Galactic Inferno: A Scifi Alien Romance: Alien Hunger, #2

By Mel Teshco

Ally Grayson believes she's the last person on Earth after aliens arrived, bringing with them a deadly virus that wiped out most of mankind. Somehow surviving the annihilation, she hides in a Sydney house with her dog, Bonnie. She knows she has to leave before the "eyes in the sky" detect her and have her captured, but she never expects an alien to save her and Bonnie from the jaws of a ravenous, feral dog. Never expects to be drawn to Renate, the alien male who seems more human than any man she's ever known.
She fights an attraction she can't win, and soon enough she's in his arms, under his hard, amazing body. Except their unearthly desire might not be enough to keep them together when Renate's alien comrades close in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mel Teshco
• Release date: Feb 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393038436

Mel Teshco

Mel Teshco lives in the beautiful country of QLD Australia, where the open spaces of her acreage, fondly called 'the block', gives her room to breathe. When she isn't writing or dreaming of writing, she is often found gazing out the window at the surrounding mountains and thinking how very lucky she is. With one semi-patient husband, three gorgeous girls, two fat horses, one crazy Belgian shepherd and three cats who run the house, writing has (mostly) kept her sane.

Book preview

Galactic Inferno

By Mel Teshco

Copyright 2020

Mel Teshco

Cover art by Vibrant Designs

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Chapter One of Galactic Flame

Prologue

She came to slowly, the scent of death assailing her senses even before she heard the whine of a dog. She opened her eyes to the canine’s fuzzy black and white face, its head coming closer still as its warm tongue slid across her cheek in a long, wet lick.

She swiped away the sticky saliva and half-sat, peering around the room. Her heart stopped, the blood draining from her face as her eyes jerked wide. She opened her mouth in a silent scream.

Oh dear god, no.

Two beautiful children lay dead either side of her, their lips blue and their little bodies stiff and yellow.

She scrabbled backward until she hit a wall. No. She shook her head, swallowing past a thick lump in her throat. The little boy and girl—hers?—were dead. What happened? And what was she doing here with them?

Bloody hell. Why couldn’t she remember anything?

She sucked in a breath as the room slowly spun around her and she flushed hot and then cold. She tucked her feet close, clasping her knees to her chest as she pressed against the wall.

The dog sat on its haunches, watching her with its head tilted to the side. And that’s when she saw the pages and pages of crayon drawings littering the floor all around them.

Had she been trying to keep the children occupied?

She climbed to her feet, swaying for a moment and forcing herself not to black out. Not to retch.

One of the pictures lay face up, a child’s awkward, stick-like drawing of a man and a woman. Written beneath in an adult’s hand were the words Ally and Luke.

Luke? Who was he? She swallowed hard. Had he left them here to die?

Another picture showed a cartoonish dog. Beneath the image was the name Bonnie.

She turned back to the dog and rasped, Bonnie.

The animal trotted over, tail pluming through the air. She stroked the dog’s head, taking meager comfort from Bonnie’s dispassionate doggy expression. She scanned the room, noting the two buckets against the far wall that held water, another two filled with dry dog biscuits.

They’d expected to be down here for a while?

A set of stairs led upward to another floor, where a door was partially cracked open.

I’ve...I’ve got to get out of here, she breathed.

She ran up the stairs and Bonnie followed hot on her heels. Ally was only too glad of the company when she pushed the door open all the way, to find the body of a man lying face down, as though he’d been running from someone. Something?

Luke, she whispered. Somehow she knew this man was the one and same in the drawing. The same man who’d left them for dead.

Chapter One

Ally Grayson stared in the mirror at her snarled, dark burgundy hair, feeling strangely bereft of emotion, an outsider looking in on the horror of someone else’s life.

Her glossy, long locks had once been her best asset. Not anymore. Without the convenience of running water and with the apocalyptic ash and grit constantly in the air, it had become high maintenance and impractical. She didn’t need to be halfway pretty anymore. In fact, far better to look repulsive than attract alien attention.

Ally lifted the scissors and snipped. Tears etched relentless tracks down her cheeks as clumps of red-brown hair dropped to the off-white tiles, as though blood on bone.

Dear lord. She tightened her hold on the scissors until her knuckles shone white. She’d been living a hell on earth, grief an indigestible ball in her gut—and it’d taken a haircut for the weeping to start?

She swallowed hard. One day she’d give into the rage, the raw grief, the anguish that constantly ripped and gouged with long black nails into her defenses, her sanity.

But not now. Please...not now.

If she gave into the self-pity, she just mightn’t find the will to keep going.

Tossing the scissors into the vanity sink, she dragged a hand through the choppy, wispy layers of her short hair even as she pushed back a whole lot of fresh, unwanted pain. Scrubbing away her tears with the backs of her hands, she drew in a breath and turned away from the mess on the floor, the mess of her thoughts, before she stalked into the darkened lounge room.

