Free Pradorian Mate by C. Baely, Kristie Dawn

heard…”
    Sara nodded, willing her to go on, but Orora simply broke down into tears. Sara pulled the crying girl toward her and held her close. “It’s okay, Orora. You don’t have to tell me if it’s too hard. It’s all right.” She rubbed Orora’s back in an effort to comfort the other girl.
    Orora shook her head and pulled back. “They all died!” Sara’s mind went blank. Although Orora was still speaking, Sara didn’t hear a word she said. Orora shook Sara, trying to get her attention. “Sara! Are you listening?”
    Sara shook her head and blinked. “What?”
    “ I said they all had to take some sort of vaccine! The Pradorians injected them with some sort of serum that…Well, they didn’t say what it did or what it was for, but it killed them!”
    “ But…why would they go to all that trouble to bring us back to life and ship us here just to kill us again? It doesn’t make sense!”
    Orora shook her head once more. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense to me either, but whoever was talking to Dar said it was someone’s fault. I don’t remember his name, but it started with an A, I think. Anyway, he was supposedly the one who administered the drug to begin with. He killed those women.”
    A feeling of dread moved into Sara’s stomach as she whispered, “Archail…” to herself, not quite loud enough for Orora to hear. When Orora asked Sara what she’d said, Sara shook her head and told her to carry on with her story.
    The frightened woman took a deep breath and nodded. “Well, Dar got really angry and told this other Pradorian that he shouldn’t insult their leader and that he should always trust the decisions made by whoever it was they were talking about. What’s worse though, Sara, is that they said they were going to do the same thing to us. They said there was going to be a ceremony or whatever for it, and we were going to be a part of it. Sara, we’re going to die!”
    Sara ignored Orora’s white-knuckled grip on her. The whole world was turning upside down again. First, she had been wakened from a peaceful death without her consent only to learn she was going to be the mate of some alien. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they were all going to be killed again, less than a week after being revived. None of this made any sense, but Sara knew one thing for sure: none of this was good, and they really needed to escape. They had to try just one more time before it was too late. If Sara was destined to die, she’d rather die fighting than sitting around waiting for some injection. Besides, who knows what other effects the strange substance would have? Maybe it would even be a slow, agonizing death.
    “ Sara, what are we going to do? I don’t want to die again,” Orora pleaded.
    Sara’s distressed eyes moved to regard Orora. She looked scared beyond words. Whatever had happened to Orora in her past life must not have been good. Maybe she didn’t die of old age like Sara had. Although she didn’t know the circumstances of Orora’s first death, Sara was damned if she was going to let it happen again. “We’re leaving,” she replied, with no hesitation whatsoever.
    Orora gazed at her, confusion and surprise evident in her expression. “What?”
    “ We’re going. Now. Get up. We’re going to leave, right now while no one else’s around. No one will notice we’ve gone until it’s too late. Come on already!” Sara barked the order in a hurried, urgent tone, yet her voice was surprisingly calm as she pulled Orora from her sitting position with a firm grip.
    “ Ow! Sara, hang on, they’ll catch us again! We can’t. If we try to escape now…”
    Sara steeled with determination and commitment as she stared into Orora’s hazel orbs. “If we don’t do it now, we’re going to die. Is that what you want?” Orora’s gaze shot to the path the other women had taken, and her eyes welled up again.
    As if she’d read her mind, Sara explained. “Their fates are already