Page 1 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Chapter One

What am I going to do now?

That question echoed in Zoey’s head as she drove home with her final paycheck and a handful of tip money stuffed in her purse.

Now, she wished she could take back all her complaints — about the filthy, greasy kitchen, the rude customers always trying to scam free food, her touchy-feely coworker, and her drunk of a boss — just for the security of having her job back. But it was too late.

What was done was done.

Waiting tables and cooking at Bud’s Diner was shitty, backbreaking work, but it paid the bills, even if only barely, and it had been the best she could get.

“Place not good enough for you?” Bud had said. His breath had only smelled faintly of whiskey. He’d scrawled out a check and slapped it on the dirty counter. “Don’t bother coming back. You’re fired.”

I should have just kept my mouth shut and worked.

How would Joshua react when she got home and told him?

He’d been fired from his construction job a month after they rented their apartment together. It’d been a devastating blow to their income, and he’d been unable to find any replacement work in the five months since. He was trying. While she was out working, he was going through classifieds and hiring websites, and making phone calls.

Things would get better soon. Zoey had to believe that. They just needed to hold out…

They were approaching the one-year anniversary of their first date. Though things had been tight financially, they got along well and rarely argued. Maybe they weren’t as intimate as she’d have liked, but things were good between them. Sex wasn’t vital to a healthy relationship... Right?

Zoey parked at the curb in front of her building. It was early afternoon, still a couple hours before most people got off work, so — for once — she had a decent parking space.

Squeezing the steering wheel, she stared up at the chipped, faded red paint of their door up on the second floor, which only made the pine wreath she’d hung on it look withered and sad.

A rush of anxiety filled her. She didn’t want to go up there. Didn’t want to explain her failure to Josh. Her only solace was the knowledge that their bills were paid through the end of the month. One of them would find work in that time.

“He’ll understand,” she mumbled.

Turning off the car engine, Zoey leaned back against her seat, closed her eyes, and searched for inner calm. For strength.

“One day at a time,” she said, hearing her father’s voice in her mind as she spoke the words.

The past is gone, and tomorrow will come. Live for today,Zoey, he’d tell her.

A mingling of sadness and hope swept through her; she always felt that way when she thought of her dad.One day at a timehad been their saying. Whenever things got tough, whenever she’d felt overwhelmed with life, they’d chant those words together again and again.

There was no sense in worrying about a future you couldn’t control when the present was slipping by.

Those words had seen her through many rough patches over the years.

Zoey lifted her head, opened her eyes, and looked up at her apartment door.

“Just one day at a time…” She exhaled. “Let’s get this over with.”

She got out of the car, slamming the door behind her, and paused briefly at the mailbox to pick up their mail as she walked along the path to the stairs. She flipped through the small pile of letters and frowned when she discovered an envelope from their landlord. Tearing it open, she unfolded the paper and stopped dead in her tracks.

For a moment, her chest was too tight to breathe, and her surroundings blurred to leave only the cold, black text on the crisp white paper in focus.

FINAL NOTICE: You are in default in payment of rent. You must either pay the overdue amount of$2100.00or vacate the leased property within three (3) days of receiving this notice. If you fail to comply, eviction proceedings will begin immediately…

“This can’t be right,” Zoey whispered, rereading the letter twice more.

She hurried to the staircase, rushed up the concrete-slab steps, and jogged to her door. Sweat dampened her hair and trickled down her neck, back, and between her breasts.

Josh paid them! This is a mistake. Ithasto be.

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