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  Reddish-brown waves cascaded down her back, a rich burgundy that I ached to run my fingers through. Forest green eyes stared me down, flecked with browns and blues that left me breathless. Her cheeks were pink with exertion, highlighting high cheekbones, a small narrow nose, and beautifully kissable lips. She wasn’t overly tall, maybe five foot four inches or so, but she was slender and incredibly curvy. Full, pert breasts lifted up and down as she breathed anxiously before us. Wide curvy hips tilted to one side and I licked my lips, knowing her ass was probably an equally beautiful sight. The wind picked up for a long second and her hair rippled with it. The scent of oranges overtook me, and my breath caught in my throat. She was perfect.

  One look, and I wanted to throw her on the ground, rip her pants off, and fuck her so hard that she’d beg me to stop, only after I’d made her come countless times. I smirked, meeting her eyes. She faltered for a fraction of a second, before gathering herself.

  “Kaela Stryke, I take it,” I began.

  She stilled, and her gaze ripped to mine. Calm. Cool. Assessing, but behind it all, I saw the tiniest glimmer of fear. Good. She should be scared. I could work with that.

  “How do you know who I am?” she asked. I noticed she was fiddling with something in her hand. I narrowed my eyes, studying it, realizing it was some sort of remote. Time seemed to slow as I watched her fingertips press a single button and my eyes tore back to hers. Her eyes narrowed with challenge and I gritted my teeth.

  “Men, move!” I yelled out, but it was too late. All of a sudden, my body felt ten times heavier and it took all my strength to lift my foot off the ground by only a few inches. After another moment, the feeling multiplied, and then I couldn’t move at all, my foot slamming back to the ground with incredible force.

  It was some kind of gravity trap. I almost laughed with relief, but I contained myself just in time for her eyes to find mine.

  I schooled the features of my face. In terms of weaponry throughout the universe, this type was fairly common. As a result, we carried solutions for it. I wasn’t particularly worried about this one, now that I realized what it was. For the time being, I’d play her game, make her think she had us captured and that she was in control. I wanted to get to know her first, before I taught her that she was no longer in control and she never would be again.

  “Easy, men. Let’s talk to our conquest first. Wait for my signal,” I said, using our telepathic link.

  “She’s quite the human specimen,” Valdus said, his voice warm, surprising me. He was usually all business and thought getting to know a female was a waste of time. He never booked any woman at the alien brothels either, because it was beneath him. He was odd, to say the least, but dependable

  “I’ll say it again. How do you know who I am?” she asked, her quiet anger almost palpable.

  She stared at me, clearly enthralled by my green eyes. I watched her body language. She seemed confident, but the twitching of her fingers gave away her nervousness. It turned her on too. I could see her nipples hardening beneath her thin cotton t-shirt.

  She was aroused by our presence. I grinned.

  “I’ve heard some things about you,” I began.

  “Liar,” she replied. “You don’t know me.”

  “I do. I’ve met your sisters,” I countered.

  She stilled, her eyes narrowing with anger. Her fingers flexed and the ground beneath us began to buzz. At once, an arc of electricity buzzed through my body, a painful jolt that forced me to grit my teeth together, hard. So, the trap had additional features then.

  I fucking hated electric shocks. She was going to pay for that.

  I would look forward to punishing her, long and hard while she begged for mercy. I would give her none.

  She didn’t know it yet, but she would like it too.

  “My sisters would never tell you anything,” she countered, disbelief and worry crossing her features. The skin on the sides of her eyes crinkled slightly with anxiety, as her lips turned down in a frown. “You’re lying.”

  She pressed the button on the remote in her hands again and I braced myself for the next electric shock.

  “Hold, men,” I commanded telepathically.

  The electric jolt tore through my legs into my chest, causing my heart to hammer and my blood to race. I fisted my hands at my sides and struggled not to flinch as it grew stronger still.

  “Dammit, Tavik. That hurts,” Zane growled.

