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

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 close by, 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 farther 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 farther 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