Page 42 of Owned By the Hvrok

We’re crashing. This is a crash.

Her breath hitched. “Shit!”

She twisted against the restraints, instinct driving her even though part of her—damn it all—knew they were the only reasonshe wasn’t being flung across the room like a rag doll. The smooth alien harness flexed with her, held her tight, kept her spine aligned as the ship hit…something.

It slammed hard. She screamed.

It was deafening.

And then, all of a sudden,it stopped.

Not all at once. Not cleanly. The ship groaned to a halt like a dying beast, metal moaning, lights flickering out, and then…

Silence.

A silence so total, it made her ears ring.

Sylvia lay there, panting. Eyes wide, heart pounding hard enough to hurt.

Did we land?

Was this an accident?A system failure? An attack?

What the hell is happening out there?

She didn’t know. Couldn’t see. Couldn’tmove.

Panic began to bloom.

He hasn’t come.

The armored brute. Her captor. Her silent, shadow-wrapped tormentor.

Is he alive?

A coldness sank into her limbs.

What if he wasn’t?

What if the ship had crash-landed on some hostile alien world andhe—the only thing that could keep her alive out here—was dead? What if he’d been thrown from the ship? Or trapped somewhere? Or…

What if he abandoned her?

What if no one ever finds her?

Terror swelled like a tide. Her throat tightened. Her breath shortened, coming in erratic gasps. Too shallow. Too fast. Her chest heaved, lungs screaming.

“No,” she panted, writhing in the restraints, every instinct kicking into survival mode. “Let me out—let meout!”

She thrashed. Screamed. The sounds bounced back at her from the metal walls, too small, too contained. She was suffocating.

She didn’t want to die here. Notlike this. Not on some alien ship, locked in a cage, alone.

Her breath broke down into messy, primal sobs. Her hands clenched into fists. Her muscles trembled. Her skin flushed hot, then cold.

No one knows where I am.

No one is coming.

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