Page 6

CHAPTER SIX

-Clay-

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST .” I jerked upright. Our foreheads connected with a smack and the alien grunted and backed up.

I flailed backwards, silky fabric bunching up underneath my hands and slowing me down until I came up against a wall. I was on something soft and springy. A bed? What the hell was going on? I wanted to look around, take in my surroundings, but I couldn’t drag my eyes away from his burning amber ones.

He came after me on his hands and knees, his face furious. He snagged me by the leg with one huge hand, so big it wrapped around my calf with ease. Holding me in place, he crawled the rest of the way up my body, until I was caged between his arms and legs.

“ Lar qildar, ” he said. The strange language was harsh but fluid. I stared up at him, eyes wide.

I wasn’t on the ship anymore. Panic gripped me; this alien had abducted me and I had no idea why. As punishment for accidentally invading their space? Was he going to torture me? Where were the rest of the crew?

I squirmed and kicked at him, managing to plant a good few blows on his wide chest that would have done some serious damage to a normal person, but he completely ignored them. He didn’t even twitch.

I punched him as hard as I could, my knuckles connecting with his shoulder, and instantly regretted it. The blow landed badly and pain shot through my wrist. I let out a shout and hugged my hand against my body. He was made of fucking concrete.

That was enough for my head. It set off spinning again and I felt the contents of my stomach roll up my throat, bitter bile at the back of my mouth. I abandoned the useless fight and clung onto the bed, clamping my lips together.

Before I could re-orientate myself, I felt his hand wrap around my jaw, solid and hot, and then his eyes were burning into mine again. Bright, amber, glowing. I gulped. Using the grip on my jaw to hold me still, he leaned in until we were only a few inches apart. This was it, he was going to kill me this time, choke me to death. His eyes moved back and forth, and I realized he wasn’t staring into my eyes—he was inspecting my face and head.

Another wave of intense nausea swept through me and the fight went entirely out of my body. I couldn’t tell which way was up anymore; I just wanted to lie still until the world stopped somersaulting and down became down again. Was I dying? I must be dying. I screwed my eyes shut.

Then, suddenly, he was gone, and without the pressure of his hand pressing me onto the bed I felt like I would fly upwards until I hit the ceiling. I tried to open my eyes, but they stuttered and rolled back into my head. Was he gone?

I should try to move, try to escape back to my ship while I had the chance. My brain screamed at my limbs to start moving, to get up and run, but I couldn’t. Something was seriously wrong with me.

The bang to my head. The dizziness, nausea, blacking out, all the blood loss—they were bad signs. I’d had a concussion before, but never anything this bad. I was in serious trouble, aside from the whole being-abducted-by-an-alien-to-be-tortured-and-who-knew-what-the-hell-else thing. I was dying. I was dying and I was going to be eaten, or tossed into space and never found. I might have cried if my body were responding.

Noises registered; rummaging, someone moving around beyond my blurred vision. The alien was close by. A moment later, he reappeared in my field of view and I groaned. He came close to me again, crouched over me with something white in his hands. A torture device? I couldn’t breathe.

He reached for my head again, and I somehow managed to flail my arm up. I grabbed his wrist weakly, either to stop him from hurting me, or to just have something to hold on to; I didn’t know for sure. Clutching at his wrist, and bunching the soft fabric beneath me with the other hand, I lay frozen as he worked over my head, probing at my scalp. Searing pain stabbed through my head and I jerked, yelped, tried to turn away from him. Why was he taking so long to kill me? Just get it over with.

“ Lar qildar, ” he said again, but quieter this time, less angry. His voice was so low it felt like a vibration passing through me, like the hum of a ship’s engines. In my bewildered state, I felt myself start to calm at the oddly familiar feel of it. Blame it on the concussion.

His fingers rubbed further over my head, digging through my hair, and he must have touched something damaged because the pain intensified and sang through me like electricity. It lit up every nerve in my body, frying me from the inside out. I stiffened, every muscle in my body screaming.

And then, just as abruptly as the pain had come, it stopped. I gasped at the sudden relief and my body fell limp against the bed. My eyes sprung open. The world didn’t spin. I turned my head and didn’t need to throw up. My head was clear, the pain was gone, and I could see clearly again. I blinked at the ceiling.

