been boarded. My God, we’ve been boarded.”<
br />
Boarded by whom? my mind whispers.
Coughing, I crawl toward the door. It doesn’t open automatically like it’s supposed to, and even when I frantically press buttons on the panel, it remains shut. By now, the smoke is burning my eyes and I can hardly breathe. I’m suffocating. I’m going to die. Everyone on the Stargazer is probably going to die.
My life doesn’t flash before my eyes, but I do think of my family and friends back on Earth. Their faces appear in my mind, one by one, as if they’ve come to say good-bye. Mom. Dad. Aunt Mabel. Cousin Tammy, and so many more.
I inhale one last painful breath before my world goes black.
***
Everything hurts.
I’m floating in that murky place between sleep and wakefulness. It’s warm and there’s nothing to see, but I hear voices. Deep voices, in a language unfamiliar to me. Have I died? Is this the afterlife?
No matter how hard I try to wake up fully, I can’t force my eyes open. A breeze caresses my face and blows my hair around. Someone is carrying me; of that I am certain. A fiery pain stabs through me with each breath.
I whimper and turn my head. The warmth of the sun hits my cheeks. At least I think it’s the sun. If only I could open my eyes. I must be on Tallia. I wonder how many passengers and crewmembers survived the attack.
The spicy, masculine scent of the person carrying me comforts me in the midst of the sharp pains continually shooting through my body. I’m cocooned in the safety of his strong arms. When I try to speak, only a strangled moan escapes my burning throat. God, I’m thirsty. How long has it been since I lost consciousness?
At last, my eyes flutter open, but the sunlight blinds my vision. I stop trying to look around and instead bury my face against the man’s chest. He’s probably a medic taking me to a hospital. Tallia has one medical center, situated amongst the hotels, restaurants, and shops catering to wealthy tourists in Capital Acres.
The warmth of the sun disappears, along with the breeze on my face. Every muscle in my body protests as I shift in my rescuer’s arms. We must have reached the hospital.
Without the sun blinding me, I’m finally able to force my eyes open again.
I gasp. This can’t be real. I blink again and again, but nothing changes.
Large, dark purple eyes stare down at me. Inhuman eyes.
I can’t look away, and though my brain screams I should fight and run away from this strange creature who’s carrying me, I’m too paralyzed by fear to even push at his chest. His nostrils flare and a thick vein in his neck bulges.
He’s absolutely terrifying.
Details of the brief attack race through my mind. The five sleek gray ships with flashing blue and green lights. The beams of white shooting from those strange ships. The Stargazer being impacted by weapons’ fire and smoke blanketing the air. Realization crashes over me in an icy wave of horror.
The Stargazer was attacked by aliens. Honest to God aliens. My mind scrambles to make sense of it all. Do Earth governments already know of these beings? Or is today’s attack literally first contact? Why did the aliens attack us?
Before I can process today’s events further, black dots dance in my vision. Fatigue and dizziness force my eyes shut, and I once again tumble into darkness.
Deep voices occasionally punctuate the void I’m floating in. Images from my childhood keep flashing in my mind, too, like little pieces of broken dreams. Because only the sad times visit me, and, when I try to conjure up the happy moments—which make up most of my childhood—I start sinking, as if caught in quicksand, and my lungs seize up.
The images flash and flash.
A tour bus crashes into the small red car driving ahead of us, driving the car underneath a passing tractor trailer. My mother screams. My grandmother is in the car now beneath the tractor trailer. Oh my God, we know she’s dead.
Rain is pounding on the roof. The doorbell rings as I’m doing homework at the kitchen table. My father lets two police officers inside. They say my brother was found dead in an alley. Stab wounds. Probably drug related. There’s a funeral. My mother cries for weeks and weeks.
I stand above the trash can in the kitchen, staring at the remnants of my acceptance letter into the prestigious arts high school. Tears stream down my face. I got in! But why did someone rip up my acceptance letter? I run to my room and slam the door. Drawings and paintings, most of them depictions of Tallia, cover my walls and taunt me. The next day, my parents announce I need to take more advanced science and math classes, if I want to make something of my life. I know it’s because my brother was an artist. They don’t want me to follow in his footsteps.
A scream rips from my throat. Strong hands hold me down. I don’t like these dreams. Shouts reach me, making me go still. An argument, two distinct voices. Panic races through me, knowing there’s more than one of these purple-eyed creatures. Unless, of course, all of this, including the attack on the Stargazer, is nothing but a dream.
