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)
“Help me clear the bandits from my home, and I’ll be your mate, I guess, if you want.” I can’t help but sound doubtful. Azlan is the most handsome male creature I have ever laid eyes on, of any species, in any time. I am no supermodel. I am pretty enough, I suppose, but in a plain and normal kind of way. His mane puts my dirty blonde locks to shame, the thickness of his hair making my frizzy flyaways even more egregious in comparison. My skin is spotty and pale compared to his, my body is less than half his size. I feel absolutely weak and, yes, if I am pressed, pathetic in comparison to him.
And yet, he wants me. It doesn’t make sense, but he has the cuffs with my name on them. I can see them partly sticking out of his back pocket.
He doesn’t bother to use them.
He doesn’t need to.
I think about running. Not seriously, because I’d be running into an illegal alien slave market that is about to be raided, but in the brief way all prey must think about running. It’s an instinctual blip that passes without action.
Azlan opens a paw and makes a guiding gesture to me, as if accepting my deal and ushering me up the gangway. I suppose it’s time I start walking, swallow the fear that I have made a huge mistake by coming to this lawless place, and put myself at the mercy of a massive Leonid alien like Azlan.
“Relax,” he says, putting a heavy paw on my shoulder as he steers me into the interior of his ship, which I find to be plush and ornate. Imagine a jungle, now imagine a very nice, ancient, let’s say circa 2023, living room. Then imagine those two things being combined together with some kind of artificial intelligence, and you have the interior of Azlan’s ship.
There are plants everywhere, big green leafy things providing cover and making the very large internal spaces feel somewhat cozy, at least in parts. We enter through a relatively narrow foyer of sorts, and then step into what I can only describe as a grand hall. I can see the bridge located up two sets of golden stairs wound with green ivy. It is open to this space in large part, so the captain and anybody there can look down and see what is going on below. There’s something slightly odd about the way this ship is set up, though I can’t quite put my finger on it exactly.
“Wow,” I breathe. “This is just incredible.”
“It’s a nice ship,” Azlan says, polite and yet guarded. I find myself wondering what is hidden behind his apparently gentlemanly exterior. I feel as though he has probably been honest with me, but at the same time there is a certain superficiality to his comportment. This is a male who keeps his secrets to himself.
“It looks like it was designed for a large crew, but it doesn’t seem as though anybody else is aboard?” The ship has that particular kind of feeling that large, empty spaces have, a certain echo that only seems to be present where sentient beings are not. It’s the difference between an empty room and a room with a cat in it. They don’t feel the same.
“I came alone, given this is a highly illegal act, and there were likely to be objections to it,” he says. “There are others in my family invested in keeping me from maintaining my status.”
“Oh. Family drama. Right. I kind of miss that.”
“You have no family?”
“I did, once, but things happened to them one by one, and now it’s just me.” I force a smile, though not very successfully. “The asteroid we farm has been in my family for generations. I guess being there makes me feel like I haven’t really lost them. I use the tools they used, I feed myself with crops from seeds they gathered. As long as the farm lives, my family lives.”
I immediately feel a bit embarrassed at having just gone off on that tangent, so I force a rueful smile. “Ask a simple question, get a long-winded answer.”
“I understand,” he says. “I have a large family. I am the oldest and the strongest, but my status remains contested until I am able to find a mate. This is a nice ship, but it is not truly mine. As your farm belongs to your family, so this ship belongs to mine. It is the alpha’s vessel.”
“Oh,” I say. “So you’re the alpha of your family.”
“I am.”
“That must be a lot of responsibility.”
“It is.”
His answers are short, but I don’t get the sense he’s being terse. I think he’s just a simple sort of communicator. He says what is necessary and not a lot more. I guess that’s nice. Means I might have a decent chance of knowing where I stand with him.