Alien Shifter Force: A SciFi Alien Shifter Romance

by Maya Kane

  “And tell him he’s a chauvinist pig.”

  “I don’t think there’s a word in Uniton for that,” Athena said carefully.

  “Well there should be,” Kate glowered. “Because we sure as shit need it now.”

  Athena clasped her shoulder and smiled sympathetically. “Stay calm, okay?” she turned to Aron.

  Redon listened. To Kate’s surprise, his face grew redder and redder. When Aron finished translating, Redon roared back at him.

  Athena’s eyes widened when she heard what Redon had said. She turned to Kate.

  “Apparently it’s not so simple.”

  “What’s not simple about it? What part does he not understand? I can show him my self-defense skills if he wants.”

  Athena cleared her throat. “Actually, it’s not that part he has a problem with.”

  “What is it then?”

  “It’s the no longer being mates part. See, according to Redon, you’re mates for life. Destined.”

  “Not if he’s going to stand in the way of my mission, we’re not.” She shook her head, trying to ease the tension that had built up there. She was almost as frustrated now as she had been when she tried to pretend she didn’t want him. Except this was nowhere near as pleasurable.

  “Kate?” Athena said, her face scrunching up in concern.

  “We’re wasting time,” Kate hissed, slamming her fist on the table and trying not to wince when her wrist erupted in pain. “I mean it. Tell them we must proceed. We’ll work on Redon’s attitude adjustment later.”

  Athena said nothing. She stared at Kate blankly.

  “Well? Why aren’t you telling them?” Kate asked, looking around the room. The Dreon’s eyes were glued to the little group of humans.

  Athena winced. “You want me to be that direct with these aliens? They’re big enough and fierce enough to tear us apart.”

  Kate fixed her mouth and jerked her chin. There was no way she was giving in to Redon, no matter that he was twice her size and capable of turning into some sort of fucking dragon. “They need us,” she said evenly. “Why’d you think they’ve kept us around?”

  Athena shook her head. “Because of the way Redon feels about you?”

  Kate snorted. “I don’t believe it’s quite as hearts-and-flowers as that. Athena, please tell them. Otherwise I’ll try to do it myself in Uniton and we both know how that might turn out. They’ll end up ordering us all pizza from Dreon or something.”

  The Dreon had remained silent all that time, but now Redon shifted in his seat and whispered something to Aron. Athena turned to Aron and waited for him to translate. When he didn’t, she questioned him in Uniton. He refused to tell her what his commander had said.

  “Go on,” Kate urged.

  “Fine,” Athena snapped. She turned to Aron and unleashed a torrent of Uniton.

  Kate studied Redon’s face, expecting a mercurial response. She was surprised when he barely responded to Aron’s translation. The only indication that he had heard was a ticking muscle in his strong jaw. Kate stared at it. It was ominous for such a small movement. He said something deep and low, in contrast to his earlier tone. Kate waited for his statement to relay through Aron and Athena.

  “Fine,” Athena said.

  Kate waited for her to elaborate. When she didn’t, she cleared her throat. “And?”

  “He doesn’t want you to go. But if you must, you must go with him. He wants to protect you at all times.”

  Kate snorted. “I can protect myself,” she said, defensively. But there was a warm glow in her chest that wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t deny it—there was something incredibly sexy about his protectiveness .

  Aron spoke.

  “They’d like to get on with the meeting if we’re ready.”

  Chapter 19

  “We fly tonight,” Kate said, staring around the table.

  Her stomach churned with fear. The reality was, all she wanted to do was curl up with Redon and stay as far away as possible from the mysterious invaders. But that wasn’t an option and she knew it. She had taken an oath to protect her planet and that still stood—regardless of whether they were the last people that existed on earth.

  There was a murmur of discussion between the Dreon. Kate’s heart thumped in her chest.

  Finally, Redon nodded.

  “They agree,” Athena translated. “You will go with Redon. I will go with Aron. And Danni will go with Zalon.”

