MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance)

by Claire Branson

  Amanda felt a lump rise in her throat, and if she hadn’t been so intoxicated by the strange creature before her, she would have wished she was still back at Marie’s dealing with “Dr. Peter Albert, Psychiatrist.” At least he was human.

  Amanda’s ethereal companion could tell she was having a hard time digesting things, so he flicked his fingers again. Out of nowhere, an old-school jukebox appeared in the middle of the room, and, in an instant, Amanda and the being were standing beside it.

  “Classic rock?” the figure asked, leaning over the glass of the machine, turning the knob at its side. “Led Zeppelin’s your favorite—or at least it was—if I’m not mistaken.”

  Amanda nodded her head, and a moment later heard Robert Plant’s voice wailing from the machine. She couldn’t tell exactly what song it was he was singing, and she wasn’t sure it was anyone in particular to begin with. The sound that came out of the jukebox was like a mix of everything the band had ever done, and, instead of sounding dissident or unbalanced, it sounded beautiful, in both perfect harmony and rhythm.

  “May I have this dance?” the mysterious being said, holding out his hand to Amanda.

  Without answering, Amanda found herself in his arms, lulled by his presence as well as the hard rock hodgepodge coming out of the jukebox. “Baby steps,” he whispered into her, making a noise that sounded like laughter. “I guess we still need some of the bells and whistles after all.”

  “I guess so,” Amanda replied, echoing back. She didn’t know why she’d said it, but it seemed like the right thing to say at the moment. In another quick flash, the holographic room around them shifted again, and Amanda found herself in what looked like a gymnasium, surrounded by people half her age. She immediately thought back to her 8th grade end-of-year dance, which she’d gone to with a handsome 13-year-old named Bobby Byers. She remembered dancing with him to some cheesy Led Zeppelin song and fainting in his arms when it was over. It had taken her a few years to live that one down with her peers, and she’d harbored a soft spot for Zeppelin ever since then.

  “You were there,” Amanda said, and the moment she said it, she realized that she’d said it, not asked it. “You always have been,” she added, bringing her lips closer to his, wanting so badly to taste his sweetness.

  “Not always,” he said without moving his lips. “But most of the time.”

  In a flash almost as quickly as the flashes that indicated the changes in scenery, Amanda was rushed with a series of images and realizations. All those times she’d “fainted” or, later, “blacked out from drinking,” she hadn’t lost complete control of herself and her senses. She’d gone somewhere else. She’d gone to this place. She’d been here before—many times and many times more than she could remember.

  The space around her transformed into a playground, and she saw herself spazzing out over a busted tooth that a bully had just knocked out of her mouth. Next, she was in an empty classroom, playing checkers with a child who was just as upset as she was; then she was off at college, drunk and hunched over a toilet. She saw herself at her mother’s funeral, staring over the casket with an unidentifiable shadow looming behind her, and she could hear someone whispering in her ear only moments before she walked in on Tommy cheating.

  The images kept coming at Amanda, one after the other, until she saw herself on the same road she’d traveled earlier that night, headed in the opposite direction. She saw a great light, and then she was grounded back in the moment. The space around her was again a bar scene, with its lone table and lone jukebox, still playing some collection of Led Zeppelin.

  “The crossroads?” she asked, pulling back from her dancing partner without moving away from him.

  “I guess you could call it that,” he said. “It’s a shared stop on our common highway.”

  He was dancing with Amanda to a new rhythm now, and it seemed a little too fast for her liking. She wanted to slow things down a bit, but she couldn’t do anything to change the sounds coming out around her.

  The more she was around this creature, the more lucid Amanda became, and the more things started to make sense to her, even though this situation was far beyond anything that she could have imagined.

  “Why now?” Amanda asked, intuitively waving a peace sign across her eyes, dancing to the hippie tunes that were playing around her. It was like a scene from a 1970’s disco movie starring Jon Travolta, the kind she stayed up far too late watching as a child. She didn’t want to execute the corny dance moves, but she felt compelled to do so—and so did her sleek, sexy companion.

  “You must have called it ‘the crossroads’ for a reason,” he said, making some strange step that made him look like a robot climbing a ladder. “You’re here because you have to make a very important decision.”

  The otherworldly being continued to make a fool of himself with weird dance moves, and, as Amanda watched him, she started to get an inkling of an idea of the choice before her, and if it was what she thought it was, it wouldn’t be that difficult.

  Chapter 9

  “Some things make a little more sense than your awkward dance moves,” Amanda said, stopping her silly gestures. In a flash like so many that had already happened, the music changed from disco to a slow ballad—Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, to be specific.

  The dark-haired, pale-skinned, and steely-eyed creature stopped short and stared at Amanda, unable to fathom how someone other than him had changed the music.

  “You’re full of surprises,” he said, pulling her close to him as Clapton sang on.

  “I am?” she quipped back, taking his hand into hers, forcing him to swirl her around in a more extravagant, gentlemanly fashion. “I’m not the one to toss your concept of reality on its ass, now am I?”

  If it hadn’t been for how comfortable and at home Amanda felt with the strange being, she wouldn’t have been able to joke with him so freely. There were still millions of questions she wanted answered, and things slowly but surely were becoming clearer to her, and, surprisingly, she was tremendously at ease with everything.

