Claimed for the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📗

bribed Anthony to tell me about.

This studio was very different from the last one. Instead of the kitchen, we made our way into a traditional Khanavai bathing room.

“Is that a swimming pool?”

“A bathing pool,” I corrected.

Mia spun around to stare up at me, her dark eyes huge. “Bathing? They expect us to bathe together on television?”

I grinned. “Traditionally, a bride and groom first bathe together completely clothed. You can think of it as something like swimming, if you like.”

Mia put her hands up to her cheeks, as if attempting to compensate for feeling flushed. “How dressed is completely dressed?”

“We will be wearing clothing that covers more than a human-style bathing suit,” I assured her, fighting to hold in a laugh.

“Then I’m looking forward to it.”

Mia stood on her tiptoes and kissed me.

I could do this forever.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mia

“I’m going to go back to my room and gather some clothing,” I told Eldron as we headed back to his quarters.

“Would you like me to accompany you?”

“No, thanks. I would love it if you told Josiah and Thorvid where I am, though.”

Eldron nodded his agreement, and we split up in the common area.

Now that we were all staying in Eldron’s room, there was no one living in the Brides’ Quarters, I realized as I came around the corner into the long hallway. The automated lights had dropped down to minimal, and it was, I decided, a little creepy.

I was halfway to my door when a figure stepped out of the shadows.

“There you are.”

I froze at the sound of his voice.

Frank.

Oh, God. No. What was he doing here? I spun on my heel to run, but I simply couldn’t move fast enough.

Although he wasn’t nearly as big as any of the Khanavai warriors, Frank was not a small man, by any means. He shot out one muscular arm and grabbed me, fisting his hand in my hair and jerking me backward off my feet. I started to let out a scream, but he slammed his other hand down over my nose and mouth.

“Don’t you dare let out a sound,” he growled in my ear. “You need to be absolutely silent, or I will make you disappear, and no one will ever know what happened to you.”

I didn’t mean to, but I let out a small noise of dismay—one he took as disagreement. “Don’t think I can’t do it. I have contacts on the station. How do you think I got here? Now, promise me you’ll be quiet.”

My heart pounded in my chest, but I nodded, trying to breathe around his hand. He pulled it tighter, reminding me for just a minute that he had control before he loosened it enough for me to drag in a breath.

“Where’s Joey?”

I clenched my jaw shut, irritated by the nickname I had never used and unwilling to tell him where Josiah was.

He tightened his fist in my hair, ripping some of it out by the roots. “Where is my son?” he demanded.

I whimpered, and Frank used his grasp on my hair to shake my head. “You’re going to take me to him now.”

He began steering me back down the hallway. If I could just get someone’s attention, get some help, I could get out of this. But the hall was entirely empty.

“Where’s your room?”

“That’s where I was headed,” I gritted out through my teeth.

“Lying bitch.” Frank shook my head again, snapping my neck back and forth. “They put you in the Brides’ Quarters, nowhere near here.”

My stomach clenched. Maybe he really didn’t have contacts on the station. If he had, he would’ve known I wasn’t lying. Then again, he almost certainly had some help—as he’d said, how else could have gotten up here?

That had always been the problem with running from an abusive police officer—he had contacts everywhere. The one time I had tried to report him for hitting me, his coworkers had banded together.

I couldn’t leave him openly.

Running had been my only option. I had known it then, and I knew it now.

But this time, I had someone to run to—I would simply be running from my abuser, but maybe I could count on being able to run to a savior, too.

I didn’t have a chance, though. He opened a door and shoved me into a darkened room. I stumbled and fell to my knees.

At the sound of a whimper next to me, I called out, “Who is that? Who’s there?”

“Mia?”

“Becca?” I scrambled around in the dark until I found my friend and threw my arms around her. “How did you get here?”

“Frank. He came to ask me where Josiah was. I had just heard from your commander—I didn’t think it would hurt for Frank to know now.” She sniffled. “I think he didn’t want me to tell anyone he was on his way up here.”

“It’s okay,” I comforted her. “I’ll get us out of here.”

I would, too. I just didn’t know how yet.

Then, in the darkness of the room, Eldron’s wristcom, still on my arm from the night before, pinged.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Eldron

“Where the hell is she?” I muttered to myself.

Behind me, Thorvid and Josiah sat on the bed playing some complicated handshake game that Josiah was teaching the Poltien.

I rang my wristcom again, hoping Mia still wore it.

This time, the screen unfolded to show Mia’s face, lit by the com’s vid. “Don’t say anything,” she ordered in a harsh whisper. “Just listen.”

The com’s light went out. I couldn’t see anything, but I could still hear.

A door opened, and then a male voice said, “I did a little recon. Maybe you weren’t lying after all. So let’s go to your room, if it’s really on this floor.”

What the Zagrodnian hells is going on?

Then Mia spoke. “Okay, Frank. Whatever you say. Becca and I will go anywhere you want.”

Frank and Becca?

I had spoken to Mia’s friend the night before.

But now, apparently, Mia’s ex-husband—and he really was her ex now; I had checked to make sure the paperwork had gone through—had come looking for Mia and Josiah.

And they