by Ivy McAdams
My fingers tighten on her shoulders and neck. “You wouldn’t have been able to save them.” I even shake her the smallest bit, not to hurt her but to insist she listen.
Her eyes are locked on mine like they’re the only thing left in her world, and that stirs an instinct inside me so primal and ingrained that my body reacts immediately. Hot and tight. I want to pull her against it and enjoy her softness, but not yet.
“It was stagni that attacked the camp here,” I say with a shake of my head. “Just like in the Big Valley, you humans wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“But we had a lot more people here. And guns. Big weapons. We could have fought them off.”
My mate is so fierce. My chest warms with pride.
“One more human wouldn’t have kept this from happening.”
She doesn’t move her head from my hands, but her eyes scan the destruction around us. There’s a release in her energy waves that tells me she knows I’m right. It doesn’t bring her comfort though. Only more tears.
I reach a hand up to wipe some of the moisture away from her cheek with my thumb. Tears should never mar her face. She places her hand on the back of mine, holding it close to her skin.
“I never would have thought being abducted by aliens would be a good thing,” she says. The small chuckle in her throat is both amused and sad.
I move my second hand up, cradling her cheek and jaw to turn her face up to mine again.
This time when she looks at me there's a new resolve in her eyes. I can see it like crystalline water. She still hurts, but she's letting go of whatever responsibility was weighing her down.
“I’m glad I wasn’t here,” she whispers. Her energy waves are growing, coming back to life. She’s telling the truth.
I lower my forehead to hers and breathe in her beautiful scent. “I’m glad you weren’t either. The stagni have taken far too many people that matter to me. I don’t know what I would do if they’d taken you as well.”
Her eyes widen just slightly. She obviously wasn’t expecting my words. If so, she’s really not going to expect this.
I lift my head just slightly as my thumb hooks under her chin, tilting her face up higher so I can press my lips to hers. They’re salty but soft. She freezes under my touch for an instant and her energy waves leap out, an array of emotions. Confusion, excitement, fear, arousal. A balance I’m okay with, and I allow my lips to linger there.
She smells even better up close. An intoxicating female aroma, trees, fire smoke, and a berry-like fruitiness that tickles my senses.
After only a heartbeat, her eyes flutter closed and she lifts up to accept my kiss.
That’s the only permission I need.
My lips capture hers more deeply as my fingers flex against her skin. My hands are big enough to cradle both her cheeks while sliding up under her delicate ears and into her warm hair. They guide her even closer to me, and she accepts my mouth with her own excited flutter of heat.
Then her lips open. I push between them with a curious tongue and she opens wider. She tastes as good as she smells. My skin is hot and buzzing where hers presses against it. We twist together as I do my best to obliterate all her bad feelings with my body.
An odd sound beyond us catches my ears, but I can hear for great distances sometimes, so I let it pass. I’ve never been so wonderfully distracted in my life, and I’m not stopping for a random vultir or dinosaur in the woods down in the valley.
Trinity’s tongue slides along mine and I tease the tip with my own. Our mouths mate in the most glorious way, and my body is so hot and happy I feel as if it may explode.
When a second sound goes over our heads, I can’t help but open my eyes. The first thing I see is Trinity’s face, eyes closed and lashes brushing gently over her cheeks. She’s so damn beautiful. A smile sneaks its way in against her lips.
Then her eyes flutter open, and her gaze meets mine. Normally I might find a face so close to mine to be awkward, but I love when she looks at me. It's the most intimate thing I've ever experienced.
But then her gaze jumps beyond me. Her eyes grow huge a moment before she screams and jumps back.
I grab for her arms, my immediate reaction to protect her as I look around.
Something's on my shoulder. I balk as I spin. What the hell? I hadn't even felt it before.
It’s a big insect, large enough to cover the wide bulge of my muscle. I recognize it just before it sinks its teeth into me.
A razor locust.
“Fuck, run!” I growl as I swat at the bug.
In the few precious seconds before I manage to dislodge it from my body, the pest has ripped into the flesh of my shoulder and is eating me. I roar as I sling the insect off and crunch it into the ground with my foot.
Then the sound reaches my ears again. The dull buzz of wings.
Another locust buzzes by my head and I swat at it. Trinity screams, ducking in close to me.
Over the tops of the forest to the south of us, a cloud of bugs is approaching.
Oh gods, this is bad.
“Find shelter, Trinity. Now.”
“What are those things?” she chokes.
“Those things are the end of days. Flesh-eating locusts that’ll tear the meat from your bones in minutes. We have to get inside somewhere.”
Her energy is screaming as she spins around. “But everything is destroyed!”
I do my best to remain calm as I scan the camp again. I have to get my mate away from these bugs. They destroy everything in their path. Nothing can survive an encounter with them.
“There!” I point over her shoulder to one of the half-standing structures. Most of its outer wall is missing, but there’s an interior door still shut inside. We can only hope there’s a room still intact on the other side. “Get in there!”
I push her toward it and she takes a few steps before sliding to a stop. “No, wait. My body!”
I clench my teeth as I look back at the small crumpled human on the ground. Then I push her toward the hut again.
“Keep going. I’ll get it.”
