Freeing Luka: The Clecanian Series Book 2 Read online

  Play by his rules for now.

  He must’ve seen the decision on her face, because he smiled and began speaking. “Our people, and the many races therein, are headed toward extinction. Males outnumber females twenty to one. Many attempts to have children are unsuccessful, and when they are successful, most of the children born are male. Our attempts to grow life using artificial wombs have failed. We’ve been searching endlessly for a race descended from our own that has compatible females.”

  Her head pounded. There was so much to take in. “You brought me here to become pregnant and have alien babies because you think humans are descendants of Cle…Clecin—?” Alice said, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

  “Clecanians, yes.” Helas corrected. “We have yet to be successful, but after today…I’m hopeful.” He seemed pleased when Alice remained silent. “Long ago, Clecanians mated for life. There was only one person for another. If a Clecanian’s eyes changed color, they knew the person they were with could be their true mate. If markings, called mating marks, appeared around both wrists, then they knew for a fact they’d found their true mate. Historically, true mates had the best chances of any couple to conceive.”

  Alice glanced down to his wrists instinctively.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not your mate.” He chuckled. “There hasn’t been a mating in over a hundred years. However, when you walked by the room I was in earlier, Luka, the male inside, had quite a reaction to you.” Helas leaned forward, his grin widening. “He recognized you. His eyes changed.”

  Alice’s recalled the eerie onyx of the snarling man’s eyes and felt bile rise in her throat. “You brought me here because you think I’m his mate?” she said, glancing to the wall. How was she supposed to handle this news? Not only was he telling her that she was to be bred like an animal, but that the chained, roaring alien a few rooms away was supposed to do the breeding.

  “I brought you here to be artificially inseminated and studied just like any other test subject. The fact that Luka recognized you is purely coincidental and highly interesting. I think you two have a better shot at creating life than any other beings in our facilities. And I think if you do turn out to be his mate, we’ll have proven that human females should be considered a subspecies of Clecanians and taken seriously as a viable alternative to the females already living here.”

  Helas rose from his seat suddenly, causing Alice to stiffen.

  “This is what we’re going to do,” he began matter-of-factly. “Every day, you will be taken to his room, where he will be chained. I’d like for you to sit with him so we can see whether extended proximity makes his mating marks appear.”

  “Why will he be chained?” Alice asked quietly, not wanting to upset her captor but needing to understand what kind of danger she’d soon be facing. “Is he violent?”

  “He’s been drugged since he got here. We were testing some new medications on him to make it easier to…” a cruel smile spread over his face as he searched for the right word, “obtain samples.”

  “Samples?” Alice started, appalled. “You can’t mean—”

  Helas smirked then began studying her room, as though the conversation was banal. “I can, and I do, mean samples of his seed. Luka is only half Clecanian. His mother was from another planet, Traxia.”

  The briefest flash of disgust passed over his face at the mention of Luka’s mother.

  “Members of our organization believe that tainting our ancient bloodlines with that of different species is…wrong. Although I agree, there is no denying that mixed-species Clecanians are walking among us, and with the amount of pure Clecanian births continuing to dwindle, our people are becoming desperate.” He focused on Alice, his words spilling out of him now. “Only a few weeks ago I had a revolutionary idea. I decided perhaps there was a way to alter part of the biological information transferred through procreation. What if we could extract only the Clecanian pieces of DNA and combine them to produce a pure Clecanian sample from a mixed-breed individual?”

  Alice felt her skin crawl. How could an alien species that’d made such advances in technology still have such antiquated views?

  “Then all we’d have to do to create undiluted offspring would be to alter the mixed-species’ diluted genetic material.” Helas’ chest puffed with pride, but then the corner of his mouth twitched. “I explained this to Luka, tried to convince him to stand with us and aid me in my endeavor, but he declined. He was unwilling, as so many who are brought here are, so I have been forced to do what is necessary to test my theory.”

