Warrior's Mate (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Jordan woke in chains.

She thought it had all been some crazy-ass dream, but
the reality was far worse than any nightmare that she could have imagined. Turning
her head, Jordan saw she was being held in some sort of small prison.

Faint rays of sunlight filtered into the space through
cracks in the wooden beams that made up the walls of her cell. Her initial
thought was that she’d been taken captive after her Humvee had been blown to
hell, but after a few seconds of studying her surroundings, everything about
the situation told her she was in far deeper shit than she’d first realized.

She wasn’t in the desert…at least she wasn’t in any
desert she’d ever seen.

Not on Earth, that is.

Slowly sitting up, she took a closer look around her
prison. The wooden boards of her cell were a deep sapphire blue, and the dirty
floor she sat on was an ashy gray. Around her wrists were black steel bands
secured together with a short link of chains. No, they weren’t made of steel.
It was a different material that was just as strong, but was flexible and
didn’t hurt or break her skin as she pulled against the restraints. She was
wearing a cream colored dress that barely reached mid-thigh on her, and even
that was a generous estimate. It was made of a material so light and soft it
felt like a whisper, and the straps were so thin it was a wonder it didn’t just
fall off her.

Suddenly, memories rushed through her head, like a
movie on fast forward. Jordan’s hands flew to her stomach, running over the
soft material of the dress to feel nothing but smooth skin beneath. There was
no trace of her injury and she felt completely normal…or as normal as she could
under the current freaky circumstances.

After she’d passed out from blood loss, Jordan had
been sure she’d died, but she’d woken up in some sort of medical unit unlike
anything she’d ever seen instead. The memory was hazy, but she remembered opening
her eyes in a dark grey room. She’d thought she’d been lying on some sort of
gurney at first. Pain had shot through her as she’d shifted, but it hadn’t been
as bad as it should have been considering how bad she’d been injured. When she’d
glanced down, Jordan had realized she was stark naked with a weird, gel-like
patch on her stomach over her wound.

Grateful for the medical attention, she’d still wanted
to get gone from wherever the hell she was. She’d tried to roll to her
side—wanting to get off—but her palm had hit something, stopping her from
moving farther than a few inches. Both of her hands had lifted to feel the thick
glass that held her inside the transparent coffin.

Before she totally freaked out, she’d heard a faint
whoosh
and a door at the far end of the room opened. Jordan had watched through
slitted eyes as two of the transparent beings that looked like they were made
out of water walked in. One of the beings walked out of her sightline, and Jordan
had turned her head slightly to watch as it walked over to another pod that was
off to her left.

Her heart jumped in her throat when she saw Tex in the
pod next to her, with a being standing over him. Her eyes had gone wide when she
saw there were a total of ten pods lined up in a row—including the ones she and
Tex were in—and all of them filled with people. Horrified, her gaze jerked back
to the being standing over her when he’d pressed his hand against the glass of
her pod. She’d watched as lights sparked under his palm, then a port opened
above her head. She’d jerked to the side, trying to see what was going on, but
there hadn’t been a need. A thick gel poured into the pod, quickly surrounding
her body.

The being had simply watched her with his palm pressed
on the glass as the liquid began to cover her. Jordan had felt waves of calm
emanating from the being, but it did no good. Panic had her pounding on the
glass as she’d tried to break free. Jordan had lifted her head, trying to avoid
the gel, but it filled the pod until she’d had no choice but to breathe it in
when her air ran out. Silently cursing the being, she’d choked, fighting the
liquid as it filled her lungs.

Rest now.

Jordan had heard the words in her head as clearly as
if the being had spoken them out loud. It had taken her a moment, but she’d
realized that the gel hadn’t drowned her. Somehow, she’d been able to breathe
through the liquid. Her body had felt weighted down, and in seconds she had no
choice but to comply as her body went lax.

The last thing she remembered was the creature taking
his hand off the glass and giving her a cheerful wave before her eyes had finally
closed.

What the fuck?

He had actually waved at her…the freaky alien bastard.

And then she’d woken up in a cell with her hands
chained together.

Leave it to her to get kidnapped by an affable
creature. The idea was so absurd it was almost laughable, but Jordan didn’t
feel like laughing. No, she felt like hunting it down and putting a world of
hurt on the motherfucker. And she would…if she ever got free.

No, she
would
get free, she had to.

Getting to her feet, Jordan began pushing at the walls
of her prison, searching for a weak spot or way to break out. The wooden boards
didn’t move, and the door to the cell was locked securely, with no handle on
the inside. Letting out a low curse, she fought the urge to kick at the wall. If
she wasn’t barefoot she might have. Still, she thumped her fist against it in
frustration. A sound from the other side of wall had her pressing closer.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?”

“Jesus! Jordan, is that you?”

Tex. Jordan wanted to cry at the sound of his voice.
“I’m here, Tex! What the hell is going on? Where are we?”

Silence met her questions. Jordan didn’t think he was
going to answer, but after a long pause Tex said, “I’m not exactly sure, but we’re
in some serious shit here.”

Leave it to him to state the obvious. “I got that,”
she said dryly. “The question is, what kind of shit is it?”

“Big, dangerous piles of it.” Tex cleared his throat
before saying, “This is going to sound absolutely bat-shit crazy…”

Jordan sighed. “We aren’t on Earth anymore, are we?”

“No, I don’t think we are. These things…they took us
from the desert. Just you and me. Morris was still unconscious, and I get the
feeling they weren’t planning on taking me, but I saw them, so they didn’t have
a choice. It was either that or kill me, and I’m damn glad they didn’t off me.
Fuck, Jordan. They were aliens. I’ve never believed in this type of shit, but I
swear to God, they were fucking aliens.”

