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BOOK: No Way Back
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Briefly, he wondered how the remaining two scientists in their fiveperson team had fared. Fire from their destroyed space pod had separated them. The last time he’d seen Vonna, the team leader, she’d hung back, firing her weapon nonstop. Kelly, the quiet one of the group, had been a fair distance away at the start, and the creature had veered her way, or so he’d thought.

Through his earpiece, he’d heard Kelly scream for help and then communications had died. He’d watched the four-legged, wide-headed creature with its two long tentacles bearing down on her, but just as he turned to assist his teammate, a roar to his right caught him off-guard. Obviously there’d been more than one of the nasty beasts. The planet’s surface rumbled again. The beast screamed, as if the frustration of losing his prey caused him great pain. The walls in the pit shook, sifting dirt onto Jake’s head. Clumps broke off and tumbled down the sides to his feet. “Shit!” Fearful of being buried alive, he shoved the laser into the loop on his flight suit, grabbed a thick root poking through the center of the hole, and scrambled upward. With his legs braced in a V

across the opening, he angled his body to see beyond the tangled roots to the surface. Which would be worse --to be devoured or suffocated?

Strange garbled shouts pierced the air and the next thing he knew, a pair of tanned legs jumped into his cone-shaped pit. A heel glanced off his thigh, pushing his leg down, and he dropped like a rock. A heavy body wedged into the narrow space with him at the bottom, smashing Jake against the dirt wall.

He stared straight into a man’s light brown eyes. For a long moment, Jake saw his shock reflected in the stranger’s face.

Only the creature’s skin, which looked like polished brown speckled granite, marked him as non-human. There was a lot of skin to see. The intruder wore nothing but a loincloth, which had flipped up when he slid down Jake’s body.

Other than the strange skin and wild mane of shoulder-length sable hair, the alien reminded him of his marathon runner friend who was two years younger than Jake and twice as good-looking. A muted starburst of gold sparkled in the alien’s brown eyes, giving his expression an air of friendliness. Not that Jake trusted his what-a-nice-surprise look. Then the alien grinned. A dimple in each cheek made him look more human, and roguish. The women on Earth would drool all over him. The newcomer gripped Jake’s shoulders, giving him a good look at the bulging biceps and sinewy muscles on his forearms, and a feel for the alien’s strength. No doubt he’d be a tough opponent if they ended up in a fight. He hoped it didn’t come to that.


Oakdehi sominarva pu terra
.”

Terra
. Got that word --earth, ground, planet. What the hell is he saying?

“Hold on. I’ve got a translator on my belt.” Jake tried to extricate his arm which had somehow gotten jammed behind his back, but it was stuck tight. The sack of sample tubes slung over his shoulder hindered him from reaching around with his other hand to activate the small transponder. “Can’t… get it.”

His squirming nestled them tighter into the limited space. Had the alien been a female, he might be enjoying the situation, but the bare, sleek, hard contours pressed against his flight suit embarrassed him. More so when the alien’s cock shifted and slipped into a long tear in Jake’s flight suit along his thigh. The warm silky shaft hardening next to his flaccid penis made the ’ole boy twitch to life.

“Oh fuck,” Jake muttered.

Laughter danced in the stranger’s eyes. He cupped Jake’s face in both hands and spoke perfect English. “You are so charming, Earthling.”

Even if Jake’s dark Latino skin hid the red flush in his face, surely the alien could feel the heat in his cheeks. He tried to push the man away, but there wasn’t room to budge. “Although I’d love to stay and discuss why you look so human and how you know my language so well, I’m getting out of here.”

Using the hand pinned behind him as leverage, he pushed down on the wall at the same time he shimmied his hips up. Although he moved only a few inches, it was enough that he could brace his foot against the wall for additional power.

His pit partner watched him closely.

The next push jolted him a good foot. The alien winced when his cock caught at the ripped edge in Jake’s flight suit, forcing the creature up onto his toes. The stiff rod pulled free and bounced along Jake’s leg as he shimmied higher. The going was getting a little easier now. A few more inches and his head smacked against a snarl of roots. Now he’d have to crawl over the alien’s head to reach the opening to the prairie above. The alien’s warm breath tickled the hairs on his leg through that blasted tear in his uniform. Without warning, his cock stiffened. Jesus!

