“My hero.” She kissed his nose next and laughed. “Now get us back in one piece.”
THE END
Alien Warrior's Wife
Chapter 1
Another Saturday night, another lousy, pointless date. I was really beginning to grow tired of it all. I didn't know why I bothered continuing to fool myself into thinking these ridiculous meet-ups could go anywhere. It seemed like no matter how optimistic I went into these situations, I would always come out disheartened, doubting myself and my worthiness when it came to ever finding true love or happiness in life.
I was a curvier girl, and had always been so. And I know I shouldn't have let it, but this, in itself had always affected my self-esteem, and how I imagined that others perceived me. I wasn't an unattractive girl, not by any means. I had lovely, soft features. Dark eyes, a beautiful face, with perfect lips and well maintained hair. Even my physique, though I may have second guessed it, wasn't a terrible one. All my curves fell in just the right places, my breasts were soft and large, and I often caught guys checking me out, despite not necessarily falling squarely into what you might consider traditional standards of beauty. I seemed to mesmerize men, or at least to some degree, and in some ways, I guess that did make me feel better about myself and my ability to find love.
But it just wasn't enough to convince me all the way, I suppose... It's hard to really describe it, but somehow I still harbored reservations about myself. I could never really let myself believe I was as attractive as men seemed to think I was, and as a result I would often end up selling myself short, letting myself settle for less than I was worth. I mean, even if my self-esteem wasn't especially high, I still had standards, and I knew that I frequently compromised these standards in hopes of boosting my self-esteem.
It was a frustrating cycle, honestly, and I seemed unable to claw my way out of it. Today, for instance, I'd come to meet a man who only half seemed of interest to me, but whose desire to meet me was a boon to my self esteem. So, I'd gone along, hoping that things would go alright, but not really expecting a whole lot.
Initially, at least, things seemed to go okay between the two of us. He was decently handsome, and his interest in me throughout the evening had seemed genuine and sincere. The way he looked at me was just... God, it was exciting, really. He actually seemed invested in this, eager to know more, and mesmerized by my appearance. He'd tricked me, in essence, into feeling the way that I always found myself hoping a guy would make me feel, but that sensation had proven itself scarce and difficult to come by over the course of the years.
The two of us got drinks and engaged in quite the interesting discussion over dinner. He seemed to be a fan of sports, a subject about which I knew very little, but when he sensed my lack of awareness he made an effort at diverting the conversation to other things. He had great taste in movies, music, he read a lot, and his job was interesting.
All in all, a lot more promising as a start than I'd ever imagined going into the date, and I thought for a moment that I might just go home this evening pleasantly surprised.
But then he started playing footsies with me beneath the table...
I might have considered it cute under certain circumstances, but somehow it just seemed so sudden to me. I hadn't been expecting it, and my gut reaction was that this was all too soon to be coming from a man who I'd just met. I mean, maybe some people wouldn't have a problem with it, but for whatever reason it made me uncomfortable, and I had to try and make my discomfort known without offending him too greatly. I was largely unresponsive as he continued to kick in my direction, and gradually it seemed to sink in for him that I needed some space.
“Sorry babe,” he'd said, and again, there was just too much familiarity implied here given that the two of us had just met. I should point out that the two of us had talked online before meeting in person, so perhaps that was part of the reason why he felt as though we'd already had something of a foundation upon which to communicate so closely.
But I still wasn't sold on the idea all the way. I needed more time to figure out how I felt about him, and I didn't appreciate his presumptuous nature in moving things faster than I was strictly comfortable with.
And then, almost predictably, the coup de grace came along in the form of him asking me to go back to his place with him. This, in itself, was probably not that unusual in this day and age. I knew plenty of people slept together on the first date, and I sometimes complied myself to this norm if the circumstances were comfortable enough for me to do so. It wasn't my ideal situation in any case, really, but I knew that some guys just thought that was how things should go. So if I liked them enough from the get-go, I sometimes caved and went home at the first meeting, but it had to really be just my type of guy.
