Page 5 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

“This is no time for a panic attack,” I said. Talking to myself wasn’t a good sign, mental health wise, but it beat curling up into a ball and sobbing until the guards arrived to take me to the ceremony.

Yeah, that isn’t happening.I’d been looking for a chance to escape since I arrived, but none had appeared. It was time to make my own.

The locked door was a problem, of course, but not as bad as it seemed. Growing up on Mars in wartime had left me with a long list of skills no well-raised woman should have, and popping the lock took less than twenty minutes. It’s tricky to stop an airtight door from reporting when it’s open—but I’d had to learn that trick to sneak out of my room back home.

I couldn’t do anything about more subtle tracking devices. If they’d implanted one in me, this escape was doomed. I didn’t worry about that. More likely, I’d walk into a guard patrol and find myself in a less comfortable cell.

But I had to try. The door slid open at my touch, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. The corridor outside was empty. With all the guests on station, I’d hoped the guards had more duties to attend to than standing watch over one bride who’d been docile since being brought aboard.

To my right, the corridor led back to the promenade and the wedding preparations. I turned left on thetheory that the unknown dangers of a rundown station were preferable to the horrors waiting for me with Frax.

At each junction, I took the path that looked less used, and it didn’t take me long to reach an uninhabitable section. Condensation dripped from the walls, the air smelled of burning plastic, and the gravity shifted direction with every step.

On Mars, I’d avoid this kind of place like the plague. Death waited everywhere, unseen but ready to pounce in a thousand terrible ways. This was the kind of place stupid kids would dare each other to race through, and every year the colonies lost at least one brave idiot. Perhaps I was one of them now, but on Caliban station I could think of nowhere I’d be safer.

I crouched behind a pile of insulation that burst from the wall like some disgusting alien goo, catching my breath. The most dangerous part was still ahead of me. For my next trick, I had to get off the station.

Great theory. How do I put that into practice?There was no obvious solution. The guests had all arrived in spaceships, sure, but they were also paranoid criminals visiting a warlord in his lair. If any of them had left their ship unguarded, someone had probably stolen it already.

Ruthlessly crushing the thought of trying to hitch a lift from the handsome silver-skinned alien with amazing abs, I tried to think of other options. No matter how attractive he was, how much he intrigued me, I refused to put my fate in the hands of a pirate justbecause ‘our eyes met across a crowded room.’ Frax invited him, and that ought to be enough to keep him out of the allies column.

It was just desperation speaking, surely? I needed someone on my side, and so far, no one else had been even remotely friendly. We hadn’t said one word to each other, but I still wanted to get to know him better. Much better.

Blushing, I forced my mind back on track.No fantasizing about scarily hot aliens while I’m running for my life,I told myself.Okay, the main hangar deck is out. What else is there?

If the guest ships were out, I needed to find one of Frax’s. With security focused on the wedding, I reasoned he’d have to pull guards away from their usual posts. Maybe that would leave enough space for me to squeeze past security.

It wasn’t the best plan, but it was all I think of in a hurry, anyway. I didn’t have long.

Finding my way to the hangars took longer than I’d like, despite the advantages of my upbringing. I had to turn back several times. There was a reason everyone had abandoned these spaces. More than once, I found my path blocked by a sealed door with vacuum warnings plastered across it. Other times, the temperature plummeted or spiked, forcing me to retreat.

Without a way to track the time, I had no idea how long I’d walked. Eventually, someone would notice my absence. I needed to be off the station before thathappened. Once my captors started looking for me, my chances of stealing a ship dropped from slim to suicide.

So I wasn’t being as careful as I should have been when I reached inhabited corridors again. I turned a corner and almost walked into the pair of guards standing at a hangar door.

I stared at them. They stared at me. No one seemed to know what to say. My body froze as my mind raced, looking for a plausible lie. It wasn’t as though I could pretend to be someone else, not wearing my fucking wedding dress.

The alarm hadn’t sounded yet. If it had, the guards wouldn’t have hesitated. Which meant there was a fleeting moment in which I might convince them to let me into the hangar. The moment stretched awkwardly as nothing occurred to me.

“You lost, miss?” The first guard to speak sounded tentative. He looked like someone had crushed a body-builder—perhaps five feet tall, but just as wide and with bulging muscles. I swallowed, trying to imagine fighting him. He’d tear my arms off.

His companion was taller, her green face pulling into a dismissive sneer as she looked down at him. Nowhere near as muscular as her partner, she still looked far too dangerous for me to fight.

“Idiot,” she said to her colleague. “She’s not a guest, she’s Lord Frax’s bride.”

“Yeah, and maybe she’s lost.”

I still didn’t know what to say, but I had to say something, so I hid behind what I hoped was aconvincingly drunk giggle. “Sorry, I think I got turned around. Which way’s the…”

I trailed off, watching the female guard’s eyes narrow. Okay, whatever the right lie was, that wasn’t it.

“Don’t worry, we’ll see you right,” she said, reaching for her comm. If she called a superior, my escape was done. I tensed, ready to leap into action and die fighting for my freedom, when another voice interrupted.

“Do not trouble yourselves. She is with me.” I froze at the cold, hard voice of Lady Mishoni. “Or rather, sheshouldbe with me, if she were sober and had the sense of direction of a dead fish.”

“We should report—” the shorter guard started, only for Mishoni to interrupt again.

“You shouldnot.She might get in trouble for getting lost, but I would certainly get in trouble for losing her.” Mishoni grabbed my elbow, her grip tight enough to bruise. The guards exchanged a look, then shrugged, leaving the call unplaced as she dragged me away.

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