Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
That doesn’t mean I don’t try to get out of it. I flop to the side and let him simply pull on the leash. This results in an unpleasant choking sensation. I gag and writhe and make myself look as pathetic as possible. Unfortunately this also has the effect of making me feel as pathetic as possible.
“If you don’t want it to hurt, don’t make it hurt,” he says, his voice calm and even.
“Just let me do what I want,” I whine.
His stern face cracks just a little. He smirks and shakes his head. “No. It wouldn’t do you any good.”
He crouches down in front of me, running his hand beneath my chin and turning my face up to his. His alien gaze searches mine. I feel probed. I feel known.
“Hands and knees, pet. And next time I ask for you to kneel… kneel.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead, and then he makes me crawl.
I remember too, that I eat my dinner naked, kneeling at his feet. Kronos and Boss act like this is normal, even though every part of my body feels like it is absolutely aflame with shame.
He offers me a treat from his fingers every now and then. This is clearly the only way I will eat this evening, so though I want to be prideful and refuse, I accept it.
“Good girl,” he praises, giving me a little sweet treat.
“God,” I mutter to myself as my face goes bright fucking red. The things these mates have done to me. The things I have done to them…
I come back to the present moment as the ground rushes up at me faster than it seemed to be doing before. I don’t know what that’s about, but I guess it’s a good thing because it means I can get into the fray and save the aliens who treat me like an animal but somehow make it hot.
“Stop!” I shout, floating in with my parachute. My plan was to kick the guns out of their hands, or at least kick them over. I have a lot of momentum that comes from falling from the sky. But I don’t have a lot of experience in directing myself while falling from the sky. It’s my first time. So instead of coming through the attacking soldiers like a bowling ball through pins, I skim over their heads and sort of knees up barrel right through my mates.
It’s not all a loss though. The parachute lines and the canopy fall behind me and grab the soldiers up sort of like a big moving net that can’t be resisted because of all the aforementioned momentum.
“I’ve saved you!” I declare at the top of my lungs, as my mates go through the writhing canvas and kill every single one of the soldiers while they are unable to get up.
It’s brutal.
Boss grabs me by the back of my shirt and drags me with him across the battlefield toward the ship.
“Careful of my head, they cut it open and my skull is loose in bits!” I scream.
The rushing of the air has made it hard for me to hear myself at normal volume, so I am screaming, but then again everyone is screaming. Some of us are screaming because we’re dying. Then they die, and it gets quiet, except for me.
“They cut your head open?”
“Yes. But it’s a good thing!” I shout. “But we need to go. Now. Off the planet. They’re trying to capture you.”
Boss pulls me onto the ship. They were already very aware that they needed to leave. It’s already humming and ready to go. Boss keeps a tight but careful hold on me while they all get in the ship in a complete chaotic, blood-covered tangle.
“Where did you come from?” Kronos asks.
“I jumped off the edge after they cut my head open and took out the chip that was letting them fuck up my memories,” I say as Sharp starts the ship up and hurtles us all into outer space so fast there’s absolutely no way any Earthling tech could ever hope to catch us. One moment we’re on the planet, the next moment we’re waving the solar system goodbye. Spaceships are cool.
“I can remember!” I say, excited to let them know.
They look at one another.
“I can remember everything. And I know why they’ve been wiping my mind!”
“Why?” Kronos asks.
“Because I’m the bad guy!” I say the sentence very gleefully, though I know it’s confessing the worst thing possible. “I’m the problem. It’s been me. The whole time. They sent me to you in the first place. They knew you were helping human women not be traded, and they didn’t like it. So I was supposed to be like a Judas Goat. I was supposed to be the woman you wanted to save. But then I kind of fucked it up and they decided to bench me, but then you found me, and that made everything complicated again. They’ve been manipulating my brain the whole time! But they took the chip out because they were going to retire me and make me pay them back for all my subscriptions, and they thought they had you, but they didn’t count on me paying a random man all my money to jump off the island.”