RIV’S SANCTUARY

A.G. WILDE

Riv’s Sanctuary

Riv’s Sanctuary © A. G. Wilde 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Disclaimer

Riv’s Sanctuary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Epilogue

A note from A.G

Next in the Series

Other books by A.G.

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author

This book is dedicated to …

I have no fucking clue.

You know what?

If you’re reading this, this book is dedicated to you.

Keep kicking ass and chewing bubble gum.

DISCLAIMER

This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only.

All sexually active characters portrayed in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

RIV’S SANCTUARY

Abducted from Earth over a year ago, Lauren spent most of that time getting accustomed to her new life as one of the “animals” in an alien zoo.

When she’s sold by the zookeeper, her life takes a turn she wasn’t expecting. She has no idea where she’ll end up till she’s brought to a sanctuary owned by a tall blue hunk of an alien called Riv.

Riv’s life is quiet and peaceful in a place as far away from civilization as he can manage. So when an annoying chatterbox of a human ends up on his doorstep, he’s less than pleased. The human disrupts his life and his solitude and he can’t wait to get rid of her.

He’s not interested in helping her, and he’s definitely not interested in love.

Except…she’s managed to wheedle her way in and suddenly those barriers around his heart don’t seem so strong anymore.

He has two options: Let her go.

Or let her in.

1

WHAT’S WORSE than taking a wee with humans watching?

Taking a wee with aliens watching.

Lauren cast a bored glance toward the transparent shield that served as her outer wall.

Sure enough, there was an alien there watching her.

This one was quite round, she noted. A bit like she’d imagine a cow would look walking upright on two legs—minus the sensitive areas underneath. The alien had long, pointed rabbit-like ears, no tail, and a soft brown fuzz covered its entire body.

Such a sight should alarm her, seeing something so absolutely strange standing there. A strange being sucking on a thick green pouch as it watched her relieve herself…

See, she might have been alarmed, say, several months ago, but today? Today was just another day.

Removing the pee pipe from over her genitals, Lauren cast the alien another glance.

It was still watching her.

Perv.

With a sigh and a roll of her shoulders, she set the pee pipe into its slot in the wall.

A soft hiss told her the trowel-like receptacle at the top of the pipe was cleaning itself of her urine.

There was the sound of a tap on the transparent shield and Lauren stiffened, her eyes closing for a second.

When the tap came again, she cast her eyes toward the shield, her eyes cold.

Apparently, the alien on the other side didn’t understand a death glare because it only continued sucking on its green juice.

Lauren shrugged.

Death glares never seemed to work anyway.

She’d yet to see her glares have any effect on the beings that stopped by her terrarium.

Death glares did nothing to deter curious aliens who saw her as nothing but an animal—and she’d had a lot of time to test that theory…a whole year’s worth of time.

She’d stopped glaring at them after the first month.

At least, she thought that was how long it’d been. Keeping track of time without a proper calendar was tricky.

She’d been using the far right wall as a record of how many days since she’d been abducted from Earth and after she’d passed three hundred days, she’d stopped recording.

It had been starting to depress her.

So the tap on the transparent shield, she was used to. The curious eyes as she used her alien tube toilet, she was used to.

Try pushing out a dookie with several alien eyes on your tush.

Yeah. Don’t worry. You get used to doing it with an audience after the first hundred times or so.

The tap came again and she turned and faced the plump alien fully. The alien paused suddenly before it let its hand—hoof?—fall and it began sucking on its juice again.

It wanted her attention. Needy much?

Why was it here so early in the morning?

Lauren sucked in air through her teeth and folded her lips. It was always the pervs.

She felt like a cam girl. Only she wasn’t paid in money.

Her only payment was the fact the zookeeper fed her…which she guessed she should be thankful for. She’d seen the alien in the terrarium across from her starve to death.

That had been hard to watch.

He’d just stopped moving one day and it had taken another week before they’d realized he was even dead.

Some of the other aliens she could see from her terrarium were only fed when the zookeeper remembered. That’s why she’d started rationing and saving the hard bricks they were given for food. She had several days’ worth hidden under her mattress now.

Leaning back against the slab behind her, she rested her arms on top of the straw roll that served as her mattress.

On the other side of the barrier, a shadow fell over the alien that had been tapping the shield and another alien stepped behind it. This one was a much larger version of the one that had been there first and Lauren realized immediately that the “perv” was a kid.

Raising her eyebrows, she watched as the parent linked hooves with its child and pulled it away to view another poor soul in one of the other terrariums.

The child sucked on its juice pouch, its eyes on her as it walked away.

“Byeee!” She waved, pasting a fake grin on her face.

The child’s weirdly large, dark eyes widened and the faint sound of its squeal came through the shield as it pulled against its parent, trying to return to her terrarium.

Lauren’s eyes widened slightly.

“No, no, keep going. Go with your mama, or papa…” Shit, she had trouble entertaining strange human kids much less strange alien ones. She didn’t need the attention.

“Go away little alien. GO AWAY. Nothing to see here.” She was whispering, speaking underneath her breath through gritted teeth, while mentally berating herself.

First rule of the terrarium: Never engage with the visitors.

They tended to not want to leave her shield and go somewhere else whenever she even so much as made eye contact with them.

She guessed that made this a shit zoo if that was all it took to get the visitors’ attention.

She guessed? She knew it was.

As far as she could see, she had gotten the luck of the draw with her terrarium and at least they fed her every day.

Maybe they thought she was frail and would die if they didn’t at least make an effort with her.

Lauren sighed, her shoulders sagging with relief as the parent pulled the little alien away.

At least the child had only been looking at her with interest.

There were some aliens who came by to look, species that she couldn’t have even imagined existed, and she could see the danger in their eyes.

Outside of the transparent shield wasn’t a safe place to be.

After she’d been taken, she’d woken up on a large alien ship. There had been slugs hovering on levitated rings and tall guards that looked like gators walking upright.

They’d planted a translator at the side of her head, behind her ear, performed a gender test on her to confirm she was female, then locked her in a cell.

Next thing she knew, the ship had gotten attacked and she’d hit her head against the cell. She must have lost consciousness because when she woke up she was being pulled into a market, thrown into a cage, and then bought by the zookeeper.

It’d been horrific in that market.

The stench had been unreal. But worse than that, the aliens walking by had been terrifying.

Imagine living in a world where you didn’t know aliens really existed, only to wake up one day and find that your life was ripped away from you and you’d been thrown into an actual alien world.

Not only that, but most of the aliens had been looking at her with one of two things in their eyes. They were either looking at her as if they wanted to have sex with her or like they wanted to see what she tasted like.

She’d been lucky with the zookeeper. She only realized this later and, for that reason, she hadn’t fought to escape.

Well, she’d stopped fighting to escape.

After the first few attempts and the excruciating pain she’d endured when she’d been caught, she’d learned to stay within her terrarium. When the door in her wall opened during feeding times, she no longer tried to rush through it to freedom.

Where would she go anyway? She was alone.

Deep down, she knew returning to Earth was never going to happen. She was lost to the world, literally. She wondered if they were even looking for her back on Earth.

Did her family think she’d met upon some serious accident somewhere? Did they imagine her body rotting in a ditch on some lonely road? Did her friends miss her?

Another alien paused by the transparent shield. He was all white and he was dressed in a white robe. He blinked at her, studying her.

She found herself staring at him.

It was hard not to.

He was an alien, after all, and though she'd accepted the fact that aliens were real and there were many different species of them, it was still a bit jarring when she saw a new one.

But, after a year away from Earth, every day that passed it got easier and easier.

Easier knowing she would never see Earth again.

Easier accepting that this was her new life.

Easier adjusting to this new life.

She was alive. Every day, that one fact kept her going. Despite what was thrown at her, she was going to survive.

The white alien got bored and walked away, leaving her alone again.

Sliding to the floor, she touched the watch fastened around her wrist.

It no longer worked, the battery went out several months back, but she kept wearing it anyway.

It’d been her mother’s watch and the only thing she had from Earth apart from the clothes on her back—her now very-worn jeans and black tank top.

She was lucky to have them.

The watch was like a relic of her past life.

As she spun the watch around her wrist absentmindedly, she looked toward the transparent barrier, a frown slowly creasing her brow.

It was strange there weren’t any aliens at her terrarium barrier today. Usually, they’d be filing into the zoo by now, flocking in to see the exotic animals they wouldn’t normally see in the wild.

But today was different.

Just then, the door on the inside wall of her cell moved.

Lauren stiffened.

It wasn’t feeding time yet. There was no reason for them to enter her terrarium.

As the zookeeper stepped into the terrarium, his fat black and red belly jiggling, Lauren moved a little further toward the far wall.

The alien looked down at her, his small ears folding over behind his horns. He looked like the version of the devil they didn’t want you to imagine: old, intoxicated, and rocking that divorced dad-bod. All he needed was a pair of boxers and messy hair.

Who would really be scared of a being like that sending them to eternal damnation?

The zookeeper’s huge nose moved as he opened his mouth and spoke.

“Time to leave, human,” he said.

“Leave? Leave to go where?”

“The exchange. Your time here has expired.”

When her eyes widened, the alien continued. “You’re up for sale.”

Memories of the stench of the market, the leers she’d received, and the promise of bad things happening came right back to her.

Staring up at the zookeeper in shock, Lauren blinked several times.

He was selling her?

“Selling me? Why?”

The zookeeper’s eyes moved over her. There was no care there. “You’re too dangerous to keep.”

This time, her eyes widened by the mere absurdity of what he just said.

She? Dangerous?

Clearly, he was in the wrong terrarium.

2

BEHIND THE DEVIL that God forgot existed came in three thinner beings that looked like sphynx cats on two legs.

They immediately began spraying the terrarium and wiping down surfaces as if they were trying to remove every trace of her from the room.

Wide-eyed, Lauren watched them, her mouth slightly open before her brain kicked into gear.

“Wait.” She turned to the zookeeper. “Wait. I can’t go back to that market. I can’t be bought by…” she shuddered to think what being might buy her next. She didn’t want to even consider it.

The nightmares were enough.

The zookeeper ignored her, instructing the aliens to lift her mattress and incinerate it.

As the aliens lifted the mattress and took it from the room, Lauren’s heartbeat picked up.

“Wait!” she called out to the aliens but, of course, they weren’t paying her any attention. To them, she was just another being that was the zookeeper’s property.

And she was property. She’d learned to accept that a long time ago. Stating otherwise only caused bad things to happen like the toilet tube suddenly not working, the meal bars coming in tasting like dirt, or excruciating pain that put every cell in her body on fire.

The last form of punishment was a mystery to her. She still didn’t know how he managed it but the zookeeper had some sort of remote where, all he had to do was point it her way and press a button and she was in pain.

Didn’t matter how far she ran either. Distance wasn’t a factor. The signal was never interrupted.

She’d found that out the hard way when she’d been left writhing on the ground on one of her escape attempts.

Lauren’s breathing began to go slightly faster as she stared at the zookeeper. Why would he want to sell her now?

From the mumblings she’d heard from his workers at mealtimes, she had been making the zookeeper rich.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you sending me back there? I haven’t done anything even vaguely offensive.”

She couldn’t believe she was arguing to stay in the zoo.

The zookeeper glanced at her and clicked his tongue. “You are a liability. I must rid myself of all traces of you before I am caught with you here.”

She had no idea what that even meant.

“You could always set me free.” She tried her luck. “You do know that’s an option right?”

She had no idea where she’d go or how she’d survive but she truly thought anything was better than going back to that market.

She’d been lucky to escape the weirdos at the market once and had ended up at the zoo. She doubted she’d be so lucky a second time.

“Free?” The zookeeper’s laugh sounded like water going down a partially clogged drain. “Freedom comes with a price. If you can pay me for your freedom, you are welcome to go free.”

His gaze held a challenge and Lauren’s lips tightened. He knew damn well she didn’t have any money.

Glancing toward the hole in the wall that he’d walked through, she briefly considered making a run for it. But even if she made it outside the zoo, where would she go? What would she do?

“Don’t even think about it,” the zookeeper said, his cold hand closing around her arm before she could even move out of his reach.

She only had enough time to grab a few of her now-exposed stash of meal bars and stuff them into her pocket as she was pulled out of the room.

THE STENCH of the market was unbearable. It smelled exactly like she remembered it, and this time she knew what the smell was.

It was the smell of unwashed bodies and waste.

With a jolt, the zookeeper set down the box he’d forced her into and hovered close by.

He seemed nervous.

His eyes kept darting around as if he was afraid of getting caught doing something wrong and that made her wonder what exactly was going on.

The box was closed.

All she could see of the outside was through the little slits cut into the sides of the box and thank God she wasn’t claustrophobic because she’d be suffocating right about now.

The box was big enough that she could sit upright, cross-legged in it, but with the lid closed it was dark inside.

Taking a deep breath, Lauren tried to calm her beating heart.

Turning around in the box, she tried to catch a view of the other aliens in the area to get an idea of what sort of buyers were scouting for goods today.

The last time she’d been at the market, she’d been in a cage, not a box. It’d been wide open and she’d been able to see them clearly and them her. She didn’t miss their leers or their creepy smiles.

This time, visibility was massively reduced. She couldn’t see the face of anyone close to the box only those who were a way off.

What she could see clearly were cages with other creatures, some of them looking physically abused, some looking near dead. It didn’t help the uneasy feeling growing in her stomach.

There was movement above her head and the top of the box was suddenly opened.

The stench seemed even stronger now and it had her covering her nose with one hand and shading her eyes with the other from the bright light.

As her gaze adjusted and she took in more of the surroundings, her anxiety increased.

Something in a cage close to her that looked like a massive snake with three round heads hissed at her as she began to stand.

“Sit.”

A firm hand pressed against her shoulder and she looked up to see the zookeeper’s eyes still darting around.

He wasn’t even looking at her.

What was his problem?

He was up to something, or something wasn’t right.

It was still early it seemed, because there weren’t many buyers.

This was a guy who cut corners and tried to save a buck at every turn.

Why would he bring her out now when there wasn’t a good chance of him selling her for much?

The sphynx cats beside him also had their eyes darting around, as if they were keeping watch.

Curious.

As Lauren frowned, a few beings caught sight of her and walked over.

The zookeeper leaned in, his breath brushing against her skin.

He pressed his torture remote into her side.

Great. She hadn’t realized he had the thing.

“Don’t even think about running.”

She knew what that meant.

Running would mean collapsing on her face as each and every cell in her body caught on fire.

The first time it happened, she’d thought she was going to die.

The second time wasn’t better either. Neither were the third, fourth, or fifth times.

“You have no alien status here. You run. You get caught. You go to the mines.” The zookeeper’s mouth twisted in a smile. “You choose.”

Settling back in her box, she said nothing.

It wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned the mines and, frankly, it didn’t sound like a place she wanted to be.

Instead, she focused on the beings beginning to surround the box.

It was a group of the same species of alien. They were all black with sharp edges, as if their bodies were made of blades compacted together. Standing at over seven feet, she supposed, they were taller than even the zookeeper.

Their dark eyes were focused on her and Lauren swallowed hard.

She couldn’t see any emotion in those eyes.

And they were male. She could see very clearly they were male.

“What sort of creature is this? ” One stretched forward to touch her and the zookeeper grabbed the alien’s arm.

Lauren’s wide eyes flew to the zookeeper.

Wasn’t he brave.

Or maybe his torture remote didn’t only work on her? Because seven feet of blades wasn’t the sort of alien she’d want to be in an altercation with.

“No touching. Touch it after you buy it for as long and as much as you want to,” the zookeeper said and the suggestion in his tone made her pale.

The alien’s thin mouth twisted into a leery smile and a shiver ran down her spine as she watched the others smile as well.

“A set of credits,” the alien offered.

A set? Just one?

Was that all they thought her life was worth?

Lauren glanced from one to the other and she moved back against the walls of the box.

Nope. She’d seen this movie.

Heck, she’d directed it in her head during her year with nothing else to do and she knew how this was going to end.

She’d have to try and make a run for it. Fuck the pain that would come. She’d crawl through mud and excrement if that meant she had a chance of safety.

As she gripped the sides of the box, ready to make a run for it, another being caught her attention.

Four eyes blinked at her as the alien’s big, bubble-head tilted to the side.

He was skinny, shorter than all the aliens around her box, and looked as if even she could beat him up.

Nevertheless, he pushed between the tall bladey aliens to come to the front and blinked at her, all four eyes scanning her from head to toe.

“Two sets of credits,” he said.

Lauren stared at him.

He didn’t seem as bad as the others. Her hands relaxed a little on the box.

The tall, dark aliens looked at each other.

“Two sets and fifty,” one of them said.

The zookeeper’s eyes lit up a little.

“The creature can speak and follow instructions as well.” His gaze jumped from one potential buyer to another.

He was trying to up their bids.

Lauren scowled at him. Such a piece of shit.

Hadn’t he earned enough because of her? She’d been in his zoo for a whole year.

“What we want to do with it will not require speaking...” one of the tall dark aliens said.

“...or following instructions. The creature will do what we want… willingly or not,” another chimed in.

Shit.

She knew what they were suggesting and it made her want to puke.

“Four sets of credits,” the thin green alien said.

The zookeeper grinned and the tall, dark aliens glanced at each other.

“For that price, we can get three Umongals.”

There was a pause as they looked at her again, then, with a sound of annoyance, they walked away without making another offer. The small green alien’s mouth moved as if he was smiling a little.

“Sold to the Torian.” The zookeeper pulled out some sort of device and completed the transaction as Lauren watched the green alien with interest.

She couldn’t read him.

She had no idea if he was good or bad and that was worrisome.

So far, from her experience, there was little good in this universe. Most beings seemed bad…

Hopefully, this deal wouldn’t make things worse.

“GOODNESS ME, YOU ARE HEAVY.” The voice came from above as the green alien carried her in the box.

The scent of the creature market was now behind them and Lauren could now see other parts of the marketplace.

It was a colorful exchange, full of shoppers and stalls on each side of the wide road.

“What have they been feeding you to make you this heavy?” the alien continued.

Was he calling her fat?

“I can walk, you know,” she said, but the alien only looked at her as if he couldn’t understand.

He made a sound in his throat, his four eyes flicking from her to the surroundings then back, as he gripped onto her box.

She felt like a puppy he’d just bought from the pet store.

A huff of a dry laugh came through her nose.

She guessed that was what she was.

It hadn’t taken her long to realize that, as a human, she had no rights in this intergalactic stew of aliens that she now existed within.

It had taken some getting used to, this new life.

And there was no returning home.

Another huff of a sad laugh came through her nose and she sniffled.

"Oh, Raxu." The alien carrying her lifted its eyes to the roof covering the market. "It's sniffling. I beg, don't make it sick. I do not wish to catch its diseases. Who knows the effect it would have on me, and my lovely Cargga would be grossly inconvenienced by it."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "I can understand you, you know."

The alien’s four eyes settled on her, a look of mild disgust on its face.

“I must get your language upload. Understanding your primitive speak would be beneficial.” He jerked a little with glee. “Oh, I do hope my Cargga likes you. I was lucky to be walking by the creature market to find you.” He looked down at her. “You’re not very pleasing to the gaze but I guess you will do.”

Lauren’s eyes widened. He just called her fat and now he was saying she was ugly.

Her mouth set into a firm line as she crossed her arms.

Let him carry her. He deserved to carry the weight.

Though, she had to admit, for his frail stature, he was doing a good job lifting her all the way.

Lauren turned her attention back to her surroundings.

Being outside the zoo, not separated from the world by a transparent barrier, felt strange.

There was so much…life.

She was just looking at a group of short identical aliens walking together when the alien carrying her stopped suddenly in front of an empty stall.

“Xid!” he called harshly and, a second later, a long, gray neck popped up from underneath the stall. Atop the neck was a head that she could only say was shaped like binoculars.

“You need?” the alien asked, his uninterested eyes on the alien holding her.

“A language upload. The language of this poor, ugly thing.”

Lauren’s eyes turned to slits as she regarded the alien holding her. He wasn’t light on the compliments at all, was he?

“Language code?” the alien inside the stall asked and she realized only then that his mouth was in his neck.

She tried not to stare but couldn’t help it. He didn’t seem to mind anyway. His uninterested gaze was now on her but he said nothing.

“Ah, the code. I have it. That thieving zookeeper almost wanted me to pay extra for it.” The alien holding her braced her box on his leg as he reached across the counter to punch in a code on a device sitting there.

“Downloading,” the alien behind the counter said. “Done,” he said in the next second, and Lauren’s brows shot up.

Did he download the entire English language so quickly?

Next, the alien holding her leaned forward as another device like the ones doctors use to look into your ear was placed by the side of his head.

He let out a sound of discomfort before his four eyes squeezed shut for a second then opened.

“Done,” the alien behind the counter said.

The alien holding her looked at her. “Can you understand me now…thing?”

“I could always understand you. And my name is Lauren, not thing.”

The alien’s face lightened a little and he leaned forward.

“I am Geblit.”

“Nice to meet you, Geblit.” She still had her arms crossed as her eyes narrowed a little. “Now, mind telling me what you bought me for?”

He leaned back then, all four eyes darting to the side.

“You are a surprise.”

A surprise?

That’s what she’d thought her name was as a child.

It’s what her dad had called her till he’d packed his bags and left in the dead of the night one day.

Safe to say, she hadn’t been a wanted surprise.

She could only hope that wasn’t the case this time.

3

"GET. THAT. THING. OUT OF HERE!" The screech was so high-pitched, Lauren covered her ears and ducked a little into her box.

She didn’t need to ask if the female in the room wanted her there. It was quite clear.

After all, she didn't want to be there, either, but the woman's husband…male…mate—whatever Geblit wanted to call himself, bought her, so did she really have a choice? No. She had to sit in her box and wait like a good little pet.

It was either the box, roughing it out on an alien landscape, or the mines.

A low mumbling of words reached her ears as said husband tried to reason with his wife. Apparently, he failed to say the right thing because a loud crack was heard as something slammed into the door before it fell to the heap of other thrown things now congregated on the floor. She was glad she wasn't in the room. That object could have easily been her. Wifey was not pleased AT ALL.

"It. Is. Hideous! How dare you buy such a deformed thing?!"

Lauren's mouth fell open as her eyes grew wide. Was the woman referring to her...as...as hideous? Deformed? The accusation was so shocking, she found herself looking down at her body just to make sure that, after twenty-four years, she hadn't been living in denial—failing to see what she really was.

"I thought you would have liked something that doesn't look as beautiful as you do, my love," Geblit replied and Lauren’s lip curled in annoyance. "You know you shine for my eyes only."

"Well..." the wife's voice became so sultry, Lauren wouldn't have thought that just a second ago, the female had been throwing a fit. "I am beautiful."

"Yes, you are, my sweetest dear."

Ugh.

Plopping down to sit cross-legged in the box, Lauren crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, allowing them to go way back in her head as she mimed the couple’s words silently.

I am beautiful.

You are my love.

Oh, please. Did they hear themselves?

"But I cannot bear to look at the thing, much less have it join our matings. I wanted to add flavor to our beddings…spice! Not remove it by gazing on unattractive things while you pleasure me!"

What the fuck?

Eww.

Lauren's head snapped in the direction of the closed door as she glared at it.

That's why that skinny little alien had bought her? So she could...could…join him and his wife in bed?

Her stomach heaved at the thought.

No, thank you.

What was with it with these aliens and sex? Goddamn.

Raising her eyes to the ceiling, she uttered a silent prayer.

It's one thing to be degraded like a pet, being carried around in a box and expected to sit there and wait obediently, but to be bought as a sex pet?

Eww.

"I cannot bear to look at it. It's too…it’s too hideous!" the female within the room continued. “Two eyes! Missing limbs!”

Geblit groaned. "It is my mistake. I did not remember that you don't like beings with missing limbs. I was so focused on getting this rare find."

Something else smashed against the door and fell to the floor.

"Take it away, Geblit!"

"Anything for you, my love."

The door opened and Geblit stepped back out, his form slightly bent as he bowed to his wife. There was just enough of a gap between the door closing and his exit for Lauren to lay eyes on the offensive wife and it only made her face scrunch up more in annoyance.

Heh.

She was no prize but the wife wasn't either! She was at least five times the size of Geblit, who was skinny, but still. The big bubble on the back of Geblit’s head had looked enormous to her but his wife's was even larger. And where he had four round kind eyes at the front of his head, she had six enormous, fire-spitting ones.

With a huff, Geblit came over to her box, which he'd left in the middle of the floor of his dwelling.

"Now I have to return you," he said, tiredness in his eyes. She guessed this wasn't the first time he'd had to do such biddings.

But return her?

Back to that creature market?

Images of the tall, dark aliens who’d wanted to buy her came right back.

Shit. She couldn’t go back there.

Geblit’s four arms extended and grasped the underside of the box. He lifted her quite easily as he headed out of his mushroom-shaped dwelling to where he'd left his hovercar.

A soft wind blew as they made the trek in silence.

Lauren bit her lip.

She needed to do something about this or she was going to be in deep poop.

“To travel all the way back to the exchange,” Geblit mumbled.

“You don’t have to take me to the exchange, you know,” Lauren said and Geblit’s eyes widened a little.

“I forgot you can understand me,” he said.

"You seem to forget a lot of things." Lauren sighed and crossed her arms. “Yep, I heard every word.”

Geblit looked at her, his gaze lingering on her arms as if he was indeed a bit turned off by her lack of extra limbs.

"It is rude to listen to private conversations,” he said.

"Trust me, bud, there was nothing private about your conversation. I'm sure your neighbors and the rest of your estate heard every word of your private conversation."

She could swear his splotchy green skin became a little slack with embarrassment.

Geblit's eyes darted to the other mushroom houses along the street and his skin grew slacker.

"I must get you out of here as soon as possible," he said, activating the key control of his hovercar.

The vehicle was a large round thing in a cheerful teal color with seats in the front and the back. There was a transparent dome that covered the top that, upon Geblit activating the vehicle, rolled right back, leaving the vehicle open.

With a heave, Geblit popped her box on the passenger seat of the ride.

"So you're taking me back to the zoo?"

"Zoo?" Geblit replied. “I’m taking you back to the exchange.”

No.

That wouldn’t do.

That wouldn’t do at all.

“Hey, do you know anything about the mines?”

Geblit’s eyes flicked to her for a second. “The mines are a very bad place run by very bad and powerful beings. You go there if you want to work and die.” He tilted his head a little. “You wish to go to the mines?”

“No!” Lauren cleared her throat. “No, I was just wondering. But there should be a place I can go that’s not the zoo or the market, right?”

“Not possible. You must be returned.”

Lauren swallowed hard.

She had to think of something else.

“What about if I pay you back what you paid for me?”

Geblit paused at that. “You have credits?”

Lauren shifted in the box.

“I could work for you. Buy my freedom.”

Geblit was already shaking his head.

“No. You must leave. My Cargga will not tolerate you in our dwelling.”

With that, he hopped into the hovercar, his two scrawny legs settling his haunches unto the seat. As soon as he settled, he spun her box around, his eyes narrowing as he looked for something on the box itself.

Lauren sighed, anxiety growing as she tried to think of something else.

"You know, I don't need to be carried around in a box. I can walk just fine,” she spoke absentmindedly, her mind on a way to get out of this jam.

"It is what the zookeeper advised. I know nothing about your species. I have to take precautions. I do not want to touch you when it's not necessary."

She would have been burned by that if he wasn't an alien and one that looked like a cockroach had sex with an octopus.

Or would it be the other way around…an octopus having sex with a cockroach? It would be the larger of the two, hence it stood to think that it would be doing the sexing.

The big balloon thing at the back of Geblit’s head pulsed as he scrutinized the box.

Then it came to her.

"You don't want to touch me yet you were planning to add me to your mating?" She almost choked and vomited on the word.

"Hush!" Geblit's four eyes darted to his neighbors’ houses. "You were a present for my female. I will do anything to please my Cargga." Four eyes regarded her.

“Even though you are hideous, I would have kept you. The exchange is a horrid place for a female of any species, Torian or creature.”

Lauren surveyed him. "Hmm, I’m not a creature but I’ll take it. How...considerate of you."

"I am considerate. Yes," Geblit replied, turning his eyes to the box once more.

Lauren almost rolled her eyes at his arrogance.

But at least he was seeking to please his wife’s wishes. She guessed that meant he was nicer than most aliens were.

“I should have known my dear Cargga would never accept you. I should have taken into consideration the fact that you are hideous beyond belief."

She took it back.

He was not a nice alien.

He was a bad alien.

A horrible alien.

Turning away from him, she looked out over at the other mushroom houses. It was a strange-looking neighborhood.

Beautiful.

But strange.

The mushroom houses were all cream-colored, some having many adjoining mushrooms and some with only a few. Geblit's dwelling was one of those that had many adjoining mushrooms and she assumed that meant he was well-off.

Surrounding all the houses were perfectly manicured lawns of orange grass and well-maintained gardens of various flower species she'd never seen before.

And like an edited photo, the pink sky made a great backdrop to the already colorful scenery.

It was calm and welcoming—kind of like most upper-scale neighborhoods she'd been to back on Earth.

Her eyebrows rose a little when it dawned on her that she was in an upper-scale neighborhood right at that moment. This was the upper-class of alien life.

Not bad, she thought. It almost made her forget she was at the bottom of all barrels on this planet.

An exclamation of righteous indignation hit her ear and had her swinging her head to look at Geblit.

His oval mouth was open and stretched, his eyes bugged out.

"What is it?"

"I have been bested," he managed to get out with much, much difficulty. It was almost as if each word choked him a little.

"What do you mean 'bested?’"

"The slimy zookeeper put ‘no returns’ on the label."

The look on his face was of such utter devastation that she felt sorry for him. And, considering that she was the one who had no home except for the box in which she lay, that was saying something.

"What in Raxu’s name will I do?"

She could only look at him. She was at a loss for words.

What could he do?

Whatever he decided, her life literally depended on it.

She couldn't just jump out of her box, make a run for it, and hope for the best. She knew what was waiting out there if she was on her own.

Until she got a chance to learn more about living on this colorful alien planet, she had to play it safe.

She was no idiot.

Though Geblit and his wife thought she was hideous, she'd take being hideous over being cooked for dinner or raped ANY DAY.

Hopping out of the hovercar and forgetting all pretense that all was well, Geblit began pacing on his scrawny legs, two of his hands scratching his balloon at the back of his head, the other two wringing in front of him.

At the mushroom house across from them, she saw an alien of his kind looking at Geblit's breakdown through their window.

"Um..." she whispered. "You're getting an audience here."

Geblit didn't hear her or he was too caught up in his own thoughts to care.

"What will I do? Cargga will not be happy. I cannot exist if my Cargga is not happy."

Lauren swallowed hard.

Nope. Cargga would not be happy.

She needed to help this Geblit find a way to "dispose" of her. A way that would be beneficial to them both.

"And to think that I ordered more of your species to be delivered at a later time!" Geblit let out a groan that garnered more spectators at windows.

Whoa. More humans?

She hadn't met any other humans since she'd been taken. She'd always suspected she hadn't been alone—she would have had to be the unluckiest woman on Earth to be the sole abductee.

But she'd have to negotiate with him about the others later.

Right now, her ass was on the line and she wouldn't be able to help anyone if she, herself, was in a bad spot.

"Don't you have any friends...nice friends. Friends who are nice like you. Preferably nice and unmarried but wouldn't mind taking care of your hideous pet?" She tried to add all the stipulations, stressing on the “nice” part.

A nice friend would most likely treat her, well, nicely. An unmarried friend wouldn't have a Cargga 2.0. And a friend that thought she was hideous would most likely not want any sexual favors.

All. Bases. Covered.

"A friend?" Geblit stopped for a second, all of his four eyes blinking at her in synchrony. "A friend," he said with more surety as if something was dawning on him. "I have a friend."

"A nice friend?" Lauren made sure to stress on the word again.

Geblit blinked at her and looked to the side for a second—a reaction that made her own eyes narrow.

Was he…was he unsure if his friend was nice? Surely that would be an easy question to answer.

But Geblit didn't answer her question. Instead, he hopped into the hovercar with renewed vigor.

"I will take you to him." Geblit's eyes grew wide with relief. "He has a sanctuary. I cannot believe I did not think of that."

A sanctuary?

Didn't sound bad.

So why did she have a niggling feeling at the back of her neck?

"What's this friend of yours called?"

"Riv," Geblit said, starting the hovercar's engine and backing away from his house.

Riv, Lauren thought.

Riv's Sanctuary.

Didn't sound bad. Didn't sound bad at all.

If his name was something like Crusher the Terrible then she might have started to worry.

She'd put that niggling feeling that was rising at the back of her neck to her almost being homeless on an unknown planet.

She’d almost had no place to go and might have been abandoned. Geblit was nice but she wouldn’t put it past him. His only care was for his Cargga.

That was all that niggling feeling was…

Mounting panic…

She hoped.

4

THE HOVERCAR CRUISED through the mushroom estate, passing more mushroom houses and their orange lawns and well-kept gardens.

It felt like she was driving through a made-up neighborhood on a movie set; it was too perfect and…amazing.

Locked in a terrarium for a year, she couldn’t help but lean out of her box as she took the sights in.

At the zoo, her terrarium had consisted of the single slab and the little stall where she could shower and go to the toilet.

There’d been no color.

Just plain white walls and that unbreakable transparent barrier between her and the outside.

She’d had no idea the world outside was so beautiful.

“What is this planet called?”

Geblit glanced at her, four eyes moving her way in synchrony before he looked ahead once more.

“Hudo three.”

Hudo III.

She’d never heard of it before but she wasn’t surprised.

Earth was so far behind in space exploration, and she’d had a year to think about this, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t the first time the planet had been invaded.

She doubted the governments of Earth even knew.

The hovercar moved smoothly down the streets and, soon, the landscape changed to singular tall white bottle-shaped houses with no lawns or fancy gardens, leaving the mushroom suburbs behind.

These dwellings were less fancy than the mushroom buildings. She could see this even as they sped through the neighborhood.

It also seemed as if Geblit was driving much faster than he had been while they were in the mushroom neighborhood.

A glance at him, and he was staring straight ahead, his four eyes slightly wide and she wasn’t sure if it was the wind causing him to widen them or if it was because he was nervous.

She’d take the latter. His large balloon at the back of his head was pulsing too.

He was nervous about this neighborhood but he’d pushed past the tall, dark aliens with blades like they were nothing?

Glancing around, Lauren’s brows furrowed a little. From the aliens she managed to see, some leaning on hovercars that looked like they were about to fall apart and others sitting on hovering boxes along the street, she could only gather that they were on the bad side of town.

Her eyes slid to Geblit.

She hoped this wasn't where this friend called Riv lived.

For all she knew, Riv was short for Riv the Pimp.

She was trying to run away from sex with aliens, not toward it.

Shit.

Was this sanctuary some sort of alien crack house?

It could be argued that such places were sanctuaries for some on Earth.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers, but damn, she wanted to choose.

She would ask Geblit but it felt as if even mentioning it would make it true, so she kept her mouth shut instead and waited, praying they would leave this section of town quickly.

It seemed Geblit wanted the same, for as soon as a large, flabby alien hailed them from across the street, Geblit's four eyes widened even more and the hovercar sped up, shooting down the narrow road and leaving dust in its wake.

In a few minutes, the bottle-shaped houses faded into the background and they were on a flat plain leading to an open savanna.

Here, tall yellow-orange grass swayed in the wind for as far as she could see.

Lauren's eyes widened as she took in the view, sitting up in her box just so she could see better.

Off in the distance, there were large grazing animals that looked like cows. She knew they weren't cows, of course, they just looked like cows because of their mannerisms. They took no note of the hovercar, too busy chewing slowly, their heads dipping to the grass as they pulled the blades into their huge maws.

This was so different from being in the zoo that her mouth fell open in awe.

Out here, the world felt free.

The hovercar passed one of the animals close by and she realized it looked like a very chubby brown hippo, except it had large, oval protrusions running down its back. It had no tail either.

Leaning over the hovercar, she let her hand brush against the tall grass as the vessel flew over the savanna.

She was pretty sure she looked like a dog with its head out the window, enjoying the cool breeze. Maybe she was becoming a pet. But, for the moment, she allowed herself to enjoy it.

She’d been trapped in a glass box for a year. She deserved this.

And it was nice.

With such an amazingly beautiful scene in front of her, she could almost forget her circumstances.

If this Riv lived in a nice place like this, he was bound to be a lovely fellow. And it seemed he lived quite far out on this plain.

They'd been traveling for a while now and she hadn't seen any houses or bits of civilization. She could only assume this Riv was a country boy—or country-whatever species Geblit was.

"So, tell me about this Riv," she said, bringing her hand back into the vessel. Touching the grass had been nice at first but the constant brush of the blades against her hand was beginning to sting.

"I do not know much about him. But he owes me a favor," Geblit replied.

Not the answer she was looking for. Not the answer she was looking for at all.

"You don't know much about him?"

Just perfect, she shouldn’t have expected more.

"Is he a good person at least?"

Geblit only glanced at her, his four eyes blinking before he refocused ahead. The action made her want to close her hands around his skinny little neck and shake him.

"Nice? Is he nice?" she pressed.

Geblit glanced at her again and blinked away.

“Riv is…” But he stopped there.

His hesitation was doing wonders for her adrenal gland.

It was suddenly getting great exercise, meaning that it was pumping adrenaline into her endocrine system as if his hesitation was steroids.

“Riv is what?” she pressed.

“You do not need to know.”

Again, she wanted to wrap her hands around his skinny neck and this time she’d squeeze it till she got some answers.

Thing is, she did need to know. She was the one in a box like some pet being carted off to God-knows-who on a strange planet in God-knows-where.

"I know you don't owe me jack, but the least you could do is tell me.”

“You know, for a pet, you do ask a lot of questions. I expected you to have lesser intelligence.”

This little…

Strangle him!

Geblit glanced at her once more. “Your species seems almost as intelligent as mine is.”

“That’s because I am. Humans aren’t idiots. I don’t know why you aliens think that.”

Geblit made a funny noise in his throat. “You’re human…from a Class Four planet. Usually, beings from such planets are uncivilized, dimwitted animals.”

She figured that’s what they thought. The terrarium they had put her in was proof.

“Well, we aren’t.” She turned to face the front of the hovercar, folding her arms as she did. Talk of Earth only made her think of the life she’d been ripped away from.

Her mother and stepfather who’d probably now accepted that they were never going to see her again. The people at her job, her coworkers…she was sure the bank had quickly replaced her and she was probably just a vague memory there by now.

She thought of her one bedroom apartment that was like an expensive shoebox that she called home. She thought of her grouch of a neighbor on one side who used to complain about the least noise and the deaf old lady who lived on the other side who used to turn her radio up too high…those two never got along and she was always in the middle.

It hadn’t been the greatest of lives but it’d been her life.

Now, her life involved being bought and sold for sex.

“And why would you want an uncivilized dimwitted animal to pleasure you and your wife anyway?” She sliced her gaze to Geblit. It was hard not to think of the mechanics of sharing a bed with him and his wife and the thought alone made her want to puke again. “Who would want a barbarian in their bed?”

She cocked her head at her utterance.

She took it back.

She wouldn’t mind a barbarian in her bed. Or two.

“I heard a rumor.”

That caught her attention and her gaze snapped to Geblit.

“What rumor?”

“That your species, though dim, is pleasurable in the sheets. You were taken for the Tasqals originally. They only have the best sex pets. I thought you would be a good purchase.”

She had no idea who the Tasqals were but the fact that she’d been taken away from her life on Earth on the mere basis that she was stupid but a good fuck made her lip curl in disgust.

“How did you know what I was anyway?”

Most of the aliens that came by her terrarium couldn’t figure out what species she was. From the little she could hear through the transparent shield, they’d made guesses, all incorrect.

“Never mind that,” Geblit replied.

How did she know he was going to reply with something like that?

Leaning back, she processed what he’d just said.

She’d been taken from Earth on the sole basis that she’d be a good sex pet.

Damn.

And the worst thing about it, Earth had no defenses against these crimes. It wasn’t like she could find her way back and then make the smugglers pay for what they did. Earth was still having problems even landing rockets on the dark side of the moon, much less across the galaxy.

Ha.

If someone had told her she’d become a victim of human trafficking, intergalactic human trafficking at that, she’d have brushed it away and continued in her cosy life as an investment banker.

High-risk portfolios she could deal with. High-risk alien adventures? That was completely different.

What was she going to do? Kill her enemies with high interest rates?

“I should have known that zookeeper would have ventured to best me,” Geblit murmured, pulling her away from her thoughts.

“He bested me, too, you know.”

Geblit looked at her as if confused and she opened her mouth to explain to him that being kept like property hadn’t exactly been her choice, but decided not to.

Slamming her mouth shut, she sighed.

“I believe now that you are illegal goods. The Tasqals must have smuggled you without a permit from the Interplanetary Union.”

Geblit groaned, his head balloon pulsing. “Troublesome, troublesome.” Then he brightened. “But Riv will fix it. He will take you.”

“And you’re sure about that?”

“Positive.”

“You still haven’t told me anything about this Riv. You keep going around it. Why?”

Geblit glanced at her, giving her the side-eye. “I do not have to explain myself. Riv owes me a favor.”

With that, Geblit focused ahead, his mouth closing into a line as thin as a thread.

Was that all she was going to get from him?

Great.

HEAD HANGING over the hovercar once more, Lauren stared at the blur of the yellow-orange grass as the hovercar sped along.

She was a pet.

She was exactly like a dog.

The entire circumstances weren't lost on her.

She was in a box. Bought. And she'd been bought only for her owner to discover that the "child" they’d bought her for didn't want her. So now she was heading to the shelter, or sanctuary to be precise.

Life couldn't continue like this.

A year in a zoo, treated like an animal, and now this.

Lauren settled back in the box, still taking in the blur of the grass beneath the vessel.

To her side, Geblit seemed to be in better spirits the further they went across the plain. No doubt, he was happy about being able to unload her on his friend soon.

This wasn't sustainable.

She couldn’t be continuously handed off to new owners every year.

If there was no way back to Earth, that meant she needed to find a new way to survive on her own.

She needed to find a new home.

And maybe, just maybe, despite Geblit's reluctance to provide information, this could be the opening she was looking for.

Sighing, she straightened her tank top. It had several holes now but she still adored it.

Lifting her eyes, she saw a speck in the distance.

It started small, almost undetectable, until it began growing.

It was a building. A house, maybe—she was still too far away to make it out properly. She could only see flat dark roofs and cream-colored walls.

Around the property, there was a barrier of some kind. The light bent off it like it was hitting plastic or glass. Behind the barrier she could see more of the fat hippo-like animals she'd seen earlier and, as they got closer, several more of the animals came into view. There were so many of them standing lazily and grazing in the tall grass that it was obvious what they were approaching.

It was a farm.

The closer they got, the more detailed the scene became.

It wasn't one building she'd seen either. It was a network of buildings and between and around them stood tall trees, their flat, pink, lily pad-like leaves in bunches across their branches. The pink leaves were the same color as the sky and it made for a beautiful view.

