Captured By her Alien Mate by Ava York

Riley

Iwas thrown to the floor. Aetamian soldiers were not fucking around.

They brought me to a private room—why, I had no idea. I had a sneaking suspicion that that Aetamian higher up had something to do with it. He had babbled some sweet nonsense, but he didn’t look completely unimportant. He had been able to just walk into and out of my cell after all.

“Thanks for nothing!” I shouted as the wooden door slammed into place behind me. Jumping quickly to my feet, I ran at the door, screaming my head off. I grabbed at the handle and tugged as hard as I could. Nothing. Unsurprising. I rammed my shoulder into the latch of the door, hoping to feel some give. Once again—nothing.

I took a step back. I hadn’t really expected to be able to get out of here by brute force, but you always had to try. I suddenly flashed back to my police training days. I had been one of the first people to break down a door in the simulations. But those doors were human made, not Aetamian.

Nope, it looked like I was stuck here—and stuck under Isabella’s alias. My mouth dried when I thought of my friends. I prayed to whomever would listen that nothing had happened to them. Drawing my knees up and wrapping my arms around them was cold comfort.

I decided that if nothing else, I would die as Isabella’s decoy. It would buy them more time before the Aetamians did…whatever it was that they were likely to do.

The room I had been brought to was bigger than I’d expected. With tall, vaulted ceilings and two shuttered and barred windows, it wasn’t the Ritz or anything, but it was miles better than the damp cell I had just come from. I was used to more opulence in the D’Tali tower room I had been sleeping in, but this was clearly a modest but respectable chamber.

To my left there was a bed with plain white linens. Hanging above the bed were three tapestries. I took a closer look. They appeared to be heroism tapestries, depicting a gnarly battle victory. An Aetamian stood on what I could only surmise was an enemy’s corpse, holding the poor schlub’s head from the cranium in his meaty fingers. I shuddered. I didn’t want to see the real-life version of this scene any time soon.

Across from the bed, to the right of the door I had just been thrown from was another entranceway. Curious, I rounded the corner and found myself in a small bathroom. The bathtub was large enough for me to sit comfortably, and there was even a floor to ceiling wall mirror. I nearly jumped when I saw my reflection looking back at me.

Jesus Christ, I’m grimy, I thought, staring with dismay at the woman who blinked back. My normally golden hair was grubby and glinted green, while my skin was streaked with mud and sweat. I pulled up my shirt sleeve to inspect what I imagined were some pretty rough bruises on my bicep—and sure enough, there they blossomed, yellow and purple and brown.

Out of the corner of my eye, the bathtub twinkled at me.

Come on, you know you want to, it seemed to croon.

I bit my lip as I thought. What did I gain from being miserable and sweaty? Nothing other than time to kill until I had to deal with the next Aetamian. I gently prodded one of the bathtub handles. It swung easily to the left and a gushing flow of hot water came pouring out of the faucet. Steam began to rise, beckoning me.

Whoever was coming to finish me off, torture me, ruin my life, or generally murder me might not arrive for hours. Or days. I gulped. Or months, I couldn’t help but think.

Well, time for a bath then. If I was stuck here, I was going to do everything I could to make myself feel less wretched.

It might be a pretty chamber, but it was still a prison.

Still, no point in being entirely surprised. I spotted an upholstered bench near the door and dragged it over to block the door. It might not keep anyone out, but it would at least give me some warning. After roughing it so long, the thought of getting clean seduced me beyond further paranoia.

I gingerly stepped out of my clothes, being careful not to graze any of the bruises and scrapes I had collected over the past few hours. Soon enough, I stood naked in the Aetamian bathroom, watching as hot water filled the bath with a surprising speed. I tested the water with my fingertips. It was scalding—just how I liked it. I let the water run for a few more minutes before my yearning to be clean took over and I stepped into the bath.

“Ooooh, ahh, ahh,” I exclaimed, letting out a little yip as the hot water touched my skin. I forced myself deeper into the tub. The heat of the bath now was only going to make for an incredible soak later.

