Taken by Space Pirates: A SciFi Alien Romance (Bound to the Alien Book 2) (6 page)

One of the men came forward and went to kick it out of the way, clearing the door, when a burst of light hit him from the little robot. He hit the ground, grey and smoky. Mavit reached out and touched him, and he disintegrated into ash under her hand. After that we fell in behind the little robot, careful not to touch it.

I whispered to Mavit, "Is this real?"

She said, "I think so. At least to me."

We entered a spacious room, with gear up against the wall. A being with a smaller exoskeleton greeted us.

"Welcome to the Reiver ship,
Gooldets
."

We all just stared at her. Chairs extended out of the walls and she gestured to us to sit. I was hesitant after the robot killed one of the men, but she pointed again and said, "Please, sit."

So we sat.

"You are a biologically interesting group, I must say. I am Dr. Blattodea." She wandered in front of each of us, making comments as she progressed around the room. She stopped in from of Mavit. "Oh yes, you are interesting, indeed. I think you might be part Madrelir and have latent bonding abilities. It will be interesting to see if I can bring them out of you."

Mavit shook her head. "But my parents..." she trailed off as the woman put an imperious hand up.

Dr. Blattodea said, "The universe has many secrets. Some of them involve a little DNA fiddling to experiment." She pressed a slender black device against Mavit's neck. "I just need to run some tests. Will only take a few moments."

She stopped in front of Sam and I. "Oh yes, a Madrelir and a Human. I am so very delighted to have an unfulfilled life bond to play with. I've never gotten to study the moment of fulfillment."

Sam twisted his head and her and said, "Life bond? What is that?"

She softly laughed. "Oh my, you little scamp!" She wagged a finger at me. "You didn't even tell him? He must be awfully confused. Your father would be so proud."

I just shook my head. How did she know anything of my father?

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to fill him in." She stood in front of us when suddenly the chairs wrapped around us, becoming cages that trapped us in place. "You will submit to the Reivers. My experiments will continue, but if you agree now, everything will be ever so much more pleasant."

Her exoskeleton parted, revealing cold dead eyes that surveyed each of us.

"No takers? I am unsurprised. You should know, most of the rest of the crew submitted by the end of the first day."

The chairs flipped back, laying us flat and stretching us out. Dr. Blattodea stood over me. "Oh yes, little Thea, I knew your father. He's the reason I know so very much about the life bond. It's a pity he died before he could share in my success."

I blinked back tears, I had no idea what to say.

"But this will really be a crowning moment for me, and it will hopefully bring about the last piece of the puzzle I need. It really is fitting it's you. And so humorous that it will be with a human! Your father would be appalled. I enjoy that."

She forced a gag into my mouth. "You will consummate your bond with your young man. I would prefer not to drug you, to have an untainted observation. Remember, you will be fully bonded, so if you don't allow me clean data, I will quite enjoy using your bond to torture both of you until you beg for death."

With that, my cage started moving, leaving the room and humming down the hallway. I had no sense of what was happening around me, until I entered another room. The cage turned back into a chair, twisting me with it. I was directly across from Sam, who stared at me accusingly.

I looked around the room, avoiding his eyes. It was Spartan, but clean. A plump and welcoming bed was the only furniture. The chairs abruptly dumped us both on the floor and merged back into the walls.

Sam stood first and just towered over me. He finally reached a hand out to me and helped me to my feet. A wave of exhaustion crashed over me and I staggered. Sam guided me to the bed and I sat, sinking my head into my hands.

I said, "I suppose you'd like an explanation?"

He sat next to me, his voice softer than I expected. "It would be nice. But knowing there is something between us, I'm not surprised." He took one of my hands in his.

"You've heard of the
Pogona
?"

"It's like, sexual attraction on steroids."

I said, "Yes, something like that. It's both the drive to mate and a deep connection between two people. The stronger the bond, the more it develops, the more we can feel of the other person."

I was suddenly struck with realization. My mother and father had been bonded a long time, she would have felt, practically been in the same room with him as he ruined all those families, tortured and murdered them.

My whole life I feared and hated the bond because of what I'd seen what it had done to my mother. But it wasn't the bond itself that made her give up on anything but being a shadow. It was my father and what he was doing that drove her mad.

Sam said, "So that's why I was able to bring you out of their mind poison. Our connection."

I nodded at him. "Yes, I could hear you in my mind telling me it wasn't real."

"So what does she want us to do?"

I swallowed past the hard knot in my throat. "To consummate the bond?"

"Does that mean..." He trailed off in thought.

"Yes, it means to have sexual intercourse." I was trying to be clinical, to pretend that it wouldn't be so effortless, so easy to fall backwards into the bed with him. I stood up suddenly. "I would really rather not have to be forced into having sex with anyone. And we've been locked in a box for a week. I have not felt less sexy, ever."

