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

by Tanya Jolie

  “Alright. Well, call me tomorrow. I love you, Nel.” For the first time in the conversation, I actually felt as if my mother was sad for me.

  “Love you too, Ma.” I hung up the phone and immediately began sobbing violently. It was so loud that Tweety scampered away and hid underneath the dining room table, another piece of furniture that Adam and I fought over. My argument was that we would never need a table that sat twelve guests and he argued that having it might make us more social. As I tried to bait her out from underneath it with a toy mouse, the doorbell rang. I questioned opening it in my state, but to hell with what I looked like.

  “Hey, oh, my God, what happened?” It was Laura, one of my closest friends, both physically and metaphysically. I started crying all over again.

  “He’s a pig, Laura!” I screamed and it felt wonderful. “He’s a worthless pig and I hate him! And it’s over! It is over!” Laura ushered me into the house with the casserole dish she had borrowed earlier that week and was, undoubtedly, returning to me.

  “Why? What happened?” we sat down on the couch and I calmed myself, though I still sounded like a congested toddler when I spoke.

  “We had his big Christmas party in the city tonight and, like, halfway through dinner I notice that he’s not around,” Laura nods incessantly, “and then, so, I got up from the table, and I looked so cute tonight, I swear. I looked like a million bucks. Everybody thoughts so. And so, and so I walked around the banquet hall and couldn’t spot him, so I thought maybe his boss, I don’t know, took him outside or something, to smoke a cigar or something like that. So I went to coat check to get my jacket so that I could, you know, go outside, and I see them.”

  “Who?” her eyes got wide and I thought she’d look even better with a bowl of popcorn in her lap.

  “Adam and some chick named Amber or Crystal or, I don’t know, some other stupid noun like that, in a slutty red dress. In the coat check. Having sex! She is his boss’s assistant!” I screamed and covered my mouth with the tissue I had just about used up. Laura gasped.

  “What a cliché!”

  “I know! That’s what I said! I told him that it was a cliché and that I deserved better than that. At least be on the roof or something.”

  “Oh my God, Nell. I’m so sorry.” She put her hand on my shoulder as I shook with rage. “Where is he now?”

  “Hell! I hope that’s where he is.” I sat up straight and sniffed back more tears. “I don’t know. He’s probably sleeping at her place.” Just saying the words made me want to vomit. Laura stayed with me for the rest of the night, made sure I got to bed, and went home.

  My eyes were swollen when I woke up and I spent most of the morning shrinking away from the light like a vampire. I fixed myself a bowl of cereal, but didn’t eat it. Tweety helped herself to the milk as I combed through the paper that was on my doorstep looking for apartments. Laura offered that I move in with her for a few weeks, until I found a place. I ruefully accepted. When my cell phone rang, the sound sliced through my head like a hacksaw.

  “Hello?” I answered bleakly.

  “Babe?” It was Adam. I hung up the phone immediately and my eyes began to burn with new tears. The phone rang again. I silenced it. The phone rang again. And again. And again. I justified answering it by telling myself I wouldn’t say a word. “Nellie?” I said nothing. “Nellie, it’s me.” I sighed. “Listen, I want to talk to you about what happened last night. I was drunk and my boss, he urged me to do it. Said that everyone who makes partner sleeps with their boss’s secretaries.”

  “Assistant.” I corrected.

  “Listen, Baby, it was nothing. A rite of passage. To get me ahead. It’s not like I love her or anything. I love you.” I remained silent. “I know you need some time.”

  “No, I don’t. I don’t ever want to see you again. I’ve thought long and hard about it and, you know what? I’ve decided that you’re a piece of trash and so is your hot new girlfriend.”

  “Nellie, just don’t. Don’t act like we’re not going to get back together after this.”

  “I hate you.” I hung up the phone. It rang again. I didn’t answer it this time. Instead of trying again, Adam settled for a text message with the address of the corporate suite he was staying in. He explained he’d stay there as long as I wanted him to. That I could have the house and that the sacrifice of not living there with me should be proof enough that he’s sorry. I told him I wouldn’t need long to get all of my stuff out.

