Seduced by Two Warriors (4 page)

“You
don’t have to be so brave, you know,” he said quietly. “If you want to talk
about it, we’re all here to listen.”

“He’s
right,” said Thane, leaning close enough to inhale the scent of her shampoo.
“No one will hurt you ever again.”

“Not
here,” she said quietly, flashing him a look of gratitude.
“Maybe
when we get back to the office.”

He
nodded.
“All right.
That’s what we’ll do then.”

“Yes,”
said Rune. “It’s important for you to be able to talk to all of us about it
now. How else can you expect to write it down for others, after all?”

She
almost smiled. “You’re right.”

They
ate their meal and made small talk, but Thane sensed Gia’s discomfort. He only
hoped they hadn’t all pushed her too hard, too fast. But whatever happened when
they returned to the office, he was determined not to let her be upset or hurt
over it. He had no idea where this protective streak had come from, but he’d
learned long ago to trust his gut, so he was going to run with it.

Chapter
Four

Gia
was sure her delicious lunch would come right back up as soon as they were
inside the offices of her new department branch once more. They didn’t have
outside customers to contend with, and no one would bother them since the
department branch heads were already here, so Arlo locked the outer door to the
suite of offices and they all took a seat around the conference table.

Cord
made sure they had water to drink, and then he asked Gia if she was ready to
talk to them about her experiences on Voyeur Moon. She gave Thane and Rune,
seated on either side of her, a quick glance each.

She’d
just met these men, but could already understand why Cord, Arlo, and Fallon
were so excited to have them work in this department branch. To say they
radiated empathy and gentleness was an understatement. But she also sensed the
same fierce alpha protective streak that Cord and Arlo showed. Most of the men
she’d met on all three planets were the same way. But the Regum and Addonians
she’d met, for the most part, lacked the viciousness of the Tyranns with whom
she’d had close, personal contact. Thank goodness. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be
here right now. Not voluntarily, at any rate.

But
could she do this? All of the people at this table were strangers, really. She’d
worked side by side with Honora and others in her former department for almost
two years and never told them this story. Petroff had been like a surrogate
father to her and she’d never given him all the details.

But
how could she do the job they wanted her to do here without getting this out?
She’d agreed to this, and in her heart she believed it was the right thing to
do. If her experiences helped other women, any pain she felt in relaying the
particulars of a few weeks to this group would be worth it in the long run.

Thane
and Rune, especially, were watching her closely, as if assessing whether she
was ready for this. They were both so damn good-looking. All the men on these
planets were, but these two had a spark of something special in their auras.
Both had striking blue eyes and blond hair. If they were wearing shorts and
holding surfboards, they could easily be on the shores of California, about to
catch some waves.

But
it was more than their gorgeous looks. She sensed kindness in them, as well as
passion. She’d always been drawn to passionate people because her family had
been cut from that cloth.
Being near people who reminded her
of them made her feel grounded and safe.
She still missed them so much
it hurt.

Most
of all, she missed having someone to talk to every day.
Someone
in whom she could confide anything and everything.

Rune
brushed her arm with one finger, and this time she managed not to flinch. It
wasn’t that the idea of being touched by him or Thane was repulsive. It was
that she’d avoided physical contact like the plague since escaping from Voyeur
Moon, and she was no longer used to it. The last men who had touched her hadn’t
done so with kindness or empathy in mind.

“You
don’t have to do this.” His voice was quiet, unassuming, and she could have
cried at the emotion in his beautiful eyes. He and his brother both were
covered in tats over their arms, and she found herself wondering where else
they went on their bodies.

She
mentally shook away the images. If she was ever able to have sex for pleasure again
it would be a damn miracle. “I have to do this. I
want
to do this.” Settling back against her chair, she took a few
deep breaths before continuing. “I was taken from the streets of Boston on a
dark night. It was a familiar story I had already heard from others on Earth who
had witnessed such kidnappings. An alien spacecraft lands, one or two men
approach a woman, they appear to inject something into her arm, she goes limp,
and then off they go with her.”

