The Breeding Experiment (Veslor Mates Book 3) Page 3

  Despite that, she felt grateful. Her sister was with her, they were still dressed, and since the aliens didn’t wear clothes, it was readily apparent they were either female, or they just didn’t have dangling bits in the groin area. She hoped that meant they hadn’t been taken to become sex slaves. Rumors of people frequently kidnapped and sold for that purpose had reached her planet often.

  Part of the wall opened, and three aliens came in. They each held a round metal device in one lifted tentacle.

  Barbara rushed at them, looking ready to attack.

  A blue streak shot out of one of the devises and hit her in the chest, sending her flying backward. She hit the floor hard and gasped.

  Everyone else in the room immediately tried to put distance between themselves and the aliens.

  “We are Elth,” one of them stated in a whiny, high-pitched voice. “You will do as told. We own you.”

  Barbara sat up, rubbing her chest. “Fuck you! No one owns us.” She stayed down, though, and didn’t try to attack them again.

  “We do,” the Elth stated.

  “What do you want from us?” asked a woman with short dark hair. “Are you going to sell us or something?”

  Each Elth peered at her with their unnerving trio of eyes. “We need test subjects.”

  A chill ran down Darla’s spine. “Shat.”

  Becky clutched at her tighter and a soft whimper escaped from her sister.

  “Fuck you,” Barbara hissed. “You’re not going to do anything but return us to the fleet, if you’re smart. That’s the only way you’ll live. No one fucks with United Earth!”

  The Elth stared at her for long seconds before they glanced around. One of them lifted a second tentacle, pointing it at Barbara. “Her first. She’s loud and rude. The male will probably kill her. He’s very enraged. I’ll enjoy watching it.”

  “You will breed with the Veslor,” another of the Elth ordered.

  Darla jerked her head in the direction of Barbara, still on the floor, to see her reaction to that news.

  Barbara shook her head. “No fucking way!”

  “You will,” the Elth stated calmly. “We need his young. All of you females will breed with the Veslor to give us many young to train.”

  Darla felt sick. “To train for what?”

  The Elth all looked at her. She instantly regretted asking. They gave her the creeps.

  “To kill for us,” one of them answered. “Veslors are skilled at killing. He killed many of our race before capture. We recently learned Veslors have bred with Earth females.”

  Another one spoke. “We’ve run analysis. A mixture of your species should make excellent trainable killing creatures. Humans will follow orders after training, where Veslors won’t. The combination will be a perfect solution to find the right balance.”

  “I’m not fucking that animal or having a mutated freak with it.” Barbara struggled to her feet.

  “You will,” the Elth paused. “Many times.”

  “What did you do to the others? The men and the older women?” It was the dark-haired woman who asked.

  One Elth turned its attention on her. “Dead. They were useless to us and not worth feeding.”

  “You fucking monsters!” Barbara spat. “You killed Adam and the others? The fleet is going to destroy your entire squid race!”

  “There are a few serious flaws in your, um…analysis,” stated a soft-spoken woman in her mid-twenties. She wore casual wear, like the short-haired woman. Her hair, black with bright blue streaks, was pulled back into a ponytail that fell midway down her back.

  Then Darla noticed her eyes. One was dark brown…but the other was a brilliant blue that nearly matched the streaks in her hair.

  The Elth simply stared at her.

  She looked as if she might faint, but instead licked her lips and hugged her middle. “I’m Doctor Jessa Brick, and I work for the fleet. I’m very familiar with the Veslors, since a group of them were assigned to Defcon Red. We were concerned about what would happen if they had sex with our women. You know, could an accidental pregnancy occur, or would our birth control prevent it?” She paused. “I spoke at length with the doctors from the Veslor home world. Their males can only breed children with a mate. That’s sort of like a biological bond they form with only one female. It’s what triggers their fertility. Without that bond, they just aren’t fertile. You can force all of us to have sex with that Veslor, but no pregnancies will result. It’s biologically impossible.”