Box-like metal droids were in one section cutting the tall grass and making hay bales and she could hear the sound of whirring as their razors hit the orange blades of grass.

The entire farm looked like a haven in the middle of nowhere.

"Is that..."

Was that Riv's Sanctuary?

"Riv's Sanctuary," Geblit confirmed.

Just staring ahead, she could sense her anxiety slowly going away. How could someone who was not nice live in a place like this? She was pretty sure being mellow and good was a requirement to live in a place so...wholesome.

"So, it's a farm?" she asked.

Geblit made a sound in his throat as if he was thinking. "Yes, and a place where animals go to live out the rest of their days."

She guessed she fell in that category. "So, it's a rescue, then."

Geblit glanced at her, his four eyes blinking and she guessed he didn't understand what she was trying to say.

Didn't matter.

It this was a rescue for animals then it had to be a good place. If this person took care of animals there was no way he was a dick.

As they drew closer, more and more sections of the sanctuary came into view. There were other animals all sectioned around the property. She could count at least five different types, all in enclosures eating and frolicking happily. She couldn't make out what most of them looked like but, even from the distance, it was clear the animals weren't stressed or anxious.

So, good person? Check.

Nice person? Hmm...maybe check?

Being good and nice were two distinct things but when it came to this Riv, she'd go with good over nice.

She didn't need niceness. Goodness was more important.

From the look of the sanctuary as well, she'd probably enjoy living there.

She'd never done farm work before, but she could learn. If she was going to make the most of this, then she would learn.

The last thing she wanted was to get tossed around to different "owners" like she was some sort of unwanted property. Chances were that she would end up with someone horrible who used her for exactly what Geblit had told her most aliens thought humans were good for...sex.

And that was off the table.

She could only hope that her luck hadn't run out and this third "owner" wasn't the one who would try to have his way with her.

As the hovercar slowed and finally came to a stop in front of the barrier to the farm, Geblit cut the engine, his eyes darting around the animal enclosures on the other side.

"We're here." His eyes moved to hers for just a second and that uneasy feeling returned.

"Ok. So, now what?"

Geblit turned to her, his eyes blinking once.

"Now, you hide."

5

THERE WAS little time to respond as Geblit unceremoniously reached over, pushed her head into the box, and closed the lid.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Hush! Be quiet. He cannot see you."

"What?" Pushing against the lid of the box was doing nothing. It wouldn't budge. Whatever locking mechanism Geblit had engaged was doing its job. "Isn't the whole point of this for me to stay at this farm? Don't you think this Riv will be suspicious if you lock me away like you're hiding something?"

She could hear Geblit shuffling as he exited the hovercar.

"Hey!"

Was he hiding something? It sure as hell seemed like it.

The thought made her back stiffen.

Spinning around in the box, there were two slits in the side where she could just about see the barrier to the farm.

"Geblit!" Her whisper was harsh and she didn't even know why she was whispering but the prickling of the hairs standing on her arms and the general feel of the situation had her leaning on caution.

Something wasn't right.

Well, that had been evident from before but now that she was right at the actual handoff, the feeling was rising all across her back like a shadow monster about to devour her.

"Geblit!"

"Hush and keep still. I cannot risk for Riv to see your hideous form and deny you entry. Raxu knows you might be the most hideous creature to be placed on his farm."

This little…

Lauren narrowed her eyes so hard, her vision became two dark slits.

"This again..."

"Yes!" Now it was Geblit who was whispering harshly. "I cannot afford for him to say no. Cargga will be most displeased if I return with you."

With that, she heard more shuffling before Geblit came into view outside the hovercar and by the farm's barrier.

The barrier itself looked like charged particles; it wasn’t actually solid. She couldn’t describe it but she got the distinct impression it would hurt like a motherfucker if Geblit tried to walk through.

She almost wished he did.

If he could put like just a finger through, so he could feel some pain.

She didn’t like him right now.

There was a metal panel on a pole close by with what looked like buttons on it and Geblit walked right up to the panel, his balloon at the back of his head pulsing as he punched in a code.

All four of his eyes darted to the box as he waited and, kneeling now so she could peer through the little slits better, Lauren felt her pulse rising.

Geblit was nervous, which was making her nervous.

When, after a few moments nothing happened, it sounded as if Geblit muttered a curse underneath his breath and punched in the code again.

Apprehension crawling up her spine like a snake, Lauren bit her bottom lip as she waited.

Still nothing.

"Maybe he's not home?" She spoke loud enough for Geblit to hear, and Geblit glanced her way again.

"I am positive he is at his residence. He never leaves."

Punching in the code again, Geblit waited, his forelimbs shaking with impatience.

She was apprehensive of this, but what choice did she have? If they had to turn back, she'd probably end up in that market and all she could think of was those tall black aliens.

The creature will do what we want… willingly or not.

The words sent another shiver down her spine.

The market scenario presented an unknown. There were many possibilities that could occur if she ended up being sold again.

But this scenario…this scenario was better.

At least in this scenario, she knew something. She knew where she'd be, which looked like a lovely farm. She knew the owner was possibly a pleasant person. If he was like Geblit, she could deal with that. Geblit was half-nice, but she could have put up with living with him.

She imagined this Riv was another of Geblit's kind but a little bit more...solitary? She could live with that.

That made this scenario her best scenario.

It was better having some semblance of an idea about her future than being thrust into a complete unknown.

For that reason, a part of her hoped the farm owner would answer.

For a fourth time, Geblit muttered a curse and punched in the code again, glancing her way as he did.

"Keep still and be quiet. It is your best chance at staying here," he whispered just before there was a click in the panel.

For a few seconds, there was no other sound.

"R-Riv?" Geblit blinked at the panel.

"What do you want?" The voice was deep, raspy, and caught her totally off guard.

Geblit's voice was so different from the other male's, she found herself blinking a little, only to immediately feel stupid.

Not all human males sound alike. Why did she think the male would sound anything like Geblit did?

Where Geblit sounded like a prepubescent boy, the speaker through the intercom sounded like a fully grown man.

"Riv!" Geblit laughed, one that sounded so awkward and forced she frowned at him. "Good friend. I trust you have been well."

There was a pause on the line before, "What do you want, Geblit?"

Well, he was straight to the point. Gotta give him that.

Geblit glanced toward the box again. "I have an...animal here that has no home."

The words made her swallow.

From investment banker to homeless animal. Quite a drop, Lauren. Quite a drop.

"And?" Low and raspy, the voice was clipped.

"Well," Geblit laughed again, "I was hoping it could stay on your farm."

It?

She was it.

God, being spoken about as if she was a cow or something was really making her feel great. Still, she knelt and tried to see as much as she could through the little slits in the box, her eyes scouring the farm and the buildings within it for any sign of this alien called Riv.

"No," was the response Geblit received and she felt it in her soul as if she had just been rejected.

Well, technically, he had just rejected her and Geblit both.

He’d said no.

Didn’t Geblit say this dude took animals in?

When the speaker on the line said nothing else, Geblit's forelimbs folded across his body.

"It needs a home, Riv. Will you at least come out and bring it in? I must get back to my Cargga."

A pause. "There is no space here."

It looked as if Geblit got angry for his thin mouth formed an even thinner line.

"When have you ever turned away an animal in need?"

"Since today." And with that, there was another click. The line was dropped. Call ended.

That's it?

All this traveling to be turned down so easily?

But Geblit wasn't having it. Punching in the code into the panel once more, he waited.

Soon there was a click.

"What?!"

Okay. Maybe she'd been wrong in hoping this Riv was a likable person. First impressions just came in and, well, he didn't seem nice at all.

"Riv—"

"Go away, Geblit."

"You owe me a favor!" Geblit was glaring at the panel as if it was the embodiment of the actual person he was speaking to.

For a few seconds, there was no sound but she hadn't heard a click so she assumed Riv was still on the other line.

The tension was killing her. Not knowing what was going to happen was killing her.

"Fine." The one word finally came through the device followed by a click and she could see Geblit visibly relax. His four arms uncrossed over his frame to fall as his sides and, as if he forgot she was there, he did a little jump into the air.

"Thought you said he was nice," she said, loud enough for Geblit to hear.

With that, Geblit sobered and turned to face the box. "I said no such thing."

Right. He didn't.

He'd been unhelpfully vague every time she'd asked about his friend.

"How much do you trust him? Will I have to be fighting for my life?" She eyed Geblit. If this Riv was anything like Geblit, she was sure she could take him. Geblit was skinny and strong but she reckoned she could still tackle him with some momentum on her side. She could only hope this Riv had a similar stature.

Geblit moved closer to the box. "Riv would harm no creature. Of this, I am sure."

"But I'm not a creature. I'm a being, an intelligent being, just like you are."

The look on Geblit's face said otherwise, as if he would argue the point.

"I am!"

"Well, I guess you aren't as mindless as the rest of the animals in the sanctuary.” He shrugged. “Riv will adjust."

Geblit suddenly smiled and she wanted to slap the smile right off his face.

He was in such light spirits now that he was ridding himself of trouble. The trouble being her.

"You know, you're being a real dick right now."

Geblit stopped grinning. "A dick? What’s a dick?"

She was about to explain when the surroundings suddenly grew quiet. It took her a few moments, brows furrowed, ears perked, before she realized what it was.

The barrier was no longer zinging—she hadn't even realized that it had been.

It seemed Geblit realized this too because his four eyes lit up with glee as he turned back to face the farm.

"Here he comes," he said, almost too enthusiastically.

Raising her gaze toward the biggest building on the premises, she saw the door open and a large figure step through.

Even from the distance, she could see that the being was male. Large, threatening, and undoubtedly male in his stance.

"Who the hell is that?" she whispered and Geblit cast a nervous glance her way.

"That is Riv," he said. "Now, hush!"

Mouth agape as she watched the alien walk down the path toward the perimeter fence, Lauren’s eyes widened.

Riv was supposed to look like Geblit.

You know, skinny, nervous, and possibly easy to take down in a fight.

This male coming down the path looked nothing like Geblit.

This male looked like he could break her and Geblit in two.

6

THE MALE WAS big and blue.

As he got closer, Lauren had time to take him in.

He was tall, muscular...she could see his biceps bulging through the simple dark tunic he wore. The tunic hung over his dark trousers, which were tucked neatly into his dirt-encrusted boots.

He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat of some sort with dark glasses covering his eyes. Black hair in partial locs and some loose strands hung over his shoulders, decorated with golden adornments, and over his nostrils and mouth a cloth was tied, like a handkerchief turned into a mask.

One arm hung at his side idly as he approached but the other held a large weapon, a gun of some sort, thrown over his shoulder.

"What the actual fuck?" she breathed. In the corner of her eyes, she could see Geblit glare her way, silently telling her to shut up.

This was the person he wanted to leave her with?

This Riv looked like a bounty hunter—as if one wrong move and she'd be cut down with the weapon slung over his shoulder. The fact she couldn't see his face properly or even his eyes only made the apprehension snake thicken and grow heavy on her spine.

Despite that his shades gave no indication of where he was looking, something told her he was looking her way and she fought the urge to scramble away deeper into the box, as if she had space there.

"Riv." Geblit was speaking, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the male that was now in their presence.

He was blue all over, it seemed. A cobalt blue that made the bits of visible flesh on his face and arms look inviting to touch.

He came to a stop in front of where the barrier was and she felt, rather than saw, his focus move from the box to Geblit.

"Why are you here? I told you I don't like visitors," he said.

Fun guy, this one. She could already tell.

"This isn't technically a visit. I am merely dropping the human off."

This time, Riv's head turned and she was positive he was looking at the box.

"Human?" The way he said the word, she could practically see his lips curl. "The phek is that?"

"A new species I found at the animal market." When Riv said nothing, his head still turned in the box's direction as if he was trying to see through it, Geblit rushed on. "It is quite tame. It will fit in well with your oogas."

Geblit motioned to the hippo-looking things crazing quietly in the long yellow-orange grass of one of the enclosures.

He thought she would fit in well with those?!

"Looks too small to fit in with an ooga," Riv noted.

Smart man.

There was no way one of those things could even come close to fitting in the box so she was obviously much smaller than they were.

Geblit's eyes darted around for a bit. "I mean in temperament. Very easy to...take care of."

"If it's so easy to take care of, you keep it then." Riv turned as if he was about to leave, and she could almost feel Geblit's anxiety.

"I can't! Cargga doesn't want it at our residence. It will die if I leave it on its own."

No, she wouldn't!

...

Well, she probably would, but most likely not by her own hands but by the hands of some merciless alien.

If it came to that, though, she would fight till the final moment. Even if she had to use her teeth as her only weapons.

She would bite her enemies then run.

Riv paused, his head angled in the direction of the box once more.

"Why is the box closed?"

Geblit's four eyes darted from the box to Riv and back. He was so bad at lying.

"I didn't want to risk it escaping. It is not a very intelligent species."

Remind her to throttle the skinny alien whenever she had a chance to.

Despite Geblit’s pleading, Riv began to walk off. "Take it back to wherever you got it from."

At this point, a wail pierced the air, pulling her gaze away from the tall, blue alien to Geblit.

Geblit’s mouth was in the shape of a long oval as another of the horrible wails left his lips.

Was he...was he crying?

Lauren's face scrunched up as she watched the alien. He really was a sight when he got hysterical.

It wasn't she alone who was affected by Geblit's sudden emotional outburst. Even the big, blue male seemed to shift uncomfortably, his brows rising over his shades.

"What is it?" Riv's voice reflected annoyance and mild frustration.

"I can't bring it back. I was bested, Riv! No returns!" Geblit wailed. "My Cargga will be most unhappy."

Riv let out a sound like a groan.

"You have to help me, Riv. I call on that favor you owe me."

Again with that. She was starting to wonder what this favor was.

There was a silence that hung heavily in the air as they both waited for Riv's next words.

"Fine," he finally said. As he walked toward Geblit, his towering frame was even more noticeable beside the lesser male.

“But that means we’re even now. You helped me after I left the mines. I help you with this.” He moved over to her side of the hovercar and placed his blaster on top of the box. “Debt paid.”

Without even a grunt of exertion, he lifted the box against his chest and proceeded to move away from the hovercar. The movement was so sudden, she almost yelped.

Fastening her hand over her mouth, she looked through the slits, her eyes focusing on Geblit.

He was watching the box with such relief in his eyes, she didn’t know how to feel.

"Tell me," Riv's voice boomed close to the box. "What did you buy this thing for?"

"Cargga wanted a new bedmate to make things more exciting."

Riv's groan of disgust mimicked her feelings. He paused just on the other side of the barrier as the particles activated once more, locking Geblit on the other side.

"You were going to phek an ooga?" His disgust seemed to grow as he said the words.

Geblit smiled at him weakly but said nothing.

Instead, he turned and hopped into his hovercar just as Riv started walking again.

Goddammit.

She knew why Geblit didn't respond. They both knew she was nothing like an ooga.

Only, Riv didn't know.

How the fuck was he going to respond when he found out?

THE BOX BUMPED and swayed as she was carried toward the large building. As they moved in silence, she could just about hear the soft sound of the wind rustling the grass in the fields. It was such a serene existence, so far out, it was still hard to believe that the owner of the sanctuary wasn't an old, feeble alien that looked like Geblit.

But as they passed various small enclosures, the animals barely noticing them, she could see enough of the enclosures to tell it took a lot of work taking care of the place.

She doubted an alien of Geblit's stature could have managed it all without machines to help.

It made sense.

She just hadn't considered it before then.

Before long, the light of the outside disappeared as she was brought into a dimmer area. Eyes darting around, she could see they'd reached inside.

The box was promptly set on the floor with a jerk and a curse.

Spinning so she could get a better idea of where she was, she looked out the other side of the box.

The area was cluttered with things upon things that she couldn't even distinguish. A light layer of dust covered everything, so it was clear nothing had been moved in a while.

Frowning a little, she looked out the other side of the box.

There was a table, some chairs, and a rectangular slab that looked like it had bunched-up hay laying on its surface.

It looked so similar to the slab she’d been sleeping on for a year that it made a horrible taste rise in her mouth.

A loud sound caught her ear, followed by what sounded like another curse and her eyes flew to what she could see of the alien—his legs.

The blaster was now on the table and she assumed when he'd thrown it there, that was what had made the loud sound. The shades and the mouth covering landed on the table next.

"Phekking Geblit," Riv muttered, his voice so deep it felt like it rumbled in her chest. He walked back toward the box and the top moved as he fumbled with it.

Wait.

She wasn't ready for him to see her yet. It didn't feel like she’d had time to acclimate with her new surroundings at all.

Suddenly, with Geblit no longer there, the fact she was completely alone with this new alien was making goosebumps appear all over her body.

It didn't take him long to release the top of the container and soon light flooded inside as the box was opened.

Crouching, her hand shading her eyes, she blinked quickly, trying to get her eyes accustomed to the new light, all the while very, very aware that there was silence all about her.

When she finally was able to look up fully, she realized the blue alien was crouching there, unmoving, his hands still grasping the flaps of the box as he looked down at her, saying nothing.

Pointed green eyes stared at her and his brows were almost at his hairline so she assumed he was surprised?

Well, she guessed it was up to her to say hello then.

"Hello," she smiled weakly.

First impressions, Lauren. First impressions.

But instead of saying hello, it was as if her voice snapped him out of some trance.

A sudden deep snarl left his lips as his teeth bared. Sharp fangs protruded over his lips as he hissed and Lauren scrambled backward, eyes wide.

A sharp sound like blades opening caught her ear and she became vaguely aware that black claws suddenly appeared on his four-fingered hand.

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit.

The pupils in his eyes dilated so much and so quickly, his eyes were almost completely black and Lauren swallowed hard.

Shit.

He was going to kill her, wasn’t he.

He was going to slit her throat with those claws and wet his fangs in her blood.

Fucking Geblit.

But then again, he hadn’t said Riv was nice.

HE'D BEEN BESTED?

Bested?

Riv growled deep in his throat, a sound that carried through the room and made the creature in front of him move further into the box even though there was no more room for her to go.

He'd been bested?

Geblit Cakhura was a phekking liar.

He, Riv, was the one that had been bested. Bested by a weak Torian by the name of Geblit.

Phek!

He should have looked in the box before taking it. He should have known something was not right. It had been much lighter than an ooga was, much quieter. And that was because it was nothing like an ooga.

It was a female.

Undoubtedly a female!

And in his house!

Her pale, soft midsection heaved as she stared at him and her large brown eyes widened. Her chest was rising and falling quickly as she gripped the edges of the box and her throat moved as she watched him.

She was trembling slightly; he could see the mop of light-colored strands that hung from her head shaking as she looked at him.

The tiny bump on her face that was her nose flared at the edges as she inhaled deeply, her small mouth forming a thin line after a few seconds.

Another growl rumbled low in his throat and he watched as the female’s brown eyes grew even larger.

He was scaring her.

He knew he was.

He probably looked like he was about to pounce on her and snap her neck. He wanted to snap someone’s neck, but it wasn’t hers.

Geblit Cakhura’s, preferably.

Every muscle in his being was tense, anger boiling beneath.

If he could see himself, he knew what he’d see—a large threatening male.

It’s what most beings saw when they looked at him and so far, this persona had served him well.

But the utter fear in the female’s eyes as she stared at him only made him growl again in anger.

Chest heaving, the female’s eyes darted from him around the room to land on his blaster.

She wouldn’t dare.

Gathering himself, he made to stand only for the female to jump suddenly from her box, so suddenly he hadn’t expected the movement, and within moments she was at the table.

Before he could even consider what she was about to do, he watched in shock as she lifted his blaster and pointed it right at him.

His own weapon.

Geblit Cakhura was a liar.

Not a very intelligent species, he'd said.

Well, you wouldn't get one of his oogas pulling a blaster on him any day. Within seconds of freeing this, this … being, it was already threatening him.

The female's breathing was coming hard as she watched him, her brown eyes still wide, and Riv let out a grunt of annoyance as he stood.

He must have stood much faster than she'd expected or maybe she was frightened because she was so small, for as he rose, she took a few steps back, her eyes moving up his frame to only get larger as they landed on his face.

"Look," she spoke.

Her voice caught him off guard...or maybe it was that he hadn't heard the voice of a female in so long, for hers was like music. Soft like a caress, even though she’d hardened her voice to speak firmly to him.

That one word stroked across his body, only making his annoyance grow.

"Ai dohnt meen yoo en-ee hahrm. Ai didnn ahsk fer dis eederr."

What?

She was speaking words, he assumed. The sounds didn't appear to just be random.

The next time he saw Geblit, he was definitely going to snap his neck.

"Put down the weapon." He could barely get the words through his gritted teeth.

The female didn't budge.

Maybe she couldn't understand him just as he couldn't understand her.

Great. The least Geblit could have done was get her a translator chip.

The Torian had been right about one thing, though. He’d said she was a…he forgot the word. He hadn’t recognized the species and now that he was looking at her, it was clear the female standing in front of him wasn't of any species he'd seen before. She was similar to other species he'd seen, of course, but not the same.

One could say she was similar to his species but there were obvious differences.

For one, she was pale all over it seemed and she wasn't carrying the horns that were a feature of the females of his kind.

Taking a step toward her, he paused as she jerked the blaster in his direction.

"Dohnt moove uhntil yootell mee yoo arnt goh-ing to-hurrht mee."

A growl rumbled low in his chest.

He could move across the room and take the weapon from her small hands within a second. He doubted she even knew how to use it. The safety was still on. But she looked so...daring, pulling strength from her own bravery, that he paused and considered leaving her with the thing.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he surveyed her, wondering what she was about to do next.

She took a moment, watching him with eyes that were becoming less wide as the moments passed. Finally happy that he was no longer moving towards her, she let out a breath.

"Oh-kay. Lehts stahrt ah-gen."

7

THE BIG BLUE guy wasn't responding but at least he'd stopped growling at her as if he was about to advance and break her in two.

So far, this first impression wasn't going well. It wasn't going well at all.

Lauren gripped the blaster in her hands, still pointing it at the male in front of her.

The darn thing was heavy and her arms were already protesting—this was what a year without proper exercise brought her—but she wasn't going to lower the weapon. Not when he still stood there as if ready to pounce and not while his entire frame seemed to fill the small room.

She doubted she could skirt around him and head for the door without him catching her. Wherever she ran, he would be there in a second. She reckoned the only reason he wasn't in front of her, snatching the blaster from her hands, was because she had it trained on him.

That gave her the upper hand for a little while—at least until she could figure out how to calm him down enough so he wouldn't hurt her.

She didn't even know how to use the damn blaster. He would find that out soon enough. For now, she had to play it smart.

"You should sit and I'll explain everything." She used the blaster to motion to the chair but he didn't move. He didn't even turn his head to glance at it.

Dammit. She wished he would at least say something.

Instead, his mouth was curled with distaste as he glared at her.

Shit.

Clearing her throat, she continued. "We got off on the wrong foot. I'm not a threat." She glanced at the blaster...well, it certainly wasn't helping with that point.

Shaking away the thought, she continued. "I didn't ask to be here—" Well, you kinda did, Einstein. "—and it's obvious you don't want me here either. I completely understand that. But, and I know this is rich coming from an outcast you just met, I would like a chance. I could help out around here. I could even stay in the barn...that is, if you have a barn. You wouldn't even know I'm here. I won't stay long. Just long enough for me to get my bearings. Then I'll be out of your hair. I promise." She paused. "Geblit said you were a nice guy."

Okay, so that last part was a lie but he didn't know that.

As she waited for him to respond, the blaster making the muscles in her arms burn, she prayed he'd say something friendly. Something that would reduce her fears. Something agreeable.

A sound of annoyance left his lips.

"Phekking Geblit," he muttered. "Sit."

Pushing the chair toward her with his boot, he turned and moved across the room, pulling a comm device from his pocket.

Not the reaction she'd been looking for but better than knocking the blaster from her hands and wringing her neck.

Glancing at the chair, she bit her bottom lip nervously. She needed to sit, the blaster was too heavy. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't look very threatening sitting with the blaster, now would she.

His back was turned to her as he pinged what she assumed was Geblit's number.

A tone sounded, and then a click.

A growl so deep it felt like it moved the air and brushed against the hairs on her skin left him as he pinged Geblit again.

It took three more pings and three more tones before the comm device went hurtling through the air to smash against the far wall.

Eyes wide, Lauren gulped.

Shit, he was frickin' angry. Frickin' frickin' angry.

She was going to have to bear the weight of this blaster if he turned on her.

Edging a little farther backward, she only stopped when the back of her legs bumped into something soft. When that soft thing proceeded to lick her, she almost leaped from her skin as she jumped and yelped.

Turning on the thing, she didn't know what she expected to see there, but she definitely didn't expect to see a plump little furball with small round eyes looking up at her.

For a moment, she couldn't even determine if it was a real animal or not. It was literally a round ball of white fur, like wool, but with eyes. And it had definitely licked her.

When the little furball blinked at her and proceeded to move, on legs she couldn't see because it was just so furry, Lauren's wide eyes followed it as it moved further into the room, straight toward the angry male.

Her host was rigid as he watched the animal approach.

Breath held as she waited to see what he would do, she was surprised when he bent and lifted the little furball, growling something underneath his breath as he walked directly toward her.

Reflexively, she raised the blaster, only to hear him grunt as he passed her to move down a corridor to her right.

The sound of a door opening and slamming shut echoed back into the room and Lauren released her breath.

She needed a plan.

Glancing at the front door, she moved toward it. She could leave now but where would she go. He had a perimeter barrier that looked like it would fry her if she got too close and outside the farm there had been nothing except for the grassy plain.

Letting the blaster sag in her tired arms, she began to pace.

This was really, really a bad situation.

She was stuck on a farm with a male that didn’t want her there. What the hell was she going to do?

A sound in the corridor had her raising the blaster once more, her shoulders rigid as she waited for Riv to appear. Soon he was standing in the room once more, his presence filling it so quickly it was difficult not to stare at him—not that she would have let her eyes drift anywhere else anyway.

His shoulders lifted and fell in a sigh as he crossed his arms and looked at her, his eyebrows diving toward his nose. His eyes were still dark and they were boring into her.

Lauren swallowed hard.

"You ready to talk now?"

No response.

"Are you going to let me stay?"

Still no response.

"I won't be any trouble. I won't even eat that much and anything I eat I'll find a way to pay you back for."

At that moment, her stomach decided to grumble. So loud it was, that it sounded as if she had a baby dragon roaring in her gut.

From across the room, Riv's grumble followed her stomach's growl.

His teeth bared and Lauren took a step back.

Shit.

"Hey, that was my stomach growling. I wasn’t like, challenging you or anything." For fuck’s sake, she needed a plan.

As her stomach growled again, she tried to tense her stomach muscles, as if that would stop the sound.

Not now.

Not the right time at all.

Stop challenging the man, you idiot organ!

Riv snarled again.

Damnit.

This wasn’t getting her anywhere.

The blaster was also weighing her down and she contemplated resting it on the table.

Thinking about it, he didn't seem too bothered by the fact she was holding a weapon against him. He'd walked right by her to pick up the pom-pom on legs.

That made up her mind.

Moving forward with cautious steps, wary eyes cast his way, she rested the blaster on the table.

Riv moved forward, his arms falling to his sides, and for a moment, she considered grabbing the blaster again.

But he didn't move her way. Instead, he walked past her into another room without so much as a backward glance at her, and Lauren was left to stare at the space he was standing in.

Well, at least, he hadn't tried to snatch the blaster away and he hadn't attacked her either.

One point for Lauren on the survival meter.

Maybe if she got enough points she’d win this game.

RIV MOVED AROUND in his room, muttered curses slipping from his lips as he searched for the backup sat phone.

The female had been yammering away something he couldn’t understand but at least she’d put down the blaster after she’d challenged him and backed down.

This is why he didn't like visitors.

He’d stepped outside to return the baby umu to its enclosure and when he’d returned he could already smell her presence in his space.

That and her incessant yammering were going to do his head in.

He hadn’t heard so many words said in a short space of time for many months.

He hadn’t been around anyone but his brother, Sohut, to hear conversation.

There was a reason he lived in the middle of nowhere. A reason he had only animals as company.

Animals didn't yap away and they tended to keep to themselves once they were fed and happy.

Well, every animal except the little umu that refused to stay in its enclosure. That umu was almost as annoying as the presence of the female in his main room.

Maybe if he fed her she would do like the animals—keep quiet and to herself—until he figured out what to do with her.

Finding the sat phone, he pinged Geblit as he headed back to the main room.

The female had been pacing and she stopped as soon as he entered, her wide eyes cast his way.

He kept his eyes on her and realized only a few seconds later that her gaze didn’t falter.

She was scared but she was also watching him as if should he try anything, she was ready to retaliate.

It almost made him laugh.

Almost.

The phone pinged and the signal dropped.

Growling at the phone, he pinged Geblit again.

The ping bounced back and forth for a few seconds before Geblit picked up the call.

“Riv!”

“You excrement pipe.”

“You can’t send her back. I called in the favor,” Geblit dropped all pretense of friendliness.

“My sanctuary is for abused animals.” Riv’s eyes narrowed, his gaze falling on the female. “Not wide-eyed yammering females.”

“Riv, I had no other choice. I only went to the creature exchange to find a companion for Cargga. I didn't expect to see the human there and the zookeeper gave me a good price. I thought she'd be a good buy!” Geblit wailed as if he was the victim in this and it only made Riv’s nostril’s flare. “Cargga doesn't want her and I can't take her back. Riv,” Geblit paused, “You have to honor the favor.”

He didn’t have to do jack shit. Especially when it involved having a female living on his farm.

The only thing holding him back from demanding that Geblit return and take her away was the fact that he did owe Geblit a favor.

Phekking hell.

Pulling out one of the hover chairs by the table, he sat on it as he ended the call. He set the sat phone down and crossed his arms, his eyes on the female.

She was standing in the corner like a scared umu. But he knew all about umus. He had several of them on the Sanctuary.

They may look soft and innocent but they could turn into terrible little beasts in a second.

She was no different. Most beings weren’t.

He knew this from experience.

As he stared at her, eyes narrowed, he watched her shoulders straighten slowly as her throat moved.

Wide brown eyes glanced around the room before they landed on him once more and her fisted hands opened to flatten against the strange material of her trousers.

Her pale chest was on display and he realized she was missing half of her dark tunic, leaving her exposed. Her torso was soft, he saw no muscle definition there and it surprised him a little.

Females of his kind, the merssi, were almost as strong as the males, with muscles to show for it.

This female, she looked soft all over.

And she’d had the audacity to challenge him?

Maybe that’s why she’d gotten caught in the first place. Maybe her survival instincts were lacking.

What had she been doing at the creature market anyway? She was no animal. This was an intelligent being.

The female’s throat moved again as she rubbed her hands against her trousers, her gaze fastened on him.

She was terrified of him. He wouldn’t be surprised if she was stuck in that corner all night.

Riv stiffened because as soon as he thought it, the female took one tentative step forward.

The corner of his lips curled in irritation almost immediately.

But that didn’t stop her.

She took another step forward, closing the gap between them, her eyes focused solely on him.

She was being cautious, watching him for any changes in his stance, but she was still walking forward.

That made him outright growl in her direction.

She paused at that, her eyes widening a little and he waited to see what she would do.

Instead of running back to the corner, the female took another step forward till she was by the chair on the other side of the table.

Her throat moved once more as she took a seat in front of him.

Now she sat looking at him and he realized that she was studying him as much as he was studying her.

She was either brave, or foolish.

Pity she wouldn’t be around long enough for him to find out.

“Uhm…” she said, and his ears, normally flat against the sides of his head, pricked.

She was going to start yammering again, wasn’t she.

“Ai dohnt noh waht to sey.”

Riv’s brows dived a little as the female continued speaking. The more she spoke, the braver she got. He could see it.

Her eyes weren’t so wide anymore and her face was becoming expressive. She was even using her hands now, to gesture as she spoke.

He let her natter on, his gaze on her face the entire time.

He had no idea what she was talking about and he didn’t really care. He could admit though that she came from a strange species.

Every time she opened her mouth, her flat teeth showed. She had no fangs and all of her teeth looked incredibly blunt. How did she defend herself?

He had to assume her species survived mostly on fluids and did not rely on their teeth for tearing into food.

It didn’t look as if she had claws either. Her nails were short and looked uneven, as if she’d used those blunt teeth of hers to grind them off.

No horns, no pattern of ridges along her nose or brow.

The more he looked at her, the stranger she became.

“Waht do yoo thingk abowt dat?”

She was looking at him with an expectant expression, as if she wanted something, and another growl rumbled in his throat.

Blinking at him, her eyes widened just a little but then her mouth spread, her lips twisting upward to show her teeth.

White flat teeth were bared at him in a display of obvious aggression and Riv stood from the hover chair so fast, the thing almost lost buoyancy.

He didn’t know what to make of it.

She had no fangs to challenge with, yet her teeth were bared.

It was so ridiculous, it was almost unbelievable.

He reacted the only way he knew how.

Slamming his palms flat against the table, he leaned in so he was face to face with her, a snarl on his own lips.

Wide eyes blinked back at him and her challenge died as the color drained from her face.

8

FUCK.

This guy, Riv, was intense.

Lauren swallowed hard.

He was so close, she didn’t even dare move.

Don’t grin. Never grin. And don’t let your stomach growl.

Good thing she’d had a year with nothing to do but watch and learn from the many aliens that passed by her terrarium.

But she could have done with Geblit giving her a heads up about this guy. She already had enough disadvantages as it was.

Lauren fought to keep her breathing level as she waited for Riv to back away. She was pretty sure he could rip her throat out with those fangs he was baring so close to her face.

And damnit. She’d just opened her soul to him, giving him the best proposal she could think of concerning why he should let her stay and what had he done? He’d just narrowed his eyes at her and was now snarling in her face.

It was almost as if he didn’t give a shit what she was saying or he didn’t understand what she was saying.

Crap.

She was an idiot.

Of course, he didn’t understand what she was saying.

He didn’t have English downloaded on his translator, she was sure.

That put her at an even greater disadvantage.

Biting her bottom lip, she tried to keep her breathing level.

Green eyes fell to the movement of her lips and she watched in surprise as his snarl died a bit.

His nostrils flared as he suddenly inhaled deeply and his gaze shot back to hers.

Something passed before his eyes before he leaned back, closed his palms into fists, and sat back in the chair, crossing his arms as he did.

He was just staring at her now, and Lauren wasn’t sure what to do.

So they were back to this? Him just looking at her, studying her?

She guessed she should do the same?

Leaning back, she crossed her arms and his gaze followed her movement.

His eyes were so green, they were startling. They stood out from his blue skin.

Looking at him now, she realized he wasn’t much older than she was, either, or if he was, he aged really well.

His nostrils flared again and she noted that the bridge of his nose was a bit wider than a human’s. There was also a column of bumps—ridges?—that ran up his nose and over his brows.

A similar column ran from his bottom lip and down his chin.

With his mouth closed, she’d have never guessed he hid fangs underneath.

His eyes narrowed, a low grumble starting in his chest, when he noticed her gaze lingering on his lips and Lauren looked away quickly.

Maybe that was a challenge too.

Shit.

She was in deep trouble, wasn’t she.

They sat there for many moments, with him just staring at her, until his shoulder heaved in a sigh and he stared at the device he’d used to call Geblit.

For a second, he gripped the device and she wondered if he was going to throw it against a wall like the other one. But he didn’t. Instead, his gaze rose to hers and again she was arrested by his eyes.

He wasn’t snarling now, just looking at her as if wondering what to do with her.

She hadn’t settled enough to realize it before, but…he was handsome. And that was saying something.

Since she’d been taken, she hadn’t noticed any handsome aliens. Attraction hadn’t been on her mind.

It wasn’t on her mind now so she didn’t know where the thought came from, but he was handsome, in a dangerous, forbidden kind of way.

“You kind of remind me of that guy in Avatar,” she said, breaking the silence. “Well, you’re not very similar, you’re just both blue.” She paused. “Was that a bit insensitive? I shouldn’t have said that. I know you can’t understand me either, I don’t even know why I’m talking—”

She was cut off by a growl as Riv stood suddenly.

He looked at her as he passed her. “Follow me,” he motioned with his hands. “And stop nattering.”

THE FEMALE BLINKED at him with those large brown eyes of hers.

He couldn’t believe he was about to do this but what choice did he have?

He still had no idea what he was going to do with her, but he couldn’t sit staring at her all day.

And, the more he stared at her, the more her strangeness was beginning to become interesting.

He didn’t need interesting right now.

He had animals to feed and chores to complete.

She stood and followed him without him having to mime what to do and he was happy for that.

Walking down the corridor, he passed his room, as well as the cleansing room, and made his way towards the spare room.

His brother’s bedroom was on the other side of the dwelling and this was the only other room available.

It’d have to do for now.

The light came on as he stepped into the room with the female following behind him and when he stopped walking, her soft body bumped into his from behind.

Turning, he glared down at her and she paled.

“Saw-ree.” She flinched a little under his gaze then flashed her blunt teeth at him again.

Catching herself, she paled even more, eyes going wide as she put a hand over her mouth.

Riv frowned as he watched her through wary eyes.

Moving to the side, he gave her enough space to enter the room.

Her eyes grew even larger as she looked inside.

Her gaze moved over the elevated sleeping cushion, to the chest in the corner and to the window that looked outside.

When she turned back to him, she was smiling, her eyes glassy.

Riv glanced around the room.

There wasn’t anything special about it. Not that if she’d complained he’d have changed anything.

She was lucky he didn’t drop all he had to do and take her back to Geblit, because he’d been very phekking close to doing so.

The female wrapped her arms around her bare torso and he assumed she was cold. Never mind, the room would adjust to a temperature that suited her soon enough now that there was a being inside it.

As she moved further into the room, his gaze followed her.

Her light hair hung over her shoulders, hiding her face and neck from his view.

“Dis iz naice und uhn-ex-pekted,” the female said, turning.

Big brown eyes met his. "T-ank yoo."

A brilliant smile split her face and made him stiffen. It transformed her features so much his eyes narrowed to slits.

When panic and fear were replaced by happiness, those large brown eyes of hers became entrancing, making her beautiful to look at.

Riv's nostrils flared.

Beautiful females were the most deceiving things in the galaxy.

All the more reason she had to leave.

Turning on his heels and without a backward glance, he stormed down the corridor and left the dwelling.

He needed to sort out his head.

She didn’t come after him. She was learning quickly.

He’d given her a room to stay in and he hoped she stayed in it.

He’d prefer to be alone till he decided what he was going to do. But he knew without much consideration that there was only one option.

He had to return her to Geblit and be in the Torian’s debt once more.

Stepping into the warm sunshine, the door slammed behind him and a nosy tilgran lifted its long neck to look over the fence of its enclosure.

"What?" Riv snarled and the tilgran lowered its head once more.

Brows set in a frown, he headed around the back of the building toward the oogas grazing there. He needed to feed them, clean their pen, and give them water before the day ended.

This was a bad day for Geblit to turn up. If he didn't have so much to do, he'd have taken the time to return the female to the Torian, but he couldn't. It would have to wait till tomorrow, or even possibly the next day.

He only hoped she understood enough to get that he wanted her to stay inside and out of his way while he tended to his animals.

Riv paused as he reached the ooga enclosure, his hand on the gate as he cast his eyes to the window of the spare room.

Maybe he shouldn't have left her alone in there.

Who knew what she would get up to while alone.

Movement by the window caught his eye and Riv snorted.

She was watching him.

Fine.

She could do whatever she wanted. As long as she didn't wreck the place or get in his way.

As he opened the gate and entered the enclosure, the oogas lifted their large heads from the yellow-orange grass and glanced at him before dipping their heads again.

Patting the back of one of the animals, Riv's brows slowly relaxed from their frown.

Silence.

Sweet, sweet silence apart from the occasional snort of an ooga and the soft sounds of their chewing.

This was why he preferred animals.

They didn't speak.

That had always been a winner for him.

But, most of all, they didn't judge. He could be himself around them.

Life was simpler.

Glancing back toward his residence, he frowned.

The female was still at the window, watching him.

He could feel those brown eyes following his every move.

Phek.

Well, he guessed he had an audience then.

Wouldn’t be the first time others stood and watched him while he worked.

LAUREN KNELT on the floating bed, eyes fastened outside.

Riv was in the field working with the cow-hippo things and she couldn’t help but stare at her host.

The sun was hot out there, she could see that. Even from where she was, she could see his skin had a thin sheen of perspiration over it.

He seemed to be completely in his element, moving bales of hay, shoveling animal dung, and tending to the animals.

He’d looked her way a few times and she wasn’t sure if he could see her or not, but that’s all he did, glance her way.

She watched as he paused and rolled his shoulders, stretching his arms into the air.

Eyes widening, her cheeks flushed as Riv pulled his shirt over his head and put it to the side. No longer hidden, a set of stacked muscles were displayed.

Damn.

This seemed inappropriate.

She probably shouldn’t be looking. Yet, she couldn’t look away.

Maybe she’d been in that terrarium for too long and the little bit of sun on the way to the Sanctuary had suddenly awakened her libido…

Or maybe it was because he had snarled in her face so many times in the last hour that her heart sped up with anxiety and her pussy was mistaking that for attraction or something but…

Damn.

Lauren blinked.

He looked good for an alien dude—and for the past year, she’d seen a lot of alien dudes.

He was humanoid. Maybe that’s what this was. He was the first humanoid male she’d been in close contact with since she’d been taken.

Sure, she’d seen a few through the transparent shield of her terrarium but she’d never been close enough to feel their breath on her face—and Riv had come in real close to her earlier. Close enough she could still smell his faint musk.

Lauren’s eyes widened a little.

Suddenly, that deep inhale he did when he’d leaned in close took on meaning.

Had he caught her scent too?

Biting her bottom lip, she didn’t move her gaze.

Instead, she watched as he bent and began working on the animals’ enclosure.

She imagined his hands would be calloused with such hard work. She’d always loved a guy who knew how to use his hands.

Shit.

Where’d that thought come from.

Geez.

A whole year in the terrarium and she hadn’t even touched herself. Suddenly, on an alien farm watching a hunk of an alien and she was having thoughts.

Lauren shook her head and frowned at herself.

She was just about to move when she felt his eyes on her.

Riv was looking her way, a frown on his face and she was sure, at that moment, that he could definitely see her.

Even from where she was she knew he was snarling.

Yea, that was her cue to make herself scarce.

Slinking down on the bed, she lat flat against it.

The door to the room was closed and she realized she felt safe now. Safe enough to relax for a bit.

That was saying something.

Despite her first impression of him, when she’d thought he was going to rip out her throat with his claws, she somehow felt safe.

She didn’t know why, but she did, and it was a feeling that was so alien she lay rigid on the bed, staring at the roof and wondering if terror would follow shortly.

Even in the terrarium, she hadn’t felt safe. Even with the barrier to the outside, she’d felt wary all the time.

With a sigh, she swallowed hard and closed her eyes.

Was this going to be the first time she felt safe in a year?

Damn.

Another sigh shuddered through her.

She’d stay inside and wait for Riv to return. He obviously didn’t want her in his space so she’d wait till he got used to the idea she was there before pushing him further.