This, honestly, just wasn't that type of guy...
I had too many reservations about him, and at this point I just wasn't even sure whether I wanted to go on a second date, much less whether I wanted to have sex with him.
“I... Not tonight, I'm sorry... It's just too soon for me...” And if it had been just that, things would have been fine. He'd done nothing wrong in asking, and I could have let it slide. But it was reaction from this point that really sealed the deal for me, and gave me a pretty decent notion that there was very little there in terms of the groundwork for a relationship.
Upon my turning him down, he basically flew off the damn handle at me, completely losing his shit, and making an outrageous scene right there in the middle of the restaurant. I don't remember quite what is exact wording was, but it was something along the lines of moral indignation at the notion that he'd spent his entire evening getting to know me, spent a lot of money on this goddamn dinner, and I still didn't want to go home and fuck him at the drop of a hat? He called me a whore, I believe, and raised his voice so loud that the entire restaurant had turned to stare at us by the time it was all over. I felt like I might burst into tears right there on the spot in my embarrassment, holding my head in my hands and feeling so terrible that words can't describe it.
Thankfully, an employee from the restaurant had come to reel him in, insisting that he calm down, and when he refused to comply, he was not so gently escorted from the premises. I sat there, staring after him, disheveled and shaken up, and not really sure what I should do now. I would be stuck with the bill, of course, but I thought perhaps it was worth it just to be away from that bastard.
I might as well order dessert, I thought miserably, given that it would be the only real high point of my evening. And I miserably placed an order for the souffle.
While it was being made, I slipped into the ladies room, peering at my reflection in the mirror for some time, trying to find answers to questions that I knew were pointless to even bother with.
I felt so ridiculous... So unlovable... Was that all guys would ever want out of me? A quick and easy lay? Was that the real reason why men seemed to occasionally trip themselves up over looking at me, and nothing more?
No one really wanted to bother to get to know me, they just assumed I was easy and desperate... Any beauty I had was enough to last them a night or two in the sack, but beyond that? What could I possibly have to offer them?
Fuck dessert, I thought grudgingly. I needed to get the hell out of here, make my way home and crawl under the blankets, perhaps to stay there indefinitely until the unlikely event that I started feeling better about myself and my life.
I told the waiter I changed my mind about the souffle, and went up to pay my bill- it was a lot more than I'd wanted to spend on a single meal, but with my date gone I would be forced to wash dishes if I didn't fork over payment.
Then, with the hole in my wallet now painfully felt, I stepped toward the exit thinking I was heading out into the parking lot. But instead, upon my opening the door, a bright white flashed down around me, and my already unpredictable evening took a wholly unexpected turn.
Chapter 2
I shrieked, scared witless, and tried to grab onto whatever I coul
d as gravity seemed to vanish around me. My entire body was drifting upward, as though pulled by a magnet, or sucked into a massive vacuum cleaner. I scrambled to grab the handle of the door, the only thing I could even come close to reaching. The door was flung open with the force of the beam, and I struggled fiercely to maintain my hold as the light continued to yank me in its direction.
I was feeling dizzy, and every part of me seemed to have an unbearable upward pull exerting itself on me. My hair was standing on end, tugging upward toward the light, and my purse was upside down, threatening to rip from my arm as it struggled toward the source of the beam. Its contents began to fall out from inside, my keys first, then loose change, and then, embarrassingly, the condoms I carried with me in the case of an, ahem, unexpected rendezvous.
“Shit!” I cried, and in a moment of sheer idiocy I scrambled to retrieve the fallen objects as they were sucked up by the beam. In doing so, I'd mistakenly relinquished my grip on the door, and I screamed as the beam finished its job of yanking me toward the sky, through a metal portal, and into a realm which I couldn't come close to identifying.
