Captured for the Alien Bride Lottery

Amelia chimed in at that moment. “Sit down on the chair.”
The leader followed her directions, and Amelia pulled a small pair of scissors out of her bag.
Interesting choice. I wondered if she was going to try to stab him with them.
Instead, she picked up one of the lightest bed coverings and cut a notch into it. Then she used that weak point to rip a strip of fabric away from the rest of the covering. She used the long strip to tie the bounty hunter’s hands behind his back.
Pride filled my chest. My mate was resourceful, strong, smart. Calm in a crisis.
She’s perfect.
Above us, the Khanavai shuttle ship engaged the Alveron Hordeship.
In their first shot, the Khanavai ship took out the Alveron Hordeship’s control center for the drones, and suddenly, the several drones that had been circling the building we were in dropped to the ground, useless.
The Khanavai had learned the importance of taking out the drones first through hard lessons.
Once the drones were no longer a danger, I stepped entirely outside the door to watch the battle overhead. As long as the Hordeship was engaged in battle, it wouldn’t focus on us.
A few moments later, Amelia joined me, her bag slung over her shoulder and my scabbard and belt in her hand. I pointed up into the sky, where the two ships fired on each other.
“Red dude is tied up,” she reported. “Should we try to get out of here while everyone else is busy?”
Good idea. I took her hand, and we began racing around the building toward the car.
As we reached the back of the building, the Khanavai ship got in a lucky shot. The Hordeship exploded midair, raining down debris and crashing in a fiery burst over a nearby field.
Even running around the small building had all but depleted my strength. My legs shook, and my head spun.
I stood several morits from the vehicle Amelia and I had commandeered and watched as the Khanavai shuttle—the same one I had brought from Station 21—settled to the ground.
Looking for something to support me, I stumbled toward the wall of the building, finally leaning against it to keep me standing upright.
My people had found me.
Rescued.
We were finally safe.

Chapter Thirteen


Amelia
Zont suddenly slumped back against the wall as if he needed it to hold him up.
The ship, so much bigger than they looked on any of the vids I’d ever seen, touched down in the almost-empty parking lot.
Lines appeared around the hatch as it unsealed, and then it popped open. Five helmeted and armored Khanavai soldiers ran out of the ship, guns like none I’d ever seen before in their hands, shouting at the two remaining bounty hunters, who instantly dropped their weapons.
As the swords clattered on the ground, the leader of the Khanavai, another bright blue alien, pulled off his helmet and called out as he stalked toward us, his terrifying ray gun—or whatever it was—pointed directly at me.
When he called out again, it became clear to me that he was either asking me a question or giving me an order.
But without my translator, I didn’t know what he wanted.
I froze, convinced in that moment that I was about to die. Without a word to me, Zont pushed away from the wall and raced over to the blue Khanavai warrior.
Convinced he was once again putting himself in danger to save me, I broke free of the hold my terror for myself had on me, ready to rush in to try to save the pink man who had done so much to keep me from harm.
But instead of meeting in a deadly clash, the two Khanavai embraced, and then stepped back and did some weird salute thing involving thumping their chests with their fists.
My legs went weak as I heaved a sigh of relief, and this time I was the one slumping back against the wall.
As the Khanavai men were greeting each other, a woman with a riot of wild curls such a dark red they were almost burgundy and wearing a black pantsuit stepped into the doorway of the ship, took a deep, happy breath, and stepped down the gangplank leading to the ground.
She glanced around until she saw me, then waved. “Hi,” she called out. “I’m Natalie. That big blue guy over there, the one I’m guessing forgot to introduce himself, is my husband Cav Adredoni.”
I stared at her suspiciously, still half-certain she was a human cop, here to arrest me after tricking me into believing she was friendly.
She glanced over her shoulder at the ship. “And thank God we don’t have to use the transporter to get back to Station 21. That shit makes me puke every damn time.”
“Look,” Natalie said a few minutes later, after she’d used the bathroom in the hotel room where I’d nursed Zont back to health. She glanced around at the mussed sheets on the one bed in the room with raised brows before continuing. “I’m pretty sure I was sent down here to convince you that mating with a Khanavai warrior is the very best thing that could ever happen to you.”
She gave a small smile and shook her head as she leaned back against the dresser at the end of the bed, delicately pushing aside the bowl that held the dried remains of my chicken soup. “I can’t do that. I’m not going to try to convince you of anything. Overall, I think Khanavai men are probably pretty much like Earth men. Some of them are absolutely amazing. Loyal, strong, protective, kind.”
She paused. “Let’s get out of here—grab anything you want to take with you, okay?”
I nodded uncertainly but rushed around the room and gathered up everything I’d brought in with me.
When we stepped outside, Cav and Zont stood close together, their words running together as they discussed…whatever it was they were discussing in their own language.
I felt like I was in some twisted version of reality, where men spoke a language I couldn’t even understand, and this twenty-something