Chapter 1

Moments Earlier

“I’m so FUCKING done with that narcissistic PRICK!”

Breaking up with Hank was the best decision.

Textbook narcissist and of course no red flags until after we moved in together.

Clever strategy, waiting to unleash the kraken until I was too entangled to easily escape - but of course that didn’t stop me.

The man needed constant praise. It’s like he expected an applause for breathing. Ironic considering he was lackluster in bed.

Then there was his lack of empathy for anyone who didn’t share his reflection in the mirror. I kept lying to myself, thinking, ”He”ll change. He”ll see the light.”

Spoiler alert: The only light he saw were the imaginary stars swirling around his head when I smacked him sideways for being a cheating prick. I don’t like violence but catching him sexting his personal trainer with a picture of his eggplant was the last straw.

And it was the best damn thing to happen because it pushed me to finally break up with him. I left our apartment feeling a thousand pounds lighter.

And I haven’t looked back since.

Still I blame myself for falling into his trap in the first place. I’ve always been the no nonsense type that could easily read people. Apparently not all people.

Moving on from the lie was a bump in the road, but with my girlfriends supporting me, I”m a bad bitch back in business. I learned the hard way that my love couldn”t fix someone who didn”t see me as enough.

And tonight, the girls and I are celebrating six months of freedom.

“Ladies, I have to say, those kamikaze shots had something else in them,” I say as we trot out of the beach bar in the middle of a starry night. “I’m sure of it.”

“Well, let’s think about it. What’s in a kamikaze shot?” Jewel asks, slurring her words slightly.

Jewel’s a military girl, an Air Force pilot who rarely drinks, so it’s no wonder she can’t hold her liquor. Then again, we’re all way past tipsy at this point. I’ve lost count of how many shots we had on top of the margaritas we opened the evening with. But at least we’re still standing and nowhere near ready for bed.

It would be unreasonable to hit the sack this early, anyway. We only have this weekend to spend in Vancouver. We’re supposed to drive back to Seattle on Monday. Until then, we’re going to enjoy this summery getaway and then some.

“Vodka,” Alicia says, spraining her brain to remember the rest of the ingredients.

I’m laughing my ass off as we make our way down the sandy beach, the Pacific Ocean playfully lapping at our feet. “Triple sec and lime juice,” I add.

“Triple sex?” Alicia blurts out, somewhat confused.

“No, triple sec. S. E. C.”

“What the heck is that?” Jewel asks.

It’s a good thing nobody can hear us. We left the party at the beach bar terrace while the electronic music was still thudding and echoing into the night. More people are pouring into the bar from the city, but the girls and I have decided to go for a stroll along the beach. It was getting too crowded in there. Besides, it’s so beautiful out here as midnight approaches.

The middle of summer in Vancouver is surprisingly hot, but the ocean breeze still manages to take some of the edge off the heat. Under a sea of stars heralded by a full, pearly moon, the girls and I laugh and talk about the fun we’ve had—not to mention the fun we plan on having for the rest of this trip. We rarely manage to get together like this, especially since each of our careers has taken off in recent years.

“It’s a liquor made out of orange peels,” Cynthia explains. “Bartenders use it to make their cocktails stronger. It adds a nice zing to the drink, too.”

“Look at you, Little Miss Know-It-All,” Jewel chuckles.

“She dated that mixologist in Seattle,” Alicia quips. “Remember him? Constantine. Was that his name? Constantine?”

Cynthia can’t help but laugh. “Yeah. Nice guy. He liked snorting stuff, but other than that, he was heaps of fun. And I learned a lot during the short time we dated.”

We’re all barefoot, our fingers hooked through our high-heeled sandal straps as we go deeper into the night and farther away from the bustling, colorful weekend nightlife. I love this strip of beach because it dips along a residential neighborhood comprised mostly of vacation houses built on tall, wooden stilts overlooking the ocean. The sand is warm and soft, beautifully golden during the day, but the moonlight gives it a silvery glow.

The water stretches out for seemingly forever, dark waves trembling under the stars, and as the salty air fills my lungs and I relax, my thoughts are tranquil. I don’t know whether it’s the alcohol or just the overall joie de vivre I feel when I’m around my best friends, but I would love to go for a dip in the ocean.

“Come on, let’s swim,” I say, already peeling off my pale pink sequined dress.

“Isn’t it cold? We’re in the north here, babe,” Cynthia reminds me. “North of Seattle, I might add.”

“Yeah, but it’s still hot! Can’t you feel how hot the sand is?”

Jewel shoots me a cool grin as she slips out of her black tennis dress, dropping her sandals along with it. “I can’t feel anything at this point. I’ll blame it on the triple sex and join you.”

“Triple sec!” Cynthia says with a giggle.