“You
wouldn’t survive the hyper jump necessary to make the journey from Earth to
this system in an hour if you were awake,” said Arlo. “Our DNA is vastly
different.”

Gia
nodded. “Yes. That much was explained to me in the holding cells. Once I was
there, I was given a coarse shift to wear, and what amounted to flip-flops. I
was told to take a shower, and then shown to a room that was basically a metal
jail cell. It had a bed, a chair, and a tiny toilet, sink, and shower behind a
partition. No windows. I had no clue if it was night or day outside. There was
very little sound from behind the door, so I became disoriented to time
easily.”

She
closed her eyes for a second.
Just keep
talking
. “At regular intervals, someone would slip a tray through a slot in
the door with food and a fresh pitcher of water. After six of those intervals,
an armed female guard came inside to change out my shift and towels.”

Gia
wiped her face as tears came, unbidden. “No one answered questions. It didn’t
matter what I asked, or how many times I asked the same things. They said
nothing to me other than to explain that first day why I’d been put to sleep.
This went on for several days, I think. As I said, it was difficult to keep
track of time. I had nothing to do. I wasn’t given so much as a deck of cards
or a book. Finally, a man came to the cell with one of the female guards. I
don’t remember his name. It doesn’t matter. He said he ran the place, and that
I’d been taken by the Tyranns and why.”

“What
reason did he give you?” asked Thane.

“The
same ridiculous reason I’ve heard others speak of since coming here.
That they’d been watching us and our porn industry.
They’d
made the crazy leap that all our women were sex addicts and would have it with
anyone, anytime, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

She
took a deep breath again. When Thane tentatively placed his hand over hers, she
closed her eyes again. His skin was so warm. All the aliens were warm, but his
touch was comforting rather than irritating. She gave his hand a squeeze and
didn’t let go.

“I
asked a lot of questions, which he didn’t answer. But by the time he and the
guard left, it was clear why I was there. There was no point in trying to get
away. The door was metal and locked all the time. I cried a lot. I threw up a
few times from crying so hard. But in the end, it didn’t mean anything to
them.”

Can I really tell them this?

“The
first time I was taken to the room with others, my wait wasn’t long. I was
shocked to see dozens of other women, just like me. It didn’t seem possible
that this had happened. You know how when you have a dream that’s so
frightening or uncomfortable you can’t handle it, and your mind tells you it’s
only a dream, and then you either wake up or the dream changes to something you
can deal with? That’s what I kept wishing would happen. That my mind would tell
me ‘this is only a dream’ and then I’d wake up.”

But
it hadn’t been a dream. And she wasn’t sure she’d ever recover from it.

“Two
men whose faces were partially covered with hoods came in, took one look at me,
and pointed. I stood there, frozen to the spot.” She wiped her free hand on her
skirt as the memories assaulted her. “Two guards pulled me out of the room and
onto the tarmac outside. I remember it was nighttime, because I kept staring up
at the sky, mesmerized by the stars. It was the only thing that kept me from
screaming.”

“I’m
so sorry,” said Rune, brushing a finger along her arm again. She reached for
his hand, and clasped that, too. Across the table, Fallon wiped away tears and
then clasped the hands of Cord and Arlo on either side of her.

“The
two hooded men took me to a land craft, so I knew I wasn’t going far.
At least not off the planet.”
She took another deep breath,
but this time she glanced down at the table. She couldn’t voice this out loud
while looking at any of them. “They … they took turns while the damn thing sped
along roads. I went away inside my mind. I don’t know how else to explain it.
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been. If I’d acknowledged the truth, I would
have started screaming and wouldn’t have been able to stop until they killed
me.”

It
was so quiet she heard the clock ticking across the room, and then Thane and
Rune both let go of her hands and jumped out of their chairs in identical
gestures of rage. Their faces were full of anger.

“Would
you recognize them again?” asked Thane.

She
shook her head. “I doubt it. I didn’t try to remember anything about them.”

