Page 14 of Riv's Sanctuary

"What will I do? Cargga will not be happy. I cannot exist if my Cargga is not happy."

Lauren swallowed hard.

Nope. Cargga would not be happy.

She needed to help this Geblit find a way to "dispose" of her. A way that would be beneficial to them both.

"And to think that I ordered more of your species to be delivered at a later time!" Geblit let out a groan that garnered more spectators at windows.

Whoa. More humans?

She hadn't met any other humans since she'd been taken. She'd always suspected she hadn't been alone—she would have had to be the unluckiest woman on Earth to be the sole abductee.

But she'd have to negotiate with him about the others later.

Right now, her ass was on the line and she wouldn't be able to help anyone if she, herself, was in a bad spot.

"Don't you have any friends...nice friends. Friends who are nice like you. Preferably nice and unmarried but wouldn't mind taking care of your hideous pet?" She tried to add all the stipulations, stressing on the “nice” part.

A nice friend would most likely treat her, well, nicely. An unmarried friend wouldn't have a Cargga 2.0. And a friend that thought she was hideous would most likely not want any sexual favors.

All. Bases. Covered.

"A friend?" Geblit stopped for a second, all of his four eyes blinking at her in synchrony. "A friend," he said with more surety as if something was dawning on him. "I have a friend."

"A nice friend?" Lauren made sure to stress on the word again.

Geblit blinked at her and looked to the side for a second—a reaction that made her own eyes narrow.

Was he…was he unsure if his friend was nice? Surely that would be an easy question to answer.

But Geblit didn't answer her question. Instead, he hopped into the hovercar with renewed vigor.

"I will take you to him." Geblit's eyes grew wide with relief. "He has a sanctuary. I cannot believe I did not think of that."

A sanctuary?

Didn't sound bad.

So why did she have a niggling feeling at the back of her neck?

"What's this friend of yours called?"

"Riv," Geblit said, starting the hovercar's engine and backing away from his house.

Riv, Lauren thought.

Riv's Sanctuary.

Didn't sound bad. Didn't sound bad at all.

If his name was something like Crusher the Terrible then she might have started to worry.

She'd put that niggling feeling that was rising at the back of her neck to her almost being homeless on an unknown planet.

She’d almost had no place to go and might have been abandoned. Geblit was nice but she wouldn’t put it past him. His only care was for his Cargga.

That was all that niggling feeling was…

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