His to Claim (Alien Masters Book 2) Read online

  Now, as she stood in line, she shuffled forward in silence. Though they’d worked together, trained together, eaten every meal together for months, there was no good-natured banter going on today among the team members. Each scientist knew the danger of what they were about to do. Star Portals were unregulated by modern technology. Though there were many theories, modern science still did not fully understand how they worked. People had stepped through them, never to be heard from again.

  The Portal she was about to enter ended on Neodyma. Two others had been discovered on Earth. One led to Gadolinium. That planet had already been the focus of several studies. The third Portal hadn’t been used for centuries. It transported the user to Iridia.

  Once a planet as lush as Earth, Iridia had suffered a global catastrophe. With their vast deposits of elements like yttrium and samarium, known as rare earth minerals, Iridians developed powerful lasers, superconductors, and nuclear batteries millennia before they were invented on Earth. But along with life-saving creations and cutting-edge technological devices, they also learned to create superweapons.

  Long ago, a minor league terrorist group on Iridia got hold of a cache of the weapons. They nearly wiped out all carbon-based forms of life on the planet, leaving behind a desolate wasteland. The planet’s badly damaged atmosphere was left with a permanent reddish tinge, bombarded by continuous radiation from the twin suns Phalyx and Zalyx.

  Centuries later, the federation sent a scout through the Portal, a single soul who bravely volunteered. He reappeared weeks later. Starving, horribly disfigured, he died without uttering more than a few words to the startled guard who found him lying on the ground outside the Portal.

  Government officials interviewed the guard who found him and heard testimony about the scout’s dying declaration. Then they gathered together heads of state from all the nearby planets and met behind closed doors for three days. When they emerged, the InterStellar Federation was born. The first act of the new federation was to order the Portal to Iridia to be sealed for all eternity. The second was to outlaw development of weapons made from any of the seventeen rare earth elements anywhere in the galaxy.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a low murmur from the line ahead. Devon had stopped at the entrance to the Portal. He turned to face his remaining team members.

  “Friends and colleagues, we know not what faces us on the other side.” The somber tone of his voice surprised her. It wasn’t like him. Always irreverent, Devon could be counted on to inject a note of humor, say or do something to liven up any situation.

  “We travel now to a new world, a world filled with primitive beings, creatures who engage in bizarre erotic rituals such as we’ve never seen. I say, let’s get this party started!” With a whoop, he whirled and disappeared through the Portal in a flash of light.

  From his spot on the observation platform, Director Nilsson’s voice rose, sputtering in outrage.

  “You will disregard that unsanctioned outburst! This mission is of the gravest importance. Remember your goals, ladies and gentlemen. Remember your duty to the federation.”

  The low buzz rose, blocking out the rest of the director’s remarks. Lexi grinned. She hadn’t known Devon was a proponent of the movement. No wonder he’d jumped at the chance to go to Neodyma. She bet he was already planning to experiment, engaging in the act of coitus the first chance he got. He must have kept his support of the movement a carefully guarded secret—even from her—as he knew he’d be cut from the mission if it became known.

  Transport halted while a trio of psychological evaluators was called in to do a last-minute brain scan of the remaining members of the team. Lexi used the time to empty her mind of all those rebellious thoughts she’d been having, all the images she’d conjured up of how physical contact might feel. She had no doubt she’d be banned from entering the Portal too if any such mental activity was detected.

  During the delay, she saw one of the technicians monitoring the Portal slide up onto the platform next to the director. With a worried look on his face, he murmured something in Nilsson’s ear. Nilsson shook his head and waved the man back to his place.

  Finally the psych evaluators arrived. Nilsson gave them hurried instructions. They surrounded the next person in line, closed their eyes, and began the process of entering the mind of their subject. The room fell silent for what seemed like hours. Finally they opened their eyes and nodded in unison to the director. That team member vanished through the Portal.

