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

by Tanya Jolie

  The door snaps closed as we both hear something, and I see his head turn away from his study of me to look at something else. Now all I can see are some vague shapes through the keratin window. I notice something shift on the other side of the partition and realize he’s left. He’s gone, and I can’t help but feel his loss completely in every part of my body. I don’t know if they can control the gravity aboard this ship, but it feels as if it has been increased. My body weighs me down.

  This is completely nuts! How can I feel so utterly sad? To begin with, I’ve only just met this creature. Then there’s the fact he only just left the room. Plus, what the fuck?

  I trail slowly through to the area where we three have been sleeping and lay on the mobile platform. Tears trickle across the bridge of my nose and drip from the end of it to land on my cheek, and I’m at an utter loss to understand the cavernous well, which has grown in my chest. I can feel the loss so keenly it’s all I can do to hold back the wail of despair, which is threatening to burst from me.

  I hear someone approaching and hope it’s Deakins rather than Nerravin because at least he might ignore me. I roll over and face the odd wall, so whichever one it is doesn’t see my tears. I hold my breath as much as I can, while whoever it is shuffles about doing whatever they’re doing.

  “What’s up?” Deakins asks, knowing something must be wrong.

  Neurons fire through my brain, concocting a lie at the speed of thought. “They’re all dead, and I think it’s just hit me.” I sniff, “I can see their faces: Kowtoi, Derenus, Trant and the rest.” My breath hitches in my chest, but not for the reason Deakins thinks. I hear him sigh and feel his weight as he sits next to me, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder,

  “Yeah,” he tells me quietly, “I know, Hetty, I know.” I can feel him gently rubbing my shoulder to soothe me. Although I appreciate his efforts, I can only wish he would leave me alone and manage to get myself together enough to sit up and pretend I feel better.

  “What’s this?” Deakins asks, grabbing my little journal and reading through it. His eyes search my face through his glasses. “Have you seen one close up?” He asks me.

  I nod my head a little and draw my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms about them and hugging tight.

  “What happened?” he demands, his eyes alight with wonder. I relate the story, even though thinking about the alien leaving me carves the well of desperation out of my chest again. I pointedly avoid telling Deakins about my feelings and try to keep my narrative as professional as possible.

  “Amazing” is all Deakins can say when I finish my telling. “To think we were never alone in the galaxy after all.” He shakes his head. “What a bunch of conceited people we were to believe it.” Deakins sighs again. “I don’t suppose you got any idea what they’re going to do with us do you?”

  “No idea,” I tell him and realize it’s the truth.

  He nods and makes a face. “Suppose we’ll just have to wait and see then,” he adds and leaves me to be alone.

  ***

  I make my way to the command section and claim my seat at the head of Acrulla.

  “Report!” I bark the command across the small room and feel satisfaction as each member of my crew gives me their information.

  “We remain on course, Commander. Estimated time to Intrellian space remains constant.” Talacrus growls from navigation control.

  “Acrulla’s systems are all fully operational, Commander. We have sufficient fuel to make the journey.” This comes from Jonober in the engineering section.

  “All weapons systems are fully operational as usual, Commander.” This boastful report comes from Shaktee, the only female in the command center at present, although there are others aboard. This one has had designs on me since she boarded, one of the many who want to share my bed and the prestige my name brings.

  A number of the other officers have also expressed a desire to do this, but I have never allowed any of them to do so. I have earned my place as Commander of this vessel through hard work and violence and will allow none of these inferior creatures to suck my prestige from me like a Garatulean parasite.

  “Talacrus, locate a nearby planet with the likelihood of prey. I will hunt this cycle.”

  “As you command, my lord.” I watch as his interface pulses, telling Acrulla to locate and head for a viable planet.

  No sooner have I settled back in my seat than my thoughts turn to the alien female. My fixation on her is a distraction I do not need, and briefly, I consider jettisoning all three of them into space.

