by Tammy Walsh
“Run!” Fiath said.
I pushed off the wall and bolted toward the barn door. Fiath was already there when I reached it and we squeezed through sideways.
“Hey!” the Changeling up the ladder said. “Hey! Hey you!”
We swung out of the barn and bolted across the open clearing toward the nearest cover—the hedgerow we’d hid behind the previous day.
Bolts of plasma screamed over our shoulders, kicking up plumes of dirt and scorching the trees.
We bolted around the hedgerow and continued in the direction we’d been heading before we stopped at this farm.
This trap.
I vaguely wondered how many innocent people the farmers had condemned in this place, how many they had betrayed and handed over to the Changelings.
All for what?
Food? Water?
No, I thought. For survival.
The farmers had children. And if their emperor did not give them enough supplies to live on, what were they supposed to do? Perish and die?
The Changeling ceased firing at us. Either he had lost sight of us or he’d stopped to help his comrade up off the floor.
Either way, it gave us a chance. A small one.
It was still pitch black as we sprinted through the undergrowth. Dry twigs snapped beneath our feet and broad leaves slapped our faces.
The forest grew thicker the deeper we headed into it.
I wouldn’t fool myself into thinking we were safe.
I tripped and fell, my foot snagged by an exposed tree root. Fiath was there in an instant helping me up.
“Are you okay?” he said.
I checked my foot and ankle. There was no pain. I nodded.
After what felt like hours, we came to a stop. Fiath pulled me behind a large tree and ran his hands over me.
“Are you hurt?” he said. “Are you injured?”
I shook my head but couldn’t speak—I was panting so hard.
He embraced me in his arms. It felt good I wasn’t the only one terrified by the ordeal.
“We’re almost there,” Fiath said. “We need to be careful not to lead the Changelings to the Fallen Temple. If they discover us it’ll be over for everyone.”
He looked at me a moment and smiled. He brushed the hair back from my face and pressed his lips against mine.
It was electric and pulsed like a lightning storm across my skin. And just like that, I was transported back to the loft just a few short hours ago, before this nightmare began.
Seeing Fiath half-naked that first night in the forest had been a revelation. As a nurse, you thought of patients as people in need. You focused on their ailments and injuries. You did everything you could to help them get better.
You definitely did not think of them as sex objects.
When he removed his shirt, I scanned his skin, admiring how much it’d healed. Then I began to notice things a nurse should never think about her patient.
The perfectly sculpted form, the curve of his back, and the line of his neck.
He turned, and I was blown away by his breathtaking chest and abdominal muscles. Most of these Titans were remarkable beasts but none had so grabbed my attention as him.
That first night, he had a shy look in his eye that only made me want to feel him at the back of my throat.
I stopped myself and managed to regain control… until he dropped his pants as I saw him in all his glory.
I almost choked, the same way I would have if I was gnawing on his thick stick.
He was hard as a rock.
And there was only one thing that could be turning him on right then.
Me.
Me and my carelessness when it came to nudity.
As a nurse, I’d seen countless naked bodies. Being naked didn’t concern me, only keeping warm did. When I turned my back on him so he could wrap his arms around me, cuddle me, and keep us both warm, I felt that hardness pressing against my back.
And not once had I thought of my fiancé back home.
Tonight, when we slept together again, I had no intention of opening myself up to him, of allowing him to enter me.
But when he pressed against me, once again as hard as a rock, and with his powerful muscles coiled tight, I heard that aching voice deep in the pit of my soul that kept whispering…
Go on…
Go on…
Go on…
Then I felt his kiss on my shoulder. I melted to the tips of my toes.
My defenses were shot and there was no way I could stop him.
No way I wanted to stop him.
Then he heard that noise.
The Changelings were almost on us.
Snap!
Fiath raised a finger to his lips and listened for another sound.
I wanted to run. My imagination was incapable of thinking it was anything but the Changelings coming after us.
But maybe it was wildlife that produced the sound.
I hoped it was.
Snap!
Snap! Snap!
Fiath’s expression fell.
He took me by the hand and lead us deeper into the forest. We made so much noise it was easy for them to track us. But not yet. We still had some time—
A bolt of plasma struck a tree beside us and blew a hole through it.
They had found us.
They were hot on our tail.
Fiath took us over a sharp rise and down the other side. It was a sharp incline.
We were trapped.
Either we ran along the top of the hill, exposed, or slid down the hillside, and who knew what kind of injuries we would sustain.
Maybe it would be okay for a Titan, but I didn’t have their quick healing abilities.
Fiath wrapped his arms around me and drew me close. He kissed me on the lips, shut his eyes, and then threw us over the side.
A shaft of plasma zipped through the space where his head had occupied just a moment earlier.
Fiath extended his elbows and legs, stiffening them, forming a protective cage around me, and taking the brunt of the downhill roll.
He grunted and hissed through his teeth upon each shuddering impact. We wound down the hill faster and faster.
