Bear Mountain Bride: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  “I mostly just fly around, making sure that everything is going in an orderly way. I seek out enemies and keep them more or less in line,” Keandra said. “But I mostly just fly around and monitor things.”

  He nodded, understanding.

  “What about you?” she asked. She had to know more about this mysterious weredragon, even if what she found out was not entirely pleasant.

  Albion looked at her and then rubbed the palms of his large hands against his olive green cargo pants. Keandra got the impression that her question made him nervous; though why, she didn’t know.

  “Same as you,” he said after a few moments of hesitation. “I was out patrolling the area for any suspicious activities. I suppose you are a suspicious activity.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you making a joke?” she asked, surprised.

  He smiled and nodded.

  “You will be safe in here,” he said then. “The door will be kept secure and no one is aware of your presence. The Hoths may know I’m here, but I am flying a Gekkota ship, not an Earthling ship. Worst case scenario is that they go after me for trespassing while being a Gekkota.”

  Keandra frowned slightly at that. What he said was true; although he was not a Hoth, that only meant that he was another of their enemies. She was not any less likely to be captured now. But at least she would not be captured alone?

  “And diverting from your mission would arouse suspicion,” she added with a nod. “I understand. Well, I won’t get in the way of your work. I can keep my mouth shut, as long as you can keep yours shut.”

  Albion looked at her, tilting his head. If she ignored his scales, she could pretend that he was a normal Earthling man. Except he was light blue. A normal, Earthling man who was cold?

  She was clearly starting to feel tired and woozy from the ordeal back with her ship. She finished up her meal without saying anything and soon Albion went back to his work elsewhere on the ship.

  Setting the tray aside when she was done, Keandra lay back down on the stiff mattress and closed her eyes, falling asleep to the soft sound of the humming ship’s engine and the faint, distant sounds of Albion at work.

  * * *

  Bolting back up until a sitting position, Keandra gazed around the small cabin of the spaceship as she slowly remembered where she was. She had not been asleep for very long. Twenty minutes, tops. But she felt well-rested and ready to do something. She was not the kind of woman who would just sit back and let the man do everything for her! She was a staff sergeant, goddammit!

  As soon as she stood up from the bed, she immediately regretted it. Her leg still felt like a limp noodle. Keandra held onto the bed so she would not completely fall to the hard steel floor.

  “Albi…” she called, feeling disoriented. “Albion?”

  The tall, lizard man strode into the room. He was wearing a face mask that one might wear whilst welding, but he pushed it up so she could see his face again and not be alarmed at his sudden, 1950s sci-fi appearance.

  Not that Albion knew what sci-fi was. Or the 1950s, for that matter.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Why are you out of your sleeping pod?”

  Keandra looked at the bed and then up at him, into his eyes. “I don’t want to stay cooped up in here. I want to help.”

  He pulled off the mask completely and set it aside on the counter under the first aid cabinet. He scratched his dark blue scruff. “The best way that you can help me right now is by resting and getting better,” he said.

  She kept her eyes on his. “I don’t need a hero.”

  The truth was that she appreciated Albion’s help, and she wanted to return the favor. They were going to be flying around together for a while now, unless he planned to just drop her off somewhere as soon as he could be rid of her… And it did not seem like that was his plan. They were in this rebellion together, and she wanted to continue to do her part.

  “I won’t do anything that further injures myself,” Keandra added, trying to persuade him. “I’ll even do a task that can be done sitting down.”

  He sighed finally. “Fine. Come with me.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Albion’s spaceship was much larger than Keandra initially thought. He led her to a room full of metallic parts. She lifted one up and admired her reflection. Her light brown skin was covered in cuts and bruises; her reddish-brown hair was unkempt from falling out of its customary ponytail during her nap. Her large, green eyes were sad and nervous-looking.

  She could see why he was so keen to keep her resting. He pitied her, because she looked absolutely pitiful. Looking back up at him, she cocked an eyebrow. “So, what are we doing here? Building a robot?”

  He shook his head at her, and then gave a small shrug. “Maybe something like that. Sit on that stool over there and polish for me.”

  Keandra did as she was ordered and limped over to a black stool. She sat down and began polishing the metal bits with a dirty old rag. It struck her as amusing that the Gekkota were not so different from Earthlings. They did mundane tasks like anyone else. And they did them in pretty much the same way.

  She looked out the window while she worked, gazing down at the gray planet below them. It resembled Earth’s moon, but it was darker, harder, and inhospitable. Turning away from it, she looked back at Albion, who was assembling the shined pieces together into something that looked more like armor than a robot.

  Was he planning to attack the Hoths? That was pretty bad ass of him.

  “I never thanked you for rescuing me and taking care of my leg,” Keandra said, feeling a bit sheepish now. “I mostly wanted to punch you for putting space goop in my open wound. But thank you.”

  Albion lowered the pieces he was working on soldering. He did another slow, reptilian blink. “You’re welcome,” he said.

  Suddenly, the spaceship rumbled and jolted upward. Keandra let out a scream. Albion dropped the armor and rushed to her, catching her before she fell. “What was that?” she asked, looking into his eyes searchingly. “Have they found us?”

