Snowed in with the Alien Beast

by Kate Rudolph

  Stella gave a little shake of her head and looked back towards the opening behind them. Even though it was dark, he saw a splash of color warm her cheeks as she realized where they were.

  When she slid her bra back into place, he wanted to protest. His eyes were starved for the sight of this beautiful woman’s flesh and if he had his way, she’d never wear clothing again, at least not when they were alone. But danger persisted.

  She reached around and her face scrunched up as she tried to reclasp the piece. Arest pulled her close, turning her in his lap and biting his lip at the delicious torture as her ass brushed against his cock. He forced himself to put her to rights, clasping the bra in place and letting her go with only one gentle kiss on the side of her neck.

  Stella studied him, a question he couldn’t decipher in her eyes. After a moment, she turned and picked her shirt up rather than asking. She gave it a good shake, but that didn’t stop it from being covered in dirt and blood. Arest checked his bandage and pressed against the wound, but it had already started to heal. In a few hours, it would be nothing more than a scar.

  Stella’s head disappeared behind her shirt and she pulled it on, mussing her hair even more. She grimaced as it settled into place and heaved a sigh that had nothing to do with pleasure. She looked at him once more. “Should we... talk about,” she waved her hand back and forth between them, “that?”

  Arest grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, placing a gentle kiss on her wrist. Her pulse beat fast and strong under his mouth.

  “Is that a yes or a no?” She didn’t pull away.

  Arest grinned and laced his fingers through her own, ever wary of his claws. They kept her safe, but every time he got too close, he put her at risk. He’d have gladly torn them off, if only they weren’t at risk of attack by more of the tunnel and cave dwelling creatures.

  When she stood, he cupped her head with his other hand and captured her mouth in a searing kiss, branding her with his lips, claiming her without words. He’d learned that words were liars. Action was the only real truth.

  That dazed look returned when he pulled back, Stella’s pupils big and unfocused, her lips open and swollen. She blinked and glanced down at their hands and then back up to him. He couldn’t stop grinning. “Oh yeah, we definitely need to talk about this.”

  A guttural growl echoed around them, harsh enough to set Arest’s teeth on edge and wipe the grin off his face, but far enough away that Stella wasn’t in immediate danger.

  “Later,” she added. “I’m not done with you.”

  And if he was smart and luckier than any man had a right to be, she never would be. He didn’t know how to protect her from the men that tried to own and destroy him. He didn’t know how to get out of these tunnels and find a way to safety. But he’d find his way for her.

  He didn’t have another choice.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THEY DIDN’T STICK AROUND to cuddle. And as much as Stella wanted to get her hands—and lips—on Arest, she was glad. This cave gave her the creeps and there were too many of those monsters lurking for her to ever feel safe, even with her beastly man walking at her side.

  The path up and away from the water seemed steeper than it had been coming down, but Stella kept her lips sealed as her calves burned. Arest had been fighting hulking monsters and doing most of the hard work, she could handle a little walk uphill.

  No monsters lurked on the way back up and they made it to the crack in the wall without incident. Without stopping to discuss it, she went first. The monsters were lurking behind them. Hopefully. The halls of the tunnel weren’t exactly safe, but they were well lit.

  Still, Stella scrambled as fast as she could and gave the room a good look around before daring to step out. Arest was only a second behind her. She had no idea how long they’d been in the cave. With no clock and no sun, telling time was an impossible task. But she didn’t think they’d been there for long. They’d only taken enough time for water, a snack, and pleasure.

  She squeezed her thighs together as she remembered the press of Arest’s lips against her. Being a man, he had, of course, not wanted to talk about it. But she could sense a change in him, in them. Before they’d been two fellow survivors, relying on one another out of proximity and need. Now... now she knew she couldn’t leave this place without him. And if anyone from the outside came to hurt him, she’d do everything she could to stop it. She’d meant what she said to him. She would protect him from the ‘trainers,’ whoever they were.

  He was hers.

  Maybe she should have been scared by the intensity of that thought, but it was too perfect, too right. He walked half a step in front of her, giving her a view of those strong muscles and his tight ass moving under his loose pants. Mine. She more than wanted him. She didn’t just want his big claws protecting her from the monsters that lurked around them. She wanted him to hold her, to kiss her, to keep her close and never let her go.

  Stella didn’t think like that normally, and she would have run screaming if they were back on Earth. But they were locked in a tunnel on some strange planet, and there was no running from this. From him. She knew that she should sink back into herself, erect an emotional wall and give herself that modicum of protection.

  But then Arest glanced over at her, that devilish grin glinting on his lips, and her heart flipped and opened up.

  No wall could stand up against that smile.

  She grabbed onto his hand and stood up next to him. She liked touching him, being touched by him, and since it was the only luxury right now, she’d take it and not let go. Hand in hand, they climbed back up the hallway where they’d come from. When they reached the top, her brow furrowed.

