Page 49 of Alien Healer’s Mate

She frowned. No door? That couldn’t be right, surely? How the hell had she gotten in here if there was no door?

Her gaze traced the walls, trying to work out where the best place would be for the door, if it existed. Perhaps this was more alien technology she had no idea existed, and they’d teleported her in here or something? She frowned as her gaze snapped on something opposite and she squinted, trying to bring it more into focus. A seam, almost flush with the wall, like the door was pretending it didn’t exist.

She leaned back against the wall behind her and rubbed at her face. The last thing she remembered was the dark… and hands coming out of it. Hard hands over her mouth. Then nothing.

“Okay.” Her voice sounded small in the little room, so she tried again, louder. “This is fine. Absolutely fine. Just another little road trip.”

It was very much not fine, but she wasn’t about to put those words out there into the galaxy.

She looked down. She was still in the gown and still had her sneakers on, which was something… say what you liked about being kidnapped by aliens, at least she’d been kidnapped in sensible shoes so she could run for it if she had to.

There was a band of grey metal around her wrist that hadn’t been there before, snug as a hospital bracelet. She poked at it. It wouldn’t turn and wouldn’t slide off… and when she picked at the seam a little green light blinked at her.

She got up and walked the perimeter of the walls, counting her steps. That was what you were supposed to do, wasn’t it? The trouble was, she had no idea what to do with the number of her steps once she had them. So she investigated the wall seam. It was just a shadow on the wall, not even enough for her to get her fingernails into. Pushing on it didn’t do anything either.

She banged on it in frustration. “Hello? Hi. Any chance of any room service?”

There was no reply. She put her ear to the metal and got more nothing. “Hey! Look, there’s been a mix-up. I was at the medical conference?” She banged again, harder, then winced. “This is a really weird way to run a conference, by the way! One star! Would not be abducted again!”

Silence met her ears. There wasn’t even a footstep. She’d spent her whole life being able to talk her way past bouncers and landlords and Harper’s disappointed face, and now here she was, doing her best material for a damn wall.

She sat back down before her knees could give way under her.

She didn’t hear Rivaan arrive. One wall just changed, grey fading to clear like someone wiping fog off a mirror, and there he was on the other side with a data device, looking exactly like he had at the conference: neat robes, tidy hair, and a smarmy, self-important expression.

He looked at the screen rather than at her.

“Elevated cortisol,” he said. “Understandable. It will settle.”

“Where am I?” She was up and at the clear wall before she’d finished the question. “What is this? You can’t just take people like this! There are laws. Kellat is Lead Healer of an entire station, and when he finds out⁠—“

“Your neural readings are stable.” He tapped on his screen, his lips pursing. “Even sedated, the pathways held. Remarkable.”

She slapped her palm against the wall between them. He didn’t even flinch as he carried on making notes.

“Hey. Look at me. What do you want with me?”

He lifted his head, and she wished he hadn’t. There was nothing in his eyes to argue with. No anger, no gloating, nothing. He looked at her the way she’d once looked at a secondhand fridge.

He lowered the screen. “You will be fed shortly. The environment is within human tolerance.”

“Kellat will come,” she hissed. “He’ll come, and when he does⁠—“

“No one is coming, Miss Sawyer.” His voice didn’t change at all. “The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be.”

The wall went grey again, leaving her standing there with her palm still on it, and the hum of the ship came back to fill up the quiet.

She leaned against the wall. No one was coming.

Harper hadn’t answered her message. Kellat had called her petty and turned back to the warlady, and the last thing Delilah had done as a free woman was flounce off through the wrong door like the child they all thought she was. Nobody even knew which door.

Her eyes burned, and she let them, because there was nobody here to smile for. It didn’t last long. She wiped her face with the heel of her hand and sniffed hard. Crying had never gotten her out of anything. All it did was leave her cheeks cold where the tears had been.

Think. There had to be something she could use… some way out of this.

But there wasn’t. Four walls, a bunk, and a seam that wasn’t a door. She checked it all again anyway, slower, and ended up right back where she’d started, knees pulled up under her skirts.

That was when she felt it.