Human Surrender: Five Dark Sci-Fi Alien Romance Novellas

by Renee Rose

  His black form-fitting clothing accentuates his brawny physique. The cut-off sleeves of his shirt, similar to a tank top, reveal his tanned, well-built arms. Or maybe not tanned. He has reddish skin, and as he moves farther into the light, I realize his skin is indeed an inhuman shade of red. He has no facial hair, but he does possess wavy, shoulder-length hair the color of the night. If he hadn’t put me in a cage, I would call him beautiful.

  Tremors continue wreaking havoc on my senses, making my breaths come in shaky gasps as I stare through the top bars of my cage. I close my eyes as he steps closer, saying silent prayers for God to please turn back time and let me wake up on Earth, in my bedroom back in Florida. Please, God, please.

  A memory suddenly flits into my conscious. When I was fifteen, Theresa Peters, a college aged girl who lived next door, disappeared for several weeks. Her face was plastered on every road sign and telephone pole for miles and miles. My father joined various search parties into the marshes in the days after she vanished. Fear and paranoia quickly swept through town. My mother bought me a can of jogger’s mace and insisted I keep it attached to my hand while walking the three blocks home from school on the days she couldn’t pick me up.

  No trace of the girl was found, until an elderly woman outside of town reported screams coming from her neighbor’s house. Police moved in and found Theresa in the man’s basement. He’d been holding her captive and abusing her for eight long weeks. The details that emerged were ghastly, and I’d always had nightmares of being taken in the same way, snatched off the street while coming home from a party or from school. As my mother had once lamented, “It could have been you, Laylah. My God, it could have been you.”

  Now it is me. I’m the one who’s been taken. The circumstances are vastly different, but my freedom has been stripped from me and I’m at the complete mercy of big scary stranger who wants to do God knows what to me.

  I open my eyes to find the alien is now crouching directly in front of me. He seems larger and more frightening up close. His black pupils dilate until only a small circle of purple remains in his eyes. I take it as a bad sign and press harder against the back of the cage, as if I might slip through the bars and fly out the window to safety.

  “What do you want from me?” I ask, even though I doubt he’ll understand me.

  He sets his palm over a panel on the outside of the cage. The door clicks open, and my breath catches so hard in my throat, for a moment I’m choking. No no no. Please don’t touch me.

  “Come here, human.” His deep voice, and his words spoken in perfect English, shock me to my very core.

  “You-you understand me?” A stupid question, but it’s all I can think of. Besides, I’m shaking too hard and I’m far too frightened to move toward him, so I stall in the only way I know how.

  “My father was human,” he replies with disgust. “I know many tongues from your puny world.”

  I gulp and look into his eyes, so dark and mysterious. “You know of Earth? And you’re really part human?”

  “Yes, I know of Earth. Your people should have stayed there.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “Stayed there? How can you say that if you’re part human? Where is your father?”

  His lips turn up in a dark smile. “He’s dead. My mother’s family killed him after they rescued us from the research facility outside of Capital Acres when I was but a child.”

  “Research facility?”

  He’s quiet for a moment before he sighs and answers my question.

  “My father took my mother against her will, and when she became pregnant, she became nothing but a scientific curiosity to you humans.”

  “But humans only recently discovered Tallia. You look…much older than me, and I was five when Tallia was discovered.” A million questions linger on the tip of my tongue. I suppose, going by human standards and taking into account his alien features, he is probably ten or twenty years older than me. He’s definitely not younger than me. Well, unless his mother’s race ages more quickly than humans.

  I’m fascinated by his appearance and his evolution. For a moment, I forget my fear and move toward him, my hands itching to touch him. What does his skin feel like? His wavy hair?

  He grabs my ankle and pulls me out of the cage. I struggle and kick at him with my free foot, but he’s impervious to my fighting, and he soon has me out in the middle of the cool floor. He slams the cage shut, preventing me from crawling back inside.

  He looms over me, fury radiating from him in sharp waves. I think he wants to kill me. Or at least beat the living shit out of me.

