Page 3 of Victoria's Discovery

“Okay. Rude. I’m small, but he can’t honestly think I’m a child.”

Victoria frowned when he started patting his pockets. Apparently finding what he was searching for, he stepped backwards so he was standing in the middle of his cage then craned his head back to look up. Following his gaze, she spotted a small, square opening in the top of his cell. A quick glance showed a matching one in hers.

Focusing back on him, her frown deepened when he raised his arm like he was about to throw something.

“What is he up to?” A seriously alarming thought occurred to her. “Oh shit, that better not be a bomb!”

Chapter 2

Vi’kail felt like an asshole of the grandest scale when he saw he’d scared the adorable little uh,thingin the cell across from his. It was balled up in the corner, staring at him wide-eyed, as though terrified he was about to go over there and eat it alive.

Vi’kail might like his meat fresh, but notthatfresh.

Besides, under the ill-fitting garments and the tangle of fluffy, red curls topping its head, it didn’t look to be more than a snack. It also looked like it was a soft breeze away from fainting over dead.

Grimacing guiltily, he accepted that was at least partially his fault.

He tried churring at it to calm it down with no apparent success. Not surprising considering the thunderous uproar in here.

Realizing he probably still had treats from tending thelupkain his pocket, he started patting himself. Of course, that was assuming the cockless thieves that took him hadn’t checked his pockets.

They hadn’t. Halfwits.

Well, not completely anyway. His weapons were gone, including both of his daggers and his blaster, but he still had a couple of the smoke-cured treats and a few other little treasures hidden on his person. One in particular, he was greatly relieved to find and gave it a reassuring pat to calm it down.

Smiling with pleasure, he withdrew one of the treats then moved under the opening he’d spotted. Vi’kail took a moment to calculate the trajectory then tossed the treat.

His aim was flawless, as always.

It arched perfectly over the walkway between their cages and dropped through her opening to land in the center of her cell.

“There you go, little thing,” he crooned, smiling softly at the scared critter. “No need to be fearful.”

Expecting it to approach the treat or at least sniff it, Vi’kail was shocked when its only reaction was to give him a look of utter disbelief before its big, blue eyes narrowed from behind its hair in what looked acrikof a lot like irritation.

“Huh.”

Cocking his head, he scanned it from head to feet then paused on its toes when he noticed they were a different color than its blunt finger claws.

Odd.

He gazed at its expressive face again. The longer he stared, the more he began to suspect he’d been wrong in his assumption.

He hadn't thought it was a lower animal, per say, but because of the way it was huddled in obvious fear, its unkempt appearance, and the tangled mess of locks on its head that it hadn't made any move to fix, he thought it was a primitive being kept as someone's pet. It wasn't a practice he agreed with, but it wasn't uncommon either, particularly among wealthy fools with too much power who kept them as status symbols.

Now, watching the way it gazed at him in clear vexation, he thought perhaps itwasa higher being. He’d never seen a person behave so timidly, but maybe on its world it was preyed upon regularly and that was why it was so scared and made no move to escape its prison.

Another thought had his gut clenching in anger and dismay.

What if this was not its first time in a cage?

If it’d been enslaved for some time and knew escape wasn’t possible it wouldn’t try as it would know that to be a waste of energy.

Its disheveled state took on a new light once he considered that. Who wouldnotlose the will to groom under those conditions?

He glanced again at its blunt nails then narrowed his eyes at its mouth. Peering past its messy hair, he saw that its lips were closed so he couldn’t judge its age by its teeth, but the way its mouth seemed to lay flat suggested it either had no fangs or, more likely, they’d been pulled.

That the crikking bastards would enslave someone so obviously harmless and then compound that outrage by rendering it completely unable to defend itself made him absolutely furious.

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