Table of Contents

3 Alien Promises (Crash Landed Alien Love)

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

3 Alien Promises

Crash Landed Alien Love

*

C. Y. Croc

*

Copyright

Copyright © 2022 by C. Y. Croc

All events, places, businesses and characters in this publication are clearly fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead will be purely coincidence. They are all a product of the author’s imagination.

*

Dedication

To Hannah. Happy 18th!

Chapter 1

Cassie

Looking out through the window of my crashed pod, I can’t stop the enormous smile from spreading across my face as I watch white floaty petals rain down outside.

The pod is making a creaking, clicking noise. I hope it’s from cooling down and reducing in size and not because something has ignited in the engine and it’s about to blow up into a trillion pieces, obliterating me in the blink of an eye. Not after surviving ejection from the main ship after something hit it while it was orbiting the planet my friends and I were about to land on.

With shaky hands, I unclip my safety harness, which has done a miraculous job in keeping me safe considering I have just plunged through the atmosphere of Planet Vysaria at a phenomenal rate and crash landed on its surface. It whirs back, releasing me unharmed from my seat. I push up onto boneless legs and stagger over to the keypad at the side of the pod hatch, and while reaching for something to hold on to, I stab in the door opening code. The hatch door clicks and whirs open, and I gasp when I see the beautiful sight that greets me.

I’ve crashed in a centre of a field of white flowers and petals which are raining down all around and look like enormous snowflakes. They are strikingly beautiful. Dominantly white in tone, but they have a pearlorised, multi-coloured sheen to them, just like the colours you see on the surface of water when a drop of oil has been dropped onto it.

I suck in a sharp intake of breath when I see what lies beyond the field. My pod couldn’t have chosen a better place to crash land, because past the field are brutal and jagged light blue rocks as far as the eye can see. My landing could have been fatal.

Looking down, the drop from the doorway hatch to the bed of flowers below appears to be about ten feet. I can jump that easily. I’m fit, and from the looks of the large and very lush flowers growing in the field, my landing should be an easy one. the flowers will cushion my fall.

Crouching down, I make my jump. I was right. The landing is soft thanks to the flowers, and I quickly recover from my crouching position and glance over my shoulder to make sure I’m in no immediate danger.

Something moves in the corner of my peripheral sight, and I jump with fright. I’m momentarily startled by the silvery parachute that made my landing so successful. It’s puffed up and billowing in the wind behind the pod, like the body of a huge tentacleless squid.

Standing up and taking a few strides backward, I’m able to assess the pod and the ground beneath it. It’s landed upright and stands as erect as when I stepped into on the main ship before it ejected. I clasp my hands together and look up at the sky to say thanks to God. That’s when I notice the sky isn’t blue. It’s pale green—more like a very light teal colour. My mouth drops open in awe. So far, what I’ve seen of this planet is raw natural beauty.

Chewing the inside of my mouth I think hard, trying to remember anything in my brief training about what I should do if my life pod were to be ejected prematurely. Did my training advise me to do anything specific? I might have been the fittest one out of the group of four other women I travelled here with, but prior to our departure from Earth, I was the worst one for learning any of the techy stuff that was needed for our trip. If the door hatch code hadn’t been set to my birthdate, I doubt I’d have even been able to remember how to open the door. I relied heavily on Eve to do all the techy stuff for me back on the ship.

Thinking of Eve wipes the smile from my face. I’m extremely lucky to have made such a safe landing, but how did she fare? And the others, too? Ava, Bee and Deja? I guess I’ll be worrying about their survival until the Vysarian authorities come to rescue me. Hopefully, they would have rescued the others by then too, and I’ll be hugging them instead of worrying about them.

Doing a 360 turn, I cup my hands over my eyes and squint into the distance. All I can see is rocks. Rocks, rocks and more rocks... Oh wait...I can see a small turquoise dust cloud approaching—the type of cloud made by a vehicle in the desert. My stomach tightens with apprehension and excitement. It must be a rescue party. The Vysarian government must have monitored my descent and now someone is coming to rescue me. I’m nervous. This will be my first ever encounter with a species other than humans.

I’m not sure I believe in God per se, but I’m a big believer in there’s something up there looking out for everyone’s interests. I look back up at the sky and wink. “You’ve done me proud, whoever you are. Thanks for looking after my wellbeing.”

Jogging across the flower field, I head towards the approaching vehicle, waving my arms in an arc over my head like a lunatic, as if me doing this is going to make a difference when there’s a large cylindrical object sticking up vertically out of the ground behind me with a billowing parachute spectre dancing around it.

“I’m here-I’m here!” I’m like a giddy schoolgirl at Christmas time and the falling white petals coating me are large snowdrops, and out there on his sledge ploughing through the dust snow is Santa coming to my rescue.

The dusk cloud gets bigger, and I finally get to see what is actually making such a large haze. It’s not Santa’s sledge. And not just one large vehicle like I presumed it would be—it’s many. And they are not large vehicles like cars or trucks either. There are lots and lots of hovering, futuristic motorcycles. My jaw and my arms drop simultaneously. If this is my rescue party, then I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.

The bikes are being ridden by a gang of very handsome men who look almost human. Long hair dances around their heads as they approach, then suddenly fans out around their shoulders as they pull to a dead stop in front of me. If it weren’t for their skin tones, which are not so subtly human, their flatter noses and textured skin, which looks like a very bad version of paper mache, it would be hard to tell they were aliens.

The one leading the pack dismounts and strides purposely towards me. He’s dressed like a typical biker from the many photos I’d drooled over on the internet on Earth—the darker web, the only way of accessing pictures of sexy men. Only his clothes are extremely modern versions of the tattered leathers I’d seen on the hundreds of biker-men photos I’d trawled through, wasting far too many hours of my free time in my teens.

I lift the corners of my mouth and extend my hand while simultaneously shaking my head. “Hello, don’t worry, I’m not hurt. I’m Cassie—Cassie Keegan, one of the five human women from the intergalactic excha—”

His hand rises, but sails past my extended hand. I stutter a gasp when his calloused fingers wrap around my throat, cutting off the wonderfully clean oxygen I’ve been getting high on since I exited my pod. My eyes bulge from their sockets, and I naturally try to gasp for air and yank his fingers away from my throat.

Like, what the hell!

He bends his arm and pulls me towards him. My feet stumble over each other in shock until I am face-to-face with his leather vest which is moulded into his large chest and rippling six-pack. He leans down and brings his face close to mine. I can see he has almost black eyes with flecks of amber and green entwined in his irises. If he wasn’t half strangling me, I’d think they were stunning.

“You have destroyed zillions of credos worth of Kego! If you weren’t a female, I would rip your limbs from your body and shove them down your throat.”

My heart all but stops. He releases me and I fall to my knees, clutching my throat and wheezing whilst trying to suck in a breath through a windpipe that now feels like it’s half its original size.

What the hell is kego? And is this the Vysarian government’s search party who has come to rescue me?

I’m just getting a handle on breathing again when a powerful arm curls underneath me and snatches me from the ground. He holds me tight, pulling my back in to his chest. My arms are pinned, but my legs are free and they kick out wildly as I wrestle to free myself.

I so want to click my red shoes together and be whisked out of this nightmare and back to Kansas, even though I’m from Chicago.

Striding back to his bike, I can see the other men giving me mixed looks. Some are giving me daggers. Others look at me as if they want to devour me. My heart beat is thunderous in my chest as realisation crawls over my puckered skin.

What the hell have I done? Coming here was a big mistake—A GIGANTIC mistake.

The handsome alien sits me atop his bike and holds me in position as he hoists his leg astride and climbs onto the seat behind me, holding me rigid with his powerful, thick thighs that squish me so tight, I can feel my femur bones creaking.

I finally feel brave enough to talk, and glance back over my shoulder. “Are-are you taking me to the Vysarian authorities?”

He ignores my question and the bike thunders into life, followed by the roars of the other bike engines as all the bikes are started. His bike lifts off the ground, and his arms encompass me as he grips the wide handlebars. My body is crushed by his as he swings the bike around in a semi-circle.

I’m too shocked to do anything. I try to swallow away the lump which is swelling in my throat, forming because I want to cry.

The biker alien doesn’t smell as good as he looks either, and I screw my nose up every time the wind changes direction and I get a whiff of him. He smells like his clothes need washing—maybe his body, too.

The planet I’d been so excited to see whizzes past me, and the first hour of it is as awful as my reception had been. My first wonderful impression is gone as the same blue rocks which had surrounded the beautiful flower field pan out for miles around me, and for a long time I see no signs of life. My hope withers and dies.

Then a shape in the sky catches my attention. I squint my eyes, trying to make it out. Is it a bird? My eyes shoot open is surprise when I finally realise what the shape is. I blink to make sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. The flying thing closely resembles a real life Pterodactyl dinosaur, but with dark blue feathered wings instead of scales.

My eyes are glued to it. I’m astounded. I can’t understand why it isn’t attacking us like in the dinosaurs had done to the people in the old Jurassic Park films I was once allowed to watch when I was ten years old. It disappears from view when a tree suddenly blocks my view. I gasp. I’m in a forest—a forest of blue and lilac trees. It’s an extreme contrast to the stark blue rocks—it’s beautiful. Apart from the white flowers in the field, this is the only nice thing I’ve seen in the few hours I’ve been here.

The forest is silent. There are no birds cheeping. No insects buzzing. I wonder if the loud humming of the hovering motorbikes has sent all the wildlife for cover. Is this an ominous sign? Do they know something about these aliens that I don’t? Are these bikers bad news? I shiver and the thick arms and legs holding me tight pin me even tighter. Seriously, what does this dude think I’m going to do? Make a jump for it? While I’m wrestling with the idea of doing just that, the forest thins and I see the first signs of real civilisation.

In the distance, I see a wall of high rise glistening buildings. They are not the box standard rectangular monstrosities that adorn the city skylines of Earth. These buildings twist and spiral into the clouds with true architectural beauty. I appreciate them because I’m an illustrator. I love anything visually appealing...Well not anything. Not anymore. Not since I was taken against my will by these bikers. I’d swooned when I first seen these alien men because I barely get to see any men on Earth, but I won’t be swooning over them anymore. These Vysarians may be extremely visually pleasing, but their beauty is only skin deep. They appear to be rotten from the inside out.

As we approach the city, I’m hoping they’ll drive through the streets so that I’ll be able to get the attention of someone and alert them to my situation, but my plan is foiled when the leading biker rides into what looks like an overflow pipe leading below the city streets. We’re plummeted into darkness until the bike’s headlights suddenly illuminate the stark cylindrical walls of the pipe. My eyes dart everywhere. I hate rats, and after seeing the Pterodactyl flying in the sky, I’m petrified to find out what type of creatures lurk down here.

The hover bikes’ engines reverberate off the walls, which are partially reflective and look like they might be made out of some type of glass. Where ever we are heading to, the biker aliens don’t appear to be worried about the noise being carried forward and out at the other end of the tunnel.

The pipe goes on for what feels like miles, and I can feel the apprehension steadily rise in me. I’m not claustrophobic, but there’s a first time for everything. Finally, I see light approaching. My gut tightens, and I worry about my safety, where I’m being taken to, and what is going to happen to me now?

We drive out of the pipe, up a bank, and onto a street which wouldn’t be out of place on a weird and wonderful futuristic movie set. There isn’t a soul about. That is, until we pull up in front of what I’m presuming is either a clubhouse or a bar. That’s when more men emerge from the inky depths from within, beyond the doorway, to come and stand in front of the bar with their arms crossed.

More eyes leer at me.

Shit!

Chapter 2

Capsi

Since daybreak, I’ve searched the area my brothers allocated me to search and followed my bike’s heat sensor, tracking the latest space debris to have breached Vysaria’s atmosphere. It’s brought me to an enormous field in the middle of nowhere filled with white flowers.

It’s strange to find such a beautiful natural sight out here because all around it for miles and miles is nothing but rocks. But the most bizarre thing here is the huge indentation in the centre of the flower field. There’s no sign of an escape pod—not any broken ship parts anywhere. Yet my sensors led me here.

Walking through the flowers to reach the crater, I walk the crater’s perimeter and scratch my head as I examine it. Going down on my haunches is when I feel the pull in my chest for the first time. It makes me catch my breath.

Shooting up onto my feet again, I turn around on the spot. The feeling is at its strongest when I’m facing West, towards the citydom of Genspurb. Is it a sign I need to head in that direction?

Hurrying back to my bike, I climb on, pull back the throttle and head immediately for the Genspurb. I ride for hours, carefully steering through the blue rocks that jut out of the ground’s surface for as far as the eye can see. There’s no reason for me to go there other than this strange feeling in my chest, and the closer I ride to Genspurb, the fiercer the pull in my chest becomes.

But once I pass through a forest known to be the oldest on this planet, and where the very first inhabitants of Genspurb settled, the citydom comes into view. I shuffle uncomfortably in my seat. I hate going into the citydom without my brothers. Out of all the species inhabiting the neighbouring planets to our planet, Planet Blazor, the Vysarians are the least tolerant of any species other than their own—especially other species that come to their planet to work or live. I think they are scared their dwindling number of Vysarian females will have their heads turned by bigger and better males, such as my species—the Jasova.

Each time I’ve visited this planet, I’ve noticed there are less and less of any other species living amongst the Vysarians. I draw my brows together, wondering why any of them would choose to live amongst such an intolerant species, anyway. My only conclusion is they must be here because they are onto a good thing, because I can’t think of anywhere I’d like to live less.

On the horizon, the glistening high rise mass of the citydom comes into view, sprouting from the barren landscape that surrounds it. In looks wrong, like it shouldn’t be there, as if it’s been plucked from a thriving hubbub and dropped in the middle of nowhere. I grit my fangs as I approach a road that will impregnate it and carry me into the belly of the beast.

As soon as I pass the first buildings, I’m transported from the middle of nowhere, right into the hubbub of a noisy and vibrant citydom. The variation from nothing other than rocks, then trees to this is fucking weird. It’s the same all over the planet. I could ride for miles and see nothing and then just stumble upon a small town. It’s nothing like my planet where citydoms thin out to smaller buildings that continue to line along roads that take you to wherever you need to go. Thankfully, my hover bike can go over any terrain, that’s why my brothers and I take them with us everywhere we go.

