Page 29 of Bad Beehavior

I’m not usually an emotional person, but I find tears racing down my cheeks. I sit in the middle of the room and hug my knees, my chest heaving as I sob.

I’ve never been alone with my thoughts for so long. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but after what feels like a lifetime, a section of the wall slides open, and a bee man walks in.

I stay in my crouched position on the floor but peek out from my knees, terror running through my veins.

The bee man walks closer to me. I think he’s the same one with the mohawk and the scar across his face that showed up in my apartment. “Stand up,” he orders. He’s speaking English. It didn’t seem like any of them knew it when they captured me, but I guess they learned quickly like Bee could.

I hesitate but slowly rise to my feet when I catch the unmovable expression on his face.

He walks around me, examining me, and I try to steady my breath.

This guy is totally different from Bee. He doesn’t look at me with softness in his eyes, and my body doesn’t hum with the need to be near him. More than anything, I wish that I could see him again to confirm if the Bee I knew was real or not.

“You’re defective,” he says, still circling me.

“What?”

“You cannot carry offspring? Why is that?”

“I’m on the pill.”

“The pill?”

“It’s medicine I take every day to prevent me from getting pregnant until I’m ready. Once I stop taking it, I’m pretty sure I can get pregnant.” I shouldn’t be defending my fertility right now, but words spill from my lips without my brain even registering if they’ll save my ass or not.

He stops in front of me, finally looking me in the eye. “Do all females on your planet take this pill?”

“No, a lot of us do, but not all of us.” I don’t know why I’m telling him all of this. I should be the one asking questions, but this guy is terrifying. I don’t want to give him any more reasons to hurt me.

“Good.” He paces around me again. “I just can’t seem to understand why Baryx would abandon his mission—his entire life’s work, the hope of our planet, to waste time with you.”

So Bee’s in trouble. Maybe everything over the past few days hasn’t been a lie. I know this douche’s words should offend me, but I’m so elated that I don’t even care. My joy is short-lived as fear for Bee takes its place. I hope he’s okay. I wonder what the consequences are for abandoning a mission.

“Do all of your kind have this effect on males?”

“Effect?”

“Yes, does your kind make males so delirious to abandon everything important? You don’t have this effect on me. Is it something you can turn off and on?”

I laugh and immediately cover my mouth once he stops before me, anger behind his eyes.

“I mean, some guys would say so, but no. We don’t have a magic button to make men fall to our whims.”

He shrugs and walks toward where he appeared from. “No matter,” he says without turning back to me. “We’ll just wait until you’re fertile and pollinate you here. We don’t want to have wasted all this time for nothing.” The wall opens and he looks back at me before exiting. “This time, it’ll be by someone who can handle the mission.”

“No!” I yell, charging toward him, but it’s too late. He’s gone, and the wall is back. I bang against it. “Where’s Bee! I want to see Bee! You can’t just impregnate me against my will! Let me out of here, you fuckface!”

I continue spewing profanities and banging my fists against the wall until my vocal cords strain and my hands are numb. I collapse to the floor. Why did I tell him that I could get pregnant if I stopped taking the pill? I’m such an idiot! Maybe there was a part of me that wanted to defend my fertility for some sick patriarchal reason. There’s no point in contemplating, though.It’s too late. I’m stuck in an alien prison with an impending impregnation date. I might feel a tad bit better if I knew it’d be Bee, but now I just have to carry some evil alien baby in my womb.

I lie on the floor in the fetal position, crying all the tears left in my body.

Chapter 20: Baryx

“Where is she? You can’t keep me in here forever!” I yell at the blank, white walls.

My crew and everyone around me have always treated me with respect, but ever since Captain Barban, Bialar, and Bailiff barged into Jennessa’s lavatory, I’ve been treated like a criminal.

Once I saw Jennessa lying unconscious on her floor, the three weren’t the colleagues I’d known my whole life. They were enemies that hurt my mate and needed to be destroyed. I onlysaw red as the three tried to question me and explain why they were in Jennessa’s home. I tried to attack them, punching Bialar in the jaw, but Bailiff was quick with his syringe and knocked me out before I could do any real damage.

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