Read Captive for Free Online

had done to him in the past, she knew this incident was merely his last straw.
    The muscles in his face hardened with hate. He jumped to his feet. “Listen up,” he roared and pounded on the wall. “I’m through being your goddamn stud. I’m through being your alpha gladiator. Fuck your consequences. And fuck you.”
    Another kick sent the bowl crashing into the wall. “Torture some other Earthling, you alien bast—”
    Zap! Max grunted in pain, clutched his choker, and stumbled backward. A longer zap, and he fell to the floor, motionless.
    A second passed before Addy blinked. A second passed before she breathed. A second passed before she remembered last night’s paralyzing pain. Fingering her own choker, she didn’t wish that agony on anyone, including her enemy. Would he be okay?
    She heard his labored breaths above her own frightened panting. He was alive. But was he paralyzed? Blind?
    Damn her emergency training. As terrified as she was, she couldn’t remain clenched up in a tight ball. She had to help him. She leaned forward to crawl toward Max when a silent blast of cold, white fog surged behind him as if a smoke bomb had detonated. Instead of inducing a coughing fit or making her eyes sting, it enveloped her in its icy embrace.
    Her heart thundered. Her gut clenched. She shivered from the cold and her fear. What would the cult do? Would they murder them?
    Through the vapor, a monstrous, furry gray arm reached in, grabbed Max by the ankle, and yanked his naked body out.

Chapter Four
    A ddy screamed. At least she tried screaming, but when her mouth opened, no sound came out.
    The smoke swirled and crackled as it solidified back into a solid wall once again. She was alone. Hyperventilating.
    Dropping her head between her knees, she tried to control her breathing but couldn’t concentrate. What was that thing? It single-handedly dragged out a six-foot-four, two-hundred-pound man like a pair of old jeans stuffed in the back of a closet.
    Through a wall that turned into fog then back into a wall again!
    A deep inhale through the nose filled her lungs until her chest tightened with a lump of air. She willed herself to hold it before slowly releasing it out of her mouth. A few more deep breaths and she could finally lift her head up without feeling nauseous.
    The urge to run was overwhelming. Seeing as there wasn’t enough space, she did the next best thing. Paced.
    Careful to avoid breakfast puddles, Addy moved back and forth across the tiny room, unable to quiet her rapid-fire questions. What was going on? What grabbed Max? An animal? A monster? What would it do with him?
    Her heart skipped a couple of beats. Her breathing came fast and shallow again. If the cult murdered him, it would be her fault.
    No. Not her fault. She had done nothing except defend herself. But her actions triggered his outburst, which lead to that furry arm-thing taking him away. His death would be on her conscious.
    Stop it, Addy.
    None of this was real. It had to be some conspiracy. Maybe she was in one of those human behavior experiments. Like that authority study where scientists made unsuspecting volunteers believe they were administering painful shock treatments to other volunteers who gave wrong answers.
    But that couldn’t be. There were laws against things like that. Of course, that was back in the States. Max said they weren’t in the US, and he had used the word alien .
    She paced again.
    But what about the other word he shouted? Earthling. Who described themselves as an Earthling? What the hell did he mean by that?
    She stared at the disappearing-reappearing wall. A smoke-and-mirrors trick. It had to be.
    Pulling her hair back, she clumsily twisted it into a braid, hoping the rhythm of it would help calm her nerves. What if it wasn’t a trick? And what if alien didn’t refer to another country?
    Could it really be true?
    Slowly, she lowered her body to the floor with thoughts of vanishing walls, tiny heating cubes,