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

by Alana Khan

  I’ve felt guilty and a little embarrassed about my performance in the brig on Khour’s ship. If A’Zul could talk right now, he’d have every right to call me a cock tease. Oh well, it got us out of there.

  “Get up, big guy. Vacation is over,” I tell him. “The first thing we’re going to do is inspect the cabin. I wonder if Captain Thantose was joking about having fire insurance on his house. I think he’s going to need it.”

  I walk, Dranii lumbers, to the remains of the cabin. A few partial walls are standing, but everything else has been burned to the ground. Some piles of debris are still smoldering.

  Because the structure is so completely obliterated, I have to reorient myself to figure out where the porch was where A’Zul and I had dinner the other night. When I find it, there’s nothing left of the table we ate at and no hint of the comm unit that was on it.

  “I think we’re on our own here,” I say quietly, my eyes downcast. How can the pirates know to come get us without a comm? I’m definitely feeling alone. It’s been two days since I’ve talked to A’Zul and I miss him.

  Except for the days he was in the brig on the Ataraxia, we’ve been constant companions since I was thrown into the mine. I got used to his gentle, quiet company. It’s not the same with Dranii—his primitive animal simply doesn’t comprehend things like A’Zul does.

  “A’Zul, I miss you,” I say for the first time since I summoned Dranii on that ship. I hadn’t wanted to hurt Dranii’s feelings, but I want my mate back. “A’Zul, can you come out?”

  Walking to the behemoth, I cup my palm to his giant cheek, look into the glowing chartreuse eyes that are the only remnant of A’Zul, and say, “Come back to me, A’Zul.”

  I kiss between his two nostrils and pet the length of his snout. And he shifts.

  He shimmers as his bulk dwindles. On his journey from scaled dragon to my A’Zul, he passes through his golden form. For a moment, his shining blues eyes find mine, then he completes the shift and I have my big green mate standing in front of me.

  “A’Zul! I missed you,” I say as I gingerly hug him, not certain if he still carries Dranii’s wounds.

  “My KJ,” he says as he pulls me into his warm embrace.

  “Your arm? Your belly?” I ask, scanning his naked form to look for damage.

  “Shifting often repairs things,” he explains when my palm searches his flank and finds the skin perfect and intact.

  “That’s convenient.”

  “Yes.”

  He covers my face in kisses, sifts his fingers through my hair, and then pulls me impossibly close to hug me back and forth.

  “It was agony to be so close to you and not be able to help these last few days. I couldn’t bear to watch you shouldering the burden, taking care of everything. I’m here now, my love. We’ll figure this out.”

  Pure relief washes over me as I hold him, my fingers tracing his impossibly hard muscles under his soft pebbled skin.

  I’ve seen enough of this burned-out debris, staying longer would just get me more depressed. Pulling him toward the barn, I say, “I want to make love to you, my mate.”

  Chapter Ten

  A’Zul

  I’ve watched her for days, helplessly seeing the pain in her eyes and unable to soothe her. If this is what she wants, I’ll happily take her to our hey-strewn bed and transport her away from this planet and the fact that we might be stranded here forever. Sooner or later, though, we’ll have to talk about the reality that this is to be our new home.

  After I’ve loved her body many times, my spirit animals inside crouched close and enjoying providing their mate such pleasure, we lay on the blanket we spread on top of the hay.

  “We can use this structure,” I tell her as I finger through her hair to remove traces of hay that got past the blanket. “We’ll make a good home here. We have food. Thantose gave us money and we can buy what we need until we figure out how to sustain ourselves.” When I see her eyes fill with tears I add, “If they don’t come back for us we can build a good life.”

  I have a lot to learn about my mate, because instead of lessening her sadness, the tears spill over and rain down her cheeks. Before I can do anything, she closes her eyes, takes slow deep breaths, then opens them, and with a nod of her head gives me a warm, loving smile.

  The following days blend together in a flurry of activity. We cleaned and organized the barn, and hovered to town for supplies. It’s nothing like riding in my dragon form, it made me dizzy. We used needle and thread to sew blankets together and filled them with hay for a mattress. Then we made lists of what we’ll need to accomplish before the seasons change.

  Every day KJ and I take time for fun. Whenever I shift to my stallion we travel to the falls, and we’ve explored nearby in every direction.

  The most exciting development is that my ability to shift at will has almost completely returned. The only problem is I have no control over what I shift into. Dranii and Ozias come when they feel like it—I think that’s because they love my mate almost as much as I do and they push forward to feel her pats and give her rides.

  Sometimes, though, I’ll turn into a dram, one of the little animals on Kallion that lives in trees and scurries through the grasses. I could as easily turn into a bird or even an anlock, one of the long-toothed predators from my homeworld. It frustrates and perplexes me as to why I am having such difficulty controlling my az’rah. Something is still missing. We’ve determined that no matter what I turn into I’ll never hurt KJ, though. There isn’t even the smallest part of me that could ever harm her

  I’m walking back from the falls, KJ on my stallion’s back when a vessel breaks through the clouds in the sky. Breaking into a gallop, I feel my mate grab my mane and press her thighs against my flanks as I head toward one of the two caves we discovered near the edges of our property.

