by A. G. Wilde
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 gone 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 gr
eeting.
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 prepare mentally 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 hindranc
e. 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?