  The three Elth huddled together, emanating chirps as they spoke amongst themselves.

  Dr. Jessa Brick cleared her throat.

  They stopped chirping, staring at her.

  “I mean, you can breed a Veslor, but first you need to figure out which one of us is mate-compatible to the male. If any. That’s the only way you’re going to succeed in getting a human impregnated by a Veslor.”

  The Elth chirped at each other some more but then withdrew from the room, the wall sealing behind them.

  Barbara turned on Dr. Brick. “What the fuck? You’re helping them? I’m going to report you for treason!”

  Shock flashed across the doctor’s features, which quickly changed into anger. “I’m not helping them. I’m being honest and hoping to spare all of us a lot of unnecessary trauma. You heard them. They planned to make every one of us have sex with the Veslor—and for what? An experiment that’s doomed to fail? I shared information to avoid having to endure that.”

  “You’re going to get us killed if they think we’re useless.” Barbara glared at the doctor.

  “That’s why I added that last part—to give them hope that they might get what they want. They won’t kill us in they think one of us might be compatible.”

  Barbara took a threatening step toward the doctor. “I just think you’re trying to help the enemy so they pick you to live. The rest of us will die.”

  “I think your mouth is a bigger threat. You’ll get us killed by doing everything you can to insult and anger them,” Becky muttered.

  Barbara turned on them, glaring at Darla’s sister.

  Darla released Becky and struggled to her feet. “Becky’s right. You’ve got no room to talk about what’s going to get us killed. I’m grateful Doctor Brick informed them that their plan won’t work the way they think. We all need to remain calm and avoid angering our captors. No good could possibly come of that.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Barbara snapped. “What’s your rank or station on my ship?”

  Darla hesitated. “We just got hired to work in the gardens. We’re civilians.”

  “That’s great.” Barbara rolled her eyes. “Not only are you an alien animal lover, but you’re a shitter. That’s what we call the ones who work in the garden section. Did anyone tell you that you’re fertilizing all those plants with human waste from the ship? You know…shit.” She smirked.

  Darla opened her mouth, getting ready to tell the rude woman exactly what she thought of her, but the wall slid open again. She reached back for her sister, who had stood, too, and grabbed her hand as the three Elth returned. They were still holding their round weapons in their tentacles.

  A red light shot out of one this time, hitting Dr. Brick in the chest, where the alien held the beam steady.

  She gasped, her body stiffened, and her eyes widened. Pain twisted her features.

  Instinct had Darla wanting to do something, anything, but her sister clung to her hand. It was a reminder that if she acted rashly, Becky might pay the price, too. She’d do anything to protect her baby sister.

  “Tell the truth, human,” one of the Elth demanded. “Can the Veslors only breed a child with a single mate? Lie to us and you will die.”

  Silent tears streamed down the doctor’s face. “Yes.”

  The Elth cut off the red light. The doctor collapsed to her knees, sobbing and clutching her chest with both hands, clearly still in pain.

  “We’ll chose one of you to become the Veslor’s mate and you will breed w
ith him. If not, we will torture you until you comply.”

  “I chose the human with the insulting mouth,” one of the Elth stated. “She has wide breeding hips and if he kills her, I’ll take pleasure in watching.”

  Barbara shook her head frantically and threw her hand out, pointing toward Darla and her sister. “He was sitting with them on the shuttle. Don’t look at me to fuck that animal!”

  Darla was horrified. Barbara had sacrificed them to save her own ass! Worse, it seemed to work when the aliens turned their ghostly bodies in their direction, seeming to study Darla and her baby sister.

  She tensed, terrified of what they’d do.

  It alarmed her even further when all three seemed to focus on Becky more so than her.

  “I still wish to send in the insulting female first. There is no use for her anyway, if one of those two mates with the Veslor. We may as well gain some amusement with that one.” One of the Elth aimed his device toward Barbara.

