Ruth's Bonded (Ruth & Gron Book 1) (2 page)

Pressing her back to the wall as if
she still intended to go through it, Ruth sank to the ground, her legs weak.
The...
alien
was still across the room, watching her. Was that what he
was? An alien? Had she been
abducted by aliens
? Was that a real thing?
She hadn’t seen anyone else, none of the people who had shoved her into the
hole, but this guy
was not human
. Not even, like, an
early
human,
and that would have been unbelievable enough on its own. Well, if she’d been
abducted, it looked like this guy had been too. The question was, was he
friendly, or unfriendly?

He hadn’t moved yet, and he was still
staring at her. She guessed she must look pretty weird to him, too. And she had
screamed her head off as soon as she saw him and flung herself to the other
side of the room. She realised now that might have looked strange, maybe
offended him. She realised belatedly that maybe she should be operating on
prison rules, things like don’t make eye-contact, don’t show weakness. She
wondered if the people who had taken her were watching. They must have heard
her scream at least, and no one had come to check if she was still alive yet.
She ran her hand through her hair self-consciously. She was terrified – of her
cell-mate, of why she had been taken, of
who
she had been taken by, and
if she would ever be let go – but that didn’t stop her being embarrassed.
Typical.

It suddenly seemed very quite in the
cell.

She looked around again, just for
something to distract herself. The alien was the only other thing in the cell.
Great. She cleared her throat.

“Hi.”

Nothing. Well, okay, he blinked.

“I’m Ruth.”

Silence.

“Can you speak English? Do you
understand me? Nod if you can understand me.”

He replied, or at least Ruth thought
he did, by growling. He didn’t look angry, but he was definitely growling. So
communication was a no-go. She thought maybe he might have a universal
translator or something, like in Star Trek, but apparently not. She wondered
again how long she would be here. She hadn’t even eaten her breakfast. There
was a coffee and a tasty muffin lying in an alley right now literally with her
name on it. For some reason that made her really sad. She didn’t want to be
abducted by aliens, she didn’t even want to know aliens existed. Shouldn’t she
be allowed to see the stars or something at least, if she had to be kidnapped in
space? Maybe they hadn’t left Earth yet! Surely NASA or someone monitored this
sort of thing? She decided she liked that idea much better than thinking she
was never going home. She supposed it could be worse. They hadn’t tried to
stick anything in her yet. She wasn’t strapped to a table or restrained.

She kind of wanted to lie down, but
she didn’t think that would make her feel better. It looked uncomfortable too.
She would have liked something to eat or drink. She hoped they fed her. She
groaned at the thought of what the next few hours might hold for her. She would
get thirsty. She would get hungry. She might need to
go
, and there
clearly wasn’t a toilet in here. She looked at the hole in the floor with
dread. She was starting to get cold, though she couldn’t feel a draft as if
there was air conditioning. She was glad she still had her clothes,
pretty-but-not-stylish office wear, slacks, a blouse, and a blazer. She still
had her mid-heeled shoes. It was probably the adrenaline leaving her that was
making her cold, and not having any breakfast calories or caffeine to burn.
She’d probably get a headache without the coffee eventually from the
withdrawal.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that her
cellmate was totally butt naked as well, as far as she could tell. He had his
fur, but otherwise, not a stitch. She was calling him a ‘he’, because the
muscles, broad shoulders and absence of breasts didn’t make her think he was a
‘she’, but what did she know? He was an alien. His species might not even have
male and female. They might only have one gender, or three, or four. They might
have two that were completely different from humans, or they might have buff
females and smaller males. They might get their babies from cabbage patches, or
test tubes. They might emerge fully-formed from trees. He might be one of a
finite number of immortals incapable of reproduction. Anything was possible.

But she was going to proceed with the
assumption he was male. And she was female. And that might eventually have
ramifications. At least she’d just finished her period and didn’t have to worry
about that for a while. If she was in here for that long though, she’d probably
need it to tell her how much time was passing. She hoped she wasn’t in here
long enough to get sick from lack of sun. Would she get cabin-fever? What even
was
cabin-fever, really? She hoped it wasn’t bad.