He laughed and moved across the room from me. He banged on the walls and started shouting, "Hey, if you want us to fuck for data, you need to give us a real meal and maybe let us shower." He looked over at me. "Might as well get some grub out of this and you aren't the only one who would literally kill for a shower right now."

I smiled. Resisting him was going to be miserable, but the last thing I wanted to do was to help the Reivers in any way. I said, "I assume they can see and hear everything we're doing? Or not doing?"

A slot in the wall opened and a tray full of steaming food slid out. Sam laughed, "Yeah, I'd say so. Can we sit and eat?" With that, two benches slid out alongside the tray. He gestured to one of the seats with a flourish and said, "After you, of course."

I couldn't help it, the corners of my mouth lifted up and I sat down. He was so charming when he wanted to be.

We both fell onto the food, devouring it. The nutriloaf had given us basic nutrition, but it never filled the belly. It was only after we'd eaten every crumb that it occurred to me that the food might have been a trap. "Hey Sam."

"Yeah, Thea?"

"Think they just drugged us?"

A long silence passed and he just swore under his breath for a while. Finally he said, "Wait, if she did drug us, wouldn't that mess up her experiment?"

"Or she doesn't really care and was just getting us to let our guard down?"

As we mulled over the possibility, a waterfall exploded out of the ceiling in the corner of the room. I couldn't help but giggle. Clearly our wishes for cleanliness had been heard, but probably mostly in a gambit to have us be naked together.

"Flip for it?" Sam was casual, but I could hear an edge to his voice.

"Ohhh, no coin on me." I kept my voice light and playful.

" Rochambeau?"

" Rochambeau? What the hell is that?"

He snorted at me. "I'll explain later. I'll go first, if you would be so kind as to look away?"

"Not a problem. I had a thought though." I sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from the waterfall.

"Sing out."

"Hand me your clothes, they've been whisking things in and out, they could easily disappear them."

He chortled and said, "Good point. I'll pass them over your shoulder."

His shirt came over my shoulder first. It smelled of him, musky and warm. My hands shook as his pants came over next. I balled everything in my lap and tried not to think about his warmth and how very naked he was behind me.

I folded my hands primly over my knees and ignored the splashing sounds behind me. My imagination was working overtime, imagining him nude under the cascading water, his hands rubbing up his chest. I shifted in my seat, realizing I had become aroused just thinking about the possibility of him being nude.

And I'll give Dr. Blattodea points for being extremely tricky, because at that moment the wall across from me mirrored, and I could see every glorious inch of Sam. I gasped, shocked into stillness for a long moment, our eyes locked on each other through the mirror.

I squeaked and clasped my hands over my eyes, breaking our gaze. I could feel my cheeks blaze hot with embarrassment.

I could hear Sam's low chuckle as he stepped out of the shower. I grabbed his clothes and thrust them behind me with my eyes screwed shut. After a few moments he said, "It's safe to look."

He was closer than I realized and I swayed towards him before I stood up and moved away quickly.

"My turn!" I tried to be chipper as he settled on the bed, looking away from me. His hair was wet and I wanted desperately to run my hands through it. I slipped out of my suit and handed it to him, feeling intensely vulnerable as I stepped into the shower.

I turned my back to him and let the water cascade over me. I ignored all the mirrored surfaces that called out for me to peek, to see if he was looking at me. I didn't know how long I was going to be able to resist him.

I quickly washed my hair and body and stepped out from under the water, squeezing the water out of my hair. A blast of air dried my scales off and I cleared my throat before saying, "Pass back, please."

He put my suit over his shoulder and I reached for it. He didn't let go for a long moment until I tugged. He sunk his head into his hands as I slipped back into the shipsuit. Clearly I wasn't the only one feeling conflicted and horny.

The tray and benches had been cleared, so there was no place to go but opposite sides of the bed. We sat there silently with our backs to each other until he finally said, "I don't think they need to drug us, do they?"

I shook my head until realizing he couldn't see me. "No, that's what the bond is, an unspeakable connection and yearning. Until we consummate it, then you will be driven to uhm, breed me."

"I'm guessing you mean more than just sex."

"We still don't know a lot about the bond or why it exists. For a long time it was strictly forbidden to even discuss it. People who hated each other or who were from warring families were forced into marriages and forced into having children."

Weariness was catching up with me, I could barely keep my eyes open. "But I'm not even of your kind, how does that even work?"

"I don't know. My brother has a bond with a human, he's trying to break it."

"Can you do that?"

"Only if it's not completed. And it only mostly works."

"But the doctor is experimenting on bonds, beyond trying to break them?"

"Do you trust her?"

"Not a fucking bit."

My eyes shut for a second, and I only woke up when I caught myself falling. I said, "I can't stay awake."

"I'll stay on top of the covers, you go under. Let's just keep to the edges."

"Deal."