Guard (A Sci-Fi Alien Romance) Read online

  The door burst open and the commander marched inside.

  “I knew you weren’t to be trusted,” he snarled, his eyes ablaze with anger.

  I shrugged. “What do you expect me to do? Submit to a life of servitude and abuse?”

  A smirk broke out on his face. “It is the fate of you humans. So, yes.”

  I struggled hard. “You can’t do this to me.”

  “It’s already done.” He turned and bent to look at the injured guard’s injuries. “How amusing that Kefi lands himself with this mate,” he said under his breath. None of the other guards reacted – they were focused on trying to stop the bleeding.

  “Why? What’s so damn funny?” I asked, out of breath from struggling. I could feel the guard’s thick fingers digging into my upper arms.

  The commander turned back to face me with a look of utter contempt on his face. “All I’ll say is you better hope he rejects you.” He turned back to watch the hopeless attempts to field dress the guard’s wound. “You two – take him back to the barracks. Now.”

  The guard holding me released his grip and helped one of the others carry the injured one out. The other guard – the one with the lighter hair, who looked less robotic than the others – walked behind me and held me. I jolted as his hands made contact with my bare skin.

  I couldn’t remember a lot of things from my old life. Because there had been no warning of what was to come, we’d had no time to consciously make memories of things that seemed so commonplace then. Like school. Or friends. Or TV. But there was one thing I remembered vividly. One afternoon, maybe six months before the Erostrians, my friends and I had been hanging out after school when someone – I can’t remember who – suggested we go hang out at the salvage yard. We’d broken in through the gate and riffled among the heaps of scrap metal, more out of boredom than any belief that we’d find something valuable. I’d been at the edge of the yard when I tripped and fell against the high wire fence. I’d squealed in surprise when a mild shock bolted through my body. No one had told me the back fence was electrified.

  It was like this Erostrian guard’s body had set off the same sensation in me as the fence. I gasped in surprise and looked back at him. But he wasn’t paying attention to me. He was staring at the commander who was trying to radio through to their command center.

  “What is it?”

  The commander glanced around. “What do you think? I need Control’s guidance about what to do from here but noone’s answering. I don’t know whether to arrest her or have her processed here. If Kefi decides to keep her and there’s a delay…” he trailed off. I was surprised to see what looked like fear on his rugged face.

  I could feel the guard’s breath on the back of my neck.

  “I suppose the smartest thing to do is to have her processed,” the commander continued, glancing up as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head. “And then we’ll get a better look at this disobedient human whore.”

  The guard’s grip on my arms tightened. I gasped with the pain.

  “Medic. You may continue,” the commander snarled with a sadistic gleam in his eye. “Simo. Bring her to the table.”

  The guard behind me walked me slowly to the examination table where the medical examiner was waiting. The commander followed us over, standing feet away from where I stood at the end of the bed.

  Chapter Four

  “Please remove your clothing,” the medic said in a cold voice.

  The guard was still holding my arm. The commander’s eyes bored into me. He looked absolutely ecstatic. I looked down. It was bad enough that I was about to be humiliated but this asshole was going to get a kick out of it? I reached down and started to pull up the bottom of my sweater with my free hand. I tried my best to ignore him.

  “Faster, whore. If you weren’t such a handful I’d take you for myself.”

  I reacted before I could stop myself. “What? A guard commander given a human for mating? Have you Erostrians run out of suitable candidates already?”

  The commander’s face lit up in fury. He stepped closer and lifted his hand to strike me. I closed my eyes tight and prepared myself for pain. Nothing happened.

  “Don’t, sir,” Simo said in a deep voice. “It’s not worth the trouble. You go. I can handle her.”

  The commander looked irritated.

  I squeaked in pain as Simo - whom I’d stupidly come to see as an ally - lifted my arm as high up my back as it could go without breaking. “Ow. You’re going to break it,” I screamed.

  The commander looked thoughtful. “I hate to miss the show, but this one does make me want to do something I’ll regret. It’s best if someone of lower rank takes care of her. And you’re the best, Simo. I’ll send others.”

  He turned and marched out, pausing at the door. “Don’t leave marks.”

  I shivered. Simo stepped away from me and stood between me and the door. I watched him resentfully as I tried to massage some feeling back into my arm. It had felt like it was going to tear out of its socket. I asked myself why I thought he was different. Why had I made a hero out of him when I’d been relying on no one but myself for the past two years? He was the enemy. I smiled. He was also the only thing standing between me and freedom once the medical examination was over. I watched the muscles in his huge back flex. It wasn’t going to be easy I knew, especially since I’d tried to get away once. Plus they’d taken my knife. I glanced around the sterile room. There were trays of medical implements but nothing sharp. It was just an exam room after all.

  “I’m turning my back so you have some privacy. Don’t try anything stupid,” Simo said.

  It was like he’d read my mind.

  Pouting, I shuffled out of my clothes and lay on the exam table naked.

  “I said sit, child,” the doctor said gruffly.