  “I don’t want to separate from you guys,” Danni squealed.

  Kate turned to her and tried to look as encouraging as possible. It was hard when she was full of her own misgivings—how were they supposed to vanquish an enemy they knew nothing about. But that was the point—they had to start somewhere.

  “I know,” she said as calmly as she could. “I completely understand. But we’ve got to. Look, you and Zalon can take the West Coast. It’s less likely that they’ll be there.”

  “But there’s strength in numbers.”

  Kate nodded. “I know, but this is purely reconnaissance. When it comes time to attack, we’ll go in together. In fact, I hope we’ll be able to change the commander’s mind if we can provide him with intelligence about the aliens’ whereabouts. Then we’ll have an entire base behind us.”

  Danni looked cynical.

  “Well, we can at least try,” Kate muttered.

  The Dreon were growing impatient.

  Athena cleared her throat. “That settles it then. We separate in order to find their location as quickly as possible. We’ll regroup back here and decide what to do. Maybe by then the commander will have mulled it over and decided he’s ready to take action.”

  They all stood. Before Kate had even pushed her chair the whole way back, Redon was by her side, wrapping his huge arms around her waist.

  “Stop,” she whispered. “We need to prepare.”

  He shook his head. “Cabin,” he said slowly in Uniton.

  Kate suppressed a groan. It was hard enough to keep herself away from him as it was, without him all but picking her up and throwing her over his huge shoulder. Because all she wanted to do was give in to him and rush back to his stately cabin to explore each other’s bodies some more.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head to emphasize her point and trying to ignore the shivers of desire that his touch set off in her.

  “You are mate,” he growled, as the others flooded out of the room.

  Kate bit her lip. It had been much easier to argue that point when there had been a large table separating them and several others in the room with them. Now they were alone. And his fingertips were tracing circles on her sides. Now, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than to be forever tied to this huge creature.

  With great difficulty, she wriggled out of his grip and moved to the door. “No, Redon. Important work. When finish.”

  He narrowed his eyes. She could see the outline of his massive cock bulging underneath his uniform. “No.”

  Kate sighed. She could see this was going to be a very lengthy mission indeed if he kept this up. “No.” She said again. “We go.”

  He seemed to consider this. “Mate. Redon not agree.”

  “Save both… uh… species.” Kate looked around desperately. Just when she was about to give in and go to him, Athena popped her head around the door.

  “Come on, Kate. You two can flirt later.”

  Kate cast her a desperate look. “I know that, Athena. I’ve been trying to explain why we can’t just rush back to his cabin. I know how important this is.”

  Athena looked at her with narrowed eyes, as if she was trying to determine the truth.

  Kate shook her head. “Honestly, you know how important this is to me. I tried to tell him we could tear each other’s clothes off for the rest of the month if we wanted, but you know how crappy my Uniton is.”

  The corners of Athena’s eyes crinkled. She looked at Redon, still standing in the strategy room, and let out a torrent of rapid-fire Uniton.<
br />
  “He doesn’t understand as well as Aron,” she explained.

  Athena shrugged. “I know that. I thought I’d try. Besides, it looks like he understands me just fine.”

  Kate glanced back at him. His eyes shone. She turned back to Athena and frowned. “What exactly did you tell him?”

  Athena bit her lip. “I told him what you said; that you guys could spend the rest of your lives tearing each other’s clothes off but you had to leave now.”

  Kate rolled her eyes and Redon rushed past them and moved in the direction of his cabin. She watched him go, marveling at his strength.

  Athena sniggered.

  “What is it?”

  “Uh, I may have said something about the sooner we go, the sooner you guys can fuck each other’s brains out.”

  Kate blushed, but she couldn’t help but feel a ball of pleasure in her chest. He had clearly responded to that promise. And Kate knew it was one she’d have no trouble fulfilling.

