Prize: A Rough Sci-Fi Romance Read online

  She could sense something was up too.

  Then the ship rattled hard, almost like we’d hit something, and some of the Aberrants stumbled in their cages. I grabbed the bars to keep myself from falling too.

  The enforcers looked scared.

  I should have been too.

  Chapter Two

  Nina

  “We’re under attack,” one of the enforcers muttered anxiously to another.

  “Do we know the vessel’s name? Or who dares to attack a ship flying under the protection of the Interstellar Trading Fleet?” another said.

  In their panic, the enforcers had started raising their voices. I don’t know if they realized we were listening, but I was hanging onto every word.

  “It’s the Black Ranger,” one of them said nervously, and Mari sucked in a breath.

  “What?” I asked, turning toward her.

  “I know that name. It’s a pirate ship that soars the stars, captained by a man of such renowned cruelty that just his name inspires fear in anyone that travels through space. If anyone catches wind of his last known location, they avoid it entirely. They change their route, no matter the cost,” she whispered.

  “What’s his name?” I asked next, feeling a ball of nervousness begin to grow in my belly.

  “He goes by Vane. No one knows his first name because no one ever survives to ask,” she replied, dread clearly apparent in her tone.

  “Fuck,” I whispered. At least a dozen more enforcers entered the cargo hold and the ship shook hard once again. Then again.

  The ship hauling us to Kryoan must be taking fire.

  “What do we do, Nina?” Vicky asked, her voice shaky. She was very timid, and she looked up to me. I gritted my teeth and pondered my answer. I wasn’t sure myself, which meant I definitely didn’t know what to tell her. The enforcers moved out in a formation through the room, evenly spaced around us Aberrants, likely in a measure to protect us.

  We were expensive cargo. They simply wanted to ensure that the government’s investment in us was repaid. If they lost us, they’d lose the extra income that they gained from our sale to the aliens on Kryoan.

  The ship dropped and I felt my stomach fall. I gripped the bars more tightly and slowly lowered myself to the floor. The others followed suit.

  “If anything happens, you fight. Got that, Vicky? Don’t let them hurt you. Don’t let them take advantage of you, no matter what,” I growled, and I could feel the women around me begin to build themselves up. I looked around, seeing the tense lines of their lips, the rigidness in their muscles as they mentally prepared themselves for what was to come, and I knew they’d be ready.

  But we weren’t. We couldn’t have been ready for what was to come.

  The ship rattled hard and I was suddenly afraid that it was going to be torn apart. The enforcers started yelling, their comm devices in their ears flickering as they relayed orders to each other. It didn’t take long for their panic to settle on the rest of us.

  They started untying the cargo and pushing it in front of the entryway. The metal door lifted up at an angle when engaged, so it appeared that they were trying to prevent anyone from coming into the cargo hold from the other side. That meant that we were in the process of being boarded or Vane and his men were already on the ship.

  Shit.

  I heard men screaming from beyond the cargo hold. I’d never heard that kind of fear before, that kind of pain. There was no doubt in my mind that I had heard the cries of a man in the throes of death. The sound stayed with me for a long time, haunting in the brutal implications of what that meant to the men outside.

  More screams. Something wet slammed into the cargo hold door on the other side and I shivered with fear. Mari, Vicky, Monica, and I moved away from the bars and huddled together at the back of the cage. The Aberrants in the other cages did the same.

  The sounds of bullets ricocheting off the walls was deafening. The screech of twisting metal and crying men got louder. Footsteps echoed on the metal gangway beyond the cargo hold and I knew it wouldn’t be long now. The screams outside grew quiet and I feared the worst.

  “Vane doesn’t leave anyone alive, does he?” Monica whimpered.

  “That’s what the stories say,” Mari answered, her tone crestfallen.

