Alien Mask: A SciFi Alien Romance, page 1
Table of Contents
NOTICES
ALIEN MASK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TRIGGER WARNINGS
CHAPTER ONE | Priya
CHAPTER TWO | Lerokan
CHAPTER THREE | Priya
CHAPTER FOUR | Lerokan
CHAPTER FIVE | Priya
CHAPTER SIX | Lerokan
CHAPTER SEVEN | Priya
CHAPTER EIGHT | Lerokan
CHAPTER NINE | Priya
CHAPTER TEN | Lerokan
CHAPTER ELEVEN | Priya
CHAPTER TWELVE | Priya
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Lerokan
CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Priya
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Priya
CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Lerokan
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Priya
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Lerokan
CHAPTER NINETEEN | Priya
CHAPTER TWENTY | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Priya
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Priya
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Priya
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT | Lerokan
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | Priya
CHAPTER THIRTY | Lerokan
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE | Thaleo
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO | Priya
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE | Priya
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR | Lerokan
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE | Priya
CHAPTER THIRY-SIX | Lerokan
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN | Priya
NOTICES
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, used, transmitted, or shared via any means without express authorization from the author, except for small passages and quotations used for review and marketing purposes.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and incidents in this novel are fictitious and not to be construed as reality or fact.
Alien Mask Copyright © 2022 Veronica Doran
ALIEN MASK
Fated Mates of the Sea Sand Warlords
Book Twelve
By Ursa Dax
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you, as always, to all my readers and new friends on this journey. Thank you to my partner and parents for their unending support.
TRIGGER WARNINGS
CONTAINS BATTLE SCENES, WEAPONS, INJURIES, BLOOD, AND SUTURING ON PAGE. MENTIONS OF POISON. PARENTAL DEATHS AND RELATED TRAUMA. ABDUCTION OF THE HEROINE, BOTH BY THE HERO AND BY OTHER PARTIES. INHUMAN ALIEN HERO.
CHAPTER ONE
Priya
Zaphrinax never failed to dump one catastrophe after another on our heads. This new territory was no exception. But at least the copper-gold desert of the Sea Sands was familiar in its dangers. Zeelk and krixel and heat. Even the Death Plains, with the unseen quicksand pits and invisible paths, felt somewhat safe now that I had mapped it all out.
But this new land? Beyond the Death Plains, beyond the spiked fields of ablik?
We had no bloody clue what we were up against.
We’d been in these foreign plains, so vivid and blue with their odd silver mushroom trees, less than a day before chaos descended.
And it literally descended. Slicing through the air in the shape of three huge winged creatures, each commanded by a solitary rider.
“Into the tent!” Varrow snarled at Camille, his mate and my good friend. His one arm drew a weapon, slashing it through the air as he sprinted from our little camp area. Our tents had been erected, all safe and cozy, in a cluster of the bonkers silver mushrooms that bloomed as high as trees did back home.
But as Varrow; followed by Gahn Razek; the other Sea Sand warriors Oxriel, Vaxilkai, Bariok, and Dalk; and the Bitter Sea warrior Kohka; plunged out of the camp to face this new enemy, I realized that the sense of safety provided by the plants had been an illusion.
“Shit, they have arrows!” Jocelyn cried, her eyes wide as she scanned the sky. A horrible screech split the night, making me flinch, and my gaze followed hers. In the desperate whirl of dark wings on an even darker sky, I could make out the twangs of bows, followed by the flashes of arrows.
My heart rammed in my chest, my breath burning. Outside the grove of mushroom plants, I heard Gahn Razek, Jocelyn’s mate, trying to call up a message to the riders.
“We are here to speak to your Gahn in peace!”
It was why we’d come all the way out here. To find the life signs we’d seen on the scanners back at our base. To try to expand our alliance and make peace with whichever warriors we could find before the Earth forces came back to blow everything to hell.
But these new warriors didn’t seem to care about our plans for peace. Gahn Razek’s message did nothing to quell the rain of arrows. I watched, frozen and shaking, as the warriors we’d come with – men who’d become my friends over the weeks of travelling together, knocked the arrows aside with their deadly blades.
But how long can they keep that up?
We had the advantage of numbers – six Sea Sand aliens and one massive Bitter Sea lizard alien to take on these enemies. But the opposing side had, presumably, home advantage, not to mention the fact they were flying around on massive feathery alien things and raining down arrows like it was going out of fucking style.
“We need to take shelter,” Jocelyn said, her voice fraught with tension. But even as she said it, her body seemed to completely disobey her words. She stepped forward, towards the fray, not away from it, her eyes glued to Razek’s back. Camille, I suddenly noticed, was doing the same, ignoring her mate’s rather prudent earlier command to get into the tent.
These girls are mad.
Mad in love, but mad all the same.