Heads immediately turn in my direction as I pass by. A rumble of displeasure comes up from my chest, but it’s drowned out by my hover bike and the noises all around. Any other male would probably get paranoid with all these eyeballs burning into them, but I hold my head up high and stick my chest out. Fuck them if I look different. I’m the lucky one. I have more eyes than they do and a way better physique that I’m extremely proud of. I’ve worked my damn butt off to have the best body out of my brothers.

Back home, I work out daily. My brothers and I live over a large hanger we bought between us. Below, it is divided into five sections and each of us has individual businesses. Mine happens to be a gym.

As there are literally no free females to date due to our planet’s own gender crisis, I’m addicted to exercise. I have to take care of my pent-up frustrations one way or another, and it’s not healthy to whack oneself off more than three times a day. I’ve heard rumours that doing it too many times can cause blindness, and although I have more eyes than most species, I don’t want to lose my sight from any of them.

The pull in my chest guides me through the citydom. I pass what I call the decent part of citydom, past lush shop windows selling high-quality goods. Then past mediocre businesses, to the part of citydom which is my favourite—the part filled with restaurants and food vendors on the sidewalk. The smell of their fabulous wares wafts up my nose and my stomach grumbles, reminding me I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday evening, when I caught, skinned and cooked my supper over a small campsite fire. I ignore its growl and follow my instincts, led by the pull in my chest.

Going past the businesses selling food, the pull draws me to the part of the citydom I would only normally venture into with my brothers by my side. The Vysarians walking past instantly change. Gone are the clean-cut males in their fancy tailored clothing. This part of the citydom breeds criminals.

My body tenses when I realise there is more than enough attention being paid to my hover bike and I can’t thank Balic enough for insisting we all update our  hover bikes with DNA profiling to start them up. At the time I’d given the big lug a hard time, now with numerous envious eyes burning into its silver paint spray, I could kiss his ugly face. The worst possible thing that could happen if I were to find one of the human female’s I’ve searching for is for my bike to go AWOL just as I’m about to head back to the ship, our ultimate rendezvous point.

I ride up to the end of a street filled with bars, and it’s here I feel the pull in my chest at its strongest. I sigh and shake my head. I know this street well. It’s notorious—and not for the right reasons. A few years ago, my brothers and I had come here purposely with the intention of winding up the locals.

It was after I’d just got my gym fitted and we’d all had a six month enthusiastic spree pumping ourselves up to buff god status—even Devoq, who even though is the same height as us, prefers to maintain a more sinewy physique, slender yet muscly. It was hard work and for a few of my brothers who lack commitment in the exercise department, unsustainable after that. But while we were all in buff rapture, we wanted to show off our physiques to as many bad asses as we could. So, like the cock heads we are—we came to Vysaria, to this citydom, and to this fucking street to be exact.

Turning my handlebars, I ride the bike at walking speed down the street and past the drinking establishments we’d consumed far too many in, three years ago, which had ended with bar fights in a couple of the venues. I pass them with a grimace. I don’t want to go in any of them without my brothers, but the pull in my chest is at its strongest here. My twitchers are going crazy and a couple of patrons standing outside a bar drawing of totes of illegal kego look at me and blink a few times before rubbing their eyes, not believing what they are seeing—a lone Jasova in the roughest street in this citydom.

I narrow my eyes at them and snarl. “Yep, you are looking at a four-eyed green male with underarm wings and moving face tendrils—you’re not fucking seeing things.”

I regret talking as soon as I open my mouth. Anything could happen on this street. I doubt things have changed much in the three years since we last frequented this part of the citydom. Back then, law enforcers avoided this street like a plague. I doubt if things have changed since then. I keep two of my eyes trained on my rear-view mirror in case one of the druggies decided to pull a blaster and shoot me in the back. My blaster is holstered at my hip, the barrel facing in their direction. All it would take to dislodge their heads from their necks is a quick squeeze on the trigger.

They pan out of sight as I ride on, and moments later, I tug on my brakes when the feeling in my chest amplifies. Turning my head left, I groan out loud. There is a row of hover bikes belonging to a notorious Vysarian gang from this citydom lined up outside the bar I’ve stopped in front of. I’d recognise them anywhere. The bar they are parked in front of is their clubhouse bar. Even at our physical best three years ago, my brothers and I stayed clear of this bar.

I pull up next to the last bike in the row and turn my engine off. Sucking in a deep breath, I try to calm my thundering heart and twitchers as I climb off my bike and walk towards the door, stopping dead a few feet away from it.

“Here goes,” I mumble under my breath as I walk towards the door. It slides open with a silent whoosh.

The first thing to hit me is the pungent smell of kego hanging heavy in the air, and then how dim it is in here. The rowdy revellers fall silent as my eyes adjust to the change in light and all I can hear is background music. When I become accustomed to the darkness, I see why they have fallen silent. All eyes are on me. I nod my head to acknowledge them and stride towards the bar.

The bartender is an aging Vysarian with long straggly hair and facial hair to match. He looks me up and down with a sneer. “What you having, Jasova?”

I slam my credos down onto the counter. “Give me something with a kick!”

He grabs a bottle and cup and pours a cloudy yellow mixture into it, slides it towards me, then grabs the credos. He leans forward and narrows his eyes at me. “Do I know you?”

I shake my head confidently. “I’ve never been in here before.”

He tilts his head and scowls. “So, why are you in here now?”

Picking up the cloudy concoction that resembles piss more than it does liquor, I tip it back in one go. It burns the back of my throat as I swallow and I swear it takes a layer of skin off on the way down. My eyes water and my words barely come out as my vocal chords must have got scorched, too. “The incredible liquor,” I cough. The bartender gives me a throaty scoff. “Same again.” I fish for more credos and place them down.

The voices that silenced when I walked in resume their chatter behind me. I slowly turn around and lean on the bar casually with my elbow as I sweep my eyes over the occupants.

There are quite a few Vysarian gang members up a corner huddled around a table with their heads together, deep in conversation, and a handful of other males dotted about. Two of them are playing a game on a table to the left and some are drinking alone. Other than the suspicious group of gang members, there is little happening in here, and nothing to see. I’m surprised, but I don’t want to be drawn into a false sense of security, especially as the pull in my chest is at fever pitch in here.

Two of my eyes keep trained on the gang group and the other two dart about in different directions, looking for any other doors. One of the human females has to be here somewhere. Maybe she’s being held against her will in here? I need to do a recon.

I turn back to the bartender and catch his attention. “Where’s your hygiene facilitator?”

“It’s one hundred credos for a piss.”

My nostrils flare and my twitchers sway steadily. Robbery. I slam more credos down and the bartender dips his head towards the back of the bar. Heads move and eyes follow my every move as I walk past tables. I use my peripheral vision to make sure I’m not about to be jumped.

At the back of the bar, I pass a large screen blocking off the end of the room and then I have to turn and head down a corridor. The corridor walls are stained with filth and it stinks in here. I see only one door at the end of it and it and when I open it; I realise the smell of the hygiene facilitator is what is contributing to the smell in the corridor. The stench combined with the sight that greets me does not deserve a payment of one credo, let alone one hundred to use it. In fact, I should get paid to piss in this place.

Quickly closing the door to the shit hole room, the ache in my chest is at its most powerful in this part of the bar, so I scan the corridor on my way back for secret passageways or doors. But there’s nothing. My eyes are downcast, looking for any trapdoors on the floor on the way back and I’m just passing the screen when I hear a pitched grunt of exertion. It stops me in my tracks. I quickly check out the bar to make sure I haven’t been seen before I slip behind the screen.

I draw in a quick breath of surprise at what I find. There is a female doing press-ups in a cage—a human female. My instincts were right. She has her head down and her long brown hair cascades down around it so she can’t see me. Her tan skin glistens with perspiration over lean but shapely formed shoulder and arm muscles. Her butt sticks up pert and rounded, and her long legs are clothed in a tight material, showing off their shapely form. My cock stands to attention.

Deep down in my gut, I instantly know which of Ava’s friends I’ve found. Ava had told us about each of her friends, explaining what they looked like physically, as well as telling us a little about their personalities. One of them loved to exercise.

I quietly call out her name. “Cassie?”

The human female pushes off her hands and jumps up onto her feet, going down into a hunched fighting position with her small balled fists hovering in front of her face.

“Who-who the hell are you?”

Chapter 3

Cassie

“Cassie?”

Hearing my name makes my heart leap into my throat. I’ve finally been found. I push up onto my feet but immediately go into a fighting stance when I see the alien who has called out my name.

He is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. He’s green. He has four eyes, a head fin and he has facial skin snakes that wiggle around looking hungry, as if they might chew off the tip of my nose. But apart from his shocking alien features, he has human attributes too. He has glorious long silver-white hair, a strong flat nose and a square jaw. My eyes drop further and I see eight perfect abdominals. They are muscle stepping stones I’d die to have. His arms are as wide as my waist and striated with the cut of perfected muscles. If I could take one of my handsome captors’ faces and mould it to this green alien, I’d have the perfect man.

“Who-who the hell are you?”

“I’m here to save you.”

His deep voice does something to my insides, and my chest tingles and tightens. I draw my brows together. This must be a trap. I can hear the bar is already full. How could this single weird looking alien save me from a bar full of dangerous men?

I shake my head. “Uh-uh. I’m not falling for it. As soon as I climb out of here, you’re going to drag me in there to them.”

The alien’s brow shoots up, and he shakes his head. “No... I would never do that to a precious female.”

My fists lower slightly, but then I see the gun holstered by his hip and what looks like a pair of handcuffs, although I can’t be sure of the latter. I take a step back and raise my fists again. “Nice try...handsome.”

The corners of his mouth hitch up a little until he realises I’m being sarcastic. Then they plummet south. “No really. I’m here to rescue you. I’ve travelled days tracking you down.”

My heart flutters. I want to believe him, but my gut tightens in disbelief. “If you were able to track me down, then the Vysarian authorities will, too.” I shake my head again. “No offence, but I’d rather stay put and wait for someone I trust to rescue me.”

The green man lifts his arms and drops them down in frustration. That’s when I see he has underarm wings too. Geez. This alien is a mishmash of extra bodily parts.

He strides up to the cage and wraps his six fingers around the bars, pressing his face between them. I get to see his four eyes up close and they send a shiver along the length of my spine. They implore me with such intensity that for a moment, I actually doubt that he’s a bad guy, like the handsome but smelly bikers who abducted me.

“I was rescued by Ava.”

Hearing the name of one of the four women who I travelled to Planet Vysaria with momentarily breaks my defences and I drop to my knees in front of him, grabbing the bars below his hands. “Ava is alive?” The weird snake things stretch through the bars and try to touch my face. I lean back away from them. He nods convincingly. “Where is she? How did she save you?”

There is a commotion on the other side of the screen, and he glances back over his shoulder. I see a look of uneasiness wash over his face. If he’s here to save me, by the looks of apprehension on his face, I’m not sure if he believes if he can do it. My stomach pinches. I want to believe him. How would he know Ava’s name otherwise? Unless this is part of the ploy to trick me into coming out of the cage.

They’d thrown me in here yesterday after keeping me trapped in the foulest bathroom I’ve ever seen in my life, threatening that as soon as their boss came back from doing a deal, I’d have to start to repay him for damaging the drugs he was cultivating when I landed on them with my pod. I have no money, so the way I’m guessing they want me to repay is with my body. Like I’m ever going to consent to that happening. Which can mean only one thing. Nausea spreads through me.

The green alien is getting restless. “I need to get back to the bar. I’ve been gone too long. Just trust me. I’ll get you out soon.”

I shake my head, unconvinced. “How can I trust you? For all I know, you could have Ava tied up somewhere. You probably tortured her to get my name.”

His face screws up. “What do you think I am? Some type of monster?” I bite my tongue. That’s exactly what he looks like. His four eyes soften. “I would never hurt a female. How can I convince you I’m genuinely here for your benefit?”

My bottom lip quivers, and my heart rate accelerates. My gut is now telling me to trust him, and even weirder, my chest has ached something rotten since he’s been in my presence, but he’s the alienist looking alien I’ve ever seen. How can I trust him? The tension travelling back and forth between us is intense.

There’s a soft tickling sensation on my hands and I look down to see his face snake things softly massaging the tops of my hands. His voice has softened, and it draws my eyes back up to his. “What if I make you three promises?”

Quickly coming back to my senses, I jut out my chin, showing my conviction. “There aren’t any promises in this godforsaken part of the galaxy that will assure me of your sincerity.” He flinches. I think I’ve actually hurt his feelings. My gut clenches into a ball along with my chest. I feel bad. I slowly nod my head. “Okay. I’ll hear you out.”

His four eyes hold mine with such intensity, I daren’t blink. “One. I promise to get you out of here unharmed.” My brow lifts. “Two. I promise to take you back to Ava.” My mouth drops open. “And three. After you have been reunited with Ava, I promise to take you to your intended Vysarian match.”

My brow shoots up higher and almost reaches my hairline. “You know why we are here? Have you seen the man I’ve been matched to? Has he asked if I’m okay? Is he handsome?” The last question should have stayed in my mind. I don’t know how it found its way past my lips.

A loud voice bellows from beyond the screen. It can be heard above all the others. “Where is the Jasova?”  The green alien glances back. “Quick! What is your answer? I need to get back to the bar.”

There’s just something about him, and I believe he will come good on his promises. I draw in a breath and nod. “Yes, okay. I trust you.”

He nods and releases the bars. Before I can ask him when he is going to help me, he ducks back behind the screen and out of sight. My shoulders drop. I hear his deep voice again in the bar, and it actually gives me hope.

“You need to get that hygiene facilitator condemned. My shit actually refused to get out of my body. I don’t think it wanted to be left in that particular shit hole.”

My mouth curls up into a smile for the first time in days.

Moments later, the strange music that had been playing on a low level all day suddenly increased in volume. My back bolts rigid when footsteps walk my way. The screen is yanked away, and I get a full view of the bar and all the men in it. It’s an overwhelming sight. Not just because there is a roomful of good looking aliens in front of me, but because I’ve only ever seen six men in my whole life, and two of them were family members—my father and a grandfather.

Men on Earth are as scarce as rocking horse shit. That’s why I’ve crossed a galaxy to get to another planet. I wanted a man of my own, and by entering the intergalactic dating program, I was offered just that. Coming here was supposed to be my new beginning. My Vysarian match is out there somewhere waiting for me. He could even be out with a search party right now, and if he looks anything like these bikers, I think I’ll have died and gone to heaven when I meet him. As long as he’s cleaner, and a whole damn nicer, maybe I’ll stop regretting my decision to come here.

