Servant For An Alien Leader by Roxie Ray
Urul
It was an awkward ride.
There were a thousand things I wanted to say, but I kept my mouth shut as we flew over the woods. Every now and again, I snuck a glance at Rita, but she just stared out the window. Maybe she preferred it that way, since it kept things strictly professional between us.
I shifted and gripped the controls tightly. Keeping things strictly professional was the right thing to do, but that didn’t mean it was easy. Being this close to Rita made me hungry for her, so much every fiber of my being came alive at once. It was an intense feeling.
It was also unbearable.
To make matters even worse, this wasn’t just about physical attraction. As attractive as Rita was, I actually liked the fact she was smart, curious, hard-working, and kind. There was absolutely nothing I’d change about her.
Wisteria’s words came back to haunt me.
She’d promised I would find a mate this year, and she was never wrong about these things. Whenever she had a premonition like that, it always came true, and all of my happily married friends would attest. Perhaps Rita was the woman Wisteria had seen in my future. As much as I wanted it to be true, I just couldn’t see it.
Fated relationships were supposed to be a thing—I’d seen them bloom enough times to believe in them—but there was nothing fateful about meeting Rita. If anything, fate had conspired to bring Rita and her ex-husband together. After all, these two had actively tried to distance themselves, but fate had brought them back together. Maybe they were fated mates.
The thought of it made my stomach turn. I couldn’t claim Rita as my own, but I still hated imagining her with David. If they were fated mates, I’d have to come to terms with it. Then again, if these two were meant to be together, why did I feel this magnetic pull toward her?
It physically hurt to be away from her, and according to the guys, that only happened when they met their fated mate. All of them—Rahl, Kain, Dordus, Zandro, and the Hollander brothers—had experienced it, and it was always with a human woman.
I scanned the horizon, looking for distraction. If I kept obsessing about Rita like this, I was sure to go crazy.
“That’s not good,” I muttered, lowering the rover’s altitude as we neared the rapuses’ location. The vegetation was still lush, the ground carpeted with bright orange moss, but I could already spot a few dying trees. Not only that, but here and there, abandoned nests and empty hives littered the landscape. This was supposed to be Macros’ most fertile season, but the planet seemed to be actively resisting it. Whatever ailed Macros was spreading.
“I can see it, too,” Rita said, shading her eyes from the sun. “There’s a cluster of dying trees over there. Oh, and a few empty nests right next to them.”
I tipped the rover’s nose and aimed us toward a small clearing on a hilltop. “Something’s not right,” I said, “and we need to figure out what it is as soon as possible.”
We climbed out of the rover at the same time. Rita stretched her legs and took a quick look around. “How are we supposed to find the rapuses? These woods seem pretty vast.”
“You don’t need to come with me,” I told her. “Just wait in the rover. I’ll track the rapuses and see if I can bring them back.”
She punched both hands on her hips. “What? And let you have all the fun?” She smiled, and my heart did a somersault that would rival a gymnast’s best twisting flip. “I’m not afraid of getting dirty.”
That much was evident. Rita had spent all morning in the fields, and the mud splatters on her shirt were proof of her practicality.
Part of me wanted to let her come, but that wouldn’t do. Rapuses were extremely sensitive and attuned to other creatures. It took a skilled tracker to find them. As willing as Rita was, she’d need a few lessons on tracking before she could join me. When I told her as much, her shoulders slumped, but she eventually agreed this was the best course of action.
“I won’t be long,” I promised her, taking a Hollander hoverbox from the rover. It was lined and padded with fur, which would make any rapuse I found comfortable. “At least, I hope not. These babies need the antibodies in rapuse milk, or else they won’t make it past their first month.”
“Then make sure you find them.”
“I will.”
I set out into the woods, my footsteps light and measured. Soon enough, I was under the dappled shadow of the rust-colored pines, their needles carpeting the ground. It was a beautiful scenery—Macros’ wilderness was always beautiful—but there was something eerie about it.
There was a stillness here, deep and hollow. The birds rarely chirped or sang, and when they did, it was always a shrill sound, as if they were letting out a warning cry. Even the rustling of the foliage seemed tired, as if nature herself had grown weary of existence. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could also feel my strength being drained by the woods’ somber aura.
It took me half an hour to pick up the rapuses’ trail. Their paws were tiny, but I could still see their soft indentations. There were a few prints, which suggested at least four critters, but they ended up branching off. Two sets of prints led to the right, and the others to the left.
I could always backtrack if necessary, so I followed the trail on the right. It led into an outcrop of poisonberry-bushes, their thorny branches heavy with yellow flowers, and I went around it as carefully as I could. Behind the bushes were large aphrodisiac passion-vines with limbs of bright pink, and they hid the entrance to a natural opening on an escarpment.
I grabbed a hololamp from my bag and strapped it around my forehead. Once I had enough light, I went around the vines and slipped into the cave. I’d barely taken two steps when I heard a scurrying sound no more than a few feet away from me.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I whispered softly. “I’m here to help you.” I turned off the hololamp so I wouldn’t scare the rapuse, and then went down on my hands and knees. The cave was nothing but a cramped hole in the rock, and I’d struggle if the rapuse fled to the far end.
The scurrying stopped, but it was quickly replaced by the sound of shallow breathing. It was barely audible, but it was there. Slowly, I inched forward, following the sound to its origin.
The rapuse lit up all of a sudden, his bright quills turning into luminescent needles. It was the size of a Raider baby—or maybe slightly larger than a human newborn—but that only meant it was young. Rapuse pups were small, but they turned into powerful creatures as adults, large enough to make a full-grown Raider look like a dwarf.
