Alien Beast's Warrior Bride - Juno Wells Page 0,78

I thought that if I gave the alien variety he would be satisfied and not come back, forcing us to give him more and more women.”

Jill finally drops down beside one of her companions on a small settee. “Jesus, I didn’t know it was like that. I thought we did something wrong or the military just had it out for us.”

“Not at all. I just thought you had a better chance of survival. You all seemed smart and resourceful. I even entertained ideas about you figuring out how to escape once the war was over. I guess that’s just part of the bullshit people like me tell themselves that enables to them to do despicable shit to other people.”

Jill sounds off again, sounding indignant. “Hey, you’re not the victim here. You do know that, don’t you?”

Finally, my Borak speaks his peace. “Though the three of you are the most grievously wronged, you are not the only ones to suffer by far. My Juliet’s grief is evident in her voice when she recounts this tale. I know the elite ten were devastated at being forced to hand over beautiful queens that should have been sheltered and protected to this strange creature we did not know. We talked through the night about different ways to do the job that only the creature could. Aside from poisoning the last clear water sources on Earth, we could think of nothing to spare the three of you this fate. Once you spend time with our kind, you will know how deeply handing you over wounded our soul.”

Jill frowns. “It must not have grieved you too damn deeply because not one single person came to check on us.”

“You were under constant monitoring through our security system. That is how I know all three of you were malnourished and the dark haired one had a festering sore on her left heel. Our healers loaded your food and drinks with supplemental nutrients to correct multiple deficiencies. Since the injured one was also the only one to eat fermented foods, we put an antibiotic into the smooth dairy product you call yogurt. She ate it every day for five days, but a full allotment would have been for seven days. That is why you each received individual desserts geared for your taste for two days.”

The dark haired one comments thoughtfully, “We did wonder about that. It was the only time we got food in a specially marked box with our name on it.”

“Back up and tell me more about how you had us under surveillance. Did you have cameras watching our every move?”

Drawing his wings up into a tight knot, Borak replies darkly, “That was not permitted, nor would it have been considered appropriate. We monitored your biological signatures only. It is similar to the scan a healer performs in order to determine the best course of treatment.”

Jill’s anger clicks down a notch.

Borak squats down beside me, seeming a little deflated. “We did the best we could by you. We even insisted the shifter gave each a translation chip so you could communicate with the crew as you liked.”

Jill sighs. “That turned out to be a complete waste of time. We were never allowed out of our quarters. That means the only people we talked to were each other and Zeong.”

I perk up. “You called him that before. Why?”

She looks at me like I’m simple. “Because it’s his name. His people recognize each other by harmonic frequencies. His is pronounced Zeong.” This time when she pronounces it she changes the inflection of her voice making it sound like a musical note.

“This makes way more sense than trying to talk to and about him without using a name. How did you figure that out? Did he tell you?”

“He communicated with us telepathically. That’s the name he thought of as referring to himself.”

“Wow, you were in his head. What was that like?”

“He’s just another dude, albeit a confused one. All he thought about was killing parasites and taking care of his skin bag. Then Amber came along and everything pretty much got pushed aside. After that it was Amber, Amber, Amber morning, noon and night.”

Borak stiffens beside me, squeezing my hand harder. “What you mean, he took care of his skin bag?”

Jill glances at the other two before answering. “That’s what he calls his humanoid body. You know he’s tiny and the body is just the form he uses to interact with the world around him. At first he was all