Bad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 1)

by Donna McDonald

  “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t have time to debate your sexual morals. We all have to get to safety. The artifact just informed me that the Destroyer is here which I took to mean somewhere near your house. The Destroyer is another sentient blade, Axel. And the symbiosis between that blade and its host is complete. I don’t think I’ll be able to stop the Destroyer if it tries to come after me.”

  Behind her, the woman purred—or laughed. Sugar guiltily turned to face the woman. She was quite beautiful if you went for the cat-human hybrid type. She was like ninety-seven percent human and three percent feline. Her long dark hair fell around cute cat-shaped ears. Her eyes were curious and yet wise.

  “Look… I’m sorry, lady. I wasn’t trying to get between you and Axel. His boss told me he worked for puss—uh, for services rendered. That’s honestly all it was between us—just fucking services—I mean, just services rendered. You can be mad at me later if you want, but right now, we need to get to safety. I’ve got this thing in me, and it can do a lot of incredible shit when confronted with bad guys, but I’ve got a strong feeling that I’m nowhere near prepared to deal with the Destroyer.”

  The male she’d spent the night sexually pleasuring turned her gently around to face him again and looked deeply into her eyes. “No. You’re not capable of dealing with him yet, but soon you will be the Destroyer’s equal. The world has needed a new Protector for a very long time. Please don’t tell my son about me. I prefer to reveal my secret to him myself.”

  “Son? Ha! See? I knew you were married!” Sugar pulled free of his hold and looked him up and down. “Wait. Don’t tell your son? What exactly are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I’m not Axel.”

  “You’re not Axel? Right…” Sugar snorted as she looked him up and down again.

  The man shook his head, then smiled wide. “But I thank you for the compliment. My regeneration went well evidently.”

  “If you’re not Axel, you look exactly like him—I mean, like a twin,” Sugar claimed.

  He nodded and made a sweeping bow to her. “Rodu the Destroyer at the Protector’s service. And I’m also Axel’s sire.”

  “Sire? Like—holy shit, you mean, you’re his father?” Sugar put a hand to her now aching head. “Then that means…”

  Behind them, the cat woman meowed or at least that’s what it sounded like to Sugar. She winced and turned around slowly, wishing she could take back everything she’d said five minutes ago, including the swearing. The woman’s ears twitched as she stared at her.

  “If he’s Axel’s father, and he was hugging you that closely, guess that means you’re Axel’s mother?”

  The woman nodded once. “Indeed. I am Queen Nyomi, a Feline Matriarch of the planet Lyran. It is a pleasure to meet you, Protector.”

  Sugar leaned closer and sniffed her. “Sorry. Rude of me to sniff you, but I just had to check your story,” she said in apology. “You’re not a normal shifter. You smell very different.”

  Queen Nyomi leaned forward and smelled Sugar back. “And you smell like my son. As I said, I am from the planet Lyran. Axel is…”

  “Planet? God… I don’t believe this.” Sugar smacked her forehead. She was officially a confirmed idiot.

  She’d believed the ancient artifact had merged with her body, but she hadn’t believed Axel was an alien.

  Dumb, Sugar. Very dumb.

  “Are you telling me all of Axel’s science fiction crap is real? That Axel’s an honest-to-goodness alien, flying saucer and all?”

  Queen Nyomi’s whole body trilled with sound as she nodded. “Since my people have been on Earth for over ten thousand years now, the Lyran Guardians of Earth really can’t call themselves aliens. We’re more like special Earthlings. We avoid the general mass of humans as much as we can so the subject rarely comes up where we have to explain our existence. We see to Earth’s continuance for the good of all planets in our universe.”

  Sugar stared. These were really Axel’s parents and one of them was an honest-to-god alien from another planet. The other was a host to a sentient blade just like she was.

  She blinked in shock, then staggered back to run a trembling hand through her hair.

  “Every time Axel told me anything about his real life, I was secretly wondering what he dressed up as when he attended science fiction conventions. I honestly thought your son was some sort of sexy geek who’d lived too long in his mother’s basement.”

