Her Alien Savior (Voxeran Fated Mates #2) - Presley Hall

1

Sadie

It’s strange to think of the torn-up remains of a crashed spaceship as a home, but now that I’m light years away from Earth, my definition of “home” has gotten a little skewed.

The ship we’re in cracked in half as it passed through the rings that surround the planet Nuthora, so there’s no hope it’ll ever fly again. It’s useless for anything but scraps at this point.

But still, I don’t want to leave it.

“Hey, Charlotte,” Raina calls, holding up a small, flat case. “What about these? I think they’re some kind of batteries or something. Take or leave?”

Charlotte looks up from where she’s bent over her own work, sorting through the items we’ll take with us when we leave the wrecked ship. She tucks a lock of dark brown hair behind her ear as she studies the case in Raina’s hands.

“Take, I think. Droth said we’ll mostly be concentrating on bringing back tech and other items they can trade in the city. There aren’t enough of us to carry everything if we strip the ship down to the bones, so we need to focus on what’s most valuable.”

“Got it.” Raina sets the case in the slowly growing pile of things that will accompany us when we leave the temporary safety of the crash site and head out toward the Voxerans’ encampment. It’ll be a dangerous journey, considering this planet is populated almost entirely by hardened criminals.

I chew my lip as I glance around the large room on the ship’s upper level. It’s dimly lit, since the power on the spaceship no longer works, but there’s enough early evening light streaming through a wide window on one wall for us to work by. Elizabeth is stationed near Charlotte, which isn’t surprising. They’ve become good friends in the short time we’ve all been stranded together on this planet—which makes sense, since they actually met before the crash.

Unlike the rest of us, they actually volunteered to get on the ship. They wanted to be part of the Foreigner II’s mission. Of course, they thought that mission was to make peaceful contact with extraterrestrial life for the first time. They didn’t discover until it was too late that our government had abducted human women with the plan to sell them to alien warlords and slavers in exchange for advanced weapons and technology.

I had no knowledge of any of that until I regained consciousness after the Foreigner II went off course and crashed on this planet. I woke up inside some kind of cryogenic pod with Elizabeth’s pale face hovering over me, screams and shouts echoing in the air around me, and the acrid smell of smoke burning my nostrils.

I… didn’t handle it all that well.

My shoulders tense as I remember the panic attack that sent me fleeing into the woods, and I draw in a deep breath through my nose, setting down the packet of syringes someone found in a medical supply closet.

The only way out is through.

The mantra my therapist taught me runs through my mind, and I repeat each word silently several times. I have to keep pushing through. There’s no other option.

I can’t let myself give in to the panic again, even though it’s never really gone away. Last time I let it take over, I ran into a dangerous jungle like an idiot and almost got Charlotte killed. I refuse to let something like that happen again. My issues are my own, and even if every bit of the anxiety that I thought I’d conquered back on Earth has returned with a vengeance on Nuthora, I won’t let it put others in danger.

Keep it together, Sadie. You can do this. You have to.

“Hey.” Gemma looks up at me from where she sits nearby, her dark brows drawing together with concern. She’s got a sweet face and large brown eyes that make me think of a baby deer. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I shake my head, shoving away the unpleasant memories as I give her what feels like a pretty half-assed smile. “Just not really looking forward to hiking through an alien jungle.”

Her eyes widen a little. “Me neither. But at least we’ll be safer with the Voxerans than we are here. If another band of raiders shows up, I’d rather be long gone.”

I nod, because that seems to be the consensus among all the women.

We’ll be safer with the Voxerans.

Maybe they’re right. Maybe we will be safer. But will we truly be safe?

It’s a cynical thought, but life has taught me to be