Science Friction: 15 Book MEGA Sci-Fi Romance Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets)

by Selena Kitt

  While he berated himself for his carelessness, he watched in shock as the wound knitted itself back together.

  “What the. . .”

  And then it disappeared. Gone completely. Her strained breathing also returned to normal. She sat back on her haunches, pushing that damn ugly hat off as she did. His eyes widened and he stared in horror. Although it was dark, he could see she wasn’t human.

  “What the. . .” Cord repeated. He abruptly stood, grabbing one of his guns as he did. On unsteady feet, he aimed at the Camo kneeling before him, and without hesitation pulled the trigger.

  Click.

  Hope’s already large eyes grew wide. Both she and the alien remained frozen in place. He standing and dumbstruck, and she seated on the ground. If he hadn’t used up his bullets during the attack, she would’ve been dead. He would have killed her. Even though she had risked her life to heal him.

  Cord couldn’t believe it. A Camo. The girl wasn’t a girl at all, but a filthy Camo. Not only that, he’d let it touch him. And here he was with two empty guns that were only good for bludgeoning. His gaze darted to the knife, which was within the Camo’s reach, and he swore. Now how could he get that back without getting himself cut?

  He tensed when she noticed where his interest lay. After looking between him and the knife, she picked it up. After a moment’s thought, she turned it around so she held the blade and extended her arm.

  Cord stared. She was giving him his knife back. He paused in case this turned out to be some kind of Camo trickery, then snatched it from her. It nicked her hand and Cord watched, fascinated, as the cut vanished.

  Without taking his eyes off her, he reached his arm over his shoulder and instead of finding pain and a hole, there was nothing but unbroken skin. The scientist had been right. She was special. But that didn’t excuse the fact she was a Camo and that he’d been lied to. That wasn’t right.

  He scrubbed a hand over his face and beard and sighed. “It’s dammed freezing,” he said and put his gun away. Not turning his back on her, in case she tried something murderous, he grabbed his shirt and shoved his arms into it.

  She couldn’t understand him, he knew that, but that animal-caught-down-a-gun-barrel look was messing with his mind. Of course he had just pulled a gun on her and as far as he was concerned, she was an animal. What was he going to do with her? Whatever he did, it would have to wait until morning. Maybe then Gerrit could do something about it. If she ran off before then, all the better. He didn’t want to have to deal with anything.

  Cord whistled for Keela, who gave up eating a nearby tree and trotted obediently over. He pulled a rope from the bag he kept tied to his mount’s neck and approached the Camo.

  Hope eyed him warily. She knew what the rope meant, but she needed to gain the alien’s trust. That or wait for the one her family had sent to catch up with them. Without prompting, she presented her wrists.

  He hadn’t expected that. She’d been tied up before, probably by those soldiers that had ambushed them. Knowing that didn’t stop him from trussing her up securely. Cord hauled her to her feet and marched her to the far end of the porch. Neither of them were going inside. At least the porch would give them some shelter.

  “Get some sleep,” he told her.

  The blank look she gave in response irked him. He put his hands together flat and rested them against his cheek. She repeated the gesture with her bound hands, but seemed to understand his meaning.

  Feeling uncharacteristically generous, especially to a Camo, Cord tossed her a blanket and led Keela away. He rested his back against the wall and watched as Keela deserted him, siding with the Camo. What was more shocking was that Keela was letting her curl up against the animal’s hairy hide for warmth.

  “Traitor,” he muttered.

  Cord woke the next morning, wrapped in the same blanket he’d stupidly given to the Camo. It took him a few moments for his brain to remember that fact and when it did he shot to his feet. He hadn’t intended to sleep, but he had little choice after the adrenaline had left his body. All he remembered from last night were fragments of nightmares. They usually haunted his sleep, but this time a cool touch had brushed them aside. That part had to be a dream. He glanced across the porch to where he had left the Camo tied up, but she wasn’t there. Keela was also missing.

  “Crut,” he spat. A few strides across the boards turned up what was left of the rope he’d used to tie her up. It looked as if someone—or Keela—had chewed through it.

  Yes, he had wanted her to run off, but he hadn’t wanted her to steal his mount. He continued swearing as he jogged off the porch and across the snow-covered ground. The Camo’s footprints were light and were hard to see in the fresh dusting of snow, but Keela’s footprints were like an elephant’s, so he followed them around the cabin.

  Before he rounded the corner to what had once been the back garden, he drew his knife and after a deep breath stepped into the past. His memory overlaid the now overgrown garden. His boy running with Keela, dragging a stick behind him, cutting a trail in the newly turned soil. Ellen, among the native flowers she had grown from cuttings, smiling warmly and beckoning him to her.

  Reality set in when he noticed the Camo kneeling in the flower garden. She was the one beckoning, not his Ellen. And it wasn’t a flower garden anymore. The damn alien was standing in a grave. Why she’d dug up his family, he didn’t know. What he did know was she was going to regret it.

