Page 45 of Victoria's Discovery

“Sorry about that. Did I step on your foo—”

“Silence!” the female hissed sharply, baring a set of alarmingly sharp fangs.

Victoria recoiled, more than a little taken aback at the aggression. Obviously realizing she’d startled the hell out of her, the female grit her teeth and tried to smooth out her expression, but Victoria could see that it took serious effort, and the smile she adopted was even more unnerving than the hiss.

Something about the female had the hairs on the nape of Victoria’s neck standing on end, something more than her very apparent grumpiness, but she had enough sense not to give away her fear.

“Right. Well, sorry again. Bye!” Offering a tight smile, she side-stepped around the woman and kept walking, but discreetly glanced back over her shoulder.

Oh yeah, definitely something sketchy as hell about her.

The fast walk, perma-snarl, and sketchy look in her orange eyes all said the woman was up to no good. After being the shy, shrimpy, easily targeted nerd throughout high school and—despite her best efforts to feign coolness—her entire college career, Victoria had enough experience enduring cruel women to sniff them out a mile away, and that one smelled particularly vicious.

Shaking off her unease with an effort, Victoria focused back on the voices up ahead and hurried around the corner. Except, when she caught sight of the speakers, it wasn’t her guys. It was the hot, horny guy and a growly alien guy with skin as black as night.

Disappointment barely had time to set in before a closer look replaced it with alarm. The growly one was injured. And about to fall.

Victoria darted to them without thought, her usual timidity forgotten. Quickly ducking under his arm to stop his descent to the floor, she grunted under his weight but braced her feet and jerked her chin at the door a couple of feet away.

“Hurry, let’s get him in there.”

With her and Horny working together, they managed to get Growly into the room and on the bed, despite his snarled protestations.

Rolling her eyes, she gave a winded huff as she straightened and shot a wry look at Horny. “Stubbornness is apparently a universal male truth,” she muttered.

He smirked and cut his pretty, orange eyes to a still-growling Growly who was making pained sounds as he tried to scooch himself to the other side of the bed, away from them.

“You will find no argument over that from me.”

Tugging the healing ring off her finger, she pulled on it until it was big enough to fit around Growly’s rather large form. Finished, she sat on the edge of the bed and opened her mouth, intending to mom voice him into being still, but froze when she saw the expression on his face and the tension pouring off of him.

The moment she sat down, he went motionless and stared at her unblinkingly. He was at least twice her size and had deadly white claws that could easily shred her to ribbons and, yet, he was watching her like she was a threat.

That didn’t make a lick of sense… until Aria’s mention of this being a slave planet popped into her head. Her stomach dropped to her feet and she could’ve smacked herself on the forehead.

Why hadn’t she realized a slave planet meant slaves which meant people who’d suffered horrible things she couldn’t even imagine?

The answer was obvious: because she was still trying to come to grips with her own situation, which was understandable, but she needed to do better.

Blinking slowly, she smoothed her expression, not wanting him to interpret her empathy as pity, and offered a small, friendly smile.

“I apologize for not introducing myself before just jumping in. I saw y’all in the hallway and it looked for a second like you were going to fall. I’m sure you wouldn’t have,” she assured quickly when his eyes narrowed. “Anyway, I’d like to help, if that’s okay with you. Or, if you’re not comfortable with that, you could try to use the ring yourself?”

Holding his gaze steadily, she waited patiently for him to decide.

“Give,” he growled, holding a hand out for the ring.

The way that one word came out a little slurred worried her, but she hid it and handed over the ring. When he pushed off the bed with a groan and stumbled, she had to clench her hands to keep from reaching for him. Thankfully, he managed to stay upright long enough for the ring to do two passes before plopping back on the bed with a deep sigh of relief.

Shoulders relaxing, she blew out a soft breath and stood, turning so she could address Horny and give Growly a moment to recover without feeling like she was staring at him.

“I’m Victoria, by the way,” she offered, holding her hand out.

Instead of shaking her hand, he looked at it like it was a snake, the slight smile that, from what she’d seen, always seemed to curl his lips dying. “Ahh, apologies. I am spoken for.”

Victoria felt her face screw up in confusion and cocked her head. “Er, what?”

If possible, he looked even more uncomfortable at her confusion and took a small step away from her, his posture suddenly stiff.

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