My Alien's Obsession Read online

  Stuff like this doesn’t happen to me. I attract assholes. Guys like my dad. Like Robbie.

  Shak gave me the sweetest kiss downstairs and didn’t even try to invite himself up. He looked at me like… I don’t know. Like I’m special. Precious to him, even though we just met.

  I breathe in deep and then let it out slowly. Could things actually be turning around for me? Finally?

  When I get to my apartment, I pull my keys out of my purse and unlock the door. I frown when the lock doesn’t turn. Did I forget to lock it? That’s not like me. Then again, I was so nervous and excited to go on the date, I might have forgotten.

  I push open the door and drop my purse, flicking the lights on at the same time.

  And then I scream and scramble backwards.

  But Bull, Robbie’s brother, doesn’t let me get a foot into the hallway before he’s grabbing my arm in a crushing grip and yanking me back inside.

  He slams the door shut and throws me to the floor. Pain explodes up my side.

  “Where’s my brother, bitch?”

  I scramble back from him but then notice the four other men lounging around my apartment, all in the leather cuts that signal they’re in the Devil’s Sons MC. The same as Robbie.

  Oh shit.

  “Robbie broke up with me,” I babble frantically. “My phone is in my purse. You can see for yourself.”

  “Bullshit. You were Robbie’s old lady. He talked nonstop about knocking you up. The dumb fuck was crazy for your stupid cunt.”

  No. No, what he’s saying can’t be true. It’s my worst nightmare. Robbie talked about kids sometimes but I always changed the subject. A lifetime with Robbie… I shudder.

  “What? You think you’re too good for my brother?”

  Shit. Being with Shak has thrown me off. Usually I’m so much better at hiding what I’m feeling.

  “No, no.”

  But it’s too late. Bull comes at me, dropping down to where I’m trying to crawl back on the floor. He grabs my jaw in his big hand and shakes my face so hard I’m afraid he’s going to accidentally snap my neck.

  “Tell me where my brother is, bitch.”

  I can’t help the useless tears that flood my eyes. “Look at my phone,” I whisper. “I’m telling the truth. I haven’t seen Robbie for days.”

  “I don’t care what your fucking phone says. His motorcycle is parked out back.”

  What?

  I try to shake my head but his grip is too firm on my jaw.

  “Now you’re gonna tell us what happened,” his eyes move lasciviously down my body, “or maybe we’ll just have to fuck it out of you and see what my brother finds so special about that cunt.”

  I scream. Or at least try to before Bull covers my mouth with his hand.

  He straddles me and starts to undo his belt with the hand not over my mouth.

  No. Please God, no.

  Living with Robbie for years was bad enough. He was controlling, jealous, violent, and I knew if I ever tried to leave, his entire club would come after me.

  But this? Will I survive this?

  Right then, though, my front door slams open.

  And then Shak is there.

  Shak? What the hell is he doing here?

  “No! Run!” I scream uselessly into Bull’s hand over my mouth. They’ll kill him.

  I don’t know how or why he’s here, but he has to run.

  Like a big dumb heroic idiot, though, he comes into the apartment instead of running away. He even shuts the door behind him. What the hell is he doing? If he somehow heard I was in danger, why the hell didn’t he call the cops?

  Not that the charges would stick. Bull and Robbie have the police in their pocket, but still.

  One of Bull’s guys whips out his gun. I scream and fight like a wildcat underneath Bull but it’s no use. Shak is going to die and it’ll be my fault.

  But then—

  I’m not even sure what happens. One minute, Shak is standing by the door and the next, he’s standing by the guy holding the gun. And then he snaps the guys neck. The man falls to the floor at Shak’s feet.

  What the—?

  But I barely have time to take in what just happened before Shak is over to the next guy pulling a gun. And then, bam, that guy falls, too.

  The third and fourth guys both have their guns up and start to shoot. But their bullets embed harmlessly in the wall. Shak is gone, moving so fast he’s all but a blur. He stops again behind the third man. Down he goes.

  The fourth man drops his gun and holds up his hands but when Shak turns his attention to Bull, I see the glint of a knife.

  “Knife,” I shout. Bull finally let me go and is backing away towards the door.

  Shak turns around and in a swift motion, sees the knife, and reaches out and breaks the guy’s wrist, if his screech of pain is anything to go by. It’s short-lived, though, because Shak quickly snaps his neck, too, cutting off the noise.

  Meanwhile Bull opens the apartment door and is clearly about to run, but the next second Shak has it slammed shut again, his arm around Bull’s throat.

  “Anything you want, man,” Bull starts to babble. “I can get you anything you want. Money. Girls. A Fucking island in the Caribbean. Anything you want. Just let me go.”

  Shak’s eyes blaze with fury. “I want you to have treated this female with respect instead of violence.”

  And then, with no more than a twitch of his muscles, the most dangerous man I have ever met, the President of the deadly Devil’s Sons MC falls to the ground, dead.

  I breathe out in shock, unable to believe what I just witnessed. Seriously, what the hell just happened?

  I lift my eyes to Shak.

  He’s dropped his hands and his head bows. “I am sorry you had to witness that violence.”