  “So that makes it okay for you to rape him?” Alice whispered.

  His smile stayed in place, but his right eye twitched, betraying his calm demeanor. “We do not touch him in that way. Weekly, we dose him with a drug that makes him feel overwhelming lust and clears his mind. He’s chained, and then every few days he’s allowed to relieve himself. We merely collect the sample.”

  Her shoulders straightened. “He hasn’t consented. You know what you’re doing is wrong. Don’t pretend like it isn’t.” Alice felt a surge of satisfaction as she witnessed the twitch return to his eye at her words. She’d always been braver whilst defending others than when standing up for herself. For some reason, it came easily to her. See a patron talk down to a coworker, rage like an avenging angel. Get talked down to by a patron, shrivel into a self-conscious mess.

  “We’ll have to agree to disagree,” he said after a moment. “In any case, his chains will act to keep you safe, as well. If he recognizes you as his mate while on these drugs, he’ll try to get to you, and he won’t have the presence of mind to be gentle.”

  Alice clutched the lamp tighter. An unfamiliar urge to inflict pain assailed her. This man was the kind who’d throw a person to the wolves and then ask for a “thank you.”

  He stood and crossed to her, his large frame crowding her. His stance was meant to intimidate and frighten; Alice hated that it worked. Cold sweat broke out over her skin, and she began to shake. The scent of rubbing alcohol and something else she couldn’t quite place wafted over her, stinging her nostrils. “I won’t allow him to touch you, and in return for my kindness, you will go in there every day and attempt to make his mating marks appear.”

  “How?” she asked in a squeaky voice as hundreds of terrifying possibilities flashed through her mind.

  Helas’ shrug was noncommittal. “If proximity doesn’t work, you will touch him. If that doesn’t work, we will have to think of something else.” He allowed his smile to fade away, and at last, the coldness in his eyes matched the rest of his expression. “I am not asking.”

  She stayed silent and felt the pressure of tears forming behind her eyes. All she wanted to do was curl into a ball in the corner, but she forced herself to stand tall and not let him see her cower.

  In an instant, his mask of aloof kindness was back in place. He stood and walked briskly to the door. Motioning to the small table, he said, “I’ll have more food and water brought to you tomorrow. Sleep well.”

  After he left, Alice sank to the ground, her legs unable to support her weight. Pulling her knees to her chest, hot tears rolled down her cheeks, and the deep sobs exploding from her tore at her throat like sandpaper.

  Her whole life had changed so drastically in less than an hour. She wasn’t on Earth anymore, and if Helas had his way, the rest of her days would be spent in this room, either pregnant or trying to become pregnant.

  There was no one to help her. No one to hold her while she cried. For all she knew, there were no humans on this planet at all. Alice would need to save herself somehow.

  Tomorrow she’d be strong. Tomorrow she’d do what she had to do to survive. But just for tonight, she’d allow her pain and sadness to flow through her unrestrained.

  Alice cried for what felt like hours until only dry, ragged sobs escaped her. She didn’t try to rise from the cold concrete floor when her eyes slid closed. When she eventually drifted to sleep, she dreamed about the chained man.
/>   Chapter 2

  Alice roamed around her room and scanned the bare walls for the umpteenth time. There was no clock. There was never a clock, but she couldn’t help checking and rechecking. For all she knew, she could’ve slept for two hours or twelve.

  There were very few things Alice was obsessive about. In most respects, she even considered herself laid back. Her house could be a mess without it frustrating her. Food could be slightly too cold. Wrinkled clothes weren’t a cause for concern. But not knowing what time it was always made her anxious. It wasn’t like she did anything with the information. She wasn’t rigidly early or constantly late. She just liked the comfort of knowing.

  It was complete and utter bad luck that her wristwatch had stopped working the day before she’d been taken. Or had it been an omen? At the time, she hadn’t thought much of it. Just another electronic giving out after extended use. She always had her phone with her anyway, and the turquoise bicycle she rode everywhere had a watch mounted between the handlebars.

