Protected by the Alien Warrior Hope Hart (books that read to you .txt) 📖

me, seemingly scandalized at the thought, and I burst out laughing.

After he’s finished his tonic, we make our way back to his tashiv and stay just long enough for him to saddle up Nari. I may be imagining it, but it seems like he’s in less pain today, and he seems to be moving easier as well.

He climbs up onto the mishua and then reaches down, clasping my arm with his good hand. The breath escapes my lungs with a whoosh as I’m suddenly sitting up in front of him.

God, the guy is strong.

With him sitting behind me, his good arm wrapped around my waist, I’m exceedingly aware of the fact that he hasn’t tried to kiss me again.

“This is a mistake.”

I mean, he’s not wrong, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel a little rejected. What woman wouldn’t after a guy kissed the daylights out of her only to immediately turn cold as ice?

I scowl at the thought.

It’s probably close to an hour before we arrive at the trading post. The sun has only been up for a couple of hours, and the clearing is busy with all kinds of aliens tempting me into gawking.

Of course, I’m the alien here, and they gawk back before quickly glancing away when their gazes move behind me to Vrex.

His muscles got tenser and tenser as we approached the trading post, and now it seems like he’s almost vibrating with tension.

I glance over my shoulder at him, blinking as I come face-to-face with a scowl that dares the receiver to approach him.

No wonder everyone seems so scared of him.

“Assassin of Agron,” I hear a woman murmur, and I narrow my eyes at her. She looks like she could be related to Ilax, with the same-colored skin and similar horns rising from her head. She quickly glances away, and I can practically feel Vrex’s mood get darker behind me.

The trading post is little more than a few tashivs, sitting behind ten or twelve stalls where vendors are selling everything from meat and fruit to scrolls of paper. Vrex jumps off Nari, and I know for a fact that the pain from the movement must have made him want to throw up, but his face stays completely blank.

He attempted to remove the sling before we left his tashiv. But I refused to get onto the mishua unless he wore it. Our standoff finally ended with him giving me a dark look before muttering to himself as he mounted Nari.

God forbid the guy show any hint of weakness.

Now his expression is like stone as I jump down beside him. He ties Nari to a tree, and then I trail behind him as he heads straight for the smallest tashiv on the left. I’m so busy glancing around at the stalls and the wares that it takes me a moment to notice that everyone has suddenly gone silent.

I turn, scanning the small clearing. Every single alien is looking at Vrex, and their faces are filled with fear. As if the guy is suddenly going to start slaughtering everyone in sight.

Suddenly, I’m completely, unreasonably offended.

“What are you all looking at?” I hiss. “Take a fucking picture; it’ll last longer.”

Most of them turn away, although a few of them stare back at me. I’m not the most threatening person on this planet. I have no claws and no horns, and I’m shorter than most of the oversize people here. From the look on one guy’s face, he’s unimpressed by what he sees.

Vrex is a few steps in front of me and glances over his shoulder, raising one eyebrow. His eyes have turned that whiskey color that tells me he’s amused, and he turns his gaze to the gawkers behind me. Suddenly, people have better things to do than stare at us.

“I am beginning to think that your personality reflects your fiery hair,” Vrex murmurs as we step into the tashiv. I send him a look, and his mouth twitches. “Ferocious female.”

This tashiv is just one large room, with what looks like a smaller room attached to it. A man with deep-green-colored skin steps out of the smaller room, a piece of paper clutched in each of his four arms.

“Vrex,” he murmurs. Even this guy, who obviously knows Vrex, seems wary of him. Vrex nods and hands him a piece of paper before turning to go.

I frown. “That’s it?”

“Yes. We will return in two days to see if Rakiz has returned my message.”

Rakiz. I haven’t heard the tribe king’s name before, but I tuck it away for future reference. Getting information from Vrex is like pulling teeth.

“I have something to show you,” Vrex says as we leave the tashiv. No one stares at him when he’s facing them, all of them keeping their attention firmly on their own business. I rub at my chest, attempting to ease the squeezing sensation that I feel thanks to the way Vrex is treated by these people.

He’s been nothing but good to me, and they treat him like he’s a dangerous monster.

“Oh yeah?” I feel the weirdest urge to reach out and take his good hand in mine, but I push it away. Vrex is ignoring the people around us as we walk back to his mishua, and I attempt to do the same.

He nods. “It is not far from here and won’t take long with the mishua.”

“Sure.” I shrug. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Seven

Ivy

“Asshole,” I mutter as Nari pushes past yet another branch, and Vrex has to reach out with his good hand to stop it from hitting me in the face. Nari snorts like she understands me, and if I didn’t know better, I’d hear amusement in Vrex’s voice.

“We’re almost there.”

“You know, I’m like a fish out of water on your planet,” I tell him. “I’d love to see how well you’d do on Earth.” I snort at the thought. Once everyone got over the sheer size of him, they’d probably try to convince him to be a male model. He’s not pretty,