Page 39 of Owned By the Hvrok

Fine. You want a fight? You’ll get one.

She wouldn’t let this break her.

She would adapt. Learn. Endure. That’s what she’d always done. She was pragmatic. Rational. Grounded. Even if her world had cracked in half and spilled her into the stars, shecouldsurvive this.

There are aliens. Whole civilizations. It's all real.

It still felt impossible. But it was happening.

She would need to find a way to communicate. To show him she was more than just a body. More than something to be fed and dressed and controlled.

She would change the game.

Somehow.

She was just beginning to feel the first flicker of determination reassemble itself in her chest when the ship shuddered.

The bed beneath her vibrated. The floor lurched. A deep, groaning sound echoed through the walls like something ancient being torn apart.

She sat up—“What the?—”

The shipjerked, hard.

Then—

The bed came to life.

Seamless restraints emerged from the frame, wrapping around her wrists, her ankles, her waist. Smooth and silent. Alien tech. No sharp edges. No locks she could see.

Justgrip.

Firm. Absolute.

She screamed. “Hey!No—no, no, no! Let me go! What the hell is this?*”

No answer.

The restraints held her tight.

Not painfully—but completely. She couldn’t even twist her wrists.

Was this him? Did he do this?

But no—he hadn’t appeared. No masked figure. No silent motion through the door. She was alone.

Then why the restraints?

The ship groaned again. Somewhere above, somethingboomed. A distant impact. Metal rang with the sound of stress—of shields failing, maybe.

“Oh god—” She thrashed, panic slicing through her thoughts. “Is this how I die?”

No one answered.

She was alone. Strapped to an alien bed. No idea what was happening. No idea if the ship was going to rip apart. No idea if that monstrous, armored brute evenknewshe was restrained like this.

She’d been angry.

Now, she was terrified.

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