no
longer fight them. To mate with him would be the quickest way to accomplish
that.
As he sat down again on the other
side of the cell, her expression told him she had not expected him to reject
her. A fair assumption, as no male displeases their Queen, but she was not his
Queen and she must know that. It is the duty of the male not to be poached by a
rival Queen, and he was not a weak-willed or ambitious male.
As Gron watched her settle back
against the wall, her arms wrapping around herself, a mournful expression on
her face, his tail twitched guiltily. She was alone here, just like he was. She
had been taken from her people and her home. She was probably scared. He
couldn’t blame her for reaching out, trying to make a connection. If she was a
prisoner like him, it was the clever and practical thing for a Queen to do. He
was impressed she had been prepared to do it so soon, she must be strong indeed
to do what will protect her, regardless of sentimentality for her old tribe. He
wondered whether or not she intended to abandon him if she returned to her
tribe, or integrate him, or have him killed? He would not fit in with her kind,
but perhaps he could offer them something they lack, like strength, size.
He shook himself out of that fantasy.
What was he doing, thinking of that? That was not his future. He must remain
steadfast. This situation would not improve if the Bond formed between them. If
the Queen was sad, she was clearly strong enough to endure it. He would help
her to survive this, and then they would part.
Chapter 5
Okay, so the alien didn’t want to
make friends. He hadn’t attacked her though. It could have been worse. As long
as whoever had abducted them fed them, it didn’t look like he would eat her.
Oh, Ruth had no doubts he was a meat-eater, with teeth like those, but she was
hoping he was squeamish about eating other sapient races. He wasn’t leering at
her either, which was good. She was probably the guiltier party as far as that
was concerned, having been caught off-guard by his full-frontal display.
Maybe she had it wrong, maybe he was
just an animal. A really calm, alien gorilla. That thought didn’t make her feel
any better about her situation, and she had to dismiss it anyway. He hadn’t
reacted to her like an animal would. He had facial expressions. He had replied
to her talking to him, even if she hadn’t understood. He met her eyes and
scowled in obvious reproach when she had attempted to sit next to him. He was
intelligent. He was an alien. They couldn’t communicate. This situation sucked.
She looked at her watch. At least she
still had that to keep her in touch with life on Earth. She hadn’t looked at it
before, so she couldn’t say how long had passed since she had been taken, but
it wasn’t even twelve o’clock yet. She knew she had been in that alley around
ten to nine, because she was almost at her building, which was the point of the
shortcut, and she wanted her coffee to still be hot when she got there. So, she
hadn’t even been in the cell for three hours. Her co-workers might only just be
thinking that she was anything other than late or sick. It would probably be
hours before her boss called any number other than hers. Of course, it might
also be days. They might only bother really looking for her so they could fire
her.
Ruth let her head drop against the wall.
How could it be so quiet and still in here if they were on a spaceship? She
thought under other circumstances she might be excited to be flying through
space, if that was what they were doing. Maybe they weren’t. Maybe she’d been
kidnapped by NASA and she was in Area 51 right now, thrown in with an alien as
a socialisation experiment. Maybe she was taken because she was a
non-threatening first attempt to test whether or not the beast was hostile to
humans, and she wouldn’t be missed if he was. If she had been taken by humans,
she’d really appreciate it if they’d let her know. Maybe they