by A. G. Wilde
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…
22
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 an
d 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 his tone, her eyes rolling back into her head as she did.
