Page 54 of The Alpha

What she saw the first time was still there. Shimmering gold curtains spilling down a high wall and coming part way around the bed. Or was it?

Her eyes widened. She was not alone.

Pari slowly turned her head to the man next to her. They were shoulder to shoulder, and she moved her left foot. It touched his leg, somewhere below the knee she guessed. His leg was clad in some sort of soft silk pants.

Pari looked around some more, afraid to move. Where were they? She looked around again and discovered her left arm was wrapped around his right, and that her hand rested on his forearm.

Her breathing picked up as the first twinges of panic hit. But… was there any reason to be?

Pari looked at Bondrah. He slept. At least she thought he was asleep. He could just as easily be sedated. At this point, how was she to tell?

She blinked her eyes a few times, to make sure her vision was clear, then slowly sat up. A wave of dizziness hit, and she shook her head to clear it. Then she looked around.

“What…?” The room was incredible, large, and like something out of a movie. There was ornate furniture, colorful cushions strewn around a couple of low, round tables, and a wall of sheer gold and silver curtains fell from a high, wide archway. She had no idea what was behind those curtains, but the archway had to be at least twenty feet high.

She looked at Bondrah again, and carefully extracted her arm from his. He didn’t move a muscle. His breathing was even, and… “Oh, my gosh…”

His ears were pointed! In fact, the rest of his features weren’t quite the same. His forehead was a little higher, as were his cheekbones. If she thought he was gorgeous before, he was absolutely jaw-dropping beautiful now.

Pari stared at him in awe. He was the real thing. A man not of this world. She looked around again. “Where am I?”

Curiosity was getting the best of her. She should be terrified out of her mind waking up next to a real honest-to-goodness alien, but she wasn’t. Instead, she felt… safe.

She eased off the bed and stood. She was hungry, thirsty, and didn’t know if there was any food or water around.

She studied the large room. A huge ornate wooden door was to her right, across the room in front of her were the tall, shimmering curtains, and to her left was another arched doorway with curtains. But this set was pulled apart, and she could see dark wood paneled walls and part of a tapestry of some sort hanging from them. She decided to see what was behind the shimmering gold and silver curtains first. What could it hurt? Besides, she didn’t want to try the door and find Dr. Charles’ men on the other side. What a horrible disappointment that would be.

She scooted herself to the end of the couch or whatever they were on, and took a few tentative steps toward the curtains and stopped. Bondrah moved an arm. She hoped she didn’t wake him.

Pari tip-toed across the room and got halfway when her stomach growled. She cringed at the sound and shut her eyes tight.

Clickety, clickety, click, click.

Her eyes went wide. What was that? She looked around, then faced the curtains. Instead of moving forward, she found herself backing up.

Click, click, clickety, click…

Pari froze, a scream lodged in her throat as a giant…something, poked its huge cat-like head through the shimmering curtains. It was furry and white with a sort of brindle pattern of soft grays, and its head was big as an elephant’s if not bigger… and it was grinning at her!

Pari stared at it, unable to move. A tiny squeak escaped her, but nothing more. She was paralyzed.

That is, until the rest of the creature came through the curtain.

“Oh, heck no!” she turned on her heel and ran.

The eight-legged beast came after her.

Pari didn’t know why she ran straight for Bondrah. He was out cold as far as she knew. But she knew what he could do, so she dove right over him, grabbed his left arm, and tried to pull him onto his right side.

The beast stopped just short of the bed, or whatever it was they were on, and grinned again.

Pari let out a yelp when she saw its razor-sharp teeth, and with a surge of adrenaline, pulled Bondrah onto his side and tried to bury herself beneath him, using his body as a shield.

“Please go away, please go way, please, please, please…”

She was trembling with eyes squeezed shut. The only thing between her and the monstrous spider-like creature was Bondrah’s unconscious form. Or was he unconscious? He softly moaned and wrapped his arms around her.

Oh, great, now what was she going to do?

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