by Lily Graison
The voices she’d heard in the trees grew louder, along with the rustle of leaves as whoever she’d heard came nearer by the second. She stiffened, then squirmed, trying to break the hold she was being held in. One strong leg clamped over hers and held her still, his other arm around her waist as he lowered his head close to her own. “If you so much as inhale deeply, they will hear you. Do. Not. Move.”
She held her breath at his warning as she got her first up-close view of one of the alien creatures on this planet. He wasn’t as large as the thing that chased her and Marcy before she ran off the side of the cliff but he was no less horrifying. Tusks curved up over his top lip, his snout blunted and nearly flat against his face. Boney ridges ran down both arms and he carried a long, thin stick of some sort.
More of them moved into view, each one more different than the last. They varied in height and skin color and they were all talking at once, their voices mingling to the point she couldn’t make out what was being said.
She inhaled sharply, drawing air into her lungs and one of them stopped and turned back. The male behind her tensed, his cheek now flush against her own as his hold on her tightened a fraction more, his arms around her torso like a steel band.
The one who looked back scanned the trees, the others behind him still talking as he looked in their direction. He held up one arm and shouted, “Be quiet.” The others all turned, their voices raised, the words, “does not translate,” ringing in her head moments later. The translator was trying to make sense of all the voices but was failing miserably. She closed her eyes, trying to block them out and looked up when one of them shouted, “Quiet! I heard something. We’re not alone.”
“It’s probably the dragon,” another one said. “Stay if you wish but I’m leaving. We saw firsthand that the legends about dragons occupying this planet are true and I do not wish to meet that one up close again. You saw what Claxin’s fascination got him. I don’t wish to be a meal tonight.”
The one still staring in their direction only stayed a few more moments before he turned and left with the others. Sara watched them walk out of sight, their voices growing dim as the minutes ticked by. When they could no longer be heard, the one at her back moved. Sara’s pulse leaped when he let her go and suddenly stood. Her first instinct was to run but when she looked at him, she froze.
She’d only seen a few different species of aliens in her attempts to flee them but the one in front of her was not like the others. Where they were all gray and brown with various skin textures and large teeth and big eyes, this one looked—human. Was he human?
He wore nothing but a length of cloth around him sarong style. The material was a dark brown in color, fell nearly to his knees, and was knotted in the front, low on his hips. That knot drew her eyes down to places it shouldn’t be and her face heated as she dragged her gaze back up his muscled stomach and torso. A series of dark swirls ran up his left side from waist to shoulder and halfway up his neck before traveling down the length of his arm. The pattern reminded her of tribal tattoos. His hair was dark and fell below his shoulders. His jaw squared, his nose straight, but it was his eyes that caused her pulse to leap. They weren’t like any human’s she’d ever seen. His pupils were slitted like a cat and the color near the iris was a deep blue that turned bright violet. He was—well, not what she’d expected. When the Big Heads told them they were to be chased and would most likely be caught to be a plaything for whatever it was that caught them, this guy was not what she imagined. He looked—normal, and if she wasn’t scared shitless, he would probably be damn near the best looking guy she’d seen in a long while.
A shout echoed through the trees and he turned his head to look over his shoulder. When he faced her again, he thrust his arm toward her and said, “More are coming. We have to go.” He didn’t wait for her to reach for him, but bent at the waist and grabbed her arms, lifting her to her feet. The top of her head barely reached his chin and as she stood there staring at him, the only thing she could think was, if she had to be captured by an alien, she’d pick this one.
The scent of fear that clung to her skin slowly disappeared. She was still wary of him. One look into her eyes said as much but her long perusal of him had caused something to momentarily flare in her eyes and the sight of it heated Toren’s blood and caused him to ache in places he hadn’t felt stir in centuries.
She was still staring at him, her lips slightly parted. They were plump and glistening with moisture from where she licked them. He’d love nothing more than to spend long spans of time exploring the rest of her but he could hear others walking under the trees nearby. He had to get her somewhere safer. “Come. We must leave.”
He grabbed her arm and turned, heading back toward the river. When he started walking, she jerked in his grasp and dug her heels into the ground and started talking in that strange language he’d never heard before. She tugged on her arm again, more gibberish filling the air. She was staring up at him, her eyes a bit wide as she spoke. He cocked his head to one side and listened but not a single bit of it was familiar, which was odd. Most everyone on the neighboring planets the Draegon had contact with spoke the universal language but she didn’t—so where had she come from?
The sound of others grew louder. When he tried to get her to move and she still balked, he grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder. Her squeal was loud and he planted a hand on her bottom. The angry words she’d been shouting died in an instant and he realized why a moment later. Her garment had ridden up the back of her legs and his hand lay against bare flesh, inches from the source of that delicate, feminine musk he’d inhaled earlier.
