Her Alien Savior

by Presley Hall

  With supreme effort, I drag my gaze away from her, glancing around at the other occupants of the room. None of the human women have attacked us outright, but I can’t forget the way they leveled blasters at our heads when we first arrived at the crash site, and I know it would be a mistake to dismiss them as harmless.

  I scan the small room, analyzing the other women’s postures for any signs of a threat. The one named Elizabeth carries herself with an easy sort of confidence, as if she’s used to being in charge, and the one called Raina puffs out her chest a little in a gesture I recognize. She must’ve come from a place where she had to fend for herself, a place where she learned not to reveal any weakness as a means of self-preservation.

  It’s a lesson I learned long ago as well.

  My gaze lingers on her only briefly before moving on. To someone else, she might seem to present the most obvious potential danger in the room, but I’m not afraid of her. I understand her, and that makes it easy for me to put her in a category. In a neat little box.

  The woman named Gemma ducks her head a little under my scrutiny, her cheeks turning rosy, but I barely look at her before turning my attention to Sadie again. She’s not looking at me anymore, but she might as well be. She stiffens when my gaze lands on her, and I know she’s aware of my scrutiny.

  “My men are conducting one last sweep of the ship,” Droth tells Charlotte, and I square my shoulders as I drag my focus back to their conversation. “Once that’s done and you’re finished here, we’ll gather everyone and discuss our plans for the journey.”

  “Sounds good.” She presses her lips to his one more time, going up on her toes as she rests her hands on his chest. “We won’t be long.”

  She steps back, and Droth glances at me and Kaide before jerking his chin toward the door. We follow respectfully behind him as he strides from the room. In the corridor, the two of us come to walk side-by-side with him.

  “Are you sure the women are prepared for this?” Kaide asks quietly, his gaze fixed on the opening at the end of the hallway where the back half of the ship was torn away. “The wilderness of Nuthora can be unforgiving, and if we encounter predators or another raiding party…”

  He trails off, but I don’t have to hear the rest of his words to know what he’s thinking. Nuthora is a dangerous place even for battle-hardened warriors like us, and most of the Terran women have no fighting experience at all. With only eight of us to protect them on the journey, will we be able to defend them from a possible attack? Or will we die in the attempt?

  “Charlotte is one of the bravest and most resourceful people I’ve ever known,” Droth says, pride evident in his voice. “She may not have the training of a warrior, but she is far from weak. And she trusts the rest of the Terran women, so I trust them too. If they are anything like my mate, they will prove themselves to be determined and courageous as well. An asset to our party, not a hindrance.”

  Kaide nods, his expression turning thoughtful. He seems satisfied by Droth’s answer, and even though I am not, I keep those thoughts to myself. I’ve already said my piece to my leader. He knows my opinion about bringing the women back to the settlement with us, so I won’t keep mentioning it. I’ve never been one to speak unless I’ve got something important to say. I don’t believe in wasting words.

  I haven’t known Droth for as long as the other Voxerans in our village have. I wasn’t part of the attempted uprising that brought about their banishment to Nuthora five years ago. I have only old memories of my home planet, having left it when I was a child and never returned. But even though I know little of the current politics on Vox, I still consider Droth my prince.

  I owe him much more than my allegiance. I owe him my life.

  And so, despite my misgivings, I have accepted his decision to bring the women back to our village with us.

  It won’t stop me from keeping a wary eye on them though.

  And if any of them try to attack or injure my clan, it won’t stop me from striking back.

  As we near the end of the long corridor, our surroundings grow a bit brighter. Dusk will fall soon, but there’s still some sunlight outside.

  With practiced ease, Droth slips over the edge of the torn metal, using a thick cable that dangles from the opening as a makeshift rope as he begins to climb down to the ground below. I follow him, with Kaide right behind me. When the three of us reach the trampled grass at the base of the massive ship, we gather in a rough circle.

