Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,348

creature blinks and watches the movement with interest. I wish I’d worn a shirt that fits today. Instead of one I bought in the charity shop that’s a full two sizes too small, and makes my boobs look outrageous. Hey, I am not going to bypass a Dolly Parton shirt, any day, in any size.

The four octopus people gasp in unison, look to the door behind them and furiously click buttons on their strange devices. Trumpet music pipes into the room we’re in, and I raise an eyebrow. What the actual fu...

“Oh, Jupiter and its many moons!” They shuffle into a semi-circle around me. The one who calls itself Marvoin stares at me blinking its huge eyes.

“Be prepared human female with the title Orla Quinn, our alpha king and your future mate approaches,” he squeaks.

“Our what? My what?”

The steel doors glide open, and a sudden puff of royal blue smoke plumes around the room, making me cough and cover my mouth. I close my eyes tight and reopen them slowly one by one.

Holy. Shit.

A bigger pink octopus saunters into the room, his eyes meeting mine. No, not sauntering, something else. I have no idea how to describe an octopus and its movements correctly. Glides maybe. It locks eyes with mine and I blink twice. Its eyes are huge and an intense yellow. I look away when holding his gaze make me feel a wave of nausea even stronger than the others.

The alpha king looks at Marvoin and shakes his head as he speaks.

“Where did you find it, Marvoin? Ugh! Ugh! It is hideous! It is beige, and smells and it is hideous. Hideous! Shield my eyes! I cannot bear to look upon its ugliness. It carries its waste receptacle within its body,” he roars. One of the octopus moves behind him and covers his eyes with his tentacles.

My mouth drops open.

“Listen up, Octo-man, I didn’t...waste receptacle? Are you talking about my intestines?”

The king slaps the tentacles away before shaking his head, groaning and slapping his own tentacle across his eyes.

“And it speaks?! You got a speaking one! Oh, for the love of all the rings of Saturn!”

Marvoin rushes forward, his mouth opening and closing while he looks to his king and back to me again. He looks distressed. Well as much as I can tell from this race of octopus people. Jesus! He holds up two tentacles and waves them back and forth. A giggle bubbles in my throat.

“Silence, human female person!”

Turning to the alpha king his big eyes full of tears, he opens his mouth and lets out a howl. Big fat tears stream down his face.

Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?

In between sobs he bows before the king. “Sire, you are most displeased? Shall I exterminate it? I can eviscerate it in a second, my king. Maybe we can find another planet with more pleasing inhabitants. But it is fertile, and easily manipulated.”

“I beg your pardon. I am not easily manipulated!” I bellow, crossing my arms across my chest.

“It is angry. This amuses me,” the king says, before squealing, his eyes flicking over me, from head to toe. He shakes his head, his body wobbling like waves.

“If only it wasn’t so terribly ugly. You are hideously ugly, human female. Hideously. Hideously.”

“I find you hideous, you idiot!” I snarl.

Orla, please shut the fuck up.

“Whom does it love? The human female? Show me?” The king holds up strands of my hair in its tentacles and seems curious as to what it is. He sniffs loudly before sticking out a big black tongue and touching it against my hair. “Ugh, stinks!”

Frantic tapping of the screen until Marvoin holds the device in front of the king.

“Ask the human female what it is,” the king says.

“What is this? You find this big human species desirable, silly little human female? This is your desired mate?” Marvoin asks.

“I wish! I mean, no! I mean I like Jason Momoa, who doesn’t? Right? Look this is ridiculous, that’s just my screen saver on my phone. I have a life back on Earth. Please send me back. And please stop calling me silly and little. It’s insulting.”

The king looks to Marvoin who frowns at me before shaking his head. “I have researched the human female, as you requested my king. The human female has no clan, no life, she is an unimportant human. She has one companion animal-a feline-who regularly tells others of its species that it hates the human female.”

The stray cat hates me. Okay,