Lara Santiago - Menagerie Read online

  MENAGERIE

  Lara Santiago

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Prologue

  Valerie Thornhill despised jogging. She loathed exercise in absolutely any form. Most of all, she hated the fact that she truly needed to do it.

  The pain she experienced while working out started with the first jarring step. Today’s effort was no different as she stepped on the gravel pathway entering the local park.

  Shooting spasms of agony crawled from her running shoe-clad feet to her legs to her chest and married up with the other ache lodged around her heart.

  The steady pain in Valerie’s chest grew to epic proportions of constriction with each step she took along the park’s trail in an effort to get in shape. It was as if some invisible force with a large hand had a firm grip on her heart and squeezed it mercilessly in its steely grasp.

  The apprehension strangling her insides was easily explained, and not all of it had to do with exercise, but it hurt all the same. She ignored the discomfort and pressed on in a vain pursuit of health.

  Anxiety. That’s all it was. Her mother was coming for a visit next month and Valerie knew her destiny in those two weeks would be fraught with repeated lectures of disappointment because Valerie hadn’t snagged a husband yet.

  Her mother was ever hopeful, but unfortunately, Valerie hadn’t found any man that made her heart race with a single glance. She’d spent her time with toad after blind-date toad and honestly, not one had seemed worth the effort of compromising the single attribute that Valerie insisted upon. She wanted attraction. Inescapable, heart-pounding, immediate attraction. She wanted her socks knocked off with a single glance. What was wrong with that?

  Her mother insisted that she was too picky. Whatever. Perhaps her mother was right. It wasn’t like Valerie’s unyielding search for a perfect, compelling mate was keeping her warm at night.

  Valerie knew that whatever perfect man she one day found to love wouldn’t care how she looked nearly as much as her mother did. Instead of this vigorous activity, she’d rather be taking a nap. Her job as a corporate accountant was stressful enough throughout the work week. Valerie enjoyed her time off on the weekend. Sunday afternoon would definitely be better spent wrapped in a comforter watching fragments of television shows in between naps instead of this run.

  Today’s jog in the park was solely because of guilt and fate. Guilt because in two weeks her mother would remind her that she needed to lose twenty-five pounds to attract a suitable man, and fate because she was destined not to lose an ounce before her mother’s arrival unless she got moving.

  Picking up the pace, Valerie jogged along in her gray sweat suit, and considered the looming visit from her parents. Her dad wasn’t any problem, but her mother. She closed her eyes momentarily. The crushing sensation in her chest increased to the point where it became almost unbearable. Happy thoughts. The very air around her thickened as she drew in a heaving breath. The tang of flavor she tasted suggested it was about to rain.

  Lifting her head in hope, she searched the endlessly clear blue skies for a reprieve to this abhorrent exercise. A sudden rain shower would force her inside. Not a single cloud graced the skies to end her torture, but a tingle ran across her skin and another deep breath brought the same thick ozone flavor into her lungs.

  Was something about to happen?

  Something…shocking?

  Valerie brushed a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind one ear, and endeavored to calm her fanciful mind. The wind picked up and blew a piece of paper across her path, where it plastered flat against an outdoor wire trash can.

  The paper had a picture of a buff, half-naked man on it with the partially hidden caption revealing only escort service and below that was part of a phone number. She imagined the covered part started with the numbers one dash nine hundred.

  Hmm. Now there was an idea she could toy with for the rest of her reviled exercise period. She’d hire a delectable man as potential matrimonial arm candy for the duration of her mother’s visit and then not only would she not need to diet or exercise, she could make a visit with her mother go by faster and much more pleasantly.

  How much did two weeks worth of suitable marrying-man arm candy cost in today’s market, she wondered, a smile creeping up.

  Probably every dime she had in her savings, checking account and retirement IRAs. The right man would likely be worth every cent.

  Valerie trudged along thinking that the fantasy was way too expensive for her meager budget, but still fun to contemplate.

  One plodding, slow step at a time on the park’s seemingly endless trail, she approached her least favorite section. There was a small hill just ahead. It was a steeper, more difficult climb for someone as out of shape as she was and besides, it ran parallel to the four-lane highway for about a hundred feet down an embankment. Traffic noise aside, she also hated the smell of diesel fumes that wafted across this part of the path.

  Convinced that breathing it in would be harmful to her health, she always held her breath for as long as possible when she ran alongside the road.

  At least until she felt faint, which was probably only seconds. As always, she ended up sucking in gobs of nasty road smell, without a doubt enough to put her on the ground from lack of oxygen.

  Valerie’s steps slowed as she hiked up the incline and when she got within steps of seeing the road, she heard what she thought sounded like…gunfire. A car wouldn’t backfire that fast and so many times, would it?

  Like a looky-loo at an accident site, Valerie couldn’t keep from turning towards the road to identify the sound. Expecting to see a drive-by shooting in progress, she was surprised to see two motorcycles approaching. One was black. One was silver.

