Renegade Runner by Nicole Conway (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📗

the nonchalant male voice. “You will now be outfitted in your environmental survival suit. Please dress quickly; you will be introduced to your renegade team partner momentarily.”

The screen went dark at the same time another metal panel slid open in the wall, revealing a hidden cubby with something tucked inside.

My hands trembled as I took out the suit. It was heavy, flexible, and made of a thick, dark purple-and-black material that felt like smooth leather. Only I doubted it was actual leather.

Gripping the garment, I stared back at the wall where the screen had been only seconds before. If they made me fly one of those things, however briefly that might be, I couldn’t do it in the thin space-pajamas I wore now. Who knew what might happen or where they might drop me next. This might be my only chance to put on something more durable.

Fear lodged in the center of my chest like a thorny knot, making every breath sharp and painful. I didn’t have a choice.

With long sleeves that covered me all the way to my wrists and ankles, the suit fit against my body like a glove. It seemed much sturdier than the white garment I’d been dressed in before. A matching pair of boots was tucked into the back of the cubby. They were made of the same material, keeping them flexible as they fastened up to my calves. Even the thick soles would bend and flex with my feet and had been cut with deep grooves for gripping slick surfaces.

I took in a deep, steadying breath as I straightened from fastening on the boots. I brushed some of my long, dark golden hair away from my face. It probably stank of sweat just like the rest of me, but my toady captor apparently wasn’t all that worried about what I smelled like. It just wanted me to follow orders.

To race. To win or die.

Probably die.

As soon as I finished, another, much larger, panel slid ajar on the wall to my left with a WHOOSH.

No, not a panel. A door.

It stood open, revealing the room directly next to mine.

My pulse skipped and stalled, fluttering wildly in my chest as I took a few timid steps toward it. My teammate was supposed to be in there, right? Someone else who had been captured and sold, just like I had. Another human, maybe? Or Enola? God, I could only hope it was her. I might actually stand a chance of surviving then.

“Hello?” My voice came out like a breathless, squeaking gasp as I crept closer. “Is … Is someone there?”

Movement in the opposite room made me spring back like a startled cat. But there was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Too late, I wondered if whatever alien creature was lurking in there might try to hurt me.

Then I saw him.

7

HERE, KITTY KITTY

“You have got to be kidding me.” The deep, masculine voice of an all-too-familiar beastly alien growled through the doorway.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

The towering physique of the same bizarre, brawny, behemoth of a guy that had fractured his containment cell loomed before me like a pillar of wrath. The weak glow of the lights cast his features in heavy shadow, making it hard to see the details of what he looked like. But his eyes—good god—they actually glowed. Shining like two cold copper discs, they seemed to catch and reflect the weak light like an animal on the hunt.

He glared back at me, not saying another word.

Then he took a step closer.

Oh no.

I darted back with a shriek. My heart pounded out of control as I looked around for something, anything, to use to defend myself. This alien monster had punched through that “impenetrable” cell wall with his bare fist. So what was he going to do to me? Throttle me until my head popped off like a cork from a champagne bottle? Or just beat me to death?

“You’re a human, aren’t you?” he demanded as he prowled closer. He had to duck a little to get through the doorway, but that brought him close enough that I finally got a good look at, well, whatever he was. What had Enola called him again? Unci-something? I couldn’t remember. And it didn’t matter right then since it sort of seemed like he might have been about to kill me.

With his chiseled brow furrowed into a deep scowl, his eerie eyes panned over me. He gave a disapproving snort. “A human who doesn’t even talk. Great.” He threw his head back with a noisy, growling sigh. “Very funny, frog! You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

I frowned, swallowing hard against the knot of fresh panic lodged in my throat. Who was he talking to? Surely not that Rout-whatever-his-name-was creature on the screen, right? Were there cameras in here somewhere?

Wait—did that mean he knew the alien that had bought us?

“I can talk,” I managed to mutter through chattering teeth.

The alien guy’s big eyes snapped back down to me, shimmering in hues of copper, sage green, and faint pale blue. Something about them sent chills up my spine, like staring into the gaze of a wild and powerful predator. Definitely feline. A lion, maybe?

The rest of him was no less strange, although he did have the same essentially humanoid features Enola and I shared. He had those two weird eyes that seemed a little too big, a straight nose that was currently wrinkled in disgust, and a mouth drawn into a sulking frown. He glowered at me like someone had pissed in his cereal.

“Congratulations. You wanna prize or something?” He scoffed, flicking his gaze away as he folded his two thick, brawny arms over his chest.

I narrowed my eyes as my terror ebbed away. Wait a second. Seriously? We’d been sold into some kind of alien death race and he was giving me an attitude like a bratty little kid?

Okay. Fine. If he was still planning to punch my skull in anyway, then I was at least going