Page 14 of Treasured By the Alien Rogue

“A baby?” It had a sleek, purple coat and a bushy tail no longer than my index finger. “It looks like a squirrel.” I described the creature from Earth.

“They’re everywhere here.”

I’d seen them in the canopy and scurrying across the ground, hiding behind bushes as we passed.

“The young ride on their mother’s back, but occasionally, they fall off or . . .” His concerned gaze met mine.

“That big bird took its mom last night, didn’t it?”

“It’s hard to say, but perhaps.”

“What are we going to do about it? We can’t leave a baby all alone in the forest. It’ll die without its mother, won’t it?”

“We don’t know if the bird took its mother. To be sure, we’ll have to leave it for now.”

“Nooooo.”

“Its mother could be nearby, watching us.”

“Will she reject it now that you’ve touched it? I wouldn’t want to steal a baby from its mom.”

“In the past, when I’ve found one who’s been dislodged, the best thing to do is place it on a low branch where its mother will find it. She’ll come back if she can. She won’t reject it.”

“Let’s do that, then. Can we return and make sure it’s been reunited with its mom?”

“I will tomorrow.” He snuggled it against his throat while peering around, looking for the right branch to leave the baby.

Xax was such a big guy. He looked almost comical holding the tiny creature. He gently stroked the tiny beastie’s back, and it purred, leaning into his touch.

When he found the right tree, he held the drettire out to me. “Last chance to touch it.” He gently laid the tiny creature in my eager hands. Like him, I held it against my throat, and when it purred, my heart melted—not just for the baby, however.

My reluctant heart was beginning to melt for the big, kind alien guy who was unlike any other person I’d met before.

I hated to let it go, but I wouldn’t want to take it from its mama who could be quivering beneath a bush nearby, watching everything we did with her baby.

After taking it back, he scaled the tree quickly.

“You’re sure you’ll come back tomorrow?” I called up to him.

“I will, though I’m not sure what I’ll do with the baby if its mother hasn’t claimed it.”

“We’ll take it home, of course.”

One side of his thick brow ridge rose. “We?”

“Well, me. Or you. Someone. Is there an animal shelter or a rescue operation nearby that takes wild creatures?”

“I haven’t heard of such a thing.”

I wasn’t surprised. This was an alien planet. They probably left little things like this to nature. Its mother would come for it or something else would . . .

Maybe someone should open an animal rescue.

No, no, don’t go there, I chided myself. My dream was to open a tea shop, not a tea shop/animal shelter for tiny stray creatures like this.

As he gently lowered the baby close to the trunk and leaped down from the branch, I kept thinking.

The idea didn’t leave my mind as we continued walking, both of us peering over our shoulders to see if the baby’s mom would arrive and claim it.

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