  “This will probably come as a shock to you, but your people arrived here over fifty Earth years ago. We—the Kleaxians—warned you to stay away. This is our planet. We claimed it long before the humans arrived, and now we have finally regained our strength enough to take it back.”

  His words fill my head and rattle around, not quite settling in as a truth. Had the Earth’s governments lied about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Tallia? I’m not so naive as to think governments never lie, but this is a big fucking lie. And to hide the existence of aliens, while still bringing humans to visit Tallia, doesn’t make sense.

  He laughs, and the cruelty in his chuckle sends a chill racing up my spine. “I know what you’re thinking, human. You don’t understand why your leaders kept Tallia’s existence a secret for so many years.”

  I nod. “Yes. I was taught the wormhole was artificially created by humans, and then lo and behold, as luck would have it there was a habitable planet on the other side. It’s what everyone on Earth believed.” At five years old, I had huddled around the television with my parents and brother as the fantastic news reports rolled in. Though young, I had sensed the incredible excitement building around me and understood what a huge deal the discovery of Tallia was.

  “You were taught many lies, human, and now I’m afraid you will suffer dearly for the crimes of your people.” He kneels and tips my chin up, forcing my gaze to his. His fingers are rough, his skin warm but abrasive. It’s intimate, the tender way he holds my face.

  He looks sad for a moment, and I wait with bated breath, sensing he’s about to impart some tragic news.

  “Before our ships destroyed the Stargazer, we closed the wormhole. You are stuck on Tallia, little human, for the rest of your days. Humans don’t have the ability to create a new wormhole to Tallia. They never created one in the first place. They simply discovered a way to make a small, naturally existing wormhole larger, large enough to send ships through.”

  Tears fill my eyes and wet my cheeks. I try to pull away, but he holds my chin in a vise grip. I’m trapped with nowhere to look but his unforgiving gaze.

  “Please,” I beg, but I don’t know exactly what I’m asking for. I’m desperate and afraid, and the word please is all that comes to mind. Please let me go. Please don’t hurt me. Please say you’re lying about the wormhole.

  “You’re rather adorable for a human. And so pretty when you cry.” He cups my face and leans down to kiss my cheeks, but he’s not simply kissing, he’s also tasting. Tasting my tears.

  I sniffle and more tears fall. He inhales quickly and a moan vibrates from his throat. It terrifies me he’s reveling in my sorrow.

  “I want to go home,” I whimper. Let this be a nightmare. Let me wake up now.

  “This is your home now, human. The mountains of Tallia.” He rises to his feet and looms over me like a fierce Viking conqueror. “And you belong to me.”

  Chapter Two

  “Stand up, human.”

  I huddle on the floor, reluctant to rise up when I’m not wearing any clothes. I gaze at the cage longingly, wishing I was still locked inside. The door is slightly ajar. It hadn’t shut the whole way, and I contemplate making a dive for it.

  Gooseflesh rises on my arms, and I sit awkwardly with my legs half crossed and my breasts pressed against my knees. I’m hugging myself and fighting back more tears.

  This can’t be ha
ppening. This can’t fucking be real.

  “If I must repeat the order, human, I will punish you before I claim you.” He speaks slowly, drawing out each word. “Do not test my patience.”

  I glance at the cage and then back at the darkly handsome, purple-eyed monster. After a deep breath, I make as if to stand, only to propel myself toward the cage. It’s stupid. I know it’s stupid. If I wanted to escape him, I should have run for the door. But I manage to open the cage and slip inside.

  A disappointed sigh escapes him, and seconds later he’s pulling me out by my ankle again, this time with a force that makes my joints scream.

  “Please please please,” I repeat until he jerks me upward, forcing me to stand while he holds my shoulders in a bruising grip. “Please don’t fuck me,” I whisper as my heart pounds in my ears.

  He releases one of my shoulders to play with my hair, rubbing my long, chestnut brown locks between his fingers. His expression is intense as he meets my eyes. “You are mine to do with as I please, little human. And I must claim you now.”

