Page 11 of Victoria's Discovery

Taking a couple of big steps to her left, until they were no longer in touching distance, she turned so her back was facing the cell wall. That put at least three feet between them, allowing her to face both giants, as well as see Angry across the aisle.

Relaxing now that she wasn’t in their personal space, she glanced between them and offered what she hoped they understood was a friendly smile. Grumpy didn’t return it, just frowned at her in a way she had trouble deciphering.

Was that interest? For a moment, she thought she caught a glimmer of attraction in his different colored eyes but quickly dismissed that as her imagination. More likely it was confusion or impatience. Maybe irritation? It was hard to tell with him since frowning seemed to be his go-to expression. Cuddly, however, returned hers with a warm smile of his own.

Reaching up, she fidgeted with the ends of her hair as they just stared at each other after that. The silence was beginning to feel awkward, but what was she supposed to say to aliens who couldn’t understand her anyway?

Grumpy’s gaze dropped to her fingers, and he cocked his head. Meeting her eyes again, he put a hand to his chest and spoke.

“Thorngrimnir.”

Blinking, she felt her face screw up. Were those words or had he just growled at her? Again, hard to tell with him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Cuddly murmured something to him with a droll look. Grumpy responded with a half-hearted snarl then looked back at her.

“Thorn,” he rumbled flatly.

“Thorn?”

“Naí. Et erThorn,” he repeated, nodding.

“That’s your name,” she realized then had to bite back a smile. “That’s, ah, fitting.”

Cuddly must have caught her smile because he murmured something with a mischievous smirk and chuckled. Grumpy, or Thorn, rolled his eyes but cracked a faint smile. Glancing between them, curious as to what they found amusing, she finally settled her gaze on Cuddly, raising her brows questioningly.

“Theganrikkr,” he almost purred. His smile widened when her face screwed up, positive she was going to butcher his name before he added, “Thegan.”

“Thegan,” she repeated. “Phew, I’m glad y’all have shorter versions for me to use. Thorn and Thegan. It’s uh, nice to meet you. I wish it hadn’t been in a cage and that y’all hadn’t scared the hell out of me, but meeting aliens is still pretty damn cool.”

They exchanged an astonished glance, muttering back and forth for a moment before Thorn shook his head and looked back at her. He grunted and waved a hand in her direction, raising his brows just like she had at Thegan.

“Sorry,” she winced, realizing they’d probably thought that whole thing was her name.

Thorn nodded once. “Srrreee.”

“What? Oh, no! Ha! I’m Victoria. Victoria King.”

Thegan’s face screwed up, his mouth moving silently like he was trying to form the words before attempting to say them out loud.

Thorn was obviously more of a jump in feet first kind of guy because he immediately rumbled, “Vee-torrah-keen.”

Twisting her lips, she tried to hide her smile. The way he overly emphasized the sounds of her name was kind of adorable, if you ignored the flash of sharp, white teeth.

She gave him a half nod, half bobble of her head. “Close. Vic-tor-ee-a,” she pronounced slowly.

“Mmm. Vic-toreea.”

“Yes! Good!” Looking to Cuddly, she nodded encouragingly.

“Veectoreea.”

“Mmm, how about just Vee?”

“Vee,” he echoed, smiling in marked relief.

Chapter 6

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