The big green alien who has offered me three promises sits at the bar with a glass of what looks like piss in front of him. He stands out like a sore thumb in this place, and looking around at the numerous sheathed daggers and guns, I don’t hold much hope that he’s going to keep his promises.

I step back until my back hits the cage as all heads turn my way and greedy lustful eyes peel away my clothes.

Oh hell.

An alien who is part of a group huddled up a corner stands up and stabs a finger in my direction. “Dance female!”

My mouth drops open. Like, what the fuck? I am not the house entertainment—a goddamn dirty dancer! I’m not about to gyrate everything I have for a bunch of aliens who have given no regard for my wellbeing. I thought women on this planet were in as much short supply as the men are on Earth? I thought I’d be getting the princess treatment here. But I’m being treated more like Cinderella. Where is my prince when I need him? I’m talking about my Vysarian mate. My eyes skim over the seated heads of the men to a certain green, four-eyed, snake faced man sitting at the bar. It certainly isn’t him.

I stand motionless, waiting to see what happens when I disobey the alien’s command. The men at his table laugh. One of them points at him. “You’ve lost it, Reg’har. You told me last time we went to the party planet, you made the female you bought do your every bidding?”

The standing alien turns to look down at the man who made the comment. He narrows his eyes and sneers at him. “Are you calling me a liar, Brink?”

The man doesn’t look intimidated, but I’m literally shaking in my training shoes at the venomous retaliation he spits out. He points at me. “Prove it!”

I gulp.

The standing man strides towards me. I look over at the green alien, expecting him to do something, but other than his body appearing to have tensed up, it appears he is in no hurry to jump out of his seat to help me any time soon. My heart sinks. I was right. He is just one of the customers sent behind the screen to mess with my head.

The approaching man stops in front of the cage door. We eye each other like predator and victim. Right now, I don’t know who is who. If he lays one finger on me, I’ll gouge his goddamn eyes out, and I’m normally a placid person. My heart is beating ten to the dozen and my body has suddenly become very clammy as my fight-or-flight kicks in.

He bares his teeth at me as he unlocks the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the green alien get to his feet. Maybe I was a little too quick to judge him. The other alien reaches for my ankles.

“REG’HAR! What the fuck are you doing with my female?!”

I snatch my head left to where the grizzly voice came from and I freeze. It’s the alien man who’d claimed me from the middle of the flower field. He stands brutishly big in between two other men. He is easily the tallest of these humanoid-looking aliens in here. The only other alien man taller than he is, is the now sitting green snake face alien. My heart shrivels. He’s literally turned his back on me as he sips at his cup of piss.

Some fucking hero he turned out to be.

Reg’har’s hands snatch back as if they’d just discovered I’m poisonous to the touch. “I-I was just gonna convince the female to dance for us, Boss. Th-that’s what she’s here for, isn’t it?”

The boss strips Reg’har’s flesh from his bones with his dangerous eyes. He doesn’t answer, he just takes his blaster from out of its holster and shoots Reg’har in the face. A long scream escapes my throat as I watch the now faceless Reg’har fall onto the floor with a sickening thud. The smell of burnt flesh hits my nostrils and I hunch over onto all fours and puke my guts up. It’s not one of my best moments. Well, they wanted entertainment from me and they sure as hell got it.

I’m not even aware the boss had moved until I hear his voice again. He stands astride the corpse of Reg’har and glares down at me. “I was going to make you work off your debt in here. You owe me a lifetime of servitude for the amount of kego your pod destroyed. But now I have other plans for you.” I lift my head and wipe away the remnants of sick drool from my mouth with the back of my hand. The boss is breathtakingly handsome. He has long, thick black hair which has a blue sheen to it and eyes to match his hair colour. But his beautiful eyes are hard and emotionless.

My body shivers.

“Please? Just let me go. I-I’m sure the Vysarian authorities will compensate you for your loss. Th-they’ve been waiting for my arrival. Me and my friends.”

His perfect mouth curls up into a cruel smile. “There are more of you?”

“Yes...” My chest aches. “That’s if my friends have survived.” I swallow down the lump that has suddenly appeared in my throat thinking about them again and their chances of survival after seeing how close I’d come to crash landing on jagged rocks.

“How many?”

“F-four others.”

“The same species?”

“Yes. Human, like me.” His eyes are moving erratically, as if he’s considering my offer. “I’ll have you all!” My stomach contracts. I shake my head. That’s not what I meant to just happen.

His head whips over to the goons he walked in with. “Take the female to my place and get her cleaned up!” They stride towards the cage, and the look of lust in their eyes makes me want to pee myself, but I’ve already reached a new low vomiting. I won’t be seconding that today. The boss holds out a hand to halt them before they reach the cage. “If either of you so much as looks at my female the wrong way, I’ll burn your eyeballs in your heads and make you eat them.”

There is a simultaneous reply. “Yes, Boss.”

I feel my muscles relax just a smidgen. Two thick arms reach into the cage and drag me out. I try to miss the small steaming pile of vomit, but my right knee grazes it. The material of my pants moistens.

Ugh.

My biceps and triceps are still pumped with lactic acid from my earlier work out, but even the padding from that is no match to stop their intense grip. I literally feel my humerus bone groaning under the pressure of their grip. The boss grabs my chin roughly and up tilts it to his face. His skin feels just as it looks on his face—rough, like tree bark. I’m amazed by thoughts as I’m rough-housed. I wonder if his dick is covered with the same rough skin? I’m astounded by my thought process at a time like this.

Man starved or what?

“I’m looking forward to claiming my first payment from you this evening. It’s going to be fun...for me.”

My body reacts better to him than my mind and more vomit rises up from my chest into my throat, but I swallow it down. My feet don’t touch the floor as the goons turn around and march me out of the bar. I look over at the green alien, but he still has his back to me.

I deflate in the goons’ arms at his lack of acknowledgement to my new predicament.

Chapter 4

Capsi

I have no idea what my plan is, but I get to my feet as soon as the Vysarian stops by the cage door, but I’m stopped before I jump into action by the arrival of the only Vysarian who has ever turned my skin cold—the infamous Fhitza.

When my brothers and I had come to Planet Vysarisa to let off steam and to this infamous row of bars, three years ago, we had been threatened by the bar owners and Vysarians we had fought. They had declared retaliation by trying to intimidate us with the name Fhitza who at that time, was unknown to me. Swearing to us that Fhitza would skin us alive for even daring to show our ugly faces in the street and bars he owned.

We’d laughed off the threats. Vysarians aren’t even on our list of dangerous species we try to avoid. But after we’d returned to our own planet, Epiq being his usual inquisitive self, set about researching who this Fhitza male was. It was only after he’d shown us archived news and footage of Fhitza’s many misadventures did we swallow the balls of relief that had lined our throats. Fhitza was a cut throat murdering psychopath. We’d actually been on tenterhooks for weeks, expecting him to track us down for some type of retaliation, so when we heard the news he’d been killed in gang warfare, we’d all sighed a breath of relief. 

The man standing behind me is very much alive. The news was obviously fake.

I mutter under my breath. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Not only am I in a bar that he owns, but I’m a Jasova. No doubt the ruckus we caused three years ago wouldn’t have been lost coming to his attention. If he hasn’t got photos of my brothers and me somewhere, waiting for us to return to ID us and seek his revenge, he, like the entire Vysarian species, he will be anti-Jasova, anyway.

I sit with my back towards him and his minions and sip at the cup of putrid alcohol the bartender served me, whilst listening to the unfolding events behind me that right now I am ill-equipped to deal with.

My weapons are my fists, my blaster and a dagger, but there is also a roomful of the same weapons behind me and I can guarantee that if I start something, all those weapons will be used against me.

When Fhitza orders his minions to take Cassie to his place, I want to glance in her direction to reassure her with my eyes that the rescue is still on, but I daren’t risk drawing attention to myself until Fhitza leaves.

“A Jasova!” Too late. A heavy hand lands on my shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing in my city? In my street? And in my bar?!”

I draw in a breath to calm my thundering hearts and turn in my seat to face him. “I’m looking for work.”

He leans in close to my face and I am close enough to see the tic under his left eye. I will my twitchers not to stab him in his eyes. “I don’t want green scum like you even breathing Vysarian air. Why the fuck would I want to give you credos for doing something you will be doing for free?” Before I realise what he’s done, he’s grabbed my dagger and blaster from out of their holsters. He throws my blaster across the bar counter to the bartender. Like a fool. All four of my eyes follow my favourite weapon, taking my eyes off the dangerous gangster for a split second.

Big mistake.

The dirty motherfucker slashes me across my chest with my own damn blade. My hands tremor and ball into fists. My jaw locks, and I grind my fangs together, trying to rein in my murderous intent.

My twitchers are going wild. There’s no containing them anymore and no way of hiding my bubbling anger. I look down at my wound. It’s superficial and done to make a point. My green blood drips from my own dagger’s work. Vysarian men jump to their feet and stand dutifully behind Fhitza, their blasters already pointing in my direction.

I grab my cup of piss and slug it back, place the empty cup down on the counter, and stand up. “I can see my services are not wanted here.”

He places a hand on my chest, halting me. “I didn’t say your services aren’t wanted.” Adrenaline surges my veins. “I’ve got work for you. You’re gonna pay me back for having the audacity to drink in my fucking bar. You’re going to take your green ass into the hygiene facilitator and clean every fucking shit bowl until I can see my reflection... You’ll do it so that I’ll allow you to carry on breathing Vysarian air.” I want to grab my dagger from his hand and drive it through his eye socket into his brain. But, however satisfying that would be right now, it will also be the quickest way to my own demise, and that would condemn Cassie to a life of servitude to this monster. She’d be swallowed into Fhitza’s underworld of drugs and depravity. The useless Vysarian authorities would never find her.

It takes all my willpower to abstain from killing Fhitza where he stands and swallow my pride. I would do this for no other person other than my brothers and females—especially Cassie.

I nod.

The males standing behind Fhitza burst into raptures of laughter. I make a move turn towards the back of the room to head to the corridor that will lead me to the said nasty room, but Fhitza grabs my shoulder to stop me. He unclips my belt and takes my blaster’s holster. “You won’t be needing this anymore, either.”

I don’t look back at him; I daren’t. If I do, he’ll see my jaw gnashing viciously side to side and the hate radiating from my eyes. I stride quickly towards the back of the bar with the deep grunting belly laughs of the Vysarians chasing me all the way.

In the hygiene facilitator, I close my eyes and squeeze my fangs together. My nostrils are flaring, and my bloodied chest is heaving rapidly. I’m trying with all my might to contain my anger and failing miserably. I’ve never been known as the hot-head of my brothers. No. That label has always been applied to Balic. But right now, Balic has nothing on me. I feel an air of recklessness consuming me. I know I’m about to do something stupid and there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop myself.

Looking around the filthy hygiene facilitator, I look for something I can use as a weapon. It looks as though there is a decade of muck layering the floor. My eyes search the muck keenly. There has to be something underneath this lot. I kick about whilst trying to talk myself out of the crazy act I’m about to do.

Jackpot. The toe of my boot kicks something hard. I push away the filth with my foot and see that it’s a dagger. Picking it up, I hold it under a stream of water and wash away the filth. It’s a lot smaller than mine, but the blade is still razor sharp. I hide it in the belt of my pants and head out into the corridor.

The music has been turned up and I listen to the murmur of voices, searching for his distinctive voice. My hearts are racing at full capacity as the adrenaline that has not yet been dispersed goes into overdrive. I distinctly make out five or six voices. There could be more males than that in there. But Fhitza’s voice is not one of them.

I emerge from behind the corridor wall and heads turn in my direction. Fhitza and the males who were grouped at a table are now gone, but the other occupants of the bar narrow their eyes suspiciously to watch me as I walk towards the bartender.

He is busy serving someone and doesn’t see me until I’m behind the bar and standing right behind him. He turns around and his eyes widen in surprise when he sees me. I quickly pull out the dagger and hold it to his crotch, out of sight of the customers. He makes a move to reach for the blaster hidden under the counter behind him and I push the dagger deeper. He sucks in a quick breath of shock.

Keeping my voice low, I try my hardest to slow my twitchers, which will be an open indicator to the eyes still watching me of my mood. “If you want to keep your balls, pass me the blaster, but keep it low so no one sees it, and tell me I need to go out and purchase cleaning products as you walk me over to the door. Nod if you understand.”

He nods and reaches for the blaster. I grab a wiping cloth and wrap the blaster in it, then I tuck it under my arm in between the furled layers of my skin wing. It just about fits. All that can be seen is the material of the wiping cloth, which looks befitting, considering I’m supposed to be cleaning.

The bartender clears his throat and talks loud enough for the closest Vysarians to hear him. “You won’t be able to do a thorough job unless you have cleaning products. Go and buy some now! And use your own credos.” They turn away and the bartender leads the way from out behind the bar to towards the door.

I snatch a whisper at him. “Stay fucking close to me!” I hold the tip of the dagger in his hip as he walks me to the door. Still, suspicious eyes from males further away follow us. I ram the tip of the dagger into him, breaking the surface of his skin. “Talk!” I sneer.

“And don’t try to fucking make a run for it! Fhitza has eyes everywhere.” He turns his head to look at me as we walk. “He’ll find you if you try to escape.”

His hidden message isn’t lost on me. Well, Fhitza can fucking well try.

As we reach the door and out of earshot, I turn to face him. “Don’t try to raise the alarm immediately, or else I’m going to shoot anyone who comes out of this bar in the next ten seconds!”

“You won’t even be alive for ten seconds once you step foot outside of this place.”

I growl. “Wrong answer.” I stab him in the throat, hitting his vocal chords and drop the small dagger. It’s not meant to kill him, just to stop him from hollering about my escape the moment he heads back inside. I’ve gained maybe five seconds from the act before the bartender will be able to alert the males inside. But I’ll need all five of them if not more, because it takes three seconds for the DNA profile matcher installed on my bike to fire up the engine. The other two will be needed to back the bike up and pull the throttle back. My escape depends upon luck, not schematics. An image of Cassie comes into my mind as I turn around and sprint for my bike. She’s my luck—the ache in my chest tells me so.

