Page 17 of Trak (Virilian Mail Order Mates #1)

Thirteen

It should have come by now. Anna bit her lip and frowned into the toilet.

Her period was two days late.

That wasn’t much, but for someone whose cycle usually ran like clockwork, it was something .

Then there were the weird feelings low in her belly.

It was as if something was moving in there, and it did not feel like gas.

Trak had said she would know it if she were pregnant. She certainly didn’t feel normal.

After a short debate, she took a test, which worked basically the same as the ones on Earth.

They had been stocked in the bath chamber, likely by Nandi.

The result appeared swiftly and with surprising fanfare.

Instead of a plus or minus sign in the little window on the test, a hologram beamed out, depicting an animated image of a baby with a tail—trying to make it look Virilian, she supposed, but it looked weird and cartoonish—a colorful message in a language she couldn’t read, and a puff of scent that reminded her of vanilla.

She didn’t need to read the words to get the message.

It was a little too festive, especially if one didn’t want to be pregnant. Luckily, she did. Sort of.

Anna sat down on the edge of the bed and held a hand over her belly.

It had happened. She had conceived an alien’s baby.

In less than six months she’d be birthing it and then she could leave…

if she wanted to. She thought to a clause in the contract that stated the mother could stay and help raise the child if she wanted to.

Anna hadn’t thought she’d want to, but now she wasn’t as firm on that.

She could still have the money sent back to Jimmy for his treatments.

Maybe Trak wouldn’t be eager to see her gone, either. Her stomach fluttered at the thought of him. He would be ecstatic to hear she’d conceived. She couldn’t wait to tell him.

Pulling on a snug white jumpsuit—everything was either snug or ridiculously sheer—she went to the door and opened it.

The guard who had been posted there for the past few cycles was missing.

On the floor sat a square box made of red metal.

A digital label on the top spelled out her name.

One of the n’s was backwards, which was weird, but it had to be from Trak.

She picked it up and brought it in the room.

The seal opened with a hissing sound. A gossamer fabric was folded over something inside.

Anna pulled it off and took out a clear plastic slip, glowing with blue digital words.

It lay over a metal ring about the size of her neck.

The thing looked like a collar and was ornately carved.

At first glance, it was beautiful. It had a latch on one side and a hinge on the other, but to her horror, the inside of it was covered in sharp spikes.

This was no piece of lovely jewelry. It was a collar designed for restraint and torture.

Was this a joke? She picked up the digital note.

The English was broken and filled with misspellings—her first indication that this was not sent from Trak.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried by that.

Piecing through the grammar problems, she parsed the message: the collar was a declaration of transfer of ownership to an alien named Giru Limpa.

Anna hurled the collar across the room, where it slammed against the door. This had to be a joke. If Trak thought this was funny, he was dead wrong. If it came from that green Hulk himself, then he was a greater moron than she’d originally assumed.

She went back to the door and whipped it open. Where was that guard? She needed to get a message to Trak immediately—for two reasons now. A tall thin male walked hastily up the hall. He wore a helmet and the uniform of a guard and that’s what Anna figured he was.

“I need to speak with Prince Trak,” she said. “Immediately. Where is he?”

The guard nodded respectfully. “I take you him,” he responded in halting English. “Come.”

Incensed, flustered, and feeling overwhelmed, Anna didn’t stop to think. She followed him down the corridor toward the exit of the Virilian sector. As she walked, her instincts kicked in, telling her that something wasn’t right about this guard.

She paused and he turned, gazing at her from behind a darkened visor. “I changed my mind,” she said, edging backwards. “I’ll wait for him to come back later.”

The guard reached out to grab her but Anna was nimble enough and evaded him. She broke into a run, sprinting back to her room, but she couldn’t be sure which was hers, and besides, the unlocking process wasn’t an instant one. He was right behind her and would grab her if she so much as misstepped.

Instead, she ran in the general direction of the hangar deck, where Trak or members of his crew might be.

The pursuing guard was shouting sharp words that she couldn’t understand.

His footsteps were close behind. She felt his fingertips brush the back of her jumpsuit.

The corridor twisted and turned, but at last, there was an end to it.

Doors slid open at her approach and she burst into an open area filled with people.

This was not the hangar. Anna had no idea where she was. She recognized nothing, but she took off again, weaving through bodies, dodging machines and pushing a few out of the way. The colors and sounds of the public space blurred as she ran for her life.

Her heart pounded as panic spiked hard. This wasn’t the first time Anna had been chased, but it was the first time she’d had to try to get away from someone without knowing anything about her surroundings.

Finding Trak in this place was exactly like the old cliché of hunting for a needle in a haystack. He could be anywhere .

She made a sharp turn around a corner, hurtling down another corridor, trying to lose her pursuer.

It was darker here. The walls were narrower.

Shadows moved along the edges, slinking out of the way.

She didn’t see what it was that was stuck out in front of her.

It may have been a leg, or a pole, or the long barrel of a gun, but her shin hit it hard.

She fell, slamming facedown, and slid along the smooth floor. Dazed, she struggled to get up after getting the breath knocked out of her.

A fist grasped the fabric at her back and hauled her to her feet.

Fingers dug into her side and something sharp poked beneath her rib cage.

Anna gritted her teeth. Her assailant snapped cold metal around her wrists.

He snarled something in her ear and wrapped a silky scarf over and around her head.

It smelled sweet and musky. Almost immediately, she felt fuzzy.

She walked where she was prodded, unable to form a clear thought, but well aware that she was being kidnapped. This was not a joke Trak would ever pull on her. And when he found out what happened, he would be furious.