AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re interested in our specimen?” the sharp male says.
“He’s the only one I’ve seen in real life,” my Brooks says, her tone careful. “I was curious to study him, in case my unit encounters one in the wild.”
It is a clever lie, but I think the sharp male sees through it as well as I do.
“Of course,” he says, smiling the kind of smile that does not leave his lips to enter any other part of his body. “Well, observe feeding time.”
He nods to one of the warrior males, who carries a tray of sloppy looking food to the door, opening a small slot and posting it through. It falls on the other side to the floor, most of the slop splattering off the tray, but the raskarran descends on it hungrily, scooping it up with his fingers before licking the remainder from the tray. My spirit hurts for the indignity he is enduring in order to sate his hunger pangs.
My Brooks watches with a blank expression, her eyes almost dead. Her hair is longer in this memory, as it was before I helped her to trim it. This must have happened very soon before her long, frozen sleep, and that thought as much as the look in her eyes sets an anxiety in my stomach.
“Fascinating creatures,” the sharp male says, putting his arm around my Brooks’ shoulder as he comes to stand beside her. He is smaller than she is by some measure, but my Brooks shrinks at his touch, even as I can see she is fighting not to. “The research team are having quite the trouble with understanding how they tick. They’re reluctant to push forward with new experiments. That’s scientists for you. Always about controls and variables and incremental improvements. They never want to take a big leap.”
His grip tightens on my Brooks’ shoulder and he speaks straight to her ear.
“Fortunately, the directors of this venture have the clarity of vision required to make good progress. And they sent us the perfect volunteer for the next phase.”
I think my Brooks realises he is talking about her at the same moment I do. The false expression of blank unconcern falls, replaced by fear.
“What-” she starts, but she’s cut off as the sharp male pushes her towards the other two warriors.
“Remove her clothes.”
The warriors take far too much delight in doing so, ripping her top away from her, leaving red marks on her skin where they tear her bottoms down. She fights against them, but they are two and she is just one, and they overpower her. The strange undergarments that human females wear to cover their breasts and backsides are cut away with knives, leaving my Brooks trying to cover herself with her hands while wearing only those ugly, uncomfortable Mercenia boots and the bruises the warrior males have left on her skin.
In the room behind them, the raskarran has started roaring, fighting, throwing around his furniture. I do not know what has got him so riled, for he does not seem to notice the assault on my linasha happening outside, his focus on smashing the tray against the walls of his room. The sharp man smirks at this, then pushes my linasha towards the door.
“No,” she says, trying again to fight against her fate.
One of the warriors stands at the door, holding on to the handle, ready to open it. The sharp man joins the struggle against my Brooks with the other warrior, pushing her ever closer. Then, in a flash of movement, the door is dragged open, my Brooks thrust inside, the door slammed closed behind her, trapping me outside with the rest of them as the raskarran male turns on my Brooks, fangs and claws bared.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Brooks
Idrop to the floor, cowering as small as I can make myself, arms wrapped around knees, head pressed down, bracing for the rain of blows and slicing claws that I’m sure is about to follow.
And then.
Nothing.
I whimper for a long moment before I dare to look up, to meet the eyes of the creature I was sure was about to gut me. He’s still snarling, still breathing hard. They’ve taken his shirt - probably ruined it burning him over and over with the shock sticks, but he still wears his leather-like trousers, and I can see the bulge of his enormous cock, painfully erect.
A new fear fills me, and I think of all the things I’ve overheard, the pieces of the puzzle that it has taken until this moment to put together.
They’re trying to crossbreed the aliens with humans.
And just like the Military Tier Breeding Program back home, I’m not really here to protect, to defend, to serve.
I’m here to get fucked.
I scramble backwards, but there’s nowhere to go. They’ve been keeping him in a tiny cell, small for an average sized human. He takes up all the space, even when he’s not standing with his arms spread wide, stretched to his full height, claws and fangs out. I’ve not cried since I was in my first days of training, but I cry now, wondering if Brannigan knew this would be my fate all along, if she put me on this path to punish me for daring to speak out. For desiring a different choice, a different life.
The alien lowers his arms. He does so slowly, the tension in his muscles never going, but easing back. Then he turns his back to me, surveying the ruin of his belongings, and gingerly picks out a sheet from his bed. It’s been ripped to shreds, and he grimaces as he surveys it, but then brings it over to me, approaching slowly, carefully, before holding it out to me.
When I don’t take it, he shuffles a little closer, then wraps it around my shoulders.
“I wonder if part of me remembered this,” I say, suddenly outside of the room with Maldek, looking in at myself and the raskarran captive. Around us, my two fellow soldiers and the ‘Captain’ of the mission, Farrow - a man of no military rank, just some upper tier manager type trusted to ensure the mission continued to serve Mercenia’s best interests - are still. Because I don’t remember what was happening out here, only that they were all there, watching. “Even if the details weren’t there, I wonder if the feeling stayed with me through the fog. If that’s maybe part of why I’ve never quite managed to be afraid of you.”