  Placing a finger to her lips, he shook his head. “Probably just a passing star.”

  “Probably?” she asked him. “I don’t like that word. That’s not comforting.”

  Another jolt, but this time he was holding her so she did not feel quite so scared.

  After looking around, making sure that his metal pieces were unharmed – scattered haphazardly now, but unharmed – he gazed into Keandra’s eyes.

  “I think you should go back to bed,” he said. “It is not safe for you to be in here. Anything could happen.”

  She pouted, but he was right. At any point, she could be jostled and thrown into something, or have something fall into her. She was a distraction for Albion, and a danger to herself by being out of her cabin.

  Albion did not open it up for discussion, but rather just carried her back down the hall to her room.

  Once in the room, Albion placed Keandra on the stiff mattress. Then he did something she had not expected. He got onto the mattress with her and started kissing her. She was shocked and more than a little thrilled when she discovered that he kissed the way that she thought kisses were supposed to be. He gently ran his tongue along the edge of hers and Keandra realized, blushing at the thought, that his tongue was forked.

  Whether it was because he was a dragon shifter or because he was an alien lifeform, she did not care. She simply wanted more of it. She kissed him deeply, passionately, longingly. Keandra never knew just how badly she could want him until that moment. He had seemed such an asshole at first, adding injury to injury. But she’d been wrong about him. She was not merely safe with him. She felt like she might flat out need him.

  It was not long before Albion went for the fly of her cargo pants. They were barely even pants anymore; there was a long, gaping hole in her right pant leg from when Albion tended to her wounds. Carefully, as if he did not want to damage them further, he pulled them off of Keandra and let them fall to the floor. He did
the same with her panties before gently bringing his fingers to her opening.

  He stroked and prodded at her clit. Keandra wondered if he had any idea what it was, but from the feel of it he knew exactly what he was doing. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. “Oh yeah, that’s good.”

  Albion smiled, glad that he was giving pleasure to the human female. After a few moments of him gently fingering her with his long, dexterous blue fingers, Keandra came. She gasped out, writhing against the hard bed’s sheets.

  “You liked that?” he asked her softly.

  Keandra bit her lip and nodded eagerly, indicating with that one small gesture that she wanted more.

  He stood up and stepped out of his green pants and t-shirt, allowing Keandra to gaze upon his tall, lean, gorgeous body. His green scales shimmered along the rest of his naked body, ending where his forest green pubic hair began. She could now see the dragon that her dragon kept down below. His penis was long and sleek, glistening and begging for her now.

  “Do you want it?” he asked her softly.

  Keandra nodded again, even more eagerly.

  Albion climbed onto the bed with her and went between her legs, kissing and biting her inner thighs, kneading her ass with his long fingers. She arched her back off the mattress, dizzy from want of him.

  At last, when he had worked her into enough of a frenzy, Albion pressed his large, lizard-like cock into her opening. He started thrusting hard into her, penetrating deeply into the tight, warm recesses of her pussy.

  It was Albion’s turn to react. He moaned deeply, feeling his way around her wet opening like an explorer unearthing treasure at the bottom of the ocean. Keandra found herself wondering, again, how he knew about sex with humans. Was Gekkota sex the same way? She found that difficult to believe, but he was so skilled that she did not find it so hard to imagine.

  She lifted her legs up, wrapping them around Albion’s middle. He embraced her and gently lifted her up so she was sitting on his lap. He bounced her up and down against him. She shouted out, feeling him inside of her and never wanting to stop feeling the pleasure that came from his alien member.

  Albion brought his mouth to hers once more and kissed her with his forked tongue while his penis explored her other opening. If this was an alien probe, Keandra did not mind it at all. She wanted to be probed, faster and faster.

  Suddenly, he sped up his thrusts, letting out a guttural moan. He lowered her back down to the bed and then placed his hand onto her mouth, thrusting at a pace that seemed to only quicken. Keandra opened her mouth wide against his palm and screamed as she came again, feeling her wetness on his cock and the blanket beneath her. She had exploded against him, and in doing so, she caused Albion to explode in an orgasm of his own.

  When it was over, she felt sticky, wet and extremely satisfied. She sat up on the bed, cinnamon hair disheveled and eyes bleary. She smiled at him. “That was amazing.”

  Albion smiled back at her, petting her hair. He carefully pulled out of her but stayed close, holding her in his arms as if he did not want the good feelings to end. “You’re astounding,” he said.

  They cuddled each other on the bed until they were both fast asleep.

  * * *

  The next morning, Keandra awoke to discover Albion at the food of the bed. He was dressed back in his uniform, his hair neatly tidied back up in its shiny green bun. From the look of things, he had been sitting there and watching her sleep for at least a few hours. It did not appear that he had just woken up.

  “Get dressed,” he told her in a soft but authoritative voice.

  She got out of the bed, startled by his command and by his appearance in general. Keandra had slept like a baby, and she thought that Albion had been sleeping soundly beside her as well. The last thing she remembered was hearing his soft snoring in her ear and being ridiculously happy about it.

