Page 11 of Made For The Alien Warrior

“I did.” She shook her head. “But that wasn’t the case for her. Symphony said she was in the hospital when a bright light swept her up. Next thing she knew, she was here.”

Clavas tilted his head. “Do we know of any enemies with that kind of power?”

“Nothing comes to mind.”

“Perhaps she was drugged when she was tortured?” Rune offered. “And this has given her false visions.”

“Neh.” Sah-ah squinted into the distance. “She was not tortured. Her arm was amputated when she was young. The doctors didn’t understand her Plutonian illness, so they cut off her arm to save her life.”

“That is a relief,” the Healer mumbled. “We do not face an enemy who would cruelly cut off human limbs.”

Indeed… but what kind of enemywerethey facing?

Tiegan glanced at the wall where the female was resting in the other room. Was her arrival a gift from the stars or a harbinger of chaos to come?

Five

Symphony

Symphony curledinto a ball on the bed, staring at her left arm. She made it bend and straighten. Bend and straighten. The new limb listened to all her commands as if it was meant to be there.

Torn between joy and confusion, she let the arm drop to the bed and stared at the rocky ceiling. Sara had left over an hour ago and all the details she’d shared about alien planets, jelly-like creatures who kidnapped humans, and crashing spaceships sounded like something out of a movie.

She couldn’t believe it was true. How could any of this be true? And yet, she couldn’t deny the evidence of an arm that hadn’t been there before and giant, blue aliens with tails and tattoos.

Restless, Symphony sat up. Sara said she should take her time moving around as the nano-technology that was fused to her body was still adjusting. But she couldn’t sit still any longer. Symphony had always done her best thinking when she could walk around.

Sliding out of the bed, she pressed her feet into the floor. It was cold to the touch. Strangely, the ground on this planet reminded her of the ground back on earth. Despite their purple tones, the caves looked like the ones she’d find on earth too.

Symphony’s curiosity began to rise. How many things were different? How many remained the same?

She slipped out of the room, her gaze on the corridors that led into ten different directions. Just as she took a step, Symphony tripped over something long, wiry and blue.

She yelped, flying off-balance as gravity—or whatever counted as this planet’s gravity—yanked her toward the ground. She shot out her right arm, preparing herself for the fall.

But it never came.

A strong, brawny arm wrapped around her waist and hoisted her up like she weighed nothing. One minute, she was about to taste alien dirt and the next, she was floating on top of the ground.

Her heart beating fast, Symphony glanced at the leathery, blue arm that embraced her. She followed the line of his arm to a thick neck, sharp chin and intense purple eyes.

The moment her eyes locked with Tiegan, she recoiled. Fear and helplessness burst out of her. An alien creature that was far, far stronger than she was, had her in his grip and there was nothing she could do.

“Where are you going, human?” Tiegan asked in a low voice.

She swallowed, frozen in terror. “I’m…”

“The Healer instructed you to rest.” He arched an eyebrow. Technically, there was no hair on the ridge, so it was more like an eyebrow nub.

Symphony forced herself to speak past her fear. Earlier, Sara assured her that the blue aliens were not going to hurt her. Even though Tiegan washugeand could snap her neck with a flick of his fingers, she had to believe that he wouldn’t. At the very least, she should stick up for herself so he knew she wasn’t to be messed around with.

Pushing out her chin in false bravado, she ordered, “Put me down.”

“If I do, will you go back to your bedding?” His voice was the deepest she’d ever heard and her body gave an involuntary shiver at the sound.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Then it is none of your concern whether your feet touch the floor.”

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