  “I know. Just a little longer. Wait for my signal,” I instructed and the three of them grunted in agreement. They were good, loyal men and I knew they would follow me to the ends of the Earth, if not the edges of space and whatever was beyond that.

  We’d experienced far worse together and Zane knew it. The only difference this time was that there was a ripe human female at fault, rather than one of our enemies. My palm twitched at the very thought of it.

  The woods around us rustled. More bodies began to circle around us and that’s when I realized the entire settlement had come to support Kaela. Both males and females surrounded us, and I stiffened. Turning my head back and forth, I realized that about ninety percent of them were female, but I didn’t allow it to distract me from Kaela. I stared back at her in challenge.

  “What do you know of my sisters?” she asked, trying to stand her ground.

  “I know you have three of them and I know where they are. All of them. Right now,” I replied, purposely goading her into action.

  I could see the struggle to stay calm playing out on her face.

  I took a deep breath and snaked my hand behind my waist, brushing against the dial that controlled the airflow underneath my boots. They worked as a hover device and would counter the effects of the gravity trap that she had us snared in. I turned on the anti-gravity function, just enough that I could take a single heavy step toward her.

  “Hold, men,” I commanded again.

  She began to look nervous.

  “I have a message for you, you’ll just have to listen to me,” I said to her.

  She set her mouth in a firm line and shook her head.

  I was the enemy and there was no getting past that with her. Not yet.

  I’d teach her that she was wrong.

  Chapter Three

  Kaela

  He shouldn’t have been able to move. The gravity traps were already on high. Any more and the traps would crush them from the pressure. I gritted my teeth. Somehow, he was able to maintain control of his body, moving toward me despite the trap.

  His green eyes stayed steady on mine, hard, intense, and total alpha male. In person, the color was similar to a rich, dark emerald and for some reason, it was entirely captivating. I’d never seen anything like it in his kind before. I wondered why he had eyes like that. A Vakarran typically had copper-colored irises, but not this one. It gave him an altogether more sinister look. His gaze whipped up and down my body and I shivered from the seductive promise of it. In a fit of betrayal, my body warmed with arousal, reacting almost violently to his perusal and it left me feeling off kilter. I tried to ignore it, but my thighs trembled softly, and I could feel the telltale signs of wetness in between my legs.

  I tried to stop myself, but I found my own gaze traveling up and down his muscled arms. I admired the way the black fabric of his shirt hugged his upper body, revealing a sculpted chest beneath. I took a deep breath and tried to shake it off.

  He was the enemy. His species had conquered Earth, destroyed my family, and left us scrambling to escape their cruel enslavement. I should want to kill every last one of them, especially this green-eyed gorgeous monster standing in front of me. He knew about my sisters, probably played a part in their capture. I doubted if they were even still alive. I wondered if he had hurt them himself.

  It was highly likely that they were being held captive somewhere and forced to bear Vakarran babies until they no longer served a purpose. Then they’d probably be killed or sold off into slavery far in the deep reaches of space.

&nbs
p; Fuck the Vakarrans. Fuck them all.

  I had people to protect and whatever information these four had wasn’t worth the risk any longer. I had to end them, and I had to do it now.

  A large group of volunteers from my camp had surrounded the group of aliens. All of them were outfitted with whatever weapons we had in our stores, anything from a gun to a knife to even pitchforks.

  “What’s your name?” I asked the bold one with green eyes.

  “Tavik, but one day, you’ll call me Master,” he murmured, his gaze darkening as he stared me down. My heart hammered in my chest and I shivered, his words igniting gooseflesh all over my skin.

  “Fat fucking chance, cocky bastard,” I growled, trying to act as though his words hadn’t affected me.

  He grinned with victory and suddenly, my blood ran cold.

  Shit. What was happening?

  He rushed forward toward me. He was fast, too fast and before I had time to react, he had grabbed my upper arm and pulled me into him, throwing the remote to the side far out of my reach. Not only that, but he held a gun to my head. Quickly, he turned me around so that my back pressed against his hard, muscled chest. I found it hard to breathe as I felt his heartbeat through my skin and the brush of his breath against my ear. He was warm, and I struggled to keep the heat in my own body at bay.