  I push myself faster than I’ve ever run. My hooves pound into the soil, my muscles straining to get my mate to safety before we’re spotted.

  “A’Zul!” KJ yells as she leans over my neck to catch my attention. “A’Zul. I think that’s the Ataraxia!”

  I don’t stop running until I’m hidden under a canopy of trees. I’m afraid to shift, wondering what I’ll shift into, fearing I’ll leave her defenseless.

  She peeks out from the edge of the trees and inspects the sky over the burned cabin.

  “I wish I’d paid better attention, but I could swear that’s the pirate’s ship. See the way the rear flanges out? I think I remember seeing that when they left us here.”

  I have the ability to shake or nod my head, we’ve worked out a primitive communication system, but I take pains to remain perfectly still. I didn’t see the ship when it flew away and don’t want to give her bad information.

  “You stay here,” she says. “We can’t risk you shifting and calling attention to yourself. I want to inch a bit closer.”

  I’m already shifting, though. My mate isn’t going to approach strangers on her own.

  “A’Zul! KJ!” We hear a male voice call through a loudspeaker. “KJ! A’Zul! Are you here?”

  I glance down to see I’m in my Slag form. “I’ll go,” I tell her, not certain if that’s Thantose’s voice or not, “to protect you.”

  “We’ll go together,” my KJ insists, “that was definitely Thantose.”

  As if to remove any doubt, we hear, “What the fuck happened to my cabin?”

  KJ

  As we run to the remains of his house I’m filled with relief as the weight of the dread I’ve felt lifts from my shoulders.

  The Ataraxia has landed, and everyone on board is spilling out to greet us. I’ve never been so happy to see people in my whole life.

  “Did you burp fire?” Thantose asks A’Zul as he approaches, obviously wanting the conversation to be just the three of us. By the look on his face, he has a good idea that’s not the right answer.

  “Daneur Khour,” I tell him.

  He walks us away from the others as A’Zul and
I give him a full report. Thantose is such an interesting character. His smile is quick and easy, and he’s the first to tell a joke or make light of a situation. He’s also fiercely protective of anyone under his charge. This is the male we’re talking to right now, obviously furious that we were attacked and, as he glances over his shoulder, clearly worried about how to protect his mate and crew.

  “It looks like Daneur Khour’s MarZan cartel has even more reason to hate us now that you destroyed their ship and killed most of their crew.” He scrubs his face with his hands.

  “Although we don’t know whether Khour himself is alive or dead, we can’t stay here. We’re safer in space. You’re certain your shifting is under your control?” he asks. We’d informed him of this latest update.

  “I can’t control what I shift into, but I can control the shift,” A’Zul says. “The moment I shift into something that will endanger the ship or crew, I can shift again and again until I’m in a safe form.”

  After Thantose asks for a demonstration, he’s finally convinced.

  “Let’s get your supplies and bounce.”

  I have to subtly point to A’Zul’s crotch to remind him to put some pants on since he was naked after his shift. I’ve gotten used to him being bare most of the day so he can shift whenever he wants and not shred his clothes. No one else seems to notice, though. I’m hanging with an interesting bunch of people.

  The males do all the heavy lifting as the females and I catch up with news and gossip. Even wary little Allura has left the safety of the ship and has joined us.

  “How did you know to come pick us up?” I ask Thantose an hour later after we launched into hyperspace and are congregating in the dining area.

  “We couldn’t hail you. I knew you’d pick up instantly if you could. I figured you two were in trouble.”

  “Well, thanks again.”

  A’Zul was either isolated or drugged when we were onboard before, so I’m enjoying watching him get to know the others as we eat dinner together in the cozy dining area. I’m surrounded by women of my species, and although it’s like I’m living in a Sci-Fi movie, at least I’d seen Sci-Fi movies and what I’m seeing isn’t too fantastical.

  A’Zul, on the other hand, came from what sounds like an idyllic, primitive planet. He has no one here who looks like him or speaks his native language, all of the equipment and tech is beyond his wildest imagination. You’d think he’d feel awkward and homesick, but as he allows himself to be pulled into conversation with the males he looks . . . relaxed.

  When I catch his eye, I wink at him. He tries to mimic me a couple of times, then squinches both eyes in response. Such a childish expression on the huge angular green face is freaking adorable.

  “It suddenly strikes me that we have two new victims . . . I mean players for our weekly klempto game,” Thantose announces as he goes to a cabinet and pulls out a beautiful box. He opens it to display what looks like poker chips. Some seem to be real silver, others are precious and semi-precious gems.

