Page 43 of Riv's Sanctuary

She’d go out there to try and get some water really quickly but two things stopped her.

First, she didn’t want to run into Riv. She had no idea what to say to him and he made her nervous for more than one reason—his obvious dislike of her was the first reason. The other reason was one she didn’t really want to contemplate.

Second, whatever had scared her out of her wits last night was still out there somewhere.

There was no way that loud booming from the night before hadn’t been coming from some huge animal and she’d rather not meet it, even though it’d sounded like it really wanted to meet her.

Chewing, she kept the food in her mouth for much longer than she usually would have, just to soften it some more so it was easier to swallow, and turned to look through the window once more.

As she watched the cow-hippos move, she realized something.

The Sanctuary didn’t smell like a farm.

With the cow-hippos alone she’d have expected the entire place to smell like fresh manure, but it didn’t.

As a matter of fact, there was no smell at all.

She was mulling over this without much interest when movement by the side of one building caught her eye.

Riv came into view, a large sack that looked quite heavy flung over one shoulder.

He walked over to the cow-hippos and opened their pen before moving inside and setting the sack down.

Flipping something from his trousers, he cut the sack open and the animals all lifted their heads at the same time.

In a mini stampede, they all headed to the sack, fighting each other to get mouthfuls of whatever was inside.

Greedy bastards. A smile tugged at her lips before her gaze drifted back to Riv.

He was moving to a corner of the cage to one of the animals that hadn’t joined the stampede and she had to stand on tiptoes to get a better view of what he was doing.

She watched as he knelt and placed a hand on the cow-hippo’s side in a touch that was so surprisingly gentle, her eyebrows shot up toward her hairline.

The way he behaved gruffly, he didn’t give the impression he had any compassion within him but obviously, looks were deceiving.

He was frowning, she could see even from where she was, as he touched the animal’s leg.

As he lifted the limb gently, the animal tried to kick him with the other leg but he didn’t react. His entire focus was on the leg he was holding.

It looked like it was injured, because he set the limb down lightly and stood with his hands bracing his hips as he frowned down at the animal.

He was wearing a shirt today and with that realization came a little thread of disappointment followed by her nictating as she wondered who sewed that thread there.

It wasn’t till she focused again that she realized her host was no longer frowning down at the animal. Now, he was frowning in her direction.

Lauren’s eyes widened as their gazes locked.

Shit.

She ducked.

And as she ducked out of view, crouching below the window, she wondered what the hell was wrong with her.

Why was she hiding?

But even as she asked herself this, she didn’t dare stand and look out the window again.

Doing so felt like she was doing something wrong. As if she was spying on him or something.

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