Page 5 of Chased by the Alien Mercenary (Monster Mercenary Mates #6)
Was the mansion under attack? Had that red-and-gold bastard brought danger with him when he came here?
And I didn’t mean the kind of danger that involved slapping me around and sexually assaulting me.
I crossed my fingers beneath the thin blanket with both hands.
What if he was a criminal, and this was whatever counted as police, raiding his place?
I hoped that meant freedom was within reach, but considering my luck since Colony Planet 12, I sincerely doubted it.
When more noise began to reach my ears, I got up from the cot and shuffled on cold feet closer to the metal bars to peer out.
Light came from the end of the hallway, but very little of it reached as far as my cell.
I couldn’t see anything, but I was pretty certain I heard the whiz of laserfire and the shouting and clamoring of people fighting in close quarters.
Then, a handful of males tumbled from one of the rooms closer to my cell, likely a bunk room.
These Krektar, and one strange black-and-pink guy, looked sleepy and confused, but they were rallying as if to join the fighting upstairs.
They blocked my view of the end of the hallway, all tall backs and silver and black armor, hands still fumbling with straps or buckles.
I counted six of them in total, including the one with the ram’s horns and pink lines running through his charcoal-black skin.
That one looked a little smarter than the bumbling Krektar, and he retreated behind them, his eyes darting from the sounds of fighting to where I stood in my cell.
They glowed pink, too, and I shivered when I saw something very dark in those incongruously pretty orbs.
He started toward me, as if he’d decided that whatever was happening upstairs was less interesting than I was, but a loud growl rattled through the hallway and halted him in his tracks.
Goosebumps rose all along my flesh, and they had nothing to do with the pervasive, damp cold down in this basement.
That growl was like a lion on the prowl, and every part of my body responded with the instinct to flee.
I wasn’t alone in that, but for a moment, all I could focus on was my scramble to the back of my cell.
The growling cut off when a shadow moved at the end of the gloomy hallway, appearing to block out all light.
Then it came flying down the stairs, and I jerked back against the wall, even though whatever it was, was several dozen feet away.
In the distance, Krektar shouted, a gun went off, and then they started toppling and scattering like bowling pins.
The bizarre comparison made my brain ache, then detach, and for a moment, I could see what was happening without feeling anything about it.
Blood spurting everywhere, a Krektar wrenched apart by sheer brute force.
The amount of broken and dismembered body parts…
It was a good thing I had briefly gone numb.
And still, I couldn’t really tell what—or who—it was that was wreaking havoc on the guards: a black shadow, a gleaming streak of white, glowing red eyes.
Once, I was certain I caught sight of a macabre grin.
Then the fight was over, and only the pink-and-black male stood between me and whatever monster that was.
Growling again, my remaining jailor stumbled closer and, anxiously moaning, began to fiddle with the padlock on my cell door.
“Let me in!” he muttered, as if I could help him with this.
Then came another terrified moan, and he pressed his back to my bars, his tail—tipped with a sharp blade—lashing behind him.
He fumbled with a gun, fired a few times, and then, with a wet, gurgling noise, abruptly began to collapse.
Fuck. I stared in horror at the body and the blood spreading along the floor, at the carnage in the distance.
My eyes skated over the threat, as if uncertain of what I was even seeing.
He was shadowed by the gloom and by the dark, gleaming armor that covered him.
Was it a him? I thought so, because he was big, on two legs, and bulky in shape.
Then he lifted his head, and I gulped—no longer numb, but paralyzed with fear.
A skull-like face, glowing red eyes, and the most macabre, evil grin of needle-sharp teeth. A monster.
He growled, and the sound rattled through my cell, silencing the moans of the dying behind him.
I stared into those red, glowing eyes—like coals burning inside a skull.
The markings on his face were ivory white but freckled with blood from his kills.
Sharp cheekbones, dramatic eye sockets, and a mouth like death.
He was horrifying, and when he growled again, clawed hands reached forward to rattle the bars of my cage.
In that moment, I saw in his eyes nothing but feral rage: a man on two legs— or alien, rather—kitted out in armor that even included a gun holstered on his thigh; but there was no intelligence in that gaze. He was all beast.
Then he attacked my cage door, clawing at the bars and bashing the padlock with his fist. Metal groaned and creaked.
With single-minded focus, he appeared to be trying to get into my cell, and I wasn’t quite sure what would happen once he did.
My eyes flicked from his scary, monstrous face to the death and carnage behind him.
My breathing shuddered in my chest. “Oh fuck, no, please don’t,” I heard myself say over and over again. “I’m so screwed…”
He roared, bashing the metal again, and it began to give.
It wouldn’t be long until he was in, and then he’d do to me what he’d done to the others.
I saw movement behind him: men in armor coming silently down the stairs.
It was too dark, their faces lost in shadow; I couldn’t tell if they were more guards from the manor or some other force.
I bit my lip, wondering if I should call out, tell them I was there—that I needed help.
A crazy thought popped into my head: I should warn the beast-man he was about to get stabbed in the back.
Before I could think better of it, my mouth opened.
“Behind you!” Why was that what came out?
I’d clearly lost a screw when it came to self-preservation over the past couple of days.
My beast-man jerked back, his head lifting, nostrils flaring as he inhaled.
Our eyes locked, his ruby orbs glowing and, in a flash, shifting to something else.
Then he spun and faced the hallway, snarling madly.
And I was left to wonder if I’d seen intelligence in that feral gaze or not.
Not for long, because the new arrivals opened fire and I was suddenly running for cover.
I couldn’t believe I had the presence of mind to tip my metal cot and duck behind it, but then all I could do was huddle and hope they didn’t hit me in the chaos.