CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(211)

"Oh my," Riley said with a huge grin as she took in all the different  stalls selling their wares. "Do you think Vox has credit here?" she  asked hopefully.

One of the guards chuckled. "You may purchase whatever you want, my  lady. Lord Aryeh instructed us to make sure you had whatever you  desired. He said he would deal with Lord Vox if he should have a  problem."

"I knew I was going to love that adorable old hairball once he realized I  was the best thing that ever happened to his son!" Riley declared with a  royal wave of her hand.

Doral and Tamia dissolved into giggles while the two guards chuckled.  Riley tossed her wayward curls over her shoulder and raised her arm.  "Charge ladies! And I truly mean charge! We are going to do some major  shopping. I swear I was going through withdrawal!" Riley said as she  sashayed her ass right through the middle of the crowded market in  excitement.

She spent the next half hour exclaiming over one find after another in  the food market. It was when they continued onto the merchant's market  that she thought she had truly died and gone to heaven. The silk  scarves, unusual handbags, and other accessories outdid the little  overpriced boutique Tina worked in during high school. Riley moved  rapidly from one stall to another, picking up scarves, hats, bracelets,  and handbags with a critical eye.         

     



 

"How much is this?" she asked one merchant before turning to another and  pulling another item up and showing it to other merchant. "And this?  Tamia is that too much for this? Doral, what do you think? Does this  make me look too pale? Oh my god, look at this! I have to have it! Do  you think Vox will be upset? The guy says it is seventy-five credits. Is  that a lot?" Riley asked, having no idea the worth of a credit. For all  she knew, it could be the equivalent of a thousand bucks back home.  "Damn! I should have had Viper tell Tina to clean out my account back on  Earth. She has access. I might have been able to convert it or buy  stuff at home to cash in here. I really, really want this bag. It will  go perfectly with several of my outfits," she added, biting her lip in  indecision.

"Lady Riley, seventy-five credits is very inexpensive," one of the  guards assured her. "Lord Vox would not be upset at all if you purchased  the bag, especially as you like it so much."

"You really think so?" Riley asked anxiously fingering the beautiful  beaded bag with the tips of her fingers. "It is the most beautiful  handbag I've ever seen."

"Please package the bag for my lady queen," the guard called out to the merchant.

Riley grinned at the merchant as he handed her the carefully wrapped  purchase with a low bow. "It is a pleasure doing business with you, my  queen. I will inform my daughter you admired her work."

"Tell her I have never seen anything as beautiful as this, and I will  take very good care of it," Riley responded to the beaming man.

"Riley, there are only a few more stalls to go. Do you want to see them  before we return?" Doral called out from across the way where she had  found a scarf she liked.

"We might as well as I don't know when I'll get a chance to return,"  Riley answered with a contented sigh. "This has been the best day of my  life-well besides the day I met Vox, even if I did knock him on his  ass."

Tamia laughed and moved to the next stall. Riley felt a sense of unease  as they approached the last stall. It was a little further away from the  others, and there were only a few shoppers down this way. That wasn't  what had the hair on the back of her neck standing up though. There was  something else, as if she was being stared at. She let her eyes wander  around the area, pulling on her skills as a bail bondsman to help her.  In the shadows near an alley a cloaked figure was standing in the  shadows. Riley stopped, focusing on the figure with a frown. There was  something vaguely familiar about it. The frown on her face turned into a  surprised gasp as the figure emerged from the shadows and lowered the  hood covering its head.



Antrox 157 stared with hatred at the female who had destroyed everything  he had worked for. He motioned with his hand. Four figures converged on  Riley's small group. The two guards went down with blasts to their  backs as they moved closer to Riley when she gasped and froze. The other  two females screamed in terror. Within moments, Riley's unconscious  body was being carried past him. He stared in distaste at the limp pale  figure as the mercenaries he had hired walked by him. He would receive a  king's fortune in credits for the female. He had sworn he would make  her pay for ruining his reputation within the Antrox mining operations.  He would have been lucky to hire on as a pactor supply clerk after what  she had done. Now, he would have enough to buy his own mine. It would be  small, but it was a start. He quickly followed the mercenaries out of  the marketplace, ignoring the calls for help from the women as they bent  over the still forms of the guards.

"We need to get out before they shut down all leaving flights," the huge  merc carrying Riley snarled. "You didn't tell us she was royalty."

"She is nothing but an escaped acquisition. You were given the credits  to capture her. I will give you the other half due you once she is  delivered," Antrox 157 replied coldly. "Otherwise, you get nothing."

"Damn bug," another one of the mercs muttered under his breath. "Move  it, Garl. I don't want to stick around for any of these damn  cat-shifters. They like to rip you open and watch as you try to shove  your guts back in."

"Prepare the ship for liftoff," a third merc yelled out. "We leave hot and fast."

"Grun, go ahead and make sure the way is clear," Tril snapped at the  husky red-skinned creature who sped away on four legs. "You better hope  she is worth the credits you promised," he said as he shifted Riley over  his shoulder.

"She accepted five mates; three were Sarafin warriors. I have no doubt  she will handle whatever the pleasure house sends to her," Antrox 157  replied, hurrying down the narrow alley.

Nothing else was said as the five figures moved rapidly down the narrow  alley and up several flights of stairs until they reached the top of one  of the taller buildings in the city. Grun was removing the cover  camouflaging the small transport. It was a tight fit, but all five plus  an unconscious Riley piled into the small ship. Garl shoved at the  controls, and the specially modified ship rose rapidly before turning  and shooting up through the atmosphere. The group was used to retrieving  difficult and dangerous merchandise. This mission was especially  challenging because none of them wanted to be on the wrong end of the  Sarafin warriors who were bound to try to retrieve what they had stolen.  They were there to retrieve and deliver, that was all. After the  delivery, they would disappear for a few months before regrouping in a  different star system.



Riley came to slowly. Her head ached and her stomach churned. She could  feel that she was about to lose what she had eaten for lunch.

Being pregnant sucks, she thought darkly, keeping her eyes closed and  breathing steadily through her nose in the hopes of not tossing her  cookies. I think this should be a totally male thing since they are the  ones who want to brag about how potent they are. What the hell do they  suffer from? Puffing their chest out too far? They pop the load and sit  back while I get to be sick, gain even more weight, and have bigger  boobs to carry around while they strut like a damn peacock!

Riley continued listing all the disadvantages being pregnant entailed,  hoping it would help calm her wayward stomach. After several minutes, it  appeared to work as she felt confident she could open her eyes without  them being crossed.

She turned her head cautiously, studying where she had been taken. Her  heart jerked at the idea of her friends or the guards with her being  harmed because of her. Her eyes blurred with anger at the thought of the  senseless act.

"I'm going to smash that oversized bug when I get my hands on him. I'm  going to feed him to the first Venus flytrap I can find. Or better yet,  I'm going to find a really huge spider and watch as he squirms in its  web before it sucks all his guts out," she muttered out loud.

A dark chuckle drew her attention to the door of her cell. She stared in  fury at the grotesque creature standing on the other side of it. "What  are you laughing at, you overgrown fleabag?"

"Antrox 157 said you had spirit. I am glad he did not lie. You will  bring more credits on the auction block. Many of the more selective  guests like a female with a little spirit. They want to see how long it  takes to break her," the snarly voice replied.

Riley slowly sat up, putting a hand to her head to still the spinning.  She glared at the creature. It was shorter than she, probably about five  feet eight inches, if that. It was covered in gun-metal gray scales and  had two red, beady eyes, no nose, and thin lips covering small, sharp  teeth.