  “May I be permitted to join you, my lord?” This comes from Shaktee again, and I hear a few hisses from the other members of my crew.

  “You may carry my weapons and clean my kills if it suits you,” I snap at her in a dismissive tone.

  A few of the others laugh, and she snarls at the obvious put down. I look at her with a dead stare as she begins to rise from her seat, and an air of anticipation fills the command center, my crew looking forward to seeing one or the other of us being ripped savagely apart.

  Shaktee looks around at the collection of Intrella who are all watching her with expectant faces. Her eyes alight on me, and she looks away fast, sitting back down and turning to her console.

  “Anyone else wish to perish this cycle?” My voice rumbles ominously across the room, finding only silence as a reply. Without another word, I leave for my room.

  Once within the confines of my private rooms, I can relax and think about the alien.

  ***

  The incessant hum from the engines – how can it have engines if it’s alive? – stop, and I glance towards Deakins and Nerravin, whose expressions must mirror mine. We’ve all been in space for long enough to know when we’ve entered the atmosphere of a planet and landed.

  “This might be our final destination.” Deakins theorizes ominously.

  I roll my eyes at his depressive attitude. I swing my legs from the bed and utter a little sound of wonder as the walls around us begin to lighten, eventually turning white and then translucent before finally becoming completely transparent.

  Deakins and Nerravin come to stand beside me as I look out over the landscape of an alien planet. The ship has landed in a vast plain seeded with pink, grass-like plants that wave in a breeze I can't feel. Dotted about are larger bushes, in groups or individually, in a myriad of bright colors. Apparently, there are no pastel shades here as everywhere I look is a riot of hues: blue, purple, orange, yellow and even some greens. The light of a nearby star beats down and, judging from the angle of the shadows I can see, it is almost directly overhead.

  I can’t see much of the rest of the ship as the floor and ceiling above us are still the original gray-green color they have been since arriving. What I can tell, from the vague glimpses of shadow and limited vision I have through the wall, is we appear to be amidships, and the craft is massive in comparison to anything built by humans.

  I run my eyes across the landscape again, trying to record every last detail of the place, even though I have no idea where it is in space or whether we are likely to be here for ten minutes or the rest of our lives. I turn right and see a large, irregularly shaped pool of some kind of liquid, probably water. The lake, as I’m going to call it, is rimmed by a light orange soil bank, which slopes gently up from the water’s surface. Occasional ripples on the water indicate something is moving in its depths, and I get the impression that whatever it is, it’s huge.

  My attention is caught by movement nearer to us, and I look down to see him standing on the plain, the pink grass dancing round his feet, making it look like he has living socks. I hope the involuntary gasp, which escapes me, is mistaken for surprise by my two human companions, and it must be because they’ve got no idea how this creature stirs me.

  Even though he’s facing away from me, I can tell he looks different. He’s wearing some kind of body covering, which looks tough, hardened like an armor of some kind, and he’s got an array of primitive weapons with
him. Belted to his waist are what I can only think of as, swords and long knives with curved blades.

  A well of feeling springs up inside me, and I press my hands on the transparent wall of the ship, hoping he’ll turn to look at me. Disappointment crushes me as he walks off towards whatever his destination is, and I can barely hold back the tears.

  What is wrong with me? It’s like he’s got some hold over me, and I can’t break it. But the more I think about it, the less I want to break the spell.

  Looking magnificent as he clears the shadow of the ship and the sun begins to glint from various pieces of his armor and weaponry, my alien stalks off towards the lake.

  My alien now, is it?

  Some part of me must know what he’s going to do because an overwhelming fear for his safety is crushing my chest with cold fright. Whatever is in the water, huge and ancient, is massive and evil. I can sense it without knowing how.

