Alien's Bride: Lisette (13 page)

Alien Viceroy Lysanter wants no part of these
hideous games. Their lack of females caused them to wage a brutal
war with Earth that ended horribly for both races. He knows the
humans despise his kind, and that females are particularly fearful.
When the games organizer offers him a slave named Lenora as a bride
he’s initially repulsed by the idea. Then he realizes that her
military programming has left her with an irrational fear of his
kind that causes her to take dangerous risks. Lenora has suffered
in her desperation to escape them.

Perhaps, if he can convince her to accept him,
he can give her a better life?

Lysanter becomes determined to court Lenora
throughout the games with the goal of persuading her to
forfeit.

A riveting erotic one-shot novella by the
author of Alien’s Bride!

Available now at your
favorite ebook retailer!!

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“
Lenora, that bastard’s
here,” Dugan said. “He’s asking for you.”

Lenora’s heart thundered with panic at
once. She wasn’t awake enough to fully decipher the words, only
Dugan’s fearful tone. “Bastard…?” she said with vocal cords that
were not yet fully functional.

“
Lord Elentinus!” The
portion of Dugan’s face not covered by beard reddened. “He’s come
for you, Lenora.”

Now she became fully conscious. He’d be
here to punish her for her last escape. She’d recuperated for two
months from the hypothermia and malnutrition. Now the day she’d
dreaded had finally come.

Her eyes squeezed closed with instant
tears. “Oh, God.”

“
Don’t cry, sweetheart,”
Dugan said. The other two human slave leaders, Esther and Magpie,
were standing behind him with sympathetic expressions. “Don’t give
him the satisfaction. You’ll get through it. It’ll be over before
you know it.”

Lenora didn’t argue, but the words were
hollow. Every punishment increased incrementally. Ten seconds,
twenty seconds, forty seconds, a minute and twenty seconds. She was
up to what? Almost three minutes. Three minutes of the most
mind-rending pain imaginable. She would have given up a limb if it
meant getting out of it.

Lenora looked around desperately. Could
she run? Maybe there weren’t any robots guarding the ditch. If she
sprinted up there and over the gully she could hide under the
brambles until nightfall. Then maybe—

“
Lenora Winquist,” Elentinus
said.

Her eyes opened wide enough to make her
look wild. She nudged herself to the edge of the bed. The bastard
was standing right there, right in the slave barrack, with his evil
servant beside him. Elentinus’ massive frame nearly spanned the
walkway. He wasn’t ugly, with white hair and a reasonably handsome
face, but Lenora was incapable of actually seeing him. The aura of
evil she perceived around him was too thick for her to eyes to
penetrate.

General Elentinus, she thought. His
photo was at every war briefing she’d attended years ago. It was
hard to believe the very same murderer now interacted with
them.

Fear dissolved into searing hatred as
she glared at him. The hate brought her to a familiar place. You’re
a prisoner of war, Lenora. Remember—it’s all about
survival.

“
Yes, sir,” she
said.

“
Put on your shoes and come
with me,” Elentinus said in his language.

Lenora understood him as clearly as if
he’d spoken English due to some alteration the Dak-Hiliah had done
to her brain. She forced herself to slip her bare feet into worn
sneakers. The slave leaders moved back to let her stand.

“
She’s still recovering,
Lord Elentinus,” Dugan said.

The blue-skinned alien ignored
him.

“
He’s right,” Magpie, the
eldest of the three, said. “Give her a few more weeks for God’s
sake!”

“
Shut your mouths,”
Elentinus’ servant said in English.

“
I won’t!” Dugan said. He
grabbed the back of Lenora’s tunic and pulled it taut over her
torso. “Look how skinny she is. She’s barely gained any weight
back.”

Lenora kept still while her jutting
ribs were displayed beneath the cloth. She wouldn’t let her eyes
beseech Elentinus for mercy, but she wouldn’t resist her friends’
attempts either. How about it, Elentinus, you son of a bitch? You
want me to die? One of your precious females?

“
There isn’t going to be a
public chastening today,” Elentinus said without emotion. “I’m
removing her from the colony.”

His first sentence gave her hope. His
second one destroyed it. The three slave leaders exchanged
astonished glances.

“
Removing her where?” Dugan
said.

“
That’s none of your damned
business,” Elentinus’ servant said.

Elentinus stepped forward and grasped
Lenora’s arm. “He’s correct.” He strode towards the exit with
her.

She was walked to the main road leading
out of the colony before Elentinus released her arm. Lenora rubbed
the place where his fingers had been. She kept her head down and
huddled herself in her arms. Keeping stride with the general took
some effort. Lenora felt as if ants teemed under her skin on the
side nearest to him. There was a tightness in her chest also. Part
of her felt like was back in the sewers with the other cruel man
she’d known. The sad fact that Elentinus was probably even more
evil than that man from her past made her stomach turn.

“
Are you still sick?”
Elentinus said.

Should I lie? It depended on where he
was taking her. A new slave colony would be fine, but what if he
was making her one of their brides? She bit her lower
lip.

“
No, sir.”

“
Why haven’t you gained any
weight?”

“
I’ve gained two
kilos.”

“
You needed to regain at
least ten. You were granted unlimited rations and it’s been weeks.
If you’re not sick then why are you still so thin?”

A potent wave of anguish swept over
her, making her throat ache. She swallowed a heavy lump to mask the
emotion in her voice.

“
Sir, the only thing I’ve
been sick with is dread.”

Elentinus didn’t look at her. “You fear
my punishment and yet you don’t cease the behavior that brings it
about. This time you dragged another girl along with
you.