“It sounds more fun the way I say it,” Jewel insists.

Man, I am glad to be with them. We’ve known each other since we were kids growing up in downtown Seattle. Our childhoods were anything but easy—tough family situations, a certain degree of poverty, and a shoddy economy had a noticeable impact on our upbringing, but we stuck together through the years, supporting and encouraging one another without hesitation. I love how we each developed such varied paths and personalities, yet we still work as a team when we’re reunited, like pieces of the same puzzle.

Jewel is the military brat who followed in her father’s footsteps. Sporting short, curly brown hair, delicate caramel skin, and curious hazel eyes, ever the tomboy in our group, she elbowed her way through the military academy and became one of the youngest and most promising Air Force pilots by the time she turned twenty-two.

“All right, fine, I give up!” Cynthia exclaims and sloughs off her shimmery, emerald-green tank top and black leather pencil skirt. Earlier in the evening, we all decided to wear our bikinis underneath our dresses. I guess we knew eventually, it would boil down to this. “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

Cynthia is the oldest of our crew, a fine woman at twenty-eight and an exceptional doctor. She’s about one year shy of finishing her residency at Seattle General Hospital. She wears her long black hair combed into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, her green eyes constantly scanning everything around us—a habit she picked up from time spent in the ER. A hard-working woman, Cynthia has already seen plenty of tragedy rolling into her ward on bloodied gurneys, yet she’s still fun-loving and warm.

“Hypothermia,” Alicia suggests, but she’s already wriggled out of her baby-blue cocktail dress and has her feet in the icy water. “That’s the worst that can happen. But it might be worth it. Oh, it’s chilly!”

“It’s not as warm as the sand was,” I concede as I go farther out.

Goosebumps prickle my skin, but I love the feeling. My spine tingles with delight as the ocean laps at my thick thighs, the water rising with each low wave to engulf my full hips. With each minute that passes, we laugh harder and squeal louder as we go deeper, delighted by the iciness washing over us.

“This is insane!” Cynthia says.

“Yet I don’t see you getting out!” Alicia shoots back with a laugh.

“I love it!” I reply, my cheeks burning as my body attempts to regulate its temperature against the cold water. “I LOVE IT!”

Jewel chuckles dryly. “Now you know what the first day of basic training was like for me!”

I’m so happy to be here. I’ve barely turned twenty-five, and only now am I realizing how little I’ve actually lived. Having met Hank when I was twenty-one, I completely devoted myself to the relationship, even though part of me knew it wasn’t good enough for me. But I stuck with it. At least I managed to get my fitness certification and built my clientele at the gym; otherwise, it would’ve sucked to depend on him financially. It would’ve made leaving him even harder.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

I should live in the moment. Right here, right now. Just me and my best friends, my comrades in arms, and enough alcohol in our bloodstream to make this midnight dip in the Pacific Ocean far more pleasurable than it would be if we weren’t drunk.

“I think I’m sobering up,” Jewel declares after a couple of minutes.

“You sound disappointed,” Alicia replies, holding back a hearty laugh.

White light glazes the water around us. It must be moonlight. I look up and realize the moon is still on the eastern quadrant of the night sky. No, this is something else. I hold my breath, my eyes searching for the source of the light. “What the hell is that?” I hear myself asking. But my voice sounds muffled.

“Holy shit!” Cynthia gasps.

“Get out of the water!” Jewel shouts.

Alicia screams, and the sound tears through the tender silence of the night. But I can’t move. All I can do is look up at the bright light and listen to the vibrations of the undulating waves. I feel a tremor of sorts, a low hum that rumbles in the pit of my stomach.

“AMBER!” Jewel yells.

But then the silence hits. Every single sound vanishes from my focus as the blinding white light swallows me whole. It’s eerily warm. I want to fight it, yet I’m powerless, unable to move. How did I get above the water? What is happening?

I’m being pulled upward.

It’s not natural.

Why do I feel so sleepy all of a sudden? Fear grips me by the throat, and for the briefest of moments, I’m compelled to resist. But I cannot. The light seeps through my skin. It flows through my veins, paralyzing me completely.

A heavy slumber takes over.

I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

In an instant, the light turns to darkness, and I’m lost.

I float in a thick kind of dream for what feels like forever. I can’t see a thing, only pitch black. But my skin picks up strange sensations—hot fingers clenched around my arms, and my throat is scratchy. It’s an odd feeling, though it doesn’t hurt. Not exactly. My ears pick up sounds, too. My friends’ voices. They are scared, their words hushed and frantic.

“This can’t be happening,” Cynthia whispers.

“How much fucking alcohol did we drink?” Alicia blurts out, but Jewel is quick to shush her.

