Stolen Destiny

  Kidnapped from the education station, Sil is set loose on a huge warship, only to find herself bound in a contract no one expected.

  Silhouette watches the alien abductors trying to unload the entire shipment of stolen Terrans. She wished that she could sleep standing up, but it wasn’t a skill she had acquired.

  When a medical team comes in, a grey alien comes by and tests the humans. When he gets to her and she goes off, there is relief in his expression. She is taken to medical, brought to stability, and they run some tests while stowing her in a cell for her own protection. The problem is there is a Hmrain in the next cell, and while his wings are gorgeous and look so soft, his eyes are so hot he could burn her.

  Kalek is just finishing rut when this receptive human is dropped in next to him, but she needs calm, and he tries to give it, right up until the moment when his second in command makes an offhand remark about her prognosis and tries to remove her from his presence. Instinct takes over, and he breaks out of his cell.

  Being chased by the captain of the ship is strange enough, but having him next to her when she wakes up from a painful medical procedure is shocking. He wants her body, mind, and soul, and maintaining her is part of the deal. He will hold up his end if she signs the contract to bind them together.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Stolen Destiny

  Copyright © 2021 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-989892-74-9

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Published by Viola Grace

  Look for me online at violagrace.com.

  Stolen Destiny

  Shattered Stars Book 8

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Sil held onto the bench she was manacled to as the transport they were in shuddered and finally went still.

  Four weeks ago, she had been on her way to categorization, and the attendant had led her to the cargo bay instead. The next thing she knew, she was being tranquilized and hauled to a wide metal container with twenty other humans. She was the odd man out. She was shoved into a surround that was human-shaped, strapped in, and then they were falling, caught, and moving again. This was a trend for the next few days or weeks.

  Crew in masks came in, wired them for evacuation, and set up IVs. That was a long-haul solution, but the sedative soon subdued Sil’s sense of time. Crew came in every few hours, changed the bags, and then moved on.

  The first change came when an alien with spikes came through and examined them. She caught bits of the conversation and fought to listen in. The alien wanted the males and had no use for the females. He was looking for labourers.

  The person in crew uniform stiffened and mentioned that it was a batch purchase. They all had to be taken, or none of them would be. The alien scowled and huffed, stopping in front of one of the women, opening her tunic and prodding at her breasts. A conversation about the requirements to upkeep a population was mentioned, and the red-feathered twit waved that off. He just wanted to work them to death, not raise a new crop. There were always new species to purchase.

  The sale was denied, their life support was refreshed, and the cargo vessel they were in moved along.

  That was when Sil was sure she and the others had been stolen and were being flogged on the black market. The sedative kept her from speaking, but her mind was alert and watching. Two more prospective buyers came up before one finally agreed to take them on. He was after particular skills, and the occupants of the cargo hold had them.

  They were loaded, sealed, and dropped again, being caught by another vessel. Med teams checked them intermittently, and three of the humans were removed at one point, and then, they continued on.

  One day, things were different. There was shouting and some kind of weapons fire, and then, everything went quiet.

  It took four hours after that, but blue and orange beings in uniform came in with a manifest. They matched their scans to the humans in the padding and slowly removed them on stretchers. There was a pale green crewmember with silver eyes that touched the hands of the men and women, but he would shake his head and step aside, letting the others remove them from storage.

  Sil was the last one out, and she looked at the pale green guy who was keeping the team from getting to her. She stared at him and blinked slowly as her body felt a rush of heat, her pulse began to thunder in her veins, and a slickness started between her thighs. How was she getting aroused while being pinned to the wall like a collectible?

  The silver eyes turned black and silver, blinked several times, and he carefully removed his hand. He nodded to the others and stepped aside.

  Gentle hands helped her down and settled her at an angle. With the amount of time she had spent standing up, there was bound to be an issue with her legs. That much blood pooled in extremities—even with the compression pulses around their lower limbs—was going to cause issues if she tried to move.

  When they finished transporting her through the endless halls of some kind of ship, she tried to stop the tears that were coursing from her eyes, but there was a weird combination of fear and relief that ripped through her. She was terrified of where she was and what was going to happen, had only a basic language kit for the languages of most common species, and was paralyzed from the sedative. The relief came from the fact that they hadn’t just been dumped out to freeze in space. She was alive.

  The medical team transferred her onto an angled table, scanners whirred past her on raised arms, and the injections started as they slowly eased her into a horizontal position. As soon as she was flat, she was out. She just couldn’t sleep standing up.

  She woke up on a bunk in a long med gown, and she felt... better. She looked to the right and left, and there were cages on either side. She was in a cage. It was a nice cage, but it was a cage.

  “So, where did they find you?”

  A figure in the shadows was lying on a bunk, and he was speaking the Hmrain common.

