Slag: Book Four in the Galaxy Pirates Alien Abduction Romance Series (Shifter) by Alana Khan (i like reading books .TXT) 📗

be my pajamas. They must have been shredded when I unexpectedly shifted into Slag form in the middle of the night.

I look up at her, giving her my most pleading and adorable dreambaby look. It’s powerless against the force of her wrath.

“I hate you!” She slams her palm onto my thigh. “Hate you.” Another hit, this time with her fist. “All I’ve done for you and this is how you repay me?”

I wonder if she broke some bones. Dreambabies aren’t as sturdy as To’mahns.

“I’m telling my father. I want to return you. You’re a horrible pet.”

Horrible pet? How about horrible child?

Lifting me by the scruff of my neck as I cringe and whimper in pain, she carries me through the castle, screaming her father’s name.

“Papa!” She’s wailing now.

I wonder if she’s really so upset at the shredded clothing or if it’s the fact that she had to carry a plate of food through the hallways last night to feed her expensive new pet. That seemed to be too much for her to bear.

“I think he’s in the dining room.” One of the household staff says, from across the hallway. I imagine everyone in the household knows to stay as far from her as possible.

The pain in my neck is getting serious and I wonder if I’ll shift by accident just to change into a sturdier form. I use all my abilities not to shift.

“Papa. Look what this horrible creature did,” she says as she shakes the purple rag at him. “I hate Blinkers and I want you to send him back.”

“What did he do, honey?”

He rises from the table and grabs me. His touch is harsher than his daughter’s.

She shows him the offending evidence and demands he punish me.

“If I could make him better behaved, would you want to keep him?” the king asks, trying to placate her.

“You could make him be good?”

“Yes. In fact, the doctor is here now. Right on time.”

Doctor? Wait. I’m very attached to my balls. I’ve been thinking I want to make a baby with KJ. I scramble, trying to get out of the king’s hands, but he’s got a firm hold on me.

“I brought all the tools I need,” the man sitting across the table from the king says. “Glad to be of service to the perfect princess.”

In all my clambering to escape his hold, it’s a wonder that I notice anything other than a possible escape route, but I see my KJ out of the corner of my eye. She’s dressed in the crimson and gold colors of the house staff and delivers plates of food to the two males.

“Take those away,” the king orders. “We’ll eat later as soon as the procedure is over. We’ll make a good house pet out of this animal yet.”

The males stand, I make one last attempt to leap away from the king’s grip and am figuring out what to shift into.

“Oz,” KJ calls.

He’s been close by since I was hauled into the dining room and comes forward without a moment’s pause.

The king drops me when I become too big to hold and KJ jumps on my back before I’m too tall to jump onto.

I rear up, my head almost touching the wooden rafters, then return to four hooves and run through the arched doorway.

“Hurry Oz,” KJ says as she grabs my mane, presses her thighs to my flanks, and I race through the corridors.

“Left!” she calls when I don’t know which way to turn.

“Right!” she calls a moment later, then, “Stop!”

I’ve run so fast and taken the entire household staff by surprise, we’re now alone in the enormous living room.

“Thantose was dying for that sculpture. It’s called Sweet Dreams,” she says as she points to a reclining nude on a table. “It was too big for you to pilfer, but I can snag it now.”

I lean close to the table and somehow she grabs it, wraps it in the white apron she’s wearing over her dress that contains all our stolen trinkets in its deep pockets, and we make it to the front door.

I rise up at the wooden doorway, batter it with my hooves once, twice, three times, and the door pulls away at its hinges. Off we race in the direction of the ship.

KJ’s leaning over my neck, hanging onto the sculpture and my mane, and screaming into her comm at the same time.

By the time I see the Ataraxia, they’re lowering the ramp for us. The squeal of the engines powering up is the best sound I’ve ever heard.

Sextus strides down the ramp, swings KJ off my back just in time for me to shift to my green form. As soon as the three of us are on board, the door closes and the vessel takes off.

Chapter Twelve

A’Zul

We spend an hour in the dining room where I regale everyone with tales of my time on Norrel. I’m regaling, that is, when I’m not shoveling food into my face. I’m starved. The only thing I’ve eaten in over a day is the foul-smelling concoction Veryl forced me to eat. A spike of satisfaction slices through me as I imagine the awful child’s distress when no one can detect where the disgusting smell in her room is coming from.

“Oh, this is the best caper yet,” Thantose says. He’s beaming with happiness as he strokes the bronze statue of a naked woman almost as if it were real flesh and blood.

“If I were you,” KJ says to his mate, Brin, “I might be jealous.”

“It’s just a new toy,” she says, smiling and secure. “He always comes back to the one he loves best.”

He quits fondling the statue, slings his arm around her waist, and kisses her cheek.

“I like the statue, I