Page 28 of Broken Triad
The pool under the cliff face is clear and deep. I wish I knew how to swim, how to dive into the stream and let it wash me away from the three aliens who spread out around me, flanking me, one in front, the one who grabbed me to his right, the other to the left. They are as sturdy as the wall of trees. I imagine running, racing towards the stream. They would catch me in seconds.
Even if I managed to get away, the stream would wind and curve in the forest. If I tried to follow the bootprints of the triad who barged their way through unspoiled forest, I’d get turned around, losing the path, lost in the middle of teeming life, tall trees looming over me uncaringly as I walked until I collapsed.
I resist the urge to look down, to feel with my hand the reassuring metal of the smartwatch nestled in the inner folds of my sweatpants. I took winter sweatpants from Brianna’s tower, despite the warmth of spring, so I could cut a secret pouch in the double layer of material to hide my knife and smartwatch. With that watch, I can send a distress signal, or use a satellite map to find my way out of the forest…
The three men are stock-still. They’re over seven feet tall, broad and huge, full black robes covering their bodies, hoods drawn low and masks covering their faces. Only their slate-grey eyes are visible.
I recognize the hatred and need that swirls in their gaze. It is them. The three men who owned me for a moment, only to have me ripped away by their General.
The one who carried me on his shoulder like a sack of flour slowly reaches up to his hooded face. He pulls his hood back and his mask down, revealing his freshly shaved face, the hard jaw and strong lines of Bolden’s features. The black half-circle gleaming on his forehead seems to suck up the light that trickles through the heavy foliage.
The other two reveal themselves as Krazak and Khra. I’m surprised Krazak let Bolden carry me—until I remember the wounds on his chest. Even he is not invincible. My feet would kick against his wound, opening it again.
I try not to tremble in the tense silence as the three men simply watch me, drinking in my being, forcing my mind to take in as much information about my surroundings as possible. Tendrils of water stream down the cliff face, and my eyes are drawn to a dark recess, over twenty feet up.
A cave.
The three Aurelians have found a cave, deep in the forest, a place where I could disappear and never escape. Even if the Aurelians land on the planet en masse, sending out patrols, I could be hidden for decades.
If they keep me here, I’m never getting out.
“What are you doing? General Ra’al will have your head on a spike,” I say, my voice quavering as I try to sound confident.
“Did you think I needed the permission of any man to take what is mine? You will be safe here, Lola, under our protection. The laws of the Priests supersede even the General. We saved your life. You belong to us.”
Khra steps forward. There’s hunger in his too-intelligent eyes. “Accept this. No one is coming for you. We are deep in the forest, where drones cannot penetrate. Ra’al cannot spare troops to search, and even if he could, he would never find you.” The way he states my powerlessness so matter-of-factly chills me. I won’t just be helpless. Out here, in the forest, I’ll be completely dependent on the three men for my survival.
The three men step in towards me. I back up, until my feet are on the rock edge, only water behind me. The birds are silent. The only sound is the stream and the pounding of my heart. The three men get in closer and closer, and I have nowhere to run.
“This is what you wanted. You knew it, from the first moment you saw us. You want this. You need this,” states Krazak, his voice deep and hypnotic. The black, priestly robes contrast with his marble skin, the soft material against the hard lines of his body.
“And you don’t know what you want,” I spit back, venomous. His eyes flash in anger. I have no more fear of provoking them. Nothing I do or say will change what happens now. They’ve gone against their Generals to capture me.
There is no limit to what they will do. I will not play the meek captive. I will not accept their rule over me. They have me trapped, but they will not be able to pretend that I want this.
Krazak stops like he’s been hit by a bullet. A strike of pain, through his eyes, an angry growl from Bolden. Bolden rushes forward and grabs me as I scream, throwing me back over his shoulder, and he leaps over the pool, grabbing onto the cliff before we can fall. He climbs the cliff face like a monkey, easily with one hand pressing me against his shoulder and the other finding handholds in the sheer face. My legs graze against the stone, cold and wet from the rivulets of water, but his grip is certain as I’m brought up the cliff face. I can only watch the other two aliens who look up at me until Bolden pulls me up onto a ledge, and strides with me into the cool cave.
He sets me down, again, and I take stock of my surroundings.
I can’t tell how deep the cave is, because fifteen feet in, there’s a sort of tentlike structure which spans the entirety of the cave, brown, thick fabric that forms a wall. It must be some sort of Aurelian technology, a tent that fixes to its surroundings. In front of it is a stone circle with firewood in it. The cave is maybe ten feet tall at its highest. We’re on a rocky outcrop in the forest. There’s a hole bored in the top of the cave. It’s unnaturally smooth. I imagine them using their Orb-Blades to open a vent, one standing on the other’s shoulders to reach that high.
Smoke signals. Could I make a signal with the smoke, somehow? How can they risk a fire in the middle of a forest?
Bolden is simply standing. My mind screams for him to do something. The cave is set up for long-term use. Even if the triad leaves, I don’t trust myself to scale down the wet face of the cave. I’ll be utterly trapped, whether they are in the cave with me or not.
Kazak and Khra scale easily over the wall, pulling themselves over the lip of the cave and leaping onto their feet like mountain goats.
Now I’m in an isolated cave with three huge alien warriors who stole me away. Each one of them dwarfs me, hulking, beefy slabs of muscle and power. No one’s coming to save me. No one can protect me from their infernal desires, the burning hatred and lust that engulfs them. Aurelian harems, controlled by the laws of the Aurelian Empire, are bad enough. Many women flock to that strict, harsh treatment, craving the ownership of the alien species. But Fanatics…there is nothing that stops these three from using me for their most base, cruel desires.
These three Fanatics will train and mold me into their perfect, submissive servant, and there’s nothing I can do. I step back, the yawning cave growing claustrophobic as the three beasts watch me, savoring the moment, three huge wolves who know their prey is trapped.
“You’re making a mistake. General Ra’al made Rachel his Queen. You think he’d betray his wife of the first day of Bonding? You haven’t done anything to me yet. You can let me go.”
“Obsidian has reined in the horde. Any one of his soldiers who so much as touches a woman who does not ache for it is sentenced to death.” Krazak’s lips pull back, showing his bright white teeth. There’s a glint in his eyes, as if they are diamonds and not flesh as he steps forward. “You’ve seen our faces. For kidnapping, we will have our heads cut off like common thieves. But I cannot steal what is already mine.” Those hard, diamond eyes stare up and down my body, settling on my breasts, my legs, my face, as if he wants to drink me all up, as if he wants to look at every part of me at once and hates the limitations of his gaze. I’m naked, exposed in his eyes, knowing he’s seen me nude, knowing that every private curve of my body is his to enjoy.
“I won’t say it was you. I’ll say…I’ll say three masked Aurelians kidnapped me, then left me here, and I got away on my own, without ever seeing their faces…” My mind races, my voice shrill and terrified.
Krazak and his triad step forward as if they share a mind. I need to find the words to slow their advance.
