Return: Nomadican Mates Series 4 Read online

  From my vantage point, the chamber a real shithole. Tossed onto a hard, flat platform, my vision rightens but the room doesn’t look any better from this perspective either.

  So, this is where I’ll be raped and ultimately die. I couldn’t have picked a more disgusting place to take my last breath if I’d tried.

  I close my eyes as the monster arranges my limbs and parts my legs, stroking at his exposed phallus. He probes a thick finger at my dry sex. I remain unmoving and silent, not wanting to give him any emotional response to feed on.

  Maybe if I lay here like I’m dead, he will no longer find me appealing.

  Despite my efforts to remain still, I yelp when his finger breaches my slit. Rough and scaly is the tip of the unwanted appendage, and I try to squirm away. I don’t make it an inch before the monster slaps a hand over my throat to keep me in place. My hands instinctively move to cover his, tugging and prying to no avail. Playing dead won’t be necessary if he keeps putting pressure on my windpipe.

  My struggles grow less frantic as my vision begins to dim to black. Just as my hand slips from around the width of the monster’s wrist, the door crashes open with a resounding metallic thud. Spilling into the room are the males that were dogging the heels of the monster.

  A fight ensues and I don’t wait around to see who comes out the victor. Rolling off the platform to land hard on my sore hip, I have a feeling I’m the prize being fought over.

  I stay low to the floor as to not attract attention, moving as quickly as my broken body will allow. My mission is to reach the door, but my target changes as more of the monsters file inside.

  I huddle behind a chair of sorts, hiding from the horde joining in the fight.

  The monster that stole me away from my males is lost from sight. Swallowed up by the crush of male bodies punching and tearing at him to win me as their prize.

  I had resigned to my fated death, but now I’m filled with a renewed reluctance to die. Determined to live or not, I don’t see another way out besides the door now blocked with bristled haired monstrosities.

  My eyes skip around the room, but I find nothing else in the way of help until I pan over and then return to a tear in the metal wall. I narrow my blurry vision and make out the outlines of what I believe is a panel tucked inside the wall with the corner of the metal panel bent outward.

  I scurry over for a closer look. I chance a quick glance over one shoulder to find the monsters in a full brawl and paying me no mind.

  I go to work on prying off the panel. Hopefully, it will lead to a passageway and not be a dead end and nothing more than a covering for some electrical crap.

  The tips of my fingers dig deep into the crevice. Blood wells as my flesh is cut on the jagged edge, but I keep at it until the panel gives way, flipping off and onto the floor with a clang.

  My victory is short-lived as what I fear is revealed. Nothing but rows of blinking lights that I want to ball up my fists and destroy. Before I can act on my aggression, I notice the room has become eerily quiet and I very much doubt all the monsters killed each other off.

  My breath is a harsh rasp echoing off the naked walls as I slowly turn my head enough to see that I’m now the center of attention.

  “Oh, shit.” My lips merely form words that don’t reach my ears.

  Many balled-up fist and rows of bared teeth have come to a halt as if someone pressed the pause button on the brawl. The monster that stole me being held up by many hands. He is beaten to a pulp, his forked tongue hanging limply out the side of his mouth.

  Caught in mid-escape, I have no fucking idea what my next move will be, but remaining crouched on the floor like a sitting duck is not an option.

  Near me are more of those metal panels. Surely one of them is hollowed out like an air duct. Then again, there weren’t any ducts on my males’ ship.

  I look to the only door in the room. My actions clue in the monsters as they position their bodies to block the way out.

  My options limited to death by a monstrosity gang rape or pop off more of those wall panels and pray for an alternative escape route that doesn’t involve me trying to push my way through the wall the monsters have created with their quill covered bodies.

  My last experience when I jumped onto the back of the monster that stole me wasn’t a fun one. It was like being stabbed a thousand times at once, something I’m not interested in reliving.

  I go to work on the next closest panel, my movements sloppy from my injuries. The monsters just stand there looking at me. One curiously cocking his head to the side… until I begin to pry off the third panel, that’s when the preverbal light bulb above their heads clicks on.