  I smack his hand from my hair and hurry for the door.

  “No,” I whimper when it doesn’t slide open upon my approach, as it had opened when the alien entered. No amount of banging on the door helps either. I’m absolutely fucked.

  A hand delves into my hair and I’m tugged backward. He turns me around with a hand fisted in my locks and gives me a disappointed look. Then he smacks my cheek. It’s not a hard slap by any means, but still I cry out, more from the shock than from the pain. My cheek smarts and tears burn in my eyes.

  “You will never run from me.” His quiet tone contrasts with the rage in his eyes, as if he’s holding himself back from hurting me worse. He yanks on my hair. “Do you understand?”

  “O-okay. I-I’m so-sorry,” I reply, my voice shaking.

  He leans down until his face is level with mine and settles a fierce glare on me. He looks positively deranged. My stomach clenches tighter the longer he stares. Gradually, his grip in my hair lessens as the fire in his eyes dims, until he finally lets me go.

  I rub the back of my head and wince when he raises his hand. But he doesn’t slap me again. Instead, he gestures to the massive bed.

  “Lie down atop the covers, on your back.”

  Out of options, I move toward the bed, though it’s all I can do to force one foot in front of the other. When I finally reach the bed, it’s so high I have to place my hands on the mattress and jump to make it up. I slide away from the edge and lie on my back, my insides twisting as my pulse beats faster. I’ve never been so terrified.

  He joins me on the bed, still fully clothed—for which I am thankful—and proceeds to gather my hands above my head. Reaching for his waist, he unclasps his belt and pulls it off his pants. Oh no. I start to struggle, but his weight is on my legs and he has no difficulty keeping my wrists bound together.

  Folding the belt in half, he stares down at me. “I warned you not to test my patience.” He wastes no time in delivering the first blow.

  I cry out as the thick leather strikes my right breast. Before I can catch my breath, he slaps my left breast and continues on in this fashion, alternating sides and hitting my tender flesh.

  “When you disobey, little human, you get punished.”

  I twist around, but there’s no escape. I sob and beg him to please stop, but I’m completely at his mercy and he seems to have no intention of ceasing anytime soon. All this because I tried to run from him? I can’t fathom it.

  His face remains impassive and his gaze riveted to my breasts, as if he’s concentrating on each stinging blow. He doesn’t care that I’m in agony. I can’t believe he’s whipping my breasts as punishment.

  He’s a ruthless, sadistic barbarian. And he claims I now belong to him.

  He pauses and glowers at me. Tension radiates from his massive form, as if he’s a second away from snapping and whipping me to death in a blind rage driven by his hatred of humans, never mind that human blood also runs through his veins. If it’s true humans experimented on his people here on Tallia, and true his mother was mistreated by his father, I could empathize with his disdain for humans. But I’m an eighteen-year-old girl from Florida who’s supposed attend college in the fall. I’m harmless to him and his entire race. I have no part in the tragedies that have befallen his kind.

  My breasts throb, so swollen and tender. The tips of my nipples are on fire. I swallow hard and take a deep breath. “Is-is it over?” My lower lip quivers and I feel like the biggest coward. As a child, I’d loved action movies and books with kickass heroines who saved the day, and I’d always thought I was as brave as those characters I’d grown up admiring. But I’m not. Not at all. This huge alien has reduced me to a sniffling mess of a girl who’ll agree to anything if only the big scary bad man doesn’t bring the belt down across my breasts again.

  “What is your name, human?”

  “Laylah.”

  “Laylah.” His eyes glitter darker. “I am called Kenan.”

  Kenan. His name bounces around inside my head as he stares at me.

  “You will obey me in everything, Laylah, or I will make you hurt.” He growls, a dark noise that vibrates over my aching breasts and makes me quiver harder beneath him. “Well, I will make you hurt sometimes for no other reason than because it pleases me. But the times you are disobedient, I will make you hurt especially bad. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Ke-Kenan.” It feels odd uttering his name for the first time. He holds so much authority and brute strength over me I instinctively want to call him Mr. Kenan, or sir. “Is-is it over?” I sniffle, wishing my hands were free so I could rub the pain out of my stinging breasts.

