Taken: Warriors of Hir, Book 2 (5 page)

He glanced at her hand again. She narrowed her gaze and raised the weapon.

“I
will
use this if I have to,” she warned, hoping if she had to do anything with it she would be able to figure out
how
to in time.

She suddenly realized she still had to force him to take her back to Earth, back to North America, in fact. An image of herself calling from Australia and begging Keri to overnight her passport and plane fare home flashed through her mind—

The alien’s nostrils flared a bit then he gave a short growl. She followed him into the bright corridor again, careful not to get too close to him.

It was clean and well lit but the walls and deck plating were metallic, rather utilitarian really, and not at all what she would have imagined a space ship to be. Her glance darted about as she followed him through the ship’s corridors, seeing a number of empty rooms as they passed. There really didn’t seem to be anyone else on board.

At the door at the end of one passage, the alien hesitated.

Hope narrowed her gaze. “Go on, open it! Show me where we are.”

With a low snarl he waved his hand to activate the door, then stepped through. Blinking in astonishment, Hope followed.

It was the cockpit of the ship, with were two seats in the front—presumably for the pilot and co-pilot—and two seats behind. A control panel curved along the perimeter of the space, set within easy reach of the pilot and co-pilot’s seats. Various lights and indicators were active on the panel but Hope gaze was riveted to the view through the windows.

“Oh my God!” Her gaze took in the greenness and the golden light streaming into the cockpit as she came beside him, lowering the weapon a little in shock. “We never left! We’re still on Earth!”

The alien moved so fast she didn’t even have time to cry out. He plucked the weapon from her hand and spun her to catch her against him, his massive arm around her chest to hold her immobile.

Cold metal pressed to the skin of her throat; there was a stinging burn, then her legs gave way and the world went dark—

Three

Hope groaned as she came to.

Opening her eyes brought forth another pained sound as blinding light pierced her vision. She tried to raise her hand to shield her eyes and couldn’t.

She was strapped down.

Gasping in terror and revulsion, Hope struggled against the restraints binding her wrists and ankles, running across her legs, abdomen, and chest to hold her pinned to the table. Only her head was free; raising it a little and squinting against the blinding light, she saw she was indeed back in the same nightmare of an operating room.

A huge shadow suddenly blocked the lights above the table. The alien’s face came into focus, watching dispassionately with his glowing gaze as she strained against her restraints.

Hope shrank away, too frightened even for tears. “Let me go! Oh God, please—!”

“When you have given your word you will not threaten me again!”

Hope’s mouth parted. He was still growling, she could
hear
snarls, but in her mind she heard
words
.

“What the hell . . .?” She shook her head a little. “I can understand you! How come I can understand you now?”

He held up the cylindrical instrument he’d wanted to use on her earlier. “I have placed your linguistic implant.” He touched the base of her skull, lightly peering at the spot, and then gave the chin jerk that was his version of a nod. “It appears to be functioning properly.”

“
Implant?
Wait, what the fuck have you done to me?”

“I did not
do
anything to you. A nano-translator has been attached to the language center of your brain.”

“You—God,
why
?”

His brow creased. “So that you are able to understand me now.”

Hope glanced at the silver instrument. “That’s what you were trying to do before? Implant me with something that would let us understand each other?”

“I could already understand you,” he corrected. “But
you
could not understand
me
.”

Damn, that was disorienting! Hearing growls, hearing words at the same time . . .

“What else does it do?” she demanded. “Does it tell you what I’m thinking?”

“That would be very useful.” He put the instrument down. “But I do not possess that technology. This implant provides translation only.”

“Will it—” She glanced at the cylinder. “Is there any danger to me having it? I mean, will it hurt me?”

“No, but it is just as well I placed it while you were unconscious. Apparently humans find the implantation unusually painful.”

“Humans—?” Her glance darted about seeking signs of other, past captives. “You’ve done this before?  To other women?”

“No. Just you.”

His tone was mild but Hope gritted her teeth. “Well, I’m honored.”

His rippled brow furrowed. “I do not think you mean that.”

“Look,” Hope began, forcing her tone to evenness against the terror of being strapped down, “I can understand you now.” She pulled against the restraints. “So
now
you can take these off me.”

His gaze narrowed. “I am a g’hir warrior. I have been trained to defend myself and in doing so I may injure you. I cannot allow you to attack me.” He shut off the bright lights over the table and the room’s illumination fell to a far more comfortable level. He folded his massive arms. “You will promise not to.”

“Attack
you
?
You
attacked
me
! You have me strapped down like—like a—”

But she couldn’t think of anything known for getting strapped down a lot and the frustration and fear and medical smells were choking her. Hope clenched her hands into fists and turned her face away from him, mortified at dissolving into helpless tears.

Her sobs echoed in the room and the alien growled something under his breath that her brand new brain implant didn’t catch. The straps holding her prisoner slackened. As soon as he released the restraints she sat up and brought her knees to her chest, too shaky to attempt getting down off the table. Hope wiped her tears away but more just kept coming and she couldn’t seem to stop.

His alien gaze was puzzled. “Why are your eyes watering like that?”             

“It’s called ‘crying,’” she hiccupped, wiping impatiently at her face with the back of her hand.

“I
know
what it is called. They told me humans did that.”

“You mean you never cry?”

“My eyes will water when they are irritated. But why are you doing the crying now?” His glowing glance swept over her. “And why so
much
?”

“Are you kidding? Why the hell do you think?”

He gave a frustrated huff. “A human’s eyes water when they are in pain, frightened, unhappy.”

Hope pushed her hair back. She hated to cry, especially in front of anyone. Her nose got all swollen and her face got blotchy, and between that and her freckles and her wild red hair it was
never
a good look.

