Caged by the Alien: A Scifi Alien Romance (Fated Mates of the Titan Empire Book 2)

by Tammy Walsh

  “We wouldn’t want the audience to miss out now, would we?” he said.

  Okay. So now the cameras had been put in place. They were so small, they were no larger than a grain of sand.

  Klang dropped to his knees beside me.

  Good. It was right where I wanted him. I could lash out with my arms. But I didn’t fool myself. I didn’t expect this to be an easy fight, even if the element of surprise was on my side. He was still a formidable opponent.

  I would wait for him to give me the adrenaline. My back was still sore and needed the extra kick.

  “Let me give you a little shot of adrenaline here,” Klang said. “Then we can get this party started.”

  He raised the syringe needle and flicked the plastic tube with his finger. Then he squeezed the plunger so a small amount of adrenaline seeped from the tip of the needle. He put the syringe between his teeth, removed his belt, and wrapped it around my arm. But he didn’t tighten it yet. He took the syringe out of his mouth.

  He was about to administer it when he paused.

  “That’s strange,” he said. “Your veins are popping out. Almost as if you were about to—”

  I smashed him full in the face with my fist.

  I bound up onto my feet and hissed as my back gave me grief. I fell on top of him and pressed my hands to his throat. I didn’t need to kill him, only knock him out. Preferably silently. I didn’t need to put Maddy in danger with Trang outside.

  Klang growled and reached for the blade he kept at his waist. He swung it around in a wide arc.

  I leaped back in time to avoid the blow but now Klang was on his feet. He adopted a strong fighting stance.

  “Nice play-acting,” he said. “I guess I’ve finally met someone who stays cool.”

  He lurched at me. His blade was so sharp it made a tearing sound as it passed through the air. I backed away and shot forward only when I could land a jab in his face. He was skilled but he wasn’t fast.

  He struck in an attempt to skewer me. I rolled to one side and scooped up a box. I raised it as the blade darted forward and sliced through the box on both sides. The bottom fell out and children’s toys splashed across the floor. I twisted the box, removing the blade from Klang’s hand, and kicked out.

  Klang was ready for it and swung with a second blade I didn’t know he had. It sliced my thigh. His second blow came in to issue permanent damage but I blocked his arm and together we went down.

  I turned my head to one side as he added his weight to his attacking arm. The blade stabbed the floorboard, the point driving hard into the damp wood.

  I grabbed the arm that held the buried knife and pulled on it so he couldn’t work it free.

  He reached with his other hand for another blade.

  I gripped that arm with my offhand.

  Our arms shook as our muscles struggled for supremacy.

  My superior Titan strength against his superior position. He was on top of me.

  Ordinarily, I would have put money on me but that was without taking my shoulder injury into account.

  I could feel the stitches tearing loose. My blood seeped from the wound and wet my suit.

  Klang ground his teeth in what was meant to be a grin.

  He knew he was going to win.

  He would kill me.

  And Maddy would be next.

  With the scent of my blood in the trackers’ nostrils, I wasn’t convinced they could bring themselves to wait until they reached the shuttlecraft. They would kill her right here.

  And I could do nothing to stop them.

  The blade at his waist slipped free of its scabbard.

  It was only a matter of time now.

  “Your honor is mine!” Klang said as he drew the blade back.

  I let him bring his blade down. I twisted his wrist, snapping it. The blade sliced into my chest.

  I was prepared for it.

  As he came down, I pulled my head back and smashed him in the face.

  He started back, shocked. But he still had the killer instinct in him and wasn’t about to give up now.

  He brought the blade down for a second time.

  I smashed my head into his grill again.

  And again.

  And again.

  This time, his eyes rolled back in his head. He was done.

  I kicked the blades from his prone form. But there would be more knives on him.

  There were always more.

  He lay unmoving on the floor but I wouldn’t make the same mistake he had. I wouldn’t creep up on him on the off chance he really was unconscious. I didn’t need to kill him. Only delay him.

  I stumbled over to the open hole in the wall that looked out on the surrounding landscape.

  Our fight must have produced more noise than I thought as Maddy and Trang came running toward the barn.

  At first, I thought Trang was chasing after Maddy but I could see that wasn’t the case. They were running side by side.

  I couldn’t let them come up here. If Trang saw her lover lying on the floor in a swelling pool of his blood—from his nose I’d smashed to a pulp with my forehead—she would assume the worst and think him dead.

  All orders from on high would go out the window and she would attack us. I was in no fit state to fight off another well-trained killer. I could barely even stand. Both my shoulder and chest were seeping blood.

  I needed a sudden rush. A sudden propellant that would fire me forward. It only needed to last a few minutes. Just enough to deal with Trang. Then we could be on our way on the arjath.

  But how?

  Then the solution came to me.

  The barn’s front door flew open and the two girls entered. Within seconds, they would be up here.

  I scooped up the syringe infused with adrenaline off the floor, dropped by Klang when I’d made my first attack.

  Boy, I hate needles.

  I didn’t need the belt. My veins were already standing out. I put the needle to my vein, shut my eyes, and slipped it in my skin. I felt its keen nip as it entered my body. Then I depressed the plunger.

