Page 33 of Victoria's Discovery

Snarky Lady's jaw dropped before she visibly swallowed, recoiling. “Jesus, fine! I was only teasing anyway.”

“Mmhm. How about the rest of you with cellmates? Everyone good?”

The woman caged with the alien with the huge black wings offered hesitantly, “Mine's a little growly, but he's been nice enough, I guess.”

Spar was next, answering calmly, “These two are fine. They know I'll punch them in the throat if they get handsy.”

That earned her an appreciative nod of which Victoria was immediately envious.

Ugh. I want to be a badass like them.

Forcing herself to stand straighter, she decided then and there that she didn’t particularly care for being the damsel that always needed saving or someone to stand up for her. Was she naturally disposed to boldness and bravery? Ha!No. But, like her mother often said, “Fake it till you make it.”

“Good. If anything changes, whistle. Screams just get lost in the noise.”

With that ominous last statement, Victoria's new girl crush turned and strode off, moving with a kind of confidence and grace that told everyone looking she wasn’t someone to mess with.

Tipping her head back, Victoria caught Thegan and Thorn watching her walk away and sighed quietly. Their expressions were warier and less smitten than she’d anticipated, but she was sure they’d be chasing after the woman soon enough.

And this is why we don’t develop crushes on hot guys. They never pick the skittish, red-headed Chihuahua.

Angling her head toward her shoulder, she whispered from the corner of her mouth, “You still like me, don’t you, little buddy?”

A soft, lilting purr answered her a second before she felt something pat her cheek. She smiled, some of the melancholy lightening.

“I like you, too, squirrel-dragon.”

Chapter 18

Another hour passed before it was Victoria and the giants’ turn to disappear. She assumed someone was operating whatever teleportation beam that had put them in the cells to begin with in order to free them. But, even knowing she hadn’t been reassembled inside-out last time, she was still nervous.

The giants were in worse shape. She’d done what she could to soothe them, offering calming pats and soft words, but they still tensed a little more with every cage that was emptied.

Hell, maybe they were right to be wary and she was just being naive, but she didn’t think so. There was something inherently trustworthy about Queen Bee, as Snarky Lady called her. Being teleported was damned unnerving, especially with Vi’kail’s pet still perched on her shoulder, but she just had a feeling that whatever awaited them wasn’t bad.

Bracing herself when the beings in the cell to their left vanished, Victoria squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath.

Between one heartbeat and the next, she found herself standing outside. Clutching her stomach with one hand and her head with the other, she groaned.

“Oh, that is not pleasant.”

She swallowed hard, trying to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged. Once the nausea and vertigo passed somewhat, she opened her eyes… and gaped.

“Holy shit!”

Glancing quickly to either side as she reached up to pat the little squirrel-dragon, who responded with a quietbrrp, she checked on the giants. They were both bent over with their hands on their knees, their previously pale blue skin now just pale. Wincing with sympathy, she reached out and rubbed gentle circles on their backs as she went back to gazing around in awe at the alien planet on which they’d crashed.

“This is so cool!” she breathed, a huge grin beginning to stretch her lips as she gazed up at two suns shining softly in a purplish sky. “I found Tatooine!”

It seemed like it was late afternoon, maybe early evening, and the air was cool as it breezed gently over her bare legs. Since it wasn't hot as hell, even with two suns, she assumed this planet was farther away from its stars than Earth was from its sun.

“Definitely still in the Goldilocks zone, though.”

Breathing deeply, she was greatly relieved to find the air didn’t seem much different from what she was accustomed. She wasn’t lightheaded, and neither was she short of breath, so the mix of gases was obviously suitable for humans. Hopefully, the same could be said for the other species, as well. A quick scan of the many people milling about didn’t show anyone in obvious distress, so maybe the fishes only abducted beings who could breathe the same air.

Around her was a desert. Pale grey sand covered the ground, and off in the distance rose beautiful, white mountains that almost appeared to shine in the evening sunlight.

Turning in a slow circle, she froze, her jaw dropping at the shockingly massive wall not eighty feet from where she stood. It had to be at least three hundred feet tall and looked to be made of seamless metal soaring upward into the sky. Following the line of it with her eyes, she frowned when she realized it was a retaining wall and eyed the sixty-foot wide jagged breach it was now sporting where the spaceship had obviously crashed through it.

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