Crex: Alien Abduction Romance (Captured By Aliens Book 2)

by A. G. Wilde

  Piper.

  She wasn’t lying low in the sand anymore.

  One of the sand cats had spotted her and had barged in her direction instead. She was now running across the sand, rainbow hair bobbing in the wind, as she bolted in the opposite direction.

  Drak.

  Swatting the other cat with his arm, he was mildly aware of the animal’s yelp as its jaw was broken and it crashed to the side.

  He was running before he even realized.

  He was fast; maybe he could get to her in time before the animal pounced.

  But as he ran, he realized something else.

  She was running, but the cat couldn’t catch up with her. She seemed to be bolting through the sand at a speed he didn’t think her species was possible of.

  It seemed she soon realized this as well because she began shrieking, not in fear this time, but in pleasure.

  A shriek of pure delight.

  The type of shriek that one did because of pure adrenaline.

  But then she stopped suddenly.

  Why?

  No. Run! He felt like shouting the words across the desert.

  The cat was still behind her. It was going to pounce.

  It all happened in slow motion.

  Piper was standing motionless, frozen by something behind a dune that he couldn’t see, and the sand cat had now launched itself in the air.

  It landed on her back, causing her to collapse to the ground as they rolled around in the sand.

  No.

  He smelled it before he even reached her.

  That thick metallic scent of blood.

  No.

  Not again.

  As he came upon them, the first thing he saw was the blade. It was standing upright, straight through the sand cat’s body.

  Pulling the thing off her, he crouched over her.

  She was staring up into the sky as if she couldn’t see him, as if he wasn’t there.

  Shaking her by the shoulders, he called her name.

  “Piper!”

  Checking her body for injuries, it seemed as if she was ok.

  Why wasn’t she responding?

  Then something else happened. A sound.

  A sound he’d never heard before. A roar from a large animal he knew wasn’t native to the planet.

  The muscles in his entire body prickled immediately as he stood slowly.

  As Piper stood beside him, his eyes widened as the source of the sound came into view.

  So that was why she’d frozen and stopped running.

  It was an animal he’d never seen before. It was huge, tall, walking on two legs with skin that looked armored.

  “What in Polvrak’s name is that?” He breathed.

  Beside him, Piper drew the blade from the dead sand cat as if it was nothing. Pointing it toward the huge beast, which was now heading their way, her voice sounded like steel.

  “That,” she said, “is a fucking T-Rex.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  He could feel the energy radiating from them both.

  Confusion, disorientation, fear, and pure hostility…those feelings emanated from the two beings like a thick cloud.

  But what surprised him most was that three belonged to the beast and only one to Piper.

  The hostility. The hostility wasn’t coming from the beast.

  It was coming from Piper.

  His people had a way of communicating with beasts and this one, he could feel it, the animal was scared.

  But beside him, Piper crouched, baring her teeth as she snarled at the beast.

  Crex tensed.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Was this another effect of the jagazen? Was she also developing animalistic instinct to fight and kill the way he did?

  Looking at her. He didn’t like it.

  He didn’t like it at all.

  For him, his anger, his rage was a blanket that had kept him going. It had kept him fighting with the Restitution for revenge.

  His blood boiled as he waited for the day he destroyed all the Tasqals.

  But with that, he’d lost his propensity to feel.

  Until her.

  He didn’t want her to go through that.

  But this hostility he was sensing from her, it seemed all too familiar.

  The beast roared again as it charged toward them, kicking up a cloud of sand as it approached, but Piper didn’t move.

  Instead, she snarled again and got into position, crouching, her blade ready.

  It took a second for him to realize she was about to attack the animal.

  It would kill her, surely, with one hit.

  Moving automatically as the beast’s head dipped toward them, he knocked Piper out of the way digging his hand into one of the beast’s nostrils as it came in close.

  As it lifted him into the air, the beast roared again. Its mouth opening wide, hot breath hit his skin.

  As he looked down into jagged teeth, Crex dug his hand deeper into the thing’s nostril to hold on. He needed a better vantage point if he was going to take the thing down.

  Swinging himself, he swung upward, launching himself in the air to land atop the beast’s head.

  It had uneven skin with ridges running up the center of its head. Hanging onto one of the ridges, he glanced down at the sand.

  He couldn’t see Piper and for a second, he hoped she had run away.

  The beast roared again and clawed at him. Crex frowned.

  Its arms were unbelievably small for such a large animal. No matter how it clawed, it couldn’t reach him.

  Gripping unto the ridges, he climbed higher up the snout of the animal, holding on tightly as the thing flashed its head, trying to dislodge him.

  But he would not be dislodged so easily.

  Reaching the last ridge, Crex lifted his head and locked eyes with the animal.

  It was strange what he saw in those eyes.

  On its planet, this animal was a fearsome predator, but this one, this one was a child.

  And he’d been right. It was confused and disoriented.

  It was scared.

  All his senses were telling him the animal was afraid.