I get to my bike and throw my leg over it whilst simultaneously grabbing hold of the handlebar with my free hand and shaking the blaster with my other to lose the cloth wrapped around it. The DNA profiling immediately works as soon as I make skin contact with the handlebar.

Five.

Four.

I hear a ruckus coming from inside the bar.

Come on!

Three.

The handle bars unlock and the engine fires up. I begin to walk the bike backwards out of the parking space.

Two.

Bodies appear in the doorway.

One.

I see the flash of neon blaster fire as I pull back the throttle whilst lifting my arm to fire back at them.

One of the laser beams pings past my ear, missing me by millimetres. I pull away at high speed, not bothering to see if I’m pulling out in front of another vehicle, but praying that I’m not. Seconds later, I near the end of the street and turn the corner, veering wildly. I miss pedestrians by feet. I need to get as far away from this part of the citydom fast. The bartender is right. There will be spying eyes everywhere, and a four-eyed green male with facial twitchers, a head fin and wings won’t exactly fly under the radar around here.

My brain scrabbles, trying to remember from my last trip here, a place to safely park up and take stock of my circumstances. I remember a high rise parking building that hires out drone crafts. As long as Fhitza doesn’t have eyes in the sky, hiring a drone craft will be the best way to stay incognito. My twitchers wriggle as if congratulating me on my ingenious idea. I turn left and head for the high rise.

Chapter 5

Cassie

Three goddamn promises he made me, and I believed him. I’m such a fool. So why am I feeling so disappointed? Does the weird feeling I had in my chest when I was close to him have anything to do with it?

At the first sight of him, I think I was in shock and there was no way I was ever going to trust someone who looked like him. But then, after just minutes of talking to him, I could sense something different in him. Compared to the Vysarians, he had a completely different demeanour altogether. I sensed respect and kindness in his species towards women. Qualities the Vysarian men I’ve met so far have zero of.

I chew my lip nervously and try to keep a gap between the goon I’m sitting in front of on this bike, but it’s proving extremely difficult every time he slams on his brakes, and I swear I can feel an erection poking into my butt. In fact, I think he’s breaking far more than necessary. The asshole.

As we whizz past the many building. I study the people walking by. It’s the polar opposite to Earth. The streets are lined with hundreds of men—damn fine-looking men, too. It makes me wonder if the Vysarian mate I’ve been paired with is amongst them—searching for me.

Most of the Vysarian men don’t realise a woman is hurtling past them, but others do. They stop abruptly open mouthed when they see me, but when they see who I’m the passenger of, they quickly look away and resume their commute. My stomach turns over. These must be some bad dudes if even passers-by are too frightened to look in their direction as they’re speeding past.

Staring at our reflection on the side of the glossy buildings we pass, I look at how wide the shoulders of the Vysarin biker I’m a passenger of. I’m still dumbstruck, and possibly still in awe of being so close to men. When all I’ve known is women my whole life, it’s still a shock to the system seeing so many men—even if they are the bad kind.

I look around for cameras. On Earth, there are cameras on every street. It would be impossible not to find me, especially if my capturer made zero attempt to cover my face, like this dude. I mean come on. I have feminine features and tits. Surely if the Vysarian authorities here looked hard enough, I’d stand out like a sore thumb on their camera footage.

We ride through street after street, lined with bars and shops. In any other circumstances, I’d be taping on my driver, telling them to pull the hell over so I can get my excited ass into the shops and check out what is being sold on other planets. But all I can do is check out their frontages and watch the streets and city zone change from being quite dowdy, to an area of the city which is quite opulent.

I’m no snob and don’t generally judge people by their attire, especially as I spend most of my time in sweats because of my love of exercising, but this guy definitely doesn’t look like the type of guy to live somewhere like this—but hey—who am I to judge?

We slow down as we pass a row of particularly plush mansion type houses hidden away behind high gates of which some are illuminated with strobing neon lights which buzz menacingly. Pulling up in front of one of these gates, it’s not until they glide open do I get a glimpse of the magnificent building that sits at least half a mile away in immaculately kept grounds. So immaculate, the strange flowers and trees look almost unreal, as if they were made out of plastic.

The mansion itself looks as if it might belong to royalty, and for a slit second, I get excited thinking there’s a possibility the men who took me have done a deal with one of the leading governing bodies of Vysaria and they’re bringing me here to hand me over to them. That is, until I see more men walking the perimeter of the mansion with futuristic weapons in their hands dressed like the biker I’m a pillion passenger of. Then I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I remember the boss man they called Fhitza had told his men to take me to his place.

Surely someone dressed like a version of a futuristic Mad Max can’t own a place like this?

Pulling up in front of the building, the rider turns off his engine but makes no move to get off the bike. I furrow my brow, confused whether he expects me to get off myself when I’m suddenly startled as two strong hands grip me from underneath my armpits and lift me out of my seat as if I weigh nothing, which I can assure you is not the case because I might be feminine, but I’m solid muscle, and muscle weighs heavier than fat.

Twisting my head, I see that it’s the other goon from the bar who has dragged me from the bike. I didn’t even know he’d been following us. I’m manhandled by this new guy up a set of very impressive black onyx steps and through an enormous gilded door into a lobby so big, I could fit my entire apartment from Earth into it.

The man releases me and walks away. My eyes burn into his massive back. “Hey cocksucker! What am I supposed to do now?” He ignores me and goes back outside, shutting the only door to my escape.

I curse under my breath and my head goes into owl mode, twisting my neck as far as it can to look for a new way out. Maybe if I can make it to the outer wall of the property? I might find a section that isn’t lit up like a Christmas tree. I’m fit enough to scale any height if there are good toe grips, then I can get help from one of the neighbouring houses.

I’m just about to sprint down the corridor I’m eyeing up when a hand lands on my shoulder. “Ahhh!” I jump a mile and spin around.

An elderly man has somehow managed to creep up on me. He’s dressed smartly in a weird one piece loosely fitting suit and has an erect posture and steely grey eyes that stare intensely into mine. “You are to follow me. Fhitza has instructed me to get you cleaned up and dressed in more suitable clothing.”

I instinctively raise my arm and sniff my armpit. It’s been a few days since I bathed, but I didn’t realise I smelt that bad. “I-I’m fine, thank you. I’d rather you just get in touch with the Vysarian government and tell them I’m ready to go.” My brow rises expectantly. This guy looks to be at least in his mid-seventies. Surely he has a moral compass?

He shakes his head. “Not now. You must get cleaned up first. Some of the governing members of this province will be coming here later.” My heart leaps. I was right. The biker leader is going to do some type of deal to hand me over.

I smile and nod enthusiastically. “Show me the way!”

I can’t work out if the old guy is an employee or someone important. He could be Fhitza’s father or the butler for all I know, but I decide to keep my questions to myself.

The mansion is a warren of opulence and once again, I find myself questioning if this is the rough and tough biker, Fhitza’s place. If he owned the bar with the filthy washroom, how could he go from one extreme to the other?

The older man leads me through a set of beautifully ornate doors into a bedroom and past an enormous circular bed covered in shimmering gold bedding which is central in the room. He continues through another set of doors into a clinically clean bathroom, which also has an enormous circular structure in it—a raised bath filled with steaming hot water.

The smell of whatever has been added to the bath water fills the room. It’s the nicest smell I’ve smelt since I crash landed here. It actually reminds me a little of the flower field my pod crashed in.

The man points to a chair over to the side of the room and I gasp when I see a beautiful red glittering dress and four pairs of shoes lined up next to it. “You are to wear that once you are bathed. They are different sized footwear. Just choose the pair closest to your size.”

“And then what?”

“Then someone will come and collect you.”

“Thank you.”

He looks me up and down with expressionless eyes and a face to match before turning his back on me and leaving. I practically skip over to the door and close it as soon as he passes through the doorway. Turning around, I rest my back and head against it and sigh.

“Now this is more like it.” I’m already stripping out of my pants and shirt as I walk towards the bath, dropping them where they fall, and kicking off my shoes to join them. The aroma is intoxicating and I feel as though I’m being hypnotised into bathing. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from getting into the water now if I wanted to.

Dipping my toe, I test the temperature before I step in. The water is silky soft. I suck in a breath and hold it, then closing my eyes, I step into the bath and completely submerge myself. I’m in heaven. I must be. I only re-emerge because my lungs can’t hold my breath any longer.

I’m giggling like a schoolgirl, intoxicated by a simple pleasure—bathing. I’m splashing about and having a whale of a time when the door the older guy disappeared through opens. I feel like my reactions are in slow motion as I raise my hands to cover my dignity, even though there is no need to, as the water is a milky colour.

My eyes have to blink a few times before they register who has entered the room. This man is even smarter than the older guy was. He’s devastatingly handsome, too.

Wait... Is that Fhitza? It is, and he’s now clean and spruced up in what must be the equivalent of an alien three-piece suit.

“It’s time to get dressed, human.” I’m suddenly aware that the water is now only tepid. Crikey. How long have I been in here? He leans down and grabs hold of a piece of wet hair stuck to my cheek and moves it to the side. “Time to pay me back for the kego you destroyed when you landed here.”

My jaw quivers. “I-I didn’t land here, I crashed...I didn’t purposely choose your field, although I’m glad I crashed there because I don’t think I would have survived if the pod had landed on the surrounding rocks.”

He appears to growl and his brow daws together. “And there is the quandary. If you’d have perished on the rocks, my kego crop would still be intact, but you’d be dead... However, you landed in my field. You survived, but you damaged crops that are ten times your worth—and you are a female...you are worth a lot.” I suck in a breath as the enormity of what he’s trying to convey to me finally sinks in. The pod probably destroyed billions of dollar’s worth. My life to him means nothing.

He roughly grabs my chin and upturns my face, leaning his face so close I can smell the alcohol on his breath. “See this face! I own it.” My eyes go wide with surprise. I’ve never known aggression. His hand drops from my chin and he plunges it into the water, instantly soaking the cloth covering his arm. His hand finds its way to the apex of my legs. I clamp my thighs together with a squeal, but I’m too slow—all of my actions are slow—what the hell is wrong with me? “See this cunt! I own that too.” I go rigid. Other than when I was a child, and I was bathed by my mother, Fhitza is the first person to have ever felt me down there. I screw my eyes tight. If I don’t acknowledge that it’s happening, it’s as though it’s not happening. I cut off my mind and disassociate myself from this troubling situation.

I hear a splashing sound and peek. Fhitza has withdrawn his arm from the bath water and he’s now shaking it like a maniac. “Now look what you’ve made me do! And I need to go and greet my guests now. He grabs a towel and dries the material covering his arm as best as he can, then throws it at me. Half of it slides into the water and sinks.

He stabs a finger at me. “Get dressed now! Hanter will come and collect you in ten minutes.” He strides to the door and flings it open, then he marches through it, leaving it wide open.

Tears gather on my lower lashes before plopping into the milky bath water.

Sobbing, I tremble in the cold bath water for what feels like forever until I’m able to finally pull myself together. I’m not normally an emotional person. I’m strong and resilient. I clench my jaw. I’ve decided I’m not going to be intimidated by him. The Vysarian government will be looking for me. Earth will want a report on how we’re all doing, and if the government here can’t find us and take care of us, it won’t look good on them. Earth might even stop the intergalactic matchmaking programme. That’s why I’m certain everything will soon be okay. The Vysarian authorities will make a deal with Fhitza to get me back... At least I think they will.

Drying myself as best as I can, I pile my damp hair on top of my head and knot it boho style. Then I choose a pair of shoes that best suit my foot size and slip into the beautiful dress. I try to force myself to hate it, even though it’s possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

Smoothing down the wrinkles, the door opens again and the older man comes into the room again. I guess he must be Hanter.

He glares at me with the same emotionless expression. “This way!”

I lift my chin and straighten my back. I refuse to be treated like a piece of meat. I’m a woman, for god’s sake! We’re in the minority on this planet. I should be one-thousand times more special here than I am when I’m on Earth.

I barge past Hanter, a little giddier than when I walked into the room earlier on. What the hell was in that bath water?

Chapter 6

Capsi

Parking my hover-bike at the top of the high rise that hires out the drone crafts, I look around and check to see there are no males up here who look as if they are wearing the all black with striped sleeves attire that is infamous for gang members working for Fhitza.

There are just four males up here. Two who are about to climb into crafts they have just hired, and two attendees helping them. As soon as the customers lift off the docking station and fly away, I dismount my bike and head towards them.

I’m still eyed with suspicion as I walk towards them, but I expect nothing different from them—I’m another species—I’m not a Vysarian. I plaster a smile on my face, anyway.

“How much to hire a craft for a few hours?”

One of them crosses his arms over his chest and looks me up and down. “Ten million credos... Can I ask you what your business is with it?”

“I just want to see the sights of the city from up above, is all.”

One of them points to my underarm wings and narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Looks like you have wings of your own. Strange that you need one of these.” 

I open my arms to show them the full extent of my wings, and how they are only attached from elbow to mid-torso. “These babies are just for gliding. If I lose altitude, I can’t flap my arms and rise again. They don’t work like that.”

They scrutinise them with their eyes as if I’m a specimen under a microscope. I want to knock their heads clear off their shoulders, but I can’t chance doing anything that will be detrimental to finding Cassie.

They glance at each other before one of them answers. “Okay. You can hire one for two hours max.”

Two hours will certainly be a tight time frame. Not only do I have to find Cassie first, I will then have to rescue her from wherever she’s being held. Searching from above, away from eyes on the lookout for a Jasova riding a silver bike will be the best option to avoid capture myself, so I have no other choice.

“That’s fantastic!” I say through a false smile and gritted fangs.

Minutes later, I’m flying in the allocated airspace for the small hired out drone crafts. I pass close to another one with two elderly Vysarians in who glare at me with eyes disgusted that another species has been allowed to hire a craft. I give them a middle finger, and then instantly regret it in case they go and report my ass to the citydom authorities.

First, I fly over the bar and streets surrounding where I found Cassie. The streets are milling with black clothed figures on foot and on hover bikes zooming backward and forwards. Even from up here, I know they are Fhitza gang members searching for me. My grin is salacious as I watch them, totally unaware of the fact the male they are searching for is right above them.

