Alien Monster Read online

  Alien Monster

  Sophie Stern

  Copyright © 2016 by Sophie Stern

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Melody Simmons // www.ebookindiecovers.com

  Summary

  Trapped together in space

  Brought together by fate

  Wilma has never had a serious boyfriend.

  She’s never had a serious anything in her life.

  When she finds herself on The Dragon’s Bite with a Reslenoauan who makes her question everything she knows, she realizes she can keep playing it safe, or she can take a chance with the monster.

  This is a short story that takes place in the same world as Alien Dragon and Alien Beast; however, it is a standalone story and can be enjoyed on its own. HEA with no cliffhanger.

  For my readers

  May your love shine bright

  Contents

  Alien Monster

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Other Books by Sophie

  Senior Airman Polar Bear

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  9.

  Chapter 1

  “It’s just you and me, beautiful,” the masculine voice brought Wilma back from her daydreams, and she turned to Les with a start.

  “What?” She whispered. Her voice came out quieter than she thought it should, but Les didn’t seem to mind. If anything, the whisper seemed to calm him. He was always so tense, but when she spoke to him quietly, Les always relaxed just a little bit.

  Wilma liked that.

  She liked knowing she could have a calming effect on him. She liked knowing she could be the reason his day wasn’t quite so terrible.

  “It’s just you and me,” he rubbed her shoulder gently and pointed to her bag, which was sitting on the bed in her little room. It was a small space, but it was hers. She still stayed in Lesmentarao’s room sometimes, but Wilma liked having her own place to be alone and regroup.

  It made her feel like she was still her own person.

  It made her feel like she hadn’t sacrificed herself for a man.

  “You’ll probably want your bag.”

  “Why do I need my bag?” She raised an eyebrow at the big alien. He was so fucking perfect it made her sick. He was big and strong and brave. He was so many interesting things wrapped in a strong package. No wonder her sister had fallen for a Reslenoauan. If Wilma didn’t watch herself, she might have the same fate. “Where are we going?”

  “Mirroean is too beautiful to skip.” Les wrapped his arms around her and tugged her close to himself. Wilma breathed in his scent. “Luke and Willow are going to be working on the ship for a few hours, at least. Let’s go explore. What do you say?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Want to have an adventure with me?”

  Wilma definitely, absolutely, positively wanted to have an adventure with Les. She absolutely wanted to spend the day with him: just the two of them. She wanted to have his full attention. She wanted everything he had to offer. She wanted everything he could give.

  And she wanted to give a little bit, too.

  Wilma had been living on The Dragon’s Bite with Luke, Les, and her identical twin sister, Willow, for over a month now. Her sister had completely recovered from the emotional trauma of surviving a shipwreck, almost being murdered, then almost being murdered once more. She had managed to create a quiet life with Luke on the ship and the two of them had settled into a new sort of normal.

  It was Les and Wilma who weren’t normal.

  It was Les and Wilma who were the odd ones out on the ship.

  Oh, they were sleeping together. They were definitely, totally sleeping together as often as possible. They just weren’t dating, or in love, or in any sort of relationship.

  It drove Willow crazy.

  She didn’t seem to understand how her sister could be intimate with a man she didn’t love and Wilma didn’t really have the patience or the interest to try to explain.

  After all, what could Willow possibly know about her situation?

  Willow had been cast aside by their parents. She had been disowned, abandoned, and she had managed to use that sadness for good. She had cultivated this persona that was sweet and brave and strong, but Wilma wasn’t her sister. She wasn’t the same. When they had been separated, it had almost killed her.

  She had almost gone mad with grief.

  She had almost gone mad with loneliness.

  Willow had watched her sister from afar. She had played the good girl, pretended she was listening to her parents and their plans for her future, but she had just been biding her time. She had just been waiting.

  Being a socialite meant Wilma could access areas of Colony 12 that others couldn’t. Mars was a big place, but she had learned the ins and outs of the city. She had figured out where the secret bad-guy hideouts were, where the gangs gathered, where the people who wanted to bring down the government liked to get together. She had also learned that sometimes, men in suits with piercing eyes didn’t blink twice when a well-dressed social princess walked into the wrong area of a building.

  She went to all the right parties, all the right events, and Wilma just listened. She listened and waited and figured out what was going on, and she figured out what was going to happen to her sister and she saved her.

  She saved her.

  Now she was living on a space ship with a couple of rogue aliens and her sister, and life finally felt okay. Life finally felt close to normal. Life finally, after all this time, felt safe.

  Her parents had wanted her to get married. Willow had been the first choice for Anthony Weathermore’s bride, but after she refused, Wilma’s parents wanted her to take her sister’s place as his devoted.

  She just couldn’t.

  She couldn’t do it.

