Alien Skin Market by Lizzy Bequin

CHAPTER 14: MAUREEN

The final transaction for her life and ownership was handled quickly and efficiently. She was taken to a cramped but clean back room where her new owner made a payment with something resembling a high-tech credit card. Forms were signed, papers were stamped, and Maureen’s laser-leash was handed over to her new master.

With his purple skin, striped shoulders, and long flexible ears, it was apparent this alien was the same species as the one who had touched her before in the street. However, this guy seemed slightly less intimidating.

That was not to say he looked like a pushover. His feature still had a demonic quality to them, and his intense orange eyes never left Maureen’s face except when it was necessary to sign one of the spider alien’s forms.

Still, of the two purple aliens, Maureen sensed this one posed less of an immediate threat to her safety, and she was weirdly grateful he was the one who had won her.

Not that it truly mattered.

She intended to escape at the first opportunity.

Once all the paperwork was completed, Maureen’s new master led her down a dim and narrow hallway and out into the filthy street which she recognized from before. It was darker now, but the air was still uncomfortably warm and laced with the reek of pollution and garbage.

It was the same place where she’d been strung up for inspection.

The same place she’d been touched.

Maureen’s body briefly went rigid at that memory, but she quickly pushed it out of her consciousness. Instead, she focused her eyes on the front of the establishment, taking care to memorize the pattern of the glowing sign so she could find it again easily.

The purple alien seemed eager to get away from that place. He uttered a command and tugged at Maureen’s leash. But his voice was gentle, and the tugging, while urgent, was not angry or aggressive.

Well… that was a surprise.

Maybe this guy wasn’t as mean as he looked?

Still, his muscle-bound body spoke of a capacity for extreme violence, and his predator’s face suggested a willingness to use it when necessary. However soft-spoken he might be, he had just spent a great deal of money to purchase Maureen, and he would no doubt be upset whenever she attempted her escape.

She would have to time things carefully.

Feigning a docile attitude, Maureen bowed her head and followed the alien’s lead. He gave an approving nod, and together they headed down the street, moving at a brisk pace through the glow of neon and the haze of pollution.

Apparently the alien was in a hurry. Before Maureen knew it, they had traveled two blocks and made as many turns. She would need to act soon or else she would have trouble finding her way back to rescue Rawn.

And just in time, an opening presented itself.

The alien moved his free hand up to his face and began speaking into a device on his wrist. It looked like a watch, but Maureen guessed it must be a communication device. She didn’t know who the alien was talking to, and she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that he had taken his attention off Maureen just long enough for her to make her move.

Maureen’s hand darted up to her throat, fingers searching the rim of her collar.

For a heart-stopping moment, she only felt smooth metal, and she feared her plan had failed before she even put it into motion. Then she felt the buttons she was looking for, and let out a quick sigh of relief.

She quickly pressed the buttons in sequence. The collar opened and fell away from Maureen’s neck, and the laser-leash disappeared from the purple alien’s hand. He turned and growled in surprise.

“Krash-garr?”

Maureen bolted.

She heard the purple alien roar behind her, heard the heavy thud of his pursuing feet, but she didn’t dare look behind her.

No doubt the alien could easily run her down in a flat-out sprint, but Maureen’s smaller stature gave her an advantage, allowing her to thread a path between the crowd of aliens filling the street.

Within a matter of seconds, she had made it to the first intersection and turned. Already her heart was beating out of her chest and her pulse was thumping at the bottom of her throat.

Pain stabbed her bare foot and traveled up her leg.

Maureen cried out. She had stepped on something sharp, a nail or a piece of glass.

She lost her balance, felt herself toppling face first toward the street. She cringed and flung her hands out to break her fall.

Just before Maureen struck the ground, a pair of powerful arms coiled around her waist, arresting her descent, then lifting her. For a weightless moment, the world spun around her, and a tiger’s voice growled from behind, hot breath stirring the hair at the back of her neck.

Her new master had caught her, and he was pissed.

The alien dragged her through the crowd to the side of the street and shoved her into the recessed doorway of a derelict shop. She tried to struggle away from him, but the alien easily pinned her back against the wall.

Maureen was cornered.

She was suddenly and acutely aware of the alien’s masculinity. His warm body crushed tightly against her own, skin against bare skin. Her naked breasts flattened against his rock-hard muscles. Lower down, the thin silken fabric of his breeches did little to conceal the stiff club of his aroused penis, which was wedged against her own hot center.