It was difficult enough the fact he couldn’t understand what she was saying. She had to be careful to not piss him off before she could find a way to communicate with him better.

9

SHE MUST HAVE FALLEN asleep because when she opened her eyes, the room was dark.

Stretching, the light in the room came on because of her movement.

She stood immediately and cast her eyes out the window.

It was night.

It was very unlike her to fall asleep so early in the day. She’d gotten used to staying awake until the zoo closed and faces were no longer peering into her terrarium.

For her to fall asleep without forcing herself to…

Moving lights in the field outside caught her eyes and she moved closer to the window, squinting.

It took her a few moments to realize it was the robots she’d seen when they’d been approaching the Sanctuary.

They were still hard at work.

Apart from those lights, the animals’ enclosures were also well lit and she could see the cow-hippos moving about lazily. Some were laying on the ground and looked like they were sleeping.

Glancing at the watch on her hand, Lauren grimaced.

It was still a habit she had, checking that watch, but the time was still frozen at six.

Funny. The last time she remembered looking at it while on Earth was right before she’d been taken and it had said six o’clock.

That brought back a memory she’d rather forget. Looking at her watch while she’d returned from the mall was the last thing she remembered doing before she woke up on the alien ship.

It wasn’t something she liked thinking about.

As she let her shoulders fall in a sigh, a deep boom that seemed to shake the very room echoed outside her door.

Spinning around, wide-eyed, she almost jumped out of her skin. She expected to see a monster standing there but the door was still closed.

Had she imagined it?

She didn’t really know.

Spending a year all alone was like living in solitary confinement. Her imagination had run wild a few times.

She could be imagining she heard something; she wasn’t really sure.

It’d sounded like a deep bass drum and Lauren blinked now as she stared at the door.

She was just about to settle herself, thinking she’d imagined the sound when it came again.

And this time, it was louder.

It vibrated the air in the room and against her skin, almost like when standing too close to speakers at a rave.

Scrambling backward, she tried to put some distance between her and the door and to her horror, whatever it was began scratching at the door, trying to get in.

Shit.

Glancing around her, there was nothing in the room she could use as a weapon.

The thing was scratching frantically now, its claws digging at the door and Lauren gulped.

As another boom sounded in the air, her gaze fell on the chest on the floor.

Trying to keep her trembling bones upright, she put her weight behind the chest and pushed it toward the door.

It was heavy and it was the only thing that could buy her some time. Maybe it would barricade the door and keep the thing out. If whatever beast lay outside managed to enter, she could at least hope it would trip over the chest, fall flat on its face, and buy her some time.

As if the thing could smell her now that she was closer to the door, another loud boom erupted before renewed scratching.

Shit.

Shit shit shit.

Hands fisted in her hair, Lauren paced.

She had nothing, NOTHING, to use to defend herself.

She was about to go into full panic mode when she heard a low mumble.

That didn’t sound like the monster.

It didn’t sound like the monster at all.

It sounded like Riv.

He was speaking to the monster and soon she heard footsteps padding away.

Had it gone?

She could only assume it was one of his pets. It didn’t sound like he was fighting for his life out there so that meant the beast and him must be on good terms.

Lauren moved closer to the door.

Of course, he’d be friends with a beast. Why didn’t she preconceive that?

That’s something she’d have laughed about if she had any friends to laugh with.

And, if you laughed to yourself, people—even aliens—tended to think you’re crazy.

She was so alone.

Resting her ear against the door, she tried to pick up any sounds.

There were none but, for a reason she couldn’t determine, she remained plastered against the door.

Call her strange, but it didn’t feel like she was alone when she did that.

RIV LEANED against the door to the room he’d left the female in.

He hadn’t seen her since earlier that evening when she’d been watching him through the window, and for some reason, he was interested to know what she’d been doing all that time.

From the looks of it, she hadn’t exited the room to search his house, which he appreciated.

It meant she probably hadn’t left the room at all.

He believed his theory to be true because his tevsi, Grot, had caught her scent as soon as he’d entered the dwelling. The tevsi had bounded straight to her room, which meant that’s where her scent was the strongest.

He’d found Grot trying to claw his way inside and had to send him to bed.

Leaning against the door now, Riv placed an ear against it and listened.

He couldn’t hear a thing.

There was no way she was sleeping after the racket Grot had made. But if she was, that made his dark-cycle easier. It meant not seeing her till the next light-cycle.

Pleased with that, he was about to walk away when something terrible happened.

He didn’t know if he pressed the panel that opened the door by accident or if she’d opened it on her end, but the next thing he knew was that the door slid open and the human was standing right there.

Not only was she standing there but she must have lost her balance or something because she was suddenly falling against him.

As she made contact with his chest, a soft exclamation left her lips.

His arms went around her immediately, out of pure instinct to stop her from falling, and the shock of it made his eyes widen to meet hers.

She was cradled against him, her soft figure pressed against his hard one, as they both froze, staring at each other.

She recovered first, regaining her balance and righting herself and with that movement, he pulled his arms away from her.

She was saying something, which he assumed was an apology of some kind judging from her tone, but it sounded far, far away in the background. Even if he could understand her words, he wasn’t listening…couldn’t listen.

That one touch…

The feel of someone against him…

Swallowing hard, he blinked a few times to focus.

She finished speaking, her brown eyes hitting him with deep consternation, and he wasn’t sure what he should do.

So he did nothing.

With a grunt, he jerked his head at her in greeting and a farewell, turned, and walked back down the corridor to his room.

10

MAYBE SHE HAD a knack for getting into trouble or maybe someone had put a hex on her while she was on Earth, but she couldn’t have made up the events of her life even if she’d tried.

If she ever did make it back to California, she’d write a book.

A memoir.

Lauren the Not so Lucky.

It’d sell heaps.

Staring upward at nothing in particular, she wrung her hands as she lay flat on her back.

It was morning and she’d spent much of the night before thinking about the fact she’d made a fool of herself in front of Riv.

She’d been leaning against the door for much longer than she’d care to admit when he’d opened it and she’d lost her balance and fallen directly against him…

Ugh.

She’d said sorry, explaining that she was just clumsy, falling over her own two feet but he’d only looked at her strangely and walked away.

Nothing said.

Huffing out a breath, she folded her lips and pulled out one of the meal bars from her pocket.

The thing was as hard as a rock and she was pretty sure it was made for an animal that constantly grew teeth that needed to be filed down—like a guinea pig or something.

Maybe that’s what the zookeeper had seen her as.

A little rodent that needed meal bars.

God, she didn’t miss that place. Just thinking about the terrarium made the hairs on her skin bristle.

It hadn’t been a living space. It had been a cell.

One that she’d convinced herself was home. One she’d told herself wasn’t so bad because things could have been far worse.

Judging from how some of the visitors had looked at her, some even miming in front of her just what they’d like to do with her, she’d reckoned that living on the outside of that transparent barrier had to be worse than being enclosed behind it.

And now she was out.

It was so strange waking up in a different place.

Back at the zoo, as soon as she’d wake up her eyes would move to the transparent barrier that sealed her in. Ninety percent of the time, there’d be someone there looking back at her.

Today when she’d awakened, her gaze had moved automatically, expecting to see the view outside the terrarium. Except, all she saw was a wall.

For a few seconds, her brain didn’t compute what she was seeing. It took a few moments for the events of the day before to return to her and with that came the memory of her falling out of the room and unto her host.

Grinding the meal bar against her teeth till her saliva softened it enough to bite off a small piece, Lauren moved toward the window and looked outside.

The sky was a reddish pink that took her breath away. It was a beauty to look at.

Back at the zoo, she hadn’t been able to see the sky.

All she’d had were the artificial ultraviolet lights, which she’d found out were ultraviolet because the zookeeper had so kindly pointed that out to her on several occasions, as if he’d been doing her a massive favor.

The cow-hippos were moving about lazily and, far in the field, she could see the robots working tirelessly.

Chewing the meal bar, she swallowed hard. It was so dry it was always difficult to get down and she didn’t have any water to help her.

Turning to look at the door, she gnawed on the bar some more.

She hadn’t heard Riv move about but she was sure he wasn’t still asleep.

Something told her he wasn’t the type that slept in.

She’d go out there to try and get some water really quickly but two things stopped her.

First, she didn’t want to run into Riv. She had no idea what to say to him and he made her nervous for more than one reason—his obvious dislike of her was the first reason. The other reason was one she didn’t really want to contemplate.

Second, whatever had scared her out of her wits last night was still out there somewhere.

There was no way that loud booming from the night before hadn’t been coming from some huge animal and she’d rather not meet it, even though it’d sounded like it really wanted to meet her.

Chewing, she kept the food in her mouth for much longer than she usually would have, just to soften it some more so it was easier to swallow, and turned to look through the window once more.

As she watched the cow-hippos move, she realized something.

The Sanctuary didn’t smell like a farm.

With the cow-hippos alone she’d have expected the entire place to smell like fresh manure, but it didn’t.

As a matter of fact, there was no smell at all.

She was mulling over this without much interest when movement by the side of one building caught her eye.

Riv came into view, a large sack that looked quite heavy flung over one shoulder.

He walked over to the cow-hippos and opened their pen before moving inside and setting the sack down.

Flipping something from his trousers, he cut the sack open and the animals all lifted their heads at the same time.

In a mini stampede, they all headed to the sack, fighting each other to get mouthfuls of whatever was inside.

Greedy bastards. A smile tugged at her lips before her gaze drifted back to Riv.

He was moving to a corner of the cage to one of the animals that hadn’t joined the stampede and she had to stand on tiptoes to get a better view of what he was doing.

She watched as he knelt and placed a hand on the cow-hippo’s side in a touch that was so surprisingly gentle, her eyebrows shot up toward her hairline.

The way he behaved gruffly, he didn’t give the impression he had any compassion within him but obviously, looks were deceiving.

He was frowning, she could see even from where she was, as he touched the animal’s leg.

As he lifted the limb gently, the animal tried to kick him with the other leg but he didn’t react. His entire focus was on the leg he was holding.

It looked like it was injured, because he set the limb down lightly and stood with his hands bracing his hips as he frowned down at the animal.

He was wearing a shirt today and with that realization came a little thread of disappointment followed by her nictating as she wondered who sewed that thread there.

It wasn’t till she focused again that she realized her host was no longer frowning down at the animal. Now, he was frowning in her direction.

Lauren’s eyes widened as their gazes locked.

Shit.

She ducked.

And as she ducked out of view, crouching below the window, she wondered what the hell was wrong with her.

Why was she hiding?

But even as she asked herself this, she didn’t dare stand and look out the window again.

Doing so felt like she was doing something wrong. As if she was spying on him or something.

It took a few long moments for her to berate herself enough to lift her head and look out the window once more. But when her gaze moved back to the spot he’d been standing, she realized he was no longer there.

Letting out a breath, Lauren frowned at herself shortly after.

She’d dealt with a disagreeable alien before—the zookeeper, specifically. So why did this one make her so nervous?

HE DIDN’T MIND IT, but it puzzled him a bit.

He’d expected the female to leave the room, but she hadn’t.

Granted, he’d spent almost all day tending to the sick ooga, which had somehow gotten its leg broken, so he hadn’t been inside the dwelling.

He only knew she hadn’t exited because he’d seen her watching him from the window.

Every time he went to check on the ooga and the cast he’d put on the animal’s leg, she’d been watching him from the window.

Usually, that sort of thing would piss him off and annoy him to no end, but somehow it didn’t this time.

Instead, he was curious.

Curious as to why she’d spent the entire time in the room.

When he entered the dwelling after spending all day outside, he was sure she hadn’t left the room.

Her scent was faint, which meant she hadn’t been walking about.

Not even for food, and he was sure she was hungry.

Her body was small and frail. From his experience, such types of creatures needed sustenance regularly.

She wasn’t of the type bred for resilience.

Setting down his gloves on the table, he stretched his arms, reveling in the ache of his muscles.

That ache felt good.

Nothing felt better than exhausting himself so much that he knew he’d fall asleep when he went to his sleeping cushion. It was one of the reasons he worked so hard every day. It was almost a guarantee that he’d fall asleep. His eyes would close and his brain would shut own when he went to bed.

Beside him, Grot settled down on the floor.

The tevsi was tired too, it seemed. He’d been in the fields chasing the robots and hunting small game, no doubt.

Rubbing a hand over his jaw, Riv cast a glance down the corridor toward the room he knew the female was in.

If Sohut was here, he’d be able to help him navigate this problem that had happened upon their doorstep courtesy of Geblit Cakhura.

He still didn’t know what he was going to do with the human but the longer he had her at his residence, the more she was going to settle in and that was the last thing he wanted.

Moving to the cook room, he washed his hands and pulled out a premade bowl of dried rai from the food box. Reaching into the cooling unit, he grabbed a can of gada paste and poured it into the bowl, waiting for it to reach an acceptable level before he lifted the bowl and brought it to the table.

The hover chair slipped out easily and, as he sat, he stared at the bowl of rai in front of him.

The female was still on his mind.

Why hadn’t she left the room?

Wasn’t she hungry?

Didn’t she have to relieve herself in the cleansing room?

Riv frowned at the rai soaking up the paste, a snarl curling his lips.

Why the phek did he care anyway?

If she wanted to come out, she could come out. He didn’t care, as long as she stayed out of his way and didn’t remind him of her existence.

Lifting the bowl, he was about to put it at his lips when he paused.

Why hadn’t she come out, though?

His frown deepened and he slammed the bowl on the table, almost spilling its contents.

Phek.

She was in his head.

Memory of her body falling against his filled his mind and Riv leaned back against the chair, flexing his fists.

He’d caught her in his arms as if it’d been the most natural thing to do.

It’d been such an alien feeling, holding someone so close, that he still didn’t know what to make of it. Only that it had messed up his thoughts for the greater part of the dark-cycle and for most of the day.

Her body was unbelievably soft. It seemed as if she had no rough edges, only pure softness.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he asked Raxu why on Hudo III did he send this being into his solitude to disrupt it.

He couldn’t even eat a bowl of rai without wondering about her.

She was distracting and he didn’t need distractions.

He’d said it before and he’d say it again for as many times as it took for the universe to listen: he had enough trouble in his life; he didn’t need any more.

Opening his eyes, he looked down into the bowl of rai and sighed heavily.

Phek.

He knew what he was going to do before he even began moving.

Standing, the bowl in hand, he looked down at his tevsi on the floor. Grot blinked up at him, his tail wagging in friendly adoration.

“Stay,” Riv said and the tevsi made a low sound of understanding in his throat.

11

RIV ROLLED his neck as he stood in front of the door, bowl in hand.

Just what the phek was he doing?

He should turn around, head back to the main room, and eat his rai in peace.

Yet…

Slamming a hand against the locking panel, the door slid open with a hiss.

Wide brown eyes flew to the door and met his immediately.

She was sitting half-way up, as if she’d been resting on the sleeping cushion, and her shoulders stiffened when she saw him standing there.

Riv resisted the urge to set the bowl down and walk away.

The only reason he didn’t do that was because he’d have to return for it later.

She’d placed the chest in the middle of the entryway and he had to step over it to enter.

Eyes moving over her quickly, he didn’t see any physical ailments. She looked the same as she did the day before…unless she was ill and didn’t show it outwardly.

He knew animals like that—animals that hid ailments because they were scared exposing such weakness would surely lead to their exclusion.

If that was the case, he reckoned she belonged to some species of pack animal. Being the weakest in the pack was usually seen as a liability.

If she was ill, that would explain why she’d stayed in the room the entire day.

Watching her now, a weak smile spread her lips as her eyebrows lifted a little and her eyes fastened on the bowl in his hands.

Her small, pink tongue exited to wet her lips before her eyes met his again.

Riv’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Eat.” He thrust the bowl toward her and she paused for a second before throwing her legs over the side of the sleeping cushion and sitting upright.

She took the bowl from his hand and stared at the contents.

“See-ree-uhl?”

Riv’s eyes narrowed a little more as he stepped back and leaned against the wall, watching her.

“Gess soh.”

She blinked at him and smiled a little more. “No supoon doh.”

Then she shrugged and brought the bowl to her lips.

Riv tilted his head a little as he watched her, a frown materializing on his brow as he studied her.

She took a tiny sip and, for a moment, she froze. For that moment, he thought she didn’t like how the food tasted but then her eyes flew to his. There was such growing awe there that it surprised him and his frown disappeared immediately.

The female’s face lit up, her mouth falling open.

“Oh mai Gohd. Dis iz…ahmayzin!”

Her glee caught him off guard as she bared her teeth in a seriously confusing challenge before bringing the bowl to her lips and taking a huge gulp of the rai.

Riv stood, dumbstruck, as the female ate. He’d never seen someone guzzle rai so fast. Not even Sohut could do that. It didn’t even look as if she paused to chew.

She ate like this for a few moments before she froze again and looked over at him. Wide brown eyes blinked at him before she lowered the bowl slowly.

“Saw-ree, was dis for bowth ov us?” She stretched the half-full bowl toward him and jerked it a little as if she was offering him some of the food. “Dihd yoo wahnt som?”

Riv stared at her outstretched hand.

He didn’t know what to make of that.

She was obviously hungry and needed to eat it all.

“You eat.” He met her gaze and she looked at him without a speck of fear before she smiled again and gulped down the rest of the meal.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she smiled.

The other hand moved to her midsection and rubbed the soft flesh there in a slow circular motion, a smile on her face.

His gaze fastened there, at where her hand touched her skin, and he found himself staring, unable to look away.

“T-ank yoo. Yoo hav noh aidee-yuh how good dat was.”

No idea what she was saying but she looked far too pleased about this.

Pleased wasn’t what he’d been going for.

Phek.

He had no idea what he’d been going for.

He shouldn’t have brought the bowl to her in the first place.

It was this same generosity that always got him in trouble in the past.

Growling, he lifted himself off the wall and stalked forward, taking the empty bowl from her hands.

He made to walk away when he felt the warmth of her palm against his arm.

Stiffening, his gaze fell to where the heat was spreading across his skin, and he realized she’d held on to him.

He stopped moving, staring at her hand for moments that seemed to pass by slowly.

She was touching him.

Touching him. AGAIN.

The one sense he’d denied himself of for so long was now something he’d received twice in such a short space of time.

Her palm felt as if it was burning against his skin and when she snatched her hand away and his gaze met hers, her wide-eyed stare was frozen on his face.

“Saw-ree, ai—” She blinked a few times, her gaze darting away before returning. “Ai need too sho-wher.”

She was talking again.

Riv frowned at her as she went on, seemingly unable to stop once she’d started now.

She was making motions with her hands, her mouth moving quickly and she ran her hands through her hair, over the skin on her face, and down her body.

It was hard focusing on what she was trying to tell him. All he could feel was the imprint of that small hand against his skin.

It took him a few moments as he frowned down at her before he realized what she wanted.

The cleansing room.

With a grunt, he jerked his head toward the corridor. He didn’t trust himself to speak at the moment.

12

LAUREN AWOKE, her eyes flying to the wall again and expecting to see the transparent shield there.

No.

She wasn’t in the zoo anymore. She was at Riv’s Sanctuary.

Swallowing hard, she turned onto her back and stared ahead.

She’d slept soundly again. After she’d spent the previous day doing nothing, she’d been sure she’d have a hard time falling asleep but it turned out the warm shower was just the thing she’d needed to put her in the mood for sleep.

After he’d brought her the food and showed her the shower, her host had disappeared for the night.

She could still remember how he’d stood there and watched her eat, a look of surprise and something else she couldn’t determine in his eyes.

At first, she’d felt self-conscious but the taste of real food had been too divine to resist.

It’d been filling, that meal, because even now, she wasn’t hungry.

Rising, she cast her gaze out the window.

There were the cow-hippos grazing again and the beautiful clear sky above, the sunrise casting a reddish tint over the pink.

Off in the distance, she couldn’t see the robots anymore. Maybe they had moved to another section of the farm. But that wasn’t what she was really looking for.

Her gaze flicked over the Sanctuary in search of a hint of blue.

She saw him for a second before he disappeared behind one of the buildings.

The rest of the day went like this.

Every now and then she caught glimpses of him but for the most part, Riv was out of sight.

When the sun finally left the sky, Riv entered her room with a bowl of food. He said nothing and she wasn’t sure what she should say.

Whenever she opened her mouth to talk, the growing irritation on his face was almost comical. Still, he said nothing. He just watched her as she ate with those piercing eyes of his.

For the next day and the next, the same thing happened. She’d watch him work through the window and in the evenings he’d come to her room with a bowl of food, staring at her as she ate and then leaving for the rest of the night.

Now, Lauren settled on the bed when the sun was almost in the middle of the sky, her bottom lip between her teeth.

Wasn’t she a free woman?

She wasn’t in the terrarium anymore. She was no longer at the zoo.

But it sure felt as if she was in captivity, being stuck in the room.

Not that he’d explicitly said she should stay in there. It’d been her choice not to move.

That and the fact the large animal she’d heard was somewhere out there. It hadn’t come back to her door but she could still remember the terror of the night when it came like the big bad wolf trying to get in.

Gulping, she decided she needed to be brave and step out of the room.

If she was ever going to regain her independence, she needed to take the first step.

Lauren moved to the window to look out again before her gaze shifted to the door.

She was going to do it.

Pressing the panel on the wall, the door hissed open to reveal the corridor and Lauren froze, her ears perked for any sound.

Nothing.

As she stepped into the corridor, she stiffened and waited.

Still nothing. Only the sound of the door hissing shut behind her.

When she reached the main room, she paused again.

There were piles of gadgets all over the place, even on the floor, and a thin layer of dust coated them all.

Stepping over to some, her gaze moved over the items with mild interest. She had no idea what they were but they looked old and out of use.

She continued moving slowly around the room, looking at this and that, the only sound being her bare feet tapping the hard floor as she walked.

When she reached another corridor on the other side of the room, Lauren paused again. There was a window and a door there and she had to go on tiptoes to look out.

When her glance out the window showed no big blue guy, her shoulders set as she moved toward the door.

THE DOOR OPENED with a hiss as she stepped outside and it closed quietly behind her. Outside was warm, surprisingly warmer than she’d thought it would be, and she looked up at wonder at the pink sky as she walked down the little path.

A sound to her left had her freezing for a second before she saw what had made the noise.

It was a tall animal with a neck so long it reminded her of a giraffe—except it was purple with a lighter pattern of purple circles across its skin. Its head was shaped like a brontosaurus' and its large round eyes blinked at her.

For a moment, she wasn't sure what to do. Should she run? Would it try to bite her?

But when the animal dipped its head and licked her right from her waist to her head, she found herself sputtering out a laugh.

"Eww! Thanks, big guy." She wiped the saliva from her face. "Guess that's you saying hello?"

The large animal looked down at her from its elevated neck.

"Guess you don't speak much." She eyed the beast. "A bit like your owner then?"

The animal dipped its head once more and Lauren stiffened. One lick was enough. But it didn't lick her again. Instead, it rubbed its head against her side.

Tentatively, Lauren reached a hand out and petted the animal.

Its skin was like leather and it let out a soft humming sound at her touch.

She stood entranced by it as she petted it for a few minutes, amazed by how soft and calm such a huge creature was.

It closed its large dark round eyes as she rubbed its head.

"I'm looking for your owner. Any idea where he is?" she asked.

As if it could understand her, the animal lifted its head and looked toward another set of buildings down the path. The large, brown double doors of the building were open and she could hear animal sounds inside.

Patting the animal's head, Lauren smiled. "Thanks, big guy."

As she walked toward the building, the warm ground underneath the soles of her feet, she continued looking around.

Now that she was outside, she could see the layout was much different than she'd expected it to be.

It was more like a petting zoo than a farm. She had to pass several enclosures with animals she'd never seen before in her life, some she couldn't have even imagined, and there was a common theme with all of them.

The enclosures were made in such a way, it was easy to interact with the animals if she wanted to.

And that meant the animals could also escape if they wanted to.

Except, they weren't escaping.

In each enclosure, the animals all seemed happy. Content.

There was a lot of noise coming from the large brown building, and as she neared it, the noise level only increased. It sounded like...whistling? It was the only way she could describe it in her head—a bit like a cacophony of whistles and wheaks together.

As she entered the building, she stopped in her tracks.

In front of her was enclosure after enclosure of round, furry...no, woolly animals just like the one that had licked her leg on that first day.

The din was coming from the round animals and further into the building, she could see why.

The big blue alien was there, opening what looked like a bag of grain.

He was wearing his shades and face covering again so she couldn’t see his expression but it seemed he was completely focused on pouring grain into the first enclosure. As he did, the round animals in that enclosure stopped screaming and raced to devour the grain.

The same thing happened for the next enclosure and the next one. The animals were all so eager to get their food that the scene made a laugh bubble within her.

As she moved to the enclosure closest to her, the animals within the space looked up at her, doing their wheak-whistle thing, no doubt demanding that she feed them too.

Stretching down, she patted one of them on their furry head and it paused for a second before whistling at her indignantly.

It wanted food, not love.

Lauren giggled and a deep masculine rumble reached her ear.

Looking up, she realized the noise in the "barn" had lowered considerably now that most of the animals were eating and that Riv had finally become aware of her presence.

And...he didn't like that she was touching his animals?

Raising her hands, she backed away from the enclosure, only for the little round animals to whistle-wheak even louder.

Riv was glaring at her, she could feel it without even being able to see his eyes, and she could hear him curse as he moved toward the animals and gave them their grain.

He said nothing to her as he continued feeding the others and she kept out of his way, opting to just watch him instead.

This close, it was hard not staring at him—his presence dominated the space, demanding that she keep him in her sight.

She was so caught up watching him work that she didn't hear the deep rumble behind her.

As the growl sounded again, this time much closer, a chill ran down her spine.

Huge bass speakers.

It was definitely a large, predatory animal of some kind.

Eyes widening a little, she froze. Everything in her being told her not to move and when the blue alien raised his head and looked her way, whatever he saw behind her had him freezing as well.

"Phek," she heard him mutter.

"What is it?" she whispered. "It's something bad, isn't it?"

She knew she should have stayed inside. Staying inside was what had kept her safe for a year.

Bravery was not rewarded in this new life.

The alien didn't reply. Instead, he stood, his arms outstretched, palms down.

She knew what that meant.

That was universal-speak for "don't fucking move."

With the dark glasses, she wasn't sure if he was looking at her or at whatever was advancing behind her.

"Don't move, female." And then he cursed underneath his breath, muttering something to himself that sounded like him saying females were trouble.

In another circumstance, she might have pointed out that she wasn’t trouble at all but whatever was behind her was so close now, she could feel its fur against the back of her legs and it took everything within her not to bolt.

Bolting could be bad. What if it was the sort of predator that wanted you to run so it could chase you and rip you in two?

Fucking hell.

"Grot." The big alien advanced slowly. "Don't," he said.

"Don't what?" Lauren whispered. "Don't eat me? Don't rip me apart? Being specific is probably good here. I'm pretty sure I can feel its teeth on my back." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to die and I won't even see what killed me."

She was pretty sure she was about to urinate on herself right about now.

"Grot..." the alien said again.

As Lauren tried to keep from trembling, movement to her side had her looking down without moving her head, only for her eyes to lock with the four-eyed gaze of a terrible dark beast.

Its teeth were bared and saliva dripped from them to the floor beneath.

It was paying no attention to Riv. Its only focus was her.

Lauren looked at it in horror, everything within her telling her to run, while, at the same time, she was frozen in shock.

The thing was huge, about the size of a great mastiff or bigger. So big, it almost reached up to her breasts and that was the only reason she didn't run.

If she'd run before, it would have pounced on her in a second.

It looked like a dog—a monster-sized one—, only that its snout was a bit rounder than any dog's she’d ever seen and its four eyes didn't help either.

Long fangs protruded over its lower lip and right now they were dripping with strings of saliva hanging from them.

From what she could see, it had four legs and a shaggy dark coat. So black, it looked like a shadow demon.

Did Riv call it Grot? It should have been named 'demon from hell' instead.

The animal sniffed her as it circled her, its eyes on her the entire time as she tried not to tremble.

"Grot..." Riv said again, his tone firm but reasoning.

The way he called the thing was as if he was asking it nicely not to bite but was pretty sure it would anyway.

Shit.

This was the animal she’d heard trying to break into her room. This was death come to meet her.

As the animal circled her and came in front of her, she just had enough time to blink before the thing pounced on her.

Its heavy weight forced her unto ground and the wind was knocked out of her as she landed on her back, the only saving grace being the fact that the ground was covered in thick blades of cut grass.

Thanks to that, the fall hurt, but not as much as it would if the ground had been bare.

A scream erupted from her as the animal opened its mouth over her head, its sharp teeth bared, and Lauren squeezed her eyes shut, knowing what was coming next.

But it never came. One moment she was looking into the mouth of death-dog and the next a thick, wet, velvety thing moved over her face.

Confused, she opened her eyes as the animal’s tongue descended on her once more.

What?

It was licking her?

Was this some kind of pre-meal ritual?

A sound of annoyance came from somewhere in front of her and the animal was promptly hauled off.

It took a few moments for her to swallow some air, enough so that she could raise herself on her elbows.

Still stunned, her gaze landed on the large animal.

Now that it wasn't snarling and baring its teeth at her, it didn't look as terrifying—that wasn't to say it didn't still make her want to run.

Her gaze moved to the alien standing beside the animal.

Riv was holding death-dog by the scruff of its neck because—and, in her retreating shock, it took her a few moments to realize this—the animal was still straining to get to her.

Behind it, a shaggy tail wagged and after a moment, its tongue hung from its mouth as it panted.

My God...it was a dog. An alien dog. A very large alien dog. But probably the closest thing she'd find to a dog nonetheless.

Finally finding the energy to stand, Lauren stared at the thing.

It was straining to come toward her so much that it actually pulled its master a little. It moved till it was close enough to brush its head against her skin as it wagged its tail.

It liked her.

Tentatively, she outstretched her hand to touch its cool nose and its tail wagged even faster.

A little laugh left her lips along with the relief that flooded through her.

"You weren't trying to kill me, were you?" she asked, as the animal brushed its nose against her hand. "You were just protecting your master."

Her eyes rose to the animal's master then and she almost shriveled in her clothes.

Even in his shades, even with the cloth covering his nose and mouth, she could sense that he was snarling at her.

What was his problem?

As he released the animal and it moved to rub itself against her, she heard the alien growl before stalking away.

Confused, she watched him leave.

What had she done?

13

“GROT,” Riv called his tevsi as he stormed off, only to glance behind him to see that Grot was still rubbing himself against the female.

Another annoyed growl left his chest as he stalked from the umu building.

What had gotten into the tevsi?

Grot rarely took to strangers.

As a matter of fact, it had been the exact reason why he’d rescued the animal as a pup all those years ago.

Grot hated people as much as he did. That’s why they got along so well.

He could still remember that day he visited the exchange on his usual trip to check if any mistreated animals were up for sale there. He usually made the trip whenever he visited the port city.

It was a ritual.

And every time he went, he was guaranteed to find an animal there that was abused in some way.

He couldn’t save all of them, but at least he tried. And he would keep trying.

If there’d been someone like him out there doing the same when he was a chid, then maybe he’d have had a better life. Maybe he’d have been found in that same market.

Grot had been in that market many orbits back, abused and stolen from his home planet.

He had been put up for sale as a hunting animal and Riv was sure what would have become of the little beast.

They’d have worked Grot to the ground, hardly fed him, then he’d have been left for dead when he could work no longer.

He knew, for it’s what had almost happened to him.

So he’d bought the little black thing, despite how it had snarled at him, and despite how it had growled, its four eyes watching him warily the entire time he’d traveled back to the Sanctuary.

It had hated him.

It took many turns for Grot to finally trust him and once that trust had been established, the tevsi never left his side.

So, why in Polvrak’s name was Grot acting like that with the female?

Had years on the Sanctuary made him soft?

He could see how that would happen. They hadn’t had much contact with anyone since he’d brought the animal so far out to live.

Maybe Grot had forgotten his hatred for strangers.

The only contact they both had with beings that weren’t the animals on the Sanctuary was contact with his younger brother, Sohut, and the occasional visit from his one and only friend, Ka’Cit.

In a short space of time, this female had entered his Sanctuary, changed the place with her scent and had even gotten Grot to like her somehow.

It had to be her scent.

They liked her scent.

Riv swallowed hard as he walked.

He only knew that because her scent still lingered in his nose even now.

Heading to the tilgran enclosure, he entered their pen and slammed the gate shut. The animals lifted their long necks to look down at him, as if he was being aggressive.

“I’m not,” he muttered, grabbing the tool he used to shovel their feces.

The tilgrans still looked down at him, blinking slowly. “Look at me like that and I’ll leave you to shovel your own dung.”

The animals turned away, ignoring him.

As he went about the chore, Riv frowned.

The animals better not get used to having anyone else around. People couldn't be trusted.

If his brother, Sohut, hadn't left the sanctuary on some business, the female would be in his hovercar heading back to Geblit immediately.

He'd take her now. Right now. Only, he couldn't leave the Sanctuary unattended without planning first.

The animals needed him.

The umus alone would make such a racket, they would be heard for miles if they didn't get fed on time.

Glancing back toward the building he'd left the female in, Riv shoveled harder.

Despite that she’d been spending most of her time inside, he was still very aware of her presence.

Just what had Geblit been thinking, dropping her off without warning him first?

If he had known it was a female in that box—heck, if he had known it was an intelligent being, he'd have turned Geblit away, favor or not.

With an angry grunt, he piled the dung he'd shoveled in a bucket and hauled the receptacle from the tilgran enclosure.

One of the tilgrans swooped its long neck to bump its head against his back and Riv growled.

At the sound, the animal hummed softly.

"Yea, I'm angry at you too," Riv muttered, locking the enclosure behind him.

As a matter of fact, he was angry at everything.

Females were...

Poison.

The image of his mother materialized in his mind and Riv squeezed the handle on the bucket as he moved toward the fruit fields. He couldn’t quite remember what his mor looked like, just bits and pieces.

Frowning even more, he pushed the memory of her from his mind and continued walking.

The tilgran dung would make great fertilizer for the plants in the fruit field. The tilgrans were the only animals in the Sanctuary whose dung could do that. All the others was too devoid of any valuable nutrients and was only good for fire light.

Glancing behind him as he moved, he saw no sign of the female and that was good. Grot probably had her busy. He knew the tevsi wouldn't hurt her, and he wouldn’t have allowed him to.

But it seemed Grot had come to his own conclusion about the female after he'd sniffed her out and found her worthy of his trust.

So quick to trust.

Grot had clearly been on the Sanctuary's lands for far too long.

The tevsi had forgotten.

But he wouldn't forget. He'd never forget.

Not when he bore the scars to remember...not when his nights were a constant fight because the dreams would come.

It had been years but that didn't dim the pain of the events that played like videos in his mind at moments when he tried to forget or tried to rest.

It was there all the time, reminding him.

As he trudged through the fields, the tall yellow-orange grass swaying around him, the serenity of his surroundings was the only thing that helped calm him.

It was why he was so far out, why he stayed away from people. The calm helped.

It helped a little.

Even now, alone in the middle of nowhere, memories threatened to break through his resolve.

He could see his mor, his mother, the first woman he'd trusted...and the one who had hurt him the most. She appeared before him again like an annoying specter.

He'd been just a chid when she'd sold him and his brother for just a few credits. Apparently, that was all they'd been worth, just enough for her to buy woogli smoke so she could get her next fix and hide away from reality.

The female she'd sold them to had been a Tasqal, one of the members of an elite race that was known for its exploitation of civilizations and beings young and old alike. That's who his own mother had sold him to—as a chid!

A phekking Tasqal.

Everyone knew Tasqals were vile creatures and his own mor had sold him to one.

He’d been hardly old enough to fend for himself, much less Sohut.

The memory of those first few nights in the pits mining precious metals came back to him hard and he tried to focus on spreading the tilgran waste over the roots of his plants.

The pits had been bad. A network of dark, damp, caverns filled with the stink of excrement and sex. No adult, much less chid, should have been sent to work in such conditions.

But even then it was better than working for the Tasqal female above ground. She'd have wanted him and Sohut in her bed. He'd known the only reason they'd been thrown in the pits to dig was because they'd been too young to fill her gaping cunt.

It was a horrible realization for a chid and an even more horrible one for a chid to live with.

He'd kept it from his brother—kept most of the bad things away.

At least, he'd tried.

Just as he did then, he had to work and focus. He couldn't let the past consume him.

Work. Focus.

He put the last of the tilgran waste along the roots of the plants and lifted his gaze to the pink sky.

He needed to get back to his animals.

It was the only thing that would push the memories away.

The animals always needed tending to, and that helped. It helped to keep his mind off things.

It gave him peace and quiet in his own head.

He loved the serenity…the solitude.

It was his and he owned it in his own space.

Nothing could take that away from him.

“Doo yoo need en-nee help?”

Riv closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Nothing except that.

SHE COULD HEAR him inhale deeply, even as his shoulders stiffened.

Damn.

It was very clear he disliked her presence.

After he'd left her in the barn with the huge death-dog, she'd decided to wait it out there but then she was pretty sure he was probably going to leave her there if she let him.

She'd finally found him a long way off from the buildings in a field with large trees that looked laden with red and orange fruit. As she neared the trees, she realized the "fruit" had thick fur. They were the shape of peaches, some with fur redder than others, some with fur more orange than others, and some with fur that had a balance of both colors.

He'd been shoveling some soft purple mush onto the roots of the trees, moving along the line as he did, unaware of her approach.

She hadn't meant to creep up on him but having no shoes, her steps had practically been silent on the soft ground.

When it was clear he hadn't seen her approach, she'd finally decided to say something to him.

"Do you need any help?"

Now she stood watching him as he exhaled slowly.

He'd snapped his head in her direction then, a growl rumbling through him.

Lauren tried to smile.

"I could help with whatever you're doing, you know. I don't have much experience but...I could help out anyway. I’m a fast learner. You won’t know I’m here. I won’t even get in your hair."

Her gaze moved to his hair then, to the golden coils decorating some strands, before her eyes settled on his face.

Even with the cloth around his face, she could see his jaw working as he clenched his teeth.

Instead of replying to her, he made a low growl before he moved off to another section of the trees, squeezing random fruits as he moved past.

Lauren gulped and followed him. Behind her the huge dark dog walked in her footsteps, almost as if it thought she was its new friend...or plaything?

She wasn't about to forget the way she'd been knocked backward by the animal. If it had wanted to shake her in its mouth like a chew toy, it could have.

With that thought, she hastened her pace to catch up with the blue alien.

He still hadn't said anything to her. He seemed to be ignoring her, actually. Or, at least, trying his best to do so. The rigid set of his shoulders told her he was all too aware of her presence.

She wasn't usually one to fill awkward silences, but she felt the need to say something.

Maybe that need stemmed from not having anyone to talk to for a whole year.

“You know, these look like peaches back where I'm from, though smaller,” she said, her eyes on his back as she trailed behind him. “And without the fur.”

No response.

“I can’t think of any fruit that had fur. Sure, we had fruit with weird outer skin.” She paused. “Like dragon fruit…that was kinda strange.”

No response.

"Did you plant these?"

With a grunt, he glanced back at her, his brows dipped behind his dark glasses.

Okay, maybe she was talking too much.

Moving over to the other row of trees, but careful she wouldn't lose sight of the alien, Lauren reached up and touched one of the fruits.

The fur was unbelievably smooth. She could imagine this would make great bedding or mats of some sort.

The fruit was hard when she squeezed it so she moved to the another tree down the line and did the same thing, following the actions of the alien in the row next to her.

As they worked in silence, she could almost feel his eyes on her, but she kept her gaze on her task...whatever this task was.

She assumed he was checking if any of the fruit was ripe and by ripe, she assumed the fruit would be soft when squeezed.

It didn't take long before she found one that her fingers sunk into without breaking the skin.

Elated, she squeezed the fruit again. "Hey! I think I found one."

The death-dog, Grot he'd called it, came closer and bumped her with its nose and she was sure she heard a grumble in the next row.

Looking his way, she found the alien was still moving down the row, ignoring her.

"Uh, I think I found one?" Her voice waned and her smile fell.

She wasn’t getting through to him.

She could almost laugh at her circumstances.

First, she’d been stuck behind a glass barrier with no one to speak to.

Now, she was outside that barrier and she still had no one to speak to because the one being in her presence didn’t want her there.

Beside her, a loud boom vibrated through the air as Grot...barked? It was such a deep sound, she stared at the animal, unable to comprehend how that sound could come from a living thing.

Yea, this was no chihuahua.

But the sound caught the alien's attention.

With a grumble underneath his breath, he moved over to where she stood, his blue hand grasping the fruit she was holding, barely brushing over her fingers before she let go.

He paused as he squeezed the fruit before snapping it from the tree and walking away.

"Why, thank you, Lauren. You're welcome, sir," she murmured low as she followed him, but he continued on, either ignoring her or deciding not to respond.

She was pretty sure he heard her, even if he couldn’t understand what she’d said.

As they left the field, her bare feet treading in the path he made through the grass with his boots, the death-dog followed behind.

A yawn made her mouth spread wide.

She didn’t know how she was tired when she’d spent the day doing nothing.

She was more tired than she'd realized actually.

Maybe finally sleeping properly for two nights in a row had her body wanting to catch up on months of lost sleep.

Looking upward, the sun was still high in the sky, though.

Stifling back another yawn, she followed Riv.

He headed to the enclosure with the cow-hippos next, closing the gate behind him. When he turned to face her, his brows were still beneath his shades.

Lauren fought back a smile.

He was so grumpy. There was no reason to be irritable, especially in such good weather.

He had no idea how lucky he was, living out on such a beautiful farm, free from aliens who wanted to rape or eat him.

Compared to where she’d been, this was paradise.

Leaning against the enclosure fence, the death-dog settled by her and she watched Riv work.

He began shoveling uneaten hay and grain while the animals mostly ignored him.

He moved with the efficiency of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

“So,” she said, “you do all this work alone? No one to help you?”

Riv paused and looked her way.

His brows weren’t beneath his shades now but they were starting to go there the longer he looked her way.

It was almost as if he’d gone into his head while working and forgotten she’d been watching him.

“I couldn’t do all this work alone. I sucked at doing anything manual. Not that I didn’t try or anything.” She paused. “I worked in a bank back on Earth. I was an investment banker. But I guess we were alike, a little.” She smiled at him. “I farmed for great portfolios and interest rates. You farm for…” She tilted her head and shrugged. “I don’t know what you farm for.”

Riv’s brows were beneath his brows now and she resisted a chuckle.

She was talking too much.

And, the funny thing about it was that, even though she knew he couldn’t understand her, she couldn’t stop speaking.

A year without having anyone to speak to had been torture. She realized that now.

For the most part, she’d talked to herself to keep from going crazy. But right now, she never valued the gift of conversation more—even if it was with a guy who clearly didn’t like her.

So she kept talking, lowering her voice so she wasn’t bothering him, and told him about her job back on Earth, of the clients she remembered, and her coworkers.

She told him of her parents and her friends, of her little two-seater car and her horrible neighbors.