Pulling aside the heavy brocade curtain, she peered through the grimy bay window. Though dark, ominous clouds were piling on the horizon, the midday sun blazed directly outside, streaming through the branches of a jacaranda tree in full, amethyst bloom and glinting against the windshields of stationary, dusty cars on the deserted street.

She shivered, despite the sweltering day that caused rivulets of sweat to run down her spine and stick her white tee against her back.

Never had she felt more alone.

Her gaze lifted heavenward, searching for the alien aircraft that’d begun sweeping the area only yesterday. Thankfully, the sky appeared empty aside from a couple of crows wheeling high overhead.

If being totally alone was something out of her worst nightmares, then being captured by the very bastards who’d decimated the planet would most certainly be her worst kind of suffering.

She’d had brief, intermittent memory flashes of the televised news announcing alien arrival and the virus they’d brought with them. A virus that felled people where they stood, turning their skin an awful yellow and their lips blue.

Not unlike the two children in the cellar that she’d come to remember as her stepchildren. The man in the house, her ex-husband.

She squeezed her eyes shut as a shaft of pain ripped outward from her heart and into her head, before fading to a dull ache behind her temples.

Why she’d been spared was never far from her mind, especially since her memories had started to return. Her flashbacks had gained momentum recently, like a car careening downhill without brakes, flashbacks that skipped back and forth in time with no rhyme or reason. In some ways she wished the recollections had stayed buried and forgotten. At least then she’d have nothing to compare this terrible existence with, have nothing to miss.

Her hands fisted on the fabric. She might have been spared from the virus, but she’d sooner take her own life than allow even a single alien to find her...to take her.

Freedom was her primary goal, survival of secondary importance.

She’d been hiding in this house for weeks, months even. But time had ceased to have meaning, ceased to matter. There was no longer an alarm clock to wake her up for an important client meeting. No adoring husband and children to rush home to and take into her arms.

No. Nothing.

But she had to move on, find another safe house with a fully stocked pantry and bottled water. God only knew she was running low. Besides which, some sixth sense told her she needed to leave ASAP.

She’d learned to trust her instincts.

Except...somewhere along the way this house had become her home, her sanctuary away from the once bloated and rotting corpses outside covered with flies and putrefying the air. Away from the dog packs with a powerful taste for human flesh, their muzzles bloodied as they gorged on human remains.

Perverse really, since her beloved Bonnie had been the one and only thing to keep her sane.

She unknotted her hands and released the curtain. It swished shut before she turned and called the large, fluffy dog of indeterminate breed. Bonnie, come.

Bonnie clambered to her feet and trotted over, her pink tongue lolling, her liquid brown eyes expressing her devotion as she sat just shy of Ally’s booted feet.

Ally absently ran a hand over the dog’s silky black and white head. It’s time we left here, girl. Not just because of their dwindling food supplies. Staying too long in the one house meant the threat of being discovered would be that much higher. She had to keep on the move and stay clear of the eyes in the sky.

Bonnie heaved a doggy sigh, as if in agreement. And Ally’s lips twitched in perhaps the first smile she’d managed in far too long. Glad I have your approval.

She gathered up the bulging backpack crammed with essentials. A medical kit, a change of clothes, toilet paper, canned food for them both, bowls, matches, a flashlight, batteries, a sharp knife wrapped in a towel and the last two bottles of water.

Bonnie followed at her heels, as if totally cognizant of the decision made.

Ally paused, taking in the darkened lounge room. Comfortable, easy-to-clean sofas, a baby grand, a plasma and Xbox spoke volumes about the house once belonging to a young family—a mother and father along with their son and two daughters.

A floorboard creaked beneath her booted feet as she stepped toward the apricot feature wall that overflowed with portraits. Lifting a hand, she ran a finger along the gold frame of one family shot. Her vision blurred and swam. She could barely make out the smiling faces and blond good looks of the people who’d once lived there, and who no longer existed.

She sucked in a shuddering breath. Just the same as her family, these people were long gone. Dead. Wiped out by the same virus that had seemingly taken the life of every single human on the planet.

Everyone but me.

Fingers interlacing behind her head, she closed her eyes for a moment, willing back composure. She couldn’t lose it now, not with those asshole aliens lurking in the skies.

Damn it! The bastards hadn’t even needed to lift a finger to destroy her kind. Clever, really. And cowardly right to their core.

Hatred for them welled up inside, burning through her veins until she felt fevered and ill.

She walked a dangerous line harboring such emotions. Too much hatred could push her over the edge, see her do something stupid and really mess things up. Just enough hatred kept her strong, kept her going, like a slow release fuel.

Yes, she wanted to survive, but she wanted desperately