Most surprising of all, I wasn’t dead. I frowned, trying to recalibrate myself to this unexpected development.

The alien stood at the edge of the bed, watching me. From his relaxed posture it didn’t seem like he was about to attack me again, more like he was waiting to see what I did next. I hesitated. Was this some sort of trick? A test? Was he waiting for something bad to happen?

I swallowed, careful not to move. “Where am I?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

I didn’t expect him to respond, so I nearly flinched when he spoke in heavily accented Panlin.

“On my ship.” He pronounced the words carefully, his lips moving slowly to get the right sounds out.

I took a moment to fully let his words sink in while he stared down at me. “And, uh…why am I here?” If he wanted to kill or torture me he was going about it in a funny way, because it seemed like he’d just healed me with some sort of magic alien medicine. If he wanted me dead he could have just killed me while I was weak and vulnerable, or left me to bleed out. Why heal me first? My mind raced over the possibilities. Unless…he wanted to take his time killing me. I inched away from him. He didn’t seem to notice.

“You are omega,” he said, in a matter of fact way as if that explained anything at all. “ My omega.”

There was that same word that he had said back on the ship. I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. I shook my head in a jerky motion, a pleading note creeping into my voice as I said, “No, there’s been some kind of mistake. I’m a guy, a human. I don’t even know what an omega is.”

He frowned and shook his head in turn, his movements firm and confident. “You are omega.”

I rubbed a shaky hand over my face. My fingers brushed against something stiff at the edge of my hairline, and I felt it tentatively. A bandage. This was making less and less sense. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but please just take me back to my ship. You can talk to the captain and he’ll sort everything out—”

His growl cut me off as he squared his broad shoulders. “ Ai. You are mine .”

My stomach sunk. “I don’t understand. What have I done? Why am I here? What do you want with me? I need to get back to my ship, please—”

His frown deepened at my stream of questions. “ Qildar, ” he snapped, then lowered his face to mine, and I jerked backwards as his ember eyes burned into me. “ Lye na ninya sin. Lye mende car es iwe eque . Do not fight me.”

I pressed back against the wall again as far as I could go. He was so close I could feel the warmth radiating off him, see how the tips of his teeth came to deadly points. He leaned in even closer, until his face was almost pressed against my neck, white strands of hair tickling my jaw.

I shuddered and tilted my head away, but didn’t dare to move in any other way. I felt the air move as he took a breath, making my skin prickle—as if I was a delicious meal that he couldn’t wait to eat. A deep vibration came from his chest, and when he drew his head back his pupils were blown wide, huge black pools floating in amber. A strange smell enveloped me. I couldn’t describe it other than it smelt…warm. Like sun-warmed skin. Before I knew it, I was drawing in my own deep breath, drawing the smell in to fill my lungs. For a second, my heart pounded hard and my head swam as something strange built inside me.

The alien tilted his head down, opened his mouth—

A shout came from somewhere outside the small, bright room, and I gasped as the spell broke and the sensation dissipated. I flattened myself back against the wall. I hadn’t even realized I had leaned forward.

The alien growled and stood, his face a picture of frustration. He said something and strode out, closing the door behind him with a sharp hiss.

Whoa. What the hell just happened? Something came over me. It was like the buzz I got when I slammed an 80% shot of sour zing at Club X. Warm and giddy. And he’d done it to me somehow, I knew it.

I had to get the hell out of there.

Climbing off the bunk, I searched the room. The walls were smooth and pale, curving into the floor and ceiling with no joins. The door, now that it was closed, fit seamlessly, only the barest hint of a line indicating its edges. I pushed it. It didn’t move. I kicked it a few times, putting the heel of my boot into it, but it didn’t make a difference and I gave up with a grunt.

A small case set into the wall on the other side of the room held what looked like medical supplies and not much else. I was rummaging through them, throwing the bottles aside, when a hissing noise made me look up.

A short, white nozzle protruded from the ceiling in the corner of the room. As I watched, a pale mist seeped from it. It gathered above my head and descended downwards, filling the room as it went.

My stomach dropped.

They were poisoning me.