Page 29 of Saving Lauren

They back out of the cell after grabbing the sphere, but not before Yalix gets a final say.

“I’ll see you soon little pet, and this is only the beginning. I have a nice little box waiting for you when you get home.”

They all cackle, then it’s lights out and I blissfully black out, only to fall right into another nightmare.

“No,” I say defiantly against the monster that has been whipping me so violently I feel the blood streaming down my back.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” he yells in anger. I slowly push myself to my feet, but I am swaying.

“I said No,” I say. “I will not submit. I will not beg. I would rather die.” I have been with the monster for a couple of weeks now. Every day the rape and torture worsen. He is testing how far he can go, testing what my body can handle. Right now he wants me to beg him, to crawl towards him, pleasure him with my mouth, so I can have a sip of water. And I refuse. If all Aliens are like this, I am glad we did not encounter them sooner. Because they SUCK.

The monster looks at me funny, then he grins maliciously.

“I will break you, little pet.” And then he leaves the room. I collapse when I see him retreating. I will not cry, I mentally will myself. I will not break, I am searching for that safe space in my mind that has gotten me through the bad stuff. The fantasy of going home, of hugging my mom, of running in the woods with my dog. But before I can get there, I hear the door open again and I try to push myself up, but I fail.

I open my eyes and I see a couple of his servants bringing in a big black box. I try to get up again, because I am sure I will not like what will come out of that box. I feel the servants picking me up. I struggle and fight. Then I hear his voice, smugly.

“Put her in the box, let’s see what she has to say in a couple of days.”

I scream and fight but to no avail. I am locked in the box, surrounded by blackness.

I don’t know how much time I spend in the box. I have no place to relieve myself and a girl can only hold it for so long, so I end up lying in my own pee. It’s cold, so so cold and I am longing for that safe space in my mind. I think of my dog again and of how good it feels to run in the sun with him, I almost get there. I almost get to the zone. But then I remember: I need to keep it together, I need to survive, because something better awaits me. He cannot break me.

CHAPTER 15

D’Var

Our ship effortlessly finds the trail of the Sternotheri ship. It took a detailed search to get us started, but after the first hours, it was obvious the Sternotheri were considering themselves safe because they were easy to track.

We have left the cover of the asteroid belt, our ship has amazing cloaking abilities, and their scanners should not be able to see us. They should not have been able to find us at the belt, but O’Rec has a theory that we might have missed something of a tracker on L’Ren. The only way to see through our cloaking is to accidentally bump through our shields, or to poke at them if you have an idea of where they are. Once you have passed the barrier of our shields, you can have visual of our ship. We believe that’s where they deployed the disturbance.

I know they both feel guilty, O’Rec for rebooting the system, T’Rak for pulling me away from L’Ren to look at the data. In a way we have made it easy for the Sternotheri to take my Zarra, but we will not let them keep her for long.

We are nearing the ship, it’s only 2 hours ahead of us and O’Rec can fairly easily plot their course to a small moon of Esparix, days away. Esparix is where the Caudata live, only the richest reside on their moons so that means that whoever is involved, is an influential fucker.

My bond is aching, making me flinch.

“I have to get her back soon, the bond is flaring up. I am afraid it will not hold much longer.”

T’Rak turns his chair around, looking at me, a cold look in his eyes. “They were dead the minute they decided to come after us. To steal your Zarra is the ultimate crime. I vow to you, my brother, we will have their heads and your Zarra back in your arms within the next day. This is what we are going to do.”

O’Rec also turns around as T’Rak lays down the strategy.

“Their technology is good, but ours is better. We have to insert a virus into their system, anchor our ship against theirs, then break their hull in stealth mode. We cannot assume anything, so we are going to hover close first and scan for lifeforms.” He turns towards O’Rec.

“O’Rec, it is your job to pick the spot where we are going to enter the ship. Do you think our body scan will show the difference between the Sternotheri and L’Ren?”

O’Rec thinks on that and then he nods. “I believe so. Humans have a higher body temperature than most species we have encountered.”

My bond flares up. This is promising. We can pinpoint my mate's exact location and I can focus on getting to her.

T’Rak looks at me. “My friend, you will go to your mate and take care of her. We will focus on the fucking Sternotheri.”

I nod slowly. Every cell in my body is at war with itself at the moment. My instincts are screaming for blood and the heads of everybody who dared to touch my Zarra, but also the need to get to her, to protect her, to make sure she is safe is pulling me in the other direction.

T’Rak sees my conflict and gives me a stern look.

“I command it, D’Var.” he says and it puts my body a bit more at ease. It is unheard of for an Araccate Warrior to disobey his captain, so I breathe in and focus on my calm and the prospect of holding my mate.

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