“We stay together,” she insisted as she stepped toward Aria protectively.
“No, actually, you don’t,” the woman responded.
As the stranger grabbed Aria’s arm and dragged her to her feet, Terrien stepped in front of Eva. He wasn’t menacing, exactly, but Eva was reluctant to push past him. He was tall, strong and masculine. She didn’t think he would hurt her, but he could definitely stop her. She could imagine his strong hand clutching her arm, the heat of his body close to hers as he restrained her. The thought sent mild, barely contained terror through her.
She licked her lips as she watched the uniformed woman lead Aria to a door, which slid open as they approached. A couple more uniformed men appeared and herded Eva and the others toward another door. Eva caught Aria’s eye and mouthed the words Everything will be all right. Eva felt the need to reassure the frightened, singled-out woman.
Eva and the others were jostled together as they were urged into a corridor, led past several doors, then around a corner to the right. A moment later, they found themselves in another room, this one smaller than the last, with a couple of easy chairs and a couch around a large, oval coffee table.
They sat on the couch and huddled together. Eva glanced at the other women, and her already tight breathing nearly strangled to a halt as she realized that Jenna and Crystal sat beside her, but there was no sign of Kate.
Jenna seemed to notice at the exact same moment.
“Where’s Kate?” Jenna asked, her voice thin.
Eva patted her hand. “It’s okay. Everything will be all right.”
She forced the words out in a calm tone, even though she felt anything but calm right now.
Crystal glared at the two uniformed men standing between them and the door.
“What is going on?” she demanded.
The door slid open, and a tingle danced along Eva’s spine. She spun her head around, and her gaze locked on the chiseled features of a breathtakingly handsome hunk as he stepped into the room. His honey-colored hair fell in waves to his shoulders, and his uniform jacket, adorned with three small gold ovals on the stand-up collar, hugged his broad, tautly muscled chest. Her pulse quickened, and her insides turned to hot, liquid velvet. A potent yearning pulsed through her.
The man’s eyes, the clear turquoise of the tropical waters of the Caribbean, turned on her, and her breathing stopped. He smiled, and her breath expelled. She could not tug her gaze from him as he moved to stand in front of them.
“Good evening, ladies. I’d like to welcome you to our ship, the Patira Alana. I am Commander Larson Raa-ling, the first officer. I’m sure this has been quite a shock for you.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Crystal said.
“I want to assure you, you will not be harmed,” he continued.
Eva wanted to protest and demand to see Aria and Kate, but she couldn’t find her voice.
“What do you want from us?” Jenna asked, her voice quavering.
“Let me explain why we have brought you here.”
He sat in the chair facing them and settled back into the cushioned upholstery. The tapered line of his uniform accentuated his broad shoulders and slim waist. Eva could imagine him stripping away his dark green jacket, followed by the shirt beneath, to reveal bulging arms and taut, well-defined stomach muscles.
“There is a power in the universe that takes a hand in our lives,” he said. “We call it nata’tai. It provides the means to keep us healthy, as individuals and as races.”
“We don’t want a lesson in alien religion,” Crystal sniped.
“To stay healthy,” Commander Raa-ling continued, “a race must grow. It must embrace other cultures. It must open its gene pool to other races, otherwise it will stagnate. Physically, emotionally and culturally.”
His words jerked Eva out of her hazy reverie. Open its gene pool. It sounded like—
“Oh my God, they’ve brought us here as breeding stock.” Jenna’s face paled.
Exactly what Eva had been thinking. She glanced at Jenna and squeezed her hand, trying to lend her strength, but wondered how long her own strength would last with images of tall, menacing aliens wanting to impregnate her marching through her brain.
Her gaze returned to Commander Raa-ling. Would he be the one to take her? Her breasts felt heavy, the nipples tightening. She wouldn’t agree, of course. He’d have to tie her up, or—she glanced at his big, strong hands—hold her down. She could imagine his masculine fingers wrapping around her wrists with a grip as firm as steel, imagine his lips dancing along her neck, seeking the sensitive hot-spot that turned her into a wild woman.
She shifted in her seat, her throat suddenly dry, a tingling heat rippling through her abdomen. The image frightened her as much as it turned her on. She couldn’t be sexually used by a man. Not again.
“You have not been brought here to be sex slaves,” the commander reassured. “As a race matures, nata’tai gives its people the ability to sense their tanash’ae—what you would call their soul-mate—even over great distances. To ensure a mingling of races, nata’tai directs the spirits of tanash’aei—soul-mates—to be born in different races on different planets.”