  I pressed my hand against my ankle. Some time ago, I’d lifted a small dagger from one of the enforcers who hadn’t been paying attention and gotten too close to my cage. It had been dark, and he was doing his usual patrols, so he hadn’t noticed. Everyone else had been asleep and I’d decided to keep that information to myself because it had been safest that way. These girls may look up to me, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t turn me in at the first sign of danger.

  Something scraped against the metal door. The squealing sound was so incredibly loud that I had to cover my ears. I stared at the door and in the following moments, I saw something that terrified me. There were claw marks forming on the other side. Whatever was coming for us had claws that were strong enough to mangle solid metal.

  Holy fuck. This was bad.

  I watched in abject horror as more claw marks scratched the door. I bit my lip when those claws punctured the metal and I stopped breathing as those same hands began to peel the steel apart. Whatever was outside the cargo hold was a monster. That much I was sure of.

  The enforcers inside with us abandoned their posts along the walls and instead clustered together in a haphazard fighting formation. They lifted their laser weapons and trained them on the entry door, or at least what was left of it. Jagged holes in the metal quickly transformed into bigger ones until it was large enough for someone to fit through.

  A single man pushed forward into the cargo hold. He stood up and I whimpered softly at the sight of him.

  He was huge. Maybe seven feet tall and solid fucking muscle. His biceps were huge, at least as big around as my waist, and his thighs were thick like tree trunks. Everything about him was terrifying and massive. It was obvious that he was alien, but his overall form was human-like. He had two arms. Two legs. Two eyes. His skin seemed to glow a dull golden color and was textured with what looked like soft scales. Over his left shoulder and across his chest was a fiery, burning red tattoo. It looked like glowing coals in a fire, radiating with brilliant colors of a blaze that refused to be put out.

  There seemed to be no pattern to it. It appeared to be of tribal origin maybe, but the swirls and connected lines didn’t come together in any sort of intentional design. It looked like it continued down his back but as he lifted his head and stared out at the enforcers and then us, I quickly forgot about it once his eyes connected with mine.

  For a second, time seemed to stop. His irises were pure gold and his pupils were narrow, reminding me of a reptile. There was a power behind those eyes and at once, it seemed to consume me. I should have been scared, but that wasn’t the only thing I felt. His entire focus was on me for a moment and for some insane reason, I could feel a certain sense of arousal coming to life inside of me.

  I pushed it away and looked away, breaking the eye contact between us. Now was not the time for that. Instead, I slipped my hand into my boot and pulled the dagger I’d stolen free. I flipped it in my hand and brought it up to my chest.

  “Where’d you get that?” Mari whispered, just low enough not to bring attention to the two of us.

  “I took it. Off the fat enforcer over there when he wasn’t paying attention,” I said smugly, and she snorted with amusement.

  “You’re resourceful, I’ll give you that,” she replied. I smirked in her direction, even though my body’s reaction to the tattooed alien was making me uneasy. I shouldn’t have reacted like that and I hoped no one else had noticed.

  Especially him.

  “That’s Vane. I’ve seen his wanted poster in sector five,” Monica said fearfully. Sector five was where the army was housed. I’d never been there, but she’d told us that her parents had raised her there.

  The enforcers opened fire but
the invader moved with such swiftness that every single shot missed him. Lasers shot through the destroyed metal door and bullets bounced off the walls. The alien moved so quickly that the enforcers couldn’t prepare for what came next. Vane circled around the enforcers with such speed that they didn’t have time to react.

  He took his first victim by tearing the man’s arm from his torso. The vicious sound of tearing flesh was unbelievably loud and a number of women beside me squeaked in surprise. The smell of urine became overly pungent and I realized one of the women in the cage beside us had pissed herself with fear.

  Vane tore the enforcers apart. He slashed at their bodies with his claws. He swiped at the back of their knees and tore their tendons in two, the sound of the ligaments snapping horrifying and terrible. Blood spattered everywhere and I could feel it on my skin. I could see it sprinkled across my khakis, a stark reminder of the incredible brutality that was happening right in front of my eyes. The enforcers screamed with agony and I watched as one of them tried to run while holding what was left of his arm in his hand.

