The Alien's Captive Read Online Free PDF

balcony and the next house. These branch bridges connected all the Avitras houses spreading through the forest canopy.
    The branch ended at a platform with no house, and Anna paused there to collect her thoughts. She was flirting with disaster to flout Aquilla when she lived as a guest in his and Penelope Ann’s house. She had nowhere else to stay if he threw her out. None of the other Avitras would take her in if she made Aquilla her enemy.
    Then again, the Angondran people made their hospitality to strangers a point of honor. Aquilla would never turn her out of his house to go cold and hungry in the wilderness, no matter how mad she made him. Penelope Ann wouldn’t let him, either—would she?
    Anna never would have believed Penelope Ann could be so spineless when it came to doing what was right. How could she stand by and let Aquilla mistreat a helpless prisoner right there in their own house? She must have grossly misjudged Penelope Ann. She wasn’t the strong-minded, independent woman Anna thought she was. She went watery in the knees at Aquilla’s word and didn’t think for herself when injustice stared her in the face.
    Anna gritted her teeth and turned away from their house. She might be homeless in this world without a friend or relative for thousands of miles, but at least she could do what was right. She might not be able to save Menlo from Aquilla’s vendetta, but at least she could make his ordeal easier. She would prove to him and everyone else she wasn’t like Aquilla. She had to find him something to eat.
    Her thoughts turned northeast, toward Ursidrean territory. Her sister Emily was out there somewhere. Just two days before Aquilla brought Menlo to the village, Emily visited her here. She’d trekked south to Lycaon territory to find Anna, Frieda, and their cousin Aimee, and when Aimee told her Anna and Frieda had moved to Avitras territory, she trekked all the way across Lycaon territory to find them.
    She found only Anna. Her Ursidrean mate Faruk traveled with her to support and protect her, and not even Frieda’s disappearance could induce Emily to separate from him. The Avitras wouldn’t let him remain in their territory, and Emily left to return with him to the Ursidrean capital.
    Anna never saw Emily as happy as she was with Faruk. Would Anna ever find that kind of happiness? She held such high hopes when she and Frieda first came to live with the Avitras. The Avitras prided themselves on their oral histories, their advanced legal system, and their treetop architecture. They didn’t live in the mud on the ground like the Lycaon, tearing the flesh from dead animals with their fangs.
    Now, Aquilla’s ruthless brutality toward a helpless prisoner made her think again. What did she really have in common with these people? Their staple diet of nuts and seeds made her stomach ache, although she kept it secret from everyone, including Penelope Ann. She found their huts in the trees flimsy and drafty, and the wind in the canopy kept her awake at night.
    She’d made friends with a few village women, and their children were delightful—at least, she’d made their acquaintance. She hadn’t known them long enough to call them real friends. She thought Penelope Ann was her friend, but she couldn’t be friends with anybody who sat back and did nothing while another living creature got mistreated. Was she really the only person in this village who realized Aquilla was crazy?
    None of this thinking was getting her any closer to finding food for Menlo, though. One more mental sweep of the village confirmed she wouldn’t find anything for him up here. None of the houses contained anything but nuts and seeds. No doubt they would make a meat-eater like Menlo sicker than they made Anna. She would have to go down to the ground.
    She fought down an overpowering wave of vertigo and inched toward the edge of the platform. Not for the first time, she wished for Avitras’ feathers to carry her down through the