  The process sped up as one after another of her group disappeared into the glowing opening. Lexi noticed the light emanating out into the room seemed to have taken on a slightly different hue in one corner of the Portal, a faint greenish cast. She was about to bring it to someone’s attention when she caught the reflection of the emerald green gown worn by one of the board members watching the proceedings from the platform. Since none of the technicians seemed concerned, she dismissed the phenomenon as a simple refraction of light.

  The evaluators did find unacceptable thoughts in the minds of two of her team members, and they turned them away from entering the Portal. Lexi’s heart sank. She could see the disappointment on their faces and vowed she wouldn’t be the third. When her turn came, she closed her eyes, relaxed, and concentrated on visualizing the complex equation she’d created for her doctoral dissertation.

  She knew the moment they invaded her mind. The probing, the foreign presence rifling through her most private thoughts and memories, stripping her psyche bare. This mind scan was much harsher than any she’d ever experienced. No preparation, no time to become accustomed to the sensation. She felt violated. Lexi wanted to scream for it to stop, but she forced herself to breathe slowly and remain calm.

  Suddenly her mind was a void. They’d withdrawn their presence as rapidly as they entered. She felt a moment of sheer panic, then her own consciousness flooded back in. The trio nodded in unison and waved her by.

  Her stomach in knots, Lexi squared her shoulders and moved into place. She took a deep breath and one big step—and found herself hurtling through an endless black void at a terrifying speed. Flashes of light across the entire spectrum of the rainbow appeared at random, some far across the galaxy, some so near she swore she could reach out and touch them. A powerful force tumbled her head over heels, pulling in every direction at once, threatening to tear her limb from limb.

  Lexi opened her mouth to scream, but the void sucked the air from her lungs. She’d heard of black holes, those wormholes that devoured everything with which they came in contact. Even light could not escape. She wondered if she’d somehow fallen into one, if she’d be ripped apart until even the atoms in her body were reduced to free-floating protons and neutrons and electrons.

  She couldn’t breathe, had no control of her body. She lost all sense of time or place, all feeling. There was only the ceaseless void, the incredible pressure. Bizarre images flashed past her—formless clouds of gases in a whirlwind of colors, strange worlds in every size, orbited by dozens of moons whizzing by at a dizzying speed, some ghostly gray, some gaudy.

  * * *

  The whirling stopped abruptly. Lexi fought down a wave of nausea. Her head felt like someone had imbedded an axe in it. She stretched out her arm and gave a sigh of relief when it came in contact with a solid surface. Her fingers scrabbled, clutched something gritty and crumbling, like sand or dirt. She shifted her body and became aware of a hard surface beneath her, studded with lumps digging into her back. Rocks?

  She waved a hand in front of her and felt nothing. Gradually, her mind began to process the information. She was lying on her back, on a patch of very real, very hard ground. She flexed fingers and toes, arms and legs, moved her head from side to side, then stopped when another wave of nausea threatened to overcome her.

  She took a few deep breaths and cautiously opened her eyes. A double glare pierced her brain, making her head ache even more. Of course. The twin suns. Phalyx and Zalyx. She turned her head to the side and narrowed her
eyes to slits, staring straight ahead.

  A reddish-brown substance with the texture of coarse sand stretched out in front of her as far as she could see. Here and there, huge jagged rocks protruded from the surface. Coal black and drab brown and gray. She reached behind her and felt a jagged surface beneath her head. That explained the crippling pain in her head. She’d apparently smacked down onto a rock when she landed.

  She struggled to a sitting position and took in her surroundings. More sand. More rocks. And she was seeing everything through an odd reddish haze. She rubbed a hand over the clear visor in her headgear, thinking maybe it was coated with a fine film of dust, but the haze remained.

  Slowly she pushed herself to her full six-foot-one height and turned in a complete circle. No sign of her team. In fact, there didn’t seem to be evidence of any human habitation in sight. Apparently she’d missed the mark and ended up outside the Portal’s landing zone.