  She stared into the shadows. “I beg your pardon?”

  “You are pardoned.” He chuckled. “Where did they find you?”

  “Um, in a box. Stolen, I think. I wasn’t supposed to have that happen.”

  It was definitely a masculine laugh. “You are away from your world. There are no guarantees.”

  She got up and started walking slowly. “I signed a contract to agree to a bond if they would keep me safe. They didn’t.”

  “Ah, the famous education contract. Well, it doesn’t account for personnel who thinks they can make a quick turnaround.”

  She snorted. “Great.” She looked over at him. “What are you here for?”

  He chuckled. “I am just here because the crew thinks I am dangerous.”

  She paced back and forth, getting the feeling back in her legs. “So, why am I here?”

  He chuckled. “They must have found something odd about you, too.”

  She grunted. “I am just an office worker who found her way to an evacuation station after another earthquake.”

  “How long were you on the surface after the strike?”

  She paused. “You know about that?”

  “Of course. Your species has Hmrain-compatible women. That makes you something to be aware of.”

  She waved that off. “It is less than one in five hundred thousand. Highly unlikely.”

  He moved, and she glan
ced as he emerged from the shadows. “You think so? I dunno. I can smell you from here, and your scent is good.”

  She blinked and stepped back even though there were bars between them. His pleasantly low voice and immobility had caused her brain to start assembling an Earth-born male speaking a different language. Different was the operative term.

  He was wearing a set of drawstring trousers, his feet were bare, and his dark blue wings matched the skin that covered the rest of him. The pumpkin-orange tiger stripes wrapped around him from the back and gripped him like wide claws. His hair was a little sleep-tousled, and his eyes were black with dark amber swirls in them.

  She skittered back and sat on her bunk. “I can’t do anything about that.”

  He laughed. “Interesting. So, you didn’t get any job training at the station?”

  She shook her head. “No, just basic etiquette so we didn’t get into trouble. They were taking me to my assessment when they diverted me and stole me and the others.”

  He stepped toward the bars between them and spread his wings. “I don’t suppose you remember who handed you over?”

  “Of course. It was instructor Yion. Instructors Ikal and Neff were also rigging us up for the drop out of the ship.”

  He looked surprised. “Weren’t you sedated?”

  “Sure, but I can’t sleep standing up. I was in and out of consciousness for the whole... weeks?” She shrugged.

  He draped his arms on the cross piece of the bars. “So, you saw them all? Everyone who came through the pod?”

  She nodded. “I did. I don’t know all of the races yet, so if there was some kind of flip book or a file I could look through, I could point them out. Oh, I think three of us died or were sold separately after they couldn’t find anyone to take us as a group.”

  He scowled. “There were extra containers for them. Where was this?”

  “Two stops before here.” She was babbling, but his eyes were intense as he stared at her. His wings were softly feathered, and she blinked. That seemed a weird adaptation for space.

  He cocked his head. “Your thoughts just jumped there. What brought that on?”

  She was nervous. “I don’t like being stared at. I don’t know what to do, so I talk, and I was wondering why you have wings in space and why feathers and they really look soft.”

  She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the stream of consciousness from getting out, but it was too late.

  He slowly grinned, and his teeth matched the reversed tiger aspect. Long upper and lower canines that his mouth was designed to house. His clear speech was miraculous, given the impediments.

  He laughed. “Would you like to touch the wings?”

  She shook her head frantically and turned her back to him. “No, thank you.”

  She shivered and wished she had a blanket to hide under. She curled her legs up against her chest and kept herself in the smallest ball possible. She slept.

  * * * *

  Kalek looked at the small shivering ball of human that smelled like sex, sunlight, and flowers. There was also a strange undertone that he couldn’t place. She had soft brown hair, soft brown eyes, and a mouth that had him hypnotized. When she wasn’t speaking, the curve of her lips was exquisite. He wanted to see if the texture of them was as soft as it looked.

  He called his second in command with a ping on his wristband. When the Byrcal walked up to his cage, he said, “Yes, Captain?”

  “Get her a blanket, get me a tablet, and tell the education station to investigate instructors Yion, Ikal, and Neff. They have been identified by this young woman.”

  Commander Yamet smiled. “She isn’t that young for one of her species. She is into her third decade and well beyond the official maturity designated by her biology.”

  Kalek growled at him, but when he came back with the items, he reached out and plucked one of his feathers, tucking it in with the blanket. “Here, she was wondering about them.”

  Yamet blinked. “You... are giving a strange woman one of your feathers? Is there something I should know?”

  “Shut up. She’s scared. I can’t think of anything else right now that might help.”

  Yamet snickered. “I can think of a few things. Have you cycled out of rut yet?”

  “Almost. Another two days should see me clear.”