Toren stifled a groan and resisted the urge to move his hand and hurried back to the river. He’d have time enough later to explore her at his leisure but for now, avoiding the others would not be easy out here in the open. He’d have to find a suitable shelter that was close enough to a water source and smaller wildlife. Assuming he could catch it. He hadn’t hunted in this form in longer than he cared to remember but he’d shown his dragon enough for one day. If he took to the skies now, chances were they’d see him and it would only be a matter of time before he was captured or killed. He’d survived too long to let them win now. Besides, his female feared the dragon. The scent of that fear still clung to the back of his tongue and that alone told him to not let her know what he was. At least not yet.
The sound of rushing water grew louder as the ground became softer under his bare feet. He wished he’d thought to grab the boots off the one he’d taken the scrap of cloth from he’d draped around his hips but there wasn’t time to go back now.
The scents mingling in the forest bled into one another but if he inhaled deeply, he could still smell the blood from the two creatures he’d killed. Hearing a woman scream for the second time in one day caused his dragon to rage. Seeing what those creatures had done to her made his blood heat and his chest burn, flame boiling and ready to explode. He’d been too late to save her. They’d been fighting over her when he reached them.
The female they’d killed was like the one draped over his shoulder. Whatever their species was, they were fragile, their bones snapping easily. His arm tightened around her. They’d not get this one. She belonged to him. He found her and he was keeping her if he had to scorch the entirety of the forest to do it.
The riverbank’s edge crumbled as he stepped near it. He set the female down on her feet and stepped down, then reached for her, wrapping his hands around her waist and setting her feet on the black sand. The sun chose that moment to crawl out from behind a cloud and gave him a glimpse of her he hadn’t seen previously.
The garment she wore barely covered her and was nearly transparent. Thin straps were draped over her shoulder, the front scooped down low over breasts he could clearly see. They were firm and round, her nipples visible and rosy pink. Her stomach was taut, hips flaring wide and the small “v” where her legs came together showed him a dark tuft of hair that matched that on her head and he wanted
nothing more in that moment than to have those long, lean legs wrapped around his waist while he pounded into her. His cock pulsed hard at the thought, lust riding every nerve ending as visions of her naked body underneath his own filled his head. He blinked and pushed the thought away. How many centuries had it been since he’d bedded a female? Too damn many.
Her mouth was an angry, harsh line across her face when he’d finished looking her over. He ignored it. He’d give her the same inspection of himself once they were out of sight of the others. He took her hand and tried to guide her back to where he’d left the teshen but she dug her heels in again, words he didn’t understand filling the air. He let her talk until she was winded, her eyes widening a bit as she pointed down the river. He shook his head as he listened. When she was finished he said, “I don’t understand you.”
“Whadaewmenn?”
She said it three more times but Toren still didn’t understand. He coaxed her forward, tugging on her arm a bit until she sighed and followed.
She’d run quite a distance from where he’d left her. Navigating the rocks that lined the bank took careful steps. His feet weren’t that sensitive but sharp rocks still hurt when stepped on.
The teshen he’d dropped by the river’s edge was still there but so were scavengers. He stopped and looked at them as they devoured the meal he’d intended to feed his female. All it would take was one blast of fire to scare them away. Even a loud growl or two might do the trick but the less attention he drew to them the better off they were.
The female started tugging at her arm again and one look at her face made him stiffen. She was looking into the sky, frantically trying to pull away and babbling without breath. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him and pointe to the sky. He looked but saw nothing. “You want to fly?”
She stopped and stared at him as if he’d grown a second head, then rolled her eyes and sighed, then spoke again, pointed to the sky, then the teshen, then motioned behind her. He had no idea what she was trying to say but it was apparent she wanted to leave. With the teshen now a meal for scavengers, there wasn’t a reason to stay.
He turned and nodded his head. “All right, then. Let’s go.” Letting her lead, he followed her back up the river the way they’d just come.
Chapter Five
He was following her. Sara looked over her shoulder at him and wondered if she should be running. Staying with him wasn’t a smart thing to do, was it? Sure he was nice to look at but if he was here, on a prison moon, he was here for a reason and what that reason was should have her reevaluating her decision to be his travel buddy. Not that she thought she’d have much of a choice in the matter. The way he’d thrown her over his shoulder like a caveman told her he had no intentions of letting her go anytime soon and the way he’d looked at her when he helped her off the bank made her wonder exactly why he wanted her around to begin with.
Alien he may be, but she wasn’t so dimwitted not to have seen the look in his eyes when he looked at her in her ridiculous excuse for a dress. It was damn near see-through and she knew he’d seen everything God gave her. The fact he hadn’t thrown her to the ground right then and there was the only reason she’d let him pull her down the riverbank to where she’d last seen the dragon without fighting back.
She glanced up at the sky. So far she hadn’t seen or heard the dragon since it’d flown off into the trees. The fact this guy walked straight to where the thing had dropped her had caused her stomach to crawl into her throat. Thankfully it hadn’t taken much to persuade him to leave. It might have been the fact the cow-like sheep thing the dragon had dropped by the water’s edge was being devoured by what looked like some mutated pig-dogs. The slick-skinned pink creatures hadn’t looked friendly, especially when one lifted its head and showed its teeth.
