Page 8 of There’s an Alien Down My Chimney

I explained to Stella what I’d seen and her expression turned grim, confirming what I already feared. “So there really is some kind of secret base on the land neighboring mine… No wonder they want to force me off my land.” She glanced around the cabin with a sad expression on her face and my heart lurched uncomfortably in my chest. I really didn’t like seeing her in any kind of discomfort, be it emotional or physical.

“They want to take your land?” I asked her, surprised this was even possible. Expansionists that the Kertinal were, we had some very strong laws drawn up about land ownership. We were a very territorial bunch, clan oriented, tribal even. So much so that even the military was still divided along clan lines. I couldn’t imagine the Kertinillian government ever daring to take land from one of their citizens, they’d have a civil war on their hands in an instant.

Stella just nodded, “They offered to buy it from me, it’s a low offer for what I could get for it on the free market… Except I’ll not have any buyers now of course. Not that I want to sell. I have today and tomorrow to decide whether to agree to their offer or not. Decline and they’ll just seize it with Eminent Domain, then I won’t have any choice about their offer.”

That seemed to leave her only a single reasonable option, sad as it was, but I could tell Stella didn’t want to give up her home without a fight. For the next hour, as the cabin slowly warmed, we talked about how she grew up here, raised by her grandfather because her parents had died in a crash when she was young. I talked about growing up on Ker, but like a coward, I left out the parts where I’d been bullied as a kid, or how my appearance wasn’t standard for a Kertinal.

Warmer now that the fire had heated the room, Stella had shifted out from beneath her blankets and gestured with her hands as she spoke. I loved how she talked about hunting something called deer in these woods with her grandfather. Then she turned the conversation to more recent times, explaining that she’d been a fighter pilot in her country’s Air Force. Impressed, I suggested she should try flying the Scintilla with me and her face lit up like the lights draping her Christmas tree.

“I’d love that, but I doubt flying an actual spaceship is the same as flying a fighter jet,” she said, her head turning towards the direction of the lake as if she could see it through the walls of the cabin. “I should get in touch with some of my contacts, someone might be able to tell me what’s going on with your ship…”

That was dangerous to do. If her government discovered someone was fishing for information… I wanted to dissuade her of the notion, but she was her own person, and when I said she shouldn’t risk it. Boy, that fierce expression on her face was just such a turn-on. Before I could stop myself, I’d leaned in and kissed her upturned mouth.

She made a surprised noise but didn’t protest, opening her sweet mouth to let me in. Her taste flooded my senses, and my body was instantly on fire for her. Instincts kicked in and with a few swift moves, I had her pinned beneath me on the couch. My cock was aching for her, straining against the soft fabric of the drawstring pants I wore as I ground myself against her. Her legs spread around my hips in welcome, it wouldn’t take much for me to drive myself inside her warm heat. Just a little rip with my claws and all these barriers between us would disappear.

Her hand found its way into my mane, curling around the base of my misshapen horn, and sensation arced through me. Rumbling deep in my chest, I fought with my instincts some more, but in the end, I caved. My hands roamed across her body eagerly, soon I had one beneath her sweater, massaging her soft breast, rubbing one turgid nipple with my thumb.

Stella was making soft, eager noises beneath me, her body pliant and welcoming. If it weren’t for the sudden sound of an engine approaching, I would have started stripping off her clothes. The two of us sat up in confusion, her pink mouth flushed from my ministrations, her hair a static halo around her face.

“Who the fuck is that?” she said, scrambling out from beneath me to head for the nearest window. “Hide damn it, we can’t let anyone see you.” I didn’t want to leave her, but she had a point, showing myself to anyone was bound to bring more trouble. Getting to my feet, I took a moment to tuck my aching cock more comfortably back into my pants. Then I rushed around the room to gather my now dry clothing, darting into her bedroom and closing the door behind me.

*

Stella

Whoever was in the car, had the worst timing ever. I was so ready to jump Ru’s bones, I was still tingling between my legs, my nipples aching. “Damn it!” I cursed when I spotted the four-wheel drive with the snow chains chugging back up to my cabin. Sure enough, the same two agents who hadn’t introduced themselves piled out of the car. They had parked it as close to my porch as they could reasonably get, right smack in the middle of where my grandfather used to have his pumpkin patch, I tried not to wince at the sight of it.

Grabbing the shotgun from the rack near the door, I checked to make sure it was properly loaded while I waited for the two goons to get up on my porch and knock. Spotting Ru’s huge boots discarded next to the door, I bent down, scooped them up, and hurriedly tossed them into the half-empty bin of firewood.

Ru had taken all his clothing, but I could spot the corner of his emergency bag sticking out from beneath the edge of the couch. We must have kicked it beneath it during our steamy make-out session a moment ago. Fuck, what did these assholes want now? I was so done with this shit, I didn’t want to lose this place, but if I said yes, at least they’d stop bothering us.