Whatever came to her mind, she spoke about it and by the end of the day, when the sun began going down, she felt surprisingly fulfilled.

Talking was indeed therapy.

When Riv set his rake down and turned to look at her, brows still beneath his shades, she knew he’d had enough of her and it was time to go inside.

He moved toward the gate then, his eyes on her even though she couldn’t see them. She could feel them, though.

That intense gaze of his was locked on her.

He paused at the gate and gave her a long look and Lauren found herself swallowing hard.

Suddenly, his presence was overpowering.

When he’d been moving around the enclosure and not directly beside her, she could almost forget that he was the large, dangerous male that had opened her box and snarled at her.

But now that was coming back to her.

It was coming back to her really quickly, for in his silence there was danger lurking—a bit like how a snake could be silent and then launch itself at you suddenly.

Without a word, he exited the enclosure, slammed the gate shut and walked toward the main building.

She guessed she should follow him then?

14

ENTERING THE MAIN BUILDING, the dog trailing behind her, Lauren stepped into the corridor of the dwelling and headed to the front room where she'd held her host at gunpoint.

There was no sound other than her own movements through the space and, once again, she wondered where he’d disappeared to.

He didn't seem to want to spend even a second longer than necessary in her presence.

But the fact that he left her alone to fend for herself must mean that he trusted her, right?...if even just a little. Either that or he just didn't care what she did or what happened to her. She could try running away and leaving his farm and she doubted he would bat an eye in her absence.

Resting herself into one of the chairs by the table, her feet drummed on the floor as she waited. The dog, Grot, came and rested in front of her, laying on its side, its four eyes blinking at her before it looked off uninterestedly.

Well, at least he was better company than his owner...who was still missing.

"I wonder where your owner is," she murmured, and Grot's focus came back to her. "Do you know where he went off to?"

The dog didn't answer. Instead, it looked away again, it’s eyes reflecting boredom.

Lauren chuckled slightly. "You know, when I was young, we had a Golden Retriever and I used to talk to him all the time. Ask him about his day, tell him about my problems...you know, the typical things you talk to a dog about. One day my father saw me talking to the dog." She leaned down on her elbows, her face resting in her palms. "I was in a really bad mood that day and I was shouting at the poor animal, asking him why he wouldn't talk back to me. My stepdad came out and saw me. You know what he said?"

Grot didn't make any indication he was even listening.

Lauren continued anyway. "He said that I should stop forcing the dog to talk because if he did speak, I wouldn't like it." She paused, the memory running through her mind. She remembered it like it was yesterday. "I never talked to the dog like that again. Dad was right. It would have scared the hell out of me if my dog had answered.” She looked at Grot, who was still staring at nothing in particular. “On Earth, dogs don't speak," she whispered, eyeing Grot. "Funny. If you spoke right now, I wouldn't even be surprised...Guess that's what knowing aliens exist does to you. It messes with your mind and your perception of reality and everything you thought you knew. For all I know, I could still be in the terrarium imagining all this."

Easing up off her elbows, Lauren inhaled deeply as she glanced around the room.

"That wasn’t supposed to end like that. It was supposed to be a funny story but I guess this is no laughing matter." She sighed. "I just…I guess I’m nervous, you know?" She paused. “Your owner really doesn’t care that I’m here, does he?”

Grot raised his head a little to look at her, a low sound in his throat as if he was telling her not to get her hopes up about that.

"Yea, you're right. But...where does that leave me then?"

As she watched the dog get disinterested once more, its head resting back on the floor, Lauren swallowed hard.

Where did that leave her?

THE FEMALE WAS NOISY.

Even two rooms over and with the cleansing unit on, he could hear her talking.

Who on Hudo III was she even speaking to?

Her soft, feminine voice sounded happy even though she was in less than desirable circumstances.

He hated happy people.

Their happiness was irritating.

Using the soap berries to create a lather, Riv soaped himself, his scowl still prominent.

She was still talking.

He could hear her.

Her native tongue was one he'd never heard before, and he'd heard many. Life in the mines had exposed him to most of them. But hers was different.

Some of her syllables were drawn out and some were barely pronounced. It sounded almost as if she was speaking Urgli—there'd been one being in the mines who'd spoken that language—but the words the female said weren't Urgli words.

Geblit had said she was a…human. The word came back to him suddenly.

He'd never encountered that species before and he could only assume she'd come from some far out planet.

Turning on the water spout, he allowed it to wash the soap suds from his frame before the blast of warm air hit him to dry him.

Satisfied, he exited the cleansing unit and went to his room.

Phek.

She was still talking.

Outside the cleansing unit, her voice was even clearer in the silence of the dwelling.

And he could smell her too. Her scent still lingered in the corridor from when she’d walked through it.

It was so strange to hear a conversation in his house that even though he was scowling in her direction, he couldn't help but stop and listen a little.

A female hadn't graced his dwelling in, well, forever.

His brother, Sohut, didn't invite females over and he certainly didn't, so hearing a female inside his space was a little jarring.

Slipping a loose tunic over his shoulders and pulling on a fresh pair of trousers, he walked slowly toward the sound of her voice.

She was sitting by the table, arms crossed as she spoke to Grot, who, surprisingly, was laying by her feet, listening to her speak.

How he could stand the constant chatter, Riv didn't know.

He paused by the doorway, frowning at her.

Of all the things Geblit could have brought to him, why this?

Geblit must have known he'd bought an intelligent being; he must have known she wouldn't fit in with the other animals in his Sanctuary.

It wasn't as if he could put her in one of the enclosures...could he?

She looked in his direction then, big brown eyes widening slightly as she saw him standing there.

No. He couldn't put her in one of the enclosures. Even if he wanted to.

That would be cruel.

He was many things, but he wasn't cruel.

He'd let her stay in the spare room for one more dark-cycle then he'd take her to the exchange and find someone who would take her off his hands since Geblit wouldn’t return for her.

It took him a few moments to notice she was still staring at him and the realization made him stiffen a little.

Even when she wasn’t speaking, it was as if he could hear her anyway.

That, and she was looking at him strangely.

Her eyes were the most expressive he had ever seen on any being and whenever she was focused on him, it felt as if she was looking through his soul.

She better not.

She wouldn’t like what she saw there.

Right now, though, he couldn’t quite make out what she was thinking.

Not that he wanted to know.

Anything she was thinking could be kept to herself for all eternity.

But even as he moved toward the cook room, her eyes followed him, and as he neared her, he saw something in her eyes that he did recognize.

Lust.

He knew that look. He’d seen it many times and never had it come from a good place.

Riv stiffened and his skin bristled as he passed the female and entered the cook room.

He should turn back and go to bed, leave her unfed.

The fact she was looking at him like that…

What did she want?

He wasn’t a chid anymore. He knew all the wiles females used to get what they wanted and whatever she wanted, it wasn’t going to come from him.

Grabbing a bowl of premade rai, he filled it with gada paste and returned to the main room.

The female was watching him silently, those expressive eyes studying him as if she was trying to figure him out.

Riv grunted at the thought.

As he placed the bowl in front of her, her eyes widened a little and a smile split her face.

He found himself staring at her face for far much longer than he should have and when Grot made a low rumble, it broke him from his trance.

“—yoo so much.”

She’d been speaking as well. He hadn’t heard a word even though he’d been watching her mouth move.

Shaking his head a little, he zoned in on the fact that he was still standing by her chair, their bodies so close he could sense the warmth coming off hers.

Jerking away, he shook himself mentally.

He needed to go to bed. Bed and away from this room.

Away from these thoughts.

Away from her.

LAUREN ATE the bowl of cereal slower this time.

She was intent on savoring every drop. There was no telling when she’d be back to eating those meal bars she still had—they never seemed to go bad.

She’d thought he was going to stay and eat with her but looking back now, she should have known better.

He didn’t want to be around her.

He wasn’t a complete dick, though. He was feeding her. He’d given her a nice room for herself. And most of all, he hadn’t tried to touch her inappropriately.

As far as it seemed, he didn’t even see her as female.

…Which she guessed was okay.

Lauren stared at the now empty bowl.

Why did that make her feel a bit…strange inside? Disappointed even.

She should be happy he wasn’t looking at her like that. The aliens that had looked at her like she was female hadn’t been subtle about their intentions. It’d been clear what they had wanted from her.

Sighing, Lauren ate in peace for what felt like a good hour, each mouthful of food savored to an extreme extent till it slipped down her throat.

From now on, she would never take proper meals for granted ever again. Not after having those meal bars for a year.

When she finally finished, she stood and moved to the room she supposed was the kitchen.

There were gadgets in there that she had no idea the purpose of.

She didn’t even see a stove or anything that looked like one.

There was an indentation in the counter and she assumed that was the sink but as far as she could see, there was nothing to wash the bowl with.

Setting the bowl down, she was about to turn and look for soap of some kind when a robotic hand exited a compartment and grabbed the bowl.

Lauren jerked backward.

Another robotic hand followed the first and both began washing the vessel without her intervention.

She found herself staring at the thing for quite some time. Well, she stared until it completed its task, put the bowl away in what she’d call a cupboard, and slipped back into its compartment as if it didn’t even exist.

Impressed with it, she glanced around the kitchen.

She better not touch anything else. Who knew what else a robot could be lurking in and where.

Backtracking, she exited the room, a yawn causing her to cover her mouth. She guessed she should go to bed then.

Grot lifted his head, looked at her, and stood, padding behind her.

Lauren looked back at him, startled for a moment, before a soft smile touched her lips.

The more time she spent around the dog, the more she was getting used to him and he was really a soft thing.

Turning, Lauren continued down the corridor, her steps slowing as she passed the bedroom she assumed was Riv’s.

At first, there was no sound and she was about to continue walking, thinking her host was sound asleep, when her ears caught something.

Lauren paused.

The sound came again, something like a groan, and Lauren stopped moving completely.

When the sound repeated, Lauren’s brows furrowed in concern, her breath held in her throat.

For a moment, no more sounds came and she thought whatever was happening to her host had stopped. But, as she convinced herself of this, the groaning started again.

It was such a tortured sound that it sent alarm bells ringing. It was the type of sound a person made when they were in great pain.

When the sound came through the door once more, Lauren bit her lip.

He was in pain.

She could feel it.

Her hand lifted to the locking panel by the door and, at another place at another time, she’d have entered the room to check if he was okay.

She contemplated doing that now but logic said she should walk away. It wasn’t her place to do such a thing.

He didn’t want her on his Sanctuary, she was pretty sure entering his personal room would make things worse.

She should walk away.

Walk away, Lauren, do not enter.

Lauren bit her lip, swallowing hard as another groan reached her ears.

WALK AWAY.

15

HE WAS WORKING in the mines. He could smell the thick stench of sweat, sickness, and sex. Beside him, Sohut was digging, too, his little hands going deep into the hole he'd made in the rock to find the rare talik metal the Tasqals wanted so badly.

It was what everyone around them was doing. Males. Females. Chids. It didn't matter the age.

They all woke early and went to bed late, working tirelessly to mine the metal from the unforgiving rock.

His and Sohut’s bucket was almost full after a day of digging tirelessly, their small hands broken and chipped by the sharp rock.

"It's almost full, Sohut," he said. "We're almost done for today."

Sohut sniffled.

The dust in the mines irritated the soft lining in his nose, making it difficult to breathe.

Every time Sohut sniffled, it hardened Riv’s resolve to get them out of the mines one day.

Their mother had sent them there to die but they wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t let it happen.

“Just a few more, Sohut. Then our bucket will be full. Then we’ll be done. We’ll be done and they’ll let us rest.”

"Is that so?" the voice beside them had Riv turning quickly, his small hands closing around the adult-size mining chisel.

Sohut's eyes widened a little, his ears pricking from beneath his hair, as he saw who it was.

Traakni leered at them. He was a tall male; a merkannian by blood, but his golden skin was almost completely hidden by the dirt and the dust from the mines.

Traakni blinked at them with his one eye and Sohut moved a little out of his view.

It wasn't the first time that Traakni had come to steal their days' work. As a matter of fact, he'd done it before, many times, and gotten away with it. And Riv had been the one to take the whippings for not turning in any metal—whippings and working all night to fill the bucket, only to spend the following day working his normal shift, too.

Mining talik metal was hard and some degenerates in the mines preyed on chidren like him and Sohut, preferring to steal than to do an honest day’s work.

No one in the mines could be trusted.

He'd learned that early.

They all hated working for the horrible Tasqals, but being in the mines was better than being in the Tasqals’ beds.

At least, that’s what he’d heard some of the older miners say.

He didn’t understand what was so bad about being in a bed. A bed was better to sleep in than the hard floor of their cave down in the mines.

"Leave us alone, Traakni," Riv said, standing his ground in front of the adult male.

He didn’t care that Traakni was older than he was. Stronger.

He would fight him if he had to.

He had to be strong for Sohut.

They were all each other had.

"Oh shut it, you little shit." Traakni moved quickly, grabbing their bucket filled with metal and emptying it into his own.

Riv watched him do it, the world slowing down completely with Traakni moving in slow motion.

He didn't know what happened.

It was a fire within him that he didn't know had been there.

He was tired of it all. Tired of thinking this had been a mistake and his mor would return for him and Sohut. Tired of believing in such a fairy tale. Tired of working in the mines.

Tired of the endless labor.

Tired of the nightmares that reminded him it was the one person he trusted in the world that had caused him and his brother such a fate.

He lashed out, launching himself at Traakni, barreling his small body into the male's side.

Traakni’s one eye widened as he jerked backward.

He hadn’t expected retaliation and, on the uneven ground, he couldn’t regain his balance.

Riv watched, frozen as if watching a moving clip, as Traakni fell over the edge, the talik metal falling with him.

A sickening crack had echoed upward and Riv gulped hard, his small heart pumping in his chest hard.

“Is he okay?” Sohut crept up behind him as Riv’s heart began hammering even harder.

He wanted to answer Sohut but he didn’t know.

He didn’t know if Traakni was going to be okay.

“RIV?”

Sohut’s voice sounded…different.

Riv turned to look at his brother.

Sohut was disappearing ever so slowly, his body fading along with the mine around them.

“Riv?”

He’d been wrong. It wasn’t Sohut’s voice.

This voice was female. He’d heard it before, too.

Eyes flying open, darkness greeted him.

There was no chink-chink of metal in buckets.

No mining sounds.

No smell of sex, sweat, or dirt.

He wasn't in the mines anymore. He was home.

His home.

His quiet home.

Releasing a breath, he rubbed a hand over his face before he froze.

That voice.

The female voice.

Surely, he’d been dreaming.

She hadn’t…

Turning his head slowly, almost painfully, to the side, Riv stiffened.

She had.

The female knelt by his sleeping cushion in the dark, her hand hovering over his arm as if she meant to touch him but paused in the process.

His systems suddenly felt overloaded. The mere sight of her so close, in his room, made the pent up anger from his dreams burst within him immediately.

Moving much faster than she expected, he snatched her offending arm by the wrist.

What the phek was she doing in his room? Who invited her into his private space?

“Are you lost, human?” he growled.

She was close enough that he could feel her deep breaths on his skin as her breathing picked up pace.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” he snarled, inadvertently leaning in closer, and that was a mistake.

Her scent filled his nose, fueling his anger and setting something else aflame within him at the same time.

She’d entered his room for a reason. A reason he wanted to know.

Deceptive beings—males, females, everyone.

They always wanted something.

No one was there to trust.

The female winced a little and he could see fear enter her eyes as he held onto her wrist.

Her play at innocence was irritating and he wished she’d drop the act.

She was wasting time trying to deceive him.

It wouldn’t work.

“What do you want?” The words were hard to get out. They felt constricted in his throat, coming up through his gritted teeth. He wanted to snarl at her more, tell her to get out of his space, incite more fear into those big brown eyes…

“Ai dohn’t want en-nee thing. Yoo werr haff-ing ah nait-meer.”

Her voice was the last thing he needed to push him over the edge. So deceptively soft and innocent…as if she wasn’t cut from the cord of all other females who’d managed to come close to him in the past.

Sitting upright so quickly she didn’t have time to react, Riv pulled her with him and she fell against his chest, her body lying sideways against his.

Her chest heaved against his as she pulled huge breaths into her body, her wide eyes searching his face.

Her throat moved as she swallowed hard.

“Leht mee goh.”

Her eyes searched his face and it was evident she was having trouble making out his features in the dark.

But he was having no trouble making out hers.

He could see her quite clearly and the look in her eyes, the frantic way she was beginning to pant, they both told him she was in over her head.

Whatever she’d planned…whatever she was doing…it wasn’t going the way she’d intended.

That minor victory eased some of his tension.

Loosening his grip a little, he kept her wrist enclosed by his palm.

The phek was she doing in his room?

He thought he’d made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with her.

He’d growled. He’d snarled. He’d tried not to encourage her company.

But here she was…

And the bad thing about it…

The more he stared down at her…the longer her body heaved against his…the more his anger dissipated, till he was left just staring down at her, wondering how he’d moved from bristling anger to…whatever this new feeling was.

Try as he wanted to ignore it, her body felt soft against his…her scent intoxicating.

And though she was wary, though she wasn’t sure what he was going to do next, behind her fear he could see her own anger simmering.

Only, she was much better at controlling it than he was controlling his.

She was waiting to see what he would do before she reacted…and right now his body was telling him he wanted to do one thing while his mind was fighting in the opposite direction.

Feeling her against him was making him react in a way that hadn’t occurred in a while.

Not like this.

His cock was growing hard. Very hard. And without his interference.

He could feel it pressing against his trousers…against her leg.

He should let her go.

He should release her and usher her from his room.

He should…

Something moist bumped against his arm, bringing him from his daze, and he turned his head slightly to see Grot rubbing his head against him.

The tevsi could sense his battling emotions. Grot was trying to calm him.

Riv closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Calm.

Calm.

Regain control.

Calm.

Releasing her wrist, he let his arm fall as he bent his head and fought to control his warring thoughts.

“Go,” he said.

As she lifted herself off him, her movements were jerky and he could feel her flaming gaze on him.

“Ugh, yoor soh difikult. So rood ahnd, ahnd, juhst…mahdennin! Ai was uhnesstly juhst trahy-ing to help yoo.”

Grot made a sound of disapproval in his throat and he didn’t need to understand the female’s language to know that she wasn’t pleased.

Well, that made two of them.

She’d just have to deal with it.

Just like he was going to have to deal with the emotions in his heart and the hardened cock in his pants.

As the female stormed from the room, Grot made another sound and followed after her.

He only had a second to realize that his tevsi was escorting the female to her quarters as if he, Riv, had just committed some crime and wounded her in some way.

He watched them go, unable to call his animal back to his side.

He was the one that was wounded.

Wounded by years of pent up rage and hatred.

Only, unlike the female’s wounded pride, which would be healed by the next light-cycle, he had no such hope of relief.

16

IT WAS in the early hours of the next light-cycle that he heard a loud feminine shriek followed by the loud booms of Grot barking.

He'd already awakened and had been pulling on his trousers when the exclamation hit his ears.

It didn't take him long to move, fastening the clasps of the trousers as he hurried toward the female’s room, tension in his shoulders.

He hadn’t been able to sleep for the entire dark cycle.

Not after she’d invaded his room…his thoughts…the barrier he’d placed around himself.

"Ah, Grot. Calm down."

He knew that voice and for a second it confused him.

What was Sohut doing in the female’s room? He hadn’t even heard him return..

"Hoo dah hell arr yoo?" He knew that voice too.

Hearing it again after last night made a sort of chill run down his spine that made him anxious to see the female.

He wasn’t sure he could look at her without remembering the night before.

It was something he should forget. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to.

The door to the female’s room was open when he got there and the scene inside had him stopping in his tracks.

Sohut stood against the wall, his eyes wide and his hands in the air as if in surrender.

In front of him, Grot stood on all fours, teeth bared, snarling at his brother as if he’d never seen him before.

Behind Grot, the human stood with his blaster in her hands, the business end of which was pointed at his brother.

The phek did he walk in on?

He didn't know if he should be angry or if he should laugh at the sight.

Only Sohut's gaze moved toward him. His brother kept his entire body rigid, but the look in his eyes was one of pure shock.

"What the phek, Riv?" Sohut’s gaze moved to Grot then to the female. “Grot won't listen to me and this...what is this?” Sohut looked at the female. “Who is this? She has me at blaster-point in my own house!"

Sohut’s eyes grew wider as if he couldn't believe what he was saying.

"Yoor house?" The human glanced his way and Riv felt himself stiffen, images of the night before coming back to his mind immediately.

"Yoo noh dis mahn?" She jerked the blaster in Sohut’s direction and Sohut's eyes widened some more.

"Are you going to disarm her or let her shoot me? Phek that, Grot might rip me apart first," Sohut spoke, his gaze falling to the tevsi, which was still growling in front of the human.

It took him a second to realize Grot was…protecting the human. Protecting her. Against his own brother.

Riv frowned.

Grot had lived with both him and Sohut since he was a pup.

What had gotten into the tevsi?

"Grot," he said, intending to call off the tevsi's defensive stance but he garnered only a sideways glance from the animal.

What the phek?

He found himself staring at Grot, not believing what the tevsi was actually doing.

"Grot would never attack you, you know that,” he spoke to Sohut, his eyes still on Grot. “I don’t understand why he’s doing this."

Sohut's gaze fell on the human. "I scented her. Found her here.” He glanced at Riv for a second. “Probably leaned in too close…I was just wondering what she was. Thought she was merssi at first."

Riv's gaze fell on the human. She still had the blaster raised, not backing down.

He'd noticed the similarity himself. She did look merssi. An albino one without a tail and horns.

His gaze fell to his blaster.

What was she doing with it anyway?

She must have went and gotten it after…realization dawned on him and his eyebrows rose a little.

The humor of the situation wasn’t lost on him.

She’d gone to the main room for his blaster after last night.

She’d slept with it for protection.

Riv snorted.

Impressive. He would give her that. But she didn’t need protection from him.

“She bested you,” he whispered.

“Wh-what was that?” Sohut glared his way before his gaze narrowed. “She did not best me. Pardon me, brother, for being surprised to see a female in our dwelling. So surprised I didn't know how to react. And Grot..." Sohut frowned at the tevsi. "You traitor..."

He couldn't argue with that. Grot was a traitor. Taking sides with an unknown female he had no affiliation with.

"Hees not ah tray-tor. Hees juhst pro-tek-tin mee. Yoo leened in so klohz, yoo stahr-tled me. I thot yoo werr gowin to bahyt mee." The female glared at Sohut, jerking the blaster at him as she spoke.

A smile almost graced his lips at the sight but then that was quickly done away with when the female turned on him.

“And yoo!” Her lips tightened into a line and her eyes narrowed on him. “Yoo. Ai dohnt ee-ven haff en-nee thing too say too yoo.”

He had no idea what she said but somehow he felt…rebuked?

Riv stiffened, his arms crossing over his chest.

Sohut glanced his way. "What's she saying?"

"No idea. I don't have her language download."

"Call Grot off."

"He isn't listening to me."

A pause.

"Tell the female to call him off."

The female?

Glancing at her, her large innocent brown eyes made him scowl.

"The female has no power over my tevsi," he said, his words slow and low.

"In case you haven't noticed, brother, she does. I'd warned you about tevsis and females. They are protective of females."

Right.

He'd forgotten about that.

It only made him scowl some more.

“I don’t think she could understand me even if I tried.”

Sohut’s lips tightened. “Try. I can’t move and I can’t stand here all day. I’ve got things to do.”

That was true and Grot didn’t seem as if he was going to stop snarling any time soon.

"You," he directed the female. "Drop your weapon...my weapon," he scowled some more, "and relax. Sohut is my brother. He will not harm you."

It took a few blinks of those brown eyes before the weapon sagged in the female’s hands and she said something in her language to the dog.

"Good doggo."

Grot ceased growling and relaxed, sitting on his haunches by the female’s feet.

“See, she understood you.” Sohut let his hands lower slowly, his eyes on the tevsi. “She probably has a translator implant. Did you check?”

Riv frowned, his glare passing from the female to his brother. “Do I look like I want to touch the female?”

Mightn’t look it but yes. Yes, he did.

He wanted to touch her.

Very badly.

But he’d rather lose all eight of his fingers first. If staying away from her was causing him trouble, he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if he went closer.

Sohut shrugged. “You could have asked her, you know.”

Didn’t occur to him.

He hadn’t wanted to converse with her. He’d only been forced to and something told him that even if he’d tried to lay down the rules with her, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

She’d have still followed him around the Sanctuary…still found her way next to his sleeping cushion in the middle of the phekking dark-cycle.

"His name is Grot." Riv forced his attention from Sohut back to the female. "Doggo" just sounded…weird.

He didn't like this female…

His entire Sanctuary felt different since she'd arrived.

Grot let his tongue hang out of his mouth and bumped his head against Sohut, who finally relaxed enough to pat the tevsi on the head.

"Hey, Grot," Sohut smiled at the tevsi. "You weren't really going to rip me apart, were you?"

Grot made a low rumble before lying flat on his belly. All the while, the human stood behind him, watching Sohut with guarded eyes.

Sohut lifted his gaze to the female.

“I am Sohut,” he said. “This is my brother, Riv.” Sohut jerked a shoulder in his direction. “I am sure he hasn’t introduced himself. He’s not very…good at this.”

The female looked his way, shooting a dagger with those brown eyes of hers.

Turning back to Sohut, she placed a delicate hand on her bosom. “La-rehn.”

Her name.

That was her name.

He didn’t need to be a dark matter physicist to understand that.

La-rehn.

Grudgingly, he decided he liked it.

He could like her name. He didn’t have to like her.

Shifting uncomfortably, he watched the exchange between the two.

Sohut was so much better at this than he was.

That’s why Sohut was the one who went off-Sanctuary on contracted jobs.

He couldn’t deal with beings the way Sohut could.

He didn’t want to.

“La-rehn,” Sohut turned the name over on his tongue and Riv stiffened.

Hearing her name come from his brother’s lips made an illogical bolt of irritation shoot through him.

“Greetings, La-rehn. Welcome to the Sanctuary.” Sohut reached out and put a firm hand on the female’s shoulder in greeting.

The female jerked but didn’t move away. She stood her ground and met Sohut’s gaze.

Riv barely heard what she said to his brother, not that he would have understood anyway.

His eyes were fastened instead on Sohut’s hand on the female.

He was touching her.

Something ticked inside of him and a growl rumbled deep in his throat before he could stop himself.

“Don’t touch her.”

It was only when he realized they both snapped their necks to look at him that he caught himself.

His breath stilled within him.

Phek. He’d spoken out loud.

The phek was wrong with him?

Clearing his throat, he softened his tone. “Don’t touch her. And don’t welcome her.” He frowned. “She isn’t staying.”

Sohut’s brows rose. "She’s not? Where's she going? Better yet, start with where she came from."

"Doesn't matter." He didn’t know how he was even managing to speak with a level voice. Right now he felt like raging and taking a quiet walk all at the same time.

His eyes were on the female, watching as she placed the blaster on the sleeping cushion.

He needed to put the weapon out of her reach. She was trigger-happy. "She's leaving today anyway."

"Why?” Sohut leaned against the wall. “And who's going to stay here with the animals?"

That caught Riv’s attention. "You."

"Can't." His brother crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze going distant.

They were just two orbits apart but Riv noted just how much younger Sohut looked. Younger, happier, less stressed.

He had no frown lines etched into his frons, no dark hole of sadness behind his eyes.

It made him relieved the struggle of their past hadn't affected Sohut as it had affected him. He'd worked hard to prevent that.

"I'm just stopping by for my gear," Sohut continued. "Kezna zoo has word of a strange new animal that escaped during shipment. It's in the Koznia Jungle. They’ve been trying to catch it for over an entire orbit. They need someone with experience to retrieve it."

Riv crossed his arms. It was rare for them to get such contracts but whenever they did, it always yielded good credits. He hated people but Sohut thrived on these jobs.

"Do you know what type of animal it is?" Depending on the species, he’d have a good idea of how long it’d take Sohut to capture the animal. Some species were more elusive than others.

"Something from some Class Four planet," Sohut replied.

"No idea of the species?"

"No idea."

Great.

Riv's gaze flicked to the human. She was still standing beside Grot, who was now resting with his eyes closed, but her gaze was on him.

He hadn’t realized she’d been staring and the realization set off a strange feeling crawling over his skin.

She couldn't stay.

He'd have to be the one to take her to the exchange, then.

Groaning within, he looked behind her and out the window.

He always had to mentally prepare before he went to such a crowded place as the exchange.

He’d have to do so now while he fed the animals and got ready to leave.

If he hurried, he could get them to the exchange before the dark-cycle and then return home.

Gaze flicking back to the human, she was still looking at him and there was some irritation behind her eyes.

Good.

He could live with that.

He could take her anger, her irritation, her disgust…

What he couldn’t take was what he thought he’d seen in her eyes the last dark cycle.

Concern.

The last thing he needed was her concern.

RIV’S BROTHER looked like his twin, only a little younger.

She found herself looking from one to the other, noticing the similarities and the differences.

Where Riv had frown lines, Sohut had none.

She couldn’t imagine why.

There was something startlingly different between them, though, and she’d noticed while they’d been conversing.

Sohut had a tail.

Riv didn’t.

She didn’t know much about aliens. As a matter of fact, she knew nothing about aliens, but she’d have thought because they were brothers they’d both have the same types of body parts.

It seemed strange for one to have a tail and the other not to.

And they were blood brothers. The facial similarity was too uncanny.

Sohut wore his hair up and away from his shoulders in a sort of man-bun and the locs and gold rings present in Riv’s hair were missing from his.

He was also slightly smaller than Riv—more lithe, as if Riv lifted the heavy weights while Sohut did work that required running and moving quickly.

She was listening to them speak while she studied them both when the conversation moved to her temporary stay at the Sanctuary.

Lauren gulped when Riv’s gaze fell on her.

She couldn’t read his eyes and he didn’t say anything, but it was clear her welcome had expired.

Great.

Now she had to steel herself and prepare for going back to that market.

A spike of anger filled her as she frowned.

She’d been getting used to the idea of staying at the Sanctuary, even though she’d known he didn’t want her living there.

That was her fault. She couldn’t feel bad.

It wasn’t like there’d been a promise of anything permanent.

Stepping backward, she perched on the edge of the floating bed, her eyes downcast.

She’d be leaving again soon.

Suddenly, the same dilemma she’d had with Geblit was rearing its head again so soon.

She’d be taken back to the market, no doubt, and sold.

Memory of the tall aliens with blades on their bodies returned to her and she shivered.

There had to be a better way to live than this.

For a moment, she contemplated running away. It wasn’t the greatest of ideas but it wasn’t the worst either.

Biting her lip, she was deep in thought when she realized Riv was leaving the room.

Her head lifted as he exited, leaving his brother behind.

Sohut was studying her with the same green gaze of his brother and that uncanny feeling hit her again. Only, his gaze wasn’t as hard as Riv’s. His gaze was more curious.

“Which planet are you from?” His gaze was intense and unreadable like his brother’s.

“Earth.”

A light frown marred the smooth skin of his forehead.

“Never heard of it.” His frown disappeared. “Did you come to Hudo III through the hyperspeed tunnel?”

Lauren blinked. “Hyperspeed tunnel? No. I caught a cab,” she answered bitterly and immediately felt bad about it.

Her mood was suddenly sour. And it might be because his brother was planning on sending her away or the fact it didn’t feel like she belonged anywhere anymore but it felt as if the sun was going down on her.

It was a chilling feeling knowing your life hung in the hands of other beings.

Sohut blinked. “I do wish I could understand you. I can’t.”

Lauren huffed out a laugh. “Nope. Better you don’t hear what I feel like saying right now.”

Sohut frowned a little once more as he continued studying her. “I’d head to the exchange to get your language download but if you’re not staying for long, I don’t see why I should make the trip, unfortunately.” He frowned a little more. “It’d be interesting hearing about your world.”

Her world.

Earth.

As far as she knew, Earth had moved on without her and the thought only made a sinking feeling start in her stomach.

Sohut leaned off the wall, his gaze still on her. It was obvious he wanted to say more but the language barrier was a hindrance. He settled for smiling at her a little before stepping out of the room.

Lauren stayed seated for a long few minutes, depressing thoughts flowing in her mind like water through a broken tap.

When Grot lifted his head from the floor, his four-eyed gaze on her, he made a low boom in his throat as if to comfort her and Lauren smiled a sad smile.

“It’s almost like you’re the only one who can understand me here,” she said to the dog.

Releasing a sigh, she glanced around the room.

She guessed she should get ready to leave but she didn’t have any worldly possessions, so packing was easy. All she had to do was make sure she had her watch, which never left her wrist unless she was taking a shower.

Heading back out to the main room, she saw Sohut there, searching through the piles of gadgets they had stacked all over the room.

He glanced at her as she entered and offered her another polite smile, before he set a square gadget on the table and began looking through the others.

The square gadget looked like some alien cube that belonged in a crypt in Tomb Raider. If she touched it, she was pretty sure it would start moving on its own to unlock some combination that summoned a curse from the pits of hell.

“That’s a helix cube,” Sohut said over his shoulder. “It can create a shield that’s almost impenetrable.”

He brought another gadget to the table and set it down. This one was smaller and looked like a ninja throwing star.

“Net,” Sohut said. “Deploys once thrown.”

He smiled again, his eyes lighting up this time as he spoke. “It’s made of nobrac fibers. Can only be cut with blades made from talix metal.”

He really liked the gadgets, it seemed, and he was going all out to prepare to catch this elusive animal he was going after.

Turning, Sohut searched for something else, moving excitedly over the piles of stuff she thought’d been junk.

His delight with the gadgets was distracting enough that she could stop thinking about the mess that was her life for a second.

As she moved to stand beside him as he searched, he began pointing at things and telling her what they were.

Some things had useful descriptions, some she didn’t know why they bothered to keep them.

“This one catches the flatulence of ooga.” He held up a machine that looked like a horn attached to a balloon.

“Flatulence?” She couldn’t help but chuckle. What use would anyone have for a fart?

She was chuckling when a shadow seemed to come over the room and she turned to see Riv standing in the doorway, his furious gaze on her.

Well, no. His furious gaze was on her lips, as if he hated that she was smiling.

She could almost feel the energy emanating from his presence.

His shirt clung to his chest from whatever exertion he’d been doing outside and it outlined the cords of muscles on his chest.

He was all sexiness and rage. And that was confusing.

She liked him and she didn’t as well.

She couldn’t decide.

Lauren’s smile died on her lips and Sohut turned.

Riv growled when he met his brother’s gaze.

He actually growled and it was unlike any other time she’d heard him growl before.

It was an animalistic sound that spread through the air and made it vibrate against her skin.

“Stop fraternizing with the female,” was all he said before he turned and stormed back out the door.

17

AFTER SOHUT LEFT on his assignment, the grumpster had still not returned. Against her better judgement, Lauren ventured outside.

As she passed the enclosure with the tall purple giraffe-like things, one popped its long neck over the barrier so it could look at her. She wasn't sure if it was the same one that had licked her before.

Off in the distance, she could see Riv hauling what looked like large bales of hay toward another enclosure.

She moved forward a little and Riv glanced in her direction. His shoulders stiffened, his irritation evident, but he didn't say anything. She realized he wanted his space.

She could do that.

As she neared the enclosure he had disappeared into, she saw a new type of animal she hadn't seen before.

These ones were shaped like large crocodiles, and she'd have been alarmed that he'd entered an enclosure filled with about twenty of them if they didn't look so...docile.

They were shaped like crocodiles but without the hard edges. Their skin looked soft and brown and when one opened its mouth to grab some of the hay, she saw large flat teeth.

Definitely not a carnivore.

As her host emptied some of the hay into a pile, one of the animals closed its jaw around Riv’s boot.

"For phek's sake, Jaik. Let go."

Jake?

The animal's name was Jake?

Of all the names…

Riv shook his leg and dislodged the animal but as soon as it lost its grip, it came right back and bit his boot again.

As a tug-of-war between the two ensued, Lauren fought hard to keep her composure.

It was such a strange sight that she had to fold her lips to stop from laughing.

"Every phekking day." Riv managed to pull his boot from the animal's mouth before glancing her way. When he found her watching, he scowled some more.

Turning away, he began spreading more of the hay when Jake grabbed his trousers by the teeth and began pulling, almost making the large male lose his balance.

"Phek!"

That's it. She had to laugh. A chuckle escaped before she could cover her mouth.

Another of the animals joined in and then another and soon they were all piling on top of him, his curses being drowned out by the strange mewing sounds they were making.

They seemed to be biting at his clothes and licking him at the same time, almost as if they were playing, and his look of utter bewilderment only made her laugh more.

When his eyes locked with hers, Lauren pressed her lips together once more.

He was glaring at her as if daring her to laugh some more and that in itself made more laughter bubble within her.

As he cursed at them and pushed them off him gently, finally managing to free himself, Riv refused to look her way.

Lauren's gaze softened.

Despite his constant cursing and general standoffishness, he was kind to the animals. It was obvious he loved them.

That told her more about him than he realized but it also made her wonder why he seemed to dislike her so. He had a bad attitude, that was for sure, but there was softness underneath all that—except that soft, caring side was locked away. She only got his hard side.

Riv exited the enclosure finally, securing it behind him and his gaze fell in her direction. His gaze was pointed as he looked at her and the more he stared, the more he frowned.

"You," he finally said. "Are leaving. Right now."

BY THE TIME he pulled up at the exchange, there was resilience and determination in the female’s gaze and he had the distinct impression she’d been preparing herself for the trip just as he was, except maybe for different reasons.

The entire way, she’d been repeating something to herself. Over and over she’d said it till her shoulders stiffened and her chin lifted a bit—a motivational talk of sorts, he assumed, for she refused to meet his gaze, only focusing on the way ahead as she repeated the line minute after minute.

To think that not long from now he wouldn’t be hearing her voice anymore and those large brown eyes would no longer turn on him.

A strange feeling settled in the pit of his belly, almost as if a part of him didn’t want her to leave.

Ludicrous.

The only being who would be missing her would probably be Grot—the traitorous tevsi. He’d never look at Grot the same again. Falling so easily for a female.

Glancing at the tevsi now, his eyes met Grot’s four. Grot had insisted on tagging along, as if he knew the female was leaving—as if he didn’t want to see her go.

Well…too bad.

Exiting the hover craft, they walked through the gates of the exchange and Riv paused to adjust to the cacophony inside.

Grot let out a low boom on the other side of the female.

He supposed the tevsi was suddenly remembering his hatred of beings.

Good.

As soon as the female left, that meant things would go right back to normal.

The marketplace was already bustling with beings and the situation immediately made an unpleasant taste develop in his mouth.

It reminded him of the exchange he'd been in as a chid.

This one was different, though.

Cleaner.

It was overseen by the Interplanetary Union so that meant most beings obeyed the laws when it came to buying and selling.

There wasn't any smuggling...at least, not out in the open.

It was the best chance for the human in terms of finding a new home.

Walking beside her, Riv couldn't keep his gaze from falling to her constantly.

Most of the aliens walking through the exchange were bigger than she was. She could easily get lost, separated from him in the throng, and the thought made him close a hand lightly around her arm.

He was surprised she didn't shake him off but it seemed she was more concerned with taking in the sights of the exchange instead.

There was a stiffness in her shoulders as her gaze moved over the many beings shopping in the exchange and the stalls upon stalls on either side of the paved street.

There were beings selling all sorts of things. Whatever was needed, it could probably be found at the exchange.

There were Treggonians selling their urine, which was known for its healing properties, Movadrians selling fashionable garments made from materials only found on their home planet, a Lothrian selling klo ears, several sellers of woogli smoke, a Huvrarian selling pulse drives, and many other stalls.

There wasn’t much space to walk except for weaving their way through the constant push-pull of the shoppers.

Grot took to walking directly behind them for easier passage.

As there were so many beings in the street, he reckoned there’d be even more at the central trading station. He shouldn’t have a problem finding the female a new place to stay. She'd have a choice of who to go with, of course; he was only there to make sure she didn't end up in the hands of some being that would harm her. Most of all, he was also there to ensure she didn't return to his Sanctuary.

That was the priority.

Glancing behind to check on Grot, Riv’s gaze landed on a merkannian not far behind them. The gold-skinned male had his gaze fixed on the human by his side and it caused Riv to frown a little behind his eye-shades. It was a focused gaze.

The merkannian was watching her.

As they continued walking, every time he glanced behind them the merkannian was there, his gaze always on the female, never distracted, completely focused.

Riv bristled.

He didn’t know why that bothered him.

He was at the exchange for her to find a new home, wasn’t he?

If the merkannian was interested, that was a good thing.

Merkannians were some of the wealthiest on Hudo III. He wouldn’t be surprised if the male had a good home for the human to go to.

For, despite that he didn’t want her at the Sanctuary, and although he knew all females were poison, he wasn’t cruel.

He wanted whoever took her out of his hands to at least care for her.

Every being deserved that.

Pulling the human a little closer, they continued on.

As they arrived at the central trading station, where aliens congregated looking for odd jobs, long-term employment, and the like, he surveyed the buyers there.

Several of those seeking jobs were trying their best to catch potential employers' attention. Some were lifting weights and displaying their muscles, possibly trying to land jobs as security detail. Some were giving out samples of baked food, possibly trying to land employment as cooks. Some were even interacting with families traveling with young, possibly trying to land jobs taking care of chids.

But through all this, it wasn't lost on him that when they arrived, they’d gotten the immediate attention of several males in the vicinity.

Every bone in his spine stiffened.

He was used to being stared at when he wore his face covering and eye-shades.

But these looks were directed at the female by his side and he didn't need a degree in male cocks to know exactly what they were thinking. What surprised him more was his own response.

His nostrils flared and a rumble began in his throat.

It wasn't until the human jerked an elbow in his side that he realized he was squeezing her arm too hard.

"What sort of being in this?" One of the males approached. A Zedrurian. His mandibles moved with interest as he eyed the human.

Riv's eyes narrowed behind his eye-shades.

He hated Zedrurians. They were always trouble.

"Why do you want to know? What employment do you have?"

The Zedrurian's eyes flicked to Riv's only momentarily. "What can she do?"

The Zedrurian's tone was suggestive and Riv felt the need to grab him by the throat and stuff the words he’d uttered right back down whence they came.

Two more Zedrurian males approached, one adjusting his cock in his trousers without care to be subtle.

Sex workers weren't outlawed but...he didn't like the idea of the female becoming one.

He’d been forced into that life.

He knew what it entailed.

He knew how it could harm a person.

The human didn't like the idea, either, for she took a step backward, her soft features scrunching up as she looked at the males.

"Very soft," one of the other males murmured as his gaze traveled over the human. "I can give you good credits for a being like this."

The cock-jerker was the most forward of the two. His arm shot out and he grasped the human, who reacted immediately, jerking her arm as if trying to dislodge it so she could attack the male suddenly holding on to her.

But Riv reacted before she could do so, his hand closing over the male’s arm as he took a step forward.

"Don't touch what doesn't belong to you."

The male paused and looked down at Riv’s hand gripping his arm.

