Riv's Sanctuary: A Sci-fi Alien Romance, A.G. Wilde [phonics reading books TXT] 📗

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.

20

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