Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
This was what she’d always wanted–adventure, purpose, and a place where the unwanted and the misunderstood animals of the galaxy could be protected. And standing by her side–too big, too calm, and too intelligent for comfort–was the newest, strangest rescue she’d ever brought home.
Kiera just knew they were going to get along…but she had no idea how strange things were going to get very soon.
7
BRUX
Brux was elated. Finally, he was home with his mate! He had never seen or smelled any place like this new land but it was absolutely perfect. Then again, any place would have been perfect with her.
He looked lovingly at his new mate. Kiera was so beautiful, he couldn’t help himself–he wanted to look at her and smell her all the time. Luckily, she seemed to feel the same way about him.
“Come on boy–let’s go home,” she remarked as she looped an arm around his neck and stroked his fur. Her touch was pure ecstasy to Brux–every brush of her soft fingers through his fur made him shiver with joy.
Surely the Goddess was smiling on him, he thought, as he walked by his new mate’s side through the beautiful, good—smelling new world. After so many long months of sorrow and loneliness, she had turned her face towards him and sent him the most beautiful woman in all the universe to care for him.
And also, for him to protect. He could smell the scent of some strange and dangerous predators wafting on the cool breeze. They appeared to be restrained, but Brux still didn’t like them being anywhere near his mate.
However, he was beginning to get the idea that she was the caretaker to all the animals he had seen on their walk around the compound. This must be her job–her calling. But why was there no one else with her, helping her?
As though she’d read his mind, Kiera started talking.
“Well, boy–I hope you like it here. I know I love it–even if it does get a little lonely sometimes,” she said, ruffling his fur. “Until we get the sanctuary completely finished and staffed, it’s just me and the work—bots.”
She nodded at a silver—skinned, bipedal bot that was moving a large bale of some purple, dry, grass—like material into an enclosure filled with tiny, squeaking creatures that appeared to be rodents of some kind with pastel fur and huge, floppy ears.
The work—bot moved with slow, methodical precision–clearly it didn’t have much brainpower behind it.
Speaking of brainpower, Brux could feel his increasing by the minute. Every bit of sentience and intelligence that had leaked away in the long months after he’d lost his first mate was returning to him. The more Kiera touched him and talked to him, the more he understood her. She was literally restoring his mind with her kindness and her love.
Though he knew it would take some time to get his bipedal form back, Brux didn’t mind waiting. As long as he could be close to her, he was content to stay in his animal form.
He still retained a lot of his animal instincts, though. For instance, when he saw movement in the tall, chiming reeds near the edge of the petting—zoo perimeter, every primitive instinct inside him snapped tight as a bowstring.
Something pale and spiny was rising out of the lavender grass cover—it moved too fast for Brux to really see it and for one terrible heartbeat, it looked like a predator rearing up to strike.
Brux’s hackles lifted. His lips peeled back from his teeth in an instinctive snarl. The creature made a sharp, rasping hiss that sounded far too much like a threat, and when it moved again, its body didn’t look like any harmless herbivore he’d ever encountered.
It was round and squat, about the size of a large canine, but it was covered in stiff, white quills that flared outward like a crown. Worse, its eyes glowed a sickly yellow—green, and along its back were ridges that looked like serrated blades.
It smelled wrong too–sickly sweet and half—rotten. Oh yes–it was a threat. His mind went into primitive protective mode at once.
Danger. Near. Her.
No!
Brux didn’t think—he acted. He bounded forward, putting himself between Kiera and the threat in a single leap, shoulders lowered, teeth bared–ready to take the first strike meant for her. His paws hit the spongy ground, and the silver—threaded plants gave under his weight as he charged.
Behind him, he heard Kiera’s voice, sounding surprisingly calm.
“Hey—wait a minute!” she called.
But Brux was already moving. His only thought was protect her, protect her, protect her! Because she was his. His mate. His woman. The one who had pulled him out of a cage and promised him a home.
He aimed himself at the creature, expecting it to lunge.
Instead, it puffed up.
With a loud WHUMPF, the spiny thing expanded, doubling in size in an instant. Its quills spread outward, and its ridges rose, making it look even more terrifying—like a living land mine. It hissed again, and its eyes flared brighter.