Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) Read Free Page B

stared from the shadows.
    A shape darker than its surroundings emerged from an offshoot behind us.
    It stopped in the middle of the passageway.
    The alien halted, so I strained to see why, lifting and twisting my body to witness another large shadow blocking the path ahead.
    Slumping over, I closed my eyes and waited to be savaged.
    An alien was an alien was an alien.
    It wouldn’t end well for me whatever happened next.
    The being holding me tensed then jerked forward.
    A shrill whine as scorching liquid slapped my thigh.
    Mass hit the dirt with a flat thud.
    The shadow behind took a hasty step back and melted into the darkness.
    The one in front was gone, disembowelled judging by the waft of iron-rich blood and faeces, and we moved again, faster than before.
    We made a number of turns, and there was no chance of me tracking his movements to plan an escape, even if I had somewhere to flee to.
    He jumped, vaulted over something high then landed crouched.
    We travelled the labyrinth until we exited from splinter in a mountainside boarded by jungle.
    With a silky hiss the alien plunged into the bush.
    We moved with such speed leather like leaves and hairy twigs stung like lashes from a whip.
    My eyes rounded as I walked my hands up the creature’s back to lift my torso and take in the strange natural world.
    Twin moons hung in a starry sky.
    Fog hugged the ground, and the lush vegetation pressing in on us was a luminous riot of colour searing my eyes after the empty void of the tunnels.
    The mournful howl of a hunting beast soared over the canopy to blend with the screech of a nocturnal raptor that dived into the undergrowth.
    Underlying it all, a hushed song akin to crickets chirruping.
    The scent of wet soil and green things was cleansing to my palate, welcome after the dank musk I’d grown accustomed to.
    The grind of stone moving against stone startled me into again using his lower back to push up.
    The alien ducked, stood, and then turned.
    Moonlight faded.
    The scraping noise returned then silence and artificial light.
    Frightened, I dropped to hang lifeless over his shoulder, forcing my mind not to dwell on what was about to happen.
    Gruesome images slid in regardless.
    The alien bent near double to set me on my feet then straightened in a fast jerk.
    The rough floor was cold.
    I hopped from foot to foot at the sudden tepid to freezing transition and held out my hands to keep him at bay.
    We stared at each other.
    The alien hadn’t been the biggest of the males but he may as well have been.
    His aggressive posture obliterated the meagre courage I had left.
    Musky and humid, the den he brought us to was dimly lit by a stark light wrapped in rusted wire.
    It was precariously secured to the curve where wall met domed ceiling.
    My gaze whipped around.
    Oblong, the space was no more than fifteen feet across and twenty feet deep, a sad bundle of blankets shoved into a corner.
    A stone worktable lined the straightest wall holding a chaotic assortment of hooked screws, bolts, a jumble of cords, and a snarl of corkscrewed wires.
    The reddish-grey clay walls were covered in junk.
    At a longer, less harried look, I recognised circuit boards and random pieces of electrical mishmash.
    Wedged into another corner was a blackened mesh shelf fastened to the wall above a ring of glowing pebbles.
    That was all there was inside the pitiable hole the creature surely lived.
    Piteous or not, it’s more than I have to my name.
    Chest tightening, I remembered to inhale, and hints of damp rock and smooth chalk flooded my nose.
    My attention snapped to the alien when he shifted.
    Menacing to behold.
    I shuffled backwards until my shoulder blades bumped metal nailed to the wall.
    Panting fright, I sank until my bottom hit the floor.
    Even motionless he looked fierce.
    He was shaped human.
    My gaze scudded over his immense frame and my pulse froze.
    A bestial countenance bore equivalent features in the right places, but beyond that I failed to