Page 22 of Riv's Sanctuary

Not all human males sound alike. Why did she think the male would sound anything like Geblit did?

Where Geblit sounded like a prepubescent boy, the speaker through the intercom sounded like a fully grown man.

"Riv!" Geblit laughed, one that sounded so awkward and forced she frowned at him. "Good friend. I trust you have been well."

There was a pause on the line before, "What do you want, Geblit?"

Well, he was straight to the point. Gotta give him that.

Geblit glanced toward the box again. "I have an...animal here that has no home."

The words made her swallow.

From investment banker to homeless animal. Quite a drop, Lauren. Quite a drop.

"And?" Low and raspy, the voice was clipped.

"Well," Geblit laughed again, "I was hoping it could stay on your farm."

It?

She was it.

God, being spoken about as if she was a cow or something was really making her feel great. Still, she knelt and tried to see as much as she could through the little slits in the box, her eyes scouring the farm and the buildings within it for any sign of this alien called Riv.

"No," was the response Geblit received and she felt it in her soul as if she had just been rejected.

Well, technically, he had just rejected her and Geblit both.

He’d said no.

Didn’t Geblit say this dude took animals in?

When the speaker on the line said nothing else, Geblit's forelimbs folded across his body.

"It needs a home, Riv. Will you at least come out and bring it in? I must get back to my Cargga."

A pause. "There is no space here."

It looked as if Geblit got angry for his thin mouth formed an even thinner line.

"When have you ever turned away an animal in need?"

"Since today." And with that, there was another click. The line was dropped. Call ended.

That's it?

All this traveling to be turned down so easily?

But Geblit wasn't having it. Punching in the code into the panel once more, he waited.

Soon there was a click.

"What?!"

Okay. Maybe she'd been wrong in hoping this Riv was a likable person. First impressions just came in and, well, he didn't seem nice at all.

"Riv—"

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