ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads)

by Tanya Jolie

  Amanda tried to recall his features and strained to see him in her mind’s eye, but all she could make out was the shape of his face—which, put simply, was perfect—and the way his features were set along it in perfect balance. She struggled to focus on his lips, to see them and hear what he was saying. She eventually heard words come at her from the darkness, but they came at her randomly, in no specific order, and her mystery man’s mouth never moved once when he said them.

  It frustrated Amanda to no end that she couldn’t recall more, and that frustration only fueled her fervor. Her fingers were moving furiously below her moist panties, and she began feeling a fraction of what she’d felt earlier while she was sleeping.

  The closer she came to her sweet release, the clearer things became in Amanda’s mind. The perfectly shaped face with perfect features became more visible to her, and as she registered her mystery man’s pale, ashen skin, jet black hair, and steely gray eyes, Amanda felt a cool sensation web out across her body, like icicles crystallizing then abruptly shattering. Her back arched upward and her toes splayed out like talons, but right before she could reach the peak of her orgasm, something derailed Amanda’s momentum.

  Outside, the car alarm on her 1992 Chevy Cavalier had gone off, and the old beast was wailing something fierce into the quiet night air.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Amanda shouted aloud as she ran over to the window and looked out into the driveway. Her car looked fine, and there didn’t appear to be anyone or anything near it. But, nonetheless, the experience shook Amanda a little.

  It had been the second time in only a few minutes that Amanda was interrupted before she could reach any type of “climax,” and she didn’t like being iced so late in the final countdown. But even more disturbing than that—it had been the first time in over a year that the car alarm actually went off. It died a few months before the gas gauge did, and Amanda was pretty sure that it was shot for good.

  But there it was going off in the middle of the outskirts outside of Washington, PA, and there was no rhyme or reason about it. All Amanda knew was that it had gone off at exactly the wrong moment and that she needed to shut it off ASAP. She was sure it had already awoken her cousin, and she was starting to worry that, if she allowed it to keep going, the echo would travel a few miles down the road and catch the nearest neighbor’s attention.

  Amanda grabbed her car keys from her purse and ran outside, still wearing nothing more than a pair of short shorts and a T-shirt. Those were her normal sleeping clothes, not the panties and camisole she woke up in that morning.

  “Really, Amanda?” Marie asked, when she opened up her door and saw her cousin running past her. “Shut that thing off already!”

  “I’m trying,” Amanda called back, pressing the button on her keychain. It was supposed to disable the alarm, but apparently it wasn’t working. The damn security system wasn’t even a part of the original car package and was something that some previous owner had added on at a later point—and, Amanda wanted to slap whoever that person was because she’d never had any use for the system, and now all it was doing was causing her trouble.

  Amanda kept pressing the button over and over again, trying to make a difference, and, at one point, she actually did. The moment she stepped out onto Marie’s porch, the alarm was effectively disabled. Amanda breathed a sigh of relief and, without so much as a second thought, she turned and went back into the house.

  No sooner than the door shut behind her, Amanda felt herself falling forward. It wasn’t a hard, abrupt fall, however, but more of a gentle, slow descent into something soft and inviting. She felt her body keep lowering as waves of something indescribable passed over her, like the ocean’s tide gently lapping against the shore.

  Pleasure. Pure, uninterrupted, and unchained pleasure. Amanda felt every cell in her body contract and tighten before ripples of bliss rolled beneath her skin and erupted. This was the culmination of her delayed orgasms—the cleaving together of the joys she’d felt in both her sleep and waking hours—and it hit her like a Mack truck from out of nowhere… or perhaps like a bright light shining in her eyes, traveling toward her.

  Chapter 5

  “Amanda?” Marie said firmly, shaking Amanda by the shoulders. “Are you alright? Talk to me… Amanda?”

  Amanda looked up to find her cousin standing above her. Marie looked very concerned, and Amanda instantly felt embarrassed. She’d just experienced the most intense orgasm in her life—if you could even call it an orgasm—and she was sure she must have looked like a complete nympho or a total fool, grunting, groaning, and writhing on the floor in front of her cousin.

  “I’m sorry,” Amanda said, shaking her head as she tried to sit up. She immediately felt dizzy and had to lean back a little.

  “For what?” Marie asked. “I came in here and found you passed out on the floor. You scared the hell out of me, but there’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m just glad you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you?”

  “I think so,” Amanda said, trying to wrap her head around the situation. “You say you just came in here, and I was passed out on the floor? I wasn’t talking or moving?”

  “You just looked perfectly still,” Marie explained. “I checked to make sure you were breathing, and then I tried to shake n’ wake you. I didn’t know what happened but figured you’d fainted.”

  In addition to not being able to handle her booze, Amanda was also known to faint from time to time. For as long as she could remember, since she was a child, if she ever got really overworked, there was a slight chance that she could work herself into a fainting spell, and she’d long ago tried to master the art of refocusing and regulating her breathing to stop those spells. She’d been highly effective for the most part, but obviously not completely.

