Page 17 of The Ozar Triad

Her gaze slid around the trio again, and then back to him. Her throat tightened when she tried to swallow. “I’ve never seen anyone like any of you before. Ever.”

Rujali darted his gaze to his brothers. He seemed a little… unsettled. “We are Negari.”

“Is that from a town?”

“Negari is our Homeplanet,” Setzan said.

“What species are you?” Klaej asked.

The feel-good endorphins started to disappear.Planet? Species?

“I... I’m…” Her mind was a sluggish pool of confusion. She struggled to grasp meaning, but her reasoning power slipped away as though coated with oil. Her breath came in choppy little beats.

There should be no such question about species. There was only one. Or should be, in any case. But that didn’t explain the creatures she’d seen in that busy street, or those reptilian monsters that had injured her, or the fact she’d woken up somewhere so steeped out of her realm of normal it wasn’t funny. Maybe, just maybe, this was true, and maybe, just maybe, she was quite sane and she was on some other planet, and these were in fact… aliens. Or maybe she was the alien. It all depended on perspective.

She swallowed, and when her mouth remained dry, tried again before she forced the words out. “I’m Riley Sharp and I’m from Earth.”

Her mouth felt heavy as she said the words, as though saying them made it all that more real.

The table felt real beneath her. The air felt real as she breathed it. Her body wasn’t responding as she wanted, so the numbing agent they’d given her was real. They looked solid. Their touch had been tangible. She’d had the most earth-shattering orgasm of her life.

And she was at the complete mercy of these men.Shit. Crap. Fuck.Her stomach dropped as reality set in, forming a heavy stone of dread right below her lungs.

This is real, this is real, this is real.

She was going to lose it and she was going to lose it good. No amount of high-intensity training had prepared her for this. Heat licked her skin and hot sticky sweat coated her body.

“I don’t cry either, damnit!” she screamed, but tears fell nonetheless. Again. She hadn’t cried so hard since she was a kid and some fucker on base had thought it was funny to use her dog on the firing range as practice.

She wanted to kick. To lash out. To punch. But she couldn’t do any of that, because she was a fucking quadriplegic.

“Maybe we should calm her again,” Klaej said.

“Don’t you fucking touch me!” she screamed.

Their hands retreated.

“She needs to be bathed and she needs to rest. She is too distressed,” Rujali said.

“What I need is for you to release me and then what I need is to get back home.” That was what she wanted. Home. She wanted to ride her bike on the open road and put this down to a bad dream. Avery baddream. If she could form a fist, she would drive it into his perfect face just to prove her point. “Fucking release me!”

“You’re never going home,” Setzan said.

“Don’t fucking tell me I’m never going home. I’ll go home if I want to go home,”

she screeched like a banshee, but she was beyond caring. She could hear her father in the back of her mind, telling her she should be ashamed of her outburst, to control herself. She was too emotional. She wouldn’t get anywhere in the world if she wore her emotions for all to see.

And fuck you too, Dad.

“But you’re our mate, Riley. Your place is now with us,” Klaej said.

Shock kept a fresh load of tears at bay as she blinked at him. “I’m what? What am I?”

“Our mate. Can’t you feel it? Here?” Setzan clenched his fist over his heart.

It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense since she’d seen those bright lights deep in the Nullarbor. “What I feel is pissed off. Give. Me. Back. My. Body!”

Rujali cupped her cheek. She threw him off with a flick of her head, the only part of her body she could move.

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