Dark Side Of The Moon (BBW Paranormal Were-Bear Shifter Sci-Fi Romance) Read online

  “No.” He straightened, pushing her off his lap, hands holding her hips until she was standing. “But it was close enough. For now.”

  He left her standing, mouth open, as he picked up his torn clothes, then tossed them aside. Moving further into the wreckage, he disappeared. It came to her as a sudden shock that she was standing naked in the wreckage of a space ship, having just had animalistic sex with an alien. And there were aliens out there who would probably be attacking at any moment.

  Her shorts were on the ground where she’d dropped them and she pulled them on, but the tank top, even if she could find it, had been torn to shreds. And her shirt was stiff with dried blood and sand. She followed the sounds of Taso ripping open boxes.

  “I need something to wear. You destroyed my shirt.”

  Taso looked up from the box he was unpacking. He was wearing pants, but was shirtless. Even in the dim light, she could see the cuts on his arms and chest looked much less serious. “There are some uniforms in one of these. You can wear those.”

  She nodded. Some of the boxes were broken open and she pushed aside what looked like K-rations, finally finding a mesh-covered shirt. It looked too small, but smaller was better than nothing. She pulled it over her head, found that it stretched to fit her perfectly. It was lighter than it looked, and even with the metal, it was soft against her skin. Taso turned to look at her, then grabbed a shirt from the box, pulling it over his head.

  “Find pants. The armor will protect you. What you wear is no protection.”

  She dug through the box and found some pants. They too looked small, but like the shirt, they molded to her, fitting like a second skin. For the first time, she felt at home in her clothes, with the material moving along with her, not pinching or pulling against her curves. If she could figure out how to get this back to New York, she’d make a fortune in clothing for plus-size women, like her.

  “How do I look?”

  He didn’t answer, his brows drawing together, gaze troubled. Then he went back to looking through the box in front of him. She wondered what she’d said now that upset him. For being a warrior, he seemed to wear his feelings really close to the surface.

  “How does this stuff work?” She poked at the mesh. It was a lot like the blue metal in the room she’d been in. It gave if she moved or pushed gently at it, but if she poked it, it felt hard and unyielding.

  “It’s body armor for shifters.” He went about his business, collecting things from different boxes. “It adapts to our changing shapes, fits while we fight, and then when we shift back, it’s more or less, still with us. It saves having to always look for clothes after a battle.” That brought a small mirthless laugh. “Until we had this, we went through very many pieces of clothing.”

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Food. Something to sleep in. I have the sense that the nights here might be cold.”

  “Like the deserts on Earth. Blazing hot during the day and then freezing at night.”

  He nodded, still not looking at her. “There should be food in here…” He grabbed a pouch made of what looked like tinfoil and handed it to her. “Drink this. You are in need of it.”

  There was a little screw thing on one corner and she undid that. This time she sniffed before taking a drink. It smelled better than the water, but it didn’t smell like anything she could identify. Still, it was liquid, and she was very thirsty.

  Tipping it back, she let the liquid fill her mouth. It was thicker than water, and warm, sweet, like orange juice, but without the acidity. It held a bitter edge, and a taste that absurdly reminded her of pipe tobacco. Even so, it wasn’t unpleasant. She reluctantly lowered it from her mouth and held it out to Taso. He took it without a word and finished the contents.

  “Shouldn’t we be rationing supplies or something?” She looked around. There didn’t seem to be much left. Taso was tearing open another package. He looked up at her, that same frown on his face.

  “They will be here by tomorrow, at the latest to get us. We have enough. You should eat as well.”

  “Are we the only ones left?” It was obvious. No one else had crawled out of the wreckage, but she still felt the need to ask…to get confirmation.

  “We are alone. The part that burned…it was the section where the others were being held. Along with the rest of the crew. We are very lucky, to have been in my cabin.”

  He went back to opening the box, taking out things that looked remarkably like the power bars she carried. He held one out to her. Their fingers touched, and Taso jerked away, the food dropping to the ground.

  “What is it? What did I say now that has you upset?” She bent down, retrieving the foil-wrapped circle. She undid the foil, sniffed, took a nibble of the brown thing. It wasn’t bad…but it wasn’t good.

  “You said nothing to upset me. It was what you didn’t say.” Taso sat down on one of the overturned boxes, unwrapping his own food. “You are not able to have children.”

  She stopped, food halfway to her mouth. “I’m what? What are you talking about? I’m perfectly healthy…”

  “Healthy, yes. But there is something wrong with how your body works.” He shook his head. “Something I can’t understand, that I have never found in any woman before.”

  When the reason dawned on her, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Birth control pills. It’s the birth control pills.”

  That clearly didn’t mean anything to Taso. He took another bite of his food, chewed, swallowed. “I do not know what that is. All I know it that it means you cannot bear me children.”

  The little brown disk was unpalatable, and she set it aside. “Listen, on Earth, when women want to have sex, but not children, we take a pill every day. It keeps women from…” She wasn’t really prepared to explain how the pill worked and she didn’t think he was interested in details. “It’s temporary. It only works if I keep taking the pills. And I’ve missed a couple days, so…” She shrugged. “I should be able to have kids any time after that You must have come across other women who were on the birth control pill.”

