Daughter of the Alien Warrior - Honey Phillips Page 0,4

daughter.”

Chapter Two

Two weeks later…

“Remove your clothing,” the Vedeckian ordered.

“I will do no such thing.” Jade raised her chin, giving him a defiant look.

His hands moved to the controls for the shock collar locked around her neck. A shiver of dread crawled down her spine, but she refused to let him see her fear. Her plan to escape had not worked out in her favor. She had severely underestimated the ruthlessness of the Vedeckian commander.

Before the Vedeckian could administer the shock, the other alien grabbed his hand.

“You can’t shock her, Kafri. Commander Kadica said that she will not fetch as many credits if she is unconscious.”

“Who cares? I just want the bitch off the ship after what she did to Kragan.”

Jade bit back an indignant protest. Commander Kadica had been the one to kill Kragan. Admittedly, it was because she had been holding a gun to the crewmember’s head at the time. She had foolishly thought that holding one of his crew captive would give her a bargaining chip. She had been wrong. The commander had shot Kragan himself, and the shock of his head exploding in her face stupefied her long enough for the commander to coolly take the gun away from her.

Once he had the weapon, he struck with an almost casual hand, but the blow had knocked her unconscious. When she awoke, she had been fitted with the shock collar. Although the commander kept his face impassive, she saw the sadistic delight in his eyes when he proceeded to demonstrate to her how it worked.

When she regained consciousness the second time, Kwaret had been placing cool cloths on her bruised cheek. She was no longer in the cell with the other women. Instead, she was in a small room, barely large enough for the cot she was lying on. Just as in the larger cell, three walls were composed of white metal while the fourth was glass.

“I wish you had not attempted to escape,” Kwaret had said softly.

“Yeah, well, I’m glad I did. Did you expect me to just wait around and see what you bastards have in mind for me?”

“I suppose not.” He tugged a little at the rigid metal band surrounding her neck and shook his head. “But I’m afraid this makes you more vulnerable to them.”

“I won’t give in to them,” she said fiercely. “Never. I’ll never stop looking for a way to escape.”

“I don’t suppose you would believe me if I told you that help is coming? And that you just need to trust me and be patient?”

“Trust you?” She snorted. “I don’t believe in trust anymore, nor in patience. If you want something, you have to go after it yourself.”

“I suspected that that would be your response.” Kwaret smoothed a cream around the edge of the collar. It burned like hell, and she tried to jerk away, but then a soothing numbness spread out from the cream. “Can I just ask, for your own sake, that you try and avoid antagonizing them?”

“You keep saying them. Aren’t these your people?”

“They stopped being my people the day they started selling sentient beings for profit.” He looked at her, red eyes solemn. “I am trusting you by telling you that.”

Even though she scowled at him, rather than responding, part of her was impressed by his honesty. Based on what she had seen so far on board the ship, even the suggestion that he might betray his crewmates would probably result in very unpleasant consequences.

Kwaret made no further attempt to convince her, but she did her best to follow his advice even though it went against all of her natural instincts. She had never been good at holding her tongue. But then again, not holding her tongue had been what started this whole terrible chain of events. The usual wave of guilt washed over her, but she pushed it away with a practiced familiarity.

The lights in the corridor had dimmed twice before Kwaret reappeared. She had seen enough of the Vedeckians by now to pick up on the subtle indications that he was worried.

“What is it?”

“We have docked on Driguera. They have decided to sell you.”

Fighting back a flare of panic, she gave a sardonic laugh. “So much for that help you promised.”

“I believe that it is on the way, but I can’t guarantee that it will be here in time.”

He lowered his voice even further as he bent over her, running a scanner over her collar.

“I am resetting the frequency in your collar. It will still