She continued to make her way from one room to the next, finding it harder to keep her eyes open with each one. She was just exiting one of the rooms about halfway down the hall when she heard a loud crash ring out from one of the rooms she had already been in.
Turning around slowly, she saw it—the mountain lion. It had escaped from its room! But how? She locked the door, right? She tried to remember. She thought she had locked the door, but she was so tired, maybe she hadn’t. The animal slinked out into the hall, looking lazily around. When it turned its face in her direction, she felt herself become frozen with fear. At first, the beast did nothing, just stood and stared at her.
Suddenly, in a rush of movement, it took off down the hall, running straight towards her. She tried to flee, but she had nowhere to go. The only exit was on the other side of the beast. She stepped back quickly, trying to put as much distance between herself and the animal as she could, but it was gaining on her at an alarming rate.
As a result of her panic and tiredness she felt her feet go out from under her, and she fell backward quickly. Upon impact, her head flew back and hit against the doorframe of one of the rooms.
Pain surged through her body. She tried to push herself up to continue fleeing the animal’s advance, but she couldn’t. The edges of her vision were going blurry, and just as the beast reached where she was lying, shaking, on the ground, she could only see momentary glimpses of what was happening.
Before everything went completely dark, she heard another loud crash come from the opposite end of the hall. She tried to turn to face it, but couldn’t. The last thing she remembered was the sensation of heat radiating around her, and the screams of the mountain lion as it tried to fend off its attacker.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When she regained consciousness, she felt a surge of pain run through her body again. Reaching her hand back, she felt blood on the back of her head. “Ugh,” she said softly, trying to push herself up.
“No,” she heard Amias’ voice urge her to stay still.
Opening her eyes, she saw him leaning over her. She hadn’t realized that her head was in his lap and that his strong arms were wrapped around her.
“What happened?” she asked breathless, but not because of the pain or the events that had just taken place, because being that close to him made her feel completely vulnerable and scared, but at the same time safe and comfortable.
“You were attacked,” Amias explained, reaching down to brush the hair out of her face. “Are you okay?” he asked, concern heavy in his deep green eyes.
“I think so,” she answered, still trying to catch her breath. “Did you save me?”
He smiled and chuckled a little. “I believe I did,” he said, nodding slightly to his right.
Nicole lifted herself up slightly to look in the direction he indicated. Laying against the wall halfway down the hall she saw a heap of fur, smoke rising from it slowly. “You did that?” she asked looking up at Amias.
“I had to protect you,” he said, wrapping his strong hand around the back of her neck. As he lifted her face to his, she felt her stomach begin to turn and her chest begin to tighten. When he pressed his lips gently to hers the room seemed to fill with an electric sort of heat, one that consumed her inside and out. A surge of passion filled her, and she reached up to run her fingers through his shaggy dark hair.
The moment was cut short all too quickly when a loud, high-pitched screaming siren began to sound. The hall filled with a combination of red and yellow lights. Pulling away from him quickly, she felt the rush of passion she had experience become replaced with a crushing panic. Amias seemed to sense her fear, because he wrapped his arms around her again, pulling her close. “They’re coming,” she whispered up to him. “Security—they’ll be here any minute.”
She was right. Less than a minute later, the door at the end of the hallway was thrown open, and in barged five men, all in uniform with guns raised. They didn’t hesitate to begin their quick advance in their direction, stepping around Specimen 91-33 and keeping their weapons trained on Amias.
“No!” Nicole yelled out as the largest of the men reached out and pulled him up off the floor. “Wait!”
The man didn’t pay her any mind. He pushed Amias back into his cell, the door to which had been destroyed and was now lying on the floor, a mass of bent metal. Nicole pushed herself to her feet and ran after them.
Once they had Amias in the room, they threw him back against the far wall and began to beat him violently with the butts of their guns. Taking turns, they let their blows fly at his face, chest, or stomach.
“Stop!” she cried out, tears burning her eyes. “You have to stop!” she demanded, throwing herself forward and grabbing the arm of the man that had pushed Amias into the room.
He shrugged her off effortlessly, pushing her back behind him. She could see the hurt expression on Amias’ face. She couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. Her vision became blurred as she watched one of the men throw his gun into Amias’ gut, causing him to lurch forward and let out a cry of pain.
The room started to fill with a thick, dense heat. With it came a cloud of smoke. She saw a look of anger appear suddenly in Amias’ eyes. “Get out,” he mouthed to her. His body began to shake, and the temperature in the room continued to rise.
“What the hell is going on here?” Nicole heard her father’s voice call out from the entrance to the room. Everyone turned to face him, and in an instant, the heat in the room began to recede.
