Torq's Acceptance (Chaetdorian Mates Book 2) (3 page)

Chapter 5

Alice wasn’t sure how long they had been cooped up in this place, but she was positive that it was well over a day.

No one had come in. No one had spoken to them over the speakers Jessie insisted would be hidden somewhere in the walls – along with cameras and microphones to watch and hear their every word. There had been food, though.

Every few hours a panel would open up in the wall and food would be delivered. They’d all refused to eat it, at first, wondering if it had been poisoned or something, but when the lack of sustenance had become too much for her already malnourished body, the lot of them had decided it was worth the risk.

There was also a toilet. Thank God. When Katie had loudly protested about having a full bladder and that she would relieve herself in the corner if she had to, a panel had opened in the wall to reveal a small bathroom of sorts. So it seemed that Jessie had been right about the microphones, at least.

“Did you hear that?” Hannah whispered just as they finished another tray of barely edible food. Whatever these things ate, it sure wasn’t tasty.

“Hear what?” Katie asked.

“Footsteps. I think someone’s coming.”

Alice didn’t hear a thing. Though, to be honest, she wasn’t feeling all that great. While they had been given food, there wasn’t much of it. At first, the girls had insisted she have a larger portion than them, but she had refused. Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea.

Silence descended over the group as they all strained their ears to hear what Hannah had.

And there is was, the soft sound of footsteps approaching. Hannah was right.

Not a moment later, a section of the wall sort of melted away, leaving a door in its wake. Another of those large men appeared, but this one had pale black tattoo-like markings and his eyes were human looking, not like the one from her dreams whose eyes were like looking into a million burning suns.

“What do you want with us?” Katie demanded. “What have you done to our friend?”

Without one word he stepped to the side, revealing a smiling, strangely happy Nora. Hannah instantly grabbed her, dragging her through the door and the questions began.

“Where are we?”

“What do they want from us?”

They were all important questions, but there was one question Alice thought was more pressing. “Where have you been?”

“I'm fine, guys. Really. How much do you remember?”

“Eric going psycho and that big tattooed hunk killing the fucker,” Katie answered bluntly. She was never one to hold back her punches.

“Well, we all kind of got abducted.”

“What?” the girls shouted. It was pretty obvious that that was the case, but having Nora confirm it just made it all the more real. Also, if they had been abducted, did that mean they were no longer on Earth?

“It’s okay, though. It’s a good thing.”

“How could this be a good thing? They’re going to probe us, experiment on us and God knows what else,” Jessie said in a panic. At her friend’s words, Alice noticed Nora’s lips twitch. She really wasn’t afraid.

What had happened in the past however many hours to make Nora so happy? Because she was, happy, more so than Alice could ever remember seeing her.

“Maybe it is a good thing,” she said quietly.

“You can’t be serious?” Hannah gasped in shock. Judging by their face, all her friends were shocked by her words.

“What do any of us really have to keep us here? Nothing, that’s what. Each of us have lost our families, our loved ones. All we have left is each other. None of us are actually doing anything with our lives that we want to. Dead end jobs and abusive, useless men. That’s what we have here. Maybe going with these…”

“Chaetdorians,” Nora filled in.

“Right. Maybe by going with them, we’ll find our place in the universe. Maybe even meet someone… nice.”  Like a certain red tattooed hunk she desperately wanted to lay eyes on again. She needed just one more glance to confirm that he was, in fact, real, that she hadn’t dreamt him up in her less than sober state.

“So where have you been?” Katie asked with a smirk, taking the focus off Alice, which she was immensely grateful for.

“Well…” Nora began, only to be cut off when a loud bang sounded from behind the door.

Jessie jumped to her feet. “What was that?”

“I don’t know, but I'm going to find out,” Hannah stated, striding to the panel by the door that had only just appeared with Nora’s entrance. “How do I open this?”

“I don’t know. Corr just seems to tap some kind of short code and he’s through.”

“Corr?” Katie quizzed with a smile.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to wing it.” Hannah then proceeded to tap away at the panel, all the while loud noises continued to come from behind the door.

The others may not understand what those noises were, but Alice was positive she had an idea.

The sense of danger was growing. Her spine tingled and the hair at the back of her neck rose. “I don’t think that such a great idea,” she cried as the loudest bang yet came from the other side, followed by a roar of rage.

Alice’s mind began to flash back to the past but she pushed the images away before they could take her over. They needed to get away from the door, now.

Rushing forward, she grabbed both Jessie and Hannah by the arms and dragged them away from the door. But while she had time to save her friends, she had only put herself in their place.

The door melted away before her and the hulking figure of a very large and hostile male appeared, his gaze locked on her.

Were those fangs descending from his mouth?

“So fresh,” he whispered, reaching out towards her. “Just perfect for me.”

As he got closer, the images she had been able to push back just a few moments ago fought their way to the forefront of her mind.

Hands grasping. Flesh hitting. Blood spilling. Bones breaking.

It was going to happen again.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Nora dived forwards, hitting the male square in the chest, pushing him back a step. Turning, she pushed Alice back towards her other friends as large arms gripped her and dragged her from the room.

With her out of harm’s way, the others dived into action, determined to save Nora.

“Hey!”

“Let her the fuck go!”

