Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

Jane

I t could be said that there are days in one's life that are so pivotal, you aren't the same person afterward. This was that day for me.

There was a single message on the pad. It had been encrypted, meaning it could only be accessed by me, upon recognizing my face. It took an extra moment to decrypt, because my face was different than it had been before. The document on the device was simple and clear.

I had to read it three times before the words sank in.

Beloved Eleanor,

I don't believe for one moment that you are dead, as was reported by the Mitran representative. When you receive this message, and I'm certain you will, I expect you to reach out to my contact in this sector to arrange your transport off of Mitra and back to Earth. I'm very disappointed that you did not honor your agreement to rendezvous with him previously, forcing me to take disciplinary measures against you. I have seized your brother's assets and have seen him terminated from his place of employment. You know I dislike punishing you, Eleanor. I don't understand why you continuously force me to do so.

You must accept that I am your husband and you will return to your place at my side. I found your attempt to divorce me interesting, considering I have so many contacts in the judicial system. They lost the documents you filed, of course. They will always lose them. There is nowhere you can go that I cannot find you, Eleanor. Know that I have forgiven this transgression and look forward to reuniting with you and resuming our wonderful marriage. It's time to put aside your little tantrum and return home, where you belong.

Your loving husband,

Alexander.

The words were menacing. Horrible. The feelings that rose up within me when reading them twisted my stomach into knots. I have a brother? That alone made my head spin. And he'd been stripped of everything because my husband was using him to punish me .

I'd given little thought to my family on Earth, since I couldn't recall anything about them. It was easier to not wonder. It hurt a lot less.

My hands trembled violently. I dropped the small screen onto the bed.

Alexander . I knew that name. Just the syllables rolling through my mind made nausea roll through my stomach. I could almost hear the voice that spoke the words in the message. It was deep, authoritative and ruthless, and there was nothing "forgiving" about him. I pulled my knees up and hugged them, curling into a small ball as memories flashed, swift and brutal. I remembered pain and manipulation associated with this man. I remembered turmoil and desperation, and I recalled the persistent feeling of being trapped. Whatever blocks had been put in my head to stop my memories, the rest of my brain was working around them, giving me back some of what had been lost.

I would've preferred the memories to stay lost, if this was what I had before I was "Jane." It was little wonder why I had reinvented myself and came to Mitra.

I whimpered and rocked, as more memories surfaced. They came in fast as snapshots, like cards slapped on a table. I remembered selling jewelry at a pawnshop to get money for new identifying documents, which was no easy task with everything being digitized. I paid a tremendous sum to a hacker who was able to put Jane Miller—a name I'd picked because it was easy to say and wouldn't stand out—into enough databases for me to pass through the security checks. I remembered the transport from Earth. Ah, I'd felt more free with each light year passed through space. There was Paige's smiling face. She was nervous, and so was I. I remembered our immediate bond and thinking I'd made my first true friend since I'd been a child.

Recollections after that were brief. I remembered being enchanted by Thrail Praxan. I loved the sounds of the great hall, the delicious food, the music, and the Mitran males themselves. In all of their muscular, beautiful, horned glory.

Eleanor had been left behind. Destroyed, or so I thought. But then he had found me. I remembered another datascreen just like this one. I was to meet his contact. He had managed to bypass security and entered the Thrail through a rarely used tunnel. I had to meet him there or Alexander would ruin my brother's life. I remembered going with a bag of a few belongings I'd collected, knowing that it was possible I would be taken straight out of there, hustled onto a ship and brought back to Earth. Back to Alexander. But I couldn't let him hurt my brother.

Only, I never met with Alexander's representative. As I stood in the tunnel, there had been a flash of light and a dizzying numbing pain, and then, nothing at all.

I remembered nothing more about what came after, other than the memories that I had already pulled up. Perhaps my mind was protecting me by refusing to deliver the horrors that occurred in the hands of the Evis-Vok.

Or perhaps those memories would come later.

I got up and started pacing. Putting these pieces together felt impossible. Based on what I remembered now and the clear information in this message, I was married to a tyrant named Alexander, and he had been cruel, but very, very powerful. I took that in again and worked it through my mind— I was married .

That explained why I broke things off with Cigra, the Mitran male I had been seeing, and why I was in that obscure tunnel when I was abducted. It explained why Jane had such a thin history and why I had come to Mitra in the first place.

I hadn't been looking for a male to bond with. I'd been running away.

And I was about to do it again.

Halfway across the galaxy had not been far enough to escape Alexander. Would it be enough to escape the entity controlling my implants?

I didn't know, but now there was an added layer. Instead of being abducted by my husband's people, I'd been abducted by an alien race. Now, I was in danger of putting everyone here at risk.

Any doubts I had that leaving was the right move, vanished. My resolve firmed up. Even if I wanted to be with Siroc, how could I? Having a husband on Earth disqualified me from this program. The moment my true identity came out and my marital status was revealed, my time here would end, no matter what.

If Paige couldn't help me, I would find a way out myself. With that thought in mind, I pulled an unused screen down from one of the shelves and began to write a letter. Siroc deserved to know who I really was and why I was leaving him.