  The silver rider, driving one-handed and located approximately a car length behind the black rider, held what looked like a small black oversized pistol. She’s never held a gun of any kind in her life, but it looked like a fancy weapon from one of the action movies she’d been forced to endure on those blind date-toad fests of her past..

  Visible plumes of carbon monoxide floated up from the road as Valerie watched the silver rider raise his gun arm and spray the black motorcycle with gunfire from the weapon. The black rider bobbled his motorcycle onto the paved shoulder of road, lost his balance and slid sideways with a screech of metal on asphalt into the foliage covering the embankment parallel to where Valerie had slowed to watch.

  The silver rider continued firing and the arc of his weapon headed in her direction. Valerie realized, with dreadful insight, that she was about to be mowed down as an innocent bystander in a drive-by shooting.

  Valerie also realized that she still held her breath. The curtain of black crowded her vision from lack of oxygen. She went down hard on her knees before flattening out on the pea gravel face down. Dusty air was quickly sucked into her lungs. She didn’t even have the strength to cough.

  Her last rational thought before unconsciousness was that her mother was going to be totally pissed if Valerie kicked the bucket while flat on her face, in the dirt, wearing a drab gray jogging suit, and still unmarried.

  * * * *

  “How many humans were brought aboard during this passage by Earth?” Golden asked.

  Blue checked a digital flat board even though he undoubtedly knew the answer from memory. “The total for the eighty-one-day period in orbit is nine-hundred and sixteen.”

  Golden sighed. “That’s more than twice what we had during the last trip.”

  “Yes, sir. The humans have reproduced at a higher rate than predicted from our last notation. Plus, the target area is more concentrated with human act
ivity.”

  “With the newly installed living chamber, there is at least enough room for all of them this time. Has the ratio of males to females altered?”

  Again, Blue checked his statistics and responded without looking him directly in the eyes., “Yes. With the current displacement equation, men outnumber women by a five-to-one ratio.”

  Golden closed his eyes, “That’s worse. How do you account for this anomaly?”

  “The humans have advanced to a greater technological state than previously anticipated. Plus, their lives are inherently more complex than before as a result. It was to be expected.”

  “Undoubtedly. However, we’ll have to adjust the orientation content to explain.”

  Blue looked horrified. “Do we have the time for that, sir?”

  “Make time. Otherwise, it’ll be a long three years of unparalleled chaos.”

  “It likely will be anyway,” Blue murmured under his breath.

  Golden agreed and mentally prepared for the pandemonium that was about to begin with the new crop of accidental human passengers.

  Chapter 1

  “…is why the men here need sex.” An unrecognized voice echoed in Valerie’s sluggish brain.

  Join the club, she thought, rousing further. She opened her eyes and realized she was sitting in a very uncomfortable chair.

  “Therefore, after the gauntlet arena selection, you will be required to have sex with each one of the men in your selected group at least once every two months so that they won’t die a painful death,” the blue alien standing before her said in a stern tone.

  Valerie was no longer face down in the dirt. She was no longer outdoors. Lifting her head slowly, she quickly realized she was also no longer alone. Half slumped in a hard metal chair, she straightened and stretched the kinks out of her back. After several satisfying pops, she resisted the urge to yawn.

  Where am I?

  Looking first to her right, she noticed fifteen or so other shell-shocked-looking women in various stages of dress. To her left was much the same view. There was one poor soul wearing only a bra and panties. But another was in a full fledged business suit complete with patterned pantyhose and stilettos. The others in the room looked like they’d been pulled from backstage at a play between acts.

  Valerie looked down at her boring gray sweats. At least she wasn’t in her underwear like half the women in the room.

  The blue alien looked like a body builder that had been dipped in cerulean paint. He cleared his throat and all the women in the room sent their gaze forward. No one in the room spoke.

  The grimace forming on his face wasn’t attractive and bordered on hostile. He stared as if he was waiting for something from them. Valerie had no idea what it could be and resisted the urge to yawn, certain it wasn’t the response he searched for. She wished she hadn’t missed the first part of what he’d said.

  “Don’t any of you have questions?” he asked. “I usually get a lot of questions.”

  Valerie raised her hand. The blue alien man’s expression softened. He pointed at her and gestured that she stand.

  She sighed deeply and stood. Over a sea of heads seated in the several rows of chairs in front of her, Valerie fixed her gaze on the strange blue man waiting with eyebrows lifted for her question.

  “What was your name again?”

  He stiffened. “You may call me, Blue. What is your question? Or was that it?”

  Valerie paused at his name. His skin was blue and his name was Blue? Whatever.

  “We haven’t got all day,” he remarked and glanced at his clipboard thing.

  “You want me to do what with a group of strange men?”

  He sent a piercing stare through her, crossed his substantial arms over his chest and the hostile expression returned. “Haven’t you been listening?”

  Blue, the alien with the Smurf-blue skin, looked like he’d fallen into a vat of sapphire dye and soaked for awhile. Maybe that’s why he was so grumpy. His hair was dark brown along with his thick eyebrows and his eyes were also brown. He wore snug pants and no shirt.