Maureen gasped on an inhale, and the creature’s scent streamed into her lungs, citrus and spice and well-tended leather. That odor sent her blood rushing into all the wrong places.

She suppressed an urge to whimper.

What was the alien going to do to her now? Was he going to punish her? Was he going to touch her like the other had done? Was he going to rape her right here on the street?

“Geff nav gravnorr, yoo-mun.”

Maureen’s eyes shot wide with suprise, and she paused her struggles. She hadn’t understood the first part of what that alien had just said, but the last bit sounded suspiciously like the word human.

Suddenly, the alien’s huge hand dropped toward his pelvis, and Maureen feared he would drag his trousers down to expose that thick member she could feel throbbing with arousal inside his pants.

But her fears proved unfounded. Instead, the alien retrieved a small device from his pocket and hooked it over Maureen’s right ear—it was some kind of earpiece.

The alien spoke again.

“Be still, human. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”

Maureen’s already wide eyes stretched even wider until it seemed they would pop right out of her head. The alien was speaking to her in English. Or more precisely, he was speaking in his own growly alien language, but the device in Maureen’s ear was immediately translating everything into words she could understand.

“I know you are afraid,” the alien went on, “but you have to trust me. This place is dangerous, and there are those who would do you harm. I will protect you, but you must obey me.”

Others who would do her harm? Was he talking about the other purple guy? The even scarier one?

The alien continued.

“We need to get out of here, now. I’m sure you have many questions, but they will have to wait until we are safely away from this place. I’m going to take you back to my spaceship. Do you understand?”

The guy wasn’t asking permission. Then again, considering his advantages in size and strength, he didn’t need to. And then there was that hardened pole in his pants. Did he intend on whipping that out when they got back to this ship of his? Or maybe the males of his species were just permanently hard? That was a disturbing thought in its own right.

Still, of all the aliens Maureen had encountered over the past day, this stern purple man with pointy ears and glasses represented her best chance for survival.

“Do you understand?” he repeated.

“Mwuh.”

Maureen had meant to say “yes.” She had forgotten about the drug she’d been given.

“Your voice has been taken from you, presumably by the shadowmen,” the alien said. “I have an antidote on board my ship which will counteract those effects. But I require your cooperation. Now, if you understand me, move your head up and down, like this.”

Maureen’s heart thumped even faster. How did this guy know about the shadowmen? Did that mean he knew how to get her back to Earth too? Without her voice, Maureen couldn’t ask any of these questions, and the alien seemed uninterested in providing further details until he had her back on his ship.

But right now, this alien was her only hope. She had to trust him. She had no other options.

Maureen nodded her head in agreement.

“Good,” the alien said. “Now follow me, and don’t make any trouble.”

He took Maureen’s arm and started to lead her back into the street when a sudden panic seized her, and she resisted.

Rawn.

In all the excitement, she had forgotten about Rawn.

The alien flicked its ears in annoyance, jangling the golden rings that adorned its long purple lobes.

“What are you doing, human? I just told you—”

“Mwuh!” Maureen blurted.

She needed to tell him about Rawn, but the loss of her speech made that all but impossible.

Maureen attempted to pantomime—she made a scurrying motion with her arms, she stuck out her tongue, she growled—and then she gestured frantically in the direction of the auction house they had just left.

The purple alien stared down at her blankly through his glasses.

“What in Goddess’s name are you doing?” He glanced nervously up and down the street. “Human, we don’t have time for this game. Now please—”

“Mwuh!”

She gestured wildly in an attempt to visually express Rawn’s size and shape and fluffiness. Unfortunately, all of her gesticulations were lost on the purple alien, who just laid his ears back and quirked a quizzical brow.

“All right, enough of this,” he muttered.

The alien made a move to pick Maureen up and sling her over his shoulder, and she cried out. If the alien carried her away, she would never get Rawn back. By the time they made it back to his ship and fixed her voice, it would be too late.

Maureen hated herself for what she did next—the purple alien was trying to help her, after all—but she saw no other recourse.

She drew her leg up in a quick motion and drove her knee into the purple alien’s crotch, aiming for the vulnerable anatomy just below the hard rod of his erect penis. She just hoped the alien’s balls were as sensitive as a human man’s.

As it turned out, they were.

The alien gave a guttural grunt and doubled over, releasing his grip on Maureen. She turned and started to run, her feet carrying her in the direction of the auction house.