in a terrifying sort of way, but the strength in his body and long, muscular limbs was never displayed in a way that did it any justice. Each graceful motion was packed with restrained, coiled strength. Even the grip of the arms she knew could easily crush her as they fled onto the street.
As she suspected, he didn’t veer at all from the direct path that the field vessel would have taken. Looking up, she spotted a light tracking their movement from a guard tower. Her breath hitched.
Please let that be Mia.
“Charlie, I’m tracking your progress,” Mia’s voice cut through the link, and Charlie felt herself sag in relief in the alien’s grip. His eyes darted down to her for a second. “I loaded a tranquilizer rifle and took out a few individuals who looked like they would have walked into your path. You’re clear for a direct shot straight to the airlock.”
“Thank fuck. Good thinking, Mia. We appear to be approaching the airlock now.”
“Affirmative. The lock will be opening in two minutes and counting. Hurry.”
There was only a short distance from the airlock when the green access light clicked on and the interior airlock gate slid open. This was it. She only hoped that the big alien didn’t balk too much.
He slowed, his ears flattening as he stopped a foot outside of the airlock.
No, no, no! He had to go through. He wasn’t budging. Instead, he was looking up around the towers and then down the streets, his muscles tensing. Charlie heard the click on her link as someone came back online.
“Charlie? What’s going on? You need him to get into the airlock,” Mia snapped.
“I know! He’s not moving. He may suspect that it is a trap.”
“Shit. He’s definitely smart to be suspicious. Hope he doesn’t take this personally then.”
“Wha—?”
Blaster fire struck the ground around them. Charlie shouted in alarm, her fingers instinctively digging into the fur of the male holding her. The alien froze and let out a deafening roar. He spun around, looking for their assailant, but eventually charged forward, slipping into the airlock to escape fire, his body quivering with anger.
He swung around with a snarl as the airlock slid shut behind them. He spun around to face forward again, his hold on her tightening as the light on the internal airlock gate went red again and the external gate’s light snapped to green. As they were departing, there was no decontamination delay. The gate immediately slid open.
He leaped forward at the exact moment an alarm blared through the colony. Although the sound was dampened by the dome, Charlie could still hear it. The gate slammed shut, narrowly missing them. The alien raced forward at a full, long-legged gallop across the plains, heading toward the mountain. Her breath choked in her throat, certain that soon the blaster fire would come, but as the minutes ticked by and the colony became small in the distance, Charlie realized that no one was yet aware that they had left the dome. Soon they would figure it out though. She hoped for the alien’s sake that they would be far away by the time they searched the city and came up empty.
Large standing stones and a rocky landscape proceeding the cliffs rose around them. She didn’t miss that the alien wisely moved along them, zigzagging toward the mountains. She let out a pent-up breath burning in her chest. With his pelt, he would disappear among the cliffs and into the mountains without anyone the wiser. They would never find him out there.
A comm channel snapped on inside of her helmet from an outside link. She adjusted her settings on her comm link, disabling all other signals outside of the private one she shared with her friends. She didn’t want any way for them to trace the route of the alien. Which reminded her…
Twisting in his arms, she pulled the small utility knife strapped to her bicep free. His grip tightened around her as he ducked into a passage between two overlapping rocks. He froze inside, his glowing eyes fastened on her as the fur on his body rose. She immediately turned on her outer comm in her helmet. She didn’t know how much, if anything, he would understand, but hopefully he would get by the tone of her voice that she didn’t mean to hurt him with it.
“It’s okay. Please. I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay…”
She repeated it as a mantra, watching as his eyes narrowed on her,