Captured for the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (electric book reader TXT) 📕

one aisle. I snagged one, ripped the price tag off, and jammed it on my head, tucking as much of my hair under it as I could. When I took the price tag to the front, the woman behind the counter took one look at me, and her mouth dropped open. I realized I’d been recognized.

A tiny, old-fashioned television on the counter was running a news clip about me. I leaned around the price scanner to see an image of Pink Guy running through the Chicago Greyhound station like a lunatic. The image panned from him to me and back again, and a ticker scrolled across the bottom of the screen, spelling out exactly what happened.

Fuck. Again.

The Bride Games superfans were going to go wild for this shit.

I am never going to get away.

I shook the thought off, grabbed a couple of bills out of my wallet worth far more than the cap cost, and dropped them on the counter

“Just give me half an hour,” I begged. “Keep the change.”

The store clerk nodded uncertainly, but I supposed that was the best I could hope for: someone who kind of agreed not to sell me out to the aliens who wanted to take me away and breed me.

A whole string of curse words ran through my head, but I simply whispered, “Thanks.”

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that I was tired and dirty and frightened, and that just because the aliens had tracked me to Chicago after I traveled on a bus that required government identification, it didn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to get away otherwise.

I had talked myself down by the time I pulled open the glass door that let out to the street.

As I stepped out onto the sidewalk, I came face to face with the gorgeous pink alien who had been hunting me. Or rather, I slammed face-first into the chest of the super-hot, hot-pink alien, who caught me by the shoulders.

He did try to save you, an inner voice reminded me.

Shut up, I told my inner voice.

This close to him, my nose smashed into his skin, he smelled incredible. Like pine or sandalwood. Something earthy, which struck me as funny, given that he wasn’t from Earth at all.

I tilted my head back to raise my gaze up to his face—and up, and up, and up.

His turquoise eyes gleamed back at me with something that, on a human, I would have called suppressed amusement.

But who knew if these aliens really felt things the same way we did?

There had been a lot of discussion on the news and on various video sites about how similar they were to us, ever since they had arrived and the first Khanavai bride had married their prince.

But I wasn’t sure I believed it, any more than I believed the business about such a huge percentage of the brides being perfectly happy to go away to Khanav Prime with their Khanavai spouses—the ones they had met only days before.

Then the hunter’s mouth stretched into a wide, impossibly beautiful smile, and I almost swooned.

Pheromones, I decided, trying to engage my critical thinking skills to avoid being duped by my body’s reaction to this guy. It has to be pheromones.

Nothing else could account for my sudden urge to grab his face and pull him down to kiss me.

Oh my God, I’m thinking like a besotted idiot. I took a small step backward to try to put a little distance between my nose and his bare skin. He continued holding me lightly by the shoulders, however.

“Amelia Rivers,” he said, his Khanavai accent making my ordinary name sound like something exotic. “You. Safe.”

He tilted his head in a slight jerking motion that probably meant something to the Khanavai. I hadn’t ever bothered to learn much about their culture.

I nodded. “I’m okay.”

He examined me up and down, frowning. “No hurt?”

This time I shook my head. “I’m not hurt.”

“Is good.” He spoke in a firm tone, as if challenging me to contradict his claim that the fact that I wasn’t hurt was good.

I wasn’t about to do that, of course.

“Amelia go Zont.”

Zont. That was the name he had used for himself earlier.

“You want me to go with you?”

He stood perfectly still as he replied, “Yes,” his voice as decisive as it had been when he told me it was good I wasn’t hurt.

I supposed I could go with him. He would protect me from the other Khanavai who were after me, at least. Unless he wanted to drag me up to Station 21.

I could always try to get away from him.

In any case, I couldn’t run right now. He was much stronger than I was, and he hadn’t let go of my shoulders yet.

I checked my reasoning, trying to decide if my inclination to do as he suggested—or ordered, I guess—had more to do with the overwhelming pheromones he was giving off or with logic.

At that moment I couldn’t tell.

Maybe it would be better to try to get away.

Maybe I could convince him to release me.

I had just opened my mouth to suggest that when a strange, high, buzzing noise caught my attention. I had only ever heard that particular noise on old vids from decades ago. Videos of the only time any of the Alveron Hordeships had gotten through the Khanavai blockade to attack Earth.

Zont was already scanning the skies above us.

I recognized the shape of an Alveron Hordeship from those old vids. It came screaming out of the sky, diving toward us.

And for the second time in less than an hour, Zont yelled one word at me. “Run!”

Chapter Six

Zont

As when she had ducked into the Females room, my mate did not hesitate. When I ordered her to run, she spun on her heel and took off down the Earther walkway beside the street.

The aerial vidglobe was spinning wildly, taking shots of me, of Amelia Rivers, and of the Alveron Hordeship in the sky.

I set out after Amelia, easily overtaking her with my longer stride. As