1. Kerry

Chapter 1

Kerry

I 'd be dead by now if my mom hadn't taken us camping in the mountainous region on the western side of my state from the time I was three. Unless my survival skills were only going to delay the inevitable.

I added more wood to my fire. On my first night here, after I was dumped on this uncharted planet, three purple wolf-pony hybrid beasts slunk close to where I slept on the ground, their padded footsteps rousing me from the silly dream I was having that this was a dream and I was actually snug in my own bed back on Earth.

Sleep light or something will grab you —advice from my mom.

I leaped up and grabbed the lowest branch of the tree overhead. In no time, I'd climbed high enough that the wolves twisted into nightmares couldn't reach me.

As they clawed and jumped against the tree, their hides glistening in the moonlight, and their low growls echoing through the lonely woods, I perched on the branch, shivering. Each stood as tall as a small horse with yellow eyes glaring through thick, matted fur. Their claws scraped the ground like knives on bone, and their fangs gleamed when they snarled. The three of them kept circling the tree, glaring up at me as if they thought their lulling gazes would lure me back to the ground.

I'd stayed up in the tree for hours with fear gripping my heart. Years in the wilderness with my mom taught me that panic could get you killed faster than any monster, but we weren't talking about raccoons here. These creatures could kill me with one swipe of a paw.

Seeing their purple hides and unworldly eyes only reinforced what I already knew. I was no longer on Earth, though I had no clue where I was dropped. I could only vaguely remember waking, finding myself lying in a narrow metal cylinder with my hiking pack still strapped to my chest. I wore a thin white nightgown, something I scrambled out of, dressing in the thin pants and t-shirt I tugged from my pack the first moment I could.

Finally, the wolves slunk into the dense forest to seek easier prey.

The next day, I not only made a notch in the bark of the tree trunk to note my time in this wretched place, but I also gathered enough fallen wood to keep an enormous fire burning through the night. The fire served a dual purpose. I could cook the fish I caught in the nearby river and roast the roots I dug on the bank, and the fire provided comfort and protection. When the beasts returned that night, salivating when they saw me standing on the ground rather than fleeing up the tree, I shot my newly crafted fire-tipped arrows at them, scoring a hit on each one.

They took off and hadn't come back since.

On the evening of my fifth day on this unknown planet, I sat by my fire as usual, trying to figure out what my long-term strategy should be. With the tip of a charred stick, I turned my fish over on the rock where it sizzled and draped it with leaves I'd picked after I determined they were edible. A poke with my stick told me my roots had nearly cooked through.

My belly rumbled in anticipation.

A woman could survive quite easily in the woods on her own when her mom taught her how to hunt, trap, fish, and determine what plants might cause harm. One bout with diarrhea told me the dark purple leaves growing on bushes along the bank of the river might be perfect for the huge, deer-like creatures I saw eating them, but they didn't suite human digestion.

Fortunately, I hadn't experienced anything worse after taking careful samples of the other plants and tubers in the area.

As I gobbled down my meal, the tiny groundhog-like creature I'd named Molly crept from the thick thornbushes growing along the side of the tiny meadow I now called home. About two feet away from me, she sat up on her haunches and watched, her whiskers twitching. When I ignored her like always, she came closer.

Mom would've killed her the first time she saw her. Roasted and eaten her with jaw-snapping pleasure. But I'd not only brought a pack with me from Earth, but my loneliness had also come with me. How could I kill my only friend?

After she waddled over to stand near my left thigh, I tossed her a chunk of fish. She snatched it from the air and held it with both front paws, cooing before gobbling it down quickly, her inch-long fangs glowing in the firelight. She was a vicious little thing, as I'd discovered when she stole my fish on my second night here. I'd yelped and given chase, and damn if she hadn't whirled around and stood her ground. My fish might be awkward to carry, but she was willing to fight to the death to keep it.

When I reached toward her to snatch it back, she bared her fangs and her claws snapped out. I nearly lost a finger. She scampered into the bushes with my meal, and the next day, I caught an extra.

Each night since, I'd fed her, and she was slowly coming closer. Last night, she'd flopped on the ground beside my leg, and I'd stroked a fingertip down her spine while she grunted and wiggled in pleasure.

"Have some root," I said, tossing her a chunk. "It reminds me of potatoes."

I missed potatoes with sour cream, lots of butter, and chives. Shampoo. Someone to talk to.

I missed a lot of things from Earth, actually.

Today, I'd resigned myself to the fact that I might be stuck on this lonely planet forever.