  Tamping down a rising surge of panic, she forced herself to make another slow circle. That’s when it began to sink in. Not only were her teammates nowhere in sight, there was also no sign of the crystal blue mountain range that crisscrossed the planet of Neodyma. No sparkling lakes or rivers. No trees. Not even a cactus or a gray-green patch of desert sage. And everywhere, all around her, that weird reddish haze covering a landscape straight from hell.

  Something was very wrong. The strange greenish glow she’d seen just before she entered the Portal must have been due to a glitch, an anomaly. Gradually the truth sank in. With an anguished howl, Lexi fell to her knees. She was alone. And this was not Neodyma. Somehow, she’d been transported to its sister planet, the desolate wasteland known as Iridia.

  Chapter Two

  Exhausted, Ayron forced his legs to keep going. They had only these few precious hours of twilight for the hunt and his Tryb needed fresh meat. He heard a shout from Nazery up ahead and doubled his pace.

  Their quarry came into sight. The enormous white tusk protruding from its head stood out against the dark landscape. It was rare to see one this size alone in the outlands. Lumbering along ponderously on all eight legs, the narliphant was likely an old alpha driven from his herd by a younger male successor. He moved with his enormous snout constantly waving back and forth, sniffing out the bits of lichen that made up his diet hidden under the surface of the soil.

  Using moves they’d spent years perfecting, the hunters surrounded their quarry. Eli and Khan approached from the left flank, Nazery and Balek from the right. That left Ayron free to circle around to the front. He’d have the kill shot.

  Silently, Khan raised his sword into the air, then made a sharp downward slashing motion. With a wild whoop, the four men attacked as one, slicing the back tendons on all eight legs with their swords. The beast raised its snout to bellow a cry of distress, exposing the underbelly. That’s when Ayron struck, hurtling the spear with enough force to pierce the thick leathery skin, straight into the heart of the beast. The ground shook as the huge creature bellowed once more, then collapsed.

  Nazery let out a triumphant cry and the runners appeared, coming out from behind the rocks where they’d been crouching, out of sight of the creature.

  “Summon everyone. We need to butcher the kill and get every usable part of it back to the caves before dawn.”

  Grinning, the four young boys took off at a dead run. They were hunters in training. One day, they’d be the ones attacking a beast and Ayron and the others would await their summons back in the caves. Then they’d be expected to do their part—skinning and eviscerating the creature, harvesting nearly every part of it and hauling it back.

  Rarely did they get close enough to bring down a creature this size. Narliphants traveled in small packs, with the young, aggressive males venturing out ahead. Their defenses were formidable. Over the years, several hunters from Ayron’s Tryb had been trampled and killed by charging narliphants.

  Exhaustion overtook him and he longed to find a place to sink down and rest. He was older than the rest of the hunters, nearly fifty, and found it difficult to keep up with the pace they set. But pride wouldn’t allow him to show any weakness in front of the others. He wandered off, seeking a place where he could snatch a few moments of peace before the flurry of activity that would last till dawn.

  He moved silently through the harsh landscape, circling around a huge outcropping of thorium. A flash of white in the distance caught his eye. For an instant, he found himself hoping it wasn’t another narliphant. He didn’t think he could sustain the pace necessary to bring down a second enormous beast in one night, let alone helping to haul another half a ton of meat and skin and bone back to the caves.

  But he was a hunter. The greatest in his Tryb, if legends were to be believed. It was in his blood. He could no more ignore an opportunity to snag another kill than he could decide to live without air.

  Cautiously, he peered around the jagged rocks. He’d never seen a creature like this. All white, with only four limbs, the beast was small and slight, standing upright like a man. It looked tall as a man too. Whatever it was, the creature was coming closer, plodding along at a steady pace. Ayron let it draw nearer. Circling around the outcropping, he waited till it had passed. Then with a fierce cry, he ran up behind it and pounced, bringing the creature down.

  The beast struggled, writhing under him, making strange muffled wailing sounds. The texture of its coat was strange—slick and smooth, without the leathery armor-like protection that nearly every creature in the outlands had developed to survive in the harsh environment. It lacked bulk too. The skin collapsed when he pressed against it, like an air bladder with a hole in it.

