Chapter Three
Lindsey
I followed the sound of voices, shouting, cheers through the vast network of Base 3’s air shafts. While I’d been given a map showing the spider web path they took, they hadn’t told me the air kicked on every few minutes or that I would be caught up in a hurricane. At first, I’d panicked, thinking I was going to be knocked off my feet and pushed through the tunnel like a tumbleweed across an open prairie. I’d put my hand up on the smooth metal, but there was nothing to grab and hold on to, so I’d dropped to my knees, tucked my head down and waited. It lasted perhaps thirty seconds, then stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
Once it was quiet again, only the lingering roar in my ears remained, I took a few deep breaths, savored the stillness, then continued on. I was supposed to go to the command center first—the heart of the operation within this specific Base—but the consistent blasts of air every few minutes had me wanting out of the super-sized shafts.
Yes, I was hidden in here. Yes, it was an easy way to get out of the storage area unseen. But those were the only positives. If I hadn’t worn my helmet, I would have had no protection for my eyes. The air blew so strongly I wasn’t sure I’d be able to suck in a breath with my face bare. And I could only imagine what my hair would have looked like. I never went in for the whole “windblown look.” I made that mistake exactly once, getting on the back of my high school boyfriend’s motorcycle with my long blond hair flying, whipping behind me like a banner shouting my wild, reckless freedom.
It had been wonderful. Liberating. Exhilarating. I felt like a movie star or a shooting comet. Until we stopped.
Three hours. It had taken my mother three hours, two hair washings and half a bottle of conditioner to untangle the mess and I’d never done it again.
I learned. Eventually. Usually, I learned life’s lessons the hard way—but I did learn.
When I heard the voices, the shouts, I was drawn to the noise. Yes, I was on a mission, but I was the only one here from Earth investigating a strange planet from an air shaft. Everyone else was light years away getting Big Macs from McDonalds and sleeping in their own beds. If I wanted to deviate a little bit, so be it. And besides, I was supposed to find men from Earth, Navy SEALS and soldiers and marines locked away like prisoners. I wasn’t going to see anything interesting crawling around these stupid air tunnels.
Resolved, and curious, I followed the sounds of people—of aliens—instead of going to the central part of the Base. I’d been asked to find out what was happening on The Colony, right? And the only way to do that was to watch the inhabitants, and by the sound of it, quite a number of them were directly ahead.
Why were they so loud? So excited? Judging by the way the shouts bounced and echoed through the cavernous tunnels and the metal walls, it was a large group and they were doing something. Watching something that ebbed and flowed. Like a contest of some kind.
Or an MMA fight.
I literally saw light at the end of the tunnel. White strips of it cut through the vent opening. Leaning against the wall, I angled my head so I could look through.
This was it. The moment I saw aliens for the first time. Would they be green and have scales like a lizard? Would they be blue tinged and have weird gills? Tails? Two heads? An eye in the center of their forehead or a forked tongue?
God, what if they wanted to eat me?
No. No! That wasn’t possible. The go-team would have warned me of that, wouldn’t they? And besides, if humans were food, there wouldn’t be human fighters walking around for me to film. Right?
Right?
The air vortex kicked on again and I crouched down, counted to thirty in my head. I was pretty close and it shut off at twenty-eight.
Enough. I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I peeked out, took my first look at The Colony.
Stretched out below me was some kind of amphitheater and it was filled with men. No, not men. Aliens. Really big aliens.
I could only see their backs as they were all looking down at something. I couldn’t see what it was they were shouting, jeering and cheering at because they were all so damn big. Broad shouldered and tall, not quite giants, but bigger than most men on Earth except perhaps the defensive line for the Chicago Bears. Most of them wore armor similar to mine, but sized to fit their huge physiques perfectly. At least my handlers at home had been right about the wardrobe.
They weren’t green. Or blue. From here, they looked like men from Earth, only much, much bigger. Brown hair. Golden. Black. A beautiful, copper red.
I sighed, a bit disappointed, if I was being perfectly honest. Where were the blue skinned barbarians I loved reading about in one of my favorite romance series? Where were the guys with scales who could shape-shift into dragons and breathe mating fire into a woman’s body and make her burn with desire?
Brown freaking hair? Really?
I hadn’t seen their faces yet, but they all had two arms, two legs, very nicely shaped asses and massive, panty-melting shoulders.
God, I loved a good set of shoulders.
Which made me think of Kiel, and that weird dream—that amazing, wonderful, wicked dream. Kiel, with his dark hair and eyes, and that big, orgasm inducing cock…
My hand flared with heat and my pussy clenched. Another burst of air came through and I dropped to my knees again. Crap. This was the fifth, maybe sixth, time it had happened. I tucked my head and counted, waited it out. I was so done with the damn air. The ducts. Small spaces. Two days locked in a crate, and now, my head crammed into this stupid helmet. The air stopped.
A round of cheers filled the air, everyone’s focus was away from me, so I took the opportunity to open the latch and slip past the slatted door. Leaning against the stone wall, I looked around. The circular area was some kind of arena and cut out entirely from the rocky terrain. While I noticed the sky was blue and there were two moons, I knew I had to focus on all of the aliens, not the dang sky. I had the same outfit as they did. I was small, a lot smaller than most of them, but I could blend in. I just had to join the crowd, to participate. No one would know I wasn’t from The Colony. I’d see what held their attention. It wasn’t just a journalist’s curiosity. I wanted to stay out of the damn air shaft.
I stepped closer to the aliens, but they were so broad, so tall, I couldn’t see past them. I skirted around the upper tier, trying to find an opening. I made it halfway around and picked up some conversation.