“It’s happening, all right. It’s happening. And we need to wrap our heads around it fast if we want to survive whatever comes next,” she says.

Wait, what is she talking about?

Male voices breach the thinning walls of my subconscious with low growls and words I cannot understand. They’re unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. They don’t sound human.

My eyes finally peel open. Jewel nudges me with her shoulder. “Come on, babe, wake up and catch up, we’re in the deepest shit.”

“What’s going on?” I mumble, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing.

“You’ve been out for a while,” Cynthia sighs.

“What happened? Where are we?” I ask.

I look at the girls. There’s no denying they are scared out of their minds. Pale-faced and covered in a sheen of sweat, their hands are tied at the front with what looks like some form of silvery thread—tight enough to keep them from trying to wriggle free but not so tight as to dig into the skin. It’s a peculiar restraint. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this metal before.

Then, the rest of the picture comes into focus.

We’re in a large cubic space made entirely out of metal and something akin to thick sheets of fiberglass. Veins of shimmering obsidian spider across every surface, tiny jolts of light rushing through from one end to the other in a slow but steady rhythm. A persistent hum lingers in the background—an engine. An engine the size of the Chrysler Building, judging by the thunderous noise alone.

“What the hell is this?” I breathe as I try to understand my surroundings.

“Do you want the long version or the short version?” Cynthia asks, her tone flat but definitely irritated. “We’ve been awake for long enough to connect a few dots here.”

“Short version first.”

Jewel sighs deeply. Alicia holds back tears. Her warm brown eyes are puffy and glistening with emotion. This won’t be the first time she has cried in the past hour, at least.

Cynthia gives me a hard look. “We’ve been abducted by aliens.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” I immediately reply, disbelief clear in my tone.

A giant creature emerges from behind a sliding door, and we all scream. It stands in the doorway, massive and terrifying in its appearance—a tall fiend at about seven feet, bulging with muscles all over. Two legs, two incredibly strong arms. Humanoid in most of his features and surprisingly… good-looking? Sharp jawline. A straight aquiline nose. Long and silky black hair flowing over his bulky shoulders. But his skin is a deep shade of crimson, and the veins are slightly illuminated underneath as though lava is flowing through them. Short but sharp claws on his fingers. And four black horns protrude from the back of his head and curl forward.

His pointed ears twitch upon hearing our screams. A tail grows from his behind, long and slim and whipping about with a spike at the very end.

“What the hell are you?” I manage, my eyes nearly jumping out of their sockets as pure dread freezes the blood in my veins.

“Our abductors,” Alicia mumbles, shaking like a leaf next to me.

“Actual fucking aliens,” Jewel says.

The creature remains still, giving me a few more seconds to observe the layers of black leather-like fabric wrapped around his massively muscular body. Whatever he is, he seems to be able to breathe the same air as us—although I have a feeling there’s a tad less oxygen in the atmosphere of this bay. I’m somewhat lightheaded, but that could be the horror of this entire predicament having an impact on my senses.

And then I remember the white light.

“You’re serious,” I gasp. “We were taken? What the hell?”

“He’s been coming over here every two minutes or so,” Cynthia warns me. “His buddies manhandled us into this box thingy and tied us up. I’m surprised it took you so long to come to, Amber.”

“How long have I been out?” I ask, my eyes never leaving his. But his are so strange. An almost glowing red that burns with fascination and excitement.

“Maybe an hour,” Cynthia says. “We’re not so sure, either.”

There are no windows anywhere. Only the obsidian veins with their shooting lights. The fiberglass plates. The shiny, sleek sheets of metal. A plethora of tubes stretch across the ceiling, and a multitude of gears connect to two sets of sliding doors on both ends of the chamber. Our abductor came in through the left, so I can’t help but wonder if we might be able to get out through the right. But even if we got out, where the hell would we go?

The demon-like creature steps into the chamber, and my friends and I scream again.

He smiles, revealing perfect white teeth. He has four sharp fangs where the canine teeth are supposed to be. These would easily tear through flesh and crush a human bone or two. Fear chokes me as he moves closer.

“Stop screaming,” Jewel says, recovering her soldier instincts in the midst of this madness. “They haven’t hurt us yet. They only tied us up. They took us from where nobody could see us. It was fast and covert. I’m not sure what they want to do with us, but I suspect they would’ve killed us by now if that was on their agenda.”

“Maybe death would be better,” I reply shakily.

“Keep it cool,” Jewel insists. “We need to analyze this situation.”

Alicia scoffs. “We were kidnapped by fucking aliens, Jewel. Excuse me if I’m taking my sweet time being terrified.”

