Read Alien's Innocent Bride: A Sci-Fi Alien Paranormal Shifter Romance (Mail Order Human Book 1) for Free Online

contract if she stuck around. She had already accepted that she would never return to Earth, but maybe she could find her way to one of the cities he had mentioned. She had to make her way down the mountain before he awoke.
    She slipped into her dress and tiptoed downstairs, where she tied her shawl around her waist to keep her dress from opening to reveal her breasts. She found her shoes and opened the front door slowly, deciding to leave her backpack behind so she could make a faster getaway. Once she made it outside and shut the door behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she rushed down the mountain as if she were being chased.
    She stumbled and scraped her hands and knees a few times, but luckily there was a worn path that contained wooden steps during the most treacherous parts of her journey. She would have to leave the path Sev had obviously created soon, and once the mountain’s steepness lessened, she did just that, veering off into the trees and zigzagging through the woods that covered the base of Sev’s mountain.
    Her heart ached. How could he have lied to her? For the first time in her life, she had dared to trust a man, dared to believe he might want more from her than sex, only to have her heart broken into infinite pieces.
    She would never have the loving husband and family she had dreamed off. She would never have a marriage even half as happy as her parents’. She cried as she ran, and her terror increased when she noticed the markings on her arms sparkled in the sunlight. Oh God, was she going to die?
    She reached the bottom of the mountain, breathless and with scratches all over her body. Her hair blew wildly in the wind, and she felt frantic as she looked around, trying to decide which direction to run. The tall grasses or the huge, exotic forest she had ventured into yesterday evening?
    The forest would provide more cover, she reasoned, and she set off, running at full speed and hoping Sev never found her. Perhaps if she made it all the way through the forest, she would find herself in a grand alien city. Maybe she could seek medical assistance and find a job. Did rich Zaxxumians employ housekeepers? She pushed thoughts of her future aside and focused on her present circumstances. If she slowed down, Sev might catch her.
    He obviously thought nothing of lying to her, and she suspected he wouldn’t take kindly to being abandoned after he’d paid for her. If by some freak chance she did make it back to Earth, she planned to warn every woman on the planet that Mail Order Human wasn’t a trustworthy business.
    The forest grew louder the deeper she ran into it, the calls from strange animals frightening her, and the buzzing of what she assumed were alien insects echoing through the trees.
    Suddenly, above all the unfamiliar noises of the forest, came a roar that filled her veins with ice water. She froze and leaned against a tree, her head tilted to the side as she listened for signs of the beast’s approach. The roar lasted for several long seconds, and after it ceased it reverberated around her, until the forest went completely silent.
    No birds chirped. No insects buzzed. No animals called out in any form. The only sound came from the faint breeze ruffling through the trees.
    The eerily silence made her heart pound faster and thump in her ears. Whatever had made that noise sounded angry. Or hungry. Maybe both. She wished she had a weapon.
    Knowing she best keep going, she set out at a brisk walk, trying to keep her footfalls as quiet as possible. She pushed through the thick underbrush in her path and stumbled down into a dip in the ground. When she went to get up, her gaze locked with two large green eyes.
    She tried to scream, but her throat clogged with terror and she couldn’t even take a breath. A massive catlike creature stood in her path, staring at her unblinkingly. It bared its teeth with a fierce snarl.
     
    * * *
     
    Sensing Tara was in imminent danger, Sev shifted into his