She felt like she was going crazy,
babbling in her own mind. She knew intellectually she would eventually get
tired enough to sleep on this floor, but she wasn’t looking forward to it. She
could probably fold up her jacket for a pillow.

God, someone find me
, she thought desperately.
Someone
rescue me. I don’t want to be here.

Maybe her job would have noticed she
wasn’t there by now. Maybe when they fail to get in touch with her, they’ll
call her landlord. These were the people who would look for her, her employer
and her landlord. Not her family or friends, who probably wouldn’t notice they
hadn’t heard from her for weeks.

She looked again at the alien who
shared this cell with her. How long had he been here? They couldn’t have taken
him from Earth, on the same trip they got her. He might have been in this cell
for days, weeks, months. Ruth didn’t know how interplanetary travel worked in
practice, no-one on Earth did. She hoped he hadn’t gone mad.

They should be friends. Ruth didn’t
know if she could stand being in this cell with him, not being able to talk to
each other, and not interact at all. If he was going to kill her, it might be
better to just get it over with, she thought grimly. She’d quickly go insane
with boredom if she couldn’t do anything
at all
, not even meet his eyes
or... play pattycake or
something
!

Slowly, as if she was approaching an
angry dog, not that she knew how to do that, she went onto her hands and knees
again, assuming a crawling position, and watched for his reaction. He was
watching her closely, not looking entirely happy, but he hadn’t looked happy
since she got there. So, keeping a close eye on him for any change of
expression, she crawled over to the other corner on his side. He didn’t move, but
he followed her with his eyes, turning his head as she got closer. She could
see more of him now, and yep, he was naked, his toned butt on the metal floor.
Human men were just not that defined either, not all over. She was also right
about the hair; he had a dark brown mane, longer than the rest of his pelt,
blending into the fur that spread over his shoulders.

Okay, so far so good. She began
edging sideways towards him. Ruth had never been one of the popular kids in
school, she’d usually just had the same two or three friends, but being a temp
had taught her how to get on with people at least, how to be pleasant. In this
situation, she’d settle for him thinking she was pleasant.

She had wiggled herself to within
about a foot of him when he abruptly stood and crossed to the other side of the
cell, sitting down again almost exactly where she had started off. He frowned
at her like a father chastising a child. Apparently he didn’t think much of her
attempt to befriend him.

Ruth’s jaw fell open. Not because he’d
moved away. He hadn’t attacked her, so that was nice. No, he’d stood up less
than a foot away from her face. She was pretty confident now that he was male.
Very male. And apparently they were...
compatible
. In fact, she might go
so far as to say it was nothing she hadn’t seen before. Except she’d never seen
one that...
big
. Whatever pattern his fur followed ignored that part of
him, so there had been nothing to obstruct her gaze. He didn’t seem to think
anything of her seeing him like that.

But it wasn’t just the evidence of
his maleness that had her agape. As he’d stood, a long, furry tail had uncurled
from his lap and fallen between his legs to twitch behind him as he walked away
from her.

Not
human.
Definitely
not.

Now she just had such an itch to touch
that tail. Was his fur soft or coarse? She wondered if he’d like it, or if he’d
kill her for it. Something to figure out later, she guessed.

She settled into his old place to
pout. At least it was warm.

The Queen had come to sit beside him.
Gron had considered letting her, but he grew more and more nervous as she edged
closer. Why did she want to be close to him? Would she touch him? Would she
attack him? He couldn’t trust her not be an instrument of his captors, so he
couldn’t allow her close to him. He doubted she could hurt him, unless she had
something venomous hidden in her coverings. Even then, he was sure he could
overpower her in an instant.

But why was she here? Was it possible
his captors just didn’t know what they had done by stealing a Queen? He did not
know why he had been taken either, but he assumed it must be as a worker, or a
trophy, or game. He had fought viciously, and continued to do so every
opportunity they gave him, but they had sticks that bit him and burned. So they
had reached a practical solution: they did not come near him anymore. They
tossed food in through the hatch, and that was it. It made his situation a
little desperate, as he knew every day must take him further away from his
tribe, but he had no more opportunities to fight or escape.