It had large eyes the color of opal, and they reflected the light spilling out from its quills. His spine was arched so the quills were facing me, a clear offensive position, but they weren’t as sharp as an adult’s. Instead, they were soft and quite useless.
“It’s all right, little one,” I whispered, tentatively reaching for the critter. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
The rapuse hissed loudly, its quills rose as a warning, and a foul stench took over the cave. That was another thing about rapuses—they looked cute, but there was nothing cute about their defense mechanism. I pulled out my hand and made an effort not to retch.
“How about some milk?” I tried, grabbing a bottle from my bag. I spilled a few drops onto the back of my hand, so that the rapuse could smell it, and it wasn’t long before he started sniffing the air. “That’s it, buddy. Come on out and have some.”
Slowly, the rapuse approached me, but its large eyes never left mine. It only looked away from me when it tasted the milk, its rough tongue scratching my skin. Gingerly, it climbed into my arms and went for the bottle, suckling greedily.
That awful stench subsided a little, but I didn’t dare breathe through my nose. That’d have to wait until I was out of the cave. Mercifully, the rapuse started to relax. His quills lowered, his eyes left mine, and he focused solely on his meal. Once he was done, he curled up into a ball and fell asleep.
“Not so tough now, are you?” I stroked his back, running my fingers over the smooth quills. Gently, I turned around and placed him inside the padded hoverbox, which had followed me into the mouth of the cave. Only then did I look at the little rapuse with a critical eye.
It looked malnourished, and there was caked blood hiding underneath its quills. I could even spot a cut that looked like it was infected. The critter would need urgent treatment, or else it wouldn’t make it through the week.
Before I headed back, I made a quick scan of the area, hoping to find some of the other rapuses. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them here. Part of me wanted to keep going until I found them all, but I couldn’t do that with an injured rapuse in tow. I’d have to come back for them.
I double-timed it to the rover, and my heart leapt as I saw Rita leaning against the hood. My little scouting mission distracted me for an hour or so, but the sight of her only reminded me of how much I wanted her.
Rita ran to me once I came out of the woods. “It looks injured,” she whispered, peering into the hoverbox. “And that wound looks infected. Right there, next to the tailbone. Can you see it?”
“I can,” I replied, surprised at how fast she’d jumped into healer-mode. It was her first day on the job, and she was still unfamiliar with most of Macros’ fauna and flora, but that didn’t faze her. In fact, it seemed to energize her.
“We need to head back right away.” She led the hoverbox into the back of the rover, taking the lead. Without needing my say-so, she climbed into the passenger seat and opened a comms-link to the station. “Urul has found one of the rapuses. It looks injured and malnourished. If possible, I’d like to have a team of vets ready for us. I don't know enough about rapuses to offer proper care.”
I slid behind the rover’s controls and turned on the engines, now even more surprised. Rita was taking the initiative here, but she wasn’t doing it in a self-promoting way. Instead, she was only worried about the little rapuse I’d captured.
When we finally landed, the vets were already at hand. They were tall Macronites, the green of their skin contrasting with their white lab coats, and they moved with speed and efficiency. As Rita pulled the hoverbox from the rover, they crowded around it.
“The healing room is being prepped and cleaned,” the tallest of the vets said, carefully picking the rapuse from the hoverbox. He swaddled it in a blanket, and the injured creature barely stirred. Now that it had a full belly, exhaustion had overcome it. “We’re going to do our best.”
“I’d like to observe,” Rita said eagerly.
“You don’t have to,” the other vet said. “You’ve been out in the field all day. You can sit this one out.”
“I’m good,” she insisted. “A quick rest, and I’ll be good to go. I’ll meet you in the healing room.”
As the vets marched across the lawn, Rita walked under the shade of a tree and slumped down, her back against the trunk. I joined her, my joints aching from the day’s work.
“Macros is even more fascinating than I was expecting,” she said in a low whisper. “That rapuse was beautiful. It looked really frail, though. I hope the vets can nurse it back to health.”
“The team we have here is incredibly talented,” I said, turning around so I was facing her. “And now that you’re here, even more so.” I held her gaze for a second, taking in the brightness of her eyes, and my heart tightened again. How could anyone be this damn beautiful?
Her lips were slightly parted, locks of pale, disheveled hair fell across her face, and there were tiny streaks of mud on her temples. Her arms were covered in scratches, red lines that zigzagged over her skin, but she still managed to look like the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. A full day of field work had done nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, it enhanced it—it gave her an earthly aura, as if she were a goddess who’d decided to come down and see how the mortals lived.
You’re losing it, Urul.
Maybe I was, but I didn’t particularly care. Rita was still looking at me, her expression smooth and unreadable, but I could feel the electricity that cut the distance between us. It crackled, it sizzled, and...it was real. Whatever misgivings I had, there was an undeniable connection here. And I was pretty sure she could feel it too.
We sat in silence for a heartbeat.
Then two.
Rita didn’t smile, but neither did I. Yet, our unblinking eyes remained locked on each other, surrendering to whatever unseen magic insisted on pulling us close.
My fingers twitched.
I imagined them on the nape of her neck, stroking her smooth skin as I leaned in, and my body started moving of its own accord.
I wanted to kiss her.
I needed to kiss her.
“So, I heard you caught one of those rapuse things,” a sharp voice cut in, breaking the spell.
Startled, I reeled back and looked up. David and Wisteria were crossing the lawn, slowly making their way toward us.
“Yeah, the vets made a commotion when they walked out,” Wisteria added, smiling as she cocked her head, an eyebrow raised as she took in how close Rita and I were sitting. “What’s the situation here, Urul?”
I didn’t take my eyes off Rita.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
