Alien Romance: Hunter: Space Commander's Fated Mate (Space Beasts Book 3) Read online

  “Just leave me alone! I just want to get to the city. I won’t tell them you killed that guy, I swear.” Juliet didn’t know if she meant it. After all, should she really let a murderer walk around? But if it was what the guy was worried about, if he didn’t want her talking, she would tell him what he wanted to hear. “We can both be on our way.”

  “The city?” he repeated, “You’re far from the city. Are you from that crash over there?” The man nodded in the direction of where they’d just come from, not that Juliet knew. Too distracted with the chase, she’d lost all sense of direction. But she assumed that was what he meant, nodding weakly.

  “They’ll know I’m gone,” she warned him, “They have record that I was on that space shuttle, and when they don’t find me, they’ll come looking. Please… Just point me in the right direction, and I can make my way to the city. They won’t know anything that happened here.”

  The man laughed. If he wasn’t a stranger, if she wasn’t afraid of him killing her, Juliet might think his smile charming. He had a dimple on his left cheek, just one, and Juliet resisted the urge to touch it. There was something in his eyes when he looked at her, a hunger… It both scared and intrigued her. “The city doesn’t care about Dwynlins. They might give me a reward for killing one.”

  Dwynlins? Juliet had never heard the term before, and she was sure that she would have by now. She studied her vacation planet pretty seriously, especially since it was a work study. Juliet refused to be the least prepared out of them all. Not to mention, studying for it had been a great distraction from her break-up. “Where am I?” she asked suddenly, “What planet?”

  He frowned. “Tell me where your ship is from.”

  “I asked you first,” she replied, raising an eyebrow.

  “I asked second. And I could always just snap your neck if you want to be difficult.”

  His eyes didn’t look upset or angry, like he wanted to kill her. And he didn’t have that predatory smirk on his face like he did when he was stalking his fallen bowman. Juliet had a feeling that he wasn’t truly threatening her, at least not right now. Just reminding her that she had no power or say-so in this conversation.

  She pressed her lips together firmly, then sighed. “Earth.”

  There was a moment of silence between them. Juliet stared into his eyes, trying to catch what he was thinking. She realized, while staring, that his eyes were a shade of purple, lilac. She’d never seen that on a person, except for when they wore contacts. Determined not to get distracted, Juliet tried to focus on what his eyes were saying, but they really weren’t saying a lot. Besides the fact that he was indeed thinking about something, almost calculating.

  And then, suddenly, he yanked her up, throwing Juliet over his shoulders. He kept one arm tightly around her legs to keep her from kicking, the other around her waist. “What are you doing?!” she cried, trying to squirm and twist her way out of his grip, but he was too strong. It wasn’t happening. “Let me go!”

  “You’re coming with me, earthling,” he said simply, “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  But she didn’t listen. “Where are we going?!” Juliet demanded. He didn’t keep his word, never answering any of her questions. She still had no idea what planet she was on, let alone where she was headed to right now.

  “Somewhere no one else is going to find you.”

  Chapter Three

  She didn’t know how long they’d been walking. Or, well, how long he’d been walking. Juliet tried to get more information out of the man, but he hadn’t told her much. He was a quieter type, which normally she would appreciate, if she weren’t in this situation.

  Juliet was never considered a talker back home, and that was something she never wanted to change about herself. Small talk and shooting the breeze seemed pointless to her, simple pleasantries that actually meant nothing. Normally, she was comfortable in the silence.

  But she needed answers.

  The only one she got, though, was his name. “My name is Zalgar,” he told her as they walked along a river. Juliet watched water trickle over orange rocks. They reminded her of home, how the creatures jumped out of the water just to fall back in.

  They were like salmon, except, of course, for the fact that they looked nothing like salmon, or any fish, back home. The fish she saw looked far more intimidating, with sleek, dark scales and two heads. “What is yours?”

  “Juliet,” she answered, watching another leap through the air in a perfect arc, “Juliet Moore.”

  He didn’t respond to her after that, didn’t ask Juliet about herself, nor did he answer any questions she directed at him. There was no more talking until the sky and grass and river started to fade away into darkness. All too soon, Juliet realized she was at the mouth of a small cave. It was a thin entrance, hardly big enough to fit the both of them if they were standing side-by-side.

  “We’re almost there,” Zalgar said.

  She heard something creak open and was surprised when she felt warm, dry air. “Where are we?” she asked, nothing accusatory in her tone anymore. She was purely curious, it still being too dark for her to see anything.

  “Hold on,” he replied. Setting her down, Juliet fell to the ground slowly, trying to grasp at her surroundings. She felt a cool, rocky floor, and as her fingers pushed forward, she felt fur, laid out flat on the ground, like a carpet.

  Everything became clear once Zalgar lit the fire pit. She was in a home, a small, tucked away cavern that he made his own. “How… How did you do all this?” Juliet asked, looking around in wonderment.