  As soon as I see them pushing each other aside to make a lunge for me, I know I’m on to something.

  The third panel I’m working falls free and revealed to me is the escape I’ve prayed for. I don’t waste a heartbeat as I dive inside the tunnel. Crowded with bunches of clear, colorful wiring that runs the length of the circular walls, I crawl on hands and knees for all I’m worth.

  I don’t stop when I glance down between my arms and legs to see one of the monsters has wedged his grotesque body inside, stuck in the mouth of the tunnel.

  I half-laugh, half-cry as I keep moving forward despite the throbbing pain of my injuries. My hip protesting the loudest with every movement, and I swear my jaw is broken, fractured at the least, as my bite is askew from the monster backhanding me across the shuttle for the gash I inflicted on his forearm. Judging by the looks of his pulverized face, my knife work is the least of his worries.

  The thought of that piece of shit getting what he deserves for what he did to Nulis puts a crooked smile on my battered face.

  Nulis. My enormous, handsome male. How could anyone live through a run-in with blood grass? As strong as he may be, being drained of blood is sure to kill anyone.

  The floor beneath me lurches. With another great heave, I lose my balance and drop to my side. I grab at bundles of wires as my body slides unchecked through the tunnel, but my bloody fingertips can’t get a grip, slipping off the smooth cables.

  A great rumble vibrates the tunnel walls.

  The monsters have found a way inside! They are the cause of all the chaotic movement. I’m like a hamster in a tube, trapped with no place to go except where gravity takes me.

  The metal floor pulls and burns my skin as I skid headfirst to god knows where. My stomach rolls and pitches with the tilting floor beneath me. I swallow hard, my gag reflex working overtime, but fails in the end as I empty the contents of my stomach, leaving a trail of vomit in my wake.

  “So much for breadcrumbs,” I mutter.

  What is wrong with me that I think the strangest things at the most inopportune moments.

  All thoughts are dashed aside when an explosion rings through my head. Heat and dust rush up the tunnel to greet me, clouding and thickening the air. My breathing device, lost long ago, isn’t here to spare me from suffocation.

  So, this is it. This is how I’ll die. Starved of oxygen, I’ll lose consciousness and never wake up. Better than the alternative. My injured body barely puts up a fight as my eyelids drift closed.

  Chapter 4

  The air stinks of burnt wires. I lie contorted, my limbs in disarray and me with no intention of rearranging my uncomfortable position. I wonder why I’m not dead.

  The deep cadence of Xuel’s voice far off in the distance is a tease that I want so much to be real. But, as woozy as my mind is, I know it’s only my imagination giving life to my wishful thinking.

  “Avay!” Xuel’s odd pronunciation of my name being hollered again is almost believable.

  “Avay!” Natu’s sweet voice joins in my fantasy.

  Wedge in this tube like a piece of waded up garbage, I softly weep for home. But, not for Earth. Not for the family that cares nothing for me, but for the males I think I hear calling out my name.

  “Avay!” Closer still, I think I hear Xuel’s call.

  Something
about the frantic nature of his tone gives truth to what I’m hearing.

  “Huurr…” Mine is a pitiful reply. My voice rough and flat from my bruised windpipe.

  “Avay?” More of a question this time.

  Oh my god, could it be…

  I pull in as much of the foul air as I can and try again, “Xuuul!”

  I’m met with a void of silence. I start to cry in earnest for the rescue that was only a trick conjured from my mind.

  “Avay!” Pounding on the metal walls jars me from my tears. “Where are you? Can you call out again? Avay?”

  My head clears and I’m certain of what I’ve heard! There is no way in hell my mind could ever fabricate that alien language. I may not understand what Xuel just said, but that was his voice and those were his words.

  “Huuree, Xuuul,” I cry out despite my crooked jawbone. “I am huuurreee!”

  I pound as hard as I can on the tunnel walls around me, kicking out with my feet to make as much noise for him to follow.

  I hear my males moving around close by, pounding back on the walls and calling for me.

  Desperation to lay eyes on my males gets me up and moving. I heft myself up on my elbows and drag myself along in a slow and arduous belly crawl toward their voices.