  This was a level of violence that I’d never seen before. I’d seen movies of historical battles, but nothing could have prepared me for this. This wasn’t a battle. This was slaughter.

  I understood why Vane was so feared now.

  I tore my eyes away from the dying enforcers back to the door of the cargo hold. A number of other men poured in. Some looked like Vane. Others were green. Some were blue or purple. They all had one thing in common though. They all had the same tattoo that Vane did.

  The enforcers tried to run but there was nowhere for them to go. There was no exit except a quick agonizing death in the cold void of space. Vane’s crew blocked the entryway and they were spreading out to take care of anyone who wandered too close. A few of them fought with weapons, but they didn’t really need to. They were strong, astoundingly vicious, and not afraid to rip apart their enemies with a blade, or even worse, with simply their bare hands.

  Their laughter as they killed the enforcers was the most haunting. I’d never forget that sound as they tore the heads off the men without a care in the world.

  It didn’t take long for Vane and his followers to kill every last enforcer. When they finished, they didn’t move the dead bodies and mutilated limbs. They just left them on the metal floor as the blood pooled beneath them. A chilling shiver of terror raced down my spine as I rose to my feet.

  If I was going to die today, I was going to do it fighting for my life.

  Mari stood up too, only she moved just behind me. Flecks of blood stained her blonde hair, but now instead of perfect, it made her look fierce. We met each other’s eyes and nodded. Together, we’d fight.

  “Today, my comrades, I bring you a different kind of treasure. Earth routinely ships humans to a number of planets in order to sell them at top dollar, but I think we’ve allowed them to continue this uninterrupted for too long. It’s time they paid for the right to soar through space. It’s time we took what is owed,” Vane began.

  His voice was gruffer than I expected. It was low and spoke of nothing but unrestrained power, and I could feel myself reacting to him once again. I gritted my teeth and ignored how hearing him speak was making my nipples hard. I tried to disregard the fact that just the sound of his voice was making my pussy wet.

  It was the adrenaline coursing through my veins. The need to fight rather than escape. Maybe it was my body preparing itself for pain. I had no fucking idea, but I wasn’t about to dwell on the fact that this cruel, incredibly dangerous alien was turning me on.

  Abso-fucking-lutely not.

  My fingers curled tighter around the handle of the dagger. I gripped it so hard that my knuckles turned white as Vane walked around the perimeter of the cargo hold. He inspected the Aberrant men first, but he didn’t spend much time with them. He circled to the female cages and slowly made his way down the wall, taking time to very thoroughly inspect each and every woman imprisoned inside.

  He kept moving until he reached my cage.

  Until he reached me.

  Those golden eyes stared back at me and I was suddenly reminded of a snake. At any moment, he could reach out and snap. His lips curled up in a smirk as he assessed me. It almost felt like he was undressing me just with his eyes alone.

  “You’re a monster,” I growled, and his smile grew even wider.

  “A human with a fucking backbone,” he purred. “I didn’t think any existed. I’d heard Earth humans were universally meek, especially in the presence of those much more powerful.”

  “Fuck that. What are you going to do with us?” I pressed.

  “You were once the property of the Interstellar Trading Fleet, but you are no longer. Now, you belong to the Black Ranger. Some of you we plan to sell. Some of you we may keep, but you, little female, have a different fate. I’m claiming you as mine,” Vane murmured. His voice was never very loud, but it was extremely powerful all the same.

  “I’ll never be yours,” I retorted. I gritted my teeth and glared back at him. No one owned me and I most certainly wasn’t about to let him try.

  He sauntered closer to the cage, keeping an arrogant eye on me as he did so. The more he stared at me, the more he smirked.

