Page 5 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

The big furry alien carried her so gently that Katie could have easily fallen asleep in his arms if it weren’t for the fact that the male smelled strongly of blood and the viscera clinging to him.

The scenery was pretty much straight out of a horror movie, too, but she could forgive that, all things considered.

The Agraak certainly wouldn’t allow any other aliens to come in and just take their stolen humans.

She certainly wasn’t of mind to grieve for any of the guards who had treated her contemptuously or even cruelly over the time that she’d been there.

All the same, that didn’t stop her from wincing from the bite of cold that immediately stung her face when he ran out into the bleak icy wasteland with her.

For a heartbeat she found herself missing the humid heat of the laboratory before relief set in.

As shocking as the cold was, the air was clean and sweet.

It seeped into her, fragmenting and breaking away the stranglehold that the Agraak had over her even as the humid heat of the laboratory quickly dissipated, leaving behind only a clean, fresh chill.

Katie turned into the embrace of the alien holding her, burrowing into his warmth even as she pressed her face into the thick fur of his shoulder and mane.

A deep grunt of surprise echoed through his body, but he, mercifully, didn’t relax his hold on her.

Instead, he seemed to clutch tighter as he broke into a ground-eating lope across the snow with startling ease.

Did he plan to run across miles of ice holding her? Gods, she hoped not. Even pressed against his warmth, she would be a lump of ice before long.

A quiet growl of voices rose around her, and her alien slowed into a steady jog.

She had the impression of other aliens nearby, though she didn’t dare lift her face from the warmth of his fur to look.

She was confident that the male hadn’t gone through all that trouble saving her only to hand her directly over to danger.

Yet, that didn’t stop her from flinching when something heavy flapped as it was passed over her head.

Katie froze, every muscle locking with tension as it settled over her heavy, thick. .. and warm?

Frowning a little, she shifted her head just enough to peek to the side as she lifted a hand and came into immediate contact with fur.

He had wrapped a pelt around her. She nearly whimpered with gratitude as the fur began to gradually warm her extremities, and parts of her that had gone numb without her notice suddenly began to tingle back to life as feeling slowly returned to them.

The realization of just how quickly she could freeze out there made her feel sick to her stomach.

Not to mention that it put her completely at the mercy of the alien carrying her.

Had she escaped one terrible situation only to land in another?

Katie stilled, forcing herself to breathe in light, shallow breaths as she tried to absorb and weigh every bit of information her senses gave her.

The male carrying her seemed to be as big as he had appeared.

.. and powerful, given the way he was holding her easily against his chest as he ran.

He wasn’t breathing hard, and his pulse was strong and steady rather than labored, though it had begun to beat a hair faster than it had when he initially picked her up.

There didn’t seem to be anything nefarious going on, or anything to make her suspect he had some kind of fucked up intentions towards her.

Sure, that wasn’t any kind of guarantee, but considering how excited the Agraak guards got whenever they had a woman cornered, she was willing to take a small leap of faith.

Closing her eyes, she settled more deeply into his embrace but was jolted moments later when he left the snow to run up a hard metal incline that jarred her with every footfall.

And he wasn’t the only one. The thud of boots striking metal vibrated through her, forcing her head up as she attempted to take a look around only to be met with the stark metallic interior of a ship.

Giant, furry aliens pressed in around her on all sides, many of them carrying humans while others looked on with concern and began to pass out supplies.

One by one, the aliens found a place to sit with their human bundles.

Katie shoved her elbow against her captor’s chest in panic.

Were the aliens taking them into space again?

No, no, no! She had just escaped one prison.

She could be sent off to yet another unknown world and risk the chance of running into the same fate.

“N... no,” she whispered between stiff lips, but the alien holding her stroked her back comfortingly.

A deep purr rose from within his chest but, somehow, he still managed to speak over it in a soothing rumble. “Do not be afraid. The Edoka is just transporting us a short distance to our territory. You were kept far out on the ice flats. Too far to go by foot.”

He walked deeper inside the vessel amid the sound of distant conversation half-drowned out by the growls of aliens pressing into the confined space. She jumped and shrank back into the alien’s arms, but his purr only revved up louder in response.

“Pay no attention to them. The ulukskinon is fanning some tempers, but none of the males here will hurt any of you. Things will become peaceful once again once we are back in our territory and are no longer in such a confining space.”

That made sense, but... ice flats? Flat, snow-swept plains didn’t make up the majority of the planet’s terrain?

Oh, thank the gods . She had no idea what he meant by ulukskinon but figured it had to be a territory related thing and decided not to worry about it for the time being.

So long as it wasn’t going to endanger any of them, then they could

Katie ceased struggling and went weak in his arms, her head lolling a little to the side so that she was staring at the aliens nearest to them.

A blue, reptilian male slipped among the crowd just within range of her vision but disappeared again.

As he didn’t appear to have a human woman with him, she mentally dismissed him and continued to watch the others.

It seemed that all the aliens holding humans sat together, braced against one wall while others formed a loose circle around them as the ship jerked and lifted into the air.

There was a murmur of fear among the women, but soothing rumbles gradually quieted them amid the rolling overlap of purrs.

Gods, it was like being in a room full of content cats.

.. and somehow that made her feel a little better.

Cats were predators and not always entirely picky about what they ate, but purring was a good sign.

The purrs frequently broke off into quiet snarls or growls, but it always appeared to be between the males and never toward the women in their arms. That meant friendly. .. right?

