cosmicshifts Read online

  She heard a grunt and saw something large move in the room. A twinge of fear gripped her as many possibilities of what it could be went through her mind. If she was going to have been eaten, she would be dead already. Being in an unfamiliar place and unfamiliar surroundings, the trepidation of her situation caused her two hearts to beat rapidly. She drew in another breath and tried to stay calm. It could be many things that this shadow could belong to. It could, in the end, just be a shadow. However, the silhouette gave way to a large, apelike creature. At first she thought it was a gorenaut, a giant gray primate that lived in the forests on her planet. They were eight feet tall and weighed between six hundred and eight hundred pounds. They were vicious beasts that even weathered hunters avoided. Her brother had once tried to go after one and never returned. Her brother had been such a prize with beautiful lavender skin and white hair. Sharim already had three brides lined up, but he didn’t listen and went to prove himself against the gorenaut.

  Now one stood before her. She froze.

  As a child they were warned that if ever confronted by a gorenaut, she should freeze. Don’t look it in the eye. The primates were the largest predator on the planet besides the lolliz, an enormous six legged, nine hundred poud serpent that lived in the wastelands. One bite could kill besides spitting poison onto its prey. Some tried to tame them to ride because they were fast, but not many were successful to tell the tale.

  The beast moved into the room. From her position all she could see were its large seven toed feet. They were bigger than Alika’s new mate’s. They were covered in white fur, and the nails on the seven toes were curved long enough into claws so they could grip whatever the beast was walking on. It knelt down next to her. She expected the worst, but it did nothing. Once she realized that, she mustered enough courage to look up and inspect the beast for herself. Instead of the gorenaut this creature’s face was a mixture of ape and canine features where his muzzle was rounded like the primate, but slightly elongated with sharp teeth. Yet it was also very humanoid too. He reached toward her, but she shied away from him. An annoyed look crossed his features, and he let out a long snort. He said something, but it came out more as grunts and growls.

  Elarna sighed and touched the left side of her face. Instead of feeling the small buttons that controlled the universal translator implanted along the side of her left cheek, she felt half of it. Broken. Just my luck. She shook her head. He held out his hands as though trying to tell her to wait. Before her eyes his large form shrunk down and all the hair receded from his body, leaving a male that resembled a human like Phillip. Instead, this man retained his seven toes and had a longer face. When he smiled his teeth were all sharp points.

  “You have nothing to fear from me.”

  Her eyes widened. “I can understand you. Thank the goddess. I thought my translator was broken.” A sense of some relief flooded her. “Are you the one who brought me here?”

  He nodded. “I am. You were badly hurt in the crash. I …arhgou...outis.”

  She frowned as his words were swallowed up into a void of static. She held up her hand to get him to stop for a second. Elarna tapped her left temple, hoping the translator would work. It was probably loose wiring. If she had hit her head it made sense that something would have been jarred loose.

  “Say something again,” she requested.

  “Origh trinata…”

  She gritted her teeth and smacked the center of her forehead where the main module of the translator was located. The jarring pain hurt, but…

  “I was saying that you were badly injured.”

  “Oh good.”

  “That you were hurt?” His eyebrows furrowed, but his green eyes were filled with concern.

  “Huh-no. That’s a bad thing. I assume I wasn’t hurt very badly, or you wouldn’t have been able to get me away from the ship.”

  “On the contrary, you were almost dead. It took a great deal of my energy to restart your heart and make sure your wounds were sealed so that you would survive the night. Your physiology is so different from mine in so many ways that it burned my normal amount of energy I would use when healing others of my kind.”

  Elarna nodded. It sounded reasonable. If he had healed her then that would make sense why he hovered, and yet there was something familiar in his other form besides looking like a gorenaut. “Where am I? Do you know what happened to the other passengers of my ship?”

  “Hush. All of your questions will be answered later when you’re better. For now, let me heal you. Lay back please.”

  She hated being given orders. Because of her stubbornness she had lost many things and gained others. Alika had stood by her when she had broken from her family tradition and became a procurer the way that Alika had. They went out looking for matable men. She had a grand time traveling the galaxy and finding herself in places she had never been before. But when she had been called home because her mother was dying, she had been told she needed to take up once more with the family business and give up her ship. She had until her birthday to make that happen. When Alika never showed up and then the distress call came in, there was nothing or no one that could keep her from helping her friend. Now she had no idea where her friend was or what had happened to Phillip. Alika had shoved him into one of the escape pods. After that it was still all a blur.

  The man before her laid a hand on her forehead and tried to pull down the blankets that covered her chest. She grabbed the furs and wouldn’t release them. She was not about to let this male see her naked.

  He chuckled. “I had to remove your clothing so I could heal you. I have already seen your womanly mounds. I won’t harm you. Trust me.”

  Womanly mounds?

