by Gabby Dark
The warrior, Braken, was easier on the eyes than some of the other brutes waiting to claim a woman. Sooner or later, one of them would claim me.
When Braken cut his chosen’s ropes, the woman started crying and begged to go back to the dorms. Seeing that she was afraid, the warrior knelt in front of her, took her hand, and said something in their native alien tongue. I didn’t understand a word he was saying, and based on the look from the woman, she didn’t understand a word of it either. He pressed a palm to her belly and continued speaking. Somehow, his voice had soothed her. Reluctantly, she went with him.
I scanned the crowd. There were more men than women. I wondered if this would become their norm. After seeing how easy it was to take us, would they continue to abduct women from Earth for the purpose of breeding?
“We have another,” the King announced holding up a ballot. “Hvit’zark, come forward.”
No one came forward. A heavy silence hung over the room.
“Zark!” the King yelled.
The crowd parted a very wide path, revealing an alien warrior leaning on a wall near the back of the room. His head was down and his arms were crossed over his chest.
“Hvit’zark Ruavu Braddlk, your antics have pressed me. My patience is running thin. Come now to claim your mate.”
Hvit’zark came forward and only then was I able to see the warrior—every single muscular inch of him. Like the others, he wore a leather loincloth and boots. He was shirtless, although, I didn’t remember seeing many shirts. He seemed battle-hardened. He was riddled with more than a dozen scars—old scars—all along his chest, arms, and even his face. His jet-black hair was longer than some of the women here. He didn’t wear it contained in a single braid like the other alien warriors. On his lower left torso, a set of claw marks left a lasting impression in his flesh. There was no expression on his face, yet he was handsome and I couldn’t seem to look away from him.
I had to remind myself over and over again that these people were aliens with maybe only a hint of their human genes left. Yet I couldn’t overlook their impeccable gray skin, electrifying ǔre, and the ability to speak the English language when they wanted to.
Hvit’zark took a few steps back. “I do not wish—”
Hvit’zark’s comment was immediately cut off by the King, who held up his hand. “This is your duty, son of Braddlk.”
Hvit’zark grimaced. He looked across the line of women with a frown on his face.
“Do none of these women please you, Zark?”
“They are beautiful, these women who come in all shapes and sizes and tones,” he said. “However, beauty will not sway me from my other duties.”
The King sat back in his chair. “You are afraid to take a mate.”
“I am not afraid of anything or anyone.”
“You are afraid she will change you.”
“Your Majesty…you interpret my thoughts too hastily without giving me a chance to make my case,” Zark replied.
“Do you not wish for a companion in this case?” the King asked.
“I will do almost anything you ask. You know this. If you’re reading my mind now, you must know that I’m not fit to care for any mate. I’ve destroyed everything I’ve touched.”
“We’re not talking about material things, Zark. The things you claimed to have destroyed were replaced. The things that can’t be replaced are better off dead, yes?”
Hvit’zark still appeared apprehension.
The King rubbed his beard. “Ah, I see…no matter. If my predictions are correct, you will be mated in less than four seasons. Take your pick and let’s see.”
Hvit’zark looked, but didn’t move forward to claim any from the line-up.
The King cleared his throat and pointed to one of the guards. “Present them.”
The guard brought forth a woman in the back with red hair, almost the same shade as mine. Without looking up, Hvit’zark replied, “No.” Before the next one could reach him, he said, “No.” He declined the third and the fourth woman, and then someone plucked me from the back. I froze, but almost stumbled over my own two feet when the guard brought me forward with urgency.
I couldn’t tell if I was shivering from the cold or in fear. I thought Zark was big and tall before, but once I got within two feet of him, I realized that he must have stood close to seven feet tall, maybe more. I swallowed, feeling what seemed to be the equivalent of a large stone blocking my airway. It sunk down my throat and sent butterflies going haywire in my belly when it hit rock bottom. There seemed to be some kind of energy pulling Zark and me together. We were magnets bound to connect somehow. It felt that way.
I was a little too curious. I rose my gaze and my eyes instantly locked with Hvit’zark’s. His eyes were almost the same color as his skin. Gray, but just a bit lighter. His expression-less face never waned. He searched me with his eyes. His skin seemed to glow with his enchanting ǔre. When I learned the color he possessed—silver—I knew instantly what he was. Death bringer, for sure.
Without saying a word, Hvit’zark rose his gaze above me to look at the King. His eyes fell to me once more and he turned around and walked out of the room. Had I displeased him so much that he couldn’t stand to be at the auction another moment?
I turned around, but the guard caught me by the arm.
“Prepare her at once,” the King said.
“Wait! Your majesty!” From the left side of the room, my nurse, Meriuam, came running up to the podium. “This one is Freya. We are assigned to each other. She is in my care. Your warrior should know. She is without her memories. There is no ill-intent. The others with telepathy at the dorms saw none, but…her warrior should know.”
The King frowned. “Without memories?”
“Did you see her reports?” Meriuam asked. “I recommended that she be given more time to allow her a chance to regain her memories.”