  “This hallway wasn’t here last time,” she said. Where once there’d only been the path down, now a new hallway branched out to the left, long and brightly lit without a monster in sight. The path they’d been following led straight ahead, but the lights seemed dimmer. She could only see a dozen or so meters down the way. Beyond that it was all gloom and mystery.

  Arest gave a little grunt she took as agreement. Maybe he’d never be a chatty fellow, but she could get used to that. She’d never been much of a talker either.

  They both looked down the way they’d been going. Stella didn’t like the new path. Why had it appeared? She couldn’t see a seam in the wall where a door would have been, but she supposed there must be one. This place had too many secrets. She just wanted to take Arest home and keep him in her bed for a week.

  Maybe a month.

  “Do you think we triggered the door somewhere?” she asked. “Or... are we being led somewhere?”

  Arest shrugged, and Stella supposed he was right. At the moment, it didn’t really matter.

  They looked at one another and then down the new path before stepping into the brightly lit hallway, finally going somewhere that they hadn’t yet traveled.

  When the door slid shut behind them, Stella just rolled her eyes. She was too sick of this place to be scared.

  THIS NEW SECTION OF the tunnels was as much of a maze as the first, but Arest mapped it out in his mind just the same, tracking their turns and counting his steps. By the third hallway they came to, he knew the answer to Stella’s question.

  They were being herded somewhere.

  Lights dimmed and lit, doors opened and closed, and they even found a pack full of energy bars that they both ate with glee. Perhaps they’d never been meant to go into that cavern and now whoever controlled these tunnels had given up subtlety to lead them where they were meant to go.

  Or, perhaps, surviving the cavern had proved something to the controllers. Either way, Arest could feel that they were getting close to something big. The place stank of moisture and things long dead, but at the edge of his senses there was something else, something he couldn’t quite latch onto.

  Up ahead, air whooshed as a door opened and closed. Arest tensed, letting go of Stella’s hand. She dropped back a step, sensing the change in him as he foc
used on the danger up ahead. He held up a hand, urging her to stay in place as he moved forward a few steps, trying to see if a creature had been let into the hallways.

  Under his feet, the floor was uneven. He looked down and saw giant gouges in the stone. They looked like they’d been raked there with giant claws from a beast at least twice his size. Arest knelt low, drawing in deep breaths and tracking the scents. But there was nothing but him and Stella and the stench of the hallway.

  He turned around to beckon her forward. Given the tunnels’ nasty habit of opening and closing invisible doors, he hadn’t stepped far away. But behind him, the wall slid shut with a silent whisper and locked into place with a click almost too quiet for him to hear.

  Rage poured through him and Arest surged up, launching himself at the door with a possessed madness. He screamed, the sound ripping out of his throat and scraping glass from mouth to lungs. He didn’t care, he couldn’t feel it. He barely noticed that the lights remained on, and if one of the tunnel creatures attacked him right then, he’d end the thing in a single swipe of claws.

  No matter how he tried, he couldn’t move the wall. His heart beat fast enough for him to hear and sweat beaded his brow as energy flooded him, urged him to do anything to find Stella. He punched the wall, uncaring of the pain in his knuckles as they took the brunt of the damage and barely dented the stone.

  When that did nothing, he turned to his claws, scraping and digging into the deep gouges that were already there.

  That made him pause.

  He looked back down at the ground and saw those same claw marks that he’d noted earlier. He placed his palm on the marks and confirmed that they were twice as big as his own hand, big enough to rip through metal and tear away the side of a building.

  But not big enough to ram through stone.

  At least the claw marks were on this side of the tunnel. Arest would fight anything that posed a threat to Stella, and if there was something here, he had to find it and end it. For her.

  He waited, but nothing stirred in the shadows down the hall. Nothing clung to the ceiling waiting to drop down on him. The hallway stretched down as far as he could see, and none of his senses hinted at any danger. He was alone, cut off from his woman.

  A memory of the room they’d slept in stirred, and he ran his hands along the walls, looking for a control panel to the door. But this time there was nothing but solid stone. Nothing that would let him turn back and find her.

  He placed his ear against the rock and quieted his body as best he could. His heart still beat a mad rhythm, but he could make out the distant drip of water and hear his own breath once again. But nothing trickled in through the stone, not even the muffled hope of a sound. If Stella was back there, he couldn’t hear.

  And in his heart, he knew that this had been done on purpose. Whoever owned these tunnels didn’t want them together for whatever came next. And Arest didn’t know if they wanted him to do their dirty work, as he’d done so many times before, or if this was a more sinister game, one where he was the bystander and Stella the target.

  It didn’t matter. He’d tear down these tunnels brick by brick if that was what it took to get her back.

  Purpose settled over him, not quite calming the beast, but giving him a direction. He could waste the night away raging at the door and failing to get it open. He knew that if there were controls on the other end, Stella would have done her part and let him through. But since she hadn’t, he had to find another way to her.

  He turned his gaze back to the hallway behind him. The light seemed to pulse to the beat of his heart, and at first he thought it was an illusion from the rush of rage he’d only started to come down from. But the pulsing grew stronger and Arest knew this was the path he needed to take.

