Page 36 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid
She blinked at him in surprise. Clearing her throat, she smiled unsteadily. “Thanks, Rentir. That’s… really nice to hear, honestly.”
“I will tell you as often as you like.” His tail moved sinuously over her leg in an unmistakable alien flirtation. The tip brushed over her hipbone before sliding back down her thigh. “If the other human women are even a quarter as competent and beautiful as you are, they are wasted on your men. Better they should come to Yulaira, where they might be appreciated.”
She laughed, but it was a sad sound. “Maybe you’re right—if there are even any left. Considering the last transmissions we received from Earth… I’m not sure there is an Earth anymore.”
“This saddens you. Because you wish to go back?”
She chewed on the question, trying to think over the mesmerizing little circles his tail tip was making over the swell of her hip. “I don’t know. I mean, being lost in space and shot at by an evil empire of alien fascists isn’t ideal, but… Maybe you’re right. As planets go… it’s a hell of a lot better than Earth. You guys seem really decent. Maybe we could make a difference here, help you solidify your freedom.”
“I would like that very much. You would be welcome here. All of you.”
She grinned, unable to keep her grip on the morose in the face of his opaque attempts to get her to stay. “You’re movingpretty fast, aren’t you? You’ve only known humankind for a day or two. We could be completely insufferable. What if you live to regret granting us Yulairan citizenship?”
He reached out and touched a strip of skin above her boot where her pants had ridden up. His expression was reverent as he traced her skin, sending little jolts of lightning up her leg. “The only thing I cannot suffer is the thought of you flying off into that great black expanse where I might never find you again.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Did he have to be so earnest? It tore down her defenses more thoroughly than any appeal to logic he could have made.
His tail slid up her thigh and twitched just right, pressing the seam of her pants against her core. She gasped, squeezing her thighs together, inadvertently trapping his tail against her. It continued to move restlessly, spiking her arousal until she had the presence of mind to go lax. She caught his tail in her hand and dragged it away from her crotch.
Rentir groaned. “Cordelia… that scent…” He rolled onto his knees and crawled closer.
Before she could process what was happening and make a rational decision about how to react, her knees fell open on instinct to welcome him. It had been years since someone had looked at her the way Rentir did. Alien as he was, Rentir was a wall of rippling muscle and chiseled good looks. She was only human.
“I need… I don’t know.” His voice was laced with desperation.
“I do,” she whispered.
God, was she really going to do this?
He groaned again, planting a knee between her own as he brought his face to hers. His breath fanned across her lips, sweet and earthy like the nectar from a flower.
A cacophony of rustling suddenly cut through the night, overwhelming the distant animal calls and startling her badly enough that she cracked the back of her head against the tree trunk. Rentir growled as she pressed her hands against his shoulders and pushed him back.
“What was that?” she whispered.
He rose up onto his feet in a crouch, his tail still gripping her as he leaned out over the branch.
“Well? What is it?”
“Haerune calls themlotari—little climbers.” He grinned back at her, his thwarted lust already forgotten. “Come see.”
Reluctantly, she crawled closer to him. His tail shifted to allow her to move, sliding sensuously up her thigh and over her hip until it could wind around her waist. Aside from the unsettling flutter in her core, she was comforted by the gesture. Her concern about plummeting to her death ebbed. She didn’t even mind the way her injury twinged at the touch.
Beneath them were creatures that looked like little monkeys, only with four arms instead of two. They had black fur, but they were glowing all shades of blue and violet, illuminating their spindly limbs and long tails. They chittered at each other from the low boughs of the trees. Some carried tiny babies on their backs. Two of the larger lotari broke out in a spat, chortling wildly as they chased each other. One dropped to a lower branch, shrieking, tail bristling behind it.
Cordelia laughed softly at the sight until two eerie blue lights came into view on the forest floor behind the angry little creature. Then another pair, and another, until there were six glowing eyes fixed on it.
“Rentir,” she whispered, clutching at his sleeve.
His expression was grim as his tail tightened around her.
The eyes shifted, and a long mouth opened, revealing rows of hooked fangs. A horrible, deep growl rattled her bones momentsbefore the creature struck, leaping twenty feet clear off the floor of the forest to snatch the little lotari off its branch. Its body pulsed with light as it struck, revealing a form uncannily similar to a crocodile with limbs as long as a panther. Several branches cracked under the creature’s weight as it fell carelessly back to the ground with its prey in its mouth.
“What the fuck was that?” she cried, scrambling back from the edge.
He followed her, his tail sliding free as he shushed her. “Yethor.” The word didn’t translate. “It hunts at night.”
“That fucking thing was down there while we were stumbling around in the woods? The whole time?”
