Erra hissed as her head jerked in Ariel’s direction. Ariel saw terror in the woman’s eyes as their gazes locked. It halted Ariel in her tracks. Erra snarled something at her and pointed to the bedroom. Erra struggled to her feet before launching herself at the man who’d knocked her down. He had started to walk toward Ariel. The older woman leapt on the man’s back screaming out.

The man spun around quickly. The powerful motion sent Erra flying from his back to slam hard into a wall. Her body slumped to the floor. Erra didn’t move but Ariel saw her still breathing still. A soft moan came from Erra a second later. Her arms moved.

Terror had frozen Ariel. The four men turned their attention back to her. She saw the one by the door reach for his shirt. He tore it open. Her eyes flew to another one. He reached for the front of his pants. He opened them to reveal he was turned-on. It became damn clear to Ariel what they wanted as they inched toward her, leering at her body. They growled at her, softly saying God only knew what as they spaced apart to try to surround her.

Ariel screamed as she made a run for it. She made it to the bedroom and slammed the door behind her and locked it. She didn’t have anywhere else to go. She made it to the bathroom door and turned. Something hit the bedroom door hard. The door was thick and the lock wasn’t cheap, but she highly doubted that either of those things would keep out the large men for long.

She didn’t know what to do. She was terrified. They were going to rape her. She knew that. They’d hurt Erra who’d tried to defend her. She wondered if Erra was really hurt or if she would be able to try to get help. Something hit the door again and it cracked loudly. The thick wood was breaking. Her eyes frantically went around the room. If Ral kept weapons in his bedroom she hadn’t seen them. Instead she grabbed more clothes and hugged them to her body.

She heard a loud snarl as something hit the door again. She saw the door splinter and split in a few places. She sobbed, backing into the bathroom completely. She slammed the door shut and locked it. She was shaking as she put on pants under her shift and tugged on one of Ral’s big shirts over it. If she had to fight she didn’t want to do it mostly naked.

She frantically evaluated the bathroom—no windows. Maybe she should have tried to climb out the window in the bedroom but it only went to the backyard. The perimeter wall was too high for her to climb and there was no gate. She would have been trapped. At least in the bathroom she had another locked door between her and those men.

She heard when the bedroom door was breached. It crashed into the wall like a shotgun going off. Ariel yanked open drawers under the counter for a weapon. She found the cutting shears that Ral used to trim his hair. She grabbed them. They were like long scissors like back home and were wickedly sharp. She backed up into the shower and closed the glass-like door. She had no way to lock it, but it made it so there was only a smaller opening so just one man would be able to reach in the shower to try to grab her. She gripped the shears in a death grip.

They attacked the bathroom door. She knew she wouldn’t survive if they got their hands on her. It would be a horrible way to die. Ral was always gentle with her and she couldn’t imagine him touching her without care of harming her. Zorn men were big and really strong by nature. The four men who were coming after her obviously didn’t care about anything. She knew Ral would kill every one of them when he found out what they’d done.

Her thoughts turned to Ral. Agony ripped at her. He would mourn her. She knew he loved her. She prayed he wouldn’t blame himself. If he had come straight home he would have been there to defend her. She’d seen him fight four men before. The four men who had come in the house weren’t as mean-looking as the ones on the asteroid who’d tried to take her from him. Ral could take these assholes apart easily. The bathroom door crashed in.

Ariel’s time was up. They were in the bathroom. The man who’d attacked Erra yanked open the glass-like door. He reached in to grab her. Ariel screamed and, using the shears like a knife, threw herself forward and stabbed him in the chest.

The handles of the shears dug into her skin as well but they didn’t cut her. She felt warm blood pour onto her hands. She screamed again as the man roared out in pain.

He stumbled back with the shears embedded deep in his chest.

She threw herself back and hit the shower wall hard enough to knock the breath from her. She stared at the man’s face as he stumbled back into his companions. He looked down at the shears protruding from his chest. She saw shock on his face. He went silent before he collapsed to his knees. His companions were frozen in shock as they stared at the man whose blood was running down his chest.

The injured man pitched forward. He didn’t move. The shears must have pushed in deeper when he fell because she saw the sharp points sticking out of his back. His was shirtless. Blood ran from the wound and over his back to the bathroom floor. One attacker threw his head back, howling. Ariel screamed. The three men went silent. She saw their expressions. They were going to make her suffer before they killed her. She had no doubt of that.

One of the men had to step over his fallen friend to reach into the shower stall. He grabbed Ariel by the front of Ral’s shirt. She heard material tear in the man’s hand as he yanked hard. Her foot hit the low wall of the shower stall. Pain shot up her foot as she was dragged forward. Her feet hit the fallen man’s body as she was dragged screaming from the bathroom.

Ariel’s feet left the floor. The man threw her toward the bed. She hit it hard enough that it bounced her body off to the other side. She hit the floor hard. Pain exploded in her hip, thigh and arm that hit the floor hardest. From under the bed she could see them moving around it. She knew if she lay there she’d die.

She rolled under the bed. Zorn beds weren’t that different from her bed at home except they were taller and on sturdier frames. She inched to the center of the massive bed and lay there panting. She reached up and grabbed the bars of the frame. Her fingers barely had time to fight between the bars and the mattress before a large hand clamped down on her ankle.

She screamed out in pain as one of the men tried to drag her out. It almost tore her hold from the bars. He yanked her hard enough that now her feet were no longer under the bed and her arms were stretched painfully above her since she refused to let go.