  She dodged the question and avoided him and their parents until Willow returned to Mars. She avoided her mother’s glares and comments until she was able to escape with her sister. She hid because it was the only thing she was good at anymore.

  And now she was done hiding.

  Now she was ready to be herself.

  She was ready to be out in the world.

  She was ready to be brave.

  “Wilma?” Les asked again, catching her attention. He reached down to her and stroked her cheek. His big, rough, calloused hand felt hard against her skin, but she didn’t mind. He made her feel so tiny and so safe: two things she almost never felt.

  “Yes, Les. I want to have an adventure with you.”

  “Good,” he grinned, and that boyish smile just about melted her heart. “Let’s get going.”

  ***

  Mirroean was a planet unlike any other. Its surface was almost completely water. This made it one of the most expensive places to live and one of the most difficult places to visit. To go to Mirroean, you had to have money, and lots of it.

  Wilma did not.

  Luckily for her, money didn’t seem to be an object with Les. She wasn’t sure exactly how much he and Luke seemed to make, but it was a lot. The two of them owned their own ship and used it to transport items of value to different planets. They were traders, transporters, and they charged out the ass for their interplanetary services.
r />   They were more than that, though.

  They were best friends, brothers.

  Les and Wilma talked a lot at night. After sex, when they lay together in his bed, they would whisper and share their secrets. He would tell her stories of his childhood and she would talk about hers, too, but then Les would drift off to sleep and Wilma would sneak off to her own room.

  It was stupid and probably a little petty, this deep-rooted need to have her own space, but she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t give up her own room. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let herself get caught in Les’ web of wonderfulness because if Wilma let her guard down, she would stay there forever.

  She would stay with him forever.

  And Wilma didn’t want to let herself get hurt.

  She was supposed to be safe with her family. She was supposed to be safe on Mars. That’s why they’d left Earth long ago. They’d left for safety and for comfort. They’d left for a future, but she didn’t have one.

  Her family had quickly slipped into high society. Earth money talked and theirs talked loudly, but the money was running out. Wilma wanted to think her mother had good intentions. She wanted to think her mother cared about her and Willow and their futures and their lives, but she knew it was a lie.

  Her mother cared about parties.

  Her mother cared about space trips.

  Her mother cared about herself and nothing else.

  As soon as Willow was disowned, Wilma was the one who was supposed to get married. As soon as Willow vanished, cut off from the family, Wilma was instantly considered the heir. She was 25, and in her mother’s eyes, that was long past marrying age.

  She was 25 and her mother wanted a son-in-law.

  The only thing Wilma wanted was freedom.

  She gripped Les’ hand as they walked on the floating sidewalk that led from the harbor. He didn’t make her feel trapped or scared. He didn’t make her feel stupid or lost. No, if anything, Les rooted her. He grounded her. He gave her the strength to keep going when she didn’t think she could.

  “It’s beautiful,” she murmured, taking care not to lose her footing as they walked. She was more agile now than she used to be. Months of training and learning how to fight, how to be stealthy, had changed her. She was more graceful now.

  She was more sure of herself.

  Still, there was a part of Wilma that remained a scared little girl. She tried to keep that part of herself buried, though. Fear and pain had no place in her world now. She needed to be brave, to be bold. Wilma needed to be strong.

  That was something Les had no problem with. He was the strongest man she’d ever met. Luke was bigger in size, to be sure, but strength wasn’t just about size. It was mental, too, and there were layers to Lesmentarao that Wilma suspected very few people had ever seen

  “Not as beautiful as you,” Les murmured, offering her his hand.

  “What a line.”

  “Doesn’t make it not true, princess.” She cocked her head as she looked at him.

  “Why do you call me that?”

  “Princess?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I’m not, you know. I’m not royalty.”

  “It’s a term of endearment.”

  “It seems awfully familiar.”

  “Really?” He asked, stopping in the middle of the walkway. He turned to Wilma and pulled her flush against himself. She could feel every muscle in his hard chest. She could feel the heat radiating from his big body. She could feel his heart beating so hard it might explode. She could feel everything.

  A shiver shot through Wilma’s body. He always had this effect on her and she didn’t know why. She shouldn’t react so strongly to Les, but she did. Her body quivered as he held her. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her ear, ignoring the people who were walking by and jostling them as they tried to pass.

  “You want to play that way, darling? You want to pretend I’m not completely familiar with every inch of your perfect body?”

  “I-” She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t say anything: not with him so close to her like this. She couldn’t do anything but breathe: in and out, in and out. She needed to focus on breathing. She needed to focus on not passing out from the intensity of the moment.

  “You want to pretend I haven’t seen every inch of your soft, pale skin? You want to pretend I haven’t spent hours licking every bit of you from your breasts to your sweet little pussy? You want to pretend I haven’t buried myself in you, want to pretend I haven’t lost myself in you?”

