Page 1 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
Chapter 1
Katie pushed at the sludge on her tray in disgust. Even with all the horrors that all the captive humans were suffering, the crap that the aliens were feeding them had to be considered abuse all on its own. The fact that she was isolated from the other women held captive at Ti’ni’dal Lab just made it all that much worse. They fed her some line of crap that it was for her “recovery”—and for the first several days she’d been grateful for the peace that the recovery center just off medical afforded her—but the perpetual silence for long stretches was going to her.
The only company she had was Dr. Xixon. There was the occasional appearance of a nurse checking in on her, or a guard delivering her meals, but Dr. Xixon was worse than even the guards. The way he watched her made her skin crawl. Even with her attention focused on her meal, she could feel him watching, and the acrid smell of sexual excitement that poured off him whenever he was near here—no different from the male who hunted her—made her want to vomit.
“Test Subject Twelve.”
She ignored him. She knew what he expected, what everyone at the lab wanted, and she wasn’t going to make it easy for them. She had dealt with assault from a Budo male, and then again from one of the Agraak during their so-called Hunt. While fate had previously saved her from being forced to play broodmare for the aliens, it seemed that it also had a sense of humor, because now she was being thrown in again for round two and it made her want to scream... and throw up.
“This will not work,” Dr. Xixon said pointedly as he walked around the table to stand over her. “I have told you—as I have told all the females who have entered my lab—just accept the lot that you were given and life will be easier for you. The Hunt maybe unpleasant from your perspective, but there are many males who are looking for a mate—who will take you home and care for you. You will be afforded anything you desire, and every comfort imaginable, and all you must is produce his heirs.”
She refused to respond, focusing solely on stirring the food on her plate into an unrecognizable mush on her plate. It wasn’t like she could identify half of what she ate anyway.
The doctor sighed and shifted closer to her. “You should be pleased, Test Subject Twelve. You will not be subjected to anyone unfamiliar to you this time since my license to Hunt has finally been approved. I will be as gentle as possible. Just do not fight me.” He considered her for a moment, taking in her silence. A look of annoyance fleetingly crossed his face before his mask descended once again, and he smiled. “I said before that we can practice so that you can accustom yourself to the feeling of cock inside of you and allow it to bring you pleasure. I can rut you gently here in the privacy of the lab so that your body accepts me more easily during the Hunt. This is not a luxury offered to any of the others.”
Katie felt sick as she tried to force the image of the doctor’s green Agraak cock from her head. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat and shook her head.
“So stubborn, and too short-sighted to understand what is good for you. Very well. I shall slake my needs with the pleasure droid.”
Her jaw tightened, revulsion sweeping through her anew. “When will I be able to rejoin the others?”
“Now you deign to speak?” He chuckled humorlessly and drew away. “Soon. We had to delay the Hunt because of an incident on the grounds. We lost a female from HS08. She thought to escape and froze to death out on the ice flats. Predators hauled off her body, but the team of guards sent after her were able where her trail ended.”
A heaviness filled her. None of the hundred women who had arrived at the labs were close, but their treatment at the hands of the Agraak—even when housed at night in separate sectors of their prison—had created a sort of undeniable bond, and she couldn’t help feeling grief over the news.
“Who was it?” she whispered.
“Does it matter? She was a foolish human. Foolishness seems to be an epidemic among her species. You can only benefit from being under Agraak leadership.”
Her gaze lifted from the slop in front of her and narrowed on him. “You call what you are doing here leadership? You are experimenting on our species... and impregnating us.”
Dr. Xixon shook his head as ifshewere the one being unreasonable. “For the mutual benefit of both our species. Once we know the extent to which the human genome can be manipulated, the more compatible we can make our species and the more beneficial our relationship can be. The males can be turned into useful warriors, and your females into highly fertile breeders beyond what you are already capable of. You are providing a valuable gift to our people in exchange for the benefits that we will bring to your race.”
She laughed bitterly, her eyes dropping back to her food. “So you say.”
Another sigh.
“How disappointing, Twelve. I expected more from a female of your intelligence.” The doctor stepped back and turned to head back toward the door. He paused there, just in front of it, and glanced back at her over his shoulder. “Do yourself a favor and cease this willfulness. Do not allow yourself to end up like Test Subject Ninety-eight.”
Ninety-three? She searched her memory as Dr. Xixon stepped out of the recovery unit, the door sliding shut behind him.
Sara. The loudmouth who frequently caused trouble for everyone and was always complaining about the heat? Dead? It didn’t seem possible that she would go out that way. Then again, she didn’t think Sara was crazy enough to chance fate out there, on a world covered with ice and snow. But maybe she had the right of it. Maybe it was better to die out there, slowly falling to sleep in the cold, than suffer under the hands of the Agraak. Somehow, she didn’t imagine that she would get as lucky.
Katie’s eyes dropped to her plate and again as she once again began to stir tiny circles into the slop, her mind drifting far away from the hellhole she was currently in to better places. Whatever the Agraak did to her body, at least they couldn’t control that.
Chapter 2
Leaning against a tree at the edge of the gathering, Kull crossed his arms across his chest as he listened to the conversation between Vidok, the clan’s warrior-priest, and Borax, their chief. The subject appeared to be the small female kept closely to him. Interesting.
Though there was the occasional off-worlder who settled to make their home on Dorok and mate within the tribes, he had never seen such a small and vulnerable female before. He immediately felt a great wave of pity for Vidok. Survival was hard enough on their world even for the strongest. He did not see how such a fragile mate would possibly survive. Kull did not envy him that. Not after losing his own mate and unborn offspring so many revolutions ago. Some wounds had never completely healed. Now it seemed that the gods were setting Vidok up to learn this lesson next.
What was worse, the conversation—and the female, despite the growing hostility of her mate—was drawing far too much interest among the unmated males. New of unmated females in need of rescue was stirring up protective instincts as well as a great longing within them for the chance to find their ulukska. Torok rushing forward to inquire over the females was just encouraging the others. They gathered closer still as Borax relayed what Scout Nadaz discovered on the ice flows—the great metal den—and the screams he heard as he scouted around the structure. His description, paired with that from the female, was getting all the males worked up. Even his tail twitched, lashing with agitation as the thoughts as the others growled over the insult that was being paid Udula.
Fools, every one of them. The insult to Udula aside, they should not be the ones to handle it, not when nearly every malepresent seemed to be awaiting the chance to test ulukskinon. They should simply just get in touch with their off-world contact and have them inform the intergalactic council. Let them handle matters without subjecting the females to the harshness of their planet, or their males to broken hearts.
“We will we be permitted to test ulukskinon,” someone within the crowd inquired, confirming his suspicions.
Kull groaned privately to himself and muttered a curse when Borax cautiously agreed moments later, and his words were met with growls of approval from the assembled males. Excitement rose among the males as they shouted in favor of it, every one of them eager to attack the alien den. None of this was bound to end well.