As one, they raced forwards, handbags in hand. There was nothing more dangerous than Katie and her designer handbag. But all Alice could see was Frank’s evil grin and he broke her body again and again.

Chapter 6

What happened?” Torq demanded as he stepped out of the transporter and was met with chaos.

“It appears that Sekon is not the only brother showing signs of the madness,” Teks informed him.

One of the main symptoms of the madness was that it made the Chaetdorian obsessed with finding their mate. So much so that anyone would do. They saw no right or wrong in taking a female by force.

“Dekon, who I have now found out was the one to remove Corr’s mate from the holding bay, entered and made to grab one of the females. Luckily for her, Corr’s mate intercepted and the rest of her companions attacked him their handbags. They are a feisty bunch,” Teks chuckled.

The image Teks painted normally would have entertained Torq also, but instead, dread filled him. “Which female?” he growled. He clenched his fists in an attempt to ground himself.

None of the humans were around now, having already been escorted back into the holding bay by Corr and his mate, so he had no way of telling if his mate was okay.

Was it her? Had it been his mate that had been attacked?

“Why the interest, Torq?”

He didn’t want to answer, didn’t want to admit that he had found his mate, achieved a dream all Chaetdorians had… and he didn’t want it.

“Torq?”

“No interest, just wondered.”

“I don’t believe you,” Corr stated, exiting the holding bay, a frown pulling at his brow. Torq caught a quick glimpse of his mate’s pale face before the door materialized, blocking his view once again. It didn’t matter what Corr thought, he wasn’t going to say a thing.

“If you ask me,” he continued, “I’d say you were attracted to one of them. That one of them called to you. Am I right?”

Choosing to ignore the Warrior, Torq drew his focus back to Teks and asked, “Have you decided what will become of them?” Was his mate going to be left back on Earth? Or would his self-torment continue with her presence on their voyage?

“They are going to be given a choice. They can all leave if that is what they decide, but there will be protocols put in place to make sure that should they speak of us to anyone, they will be diagnosed insane and treated as such.”

Meaning that they would be locked away in one those horrible human facilities for the rest of their short lives and drugged. That was not the future Torq wanted for his mate.

“But, if just one of them chooses to stay, then they will all stay. Our departure has been delayed enough as it is. If I have to have Hex hack into the humans medical records to change information for just one of them, it is one too many. It’s all or none.”

“And if they don’t want that?”

“Tuff.”

Corr was in there now, in the holding bay asking the human females what their decisions were.

Would they stay or would they go?

"So what will it be?" Torq heard Corr ask as he listened through his com-link from beside the door like some crazy stalker. Over the past Earth day he had tried to stay away, but more times than not he had found himself back here, wanting nothing more than to go through those doors and wrap his mate in his arms. 

"Hannah?" Corr continued.

Was that his mate? Was her name Hannah? From the lack of feeling he felt at the mention of the name, he thought not.

"No."

"Fair enough. Jessie?"

"No."

"Katie?"

Now that name he knew. That was the ballsy one that had stormed up to him and yelled at him in the alley. He liked her. She would be entertaining to watch if they stayed.

"No."

The disappointment in his chest was growing. With every one of their refusals, his pain had grown. They hadn’t asked her yet, hadn’t asked his mate, but if her friends did not wish to stay what was the chance that she did?

Not being able to take any more, Torq disconnected his com-link from the holding bay feed and shut off the door, stepping into the space created by its removal.

"What do you say, Alice? Do you wish to join us on our journey?"

Alice.

Her name was Alice. He couldn’t think of a more perfect name for the beauty stood across the room from him.

When she finally lifted her gaze from the floor, where she had been staring intently for a good minute, she ignored the large Warrior asking her the question and focused on him.

He wanted her to stay, but he shouldn’t want that. It was better for her that they stayed apart, but Torq was selfish enough, that in that moment, he was only thinking about himself and how hard it would be to leave this planet with the knowledge that he would never get to see her again, even for just a moment.

“Alice?” Corr prompted again when she continued to remain silent. “Do you wish to stay with us?”

At first, he didn’t think she was ever going to answer, but then...

"Yes,” she breathed almost silently.

And for that one moment, Torq had the urge once again to go to her and wrap her up in his arms, hold her tight and never let go… but then the others let loose their displeasure and the moment passed.

They were staying. The human females were staying and traveling with them. He should have been thrilled. He had found his mate and she had chosen to stay with him – well, she hadn’t exactly chosen him as he was still yet to actually have a conversation with her – but he could not bring himself to be happy. She deserved so much more than him.

After hearing her decision he had made a quick getaway, abandoning his mate to the angry words of her friends. They didn’t seem too impressed with her decision.

It only occurred to him as he made a quick exit, storming through the ship and down to the workout room, that with her friends’ outrage, Corr would very likely remove her from the holding bay. And the place he would more than likely take her? Torq’s cabin.

He hadn’t told his brother of his connection to the female, but the Warrior had guessed as much, and he wouldn’t put it passed him to take her there.

He didn’t want that. The only way he could keep his promise to himself not to claim her was to keep his distance.

He sent a quick communication to Corr, informing him to place the female in one of the empty cabins on the north side of the cabin deck. She would be on the same level as him – for her own protection – but far enough away that he wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into her unawares. Corr would be pissed, no doubt, but Torq would deal with that when it came to it.

It was for the best.