Page 3 of Alien Jeopardy (Mated & Afraid #1)

CHAPTER

THREE

Ellison

“We aren’t dreaming, this isn’t a dream,” Lucy chants, her usually perfectly tamed blue-black hair a total mop around her head. Dark circles stand out under her eyes.

A speaker crackles, and I make myself stop yawning and stand up a bit straighter.

“Margaritas were a bad choice,” Lily mutters, and I nod fervently.

“Welcome to the first season of the brand-new reality show that is sure to be hit,” a computerized voice says over the speaker.

“Oh god, we did do that, didn’t we,” Lu squeaks. She attempts to rake her hand through her thick hair, but her fingers get stuck.

A few tugs and she gives up, several black strands falling to the floor.

A new reality show.

“Poppy,” I say slowly, turning to look at my lingerie-clad friend.

She’s wringing her hands, her eyes darting around the room like she’d rather look anywhere but at me.

“What day is it?” Lily asks. Her short dark brown hair is messier than usual, and she looks more hungover than anyone else.

“How is this possible?” I ask everyone and no one all at once.

The memory of a blue light in my window flashes through my mind.

The flickering TV screen.

Poppy tapping into her phone.

“Poppy,” I grit out.

“At least you don’t have to go to work today,” she says in a faux bright voice. “You hated that job. Right? We’re all living the dream!”

“Poppy,” Lu and Lily say together.

“You signed the paperwork. It’s not my fault if you didn’t read the whole contract through.” She sniffs, red blotches of color climbing from her huge boobs up her throat and to her face.

“You knew,” I gasp. “You knew that they would get us right away, and you wore lingerie for it.” I point at her.

Our friends also gasp, which would be more satisfying if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve definitely been abducted by aliens.

To star on an alien reality TV show.

Poppy tosses her perfectly waved auburn hair behind her shoulder and juts out her chin. “You all have been fucking miserable for ages. I just chose to do something about it.”

The four of us all seem to inhale as one, but the computerized voice coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once starts back up.

“You will each be paired with a partner of your choosing to complete the course with. The object is to survive together as you make it to a series of waypoints. At each waypoint, there will be a challenge to complete for a reward that will make your path easier. Each pair will be dropped at a different location on Hylorr, one of the uninhabited moons in the outer rim of the Suevan system. You will be filmed at all times by drones, so as not to disrupt the reality element of the show. Of course, if you get into trouble, you can always quit, but that means that neither you nor your partner will receive the reward.”

My eyes widen slightly, because damn it, I’m nothing if not competitive.

And damn me if I don’t love a reward. I’ve been a trophy hound since I was little, when I did gymnastics competitively, always hoping to make it to the Olympics.

Of course, they don’t hold that contest anymore, and my dreams of gymnastic superstardom went up in flames along with most of the world after the Roth invaded.

Now I’m lucky if I have time or motivation to even work out.

The other four seem just as spellbound by the voice as I am, and I wonder if we’ll be allowed to pair up with each other.

No way am I picking Miss Fur Heels and Negligee, though.

Ugh.

“Suevan system,” Lucy finally says, glaring openly at Poppy. “It all makes sense now.”

Lily groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Poppy, I am officially pissed off at you.”

Poppy goes rigid, staring straight at the opaque glass in front of all of us.

I wrap my arms around my chest, annoyed at the fact that not only did she not tell us what we were signing up for, but she didn’t think we would agree to it without being wasted.

“You needed a push,” Poppy mutters.

My eyebrows skyrocket.

We all turn on our sassy, unapologetic friend at once, but whatever we’re going to yell at her stops as the computerized voice starts again.

“The reward is spectacular,” the voice booms out, whatever computer is handling this speech attempting to sound even more excited. “Each couple to complete the course successfully will be rewarded with a mansion and a parcel of land on Sueva, as well as one million galactic credits.”

“Credits?” Lu whispers, her eyebrows drawn. “That could be like one dollar.”

Lily’s already raising her hand, and in spite of the situation, I snort a laugh.

“How much money is that in, er, American dollars?” she asks.

There’s no answer.

I roll my eyes, catching a small grin on Lu’s face.

We might all be pissed off, but none of us are truly angry. Lily looks madder than the rest, but I know the sound of the reward’s already put her at ease.

“Before we begin, we have one last contestant to announce.” A door slides open with a pneumatic hiss, and a thin, hard-looking woman walks in.

Her eyes are dark, her collarbones jutting out sharply from beneath the simple shift dress she wears.

Shoulders hunched, she surveys us with suspicious eyes.

“Introducing Selene!”

I nod at her, managing a quiet hello, completely unsure what to think about the newcomer. The rest of my friends look slightly nervous, all greeting her with varied degrees of enthusiasm.

