Page 5 of Victoria's Discovery

Until she woke up here to the sound of screams.

Blinking, she looked back up when she caught the sound of knocking over the cacophony to find the green guy trying to get her attention.

Alien or not, she recognized his expression as one of concern. It warmed her, made her feel less alone, and helped soothe the panic trying to creep back in.

This guy didn’t know her, shouldn’t be concerning himself with her, not when he was in the same situation, but he was. Even when he thought she was a Chihuahua, he’d been kind.

He was still scary looking, but he definitely wasn’t a dick, or if hewas,he was a nice dick, to her anyway. Of course, whoever put them in these cages probably wouldn’t feel the same way about him if he ever got his very large hands on them.

Victoria started to smile over at him, wanting to show she appreciated his kindness and communicate that she was okay. Rattled as hell, but okay.

Before she could, a thunk diverted her attention upward.

Her stomach twisted with fear when she saw a huge metal hose attaching to the hole in the ceiling of her cage. The first thing that popped into her mind was that it was going to suck her out through that tiny opening, like Ripley did to the xenomorph, and kill her.

Looking back at the guy, she gave him wide, terrified eyes before she heard a hissing sound and dizziness hit her like a truck. She stumbled and sucked in a breath.

She tasted something cloying in the back of her throat and everything around her seemed to be suddenly very far away. She blinked hard, trying to clear the haziness from her eyes, but it was too late.

The last thing she saw before her legs collapsed and everything went black, was Angry Guy pounding on the wall of his cell, his pretty, purple eyes locked on her.

Chapter 3

Victoria groaned and reached up to rub her head, keeping her eyes closed in an effort to avoid further pissing off the marching band banging around inside her skull.

For all that the layer of pellets was squishy, they hadn’t done much to cushion her fall. Her shoulder was throbbing where she’d landed on it, adding to the ache in her joints and the headache from all the noise until she felt like one big ball of ouch.

Once the pounding in her head lessened slightly, she cracked her eyes open… and screamed.

Slapping a hand over her mouth to cut off her screech, she used the other to propel herself backward until she smacked into the wall, never once blinking or taking her eyes off the two massive bodies sprawled on the floor.

The asshole abductors had knocked her out and put giants in her cell.

Whose fucking idea wasthat?

What if they panicked when they woke up and accidentally, or purposefully, squished her to death? What if they found humans offensive and killed her on sight, or,worse,thought she looked delicious and ate her?

The cell had seemed pretty big—maybe twenty-five feet square—but with two oversized people taking up all the room, it suddenly felt entirely too small.

Victoria gasped sharply when one of them groaned then held her breath and pulled her knees into her chest, doing another Chihuahua impression—intentionally that time—in the hopes they wouldn’t want to stomp on her if she looked small and harmless.

Staying still and silent, she watched wide-eyed as first one, then the other pushed up and staggered to their feet.

Victoria’s jaw fell open as she slowly craned her head back.

Holy shit…

They had to be seven and a half feet tall, at least.

The first impression to filter through her terrified mind, other than their massive size, was that they looked like alien Vikings. They both had pale blonde hair—the closest’s worn in a messy bun, the other’s loose to brush his shoulders—adorned with braids, beads, and what looked unnervingly like small bones. They had on loincloths made out of some kind of animal hide with furry pouches slung low on their hips, leather boots that went to mid-shin, and nothing else, leaving their muscled chests bare.

The closest one had slate blue colored skin a shade or two darker than the farthest. Adding to the Viking effect were the black tattoos that seemed to cover almost all of the darker one’s upper body. Everything from his neck, down his chest and arms, to his fingertips were decorated with incomprehensible symbols and intricate designs. The paler one had fewer tattoos, letting more of his pretty blue skin show, but they both looked like bad boy Nordic models, alien edition.

They had harsh features with thick, arching, pale brows—a striking contrast against their greyish-blue skin—full lips with sharply defined edges, strong jawlines, and squared chins.

Squinting her eyes, she realized their individual facial features weren’t all that inhuman if she only concentrated on one at a time. It was how they were put together that made them look so exoticallyother.

The alienness came through in the shape of their noses, eyes, and the ridges on their foreheads. Focusing on the latter first, she stared, more than happy to let her mind fixate on that instead of on her prospective death-by-squishing.

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