  “Good. Your meal will be coming in an hour.” Yamet looked over. “Maybe we should have put her in the other cell for her protection.”

  Kalek grunted. “No, she needs someone closer.”

  “Ah, but are you too close?”

  “Shut up and bring her the blanket.”

  Yamet snickered and carried the blanket to the other cell, looking at the shivering woman, frowning, and then unfolding the blanket before tucking it around her. He put the feather in her hand and left the cell, closing it quietly.

  He paused by Kalek’s cell. “She’s a wounded animal.”

  Kalek nodded. “I know. Having your entire world destroyed and dying is rough, but having to scratch out a living with no hope for a future is something else. Her file stated that she was alone her entire time after the collision. That is a rough way to live.”

  Yamet chuckled. “Yeah, at least you found us.”

  Kalek snorted. “Disease is easier to deal with than anything else. You had crops growing, sun shining, and bodies to deal with. She had the bodies but no crops or sunlight. They were surviving on preserved food and roots that didn’t require a lot of sunlight. It could not have been pleasant.”

  Yamet looked back. “A woman alone in that? It wasn’t pleasant. It sounds like a fucking nightmare.”

  Kalek couldn’t argue. The likelihood that she had come through unscathed was not high. He nodded and took the tablet, sending messages as quickly as he could type them. He identified the three instructors and told the stations in the pod’s log to keep an eye out for the three humans. They might be alive, they might be dead, but someone would have a record of the change in weight on the station.

  She had given him the start of his investigation, and she hadn’t even had breakfast yet. He wondered what she would manage before lunch.

  Chapter Two

  Silhouette Rains woke up under a blanket that wasn’t there when she fell asleep. She could smell food, and there was something super soft against her cheek. She opened her eyes, and there was a feather clutched in her fist. It was soft, and it smelled like mint and cinnamon.

  She blinked, and her mind plugged in the missing pieces. Oh. His feather. She smelled the blanket. It smelled like the storage scent she had come to associate with the station. Sil rolled to the other side and saw the man leaning against his wings and working on a tablet. That gave her the idea that he wasn’t there for any actual penal reasons.

  He glanced at her, and then, his head snapped back.

  She looked down, and her blanket had dropped from her hips, and her smock had ridden up. She tried to jerk her smock down and the blanket up with only minor success. The feather found its way under the blanket, and she slowly drew it out, fighting the tickle on her thigh.

  She held it up. “This is yours?”

  He nodded. “It is. You were curious, so I thought it was best to answer the question directly.”

  Sil looked at it. It was a foot long, easily. “Did you pull it out?”

  “I did. I don’t shed.” He chuckled.

  “Didn’t it hurt?” She fixated on the quill portion of the feather. It seemed to be a neat extraction.

  “It was a pinprick.”

  She nodded and watched as his attention returned to the tablet. Her hands itched to grab it. It had been a while since she had been able to properly use her mind. She had just been getting to the interesting point of her studies when she was kidnapped. She paused and brushed the feather across her lips. Kidnapped was the wrong word. She had been stolen.

  She brushed her cheek with the feather. It was soft, and she didn’t have anything else f
or sensory input.

  His voice was somewhat strangled. “There is a food tray on the stand near the door.”

  She smiled and got up, setting the feather down carefully. The food tray had a heating dome, and when she brought it back to her bunk, she sat and tasted everything before eating it.

  She finished with her tray and put it back where it had been before. Her impulse led her to fold the blanket, and she set the feather down on top of it. Once that was done, she started to do push-ups.

  She did ten, then twenty, then thirty. When that was done, she looked around, walked to the bars between them, gripping the bars behind her with her hands near her shoulders, and she started lifting her legs slowly. She was on her second set when he came up to the bars and leaned against them, just far enough away for comfort.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I am doing what I can to maintain muscle tone. I don’t want to lose what I have.”

  He was amused. “I mean, why are you doing it where I can reach you?”

  “Because from the back with the smock on is the least flattering angle. Any other bars in the area, and you would be able to see up my skirt.” She exhaled and continued her controlled leg lifts.

  “But I can reach you from here.”

  “You said the crew considered you dangerous. You did not say that I should.” She continued the slow lifts. “So, why am I in here, anyway? I don’t see any of the other Earth folk.”

  “You were categorized when they got you out of the pod. You have companion-rated responses, so you are categorized for a Hmrain. There are enough requests out there that there is a list of requests for you longer than my arm.” He chuckled. “Of course, I am also a Hmrain, and I do have the right of first claim as you are in my custody.”

  Sil finished her count and stepped away from the bars. She started doing squats. “I don’t understand. You are either dangerous to your crew, or you are free to come and go as you please. I am either a prisoner, or I am a rescue, or I am a commodity. Which is it?”