by Ivy McAdams
Riding fucking dinosaurs!
I was ready to rain down praises and lofty promises I didn’t intend to keep to the beautiful creatures that saved us, until one of them had speared our gunman through the chest Rambo-style. Holy shit. I must have blacked out or something after that because now I’m dangling in the air.
Some sickening screams draw my attention and I look at the girl hanging in front of me. She's tucked under the arm of one of our rescuers like a tiny poodle being taken to the vet and another girl hangs limp on the other side. The alien man has long legs and an amazing V-shaped frame that tapers down into the waist of some form-fitting leather chaps and a loincloth.
I jerk my head up to stare at the alien carrying me. I’m not being held around the middle like a sack of potatoes like the others. He has me cradled against his chest, and I can hear the steady thump of his heartbeat.
His gaze is trained ahead of us, and we’re tailing three other aliens carrying members of my tour group.
My heart melts in relief and I want to hug him. Thank goodness these guys came around to save us from those insect monsters. There’s not a can of Raid big enough to get rid of those fuckers.
Now that we’re no longer in imminent danger, I take a moment to stare at my rescuer. I am a scientist after all. I’m curious about alien life forms. No matter if they’re my new best friends or not.
The angles of his face are interesting. High cheekbones and a strong jaw that would be considered quite attractive on Earth. It’s difficult to see much of his face from underneath his chin, and my eyes travel down his thick neck to his wide shoulders. They’re quite large, with his pewter-colored skin stretched tight over the hard muscles. My eyes linger and I find my tongue moving over the inside of my teeth, tempted to see what taut gray meat tastes like.
Hot damn. I clamp my mouth shut tighter at my odd reaction.
Pull yourself together. You didn’t die back there. No need to fawn over him. Those were false promises you were declaring, remember?
I go back to studying him silently. Along the side of his neck and trailing down his shoulders are dark scales, a swirl of silvers that reminds me of campfire smoke on a clear night.
I’m pressed against the wide wall of his chest. It's hard but warm. I’m tempted to press a palm to his huge pec muscle.
I almost follow through this time. Until I hear the soft chirp of an animal nearby.
When my head swings around, it comes face to face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I scream and scramble up my alien’s chest until I’m practically perched on his shoulder. The dinosaur jolts back with a snort, and the man holding me rumbles. It takes me a second to realize he’s laughing.
“What the hell?” I cough, glaring up at him. Or over at him, because seriously, I’m pretty much hanging on his shoulder at this point. “Are you trying to feed me to this thing?”
He speaks soft words, nodding at me and the dinosaur alike.
I have no freakin’ idea what he’s saying, but he seems content. He’s not afraid of the beast, and it is just standing there staring at us now.
It’s then that I notice that it’s wearing a simple leather saddle. A vision of him and his posse riding up to save us on their man-eating dinos will forever be singed into my brain, but I still can’t wrap my head around it.
“You actually ride these things? You must have balls of steel.”
He watches me silently, his clear green eyes warm and curious.
I don’t know why I’m talking to him. He can’t understand me.
And whatever he said a moment ago, I have no damn clue. He and his friends were yelling and talking back in the valley earlier too, and it was no language I’ve ever heard.
Naturally.
It's not like they speak English on Xion V.
So instead of trying another question, I just look over the dinosaur.
I’m so close to it, and despite my awkward circumstances, that excited buzz starts up in my veins again. A damn dinosaur is looking me in the eye right now. It’s breathing on me. I could touch it.
But those teeth protruding over its scaly lips look wicked sharp so I won’t.
It’s not a dinosaur that’s been in our study records. It looks like a T-Rex but it’s much smaller. Maybe half the size of ours on Earth. Though some of it resembles a velociraptor as well, like the oversized claws on its rear feet and the slightly longer forearms.
And to top things off? It has a freakin’ saddle.
