Page 14 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid (Hybrids of Yulaira #1)

Rentir watched Cordelia swat a towering blue fern out of her face as they walked deeper into the forest. She’d begun to sweat, her fragrance thickening in the air as the moisture evaporated off her skin. It was driving him to distraction and making his cock ache painfully in his pants.

He’d had his fair share of erections in his life, but he had never felt anything like this. It had been more of an itch he had to scratch from time to time, a minor annoyance. Now it was a struggle to drag his thoughts from it.

He shoved at it surreptitiously, tucking it into his waistband. If he thought he could slap sense into it, he would have tried.

Cordelia glanced back at him, and he yanked his hand away from his dick like it was on fire.

“I’m not picking anything up,” she called, holding up her holoscreen where he’d set her up to detect short-range frequencies. “You?”

“Nothing yet.”

She huffed, dragging a wispy strand of hair out of her eyes as a gentle breeze stirred through the forest. Her cheeks and nose were flushed with color, and her eyes were brighter. Her gaze flicked upward as a tiny male pulu called to its mate somewhere in the boughs above.

Rentir had never spent much time in the forest. He’d been assigned to protection detail, mostly guarding the overseers’ facilities. From time to time, he’d been sent on assignment into the mines to reinforce security as the Aurillon dealt with a ‘problem’ worker. Shame curdled his mood further.

What would she think of him when she learned what his role was in all of it? She’d been quick to state her support of the rebellion. Would she still smile at him? Still be willing to have him at her back?

His tail wrapped around his thigh and squeezed. He busied himself checking over his loadout, hands patting his blaster on his right hip and the plasma blade strapped to his left thigh.

“What was it like?” Cordelia asked suddenly, her voice thin and winded. She looked at him over her shoulder as she climbed over a jutting silver root. “Growing up as a hybrid? How did they raise you?”

He thought about it for a moment before answering.

“We are raised in batches, usually a group of twenty to forty younglings at a time. There’s usually six rotations between each batch, so there are never too many of us in the same stage of development at once.

We have caretakers, one per group of ten young, that meet our needs from infancy to just before puberty.

By that point, we’re expected to be self-sufficient. ”

The look on Cordelia’s face was distinctly disapproving, but she gestured for him to go on.

“When we reach puberty, we expand upon our general education into specialized courses based upon what role we’ve been bred for.

” He felt oddly defensive about how cold it all sounded.

“We sometimes bond with one another, though we’re discouraged from forming attachments.

It makes it harder when the time comes for the batch to separate into their assigned roles. ”

She stayed silent, leaving room for him to expand. A female pulu above them sang an answering song to her mate. The male swooped overhead to greet her in a blur of long, fluttering white feathers, briefly distracting them both.

“Haerune was one of my batch,” he said. She looked surprised by that. “We slept side by side in the dorms for sixteen years. They tried to discourage our friendship, but… I could not overcome my affection.”

“Good,” she said.

When he looked askance at her, she only smiled, flashing those small, flat teeth.

He stumbled over a rock, nearly hitting his knees as he caught himself with a reedy sapling that bent under his weight.

She laughed, and the sound was so beautiful that he was prepared to throw himself over the next protrusion he saw just to hear it again.

“Let’s take a minute,” she said, pressing her back against a tree and sliding down to the ground until she was cradled by its roots. “I need to catch my breath. We’ve been hiking for an hour.”

He perched on a shelf of rock opposite to her, pulling one leg up to rest his chin on his knee.

“What was your youth like?” he asked. “How are humans raised?”

Her throat worked as she guzzled water from her canteen.

She lowered her canteen to take a gasp of air, her eyes going heavy-lidded.

“Guess it depends who does the raising,” she mused.

“I grew up in a trailer park. My mom was a teacher, and my dad took off on her when he found out she was pregnant. We were so broke that sometimes my mom would have sleep for dinner, but I never went without. She busted her ass to make sure I could study my way into a better life.”

“She sounds devoted.”

He couldn’t imagine what having a parent felt like. His caregiver, an auretian male who they referred to only as “Mentor”, had been perfunctory in his duties. He’d given them only as much affection as was required for their mental development, without much sincerity.

“She was.” Cordelia’s face fell, her gaze going distant. “I guess I’ll never see her again. As long as we traveled to get here… she probably died a long time ago.” She sniffed hard, rubbing her sleeve beneath her nose.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

Her sadness pained him, actually pained him. It was an ache in his chest that gnawed at his heart, commanding him to fix it, to make her smile again. Only he didn’t know how to do that.

“It’s alright. I mean, it isn’t, but… We were planning for a twenty-year trip, anyway. I always knew there was a chance she wouldn’t be there when I got back. I didn’t leave any regrets between us.”

A silence fell between them.

“I am part human,” he announced suddenly, hoping to reengage her. He wanted to hear more of her strange, beautiful voice.

Her brows nearly touched her hairline. “No shit?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I mean, you’re serious?”

“Ah, I see. No, there is no shit. Haerune sequenced your DNA when you were healing. It appears the Aurillon made contact with your people at some point. They integrate genes into their hybrids from all sentient species they come across.”

