Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
It’s a strange request, but these are strange times, and she is the captain, so I do as I am told.
In short order, I find myself wearing the sexiest outfit I never wanted to wear. It covers far too little and it exposes way too much. My breasts are practically on full display. The nipples are covered, but at this point it’s in a way that makes me feel as though I’d somehow feel less naked if I were actually nude. It’s a cat suit, basically, but it has so many sheer mesh panels on it, it might be better used as a fishing net.
“It looks good. Very good. What do you think?”
Our temporary captain is appraising me with an expression of glee. I don’t know what the hell is happening
“It’s very uncomfortable,” I say. “It keeps riding up in places I didn’t know I had.”
“We have to make you irresistible. The saurians like feisty but submissive and breedable females. You’re all three of those things,” she says, satisfied.
I’m not submissive. I’m just quiet and have chill vibes, but I don’t correct the captain. Lettie has been feisty since she was bred down on the saurian planet, and I suspect she might actually be pregnant again. It’s just a hunch, but she’s got that hormonal look in her eye.
“I don’t want to be irresistible to saurians,” I say. I know there’s some chance she’ll find that sentiment offensive, but I’m starting to become very uncomfortable with the way things are unfolding. I feel as though a plan is afoot — a plan I do not want to be a part of.
“These are desperate times, and we all have to do the best we can to help as best we can,” Lettie says. “Including you. No more hiding in closets, Allie.”
My stomach starts to churn. I can already see what she wants from me. It’s a variation of the same stupid plan that has already failed a dozen times at least. We keep sending women down to the surface, and they keep getting caught. The last several have ended up in the custody of the alpha, but there are some who have disappeared entirely into the saurian underground.
Our presence here is ill-fated, ill-considered, and just plain sick. Every time we lose a crew member, there’s one less reason to leave the planet, and one more reason for us all to end up stuck here. The engineers were right about that.
“I don’t want to do this,” I say. It takes a lot of courage to speak this plainly, but you get some courage when your nipples are threatening to pierce your skimpy outfit because of how cold they are. This outfit does not take into account the chilly nature of the Mare, which is now having to conserve power just to stay afloat. We haven’t been able to refuel or resupply since we arrived in orbit, and everything is running low. If something doesn’t change soon, we’re going to end up just crashing into the damn planet or starving to death.
“It’s not about want. It’s about need. I know we’ve tried variants of this plan before, but this time Shan and I are pretty sure it’s going to work.”
Pretty sure. I’m standing here in an outfit that makes me look like a space hooker, and they’re pretty sure their plan will work. I am starting to internally panic. I want nothing to do with any of this.
“I don’t think they’re going to go for me,” I say. “I’m not the sort of person that men like.”
Lettie shakes her head.
“You’re hot. You’ve always been hot. They’ll go for you. But it’s not just anyone we’re after. Your target is Wrath. The alpha of the saurian underworld. The one who sent me out into the wilderness and left me there to birth an egg and…” she clamps her mouth shut, as if recounting the sins of the saurian is too much for her to handle. “You will draw him out. You will make him vulnerable. You will become leverage.”
Lettie used to be a very nice, very mild-mannered, quiet girl. You could quite easily forget that she was on the ship. But difficult times have made for difficult women, and there is no doubt that she is in her revenge era. But I’m not in mine. I’m in my hiding in the supply closet era.
She is very casually suggesting that I put myself in the path of the most dangerous saurian on the planet, or at least in the city below us. Wrath is a criminal mastermind and the leader of what amounts to the saurian mafia. He’s ruthless and calculated and there seems to be no limit to what he is prepared to do in order to get what he wants.
I might not be part of tactical operations on the ship, but I know how to keep my eyes and ears open. I understand what she’s asking me to do, and what she’s asking me to do is patently insane.