Molly caught the next piece I tossed her and held it close, watching me with her big purple eyes as she took a bite and chewed.

"If I hadn't been backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, I might not be here right now," I told her. "Can you imagine that? You'd be foraging for bugs, I suppose. And I'd be sitting in my living room with only my TV for company. Instead, look at us. We're having a conversation and sharing a meal." My slightly feral grin rose. "It almost makes it worth being kidnapped by robocops."

Her eyes as lavender as the forest around us glistened in the firelight, and she cocked her head as if she truly understood what I was saying.

I often spoke to myself, a great comfort to a kid who grew up an only child with a mom who was gone more often than she was home.

Traveling, she'd say.

I'll be back before you miss me, she'd add while ruffling my hair.

She'd disappear for weeks at a time—leaving me with someone called Aunt Betty, though she wasn't my aunt. Betty had a sharp gaze, and she carried a gun at all times, just like my mom.

It was only when Mom's ashes appeared on my doorstep a few days after she left for her latest "vacation" that I learned she'd worked as a highly classified agent. Those journeys to Italy and Spain and the Caribbean had actually been taken to unknown locations.

The state department is sorry to inform you of your mother's death, the letter that came with her ashes said. May the enclosed check bring you comfort in this time of sorrow.

I was twenty-four at the time, and all I wanted was my mom, not money.

"How did I wind up here, you ask?" I said to Molly while her whiskers continued to twitch. "There I was on the trail, about to set up camp for the night near Rangeley." Molly watched me raptly. "To my amazement, two robocops appeared on the path ahead of me. What are robocops? They suck, but I'm sure you already know that."

Molly released a low coo I took as agreement.

She crept closer to me and tipped her head back, her gaze meeting mine, before she settled beside my outstretched leg. I continued my story while she placed her fuzzy chin on her front paws—the ones with two-inch claws. After dealing with the hybrid wolves the first two nights, I noted that the only way a creature could survive in this alien world was if they carried their own weapons.

As for me, I wasn't sure how long I'd last without claws.

All those times spent learning martial arts and defense skills in Mom's home gym in the basement might pay off. Plus the switchblade I'd kept in my pack and the skinning knife I'd used more than once to clean a deer—and poke the chin of whatever slimy dude who thought he could take advantage of a woman hiking alone.

"AI robocops were introduced a few years ago by our government," I told Molly. "A billionaire showed off a few prototypes during an international science exhibition. The government loved them. Orders were placed, and robocops took over most of our police protection units. They cost a boatload of money, but they don't need much maintenance, they're happy to work all hours, and they always follow the law." I frowned. "Although, I'm not sure they were following the law when they grabbed me."

Molly sighed, and I appreciated her expression of sympathy.

"When I saw them standing on the trail, I figured they were after an escaped convict or something. Or that they'd taken up hunting. Maybe they got lost on their way to the robocop ball, if such a thing exists. Man—excuse me, I meant young groundhog lady —was I wrong."

They were after me.

When beads of light shot out of their eyes and centered on my chest, I yelped. And when they slammed toward me, their mechanical limbs whirling and apprehend, apprehend snarling from their toothless mouths, I pivoted and bolted back down the trail, my big pack shifting against my back. Since it was heavy and full of everything from a one-person tent to multiple space blankets I wished I had with me now, let alone cooking supplies and other odds and ends, I dropped it, hoping it would slow them down.

I didn't look back but ran harder, my smaller pack bouncing on the front of my chest.

"They caught me," I told Molly, who snorted and squinted up at me. "They stabbed me with a needle in my arm, and I passed out. Those damn things drugged me. I vaguely remember them taking me off the mountain and stuffing me into a van. They took me all the way to the space station with the ship going to Mars. That, I saw on TV. Mars. Can you imagine? I remember one of them jumping over the tall fence with me slung over his shoulder. He stuffed me into one of the stasis pods I'd also seen on TV, and everything went blank after that. I guess it wasn't a dream, but my new reality."

She rolled onto her back and stuck her feet into the air. I dutifully scratched her belly, watching her eyes in case she decided she was done with that and chastised me with her claws, something she did when I rubbed too hard.

"I woke to a chirpy voice telling me it was time to meet my mate. Like, had I been taken to Australia?" My low laugh rang out, but Molly didn't join in. She was a tough audience. "I was in and out of it after that, but the space pod opened, and mechanical arms carried me down a hall. They placed me in a tube-like ship and shot me out into space. The ship soared toward this planet. I saw that much, at least. Whatever drugs they gave me were taking too long to work their way out of my system, but I woke up fast when the pod slammed into the canopy of one of these trees." I waved to the forest behind me. "The top of the pod slid off and the entire thing tipped sideways, dumping me out."

