Read Dark Side Of The Moon (BBW Paranormal Were-Bear Shifter Sci-Fi Romance) for Free Online

all surreal, too
ridiculous to be true. Bad drugs, bad trip. Really bad trip. She sagged
against the table.
    Through
a film of laugh-induced tears she looked at Taso. He was frowning, almost
looked angry. He pushed away from the table, crossing the short space to the
bed. Then he was back, standing in front of her.
    “Stop…that.
Stop.”
    For
a minute she thought he was going to slap her, and she bit back the next wave
of laughter. Something caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard, coughing
again.
    “Don’t…”
    “I’m
just laughing. Don’t you like the sound of someone losing her grip on reality?”
    He
was inches from her, breathing hard. She looked from the scar on his chest, up
to his face, into his eyes. For a moment, he looked as though he were actually
hurt by her words. Then something dropped over his gaze, and she was staring
into cold eyes. She wondered…
    “I’m
not laughing at you, if that’s what you think.”
    For
an instant he held her gaze and then, slowly, almost imperceptibly, the guarded
look left his eyes. His brow smoothed out, and the corner of his lip turned up
in what might pass for a smile. He nodded.
    “We
laugh like that at our enemies. Laugh when we kill them. Laugh…” He shook his
head in obvious confusion. “I think you laugh for a different reason. I didn’t
want you to laugh at me, laugh as if I were your enemy.”
    She
took a ragged breath. “Listen…Taso? Listen, you have to know whatever this is
isn’t easy for me. I’ve been taken from my home…” She jerked her thumb at the
window. “And if what you say is true, then I’ve really been taken from
my home. My home planet.”
    He
stared at her for a minute, then nodded. “Fine. You may laugh, if it helps you
understand.” He made a motion with his hand. “Laugh. Please…”
    “I
can’t just turn it on and off, you know.” Her knees suddenly felt weak. She
pushed past him to sit on the bed. It occurred to her that maybe this was true,
this was her reality. She had really been abducted by aliens.
    Taso
sat beside her, reached out and touched her hand. She jerked her hand away, but
he took her hand in his. She let him hold it, simply because fighting with him
would probably only complicate things.
    “You
are the first of your planet—of Earth—that I have talked to this way. You are
different than the others.” He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “They
bring back women for breeding. I don’t see them, except when they unload the
ship, and then at Clan rituals, of course.”
    She
managed to hold back a little giggle. “If you were looking for breeding stock,
you got a bad batch this time.” The image of the skinny models rose up, skinny
models who probably had eating disorders. And no periods. “You might just as
well take them back.”
    Taso
shook his head. “They’ll be given homes, mates… they will be celebrated,
treated well. We are a virile race.” There was more than a touch of male pride
in his voice. “You’ll see.”
    “But
why? Why take us in the first place?”
    He
drew a deep breath. “Our world is in a state of constant war. Clans fight
against Clans. Our women fight alongside the men. And they die alongside them.”
    “Well,
there you go. If you didn’t let them fight…”
    It
was his turn to laugh, a small sound, like he was out of practice. “Try to keep
them from fighting. They are the first in battle and the last to leave. They
are warriors. Like you. Except I will not allow you to fight. You will become
far too important to my Clan’s survival.”
    “But
I’m not a warrior. I’m just a bike messenger.”
    He
ignored that. “You have the body of a warrior. The spirit of a fighter. You are
like me whether you choose to believe it or not.”
    She
shook her head. “I’m not. Really. I mean, I fight…”
    His
face broke into a wide smile. “I was right. You cannot hide the truth. Tell me.
Do you kill many enemies?”
    She
thought back to the morning in the