I screamed, not in pain, but fear of what Fiath was putting himself through.
The momentum slowed and Fiath’s head lolled back, losing consciousness. He lost his grip on me and I rolled under my own steam the final few yards.
I was up in an instant. My body ached and I had a slight limp but nothing was bent or broken the way it would have been if I’d been through what Fiath had.
Fiath shook his head, already coming awake, and pushed himself up. A bone protruded from his upper arm and was smeared with his blood. The rest of his body was already cracking and crunching.
Dislocated joints.
But they popped back into place without much effort on Fiath’s part. He clenched his teeth at the pain.
“My arm…” he said.
The bone protruded from his skin. What did he expect me to do about it out here?
“Snap it back into place,” he said.
Right. If it wasn’t in the right position, it couldn’t heal properly.
I held his arm and placed my foot on his elbow.
This was definitely not typical medical procedure.
I straightened his arm and stamped on his elbow, snapping the bone back—roughly—into place.
Even Fiath screamed at that one.
They might have super healing abilities but that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt like hell.
Fiath relaxed. He needed to rest and recover, but we didn’t have much time.
“We have to keep moving,” I said.
I gripped him by the hand and helped him up. He wrapped his arm over my shoulders and together, we staggered into the forest.
The Changeling soldiers leaped over the hillside and sailed down it. Their limbs were long and rode it easily.
My heart sank.
There was no way we
could outrun them. Not with our injuries.
The soldiers came to the foot of the rise and aimed their rifles at our chests.
“You gave us quite the runaround,” one of the Changelings said.
This one had a lump on one side of his head. He had to be the one Fiath struck with the bucket.
“But we have you now,” he said.
Fiath stepped toward them and held out his hands.
The soldiers stiffened, not letting him get close enough to disarm them the way he had the Titan farmer.
“Let us go,” he said. “I can give you whatever you want.”
“We’re already taking what we want,” the Changeling said.
“I’ve got an idea,” the other one said. “How about we say they ran and we failed to catch them? I don’t much want to show them mercy.”
“Sounds good to me,” the other Changeling said.
Their rifles whirred and glowed as they charged.
I’d seen what a charged plasma weapon could do. It would tear through us like a knife through potatoes.
There was no escape for us now.
We were going to die.
I was numb and struggled to compute what was about to happen to us.
Fiath wrapped me in his arms and took my face in his hands. He kissed me on the lips. He must have tasted the tears rolling down my cheeks.
If this was the end, so be it. I was in his arms. I wouldn’t have wanted it to end any other way.
Well, except to finish what we started in the barn.
I shut my eyes as the plasma rifles glowed so bright, they turned white and lit this corner of the forest.
Any second now, they would tear through us.
Thump.
Thump.
Something fell to the ground and the plasma rifles’ glow died.
Were the soldiers playing with us? Making us hope we might get out of here with our lives?
I turned and opened my eyes slowly.
I was surprised to find the Changelings lying sprawled across the ground, their green alien blood splattered over the damp leaves.
I shared a look with Fiath. What’s going on?
Half a dozen figures stepped from the brush surrounding us. The Titan at the front was squat, with a nasty scar across one eye.
He said, “Welcome to the resistance.”
When the Titans first announced who they were, I burst into tears. I was so resigned to my fate that it was a shock when it didn’t materialize.
Fiath hugged me so tight he squeezed the air from my lungs.
The Titans led us through the forest, their eyes sharp on our surroundings. Their leader was the Titan with the scar across one eye. His name was A’nshon.
“Are you from one of the tribes?” A’nshon said.
“From the Urcim tribe,” I said.
“Funny,” A’nshon said, “you don’t look like a Titan.”
“I’m not. I’m human. I was abducted by the Changelings and ended up here. The Titan tribe was good to me. Then the Changelings attacked and destroyed the entire tribe.”
“Not the entire tribe,” A’nshon said. “Some have already arrived.”
My heart warmed at the idea of the kind Urcim tribespeople reaching the resistance.
“The Changelings attacked many tribes that day,” A’nshon said. “Almost all of us. We fell back to the Fallen Temple and they’ve been flying overhead, combing the area, scanning for us ever since.”
“Have they come close to discovering it?” Fiath said.
“Close. But with any luck, they won’t. Not before we prepare ourselves to launch a full-scale attack with full force.”
Every twenty minutes, the armed Titans crested each hilltop and peered into the distance. “Clear,” they each said in turn.
“We have to take special precautions to make sure we don’t lead them back to the base,” A’nshon said.
“How much longer before we reach it?” I said.
“We’re already there,” A’nshon said.
He reached down to a rock and lifted it with one hand, opening a door into the mountainside. It wasn’t a rock at all. It was fake.
It looked so real from the outside.
A’nshon led the way into the darkness below. Once the other men had followed us inside, they shut the door behind us. But we weren’t left in total darkness.