I don’t hang around for long because the pull in my chest doesn’t feel any stronger in this part of the citydom. I head north. But the pull gets weaker still. I curse under my breath and turn around. I’m wasting precious time. The tug in my chest pulls me towards an upper-class residential area in the south of the citydom. Checking the on-board timer, I groan when I see I’ve already used thirty-three minutes of the allocated hire-out time.

Even though it’s now dusk, a quick sweep of my eyes over the airspace here in this upperclass part of the citydom reveals the area is free of commercially hired flying craft. There’s no way of going in close without drawing attention. There’s only one thing I can do. I’ll have to land and conceal the craft, then sprint to wherever the tug in my chest draws me. Luckily, space in this part of the citydom is everywhere. I guess rich Vysarians value their privacy.

Five minutes later, I’m stalking the perimeter of a very large mansion. The tug on my chest is at its peak here. Cassie has to be inside. There can be no other explanation as to why I’m feeling like this.

There is a charged fence spanning the outside of a ten-foot wall, but it’s made to keep other Vysarians out, not Jasovans. I can make the jump, but not with my blaster. I no longer have a holster. I scowl when I realise I’m going to have to ditch it.

Quickly placing it down, I take a run and jump, opening my arms and elevating myself over both the fence and the wall in one swift action. I fall silently onto my feet and then stoop down into a crouching position, listening for any guards who might have been alerted by an alarm set off by the breach. But after steadying my breathing while keeping my hearing on high alert, I relax when no one comes.

Keeping low, I run across the expanse of ground to get closer to the main house and go into a crouch again as I eyeball the impressive collection of vehicles parked at the back of the property. There must be hundreds of trillions of credos worth. I blow out my cheeks, impressed. Surely these can’t all belong to the gangster Fhitza?

Two guards pass each other, going in opposite directions, and I duck down. They have blasters, but no night vision goggles, which surprises me because Vysarians have no special sight qualities like other species. Come to think of it, the Vysarians have no special bodily enhancements. In fact, compared to all known species, the Vysarians’ only redeeming quality is their brain. Vysarians are possibly the only species far superior in intellect and their advancement of technology.

I keep low and stalk over to the parked vehicles, keeping myself hidden in between them, whilst also keeping two of my eyes trained on the guards as I search for a way into the building with my other two.

There’s a window half open on the first floor. I sprint forward at full speed and open my arms out to the sides, extending my wings to full width as I jump, elevating myself up into the air. As I near the wall, I extend my claws and grab onto the ornate design that is part of the fascia. My body slams against it louder than I anticipate it would and I grimace and look for the guards. Thankfully, they are each at a corner of the building. Making haste, I pull myself up to the half-opened window and peer inside.

There is a wall full of 3D monitor screens, each showing different rooms, hallways and even closets of what I presume is the inside of the house. There is one guard watching them and he has his back to me. I see his blaster resting up against the wall a foot or so away from him.

This is not going to be an easy feat. I’m athletic but I’m not exactly lithe like Devoq. I like to pump weights. Fitting my bulk through this small window quickly and silently is going to be near impossible, but my aching chest tells me Cassie in somewhere in this building so not even a room full of cannibal Badligons is going to stop me.

Biting down on my fangs with determination, I haul myself up and through the window in one swift motion, but I fall like a boulder onto the floor, making a heavy thud sound. The Vysarian male jumps in his seat with a start and spins to face me with wide, shocked eyes and a gaping mouth. Before he has a chance to lunge for his blaster, I fling myself at him, knocking him and the chair he’s sitting in over in my haste, landing on top of him. Air hisses through his teeth into my face. I place my hands on either side of his head and lift my body off his, then I ram my elbow down into his neck. He’s out cold and makes a crackling noise as he inhales through a collapsed windpipe.

The noise of our grapple wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. I jump to my feet and grab the blaster. A moment later, I hear shuffling feet outside the door. I dive to the side of it out of sight and the door whooshes open. Another Vysarian storms in.

“Vhic’tu?”

I raise the nuzzle of the blaster barrel and bash him on the back of the head. His body teeters forward.

Shit!

Reaching out, I just manage to catch hold of the edge of his clothing and pull back hard, minimising the impact and noise of his body as he crumples to the floor. I suck in a deep breath and sigh with relief as I look down at both the unconscious bodies. Hopefully, they’ll stay unconscious and no one will discover them until I have located and rescued Cassie.

My eyes run over the wall of screens, looking for some indication of the time. I don’t know how long this has taken, but it feels like I left the high rise building over an hour ago. My attention is drawn to one screen in particular. There is a room full of smartly dressed Vysarian males laughing and toking on double barrelled wands, a sure sign they are smoking illegal drugs. Confirmed when I see glowing vapour being blown out of their mouths. It hangs in the air for a few seconds, shimmering a rainbow of colours before it evaporates.

Then I see her. My hearts fall out of sync. She’s being led into the centre of the room on a fucking leash. My twitchers are erratic and every muscle in my body tenses. How dare they treat a female in such a disrespectful manner! On my planet, females are just as rare as they are here on Vysaria, but every one of them is held in high regard. They are treated like royalty. It appears here; they are treated worse than mangy wild creatures.

My mouth drops open in awe as I gaze at her. She’s piled her long black hair on top of her head and now she’s dressed in what must be Vysarian female clothing. I search the panel of buttons for the controls that correspond to the room she’s in. I need a clue as to where the room is in these premises, otherwise I could wander aimlessly and lose time.

I see the control I need and as I hover my finger over it, the audio to the room turns on. I hear Fhitza before I see him on the screen, and what he says makes my blood run like molten lava through my veins.

“Welcome all. To the investors who have backed me since the beginning, and to the new ones. As you know, you have come here tonight to our monthly fight night to share the spoils of your investment whilst partaking in a bet or two, spicing up the enjoyment of watching the fights.” There is a lot of head nodding, but most of the men are too enraptured by my female.

My female! When did I proclaim her as mine? I think it was the first time Ava described her to me when she was telling us about her friends. Cassie and Capsi are names that are just meant to be together.

Fhitza strides over to the male holding the leash and snatches it from him. Cassie holds onto the collar around her neck and the look of distress contorting her beautiful features makes my chest feel as though it’s going to explode. Fhitza continues. “But I have something that will heighten your evening’s entertainment.”

“NO!” My fangs slam together and my deep growl resonates off the walls of the small room I’m in.

“I have a human female.” Cassie shakes her head and pulls at the leash with more vigour. Fhitza snatches a lit kego wand from out of the hand of one of the Vysarian males and sucks on it before blowing the vapour into Cassie’s face. Cassie coughs and then her hands drop from her collar and she sways unsteadily on her feet.

The fucker has drugged her.

My claws are digging into the control panel, and I unwittingly activate the sound on the monitors in every room in the building. I hear the random chatter of guards on top of the chatter in the room Cassie is trapped in. I growl and hover my hands over buttons, trying to switch off the audio to the other rooms. But it’s useless. I slam my fist down in frustration. Now I’m going to have to find the room myself.

One of the guards on the floor starts to moan and I curl my fist and punch him in the face. Then I grit my fangs with determination and take his dagger. I step over their bodies; the blaster tucked under my arm and the dagger tucked into my belt.

Chapter 7

Cassie

The older guy leads me silently into what looks like an oval-shaped elevator? The doors immediately close behind me and I feel as if my stomach rolls over as it suddenly drops. I don’t even realise it’s stopped until the doors whoosh open. I thought Vysarian tech would work smoother than anything we have on Earth. I guess that doesn’t apply to elevators. The older guy accompanying me appears unaffected, so maybe my body isn’t back to its normal homeostasis yet. I felt so weird in the bath. I’m still trying to figure out if it was caused by space sickness or dehydration and stress. I know one thing for certain; I’ve never had a weird out-of-body experience like I had in that bath before.

Before I stepped into the elevator, I couldn’t have been any higher than the ground or first floor level. At a guess, the elevator has taken me several floors below ground. My skin prickles. Why would I have been allowed to bathe and then get dressed up in nice clothes if I was going below ground? This isn’t the way we came in.

My stomach pinches with apprehension. Is there a secret way into the grounds of the mansion and the Vysarian officials have used this route away from prying eyes such as the press? Maybe they don’t want Earth to know of my abduction by their own men? It might upset relations and stop Earth from sending more women here.

I shake my head. My overactive imagination is getting the better of me. The corridor stretched out in front of us isn’t anything but macabre. It doesn’t look like a rat-infested secret tunnel as I imagined. It looks like an opulent extension of the mansion above.

Deep voices ahead can be heard in serious discussion and then they laugh. My reserve melts away. The Vysarian officials are here after all, discussing my release.

At the end of the corridor there is a door, Hanter holds his hand up to stop me. He turns away and opens up a small cupboard. I watch him for a moment, but then get distracted when I hear more laughter on the other side of the door.

Hanter hands are suddenly by my neck and I feel something cool against my skin and hear a click. He steps away as I raise my hands to see what it is. My spine prickles when I feel a hard, circular disc around my neck.

“What the hell? Get it off!”

I turn to face Hanter and see a leash attached to the immobile ring around my neck—it’s a fucking collar.

He pulls me towards the door and it whooshes open and the numerous voices I’d heard stop dead. He steps into the room on the other side of the door and I stumble in on shaky legs, unable to comprehend the new low I’m finding myself in.

The room is a haze of sparkling vapour and it’s not until it clears do I see that it’s filled with smartly clothed men. My eyes go from one to the other as I try to figure out who is the representative for the Vysarian authorities is .

“Wh-who is here to help me?” A rumble of laughter rises. “Are any of you from the Vysarian government?”

An arm rises from the back of the group and an older man pushed through to the front. “I am.”

A jittery sigh rattles up in my throat. “Ah...thank goodness. Can you please tell them to remove this collar?”

“And why would I want to do that?”

My eyes blink. Did I hear him correctly? “Be-because collars are for pets...not women.”

A door to my left opens and Fhitza walks in.

“Welcome all. To the investors who have backed me since the beginning, and to the new ones. As you know, you have come here tonight to our monthly fight night to share the spoils of your investment whilst partaking in a bet or two, spicing up the enjoyment of watching the fights.”

My mouth is hanging open in disbelief and my eyes go from Fhitza to the Vysarian official as I continue to tug at the collar. Some of the men hang off every word that spouts out of Fhitza’s mouth. Others haven’t taken their eyes off me since I entered the room. Their stares make me sick to my stomach as they openly wander over my body.

Fhitza strides over to towards Hanter and snatches the leash from his hands. My tugging at the collar becomes frantic and my heart thunders in my chest now that Fhitza has it. He turns to look at the group again. “But I have something that will heighten your evening’s entertainment.” Shock stops me from inhaling my next breath. “I have a human female.” My head shakes from side to side and my fingers become desperate to pull the collar off.

Fhitza suddenly lunges forward and snatches one of the strange cigarette things from the hand of one of the smart men. He brings it to his lips and takes a long drag on it. The double ends light up in a vibrant white-blue colour. My eyes are as wide as my mouth is as I watch transfixed, waiting for his next move. My body is shaking and I realise I still haven’t drawn a breath yet.

I inhale just as Fhitza exhales a plume of rainbow white vapour into my face. It fills my lungs and burns. I cough and suck in more of the nasty stuff. My mind suddenly becomes numb and I lose all free will. My arms drop to my sides and my legs go weak.

“Everyone follow me!” I hear Fhitza’s voice and feel a tug at my neck. My legs move willingly, without me thinking about them. I have no urge to stop and no urge to go. It feels as though my body is on autopilot, but what I’m feeling in my conscious is like an out-of-body experience. Has my conscious mind left my body and is floating with the vapour above me because I see myself being led zombie style by Fhitza, with the crowd of men following behind us.

Fhitza leads the way down another long, brightly lit corridor into another room. The crowd of men shuffle in behind us in a cloud of shimmering vapour, puffing on the double-barrelled pipes. The room is humongous. It’s more like a small underground hanger, and right in the centre of it is a hexagon shaped glass-walled pen. Twenty feet high and at least triple that in width. It’s surrounded by seats and inside it is a speckled white floor.

“Take a seat everyone while I lead the entertainment into the fighting pen!”

I hear Fhitza’s words, but I don’t really comprehend what they mean until he pulls open a glass door on one of the six sides of the pen and leads me into it by the leash tied to my neck. When I am standing in the centre, he unclips the collar and stands in front of me, staring into my eyes.

“Dance female. And when I tell you to take your dress off, I expect you to drop it to the floor and continue to dance until the first fighters arrive. Do I make myself clear?” My head drops and lifts in acknowledgment as I nod. His face leans in close to mine. “What are you waiting for? DANCE!”

If I wasn’t feeling so completely out of it, I’d burst into tears being told I’m basically now a stripper and then having someone shout in my face—but I think I might be stoned—so I don’t. What I do is, I begin to gyrate to the whoops and calls of the men sitting in chairs circling the pen. I gyrate without music. The beautiful red dress pulls taut across my breasts and butt, sending the crowd of baying men into a fever pitch.

I really don’t know how long I’m dancing for, and I’m dreading Fhitza’s command to strip, but my movements suddenly become jerky. My heart thrumming in my chest so hard, I think I can hear it. Am I finally fighting his command? I’m finally getting my free will back. Whatever he did to me to make me dance must be wearing off.

I make myself stoop down into a ball. If I’m pulled in tight, I’ll have more chance of resisting any more commands.

“Get the fuck up!” I try to block out his voice and concentrate on the floor. I realise the speckles aren’t actually a pattern after all. They are splatters of blood. “Get up and dance!” I ignore him. “You need more kego.” The men jeer at his statement and my heart misfires. Kego. That’s the drug he said I’d damaged in his field. The vapour he blew in my face is fucking kego.

I hear the door to the pen open and footsteps approaching me. I force myself to look up. He has one of those damn double-barrelled pipes with him again. It takes all my strength, but I fall onto my hands and knees and crawl away from him in the opposite direction, even though there is nowhere to escape.

Suddenly, a dark shadow ascends from above and lands directly in between Fhitza and me. I look up and see four dark green eyes staring down at me, roaming frantically over every inch of me with genuine concern behind them. My chest feels like it’s burning with happiness.

“YOU!” screams Fhitza.

The green alien turns to face him and raises a large gun in Fhitza’s direction.

“Yes me, the Jasova who you said wasn’t worthy to breathe Vysarian air... Well, I’m in your fucking home, breathing your fucking air now!”

