Page 19 of His Human to Charm

Skylar pushes my hand away from her and makes her way through the crowd of brothers to push through them to get to her mate. They part for her, knowing she is the only hope they have of Yril not doing even more damage.

As the crowd parts, I see Yril has Ralleth pinned to the ground with his claws closing in around his throat. My stomach flips, but as Skylar gets closer and closer to Yril, his claws start to retract.

My whole body hums with a renewed fight. A buzzing under my scales has me twitching and aching to leave the great hall and go back out into the trees. I grind my teeth together, my hands fisting over and over, until I see Yril finally get off Ralleth. As soon as our tribe leader is in no danger and I know I will not be leaving my brother to kill all the males of the tribe, I am letting my soul lead me to where I feel I need to go.

My mate, my Alice, the whole of my being, is somewhere out in the trees right now, and I will find her. I will find her, or I will fall to the madness of being a chosen without a mate. Either way, I will not be without her for very much longer.

11

Alice

Present Day

“Where?” The word pains me to say as I finally come back to consciousness. A flare of panic has flashbacks of this same scenario happening again and again. I wake up after being knocked out, and Curls wraps his hand around my neck until I pass back out. How many times has he done it?

I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but it was long enough for me to be transported all the way to a new building, where I’m now lying in a bed. Or, at least, I think it’s a bed. I haven’t opened my eyes yet because I hope this has all been a nightmare. I can feel the soft mattress underneath my body, the minor cuts from where I tried to scramble away from the demons on my arms, and the bruising on my neck from where I was squeezed until I lost consciousness.

“Shh,” a soft voice murmurs, too close to me for my comfort. “They are still sleeping.”

My eyelids flutter open, the brightness of the room confusing me for a moment until I see the fire burning brightly in the fireplace. The aliens on this planet have a cooler body temperature than humans, so they always have fires lit even though the world is warm enough as it is. It has me sweating even more, and the dryness of my mouth tells me I haven’t been hydrating enough to keep up with how much my body expends.

“Shh,” the voice says again, and this time I focus on where the sound is coming from.

A smaller alien at the edge of the bed, peeking over the side with big, black eyes and a worried crease in his brow. He’s smaller than all of the other demons I’ve seen, and it makes me wonder if he’s a child or if some of them are just small. Based on how he looks, kneeling next to the bed, he’s probably my size, which means a few feet smaller than the demons I’m used to being around.

I try to shift on the bed, my shoulder screaming in pain as my hands fight against my binds. Whoever put me in the bed laid me out, so I was lying on my arms for however long I was out for, and now they hurt worse than anything else I’ve ever felt. A pained sound escapes my throat as tears burn in my eyes. The smaller demon presses a hand to my mouth.

“Sorry, so sorry, please, just be quiet.” The young male has a look of desperation in his eyes that makes me do as he says to the best of my ability. It helps that he keeps looking behind him to where the two other demons are sitting in wooden chairs. Their breathing is deep and steady, showing us both that they’re deep in sleep. “Stay quiet, yes?”

I nod my head, eyes pleading for him to help me. He only releases my mouth before dipping back down to the floor, away from my eyesight. I try to twist myself onto my side so I can see where he’s gone, but the pain in my shoulders is too much and has me having to bite my lip to keep myself from crying out. The smaller alien doesn’t come back to cover my mouth, so I must have been successful at stifling the sound even though, on the inside, I’m screaming.

There’s a soft rustling, and then I see the demon crawling on the floor toward a pack that’s near the door. He stops every once in a while to turn to face the two demons still asleep in their chairs. When he makes it to the pack, he rifles through it quickly, pulling out what looks like a small knife and tucking it into the waistband of his pants. He slowly places everything back into the pack, his eyes watching the two sleeping demons like they might wake at any moment. He’s just making his way back over to me, crawling on his hands and knees, when one of the two demons startles awake, claws pressing out from his fingertips and piercing the wooden arms of his chair.

The young demon scrambles to his feet and makes his way to stand by the fire like he wasn’t interacting with me at all. I keep my mouth shut, but my eyes are frozen on the now-awake demon, Curls. The same one who squeezed all the air from me and made me pass out. I don’t even know how long ago that was because I don’t know how long I slept. It could be days later, though I don’t know if people actually pass out for that long from being choked. Another flash of memories. My lungs are burning for air, and my body is thrashing around. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to force the memories away.

“You are awake?” Curls smiles at me like he hasn’t tried to kill me. It makes my stomach flip and bile rise in my throat. He stands from his chair, wrenching his claws out as he does it. “We have waited a long while for you to wake. No fun in taking a female if she is not awake to enjoy herself.”

“Don’t touch me,” I try to sound somewhat angry or upset, but it comes out as a small whisper of sounds that only makes him smile brighter.

“See, we did not fully believe Xarr when he told us stories of how small you were, how easy you would be to get to submit.” The terror that coats my spine in ice has me shaking. My tears are hot as they track down my temples and mix in my hair. The physical reactions I’m having only seem to make him even more amused. “He says you can take cock. That you were sent here for that sole purpose. Is this true?”

My lower lip trembles and a whimper leaves my throat as I strain against the restraints on my wrists. I don’t want this alien to touch me, to force himself on me, but the inevitability of it is becoming very, very real. It’s only made worse when Twirls wakes from his slumber, his eyes narrowing on me, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to be any help in getting the first to calm down.

I don’t even look to the smaller of the three demons because there’s nothing he can do. Sure, he has the knife, but what’s he going to do? Stab the bigger ones with it? Even if he tries, he might be able to get one before the other kills him. I don’t need to see any hopelessness on his face to match my own.

“Have you checked to see if she is a female?” Twirls asks. “I still do not know if I believe it. She is much too small.”

“I have not checked, but she is female,” Curls says. “At least, my cock responds to her as though she is.”

“Well, spread her then, and let us see.” Twirls crowds the bed.

I push against the mattress, ignoring the pain in my shoulders as I try to crawl as far from them as I can. I don’t get far before my head hits the wall. One looks down at me with hunger, the other with unamused curiosity. Neither is what I want ever. Curls grabs my ankle and pulls me back toward them. The pain in my shoulders is excruciating, and a scream tears through my throat.

Neither man seems prepared for the loud, shrill sound that erupts from me because, for a moment, they take a step back and look at me like I might attack them at any moment. When it becomes clear the sound was only from pain, they crowd back around me.

I’m flipped onto my stomach, and their claws make quick work of cutting the binds on my wrists. I cry out again as they move my arms away from my back, the movement sending searing pain down my arms and back.

“Stop, stop!” I kick out at them, my foot connecting with my abdomen over and over, but it doesn’t seem to phase them. I’m flipped back onto my back, screaming again as the pain settles. Each time I scream, they pause for a moment like they’re not understanding what it means. To me, it’s perfectly clear that I am losing my fucking mind because I’m in pain and about to be attacked by two giant demon alien men.

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