  It wasn’t trying to kill them. It was just trying to protect itself.

  For just a moment, the beast paused to look at him. And in that moment, he realized that it could be friendly.

  A loud scream hit his ear then.

  Piper.

  She was charging toward the beast, blade forward, and with her new speed, she did something unexpected.

  As she charged toward it, the T-Rex only had a second to respond but Piper was already lodging the blade deep into its leg.

  The wound was unexpected and the moment he was having with the beast was lost.

  The beast roared again as it hobbled and fell, throwing him to the sand.

  Piper was on the move again. Withdrawing the blade, she took the opportunity and aimed for the beast’s chest.

  She only managed to bury her blade again when the animal reacted, kicking in her direction and causing a huge amount of sand and Piper to go flying in the other direction.

  “Piper!” Crex was on his feet, heading in her direction with a glance back at the animal.

  It was wounded, not fatally but wounded nonetheless. He could finish it now, easily. He could kill it himself.

  But something was stopping him from doing so.

  He couldn’t kill it without good reason, not after what he saw in its eyes.

  “Piper!” He finally found her, covered in sand, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

  “Piper!”

  * * *

  The tears were flowing down her cheeks uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop them.

  It was the fucking T-Rex.

  What the hell was it doing here?

  Her shoulders shook.

  Maybe it was fate.

  Maybe it was God giving her a second chance to avenge her sister.

  It was the same T-Rex; she was su
re of it. What were the chances of there being two?

  And it had killed Callie. Mercilessly.

  It had taken away the one person she had who had always been by her side.

  It had taken away the only person she had ever loved.

  Callie.

  Callie was gone because of that piece of shit.

  Crex was in front of her, shaking her, but she could hardly even hear him calling her name.

  She’d wounded it, but it was rising again.

  She hadn’t been strong enough to kill it.

  And there was something else.

  It was why the tears wouldn’t stop.

  It was why they kept coming.

  Driving the blade the first time had felt good.

  It had been for Callie. She’d been taking revenge on her sister’s behalf.

  But when she’d driven the blade the second time, the tears had begun.

  It hadn’t felt good.

  It hadn’t felt good at all.

  She’d thought killing the T-Rex would have made everything better. Would have given her some closure, and now, with the beast in front of her, she couldn’t go through with it.

  Killing it wasn’t going to change the fact that Callie was gone.

  Callie was gone.

  Forever.

  She couldn’t do it.

  Fresh tears fell down her face.

  “I’m sorry,” she breathed. “I’m sorry, Callie.”

  She could hear the beast rising and realized that Crex was in front of her, still shaking her, but behind them, the T-Rex was on its feet again.

  Crex met her eyes.

  “This beast. You have met it before.” It was a statement. He was far more perceptive than she realized.

  Not able to speak, she nodded.

  “Do you wish for me to kill it?” He asked.

  It took her a few seconds to respond as she watched the T-Rex charge toward them.

  But Crex didn’t seem in the least concerned with the beast coming at them, and she took strength in his resolve.

  “No,” she answered. “Even if you kill it, the hole in my heart will still be there.”

  Crex nodded. “Get to a safe distance,” he said, before turning to the approaching animal.

  As the T-Rex charged, Piper scrambled back as she watched Crex race toward it.

  He was heading to the leg that she’d buried the blade in and with good reason.

  That leg would be weaker than the other.

  As the two collided, she felt the emotion she should have been feeling when she first saw the beast.

  Fear.

  She felt fear for the first time.

  But it was fear for Crex.

  Her heartbeat she could hear in her ears as she watched the two fight.

  Standing, the unbelievable scene in front of her, Piper gripped her heart. She could feel it against her chest, beating hard.

  Crex.

  It was a fucking T-Rex.

  Had she been mad trying to attack it?

  And Crex, what if it killed him?

  Fuck!!!

  But as she watched, the unexpected happened.

  Using his strength and the momentum of the collision, Crex twisted his weight, sending him and the dinosaur tumbling to the sand.

  The T-Rex was clumsy. It was too slow to get back on its feet and Crex leaped on top of it, clambering on all fours to the beast's head.

  What the fuck was he doing? Piper grabbed her hair and pulled at it. Why was he going toward the most dangerous part of the animal?

  Get away from the thing’s head! She wanted to scream, but she had no voice.

  But something else happened that she didn’t expect.

  Instead of attacking the animal, he seemed to be… talking to it?

  He was right by the thing’s left eye, looking at it, and the T-Rex was looking back at him.

  What the alien fuck?

  Walking forward slowly, as the beast seemed to calm down, Piper stared at them wide-eyed.

  Was she dreaming?

  Wasn’t he Aquaman? Not the flippin’ dinosaur whisperer.

  Standing just out of reach, she cocked her ears.

  But she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  Well, it was more like the translator couldn’t translate what he was saying.

  “Madriluk ponipna juk fasilad,” Crex said. “Wazid fierno mak zar fasilad.”

  Then he glanced down at her.