  He’d kill anyone or anything that dared to touch his woman, and when he was done, this place would be a smoldering ruin, with no one left to remember it.

  CHAPTER NINE

  BANGING ON THE ROCK did nothing but bruise her hands and make her knuckles bleed. Kicking did even less. Stella wished she could say that she wasn’t panicking, but her heart pounded in her throat and every sense went on high alert. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she couldn’t stop looking behind her, terrified that one of the monsters from the cave would jump out and tackle her.

  She was alone.

  She screamed.

  It did nothing.

  Grasping for some hint of sanity, she ran her hands along the wall, searching for a control panel to open the door back up. In the room they’d found before, lights had blinked and the controls were easy to find. Here all she saw was solid rock and dashed hopes. Still, she dug her fingers into a jagged seam in the stone and ripped at it until one of her nails tore away, making her gasp.

  No hidden panel, just a useless crack.

  She slapped a hand hard against the wall, the sting climbing all the way up to her shoulder, but still nothing happened.

  Stella forced herself to pull back. She pressed her ear up to the wall and heard nothing from the other side, but she knew that didn’t mean anything. The door was probably as thick as her arm and made from solid rock, of course it would be silent. She needed to think.

  She and Arest hadn’t run into any of the monsters in a while, but he’d seen something that spooked him, something that made him go ahead. That meant that there could be a monster in there with him now and he had to fight it before he could figure out how to open the door. That was what happened before. Monster, closed door, fight, open door, body.

  But that had only taken minutes. How long had they been separated?

  Now Stella really wished she had a watch. Every second dragged on into eternity and with every imagined tick, Arest could be bleeding out. And then they’d come for her.

  She looked for another panel, but even though she’d calmed down a little, nothing revealed itself to her. One, two, three, four, five, she counted the seconds one by one until a minute passed and then another, hoping a bit of patience would open the door for her. But patience did shit.

  Stella forced herself to turn away and look back down the hallway. They’d been walking for a while and the hallway was just as bare as it had been when they stepped down it the first time. Except for a subtly blinking light.

  She placed a hand on the wall behind her and took two small steps to it, hesitating when she reached the end of her arm. She didn’t want to get further from the door in case it opened, but the light beckoned. Stella forced her hand away, curling her fingers into a fist and pulling her arm in, even if it felt like she was moving through molasses to do so.

  Each step back down the hall echoed eerily around her, and she kept turning her head back to make sure the door hadn’t slid open. The farther she stepped away, the brighter the light down the hall pulsed. With a gentle whoosh, a door she hadn’t noticed before slid open, the lights beyond it almost bright enough to blind her. She couldn’t make out anything in the room, but now the hallway seemed dim in comparison.

  She gave the wall that Arest was trapped behind one last look. She had no way to get it open, and as the minutes passed it became clear that he was in the same situation. Her only choice was to find another way around, and she knew that there was nothing back the way she came.

  So she stepped through the door with nothing more than a prayer in her thoughts.

  The bright lights dimmed to a more manageable level, and the door slid shut behind her. Stella didn’t flinch—she didn’t think there was anything in the place that could surprise her anymore. It was hell. Or purgatory. And while it kept her and Arest safe from the whirling snow outside, it was far more dangerous than any blizzard could ever be.

  She was still in a hallway, almost like every other one she’d traversed so far. But instead of the solid beige that dulled her senses, the bottom half of the walls were painted steel gray, and metal grating lined the ceiling. She studied it for several moments, trying to determine if it was meant for storage or as a walkway.


  Stella tried to imagine a map in her head as she walked these new halls alone. She’d relied on Arest to show her the way before, but now she had to find him. And to do that, she couldn’t afford to get lost. Of course, whoever controlled these halls seemed to be leading her. Since she hadn’t encountered a single monster since the lights started leading them, she decided to trust them for the moment. She didn’t see that she had another choice.

  The hallway split, one way lit and the other dark. Though a contrarian part of her was tempted to turn left and take the darkened path, she went right and followed the light. Her fingers shook and she curled them into fists, sticking them into her pocket to try and hide the evidence of her discomfort.

  It was colder here and her dirty shirt didn’t do much to protect her from the chill. Her teeth chattered and wind buffeted her hair, blowing it in her face. That had to mean she was getting closer to an exit. Right?

  Stella picked up her pace, jogging down the hall as far as the lights were lit. It got colder and colder, but her speed kept her from shivering. But instead of an exit, the hallway turned again, and it grew warmer, more comfortable. Her teeth stopped chattering and she slowed down, confused.

  The next break in the hall gave her a choice. She could turn left or keep going straight. And this time both hallways were flooded with bright white light. She could see that the leftward hallway curved and headed back the way she came, and the air was cooler. Maybe down there she would find an exit and help.

  If she kept going straight, she would head deeper into the tunnels, and toward whatever trouble lurked.

  But Arest was stuck in there. She didn’t have a choice at all.

  She kept going straight. And when she came to the door at the end, it slid open silently and she walked through without any hesitation.