Alien Conquest: (The Warrior's Prize) An Alien SciFi Romance Read Online Free PDF

“Captain Rua tells me that you are new to our world, new to the work of a slave, even. That’s all right. We’ll make sure you pick it up quickly.”
    Alaina had no idea what to say to that. “Thank you, domina.”
    The girl clapped her hands. “See! She’s a natural. Rua, I assume you are happy with my payment?”
    “Yes, your grace,” Rue replied. “Very happy, in fact.”
    “Excellent. We’ll be going then. Alaina, you may escort me.”
    Alaina lifted her eyes, but only so far as Lennai’s collarbone, because she had no idea what to do.
    Lennai sighed and held up her hand, then let it rest on Alaina’s shoulder. “Now you walk, and I walk with you. You can keep your eyes for this. Try to look proud. You are now owned by the most powerful family on the station.”
    Alaina stole a glance at Rua, who no longer looked smug, and then she walked to the door with Lennai drifting along, more or less at her side. In the corridor, Lennai indicated which direction to go, and the bodyguards in red and gold fell in behind them. When they emerged from the bathhouse and the roar of the market hit them, Alaina faltered, but Lennai just let go of her and walked past her, towards a hovering phaeton at the base of the bathhouse steps. Alaina followed, watching Lennai climb through the curtains and into the little transport. Then one guard climbed into the front driver section of the phaeton, but the rest of the guards flanked Alaina and she was made to walk behind it with them.
    The walk through the market was a tough one.
    It was loud and full of people, and all so strange Alaina found herself teetering on the edge of a panic attack. Past the slave blocks, the market itself was popping with stores and stalls, full of brilliant colors and noise. Aliens hawked their wares, shouting out articles of clothing with names Alaina didn’t recognize, waving food she’d never seen before. Children darted here and there, some of them begging, some of them stealing, she was sure. It was a bustling metropolis on a space station, and Alaina looked around at all of it as she walked behind the phaeton, escorted by armed guards.
    The phaeton wound its way up a long, narrow street, and eventually the sounds of the market began to fade. Buildings rose up all around them, several stories high, glistening metal walls with gates barring every entrance. When Alaina could peek through a gate here and there, she saw gardens with wild fronds and blooming flowers from other planets. Some of them had mouths. Guard flowers. It was a crazy juxtaposition of old and light-year new. The houses were shaped like what Alaina thought Roman villas would have looked like, but they were all made of futuristic materials and contained these strange aliens. Then the phaeton passed beneath another portcullis much larger than the one that had separated the bathhouse from the slave quarter. This one was painted in the red and gold of the Errai. They must have been passing from the central part of the station to the Errai-only section.
    And sure enough, beyond that gate, all she saw were Errai.
    On the other side, it was like a castle. A palace. Banners and huge windows that let in spacelight, carpets and curtains and chandeliers. The phaeton stopped in a gigantic foyer and Lennai climbed out of it, brushing out the skirt of her dress with one hand while extending the other towards Alaina.
    “Come along.”
    Alaina went to her but didn’t take her hand. Which seemed just as well, since Lennai didn’t appear to want her to, just to answer her beckoning. She turned and started walking and Alaina followed her, trying to keep her eyes low, when all she wanted to do was look around at everything. Servants hustled this way and that, in clothes similar to the dress Alaina wore. Not servants, she corrected herself. Slaves. They must have all been slaves. Serving slaves and guarding slaves.
    “What are you going to do with me?” she asked suddenly, as Lennai led her down a