I want to ask the alien how he ever managed to train a beast like that to carry him, but before I can formulate how to mime out my question, he hoists me up onto the dinosaur’s back. I gasp as I plop down, straddling a big hunk of leather hide and the huge animal’s body. The dino turns its head to peer back at me and I swallow a scream. I am so damn close to it. It could clamp down on my leg and rip me right off its back.
Good horsie. I swallow a sharp lump, forcing a trembling smile as I pat its shoulder.
“Gemma, friend,” I coo, but my voice is shaking. “Good Rexie.”
The alien nods next to me, and I get a good view of him for the first time. His face is similar to a human male but different at the same time. Exotic enough that I can't stop staring.
His brow and forehead are wide and dotted with what look like dark gray freckles disappearing into his hairline. The darker color is similar to the scales on his shoulders, which also run along his temples and into his hair. Behind them his ears are pressed toward me, paying attention. They’re longer and wider than a human’s, coming to a tapered point, and appear almost feline. The fact that they move tickles me a little.
His long black hair sticks straight up from his scalp and falls down the back of his neck. It’s like a wide punker mohawk, stretching from one eyebrow’s edge to the other and down his head. It looks both soft and stiff, and I’m curious what it feels like.
I take a glance down at the ground far below me and then back up at the alien's face. This joker is absurdly tall. He's barely looking up at me sitting in the saddle. He's got to be at least ten feet.
That is a massive body.
Then he’s climbing up behind me. I can feel his weight settle in and am overwhelmed.
I’ve been rescued by a giant.
Ahead of us, other gargantuan savages are loading survivors onto their mounts. Where the dino-mount beneath me is a dark brown, nearly black, there's also a red and a green. Sometimes they even seem to shimmer. So awesome.
Less awesome are the reactions some of the girls are having.
They're being plopped over dinos on their stomachs like they're being brought back from a deer hunt, and they're kicking and screaming to get loose. The other aliens don't seem to be as careful as mine and I wince as the humans struggle.
One turns into a flailing acrobat as one of the barbarians removes her oxygen mask. Her eyes bulge and she slaps around in a fit as the air attacks her lungs.
I point a helpless hand. “Stop it!”
The savage behind me stiffens and his sharp voice cuts into my ears. The other alien stops, replacing the mask. The girl clings to it and weeps. Her travel-mate wraps her in her arms.
Holy shit that was scary.
Then another human calls out from further away.
“Gemma!”
My stomach turns and I almost puke.
“Eva!” I shout, tears springing to my eyes.
I was strong the whole time. Or at least I hadn't cried. I suppose I was hovering in a world of shock, refusing to let my brain accept the truth full force. The wrecked cruiser, the dead bodies, the reality that giant bug aliens are walking around that want to eat us.
But hearing Eva has it all crashing back down again.
"Gemma!" There are tears in her voice and the sound strangles me. "Where are you?"
I can see her feet kicking a few dinos up, and something about that melts me with relief.
“I’m behind you!”
My alien rescuer put a huge hand on my
shoulder, and I freeze. I’m not sure if it’s a warning or some sort of comfort, but he rests the big paw there without a sound.
Not that I’d understand a word he said.
“What the fuck is going on?” Eva shrieks.
An alien up front barks a few words at her and she gasps. My alien calls up to him, his voice calm but powerful.
“I think this guy is going to kill me!” Eva cries out.
Other women scream in response, and nerves prickle up and down my arms.
The aliens talk over our heads, and I try to read the tones, but their inflections are strange and I can’t tell what they’re talking about.
Hopefully not about killing us. Or hurting us. Or feeding us to their dinosaurs.
“Just hang on, Eva,” I call, digging for any sort of comfort I can think of. “As soon as they get us back to base, we’ll crack open one of those caramel popcorn tins and eat until we feel better.”
She makes a sound that’s a cross between a laugh and a whimper.
Then we’re moving. All four T-rexs. All four aliens. And from what I have been able to count, seven survivors.
“What the hell were those big things back there?” someone else calls out.
