My eyes flew open and I gaped up at him.
“It actually worked,” I blinked up at him, poking at my sore ear.
He tilted his head to the side and grinned, he was awfully smiley, this alien.
“Of course it worked, I wouldn’t hurt you for a piece of broken tech.”He offered me his hand, the clean one.“I am Tovis, formerly a syto slave and gladiator.Now a free turoch of Earth.”
“I-” words failed me for a moment as the last few minutes hit me all in a rush.I was talking to an alien, apparently he used to be a slave.He had a name,Tovis.He was trying to shake my hand.
The jarring contrast of the human greeting combined with the pure alienness of Tovis made my head spin and I stared blankly at his offered hand.The world I’d been clinging to was over, there was no way I could shove this new development under a rug and go back to the shadow of a normal life I'd been living in.
He said something else, his voice suddenly distant and muffled and my vision blurred.I had just enough time to be embarrassed that I was the stereotypical fainting maiden before I passed out.
4 Tovis
Icaught the humanfemale when she crumpled.Smooth dark hair spilled over my chest as I lifted her in my arms and carefully moved her to the strange, padded table beside us.Her eyes were already fluttering open by the time I laid her down.She groaned and covered her face as I moved back a step, so I didn’t loom over her.
Penny had warned us about the looming.I wasn’t the tallest turoch, but I was still much larger than this female and she already seemed to be on the flighty side.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” she moaned, her knees coming up as if she was attempting to curl into a ball.
My tail flicked against my legs as I stared down at her.She was adorably embarrassed, and adorably human.I couldn’t wait to claim her.I’d have to convince her to come to camp for my claim to be valid, though I supposed I could always bring someone here to witness my ulto if she was reluctant to follow me.
Vret, I decided.He didn’t like venturing too far from camp, his old injuries made long distances painful for him, but I knew my friend wouldn’t attempt to steal a female out from under me.I couldn’t say the same for the other, mate-hungry turochs at camp.
We’d been free for six months, and despite frequent searches, no other humans had been found.
“Have you eaten?”I asked, loving the red flush on her face as she peeked through her fingers at me.“The other females often feel weak when they haven’t eaten.”
“Human females?”she asked hopefully.
“Five turochs in my band have taken human mates,” I said proudly.“The rest of us have been searching, but you are the first to be found.”
“Five women,” her voice was hushed as she sat up.“I really thought I was the only one left.”
“There are more humans, males.”I reassured her, my ears flicking back as I recalled the only other humans my band had encountered.“But they were not friendly.The females called them a gang.We had to drive them away from our camp because they attacked one of our supply patrols.”