  The clearing around the crash site is empty, except for the small number of Voxerans and Terrans who keep lookout for any danger beyond the tree line. The golden sunlight of evening changes as I glance around, turning to a dull sort of gray.

  Droth looks up, and a frown curves his lips. “A storm is coming.”

  I follow his gaze, grimacing as I do. He’s right. The sky above us is darkening as clouds roll in, and although they don’t look all that threatening now, I know how quickly the weather can turn dangerous on Nuthora.

  Vox is a dry, sandy place, and even Ybretti, the planet where I was enslaved for many years before my imprisonment here, is mostly arid. But on Nuthora, the air always seems to hold some moisture in it, and when the skies turn dark and rain pours down, I feel as though I might drown on land.

  “Should we leave now?” Kaide wrinkles his brow. “Try to stay ahead of it?”

  “No.” Droth shakes his head, his expression serious. “There’s a chance the storm will break before it reaches us. If we need to adjust our route to avoid the worst of it, we will, but I don’t want to rush our departure. Traveling overnight would be more dangerous than traveling in a storm. We’ll leave at first light tomorrow morning.”

  I clench my jaw. Despite Droth’s insistence that the Terran women will be more of a help than a hindrance, I can’t help but think that if we were on our own, just a small party of Voxeran warriors, he would take the risk of leaving sooner.

  These women are changing the way we do things already. In more ways than one, they could endanger my people.

  As I split off from Droth and Kaide to go relieve Bohrir of his lookout duty, I can’t help but wonder if Droth’s mate bond with Charlotte has blinded him to the truth that seems obvious to me.

  These Terran females will bring nothing but trouble.

  3

  Sadie

  He’s coming for me.

  The man I spent years trying to avoid, the one whose presence haunted me like a ghost, is after me again.

  My heart beats fast and hard in my chest as I sprint down the street, fleeing from my stalker. I don’t recognize where I am, and although I brush against bodies as I run, darting between faceless figures, no one offers to help me. No one even seems to see me.

  I’ve made myself too invisible. I’ve hidden too well, for too long, and now no one even notices me when I need them to. I need help, but there’s none to be found—and the man behind me is getting closer, gaining on me no matter how hard and fast I run.

  Gasping for breath, I put on another burst of speed, careening around a corner as I shoot a glance over my shoulder. I don’t see anyone behind me, but that doesn’t mean anything. In fact, that’s worse. Because I know he’s still there.

  Fear sloshes around in my stomach with every heavy footfall, making the back of my tongue taste metallic and bitter. I can’t keep running forever. Even as my terror grows, my legs start to slow, my muscles losing strength as I push them to keep going.

  Desperate to find shelter, I grab the handle of a door as I run past, jerking to a stop and wrenching the door open. I don’t know what’s inside this place, but it has to be better than what’s outside. It has to be safer.

  Sucking in a breath, I dart into the building—and find myself falling.

  It’s as if the room has no floor, as if I stepped off the edge of a fucking cliff. I fall and fall, tumbling through space as my limbs flail and my body tilts.

  And then, suddenly, it all stops.

  I’m not falling anymore. Instead
, I’m in a small, enclosed space.

  It’s tiny, no bigger than a coffin, and even though I can’t move my arms to reach out and touch the walls around me, I can feel my surroundings pressing in on me as if they’re going to crush me to death. As if they might squeeze the life out of me.

  Panic surges inside my chest like a tidal wave, washing away rational thought. It’s too dark in this place to see anything, and the only thing I’m aware of is my sharp breaths as I drag oxygen into my lungs.

  I shouldn’t be here. I can’t be here.

  My mouth moves as I try to repeat my mantra, but no sound comes out. I can’t remember the words anyway. I can’t remember anything through the haze of fear.

  Then a loud cracking noise sounds above me. My heart lurches in my chest, adrenaline flooding my system so fast it makes my limbs prickle painfully. Shards of glass rain down, and light floods the dark space I’m in.