  Hope looked up to find the alien storming toward her. She wanted to show him what she had found. The wooden construct they had slept outside of was sacred to him. Why they hadn’t slept inside out of the elements, like the other aliens she knew, was beyond her. Once the animal had freed her restraints and she had soothed the alien male’s fevered dreams, she decided to discover what kept him from setting foot in this place.

  Dawn illuminated the dirt mounds hidden in the overgrown garden. Curious, Hope had laid her hands palm down over them. She was startled to find the remains of two aliens, one female and one young male. Something unnatural caught her attention and after paying her respects to the dead, she had dug a small hole so she could examine it. And that was when Cord found her.

  “Get out of there,” he yelled and grabbed her elbow. He forcefully dragged her away from the graves of his wife and son and threw her to the ground. He waved his knife at her in anger. Even he didn’t know whether he would use it. He noticed she held something in her clenched fist and wrestled with her to find out what.

  “If that’s a bone—” he choked, unable to finish his threat. Did he want to see a decomposed part of his family?

  Hope uncurled her fingers and held up the object for him to take.

  Cord flinched as if she had slapped him across the face. There, nestled on her palm, was a bullet. “Where did you. . .” he started but trailed off when she pointed at the graves. She did not need to understand his language to know what he meant.

  He slowly turned and faced the mounds that held the remains of his wife and son.

  Hope stood and joined him. Together, they turned to his wife’s grave and found a second bullet. He fell back on his heels and stared at what had really killed his family. In all his years on this forsaken planet, he had never heard of a Camo picking up a gun. They had primitive weapons like spears and knives, not guns.

  The sound of a gun cocking behind them broke the silence. “I see you found out.”

  “I trusted you,” Cord said. He didn’t need to turn to know his friend stood behind him with a gun aimed at his head, no doubt. “Why’d you do it, Gerrit?”

  “Cause you had what I wanted.”

  “That’s no reason to kill my family,” Cord replied.

  “They were my family,” Gerrit told him. “Didn’t she tell you, Cord? She was my woman before she was yours. It’s why we came here. We were gonna get married but then she saw you and got other ideas.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t. She was ashamed of me,�
�� Gerrit spat. “Got it in her head she was better ‘n me.”

  “Why’d you kill them?” Cord asked, his voice flat.

  Gerrit laughed. “When you was out hunting I came for her. The boy thought he’d be a hero, so I killed him. I felt bad about that.”

  Cord seethed, but he fought to keep control. “And Ellen?”

  “I took my time with her,” Gerrit told him and laughed when Cord shuddered. “Where’s the scientist’s sister?” he asked.

  Cord had been so preoccupied with the reality of his family’s deaths that he hadn’t noticed her disappear. He figured she must have heard Gerrit coming and slipped away.

  “Don’t know,” he said, feigning disinterest. “Think she ran off in the night.”

  “Is that Cord speak for: you mistook her for a whore and she ran away screaming?” Gerrit asked.

  Cord didn’t dignify that with a response. He would never touch a Camo.

  “Pity,” Gerrit continued, “price on her head. You know she’s a Camo?”

  “No.”

  “One of the general’s pets. He wants her back. Guess I’ll hunt her after I put you in the ground,” he said.

  “Guess so,” Cord said. Not that he intended to go peacefully.

  The sound of a mount bearing down on them, its hooves pounding the ground, interrupted them. Both looked up to find Keela thundering toward them with the Camo riding her.

  While Gerrit was distracted, Cord wrenched one of his empty guns from its holster and threw it at him. It clipped Gerrit’s gun-hand with such force that his loaded weapon was flung out of reach. Cord didn’t give him a chance to retrieve it. He jumped on him and went for Gerrit’s throat.

  Having been friends for years and serving together in the Corps, they knew each other’s moves, strengths, and weaknesses. Fists flew and punches were blocked. Blades flashed as they rolled the other, looking to gain an advantage. Anger gave Cord more strength than a broken alcoholic had any right to have. Only stamina and exhaustion would decide the winner.

  Hope couldn’t abide the fighting. They also didn’t have time. From his reaction, she knew this alien was the one who had killed the female and child. To think she had thought the hairless one to be less threatening. She gave the combatants a wide berth, circling them on the back of the animal.

  Her alien wouldn’t last, she realized. When she started thinking of him as hers, she did not know. Nor did she care to devote time to thinking about it. He had already proven to her that he was capable and able to see her safely to the sacred cave. But for that to happen he would need to survive this fight.

  Hope requested the animal’s help once more. The mount was eager to help. Again they rushed forward, but this time they did not stop and plowed into the fighters. Keela made sure to stomp on the one trying to hurt her companion, while Hope reached a hand to her alien.

  Cord looked up, shocked to find that not only was she still there, but that she was preventing him from killing the man who had viciously murdered his family. He knew he didn’t have the energy to finish Gerrit. He spied his gun in the snow nearby and retrieved it before he unwillingly grasped her hand. After he had hauled himself up behind her, he holstered his empty weapon and urged his mount into what passed for a gallop in these parts.