  “Not yet, Laylah. You’re repentant, I can see that, but not repentant enough.” He shifts slightly and squeezes my wrists tighter. The belt trails over my sore breasts. He raises it up, and I start struggling anew and issuing incoherent pleas for mercy.

  But he pays no heed to my begging and starts lashing my breasts again. Tossing my head from side to side, I bite my lip until I taste blood and try to endure this seemingly endless torture.

  As he beats me, I cry not only from the physical pain, but also for the profound loss of my former life.

  Earth.

  Earth is so far away it might as well not exist. I will never see my mother and father again, or Aunt Mabel or any of my friends. All my hopes and dreams are now nothing but dust.

  Before our ships destroyed the Stargazer, we closed the wormhole. You are stuck on Tallia, little human, for the rest of your days.

  His pronouncement still rings in my ears, along with his promise to claim me after he finishes doling out my punishment. A haze of pain consumes me. Each breath is a struggle. There’s no relief in between the slaps of his belt; the stinging throb persists even in the brief pauses before he hits me again.

  At last, he stops whipping me and throws the belt down. It thuds to the floor, and I glance at my breasts and gasp at the red welts covering them. I feel brutalized and hopeless. And, yes, repentant because I’m so sorry I ran from him.

  When he releases my wrists and cups my face, a sudden flash of tenderness in his eyes leaves me confounded. He wipes at my tears, and his touch is so gentle compared to the harshness I’ve endured, I find myself leaning into his caresses. Perhaps I’m simply relieved the whipping is over.

  “Shh,” he whispers. Before I understand his intentions, he has me seated on his lap and wraps his arms around me. He rubs my back, taking his time and handling me as if I’m a delicate flower, and lets me cry quietly against his chest.

  I try to pretend he’s not Kenan, but a different, nameless man who’s rescued me from my abuser and is comforting me.

  He holds me for a long time. I melt against him, perversely grateful for each tender touch and caress. I can’t remember the last time I sat on someone’s lap. When I was a young child, I suppose. I fall into a lull of warmth and contentment, pushing away all my worries about what’s to come,
though, in the recesses of my mind, I attempt to understand how Kenan can switch from being brutal and sadistic to being tender so quickly.

  What if I never escape this alien called Kenan?

  Maybe this is the only sweetness I’ll know in my new life. Maybe I’ll have to take beatings in order to receive a hug or a comforting touch. This thought pushes a new batch of tears to my eyes, but I blink them back and try to compose myself.

  “Put your arms around me, Laylah.”

  I obey, and God it feels nice to wrap my arms around his waist. My hands don’t meet, he’s that wide, all muscle-bound and huge, and I start to wonder if I’m going crazy. His mere presence, let alone his closeness, should repulse me.

  Another peek at my breasts show none of the welts have broken. I’m not bleeding, but holy fuck they still hurt. I wonder if I’ll wake up to find my chest covered in bruises tomorrow, bruises inflicted by the alien who’s now combing his fingers through my hair and nuzzling his face against my head, all while he continues rubbing my back soothingly.

  Then I detect the hardness beneath my bottom. My eyes go wide. I hold still, even stop breathing, in hopes the unmistakable bulge of his erection will wither. But it persists in growing larger and harder beneath me.

  My heart leaps when he places me back on the bed. He flips me over and arranges me stomach down with my legs dangling above the floor. I bury my face in the soft covers.

  I should run. I shouldn’t let this happen without a fight. But the pain of my breasts pressing against the bed reminds me of what happens when I disobey. I get beaten. I don’t want him to hit me again, with his hand or his belt or any other implement, so I remain in the vulnerable position. He taps the insides of my thighs, forcing me to spread wider. The cool breeze dances across my exposed pussy lips and I start shivering.