No, that was a stupid plan. They had just pulled up an honest-to-God spaceship from the lake, so they were going to want me to leave as soon as possible. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I suddenly knew why they were here after all.

When they knocked on my door, I yanked it open and lead with the barrel of my shotgun. “What the hell do you want now?” I demanded, “Two days is two days! Now get off my property!” Oh, man, I sounded just like my gramps when I talked like that. Not a bad thing, in this case, it sure seemed to startle them. That I showed that much aggression this time around.

“Oh, no ma’am, I’m afraid the first offer has been withdrawn since our last meeting,” the nasally-voiced guy said. He had his hands up in the air, carefully keeping his eyes on the barrel of the shotgun. His partner had stepped back off the porch and with his hand inside his coat, I knew he was grabbing for his own weapon.

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned that one, while I cursed internally for being right. This was it, if those were official Eminent Domain papers… I was so screwed. They sure had made quick work of it though, if they’d come back to serve me those on the same day.

“Just grabbing some papers, Ma’am,” he said, continuing to reach into his coat, I made sure to aim my gun right at his head. Widening my stance so I had the shotgun properly braced. Even serving these papers, I should still have a window of time in which to vacate this property, they couldn’t kick me off right this instant even if they wanted to. At least, that’s what I hoped.

He did pull out a thick white envelope, holding it out to his partner who was closer to me, coward. When that one offered it to me, I just nodded to the porch floor, “You can put it down right there.” The first agent bent down to drop the papers in the indicated spot and I watched with some fascination as I could see the bulge of his gun holster press up beneath his coat, right under his left arm. “Now show me those badges again, and this time hold them up until I fucking say you’re done,” I added because I really wanted to run down their badge numbers if I could. Figure out who the hell they were, and what agency they worked for.

The two men shared a look with each other, almost as if they were considering just calling my bluff and walking away. In the silence, the sound of the shotgun as I racked it was loud, and both men froze in place. “Okay, reaching for my badge now,” said the first agent, his nasal voice pinched a little higher, I wasn’t sure if that was nerves or anger. I was going to have to go with anger if the look in his eyes was anything to go by.

Holding up his badge, I read his name out loud, “Agent Darcy Mervin.” I memorized his badge number before I nodded so that he could lower his badge again. I gave his partner the same treatment though I was pretty sure those names were not their real names. The acronym on the badge, UAR, didn’t mean anything to me either.

“Agent Matt Lauren, okay then. You delivered your fucking papers, now scram. I still got time and I’ll be here until the very end,” I said, lifting my head to indicate their stupid truck with my chin. The two men skid and slid down my porch and across the slippery snow that earlier boot prints had flattened into ice. Once in their car, I finally lowered my shotgun just enough that they knew I was no longer aiming it their way, then I watched until they’d gone around the corner and out of sight. I battled with my anger and grief, the sense of injustice; being forced off this land felt a bit like losing my grandfather all over again.

I felt him come up behind me, his heat wrapping around me as he stepped up until his chest was pressed against my back. “Stella,” he said, “Come on sweetheart, let’s close the door and keep the heat in.” I hated how sensible that was, and while I wanted nothing rather than leave those stupid papers out on the porch, I did pick them up before I shut the door.

With trembling fingers, I held them in one hand, my grandfather’s shotgun in the other. Opening that envelope was going to make it even more real, it wasn’t just a simple offer anymore, this was a letter simply telling me what I’d get and when I had to be gone. Ru took the shotgun from my numb fingers gently and with a practiced move, he unloaded it as if he’d handled shotguns like that all his life. “How did you…?” I asked, happy to let that take my mind off things for a second.

“I did tell you I spend six years in the military right? Though this gun is outdated compared to what I’ve worked with, the principles are not so different,” he said with a cheeky grin. Putting the shotgun back where it belonged next to the door, he gestured with the sharp pointy bit of his tail at the envelope in my hand. “You sounded badass talking to those agents, what did they want?”

The real admiration in his voice made me feel a little warmer inside again so it was time to face the music. With a nail, I slid open the flap of the envelope and poured the papers out into my hand. I scanned through them quickly, my heart sinking at the low figure they were paying me to give up my land. They’d dated the evac date for the property for the next day, leaving me with absolutely zero time to even fight this. I doubted such a short period of time was legal, but they’d illegally dated the papers to say I’d been served with them weeks prior. Fuckers.

Quietly I explained the situation to Ru, losing this place was going to hurt so much. For the past year, I’d worked in the nearest big city, coming back here at every opportunity. After what I’d seen during my time as a pilot, the friends, and buddies that I’d lost. The big city was too noisy, too much for me to handle for long, this place was an escape, a return to better days.