Alien Romance: The Alien's Wonderland: A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance

by Ruth Anne Scott

  He didn’t bother to tell her it was hopeless. He only gazed at her. “How are you going to do that?”

  Chris blushed. Her flimsy plans sounded ridiculous coming out of her mouth now. “I thought I’d find the other women—the ones in the other factions—Marissa’s friends, as you call them. I planned to ask them to help me find a way back to Earth.”

  “They don’t want to go back to Earth,” he replied. “They’re happy with their mates and their lives here.”

  “Just because they’re happy with their lives here doesn’t mean they don’t want to go home,” she argued. “If they had a way to get back, they just might take it.”

  “So what will you do when you find the other women?” he asked. “What will you suggest you do to get back to Earth?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe the Ursidreans have some technology we could use. I know, I know. The Ursidreans don’t have any space flight capable technology that still works. But maybe we could adapt it to serve our purpose. Maybe Aria knows something that could help us.”

  He studied her with his direct, inscrutable eyes. “Anything else?”

  The words rushed out of her before she could stop them. “If even one of those women wants to leave Angondra, I have to find her. I have to find one person who feels the way I do and won’t keep telling me I’ll be happy here and come to trust you people.”

  He didn’t react at all. His eyes never wavered from her face. He sat in silence so long she wondered if he’d abandoned the conversation. Then he shot up to his feet and strode to the edge of the circle of firelight. “Alright. So you want to find the other women. Do you have any idea where you’re going to find one of them?”

  Chris stared down at her shoes. “Well, no. I hadn’t planned that far in advance.”

  He nodded. “Hmm. Yes. I have to admit I think Marissa was right about you. If I leave you out here alone, you’ll be dead in a few days. You made it this far, but I can’t let you go on alone.”

  She stole a glance at him. “You won’t take me back to the village, will you?”

  He shook his head. “I won’t take you back to the village, but you can’t stay out here alone. Look. You couldn’t even get a fire going until I showed up. If you’re determined to go on, I’ll go with you.”

  Her head whipped around. “You... you will?”

  He nodded again. “It’s the only thing to do. Besides, you can’t show up in one of the other factions’ territory without some plausible explanation for why you’re there. If I go with you, I can explain the situation.”

  “Won’t the other factions mistrust you?” she asked. “Won’t they consider your presence in their territory an incursion?”

  He paced back and forth in front of the fire. “That is possible. We’ll have to be cautious in our choice of which faction to visit. Of course, it would be more helpful if Marissa went with us. She could explain everything to her friend.”

  Chris turned away. “I don’t want Marissa to go with us. I don’t want her explaining to her friends how cracked I am in the head.”

  He didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile. He only nodded. “Then it’s just you and me. We’ll go to the Felsite first. The Lycaon are on better terms with Renier than any of the other Alphas. He won’t start a war if we show up at his city and ask to visit his mate.”

  Chris cringed. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

  Turk examined her. “Don’t tell me you’re losing heart already when we haven’t even begun. You started this. You better finish it. If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been. Renier’s mate Carmen is a reasonable woman, and she suffered the worst when her friends went to other factions.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked.

  “I was there,” he replied. “I was there when Marissa told her she planned to stay with the Lycaon. She broke down in tears.”

  Chris made a face. “She doesn’t sound like a reasonable woman. She sounds like a cry-baby.”

  “Don’t be too hard on her,” Turk replied. “You crashed here with dozens of others of your kind and found Marissa waiting for you. If you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life here alone and never see another human face, you would probably react the same way.”

  “Maybe we should visit one of the other factions first,” Chris suggested.

  Turk shook his head. “No. The Felsite are the closest to us by land, and we’ll be much better visiting the others after we get Renier on our side. Carmen had ideas about finding a way off this planet, too, before her friends decided to settle here. She was the last to give up. She might have some ideas on how to proceed. After we talk to her and Renier, we’ll decide who to visit next.”

  “Do you know anything about the other Alphas?” she asked.

  “I know as much as anybody outside their factions can know,” he replied. “Aquilla won’t be happy about losing his mate. None of the Alphas will be, but their mates might know a way to convince them.”

  “They don’t have to leave if they don’t want to,” she pointed out. “If they’re as happy as everybody says they are, they’ll want to stay. But that’s no reason I should want to stay. I don’t have a life here, or a mate, or a faction to belong to.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “You could.”

  Chapter 8

  Chris rolled over and pulled the heavy robe around her shoulders against the night chill. That’s when she woke up and realized there was a heavy robe over her. She lifted her head off the ground and looked around. Turk watched her from nearby. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

  “I already did,” he replied.

  She blinked the sleep out of her eyes. “Is it getting close to dawn?”

  He looked up at the sky. “No, not for a while.”

  She frowned, but sleep fogged her mind.

  “We don’t sleep the same way you do,” he told her. “We sleep in short bursts, mostly during the day.”

  “How’s that going to work out with traveling long distances?” she asked.

  “We can go without sleep when we need to,” he replied.