“Dad!” she yelled out to him as she ran in his direction.
He put up his hand, stopping her just short of reaching him. “Excuse me, young lady. I’ll deal with you in a minute,” he said pushing past her and making his way to the men in uniform. “What do you think you’re doing? Commander?” he questioned the largest of the men.
“This thing,” he said the word with a hint of disdain as he motioned to Amias, “killed one of the specimens.”
Her father let out a loud, mocking laugh. “And you think it won’t do the same to you?” he asked stepping forward. He poked the Commander’s chest hard and looked at him angrily. “You really think that bringing it in here and beating it will help to resolve the situation any?”
“He was attacking your daughter, sir,” the Commander replied weakly.
“No, he wasn’t!” Nicole yelled out, walking towards them quickly. She put herself between the men, her father, and Amias. “He wasn’t attacking me! He saved me!”
Everyone turned to look at her. “What did you say?” her father asked.
“He saved me!” she continued. “The specimen broke out of its cage, or… I didn’t lock it up right, or something,” she could feel her face flushing red and her words continued to pour out quickly. “Either way, it attacked me. It was going to kill me, dad! But then Amias showed up. He saved me!”
“What did I tell you about calling me that?” he dad asked her under his breath.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she corrected herself. “But you have to believe me, sir! He saved me!”
“Don’t be foolish!” he laughed again. “That’s just what he wanted you to think he was doing.”
“That’s foolish!” she shot back at him. He looked at her, surprised by her suddenly bold attitude and unusually outspoken way of speaking. “If he had wanted to hurt me, he could have done it well before your men showed up!”
“You had better hold your tongue, Nicole,” her dad warned her.
She didn’t listen to him, though. She just kept talking, loudly and confidently. “He’s peaceful His people are peaceful, but they’re coming here—to Earth. We have to let him go, as a sign of good faith. If we don’t, they will be forced to attack us!”
“He’s been filling her head with nonsense,” the Commander said to his men, as they all joined in a quiet chorus of laughs.
Behind her, she heard Amias shift his weight around. He reached out and placed his hand on the small of her back. “It’s okay, Nicole.
They won’t believe you no matter what you say,” he said to her quietly.
Her father stepped forward, an expression of anger on his face, one so intense that she had never seen it before. He didn’t say anything, which made her even more nervous; he just reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her towards him. In a swift motion, he reached back and released his blow, smacking her square across the side of her face.
She stumbled back, raising her hand to her check where her father had just struck her. Amias reached out and pulled her back to him. She could feel that his body was becoming warm, and the temperature in the room began to rise again. “No,” she said to him quietly. “Not now.” She knew he was one the brink of changing again, and she couldn’t let him do that. If there was any hope that her father would believe that he was peaceful, he had to control his anger—now more than ever.
“I knew you didn’t have what it takes,” he father said to her harshly. “You’re too weak, Nicole. You’ll believe any sob story he tells you.”
“But it’s true,” she tried to defend Amias.
“Men,” her father addressed the Commander and his team. “Take this specimen to high security.”
The men didn’t respond verbally but jumped quickly into action. Before they could take Amias away from her, Nicole turned and looked up at him. Pressing her hand softly to his chest, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” he replied just as the men wrapped their strong hands around his arms and pulled him away. As they led him down the hall, he looked back at her over his shoulder. She wanted to go after them, to make sure he was all right.
“Give me one reason that I shouldn’t fire you right now,” her dad’s voice broke into her thoughts.
She turned her attention to him. “Because I’m telling the truth, sir. I really am.”
He shook his head and looked down at her with a look of disappointment. “I’ve already given you too many chances to do this job right. After this whole disaster, I’m tempted to just send you home right now.”
“Please,” she said once again resuming her submissive air. “Let me stay. I promise I can do this. I’m learning; I’m getting better. I believe you, sir. All he’s told me is lies,” she said the words as convincingly as she could. She had to make him think she believed what she was saying, that was her only chance to continue working with Amias.
“Fine,” her dad said turning to leave the room. “But Nicole?” he asked her before leaving. “This really is your last chance.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
It took a few days, but eventually she convinced Allen and the others on the research team to let her continue to work with Amias. Her dad wasn’t very happy about it, but begrudgingly he also agreed.
They had moved him to the higher security holding rooms on the other side of the Gen-Lab campus. They were separated slightly from the other buildings and surrounded by nothing but open fields of grass.
When she finally saw him again, she had to bite her bottom lip to keep from letting out a quiet gasp of concern. His face and chest were badly bruised from the beating of the guards, and running along his arms were cuts and scratches from the fangs and claws of the mountain lion-like creature that attacked her.