  My breath is coming in short gasps as I watch him approach the water, alone and looking so small, so vulnerable. Seconds tick by as he cautiously puts one foot in front of the other. I scan the water, checking for any sign which might threaten him but see nothing. Everything seems calm, until something massive explodes from the water. Chitinous and vile, the thing, whatever kind of monster this is, has a dirty gray-blue color to it like the clay you can sometimes find back on Earth. Long limbs (Legs? Arms?), which have multiple joints along their length, shoot towards my alien, piercing claws ready to burrow into his flesh and rip his internal organs out, and I hear someone cry out, “No!” Never realizing it’s actually me.

  Guilt hits me then, pulling me down as if the gravity has been doubled as he dodges to one side and flicks one of the swords from his waist towards the still accelerating limb.

  How can I doubt his skill?

  A three-foot section detaches and flies off into the pink grass, spraying black ichor, like a smoke trail, in its wake. The second limb slows and shudders, clearly affected by the loss of the end of the first, and the bulk of the creature begins to rise from the water.

  Gallons of lake water sluice from the creature along with tons of associated detritus, mud and rotten leaves drop from the sides of it to splash back down like vast blood clots into the water. I can see the bones and skulls of huge animals this thing must have fed on, lying in wait for prey to come to the water for a drink before leaping into action, skewering them with the tips of its spear like legs and pulling them into the cold depths of the lake.

  Fright grips me again as I see the beast rise to its full height from the water and note it’s at least double my alien’s height. It’s got a huge array of the weapon-like limbs in different lengths, and they all point towards my alien. At the junctions where these limbs meet the main trunk of the monster, sit openings, which look to me like mouths, ringed with spiked, beak-like structures that resemble those in the maw of a squid.

  A blur of movement and the battle begins. The monster stabs out with more limbs than I can count, but my focus stays on the alien I met right here, aboard this ship. I can see a savage beauty in his movements as he dips and dodges, lighter on his feet than a dancer and easily as graceful. His swords flick left and right, deflecting and chopping, hacking at the hideous tips which fly through the air, landing with splashes of the black blood that seems to pump through the beast and twitching in the pink grass.

  I watch him fight, astounded and awed by his skill and prowess with the blades, rooting for him like a cheerleader and clapping when the vile creature slinks back below the surface of the water, pools of the dark blood floating like an oil spill.

  The huge grin on my face fades as I turn to face Deakins and Nerravin, and the smaller security officer catches me with a fierce glare. “What the fuck is going on, man?” Her eyes are wide and filled with unspoken accusation. Both of them stay silent, leaving me to fill the gap in conversation.

  “Well...I...uh...” I don’t think I can tell them I’m under some kind of spell, cast by an alien. No, I’m sure that wouldn’t go down well.

  “What happened when you met the alien you told me about?” Deakins asks.

  Nerravin looks at him sharply then back at me. “You talked to one of these fuckers?” she demands angrily.

  “Don’t call him that!” I screech at her before I can stop myself, and they both look at me as if I’ve changed into someone else completely.

  “That’s just great, man,” Nerravin spits bitterly. “Here I am trying to save your sorry ass, and you go and cozy up to the enemy?”

  “He’s not the enemy. He’s really not,” I plead to Deakins, but he turns away, looking at the floor. “You have to believe me. They're friendly.”

  Nerravin nods to the carnage he wrought outside. “That don’t look friendly to me.”

  “It attacked him!”

  “Yeah,” she tells me in a sarcastic voice, “but he went out there to provoke it and made sure we saw the whole thing.” Her tattooed knuckle taps dully on the transparent wall. “What's that all about? Some kind of warning, if you ask me, man.” All I can do is shake my head. I don’t know anything about these creatures and I haven’t got a clue where my feelings sprung from, but I could swear on any holy book you could name that he feels the same for me as I do for him.

  ***

  Cleaning the manure from my blades, I am aglow with post battle fever. My whole body hums like an Azutrian hormba-pipe, and once I have cleaned myself and my gear, I will claim the female as mine. None aboard will dare to stop me, and if any have the audacity to even think they wish to challenge me, I will destroy them utterly and abandon their remains on this planet, denying their path to the Hereafter.