Cordelia sat forward, her gaze sharpening. “These auretians… they might know where more of my people are? They might know a way to reach Earth more quickly. Or maybe there’s a colony somewhere in this quadrant!”

His happiness at hearing her speak soured as he realized she was formulating a plan to leave Yulaira behind.

“Perhaps,” he said resentfully. “But as I’ve said, you are welcome on Yulaira.”

Her face softened. “Thanks, Rentir. It’s… good to have options.” She rose to her feet, tucking her canteen away and stretching her arms wide. “Let’s keep moving.”

They walked in silence for a while. Rentir was preoccupied with trying to come up with some way to coax her into staying on Yulaira, when both their comms pinged at once. They’d finally gotten close enough to a pod to trigger the short-range scanner.

“This way,” Cordelia called, veering to the left.

She moved fast through the dense underbrush, and his heart pounded as he lost sight of her. It was intolerable. She needed to stay where he could see her. Where he could reach out and touch her would be better.

“Found it!” she shouted.

He raced to catch up with her, smacking a low branch out of his way. She was standing beside a lifepod, open and glaringly empty. She pored over it, tapping a small screen on the side of the pod.

“This was Thea’s.” Her gaze darted around the small area the pod’s landing had cleared. “There—she left on foot. Fuck, she’s out here somewhere barefoot and half naked.”

She braced both palms against the pod and let her head fall forward. Her hair rippled over her shoulder like silk, obscuring her face.

He stepped closer, stroking the tip of his tail up the length of her back in a gesture he hoped was soothing to humans, ignoring the way his lust flared at the contact. “We will find her.”

“I know,” she said, but her voice was tight with grief. After a moment, she sighed, rubbing a hand over her mouth. “At least it’s Thea. Pretty sure you could drop her into the woods naked and she’d be killing berrs with a spear by the end of the day. Used to be a kohmando.”

She’d just straightened and put her hands on her flared hips when a violent gale blew over them, throwing sediment all around the small clearing. A shadow passed overhead. Rentir’s blood ran cold.

He lunged for Cordelia, dragging her behind the wide trunk of a tree just before the shadow returned, lingering overhead. The dropship’s thrusters scalded the uppermost boughs of the trees as it hovered over them.

“Who is that?” Cordelia whispered, one arm clutching his in a biting grip.

“The Aurillon.”

She opened her mouth to speak again, but he clamped a hand over her lips, pulling her back against him as he leaned out of cover to watch the dropship.

She tugged at his hand, but he didn’t relent.

The door of the ship opened. A tall, lithe figure dressed in a black battlesuit dropped the long distance to the ground.

An expensive piece of technology. There weren’t enough on board to outfit all the guards, which meant this soldier was something else.

A special operative? He’d thought the last of them had died during the riots.

The male rose in a graceful ripple, his dark visor canting toward the pod.

Cordelia’s tongue swept over the inside of Rentir’s palm, making his cock strain against the prison of his waistband.

He bit back on a hiss of pleasure, knowing the technology in the auretian’s visor would pick up even the smallest sound.

He snatched Cordelia tighter and dipped his head, nipping the rounded tip of her ear hard in warning.

She stiffened against him; he could feel her indignation radiating in the air.

Leaves crunched underfoot as the auretian moved around the pod.

Rentir wanted to free a hand to reach for his blaster, but he wasn’t sure Cordelia would remain quiet.

Rentir wasn’t wearing armor like the other male, the kind made with nanotechnology to absorb impact and repair damage.

He wasn’t sure what good his weapons would be against the superior tech.

If he’d been alone, he might have risked it, but he couldn’t bear the thought of Cordelia being caught in the crossfire. Their best shot was to stay silent and wait for the auretian to leave.

The footsteps grew distant. The dropship pulled away, plunging them into sudden silence.

“You must be quiet,” he whispered into Cordelia’s ear. “He’s retreating, but his technology is sensitive to sound. Do you understand?”

She shivered against him, nodding.

He let go of her slowly, and she twisted toward him, her hands falling on his chest as she looked up from beneath her lashes. “One male. An auretian, combat trained. I’m not outfitted to deal with him. We need to get back to the hovercraft.”

“We can’t.” Her fingers knotted in the fabric of his shirt. “Thea is still out there. We have to get to her first.”

He cupped her face in his hands, pained by the distress in her delicate features.

“I cannot protect you,” he said, sweeping his thumbs over her soft cheeks. “We have to go. We can return in force.”

Her brows furrowed, and her gaze turned steely.

“I’m not asking you to protect me.” She brushed his hands away from her and took a step back. His tail twitched hard, desperate to reach for her. “I’m not leaving any of my people behind, Rentir. If you’re too afraid to press on, we part ways here.”

“I am not afraid for myself,” he said, correcting her. “You are too stubborn, Cordelia. You—”

He was cut off by the sound of blaster fire, followed closely by a strangled sound of pain.

“Thea,” she breathed.

Then she ran straight into the heart of danger.