Page 13 of Snowed in with my Alien Boss

Perimeter fence outages had always been a common occurrence, but with the colony growing the way it was, it was happening more and more frequently. There were plenty of dangerous animals out in the wilds, and the dragus was just one of them, but they did the most damage because of their intelligence and the fact that they hunted in packs.

However, because of their pack structure, some people were in the process of domesticating them and having great success. Physically, the best way to think of the dragus was a wolf crossed with a Komodo dragon. They were the size of a large dog, and while one was easy to deter, a half dozen, not so much.

Dragus attacks had been so common back when the colony was new that everyone went out in groups to stay safe; even a Tallean male as big as Grogen was fair game. But then the dragus started to attack groups as well. It wasn’t their fault: they needed to eat. But to prevent more tragedies, Reka 5 set up fences around the different sections of the colony, with opaque, will-lit aboveground tunnels joining each section.

Abby had to travel through three of these tunnels to get between home and work. That meant if there was a fence breach in any of the four sections, it took hours to get home, because the section would be locked down while the guards cleared out the dragus. That was one of the criteria she was looking for in a new home: one tunnel or less.

“I guess the storm’s over, then.” The wind was no longer howling outside.

“It is. I will start digging us out.”

Grogen opened the back door, and Abby gasped. She’d expected a lot of snow, but all she saw was white. The snow had piled up against the door, and they did indeed need to be dug out. Grogen had already started on the corner where he’d stored the tepins. The snow was so thick that she didn’t even feel cold despite still being mostly naked; it kept the heat in and the cold out.

But she would be once they started digging in earnest, so she went to check on her clothes, which were finally dry. When she returned with Grogen’s as well, he was shoveling snow completely naked. With nowhere to put the snow, he was piling it inside the garage until he made a big enough dent to get out.

He was frowning when he grabbed his clothes and put them on. Abby momentarily mourned the loss of the magnificent view.

“There has to be a better way,” he muttered, looking at the snow inside the garage. Then he put the shovel down and closed the door.

He disappeared into the back corner where he stored all the large pieces of equipment that couldn’t be placed on shelves and heaved a large V-shaped piece up over his head. No matter how many times she saw it, Abby still marveled at how ridiculously strong Tallean males were. It would’ve taken two or maybe even three human men to lift something that heavy off the ground, never mind overhead.

As Grogen worked, Abby canceled her single booking at the baths and rebooked another for the two of them, though she couldn’t snag a spot in the six-person tub Jenny and Ckarus were already in. Then she continued her hunt for a new place to stay, occasionally looking up to admire the way Grogen dove into his work. His confidence around the machinery was a total turn-on.

When he was done, the plow attachment was firmly on the transport, but she still hadn’t found a place to live.

Chapter 10: Grogen

Grogen crossed his arms over his chest and admired his handiwork. The plow head wasn’t technically designed for his transport, but he’d made it work, creating new attachment points to match the ones on his vehicle. This would be a lot quicker than digging out by hand.

He turned to see Abby engrossed by something on her screen. By the expression on her face, the search for a new apartment wasn’t going well.

He didn’t know what had prompted him to ask her to stay with him. He knew it was a big step for humans as well as for Talleans. He could say he was only offering her a place until she got back on her feet, but that would be a lie. He had a feeling once he had her in his home, he’d never want her to leave. The sneaky beginnings of the mate bond were even now threading their way around his heart.

Mate bonds were terrifying. Once formed, they were nearly impossible to dissolve. Technically, it was possible to form a second bond many decades after losing a mate, but the majority of Talleans followed their mates into the Stars. Those who survived usually did so for the sake of their offspring.

Since humans could not form mate bonds back, instead relying solely on love, bonding with a human was extremely risky. That hadn’t stopped any of the numerous mixed couples here on Reka 5 or throughout the rest of the galaxy, though. There were some theories that humans felt a mild version of the mate bond when with a Tallean, but they hadn’t been proven yet. Although there must be some truth in it because humans were so much like Talleans that there was already a company helping Tallean and human couples conceive and bring offspring into the Galaxy.

Grogen rubbed his chest at the tightness forming there as he watched her. Did Abby feel anything for him now? If not, would she soon? Whatever it was forming between them felt so right, and he didn’t want to fight it, but he had to admit at the same time he was terrified.

Abby huffed and stuffed her comm into her pocket. She was evidently annoyed by whatever had been on the screen, but when she looked up and their eyes met, any irritation drained away.

“Care to join me?” Grogen asked, opening the garage bay doors. A wall of white reaching his chest met them. The wind had pushed the snow up against the building.

“Sure.”

She came over, and he helped her into the vehicle before climbing in himself. The front of the vehicle was large enough for three smaller Talleans or two large ones, which meant there was a harness in the center. He pulled her over to sit next to him and buckled her in, tightening the straps around her.

“A little excessive?” She raised a brow at him when he adjusted the headrest to cushion the side of her head.

“Negative. There is a wall of snow, and snow is heavy. We will need to break through.”

She bit her lower lip, and he wondered if she’d decide against joining him after all. But after a moment of eyeing the wall of snow before them dubiously, she just shrugged and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

That had him grinning as he strapped himself in. He rarely got to use this vehicle for the work it had been built for, preferring to use the company vehicles instead, but those were beyond the wall of snow.

“Hang on.”

He carefully backed up as far as he could, then switched gears to ram into the snow. Abby let out a squeal at the impact, and her hand landed on his thigh, gripping his pant legs. The vehicle had moved a decent volume of snow, but it wasn’t quite enough.

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