  He waited patiently. He did seem to be telling her the truth. Finally, she relented and released the covers. He placed another hand on her chest. Once his palm settled on her skin a great heat flushed her body until sweat slid down her face. The pain eased, and something else happened. His energy filled her and made her tingle in every way possible. This stranger wasn’t touching her in a sexual way, but by the goddess if he didn’t make her gush with desire for him. Her nipples hardened at the thought of him. From her perspective he was completely naked with nothing covering his genitals. His cock was semi-erect and rested against his thigh. Even in that state it was ten inches long. She felt her hearts skip a beat, picturing how he would be in bed and how he would be in his beast form. Elarna had always loved big, hairy males who could make her howl. In his other form, knowing he was not a threat, she could see herself mounting and riding him until he made her come, screaming.

  He moved his hand from her chest, and it brushed her pert nipple, shooting desire through her. A small moan spilled from her lips.

  “I apologize if this hurts,” he said to her in a flat tone.

  He leaned over and pressed his lips to the center of her chest where his right hand had been while he trailed it lower over her abdomen. He stopped at her navel and more warmth flooded her system as something within her moved back into place. It made her jump, but she was more focused on trying not to get lost in the pleasure that inundated her system. He was trying to heal her, and she was so turned on that it was embarrassing. It had been a long time since she had been with a male of any species.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” she forced out. He trailed his tongue down the center of her chest, slightly scraping her flesh as it went. “What are you doing?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.

  “It helps me detect if there are any places that I missed or if there are toxins in your skin. They center around the heart. Since you have two, I wanted to be doubly sure that you have nothing else in your system. Most of your wounds are healed, so there’ll only be one more time that I need to do this, and you’ll be well again. It will take me some time to regain my strength. It takes more energy to heal you than what I’m accustomed to.” He sat up and the creases in his forehead deepened. “Have I done something to offend or hurt you?”

  “No. It
’s just…never mind.” Elarna couldn’t help but let her gaze trail down his chiseled physique and notice the etching of his muscles and how they stood out underneath his skin. He might have been all beast in one guise, but in this one he was all male. She tried not to want to feel this longing that had sprung up inside of her.

  “Tell me,” he insisted.

  Elarna leaned over and planted her lips on his. He stiffened but did not pull away from her. She took his face between her hands and held him there. His skin was silky against her palms. When he responded, he kissed her lightly and then disengaged from her very slowly. He smiled.

  “I-I’m s-sorry,” she stammered as she realized what she had done. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  He trailed a finger down her cheek. “There’s no need for apologetic. It happens quite often when I heal people.”

  “I think you mean apologies. Your patients always kiss you after you treat them?”

  “They have this intense feeling that can arouse them. When a healer heals, it creates a bond between patient and healer. It’s a normal reaction. Even the smallest wound with the exchange of energy it makes for a forged link. With your strange anatomy, I can’t say how powerful the effects will be.”

  “Oh.” She smiled and settled back down into the bed. Questions bounced through her mind. “Still. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced myself upon you with you being such a gracious host. But can I ask you a few more questions?”

  He nodded, but before he could answer, Elarna heard heavy footsteps. She glanced over and saw a large, hairy, brown beast who trotted over to see her. She held out her hand. He took it in his and squeezed.

  “You’re okay,” she said.

  He nodded. He said something, but she couldn’t understand him. “Sorry. My translator is broken.”

  He nodded again and she knew he understood what that meant. It took him a moment before he became human once more, but it seemed he struggled to keep the shape. Elarna found him to be more appealing when he was in his Bigfoot form and not in his human one. However, she wasn’t going to argue because at least this way she could speak to him. She hoped he could fill in some of the holes that were in her memory.

  “Are you okay?” Phillip asked.

  “I am thanks to our host.” She glanced at him and felt her cheeks burn, thinking about the kiss they had shared. It would be nice to get him alone so she could thank him for rescuing her.

  “He has been very gracious and honestly this is just so very strange.”

  “Of course it is, you never thought of traveling beyond your planet. Humans have only just started exploring the galaxy, but it will be years before they get out of their solar system. Sorry, I’m not trying to put down your race, but you’re very primitive, and there’s a reason why we don’t stop on your planet for potential mates. Can you tell me something about what happened?”

  He curled his hand into a fist and squeezed his eyes shut as though he fought the shift back into his beast form. All the while her inner feline paced back and forth ready to pounce and romp across the planet until she found Alika. Then she would figure out a way to get off this rock. Phillip shook his head. “I don’t really know. I woke up, and the alarm was going off. Alika ran to the cockpit to see what was going on. She was busy pressing some buttons and talking to the computer. You were screaming at it, but I don’t know what you were saying; you were both going too quick; the translator wasn’t catching everything.”