“We have to get over the initial shock,” Cynthia agrees as the demon creature comes even closer. “It’s clearly happening. We didn’t eat any shady mushrooms. We weren’t on any drugs when we left the beach bar. This is happening, and we have to think fast, adjust to the situation, and—”

“Survive,” Jewel cuts in.

“Survive,” I repeat the word with bated breath.

My heart is beating so fast; it’s making my whole rib cage shudder with every inhale. My chest tightens as the beast reaches us and takes a moment to measure us from head to toe. Perhaps I shouldn’t call him a beast. He’s wearing what appears to be a black leather uniform with gold-brushed tassels hanging from his shoulders and buttons running down his torso. His boots are polished to perfection. I can see my reflection in them. Suddenly, I remember the four of us were taken in our bikinis. Holy shit. We’re practically naked.

“What do you want from us?” I decide to ask the alien, my gaze wandering up and down his ginormous body.

I don’t see any weapons on him. Then again, that spike on his tail would be more than enough. He holds up a long, slender glass vial filled with a sparkling red liquid. It looks like droplets of pure fire. It’s weird. I don’t want it anywhere near me.

He says something, his voice a mingling of purrs and growls, but I can’t understand him.

“Do you understand anything?” Alicia asks me.

“Why, yes, Alicia. I’m fluent in five different alien languages,” I reply sarcastically.

Jewel has a point. We need to survive whatever comes next. But why does this guy look so effing… hot? There’s something about him that threatens to override my fight-or-flight instincts altogether. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s toying with my senses. If I didn’t know any better, I’d consider it a hint of arousal.

“What do you want from us?” I ask again, unable to conceal my growing despair.

He leans forward, and I’m about to scream, but I remember Jewel’s advice and bite my tongue instead. He brings the vial closer. Words slip past his full lips, yet I don’t know what he’s saying. I only know he wants me to drink from the vial.

“Oh, hell, no,” I shake my head and try to wriggle free of my restraints.

But his tail shoots out and wraps itself around my throat. Its grip tightens swiftly to the point where I cannot move unless I want him to snap my neck like a fucking twig. Alicia gasps. Cynthia whimpers. Jewel is frozen on the spot, watching me with ice-cold dread in her eyes. The demon says something again, and I have no choice but to accept the fluid as he pours a quarter of the vial into my mouth.

It feels like boiling tequila. It slides down surprisingly easily, but the heat it expends quickly spreads through my whole body before it works its way up to my head.

“Are you okay?” Cynthia whispers. My friends are watching me, helpless and terrified as I try to make sense of how I’m feeling.

“My brain’s… tingly, I think,” I reply, blinking slowly.

The lightheadedness begins to subside. A sharp ache cuts through my head. It vanishes a split second later, and I look up at my abductor. He must be releasing some kind of pheromone that makes me respond to his presence in such an inappropriate manner. I have to assume it comes with the species—whatever the hell he is.

“Can you understand me?” the demon creature asks.

“Holy smokes,” I croak. “Yes.”

“Good,” he says, then releases me from his tail and moves to Alicia.

She’s about to resist, but I urge her to oblige. “Trust me, it’s not gonna kill you,” I tell her.

“What is it?” she asks.

“I can understand what he’s saying now.”

Stunned but obedient, Alicia nods slowly and accepts a quarter of the vial. I’m surprised by the gentle motions with which the creature operates, as if he’s worried he might break us or hurt us. Then again, that tail can still whip me into the next life if I try something funny. Jewel is next to drink from the vial, then Cynthia.

The demon patiently awaits until the four of us are calmer and able to understand him.

“Can you all hear me the way you’re supposed to hear me?” he asks, sounding annoyingly calm.

“Yes,” Cynthia replies. “What did we just drink?”

“A proprietary substance designed to hold an entire language in the form of electrical impulses,” he says, a smile stretching across his lips.

“Lightning in a bottle,” Cynthia mumbles. “It must have a direct impact on the brain’s neural pathways, reprogramming the linguistic channels to be uploaded with a whole new language. This must be some kind of biotech.”

“It’s a good thing you paid attention in med school,” I say, then look to our captor. “What do you want from us?”

“That is a long and sad story,” he says. “Allow me to introduce myself first. I’m Umok, commander general of the Sky Tribe. One of seven charged with saving our species.”

“Umok,” I repeat his name. “Do you do this often? And by this, I mean kidnap women from other planets.”

The demon laughs and takes a step back. “It is my first endeavor of the sort. I didn’t think I’d capture four fine specimens such as yourselves in a single night, however.”

“Specimens?” Cynthia replies, her brow furrowed. “What do you intend to do with us?”

Eat us. Probe us. Slice us open. The possibilities are endless at this point. Why am I not freaking out here? How am I so calm? Jewel. She’s to blame. Her military training kicked in at the right time. We don’t have room in our minds for despair. We have to observe and analyze the situation carefully. We have to gather information, probe for weak spots, and figure out a way to escape. We have to survive. In order to do that, we must ask the right questions. I see Cynthia is ahead of the game.