“You must excuse me. I’ve somehow missed this. Her files looked promising. Her work with the children here left me impressed. But this is odd. How did she lose her memories? Was she injured?”
“Yes and no. Not by us. She was found unconscious. Poisoned shortly before the warriors found her. The onboard medic claims that there were trace amounts of the drug in her blood—enough to detect, but not enough to test. Some of the other humans have spoken of Earth drugs like this. It might be temporary memory loss, yet we can’t be so sure. We will not know who she truly is until her memories return, if they return. It’s why I recommended that she be entered in the auction much later with the second group. She has been cooperative. I thought you would approve.”
The King looked down at me. “You cannot remember a thing? Is this true, Freya? That is your name, I hope.”
“Yes. And the name does seem familiar. I do believe it is mine. I’ve answered to it many times. The only other memories I have are the one’s from me being here,” I replied. “I’ve tried to make sense of what I know, but…I can’t. I…” I swallowed and shook my head. “I just can’t.”
“You just meant to say that you don’t want to remember. You feel pain when you think of your past.”
I gasped when the alien king hit the nail right on the head. He was right. My memories—or what little I had—gave me nothing but stress.
“As she should! Her family made our lives a living hell in that place,” a woman screamed from the group.
“Excuse me! Who is that?” the King demanded. When the guard brought the informant forward, he asked her, “Did you personally know this one?”
“No but—”
“Then get back in the line, please.” The King pointed and the informant was taken back to her place. “Can any one of you provide a true statement beyond the rumors woven on Earth?”
No one stirred or spoke.
“As Naomi has said, Freya was very important. The others have said that she was the illegitimate daughter of a royal,” Meriuam said. “I do believe some of that is true. We have no reason to doubt those here, althoug
h they do seem to resent her.”
I swallowed my shame and looked down at the floor.
“A royal?” The King shook his head and narrowed his gaze. “Hmmm. I can see now. Her intentions aren’t ill at all. Beyond that, I can’t read her. It’s like trying to look out through a blind man’s eyes. How long do you think it will take for that Earth drug to wear off?”
Meriuam shrugged. “Days. Weeks. Months. With your permission, our cleansing crystals should help some.”
“Then get the crystals for her at once. Freya, you may start fresh here where your new life will begin. In the meantime, get Zark back in here before he disappears.”
Once they had Zark back in the room and told him that I had no memories before I was taken from Earth and that I may have been a royal from Earth, I thought he’d order that they put me back in the line, but he said, “I will wait. I have other missions, of course. I’ll return for her once I succeed. As for her memories, I won’t be any use trying to read her either. That is not my gift. But forgive me for saying this, my King. Your prophecy might not be true after all. She could not have been meant for me. No one of royal blood could have been meant for someone like me.”
“But it is you who have chosen her,” the King stated. “We agree on that, don’t we?”
Hvit’zark started to leave the room again with the King calling after him, “You’ll have maybe a few more weeks as a lone wolf, Zark, but you can’t run from your fate.”
They kept talking bout Zark’s fate, but what were they going to do to me?
As if reading my thoughts again, the King replied, “You will return to the dorms. My reports say that you like reading to our young and that they enjoy your stories. You’ll have some time before your warrior comes for you. I pray that your memories return.”
“Come,” Meriuam exclaimed. When she reached for me, I couldn’t have been any happier to go back with her. She’d been the kindest one here, except for Aurora, who I felt connected to somehow.
But would I care if Hvit’zark never returned for me? Maybe. Maybe not.
I couldn’t deny the pull I had toward him. It felt almost like the connection I felt to Aurora, but only different. Something more intense. Like a longing.
The alien king was right about one thing. I had enjoyed reading all the Earth books to the orphaned Zunatorian children. I even enjoyed spinning stories of my own. But it was too bad that my story was lost forever. Or did I even care?
CHAPTER FOUR
Zark
* * *
“What happened to you?” my Uncle Thar’kein growled in his native language.
I kicked a stone out of my way, continued up the path, and plopped my sack down on a bench. My uncle continued working on the building project which was probably some fixture for one of the newer podhouses. He was always busy doing something, but then being occupied usually kept him out of trouble. And off the battlefields. Except for my cousin, Thar’kein was the only blood relative I had left on Zunator. If anything happened to him…well, let’s just say I needed him more than he knew.
“Scouting for the King. For new settlements.” I picked up one of the pieces and admired his craft.
“Nope. That’s not what I meant. There’s talk of you in the village about ditching your post on the spaceship.” He put down his tool, leaned against a table, and crossed his arms over his chest. His red ǔre awakened, reminding me that he was easily angered, which reminded me of someone else like him. His brother—my biological father. I saw them both as father figures…
Maybe my father would still be here, if I hadn’t fucked that up too.
When I was eleven, I started a blaze while practicing with a fire sword. I destroyed my parent’s home and the fire spread to the crop of our neighbors, wiping out their entire winter stock and harvest. It wasn’t the first time that I’d caused an accident of that magnitude. The winter before that when some miners from another settlement were working in a crystal cave, I hid to watch them. One of them discovered me and chased me as I ran off. I tripped on some equipment and caused a chain reaction which sent a mound of tailings crashing into the cave. To this day, there’s still a sinkhole where it happened. But to my King’s benefit, the sinkhole made it easier for our miners to dig for some of the best crystals we’d ever found. And they happened to be crystals that actually healed some serious ailments. It became clear that I wasn’t just a klutz. My silver aura wasn’t designated for healing. I was a destroyer.
