Ka'Cit's Haven: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 3) A.G. Wilde (phonics story books TXT) 📖

with her struggling, they held on to her even tighter—tight enough for it to hurt.

“What are you planning to do with me?!”

But the boss ignored her as she kept on walking. She knew the alien couldn’t understand her, but she spoke anyway.

“Why are you doing this? You can just let me go.”

The boss continued walking and her crew pulled Nia along. Even if she dragged her feet, their combined strength wasn’t something she could resist.

The farther they walked into the ship, the more her panic rose.

“Please…” She resorted to begging. If the ship left Hudo III, she wasn’t sure how she’d ever return to the planet. She’d rather not have to face that circumstance. “Please…just let me go. Is it money that you want?”

Nia wracked her brain.

She didn’t have money—she didn’t own anything—but if it meant she had to work to pay this female for her freedom, she wouldn’t think twice about it. As long as she was able to return to the Sanctuary.

A pit opened up in her stomach as she thought about the Sanctuary.

Just that morning, she’d been thinking about the state of her life, wishing there was more to her existence. The universe must have interpreted her wrong, for she hadn’t been asking for this.

“Listen,” she pleaded with the back of the female alien as they continued heading farther into the ship, “just stop!”

She was ignored.

In front of them, an inner door opened into a dimly lit corridor filled with levers and other things she wasn’t sure of, but the aliens holding her continued walking.

Nia struggled against the hands that held her, resisting some more. It was difficult, and she grunted with effort as she tried one more attempt at releasing herself.

“I suppose it’s begging for its freedom,” the boss’ voice drifted to her ear, just before they stopped in front of a metal door. The boss turned to her then. “You’re in my ship.” There was that smile again. The one that looked completely insincere.

The boss leaned in close. Close enough for Nia to smell a whiff of what she assumed was perfume that smelled like paprika.

“My ship. My rules. And,” she leaned in closer, her smile turning into a leer, “everything on this ship is mine…including you.”

Nia’s eyes widened a little at that, and it only renewed her efforts to release herself from the henchmen’s arms.

The boss chuckled. “You can understand me, I see. Poor little thing. I don’t know what you are, but I have a feeling you will bring me many credits.”

Something sank within Nia. She wasn’t going to get out of this, was she?

The boss stretched a blue clawed finger toward Nia and brushed the finger down her cheek.

“Don’t touch me. Why are you doing this?! Why are you aliens so twisted?!”

The boss leaned back and eyed her crewmen. “Put her in here and stay and watch her. I don’t want any…problems.”

With that, the boss strode away, barking orders to some of her other men.

The two that held her strode closer to the door, holding on to her tight even as she tried to shrug them off once again.

There were three buttons on the side of the door: a red, orange, and a yellow button.

One of the henchmen holding her reached forward and almost pressed the red button.

“No, fool, it’s the last one at the bottom that opens it.”

The one about to press the button growled. “How are you so sure, genius?”

“That top one will shut down the room and the entire sector, idiot!”

Nia eyed the button he spoke of. It was the red one.

The alien with his hand over it paused. “You’re sure?” He turned to eye his crewmate, and Nia realized with mounting horror that she couldn’t really see anything underneath the robe.

She didn’t even want to consider what that meant.

“You’re not just trying to get me in trouble?”

The other one cursed. “Go ahead then, fool. Press it.”

The other one hesitated before pressing the third button, the yellow one, and it sounded as if he was holding his breath.

A second later, the door in front of them hissed opened.

“Phek. Herza would have had my head if I’d pressed that top one.”

Together, they pushed her inside the room.

There was a singular metal cage in the center of the room, and that was about it.

“Put him in.”

Another push at her back had her stumbling forward, and Nia turned to try and dart around the aliens. The door was still open. Maybe she could—

But the next blow was a kick to her belly that had her stumbling backward and into the cage.

It hurt enough that she doubled over onto herself, hatred boiling in her veins alongside the pain.

She was only vaguely aware of one of the aliens slamming his hand against the orange button on the inside of the room. The buttons on this side of the wall were only two. An orange and a yellow one.

The cage slammed shut and the door as well, locking them in.

Nia struggled to stand, and she held on to the bars, her eyes on the door.

There had to be a way out of this.

There just had to be.

Ka’Cit gripped on to the hull of the cargo ship and let out a sound of annoyance.

The ship was humming.

That meant the engines were on.

Phek.

Herza was leaving the dock so soon?

He gripped onto the ship, crawling on his belly as he made his way forward toward the hatch at the top.

The ship was an oval thing and getting on top of it had tested his strength, but he’d made it.

He’d been heading to a singular spot, that hatch, even as the plan he’d thought of developed in his mind.

Luckily, he knew ships like this inside and out. The hatch he headed toward would open and drop him right into the ship’s lower sector.

Crawling so high up, the wind whipped at him and he clung to the ship as he pushed himself forward.

He reached the hatch soon enough and peered down.

The interior of the ship was dim, but