Cosmic Bounty(5)

“Not too much, I fear you may bring it up.” There was humor in his deep, rich tone.

Breathing heavily and with slight irritation at his amusement, she handed back the red bottle.

She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

His clean-cut jaw and full, sensual lips twitched up into a full grin, making what was left of her brain short circuit. Kat swallowed hard, trying to recover her wits. Damn, who knew big, red aliens could be so damn sexy? Kat was certain if he were human with paler skin, he’d have every human woman panting after his innately masculine beauty.

“Hungry now?”

Kat nodded enthusiastically, and she was rewarded with another broad smile. With apparent ease, he leaned over the bed, scooping her up into his strong, muscular arms, carrying her over to a table, which jutted out from the ship’s bulkhead.

Instead of setting her down in the overly large chair, obviously designed to accommodate their large frames, he sat down and settled her on his lap.

“You’re my chair?” She twisted her neck to peer up at him.

“You’re too small for our chairs. You will be more comfortable this way. Go ahead, eat your fill.”

It wasn’t hard to turn her attention to the large platter of food before them. She had no idea what anything was, but didn't care, grabbing the strange utensils lying by the plate’s side. She scooped up a pale, yellow substance which looked much like scrambled eggs. It tasted like beef and coconut. Strange, but food was food.

She ate half the plate before her stomach felt stretched and contentedly full.

“This is good,” she mumbled, trying not to talk with her mouth full.

“I am pleased you enjoy it. My brother tells me your name is Kat, and you are from a planet called Earth.”

'Brother,' the word bounced around in Kat’s mind. “Which brother are you?”

“I believe you have already met Gol and Hul. I am Ric, designated quad healer.”

Her head throbbed with the knowledge, quads, four… one, two, three….

“So, you’re like the family doctor? Are you all identical?”

His smile was friendly. “Yes, I am the family’s doctor, and yes, all quads born on Galafrax are identical.”

“All quads, just how many quads are born on your world?”

“All males are born in quads, only the females are born singular,” Ric informed her, matter-of-factly.

While it seemed unimportant to him, it felt very important to her. It was a hard concept to wrap her mind around, but hell, after being kidnapped by aliens and sold in an alien market, she was beginning to realize her knowledge of the universe was extremely limited and almost anything was possible.

“That’s, um, amazing. Multiple births on Earth are not uncommon, but rare.”

“Tell me about you world, little pet. How was it the Jorval managed to capture such a beautiful, little one as you?”

Kat should have been offended he kept calling her ‘pet’, but was instead charmed about being called beautiful.

A mixture of anger and grief rolled through her, thinking back over her abduction.

Not that her life had been a breadbasket of happiness on earth either.

Newly divorced, due to her ex-husband preferring to fuck skinny women rather than her rounded, size fourteen figure, Katrina decided to leave city life behind and take a simple job as nurse’s aide in a remote, mining town in outback Australia.

It grew dark when her beat up, old Holden blew a tire. She was stranded in the middle of nowhere. She thought her luck had changed when what she thought was a helicopter landed not too far from the roadside.

Kat grabbed her suitcase from her car and walked towards the chopper, only to realize from the size and shape of the craft, it was unlike anything she had ever seen. Not to mention the creatures emerging made her scream and run in the other direction. The little, rat bastards hit her with some kind of paralyzing gun.

Quickly, they slapped a collar around her neck and bands on her wrists and ankles.

Whatever they were, it made it impossible to fight. Like a remote controlled doll, she was marched into their ship and into a cage, where she was left with one bowl of water.

By the time they dragged her from her filthy cage, she went through every range of emotion; shock and denial of being abducted and that aliens existed and they were not friendly; pain and guilt, wondering if there was something she could have done to avoid being kidnapped; and then mulling over her life, and how and where it had gone so wrong. Finally, she sank into a pit of despair, her hunger growing and no food forthcoming.

But deep in the back of her mind, she would not give up hope she would somehow find a way back home and she had a glint of revenge for those who took her.