  She began nibbling her short nails. Ripped from everything she knew, her whole measly existence on Earth, and she didn’t even have the small comfort of knowing the time. At this point, she’d even settle for a sundial. Her steps faltered, and she narrowed her eyes, glancing at the ceiling.

  It won’t be the same sun. How long are the days on this planet?

  She let out a short shriek into the empty room, fisting her hands at her sides. The one thing she could count on, the one thing that should’ve never changed, was now uncertain.

  This is bullshit! she thought as she gnawed the cuticle of her index finger and continued pacing.

  She was fixating on something that didn’t matter. She realized that. The fact that there was no clock wasn’t nearly as stressful as thinking about what might happen to her in here, but she couldn’t focus on that for too long without dread starting to bubble up, and this was no place to have a panic attack.

  Already, every small sound she heard made her flinch and sprint into the bathroom. Any minute now, they could come through the door to take her, and she still wasn’t certain what she should do about that. Fight them tooth and nail?

  Go along with it and search for an opportunity to escape, she told herself. There was no sense in fighting right now. It’d probably make things worse for her.

  Trying to make herself busy, Alice tidied the already tidy room. She cleaned up the spilled water and carefully picked up the pieces of broken glass, none of which were large enough to use as a weapon, then looked around, annoyed there was nothing left to do.

  The sound of approaching footsteps made her scramble toward the bathroom.

  Grinding metal sounded before the door opened, and yellow eyes met hers. One of the men from yesterday glared at her. She knew his name was either Gishen or Sal, but he hadn’t been directly addressed, so she wasn’t sure which name belonged to him.

  “Helas wants you to bathe. Knock on the door three times when you’re done. You’ll be given food after you’re done with Luka.” He moved to exit, not waiting for her reply, but she stopped him.

  “Wait! I, uh…I don’t know how to use it,” she muttered, frustrated she had to ask her jailor for help over something that should be so simple.

  She’d searched the small bathroom earlier after relieving herself to see if she could turn on the corner shower, but she hadn’t found any knobs or controls. The toilet had flushed on its own, so she’d swept her hand under the round opening in the ceiling she assumed water would come from. Nothing had happened.

  Yellow eyes shot her a cruel, condescending smile. “Stupid human. Did you try standing underneath the faucet? The floor has pressure sensors, and the cleansing unit will activate automatically.”

  She ground her teeth together and searched her blank mind for a good retort but found none. “Thank you…is it Gishen or Sal?”

  He bristled. He must not like the fact that she knew his name. Good.

  “It’s Sal.” He shot her another cold smirk. “But the only name you need to be thinking about today is Luka. He’s been in a particularly violent rage since yesterday. I’m sure he’ll be very excited to meet you.”

  Alice felt the blood drain from her face. One look at Sal told her he must’ve seen it too, and she cursed the fact that he knew how his words affected her.

  “I’ll be waiting outside. Don’t take long,” he said.

  “Well, fuck you too,” Alice mumbled, walking to the bathroom and stripping off her jeans and T-shirt.

  Seeing the state of the clothing in her hands, she decided if she survived through the day, she’d attempt to wash her clothes at night. She might be caged like an animal, but she didn’t have to feel or smell like one.

  Cautiously, she placed one foot on the floor of the cleansing unit. Thick white foam poured from the faucet, rather than the water she’d expected. Alice swept her hand under the stream of foam and examined the fizzing substance tickling her skin.

  “This must be what passes for a shower around here,” she said to herself, noting that the grime covering her hand had vanished wherever the thick froth bubbled.

  She stepped into the falling foam, spreading it around so it coated all of her exposed skin. After she was covered, she stepped from underneath the faucet, allowing the fizzy substance to slowly pop and crackle then melt away, leaving her skin clean.

  Worst. Shower. Ever.

