Page 39 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

He let out a relieved breath. She seemed none the wiser to his predicament.

“Once we get moving, your sensation will return,” he said.

She grinned at him, snorting softly. “Thanks for the reassurance.”

Her voice was still hoarse from sleep. Bracing a hand against his knee, she groaned and rose stiffly to her feet.

She twisted with her arms outstretched, and something within her cracked. He stood alongside her, wrapping his tail around a nearby branch as he waited for his balance to return. His legs tingled discordantly as sensation flowed back to them.

Cordelia’s stomach growled loudly, and she pressed both hands over it, grimacing. “Any chance you have agrenoluhbar?”

He frowned, shaking his head in confusion.

“Food?” she tried, instead.

He wilted. “Ah… no. I had provisions, but they were… in the hovercraft.”

Burned to a crisp, now. Useless. Shame needled him. He was compelled to provide for her, but he had nothing to offer until they reached the lodge.

“Come,” he said, holding out a hand to her. “The sooner we reach the lodge, the sooner I may feed you.”

She smiled at that, taking his hand. “Guessshivhalryisn’t dead. It’s just on an alien planet.”

CHAPTER 17

Rentir helpedCordelia down from the tree, showing infinite patience at her molasses pace. Her wound had begun to throb in earnest. Every flex of her abdomen caused a shock of pain to spear through her.

When they reached the ground, her eyes darted restlessly despite Rentir’s reassurances that the yethor would be sleeping.

“I don’t suppose you’d lend me that blaster of yours?” she asked, shuddering at the phantom sensation of being watched by a predator.

He gave her a wry look. “I cannot. The weapons are biolocked to my signature. Only those of us who were granted access before the rebellion are able to wield them, though Fendar has long been working to change that.”

She threw up her hands in defeat. At his crestfallen look of personal failure, she slapped him on the arm.

“It’s okay, Ren. Really.”

He did a double take at the nickname, his tail rattling with what she thought was excitement. His mood seemed to lift.

“You’re a soft touch, aren’t you?” she murmured.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head, grinning as they set out for the day.

She couldn’t believe it was the same forest she’d seen last night. The woods were almost entirely quiet, no longer teeming with life and color. The sun warmed her skin where it streamed down between leaves made translucent by the light of dawn. A curtain of moss rippled in the gentle breeze, carrying a candy-sweet smell of nectar.

“What are you thinking?” Rentir’s tail skimmed along the outside of her thigh.

“That this place doesn’t feel real.” She caught the tip of his tail in her hand. The scales that covered it were smooth and warm. “How does your tail do that thing where it becomes sharp?”

“There are bones within that extend at my will, stretching the scales taut,” he said. “Like this.”

He stopped walking, and his tail gently tugged free of her grip, the tip swaying in front of her face. Between one blink and the next, its rounded shape warped into a sharp-edged blade.

She whistled, amused by the way he flinched and flicked his ears at the sound. “Must be nice to have a built-in weapon.”

She pressed a tentative finger to the tip, and blood welled. The blade receded to the rounded tail tip as Rentir snatched her hand up.