  The adrenaline hit my system instantly.

  After the fight, I was already pumped. Now my brain cells were firing on all cylinders too. Without any apparent effort, I picked Klang up and held him upright.

  Maddy appeared at the top of the stairs first. She saw the beaten and bloody figure with his head flopped forward and screamed.

  I didn’t blame her. The guy did look horrific.

  It didn’t help that Klang blinked and began to awaken.

  Trang came next. Her expression was one of terror. This was not what she expected when she came up here.

  Pleased to disappoint you, bitch.

  She reached for the blade at her waist but I’d already tossed her lover at her. He slammed into her and knocked her off her feet. She stretched for the banister but missed.

  She and her lover rolled down the stairs in one giant heap.

  Maddy was dumbfounded. She didn’t know what to say.

  I took her by the hand.

  “Come on,” I said.

  The adrenaline wouldn’t last long. I would need it for what I was about to do next.

  “What happened here?” she said.

  “I’ll tell you later,” I said.

  I scooped her up in my arms and ran at the gaping hole in the roof.

  Maddy tensed.

  “Why don’t we take the stairs?” she screamed.

  “Because I’ve seen what supposedly unconscious bodies can do,” I said. “It’s not pretty.”

  I leaped through the hole and fell to the ground below. A fall like that might have broken my legs if I landed badly. But my system was pumped with two of the most powerful drugs in the known universe.

  Pure adrenaline. But it was a poor substitute for its far more potent elder brother.

  Love.

  Anything was possible when I had her in my arms. I’d proven that much today already.

  The sky’s fr
inges bloomed with early morning light when we reached the clearing where the shuttlecraft awaited us.

  I was beginning to wonder if it would be there once our green arrows consumed the blinking orange on our monitors. I was relieved to find she was. Light blinked off the cockpit window and gleamed along both wingtips.

  She was there and she was in great shape.

  We stood on the peak of a bulging mound of earth that wrapped around the flat grassy plain. That was to conceal it from passers-by who might have spotted it by accident.

  I cast an eye over the area. Wind whispered over grass damp with dew. The birds were silent, done with their hunting duties for the night.

  I leaned forward and spoke in Maddy’s ear.

  “We’re here,” I said.

  She’d fallen asleep during the journey. I’d almost joined her. The problem with adrenaline hitting your system full pelt was you ended up having to pay for the boost later. A debt was owed and it never failed to take payment.

  I’d ever been so tired my entire life.

  With the two of us sharing a single arjath, I couldn’t push him too hard. We traveled the majority of the distance at a fair pace, taking regular breaks for the creature to rest, eat, and recuperate. He was a good beast for helping us and I wouldn’t see him suffer for our sake.

  I climbed off him and lifted Maddy free. I removed the harness from the arjath and gently smacked the creature on the ass.

  “Get on, get out of here,” I said softly. “Go be free.”

  The arjath cast a single look at us before taking off over the endless rolling hills. He didn’t need to be told twice. I hoped he would live a good, long life.

  Maddy yawned with her whole face.

  “We should get to the ship,” she said. “It might fade away like a mirage.”

  I smiled and hugged her close. I kissed her on the forehead.

  “We’re okay,” I said. “No one knows we’re here. We’ll be away before you know it.”

  “Where will we go?” she asked. “Earth is too far to travel in such a small ship.”

  “We could go to my home planet,” I said. “Then we can plan what we’ll do from there. You’ll love it there. It’s so beautiful. Especially early in the morning like this.”

  I considered my next words very carefully.

  “And when we get there… there’s something I need to tell you,” I said. “Something about me and the things I’ve done. I wasn’t sure before but now we’re about to leave, I know it’s the right thing to do.”

  She tried to gauge my expression and figure out what I needed to say. But she could never guess. Not in a million years.

  “Will I like it?” she said.

  “Hopefully it won’t matter to you,” I said. “With time.”

  “You’re not married, are you?” she said.

  I chuckled and hugged her closer.

  “No, I’m not married,” I said.

  I had no idea how she would react. But I needed to tell her. I didn’t want to lie to the woman I loved.

  We jogged down the embankment toward the shuttlecraft.

  The closer we got to it, the deeper the twisting sensation became in the pit of my gut.

  I always got nervous when I got this close to getting what I wanted. There was always the fear it might get taken away from me at the last moment.

  At the last moment.

  Why did that ring a bell?

  The call Klang had with whoever was in charge of this shitshow they called television. They were going to kill me in the barn roof and have Maddy get close to the shuttlecraft before killing her too.

  But we’d managed to ruin their plans.

  Or had we?

  Was the reason I felt sick to my stomach because my senses picked up on something my brain hadn’t?

  We got within half a dozen yards of the ship when I froze. I held out a hand to stop Maddy in her tracks.

  She turned to me with a frown on her face.

  That’s when we both heard the noise.

  A high-pitched whistling sound that began far with distance but rapidly approached.

  I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard it before, but due to where we found ourselves and how close we were to achieving our goal and leaving this place, it couldn’t be anything good.