Lifting her head from her alien’s chest, Katie was able to get a better look at the petite woman closest to her.

Macy. She practically disappeared in her arms of the massive, scarred male holding her so that little could be seen beyond the springy blond curls on top of her head.

The big male crooned and patted her with such a blissful look on his ravaged face that Katie’s lips quirked involuntarily, especially since Macy impatiently batted away his affectionate petting, looking for all the world like an annoyed kitten.

She couldn’t blame her, though. None of them had a clue what was in store for them.

Except perhaps one person... Sara.

“Watch out, human coming through. Ladies look alive,” Sara’s familiar voice barked as she pushed her way past several furry aliens.

Despite their size, they parted fluidly out of her way with boneless, feline grace so that Sara was left standing directly in the midst of their little communal seating area, her hands on her hips and an alien standing solemnly, and oddly deferentially, behind her.

Sara looked around at everyone critically for a long moment before breaking out into a relieved, somewhat smug, smile.

“It looks like everyone made it. Good.” Her eyes fell on Katie, and her smile widened with obvious relief.

“And you got out, too. Hell yeah. We did good,” she said over her shoulder to the male standing behind her.

“What’s going to happen now?” A woman asked from deeper within the group, her head popping up as she pushed her way out of the arms of the male holding her.

She brushed her short hair out of her face impatiently with one hand and scowled.

“Don’t get me wrong, this is cozy, but somehow I don’t think that the Agraak are just going to let us all walk out just like that. ”

A murmur of worry went up among the women as Sara squinted at her.

“Trish, right?” She smiled sympathetically when the other woman nodded in affirmation.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t exactly have time to plan much further out than busting you all out of there before the guys got busy organizing another hunt. I guess we just play it by ear.”

“Play it by ear?” Trish echoed with a look of disbelief. “How about getting us off this damned planet?”

“And go where?” Katie interrupted tiredly. “Earth doesn’t have any ships. Are you really going to trust some random aliens to take us back home? We saw how well that worked out for us before. Right now, I’m more interested in feeling safe.”

And as far as she was concerned, that was no further than wherever the male who rescued her from that terrible facility happened to be. She wasn’t being pried from his side with a few empty promises. The alien who held her had killed for her. That was as safe as she was ever going to get.

“We can have A’Jular, the pilot, file a report with the intergalactic council,” a male gravely offered.

Despite the blood heavily smearing his fur, it didn’t take a genius to recognize that he held some position of authority.

He had a commanding bearing, and the males all appeared to defer to him.

He was definitely a leader if not the leader.

“Flying to your home world might beyond his capabilities, but if he files a report, they will have the ability to send a special convoy to Earth to fetch representatives to accompany you all home.”

“I don’t know,” Macy replied in a soft voice, practically clinging now to the enormous male wrapped around her.

“I’m with Katie. Who’s to say that they won’t just send some random aliens to snatch us up?

Or tell the Agraak where to find us.” She shook her head violently and shrank into the alien’s arms. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. ”

Several women spoke out in agreement, but Trish shook her head angrily. “You may agree with her, but I’m not interested in just giving up and committing myself to being stranded on an alien world. What the hell are we supposed to do here?”

“Try doing whatever it was you were planning on doing when you volunteered to leave Earth with the Buto,” Sara wryly suggested. “Explore.”

“That isn’t even the same thing. When we left with the Buto, I thought we were going to some sort of futuristic alien civilization where I could experience enjoying things I’d never even imagined.

Sara, they are wearing leather, wrapping us in fur, and are carrying spears.

This is like being stuck in the fucking Neolithic.

” She glanced back at the male sitting quietly behind her and winced. “No offense.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong about that. Then again, after experiencing the “hospitality” of an advanced civilization like the Agraak, the simple alternative was looking a lot more appealing to Katie.

Sara scowled at her, her mouth flying open to shoot off when the male in charge calmly lifted a hand.

“There are clearly differing opinions. As you have all come out of a traumatic experience, allow us to take care of you for a few days while you rest and heal. Anyone who wishes to leave after that—I will personally contact A’Jular on your behalf. ”

Trish’s jaw hardened stubbornly, and with enough force that Katie wondered if she was trying to break teeth before it relaxed slightly and she nodded.

“Fine,” she muttered, as she allowed the alien to draw her back beneath the warmth of his arms and the pelt she’d discarded.

“But just a few days. And then you better believe that I will be at your door waiting for you to make that call.”

The male inclined his head and turned to speak quietly to the larger male with Sara. The of them drifted further from their group as they talked, and Sara glanced back at them briefly before giving Katie a hesitant smile as she inched forward.

“Are you okay? I heard what happened. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to be able to find you,” she admitted. “Or if we would even get there in time to stop... well... you know.”

Katie nodded tiredly before resting her head once more on her alien’s chest. “You got there on time,” she whispered as the alien drew the pelt back up around her from where it fell around her waist. “Thank you.”

Sara nodded awkwardly but drew away as Katie felt her eyelids grow heavy.

Now that she was finally safe, it was as if days, if not months, of pent-up anxiety were vanishing all at once and taking all of its adrenaline with it.

She was so tired. She must have mumbled it out loud because the big alien began to purr again, his large hand stroking her back.

“Rest, then. This will all soon be over. I will watch over you while you sleep.”

Fabulous. Don’t mind if I do. So, so, tired.