Alien Beast

by Sophie Stern

  There were over 500 survivors. If he let her get on that Martian ship, she’d be just another number, and then what? Her friends and family would just take her lovingly back in their arms and call it a day?

  No chance in hell.

  He ignored her question and started speaking. The goo was in his ear now, and he knew Les had never taken his out. Once both parties had their device in place, which felt a little bit like cold, wet clay, it began auto-transmitting.

  “On my way back,” he said.

  “Done already?” Les replied immediately. His voice came through loud and clear in Luke’s head. Willow looked at him, and he knew she must think he was going crazy.

  “Done as I’ll ever be.”

  “Did you ditch out early, man? ‘Cause if you ditched out early, you can go right on back. I thought we agreed we’d help them out.”

  “No, you agreed, and last I checked, you aren’t even here.”

  “Someone had to guard the ship.”

  “I could have guarded it.”

  “You would have left me and said you’d come back later.”

  “Just get it ready to leave, okay? I took someone.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean there will be a third passenger, so just get ready.”

  He pulled the goo from his ear and shoved it back in his pocket. Willow was still staring at him, but she didn’t look scared.

  “Where are you taking me?” She asked again.

  “To my ship.”

  “Are you taking me home?”

  He took a deep breath, then looked down at Willow. Luke looked at the woman who had somehow, over the space of just a few hours, completely captured his heart.

  “No, baby, I’m not taking you home. You’re never going home again.”

  He thought she would freak out. He thought she would scream and cry and beg and call him a murdered for killing that asshole, Rand.

  She didn’t, though.

  Willow did none of those things.

  Instead, to Luke’s absolute amazement, she snuggled closer to him and rested her head against his chest.

  “Good,” she whispered.

  How strange.

  Chapter 9

  When Luke carried Willow up into his ship, she wasn’t really sure what to expect. She thought she should be angrier that he was stealing her away from the life that she knew. She should be furious he had sneaked her out of the camp. She should be irritated, angry, annoyed, frustrated. She should be feeling all of those things, but she wasn’t.

  The only thing that Willow felt was gratitude.

  “Thank you,” she whispered so quietly she wasn’t sure if he heard her.

  Luke stopped moving and looked down at her. Their eyes connected and Willow wondered what he saw when he looked at her. She wasn’t graceful or beautiful or particularly sweet. She wasn’t the type of girl you took home to cuddle.

  Maybe that wasn’t the type of girl he wanted, though.

  Maybe Luke wasn’t that type of guy.

  “You’re welcome,” he said simply. Then he kept moving. He didn’t try to put her down, and she didn’t try to escape from him. She didn’t want to, strangely enough.

  Willow’s entire world had been ripped from her and Luke had saved her. He had rescued her. He had stayed with her in the tent while she was unconscious and when she needed him, he had come back.

  He had been there for her.

  And she sort of liked him for that.

  Willow had lived on Mars since she was just a kid, but had little experience with spacecrafts. Luke’s seemed cozier than the other ones she’d been on. It was certainly cozier than Ship 449302, and that was saying something. That ship had been designed for people to enjoy, to be comfortable on, to relax on. It hadn’t been like this, though. It had been cold, calculated. All of the elements of the ship were supposed to make you feel a certain way.

  But sometimes they didn’t.

  Willow kept peeking out as they passed rooms on Luke’s ship, and she liked the things she saw: room after room of supplies, rooms with boxes in them, rooms with dust. It seemed like he lived on the ship and Willow liked that, liked knowing Luke was a real person who liked certain things.

  It had been a long a time since Willow felt comfortable in a place, but something told her she was going to be comfortable here.

  The lights on the ship were dim, almost dark. This spacecraft was so different from the cruiser that Willow couldn’t quite believe it. The cruiser had been bright, almost painfully so. This ship was nothing like that.

  “Sorry it’s dark,” Luke grunted, as if reading her mind.

  “No, it’s…I like it.”

  He made a sound that sounded like disbelief, as if he thought she was being polite, and Luke carried Willow around a corner. He pressed his palm to a panel by a wall and after a second, the wall slid open.

  Luke walked inside and said a word Willow didn’t understand. Lights flickered on in the room and suddenly, Willow found herself in the middle of a large, soft cushion.

  “Rest here,” he said.

  Willow wanted to protest. She had every intention to do so. She didn’t want to rest right now. She wanted to stay awake and ask Luke questions, like where he was from and what kind of alien he was. She wanted to ask him why he had taken her, saved her, and where he was going to take her now. She wanted to ask what his intentions were, what he wanted with a messed up human like her, but Willow was tired.

  The cushion, which she guessed was supposed to be some sort of bed, seemed to get softer, and she sank deeper into it and closed her eyes, pulling her blanket closer around her body.

  She heard the swish of the wall slide open again. Luke was leaving. She wasn’t scared, though. This time, she wasn’t afraid. He was here and she was safe. Her savior.

  He had saved her from the monsters and Willow would spend the rest of her life paying him back.

  ***

  “What did you do?” Les asked when Luke entered the control room.

