Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5)

by Ashley L. Hunt

  “You. Human. Are you a male or a female?”

  It was taken by surprise. “A female. Why? Is that a problem?”

  Again, I didn’t reply to her. I now knew what I wanted from her, not that I would ever have guessed it by myself.

  The hair on the back of my neck suddenly bristled. My body turned to face the danger, chest and hands protruded. “Come out!” I growled.

  And just like a shadow coming to life, a figure appeared behind the cryogenic pod. But instead of moving against me, it rushed straight towards the woman named Eladia. Holding a long, wooden stick with a sharp tip on the edge, it aimed for the woman’s heart.

  Unable to react fast enough, she just stood still. The second strange creature was going to kill the only person I could communicate with in this room.

  I can help you. Her voice echoed in my mind.

  My hand jolted and grabbed the tiny—tiny compared to me that is—creature that looked like a human, but with lots of hair. It growled, and tried to bite me twice, but in the end, it stopped.

  “Okay, so can someone explain to me, what in the hell is going on here?”

  Chapter Three

  Eladia

  My feet trembled. If Jay weren’t inhumanly fast, I would’ve been dead. But, it wasn’t over. He looked at me, ready to say something, but his level glare deemed me unworthy of words. Cocky bastard, he thought just because he saved me that he could take the credit by himself. But still, I couldn’t stop wondering what that hairy creature was.

  I walked closer, tried to get its attention, but it was too caught up in getting freed from Jay’s grip, something that I thought improbable. Jay’s hands, in all their platinum silver glory, had that statuesque grace. This man could kill a man with a punch, or protect someone with his awesome body. And then it dawned on me: I was actually grateful for his interference.

  Wake up Eladia. He just did it so that you could help him get out of here. Don’t get any ideas! I thought, but I wasn’t one of those people that got past thoughts like that easily. I tried to focus my mind on the feral creature Jay was holding.

  Brown hair covered a significant part of its body. Its physiology was the same as a human’s, at least for the most part. Its hands were longer than mine, and his feet seemed broader, more strong. It was like the beast that Jay held in his hands had fallen at a previous stage of humanity’s evolution.

  Eladia, you’re a genius!

  My eyes opened broadly, and I got even closer to Jay, now having trouble holding the fit man still. If my theory was right, then...then I was the luckiest woman in the whole system.

  “Silver, can you please run a scan on the man that Jay holds? I have a hunch that we might get surprised.”

  Silver looked at me in utter surprise but quickly changed to her satellite form and started running numerous tests in a matter of seconds. Jay took a step towards me. My whole body prickled in his authoritative presence.

  “Did you say, man? Is this...thing, a man?”

  Nothing could get past you, Jay. “Yes. There were reports about life blooming again on planet Earth, but I never expected to find sentient forms so soon. We have to find if it can communicate with us and run many tests-”

  I stopped. The man was suddenly loose, and Jay was on the air, on his way to the ground. My eyes were not quick enough to catch any movement, but I remembered the slender man twisting his lower part of the body, using Jay’s hand as support, and kicking the man under the jaw. In the time Jay needed to get a grasp of what was going on, the hairy man was already on his way to counterattack.

  Adrenaline pumped in my veins; time slowed down. My hands trembled, and I felt the sweat running down my back, but my brain blocked out every sign of fear. I remembered that I had a flare in my back pocket, instinctively grabbing it. Jay is already up on his feet, although I was not sure that he ever even touched the ground.

  Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t. It was like this man was born to stand tall with his nose up in the air. But in all his arrogant demeanor, Jay seemed to follow up his name. Soon, the two men weighted each other's strength by swapping cold looks and preemptive attacks. That ancient form of a spear that the other man held certainly looked dangerous, but not as dangerous as Jay’s menacing muscles.

  You have to do something Eladia.

  I’m sure he could take care of him by himself, but Jay wouldn’t stop until he killed him. Or, at least he seemed that way. My mind was on overdrive again. Before I even had the time to follow a logical train of thought, I was running on Jay’s side with the lit flare on my right hand. Its intense red light cast an otherworldly shadow inside the spaceship, but it didn’t seem to make any difference on the situation.

  “You stupid woman, what are you doing here?” Jay roared, only to see that he was too late. Watching me, he had warded his sight off the other man, creating an opening. At that time, I hadn’t realized that the opening was me.

  His huge body suddenly got in front of me; we were so close I almost kissed his shoulder blades. For some unexplained and totally humiliating reason, my first reaction was to hug him, passing my hands around his waist. I...I didn’t want him to die because of me.

  “Stop!” Silver shouted, her voice almost screeching at a forgotten African-American dialect of the 21st century. I recognized only that word, but she kept talking.

  I kept my eyes closed, and my grip tight. My face was touching Jay’s shirt, and I was sure I could sense his pulse pumping. I felt safe, even among this chaos.

