Ka'Cit's Haven: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 3), A.G. Wilde [surface ebook reader TXT] 📗

It wasn’t a life goal, merely something to share with the man she loved and if that man couldn’t bear young, she was sure they could find other things to share.

A breath shuddered through her.

She had to go see him.

Now.

He thought he couldn’t give her what she wanted…but what she wanted was him.

“Riv,” she said. “I need a favor.”

42

Riv’s hover car wasn’t nearly as fast as Ka’Cit’s had been, but as the darkness came over the landscape she made good time whooshing across the savannah.

Behind her, Riv’s Sanctuary was but a dark dot in the distance and ahead was the nothingness of the plain.

She had no idea where she was going, but the hover car had a self-driving function and Riv had punched in the coordinates to Ka’Cit’s farm.

She only hoped he was home.

As she stared ahead, her heart beat so hard in her chest, she could hear the blood pumping in her ears.

What if Riv was wrong?

What if that wasn’t the reason why he’d stayed away?

What if she was heading all the way out there to confront him only to find out that Riv had been wrong.

It didn’t matter.

She still had to know.

She needed the closure, at least, so she could continue on with her life instead of pining for what never was or what could have been.

As she focused ahead, she was sure she saw something in the distance—something that wasn’t a natural formation on the plain.

Niya bit the inside of her lip and squinted.

Slowly, the structure in the distance was beginning to take shape and the closer the hover car got to it, the more Niya frowned and squinted.

Maybe heading out at dusk hadn’t been the best thing to do. She could hardly see properly.

Still, her heart thumped in her chest.

The closer she came to the structure, though, the more uneasiness grew in her stomach.

Maybe this wasn’t the place she was heading to and the hover car would zoom past it, because the structure ahead didn’t look anything like Riv’s Sanctuary.

Niya frowned, her mouth falling open as she looked at the thing coming up ahead.

There was an electric fence zinging around the property and the main building looked a little like Riv’s house…but those were the only similarities between the two.

All around the property were piles upon piles of…metal.

Metal everywhere…almost like a scrap yard.

Niya stared at it, confused, and when the hover car continued on and didn’t change direction, her confusion only grew.

Where were the animals and the robot’s tilling the hay? Where were the fruit trees? Where were the fields of rai?

“Destination ahead. Manual controls engaging in 5…4…3—”

Niya jerked to attention and grabbed the hover car’s steering.

She reduced the speed as the vehicle neared the energy barrier, her gaze searching the compound for any movement.

She couldn’t just go through the barrier, it would fry her alive, but as she neared it, the barrier stopped zinging and disengaged.

Oh…right.

She’d heard Riv and Sohut talking about that.

Ka’Cit had apparently coded his and their hover cars to be able to pass the barriers on both farms without external input.

Memory of that time he’d stopped by the satellite to upload English to the servers came back to her.

He was like that. Handy in that way.

As she piloted the craft into the compound a lamp post turned on, surprising her, but it seemed it was motion activated.

“Hello?”

It was quiet…and maybe it was just her, but it was eerily quiet.

“Hello?”

No answer, and for a few seconds after she stopped the hover car, she cocked her ears to listen, her eyes still peeled for any movement.

Maybe he wasn’t home.

“Hello?” she called again for good measure.

Nothing.

The piles of metal in the yard made the place a bit spooky and with the quietness, she had the urge to leave.

“Get a grip, Nia. You’re just creeping yourself out,” she whispered as she glanced around at the piles of metal.

As she stopped the hover car and stepped out of it, the uneasiness didn’t ease up. It grew.

Why was it so quiet?

The air was so still, it made the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end.

Not far from where she’d parked was a smaller pile of metal scraps, about a foot tall. Just to make her feel better, she moved over to the pile and took up a piece that looked like a sawn-off pipe.

She gripped the weapon, just in case, as she walked toward the dwelling.

Another light came on overhead, lighting up the house.

The door was closed and so were all the windows, except one.

Raising her free hand, she knocked on the door and waited.

“Hello? Anyone home?”

No answer.

Releasing a breath, she turned and glanced around the premises. She was about to walk back toward the hover car when she side-eyed the open window.

Curiosity got the best of her and she went on tip-toe to glance inside.

Blatant invasion of privacy, but did she want to be the girl who didn’t look and regretted it later.

As she eased up enough on her toes to see inside the house, her eyebrows rose.

She’d expected it to look like the grounds did, for some reason, but inside the house was…spotless and full of modern decorations.

The furniture was arranged neatly, the floor was clean, everything was in order.

Dropping back on her feet, Nia moved away from the window.

She guessed she’d chosen a bad time to visit. He wasn’t home.

She was just about to turn away when something caught the corner of her eye.

Something that made her breath catch in her throat and a chill run down her spine.

A tail.

On the ground behind one of the huge piles of metal, a tail was visible.

And not just any tail—a reptilian tail.

A tail like…

Oh God no.

With shaky steps, Nia moved toward the tail and the closer she went, the more the body was revealed.

It was one of those gator-guards and Nia stopped walking as soon as she saw what it was.

Fuck.

She glanced behind her, gripping the pipe she held in her hand.

The gator-guard’s tail twitched and her soul almost left