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I was rising from the darkness.
I’d been sinking before, held beneath the surface and unable to swim. But now there was a light, and the heaviness that had been weighing me down had finally vanished.
I didn’t remember what had happened to me. I wasn’t even sure I remembered my own name. I sought my mind for events preceding this moment, but there was nothing—only frustration.
I was lying on a metal surface, hard and cool beneath my body.
“Hello, Camille.”
I jerked further into wakefulness at the sound of my name. The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. It didn’t belong to Aleandro or Casey or Mike, but it was definitely a male voice I recognized. It was also a voice that struck a fresh jolt of fear through me, and I knew I needed to wake up properly. I was still surrounded in a strange fug, caught between awareness and oblivion.
Open your eyes, Camille. Focus. You’re in danger. You need to open your eyes.
My body didn’t seem to want to comply with my brain, and I was suddenly fearful that I might have experienced some serious trauma—like paralysis or brain damage.
That was enough to get my heart racing, and my limbs twitched. I was like a baby calf that had just been born—still at first, but then jolting, and jerking, and gradually becoming aware of my own body. My arms and legs were still working, which meant I wasn’t paralyzed, and I seemed to be able to think straight.
I struggled to sit, wincing at the pain in my neck and lower back, but I was moving, and that was what mattered.
I blinked open my eyes, and sudden light pierced my brain. I raised my hand to shield my vision, and pain shot through my entire body at the movement. What had happened?
An impossibly handsome face loomed over me—deep-brown eyes with flecks of gold around the pupils, a perfectly square jaw, and full, kissable lips. Only I knew that wasn’t what he looked like for real. This guise of a beautiful, perfect man was only how he appeared for human women, to lure us in and use us to spawn their next generation. I’d seen their true form—like demons from another planet.
Oh God. I was on the Trad ship.
“Dean,” I managed to groan. “I hoped I’d seen the last of you.”
I sat up straighter, taking a moment to check out my surroundings. I was in a hexagonal room, like being inside a giant honeycomb, only all the panels were white and silver. A glowing blue light ran in lines between each of the panels, threading them all together. At the far end, a massive window, also hexagonal, looked onto the vast void of space. Right in the lower part of the window was the distant curve of a blue-and-green planet, a white light emanating from its surface. Earth. So, I was definitely on a spaceship—a Trad spaceship—and we were somewhere above Earth. I took a little solace at the fact. We weren’t on our way to Tradrych just yet. I remembered the possible reason why. Didn’t women first have to be impregnated before they were able to be moved to Tradrych? Even though I’d been unconscious, I didn’t think anyone had laid a finger on me, and I was still fully dressed. There was no way I’d been implanted with a Trad fetus. Not yet, anyway.
“I have to admit I was surprised to see you, too,” he replied, his eyes narrowing.
I shifted position and winced as pain shot up through the back of my head. I must have given my head a nasty knock, but considering what the others had probably suffered, I figured I could hardly complain.
“What happened to the ship I was on?” My voice was low and gravelly, as though I’d been asleep for a while. How much time had passed since I’d been taken? I had no idea. Was this even the same Trad ship we’d been attacking? If it was, our attack clearly hadn’t worked. The ship didn’t look as though it had been harmed in any way.
Was everyone else okay? I tried to recall what had happened, but my memories were muddled. There had been shooting from both sides, I remembered that much. Then we’d lost the force field, and there had been an explosion. The next thing I knew, I’d woken up here.
“It went down, but that’s all I know.”
I stared at him, blinking back tears, a painful lump in my throat. “It went down?” Did that mean the others were dead? My thoughts went to Captain Bruner, the co-captain, Gil, the woman, Trish Johns, and Nigel Applegate. They’d all had families. People who would miss them. A surge of anger at the Trads rose inside me.
“If the ship went down, how did I end up here?”
“We detected a human female of fertile age on the ship. We’d never risk the life of someone so important. Since the force field was down, we were able to beam you out of there.”
That was me he was talking about. Important? Did they really think we were important? No, their way of considering us important had nothing to do with our brains or who we were as people, or our positions in society. The only thing that was important about a human woman in the Trads’ minds was her womb.
“You took me and left the others?”
No emotion registered on his handsome face. “Yes. We had no use for them.”
“Of course you don’t, you fucking bastards,” I muttered, half to myself. “What about the other ships? Did they go down, too?” Unbelievable pain pierced my heart at the idea of the entire fleet being destroyed, and tears pricked my eyes. Surely we couldn’t have lost them all? I desperately needed to know if the ships containing the guys had gone down, and the one containing Irus and Leif.