  He straddled the creature with a knee on either side, flipped it over, and let out a startled cry. Two terrified brown eyes met his, covered by a wide transparent panel in the white covering. He reached for the head, trying to tear away the covering. The creature’s arms began flailing against him, beating on his chest. He got his hand under an edge and yanked. A hunk of it came off in his hand.

  Underneath it lay a very human-looking face, with the mouth open in a silent scream. Ayron bit off a shocked cry. Shouts rang out, drawing nearer. The other hunters had been drawn by his yell when he felled the creature and they came running forward, only to stop in their tracks as they stared down at the ground.

  “What is it?” Nazery asked.

  The creature had stopped struggling at the appearance of the others and now lay beneath him, silent and limp.

  “I don’t know.” Ayron sounded puzzled and the others took a step back in alarm. They’d never seen their leader unable to identify a creature and this one was disturbing, with its human-like features.

  “Could it be an undiscovered species of ape?” Khan poked it in the side with his sword. The creature hissed and writhed.

  “Stop.” Ayron pushed the sword aside angrily. “We’re not going to harm it. Not until we find out what it is. It may be some form of humanoid, a mutation that managed to survive against all odds. There are parts of Iridia we still haven’t fully explored since the trouble.”

  He fingered a corner of the loose white covering. Not skin. Some sort of garment. Grabbing it near the top, he tore it down the center and spread it apart. Over his shoulder, Khan made a sharp guttural sound.

  An unmistakable pair of naked breasts covered by a thin, nearly transparent layer of fabric lay before him. Full and firm with round pink nipples darkening near the center. He reached down to touch one. The female jerked and swatted his hand away.

  Eli laughed. “Whatever she is, she’s got your number already, old man! Let me have a go at her.” He sank to his knees and ran a hand down the body. “Sure feels like a real woman. Soft and smooth.” He grabbed one breast in his palm and squeezed, pinching the nipple roughly between his fingers.

  The female shot out a closed fist and backhanded him across the face. He swore and grabbed her gloved hand, closing his fingers around it. They held a silent contest, the female keeping her hand out in front
of her, rigid, refusing to yield. With a disgusted snort, Eli finally tired of the game and let her go.

  “Looks like she’s got your number too.” Balek grinned, showing off incisors filed to lethal points.

  Ayron stood and pulled the female to her feet. The shredded remains of her white garment fell to the ground and all the men fell silent as they stared.

  She was magnificent. Tall, easily matching his six foot height, she was slender and supple. Not like his beloved Naia. Her body had been lush and full and much shorter. Completely feminine but more suited to the powerful gravitational pull of Iridia.

  The shapeless white garment had given no hint of what lay beneath. Wide shoulders narrowing to a tiny waist. Breasts like those of a young woman jutting out through the thin film covering her body, with the nipples hard now from Eli’s pinching and squeezing. Obviously they’d never overflowed with milk or suckled young. Her midsection was flat but her hips flared out, begging a man to follow the curve with his hands… or his lips.

  Patches of hair were visible under the transparent skin tight garment—one on her head and a smaller but much more intriguing one between her thighs. His cock stirred to life, the first time in longer than he could remember. She saw his eyes widen, followed his gaze, and shot out a hand to cover herself there.

  “What is your name?”

  She cocked her head and her eyes narrowed, as though puzzling over the meaning of his words. But she didn’t answer.

  Eli let out a whoop. “D’ya think maybe she’s mute? Wouldn’t that be a gift from the gods? A female who looks like that and doesn’t use her mouth to talk all the time! Made just for this.” He grabbed his cock, already protruding stiff and hard from the folds of his cloak.

  She watched him intently as he spoke, then turned her head away as though embarrassed when he reached down and stroked himself.

  Ayron stepped in front of Eli, blocking him from the female’s view. “Just because she can’t speak doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand. She may have some degree of intelligence.”