Noble Monster: A Scifi Alien Abduction Romance Standalone (Jannan Raiders Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

He had become a dragon.
    Irina stared as he leaped up and latched on to the grillwork stair enclosure bare feet from where they stood. His head snaked inside and darted forward, straight toward the arm that was holding her hostage.
    Torvin let her go and ducked back just before Kaelon's fangs could meet in his arm. He snarled himself, light brown fur starting to cover his skin. But before he could complete his transformation, Kaelon inhaled and looked at him very pointedly.
    The yellow-eyed man froze, suddenly a thousand times more intimidated than when he had simply had the guns on him. Apparently, he didn't like fire very much.
    Kaelon nodded, and let out his breath through his nose, two thin streams of smoke drifting up. “ Leave my home and do not return,” he rumbled. “ You are banished from my court.”
    The dragon stood guard over them until four of his soldiers came forward to lead Torvin out. Then he turned his glowing green eyes to Irina, and she was shocked to see that same look of worry in them.
    “ Are you alright?” The creature asked in such a gentle voice that it put a lump in her throat.
    “Of course I'm not.” She had avoided crying in public so far on this planet. Right now, she knew that it was a near thing--simply because for once, one of the beast-men actually appeared to give a damn.
    “ I am sorry,” he said suddenly, in a voice so soft that she almost didn't hear it. As she stared at him in astonishment, he jerked his head up toward the top of the stairs. “ Go back to your chamber and take care of yourself. I can fetch my own wine.”
    Her eyes started stinging dangerously. “Thank you,” she murmured in a shaky voice. Then she turned and hurried up the stairs, eager to regain the safety of her small room.
     

Uncollared Woman
    It took Irina an hour to pull herself together after her run-in with Kaelon’s predatory rival. She did cry, as soon as she was alone. Irina had never been the kind of person to let her suffering show.
    She was a product of the foster care system back on Earth Prime, and ever since her youngest days she had had to fight for everything she had, up to and including her doctorate. The opportunity to catalog alien flora and fauna many light years down the galactic arm from Earth had been a dream job for her.
    Six months ago, she had finished her biotech residency. Her new job with Galaxy Pharma was supposed to have been the start of a grand adventure. She was going to find and catalog biological materials capable of providing new treatments for diseases. She was going to make a name for herself, the way that she always had before: through sheer will, and a lot of hard work.
    And then the Janna Raiders had hit her transport ship on the way to her first job, and ruined everything.
    She cried in the shower pod, glad at least that the palace seemed to have a bottomless supply of hot water. her arm was sore where Torvin had gripped it, And she knew she would have bruises tomorrow.
    But she had survived without being raped. She kept reminding herself of that fact every time the mental image of him leering down at her entered her head.
    The strangest part of all of it was that Kaelon himself had actually rescued her, and then apologized to her and sent her back to her room. You aren't supposed to have empathy. You're a beast-man. If you had empathy you wouldn't have bought me as a sex slave in the first place. You're not supposed to care. What the hell is your game? The act of kindness and protectiveness confused her utterly.
    After she finally managed to stop crying, she went to her wardrobe and search for something comfortable enough to recover in. She did have a robe, though she had never tried it on. It was made of some fuzzy substance that she suspected with real fur, despite being bright blue.
    She bundled into it and tied it around her waist, feeling herself relax a little bit as the fur brushed against her skin. It felt like a hug from some sort of friendly