Almost Human (Genetically Altered Humans Book 5) Read online

  ALMOST HUMAN

  RENA MARKS

  Almost Human

  A Xeno Sapiens Novel

  Rena Marks

  When futuristic Earth finds alien DNA and creates a new species of hybrids in hidden labs, Dr. Robyn Saraven helps the “creatures” escape. She uses her connections to establish their own city on Earth-Ground where they can learn, grow, and avoid the corruption and greed that created them.

  The only set of Xeno Sapien twins—Jett and Brax, were created from each other. They balance each other. They can’t live without each other. But they were also created to destroy each other.

  The first time they see Heather, an unusual new human employee, they decide they can’t live without her. Heather was born different—a throwback redhead in a world of brunettes. Surely she would know what it’s like not to fit in? And fit in, the twins don’t. The scientists who created them depended on their alien attributes over their human DNA—for what better way to get them to fight to the death?

  Heather Marlow had an ultimate goal. Apply at Xenia, steal a real, live Xeno Sapien for ransom money, and rescue her grandmother in one fell swoop. But things went awry.

  After being captured for her crime, the twins get their wish. She won’t be allowed to live without them.

  Can she see past the alien differences that leave them almost human?

  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

  Epilogue

  Xeno Sapiens

  Alien Stolen

  Abducted

  Space Babies

  Artificial Intelligence

  Stargazer Series

  The Hunter

  Also by Rena Marks

  Prologue

  “Heather Ann Marlow. Please rise.” The Xeno Sapien in charge of her trial had a voice that echoed through the gladiator pits where it was being held. From the bleachers where they watched, a sea of unfriendly, alien faces of various colors and attributes stared at her.

  Heather rose slowly as he commanded, feeling tired and scared and so very alone. She’d been locked up for weeks in the Xeno Sapien prison—the sole female prisoner. She could barely think anymore. What she’d done was so horrible that she deserved death and could only hope they would be merciful and it would be swift and painless.

  How had everything gone so wrong? She had a great career, a wonderful education, a loving grandparent who raised her from the time she was a toddler. Then she’d been contacted by relatives of her biological father’s family—whom she’d never met. They’d kidnapped her Gramma Elsa and held her until Heather agreed to do what they wished.

  Infiltrate the city of Xenia under the guise of an employee and wait for further instruction.

  The sad thing was she had loved the damn job. The pay was excellent—not that she’d gotten to enjoy any of it. No, her “cousins” had taken every dime she earned before ordering her to drug a Xeno Sapien to kidnap.

  They’d wanted “the gold female,” but Heather knew why they wanted Sunny. They intended to rape her and charge others money to do the same. Instead, Heather picked Sunny’s boyfriend to drug. Beast, the strongest Xeno Sapien, hoping he’d be able to break free someday and save himself.

  She had no idea her cousins wouldn’t even adhere to their end of the deal. Not once they figured out her scheme, somehow knowing that she hoped Beast would wake and slaughter them. She’d been forced to tell them how to take his strength away.

  He’d never had a haircut. His super-strength was tied to the length of his hair. With one snip, he’d be reduced to a human’s weakness.

  Then they made her do it.

  She never hesitated. She shaved his head and waited for his death. To everyone’s surprise, it was a trick. He rose and conquered her cousins. The rest of the Xeno Sapien security team broke into the house and captured them all…but Beast hadn’t hesitated to kill the men he held now captive with nothing but the strength of his claws.

  Everyone captured except for Gramma Elsa. She had never been in the house like the cousins claimed. Without the victim, Heather looked as guilty as the kidnappers. And no one told her anything about where her gramma was. She didn’t know if she was dead or alive.

  Heather’s attention returned to the Xeno Sapien they called Renegade, who was in charge of her destiny. He stood opposite her on the dirt ground of the gladiator pits. The Xeno Sapiens who filled the bleachers for her trial today grew quiet, but she could still feel the antagonism emanating from all directions.

  “Do you deny you entered Xenia on false pretenses?”

  “No.” Her voice was small and quiet. “I agreed to apply for the position with the intent of gaining trust and then kidnapping a Xeno Sapien.”

  “Are you aware of giving up your Earth citizenship by entering our gates?”

  “Yes.”

  “And are you aware that we can impose any punishment we deem justified, including death?”

  “Yes.” Her head hung low with acceptance.

  “I impose a lifetime of servitude to you, with probation. If your probation is violated, your death sentence prevails. No longer are you free to leave our gates or view the outside world. You will work off your debts to our society.”

  “No!” The older woman who stood in the bleachers was so frail Heather barely recognized her own grandmother. “No! She was just trying to protect me. She doesn’t deserve to be punished for life.”

  Heather gasped her shock when she realized who it was that stood in her defense.

  Renegade’s voice boomed. “Who is this person to you?”

  “My grandmother,” Heather said softly, not wanting to rile anyone further. “Please. I don’t know who let her in, but she shouldn’t be here to watch this.”

  Renegade ignored her. “Ma’am, what are you doing here?”

