ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads) (148 page)

“Go watch TV, mom,” she said automatically. Dutifully, her mother did so. Raine laboriously climbed the stairs to her room, laid on her bed and wept until sleep claimed her.

Every waking moment for the next few weeks saw Raine operating on a kind of automatic pilot. She looked after her mother and the house, even tended the garden a little but didn’t really notice any of the things she did. Her mind was wholly focused on her loss and the pain it caused. The abyss, which had opened in her chest, could have been used for landfill and never brimmed over.

A bottomless shit-pit. Just try and fill me with junk, waste, or garbage. It’s what I deserve for losing the best thing I ever had. I always was a big pointless waste of air, and this proves it. I’m worthless.

Raine howled. A huge despairing cry, screaming her pain and loss to the uncaring world.

I only really knew him for a couple of days, but it feels like we loved a lifetime’s worth.

Raine woke to complete blackness a month after seeing Antony for the last time. Something had roused her from her sleep, and she listened for what it might have been. Despite her depressed state, she dragged herself from her bed and flicked the hallway light on, squinting against the glare. Her mother lay at the bottom of the stairs, one arm folded at an impossible angle.

“Your mother has suffered a stroke due to the pressure from the tumor in her brain,” The polite Nigerian doctor explained. “She broke her arm in two places when she fell down the stairs, and three of her ribs are punctured.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Raine asked in a little voice.

“It does not look good for her,” He said in the same calm voice he used before. “I would be very surprised if she regains consciousness.” He shook her hand and offered his condolences before taking her to her mother’s bedside.

Three hours later Raine’s mother stopped breathing.

Somehow Raine managed to get home. Walking into the empty house was almost calming. This had been her mother’s space for so long, her mark was indelibly printed in a thousand different ways, and it felt comfortable to Raine. She sat in her mother’s old spot on the sofa and sighed.

She can’t suffer any more. No more pain for mom. Just me.

Raine had no idea how long she had been there or how long the hammering sound had been coming from the front door, but she eventually roused herself from whatever waking coma she had been in and shuffled towards it. She didn’t even consider who it might be, just opened the door as her mind told her to, years of human conditioning taking over.

She didn’t recognize the man standing on her porch at first. He was tall and dark with rain slicked hair and sodden clothes, disheveled and dirty.

“Yes.” Raine said to his filthy trainers.

“Raine?” The voice tugged at her mind as if caught on a fish hook. “What is wrong?” Raine raised her eyes as if in slow motion to study this stranger’s features. His green eyes jolted her memory, and everything cruelly shot back into focus.

“Antony?” she asked pointlessly. “Antony!” Raine launched herself at him, making them both stagger out into the rain. She wrapped her arms around his chest and laid her head against him, listening to his heartbeat. “Real. You’re real.” She assured herself.

“Allez, we should get out of this, Raine.”

“And this rain. When did it start raining?” she asked.

“Who cares?” he asked.

Inside, Raine handed him a towel and started brewing coffee. As soon as he had dried himself a little, he pressed himself against her back.

“This is where I need to be,” he whispered into her ear. “Where I belong.”

“Crutch Junction?” Raine asked, smiling. “What happened to you?” she asked then, seeing his rumpled and dirty state properly for the first time.

“I...crossed the family.” Her eyes widened, “I was doing some business of an...extraneous nature.” He added cagily. “They cut me off like they did my cousin, and I have been working my way back to you ever since.

So now that you’re broke you come see me?

Raine stepped away from him, turning and searching his face.

“I went through hell when you threw me away,” she barked at him. “I wanted to
die
. Now you come back because you need somewhere to stay? And you think I’m just going to let you waltz back in here?” She patted her chest unconsciously. Antony took her hands and knelt on her kitchen floor.

“I am so deeply sorry for everything I put you through, but I needed to protect you from
them
. I suffered too. I wanted to see you, speak to you every day.” His words caressed their way into her heart, warming it a little. “You must believe me. I did this for us, so we can be free, together, without the DuBesne family controlling us like puppets.” His voice was strained, as if he believed it at least. Raine lifted his chin and looked deep into his eyes, seeing the honesty there.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

He grinned. “Make love to you for the rest of time,” he said in a suggestive tone.

“Tempting as that is, normal people have to work for a living, baby.”

“You think I am normal?” he asked with mock seriousness. Raine smiled. “You remember Celine?” She nodded, “We have been friends since childhood, almost as soon as I was sent to France.” He moved closer to Raine, taking hold of the dressing gown she wore, “Celine owns ADB Holdings, not I.” He pressed his lips to hers, flicking his tongue across them and lighting fires in her belly. “So I have plenty of time to make love to you and a little time to work with Celine.” He grabbed her hair and tugged gently, turning her face up to his, “I love you.” He growled, “And we are rich.” He smirked.

