Page 15 of Victoria's Discovery

Her heart skipped a beat, and she immediately shook her head in denial. “But… no. No, that’s not right. There’s supposed to be experimentation and then they take us back. Maybe some weird probing, but they can’t keep us.”

“Sorry, kid. Afraid that’s not the kind of abduction we’re in.”

“But… how can you be so sure?” she demanded, her palms beginning to sweat and panic creeping back in, in the face of Spar’s surety.

She indicated the giants with a jerk of her chin. “The aliens in your cage. I was hoping for a while our abductors already had a cargo hold full of aliens when they took us, but your new friends and the amount of hair on my legs means we’ve been asleep long enough for them to go to at least one different planet, maybe a different galaxy. If we were here for some quick experimentation, they would’ve stayed near Earth.”

That made a horrifying kind of sense and, yet, Victoria still wanted to argue against Spar’s logic. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with anything other than plain denial which wasn’t an argument at all.

“But… I—” She paused, shaking her head. “Why wake us up, then? That just seems… cruel. And dumb. What if someone gets out?”

“That’s anyone’s guess. Mine? I think they woke us up to check on us or give us a break from whatever sedation they use. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving, I’m sore as fuck, and I feel weak. They obviously had us hooked up to fluids, judging by this circle of punctures on my inner elbow and the fact that we aren’t dead, but I’m guessing nothing for nutrition. You’d think if these fuckers can travel through space, they’d have cryogenics or something to keep us healthy and unconscious during transport.”

Spar cut short and glanced down through the ceiling at the woman, Madison, holding her up.

“Gotta go. If they give you any trouble, stab your fingers into their eyes or kick them between the legs then stomp on their throats once they’re down.”

“Stomp on their… ” Victoria trailed off, both because she was appalled at the idea of throat stomping and because Spar was gone, having dropped back into her cage after that parting bit of advice, said with about as much inflection as someone commenting on the weather.

“So not only is she super pretty, has a cool name, and is obviously smart as hell, but she’s also a badass… and kinda scary. Inferiority complex, here I come. It’ll go nicely with my complex of everyone thinking I’m an animal or a kid.”Patting Thorn’s head, she said, “You can let me down, now.”

After setting her on her feet, both he and Thegan gazed down at her expectantly.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, shaking her head. “I wish I had better news, for all of us, but I didn’t see anything that might help.”

Neither looked particularly surprised, but they did look disappointed, and that made her feel bad. She hated disappointing people. It never failed to make her feel guilty, like it was completely her fault even when it wasn’t.

Another of her complexes, this one thanks to her mother.

The highly successful actress found anything but the best personally offensive, and that included her daughter. Victoria was good at most anything she tried, but she wasn’t the best, and she’d yet to find anything she truly loved to stick with it long enough to become the best. It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried, nor was it an unwillingness to put in the work, she just… hadn’t found herthing, her passion.

Thegan must’ve seen the unhappy look on her face, because he bent until they were eye to eye and offered her a gentle smile then, catching her completely off guard, buried his big hand in her hair, pulled her toward him, and… was he rubbing the base of his horns against her forehead?

Yes. Yes, he was.

Victoria went still. While she was absolutely positive he only meant the gesture in a friendly way, that was not at all how her body chose to take it.

Her heart began beating faster and, almost involuntarily, she swayed forward, drawing in more of the mouthwatering smell that was suddenly radiating from him.

She hadn’t really noticed it before, but Thegan smelled good. Really good.

It was hard to classify exactly what about it was so amazing. He smelled like leather and wood smoke and… something else, something sweet that made her feel tingly and warm and edgy all at the same time.

The more she breathed it in, the more she wanted. Her head felt kind of fuzzy and her clit was throbbing faintly in time to her heartbeat.

When he pulled back, he took the cloud of yumminess with him, drawing her out of ruminations over what his lips would feel like against her neck. Blinking hard, she found him smiling at her in a way that seemed pleased, amused, and maybe a little surprised.

“Ynddr vel, færling, of kau veksura.”

She had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t matter. She found herself nodding in agreement, captivated by his deep, smooth voice murmuring to her softly.

That was the kind of voice that led women to make bad choices, like finding out if aliens knew how to kiss.

Victoria could almost hear her brain screech to a halt as she realized what she’d just thought and felt a blush heating her cheeks.

“Oh, no. No. We’re not going to develop a crush on the alien. That’s exactly what we’renotgoing to do.”

Chapter 8

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