  “Get us off this fucking planet,” Luke said in response, and Les just growled. “I saved a girl. Well, a woman, rather. I saved a woman. She’s coming with us.”

  “Does she have a choice in this matter?” Les asked.

  “No. She doesn’t need a choice. She’s in danger. I’ve already saved her damn life twice. I’m not leaving her behind only to let her get hurt again.”

  “Maybe you should give her a choice.”

  “By the third act of the Roseai Declaration, I’m entitled to the spoils of war.”

  “And what are your spoils? A person?”

  “Willow,” he said. “Her name is Willow.”

  Les looked like he might argue, like he might tell Luke this was a crazy idea brought on by lack of sleep, hallucinations, or any number of other reasons. He didn’t, though. He just shrugged and turned back to fiddling with the controls.

  “Four minutes,” he said, and Luke nodded. He left the control room: Les could handle take-off on his own. The two of them had been piloting ships together since they were kids, little rug-rats running around the streets of Reslenaou.

  Luke headed down the hall, but didn’t go back to Willow. Fuck, he wanted to. He wanted to touch her, hold her. He wanted to feel her. When he’d carried her onto the ship, he’d taken the long way around to his chambers just so he could hold her a little bit longer. Did she even have any idea how perfect she was?

  Something told Luke she’d never been truly loved. What had happened in Willow’s past that her response to him kidnapping her had been “good”? What horrible life did she have before Ship 449302 that she would be happy to be taken by a stranger? What could be so bad back on Mars that she would rather go with him to his ship than risk returning?

  He made his way to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of petal juice from the cabinet. It was a good one: from Orchid. He’d drink it ‘til the fucking sun came up if it meant he’d be able to live with what he was doing, with the things he had
done.

  Luke was not a good guy, a noble guy. He wasn’t the type of man someone like Willow deserved or should be with. He was just a guy, just a man. He was just some loser who had a ship, who had gotten lucky and had a good best friend.

  He wasn’t the type of person girls like Willow wanted to stay with.

  Not when they weren’t forced to.

  He opened the bottle of petal juice and lifted it to his lips.

  He needed to forget, and he needed to remember.

  Chapter 10

  Lukanterao couldn’t wait to get home and tell his father about school. He’d been one of the teacher’s chosen pupils that day and had gotten to spend an entire class period just exploring the forests outside the school. Only a few students got to do that, and he’d been picked. They were looking for parts from a ship that had supposedly crash-landed in the forest many years prior.

  And he’d found it.

  Helkatranao, Lukanterao’s teacher, had been letting his best students assist in the search for the better part of the year and Lukanterao had been patiently, eagerly awaiting his turn.

  He just knew he would get a turn. Knew it. He was one of Helatranao’s best students and if Lukanterao could just prove himself worthy to help look for the lost ship of Reslenaou, he knew he’d have a chance.

  He’d spent every free moment learning all he could about the type of ship it was, how its cloaking abilities worked, and where it might have landed. His father had helped. Dad had given Lukanterao every spare moment he had. Jerementarao, too. The three of them had been inseparable in studying all they could about foreign ships and why this one might be so important.

  And it had all paid off.

  He’d found the ship.

  The excavation team was there right now, overseen by Helkatranao. He hadn’t seemed surprised when Lukanterao had found the ship, hadn’t been as shocked as Lukanterao had anticipated. Instead, he’d seemed pleasantly pleased, as if he knew Lukanterao would be the one to find it all along and this just confirmed his suspicions.

  Lukanterao had never been so proud.

  He couldn’t wait to see the look on his dad’s face. His dad would give him a hug, ruffle his hair, and say he’d done well. Jerementarao would jump up and down and wrap his sticky hands around Lukanterao’s neck and say he was the best.

  And Mom.

  Mom’s response would be the best.

  For months she’d seen his planning, his preparation, his hard work. Mom would be the most proud, the most happy. She’d kiss Lukanterao on the nose and say she’d always believed in him.

  She’d say he’d done a great job.

  Lukanterao pulled his jacket closer around himself and walked faster. He had to hurry. It was all he could do to keep from running home. He wanted to race, to skip and jump and dance, but he didn’t. The chill air on Reslenaou was nothing to mess with; winter was on the horizon.

  It was with a happy heart Lukanterao rounded the corner to his home, only to have his hopes die as he spotted the hovercars in front of his family’s little green house.

  He stopped at the edge of the yard and looked at the Reslenaouan officials standing there. Everyone looked busy, confused, and hurried.

  He wasn’t sure why.

  Until Lukanterao’s neighbor, Marianerao, pointed at him and said something. He couldn’t hear what she said, couldn’t read the words on her lips.

  But everyone turned to look at Lukanterao and in that moment, he knew he’d never get to tell his family what had happened that day.

  Chapter 11

  Willow sat up when the door slid open. Luke’s large body filled the doorway. Had he always been so huge? When had that happened? She didn’t know much about his species, about men from his planet, but she imagined if they were all so big, so fit, that the females but never want to leave. She certainly wouldn’t, not if she had all that eye candy around.

  “Luke,” she whispered. She was in the middle of the giant cushion.

