Page 5 of Cherished By the Alien Outlaw

What was that pack of tall, two-legged things racing across the sand in my direction? As they got closer, I made out a group of ten or so . . . lizards. At least twice my height, they ran on their hind feet, their tails swaying behind them. Alien alligators, because this was no planet Earth.

Damn. They’d seen me and this wretched space pod, and they were going to grab me, and nothing good ever came from alien capture. They’d eat me. Or hurt me in other ways.

I bailed out the other side of the ship, falling to my hands and knees. With considerable effort, I got to myfeet, swaying and clutching the spaceship while the world whirled around me.

The lizards kept coming, only now they were shouting in guttural voices I couldn’t understand.

My eyes stung with tears as I spun and stumbled across the sand. I had to run. Had to hide, but where?

The lizards rounded the ship and spread out in an effort to surround me.

Fear bolted through me, making my pulse roar in my ears. Sweat slithered down my spine, and I kept going, running as fast as my legs could take me.

I’d crested a tiny hill and started sliding down the other side when they cut me off. With their lips peeled back along their snouts to reveal jagged fangs, they were nightmares come to life. Their dark green scales were almost black under heavy brown armor which clung to them like second skins. Warrior alien alligators? Their sharp eyes glinted in the sunlight with terrifying intelligence, and they held long, deadly spears with practiced ease. As they surrounded me and moved closer, my skin prickled with dread. Why had I been stolen from Earth to be dropped among creatures I suspected would soon kill me? Kidnapping me from my home suggested a purpose, but unless these lizards were vital to the survival of this planet and they were out of food, it made no sense to transport me all this way to dump me in front of them. Send canned goods or something, not a skinny woman like me.

They grunted in unison and rushed me, grabbing me andflinging me to the ground.

One of their spears raked across my right arm, slicing through the skin. I cried out and bucked, but there were too many of them, and they were much stronger than me. In no time, I found myself bound at my ankles and wrists. Blood trickled down my torn arm to plop in the sand.

They lifted me by my arms and legs and started trotting, carrying me across the desert and away from the pod that had brought me here. The pod didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure I mattered. All I wanted was to find my sister.

I passed out, waking to night and the bone crunching jog of the lizards still transporting me across the desert. Two moons shone overhead, and the stars swam in my blurry eyes. My arm burned, and I swore it seeped, blood or something worse. How long had I been unconscious?

As they carried me through the night and into the next day, my head throbbed. I kept flashing between hot and cold. I lifted my head and groaned when I saw my arm. The wound scraped from my shoulder down to my elbow and redness surrounded it. It pulsed with my heartbeat and goo slithered along the gash.

It was rather ironic that I’d been sent all this way only to die of a flesh wound in the middle of an alien desert.

My body hurt, but my chest was one big ache.

Death almost felt like nothing. What hurt the most was that I’d never see my twin sister again.

Chapter 3

Firion

Iwoke lying on something hard inside a stone, walled cell with bars running across the front of the small room. Sitting, I rubbed the bump on the back of my head and grimaced. No blood, and I’d woken—both good signs. But where was I?

I’d only heard of the Veerenad underground mining operation, how those who ran it operated on the outskirts of the rules the regular population followed. I suspected this was where I’d now found myself.

Cutthroats and rogues, those running the mining operation weren’t above kidnapping their fellow Veerenads if they were short on workers.

And Zuldruxians?

Why else would they have brought me here? If they were after my few possessions, they would’ve taken them and left me lying in the sand.

I swung my legs around to sit on the side of my low bunk and held my head while it spun. Once my mind hadsettled, I rose to my feet and walked the few steps to the barred door, grabbing onto the metal and peering up and down the hall outside my cell. Others like mine lined each side for as far as my eyes could see, each holding at least two Veerenads. I didn’t see any Zuldruxians, but that didn’t mean much. If this was the mining operation and I was not part of forced labor, this wouldn’t be the only wing of cells.

“You’re alive,” a male Veerenad growled from across the hall from me. He stood at the bars, clutching them like me, his snout turned so he could peer between them.

“Where are we?”

“In a place of torture. A gruesome place. A place we all wish to escape from.”

“Is this part of the mining operation I’ve heard of?”

“Sadly, yes. What did you do that they now force you to give the rulers a lifetime of hard labor?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I was . . .” Where was the treaty now? A quick glance around my cell didn’t reveal my pack. Had they left my papers in the desert?

---