Chapter 4

Veda looked up at the monster who had her in his arms. He looked half-lizard, half-man. He had no nose; instead, there were two holes for nostrils over his rough, blue scales. When he yelled in a language she could not understand, she saw his pointed teeth.

She was horrified! Her worst fear was coming true. Clearly this angry man was going to carry her off to do something terrible to her. She could not let that happen.

She leapt out of his arms and started trying to run quickly in the mud that surrounded her, though obviously that was difficult to do.

Where was she? Her memory was foggy, but she was trying to put the pieces together. This wasn't the Nyx Station. This man was clearly an alien but not the alien she expected to be holding her at the end of her trip.

She looked down at her body—she was only covered by a thin strip of cloth. She had no underwear on or anything. She felt naked, vulnerable, and unable to protect herself.

However, she supposed no amount of clothing was really going to help protect her from this man. She looked up at him. He was massive, covered in thick, blue scales, and had a tan underbelly. He must've been six feet tall, and he was significantly more muscular than any human man Veda had ever known.

"Who are you?" she yelled instinctively, though even as she did it, she knew it was stupid. He clearly didn't speak English.

He looked less angry now and more panicked. He started speaking again, this time to another alien man across the room. She had not even noticed there were two of them at first. She was so focused on the man who was holding her.

The second alien rushed out of the room, and Veda stared at the man who was holding her a moment ago. She was still slowly backing up through the mud, though, frankly, she wasn't sure why. What the hell was she going to do, make a run for it? And go where? This wasn't Earth. She didn't know where she was or where to go to get help.

When the second alien came back, he ran right for Veda, and she panicked once again. Why was he rushing toward her? What were they going to do to her?

But then she saw it in his hand… the transcomm implant she had previously been wearing. It was placed in her ear back on Earth so that she would understand her future alien husband once she'd gotten the chance to meet him… But why would this alien have it?

She took it from him carefully, her hand shaking all the while. She could not get her nerves under control.

She placed the implant inside her ear, though, so she could at least communicate with these two.

"What is going on? Where am I?" she asked.

"Do you… not remember anything?" She heard the words translated in her ear as the blue one moved his mouth.

"No," Veda answered, growing more anxious that she had no recollection of anything.

"I am Traze," he said.

"Oh, uh, I'm… Veda," Veda stuttered out.

"You are Veda. Yes, I know."

He did? But… how? How did he know? And how did she get here?

Being able to communicate calmed Veda a little bit, but not entirely. She was still so confused. Her failure to remember anything was alarming to her. Did she have some kind of brain damage or something?

Admittedly, though, when Veda looked at Traze, she did feel a little calmed. He had scared her by yelling the way he did when she awoke, but he seemed calm now. And there seemed to be some kind of sympathy for her in his eyes. But perhaps she was reading into that because it was what she wanted to believe and not because it was actually true.

Veda's head jerked to the right when she heard other voices coming nearer. Not the alien voices of the men she was speaking to now but human voices… Women speaking English…

For a moment, she thought she must have been imagining it. Surely she could not be hearing human women speaking… Could she?

She started walking toward the voices, straining to hear more. Thankfully, they were getting louder. Veda knew they were coming near her, and her heart began to race as she awaited their arrival.

When three women walked in beside three other massive alien men, Veda's eyes nearly bulged out of her head.

"Who are you?" Veda yelled out. "Why are you here? Why are we all here?"

The women looked at Veda strangely. "You're… awake. We were so worried, we didn't think you were going to pull through," one blonde woman said slowly.

"Pull through what?" Veda asked through heavy breaths. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

Another woman spoke up. "Don't you remember being aboard the IGMA Tranquility?"

This did spark some memories for Veda. Yes, she did recall being aboard that ship. Of course she did. It was the biggest decision she'd ever made in her life. Choosing to fly to another planet to be shipped off to her new alien husband in order to finally settle down and have a family… Veda had been incredibly excited about it. She was more than ready to begin her new life with an alien mate.

She looked back over at the blue, scaly alien. But surely… This was not her alien mate. She couldn't recall ever landing on the Nyx Station and being shipped out to her mate.

"Are these… our new husbands?" Veda asked warily.

Another woman frowned. "Honey, we never made it to our new husbands. The IGMA Tranquility crash-landed here on the planet Atera. You don't recall any of that?"

Suddenly, it came to Veda. She didn't remember the crash, but she could recall the moments before. The ship was going down and the women around her were screaming bloody murder. Veda had braced herself for the impact, unsure if she would make it out unscathed.

And, clearly, she hadn't made it out unscathed at all.

"I was hurt. Wasn't I?" Veda asked.

"Yes… You've been in a coma for weeks," the blonde woman said.

As soon as Veda heard she'd been out for weeks, she began to panic. Her chest rose and fell quickly. She could not catch her breath.

This wasn't what she planned, not at all! She was supposed to be leaving Earth to start a new life with the mate who had chosen her! Now she was on this strange planet, injured and surrounded by these alien lizard creatures? This couldn't have been what happened. This couldn't have been her life. This was the one decision that was supposed to go right in Veda's life…

"Oh, no, she's really freaking out!" one of the women said worriedly and began to approach her.

Another woman followed. "Honey, calm down. It's okay. I know it's a shock, but it's going to be okay."

But the women walking toward Veda did not calm her. In fact, being approached only seemed to increase Veda's anxiety.

She jumped out of the mud and began to sprint away. She wasn't sure where she was going, where she even could go, but she was going to leave as quickly as she could. It was instinctual. She felt fear, so she had to leave.

But Veda didn't get far. Suddenly, she felt large, rough arms wrap around her. She turned around to see the blue alien man picking her up effortlessly.

Veda immediately started to thrash against him. She didn't think she could become any more fearful, but she quickly realized how wrong she was.

She started hitting the man. "Let go of me! Let me go! You can't do this! You can't grab me!"

But he said nothing. Her punches on his chest didn't seem to bother him whatsoever. He continued to pull Veda tightly to his chest as he turned around and carried her out of the room.

"Help me!" she yelled out to the women… but to Veda's shock, they seemed entirely unconcerned.

"Honey, it's okay! Just relax!" one of them yelled to her.

How could they be so blasé about the fact that a massive alien was now carrying her away? They didn't seem concerned at all! Why weren't they trying to stop him?

At first, Veda thought they might have been afraid to. But they didn't look afraid. And Veda noticed one woman even leaned into one of the alien men.

Could it have been that they simply weren't afraid for her to be carried off at all? Did they trust this blue alien?

Veda looked up at him after she finally stopped fighting him for a moment. He didn't seem angry, and he didn't appear to be determined to hurt her. Veda sensed something in his eyes… It felt almost protective.

Veda didn't entirely trust him, but she did ease up a little bit, and unfortunately, she was far too exhausted to fight anymore. Without warning, Veda suddenly began to drift off to sleep in his arms.