“I never had the chance to thank you,” she said as she sat on the cold, hard concrete floor next to him, cleaning his wounds.
“I would do it again,” he replied watching her carefully as she worked.
“I realized just the other day,” Nicole continued, “that I don’t really know that much about you.”
“There’s not really much to tell.” He was quiet for a moment while he thought. “Back home I was a pilot,” he added slowly. “I had to work really hard, but eventually, I was able to work my way up through the ranks and earn the title of Captain.”
“That’s impressive,” she said trying to keep herself focused on her work, and not on the way her heart raced in her chest every time her fingers brushed against his soft skin. “What was your planet like?” she asked.
“Zexilon?” he said thoughtfully. “It was a beautiful place. Everything was green and lush. Not like here,” he added.
“Well, you’ve only seen a small part of Earth,” she pointed out to him. “You were found, where?” she tried to remember the information Allen had given her about him. “The South-Western United States, right?”
“I believe so, yes,” Amias confirmed.
“Well,” she laughed a little. “That’s your problem. You landed in one of the driest, most arid parts of the country! Now, if you had landed in Colorado or Montana, you would know that Earth has some pretty lush areas as well.”
“Yeah, well,” Amias said shifting his weight around and placing his hand on hers, stopping her from dabbing the damp cloth on his wounds, “Zexilon only had a small portion of the entire planet that wasn’t covered in trees and green spaces.”
“What happened to it?” she asked, looking from his hand up to his eyes. They were more intense than usual—a deeper green and a more focused look.
“Our planet,” he began to explain. “It was much smaller than Earth, you see. And despite the fact that there weren’t nearly as many populous places, the amount of toxins that were thrown into the air still did their damage to the protective layer of our atmosphere. Slowly, it began to deteriorate, and the small planet couldn’t sustain itself anymore.”
“That’s horrible,” she said turning away slowly, so as not to become completely consumed by his stare.
He placed his hand under her chin and turned her face back to his. “What’s horrible is the way your father spoke to you the other day.”
“Oh, that?” she asked nervously. “That’s just how he is. He’s a very passionate man when it comes to his work at least.”
“What about his family?”
“He loves my mother,” she said surely. “I don’t doubt that at all. But I think he loves her for her qualities more so than for who she is.”
“What do you mean?”
“My mother is very submissive. She’s the perfect woman for an overbearing, demanding man like him. She seems to enjoy making him happy.”
“What about her happiness?” Amias pointed out.
“She’s happy as long as her family is happy.”
“And is her family happy?”
“I suppose we are,” Nicole responded with a shrug. “My brother and sister are all successful in their careers, even though they’re not the careers my father would have chosen for them.”
“And you?”
“I’m happy, I guess,” she said, knowing that her tone wasn’t convincing, however.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” he said placing the palm of his hand against her cheek, in the exact place her father had slapped her just a few days before. “No one could be happy being around someone that makes them feel the way your father makes you feel.”
She took a deep breath. “I want to make him proud,” she admitted. “But I don’t think I ever will. I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough for him.”
“What about yourself?”
“I’m sorry?” she asked confused.
“Are you proud of yourself?”
“I suppose I am,” she said shyly. “I did well in school—really well, actually. And I do enjoy biology, although I’m not sure I enjoy working with it this way.”
“Then don’t,” he said inching towards her slowly.
“I don’t have another choice,” she said softly. “I need this job.”
“No you don’t,” he said as he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her closer to him. “You’re very intelligent, Nicole. You could do anything you wanted to.”
She felt her hands become sweaty and heart began to pound in her ears. She leaned forward removing the small space that was between them and pressed her lips to his. Once again she was filled with the almost electrifying spark of passion that she had felt the night he saved her.
She lifted her h
ands, now shaking, and wrapped them around him. She felt his strong muscles beneath her fingertips and the warmth that seemed to float off of his body. He pulled back slowly, looking at her with an expression of longing and desire. “You’re a very special woman, Nicole. I just wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”
“How do you see me?” she asked, running her fingers through his hair.
“I see who you are; I see how you feel. You’re kind and genuine. You’re soft, but not weak. You’re a strong person, but you just haven’t figured that out yet.” He pulled her close again, kissing her passionately.
“I don’t feel strong,” she said when they pulled apart again. “But when I’m with you, I feel different than I ever have before.” She ran her hands over his chest, tracing the outlines of his muscles. “I feel safe and confident. I may not feel strong, but I don’t feel weak—like I usually do.”
ROMANCE: ALIEN ROMANCE: Captured by the Alien Dragon (Alpha Male Alien Abduction BBW Romance) (Bad Boy Shifter Fantasy Romance) Page 6