Page 31 of Victoria's Discovery

Thankfully, the little Houdini was fast as hell and zipped out of their reach before they could grab him. Thegan and Thorn banged into each other then whipped around to follow the animal only to freeze when they saw her holding it.

Cradling it to her chest with one hand, she held the other out to them. “Calm down, it’s okay! It’s not dangerous, I promise.”

Thegan slowly straightened with a frown, looking both confused and distrustful while Thorn stayed tense and ready to snatch it off of her at the first opportunity.

“Really, it’s okay. It just startled me. Kalaus,” she stressed, smiling reassuringly. Pointing from the animal to Vi’kail’s cage, she continued, “It’s his pet. Nice. Kan merkja.”

In sync, they turned to peer over at Vi’kail, eyes narrowed in matching expressions of… was that suspicion?

Actually, it kind of seemed like that thing guys do when they bow up at each other. That look of mixed possessiveness, challenge, distrust, and hostility while sizing the other guy up. Glancing at Vi’kail, she saw he was doing the same thing right back at them.

Cocking her head, Victoria glanced back and forth between them. “Huh. I’m honestly not sure if I should be flattered or offended here,” she mused thoughtfully.

“Clear!”

Gasping, she jerked her head to the right, eyes wide and searching.

Blindly swatting at the giants, she whispered, “Did you hear that? That was English! Somebody’s in here! Holy shit, did we crash on Earth?”

Instead of feeling happiness or relief at that thought, her stomach immediately sank. Looking up at the giants, then over at Vi’kail, before finally scanning the multitude of aliens in the hold, she felt fear for them tighten her chest.

If they'd truly crashed on Earth, none of these people were going to survive.

Even if they weren’t shot on sight, they’d only live to be vivisected later. Humans and, more importantly, the military weren't known for reacting well when presented with something unknown. ‘Shoot first and ask questions later’ was a saying for a reason.

For the first time since she’d woken up in her cell, Victoria genuinely hoped they weren’t anywhere near Earth. She didn't want to go home, not if it meant all of these people were going to be brutally murdered or experimented on. Or experimented on and then murdered.

One scenario after another played out in her mind, each worse than the last until she felt physically ill. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine any circumstances in which the aliens down there had any hope for a happy ending.

“Oh shit, please, please, please, don’t let us have crashed on Earth,” she pleaded under her breath.

Strange how she’d been less scared of being experimented on by aliens than she was of them being experimented on by humans.

It was a long, tense few minutes before she heard the voice again. Victoria bit her lips, unsure if calling out would help or set the soldiers more on edge than they probably already were.

One of the other human women had no such indecision.

“HELP! Please, help us!”

Her heart felt like it stopped in her chest, and she almost whipped around to shush the woman, but running footsteps froze her mid-turn.

Glancing down at Vi’kail’s pet she quietly demanded, “Go invisible. Right now!”

Maybe she couldn’t save anybody else from the fate rapidly approaching, but she could at least spare the little critter.

Once she could no longer see it, she lifted it up to her shoulder, feeling its little claws through her t-shirt dress as it climbed on, then urged the giants back to the middle of the cage.

They must’ve picked up on her anxiety, because they tried to push her behind them. Shaking her head, she stayed where she was, standing slightly in front of them, trying to block them with her body.

Hands trembling, heart thundering, she tried to think of something to say, something calm and rational to reason with the soldiers, to reassure them that the aliens weren’t the enemy. Well, the caged aliens weren’t the enemy. The fishes were a different story.

Victoria’s jaw dropped when, instead of soldiers in uniform brandishing automatic rifles, a really pretty, but also really intimidating, woman skidded to a stop in the aisle. She was wearing some kind of form-fitting, black bodysuit that made her look like a futuristic assassin or ninja. The assortment of weapons strapped to her only reinforced that impression.

All the human women began screaming and yelling, their voices blending together into one ear-splitting sound of panic and demand.

The woman in the aisle raised her hands, her expression going from troubled to authoritative in a split second.

“Everybody calm down!” she ordered, her voice cutting through the noise like a hot knife through butter.

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