  As Clapton sang about his lady love putting on her makeup and brushing her hair, Amanda gazed into the steely gray eyes of her partner. She knew that she’d known them forever and felt no hesitation as she closed her own and moved her head forward, forcing her lips against the not-so-strange-to-her stranger’s.

  The next thing Amanda felt was the familiar feeling of swelling inside her—something ebbing and bowing against every inch of her flesh from the inside. It felt as if an octopus had crawled inside her and had extended its tentacles out in every possible direction, pushing and pulling her to her limits and challenging her most tender boundaries.

  She felt the sensation in her head, her arms, her legs, and, of course, her most sensitive regions, and it pulsed throughout her body to the most delicate, yet steady rhythm. It was breathtaking and enchanting, and just as Amanda felt her body curling toward carnal completion, she gazed up at her stealthy dance partner, who didn’t seem at all fazed by any step in their repertoire.

  “This is wonderful,” she said, referring to both the feelings she felt at that moment and the entire situation. “If I’m here to make a choice,” she went on, “I’m ready to make it.”

  Amanda reached to touch her partner where many would want to be touched, but he grabbed her hand and pushed it away. “Baby steps,” he whispered in her ear again, a little louder than the last time, just to make sure she heard it.

  Amanda felt a little slighted by his rejection but wasn’t about to let that stop her. She reached for him again, and this time she wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.

  The moment she touched his manhood—or the place where his manhood should be—Amanda was overcome by an incredible stimulation. She felt herself being touched the way she was touching him, even though his hands weren’t moving. She gasped as shivers went down her spine. She’d touched at least a dozen penises before, but even though what she felt was hard, throbbing, and ready, it wasn�
��t a penis like any she’d ever known before, and it wasn’t like anything she’d ever known before.

  Another shot of light flashed through the room, and, before Amanda realized it, the music had stopped playing, and she was seated at the table with her companion. As she looked at him, for the first time, she could make out the specific details of his features. He looked sad, upset, and challenged. He was obviously weighing something in his mind, though Amanda had no idea what.

  Amanda rose from her feet and walked over in front of the mysterious being. She knelt down on the floor in front of him, gazed up at him, and spoke directly into his steely gray eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Alocar,” she said. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” Amanda had no idea where the words—or the name—came from, but they rolled off of her tongue as if they were second nature.

  “It’s okay,” her mysterious companion said, leaning forward to kiss her. She was running her hands up his thighs, and there was no way he could resist going in for more.

  “I’m not Alocar though,” he said, a moment after their tongues had touched and given new life to the octopus inside of Amanda. “I’m Khavere,” he added, pitching his back against the chair as Amanda rose to mount him.

  “Khavere?” Amanda asked, perplexed but not desisting. She was on top of her companion now, and again felt as if he was inside of her. “Who the hell is ‘Alocar’ then?”

  Amanda grinded herself against Khavere, not expecting to hear an answer, but, no sooner than she felt her muscles churning inside of her, she got an answer.

  “I am,” another voice sounded. Amanda looked up just in time to see another man standing by the jukebox. He looked exactly like the creature she was on top of. He had the same pale ashen skin, the same mussy black hair, and the same steely gray eyes. He was like a mirror image of the man beneath her, only he was some distance away, standing in front of the music machine. He flipped a coin in his hand, and then he willed it into the slot, causing a different song to blare out around them.

  Wicked Game by Chris Isaac filled the space around Amanda, and she felt totally in-tune with the concept behind the handsome hunk’s lyrics.

  “There are two of you?” she asked, taking in the identical creatures.

  “Yes,” Alocar said back to her silently. “There always have been.”

  “That’s why you’re here,” Khavere added, though Amanda struggled to understand who was saying what amongst all the words that came at her.

  “You have to make a choice,” both beings seemed to tell her at the same time.

  Amanda bit down on her lip, closed her eyes, and prayed that she’d wake up somewhere else, in some other place rather than wherever it was that she was. But, the moment she opened her eyes, Amanda realized that her pleas to God and the Universe had been futile. She was still right where she’d been, not a minute earlier, staring down the faces of two beings who she would’ve, and did, mistake for one.

  She thought of all those other times in her life when she’d been put in challenging, precarious positions, and she prayed, against the odds, for the same guidance and help she’d received then, but, as she stared out at the two dark-haired, light-skinned, and steel-eyed creatures before her, she knew that the “help” would never come. It was already there. One—or both—of them had given it to her before, and it was now only a matter of deciding which one of these two souls would help her now. Which one of them really had her in his best interests?

  For some, it might have been an easy decision. But, for Amanda, it wasn’t—and neither was it for her suitors. What Amanda didn’t know at the time was that her decision carried great import with it, and how she’d act in the next few minutes would not only determine her fate, but could determine the fate of the whole universe and an entire breed, if not two, of its people.

  “I think you both have some explaining to do,” Amanda said, closing her eyes and opening her mind. The two incredibly captivating creatures looked at each other, then both looked at Amanda.