  The walls were all made of rock, but they were chipped away to become flat and smooth. All in all, the room was just only a little smaller than her studio apartment, and that was about 800 square feet by itself. He would have had to do this all, carve away and sand at all the rocks. And get the furniture, too… It wasn’t anything fancy, not even really rustic either. It was all clearly handmade, some of it crudely done. The bed looked like it was just a bunch of furs piled on top of one another, but there was a table that looked sturdy enough.

  “How is there a fireplace?”

  Zalgar looked around his home and shrugged, not at all as impressed with his surroundings as Juliet was. “I found it while hunting. It’s by the river, so it’s decent for fishing… And it’s hard to find,” he answered. He moved away from the fireplace and went to a bag over by his bed, fishing his around inside to find something.

  Juliet scooted back until her back hit the wall, both of them now on opposite sides of the room. She still had no idea what his intentions were. “Only took a few months of carving away… And for the fireplace, I carved upwards to make a tunnel. Keeps air fresh.”

  She nodded. It made sense, the process in how he did it. Juliet had just never seen anyone take the time. On Earth, they could build 20-story apartment in two weeks. Technology within the construction industry was always being improved on. But it was different.

  They all looked the same, the apartment buildings and houses. There was no craftsmanship, no awe-inspiring structures that only left you in awe because a person, with no help from machinery at all, had made it.

  “I’m going to fix your wounds,” he told her carefully, as if speaking to a wounded animal. Juliet’s eyes widened, not quite trusting him.

  “I can fix my own, I’m fine,” she insisted.

  Zalgar raised an eyebrow and motioned with his eyes over to the singular chair in the room. “You’re going to sit there, and I’m going to fix you.” His tone was firm, leaving no room for an argument.

  He didn’t have to be so obvious in pointing out again that Juliet had no idea where she was and that he could very well just kill her right now if he wanted to. So she did what was asked of her. The wood from the chair creaked underneath her, but it held without a single budge. Not great at making beds, but chairs are good, apparently, she thought to herself.

  “Tell me how you got here,” he said, his hand reaching for her ankle slowly. H
er heart sped up slightly as Zalgar’s rough fingertips brushed along her skin, searching for the wounds. Juliet was glad she decided to wear shorts for the trip. They went to mid-thigh, made of pink denim.

  It was all covered in dirt and grass stains now, but at least they weren’t full-length pants. The awkwardness that would have come with taking them off would have been too much. Especially with someone who may or may not end up killing her.

  Juliet took a breath, doing as he asked again. “I was on my way to Varuna,” she began, “We all were – it was just a regular shuttle.”

  “No military?”

  Juliet frowned, then hissed when he found the cut from the root. Zalgar took note of it and took something from the bag that he carried over. It looked like a shell of something with a liquid inside, though with the lack of light in the room, she couldn’t tell what it was. “No, why would there be military?” she asked irritably, “We were all just going for vacations. Well, I mean, most were. I was going abroad for school, for a work study.” She noticed Zalgar give a confused look, though he was more focused on getting whatever was inside of the jar out.

  “I was going there to learn more about science, and work with it. Varuna is an Allied planet, though. There’s no need for military.”

  He nodded, then glanced up at Juliet, their eyes meeting. “This Varuna place might be Allied, but Rolq’thos is not.”

  Rolq’thos. Another name she’d never heard of. Juliet felt uneasy. “Where am I?” she asked again, “Where am I really? How close to Varuna?”

  Zalgar frowned. “You’re on Rolq’thos, a planet that does not want any part of the Alliance. In fact, we make it our duty to keep them out. And as for Varuna… I’ve never heard of it.”

  She didn’t know what to think anymore. Rolq’thos wasn’t in any of her textbooks back home, nor was it mentioned in any of the materials she’d studied before going on the trip. And it made sense, if they weren’t part of the Alliance. There were many planets that didn’t want to work with the Alliance, though mostly that was because of bad blood between old planets.

  Not everyone was as new to space travel as Earth. There were space wars before humans were even making sci-fi movies about them, and there were some grudges that some races couldn’t forgive. From the sounds of it, this wasn’t the case with Rolq’thos. They just wanted to be left alone.

  “I have to get home,” she told Zalgar, desperation in her voice. What was he going to do with her, then? She wasn’t supposed to be here, wasn’t welcome here… And if the ships she saw belonged to Rolq’thos, and then they weren’t going to let her leave peacefully.

  He began to rub what was in the jar onto her wound. It was an ointment of sorts, and felt oily on her skin. After settling into the cut, she could feel it start to burn, but not painfully. It was almost cold, like someone had put peppermint toothpaste on her. She watched as he grabbed a thin piece of cloth to cover the wound. “Zalgar-“

  “I know you want to get home,” he interrupted, finally acknowledging Juliet’s plea, “If you think I want to kill you still, I don’t. I don’t play their games of politics anymore.”

