“I said leave,” she hisses, baring her blunt, fangless teeth at me, her weapon never moving from being pointed at my face.
Small yet deadly indeed.
“I didn’t run all the way here while my home was being attacked to rescue an ungrateful alien!”
“You did, though,” she throws back. “And you’re the alien, remember? Now run back because we don’t want your kind here.”
I don’t want to scare her, but she’s infuriating.
“Listen here, zelfyre, you’re going to open this door and—”
ROARRRR!
Spinning around, I face off with the beast that most certainly did not run away. Henry starts sobbing again. The sabrevipe snarls, pacing back and forth as it sizes me up. Its attention keeps darting to the hole it made in the metal where Henry cries.
“Stella, keep him quiet. Hide. Get behind something!”
The creature charges and I aim, ready to blast it.
Click.
No!
My weapon doesn’t fire. I don’t have time to run or pull out a different zonnoblaster from my belt because the massive beast pounces on me. Its weight crushes me, knocking the breath from me. I see each of its sharp teeth as it opens its mouth, clamping down around my face. Because I’m wearing my mask, it grabs that instead, crushing it as it rips it away. I’m exposed to the elements, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m going to The Eternals and soon.
Henry screams for his mother and it steals the creature’s attention.
“No!” I bellow. “Forget them! You have me!”
The sabrevipe howls again, swiping its giant paw across my chest. Claws dig into the zu-gear, shredding through the rubbery material. I suck in a sharp breath when its claws puncture my flesh across my chest, tearing through it too. The pain is intense, but right now, I need to distract it.
I manage to grab my magknife and shove it into its side. The creature snarls, but it’s not enough to do real damage, only to keep its attention focused on me.
They need to hide. She needs to keep him quiet.
Metal screeches and I hope it means they’re getting someplace safe. The sabrevipe charges for the door. Blinking past the pain, I grab my useless zonnoblaster and throw it at the beast.
“Leave them alone! You can eat me, you empty nog mortarekker!”
With another growl, the creature turns and rushes me again. Its giant body crushes me beneath its weight. It opens its mouth, ready to bite my nog off, but I manage to push my claws into its breast, using all my strength to keep its sharp teeth from sinking into me.
So close.
I can smell its dank breath and its saliva drips all over my face. Even in this terror-filled moment, I wonder what sort of diseases it’s passing to me.
Claws dig into my shoulder as the sabrevipe attempts to draw me closer to its mouth. The pain is so intense, I feel myself blacking out.
I’m not ready to die yet. There’s still so much I want to do. Find a mate, for one. We received all those females to choose from and since Quinn didn’t want me as a mate, I had hope another one would.
I close my eyes, trying to imagine that life, even for a brief glimpse. I try to recall what the females looked like, but none stand out. The only one I see in my mind is the little one named Stella with the big blue eyes. Her puffy lips on mine. My giant hands on her small hips as she rides my cock. Her stomach filled out and swollen with my mortling growing inside.
The creature snaps its teeth closer than before, dragging me from my fantasy.
Of all the ways I thought I’d leave for The Eternals, this is the worst version I ever considered.
I hope it’ll be quick.
But most of all, I hope my imagined mate and her mortling made their escape.
3
STELLA
“Mama! I scared!” Henry screams above the growls coming from the other side of the mangled door.
I pull him close to my chest and cover his ears with my hands. “It’s going to be okay,” I say, more to myself than to him. “It’s going to be okay.”
It isn’t.
I can’t lie to myself about that, much as I want to.
The monster who saved us is going to die for it.
Can I live with that?
I thought I could.
I’ve learned I can do a lot of terrible, horrible things when faced with no way out. Can I let this man—er, alien—die for me? Will I?
The cacophony of sound assaults my ears. The monster’s screams. The beast’s roars and hisses. Henry’s wailing. The shuddering impacts of explosions from above. It drowns out my thoughts and with it, my fears.
I’m so afraid all the time. So afraid if I stop running, stop worrying about our next move that whatever is out there chasing us will catch me off guard and I’ll lose the most important thing in the world to me. Does that mean I have the right to let innocent people, however freakish they may be, die for us? Is that a line I’m willing to cross?