MOONBOUND: My Alien Boyfriend

CHAPTER 3

The metallic door shut with a heavy hiss, locking Willow and Mason in absolute darkness, just a second before the shockwave outside slammed against the ship’s walls. Willow was thrown forward, but a pair of strong, firm arms held her tight, keeping her from crashing onto the iron floor.

“Stay in position,” Mason whispered. His deep voice echoed inside Willow’s helmet, sounding so close it sent a shiver down her spine. Slowly, the cramped space began to fill with a dim blue glow.

Willow looked up, realizing Mason’s face was only a few centimeters away from her helmet visor. Her heart raced at their intense proximity to one another.

“C-can you let me go?” Willow whispered hesitantly, her breath fogging up her visor.

Mason didn’t answer right away. His sharp, silver eyes stared straight into Willow’s, as if reading her mind.

Slowly, he straightened her up and released his embrace, though one of his hands remained steady near her shoulder to keep her balanced in the low gravity.

“My apologies,” Mason said softly, his deep voice vibrating through her helmet’s radio frequency. “But if I hadn’t pulled you in just now, you would have been obliterated along with the lunar dust.”

“What do you mean?” Willow frowned, trying to ignore the strange fluttering in her chest. “The hazard signal on my suit... it wasn’t because of your ship?”

“No,” Mason replied coldly. He turned his back to Willow and waved his hand in the air. A transparent blue holographic screen instantly flickered to life, displaying a three-dimensional view of the area outside the crater where they were hiding.

Willow caught her breath at the sight.

Out there, right above the crater, hovered a jet-black ship with a sharp, menacing, asymmetrical design. Several shadowy humanoid figures armed with long-barreled rifles were descending from the vessel, quickly sweeping along the footprints Willow had left on the lunar surface.

“They really tracked me all the way here,” Mason muttered, his jaw tightening. “The hunters from my faction. They were sent to ensure I never return.”

“Hunters?!” Willow panicked, her eyes darting wildly across the hologram. “Wait, they’re heading this way! And if they see my footprints, they’ll know there’s a human base nearby! My friends at Artemis Base...”

“They don’t care about the human race, Willow. To them, you are just insects that happen to be in the way,” Mason cut in sharply. “If they find us inside this pod, they will blow this place to pieces, including a one-kilometer radius around the crater.”

Willow’s eyes widened in horror. A one-kilometer radius meant Artemis Base would be wiped out in an instant.

*BOOM!*

Another violent tremor slammed into the ship, far harsher this time, causing the internal alarms inside Mason’s capsule to scream as red warning lights flashed with a tense, gripping urgency. The hazard alarm on Willow’s spacesuit blared continuously.

“They’re starting to shoot at the entrance!” Willow cried out in panic, instinctively gripping Mason’s solid arm.

“We have to do something! Patch me through to my office, I have to tell them to evacuate!”

“I already told you, your connection was severed the moment this door closed. And I cannot open it now without both of us vaporizing instantly from their plasma fire,” Mason replied.

He glanced down at Willow’s grip on his arm, then looked up to meet the panicked girl’s eyes with a gaze that suddenly softened, yet remained intensely focused.

“Trust me. I won’t let them touch you.”

“How can I trust an alien I just met a minute ago?!” Willow yelled in frustration, though deep down, a part of her oddly felt incredibly safe near him.

Mason pressed a large button on the center console. The metallic structure beneath their feet suddenly shifted open, revealing a narrow hatch that led down into the pitch-black lunar underground.

Willow was pulled by Mason as he leapt into the dark opening just as a plasma blast obliterated the ship’s upper door.

They slid down through a narrow, twisting tunnel that pierced the lunar underground. Inside the cramped darkness, Mason kept Willow pulled tightly against him, shielding her from the falling debris dislodged by the explosions on the surface.

Their escape ended in a hidden, ancient room that looked like an old observation post belonging to Mason’s people. Unfortunately, the place was already surrounded.

Before Willow could even stand up straight, the stone wall in front of them blew wide open. Three alien hunters clad in jet-black armor with glowing red eyes breached the room, immediately aiming their long-barreled rifles at Mason and Willow.

Mason instantly threw himself in front of Willow, his hand moving fast to draw an energy blade from his waist. However, one of the hunters fired a high-voltage electric net that instantly paralyzed Mason’s nervous system, sending him crashing to the floor as he groaned in pain.

Willow screamed in panic and tried to fight off the approaching alien, but a regular human’s physical strength was nothing against them; a hard strike from a rifle butt against her spacesuit helmet caused Willow’s vision to instantly go black.

When Willow slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was a splitting headache. She realized her bulky spacesuit had been removed, leaving her in just the thin thermal base layers clinging to her body.

The room around her was made of cold, solid metallic walls and heavy iron bars, a completely standard, stark prison cell inside the enemy mothership.

Turning her head to the side, Willow found Mason there too, sitting against the cell wall with his wrists bound by heavy magnetic handcuffs.

His combat armor had been stripped away, leaving only a form-fitting black undershirt that revealed his broad, athletic build.

His handsome face was bruised, but his silver eyes instantly locked onto Willow with deep concern the moment he saw her wake up.

“Are you alright?” Mason asked, his voice sounding deeper and raspy.

Willow slowly crawled closer to Mason in the cramped corner of the cell, feeling a chaotic mix of terrifying panic from being captured, and a strange sense of comfort because they were locked up together.

“I think my head is splitting open,” Willow groaned, resting her back against the cold wall next to him. “Where are we? What is this place?”

“We are in the holding bay of their flagship,” Mason murmured, his eyes filled with profound regret. “I am sorry, Willow. You have been dragged into this death sentence., because of me”

“A death sentence?!” Willow snapped, her heart hammering again. “Hey, you said you wouldn’t let them touch me!”

“I failed to protect you,” Mason replied softly, his jaw tightening as he looked down at his cuffs, imagine how gentle he was.

“But I will find a way to get you out of here. This is my fight, not yours.”

“Well, it’s my fight now since I’m stuck in a cage with you,” Willow said, looking at him intently.

“So you better start thinking of a plan, handsome alien.”

“What? What do you mean? What’s that line you’re just say about me?”

“Nevermind.”

Willow suddenly realized one thing, she had lost all of her gear. From her suit and helmet to her oxygen tank. Slowly, she began to run out of air. Her breathing slowed to a painful crawl, a weak gasp escaping her lips as the agonizing sensation of suffocation took hold.

Mason noticed this immediately and offered her his own breath to save her.

“Look at me, Willow. You’re running out of air,” Mason said urgently, leaning in close.

“I can share my oxygen with you, but you have to trust me. Let me breathe for you.”

“P-please...” Willow choked out, her vision blurring as she weakly clutched his shirt. “I can’t... breathe...”

Mason brought his lips to hers, instantly locking them over Willow’s mouth in a deep, burning kiss, sharing his breath with an intensity that felt like a passionate scene straight out of an adult film.

Willow felt a surging, intense heat rising and rushing through her entire body. Yet, she didn’t fight it. In that very second, she found the most exquisite sensation she had ever experienced in her life.