How fucking awkward. He’d never responded to another male this way before. It must be the tight, compromising position. The male grabbed his leg in a powerful grip before he could move. Jake looked down and glared at him, painfully aware how close the bulge at his crotch lay to the alien’s mouth. “Don’t get any ideas,” he snapped.

“Tygess,” the almost-human replied, pointing upward and shaking his head no. “Wallabusk killer.” He bared his teeth and made a clawing motion at Jake’s belly.

Now the beast’s strange scream and the nauseating smells from above made sense. Another vicious creature had attacked the tentacle thing. He gathered from the wild-eyed fear in the alien’s eyes that it wasn’t something to mess with.

“So what do we do?”

A furrowed line between his dark eyebrows cut straight over his piercing brown eyes. The male shrugged. “My clan will call when it’s clear.”

Jake looked for a communications device on the scantily clad runner. A leather sack hung from a cord tied around his thigh, but based on its flattened shape, it was probably empty. “Are you telepathic?”

A grin spread over his face.

Yup, this guy must beat the women off with a stick. Or maybe it was the males who drooled over him. Probably both.

“I wish I was telepathic,” he said, looking steadily into Jake’s eyes, “but I am not. We have a language of shouts, yells, and dances we learned from your people thousands of centuries ago.”

Jake stared at him in disbelief. “Thousands of centuries ago?” Was he referring to supposed alien visits long before Earth began space exploration?

The handsome alien shrugged. “The Alishons and Earthlings have an ancient history together, one you humans refuse to acknowledge. We left during a period you call the Ice Age.”

“No shit.” Now there was an interesting tidbit for anthropologists to research. Could these
Alishons
be descendants of the human race? If so,
how
did they leave Earth?

“I’d call the other hunters,” the Earth-linked male said, “but I don’t want to draw the beasts to us.”

“Good thinking.” Jerked back to the present predicament, Jake tried descending back down so his foxhole buddy wasn’t speaking to his dick. Unfortunately, once he’d moved up, the other male filled in the space below.

Seeing Jake’s dilemma, the alien shifted to one side and tugged Jake’s calves down until they were almost chest-to-chest again. It didn’t help much. Now the bulge in his pants fit snugly against the alien’s belly. What was it about this guy that made his libido jump in fits and starts?

The lack of hot, sweaty, skin-slapping sex in the last three months might have something to do with it.

“My name is Deruhmafnuqui. My friends call me Drum. You must, too.”

“Well, since we’re stuck here together for a while, names might help. Mine is Jake Santos. I’m an entomologist.” Watching Drum trying to decipher the term, he explained, “I study insects.”

“Ah. I am a hunter.”

“So I gathered.”

Drum smiled. “The Hunter,” he said, holding his fist against his chest,

“and The Gatherer.” He pointed at Jake.

Unsure if Drum had misinterpreted him, he smiled and let the comment slide. In truth, he
was
a gatherer. Not only did he collect bugs, he gathered data, funds for research, audiences to hear him speak, and in the ancient sense of the word, he harvested a garden --for his bugs. A twinkle lit the golden starburst in Drum’s eyes. “So what do you want to do while we wait?”

The teasing tone behind the question made it feel like Drum had run his hand up Jake’s leg straight to his crotch. Jesus! What was the matter with him? Did the alien secrete some kind of pheromone that made healthy heterosexual human males attracted to him?

A line of sweat dribbled down his spine and settled in his crack. Jake tipped his head back and rested it on the dirt wall. If he had to stay in this position for hours, he’d go crazy. “Any chance the --what did you call it?

Ty-jess
?” The hunter nodded. “Will it finish its meal and move on in the next hour?”

“More scavengers will come.”

Jake looked down at him. “So when do your people come?”

“Three moons.”

“Oh gawd.” The orbiting ship that had dropped the science team off would be on the other side of the planet by now. Even if they were here, they wouldn’t send their last landing pod into the midst of feral creatures. He’d have to wait.

His stomach gurgled. He had emergency food packets in his flight suit that might last the two of them that long, but if one ate food, the byproduct had to come out. No way was he going to rest above shit for three moons. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

The alien smoothed his palm over the side of Jake’s face, past his ear, and splayed his fingers through Jake’s short, layered hair. “Do not worry, Jake Santos. I will take care of you.”