  “Okay”—the words came at Amanda in another flash, which carried her away to a distant place and time. It felt strange to her, but she had no choice but to give in to the moment.

  The End

  Desired by the Alien Prince

  A Scifi Alien Abduction Romance

  Chapter 1

  So much had happened this past week! Melanie Collier needed a weekend of relaxation, and her family cabin by the lake was the perfect place to get it. As she sat in the Adirondack chair she’d placed in the sand, she reflected on what had happened.

  First, her boss had disappeared without a word. Since she was his administrative assistant, she was surprised that he hadn’t even left her a note to explain his absence. Jared Scott had never done such a thing before, and she was quite concerned about him. Just six months ago his wife had died in a car accident, which had sent Jared into a tailspin. Once, he’d told her that it would have been easier for him to adjust if she’d had cancer. At least then he would have been able to prepare for the death of his spouse of just three years.

  With him gone, she’d had to take over the running of his electronics manufacturing company. Not that the work was hard. It wasn’t, since she spent many hours a day handling his tedious work, as well as helping him with the more intricate business he needed to do. That just made every day very busy. Adding that to her worry, she found herself exhausted each evening.

  On Thursday, though, he’d called before work to leave a message on her answering machine. In a hoarse voice that sounded little like him, he explained that he had been sick with laryngitis. Her worry abated, she finished the week with less stress.

  Unwinding at the lake cabin her parents had left her in their wills was her lifeline right now. She’d even lent the keys to Jared, so he could put his wife’s death into perspective. He’d returned to work feeling a little better, but he, naturally, was still depressed.

  The Minnesota summer sun and light breeze soothed her into a light slumber. It was so relaxing. The waves gently lapped against the shore, lulling her deeper to sleep.

  Jared’s face appeared in her mind, a bit ruddy and somewhat rounded but otherwise quite handsome. His red hair hung just below his ear lobes, the soft curls showing off his Scottish ancestry. And his blue eyes … those deep blue eyes that had captured her attention so many times when she’d first come to work for him two years earlier. Thank goodness, she’d gotten used to their penetrating gaze. She had no desire to take this man away from his wife. Now, she was used to his eyes, though, and they had become good friends.

  But something was different about Jared, something she couldn’t quite place. She scanned down his long, lean body. On the way back up, she noticed it. He had a burn of some sort around his neck.

  Melanie jolted awake. Had that been a premonition—or a dream of why Jared had sounded so hoarse on the phone? Had he tried to commit suicide and failed? Now, Melanie was really worried.

  She grabbed her smartphone, woke it up, and touched his picture that linked to his phone number. Putting the phone against her ear, she waited. Nothing, not a ring, not even his voice telling her to leave a message. She glanced at the phone. She’d known she didn’t have cell service here, so why had she even tried?

  Running into the cabin, she grabbed her purse off the nearby counter then raced to her car, got in, and sped out of the driveway, sending gravel flying. She had to get back to Rochester and find Jared. She had to make sure he was safe.

  Not a mile after she was on the main road, however, a loud noise startled her, and her car veered. She struggled to maintain control of the vehicle, but she slid off the road. When she crashed into the ditch, the airbag deployed, thrusting her head backward and to the left. The side of her head hit the door frame with such force that she cried out in pain. Then everything went black.

  Chapter 2

  “Get her out of there!” a man shouted.

  “I can’t!” another one replied. “The seatbelt’s stuck.”

&nb
sp; “Here.”

  Melanie opened her eyes and saw a man with a knife cut the seatbelt. She’d seen this man before. He’d been watching her when she was getting groceries for the weekend.

  The man pulled her from the car and guided her toward a minivan. Oh, no, they wouldn’t! She wasn’t about to get into a car with a stranger.

  She struggled against him. The other man grabbed her arm, and she kicked him in the groin. He doubled over in pain. Still the first man held onto her arm.

  “Let us help you,” he said without releasing her.

  Melanie jerked her arm from his grip and ran in the opposite direction. Then she heard hoof beats. Hoof beats? Out on a main road in the middle of nowhere? She looked toward the sound. A pure white horse raced toward her—carrying a knight in shining armor.

  You’ve got to be kidding me! She thought in a panic. A knight on a white horse? She had to be dreaming. That was it. She was delirious because she’d hit her head so hard, but she continued to run.

  The horse grew closer. With his armor clanking, the knight reached down and grabbed her. His cold gauntlet wrapped around her arm, and her feet left the ground. The next thing she knew, she was on the saddle before this man, this knight. He had swept her off her feet with seemingly no effort.

  Through the helmet, he spoke in a hoarse, muffled voice. “You are safe now.”

  Melanie said nothing. Where was he taking her? And was she truly safe? Nobody was going to believe her if she reported this to the police. What would she tell them? I had an accident. Some guys tried to abduct me, but this nice knight on a white horse rescued me. Yeah, sure. Even she couldn’t believe it.

  But his metal breastplate was hard and cool, even through her tank top shirt. Everything seemed so real, but she had to be dreaming, despite their race down the road. There was no other explanation. She had no idea where he was taking her, but at the moment, she didn’t care. All she needed to do was close her eyes, and then she would wake up and everything would be normal again.