  “Have you ever used a knife before, tiny human? Do you think you stand even the slightest chance against me when I’ve torn apart men at least twice your size right in front of you? You’re small. Weak. Your kind have no natural ways to defend yourself. The human species was meant to be subdued. The galaxies of space are an endless frontier of those that are far more powerful than you. It’s only a matter of time before humans are shown the true meaning of this. It’s only a matter of time before you learn this too,” Vane replied.

  I scoffed in his direction. I wanted to be brave. I wanted to remain strong. Monica and Vicky whimpered behind me and Mari’s small hand settled on my lower back, reminding me just how much was at stake.

  “You can’t do this,” I replied.

  “I can and I will,” he responded coldly. He narrowed those golden eyes in my direction, and I pulled in a nervous breath. “The sooner you realize that it is no longer up to you, the easier it will be.”

  “Fuck you,” I spat.

  He grinned and I had to stop myself from trembling before him in fear. I couldn’t get the smell of urine and blood out of my nose and I found myself avoiding his gaze and looking at the dead bodies of the enforcers instead.

  “Such a sassy little mouth on such a tiny little human,” he growled, his voice dropping several octaves. It sounded much darker and infinitely more dangerous than it had before. He reached for the bars of the cage and pulled backwards, tearing the metal door from its hinges in a feat of strength meant to scare me. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, high-pitched and horrendous. Only it was that much louder.

  It did make me afraid, but I didn’t let it show. I had to stay strong for the other Aberrants. I had to show them that it wasn’t over for us.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, I lurched forward and swung the dagger straight toward his throat. He was prepared for my defiance though and ducked out of reach before reaching for my wrist and clamping his fingers down around it. His hand easily dwarfed my arm and he wrenched it backwards. I cried out in pain and tried to hold onto the dagger in my fingers, but it hurt a lot. I squeezed the handle tighter, but that only made the pain even worse.

  “It’s been a long time since any woman has fought back against me. I’m going to enjoy teaching you a lesson that you’re never going to forget, little female,” he snarled, and I whimpered as the knife clattered to the floor at last. I watched with sorrow as he kicked the weapon away, ensuring that I wasn’t going to get my hands on it again. It skittered across the floor, well out of reach.

  “What do you say, boys? Are you in the mood for a show?” he said, as he wound an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his chest, effectively trapping me in his grasp while still holding my aching wrist captive.
/>   His crew roared their approval and I found myself growing very nervous.

  “You were very brave, little human, but now I’m going to show you what happens when someone defies me. I’m going to make an example of you and everyone here is going to watch as I break every last bit of rebellion from your beautiful little body. By the time I’m through with you, you’re going to wish you never opened your sassy little mouth in the first place,” he said softly in my ear, just loud enough for me to hear.

  I couldn’t think. I couldn’t speak either.

  I was truly afraid now and there was nothing I could do to hide it. Mari had retreated into the back of the cage with Vicky and Monica. Her eyes met mine and she mouthed an apology in my direction. Vane slipped his fingers across the back of my scalp and fisted them tight, pulling my head back by my hair with ruthless cruelty. I cried out, pain radiating down my spine. I tried to bring my arm backwards to elbow him in the stomach and he easily maneuvered himself to avoid it.

  “Let me go,” I snarled.

  “I had a simple plan in mind to break you, little human, but now you’ve shown me that you need to be punished,” he growled, and I cried out as he wrenched me backwards by my hair even harder than before. He released my shoulders and pulled me up by his grip at the back of my head, forcing me to stand tall on the tips of my toes. He made it difficult to balance, which made it even harder to fight back. I wavered back and forth before I found my center, tightening my core and my legs so that I didn’t plummet straight to the floor. Next, he fingered the collar of my black t-shirt with his sharp, extended claws.

  I stilled, trying to keep myself upright. I wanted to hurt him, but I also didn’t want to fall. I watched with horror as he slowly dragged a single claw down. He was going to tear it apart. I struggled a bit and almost lost my balance. His grip tightened in my hair and I cried out. I tensed and looked out at his men who were eagerly watching and waiting for what came next.