The Colony Boxed Set 1. Grace Goodwin
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me to stand inside a strange room with blue lights glowing all around us. Beside us, on the floor, was an odd pool of bright blue water that looked, and smelled, oddly inviting.
Ryston stood beside us. But he wasn’t looking at the warden. His pale golden eyes were focused completely on me.
And just that quickly, I gasped, jerking in Maxim’s arms as Ryston’s emotions flooded me. Longing. Fear of rejection. Hope. Desire. Anger that I’d been threatened. Shame at needing to touch me, but stubborn pride in his ability to resist.
Everything feminine and gentle in me responded to my mates’ pain. I needed to soothe them. I needed to offer comfort in the face of such stoic emotional agony.
“God, I’m in trouble here.” I muttered the words to myself, but both of my mates’ faces turned to focus on me. And they focused. Completely. As if nothing else in the universe mattered but what I might say next. It was uncanny and wonderful all at the same time.
I held out my hand to Ryston, unable to deny him what he so desperately needed for another moment.
His giant golden hand wrapped around mine and I was flooded with his gratitude and contentment, his longing to make me happy, even before he spoke. “My contaminated flesh does not frighten you?”
I squeezed his hand and squinted at him in confusion. “Contaminated flesh?”
Years of physiology and biochemical knowledge jumped to a red-alert status in my mind as I waited for his answer. No matter what was wrong with him, I could find a way to fix it. Figuring out biochemical reactions was my life. Well, was my life. Before GloboPharma, and prison, and…aliens.
Maybe these aliens needed me. Maybe I could be useful on their planet. The prospect of having a puzzle to solve almost made up for my concern over Ryston’s health. Almost. “What do you mean? What are you contaminated with? Where is it?”
Maxim’s quick intake of breath meant I’d said something unexpected even before both of their reactions flooded my mind. Shock. Disbelief. Confusion.
“This, mate. My face. My eye. Maxim’s arm. We both carry lasting marks from our time with the enemy.” Ryston lifted his free hand to point to the silver markings in his temple.
I studied the unique, computerized-looking circuits that had been imbedded in Ryston’s flesh. The entire area was no larger than my palm. Not exactly an overwhelming piece of body art. I wanted to touch it, just to see what it would feel like under my sensitive fingertips, but that was all. And my hope for something useful to do with my future faded as well. “Everyone has scars. Yours don’t bother me.”
It was the truth. A few odd silvery lines? Big deal. I’d seen tattooed bikers with their entire upper torso inked in full-color chaos including skulls, naked women, Celtic designs, animals and all kinds of craziness. I’d seen people who had survived fires, the scars much larger and more obvious than a small streak of silver. Hell, I’d seen worse in the radiology wing of the cancer treatment center.
Ryston’s smile made my heart hurt and he bent down to kiss the back of my hand he held. “You are truly a miracle, mate.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that.” I didn’t understand what the big deal was but apparently, my reaction mattered. A lot. Maxim’s response was nearly as strong, his emotions bombarding me with hope and relief.
My mates needed to get out into the world and see some truly gruesome things if they thought I’d be turned off by a shimmer of silver in their skin. Please.
They broke me out of prison. They pretty much had me at Hello.
Maxim kissed the top of my head and I was irrationally delighted by the gesture, my chest flooding with warmth at his open display of affection.
I shouldn’t care. Emotional attachment was completely irrational. I’d known these two for all of fifteen minutes. But I did care. For some reason, I cared more than I was ready to admit. And after being alone through the arrest, trial and incarceration, it felt good to be held, to be touched. To be cherished—at least that was what the collar was making me feel.
“We are ready for transport, Warden.”
“Not quite, Governor. While I implanted her NPU so you would understand each other and communicate, her body has yet to be processed for transport to The Colony.”
Maxim sighed, clearly impatient, but unwilling to argue with the warden. “What do we need to do?”
“Place her in the water and step back. I’ll transport you two first. Once the protocol is initiated, she will be just a few minutes behind.”
Ryston squeezed my hand and released me, albeit reluctantly. Maxim, too, seemed strangely upset at the idea of being separated from me, even for a short time.
For big, bad-ass aliens, they were acting like marshmallows. And I liked it. A lot.
Maxim kissed the top of my head before bending down and settling me in the water, clothes and all. The water was warm, like a nice hot bath, and I immediately began to feel lethargic, sleepy.
Processed for transport? What the hell did that even mean?
I turned my head to look at Warden Egara. She looked strange as the blue lights surrounding the water cast odd shadows. I tried to ask about the lights, but my questions were already fading from my mind, as if they no longer mattered. Nothing mattered. I felt like I was in a dream. An amazing, comfortable, wonderful dream. The warden gave a little wave and swiped her finger over the table. “Good luck, Rachel. Your new life will begin in three…two…one…”
I tried to stay awake, but the bright blue light surrounded us and my head was suddenly too heavy to hold up.
The wall made a soft scraping noise as large panels shifted, closing us in like rats in a cage. For a split second, all I could think about was the scientific reality of transport, of my body being torn into billions of chunks of data and somehow streamed hundreds of billions of miles away, across the universe, to some strange planet I’d never seen.
Assuming all of those billions of tiny pieces of me were reassembled in one piece, I’d still never see Earth again. I’d never again put on my white lab coat or drive my car. Or smell a rose. Or watch snow fall in the mountains. Or hold a puppy. Stupid things. Little things. But losing them all together, in one big clump, hurt.
I wasn’t ready for this. If I’d volunteered for the Brides Program, or planned to accept a match, I could have figured all this shit out before I had to give it up. In the rush, I felt like something was being stolen from me. Like the millions of little things that made me who I was were being taken away. And I had no choice.
Yes, I had two hunky aliens who vowed to protect me, but somehow, I wasn’t quite sure that was going to be enough. The thought of never sleeping in my own bed again had tears streaming from the corners of my eyes. Stupid, but there you go. I couldn’t get them to stop.
A little whimper escaped before I could control myself, but Maxim’s voice found its way inside me, calming me.
“You are mine, Rachel. I won’t allow any harm to come to you.”
The vow sank into my head and heart as I felt the vehemence of the words flow through Maxim’s body. He meant what he said.
He was mine. All mine. This giant, powerful, fierce warrior was devoted to me and only me. Like, die-for-me devotion.
It wasn’t a new life, but it was a start.
And damn it that didn’t make it a little too easy to trust him and surrender to the darkness that rose to take me.
5
Rachel
Head spinning, I woke lying in some kind of medical station. The room was sparse,