  Taso’s frown eased by degrees. He still looked at her suspiciously, but the other emotion, the distrust or hurt or whatever, was fading.

  “I paid them no attention. You can have children without it, right? You would be fertile?”

  “I would be.”

  A smile crept up on Taso’s lips, a smile he seemed unable to hold back, but didn’t quite trust yet.

  “But…that doesn’t mean I’d want to have a baby.” It had occurred to her that sex with Taso might very well lead to something she was unprepared to deal with. To hear that she wasn’t...fertile, as Taso put it…was a huge relief. The sex had been spontaneous, certainly unplanned. And as amazing as it was—truly beyond words—she wasn’t ready to repeat the act. A baby in her regular life would have been have enough to deal with. Here, or on Taso’s planet, with him...an alien shifter...would be impossible.

  He was smiling at her now, the tension on his face leaving, his brow smoothing out. It was like he hadn’t heard her last sentence.

  “Did you hear me? I said...”

  “Yes. I hear you. But...” He stood and walked to her, a smile curving his lips. “But you are able to bear children. The want or not can change.” He said that as if he was pretty sure she’d change her mind. “That is only…” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand, then tapped his temple with his index finger.

  “That is only a decision to make.”

  To her surprise, he leaned over and kissed her. Even though it was gentle, by comparison, it still stung her lip. He pulled away, smiling.

  “We should get sleep. I’ll take first watch. You can sleep back there.” Taso pointed to the narrow end of the compartment, where there were more boxes and the wreckage dead-ended. He handed her a blanket, and then moved to the edge of the wreckage. He stood, peering out while she stared at his back. There was nothing about this man that made sense, not one thing, but before the whole baby conversati
on, he’d said something else.

  “You said they’d be here tomorrow. Who’s going to be here in the morning?”

  He looked at her over his shoulder. “Those who are going to rescue us.”

  She was glad it was dark and he couldn’t see her rolling her eyes. “Yes. The obvious, a rescue party. But who makes up the rescue party? And how do they know where you are?”

  “I am a royal, a leader in my Clan. My soldiers will come for me. As to how...” He turned his head, pointing to his ear, but in the gathering dark she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to see.

  “I have a tracking device, inserted when I was a child.”

  “Oh, like GPS.”

  It wasn’t so dark she couldn’t see if he was shaking his head, or just turning away. “Another thing I do not know, but the chip sends a signal and they will follow that and find me...us.”

  “Okay.” That gave her an idea. “If they can come get you...can they take me back?”

  He was just a shadow now, but she saw him stiffen, his head snap up, shoulders tense. She would bet he had that expression on his face, the one she kept getting from him when she said—or didn’t say—things that upset him.

  “You will come with me. We cannot take you back.”

  “You could, if you wanted to.” He couldn’t see her, but she tapped her temple. “The want can change. It is only a decision.”

  Abruptly turning on his heel, he left. She didn’t bother to try to hide her anger. If some space ship could find him in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, they could just swing by Earth, and take her home.

  It was totally dark now, and she had to go by touch to find her way to the back of the compartment. She banged her shin on something hard and swore softly. Eventually, she bumped into the back wall and she dropped down onto the blanket. She ran her hand over the wall; it was cool to the touch, almost cold. Taso was right; it was going to get cold.

  She tugged the blanket around her shoulders, telling herself she was going to stay awake, and not sleep. She’d already slept on the way to this God-forsaken planet. If they were going to be attacked, she wanted to be awake, to be ready to defend herself.

  But as soon as she had gotten comfortable, had gotten the blanket settled around her, exhaustion took over. She yawned, swore under her breath at that, and straightened, steeling her resolve.

  She yawned again, and her eyes closed, despite her efforts to keep them open. Maybe just for a minute. Blinking once, her eyes closed again. And the minutes stretched out as she slept.

  Chapter Eight

  “Max... wake up.”

  Someone was shaking her. She pulled away, tugging the blanket higher.

  “Max...”

  Who the hell was Max?

  “Leave me alone.”

  “It is time...wake up.”

  The voice was male. She opened her eyes. It was light. Taso was looking down at her.

  “Oh...sorry.” She struggled to sit up. So much for staying awake out of spite. “I... you were supposed to wake me or something? For watch… weren’t you?”

  He held out his hand and she let him pull her to her feet. “You were given a lot more drugs than the others, and they were still in your system. I thought it better to let you sleep them off.”

  “Why was I given more?” She had to admit, she felt almost normal for the first time since this all started. Taso turned, and she followed him out of the wreckage. Outside the sun was brilliant, blinding her for a moment. It took her a minute to realize there were two suns in the sky, two fireballs raining heat and light on her. She raised a hand to her eyes, trying to keep up with Taso.

  “You were fighting with the mercenaries.”

  “Mercenaries?” Her eyes were adjusting to the light and she lowered her hand, still squinting. “Who are the mercenaries?”

  Taso stood beside the opening of the ship. “The men who owned and flew this ship.” He looked up at the torn and burned metal that arched over his head. “And who apparently did not take care of their ship.” He sighed and turned to her.