  “Well, sure, to part of it, but…” she trailed off and sat back down.

  Was she dreaming? If so, wouldn’t she be the one in her underwear being called to task in the classroom?

  “Have any of you been listening?” he railed and sent another stern gaze drilling to several of the other women.

  No one else said a word. Perhaps they were all as confused as she was.

  Valerie decided that this was the single most vivid dream she’d ever had, and the strangest. She felt like she’d come into the middle of a movie. Only she didn’t remember how she got here or where she’d been before being seated at the back of the class. Someone else must have put her here, because if she’d seated herself, she would have been in the front row. Definitely a dream.

  She sent her gaze forward again. Blue’s expression hadn’t changed from annoyance. A couple of phrases brushed her memory. Gauntlet arena with groups of men and have sex with each of them. If she’d remembered correctly.

  Yeah. Like that would really happen. She barely knew what to do with one man let alone a group of them. The rest of the women seated around her seemed even less enthusiastic.

  “Don’t any of you have anything to say?”

  No one responded.

  The few women standing along the edges of the room, possibly due to the inadequate seating, seemed equally shocked into speechlessness by Blue’s words. Perhaps it was a group dream.

  Blue sighed deeply, as if he were dealing with children who were too ignorant to comprehend his words. “Don’t you understand? There are never enough women to go around when you are brought here, so the men have to share. They suffer if they have to go without sex for that long in this environment. Do you want them to suffer?” He looked around the room, making eye contact with several of the attendees. “Well, do you?”

  Like sheep afraid to stand up for themselves, they all began to shake their heads. Valerie didn’t respond. She didn’t particularly care about the suffering of strange horny men. It was a stupid dream, and therefore no participation was required.

  “Now, we haven’t much time, as we are running behind schedule. I don’t have time to repeat myself. Therefore, we’ll take you through orientation quickly and then bring you right to the beginner’s gauntlet arena. It’s a little quieter than the advanced one. Hopefully you can learn what you need to know along the way.”

  A woman to Valerie’s right, who’d obviously been in the middle of putting make-up on and dressed completely in beige, raised her hand. “How many men are in a group?”

  Blue nodded and the frown disappeared as if he’d finally heard a worthy question. “It varies. Never more than seven and no less than four. The average is five.”

  Valerie looked down at her gray jogging suit, wishing she’d managed to conjure up a nicer outfit for this dream. If she were about to meet men, a sweat suit wasn’t exactly the most flattering clothing she could have worn.

  Blue was talking again, but Valerie missed it due to her perusal of the unusual fashion statements being made around her. What did her clothing say about her? Was she an exercise geek? She sincerely hoped not.

  The nebulous feeling in her brain wouldn’t allow her to remember specifics of her life. She guessed it wasn’t really important in the dream world.

  “…come along now to the next station and all the important facts will be explained in greater detail. You can make your decision then. Stay together. Don’t wander off.”

  Blue headed towards the only door in the room and the other women followed, one after the other, until the room emptied.

  Valerie ended up at the end of the line with one of the business-suited ladies directly ahead of her. She followed along down a narrow white hallway, looking all around for a clue as to where she might be. The walls seemed to be constructed of white panels with lights hidden inside. Didn’t you usually dream about places that were familiar? Apparently not, b
ecause this place was totally alien.

  Up ahead on the right, a panel had dislodged as if the wall had been hastily constructed. Through the gap, Valerie could see another hallway and she slowed to peek through. She lost sight of the business suit she was following to wrestle the panel open further.

  After a little effort she was through the narrow space and into a much wider hallway. The color of the lights in this hall were varying hues of aqua. She liked this hallway much better. The color was more soothing.

  Valerie chose to walk to the left because the hall was longer in that direction, and seemed to go farther. After walking for several minutes, she heard voices. She rounded a corner and plowed into someone.

  A tall, male someone.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” said a totally luscious, deep male voice over her head. There was another man standing next to him, but Valerie couldn’t tear herself away to get a look. The man she’d run into felt too good.

  “I don’t mind.” Valerie grabbed his arms and laid her forehead on his chest. He smelled delicious. Taking a deep breath, she tilted her head up to check out his face. Wide shoulders led to a square jaw and he had a cleft in his chin, too. Focusing in on his vivid, saltwater-blue eyes last of all, she noted that he was completely gorgeous.

  Valerie had read somewhere that dreams were thought to be the brain’s way of cataloging information gathered during each day of the dreamer’s life. She must have seen this hunk at the park or something and filed him away for later dreaming. He’d been worth the wait. Now in this dream, she could do anything that she wanted to with him.

  Plus, she had the benefit of a better personality. In dreams she was always funnier, smarter and definitely prettier.

  A bemused smile greeted her as she stared. He gripped her shoulders, squeezing gently. “Are you on your way to the gauntlet arena?”

  Valerie scrunched her eyebrows. Hadn’t that blue alien guy said something about an arena and a gauntlet?

  “Is that where you’re going?” she asked.

  He nodded. “That’s where I’m headed.”