Page 32 of Victoria's Discovery

That was the kind of woman people instinctively stopped and listened to. Victoria wasn’t even yelling and her mouth immediately snapped closed, her spine straightened, and she nodded obediently.

A pretty woman in a black party dress yelled above the others, “Get us out of here!”

“I’m working on that. But, right now, I need to know who’s injured.” At the various responses ofme,her, andhim, the ninja lady in the aisle nodded and barked, “Alright, pay attention.”

Victoria watched as the woman bent to set a pile of somethings on the floor then straightened with a little black ring pinched between her thumb and forefinger. Raising it so everyone could see, she lifted her other hand and pulled on the ring. To Victoria’s surprise, it expanded until it was two or three feet in diameter.

“Expand it like this, set it on the ground, then step inside,” the woman directed, demonstrating each step as she spoke. Obviously anticipating they’d be slow to trust, she swept everyone with a narrow-eyed look that, nevertheless, felt reassuring as the ring zipped up and down her body and continued, “It’s safe and will heal you. If you’re severely injured, let it do a couple passes before handing it off to the next person. If you’re with someone who's injured and cannot heal themselves, pass it over their bodies as best as you can. Everyone understand?”

When calmer voices murmured affirmatives, she gave them all a short, approving nod. Victoria stood a little straighter at that nod, feeling accomplished for absolutely no reason at all before blinking in shock.

Eyeing the woman in something halfway between wariness and awe, she breathed, “How does she do that?”

After throwing a ring into each cage, the woman watched them closely as they copied her directions and used them on themselves and each other.

Thorn caught the one thrown into their cell and immediately expanded it then lifted her up without any warning and set her in the middle.

Victoria squeaked a little and went stiff, holding her breath as it rose rapidly to the top of her head then dropped back to hover above the pebbles. Stepping out quickly, she subtly reached up to feel for the little critter still sitting on her shoulder, stroking what felt like a wing and asking from the corner of her mouth, “Are you okay, little buddy?”

A soft warble and what felt like a snoot boop answered her. Blowing out a relieved breath, she glanced around to make sure no one saw her talking to her shoulder then watched as Thorn shoved Thegan into the ring before taking his own turn.

Turning when the woman cleared her throat, Victoria watched as she seemed to brace herself.

“I need to check on the other people down here,” she announced firmly then immediately raised a hand before anyone could get upset and met Victoria’s gaze before glancing at the other two women caged with alien men. “Does everyone feel safe with their cellmates? I can climb up there and stun them, if needed.”

Victoria’s brows shot up at the calmly delivered threat.

Climb up? Can she?

Scanning her from enviably long, thick, brown hair, down a body that looked surprisingly strong for such a small woman, to feet set in a confident stance, Victoria decided, yeah, yeah she probably could climb to the top of the ten-foot-high cages. She also looked like shooting people was no problem at all. Thankfully, she’d said stun, not kill, so that was encouraging.

When no one answered, the woman pinned Victoria with pale green eyes.

Heart leaping into her throat at being singled out, Victoria glanced around at the other humans, before returning her gaze to the woman and smiling nervously. “They’re nice. They wouldn’t hurt me.”

A snort from another cell preceded a perfectly audible mutter, “No, but they might hump you.”

Her face instantly went hot and her jaw dropped. Shock was first before a mix of incredulity, embarrassment, and, oddly, hurt, washed over her. Gritting her teeth, she let her gaze fall to the floor.

Obviously picking up on her discomfort, Thegan and Thorn growled and stepped closer to her. They may not be able to understand what that rude ass lady had just said, but their reactions very clearly said they were capable of picking up on the unpleasantness of her tone.

It wasn’t even that Victoria was embarrassed about the kisses from the giants. Mostly because they were really good kisses. It was being called out like that and feeling like everyone was staring at her that made her uncomfortable.

If she'd been thinking about it, she would’ve known to anticipate that kind of reaction from at least one of the women, but she honestly hadn’t paid much attention to them at all, not when she had the giants, Angry Guy, and her new space pet to keep her undivided attention. Definitely not enough to anticipate which one was going to be the asshole and brace herself for the inevitable confrontation.

“Hey!”

Startling at the sharply barked word, Victoria looked at the woman to find her giving Snarky Lady a glare. It wasn’t even aimed at her and it still made Victoria feel like apologizing. The intimidating woman’s expression didn’t even change that much, but it didn’t have to. With a slight narrowing of her eyes and a clenched jaw, she managed to thoroughly communicate her displeasure and absolute unwillingness to put up with bullshit or rudeness of any kind.

“Whoa. She’s amazing,” Victoria breathed, lips twitching into a small smile.

“I get that you're scared, but that doesn't mean you get to be an asshole, got it?”

Snarky Lady was apparently made of sterner stuff than Victoria because she wasn’t cowed. That, or she just didn’t have any self-preservation.

“Who died and made you Queen Bee?”

A smile that sent a chill up Victoria’s spine curled the woman’s full lips as she replied coldly, “The Overlord who more than likely purchased you to be his new slaves who I shot in the head a few hours ago. So, unless you want to take your chances on this planet and hope some other Overlord or pleasure lounge master doesn't find you, be fucking nice.”

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