Rune
swore in his own language, and even Arlo and Cord looked uncomfortable. She
knew what he’d said, and they were the worst possible names to call another
person in any language. It was tantamount to saying someone was a rat bastard
and deserved to have his skin peeled off,
 
inch by inch, in public, and then be burned alive after being bitten
repeatedly by fire ants on their exposed muscles and nerves.

“This
isn’t right!” shouted Rune. “Where is her sense of justice?”

“It’s
in telling us this story,” said Arlo, quietly, “and in spreading the word.”

“But
that’s not enough,” said Thane. “We need to track these men down.
All of them.
They should be held accountable for what they
put Gia and all the Earth women through.”

“We
all agree on that,” said Cord.
“One step at a time.
But thank you, both of you. I knew you two would be perfect here.”

She
glanced up at both men as they took their seats again, and whispered her thanks
as well. Her heart gave a strange lurch at the realization that two complete
strangers cared this much about what she’d endured.

Rune
took her hand again first. “Can you continue?”

“Yes.”

Thane
grasped her other hand, and Gia gave each of them a squeeze once more. “They
took me to a house. I have no idea where. They fed me, let me take a couple of
baths, and gave me privacy to use the toilet when I needed to. I don’t know how
long I was there. I didn’t know the language yet, and they didn’t speak English
very often.
Only when they had to tell me to do something.
Oh, and to let me know I couldn’t catch any STDs from them, and they couldn’t
get me pregnant. Then one day they took me back.
Just like
that.”

No
one spoke. She snuck a glance at their faces in turn to find the expected
combinations of shock and sympathy. “This happened three more times.
Once with only one man, and then twice with three men.
The first
group of three was the worst. They really hurt me, and they didn’t care that
they were doing so. I was only with them about twenty-four hours. They took me
back and said they wanted a girl who didn’t…” She swallowed hard as more tears
welled up. “Who didn’t cry all the
time.
”

Thane
reached over and gently wiped her face. She flashed him what she hoped was a
grateful look. “Then the man came during the storm. I didn’t know it was
storming until we were outside. The thunder and lightning were amazing. I
wanted to watch it only to have something normal to think about. About two
minutes after we left, the craft made a horrible grinding noise, and he swore
loudly, pounding his hands on the dashboard. He got out, sputtered something in
bad English to me about staying put, but I crawled out when he went underneath
the craft.”

She
shifted in her seat as she recalled the details of that night. “I was soaking
wet, but I didn’t care. We were near the woods, and there were large tree
branches lying nearby. I didn’t think about it. I picked one up, and when he
came out from under the craft I swung. It connected with the back of his head,
and down he went. I didn’t check to see if I’d killed him. I simply ran.”

Fallon
rose, went into her office, and when she returned she handed Gia a couple of
tissues, then wiped her own eyes and nose. Even the guys looked like they might
cry.

“Thank
you.”

Fallon
merely nodded in response.

“Can
you go on?” asked Rune, gently.

“Yes.
Thank you. I don’t know how long I ran. I was freezing cold and so wet. I had
to lie down for a while, but I don’t think I slept. I kept shivering, and every
noise made me think he was in the woods, looking for me. When I finally woke
up, I thought I was back in my cell at first, but then realized there was a
roaring fireplace near the bed, and the air smelled like apple pie. I had
blankets wrapped around me, and a couple who looked to be a bit older than my
parents sat close by, watching me with concern on their faces.”

She’d
gone through the worse part. She could finish this now. “They said they’d found
me in the woods while they were out gathering firewood, and I was so cold they
thought I was dead. They fed me only soup and tea the first day, and eventually
I was able to eat full meals. Apparently I almost died. I was with them nearly
two weeks, and no one came looking for me. That’s what I feared the most. That
the Tyranns would find that man and come looking for me.”

Even
saying it out loud now didn’t make it seem real. Had that really happened to
her?

“They
spoke some English, and I’d picked up enough of your language by then that we
were able to communicate. When I explained who I was and what I’d been through,
they were so upset. I don’t know who they knew on Sera, but within a couple of
weeks, I was in a spacecraft belonging to the Regum, and they brought me here.
I’ve been here ever since.”