What if you awoke 200 years in the future? Captive to an alien lord.

Wikipedia says: “Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice throughout history and around the world in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry."


In secret dreams, women imagine being taken by a handsome, dashing warrior who whisks them away to a life of passion and overwhelming love.  But in reality, being kidnapped by a hungry male isn't what romance authors make it up to be.
From a historical standpoint, women were considered highly valuable. They brought with them their tribe/clan's customs and new blood to add strength to the tribe. The Bible’s Book of Judges tells about the tribe of Benjamin slaughtering all the men and non-virgins from the neighboring town so they could kidnap and wed the virgins. "Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife!"
See http://www.vice.com/read/the-a-to-z-of-sexual-history-kidnapped-brides

Roman historian Livy (59 BC) wrote about the rape of the Sabine women. As the story goes, Romulus, the founder of Rome, being short of women, kidnapped the daughters of the neighboring Sabine people after luring them over with the promise of a big party. He then promised there would be no wanton rape, and they would make honest women of them all. Unsurprisingly, the Sabine declared war.
Before the 1753 Marriage Act in England, kidnapping was quite common. In medieval England, a man would kidnap women and hold her on his left arm, so that his sword arm was free to fight off other suitors. This is cited as a reason why the groom normally stands on the right of the bride during the wedding ceremony. The honeymoon has been argued to be a relic of the amount of time a man would go into hiding with his kidnapee/fiancée to get her pregnant, so her parents would consent to a wedding.
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A famous American story is the one of Cynthia Parker. At nine years old Cynthia was kidnapped by the Indians who murdered five of her family, Cynthia grew up and married a Commanche who from all reports treated her well.  She bore him 3 children and when the Indian village was raided by the whites, her husband was mortally wounded and Cynthia and her daughter, Prairie Flower, were captured and returned to the white world.  Prairie Flower subsequently died.  Cynthia tried numerous times to run away and return to her Indian friends and family but never succeeded and finally died of self-willed starvation.

See http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cynthia-ann-parker-is-kidnapped

History is replete with tales of kidnapped women, their tribulations and quite often sad endings.  Laws were enacted to protect women from such a fate, but even today, bride kidnapping is alive and well in many countries throughout the world.  


Bride kidnapping is the basis for my novel, The Chalice.  
Blurb:

Decimated by the savage Deg’Nara and teetering on the brink of extinction, the last surviving males of the once great Chiagan-Se embark on a quest to salvage what is left of their civilization. They send their remaining seeker ships into the void, searching for genetically compatible females. Time is running out, but in the far reaches of the universe, on an obscure and primitive planet, a match is discovered.
One thousand panic-stricken women awaken two hundred years in the future, captives aboard an unmanned alien spacecraft bound for parts unknown! How had they gotten there and why? 
The males thought they came willingly. The females believed they’d been kidnapped. Full of hopeful expectation, the Chiagan-Se prepare for the arrival of their new mates. Terrified and furious at the inexplicable abduction, the women prepare for combat! And when the two sides meet, the battle commences. 

Release Date:  March 30, 2012

Link:http://newconceptspublishing.com/p.l.-parker/the-chalice/

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Patsy