  For the next week, I began packing up my things in boxes and looking for apartments. Every afternoon at 3:00pm, a dozen long stemmed red roses arrived at my door and every afternoon at 3:05pm, a dozen long stemmed red roses landed in the trash can. At first, I read the notes that came with them, full of “I’m sorry”s and “please forgive me”s. After the third day, I stopped reading them. I expected this from Adam. As I explained before, he was a very passionate man. To a fault.

  That Friday, I had my first job interview. A new Bed and Breakfast had opened up a few miles away and they were looking for a manager. While it wasn’t the most illustrious of hotels, it was something. Laura had told me I could catch a ride with her that day as my car was having some trouble with the whole running thing. I kissed Tweety goodbye and walked out onto the porch, waiting for Laura to arrive.

  “Hey!” I heard a man’s voice shout to me. I jumped and looked over to neighbor’s lawn. A man dressed in a knitted cap and a heavy black jacket that looked to be about three sizes too big for him made his way across the snow covered yard. I walked down a few steps and met him at my walkway. “Hi, I’m Brian.” His smile was perfect. His teeth were nice and straight, pearly white, and his lips curled around them exquisitely. He was very handsome. I was quite taken by his shining blue eyes and how they reflected the white snow around us.

  “Hi Brian, I’m Nellie.” I reached out and we shook hands, cordially.

  “I just moved in,” he thumbed behind him to the house that had been vacant next door for years.

  “Oh, that’s nice. I was wondering when someone would.”

  “How long have you been here?” he asked, his breath condensing in the cold air.

  “A few years. I’m actually moving soon. My fiancé and I lived here together.” I paused, realizing I had just created a very awkward first impression. “But, that’s a whole big thing. So, yeah.” I smiled, trying to save face. He nodded and chuckled.

  “Yeah, I know a lot about that.” He smiled, apologetically. Laura pulled up in front of the house and honked her horn. Brian turned and waved to her and she responded by narrowing her eyes.

  “Well, that’s my ride. It was nice meeting you, Brian.”

  “Nice meeting you, too.” He smiled and walked briskly back to his house. When I got into the car, Laura stared at me gravely.

  “Who was that?” she asked, accusingly.

  “New neighbor.” I put my seatbelt on as she began to drive.

  “Oh. Okay. I thought maybe it was one of Adam’s goons. He was cute, what’s his name?” I rolled my eyes as we made our way towards town.

  When Laura dropped me back home after the interview, I was feeling really great. The best I’d felt in weeks. I had nailed it and the owner had all but told me I had the position in the bag. I was to expect a phone call in the next day or two, but I was walking into the house ready to celebrate. When I got to my porch, though, Brian called out to me again.

  “Hey, Nellie!” he shouted and jogged over to my porch.

  “Hey, Brian,” I said, seemingly annoyed, though he was just as handsome as he was earlier that day.

  “Your fiancé, does he have blond hair?” I nodded. “Is he, like, five-ten, five-eleven?” he asked, with his hand up to show the height.

  “Yes, why?” I asked, my heart fluttering with nerves.

  “Okay, well, a few minutes after you left, a car pulled up and someone got out and went into your house. I assumed it was your fiancé because they had a key and a vase of flowers.” I swallo
wed hard.

  “Roses. How long was he in there?”

  “Not long. About twenty minutes or so. He left in a hurry, but I didn’t see anything in his hands, so I don’t think he took anything. I wasn’t sure if I should have called the police because you weren’t really, well, specific this morning about your relationship. Is that okay?”

  “Um, well, yeah, I guess so. I wonder why he came.” I scratched my head, questioning the validity of asking Brian to escort me into the house. I decided against it. “Well, thanks for letting me know.”

  “No problem.” He smiled and waved as he walked back to his pathway, half shoveled. I waited for a moment longer, watching him pick his shovel back up and begin heaving the snow away, like He-Man. It was nice.

