Nanny for the Alien Lord by Tammy Walsh

Belle

I awoketo the sound of a young child laughing and someone else whipping them into a frenzy.

I rolled over.

A child laughing?

My neighbors had kids but they never laughed.

Perhaps they were children on their way to school—

Then I felt the smooth silk sheets and the cool press of their weight on top of me.

I bolted upright and, though I was a little groggy, I realized immediately I was no longer in my bedroom back home.

That’s right, I recalled, my home had been flooded.

And Tauas had come to the rescue, forcing me and my sister to join him at his house.

I tossed the sheets aside and threw my legs over the side.

A pair of red slippers sat two inches to the right of my feet.

When we evacuated our home, there had been no time to collect our things.

So, where had these slippers come from?

They were embossed with gold lettering in an ornate flowing font:

CR.

CR?

Of course.

Choer Robotics.

I rolled my eyes and swept the slippers aside.

The company that had cost me my job and made it impossible for me to fix the water pipe that ended up destroying our home.

I refused to wear anything with those letters embossed on it.

I have stood up and wore only my underwear.

Fresh clothes hung from the back of the chair.

The dress was pretty but wasn’t mine.

I growled and shook my head.

I wasn’t about to let him dress me!

Having him force me to live in his house was bad enough!

I searched through the drawers and wardrobes but found only the clothes of others.

I felt a twinge between my legs.

As I slept at Tauas’s house, had he taken advantage of me?

My pussy ached with a dull thud from the previous day’s activities, but that didn’t mean he’d entered me in the middle of the night.

I turned slowly, expecting to find a Tauas-shaped lump on the other side of the bed.

I was relieved to find he wasn’t there.

The blankets were still flat on that side of the bed, so it was safe to assume he hadn’t shared the same bed as me.

I tried to quell the fluttering butterflies of disappointment in my gut before shoving the thought aside.

I wouldn’t allow myself to lose my head over him.

Outside, the young child—whose voice I now recognized as Elken’s—rose to all-new levels as she screamed down the hallway.

She was moving fast, much quicker than I thought she was capable of.

I needed to keep an eye on her, I thought.

If she were to fall over and hurt herself…

No doubt my wet clothes were being laundered by one of Tauas’s many slaves.

With a sneer of disgust, I scooped up the dress and underwear and slipped it on.

The dress was a surprisingly good fit, even if it was a little long.

I even put on the damn slippers.

So much for my resolve!

I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

“Elken?” I said, before immediately pulling back as something rushed past.

“Coming through!” Abbie yelled.

Elken squealed, her tiny arms wrapped around Abbie’s neck as they whizzed down the hallway on Abbie’s wheelchair.

“Abbie!” I shouted.

She skidded to a halt and turn one-eighty to face me.

They both looked up at me with guilty expressions.

I stomped over to them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I said.

“Giving her a ride.”

Elken’s cheeks flushed red from the excitement.

She extended her arms to me and I picked her up.

“Did you have fun?” I said.

Elken nodded enthusiastically and shoved a thumb in her mouth.

“She was already up,” Abbie said, “and Tauas asked me to keep an eye on her while you were asleep.”

Not only had he taken us from our home but he gave my responsibilities to my sister?

Just who did he think he was?

“You need to be more careful,” I said. “I wouldn’t want you or Elken to get hurt. These floors are hard.”

“I held onto her tightly,” Abbie said with a shrug. “Besides, she had a great time, didn’t you little Elken?”

Abbie tickled Elken’s belly, who screamed with joy.

It was plain to see who the new favorite was.

“Come into the kitchen,” I said. “I’ll cook us some breakfast.”

“We’ll have breakfast all right,” Abbie said, wheeling ahead of me, “and I’ll be the one to cook. The last thing we need is to be poisoned!”

I entered the kitchen expecting to find Tauas lurking in one of the corners.

“Don’t worry,” Abbie said, opening a drawer, “the stud muffin has gone to work.”

She found the tools she was looking for, at home in the kitchen as if she belonged there.

“Stud muffin?” I said.

“You know,” Abbie said, reaching for a side panel, which she successfully guessed contained the cooking oils. “Your employer.”

I covered Elken’s ears.

She beamed up at me as if we were playing a game.

“Don’t talk about her father like that!” I said.

“Why not? As she gets older, she’ll realize he is a total stud muffin.”

I placed Elken in her chair and she immediately climbed out of it.

She approached Abbie and tugged on her sleeve.

“Hello there,” Abbie said. “Can I help you?”

“Can I helping you?” Elken said.

“I don’t know. Can you help me? What can you do?”

