For a moment, her face warmed as he settled his red gaze onto her. She was soaked, as was he. His long hair hung to one side off his shoulder, exposing his bare back. His head cocked and he looked back at the water. His feet were still immersed. There was no mistaking she had dragged him from his watery grave. He looked surprised. She was no lightweight, but compared to him she was small. The Hulk would be small.
“Thank you.”
Storm blinked. The words were growled but in English. While her stunned expression reflected back in his gaze, he proceeded to warm her. Within seconds she was dry. His hand released her, and she jumped up. Storm’s first instinct was to run, but instead of running away, she stood staring down at him. Rocking from foot to foot. He lay back on the bank with an arm covering his face groaning. His chest swelled with huge breaths. Dangerous and vulnerable. The combination was intriguing.
Storm debated what to do. He looked helpless. “Do you need anything?” He peeked at her from under his arm. “Water? Oh sorry, dumb question. Food?” A ball or chew toy? Good grief. No, holy hell, definitely holy hell.
“Gorgano?”
There was no mistaking the word he growled. “You want the Gorgano?” Storm gulped.
“Dead.”
“It’s dead all right.”
“Good.”
Storm relaxed. When the creature sat up and pulled back out of the water, she wanted to help. She grabbed his fur and away came two more handfuls. Storm stared at him in horror as she backed up a step, the white wet fur sticking between her fingers until she shook the strands loose.
“Sorry, so sorry.”
She was positive the alien chuckled. She was hoping he wouldn’t reach to yank her hair out. The massive being rose to his full height and Storm was certain if she had false teeth they’d be hanging from her gaping lips. Impressive was the word she would use. Massively muscled, powerful, deadly. Decidedly less helpless than she assumed. Storm took a few steps back. When the creature spoke next, she gasped. The language was strange but somehow she understood him.
After her first experience with a Gorgano a few years after she first came to the planet, she was privy to all languages it seemed. The Gorgano had altered her way of thinking, taking odd tones and rearranging the sometimes complex words into recognizable syllables until she understood. Storm was aware she had some kind of mind power, she exercised it sparingly, not certain of her strength and not wanting to accidently kill anything. Except the enemy. Some enemies were better left alone, such as Tonans. Their shield protected their minds, but Storm could only send the frightening creatures away with small blasts of thoughts. It was better to hide from Tonans. Today was the first day in a long while since she had seen a Gorgano.
“My name is Citun, human female,” he grunt growled. The words and tone were a perfect fit for the man-beast, and Storm’s knees went to jelly. This was no nitwit, nor an animal. “I am leader of the northern Zargonnii warriors. The Gorgano is my enemy, my allies’ enemy. You saved my life, thank you. I am in your debt.”
“Storm, my name is Storm. You’re welcome.”
The two stood gazing at one another. Each searching the other’s features intensely. Storm was as intrigued as she was wary. The alien was stunning to look at. A male, not the first of many who before wanted her dead. Citun made no threatening moves. He didn’t make a motion to crush her or frighten her. Not that she would allow such actions, she could mind-battle. She realized the strong beast before her could not, she didn’t want him dead either. What was he after? Normally, any male to land on the planet was in search of something, and more often than not it was a female.
Citun grinned and broke their stare. He dried his body with his red eyes. Muscular thighs rippled when he leaned down to dry his boots. For a moment Medusa came to life when his wild white hair danced then settled. Dry and upright he seemed less a beast, more a charming character.
“Are there others? Other humans? Females?” Citun asked her.
I was right, so it begins. There was a question she needed to ponder. How much information should be disclosed? His hand lifted, long fingers reached for her and she shifted back until he splayed those fingers. Storm’s breath caught when he touched her long hair, running the deep ebony of her tresses across his skin.
“Blue eyes,” Citun said.
“Yes, my eyes are blue.” She wondered if he saw color as she did. Now she knew.
“Are you mated?”
“Mated? You mean am I married?”
“Mated.”
The word seemed to hold a deeper meaning. She wondered if he meant did she have sex for fun, or if his kind came into heat. Either way, she felt it was an inappropriate question. He was an alien after all. Aliens, at least most, were dangerous in one way or another. He was looking at her like a lovesick puppy and she wasn’t going to have any of that. She liked her life the way it was now, for the most part uncomplicated. This beast had trouble written all over him. Storm decided it was time to lose the leader of the Zar—goonies.
A sharp sound pierced the air and Citun swore. The sky darkened. Two war birds were overhead. Shuttles zipped past while fire lit the sky with explosions. All hell broke loose as a blast hit the pond and they were showered with spray. Saturated, Storm’s hair fell over her eyes and she was blinded as she frantically swatted the strands back and gasped for air. She slipped both hands under her hair to pull it away from her face in time to see another flash to her left. Storm screamed when Citun yanked her over his shoulder and began to run.
Chapter 2
“Put me down,” Storm screamed.
“Not yet,” was his reply.
Citun was trying to gain his second wind as he ran. The terrain flew under his feet. He hadn’t taken in much water. When a Zargonnii ran out of breath under water, body systems shut down to give them extra time—no matter what his mind was thinking. With a warrior’s body, he had self-preservation embedded in his DNA. The Gorgano may or may not have realized this. Technically, the female did save his life by killing the Gorgano. Right now, they had a bigger problem.