  Cord blinked away double-vision and coughed. His breathing was ragged and no doubt he would hurt all over tomorrow, but he had given as good as he’d gotten. He supposed he was lucky to have escaped with relatively minor injuries. Hopefully Gerrit had a few broken bones after Keela had trampled all over him. If the bastard survived, Cord vowed that he would hunt him down and kill him. Slowly.

  Hope knew he was injured. She wrapped her slender fingers around Cord’s wrist but he shook her off.

  “Don’t touch me,” he growled. He was still angry with her. She was a Camo. A Camo that had saved his life.

  She ignored his action and tried again. This time holding fast so he couldn’t dislodge her grip. Warmth spread from his wrist and flooded his body, healing cuts, bruises, and fractures as it went. Each briefly appeared on her before they too disappeared. She slumped against his warm body and let her eyes flutter closed.

  With a quick glance Cord confirmed she had passed out. He wrapped an arm around her to keep her from falling off Keela. Why she kept healing his injuries was beyond him, especially considering he would have killed her if he’d had even one bullet left.

  He pushed that from his mind and focused on the situation at hand. The scientist had made him promise to deliver this girl to the Ashula Mountains. She had currency, but he’d confiscated that from her. A man he had thought a friend had killed his family and tried to kill him. All he had on him was a knife, two empty guns, and a Camo that could heal his wounds. No matter what he decided to do—go after Gerrit or keep his word—he would need supplies. Bullets, food, clothing, and liquor. God, did he need a drink.

  Keela altered course at Cord’s urging. The next town was a little out of the way of the mountains and would take them over a day of hard riding to get there. It did, however, have the necessary supplies.

  Hope woke and silently yawned. She blinked open her eyes. Snow-covered trees surrounded her and she found herself on the ground in a clearing with Keela curled around her. They were also alone.

  Hope shot to her feet, worried that he had abandoned her. She soon spotted the bag the alien kept around Keela’s neck and a fire crackled nearby. He was smart enough to not leave a fire unattended. That was her alien, wild like an animal but intelligent enough to survive alone or as part of a pack.

  As if thinking about him had somehow summoned him, the alien stepped through the wilderness to their small shelter. He paused at the sight of her, but resumed his heading to the fire. He carried a small carcass, which he gave to Hope, along with a stick.

  “Cook it,” he said and made a gesture to the dead animal. Then he was off again, carrying a pot with him toward what sounded like running water.

  By the time Cord returned with water to boil, Hope had gathered enough roots, berries, and fungus to feed them. The animal he had hunted for their dinner was nowhere in sight.

  “Where’s the hare?” he asked, not that he expected her to answer.

  She gave him what he took for a shy smile and led him to a small mound of dirt. The same stick he’d given her to use as a spit had been thrust into the ground as a kind of marker.

  He looked at her incredulously. “You buried dinner? What the crut are we gonna eat?”

  Hope took the pot of water from him and his knife from his belt. He made to stop her, but her intent didn’t seem malicious. Instead, he watched as she diced the fungus and pulverized the roots. Both went in the pot that she placed atop the fire.

  “Great,” he muttered. “Root soup.”

  They ate in silence and followed the soup with berries for dessert. He didn’t want to admit it, but the meal hadn’t been too bad.

  “It’s edible,” he told her, but still pined for the lost meat.

  Night had fallen, and although he wanted to continue their journey to Harris Town, he and Keela needed just a few hours of sleep.

  Cord shook his head at his large mount that acted like an oversized dog around the Camo girl, happily following her around. Normally he would have curled up with Keela for warmth, but the damn beast had opted for her company again tonight. He took the blanket and wrapped it around himself, trying to keep warm with what was left of the fire.

  Hope watched the alien. He had grudgingly accepted her presence, but they still had a long way to go, both in their enforced companionship and the journey. She knew he would protect her and she him. And right now, that included keeping him warm.

  She attracted his attention by throwing a berry at him. He opened his eyes and glared at her over the fire. She smiled and patted the ground beside her but he shook his head. That, she knew, meant no. Her hand beckoned him over, but again he shook his head.

  It seemed her alien was stubborn. She decided that was a proble
m that needed fixing. As soon as he had closed his eyes again, she and Keela moved closer, giving him no choice in the matter. He made to leave, but Hope caught his sleeve. She was the one to move, putting Keela between them. He still didn’t trust her.

  The dream Cord was having was a really good one. Any dream that had a willing woman under him was welcome. She was soft and yielding and her small mewls of encouragement increased when he rucked up her dress. He chuckled when he discovered her lack of underwear.

  “Ready and waiting for me, darling?” he drawled as he fumbled with his belt buckle.

  She didn’t reply, but that didn’t matter. Talking wasn’t what he wanted her for. He needed a quick fuck to release his pent up frustrations of the past few days. About Gerrit, his family that had been taken from him, and that damned Camo who dogged him.