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

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.”

28

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’re going 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