  I sat up. I almost started to feel comfortable as he tested my reflexes - if it wasn’t for the fact that I was naked. Simo remained a couple paces away with his back turned. I heeded his warning and didn’t attempt to do anything. Yet. I remembered the commander’s words with a shiver. It said a lot about Simo that the commander trusted him to guard me alone. And straighten me out. Without leaving marks. I clenched my fists. I walked to the window as instructed and stood on the scale. The medic followed me dispassionately and recorded my weight and height on his chart. I was almost at ease when he led me back to the exam table.

  “Lie back and put your feet in the stirrups.”

  My eyes opened wide in fright. “What?”

  “You heard me. Please just do as you’re told.”

  “But why?”

  No one had ever seen me naked until I walked into this room. I could handle that. But now he was going to go further? With a sigh I lay back and put my feet into the cold metal stirrups, trying to ignore the fact that it prevented me from keeping my legs tightly squeezed together like they had been up to then. The medic moved in front of me. I closed my eyes: I didn’t want to see what he was doing. I just wanted this over with.

  “Ow,” I screamed as, without warning, something hard and cold pushed inside me. “What the hell?”

  I tried to sit up but I couldn’t: the presence of the foreign object made it too painful. I started to hyperventilate, trapped on the table with that thing inside me. “Get it out, please,” I sobbed.

  “What’s going on?” Simo demanded, turning around to glare at the medical examiner.

  I felt my cheeks redden as his eyes landed on my naked body. There was no sheet or towel for me to hide under. I watched him watching me: he looked utterly transfixed. He wasn’t looking at me in the same way as the other guards had when I took off my jeans. This was something different. My mouth felt dry: I found myself wanting to say something to break the silence even though only seconds had passed.

  “It’s a standard part of the procedure, guard,” the medical officer said wearily.

  Simo nodded. I could tell he was fighting to take his eyes off my body. And I realized something monstrous:
I didn’t feel disgusted by his attention. Quite the opposite. In a way I didn’t want it to stop. I stared at the ceiling, glad of the distraction from this awful exam, if nothing else.

  “Who is Kefi?” I found myself asking.

  Simo’s back stiffened. “Silence.”

  The medic sniggered. “You tell the Zeepa.” I wanted to get as far away from him as I could but I dared not move with that thing inside me, stretched open to the hilt.

  “And you, medic,” Simo said coldly. “Hurry and finish your work.”

  The medic reddened but didn’t speak again. I breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled the plastic out of me and started jotting notes on his clipboard.

  “Get her out of here,” he said, turning away.

  “Is it over?”

  He nodded, looking as relieved as I felt.

  I sat up quickly, feeling slightly lightheaded. When my surroundings stopped wobbling I pulled my clothes on quickly. The medic left the room. Simo was still standing a few feet away from me with his back turned. I stood quietly and stole up behind him. I wasn’t sure how I was going to disarm him and I didn’t have an opportunity to find out. He twisted around before I’d even reached him and grabbed my wrists.

  “I told you not to try anything.”

  “Of course I’m going to try something. My freedom’s at stake. If I don’t get away today then I’m going to be imprisoned in Kefi’s compound for the rest of my life,” I hissed desperately, searching for the glimmer of understanding I thought I had seen in his eyes earlier.

  He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that.”

  I clenched the muscles in my forearms as tight as I could and tried to break his grip. It was useless. Not only was he much broader than me, he was at least a foot taller too. The top of my head barely reached the top of his chest. There was no way I was going to overpower him. But that didn’t stop me from trying.

  “Let me go,” I hissed, dropping to the floor.

  He bent over me, still gripping my arms tightly. My breathing quickened as his amber eyes stared into mine. I stopped struggling for a moment. He moved his face closer to mine until I could feel his breath on my face. His lips brushed against mine and I felt another jolt of that electricity-like power I’d felt earlier.

  “Not here,” he whispered so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him.

  He moved away. I looked into his eyes confused. He let go of one of my wrists and held his index finger up to his lips. He shook his head. He grabbed my wrist again before I even fully realized it was free. I had been so transfixed by the beautiful alien in front of me that I’d forgotten to struggle. I’d almost forgotten to fight. I pushed against him with all the strength I possessed.

  “Why should I tru—”

  He clamped his huge hand over my mouth. “Time to get you back to the barracks.”

  I tried to speak but my words were muffled by his hand. He watched me intently. I rolled my eyes and nodded telling him I wouldn’t say anything. I didn’t know why he was so cagey. He removed his hand slowly.

  I frowned and repeated what I’d been trying to say. “We’re not going to Kefi’s?”

  He shook his head. “You’re not going directly there. I need to take you back to the barracks while they decide whether you’ll be mated or arrested.”

  “So I’m not… I’ve still got time…”

  He stared into my eyes and nodded so slightly that I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it. I was still trying to figure that out when the door burst open.

  “Sir, the commander sent us,” one of the three new guards said.

  Simo’s lips twitched down a fraction right before he turned away from me to face them.

  “Excellent. Any update on what they want to do with her?”

  The guard who’d spoken shook his head. “No. we’re taking her back to the barracks.”

