Page 26 of Alien's Eternal Mate

Ignio turned his gaze on me and swallowed.

“My apologies, mighty Warrior, but I don’t believe that you would be a good fit for the Sages.”

I sighed in exasperation.

“I have no time for this verbal dance. You have trials for prospective Sages, yes? Let me take the trials.”

Ignio swallowed, hard.

“The trials involve the activation of devices, and are, ah, difficult.”

I heaved a long sigh. Gro’s reputation had grown beyond inconvenient.

“I promise that I will not hurt you if I fail to pass the trials. But I will not fail regardless.”

Ignio’s tail twitched back and forth like a metronome. He looked at Lo for some reason, and Lo shrugged.

“Very well. I will speak with the other Sages and we will prepare your test for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? What’s wrong with today…”

Ignio cringed. I forced myself to sound less aggressive.

“Tomorrow will be fine. Have a nice day.”

I turned and strode from him, and after a moment Lo followed.

“You are confusing everyone, Gro. But not in a bad way.”

I grunted. Frustration boiled in me, but I knew that a single day’s delay was logically not a big deal. As long as I figured out a way to return to my own body before Grhoma Jark assaulted the Starlost village.

Jark was a problem. He presented a countdown clock on the time I had remaining to figure out a way back to my own body.

It seemed to me that some sort of parley would be the best option. Even if I had to sell out the Starlost to do it. They were, after all, merely aliens.

Yet, my stomach turned at the thought of stabbing them in the back. I tried to tamp it down, told myself that empathy for aliens was akin to having sympathy for a wild animal.

It’s all I can do not to rip my flesh right off of my bones.

I wanted to escape my fleshly prison. The thought of being surrounded by aliens was bad enough. But to be an alien? To inhabit its skin? It drove me mad.

“You look ill, Gro. Do you need to sit down or something?”

I covered my eyes and shook my head.

“I will be fine. I just need time to think.”

“Watch where you’re going, unless you want to run people over.”

I looked up just in time to avoid knocking over a thick bodied female and her vegetable stand alike. She looked up at me and gaped, long strands of hair sticking to her face.

“Long hair,” I murmured.

“What was that?”

I glanced over at Lo and grimaced.

“I was just thinking, most of the women have long hair, let Arael shaves her head.”

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