Bride Games: (Alien's Bride) by Yamila Abraham Page B

her throat, “And, in every practical sense, you’re a king.   What doesn’t fit in this puzzle is me.   Oh, sure, I could play along for a while.   I could act like I was meant to be here with someone like you.   But that’s all it would be.   An act.   Things would come apart eventually.   Sometimes people get broken beyond repair.   I’ll be miserable.   You’ll be miserable.   And the worse thing is, I don’t think you’d ever divorce me.   You’d just keep trying.   Trying and failing and wondering why.”   She shook her head.   “No, Lysanter.   This isn’t the place for me.   I need to go back to the woods.   Survival.   That’s what I know.   That’s where my safe place is.   Where I can’t hurt anyone and no one can hurt me.”   She made a long, shuddering sigh.   “I’m poison, Lysanter.   The kindest thing I could do for you is walk away.”
    When she looked at him she saw his eyes gleaming with burgeoning tears.
    “I’m not enough for you?” he said.
    Lenora looked at him in disbelief.   “That’s not it at all.   Didn’t you hear me?   I’m the one—“
    “You think I’m not enough to help you overcome the horrors you suffered at the hands of Sergeant Hastings?”
    The name caused a shiver down her spine .   Her spit became as thick as mud.   She had to cough in order to speak again.
    “What do you know about that?”
    “He was obsessed with you.   When the Instajants invaded he made certain he ran with you.   You hid in the sewers with him for months.   He abused you, didn’t he?   And raped you.”
    Lenora gave a tearful laugh.   “Is that all you know?   You think you really have any idea?”
    “Tell me, Lenora.”
    She considered this.   She’d never told anyone in her life, but if he knew he would let her go.   That’s what she wanted, right?   To leave him.   To struggle on her own.
    She grimaced.   Of course not.   She wanted to be an innocent princess like Vivian, and get to marry her Prince Charming.   To be happy without any of the poison inside her ever bubbling up.
    She was a fool.
    “ Hastings was a lunatic.   At first we were cordial and I had to accept the special treatment he was giving me because he was my commanding officer.   It didn’t take long for me to despise him.   He was driving a truck in our convoy.   I was in the front seat.   A cat ran across the road in front of us.   He swerved the damn truck in order to hit it.   Then he turned and laughed and said, ‘I hate cats.’   I was so disgusted I wanted nothing to do with him.   This only made him want me.   He showed up in the barracks and tried to drag me into an office with him.   When I actually got sexual harassment charges to stick on him our vendetta became personal.   He badmouthed me to every officer he could to try and keep me from being promoted.   Then he started orchestrated transfers to get me back into his unit.   Every time I got a transfer order I knew he was behind it.   I fought, and fought, and the war just got worse.   I finally gave up and let myself get transferred because there were bigger things to worry about.   As far as Hastings was concerned the only issue was that I wasn’t sleeping with him.   It was as if he’d gone completely insane since I last saw him.   He put me in the front line to fight the Instajants with him, even though this was prohibited with women.   Everything had fallen apart by then.   No one was there to check him.   When he saw that the Instajants were impervious to our weapons and moved faster than the eye could see, he handcuffed me to him and ran into a rain gutter.   He had a pack of provisions with him.   It had been his plan all along.
    “We found a mother and her toddler and I made him take them with us into the sewers.   The child was constantly screaming.   She didn’t last more than two nights before Hastings …smothered her.”   Lenora grimaced.   “He claimed he had