by Ruby Ryan
As ridiculous as the situation was with two Karak aliens standing before us, I could hear the cop in Leslie's voice. She wouldn't let anything happen to the Jones boys, no matter how much they deserved it.
And honestly? Now that they were subdued and Arix was safe in my arms, I didn't want anything to happen to them either. As intense as it had been just minutes ago, the heat of the moment was gone.
But then reality settled in.
If we couldn't do anything about them, and they knew what Arix was... what could we do? Especially if what they said was true: that they'd called other alien hunting nutjobs, who were fast on their way to Elijah at that very moment.
"We might have to get out of dodge," I said. "I can pack a bug-out bag and we can get as far away as possible. Otherwise these two'll never leave us alone."
Arix squeezed me tighter in his arms and said, "Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I will follow. Just tell me where, Joanna of Elijah, Wyoming."
Leslie cocked her head. "Huh. You know, we might be able to..."
"I know that look," I mumbled. "She's got an idea."
"Your frigging right I do."
*
Leslie arrested Max and Liam and threw them in the back of her cruiser. Arix kissed me on the cheek and told me he'd meet me back in town, then put his head together with Jerix. I got the impression they were speaking telepathically to one another, a conversation none of us were allowed to hear.
As we drove back to town, I prayed that Arix would meet me back in town. But what if his words were only meant to calm me while he returned to Karak? The alien equivalent of, "I'm running out to grab cigarettes."
But I didn't think that was it. Somehow, I knew he would return.
Leslie threw the Jones brothers into a holding cell. By then the shock of the situation had worn off, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs about aliens and spaceships and an impending invasion of earth. Leslie led me into her office and closed the door.
"Got the town records here," she said, opening a locked cabinet. She rifled through them and pulled out a single folder. "And I've got my own personal records here." She opened another drawer, adding an almost identical folder to the one on her desk.
"Records?"
"The property records, which includes the town's copy of the deed. Here's the deed to your land, all two hundred acres." She slid it to the side and opened the other folder. "This is the deed to a different piece of land, in a different county. In a different state."
I eyed the paper. A nine thousand acre parcel, currently uninhabited. I flipped it over to see a topographical map of the property, with the Sawtooth National Forest bordering on the east.
"It's over in Idaho," Leslie explained. "My grandpa's land. I Inherited it a few years back, but never knew what to do with it. Didn't have the heart to sell it, and didn't have the time to hire someone to do anything with it."
"I don't understand," I said.
Leslie leaned forward on the table. "How about we make a trade?"
Maybe it was the blood loss--and blood regain--or the hastily-healed wound in my leg, but my brain seemed to move slowly as I figured out what she meant.
"You mean trade my land for yours? Leslie, your parcel is twenty times larger! How is that fair?"
"Don't much care about fair," she said. "Care about seeing my best friend safe and sound. Sign the deed, we'll swap 'em out, and that'll be that."
Idaho. A few thousand acres of my own, without the burdening responsibilities of what I'd done here in Elijah. A trickle of hope crawled up my spine.
"If we swap the land, my name will be on it," I said. "Public record." I jerked my head toward the office door, and the unseen holding cell beyond. "The Jones brothers'll hunt me until the day I die."
But Leslie smiled as if she'd thought about that. "I've got more ideas."
*
We left the station, and to my immense relief I saw Arix's form walking into town. I savored the way he strolled along, the shape of his hips leading up to the V-shaped body hidden beneath his coat. I allowed myself to feel hope again, that maybe he did want me just as much as I wanted him.
He took me in my arms outside the station, and our lips connected like they were made to. He kissed me long and passionately, as if it were a reunion after an eternity apart.
"Alright you two, get a room," Leslie chided. "We've got work to do."
She told us her plan. We agreed, then went back inside the station.
The Jones brothers were still shouting for help when we entered, but cut off the instant they saw Arix. Liam fell into an animal-like tremble, and Max froze like he'd been paused by a remote.
Arix and I turned to each other.
"I am taking you back to Karak," he said, loudly for their benefit. "Jerix has repaired my spacecraft from the junkyard. Are you ready, my love?"
He was a terrible actor. Like, really bad. But he was an alien, so he got a lot of leeway. And the Jones boys bought it.
"I am ready," I said in my best soap opera voice.
Nothing happened that I could see, but Max and Liam's eyes widened with wonder. Per our plan, Arix was touching their consciousness and blinding their vision, making it appear as it we were shifting into light. Arix took me by the arm and led me outside to complete the masquerade.
We stepped outside just in time for me to hear Leslie tell them, "Whelp. I guess we'll never see them again."
She met us around back a few minutes later. Relief was painted on her face.
"They bought it. You two are golden." She smiled sadly. "But you'd better get a move on. Don't want anyone seeing you after, in case they start asking questions when we do let them out."
Leslie looked awkward, toeing the snow with a boot. I wrapped my arms around my best friend and squeezed her tight.
"I'll miss you," I whispered into her hair.
"Me too." She pulled away. "Might be awfully boring here without you. Dunno what I'll do."