  “Human, you can let go of me now.”

  His voice was ice cold, and I could swear he even tried to push me out of the way. I felt my ears burn and I quickly released my grip.

  “I...I’m sorry.” I stuttered.

  Yes, I did. Good going, Eladia. Now he must think you’re a stupid and careless woman. A stranger, and part of a new species of aliens, and you already clang to him. Good going.

  I stood back to watch the unusual scene. Silver was back in her humanoid form, right next to what now seemed like a human teenage boy, only with a lot more hair everywhere around him. He still showed his teeth meaning that he was still uneasy and dangerous, but for the better part, Silver was talking to him.

  But, I must have missed something in the fight before, because now Jay was standing next to me with one less sleeve of his shirt. His platinum skin almost sparkled in the dim light of the spaceship. For a moment, I wondered what made his skin so uniquely silver. But as my eyes examined more of his skin, I gawped at what I found on the top.

  I rushed to his side with two long strides that I never thought possible, and I pointed at his tattoo: “This. Where did you get this?”

  He seemed surprised, arching one of his brows in a quizzical expression. “I earned it during the Magna Bellum of the Delta Period.”

  “You...you’re an Originator?” I also wanted to ask about the Magna Bellum and the Delta Period since I had absolutely no idea what he meant, but I saved my questions for another time.

  “Originator? Is that how you call us nowadays? Well, if I have to guess, then yes. I’m one of your Originators.” He looked at me as if it was the most common thing in the world.

  “Ehm...Elaida? I think you should come here,” Silver interrupted us.

  I was way too focused on Jay’s origins, but for a man who had lost his memories, he seemed to remember an awful lot of random things. But for Silver to call me, something important must have come up. I mean, she never, ever called for my attention.

  “Brief me up. What is going on?”

  “I think you should see the reports of the DNA tests I ran.”

  She produced a graphical interpretation of a human DNA and a similar form of DNA that was 85% common. “You don’t mean? Is he a human? Another evolution path of a human?”

  “Yes. You share the most common characteristics, and the basic proteins on your helices are exactly the same. The only thing changing are the outer characteristics. His species are hairy, stronger, fa
ster but unable to grasp complicated concepts at the same rate.”

  “So, it’s like they swapped brain size to raise their capacity for physical strength to survive the overgrown forests of Primordial Earth? That’s amazing. Natural selection at its best. But...it’s way too fast. They shouldn’t have appeared for another thousand years or so. Only after two centuries, it’s way too soon.”

  Silver agreed with me, but it had been way too long since we heard Jay or the hairy boy talk. I turned around to check them up, only to see them distracted by something. Jay glared at nothingness, perfectly still, like he didn’t want to miss the slightest move while the other man seemed more restless. He growled and looked everywhere around him.

  “Jay, what’s going on?”

  He snorted, he actually snorted at and sneered towards me. “And you consider yourself smarter than that man? Unacceptable. We have company. I guess around ten...no, twelve quadrupeds.”

  The young man hissed and out of nowhere many sets of red eyes appeared from the dark. “What...what are they?”

  Instead of hair, those dog-like creatures seemed totally naked, their skins full of wounds and dark marks. Their teeth, sharper and longer than anything I had ever seen, dripped spittle.

  I turned and watched Jay. He was calm, collected, but at the same time tense. His muscles were full of blue veins pumping. I couldn’t read his expression, but something warned me. I didn’t want to believe it, but in the end, it came to me.

  Fuck. He was terrified.

  Chapter Four

  Jay

  The smell of hollow fear, the feeling of anticipation, the sound of my heart pounding in my chest; this was a fight. The natural light of the chamber was decreasing fast, and these Tidreg-like creatures seemed to hunt in places like this. I had to do something, or they would tear us all into pieces.

  I knew that the easy solution would be to run away and save myself, but there was something different in that human’s eyes. I felt like she was the most courageous female I had ever met, and that sounded like a lot. My mind was a mess of random memories popping up from the back of my head. I tried to recollect the name of that part of my brain, but the names slipped me off every time I sought them.

  Growls and hisses came from behind me as well. Twelve beasts, twelve predators that could kill us all in seconds, and yet, I felt calm. Yes, my heart was pounding, yes, my muscles wobbled, and I couldn’t fully control my limbs just yet, but my mind was calm.

  I must have faced many situations like this in the past. So it meant that those beasts were no match for me. I looked around me, and I saw that my new company had been driven to the wall. The hairy man, the other human, tried to intimidate the rough predators by growling and yelling from time to time, but I could smell his fear from here.

  I couldn’t trust him to help me. I was all by myself.

  Before I took a step forward, I saw the human female at the edge of my eyes. She seemed afraid, but there was also something else coming from her. A feeling I couldn’t place in this battle. I lowered my guard, and suddenly an excruciating pain penetrated my left arm. My other hand moved instinctively, hitting the damned monster between the eyes. But, its long teeth served one purpose: to hit hard and hit deep.