THE END

Love in Ghost Lake Ranch

Book 1

(Can be read as a standalone book)

By: Amber Duval

Rescued by the Cowboy

Chapter One

The breakfast smells of maple and coffee filled the big dining room at Ghost Lake Ranch, adding to the cozy warmth provided by the crackling flames in the river stone fireplace.  The six big men sitting at the battered old farm table didn’t say much as they plowed through huge piles of plate-size blueberry pancakes, thick sausage patties and jam-slathered toast.  Running a cattle ranch in the Montana mountains always required plenty of fuel, determination, and stamina, but now that winter had arrived the Boone brothers would be working twice as hard.      

“That monster cold front out west is headed our way,” Ethan Boone said as he filled a thermos with coffee from a white-speckled enamel pot.  “Forecast predicts sub-zero temps, and at least three feet of snow before midnight.” 

“Great.”  Caleb, his youngest brother, scowled down at his half-eaten stack of pancakes.  “There goes the winter rodeo.”

“You can impress the ladies with your calf-roping after the thaw, boy,” Buck Lloyd, the old trail cook who ruled the ranch’s kitchen, set down a fresh platter of sausage.  “Mr. Ethan, I’ve got to head out to my place to look after the wife and grandkids, but there’s enough grub in the freezer to keep you boys fed for a month.  I’ll put up a pot of chili in the fridge before I go, too.”

“Appreciate it, Buck.”  Ethan down sat at the long, battered oak table with his brothers.  All of the Boones were big men, with broad, muscular frames toughened by years of range riding and stock work.  From their father, whose mother had been Cheyenne, they’d inherited jet-black hair and hooded eyes.  Thanks to their mother, a talented equestrian who had won dozens of trophies, the brothers had been gifted with a natural affinity for horses.

Although it had been fifteen years since losing their parents in a car crash, Ethan never forgot what they had taught him.  He and his brothers were the fifth generation of Boones at Ghost Lake, and despite the hard work and isolation, they were thriving.    Ethan only yearned for a partner with whom he could share it – but these days few women had the desire or the strength to take on ranch life.

The rising wind outside made a mournful sound, reminding Ethan of the loneliness that came along with the long, cold winter months.  After the storm he could take a run into town, where he knew several ladies who would be happy to entertain him for a night – but that was getting old, too. 
How the hell do I find a woman who can take on Ghost Lake as well as me?

Ethan pushed aside his loneliness and looked down the table.  “All right, boys, you know the drill.  Liam, you and Rob prep the stables, barns and cow sheds for the storm.  Jonah, take the hands and bring in that herd from the east pasture.  Chris, ride out with Tom and make sure we don’t have strays in the foothills.    Cal, you’ve got the supply run.  Pick up the feed order and whatever else we need in town.”

His brothers acknowledged his orders with a few grunts and nods, but after growing up on the ranch, all the Boones could practically work it in their sleep.  Ethan had also earned their respect, not only as their eldest brother but as their boss.  Since losing their folks, Ethan had devoted himself to running the ranch, expanding their herds, and improving the quality of their livestock.  Ghost Lake now produced some of the finest beef and dairy cattle in the state.

Once the brothers finished eating, they headed out to work.  Only Liam, the second-oldest, stayed behind to have a private word with Ethan about Richard Demesse, their new and troublesome neighbor.

“I told Dick Dumbass to stop using the pasture access road as a shortcut to his place in winter, but I saw fresh ruts out there yesterday,” Liam said.  “I warned him, he gets his Lexus stuck out there in the snow, he’s done, but he won’t listen.”

Ethan sighed.  After a stint as an ordnance expert in the Army, Liam had little patience with fools, but in this case his brother wasn’t overreacting.  Demesse had inherited the property adjoining Ghost Lake last year when his grandfather had passed, but had flatly refused to sell it to the Boones.  Instead, the attorney had sold off his grandfather’s stock, renovated the old house and moved in.  Since then he had repeatedly trespassed on Boone land, spooked the herds by shooting in the woods by their pastures, and otherwise behaved like a snotty, ignorant city slicker.

“I’ll ride out and padlock the gate.”  Ethan didn’t care to be antagonistic toward a neighbor, but if Demesse’s pricey car got mired down in a drift, they probably wouldn’t find his frozen ass until next spring.       

“There’s something else.”  Liam’s strong jaw tightened.  “One of the hands said he saw Demesse in hardware store last week.  Said he had a big order of rope and chain and hoists and the like.”

Ethan shrugged.  “He’s allowed to shop in town.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t have any stock.  He sold off the last of his granddad’s steers over the summer.  Far as I know, he doesn’t even own a dog.”  Liam’s jaw tightened.  “So what the hell is he tying up?”

* * *

Jessa Cooper knew she wasn’t the first woman to be shoved in the trunk of the car.  The smell of bleach and new carpeting stung her nose, and the man who had abducted her had done so with the ease of much experience.  Now she lay half-naked, her wrists bound with duct tape, and the terror of what awaited her crawled over her skin like bugs made of ice.

