Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“ARGHHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!
A scream emits from some unseen throat and a millisecond later chaos breaks out nearby. I don’t know what the cause of it is, but I am caught in a sudden surge of aliens, a wall of fur, flesh, and exoskeleton coming toward me far faster than I can react, let alone run.
They might be fleeing authorities, or they might simply be fighting. There are many factions in these lawless outer realms. The crowd surges and masses of aliens move toward me in a huge wall of flesh and bone. I look to get out of their way, but there is nowhere to go.
I realize in this moment that I am going to die here, crushed on a distant asteroid, a very long way from anyone who knows me or cares about me. I barely have time to comprehend how badly I have fucked up.
Milliseconds before I am killed, a large paw descends through the crush of people, grasping me by the back of my tunic and lifting me up and through the alien melee. I gasp at the casual strength of my rescuer, feeling how very light I must be compared to him.
I am deposited on an upper platform away from the mad rush of chaos below, and to my great surprise and absolute relief, I recognize my rescuer. Not from any prior meeting, but from his picture on the auction house. He is very large, no less than nine feet tall, and massively muscular. He is furred all over in a sandy, golden hue of thick, deep pelt that I briefly sink into before being put down on my feet.
I owe him my life. I am sure of that as sure as I am of anything. There are streaks on the floor below, red mashed texture smears of what used to be smaller aliens like myself.
“Holy…you just saved me!” I exclaim, looking up with more gratitude than I have felt toward anyone in a very long time. My rescuer’s face is something quite tremendous to behold. I am looking into eyes that hold wisdom and approval. They are golden and slitted, like a dragon, or a lion. They are the eyes of a predator, but I do not feel as though I am being preyed upon. Apex predators can hunt, but they can also protect.
That’s why I chose him. On the auction. This is the alien I have been looking for. This is the alien I own.
“Azlan?”
“Ava?”
We greet each other with just a hint of surprised awkwardness. I suppose buying and selling sentient beings is always going to be a little strange.
He shakes his head, large skeins of perfectly golden hair fanning out around his big predatory head, replete with terrifying fangs and quite cute round ears. His little ears! I want to rub them!
I get the impression he would not like me to do that. He seems very bold and very proud. He is wearing clothing that barely seems to have any point given his thick pelt, but nevertheless, he is wearing pants, bright blue with gold detailing, and matching boots. He looks a little like an ancient Earth wrestling warrior, which was a sport where burly men pretended to hurt one another for the amusement of people who also pretended it was real. Good times, I imagine. In the modern world, almost nobody bothers pretending anymore. Too much effort. Too little time.
The sheer relief that flows through me cannot be described. This is exactly the kind of creature I need.
“Oh thank god,” I say. “You’re perfect.”
“Glad to hear it.” He smiles, sharp teeth and fangs very clearly on display. Again, I do not sense any threat in his gestures. Though we have just met, it feels as though he is already invested in my wellbeing. I never expected the alien I bought to be so easy to tame. I thought I was going to have to spend some time convincing him to be on my side.
Maybe this is going to work out. Maybe this gamble has paid off.
There’s a mutual jangling as we hold out transportation cuffs at the same time. The ones I have are him-sized. The ones he has are me-sized.
There is an awkward and confusing moment in which neither one of us knows what the hell the other one is doing.
“Uhm,” I say. “I bought you.”
“No,” he replies, his voice deep and majestic. “I purchased you.”
I stare at him, horrified. “You… purchased me?”
His incredibly handsome maned face seems to fill the entirety of my vision. “You belong to me,” he says.
It feels true when he says it. It feels like the only thing that has ever been true. Azlan is mesmerizing. He is astoundingly beautiful, to the extent I find myself drawn to every detail of his golden eyes, every fleck, every dash of gold.