  She let her head fall back onto the ground. Her back and hips ached from sleeping on the hard ground, but at least the fire kept her warm. Her eyes relaxed in the flickering flames. Turk must be keeping it going.

  The warmth permeated her exhausted bones, and her eyes drifted shut. She drifted back toward sleep, and the mellow buzz of firelight vibrated all the way out to her fingertips. All of a sudden, she snapped awake again when she remembered Turk was sitting right there watching her.

  She dragged her eyes open, but when she checked, he hadn’t moved. The flames glittered off his eyes until orange licks of light shot out at her. She closed her own eyes so she wouldn’t see them. In an instant, sleep washed over her and pulled her down into dreams. Her body softened under the robe, and heat spread over her cheeks.

  She rocked on ethereal waves. She levitated off the ground and sailed over the treetops. She looked down on the fire from a great height. Turk sat by the fire and stared down at her sleeping form. An unimaginable gulf separated them. It seared her heart, and her mind searched for some way to bridge that divide.

  But he was a different species. They could never come together. Chris herself couldn’t cross the gulf, no matter how much she wanted to. She almost woke herself up with a start. She didn’t want to cross that gulf. She didn't want to come together with him. What was she thinking?

  He wasn’t all bad, though. At least he supported her quest to find the other human women. That was more than anybody else did, even Marissa. He certainly didn’t lack other attractive qualities. He followed her because he cared about what happened to her, and he saved her from certain starvation in this wilderness.

  So why couldn’t she warm up to him? Why did she have to treat him as an enemy when he protected her and helped her at every turn? Then again, why would she w
ant to warm up to him? What was he to her but a stranger in a strange land? If she succeeded in getting away from this planet, she would never see him again.

  That future scenario played itself out in her dreaming brain. She stood in front of a space craft of some kind. She didn’t recognize it. It belonged to some forgotten era of Angondran history. But there she stood, clothed in glory at her own accomplishment.

  The other human women, those that crashed with her and those who landed with Marissa, waited near the ship’s door. They admired her from a distance, in awe that she accomplished the impossible and freed them from their imprisonment.

  Turk and Caleb stood in front of the bunch of onlookers. Chris surveyed the crowd. Maybe Marissa stood next to Caleb. She wouldn’t go back to Earth. She would stay with her Angondran mate. Penelope Ann waved good-bye to her Avitras mate, but Aria would stay with her children. But the women who crashed with Chris would all go back. They couldn’t wait to reunite with their families back home. They revered Chris for her struggle to free them.

  The women entered the ship. Chris raised her hand and saluted the Angondrans who helped her accomplish this feat. She would hold them in her heart for the rest of her life. Turk waved back, and so did Marissa. Then Chris stepped into the craft and closed the door behind her. It rose from the ground and rode off into the sunset.

  The Angondrans went back to their lives and the human women flew back to Earth, where they landed in a remote cornfield in Kansas. They traveled back to their homes and reunited with their families. Some people didn’t believe they were ever abducted by aliens, but that didn’t matter. They were back, and they put the whole experience behind them. And they lived happily ever after. The End.

  Chris hovered over the fire wrapped in bliss. Whatever happened on this planet wouldn’t affect her life at all. She would go back to her ranch in California and pick up her business training horses. Some of her clients would think she was a little eccentric for talking about the alien planet she visited, but after a while, she would let it go. Life would go on as normal.

  What happened here didn’t matter. It was nothing but a vivid dream. The Lycaon were a product of her fevered imagination. Turk was a combination of a number of men Chris found attractive in her life. Only her alarm at finding herself on an alien planet made her hold him at arm’s length.

  From her position above the fire, she noticed the woman on the ground open her eyes and looked at Turk. She looked straight into his eyes, with none of the hesitation or hostility she felt for him before. She communicated everything through her eyes.

  Turk returned her gaze with a firm, unwavering stare. He understood. He stood up and crossed the distance between them. He sat down next to her on the ground. When he passed in front of her, his body blocked the fire’s heat from warming her. The night chill stung her back. Then he moved aside, and the heat struck her face again.

  When he sat down, the firelight glowed off his cheeks and nose. The line of fur running down his cheekbones gave him an even more powerful expression. He fixed her with his fierce eyes. She’d invited him. Now he was here, and she couldn’t un-invite him.

  What would he do? What would she do? Could she really let this happen? Could she open herself up to this alien creature in the wilderness of a strange world? She slid back and forth between her position hovering over the treetops to her bed by the fire. She looked into his eyes at the same time that she observed them together from above. From far away, a shimmer of excitement shot through her being.

  Why shouldn’t she enjoy this moment? It would never be anything more than a moment. She would love him and leave him. She would go home to Earth and he would choose an Angondran mate. She would float away into the past for him the same way he would float away into the past for her. They would remember each other and the night they spent together under the stars, but that was all. No one would ever know what she’d done. He would be her delicious little secret.

