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Alannah:
SORRY. I COULDN’T GET away earlier. I’m at the gardens now. Are you here?
His shadowed form came running from the woods. He was magnificent, sleek muscles shifting across his powerful form. She clutched her blanket closer around herself in the night air.
She dropped to her knees in the grass and hugged him tightly. “Oh, goddess, you’re so warm. I wish I had fur right now, too,” she laughed. He tipped her over with a nudge of his nose and half-buried her under his huge body. She curled up with him, their blanket under them with one side curled up nearly around them like an open sleeping bag.
“I’m so happy around you,” she whispered. “So glad I found you at the edge of the gardens that day. You’ve been my best friend,” she admitted.
She could feel the love he projected back to her.
“I’ve never felt this way before. Not around my sisters. Definitely not with my mother. And my boyfriend? Nowhere near this.”
He nipped her gently at the word boyfriend.
“Ouch,” she said. “Jealous pup! Stop that.”
They lay together for a bit, looking up at the dim stars. It wasn’t often they were able to be seen. Well, she looked. He was perfectly content staring at her.
“I’m glad you got the food I left out for you,” she said. She’d retrieved the empty bowls and washed them without Vien or Potierre ever noticing they were missing from the cabinet.
“I was raised to behave rather hoity-toity, you know,” she said. “And I didn’t realize how much I hated it until I came here. You can’t imagine how freeing it is to drop the pretentious manners and rituals we follow on Iota Nine. The silly greetings. The pretense that we care. You know what I really care about today? I care about you and Vien and Potierre. You’re my family.”
His inner thoughts were a bit saddened by this, but it was only because the selfish beast wanted her for himself. She hugged him closer.
“I love you, too, boy.”
His possessive feeling invaded her mind. He let out the softest whine and lay with his head on his huge paws. She scratched his forehead and his ears twitched.
“In a perfect world, I’d have my own home. I’d always leave the door open and you could come inside whenever you pleased.” A thought suddenly struck her. “You know, I think this is a perfect world, here on Earth-Ground. On Xenia, I mean. Because anywhere else, you probably would have eaten me. And instead I saw this magnificent, scary creature who should have terrified me but instead I was thrilled. The first time I wondered what it would be like to run my fingers through your fur. Would it be soft? Would it be coarse? I never even thought that you should probably eat the hand that fed you.”
He whined again.
“But that was because I could invade your thoughts. I saw what other people couldn’t. You were just as curious about me and I was safe.”
They lay in perfect harmony for a minute. Her, staring at the barely twinkling stars and him, staring at her. “I’m going to visit with you every chance I get, you know.”
He licked her to show his agreement.
“Tomorrow I’ll get dropped off at the main hub. Robyn wants to talk to me and she says it’s rather urgent. I can’t imagine what’s so important in this place, can you?”
He rumbled softly.
“I’ll let you know when I find out.” Her eyebrows knit. “I hope it’s not technical stuff. Like how long I can remain her under sponsorship.” She took a deep breath. “When you showed me those images of Xeno Sapiens and their mates, it worried me. Were some of them sponsored?”
Yes.
“So I’m putting one and one together and making two. But I can’t figure out why I’m being sponsored by two Xeno Sapiens, because that makes three.” She wasn’t too worried because Robyn had told her she wasn’t being given to Vien and Potierre and of course, the two of them had never treated her like she was their property. Not like Wilson did.
Her pet had gone perfectly still, so she rubbed his tummy. “Eh, enough of that pondering. Maybe she’ll tell me there’s an open job in the city. Maybe I can apply. By the time I have to move away, there might be enough money saved to hide me on Earth-Ground nearby. If there’s still a contract on me, no one will expect my changed looks.” She froze. “I can take you with me!”
His heart thundered in his chest, but he didn’t respond.
“Oh, that’s foolish thinking,” she chided herself. “There are ruffians and outlaws on Earth-Ground. They’d probably shoot you and ask questions later. Plus, I’d have to sneak you indoors and who knows whether or not that’ll get us both kicked out? No, you’re safer here.”
He snarled at the mention of ruffians.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe,” she said, not wanting him to think about leaving what he had here. It was a selfish thought anyway, to want to bring him outside to suffer with her. “Besides, we don’t even know what it is Robyn is going to discuss with me. It could be a medical check-up, for all I know. Maybe they want to see how my body is adapting to the sudden loss of the vitamins and if I’m doing well, they’ll take care of the anemia. We’ll see.”
He licked her and sent her a mental picture of newborn puppies in a basket, huddled together.
“So perfect,” she breathed. “Are they your pups?”
He huffed and she giggled. “Okay, so you’re not a daddy. You’d make a great daddy, though. Just sending me cute images to cheer me up? Send away.”
More images shot through. Baby kittens with tiny mouths that meowed. Adorable baby monkeys, still in the slender stage, with long arms and legs. Baby ducks with their fuzzy softness.
But then a human baby came through. Not expecting it, she froze. He snatched the image away and whined softly, his thoughts pricking at the hidden secret in the edges of her mind. But she refused to let him in. She didn’t want him to see what was there. Why shouldn’t matter. He was her friend. But it wasn’t something that she’d quite resolved within herself yet and needed time to do so.
She promptly changed the subject. “One of these days, I’m going to sneak you inside. See if we can get away with it. It’ll give me more time with you until I get stronger and can walk the grounds with you without passing out on the grass and being discovered like a wet sea nymph by Vien and Potierre.” She winced. “My hair must’ve been a fright.”
He rubbed his face in her breasts.
She laughed, the movement making her entire chest move up and down.
“Boys will be boys, no matter the species, huh? You like my breasts, precious?” She pressed a kiss on the top of his head and he projected back a bubble of happiness.
A bubble of love.