  I walked into the house and the first thing I noticed was the smell. It smelled like burning. Putting my coat and purse on the floor, I made my way into the living room where absolutely nothing was out of place. The blanket was still haphazardly bundled, my magazine was still open to the same page. The smell was stronger, though. I looked to the dining room table.

  Sixty long stemmed, once red roses were laid out along the table. Most were bent and battered, some were still straight as a pin, but all of them were now black, their petals brittle and broken fragments of petrified ash waiting to fall into dust. Adam had found the roses in the trash can and decided to make a true gesture, one that couldn’t be thrown away no matter how long it sat in the garbage.

  I picked up the roses, careful not to shake any of the burnt petals onto the ground, and deposited them into the kitchen trash can. I swiftly took the bag out and put it outside. I walked it all the way to the curb, in case Adam wanted to drive by again and take a look. I thought to call Laura, but I didn’t want to worry her or encourage another session of talking about Adam and our history. At that point, I just wanted it to be over.

  I busied myself with spray the house in an attempt to mask the smell of Adam’s fiery passion, but easily succumbed to the couch and the magazine I was almost finished with. After a minute or two of reading, I heard a very faint sound coming from the bedroom. I waited until I heard it again and made my way upstairs. As I got to the room, I heard it was a very distinct meowing. I sighed loudly and smiled, getting on my hands and needs to check for Tweety under the bed.

  “Where are you, princess?” I spoke softly when I saw she wasn’t there. I walked to the en suite bathroom door, which was closed. “Did you shut yourself inside again?” I opened the door, ready for her to come speeding out like a bullet. She did not. The meowing became more and more persistent, less of a reminder and more of an alarm. “Where are you?” I said to myself. I checked the closet, but she wasn’t there. Where ever she was, she had been there for a while now. Then it hit me.

  In the far corner of the bedroom is the entrance to a crawlspace. The house was very old and the attic was converted into a “master floor”. While it looked great and gave us plenty of room to put furniture and guests, it left us with nothing more than a tiny, coffin-sized crawlspace for storage. My heart began pounding. Adam had done something. Tweety had now starting howling, hearing that I was nearer.

  Shaking, I opened the hatch to the crawl space and was hit immediately with freezing cold air. I began to panic. I could hear Tweety scratching violently as I neared my head towards the space. I closed my eyes, breathing heavily, and my mouth starting to fill with saliva. When I opened my eyes, the room began to spin. The crawl space looked no wider than a shoe box and my chest heaved under the pressure. I saw the box all the way at the other end, shaking and twitching. I started to cry, though not voluntarily. The cat was screaming and howling, probably half frozen, and I could do nothing but sit in a lump and cry. The box was marked “Adam’s”.

  I fought to stand on my feet and I half limped, half crawled to the stairs and out the front door. Brian was still outside shoveling the damned walkway. I screamed, not making words, just sounds, and waving at him manically. I caught his attention and he ran over, the snow no issue for him whatsoever.

  “What’s the matter? What is it? Are you choking?”

  “Crawlspace,” I choked out. “Crawlspace. Bedroom.” I pointed up the stairs as I tried to catch my breath. Without another word, Brian stormed into the house and bounded up the stairs like a soldier. By the time I was standing on my feet, bracing myself with the railing, he was back downstairs with Tweety in his arms. I could only smile as he handed her to me, shivering and almost solid with cold. She clung to me, meowing loudly in my face, as we walked into the living room, closing the winter outside.

  “I’m so sorry about that.” I laughed as my nerves took over. He sat down on the couch beside me.

  “That’s alright. I’m just relieved it wasn’t a monster. I thought for sure I was getting ready to kill something.” He joked as I eased. His face grew with concern, though. “Are you alright? It looked like you were having a panic attack.”

  “I’m okay now.” I shifted my eyes around, debated whether or not it was too early in this friendship for me to expose my intolerable psychosis. “I’m just afraid of small spaces.”

  “Yeah, well, they’re not for everyone.” He sat up a little straighter. “I was on a submarine once. Your crawlspace is large enough for four men to sleep in comfortably.” My chest tightened at the thought.