Since I had no buff alien boyfriend out there, and I was therefore the only one with half a brain currently in my head, I’d have to be the one to get this situation under control. I didn’t want any of the men we’d come with to get hurt – I cared about all of them. But I also recognized the fact that we three puny humans had absolutely nothing to offer in a battle like this. At best, we’d get in the way. At worst, we’d cause someone else’s death or our own.
“Come on!” I shouted, shaken from my own frozen fear by the thoughts of my two friends in danger. I grasped Jocelyn’s arm in my left hand, squeezing her forearm tightly. Her head whipped towards me, her eyes flashing from where I held her arm to my face. She took a harsh breath and then nodded gravely.
I was about to reach for Camille, too. But something made me stop. Made us all stop and stare.
One of the huge winged beasts had landed just a few metres beyond the mushrooms that encircled us. Its rider leapt to the ground with powerful ease and stalked towards us.
I was too terrified to scream. I couldn’t move. Now, it was Jocelyn’s turn to pull at my arm, breaking the spell of terror that locked my limbs. Together, we stumbled backwards, further into the shadowy grove of mushroom plants. A small spark of relief warmed me when I saw that Camille was retreating with us, moving inwards and away from the approaching warrior.
But that little spark was extinguished quickly.
There was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. That warrior would catch us. Even if we ran for all we were worth, he would reach us barely moving at a jog. He looked to be similarly built to the Sea Sand men. Which meant he was seven feet of long-legged, vicious muscle.
But as soon as he entered into the cluster of mushrooms, he collapsed forward. I heard Camille gasp from nearby as her mate Varrow became visible on top of the fallen warrior, yanking a blade out from where he’d lodged it in the warrior’s back.
Varrow may have only had one arm, but the bloke was brutal. And by the way his eyes, feral with protective need, kept flashing to Camille nearby, I knew the other guy didn’t stand a chance as they fought.
But there are still two more of them. They could still come for us.
They could find the...
“Shit! The maps!” The words exploded from my mouth. I tore away from Jocelyn, sprinting for my tent. I’d been making detailed, careful maps of every step of the journey we’d taken over the Sea Sands and Death Plains. If one of these warriors found them...
It would lead them straight to our settlement.
That horrifying thought was a shot of straight adrenaline through my body.
We didn’t know exactly how many warriors were out here. If they wanted to attack, the Sea Sand and Bitter Sea men back at the Cliffs of Uruzai would probably be able to hold their own in an attack.
But there were women there, too. Children. And many of my human friends were now pregnant – Cece, Theresa, Melanie, Serena, and Zoey – all waiting to start a strange and hopeful chapter of their lives, fostering tiny new futures inside them.
If the people in this territory meant us harm, then there was no way I wanted them anywhere near my friends.
I snatched my backpack from just inside the entrance to my tent, clutching fiercely at the canvas fabric straps. I held the whole thing tightly against my chest as I stood and whirled, knowing all the maps I’d created were kept safe in a folder inside.
But now what?
Hide them? Destroy them?
We’d skipped making a fire tonight out of an abundance of caution, and I cursed that fact now. Clearly, we’d been found by these attacking warriors, fire or not. And now, I had no blaze to chuck the maps into.
I took a few frantic s
And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Because the next breath I took was crushed out of me as a massive muscled arm caught me about the waist. It was all I could do to gasp wildly and hold tight to my pack as the ground whooshed downward away from my feet.
No. The ground wasn’t moving. I was.
The sky that had been above me was now all around me. I choked out a scream as my stomach jolted. My bum slammed painfully against the solid curve of the flying bird alien’s spine, its wings beating out a mighty rhythm on either side. Like the irkdu the Sea Sand people used, this huge bird creature had dozens of centipede-like legs. Those legs curled inward under its body as it flew.
Yes, flew. With me. On its bloody back.
Frantically holding tight to my pack, as if that would somehow keep me from falling to my death, I craned my head back to get a glimpse of the enemy warrior who’d snatched me.
I swallowed another scream, shocked by the sight of him.
White bone, gleaming silver under the moonlight, encased most of his face. Two horns curved up and away from the top, piercing the night air. The only part of his face visible beneath the skull he wore was a mouth set in a grim line and a hard jaw. The shape of the bone mask, and the angle I looked at him from below, meant I couldn’t see his eyes.
“Let me down!” I cried, finally finding my voice in the insanity of the situation. I promptly lost it again when the alien bird swooped downward, making my guts lurch. I realized the man’s arm was still locked around my waist, holding me steady. My back was pressed to the broad expanse of his chest. The fabric of my jacket crinkled as I tried to wiggle away from him. Not too much, though. I wasn’t crazy. A quick glance down told me that breaking out of this guy’s grip would be a death sentence.
Skull Boy didn’t answer me.
Dread sank in my chest as I noticed the sounds of battle had completely disappeared. All I could hear now was my own ragged breathing, the beating of the bird creature’s wings, and the night air rushing past. The cold wind made my eyes water, and I blinked viciously, trying to get a sense of where we were now and where we were going.
