Read Abducted by Aliens (Tales From Angondra Book 1) for Free Online

look closer at the creatures standing around her, but Rotnim stepped toward her. For the first time, she noticed he carried some kind of weapon in his belt. His comrades were armed, too.
    Carmen’s heart skipped a beat, and she cast a quick look toward her friends. Did they see what she saw? Was this the opportunity they were looking for to make a break for freedom? If only she could whisper a word to one of her companions, they might be able to hide in this crowd.
    Rotnim took one more step closer, and all her hope vanished. He might let her talk to this big hairy creature, but he could hold her still and stop her running away with a flick of his tentacles. He would never let his prize escape.
    Carmen faced the shaggy alien and found him glaring at Rotnim with glittering brown eyes. A mask of hatred and disgust marred his otherwise princely countenance. “I guess this is the market on the planet Corax.”
    His head snapped around. “This isn’t Corax. What made you think that?”
    Carmen waved her hand at the crowd. “He said he was taking us to the market on Corax to sell us to the highest bidder. If that’s not what’s happening here, what is?”
    The alien shook his head. “This isn’t Corax. This is nowhere near Corax. This is Angondra, and we don’t have anything to do with those filthy markets with their putrid slave traders.”
    Carmen’s eyes widened. “You don’t? Then what are we doing here?”
    He snorted through his nose, and a rumble of laughter rolled out of his barrel chest. “We hate the markets and everything about them, and we especially hate the Romarie.” He snarled in Rotnim’s direction, who cringed and fawned before him in abject servitude. His tentacles quivered, but the big alien paid no attention. Maybe the Romarie had no telekinetic power over these creatures.
    “If you hate the Romarie,” Carmen asked, “why did you let them bring us here?”
    He gestured toward the crowd. “You see the different subspecies of our people here? You see those ones with the feathers? They are called Avitras. Those ones with the webbed feet are Aqinas.”
    Carmen nodded. The Avitras were just as tall as the other Angondrans, but slight and wiry. They didn't sport heavy chiseled muscles, and in addition to the feathers around their heads, they had rows of feathers along their forearms.
    “Angondra has five factions,” he told her, “but we’re really just different variations on the same race. We all hate the Romarie, and we agreed to keep them off our planet. Only the Ursidreans agreed to let them land here and show their wares.”
    “Who are the Ursidreans?” Carmen asked.
    He pointed to a burly alien crossing the room. He even dwarfed Carmen's new friend with his hulking frame. “They hate the Romarie, too, but those shifty criminals took advantage of the Ursidreans’ trusting nature. They made up a big story about the benefits of bringing in new females after ours died out in the plague....”
    Carmen peered into his face. “So you lost your females in the plague, too? Maybe you should get new ones.”
    He shook his head again, and his shaggy mane rippled with the movement. “We have enough of our own kind to regenerate our population without contaminating ourselves with the Romarie. We’ve worked for many generations to keep their influence off our planet. That’s why we came to this gathering, to make sure the Romarie don’t try to manipulate anyone or invade our world. They’re pure evil, you know. You can’t trust them for an instant.”
    “I know,” Carmen murmured.
    Another creature stepped out of the crowd. Soft black hair surrounded his delicate head and lay back against his face in a striking ruff. Pointed ears peeked out from his dark hair. Carmen noticed others of his kind in the hall with grey or light red hair. When he opened his mouth to speak to Rotnim, Carmen spotted gleaming fangs in the corners of his mouth.
    Carmen inclined her head toward her new friend.