My Alien Beast (Draci Alien 3)

Her jerky movements quiet and she turns to look over her shoulder, her big blue eyes luminescent in the moonlight. “So you don’t want to…hurt me?”

“No.” I bark out the answer but then second-guess myself. Females are to be prized above all else. I would never hurt one, not even one of these primitive human females. But perhaps the threat of violence is necessary here. Maybe she should think I might hurt her…

The ends justify the means…

I tighten my grip ever so slightly on her wrists. “Not unless you displease me,” I growl in my most beastly tone.

And then I jerk her roughly back over the scrub brush toward the ranch house.

Three

GISELLE

They always say don’t let yourself be taken to a secondary location. It was like the number one tip in the self-defense class I took. Fight, kick, scream, even if they have a gun, it doesn’t matter, do whatever you have to, but never let yourself be taken to a secondary location.

Like this deserted ranch house in the middle of the desert.

No one’s lived here in a while, that’s clear when First shoves the front door open and dust bunnies swirl on the floor.

He drags me with him as he stomps over to the fireplace. Thank God he shoves me onto an ancient couch, also full of dust and fine sand that immediately makes me sneeze, as he shoves logs into the fireplace and then, holy sh—

He opens his mouth and fire gushes out. Like, I’m talking burning, white-orange fire. It comes out in one long stream and the fireplace wood explodes to life. I turn my whole body away from the blast of heat.

Wait, what the hell am I doing just sitting here? I jump off the couch so I can try to run for the door but First is there before I can even take a step.

At first, I think he’s wrapped his heavy arm around my waist, but then I hear the clink of metal and looked down. “What the—”

I swing around to look at him as he finishes securing the heavy chain around my waist. “What do you think you are doing?” I shriek.

“Getting a good night’s sleep. I’ve had a long day.”

“You’ve had a long day?” I echo incredulously.

He takes the other end of the huge, massive chainlink—something a regular man would not even be able to lift—and ties it off around his waist. It’s so heavy, I can’t do much more than sit back down on the couch.

“Good. Rest.”

That’s all he says before he lies down, stretching himself out on the floor beside the couch.

“Are you kidding?”

He just expects me to what? Fall asleep next to my kidnapper? It can’t be more than 9:00 at night.

Dammit, if only I’d slid my phone into my pocket instead of keeping it in my purse. How close is the nearest road, I wonder? Our closest neighbor? It’s nighttime and I didn’t see any lights other than the stars out there.

I shiver in spite of the fire’s warmth and peak over the edge of the couch. The first thing I see are First’s glowing purple eyes staring right back at me. I jerk backward and squeeze my eyes shut.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

This kind of thing doesn’t happen to me. I’m the good girl with the safe life. I do everything right. I don’t piss people off. I give back to the community. Sure, sometimes that means I get walked all over like a doormat, but I’m just trying to do enough. Be enough.

But you never are, are you?

Lying here scared out of my mind, it all seems so clear.

No matter how hard I tried, it was never enough.

I was never enough.

I certainly wasn’t enough for my dad to stay. I know the truth: he left because of me.

And now? There’s nobody in my life. Not really. Nobody will even be looking for me. Sure, maybe eventually Juliet and Ana will notice I’m gone or figure out something’s up with First, but it won’t really be about me. I’ll be a problem to solve.

And then they’ll go back to their lives and their real families and I’ll go back to being…Auntie Giselle. Going home to my empty apartment.

If I actually make it back home, that is. Really, I’m being optimistic thinking that I’ll get out of this alive to even go back to my maudlin little problems.

“What do you want from me?” I ask, my voice shaking. Will he try to ransom me back to Juliet and Shak?

“What do you think?” he growls. “What do we want from any of you?”

My eyes spring open and I scoot back on the couch as far as the chain will allow. “What do you mean?” He can’t mean — maybe he’s just talking about world domination and —