  “Willow,” his voice sounded tired.

  “Are you coming to bed?”

  He nodded and moved into the tiny space. She had slept briefly when he was gone, then woken up alone. She had tried to look around the tiny space, but the room had been black. Now dim light from the hallway shone in, and she could see the room was empty except for the bed.

  Lukanterao moved in and the door slid back into place, thrusting her back into darkness.

  “Is there a light?” She asked. She wasn’t scared of the dark, especially now that he was here. He comforted her despite his size, or maybe because of it.

  “Glow,” he said, and the lights on the room came on at a dim glow.

  “Wow,” she murmured. Willow watched as Lukanterao climbed into bed with her. She still had her blanket from the man at the campsite wrapped around her body, but she wasn’t sure what to do with this big man in bed with her. Should she offer him part of the blanket? Did alien men like blankets? What was she supposed to do?

  “Just stop thinking,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I can sense how anxious and tense you are all of a sudden. You weren’t afraid of me earlier, so I don’t think you’re scared of me now. What is it that’s got you all riled up?”

  “I, um, I’m naked.”

  “Yes, I noticed.”

  “I’m under the blanket, though. I mean, I don’t know if it’s big enough for two, and I mean…” Wow, she was really making this awkward, wasn’t she? Just spit it out, Willow. “Do you want to share the blanket with me?”

  “I’m okay without one,” he said. She noticed that his shirt was gone, but his pants were still firmly in place.

  “Do you always sleep in your pants?”

  “Why? Do you want me to take them off?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fuck,” he growled, and stood back up. Willow wasn’t sure why she was so interested in seeing Lukanterao naked. She didn’t plan on anything happening between them and she hoped she wasn’t leading him on, but this was her one chance to see an alien naked and she wasn’t going to pass that up.

  Old Willow had been scared and shy.

  Old Willow had been a pussy.

  New Willow wasn’t going to be terrified of the world.

  New Willow was brave and bold and went after what she wanted.

  His pants fell to the floor and her jaw dropped open.

  “Wow,” she murmured, and Lukanterao slid back onto the cushion. His body was sculpted. Every inch of him was thick with muscle. Only professional power lifters on Mars would be able to get bodies like that. Human men rarely got so big. She didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone like him, not since she was a kid, anyway.

  Luke just looked her. His expression was guarded, as if he thought she might push him away or freak out. She wanted him to relax. She wanted him to feel safe with her the way she felt safe with him, so she reached her hand out.

  Brave Willow.

  She was going to be brave.

  Willow traced her finger along his cheek.

  “Doesn’t that feel more comfortable?” She whispered.

  “Much better,” Luke said.

  They lay like that, face-to-face, with only the thin blanket separating the two of them. Soon she would have to find clothes. She’d need something to wear so she wasn’t just waltzing around the ship in the nude all the time, but for now, this was just perfect.

  “You saved me,” she said to Luke.

  “I stole you.”

  “You rescued me.”

  “I kidnapped you.”

  “Are you going to kill me?”

  “No.”

  “Are you going to rape me?”

  “No.”

  “Are you going to-”

  “Shh,” he pressed his finger to her lips and she closed her mouth. “Let’s just sleep.” She thought then that she smelled petal juice on his breath, and Willow wondered if he was drunk. Could aliens get drunk? She wasn’t sure, but part of her hoped she would find out.
r />   Tomorrow.

  She could find out tomorrow.

  ***

  She woke up screaming in the middle of the night.

  “Willow, stop.”

  She screamed louder.

  “Willow!” Strong arms wrapped around her and she cried into the broad chest that held her in place. After a moment, she remembered where she was. Luke. She was with Luke.

  “You saved me,” she whispered again.

  “We’ve already had this conversation,” he said tensely.

  “You don’t even know what you rescued me from, do you?” Willow asked. Did Luke really think he had kidnapped her? Abducted her? Maybe he had. Maybe this was Stockholm syndrome, only she didn’t think so.

  She didn’t know him well enough for that.

  What she did know was that she would have starved on Ship 449302. She knew Rand would have murdered her. She knew she would be sent back to Mars where she would be forced into a marriage she didn’t want to a man she hated.

  She knew all of these things, but Luke didn’t.

  “I was on that ship because I needed to get away from Mars,” she whispered.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Luke said.

  “I want to.”

  He was still holding her tightly. At some point in her sleep, the blanket had fallen off of her, so nothing separated them now. She could feel his skin against hers: hot and comforting. She thought she might even be able to feel his heartbeat, but she didn’t focus on that. Willow was trying to think about her story, not about the way Luke lit her up.

  She’d been a virgin a really long time.

  A really, really long time.

  She’d known Luke only a short time. She didn’t need to be thinking about the things he seemed to make her think about, like kissing and licking and sucking. Touching. He made her think of touching.

  He made her think of fucking.

  Willow had a feeling that if Luke fucked her, she’d be ruined for all other men. There was no doubt in her mind that sleeping with him would be just that: hard, passionate fucking. There would be no lovemaking, no sweet promises of romance and adoration. There would be his cock and her weeping pussy, ready for everything he could give her.