Page 27 of Holiday with the Aliens

“My name is Jeff.” That had to be human Santa. Jeff. And Jeff sounded scared, his voice trembling. I wanted to help him, but I was frozen in place. “And she’s Wendy,” he continued, some of his fear transforming to bravado. “We’re not puny. What are you doing? Let us go.”

Evil Santa let out a little laugh. It sent a shiver of terror down my spine. “You will be tribute for my brother. He will have a feast unlike any he’s ever known. I will bring honor to my family.” He got loud at that declaration, almost loud enough to make my ears hurt.

“You’re going to eat us?” Wendy asked.

I was glad she did. Becausetributeandfeastwere not words I wanted to hear from an evil-looking alien who was holding us all hostage.

Evil Alien Santa did not respond. Wonderful. My wrists and knees were starting to ache. I didn’t know how long I’d been crawling around. It felt like hours. It had probably been two minutes.

I had just come here to buy Christmas presents. How did I end up getting held hostage by Evil Alien Santa?

What was I going to do? He was just one man. He didn’t seem to have any sort of special powers. Except for the whole knocking us all out thing. But I didn’t know if that was a psychic power or if he had used a tool of some kind.

If I turned myself in, maybe I could help Jeff and Wendy and we could overpower Evil Alien Santa together. The eight foot tall alien with tusks and a giant horn coming out of his head.

Yeah. That wasn’t going to work.

But how was he going to get us to his brother? It sounded like he wanted to abduct us. Was a spaceship coming? A shuttle of some kind? Or maybe he wanted to teleport us.

That wasn’t good. None of this was good. But if he was using a teleporter, we would disappear before anyone had any idea we were even in trouble. A shuttle at least might call some attention to the place.

I still didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and I was afraid that I was going to start crying at any minute. I wasn’t a pretty crier. There was snot and gasping and a whole host of other things that really just didn’t look great. Worst of all, I would definitely call attention to myself. I did not want to do that. I had to stay hidden.

I had to get help. Somehow.

I was trying to think. Trying to figure something out. But before I could do anything a hand collapsed around my mouth, making me swallow my gasp of terror and pulling me deep into the aisle.

Chapter 3

Aldyn

Denya.

I didn’t get a good enough look at her when I first walked into the store, but once I got close, the recognition tore through me.

My mate.

The one person in all of the worlds, all of the galaxies, who could save my life. Of course, that life hadn’t been in such immediate danger until a few moments ago. I didn’t know what sort of tool the alien who had us trapped was using, but I didn’t like it. I had seen a lot of things in my twenty-eight years but never this.

Not exactly.

Force field? Sure. Teleporters? Of course. But some kind of tool that could knock people unconscious from a distance? No. That was something different altogether. And I didn’t like it. There was no use giving him the benefit of the doubt. This guy wanted to hurt us.

But he hadn’t yet caught my denya.

No, she was in my arms. Quivering. Quaking. She was scared, and it was all my fault.

Shame washed through me. But if I let her go I was afraid she was going to scream and give us both away before we could find a way out of the store. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the feel of her body pressed against mine.

I had to find out her name. Was it so much to ask? She was beautiful. Human. With deep brown eyes and dark hair hidden by a cap. I couldn’t help myself as my free hand reached up and removed it, freeing the silken strands. They wove around my fingers as if they had a life of their own.

I wanted her laid out on my bed.

But I couldn’t think of that now. Not when we were in such danger. Not when the alien holding us captive could find us at any moment. Would she scream if I let her go? Was she going to help me get out of this mess?

She was my mate. I trusted that she was capable. No mate of mine would give up so easily. It took a certain inner strength to be mated to a Detyen. We had problems of our own.

Most of those problems were solved by the mating. But she didn’t know about that yet. She was human.

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