The air suddenly changed and Riv’s ears pricked from the sides of his head.

Through the corner of his eye, he could see the other two males place their hands over their hip blasters.

Grot’s low boom behind him told him the tevsi also felt the change in the air.

Riv sighed, his shoulders lifting and falling dramatically.

He was getting too old for this.

“I’ll say it again and only once,” he said, not bothering to hide the threatening tone that had come into his voice. “Let. The female. Go.”

The first Zedrurian, who he supposed was the leader of the trio, stepped forward slightly.

“Or what?” said the leader. “Far as I see it, it’s one of you and three of us.”

Riv brought his free hand up and used a finger to massage the center of his brow where the line of raised frilli that ran up his nose dissected.

This is why he hated most beings.

They were always so phekking selfish.

So self-centered.

So phekking entitled.

“Fine,” Riv breathed, his eyes still on the male holding on to La-rehn and he felt her stiffen beside him even more.

He let go of the male’s arm and the male glanced at his companions, a smug look on his face.

Fool.

That’s why he didn’t see it coming.

As Riv’s palm loosened from around the male’s arm, without warning he reached out and clasped the male by the throat.

His other hand had already retrieved his small blade from his pocket while the males had been too busy not paying attention.

The male choked, his mandibles swaying as he released the female and grabbed on to Riv’s hand, which was slowly restricting his airway.

His companions drew their weapons and when Riv heard the boom behind him, he almost smiled.

Grot was a blur as he launched into the air, landing on the male to his far right.

The male went down easily under the weight of the tevsi, his weapon flying across the space and out of reach as he shouted in surprise.

The leader raised his blaster to Riv’s head.

“You must be really stupid to think you could take all us three because you have a phekking tevsi,” the leader said. “Looks like you’re outnumbered, fool.”

Riv fought the urge to glare at the Zedrurian.

“You pull that trigger and your friend here can say goodbye to his gonads,” his reply was calm. “My tevsi happens to like small game.”

That made the male he was choking widen his eyes as he struggled and the leader’s gaze moved to fix on his companion’s crotch.

Riv tilted the blade he had positioned there and the metal pressed into the cloth of the trousers.

The leader paled a bit but his blaster didn’t fall.

The one whose gonads were in jeopardy began to gurgle something, which Riv assumed was some sort of protest to his boss.

After this, he doubted they would be friends anymore.

As the leader moved his weight from one leg to the other, Riv glanced to his side, intending to check on the female, but when he looked, his eyes fell on an empty space.

The human wasn’t there.

In alarm, his gaze scanned the area quickly to see where she’d run off to hide when he spotted her behind the male with the blaster in his hands.

“Dohnt moove muhth-er-fuhk-er.”

18

WHY HAD she thought this was going to be a simple trip?

Of course, nothing in this universe was simple. And she’d thought life on Earth had been complicated.

Moving behind Riv as slowly as possible so as not to catch the eyes of the aliens confronting them, she made her way to his other side.

Grot was snarling in the face of one of the aliens and not biting him to death, but it was obvious from the dog’s stance that one word from Riv and he would tear into the male without hesitation.

The one that was choking was still gripping Riv’s arm at his throat, trying to free himself, and the other male seemed to not think of her as a threat because he looked like he’d forgotten she existed.

Good.

Moving slowly, she slipped her mother’s watch from her wrist.

Fuck.

She had no idea what she was going to do but Riv was in trouble because of her and she had to do something.

As soon as she was in range, she spun and pressed the watch into the back of the alien’s head.

The male stiffened and Lauren swallowed hard.

“Don’t move, motherfucker.”

The alien froze.

For a few seconds, no one said anything before the slow laugh of the one she was holding up with a watch, the leader she assumed, met their ears.

He began to turn his head to look at her but she pushed the flat face of the watch into the back of his head some more.

“I said don’t move, fucking Predator, or this thing will blow your head off.”

Winging it.

She was totally winging it.

Here’s to hoping he had no idea what a watch was and that he didn’t decide to test her theory.

At the very least, she hoped she was buying Riv some time so he could think of something.

“Tell your jekin to remove whatever device she has against my cranium or I will shoot a hole in yours.”

Riv’s head turned slightly and she knew he was looking at her.

“You can’t understand her, can you?” he said after a few moments, so calmly it was as if he didn’t notice the gun at his head.

She was mildly aware that there was an audience around them and that only made this trickier. But chances were that none of them could understand her either.

And that was her advantage.

“He can’t understand you,” Riv said to her. “Pity.”

The way he said it had her frowning slightly till it dawned on her.

He was speaking in not-so-code. But she’d already been planning on using what he was hinting at to her advantage.

Hopefully, he’d play along and they could get of this shit.

“This is just a watch but you don’t know that.”

“What did she say?” The leader jerked his gun into Riv’s skull.

Riv paused before answering. “She said it’s a mini brain scrambler from her planet.”

Lauren almost choked but she caught it in time.

“It is completely useless. It can’t even tell the time anymore.”

“Translate,” the male said.

“She said it’s one of the most dangerous weapons on her home planet. It’ll fry your brain in a matter of seconds.”

The male stiffened, his eyes darting to the side as he tried to look at her without moving.

Lauren kept her face unaffected, though that was a monumental task.

“I should probably slap you with it, make it hurt you for real, just a little,” she whispered.

The male blinked and his blaster shifted a little. “What was that?”

“She said the longer she holds it, the longer your brain will fry. All she has to do is tell it to do so.”

The male shifted slightly.

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

Riv didn’t hesitate to answer. “You don’t.”

The male paled a little and after a few seconds, he lowered his blaster. Hands outstretched to his sides, he dropped the weapon.

Shit.

She hadn’t expected that to work.

As Riv released the male was who choking and the male scampered off, Grot eased off the one of the floor and turned to growl at the male before her.

Grot looked utterly terrifying.

All his teeth were bared and there was thick slobber dripping from his sharp fangs as if he was just dying for a meal.

He moved to stand beside Riv but the way the dog was standing told her that he was ready to pounce at any moment.

“I knew this watch would come in handy, but not like this.”

“What did she say now?” The male’s eyes darted backward as if he was trying to look at her without turning his head.

“She’s going to let you go now. Walk away and never phek with us again. Understand?”

The male nodded slightly.

As soon as she removed the pressure of the watch from his neck, the male hurried away with a few backward glances, almost tripping over his friends who was just rising from the ground.

Lauren watched him go, her shoulders still stiff with apprehension.

AS THE MALE moved away from the human, Riv glanced down at her to ensure she was okay.

He didn’t know why but the males irritated him to high phek.

Even more than the human did, and everything about her irritated him.

She seemed unhurt. Her eyes were still alert, though, as she kept her gaze on the retreating males.

She’d surprised him.

He had no idea if her device was indeed dangerous but her quick thinking had been impressive.

AS SHE FIXED the device on her wrist once more, he studied her.

No whimpering, no hiding, no playing the victim, no dramatics…

Not what he’d expected.

It’d felt a bit strange having someone who wasn’t Sohut or Grot in a standoff beside him, but she’d held her ground when he’d initially thought she’d have run away.

He didn’t know how to feel about that.

As he studied her, Grot moved forward and bumped his head against her side. The female reached down to pat the tevsi on the head immediately.

And he hesitated.

For a second he hesitated.

For phek’s sake. Was one incident going to make him forget his reason for bringing her to the exchange in the first place?

No.

Steeling himself, he pushed all wayward thoughts from his mind and refocused.

"Come," he said to her, slipping his blade in his trousers once more and ignoring the onlookers as he led her to the other side of the job exchange.

Maybe they’d have better luck on that side, where pesky idiots with fur for brains probably wouldn’t be.

That side wasn't better, though. The human seemed to be gathering the attention of more males, and not in a good way.

Riv frowned, scanning the area.

Off to one side, he caught sight of the merkannian who’d been trailing them on the street. The male was standing there still watching them and now his interest didn’t only irk Riv, it made him uneasy.

This idea of finding the female a new home wasn't going according to plan. Her species was new, too new, and it seemed most males wanted to try her.

It made him want to wring all of their necks.

Grot made a sound low in his throat and it was obvious the tevsi was picking up the negative atmosphere as well.

Riv scanned the males who were looking their way and his jaw tightened.

The majority had a look in their eyes that he’d so many times before while in the mines that it was burned into his memory.

It was clear.

Sending the female away with anyone at the exchange, despite the protection of the Interplanetary Union, would probably put her in danger.

She’d be used for sex. No doubt about it.

He didn't want her to stay at the Sanctuary but it would be cruel to thrust her into such a life without a choice.

And he wasn't cruel.

Closing his eyes, he held back a sigh.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to do it, even if he forced himself.

Phek.

He’d have to find another way to get her out of his life.

He was just about to walk away when a large male about his size approached. As the male advanced, the imprint of his cock in his trousers almost made Riv rebrandish his blade.

Was this what females went through daily or just this human?

Constant visuals of hard cocks wanting to find solace within their bodies?

The human's eyes widened as the male approached. No doubt she spotted the same protruding body part.

"I can give you three hundred credits for this...female." The male's eyes fell on the human and Riv followed his gaze.

The female glanced up at him, her glare filled with anger, shock, disbelief, and anxiety.

He knew that look and, for a moment, time stood still for him.

He’d had the same look when his mor had brought him to the exchange.

That. Same. Look. When he couldn’t believe what was happening to him.

When he couldn’t believe his life was being ripped from underneath his feet and there was hardly anything he could do about it.

"Two thousand.”

The voice and offer snatched him from his memories.

Riv’s eyes snapped up in time to see the large male in front of him turn to look behind him.

Standing behind the male was the merkannian that had been following them.

It was obvious he’d been the one to make such a ludicrous offer.

Two thousand credits could buy his Sanctuary three times.

It was a lot of money that would have made his pockets really comfortable but Riv knew for certain one thing…and it was a thought that came so forcefully, he wasn’t going to be able to deny it…He wasn’t letting the female leave with any of these fools.

“Two thousand," the merkannian repeated. "More if you have additional females of this kind in your possession."

Riv's eyes narrowed behind his shades. The shades were good cover, hiding his thoughts while he kept his voice unaffected.

"No.”

He pulled the female closer to his side, his gaze locked on the merkannian as the male followed the movement with his gold-ringed eyes.

"She's not for sale," Riv said.

The words came from his mouth and he heard them but he wasn't sure what the phek he was saying.

In that moment, though, it felt like the right thing to do.

He’d find another way to get rid of his chatterbox guest.

THE GRUMPSTER PULLED her closer to his side as he left the group of males who were obviously wanting to buy her for inappropriate reasons and a sigh shuddered through her shoulders.

She'd known his intent was to hand her off to someone but—and maybe a year having no real interaction with aliens was to blame—when it had come down to it, she'd been terrified.

She'd seen aliens all the time while in her terrarium, but interacting with them without a protective glass in between was another thing.

And it'd been clear what these males wanted from her. Very clear.

Like more than ten inches clear.

The most acceptable male she’d seen had been the gold-skinned one with the gold hair and eyes. He’d looked like an angel walking on land and she couldn’t imagine he’d be one of the bad ones.

So when the Grumpster had declared that she wasn't going to be sold, the shock had been real.

But now what?

He was leading her back down the market street and instead of looking where he was taking her, all she could do was look up at him, trying to read his mood or what he was thinking.

It was difficult to do so when almost all of his face was covered but it was clear when he realized she was staring at him for his body stiffened and his grip on her loosened a little.

When they stopped in front of a stall with large brown cloaks, Lauren's brows furrowed.

The merchant for the stall appeared a second later. He looked like an old slug hovering on a light blue ring.

Lauren stiffened, her eyes going wide, her entire being suddenly flooded with a singular thought: RUN!

She knew this type of alien.

It’d been his kind that had taken her from Earth.

19

HIS MOOD WAS SOUR.

The exchange.

The males.

Their attention.

It was all rubbing him the wrong way.

Stopping by a cloak merchant, he set to buy the female one of the garments when he realized that she’d suddenly stiffened.

Her eyes wide, she was taking small steps back into the throng, her gaze fastened on the merchant.

Riv frowned, his attention moving from her to the merchant and back.

She was looking at the Isclit as if it was a phantom.

Quickly transferring credits for the cloak, he moved to the human’s side and it seemed she didn’t even realize he was there.

Her chest was heaving, her forehead damp. Her eyes were wide but it was clear she wasn’t seeing anything there and now. She was seeing something else in her mind.

Something far away.

Something gone a long time ago.

“Female,” he said, but that didn’t seem to break her from her trance.

“Female!”

Nothing.

An uneasy feeling began to grow within him and he grasped the female by her shoulders, bringing his face close to hers. “La-rehn?” He shook her lightly. “La-rehn!”

It took a few moments for her to focus on him.

“Riv?” she said.

Her eyes nictated like wild googloos as she searched his face.

“Riv,” she repeated before gripping his hands holding her shoulders.

Before he could move away, she moved into him, pressing her face against his neck as she inhaled deeply and her shoulders shook.

Riv stiffened, his eyes going wide, his heart ceasing to pump life-blood.

Every principle he’d taught himself, every rule he’d followed were being broken right at this moment.

His life code told him to push her away, but every neuron in his brain said no.

She was obviously affected by something. Something was very wrong. And though he knew females were deceptive, this didn’t seem like an act of some kind.

This seemed real.

Swallowing hard, he found he couldn’t move.

Instead, he let her bury her face against him as the world slowed down around them.

He could feel moisture against his neck as her hot breath warmed his skin.

He could feel a lot of things—everything except anger and irritation.

Those weren’t there right now and that surprised him. It made him feel lost a little.

With the female so close, he’d thought that’d be the only thing he’d be feeling.

But those feelings were missing and for the first time in a long while, he felt…unladen.

He could feel La-rehn calming down against him. Her breathing was evening out as her body relaxed. Just a little, for there was still tension in her bones.

It took a while before her body stopped shaking and he wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, raising the hood so her face was mostly hidden.

Was it the males that were making her react like this?

He hadn’t known her for long but he’d never seen her so …vulnerable…and it tugged at something within him.

He could hardly find his voice as he spoke.

“Wear this. Then they won’t be able to see you easily.” He swallowed and continued. “You can choose who deserves your attention then. With the cloak, no one will know you’re a new species here.”

The female sniffed and wiped her eyes.

She eased off him but she didn’t meet his gaze.

“T-ank yoo butt izz not dat.”

For the first time, he really wished he could understand what she was saying.

She wiped her eyes again and finally met his gaze.

Her eyes looked slightly red and he opened his mouth to ask about it before closing it again.

Her shoulders were still stiffened and she seemed extremely wary, her eyes moving back to the merchant.

Riv turned to look at the merchant too but the old Isclit wasn’t paying them any attention.

“Let’s go,” he said and the human nodded, moving by his side.

Whatever had caused that reaction lingered, for as they walked, her shoulders remained stiffened and though he couldn’t see her face now because of the cloak, he could see her head move as she surveyed the crowd of shoppers.

Whatever had set her off was still in her mind and she hastened her steps beside his, as if she couldn’t wait to leave the exchange.

He couldn’t wait either, but her response was sending alarms bells ringing all throughout his mind.

It was not until they reached the tech centre, where most of the stalls had gadgets and off-world technology, that the human stopped walking suddenly and grabbed his hand.

Her other arm shot out of the robe as she pointed across the street at something.

A specific stall.

As he allowed her to weave him through the throng toward the stall, Riv fastened on her hand holding on to his.

Her skin was pale against his blue, a contrast that kept him staring at their skin touching.

He should pull away. He should break this physical contact.

He just…couldn’t.

And he didn’t know the phek why.

La-rehn stopped in front of the stall and pulled the hood of her cloak back.

“Xid,” she said. “Mee talk too yoo.” She pointed to herself than back at him. “Hee kyann help.”

Riv’s brows furrowed a little before his gaze moved to the stall’s merchant, who was rising from beneath the stall.

The long, gray neck of the peeli merchant appeared. The alien blinked at them with large, dark eyes.

A flash of excitement crossed La-rehn’s features.

“Da lan-gwedge up-lohd. Kyann yoo gihv it too him?” She motioned to him and Riv narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what she was saying.

The merchant blinked at her.

"Da lan-gwedge up-lohd!" La-rehn made an exasperated sound before she began miming something, using her free hand to make an open and shut motion, which she mimicked with her mouth.

Riv glanced back at the merchant.

There were language disks in the back of the stall and La-rehn’s meaning became clear.

His eyes widened a little. “Do you have her language file here?”

The merchant La-rehn referred to as Xid blinked at him with large eyes. "Depends. But I don't know what she is. Which language does she speak?"

La-rehn’s brows dived toward her nose. “Hees not speekin da troot. Hee nohz mee. Ai was heer wit Geblit.”

He wished he could understand what she was saying but he recognized Geblit’s name.

“What language are you speaking?” he asked.

"Een-glish," La-rehn offered.

"Een-glish?" Xid blinked. "Never heard of it. Can't help you then." The long neck began retreating behind the stall and Riv reached his hand in his pocket to retrieve a teruva coin.

They were untraceable but valuable and rare. He always travelled with a few.

Setting the coin on the stall's counter immediately stopped the neck from retreating.

"Scan for it," Riv said.

"Ah, yes, I can scan for it." Xid eyed the coin. "Will take a while, though."

La-rehn let out another exasperated breath, her frown etched deeper into her skin.

He supposed he understood what was making her upset.

Xid already had her language file. How else would she know the merchant?

Sliding another coin forward, he eyed the merchant.

Xid tilted his head. "Might go a little faster."

Riv slid another coin.

Xid snatched all three with a skinny hand. "Okay. I can do it for you now."

Riv made a sound of annoyance in his throat.

The merchant retrieved a language transmitter. "Een-glish. Planet Earth. Ready for upload." Xid glanced at Riv. "There are other languages from that planet in the database. Would you like them uploaded too?"

"No." He lifted his hand and realized then that La-rhen was still holding on to him. Forcing his gaze away, he used his free hand to release his messhi from around his face. "I only need to speak to her. I’m not interested in speaking to others of her kind."

It took only a second for Xid to administer the download to his translator implant behind his ear and Riv gritted his teeth as the chip updated.

It produced a weird sort of feedback that lasted for a few seconds as the update went through.

"Is it painful?" La-rhen asked, and he stared at her.

Her voice.

He knew her voice was entrancing but now, being able to understand her added a level to it that he hadn’t been prepared for.

"Is there anything else you need?" Xid asked.

"So you can swindle more credits? No, thank you." He fastened the messhi around his face once more. "Let's go," he said to La-rhen and she slipped her hood over her head but not before he caught her searching gaze.

She was anxious about the language upload.

She wanted to speak to him.

For someone who hadn’t wanted to speak with her before this day, why did that terrify him so much?

"Where are we going now?" Lah-rehn’s voiced reached his ear and he glanced down at her.

He was thankful she couldn’t see his face because he didn’t know what to think right about now. There were too many conflicting emotions created by just the sound of her words.

Riv paused for a second, looking down at her.

"What happened back there at the Isclit merchant’s stall?” ee asked instead.

He wanted to know.

Her reaction had been too…alarming.

“Isclit?” She looked up at him. “Wait, can you understand me now?”

He didn’t answer. Couldn’t.

He couldn’t help but stare at her, watching her lips move as she spoke.

“Guess you can’t yet.” Her shoulders fell and what looked like sadness passed through her eyes as she averted her gaze to the ground.

“I can.”

Her head snapped up then, her eyes widening as if that’s the best news she heard in a while.

It made something within him develop a strange, unwanted ache.

“What happened at the Isclit merchant’s stall?” he tried again, zoning in on her as he ignored the steady stream of beings passing by them.

“Nothing happened. I don’t know what you mean.”

Was she going to start trying to deceive him with her lips now that he could understand her?

Something had clearly happened at the stall.

“Nothing happened? It sure seemed like something was happening. I couldn’t purchase the cloak fast enough. You looked as if you were ready to flee.” The anger and irritation that’d been missing from his tone was coming back.

“Oh.”

Her shoulders suddenly stiffened again and she seemed to sink further into the cloak.

Releasing her hand, he crossed his arms over his chest.

He could still feel the imprint of her hand against his palm, almost as if her touch had left a lasting mark.

“Explain.”

She shifted, glancing around them.

“Can we talk about this later.” Her gaze head hopped again. “Not here. Not now.”

The talkative human didn’t want to talk.

He could sense that whatever she was hiding, it was deeply serious.

Nodding, he glanced around them too.

They stood in the middle of the throng with beings moving around them, and he spotted where they needed to go.

He couldn’t believe he was about to do this but he started moving before he changed his mind.

"Where are we going now?"

"Home."

They were having a conversation.

Before, her nonsensical nattering had been easy to ignore. But now he could understand her and ignoring her wasn’t so easy.

"So..." She paused."Will I be staying there, then?"

Riv swallowed and forced himself not to look at her.

He didn’t need to see hope in her eyes.

It would only make things harder.

Nothing had changed between them. She was still leaving. Maybe not today but maybe tomorrow or the next day.

She couldn’t stay.

"Until I can get rid of you, yes."

She glanced around. His words must have affected her for she was silent for the next few moments as they walked.

"This is the way to your hovercar?"

No, it wasn’t.

As they turned a corner and headed down another side of the market, it didn't take her long to see where he was taking her.

This side of the market had garments and living things.

"Choose what you need. Enough for a few days."

La-rehn stopped and froze on the spot, and it wasn’t until he’d taken a few steps ahead that he realized she’d stopped walking.

What now?

When he moved back to her side, his face set in a frown, big brown eyes met his.

"Thank you.” Her voice was low in the din around them. “This means a lot.” She paused. “I'll pay you back somehow, I promise.”

She smiled at him then and his frown disappeared.

No reply came forth.

Her smile had him transfixed for a bit and he didn’t look away.

Couldn’t.

…didn’t want to.

20

TO HER SURPRISE, Riv actually let her shop.

Whatever she picked up and asked if she could get, he only shrugged.

To test him, she even picked up what looked like a very expensive garment based on the trimmings and the golden material. When she turned it to him, his gaze flicked to the thing only briefly before returning to her, and all he did was shrug.

She wished she could see his face because the shades and face covering hid a lot, but as they moved through the market she could feel his attention on her and on her only.

He was like a rock. Unmoving and dangerous if you pushed too hard.

Whenever she moved to a stall, picked up something, and turned to glance his way, he was always hovering there like her personal guard.

He had no idea, but this little shopping trip, this little sense of normalcy, was rescuing her from a terror she hadn’t known she’d been running from.

She didn’t say it to him, but it felt good having him there.

After she’d seen that alien slug hovering on the light-blue ring, it had brought back memories she thought she’d overcome.

It was the same race of aliens that had abducted her from Earth and seeing one again so close had made all her systems set to FLEE.

It had taken everything within her not to dash across the market and keep running.

She hadn’t seen one of those aliens since the ship had crashed and a part of her had naively believed she would never see a hint of them again.

So much for wishing to ignore her past.

She glanced at Riv nervously as he paid for some hygiene products.

He wanted to know why she’d reacted the way she had.

She wanted to tell him, but not here, and not before she accepted the reality that she’d have to talk about it.

She hadn’t spoken about it to anyone since it’d happened.

She hadn’t had anyone to speak with about it.

Glancing down to the hamper in her arms, she looked at the items there. A set of two shirts, or tunics as they called them, two pairs of trousers, boots, and the hygiene products. That’s all she needed for now and she was about to tell him this when an exclamation further down the street caught her attention.

It took her a few moments for her to see what was happening but even then, she couldn’t quite understand it.

It seemed like a procession, as if a dignitary of some kind was passing through.

Whoever it was must be important because all the aliens around them were moving out of the way, plastering themselves to the side of the street as the procession came through.

But something didn’t seem right, and she realized what that was when she looked more closely at the aliens moving out of the way.

They weren’t moving out of the way only so the procession could pass.

They were scampering to safety, trying to wedge themselves in the spaces between the stalls.

Those who couldn’t do that were hurrying away in the opposite direction and others were plastering themselves against the stalls themselves as if they could become a part of the metalwork.

The merchants themselves looked frozen and some even looked like they’d gone pale.

Frowning, her eyes fell back on the procession and she almost gasped.

There were guards travelling with someone between them...and she recognized the guards.

She understood now why the other aliens were reacting the way they were because her fight or flight response was telling her she needed to run.

What were the chances of seeing so many things that reminded her of her abductors?

Coming down the street was a group of about twelve of the species of guards that had been on the alien ship.

They’d been the ones to help abduct her from Earth.

They’d been the ones who’d enforced order on the ship.

Lauren’s throat went dry.

They looked like alligators walking upright and they snarled at the aliens by the sides of the street…just as they’d snarled at her on the ship.

In the middle of the group was an alien type she’d never seen before.

And it was hideous.

It looked like an oversized green toad dressed in a lavish white robe. Its dark eyes flicked over the aliens along the street and she swore she felt the air become chilled.

Someone’s hand closed around her arm and pulled her toward them.

With wide eyes, she looked up into Riv’s face.

She couldn’t see his expression but she could almost feel the alarm emanating off him too.

“Whatever you do, try to blend in.” His voice was low and Lauren nodded. She didn’t need to ask why.

Terror was flooding through her veins.

She was never more thankful for the cloak he bought than she was then.

As she pulled the hood low over her head, she turned a little so she could see the procession move closer.

The street was clear except for the group walking down it and it didn’t seem as if anyone along the street was even breathing.

And that’s when it happened.

A round object rolled into the street.

She didn’t know if it was a child’s ball but it sure looked like a toy based only on the colors.

There was a sound and a small being with light-orange skin ran out to get the thing.

A collective gasp echoed through the crowd of onlookers and when Riv stiffened beside her, she realized just how close they were standing together.

It was a child for a bigger version of the little alien came hobbling toward the little being.

It was obvious the older alien was trying to get the younger one off the street but it took too long.

The procession came to a stop before them.

“You dare to block the way of Ambassador Klupengi, degenerate?” one of those horrible-looking guards spoke.

The old alien lifted its head, its body trembling as it tried to tug at the child.

“N-No. Forgive me, Ambassador. It will never happen again.” The alien tried to bow but, trembling the way it was, that action proved difficult. With a tug of his arm, he tried to pull the child out of the street but the little thing was stubborn as it sat in the street and played with its toy.

Lauren gulped.

“Move!” another guard ordered.

“I—” the alien began, but she didn’t hear the rest of what he said.

Her face was suddenly plastered against Riv’s hard chest as he pulled her into him, shielding her from what happened next.

She didn’t see it but she heard it.

That undeniable sound of metal unsheathing and then a sick squelch.

And another.

No.

It couldn’t be.

She tried to look but Riv held her to him, turning so his side faced toward the street as the procession continued and it wasn’t until the group passed that he let her go.

Her gaze flew immediately to where the alien had been standing with the child and her heart jumped and caught in her throat.

Green fluid stained the street and in the middle of it all lay the headless bodies of the alien and child.

21

LAUREN LOOKED out over the yellow-orange plain.

It was getting dark and the pink sky was slowly turning to a purple hue.

The hovercar sped along, heading back to the Sanctuary and she clutched the hamper holding the things she’d bought in her lap.

It kept replaying in her head.

The metal unsheathing. The sounds that came after.

The sight of the aftermath.

She couldn’t speak.

She’d been silenced since she’d seen the bodies in the street.

After the procession passed, the bodies had been quickly cleaned up, removed, and shopping had continued as usual as if the lives of the parent and child hadn’t mattered.

It was so unreal…so cold.

“Why,” she finally spoke. “Why did they do that?” Her gaze moved over the plain before them. “Why did they just…kill them like that? They didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t…”

She glanced at Riv.

He had his head held straight—almost as if he hadn’t heard her speak but his body was rigid.

The scene replayed before her once more. She was sure it was going to haunt her forever.

Riv had turned her face away; he’d pulled her against him.

He’d known what was going to happen.

Her eyes widened a little.

“You knew.” She stared at him, horror flooding through her. “You knew it was going to happen.”

Riv’s throat moved.

“The Tasqals are not a forgiving species,” was all he said.

There was silence in the hovercar before he continued. “They take what they want, when they want it. They do not care about lives.”

“Those guards killed a child. There was no order to do so—not that it would have made it any better—but only a monster could do something like that.”

Riv turned his head slightly. “The Hedgerud guards are just as ruthless as their Tasqal masters.”

The Hedgeruds. So that’s what the guards were called.

More silence passed.

“I saw them before, you know. On the ship,” she finally said. Images of her time on the alien ship tried forcing their way through her memories to the forefront of her mind and she tried to keep them at bay.

“Which ship?”

He didn’t know, did he?

He had no idea.

With a deep breath, she gripped the hamper and continued.

“I was taken from my home planet. Abducted by those alligator guards and the aliens like the slug on the blue ring.”

The hovercar lost speed as Riv turned his head to look at her fully.

For several beats, he said nothing.

“Taken?”

Lauren nodded, the memories breaking through.

“I was heading home after going out one day and the next thing I knew I was waking up on an alien ship.” She paused. “That was a year or so ago.”

Riv’s throat moved again.

It seemed he didn’t know what to say to her and when she chanced a glance his way, she noticed his knuckles were turning light blue from him gripping the hovercar controls too tight.

“Taken,” he repeated, and Lauren nodded.

“That’s why I froze up in the market. I didn’t expect to see the same species again. Back in the zoo, I hadn’t seen them. I guess I thought they didn’t exist on this side of space.”

“Zoo?”

He was snarling.

She could see the imprint of his fangs against the cloth covering his face.

“I thought Geblit told you. He bought me from a zookeeper.”

Riv turned his attention back to piloting the hover craft but his entire body remained rigid, his knuckles light blue, his fangs outlined through the cloth over his mouth.

A few moments passed that turned into minutes and she thought the conversation was over when she heard him mutter something underneath his breath.

“Phekking Geblit.”

He turned to look her way and she was sure his eyes were boring into her through the shades.

“I am sorry you were introduced to my world in such a way.” He growled the apology and the fact he was actually apologizing for something caught her off guard—even if he was apologizing for something he had no hand in.

She could sense his mood growing sour by the second.

“This complicates things,” he murmured. “They never like it when their slaves get freedom. They’ll always try to get you back no matter what.”

Slave?

She’d never thought of herself as a slave before.

Unlucky human? Yes.

But slave?

No.

IT WAS clear La-rehn hadn’t understood what he’d meant but he hadn’t had the strength of mind to explain it to her.

It’d brought back too many memories.

Memories he’d rather forget.

If what she said was true, she’d been trafficked from her planet by the High Tasqals.

If she’d ended up in a zoo, chances were she was unregistered with the Interplanetary Union.

She had no protection.

The Tasqals could claim her once more and there’d be little anyone could do about it because she was unknown.

Unless she was protected by the rebel group called the Restitution or by the Interplanetary Union, things didn’t look so good.

Laying now on his sleeping cushion, he stared up into the darkness.

Seeing the High Tasqal at the exchange had set him into high alert.

It wasn’t usual to see one at a low-level exchange such as the one on Hudo III and he’d known something terrible would happen.

He hadn’t been disappointed.

The Tasqals really had no regard for any life except their own.

The female Tasqal that owned the mines he’d worked in as a chid certainly hadn’t.

He wondered what had become of her.

After he’d escaped with Sohut and ended up at the exchange, he’d found himself making another escape from the beings who’d wanted to place them in cages for sale.

That’s when they’d seen a Torian pushing his huge wife on a cart through the exchange.

He and Sohut had hurried to hide in the cart’s basket before they were seen.

That Torian had turned out to be Geblit and when Geblit had noticed them there, he’d hid them from his wife till they were safe enough to escape into the plains.

The first time they’d returned to the exchange was when Geblit had visited the plains to check if they were still alive.

He’d registered them and that had officially started their life as free beings.

They’d lived in the plains ever since.

He owed Geblit a lot for that. He doubted that taking the human off the Torian’s hands would repay the debt fully.

He’d saved his and Sohut’s lives. If they had been brought back to the mines, they’d have surely been killed.

Memories of working in the mines came back to him, this time not in his dreams but while he was wide awake, for he couldn’t manage to fall asleep.

No matter how he tried, insomnia chased him like an angry umu set loose.

“HEY, little chid. Can I stay in your cave with you? Mine is wet and I cannot sleep.”

He glanced over at Sohut. “There is only enough space for two.”

The female’s face looked sad and he felt bad for saying no.

The mines were cold and wet and people got sick easily.

He’d been lucky to claim the cave they were in. He’d been watching the owner for weeks. He saw the signs of the mine sickness early, knew the being wouldn’t survive.

It’d been hard to do, watching someone die, but he’d had no choice.

There was nowhere to get medical attention in the mines.

Beings came, worked, and died. The Tasqals always found replacements.

As soon as the male had died, he’d hauled the body from the cave.

It was hard work for a chid, but he’d succeeded and the cave was claimed for Sohut and himself.

It was difficult keeping it, though.

There was always someone who was bigger, older, and stronger who was looking to take it away from their control and without a cave for shelter, death came quickly in the dampness of the mines.

“If you promise to share, you can come in,” he said, his gaze studying the female.

She smiled at him and crouched to enter the small space.

They coexisted like that fine for a few days…until the males started coming in.

Males she invited.

Males who would pay her with talix metal in her collection bucket. She preferred to fill her bucket that way than to go out and dig.

When she was servicing the males, he and Sohut had nowhere to go.

They’d sit outside the cave in the damp, waiting for it to end.

Praying to Raxu…even as the sounds and smell of phekking filled the air.

It didn’t take long for Sohut to start sniffling and soon his sniffles turned into sneezes.

He was getting ill.

Alarm fueled his anxiety and Riv asked the woman to stop what she was doing.

She had to leave their cave and go somewhere else.

They needed their cave back. Their home.

Her activities were killing his brother and Sohut was all he had in the universe.

The female had laughed—a response so shocking it still chilled him to this day.

Then, her mouth had set into a hard line.

Without warning, she’d begun screaming.

She’d screamed that he and Sohut were trying to take her cave away.

She’d screamed for help, saying vile things about him like he was trying to be an adult male and put his little cock inside her.

He’d been frozen, unable to believe what she was saying, stunned by her accusations.

…and help had come.

For her.

Never mind that he and Sohut were chids.

The miners didn’t care.

They’d beat them. Bruised them.

They’d laughed as if it was a joke and they’d thrown him and Sohut from the cave, threatening them more harm if they ever returned.

THAT’D JUST BEEN one experience.

There were so many.

So so many.

Riv’s hands balled into fists on the sleeping cushion as anger flooded through his veins.

The memories were fresh, as if they’d happened yesterday.

Stretching his arm across the cushion, he felt for Grot. The tevsi always managed to calm him and ground him in the present.

Grot reminded him that the mines wasn’t his life anymore.

But Grot wasn’t there.

He was sleeping with the human…La-rehn.

Riv groaned at the thought of her.

He’d phekked up majorly today.

He could still feel her face nestled against his neck, that memory overpowering the one of his past in the mines with such intensity, his cock grew hard immediately.

He was playing a dangerous game with the female.

What had started out as a day to send her away from his Sanctuary had turned into something else completely.

Groaning, he turned on his side to stare at his closed door.

Whatever had happened between them today needed to be ripped out by the root.

He couldn’t get close to her and he couldn’t allow her to get close to him.

She made him feel…and feelings were always what led to hurt and deceit in the past.

All these years living in the plains, he’d locked that part of him away and it had kept life simple and safe.

He couldn’t allow himself to grow weak.

He had to remember.

Never forget.

Nothing had changed.

He hadn’t achieved his goal of sending her away today but she still had to go.

The female had to leave.

22

WORKING with the animals was good. It always cleared his mind.

Helped him to focus.

It’d been two days since they’d visited the exchange and he’d kept far away from the human, working on the far side of the Sanctuary on purpose so she couldn’t find him if she decided to come look for him.

He told himself he didn't miss her intrusive presence.

He'd always worked alone, even when Sohut was on the Sanctuary grounds.

Rolling his shoulders, he took off his gloves and walked toward the main residence.

It was late.

He’d slip inside, wash himself, and head to his room, hopefully before the human exited hers.

He still hadn’t decided what he was going to do with her.

The fact she wasn’t registered complicated things and he reckoned the first part of getting her off his Sanctuary was going to involve returning to the exchange to get her alien status legalized.

Though he’d made it a point not to see her, he wondered what she'd been up to for the long hours he'd been working outside for the past two days.

Probably sleeping. At least, that's what he'd assumed.

But as he opened the door and stepped into the corridor, something immediately hit him.

The house smelled...different.

Sniffing, his brows creased as he walked slowly toward the main room, eyes narrowed.

When he came upon the room, his eyes widened.

It was...clean.

The table sparkled so much he could see the underlying pattern underneath. He'd forgotten it had a pattern.

One of his brows arched as his gaze traveled around the room.

The window was open, letting a cool breeze in and the window sills were sparkling.

The clutter of gadgets he had around the room were all cleaned and set into neat piles, and it looked as if they'd been sorted by type.

As he took a slow step into the room, turning slowly as if he was in an alternate dimension, his gaze hit the floor.

Even the floor was sparkling.

What in the actual phek?

The human was nowhere to be seen but it was obvious whose work this was, unless they'd accidentally bought a cleaning fairy at the exchange and let it loose in his quarters.

The entire room smelled like zimsu flowers.

He waited for it, the snarl and growl at the change, but neither came. Instead, he was speechless. He suddenly felt out of place in his own house.

It was clear the human, small as she was, had managed to undertake the mammoth task of cleaning the entire living space.

It was what she’d been doing all day for yesterday he hadn’t seen any sign of her presence.

A faint sound coming from the cook room caught his ear.

Heading that way, he stopped in his tracks at the sight in front of him.

Standing by the stove, the human was...cooking? Grot lay by her feet, tail happily wagging as he waited for scraps of whatever the female was preparing.

But it was clear she had no idea what she was doing.

She was boiling rai grains in a pot and was glaring at a slab of dehydrated meat on the counter.

Grot looked up and saw Riv, then made a sound of greeting, which had the human looking toward the door.

"Oh, hi. Didn't see you there." Her smile was nervous, her gaze wary as if she was worried about something. “I hope you don’t mind. I thought I’d start dinner.”

What?

She was worried about how he'd react to her invading his space, cleaning it, and now cooking his food?

Well…Riv blinked…she should be worried.

But, it was difficult finding that usual pot of anger and annoyance that he often drew from.

"What are you doing?" he asked instead.

"Cooking. Well," she huffed a breath from her nose, her nostrils moving a little as the air went through them, "I'm trying to. I don't know any of these ingredients."

Moving a little closer, he looked at the rai bubbling in the pot.

"First off..." he began, but the look in her eyes stopped him.

It was a half-defiant, half-hopeful look.

He motioned to the dehydrated meat instead of finishing what he was about to say. "That needs water."

Her eyes flew to the meat and she picked it up, garnering Grot's attention.

"Not for you, doggo." She patted the tevsi on the head and Grot whimpered.

Grot whimpered.

He'd never heard Grot whimper.

"This is for your master."

That stopped his thoughts in their tracks.

What?

For a few moments he just looked at her as she put the dehydrated meat into some water.

"You're preparing sustenance...for me?" He regained the ability to speak.

Her eyes darted to him for a second. "It's the least I can do."

He wanted to ask why but all he could do was stare at her.

This was too…comfortable.

Maybe he'd given her the wrong idea by not pushing to get rid of her at the exchange?

Permanent residency at his Sanctuary was not possible. He was still intent on finding a place for her to go.

She seemed to not be aware of that.

And what was worse, these unexpected actions of hers…they made him feel strange.

Backing away, he went to sit at the table, his eyes still wide as he stared at nothing before him.

He needed a minute.

What the phek was happening?

A few moments later, the human stepped in with a bowl of rai and braised meat.

She set it before him, a tune low in her throat as she hummed some melody.

He could only stare at her.

What was she doing?

Next, his gaze fell to the bowl before him and for a few moments, all he could do was look at it.

A warm, home-cooked meal was not something he’d expected this dark-cycle but there it was in front of him.

There was something about it, about not downing cans of Xurli energy fluid and rock cakes for dinner…

Whatever it was, it had him swallowing hard as the scent of the warm food wafted upwards into his nose.

This was what it felt like having a proper home-cooked meal.

When was the last time he and Sohut had shared such a thing?

He couldn’t remember.

“Is something wrong with it?” A worried frown etched the human’s forehead as she looked at the contents of his bowl. “I tried, but I suppose this must be more like what I’m used to than what you usually eat.”

He could only grunt.

She sure was right about that.

The human grit her small, flat teeth, her bottom lip turning over and downward. “Does the meat taste okay at least?”

With some hesitation, he took a morsel of the braised meat and brought it to his lips.

A burst of flavor spread across his tongue and he almost choked on the food, trying to hide his reaction.

What was bad was the human's expectant look as she watched him chew.

“It’s…edible,” he ended up saying. She didn’t need to know just how delicious it tasted.

It sure as phek beat eating rock cakes and washing them down with Xurli.

Accepting his answer, the human smiled a little and settled in the seat across from him.

Eyes on her, he brought some of the rai to his mouth and fought to keep his expression cool.

It tasted good enough for him to finish an entire bowl and that was surprising. Not only did he hate rai, but he’d never met anyone who boiled rai.

Rai was usually popped in the high-temperature tube.

Clearing his throat, he swallowed the food as discreetly as he could.

He must try not to look too eager and give the female any ideas.

If this was a ploy to get him to change his mind about her leaving, she wasn’t going to be successful.

No matter how good her cooking tasted…

Or how much it reminded him that something was missing in his life.

THEY ATE in silence with Grot at their feet underneath the table.

Well, he mostly ate.

She mostly picked at her meat, glancing at him every now and then and it was obvious something was on her mind.

"What is it?" it came out a bit more gruff than he'd intended.

She looked down and her long lashes fanned over her pale cheeks. Raising a hand, she rubbed her neck absentmindedly and he followed the motion, unable to look away from the way her fingers brushed over her pale skin.

Her skin looked so soft...it was soft.

Back at the exchange, when he'd held her, he'd felt her softness.

He’d just forced himself not to pay attention to it.

Now, though…

Now, he allowed himself the moment to look.

He may not like people, females…but that didn’t mean he found them unattractive.

And this female…

The plain face, the pale skin, the delicate limbs attached to the soft, curvy frame…She had no outwardly offensive features and looked like she’d be a good fit with several species he could think of off the top of his head—the Merkannians, the Plixians, the Drori, the Nuva and even his race, the Merssi.

His gaze moved over her face and fastened on her lips. It was her second most striking feature, her eyes being the first.

"Do you like it?"

Her question caught him off guard and he almost choked again on a spoonful of rai.

"Like what?"

"The food. Did you like it?"

Oh.

For a second there he thought she was asking…

He looked down at his food. He'd finished the entire bowl.

"It tasted…okay."

A small, almost imperceptible smile graced her lips.

“It was nice to cook. The last time I cooked was when I was back on Earth.”

Earth. Such a strange name for a planet.

Her eyes focused on nothing as she thought about her home world. He bet it was a wonderful place, free from all the things that made his world so phekked up.

