Alien Prince: (Bride of Qetesh) An Alien SciFi Romance Read Online Free Page B

we’ll breed, they’ll send us to the auction block. If not, to the brothels.”
    I started. “Fertility?”
    “Yeah, Lore,” Tel said gently, catching onto my naiveté even before I fully did. “They’ll want to see if we can produce offspring.”
    “Oh, shit,” I muttered, eyes so wide that they began to sting from the air. Of course they wouldn’t have been seeking a group of women to put to work in fields or factories. In houses, yes, but it wasn’t cooking and serving and cleaning that I’d be doing there. I swallowed hard. “What do we do?”
    Tel’s gaze darted furtively around the expanse of the room. We were five women in a room approximately thirteen or fourteen square feet. The six cages — with one left empty — were the only things in the room. There was a small console next to the door at the front, and an air vent on the back wall, and that was it. Everything was metal. Nothing gave us any indication about the Quarter Moon’s intentions.
    “We do what they want,” Tel said, “we keep a low profile. And we figure out where the escape pods are aboard this ship. Then we take any chance we can get to make a break for one. If one of us gets away, then that’s good news for all of us.”
    I nodded, and Tel began to snap her fingers to get the attention of the other women. One of them was crying and trembling in her cage, and the other two were quiet, calm, but plainly terrified.
    “Listen to me,” Tel said, “Hey!” she whisper-shouted at the crying girl, “Hey, I need you to focus for a second, ok?” The crying girl sniffled, but nodded her head. “All right. I need you to cooperate with them, ok? I need you to do what they want, until we can figure out where the escape pods are. If you find them, you run any chance you get. You get off this ship, you get to the nearest planet, and you send up your distress beacon. After that, you hide and you wait for someone to come find you. Got it?” The women nodded. “And then you have to help them find the rest of us. What are your names?”
    None of the women spoke; they all looked like petrified children, and I’m sure I was no different. Tel, on the other hand, was in total command. I swelled with pride in that desperate moment to see her shine under the weight of leadership.
    “I’ll start,” Tel went on, and pressed her fingers to her sternum. “My name is Teldara Kinesse. All right? I need you to remember each name. Teldara Kinesse. Say it.” She paused, then said again gently, “I need you to say it.”
    And we did, all of us together in a chorus of tremulous voices: “Teldara Kinesse.”
    “Good,” Tel said, and looked at me to go next.
    “I’m—” I cleared my throat. “I’m Lorelei Vauss.”
    “Lorelei Vauss,” they said, with Tel’s voice coming in strong.
    I looked at the familiar blonde Europax next to me, and she cast a series of dubious glances around the group of us. She was exquisite, with skin the color of peaches and cream, her blond hair hanging past her waist to trail its delicate tendrils on the cold metal floor. Her cheekbones were high and pointed, and her eyes glittered a limpid blue. “Tierney Mafaren,” she said, trying to make her voice sturdy, trying to make her posture sure.
    “Tierney Mafaren,” we all said. And I suddenly realized why she looked so familiar: her mother, Mireena Mafaren, was my mom and dad’s boss in the Echelon. Truth be told, I was grateful she was with us, even if I didn’t know why she was there; if someone as important as Mireena Mafaren’s daughter was missing, the entire galaxy would be looking for her.
    Next was the crying girl, red-haired and freckled. She was human and very young, not more than seventeen or eighteen years old. She was thin and reedlike, no more than five feet tall. A wisp of a girl. “Ciara Zehr,” she choked out between sobs.
    “Ciara Zehr,” we said.
    And last was the human woman who was older than I was. She had black hair and brown almond