Page 73 of Holiday with the Aliens

“Later,” she added. “I’m not done with you.”

And if he was smart and luckier than any man had a right to be, she never would be. He didn’t know how to protect her from the men that tried to own and destroy him. He didn’t know howto get out of these tunnels and find a way to safety. But he’d find his way for her.

He didn’t have another choice.

Chapter Eight

They didn’t stick around to cuddle. And as much as Stella wanted to get her hands—and lips—on Arest, she was glad. This cave gave her the creeps and there were too many of those monsters lurking for her to ever feel safe, even with her beastly man walking at her side.

The path up and away from the water seemed steeper than it had been coming down, but Stella kept her lips sealed as her calves burned. Arest had been fighting hulking monsters and doing most of the hard work, she could handle a little walk uphill.

No monsters lurked on the way back up and they made it to the crack in the wall without incident. Without stopping to discuss it, she went first. The monsters were lurking behind them. Hopefully. The halls of the tunnel weren’t exactly safe, but they were well lit.

Still, Stella scrambled as fast as she could and gave the room a good look around before daring to step out. Arest was only a second behind her. She had no idea how long they’d been in the cave. With no clock and no sun, telling time was an impossibletask. But she didn’t think they’d been there for long. They’d only taken enough time for water, a snack, and pleasure.

She squeezed her thighs together as she remembered the press of Arest’s lips against her. Being a man, he had, of course, not wanted to talk about it. But she could sense a change in him, in them. Before they’d been two fellow survivors, relying on one another out of proximity and need. Now… now she knew she couldn’t leave this place without him. And if anyone from the outside came to hurt him, she’d do everything she could to stop it. She’d meant what she said to him. She would protect him from the ‘trainers,’ whoever they were.

He was hers.

Maybe she should have been scared by the intensity of that thought, but it was too perfect, too right. He walked half a step in front of her, giving her a view of those strong muscles and his tight ass moving under his loose pants.Mine. She more than wanted him. She didn’t just want his big claws protecting her from the monsters that lurked around them. She wanted him to hold her, to kiss her, to keep her close and never let her go.

Stella didn’t think like that normally, and she would have run screaming if they were back on Earth. But they were locked in a tunnel on some strange planet, and there was no running from this. From him. She knew that she should sink back into herself, erect an emotional wall and give herself that modicum of protection.

But then Arest glanced over at her, that devilish grin glinting on his lips, and her heart flipped and opened up.

No wall could stand up against that smile.

She grabbed onto his hand and stood up next to him. She liked touching him, being touched by him, and since it was the only luxury right now, she’d take it and not let go. Hand in hand, they climbed back up the hallway where they’d come from. When they reached the top, her brow furrowed.

“This hallway wasn’t here last time,” she said. Where once there’d only been the path down, now a new hallway branched out to the left, long and brightly lit without a monster in sight. The path they’d been following led straight ahead, but the lights seemed dimmer. She could only see a dozen or so meters down the way. Beyond that it was all gloom and mystery.

Arest gave a little grunt she took as agreement. Maybe he’d never be a chatty fellow, but she could get used to that. She’d never been much of a talker either.

They both looked down the way they’d been going. Stella didn’t like the new path. Why had it appeared? She couldn’t see a seam in the wall where a door would have been, but she supposed there must be one. This place had too many secrets. She just wanted to take Arest home and keep him in her bed for a week.

Maybe a month.

“Do you think we triggered the door somewhere?” she asked. “Or… are we being led somewhere?”

Arest shrugged, and Stella supposed he was right. At the moment, it didn’t really matter.

They looked at one another and then down the new path before stepping into the brightly lit hallway, finally going somewhere that they hadn’t yet traveled.

When the door slid shut behind them, Stella just rolled her eyes. She was too sick of this place to be scared.

This new section of the tunnels was as much of a maze as the first, but Arest mapped it out in his mind just the same, tracking their turns and counting his steps. By the third hallway they came to, he knew the answer to Stella’s question.

They were being herded somewhere.

Lights dimmed and lit, doors opened and closed, and they even found a pack full of energy bars that they both ate with glee. Perhaps they’d never been meant to go into that cavern and now whoever controlled these tunnels had given up subtlety to lead them where they were meant to go.

Or, perhaps, surviving the cavern had proved something to the controllers. Either way, Arest could feel that they were getting close to something big. The place stank of moisture and things long dead, but at the edge of his senses there was something else, something he couldn’t quite latch onto.

Up ahead, air whooshed as a door opened and closed. Arest tensed, letting go of Stella’s hand. She dropped back a step, sensing the change in him as he focused on the danger up ahead. He held up a hand, urging her to stay in place as he moved forward a few steps, trying to see if a creature had been let into the hallways.

Under his feet, the floor was uneven. He looked down and saw giant gouges in the stone. They looked like they’d been raked there with giant claws from a beast at least twice his size. Arest knelt low, drawing in deep breaths and tracking the scents. But there was nothing but him and Stella and the stench of the hallway.

He turned around to beckon her forward. Given the tunnels’ nasty habit of opening and closing invisible doors, he hadn’t stepped far away. But behind him, the wall slid shut with a silent whisper and locked into place with a click almost too quiet for him to hear.

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