ROMANCE: ALIEN ROMANCE: Captured by the Alien Dragon (Alpha Male Alien Abduction BBW Romance) (Bad Boy Shifter Fantasy Romance) (15 page)

I sat down on the bench against the back wall and dropped my head into my hands. My life had been a mess. I wasn't what anyone wanted. I was a disappointment to my family. I was stuck in a dead-end job in a dead-end town in a dead-end life.

And Mick? Turned out when someone seemed too good to be true, they really were. I felt betrayed. How much had he been hiding from me? Was anything he'd said to me true? He'd made me feel like there was hope for someone like me, that there was somewhere I belonged even though my life proved different. And I was so hard up for acceptance that I'd fallen for it all without questioning it.

At least he wasn't cheating on me. I laughed at myself, aware that I sounded crazy. I'd thought there was another woman. That wasn't the case, but everything else was so much worse I almost wished it was something that simple. Of course, I didn't wish he had someone else - I think I would have died of mortification and rejection.

But how was this any different? Evacuate the earth, that guy had said. What was his name... Miath. What did that mean? Did that mean they were all leaving? Were they taking all the humans with them? Were the monsters - aliens - staying behind? So many questions and I literally didn't have a single answer.

I didn't know how long I sat in the bunker. I could open the door myself, Miath had shown me how, but I didn't want to. Where would I go? Outside where I didn't know the ship - an alien spaceship - or outside where my boyfriend was a dragon? I had the horrible feeling that I didn't belong.

When what felt like hours had passed the door opened. I hadn't done anything and I jumped when it did, but then Mick stood in front of the open door. His eyes were silver, still, the color of war. He had blood on his cheek, down his neck, but he looked upright and fierce and he wore that same suit again. His shifter suit?

"It's over." He sounded tired but he stayed upright. He was a soldier, I realized. In his battle clothing he wasn't the laid-back biker guy I knew, but a solid warrior. "Come on, you can come out now."

I took a step or two forward, but the honest truth was I was scared. Scared of Mick - Mimic - and who he was now. Scared of what my life was going to be like now. Scared of the unknown which suddenly seemed overwhelming, suffocating, terrifying.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I'm taking you home."

CHAPTER FIVE

Home. Mick was taking me home. I felt like I was being sent to bed early when the adults still got to stay up and enjoy the party. I felt like I was being sent away because I couldn't handle it.

Mick and I walked in silence. We cut through a bunch of trees that was too small to be called a forest but too dense to be gotten rid of by anyone who wanted to use the lands. I had the feeling he'd led us in there in case there were more of those red creatures left and he needed to fight. Give the human a space to hide, will you?

"I don't understand." Mick was a step or two ahead of me, his legs longer and his fitness better than mine. I was heaving. He looked calm and relaxed like he hadn't just fought a battle. He didn't answer me.

"Why are you taking me back? What's happening now?" I had the feeling he was leaving. I had the feeling everything I'd been living for since I'd met him was about to be ripped away from me and I was going to be left behind. Alone.

When we cleared the trees Redwall lay in front of us, a small town, sleepy in the dusk ready to tuck in for the night. The sun had set while we were in the trees and we hadn't seen the splashes of color left in its wake. Everything was silvery gray now, the color absent after a long day, and I suddenly missed it. Maybe it would all have felt different if it wasn't so late if there was stills sunshine. If none of this were true.

When we walked through the narrow streets to my home it felt like I was stepping out of some story back into reality. Everything seemed surreal now. When I was in the thick of it, it had seemed possible. Now it all felt like a dream. We reached my home and I unlocked the door. I didn't walk in. Instead, I turned to Mick. He looked tall and grave, standing on my porch.

"Miath, that friend of yours, he said that you're evacuating earth after the war."

Mick nodded. "We are."

"What does that mean?"

He looked to the side like there would be something interesting there, avoiding eye contact.

"We were here because we needed resources. Our planet is depleted, flattened by war, stripped bare by hopelessness and despair. This battle was the final wave in a series of wars that have carried on much longer than the existence of civilization like here on earth. We can finally return home and rebuild."

"We?" I swallowed. That meant he
was
leaving. "I don't want you to go."

He sighed. "I started dating you because it was natural for a man like me to be with a woman. I didn't want to stand out and the only way I could fit in was to do what the humans do."

I blinked at him. To do what the humans do? Something inside me cracked a little, a sign that breakage would follow.

"So... none of this was real for you?"

"I didn't say that."

"You're not denying it, either."

He hesitated for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Angie, baby, I can't explain this to you in a way you'll understand. You're still young, you've only been around three decades. Not even. I've been around so long... we're not the same."

I wanted to cry. Tears stung my eyes and I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat.

"Age doesn't matter. It doesn't We've been fine together and it didn't matter, did it?"

"Please don't do this, Ang. Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

My panic turned to anger.

"I'm making this hard, am I? Well, fine. If that's how you want to play this game I can play too. Fine. Go on, live your life on your godforsaken planet. Leave me behind. I'll be fine. Us
humans
know how to bounce back after someone rips our heart out and steps on it."

He opened his mouth to say something but the anger was mixing with shock after everything that happened and it came out in a toxic cocktail of rage and hysteria.

