Slag: Book Four in the Galaxy Pirates Alien Abduction Romance Series (Shifter)

by Alana Khan

  “A’Zul. Yes.”

  I love hearing my real name on her lips.

  Taking my time, I move deeper with every thrust, pausing when I need to, pressing in when she’s ready.

  “Feels so good,” she says, almost breathless with passion.

  I take special time with the bulge on my cock. She moans deep in her throat when we’re past this hurdle. It’s low and throaty and I’ve come to learn it signals her pleasure and a little pain. She’s the one who lifts up to take me deeper. I kiss her thoroughly to reward her efforts.

  When I’m in to the hilt, I ride her slow and easy for a while. Every time I press all the way in, her lips form an ‘o’ as she sucks in a satisfied breath.

  An urge gathers inside me, so strong it reminds me of the need to shift I used to have on my home planet. I have the urgent desire to mount her from behind, like my stallion animal form used to dream about. I don’t feel my animals inside me, though. Whatever happened on Rhoid killed them. They’ve been dead for years.

  My final shift must have been in the mines as I shifted to Slag’s form. The thick skin and chartreuse eyes that saw better in the dark were the best form of protection my body could provide. Then I couldn’t shift again.

  I pull out of KJ’s welcome warmth, regretting my actions when she makes a little noise of displeasure.

  “I want you from behind, KJ,” I say, my voice deep and low as I move her onto all-fours. I never did this in the cave, fearing I’d hurt her knees. But I want her this way now.

  She doesn’t seem to care what position we’re in. She only wants me sheathed inside her, if her wiggling ass is any indication as she backs toward me, her arm reaching behind as if that will hurry the process along.

  I enter her channel in one slick slide and delight in her pleasured moan. I rock into her, slow at first, feeling her inner muscles grip me as hard as my fist.

  “Good,” I say.

  Then the urge to bite her comes barreling up on me like a swift summer storm. My eyesight changes and everything is muted as it is in my stallion form. Until a moment ago I didn’t feel my stallion close, but suddenly I wonder if he’s really as dead as I thought.

  I bite her shoulder, just as I’ve seen mating stallions do on my planet since I was a youngling.

  “A’Zul!”

  By her tone, I’m not sure if what I’m doing is good or bad.

  My teeth biting softly into her flesh makes my cock harder than it’s ever been. I hadn’t meant for it to be this way, not today, but I’m pounding into her. Then I see it, my hands on her shoulders aren’t hands anymore, they’re hooves.

  My body is definitely shifting into stallion form. I want to tell her to run, to get out from under me. I’ll crush her like this or at the least hurt her with my hooves or teeth. I can’t talk, though. I’ve almost shifted completely.

  KJ

  I’m having another hallucination. At first, I thought I’d just gut through it, at least until A’zul finds his release, but this hallucination is complete with not only visual changes, but auditory and tactile as well. I’m in pain. It feels as if A’Zul weighs five-hundred pounds.

  Somehow I untangle from him, all the while chanting, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Something’s wrong with me.”

  After I’ve scrambled off the bed, I look over, and there on the bed is the biggest palomino horse I’ve ever seen.

  “I’ve gone crazy,” I say as I try to comm Seneca. I can’t seem to make my fingers work, though.

  “A’Zul, call the doc.” I’m unable to tear my eyes off the animal on the bed. The horse turns to me, its eyes rounded in its head as if it’s terrified. “Tell me about it,” I say under my breath, convinced I’ve gone insane.

  The horse is now morphing into something different. Wings sprout from its withers, but it’s not turning into Pegasus, the flying horse. It’s turning into a dragon. It’s all iridescent scales and a growing pointed tail, and its face is fearsome. The wings are expanding larger and bumping against the metal walls.

  If I wasn’t so certain this was a hallucination, I’d be afraid those pointy bones on the edges of his gigantic wingspan would cut through the exterior wall of this ship like a can opener.

  It strikes me like a bolt of lightning that this might really be happening.

  Getting my shit together, I call the medic and pray he gets here before the writhing dragon on my bed scrapes the wall with something sharp and we both get sucked out into the cold, dark depths of space.

  Seneca runs in and stops abruptly, his eyes wide in his colorful face.

  “Stun guns to Slag’s cabin now. NOW!” he orders into his wrist-comm, then repeats it.

  I guess I’m not having a psychotic break after all.

  It’s only when I hear footsteps pounding down the hall that I realize I’m stark naked. I find my discarded t-shirt on the floor and yank it on a second before Sextus and Devolose thunder in. They both shoot first and ask questions later. Within seconds, the dragon is lying in a crumpled heap on the bed.

  “Did you kill him?” my terrified voice is barely a whisper.

  “Stunned,” big, blue Sextus says. “What the drack is going on?”

  We all watch as the dragon shrinks. On its way to becoming A’Zul, for one shimmering moment, I see the golden male I envisioned earlier today. The beautiful male who reminds me of an ancient God who walked the Earth.