  But whatever Amanda had just experienced, it certainly wasn’t a fainting spell—though she wasn’t about to tell Marie that. She’d let Marie go on and believe whatever she wanted to believe, so that she didn’t have to explain otherwise. There was no way she could even begin to explain to her cousin what had just happened—and, even if she could, there was no way her cousin would believe it, or wouldn’t think she was crazy for spontaneously having an orgasm. The less questions Marie had the better, and the more time it gave Amanda to figure out the answers for herself.

  Amanda knew that there was something uncanny going on with, to, and around her, and she wanted very much to understand what that was, but her eagerness to understand was not overzealous. Somewhere, deep inside of her, she knew that she would get the answers she wanted in time and that trying to force things wouldn’t expedite the process. In time, she told herself, though it didn’t sound like her voice when she said it.

  “Thanks, Marie,” Amanda say, steadying herself a little more so that she could sit straight and upright. “I guess the car alarm really threw me for a loop, and I didn’t have time to catch my breath.”

  “It’s okay,” Marie said, reaching her hand down to help Amanda rise to her feet. “Just try to take better care of yourself. I really worry about you, you know—and, not to sound dorky, but I love you.”

  Maybe it did sound a little dorky when Marie said it, but the words “I love you” were still music to Amanda’s ears. It had been a long time since she’d heard anyone say that phrase and actually mean it—probably not since her mother died, during her senior year of college, just over two years ago. Her ex, Tommy, had said it to her plenty of times over the years after that, but it turned out he also said it to a few other girls at the same time, as he was banging them behind Amanda’s back. They broke up not even six months ago, and the sting of his betrayal still burned het.

  Sure enough, it really had been a long time since Amanda had heard someone say “I love you,” and it had been just as long since she actually felt loved. But, right then, as she stood up and regained her footing in Marie’s doorway, she felt nothing but love around her. She felt her cousin’s caring, compassion, and concern, and she felt s
omething else too. There was something else comforting her, and it was all around her. She breathed it in and let it flow down her throat. A sweet aftertaste crept over her lips, cool and crisp, and she shuddered in delight.

  “I think I should go back to bed now,” Amanda said, a little delirious but attentive enough not to make her cousin question her decision. She calmly turned and walked back toward the guest room, while Marie headed off to the kitchen.

  “It’s nearly sunrise,” Marie said, calling back to her. “So I’m just gonna get my day started. Rest up and join me whenever you’re ready.”

  Amanda didn’t bother to reply, but, instead, she smiled a smile that Marie couldn’t see and kept walking toward her room. As soon as she entered, she walked to the bed, crawled under the covers, and closed her eyes. She was overcome almost immediately with a deep sleep and didn’t wake again for several hours.

  Chapter 6

  “Good thing for you I’m not paying you by the hour,” Marie said, barging into the guest room. It was nearly 4:00 p.m., and although she was sensitive to her cousin’s needs, she was getting tired of working all day by herself when she had another able worker sawing logs down the hallway. “If I did, you wouldn’t have even earned enough to pay for your keep today, so get your ass out of bed, get yourself cleaned up, and come downstairs.”

  Amanda barely caught what her cousin said, but she caught enough of it to know that her cousin meant business. After Marie flung open the curtain and flooded the room with light, Amanda reluctantly got up out of bed and dragged herself to the bathroom two doors down from her. “I’m sorry,” she said, passing her cousin along the way. “That fainting spell really took a lot out of me this morning.” She was telling the truth, even if she wasn’t being completely honest. Whatever it was earlier that morning, it was no fainting spell, but it certainly had drained her, and she didn’t even want to be awake yet. She could have slept for hours upon hours more.

  Once Amanda was in the bathroom, she turned on the hot water in the shower and let it run for a bit as she sat down on the toilet and breathed in the steam. It was helping to wake her a little, and it filled her with something to counteract all the coolness that seemed to be running through her.

  A few moments later, Amanda was under the stream of hot water, and, as it washed over her, she felt relaxed and refreshed. She knew she had a lot of making up to do to Marie—and a lot of catching up to do on helping her—but she felt confident that she could do it all… and then some. It’s amazing how something as simple as a shower can really change a person’s mindset and attitude, and Amanda was a living, bathing tribute to that concept.

  As soon as Amanda was done showering, she dried off, wrapped a towel around her thin, but curvy body, and returned to her room. She opted for a comfortable pair of sweats and a fitted T-shirt and took her time putting them on. She was in no rush and was enjoying going about things at a leisurely place, and she figured she’d already wasted enough of her cousin’s day that a few extra minutes wouldn’t matter.

  Amanda brushed her hair back into a ponytail, ran a stick of deodorant under her arms, and headed out of her room, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to face whatever came her way. But when she got downstairs, she was met with something—or rather someone—she hadn’t expected.

  Marie wasn’t in the kitchen but was in the living room instead, and she was seated across from a tall, thin man who was slightly older than her and far less attractive. His features were bland, and so was his clothing and facial expression, and he definitely didn’t look like he’d stopped by on any type of social call.

  “Amanda,” Marie said, looking up from the cup of coffee she had in front of her. She was drinking it out of one of her fancier teacups, not a mug, which wasn’t a good sign as far as Amanda was concerned. “This is my friend Peter—Peter Albert. I asked him here tonight to talk with you.”

