Captured by the Alien Warrior Hope Hart (interesting books to read for teens .txt) 📖

called Khax. His tribe hasn’t been seen for a while and has only recently returned to this area. Rakiz described Khax’s warriors as savages, which, given how brutal these warriors are in their training arena, makes me more than a little nervous.

But we need allies. I can vividly remember the long sticks that the aliens used to shock us. If they have other weapons like that, we need to find a way to disable them before they use them on us.

The Braxians are tough sons of bitches, but they’re still only armed with swords and crossbows.

I bring my attention back to the present as Ivy touches my knee.

“How are you doing?” she asks gently.

My eyes sting, and I push the palms of my hands against them. We’re sitting in the same kradi as yesterday, only the others have already wandered off to do whatever they need to do. Zoey is crushing some kind of sweet-smelling herbs in the corner, and she sends me a sympathetic look as I move my hands away from my face.

“I’m…struggling,” I admit. “Who would’ve thought that I’d fall for the dragon who kidnapped me and took me back to his lair? It’s like something out of a bad fairy tale.”

Zoey grins at me from across the room. “You know, the original fairy tales are much worse than the soft little stories we were told as kids. If it was really a bad fairy tale, the dragon would have eaten you and used your bones to pick your flesh out of his teeth.”

Ivy and I both stare at her for a long moment, and she blushes.

“Sorry,” she mutters, and we crack up.

It feels good to laugh about something, anything.

“He’s basically a sociopath,” I mutter. “He doesn’t care about anyone but me, and even that seems iffy right now.”

Ivy tilts her head. “You’ve been trying to treat him like he’s human.”

I shrug. Her words echo what I was thinking earlier. Dragix isn’t human. I know that. But still… “I have. And I’ve been alone for so long. My ex…he was abusive. It was bad. And I don’t think he ever truly loved me. I don’t think he knew how to love. I was young and lonely, mourning my family, and he wanted me because I fulfilled a purpose. Someone to dominate. To hurt. When Dragix took me, one of the first things he said was, ‘I saw you, and I took you. I am Dragix. I can do what I like.’” Tears are running down my face, and I brush at them. Across the kradi, Zoey’s eyes are wet in sympathy, and Ivy puts her arm around me.

“You think they’re the same.”

“Yes…no…I don’t know.”

“Did Dragix ever…hurt you?”

“No. Never. He was obsessed with healing me actually. When we first met, he was little more than a beast. But he was still careful with me. I just…I worry that I’m the problem. That I’m only interested in emotionally unavailable, possessive men.”

Ivy tilts her head. “I get it, but two guys is not a pattern. You can’t compare an abusive jackass on Earth with an alien dragon on Agron. I know it’s tempting to try and ‘figure it out’ so that it’ll hurt less. But do you think blaming yourself and putting Dragix in the same category as your ex will make you feel better?”

“No. No, not at all. I just miss him. Life was simple on that mountain, you know?”

She nods. “I get it. Men suck.”

Zoey and I both laugh, but Ivy’s face is serious, although her eyes sparkle.

“I get what it’s like to fall for a guy who’s considered barbaric even on this planet, which truly takes some work. Vrex was living his life as a hermit in the woods before I managed to civilize him.”

She grins at us, and she looks so happy, so content, that I’m suddenly wrestling with envy, wishing with everything I have that Dragix was with me right now.

The grin disappears, and she squeezes my hand. “It’ll get better, I promise. It’ll just take time. Thankfully, you have more than enough stuff to distract you right now.”

I laugh. “That’s for sure. Any advice for talking to this tribe tomorrow?”

“Don’t let them intimidate you. Stay cool and lay out exactly what it will mean for them if those purple bastards are given free rein on this planet.”

I nod, and we watch while Zoey transfers her herbs to a small wooden bowl. She has mostly been quiet, her mind obviously elsewhere, and she glances at me.

“I wish I could come with you.”

“You can,” I say, surprised. I hadn’t thought she wanted to come.

She shakes her head. “Tagiz will lose his mind.”

Ivy glances at me and then narrows her eyes at Zoey. “Is he bossing you around, girl? You know you can’t let these warriors get away with that shit. If they thought we’d take it, they’d keep us tucked up safe in our kradis day and night.”

I laugh at the thought, and Ivy grins at me. Then she returns her attention to Zoey, who blushes.

“It’s not that. I mean…he’s definitely bossy, but I think that’s in the Braxian blood. It’s just that…he’s the one who rescued me, and he seems to think it’s his responsibility to make sure I’m safe every moment of every day. He treats me like a patient.”

Zoey’s lower lip sticks out in a pout, and her huge eyes are wide with annoyance. She has lost weight since I saw her last, and her sharp collarbones and high cheekbones make her look fragile. Her skin is pale and flawless, with a few tiny freckles scattered across her small nose, and her dark hair is tousled around her shoulders.

“Well,” I say, “unfortunately you suffer from terminal cuteness.”

Zoey glares at me, and I laugh.

“Girl, I was the smallest kid in my class my whole life, I get it.”

Ivy chimes in, “Add in the fact that you almost died in front of Tagiz, and he’s likely struggling with all those instincts that make Braxians so