  Now it’s A’Zul lying on his side, his eyelids fluttering as he pants for breath.

  Thantose swaggers in, takes one look at the scene, gets report, and orders. “Get him to the brig. We need to figure out what’s going on before he kills us all.”

  Chapter Six

  A’Zul

  I awaken lying on a bed in a cell, immediately aware KJ is on the other side of the bars. She’s sitting on a hard chair, and her stare is equally hard—not angry, though, terrified.

  “A’zul, something’s wrong.”

  I tip my head in question and she points to my right foot . . . which is a hoof.

  I was stolen from my planet about two annums after my first shift. I had long since learned how to tame any errant tendencies to shift at the wrong time.

  Now, though, despite my greatest efforts, one foot is still a golden hoof.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” she asks, her face a mask of worry.

  “On my planet, before I was stolen, I shifted with ease. It was effortless.” I glare at the hoof where my right foot should be.

  “Shifted?”

  “I thought all humanoids could shift. It wasn’t until I was stolen from my planet and thrown into a cell on a slave ship that I realized my people were unique. We shift for the first time on our eighteenth birthday. It’s a day of celebration, a turning point from being a child to becoming an adult.”

  “So, you shift into anything? I saw a horse and a dragon and a male humanoid.”

  “Most of my people shift into only one thing. Only one in a generation can shift into anything they wish. We call that person an az’rah. I have that ability. My horse and dragon are my primary spirits. It’s my spirit that can shift into any animal I have seen that requires the most control. I have all the abilities of that animal but fully retain my consciousness in that form. Evidently . . .” I get distracted as I feel the familiar itch and burn of wings starting to erupt from my shoulder blades. One dragon’s wing sprouts on the right.

  “I’ve always had control. Even at the beginning. This is . . . dangerous.” The cell is small. In my dragon form, I’m huge. Not only can I hurt others if I shift, I could hurt myself. “Call the medic. Have him knock me out.”

  One wing is fully extended now, flapping wildly against the metal bars of the cell.

  Every person has a unique relationship with their shifter forms. Some fully give themselves over to the animal. Some keep their higher sentience completely. Others, like me, drift in and out of animal consciousness when in equine or dragon form

  I have two primary animals I shift in
to—Ozias, my stallion, and Dranii, my dragon. I feel them inside me as if we’re brothers. I can sense their emotions and desires, though usually not through actual words.

  I retain complete control when I shift into anything else. But Ozias and Dranii have been absent for so long, and now I not only have no control over them, I can’t even connect with them.

  KJ frantically calls Seneca on her wrist-comm. When he arrives, he’s accompanied by a contingent of males, all heavily armed. I have a fleeting worry that they’re going to kill me. Maybe they should.

  KJ

  “Those are stun guns, right?” I ask, then back down the short hallway toward the only other cell in this small brig.

  “Yes,” Sextus says as he orders A’Zul, “sit!”

  As soon as the big green male with the ungainly wing and an equine leg manages to maneuver his ass onto the bed, Sextus shoots him with the stunner. He slumps over and fully returns to his green form. Just as the last time I watched this, he shimmers in and out of that gorgeous golden form for a brief moment. How can any being be that beautiful?

  Thantose enters at a jog and barks, “What the fuck is going on here?” After he gets report, much of which was given by me, he says, “The safety of my crew is my top priority. More important than amassing more credits than I’ll ever need in five lifetimes. More important than the Ataraxia herself.”

  He pauses, pulls up something on his wrist-comm, and watches for a moment.

  “I wasn’t able to see what happened in your cabin earlier, we don’t have cameras in there for obvious reasons, but I just watched a replay of what occurred here. I don’t even want to speculate about his ability to shift into other forms. Science wasn’t my strength in school, I was too busy playing klempto, but to me it looks like if he had fully shifted, one of those claws on his wings might have torn a hole in my hull.”

  He tips his head and thinks for a moment. “He’s putting everyone on board in danger. I can’t allow it.”

  My stomach feels as if it just turned to concrete, fell out of my body and through the floor. He’s going to cast A’Zul into space?

  “I’m going to keep him sedated until we get to planet Kallion. I have a cabin there. It’s old and I guess if he shifts and crashes through the walls we’ll just have to rebuild. If this dragon can breathe fire, maybe he could burn it to the ground and we can collect the insurance.” He taps his index finger on his chin as if he’s thinking through all the possibilities for larceny that A’Zul presents.

  “You’re going to leave us on that planet?” I ask, imagining all the terrifying things that could happen to us in an inhospitable place.

  “I said I would drop him. Are you volunteering?”

  “I can’t let him go alone.”

  “I figured you’d say that. My family owns a vacation home there because it’s a beautiful planet. My mate Brin has spent time there. She loves it. Says it reminds her of home. Talk to her about it. I think you’ll feel more comfortable after she tells you how safe and calm it is.

  “We’ll make sure you have plenty of food, weapons, and a long-distance comms unit. We’ll keep in touch and come get you when he’s stable. If he’s stable. I can’t do this any other way.”

