Page 63 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

She crossed her arms over her chest, eying him. “It’s confidential.”

“So, confide in me.”

She leaned back in her chair. “Why should I?”

He canted his head in that same curious gesture Rentir employed. “I saw the Aurillon shoot down that transport yesterday. The forest is still burning.”

She stared at him silently. Had her eye just twitched?

“I have not seen the hybrids mobilize like that before,” he continued. “And the timing—just after a strange ship was in our airspace? It seems as though they must be recovering something.”

Her leg began to bounce, but she still offered him nothing.

“Something the Aurillon do not want the hybrids to have.” He leaned forward, studying her intensely with all three opaline eyes. “Weapons? A means of long-range communication?” His eyes narrowed. “Or more likeyou?”

“Why wouldn’t they want the hybrids to have more like me?”

He sat back again and stroked a hand over his strong jaw. “I have not been able to puzzle that out myself, though we may have a hint in Rentir’s behavior. But it is the case, isn’t it? You are trying to retrieve the rest of your kind, and you’re in a hurry to do so.”

She shrugged noncommittally.

“How many do you number?” he asked.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Oh? Don’t I?” He sat back. “Not in quite such a hurry, then. Otherwise, you wouldn’t turn down help where you can find it.”

She sat forward, rapping her nails anxiously against the table as she contemplated what he was proposing. “Why should I trust you to help them?”

He gestured around the empty dining hall. “Do you have many options?”

She scowled. “Not good enough.”

He stared at her for a long moment, then nodded. “There is no one on this planet who is more adapted to the harsh conditions of this landscape than I. This is what I was bred for. I can track a jatir for a hundred kilometers through these forests. I do not need a scanner or a transport to find your kin and bring them back to safety.” He tilted his head, studying her again. “Does that suffice?”

She blew out a stiff breath, slumping back in her seat. “To be clear, if you betray my trust, ifanythinghappens to one of my people on your watch, I’m coming for your throat.”

He smiled at that, flashing a mouth full of fangs. “As you say.”

“There were ten of us. Three were safely recovered when I left. One… One was taken to theGidalan. That leaves five unaccounted for.”

His mouth had thinned at the mention of the Aurillon ship. “So, we are in competition to recover them.”

She nodded tightly. Silence fell between them as he mulled over what she’d told him.

“You were not the first to ask after a vehicle,” he said slowly, tapping the toe of his boot against the leg of the table. “Rentir was in a fervor about it last night. He was dismayed to learn that we do not keep the usual transports here.”

Her shoulders sagged in defeat. “You don’t?”

He shook his head, and the few metal beads in the braids by his face tinkled against each other. “We have bikes, however. I will permit you to use them, and I will aid you in your search.”

“Bikes?” She frowned at the thought of mountain biking through the uneven terrain, but then she processed the second part of what he’d said. She sat forward. “Melam… why are you so willing to help us?”

The look in his eyes grew flinty. “Because the Aurillon do not want the hybrids to have access to you females, and I wish to spite them. I would destroy them, given the chance. The males who died during the evacuation were my friends, my kin. I would avenge them.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” she murmured.

“Just so.” He waved toward her food with one hand. “Now eat, before your rations grow cold.”