Big Bad Claws - Michele Mills

1

Bitter wind whipped Lila’s long, dark hair into a knotted mess.

Ridiculous amounts of rain lashed from the alien sky.

Then she tripped over a curb and dropped onto her ass in a puddle of water. “Dammit.” She sat there for a second, totally shocked at her circumstance, then spit water out of her mouth and resolutely pushed herself into a standing position, trying to ignore her freezing wet butt. The precipitation here was crazy, and she couldn’t be more unprepared for it if she’d tried.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. Lila jumped with fright. “Holy crap, that was loud.” This whole damn situation was basically her worst nightmare.

She clenched her fists, trying to ignore the tell-tale signs of heightened anxiety and took even breaths, trying to loosen her chest. She glanced furtively up at the sky, knowing her fear of Hurlian snatching was irrational, but still unable to control the reflex. What if she had a panic attack out here, alone in the wide open, in this unknown location? What if…what if something or someone dropped down to try and capture her? How would she survive, without any help?

She sobbed with dismay and ran over to shelter beneath an overhang, shivering in the cold and dripping wet, with no idea what do to next. Her pink pajamas were useless in this storm, acting more as a sponge than a repellent. And her slippers—her most prized possession—were already soaked and filthy. She whimpered as they squelched with each step.

Lila glanced around the shadowy streetscape. She’d been shoved onto a transporter disk, the dissolution sequence initiated, and now she was…here. Wherever here was.

Maybe this was a dark rainforest world? It was hard to tell, considering the nighttime thunderstorm that was making it hard to clearly focus on details, but it looked like a modern city with actual buildings and streets. At least there was that. What if she’d ended up on a planet with atmosphere that didn’t support humanoids? Or in the wildlands with predators and biting insects? That would’ve been awful. The only thing she hated more than the outdoors was the wildlands.

She shook her head, trying to process the crazy chain of events that had led to her unexpected removal from her safe, comfortable home and her random placement onto an alien planet.

She’d dressed for bed that night like usual, pulling on her favorite pajama set and tucking her bare feet into the slippers with darling kitten faces stitched to the top that mom had bought prior to her death. It was the same routine as every evening—alone in her gated mansion, the household staff gone for the night.

She lived alone in echoing luxury. Mom, Dad and her brother Kevin had all passed away in the last few years and she was the last of her immediate family, living alone with their memories, trying her best to carry on and make sense of this new life without the people she loved.

Chai tea and snack cheese had been kindly arranged left for her on a tray by the housekeeper, and a brand-new, ridiculously expensive “original planet” contraband romance ebook waited to be read on her tablet. Both of her precious kitties were asleep in their matching pet beds. She’d sat on her favorite chair, making herself comfortable, propping her feet on her ottoman and pasting a fake smile on her face.

Living alone wasn’t so bad, she told herself. This was going to be a nice evening.

Nice. Evening.

And then a shadow darted across her room and a scream flew out of her mouth. A freakishly strong arm shot out and jerked Lila to her feet.

“Remain quiet and I’ll make this fast and painless,” a strong voice ground out, sounding distinctly feminine. And human.

Lila swallowed hard against the blade pricking at her throat, her heart beating furiously. Was she going to pass out before she was killed?

The assassin pressed the blade harder, nicking it against Lila’s skin…and then huffed out a disgusted breath and loosened her grip. “Dammit, I can’t do it,” she snarled. The female shoved Lila forward a step and sheathed her blade.

Lila gulped back a flood of tears.

The intruder turned, revealing a gap in her black face mask that exposed flashing blue human eyes. The swells on her chest and the curve of her hips under her skin-tight dark clothing betrayed her gender. “I can’t do it,” the surly assassin growled. “I can’t kill Bruce Garabedian’s last living child. I thought I could, but I can’t. You’re so…so small and defenseless. I didn’t