  Elizabeth’s face appears above me through the hole in the cryo-pod’s lid, her eyes wild and a piece of metal pipe gripped in her hand.

  I jerk upright.

  My eyelids fly open, a muffled cry falling from my lips as I wrench myself out of the nightmare. Darkness surrounds me, and it takes me a second to piece together where I am. As reality settles in around me again, I let out a shaky breath.

  Right. I’m on the spaceship. The Foreigner II.

  It started to rain around dusk, so everyone decided to sleep inside, gathering in the large rooms where cots have been set up. On the other side of the room, I hear one of the women mutter in her sleep, and someone else is snoring gently to my right. The quiet sounds of people sleeping peacefully are completely at odds with the nightmare that woke me up, and my heart twists as memories flood my mind.

  Resting my elbows on my bent knees, I press the heels of my hands against my eyes, trying to drive away the terrifying images that linger behind my eyelids.

  Dammit. I was making such good progress back on Earth.

  I really was. My panic attacks were becoming less and less frequent, and so were the bad dreams. I was starting to feel close to normal again, starting to crawl out of my self-imposed shell.

  And then I got abducted and woke up on a strange planet where massive blue-skinned aliens in loincloths want us to come live with them.

  Maybe it’s a miracle I haven’t cracked up completely.

  That wry thought almost makes me smile, but I can’t quite manage it. The darkness around me is too stifling, reminding me too much of the coffin-like thing that held me trapped in my dream.

  Letting out a breath, I swing my legs over the edge of the small cot. The metal floor is cool under my bare feet, but it feels good. My footsteps are quiet as I make my way cautiously toward the door, careful not to bump into anyone else’s cot as I go. In the hallway outside, there’s a little more light, but not much. The air is less heavy, though, and I make my way down the corridors by memory, turning left, then right.

  The smell of rain fills my nostrils as I near the opening where the back half of the ship broke off. My pounding heartbeat slows a little as a rush of comfort fills me.

  Rain smells almost exactly the same here as it does back on Earth.

  It smells like wet grass and damp soil. Like electricity hovering in the air. Like life.

  Creeping closer to the opening, I draw in another deep breath, savoring the scent. The ship is three stories tall, and the makeshift sleeping quarters are on the second floor. The cable that’s connected to the floor above me hangs down past the opening, and I grab the slick metal coil with one hand as I stand at the very edge of the hallway, looking out over the clearing below.

  “You shouldn’t leave the ship.”

  The quiet, deep voice behind me makes me yelp. My hand slips on the rain-slicked cable, and I have to grab on to it with my other hand to keep from falling off the edge. My pulse, which had just started to slow, races wildly again as I regain my balance and turn around.

  Jaro is standing in the hallway behind me, his large frame seeming to fill the space. Those intense green eyes of his are fixed on me, and in the shadowy light, the white markings on his body are even more noticeable.

  “Holy shit,” I gasp, releasing the cable and pressing a hand to my chest. “You scared me.”

  Instead of offering up an apology, the tall alien crosses his arms over his chest. “Why were you trying to leave the ship in the middle of the night?”

  “I wasn’t. I just wanted to…” I swallow, not wanting to explain why I so desperately needed air or what woke me up in a cold sweat. “I just wanted to see the rain,” I finish lamely.

  His eyes narrow. “You’ll see plenty of it tomorrow.”

  Right. We’ll probably be hiking through it all day.

  My lips press together a little as Jaro watches me silently. For some reason, every conversation I have with this man feels like a test. Like he’s just waiting for me to slip up and reveal my true nature. For me to give him a reason to dislike me.

  Isn’t that what you’re doing with the Voxerans? a quiet voice inside my head asks, but I ignore it. I’m still shaken from my nightmare, still brittle and vulnerable, and I have good reasons for distrusting these men.