Thankfully, she does, and I drop back.
The black cloud of insects draws closer. More stray leaders have reached the campsite and a couple dive at me. I manage to swat them away as I return for the body. One latches onto my hand and I growl as I smash it against my chest.
At the edge of the encampment, Desian lifts high on his legs and croaks out a deafening squawk. I wave him away.
“Run! Get out of here!”
He peers down at me and I swear I can see his brain working. Most say the levadon don’t understand us, but I know better. He surveys me for a moment―stops to chomp a locust out of the air―then turns tail and runs back down the slope.
Thank gods. He can outrun the suckers. He’ll be safe in the valley.
I spin around and run back into the depths of the human camp. Ahead of me Trinity has the interior door open and is hovering in the entryway. I want her inside now, but it warms me that she's waited. I take off at a dead run to meet her.
* * *
Trinity
I watch in horror as the cloud of locusts bare down on us. They expand the entire sky and move at an alarming speed. As soon as Xjhun is on the inside of the door, he throws it closed and leans against it as if a massive dinosaur is going to slam through the steel barricade.
He hands the human body over to me and I transfer her to the make-shift tile flooring. When I pop back up, he’s fumbling with the door latch with a frown. I hurry over and hit the lock button. The lights flicker but the bolt slides into position with a groan.
“Step back,” he says with a hand on my shoulder. We each move back a few feet, eyes on the door.
They arrive all at once and with such force that I jump. Locusts pelt off the exterior of the door like hail in the summertime. The sharp dink dink is never-ending insanity. There’s no way they’re surviving such force, and yet they keep coming.
“What are those? Zombie b
ugs?” I choke out.
“They’re voracious eaters.”
“I’d say so. Are we safe―?”
The scratching starts beneath the door a little at a time but quickly turns into a swarm of insects digging to get at us. The ground shifts under the door.
“Oh my God. They’re not stopping,” I gasp. “We have to keep them out.”
A glance around the room tells me we're in a lab of some sort. It's in utter disarray, supplies scattered all over tabletops and the floor. It had to have been a big explosion, or multiple ones, around the base that caused so much damage.
My mind wanders as I run to dig through lab equipment, wondering if the humans tried to kill stagni with some sort of bomb or if the stagni set off a chain of explosions. All the buildings full of generated oxygen, plus the stacks of air canisters around each station, made the base quite volatile. Add in a few violent stagni and gun-happy mercenaries and the base most likely just became its own ticking time bomb.
When I reach the first bag of supplies on the floor, I realize we're in a biology lab. Microscopes and boxes of empty slides. Beakers and long glass tubes of colored liquid.
Unfortunately, no snazzy under-the-door blocker to keep out a draft. Come on, people. You need to be prepared for anything!
Instead, I grab a couple duffel bags of supplies and drag them over. One is full of bottles of liquid. The other, microscopes. Xjhun steps over to help me with that one and we stuff the neoprene totes against the door to settle some weight on top of the dirt.
Hopefully that will hold back anything digging in.
Xjhun wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him and away from the door.
With the terrifying screeches and scratching on the door’s surface, I don’t need further encouragement to let him help me.
"Those things eat your skin?" I ask with a meek voice.
“Skin. Muscle. Sometimes bone. They’ll devour you.”
My stomach turns a flip and I feel a little nauseous. “That’s awful. We’re just two people though. Why are they after us?”
Even without looking back at him I can feel him shake his head. “Focused instinct. They know food is in here. It may be a while before they give up.”
I grimace. That’s enough to drive someone crazy.
I feel much safer now, but the sound is quite irksome. In an attempt to block it out, I turn to look up at Xjhun. Maybe we can talk over the droning.
The first thing I notice is that the tips of his ears and his hair brush the ceiling. Good thing the lab is spacy enough to handle a couple of alien giants. The next thing that catches my eye is his shoulder. It’s damaged and bleeding from the locust.
An ache forms in my chest and I touch his arm, lifting on my toes for a better look.
“It is not bother,” he murmurs.
I’m sure it’s not for a strong warrior like him―it’s a superficial wound that doesn’t look too deep―but he’s saved me so many times now that I should at least do something to help.
“I can fix it.”
He doesn’t argue, just watches as I go back to digging through the supplies.
It’ll be a fine distraction from the horrid buzzing at the door.
“Are you a healer on your planet?” he asks as he moves further into the room.
I pull a couple rags from a cabinet. “No, but I’m competent enough to wrap a wound.”
In a stack of plastic and metal instruments on the countertop, I find a small music player.
Oh, thank God.
I switch it on. It’s set to some old eighties hair band sounding song, but anything is amazing if it’ll help drown out the insects.
Xjhun looks over curiously as he leans against a lab table. His big body is too much for it, and it scrapes along the floor as it slides away. He jumps up, knocking his head against the ceiling.
I can’t help but laugh a little as I return to him. I’ve seen him in action before. He’s nimble and strong. But stuck inside a human building, he's a bit clumsy and out of place.
But that’s okay. He’s still lovely.
“If you’re just going to stand there and laugh at me, I can bandage myself,” he says with a half-grin.