  “Wait!” Dr. Brick seemed to recover from the pain and got back to her feet. “Mating to a Veslor is a biological thing. A male must test a female. It can take time. If you kill all of us, what happens if it turns out those women aren’t compatible to become his mate? Do you have other human women to test? I thought your experiment revolved around successfully breeding a Veslor?

  “You must have gone through a lot of time and trouble to grab a shuttle. It couldn’t have been easy. Now that you’ve done it, every ship, station, and planet will be on high alert. Your chances of grabbing another shuttle with humans onboard are slim to none. You need to keep us all alive. We’ll be impossible to replace if one of them isn’t a match to the Veslor.”

  The three Elth did that weird thing where they chirped at each other.

  Dr. Brick wasn’t done. “You need us as spares, if it turns out the one you pick isn’t his mate. Veslors can’t form a bond with just any woman. It must be one they’re highly attracted to and have excellent chemistry with. They have to feel emotions for her that are positive, to induce his physical ability to become fertile.”

  The chirping began anew as the aliens debated who knew what, since Darla couldn’t understand anything they said.

  They finally stopped—and one of them pointed their weapon at Darla and her sister. “Come with us, female in the back.”

  They planned to force her sister to have sex with Gnaw.

  Darla immediately wanted to attack but knew it wouldn’t do any good. Becky squeezed her hand so hard it hurt and pressed against her back, her body trembling.

  “It’s me,” Darla blurted.

  She shook off her sister’s tight grasp and stepped forward, staying between Becky and the aliens.

  “I was talking to the Veslor on the shuttle. If one of us might be his mate, it’s me. He only talked to me.”

  “Darla!” her sister hissed, grabbing hold of the back of her shirt.

  She turned her head, holding her sister’s gaze. “I love you. Stay calm. Don’t give them any reason to hurt you.” She turned back to the aliens.

  They pointed their weapons at her. She waited to feel pain or to be thrown back by a blast to her chest, but they didn’t shoot. “Come,” one of them ordered.

  Her sister clutched at her frantically. “Don’t go!”

  “I’ll be fine.” She had to grab her sister’s wrists and yank her shirt from her fingers. “Remember, I love you.”

  Darla slowly walked toward the aliens, holding her hands open at her sides, trying to look as unaggressive as possible. She really didn’t want them using their weird weapons on her.

  They backed out of the room into a well-lit, wide, sterile-looking corridor. She kept advancing, despite the dread pitting inside her stomach.

  The walls and floor of the hallway were the same stark white as their cells. She followed them, keeping about eight feet of distance as they moved on their tentacles to the left. There was a hiss behind her, and she turned to find a solid wall where the opening to her cell had been.

  “This way, female. The Veslor awaits.”

  Chapter Three

  The wall to Darla’s left opened, revealing another room. The cells were right next to each other. Shock hit as she saw Gnaw, struggling and strung upright in what appeared to be some kind of torture contraption. He’d been washed; his hair wet and his previous clothes were gone. They’d put a pair of dark baggy pants on him. They were too short for his long legs, falling just below his knees.

  Her gaze left him to dart around the rest of the room. There was a large exam table bolted to the floor, similar to a med bed, with tons of restraints attached to it in the corners.

  She walked into the room, turning to watch the Elth as they hesitated at the opening.

  “Make him impregnate you,” one of them ordered.

  She glanced at Gnaw. He stopped struggling and unleashed a terrifying snarl. Her gaze darted back to the Elth. “I can’t while he’s in that contraption.”

  “You will or you die. Then we will bring in the replacement female.”

  She inched closer to Gnaw. He bucked once more in the restraints and snarled again, his beautiful eyes looking enraged as their gazes met for a brief second. She focused back on the Elth.

  “Notice how tall he is? I can’t breed with him in this. It’s physically impossible.” She stepped closer to make a point. The Veslor stood well over a foot taller than her.

  “The Veslor will kill you if he’s released. He’s murdered fourteen of us.”