A red dinosaur has drifted back next to me, and a girl draped over it is straining to hold herself up to see where we’re going. I think her name is Trinity. An anthropologist if memory serves me. She answers with a dry cough. “Ever seen Alien?”
“They didn’t lay eggs in us did they?” the first woman cries.
Others groan and whimper.
Suddenly it sounds like those who didn’t survive the attack got the better end of the deal. I grit my teeth, leaning farther back into my alien’s belly. He shifts slightly and I tip my head back to look up at him.
He’s watching me intently and there’s an intense look in his eye. It stirs a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and I swallow nervously, dropping my gaze to the others again. An odd current sweeps down my arms, making the hair rise.
When the aliens speak out and the dinosaurs speed up, someone cries out again, and I realize we’re moving away from the plateau at quite a pace. Home and safety are that way, but we’re cruising in the opposite direction like there’s a Black Friday sale going on.
“Wait, wait!” I shout, twisting and trying to look back around the alien’s large torso.
He grabs my arm and pulls me back to sit squarely in the saddle. His hand covers nearly my entire forearm and I stare at it in shock. There’s no way I’m going to get away if he doesn’t want me to.
“Our base is back that way,” I plea, leaning back to stare up at him again. “We need to go back to the plateau. Please.”
He gazes down at me silently for a moment before speaking. His voice is deep and soothing, but I can tell he’s not concerned with what I’m saying. He moves his hand to my abdomen and presses me back against him. His hand covers my entire stomach and inches up along my ribs.
“No, you don’t understand.” I push against his hand. I’ll just have to point, or take those reins and show him the way.
When he growls a one-syllable word and presses harder on me, I get the idea.
Stop.
I’m not going anywhere.
It sets my nerves on edge. Maybe this wasn’t a rescue after all. We’ve gone from being abducted by bug aliens to being abducted by hunky platinum aliens. I mean, it’s definitely a trade up, but what’s going to happen now?
I wouldn’t mind staring at these guys a while longer, but not while I’m in a pot of boiling water back at their place. Or while some of these huge rexes are munching on my bones.
The alien’s hand moves up higher, brushing my breasts with his large palm, and a new flood of emotions hit me.
“Okay, big guy. You’ve got some redeeming qualities, I’ll admit.” My mind wanders to his huge chest and shoulders and the smooth edges of his face. “But I’m just not the kinda girl to sleep around with an alien on our first abduction.”
I push his hand away again but it’s too strong to budge. It flattens harder to my chest and my nipples are totally on alert. Traitors.
“Don’t you understand no means no?” I huff as I push again, at least trying to slide his hand back down where it was before and off my boobs.
It does budge this time, but instead of settling over my stomach again, it dips low. His fingers slide between my legs, brushing all my sensitive girly parts, and tuck deep beneath me. He cups nearly my entire pelvis in his palm. I jump and let out a gasp as his hand nestles in and cradles me to him.
Holy shit. That did not work as planned.
I wiggle against him but only succeed in rubbing my junk against him until it’s alive and buzzing. Then I sit back against him with hot cheeks and an embarrassed flutter in my chest.
I’d been so focused on hoping the aliens wouldn’t torture or eat us, that I hadn’t considered this alternative.
It seems this big guy is interested in more carnal activities, and holy fuck, big boy. You keep all that massive weaponry to yourself.
Where’s Eva? We’ve got to get out of here.
Chapter 4
Gemma
I can hear the village before I see it.
As the savages bring us around the side of a mountain, the sound of life reaches my ears. It’s such a strange, foreign sound to me. There weren’t supposed to be any humanoids here. I’d prepared myself for many quiet days full of tracking and studying wildlife. Sure, there was Eva, and I was utterly thankful she’d been accepted into the program as well, but she was just one person.
To hear a whole population talking and living just around the corner is eerie, but I can't deny I'm on hyper-alert to see them, leaning over the dinosaur's neck and trying to snag a glance.
