Ka'Cit's Haven: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 3) by A.G. Wilde (online e book reader .txt) 📗

He glanced at it and pressed something.

There was no immediate change, and she was wondering what he’d just done when a voice came from the band.

“What’s your status?”

The voice was so crisp and unexpected, it startled her a little, but she tried not to show it.

Ka’Cit’s eyes were still on her when he answered. “There’s been a…situation.”

“Will you be able to intercept the package?”

Ka’Cit let out a breath and his brows furrowed. That’s when she realized what was so different about his face—what differentiated him from all the other Merssi she’d met so far.

His face was smooth, like hers.

All the other Merssi she’d seen—Riv, Sohut, and even that boss lady, Herza—had ridges running along their brows, down their noses, and even down their chins.

Ka’Cit had none.

His face was as humanlike as an alien face could get.

There were still differences, like his bone structure was a bit different, harsher, but not unattractively so, and his ears were elf-like. Now that she was staring at him hard, they perked off the sides of his head.

“That might not be possible,” he spoke to whoever was on the line and she saw bits of his teeth as he enunciated the words.

Yeaaaa…humans didn’t have teeth like those.

His fangs looked vicious, like he could tear into raw meat without trying hard. Plus that blue skin and those eyes…even his hair was thicker, richer, than human hair.

She only realized she was really staring when his head tilted a little. Startling diopside met hers and she saw something change behind them.

Nia forced herself to look somewhere else.

She saw it in his eyes.

He knew what she’d just realized—that he was different from the others.

“I cannot leave the base until our scheduled time to meet. What are the chances of us losing that package?” The voice almost sounded robotic, like a super-advanced male version of Siri, and Nia wondered if Ka’Cit was talking to a computer.

“I’ll get you that package, one way or another. It might just take some…time.”

“Time is what we don’t have, brother.”

Ka’Cit released a breath as if he knew.

“Keep me updated. I will contact you again.” With that, the call clicked off.

She couldn’t help the feeling that she was the reason he’d said he might not be able to collect this “package.”

Should he be somewhere else right now?

When she glanced at him again, he was still looking at her.

Here she was feeling self-conscious for staring while he was doing it as if it was perfectly normal.

“Work,” he said, gesturing to his wristband.

Nia granted him a soft smile.

Work, huh.

Was he some kind of soldier then?

He sure looked built for it.

“Were you on a job? A mission when you came after me?”

Confusion swam in his eyes but before he could even attempt to answer a hum so loud, it felt like it was about to deafen her, roared in the small room.

The roar seemed to grow in intensity as the entire space shook.

Wide eyes turned to the alien beside her as she flattened her hands against the walls to brace herself.

It sounded like a rocket engine had just fired and that thought made her entire nervous column wither.

The sound could only mean one thing…

“Herza is leaving.” He spoke loud enough for her to hear, and his words only confirmed her fears.

Fuck!

When he said leaving, she was sure he meant like…going into frickin’ outer space, didn’t he?

She began to stand but a hand rested against her arm.

“No use!” he shouted. “We will have to wait until the upper decks calm down. Right now, they are on the hunt and we are outnumbered. I don’t want to…”

Fuck, he didn’t need to complete that sentence. His pause spoke volumes.

He didn’t want her to get shot.

Hell, she didn’t want to get shot either.

“We will wait,” he said. “We will wait then grab a shuttle, get off the ship later.”

“But that means we’ll be in space by then!”

The idea of going into outer space would have been exciting in another circumstance, but it terrified her in a way she never thought it would.

She liked her feet on the ground. On Earth—or on Hudo III in this case.

He leaned closer to her ear so he didn’t have to shout, possibly in case his voice carried because the sound of the engines was levelling off.

“Later, Herza will dim the lights above deck once she’s on her way. To save power. She’s cheap. That will be our chance. Niftrills can’t see well; the dimness will help us.” He paused. “It is best.”

Reluctantly, Nia sat back down.

He knew more than her, she hoped he was right, and so far, he’d only helped her.

There were a lot of the brutes above deck and they had an order to kill on sight. She hadn’t forgotten that.

Her eyes fell once again to the blasters on Ka’Cit’s hips.

He had two, possibly she could use one?

She was out of practice, but she was confident she could hit more than a few of them if they had to shoot their way out. But…did she want to purposefully put herself in that situation?

No.

As she settled back against the metal wall, Ka’Cit removed his hand from her arm.

“What now?” she whispered, more to herself than to him.

There was another loud roar from what she assumed was the ship’s engine and the small room they were in shook once more.

Fucking fuck of fucks.

They were going into space, in the belly of a ship.

It didn’t seem safe in the least.

Was there even life support down here?

That thought made another spike of anxiety shoot through her and she looked at Ka’Cit again, but he was just sitting there, seemingly unbothered, his eyes on her.

How could he be so calm?

Her nerves were shaking as hard as the metal wall behind was vibrating from the stress from the engines.

Shit.

Her thoughts flew to Lauren and Riv back in the market.

She wasn’t going to get back to them anytime soon and they were probably worried sick.

She could only hope that Ka’Cit knew what he was doing, hope and pray, and she would get