Bonding With the Beast_a Kindred Tales novella Read online

  “Where are we?” he growled. “What is this place?”

  “I…I think we’re still somewhere on their ship.” Isobel put an arm over her breasts and a hand between her legs, trying to shield herself modestly. She wondered what the little gray men had done with her clothing and if there was any chance of ever getting them back…or getting home to Earth for that matter.

  Brandon, she thought. Oh please, let me get back to him! I have to get back somehow!

  “The female is correct,” said the whispery voice in her mind. Isobel could tell by the way Hail cocked his head to one side that he was hearing it too, though it was still speaking inside their minds instead of out loud. “The two of you are here to participate in a study of the mating habits of your species. We will record your actions and study them later at our leisure.”

  Mating habits? Isobel felt like her stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies. Oh my God, are they serious?

  “We’re not performing any fucking mating habits for you,” Hail growled and Isobel shivered at the anger in his deep voice.

  She couldn’t help remembering what he’d said about the “beast” that lived inside him. It was a good thing for the little gray men that they were nowhere to be seen or she was certain they wouldn’t have lasted long.

  “You will,” the voice replied implacably. “You simply have to be given sufficient motivation. Now…the two of you need to get closer together to begin with. How can you mate when you are not even touching?”

  Isobel bit her lip, uncertain whether she ought to comply or not. The idea of being “close” with the huge Kindred warrior now that both of them were stark naked was a scary one. Not that she thought Hail would try anything but just because she was embarrassed being nude with him.

  She longed for her straight black pencil skirt which had hidden some of her “junk in the trunk” as Kat called it. Her hips and behind were much too large to be just hanging out like this. Unfortunately, she only had two hands to cover up with and those were busy hiding her breasts and sex so her overly-luscious booty would just have to keep swinging free.

  Hail was standing his ground, not getting any closer to her. He had flipped his oculars down and Isobel saw that he was scanning the perfectly round walls, as though searching for a weakness. Suddenly, she remembered Brandon saying that the big warrior could see through walls with the high-tech vision-enhancers.

  “What do you see?” she asked anxiously. “Are they out there?”

  Hail gave a low, frustrated growl.

  “They are watching us from a command area composed completely of titano-steel alloy,” he said. “This room is composed of the same—it is completely unbreakable.”

  As he spoke, he strode across the room and punched one of the walls with one massive fist. There was a hollow clanging sound but nothing happened.

  “Now, warrior,” came the voice of one of the little gray men. “You know your actions are illogical. You said yourself that the alloy the study room is made of is completely impenetrable.”

  “Why do you continue to try and reason with them, Fsst?” the voice of Grrn asked. “If they will not get closer together voluntarily, we must force them to do so.”

  Suddenly, Isobel was standing in the middle of a blizzard. Freezing winds howled around her, whipping her long hair across her face. Stinging needles of icy snow pricked her body all over.

  She gasped with shock and the wind found its way down her throat like a cruel, cold sword, making her cough and choke. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself, huddling into a ball to try and keep warm. Dimly, she wondered how quickly someone could freeze to death. If this didn’t stop, she had a feeling she was going to find out the hard way.

  “Here—come here, Isobel.” Suddenly Hail was right beside her, putting his arms around her.

  “H-hail?” she gasped, her teeth chattering so hard she could barely say his name.

  “I need to hold you—for your own protection,” he said, drawing her close to his broad chest. “You’re too small—you’ll lose all your body heat if I don’t.”

  Isobel wanted to protest being pressed naked against the huge warrior but she was too cold to care much for modestly at the moment. Gratefully she accepted the heat of his much larger body as Hail tightened his arms around her, bringing her even closer.

  “There, see? Now they are in close proximity.” Grrn sounded extremely smug and pleased with himself.

  “Yes, but they have only drawn close for survival purposes—not the purpose of mating.” Fsst sounded impatient with the other alien. “You cannot force such encounters. If you make the climate of the study chamber temperate once more, they will draw apart. Watch.”

  Abruptly, the blizzard ceased and all the snow which had begun accumulating in icy drifts across the white floor vanished. There wasn’t even a puddle left behind—everything just went back to normal with no warning.

  Isobel became suddenly aware that she was huddled naked against Hail who was hugging her to his broad chest and rubbing her back and shoulders to keep her warm. For a moment she wanted to stay there. He was so muscular and his skin had that same spicy, masculine scent she’d noticed when he bent over to buckle her safety straps in the shuttle.

  Then she became aware of something hot and hard branding her lower belly. Looking down, she saw the massive Kindred’s equipment most definitely matched his size.

  Oh my God, it’s huge! Kat had always told her that Kindred were hung like Clydesdales but this was the first time Isobel had ever had a chance to confirm it. Not that she’d ever actually wanted to.

  Suddenly she realized she was just standing there, staring down at Hail’s hard shaft which was pressed right up against her belly. She felt hypnotized, like a bunny staring at a snake. A trouser snake, that is, whispered a sarcastic little voice in her head. Ha-ha.

  Hail seemed to see where she was looking.

  “Forgive me,” he rumbled, his deep voice strained. “I…cannot seem to help myself. My body…reacts to yours.”

  His words seemed to break the trance Isobel was in. With a little cry, she jumped back from him, out of his embrace. Hail let her go with a regretful look on his face.

  “I have never…there were no females on my home planet of Z4,” he explained haltingly. “And I have not had the privilege of being so close to one as beautiful as you before, Isobel.”

  “I…um…th-that’s okay,” she managed to stammer out. She tried to keep her eyes away from his massive manhood but they kept jumping back to the hard shaft jutting out from between his muscular thighs.

  “Do you see?” she heard Fsst say to Grrn. “The moment you remove the reason for them to be together, they part again.”

  “We need to play upon the male’s sense of protectiveness for his female,” Grrn suggested. “If he feels protective and possessive of her, it will enhance his male hormone levels and cause both of them to react with lust.”

  “I do not think—” Fsst began but just then a monstrous black shape materialized across the room from them.

  It was nine feet tall at least—a creature that seemed to be made entirely of shiny, black spikes except for the burning red eyes that glared into Isobel’s own. Its huge hands were bigger than her head and it held a long, thorn-like sword in each of them.

  “Oh my God!” Isobel gasped. “What…what is that thing?”

  “I don’t know but it’s not going to touch you.” Immediately, Hail pushed her behind him. Though he was naked and had no weapons, he stood his ground, legs spread firmly, ready to fight.

  But he doesn’t have anything to fight with and that…that thing has two swords! Plus it’s made out of spikes, Isobel thought helplessly. It’ll kill him with the first blow!

  The spike-monster opened a burning red hole of a mouth and gave an ear-splitting roar that sounded like a cross between a train’s whistle and a lion’s snarl. It took a step towards them and the ground beneath their feet seemed to tremble.

  “Grrn, yo