It sounds silly, but I’m glad the four of us were abducted together. At least we can rely on each other to soldier through and find our way back home.

“I do not wish to harm you,” Umok says. “You are incredibly valuable to my people.”

“How so?” Cynthia asks suspiciously.

“You will make fine breeders.”

“Breeders?” I repeat the creepy ass word out loud. “Breeders? Oh, God.”

Umok smiles again. “Sunna, my world, was ravaged by a terrible plague. We don’t know where it developed first, and we do not have a cure for it yet. But it killed almost all of the female Sunnaites, leaving our civilization in ruin. Only a few women survive, and there aren’t enough of them to help us survive, which is why I, along with seven other pioneering commander generals of the Sky Tribe, have sought help beyond our star system.”

“Wouldn’t the plague be a risk to us, too?” Cynthia asks.

Umok shakes his head slowly. “I had your blood tested the moment we brought you aboard this ship. Your human bodies produce an antigen that is completely resistant to the virus. We ran a multitude of tests on other humans before we took you. We’ve been studying your planet for months now.”

“Why us?” Jewel replies.

“Convenience, for the most part,” Umok says. “I observed your cultural habits, your gatherings. Nights on the beach make for an excellent hunting ground.”

“You hunted us like wild animals.” I can’t help it. I’m too angry. Beneath the fear, I can feel the outrage bubbling toward the surface. He scoured an entire planet for a good spot to literally fish us out of the ocean. “You’re savages!”

“I resent that,” Umok replies, his slim brows furrowing with indignation. “I’m a man of science trying to breathe new life into his species so we might live to see another dawn. Your planet is overpopulated. Nobody will miss you.”

Cynthia shakes her head slowly. “We have friends and families there. You can’t just fly around and pluck people at your convenience.”

“Perhaps it’s a cultural difference,” Alicia says. “He doesn’t seem to care.”

“I cannot afford to care,” Umok replies. “My world is dying, and we need you. Everything else ceases to matter when the survival of an entire species depends upon bringing new females into the gene pool. Worry not, however; you will all be treated as queens.”

“Where is Sunna?” Jewel asks. Meanwhile, her gaze keeps wandering across the bay, her mind making mental notes and likely planning an escape route. “Where are we now?”

Umok takes another step back. The sliding doors open again, just in time for us to catch a glimpse of the view through the massive glass screen from the other room—the ship’s cockpit, to be specific. I see others like Umok, giants with horns and red skin and crimson eyes and spiked tails in gray uniforms, each of them attending to a position within the flight crew. Screens with glowing symbols, which I now recognize as numbers and coordinates, flash incessantly. Buttons and keyboards. Levers and cables galore. I have little to no technical knowledge to work with, but the view…

The view knocks the air out of my lungs as the harsh reality begins to sink in.

“We’re in space.” I hear myself say the words out loud, my voice trembling with awe and horror as the vast expanse of the cosmos opens up before us.

A planet rises ahead. It’s bright red with yellow swirls and black polar caps, slightly tilted on its axis. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, yet it is all too real. Behind it, two stars rise in unison, orbiting one another in the distance.

“That is Sunna,” Umok says, smiling gently as he follows my gaze.

Sunna revolves around two suns, I realize, gasping. “How far are we from Earth?”

“You will never go back home,” he replies.

“That’s far enough,” Jewel mumbles, staring at the planet growing larger and brighter in front of us. “They must have some kind of hyperdrive technology to travel this fast… I don’t even know which solar system this is.”

“How could you, Jewel? You’re an Air Force pilot, not an astrophysicist,” Cynthia quips.

“We studied the stars plenty,” Jewel insists. “I should be able to recognize a twin star system at least.”

“You are all in shock,” Umok says. “It’s natural for your minds to experience blockages. You may feel lightheaded and confused. Scared. You may not remember everything you wish to remember. Eventually, you will adapt. You will adjust, and you will make yourselves a new home on Sunna with us.”

“You’re crazy,” I reply, wishing I could just blink us off this ship and back to Earth. But that’s in the realm of fiction and fantasy. Ironically, I thought alien abductions were smack in the middle of the same category, except my friends and I are literally being carted off to another planet to become breeders for aliens. “You’ve lost your mind, and now we have to suffer for it.”

“Please, you have to let us go. Take us back,” Cynthia attempts to reason with him. “Our government will not fault you for this. They might even consider allowing other women to come to Sunna with you. Willingly. You don’t have to do this.”