  Amanda stared at her cousin and her cousin’s unlikely companion from the bottom of the stairway. She raised her eyebrow, turned, and then headed toward the kitchen. “No thanks,” she said, making her way to the refrigerator for a snack. “I’m not dating anyone new right now.”

  It was obvious that Marie hadn’t called Peter there as Amanda’s date, and Amanda was obviously trying to be a bit reticent in saying what she’d said.

  “Seriously, Amanda,” Marie said. “After what’s been happening, I was very worried.” Marie and Peter walked into the kitchen behind Amanda, not skipping a beat.

  “First you wake up and have no idea what happened the night before,” Marie went on. “Then you pass out in the middle of the night and sleep all day. You’ve been in a daze since you got here, and I can’t just sit back and watch this happen to you. I figured maybe you needed someone to talk to.”

  Amanda examined Peter. Even if she wanted to talk to someone, he didn’t look like the kind of guy she’d want to talk to.

  “I mean, you only lost your mom two years ago,” Marie continued, starting to ramble. “And you were really serious with Tommy for two years after that. You guys only recently broke up, and maybe there are some unresolved feelings there or something—maybe something is eating away at you. Whatever it is, you’ve got to confront it.”

  Amanda felt her face getting hot. She didn’t like her cousin standing there, disclosing so many intimate details about her life, and she knew Marie had probably shared more with this stranger before she’d walked in on them in the living room.

  “I can help you,” Peter said, reaching his thin fingers into the pocket on the chest of his generic button-down shirt. He pulled out a business card and handed it to Amanda. Amanda looked at it quickly and was just about to dismiss it, but she couldn’t. Her jaw dropped, and she gawked at her cousin.

  “Dr. Peter Albert, Psychiatrist,” Amanda read from the card before throwing it down on the counter. “You fucking called a shrink to talk to me?” she asked her cousin. Marie looked back at her without saying a word, and Peter stepped forward. “Calm down, Miss Leonard,” he said. “Let’s just go in the other room, sit down, and work through this.”

  “You go to the living room,” Amanda said, burning through him with her eyes to look at her cousin, who stood humbled behind him. “I’m getting the hell out of here.”

  With that, Amanda stormed upstairs and returned to her room, where she collected as much of her stuff as she could. All she cared about was her phone, her purse, and her car keys, but she grabbed what clothes she could, figuring she’d forget about whatever she left behind. She’d come here to help her cousin get ready for an event, out of the kindness of her heart, but now she wanted nothing more than to get as far as she could away from her.

  “Amanda, wait!” Marie shouted when Amanda ran down the stairs a minute later, but Amanda had her keys in her hand and a plan in her mind, and she wasn’t stopping. She careened right past Marie—and right past Peter, who sat on the couch writing something in his notebook—and made a beeline for her 1992 Chevy Cavalier.

  Amanda hopped in her car, revved the engine, and looked at the gas gauge. It read over half of a tank, and she wasn’t sure how accurate it was, but as she shifted the sedan into drive, she hoped it’d be enough to get her wherever she was going.

  Chapter 7

  “Oh no,” Amanda said, staring down at her dashboard. “Why the hell does this keep happening?”

  The needle on her gas gauge had just spontaneously shifted from around a half of a tank to well below “E,” and, as Amanda’s car sputtered forward, she knew that she was nearing empty.

  That’s what you get for driving such an old car, Amanda told herself, once again. She’d said that same phrase to herself several times over the past few months, but this time it felt even more familiar to her. She’d been having trouble with the gas gauge for months, and, every once in awhile, despite her better efforts, she ended up in a situation like this… though this particular situation felt hauntingly similar to another she’d experienced, though she could say why.

&n
bsp; “Fuck,” Amanda said, examining her cell phone. “No Service” flashed across the screen at her, and she wanted to throw the useless piece of junk out of the moving car window.

  Amanda looked out at the sprawled out, empty space beside her as her car continued to slowly lurch forward. She’d been driving along an unoccupied, rural stretch of highway, trying to make some time on her way back to Pittsburgh, and there wasn’t a home, business, or shred of discernable human life or activity around for miles.

  A cold chill filled the car, as if someone had blasted the air conditioner. This all seems so familiar, Amanda thought to herself, pulling her car over to the side of the road. She thought about checking her gas can in the trunk, but she knew it was empty but for a few drops, and she didn’t want to risk trying to stretch out what was left by adding water.

  That could be dangerous, she told herself. If I had a phone signal, I could look that up on the internet. Amanda’s head was spinning, and it was flooded with images from ripped from the silver screens and headlines. She didn’t want to be a sitting duck on the side of the road, so she decided to hoof it towards civilization, even though her head wasn’t on straight just yet.

  She collected her belongings from the seat beside her and reached behind her to grab her overnight bag. If someone wants this piece of junk, they can have it, she told herself, readying herself to abandon her ride. Just as she turned back around to face the front again, Amanda dropped her bag, gasped, and felt startled. A bright light was shining on her, and a vehicle was traveling in her direction.