Khol (Rescued by the Alien)

1. Nancy

Chapter 1

Nancy

“ T ime to go home, sweetie,” I told my four-year-old daughter, Flora, smiling as she left her daycare friends and rushed toward me, the skirt of her bright pink dress fluffing around her knees. My daughter saw herself as a princess, as she should.

I couldn’t love her more. So what if her dad bailed on us the moment I told him I was pregnant? I was determined right then to give my child all the love she needed.

As for my heart? I wasn’t sure I’d ever trust it to someone new.

Flora wrapped her arms around my legs and grinned up at me. “Santa. Santa’s coming soon!”

“Yes, Santa comes in a few days.” I’d hidden her stuffed stocking and the few gifts I could afford in my closet, and after we’d set out cookies and milk for Santa and she’d fallen asleep, I’d place her gifts beneath the tree and drape her stocking across the back of the sofa.

I hadn’t been able to buy much. Working two jobs paid our rent and her daycare, plus put food on the table, but there was rarely much left for extras. Still, she was young enough to enjoy opening her presents, and I was sure she’d adore the doll I’d scrimped on my own meals to save enough to buy for her. “Are you ready to go home?”

“Yes,” she declared, flashing her baby teeth my way once more.

I stroked her rich brown hair from her face and pulled an elastic band from my pocket, making a quickie ponytail at the top of her head. The up-do I’d arranged for her this morning had come undone.

“Grab your bag from your cubby,” I said, smiling at Janet, the woman who ran this daycare. It might not be fancy, but Janet kept her home clean, and it was clear she loved each child as if they were her own.

“She’s such a good girl,” Janet said, coming over to stand with me while Flora tugged her child-sized bright pink backpack from the wooden cubby mounted on the wall in the entryway. “I hope you two have an amazing Christmas.”

It was Friday, and we’d celebrate Christmas eve on Monday. Fortunately, a single woman had offered to cover my shift on Tuesday so I could spend the day with Flora. My elderly neighbor would watch Flora on Monday while I worked, since Janet’s daycare was closed.

“You too.” I gave her a quick hug, and she patted my back .

“I’ll see you on Wednesday?” Janet asked Flora, stroking her shoulder.

“Yes!” Flora chirped, hopping around with her bag in hand.

“Come on, sweetie,” I said, taking her other hand. We stepped outside the tiny house while Janet hurried back to supervise the rest of the kids.

We’d started down the front walk when a robocop S.W.A.T. vehicle pulled into Janet’s driveway. Frowning, I stopped and tucked my daughter behind me. Were they making a raid somewhere close?

Not long ago, AI robocops were introduced by a billionaire entrepreneur, and in no time, they’d taken over all the major city’s police protection units. Though horribly expensive, they quickly proved they were worth the cost. Robocops didn’t complain, they worked all hours, and they rarely broke down. Now that they patrolled the streets, crime was pretty much nonexistent. Who’d break the law when a robot would come after you? They could outrun, outthink, and outsmart the person before they could finish committing the crime.

Flora peeked around my legs as three robocops stormed out of the vehicle. Instead of racing across the road or wherever they’d been programmed to attack, they stomped toward me.

I backed toward Janet’s front porch. Should we hide in the bushes flanking the side of the steps? I didn’t want to get in their way.

The lead robocop’s eyes flared, and a bright red dot appeared on the front of my shirt.

With a yelp, I swept Flora up in my arms and raced along the walk leading around the back of Janet’s house. The robocops came after me, their metal footsteps clanging on the pavement at a pace much too rapid for me to outrun.

“I didn’t do anything,” I cried out as they grabbed my arm, nearly wrenching it from the socket. It was all I could do to hold onto Flora.

When they tried to pluck her from my arms, I bellowed and clung to her, falling to my knees. Flora wailed, and I tumbled forward, landing hard on my side, curling around her, holding tight.

One of the cops stabbed my precious daughter with a needle while another poked me in the upper arm.

The world swirled away and . . .

“Wake,” a lilting voice said. “It’s time for you to meet your fated mate.”

My eyes popped open, and I tried to orient myself. Flora was nestled in my arms, and we lay inside a glass case. Frowning, I stared through the clear panel a few inches above our bodies, trying to figure out why we appeared to be riding in a narrow pod with stars whirling around us.

A blink told me this wasn’t a dream.

Memories rushed through me of robocops taking us somewhere in a van, how one of them held us as it leaped over a very tall fence topped with wire that zapped and hummed. How the robocop placed me and Flora inside a . . .

A space pod much like this one .

Fear jolted through me, and I wanted to cry out, but more than that, I didn’t want to scare my daughter. I bit down on my lips, compressing them together to hold back my wail.

A fierce need to keep my little girl safe shot through me, and I stilled my shakes.

Flora continued to slumber in my arms, and her soft breathing reassured me. I’d figure this out. We were going to be alright.

Where were we?

Lights blasted around the tip of the pod by my feet as we entered the outer atmosphere of an unknown planet. I’d studied astronomy in high school, and I’d enjoyed learning about the planets within our galaxy. The one the pod was approaching at a dizzying speed didn’t look like anything from my textbook.

Flora stirred before falling back asleep, and for that, I was grateful. I needed to determine where we were and what was going on before she woke, assuming I could do so.

I vaguely remembered the voice that woke me.

Fated mate?

I must’ve been dreaming.

Our space pod—and that was the only way I could think of this thing we rode in—soared through the clouds and flung itself toward an enormous light purple landscape. It was only when we got closer that I realized we were traveling over water.

It flew lower. And lower, until I was sure I could touch the water if I stretched my hand down.

A large landmass a few miles across and made up of thick vegetation in varying shades of purple loomed ahead, and we plunged toward it. Before we could impact, the craft slowed. The low hum around us ceased, and we dropped, splashing down into the water a hundred feet away from the island.

Flora stirred and mumbled something about mermaids.

The glass overhead slid sideways and dropped, and fresh air poured into the small, tight space where we lay.

Cool water sloshed over the sides, waking Flora. Her eyes opened, and she frowned up at me. “Mommy?”

Something big and dark purple and with long fangs swam along the side of the spacecraft, its top fin breaking the surface of the water and its tail agitating behind it. As it passed, it smacked the small ship.

The pod flipped over.

Water gushed inside, upending it completely and dumping us out.

I clung to my daughter as we plunged into the vast purple sea.