She didn’t belong on this side of the phekked up universe.

“What are you doing here?”

She blinked at him, a slight frown crossing her face. “You say it as if I just got on a shuttle and left.” Her brown gaze got hard. “Do you really think I’d willingly leave my planet to hop into a zoo so I could be stared at by aliens?”

Riv shrugged. “Some beings have weird fetishes.”

As she glared at him, he almost smiled.

Almost.

He was riling her up but it was no laughing matter.

“I know you were taken. You said so.” He rested his hands on the table and studied her.

When she cast a wary glance his way, he knew there was something she wanted to say.

What now?

The more she looked at him, the more he knew he didn’t want to talk about whatever she was going to bring up.

Distract her.

"You..." he cleared his throat. "...you cleaned."

Her face suddenly lightened and she glanced around the room.

"Yea, I...I hope you don't mind. I just thought..." She trailed off.

Even sitting at a chair behind the table, he could see she was wringing her hands in the new trousers she now wore.

Her top was a long-sleeved tunic and it bothered him that he was noticing such a thing.

"You thought what?" He scowled and she seemed to stiffen.

"You've been very kind to me. I didn't want you to think I didn't appreciate that. I can help around here, you know. In fact," her small chin rose and he realized she was exerting some sort of challenge, "I intend to. I don't know much about tending to animals, but I can learn. My grandfather had a farm back in Texas...has a farm..." She trailed off again, thoughts clouding her eyes.

Riv resisted the urge to growl at her.

This wasn’t a permanent situation.

Right. He needed to nip this in the phekking bud before it got out of hand.

"I don’t need your help. You're not staying for long, remember? In this, you have no choice."

Her shoulders stiffened some more, her eyes turning to slits as she regarded him.

As they glared at each other, he got the distinct impression that she heard his words but that didn’t mean she was going to listen to them.

"I know you don't want me here. You've made that very clear.” She leaned forward, her gaze never leaving his and Riv had to raise an eyebrow.

“I know you'll kick me out soon. I know it isn't my choice." She spat the word and if it could materialize, he felt it would have smacked him right across the face.

Crossing her arms, she pushed her chair back. "But until then, until I find my place in this messed up world, I refuse to be a burden."

"Fine."

Her eyes widened a little, her stiffened shoulders slackening somewhat. "Fine?"

"Do what you want, just stay out of my way."

Her lips formed a thin line, her eyes narrowing once more.

He refused to break their eye-lock. Let her drop her gaze first.

But then movement lower on her face caught his attention, movement that shouldn't have caught his attention but it did.

It phekking did.

Her pink tongue slipped out of her mouth as she ran it over her lips and he found himself watching it move before it disappeared into her mouth again.

"Thank you," she finally said, rising and moving toward him.

Every bone in his body wanted to jerk backward and away from her intrusive presence but she only took up his bowl and headed toward the cook room.

She'd come so close to him, he could smell the strong scent of flowers that now followed her around.

Frowning, Riv pushed back from the table and stood.

At the disturbance, Grot raised his head and looked at him.

“You.”

Grot blinked at him before resting his head once more. He guessed the tevsi wasn't going to sleep in his room for another dark-cycle.

Fine.

Whatever.

His mood was sour now and he didn't know why.

When he retreated to his room, it only got worse.

Stripping off his clothes, Riv fell back against his sleeping cushion, frowning at the ceiling.

This room was the only room that seemed untouched by the female's presence; yet, it was as if he could still smell her there.

That soft smell of flowers that had wafted into his nose when she'd come close.

Riv frowned at himself.

The memory made him want to squeeze his eyes shut tight.

These thoughts, he knew where they were going.

A dangerous place.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if that same flowery scent lingered on her skin.

Would she smell like flowers if his nose was against her and he inhaled deeply?

A flashing image of her hand rubbing her slender neck came back to him and he groaned. Right on its tail was the image of her licking her lips and the feel of her face against his neck.

In his mind, everything was suddenly in slow motion, replaying over and over till he was left wondering what it would feel like if he were to touch her in those places.

It had been too long since he'd allowed himself to even notice a female. That's what this was.

For several hours, he lay there in bed.

Falling asleep had always been a problem. Staying asleep even harder.

But this dark-cycle, it wasn't his usual bad dreams about the mines keeping him awake.

It seemed females were the poison that fed his insomnia.

He'd told her to stay out of his way but that probably wouldn't be enough. He needed to keep far away from her as well.

The animals he had to take care of were all the trouble he needed in his life.

Still...

23

LAUREN WOKE EARLY.

She was alone.

The dog had gone off as he seemed to usually do. She guessed he went hunting or something.

The entire house was quiet.

Maybe her annoyingly handsome host was still sleeping.

She rolled her eyes at the thought of him.

The fact she thought he was good-looking shouldn’t make her forget who and what he was.

He was an alien. One intent on keeping her at arms length.

He still didn’t like her. That was obvious from the conversation the day before.

She didn’t know what she’d expected.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she remembered how she’d moved into his firm body for comfort…how he’d pulled her toward him so she wouldn’t see the parent and child get murdered…

Those things confused her now, but reality wasn’t complicated if she didn’t make it that way.

Stretching, she allowed herself a few minutes for the sleep to leave her eyes.

Regardless of that, yesterday had gone better than she'd expected.

She’d wanted to show him that she didn't intend to just sit around doing nothing.

She'd never worked on a farm, but she could learn. She had two working hands and a strong back.

On her grandad's farm, she'd follow him around while he took care of the animals and though he’d never let her help, except for feeding the chickens, she'd enjoyed farm life whenever she’d visited.

There was just something freeing about being able to hang out in the middle of nowhere with only animals as company.

Animals weren’t complicated. For them, life was simple.

Eat, sleep, poop, repeat.

Wasn't that the life everyone wanted?

She smiled to herself.

That's why she was up so early.

She intended to head out and begin doing whatever she could to help with the farm work. Going to the exchange with Riv had shown her that some of those aliens—no, most of them—wanted nothing more than a warm cunt and she was more than that.

It'd been terrifying, the way they'd looked at her. She'd had men leer at her on Earth but there was something definitely sinister when aliens did it.

It had been obvious what they'd been thinking about and to even consider they wanted to put their alien dicks anywhere near her…it made her stomach grow putrid.

She'd made up her mind fully then.

There was no way for her to go back home. That ship had sailed...or flown...whatever spaceships did. That meant she absolutely had to make the most of what she had, and that included not getting kicked off the Sanctuary sooner than necessary.

She needed to take her time till she got better at surviving.

Sleep now out of her eyes, her gaze became clear.

Right.

Time to get to work.

RIV TOSSED on his sleeping cushion.

The thoughts wouldn’t go away.

Memories of the Tasqal female who'd bought him and Sohut so many years ago came flooding back to him, making his shoulders go rigid, his fists clenching hard against the sleeping cushion.

He had been just thirteen orbits when his cock had grown in length and his mating sacs had matured. A clear signal he was a fertile male.

Back on his home planet, it would have been a time of celebration and he'd have been able to join the hunting circles and be seen as an equal among the males of the tribe. No longer a chid, he'd have joined them on hunts and defended their settlement against invasions.

That was the life he'd have had if he hadn't been betrayed by the first female he'd ever loved.

His own mor.

The thought made him hold back a growl.

Usually, these thoughts came late into the dark cycle when he was alone and his defenses were weakened by tiredness and sleep.

But they came now, when he was fully awake but still defenseless against them.

He couldn't change the past. He could only relive it over and over.

His step over the boundary into puberty, that invisible line that separated a boy from a fully-grown merssi male, hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Every night-cycle, females in the mines would come to him, touch him when he didn't want them to, try to force him to do things with them…to them.

There was one female, who'd seemed the kindest. She'd been kind to Sohut and she’d never tried to coerce him into doing anything he didn't want to.

He'd trusted her.

Till one night he saw her undressing as she moved toward his innocent brother. He'd chased her away but not before he'd realized all the metal they'd mined had gone missing.

Not only had she tried to take his brother's innocence...she'd also stolen from them.

When the checkers came to collect the dues, he’d had none to give.

That wasn't the first time he'd been whipped for something that he’d had no control over.

Not the first time he’d been punished.

But it didn't end there.

The Tasqal female that had bought him and Sohut had also found out about his sexual readiness. When she sent for him, he knew his world was going to change.

He'd been pulled away from his brother and taken to the female’s chambers.

The smell was the first thing that had hit him.

Vile. Like something rotting.

She'd smiled at him with that too-wide mouth, her circular headdress sparkling in the light as she’d gestured for him to come closer.

When he'd refused, he'd been forced to kneel in front of her.

The beatings began that day when his cock wouldn't rise for her.

And the day after.

And the day after that.

That last day, when her patience had reached its limit and she'd knelt his bloodied body in front of her, she'd held his gaze as she ordered for his tail to be removed.

Even now, with the memory, the stump that was left behind ached.

She'd rendered him less of a male...

Riv tossed again on the cushion, turning toward the door.

The faint patter of a person walking caught his ears.

“La-rehn.”

The thought of her pushed the memories away.

She was up already.

Rolling his shoulders, he rose from the sleeping cushion and stretched.

Donning his work garments, he set his face into a scowl, intent on letting her see that she didn't affect him in the least bit.

But when he entered the main room, it was empty.

Checking the cook room, he didn't find the human there, either.

Grot was missing too but the tevsi usually left through the back hatch early in the mornings to go hunt small game in the fields.

Phek it. He’d asked for this.

He'd told her to stay out of his way; maybe she was listening.

What he needed to do was follow his own advice.

As he left the building and headed toward the umu enclosure, he frowned.

The tilgran that usually stuck its long neck out to greet him wasn't there today.

It only took him a second to realize he'd gotten used to the animal's greeting.

The other thing that hit him was the soft melodious note his ears picked up in the air.

It was low, but the more he walked toward the sound, the clearer it became.

The human. He’d found her.

Even when there was no one to speak to, words still came from her mouth.

What was she speaking about now?

He wasn’t sure.

It was some melody about “mull-berry” bushes and chasing “wee-zehls”.

When he finally spotted her, she was ankle deep in purple tilgran dung as she used his shovel to move the poop into a bucket.

He opened his mouth to ask what she was doing but his mouth slammed shut instead.

Grot was beside her, pushing the bucket along with his nose and that only made his frown deepen.

Around her, the tilgrans all dipped their necks at varying intervals, bumping her slightly with their snouts as if they were thanking her for her hard work.

They never thanked him.

Watching the human, her new boots getting filthy in the dung, an eyebrow rose.

She was wearing the new clothes she'd bought.

The fact was a surprising one. He'd never met a female that didn't treasure her new clothes, much less one that willfully shoveled excrement.

Granted, he hadn't been around many females, but the ones he'd had the displeasure of being in close contact with had never been like this human.

La-rehn was...different.

Grunting, he turned away, annoyed that he'd wasted so many minutes watching her.

If she wanted to shovel shit that was her business. He hadn't asked her to do anything.

Matter of fact, he distinctly recalled telling her he didn’t need her to.

He was just finished feeding the umus when he exited their enclosure, ready to put the empty bags of feed in the recycling cube when he saw the human struggling down the hill with the bucket of poop in hand.

Frowning, he glanced over at the tilgran enclosure. Sure enough, now that she wasn't inside, a tilgran popped its head out to greet him.

It looked as if she'd shoveled the whole thing. A hard feat because tilgran poop wasn't easy to shovel.

Following the path she'd taken, he walked a safe distance behind her, praying she didn't turn around to find him following.

He trailed her as she walked toward the fruit trees, starting at the row he hadn't fertilized yet, and began to add the poop to the roots.

Crossing his arms from where he stood, Riv watched her work, not sure what he should be feeling.

A part of him was annoyed, another part respectful, and another part...well, there was a feeling there he couldn't define.

She took that moment to look in his direction, pausing with poop hanging in the shovel and their eyes locked, hers growing wide—he could see even from where he stood.

Scowling, he turned away.

This….helpfulness went on for the whole day.

And it was irritating. So much so, he found himself hardly working and spying on her instead.

When she wasn't talking to the animals and giving them "cuddles" and “rubs,” she was feeding them or cleaning their enclosures.

She was all around his Sanctuary, so much so he swore even the robots cutting the fields stopped to notice her.

And Grot, Grot who usually spent his time roaming the fields, was by her side the entire time, loving the name "doggo"—which she seemed intent on calling him.

It irked him and he didn't know why.

And even though a part of him was impressed with her hard work and dedication—just a tiny part of him, like maybe just a few cells—he couldn't help but scowl anyway.

He knew she'd said she intended on helping out, he just hadn't expected her to actually lift a finger.

He lived on a Sanctuary with dirty animals, not a tourist resort. It wasn’t the type of place a female, or anyone really, would pick for employment or enjoyment.

Which female enjoyed getting dirty and sweaty in the hot sun?

None.

Well...at least, that's what he'd thought.

Talking about sweaty, Riv ducked behind a wall as the human appeared from around the corner of a building.

Her tunic was stuck to her chest because of her own sweat and it only outlined parts of her that he shouldn’t see.

Phek it.

The tunic curved around those large teats on her chest, outlining them with such precision, he didn’t know if he should be delighted or horrified by the fact that he couldn’t stop staring.

Frowning, he willed his eyes away and headed to his hovercar. It was parked far away from the main lodge and far away from her.

Far, far away.

It needed tuning or something.

BY THE TIME EVENING CAME, nothing had changed.

Unwanted thoughts of his unwanted guest were still plaguing his mind and he forced himself to keep tuning the hover vehicle long into the dark-cycle.

When he finally slid from underneath the air-compression engine, his back ached from being in one position for so long.

Rubbing the tendons in his shoulders, he headed into the dwelling.

She should be asleep by now. That meant there would be no chitchatting. No big brown eyes. No urge to be amicable.

Sure enough, when he entered the main room, she was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of flowers filled the entire room as if she’d gone and writhed naked against every free surface.

Riv inhaled deeply.

He was about to walk past the table when he spotted it—a bowl of rai and braised meat.

He stopped breathing.

She'd cooked again, for him?

After working all day?

Something within him cracked.

He didn't know if he should sit and eat or walk away and leave it there. Surely the latter would push her further away. Taking any of her kindness was surely equivalent to encouraging bad behaviour.

It was like training an animal not to do a certain action but rewarding it when it did anyway.

Scratching the back of his neck, he glared at the meal.

Two home-cooked meals in such a short time. This didn’t feel like his house. It felt like he’d walked unwittingly into another dimension where his other self had things better.

"That's yours." The female appeared at the doorway to the corridor, her voice a bit raspy with sleep.

Riv swallowed hard.

"Tried to keep it warm but didn't want to keep using the stove. Don't know if it's gas you use or what. I didn’t want to waste it. Should be okay to eat but I can warm it for you, if you like."

She walked forward, wobbling a bit, obviously exhausted, and reached for the bowl.

As she did, her flowery scent attacked his nostrils with a new, strong wave.

For some reason, it pissed him off; it pissed him off well and truly, but not in the usual way.

He wasn't pissed at her. He was suddenly pissed at himself.

Grasping her arm, he stopped her from walking past him, and she stumbled against him instead, her chest pressing into his side.

That wasn’t the right move, for now he could feel every phekking contour of her figure. Her softness. Her curves. Her phekking teats.

"Why are you doing this?" he snarled, very aware that he sounded furious but the range of his vocal cords were not his concern.

She was confusing him, making him...think about things. Making him want things he shouldn't.

"Doing what?"

Innocent brown eyes looked up at him as the human blinked.

"Human—"

"Lauren. My name is Lauren. Please stop calling me ‘human,’” she mocked is tone, her eyes rolling back into her head as she did.

Riv paused.

That wasn’t what he sounded like.

He didn’t sound like that at all.

“It makes me feel...like a dog or something," she continued before glancing at Grot, who’d padded in behind her. "Sorry, doggo, no offense."

Riv glared at her.

His anger seemed to be having no effect on her and that only made him more pissed.

Beings bent to his will from his pure ferocity and this human was ignoring the fact his fangs were bared right above her.

Forcing her against him some more so she had to tilt her head and look up at him, he growled into her face. "Stop."

La-rehn blinked, her brown gaze moving over his face slowly only to land on his lips.

It was then he realized he wasn’t wearing his messhi and they were close, close enough for her breath to brush over his skin.

"Stop what?" Her voice was breathless.

Phek.

Stop being so...he didn't know what.

Releasing her suddenly, he stormed into the corridor on the way to his room. Leaning against the wall, he ran a hand over his face and took a deep breath.

Phek the favor he owed Geblit. The Torian needed to come get his human.

Pulling out his sat phone, he punched in Geblit's ping code. It took three tries before Geblit finally answered.

"Geblit."

"Riv. H-how great to hear from you."

"Spare me the phekking formalities. I'm bringing the human to you tomorrow."

"What? No. You can't do that!"

“You’re the one who bought a trafficked being. She's coming back to you." He cut his gaze toward the main room. "Better you take the female than those creeps at the exchange."

"Y-you brought the human to the exchange? Y-you can't. She's prohibited goods. They could have caught her!"

Riv paused and blinked. "Right. I know that now. Thanks for the heads up, by the way."

"She was smuggled in from a Class Four planet," Geblit continued.

"Riv, I...Cargga will kill me if the human returns. I can’t keep her."

"Well,” Riv let out a breath. “I can’t keep her, either."

"What? Why?"

It became all too clear at that moment exactly what was happening to him.

After all this time alone, after all this time without contact, he’d thought he was stronger. He’d thought he could remain unaffected.

It was clear he’d been wrong.

Possibly, all the time alone had made him weak. Lack of contact with others hadn’t strengthened his resolve—it had created a vulnerability within his defenses.

Had he forgotten already? Had it been so easy for him to forget?

Life wasn’t rosy for him.

It had never been and it never would be.

Without a word, he ended the comm link.

Whatever this was that was happening to him, was why he had to nip it in the bud.

No more.

LAUREN LEANED against the kitchen counter.

She'd heard Riv on the comm unit with Geblit. Heard him telling the four-eyed male that he should come get her. Heard Geblit begging him not to bring her back.

Folding her arms across her chest, she looked at the cup of water she’d woken up to get.

From investment banker to outcast.

In one year, her life had changed so much.

She was trying her best, though. She'd worked all day and if she hadn’t proven it to him, she sure as hell had proven it to herself—she wasn’t a deadweight.

What the hell did Riv have against her, anyway? Was she really that offensive?

And maybe she was an idiot or something, because his constant displeasure with her should make her hate him. But she harbored no ill-feelings at all.

Instead, whenever he wasn't wearing his shades and face-covering, she found it was difficult not staring at him. And even when he scowled, something told her the scowl was only a mask hiding something else.

He didn’t scare her.

If anything, he made her curious.

Tell her a year ago that she’d be thinking a big blue guy was attractive and she’d have been like “um, no.”

But the Scowlmaster was.

His piercing green eyes were like beacons against his blue skin.

When he wasn't glowering at her, which was scarce to be honest, he had that intensity in his eyes that made a girl think about being beneath him. Those eyes would render her motionless while he did what he wanted to do to her body.

Yea...she was obviously ill.

Had being without anyone’s touch for a year made her this...needy that she'd take the first male that had been even mildly nice to her?

It was funny how needy she was.

Back on Earth, she hadn’t needed anyone. She’d been self-sufficient living on her own.

No boyfriend. A few girl friends.

She’d lived far from any blood relatives but she’d keep in contact when she could.

Point was, she’d never realized that she craved touch.

It must be a human thing.

Humans craved touch and, for one whole year, she’d had no one touch her in any real way.

Fast forward to now and suddenly there’s Riv.

She still had the memory of his strong hands against her when they’d gone to the market.

But it wasn’t just that. There was something about him that caught her attention and drew it. Like she was an ant and he was sugar.

Ha.

It seemed fate was going to mess with her, though, for after a year of wanting company, this was who she got.

He hated her. For reasons she didn't know, he hated her.

Maybe he found her disgusting to look at? She didn't know.

Still, she liked it at the Sanctuary. Spending the day with the animals had caused her to realize life could be good there.

Truth was, she didn't want to leave.

Setting her shoulders, she clasped her hands, wincing slightly at the blisters that were forming there.

She'd just have to get used to them.

She'd rather deal with blisters than the alien dicks she'd seen at the market any day.

Easing off the counter, she headed to the bathroom.

She needed to urinate before bed and then she was going to collapse and sleep her worries away.

Tomorrow was a new day to make more mistakes.

24

IT MUST HAVE BEEN tiredness or maybe she was just engrossed in her thoughts because she opened the door to the bathroom, stepping in without even knocking.

It took her only a second to realize what she’d done when her eyes fell on a glorious blue naked ass.

His glutes were taut, the firmness looking as if it was carved with precision.

There was a stump there too, at his tailbone, and her eyes fastened on it even as she heard a growl in the small space.

Before she could even think about where she was and what she was doing, Riv moved and she was against the wall, pressed into it by the sheer force of his presence.

“La-rehn,” he growled and it must be the steam in the room or something else but she was suddenly very hot. Her hands were clammy, and she was finding it hard to breathe.

He was naked. She’d walked in on his shower.

He was frickin’ naked and he was so close that the water covering his skin was making her clothes wet.

She could feel every muscle in his chest, even the muscles in his thighs and remembering her thoughts from earlier about this very position beneath him, Lauren swallowed hard.

“S-sorry. I—”

“I cannot even wash in peace? Must you permeate every inch of my space, my mind, my solitude?” Riv growled low, his face centimeters above hers.

Lauren swallowed again.

She didn’t know what he was talking about. She was only five foot seven.

She wasn’t permeating any space.

Did he have to be so intense?

For it was intense.

She could hardly see his face, for the door had hissed shut and enclosed them in darkness.

He showered in the dark?

Who the hell did that?

But instead of making her afraid, the darkness made her hyper aware.

It was as if every spot where his skin came in contact with hers was tingling. She could feel each breath he took…the heave of his chest as he pressed into her…his hands pushing against the wall by the sides of her head…

“You,” he growled and the sound made her whimper, not out of fear but because of something else completely different.

The front of her dress now wet, her nipples became hardened peaks against his chest, pushing back against him.

Just a movement, any movement, and the friction would have her nipples pulling across his skin.

He pressed her further into the wall, his body against hers, the water sluicing off his skin onto her.

He seemed to be fighting with something within himself because his body was rigid, his palms closed into fists, and he was gritting his teeth, fangs bared.

As the moments passed, something in the back of her mind told her she should disentangle herself. She should leave.

She’d interrupted his shower and should be the one to go.

He wasn’t pressing her so hard into the wall that she couldn’t wriggle to the side and make an exit.

However, her feet refused to move.

It was either that or her mind wasn’t sending the signal.

So she stood there, the air between them feeling as if it was rising in temperature, her own chest heaving in tune with his.

And for the first time since she’d crossed that barrier and entered his Sanctuary, Lauren realized something.

She was attracted to Riv.

This went past thinking he was handsome or admiring his physique.

This didn’t feel anything like the advances and leers she’d received from other aliens. When they’d done it, she wanted to make herself scarce.

Right now, she didn’t want to move.

Whatever was happening, she didn’t know if she wanted to stop it.

By God, she didn’t fucking want to stop it.

It took a few moments, but she became dimly aware that between them, against her belly was something long and hard.

The thought of what that could be made her throat go dry in the steamy room.

A part of her mind told her she should be protesting but the majority of her brain cells were more interested in the fact that there was a snarling alien above her, flashing his fangs, and she didn’t feel in the least bit threatened by him.

She felt…alive.

Right now, he felt like something off-limits, something she couldn’t have.

It was no wonder the “bad” kids in high school had always looked like they were having such fun.

Being bad felt fucking good.

But this wasn’t tight.

He wanted to get rid of her.

He didn’t want anything to do with her and that’s why she should know better.

Instead, her body was responding to how close he was, the fact she could feel him against her, the fact that every inch of him that touched her was sending a sort of pleasure through her that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

The fuck was wrong with her?

Was she sex starved?

A year without sex could do this to a woman.

Unwittingly, her gaze fell to his lips and she felt his awareness shift, almost as if he realized suddenly that he was too close to her, that she was staring at his lips as if she wanted him to kiss her, and that his entire body was pressing hers into the wall.

But he didn’t move.

Instead, he growled, and that one sound had her thighs clenching with heat.

Lauren swallowed again.

“Riv…I…”

She almost groaned.

Saying his name sounded very, very intimate in the moment and it didn’t help the situation in the least.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in here.” How she managed to get the words out, she didn’t know.

He grasped her in one motion, spinning her around with such strength she was facing the wall and…she didn’t know this before but…she might be into some light submissive sex play because her entire body was suddenly yearning for him to do more.

He was still pressed against her and she could feel every cord of his taut body. Against her ass, she felt something else. That hard, hot rod was pulsing against her. So close she could feel the ridges along his length.

Ridges.

He had fucking ridges.

If that didn’t make her clench hard, him pressing against her surely did.

It was clear she wasn’t the only one affected by their proximity because she was sure she heard him inhale deeply, his nose dipping to her hair.

His voice was raspy and low when he spoke.

“Leave, La-rehn.”

Two words.

Two words that shot through her consciousness and brought her back to reality.

Lauren stiffened against him.

She was an idiot.

How could she have let herself get away so much she’d forgotten who he was?

The alien she was inconveniencing.

Wringing out of his grasp, Lauren pulled away, her back to him.

She kept her head straight, pure disappointment in herself fueling her anger, and stepped out of the room without a backward glance.

RIV LEANED his forehead against the wall of the cleansing room, his breath coming in hard gasps.

Squeezing his eyes shut tight, he forced himself to regain control.

His cock throbbed insistently, missing the warm soft body it had just been against and he slammed his fist into the wall.

He was becoming undone by a barrage of emotions.

Feelings he’d locked away so long ago. Feelings he hadn’t known he still had the capacity to experience.

Every fiber within him ached with need and he had to clench his teeth, squeeze his fists, and plant his feet into the floor so he wouldn’t go after her.

He wanted her.

He’d admit it.

He phekking wanted her.

The memory of her body against his still fresh in his mind was like torture and his cock jerked again, demanding attention.

Gripping himself at the base, Riv clenched his teeth.

As he moved under the spray once more, he let the water run over his head and shoulders and let go of his cock.

He wouldn’t relieve himself of the pressure, the pain.

He wouldn’t be so weak as to indulge. He’d endure it till it went away.

Hanging his head, he took a deep breath.

He was weak. Weaker than he’d realized.

All these years of telling himself he was better off alone, all of that was crumbling in just the short space of time he’d been around the sweet-smelling human.

Didn’t she understand?

She’d been thrust into his space and now she was invading his entire being.

Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe this was normal.

Maybe it would go away as soon as he got rid of her.

Or maybe he was weak.

And the last thing he wanted to do was let himself down.

Many orbits ago, he had promised himself he would never leave himself open to be used ever again.

But despite that he'd kept himself way from so many other females, he knew he was also not someone a female needed.

He was broken. Incomplete.

The stub where his tail once was served as evidence of that.

Which female would want a male like him?

He kept this in his mind as the air jet dried him and he exited the cleansing room, nude but warm.

Trust no one.

That had been his motto.

A silly one…because it seemed as if he couldn’t even trust himself.

25

A FULL WEEK passed since the bathroom incident and, surprisingly, the days went more smoothly than she’d thought they would.

After that night, she was sure she’d have seen Geblit in the morning. And she’d been ready to leave with him too.

She’d had enough.

But Geblit never turned up and what’s more, Riv seemed to disappear for the most part.

So she decided to do what she could do.

Work.

Keep herself busy.

It was great, too, because, after being stuck behind a glass wall for a year, keeping herself company, she suddenly had things she could occupy her mind with.

She'd wake early, get out onto the grounds to do chores, return late, shower, eat, go to bed, repeat.

And during most of that time, she was left to her own devices.

Riv seemed more focused on securing the farm, spending most of his time by the perimeter when he wasn't tending to the animals.

He stayed out of her way but she still found him hovering sometimes.

At certain points, she'd turn to find him watching her from a few meters off and, with his face covering and shades, she couldn't tell if he was scowling or not.

Memory of what had happened between them that night played in her mind every single day but it was getting easier to forget as time passed by.

She wasn’t angry at him, really.

She was angry at herself.

She really should have known better.

She should have walked away before he’d told her to get out.

She knew her self-worth. She shouldn’t have stayed plastered underneath his slick, wet body as if she was a sex-starved animal.

And she shouldn’t want Riv.

What was bad was that after she’d held her head high and walked away, she could still feel her arousal dampening the mat of hair between her legs.

It was a good thing he didn’t make an effort to speak to her. She didn’t know how she’d respond.

And since he hadn’t said anything, she took that as a win. That meant her hard work was paying off.

He didn’t have a reason to confront her about anything.

So she'd been working tirelessly, not even taking breaks as she tried to complete as many jobs as she could for as long as the sun stood in the pink sky.

The animals were a great distraction from the mess that was her life.

Funny thing was, the “work” she was doing was questionable.

After the bathroom incident, when she’d thrown herself into working, she’d ignored Riv as she’d raked, shoveled, cleaned, and fed the animals.

He’d been hovering in the background, watching her, observing everything she did, but he hadn’t said a word nor had he approached her.

The following day, however, when she’d come out to do the almost-giraffe’s pen, she’d noticed about eighty percent of it had already been shoveled.

When she went to rake hay for the almost-crocs, most of that had already been done, too.

The same thing happened when she went to feed the plump woolly animals. They’d all already been fed except one enclosure.

That’s when it became pretty obvious what Riv was doing.

If he thought she didn’t realize he was making it easy for her, he must think she was dumb.

He was doing half the work but still leaving enough so she felt like she was doing something.

She didn’t know what his kindness meant.

She would ask him but everday, he woke before she did and came in after she'd fallen asleep.

Fine, she thought. That was fine with her.

At the start of the second week working on her own, Lauren rolled her shoulders as she closed the almost-giraffes’ enclosure.

She'd just finished shoveling their poop and had set the bucket down to the side. It wasn't nearly full. She was sure the blue ninja had shoveled most of it before she’d gotten a chance to, leaving only a bit so she felt like she had something to do.

It was getting out of hand and she almost giggled, but she’d play along with his game.

She could bet he was hovering somewhere, watching her because he thought she was unaware.

Looking into the enclosure, she smiled at her handiwork. It looked much better than it did a week ago. She'd even cut some of the tall yellow-orange grass and put it in there. The animals seemed to like plopping their asses on it.

As she looked in, one of them stretched its long neck over the barrier and bumped her with its nose.

It was the animal's way of greeting her and she rubbed its moist snout.

"See you later, little one."

She snorted at that.

It was way bigger than her, even though it was a baby.

Smiling, she glanced up at the pink sky. It was a clear day as always. Clear, dry, and warm.

Her kind of weather.

She was dying to sunbathe but she just couldn't afford to take a day off just yet.

Not when her host was still acting so strangely—not that he'd ever acted like a normal person.

Life was getting a sort of slow rhythm that she could enjoy.

It was quiet and safe so far out. At least, as safe as it was going to be.

She could almost forget the terror of the market and believe that the world was good.

Lifting her hand, she patted the almost-giraffe on the head.

RIV STOOD WATCHING the female from the side of one of the buildings.

She was patting one of the tilgran’s on its head and he didn’t know why it was irking him.

Phekking everything was irking him.

Since that night, even the dawn of the light-cycle bothered him now.

He’d been waking extra early to come out and do the work before she got a chance to, so early he hardly slept at night.

Not that he could.

His nights were sleepless and what was worse was that every time he managed to close his eyes and drift off, he dreamed about one of two things.

It was either the mines or her.

Riv rolled his shoulders and began walking.

The female was heading to the ooga enclosure and his mouth set in a hard line.

He couldn’t work when everywhere he looked he saw her.

He’d thought that after so many days working on her own she’d have gotten bored and given up, but there she was, continuing to work as if she had endless reserves of energy.

He wasn’t sure what approach to take with this human.

He had no experience with females.

When he snarled at her, she didn’t shrink like he was used to other beings doing.

When he growled, she ignored him.

She wasn’t afraid of him.

She challenged him—

And maybe, just maybe, a little part of him liked that.

But the worst part about everything was that it seemed he had gotten used to her constant singing, humming, and chatting…for when she wasn’t closeby, when he couldn’t hear her voice, the world suddenly became unbearable.

Without her, the silence he’d once cherished so much had become deafening.

Stalking in the opposite direction, he shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts there.

She was slowly driving him crazy even from so far away.

FEEDING the last umu some grain, Riv sighed.

The female should be asleep by now.

He’d taken his time feeding the animals just so she would be well in bed before he entered the dwelling.

But as he approached the building, Riv squinted.

Grot was by the wall and the tevsi lifted its head as he came closer.

"You. What are you doing out..." His words trailed off as he saw the human.

For a second, he thought something was wrong with her and his life-organ thumped hard in his chest. But the subtle rise and fall of her tunic told him she was still alive and well.

Just asleep.

She'd fallen asleep sitting on the ground outside.

Moving closer, Riv swallowed hard.

Eyes closed, body relaxed, she looked as delicate as the flowers she smelled like.

A lock of her hair had fallen over her face and his hand reached out to move it away but, just millimeters from her skin, he paused.

What was he doing?

Glancing at Grot, he found the tevsi giving him a critical eye.

"Don’t look at me like that. You should be on my side," he murmured. “Instead you curl beside her every night as if she belongs to you.”

Maybe you’re jealous she doesn’t belong to you.

Well, newsflash to himself, HE DIDN’T WANT HER TO.

Crouching lower, he reached for the human, pausing for just a second before his shoulders stiffened and he completed the action of lifting her from the ground.

For a moment, she groaned and burrowed her face against him, causing every part of his body to freeze except his cock.

That particular body part grew stiff and jerked.

He almost returned her to the ground so he could decide on another way to get her inside.

But she didn't wake.

In the moments it took him to pause and watch her settle back into sleep, he became acutely aware of how she’d settled against him.

When she was unconscious, he wasn’t the monster who was trying to get rid of her. He was just a comfortable male for her to snuggle into.

For just a second, he could pretend this was true. He could pretend reality wasn’t the opposite.

The familiarity of her body was strange—like he’d memorized every line of her frame, every curve from when he’d had her against the cleansing room’s wall that night.

This was the exact reason he'd been keeping away from her.

She made him think of things he would never have and reminded him of things others had, but not him.

Never him.

Walking inside, he went towards his room. The door slid open and the hiss made her snuggle further into him.

Phek him, if this wasn’t going to come back and bite him later. Resting her on his sleeping cushion as gently as he could, he stepped back and looked down at her.

Phek.

He should have taken her to her room, not his.

It was strange seeing someone in his bed.

Grot padded in behind him, looking over the sleeping cushion at the human and then back at him.

"What?" Riv whispered as harshly as he could without waking the female. "It’s temporary.”

Grot made a low sound in his throat as if he disagreed and Riv frowned at the tevsi.

He hadn’t realized it till the human arrived, but he and Grot didn’t see eye to eye on several things.

Probably because Grot had an advantage in that department.

His cock pulsed as his gaze fell back on her and he thanked Raxu that Sohut wasn't home.

He couldn’t imagine his brother’s reaction at finding out that he, Rivenendrus U’xol Cal-Pholy, was so wholly affected by a female, he was losing his edge.

As La-rehn groaned and snuggled further into his sleeping cushion, Riv turned around and hurried from the room.

The longer Riv stayed, the more his cock ached, and the more it ached, the more he felt like doing something stupid like waking her and telling her how he felt.

That would be the worst thing he could do and he was already having a helluva time trying to stick to his own rules.

26

HER ENTIRE BODY ached and when she opened her eyes, it felt like she'd had a steamroller doing laps over her muscles.

At first, it wasn't clear where she was, but as soon as her eyes opened fully, Lauren bolted upright.

What the heck was she doing in his room?

Had she walked in there by accident?

She knew she'd been tired, but...

Tensing, she looked around her.

Riv wasn't anywhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, the door was closed and, judging from the placement of the covers on the bed, she'd been alone all night.

Releasing a breath, Lauren fell back against the mattress, trying to get her thoughts together.

The mattress was firm.

Hard, like it's owner.

And it smelled like him—a heady musk that smelled like dried hay and spices.

It made her feel strange and reminded her that she was definitely in the wrong place. For the life of her, though, she couldn't remember how she'd ended up in his room.

She’d walked back to the main dwelling, sat with her back against the wall for just a few minutes as she’d watched the moons…and then she’d woken up there.

Bracing upright, she took in the room.

It was mostly sparse apart from different gadgets against the walls and gadgets thrown on a table in the corner. He had a trunk with clothes against one wall, too…and that was it.

As she eased herself off the bed, she grit her teeth.

Her muscles must have seized up in the night. That only happened when she exerted too much energy and her body couldn’t handle the pressure.

Creeping as quietly as she could toward the door, she perked her ears for any sound.

When she heard nothing, she crept from the bedroom and headed to the main room.

Grot was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of something cooking caught her attention. Her stomach growled immediately .

She was about to follow the smell when Riv suddenly appeared with a bowl in his hands.

He looked surprised to see her and she only knew this because he wasn't wearing his shades and face covering.

Green, piercing eyes hit her and widened a bit.

He did a quick scan from her feet right back to her eyes before he turned and set the bowl on the table.

"How did you…" He cleared his throat, pretending to set the bowl properly. "—how did you sleep?"

"I slept well…" Her voice was cautious as she observed him.

It had to have been him who’d placed her in his room. Only, she couldn’t imagine him doing that.

"Good," he said, his gaze finally moving her way again. "You should wash and then eat."

That made her glance down at herself and she was momentarily taken aback.

She was filthy.

She was smeared with mud and whatever other particles from her last day of work.

She hadn’t gotten a chance to take a bath the night before. But her stomach growled again, demanding attention.

"Maybe you should eat first," he said, pulling out a chair for her.

“That’s mine?” Her gaze moved from the bowl to him and back, one eyebrow raised.

"It’s ogna soup. It should help you recover your energy."

Lauren blinked.

Was this some kind of trick?

“Sit,” he repeated, motioning to the chair. “Eat. It is best when it is warm.”

Eyebrows still raised, Lauren moved forward, her eyes on him the entire time.

When he wasn’t scowling, he looked so…handsome.

Those piercing green eyes of his followed her as she walked to the chair and were now staring down at her with great intensity.

Settling into the chair, she tried not to wince as her tired muscles protested.

“And maybe don’t work so hard next time,” he snapped, before his tone softened. “It isn’t good to overwork.”

There was a scoop beside the bowl and, as she reached for it, Riv's hand shot out and closed around her wrist.

A protest was on her lips when he lifted her hand, palm upward, something flaring in his eyes.

Eyes falling to her palm, she realized the blisters she’d been developing had gotten angry.

Her palm looked red and bruised.

When she looked up at Riv, she couldn't read his expression, and when his piercing green eyes hit her and bored into her soul, she felt she had to say something.

“It’s nothing. It’ll heal.” She tried to pull her hand away but his fingers only tightened around her wrist, enough to hold her hand still but not enough to bruise her flesh.

“Your idea of what is nothing differs greatly from mine.” His gaze fell back to her hand. “You are losing the top layer of your hand.”

There was something notably different about his voice and Lauren looked up at him, disbelieving.

He wasn’t scowling…he wasn’t growling…he sounded normal—caring, even.

Considering that he’d stayed away from her for over a week, this was a surprising development.

Maybe something happened last night when she was asleep. Maybe they were in some kind of weird moon cycle she wasn’t aware of. Because this Riv wasn’t the same Riv she knew.

“Both your hands are damaged.” There was something akin to gruffness there this time but when his gaze fell on hers, there was no annoyance or anger there.

Instead, he looked at her as if he was only just seeing her, as if something about her was being revealed to him at that very moment.

It felt as if she was looking in his eyes for ages before he rested her hands gently on the table.

“How is it that you are losing your hands?”

She smiled at that, unexpectedly, and Riv’s gaze followed the movement of her lips.

Suddenly, he was too close and this situation too strange. It reminded her that she was female. He was male.

And it reminded her of that bathroom incident. The one they hadn’t discussed. The one that she thought about every night. The one that made her wet when it shouldn’t because, well, it shouldn’t!

He’d completely and utterly rejected her.

How low was her self-esteem to still get turned on by his proximity?

“I’m not losing my hands,” she answered, keeping her voice as plain and unaffected as she could. “They’ll heal. It’s only blisters from raking too much. I probably—”

“This is because you were raking?” He gripped her hand again, careful not to touch the blisters, and stared at it.

This time, his expression was clear: growing horror.

“It’s nothing really…” she found herself saying, her voice lower than usual. The look on his face almost made her feel sorry for herself.

“La-rehn…”

Lauren froze.

The way he said her name.

The complete concern there was startling.

“It’s fine, Riv.” She blinked. “It’s fine. I’ll just bandage it later. It’ll heal.”

Riv rested her hand on the table and sat beside her.

Next, the bowl in front of her was pulled away along with the scoop he’d placed beside it.

She could do nothing but stare as she watched Riv dip the scoop into the bowl and held it out to her.

She blinked.

“Wha—”

“Don’t talk. Eat.”

Lauren blinked again.

He didn’t wait for acquiescence. The scoop was brought to her lips and she only had a second’s thought before she opened her mouth and sipped on the warm fluid.

It tasted like what she’d expect a bowl of heated chlorophyll to taste like. Lucky for her, her taste buds no longer protested having alien foods.

They’d had a year to get over themselves. The hard meal bars had made sure of that.

Riv seemed to be focusing intently on the scoop as he brought it back to the bowl and refilled it. His eyes didn’t rise to meet her gaze or anything else in the room.

“I can feed myself, you know.”

“Debatable.” He put another scoopful at her lips. “Your hands are unusable.”

She took the food into her mouth and waited as he filled the scoop again.

“You don’t need to do this.”

He seemed to huff a breath through his nose.

“There are a lot of things I shouldn’t be doing.”

She swallowed yet another scoop. “Then why are you?”

Maybe she’d asked too much because he stopped moving, the scoop paused in his hand, which was outstretched halfway between them.

The seconds felt like ages as she waited for him to reply.

“Because, La-rehn,” his gaze finally met hers, “I've realized I’m a fool.”

HIS WORDS LEFT her stunned and for the next few moments, she took the scoops into her mouth as he fed them to her.

She wasn’t blind.

He was obviously going through something, processing something, or fighting something. Whatever it was, he still refused to meet her gaze.

Instead, he focused on the scoop and on feeding her the rest of the soup.

Maybe because she was stunned by this sudden change in his behavior or maybe it was because a part of her liked the fact he was being so attentive for a change, but she sat in silence allowing him to feed her.

And the longer it went on, the more intimate it felt.

“Why did you make this for me?” she asked.

His eyes met hers for a second before refocusing on his task of feeding her. “You hurt yourself.”

Lauren huffed out a small laugh through her nose. “It almost sounds like you care.”

Riv glanced at her again, giving her the last scoop. “I shouldn’t.”

That wasn’t a no. That was a yes. Yes, he cared.