“
I told her not to follow
me, sir. I didn’t realize she was behind me until—”

“
Vivian was innocent before
you corrupted her mind with thoughts of escape. How did it feel to
see your friend suffer the bite of the collar? Was it worth
it?”

Lenora kept her lips sealed. Leave her
alone, you vicious bastard. She’d been heartbroken when Vivian had
revealed herself in the woods. The seventeen-year-old was young and
happy. She had none of the poison Lenora carried in her heart. She
didn’t need to suffer a harsh existence in the woods. This was
Lenora’s fate alone.

She looked back at Elentinus. If I
could only kill you. New tears threatened to spill themselves. This
time they were born from the red haze of hatred tensing her middle.
She hated that Elentinus coaxed her back to the darkest period of
her existence—when she was capable of doing anything just to
survive.

Thousands of slaves lined the road to
watch Elentinus lead her out of the colony. When they reached the
fence boxy silver robots with glowing cylindrical heads blocked the
open gate to keep anyone from following. They went along an
overgrown dirt road flanked by pines on either side. Lenora scanned
the mostly obscured terrain with wide eyes. She mapped a few future
escape scenarios in her head. Then she realized they were headed
for a clearing where a transport shuttle was parked. The
gangplank-styled door lowered itself open as they
approached.

Elentinus led her aboard and then
brought her to a round molded door that slid open. He signaled his
servant to leave them. Lenora walked into the room before Elentinus
could steer her with a touch on her shoulder. The door slid closed
behind them.

The only thing in the small room was a
bed. Lenora looked around desperately for something else. Elentinus
was moving close to her. She crossed to the bed before he could
touch her.

She turned around to face him with the
back of her calves against the bedside. He had armor on his groin
but she could probably still whack hard enough to stun him. Then
she’d press her thumbs in his eyes and twist her legs in his to
knock him down. There didn’t seem to be a button for the door. If
it didn’t open automatically she’d ram it.

“
You’ve earned three minutes
of the collar,” Elentinus said, with his auburn eyes
stoic.

Her breathing became rapid.

“
What if I gave you a
choice? The collar, or allowing a Dak-Hiliah to mate with
you.”

“
Allowing you? You think I’m
going to let you rape me?”

He pulled out a small black box, which
Lenora knew was the force field collar control unit. The infernal
collar was always on her, even if she couldn’t see or feel
it.

“
The choice is submitting,”
Elentinus said. “I’ll just give you your three minute sentence if
you’re determined to resist.”

Angry tears began to streak down her
face. No matter how repulsed she was she had to pick the rape. A
collar blast that long might give her brain damage. She was limping
for months after the last one of just over a minute.

“
I hate you…so
much.”

“
I’m aware.” He put the
shock mechanism in a compartment of his shoulder armor. “So you’d
choose submission?”

Lenora let her backside drop onto the
bed. The anger had her trembling now. “You disgusting…disgusting
pig.” She took off her tunic and threw it onto the floor. A sports
bra was beneath it. She intended on taking that off with the same
gusto, but her trembling hands grew weak. It’s fine, Lenora, she
tried to convince herself, you’ve been through much
worse.

“
This is exactly what you
expected from me, isn’t it?”

Lenora eyed him. This wasn’t what she
expected because she’d heard he was in a passionate marriage with
Maritza the Traitor. But then, it didn’t surprise her
either.

“
Could you really go through
with it?”

She swallowed. Fine, play mind games
with me. Anything was preferable to getting raped or
shocked.

“
Yeah. I could.”

“
Would it be easier if it
wasn’t me? A different Dak-Hiliah.”

“
It wouldn’t make much
difference, sir. You’re all scum.”

He smiled briefly. “You can put your
shirt back on. I’m not going to touch you. It was a test to see the
extent of your mental deficiency. If you chose to be shocked then I
would know there was no hope for you. Your irrational hatred would
have run too deep. You’ve behaved how I wished.”

Lenora donned her shirt and spoke
through clenched teeth. “Thank you. Sir.”

“
I can place you in a
situation where you would never have to fear being shocked by the
collar again.”

She waited.

Elentinus closed his eyes. “I’d like to
have you married to one of our Dak-Hiliah noblemen.”

“
That’s a violation of the
surrender agreement!”

He shushed her. “Calm yourself. The
surrender agreement currently prohibits us from taking brides from
the slave colony. If a woman volunteers to be a bride, it’s not
considered taking her.” He paused and looked away from her. “I
would like for you to volunteer.”

“
I refuse.”

“
Don’t be rash.”

“
That’s not saving me from
the shock collar. You bastards are constantly shocking your wives.
If it’s not you doing it then it’s your psychotic servants. I’m
also not interested in getting raped on a daily basis, or being one
of the brood queens to help you monsters repopulate.”

Elentinus remained calm. “That’s how
you think it will be?”

“
I know that’s how it will
be. You’ve been dumping the divorced brides in the colony,
remember? They told me all about marriage to a
Dak-Hiliah.”

He tipped back his head with
enlightenment. “Ah, I see. That’s why you kept trying to
escape.”

She turned away from him derisively. “I
knew you guys were going to do a collection soon. I’m not going. I
won’t be a victim again.”

His brow rose. “Again?”

Lenora clamped her lips shut. None of
your fucking business.

Fresh horror started building in her
stomach. Is that why he brought her onto the ship? To bring her to
some evil Dak-Hiliah man?

“
The information you got
from those women is out of date. There were different circumstances
and conduct rules when they were first married. Things have
changed. You won’t be mistreated.”

She kept her voice low.
“Bullshit.”

“
That’s fine. You don’t have
to believe me. You can learn for yourself.”