Page 46 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

He agreed with that assessment. Only the extremely wealthy were ferried into Yulaira to use the lodge. It was dangled as a reward for the overseers.

“You can put me down now,” she said, wriggling.

“Hush.”

He carried her down to the manicured lawn, still being maintained after a year of disuse by the automated lawn mower. It buzzed over the blue-green grass as they approached, taking no notice of them. At the front of the building, the automatic doors opened with a welcoming musical chime.

The interior was polished wood and chrome. The desk at the front stood empty, as he’d expected. Most of the hybrids who had staffed this place died in their attempt to evacuate. The thought churned the omnipresent self-loathing in his gut.

If I had only stopped the auretians…

He smothered the thought. It could not be changed now.

“Put me down,” Cordelia insisted, struggling until he was forced to lower her lest he drop her.

She swayed for a moment, but otherwise she seemed alright. Her attention moved restlessly all around the lodge. He wondered how it compared to human structures.

Soothing music played from a hidden speaker as he ventured deeper into the lodge, searching for any sign of a medpod. He found a gym, a meditation room, and a bath with a churning, simulated rainstorm. The latter seemed to fascinate Cordelia.

“Is it raining in there?”

“It is fake.”

“Well, yeah. But it’s stillraining inside. Trippy.” She lingered in the doorway as he moved on.

A room with massage tables—useless. A room with a sauna—pointless. He did not have a use for such stupid luxuries. He needed a medpod for his female before she worsened further. When he reached a room filled with nothing but leatherfurniture and mounted heads, he was ready to break something in frustration.

He picked up a stuffed lotari near the door, but his hand stopped halfway to lobbing it across the room. With a sigh, he set the innocent, long-dead creature back down.

There was nothing for it but to keep looking. The medpod was here somewhere, he knew. Patience had once been his only virtue, but with Cordelia’s comfort on the line, he was violently irritable.

The hair on his arms stood on end. Cordelia… she’d been following him at a distance all this time, her soft steps echoing off through the corridor. The regular woosh of the doors opening and closing had paused. The hall was too quiet.

Just as he turned back to find her, she called out to him.

“Rentir.” Her voice was strained, laced with anger.

He was back in the hall at once, his blood running cold as he realized someone was standing behind her, holding a blade to her delicate throat. He was a towering, bulky hybrid that Rentir did not recognize, with an amalgamation of traits that suggested he’d been bred for the harshest tasks on Yulaira. Horns, fangs, a split chin, four arms, tentacles beneath his dark blue hair, a scyra.

There was even a third eye nestled sidelong between the primary pair. It moved independently of the others, peering down at Cordelia and back up while the other two pinned Rentir in place. His eyes were all colors at once, shifting through the full spectrum of light whenever he moved them.

“Who are you?” Rentir asked in a demanding tone, taking a step toward them.

The tip of the male’s blade dug into Cordelia’s skin in warning, a bead of blood forming beneath the blade. The scent bloomed in the air, kick-starting his heart into overdrive.

Rentir froze. “If you hurt her, I will kill you slowly.”

“Big threats from a little male,” the other hybrid rumbled. “Why are you here? And what is this creature?”

“Human,” Cordelia spat. “And pissed.”

“She is injured,” Rentir said. “I came in search of a medpod.”

The brute canted his head. One of the waist-length tendrils at his nape probed curiously at Cordelia’s throat. Rentir knew from growing up alongside Haerune that they possessed a sense of taste.

“Do not touch her,” he snarled, his scyra flexing into place.

He stepped forward, his hand falling to his blaster. Cordelia seized the moment of distraction. She ducked beneath the male’s arm at the exact moment she brought her elbow back into his gut. It wasn’t enough to wind him, but he loosened his grip.