  “Mrs. Marlow is my new nanny,” Robyn called out. “I wanted to watch the trial and need help caring for my son.”

  “No!” Heather screamed. She couldn’t let her grandmother stay here and be as gullible as Heather had been, thinking these people were her friends. They weren’t friends. They were dangerous, as dangerous as the outside world. “No! Gramma, you need to leave and never look back! I’ll be fine.”

  “Nanna Marlow, please have a seat.” Renegade’s tone had gentled somewhat. Then he hardened as he looked back at Heather.

  “Heather Marlow, out of the kindness of my heart and the need to ease your grandmother’s suffering, I will grant her the same protection a citizen from Xenia is entitled to. You will be allowed a monthly visitation from your grandmother for the time being.”

  “Oh, yes, please,” Heather wept. “I will agree to anything for that!” If only to talk her gramma into leaving this hell.

  “Anything?” Renegade’s voice was cold. “We must find you a place to live. If there is no sympathy for you here, your sentence will be remanded to the original death sentence for your crimes.” He turned toward the bleachers. “Is there any Xeno Sapien who would be willing to house a traitor such as this in their home?”

  No one stood. No one spoke.

  Heather knew she paled as she waited. Her heart thumped against the ribs of her chest. She could almost feel her freckles standing out against the sickly pallor of her skin. H
er forehead grew slick as the sweat dampened her brow. It was like she’d just come to life now that she finally knew her grandmother was alive. And while she didn’t really care if she lived or died, hell if she wanted gramma to watch.

  “Anyone at all?” Renegade’s voice rang out louder, but still, there was silence. He waited several seconds.

  Heather took a deep breath, knowing what was coming.

  “In that case,” Renegade said. “Heather Marlow, you are hereby sentenced to de—”

  “Wait.” Through the gasps of the crowd, two strange creatures emerged into the dusty pit. Their green and yellow scaled skin glistened with slickness. Dear God, they had tails. One’s tail thrashed back and forth in an unsettling movement. Bits of shell clung to the gray khaki pants everyone tended to favor here.

  Everyone waited until they spoke.

  “We will take her,” Jett finally said.

  The realization of who they were dawned on her as soon as he had spoke. This was Brax and Jett, the twins whose den she’d been cleaning for weeks. Her pen pals, who she’d fallen half in love with without even meeting. She’d known they were alien beings, but she’d never expected to know what they looked like.

  They couldn’t see her like this! They couldn’t know she’d been so evil as to almost kill one of their fellow Xeno Sapiens.

  There was silence as Heather dropped to the dirt. “No! I’d rather die,” she sobbed.

  Nanna Marlow gasped from the bleachers.

  But the twins approached anyway. They each grabbed an upper arm, ignoring her flinch, and dragged her from the pits. She held her shrieks—because Gramma was in the crowds.

  Chapter One

  Heather Marlow was dragged sobbing from the gladiator pits, which acted as an old-fashioned trial and judgment area. The rest of the Xeno Sapiens, some who she’d thought were her friends, did nothing. Instead, they watched silently as she was hauled through the dirt like a sack of potatoes.

  Silently.

  Not one person stood up for her, not even the gramma that she knew and loved for her entire life. Not that Gramma Elsa could, of course. Hell, they had her in their clutches now. And Heather was sure she had taken the position of nanny to the Xeno Sapiens because it would keep her close to her only living relative. She just didn’t know what kind of danger she’d put herself in.

  Heather was the enemy. A prisoner of the Xeno Sapiens.

  Sure, it seemed like a wonderful place to be at first. But once you were on their bad side, or connected to someone on their bad side, all hell would break loose.

  She collapsed as soon as she was away from the pit, shock and horror settling in. She’d almost died. Now they were going to kill her like a rabid animal.

  Brax…or Jett, she still didn’t know which was which, calmly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, ignoring her gasp at the slimy feel of his wet, scaled skin against her gut. She thought she felt him rub her ass.

  Surely not. He couldn’t be interested in her ass. Surely these two creatures couldn’t…could they?

  But now that she hung upside down, holding as still as she could lest she slide off, she was able to study his ass. It was quite a nice bubble shape, the buttocks strong and muscular. Yet, she knew underneath the fabric of his pants, it had to be as green as the rest of him. From a slit in his gray pants swished a tail. A sweeping tail.

  She thought she’d looked different all her life—being a redhead in a world of brunettes. She couldn’t imagine having the skin color these twins did. But it wasn’t just the skin color and tails. It was the patterns of tiny scales—yellowish in areas. And weird, jutting spines that protruded from their backs.

  She’d picked the twins when she sought employment at Xenia because of the fact they shunned technology at home. She’d mistakenly thought that made them simple. But their home was so beautiful, so peaceful…she couldn’t bear to put them in harm’s way. Not when she got to know them through notes and letters—and certainly not when she realized how strong the one named Beast was. That strength alone would enable him to save himself when she kidnapped him, and keep others from harm’s way. Because that was what she had to do to free her gramma. Kidnap a Xeno Sapien for the ones who’d blackmailed her.