  My blades and armor cleaned and stowed, I wash the filth of battle from my body, picking the annoying stings of the tiny creatures, which abounded on the surface from my skin. Soil and the creature's blood drain off my body, and I anoint myself with rare Betalan oil to make my skin shine. I blunted my claws in anticipation of taking the alien, I sense she will not be as robust as an Intrellian female, and soften the pads on each of my digits to better feel her texture.

  My sexual center is already beginning to swell at just the thought of being with her, and I can wait no longer. Slipping a curved knife into the back of my leggings, I head for the cargo hold where I know she is waiting for me.

  Stalking through the bowels of Acrulla, I pass a number of my crew. None of them try and hail me. All are engaged in maintenance and repair works. Acrulla is old, by a Sentient Ship’s standards, and requires more maintenance than the younger ships. The advantage Acrulla has its experience, experience gained in battle, gained through trade and gleaned from every single encounter in his long, long history.

  I reach the cargo hold and enter the makeshift monitoring station where Bhentus sits, recording and entering information about the aliens into Acrulla’s thought centers. Her head snaps round then back as fast when she sees me, our last encounter still fresh in her thoughts. I cross to the door and will it open, ignoring the gasp from the female behind me, and enter the space within. I can hear them, the three aliens, and from the tone of their voices, they might be arguing. It halts as soon as I enter.

  There is a mixed reaction from the three, the small female and male glare at me, stepping away as I approach to keep their distance while the larger female parts her lips and walks towards me, affirming my right to her.

  To my complete surprise, the small female dashes across towards me, her whiny voice a buzz of hatred as she throws herself between me and my prize. Maybe these creatures live by a different set of codes than we Intrella, so I will allow her to live this time. Plus a part of me thinks the larger female would think less of me if I slash the head from her associate.

  Rather than drawing my blade, I push the small female gently aside. She falls, sliding across the floor, apparently these aliens are not particularly robust at all, and I will have to remember this if I do not wish to kill the bigger female.

  I hold my claws out towards her
, and she looks down as if seeing if they are blunted for her, and I wonder if we might be a little more similar after all.

  ***

  “Keep the fuck away from her, motherfucker!” Nerravin screams as my alien approaches me. He hurls her across the room, and I hear her grunt as she lands, but I can't take my eyes off him.

  His skin’s got a glow to it, like an inner light glowing or an aura which surrounds his naked upper half. I see bunches of solid muscle, which helped him destroy the monster in the lake and can also see a large bulge in his trousers, the size of which makes my throat go dry.

  I look down as he holds his hand out. There are only four digits and none looks to be a thumb, each with a thick, shining black talon jutting from the end. I know from the size of him and the shape of those nails, Nerravin is lucky to be alive. He could have torn her to shreds if he had been so inclined. I glance briefly over to see if Deakins is helping Nerravin, but he is staring in open-mouthed wonder at another one of the aliens who has followed mine in.

  This one must be a female because, although she is almost the same size as mine, she is far more curvaceous even though it appears she is just as fearsome as mine too. Her expressionless face seems to be locked onto Deakins, and I wonder if there is some pheromone or hormonal reason our two species lock onto each other like this. The thought fades, the imperative to consider it lost as I take my alien's hand and let him lead me away.

  His skin is soft and cool to my touch, and my mind wonders what it would feel like to have those hands roaming all over my body, chilling up my spine and cupping my tits. A shudder of desire worms its way through me, and I hope I’m about to find out. We pass others of his species, most of who turn to watch us pass, some singing to each other in that whale song language, which is so utterly different to our speech, others simply stare as we pass.

  To me, the whole ship looks alike, gray-green walls and floor, until we reach another door, and it opens to reveal an almost luxurious interior. The floor is blood-red, the walls are a soft magnolia color and the soft light which comes from overhead, somewhere, covers everything with a warm glow.