  He gives me a compassionate look, his brown eyes warm. I understand him better now. He’s a softy. He’s hard outside with a soft center. He doesn’t want to do this, but he’s right, his crew has to come first.

  “Sextus, make sure she knows how to use all the weapons we’re sending with her. I’ll have Destin give you a couple lunars worth of food. There’s a town nearby. I have a hover in the old barn out back. I’ll teach you how to fly it. You understand I have no choice in this, right?”

  “I get it, Thantose. I do understand. You promise you’ll come back for us when he figures all this out?”

  “Yes. I promise. That is if he can learn to control this . . . gift.”

  Chapter Seven

  KJ

  “Let me help you with that,” Sextus says as I try to lift one of the heavy crates laden with supplies. He relieves me of its weight, then stalks down the exit ramp leaving me alone with Thantose.

  “You feel competent on the comms unit?”

  “Yes, I’ve practiced.”

  “Call if you need us. And the weapons? Sextus said you’re quite proficient.”

  “Yes. I think I’ve got it. Point and shoot.”

  “Turn it on first. The thumb lever.”

  “Yes. Yes. Got it.”

  I like this protective part of Captain Thantose. I see why Brin looks at him like he was personally responsible for putting all the stars in the sky.

  “Destin tells me you have plenty of food. Brin says she’s told you all about Kallion.”

  “Yes. I think I’ve got it. She even told me to jiggle the toilet handle.”

  “What?” He tips his head back in surprise.

  “Just a joke. I think I’ve got everything.”

  Griff the mechanic and Destin the chief cook and bottle washer approach with A’Zul on the hover-stretcher. They’ve kept him sedated for the last three days. If I didn’t know how much I cared for him before, I certainly do now. I’ve missed his company.

  They roll him down the ramp and I follow. Although I barely take the time to glance around, I notice Brin wasn’t lying when she said this area of the planet reminded her of the lush green hills of Georgia. I’ll explore later, when A’Zul is better.

  “I think until we figure out what we’re working with we should put him in the barn,” I tell them.

  Half an hour later, we’ve laid fresh hay in one of the two stalls and covered it with blankets. Thantose put me in the hover driver’s seat and is acquainting me with the dashboard.

  I’m terrified to drive anything that could come crashing to the ground, but I close my eyes and take a deep breath. We may not see these people again. A’Zul might never get control over his shifting abilities. We might be isolated on Kallion forever, and there are only a few months of food here.

  “Okay,” I tell him softly. “Go slow and I’ll learn.” Really, I have no choice.

  An hour later I’ve flown the route to the small town nearby and back—twice. Brin described it as an adorable town with one street like you see on Hallmark Channel old-time Christmas specials. It was an accurate description.

  When we arrive back at the barn, I’m not great at parking, but I get the job done. The males just lift the thing up and scootch it into the corner so A’Zul and I will have more room.

  “Here’s the stunner,” Thantose says as he gives me a piercing look. “I want you to wear it on your hip holster at all times.”

  With all the admonitions he’s given me over the last few days, he’s never mentioned this. I knew it was coming, though.

  “I won’t need it,” I say with more confidence than I feel.

  “I knew you wouldn’t like this, KJ, but I want you to consider it. What if he loses his ability to think like a humanoid? What if he sees you as prey? What if he gets better and you move to the house and he shifts into his dragon form and crashes the house down around you? What harm is it to wear this on your waist?”

  He’s right. I know he’s right. I’ve had this same argument with myself a dozen times, but to hear him say it, it makes more sense.

  “Okay.”

  “Seriously? You’re going to wear it?”

  “Why ask,” I joke, “I’d say the same thing whether I was lying or telling the truth. Pirates aren’t the only ones who can lie.” I do, however, sling the holster around my hips and belt it on.

  “Earth women!” he exclaims loudly for all to hear. “Just being cautious, KJ. I think of you both as part of my crew now.”

  “Really?” I ask, my eyes wide. I assumed he couldn’t wait to get rid of us.

  “Really. You’re part of my team.”

  “Captain!” Marcus the pilot shouts into Thantose’s comm. “I just intercepted an encrypted space-comm from the MarZan cartel. They know we’r
e on our way to Aeon II to sell the sword we were going to sell to Sooma Ryone on Rhoid. They’re looking for us. We need to bounce. Now!”

  “Fuck!” Thantose says. “You’ll be safer here. If I could convince the women on board to stay, I would, but it’s not worth asking. They’ll want to stay with their mates on the Ataraxia. Be safe. We’ll stay in touch.”

  Over the last few days, I got the scoop about the pirates’ nemesis. They told me Daneur Khour is the head of the MarZan cartel, one of the most powerful—and evil—organizations in the galaxy. He and Sextus had a run-in a while back. Khour was in the process of flaying the big, blue Cerulean alive when Sextus turned the tables and somehow carved his initials into the male’s face and then threw acid on him.