ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads) Read Online Free PDF Page B

turn this way and that, but he could not articulate where he was going, or why he was even moving.
    As he rounded the last bend, the sun’s red rays flashed into his eyes.
    He grunted in pain at the burn he felt deep inside of him. It was as if someone had turned him inside out and proceeded to press a hot iron on his insides. He huffed a deep breath of the morning air and took another step, but that was cut short as his hind legs gave way. His shins cracked in half, the sound of it pressing through the atmosphere. His feline jaw swung open, a roar slipping out and bouncing against the bark of the trees that closed him in. Before he could recover, the muscles of his front legs went entirely limp, and he collapsed onto the ground. The ringing in his ears matched the pounding of his heart as bone after bone began to break. He was consumed in his pain, lost in the moment and in himself.
    In those minutes that seemed to last for days, his skin glowed red hot and steam lifted from him, surrounding him, as his fur slid off, the bloody pile of hair surrounded him. His screams turned into gulps and yelps of pain as his jaw began to morph, reforming itself to its prior human shape. The gums in his mouth ached as his fangs withdrew back, his entire head ringing with pain as his skull modified itself to accommodate the extra bone matter.
    Bruce panted, the pounding of his heart reduced to mere flutters as he started to shiver. He felt raw and exposed in his human skin. The sun provided no warmth, and the chilling breeze bit at his blood-covered body. With one final umph of strength, he pushed himself up and made his way down the path.
    As soon as he got to his back door, he stopped. He glanced around him. He didn’t know why, but he expected someone to be there—a woman. The blur of an image from the night before flashed into his mind. He saw dirty blonde hair and green eyes. They were wide, frightened… and staring right at him.
    He furrowed his brow but he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out who, or what, it was he was remembering. As he pushed open his back door and stepped into his kitchen, he realized he couldn’t disregard this. If that image was what he thought it was, that meant that someone had seen him in his true form, and that was profoundly upsetting.
    His stomach turned with nerves as he heard a movement coming from his living room. He gingerly crossed his kitchen, disappointed with himself for the amount of blood he was tracking everywhere, and followed the sound to the black leather couch that sat in front of his fireplace. He looked down to find none other than Lexus, sleeping there in human clothes. He sighed, shoving her. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
    She mumbled a bunch of incoherent things before she turned over. She stretched her thin arms over her head. A shudder and a sigh escaped from her lips before she muttered, “The Emperor sent me.”
    Bruce’s heart dropped. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with Lexus on top of everything else. “Look, I am perfectly fine by myself,” he said. But then, thinking of something else, he shoved her again.
    With a grunt, she sat up and rubbed her eyes, her lips folded into an annoyed frown. “What the fuck, Bruce? The sun has just barely risen.”
    Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you can invade my house, but I can’t demand any answers?”
    Lexus shrugged. “I told you why I’m here. What more do you want to know? How many stars I passed on the way?”
    Bruce’s hands clenched into fists. “You didn’t tell me a thing. The emperor wouldn’t send you to keep tabs on me. He would send another shifter. So why… no… how did you manage to sneak away?”
    Lexus rolled her eyes. “Look, it doesn’t matter, but if you need to know so badly, then fine. I stowed on Boris’s craft.”
    Bruce gulped. He looked past Lexus, his eyes unseeing. “Boris? He doesn’t trust me?”
    Lexus giggled as she stood up and stretched