“Yeah,” she agreed, sniffling. “I’d say that about sums up where I am right now.”

“I have run two complete medical scans on you,” the alien growled. “The damage to your hands when you fell in the woods was superficial. I have already treated those scrapes. The furred creature did not injure you.
I
did not injure you. I found no other illness or physical damage.” His frown deepened. “You should not be in pain. There is nothing to be afraid of here. No reason for you to be unhappy.”

“No reason to be unhappy?” she exclaimed, a hot burst of anger giving her the strength to push herself off the table to stand. “How about almost being attacked by a wild animal, then shot and kidnapped by an alien, then knocked out
again
by that alien,
then
finding myself strapped down and a fucking chip in my brain? Any of
those
reasons going to work for you?”

“But your eyes were watering—you were
crying
—in the forest, before the animal attacked, before you had even seen me. Why were you crying then?”

Hope’s breath caught. With all that had happened she’d forgotten about Brian’s desertion, about him and Megan screwing for months behind her back, how with a couple texts the beautiful future she’d dreamed had been smashed into a million tiny humiliating pieces. 

She found herself twisting the engagement ring on her finger. “Someone—hurt me. He hurt me very badly.”

“The human male whose scent lingers on that jewel? He hurt you?”

“Lingers on—? Wait, you can
smell
Brian? On my
ring
? But I haven’t even seen him since Wednesday night and—I mean, I’ve showered, washed my hands dozens of times—”

The alien caught her hand gently in his and brought her palm to his face, her ring just under his nose. He sniffed. “The scent is faint, but detectable.”

“Then your sense of smell is . . .” She could hardly think of a word. “Amazing.”

“How?” he rumbled, looking down at her, her hand cradled in his. “How did he hurt you, little one?”

Hope ducked her head. Little one? At five-eleven she hadn’t been
little
to anyone since kindergarten.

“We were going to get married but now we’re not going to, ’cause . . . he was unfaithful.”

“Un
faith
ful?”

Hope shut her eyes for a moment. “He’s with someone else.”

He looked blank. “With?”

“Yeah, you’re right, why mince words? He’s been fucking another woman. For all I know he’s fucking Megan right now. She’s—
was
one of my best friends actually.”

“But
why
?”

“I guess—” A lump formed in her throat. “I guess because he likes her better than he liked me. Because she’s sexier, prettier, than I am.”

The alien’s fingers went under her chin to gently tilt her face up. He studied her for a few moments, her face, her body.

“I do not believe that is possible,” he said finally.

He sounded completely serious and tears stung her eyes again.

“Thank you,” she said thickly. “That was . . . that was really a nice thing to say.”

“I am not being ‘nice.’ I evaluated a number of human females for capture in the time I spent on your world. I cannot imagine a female more desirable than you are.”

Hope dropped her gaze and withdrew her fingers from his hold. “Yeah, well, thanks . . .” she mumbled.

“You are not looking at me now. You were looking at me before.” His brow creased. “I have offended you.”

“No.” Hope was surprised that after kidnapping her and restraining her
twice
he would even care about that, but he sure sounded like he did. “Of course not.”

“It was not my intention to offend.”

“You didn’t,” she insisted. “Really.”

He didn’t look as if he believed her but apparently decided to let it go. His gaze went to the crown of her head.

“I have never seen hair like this before.” He reached out and clasped a curl in front of her eyes between his thumb and forefinger to pull it straight then let it go. “Does it always do that?”

“Whether I want it to or not,” she muttered.

The alien pulled then let the curl go, looking delighted at the way it bounced up. “Why would you not want it to? It is a joy.”

“Yeah, everyone in my first grade class called me ‘Little Orphan Annie’ for a solid year but, hey, I’m glad it makes you happy,” she grumbled as he pulled the curl and let it go again. “And maybe you could
stop
that now?”

He complied with a nod and it occurred to her that it was the first time he’d done that instead of the chin jerk. He’d mimicked her human mannerism but it was oddly comforting that he had.

His full mouth curved as his fingers lightly brushed the curve of her cheek, smoothing away the last dampness from her tears. “I do not even know what you are called, little one.”

“You mean my name? It’s, uh, Hope.”

“Hope,” he rumbled from deep in his chest and his glowing green eyes softened. “It is a perfect namesound for you.
Hope
.”

The warm way he said her name, the vibration rolling like thunder through her center, the sudden awareness of how amazing he smelled and the remembered feel of his mouth, hot on hers, made her cheeks burn. 

She cleared her throat. “What about you? What’s your name?”

He put his palm over his heart and bent his head to her as he spoke it.

“Rrr’harrr?” she echoed. It was a pale imitation of the low heavy growl he’d used to utter his name but he looked pleased by her attempt. “Okay, R’har. What are you? I mean, species-wise, since you already know I’m human.”

“I am g’hir.”

“Grah-here?” she ventured, trying to swallow back the first syllable and roll the r’s in the second like he had. She did a lousy job of it too but it was as close as she was likely to come. “That’s your species?”

He gave another human-style nod. “And my people. My world is called Hir.”

“Nice to know.” Hope folded her arms. “So . . . any chance you want to tell me why you’ve kidnapped me, R’har?”

He grinned, all white teeth, fangs, and glowing eyes. “To prove myself worthy.”

“Okay,” Hope said after a long moment when he didn’t elaborate. “Worthy to who?”

He gave a short, surprised huff. “To you, Hope.”

“To
me
?” she echoed. “Okay, again—why?”

“So you would choose me.”

“Choose you?” Hope’s brow creased. “Choose you for
what
?”

“To mate with.”

She blinked up at him.

“You know,” Hope finally got out, “you see those tabloid stories about women abducted by aliens for sex but, somehow, you always think it’s gonna be the other girl.”