  “I want two of you on either side of her and one in front. I’ll stay behind. She’s tried to escape before,” Simo said authoritatively.

  “So we heard, sir. Pira’s a good friend of mine,” the guard said, grabbing my arm with force. “Now he’s in surgery thanks to this.”

  One of the others laughed cruelly. “She’ll get what she deserves with Kefi. I’ve heard this is his third Zeepa. He keeps on breaking them and then getting a fresh one. Must be well connected.”

  I glanced at Simo. The muscles in his jaw were twitching. He was silent.

  Chapter Five

  We left the building and marched a block to the law enforcement barracks. It had been the police headquarters up until two years ago; now it was where the Erostrian guards were headquartered. It was also where prisoners were detained before being moved to prison. Not that there was much crime these days: Erostrian prison was said to be unbearable. They didn’t see prison as a way to reform or rehabilitate humans. It was merely another way to keep us under control and ensure we remained obedient. Ex-prisoners were returned to the factory lines once they’d finished their sentences. Hearing their whispered stories was enough to turn everyone but the most deluded into a law abiding citizen. The rate of repeat offending was said to be less than 1%. Nobody knew for sure: there was no newspaper or internet to consult.

  I held my breath as the huge, black, forbidding doors to the law enforcement building swung open.

  “Take her to the holding cells,” Simo said.

  I looked around alarmed as I saw him walk in the opposite direction to the way we were going. The guard who was holding my arm pushed me roughly down the corridor.

  “Hurry it up, Zeepa bitch.”

  I walked ahead of him, gritting my teeth as he pushed me along in front of him. The other guards snickered each time his hand landed between my shoulder blades. It got worse when we went through a secure door into a narrower, quieter corridor. By then, he was slapping my butt every step I took. Hard.

  “Hey, I know you’re pissed about Pira, but c’mon. If you leave a mark, Kefi’ll have your ass in jail.”

  “How long have you been on Earth?” I whispered as softly as I could when we’d started walking again. I tried to look straight ahead – the reinforced metal doors on either side of the corridor were beginning to freak me out.

  “Don’t try and befriend me,” he snarled, grabbing my hair and pulling so I was forced to stand on tiptoes. “We have nothing in common. You hear me?”

  “Now you see?” the other one said, grabbing my butt and squeezing. “She is a pain in the damn ass.”

  I was almost glad when we stopped outside the first open door we came to and they pushed me inside and closed the door behind me.

  The cell was sparsely furnished to say the least. A metal bench ran along one wall, covered with a thin-looking mattress. A toilet was plumbed into the opposite wall. The linoleum floor was filthy - I guessed it hadn’t been cleaned since the days when it was a police station. I sat down on the mattress, glad of my thick jeans. I hadn’t even thought to ask the guards how long I’d be here, I’d been so desperate to get away from them. I swung my legs in the air. My body was still buzzing with adrenaline – it seemed ridiculous to be sitting still doing nothing on what was supposed to be the day I escaped. But I didn’t exactly have a choice.

  All I’d known was I needed to escape between the moment the medical examiners changed my status in the records, and the point where I was handed over to Kefi. If I’d tried to escape before then, they’d have put a warrant out for my arrest. I’d never have survived in the city. I could have taken a chance and escaped to the wild, but even if I managed to get away I knew that was no life. We’d all heard the stories, especially in the old days, where families had escaped to try and protect their daughters.

  It was a no-man’s land. The Erostrians owned all the resources and guarded them fiercely. So it made sense that the only places to live free where the most uninhabitable places on earth. Places where there was no vegetation or shelter or wildlife. Only the most ruthless survived – and those that did sacrificed their sanity to d
o so, if the stories that buzzed around the factory floor were to be believed.

  Those who survived in the city were the ones who fell through the cracks. I’d first heard about the loophole from one of the whores in a bar in the alleys. Initially I hadn’t believed her. But then others told me the same thing. And they were free. It seemed so unlike the Erostrians that it didn’t sound true. But they were arrogant. And most of the women I’d spoken to had managed to get away because their mate had been killed on duty. Otherwise, they were kept under lock and key. There was no automatic arrest warrant for runaway Zeepas precisely because it was so impossible for them to get away.

  There was a tiny window of opportunity for escape: after leaving the administration building and before being delivered to the compound. That was it. Otherwise all hope was lost.

  Chapter Six

  “Clementine.”

  My eyes burst open at the sound of my name. I looked around, not remembering where I was for the first few seconds. As my eyes focused, I realized there was someone else in the cell with me. Someone huge. I blinked.

  “Why did you call me that?”

  “Because it’s your name,” Simo said with a note of amusement in his deep voice.

  I sat up and shifted my legs to the ground. He came and sat on the bench beside me. The metal groaned under his weight. He was so close to me that our legs were almost touching. My breath caught in my throat. I realized with embarrassment that I’d been dreaming about him before he walked in. I cleared my throat.

  “What are you doing here? Is it time?” I whispered, looking into his amber eyes for answers.

  He shook his head. “No, the council is still deliberating.”

  I sighed with relief. “Good. I hope they cancel the mating.”