A Gorgano war bird skimmed over the planet surface. Citun hoped his first officer Jari was constantly changing the configurations for the shield. A trick to keep the Gorgano from boarding and mind-battling. He wished they could have brought a human female from their planet but all were mated with young ones; he would never risk a life.
Glancing up, he could see his ship on the heels of the Gorganos. If his tracking device wasn’t busted, Jari could haul his ass to safety, but that would mean dropping the force field, something they couldn’t do. He and the human in his arms were in deep shit. Not only were they being fired on but fallout was landing precariously close from Gorgano shuttles. The bastards were desperate, Citun didn’t realize how desperate until now. Some inkling in his guts told him it was Storm they were after. They couldn’t have her. She’d saved his life. She could mind-battle.
Citun knew the enemy wouldn’t land, but they would transport them up if they could center on him. He couldn’t mind-battle, but he was a fast son of a bitch; his speed was all there was between death and safety at the present moment. A zigzag was best, a constant change of pattern and an intermittent one at that. A straight line would get them to a destination quicker, but that wasn’t what he needed in their situation. There was no destination, except safety, wherever the hell that may be.
If Citun was separated from Storm, he was as good as dead. He hated using a defenseless human female, but at this very moment she was the best defense they had, as long as he was fast enough to keep her. She didn’t fight him, or mind-battle, and Citun knew he didn’t have much time before she tried to knock his brains out. He needed to get them to safety and explain to her why she was safer with him.
If there were Gorgano, there would be rogue Tonan warriors. If they knew, and Citun was certain they did, that there was a human mind-battler the area would turn toxic. Citun finally had a human female in his arms; he wasn’t about to give he
r up. He pumped his legs that much faster after his thought.
The inky black grass and surrounding small foliage soon became a terrain filled with indigo rocks and boulders, with lightning blazes of pink crystal. Startling gold flecks reflected the sun on numerous standing rock formations. The farther they went from the source of water, the taller the rocks, until pillar creations abounded. Citun was a fast bastard even by Zargonnii standards. Storm was beating on his back and ass. Her gestures more frantic than angry. She was trying to get his attention.
“Uhhh, Citun?” she bellowed. “You might want to run faster.”
Citun glanced back and watched a rapid fire of red and blue bursts of laser beams eat up the ground coming too close for comfort. Small explosions erupted and Storm cried out, yelling when particles hit her flesh. He’d discreetly noticed earlier that her garments were minimal. Nice for him to look at, all her sweet exposed tanned curves, but not so nice when flesh was being used as target practice. Citun pulled her from his shoulder and wrapped her in his arms. His long hair snugly conformed to her lush body, leaving his hands free. The action was meant to cradle a son in the harshness of his northern territory. Pressed against him, she was cocooned in safety. For the moment.
A massive blast to his left and huge stone pieces from pillars began to topple. A shuttle all ablaze smashed straight down onto a column crushing it. A fast glance and he saw it was a drone vessel, he should have known the Gorgano were too chicken to actually board one to fight. Crashing, splitting, the massive mounds made the earth shake. The stones were images, strange alien faces, huge symbols from ten to forty feet in height. Ancient relics destroyed in a war rant for a lone Zargonnii and a small human female. Pricks. At some time intelligent life lived here; now the artifacts were obliterated.
“Storm, if there are other females on this planet you can connect with, now would be a good time before we get our asses handed to us.”
“Huh?” She was prying her fingers through his hair to create a place to peek.
Citun lunged up as another blast almost sent him spinning. He jumped from one huge boulder, flipped upside down, arms and legs stretched as he spun and landed with a thump, racing again.
“Connect. Mentally. Can you link with other humans here?”
Another blast, both of his feet connected with hard stone as he ran as vertically up the rock as possible, then sideways until the blasts on the ground ceased.
“That’s a problem because the other females here aren’t actually human.” She was talking from the small space she created; only her pursed lips were visible.
Citun was hard-pressed not to stop dead. “You aren’t human?”
“I didn’t say that.”
He was once again on the ground. A massive explosion stopped Citun, and the earth beneath them crumbled. They were falling. Shit. Citun curled his arms around Storm and bent his knees slightly to brace for impact. The ground was a long time in coming, when his feet finally connected to the ground it was a shock. Citun had no choice except to roll, cradling Storm to protect her as best as he could.
When their tumbling ceased, Citun was smashed against a hard surface, his breath expelled in a whoosh. His hair used for protecting a small male child conformed to protect Citun as well. Half the amount cocooning Storm wasn’t enough to keep her in place. Storm was sprawled belly down over top of him. She groaned as she straddled him and punched him in the chest.
“I knew you’d be trouble.” She pulled her lips back in a snarl.
“You killed the Gorgano,” he drawled.
“I also saved you.”
“I just saved you.”
“Fine. We’re even. Good-bye.”
Storm struggled to remove her leg from his side, but half her foot was trapped under his hip. She tugged, her hands splayed on his bare oval belly. Citun didn’t move. He wasn’t hurting her, but she wasn’t going anywhere unless he allowed it.
