Page 48 of You're Not My King!

I blinked once, coming back online before nodding in agreement. There were no humans here that I could see, so, harsh or not, there wasn’t much reason to stay. Not only that, but if I had to endure one more variation of ‘the king chose his mate well,’ I’d scream. Nie’tr must’ve sensed my frustration as he deflected a lot of the attention. He stayed close the whole time, but he seemed at ease, conversing with pretty much every alien we came across and giving them slaps to the back or forehead bumps. He was a very sociable creature, but I guessed with this camp being so close to ours, he probably had friends here.

Thankfully, the actual dropping off of the medical supplies wasn’t a drawn-out business. Fiona just spoke to the dude in charge of the clan’s health and well-being, and had a scan over his notes. Apparently, he wasn’t a healer by trade, but he was learning, and knew enough to get by without Fiona’s help. Then, after a quick, customary ‘how do you do’ with the chief—a really lovely woman, who I suspected wanted to kidnap me ’cause she thought I was cute—we were finally on the road home.

I stopped in my tracks, scoffing under my breath and causing both Nie’tr and Fiona to shoot me questioning looks. Had I really just called the alien camp I was temporarily imprisoned in home?

Jesus Christ.

Fiona squeezed my shoulder. “Roo, dear?”

I shook my head, blowing out a breath. There was no reason to get into all that messiness right now. I could stew in my complicated feelings on my own, thank you very much. “Nothing, I’m?—”

Something scurried across the path in front of us, cutting off my lie and nearly making me jump out my skin.

Well, no. I kinda did.

“What the fuck is that?” I screeched, ducking behind Fiona’s slender body as if using her as a shield against any sort of animal would be successful.

I never said I was brave.

Or clever.

Nie’tr was quick to jump in front of us, but also the first to snort out a laugh when he inspected the danger. Fiona joined in, turning in my arms to grab my shoulders, pushing me toward the fucking creature that could swallow me in one bite. “It’s just a woom-pa-kah.”

Just? I dug my heels into the sand. “Yeah, well, it can Oompa Loompa its scary ass out of here.”

“Woom’pka,” she saidagain, slower, spelling it out when I still couldn’t get it. She pointed at the creature. “Look at it. It won’t hurt you, lovey.”

Begrudgingly, and trying to save face, I squinted at the thing, balling my hands into fists so I wouldn’t flinch every time it moved. I guessed it was… cute? It looked like an oversized rat-wombat hybrid, with spiky green ridges coming out of its back. When it spotted us, its weirdly rectangular head cocked to the side, and a long blue tongue peeked out from behind layers upon layers of sharp teeth.

My eyes widened. Yeah, it won’t hurt me, my ass.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I rushed out, shuddering when the beast chittered at me. There was no way in hell I was surviving an abusive ex, crippling addiction, and alien abduction just to end up in the jaws of a fucking chocolate-factory reject.

Nope. Not today, Satan.

Fiona guided me away from the thing, still laughing to herself as if it was all highly entertaining. “There are far worse creatures out there, y’know.”

“I’m well aware.” I huffed, casting a glance over my shoulder to make sure it wasn’t following us. “Like that panther thing that nearly ate me and had a swipe at Vo’ak.”

“Oh, a jagya,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet. “Yeah, those are nasty buggers. But there are a lot of really interesting animals that you haven’t even seen yet.”

I wasn’t convinced. “Like what?”

“Well, Vo’ak rides a clyp,” she said, obviously referring to the see-through horses with seaweed hair. “They’re sweet by nature.”

I hummed along, as if I hadn’t already planned on steering clear of everything with more than two legs.

“We have the alfa’wlyf,” she carried on, excitement lacing her tone. “They’re sacred beasts, but are slain before a mating for good luck. Its fur is gifted to whomever takes up the submissive role in the pairing.”

I sent her a dry look, recalling the furry gray toga I’d worn on our wedding day. “Let me guess,” I deadpanned, “I got the fucking alfalfa skin.”

Her lips thinned as if to conceal her amusement. “Alfa-will-if,” she enunciated, shaking her head fondly. “We need to work on your Ly’zrd.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Let me see, what else…” She hummed a few beats, deep in thought.

“Huu-nids,” Nie’tr chimed in, and Fiona gave him a grateful smile.

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