“That air won’t be in your body long enough to heat up.” Fhitza spits. “My males will be here at any moment now.”

The green alien looks at me with the two eyes closest to me, while keeping his other two on Fhitza. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

I open my mouth to answer, but Fhitza spits out an answer for me. “What the fuck has my female’s health got to do with you?!”

“She is not your female, she’s—”

Fhitza cuts him off. “She belongs to me! I own here now. And even if I made her fuck every male who’s under my payroll, that still wouldn’t be enough to cover the damage her pod did to my property!”

The green alien’s face screws up in a scary scowl, and he takes a step towards Fhitza. “What are you talking about? That fucking small patch of kego foliage ruined in your field?” Fhitza doesn’t answer. His mouth is clamped tight, his lips pulled into an ugly thin line. The green alien’s face blanches with disbelief. I’m starting to like him the more I’m in his presence. “You are holding fucking kego in higher regard than a female?”

The door to the pen pushes open and two guards shove gun barrels through the gap. The green alien jumps behind Fhitza and holds a dagger to his throat and a trickle of blue blood rolls down his neck because the tip of the dagger has broken his skin. “Stop!” Fhitza raises a hand to his men.

“Tell them to back out. This is between you and me.” Fhitza makes no attempt to make the command and the green alien digs the dagger in deeper. More blood flows from the cut. “Do it!”

“Get out! Close the door!”

The green alien extends an arm in my direction and offers me the gun. “Take it and aim it at the door. If it opens again, push on that triangular shape.”

I nod animatedly and take the gun from him. My arms instantly sag. I wasn’t expecting it to weigh as much as it does. It looks as if it might be made of aluminium, and on Earth, that metal is light.

“What are you doing Jasova?. This is a no-win situation for you. You’re in my property. You’ve drawn my blood. And why? Is it because I made you clean my fucking hygiene facilitator? Or because you want to steal my kego supply?”

The green alien’s face screws up with anger. “You’re so fucking stupid. Why would I track you down for either of those things? No. I’ve come to get the only precious thing that is in this place, and it’s not fucking kego!”

“Huh! You mean the female?”

The green alien’s mouth comes close to Fhitza’s ear and his words grind out with condemnation. “Oh course I mean the fucking female.”

“Well, she too is mine, and the only way you’re going to take her is over my dead body.”

The green alien grabs hold of Fhitza’s shoulder and yanks him hard to turn him around and face him, still managing to keep Fhitza between him and the door. Although I have the barrel of the gun pointing at it, and the men on the other side of the glass door haven’t taken their eyes off me and the gun since it was placed in my hands.

The green alien suddenly looks calm. “Then that’s how it’s going to have to be... I’ll fight you hand-to-hand combat. The winner gets to kill his opponent and take the female.”

I suck in a shocked breath. He’s willing to fight to the death to save me?

Fhitza starts to undress, taking off the top part of his attire. I try not to be impressed by his physique. I hate him so much. But it’s an impressive second to the green alien’s platter of muscles.

I can’t believe I’m comparing the two.

Fhitza throws his clothing down and curls his hands into fists, ready to fight. “I’m looking forward to mounting that fucking ugly green head of yours above the door of my bar—a warning to any other species to think twice about setting foot in my citydom.”

The green alien tosses the dagger down. “You can fucking try, but I made three promises to Cassie, and I’m not about to break them.”

He ends his sentence by looking my way. Our eyes meet and we share a special moment—but it’s just a moment, because Fhitza punches the green alien in the gut, and he doubles over, spluttering.

The door rattles and I stride towards it with the gun aimed at the face of the alien man with his hand on the lever. He sees me and I shake my head. “I wouldn’t if I were you.” I hear grunts behind me. The men are fighting, but I daren’t turn around to watch. If I do, Fhitza’s goons will come in and shoot my rescuer. I notice the reflection of the two alien men in the glass and my heart leaps when I see that the green alien has made a recovery.

“Kick him in the nuts!” I shout, hoping my green hero knows I’m cheering him on.

Chapter 8

Capsi

Fhitza takes me by surprise and punches me in the gut. I double over, giving him the chance to bring his knee up in my face. My twitchers block the majority of the impact, but I still see stars and stumble back.

“Kick him in the nuts!”

It’s Cassie. The word nuts doesn’t translate, but if she’s referring to what I think she is... Her comment actually makes me smile in the intense moment. It distracts Fhitza too, and in that split second, I take my opportunity to do just that. I draw my leg back and swing with all my might, kicking Fhitza between the legs. It’s a direct hit and Fhitza howls in agony. But he takes the impact to his genitals well. He doesn’t keel over like I expected him to, instead; he lunges for me.

I’m fearful that while I’m fighting Fhitza, Cassie might get distracted and take her eyes off the door, but a quick glance in her direction shows me she’s more than just a pretty face. She’s facing the door with the blaster pointed at head level, and by her posture, I can tell immediately that she means to do harm to anyone that tries to enter.

Fhitza is stronger than I’ve given him credit. I’ve underestimated him because he’s a Vysarian. He somehow manages to get behind me and curls his arm around my neck, squeezing tight. My oxygen is instantly cut off and I tear at his forearm with my claws, but he’s immune to the pain.

I change tactics and go for his knees, kicking back with the heel of my boot. It works. He releases me and that gives me the chance to face him again. Before he recovers, I go at him with a combination of punches. He defends himself well, ducking and weaving and knocking away my rain of punches, but my additional inches in height, combined with my added weight advantage, soon leaves him gasping for breath.

In one final attempt to get the better of me, he puts his head down and runs forward, ramming me in my guts. I think it’s a wasted move until I realise he’s stabbed me in the thigh with a lit double barrelled kego wand.

Fuck! I didn’t see that coming.

My leg almost gives way and Fhitza steps back grinning, pleased with himself. A white mist settles over my eyes and my hands tremble before curling into tight, compact balls. I lunge at him, fists flying, punching him relentlessly with a tirade of blows that have no mercy in them whatsoever.

Blood splatters from his nose. A gash opens up above his eye. His lip splits. I keep punching until he falls back, knocked out cold on the ground. I stagger over him. I need to finish the job. I need to kill him and claim Cassie as mine or else he’ll never give her up. But a ping of released laser blast from behind has me spinning around with my heart in my throat. Fhitza’s goons are attempting to shoot through the glass at me. Thankfully, it appears to be laser proof.

“What do I do?” Cassie’s hands are trembling, and she’s hopping from foot to foot in a panic.

I limp over, my leg refusing to work properly. Numbness caused by the Kego when it was stabbed into me is spreading through my leg. I go to the dagger on the round and pick t up, then walk past Cassie up to the door and ram the dagger into the gap between the door and the frame. Then I give the frothing goon an obscenity, using my fingers.

I grab Cassie’s hand, entwining my fingers through hers. They mould together perfectly. “Come on!” I pull her towards the side of the pen. “Jump onto my back!”

“What?!”

“Trust me.”

“But the gun?”

“The what?”

She holds up the blaster. “Drop it. You won’t be able to hold it and hold on to me at the same time, and I certainly can’t with what I’m about to do.” I just hope my leg doesn’t give out on me.

The goons pound at the door, trying to break it. Cassie throws the blaster down and steps up behind me. I sense her jumping and then feel her against my back as her legs wrap around my waist.

I don’t waste another second and run towards the centre of the pen.

“What are yo—”

Opening my arms as I jump at the last second, I’m able to elevate us into the air. The length of cable I’d left dangling from the hole I’d emerged from hangs about fifteen feet from off the ground. Leaving it as long as I dare, I wait until the last moment before I close my arms and reach out for it. Cassie doesn’t make a peep, she just hangs on tight, and the feel of the heat generating between our bodies drives me on.

I climb up the cable, and the banging below us continues. Then, just as I reach the roof, the goons suddenly realise they don’t need to enter the pen to fire at us. Shots of neon laser beams shoot up towards us, just as I’m hauling us through the hole I’d made to get into the pen. One hits the edge of my boot and sizzles, but I can’t feel any pain. My whole leg is now numb.

On top of the roof, I have trouble getting to my feet. The damn kego is spreading into my groin. Cassie tries to get off me. “No! Stay where you are, and hold tight!”

“Are you sure? I can walk.”

“What we are about to do doesn’t need legs.”

“Huh?” I butt shuffle to the edge of the roof, digging the foot of my good leg into the roof and dragging Cassie and me. “What do you mean, you don’t need your legs?” Her voice is rising with every word that passes through her lips.

“This.”

I open my arms again and fall forward.

“Ahhh!” Cassie’s arms tighten around my neck.

I glide over the luxurious vehicles, and as I head over the immaculate grounds, I hear the guards’ heavy boots and agitated voices as they run out of Fhitza’s property. More neon blasts are fired at us, lighting up the sky. My nose fills with the scorched smell of the discharged fire.

Swooping side to side as we drop in height, I avoid the heavy fire. “Are you okay, Cassie?”

“No! This is fucking insane. I’m an illustrator, for Christ’s sake, not a freaking stunt double.”

None of what she’s says translates. Illustrator? Stunt double? Has she really got a translator fitted, because she still sounds like she’s talking a different language to me?

I spot the area where I hid the drone craft and angle my arms to glide towards it. We drop just feet from where it’s hidden. I land on one leg and totter unstably. Cassie immediately jumps down. She comes to my side and wraps her delicate arm around my waist. “Are you okay? I-I don’t even know your name.”

Our eyes meet. It’s an intense moment. “Capsi. I’m called Capsi. Yes, other than being shot in the foot and having no feeling in my one leg from being stabbed with a kego wand, I’m good...Especially now I have you by my side.” She smiles up at me and my stomach does a weird roll over. I look over to where the hidden craft is. The sound of approaching hover bikes makes me tense.

I point to where we need to go. “Hurry, we need to get inside the craft hidden behind that foliage.”

Cassie acts as my second leg and I lean heavily on her as I guide her over to where the craft is. She may be a foot and a half shorter than me, but, geez, is she strong!

As I pull away the foliage from the craft, Cassie gasps. “A mini spaceship. Wow!”

The hover bikes sound louder. They’re getting closer. “Get in, Cassie. Quick!”

Opening the hatch, she climbs in and I climb in after her. I start up the craft and the first thing to display is the timer. It’s reads I have just ten minutes to get it back.

Like that is going to happen!

The craft rises off the ground. We’re sitting targets. I slam my hands onto the controls, trying to turn off the lights illuminating it, but nothing happens. The craft shakes.

Cassie’s voice is shrill with fear. “We’ve been struck by one of those laser shots!”

I pull back on the lever and launch us vertically into the night sky. I’m pushed back into my seat. I’m impressed. I didn’t think these drone crafts had so much oomph in them.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my Godddddd!” Cassie grips onto my forearm, digging her fingernails into my skin. My dicks twitch and I grin. At least the kego hasn’t reached there yet.

I head for the high rise in the centre of the citydom.

TALKING

The drone craft just makes it. Smoke is billowing from where we were shot. The Vysarian males who hired the craft out to me are standing by the docking bay, their faces set in scowls, waving their arms manically at me. I open my hatch door and start my apology. “Hey, sorry I’m late—”

One of them is in my face, stopping me from getting out. “We knew you’d be trouble. Fucking Jasova  scum!”

Cassie suddenly appears behind him and taps him on the shoulder. “Hey! Who are you calling scum?” Her arm is drawn back, and she releases it quickly, unleashing a punch on the end of the Vysarian’s nose that any of my brothers would be impressed to have witnessed. The Vysaria’s nose explodes.

His friend’s face screws into a scowl. “You can’t hit a Vysarian male. You are a female. I’m calling the authorities!”

Cassie brings her fist back ready to hit him too. But her eyes suddenly widen and as she hesitates. “The authorities?”

That’s what she wants. She wants to see the Vysarian authorities. Ava said they were coming to this planet to be matched with a Vysarian male. But that’s not what I want. I want her all to myself. I shake my head. “They will be the wrong type of authorities. These ones won’t like that you’ve hit a Vysarian male.” My gut pinches at my lie.

Now Cassie’s face screws up. She narrows her eyes at the attendant. “I’ve just about had it with you Vysarians and your misogynistic ways.” She lands her second punch on this attendant’s jaw. His legs buckle and he lands on top of the other attendant in a pile. “To hell with the lot of you!” she spits out. My grin eclipses my face and my twitchers dance merrily. She turns to me with wide eyes. “Are there any right kind of authorities here?”

My grin instantly vanishes. Do I tell the truth or lie again? I avoid the question. “We’d better go before anyone comes and finds these males.” She glances down at the unconscious Vysarians and nods. I point to my bike. “That is what we need to get out of this citydom.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

I haul myself off the craft and realise the numbness has spread up the one side of my chest and down into my arm. Cassie slides her arm around my waist and again, I lean against her small frame.

“Damn, you are heavy!”

I laugh. “You are strong for a—”

“—Please don’t say woman. I don’t think I could stand anymore misogynism.”

My mouth is still open as she looks up into my face with her amazing brown eyes. “I was going to say human.”

“Ohhhh. Sorry. I’m just feeling anti-men at the moment.” My hearts stutter. She must realise she’s upset me because she quickly adds. “Except you, Capsi.” Hearing my name on her lips is the best thing that has happened to me since I crashed onto this planet. I nod.

It takes far too long for us to get to my bike, and by the time we reach it, I realise I’m in no fit state to ride it anymore. Cassie helps me on and I grab the handlebar with my good hand to initiate the DNA start-up profiler. How in damnation am I going to steer with one arm? To my amazement, Cassie gets onto the seat in front of me and pushes her amazingly tight ass into my crotch, trying to push me back to claim more of the seat. My cock should have stood to attention at the act, but the kego is quickly spreading.

“What are you doing, Cassie?”

She looks back over her shoulder at me. “I’m going to ride the bike. You are clearly can’t do it at the moment.” Her brow shoots up. “What? Didn’t you realise women know how to ride motorbikes too?”

I open and close my mouth, searching for the right words. No, I didn’t. I didn’t realise precious females were so capable. It’s a very pleasant surprise. “I’ll guide you where we need to go.”

“Does it take us out of the city by using a main road?”

I nod. “Yes, but—”

She shakes her head. “Then I’m choosing the way out of here.”

Before I can argue, she pulls back the throttle and we leap forward. I just manage to grab hold of her tiny waist with my good arm before I fall off. I should be paying attention to the way out of the high rise but instead, I’m imagining spooning Cassie in my bed back on my home planet.