  “Anymore?”

  Zalgar looked up with a withering glare, and she knew not to ask anymore. “You’re not going to survive out there. The forest is large, and even if you make to the capital city, you can’t get home. They’ll kill you right on their pretty, white doorstep.”

  Her stomach churned even more. Juliet’s most stressful experience in her entire life was when she was racing across campus to take a final, having stayed up so late studying for it that she’d slept in. This time beat that by a long shot. Her body was tired and it hurt everywhere. Her mind was shot with no idea on how she was supposed to get back home when she was on an unknown planet full of people that wanted her dead.

  “So what do I do?” What else was she supposed to ask? Juliet was at a loss with her situation.

  Zalgar didn’t respond for a long time. She didn’t press him, knowing he was thinking. And at least she’d be getting some well-thought, honest feedback. While he thought, he moved onto her next wounds.

  There were welts and bruises from the straps on her space gear, and they burned to the touch. He grabbed a new jar, the contents filled with something thicker and paler in color than the previous oil.

  Zalgar moved his hand forward after spreading it on his fingers, brushing along her left leg. Juliet gasped, jerking away from the pain. He looked up at her. “This is sap from the j’klo trees. They’ll bring down the swelling,” he explained, “Give it a few minutes, and it’ll start to feel better.”

  “Politician… Hunter… Medic…” Juliet mused, taking a deep breath and resituating herself on her seat, “Is there anything you can’t do?” Humor… Humor distracts me from pain, she thought to herself. Her friends would think it funny, in the ironic way. That the girl that was so serious was making a joke now.

  “I wasn’t a politician. I was a warrior,” he replied grumpily, applying the sap again. Juliet focused on her breathing, fingers squeezing on the edges of her seat so as not to move. “And when you live out here on your own, you pick up some skills.”

  Juliet sighed. “I guess I’ll have to figure that out for myself if I can’t get out of here.”

  Finally, Zalgar started in on a plan, or at least some semblance of one. “I can get you out of the woods and to the city, easy. The only problem is keeping you alive in the city, and getting you to a ship.”

  Her eyes widened. “So… You’ll help me?”

  Zalgar looked up, appearing amused. “What do you think I’m doing now?” he asked, motioning down to her wounds, his hands still on her upper thighs. She hadn’t even realized that they were up so high until just then, causing her to suck in a breath. When he tore his hands away, she regretted it, missing the warmth there.

  For the first time, Juliet smiled, their gazes meeting. Could she really trust him? No, not really. But Zalgar was maybe the only alien here that didn’t have a vendetta against Earth and the Alliance. And in this kind of situation, she was going to take what she could get.

  “If you’re going to stay with me, there’s a few rules,” he said, “The first rule is that we’re sharing the bed.”

  “What!” Juliet protested immediately, shooting up from the chair, “I-I… I don’t think that’s very appropriate… I don’t really know you that well, and you don’t know me, and-”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “If you want a separate bed, you’re going to have to make your own. Meaning hunting your own animal, killing it, skinning it, and making a bed out of it. Or you can sleep on the rock hard floor until I find a way to get you home. What are you going to choose?”

  Juliet resented the fact that he thought she couldn’t do it, but she definitely wasn’t going to rise to the challenge… Simply because, well, she knew she couldn’t do it either. She’d never killed an animal before, besides the occasional bug that found its way into her old apartment. And he was already being so nice as to let her stay with him, that asking for him to go and make her own bed was a bit much.

  She pursed her lips. “Fine,” Juliet agreed, “But… At least three inches away at all times, got it?”

  “What are inches?” Juliet explained the measurement, and after a few minutes, Zalgar laughed. “Fine, good luck with that.”

  “No, you have to do it too!” she argued.

  Zalgar held up two fingers. “Second rule: you don’t get to make any more rules.” Then, three fingers. “Third rule… You earn your keep.”

  Juliet’s eyes widened. He already mentioned sharing the bed… Did he mean that she had to…? “What… What does that entail?” she asked, cursing the fact that her voice shook a little.

  If Zalgar noticed, he didn’t make mention of it. “Meaning you either cook the meals or find the meals, and you clean up after yourself. Simple enough?”

  Chapter Four

  The first month was far from simple.

  It was clear that Zalgar w
asn’t used to living with someone else, and Juliet wasn’t used to living in the woods. There was only the one bed and the one chair. One bowl, one plate… Zalgar had to start using his hands to eat, though he didn’t seem to mind that so much.

  Juliet tried a couple of times but fussed about getting grease from meat on her hands enough that it was easier for him to hand her over the plate. The chair, Juliet let Zalgar have, mostly because she had to be careful with how to sit on it, given her bandages and bruises. And as for the bed…

  Juliet always woke with her back curled against him. Which was fine enough, despite the fact that the three inches wasn’t there. And each morning, she was greeted with something hard between his legs, pressing into her back.