  “We hire them to do these missions for us. They are part of our Clan, and will do anything to help its survival. Until this mission, all others had always gone as planned.” His look at her was pointed. “Until I was on board.”

  “This is the first trip you came on?”

  “Yes.” He was staring at the wreckage. Then he turned to her, a frown darkening his face.

  “What made this trip so special?”

  “I was looking for my mate....” His gaze was steady, his eyes focused on hers. “And I found one.”

  “Yeah, about that...”

  The sand around them suddenly blew up in a storm of red dust. It stung her face, and she stepped back into the wreckage, wondering what terrible attack these aliens were launching this time. Yet Taso stood his ground, hand shielding his eyes, looking up into the sky. He stood in the open, hands on his hips, smiling.

  “It’s my ship.” There was a note of pride in his voice. “They are here.”

  She peered around Taso, looking to where he pointed. Through the dust, she could see the silver hull of some kind of ship, hovering over them. It moved with easy grace, pivoting, slowly sinking lower. And then it landed with a final bust of dust and sand.

  “Come. We can leave now.”

  “Wait.” She put her hand on his arm. “Just a minute. Can we talk...”

  “You wish to have me take you back to where you came from.”

  “Well, yes. I want to go home.”

  He looked down at her, and there was a look in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was concern or sympathy or something like that. Sadness, even. There was a moment of hesitation, but she knew what he was going to say before the words tumbled from his lips.

  “I will tell you this; that ship cannot take you home. It is too small. There are not enough resources on board. We would all die, none of us anywhere close to where we want to be.”

  Anger welled up, frustration mixing in for good measure. She stamped her foot in the hot dust. “You’re just being stubborn. You could, but you don’t want to.” She bit back a sob at the end of that. Tears clouded her eyes and she turned away, damned if she’d let him see her cry.

  “Max...”

  She whirled back to face him. “My name is not Max, damn it. It’s Veronica. Are you dense as well as stubborn?” Her breath was coming in painful bursts, as she fought back tears.

  “Please, I don’t mean to upset you.” His expression was still one of concern, now mixed with a healthy dose of confusion. “But we must leave now. We cannot stay. And I cannot leave you behind.”

  She had more to say to him, but before she could get a word out, he had her over his shoulder again, striding toward the ship. She hit his back, pounded against him with her fists, but she knew it wouldn’t make any difference. The man had been attacked by a multi-clawed alien and he’d hardly flinched. The pounding of her fists was going to go unnoticed.

  He carried her up a short flight of stairs, which whooshed quickly up after them. As soon as they closed, the ship began to move. Taso set her down on a bench, not very much different than the one she’d woken up on in the other ship. She started to get up, but he pushed her back.

  “Do not fight me on this. Sit down and strap yourself in. The ride will be rough at first.”

  He took a seat across from her, and fastened something very similar to a seatbelt across his chest. The ship suddenly tilted at a steep angle and she fumbled for the belts on her bench, clicking the latch home just as she began sliding off the seat. It caught, and she stopped moving.

  “You might feel unwell during this part of the trip.”

  She’d flown before, but any similarity to commercial airplanes soon vanished. The craft shook and rattled, rolled to the side and then back. It felt as if her insides had come loose from their moorings, and were suddenly sloshing around inside her skin. She closed her eyes, trying to remember any and all meditation breathing
exercises she’d learned. But nothing quelled the rising nausea. She swallowed hard, and willed herself not to throw up all over herself.

  And then it was over. The rattling stopped, the ship righted itself, and it felt as if they weren’t moving at all. She opened her eyes, her body still feeling unsettled and shaky. Taso was smiling at her.

  “Very good, for someone who has never done that before.”

  “I have though, on the other ship.”

  “Ah, yes, but that ship was bigger. And you were asleep.” He unclasped his belt and stood. “If you like, you can stand, walk around. There is really nowhere to go, other than the cargo hold, or the navigator’s room. I am going there, but I will return soon.”

  She watched him disappear through a small door at the end of the compartment, then undid the clasp on her belt. Something was off with the gravity; it felt like her feet weren’t quite touching the floor. A few tentative steps told her that walking like this was only going to make her queasy again, so she sat down beside one of the tiny windows that lined the side of the compartment.

  Outside, it was dark, but there were what seemed like billions of stars. Her smile was sad; planets, too, he’d said. Hers, out there somewhere, a little ball of blue and white, with a little white moon of its own, circling a big yellow sun.

  She saw it in her mind, shots from the Apollo missions, the shuttles, and all the sci-fi movies she’d ever watched. If any of those brilliant pin pricks of light out there were her home sun, she had no idea. Sadness and longing welled up and she didn’t bother to hold back the tears.

  This was really happening. She was on her way to a different planet, in the company of a man who wanted her as his mate, clearly wanted her to have his children. Resting her head on the glass, she let the tears fall.

  * * *

  Taso came back while she was still staring out the window and sat across from her. The silence stretched on for a couple minutes, but she knew he had the patience and fortitude to sit there for as long as it took. So if she wanted information, she was going to have to speak first.