  Each step the man took jarred her lungs, and her breath expelled harshly. Realizing this, he stopped at the edge of the woods and set her on her feet. She swayed, blood rushing to her brain uncomfortably. She refused to look at her jailors’ faces.

  “She looks bad,” the twin on the left said.

  God, she had no idea which was which.

  “We knew she would,” the one who’d carried her said. “We can clean her up. She will eat. And then she will sleep.”

  The front of her was covered with the same thick slime that covered them. Dirt clung to it, muddy and disgusting. She flinched when they each reached out and grabbed an upper arm. But along she walked, between them, her thoughts racing a mile a minute. When they did reach the den that was more familiar to her than the cheesy motels she’d been frequenting—the same den she thought she’d never see again—they chained her in the kitchen and disappeared.

  Heather waited…and waited. Eventually, she sank to the floor and curled into a ball. It was still clean. Even though it had been weeks since she’d cleaned it last. Did they have a new housekeeper? What a strange thought to roll through her head.

  * * * * *

  She was jarred awake when a door opened. The chain around her wrist moved and she opened her eyes warily. One of them stood a few feet away, feet spread and planted before her.

  The other knelt in front of her and unlocked the chain. She flinched when the smooth skin of his hand touched her wrist, but he didn’t feel any different. Still slimy. Underneath it all, still basically human. She’d expected an extreme temperature difference or even a sandpaper texture because of the scales.

  He pulled her to her feet and picked her up. She held herself stiffly, wondering what his scaled chest would feel like. He swept her against him. It was hard…but that could be because of the muscles of his form. It was obvious there wasn’t an ounce of fat to him.

  The other brother held the back door, and the three made their way to the amazing natural springs she’d discovered buried in the mountain behind their den. The air was thick and humid but grew even moister as they headed deeper into the cavern. It was warmer, too, and she sighed, releasing tension that she didn’t realize she had. Tension had become a way of life for so long, it had become normal to the point she didn’t even notice it.

  As if sensing her mood, the brothers slowed their pace. Eventually, they reached the hot springs she’d discovered the very first time she’d been to their place, and the one carrying her set her on her feet then moved behind her.

  The other brother came to stand before her.

  From behind her, the first one whispered into her ear. “Hold still.”

  His hands moved up her body to the thin, bright orange blouse she’d been issued, a horrid color that clashed with her hair and made her skin look jaundiced. His fingers settled on the top button, slowly moving to unbutton it.

  She didn’t obey. She moved her hands up and covered his but didn’t stop him. Hell, she couldn’t. But she just wanted a tiny bit of control. To feel like she gave permission in these strange circumstances where she had zero power over her life. In front of her, heat blazed in the strange eyes of the one who stood before her, and suddenly she knew which brother was which.

  Brax must have stood behind her. Jett watched from the front.

  She’d read enough letters to know their personalities. Brax was the more sensitive twin, the easy-going one. He was filled with laughter and teasing. Jett was wary and came across as harsh. Perhaps harsh was too strong a word. At the very least, he came across as brash. She knew better. He protected his emotions, and he protected his brother. Had it been Jett behind her, he would have snarled at her when she moved against his command.

  Not Brax. Brax wasn’t as rigid.
He may have told her to hold still, but he allowed her hands to cover his as if she had a choice as to what was about to happen.

  They were going to strip her naked.

  And what would happen after that she had no way of knowing.

  Underneath her hands, she felt the button pop open in release. His hands inched down to the next one as the fabric opened to reveal an expanse of flesh.

  She studied the one who watched her.

  His skin was greenish, with yellow mixed into some areas, but with no rhyme or reason to the patterns. The small scaled pattern was pretty, rather uniform in shape instead of looking fishy. The square shapes grew larger where they moved up his skull and darkened into a beautiful emerald shade that mimicked a hairline on top of his head.

  His eyes were different. They were green, but a warm mustard surrounded the black iris set vertically in the center. That wasn’t normal. Humans had round pupils. As she watched, he slowly blinked.

  He had a second set of eyelids—a filmy translucent one that shut from the outer edge and swept across the eye.

  That was…unusual.

  His nose wasn’t as pronounced as a human. It was flatter and thinner. His lips looked normal. She couldn’t see the back of him, but she knew from being carried that spines lined their backbones. He was strangely beautiful, but so very different from anything she’d ever imagined. If she hadn’t been so shell-shocked from everything that had happened recently, she’d probably have run screaming.

  Brax moved his hands down to a third button, and Jett licked his lips. Oh, god, his tongue was forked. How did that even work?

  Her hands fell away from Brax’s when the last button came undone. He moved up to her shoulders and parted the blouse. His fingers barely skimmed against her skin as he moved it over her shoulders and down her arms. Goosebumps broke out over her flesh, and Jett looked entranced. His finger twitched as if he was tempted to reach out and touch.

  She was glad he didn’t.

  The warm air tightened her nipples, and she unconsciously tightened her shoulders as he studied her upthrust breasts.