  Putting her uniform back on reminded her of her injury to her calf. Though it was well bandaged up by Albion, the effects of the strange medicine had worn off. Now she could feel the dull pain of it as she stood there, wriggling back into her tight cargo pants. The hole was still there, of course. She had not had time or opportunity to mend it. Keandra had thought they might eventually reach some sort of trading outpost, but it seemed now that Albion had other plans.

  He watched her wordlessly as she dressed. She was confused and concerned by the look on his face, as though he’d lost his best friend. She knew she was not going to like the answer. “What’s the matter?”

  As soon as she was dressed, Albion stood up and went to her. He took her hand in his, and then suddenly closed some iron chains around her wrist.

  “Hey!” she shouted suddenly, aghast. “What the hell?”

  He put the manacles around her other wrist as well, shaking his head wordlessly.

  So this was why he was so upset. He had tricked her, deceived her. He was one of them.

  “Forgive me,” Albion finally said gruffly. He attempted to look into her eyes, but Keandra looked away. She could not look at him anymore. He was a traitor.

  Sensing that he was not going to receive any forgiveness or affection from her any longer, he took her by the upper arm and led her down the long hallway of his ship. He pushed her gently but forcefully into the copilot’s chair and pushed a few buttons, turned a few knobs. Before long, the spaceship landed back on Hoth.

  Keandra glared at him, her green eyes partially obscured behind her cinnamon bangs that cut across her forehead and face in a diagonal line. Albion looked at her, and then at the floor. When the door of the ship whirred open, he led her by the bicep down the plank and onto the rocky, desolate ground of the hated planet once more.

  * * *

  Albion led Keandra directly to the Hoths’ main city center. As they walked, she could see thousands of ugly Hoth faces watching her, greedy and hungry. Keandra was determined to survive this. She was not going to die by the hands – or tentacles – of the Hoths. She was especially not going to die while Albion lived.

  The Galactic Federation of Hoth’s leader, President Sluuurb, sat on his throne-like seat of metal and rock. He sneered down at Albion and his captive. “How much do you want for the Earthling girl?” His voice was like a low rumble. Tectonic more than anything.

  “One thousand galsects.” Albion’s voice was firm, but Keandra detected some fear in it. It was possible that only she could sense it. Most likely because she knew him. Ugh, she wished she had never met him now.

  Sluuurb considered a moment, his tiny cluster of bug-like eyes staring and unflinching. “Eight hundred galsects.”

  “Nine hundred.”

  Silence for a moment. The Galactic Federation all leaned together in their thrones, whispering like hornets in a nest. Then, finally, President Sluuurb sat up straight in his chair, eyeing Albion and then Keandra. “Nine hundred,” he said, nodding with one small movement.

  Two Hothian guards came from either side and gruffly pulled Keandra from Albion. He gaped a little, looking like he wanted to say something, but it was done.

  She spat on him in her anger. She was aiming for his face, but she ended up mostly getting a glob on his chest. It glistened along with his scales. She refused to look him in the eye. She despised him now.

  “Come on, girl,” one of the guards said.

  “You’re ours now,” the other said.

  When they were not speaking, they continually made slurping sounds. Keandra was repulsed by them.

  I hope you choke on your reward money, you Gekkota bastard.

  * * *

  The Hothian guards pulled her along down a long, sloping path that led into the bowels of the planet. Eventually, the space opened up into a humongous cavern filled with humans like her, chained like her, working. They were apparently mining dark blue rocks out of the gunmetal gray rock that made up the planet. Keandra did not know what made these rocks special, but she assumed that it must be like gold was on Earth.

  Treasure.

  Withou
t another word, the guards flung her toward a waiting overseer, who glared at her, sizing her up and down. “Get changed into work clothes and grab a bucket.”

  Keandra went into one of the changing stalls and took off her dirty patrol uniform. She was not sad to be rid of it, but the reason was less than ideal. Her calf was still bandaged, but she knew that her wound was going to need to be changed and redressed at some point. She did not imagine that anyone in this mine was going to care to dress her wound for her with his magical, stinging, fucking awful ointment.

  Once she had stripped down to her panties and bra, she put on the work clothes that the overseer had mentioned. They were more like gray rags. A raggedy old t-shirt full of holes and a similar pair of gray shorts with torn and fraying hems. The outfit felt like it was made out of paper. The drafty mine bit at her from every side until she found herself wishing she was back in Albion’s warm bed.

  She hated him so much, and she hated him most of all because she missed him. He did not deserve to be missed. But she could not keep herself from wishing that he was still with her, keeping her safe, tending her cuts and bruises. Touching her and making her feel protected and loved.

  Now she was just one of thousands of Hothian slaves. She came out of the changing area, dumped her ripped-up uniform into a waiting yellow bin and grabbed a chromium bucket.

  The overseer led her to the place where she was to join the line. Keandra got down on her knees and began to work, picking at the rocks and stones with a pick and her bare hands. She hoped to find some of that midnight blue stone, just so she could say she had done something today. She was going to prove her worth.

  Because, if she didn’t, there was no telling what would become of her.

  At the end of the day, the overseer and several other people in command came around to check all of the Earthling slaves’ buckets. One of the commanders came to Keandra and snatched up her bucket.