Page 1 of Bride of the Sea King

one

ARIA

A gustof wind blew loose grains of sand into my face, and I wrapped my arms tighter around my middle.

Shuffling forward with the line of women in front of me, I resisted the urge to rub my eyes. Again. All it did was make them sting.

The late-afternoon sky was gray, matching the mood around me. None of us wanted to be on Mug Beach in southern California, on the coldest day we’d had all winter, but when the alts commanded, there was no choice other than obeying.

Stupidly, I was wearing nothing but a sweatshirt, some thin leggings, and underwear. Most of the others were wearing coats, and I envied them for thinking ahead. I’d assumed whatever we were called in for would be over relatively quickly.

All of us were women between the ages of eighteen and forty, and we had showed up long before sunrise. Just like the official messages instructed. Failure to comply led to massive government fines that I sure as hell couldn’t afford.

As soon as we arrived, a massive crew ushered us into what must’ve been the world’s biggest line. Someone had tried to count how many of us were gathered, but she had given up somewhere around five thousand.

She hadn’t been even halfway through the group.

I had stayed in my car, regretting not bringing my coat, up until the very last minute. So, I was only six people from the back.

Which meant I had been there all day.

And I still wasn’t getting close to the front.

I had my headphones in my pocket, but the battery was dead, and I was tired of listening to music anyway. I just wanted to go home.

Another gust of sand blew into my face, and I bit back a groan.

Was this day ever going to end?

“This is ridiculous,” the woman right behind me snapped, stepping out of the line.

She immediately captured the attention of everyone nearby. It wasn’t like any of us had anything better to do.

We all watched her stride over to one of the guards nearby. He was human, but still a fairly big guy. And he had a gun, not that any of us thought he was going to use it.

Women were too valuable to the alts.

We were there because one or more of them was trying to decide if he wanted or needed us.

We all knew that. It had been all over the internet since they announced their existence a few years ago, and we realized they’d taken over every government on Earth.

Now, we were at their mercy.

Whatevertheywere.

The internet as a whole was fairly confident that they were supernatural creatures from a parallel realm—creatures like dragons, vampires, demons, and whatnot. But there wasn’t much evidence.

All we really knew was that they were big and powerful, and they needed women.

“What’s going on?” the woman who had been standing behind me demanded, speaking to the human guard. “We’ve been here all day, hungry and freezing our asses off. At this rate, it’s going to be tomorrow afternoon before we make it to the front of the line. We’re starving. We’re thirsty. We’re cold. Can you at least let us go home for the night and come back in the morning?”

The man studied her for a moment. His hold on the gun no longer looked threatening, but it hadn’t from the beginning.

“I’ll make a call,” he finally said.

“I’ll wait.”

Silently, I cheered the woman on.

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