  I grabbed Maddy by the arm and pulled her toward me.

  The noise roared past us and slammed into the shuttlecraft’s hull. It boomed with a terrifying explosion. A huge fireball blossomed like a new flower and reached for the heavens.

  I felt the heat on my arms and face. Molten metal rained down and singed the grassy dew.

  I wrapped my arms around Maddy to protect her from the worst of the onslaught, turning her away from the explosion and blocking it with my back. Already I could smell the thin material of my suit burning.

  A tall figure stood on a lip of raised earth, just a few yards from where we’d crested a moment ago.

  “There’s no escaping Iron Hoof,” Iron Hoof said.

  He pulled another grenade from his costume and slapped it in the launcher. He favored his uninjured leg as he took aim and fired another grenade at the ship.

  “We should run!” Maddy said. “We can still get out of here!”

  “No, we can’t,” I said calmly. “The Changelings always win. Always. They’ve got us surrounded and they intend on getting the big climax for this episode they’ve promised their viewers.”

  The Changelings would be sitting in their homes now, or watching on their devices at work, as yet another pair of aliens failed to overcome the might of Changeling power.

  They were never going to let us go. Our fate had already been written into the script.

  Us escaping wasn’t what the Changeling audience wanted.

  Failure was the order of the day.

  And we had to be the ones to pay the price.

  Shrapnel from the second explosion stabbed me in the back. My blood ran in hot rivulets from the wounds.

  Already, the ship’s core was rupturing. Any second now it would explode. At least it was a quick way to go. At least I was in my darling love’s embracing arms.

  I brushed her hair back from her face.

  “I love you,” I whispered in her ear.

  Her body was so warm and soft, I wished I could enjoy it one last time.

  “I will love you until the end of time,” I said.

  “I love you, my Titan,” she said.

  It broke my heart to hear the tears in her voice.

  We kissed as the ship’s core erupted in a fiery ball and tore through my body.

  I heard a distant volley of what sounded like blaster pistol fire but dismissed it. No one was coming for us. No one was coming to save us.

  Maddy screamed. I feared it would be the sound I’d hear forever in my afterlife.

  The fire raged and consumed us both.

  Maddy

  My ears rang and my vision was blurry. Concerned green faces pass in and out of view. My skin was numb and felt nothing. Not even the object I was lying on. I might have been floating on a cloud. My tongue could have been made from plastic and I couldn’t taste a thing.

  My senses were in revolt. They didn’t know what was happening.

  I faded in and out of consciousness. Images and sounds were stitched together like a patchwork quilt.

  None of it made sense.

  Chax shouted. His words were indistinct and fuzzy. A warning?

  A man with green skin and a white mask over his mouth bent over me and lowered an alien device to my skin. I tried to fight and force him away but it was no use. My arms might as well have belonged to someone else.

  Darkness swept over me. I made out nothing but the soft skin of Chax and the flames as they wrapped around him like a wreath. He threw his head back in agony and screamed.

  I shot up in bed, the trail of the scream dying on my lips. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and felt like I was going to be sick.

  I leaned over the side of th
e bed and was surprised to find a bucket already there. Thankfully, it was empty otherwise it really would have shoved me over the edge.

  My eyes felt heavy. I could barely keep them open. I tossed the bedsheets aside. I was wearing a hospital gown—a real one this time—and not the sheer negligee the Changelings had dressed me in.

  I lowered my feet over the side of the bed. The soles of my feet felt the sterile ice of the metal floor. At least my sense of feeling had come back. But there, along my left leg, I saw something.

  A thick scab. White cream had been smeared over it. Medicine? I thought back to the surgeon who’d bent over me with his device. He’d been working on my leg, hadn’t he? I didn’t touch it. My skin around the wound was red and tender like I’d been severely burnt—

  An image shot into the forefront of my mind. The flames enveloped Chax like a wreath and he threw his head back in agony and screamed—

  Chax.

  Where was he?

  I glanced over at the other side of the bed but he wasn’t there. I checked the rest of the tiny room. He wasn’t there either.

  Maybe he’d already recovered. Titans did have an amazing ability to heal, after all. He would come in and gloat and show off how he was already back to normal. The thought brought a smile to my lips.

  I was in yet another alien room I’d never been in before. It was stark and bare with little more than my bed, which was nothing more than a squeaky cot, and a pile of boxes in one corner.

  It was not futuristic and clean like the previous room I awoke in. It was about the size of a prison cell.

  A prison cell.

  At least there was a door this time.

  The most surprising thing about being there was waking up in the first place. I remembered the place with the shuttlecraft and path we carved through the wet dewy grass.

  We reached the shuttlecraft before the time ran out. We still had maybe half an hour or more to go. Iron Hoof had found us and taken advantage. He let us get close enough to the shuttlecraft for us to think we would escape. Then he destroyed it, along with our hopes of returning home.

  When the first grenade struck, the fire was intense. Large chunks of twisted metal descended from the sky in a molten haze.

  Iron Hoof had grinned. Drool seeped out the corner of his damaged mouth as he reached for another grenade attached to his person and placed it in the launcher and fired.