Page 3 of Orri

I make up my mind and lead Alyx to the stables. I’ll stay nearby for now. Just to give Soren a progress report. He’ll want to know. It’s the professional thing to do.

And maybe by then, I can put this foolish notion out of my head.

MED-POD COFFIN

ISABELLA

Warmth. A spreading, burning warmth that envelops me from head to toe.

Itchiness. Like the scratchiest sweater everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Brightness. Blaring into my eyes, miles of white as far as the eye can see.

Those are the first three things I notice when I awaken.

I open my eyes to see the inside of one of the special med-pods they use here on Aesirheim. When I saw them for the first time at the center, they looked awfully claustrophobic. It made my skin crawl to think about being trapped in one of those things, like some kind of high-tech coffin.

I vowed at the time that I’d never go into one of those. At least, not willingly. But as my body rouses toward consciousness once more and I realize my predicament, I have to admit it’s a lot more comfortable than it looked from the outside.

I could just be really high on whatever drugs they gave me.

I wiggle my fingers first. Then my toes. All still there. All attached. Some sort of warm gel envelops my lower body, and there are faint holographic readouts on the outside of the pod. My fingers twitch and come into contact with the gel. It covers my hand and moves up my arm, feeling like a warm, wet massage. All fear, all pain soaks away in its wake, and instead of panic, I feel peace.

This isn’t so bad. It’s like taking a hot bath back at home…but with alien massage slime instead of hot water and bath beads.

My vision sharpens; the gel retracts, leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

Oh. Right.

Heat.

The novelty of the med-pod and the strange slime almost made me forget about my ‘little problem’. Almost. Suddenly I’m not so sure the wetness between my thighs is just from the warm slime anymore. My mind buzzes; my hole clenches around nothing.

Empty. So empty. And my only chance at relief gave his life to protect me.

I might be physically healed, but I’m pretty sure there’s no cure for a broken heart. Or this gods-blasted heat.

Images of the raid still flash through my mind with violent clarity. Bjornick, my assigned alpha, taking up arms to defend me and our neighbors. Bjornick, overwhelmed and outnumbered. Bjornick, as his dismembered head landed at my feet and they came for me next…

I shudder, and even the sedative properties of the slime can’t stop the searing pain in my chest.

We might have been good together, the two of us. After all, we were matched. Too bad I’ll never know. We only had one week to get to know one another, and now he’s gone. Whisked away like so much dust in the wind. I swallow the lump in my throat and float further into the drug-induced haze, wondering what could have been.

I signed up for the surrogate program as a last resort. I had an asshole of an ex-fiancé to escape from. When I realized the depth of his depravity, I knew I needed to get away. Far away.

Off-planet is about as far as you can get.

Yeah, I knew they’d pair me with an alpha and I’d have to have his child. However, if the stories I heard were true, it had to be better than taking my chances on Earth with Adik.

We didn’t have to be soulmates or even lovers, but I needed the protection that the ISA and that Aesirheim could provide. The shot that should have triggered my heat clashed with my menstrual cycle — talk about bad timing — but I figured that meant I had more time to get to know the strange new alien alpha before we went to bed together.

That little delay had almost cost me everything.

In the week we’d spent together, he proved that he was everything my ex wasn’t — kind, caring, and gentle. An utterly affectionate cinnamon roll who simply wanted to adore me and agreed that he didn’t want to rush into anything physical. He wanted to wait for my heat to kick in fully as well, so we waited for the right time to conceive our child.

After we waited, the raiders came to ruin everything.

Bile churns in my stomach and threatens to come up. I need to sit up. I need to get out of here. But I can’t move — not enough to unlatch this thing, anyway.

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