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CHAPTER EIGHT

-Clay-

SWIRLING WHITE POISONOUS fog slowly filled the room. I held my breath, anticipating at any moment the first burn as it touched my skin. I had to get out of here, now.

I slammed against the door, throwing my full body weight against it again and again until pain jolted my shoulder, numbing my arm, but the door didn’t give. I cursed. The mist was fogging the room now, and I hunched down to avoid it. Stumbling against the wall, I sank as low to the ground as I could and pressed the sleeve of my flight suit over my nose and mouth. The stiff fabric, crusted with blood and sweat, chafed against my lips.

Within a moment the fog covered me, and I screwed my eyes shut against it, afraid it would singe them, clamped my hand down, and curled into a tight ball. I fought not to breathe in, the ache in my lungs growing to a burn with the need to inhale. My head swam with lack of oxygen, until finally it was too much and my body took control.

I coughed and gasped, taking a ragged breath through the musty fabric of my suit. Aside from the salty, coppery tang of my suit, I tasted a faint minty flavor. That was odd, I expected the gas to taste of horrible chemicals. I waited for the cramping of my insides, for the coughing up of blood, for the peeling flesh, but nothing happened. I took another breath.

There was no searing pain dissolving me from the inside as the gas went down my throat and into my lungs. Instead, the sensation was oddly pleasant and tingly, like breathing in the bubbles of a sweet fizzy drink. I took another cautious breath, and, when my face still didn’t melt off, kept breathing. Then I cracked one eye open, then the other. The mist still swirled around me.

OK, so it was either a very slow acting poison, or they weren’t actually trying to poison me. But why kidnap me and imprison me just to spray me with, what? Air freshener? I dropped the fabric from my face. Maybe it was poison, but it didn’t work on humans.

I realized I was still cringing in the wall for no reason and, feeling stupid, stood up. After a few moments, the spray stopped.

Some time later, after the gas had cleared, I explored the room again, more thoroughly now that I wasn’t panicking about being poisoned. It didn’t reveal any hidden secrets. No hidden doorways or convenient red buttons marked ‘exit’. Apart from the bed, door, and medical cabinet, it was entirely bare. I slumped down onto the mattress.

If I wanted to escape, I’d have to wait for an opportunity to present itself later. Maybe the big alien guy would come back and I could try my luck then. I wasn’t going anywhere until someone else came in.

As if it read my mind, the door clicked and slid open. I sat bolt upright.

Two aliens appeared in the doorway, both smaller than the one who had taken me and paler in color, their skin a more muted grayish color. But they both had the same pointed ears and yellowish animal eyes, with dark markings around their necks and up the sides of their faces. I considered taking my chance now, but even though they were smaller than the other one, they were still big enough to be a problem for me—especially two of them.

I shuffled away from them, putting as much distance between us as possible. They stood in the doorway, watching me. One frowned, like he’d found me somewhere I shouldn’t be, and the other had wide, excited eyes. I shifted uncomfortably. If they were going to kill me, why didn’t they just hurry up and do it?

“What do you want?” I asked.

That seemed to snap them out of whatever spell they were under, and they looked at each other, before Frowny spoke in their strange language.

I stared at them, uncomprehending. Excited said something to Frowny, who snapped something back. Then, I swear to God, Excited rolled his eyes in the most teenage way possible. I almost laughed at how absurd it was to see an alien do that. I also might have been a little hysterical at this point.

Then they left abruptly, the door sliding shut behind them. I darted for it, nearly losing a finger as it snapped shut.

“Shit,” I hissed, jerking my hand back.

I sat back on the bed and, a short while later, the door opened again and the same two aliens came back, but this time Frowny held a pointy device in his hand. It looked like a phaser gun had fucked a corkscrew—with added buttons. My heart kicked up a notch. Now were they going to kill me? This was getting exhausting.

Frowny pointed the weapon at me and I flinched and put my hands up. But instead of shooting me, he peered at the weapon and pressed some of the buttons along its side. Excited said something, pointing at another button, and Frowny frowned. They squabbled over it, pressing different buttons.

This was getting ridiculous. “Just do it already and get it over with,” I said.

Frowny glanced up at me, checked the device, slapped Excited’s hand away, and tapped a button. A noise emitted from it. It sounded like the language the aliens spoke, but more robotic and less fluid. They both listened to it, exchanging another look. Then, to my surprise, Frowny turned the weapon on himself and spoke. I watched in utter confusion as he turned it back to me again and pressed another button. The robotic voice buzzed out of it again, but this time it spoke Panlin.

“ Come with me, ” it said.

Finally, it clicked; the weapon wasn’t a weapon at all, it was some kind of translator. They were trying to talk to me, not kill me. I relaxed a fraction.