“Move, fat ass,” she finally yelled.
She was speaking English, but Citun had been around enough human females to understand the derogatory tone and the three simple words. Citun was beginning to learn a number of different languages, but spoke only a few words in each different language. There was something about Zargonnii warrior’s throats, or so the healer Finn surmised, keeping the hardened warriors from saying too much in different tongues. The growls and grunts of his own speech was so much simpler.
“Why do humans say ‘good’ bye, when leaving can be sad?” Citun asked in his language.
“Yeah, I’ll cry all night,” she grumbled.
“I won’t hurt you,” Citun said. He kept his tone soft seeing her mounting distress.
“Says you and ah, oh, let’s see,” she said and lifted a hand to begin counting on her fingers. “A Tonan, an assassin from hell claiming to be from a planet called Brax, a snake-man or man-snake. And last but not least a Cono. You make an even five.” She made a fist. “A blasted handful,” she yelled.
Citun took her fist and gently pried her fingers loose. “Tonans can be evil, but some are looking for mates. I heard the Braxians have their hands full with a few wayward assassins, all deadly. Since you are alive, I’m guessing you killed the assassin or he actually let you live.” She colored and he guessed the latter.
“He was hideous,” she whispered.
“Most are. The snake-man might have been from a different dimension. I admit I’ve never heard of a Cono before.”
Citun shifted to release her, and she crawled off him to sit at his side. Her long dark hair covered her features until she raised her face and he was impaled by beautiful blue eyes. Delicate cheek bones, white teeth, rounded globes for breasts peeked from under a tiny leather tanned shirt having come askew, Citun was certain he found his mate. When she noticed where his gaze settled, she stuffed the beauties back into her shirt, hiding half of them from view.
“Eyes forward. The girls don’t speak; if they did, I know what they’d say.” She sounded pissed. “The universe sucks goobers,” she then muttered under her breath.
Citun chuckled. She seemed to lack the expletives of many Earth females. And to a male of his species breasts spoke volumes considering Zargonnii females only had them when they nursed. To Citun, human female breasts were gifts. Something to be celebrated, honored and treasured, not ogled. They were part of a woman’s beauty, serving a purpose, a reminder of life. He cupped her chin and smiled at her.
“Are the Cono goobers?”
“They are creatures who live on this planet. Only the most powerful males mate with the females of their kind. The horny young ones will copulate with anything.”
“Did you land with other humans?”
“Yes, originally.” Her tone was subdued and sad. “We were told we were headed to Ulsy, but the second we landed we knew we were duped. The shuttle pilot took off and abandoned us; he was a Tonan. When we protested right before he left, he changed into a different creature and shocked the hell out of us. We had been traveling with a monster all that time and never knew. The alien had claws and talons. Even though we tried to systematically attack, we failed and the Tonan killed a man in front of us to show us how easy it would be to do away with us. Their power is nothing short of phenomenal.
“We were to be cultivated. The Tonans expected us to be good little humans and copulate our brains out so we could hand over our daughters in the future. Happen, not gonna. There were two men left and eight women. The men were killed the first month by the male Cono, who are very territorial. There was no defending the men; they were slaughtered. The Cono spared the women in the beginning. Considered no threat, maybe even a novelty because of our size, we were left alone for a long time, surviving together, making a life. It wasn’t perfect, but we managed, finding food and clothes, making fire. Every once in a while, a shuttle would appear; some of the human females were taken and different females would be dropped off, alien females. We accepted each other and our differences. Then other aliens began landing and the Cono grew a
ngry. Cono began getting hurt, their land violated. The aliens were cruel, most male, I’m not sure what the heck sex a Gorgano is, and regardless, those aliens didn’t care what they killed while trying to get what they wanted. Us, dead or alive.
“Not brilliant beings, the Cono were smart enough to know humans and females were the cause of their problems. You see, the Tonan cultivated not only human females, but alien females they thought Castians would mate with. Maybe the Cono thought since other males wanted females of other species dead we were worthless. Who knows? The damage was done. The Cono waged war on females, all alien females, but you could see their hearts weren’t in it. They only wanted to protect their own females and young. They killed other females as mercifully as possible. The Cono are incredibly strong. But the Gorgano came, too late for many but not me, they gave me an edge when I confronted one and killed it. I was so angry after losing so much and so many friends. Some females, human and others, were stolen by aliens. I’m the only human on this planet who has survived as far as I know, but not the only female.”
“Do you communicate with other females?”
“We found when we grouped together there was death in numbers, not safety. If a single female had her period, um, a time of month we bleed, it could mean all our deaths if we were together. The Cono hunt a female in heat relentlessly. Females on the rag don’t sleep for days at a time, always on the run. We separated. I see others from time to time. If it’s safe to be together we talk for a few hours or days. Ultimately, we are alone.”
“The Cono can’t be bright if they didn’t protect females, females of any kind, and take them as their own.”
“There’s no way. They’re built too different.”
“Zargonnii and humans are entirely compatible.”
Citun’s Storm Page 2