  She did her best to finger-comb her tangled hair, but the drying foam and lack of conditioner made that downright impossible, so she smoothed it as much as she could and then stood frozen, gazing at the cell door. Sal had told her to hurry, but she couldn’t seem to command her feet to move. If she didn’t go, he’d come in. It was inevitable. She might as well meet her fate with her head held high.

  Eventually, she found the courage to pound on the door three times then jumped back when it opened.

  Sal studied her appearance. “Did you use the toilet?”

  Alice grimaced at the personal question. “That’s really none of your business.”

  Leaning against the door frame, he shrugged. “Suit yourself. There’s no toilet in his cell.”

  She blinked, indignation for Luka roaring through her. “Why… How… Do you expect him to just go on the floor?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest defensively. “He spends his evenings in a different cell and is only brought there during the day for testing.”

  She said nothing but shot him a withering glare. The distraction to her razor-thin nerves was welcome, outrage preferable to hysteria.

  He held her glare for a moment, then stood aside, motioning for her to exit the room ahead of him. He didn’t move out of the doorway, so she slid by, clinging to the wall as she passed the burly alien.

  His large palm wrapped around her upper arm while they walked down the hall, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from complaining.

  Anxiety started to crawl up her spine. Is this my last day on Earth? A crazed giggle burst from her, and Sal shot her a perplexed look. Of course it isn’t! My last day on Earth was who knows how long ago. This might be my last day on this shitty, damned, godforsaken— Stop. Stop. Calm down. No use falling apart now. Think about something else.

  “Do you know what time it is?” she asked, forcing her voice to sound polite.

  He glanced sidelong at her with a scowl. “Why?”

  “Because I like to know the time.”

  He focused ahead of him and was silent for a moment. “You should stop caring about things like that.” His words were cruel, but they lacked venom, as if he were giving her hard advice rather than taunting her. All the same, the little bit of hope for normalcy she’d clung to dissolved.

  When they reached the room a few doors away, Sal pounded on the metal twice in quick succession. Nausea rolled through her when the door opened and Helas appeared, throwing her a toothy smile. Today he wore another jacket in a lighter shade of yellow. Maybe it was an alien version of a lab coat. Or maybe he has the worst sen
se of style in the universe.

  “Thank you, Sal. Please put her in the room,” he said, moving out of the doorway.

  Sal shoved her unceremoniously into the small cell, less than half the size of hers. In a flash, she hunched over, pulling her arms in protectively and balling her fists. Her eyes flew to the chained man kneeling on the floor only a few feet away. His large arms were shackled behind his back, and his head lolled in front of him. Was he asleep?

  “Don’t worry,” Helas announced. “He’s passed out for now. I’ll wake him when I get to the control room.”

  She glanced at Helas, then back to the man. Even slumped, she could tell he was huge. His bare chest and torso were heavily muscled, and although he was kneeling, his head rose to her rib cage. He had to be well over six feet when standing.

  Her breathing quickened, and her throat felt like it was constricting. She lunged toward Helas and the door. Luka was too large. What if he broke free?

  Helas shoved her to the floor. “You will stay here. He’s chained to the wall. If his marks appear, I’ll let you out.”

  Luka grunted in sleep, and she stilled, eyes wide.

  “Looks like he’s waking up,” Helas exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I’d better get to the control room. I’ll be watching.” He pointed above the doorway to a small lens mounted on the stone.

  Before she could move, the door was closed and locked.

  Alice sat perfectly still in the corner of the room for long moments, watching the man and trying to control her breathing. Cold sweat broke out over her body.

  He can’t get free, she reminded herself, examining the taut chain connecting his shackled wrists to the wall behind him.

  When she’d first glimpsed Luka, he’d been completely naked. Now, she was relieved to see, he wore soft, loose pants that hung low on his hips.

  Her eyes were drawn to a large bruise running along his rib cage. Anger flared in her again. Had they kicked him? As she scanned his body, she saw his pale tattoos curving around other small cuts and bruises, some almost healed, some fresh.