Toward the bottom of the stairs, soft light filtered highlighted each step that took us deeper underground.
When we reached the bottom, we were assaulted by the sight of dozens of Titans hurrying to and fro down tunnels carved into the earth. Lamps hung at regular intervals along ropes pinned to the walls.
“Your quarters are down here,” A’nshon said. “My man will take you. Once you’re settled in, there will be a meeting in the great hall. Someone will knock at your door to remind you about it. I feel it’s important all Titans get a say in how we attack. Then he’ll give you your food coupons and you’ll be assigned a job. Everyone is expected to fight but others may have secondary skills and duties to carry out. Do you have any special skills?”
“I’m a nurse,” I said.
A’nshon’s eyes brightened.
“Excellent,” he said. “We always have need of more medical personnel. And you?”
“Regular warrior,” he said.
There was a moment of hesitation before he replied. I sensed there was something else he wanted to say but didn’t want to mention it with strangers present. After our recent experience, I couldn’t blame him for that.
“I’ll leave you to it,” A’nshon said.
He made a fist and thumped his chest. Fiath did the same. I did too, but a little belatedly. The gesture still didn’t come naturally to me. A’nshon took off with his men following behind.
Only one remained and he turned to us.
“How about we get you to your room?” he said.
I hadn’t expected much in an underground base. It was built for purpose, not comfort. The door shunted aside automatically when we approached it. The room was small and had all the basics. A simple double bed, a sink, and a small bathroom. Considering how we’d been living the past couple of days, it was luxury.
“There are towels and clothes in the cupboard,” the Titan warrior said. “They’re Titan size. I’ll find smaller clothes brought for you.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“I’ll let you rest,” the warrior said.
He stepped outside and the automatic door shut behind him.
The moment he was gone, we fell into each other’s arms and kissed hungrily. I panted, not wanting to come up for air. My hands were all over him, and his all over me. I squeezed his ass and ran my hands under his shirt to feel at those incredible muscles.
“We should take a shower,” Fiath said.
“Together?” I said with a wink.
“I doubt we’ll fit. But we can try.”
We helped each other strip off our clothes and let them fall to the floor. They were so dirty, torn, and used, I doubted they could be used as clothes again.
Our lips joined again as if it was a pre-requisite for surviving.
Maybe it was.
We backed into the bathroom and the tiny shower stall. It was a tight squeeze and we couldn’t shut the door behind us.
We turned on the tap and rejoiced in the warm—if not particularly powerful—spray. It dribbled over our bodies and turned the water brown with the grime from our bodies.
I tugged the twigs and leaves free that’d embedded in his hair. I filled my hands with shampoo and washed his hair as he ran his hands over my body. Each time he rubbed my nipples, it sent shivers through me head to toe.
Then I scrubbed at his muscular frame. One powerful muscle at a time.
He was gorgeous.
His face was almost fully healed. It covered one cheek, chin, and nose. Even his hair was coming through thick.
To see him now from the charred figure he had been was nothing short of miraculo
us.
Then it was his turn to wash me. He took his sweet time around my breasts and licked my nipples with his tongue. He gripped my ass and squeezed it. He lifted me with ease and buried his lips at the nape of my neck.
We stepped from the bathroom and dried ourselves.
At least, that was the plan.
Instead, he pulled me toward him and buried his tongue in my throat.
I was ready for the challenge of taking his thick cock deep inside me. I wrapped my hand around it and led him toward the bed.
But something held him back.
He wore a frown and hesitated a fraction of a second.
“There’s something I need to ask you,” he said. “I know I might very well regret this later if it makes you not want to be with me.”
“What?” I said, heart in my throat.
“Your fiancé,” he said simply.
My fiancé.
All thought of him had largely left my mind. The truth was, as bad as it might sound, he was never a major part of my thinking. Not now, not when he proposed to me, not even when we were dating.
“Do you still love him?” Fiath said. “Do you intend still to marry him?”
I didn’t need to search deep for the answers to those questions. The answer was right there on the tip of my tongue. If I was honest with myself, it always had been.
“No, I don’t love him,” I said.
“Then why did you agree to marry him?” he said.
“Because it felt like the right thing to do. Because I didn’t want to end up like my aunt, an unmarried maid who decided to wait for her perfect love to find her, only she never did. Mostly, it’s because I hadn’t met you yet. I know now I never loved him. We were good friends, nothing more.”
I looked up at him through my eyelashes.
“Does that bother you?” I said.
He smiled at me and ran his fingers through mine.
“No,” he said. “But I thought it might bother you. When I’m with you, I want to be wholly with you. I have no intention of sharing you. Ever. With anybody. You are mine and I am yours.”
He kissed me so hard and ferociously that he shoved me against the wall. He pressed his hard throbbing cock against me, our damp bodies a little sticky with water.
He cupped his hands around my ass and raised me up, and up, and up…
Then, with my thighs wrapped around his head, he set to demolishing me with his tongue.