  He shouldn’t have been able to escape the gravity trap. Not as quickly as he did. I hadn’t even had the time to engage the kill switch of the trap, the sharp barbed wire grid. Now, it was too late. There was no capturing him now.

  I tried to think, scrambling to come up with another plan, but my mind went blank, captured completely by the alien man holding me tight.

  To my horror, the other three began to move too.

  Shit.

  “I like the way your curvy little ass is pressing up against my cock,” Tavik whispered into my ear and I shivered with anxious excitement. I could feel his hard length, long and thick, against my backside and my pussy clenched. I tried to fight the rising arousal in my core, but it was a losing battle. His body heat amplified my desire and I was helpless against it. What the fuck was happening to me?

  “What do you want with me?” I asked, and he chuckled softly, the sound full of what I could only identify as dark desire.

  “I’m going to give you a choice. Option number one is I tear your clothes off and fuck you in front of everyone here. Option number two, the five of us can go off for a private chat about who is actually in charge here and we let your followers run free to return to wherever they came from and then, we still take you captive. What will it be?” Tavik whispered in my ear, the sound burning my insides into molten lava.

  The other three Vakarrans lifted a laser gun from their waists, one in each hand and aimed them at my friends, at the humans who I’d fought so hard to protect.

  I wanted to cry. I’d miscalculated and made a crucial error. The trap hadn’t worked as intended and now I’d put everyone in danger because of it. This was my fault.

  I looked out at the crowd and saw Sophie. She looked terrified. Liam stood beside her and he looked pissed.

  “Option number one or two, Kaela. Decide,” Tavik whispered.

  Fucking bastard.

  My thighs trembled. I didn’t dare move with the gun to the side of my head. I held still as I felt his other hand snake around my hip, travel up my belly and over my breasts. My nipples peaked, and his palm edged even higher, until it curled around my throat. He didn’t squeeze it, just held it there, almost as a proclamation of his power and strength.

  “Don’t kill them,” I whispered.

  As soon as the words left my lips, I felt my heart begin to flutter. I couldn’t tell if it was from nervousness or fear, or even desire. My entire body was in an odd state of confusion.

  “Order them to leave,” Tavik commanded.

  I swallowed anxiously, trying to gather the words I needed to say in order to save them all.

  “If I come with you, you’ll let them go. You won’t kill them or try to find them?” I countered.

  “I don’t care about them. My mission is you and you alone. The rest of them don’t matter to me,” Tavik said.

  “Who sent you?” I pressed.

  “I’ll tell you once they’re gone,” he replied.

  “How do I know that I can trust you?” I asked.

  “You don’t. You’ll just have to accept that I’m a nice guy who doesn’t like following the rules,” Tavik said and I gritted my teeth.

  Cocky bastard.

  I sighed. I had to put the others above myself. These Vakarrans could kill me, but as long as the others remained free, it didn’t really matter.

  “I’ll do what you want. Just don’t hurt them,” I whispered.

  Lifting my eyes, I looked out to the humans surrounding us.

  “The Vakarrans have agreed to free all of you, in exchange for me. Return home. Don’t come back. Survive and continue to thrive without me. In my absence, Sophie is to take my place as leader. Give her the respect that you gave me,” I declared.

  Sophie glared at the Vakarrans and then looked at me with sympathy.

  “Run,” I whispered to her. “It’s too late for me.”

  As much as she wanted to fight and even though there were more of us than there were of them, we’d made a mistake. We’d underestimated them and now they’d taken me as a reward. I blinked back tears. Told myself to remain strong. I could handle anything, even death.

  Slowly, the humans that I’d spent the last twelve years with begin to disappear back into the forest. One after another, they edged away, giving the Vakarrans a wide berth. I heard them running away, until there were only two of them left.