  Rodu snorted. “What did I tell you, Nyomi? Now you’ve heard it with your own ears. This is what worthy females think of our son. You babied him too much. Axel will never find a proper mate with his attitude.”

  “No, that’s not…” Sugar nervously shook both her hands and her head. “That’s not what I meant at all. Axel’s fine. Very manly… for a panther shifter, that is.” Sugar let out a breath. “Is his entire family a group of panthers?” she asked, trying to shift the subject of their conversation to something safer.

  “My son chooses his feline form. He can be any he likes. In his Lyran state, he looks as I do. In his human form, he looks like his father. The giant black panther is his favorite fighting form.”

  Sugar put a hand to her head. “Wow. All this information is a lot to take in at once. Maybe I better wake Axel up now so he can visit with you.”

  Queen Nyomi sighed. “Don’t bother. We tried to wake him but he refused. What happened to make him sleep so deeply? We called his name and shook him. He purred for a bit and then went right back to sleep. Has he been drugged?”

  “No, well, he…” Sugar bit her lip. There was no way in hell she could tell his parents the truth. No way. “We took a long walk last night. Maybe it tired him out. We went all the way to the waterfall.”

  Axel’s mother made an unidentifiable sound. When Rodu chuckled and smiled at her, Sugar blushed hard. Wherever her dead daddy was watching from, he was no doubt shaking his head right now.

  Despite her red face, Sugar counted to ten before she spoke. She’d read once that it made you seem calm and collected. “So… do you want me to wake him or not?”

  “Perhaps it would be best if we return another time,” Queen Nyomi said. “Rodu?”

  “I agree. Let the boy sleep his life away,” he teased, stepping close. He nodded to Sugar. “It was you we came to meet, Protector. May you fare well in merging with your blade. We will be happy to help you in any way we can.”

  Sugar lifted a hand as they both got wrapped inside a giant ball of golden light that zipped off into the sky. That mode of travel could undoubtedly explain a whole lot of UFO sightings. How many times had people reported balls of light shooting across the sky?

  Sheesh—she felt so dumb now to have ever doubted what Axel had been saying to her. She watched until the golden orb disappeared.

  A groggy Axel chose that exact moment to stick his head out of the door. “Did I hear voices out here? Who were you talking to? I swear I thought I heard my parents, but they never come to see me.”

  Sugar chuckled at his cluelessness. Technically, they hadn’t come to see him. She’d tell him about meeting his parents later, but only after Rodu the Destroyer had spoken to his son.

  “Uh… I was talking to the artifact.”

  Another half-truth, but she had been talking to it before Axel’s alien mother had invaded her reality.

  Alien, she thought, looking at the naked man in the doorway with wicked intentions in his green eyes.

  His mother said he looked like her, but all she saw was a man who looked exactly like his father. Talk about a healthy gene pool. Rodu’s swimmers had completely replicated him in looks.

  “Come into the house and I’ll make you breakfast. You should have woken me, Sugar.”

  Sugar chuckled at how nice Axel was being to her this morning… and at how good she felt. Great sex always made her feel reborn. “I tried, but you said you were too tired to go another round.”

  Axel snorted. “I was too tired. I won’t be after we eat. Get
in here,” he ordered.

  Still thinking about the second alien encounter of her lifetime, Sugar followed the half-alien she’d slept with last night into his house.

  14

  “Sugar, wait. Wait… damn it. Will you…” His eyes rolled back in his head as he panted, growled, and lost his mind.

  This was why he’d slept like the dead last night. The woman was lethal. He’d even dreamed both his parents had tried to wake him without success. She was having a very bizarre effect on him.

  Her head left its former resting place in his lap to move to his no longer taut stomach. If he was any more relaxed, he’d be comatose.

  Axel reached down and yanked Sugar up so he could stare deeply into her eyes. He stared and stared and stared some more. She looked just as plain as she had the first day he’d met her. There was no artifice about her at all and she needed a haircut. Yet in all the years he’d been alive, he’d never been more attracted to a woman.

  He was even having stupid thoughts—like tying Sugar to his bed to keep her from leaving him—ever.