Another big mistake. I don’t see the six hover bikes closing in on us as we pull out onto the final ramp as we leave the exit.

Chapter 9

Cassie

My heart almost leaps out of my mouth when I see the uniform of the gang members. There are six of them to our right as we leave the last ramp in the multi-story carpark. They spot us immediately and the distance between us decreases in a nanosecond. I don’t hang around to see what’s about to happen in the next second; I pull back the throttle.

The back of the bike skitters out slightly, but then I feel its full power and I have to hold on to the handlebars for dear life. If I hadn’t have ridden motorbikes since I was a kid, we would have crashed and burned as soon as I pulled away from where the bike was first parked.

Capsi feels solid behind me and the way he holds me around my waist—firm yet protective—even though I’m the one protecting him right now since he got stabbed with the drug pipes, sends flutters through my body from his touch.

I don’t recognise any of the buildings in this part of the city. I shout back over my shoulder to Capsi. “Where is the bar located where you found me?”

I feel his body tense; he leans his face close to my ear and some of his face snakes touch the back of my neck. A shiver runs the length of my spine, which intensifies when his hot breath blows into my ear canal. “No! Stay away from there. That’s where the majority of the gang members will be!”

I suck in a determined breath. “You have to trust me...” The corner of my mouth lifts. “How about if I promise you I’ll get us out of this city if you direct me there?”

His sigh goes right down the back of my neck and combined with vibrations of the bike between my thighs, I find myself pushing my butt back further into his crotch. Since when did I start to get the hots for this green, four-eyed alien? The other side of my mouth hitches to form a full smile. Oh yes, that was it. When he jumped down in between Fhitza and me like a green James Bond.

“Okay, I see what you’re doing with the promise thing.” My smile gets bigger. He has a sense of humour. He’s growing on me by the second. “Turn right and then immediately left at the end of this road.”

I bite my bottom lip to stop my smug smile getting even bigger. The bike handles like a dream. In fact, this whole scenario is like a dream. I’m riding a hover bike on a different planet thousands if not millions of miles from Earth, and my pillion passenger is green alien—but not small skinny limbed kind, he has the body of a god and an intriguing face to match...Wait, did I just think that?

“Watch out!”

Capsi’s voice shocks me out of my mini daydream just in time to see more gang riding towards us from the left. My heart races in my chest. I’m almost at the junction and there’s an enormous vehicle that will reach the junction at the same time as us as well, coming from the right. I’ll have to slow down or come to a complete stop to avoid crashing into it. But if I slow down, they’ll intercept us, and if I speed up, there’s a chance I won’t make the turn at the speed we’re going. Capsi gives me a reassuring squeeze of his hand on my waist. It’s as though he’s reading my mind.

Well, this is shit or bust. What do we have to lose? If they get us, they’ll kill Capsi for sure, and I’ll be held against my will for the remainder of my life here. I have some distant family members on Earth, some estranged aunts, cousins and sisters who wouldn’t miss me, but my friends who I travelled here with will, and they are more like sisters to me than any of my blood relations I have back on Earth.

I suck in a breath and pull back the throttle so that it’s almost at max. Capsi’s arm snakes around my waist tighter. I know it’s for safety, but I’d also like to think it’s because we’ve built a special bond in the short time we’ve known each other. The intense ache in my chest when I’m with him seems to be a good indicator of this.

The junction, large vehicle and approaching bikes coming in from the left are getting closer. A quick glance over my shoulder confirms we’re closed in from every direction. I say a silent prayer and get the last bit of juice out of the bike, or whatever it runs on.

As the last few meters bringing us to the junction evaporate, adrenaline surges through my veins and it feels as if my heart might explode in my chest. I twist the handlebars at the last moment and pass in front of the large vehicle. My life flashes before my eyes. We miss it by a millimetre and I hear screeching. I pull hard on the bike’s brakes too, which sends the bike into a spin.

My eyes try to make out the chaos that is unfolding as our bike continues to spin. The vehicle must have slammed on its brakes too and is now jack-knifing into the approaching bikes, causing the bikes that were following us to crash into it. I’m getting nauseous with all this spinning. I never did well on fairground rides back on Earth. The sound of metal crashing into metal churns my stomach. Our pursuers’ bikes are splattering against the side of the vehicle.

I so want to get off this ride.

Then, all of a sudden, the bike comes to a stop. It’s a miracle we are still upright. I guess alien hover bikes handle speed and intense breaking a lot better than Earth bikes do. My head keeps spinning.

“Go!” shouts Capsi.

The road in front of me looks as if it’s alive as it riddles around in my unsettled vision, but I have to tame this bucking bronco. I pull back on the throttle again and the bike shoots forward. Ugh! Is this what it’s like to ride under the influence? No, thank you.

The next turning comes up immediately. I take it a lot slower now that there is no imminent threat chasing us down. A weird blaring noise sounds out in the sky. I look up to see the flashing lights of a space craft quickly descending to the carnage we left behind.

I sense Capsi’s mouth by my ear. “It’s Vysarian emergency services.”

My tense muscles relax ever so slightly. I’m no monster. It’s a relief to know the bad guys will be taken care of. I’m on tenterhooks as I follow Capsi’s instructions to get to the street on which the bar I was held in, and every man dressed in black I see on the sidewalk sets my heart racing, but we don’t see any more men dressed in the get-up that I associate with the Fhitza’s gang, even when we finally reach the street where the bar is located.

But what worries me the most is the way Capsi’s grip around my waist lessens as I steer the bike down the slope, heading into the pipe that brought me into the city on the back of Fhitza’s bike.

Just inside the tunnel, I feel the weight of his body slump against me. I can’t look back at him whilst he’s leaning on me, and I daren’t stop. I shout over the reverberation of the engine, made louder in this hollow and empty tunnel.

“Are you alright, Capsi?”

“Jusht keepf ghoin.”

His words are sluggish, as if he’s drunk, and my stomach pinches.

I do as he says, and my body dampens with sweat as panic grips me. What do I do now? Where do I go? I’m lost in worry and don’t even realise I’ve reached the end of the tunnelled pipe until I break through the end into the dawning of a new day.

The pale green sky shows hints of the same blue we have back home on Earth. Is it the Vysarian version of shepherds’ delight? We have red and they have blue? Whatever. It’s breathtaking. The morning is cold, and other than the body heat generating between us, I worry about Capsi’s core temperature out here. He’s shirtless, with an exposed back. My dress isn’t exactly the right outfit for an outdoor rally, but at least it covers the majority of my body.

I try to remember the way Fhitza brought me. I need to find somewhere safe to stop and see to Capsi. He’s been shot in the foot. He’s probably weak from loss of blood—or dehydrated? I pull down my own dry tongue from the top of my mouth. I’m dehydrated too.

My mind belongs to a crazy woman, and it flicks from problem to problem. What if the bikers come after us? Where will I find shelter? What if Capsi is really sick? My heart seems to shudder in my chest when the last thought enters my mind.

Before long, the treeline of the forest I’d rode through whilst pillion to Fhitza comes into view. I sigh heavily with relief. My muscles are aching from holding Capsi propped up against me for hours. If I don’t stop soon, I swear I’ll seize up or become welded to this bike. I can’t even feel the cheeks of my ass anymore.

My gut instinct tells me to venture left as soon as we breach the forest. I’m too tired to argue with it and turn the bike in the direction it’s leading me to. The natural smells of the forest are a welcome change from the city and I inhale the cool air, instantly feeling the calming and healing properties of nature. I strain my ears for signs of life, but just as before, when I passed through it as part of Fhitza’s gang, there isn’t one chirp or one snuffle from an animal.

I’m contemplating changing directions when I see it—a derelict hut. I almost scream with happiness.

Slowing to almost a stop, I approach with caution. I do a few laps of the building, checking it out first. The door is half open, and from my vantage point, it looks just as abandoned inside as it does from outside. I cautiously nudge the front of the bike into the door. It creaks open. It’s empty. I ride right into the only room it has and come to a stop for the first time in hours.

A quick scan of the bike reveals no start-stop button. How the hell am I supposed to turn it off? I pull my hands off the handlebars, expecting the bike to turn off automatically, but the low whirring of the engine remains. I turn my attention to a more pressing problem—how to get off the bike with Capsi’s enormous frame leaning against me.

Leaning back slightly, I lift my leg and slid it over the body of the bike. My knee joint aches, but I manage to accomplish that small task. The next part of my plan is going to need ninja speed and flexibility. I’m not sure I have it in me, but I’ll give it a damn good try.

Jumping off the seat, I whip myself around and hold my hands up to Capsi’s shoulders to stop him from head butting the handlebars.

Phew! Made it.

My stomach turns over when I see what a sickly shade of green Capsi’s pallor is. It doesn’t take a doctor to see he’s not well.

“Shit!”

My head twists from left to right to take in the hut, looking for somewhere to put him. There’s no comfy bed. No jumble of old rags. Just a pile of leaves that have blown in through the half-open door.

“Leaves it is.”

Manoeuvring myself behind him. I try to slip my arms underneath his armpits, but I’m met by thick skin. His wings. I’d forgotten about them. I drop my head back and groan.

“Sorry Capsi. I’m apologising now for any bruising this might cause.”

I pull on his shoulders towards myself and his head slumps into my chest. I pull some more. His body topples forwards and to the side. His legs follow and he crashes to the floor. I grimace. “Sorry.” The bike’s engine magically cuts out.

Stooping down, it takes me three attempts to push his dead weight over onto his back. Pushing over a boulder weighing half a ton would probably be easier. I eye the pile of leaves and then the bulk of solid muscle in front of me with a groan.

Three feet. It may as well be three miles.

Getting to my feet, I grab his hands and lift them above his head. His wings pull taut. God, I hope they don’t tear. I lean back and pull with all my might. He moves maybe a centimetre. I fall on my butt, panting.

“Come on Cassie? You work out every day. What the hell is wrong with you? A woman of ninety would have more muscle power than you at this moment in time!” Getting back onto my feet, I haul again. Half a centimetre. The air turns blue with my obscenities.

I crawl over to Capsi, my face hovering inches from his. It blears in and out of focus. “I-I just need five minutes, Capsi. Then I promise I’ll move you to a more comfortable position and check your foot.” My face lowers onto a granite hard chest and my eyes close.

Chapter 10

Capsi

Chirping, whistling and a weird snorting noise wake me. I blink open my eyes and my twitchers stretch. My eyes focus on a ceiling. A ceiling with holes. Outside I see the branches of a tree, and an unknown creature whistling and chirping on one of the branches. Am I dreaming?

My foot and my thigh hurt like hell, and my left pectoral is cramping. Lifting my head, I see a mass of scrunched up black hair and the face it belongs to. Her eyes are closed and I notice for the first time she has the same coloured miniscule hairs edging her lids. The snorting noise is coming from Cassie. She’s in a deep sleep.

My mind does a quick catch-up. The last thing I remember was the crash, the emergency services getting ready to land and see to it, and then...nothing. I must have passed out. There is a dull tingling throughout my entire body.

The kego wand. I remember Fhitza had stabbed me in the thigh with it. The contents must have dispersed into my bloodstream. What about my foot? A shot from a blaster had nicked my boot. It must have passed through.

I twist my head, trying to fathom where the hell we are. I spot my bike and an open door. Clever female. Cassie must have ridden without stopping until she reached the forest. This must be an abandoned dwelling from the first settlers before the citydom was built.

My tongue searches my mouth for moisture. There’s none. I need to find us something to drink.

Holding onto Cassie’s head, I push up into a sitting position. Her face slides down over my abs, her nose bumping off each one. I grimace when her face lands in my lap—in my crotch. Fuck! If she wakes up now, this will look soooo bad.

“Please let me sleep in some more, Ava.” She mumbles. I can’t help the smile that quickly spreads across my face. I take a moment to study her features. Her nose up tilts at the end and there are little smudges over the bridge of it. Her lips are full and red, and I wonder how they would feel pressed against mine.

I’m so tempted to reach out and stroke the skin on her cheek. I briefly touched the back of her hand when we were escaping from Fhitza’s property, and it was warm and soft. My fingertips are thirsty for more. When Cassie’s friend Ava, helped us escape from the Badligons, I’d so wanted to touch her, curious just to see how different she felt to other female species I’ve come into contact with. But she was Aph’is’ mate. It wouldn’t have been right.

My hand hovers above her, but I curl my fingers back to stop myself. I gently ease her head off my quickly engorging cocks. How would I explain away a massive bulge in my pants and her head resting on it?

Slipping my legs out from underneath her, I rest her cheek down on the floor. She’s curled up into a ball with her pert ass sticking up into the air. It’s a wonderful sight to behold, and I could easily sit here staring at her until she wakes up, but I need to get us some sustenance and check out exactly where we are, and if we’re safe.

Pushing up onto my feet, I feel as though I’ve been in a war. There’s not one muscle in my body that doesn’t ache and my thigh and foot are on fire. I hobble over to what looks like the remains of a chair and push down on it to check its strength before I sit down. Pulling off my boot is excruciating. My foot has blaster burns. They are bad, but not life threatening—well, that’s if I can find some healing foliage and rest it for a few days. I’ve seen wounds like this fester if they’re not treated, leading in amputation. I grit my teeth. That’s not happening to me!

It’s too painful to get my boot back on, so I leave it off and head outside. Turning around, I see our hideout is a one of the first settlers’ ramshackle huts. I’m surprised it’s still standing. A smile spreads across my face. “Clever female choosing here.” Twisting my head around, I immediately begin an investigation of the trees and vegetation surrounding us. We are deep enough in the forest for the special foliage I need to be grown somewhere here. It thrives in dark, damp places, and from what I can see, there are plenty of shadows under the canopy of the forest.

My posture suddenly stiffens. There are plenty of shadows to conceal Vysarians. I hobble towards the first shadow, picking up a fallen branch on the way, then swinging it crazily when I reach there. Elusive forest creatures scamper away and I swing the branch their way, hoping I’ll be lucky and catch Cassie and me an easy meal. To my astonishment I am. Something slow moving with a long, thick, legless body thumps onto the ground. I chuckle and pick it up to examine it. One down. Two to go.

