His Human Vessel (Zandian Masters 5)

Chapter One

The restraints around Bayla’s wrists kept her from rubbing her nose.

In dim awareness, she tried to move her hand again to relieve the itch, but it caught, yanked against an unyielding strap.

With a sharp inhale, she jerked fully awake as the memory of the huge horned alien with an injector gun rushed back. He’d shown up at the fertility farm where she and sixty other human females had been enslaved and bought her following a brief inspection. Then, without a word to her, he'd pressed the device to her neck, and everything had gone black.

She blinked at the light and took in her situation. She was naked, strapped down to an examination table by leather cuffs. The alien, who was not an Ocretion, the species who’d taken over Earth and enslaved all humans, wore a white lab coat and stood near a window with his back to her. This being was taller than humans or Ocretions, and he had purple-hued skin and eyes. He spared a glance over his shoulder at her sudden movement then turned back to what he was doing.

His silent treatment irritated the hell out of her. Did he not speak Ocretion? No, he must. She’d heard him speaking to the fertility farm slave masters when he’d bought her.

She licked her dry lips. “What are you doing with me?” Her voice cracked from lack of use.

The alien turned and walked to her side, a needle in his hand.

She flinched when he approached, but, with the restraints, couldn’t move. “Did you hear me? Can you tell me what’s going on?”

He ignored her and pinched the skin at the crease of her elbow, inserting the needle then drawing a vial of blood.

She looked away, her stomach queasy. Although she’d been bred and raised for nothing more than this purpose—to have her body poked and prodded, inseminated and vacated over and over again, she still hadn’t grown used to it.

She attempted to distract her mind as he fit a second vial to the tube. The lab room was small but bright. The window was unusual—she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen one like it. It didn’t let in much light, but a skylight in the ceiling somehow magnified sunlight through a crystalline structure, casting beams throughout the room. In fact, there didn’t appear to be any artificial light in use at all.

Having spent most of her life in a metal box with no natural light, she found it a profound improvement. It would be almost cheerful if she weren’t naked and strapped to a table. With no clue what was going to happen to her.

“Where are we? How long was I out?” she tried again, but still the alien ignored her.

He walked away, and she allowed herself to look at her arm, now neatly bandaged.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

He turned. Despite the alien features, she found him exceptionally handsome, but that was probably the fertility drugs talking. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His skin was purple-ish peach and smooth, his hairless jaw square. The horns on the top of his head gave him a rugged appearance.

“Is it customary where you came from for a slave to speak before she is spoken to?” He sounded more curious than angry.

A flush of something foreign rippled through her at his rebuke. She couldn’t be embarrassed, could she? Did she really care what this horned alien thought?

She kicked up her chin. “Normally, I am informed immediately what is expected of me,” she said primly, as if she lived to serve her masters.

“Ah. I see. Very well. I shall inform you. I am Daneth, master physician for the Prince of Zandia. You will call me Master. You will maintain silence unless I speak directly to you, especially if others are in our midst.”

She feigned remorse and lowered her eyes. “Yes, Master. What will Master use me for?”

“Our species lacks females of breeding age. I purchased you as a vessel to implant and grow a Zandian young.”

The familiar wave of nausea and dread filled her. Not another pregnancy. She couldn’t bear to have another baby taken from her arms. Of course, this one would be an alien, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much. She hoped conception would be a long and difficult process. She needed time to steel herself for another loss.

“In addition to your silence, I expect your complete obedience and respect. Any defiance will be immediately punished.”