             
I have to do something. 

When he came to take her, she hadn’t suspected anything.  She’d stepped outside to lock up the back door to her animal clinic, and he’d rushed over to her from his expensive luxury car.  He’d been so convincing when he’d told her about the wounded dog he’d found in the street, and how afraid he was to move him before she had a look at the poor animal.  He’d even produced tears of gratitude when she’d hurried over to his car with him.

“Thank you so much, Doctor Cooper,” he’d said as he’d unlocked the trunk, and even then she hadn’t realized there was no dog.  She’d simply frowned at the empty trunk, completely confused, until the jolt hit her.  Everything went dark.

Cold air slapped Jessa awake some time later, and she woke up to find herself inside the trunk.  Her back hurt, and when she lifted her hand to touch her head, the other hand came with it.  She looked from the duct tape wound around her wrists to the face of the man standing over her, and felt dread drag her heart to the edge of an abyss.  “What have you done?”

“Lots of terrible, lovely things,” he told her, and tugged at her shoes.  “But to you?  So far, I’ve only knocked you out.”  When she screamed for help he slapped her so hard her ears rang.  “Don’t even bother.  We’re parked on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.  No one can hear you, or save you.”    

“Why are you doing this?”  She tasted blood in her mouth and frantically tried to sit up, but he shoved her back down.  “Have you lost your mind?” 

“You answered your own question.  How clever of you.  Now don’t test me again, or I’ll punch you in the face.”  He pinned her with one strong arm while he removed her shoes and scrub pants, which he shoved in a plastic bag and dropped on the ground.  “There, that’s better.  I knew you’d have gorgeous legs.”

The compliment cut through her pain and confusion like a razor blade, and she realized why he had taken her.  Panic made her voice shake as she said, “I don’t even know you.”

“True, but you will, soon enough.   Very, very intimately.”  He tapped a manicured finger against his thin lips.  “Hmmm.  I’d take off your top, too, but I’d have to use the scissors.  That really ruins the garment
and
the memories, so we’ll leave it for now.  Okay, we’re ready to go.  Rest while you can, Doc, because when we do get to my house, I’m going to have fun with you.”  He playfully snapped the elastic band of her panties.  “A lot of fun.”

Jessa felt her stomach heave, and swallowed hard to keep the bile down.  “You don’t have to rape me.”

“Sure I do, for starters,” he said, smiling down at her.  “Don’t worry.  After a week I usually get bored with the mess and the begging and screaming.  That’s when I’ll cut your throat – unless you do something to piss me off, like struggle or try to escape or some other nonsense.  Then I’ll chain you in my basement and let the rats have you.  It’s a very slow, unpleasant way to die, but I’ll enjoy watching it on the monitor.”  He leaned in closer, until she could smell his minty breath.  “See, I always do.”

Jessa knew every word he said was the truth, and that she was looking into the eyes of pure evil.   If she couldn’t get away from him, the only escape left would be to kill herself.  “Why me?”

“Why not?”  He stepped back and slammed the trunk shut.

              It had been more than an hour since he’d locked her inside, and now Jessa wondered how much time she had left before they reached his house.  She could feel the wind buffeting the car growing stronger, and the temperature inside the trunk had dropped from cold to frigid.

             
This can’t be how I’m going to die.
 

Regret swamped Jessa as she thought of all the things in her life she had put off because of her career.  She’d never married or had children; she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been out on a date. Whenever the emptiness of her life had bothered her she’d filled the space with her work.  That had helped to make her one of the most successful veterinarians in the city, but now it seemed like a huge waste of her short life.

              If she got away from this monster, that would have to change.  But she was never going to get away, and the last days of her life would be spent enduring unthinkable horrors . . . .   

              “No.  Think, think.”  She closed her eyes and tried to remember everything she knew about cars.  People usually kept at least a tire iron in their trunk; if she found his, she might use it as a weapon when he tried to take her out.

             
Or maybe I should shove the sharp end between my ribs.
  Thanks to her training, Jessa knew exactly where to stab herself to drive something into her heart.  But could she really commit suicide?  She thought of what he’d said about the basement and the rats, and shuddered. 
Absolutely I can commit suicide . . . but maybe I won’t have to.

The new carpeting he had installed on the trunk floor had been badly cut to fit, and the edges curled over in some spots.  She spotted a bulge and gripped one edge to pull it back, hoping to see something she could use.  It turned out to be a plastic greenish-yellow tab that glowed faintly.  Jessa was about to let go of the carpet when she peered closer at the tab and saw little black symbols on it.  It was also attached to something inside the bottom of the trunk.

She pulled on it carefully, and nothing happened.  The second time she tried it she heard a faint click next to her cheek, and turned her head to stare at the trunk latch.  Holding her breath, she jerked the tab harder, and the latch released.

As the trunk opened, a burst of snowy wind hit her face.