"You can find your own alien boyfriend."
"Yeah, uhh, I think I'll pass. I prefer my men to be, you know, men." She faced Arix. "No offense."
I grinned. "So long as those cheesy novels keep coming in, I think you'll be just fine."
She returned the smile. "I think so too." She shook Arix's hand. "Take care of her, mister alien."
He looked at me. "I intend to."
23
JOANNA
Leslie ended up putting my land to good use.
When Arix and I were halfway across Wyoming, teams of UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists descended on Elijah like a pack of starving jackals. The fact that the Jones brothers were in a holding cell only added powerful fuel to the flames, and when they were finally released by Leslie they were welcomed as heroes by the enormous crowd. By then, their footage of Arix shifting in front of their truck had spread across the internet and the world, and had already been verified by video forensics companies.
Of course, most people still didn't believe it. But that was just fine.
With the town now inundated with tourists, Leslie made Max and Liam Jones a deal. They used their new-found fame to secure funding from rich UFO hunters, who bought my two hundred acres for a huge sum of money. A visitor's center and hotel was being built at the site of Arix's crash, and the rest of the land was being scoured by conspiracy theorists looking for any trace of evidence that the Karak had ever been there.
The Jones brothers were charging them $50 a pop for the privilege, of course.
Leslie was gracious enough to wire us half the proceeds from the land sale. The amount was enough for two simple folks to live off for the rest of their lives.
Which, it turned out, might be another hundred years. Karak had ridiculously long life spans, and with his ability to shift-heal any ailments Arix insisted I could hit the ripe old age of 150.
I'd believe that when I saw it, but hey, that was a good problem to have. We'd have a lot of time to worry about that later.
&
nbsp; And Idaho? It wasn't much different than Wyoming. Gorgeous foothills leading into jagged mountains, and forests thick with deer and coyotes. I could hunt and fish to my heart's desire, while Arix set to recording a detailed study of earth, its many lifeforms, and specifically the human race. I could still see the pain in his eyes at forsaking his vows and duties, but he was determined to do some good while he was here. Decades from now, when the Karak Dominion had forgotten about the single scout sent on a tour of a distant galaxy, he would release his codex of our planet. The information would exist for all of time, and Arix would have a legacy worth remembering fondly.
And that was good enough for the two of us.
"What are you doing?"
Arix came up behind me as I stared out the window of our cabin. It'd taken a solid week of work to renovate into something livable, but now it was a cozy home. I reached behind and pulled him to me, feeling the warmth of his chest against my back.
"Thinking about Leslie. And Elijah."
He put his face next to mine, and he smelled like musk and wood fire. "Do you regret your choice?"
I whirled before he could begin to feel guilty. "Of course not. I remember it fondly, but I'm ready for my new life with you."
His smile showed white teeth, and his almond eyes softened. "Me too."
He took me in his arms and lifted me with easy strength. I squealed in surprise as he threw me over his shoulder and carried me to the bed, dumping me onto the sheets unceremoniously.
"We need to work on your romance skills," I said as he loomed over me. He removed his shirt, perfectly muscled body glistening in the light of the fireplace.
"You like it just fine," he said lustily, which of course was true. He didn't probe into my mind without permission, but we had another connection. An earthly one, without supernatural force but just as power.
"I love you," I whispered as he took me.
His kiss was warm and soft, and his raven hair brushed against my face in the soft light of the fireplace. His face blocked out everything else, fear and worry and other things that didn't matter.
"I need you," he whispered, pulling down my jeans, then raking his fingers back up my legs to remove my panties. I urged him on with a moan.
"Hurry," I said, arching my back at his touch. "I need you more."
His own pants slid off and he was covering me with his body, a furnace of muscle and blood keeping out the cold. I wrapped my legs around him and felt his stiff cock brush against my dripping sex, and he pushed against me, as eager for me as I was for him.
"Now," I urged. "I need you inside of me."
He reached down to guide himself in, coating the tip and shaft with my wetness before thrusting forward. I moaned as his thickness widened my walls, filling every inch of me perfectly, two throbbing puzzle pieces that were meant for one another.
"Oh God," he groaned, kissing me harder.
There was no foreplay in our need; I grinded my hips against him roughly, demanding he make love to me with rapid lust. He obeyed with long, deep thrusts, his body crashing against my clitoris with each stroke, jolts of pleasure shooting up my spine. I grabbed his tight little ass with both hands and guided him faster, my alien lover who loved me back.
"Ohh," he moaned again. "Joanna."
He pushed his hands underneath me, between my body and the sheets, I could feel his desperate need to touch me. To feel my skin against his, joined at the legs and torso and arms and lips. I was close already, and tilted my head back to sigh into the air, arching my back in his arms.
His breathing increased, a ragged gasp that was more animal than human, eyes widening with pleasure, and I locked my own gaze onto his and drank in his beautiful face. I ran a hand through his hair as he began to moan, a sound deep from within his throat that grew with each shuddering thrust.