  She hung her head. They had planned to replace the broken one that Alika had implanted inside of Phillip’s head with a newer version, but they hadn’t gotten around to it. The voyage was supposed to be uneventful. When she had gone to sleep, they had two days before they arrived back at Rovan. She remembered a little bit more of what Phillip had told her. She recalled being at the navigation screen with the alarm sounding and the view screen had pulled up. Something had gotten in her way. Something that wasn’t supposed to be there that hadn’t been there on the way to Earth, but on the way back something had gone wrong. She couldn’t remember exactly what. It was still a bit blank.

  “I remember the computer warning that we were on a collision course. I couldn’t stop it. No matter how much we tried. Alika…” She tried to recall more but couldn’t.

  Elarna felt a hand on her shoulder. When she looked over, Phillip had smiled at her. “It’s okay. We have to find her. That’s the most important thing. Then we have to leave this ball of ice they call a world. Of course I have no idea how we’re going to do that.”

  Ball of ice. Did I hear him right? If that was true, then they were on a planet they weren’t supposed to be on. It was forbidden. Kraztarn. The world was exactly what Phillip had said, a big sphere of ice with nothing except large hairy primates. They had procured some mates from Kraztarn years ago before they had started fighting back. She didn’t want to think about the idea that Alika had been captured and was being dissected by the apes. And one of them had rescued her. Although she had never heard of them shifting into another form. From what she knew they were only single formed like humans, but Phillip was an exception.

  “This place is all ice. Did this translate correctly?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Everywhere I looked it was frozen. The driving blizzard wasn’t letting up. I was lucky the earth elements here are similar to those on Earth. Some of the elements here didn’t want to cooperate. The element led me into a cave. I followed it deeper and found the system that led me to Herman.”

  The skin rippled on his body, and he squeezed his eyes shut. It appeared he was fighting the transformation. He had explained to her that by day he was a man and by night he was a Bigfoot, but he retained his human intelligence. She had found it interesting there was something of a bit of magic on Earth because she had thought it was something that had died out eons ago. At least that was the story told on Rovan about earthlings. Humans were technologically slow. They were advancing, but they had lost touch with their elemental side. They had magic on Rovan through the goddess they worshipped and also embraced technology. Their major problem was their declining male population. Elarna had prayed to the goddess she would find a male who would love her, but she had never been so lucky. That was one reason they went off world to find mates. It didn’t matter what species they were because most males were able to reproduce with Rovian women. She had never met any children who had not inherited the ability to take on the Rovian beast form of their dual nature. It just depended on what part of the planet one grew up on that made one into a certain kind of shifter.

  Elarna was from the south where they were more trees, and her dual form was a large feline. Alika was from the west continent with open plains. Her tribe had inherited more of the canis trait, what Phillip called wolves. Once she had rescued them, Elarna had learned more about Phillip. She found him interesting and learning how he was transformed into the beast was heartwrenching. It had called to her. He had fallen in love with a woman, and the father didn’t approve. Even being on the ship in his beast form, she couldn’t help the attraction she felt for him. However, Elarna didn’t want to approach Alika about the possibility of sharing her new mate. And she wasn’t sure that the big hairy man would want to share with her or any other women.

  It was tradition on their planet that one male would service eight to ten females. It might be that he had one or two specific mates that he spent time with, but because men were in such high demand, they were expected to divide their attention. Not too many women went out to procure males from other planets. There was the danger of ships crashing or getting caught by the inhabitants of the worlds they went to. Another scientific avenue was that they were searching for a genetic solution as to what was wrong with their population. Some Rovians blamed the heavy gravity of the planet to the amount of rain. Others accused the gods and begged them for help. Elarna wanted to be of service to fellow Rovians. After thirty successful missions, they were able to choose a male. Sometimes this took years. It was a tough mission and more wor
lds were becoming off limits because of their technological advances, disease, or some other reason. On one world she traveled to, the males were insectoid. Many of the females desired males with hair on them.

  That was one reason that the ice planet was targeted for a couple of hundred years. It wasn’t like they were taking numerous amounts of males off the planet. They took two or three at a time, and the rule was to always ask them. Rules stipulated that they only took unattached males. They weren’t taken against their will. She understood how other cultures would think they were kidnapping their men. Kraztarn was deemed not accessible because several of the procurers had made it back barely alive with tales the Yetan started killing some or catching them for experimentation. Now there was an edict not to go to the planet.

  She had allowed Alika to be taken. They were going to do horrible things to her. She thought about Phillip and knew he was worried about her. When Elarna looked up the wolf animal from Earth it had some similarities to Alika’s canis form. Rovian legends about their dual forms was that the goddess gave the power of the animals to all walk upright on two legs, but they still had to fit into their respective environments. Others that said it all came down to two species cross-mating. She didn’t care about any of it; Elarna just wanted a male in her life so she’d stop feeling so lonely. There was only so far that she could take a pleasure device. Yeah, it was great for getting her off, but no matter how many appendages, tentacles, or vibrating brushes it had, it wasn’t the same thing as a good old fashioned male prick.