Page 70 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid
Both their comms beeped at once.
“Fendar,” Rentir breathed. He tapped frantically at the device, pulling up a message that Cordelia had no hope of deciphering. “It’s an all-clear. Comms are safe again.”
Rentir tapped the device a few times, and it trilled—an alien ringtone, she realized. Someone picked up.
“What?” they barked.
“I’ve got Thalen,” Rentir said in a rush. “I need an immediate retrieval. He doesn’t have much longer.”
The male on the other end cursed, then shouted distantly at someone in the background. “Stay where you are,” he commanded, and the line cut out.
They sat around Thalen and waited for rescue. Rentir busily sent messages on his comm device as his tail traced soothing patterns over her back.
“I cannot hail Melam,” he whispered, glancing at Sophia. She had curled up against a log and closed her eyes, and her chest was rising and falling in the slow rhythm of sleep.
“Do you think his battery’s dead or something?”
“Unlikely. They are solar-powered. They’re only simple devices; they don’t draw much.”
“So, you think something happened to him?” The thought saddened her.
“It’s possible.” Rentir sounded just as dismayed by the possibility, though he’d bristled around the male nearly the entire time they’d been together.
The unmistakable sound of a hovercraft reached them, steadily increasing in intensity until the craft was directly over them. It maneuvered deftly, lowering as far as possible without catching the foliage in its propellers. The door popped open, and a hybrid leapt down with agile grace.
“Ven,” Rentir said, uttering the name like a curse.
Cordelia studied the male as he approached. She blinked in realization, looking down at Thalen and back up at his perfect doppelganger.
“What the hell?” she murmured. They looked like… twins.
“Rentir,” Ven called, jogging over to kneel beside Thalen. His hands moved over his mirrored self, checking vitals and probing at injuries. When he was done, he turned a vicious glare on Rentir. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t mention Sophia bashing him over the head, much to Cordelia’s relief.
Sophia had roused at the sound of the hovercraft and moved to stand beside her. Cordelia worried the guilty look telegraphed in her big eyes was going to give away her sin, anyway. She squeezed the woman’s shoulder.
“You don’t know?” Ven echoed mockingly, his eyes narrowing. “My brother is beaten half to death, and I am meant to believe, what? That you just happened upon him?”
Rentir crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s right.”
Ven rose to his feet, bowing his chest out as his nostrils flared. “I’m not buying it. Not from you.”
Cordelia frowned. Just what was he trying to imply? “Hey, tough guy,” she chimed in, stepping between them. “Rentir is the one who called this in. What the hell kind of sense would it make for him to beat the shit out of him first?”
Ven stared down at her for a long moment before his gaze flicked back to Rentir. “An excellent question. Tell us, Rentir, why would a hybrid turn on his kind?”
Rentir… couldn’t meet the male’s eyes. A thread of uneasiness tugged within her.
“He needs help,” Sophia said softly, kneeling beside Thalen again. She took his big hand between her own. “How long are they going to argue?”
Ven’s throat bobbed at that. His thick tail sagged against the ground.
A second male came jogging over from the transport, this one a bright shade of red and lacking any horns. “Fendar says they’re priming the laser,” he called.
Rentir and Ven both swore at the same time.
