Page 113 of Owned By Two

We waited patiently as it whirred back up and locked into place.

Lizzy, unable to hold back her emotions any longer, fell into my arms.

She first hugged me and then Blor.

Tears spilled down her cheeks with relief.

She might have wept, but the time for weeping was later.

“Let’s get you home,” I said.

“I thought I was never going to get out of there!” she cried. “I don’t care what it costs! Just so long as I’m not assimilated and turned into one of those… those things!”

“It’s going to cost you a lot less than you think,” I said, hustling over to the controls and preparing for dustoff.

“Less?” Lizzy said. “But I just signed over everything!”

Blor shook his head. “You signed over nothing. The lawyer eggheads made sure the Hive won’t get your empire — only a tiny subsidiary you own that has no assets. It’s an empty shell company.”

Lizzy’s hands wrapped over her mouth. “Then… they get nothing?”

“Virtually nothing, “ I said, taking off into the atmosphere. “But we don’t know how long it will take for the Overseer to realize the trick. It could be weeks or months from now, maybe even years before it realizes—”

The computer terminals blinked and the lights flashed.

“Or… they might discover it rightnow,”I said, the blood draining from my face. “Hold on. I think it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

33

LIZZY

“Hold on.I think it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

So what was new?

My experience over the past few days had beennothing butbumpy!

First, I had entered the Seed Facility program to be impregnated by an alien male.

It had been glorious.

Then I’d been called away.

I then met Uhti and learned some hard truths about my father.

I prepared for my father’s funeral where Uhti informed me he was leaving and never coming back.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was kidnapped by a crazed alien species that wanted my consciousness… but not more than they wanted my inheritance!

You just couldn’t make this stuff up.

I knew lawyers from my father’s company would be coming to present an updated version of the contract I had yet to sign but I never imagined it would be Blor and Uhti who would turn up!

It was just about all I could do not to run into their arms and hug them both… but that was hardly the normal response at meeting your attorney.

And so I kept calm, although my heart was thumping at a thousand beats a minute, and I felt certain the all-seeing Hive would pick up on it.

Maybe they would have… if they had more experience in assimilating humans.

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