Alien Dragon by Sophie Stern Read Free Book Online Page A

confident. I look great. That little starving waif? Yeah, she died. In her place is a luscious, curvy human with one thing on the mind: sex.
    I’ve been in a state of heightened sexual awareness for years now and if I don’t get a release soon, I’m going to just die.
    Hal hasn’t paid much attention to me since the rest of the girls were thawed, but he warned me ahead of time that this would happen. Once he released them from their frozen dreamlands, he spent a month whipping them into shape for Taneyemm. I spent most of that time hiding in my room. My training was complete at that point and the only thing left to do was wait.
    Now the waiting is over.
    Now we have arrived.
    We’re each dressed in a long, flowing dress. Like the blue gown I wore on the ship, this one is almost transparent, but not quite. Each girl’s dress is a different color. Mine is dark green.
    Hal says it brings out my eyes.
    I say it only brings out my nipples because they’re basically poking through the thin fabric.
    “This is it ladies,” Hal says, and he makes sure we’re all lined up. He walks up and down the row of girls, adjusting each person’s hair as necessary. Mine is curled and worn down over my shoulders. I feel very grown-up, perhaps more grown-up than I should. Compared the other girls, I’m worldly and experienced. I know more than they could imagine there is to know about Taneyemm culture.
    I only hope it’s enough.
    A train-like vehicle arrives to take us to a building where we’ll be sold as house servants or assigned government jobs. Most of the girls have already been sorted, but there are a few who could go either way. Hal and Jenika have had communication with Teneyemm for the last few months, so they’ve figured out exactly how many girls need to go into specific job fields and how many are wanted as house servants.
    Or wives.
    Once the girls were thawed, they determined who had skills that would benefit Taneyemm in different ways. A few girls didn’t survive the freezing process and when they were thawed, their hearts didn’t start beating again. Hal says that was accounted for, though. The number of girls they got was based on the average of how many tend to survive the trip.
    I’m not sure how I feel about that information, so I try not to.
    Apparently, more girls died this trip than ever before. Hal think it’s because our nutrition was so poor on Earth. While the previous journeys had been filled with somewhat-healthy earthlings, this trip was filled with starving, needy females who had been without food, water, and shelter.
    I try not to think about that as I wait for the train with the other females. There’s no reason to focus on the past. What’s done is done. Hal didn’t warn anyone they might not survive the freezing process when they chose to embark for Taneyemm, but even if he had, I don’t think it would have made a difference. Everyone still would have chosen to go.
    A chance at a good life was better than sitting around waiting to die.
    A few girls have forged little friendships, but I have not. I haven’t seen a reason to.
    That probably makes me a bad person, but once we’re sent off to our new homes, we’ll never see each other again, so I might as well focus on the things I can control.
    Like breathing.
    The train pulls forward and Hal ushers us inside. We’re each holding a card with a number on it. The other girls can’t read the numbers, so they just match the symbol to their seat on the train.
    Me?
    I can read because I’ve spent the last four years learning how. It’s not even hard anymore. Reading Taneyemm script is like reading English to me. It just makes sense. Hal and Jenika drilled me for months. They were ruthless. I don’t know if they wanted to give me the best chance of success or if they hoped learning to read meant I’d be worth more when I go to auction, but they essentially forced me to learn.
    Now I’m grateful. The other girls look lost, scared. I can read