  It had penetrated my muscle and even a vein or two. Fuck. And there were another eleven of that bastard waiting.

  These monsters seemed to pick their enemies intelligently. They attacked me, the most dangerous one, first hoping to kill me fast and then move on to easier targets. I swiped the air behind me with my right arm, hoping to get even one of them, but I missed. I tried to move them away from the hopeful bunch, but they were smarter than they looked. All this time, they drove me away from them. My eyes fell to the frightened female; again, I lowered my guard.

  What is wrong with you Jasih? She’s one measly human, certainly not one important enough to save.

  And yet, my mind seemed to get even more absorbed in her safety. I continued to move back, lost, confused, unable to find a way out of this alive when…

  ...a fucking pain hammered my head. What in the holly fuck was going on? I felt my hands cold, and I was unable to move them for a whole second. I lowered my head and saw a black matter covering my entire body. I smiled.

  “Well, well. It was about time to wake up!” My voice was loud, as it should be. I saw a pack of -are these Tidreg?- some strange beasts before me, driving me away from a bunch of ugly looking people. Well, half of them were ugly; the black haired one was kinda okay. A hoarse bark tried to draw my attention, but as I turned and saw the puny little dogs, they didn’t seem all that dangerous anymore.

  I heard the screech of talons scratching the metal floor as two of them jumped to hit me. Let’s see if I remembered the steps correct.

  One, two, three…I counted in a dance-like pattern, hitting my first target with the back of my fist in midair while dodging the other and stomping it down the floor.

  Oh, the fresh blood and the feeling of kicking the life out of someone; I missed it. Now I hummed, getting back my lovely mood.

  Four, five, seven… and I strode my way to the remaining nine doggies. They squealed in such a nice way; they were certainly worth of this long-awaited breakfast. The cracking sound of their necks breaking, the fear in their eyes, it made me move faster, harder, stronger.

  And...eight. And just like that, I was out of targets. I heard two of them running for their lives, but I lost my mood for a fight. Now, I was just plainly bored.

  A yawn surfaced from deep within my chest. “Which one of you is the leader?”

  They looked at me like I was one of those monsters I had just killed. I was not sure that sitting on top of one of the lifeless husks helped, but they were still warm and comfortable. It would be a shame not to use them.

  “I’m Chronicler Eladia. And you are?”

  She looked uncertain, certainly not worth killing. Although I was somehow intrigued on how her neck would sound if I snapped it in two. Still, it would be a shame for a neck like this.

  “Chronicler? What is that?”

  “I...I...don't know if I can explain it to you without showing you my work. Well, in short-”

  “Don’t bother. I’m bored. I’m Prime Officer Jasih. Isn’t there anything else to kill?”

  My eyes fell to the fit-looking hairy one in the back, and in the peculiar robot beside him. They looked weak, but not weaker than this human. Weren’t humans supposed to be extinct already?

  “Prime Officer Ja...? Still, can’t pronounce it,” she mumbled to herself. “Are you still Jay?”

  “Are you mad, woman? My name is Jasih, and there is no other Jasih among my people. Who is this...Jay, you’re talking about?”

  For a leader of their group, she didn’t sound all that much smart. She turned and talked to the silver-looking one. They were all so boring. I needed something to kill, but I thought I had enough for the day.

  In the end, she turned and looked at me with a whole other look. Her eyes were full of determination, and I could finally see her will to lead.

  “Can you please tell us more about your rank?”

  She demanded to know, and something inside me wanted to answer.

  This was going to be interesting.

  Chapter Five

  Eladia

  The wild animals fled. Hell, if I could, I would run behind them and fight them every day than face the...thing that Jay had become. His platinum skin had changed to a dark silver one, as well as his pitch-black hair into white. Everything on him was the same, his violet eyes and his statuesque build, but he now seemed like a whole different person.

  “What do you want to know about my rank? Isn’t it clear enough that I’m a Prime? Oh, right. I forgot. You’re human. Maybe your tool can help you by explaining these things to you.” He smiled, but I think he just wanted to taunt us.

  “We don’t know what a Prime Officer is, or who are you, or what your species are. We, me and Silver, we just came here looking for somethin
g and instead we found you inside a cryo pod. So can you please explain to us, what are your motives, and what a Prime Officer is?”

  He sighed, but never leaving the body of his dead trophy. It fitted him like a throne fitted a king’s butt, and to be honest, he was kinda the king of this place. He could kill us all in seconds, if I wasn’t careful on how to handle him.

  “Okay, okay. It seems that I’m way too far off my planet so that you know about our ranks out here. Well, a Prime Officer to our people is a big, badass soldier who controls other soldiers in battle. It’s kinda like the greatest rank a soldier can achieve.”