Grabbed by Vicious

Grabbed by Vicious

Lolita Lopez

Hallie has never run so fast in her life. One of the

frightening sky warriors from the warship
Valiant
is hot

on her heels and intent on capturing her as his bride. He

takes her down, places his collar around her neck. With

one word, he claims her.

Mine
.

Born and bred for the military, Vicious has spent years

rising through the ranks. Hallie is his reward, the beautiful

sprite ensnaring him with a glance.

Despite her fear of Vicious, Hallie surrenders under his

skillful hands and mouth. If she’ll submit, he promises

pleasure and comfort. After a lifetime of hardship, his

offer tempts her greatly.

One night with Hallie and Vicious feels his protective

instincts flaring. He’ll do anything to make her happy and

keep her safe, even if that means surrendering his heart.

Though he intended to master her, Vicious realizes it may

be his sweet Hallie who masters
him
.

Inside Scoop:
Our heroine endures trials and violence

with strength equal to that of her warrior mate. (She also

witnesses F/F play, and endures a collar and light BDSM.

Fortunately she likes that part.)

A Romantica®
sci-fi erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Grabbed by Vicious

Lolita Lopez

Chapter One

She’d never run so fast in her life. Lungs burning and

ribs aching, Hallie leapt over a downed log and hit the

mossy ground running. Her heart raced as she sprinted

through the woods.

She couldn’t get caught. She had to evade the wild-

eyed, vicious-looking man hot on her tail.

Her gaze darted around the forest for natural markers.

She’d studied the grid all morning and had mentally

mapped out various routes through the woods, all of them

leading her straight to the safe zone. If she reached that

space of refuge first, she couldn’t be Grabbed, couldn’t be

claimed by one of those fearsome warriors from the sky

ships.

Panic gripped her belly at the sound of snapping twigs

and rustling brush behind her. She kicked up her pace,

bare feet pounding the ground even quicker. Though her

thighs and calves were on fire, she had to go faster. She

might collapse when she reached the safe zone but that

was better than being captured by that blue-eyed devil.

They were a strange people, these Harcos warriors.

Unlike her ancestors who had arrived in this star system

aboard a generational ship from Earth, the Harcos people

were native to this sector. They were a warrior race of

incredibly technologically advanced humans. They were

larger than the average Earth descendant and ascribed to a

rigid, militaristic society.

But they’d given Hallie’s ancestors this small planet

named Calyx. Instead of firing upon the generational ship

that had limped into their solar system, they’d rendered

aid and brought her ancestors here to this beautiful, wild

place. They’d established a sort of quarantine around the

planet and viewed those Earth pioneers as an endangered

species of sorts. No one came on to the planet, and no one

got off, for nearly four hundred years.

Until the war raging in the system spilled on to Calyx

and the insurgents came…

Hallie’s ears perked to the crunch of twigs and ground

cover under heavy boots. She gulped but kept running. The

image of the massive warrior made her belly tremble.

She’d noticed him watching her from the dais before the

Grab began. One glimpse of the white-haired man who

towered over the others had struck fear in her heart. She’d

never seen a shade of hair that pale on a man in his prime,

nor had she ever seen arms so thick and corded. The all-

black military garb didn’t do much to soften his

intimidating image. She’d noticed the insignia on the left

side of his chest. He wasn’t a mere soldier. The man was

an officer, which meant he was the most ruthless of the

ruthless, one so brutal and vicious he’d managed to

survive countless battles and proved himself more

merciless than the other men.

And he wanted
her
.

She’d known the second their gazes clashed that he was

going to chase her. Her only advantage? Her small size

and speed. All those late-night runs for the political

dissidents who called themselves Red Feather, and the

early morning training runs, had finally paid off. She’d

always known this day would arrive and had always

known her only chance to escape her village and this

backward planet was to survive the Grab, earn her rights

as a free woman and buy passage on a transport ship to the

colonies.

Of course, she hadn’t planned on it happening so soon.

She had her sister to thank for this nightmare, but those

troubling thoughts could wait. Right now, Hallie had to

focus on survival and evasion.

