Mate Abduction (Alien Abduction #9) - Eve Langlais

One

“You cow, give that back,” Katrina screeched from the common room the women all shared.

“If you want it, come and get it,” goaded Anne. She’d been picking fights a lot lately. They all had.

Clarabelle sighed as she stared at her ceiling and the scraps of paper she’d stuck to it. Bits and pieces of posters and images of a world she could barely remember.

Earth. Her home, until the aliens abducted her and the girls she now called sisters. Seven of them in total. And all of them annoying twats.

She grimaced as Katrina bellowed, “I am going to make you eat dingus paste if you don’t give it back!”

“Maybe if you asked nicely,” sweet-spoken Sade tried to interject.

“You and your be-nice crap!” exclaimed Josee, who’d recently shaved her head and gotten her nose pierced. “Stop it already. Do you know this idiot said, ‘Excuse me’ when she took me down in the ring?”

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Sade replied. She hadn’t yet embraced the savage culture they’d been thrust into.

“You allowed yourself to be distracted, which is why I put you on your ass and then dumped you in the animal trough.”

Which had been full of foul-smelling slop at the time. Sade had risen from it cursing. Considering she was usually the peacemaker, it proved impressive.

Everyone’s temper ran short these days, but then again, what could you expect when an active group of young women in their twenties—or so Clarabelle assumed given time passed differently in space—were cooped together in a strange place with alien customs. Literally.

Say hello to planet Zonia… At least that was the name Clarabelle had given it. She’d heard fancier titles and complicated pronunciations that involved some clicking and, in one case, spit. She stuck to the humanized version in a place that was so strange and never did feel like home.

Years ago, Clarabelle and the other teenage girls were kidnapped by pirate slavers while on a school trip. Thankfully, they were rescued, and at the time, she’d kind of expected to be sent back to Earth. Wrong!

Apparently returning abductees to their home worlds went against the rules—making all those humans claiming they’d been taken and probed liars. Forget going home. Instead, Clarabelle and the other girls taken from Earth ended up on Zonia—minus their teacher who, after a dual abduction by purple mercenaries, fell in love and chose to live with her two mates. The teenage girls suffered a culture shock from the moment they landed on the planet ruled by a matriarchal race known as the Zonians. Frightening bitches with a single breast, taloned feet, and rapier gazes. Like a cross between a harpy and Amazon, but meaner.

Females ruled in this place by might and wit and fists. Education came with bruises but was never done maliciously. It was just the cost of learning. Making mistakes could hurt, so the simple concept was do it right to avoid damage.

Tough love, but make no mistake, Clarabelle was thankful for everything the Zonians had done. They’d shown her how to be strong. To defend herself. She had a bed, a roof over her head—most of the time—and plenty of food to eat. She had friends. But all those things didn’t curb the yearning for home.

Or at least a place where people wouldn’t cluck their tongues when she insisted on a private room for doing her business. Somewhere with humans who didn’t think a slap or a bruise was a sign of affection—punch-buggy smacks excepted of course.

Not that she was abused. Never that. But the Zonians, as a warrior race, lacked gentle manners.

The thumping and yelling in the other room continued, and Clarabelle finally rose from her bed to stretch. Her gaze fell on the poster of a man. His skin tone was that of a human, a very pale pink, and his teeth were white and flat edged. He didn’t sport a sword or pistol but rather a smile.

Her fingers traced his features. The very concept of a man remained as ephemeral as a dream. She’d not seen a guy since their arrival. Not a human one at any rate.

“Ha. Suck it. I win,” Anne crowed, triumphant in their scuffle.

The claim was followed by noisy tears.

That snapped Clarabelle out of her reverie, and she stepped from her room to see Anne hugging a sobbing Katrina while Sade wrung her hands.

The other girls were out doing their assigned chores or training. Day in and out, that was all they did. All they had to look forward to.

There had