Pairing with the Protector Read online

  Whitney felt a shiver of fear go down her spine and for the first time, her natural optimism began to slip a little. The kennel? The matching pen? And now the aliens were going to take off their clothes? What the hell was going to happen to them? Clearly she and Rafe were supposed to exhibit some kind of behavior to prove they were a couple—but what would happen if they didn’t get it right?

  She had a bad feeling they were about to find out.

  Ten

  The vast alien house had several different levels but they were connected by ramps instead of stairs. Maybe because the alien’s ponderous bodies would have had a difficult time climbing stairs, Rafe speculated.

  The main level, which they had come in on, seemed to be divided into several different areas. There was a food prep area, (if the vast silvery-blue appliances he saw were for cooking,) as well as a living area. Here there was a piece of broad, cushioned furniture as big as an Earth soccer field that was patterned in a green and yellow flowered pattern so bright it hurt his eyes to look at. And lastly, a work area.

  This last was what Rafe’s eyes lingered on. Mounted on the curving wall above a kind of desk was a broad, flat screen that was unmistakably a monitor. And underneath it was a large cube with six sides, all of them covered in keys with squiggly patterns on them.

  Could the cube be a kind of keyboard? For beings with seven fingers and two thumbs, it might be a practical way to type. And if the two were hooked together in a kind of communications device, he might be able to get some information as to their location in the universe. If there was a stable wormhole nearby it would be good to know—much better than taking a risk on the rogue one that had brought them here.

  Of course, the keyboard cube was as tall as Rafe was and probably quite heavy. There was also the matter of getting to it in the first place—it was placed on a desk the height of a three-story building. Also, he didn’t know these people’s written language—though he felt confident he could learn it, given a very little time. He was Kindred, after all, and the quick and accurate acquisition of new languages was in his blood.

  But for now, he was held tightly in the grip of the child alien and there was nothing he could do but watch as she carried him and Whitney down the ramp which led from the upper floor to the lower one.

  The lower level seemed to be divided into two main spaces. On one side of the subterranean space was a play area for the child alien which contained a huge dollhouse as big as an Earth mansion and a dress-up area with several colorful outfits strewn about. On the other side was a separate area filled with cages.

  It was to this area that the child and mother alien took him and Whitney. Rafe frowned at what he saw. The cages were laid out in a semi-circle—nine in all—with four smaller ones arranged on either side of a much larger cage in the very center. Three of the four cages on the left side of the central cage had occupants and two on the right side did. The others were empty. All of them seemed to be lined with clean greenish-purple grass and several had large wheels and colorful toys inside.

  The “tweedles,” as these aliens called humanoids, in the cages seemed to be much better groomed than the wild ones he and Whitney had encountered in the forest. Their long hair was combed neatly and they didn’t have any scars or cuts or bruises on their sleek, naked skin like the wild ones had either. They peered curiously through the thick wire cages as Rafe and Whitney were brought into their area and one or two of the males made threatening grunting sounds.

  Marking their territory, Rafe thought and felt a spasm of unease crawl down his spine. He didn’t want to have to fight any of these mindless humanoids but he would if he had to, especially if it was necessary to keep Whitney safe. No matter what happened, that was first and foremost in his mind.

  “Well now, let’s get these silly little clothes off,” the mother alien said. She plucked Rafe from her daughter’s hand and began, rather clumsily, to tug at his trousers.

  Rafe saw at once that he was going to be injured if he didn’t help. As unobtrusively as he could, he unfastened the magno-tabs which held his black flight leathers up. This allowed the mother alien to get a hold of them and strip them down. His high leather boots went with them and soon he was completely naked and vulnerable in her gigantic palm.

  This must be what a cub feels like being handled by its mother, he thought, feeling utterly helpless as she examined his body, turning him this way and that with the tip of her trunk, which seemed to act like an extra hand and finger.

  He thought of trying to bite her in hopes that she would drop him and he could run, but there was Whitney to consider. As long as he behaved he might have a chance to be with her. If he escaped, he would be always hiding and trying to avoid detection, which would make getting both of them out much more difficult. Reluctantly, he decided to endure the indignity and kept his jaw clenched through the inspection.

  “Well—this little male has a few scars on his front so he’s no good for showing,” the mother alien said thoughtfully in that deep, rumbling tone of hers. “But he might be good for breeding—especially if he’s the other one’s mate.” She looked at her daughter. “Have you got her undressed, Zhu-zhu?”

  “Oh, she undressed herself, Mama! She’s really smart,” the child alien gushed. “She seemed to know just what I wanted her to do—see? She’s already tame.”

  Looking over, Rafe saw that Whitney was standing naked in the little alien’s palm. She was trying to cover her lush curves with her arms and hands but not having much success. She definitely had what he had heard Earth girls calling a “Plus-sized” figure—which unfortunately was exactly what he desired in a female. To his discomfort, he could feel his shaft getting hard, even though this was most definitely not the time or the place for lust.

  “Well, well, so she is. She must have been someone’s pet before she got lost in the woods,” the alien mother remarked. “Some tweedles can be trained to do all kinds of things—this little one is doubly valuable since she’s obviously intelligent and she has such unique coloration.”

  “Can we keep them then, Mama?” Zhu-zhu asked eagerly. “Since they’re so smart and pretty? Can I have them for pets?”

  “Well, I think you’re a little young to have a tweedle of your very own,” the alien mother said. “But I tell you what,” she added indulgently. “I’ll let you help me with them. You can be responsible for feeding them and cleaning their cages—these two at least. And if you prove you can do a good job, we’ll talk about it again.”

  “Yay! I promise I’ll do a good job, Mama! I promise!” The alien child jumped up and down excitedly, which nearly sent Whitney tumbling off her palm and down to the floor below which, though it was covered in some kind of thick, coarse carpet, probably wouldn’t have been enough to save her from a two story fall.

  Rafe watched, his heart in his mouth as she toppled over and grabbed for Zhu-zhu’s fingers to save herself from falling. Gods, how he longed to be free to help her—to shield her from danger! But there was nothing he could do except watch in this situation. He couldn’t get to her in time to save her from the fall and he couldn’t catch her. He would be too late to do anything even if he did manage to extricate himself from the grip of the giant alien and get free.

  Just like with Tenda. Too little, too late, he thought savagely and then shoved the memory away. He had to concentrate on Whitney now—not on the past.

  Luckily, Zhu-zhu noticed her mistake and wrapped her trunk around Whitney’s waist just before she would have fallen. The mother alien noticed too and her massive, lipless mouth turned down at the corners.

  “Now Zhu-zhu, if you want a tweedle of your own someday, you’ll have to do a better job of handling them! Look at that—you were being careless and you nearly dropped the new little female. Give her to me.”

  She put out her trunk and the little girl reluctantly deposited Whitney, who looked pale with fright though she never said a word, into her mother’s grip.

  “Now then, that’s better.”