  ***

  Kate gripped the harness Zalon had fashioned from scrap metal they found on the stricken Dreon ship. This wasn’t like the first time Redon had lifted her and carried her. No, this time they had spent several hours working out the safest way to transport the humans thousands of miles. They had swapped their UEF uniforms for thick spacesuits the Dreon kept in the hold of their ship. Even under the thick alien fabric, Kate was still freezing.

  It was a combination of the height they flew at and the speed at which Redon moved. Her helmet was frosted up; her body rigid with cold. It was nothing like how it had been earlier, but it still felt incredibly freeing. She had flown over earth many times, but never on the outside of the aircraft. She had never experienced such a feeling.

  It helped that it was with Redon. He was in Drayon form now, but Kate still felt the same buzz of excitement. She couldn’t believe the speed he moved at. Kate had assumed their missions would take several weeks, but Athena believed it would only be a matter of days.

  She clung on to the makeshift harness. The metal was strange—tough but malleable at the same time. She had never felt anything like it and secretly didn’t trust it to keep her secured to Redon’s strong back. Kate grinned at the memory of their departure. Danni had been distinctly calmer once she’d found herself in proximity to Zalon. Kate shook her head. She wondered if her friends would find themselves as drawn to the other Dreon as she herself had been drawn to Redon.

  Kate shifted. She was carrying Redon’s weapons. Dreon might have been tough and able to fly vast distances in minimal time, but Kate hadn’t thought of the one possible flaw in the plan until now. In the Drayon form, they weren’t capable of operating the technologically advanced weaponry they normally used. Aron had mentioned that they had special weapons back on Dreon or on warships, but that didn’t matter. There were no such weapons on Redon’s explorer. The only solution was for Kate to carry his weapons as well as her own. She realized it wasn’t an ideal solution but it was fine for the moment when they were on a scouting mission. It would be less efficient when it came to waging war against the invaders—they needed everybody at full strength if they had a hope of beating the silent invaders.

  She rubbed her gloved hands along his shoulders, marveling at the strength of him. She couldn’t believe that her body had been the solution to his unreliable shifting. She grinned to herself—she was willing to bet that taking one for the team had never been as much fun as it had been for her.

  She shook her head as her shoulder began to ache.

  We’ll need to come up with a better way. According to what Aron told Athena, the Dreon never go to war in their Drayon form. That’s about to change. What if the aliens have missiles? Their skin may be armored but the Drayon could never withstand that, and I’m not much use alone against the firepower of an entire alien army.

  She shivered then as she saw tall buildings on the horizon. From studying Athena’s maps, she knew that there were no major cities on their flight path before Las Vegas, unless they had gone in the wrong direction. But she was sure that hadn’t happened—Athena had told her that the Dreon sense of direction was more accurate than any compass. It had evolved that way over millions of years.

  There was no mistaking it—that was Vegas. They were almost there. And if Kate was right, they’d find their alien army somewhere between Vegas and LA.

  Maybe we’ll find nothing, she told herself.

  But she knew that wasn’t something she should wish for. Because if they weren’t here, then Kate had no idea where they might be.

  And then she saw it. It was unmistakable. She held her breath as they flew closer and closer, wondering if it was possible. Wondering if they had only seen a section of the city and the rest had been left unscathed.

  Maybe our comms system was devastated. That doesn’t mean the whole city was destroyed.

  But she couldn’t keep her hopes up for long. Everything looked fine from a distance, but once they got closer, she saw—even from high up in the air—that something was gravely wrong.

  She was too high up to see individual people, but she didn’t need to. The grid of streets and highways were lined with cars as usual. It took her breath away when she realized what was strange about the situation: they weren’t moving. Traffic should have been flowing easily, but those cars just sat there; all of them.

  Kate stifled a sob and clung on even harder to Redon. She couldn’t believe it. Seeing it on TV screens had allowed her to pretend to herself that it wasn’t real; like one of the simulated disaster scenarios they had carried out in training. But there was no denying it now. Vegas was destroyed—she had seen it on the feeds but it was different witnessing it in real life. Oh, the structure itself was fine, but its lifeblood—the people—had simply vanished.