But the blaze I set while learning to use a fire sword confirmed my fate for me. The neighbor who lost his crop was still disgruntled and it led to aggressive tension between my father, who had already offered to pay for the damage, and the farmer. They even went to the King to help settle the dispute and my father and I were told to work on their farms for two winters or until the harvest that was lost was replaced. And so that’s what we did, but the farmer couldn’t control his anger. After I damaged one too many seedlings, he decided to reprimand me himself by grabbing my neck in a chokehold and throwing me up against a tree. I couldn’t get up to defend myself. My leg was broken in the fall.
My father saw the whole thing from the barn, picked up an ax, and challenged the farmer to a fight to end the dispute once and for all. We weren’t farmers. We didn’t belong on a farm. The farmer agreed. My father badly injured the farmer who succumbed to his injuries that night.
When the King got word about the incident, he exiled my father from Zunator. I wanted to go with him but my father told me to never abandon my King. I’ve kept my word all this time. At the time, my oldest blood relative, who was just ten years older than me, Uncle Thar’kein, was away in battle. I spent a good amount of time, almost a year—parentless—at the orphanage until he returned. By that time, my father had settled with the Aurraks—they needed more skilled builders anyway. He died in battle against space pirates shortly after that before the King could lift his sentence.
After my father left, I somehow got into the good graces of the King again after I befriended his sons while training to be a warrior. It didn’t take long for my trainers to understand that while I could work with a unit, that I worked better alone. The King hired me as one of his personal scouts and assassins to track down bad actors and either end them or bring them back to be locked up in marti lurtuǔng, the bloody cave—a prison filled with alien convicts. The worst of the worse.
When I wasn’t scouting, bounty hunting or assassinating, I destroyed Barb dens…and that was always fun. After all, I wasn’t like my father or uncle. I didn’t build. I destructed things for a living, thwarting even the best laid plans. In order to track down beasts and berserkers, I had to think like one. I had to become a rogue. I’d been clawed at and almost succumbed to injuries so many times while in pursuit of the Barbs that the people are always left wondering about my sanity. It wasn’t long before they abandoned my nickname as the destroyer and labeled me feral instead. People left me alone. Parted a clear path whenever they saw me. I was okay with that.
“Well, what of your fate for ditching your post?” my uncle asked.
I pulled out my blade and then sat down on the bench to start sharpening it with my uncle’s tools. “It seems my plan to escape my fate didn’t work. I am to be mated to one of the humans.”
“That’s good for you.” My uncle started working again. “You need a mate. It’s been years and I’ve been telling you that it’s time.”
“Why? So I can pass our name on.”
“Not my name. Your father’s name. Your name.” He placed his hand on my shoulder briefly as he spoke. “Don’t you wish for a son like all the other warriors?”
“You didn’t have a son and you’ve turned out just fine.”
“I have a daughter,” he reminded me. “She’s already promised to a warrior. I have no doubt she will bear me many grandchildren.”
“Where is my cousin Lesa, anyway?”
“She’s at the university. She didn’t want to sit around wringing her hands toge
ther until her warrior came back. That’s what she said anyway. She’s off my nerves. She’s being fed. She’s safe. Works for me. She’ll be back soon though. They’re close to a cure, you know?”
“I know. Maybe then they won’t bring over anymore of the humans.”
“What do you have against the humans?”
I shrugged. “Nothing at all. I often wondered how so many of them are willing to stay. Is it just a plan to retaliate later on?”
“Of course they won’t retaliate. Besides, if you had went to Earth, you would have seen her pitiful state. It will probably take a hundred more years for that planet to recover. But now, you will never see.”
“Why would I want to see Earth at its worst time?”
“A change of scenery is good sometimes.”
“I get plenty of that. Many warriors have never been to the edge of Zuna. I have.”
“Hmmm. True. But you’ve never been to a human planet,” he teased, nudging me in the arm.
My uncle was one of the first warriors to be sent to Earth long ago back when the only thing we raided for were material things and knowledge, not women for breeding. But even back then that didn’t stop some of the warriors from abducting a few women, becoming seduced by their looks and then claiming them as mates. Now, we actually relied on them to ensure our survival.
“Where is your human mate? I want to meet her.”
“Her name is Freya and she is still with her nurse at the dorms. She has…amnesia.”
My uncle stopped what he was doing and threw me a confused look. “Amnesia?”
“She can’t remember who she was or what happened to her on Earth?”
“Well, that’s odd. Did they not give her crystal meds?”
“They will now, I think. I told the King I’d come back for her.” I returned the blade to it’s sheath and pulled out another.
“Better be careful, boy. These warriors are hungry for mates. You should’ve insisted that she come with you.”
I snorted. “Come with me where? Oh, I know. I’ll take her barb hunting instead of mating her.”