But it was impossible. The asteroid ring and stars above provided a shockingly decent amount of light, but the landscape was moving too quickly beneath us to make sense of. Like a bolt of black and blue sari silk being yanked by the practised hand of a seamstress, it rippled and slid, its landmarks zipping out of sight below us almost as soon as they appeared.
The only constant was the range of mountains ahead.
And the fact that I’d now left all my friends, and everything I’d known on this planet, far behind.
CHAPTER TWO
Lerokan
A few moments earlier...
The Vrika had come for me once again.
I stood, dragging the back of my hand across my mouth, wiping away the last remnants of my evening meal. I stared out from behind the bone confines of my mask, the one Gahn Errok had thrust down over my face the day he’d cast me out of the mountains of my birth. Those mountains loomed behind me at the horizon, a shadowy line of stone under the rising moons.
Even at this distance, the glow of the Vrika was unmistakable, a white gleam rippling through the darkening air of late evening. As it got closer, the light emanating from its body rivalled the blinking eyes of the stars and the bright, jagged spheres of the moons.
This was the third time the creature had tried to summon me.
And it would be the third time I ignored its call.
I could still hear the words of the man who’d once been my Gahn. They echoed inside my skull now the way they had in the mountain hall sixty-two days ago.
Until you heed the sacred call of the Vrika and honour our people by taking your rightful mate, you are banished from these mountains and this tribe.
Unlike Gahn Errok, the Vrika was not content with exiling me and forgetting about me. It had come to me for a second time not long after I’d left my people. And now, here it was once more.
How many times must it come before it realizes I will not follow it?
I had no need for its spells and summonings.
Because I did not need a mate.
“Come, Breena,” I grunted at my braxilk. The six eyes lining the sides of her head swivelled to me, and her beak parted with a soft screechy yip. She uncurled her many legs from beneath her frame, rising to her full height and stretching her wings.
I gathered my belongings. This did not take long as there were so few of them. My bow. My arrows. My blades were already strapped upon my back and my roll of bedding hides was still tucked against Breena’s side, secured by hide straps.
Once everything was safely stowed, I leaped up onto Breena’s back. A slight shift in the set of my knees and a click of my tongues and we were off the ground. Breena’s wings beat, sending deep blue dust and pebbles scattering beneath us. Even with my weight, she climbed easily up into the heart of the sky.
The Vrika followed us through the air, gaining on us quickly. I twisted on Breena’s back. The Vrika’s large white eyes locked onto mine, and my breath caught. I shook off the unnerving sensation and smiled, waving my bow jauntily at it.
“Thank you for your consideration, Vrika!” I called. “But I have no use for a mate. Please summon one of the other warriors in my stead. Perhaps Gahn Errok. The stars know that man is desperate for a woman! And it would be a great boon to the tribe, too! I’m sure getting his cock wet would vastly improve his disposition!”
It was true. Gahn Errok was half out of his skull with longing for a mate. I could not help but think that his harshness in my own banishment was only partly due to the customs of our people, and was perhaps more to do with his jealousy that I’d been chosen when he hadn’t.
I’d rejected what he so badly wanted.
Well, he can have my mate. The Vrika just needs to bond her to him, not me.
The Vrika did not seem deterred by my words in the slightest. Normally, I’d admire that sort of optimistic precociousness. But right now, it made my smile falter, replaced by a frown of irritation.
Fine then.
“Onwards, Breena. The Vrika has no interest in my sage advice tonight.”
Breena and I sped over the gravelly area where we’d been sitting, heading for the Deep Sky plains. During the day, those plains were a much deeper shade of blue than the sky. But at night, the plains were brightened by the stars and moons, the dark blue ground shimmering with spilled light.
With a crank of my head, I realized some of that light was spilling down from the Vrika. It was larger than Breena, with a longer wingspan. And it carried no rider. Thus, it continued to close the distance between us.
“I’ve already told you I am not interested,” I grumbled, more to myself than the Vrika.
I turned my attention forward once again, then jerked, realizing the plains below and the sky ahead were not empty as I’d thought. In the distance, three braxilk swooped and dove, their riders raining down rapid arrows.
I grunted, tapping Breena’s rump with my tail. She banked, flying wide around what appeared to be a battle ahead so I could get a closer look. It did not take long for me to see that these were not Gahn Errok’s men, but Gahn Thaleo’s.
I held my bow ready, making sure my arrows were easily within reach on my back. Gahn Thaleo’s men were ruthlessly territorial. They would bear me no glad tidings. Even if it had been men of my own tribe, I would not have been welcomed warmly. My banishment, and the mask that marked me as an exile, meant that no man would be a friend to me now. But that still would have been preferable to Gahn Thaleo’s warriors.
I will have to escape their notice for now. Slip out of sight while they are occupied.
Occupied with what, was the question.
I did not recognize the men on the plains. My sight stars pulsed, my gaze widening, when I saw that one of them was barely a man at all. Two heads taller than any man I knew; with hide that glinted like glittering stone; a long, fanged snout; and fists that swung like hammers.