  I just shake my head and look around me at the five dead bodies now littering my apartment. “How? H-how did you just do that?”

  I look back to Shak.

  His eyes are troubled. “I am not supposed to say.”

  I blink. “Like it’s a secret government program? Are you some kind of super soldier?”

  Shak frowns, his brow furrowing. “It is a secret that only some in your government know. Very few. I am not supposed to say.”

  I get up off the floor, my entire body shaking. I gesture at the carnage around me. “Well I’d say I deserve a fucking explanation!”

  Shak looks confused. “I have saved your life. Does this not please you?”

  I lift my hands to my head. “Obviously, yes. I just— I just—” I throw my hands out in exasperation. “One of the neighbors is going to call the police about those gunshots. You better have an explanation or be able to call on your super secret government contacts.”

  The furrows between his brows grow deeper.

  “Secrecy is the first directive.”

  And then he starts to pick up the bodies, one at a time, picking them up like they’re nothing and— Why is he carrying them into my bathroom?

  I can only watch, dumbfounded, until he has all five bodies in the bathroom, two of which he has placed in my porcelain, clawfoot tub.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I am sorry, Juliet, but secrecy is the first directive.” His golden-brown eyes search mine. And then he closes the bathroom door in my face.

  “What? Hey.” I bang on the door. “Open this door right this second.”

  He doesn’t open the door. Instead I hear a strange, loud whooshing noise.

  I drop to my knees and look through the keyhole. This apartment building is old, hence the clawfoot tub and the sort of key holes that you can look all the way through.

  But I’m in no way prepared for what I see.

  What the—?

  I yank back from the door and fall on my ass. Then, my entire body trembling, I lean back in. And holy shit, my eyes weren’t lying.

  A stream of bright orange fire is shooting from Shak’s mouth. He’s breathing fucking fire. And it’s incinerati
ng the bodies he piled in the tub.

  My heartbeat races as I continue to watch. I can’t be seeing what I think I’m seeing. This can’t be happening.

  What the hell kind of super soldier can breathe fire? And the way he was moving earlier… That was… I mean, has our technology really advanced this far?

  Or, is the more likely possibility true?

  I fall back from the door, landing hard on my ass yet again.

  Oh my God, I’ve gone insane.

  I’ve lost it. I’m nuts. Totally Fruit Loops. There’s not a history of schizophrenia in my family that I know of but I never really knew my grandparents, so anything’s possible…

  My eyes shoot back towards the bathroom door. The whooshing sound is loud as ever.

  It’s official. My eyes drop closed. I’m so sorry, Mariah. I’m sorry that it ends this way.

  But it’s time to cart me off to the loony bin and throw away the key.

  Chapter Eleven

  Shak

  It takes longer than I would like to dispose of the bodies. I cannot imagine what Juliet is thinking in the other room. But if she is right and the law enforcement of this world will be coming to investigate, it will not do to leave these bodies behind.

  So as much as I want to rush out and provide comfort to her, I finish the task at hand. Once all five males have been reduced to ash, I turn on the water spigot and wash them down the drain.

  My heart all but stopped in my chest earlier when, after our date, I finally ambled back to my rooftop perch. I will never forgive myself for stopping in the flower shop to water the plants.

  Because once I finally got to the roof and looked in Juliet’s window, it was to find five males in her apartment threatening her, one sitting on top of her with his hand covering her mouth.

  I have never moved so quickly in my life. I leapt from the roof of the flower shop, landed in a roll and then fled across the street as fast as my legs would carry me. If only I still had my wings, I could have flown straight to her window. But I was limited to human legs, so I busted through the door at the bottom of the building, sprinted up the stairs, and then took care of those vermin who would dare threaten violence on any female, but especially my Juliet.

  Once the tub is clean, I wash my hands, wipe my brow, and return to her. She will have many questions and I do not know how I will answer them.

  But as soon as I emerge from the bathroom, I no longer care about secrecy or any of the directives.

  Juliet does not look well.

  She is sitting on the couch, her body scrunched in on itself, knees to her chest.

  “Juliet.” I hurry and sit beside her. She flinches back from me and my chest tightens. Then, in the distance, I hear sirens.

  We were warned of this noise.

  I jump to my feet. “It is the law enforcement. Juliet, we must go.”

  But Juliet just shakes her head. “None of this is real. You’re probably just a figment of my imagination.”

  “Your words make no sense to me, Juliet. But if the law enforcement comes to inquire, I do not believe you are of good mind to answer their questions.”

  I crouch down in front of her and offer a hand. I do not know if she is afraid of me now. “Juliet. Please do not be afraid. Will you come with me?”

  She blinks hard several times. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she whispers.

  Her blue eyes look so lost that the words come tumbling out of me. “I am sorry, Juliet. I will tell you all. But you must come with me now.”

  “There’s an explanation? I’m not crazy?”

  Crazy. It means not good in the head, I think. This happens to the Draci, most especially in the eldest of our race. I do not know why Juliet thinks she is crazy. But I shake my head. “No, you are not crazy. I will explain. Come.”

  Again, I offer her my hand.

