Alien Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m
animal control, damn it. Control those fuckers.
    Her mind drew a blank on how to save herself. She was too
afraid to think clearly and growing tired. Her arms and legs burned and ached
from gripping the rough bark and holding her body tightly to the branch.
    Something hit her back where her jacket had already been
torn open. It was wet and cold as it brushed her exposed skin. The animal
dropped to the ground, crushing dead leaves under its paws. A whimper pushed
past her tightly compressed lips. One good yank and she would be torn down to
the ground. She knew they’d be on her in seconds, attacking her en masse.
    An earsplitting roar sounded. Oh god, just what I need. A
mountain lion on top of it? Are you kidding me? At that point she was
pretty sure someone in charge of fate hated her. If there was such a thing as
karma, it was about to make a late-night snack out of her one way or another
for something bad she’d once done.
    The coyotes whined loudly. She heard leaves crunching as if
something was running at them so she turned her head and opened her eyes. The
pack fled in the opposite direction. She stared after them, shocked that they
were taking off but then she realized they were running away from the mountain
lion.
    Bright light had her whipping her head in the other
direction and she openly gawked at the four big men who came at her. They were
tall, all dressed in black leather. It was their faces that alarmed her the
most. They looked a lot like the guy she’d left in the tree. They had the same
flatter, wider noses and one of them had his mouth open. She could spot his fangs.
    They trudged closer and Lynn hugged the branch tighter. She
didn’t feel saved. The leader lifted a hand and they stopped about five feet
away. One of them held a round disk just like the one she’d seen before. It put
off a lot of light. The men were scary—a foursome of terror with their leather
clothing and big bodies.
    One stepped closer and growled, holding up a small, flat
device like the one she’d seen that reminded her of a cell phone. It was lit up
along the seams, just as the other one had been. He growled. A cold,
computerized voice followed a heartbeat later.
    “Where is Coto, woman?”
    Lynn stared at it, then at the guy’s face. He growled again.
“I am Holion. You are safe, woman.” The box spoke in a mechanical male voice as
he made those inhuman sounds. “We will not harm you so you may come down. We
have chased the local animals away.”
    Lynn hesitated and then unwrapped her legs as she eased her
hold on the branch. Pain shot up her arms as she dropped ungracefully to the
ground. She winced a little as her feet hit hard-packed dirt. She swayed, in
shock, staring at the big leather-clad men. She swallowed hard, speechless,
unsure of what to say. She was afraid and the urge to flee for her life clawed
at her insides, but she didn’t scream or run.
    They weren’t normal guys, that was for sure. The men openly
stared at her legs, making her aware of her lack of clothing. She reached down
and tugged the jacket lower, holding the edges together so they didn’t glimpse
that she only wore panties under it. Holion stepped closer.
    “We are looking for Coto. He called and said he was with a
woman. You must be her. Where is he?”
    He growled and the box translated it into words. It was
freaking her out. It reminded her of one of those foreign movies she sometimes
watched late at night. His lip movement didn’t match what she was hearing. Only
he wasn’t speaking any known language that she was aware of. Her supposed DEA
agent had growled too.
    He snarled. “Speak now,” the box demanded.
    “Um…I left him in a tree where he’d be safe. He’s hurt.”
    Something made a crashing noise behind her and she spun,
expecting a coyote or a mountain lion to come at her. Instead it was the man
she’d left in the tree. He had a name. Coto. He stumbled, fisting the handle of
a jagged dagger in one hand. He came