  He shows us the deck which has fifteen cards in each of four suits. Instead of Kings, Queens, and Jacks being the face cards, they’re all of different alien species.

  “Klempto is the galactic version of Texas Hold-Em,” Brin, Thantose’s mate, tells us. Then she adds in a conspiratorial whisper, “The way he talks, you’d think he’s a card shark, but actually, it’s Lexa you really have to watch out for.”

  A’Zul and I are strong-armed into learning the rules. My mate’s eyes glaze over quickly and Allura and Brin rescue him to watch nature vids on one of the screens plastered on every wall.

  I used to play Five-Card Stud back home and am trying to make the switch to this intergalactic version of the card game.

  I think I might win this hand, but am having trouble figuring things out since the suits are different here. An excited squeal grabs my attention.

  I look over to see a little blue animal, a cross between a pug and a hedgehog capering on the floor. The two women are entranced. A’Zul is nowhere to be seen. I put two and two together and realize my mate is the little animal scurrying between their feet and begging for scraps of food left over from our meal.

  Thantose, possibly because he knows he’s lost this hand, sets his cards on the table and wanders over to have a look at what’s causing all the excitement.

  “We were watching vids of the screythins from the backwoods of Aeon II and A’Zul shifted into one of them,” Allura exclaims. The animal has scampered to the cold box and is bumping its nose against it, wanting more food.

  “It’s so ugly it’s adorable,” Brin says as she dutifully opens the cold box to grab some food for the little guy.

  “I don’t see how this is possible,” Lexa says. “I was a psych major, science wasn’t my strong suit, but I do know that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. How can that big hulking male—no offense intended . . .”

  “None taken,” I reply.

  “How can that big hulking male turn into that ten-pound animal?”

  “Clueless,” I say as I watch my mate amuse his new friends. Thantose soon tires of the show and returns to the table where Lexa, the males, and I resume our game. I didn’t win that hand, someone’s flush beat my straight.

  “Let’s up the ante,” Thantose says as if he just this minute had the idea to do so. I imagine this is standard operating procedure for him. I picture him in the old west sitting around a table in a saloon bilking everyone in sight of their hard-earned cash. He thrives on winning, even though he staked us all to the game and will only be winning his own money back.

  Five hands later, there’s a loud burst of laughter from the females gathered in front of the huge vid screen. This time, a different animal is at their feet. The spotted yellow creature sporting a covering that looks like a combination of fur and feathers is on its back, purring as it has its belly petted by the females.

  Thantose suddenly seems interested in the creature. “The animal just shifted?” he asks.

  “Yeah,” his mate replies. “He looks just like the animal on the screen.”

  Thantose tosses his cards to the middle of the table and stalks to where the females are sitting, appearing more like a male on a mission than someone looking for entertainment. He grabs one of the ubiquitous computer pads that litter every flat surface on the ship and starts frantically scrolling.

  “This!” He thrusts the pad in front of the yellow animal’s face. “Shift into this!” He’s trying to make it sound like a request, but it comes out as an order.

  The little animal’s eyes widen in fright and it runs to me and hides at my feet. I pick it up, set it on my lap, and pet its fur-feathers. They feel like spikey silk—soft, but with hard ribs that hold the feathers together. The defenseless animal is so scared it can’t settle down and is kneading its clawed feet in my lap.

  “This!” Thantose says a little too loudly as he approaches, tapping the screen of his pad.

  “Honey,” Brin says after rising. She puts her hand on the small of his back and says, “You’re scaring the little thing.”

  “I thought A’Zul was in there. Can’t he hear me?”

  “I’ve found it’s an interesting combination of humanoid and animal sentience. He’s in there, but he’s still working on control. He has only ever changed into animals on his planet or from Kallion—ones he’s familiar with. Changing into something he’s never seen before must be new to him. I think the animal’s fear has taken center stage right now.”

  “Pet him,” Thantose all but orders. “As soon as he’s calm, we’ve got some work to do.”

  The klempto game continues, but I carry the little ragamuffin to the couch and join Brin and Allura on their quest to find an interesting vid to watch.

  I question the soundness of my decision to have the furbaby in my lap. If he shifts into a dragon or horse or even A’Zul, I’m going to regret it, but I know A’Zul can control when he shifts so I think he’s just enjoying the cuddles he’s getting as a
sweet little bundle of fur and feathers.

  An hour or so later, when the game is winding down, A’Zul rouses, stretches, and jumps from my lap to the floor. A moment later a very large, very naked green male is sprawled at my feet.

  Thantose must have noticed the change the moment it happened, because he’s already turned off the vid player, pulled up a chair, and is leaned toward us, his elbows on his thighs.

  “You’re part of our crew now, right?” He gets right to the point.

  As his eyes flick back and forth between the two of us, I answer, “Yes,” as A’Zul nods his head, eyes wide. If we answer incorrectly will we be forced to do the outer space equivalent of walking the plank?