  When she takes it and allows me to pull her to her feet, my heart sings.

  Together, we slip out the apartment door, down the stairs, and out into the night.

  Chapter Twelve

  Shak

  Juliet stares at me after I have explained. She brought us to a temporary dwelling and now we sit, each on our own bed.

  “You’re an alien.”

  “We are Draci,” I repeat. “From planet Draci in the Nextar galaxy system.”

  “And your ship was sent out to discover and explore. And share and exchange technological knowledge. Like the atmospheric filtering and the terraforming stuff.”

  I nod, feeling a twinge as she repeats my lie. It is what we have told her government and quite simply, I am afraid to be too forthright with her.

  It has been half an hour since we arrived in this temporary dwelling, this motel, and only now is she beginning to believe that she is not crazy—that all I have told her of my planet and my voyage here is truth.

  Well, mostly truth. She has already been through so much tonight. How would she react if I told her that I am on a mission to breed with a human female? And that I want that female to be her? It might overwhelm her all over again.

  Do I feel like a coward for not telling her? Yes. Yes, I do.

  “Holy shit, Ana was right,” Juliet whispers, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. The interior of the motel is drab compared to her colorfully decorated apartment. There are no chairs in the room, just the two beds with scratchy bed cloths. I sit far away from her only because I do not want to spook her by getting too close.

  “Ana?”

  “My friend, Ana. She kept saying that all that technology was way too advanced for us. That it had to be alien.”

  Then she frowns. “But what are the chances that I run into an alien right after I have that conversation with her?” She looks afraid. “This could still totally be all just in my head.”

  I feel frustrated. “I do not know how to prove to you that I am real. Can you not see me with your own two eyes? And smell me with your tongue?”

  “Wait, what?” Her head snaps my way.

  Now I am the one confused. “What do you mean, what?”

  “You smell with your tongue?”

  “You do not?”

  She laughs, a hand going to her forehead. “Uh, no. We use our noses to smell.”

  Oh. I tilt my head sideways and look at her nose. “I did wonder about that. Why humans had such an unnecessary protuberance.” I point to my nose.

  She laughs again and then runs her hands through her hair. “Okay, well that seems like too specific and random a detail for me to make up on my own.” She takes a deep breath, eyes watching my every move. “Tell me more about you. Maybe the more you tell me, the more I can believe this isn’t something that my insane brain didn’t just cook up.”

  “You are not crazy,” I stubbornly insist.

  She swings her legs over the side of the bed and stares at me. “Then prove it.”

  I mimic her posture, and with my long legs and the small space between the bed, our knees are almost touching. It reminds me of earlier tonight when things were so much simpler and I had her in my arms.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “If you’re a dragon alien, then why do you look human?”

  “Draci,” I correct again. “And not all of us do. I was altered so I could walk among you. But my DNA is still eighty percent Draci.”

  “But you’re twenty percent human?”

  I nod. “Yes.”

  “Are there a lot of you down here?”

  I shake my head. “There is a small diplomatic staff of four, who are quarantined wherever they go and only allowed to interact with specific government officials, but they have not been made to look human. And then there is me. I am the test case, sent out amongst the public to interact more freely, as if I am one of you.”

  She blinks and then whispers, “So, are you guys like here to take over? You’re obviously so much more technologically advanced than us. Plus stronger and faster. What could we possibly have to trade that would interest you?”


  I shake my head emphatically no. I decide not to tell her that there are those like First who would indeed like that very thing.

  But how can I explain my presence here otherwise? “We have problems on Draci. We lack…” I look to the ceiling as I try to find the words. “…diverse organic materials. Our geneticists perfected our…um, our livestock to the point of sterility. If we are to survive, we must introduce diverse genetic material.”

  Juliet slowly nods. “Okay. That…that actually makes sense. So you’re just here for our cows? Not to take over the world?”

  I ignore her first question and answer her second with a smile. “We’re not here to take over your world.” But then I cringe, knowing that is so far from the complete story. So I continue, “Though I will not deny that some of us would like to make a home here.”

  Juliet’s big blue eyes blink again. “You would?”

  I nod, even though I did not realize it was true until just now. All I have ever wanted is to be honored in my father’s eyes. To be first instead of last. To have stature and status among my people.

  But now? Now that I have met Juliet and come to this strange, foreign place?

  For the first time in my life, I have glimpsed another path. A path not spent striving for position in the eyes of those who have denigrated and ignored me my entire life. Instead, I see a home. I see Juliet. I see our children.

  I see happiness, something I had long given up any hope for.

  “I would.”

  Juliet’s eyes do not break from mine as she shifts and then moves from where she is sitting to my bed, her thigh right beside mine.

  “You feel real,” she says, lightly rubbing her middle finger down my forearm. I shiver and close my eyes as I fight for control of myself. If I react as I would like, I might scare her.

  “What does it feel like for you?” she asks. “Human skin?

  My voice is overly gruff as I respond. “Strange. Like my scales have been split open and my insides are exposed and raw. Except that it does not hurt. When touched by you, I feel the keenest pleasure.”

  Her finger ceases its journey. “Only when you’re touched by me?”