Chapter Two

The disapproving look on Jake’s face and the hard shake of his head surprised Drum. He dropped his hand from Jake’s silky hair, confused by the Earthling’s reaction to his touch. The man’s erection pressed into his belly. How could he have misinterpreted the human’s attraction?

“Back off,” Jake snapped.

Startled, Drum gave the man as much room as he could, which was precious little. The bottom of this pit had filled in from disuse, making it funnel shaped. He’d found the confined space rather stimulating, and apparently so did the Earthling, but their minds were not on the same wavelength. Strange.

He could not afford to alienate the man. What were the odds of bumping into an Earthling on Alishontakawa? A trillion to one? This had to be the human in Suva’s visions. Their future. Their savior. He must transform him.

But first, he must win him over. “You will be safe here, Jake Santos,” he said, gently. “We can --”

“It’s Jake,” he interrupted, looking abashed. “You don’t need to use my last name.” He gave Drum a once-over and glanced away. “Sorry I barked at you like that.” He rubbed his hand through his hair where Drum had caressed him, and looked back at him. “Look, I’m not familiar with your customs, but I’m not a touchy-feely kind of guy. Try not to put your hands all over me and we’ll get along fine.”

Drum hid his disappointment. Not touching him would be difficult. Jake’s broad chest, trim hips, and long muscular legs tempted him to stroke every part of his body. His studious eyes, high cheekbones, blunt chin, and those strange oval ears called to him. Not touch him? Maybe not now, but soon.

In the meantime, he must appease Jake.

“We can live in the safety zone until the danger passes by. If you climb higher, I might be able to crouch down --”

“Wait a minute.” Jake put his hand up and cocked his head. “Safety zone?”

“These pits were dug for protection from the carnivores.”

“So that’s why you jumped in,” Jake mused.

Drum would not embarrass the Earthling by asking him how he found the pit. He could guess by the darkening bruises on his left cheek and shoulder. “Beneath this rubble, there should be a hatch in the side wall, about a foot up from the bottom so rain won’t seep in, leading to an underground shelter.”

“Shelter. I’ll be damned.”

“It is not large, but every zone has water piped in from an underground spring.” The lift of Jake’s eyebrows did not surprise him. “We are more technologically advanced than you’d imagine.”

“If that’s true, why don’t you kill off the creatures trying to eat you?”

Drum frowned at him. Kill the enemy --typical Earthling logic. “The Wallabusks provide our energy source.” He let Jake wrestle with that idea for a minute, pleased when he made the connection.

“Natural fuel.”

“Dung,” Drum said with a smile. He didn’t bother to tell him how they converted it to clean energy which powered an entire hidden city. Alishons had always been taught that a primitive guise protected them from more advanced, dangerous species. Not that Earthlings were superior, far from it, but for now, the less the humans knew about their advancements, the better. Jake was not one of them yet.

“All right. Let’s start digging.” Jake looked around, assessing the space. He climbed to the top where he had more room to maneuver, testing the strength of various roots protruding into the hole along the way. He popped his head out of their hole and ducked down quickly. “We’ve got to be fast. I see animals roaming in the distance,” he whispered. Drum picked up a thick broken root and used a sharp-edged rock to scrape one end into a makeshift shovel, keeping an eye on Jake simply because he found him so hard to resist. How could he convince the human they belonged together? A scientist probably wouldn’t put too much stock into Suva’s vision. It wasn’t Drum’s vision after all. He didn’t know what Suva’s human lover looked like other than he had golden brown skin, black hair, and dark eyes like most humans. Yet, he’d felt an instantaneous attraction. Jake
must
be the one. For the most part, Jake ignored him. He emptied his flight suit pockets and stuffed everything into an expandable sample collection pouch hanging over his shoulder. It didn’t look like he was searching for a tool, so what was he doing?

The rock in Drum’s hand froze in mid-stroke on the stick. Holy stars, Jake was taking his flight suit off.

In a matter of moments, Jake stripped down to an athletic shirt, tight black briefs, and his hiking boots. He tied the arms and legs of the flight suit over a long stick, adjusting it until it hung down to Drum’s shoulder.

BOOK: No Way Back
12.96Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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