  “You’re hurting my armpits, Axel. Lower me to your chest,” Sugar ordered.

  He obeyed instantly and without question. What in the world was happening to him? Was she training him and succeeding?

  He scooted up to lean against his leather headboard. Sugar sat astride him and studied him as if searching for clues to his behavior. She would have no luck with that since he had no clue himself.

  “I have no idea how I feel about what happened between us just now,” he said, grumbling.

  “Why? Was it bad for you? I tried really hard not to bite.” Sugar reached out and pushed up the corners of his mouth with two fingers. “That was a joke, Axel. Stop glowering at me.”

  “I’m not glowering.” Or at least he didn’t think he was.

  Sugar snorted as she gave him a slit-eyed look. “You’re not one of those guys who want what I did but feel guilty afterward, are you? Don’t worry, honey. You can make it up to me later when you’ve recovered a bit. I’m not an unreasonable woman and you have some great moves between the sheets.”

  Axel grabbed the hand that patted his chest. He held it tightly against his muscles.

  Sugar tilted her head and watched him watching her. “What’s up, Axel? Besides you, that is. You sure have some amazing recuperative powers.”

  His mouth twisted with a smirk, but he refused to laugh. “I want you to get emotional and beg me to satisfy you. I want you to ask me to stay with you forever. I want a chance to say yes to you. I’ve never wanted that before. What have you done to me?”

  Sugar chuckled. Then she realized he was being serious—God, wasn’t the panther always serious?

  “Oh, you have to be kidding. You’re not actually willing to hand over your womanizer get-out-of-jail-free card for a blow job, are you? Damn, even I’m not that easy.”

  “Don’t be crass… and no, I’m not kidding. Can’t you be serious for once…”

  Sugar’s hand slap over his mouth shut him right up. His instant obedience was nearly unbelievable, even more so when he didn’t pull her hand away.

  “Shush,” Sugar ordered. “The artifact is talking to me.”

  Attackers advance. Security fence breached. Defense mode activated.

  Sugar bounded off Axel’s lap and hit the floor. She grabbed the first clothing she found and pulled it on.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” Axel demanded.

  Defense mode activated. Full battle mode selected. Prepare.

  “Prepare? There is no preparing,” Sugar yelled into the air. “It’s going to hurt no matter what, so just freaking do it, Artifact.” She looked at Axel. “Find Max and make sure he’s okay. Someone’s made it through your land’s defenses. The artifact’s going into high alert.”

  Sugar left the room and headed outdoors as quickly as she could. She was not going to let the artifact ruin Axel’s house. The force inhabiting her body didn’t have that level of sensibility about material possessions.

  “Sugar! Get back here. What do you mean someone’s made it through my defenses? That will never happen. Come back here and explain yourself!”

  Axel dressed as fast as he could, but she still got ahead of him.

  He hit the door to the outside looking wildly around. He didn’t sense anything or smell anyone. But then again, the very proficient Dr. Jennings might have damaged a few of his brain cells with her lap torturing expertise.

  In his yard, a golden she-warrior now stood looking around. In her hand was a long, golden sword made of pulsing energy. Her steady gaze searched the trees and only glanced at him once.

  “Wolf missing,” she told him.

  Axel grunted. “He’s either hunting, hiding, or watching. Max can take care of himself.” He closely watched the golden warrior now in charge of his proficient lover’s body. “Who’s here?”

  “Sensors blocked. Recalibration necessary. Estimated completion time three minutes six seconds.”

  “Understood,” Axel said, not arguing.

  If she sensed intruders, he’d just have to believe her. The blade hadn’t been wrong yet but…

  “There is a fail-safe alarm for when the fence comes down. It never went off.”

  “Dismantled,” she said.

  “I took secondary precautions that activate a system of trip wires in the woods when that happens…”

  “Deactivated,” she interrupted.

  “Damn it. Are you sure they got everything?” Axel demanded.

  Her head turned so she could look at him fully. On her face was Sugar’s normal smirk—the one she got when she knew she was right.

  “Affirmative.”