"I don't want to hear it. Since day one you've charmed me out of my panties and I fell for it. I'm glad your little camouflage trick worked. You're done now, so go."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head and turned. He walked down the three steps and down the little pathway.

Look back, I willed, but he didn't. Instead, he just kept walking.

Dammit. I walked into my house and slammed the door so hard everything shuddered. I didn't need him. I'd lived my life for a long time without him. Fine, so the last couple of months with him had been fantastic. I'd thought I'd found The One. It turned out he'd been making a fool of me and I'd fallen for it. But, of course, things like that always happened to people like me. Happily Ever After only happened to people who looked good and had their lives in check. Or those beautiful skinny girls that needed Prince Charming. I was neither.

I leaned against the door and closed my eyes. The truth was the only thing I wanted was for me to wake up and realize it was all just a bad dream, that Mick was at his cabin and I was going to go see him after work. I wanted it all to go back to normal. I wanted my life the way it was. It was unfair that it had been ripped away.

It took me half an hour to calm down. Thirty minutes and I was over my anger. I wanted to kiss and make up, but that wasn't possible. Not now that he was an alien on his space ship, leaving. I wanted to go to him and apologize for snapping.

The truth was I'd been hurt and it was easier to be angry than to cry. But he was going.

It took me another half an hour to realize that I wanted to go with him. Why the hell was I still here? What did I have to lose? I would be leaving behind a family that might not know I was gone, or if they did they would be relieved. I had a job I could do without, and they could do without me, and I had no real friends I would be leaving behind.

And Earth... well it was nice and all but surely there was more out there. The universe was open and beckoning and I was stuck at home feeling sorry for myself that I'd gotten my heart broken by a man that I really just wanted to be with.

I ran to my bedroom and found the suitcase I'd shoved into the back of my closet. I opened it on the floor and started throwing in clothes. I grabbed what I wore the most, make-up, toiletries, a brush. What did you pack when you were leaving your planet? I didn't know and I was running out of time. It would have to do.

I left my phone on my nightstand. I doubted my service provider offered roaming in other galaxies. I half-laughed at my joke and ran out of the door.

I got in my car, threw the suitcase on the passenger seat and floored it. I flew out of town like a maniac, nearly driving over Mrs. Hodge and her little fluffy dog. The darkness was blinding and I shouldn't have been driving that fast when I couldn't see more than three feet ahead of me, but I had to get there before it was too late.

My stomach turned with nervous. I was giddy and I was scared and I was free. I was making my way to a future I actually chose. When last had I been able to say that?

I headed off the road and into the fields. I knew where the spaceship was. It wasn't visible until you were right there next to it - some fancy technology we still had to invent. I drove through the knee-high grass and heard it swish and scrape the bottom of my car.

It could ruin it for all I cared. I was leaving it behind.

The darkness was complete, the grass blocking my lights so that I could see very little.

When I came closer I heard a droning sound so loud it rumbled right through me. I nearly threw up. It was a very low frequency and it shook all the way down to my bones. A moment later blinding lights shone in every direction and I couldn't see, but then it lifted and the lights shone over me. I look up. The space ship was in front of me and it was rising.

They were leaving.

"Wait!" I shouted and yanked open my door. I grabbed my suitcase and started running to the place where the door was. The ramp was closed now, the door shut, the ship seemed impenetrable. I ran, my suitcase banging against my legs, nearly tripping me. I waved with my other arm.

"Don't leave without out me! Mick, wait!"

The loud droning sound swallowed my voice. The ground underneath me shuddered and then the ship was airborne. I watched the lights in a ring around the bottom of the ship. It got smaller and smaller. A whining sound took over and then the ship shot forward and within a moment it was gone.

I fell to my knees and cried. Tears streamed down my cheeks and sobs racked my chest. I sat alone in a field with a suitcase. I'd just watched everything I cared for leave. Forever.

It took me a while to scrape myself together, but bit by bit I rebuilt myself. I got up and dusted my jeans. I looked around me. It was pitch dark with nothing for light but the stars. I turned my face to my car and walked to it. I heaved myself in and shut the door. It took everything I had to drive home again, but where else would I go?

I unlocked the front door. My legs felt like lead and my stomach was heavy and uncomfortable. A sharp pain had wedged itself between my ribs and it hurt every time I breathed. I flicked on the light.

"I was wondering when you were going to come back."

Mick sat on my couch. He had ditched his coat but he still wore the weird suit. His hair was wild and messy and his eyes flashed silver. I didn't know what he'd done to get here.

"What are you doing here? I watched you leave." I was in a daze. I didn't know what I was feeling anymore. My emotions struggled to keep up with events.

Mick stood up and walked toward me. He had his lazy gate back, the one I'd come to know.

"I had to tell you I lied to you."

I frowned. "About what?" Everything that had happened the past two days ran through my head and I couldn't figure out which part he was talking about.

"I didn't just date you because it would make me fit in with the humans. I mean, I did at first. But then I fell in love with you, and everything changed."

I shook my head. "I don't understand. You're an alien. How is this going to work?"

He pushed his hands into my hair, brought his face close to mine and my mind muddled a bit.

"Who says I can't give up everything I know to stay with you here, on earth?"