“Why?” I said, eyeing them suspiciously. The translator made a naaaaarp sound, and Frowny huffed and gestured at it towards me. I repeated myself. It translated my words into their language, and he spoke into it again.

“Your layers must be removed .”

Remove my layers ? I shook my head in mute horror. They exchanged more quick words and spoke into it again.

“ Now you must come. To be prepared as meat. For the process of / unknown/ .”

My eyes went wide and my voice shook, rising a whole octave. “Prepared as meat?” I squeaked. They wanted to eat me? “Oh god. Oh god.” I groaned, as my stomach clenched. I was going to throw up.

The aliens listened to the translation and Frowny shook his head. “ Meat? No, I said meat, not meat. The meat for two. ”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I said desperately.

Frowny began to speak again, but the other one snatched the device off him. They bickered for a moment. “ You are scaring it, ignorant. ”

He spoke to me again with exaggerated mouth movements. “ Not that. You come with us. We prepare you. With fluid. ”

“Fluid?” I said. My head was spinning, and oh god I really was going to throw up this time at the image of being skinned for meat with some kind of fluid.

The Frowny snapped at Excited. “ To talk slowly and loudly does not make it more accurate. ”

“Close your mouth, you only hinder.”

“Then return this and allow me to work.”

“Silence, waste receptacle. Leave to reconfigure your children’s toys.”

“They are not children’s toys, they are rare collections for all ages.”

“Just keep your mouth silent, unwanted creature of small stature.”

“Arcay will not approve when I tell him of your words.”

Arcay. I’d heard that name on the ship. Was that what the big purple dude was called?

“Observe my uncaring nature.”

I watched them bicker and fight over the translator, my mouth hanging open, until finally Excited wrestled the device from Frowny’s hands. Frowny crossed his arms and fell into sullen silence.

Excited dipped his head at me, like a waiter apologizing for the delay, and tried again.

“ The / unknown/ device is not altogether accurate at this language, but it will improve with usage. Of course, if you please come with us, we have the room prepared this instant. ”

The room? The only thing I could think of was that it was some sort of torture room that they wanted me to go to. Well, fuck that, I was beyond tired of all of this fear and confusion. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, I didn’t know if they wanted to kill me or…eat me, or something, and I was scared out of my mind. I was not going to cooperate and, frankly, I’d had enough.

“I’m not going anywhere, you’ll have to do it here.”

Excited looked around the room, clear confusion on his face.

“ That may be difficult .”

I scoffed. Like I was going to make it easy for them. “I don’t give a fuck,” I spat.

“ But you are dirty, ” he said.

I blinked. What did that have to do with killing me? Were prisoners not allowed to die unless they were clean? Wait, maybe they needed to clean me before they ate me.

“ The hot fluid will reduce in temperature. It will become unpleasant. ”

Wasn’t being skinned and eaten always unpleasant?

“ It will create more comfort for you than currently.”

More comfort? I had a moment of disorientation.

“What?”

Excited squinted at me. “We do not seem to be understanding each other.”

I ran my hands over my face. “Look. I have no idea what’s going on, but if you’re going to kill me, or eat me, or whatever, just hurry up and do it.”

As the translator spoke my words to them, both of their faces fell in shock. They exchanged a confused look.

“Kill you? We do not want to kill you,” s aid Excited.

“You think we want to kill you?” said Frowny

“What?” There was another long pause. “If you’re not going to kill me, then what the hell do you want? Why am I here?”

“Did Arcay the Second not inform you of why you are here?” Frowny asked .

“No. I thought I’d done something wrong. So he doesn’t want to kill me? Or torture me, or — or eat me?”

Excited twisted his mouth in disgust. “No. Of course not. ”

“Then — then what the hell does he want? Why am I here?”

“You are an omega,” Frowny said.

There was that word again, the big alien had said it earlier. Omega.

“I don’t know what that means,” I said desperately. “What is an omega?”

They exchanged another look. It was the look of lackeys everywhere when the boss had failed to do something important and left the hard job to them instead. I could relate. After a moment of unspoken eye talking, Excited carefully spoke into the device again.

“You are his mate.”

I frowned. “His…mate?” That didn’t make sense.

“His mate.” Excited nodded and smiled with relief that the confusion was finally over, although I was still having difficulty grasping what he meant.

The cogs in my brain whirred. “His ‘mate’, as in…”

“His mate. His / unknown/ .” He turned to the Frowny. “ Am I saying that right? ”

“His…his mate?” I said as my brain finally caught up and everything fell into place. The way he looked at me, the way he touched me, the way he kept smelling me. I went cold.

His mate .

Oh shit.