Read Alien's Bride: Lisette for Free Online

Never mind!” Jorenkis
said.
    “ It means no,” Lisette
said.
    Jorenkis sneered at her. “You little
bitch.” He cut into his food with swift stabbing movements. “I said
we were married because I’ve got rights to her. I mean, obviously
she just got here yesterday. I’m not a rapist.”
    “ Lisette,” Hotis said, “if
you don’t care for Jorenkis you don’t have to marry him. Our
surrender agreement with Earth says—“
    “ Oh will you shut up,”
Jorenkis said. “She knows. She’s not going to marry you, you old
dimwit. She’s in my lab. I’m the one who controls who sees
her.”
    “ You don’t have to marry
anyone,” the one with sideburns said. “But—if you wish to get
married we can damn well make sure you get the opportunity to
mingle.”
    Jorenkis knocked his plate off the
table. It crashed leftward onto the floor, taking Lisette’s bean
plate with it. He rose and started shoving her.
    “ Up! Up!”
    She stood.
    “ To the mire with all of
you! I was nice! I let you all see a real human woman!”
    They exchanged scoffs.
    “ I should have known you
wretches would try to steal her. You’re worse than Etikens!” He
clutched her arm and made her speed walk out with him.
    “ Why did you have to
humiliate me like that?”
    Lisette struggled to keep up. She had
to keep one hand fastened to her chest to hold her bosom in and the
heels of her shoes kept bending sideways. He ushered her into the
hover car.
    “ Well? Answer
me.”
    She huddled with her arms around her
and kept her head low. There was the numbness of extreme exhaustion
within her.
    “ Talk you dumb
beast!”
    She shook her head.
    Jorenkis clutched his horns, leaned
forward, and growled with exasperation. “Gods, why? This was
supposed to be a good thing. I was supposed to be
happy!”
    When they landed before the science
building he sat up and took a deep breath. “It’s fine. You know
what? You’re broken, but you can be fixed. It will take time,
obviously, but we’ll do it.”
    Lisette tried to stop
listening.
    He pressed a button to open the hatch
door beside her. “Go. I don’t live here. Just you and that idiot
do. You know how to get to your room, right?”
    She looked at the glass entrance with a
trace of panic. “Is it…locked?”
    “ I don’t know. Just—have a
fucking robot help you if it is. Go. Get out!”
    It wasn’t locked, and she found her
quarters after going the wrong way only once. She tore off the
sultry dress, put on one of her old tee-shirts, and collapsed into
bed.
    ***
    Prax-Denay knocked on her door the next
morning. She’d left it partially open. She lifted her face from a
pillow imprinted with make-up. Her mentor stood with his body
sideways to her and spoke into the empty corridor in front of
her.
    “ I like to start my work
days at trector dawn. That’s an hour from now.”
    Lisette inchwormed herself to the edge
of the bed. The tee-shirt she’d put on barely concealed her behind.
She scooped a handful of blanket up to cover her from the waist
down.
    “ If you get up now you’ll
have time to bathe and eat breakfast before coming to the lab.
We’ve a great deal to do today. I want you sharp.”
    She sat on the side of the bed and
looked at him. None of what he said required an answer. She wished
for an invitation to talk—something forthright enough to let her
clear the air between them.
    “ Is there anything you need
to tell me?”
    Damn it. She needed more than that. She grasped at the puny thread he
offered as best she was able.
    “ Like…what?”
    Prax-Denay glared at her. “Like you
won’t be working in the lab much longer because you’re married to
Jorenkis now.”
    “ No,” she said in the
loudest voice she was capable of. Then she stared down at her feet.
“I don’t want…I don’t really...”
    Prax-Denay entered the room and sat on
the foot of the bed. His back was to her, so she stared at him
freely.
    “ You’re not here as a bride
candidate. If you don’t