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

I would have kept you. The exchange is a horrid place for a female of any species, Torian or creature.”

Lauren surveyed him. “Hmm, I’m not a creature but I’ll take it. How…considerate of you.”

“I am considerate. Yes,” Geblit replied, turning his eyes to the box once more.

Lauren almost rolled her eyes at his arrogance.

But at least he was seeking to please his wife’s wishes. She guessed that meant he was nicer than most aliens were.

“I should have known my dear Cargga would never accept you. I should have taken into consideration the fact that you are hideous beyond belief.”

She took it back.

He was not a nice alien.

He was a bad alien.

A horrible alien.

Turning away from him, she looked out over at the other mushroom houses. It was a strange-looking neighborhood.

Beautiful.

But strange.

The mushroom houses were all cream-colored, some having many adjoining mushrooms and some with only a few. Geblit’s dwelling was one of those that had many adjoining mushrooms and she assumed that meant he was well off.

Surrounding all the houses were perfectly manicured lawns of orange grass and well-maintained gardens of various flower species she’d never seen before.

And like an edited photo, the pink sky made a great backdrop to the already colorful scenery.

It was calm and welcoming—kind of like most upper-scale neighborhoods she’d been to back on Earth.

Her eyebrows rose a little when it dawned on her that she was in an upper-scale neighborhood right at that moment. This was the upper-class of alien life.

Not bad, she thought. It almost made her forget she was at the bottom of all barrels on this planet.

An exclamation of righteous indignation hit her ear and had her swinging her head to look at Geblit.

His oval mouth was open and stretched, his eyes bugged out.

“What is it?”

“I have been bested,” he managed to get out with much, much difficulty. It was almost as if each word choked him a little.

“What do you mean ‘bested?’”

“The slimy zookeeper put ‘no returns’ on the label.”

The look on his face was of such utter devastation that she felt sorry for him. And, considering that she was the one who had no home except for the box in which she lay, that was saying something.

“What in Raxu’s name will I do?”

She could only look at him. She was at a loss for words.

What could he do?

Whatever he decided, her life literally depended on it.

She couldn’t just jump out of her box, make a run for it, and hope for the best. She knew what was waiting out there if she was on her own.

Until she got a chance to learn more about living on this colorful alien planet, she had to play it safe.

She was no idiot.

Though Geblit and his wife thought she was hideous, she’d take being hideous over being cooked for dinner or raped ANY DAY.

Hopping out of the hovercar and forgetting all pretense that all was well, Geblit began pacing on his scrawny legs, two of his hands scratching his balloon at the back of his head, the other two wringing in front of him.

At the mushroom house across from them, she saw an alien of his kind looking at Geblit’s breakdown through their window.

“Um…” she whispered. “You’re getting an audience here.”

Geblit didn’t hear her or he was too caught up in his own thoughts to care.

“What will I do? Cargga will not be happy. I cannot exist if my Cargga is not happy.”

Lauren swallowed hard.

Nope. Cargga would not be happy.

She needed to help this Geblit find a way to “dispose” of her. A way that would be beneficial to them both.

“And to think that I ordered more of your species to be delivered at a later time!” Geblit let out a groan that garnered more spectators at windows.

Whoa. More humans?

She hadn’t met any other humans since she’d been taken. She’d always suspected she hadn’t been alone—she would have had to be the unluckiest woman on Earth to be the sole abductee.

But she’d have to negotiate with him about the others later.

Right now, her ass was on the line and she wouldn’t be able to help anyone if she, herself, was in a bad spot.

“Don’t you have any friends…nice friends. Friends who are nice like you. Preferably nice and unmarried but wouldn’t mind taking care of your hideous pet?” She tried to add all the stipulations, stressing on the “nice” part.

A nice friend would most likely treat her, well, nicely. An unmarried friend wouldn’t have a Cargga 2.0. And a friend that thought she was hideous would most likely not want any sexual favors.

All. Bases. Covered.

“A friend?” Geblit stopped for a second, all of his four eyes blinking at her in synchrony. “A friend,” he said with more surety as if something was dawning on him. “I have a friend.”

“A nice friend?” Lauren made sure to stress on the word again.

Geblit blinked at her and looked to the side for a second—a reaction that made her own eyes narrow.

Was he…was he unsure if his friend was nice? Surely that would be an easy question to answer.

But Geblit didn’t answer her question. Instead, he hopped into the hovercar with renewed vigor.

“I will take you to him.” Geblit’s eyes grew wide with relief. “He has a sanctuary. I cannot believe I did not think of that.”

A sanctuary?

Didn’t sound bad.

So why did she have a niggling feeling at the back of her neck?

“What’s this friend of yours called?”

“Riv,” Geblit said, starting the hovercar’s engine and backing away from his house.

Riv, Lauren thought.

Riv’s Sanctuary.

Didn’t sound bad. Didn’t sound bad at all.

If his name was something like Crusher the Terrible, then she might have started to worry.

She’d put that niggling feeling that was rising at the back of her neck to her almost being homeless on an unknown planet.

She’d almost had no place to go and might have been abandoned. Geblit was nice but she wouldn’t put it past him. His only care was for his Cargga.

That was all that niggling feeling was…

Mounting panic…

She hoped.

4

The hovercar cruised through the