  “Xuuul!” I scream, struggling to wriggle my way through the cramped space that seems to be getting smaller.

  I hear metal clanging up ahead of me. The tunnel so tight now, I don’t think I’ll make it through.

  Light spills in from up ahead and a pocket of fresh air washes over my heated face. I push myself harder, determined to reach the patch of light.

  The light is suddenly blocked and Xuel’s head makes an appearance, his sleek, black horns catching and reflecting the blinking lights of the wire bundles.

  I cry out from disbelief as much as relief. Tears burst from my eyes, blurring my vision, but I keep inching along toward the familiar voice I thought I’d never hear again.

  “Come on, soweesis, you are almost there.” Xuel voice strains with an encouraging plea. I imagine him trying to muscle his huge body inside the small space.

  Reduced to a blur of black hair and two splotches of bright verdant green where his eyes should be, Xuel is a point up ahead that I must reach. I focus everything I’ve got left on moving forward, even just the tiniest of inches, but the tunnel seems endless and the farther I go, the farther away Xuel appears to be.

  My breathing grows harsh. My lungs burning from the tainted air. My limbs losing strength as I begin to sag and ultimately fall face-first onto the tunnel floor. I don’t even care when my jaw lets out a jolt of fresh pain. Just when my body is about to give up, I throw out a hand, not to pull myself another few inches, but to get as close to Xuel as I can before I lose consciousness.

  A heavy hand lands hard on my own. Strong fingers wrap around my wrist, and I whimper with agony as I’m pulled by my injured shoulder.

  The tunnel has me tight in its metal clutches, squeezing. A metallic anaconda that’s swallowed me whole, it’s becoming a real threat that it won’t let me go. But, Xuel won’t give up.

  Another hand joins the first and my muddled mind follows the volley of conversation between Xuel and Natu even though their words hold no meaning, the haste with which they speak gives the impression they are in a hurry to get me out.

  A new rumbling rolls over the tunnel. Metal groans like the bones of a shipwreck coming to rest on the ocean floor. I realize what’s happened. It isn’t the tunnel I’m trapped in that’s affected, it’s the entire spacecraft. Xuel and Natu have declared war on the monster’s spaceship.

  Not that I’m not happy to be rescued, but these meatheads have put themselves in harm’s way to come and get me.

  An explosion rocks the ship in a violent rattle. I’m jostled around inside my prison tube despite the lack of space.

  Hard-headed fools!

  None of us are going to make it out alive by the sounds of the ship breaking apart. We could, all three of us, end up floating around in space if we don’t get blown to pieces first.

  “Leeee meeee,” I yell out and go lax. “Leeee me, Xuuul. Saaaa yuuurseels.”

  My males maintain their grip on me. I wish I could make them understand my plea. These fine males don’t deserve to die like this, saving a woman not even of their own species that was bought for sex.

  The ship lists to one side taking me with it, but instead of backward, I slide forward. The tunnel spits me out and I land on a cushion of tight muscle in a heap of tangled arms and legs.

  My males are as surprised as I am that I’m suddenly free of the tight tunnel. Careful of my injuries, Natu gathers me in the cradle of his arms as they scramble out from under me and stand.

  I blink back the tears and blood so I can see their faces better. Going by their shocked expressions, I look worse than I feel, which is saying a lot.

  “What did they do to you?” Natu’s words ride a wave of pity.

  I look away and duck my head unable to hold his horrified expression.

  “I am going to kill every last one of them all over again,” Xuel barks out something and starts to storm off.

  “Our shoulsis needs the attention of the sorcerist, Xuel,” Natu’s words stop Xuel in his tracks. “There is no time to reenact vengeance. If there were, I would help you. Right now, we must get Avay off of this death trap. The ion capacitor is on the verge of implosion.”

  Xuel wheels around and heads back in our direction. He looks me over, not in disgust but with great empathy that warms and hurts my soul all at once. He cares for me, and I love him for it. I’m glad that I still have the chance to tell him.