He put the spoon in the bowl and leaned forward, his index finger brushing against the corner of her lips as he removed a droplet of soup there.

It was such a sudden, unexpected movement that her breath hitched in her throat.

He must have caught himself then, because his finger froze by the corner of her lips.

His gaze was heated when he finally looked at her.

“I apologize,” he finally said.

Two more words she hadn’t expected.

“Apologize for what?” Her voice was almost a whisper and his gaze fell to her lips as she spoke.

“You’ve been overworked.”

A small, nervous chuckle huffed through her nose this time. “Hardly. I’m just not used to working with my hands. Back where I’m from, work consisted of sitting on my ass around a desk and clacking at keys on the computer. It wasn’t…” She glanced around the room. “It wasn’t anything like this.”

Riv dropped his finger from her cheek, his gaze moving with the same slow precision from her lips back to her eyes.

“Do you miss your planet?”

Lauren’s eyebrows rose a little. He’d never asked her about Earth before.

“I do.” She paused. “My planet has blue skies and green forests. It’s nothing like Hudo III with its pink sky and yellow-orange grass. I had friends, family, coworkers…life was okay.” She paused again. “I can never return there. I have to make a new life now.”

“Is that why you overworked? You didn’t need to.”

“I know,” she used his words. “But I’m a fool.”

Was it just her, or was the air around them suddenly now thick?

He was still leaning forward, close enough for her to make out the small pattern of bumps that dotted the bridge of his nose and rose over his eyebrows.

Still, she didn’t move away, and neither did he.

Tentatively, she outstretched her hand, and Riv’s gaze snapped to it immediately, mild alarm widening his eyes slightly as her hand moved forward and she traced a finger over the bumps on his nose.

He jerked a little, almost as if he wanted to pull away, but he didn’t. He looked down the bridge of his nose at her finger then lifted that same slightly alarmed gaze to her.

“I—”

“Don’t,” his whisper was hoarse, restrained.

Don’t touch him or don’t speak? She wasn’t sure.

The air around them was so thick now, she could hardly breathe and when she pulled her hand away, she saw his throat move in unison with hers.

Whatever was happening right now was dangerous.

She needed to regain control or what happened that night might just happen again.

A girl needed to learn from her mistakes.

"Come." He stood suddenly.

"Come?" Her brows furrowed a little.

"You need a warm cleanse.”

Ah. The shower.

"Right," she said, standing and trying not to wince with the effort. Was she really that unfit? She’d tried to keep exercising while in the terrarium. It hadn’t been the greatest way to spend her time but it had helped her keep her sanity. “I guess I do need a bath, don’t I?”

“Why do you ask questions you don’t wish for me to answer?”

Lauren huffed out a short laugh. This was the Riv she was used to. The grumpy, slightly irritable, blue alien.

“They’re rhetorical questions, Riv. It’s in the definition. I already knew the answer before I asked.” She pushed the chair so it moved back under the table and took a step toward the corridor, sucking in air as she did.

Shit. Her muscles were really effed up.

“Then why ask?”

She paused.

“Conversation? I thought we were having a conversation.”

He grunted, his eyes softening a little.

Lauren turned away from him and took one step and another, wincing as she did. It seemed the walk to the bathroom was going to take much longer than usual at the rate she was going.

These last few days had really taken a toll on her, more than she'd realized even, for her body to be reacting like this.

Before she knew what was happening, she was lifted off her feet by strong arms.

A yelp left her lips and the next thing she knew, her view was of Riv's taut trouser-clad ass.

An ass she'd had the pleasure of viewing in its most natural form.

“What are you—”

"Don't resist," he said as he began walking down the corridor. “When you resist, you writhe, and when you writhe…”

Lauren stopped moving, his words rendering her silent and a heat beginning to grow between her thighs.

Falling limp against him, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

This close, his musk filled her nose.

It was the type of smell that made a girl want to kiss a guy and then tie herself up, legs splayed, mouth gagged, so he could delve deep into the center of her universe and make her scream.

Yea, she was thirsty alright. Considering he wasn’t the nicest or friendliest of persons, she was really thirsty.

Her senses came back to her when he set her down in the bathroom.

Moving over to the wall, he pressed a series of small squares embedded into the wall itself and a sort of whirring noise began.

In front of her eyes, one section of the wall began curving forward, forming a tub.

“Whoa.” She could only stare. “The heck?”

Riv glanced her way. “Do you not have cleansing tubs,” he cleared his throat and she realized he was trying out this conversation thing, “on your planet?”

Lauren smiled. “Yes, but they’re fixtures in the actual room. They don’t appear out of bendable walls.”

Riv nodded.

Pressing a few more buttons, he started the jets and the tub began to fill with water.

He brushed past her then and exited the room without another word.

Well, there went the conversation.

She thought he’d gone and was about to start undressing when he reentered with a little packet in his hand.

The packet had some sort of powder that he sprinkled over the water.

The powder created a thin shimmer and the water itself looked warm and inviting, little wisps of steam escaping from the surface to float into the air.

She could just imagine sinking her aching body beneath the surface and she had to bite back a moan.

“What’s the powder for?" she asked, instead, turning to look up at him.

“Healing salts.”

She raised her eyebrows then, opening her mouth to ask him why he was suddenly going out of his way to be so nice.

Instead, she said, "Thank you."

He didn't reply. He only seemed to stiffen some more.

She didn't know what had gotten into him but she wasn't going to question it.

This was the second time in a year that she'd felt like a human being and not just property or something unwanted. The first being when he’d taken her shopping at the market.

Stepping forward, she made to begin undressing when she glanced behind her to see he was still standing there.

"I need to...I need privacy to undress."

She wasn't sure, the steam was beginning to make it hard to see, but she was almost sure the skin on his face flushed to a darker shade.

“You will need help washing.”

It was her turn to blush. “What?”

"I am here to assist you."

That took her off guard and it must have shown because his shoulders stiffened some more.

"I can do it myself." She looked down at her palms. Maybe not. Maybe she couldn’t do it herself.

She did need his help.

Fine.

“Ok. I may need your help but you have to turn around while I undress and I only need help with my hair, if you don’t mind.”

Riv swallowed hard. She could see his throat move.

“I don’t mind.”

The air felt thick again as she watched him turn around.

Stripping as fast as she could through the aches and pains, she settled into the tub.

The water felt as good as it looked. Absolutely divine.

“You can turn around now.”

He did so slowly, his eyes taking in the fact that she was completely covered by the warm bath.

She’d dipped as low as she could, and thanks to the dimness of the room, she couldn’t see her body underneath the water.

Riv walked forward, pulling up the sleeves of his tunic.

He came to stand behind the tub and Lauren’s breath caught in her throat as she waited.

The first touch of his hand against her scalp was utterly heavenly and she moaned low in her throat without meaning to.

His hand stiffened at the sound and she wished she could sink underneath the water and hide for a bit.

This was why she never washed her hair at the salon. Scalp massages always had a way of making her express her delight verbally, much to the chagrin of her hairdressers.

Riv’s fingers started moving again as he reached for the soap and lathered her hair, wetting it with one hand and lathering with the other.

For a few seconds, Lauren rested her head back against the tub, allowing him to work the dirt out of her strands.

He was doing it so well, almost as if he had practice.

“You’re awesome at this.”

“I had much practice washing Sohut’s fur as a chid.”

“Oh. You were a caring big brother.”

Riv paused, his fingers stilling. “I was more than a big brother. I was everything.”

She didn’t know how to reply to that so she remained silent.

As he washed the soap from her hair, Lauren realized something.

She was lying naked in a tub in front of him.

She’d slept in a room without any protection while he was nearby.

And not once had she feared for her safety. Even now, when she was vulnerable, there wasn’t that feeling that he might take advantage of her.

She frowned at this realization, not because it angered her but because it puzzled her.

“Riv?”

His fingers paused.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice?”

A few seconds ticked by.

“I know you think I’m a nuisance, that I’m property—”

“I do not think you’re property.”

A small chuckle left her lips. “You think I’m a nuisance, though.”

“You talk to the animals. You sing to them. When you’re gone they will want me to do the same.”

Right. The smile dried on her lips.

This wasn’t permanent. He was still intent on getting rid of her.

“Right.” She’d forgotten she wasn’t welcome at the Sanctuary. She looked back at him. “Thank you. Are you finished?”

He froze, opening his mouth to say something before it slammed shut again.

With a nod, Riv stood and walked toward the door, opening it and sliding out silently.

When a part of her protested at him leaving, she took it by the neck and stomped on it.

She didn't need to be nurturing feelings for Riv.

He was the sort of guy you crushed on in high school but who would look right through you.

A girl didn't find herself in another galaxy, so far from home, to be having juvenile feelings for an alien who didn’t want her.

She didn’t survive this long to die from heartbreak on another planet.

She’d rather die alone.

27

THAT NIGHT she couldn't sleep.

Combined with tossing around in bed, she just couldn't get her mind off him.

He’d left some long thin strips of moist material on the bed in her room. The strips smelled medicinal and she’d assumed they were to bandage her hands, so that’s exactly what she’d used them to do. She’d bandaged her palms and left her fingers free.

She guessed he’d had enough of her for one day because after the bath, he’d disappeared.

But it was amazing what a good warm bath could do—or maybe it was those healing salts.

Her muscles didn’t ache so badly anymore and with the bandages over her hands, she couldn’t feel the pulsing of the blisters.

Sighing, Lauren tossed this way and that.

Why was it so hard to sleep?

No matter how she told herself it was bad, really bad for her to think about him in any other way except the fact he was a bit of a dick, her mind—no, her vagina, wasn't listening.

Maybe she had daddy issues.

Her father had left when she was young.

Maybe this was her way of acting out, albeit that it was happening a decade too late and on the wrong frickin’ planet.

She was attracted to the hot guy who was bad for her psyche even though her mother had warned her about such men.

She should know better.

When she did manage to get some sleep, images of Riv came to her in her dreams.

She imagined how his hands had felt against her scalp, how he’d touched her gently by the lips...she imagined what it must feel like if he touched her in other ways...

She knew what this was. It was that human trait of wanting what you could not have.

That's what this was.

Turning, she clenched her thighs together and closed her eyes.

Her clit ached for her fingers and the longer she ignored it the more intense the need became.

Fuck.

Turning to lie on her back, Lauren stared up into the roof.

She couldn’t believe she was about to do this.

HIS SAT PHONE pinged in his pocket.

What now?

Sliding the device out, he frowned at it before he realized who it was.

"Sohut?"

"Riv," his brother sounded breathless. "I phekked up badly, brother."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something I have to deal with. I don't know when I'll be coming back to the Sanctuary."

"Something like what?"

"Remember that exotic animal I’m here to catch?"

"Yes..."

"She’s not an animal."

"She?"

There was momentary silence as he waited for his brother to continue.

"She, brother. She. The same species as Larn."

“You mean La-rehn?”

"La-rehn. Yes.” Sohut’s voice lowered to almost a whisper. “Well, I helped capture one of her kind and..." his brother paused "...I phekked up, brother. I think I'm going to have to do something stupid."

Riv’s eyes narrowed.

Sohut’s definition of “stupid” was the same as that of “dangerous.”

"Explain."

"No time. I—"

The call clicked off and Riv stared at the device.

Phek.

It was just one problem after another.

He knew Sohut could handle himself. He'd been the one to teach him how to fight.

That didn’t make him feel better, though.

If his brother had indeed found another human, he wished he would leave her alone.

From his experience, humans were nothing but trouble.

They secretly invaded then wheedled their way in until they became entwined in every aspect of your life.

Speaking of humans…

Riv looked down the corridor at the human’s door.

He needed to check on her.

The way he saw it, she’d almost killed herself by working too hard, even though he’d made a point to do ninety-percent of the work himself.

He should just enter the room and check quickly.

It was his house. Why was he hesitating?

She was probably asleep, anyway.

He could slip inside the room, check on her, and slip back out without her even realizing.

He was hovering in front of the door before he could change his mind.

Punching the locking mechanism, the door opened with a soft hiss and Riv stood in the doorway, his eyes adjusting to the light in the room.

But the gasp that reached his ears had him freezing as he took in the sight before him.

For a moment, he didn't know what to do or say.

His eyes had already adjusted to the light in the room and he couldn’t look away.

She was awake and looking at him, her eyes wide, her entire body rigid.

She was only in her tunic and her legs were splayed—long, pink, naked legs wide open with her hand between them.

The world slowed down as he realized what she'd been doing, what he'd interrupted, and his throat suddenly became dry.

"La-rehn?"

Her throat moved but no words came forth.

Shock had them both caught in its web.

He didn't know he was moving till he smelled her arousal and realized he'd moved to stand by her sleeping pad. The thick, sweet scent coming from between her legs was like a thick dose of her pheromones.

It was exactly how he'd imagined she would smell.

Still, she lay frozen. She'd clamped her legs shut but her arm was clamped between them.

"Riv? What are you doing in here?"

Her words brought him out of his daze and he met her gaze.

There was surprise there and horror mixed with her retreating arousal.

He had to clear his throat and blink away the thoughts clouding his head, very aware that his cock throbbed against his leg. For once, he was wishing she wouldn't break his gaze and look down.

But she did.

At the moment she did, and her eyes widened some more. Her gaze on the outline of his cock in his trousers only made him harder.

"I came to check your hands," he managed to get out, his gaze falling to her arm tucked between her legs.

She seemed flustered, her cheeks were growing pink and her eyes widened even more.

"Um, my hands are okay now. Thank you for the bandages."

Riv grunted and grasped her hand.

He wanted her to protest. He needed her to send him away. He needed her to scream for him to leave.

But she didn’t.

He couldn't move his gaze from her face as her hand slipped from between her legs and the scent of her juices filled the air.

She'd been pleasuring herself.

And phek, it was the hottest thing he had ever seen in his life.

Unashamedly, he wanted to see more.

Would she cry out when she brought herself to a climax?

Would her juices coat her fingers?

His cock jerked in his trousers.

He needed to let go of her.

He should let go.

But did he want to?

No.

He couldn't help himself, and phek him, but she wasn't resisting.

A part of him really, really wished she would.

Maybe if she did, it would break him from this trance.

Instead, her large brown eyes were focused on his as she blinked at him, probably as confused about what was happening as he was.

Lifting her hand, the air grew thick between them as he brought her fingers closer to his face.

Phek.

Her musk was thick and he’d be lying like a fid on a pole if he didn't want to bring her hand closer to his nose.

Raxu knew he wanted to.

As he brought her fingers to his nose and inhaled deeply, she made a soft sound in her throat as she watched him and he had to fight to not pull her closer.

Instead, he settled for her hand, moving it to his lips and hesitating only slightly before he pulled a finger into his mouth.

Phekking hell. She tasted divine.

The moan that rumbled through him vibrated against the digit in his mouth and he watched as her gaze waned a bit, her lashes dipping. When she looked at him again, the lust had returned to her gaze.

"Riv," she breathed. "What are you doing?"

Phek if he knew, but it felt good.

It felt so phekking good.

"Do you want me to stop?" He cleaned that finger and took another into his mouth.

She tasted like nothing he'd tasted before, something bordering between hijh spices and sweetness, and as he licked her, he knew he'd made another critical mistake, for there was no way he was going to be able to turn back after this.

He'd gone too far.

"No..." came her breathless gasp, so long after he'd asked the question that he'd forgotten what she was answering and for a moment he paused, thinking she was rejecting him.

"Don't stop. I—I like this...whatever this is."

He moved closer to her then, his other hand holding onto her arm to steady it.

A soft sound left her again and he wished she would stop that. She had no idea how close he was to forgetting everything he'd been repressing for so long and just taking her back to his bed where he'd ensure she'd feel every inch of the frustration he'd been nursing for days.

As he finished cleaning her fingers, he looked down at her, licking the remnants of her scent off his lips. Her hand rested lightly on his chest as she looked up at him, her gaze searching his.

"You’ll probably come to your senses and leave, but..."

But what?

She raised upright, then, her face coming so close to his he was sure she could smell herself on his lips. Then she did something he didn't expect.

She pressed her lips against his.

It was a soft, insistent sort of mouth-pushing he’d never experienced before.

At first, he thought she wanted to take air from him and at that point, he felt as if he’d let her do anything if it meant she’d stay close to him for just a little longer.

But when he felt the smooth wetness of her tongue against his lips, when he opened his mouth to her and her tongue brushed against his, rubbing and stroking, he knew this wasn’t a sort of air stealing. It was a sort of mouth phekking.

A precursor to the real thing?

He groaned and pulled her closer and she opened up to him, the mouth phekking growing more intense as he tried to match her tongue movements with his own.

But it ended all too soon.

All too quickly, she was pulling away, her eyes downcast, refusing to meet his gaze.

“La-rehn?”

What had he done wrong?

Had he not mouth phekked her properly?

He could try again.

Phek.

He wanted to try again.

“We should stop,” she said, pulling out of his grasp.

Her arms were folded now, her back turned to him.

“You should go.”

Deep rejection.

Rejection of the sort he’d inflicted on her in the past.

It hit him like a hovercar at full speed.

She didn’t meet his gaze. Her head was hung, her breaths coming ragged.

She wanted him to leave and he would.

He’d never force her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

And she didn’t want him.

As he walked away, he knew right then.

There was no way his life would return to normal after he’d tasted her.

That one taste had pushed him past a barrier he’d been standing behind for so long.

Now, his world as he knew it was shattered.

28

LAUREN STAYED in the room for most of the next two days.

She couldn’t exit.

She could still feel his lips against hers and her body responded every time she thought about it.

She couldn’t allow herself to fall for a guy who didn’t want her in his life.

Life out here on a new world was complicated enough.

Every decision she made now was going to affect her future and God knew she didn’t want to be nursing heartbreak while trying to navigate a new world.

It wasn’t until the late evening when she heard voices in the main room that she thought of leaving the room after her two-day absence.

Thinking it must be his brother, Sohut, that returned from his mission, she slipped on her trousers and put a smile on her face.

She had to exit her room some time. Better to do it when there was someone else there to absorb some of the tension, which she knew was bound to fill the room.

Silent barefooted steps took her toward the main room when she slowed her pace.

There were more than two voices and she didn’t recognize them except for Riv’s.

Not wanting to interrupt his meeting or eavesdrop on his conversation with whomever, she turned around and was about to tiptoe back when she heard the next line.

“We have intelligence that you may have a human at the Sanctuary.”

Lauren stiffened.

That didn’t sound like a meeting with friends.

It didn’t at all.

Peeking as far as she could without being seen, she could only make out a long reptilian tail and her heart stopped beating for a second.

It was one of those guards—the alligator-looking ones. It had to be.

The same ones that had helped abduct her. The same ones that had been on the alien ship.

The same ones she’d seen at the market.

THE ONES THAT HAD KILLED THE CHILD.

Plastering herself against the wall and out of sight, she dared not even breathe lest they hear her.

“I don’t know what the phek a human is,” Riv said, his voice cool.

“It is a female. Pale skinned. Light colored hair,” one of the guards said.

“If something like that was hiding among my animals, I think I’d see it.” Riv quipped.

Lauren bit her lip as she listened, her palms closing into nervous fists.

“Looks like your species,” another guard spat. “Not one of your useless animals.”

Riv released a mirthless laugh. “Do you see how lonely it is out here? If I had a female like that,” he stressed the next words, “I’d tell her to hide away and don’t come out.”

That was a message for her to stay out of sight.

She was sure of it.

Well, message received.

She wasn’t a fool who wanted to die.

She hadn’t been planning on making her presence known, anyway.

One of the guards piped up, “The merssi with no tail having a woman?” The guard guffawed. “Humorous.”

Lauren tensed.

These guards were real douchebags in every sense of the word.

However Riv had lost his tail, it must have been traumatic for him.

To be making fun of Riv because of something he had no control over, something he could never change…they were real dicks.

The other’s joined in the laughter and she wished she could see Riv’s face.

He didn’t reply to their jeering.

“Looks like we chose the wrong farm,” one of the guards said. “There’s another closeby, we should search it.”

“If we find you have somehow hidden the human from us, merssi, you will face the wrath of Ambassador Klupengi,” said another.

“If you come willingly with information, the Ambassador will be quite generous.”

“Yes,” Riv said, “I know. I have seen the Tasqal’s generosity firsthand.”

There was a pause and Lauren held her breath.

Then one of the guards laughed. “Phekking idiot. Let’s go check the other farm. I do not wish to be caught in these barren lands when the day ends.”

With that, she could hear footsteps and shuffling as the guards left.

Still holding her breath, she remained plastered against the wall till the room grew quiet once more.

Even then, she was afraid to move.

It wasn’t till, minutes later when Riv walked into the corridor, that her shoulders finally sagged with relief.

Riv’s eyes fell on her, a stone coldness there.

“Were those who I think they were?”

“Hedgerud fighters working for the Tasqals, yes.”

“What were they doing here? How did they find me?”

“I don’t know, but you aren’t safe here anymore. Not unless you get registered.”

Lauren swallowed hard as Riv turned and headed back to the main room. She followed him there and found him punching in a code into his comm unit.

The other line picked up immediately.

“Riv?”

She didn’t recognize the masculine voice on the other line.

“Ka’Cit. No time to explain. Hedgerud fighters are on their way to your farm. I need you to stall them for me.”

There was a pause, then a curse on the other side of the line.

“What are they doing so far out? Nobody comes out here.”

Riv’s eyes met hers.

“They’re looking for someone.”

“Who tha’ phek would they be looking for so far out?”

Riv’s eyes never left hers.

“I’m looking at her right now.”

Riv took the next few moments explaining to his friend, she supposed, of her existence and why he needed to stall the guards.

No doubt they would return to search his Sanctuary again once they realized she wasn’t at Ka’Cit’s.

Ka’Cit agreed and they ended the call.

Lauren stopped pacing and looked at him.

“They searched the Sanctuary?”

Riv nodded.

“Then how did they not find me? I was in the room.”

Pointing behind her, Riv moved forward and took up a small cube that was hidden behind some gadgets on the floor.

He pressed a button on the top and the corridor that led to the rooms disappeared. Only a smooth wall stood there.

Lauren could feel her eyes grow in her head.

Moving forward, she touched the space and her hand went through.

It was just a hologram.

“How did they not realize this was there?” she whispered, still eyeing the space in awe.

“Easy.” Riv shrugged. “I stood in front of it.”

Fuck.

She turned her gaze back to him.

If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking, where would she be right now?

But before she could thank him, he was moving again.

“I saw them at the perimeter. Knew why they were here. Set up the holo box.” He grabbed his blaster from somewhere underneath the table and checked it. “Couldn’t deny them entry. It would look too suspicious.” He glanced at her. “Grab your cloak. We have to go.”

Lauren nodded, moving back to the bedroom for the garment without question.

When she returned with the cloak over her shoulders, she asked, “Where are we headed?”

“To the exchange.”

“Why?”

Riv’s eyes met hers. “To get you your freedom.”

AS THE HOVERCAR sped across the plain, Lauren couldn’t help but keep glancing over her shoulder.

She half expected to see the alligator guards in pursuit and it was making her anxious.

When she glanced at Riv, he had a look on his face she’d never seen before.

She knew his anger. His rage. His annoyance.

But this look was pure, raw, fury.

“Riv? I—” She didn’t know what to say and when he turned to glare at her, flashing fangs, she grew silent.

Glancing behind them again, her brows furrowed.

It was getting late but she couldn’t see the lights of another hover vehicle at least.

“They won’t catch us. We’ll get to the exchange and have you registered before they even realize your location.”

Lauren swallowed hard.

He was doing so much for her; she didn’t think he understood just what it meant to her.

“I’m sorry for inconveniencing you with all this…trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.”

She paused, watching him.

His voice was deceptively soft for the furious look on his face.

“Why are you angry with me, then?”

His gaze moved to her and she swore his eyes softened a little before he sighed.

“I’m not used to people…females…being the way you are,” he said after a while and her brows furrowed.

“What do you mean?”

Riv let out a breath.

Those few words were more than he’d ever said to her about himself and he paused as if he wasn’t sure if he could continue.

“You haven’t tried to use me,” he finally said.

Shocked, Lauren leaned back a little.

“Why on earth—why do you think I would want to use you?”

Riv swallowed, his gaze flicking away from her.

“I thought you were like them…the others.” He sighed.

“Like who?”

He zoned out. She could see him do it, as if he was remembering something a long time ago.

Reaching forward, she touched his cheek gently and his gaze flicked to her again.

“What happened to you, Riv?”

It was almost as if she could feel the panic rising within him. Never since she’d met him had Riv ever been as vulnerable as he was right now.

“When I was a chid,” he began, “my mor sold me and Sohut to the Tasqal mines.”

His knuckle turned a light-blue as he held on to the hovercar’s controls. “I can still remember crying, reaching for our mor, but she’d turned and walked away, leaving us there in the hands of strangers.”

Riv gulped and inhaled deeply. “Tasqals. She sold us to a Tasqal for woogli smoke.”

She didn’t know what woogli smoke was but she sure could guess. It sounded like some kind of drug.

“The female Tasqal my mor sold us to had a harem of many males,” Riv continued. “She’d use them for phekking, one after the other till they expired. I still remember her clearly. She had a circular headdress with gold trimming that she alone wore. She’s the one who removed my tail.”

“Oh my God…” Lauren covered her mouth, staring at him as his eyes grew distant again.

Riv didn’t meet her gaze, but his jaw clenched down hard.

“How old were you when she took you?” she breathed.

“About two hands.”

“Ten?! You were ten?” A bowl of anger overflowed within her suddenly. “You were ten?”

“Eight.” He held up his hands and Lauren blinked. “Two of my hands, not yours.”

Lauren blinked again, her face contorting. “That doesn’t make it better, Riv.” Her voice went soft. “How could a mother do that to her own child?”

For a few moments, Riv didn’t reply. Then he released a breath. “I stopped asking myself that a long time ago.”

A sigh left him as he continued. This was obviously hard for him and she couldn’t believe he was telling her about it.

She valued the fact he trusted her enough to share such deep details with her. It was difficult speaking about something so harrowing.

“Sohut was two orbits younger. The Tasqal put us in the mines to work. We were too young for the harem.”

Lauren’s nostrils flared.

“But the mines weren’t any better. They reeked with sweat, death, and sex.” Riv let out a labored breath. “I can still smell it as if it was yesterday.”

“That sounds…I can’t imagine what that must have been like.” She reached out and touched his shoulder. Her heart was bleeding for him. “I mean, I was taken from home and thrown into a glass cage, but…it’s nothing like what happened to you.”

He managed to smile a little, a sad one. “I guess we’re not so different. Your life was ripped apart and there was nothing you could have done about it.” He focused in front once more. “There was nothing I could have done about it.” He paused. “For many years I blamed myself. If I’d been a better chid, maybe my mor would have wanted me.”

Lauren gripped his chin and turned his face toward her.

“It was never your fault. What your mother did was inexcusable.”

Riv nodded.

“I know you’re right. But that doesn’t erase the fact that I had to go through hell to reach this point.” He paused. “I learned a long time ago, in the mines and after, that beings can’t be trusted. No one in my life had been trustworthy. Not my mor, not the beings working in the mines…by the time I ended up at the exchange I knew I could trust no one.” He met her gaze. “Every single being up to this point, bar Ka’Cit, Geblit, and Sohut, has proven to me that beings can’t be trusted. You just have to give them time to show you that truth.”

Lauren continued to stroke her fingers across his cheek and he closed his eyes briefly and leaned into her hand a little.

“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” He searched her gaze. “I thought you were like that.” He paused. “Out here, I don’t have to worry about being betrayed. The animals are not like other beings. And you…” He paused. “You’ve been nothing but perfect the entire time you’ve been here.”

She almost choked at hearing that.

Her?

Perfect?

Before she could respond, Riv looked ahead once more.

“Riv?” she asked. “Why are you telling me all this? Why now?”

Riv sighed. “Well, I’ve been trying my damnedest to avoid you, if you haven’t noticed.”

She smiled at that.

“I failed. Miserably.” He glanced her way. “Now I think this is the least I can do. Allow me to give you the gift of freedom from the Tasqals. It is what I’d have loved for someone to do for me.”

29

THEY PULLED up at the exchange and Riv grasped her hand as he hurried down one of the streets toward a tall building, Grot keeping up with them as they hurried through the crowd.

Hood over her head, Lauren kept her head down as they weaved in and out of the throng of shoppers, trying to get to their destination.

She gripped his arm, thoughts on everything that he’d told her in the hovercar.

She had known there was something deeper about him—something that pulled her to him, despite his gruff demeanor.

And now she knew.

Riv was only a tortured soul.

Underneath all that gruffness was someone who was dying to be loved.

As he bounded up a ramp to the door of the building, he paused so she could catch her breath.

“You all right?”

“Yes,” she nodded, glancing behind them.

There was still no sign of the guards.

Riv followed her gaze, too, his eyes scanning the crowd below.

“Come, we must make haste,” he said.

The inside of the building was not what she’d expected it to be.

It looked like the inside of a bank on Earth.

The only thing that differentiated it was the many different species of aliens inside and behind the transparent barriers.

Riv pulled her beside him and they moved together to one of the queues.

As they waited, she glanced up at him every now and then but she couldn’t read the expression on his face.

He wasn’t wearing his eye-shades or his face covering today but she still couldn’t read him.

“Do I need any documents? I don’t have even an ID from Earth.”

Riv glanced down at her, his eyes still unreadable.

Guarded, almost.

As if he was preparing himself for rejection of some kind.

“No. You don’t need identification. They will scan your biosignature. You will be registered based on your DNA as a refugee under the protection of the Interplanetary Union.”

Lauren’s eyebrows rose a little.

He sounded like he knew exactly what he was talking about and she guessed it was something he’d had to do before.

The queue moved quickly and soon they were at the front staring into the eyes of your typical intergalactic alien public sector worker.

The being on the other side of the barrier looked bored and completely uninterested.

“Name,” the alien said in monotone. The alien’s eyes were on stalks above their clam-shaped head and they blinked once as the alien regarded them.

Riv glanced down at her.

“Lauren. Lauren McDonald,” she answered.

“Planet of origin.”

“Earth.”

“Please state your business.”

She glanced at Riv but he began speaking immediately, giving her hand a slight squeeze and she realized at that moment that he hadn’t let her go.

“She is registering for protection under the Interplanetary Union under Directive Exhashimor.”

The alien behind the screen blinked at her and Lauren held her breath.

“And who will be her sponsor?”

“I will be.”

Lauren glanced from the alien, then to Riv.

Sponsor?

She didn’t know she’d need a sponsor.

A thin ray of blue light ran from Riv’s head to his toes and back.

“Rivenendrus U’xol Cal-Pholy,” the worker said, “please indicate you are aware a sponsor relinquishes one half of his assets when undertaking sponsorship of a being with refugee status.”

What?

Lauren’s eyes widened as they snapped to Riv.

He didn’t look surprised.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Wait!” Gripping his bicep with her free hand, Lauren caught his attention. “What are you doing?!” she hissed.

“I thought that was clear,” Riv’s voice was even, unperturbed. “We’re registering you so you can be free.”

Lauren blinked a few times, trying to read his gaze.

“But, if you do this for me, they’regoing to take half of everything you own. That’s not…” Despite that she wanted this more than anything, asking him to sacrifice so much… “That’s a lot. I—”

Riv shrugged. “Are you planning on doing anything stupid? Anything illegal?”

“Of course not!”

“Then that settles it.” He turned back to the counter and nodded to the clerk.

She could only stare up at him, disbelieving the current events.

As the clerk filed the information, Lauren couldn’t move her gaze from him and Riv kept looking forward, not meeting her eyes.

“What form of body fluid would you like to register to create the biosignature?” the clerk asked.

She was so focused on him, still unable to believe he was doing so much for her, that she didn’t realize the clerk was speaking to her.

“I’m sorry, what?”

The clerk’s expression grew even more uninterested. “What form of body fluid would you like to register to create the biosignature?”

Riv finally looked down and met her gaze, causing her to blink, and her head cleared a little.

“You need, like, my pee or something?”

The clerk stared through her soul.

“Urine? Highly unhygienic.” Displeasure twisted the clerk’s face. “Your saliva is fine.”

Oh.

There was a slight sound and a small metal disk appeared in the counter.

“Deposit your fluid there,” the alien instructed.

Lauren glanced at Riv again.

“Are you sure you want to do this for me?”

What if he was having some momentary mental crisis and changed his mind later?

“I am sure,” was all he said before giving her hand a little squeeze.

Taking a deep breath, Lauren nodded.

Bending a little, she spat on the disk.

With a whirr that made Grot growl, the disk disappeared.

“Registered. Lauren McDonald of Earth.”

The counter whirred again and another item appeared. It was a smooth metal square with no identifying marks.

“Please take your proof of status and exit to the left,” the alien said.

That was it?

Taking the small rectangular piece of metal, it felt warm under her fingers.

She was staring at it wordlessly as they exited the building and even when they reached the street.

“This piece of metal means I am…free?”

Riv was watching her with a strange look in his eyes. Even Grot seemed a bit unsure.

“Yes. You are free to go wherever you want to go and do whatever you would like to do. You won’t have to worry about being thrown in a cell or a zoo anymore.”

She had to take a moment as the feeling of a huge weight lifting off her shoulders passed through her.

Those were words she never knew she wanted to hear.

Smiling, she looked across the throng of aliens. She was free.

As the feeling settled within her, it hit a bump and froze.

He’d done this for her. Given up half og everything he had…for her. It was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for in her entire life.

Tears sprung in her eyes as she stopped walking amidst the throng and stared up at him.

“Riv, I…How will I ever repay you?”

Riv’s throat moved. “I didn’t do it with the hope you’d repay me in some way, La-rehn.”

“But…” Her throat was swollen with emotion. “You hate me.”

A sort of sadness she didn’t expect passed before his eyes before his gaze became tortured.

“Quite the opposite, La-rehn.”

Four words.

Four words that made her breathing stop and her world pause.

She didn’t know how to reply as he searched her gaze

“Riv…”

A loud commotion down the street cut through their exchange and had her turning to look in that direction.

The blood drained from her face and her mouth went dry.

Further down in the direction they were heading, four of the alligator-looking guards turned the corner.

Lauren’s heart sped up in her chest, but she gripped the metal in her hand instead.

She didn’t need to hide from them. Riv had made sure of that.

As she stared, the throng of aliens starting to thin out as the guards neared, she realized it was a procession like the one she’d seen before.

Moving to the side and out of the street, she got out of the way, thinking Riv would follow.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he stood looking ahead, his eyes on the procession. His entire body was rigid, it didn’t even look as if he was breathing.

“Riv!” she whispered harshly, but he didn’t budge.

What the hell was he doing?

Rushing back into the street, she flashed a hand in front of his face but still there was no response.

Anxiety began to build within her.

He had his staring contests, yes, but this seemed different. Either way, it was a helluva time to have one now.

“Riv?”

His eyes were vacant, as if he was no longer there and when she pulled on his arm to move him from the middle of the street, he didn’t budge.

He was like a statue.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the procession was nearing and her anxiety quickened.

It was as if he was looking at a ghost and when she glanced behind her again, she realized why.

The guards were walking with one of those toad-like beings between them. The huge toad was dressed in all white. On its head was a round golden headdress.

Wait.

She knew that Tasqal. Well, she’d heard of it.

Riv had mentioned that headdress before.

It took a moment for reality to dawn.

She knew who it was.

It was the Tasqal who had tried to force him into sex. The one who’d had him working in the mines as a child. The one who’d cut off his tail.

Shit.

Shit shit.

“Riv!” she called harshly but he didn’t move.

Grot bumped against him, letting out a low boom that caught the attention of some of the aliens to the side.

Their terrified gazes moved from the dog to Lauren then to Riv.

They knew what was going to happen. She knew what was going to happen. Even Grot could sense what was going to happen, as he began to whimper a little.

She had to get Riv to move!

Seeing his former master must have triggered something in his head, especially since he’d not long ago relived the horrors by telling her about it in the hovercar.

He was far away. He couldn’t hear her and if they stayed in the street the way they were, she had no question they would be cut down like she’d seen them murder the parent and child.

“Riv!”

No response.

She tried to pull his arm again.

Nothing.

Fuck!

She needed to do something and she needed to do it fast.

Standing on tiptoe, she did the only other thing that came to mind.

She plastered her mouth against his.

SOMETHING NICE and inviting was pressing into him.

Something was pulling him back from the void he’d suddenly fallen into.

Zooming back to the present was like taking a breath of fresh air after drowning.

Riv blinked, a barrage of feelings hitting him all at once.

La-rehn.

Sweet, soft La-rehn was against him, mouth phekking him.

With a moan, he pulled her toward him, forgetting about everything and everyone around them.

It was just him and her.

This felt right.

It was right!

His eyes zoned in on her smooth face but as soon as his gaze met hers, she pulled away.

“Fuck! Riv!” She was off him, pulling away and grabbing his hand.

Confused, he almost resisted but he was too caught up in the memory of the feel of her lips against his.

La-rehn.

Vaguely, he felt Grot’s huge frame pushing against him as La-rehn pulled him toward her and out of the street.

Pushing herself into a space between two stalls, she turned and pulled him closer.

“Shh,” she whispered. “Don’t move. Don’t look. Don’t turn around.”

For a moment, he was confused but then it all came crashing back like the tail end of a storm.

The female Tasqal.

The one that had removed his tail.

The one that had wanted to use him.

Riv stiffened.

“Shh.” La-rehn took his face between her hands. “It’s okay. Don’t look. She’ll pass by and you can forget all about the bitch afterward.”

His chest was beginning to heave and he couldn’t stop it.

It was the first time since leaving the mines that he’d seen that specific Tasqal. The first time in so many orbits.

He’d imagined seeing the female again, what it would be like. He’d never imagined it would be like this.

Debilitating.

All the memories of back then were coming crashing in all once.

It was hard to keep focused.

The only thing that was keeping him sane was the soft hands against his face, and when he looked down, there she was, whispering affirmations to him as she held him with her brown-eyed gaze.

He’d been such a fool.

How did he ever imagine she was like anyone in his past?

Phek him.

He’d wasted so much time.

The thought made an ache develop within him, one different from the pain of his past that he was experiencing.

“La-rehn,” he repeated.

“I’m here, Riv. I’ve got you.”

His throat clogged up on hearing that and he became barely aware of the procession passing them by.

She had him.

Of all the things to say, those were the words that she chose…and they were exactly the ones he needed to hear.

He’d opened up to her about his past…shown her that big patch that made him vulnerable.

And now he realized something.

Actually, he’d known it from the moment he’d seen the Hedgerud fighters who’d come to take her from the Sanctuary…he didn’t want to lose La-rehn.

Phek.

Even saying it now made him shiver.

It was a huge deal admitting something like that to himself.

He’d tried to fight it, but it got to the point where he didn’t know why he was fighting anymore.

He liked La-rehn.

He liked her a lot.

As the market goers slowly flooded the streets once more, his green eyes pierced into hers.

"Forgive me, La-rehn," he said.

"For what?" Her voice was but a whisper.

He shook his head. It was too much for him to list. “For...everything."

"Riv..."

"I want you."

Her mouth opened and closed in shock, her eyes growing larger.

“I want you. I want you on the Sanctuary. I wasn’t planning to ever let you leave.” He swallowed hard. “I know that now.”

His words sounded thick with emotion and from the way she was looking at him, it was clear she could hardly process what she was feeling.

“I thought…I was best alone,” he choked out. “I thought I didn’t need anyone.”

“And now you think you do?” Her words were cautious, guarded, thick with sentiments, too.

It only took a moment for him to answer. “I know I do.” He paused.

Riv swallowed hard and he let his raw emotion show in his eyes.

Realization slowly dawned on her face.

“I’ve wanted to apologize…” he said. “I've been a bad host to you."

“Not completely. And even then, you’re more pissy than abusive.” That made her chuckle and he felt his features soften a little.

"There’s more to you than you’ve been showing me, isn’t there. I can feel it,” she said.

That made him stiffen slightly.

“What I’ve been showing you is what I’ve shown everyone else. Only you have no survival instincts.”

For a second, her face was blank, then her lips suddenly split and she bared her teeth at him.

Riv watched her, confused.

At another time, he’d have challenged her right back.

“I do not understand your challenge right now?”

Her lips closed a little before she chuckled.

“I’m not challenging you, Riv. I’m grinning. It means I’m happy.”

He frowned at her, but there was no anger in her eyes.

Perhaps he’d been reading her wrong all along.

Spreading his lips, he tried to mimic her, baring his teeth as he clenched them.

La-rehn’s grinning stopped and her eyes widened. She leaned back a little, slight alarm on her face

“Maybe you don’t try.” Her shoulders shook with mirth as she smiled instead.

For a few moments, they stayed looking at each other before she finally whispered, “I guess we have a lot to talk about.”

As he looked down at her, his gaze traveled over her features, memorizing every detail.

Pulling her close, he couldn’t think of any talking he wanted to do.

He only wanted doing.

He’d wasted enough time not doing anything at all.

Bending, he lifted La-rehn, despite her protests that she could walk, and despite the looks he got from some of the aliens around them.

As he carried her, he felt a lightness he’d never felt before.

It was a sort of relief he hadn’t been expecting. Relief from finally admitting to himself what his heart had known but what his mind had refused to acknowledge.

This human, this human cradled in his arms, was his.

He held her tight to his chest, not wanting to let her go.

He’d come too close to letting her go, and if he had…

Something constricted within him at the thought.

He’d almost lost La-rehn.

This beautiful, talkative, happy, sweet, hard-working, generous female that had come into his life unexpectedly—he’d almost lost her because of his own stubbornness, his own stupidity.

And he might lose her still.

He couldn’t force her to stay with him on the Sanctuary if she didn’t want to.

30

HE’D CARRIED her to the hovercar, kept his arms around her as he’d sped across the plain back to the Sanctuary, and now Riv was lifting her into his arms again as they headed toward his bedroom.

Grot padded in behind them and sat on his haunches by the table, as if he had a good idea they needed some private time.

And they did.

She felt like she’d just entered a new life through a new door.

While they’d traveled back from the exchange, Riv’s friend Ka’Cit had contacted him via comm link, saying he’d taken care of the guards and there was nothing to worry about.

Riv seemed to think something was strange about that but all she could feel was happiness that the guards wouldn’t be returning.

Now, with that out of the way, Riv seemed to relax and when his eyes focused on hers, there was such heat there, she felt her entire body respond.

There was nothing to be said.

She could see it all in his eyes.

"What are you doing?" She knew exactly what he was doing and a needle-like thrill went up her spine as soon as he'd brought her to his room, anticipation flooding through her veins.

"Something I should have done a long time ago."

He didn't stop walking till he was standing above his bed. Resting her down, he leaned over her on his arms.

He wasn't even looking at her body, his gaze was focused on hers, but it felt as if he was stripping her bare.

As his gaze fell to her lips, Riv bent, his mouth hovering over hers.

“This,” he groaned, his lips locking with hers. His kiss was slow, soft, tentative, as if he didn’t want to move too fast and ruin the moment.

But she could feel the tension building between them. The restraint was too much.

What had seemed like it was going to be slow and steady suddenly exploded into a bomb of emotions.