“But I’m afraid I must. I specifically chose your side of the planet because of the geological and biological markers,” Umok says, arms crossed over his gargantuan chest. “My crew followed you from the minute you set foot on that beach. You see, we were searching for specific brain activity waves that best match our species. You and your friends are a splendid match. We don’t want just any women of Earth. We have chosen you, and you should be honored.”

“Honored,” I scoff, shaking my head in dismay.

Jewel leans in. “Don’t antagonize him. We could still figure out a way to get back,” she whispers. “We just need to—”

We’re interrupted by a flurry of alarm signals and agitated officers from the captain’s deck. “General, the ship’s shields were damaged upon leaving Earth’s atmosphere. Sunna’s atmosphere is too hot. The outer layers will not last until we breach.”

Umok rushes in there and retakes the empty captain’s seat at the far end, sitting smack in the middle of the giant view of Sunna getting bigger and bigger. He fiddles with the controls and starts barking orders as the ship begins to shudder and cave under the enormous pressure.

We’re jostled to the core, whimpering as we’re thrown to the side. I hit the metal floor with my bare shoulder and hiss from the sudden flash of pain shooting down my arm, but it’s nothing compared to what Sunna’s atmosphere is doing to the ship.

“Oh, God!” Alicia cries out as we all hear the outer layers clanging and crumbling, pieces coming off and snapping.

Each scraping sound brings us closer to a catastrophe. I can see it on the Sunnaites’ faces as they rush across the deck to try and contain the situation. But the turbulence is becoming more violent, throwing us around the bay until Cynthia hits her head and passes out.

“Cynthia!” I try to get to her.

The ship whirls around, spinning as it crumbles through the fiery atmosphere. Some of the crew scream in agony as parts of the deck itself come apart and crush them against the floor, then the wall, then the ceiling as the ship continues its disastrous and uncontrollable spin.

It’s out of control. I can’t even scream. All I can do is hold on to a bar mounted on the wall in front of me as everything is about to get infinitely worse. We shoot through a scarlet sky with yellow wisps of clouds, but the ship is beyond salvation. Alarms ring so loud my ears hurt. I taste blood on my lips. I may have accidentally bit my lip in the uncontrollable tumbling of chaos.

“Hold on!” Jewel cries out. She’s holding on to a handle similar to mine.

Alicia has one arm hooked around Cynthia’s waist as she manages to huddle in the opposite corner, where a third handle keeps her in place as we’re about to do another devastating spin. I manage to look up as we experience something similar to zero gravity. The ship is about to plummet into the distant ground. I see Umok cursing as he struggles to reach us.

We’re going down too fast.

“We’re going to die,” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes. None of this makes sense. We were just having drinks at the bar. Just skinny-dipping in the ocean. It was supposed to be a fun night out, not this waking nightmare.

Umok manages to reach the open doors of our bay, but he doesn’t get in. He can barely hold on as he gives me a hard look and slaps a button to his left with all his strength. “You must survive,” he says. “You must carry our seed. The others in my tribe will find you.”

“What are you talking ab…” my voice trails as the doors slide shut.

The air is decompressed from around the frame as I realize what’s happening. He unlocked the entire box from the rest of the ship. We’re hurtling through the sky, but we’re noticeably lighter. I don’t know what this thing is made of, and I cannot see anything going on outside, but I can tell we’re no longer connected to the ship because I can’t hear the alarms anymore.

“Amber, we need to hold on tight and pray we survive this,” Jewel shouts.

We’re still falling at a great speed.

“How the fuck do we survive this?” I ask in genuine despair.

“I don’t know,” Jewel says. “But Umok wouldn’t have unhooked us from the ship if he didn’t know we had better odds on our own up here.”

I wish I could find this thought reassuring. Yet the impact that follows so swiftly yanks the four of us from our seemingly safe spots, and we crash into one another, then the walls and the floors as the box tumbles down something hard and rocky. I’m knocked out before another thought can form.

When I come to,my whole body is aching. But I take a deep, wheezing breath and thank the mighty universe that I did, in fact, survive this stellar shit show. The silence following the crash is deafening. My flesh feels tender. My bones feel heavy. I lay in the darkness of the aftermath for what feels like forever, measuring my breaths and carefully observing my physical discomfort.

Nothing is broken. I should consider it a miracle, given the force of impact and the tumbling that came right afterward. Good grief, my head is still spinning. But I think I’m okay. Maybe it’s the adrenaline kicking in, but I manage to pull myself upright—only to fall back down on my ass as I realize we’re floating.

“What in the world?” I mutter as I look around.

One large chunk of the bay’s ceiling was ripped right off, probably during the fall. Dirt, debris, and plenty of broken tree branches made it inside through there. But the branches look weird. The wood is dark, almost black. I reach out and carefully take a twig in my hand. I turn it over a couple of times, then smell it. It’s not burned. This is its natural color.