The mysterious guy that had been following her stepped into her line of sight. He was walking on her right side, in step with her now. She gave him another quick look and noticed his skin looked different than it had under the trees of the forest. The markings she thought were tattoos were darker in the full light of the sun and his skin—she stared at him, trying to tell herself it really didn’t have a pale blue tint. It had to be a trick of the light because when he moved a certain way, his flesh looked as normal as her own but there, along the top edge of his shoulders, when the sun hit him just right, it looked pale blue.
She shook her head. Why him having blue-tinted skin felt odd was beyond her, especially when half the things she’d seen were so far from normal she would think she was crazy had she not come to terms with the fact she’d been kidnapped by aliens. Like it or not, she was no longer in Kansas and she didn’t think there was a magic wizard waiting to send her home. This was it and if this guy ended up killing her in her sleep, then she hoped he did it quickly.
They walked in silence for some time before the things left unsaid were itching at the back of her skull. She glanced over at him again and said, “So, do you know if there’s a good bed and breakfast around here anywhere? I could use a hot bath and a cheeseburger the size of my head right about now. A change of clothes wouldn’t hurt either.”
He glanced at her, one corner of his mouth ticking up a bit into a half smile. “I do not understand you. The language you speak—it is not one I recognize. I have no idea what you’re saying.”
“You don’t understand me?” Sara stopped and looked at him. “Why not?” He didn’t reply. Why didn’t he understand her? The translator. The words whispered through her head as she looked at him. The Big Heads had given them a translator so they’d be able to understand the aliens on this planet. Did the aliens not get one too? Was that why he didn’t understand her? “Do you not have a translator?” When he continued to stare she tapped the still sore spot behind her ear. “Translator—do you not have one?”
He looked to where she pointed then shrugged one shoulder.
Guess not, then. “Well, damn.” She loosened a breath and studied the swirling tattoo on his chest. “This language barrier is going to make things awkward.”
A deep, guttural howl-like noise filtered through the trees. Sara jolted. The almost-blue alien took her arm and motioned up the river. “Let’s keep moving.”
They walked along the river until her knees felt ready to give out on her. The sound of rushing water grew louder and when he reached out a hand, blocking her path, she froze. “Please tell me it isn’t something going to try and eat me.”
He made a “shhhing” sound at her and cocked his head to one side as if listening. Long minutes ticked by before he took a step and motioned her forward. She let him lead the way, surprised he wasn’t worried she’d run away. Not that she had anywhere to go. If this guy was a local, then he’d know more about this planet than she did and having a guide in this strange place wouldn’t hurt. With her luck, she’d pick a fat juicy berry for lunch and her flesh would rot off. She shuddered at the thought. If nothing else, she didn’t think this guy would let her starve or eat anything poisonous and as of yet, he hadn’t tried to kill her, eat her or fuck her, so odds were in her favor he was one of the good guys. She hoped.
They reached a fork in the river, each channel narrow compared to what it had been. The entire river seemed smaller here, the bank on the opposite side not more than half a football field away.
Her alien travel guide stopped and looked in both directions the river flowed, deciding which way to go, she assumed. She hoped he picked the path on this side of the river because the bank on the other side was terrifying.
The landscape beyond that fork in the river looked different from the forest she’d been running in when trying to escape the dragon. On the other side of the river, the forest didn’t look—normal. The trees casting the river in shadow were tall, their height staggering. Sara stared up at the treetops as they soared into the sky impossibly high. They reminded her of the great sequoias and redwoods in California, except these trees had trunks that were slim stalks of wood with inky black bark.
The leaves hanging off spindly limbs were enormous man-sized fronds of deepest purple that provided so much shade it cast the entire area into shadows so thick she could see nothing moving through the trees. It was a dark forest, one like children had nightmares about that held monsters waiting to eat you only this was no dream and she was pretty sure, whatever monsters lay in those woods, probably would eat her.
The thing that howled a few minutes ago was nothing compared to the screech of a creature that now screamed through those trees. Every hair on her body stood on end and the alien-man stiffened, his head whipping around.
“What was that?” she whispered.
He scanned the trees, his back stiff. Not a single emotion showed on his face but something in his eyes looked—predatory. Like something besides a man was peering out of those violet eyes.
The howling thing on their left let out another cry, the screecher answering as if they were talking, and as wary as she was of this strange almost blue alien, she took one large step closer to him.
“We have to go,” he said, taking her arm and leading her to the water, away from the bank and closer to those dark woods.
“What is it?” she asked, already knowing he had no idea what she’d asked. When they reached the water’s edge, she dug her heels in and jerked on her arm until he turned to look at her. Something old and ancient stared back at her from his eyes and she wondered if staying with him was a stupid move after all.
She swallowed the fear trying to choke her and pointed up the river in the direction they’d been heading. “Let’s go this way,” she said, giving a nervous glance at the dark forest before trying to tug him to the left. She wasn’t going in that forest, she didn’t care how much her life depended on it.
The howling thing was closer and the sound of things running reached her ears. Something was coming. Many somethings from the sound of it. The thing they’d been hearing wasn’t alone. She didn’t have to see them to know the others were coming and from the sounds of it, they were on this side of the river.