The pressure of his lips against hers intensified as his tongue slipped into her mouth. His hands were suddenly in her hair, moving down her cheek, her neck, and tangling into her tunic.

A moan escaped her, vibrating against his lips and she received a resultant groan.

Riv’s large hand came to hold her head by her chin, the other hand tangled into her hair as his tongue rubbed against hers.

His lips were so velvety, so inviting, just kissing him was making that space between her legs moist and aching as if it needed to be filled with more than promises. She wanted the real thing.

Riv broke the kiss, his lips hovering over hers as both of their chests heaved with exertion, and his green gaze captured hers.

There was so much want there, a shudder went through her belly and erupted between her thighs.

He held her prisoner with his eyes as his hand left her chin.

With deliberate movements, he lifted his hand so she could see.

His four fingers wiggled a little before his claws suddenly protracted, slicing the air. Long and dark, she could hear when they extended and she jerked a little.

Riv studied her.

“Do they scare you?”

She stared at his hand before answering.

“As long as you aren’t planning on slicing me in half, no.”

Riv blinked, his gaze becoming more intense, and her breath caught a little in her throat.

“There is something I’d like to slice with them,” he murmured.

Without another word, he hooked a finger in the neck of her tunic and ripped it in half with one movement.

That shouldn’t have made a throb go straight to her core. It should alarm her.

Instead, it made her pulse increase just enough for her breaths to come deep. Her chest heaved as the fabric fell to the sides revealing her chest and Lauren held back a gasp at his pure ferocity.

As her skin was revealed, Riv tilted his head a little, his gaze becoming more heated as it raked over her.

His finger hovered over her bra next and Lauren’s eyes widened.

As she grabbed his hand, his surprised gaze met hers.

He searched her face, the heat in his gaze slowly dying.

“You wish for me to not go further?”

“Oh, please do continue, but…don’t rip that. It’s the only one I have. It’s almost dead after wearing it for a complete year—I washed it, of course—but I don’t want you to rip it. It’s one of the most valuable things for a human on this planet.”

Riv looked down at the bra, his brows furrowing slightly.

Extending a finger, he retracted his claws and pulled the cup down. She watched his nostrils flare as her breasts were exposed.

“Why do you cover such beautiful teats with this useless garment?”

She didn’t know if it was a question or if he even knew he asked her something because the way he was looking at her breasts seemed as if he wasn’t aware of anything else.

She could feel her skin tingle underneath his gaze.

As she eased up to slip out of the ripped tunic and remove her bra, he didn’t stop staring and when she eased back down, his eyes fell to her trousers.

He raised a hand to rip those, too, claws protracting again, and Lauren chuckled.

“No. Don’t rip those, either. Let me remove them.”

Riv made a sound in his throat as if it was a great inconvenience but he retracted his claws and allowed her to wriggle out of the clothing.

Naked, Lauren bit her lip as she looked up at him.

She hadn’t been naked before a guy in so long, she’d forgotten how self-conscious she could feel doing it for the first time.

Would he like what he saw?

Would he want her as much as she was dying for him?

But when her gaze rose to Riv’s face, his gaze was filled with such devotion, she felt worshiped and her heart fluttered happily in her chest.

No one had ever looked at her like that before.

Riv was looking at her as if she was a goddess—as if he was the luckiest man to get to behold her in her naked form.

"La-rehn," he growled, dipping his head once more to take her lips as he crawled over her, bracing himself on his arms.

A deep rumble echoed from his chest as he eased off her to stare at her breasts.

He was looking at them for such a long moment she wanted to squirm. But his gaze was so lustful that her nipples grew hard underneath his scrutiny.

"You’re phekking beautiful..." he murmured, reaching forward and clasping each breast underneath his palm. “These,” he growled. “So soft but firm when I squeeze them.” He shook them and his gaze grew even hotter. “They jiggle.”

She didn’t know how to respond.

She’d have thought that would be a bad thing but the way his eyes widened a little before growing more intense had her nipples tightening even more.

His gaze was making her feel all sorts of things, most of them centered between her legs, and when he suddenly dipped his head, his tongue flicking out to curl around her nipple, Lauren closed her eyes, biting down on her bottom lip from the sheer pleasure.

His tongue was warm. Thick and warm.

His licked her again, before closing his mouth around her nipple and a strangled groan left her lips.

Riv stiffened above her, a soft growl leaving him as he heard her groan. She felt it before she saw it. Taking the soft mound in his mouth, Riv flashed a fang. She could feel the tips of the sharp edges trail over her nipple and the feeling was so different, so exquisite, that her back arched a little as she pushed her head back against the bed.

Riv didn’t move, he let the soft, round mound press into his face and, with a growl, he squeezed the other breast in his hand, kneading it as he rolled her nipple in his mouth.

“La-rehn,” he growled. “You’re phekking gorgeous. So much softer than I’d imagined. So much better.”

Lauren panted, her lashes fluttering as she tried to listen to him.

“You imagined this?”

Riv lifted his head, his eyes filled with such burning lust, she felt like she’d melt.

“Every. Phekking. Day.”

She couldn’t believe it.

Did he really?

As if he saw the doubt in her eyes, Riv eased off the bed and stood.

With one movement, he slipped his tunic over his head revealing his perfectly formed muscles.

She’d stared at those muscles through the window on those first days…daydreamed about them.

In the next moment, his trousers were falling and she must have forgotten that boxers were an Earth thing because the immediate bob of his cock as soon as the trousers fell had her mouth falling open.

Fuck, he was big. Big and thick.

She felt her pussy ache just looking at him, a fresh bit of moisture lubricating her for his arrival.

Thick cords strung around his cock and right before her eyes, as she looked at him, his member pulsed and jerked.

Fuck if this dick wasn’t going to be worth a whole year’s wait.

He seemed to be thicker at the base and her mouth watered just looking at him, that area between her thighs clenching with need.

She didn’t realize immediately that she did it, but when her tongue moved over her lips in anticipation, Riv groaned.

“This,” he fisted his cock, “is because of you.”

Lauren took a few breaths through her open mouth, her eyebrows rising as he pumped himself at the base.

“I want to see you touch yourself again, La-rehn.”

Her cheeks grew warm at that.

“I want to see your hands between your thighs once more.”

He remembered when he’d caught her touching herself.

On another day, at another time, that might have embarrassed her.

Right now? It was fucking hot.

“Please,” he murmured, his voice so tortured, how could she deny him?

With little hesitation, she licked her finger and moved it down her belly towards her center.

Riv watched her finger move, his green gaze bleeding to black as his pupils dilated completely.

As her finger moved over her clit, she touched the little bud and a jolt of pleasure shot through her.

A moan left her lips and when she looked at Riv, he was holding his cock so hard, his teeth were clenched.

His gaze was fastened on her finger moving on her clit now and when she slipped the digit into her burning core, he squeezed his eyes shut for a second, a pebble of pre-cum materializing at the blunt head of his dick.

“So phekking sexy,” he whispered. “You have no idea.”

“Tell me,” she whispered, “tell me why you like it.”

Riv swallowed hard, his jaw clenching, his cock still held hard in his hand.

As he watched her finger, his fist moved down his shaft and she heard him hiss in a breath.

“You owning your pleasure, making yourself hot while you look at me, wanting me to fill that slick hole of yours…it makes me want to spin you over and mount you right. Now.”

Mount her?

Fuck if that word didn’t make it feel so, so dirty and like it was going to be so, so good.

Running her finger up and over her clit as he watched, Lauren inhaled deeply at his words.

Riv’s eyelids fluttered.

“You have no idea how much I want to replace that finger with my tongue.” Riv shuddered. “I want to feel your softness against my lips.”

Lauren let out a moan as what felt like a current of lust passed through her.

The thought of his mouth on her giving her pleasure was almost too much to bear, and she squeezed her eyes shut at the thought.

When she felt movement and Riv nestled between her legs, kneeling so he could watch her pleasure herself up close, she clenched again in response.

Riv grasped her hand, stopping her ministrations.

A growl rumbled through him as he brought her finger to his nose, inhaling her scent.

Dark eyes moving to hers, he brought her finger to his lips, his tongue moving out as he licked her finger clean.

She didn’t know how to react but watching him do it again, it still remained so deliciously dirty that she began to ache for his tongue.

“Let me,” he said, but that wasn’t near enough warning.

When his tongue flicked out and moved against her, running from her entrance right over the hood of her clit, she jerked against him.

She didn’t need much more than that, the buildup had been too great and she screamed, shamelessly grinding against his tongue as her orgasm rocked through her.

Riv groaned. “More,” he rasped.

Spreading her thighs, he covered her completely with his mouth, his tongue rolling over her core and Lauren cried out as she bucked against him.

Threading her hands through his hair, she pressed back into the firm cushion of the bed, hoping, praying that he’d fill that aching hole that wanted something long and thick inside.

And at that moment, as if he was a mind reader, Riv groaned, grasping her hips tight so there was nowhere for her to go. His tongue speared her, pushing into her, pushing deep as he delved his tongue into her heat.

“Riiivvvv!” She screamed his name and a resulting rumble came from his chest.

He was moaning with her, almost as if he was enjoying it as much as she was.

When the pleasure became too great and she tried to pull away, he held her fast, his tongue rubbing against her clit before spearing her once more and lapping up any escaping juices.

“Fuck, Riv.”

Another orgasm came crashing through her as he tongued her, not pulling away even when she pushed against him out of pure ecstasy, the pleasure feeling too good, the pleasure just too much.

When the worst of the tremors rocked through her body, Riv slipped his tongue from her and ran it over her softness again, wet slick sounds filling the air as he cleaned her with his mouth.

Lauren collapsed against the bed. Undone.

She couldn’t move even if she wanted to.

Everywhere ached that sweet, sweet ache a truly good orgasm left in one’s bones.

Riv kissed both sides of her thighs as he released her slowly.

“Wh-where did you learn to do that?” Her glassy eyes met his.

“Mouth phekking.”

Lauren blinked.

“Mouth what?” A lazy chuckle left her. “You mean kissing? That was nothing like kissing.”

Riv climbed over her slowly, so slowly she almost felt stalked, but it only made a new set of pleasure jitters run through her.

“You didn’t like it? Did I do it wrong?”

She couldn’t believe he was asking that.

“Wrong? Oh Riv, that was…phenomenal.”

He was on all fours over her now, his gaze traveling over her face.

Against her belly, something thick and hard jerked.

“We can stop there, if you want to,” he said. “You seem…tired.”

She smiled at him lazily. The feel of his cock against her belly was creating a new ache between her thighs.

“It’s a good tired.” She moved a hand between them to run a finger down his shaft, and Riv’s breath hitched.

Her finger moved over the ridges he had there and she realized they were corded underneath his skin in the actual muscle. They weren’t like surface veins.

That caused her to bite her bottom lip.

She couldn’t imagine what he was going to feel like.

"Are you sure you want this?" me asked as he looked down at her. "Are you sure you want me?"

"More than anything," she whispered.

He let out such a low moan she couldn’t hear it. She could only feel it vibrating off his skin.

In one movement, he spun her around beneath him and her yelp was stifled in the bedding as he positioned himself behind her.

The brush of his cock against her entrance made her grip the sheets beneath them as she braced herself.

He was big and she hadn’t had sex in so long.

She’d orgasmed twice but…

Riv’s finger slipped inside her and Lauren moaned out loud.

“You’re so small,” his voice sounded strained. “You squeezed my tongue.”

One hand caressed her back, running down her spine as he worked his finger within her.

When he slipped another finger in, his free hand clasping around her waist as he swayed her against his digits, Lauren buried her face into the bed to stop from screaming.

He was going to make her cum again.

He was going to make her cum again if he didn’t stop.

“Riv, please. I’m ready,” she begged.

Riv circled his fingers within her, and groaned.

“Please,” she panted. “I want you inside me.”

Riv paused a little and when she looked back, his jaw was clenched, his eyes dark, his brows furrowed with his restraint.

“I don’t want to hurt you. You’re still very tight, very small,” he managed to get out.

There was concern in his gaze and it warmed her.

“I’ll adjust.” She reached back, her hand clasping his thigh. “I promise.”

Riv’s throat moved as he pulled his fingers slowly from her cunt to grasp himself.

Jaw still clenched, he guided himself forward and Lauren closed her eyes and focused on the feel of his broad head pressing against her, demanding entrance.

He was so velvety there, a moan slid from within her as she dug her fingers into his thigh.

Riv pressed forward, the tip of his member forcing its way past her resistance, and Lauren moaned into the bedding.

There was nothing as sweet as when the head popped in.

Nothing.

Or so she thought.

As he began moving slowly, allowing her to get accustomed to him, he’d push in for an inch before retreating before doing it again.

Inch by inch, he seated himself within her, and with each slow thrust, Lauren became even more undone.

Those ridges.

The fucking ridges. She could feel each and every one of them.

They bumped against her entrance as he slid in and out, her cream coating his dick as she stretched for him.

And then he found his rhythm.

Riv cried out her name as he pistoned in her and she could do nothing but scream wordlessly into the sheets.

She wasn't sure where his body ended and where hers began. His groans melded into hers as his cock slammed her into oblivion.

And for once in her life, oblivion was exactly the place she wanted to fucking be.

Riv cradled her by the neck, the other hand still clasping her ass in a death grip, as he stretched her more open than she’d ever been before.

His jaw clenched with every thrust and it was obvious he was holding back the majority of his strength.

He was indeed thicker at the base.

Every time he pulled out, his reentry was like an increase in levels till she was stretched to the limit.

She wasn’t sure she could take it, her legs already felt like jelly, but she wanted it so bad.

AS ANOTHER ORGASM shook through her, Riv held her close, the spasms of her cunt drawing his own orgasm from him, and when he finally collapsed beside her, pulling her against him, a smile graced her lips.

The only sound that remained was the sound of their labored breathing.

31

WHEN SHE WOKE the next morning, she was alone.

Lauren rubbed her eyes, stretching as her vision adjusted to the fact she was awake.

She felt not-surprisingly achy.

After the mindblowing sex they’d had, Riv hadn’t seemed to be able to get enough.

He’d reentered her again and again, the memory of which caused a big smile to spread across her face.

Had the day before really happened?

If the dull ache between her thighs was the answer, then it was a resounding affirmative.

Heading to her room she got a fresh tunic and padded out to the main room, checking the bandages covering her palm as she did.

The blisters were scabbed over and no longer red. She could probably take the bandages off now. That would surely give her some more mobility.

As she came upon the main room, a sliver of excitement ran through her.

Riv was probably up early like he usually was, taking care of the animals, and as she walked through the corridor and opened the door, she wasn’t surprised to see him doing just that.

He was shirtless again today and she watched him stretch to throw some hay into the purple almost-giraffe’s cage.

He turned as he was about to lift another bale of hay and his eyes landed on her.

The world stopped for a second as they looked at each other and Lauren held her breath.

What if everything had gone back to how they were before?

What if yesterday had been a one-time thing?

But when a slow smile curved Riv’s lips, the burst of glee that popped within her told her the truth: this was real.

This was happening.

Riv was smiling.

For the first time ever, she saw that emotion on his face and it was life-changing.

He let the hay fall at his feet as he stripped off his gloves and walked towards her slowly, his eyes never leaving hers.

Seeing him approach like that, all she could do was squeeze her thighs together. There was a need growing within her immediately and the way he was looking at her wasn’t helping.

Riv’s eyes moved from her toes straight up her naked legs to pause at the hem of her tunic.

Then his gaze moved higher, over the curve of her breasts to stop on her lips.

When he finally looked her in the eyes, he was only a few steps away from her and she clenched her thighs again.

His gaze was a lust-filled furnace, burning into her memories of what he’d done and telling her what he wanted to do.

His eyes devoured her and it was not till he was close, so close his nose lingered just centimeters above hers that she realized she hadn’t moved.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, and for some reason she got the distinct impression his words meant more than their surface meaning.

“Starved.”

He pulled her against him then, his arm circling her waist as he looked down at her, a strange look in his eyes as he scanned her face.

Then his lips were on hers in a slow, soft caress.

“Come. I have sustenance for you.” He spun her around and walked behind her till they were back in the main room. Then he pressed gently on her shoulders so she sat in one of the chairs.

Brows furrowed slightly, she watched him disappear into the kitchen before he returned with a small tray.

As he set it before her, her brows furrowed a little deeper.

It was the furry fruit she’d picked on that first day with him. “You kept this?”

“For you, yes,” he said, sitting across from her. His eyes still had that intensity from before and she knew exactly what he was thinking.

Something warm bloomed inside her.

As she took a bite of the fruit, a gush of sweetness flooded her tongue. It had the texture of lychee but tasted more like a sweet peach and banana combined.

Riv watched her eat, his eyes following her movement as if he was a predator tracking her, learning about her, planning when to pounce. Except, his gaze didn’t hold a threat. Instead, he seemed entranced.

“You’re here,” he finally said.

“I am. You only just noticed?” She chuckled.

“You’re not…avoiding me.” He paused. “A part of me thought you’d be staying away from me this light-cycle.”

“Do you want me to?”

“Never,” he said. “Never again.”

She smiled at that.

Moving from his seat, Riv came to kneel by her, his face pressed into her side as his arms wrapped around her waist.

After a deep inhale, he moaned a little.

“You’ve shown me what it means to look forward to something more,” he said. “I want that. Every day.” He paused. “For the rest of my life.”

Lauren’s breathing stopped, her lungs seizing.

“I guess,” Riv breathed, lifting his head so he could look up at her. “I guess I’m asking if you’d like to stay here in this desolate place with me and my animals.”

Lauren blinked. “Live out here?”

Something she’d never seen in his eyes passed through them and she recognized it immediately.

Fear.

“I suppose I could consider moving somewhere else. Somewhere closer to civilization if you really want to…”

Her heart ached.

To think he even suggested that. He was actually considering making such a drastic change for her.

Spinning so she faced him, she held his face between her hands.

This big blue, grumpy softie was asking her to stay with him for the rest of his life.

If that wasn’t some commitment, she didn’t know what was.

And she was ready for it.

“Of course, I’ll stay.” Then she chuckled. “I didn’t want to leave in the first place.”

Riv’s smile was faint. “I know that, but…the choice is yours. If you really want to leave—”

“I don’t.” She sighed. “Plus, I have to pay you back for sponsoring my alien visa thing. I’m not going to just mooch off you like that. I—”

Riv growled a little, his glare rendering her speechless.

“Pay me back? I don’t care about that.”

Lauren put down the piece of fruit she was about to place between her lips.

“You have no idea what you’ve done for me, have you?” she whispered. “For a whole year, I was treated like an animal. A lesser being. You’ve…you’ve rescued me from that. And so much more.”

His glare softened. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me.”

She watched his throat move. He was looking at her as if she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Riv buried his face between her breasts and inhaled deeply.

When his hands slid to her legs and under the tunic, Lauren gasped, her body responding immediately.

“I wish I could have you now. My cock aches to be inside you.”

His bluntness only made the heat within her rise.

“You can have me, if you want to.” Her voice was only a little louder than a whisper.

Riv’s head shot up from her chest, his eyes searching hers. “I can?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t you be able to?”

“You are not sore?”

She almost chuckled. “A little, but I can take more.”

Riv stared at her and she could see the heat starting to grow in his green depths.

“Does that mean what I think it means?” His hands caressed the juncture of her thighs and her hips.

“What do you think it means?” She could hardly think with his hand so close to her center.

One movement, and he’d be touching her and she was already sure she was wet.

“That I can have you as much as you want me to.” He leaned forward to rub his nose against her tunic where her hard nipple pushed against the fabric. “And I sure hope you want me right now.”

Lauren wet her lips.

“I do.”

It was all he needed to hear.

Riv rose and lifted her.

Staring into his eyes as he carried her, her heart beat hard in her chest as he headed back to the bedroom.

32

A WHOLE DAY of loving later, a ping sounded on Riv’s comm unit and he growled before looking at it.

They were entangled together in a comfortable arrangement on the bed and she could understand why he didn’t want to be disturbed.

She didn’t want to move either.

“It’s Ka’Cit,” he murmured. “He’s coming in.”

“Oh.” She stiffened a little before relaxing and swinging her leg from over him. “Guess I should put something on, then.”

Riv nodded as he eased off the bed and slipped on his trousers.

He gave her a longing look before he slipped from the room and hurried to meet his friend.

Finally dressed, she headed to the main room and looked out the window. She could see Riv talking to a male as large as he was. They were standing near to a hovercar near the cow-hippo enclosure.

Beside them, Grot came padding in from his morning hunt and bumped the new male with his nose.

Well, if Grot approved of this Ka’Cit, she guessed he couldn’t be bad.

As she exited the dwelling, the male’s tail seemed to grow tense when he turned her way. It stopped moving and suddenly froze in the air.

It was obvious the male was wary of her and she couldn’t help but wonder if their tails were a body part that depicted how they were feeling.

Riv’s brother had a tail but she hadn’t really noticed it back then.

Maybe her interest was because she now knew how Riv had lost his.

She reckoned that when upright, the tail would make a male look taller and stronger. That was probably why Riv was so self-conscious about his.

Little did he know that he was perfect in her eyes.

As she approached Riv and his friend, she noticed the male was covered from head to toe and the only reason she realized he was blue was because she could see his arms. Even his face was behind what she could only describe as a welding mask.

She glanced at Riv but his attention was on his friend.

As she came closer, Riv turned, saw her, and pulled her close as Grot came by her side.

A feeling of acceptance by these two strange beings washed over her and made a warm calm settle within her.

She didn't know how she could tell, but the guy in the mask was now definitely looking at her.

It was sort of how she could feel Riv’s eyes on her even when he was wearing the shades.

She was having the same feeling right at that moment.

"This is La-rehn. My...gnora," Riv said, his face splitting with a smile.

The word didn't translate and she looked up at Riv, who squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

The male in front of them said nothing for a second and she realized immediately why they were friends.

This Ka’Cit was a strange one, too.

"Greetings La-rehn," the male finally said. "I have the offending guards. What am I supposed to do with them?"

"What?" Riv sounded alarmed, his gaze drifting to the hovercar behind his friend.

Sure enough, there was a tail hanging over the side and a reptilian foot poking up on the other side.

Lauren’s eyes widened in shock.

The alligator-looking guards. He’d killed them?

“Oh my God. Are they dead?”

She felt the male’s eyes on her again and when he lifted the mask from his face, she didn't know what she'd expected to see.

Long dark hair fell over the man's shoulders as his ice-blue eyes hit her squarely.

He was the same species as Riv because he, too, had the small line of bumps along his nose, over each brow, and down his chin.

“Ka’Cit, what have you done?” Riv glared at his friend.

"It’s temporary. They live." Ka’Cit glanced at Riv. "For now…” He muttered, before, “I told you I’d take care of it."

Riv stiffened a little. "Yes, but not like this..."

The other male shrugged, patting Riv on the shoulder. "My services are yours, brother." Ka’Cit glanced toward the house. “Sohut here?”

Riv shook his head. "He’s on a mission."

“Hmm.” Ka’Cit frowned a little. “I need an isotope pulser.” He motioned to the hovercar. “I wiped the idiots’ memories. Now I need to reprogram them before they wake. Make them believe they came out here and there was absolutely nothing.”

Lauren was shocked. The had technology that could do that?

She didn’t know what to say so she kept her mouth shut. They were going through all this trouble because of her.

"There’s one inside. I’ll go get it.”

Riv squeezed her shoulder again before he let her go.

“Be right back,” he murmured. “He won’t hurt you.”

The fact he had to reassure her of that made her gaze grow wary.

But Ka’Cit only smiled at her.

As Riv walked off, she turned her full attention to his friend.

Ka’Cit was watching her intently now and she wondered what he was thinking.

"I am happy Riv has found you."

It wasn't the words she'd expected coming from him. He didn't look happy at all.

There was a smile on his face, but there was a lingering sadness underneath...

It was want.

There was want there. Not directed at her, but at something else entirely.

"Why do you say that?"

Right. He couldn't understand her.

He didn’t have English uploaded.

He looked at her as if trying to understand what she just said.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I’m afraid I can’t understand you. Though I do assume you can understand me for you can understand Riv."

She smiled at him, nodding as she did.

Ka’Cit seemed to hesitate for a few moments. "It isn't easy for males like us to find a gnora."

That word again. She had to find out what it meant.

"Gnora?" she repeated.

"Life mate. Riv believes you are his life mate. He believes his soul and yours were destined."

The sadness tinged at the end of his words was evident now and Ka’Cit smiled at her slightly before averting his gaze.

She wished she could say something to him to cheer him up but the sound of Riv approaching caught her ear.

“Here.” Riv handed him a small, cylindrical device. “And just so you know, when I asked you to distract them, I meant that you should literally distract them till I got La-rehn safely away.”

Ka’Cit blinked, then smiled. “I know,” he shrugged. “I got bored.”

With a flip of his fingers, he set his mask back in place, turned, and headed back to his hovercar.

"It was nice meeting you, La-rehn," Ka’Cit said over his shoulder.

Lauren nodded and smiled.

"What do you think of him?" Riv leaned in, rubbing his nose on her cheek.

It seemed that now they’d passed the barrier holding them apart, he couldn’t stop touching her, and she loved it.

Especially after a year of not having the joy of physical touch, it was exactly what she needed.

"Before or after he took off his serial killer mask?" She asked.

Riv chuckled. “Both?”

“I don’t know. He’s…different.”

“He is. He is my closest friend.”

“I can see why.” She laughed.

Riv turned her to face him. He looked tired but there was a relaxed look on his face.

“Let’s go inside." He was looking at her with such reverence, she couldn’t believe they’d actually shared so much together.

Looking at him now, she could see her future in his eyes.

She couldn't be more ready.

She was about to tell him just what she was thinking when there was a crackle in the air.

Grot’s boom of a bark rumbled through the space immediately, as he began to snarl.

Riv stiffened, his eyes darting around them.

“Phek,” she heard Ka’Cit mutter.

“What is it?” she asked.

It felt like static was suddenly crackling in the air and as Grot continued to bark, the tension in the air became very real on a literal level.

Riv gripped her and pushed her behind him as something crackled and materialized in the air in front of them.

It was like a glowing orb of light and electricity and as she watched, her eyes wide, there were shapes materializing in front of them.

Four alligator-guards appeared out of thin air.

Time stood still.

“What the actual phek?” Riv muttered.

Okay, so it wasn’t just her imagination, then. They’d literally appeared out of thin air.

She’d had no idea teleportation was possible until that very moment.

The guards took a second to take in the surroundings, their gaze locking on her, then moving to Riv.

Riv pushed her further behind him as Grot came by his side, both blocking her from the sudden danger in their midst.

Everyone was frozen and staring at the huge beasts. The guards’ blasters were pointed and ready and as they looked toward the hovercar, she stiffened along with Riv.

They were going to see Ka’Cit and the bodies of their comrades.

SHIT.

She could tell when they saw their fellow guards because their blasters suddenly charged all at once.

Ka’Cit raised his hands. "Funny story..." he began.

There was a roar before one guard lunged his way.

Riv spun, his arms around her as he lifted her, and threw her over the fence unto a fat cow-hippo.

"Duck!" he managed to say before something slammed into his back.

One of the guards jammed his blaster against Riv's shoulders and their eyes locked.

Fury.

Cold, cold fury.

Riv roared, fangs flashing.

A blur of black cut through the air as Grot jumped, his teeth sinking into the guard's arm.

Shit shit shit.

Today was not the day she thought she'd have to fight monster gators but she guessed she didn't have a choice.

Gripping the cow-hippo, which she was surprised hadn't thrown her to the ground, Lauren slipped off its back, her head flashing from left to right as she tried to find a weapon of some kind.

There was only a rake and hay.

A rake and hay.

Shit.

Behind her, she heard a hard thud and turned in horror, hoping she didn't see blue on the ground but Riv was still upright. The gator guard was immobilized and Riv held his blaster.

In front of him, Grot had another guard's blaster-holding arm in his mouth and the guard was hammering his fist into the dog with all his might, his blaster rendered useless. But Grot did not let go. Despite the beating, he held fast.

On the ground lay another guard, motionless. She had no idea how he'd been taken down.

To the left, Ka’Cit laughed and she looked at him in horror. He had two guards cornering him and he didn't seem to care.

As Riv lunged toward the alien beating on Grot, movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye.

The guard who had attacked Riv first was rousing, his eyes on Riv's back.

She knew what she had to do.

Grabbing the rake, she launched herself over the gate in a move she didn’t know her limbs could complete.

When she landed on her feet, she was pleasantly surprised.

The guard didn’t see her coming.

Racing toward him, rake high in the air, she slammed down the metal part into the guard’s head with a roar of her own.

Already weak, the guard’s knees buckled.

“Pesky alligator piece of shit!” She slammed the rake into the guard again, and again.

It wasn’t until a strong hand closed over her arm and took the rake from her trembling hand that she stopped.

Wide-eyed, she stared at the guard.

He was going to get a big lump on his head where she’d beat the rake into it.

“It’s ok,” Riv said, pulling her into him.

Her eyes moved over him quickly. Apart from his ripped tunic, he seemed okay.

Grot limped over to rub his nose against her and she dropped to her knees, wringing out of Riv’s arms to grab ahold of the dog.

“Oh my God, is he going to be alright?”

“He’s tougher than you think,” she heard Riv say.

Her gaze moved to the sound of a chuckle to land on Ka’Cit.

She couldn’t see his face behind the mask but he was the only other conscious individual around for miles so the laugh must have come from him.

He stepped over the bodies of the two guards who’d taken him on. Spinning a small device like a mini-flashlight between his fingers, he approached.

“How did you…” She stared at him. She didn’t remember seeing him brandish a weapon.

“He zapped them,” Riv offered.

Her eyebrows rose a little.

“Low power,” Ka’Cit said. “Just enough to zap them good.” He paused, his head turning to regard the other bodies. “Looks like they have new tech. Teleporters are rare.”

Riv grunted. Stooping down to her level, he touched her cheek. “Are you okay?”

Her gaze scoured his face. “I am, but you and Grot aren’t.” She glanced at Ka’Cit, then back.

“They came because of me, didn’t they?”

Riv’s lips formed a thin line but he didn’t respond.

“Help me round them up, Ka’Cit. We have to let them know my La-rehn is off-limits. Now and forever.”

33

LAUREN PACED, the rake still in her hand and her thumb in her mouth as she ground down the last bit of fingernail there.

Riv and Ka’Cit had set all eight guards against the side of the hovercar, the ones that had arrived the day before and those that had teleported.

She watched as they gathered the blasters and stepped back.

“Ready?” Ka’Cit asked.

Riv grunted.

With the press of some button in his hand, Lauren felt a soft zing across her flesh but nothing else happened.

She was about to ask what he’d done when one of the guards groaned.

The guard’s eyes opened and he snarled immediately.

She wondered why the guard didn’t attack at once but his gaze was on Ka’Cit, and when she looked, Ka’Cit had a blaster trained on him.

“What is the meaning of this, merssi?” The guard’s yellow-eyed gaze flashed to the men and then to her. As soon as he saw her, he snarled once more. “You harbor property of the High Tasqals.”

Another of the guards stirred.

The first guard continued, “You will relinquish the property or face…consequences.”

“We will do no such thing,” Riv replied.

The guard that she’d hit with the rake stirred, his clawed hand going directly to his head. With what looked like a wince, he turned his gaze on her.

Lauren gripped the rake.

She wasn’t sorry about hitting him with it. She’d do it again, too.

“Qrakking jekin,” he snarled and made to get up when Riv’s boot landed in his chest.

“Take one more step and I can’t promise you’ll have legs to walk with anymore.”

Ka’Cit grunted and pointed the blaster at the guard’s legs.

The guard growled and settled back down.

“You are trespassing,” Riv spoke. His voice was deceptively calm, but she could see from the look in his eyes that he was trying incredibly hard to control himself.

His arms were crossed casually but he kept rolling his neck.

It reminded her of the calm before the storm, when he’d suddenly lashed out at the males at the market.

One of the guards laughed, its tongue churning within its mouth as it regarded Riv.

“Trespassing?”

The other guards were stirring now and Lauren gripped the rake tighter.

With them all awake, she hoped they didn’t attack again. Grot was injured and it would be eight against three.

“This Sanctuary is protected by the Interplanetary Union undersigned by Ambassador Geblit Cakhura.”

Lauren’s eyes widened.

Geblit?

Geblit was an ambassador?

Suddenly, him knowing what species she was when they’d first met made a whole lot of sense.

One of the guards spat.

“We don’t care about your stupid farm. We’re here for the human female you harbor illegally.”

“I’m not here illegally.” She stepped forward, rake in hand.

The guard paused before glancing at the others and they all began to snicker.

They could understand her.

Of course, they could. They worked for the same people who had abducted her.

“You belong to our master,” another guard said.

“I don’t belong to your master,” she continued.

“She belongs to me.” Riv stepped beside her. “And she’s a protected refugee under the Union. The Union knows she was trafficked. Maybe you want to bring your master to the high court? A Tasqal has never appeared there for any crime before.”

The guards glanced at each other, and unsaid conversation occurring between them. But she couldn’t even focus on that.

All she could hear repeating in her head was what Riv said.

She belongs to me.

The guard who’d woken first regarded them with cold eyes.

“You must be a fool to have sponsored a Class Four being like this,” he finally said.

“Maybe, but that’s none of your phekking business.” Riv took a step forward. “Now,” his gaze traveled over the group of guards, “get off my land.”

AS SOON AS the guards teleported away, Lauren’s shoulders sagged.

She’d had no idea she’d been holding on to tension the entire time that she’d waited for the guards to leave.

“Do you think they’ll be back?” she asked as she watched Ka’Cit examine one of the blasters they’d taken from the guards.

“Most likely.” Riv turned to her and pulled her toward him, holding her close.

His head descended till his face was buried against her neck and he inhaled deeply.

Behind them, Ka’Cit’s shoulders sank.

“Was looking forward to zapping them to oblivion,” he murmured to himself before letting out a sigh.

As his head turned toward them, he seemed to freeze and watch them for a few seconds.

“See you in the next few months or so. Link me if they return.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. He was hopping into his hovercar and heading toward the barrier.

Lauren stiffened. “Won’t the barrier kill him?”

Riv lifted his head and watched Ka’Cit go. “The phekker has some device that disables it.”

Lauren turned her eyes to him. “Shouldn’t you be concerned about that?”

Riv shrugged. “It’s Ka’Cit. He’s harmless.”

Right.

He sure seemed so.

Glancing around the grounds, she searched for the familiar black form of Grot.

As if he knew what she was looking for, Riv turned her toward him instead.

“He’ll cocoon for a few days. Heal. You won’t know he’d been injured.”

“Cocoon?”

“Cocoon.”

Before she could ask any more questions, Riv lifted her into his arms and marched toward the house and straight to his room, sliding the door shut behind him.

"All I can think about right now is you. All I can think about is the fact that they wanted to take you away from me." He turned, pressing her against the wall. "I don't want to feel that ever again. I don't want to ever be alone again."

Lauren threaded her hands into his hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”

"All I want to do..." Riv pressed further into her and she felt his arousal throbbing against her leg “...is take you here. Right here, right now. I want to be reminded that you're mine...because you are mine. I’m not letting you leave."

She was about to make a joke about her having never wanted to leave when Riv's mouth crashed into hers, his hands gripping her hips as he lifted her to cradle his waist.

"My La-rehn," he groaned as he ground himself into her.

"Riv," she breathed, her body set afire by the feel of his need.

Riv paused to let her slip to the ground so she could shimmy out of her trousers, and as soon as the garment fell, he spun her so she was facing the wall.

A sound of surprise left her lips. She could feel the heat of his erection against her.

Hard, hot, long it pressed into her, promising her of pleasure to come.

"La-rehn?" His fingers found her clit and she moaned an answer. "Every cell in my being is screaming that I claim you.” He paused, the only sound being her breath coming in short gasps as he circled her bud with his finger.

“I need to feel you clasping me with that hot cunt of yours. Need to feel you surround me.”

Lauren’s eyes rolled back.

His sheer need for her was stimulating her own desire.

As his cock found her entrance, Lauren bit her lip, waiting for that sweet, sweet moment when his head popped past her resistance and he settled deep within her.

She was already wet, wet enough to take him, and she reached behind to grip on to him as she heard the clasp of his trousers release.

With a strong surge forward, Riv seated himself deep, a low groan rumbling through his chest as he leaned against her, plastering her against the wall.

Gripping her breasts, he took the lobe of her ear into his mouth as he withdrew then slammed into her again.

"You're mine," he whispered. "Mine to keep. Mine to take," he grunted as he thrust deep, the proclamation searing into her thoughts.

She could feel her orgasm building and she bit down hard on her lip as his tempo increased.

"You're mine, La-rehn," Riv whispered.

Turning her head, Lauren looked at him through glossy eyes. "And you're mine."

Her own proclamation seemed to hit him by surprise because he paused and she was sure she felt him harden even more within her.

"You're mine too, Riv. I proclaim you as my own,” she clarified.

His vision seemed to change, becoming so intense she couldn't break his gaze even when he began to barrel into her hard.

Her eyes rolled back as her orgasm turned her cunt into wet, dripping honey and as his own orgasm rocked him, they cried out at the same time, collapsing against the wall.

It took a few moments for her to recover and Lauren let her body sag against his.

Riv breathed into her hair, inhaling deeply as he fought to calm down.

“Phek,” he muttered. “Did I hurt you?”

He was still pulsing within her and it made a lazy smile spread across her face.

“Not enough, gnora," she replied and Riv froze.

"Gnora?"

Lauren blinked. Did she say it wrong?

"Isn't that how it's pronounced?"

Riv’s intense gaze met hers. "How did you learn that word?"

"I heard you say it and now I know what it means."

“And now that you know what it means?” He was studying her for her reaction as if he wasn't sure how she was going to respond.

He was still so hesitant, still doubting himself and what he meant to her.

She found it lovable.

Leaning back into him, she planted a kiss on his neck.

"Soul mate."

"You think I'm your soul mate?" He blinked, still searching her face.

"I don't think so. I know it. I can feel it deep down. I wasn't taken away from my home on Earth for nothing. My whole purpose was to be here, right now, with you."

Riv swallowed hard, pulling her closer to him as he buried his head into her hair.

They stood like that for a few moments before a breath shuddered through him.

"I think I love you," he said.

Lauren smiled.

She’d waited ages to hear those three words, but not just from anyone. She was happy she was hearing it from him.

"I love you, too, Riv."

"Let's go to bed."

"Let's."

EPILOGUE

TWO WEEKS later

LIFE on the Sanctuary seemed to have gone right back to normal.

The umus whistle-wheaked like maniacs every day, wanting to be fed.

Grot went off hunting, disappearing for hours, but returned every night to sleep at the foot of their bed.

The tilgrans still greeted her every morning, stretching their necks over the edge of their enclosure to bump their heads gently into her and the ooga still ignored them for the most part, grazing happily.

As they cuddled in bed, her head resting on his chest, Riv played with her hair.

He still hadn't heard from his brother and she knew it was stressing him. She'd told him it was fine for him to go look for his sibling but he refused to leave her alone, still fearing the alligator guards reappearing.

It was a difficult decision to make.

A part of her felt guilty being the reason he didn't want to leave, no matter how he assured her that it was fine.

Just as she snuggled further into him, the sound of his comm pinging sounded in the room.

Riv didn't move to answer it.

"Aren't you going to get that?" she asked.

“Whoever it is can wait.”

"It could be your brother."

With that, he paused for a bit before reaching for the device.

As he looked at the screen, she could see his countenance change.

"What do you want?"

Lauren covered her mouth, the instant chuckle bubbling within her.

He was a grumpypants, but he was her grumpypants.

Riv glanced her way and his face softened a bit.

"Phek, Geblit, don't you dare."

Riv was easing off her and at the sound of the four-eyed alien's name, the smile wiped from her face.

"Geblit!" With a growl, Riv stared at the comm. "He hung up on me," he whispered, as if disbelieving.

"What did he say?" She pulled the covers toward her as Riv lifted his gaze to hers, his face unreadable. "What is it?"

Slipping into his trousers, he didn't even put a tunic on before he was rushing out the door.

Confused, Lauren got ready and went after him.

What could have made him so anxious?

But as she exited the building she saw exactly what.

A boxe, exactly like the one she'd been brought in, was on the other side of the barrier.

Off in the distance was a hovercar flying away, Geblit’s unmistakably big head giving him away as the pilot.

That big-headed bastard.

Lauren didn’t know if she should laugh or be angry.

It was clear what Geblit had done. He'd dropped the package and run before Riv could say no.

Not that she'd have allowed him to say no.

Not when she thought she knew very well what was inside that box

She wasn’t even sure if she should hope as she walked closer.

"Hello?" she called as she stood beside Riv, who was by the barrier, a bewildered look on his face.

The box moved a little and for a few seconds, there was silence.

"Hello?" came a reply.

It was a female's voice and as Riv's eyes widened, Lauren’s hand flew to cover her mouth.

Another human!

She wasn't alone!

As Riv looked down at her, his gaze softened. "She’s staying, isn’t she?" It was more of a statement than a question and she removed her hand from her mouth, showing her broad smile as she nodded.

"Open the barrier and let's let her in. This is a Sanctuary, isn't it?"

"My Sanctuary," he growled, but his gaze was still soft.

"No, our Sanctuary."

He smiled a bit then, his gaze traveling over her face before he pulled her into his arms and planted his lips against hers.

"Ohmigod," came a hushed voice.

Lauren felt her cheeks grow warm.

There was going to be a lot of explaining to do, but she could feel it in her heart, this was going to be fun.

A NOTE FROM A.G

Hey there you lovely person you!

You passed the end!

I hope you loved Riv’s little world.

As you may have noticed, it’s set in the same universe as the Captured by Aliens series but on another planet that’s not actively in the fight against the Tasqals.

At first, I didn’t want to include any of the Tasqals at all because even though I created them, they do make me furious (you tell me if I need a shrink). But of course, they wheedled their way in (kind of how Lauren wheedled her way into Riv’s life. Though, if you don’t know you’re wheedling, are you really wheedling or is the person complaining just an antisocial grump?)

Anyway, Sohut’s story is next and his will be set on another section of this same planet, Hudo III.

Keep an eye out for the Restitution series, where we’ll be picking back up with our rebels in their fight against the Tasqals! Unfortunately, I can’t put a date on it yet but it’s in the works!

While you wait, enjoy some more of Riv’s world.

♥ A.G.

NEXT IN THE SERIES

Sohut’s Protection

Join the mailing list for updates on its release!

OTHER BOOKS BY A.G.

Captured by Aliens Series (Completed)

Xul

Crex

Yce

Kyris

Kyro

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to my husband.

You’ve always been there for me, even when I wake up as the Grinch and go to bed as the Grouch.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A. G. Wilde is an avid reader, a gamer, a lover of all things space, alien, and sci-fi.

She is addicted to intense romance, irresistible heroes, and deliciously naughty things.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Dedication

Disclaimer

Riv’s Sanctuary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Epilogue

A note from A.G

Next in the Series

Other books by A.G.

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author