“No, not all of them. They retreated when they saw there was no chance of winning.”
There was still hope the others might be alive. I needed to cling to that hope. If I didn’t have that, what would be the point in anything?
You’d still have Molly and Elodie, I reminded myself. Life without the guys was unthinkable, and I knew I’d never get over it, but I needed to keep fighting, if only for the future of my sister and the little girl I’d left on Earth.
Yes, I did. I wouldn’t just give in to these bastards. I’d make things hard for them every step of the way.
I was still sitting on the floor, unsure if my legs were strong enough to hold me, and not wanting to fall down in front of him, but I straightened my back and lifted my chin defiantly. “What do you want with me?”
Dean regarded me with a slow smile curling one corner of his lips. “I think you already know that.”
My blood ran cold, chilling me right down to the bone. “You’re going to rape me?”
“No. Whatever you might think of us, Trads don’t rape. None of the women we’ve had sex with have been forced into it. They’ve all given themselves to us more than willingly.”
I barked laughter at that. “They were tricked. You use pheromones and a disguise to make the women think they’re falling for you. Do you actually think they would have sex with any of you if they knew what you were and what the repercussions of that act would be?”
His beautiful eyes narrowed. “Don’t humans do exactly the same? They dress up to attract a mate, the females wear makeup, and both sexes wear different scents. They make themselves out to be loving and caring, when often they end up acting cruelly to each other. Many lie about the resources they have, making out like they can provide for each other when they can’t. How is that any different?”
My mouth dropped open at his comments. Did the Trads truly believe that?
“You’ve brought me here fully against my will,” I snapped. “No part of me consented to this.”
He pointed at me. “You’re different. You were attacking our ship.”
“You wanted us to attack you. Why else would you reveal your ships?”
“The Athions needed to be reminded who is the stronger race. They shouldn’t interfere in Tradrych business.”
Ah, so we’d been right when we’d assumed the reason for the sudden appearance of the Trad ships. It had been a warning. Or a threat. And it looked like it had worked. We’d failed to bring down the ship, even with the help of the Custos, and I figured the same was true right across the country and even the world where the Trad ships had appeared. A terrible realization settled into my soul. We were never going to be rid of the Trads. This was it for humanity now. Earth was destined to be a breeding planet for the Trads, the female population for generations to come would be allowed to grow into fertile young women, and then they would be harvested by the Trads to be used as incubators to produce Trad babies. The Trads would be forced to leave enough women on Earth to allow our own population to continue, but we’d be no more than breeding stock for them.
The Trads owned us, and there was nothing we could do about it. Even help from the Athions hadn’t been enough to save us.
I clenched my fists in my lap, filled with cold anger and hatred for Dean and all the other Trads who’d decided to destroy us. There would be no safe passage to Athion, if the Trads could help it, no different future for girls like Elodie. This was it for us now.
My thoughts went to Tara. “Do you keep them here?”
He frowned at my sudden change of topic. “Who?”
“The other women you’ve taken. My friend, Tara, was kidnapped from the Observatory a few weeks ago.”
Did I dare hope she might be on this same ship? My heart lifted at the possibility of seeing her again, despite my own circumstances. Even with everything that had been going on, my best friend had never been far from my thoughts. I hated that I’d never had the chance to say goodbye to her, and that I had no idea what her life was like now. Though I believed she was still alive, her loss had felt like a bereavement to me. I had no way of contacting her—couldn’t pick up the phone for a chat to see how she was. Whenever something happened, or I just wanted a gossip or a giggle about how things had ended up with the men, my first instinct was to call her, but of course, that was impossible.
But Dean frowned. “This isn’t a transporter ship, Camille. We don’t keep the human females here.”
My heart sank. It had been a stupid thing to wish for anyway. Weeks had passed since Tara had been abducted. She’d have been transported to Tradrych a long time ago. Was she aware of her pregnancy yet? Was her stomach swollen? Could she feel the Tradrych baby moving inside her? I’d always assumed that when one or the other of us started a family, we’d be at each other’s side, sharing the excitement of our bodies changing, and shopping together for cute baby clothes.
Instead, Tara was a prisoner, and now, it seemed, so was I.
“I’ll never let you seduce me,” I insisted.
I didn’t care what happened, I’d keep my legs firmly shut.
He moved even closer. The material of his gray shirt was like a second skin, molding to every muscle. The way he loomed over me gave me a perfect view of his squared pectorals and his rounded biceps, and I experienced that familiar little flutter of arousal at his proximity. “I’ll keep you with me until you’ve changed your mind.”
“That’s never going to happen,” I spat back through gritted teeth.