  Her eyes widened and she extended her hand toward him. She traced the line of his cheek in the orange light. His nostrils flared, and his strong hands descended on her body. Her heartbeat quickened, but she didn’t hesitate or pull away. She raised her arms and threaded them around his neck. She pulled him down on top of her.

  Turk slid the robe out from between them and stretched out at her side. His arms wound around her, and they closed in a passionate embrace. Chris buried her face in his neck to hide herself from what she was doing. She couldn’t think about it, or she would die of shame. She let his body rock her away on ebbs of delight, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She couldn’t look herself in the eye.

  He had other ideas, though. He wasn’t about to lie down next to her and hide his head in shame. He ran his hand up under the back of her neck and laced his fingers through her hair. He pulled her head back and arched up so his gaze drove directly into her eyes. He caught her in his undeniable stare and held her there.

  Chris caught her breath. He bared her soul, and in that moment, he understood more about her than she understood herself. He judged every nuance of her face and body. He uncovered her deepest hopes and fears even before she knew they were there.

  Without breaking eye contact, he lowered his head and kissed her. She couldn’t turn her eyes away. Her heart and soul belonged to him, even when razor-sharp torrents of light coursed through her veins. The subtle pressure of his lips, the irresistible pressure of his arms around her—every shade and permutation of his presence electrified her and carried her beyond the brink of experience.

  She held on for dear life to the only thing she could find to hold onto—him. She clutched his body closer to hers and leaned into his kiss. His eyes kept her captive, and he was the only safety from the storm that was him.

  She tumbled down from her perch above the trees and crashed back into her body. She gasped for breath underneath him, but at least she knew where she was now. She couldn’t fly away back to Earth, not with him lying on top of her. She couldn’t pretend anymore that this was her own little secret.

  He wouldn’t let her go. If she found a way to get back to Earth and leave him behind on Angondra, he would haunt her dreams and fantasies for the rest of her life. Every man she ever loved would have to pass the test of living up to the standard Turk set. His touch and his love changed everything, and she would never be the same.

  Chapter 9

  The trees thinned out, and Chris paused at the edge of the forest to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank heaven! I thought we’d never get out of there.”

  Turk pointed to an escarpment of steep rock against the clear sky. “That’s the pass leading into Felsite territory.”

  “Will they send out scouts to stop us entering it?” she asked.

  “They won’t know we’re entering it until we do,” he replied. “We’re still in Lycaon territory. They won’t be watching us now. Their scouts will see us when we cross the pass.”

  “Will they attack?” she asked.

  “Not likely,” he replied. “They’ll report to Renier so he knows we’re coming.”

  “Won’t they see us as a threat?” she asked.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Us? We’re no threat to them.”

  “I only meant....” she began.

  He waved his hand and started forward. “I’m an Alpha. Renier knows me. He might be annoyed that I came, but he won’t harm us before he finds out our business.”

  Chris started after him. “Does Carmen know you, too?”

  He shook his head. “I only saw her twice—once at the gathering and once when Marissa visited her. I never talked to her in person.”

  “Then how do you know she’s a reasonable person?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Most human females are, aren’t they?”

  Chris snorted. “You obviously haven’t met very many of them.”

  “I’ve met you, and I’ve met Marissa,” he replied. “And I’ve met all those other women you crashed with. They
seem like reasonable people, too.”

  Chris looked away toward the bluffs. “Most men on Earth would say human women are the most unreasonable creatures they can imagine.”

  “Then how do you manage to live together?” he asked. “You couldn’t keep your species going if that was true?”

  Chris chuckled. “That’s what they say. They think we’re too emotional and manipulative.”

  He frowned. “That makes no sense at all.”

  She laughed out loud. “Ask Caleb. He must have something to say about living with a female from Earth.”

  “He says it’s exactly like living with a Lycaon woman,” he replied. “The only difference is Marissa can’t tell when he’s eaten Karola flowers. Lycaon women can tell instantly by the smell.”

  “What are Karola flowers?” she asked.

  “Karola is a plant that grows in our part of the forest,” he told her. “The flowers give you a fuzzy feeling all over, sort of like the fuzzy feeling you get right before you mate with someone. But they also make everything look sort of blurry and vibrating. It’s a very pleasant feeling.”

  Chris stared at him. “So you people take drugs, too? I thought you were so much better than that.”

  “I don’t recall ever saying we were so much better than anyone,” he replied. “Some of the men eat Karola just before they go home to their mates. The females can smell the flowers a mile away, so they know what the men want.”

  Chris nodded. “Oh, I get it.”

  “But Marissa can’t smell when Caleb eats Karola,” he went on. “So he has to be more direct about what he wants.”

  Chris turned away. “Let’s change the subject.”

  He eyed her. “What for?”

  “Never mind,” she muttered. “What can you tell me about the Felsite?”

  “Nothing Marissa hasn’t already told you,” he replied.

  “Then maybe you can tell me about the Aqinas,” she prompted. “Marissa wasn’t able to tell me anything about them. They must be very mysterious.”