  “What are you doing awake?” I ask, crossing my arms in a gesture that mirrors Jaro’s. The rain has made the air cool, and goosebumps scatter across my skin. I’m uncomfortably aware of how hard my nipples are, and I’m sure they’re visible through the thin fabric of my shirt. All I was wearing when I woke up in the cryo-pod was a skimpy pair of shorts and this tank top. I managed to scrounge up a pair of loose-fitting pants and shoes, but my top is already showing signs of wear.

  “I’m keeping watch.” Jaro answers my question simply, his gaze never leaving my face.

  My eyebrows shoot up, and I glance over my shoulder at the clearing below. “Are people not on watch out there tonight? I wouldn’t have thought the rain would—”

  “No, they’re out there. Voxeran warriors aren’t scared of a little rain.”

  I think I see the ghost of a smile tug at his lips as I turn back to face him, but his eyes remain serious. Maybe I just imagined it.

  “Oh. Good. But then what are you doing on watch up here?” I prod.

  His inscrutable eyes burn in the darkness, and he takes a single step toward me. Every single nerve-ending in my body seems to react to that small movement, as if some electric current connects us. My breath hitches slightly, and I’m struck with the sudden urge to run away. To flee to someplace quiet and safe, someplace where I can control all of my emotions—including the unfamiliar ones raging through my chest.

  “I’m protecting my people,” Jaro says quietly. “From any possible threat.”

  My mind is still reeling from his proximity, so it takes me a second to process what he said. When I do, I blink at him. “You mean… from us? The women?”

  He lifts one shoulder in a gesture that’s almost a shrug. “I mean any threat. This planet is a dangerous place. I almost died here not long after I arrived, and I owe my life to Droth and his men. I will spend the rest of my life trying to repay that debt, and I will do everything in my power to protect them.”

  His voice is low and quiet, his tone grave. I know he means it, and I’m about to ask him what he thinks the human women could really do against a bunch of armed warriors when something in his words makes me pause.

  “‘His men’? Aren’t they your men too? Your people?”

  Jaro’s face goes still. Something flashes behind his eyes. Hurt or regret, maybe. The muscles in his cheek jump as he tightens his jaw, then he nods. “Yes. They are my people. And as I said, I will do what I can to keep them safe.”

  I’m silent for a moment, trying to decipher what just happened. I don’t get the sense that he’s lying, exactly, and he’s clearly very dedicated to the other Voxerans. But all the same, there’s something he’s not telling me. It almost sounds like he wasn’t part of the group that was banished here after they tried to rise up against Dr
oth’s uncle back on Vox.

  But if that’s the case, why is Jaro here? What did he do to get sent to a prison planet—a place where the worst kinds of criminals are dumped?

  Fear washes through me, the panic from the dream clawing its way up my throat again. But I try to hide it, standing up taller and straightening my spine, as if that will make me look at all intimidating to this walking wall of muscle and blue-tinted skin.

  “You know, these women—the Terrans—are my people too,” I tell him. “I haven’t known them for very long, but since it looks like we won’t ever make it back to Earth, they’re all I have left of that place. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them. From any possible threat.”

  I’m a little surprised at the vehemence in my own voice. I do care about these women, although I’ve never thought of it in quite those terms before. And I need to make sure the Voxerans know that even though some of us might be totally on board with joining their village, there are others among our group who aren’t so blindly trusting.

  I’ve trusted the wrong person before, and it bit me in the ass big-time. Never again.

  Jaro’s eyebrows rise almost imperceptibly. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he looks a little impressed. “Well, I’m glad we can agree on that, at least,” he says, his voice rumbling like gravel. “As long as we both stay vigilant, our people should remain very safe.”

  “Yeah.” I swallow and nod. “I guess they should.”

  For a long moment, silence stretches between us, and I find myself trapped by his gaze again just like I was yesterday evening.

  What is it about his eyes that makes it so hard to look away? Even though my body isn’t moving, I have the strangest sensation of falling as I gaze into their strange green depths. It sends butterflies flapping through my stomach, and when I wrench my gaze away from his, my entire body jerks with the effort.