The alien behind me presses his forearm against my shoulder to push me back against his body again.
He’s very bossy, whoever this guy is. Can’t a girl just get a peek?
I roll my shoulder into his ribs, a defiant little shrug to get him off me. It doesn’t budge him, of course, but he does snort.
Hopefully, it's just a Calm the hell down sound and he isn’t going to throw me to the ground or grind his hand any harder on my lady parts.
One of the savages ahead of us turns to call back.
He has what looks like bone ridges on either side of his head, running down the length of his scalp over his soft moving ears. I can see them through his thick black hair, and I can’t help but stare as he speaks.
He’s not as handsome as my alien, but I haven’t even gotten a proper look at all of him yet. He hasn’t stepped away from me since he picked me up. And I’m sure as hell not going to turn around and study him while his fingers are digging into my junk. He doesn’t need any further encouragement, that’s for sure.
The alien’s chest moves against the back of my head as he speaks out. His voice rings loud without effort. It’s calm and strong. He sounds like a leader.
I haven't stumbled upon some alien prince, have I?
When his friend’s dino-mount steps out of the mountain’s shadow and into the glowing sunlight, the village voices intensify.
Many of the women that had fallen limp and silent perk up. One by one I watch as their eyes grow huge. Limbs fidget. The poodle girl looks like she’s just realized she was on the way to the vet and is flailing about, wriggling her way off the side of her dinosaur. Her body topples backward, and I gasp.
That has to be a fifteen-foot drop to the ground, and I wince, clamping my eyes shut. Many others gasp, followed by a surprised squeal.
My eyes pop open.
The savage behind her, a younger-looking fellow with a dark mane of hair that doesn’t end at his neck―it tapers into a line and runs all the way down his spine to the base of his tail, like some sort of backward happy trail―holds her up by a fistful of her shirt. She shrieks when her eyes meet his, but he calmly places her back on the saddle pad in front of him. Her body is rather rigid. She must have
scared herself stiff.
I let out a long breath, glad my fellow human didn't splat like an egg on the ground. My alien moves his big hand from between my legs to caress one of my shoulders, his strong fingers digging into my muscles. At first, I'm afraid he's going to hurt me, but he's actually a good masseur.
To say I'm carrying a little stress and anxiety in my body at the moment is a massive understatement. His fingers on me are starting to feel phenomenal.
While I’m trying not to let a moan slip, the other three dinosaurs in front of us have stepped into the light. I realize as the sun glints into my eyes that I’m the last to see the village.
I’m so not prepared for it.
In the fading evening glow, a few massive trees are lit up by strings of some sort of light. Blues, greens, and oranges. The village is nestled beneath their wide expanse of branches.
Huts of all sizes, pale leather stretched over huge bone frames. Some are adorned with painted bone and glass charms. Others painted in designs unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
A waterfall runs off the edge of the mountainside―that thing has got to be a mile high―and lands in a crystal blue stream that meanders through the far side of the village. A natural, grassy bridge extends over a section of the water, its edges dotted with soft white flowers and ivy-looking vines that hang down over the stream.
It looks like something right out of a painting. If Van Gogh painted alien planet scenes, of course.
A group of the savages is forming as the dinos all come to a stop at the edge of a large tent.
At first, I think the aliens all look the same, and that my captor may be a lady alien for all I know, but then I spot a female. Slim, tall, not as huge and hulking as my friend here. She has hints of breasts covered with hide. My gaze hops around the growing crowd, and only find two others. There have to be twenty natives flocking around us now, nearly all of them men. Even the number of smaller beings, children I assume, by far outnumber the women.
How is this little tribe surviving out here?
Unless they don’t procreate like we do.
As we come to a stop at the edge of the village, the amount of voices is overwhelming. Everyone is talking. The aliens on the ground. The ones on the dinosaurs. I can’t keep up. It’s like being dropped in the middle of a foreign country.