  My males rush out of the room and into the narrow corridor, and that’s when I get my first look at the damage. Pieces of the monsters’ bodies are splattered on every surface. Their purple blood a gruesome paint that drips down the corridor walls. The thick stench of death makes me gag.

  Natu stumbles but keeps his footing as the ship is rocked again. My males exchange hasty words and break out into a run with Xuel in the lead.

  Natu holds me as carefully as he can, but there’s no help for the pain every one of his lengthy strides causes me as I’m jostled about.

  We careen around the next corner. Equipment and body parts are strewn across the floor of the shuttle bay. The monster’s shuttle has crashed into the wall and lays at an odd angel.

  I see the shuttle that we took to the golden planet, Letrutose, where I was stolen away from my males by that disgusting monstrosity. The same planet where I watched Nulis crumble to the hard ground.

  As we sprint to the shuttle and climb inside, all I can think about is what happened to the bronze hairband my Nulis gave me when I began his shoulsis, and he became one among my clov.

  I know I still wore them when the monster took me aboard his shuttle on Letrutose. Once I began my fight with the monster to keep him from launching us off the planet, I don’t know, everything happened so fast…I remember my hair swinging free as I was carried upside down by the ankle off the monster’s shuttle once we docked on the spacecraft.

  I know the hairband is here somewhere. I wish I didn’t have to leave it behind. I should hardly be worried about a trinket when I’m being rescued by my males, but I can’t help but feel I’m leaving a piece of Nulis behind.

  Did they leave his battered body on the planet below—

  Pain ratchets through my body as Natu settles me into the shuttle’s seat, and quickly straps me in. I moan and breathe through the agony.

  “I am sorry for your pain, Avay, but all will be well once we get back aboard the Neomsis.”

  My facial injuries must be worse than I think. Natu raises a hand to stroke my cheek but drops it to gently pat my arm. Sympathy very much alive on his gorgeous face.

  “Natu, now!”

  Xuel’s command prompts Natu into action. As he rushes to claim his seat next to Xuel in the driver’s seat, I notice the weapons hanging from belts around both their wa
ists. The pistol shaped devices must be the phoblast Natu spoke of.

  Natu had moved fast to collect Xuel and weapon up before storming the monster’s spacecraft to rescue me. By the carnage in the corridor, they had waged and won one hell of a war. As no monsters have tried to stop us from leaving, I’d venture to guess my males slaughtered every one of them.

  Again, I’m flooded with images of what took place on the planet’s surface.

  It was to be an outing to see and experience new and wonderous things. Nulis had asked if I was ready for an adventure. I was, but nothing like what I was going through now was on my list of shit to do.

  The shuttle trembles inside the bay. I close my eyes and place all of my faith in my males, their hands flying over the console in front of them as they prepare to pilot the shuttle off this garbage heap.

  I ignore the jolts of pain with every shudder of the shuttle and focus on Xuel and Natu’s clipped conversation. Our situation a frantic one as every unintelligible word they speak sounds deliberate.

  On a soundless lift off, the shuttle steadies to a smooth calm, floating above the pitching and yawing spacecraft surrounding us.

  A hard rumble turns to a deep pull of air like a vacuum being switched on. Xuel and Natu’s words come faster, more anxious. Natu’s hands fly over the console, but the shuttle doesn’t respond. We remain in a hover with no forward momentum.

  On a harsh curse, Xuel jumps up from his seat and rips off a section of paneling from the side of the shuttle’s hull revealing all sorts of tiny blinking lights and clear wiring. His huge hands fiddling with the circuitry before shouting orders to Natu. Natu says something back that causes Xuel to snap back.

  On a huff, Natu springs into action. Eyes forward, he touches two red-lit buttons simultaneously and swipes his hand over a blue rectangle and off we go, rocketed out of the monster’s spacecraft and out into space.

  Xuel is thrown to the back of the shuttle. I hear a grunt from where his huge body was tossed like a ragdoll, hurdled through the narrow aisle between the passenger seats. I try to turn around to check on him, despite the seat’s strap holding me in place, the forward velocity is forcing me into the seat.