Page 24 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

Cordelia turned toward the men, whistling sharply. They startled at the sound.

“How did you do that?” Rentir asked, his brows near his hairline.

She snorted, shaking her head.

“Let’s roll out,” she said, walking over to them. “Who’s coming?”

Lidan started to raise a hand, and Rentir smacked it back down.

“I will take you,” Rentir said.

“I’m the better pilot,” Lidan argued.

“She does not need a pilot, and I can manage a hovercraft perfectly well. I will take Cordelia. You can go try to make contact with the others. Thalen needs to be recovered—go to his last coordinates.”

“Who, exactly, put you in charge?” Lidan’s eyes narrowed.

“Idiots,” Haerune grated. “Lidan, do as he says. If we lose Thalen, the movement will lose ground that we may not be able to recover. He should never have left the base to begin with, the stubborn fool.”

Lidan huffed, throwing up all four hands. “Very well. I’ll depart, then.” He spared a final glare for Rentir, rocking his shoulder hard as he brushed by.

“Let’s go,” Cordelia said to Rentir. She bounced on the balls of her feet, testing the too-big boots she’d demanded from him. She’d put on a second pair of socks and laced them tight around her ankles, and while it wasn’t ideal, it would be better than running around barefoot in an alien forest.

His eyes followed her nervous movements appreciatively.

“Yes,” he agreed distractedly. “Let us go.”

Cordelia bobbed her leg restlessly as Rentir punched in the coordinates Lidan had given them on the holomap projected over the windshield of the hovercraft. He typed something in, and a blue circle popped up, encompassing the three points of interest.

“This is our projected range,” he said. “I suggest we start where Lidan found the others, then we head north and start a clockwise sweep, expanding our circle as we cycle back around. We have three hours of daylight left.”

Her translator fumbled a bit with the word hour, clearly offering her the best approximation for whatever alien unit of time he was actually using.

“Let’s do it,” she said, rolling her head until her neck popped. She was anxious todosomething. Already, she wasted too much time getting her bearings and sitting on her hands.

He fired up the hovercraft, taking manual control of the vehicle as the blast door lifted away from the mountain. The smoking forest came into view, and her fingers bit into the fabric of her pants as she remembered the massive laser that had slicedthe rotors clean off the hovercraft earlier. Her final moments on theLetoflashed before her eyes.

Rentir’s hand fell over one of hers and squeezed. She looked up at him, finding his green eyes studying her with concern.

“All will be well, Cordelia,” he murmured, his thumb stroking over her knuckles. “I will not allow you to come to harm. We will find your passengers.”

With no one else present to see her falter, she couldn’t help but take the comfort he offered. She twisted her hand in his grip until she could curl her fingers around his, squeezing back with all the nervous energy that plagued her. He looked from their joined hands to her face in open amazement, swallowing hard. His eyes fell on her lips and grew heavy-lidded.

She cleared her throat, pulling her hand away as the moment stretched and morphed into something less innocent.

“We need to move,” she said, avoiding his gaze.

“Right. Of course.”

When his tail slid along the edge of the bench seat and brushed a soothing path back and forth over her shin, she pretended not to notice.

She looked out of the side window at the forest beneath them. Half the sky was a curtain of smoke from the swath of smoldering trees the laser had left behind. “Do I need to worry about being chopped in half by a space laser?” she asked, glancing over at Rentir.

“No.” His mouth went tight around the corners, his anger obvious. “It will take them a long while to regenerate their charge. A day, at least.”

She looked skyward. “Who are they? Why are they shooting at you?”

“They are auretians.” He shifted restlessly. His tail withdrew from her leg. “Of the Aurillon Empire. Our former overseers.”