Bonding With the Beast Read online

  “That doesn’t change the fact that your lust gas isn’t working, Grrn.” Fsst sounded exasperated. “You have had your turn—why do you not allow me to try managing these subjects my way?”

  “You think you can do better?” Grrn demanded.

  “I believe I can, yes. You do not understand matters of the heart—you are too coldly logical.”

  “Fine!” Isobel could almost imagine Grrn throwing up his weird, skinny, six-fingered hands in disgust. “Do as you like with them but I have one caveat.”

  “Name it,” his companion said.

  “I will do better than that, I will show you. But it must be done carefully and privately.”

  “Agreed.”

  Suddenly, Isobel had the weightless sensation again and everything seemed to go sideways somehow. She opened her mouth to scream…and found herself standing once more in the round, white room. Only this time, it had changed.

  Looking around, she found herself standing in the middle of an elaborate bedroom suite. There was a white fur carpet underfoot which tickled her bare feet and red velvet wallpaper on the curving walls. There was a vast round bed in the center of the room with black satin sheets on it and a mirror mounted above it. It looked like something out of a boudoir photography set.

  Isobel herself had changed too. Looking down, she saw that she was wearing clothes again…well, if you could call the outfit she was dressed in clothes. It was actually more like a lacy black cobweb that draped over her breasts and opened just below them to show a pair of naughty panties to match.

  Both the cobweb baby-doll nighty and the panties that went with it were so transparent they were practically see-through but at least she had some cover now. Isobel wondered what Hail was wearing—or if he was wearing anything at all.

  He was standing by the side of the vast, round bed, she saw, and sure enough, the little gray men had given him clothing too. He had on a long pair of what looked like satin sleep trousers. They were a little less see-through than Isobel’s own outfit but she could still see the outline of his hard shaft pressing against the thin material.

  The big Kindred was also completely healed of his previous wounds, Isobel saw. The blood was gone and there were only scars where the spike-monster had swiped him with its arm.

  But Hail didn’t seem to have noticed he was suddenly dressed again or even that he was healed. He was standing perfectly still and the look on his face was one of intense concentration. Slowly his hand crept to the back of his neck.

  “Hail?” she ventured, not sure what was going on. “Are…are you okay?”

  “No.” He looked up at her and shook his head. “No, I’m not. They’ve taken it.”

  “Taken what?” Isobel asked.

  “My emotion damper.” His oculars retracted and he looked at her, his pale blue eyes blazing. “It’s gone, Isobel. I have no way to control my emotions.”

  Chapter Eight

  Hail knew at once he shouldn’t have told her. He could see the look of uncertainty and fear on her lovely face the minute he admitted he had lost the ability to turn down his emotional responses to a safe level. It was the same way she had looked at him when he had released his beast to fight the spiked thing the aliens had sent against them.

  But what else could I do? he asked himself despairingly. I could not fight such a creature without unlocking my battle rage. And I turned my emotions back down to a safe level as soon as the danger was over.

  Yes, but now he had lost the ability to do that. The place on the back of his neck where his emotion damper had been all his life was completely smooth. The silver button was gone and his fingers met only bare skin when he touched himself there.

  What was he going to do?

  I’ll tell you what you’re not going to do, he told himself firmly. You’re not going anywhere near Isobel. Not when the beast could come out at any minute! The best way to keep her safe is to stay the Seven Hells away from her!

  And then the little gray bastards that had captured them spoke again.

  “Well?” asked the one who called himself Grrn. “We are trying it your way—they now have sexually arousing clothing, an environment conducive to coitus, and the emotion control has been removed from the male’s neck. Why are they still not mating?”

  “I do not know.” The one called Fsst sounded perplexed. “For a primitive species, they are certainly sexually complex.”

  “We aren’t mating because you can’t force people to…to want to do that,” Isobel called, surprising Hail. She was shouting at the curving wall, in the general direction of where their captors were watching. “You can’t force people to fall in love!” she explained.

  “Oh, can’t we?” There was a dangerous note in Grrn’s voice that Hail didn’t like one bit.

  Fsst seemed to hear it too.

  “Now Grrn, do not be hasty,” he said quickly. “What do you plan to do?”

  “Only reason with them.” There was a sly note in the gray alien’s voice that told Hail he wasn’t to be trusted. Despite his determination not to go anywhere near Isobel without his emotion damper, he went quickly across the transformed room and stood in front of her, ready to shield her if necessary from whatever threat came next.

  “I thought you said they could not be reasoned with.” Fsst sounded confused.

  “Well, I’m trying things your way now, my friend,” Grrn said. “Let’s see if they respond—shall we?” He cleared his throat—or at least, Hail assumed that was what the high, whistling sound was. “Now listen to me, the both of you,” he said, sounding stern. “If you ever wish to return to your normal lives, you will mate at once. Our time bubble is rapidly collapsing and we do not have any more time to cajole or coerce you.”

  “You…you’ll send us back?” Isobel whispered.

  Hail turned to see that she was standing there with her arms wrapped around herself, her face as pale as a sheet of paper.

  “Isobel,” he began but she was still speaking to their captors.

  “You’ll send us back—let us go back to our normal lives and our…our families if we do this? If we, uh, mate for you?” she asked.

  “Indeed we will, my dear,” Grrn said at once.

  “We Chalombs are scientists, not sadists,” Fsst put in helpfully. “We wish only to study your primitive methods of reproduction. Then we will return you to your ship and you may be on your way.”

  “And if we refuse?” Hail shouted, feeling desperate. There was no way he could do this with Isobel. She was too tiny, too fragile and his beast was too near the surface—he had no way to control it.

  “If you refuse,” Grrn said menacingly, “You will never see your families or return to your normal lives again.”

  * * * * *

  Grrn’s words pierced Isobel like a thorn in her heart. Never again? She would never see her little boy again?

  No, that can’t be! It can’t! Brandon needs me—no one else would love him and understand him like I do. No one else will stand up for him and advocate for him at school. He needs me—I have to get back to him!

  And there was only one way to do that.

  Looking up at Hail, she bit her lip. He was huge and liable to get even bigger if his beast came out again. And that seemed to be a real possibility now that the little gray men had taken away his emotion damper.

  But if having sex with the massive Kindred was the only way out of this situation…

  I’ll do it, Isobel thought desperately. I’ll do anything I have to in order to get back home. Anything.

  “All right,” she called to their watching captors. “We’ll do it. Just promise to let us go home when we’re done.”

  “You have our word, my dear,” Fsst said. “But please proceed—the time bubble cannot last forever and we need to collect our data.”

  “Okay.” Isobel nodded and turned to face the big Kindred, a feeling of determination rising in her. “Hail,” she said, taking a step towards him. “I’m afraid we have to do this.”