My insides seemed to shift as the spacecraft made its way across the sky, and it took a considerable period of time for my eyes to properly adjust to my surroundings. I can't exactly describe to you just what my mindset was at that point in time, but my first instinct was to scramble about and collect all that had been sucked out of my purse, stuffing everything back inside, the condoms first, before they had a chance to be spotted.
Spotted? By who, though?
It suddenly occurred to me that this was the better question to be asked, and I quickly rose to my feet, edgy and not sure what to expect, my eyes scanning the room anxiously for any sign of life.
“Well hello there, Earth girl...”
I practically jumped out of my damn skin at the sound of his voice, and though I stopped just short of that, I did shriek and turn around at lightning speed, ready to defend myself at any cost, and not knowing at all what to expect.
Standing there before me was a man- or, at least, something that I could most closely identify with being a man. His skin, however, was the strangest shade of green, and I was left guessing as to his precise nature. He was dressed in nothing but a skimpy little red man thong, one which, I can't deny, set a girl's imagination wandering into some pretty filthy territory, hugging his junk quite snuggly and emphasizing the intense musculature of his surrounding anatomy.
God, whatever the hell this guy was, he certainly lacked very little when it came to the looks department.
Still, though, as he stepped up toward me in his near nudity, I found myself reflexively trying to resist him, certain somehow that he meant me some manner of harm. I scrambled through my purse, digging around and tossing aside the objects that I'd just gotten through stuffing back inside. I paused awkwardly for a moment when the condoms once again fell out and landed with an awkward slap on the floor of the space ship, and I looked up to see him grinning at me, amused.
As harmless as this may have been on his part, it set me further on edge, and I continued to scramble around until at last my fingers closed along a canister of mace, which I carried around with me in the city as a means of warding off potential predators. I hadn't ever imagined that I would be forced to employ it against an intergalactic abductor, but then again, I suppose a girl living in the city needs to be prepared for anything, and at that moment I was up in arms and willing to do whatever it took to make it out of here alive.
“Freeze, asshole! Don't you dare lay a damn finger on me! I'm not afraid to use this!” I held the canister up toward him, aimed squarely in the direction of his eyes, finger on the trigger and poised to let loose at the least amount of prompting.
“Relax,” he said calmly, “I'm not going to hurt you...” But he made the mistake of slowly lifting his hand toward me as he said it, and the sight of him possessing only three fingers per hand was enough to make me completely lose it at that moment.
Without thinking, I let loose the spray on him, shooting such a thick stream of the stuff into his face that I thought have certain that he would be blinded for life from there on out. But instead, shockingly, it sprayed up into him at full blast and he continued to stare, unblinkingly, as though the fierce substance being blasted into him didn't affect him in the least.
I pulled the canister away from him, stunned, and stared into the nozzle. “What the hell?” I asked, and half of me wondered whether I'd been sold a defective can. But then, I realized, I could feel the sting of the stuff as it clouded through the air, making my own eyes burn and water, and I knew it must have done its job as described. My captor was, apparently, immune to its effect.
And this really scared me...
I was still staring at the mace when suddenly, catching me off guard, one of the man's three-fingered hands came up and gripped my arm tightly, not in a vicious way so much as a means of getting me under control. But of course, in my present state of mind, I was interpreting his every action as a sign of hostility, and I began to struggle fiercely in the opposite direction, trying my damnedest to break free, and my fear in that moment so intense that I nearly started screaming.
“I'm not going to hurt you,” he insisted, “If you'll please just calm down, I'll explain everything to you, and you can decide what you want to do from there...” I didn't believe him for a minute, of course. My fear was making me doubt his every word, and I felt as though naively trusting this individual who'd just kidnapped me would result in nothing short of my sheer and utter doom.
Still, though, what choice did I have? I needed to humor him, I supposed, if I had any choice at all of making it through this intact, and it was thus that I tried to control myself, straightening up in his grip, and taking a deep breath as I steadied myself.
“Okay...” I said, my voice cracking even as I did so. “Okay, what is it you want with me?”