I snagged a branch as I fell and lay on my belly, clinging to the tree while the pod smacked down through the branches beside me and landed with an enormous bang on the forest floor.

"When I got to the ground," I told Molly, gliding my fingertips up and down her lightly furred purple chest while she sighed and wiggled, "the pod was in pieces. That's when I knew I was stuck here, probably for the rest of my life." I tugged on the end of my long blonde braid. "I don't know where I am or why I was sent here. However, if there's management around, I'd like to speak to them, though my name is not Karen."

Again, that didn't bring out even one chuckle from Molly. Definitely a tough crowd.

"I enjoy reading as much as the next person." Tipping my head back, I rested it on the trunk of the tree behind me—my shelter again if the hybrid wolves returned and I wasn't fast enough with my arrows. "I love fantasy stories the most. From my fictional fantasy studies, I've concluded that I'm either dead or I've been sent to a world straight out of a book. I saw a planet that wasn't Earth on my way here. It looks like I'm going to spend the rest of my life alone in an alien world."

And didn't that just suck?

I tossed a log onto the fire. Flames greedily licked around it, and sparks flung themselves up toward the sky. Could I hitch a ride on them and find my way home?

Not that Earth was much of a home without Mom. She'd been gone five years, and my heart spasmed whenever I thought of her. It took me years to realize that the pain never ended. I only got better at forgetting.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to start building a shelter. With all the lush vegetation around, it's bound to rain here eventually, and if there's anything I hate, it's getting wet unless I'm swimming or in the shower. I only have one other change of clothing." I washed yesterday's pants and t-shirt each day and donned the clean ones, but they'd eventually wear out. As for the skimpy nightie I arrived in, I was saving that for emergency wear.

I wasn't cut out to play Eve, especially without Adam.

"I need to build something that will not only keep out giant wolves, but anything else that might hunt me." I peered up at the purple canopy swaying in the light breeze overhead. "Maybe I could build a treehouse. I saw some decent vines by the river that look tough enough to bind logs together. I've made a raft out of logs in the past, and something like that would serve as my floor. I can add other panels for walls and a ceiling that I'd cover with thick grass and big leaves. Despite having you with me each night as my furry protector, I won't live long exposed on the ground." I stroked Molly's snout, and she released a low snore. "I don't suppose you have room for another person inside your burrow?"

She didn't reply.

"I thought not."

I'd get started first thing in the morning, and within a few weeks, I should have a snug new home. Maybe I could coax Molly into joining me inside.

After adding another log to the fire, I sat back against the tree. An odd sound made me suck in a breath and hold it.

Had I heard a groan?

Rising with my homemade bow in hand and an arrow ready to fly, I pressed my back against the tree and peered around.

Something—no, someone—staggered from the forest on the opposite side of the small clearing, moonlight highlighting his features as if he was a gorgeous god emerging from the sea.

Blue skin. Silver hair hanging around his shoulders. Thumb-sized tusks jutting up from his lower jaw. He was at least a foot and a half taller than me. Lots of delicious muscles, though I shouldn't be noticing anything like that. He wore a fur trimmed tunic and leather pants that vaguely resembled chaps. I inanely wondered if they revealed his ass in the back.

His hand rose toward me, and as he stumbled through the thick grass, he nearly tripped but somehow maintained his footing.

Blood dripped from the hem of his tunic, splattering the thighs of his chaps. Was he wounded or was this a ploy to make me let down my defenses?

I was tempted to shoot him and ask questions later. He didn't appear to be much of a threat, but he wouldn't be the first guy to fake an injury to get close to a woman, only to leap on her after she'd started to relax.

I watched him, my bow lifted, and my arrow cocked. "That's close enough, buddy," I snarled when he was about three feet away. "Give me your name. Your social security number. Then state your business."

Words I'd heard my mother bark any time she faced a threat. How could I have missed that she worked for the government?

A hiss rang out from above, and I gaped at the sky, wondering if a meteor was coming this way. Shock jolted through me when a wooden spear impaled itself into the ground between me and the alien dude.

The alien gaped at it and when he lifted his head, his blazing teal eyes locked on mine. As if his tongue got caught on his tusks, he garbled out something I didn't understand.

He held out his hand, showing off a cool tattoo on the underside of his wrist, a quarter-sized circle with intricate swirls inside.

With a groan, he toppled face-first onto the ground at my feet.