  Sophie and Liam.

  Two of my biggest supporters.

  “Go. I’ll be fine. I’ll escape and return back to you,” I whispered.

  Tavik chuckled beside me.

  “If you hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you all,” Sophie called out, her bravery and courage surprising even me. She met my eyes one final time before slowly backing away, with Liam in tow. Cautiously, she watched the four Vakarrans until she was completely out of my sight. The forest was silent for a long time after that.

  When everyone was gone, Tavik dropped the gun, but didn’t take his hand off my throat. For some strange reason in that moment, it felt comforting and I didn’t have any idea as to why. He holstered his weapon, then reached for the trap remote on the ground and picked it up. He powered down the gravity trap and then proceeded to toss it to one of his men.

  “Why don’t you all introduce yourself to my little captive, men?” Tavik asked.

  One of the men stepped forward. He had remarkably enchanting copper-red eyes that narrowed with dark seduction as he gazed down at me. Something about him felt threatening and incredibly ominous. He fingered a dagger on his belt and I got the distinct feeling that he was the most dangerous of them all.

  “I’m Zane,” he said. He made me nervous, but there was also something about him that excited me.

  “I’m Valdus,” the next one said. His horns had a distinctive violet-colored vein that swirled through the brown and tan colors. He seemed cold as he appraised me. Very unapproachable and he quickly averted his eyes, like he couldn’t stand to look at me. It left me feeling unsteady.

  “Caleb,” the last one said with a soft smile. At least he seemed friendly.

  Four Vakarrans had come to seal my fate. Had come to steal me away like my sisters. And now, it was just me and them and I knew I couldn’t stand for it.

  I had to fight. It was in my blood. I wouldn’t go down without a struggle.

  I watched their body language, saw them visibly relax now that it was only the five of us. I dropped my gaze, smirking as they underestimated me. I knew they were used to obedient humans, those who submitted with simply a stern look or word, but that wasn’t me.

  I was a Stryke.

  I snaked my fingers up to the hand on my throat and quickly grabbed his for
earm. In a feat of strength, the result of much practice, I used my body to propel him over my shoulder, slamming him on the ground. Now free from his grasp, I took off into the forest. I ran because my life depended on it. I wove in and out of the trees. Behind me, I heard their footsteps crashing into the ground and I sprinted harder. I had the advantage. I knew the land.

  But I hadn’t known just how fast they were. Even as I sprinted as fast as I could, I could tell they were closing in on me from behind. Each step was closer, and I knew I was fighting a losing battle, which made me run all the harder. My heart pounded, and my breath tore in and out of my lungs, but I was no match for them.

  In a matter of minutes, they had me surrounded.

  Each one stared me down. Tavik looked furious and my core began to tingle with anxiety.

  “I need you to calm down, Kaela. If you’ll just listen to us, we’ll explain why we’ve come for you,” Caleb said, his voice still friendly, but now laden with a note of desperation.

  “She just needs to be punished first. Then we’ll force her to listen,” Tavik growled.

  “I agree. If she were my human, I’d bare that ass of hers and whip it with my belt for even trying to get away and for having the audacity to shock us with her electric weapon,” Zane added.

  “I don’t belong to anyone,” I yelled, whipping around and throwing a punch that just glanced off Zane’s cheek. His expression darkened considerably as he caught my fist easily in his hand. He didn’t look angry, instead he looked excited. I began to feel nervous.

  “Fuck, now you’ve done it,” Caleb whispered.

  “I think Kaela needs a lesson on who is in charge before we set out. What do you think, boys?” Tavik exclaimed and I shivered, hard. Fuck. What did that mean?

  I felt Tavik come up behind me. I tried to pull my fist from Zane’s grasp, but my strength was useless against his. He held me still as Tavik reached around my waist, unbuttoning my tan cargo pants and shucking them down my waist, baring my panty-clad ass to his view. I struggled all the harder, but they were so strong. It was like trying to push a cement wall out of the way. Completely useless.