If they knew she was a Queen, did
they hope to use her to control him? He was forced to admit that it would work.
If she gave him a command, he would try to obey. He would still try to escape,
and he would not leave her behind, but if she was collaborating with his
captors, what would he do? If they threatened to hurt her if he did not obey
them, what would he do? He could not allow harm to come to her, not one such as
her, so delicate and fragile, perhaps not yet mature. But if he let them know
that, then would it be worse for both of them? He had to remember she was not
his tribe, not his race, perhaps not even his species. The ones who had taken
him were not from his world, neither was this craft. He had no allegiance to
her. It gave him an uneasy, guilty, sick feeling in his stomach to think it,
but her presence in his cell could well be a trap, some kind of ruse to tame
him for their purposes, whatever they were. If that were true, then it would
not go well for him if he fell for it.

Of course, the species who had taken
him were so different from his own, that they might not have realised her
significance, might not even have realised she was female. He hadn’t been able
to discern yet whether their species had males and females. In that case, what
did they expect him to do with her? Was she simply in his cell to be held for
transportation? They knew he was dangerous.

Perhaps they wanted them to fight.
For sport.

Perhaps they expected him to eat her.

His blood ran cold and then hot as
another idea came to him and took hold of his mind. Perhaps they wanted him to
mate with her. If he had value, maybe they wanted more of him. Little ones. He
swallowed. That was forbidden. She was not his Queen. His captors might not
understand his people’s ways, but he would not break them, no matter how far
away from his tribe they took him.

But if they kept them together in
this space for long enough, wouldn’t the Bond form? Wouldn’t his allegiance be
changed if he stayed this close to her, alone? Nature would take over. He would
become hers. His body would not give him the choice.

He could not let that happen.

So he had moved away when she had
approached him. But if she wanted to touch him... Well, that would be
inappropriate, first of all. No Queen other than his mother had ever touched
him without another present. It would make him distinctly uncomfortable. It
would also speed the forming of the Bond. He might become primed for her, for
her breeding needs. He couldn’t believe that she wanted that. Not under these
circumstances. A Queen like her should already have her males, but even if she
didn’t, this was not the place for carrying or raising young. She must only
have intended to Bind him to her, for security. She was away from her tribe. He
guessed he could protect her better than she could protect herself, at least in
battle, and she must have realised that.

That thought was... He couldn’t think
it. It was not his place to stud for a Queen. He served, that was all. And he
already had a tribe, and a Queen, and he would be killed for betraying her.
That was the end of it. He would be loyal to his own kind, he had to be. He
would not allow harm to come to this Queen, but he would not allow himself to
be Bound either.

There was still the possibility that
she was acting for his captors, and wished to Bind him so that he would no
longer fight them. To mate with him would be the quickest way to accomplish
that.

As he sat down again on the other
side of the cell, her expression told him she had not expected him to reject
her. A fair assumption, as no male displeases their Queen, but she was not his
Queen and she must know that. It is the duty of the male not to be poached by a
rival Queen, and he was not a weak-willed or ambitious male.

As Gron watched her settle back
against the wall, her arms wrapping around herself, a mournful expression on
her face, his tail twitched guiltily. She was alone here, just like he was. She
had been taken from her people and her home. She was probably scared. He
couldn’t blame her for reaching out, trying to make a connection. If she was a
prisoner like him, it was the clever and practical thing for a Queen to do. He
was impressed she had been prepared to do it so soon, she must be strong indeed
to do what will protect her, regardless of sentimentality for her old tribe. He
wondered whether or not she intended to abandon him if she returned to her
tribe, or integrate him, or have him killed? He would not fit in with her kind,
but perhaps he could offer them something they lack, like strength, size.

He shook himself out of that fantasy.
What was he doing, thinking of that? That was not his future. He must remain
steadfast. This situation would not improve if the Bond formed between them. If
the Queen was sad, she was clearly strong enough to endure it. He would help
her to survive this, and then they would part.