“Sorry,” I chuckle. I hold up a square of cloth I’ve dipped in some of the lab’s sterilizer and he bends so I can apply it. “It’s funny to see you in here.”
“Funny? You’d rather I take my chances outside with the locusts?”
It’s my turn to crack a grin as I work. “Of course not. It’s just that when I arrived at this base a couple weeks ago I never imagined I’d see a huge alien man standing in one of our buildings.”
His eyes are soft as he gazes at me, as if he’s quite interested in my story. “Not something you wanted to see?”
"Well, no. Not then. I would have been terrified."
“And now?”
My gaze flutters up from his shoulder as I finish securing the makeshift dressing in place. His eyelids are hooded. He’s giving me a look that’s teasing, testing, and his heated energy waves are sending my body into a tizzy.
“And now I’m not afraid at all. It’s much easier to accept a big barbarian man with a tail when he’s you.”
One of his eyebrows arches with intrigue and my cheeks burn upon realizing what I’ve said.
His fingers wrap around my elbows and slide delicately up the back of my arms. I want him to kiss me again so bad I can’t stand it. The way he’s looking at me and the strong vibration in his energy aura tells me he wants to as well.
As he leans in closer to me, his face skews with a wrinkled nose and a grimacing smile. “What are we listening to?”
I laugh out loud. "It's music. Back on Earth, we call this rock and roll."
The creases in his face deepen but the hints of a smile remain. “Strange music.”
The song fades away and a new, softer melody takes its place. For some reason, I suddenly feel as if I’m in middle school again, eyeing my date on the dance floor. Only now there’s no one to tell us to keep a person’s width of distance between us.
I move up close against him until our thighs and chests touch. His eyes search me with an aroused curiosity as I slide my hands up his arms to rest them on the thick muscles that connect his shoulders and neck.
“Dance with me,” I murmur.
Chapter 8
Trinity
Xjhun’s hands move around my waist to pull me in closer. His breath is hot on my face when he whispers.
“We do not dance like this.”
I gaze up at him, admiring his strong jaw and kind eyes. He may be a strong fighter, but there’s always a soft glimmer in them when he looks at me.
There it is now. Enough to make me weak in the knees.
“It’s easy,” I breathe as my fingers wind into his dark mane. “I’ll show you.”
The slow beat of the song is steady and I move us to the rhythm, coaxing his body along with mine. He follows and we sway with a beautiful guitar that manages to both drown out the locusts and tickle my heart.
“This is much better than our dances,” he says.
He’s so close to me that I can feel his voice rumble in his chest before I hear it.
I smile up at him. “Kutarians don’t slow dance?”
“No. We celebrate with big drums and fires. Big group dances. Stuff like that.” One of his hands dips lower on my ass to press my hips into his. “Nothing as close as this.”
Holy cow, the lower half of his body is on fire, and when he tilts my hips, his hard cock presses hot against my thigh.
Hoboy, he’s sexy.
“What a drag,” I murmur as I move just enough to lodge the bulge of his loincloth between my thighs. It jolts an even greater heat up through my body. “Everyone should get the chance to dance like this.”
He gives me a wry grin. “I live in a village of men.”
“I suppose that’s a good enough reason not to dance together,” I say with a soft chuckle.
&nb
sp; “Do humans always dance this close?” His hand moves up and down my back, caressing over my bare skin. I forgot how little I’m wearing until he’s run his hands up and down my spine and abdomen. “It seems rather intimate.”
"No," I whisper near his lips. I want to taste him again. Let him sweep me up and kiss me hard like he did outside. "We dance together, but not often this close."
His fingers on my ass grab a handful, rocking my hips against him again and I gasp. The rugged growl in his throat sparks a new wave of excitement through me. His arousal pulses through his energy waves.
“Not usually this close, hmm?” he growls. There’s a hunger in his eyes that has even more moisture rushing between my legs. “It does seem to hinder your ability to move to the music. I’m not sure we’re doing it right anymore.”
I can hear the suggestion in his voice―he’s fishing for permission―but I don’t need a second hint in the least.
I know what I want.
The back of my hand slides up his chest and I latch my fingers around the pendant hanging there, pulling it down until his lips meet mine.
He’s like a bottle rocket, full of pent up energy, and responds immediately. There’s the hard but soft sweet kiss I wanted back. And more.
His mouth twists on mine, mating our tongues and eating up as much of me as he can. It feels phenomenal.
The heat inside me rages, setting every bit of me on high alert. Hard nipples against his chest tingle happily. Wet pussy pressed in tight against his hard, hot cock, throbbing in anticipation.
When he bends to put his arms around my ass, I hop into his embrace, wrapping my legs around his hips.
“This is certainly not part of our dancing either,” I whisper against his lips.
He laughs as he turns and strides to the table he slid across the floor. "The dancing part is boring, but it has my vote overall," he mutters as he deposits me on the tabletop.
I yelp when my bare thighs touch the cold steel. He grabs me up again with quick hands and balances me against his hips as he fiddles with his loincloth. I bend to try to catch a glimpse at what he’s doing, but he’s quick and the loincloth is gone. He pulls it free and tosses it across the table before setting me down again.
