Page 17 of Shadowed By the Alien
Horns!
My hands snap away.
Renisan alien.
“I did not plan on telling you,” he says, softly
“But why?” I suddenly feel betrayed. I don’t like when people used my blindness to keep secrets from me.
“The truth is often hard to accept.”
It is. And I’m not sure how I feel about this revelation.
“You are disappointed,” he says, his voice falling. The sadness coming off of him tugs at my soul and I realize he’s the same person he was a few minutes ago.
And I’m not ready to throw away whatever’s been forming between us.
CHAPTER TEN
RENIKK
We wait in silence until the local authorities show up to arrest the males. I alerted them on my comm nearly a half hour ago, but everything moves slowly on this world. I use the time to fix the door I kicked in, to ensure no one else enters while we wait.
“It could have been worse,” Raven says once the police take Noah and his partner away.
Agreed. The males could have overpowered me and then they would have hurt or even killed her. The very thought scares the drekk out of me,
“Are you okay, Ren? You are rather quiet.”
“I forgot. You do not like quiet.”
“It depends on the situation, really. Sometimes I like to sit and think, too.”
I’m not sure what she’s trying to say to me.
I look into her eyes. Beautiful and dark, almost black, with her eyes it’s easy to forget she’s human. She could easily bezyanthan, except she’s not blue and lacks horns. And yet she’s the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen.
“You are correct. The situation could have been much worse. Your cousin could have hurt you.”
“I was talking about the other names in the poem. I never finished my story about my dad picking my name from the poem,The Raven. There were actual names in there, more than just a bird. Lenore, for example, which I guess is an okay name, but Pallas… No one knows who Pallas is. I had to look it up.”
“Who is Pallas?” I ask, unsure why we’re discussing her name as if nothing just happened here tonight.
“Pallas was a close companion of the goddess Athena who was killed during a sparring match. There are various stories as to how she was killed. Sometimes Athena is referred to as Pallas Athena, as she supposedly took on the name of her fallen friend. I guess that makes sense since she’s the Roman goddess of wisdom and warfare. Athena is a pretty name. A strong one. Nothing weak about the goddess of war, right?”
“I think your name is quite beautiful. Almost as beautiful as you.”
Her cheeks fill with a glorious red. Four shades deeper than her usual color. It makes me wonder how deep that red will turn when mating.
Krike. I have to get images of myself thrusting into Raven out of my head and repair the damage I’ve caused, if that is possible.
“Despite what everyone thinks, I’m not weak, Ren. I can handle the truth.”
“I should have told you I’m not human.”
“Yes, you should have.”
“There’s something more you need to know...”