Jordan’s eyes closed. She wanted to believe it was all
simply a bad dream, but she couldn’t. Not when all the evidence told her they were
right. “I woke up on their ship. It’s still hazy, but I think we were on their
ship. I saw them, and they were definitely not human.”

“They saved us,” Tex said, surprising her. “Our Humvee
blew, and those things did something. Hell, it was like they absorbed the damn
fire before it could reach us. I was sitting there on my ass with my jaw
hanging open, then I went a little crazy when one of them took your clothes
off.”

“They what? Son of a bitch!”

“Tell me. I tried to get up, but the other one touched
me and I couldn’t move. I was fucking frozen in place, then the thing starts taking
my clothes off. Let me just say, you were pretty lucky you were out of it,
because the only one taking my clothes off should be a beautiful woman, not
some fucking alien.”

Jordan forced herself to ask the question she was
dreading the answer to. “Did they…touch us?”

“No. They just took our clothes and threw them into
the fire. Maybe they wanted anyone who found our wreck to think we died in the
crash. They knocked me out after that. Just lights out. When I woke up, I was
here in this cell.”

She glared down at the restraints on her wrists. “Are
your hands shackled?”

“Yeah, yours?”

“Affirmative.” Jordan gave him a brief rundown of what
she remembered seeing, even if it did seem like some sort of hazy, fucked up
dream. “There were ten pod things on that ship. I think that means there are
other humans being held here. If we can contact them, get them to work with us,
we could—”

“Not gonna work, Loot.”

Jordan refused to believe that. “Tex, we have to get
out of here.”

His sigh was loud and filled with a weariness that
made the hair on the back of her neck stand at attention. “That’s just it,
Jordan. I don’t think we can.”

They both went silent as they heard the sound of
footsteps coming from outside their cells. The shrill sound of a woman’s
terrified scream filled the air, and sounds of crying came from the other
direction. Before Jordan could say anything else to Tex, the door to her cell
was swung open.

Shit, no wonder the women had screamed.

What stood in the doorway of her cell was certainly no
human. It wasn’t even that transparent alien thing. No, what Jordan was looking
at could only be described as a giant, barbarian warrior with long, straight
hair the color of midnight. He had strange eyes, with amber sclera and large,
oval-shaped black irises. His nose had three ridges on the bridge, and there
were dark stripes on his forehead and the sides of his face, trailing down his
neck to cover the dark, golden skin of his muscular torso like those she’d seen
on tigers in a zoo.

He wore black leather pants and a thick, leather band
strapped crosswise over his broad chest. Jordan immediately noticed the three
knives held in sheaths on the leather band, but she figured she had as much
chance getting to one of them as she did learning how to fly. The warrior
raised his hand, beckoning her forward with an impatient curling of his
fingers. 

Oh, hell no.

Jordan wasn’t a coward, but there was no way she was
just going to go with this barbarian willingly. Lifting her head defiantly, she
simply said, “No.”

The warrior’s eyes widened for a second, then they
narrowed as he repeated the gesture. When she shook her head at him, he huffed
out an annoyed breath. His head turned and he growled out to someone out of
view. “This one is being difficult.”

Shock surged through Jordan when he spoke. The warrior
was speaking a different language, one she had never heard before, and yet, she
understood ever word. Another warrior stepped into the doorway that looked very
similar to the first, but his eyes were a lighter shade of amber.

“What’s the hold up? We have the others ready, except
for the male.”

“Are we supposed to bring him?”

The warrior with the lighter eyes shrugged. “Don’t
know. The king said to bring out the humans, so I guess we should. We’ll get
him after this one.”

They both turned to stare at Jordan. “Come, human.”

“Who are you?” Jordan asked, backing up a step. Holy
hell, now she was speaking their language. How the hell did that happen?
Somehow, she knew she’d learned their language while she had been unconscious. She
didn’t even want to think about how that was possible, but she was grateful she
could understand them.

Both of the males frowned at her, then they looked at
each other. “The others didn’t ask questions.”

The first warrior took a step into the room and Jordan
put her hands up, ready to defend herself. She might be wearing shackles, but
she would fight. Not that it would do any good. She was five foot seven, but the
warriors had a good foot of height on her, not to mention about two hundred
pounds of muscle mass.  

He halted, eyes going wide again. “Calm yourself,
human. We won’t hurt you. Both of us are mated males.”

What the hell did that mean?

“I want to know who you are and why I’m being held
here before I go anywhere with you.”

“All will be explained…later.”

“Not good enough,” Jordan bit out.

The first warrior glanced back as the other spoke.
“Use the rod. We’re running behind. Grab her and I’ll get the male.”

The warrior disappeared from the doorway, and the one
standing in the cell with Jordan pulled a small black stick out of his belt.
Fuck, Jordan thought. Was he going to beat her to death with that thing? So
much for not hurting her.

He snapped the stick down toward the ground and
suddenly it extended, showing her it was a long, collapsible baton. She tried
to brace herself, ready for him to strike her, but he simply held it up,
pressing a button on the base. Jordan was jerked forward as the chain between
her wrists attached itself to the end of the baton.

Shit, the baton was magnetized. The length of the
baton kept her from reaching the warrior, even if she kicked out. He turned,
pulling her out of the cell. She tried to dig her feet in, but it was either
follow him or end up being dragged behind.

Jordan’s head whipped around when she heard Tex curse.
The other warrior walked out into the corridor, pulling Tex behind him and
grimaced at Jordan’s captor. “Let’s go.”

She and Tex were towed along behind the two huge
warriors. Glancing over, she did a double take when she got a good look at her
friend. Tex was wearing a small loincloth made of the same material of her
dress. His jaw was clenched and his dark blue eyes were all but burning with
rage. She studied him for a moment, and realized exactly what was bothering
her.