“How did we survive?” Cynthia groans as she sits up.

Alicia’s arm is locked around her waist, even now, though she looks just as groggy as she recovers from her daze. “I’m not sure, but we did.”

“Jewel? Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. My ass hurts,” she replies and hoists herself up, wobbling before she regains her footing. “Girls, we’re floating.”

“Do you hear that?” I ask, frowning.

We can all hear it. The sound of rushing water. Our box landed in the water. Judging by the whooshing of rapids, we landed in a river. The four of us manage to come together in the middle, and we look up to see the reddish sky shifting.

“Yellow clouds,” Cynthia murmurs. I notice the blood trickling from her temple. She hit her head hard enough, but the wound itself isn’t that bad. It seems superficial. “Am I hallucinating, or is the sky red with yellow clouds?”

“No, it’s definitely red with yellow clouds,” Jewel replies. “How are you feeling, Cynthia? You got conked on the noggin pretty badly.”

“I’m okay. I think. Or at least I think I’m gonna be okay. What about you?”

“We survived,” I say with newfound determination. “And we’re on a planet with air we can actually breathe; otherwise, we would’ve kicked the bucket twice over by now.”

Alicia exhales sharply. “Whoopee for us.”

“We need to get out of this thing and figure out where we are,” I say, then cautiously make my way over to the wall. Some of the circuits have come off, giving me some nooks to use for climbing up to the ripped ceiling.

“We’re on an alien planet, babe,” Cynthia replies dryly.

Jewel chuckles bitterly. “Technically speaking, we’re the aliens, now.”

I manage to pull myself up the wall and through the opening, only to lose my breath at first sight. The river is broad but mellow, with clear, steaming waters. No wonder we were so warm inside. We’re practically lobsters cooking in this box. “Y’all need to get up here,” I call out to my friends. “You have to see this.”

One by one, Jewel, Alicia, and Cynthia join me on the top of the bay box.

The view is incredible. Eerie and like something out of a science fiction movie, but incredible and all too real. This river cuts through a vast plateau with scarlet cliffs and patches of black trees that seem to reach for the red heavens above. The grass is almost purple, with tall blades undulating under a soft, warm wind. I can’t see any wild animals anywhere, but somewhere far behind us, a plume of black smoke rises from behind a mountainous ridge.

“That may be where the ship crashed,” Jewel says, following my gaze.

“Do you think they survived?” Alicia wonders aloud.

An explosion swells with bright orange flames, the boom rippling outward and making the whole mountain tremble. The smoke thickens as it billows upward into the sky. “I guess that answers that,” I reply. “I cannot believe this. What do we do?”

Looking around, the river seems to go on forever. I cannot see beyond the plateau’s high walls, but I know we’ll definitely burn under two incredibly bright, hot suns. The air smells fresh, though. It”s cleaner than Seattle, for sure. It’s as hot as the heart of the desert out here, too.

“I doubt they have sunscreen on sale anywhere,” Cynthia mutters.

I’d laugh if things weren’t so bad for us. I think of my parents. My dog back home. At least my sister Tammy is staying at my place until I get back. Dog-sitting for three days was the deal. How do I tell her? How do I get out of here? How do I find Earth again? The desolation is quick to settle and squeeze my stomach for everything it’s got as I double over, struggling not to cry.

“Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Alicia says, squeezing my shoulder. “We don’t have the time or the luxury to give into despair right now.”

“I know, I know.”

“Think about it this way,” Jewel replies. “These bastards possess the technology of space flight. If they were able to find our planet, to study and bring us here, surely we could figure out a way to reverse-engineer the entire operation and fly back to Earth. You heard what that Umok fella said before we crashed. We’d be treated like royalty here.”

“Provided we spread our legs for them,” I say, the disgust unfurling in my throat.

Cynthia takes the scrunchie out of her loose hair and then puts it back on over a tighter bun. This is her “it’s time to get cracking” move, and it’s enough to help me recover part of my resolve. “Girls, come on. We need shelter. Water. And food. The basics of survival,” she says.

“How do we find food? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Alicia replies.

“Umok picked us for biological reasons,” Cynthia says. “A compatibility of genes and general physical features. This means that we should be able to eat whatever fruits this red earth has to offer. We should be able to drink from this river water. We already know we can breathe the air here.”

Our box eventually floats to the side and stops over a cluster of jagged rocks protruding from the river. I can see the peak of an active volcano just over the plateau’s top edge, which is lined with thick black trees, each embellished by rich, purple crowns of leaves. We get off the box, stepping carefully over the rocks until we reach the muddy shore. The red clay coats my toes, but it feels nice, reminding me of a spa session. I could do with some of that pampering right about now—well, that and a fistful of tranquilizers.