The little girl raised her hands and made motions as if they conveyed everything she needed to say.

Abbie looked up, hoping for a translation from me.

“She’s good with her hands,” I said.

“Ah!” Abbie said. “In that case, maybe you would like to prepare the bread?”

Abbie gave Elken—via me—instructions on how to prepare the bread for French toast.

We had to make do with local Yixx products, but that was nothing new for Abbie.

She did all the cooking in our home and had long since learned how to substitute certain Yixx ingredients for ours.

Elken, as usual, made an unholy mess, but it was worth it to keep her out of trouble.

Abbie checked with Elken every few minutes to ask her opinion on how the things were cooking, and Elken always responded the same way:

“Good!”

And a thumbs up for good measure.

By the time Abbie shoveled the food onto our plates from the various pots and pans she’d used to cook, it looked like a gourmet meal.

“If you ask me,” Abbie said, munching on a thick slice of grilled orus mushroom, “we should suffer from a burst pipe more often.”

“Why?” I said.

“Look at this place! It’s a palace! A real difference from our dive.”

I shrugged, feeling defensive.

“It’s the best we could afford.”

Abbie squeezed my knee.

“Money may not buy happiness but it sure can improve our living conditions!”

I was intrigued by what Tauas might have said to Abbie this morning.

“Did we get any instructions from our ‘king’?”

“No,” Abbie said. “Only for me to keep an eye on Elken until you woke up.”

Wonderful,I thought. Sleeping on the job.

I’d never hear the end of it.

Raucous voices echoed up the hallway, coming to us from somewhere at the far end.

I shared a look with Abbie, who shrugged her shoulders and put down her fork.

She joined me at the doorway.

We peered down the hall at the front door.

It stood open and a pair of Yixx wearing overalls talked amongst themselves and motioned to the doorway.

“Who do you suppose these jokers are?” Abbie said.

“I have no idea,” I said.

As I was the hired nanny, I supposed I was the one who should go speak with them.

“Keep an eye on Elken,” I said.

I marched toward the Yixx males.

I had long since learned not to be intimidated by their size.

It seemed the larger a species was, the kinder and more approachable they became.

I guess it was because they had the strength to defend themselves physically, the same way boxers and MMA fighters did back home.

They were often the nicest people as they’d taken out their aggression on their opponents rather than lashing out at others around them.

“Can I help you?” I said.

The two males turned to me.

Through the gap between them, I could see they’d brought a large dented shuttlecraft covered with lumps of concrete.

Already, a second pair of workers were measuring up the steps.

“Are you the head of the household?” the biggest Yixx said.

“I’m the nanny.”

“Close enough,” the Yixx said. “My name’s Ja. I’m a builder. Mr. Choer instructed us to set up ramps outside this property and install elevators inside.”

I blinked in shock.

“Ramps? Elevators? There’s no need for that! We won’t be here long!”

The builder shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s what we’ve been hired to do, I’m afraid. I suggest you call Mr. Choer and discuss it with him. Until then, we’re going to start building.”

With that, he turned and gave orders to his workers.

I couldn’t believe this.

I just couldn’t believe this!

First, he forced us to leave our home—I mean, a little water never hurt anybody, did it?—and now, he was turning this house into some kind of prison to lock us inside forever!

I won’t have it!

I refuse!

I stamped my foot and was about to turn to head back inside the house to instruct Abbie and Elken we were heading out when a second large shuttlecraft descended from the sky.

I folded my arms, suspecting Tauas had returned early from work.

Once he sat down, I would give him a piece of my mind.

I started once more when I realized the shuttlecraft was much larger than the one he owned.

“What the hell?” I said.

I didn’t know what it was until it arched around and backed up to the property.

The blood drained from my face.

On the side of the vehicle were written the words:

BLES HOME REMOVAL SERVICE.

My shoulders sagged as the driver climbed out along with half a dozen fellow employees.

As they opened up the back, the driver approached me with a clipboard.

“Is this the residence of Belle Baker?”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean, temporarily. What is this?”

He didn’t need to answer.

It was obvious what it was.

The workers unloaded the items from the back of the shuttlecraft, each of the wardrobes and cabinets containing our possessions.

“Where do you want us to put this?” the worker said.

I ground my teeth so hard I feared I might break them.

Trust me, pal, you don’t want me to tell you where to shove them.

I spoke through gritted teeth:

“In the upstairs bedrooms,” I said.

I hated having no control, and it appeared Tauas had just commandeered my entire life.

Everything had to be paid for, I thought.

And they didn’t always have to be paid for with money.