  “I’m not your kind,” she pointed out. “I didn’t kidnap him. You did.” Her hand trembled as she reached out, placing her palm on Gnaw’s chest. His skin had a velvety-soft texture, stretched over firm muscles. She could feel them flexing with every heavy breath he took. He was also very warm.

  One of the Elth responded. “The Veslor will kill you. He has refused to comply with our demands. I wished the other female to die at his hands, but not you. You haven’t angered me yet.”

  She noticed that Gnaw’s wrist device had been removed. That was how he’d contacted other Veslors. It may have been a tracking device. If it was gone, they probably wouldn’t be found.

  A sharp pang of disappointment replaced her hope of being saved by the fleet soon.

  “He won’t hurt me. Just let him go. Please?” She glanced up at Gnaw, attempting to plead with her eyes. “Listen to me.” The words were directed at the aliens but meant for Gnaw. “We understand that you’ll kill us if we refuse to be your experiments. Both of us want to live.” She shot him another beseeching look, holding his gaze longer. “Gnaw is a smart man.” She reached up with her other hand and gently touched his wrist, where his watch device used to be, lightly rubbing the skin there.

  Gnaw stilled, his eyes narrowing.

  She purposely tore her gaze from his to glance briefly at where she touched his wrist, before staring into his eyes again. “Is that a problem, or do we just need some time to get to know each other?”

  He seemed to calm. “I’ll comply. We just need time.”

  She felt relieved that he would play along. Hope flared, too. Did he mean that they could still be found, even if his wrist device had been taken? Some races had trackers implanted inside their bodies. They’d had a Dorian alien get lost on her planet two years before. His people had found him by using an implant to pinpoint his whereabouts. Maybe Veslors did that to their people, too.

  She faced the Elth. “You heard him. He’ll comply. He won’t kill me. We’ll test to see if we’re mates.”

  “You’ll breed,” one of the Elth demanded, his tone harsh. “Often and immediately. We want your young.”

  Gnaw’s chest under her hand vibrated as he snarled.

  “We’ll do that,” she promised. “Just let him down and give us some privacy.”

  “Move, female.”

  She backed away from Gnaw.

  A yellow light shot from their ball-shaped devices, all three, and the laser lights slammed into Gnaw’s torso. He instantly sagged in
the restraints, his eyes closing.

  She gasped, horrified. Had they killed him?

  She panicked for a long second until she noticed that his chest rose and fell as he continued to breathe.

  The restraints on his limbs and throat opened, and his body fell forward before she could react, his head bouncing off the unforgiving floor. Darla lunged at him and dropped to her knees. Bright red blood shone as she gently turned his, where it had struck the hardest.

  A hiss sounded, and she looked over her shoulder.

  The Elth were gone and the wall closed.

  “Shat.”

  Gnaw was unconscious and hurt. She darted a look around the room again, examining every inch closely. The cell wasn’t like the last one. That had just been a room with nothing but floor, walls, and a ceiling. This one had that upright torture device, the exam bed—where she figured bad things took place—and along the wall was a cleanup area. There was a sink-like vessel in the corner, with supplies piled up at the end of the counter attached to it. She got to her feet and went over to inspect them.

  Most of the supplies were folded towels, some liquid that, based on smell, might be soap, or maybe some kind of cleanser for—

  It hit her then.

  The cell was for torturing their victims.

  She didn’t want to think too much about that—or about how that sink may be where the evil aliens cleaned blood from their tentacles after brutalizing their victims.

  “Monsters,” she mouthed, playing with the faucet, testing ways to turn it on until clear water poured out of it.

  She grabbed one of the little towels and wet it, making sure the liquid was indeed water by tasting it first—better her than Gnaw, at this point—and then rushed back to him.

  First, she cleaned his wound and got his head to stop bleeding. She also adjusted his body until he looked more comfortable. Lastly, she grabbed more towels to fold under his head as a pillow of sorts. There was no way she’d be able to lift him up onto that exam bed. It had padding but was taller than any she’d ever seen before. Then again, the aliens with their tentacles were taller than most humans.