"Yes, yes, yes," I said, crashing over my own climax, clenching my sex onto his cock just as he roared and trembled and came. I squeezed every drop out of Arix and wrapped my legs around him to make sure he never left.
He panted afterwards, nuzzling against my neck. Finally he pushed up to look down into my face.
"I want to do that every day," he said.
"Every day?"
"Every day." He nodded. "Maybe twice a day."
"Or three."
"Three?"
I grinned up at him. "If your weak, human body can handle it."
For an instant he shimmered, like he was going to shift into Karak form, each individual atom brightening a measurable iota. And then it was gone, and he winked at me.
"I'm ready to go right now." I felt him stiffen inside of me.
"That's a handy trick. More useful than healing bullet wounds."
"We Karak are a practical species."
We laughed, and snuggled, and kissed, and made love by the fire again, content to do it for the rest of our quiet lives.
Keep reading for an extra-special preview of KARAK WARRIOR, the second book in the Alien Shapeshifters series!
*
We stood three feet apart, but I could feel the worlds between us.
It's been two weeks since the Karak made first contact on earth, and the town of Elijah, Wyoming will never be the same. Now inundated with UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists, Leslie doesn't know how she's going to keep the peace as the town's only police officer.
So in the end, she doesn't.
But sneaking aboard Jerix's spacecraft has widespread consequences Leslie could never have predicted. Jerix faces a devastating punishment for bringing back a live human to the Karak homeworld: three rounds of shifter-fighting in the Karak Sunken Pit!
As Jerix shifts from dragon to wolf to human in a desperate attempt to survive his sentence, Leslie's affection quickly grows--fueled by the graceful, yet brutal, manner in which Jerix fights in the Pit. Will her Karak Warrior be able to stay alive for three bloody rounds?
And of course, the deeper question haunting Leslie: what will they do if he does?
KARAK WARRIOR is the second book in the new Alien Shapeshifters romance series. It's a full-length, standalone science fiction alien shifter romance book, with steamy love scenes that will leave you fantasizing about your own first contact. And of course, a guaranteed Happily Ever After!
1
LESLIE
Something in my brain broke the day I learned of the Karak.
Shimmering aliens that could take the form of humans. That old they walk among us bullshit from The Twilight Zone or X-Files or some other show long gone. It was true.
It was all true.
At least, it was true as of two weeks ago, when Arix landed and stole Jo's heart. Maybe we were alone before that. But regardless of when it began, we certainly weren't alone anymore, nor would we be ever again.
And they'd chosen to make contact in Elijah, Wyoming. My little town.
Ain't that a kick in the ass?
"Is this the property line?" the man, Bobby, asked.
I flinched at the question, then nodded. "Yeah. Right here along the fence, extending due north for about another mile. The place where it meets Tim's property and turns left is marked with the same flags."
Bobby stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and nodded. "Good. Very good."
"Need me to show you any more?"
"Nope, this'll do."
We walked back, crunching through the crust of snow.
Selling Jo's old land to UFO hunters was an easy compromise. They'd already swarmed over my little town like cicadas on the crop, and after arresting the first three for trespassing I realized that would soon be my only job if something didn't change. By selling Jo's land, the conspiracy theorist nutjobs could hunt and tour to their crazy heart's desire.
Which meant I was back to being an administrator more than a cop.
"The Master Hunters claim you were involved in the cover-up," Bobby abruptly said.
"The what now?"
He looked at me like I was an idiot. "The Master Hunters. Max and Liam J
ones."
"Oh good lord..." I muttered. "Those two aren't masters of anything."
Bobby's gesture encompassed the entire forest and town. "They found the UFO and aliens, didn't they?"
"There are no aliens here in Elijah," I said, falling into the same stump speech I'd been giving to hunters and reporters and anyone who asked for the past two weeks. "There never were, and there still aren't."
Of course, it wasn't the truth. But it's not as if that mattered to these nutjobs. Bobby nodded patronizingly, and I could see him checking a conspiratorial box in his head next to my name.
It was tougher to roll my eyes at people like Bobby now that they were right.
"Where'd you get the money for the sale?" I asked as we walked back to my cruiser.
"I don't have to answer that," Bobby jabbed a finger in my direction. "You have no right to question the source of my funding, and I refuse to be interrogated--"
"Jesus," I said, showing him my palms. "I was just makin' conversation. Relax."
I continued walking, and I could feel his suspicious eyes on my back. Elijah wouldn't be the same if these were the types of people who were settling into town.
We drove back to town in silence, Bobby constantly stealing glances over at me. I waited for him to ask his own interrogating questions, how many aliens had visited and if I had personally seen anything. Or why I had arrested the Jones brothers if they'd done nothing wrong. But Bobby's hackles were up, and he remained quiet, and I liked that just fine.
My quiet Wyoming town bustled with activity; the main street into town actually had traffic. Only six cars waiting to turn left into Harry's bar, but traffic nonetheless. I cursed as we waited and wondered how people in larger cities managed to survive this.
We went inside my office and signed the paperwork. Stacy, my assistant and the town's only notary, presided over the land sale and stamped her special stamp on each form, and then the job was done.