  “It will not hurt us. It was just scared,” he said.

  “And you know this how?” Her eyes were still wide.

  Crex seemed to shrug. “Instinct.”

  Well, fuck instinct. Grabbing the blade, she held it close.

  She wasn’t about to take any chances.

  She watched at Crex hopped off the beast. And, as soon as he was on the sand again, the beast began moving.

  She was just about to scream that it was going to attack again when the words died on her lips.

  It wasn’t roaring anymore, but it was standing. And somehow, she felt it too. It felt different.

  She didn’t feel hostility coming from the dinosaur at all.

  As the beast stood, one of its yellow eyes locked with hers and Piper gasped.

  She could see it now. Similar to Crex’s eyes that had seemed cold, lifeless, predatory before, the T-Rex’s eyes seemed different now.

  Crex was right.

  It wasn’t trying to kill them.

  It was scared.

  “Well, fuck me,” she breathed.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Crex was studying her now as she stared at the T-Rex.

  “You see it now?” He asked.

  Piper nodded.

  “Yes,” she said. She could see it now. “Is this what your jagazen does? Opens the eyes?”

  Crex frowned slightly. “No. The eyes could always open on their own,” he replied.

  Piper chuckled softly. “No. It’s a human way of saying ‘make you more perceptive.’”

  He seemed to have an ‘Aha’ moment. “Yes,” he said, “it can.”

  Looking at the dried blood on the blade, she raised her eyes back to the T-Rex.

  It wasn’t moving, just watching them both and for a second she wondered if she was going mad.

  This thing was a dinosaur. A killing machine. At least, according to Jurassic Park. Why was she not running away or at least trying to kill it?

  Swallowing hard, she sighed.

  It wasn’t charging toward her. It wasn’t doing anything.

  It was looking at Crex, actually, as if waiting for orders.

  “What did you say to it?” She asked.

  “I told it that it was safe. It is a victim like you,” he paused. “Like all of us. I told it that revenge would come soon.”

  “A victim,” she breathed. Anger surged within her, but it didn’t last long.

  Callie was a victim. Not this thing.

  But he was right.

  It had been abducted as well, just like her.

  Probably treated like shit, just like her.

  The real enemy was the Tasqals.

  They probably had two things in common: they were both from the same planet and they hated the Tasqals.

  As much as she didn’t want to admit it, killing such a relic from her planet, even though it had taken something so dear from her, was wrong.

  She wasn’t a murderer.

  And Callie wouldn’t have wanted her to do that.

  Callie had been good.

  As if reading her mind, Crex said, “You were strong to make such a decision.”

  Nodding, she turned away and began walking in the direction of the sand cat she had killed. If she stood there any longer, she would start crying again.

  “Let’s go get your kill,” she said.

  * * *

  The T-Rex was outside the cave, resting on its side. It had followed them back like an obedient puppy but if it thought she trusted it because Crex whispered some sweet noth
ings in its ear, it was mistaken.

  Regardless that it seemed to have a crush on Crex, she wasn’t about to let her guard down.

  Luckily, the cave mouth was too small for it to enter but she was still keeping watch.

  There was a wound on its underside that they hadn’t noticed. Crex believed it had been hurt when it crash-landed on the planet. That wound was why she’d been able to make it fall so easily too.

  It seemed that when the Isclit ship had been destroyed, all the cargo, including the T-Rex, had been ejected from the ship in pods. Probably as a safety measure for later retrieval.

  As Planet Muk was close, most of the debris had ended up on its surface.

  It seemed that every time the Isclits had visited Earth, they had taken some life-form away with them.

  Once it was T-Rexes. Another time it was saber-toothed tigers. Last it was humans.

  She’d had the pleasure of hearing the saber-tooth’s roar when it had been thrown into the terrarium on the Isclit ship like the T-Rex was.

  If her hunch was right, it was safe to believe it was also somewhere on Muk.

  She didn’t want to know if that was true or not.

  She’d rather not meet it.

  They’d returned from the sand-cat cave after retrieving the second kill and Crex had gotten some flowers from the cave. He was now outside creating a pulp with the flowers and dressing the T-Rex.

  Exiting the cave, she took one of the flowers and looked at it.

  Apparently, it had miraculous healing properties. She wished it could heal the hole in her heart where Callie once was.

  Walking toward the water, she fiddled with the purple flower.

  It was beautiful just like her sister.

  As she stood by the water’s edge, she looked at the petals, and memories of her sister’s smile flooded her mind.

  “Fuck,” she whispered, allowing a lone tear to fall. “I miss you so much.” Running a finger over the petals, she sniffled. “Today, I could have taken revenge.” She paused. “I thought it would make me feel better. It didn’t.”

  Another tear ran down her cheek.

  “Nothing will make me feel better. You’re not coming back. I can’t change that.”

  She knew it was time to let her sister go, so she could rest in peace.

  Callie was gone but even in her death, she’d taught her one last life lesson. And she was now stronger because of it.