I pray everything that’s happened since my arrival on the other side of the wormhole is but a nightmare. Then all the sounds and images fade to black, and I drift in a sea of nothingness.
***
When I awake, my surroundings confirm I haven’t been dreaming. I feel as if days have gone by since I last passed out in the purple-eyed alien’s arms. Of course, I have no way of knowing how long I’ve been sleeping.
It’s not the indeterminable amount of time that’s passed troubling me, though. It’s the fact I’m inside a cage with metal bars, and the cage sits in a large bedroom at the foot of a bed twice as big as the king-size version in my lavish quarters aboard the Stargazer
A large mug of water has been left for me in a corner of the cage. It’s cold and refreshing and mercifully eases the dryness in my throat. After I finish drinking it, I place the mug outside the bars and resume waiting for whatever’s to happen next. I comfort myself with the fact that if someone gave me water, they at least want to keep me alive. For now.
Tears trickle down my face and I hug my legs to my chest.
God, please don’t let this be real.
Not only am I in a cage, but I’m naked. I wonder if the same alien who’d been carrying me earlier lives in this house. But, then, what does it matter? I am someone’s prisoner. An alien’s prisoner.
Disbelief envelops me in a cold sheath, while a part of me remains completely numb and detached from this experience. I spend several moments pretending I’m not here, pretending I’m anywhere but inside this cage on a planet far from Earth.
Birds chirp outside a nearby open window, drawing me back into my surroundings and the urgency of my situation. Exotic scents enter with the warm breeze drifting inside. From my place in the cage, I spy green trees with massive, thick oval leaves. When I close my eyes and listen, I think I hear the steady, lulling crash of waves upon a shore.
Perhaps I’m near an ocean or one of the many large lakes on Tallia.
I peer between my legs and gulp at the sight. My privates have been made completely bare. When I touch my pussy lips, even the stubble of roots is absent. In fact, my underarms and legs feel smoother than they had after I shaved the night before the attack.
My hair still smells of smoke. I close my eyes again and wonder how long until someone comes to check on me. I hope it’s not the scary alien, but my gut tells me he’ll be the one to greet me. A shudder runs through me when I recall the furious gleam in his otherworldly purple eyes.
Maybe I’m not on Tallia, after all. Maybe I’ve been taken to another planet. My heart thunders in my chest, and my palms dampen. Even if I manage to escape this cage and this house, how will I make it back to Earth? Hopeless scenarios weave through my mind. I wipe the tears trickling down my cheeks away with the back of my hand.
I try to encourage myself to be strong and not show weakness to my captor, or captors, but it’s difficult when I don’t know my location or anything about the aliens who attacked the Stargazer. I mean, fuck. Before today, I didn’t even
know aliens existed.
My pulse quickens and I shiver as the sun dims and the breeze turns cooler. In response to the light waning outside, the sconces illuminating the room glow brighter. I gaze longingly at the blankets piled on the large bed, but I’m afraid to reach through the bars to grab one. The purple-eyed creature seemed like a force of nature, with huge muscles, and for all I know, a horribly violent temper. I hesitate to do anything without permission. If he wants me to have a blanket, there would be one in the cage.
At least the surface of the cage is soft and plush, and a huge pillow rests against the bars. This isn’t merely a cage. It’s also a bed. My bed. Fighting the fresh tears that gather after this truth sinks in, I glance around the bedroom.
It’s not so dissimilar from any bedroom decorated by humans. Aside from the bed, there are tall dressers with small carvings scattered on top, odd shimmering sculptures placed in corners, paintings and other artwork strewn about the walls, and a door I suspect leads to a bathroom. This could be a suite at the Tallia Grand, if not for the cage.
Heavy footsteps sound beyond the door. As the stomping grows closer, I start shaking and clutch my legs to my chest, trying to hide my nudity.
The door slides open and my gaze immediately locks with purple eyes.
It’s him. The same creature who’d been carrying me earlier. I gulp and shift to the back of my cage, terrified by the dark look on his face. His nostrils keep flaring, and he gazes at me with a fierceness that leaves me ice cold.
I want to disappear. I want to turn invisible so he can’t look at me that way anymore. Instead, I start crying. I sniffle and bite my lower lip, angry at myself for not holding it together. I wish I could be brave and demand clothing, or a blanket, or tell him to let me out of this fucking cage.
But he’s so much larger than me. Muscular. Over seven feet tall. Broad shouldered. His head has to be twice the size of mine. I glance at his hands and cringe. Oh my God. I count seven fingers on each massive hand. The boots he has on prevent me from counting his toes.