  “Les,” she murmured, closing her eyes. Her hands were pressed against his chest still, only now she gripped his shirt, trying to pull him even closer to herself. He wasn’t close enough. They were pressed completely against each other, but somehow, it wasn’t enough.

  “Because I have, baby. I’ve done all of those things and I’m going to do them again the first chance I get. Not being inside of you is driving me crazy. Anytime we’re apart, I’m thinking of you and that sweet body of yours. I’m always thinking of you and all the naughty little things we do together. So yes, that gives me the fucking right to call you my princess.”

  Les gripped her hair and tugged her head back so she was looking up at him, then he kissed her fierce and hard and with all the intensity of the universe. He kissed her like the stars were exploding, like there was nothing in the world but the two of them.

  He kissed her until she felt faint, and then he kissed her a little bit more.

  Chapter 2

  Lesmentarao was going to go crazy. He already was, a little, if he was honest with himself, and Les didn’t believe in telling lies. Wilma was the most perfect thing to ever happen to him and he didn’t plan on letting her go.

  Of course, he had to get her to agree to it, and that was part of what this entire Mirroean excursion was all about.

  He was going to ask her to be his mate, to be his forever, to love him for always. He knew good and well what he thought of Wilma. He knew good and well he would always want her.

  There had never been another like her.

  Oh, he’d been with women before. Lots of women. Some of them had been wonderful and some of them had been sweet, but none of them had been Wilma. None of them had made him feel the way she did.

  There was something about her that made him feel like he was bigger than he was. He was tall, even for a Reslenoauan, but Wilma made him feel bigger.

  She made him feel like one of those blue guys from the Hidden Planet.

  She made him feel like a monstrous giant.

  She made him feel fucking amazing.

  He stopped kissing her because if he didn’t, he’d start fucking her right in the middle of the walkway, and they were already obstructing the flow of foot traffic.

  “Come on, little one,” he murmured, taking her hand. She didn’t protest this time. Instead, she just followed him. They made their way past the people pushing to get to the harbor and people pushing to get to the nearest town and people pushing just for the sake of pushing.

  The pathway curved and he went to the right. On either side of them, gorgeous water twinkled in the sunlight. He would never learn to handle the beauty of this planet. Too bad it was so damn expensive to live here. As they walked from the docking area, he saw more and more people offering boats for rent and sale to visitors.

  “Need a guide? Get one now!”

  “Boats for rent. Boats for rent. Boats! Boats! Boats!”

  “Want a boat for an hour or a boat for a day? Get your cruiser here.”

  “Where are we going?” Wilma whispered, and Les realized she was gripping his hand very tightly. He hadn’t noticed. She was quite a spirited fighter, but she was still small compared to him. She was still a tiny little human.

  “We need transportation,” he said. “And I happen to know a guy.”

  “Monster!” A voice called out.

  “Ah, here’s the place,” Les said, turning once more. On either side of the pathway, boats filled the water. Some were big
and some were small. Some were meant for housing and some were restaurants and some were for making your way around the little planet without having to go on foot for hours.

  “Monster?” Wilma asked, but there was no time to explain. Les felt the little trolls wrap their arms around his legs and Les stopped walking. He didn’t want to trip and fall into the water just then. Not ever. He could swim with the best of them, but he didn’t want to hurt the tiny little inhabitants of the planet and the truth was that Les towered over them.

  He was a giant and they were very, very small.

  “Hey boys,” he muttered as the three Delmartkae brothers hugged and squeezed his legs. The little tikes barely came up to his knees, but they had the best prices and the best boats on Mirroean, at least in Les’ opinion. Besides, after he’d saved their lives a few years back, they always cut him a good deal on his rentals.

  “It’s good to see you,” Delmoro Delmartkae said.

  “So good,” Delilane Delmartkae said.

  “Yes, yes,” the third brother, Delk Delmartkae agreed.

  “And who is this?” Delmoro asked, motioning to Wilma.

  “A mate!” Delilane and Delk shouted at the same time.

  “I’m Wilma,” she said, smiling shyly.

  “A mate!” They all said again, and moved from hugging Les to hugging Wilma. She took it in stride, hugging them back and smiling as they wrapped their arms around her.

  “All right, boys,” he said after a moment. “Much as I’d love to sit and watch you hug my girl all day, we’re in need of transportation.”

  “Ah,” Delmoro said. “A boat!”

  “Yes, if you’ve got one available,” Les said. “Something small, but quick. I want to show Wilma around the planet and we only have today.”

  “We have just the thing,” Delilane and Delk said in unison.

  “That’s amazing,” Wilma whispered. “How do they do that?”

  “They’re triplets,” Les explained. “No one knows what planet they’re from. They were found on Mirroean as infants and a widow took them in and raised them as her own. The three brothers nodded and Wilma smiled at them.