I hated that he still affected me, even though I knew exactly what he was doing. Releasing his pheromones, making me heady. My body tingled with arousal, and my core tightened. I remembered what had happened when I’d touched him back at the government facility, how, at the moment of climax, his body had changed. His cock had elongated in my hand, growing thicker than my wrist. My pussy throbbed at the idea of that length pushing inside me.
To distract myself from my thoughts, I forced myself to change the topic. I took in my surroundings. I hadn’t seen any other Trads so far, and I couldn’t see any kind of control mechanisms for the ship here. I didn’t know what this part of the ship was used for, but I didn’t think I could cause much trouble in here.
“Shouldn’t you tie me up or something?” I said, trying to act brave.
“Why? There’s nowhere you can go. It’s not as though you can just open a door and escape. You’ll die if you try.”
You’ll die if you try. His words rang in my ears. Would dying be better than becoming a breeder for him and whichever Trads decided to use me after him? Once more, my thoughts went to Tara. If I had to give her advice about what to do, would I suggest that she die rather than continue to live as a breeder for the Trads? No, I wouldn’t. I would tell her to keep fighting and never give up, and I had to apply that same principal to myself. If I gave in to Dean and allowed him to do what he wanted, would I be taken to the same place as Tara? Would there be a chance I’d see her again?
That didn’t heal my heartbreak at the possibility the others were dead, however.
“I’m never going to give you what you want.”
He stepped closer, and I reared back. The scent of him wafted over me, and my nipples tightened beneath my shirt, a low thud of desire condensing at my core. I despised how he had this control over my body. I completely understood why the Trads had managed to take so many human women. Even the ones who were married or in committed relationships still fell for their charms and acted differently to how they’d ever considered before. The chemicals the Trads bodies gave off was like a drug, and it muddled the way women were able to think. Or perhaps it just took us down to our basest level—spoke to that primordial female that was still locked inside our DNA, the one that had existed long before social norms had forced us to act in a certain way. The way we were expected now to form relationships and think about our futures, and go through the traditions of marriage, all because of sex. But, once upon a time, things wouldn’t have been that way. We’d have come on heat, just like a mammal, and have taken a mate who would have spoken to our basest of instincts—not through conversation or a display of money or belongings, but simply because our bodies’ chemicals would have spoken to one another.
How would it feel for his cock to push inside me and for it to change the way it had back at the government facility? Would I feel the sensation of those eggs pulsating their way up to my womb? Did the way the tip of his cock splayed open upon their release do something to the woman’s orgasm? Make it more powerful, perhaps, to ensure the eggs reached their destination and implanted properly?
For one sick, twisted moment, there was a part of me that wanted to find out.
I let out a growl of frustration, twisting my body away from him and turning my face. How could I stop these thoughts from entering my head?
Behind me, Dean gave a chuckle, as though he’d known exactly what images had filtered into my psyche.
I strengthened my resolve. I wouldn’t give in to Dean, no matter what. I could be driven crazy with desire and end up rolling around, desperate for release, and I still wouldn’t give in to him.
“I have to leave you for the moment,” he said, “though I would much rather be spending time with you. Unfortunately, the Athion rocket ships did cause some damage to our outer shell, and it needs repairing before we can move again. But I will be back for you, Camille, and don’t worry, I’m willing to be patient. It doesn’t matter how much time it takes, but you will be mine eventually.”
And he turned and walked to the door of the strange, hexagonal room I’d woken up in, placing his hand against a panel. The panel lit blue beneath his palm, and the door slid open with a whoosh. He stepped through it, and the door immediately closed again, sliding back into place to join the rest of the panels, each of which met with the other seamlessly. If I hadn’t known that particular panel opened as a door, I’d have never even known it was there.
With Dean gone, I staggered to my feet and stumbled over to the same place he’d exited from. I slammed my hand against the panel beside the hidden door. “Come on, come on, come on.”
The light didn’t appear. Everything remained as it had. I hadn’t really expected the door to open. Dean would never just allow me free rein to wander around the ship, would he?
With a sob, my hand pressed to my mouth, I turned with my back to the panel and slid down it until my ass hit the floor. Tears filled my eyes, and one escaped and ran a track over my cheek.
No, I couldn’t give into self-pity. I was stronger than that. I forced myself to get my head together and think clearly.
I wasn’t tied up in here. That was going to be the Trads’ first mistake.
They didn’t see me as any kind of a threat—I was just a walking, talking, incubating machine to them.
But I’d show them. I’d bring down this ship and all the Trads inside it, even if it meant taking myself down with it.