Teasing Tilly by Kaitlyn O'Connor

women and, if any proved difficult or unsatisfactory in any way, they could use them to barter for more goods when they stopped for supplies for the colony. 
    Chapter Fourteen
    Tilly recognized the cell that had been hers for weeks on end as soon as she opened her eyes.  What confused her was how she’d gotten there.  And why she was once more wearing the nano-suit.
    It was almost as if none of the things she thought had happened actually had, but she knew better.  They had landed on an alien world and she had been sold and found her sister and been tortured by that horrible creature!
    She bolted upright at the thought of her sister.
    After a moment, though, she remembered that they’d taken her sister, as well—the commander.
    He’d come after her. She struggled in vain to dismiss the leap of hopefulness and warmth that rose inside of her, knowing it was merely a lie she’d told herself. It wasn’t because she mattered.
    The question was, why? 
    He’d taken her to start with to sell her and, despite her attempts to convince herself that he had begun to feel something for her, at least a tiny bit of fondness—he’d sold her.
    Were they more like pirates, then, than simply slave traders?  Not even that honest?  Taking women captive, selling them, stealing them back to sell again?
    In the scheme of things, did that matter?  She didn’t think she would care except she didn’t want to be sold again.
    Of course, the alternative was staying with the commander and his crew … at least until they got tired of her and sold her for good.
    Or worse.
    She considered that, but regardless of what they’d done, she didn’t believe they would harm her.  The commander had seemed truly earnest when he’s said he hadn’t meant for her to be harmed.
    The problem with that was that they had jettisoned several of the women during the processing.  Could she believe they really didn’t mean harm?
    Well, she didn’t think any of them had actually done it, but the equipment had darned sure been programmed to dispose of any of them that were found to be diseased or defective.
    She could argue that the poor things were dead already, that it had only been a matter of time and that the quick end had been far more humane than allowing them to die slowly, but maybe they’d wanted those last few days!  And they’d been entitled to them!  Nobody had a right to take a life like that ….
    She shook the thought.  There was absolutely no point in judging them or dwelling on it.  They weren’t human and they had no reason in the world to care and every reason not to want to be bothered with something—product—they couldn’t sell.
    She couldn’t have done such a thing to a dying animal—let alone a human—but that was her.  And the truth was there were probably plenty of humans that could have and would have done just the same.
    Or worse.
    Human traffickers selling other humans into the sex slave trade were certainly far worse, preying upon their own kind and ….
    Well, worse.
    So she thought she could probably count on them growing tired of her at some point and hopefully selling her rather than shooting her out a porthole. 
    There was no getting around it.  That cat-creature had given her a whole new outlook on the alien giants.  She was grateful to be with them instead of that creature!
    And she was grateful they had rescued Emily. 
    She didn’t think Emily would be.
    That thing had turned poor Emily’s mind!
    But maybe—hopefully—Em would come to look at it as a rescue and not hate her for interfering with her life.
    At this point, she thought Em did hate her for it, unfortunately, but she still felt better because she knew Emily was better off and in less danger.
    She couldn’t take Em home, but thanks to the alien slave trade she’d managed to recover her sister.
    Getting up at the sound of food being delivered, she ate and then headed into her bath, hopeful that she would be allowed out—and possibly to