“Okay, so… What do we know so far?” Jewel asks while Alicia scoops some of the river water and inspects it. “Are you sure this water is okay to drink?”

“I think so. It doesn’t smell funny,” Alicia replies. “Should I taste it?”

“Well, it’s either that or die of thirst,” I say.

To our relief, the water is definitely drinkable, so we each hydrate as much as possible for the journey ahead. We sit on a bunch of rounded boulders, shadowed by an overarching tree as we go over our options.

The smell of sulfur and ash lingers in the air.

“There are active volcanoes everywhere,” Alicia says, pointing up along the plateau. “See all those threads of smoke?”

“We can smell ’em, too,” I say.

Cynthia nods slightly. “These Sunna people were naturally engineered to withstand the high heat and the volcanic activity,” she says. “But they have a lot in common with us as well. Carbon-based humanoids who need oxygen and water to live. That’s our starting point, and it’s a good starting point considering we don’t know about this place.”

“We also know that they wanted us for breeding,” I grumble, unable to shake off the discomfort of that whole idea. “The audacity shocks me to the core.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Cynthia replies with a shrug. “But we do know that Umok ran some tests on us and concluded that we’re immune to whatever disease killed off most of their women. That’s one concern we can cross off our list. There may be other pathogens and viruses to worry about, but we’ll cross that bridge if we ever get there.”

“Something tells me there’s one bridge headed our way as we speak,” Alicia gasps as she looks in horror to our left.

Cynthia, Jewel, and I turn around and see horned figures emerging from behind the taller rocks just a couple of yards downriver. The crackling of pebbles has me glancing over my shoulder to the right. More Sunnaites rise from there, which means the four of us are instantly surrounded. To the front, the plateau wall rises steeply. We cannot climb it to escape. Behind us, the river is too wide and deep for us to successfully swim across it. And then there are at least a dozen horned fellas on both sides. We’re screwed, and then some.

“Oh, no,” I whisper, slowly standing up.

“I count twenty,” Jewel says. “There could be more hiding.”

“No sudden moves,” I reply.

Two of the native Sunna people approach us first. Their tails are long like Umok’s, with a sharp spike at the tip. They’re just as tall, massive, and well-built at almost seven feet, with broad shoulders and rippling pectorals. Long, muscular legs and arms. The same luscious red skin. The same glowing red eyes. But they’re nowhere near as well-dressed as Umok. In fact, these guys are only wearing some kind of animal hide skins wrapped around their waists, long enough to cover some enticingly huge bulges and held up by belts made of solid gold disks.

I think they’re closely related. Younger than Umok. Likely brothers. Both, somehow, devastatingly handsome.

One of them wears his hair short and curly, shaved close on the sides. Two long horns grow from the back of his head, arching toward the front like a bull’s. His sharp cheeks and square jaw are smooth; fires burn crimson in his gaze as he looks at me. The other has slightly longer hair and a short beard, the kind that makes my fingers tingle with curiosity. What the hell is happening to me?

“I think they have some kind of hormonal effect on us,” I manage, feeling my throat dry all of a sudden as the men come closer. “Do you girls feel it?”

My blood simmers. I cannot take my eyes off either of these incredible creatures. I cannot stop myself from licking my lips as arousal bursts through my body in hot waves. Liquid heat pools between my legs, and I know my nipples are perkier than usual because I can feel them poking through the fabric of my bikini. I feel so naked and vulnerable and helpless. It doesn’t make sense.

“Who are you?” the curly-haired one asks.

“Please, don’t hurt us,” I say, my voice low and uneven.

The men exchange brief but surprised glances. The bearded one gives me a curious look. “You speak our language?”

“We were taken by one of your people. He gave us something to drink,” I tell him. “Something to help us understand and learn your language. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“The golden tongue,” the first one replies. “I know of it. I’ve heard about it.” He gives the bearded one a subtle nudge. “The Sky Tribe. This is their doing.”

“That explains the crash on Cloud Mountain, too.”

“We need help,” I say. “We mean no harm. We just want to go home.”

The men take another step forward, and I can feel my friends inching backward. I motion for them to stand still. It’s not like we can escape this. We could try, but we don’t really know who we’re up against, and if we’re to survive, we may have to be compliant before we figure a way out of this scorching-hot mess.

“I’m Binzen,” the curly-haired one says. “This is my brother, Izzo. We lead the Mal clan of the Fire Tribe.”

“We will not harm you,” Izzo adds. “But we cannot let you go, either.”

“Why not?” I reply, fear building up in my chest.

“You will be our wife,” Binzen declares.

A second passes in the most awkward silence before Cynthia breaks it with a tired sigh. “Well, shit.”