Sniffing the air, I go in search of water and the healing herbs I need, slowly scouring the forest detritus surrounding the hut. It takes some time, but I finally manage to find a water source. The herbs prove more elusive. Beading with sweat from pain and exertion, I clean my foot as best as I can in the water hole I’ve found and reluctantly head back to the hut. I need to eat and rest. I’ll search for the healing herbs again later.

As I enter the hut, I’m surprised to see Cassie is awake and admiring my bike. She looks up quickly and there’s a moment of silence as we stare at each other. My breath catches in my throat. Out of all the species I’ve come in contact with, she is the most beautiful female I have ever laid eyes on. I swear the air crackles between us.

In the drab surroundings of the hut, she looks so out of place in her shimmering red dress. It clings to her form, and I finally take a moment to appreciate her human shape. Just like Ava, Aph’is’ mate, her body dips and curves in all the right places and I lick my lips because my tongue would love to investigate them all. But unlike Ava, Cassie’s body shows every contour of her well sculptured muscles. It’s blatantly obvious that like me, she strives for physical perfection. I appreciate her efforts and drink her in.

She licks her lips too, and her small pink tongue looks inviting. I want to suck it in my mouth.

She finally breaks the silence. “We made it...thank you.”

I shake my head and take a step forward, or more like a hobble forward. It’s not the alpha look I want to exude. “No, thank you. If it wasn’t for your amazing riding skills, we wouldn’t have made it out of the citydom, let alone this far.” I offer her the shell of an opias fruit I found, which I filled with water. “Thirsty?”

She dives for the fruit and her mouth latches onto the hole I used to fill it with. She tips the shell back and drinks like this is her first drink since she landed here. I hold up the dead creature I caught as she drinks. “I’ll cook us something to eat.” She nods but continues to drink.

Back outside the hut, I gather dried out branches. Cassie joins me, and I glance sideways at her when she starts to collect branches next to me.

“Sit down and rest your foot! I’ll get the wood,” she says.

I nod. I’m appreciative of the help and set about building a small fire with the kindling she drops at my feet. When the purple flames grow, Cassie silently takes over the fire and I spot a sharp flat stone on the ground next to me and skin and gut the creature. We work together in perfect unison, as if we’ve known each other for years. The intense ache in my chest is now a low, pulsating feeling, much calmer. I need to ask Epiq about it when I see him next. If he doesn’t know what it is, then no one will.

Although the silence between us is comfortable, I want to know everything about Cassie. “Do you ride a  hover bike on your planet?”

She laughs and shakes her head. It’s such a wonderful sound. Since the moment we met, there’s been an invisible tension flowing between us. I had the urge to save her, and she was desperate to escape her captors. Now she’s safe, the connection between us is completely different.

“No, not a hover bike, just a plain old wheels on the ground motorbike. I’ve ridden them since I could walk. An off-road dirt bike first. Then I moved onto a custom bike, before gravitating towards sports bikes in my late teens.” My twitchers are swaying steadily in awe. I don’t recognise the names of any of the bikes she’s talking about, but she sounds like a very accomplished rider. She stares at me intensely and all I can think about is running my fingers through her long black hair to see how it feels. “What happens now? Are you going to take me back to Ava?”

I nod. “Yes, but first I have to see to my injury. I need to make balm using herbs from this forest. If I don’t, I risk an infection that could be fatal.”

Cassie gasps and makes a move to get up. “Then let’s looks for them now. We can eat anytime, but infections don’t wait for anyone before they flare up and turn nasty.”

I reach across and place my hand on her arm to stop her. “It can wait. We need to rest and eat first.”

“Bu—”

“I’ll survive, but you must be exhausted—mentally and physically.” Her face softens, and she looks at me strangely.”

“You are not like the Vysarians are you?”

I smile and point to my swaying twitchers. “Erm, no.”

She smiles, too, and shakes her head. “I don’t mean physically. I can how different you are to both me and the Vysarians. No, I mean, you are nice. The Vysarians may be like us humans in appearance, but your species is more like us in characteristics.”

I shrug. “I guess so. I’ve only ever met two humans. You and Ava. Ava is a wonderful female. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here now to save you.” I chortle, “Although I think it was more a case of you saving me.”

Cassie laughs. “I think we saved each other.” I skewer the creature and set it on the branches I’ve impaled into the ground over the fire. “Explain to me again where Ava is and what’s she and your brothers are doing?”

The fire licks at the creature’s flesh and fat from its body drips onto the fire, making it crackle. The first delicious meat smell wafts up my nostrils and my stomach growls in response. Cassie giggles.

“When I last saw Ava, she and Aph’is were about to spend a night together while Aph’is recovered from injuries he’d sustained saving Ava.”

Cassie’s mouth drops open. “It appears getting injured whilst saving us seems to be an occupational hazard for you guys.” My brow screws up and I drop my head to one side as I try to process what she means. She flips her hand down. “It doesn’t matter. Sorry. Please continue.”

“He told us they’d start their search the next day and told us to choose different locations to search in using built-in sensors on our bikes to locate fallen space debris. Balic, Devoq,  Epiq and I said our goodbye’s and set off to track down Ava’s friends. I was drawn to this sector.”

“So your bike sensor must have picked up my pod, and you tracked it to that field I landed it.” Cassie shakes her head. “Those beautiful flowers saved me, but it turns out they were drugs Fhitza was cultivating.” She holds my gaze. “Do you think we could go back there so I can get some of my things from out of the pod?”

I shake my head. “There was no pod when I found the field, just a crater in the ground where it had been.”

Cassie’s face screws up into an angry scowl. “That motherfu—” The creases in her brow smooth out and her eyes go wide. “If the pod was gone, how did you find me? Did you know the drug flowers belonged to Fhitza and guess he’d taken me?”

I shake my head. “No. As far as I and anyone else were aware, Fhitza was dead. It was reported years ago.” I chew on my bottom lip before I answer, undecided if I should reveal the source of me tracking her down. Will she think I’m losing my mind? I drag my fangs back into my mouth and inhale deeply, fixing her with a stare.

“I followed an ache I was feeling in my chest. It drew me to you.”

Her eyes bulge from their sockets and her mouth drops open. Damn it, I was right. She thinks I’m crazy.

“You felt it too?”

Chapter 11

Cassie

My heart feels like it’s swelling in my chest.

“You felt it too?”

The first time I felt it was when I saw Capsi standing outside of my cage in the bar. I thought what I was feeling was anxiety. After all, it’s not every day you see a green four-eyed alien with face snakes, wings and a head fin. When he’d dropped down into the fighting pen, the same ache in my chest had appeared, only it had intensified. It’s stayed with me ever since, dulling slightly the longer I’m in his presence.

Today I’d woken up alone in the hut. I’d got up off the floor and it had taken me a few minutes to realise where I was. I’d noticed the bike and remembered Capsi and the events from last night. The ache was still there, but it was a low hum in my chest. But as soon as Capsi had walked through the door, it had amplified. It has stayed that way ever since.

All four of his eyes bug out. “Yes.” His snakey face things dance about his face in an excited frenzy.

“What does it mean?”

He shakes his head. “I-I don’t know, but Aph’is had the same feeling in his chest when he met Ava.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“No, I felt it when my aura was inside him.” I blink. My mind can’t comprehend what he’s saying. Aura inside him? My surprise at his statement must be written all over my face, because he shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll explain that another time.”

He turns his attention to the thing he’s cooking over the fire. I watch him curiously. Right now he’s my most favourite person alien on this planet. He selflessly put my safety ahead of his own and saved me. He’s been stabbed and shot as he rescued me, yet even though I’m a stranger to him, he still put his life at risk to save me.

“Can I take a look at your injured foot?”

He looks surprised by my request, but nods his answer. I shuffle closer to his foot and carefully lift it off the ground and put it into my lap.

“Your dress! The blood will—”

“Fuck the dress. Your health is far more important.” He sucks in a sharp breath, as if he’s shocked by my response. I examine the extent of his wound with my eyes. I have no medical knowledge, but I can see just by looking at it that it’s a nasty burn. I feel helpless. I want to make him feel better and show him how much I appreciate what he’s done for me. I act without thinking and lift his foot up to my face. I softly kiss the burn. Capsi gasps out loud.

In the next second, he’s swivelled around and is on his knees in front of me. He reaches his hands to my cheeks and gently urges me up onto my knees. We are still not eyes level, but that doesn’t stop us from making eyes contact.

The touch of his fingers on my skin is electrifying. My chest rises and falls faster with my quickening heart rate. His face snakes tentatively reach out for my face. I don’t back away. In fact, I lean into them. One of them teases the edge of my lips and I tilt my face and draw it into my mouth, sucking it softly. Capsi lets out a long and deep husky groan. A flutter of desire sweeps over my pussy and it contracts.

The face snake squirms around in my mouth and I let it dance with my tongue. It’s texture is firm yet palpable, and it tastes...strange. Nice, but unlike anything I have ever tasted before. It makes my mind wonder about other parts of his body.

I pull off the face snake, and it immediately tries to get back inside my mouth. Capsi leans down to kiss me, but I place a hand on his chest and stop him. His brow furrows, confused.

I shake my head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me sucking your...face thing.”

He’s still cupping my face and his eyes bore into mine and search my soul. I squirm under their intensity. “No. I’m sorry. It’s my consciousness that controls them. I...I just thought that...well, after you kissed my burn I—”

“Capsi. I can’t thank you enough for saving me, but...you made me three promises. One. You promised to get you out of the bar unharmed. You accomplished that and I thank you. Two. You promised to take me back to Ava, and I don’t doubt that you will... And three. You promised to take me to my intended Vysarian match.” I smile up at him with the best friendly face I can muster, which is so difficult with the invisible sexual chemistry sizzling between us. “It wouldn’t be right to lead you on. As much as I’m attracted to the wonderful person you are Capsi, I’ve come here to be with another man. Two planet’s governing leaders have put a lot into negotiating deals. The future of our planets working together depends heavily on the success of mine and the other four women I came here with, matched relationships.”

His hands drop from my cheeks and the feeling in my chest amplifies to an ache like I’ve never felt before.

“I’m sorry. I know that, Cassie. I shouldn’t have instigat—”

I place my fingers to his lips. “We are both as bad as each other. Let’s put this behind us and remain friends.”

He tries to smile, but his face snakes betray what he’s really feeling inside. We both sit back down in silence. I can’t look his way. I’m frightened I won’t be able to keep this mask in place. I want nothing more than for Capsi to pull me into his arms and give me my first kiss. I wasn’t lying. I’m attracted to Capsi—inside and out. But I can’t lead him on. Earth is relying on us to make our matches to Vysarians work.

We eat in silence. The meat is almost tasteless, but it fills a void. As soon as we are done, Capsi tells me he’s going to find some herbs to heal his foot. I walk the hut restless, tugging at this damn stupid evening dress, the worst outfit ever to be camping in.

Capsi is been gone for ages. I decide to go out and find him. To my amazement, as I walk through the forest, I detect the sound of wildlife. It’s a glorious sound and I wander through the forest, drawn by the beautiful noises. They are a wonderful distraction from the turmoil in my gut, thinking about how I’ve upset things between Capsi and me. I wander for ages, yet I still find it impossible to see any creatures. They must be shy.

A black thing flashes in the corner of my eyes. I get excited. I so want to see a cute alien monkey or a colourful bird. I spin around and come face to face with a Vysarian gang member. My heart almost stops. Before I can scream, his hand slaps over my mouth and he begins dragging me away from the direction of the hut.

My arms and legs flail around and I try to grab onto something to stop my abduction. I think my heart is going to explode because it’s beating so hard. My hand grabs hold of a branch and it breaks off in my hand. I pull it over my head in an arc with all my might and it makes contact with something hard. The man’s hand drops from my mouth and there’s a thud on the ground. I scramble upright and brandish the branch above my head in case he tries to get back up. But he doesn’t. The Vysarian lies on his back and a blue blood trickles down his face.

I don’t wait around; I hightail it back to the hut. Capsi is inside, pulling his boot on. He must have found the herbs.

I’m shaking and breathless. “Capsi, they’ve found us. I’ve just knocked a man out with a branch.”

His eyes go wide and he jumps to his feet. “Wait here!”

He rushes out of the hut, and I pace, chewing my nails. It feels like he’s gone for an hour, but in reality, I know it’s only minutes he’s gone.

When he comes back, he’s panting. “I found the bloodied branch, but the Vysarian is gone. He must be a scout.” He grabs hold of the tops of my arms. “Cassie, we need to leave. I need to keep you safe and get you back to Ava, I promised.” We stare at each other and I nod. My chest feels like it’s being crushed, and I can’t breathe. I notice Capsi is grimacing, too. Neither one of us makes any attempt to get on the bike. “Cassie, my promises, I have to—”

“Break one!” I interrupt.

Capsi frowns and his hands drop from me. His eyes scan every centimetre of my face and then go to my hair. He reaches out and twirls it around his fingers. His eyes finally find mine and he draws in a long breath. “Which one?”

“Number three.”

He groans and he slams his mouth to mine. He tousles my hair with one of his hands and pulls my body into his with the other. My hands can’t keep still as they explore the expanse of his back. The ache in my chest subsides, and it’s replaced with heat. There is also a fire burning between my legs. I feel a need to be with completely united with Capsi. I want him inside me. I pull away and open my mouth to tell him, but he speaks first.

“Cassie. We must go. I need to keep you safe. I still have two promises to fulfil. But I will make a new third promise to you. When we get back to my ship, I am going to make you my mate.” He kisses me again and his face snakes touch me every place they can reach, claiming me too. He looks at me with intensely. “This is a promise I will never break.”

He sweeps my feet off the ground and carries me over to the bike. Placing me on, he climbs on himself and seconds later; the bike starts up. He reaches behind and grabs my hands, pulling them around his waist. I snuggle up to his back as he steers the bike out of the hut.

He looks over his shoulder at me. “It’s time to keep promise number two.”

I kiss the bare skin on his back. It’s hot and delicious. “Thank you, my love.”

We ride out of the forest and onto a new road. I’m glowing inside. Soon I’ll be reunited with Ava, and soon I’ll be mated to Capsi.

*

Don’t worry. Capsi and Cassie do get their intimate times, but not until the final book.

*

Join my spam free newsletter to find out more about this series.

*

5 Alien Minds

4 Alien Eyes

3 Alien Promises

2 Alien Hearts

1 Alien Love

10 Fated Mates

*