And certainly, only moments later, I had sunk my entire body into the bathtub and was nearly entirely submerged. I reached above my head and turned the water off, relishing in the feeling of this surprising luxury. When I was captured, I had not imagined this in my immediate future.

I brought my head under the water completely, feeling the tendrils of my hair fan out and brush against my shoulders like gentle feathers. With my ears plugged up with bath water, I couldn’t hear anything but my own heartbeat.

And then—

Was that the main door opening and closing? The legs of the bench scraping along the floor reverberated through the tub.

My heart shuddered. I brought my head to crest the surface of the water as quietly as I could, hoping that I hadn’t made a splashing sound with it. I couldn’t hear anyone in the main part of the chamber, but I could have sworn that someone had just come in. I held my body as still as possible.

Suddenly, an Aetamian body filled the bathroom.

It was the one from before. The one who had struck me as strangely D’Tali.

His eyes swept the room and landed on me in the bath. I immediately jumped up to my feet, sending water flying everywhere.

“Whoa! Hold on!” he exclaimed, stepping back from the slippery wave splashing on the tiled floor.

I did not hold on. Screaming bloody murder, I grabbed whatever I could find to throw at him. Unfortunately for me, the first thing I found were my clothes. I threw my raggedy shirt and it landed on his head. He swiped it off his face only to watch my boot crash down on his temple. He stumbled backward before he gathered himself.

“Stop!” he thundered, but I couldn’t.

I grabbed a pipe hanging from the wall and wrenched it toward me. It broke apart from its perch, bringing water bustling from the open piping down onto me. I held the freed pipe in my hands like a bat.

“Stay away, Aetamian scum!” I threatened.

His face darkened. He took three swift steps toward me and I raised the pipe.

“I’m warning you!”

“Shut up, will you?” he growled, and as I brought the pipe toward him, he snatched it easily out of the air.

My heart dropped as he threw the pipe away from him like it were a candy cane. My back was to the wall, I was naked, and an Aetamian noble was closing in on me.

I did the only thing left at my disposal—I began to wail on him as hard as I could. My fists, my feet—anything I could do to slow him down. He grunted in the effort to avoid my blows. A few made contact before my wrists were in his hands and he slammed me up against the bathroom wall. Above us, the broken pipe poured water onto our heads, getting him as sopping as me.

We panted as I tried to break free of his grip, but he increased the pressure. I pushed against his hands only for him to slam me back again, my breasts bouncing with the sudden movement. More out of shock than anything else, I stopped struggling.

I was suddenly extremely conscious of my nakedness, though this Aetamian wasn’t staring at my body, his gaze fixed intently on my face. I studied him carefully. As our eyes met, his pupils seemed to change colors.

“Listen up,” he hissed. His jaw tensed. Was I—was I making him nervous? “If you want to get out of here alive, you’re going to have to shut up, and listen to me.”

I didn’t respond. Despite the water cascading down on our heads, I could feel heat emanating from his body. He took a step closer and the edge of my breasts grazed his tightly clothed chest. I suppressed a shiver that zoomed down my spine.

“Answer,” he commanded, his voice a low growl.

His face loomed closer to mine as he awaited my response. I was stuck. Damned if I did, damned if I didn’t.

“Fine,” I muttered.

His strong hands unclenched slightly as his grip loosened. But he didn’t let go of me, still pinning me to the wall. Our breathing fell in rhythm with each other. Maybe it was the way he held and carried himself, but a sudden association with the D’Tali flashed in front of my vision again.

We continued to stare hard into each other’s eyes. I scrutinized his expression. He had a closed look on his face, but something was teeming underneath his hard exterior.

“Fine,” he repeated. His mouth was just inches from mine. I could taste his breath when he spoke.

“Yeah, fine.”

“Yes,” he replied.

“So…you gonna let me get dressed?” I whispered. “Or am I going to have to listen to you as your naked captive?”

As if he was suddenly brought back to his senses, the Aetamian dropped my arms and took a step back, slipping slightly on the water pooling on the floor. I suppressed a chuckle. I needed him if I was going to survive. And it looked like he could vaguely be reasoned with.

I only prayed that continued to be true.