Free Dark Side Of The Moon (BBW Paranormal Were-Bear Shifter Sci-Fi Romance) by Catherine Vale Page B

fighting.”
    “No.”
He straightened, pushing her off his lap, hands holding her hips until she was
standing. “But it was close enough. For now.”
    He
left her standing, mouth open, as he picked up his torn clothes, then tossed
them aside. Moving further into the wreckage, he disappeared. It came to her as
a sudden shock that she was standing naked in the wreckage of a space ship,
having just had animalistic sex with an alien. And there were aliens out there
who would probably be attacking at any moment.
    Her
shorts were on the ground where she’d dropped them and she pulled them on, but
the tank top, even if she could find it, had been torn to shreds. And her shirt
was stiff with dried blood and sand. She followed the sounds of Taso ripping
open boxes.
    “I
need something to wear. You destroyed my shirt.”
    Taso
looked up from the box he was unpacking. He was wearing pants, but was
shirtless. Even in the dim light, she could see the cuts on his arms and chest looked
much less serious. “There are some uniforms in one of these. You can wear those.”
    She
nodded. Some of the boxes were broken open and she pushed aside what looked
like K-rations, finally finding a mesh-covered shirt. It looked too small, but
smaller was better than nothing. She pulled it over her head, found that it
stretched to fit her perfectly. It was lighter than it looked, and even with
the metal, it was soft against her skin. Taso turned to look at her, then
grabbed a shirt from the box, pulling it over his head.
    “Find
pants. The armor will protect you. What you wear is no protection.”
    She
dug through the box and found some pants. They too looked small, but like the
shirt, they molded to her, fitting like a second skin. For the first time, she
felt at home in her clothes, with the material moving along with her, not
pinching or pulling against her curves. If she could figure out how to get this
back to New York, she’d make a fortune in clothing for plus-size women, like
her.
    “How
do I look?”
    He
didn’t answer, his brows drawing together, gaze troubled. Then he went back to
looking through the box in front of him. She wondered what she’d said now that
upset him. For being a warrior, he seemed to wear his feelings really close to
the surface.
    “How
does this stuff work?” She poked at the mesh. It was a lot like the blue metal
in the room she’d been in. It gave if she moved or pushed gently at it, but if
she poked it, it felt hard and unyielding.
    “It’s
body armor for shifters.” He went about his business, collecting things from
different boxes. “It adapts to our changing shapes, fits while we fight, and
then when we shift back, it’s more or less, still with us. It saves having to
always look for clothes after a battle.” That brought a small mirthless laugh.
“Until we had this, we went through very many pieces of clothing.”
    “What
are you looking for?”
    “Food.
Something to sleep in. I have the sense that the nights here might be cold.”
    “Like
the deserts on Earth. Blazing hot during the day and then freezing at night.”
    He
nodded, still not looking at her. “There should be food in here…” He grabbed a
pouch made of what looked like tinfoil and handed it to her. “Drink this. You
are in need of it.”
    There
was a little screw thing on one corner and she undid that. This time she sniffed
before taking a drink. It smelled better than the water, but it didn’t smell
like anything she could identify. Still, it was liquid, and she was very
thirsty.
    Tipping
it back, she let the liquid fill her mouth. It was thicker than water, and
warm, sweet, like orange juice, but without the acidity. It held a bitter edge,
and a taste that absurdly reminded her of pipe tobacco. Even so, it wasn’t
unpleasant. She reluctantly lowered it from her mouth and held it out to Taso.
He took it without a word and finished the contents.
    “Shouldn’t
we be rationing supplies or something?” She looked around. There