Page 10 of Forced to Mate By the Mad Scientist

Sylvie felt her cheeks get hot with a blush—how dare he mention their last mission when he’d acted like such a jerk to her there, after acting like he cared for a moment?

“I’m fine! I don’t need you breathing down the back of my neck,” she snapped and turned away from him.

There was a small hole in the dense undergrowth in front of her—a low archway that she was sure she could fit through but she knew Kross couldn’t. On impulse, she ducked her head and slipped through it.

“Hey! What the fuck, Princess?” she heard her Protector snarl. But it was too late, she thought triumphantly. He couldn’t get to her here—not without a struggle anyway—he was just too tall.

“Just wait for me,” she called back. “I’ll come back as soon as I find a goodtangelinespecimen.”

“Goddess-damn it! You know you’re not supposed to go off without me! You could get hurt!”

The genuine fear in his deep voice almost made her turn back…but then she looked around her and the view drove all the guilt she felt out of her mind.

She had found her way into a lovely, natural clearing in the forest. It was a vast space of short purple and gold vegetation surrounded by a thick ring of enormously tall trees with thick, mossy green trunks—each one wide enough around to form a small cottage. Sunlight slanted through their royal purple leaves, casting magical shadows on the ground.

Sylvie took a deep breath, inhaling a sweet, floral scent that seemed to be coming from the vines that were wrapped around one of the enormous tree trunks on the far side of the clearing. The trees reminded her of the giant redwood trees of California which she had visited once when she still lived on Earth. She inhaled deeply as she walked towards the vines with the bright golden flowers.

“That’s thetangelinevine—I know it is,” she murmured to herself as she reached the huge tree. The vine looked just like the reports had described it. It was dark blue and as thick asher wrist and the flowers growing from it were bright gold and shaped like the bell of a trumpet.

Behind her, she could vaguely hear some crashing in the undergrowth—no doubt Kross was trying to follow her. He would probably be angry that she’d left him behind, but then, he was already angry with her, Sylvie reasoned. So what did it really matter?

Carefully, she reached into her collection kit and got out a specimen bag and some scissors. She snipped off one of the golden flowers—which was about as big as her hand—and slipped it into the bag. She was just about to snip off another when there was a creaking sound and—to her shock—a door seemed to open in the side of the massive tree.

The creature that came out of it was monstrous—though also vaguely humanoid. At least, it had a head, two arms, and two legs and it walked upright, albeit with a shambling limp. Its body was covered in a soft, blue-green moss-like substance that might have been hair or might have been fungus—it was hard to tell. Its face was craggy—as though it had been carved from living rock. Tiny black eyes, two nostril slits where a nose should be, and a thin, lipless mouth made up the face, which Sylvie stared at uncertainly.

The creature—which happened to be huge, almost as big as Kross in fact—stared back at her blankly. Then it seemed to see the golden blossom she was holding in her hand.

It threw out an arm, one thin, stick-like finger pointing directly at her and its lipless mouth began to work.

“Thief!” it cried hoarsely in a voice that carried all the way across the clearing. “She steals the sacred blossoms—thief!”

Of course, Sylvie couldn’t have understood it without the shot of Translation Bacteria she’d gotten from the Kindred, but at the moment the wonder of comprehending an alien language was lost on her.

“Wait, no please—wait!” she begged, making shushing motions with both hands. “I didn’t mean to steal anything. I didn’t know you lived here!”

“Thief!” the creature exclaimed again, taking a step towards her.

It became clear to Sylvie that he wasn’t wearing any clothing under the blue-green moss-like hair that covered him. The point was driven home when she saw a perfectly enormous phallus swinging between his thick thighs. Good God—that thing washuge!And he was getting close enough that she could smell him—a rank odor that was also somehow floral. It reminded her of the smell of flower stems when they’re left in a vase full of water too long and rot.

“Stay back!” she exclaimed, beginning to back away from him. She didn’t want to be anywhere near this weird creature! She fumbled in her pack for the blaster that Kross had insisted she learn how to use, but it was down at the bottom under all her supplies and her seeking fingers couldn’t find it.

Speaking of Kross, wherewasher Kindred Protector? She would have expected him to be able to get through the undergrowth to reach her by now! Sylvie desperately wished she hadn’t left him behind, but now it was too late to regret her foolish impulse.

The mossy alien was still coming and Sophie decided to give up on trying to reason with him. Shoving the collecting bag with the stolen blossom back in her pack, she turned and ran for the other side of the clearing, where she’d come in. She was sure if she could just make it to the small opening in the underbrush she could lose the creature behind her. It was almost as big as Kross—there was no way it was getting through the low opening.

Every minute she expected to feel a heavy hand fall on her shoulder and stop her, but the creature behind her seemed to beslow and clumsy. It was coming after her at a shambling run she was easily able to outpace.

Sylvie was becoming certain that she was going to get away. She whipped her head around to look over her shoulder and saw that the moss-man—if that was what he was—had fallen far behind. Also, she could see the opening in the underbrush up ahead. She was almost there…

And then her foot snagged on something—maybe a root or a creeper—and she went down hard.

She let out a strangled shriek and put out her hands to catch herself as she went face-first into the purple-gold vegetation covering the clearing. There was a stinging pain in her palms and the wind was knocked out of her, but at least she kept from banging her head.

The fall had knocked the wind out of her and for a moment she lay there gasping. But she couldn’t stay for long. Turning her head, she saw that the moss-man had almost caught up with her.

She was in the act of scrambling to her feet when a hand suddenly came into her line of vision. A long, white, elegant hand but clearly a male hand, she thought distractedly. The nails were neatly clipped and the fingers were square at the ends.

“My dear, how very good of you to come and visit us,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Do let me help you up.”

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