  She was so immersed in her thoughts that she barely noticed the high-rise buildings giving way to larger open lots. The sight of a shimmering haziness in the distance soon snapped her out of her thoughts.

  Chapter 20

  Kate stared in horror at the craft. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. And it just sat there, in the middle of a large plain—whoever the invaders were, they hadn’t even attempted to hide their craft. Desperately, she tapped Redon’s shoulder as they grew closer and closer and she reached a horrible conclusion. To her surprise, Redon responded and banked hard to the right.

  Kate glanced behind her. The others were doing the same. She sucked in a breath, trying to regulate her breathing. She knew from experience that it wasn’t good to hyperventilate when she was reliant on a breathing apparatus. But this wasn’t like those other times, when she’d been excited or exhilarated having successfully chased down a smuggler or space pirate. No, this wasn’t the same at all.

  She held her breath as they came in to land behind a large ridge and jumped off Redon’s back as soon as his feet touched the ground, almost toppling herself over as she failed to adjust for the weight of the weapons that were strapped to her back. She tore off her helmet and unzipped the tight collar of the suit. Now it seemed like the Dreon were taking forever to shift back. She tapped her foot impatiently, feeling like her heart was going to explode.

  “One ship. How? No army?”

  Redon shook his head.

  The others surrounded them, with grave looks on their faces. Despite Redon’s reassuring presence, Kate couldn’t help but wish Aron and Athena were with them.

  Maybe Danni was right, she thought feverishly. After all, hadn’t we suspected the invaders were here? We could have moved as one unit and checked each region one at a time. We—

  Redon’s voice shocked her out of her thoughts. “Maybe advanced.”

  Kate nodded. “Yes.” It seemed strange, though. This wasn’t a movie from long ago where one alien ship was capable of bringing an entire planet to its knees. But was it possible?

  Redon seemed to read her mind. He pointed up at the sky and swept his hand around in a wide arc. “See more.”

  Kate shuddered at the though
t of getting any closer to the aliens than they already were. After all, their scanners may not have been able to pick up organic beings far away, but that said nothing about their ability to see the Drayon flying above their goddamn ship.

  But it wasn’t like they had any other choice. The plan had been to find the alien army and then retreat. They had never once suspected that all of this damage had been caused by just one ship.

  “Okay,” she sighed. “Yes. We see more.”

  She watched as Redon and the others shifted into Drayon form. The others took off; Redon stayed behind, crouching so she could replace the harness on his back and climb up on to it.

  Kate was shaking by the time they took off again. What if there was another ship hiding beyond the next ridge of rocks? An underground base? She expected them to be blasted out of the sky at any moment. The Drayon kept their distance from the invader’s ship, flying in a wide arc just like Redon had indicated they should.

  After what felt like hours, but could only have been several minutes, Kate began to relax. They had looped around the perimeter of the ship. If the aliens were going to attack, then they would have done it by now. And they had confirmed it now—there was just one ship. One ship had wrought all that damage on earth’s cities.

  They landed in the same place as before and Kate jumped off Redon’s back, impatient to speak to him. To her surprise, he wore a grave expression.

  “There’s only one ship,” she said, before shaking her head and trying to translate that to Uniton. She held up one finger and pointed in the direction.

  “Yes.”

  “Why Redon worry?”

  He shook his head and glanced back in the direction of the ship. Alarm rose in Kate again. If Redon was rattled then she knew it was something serious. By now, all of the other Dreon had crowded around them in a tight circle.

  “Danger. One ship.” He pointed at himself. “Shoot down Uhalor III. Mighty enemy.”

  Kate nodded slowly. “Only one. Easy to defeat.”

  He shook his head. “No. no.”

  Kate sighed. They would go back to the base and tell the commander what they had learned. Now they knew the location, Redon could guide a team of earth crafts back to this spot and attack before the aliens had a chance to shoot their ships out of the sky. At least, before they could get to all of the ships.