  “What do you suggest we do then? I don’t smell anyone,” Axel exclaimed.

  “Escape recommended. Fight counter-indicated. Avoid Guardian Axel’s death. Order acknowledged.”

  Axel swiped a hand over his face as he thought about what he was hearing. Sugar had obviously told the sentient blade to look out for him.

  Then it was suddenly too late for either of them to contemplate escaping.

  Three snake creatures the size of Komodo dragons came up out of holes in the ground. More than two-dozen bats fled the trees in a swarm and turned into hybrid bat-men.

  A horror movie was playing out in his own backyard.

  “Snake creatures. Recommended to remove heads per experience of Sugar’s sire. Guardian Axel fight bat creatures. Affirmative?”

  Any other time he would have laughed at the artifact making any kind of reference to Sugar’s dead father while talking in nearly full sentences.

  Instead Axel blinked, looked at the bat-men, and morphed into his panther form without answering her. He wasn’t at his fighting best at the moment, but he certainly wasn’t going to be taken down by a bunch of overgrown bats.

  His cat snatched up the closest bat-man and bit off his head. The creature tasted so gross he immediately spat it out. The bitten-off head rolled in front of the other bat-men who looked down at it in shock. Axel roared as loudly as he could and swatted at two more. His razor-sharp claws cut them into pieces.

  The rest looked like they still wanted to take him on, but what could a bunch of bats do with a panther half as big as his house? Axel ran partially around them, corralling them into a circle while they discussed him in hissing squeaks.

  With the snake creatures now decapitated, Sugar walked calmly around the other side of his bat circle and swiped her now super long energy blade through all those she could reach. When she stepped back from her efforts, there was only a singular unharmed bat-man left and another wounded one whose death wasn’t going to be quick.

  Ignoring the half-dead one screaming, Sugar put her blade against the live one’s throat and spoke with clarity. “Who sent you to kill us?”

  “Capture,” her terrified bat-man hissed in alarm. “We were not to harm you. The cat was the only one to be killed.”

  Axel changed back to human and walked to the bat cre
ature writhing in half-dead agony on the ground. He looked at Sugar. “Do you need this one?”

  “Negative.”

  Axel reached down and twisted the screaming creature’s head off. He threw it to the side and it landed in the middle of the other dead bodies. The bat-man lightly skewered by Sugar’s blade watched his actions and trembled in fear—which was how it should be.

  “As you can see, we’re both going to be extremely hard to kill and impossible to kidnap,” Axel told him as he came close. “I suggest you tell us who sent you so your death can be quick.”

  Just then Max came out of the woods, dragging a squealing human male by the collar.

  “Expectations of wolf adjusted,” Sugar said as she looked at Max.

  Axel laughed at the assessment and nodded. “Agreed,” he said.

  He walked to Max who had his enormous wolf jaws locked around the guy’s arm. Bending, he put his hand on Max’s head. “Thanks, Max. You can turn loose of the bastard. I want to talk to him.”

  Chuffing in rebellion, Max finally did release his hold. Axel yanked the guy upright.

  The guy pointed at Max. “That wolf killed the pilot and our medic. Who’s going to fix my arm?”

  “Your real question should be who’s going to save your ass from me,” Axel told him. He looked over at Sugar who was watching him. “You can dispose of that one now. We no longer need him. This is the guy who’s going to tell us what we want to know.”

  Axel watched as she processed his advice and came to a decision about following it. “Affirmative,” Sugar said finally. She moved her blade efficiently cutting the last bat-man in half.

  “By the Gods…” the man said, watching her drop the half she was still holding and coldly walk toward them.

  Axel looked at the stunned man held in his wrist. “Now before I feed you to Max, or let my friend cut you in half, who sent you after us?”

  “We were sent to get the woman—just her.”

  “That never had a chance of happening,” Axel said firmly. “She’s a natural at protecting herself and what you just saw was her being merciful. The last group that came after us got incinerated. Every group that’s nabbed her has ended up letting her go because she will kill her way out of captivity. She’s been shot, carved on, and kidnapped over a dozen times. No one stands a chance of capturing her.”