Page 23 of Alien Desire
Don’t let me die like this.
I’m not done yet. Not finished.
I squirm, my chest burning fiercely with the need to breathe, but I’m caught. Trapped. Bound.
And then a flash of colour darts across my vision.
Tor.
He yanks at my attacker, lashing at its tentacles with his sharp teeth and freeing my arm.
More tentacles rise from the depths to swipe at Tor, and he swerves and swoops away. Then he lashes out, pounding the tentacles with his fists, kicking them with his legs, beating them back. He’s strong, gliding through the liquid easily, his punches hard.
He swims towards me, wrestling with the giant limbs until I’m released. Then, gripping my arm, he propels us to the surface, more feelers chasing us upwards.
We burst into the air and Tor yanks me from the liquid, dragging me up onto the ice.
I gasp for air, my lungs screaming with pain. My head pounds with pressure, eyes swimming with liquid.
I wish this nightmare was over, but it’s not.
Giant tentacles smash through the ice, breaking it into jagged shards.
“Move Emma!” Tor shouts, but I’m too late. A tentacle grabs me around the waist and drags me across the ice. I scrabble for purchase. Digging my fingernails into the ice. Wriggling and kicking as the monster pulls me towards the water.
Tor dives on top of the tentacles. His muscles are taut and strained, his sharp teeth bared and his eyes flash with fire. He yanks the tentacle from my waist and I find my hands and knees and scuttle away.
Tor tears at the monster’s limb with his bare hands. The skin splits and green goo oozes from the wound as the injured tentacle sinks under the ice.
No sooner has it gone, but another pierces through the crack in the ice. I scream. But this time the creature latches on to Tor and heaves him back into the water.
“Tor!” I yell as he disappears beneath the water. “Tor!”
The surface of the lake ripples and crests, then falls still. I can’t see him through the dark liquid.
I scream his name twice more as my heart thumps in my chest and my ears. The silence and the stillness drag on.
And then he breaks the surface, liquid cascading over his sleek body as he shoots up onto the ice.
More tentacles blast after him and Tor grabs me and rolls us away.
We scrabble to our feet and run. My legs are so cold every step is agony. He’s faster than me, but he has my hand in his and pulls me along, yanking me up when I stumble, racing me up the steep bank of the crevasse and away from the frozen lake.
The climb is difficult and my frozen fingers struggle to grip the ice. Several times I slip, sliding down, but every time Tor grabs me and hauls me back up.
At the top, he stops, and I collapse down to my knees, desperate to breathe. Below, the creature continues to thrash its tentacles across the ice, searching for us. Great pieces of jagged ice splinter and float on the rippling surface before sinking slowly into the gloom.
I shake violently and my teeth rattle in my mouth. I am so cold. So cold it hurts. My head and my chest are pure pain.
“Come, Emma,” Tor says, jerking at my arm. He’s lost his snowsuit and stands in his skin tight outfit, soaked, the droplets of liquid freezing as they skirt down his body.
His stance is broad and violent. His hands are tight fists at his sides, every tendon and muscle of his body rigid with tension. His eyes burn fierce and his sharp teeth flash in his mouth. His shoulders rise and fall rapidly.
He looks like a monster himself.
I shirk away, terrified and cold. Yet, strangely struck by the magnificent male before me. The one who just rescued me.
“Come,” he growls.