In the distance, she heard a squeal of excitement. She

wasn’t surprised. Most of the women chosen in the lottery

saw it as a stroke of good luck. They’d twittered excitedly

when rounded up this morning and placed in the pen

hastily constructed in the village center. The men from the

sky ships
Valiant
and
Arctis
who had earned enough

points to participate in the mating ritual had stood atop a

raised stage to survey the stock. They’d leered down into

the pen in search of the tastiest morsels. Hallie and a few

of the other women who shared her view of the barbaric

Grab ritual had kept their gazes fixed on the race grids.

She understood why some women viewed the Grab as

an exciting prospect. Life in Harper’s Well wasn’t exactly

hell, but it wasn’t an easy existence. Backbreaking labor

in the fields and the monotony of housekeeping and

childrearing seemed never-ending. The town council

enforced an agrarian, pacifist and natural lifestyle. In

exchange for protection from the horrors lurking in this

end of the galaxy, they had agreed to provide the more

superior Harcos race with food, other goods and women

for breeding.

The life expectancy for a woman in Harper’s Well was

incredibly low. It wasn’t much better in The City. Her

own mother had died at just thirty-four years of age from a

complicated labor. She’d lost the baby too. Hallie didn’t

think she’d ever forget the bloody scene or the screams of

agony wrenched from her mother’s throat as the baby

descended breech. If they’d lived in The City, or even the

outlying outer space colonies, in places where medicine

and science were encouraged and actively practiced, her

mother would have lived. Here, though, there were no

hospitals and no doctors. To even consider such a thing

was akin to heresy.

Hallie wanted to escape all that. Watching her mother

die a senseless death had shown her what lay ahead in her

future. If she wasn’t Grabbed by a Harcos warrior, she’d

end up married to a farmer and have ten children by thirty,

if labor and delivery or some other illness didn’t kill her

first. Her daughters would endure the same fate. There

were no universities. There was no freedom of choice.

But the stories she’d heard about what happened to the

women taken away to the sky ships terrified Hallie even

more than the idea of facing a bleak future here. Belonging

to one of those ruthless killing machines was too

frightening. No. She had to win this race. She had to

escape the Grab zone and reach safe territory.

A menacing laugh echoed in the wilderness. Eyes wide,

she glanced over her shoulder and spotted the blue-eyed,

white-haired man. He flashed his teeth in a grin and

sprinted toward her. Her stomach lurched. She raced

forward. “No!”

Her gaze scanned for some place to hide, some way to

escape this man’s clutches. There was nowhere to go.

Even if she climbed a tree, she was sure he’d follow—or

simply knock it over. The man was built like a bull.

Knowing her luck, he’d probably throw his shoulder

against a tree trunk and uproot it with little effort.

The fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck

stood on edge. She gritted her teeth as panic started to take

hold. Adrenaline saturated her blood stream. She had to

get away. She had to—

“Oof!”

Two burly arms wrapped around her waist and lifted

her from the ground. She screamed and kicked, refusing to

be taken quietly. Her violent thrashing knocked her captor

off balance. He started to fall forward and she flinched,

certain she was about to be smashed between his huge

body and the hard ground. Instead, he spun and bore the

brunt of their impact. They bounced twice and skidded a

few inches on the grass.

Something primal ignited in her brain. He’d gone down.

She was on top. She had to escape.

She slammed both elbows into his chest and scrambled

free from his grasp. She slipped and barely evaded his

clutching fingers.

In an instant, he was on his feet and chasing after her

again. She jumped a couple of logs and decided a zigzag

pattern was in her best interest. She just had to keep him at

bay a little longer.

The sight of the small stream up ahead filled her with

dread. It was just deep enough to slow her down if she

waded into it and tried to swim, but it wasn’t very wide.

She eyed the ancient tree she’d played in as a child. The

old knotted rope they’d all used to launch themselves into

the water still hung there.

Not bothering to slow down, she leapt onto one of the

boulders they’d used as a diving board and snatched the

rope. Her momentum carried her forward. She held tight to

the rope and prayed it would sling her close enough to the

other side. It was going to be a nasty jump but she didn’t

have a choice.

Hallie let go of the rope and flew like one of the tree

squirrels she’d laughed at as a child. She hit the opposite

bank at an odd angle. Mud squished between her bare

toes. She tumbled forward but quickly regained her

balance and started to run.

The sound of a branch snapping seized her attention.

She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the man

falling into the stream as the rope slackened. At any other

time she would have laughed her ass off at the sight, but

right now it was her only chance to get free. Falling into