  “What were you doing on a submarine?” I asked, feeling stupid for not realizing.

  “I was a Navy SEAL for about four years. We were sent to answer a distress call. And that’s really all I can say.” As he spoke, he tensed up. He was a tall man, kept himself in shape. It wasn’t surprising to hear he had been in the military.

  “Navy SEAL, isn’t that, like, a huge honor?” I didn’t look at him when I asked that. I’m not sure why.

  “It is a lot of responsibility, but, yes, a very honorable position.”

  “Why are you no longer…with them?”

  “I was injured and was no longer eligible for the position.” He looked pained, disappointment creeping in his eyes. “I was offered a job in recruitment, but felt it wasn’t what I was destined for. There aren’t many SEALs in their thirties, so I only had a few good years before I was getting ousted anyway. My time was cut short though.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” We sat silently for a few moments, Tweety curled up in a ball underneath the blanket between us. “Looks like she’s settled.”

  “I take it from this stunt that your fiancé isn’t on the same page as you concerning your relationship.” Brian stated bluntly.

  “Not even in the slightest.” I tried to laugh, but only air came out.

  “Is he a violent man? What happened between you two?”

  “Violent? No. Never been before. He cheated on me and I ended it. Pretty cut and dry. I’ve been trying to find a new place, but it isn’t really a good market.”

  “I have a spare room.” He said, looking immediately horrified. “I mean, I’ve got three. It’s only matter of time before you find a place.” He looked into his hands for a moment. “I should probably be getting home. If you need anything, just let me know.”

  “Oh, okay, sure,” I smiled and walked him to the door. “Thanks again for all of your help. I don’t expect this to happen again.” He turned and smiled.

  “Don’t mention it.” He waved and walked off the porch, disappearing into the night that had fallen. I closed the door, smiling. What a brave man he was. A navy SEAL. That was totally more impressive than a Junior Partner…wasn’t it? A moment later the doorbell rang. I skipped towards the door, believing it to be Brian.

  I swung the door open and no one was there. Instead, a gnarled, frozen, lifeless body of a cat lay at my feet. I was too stunned to scream. A note that had been taped to the front door blew in the wind. I grabbed it and closed the door. It read:

  Good thing your boyfriend came over to rescue Tweety, Scaredy Cat. – A

  I dropped the note and called the police.

  Chapter 2: Which Led to a bed


  The police arrived and took my statement. It was all very surreal. The lights spinning around against the snow were blinding, disorienting, and the voices clicking over the radios on the officers’ shoulders were unnerving. I stared down into the blank hole in the snow on the porch where the dead cat was as the officer’s asked me textbook questions. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brian walking over from his door and felt awash with relief.

  “Nellie, what’s going on?” he said as he tried to approach me, but an officer stood in his way.

  “Sir, do you know Miss Parker?” the officer eyed him carefully.

  “Yes, she’s my neighbor.” He said, sternly, seemingly staring through the officer, who shifted uneasily. “I was just over here a few hours ago. Helping her with…something.”

  “Did you hear or see anything after you left?”

  “No. What’s this about?” Brian muscled his way past the officer and came to my side. It was a startling display of hormones, to say the least. His arm snaked his way around my shoulders and I pressed my face against his chest. It was the fastest I had ever grown to like someone. We had only met earlier that day and here I was clinging to him like a frog to a lily pad. As he and the officer discussed the “incident”, my eyes scanned the small crowd that had formed. I saw no one that I recognized and yet everyone looked like Adam for a split second.

  “Nellie, do you have anywhere you can stay tonight?” the officer asked. My mind raced. I had called Laura after I called the police, but she hadn’t answered. I didn’t want to worry her, so I didn’t leave a message. I was sure that if I called her now, not only would she be worried, but she would also be angry that I hadn’t left a message. I thought of my mother and shivered, so I just kind of shook my head.

  “She can stay with me.” Brian said, much to my dismay. While the idea of staying with Brian was nice and comforting, Adam had already jumped to conclusions and I didn’t want a potential love interest to get chased away by his irrationality.