“Please,” he said, waving his hand to another corner of the room. “Let's sit, and I can tell you everything you need to know.”
He whisked me over in the direction of a set table, filled with strange food that I couldn't come close to identifying. I didn't trust any of it despite the luscious smells that filled my nostrils, wafting up and making my eyes water. And as he sat down across from me, it became harder and harder to resist digging in as the moments slipped along. Surely a taste wouldn't hurt, I reasoned, but at the same time the risk was far too high for me to even consider indulging...
My host, or abductor, or whatever the hell you want to call him, took a long drink of something from a glass nearby, presumably alcohol, judging by his appearance. When he set the glass down he was smiling at me, and he began to explain everything in measured, even tones.
“I apologize deeply for the fright I must have given you. That certainly wasn't my intention at all, but I can understand completely how traumatic this must all be from your perspective. So please, forgive me for that, and if you can help it, don't let that affect your response to that which I'm about to reveal to you.”
I nodded slightly, not really buying this, but wanting him to get on with whatever the hell he had to say.
“My name,” he said, continuing slowly, so that I could properly absorb all that he was about to tell me, “is Zocor. I come from a far off planet in a distant corner of the galaxy, known as Kataz. I am, first and foremost, a warrior, as you may see from the scars and battle wounds which I wear so proudly.”
My eyes did suddenly catch on the marks adorning him from head to toe. I'd apparently been so shaken up prior to that point that they'd gone largely unnoticed, but up close I could see that he had some pretty grizzly souvenirs of whatever battles he'd taken part in over the years. It actually made me cringe just a little bit to imagine them all being inflicted upon him, but then it occurred to me that my staring was likely coming across as rudeness, and I hurried to look away.
“It's alright,” he said, as though picking up on my hesitance to offend him. “As I
said, for me they are marks of pride. I don't mind exposing myself to the world in this way.”
“You need to work on your phrasing,” I said, and I realized it may have been a stupid thing to say, but he smiled, relieving me. There was a moment's silence, and I decided to take it upon myself to further the conversations just a bit. “So, um, just to be clear here, who exactly is it that you're fighting that's slashing you up like a Jack-O-Lantern like that? And more importantly, why the hell are you dragging me on board your UFO if you're a reckless, bloodthirsty warrior? That doesn't really sound like something I would want to be a part of.”
“Oh no, you misunderstand me,” he said patiently, taking another sip of wine from his glass. “I pride myself in dedicating myself only to just causes... I do not engage in violence for the sake of violence, nor are my pursuits ever frivolous in nature. I pride myself in these scars for I believe they represent the fight for justice. If I thought anything otherwise, I wouldn't be at all so cavalier in my attitude about them.”
“Be that as it may...” I said skeptically, an eyebrow cocked.
He smiled once again, and I could tell he was getting just the least bit nervous in my presence, not wanting to scare me away from whatever plan he had in store for me.
“Be that as it may, I assure you that you are in no danger in your presence here. Nor would you be, in the event that you agreed to come with me to provide your services. Now, if I may explain the circumstances of your abduction...”
I nodded my consent once more. “Sure... I'm curious. Let's hear it.”
“Well,” he began, pleased. “My planet, for centuries, has been at war with another known as Myrx. For various reasons, our people have engaged in the bloodiest of feuds for as long as either of us can remember. There have been some truly harrowing brawls between ourselves and them, fights which nearly destroyed everything we've worked for over the millennia. It's difficult to say, at this point, whether either side has maintained anything resembling the moral high ground for any extended period, as sad as it is to say. But, presently, we're to a point where both of us have agreed upon peace as the most preferable option. We're setting aside our differences, and agreeing to terms which seem as though they'll be mutually beneficial for the both of us.”
Romance: Alien Romance: Simply Aliens: A Ten Book Alien Romance Collection (Paranormal Scifi Interracial Romance) (Fantasy New Adult Alpha Short Stories) Page 27