“Why is it just the six of us? That doesn’t seem like enough people—” Lucy starts.

“You will be allowed to select your mate now, and once chosen, you will be marked and dropped at a secret location. Good luck to all of you, and welcome to Mated and Afraid .”

Music starts, dramatic and ridiculous.

“Is that supposed to be the theme song?” Lily asks, frowning. “It’s not very good.”

Lu laughs at that, then winces. “I’m still so hungover.”

“How the hell did they get us to Sueva so fast?—”

Poppy gasps, interrupting Lily as she takes several steps forward.

Reflexively, we all look towards where Poppy’s heading.

The glass isn’t opaque any longer.

Nope.

It’s clear, and I swallow hard, my heart beating incredibly fast at the sight on the other side of it.

Five winged aliens, in colors I didn’t know aliens came in.

Sure, one’s green, like the Suevans, and though they have a pattern to their skin, they aren’t scaled like the Suevans, or the grey velvet of the Roth.

None of them are wearing anything but sturdy-looking pants, weapons strapped to their thighs and hips.

I fan my face.

They’re huge.

Huge, and more muscled than anyone I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Whew.

“Those are our partners?” Lucy sounds like she might faint.

Lily and I share a concerned look. If the opening of this show is anything like the human reality survival shows we like, Lucy and her hangover are in serious trouble.

“You have thirty seconds to choose a partner. Ellison Price, you will choose first.”

Oh shit, that’s me.

Thirty seconds?

Sure enough, a lit-up clock appears in the glass, ticking down from thirty.

I shake my head, my gaze skimming across the veritable buffet of stunning specimens in front of me. All five seem incredibly tense, their wings all at half-mast, tails flicking like an angry cat’s behind them.

Except for one.

He smiles at me, gently, as if he sees how scared and unprepared the four—er, five—of us are.

A minty sage green, his strange skin is a refreshing color against the vivid and aggressive shades of oranges and reds and purples.

Stripes start on the sides of his chest and stomach, growing darker as they travel towards his back.

I’ve always been a face card kind of girl, and his is immaculate, if strange. Not that there’s anything to complain about when it comes to his body.

A strong jaw, more angular than any I’ve ever seen, fangs, not dissimilar to the Suevans Poppy’s so fond of, golden eyes and thick brows.

Horns seem to sprout from his forehead, arcing over and away from his dark, thick hair. It’s tied half up into a bun, and there’s something wildly approachable about that despite the male’s size and, well, alien-ness.

Not sure that’s a word, but last night’s tequila does not a poet make.

“Choose,” a voice intones, the clock down to five seconds. I point immediately, because I’ve only really looked at him.

His smile deepens, and something like desire heats my blood.

“The green one,” I say.

“Step through and claim your mate,” the announcer says, and the alien doesn’t hesitate. What I thought was glass ripples like water as the winged green alien steps through it.

“On your mark,” the voice continues, and an X glows bright red in front of me.

I step on it, assuming this is some kind of camera-work stage-direction-type thing.

“Good grief,” I say, because the moment I look up, the green alien’s all but on top of me. “You’re huge.”

The alien says something I don’t understand, and disappointment fills me, followed by anxiety.

We don’t speak the same language. My heart pounds against my rib cage, adrenaline and anxiety mixing up and sending my pulse racing.

How are we supposed to win if we can’t even communicate?

Shit.

The alien’s wings go around me, and I flinch as the tips of them scrape the backs of both my thighs.

“Get set,” the voice says.

I scream as the floor opens up, swallowing us whole.

I throw myself at the huge alien in front of me, at a total loss for anything else to do as we freefall through the floor.

“They forgot to say go!” I yell, the words lost to the wind, not that he would have understood them anyway.

His arms wrap around me, holding my weight effortlessly, all while I scream like a wet cat.

Something else wraps around me too, and I kick my leg, panicking completely, trying to get it off before I realize it’s his tail.

He’s murmuring to me in a soft, steady stream, and though I don’t understand a single fucking word he’s saying, I know he’s trying to comfort me.

Unfortunately for both of us, we’re still falling, and I don’t exactly relish the idea of splatting onto a random moon’s surface.

No sooner has the word ‘splat’ gone across my mind than his wings snap open.

I whimper, burying my face into his chest, and trying to breathe as we sail upward.

His tail strokes my calf in some sort of attempt at comfort.

Instinctively, I wrap my legs around his waist as best I can. Not an easy thing to do, considering the freaking size of him.

He groans, and I freeze.

Did I imagine that noise?

I almost convince myself to forget about it, considering we’re flying in the air together and I have bigger problems to worry about.

Until he bends his head down, nuzzling the juncture between my neck and shoulder, and inhales.