Page 25 of The Alien’s Mate

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Ay’ta was scarily similar to Earth—and especially the deep Canadian wilderness. At first, Lila wondered if he had tricked her and brought her back, but then she’d seen a pair of flying animals that she knew didn’t exist on her planet.

After recovering from a smaller existential crisis, she could even enjoy the beautiful landscape of Atlas’s home planet. She breathed the air as if it were oxygen, but Atlas had told her that it had a different composition than that on Earth. She could breathe it because he had primed her—which she just guessed was him coating her insides with his sperm.

They walked into a city, with buildings like she’d never seen before. They weren’t houses, but more like giant steel trees surrounded by a thick pine-like forest. All kinds of creatures walked along the bridges connecting the steel constructions, but if they didn’t look like Atlas, they wore little to no clothing, and some had the same type of collar as she did. In any other circumstance, she would have been awe-struck by the countless different alien species she saw, but now, she only saw them as strangers. It was funny how the brain could simply cancel out some thoughts in favor of others.

Suddenly very self-aware, she covered her breasts with her arms. “I’m not comfortable being this exposed, Atlas.”

“It is not proper for a pet to be dignified,” he muttered.

Lila clenched her jaw. “So, humiliation is the standard treatment, then?”

“Humiliation would be public punishment,” growled he. “If you think I humiliate you by dressing you, then you know very little, pet.”

She wanted to snap at him that she didn’t know anything at all about his culture, because he had just scooped her up and taken her to space, but she bit her tongue and followed obediently. She kept her arms tightly around herself and followed as close behind him as she could.

People looked at her with strange, judgmental eyes, as if they knew she didn’t belong—and she could understand why, because all the other humans she could see were naked and dirty and following their masters, bent and whipped. Some were bloody, some were missing their hair and teeth, and some could hardly walk at all. She didn’t even want to imagine what the aliens had done to them.

A shiver went through Lila’s body, and she was suddenly very grateful for the sparse clothing she had received, and that Atlas was her “master”. He wasn’t gentle, but at least, he wasn’t whipping her.

They walked along the steel walkways, stepped onto levitating platforms, and made their way to what appeared to be a giant steel crown of an enormous tree.

“Where are we going?” Lila whispered.

“I need to speak with the High Chair.”

“What is that? Is that like a king, or something?”

But Atlas didn’t reply. He brought her to a pair of enormous gates that led into the crown, but two guards stood in the opening and demanded Atlas’s announcement.

“I am Captain M’kto, returned from Tel’ta,” said Atlas. “I wish for an audience with the High Chair.”

The guards gawked at him. “Captain! We didn’t—of course! She has waited for you.”

Atlas only nodded and grabbed hold of Lila’s arm before he strode in through the doors.

Lila had to run to keep up with him, and the grip around his arm hurt. She wanted to ask him about his name, but she could only hiss as his grip restricted her blood flow. He pulled her up several stairs, straight into a massive hall of stone and metal. The floors were silvery, but the rest of the room looks as if it had been roughly carved from mountains. Farthest away, there was a throne atop a tall stone peak, and Atlas dragged her all the way there.

On it sat an alien that looked like Atlas, but older and crumpled. Long, white tubes fell from the creature’s head and down the stone, much longer than the creature itself. The yellow eyes were luminous in the hollow face, and Lila shivered.

“M’kto.” Even though the voice was raspy and rough, Lila could hear that it was a woman. “You have returned to us. We were beginning to worry.”

“I was compromised on Tel’ta,” muttered Atlas. “The humans captured me after I crashed with my ship, and they held me captive.”

Lila felt the hair stand on the back of her neck when the woman’s yellow eyes settled on her.

“Is this one of your captors?”

“No, Your Excellence,” said Atlas. “This is an offering the human made to me. She released me.”

The woman cocked her head, and it looked as though it took her great effort to do so. “So you kept her as your slave? No…” The woman cocked her head to the other side, and it was almost as if Lila could hear her joints pop. “Not your slave—your pet .”

“Yes,” said Atlas. “She is my pet. She is primed and ready.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Why would you choose a human as your pet, M’kto? How could you allow yourself to steep so low?”

Lila felt offended, but Atlas said calmly, “If my dignity is your only concern, you need not worry. I do not care about what others might think of my choices.”